Rewind

Chapter 13

Chapter

Thirteen

L ater that night after putting away all the items she purchased and taking a hot shower, Amina slid in bed and saw that she had texts messages from Ethan, Paisley and Mark. While she was in the shower, it appeared that Mark had called her several times.

She hadn’t spoken to him since he’d come to her house the last time. There was a time when she would be the one to contact him first when he felt that she’d done something wrong. And she normally would.

Amina wouldn’t be able to put him off for much longer, not unless she wanted him to show up.

She checked the texts in the order she received them with Paisley’s being first.

Had a great time today. Let’s do it again soon. See you on Monday.

Ethan was next.

Thinking of you. Hope you had a good day with Paisley. Call me when you get a chance. I miss hearing that sexy voice.

Her body grew warm all over and she squirmed thinking about their passionate night. This past week at the office they didn’t have much time together because he had a couple of surgeries that week and was barely in the office. But when he was, they had tried to keep things as professional as possible but it was difficult. When he stopped by her office to check in on her, Amina wanted nothing more than for him to throw her on the desk and fuck her silly.

It took every bit of her concentration to get through the week.

Unfortunately, she had to check Mark’s text next.

I don’t know what game you’re playing but you need to get your act together. Call me.

Amina didn’t get a chance to process the curt message before her phone rang.

It was Mark.

She wanted to ignore the call, but she had a feeling he would keep calling until she answered, or worse yet, he’d come over.

“Hello?” she answered, not bothering to hide the wariness or the tiredness from her voice.

“Where the hell have you been? Why didn’t you answer my calls or text? He demanded without so much as a greeting.

“Clearly, I wasn’t available. And when you called I was in the shower.”

There was a long pause on the other end of the line before he finally spoke. “First of all, watch your tone.”

“Or what? You’re going to beat me up?” Amina wasn’t sure if this burst of bravery was because he wasn’t there to physically intimidate her or because she didn’t want him to ruin an otherwise perfect day.

There was another long pause. “Don’t be ridiculous Amina, I don’t hit women and I resent the implication that I would.”

She snorted with derision, as she remembered all the times, he’d choked, punched, and kicked her. He’d even spit in her face a few times. In the beginning he’d apologize but after a while he didn’t bother to. “So, what did you want, that you called me five times while I was in the shower.”

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you Amina but I’m not a fan of this new attitude of yours. I stopped by your house earlier, but you weren’t home.”

He’d come by? She was relieved that she’d missed him. “Why did you come by?”

“That’s all you can say? No explanation of where you’ve been?”

“I was out with a friend.”

“What friend? You don’t have any.”

Amina sighed. “Mark, I’ve had a long day and I’m really tired. I don’t have the energy to debate with you about whether I have friends or not. If you don’t have anything important to tell me, I’m going to hang up and go to bed.”

“Don’t hang up on me!” he yelled.

Amina held the phone away from her ear. A bit of the old fear reared its head but she took a deep breath and pushed it away. “You’re raising your voice, and I don’t like it or deserve it, Mark. As I said before, I’m going to bed.”

“Wait! Amina, I’m sorry.”

This was something new. Mark never apologized. “What exactly are you sorry for, Mark? Yelling at me? Telling me I have no friends? Fo threatening me the last time we saw each other?”

“I didn’t threaten you. I may have misspoken but you have to know I’d never hurt you, Amina.”

She nearly burst out laughing. Was he kidding? She knew what kind of monster he was capable of being. “So, you say.”

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but you’ve been acting really stank lately.”

“Well, you can always break up with me.”

“I’ve invested way too much time in you to walk away.”

“Geez how romantic.”

“You’re not making this easy for me, Amina. I love you. And I believed we were working toward building a life together.”

This time Amina couldn’t stop the laugher that erupted from her mouth. “That’s a good one, Mark.”

“What’s so damn funny? I’m pouring my heart out to you and you’re laughing? What the fuck, Amina?”

“Building a life together? How?”

Amina wanted to point out how she knew his parents were paying the rent on his apartment even though he was a grown ass man of nearly thirty. Maybe his parents were part of the reason he was so rotten but she hoped soon none of them would be her problem.

“I know you’ve always wanted to get married. How about it? We might as well do it Amina. Let’s get married.”

Amina nearly laughed again. This wasn’t how he proposed the first time around, but the timeline was similar. The first time he came over to her house for a meal she’d cooked for him. After dinner, he’d made a big speech about dating a lot of women before her, but he decided to pick her as if she was winning some type of prize.

The funny thing was, she felt that she was.

“Is this a proposal? Wow, how romantic,” she responded in a deadpan voice.

“I know you women like pomp and circumstances, but let’s be practical. When are you ever going to get this chance again? But if you need a big hoopla, I can have my mom throw a dinner in honor of our engagement. She can invite some close friends and family. You should invite your aunt and cousins. Oh, and since you claim to have friends now, invite them too. I’ll shoot you the details later this week. Bye, bae.”

He ended the call without waiting for her response, leaving Amina to process what had just happened.

His first proposal to her had been shitty but this took the cake. At the ‘engagement party’ he made a big show of presenting her with a ring that had a diamond so small, it was basically a chip. Amina wasn’t materialist enough to care about the size. The problem was, he didn’t put any thought into the purchase. In retrospect, she knew that he’d bought the cheapest ring possible not because he was cheap, but because he didn’t think she was worthy of anything more elaborate.

What was worse, there was no one at the dinner to support her. Mark had invited her aunt and cousins to surprise her but they were only there for a free meal. The rest of the people in attendance weren’t much better. It was Mark’s sanctimonious parents and a few of their church elders.

Amina had felt out of place and uncomfortable at a celebration that she was supposed to share the honor in. She had to put up with snide comments from Candace about the size of her ring and the ugly dress Amina had worn, a dress that her future mother-in-law had bought for her. It had been an ugly brown concoction with ruffles around the neck and wrists. And it nearly touched the floor. She could barely walk in that thing without tripping over her kitten heels.

Amina shook her head to rid herself of that distasteful memory. There was no way she could go back to the way things were. Maybe Mark wasn’t currently at the point where he was downright abusive yet, in this timeline. But he was already showing signs of becoming exactly that.

Her phone vibrated in her hand and for a moment she thought it was Mark calling her again. To her relief and delight, she saw that it was Ethan.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself. You sound kind of bummed. You didn’t have a good day hanging with Paisley?”

She missed the sound of his voice. There were a few times when he’d stopped by her office this week, he gave her a quick kiss.

It was those stolen moments that kept a smile on her face that entire week.

He’d wanted to see her this weekend but he had a conference to attend that he would be lecturing at.

“We had a great day actually. That girl has a black belt in shopping. She wore me out and I ended up spending a significant amount of money. But it was well spent because my wardrobe was in need of an update.”

“Will you be okay, financially? If you need my help, just say the word.”

Amina’s heart flipped inside her chest and a grin split her lips. Offering to help her out would have never occurred to Mark. He talked a good game before they were married, but once he had access to her funds, he considered them his as well.

“I’ll be okay but thanks for the offer. But as I was saying, I had a great time with Paisley and we plan to hang out more often. She’s super sweet.”

“That’s good to hear. Then why so down when you answered?”

Amina groaned. “Because I just got off the phone with Mark. He apparently came by my house earlier but I wasn’t home. He was pissed and called several times.”

“What did he want?”

“Basically to chew me out, but you’ll be so proud to know I managed to stand up for myself.”

“Good for you.” She could hear the smile in his voice.

“I gotta be honest when I say I was a little scared at first, but it felt good being able to stand my ground. But then again it was over the phone. I hope when I face him again, I won’t buckle.”

“I believe in you.”

“I’m glad one of us does because now he believes we’re engaged.”

“What!”

