Page 27 of Daring to Love You
Dorian set her fork down and released a long breath. She wanted to curse the sudden tears that filled her eyes, but no way would she let them fall. She blinked them away, refusing to cry over how Rodney had treated her. She had shed too many tears for that parasite when he hadn’t even been worth it.
“While Rodney and I were dating, he…” She nibbled her lower lip and glanced away for a second. When she felt like she could say this without bursting into tears, she looked at him. “Rodney, he umm…”
“So help me God, Dee…” Lynix’s low growl and the angry mask that suddenly showed on his handsome face caught her offguard. “If you tell me that motherfucker physically hurt you, I’m leaving right now to hunt his ass down and—”
“No!” she said as shock slammed into her. When he started to stand, she grasped his wrist and held on tight. “Oh my God, Lynix. I am so sorry! I didn’t mean for it to sound like he abused me in any way.”
“Then what the hell happened?” he snapped, and as if catching himself, he released a breath, closed his eyes, and ran his hand over his mouth.
Dorian knew his anger wasn’t directed at her, but that still didn’t mean she didn’t shrink against her seat. His temper seemed to flare out of nowhere. Normally, he was fairly laid-back. So this behavior was new.
“I’m the one who’s sorry, Dee,” he said and reached for her hand and held it. “I have a low tolerance for men who mistreat women. Especially those who think it’s okay to put their hands on a woman with the intent of hurting them. Hell, I could tell you stories about what I’ve seen on patrol that would leave you having nightmares for weeks. And when you started to tear up…”
“I wasn’t thinking. I guess I’m still embarrassed by the situation even though it’s been over a year. I thought I had moved on, but seeing Rodney and Shauna today brought it all back. The hurt. The disappointment. The betrayal.
“Rodney didn’t officially break up with me. Instead, he left me hanging while he was screwing around with Shauna. He cheated on me.”
Lynix frowned. “He was hooking up with her while you two were dating?”
“Yes, well, according to Shauna.” Dorian fiddled with the cloth napkin in her lap as memories churned inside her mind. Now that she was saying everything aloud, it didn’t sound like a big deal. Yet, she remembered being devastated.
“I get that people cheat or get cheated on and then move on. It’s probably happened to more people than not. For me, though, that hurt cut deep. I was totally blindsided by their… union for lack of a better word. All I’d known was Rodney had been acting weird toward the end of our relationship, and then out of nowhere, Shauna started treating me like a leper. Like I had done something to her, and she was seeking revenge.
“She had never been the best boss, but at least she was fair. Apparently, she found out Rodney and I had been seeing each other. Then she took her anger and frustrations out on me at work. I had no idea he’d ever been involved with her but apparently, they’d dated.
“Anyway, she made my work-life hell. She started piling projects on me, even those which should’ve been team projects. Not only that, but none of the assignments or campaigns I turned in were good enough. She’d insist I redo them. Even projects that were done as per the client’s requests.
“Lynix, she humiliated me during meetings to the point of me leaving the conference room in tears. There were days when I dreaded going to work. I eventually had to file a complaint with Human Resources.”
“What happened then?”
“They gave her a slap on the wrist, but the harassment continued. Not only that, Shauna and Rodney started flaunting their relationship in front of me. She once thanked me for being a lousy lay where Rodney was concerned. I don’t know what all he told her about our relationship, but I knew that part was a lie. Rodney and I never had sex.”
“You two dated for almost a year and never had sex?”
Dorian shook her head. There’d been a time she’d been embarrassed to admit that but not anymore. She was so happy she hadn’t fallen for his sweet talk and lies. Otherwise, after the way everything went down, she would’ve felt like a bigger fool.
“No, we didn’t,” she said to Lynix who seemed to be hanging on to her every word. “I liked Rodney. I even thought I was falling in love with him, but I just… It just never felt right, but I should’ve known if he wasn’t getting it from me, he was getting it from someone else.”
Dorian had felt like the stupidest person in the world, but that whole situation showed how inexperienced she’d been. It didn’t matter that she had been in her early thirties, she hadn’t dated much. It never crossed her mind that Rodney would cheat on her or with her, and that’s what she told Lynix.
“He’d come over several times a week, and I’d cook for him. We’d watch a movie or go for a ride or sometimes take long walks along the lake. I thought we were having a good time getting to know one another. I had no clue he was involved with anyone else until shit hit the fan at work with Shauna.”
“Before today, when was the last time you saw or talked to Rodney?”
“I heard from him about a week after I quit my job. He said he was sorry about how things went down. I asked him why he did it. Why he’d dated us both at the same time. He said he and Shauna had been taking a break before he asked me out, and then they patched things up.
“Rodney claimed he didn’t know how to tell me, and then when our relationship wasn’t going anywhere, he figured he’d move on.” His words had hurt, but at that point, she hadn’t cared about anything he’d had to say. “He also said I was really sweet, but he wanted to be with a woman who knew how to please a man.”
“Son of…” Lynix growled, and Dorian lifted her hands for him to let her finish.
“I told him that when I find arealman it won’t be a problem with me pleasing him. And that was the last time I talked to him.”
Lynix shook his head. “You should’ve sued the company or something,” he mumbled as he picked at the rest of his food.
“Oh, Cree was livid when she found out and was ready to go after them with all her legal guns. And according to her, she still might. My sisters are the only ones who know the whole story about why I quit a job that I loved. Well, them and you now. Essence had offered a shoulder to cry on, and Nyla wanted to go old school and pour sugar into their gas tanks and key their cars.”
Dorian adored her sisters who were always willing to throw down for her, but leaving the agency had been the best decision for her. The executives were close to the pulse of the organization, and she knew she hadn’t been the only person to file a complaint about Shauna. They let her get away with treating staff like crap because she made the company a ton of money. She was always getting recognized for her stellar work and her timeliness on meeting campaign deadlines. No one cared that she couldn’t accomplish those things on her own.
