Chapter 14
Dominic
“Hello?”
“Wassup, li’l bro?”
“Nothing much. Wassup with you, Quin?” I greeted my oldest brother, Joaquin.
“Trying to figure out what’s going on with you two knuckleheads.”
“Oh, what? He ran crying to you?”
He chuckled on the other end of the call. There had been a running joke amongst the three of us that Ramon was really the baby of the family, with all the whining he did and the way everyone protected him.
“Nah, you know he called Mamá, and she called me when she and Daddy couldn’t get you on the phone. She says that you’ve been avoiding her calls and that she’s about to pop up on you if no one answers any time soon.”
“Well, I hope like hell that’s not tonight.”
“What you got going on tonight?”
“Fixing a romantic dinner for Charly tonight. Date night in.”
“So that shit is true.”
“I mean, what do you want me to tell you?”
Joaquin chuckled again. “Y’all boys be wildin’. All I’m gonna say on the subject is don’t hurt sis. If you do, I’ma fuck you up.”
“The same way you should’ve fucked up Ramon?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Don’t tell me that you didn’t know he was putting his hands on her.”
“What? Hell no! I mean, come on. You think I would’ve let some shit like that fly? Did you know?” he asked, turning the tables back on me.
I sighed heavily because if anyone should have known, I should have known.
“I suspected it, but I wasn’t sure. I asked Charly about it in the past, and she said no. She told me that she wouldn’t stay with a dude who was kicking her ass, but obviously, she lied to me.”
“What happened?”
I told him the entire story of everything that went down from my first suspicion to the final confirmation and the fallout since.
“That’s fucked up, and he does deserve to have his ass kicked, but that’s your brother at the end of the day, Dom. You can’t fall out with him over a girl.”
“And I wouldn’t, but this is Charly we’re talking about. She’s been like a sister to all of us, forever.”
“I hope like fuck not. ’Cause if so, y’all ass on some incestuous shit.”
“You know what I’m saying, man. Besides, it’s not like I just caught feelings for her out of the blue. I’ve loved that girl for as long as I can remember.”
“Glad you finally manned up and admitted that shit. It would’ve been nice if you’d admitted that long before now. If you had, all this could’ve been avoided.”
“I couldn’t drag her down that road.”
“I hear you, baby bro, but all I’m gonna say about that is bullshit.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve always loved that girl, and we saw it.
I don’t know any two friends of the opposite sex who are straight and walk around naked around each other the way you two do, or how you sit in bed and chill together, and all the other couple shit you do.
I think you didn’t reciprocate her feelings because your ass was scared of getting hurt.
You were scared you weren’t good enough for her. ”
“I wasn’t.”
“What changed?”
I sighed again. “Tired of running from my feelings. Tired of hurting her and seeing other niggas hurt her.”
“Mm.”
“What?”
“It’s never too late, but I really wish you’d have figured this out a long time ago.
I mean, like I said, everyone knew you loved her as much as she loved you.
Just like everyone knew that she didn’t belong with Ramon.
The minute we all saw that shit, everyone was fucked up over it.
Ma even asked what the hell he thought he was doing, and Daddy asked if he had lost his mind.
We all wanted to tell you, but every letter was returned, and you wouldn’t accept visitors. ”
“It made it easier for me to do my time,” I explained.
“Yeah, well, now you’ve got a mess to straighten out. Either way, I’ll be in town soon, so make sure you get it together. I don’t want my Thanksgiving fucked up over you two knuckleheads,” he stated wryly.
I laughed as I heard the front door open. “It won’t be. Listen, I gotta go. I’ll see you soon.”
“Same. Love you, man.”
“Love you too.”
I ended the call, grabbed the basket and the flowers from my bed, and rushed to the front of the house.
“Dom. What’s going on?” she asked, looking from the basket and flowers to me as she toed her shoes off.
“I just wanted to have a relaxing evening at home with you tonight. No racing, no clubs, nothing but the two of us,” I explained, handing her the bouquet of lilies as I pulled her into my arms.
