Secrets On Lake Drive (11 page)

I smiled due to the emphasis he placed on
the word ‘one’. “So you don’t believe me?”

“Nah, I don’t believe you. You’re too pretty
to be single.”

“Why do you keep saying that, Sean?”

“Because it’s true.”

“Gosh. I feel like you’re flirting with
me.”

“I am.”

I was beside myself, smiling from ear-to-ear
while Sean gave me compliment after compliment. “Okay, but you’re
very
attractive and you’re not seeing anyone…or let me put
it this way, I haven’t seen you with anyone.”

“We’re not talking about me right now. We’re
talking ‘bout you. So are you saving yourself or what?” Sean asked
with a smile on his face.

“What if I was? What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing,” he smirked.

“Like I said, I’m not focusing on me right
now. I have to get my own life together first before I can become a
part of someone else’s. You feel me?”

“I feel you.” Sean took his feet off of the
table and stretched his arms up in the air. “Well, I’m about to go
lay down. You want to continue this conversation in my room?”

Talk about being put on the spot. I had the
spotlight shining in my face, and Sean was looking at me like he
wanted me to perform.

“Ahh…are you sure? I don’t want to be in
your way. I know you need to unwind.”

Sean stood up, then reached for my hand.
“Come on. We can unwind together.”

There was no way for me to get out of this
one, so I accepted his invitation and we went walking upstairs to
his room. While I made myself comfortable on his bed, he laid flat
on his back right beside me with his head propped up on a
pillow.

“So where were we?”

“We were talking about you, weren’t we?” I
laughed. Sean didn’t want to talk about himself too much. He wanted
to know a lot about me, though.

He smirked and then said, “We can talk about
me if you want to.”

“Wow. I better ask all the questions I can
before you change your mind.”

“Shoot.”

“Okay. Where are you from?”

“Why you ask?”

“Didn’t you just say we can talk about
you?”

“Well, I thought you asked because of the
way I look. That’s usually why people ask me that.”

“Well, it’s not every day you see a black
man with green eyes.”

“You like that, don’t you?” he asked,
laughing at my comment.

Ignoring his question, I said, “And I hear a
little bit of an accent in your voice.”

“Okay, well, let’s see. I was born in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti. We moved to the states when I was twelve. We
lived in Miami for about five years, and then we moved to
Milwaukee.”

“So you’re Haitian?”

“Partially. My father was Haitian. Here’s a picture
of us.” Sean handed me a small photo that he took off of his
nightstand. His father was dark-skinned, just like my father. “Most
Haitian people are of African descent. My mother is French. I got
my green eyes from her.”

He may have gotten those green eyes from her, but
those lips of his – he got those from his daddy. I loved the full,
enticing lips of black men, and Sean had a set of lips that were
begging for a kiss.

“Wow. That’s interesting. I don’t
know anything about Haiti. I’m a teacher and I probably couldn’t
even find Haiti on a map. That’s sad.”

“Nah…that’s cool. You know Wyclef Jean?”

“Yep.”

“He’s from Haiti.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah. I’m a fan of his music. I listen to a
lot of Haitian bands, too. In Haiti, the most popular style of
music is a genre called compas. It’s very vibrant and reminiscent
of jazz with some African drumming. I’ll let you listen to some of
the music in my collection one day.” Sean sat up and looked at me.
“I listen to hip hop and R&B, too. I can get down with Musiq,
Donnell Jones, and Common. But I like compas artists, like T-Vice,
Mizik Mizik, and Volume. You heard of any of them?”

“No, can’t say that I have.”

“Well, like I said, I’ll let you listen to
some of my music.” Sean looked at me again. “Am I talking too
much?”

“No. I’m just amazed. It’s always exciting
to learn about other people’s cultures and heritages, especially
since mine is so boring.”

“It’s not boring. You just haven’t dug deep enough.
Honestly, I didn’t know the Haitian culture would still have a
great influence on my life since I’ve become Americanized. But it
does. When I was having my home decorated, I actually chose a
designer who knew a lot about Haitian art and culture. All of the
pictures on the wall are Haitian art. And being that my mother has
French roots, she instilled some of her culture in us kids, as
well. She made sure we enrolled in French classes in school, and in
college, I took some French classes, too. I can speak the language
somewhat, but I’m still not as fluent as I would like to be.”

