Falling For Mr. Nice Guy

by Nia Arthurs

  “I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  He reached out and brushed a lock of her hair away from her face. She closed her eyes as his hand traced the curve of her cheek. Adam leaned over and kissed her forehead. Her heart sped up at the touch and gratefulness for life filled her.

  “If you ever scare me like that again, I won’t let you off so easily,” he said.

  She nuzzled her nose in his chest. “Noted.”

  They remained that way for two beats, but their cozy cocoon was shattered when the door burst open and a small, enraged woman barged in.

  “Jada Elizabeth Penner, if you die tonight it will be by my hands, not a gunshot!”

  Adam turned red and Jada lifted her head so that he could slide his hand away. His escape was cut short when Chelsea came into view. Her plump lips hung wide open and her eyes doubled to twice their size when she saw Adam in her cot. Jada bit on her lip to hold back the laughter.

  “You know what? Uh… I’ll just come back in a minute.”

  “No,” Adam said, holding out a hand to her cousin as he swung his leg over the bed railing, “I was just… making sure the bed could hold her weight.”

  Jada snickered and Adam narrowed his eyes at her.

  “Really?” she mouthed to him.

  He shrugged and she rolled her eyes.

  “Okay, then,” Chelsea cleared her throat and stalked over to Jada’s side. “Are you okay?”

  “I’ll be fine. It doesn’t hurt when I keep still.”

  Chelsea stomped her foot. “I told you to take the car. Why don’t you ever listen to me?”

  “Wait a minute,” Adam said and came around to Chelsea’s side. “You went walking in your neighborhood after dark?”

  “It was only a couple blocks.”

  “Jada!” Adam thundered.

  She moaned and held her arm. “Oh, it hurts so much.”

  Immediately, Adam’s countenance changed. He bent over the bed to inspect her shoulder, three deep grooves in his forehead. “Are you okay? Do you want me to call for a doctor?”

  Chelsea smacked her forehead, but Adam ignored her and focused on Jada. She felt a little spike of guilt for milking her wound to change the topic, but really… what else was a girl to do?

  “I’ll call the doctor,” Adam said. “You wait right here.”

  “She’s not going anywhere,” Chelsea replied. As soon as Adam left the room, Chelsea whirled on her. “Did you have to go and get shot for a pack of bread?”

  “I’m sorry. Next time, I’ll take the car.”

  “There probably won’t be a next time with Boyfriend of the Year out there.”

  “He’s great, isn’t he,” Jada said. Softness stole into her eyes and a happy, contented look crossed her face. “I didn’t know I could feel this way about someone.”

  “That’s called love,” Chelsea said a bit bitterly.

  Jada pursed her lips. “Is everything alright?”

  “I’m fine. Just… feeling a little regret.”

  Before Jada could dig deeper, Adam returned with the doctor. The opportunity for a private inquiry faded away, but the issue refused to leave her alone. Something was up with her cousin and Jada wouldn’t stop until she got to the bottom of it.

  “How’s the pain?” the doctor asked.

  “It hurts, but I’ll live.”

  “Alright,” he said. “I’ll up the pain killer dosage so you can get some rest.”

  A nurse fiddled with the IV hanging next to her bed. Jada kept her eyes trained on Chelsea, determined to interrogate her for answers, but the world soon darkened around her and she fell asleep.

  ***

  The next morning, Adam arrived at the Medical Center with a plastic bag hanging from one hand and a newspaper rolled up in the other. He’d been chased out of the hospital room by Chelsea last night. Jada’s cousin had insisted that he ‘get some sleep’.

  Sleep, unfortunately, refused to come and he’d jumped out of bed at the crack of dawn to return to Jada’s hospital room.

  “Good morning,” he said, knocking on the door. When no one answered, he stepped in anyway and found Chelsea curled up on the chair fast asleep. Quietly, Adams set the plastic bag bearing two plates of Belizean fried jacks, refried beans and cheese, on the desk.

  The crinkle of the plastic woke Jada who smiled at him. His heart smiled in response and Adam finally realized why it felt like heartburn every time she looked at him. She had been burrowing her way into his soul from the first moment they met.