She buried her nose in them and then looked back up at me with teary eyes. “Thank you. I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything. Just enjoy me spoiling you, baby,” I whispered against her jaw as I kissed her underneath there.
Charly’s head dropped back, and she moaned. “Your touch feels so good after the long day that I’ve had.”
Charly had three interviews today with two different media firms. She had texted me after each one, stating that she thought they went well, but she was extremely tired.
After her interviews, she had lunch with her father, Leon Morr, and his girlfriend, Adrian Jasper.
She had decided to tell them about her breakup with Ramon and about me in the same meeting.
I advised that I wanted to be there, but she thought it was best if she did it on her own. I respected her opinion, although I did not agree with it.
She pulled back and looked pointedly at the basket in my hand. “What’s in there?” she asked eagerly.
“Open it and find out.”
She took the basket from me and opened it. “You’re so sweet, baby.” She grabbed my hand and led me to her bedroom, where she unwrapped the basket.
I had it wrapped in several layers of cellophane paper and had more layers of tissue paper tucked around it so that she couldn’t be nosy and peek at what was inside before it was time to. I watched as she unpacked the basket and removed everything inside.
“This smells so good. How did you know this was my favorite scent?” she asked, sniffing the cotton-scented bath bubbles.
“You’ve got that one perfume that smells like this. I know that I love the scent on you, so it’s gotta be your favorite. Besides, you wear it the most. I just bought it last year, and you’re already on a new bottle.”
She giggled and replied, “It’s my favorite because it reminds me of you.” She kissed the tip of my nose before she returned to the other items. “You got me a self-care journal and workbook?”
“You’ve been through a lot in these last few years, baby.
I haven’t always been here for you like I promised that I would, but I want to try to make things better now that I have the chance.
You’ve got some stuff to work through. I’m not a therapist, and I know nobody’s gonna pay me to sit on my couch, but I figure you can work it out in there,” I explained, pointing to the journal.
The basket also had a ballpoint pen, a gel eye mask, a clay mask, a body brush, bath soak, bath salts, cotton bathrobe, slippers, taper candles, chocolate bar, a hand poured candle, a stemless wine glass, essential oil diffuser with the accompanying cotton, lavender, freesia, and eucalyptus scents, and lavender goat milk soap.
“This bath basket is everything. You were so thoughtful, Dom.”
“It doesn’t end there. Go wash your hands.” She ran into the bathroom to do what I asked.
“I’m ready.” She returned from the bathroom a couple of minutes later with an excited and anticipatory grin on her face.
“Come on,” I stated, reaching for her hand. She took my hand, and I led her back to the front of the house. We walked to the dining room, and she gasped again.
A bouquet of tulips sat in the middle of the table beside a single lit candle. Two dome-covered plates and silverware were placed opposite each other, and two wineglasses stood empty, waiting for the champagne that was on the table chilling in a bucket of ice.
Charlyse’s bottom lip poked out and trembled as her eyes watered again. I pulled her to me and kissed the top of her head. “You gotta stop all that damn crying. I swear I ain’t ever known your ass to be so sensitive.”
“I’m sorry, Dom. But nobody’s ever done anything this sweet before.”
I kissed her neck. “What did I tell you? Told you no nigga was good enough for you.”
“You did,” she murmured sweetly before I released her and pulled out her chair. I removed the lid from her plate to showcase the filet mignon, lobster tail, garlic mashed potatoes, and broccolini. “Did you cook this?” she asked, looking at me with wide eyes.
I walked around to the other side of the table and sat. “Yeah. I hope it’s good.”
“I mean, you can cook a little, but I’ve never known you to cook steaks and lobster before.”
“Your ass has been gone all day long. I had the entire day to play in this kitchen while attending MixTube University, calling my mama, and sending up several prayers. I ordered the ingredients yesterday to be delivered this morning. Trust me when I tell you that I’m glad I ordered double.”
