Page 13 of U + Me : The Finale
“Um, no…Can I get a croissant breakfast sandwich with egg, cheese, and bacon. That completes my order.”
It took all of five minutes for my order to be ready and I was on my way. As I drove from the city to Deerfield, the city where the office was located,U + Meby Mary. J Blige started playingand it instantly made me think of Darius. I had been playing this song on repeat ever since I ran into Darius that night, and I found out about Jaysun being engaged.
The lyrics to her song sang to my soul because of the story behind it. When Darius and I first got our finger tattoos, U + Me meant that it would always be him and I. But life had a way of disturbing and shaking things up. So, for me and Darius, U + Me was more on what her song was about. A love that went bad and all the signs were there, yet we ignored them because we felt that our bond was strong enough to withstand whatever came our way.
Now I felt conflicted after Darius popped up on me and told me what he had to go through during the time that he and I lost contact. I couldn’t even hold it against him really because I did have him on block. If anyone knew how bad life could throw you off, I knew, so whether I wanted to or not I had to give Darius some grace. It broke my heart hearing that he had gone through a football career ending injury and he went through it pretty much alone. If anyone knew what football meant to Darius, I did. Football was his saving grace in his childhood and what he held onto that helped him get out of Chicago. Had he not got injured, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would’ve made it to the NFL.
We really didn’t talk about what he was doing now workwise, but whatever it was, from the looks of it he seemed to be doing pretty good for himself. He was designer down from head to toe, iced out, and smelled like money. I hadn’t spoken to him since I asked him to leave and I’m glad that I did. Had I not asked him to leave, there’s no doubt that we wouldn’t have slept together then emotionally I would be right back where I was when he first left. In love and hurt because how could we have anything when he didn’t even live in Chicago anymore.
By the time I pulled into my parking space, I was ten minutes late for the meeting. I parked, grabbed what was left of my coffee and since I inhaled my breakfast sandwich, I grabbed the bag caused I hate when people left trash in their car.
When I approached the front door of the building I was startled when the door opened yet not surprised to see that it was my dad.
“I was just about to call you. I didn’t want to start the meeting without you; at the same time, I didn’t want to hold the client up because you’re running late.”
“I’m sorry, I had a rough morning.” I huffed as I tossed my garbage in the trash by the door then followed my dad to the conference room.
“You know how I feel about being late, baby girl. If you’re going to be running things, you gon have to do better.”
“I’m already knowing. You know I’m usually on time.”
“Well in my book, if you’re on time you’re still late. Early is perfect timing.”
Even at my grown ass age, I knew better than to go back and forth with my dad. When he felt he was right, whether he was wrong or not I never debated him because it was a useless battle.
When we reached the conference room, I took a long sip from my coffee as my dad opened then held the door for me to go in first. The scent of Yves Saint Laurent cologne tagged my nose first then my heart rate increased. Before I even looked at him, I knew it was Darius because, ever since he left my house, the scent of his cologne had been stuck in my nose.
“Good morning, Ms. Kendall.” Darius stood up, and when our eyes connected, my coffee slipped from my hand and hit the floor.
“Oh boy, you okay?” My dad asked as he reached down and picked up my cup.
Darius had jumped up and grabbed the stack of napkins that was on the cabinet behind the conference table. While Darius cleaned up the coffee I rushed out of the conference room and jetted to the bathroom.
Thankfully none of the coffee spilled on my new Milano blazer or skirt and Tom Ford lock heels. As I got my nerves together, I checked my hair, and light make-up beat to make sure I looked okay. When I made it back to the conference room, my dad and Darius were sitting at the conference table talking.
“You good?” My dad asked as I tried my best to avoid Darius.
“Yeah, I’m so sorry about that.”
“Mr. McKinley was just telling me that you two know each other.” My dad said with a unreadable look on his face.
The way he was looking at me forced me to give Darius a concerned look. Things didn’t quite end on the best note the last time we saw one another and even though the old Darius would never throw me under a bus, I wasn’t sure what this new Darius was gon do.
“I was just telling your dad that I had no idea he was your dad. I was just as surprised to see you walk through the door as you were to see me sitting here.”
“Surprised is an understatement,” I responded, relieved that he hadn’t ran his mouth.
It made sense though because Darius had never met my dad before. He didn’t even know my dad’s name, nor had he seen a picture of him because when I was younger, my dad was barely in my life. The odds that Darius was the new client that my dad was talking about, that was interested in becoming part owner of the company was crazy to me.
My dad’s company was a logistics company that was mainly local and when he started prepping me to take over, we also decided on expanding and branching out to other states. It wasn’t surprising that Darius got my dad’s attention becauseGeorgia was big for trucking and our company was one of the top, well-known logistic companies up north.
By the end of the meeting, not only did my dad and Darius hit it off instantly, but the decision was made with minimum thought that he was going to take Darius’s offer. It was kind of hard to pass up but just the thought of having to do business with Darius moving forward made me feel a little uncomfortable. I was already struggling with him popping back up in my life and now he was about to be part owner of our company.
The meeting ran a little longer than we planned, by the time we were done it was lunchtime.
“I’m headed to a lunch date. I’ll catch up with you later, Kim. And Darius, it was a pleasure to meet you, and I look forward to doing business with you.”
“Likewise,” Darius responded as he and my dad shook hands.
