Chapter 4 #3
I took a deep breath, channeling my most professional self, then unlocked the door. As soon as the damn thing opened, Deonta started the most pathetic display of begging I’d ever witnessed from a man.
“Please, Jericha, you won’t answer my calls or anything.” He clutched his hands together as if pleading for food. “Tell me what to do. I’ll do anything you want. You know I will.”
“This is new,” I muttered.
I’d never had a man actually come to my job before, and if it hadn’t been for his ass following me, he wouldn’t have even known where I worked.
The one thing I made sure of was to never let a man know where I laid my head or made my money.
Hell, most of them didn’t even know my real name.
I always went to them, and I always made sure to keep meetups at least ten miles from home.
It was just my luck that when Deonta followed me, I was going to the office and not to my house.
“Stop this.” I lowered my voice to talk to him. “I’m not interested in continuing anything with you. Accept the rejection and go away.”
“I need you. How am I supposed to exist now?” He placed his hand on the door to stop me from closing it. “Do you know how much you’ve changed me? I can’t do anything without thinking about you. I crave you, Jericha. What do you expect me to do now?”
“Therapy is a suggestion.” I rolled my eyes. “I really don’t have time for this right now, and all this begging doesn’t make you look any more attractive. You get that, don’t you?”
“Jericha…” I could see the panic in his eyes as he searched for something more to say, but there really wasn’t anything he could possibly say to me to make me change my mind.
“Is there a problem?” Raymond’s voice sounded in my ear at the same time I felt the heat of his body against my back.
“I—” Deonta looked up at Raymond, who was at least four inches taller than him. It was like he hadn’t even realized I wasn’t there alone, even though he had been well within view.
“No, there isn’t,” I answered for the befuddled man. “He was just about to leave. Weren’t you, Deonta?”
“You’re with someone else already?” Anger flashed across his expression. “It hasn’t even been a few days since I last saw you, and you’ve already moved on. Did I mean so little to you?”
“That is none of your business.” I refused to entertain whatever it was he was imagining. Deonta wasn’t my damn man. I owed him no explanation.
“Look, buddy, this looks bad.” Raymond moved around me, placing himself between Deonta and me. “You realize that, right?”
“I don’t care. This is what I want.” Deonta had the most pathetic expression on his face.
Even though I was ready to knock the man upside the head, Raymond kept his cool.
He put his arm around Deonta’s shoulder and casually moved him away from the door, giving me a quick, reassuring glance.
“Now, I don’t know you, but I know you’re better than this.
You gotta be. What man comes to a woman’s place of work and begs for her attention like this?
Trust me, I know, Jericha has a way of getting under your skin.
She makes you think about her when you don’t want to.
And then, she has that attitude that should make you hate her, but instead, you find yourself more intrigued.
You want to solve the riddle that is this woman. Right?”
“That’s exactly it,” Deonta responded, as if relieved someone finally understood. “I can’t get her out of my head no matter what I do. I try my best to move on, but I can’t.”
“Trust me, take a long vacation, drink plenty of water, and you’ll flush that flu right out of your system.
” Raymond patted Deonta’s shoulder and once again looked back at me, this time with a wink that made me want to slam the door in his face.
“But you have to be strong here. Don’t show her your weakness, especially if you want any other woman to ever be attracted to you again.
That type of desperation sets in under the skin, and it stinks.
Women smell that stink, and they go running in the other direction. You feel me?”
“Yeah, thanks, man.” Deonta looked over at me once again.
I could see the question in his mind. Could he convince me to give in?
Apparently, he told himself the answer was no, because instead of asking me another time, he shook Raymond’s hand.
“Good luck with her. I hope she gives you a better chance than she did me.”
“You know what? I have a feeling I’ll need it. Thanks.” Raymond shook Deonta’s hand then sent him on his way. He watched closely until he got back into his tiny sedan and drove off.
This isn’t good, I thought to myself as Raymond turned to me. The smile stretching across his face told me he would never let me live this moment down.
“What was that?” I asked as he made his way over to me, shit-eating grin still firmly in place. “I’m a flu he has to flush out of his system?”
“That was me diffusing the situation without it coming to blows.” He clapped. “Tell me something, Jericha: am I going to have to do that often? Do you have a slew of men vying for your attention, just hoping you will choose them?”
“No. Usually, my stalkers don’t come to my job.” I lifted my chin. “This one slipped through the cracks.”
“Stalkers as in plural, you have more than one?” He raised a brow. “So that’s what you do in your free time? Gather up all the crazy men?”
“Well, they’re not typically crazy when I meet them.” I tapped my chin with my fingernail. “What can I say? I’m addicting. I drive them wild.”
I stepped aside, allowing him to enter the office again. Just as he passed, his chest close to mine, he leaned in, looked me square in the eyes. “I’ll be the judge of that.”