Chapter Nineteen
“Why won’t you tell me about Ben? After the way you reacted to seeing him at Spencer’s I know the two of you have a past.”
It had taken the better part of an hour for Nicey to make Rishelle finally open up the front door for her and allow her on the inside. She wasn’t going to leave until Rishelle spilled her guts and told her everything about Ben and her connection to him.
“I don’t want to get into this,” Rishelle shouted pacing back and forth in front of her. “It’s in the past and I want it to stay there. Why can’t you leave it alone?”
Crossing her legs, Nicey rested her back against the chair and stared at Rishelle as she continued to wear a hole inside of her thick carpet. The way Rishelle was acting was so unlike her and it almost made her think that Rishelle had been in love with Ben.
“I’m not leaving until you tell me why seeing Ben made you flip out like that and don’t tell me it wasn’t nothing,” Nicey exclaimed in a swift voice. She knew Rishelle too well for that lie. Rishelle was very good at hiding her emotions and tonight they exploded all over the place.
Stopping in her tracks Rishelle eyeballed her and then sighed. “You aren’t going to let it go are you?”
Wordlessly she shook her head. “Nope.”
“Fine, I’ll give you a shortened version and after I’m finished I don’t want you to bring him up ever again,” Rishelle snapped taking a seat across from her in a chair. “Ben is in my past and I won’t let him worm his way back into my heart.”
“I’ll take the cliff notes version because it’s better than nothing,” Nicey uttered getting more comfortable in her seat. She wanted to be here with Rishelle but a part of her was missing Spencer too. “Okay I’m listening.”
“It was about six years ago and I had just moved here from North Carolina for a new job.
I worked nights at this accounting agency and Ben was already working there when I started.
He worked on a different floor than me, but we started talking to each other during our breaks or anywhere else we ran into each other.
The attraction was hot and heavy from the beginning; however neither one of us made the first move. Yet after about a month or two we got really serious agreed to have a monogamous relationship or at least I thought I was in one with him.”
“What happened?” Nicey asked studying Rishelle as she twisted her hands together and then placed them inside her lap.
“I decided to surprise Ben late one night with a romantic dinner from his favorite restaurant. I knew he was working late so I snuck up to his office and when I opened the door I got the surprise of my life,” Rishelle mumbled looking straight at her with anguish in her eyes that Nicey almost cried.
“He was on the couch making out with his boss Victoria. I didn’t know I had screamed until the two of them broke apart.” She groaned. “I turned and ran from the room while Ben kept yelling for me to stop, but I didn’t want to hear it.”
“Did you ever give him a chance to explain,” Nicey asked.
“No, I never took one phone calls or any of his gifts that he sent to me. Ben tried for two months to get me back but I guess it finally got through to him that I didn’t want him and all of it stopped.”
“I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
“Not any more than I am,” Rishelle whispered in a soft voice. “I only hope that Spencer doesn’t turn in Ben. The two of them are friends you know.”
What was Rishelle getting at? Spencer would never cheat on her with another woman. He loved her too much for that. She felt for Rishelle that she got taken back by seeing Ben again after so many years, but Spencer was a way better man than that.
“Spencer wouldn’t do that to me,” Nicey stated with confidence. “He’s totally in love with me.” Her life had only gotten a hundred times better she met and fallen in love Spencer.
“That’s good he isn’t cheating on you, but how do you know that he isn’t lying to you?”
The question hung in the hair between them like a bad penny.
Nicey was getting tired of this line of questioning from Rishelle and thought maybe she should change the subject.
Spencer was one of the last good guys out there and he treated her like a princess and she loved it.
But she was going to answer Rishelle’s question just to get her off of Spencer’s case, because there wasn’t a sweeter and more honest guy out there than her man.
“Spencer has been nothing but honest to me,” she defended. “He would never keep anything from me or do anything to hurt me. He loves me and I love him.”
Rishelle arched her eyebrow and then gave her a small smile. “I’m glad you have that with Spencer. He has brought you out of your shell. I didn’t mean to accuse him of anything,” she apologized. “Just seeing Ben again made all of my bad memories of him resurface.”
“Don’t worry about it. How about I call and tell Spencer I won’t be back tonight. We can order a pizza and zone out in front of the television,” Nicey suggested.
“No, I won’t let you do that. Go back and spend the night with your boyfriend. I’ll be fine by myself. I left Ben in the past a long time ago,” Rishelle insisted with a false bravado.
“No I’m going to stay and that’s the last I want to hear of it,” Nicey scolded getting up from her seat. “Let me go and call Spencer from the kitchen. My cell battery is getting low and I need to recharge it.”
“Thank you, Nicey,” Rishelle whispered at her back as she strolled towards the kitchen.
“You would do the same thing for me,” Nicey tossed back as the kitchen door closed behind her.