21. A Child Was Born
A CHILD WAS BORN
K ayn
The meeting went much longer than I expected.
After we had gone through several rounds of negotiations and talks, we broke for lunch.
It was supposed to be a business lunch, but it had become anything but.
I’d had one too many drinks during lunch, along with the rest of the crew, and needed some time to get my mind right.
I’d been drinking to forget about my troubles, but that shit caused the meeting to be held up much longer than I wanted it to.
I climbed out of the car and passed my driver, Charles, a silver envelope as he held the door. “Merry Christmas, Charles.”
“Thanks, Mr. Kayn.” His large, round eyes were even wider as he stared at me in confusion.
I knew that Charles had stared at me in disbelief, not because I gave him a gift, but because I had said “Merry Christmas.” That wasn’t something I would have said in the past. I was often generous with recognizing people for their hard work.
I didn’t say it as much as I showed it with a few hundred to several thousand dollar bills in an envelope or their next paycheck.
“I’ll see you the next time I’m in town. Tell the wife and kids that I said hello.”
I walked away from the car and headed to the glass front doors of the hotel. The doorman held the doors open for me and tipped his cap briefly at me. I gave him a hundred-dollar bill and walked into the lobby.
A large tree decorated with red ribbons and white lights stood sentinel by the elevators.
Someone had climbed up to the chandeliers throughout the lobby and decorated them with boughs of holly.
I smiled as I thought back to the office back home.
Kandi had done a phenomenal job of decorating it.
And just to think that I had frowned upon it and almost fired everyone on the spot when I saw it that morning.
Thankfully, I had excellent business acumen, and I didn’t let my being an asshole get in the way of making good business sense. Instead, I had switched her role to become my assistant, and it was the greatest decision I had ever made.
“Good evening, Mr. Kayn.” The elevator operator, Sam, greeted me.
Although One Remington was a modern, upscale hotel, they still employed bellhops and elevator operators to maintain a sense of opulence, class, and concierge services.
“Good evening, Sam.”
“I was hoping that I would get the chance to see you again today. That gift was extremely generous, and my girlfriend will appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome, Sam.”
I had given him an envelope containing five hundred dollars this morning on my way down, along with two tickets for dinner at Chester’s, a five-star restaurant.
We rode the rest of the ride to the penthouse floor with him chatting about how he planned to propose to his girlfriend on Christmas morning. I thought that shit was corny, but I kept my thoughts to myself.
I wasn’t looking forward to going upstairs to deal with Kandi’s attitude. I only hoped that she was in a much better mood than before. With the way she was slinging attitude at me, it felt like she was my real wife and not a fake one.
That was over anyway, and I had no reason to continue pretending. I missed her touches, kisses, and words of encouragement. I wasn’t certain what I had done to fuck that up, other than that the deal had come to an end.
“Have a Merry Christmas, Sam,” I stated as I exited the elevator on my floor.
“Merry Christmas, Mr. Kayn.”
I headed straight inside and upstairs when I didn’t see Kandi. I knocked on her door, and she jerked it open. To my surprise, her eyes were red and swollen.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.”
“You’ve had an attitude for the last twenty-four hours, and now you’ve been crying. Don’t tell me there ain’t shit wrong with you either. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“If you were going to leave me stuck in a hotel the entire time, you could have just left me in Cherokee Springs, especially since I wasn’t allowed to attend the meeting.
I told you how important the holidays were to me, and you insisted on dragging me up and down the eastern seaboard without a care in the world how it would affect me or my family. ”
“I thought you enjoyed being in Mistletoe Falls. Besides, letting you miss the meeting was so that you could catch up on your rest. I’m not even sure why you’re tripping, Kandi. You earned ten stacks out of the deal.”
Her mouth dropped open, and she acted as if I had just said the worst thing in the world to her.
“I will hand you my official notice when we return to the office.”
“Why?”
The fuck was she on? I couldn’t figure out why she was tripping.
“This . . . isn’t going to work between us,” she declared, waving a hand back and forth between us.
It felt like someone had sucked all the oxygen out of the room. I couldn’t fathom not seeing her every day, not having her presence in my life. What the hell had I done so bad that she would torture me that way? All I wanted was her. I just couldn’t have her.
“All because I didn’t let you go to the meeting? I thought you would have loved to skip it. I thought I was giving you an out by not forcing you to be there.”
She shook her head, crossed her arms over her chest, and screwed her face up again. “I gave up my favorite holiday and birthday, all for what?” Kandi cried some more, and if I wasn’t confused before, I sure as hell was now.
“What are you talking about? When was your birthday?”
“It’s today, Kayn.”
Fuck! How was I supposed to know that today was her birthday? She never said shit to me about it. Damn. I knew that I could be an ass on a good day, but I’d taken that shit to another level today.
“I get that you can be all about you at times, but the last twenty-four hours, all I’ve tried to do is be there for you, and all you’ve done is shitted on me. If it wasn’t bad enough that today’s my birthday, but then you let your mouth get real careless back in Mistletoe Falls.”
“Kandi, I apologized.”
“It doesn’t take it away, Kayn.”
I massaged my temples and rested my hands on either side of the doorframe. Yeah, I fucked up big time.
“Listen, I know you don’t want to hear this shit, and I can’t blame you.
I wouldn’t if I were you, either. But being back there with my mama took me back to a place I never wanted to return to again.
In the past, when my mama was still in my life, I didn’t know how to love or receive love.
I didn’t know how to care about others because all I knew was how to protect myself.
That’s where I was again that day when I visited her.
That’s the Kayn that you saw. I’m sorry for that, Kandi.
You deserve much better than that, and I hate that you got to see that side of me.
It’s why I didn’t want to see her and why I shouldn’t have insisted you come with me.
I was in self-preservation mode, and self-preservation mode Kayn ain’t shit. ”
“Oh, I saw firsthand,” she replied and wiped the tears from her face.
I stepped close to her. “Letting you in made me lower my walls. I forgot about all that shit, and I walked up into that hospital room with my secured walls down. That wasn’t a good place for me to be mentally. Her attitude was the reminder that I needed so that I could protect myself again.”
I took another step closer to her, and Kandi backed up into the room. I grabbed her arms gently and stared into her eyes.
“Baby, I had no idea that today was your birthday. I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I intended to be with my family on my birthday. I wasn’t supposed to be with you.
Christmas Eve is for people to spend with their families, but in my family, they make it a big deal about me because I was born so close to Christmas Day.
I didn’t want you feeling burdened to do anything spectacular or put you out of your comfort zone, Kayn.
And when I realized that I would be with you, that was special enough to me.
I just didn’t need to tell you to make it special.
It would have been special just being with you. ”
“So, you’re telling me now so that I can feel shitty?”
“Hell yeah,” she stated, poking me in my chest.
I chuckled and hung my head low. When I looked up again into those beautiful brown eyes, I asked, “Please let me make it up to you. Your birthday isn’t over yet. We’ve still got a few hours left to make it as beautiful as possible.”
She rolled her eyes and pulled away from me.
“It’s okay,” she answered, shaking her head.
“Please, baby. Will you forgive me, Kandi?”