Love Undefeated (Unexpected #5) (16 page)

I loved my parents, but there was no chance in hell and the high heavens that I was discussing my love life with them. The last time I talked to my dad about girls was in fifth grade when he’d explained that birds and bees were not made the same. It wasn’t the most awkward conversation we’d had, but it was definitely in the top three.

Apparently my dad was not having any of my wanting to leave because he continued, “Son, your mom and I…we’re getting older.”
Why don’t we just state the obvious?
“She may tiptoe around the subject, but you know I don’t beat around the bush. I want a grandchild, grandchildren, a dozen of them. I know you’re sowing your oats right now, and I don’t care if you get married or not, I just want someone to call me ‘grampapa’.”

The aneurysm had taken my dad’s tact to the trash, because if he was in his right mind he would never have said this to me.

I stood up and approached his chair, readying myself to give him a hug. “Dad, everything is fine. Good. I’m okay and no, I’m not giving you any grandkids anytime soon.”
Because you already had one, but we lost her. And I’m still trying to pick up the pieces with the woman I love because I fucked it up with her. And our baby.

Praying my voice didn’t wobble, I lowered my head and kissed him on his forehead because after sitting for long periods of time, it was difficult for him to stand. “Love you, Dad. I’ll make you proud. I’ll keep our company thriving. I promise you.”

His mouth turned upward and his eyes got misty as he said, “You’ve made me proud, son. If it’s about a woman, remember, handle her with care because once they break, they don’t mend easily.”

Everyone has their vices, my dad’s was work. He wasn’t perfect, but one thing that he did right was by my mom. He opened doors for her, pulled up her seat before his, kissed her in a way that made me cringe when I was a kid and I would run outside because of cooties, and to this day, he never took off the rusty ring that she’d placed on his left hand after a two-month courtship since they met at my grandfather’s dealership.

He would have never approved on how I’d handled my relationship with Nalee. He taught me, through his actions, to treat women better than that.

“Thanks, Dad. I’ll call you when the deal’s done,” I said, needing to get out of his office before he got started on talking more about women and kids. This was the first time he’d brought up grandchildren, so I’m quite sure that it’s been on his mind for a while now. My dad was the thinker, my mom the reacter. I must have inherited most of my mom’s genes, because when it came to women, I definitely reacted first.

After kissing my mom goodbye, I got into my car and drove between the alley of Red Sunset maple trees that lined our driveway. Every time I passed through , I was enveloped by a flood of memories. I’d had a great childhood thanks to my parents. I’d lived a good life and I wanted for nothing that money could buy. It was time for me to return the favor.

I might hate accounting, but I didn’t hate our company.

I didn’t love my job, but who does?

I had everything I wanted, but the one thing I didn’t was the love of the one woman I wanted…she’s my everything.

I grabbed a banana from the countertop, swung my purse over my right shoulder, and closed the door with my left arm while almost tripping over Xavier’s blue chrome lacrosse cleats.

The alarm on my phone woke me up an hour ago, but Xavier had to break his fast, devouring what he called the most succulent pancake in the world that just happened to be located between my legs, lessening my time to forty minutes.

I had twenty measly minutes to get ready and pump myself up for the meeting with a representative from Briles and Sons. I had to admit, I was hoping it would be Devon. Not because he was easy to look at. Well, he was that. But because he was easy to talk to.

I had two previous meetings with their company, both with junior associates because the other members of the executive team were out-of-town for a conference. My assistant, Carly, had e-mailed me the current stats for the area we were visiting today. It was important for Briles and Sons to see just exactly how the current project, if not modified, would affect the species in the area. Aside from the dolphins and porpoises, a large majority of whales hung around the area and would be greatly disadvantaged if the drilling were to occur. The Harbor Seal, being the last resident marine mammal that fed and bred year-round, would also be displaced. I couldn’t even comprehend the disturbance that the construction would cause to the phyla of invertebrates that inhabit those areas.

“Good morning, Nalee,” Nelson Chen, one of the assistant project managers, nodded his balding head at me as I entered the third floor conference room.

“Mornin’, Nelson.” I placed the stack of files in front of me. “How was your date last night?”

“Straight shooting today Miss-I-have-a-hickey-the-size-of-Galapagos, huh?” His quirky tone rattled my already-perplexed nerves. I had to run a mile-and-a-half in order to get to my office ten minutes before our meeting, only to find out that the meeting had been moved to eleven because of a water main break by the Civic Center which had caused major traffic delays.

“What?” I let out a mini-shriek while grabbing for my compact inside my purse. Usually I didn’t bring my purse into a meeting, especially if the meeting was in my building, but I was having lunch with Tanya, who was in town for a day, right after and since my office was floors up, it would save me time to just have it.

Looking into the small mirror, I inspected my neck for any evidence of Xavier’s trademarks, though he never left them in visible areas.

“Gullible. So, so gullible you are,” Nelson said in a Yoda-like voice accompanied by a tsking sound. I threw him a murderous glance. “Easy there, sistah. I’m just trying to calm you down.”

