Page 13 of Tap In

Derrick:

Hey Lark. I know it’s been a while. I heard that you moved to Charleston, SC. I’m in town and would like to see you if that’s alright. No pressure. I just really wanted to apologize for how I treated you.

I stared blankly at the text. When Jacobia asked what was wrong, I just handed her my phone to read the text. It took her less than thirty seconds to read it. Her face was tight, matching the corner of her eyes. “Bitch, I wish you would.”

* * *

A FEW DAYS LATER…

A bitch did.I didn’t answer Derrick’s text the first night. Jacobia and I had our girls’ night with little conversation about him. All Jacobia said was that she would kick my ass if I met with him. I told myself that I wouldn’t. He texted me the next day three times and I buckled. This was a man that I spent umpteen years with. I felt like he owed me an apology.

He suggested that we meet at Ruth’s Chris, and I was fine with that. I went back and forth about telling Chance but decided against it. It was a simple dinner of apology. Nothing more, nothing less. Chance had a late meeting that didn’t start until seven and wasn’t slated to end until nine. Derrick and I were meeting at seven thirty.

I thought that I would be the first person to get here by arriving fifteen minutes early. Silly me forgot that Derrick lived his life under the premise that to be early was to be on time. He was already seated when I announced my arrival to the hostess. When he came into view, I admired his appearance. One thing that Derrick wasn’t was unattractive. He wasn’t Chance fine, but he was fine.

“Hey, Lark. Wow, you look amazing,” he greeted. When he came closer and opened his arms, I put my hands up to stop him. He simpered, then said, “Alright, I deserve that. How about we just sit down, talk, and eat?”

I nodded my head up and down with a grin. “That we can do.”

He pulled my seat out, and I sat down. By the time I set my clutch on the table, the waitress was there asking for our drink orders. I didn’t plan to stay long enough to eat a full dinner. My goal was to get my apology and leave. Derrick and I sat there in an awkward silence until the drinks came.

“So, how have you been doing, Lark?” he finally asked after we both took sips of our drinks.

I gaped at him for a beat. “I’ve actually been great. Things have been amazing for me here.” There was no need to go into detail. That was giving him too much. “How have you been?”

He put his head down for a second before he tittered. “Life has been teaching me valuable lessons if I have to say. Life has a way of humbling you.”

Now I was intrigued. “I guess I can agree with you. What lessons have you learned that were humbling?” I may not have wanted to let him into my business, but I damn sure was going to be all up and through his.

“Well, it taught me to not take the people that I love and who truly love me for granted. To not throw people away like trash because I think there’s no further need for them or that I found a better new thing.” His head swayed from side to side. He locked eyes with me, then said, “It taught me that the grass is not greener on the other side.”

A man with regrets.“Sounds like things didn’t work out with you and Polly Pocket. I heard that you guys married not even two months after we broke up.”

“I did marry Natalie, and some months later, a bouncing baby boy was born.” I expected him to have a sparkle when he talked about a child that he wanted for so long. He begged me for years to have a child, but that was a no for me if we weren’t married.

The waitress came over to ask for our order. Since it seemed like I would be here a little longer than anticipated, I ordered an appetizer. “I would think that you’d be more excited about having not only your first child, but your first son. Did you make him your namesake like you always wanted?”

“I did, I did. Shortly after we had him, he fell ill. That caused us to have a lot of doctor visits.”If this man asks me for blood or an organ, I’m going to toss my appetizer on him when it comes.“In the process of all the doctor’s appointments, we had to give blood, and I got a big surprise. DJ wasn’t mine.”

Fuck boy, say what?There was no way he just said the woman that he threw me on my ass for was pregnant with another man’s baby. “Oh, wow! I would say that I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m not. That’s what your stupid ass gets.” My shoulders lifted to kiss my ears before I took a sip of my drink.

“I deserved that too. I convinced myself that I’d fallen out of love with you, so I told myself if I just had a little fling that it would revitalize my love for you. Things just got out of hand,” he said.

My brows dipped. “That’s the stupidest shit that I’ve ever heard. You thought having a fling would revitalize our love. Derrick, if you felt like a link was coming loose, why not just talk to me? We’d been together for too long for you not to feel comfortable to come to me so we can work on a plan to get back to us.”

“Fuck, I know, Lark! I was on some stupid shit. I married Natalie because I thought I loved her, and she was having my baby. I’d asked you to have my child for years. You gave me your stipulations to do so, but instead of hearing you and making you my wife, I fucked up. I should have married you.” He let out a deep huff.

Men were idiots, I swear. This man threw everything away for a confusing feeling. Now he was here wanting to apologize because he realized he’d messed up. He only realized that he messed up because things didn’t pan out like he thought they would. Had they, his ass probably wouldn’t be sitting here. With all those thoughts, any apology he did have for me would be disingenuous.

“Damn, if you should have married my woman, then why didn’t you, playboy?”

My eyes closed to the sound of Chance’s voice behind me. That was what the hell I got for semi sneaking. His ass was supposed to be in a meeting. I slowly shifted in my seat so that I could look up. One look at the scowl that rested on his face had me turn my ass right back around.Oh, he’s not happy at all.

EARLIER SAME DAY…

“What you gonna dountil I get out of the meeting, baby?”

I had a client that could only meet after five in the evening, pacific standard time since he lived in Washington State. We also had an office in California. Elijah, the client, had lived all over the United States, and he always used our firm to acquire his properties. Marla, Travis, and I were licensed to sell properties in all states, excluding the Dakotas, Oregon, and Utah. That was an extremely tedious process to obtain all of those licenses. That was what made our firm one of the most elite in the country. We also had realtors in Europe.

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