Page 19 of Mr. On Your Knees
“Desi! Girl, you hear me talkin’ to you?” Lauren asked waving her hand in front of Desi’s face.
Desi blinked a few times before pushing Lauren’s hand away. “Don’t be dramatic,” she said.
Lauren rolled her eyes. “Then stop sitting there like a statue.”
“I’m not,” she countered.
Fran, a personal injury attorney, shook her head. “You’ve been in that same spot since we got here. Haven’t even gone to pee and usually you’re the one with the weak bladder after a glass of wine number two.”
With a smirk, Desi reached for her glass. “I’m drinking a mojito tonight.”
“You mean you’re nursing that mojito,” Lauren said. “What’s going on with you?”
Desi shook her head. “Nothing. Why do you keep asking me that?”
“Because you’re not acting like yourself,” Lauren replied. “I mean, you got the job that you were praying for and you say it’s going well, that event planner lady loves all your ideas. So, what the hell… What. The. Hell?” Lauren’s words had dragged on, her gaze going to something behind Desi now.
“What the hell what? I told you everything’s fine. I’m loving the work on the Juneteenth event. It’s going to be so dope. I can’t wait for you to see it. You can be my plus one to the masquerade ball so get your dress together. Fran, I know you don’t like dressing up, plus you said you’d be in Vegas that weekend.”
When neither Fran nor Lauren replied, Desi frowned. Then she turned in her seat and followed their gaze.
“Damn,” she whispered.
Across the room, on a couch all the way at the back, Jared’s long gorgeous body was draped over one of the lounge chairs. He had one arm stretched out over the back of the seat, his other hand bringing a cigar up to his lips. His gaze was on her. She knew that even through the haze of smoke from that back area and the distance to where she sat and she sucked in a breath.
“That’s what’s wrong with your ass,” Lauren said. “You saw that man again and now you can’t think straight.”
Desi turned around slowly. She picked up her glass and took a deep gulp letting the mint mixed with the alcohol settle in her throat.
“That man’s still fine as sin,” Fran said still staring at Jared. “Like, damn, he hasn’t aged one bit and from the way that t-shirt is fitting over his biceps I’d say he’s been working out a little more.”
“Thanks for the update,” Desi replied dryly.
Fran shrugged. “Don’t shoot the messenger.” Then she gave a half smile. “I told your ass to think twice about leaving that man, but you wouldn’t listen.”
“She didn’t listen because he cheated on her,” Lauren said.
“No,” Fran said with a shake of her head, “he told her he went to a sex club but didn’t touch anyone and nobody touched him.”
“Which was probably a lie,” Lauren added.
“Or maybe it wasn’t,” Fran said. “Jared was a good guy. I never believed he cheated because if he had, he wouldn’t have run his ass home to confess so damn quick. And y’all know I know. Grant cheated on me for a year and a half and wasn’t about to come off that secret until his bitch got pregnant and decided to bring her ass and her sonogram picture to my office for a visit.”
Desi remembered that day all too well. Fran had texted them that she was about to catch a charge. At the time, Desi’s office was just two buildings down from Fran’s and by the time she’d gotten there, Fran was indeed swinging the lamp that sat on her desk at Grant’s baby momma who was calling Fran everything but a child of God. Somebody in the office had recorded the whole thing and Lauren—who worked a few miles away—had been able to view it all on Instagram.
“Bastard,” Lauren said with a roll of her eyes. “They’re all bastards.”
“All of them except Sonny, right?” Desi asked referring to Lauren’s baby daddy.
“That’s right, because he deposits money for the care of our child into my account every week, he shows up to give me the best dick I’ve ever had and then he’s gone for five to six days in between. It’s the perfect arrangement.” Lauren emptied her third glass of wine and motioned for the server.
“I’m just working with Jared. When this event is over, I’ll go back to my life and he’ll go back to his,” she said trying not to think about all the bad luck with men she and her friends had experienced over the years. It was depressing and discouraging and had contributed to her mantra to protect her heart at all costs. Even when that meant walking away from a man she’d loved with her whole being.
Her phone buzzed on the table and she jumped at the sound. Rolling her eyes at her silliness she picked it up and turned it over to look at the screen.
Him:Come here.
She stared at those two words on the screen for so long, Lauren nudged her. “Something wrong?”