  “How are you feeling?” he whispered.

  “Good,” she said and glanced at Chelsea. “Is she sleeping?”

  “Yes.”

  A mischievous look appeared on Jada’s face and Adam shook his head. “I’m not getting in there with you again.”

  “Why?” Jada moaned. “Your arm is so comfortable.”

  He tapped her nose. “You trying to get me in trouble so early in the morning?”

  “Definitely.”

  Jada craned her neck to spy on the plastic bag. “What did you bring?”

  “Vegetables,” he said. The look of disappointment in her eyes was so adorable it was all he could do to hold back his laughter. “I also bought fruits.”

  “Okay,” Jada said politely. “Thank you.”

  Adam took pity on her and revealed the food he’d bought from his favorite vender. She brightened immediately and accepted the plate with a heartfelt ‘thank you’.

  “I bought one for Chelsea too.”

  “I’m sure she’ll appreciate it,” Jada said and then she set the food down. “I’m worried about her.”

  “Why?”

  “Last night, I saw a bruise this big on her cheek—” Jada balled her hand into a fist. “I can’t put a finger on it, but something is wrong.”

  “Let me know if there’s anything I can help with.”

  Jada stiffened and Adam hoped she took his offer in the right light. He was well aware of how independent she was, but he couldn’t separate himself from his wealth or how happy it made him when he did things for her.

  Thankfully, she accepted without a fuss. “Thank you.”

  He nodded and brought the newspaper to her attention. Jada’s eyes bugged and he laughed, nearly giddy from her excitement.

  “Tell me that isn’t what I think it is,” she said.

  “I bought it fresh off the press.”

  “Did you read it?”

  “I thought I’d read it with you first.”

  Jada covered her face. “I don’t know why I feel so embarrassed.”

  Adam brought a chair close and flipped the newspaper open. Jada’s story was near the back of the issue and he flipped right to it. Just as he was about to read, she snatched the paper from his hands.

  “I can’t.”

  “Why?” he chuckled. “Let me read it.”

  She lifted her hand out of his reach. “Adam, no.”

  “Come on,” he insisted, trying to grab the newspaper without jostling her injured shoulder.

  Adam was just about to grasp the edge of the issue when Jada turned her head and kissed his cheek. He froze, his arm still outstretched. When he turned his head to look at her, Jada stared straight up at the ceiling.

  He narrowed his eyes, but forced himself to ignore her appeal and continued to stretch for the newspaper. Once again, she kissed his cheek. Unable to let the move pass, Adam grasped her cheek and planted a kiss there.

  Jada smiled until her eyes became happy little slits, and he drew her near to kiss both of her eyes, enjoying the flutter of her lashes against his lips.

  “Ugh!” They heard a groan. “Could you two just get a room!”

  “Chelsea!” Jada’s hand fell. “You’re awake?”

  “I was trying to fake-sleep for a little longer, but you two just can’t stop, can you?”

  “Sorry.” Adam dipped his head, observing Chelsea through the corner of his eye. In the morning light, he noticed the bruise on her cheek
and wondered briefly if Jada’s concern was warranted.

  Chelsea was a naturally prickly character and he didn’t know her all that well, but the bruise on her face seemed rather nasty. Had someone hit her? The thought angered him. What was with these girls and getting themselves into trouble?

  “Adam brought breakfast,” Jada said.

  “Thanks.” Chelsea waved at him. “Don’t you have to work?”

  “She’s right,” Jada said, looking at him with her big brown eyes. “Don’t worry about me and go do what you have to do.”

  “I’ll be right here with her,” Chelsea said when he didn’t move.

  Adam felt torn. He had a mountain of work at the office, but the thought of leaving Jada filled him with sadness. The fact that he even labored over the decision was unusual. Adam usually chose work over everything.

  “Go,” Jada said. “I’ll be right here.”

  Adam nodded.

  “And don’t you dare read that newspaper,” Jada warned, pointing her finger at him.

  “I make no promises.” He waved at Chelsea. “Take good care of my girl.”

