LITMIR.BIZ

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kind of talk. You raised me well, and considering you raised me, you should know that I’m only twenty-eight, thank you very much.”

      “Twenty-eight, thirty…same difference.”

      “Anyway, to kinda sorta make things up to me, Blake is going to take me out to dinner tonight. We’re going to that fondue place where you have to have reservations in advance. His assistant’s husband made reservations for them a while ago, but with their child being sick with that swine flu he caught on their trip to Mexico, they can’t make it. So, she gave her reservation to Blake.”

      “That sounds nice. It’s no Jamaica, but nice nonetheless.”

      “I’ve never been, so I think—” Just then Paige’s other line clicked. She looked down at the face of the phone. Blake’s office number appeared on the screen. “Ma, that’s my husband. I’ll call you later.” She blushed. “Husband. That’s my husband.”

      Now it was Mrs. Robinson who rolled her eyes. “Go on and talk to your husband. And tell that son-in-law of mine that his father-in-law is still waiting to show him around the construction business, for real this time.”

      Paige recalled the visit she and Blake had made to her parents’ house. The visit was when Blake was supposed to spend the afternoon with her father, checking out the family construction business. Instead, Blake had just used that as an excuse to get her father alone so that he could ask him for his daughter’s hand in marriage. “Okay, Ma. I’ll be sure to tell him. I love you. Kiss Daddy for me. Bye.”

      Paige ended the call with her mother and clicked over to the other line. “Hello, my handsome, butter-complexion, six-feet-tall hunk of a husband, who I can’t wait to run my fingers through your soft, wavy hair and then kiss you in places that—”

      “Whoa, hold up. I think I better stop you there before my wife gets jealous,” was the reply that made Paige blush.

      “Oh, I’m sure she won’t mind me borrowing you for an hour or two. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty cool with your wife,” Paige played along, “so if you really want to get down and dirty, I’m sure the three of us—”

      “Please, Mrs. Dickenson, my wife really would get jealous.”

      That’s when Paige realized that the voice on the other end of the phone was just an octave lower than Blake’s. “Blake?” Paige held her breath.

      “Uh, sorry, Mrs. Dickenson, it’s Klyde.” He was Blake’s best friend and partner in crime at the commercial real estate agency they worked at. “Blake is in a meeting that is running way over, so he sent me a text and asked me to call you.”

      Paige smiled. Her husband knew her well—well enough to know that she did not do the texting thing on her cell phone. She felt that phones were meant to talk on and computers were meant to type on. Besides that, she could never figure out how to use it anyway, which is why texting wasn’t part of her cell phone plan.

      “Apparently the meeting is going to run into the dinner hour and he’s not going to be able to go to dinner with you tonight,” Klyde explained on his friend’s behalf.

      Paige’s smile quickly faded.

      “He says to tell you that he’s very—” Klyde paused before saying, “Oh, here he is now. He can tell you himself.”

      Just then Paige heard her husband’s voice, for real this time, come through the phone.

      “Hi, honey. I only have a second. We broke from the meeting for just a minute. I’m so sorry about tonight.” Blake’s voice was rushed. “I know taking you to dinner was supposed to be my gratitude for you being so understanding about having to delay the honeymoon and everything, but I am so close to closing this deal that I just know a Bang Bang shrimp appetizer from Bone Fish will do the trick.” Bone Fish was the restaurant Blake’s company always took their clients to. It had an elegant five star atmosphere and menu choices. The amazing thing about it, though, was that it had next-to-fast-food-restaurant prices.

      “But, babe, I didn’t eat a single thing all day. I’ve been saving my appetite and calories for tonight,” Paige whined. “I guess we can just cancel and go some other time…like with our honeymoon.” She let out a deep, pitiful, exaggerated sigh.

      “I’d hate for those reservations to go to waste after my assistant was so kind as to pass them on to us. On top of that, I’d hate for you to starve. Maybe you can get Tamarra or someone else to go with you.”

      “It won’t be the same,” Paige pouted. “Plus, I remember Tamarra saying that she and Maeyl are taking his daughter to see Sesame Street on Ice, so she’s not available. I can always call Sister Deborah up, but she’s not too long from being back from her sabbatical. She’s been saying how she’s been working into the wee hours of the night trying to catch up. I don’t know anyone—”

      “I’ve got an idea.” He cut off his wife. “See if Norman would like to go with you,” Blake suggested.

      Paige thought for a moment. “Hmm, I guess I would have never thought of that. Well, okay. He’s off work at eight o’clock and the dinner reservation is for nine. I’m sure he’d loved to if he doesn’t already have a hot date. But then again, Norman has toned it down quite a bit since he started visiting New Day.”

      “Great, honey, but look, I gotta go. The meeting is rejoining. Give Norman a call, and tell him to take good care of my wife for me. Okay? And I promise I’ll make it up to you. Saturday I’ll take you to lunch or something while we get your check engine light on your car looked at, okay?”

      “All right, honey, I love—” The click in Paige’s ear halted her words. She looked down at the phone. “You.” She finished her sentence then hung up the phone.

      Although he was the last person she would have imagined having dinner with tonight, Paige picked up the phone again and called Norman. While she invited him out to dinner and he gladly accepted, never once did Paige think about what it might look like to an outsider, the two of them sharing an evening dinner. As she hung up the phone to a growling belly, she didn’t care.

      Chapter Three

      As Maeyl sat at the stoplight, he couldn’t help but peep over his shoulder at his snoring little girl. Sakaya was as snug as a bug in a rug in the backseat. Looking at her, he regretted not being in her life for the first three years. In just the last few months, she’d brought him so much joy; he could only imagine all that he’d missed out on. A tinge of guilt tried to creep in, but Maeyl quickly declared the devil that was trying to influence his thoughts a liar. After all, it had not been his fault, nor his decision, not to be a part of his child’s life.

      Although he could have easily turned guilt into blame, blaming Sasha, the child’s mother, he chose not to. Sakaya had been the product of a one night stand between a stripper and a tipper. Just as easily as Maeyl had slipped into Sasha’s bed on the same night they’d met, he’d slipped away, not even leaving his contact information. Unbeknownst to him, he’d left behind something far greater than that.

      Ashamed at how the child was conceived? Yes, he was. Ashamed of the child? Not in a million years. Fatherhood was becoming to Maeyl. It was becoming to Tamarra also: becoming a pain in the butt.

      “Isn’t she just the sweetest little girl you’ve ever known?” Maeyl asked Tamarra, who sat in the passenger seat. His eyes remained glued on his little girl.

      “Oh, yes,” Tamarra replied in a singsong voice. “She’s something, all right.” Tamarra looked back at the little girl and tried to muster up the same joy Maeyl was so obviously filled with. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t to save her life.

      “Just think, it won’t be long before she becomes your little girl too.” Maeyl looked over to his fiancée. “You’re about to become a mommy. Aren’t you excited?”

      Tamarra remained silent as she turned back around to face the road. That’s when she realized that Maeyl’s

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