Page 54 of Almost Paradise

It doesn’t take us long to put on our coats. The boys hug and make plans for their sleepover on Friday night.

“Try not to kill him,” Ray whispers in my ear while he hugs me goodbye. “Maybe have an open mind and open dialogue,” he suggests. I groan in protest, but before he can say more, the doorbell rings, and Ray leaves me to go open it.

Expecting Audrey, I almost drop my purse when Jelani walks through the front door. He’s holding a small, white paper bag. He’s smiling, but the smile soon drops when he looks into Drake’s scowling face.

“Hey,” Jelani says to me. I pray the floor will open and swallow Drake whole and drag him into hell where he belongs. He sidesteps him and approaches me. Drake moves closer to me. “I got you some of those falafels you like.”

I clear my throat. From the corner of my eye, Ray leans against the wall and crosses his arms. Jelani hands me the paper bag, and despite my full belly, my mouth waters at the aroma.

“Falafels?” Drake snatches the bag from me. “I’m the one who introduced her to those,” he says to Jelani. Then he turns to me and says, “Remember how you would eat them off my naked body?”

I gasp at his crassness.

“Jesus, man,” Ray says. “Some things I don’t need to know.”

“Liar. That never happened.” I feel some color creep up my neck, but the only liar here tonight is me. I placed a trail of falafels from his chest all the way down to his navel. I remember that every time I see or hear about a falafel. I snatch the bag back from him.

Jelani’s face has lost all coloring while standing there, probably unsure if he even heard Drake right.

“Please don’t bring my wife anything else,” Drake says. If Carter wasn’t standing right here, I’d hit him right in the jaw. Jelani almost takes a step back, and I’m not sure if it’s from Drake’s words or his harsh tone. It’s probably both.

“Your what?” he asks.

“Well,” I begin, needlessly clearing my throat, “I was going to call you and explain that—”

“Let me save you a phone call, baby girl,” Drake says, interrupting me. “We got married on Tuesday. This is my wife and son. They’remyfamily, and I don’t share them with anyone.” Drake takes a step closer to Jelani and practically blocks my view of him with his tall body.

“Let’s go, Mommy,” Carter says.

Jelani looks around, then walks out of the house without another word and slams the door behind him. I feel about two inches tall. Instead of sleeping all damn day, I should have called him, but the truth is, I haven’t thought about him much at all since Tuesday.

Drake gestures for me to go ahead of him, but I don’t move. I lock eyes with him and hope he understands how much I hate him at this moment.

“Mommy, let’s go,” Carter says, elongating the word go. As sweet as my son is, he’s impatient, a trait he did not inherit from me.

“Let’s go, baby girl,” Drake says, gesturing for me to leave again. Unwilling to have a confrontation with him here and now, I walk out the front door without a word.

He must have driven himself because no driver is holding the door open, but his fancy SUV is parked in the driveway as if it belongs there. He puts my suitcase in the back and straps Carter into his car seat.

As I’m getting in the car, he snatches the paper bag from me and puts it in the trash can that was put out on the sidewalk earlier. “You will not eat anything from that idiot,” he practically growls.

I turn to look at my son, who is kicking his legs happily in the car, and swallow my sharp rebuke.

A few minutes after getting to the penthouse, one of the security guards from the building drops off a brown paper bag. Drake hands it to me without a word. When I peek inside, it’s an order of falafels. I toss them in the trash, give him the middle finger, and walk past him to go upstairs.

Chapter 30

Nia

AfterleavingDrakedownstairsto stew, and hopefully choke in his own toxic misery, I go upstairs into Carter’s room. He’s happily playing on the floor with his action figures, totally oblivious of the tension between his parents. I run my fingers through his hair. He looks up at me, and my heart melts at his smile.

“Mommy will be right back,” I say to my son. He turns his attention to his toys while I head for the door.

I peek down the hall, and when I don’t see any signs of Drake, I tiptoe to the guestroom and pull my phone out of my back pocket. I click on Jelani’s name and hold my breath. The phone rings five times and goes to voicemail. My calls to him have never gone to voicemail in the week that we’ve been communicating. He always answers my calls, even if it’s only to tell me he’ll call me back.

After listening to his message, I decide to leave my own. “Jelani. It’s me, Nia.” Idiot. He already knows it’s you. I clear my throat and continue. “I really hate that you had to find out the way you did, especially after what we talked about on Friday. I had every intention of telling you myself. I’m so sorry that—” The rest of the words die in my throat. The door is pushed open, and Drake storms in. His blue eyes are pure fire when he sees me. I look away from him, determined to leave a complete message. “Like I was saying, I apologize for the way Drake—” The phone gets snatched from me before I could say another word. I try to take it back but he moves away and puts the phone to his ear.

“First off, mywifenever has to apologize to you on my behalf. Second, if you call her again, I’m going to come find you, and you won’t like what I do. Do you hear me?” It’s like I’m paralyzed. I’m unable to move and snatch the phone from him and offer Jelani yet another apology. At this moment, I wish the floor would open and the Devil would come up and snatch Drake Paradise into hell.

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