18. Chapter 18
”Baby, come for me.” Gabriel was behind me, his erection nestled between my ass cheeks. His hand on my clitoris, his lips against the sensitive hollow beneath my ear.
”Gabriel,” I whimpered, my hips pushing against him, wanting him inside me.
”I”ll fill you up, baby, right after you come for me. Your cunt squeezes me so well when you come, you know that. You pulse around me, get wetter.”
I woke up and found myself dry-humping a pillow.
I wanted to pull out my vibrator and finish off, but when I did that after I dreamed of Gabriel, I missed him even more. Months had passed since we broke up.
I felt the tears come as they seemed to do whenever I thought about Gabriel. How could it still hurt so much? How long would it go on?
It was harder on the weekends because we used to spend Friday nights and Saturdays together on the weeks Gabriel didn”t have Sophia. On Sundays, he went back home as he, his ex-wife, and Sophia had lunch with his parents and brother. I felt like an outsider, a mistress.
But this Sunday, I had something to look forward to.
I had a date with Nina”s daughter Bianca every other Sunday when we toured a Savannah building and had lunch. I loved spending time with her. She was curious about architecture and a fun kid.
The sun was already high and relentless by the time Bianca, and I stepped out of the Mercer Williams House Museum, our latest exploration in Savannah”s architectural treasure trove. It was the end of June, and the city was wrapped in the warmth of summer, the air thick with humidity and history.
”I loved the ornate details of the cornices in the building,” Bianca marveled, her eyes wide with the vivid imagination of a thirteen-year-old who was just beginning to understand the layers of stories behind the fa?ades of such historic buildings.
I smiled at her enthusiasm. ”Yes, and think about the Italianate style of the house, how different it is from the other buildings we”ve seen. Savannah has such a rich architectural diversity, doesn”t it?”
Bianca nodded eagerly as we made our way down Bull Street towards Mrs. Wilkes” Dining Room, a place as famous for its traditional Southern cuisine as it was for the line of people that often snaked around its exterior. ”The tall windows and the ironwork on the balconies,” she mused, ”it”s like something out of a book.”
”That”s exactly right,” I agreed. ”And those features are not just aesthetic. They”re functional and designed for ventilation and light in a time before air conditioning. It”s fascinating how necessity shapes design.”
Bianca was quick to catch on, her mind already spinning with ideas. ”Well, architects do have to think about the climate and how people live when they design a building.”
”Absolutely,” I said as we took our seats at a table inside the bustling restaurant, grateful for the escape from the heat.
The smell of fried chicken, collard greens, and cornbread filled the air, a perfect complement to our day of historical exploration.
I ordered shrimp and grits while Bianca went for fried chicken, as she always did with cornbread, collard greens, and fried okra.
As we waited for our food, I pulled out a sketchbook and pencil from my bag and slid them across the table to Bianca. ”Why don”t you try sketching a contemporary version of Mercer Williams House? Think about the elements we talked about—the windows, the ironwork. Imagine how you would incorporate those features into a modern building.”
Bianca”s eyes lit up as she accepted the challenge, her pencil hesitantly touching the paper before gaining confidence. Watching her, I felt a profound sense of responsibility and pride. Here was a young mind eager to absorb the lessons of the past to create a future.
”Our cities, our buildings, tell the story of who we are,” I said, hoping to instill in her a sense of the importance of her budding passion. ”And one day, Bianca, you”ll contribute to that story with your own designs.”
Lunch arrived, and as we ate, our conversation meandered from the technical aspects of architecture to the dreams and ambitions that buildings like the Mercer Williams House inspired in both of us.
We were waiting for Bianca”s dessert, a mud pie, when she brightened. ”Mr. Rhodes.”
”Hi, Bianca, how are you doing, sweetheart.”
I felt him, smelled him as he leaned down to give Bianca a quick hug.
My heart was in my mouth. What on earth was Gabriel doing here? This was not the kind of restaurant he frequented. This was too low-brow for his high society tastes.
”Aurora,” I heard him say, and I lifted my chin to look at him. Why, oh why, did I have to see him right after dreaming about him?
”Gabriel.” I resisted the urge to clear my throat and reveal how nervous he made me.
He looked at the open sketchpad. ”What do we have here?”
”I”m trying to fuse the historic inspiration from Mercer House, which we just toured, with more contemporary buildings,” Bianca said proudly.
”Sir, will you be sitting at this table?” a server asked.
”Ah, I”m waiting for someone. You have a reservation under Rhodes.”
Holy shit, he was here on a date. I”d have to see him with another woman. That was going to hurt big time.
”You can wait with us,” Bianca offered.
Gabriel looked at me when I nodded—what the hell else could I do—he sat down next to me and across from Bianca. I was seeing him for the first time since he”d come to my condo to apologize, and all I wanted to do was lean into him.
Love had to die sometime, didn”t it?
”We do this on Sundays,” Bianca chirped, ”Aurora is mentoring me. I”m going to be an architect just like her and work at Savannah Lace.”
”Aurora is a great architect. You”re learning from the best,” Gabriel said softly, and I could feel him looking at me. I blindly stared at Bianca. It was safer.
”Every Sunday?” he asked.
”Well, every other,” Bianca continued. ”We tour a building that”s open to the public, and then we have lunch and talk about it. I want to understand architecture and how we can learn from the past to make more sustainable buildings for the future. Am I right, Aurora?”
I had to smile. ”Yes, you are, honey.”
”Aurora even came to school to talk to my class about architecture,” Bianca said. ”Everyone was impressed.”
Gabriel shifted, and his jeans brushed against my naked calf. It was hot, and I was in a white summer dress that hit two inches above my knee. My arms were bare, and the dress was held by a bow on each shoulder.
I moved so we wouldn”t touch. He didn”t shift his chair as I expected him to do because I was against the wall and couldn”t go much farther.
”I think you”ll make a fine architect,” Gabriel said, ”Maybe you can design a Rhodes Hotel someday.”
Her eyes brightened. ”Oh, wouldn”t that be amazing? Mama said that Savannah Lace was going to design your Miami Beach hotel.”
Nola Jolly, an architect who”d joined Savannah Lace a few months ago, would probably be the lead on the Miami Beach Hotel project. Nina had asked me if I minded being part of the team, and I”d told her I was okay with it if she needed me. Ultimately, thankfully, she”d not assigned me to the project. Mostly, I was relieved, but there was a small part of me that wondered how it would be to see Gabriel regularly again, even if it was for work.
Bianca”s mud pie arrived, and so did Gabriel”s lunch date. As I”d dreaded, it was a woman. Blonde and beautiful. Slender and oh so Southern. She waved at Gabriel, and he rose.
”It was nice seeing you, Bianca, and you as well, Aurora,” he murmured softly.
”Have a great rest of the day, Mr. Rhodes.”
I just nodded at him because words would not come out of my mouth. He was on a date. He”d moved on. Of course, he had. Why wouldn”t he? He was good-looking and charming, and this woman looked like she came from the same social circle as him if her jewelry and outfit were anything to go by. That dress was a Chloe, I knew, and all the bling was not paste. Maybe his daughter would accept this woman better as she was of the same socioeconomic status as him. No one would accuse her of being a gold digger.
I dragged my focus away from Gabriel after I saw him hug the woman because I couldn”t stand seeing him touch her. This was a lot worse than I thought it would be.
For the first time, I wanted to rush Bianca so we could get the hell out.
But that wouldn”t be fair to her, so I just pretended Gabriel was not close by and that my heart wasn”t beating like I”d run a hundred-meter sprint, and my panties weren”t wet because just a whiff of him had aroused me.