“It’s just like the previous timeline. This was around the time he proposed to me but this time it was a little different. I think because I wasn’t home, the event deviated a bit. After I stood up for myself, his tone changed. He then basically said we should get married and I didn’t get a chance to tell him no. Now he’s expecting me to attend an engagement dinner. If it’s anything like the previous one it’s going to be a disaster. But at least this time he said I could invite some friends.”

“Hmm. This actually may work out in our favor.”

“How so?”

“What better way to get your revenge than at the engagement party?”

“I hear you, but what do you suggest?”

“His parents will be there, correct?”

“Yes, along with some of the members of their church. They were all a bunch of judgmental sanctimonious jerks, especially Mark’s mother. When I was married to Mark, she acted like he was perfect and everything wrong in our marriage was my fault. She made my life miserable.”

“And his father?”

“He wasn’t much better. He would quote bible scriptures but he didn’t live by them. There was a rumor he was having an affair with the church secretary but…”

“What?”

“You know what? Shortly after Mark and I were engaged, I attended service with him and a woman showed up to the church who was visibly pregnant. She came in, right in the middle of his sermon and sat in the front row. I’d never seen Pastor Caldwell so visibly flustered. He was so shaken, he shifted his message mid sermon and started ranting about loose women and being unclean in the house of the lord. Mrs. Caldwell, was bright red for the remainder of the service.”

“I’m going to take a wild guess that this woman wasn’t just some random lost soul in search of the word.”

“And you’d be correct. After service, Mark had to ask his father something so we went to his office, and heard his parents arguing about someone named Jasmine showing up at the church. Mark didn’t bother knocking. He just ushered me away. I guess he was embarrassed. I never saw that woman again. And the following week, his mother had a new diamond ring and a new model of her Range Rover.”

“Probably courtesy of church offerings,” Ethan surmised.

“I’m sure.”

“Well, I think the best course of action is to show up at the engagement party looking like your stunning self.”

His answer took her by surprise. A part of her wanted him to be a little jealous. “Really? It doesn’t bother you that I’d be attending an engagement dinner with Mark?”

“Of course it does. The longer you have to be around that asshole the more anxious I get. But we have a plan remember?”

Her heart sped up. So, it wasn’t just pillow talk. Were they really going to see their plans to fruition? “Revenge?”

“Absolutely. No one deserves it as much as you do. So what you’ll need to do, is take Mark up on his offer.”

“What do you mean?”

“He said you can invite some friends to the party with you.”

“Does that mean you’ll come?”

“I’m not sure that would be a good idea considering how I won’t be able to keep my hands off you. The way you’ve been coming to the office lately in those new outfits have had me in a frenzy. My dick has been on constant alert.”

An instant jolt of electric, shot straight to her pussy. Her face grew warm and she was thankful no one could see her squirm. “Ethan you can’t just say things like that.”

“Why not? It’s true. You turn me on like no woman has before.”

“You’re making that up.”

“I’d never lie to you, Amina. As I said before, you’re going to have to boost your confidence because I refuse to allow you to talk about yourself in any way that isn’t positive. Now, about that engagement party…”

Amina groaned in frustration. “Do we have to talk about it?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get back to how I’m going to fuck you bow-legged as soon as we come up with a game plan for the party.”

She shivered in anticipation. It still amazed her that someone who appeared so respectable on the outside could be so dirty. “Okay,” she responded breathlessly. “What did you have in mind? I’m afraid by going to the party he’ll see that as an acceptance of his proposal.”

“What he thinks doesn’t matter. From what you’ve told me, his parents sound like a couple of holy rollers. Show up looking sexy and that will probably take the wind out of their sails a bit. But you’re going to have to play the role of the femme fatale.”

“I’m not sure if I’ll have the nerve for that.”

“I believe in you. But I’m not suggesting you go alone. Ask Paisley if she’ll attend. And when you find out the location of the restaurant, I’ll park somewhere close by and all you need to do is text me, and I’ll be there to rescue you.”

“My hero.”

“Amina, I want to be so much more than just your hero, but that’s not all we have in store for the engagement party.”

“Oh? What else did you have in mind?”

“Well, I think it’s about time for you to meet a new friend.”