“Say something in French.”

“You want me to say something in French right
now?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay…” Sean thought about it for a second, then
said, “Monica, est un beau nom pour une belle femme.”

“What did you say?”

“I said, ‘Monica is a beautiful name for a beautiful
woman.’”

“Aww…that’s sweet. Thank you. My goodness. You’re
just full of surprises, huh?”

“I guess you can say that.”

“How was it growing up in Haiti?”

“It was tough. Living here gave my family
more opportunities to thrive.”

When Sean yawned again, I used that as my
excuse to get out of there. Besides, I was getting sleepy
myself.

“Well, I’m going to let you get some sleep.
This was nice, though. We’ll have to do it again.” I stood up,
preparing to make my exit from his room.

“I’m sure we will.” Sean took me by the hand
as if he didn’t want me to go. “Goodnight, Monica.”

“Goodnight, Sean.” His eyes beamed up to me
and he didn’t let go of my hand. “Are you going to let me go?” I
asked him.

“What if I answer no to that?” he said, but
released me anyway. “Wait…before you go, come here for a
minute.”

He looked as if he wanted to kiss me. I was
really hoping he wasn’t about to try and put the moves on me, but
when he licked his lips, I knew what he wanted. I leaned over
towards him. He moved his mouth right beside my cheek, and his lips
touched my face as he gave me the innocent goodnight peck.

“Goodnight,” he said again.

“Goodnight, Sean.”

After my conversation with Sean, I went to
my room, took out the notebook that Keisha gave me, and just
started writing:

 
I did good today. Cornelius didn’t
cross my mind much; well, that is until Sean started asking me
questions about him. Now, sitting here in bed, he is all I can
think about. Maybe because I’d just been talking to Sean; hearing
Sean’s voice made me think about him…maybe. I don’t know what it
is. But I swear it feels like Cornelius’ lips are brushing up
against the back of my neck. Sometimes, I even think I hear him
faintly calling my name. I don’t know why I can’t stop thinking
about him. I don’t even know why I’m writing this, but Keisha seems
to think it’s a good idea. I hope so. I can’t live like this. I
can’t go on with these deep feelings I have for Cornelius. I mean,
how can I ever find love again if I’m living in the past, loving a
man who has apparently disappeared off the face of the earth? I
can’t do it.

- - -

Putting those words on paper actually felt
therapeutic. It made me feel like I was doing something about my
problem instead of just letting it consume me. I went to bed right
after I finished writing. For the first time in a long time, I
actually felt relaxed before going to sleep, only I didn’t know if
it was a direct result of writing about Cornelius or thinking about
my wonderful night with Sean.

Chapter 13 -
The Family

Over the next couple of weeks, my
relationship with Sean grew into a close friendship sort of
unexpectedly. Before, I could never see myself being this close to
him, but like Warren said, I wouldn’t like Sean unless I really got
to know him. And, boy, did I get to know him. I had already met his
mother and he just introduced me to his sister, Nikki. I noticed,
too, that Sean began coming home from work earlier to spend time
with Roman, or so he said, but I knew he was trying to get at me,
too. And the amount of time we spent together didn’t go unnoticed.
His family recognized our friendship. They were excited that Sean
was happy again, and that’s one of the reasons why Victoria asked
me out to lunch. Talk about butterflies. She wanted to take me to
Culvers, but I wasn’t ready to leave just yet.

I was busy playing Madden with Sean and
Roman, holding it down with the Green Bay Packers. Sean had chosen
the rival Chicago Bears to make the game a little more interesting
and to piss me off at the same time. I was up by three points with
less than a minute remaining in the fourth, and the Bears had to
punt from my ten-yard line. Of course, it was good, tying the game.
I wanted to go into overtime and go for the win, but pulled me away
from the game. She was ready to go. Nikki rode with her mother and
I followed them to the restaurant in my car.

VICTORIA WASTED NO time getting to the point
as soon as I sat my butt down in the chair at the restaurant.

“So, Monica, you and Sean seem to be
spending a lot of time together.”

“Well, yeah…sort of. We’re in the same
house.”

Some defense that was.
We were in the
same house when Sean and I had those prior altercations and
disagreements and decided to stay away from each other. Now, when
you saw me, you knew Sean was somewhere close.

“Are you still planning on leaving in
September?”

What…the?
I never told her I was
going to be leaving. She sure knew a lot about me for this to have
been our first real conversation. Wonder who’s been giving her the
skinny on my life.

“Ah, I don’t know for sure yet.”

“Well, I don’t want you to leave. You
brought so much happiness into my baby’s life,” Victoria responded
warm-heartedly. “Honestly, I don’t think he wants you to leave,
although he will probably never tell you that. Sean hasn’t always
been good with expressing his feelings. He got that from his
father.”

“Yeah,” Nikki added, “he’s never been the
type to show how he really feels, but I know that he likes
you.”

Nikki reminded me of Jada Pinkett-Smith,
very pretty and thin. She had green eyes, too, and her hair was a
rusty brown color, cut in a bob.

“How do you know that?” I asked her. “Just
because we do things together doesn’t mean we’re going to be
together like a couple.”

“Sean told me that he liked you. No, wait a
minute…his exact words were, ‘I love that girl’,” Nikki answered.
“Maybe he said it in a joking way, though. I’m not sure.”

I smiled, thinking there’s no way Sean
Beauvais said to anyone that he loved me. No way.

“Do you like him?” Victoria asked boldly.
Now I see where Sean got his assertiveness. Victoria wasn’t shy
about speaking her mind. And though she was in her late fifties,
her appearance looked like that of a high-class, sophisticated
businesswoman in her late forties.

“Yeah, as a friend, but I’m not trying to be
in a relationship with him…nothing like that. I just want to be
there for him. I know he needs me and so does Roman.”

“You know, Monica, ever since Sean’s father
passed, he’s been different. He didn’t used to be so distant. He
was just like Warren and Darren.”

“Distant? Sean isn’t distant.”

“Not anymore he’s not. I haven’t seen him as
happy as he is now in a long time. I don’t think he was even this
happy when Shanelle was around.”

“He wasn’t,” Nikki said, as she took a big
bite out of a butter burger. “I told him that Shanelle was a
money-hungry gold digger.” We all laughed. “And Mama is right. Sean
has changed in the seven weeks you’ve been here.”

“Well, I’m glad that’s a good thing.”

“Me, too?” Victoria said. “I still remember
the day his father died. We were all at the hospital. Sean sat
there and held his father’s hand right up until his last breath.”
Victoria was sad as she sat before me and talked about her husband.
She didn’t cry, though. She had enough courage to keep talking. “My
baby ain’t been right since. He misses his father. We all do.”
Victoria took a deep breath and stopped the tear that was about to
fall from her eye. “But you know what? We going to make it through.
The one thing that keeps me going is knowing that my husband knew
how much I loved him and how much the children loved him.”

“You’re absolutely right.” I pat her on the
back. “It’s gon’ be alright.”

“I know it will. He was such a good man. He
was an artist, you know. You see all those pictures in Sean’s
living room? His father painted those.”

“Really? That’s some amazing work.”

“Yeah. He was an amazing man.” Victoria
dabbed her eyes with a napkin.

“Oh my goodness. Y’all gonna make me cry up
in here,” Nikki said, while fanning her eyes with her hand.

“I’m already crying,” Victoria
responded.

It was painful to see the hurt in the eyes
of a woman that lost her best friend, her husband, her life
partner. Victoria was still elegant and spunky. She could’ve had
another man by now, but she didn’t want another man. She wanted the
man that fathered her children – the man who lived up to his vow to
love her until death. It was a sad reality.

“Anyway, I better be getting out of here.”
Victoria stood up. Nikki joined her.

“This was really nice, ladies. I really
appreciate you guys inviting me out like this. I hope we get to do
this again soon.”

Victoria walked over and hugged me. “We
will. Okay? I’ll call you later and maybe we can do something.”