She giggled. “Did you burn, Dom?”
“I burned, baby, and not like our grandmothers burn either. Thought they were gonna call the fire department on my ass after a while and report an arson attempt.”
She looked around and sniffed the air. “I can’t tell.”
“Like I said, you’ve been gone all day.”
She laughed again and bowed her head as I prayed over our meal.
“So talk to me. You said you thought you did well on your interviews. What went well?”
“At the PR specialist job, it was the connection that I made with the hiring manager. She and I had a lot of things in common, including our love of racing and classic cars. She has a 1966 Imperial Chrysler.”
“That’s sweet.”
“Yeah, she said her dad gifted it to her on her thirtieth birthday, and they restored it together. He’s still alive and kicking it, and she enjoys taking him for rides. Other than that, she was impressed with my knowledge of organizing events and handling crises.”
“Guess your past jobs did come in handy.”
“Same thing that I said. The social media manager job was a given. With already having that experience under my belt, we knew that I would nail that. The hiring manager said that he followed my work at Carew Media and was impressed.”
“What would make you interested in that position when you grew bored of it at Carew?” I asked, cutting my steak.
“I wouldn’t just be in charge of creating and curating content, but I would also be responsible for the analytics piece. That would be a great challenge for me, and I look forward to doing that type of work in addition to content creation.”
“That’s what’s up. And the third one?”
“Jensen Pharmaceuticals Communications Specialist is a job that I know will challenge me. I’m good at creating press releases and social media posts, but it’s managing the overall campaign that will stretch me.”
“Which do you want the most?”
“The communications specialist role. I really want to grow in that field, and I know that working for the pharmaceutical company would give me the chance to make new connections, learn a new industry, and be stretched in ways that I never expected.”
I sipped my champagne that I had poured for us and looked at her over my glass. “You say stretch one more time, and I swear you’ll find yourself in my bed getting your back stretched.”
Laughing, she replied, “That doesn’t sound like a bad deal to me.”
“Maybe after you finish eating this gourmet meal that I slaved over.”
“You’re right, baby. I wouldn’t want to deny you the opportunity of pleasuring me.”
“Oh, trust me when I say that this ain’t the only way to pleasure you. I put my brain, back, arms, legs, mouth, and my big boy to work when I pleasure you.”
“And I appreciate it all.”
She got up and walked around to my side of the table. Pushing my shoulder, she dropped into my lap when I scooted my chair back from the table.
“I’m proud of you, girl. No matter what you decide to do as it relates to these jobs, or what they decide, I’m proud of you.”
“For what?”
“Because you’re not sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. You’re chasing your dreams.”
“Yeah, except for where racing is concerned.”
“You can write your ticket there, too, but you’re determined to be with True Grit.”
“Can you blame me?”
“I don’t. The only advice I have there is to stay firm about what you want, don’t back down, and keep going for it, the same as you’re doing on the job. All good things come in time.”
“Like you,” she whispered, rubbing the nape of my neck.
“No, baby. Like you. You’re the best thing that happened to me.”
“I love you, Dom.”
“I love you more, Charly.”
“Do you forgive me?”
“For what?”
“Being with your brother.”
“There’s nothing to forgive. I didn’t give you anything to hold on to.
I was the one who told you there was no chance of us ever being a thing.
I mean, I didn’t think that something would happen between you two, but I damn sure didn’t give you hope about us, and I never said he was off-limits. I was the fool.”
“You know what?”
“No. Tell me.”
“I realized a long time ago that I was wrong about being with him. It took a while before I would admit it to myself, but aside from him being there for me through the loss of you and my mom, I realized that I welcomed your brother’s advances because he was the closest thing to you.
I used him, Dom, and I was wrong for that. ”
“No more wrong than he was to use you to say screw me. You can’t hold onto that shit. Let it go, baby,” I stated firmly but in a low voice as I caressed her face.
“Okay. I will.”
She kissed me, and I couldn’t help but think about how lucky I was to have her in my life.