Page 41 of Happy Is On Hiatus
“Until the ink is dry on the divorce papers, she’s a side chick,” Jemel clarified. “And I told you we should’ve run up on her ass before now.”
Rita’s head suddenly hurt, and her stomach didn’t feel much better. She hadn’t seen or spoken to Nate since the day she’d been in his office and eventually stood him up for dinner. He’d texted her quite a few times since then, but she’d ignored and deleted every message. They’d been scheduled for a conference call with their lawyers, but at the last minute she’d opted out of it and told Sharon to handle it for her. At the time she’d known it was cowardly, but she hadn’t cared. She wasn’t ready to face him again then.
Was she ready now?
The answer to that obviously didn’t matter because Sharae had circled around her and Jemel and was already on her way over to the table.
“Dang it, Sharae,” she muttered and released Jemel’s arm so she could follow her.
Jemel was more than happy to be on the move as she caught up with Sharae so that they both came to a stop at Nate’s table simultaneously.Rita stood a couple of steps back from them, staring into the face of the young woman, who’d looked up immediately.
She was darker than Rita, her hair in long, thin braids almost similar to Sharae’s. She wore a blue dress, low cut in the front, a silver choker at her neck.
“Hey,” Nate said and cleared his throat.
Rita snatched her gaze away from the woman to look at him. Still fine, still a bastard. He was, as always, neatly groomed, from the beige polo he wore to the khaki pants she could see from her side view of the table. He had a fresh haircut and shave. She could tell because he always got a little line at his shape-up right near his ear when he’d just been to the barbershop.
“Excuse me a minute,” he told the woman he was with and stood. Then he nodded to Sharae and Jemel. “Let’s take this over here.”
For an instant Rita’s stomach clenched because she wasn’t convinced her cousins weren’t going to create a scene. Jemel loved drama, and Sharae, even though she was a cop, was still from the streets just like the rest of the Johnson family and could get out of hand as well. Thankfully they started walking behind Nate, and Rita followed them.
She felt like she was having an out-of-body experience. Like maybe she was really back in the hotel room, imagining all this was happening. The second they were outside, standing in front of the hotel, she knew that wasn’t true. The balmy ocean air hit her skin with a jolt, as it was in stark contrast to the chilly air-conditioned breeze she’d been feeling inside the hotel all night.
“Before you get started, I know she told you she put me out,” Nate said the moment they were standing to the side of the hotel’s front doors. “Not to mention the fact that she stood me up for dinner when we were supposed to discuss reconciliation.”
“Yeah, ’cause you can’t keep it in your pants,” Jemel shot back. “I see you’re still flauntin’ your shit to any taker.”
“You ain’t lost enough yet?” Sharae asked him. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to you. She gave you everything, and you just stupidly tossed it aside.”
“What part of ‘sheputmeout’ didn’t you understand?” Nate countered.
Rita shook her head. This just couldn’t be happening.
Damn.Hadn’t she been thinking that for the past few weeks? But really, hadn’t she already decided how she was going to move on with her life? Wasn’t she happy about being able to officially start her own business, something she hadn’t even considered when she was with Nate?
Well, regardless, thiswashappening. Right here and right now, her cousins were confronting her cheating soon-to-be ex-husband, and she was just standing there like a stranger on the street.
“Stop it,” she said finally. “This isn’t necessary.”
“Right! Tell ’em. You wanted this divorce, not me,” he said.
“You’re not fighting it,” she said without thinking. It was probably better just to walk away from this simple man. Arguing had never been Rita’s strong suit because that only led to her being even more irritated by a situation. Something she’d only proven to herself that day in his office. Tonight, she could feel the air buzzing with tension waiting to be released.
He locked his gaze on hers, and for an instant she felt the familiar warmth of being the only woman on Nate’s radar. Of course, that turned out to be a temporary situation since the moment he wasn’t staring at her, he was obviously finding another woman to stare at, touch, sleep with ... She took a deep breath and stepped closer so that she now stood only a few feet away from him, instead of behind her cousins.
“How would you know if I was fighting it or not? You won’t talk to me,” he said, his tone noticeably calmer, but still full of exasperation. “You’ve embarrassed me at my office, torched thousands of dollars’worth of my clothes and shoes, and now you’re refusing to have a simple conversation.”
Well, she certainly wasn’t apologizing for doing any of those things. He deserved that and so much more. “You’re right.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I haven’t wanted to talk to you.”
“And you certainly can’t talk now since you’ve got a date waiting for you inside,” Jemel added.
Not that Rita needed a reminder.
“We can still talk about this, Rita. Maybe work something out.” He had the nerve to look imploringly at her. Raising his brows, putting that compassionate look in his big brown eyes, making his voice sound more agreeable than confrontational. But he hadn’t tried to touch her again, not like he had that day in his office.
She almost laughed.
“Nate, we can’t work anything out. And not just because you’re actually on a date with another woman right now, but because there’s nothing left.” That familiar warmth she’d felt a few moments ago had only lasted about 5.6 seconds. Then, the chilly emptiness returned. That was the feeling she’d been sleeping with every night since she learned he’d emptied those accounts, and she suspected it’d be around a little longer. But she could live with that. She could reside in the big house they’d bought together and live half the life she’d created just fine, as long as she didn’t have to remain legally entangled with him.
