Secrets On Lake Drive (22 page)

“Because I’m taking you out to dinner
tonight and they have excellent food.”

Sean was in a much better mood. Just last
night, we were yelling at each other, and now, he seemed very
cheerful. So, I joked around with him, too.

“How are you just going to call and
demand
to take me out to dinner without even asking?”

“Because if I ask you, then I run the
possibility of you saying no, and I don’t want to take that
risk.”

I smiled. He had me there. Guess this time I
was speaking to the charming Mr. Beauvais, the one I had a secret
crush on. When he turned on the charm, I might as well have been a
snake being enticed by a pungi. He had me in the zone.

“Monica, you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Can you meet me? I’ll be outta here around
five-thirty. How ‘bout you meet me there at six?”

“Okay. I’ll meet you there.”

“That’s what’s up then. See you at six,
ah’ight?”

“Okay. Bye.”

Now what have I done? How could I have
just agreed to have dinner with this man?
I should’ve
immediately called him back and cancelled, but he probably would’ve
flipped on me. So, I had to be cool with it now, although this was
probably going to be a continuation from our shouting match last
night. Or maybe it was just an innocent dinner for two. Somehow, I
find the latter to be impossible.

Warren showed up at four o’clock, an hour earlier
than Sean told me to expect him. He let himself in and found me
upstairs in my bedroom trying to find something to wear to dinner,
while Roman was jumping on my bed.

“Hey, Monica.”

“Oh, hey, Warren.”

“Hi, Uncle Warren,” Roman uttered out of
breath, but he kept on jumping.

“Hey, Roman.”

Warren walked over to me. I was taking
outfits out of the closet one-by-one, holding them up to me to see
how they looked.

“So you and Sean going on a date or
what?”

“I wouldn’t call it that. Your brother just
asked me out to dinner.”

“Sounds like a date to me.” Warren grinned
as he watched me hold a blouse against my upper body while looking
in the mirror to see if it would look good on me.

“Roman, why don’t you go play in your room
for a few minutes, hun.”

“Okay, Mom.”

I sent Roman away for a purpose. Now was a
good time for me to find out what Sean really thought of me. If
anyone knew, it was Warren.

“Warren, let me ask you something. Do you
think Sean is feelin’ me?”

“Hmm,” Warren said, like he didn’t want to
disclose any information.

“What do you mean
hmm
?”

I peered into his eyes and watched him smile
from ear to ear. He was lackadaisical, like he knew something but
didn’t want to tell me.

“Why don’t you ask him tonight? Ask Sean if
he’s feelin’ you.”

“I don’t want to ask Sean. That’s why I’m
asking you.”

“I mean, what do you think? Do you think he
likes you?”

“Sometimes yes. Then there are days I think he could
care less about me. He’s very wishy-washy. I can’t read him.”

“Well, if he didn’t like you, I don’t think
he would call and ask you out to dinner.”

“Touché. However, you can fuss somebody out
over dinner, too, you know.”

“And you honestly think he wants to argue
with you over dinner?”

“No, but I’m just saying…”

Warren smiled again and stuck his hands in
his pockets.

“What? Why are you smiling?”

“You really don’t have a clue do you?”

“A clue about what? What are you talking
about?”

“My brother is crazy about you, Monica.”

I played cool and pretended like I didn’t
know Sean was into me. “And how do you know that?”

“Remember how I told you that Sean
suppresses his emotions a lot?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, he can’t hide ‘em from me. I grew up
with him. I know everything about him, even down to the kind of
woman he likes. Now don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not
his type at all. Sean usually falls for the light-skinned,
high-maintenance, gold diggers, but you I don’t get. You are more
of my kind of woman – laid back, relaxed, ambitious, pretty, and
even after all that, you have a sense of humor, which to me is the
icing on the cake. I like that about you.”

“Aww...thank you, Warren.” Now he had me
blushing.

“Anyway, the dude is crazy about you. Now,
I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I think you might got my boy
falling hard for you.”

“Okay, that’s a little farfetched.”

“I’m serious. I heard about the breakfast he
made for you. Sean…ain’t…neeever cooked no woman breakfast. And
when he talks about you, I can see the glow in his eyes.”

“What glow?”

“You know, the glow.” