Man Enough For Me (36 page)

“Really,” Germaine said, dodging her eyes.

“Yes, really,” Jules said, shifting her head so her gaze met his. “It reminds me of this little place I once went to in the West End. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. It’s a spot called Leroy’s?”

“This place looks like Leroy’s?” Germaine asked, pretending to look confused. “Whatever do you mean?”

Now it was Jules’s time to give him a look.

“Okay, okay, you got me,” he conceded with a grin. “But I couldn’t help it. You know how much I love that place, Jules.”

“Yeah, I do,” Jules said, smiling. His eyes were doing that sparkly thing they did when he was excited, and she found herself getting excited too.

She didn’t even realize they were staring at each other until the person sitting on a stool nearby bumped into Germaine as she got up. As Germaine turned aside to wave away the woman’s apology, Jules took the opportunity to catch a breath and refocus.

“So it looks like you’ve been doing really well for yourself,” Jules said a couple moments later. Germaine had taken the seat the woman had vacated, and they were both looking out at the stage and the crowded Lounge.

“I’ve been blessed,” Germaine said humbly. “God just brought everything together for me. I never could have done this on my own.”

She was wrong. Germaine’s success hadn’t changed him. He was still the same humble guy he always was. He still trusted God for everything.

“Yeah, well, you deserve it,” Jules said simply, as she glanced over at him. “I know you really worked hard.”

“Thanks,” Germaine said, meeting her eyes. “That means a lot coming from you.”

Jules felt herself falling again. She didn’t know if it was the lights from the chandeliers or the golden yellow of his crisp button-down shirt, but she was sure she could see those little golden flecks dancing in his deep hazel eyes. And she was almost sure they were hypnotizing her. Maybe that’s why she was finding it so hard to look away.

She took a deep breath. It was now or never.

“Germaine, there’s something I wanted to say to you—”

“Yo, G, we got a problem with the sound,” a skinny guy in a shiny red shirt and a fedora said to Germaine, cutting Jules off mid-sentence. Jules recognized him as one of the guys from the band.

“What’s up?” Germaine asked. His body was still facing Jules, but his eyes were on the guy, and his voice was all business.

Jules listened as the guy explained that one of the monitor boxes had burnt out, and they couldn’t continue playing unless they had a replacement. She glanced on stage and noticed that the band had indeed taken a break.

“I think I have a backup somewhere in the storage area. Give me a second, okay?”

He turned to Jules apologetically. “Jules …”

“It’s okay. Go,” she said, waving him away.

“Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed with a small smile, taking another sip from her drink.

She made a face when she realized that it was practically lukewarm.

“Owen, can I get some ice?”

When Germaine finally returned a few minutes later, Jules was busy laughing with Owen. He had been telling her about a couple who had come in the week before and kept sneaking off to different parts of the Lounge to get busy. In one incident, security had caught them half-naked in the storage room near the back. After that they had been kicked out. But the way Owen told the story was what made it so hilarious.

“Glad to see you found someone to entertain you,” Germaine said, as he came up on Jules and Owen laughing. Even though Germaine’s tone was playful, Jules could have sworn she detected a slight hint of jealousy.

“Well, someone had to, after you abandoned me,” Jules said.

“Jules, I’m—”

“It’s okay, Germaine, I was just teasing,” she said, smiling. “I know you’re working.”

He said nothing, but looked at her curiously. Jules shifted uncomfortably as she watched his eyes scrutinize her. It was almost as if he was trying to read her mind, and it was unnerving.

“So there was something you wanted to tell me?” he asked, after what seemed like forever.

“Umm … yeah,” she said, gripping the edges of the bar stool. She took a deep breath. “I just wanted to tell you that—”

“Germaine, we got an issue with some guys near the front.”

This time it was Milton, the head of security for the Lounge.

“We asked them to leave, but they say they’re not budging till they see someone in charge.”

Germaine sighed heavily and looked at Jules.

“I’ll be right here,” she said, grinning.