Raising my brows, I countered, “Calm me down? In what universe is letting a woman know right before she has a
very
important meeting that she has a huge hickey on her neck an acceptable way to calm her down?” My words coming at warp speed because of all the adrenaline that had been infused into my body before I even entered this room. “You need to go change your Yogi if that’s what he teaches about ways of calming another person.”

“Phew, my Yogi has a great ass. I’ll never leave him.” His right hand lifted as he brought the coffee mug to his mouth. “I was just tweaking your twerk, Nalee. You looked so uptight coming in that you needed a daily dose of,” he paused, tapping his left hand on the table, “Nelson’s Xanax.”

I couldn’t help but smile at him. He was such a character. Without him, the office would be all shades of gray. Nelson brought all the colors of the rainbow with him. Literally. He dressed as if he robbed the color wheel of all the bright hues. A Columbia cum laude, he was hired six months after me, I oriented him, and the second he coined the phrase “no calorie brownies” he became my friend.

Today he was shades of purple and gold – a purple suit with splashes of black lines and a gold tie. “You look like the president of Kobe Bryant’s fan club.”

“I’m a loyal Lakerette,” he proclaimed while adjusting an invisible wrinkle in his glaringly bright golden tie, which for some odd reason his fashion choices always worked. On him anyways.

“You were a loyal Golden State fan last week,” I pointed out. Our banter sustained me through dragging work hours. We were assigned together on most projects because we belonged in the same team. He was a great work partner and I’m sure that he would be up for a promotion very soon. “Why the sudden change of heart? You were bleeding gold and blue just a few days ago and now your heart is all purpled out. What gives?”

“Well well, my date last night was muy perfecto.” His eyes waggled and he closed his thumb and index finger together to form an “O” as he continued while gesturing with his hands all over his office attire. “And he’s a big Lakers fan so ta-da!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Nelson, you switch teams at the same rate you change your ties.”

“That’s how flexible I am.” Shaking his shoulders to show how flexible he can be in his tight suit, Nelson was not the one to care about other people’s opinions about him. He was flamboyant, unapologetic, and had a marshmallow heart. Turning a serious face to me, he asked, “How’re you doing, Nalee?”

Though I kept everything that happened to me a secret, it didn’t escape his attention that something serious had occurred to me because I was on medical leave for a month and a half.

The morning I came back to the office, Nelson didn’t ask me what happened, he just hugged me.

It wasn’t one of those hugs that lasted a few seconds; the one he gave me was a tight teddy bear hug that lasted for a few minutes. I had been so close to tears until he’d spoken up, “Don’t ever ruin your mascara for a man, sweetheart.”

He then lifted my chin up and added, “You know when they say, ‘Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s some cheap-ass mascara?’” I’d nodded and he finished with, “You, my dear, you were born with it. The
essenz
.”

By that time, I knew he wasn’t talking about mascaras. With Nelson, beauty products were conversation starters. “Your eyes hold the power in you. I see you now and I see sadness. You know what else I see, Nalee?”

I couldn’t form any words because I was still locked in the tight embrace.

“I see strength and I know that you will continue to rock those fabulous peep toe Kate Spade’s you’re wearing in the middle of winter and you will be fine.”

He then raised his hands to my face, fixed my windswept hair, and left me in the room. I held on to his words, repeating the mantra that I would be fine because what else was I going to hang on to when the fight within me had left me. My body had been through so much and my heart had taken twice the beating.

Before that day, he was a regular co-worker who I had hung out with for a couple of drinks here and there. After that, he became a quasi-best friend. Quasi because he told me he didn’t befriend people, he merely uses their company for amusement, which I found so hard to believe since he was such a nice person. Nelson was the breath of fresh air in my darkened world and his words helped me go through the motions of life every day until one day, I was able to step into my heels and feel like myself again.

“Ha-lu! Earth to Nalee,” Nelson’s voice cut off my trek to the past, his hand was waving in front of me. “Where did you go? Is this one of your lost-in-space moments again?”

I laughed. “I don’t have those moments.”

“Yes you do.”

“Since when?” I intoned, though if I was being honest with myself, there were many times these past few months that I’d felt lost…in space and time. My emotions were in a constant state of flux. One day I’m fine, happy, the next I’m feeling out-of-sorts.

Before I could respond to Nelson, the glass door to my right opened, and Devon in a black suit and light blue tie carrying a laptop case on his right hand entered the room, followed by Justin in a similar outfit.

“Sorry we’re late,” Devon started, opening his carrying case and pulling out his laptop. “We had some last minute docs that needed to be filed this morning.”

“We had them ready to go last night,” Justin said, his expression in a smirk. “But Mr. Perfect here had to make some last minute changes because a word didn’t suit him.”

I sneaked a glance at Devon who by now was looking quizzically at Justin. “Nothing wrong with changing things while you still have the chance to do so.”

“The word was ‘if’, Devon,” Justin replied, a slow smile forming on his face as he continued. “And ‘whenever’ was the word being replaced so not a huge difference there, buddy.”