  Chelsea snorted and mumbled. “So cheesy.”

  Ducking out of the hospital room, Adam made his way through the exits to his car and climbed in. Withholding a smile, he opened his glove compartment and pulled out the newspaper he’d bought that morning.

  Sensing that Jada would be less than pleased to read her article in front of him, he’d bought an extra copy just in case. Opening the paper to the correct page, he read the story carefully.

  The way Jada put words together was very reminiscent of her personality. She was to-the-point, but described things with a hint of sentimentality. She’d written of the families that protected each other despite the violence. One particular phrase stuck with him.

  “This is why we refuse to bow to those who try to rule our streets with violence. Perfect love drives out fear and because of love, we will walk and live freely.”

  Adam folded the newspaper and leaned against the headrests. He had found a truly incredible woman in Jada Penner.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Living with a gunshot wound was not fun. At all. The pain was manageable with medicine, but the gruesome scar in her shoulder would forever remind her, and anyone who chanced to see the marred skin, of her injury.

  Though it had been three weeks since that fateful day, Jada sometimes dreamed of the moment the black SUV slowed down beside the sidewalk. The pop of the guns and the cries of the wounded would upset her sleep and unsettle her completely.

  It didn’t help that Chelsea was as on edge as she. Her cousin seemed drained of energy lately. She disappeared to her job early in the morning and didn’t return home until late in the evening, often shutting her bedroom door so that Jada knew not to disturb her.

  The mood in the apartment was as tense as the atmosphere on the streets outside. Jada left the investigation of the alleged gang retaliation shooting to the police, but the mystery of her cousin’s moodiness was a mission all her own.

  On Friday, Jada finally made her move.

  “Hey, Chelsea!” Jada knocked on the locked bedroom door.

  “What?” her cousin yelled.

  “I’m going to the hospital now.” Adam had insisted she go for a checkup and with him bothering her about it, she didn’t have any choice but to go for one last visit. “After that I might visit Papi. Want to come with me?”

  “No.”

  “Please?” When there was no response, she added. “I’ll buy lunch.”

  “I’m coming!” A few minutes later, the door opened and Chelsea stood before her. She was dressed in jeans and a yellow shirt. “You should have led with that.”

  Jada chuckled. “I’m glad you’re coming. How did you manage to get a day off from the bakery?”

  Chelsea’s smile turned brittle. “I begged the manager. I had a feeling you’d want to go to the hospital today. Adam was whining about it.”

  “He was not whining,” Jada said with a big grin. “He was just… insistent.”

  “It’s like you’re the only thought in that man’s head,” Chelsea grumbled.

  “I know right.”

  The two cousins shared smiles and headed to the public hospital. Jada couldn’t afford the fees at the Medical Center and had insisted on taking care of her own medical bills instead of attending somewhere above her means.

  Chelsea was quiet the entire ride and stared unblinkingly at the posters on the walls during the checkup.

  Jada glanced at her cousin before speaking to the doctor. “Excuse me, would it be possible to take a look at her?”

  Chelsea tensed. “What are you doing, Jada?”

  Ignoring her obvious disinterest in a checkup, but feeling a sense of urgency anyway, Jada insisted. “Please?”

  “No problem,” the doctor said. “Ma’am, could you list your symptoms?”

  “She’s been exhausted lately. She just comes home and goes to bed,” Jada said.

  “Jada!” Chelsea hissed.

  The doctor adjusted her glasses and tucked a tendril of hair back into the bun she wore at the nape of her neck. “Have you been feeling nauseous or tender in the chest area?”

  “Tender?” Jada scrunched her nose. “Chels, have you experienced any of those?”

  Chelsea kissed her teeth and looked away. The doctor frowned and Jada nudged her cousin in the shoulder.

  “She can help.”

  “Ma’am,” the doctor looked squarely at Chelsea, “would you agree to a blood test?”

  “What for?” Chelsea asked, leaning back.

  “Just do it,” Jada said.

  Chelsea gave her consent and Jada waited for her until they had completed the procedure. When at last her cousin emerged from the back room, Jada smiled in reply to the glare that Chelsea sent her.