He shot her an apologetic look, before following Milton into the crowd, toward the stage.

Jules sighed. It was going to be a long night.

*  *  *

By the time Germaine got back it was 12:05 a.m. Jules could feel the tiredness in her body and knew she couldn’t last much longer, especially since it was a Thursday night, and she had work early the next morning. She was trying not to get fired before she quit.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, taking her hands in his. He looked like a little boy who was about to get a scolding. Jules resisted the urge to reach out and pat him on the head to make him feel better.

“It’s not your fault, Germaine,” she said, smiling. “I understand. Really I do.”

He smiled, looking a little relieved.

“Okay,” he said. “But I promise no more distractions.”

“That’s too bad,” Jules said with a half smile.

“Why?”

“Because this would be the first time you break a promise to me.”

Germaine closed his eyes in defeat. “What now?”

“Jules, I’m so sorry,” Owen said, interrupting. She waved him off. She had seen him come up behind Germaine and knew that there was an issue at the bar.

“Germaine, we’re out of club soda.”

Germaine’s forehead crinkled in disbelief. “That’s impossible, Owen. I put a whole case back there earlier this evening, and we never finish that in one night.”

“Look around, boss; this place is packed. We’re running out of everything tonight.”

“Can’t you just get another case from the back?”

Jules tried not to laugh as she heard the slight frustration in Germaine’s voice.

“And leave all these people waiting here?” Owen said, nodding toward the growing number of men and women packed around the bar. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

Germaine groaned and turned his eyes reluctantly toward Jules, who had already slipped off the bar stool and grabbed her tiny silver clutch.

“Jules …”

“It’s okay, Germaine,” she said with a resigned smile. His eyes pleaded with her to stay, but instinctively Jules knew the rest of the night would be just like this. Besides, it was late, and she needed to get home.

Impulsively, she slipped her arms around Germaine’s neck and gave him a quick embrace.

“I’m really proud of you,” she said sincerely, as she hugged him. She took one last look at him before she let him go.

“Take care of yourself, Germaine.”

And with that she was pushing her way through the crowd toward the exit. Some things, it seemed, were just not meant to be.

A
fter what seemed like forever, Jules finally managed to push her way out of the Sound Lounge and step into the cool, morning air. It was amazing that even at this time of the morning, the streets of Toronto were still buzzing as if it was the middle of the day.

The music from the Sound Lounge mixed with the sound of the traffic, and the buzz from a bar across the street created a comfortable hum of street sound. Ahead in the distance, she saw a group of teenagers chatting and laughing as they walked down the street, uninhibited by the cool December wind. From somewhere nearby the sweet smell of Greek pastry wafted into her nostrils.

She loved this city. And if she had to spend the rest of her life alone, there was nowhere else she would rather be.

She tried to ignore the feelings of sorrow that were tugging at her heart. She wasn’t quite sure what she had expected when she came here tonight, but she knew what her heart had hoped for. And it wasn’t this.

“Geez, God, if You’re not going to let me be with him, the least you could do is take these feelings away,” she said out loud.

Feeling frustrated, and noticing people looking at her strangely, Jules walked a bit faster toward the side street where
she had parked her car, all the time digging in her purse for her keys.

Suddenly she noticed heavy footsteps moving faster behind her. Could it be …?

“Jules, you forgot your keys on the bar.”

No, it was only Milton.

“Owen saw them, and asked me if I could run them out here to you.”

“Thanks, Milton,” Jules said, forcing a smile as her heart crashed into her stomach.

“No problem, girl,” he said, dropping the heavy, metal bunch into her palm. “You just be careful next time, okay?”

She nodded and smiled at the Latino man’s slight accent and overprotectiveness.

“I will.”

She watched him walk back to the Lounge, before briskly covering the rest of the distance to her car.

“Stupid girl,” she chided herself silently. “Who did you think it was, Germaine? Get real.”

She violently flipped the bunch of keys in her hand, in an effort to channel her frustration somewhere else.

