A MONTH LATER #3
Near the lake, a small family had gathered around a firepit, the orange glow dancing across their faces as they roasted marshmallows and laughed amongst themselves.
The scent of burning wood mixed with the crisp winter air, creating a warmth that somehow made Monty feel a bit of sadness.
For a moment, he found himself watching them longer than he meant to.
They looked happy. Simple. The kind of happiness that came from knowing exactly where someone belonged and who they were going home with at the end of the night.
Monty looked away.
Because tonight, he wasn't sure he could say the same.
Everything about the night felt like it belonged to family.
To home.
To people making the right decisions… but this wasn’t him.
Monty shoved his hands into his pockets and started toward the condo anyway.
Halfway there, he stopped.
His feet froze on the sidewalk as his better judgment made one last desperate attempt to save him from himself. He could still leave. Could still turn around. Could still get back in his truck and go home to Candy. Go home to the woman who loved him. The woman who trusted him.
For several long seconds, he considered it.
Then his eyes lifted toward Zuri's front door.
And just like that, the fight was over.
Monty released a slow breath and carried on.
A few seconds later, he stood outside her place staring at the brass numbers mounted above the frame. His stomach felt tight. Not nervous exactly. More like painfully aware of what he was doing. He knocked twice before ringing the bell.
The door swung open almost immediately.
Dream stood there.
Monty's heart sank.
Not because he was surprised to see her, but because he knew exactly what expression he was about to find on her face.
Disbelief.
Followed closely by irritated stare. "I know you fuckin' lyin'."
Monty rubbed the back of his neck. "I know you told me to go home."
"But here you are," Dream replied, stepping into the doorway. "Back. Again. For what?"
"I need to see Zuri."
"No. You need to go home."
Dream's voice wasn't loud, but it carried the kind of frustration that only came from watching somebody continue to make the same mistake repeatedly.
"You got a whole woman at home, Monty. A whole family. What exactly are you doing standing at my sister's door?"
Monty looked away briefly. There wasn't a good answer to that question. At least not one that didn't make him sound selfish.
"Please," was all he managed.
Dream laughed without humor. "Please? That's what we're doing now?"
Before either of them could say anything else, a familiar voice spoke from somewhere behind her.
"Dream."
Monty's heart dropped.
Zuri.
The sound of her voice hit him harder than he expected.
Dream immediately shook her head. "No."
"Dream." Zuri said.
"No." She said again.
Zuri walked closer until she was standing behind her sister, her eyes locked on Monty the entire time. The frown on her face told him she was upset to see him there. But the softness in her eyes told him she was happy too.
That combination nearly took him.
"Just let me hear what he has to say," Zuri said against her best wishes.
Dream looked at her like she'd completely lost her mind. "Girl, have you forgotten the last month?"
"No."
"Then why are we doing this?" Dream bluntly asked.
Because despite everything, Zuri still loved him.
Even Monty knew it.
Including Dream.
Especially Dream.
The problem was that Dream also knew exactly how dangerous that made this situation.
She looked from her sister to Monty and back again before shaking her head.
"If you give this man another chance, he gon' completely break this time."
The words landed heavily.
Zuri swallowed but didn't look away. "I'm grown, Dream."
"That ain't got nothing to do with it."
"It got everything to do with it."
The sisters stared at each other for a long moment before Dream finally threw her hands up in frustration. She grabbed her coat from the chair and snatched up her purse.
"I don't like this." Dream said.
"Nobody asked you to." Zuri shot back.
"Oh, trust me, I know." Dream slid her coat on before turning toward the door. She stopped directly in front of Monty, her expression hard enough to chip concrete.
"If she ends up crying behind you again, don't come around me or you gon’ regret it."
Then she looked at Zuri. "And regardless of how you’re going about this, I’ll still be here when he disappoints you again."
Despite the tension, Zuri just nodded her head. “Yeah, I love you too," she said with a bit of sarcasm.
Dream rolled her eyes and walked out. She didn’t even give Monty another glance.
The silence that followed felt different.
Heavier.
More intimate.
Monty looked at Zuri.
Zuri looked at him.
And for the first time in over a month, there was nobody standing between them.
All those walls. All that careful, deliberate distance she had been maintaining for a month.
Gone. Just like that.
He pulled her to him before either of them said a word.
Both arms around her, her face against his chest, his chin resting on top of her head.
The cold didn't matter. The twenty-nine degrees and the wind cutting off the street and the fact that neither of them should've been standing here — none of it could get between the warmth they made just by being close to each other.
She didn't pull back.
He didn't loosen his grip.
They just stood there in the frigid air taking it all in.
When he finally pulled back, just enough to look at her, his nose was cool against hers.
"I don't know where this takes us," he said. Low. Honest. "I don't have a clean answer for you and I'm not gon' stand here and pretend I do." He looked her in her eyes and held them. "But I know I want you in my life. He searched her face. "Will you let me be here?"
Zuri's jaw tightened for a second as she fought it.
"Do you miss me?" he asked.
She let out one slow breath. Then nodded once.
Barely.
He reached up and brushed his thumb across her cheekbone where a tear had slipped free. "I've missed you." He looked at her face. "I hope those tears are because you're happy right now. Because all I want is to make you happy, Zuri." He shook his head slowly. "Lemme make you happy."
She looked at him for a long moment — a look where her eyes said things her mouth hadn't decided on yet.
Then she kissed him.
Or he kissed her.
It happened at the same time, the way things happen when they've been building for too long, and it was neither soft nor gentle.
It was desperate. Needy.
When they finally broke apart, she took a short breath and then took his hand.
"Come inside," she said.
The second that door closed it was like gravity shifted.
They were on each other. His jacket hit the floor. Hands were moving before minds could intervene. Every week of distance, every deliberate wall, every careful exchange through Rico and Maurice, faxed papers and professional silence — all of it burned up in about thirty seconds flat.
Monty knew exactly what he was doing.
He knew.
He knew whose house he wasn't at. He knew whose call he'd just made. He knew what he had just put at risk and what he had just walked away from — at least for tonight.
He knew he was playing with fire.
He knew every second he spent here was a mistake.
But with Zuri's hands on him, her warmth wrapped around him, and those eyes fixed on his like he was still somebody worth loving, consequences felt far away.
And for the first time all evening, he didn't want to think about tomorrow.