  “I don’t know why you’re making this into such a big deal,” Chelsea mumbled.

  “You haven’t been yourself lately. I’m sure the doctor will tell us what’s wrong and then you’ll be as good as new”

  “Whatever.” Chelsea headed for the stairs. “Let’s just go and see Papi.”

  In the three weeks since her ‘incident’, Jada had been chipping away at Papi’s medical bills. She was still far from being debt-free, but at least the administration wasn’t threatening to pull the plug on her grandfather anymore.

  “Hey, Papi,” Jada said as soon as she set her bag by Papi’s bedside. “I brought Chelsea.”

  “Papi, when are you going to wake up and chase Jada from my apartment? She’s too nosey.”

  “Very funny,” Jada said. Taking Papi’s hand in hers, Jada gently cleaned his fingers with a wet towel. “I miss you, Papi. Do you think you could come back soon? I have so much to tell you.”

  Chelsea looked at Jada with compassion. “How long has he been like this?”

  “A few months,” Jada said. “They say the longer he stays unconscious the more his brain activity will decrease, but I can’t give up on him. Papi is the strongest person I—”

  “Is something wrong?” Chelsea asked.

  Jada glanced at her hand that was enclosed around her grandfather’s. His dark, gnarled fingers closed around hers, nearly lifeless. But what had she felt just a moment before?

  “What? Jada, you’re freaking me out,” Chelsea said.

  “I felt it.”

  “What?”

  “He squeezed my hand.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “I’m not,” Jada said, her voice rising with excitement. “Chels, go for the doctor. Quick!”

  Her cousin left and soon returned with the doctor on call. Jada explained what had happened, but the frazzled doctor seemed less than sympathetic.

  “It could be possible that he’s waking up,” he said, scratching his head. “But it could simply by a muscle spasm.”

  “No,” Jada whispered. “It was warm. It wasn’t a spasm.”

  “We’ll keep a check on him to see if
he responds to stimuli again.”

  “Alright,” Jada said, glancing at her grandfather. “That’s right, Papi. Just come back and I’ll take care of everything.”

  Chelsea waved, and Jada placed a kiss on his cheek before leading her cousin out of the hospital and into the warm Belizean air.

  “Wow, it feels like we’ve lived twenty days in a few hours.”

  “Do you really think Papi will wake up?” Chelsea asked.

  “He has to,” Jada said. “I need him.”

  “You know… I can’t help but envy you.”

  “Envy me?” Jada pointed to her chest and led the way to the bus stop. The wind blew against her cheeks and the sun sparkled in her eyes. “Why?”

  “I know your parents passed away and Papi’s… not well, but they all loved you so much and you got to have that, even if it was only for a short time.”

  “What’s this about?” Jada crinkled her nose. “Are you getting sentimental on me?”

  “I’m serious. Even with Adam. You found someone so in love with you he can barely see in front of him. It’s unfair.”

  Jada hooked her arm around Chelsea’s shoulder. “Do you know what this is? This is your hunger talking. What do you want to eat? It’s my treat.”

  “Jada…”

  “Alright,” Jada sighed and got serious. “I know you don’t have the best relationship with your mom, but think about it. What she did was full of love too. She was nineteen, lived at home, and didn’t have a job. She could have given up on you and refused to have you, but she didn’t.”

  “There you go. Trying to pretty up my ugly past.”

  “Believe me, your mom loved you in her own way.”

  “Whatever,” Chelsea said, readjusting her ponytail. “Let’s go. I’m starving.”

  Happy to oblige and still riding the excitement of Papi’s hand squeeze, Jada skipped beside her cousin to the nearest restaurant. They took their seats and ordered, chatting about meaningless things.

  “Oh,” Jada said, “I went to visit you at the bakery the other day.”

  Chelsea stiffened. “You did?”

  “Yeah, but it was weird. The girl at the counter said she’d never heard of you.”

  “Really?”

  Jada smiled, recalling the bumbling encounter. “She said she was a new hire so that could explain it.”