She was so preoccupied with finding the right key on the bunch that she didn’t notice Germaine sitting on the car hood. She stopped suddenly and dropped her keys on the ground when she did.

He was looking at her curiously, the way he had been all evening. And just like before, it was completely unnerving her.

After what seemed like forever, he slid off the hood and retrieved her keys from the ground. But instead of giving them to her, he slipped them and his hands into his pockets.

She cocked her head to the side and squinted at him.

“How did you …”

“There’s a backdoor to this alley,” he said, nodding to an inconspicuous metal door in the side of the building near where Jules was parked. A few yards further into the alley was Germaine’s car. Somehow she hadn’t noticed it when she first arrived.

“There was something you wanted to say to me,” he said patiently, still watching her.

Jules opened and closed her mouth several times before she was able to say anything.

Why was she acting like this? It wasn’t as if she had never been this close to him before, and it wasn’t like they hadn’t had a million conversations before this one. So why couldn’t she find the words to say what she had to say?

“I … it doesn’t matter,” she said pulling her gaze away from his and looking down. “Forget it.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

Jules nodded, not meeting his eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“That’s fine, ‘cause there’s something I wanted to say to you anyway,” he said quietly.

Jules looked up. “What?”

Germaine took a deep breath as his eyes flitted around the quiet side street.

“This friendship thing, it’s not really working for us,” he said.

“What?” Jules asked in a slight panic.

“I … I don’t think I can be friends with you, Jules.”

Jules couldn’t breathe. She felt like she wanted to cry. The very thing she was holding on to, she was about to lose. This was too much.

“Why?” she squeaked.

“Because …” He sighed heavily and looked more uncertain than Jules had seen him in a long time. “Because I’m in love with you.”

Jules froze. Did she hear what she thought she heard?

“But you said …”

“I know what I said,” Germaine replied, cutting her off as he bounced her keys around in his pocket. “But I was angry and afraid that you might get hurt because of me. Plus, you never, ever do what I expect you to.”

“But you always knew I would be like that,” Jules said.

“I know,” he said. “But I didn’t expect it to frustrate me that much.”

Jules fingered the latch on her purse distractedly.

“So what changed?” she asked quietly.

Germaine smiled and took her hands in his.

“I saw how kind you were to my family even after we broke up. I saw how you never gave up on the God thing with Easy, and how you’ve been going out of your way to make things easier for Maxine. I guess I saw the real you, the Jules that God was trying to show me all along.”

Jules’s heart began to beat faster.

“And I realized that my life was way too boring without you in it.

“That’s why I can’t be your friend, Jules,” he said, pulling her closer. “Because I want more than that. I want you. All of you.”

Jules saw the sincerity in his eyes and knew that everything he said was true. He loved her. Just like she loved him. It seemed so unreal.

He took another deep breath.

“Look, I know I took a long time to tell you all this but …”

“Germaine?”

“Huh?”

“Shut up,” Jules said, smiling.

Then she reached up, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him just like she almost had that day in the hospital. It was like they had never been apart.

“I love you too,” she said, pulling back only slightly to look into his eyes. “That’s what I came here to tell you.”

“Then what took you so long, woman?” Germaine asked, his eyes dancing in that familiar way Jules loved.

Jules smirked. “Your bartender, and your security guard, and the guy from the—”

Before she could finish, his lips were on hers again, and his arms were holding her close. It was a good thing too, because she was so happy, she felt like she would float away. Nothing could ruin this moment.

Suddenly she pulled away.

“Wait,” she said, holding up her hand in protest. “What about LeTa—”

“Nothing happened,” Germaine said quickly.

“Did you—”

“Not even on the cheek.”

“So why did you even—”

“It was all Truuth’s idea,” Germaine said, grinning.

Jules’s eyebrows drew together. “I’m gonna kill that boy …”

“Don’t,” Germaine said, chuckling. “He felt bad that I was so miserable.”

Jules cocked her head to the side and smiled.

“So you were miserable without me, huh.”

Germaine raised an eyebrow knowingly. “Just as miserable as you were without me.”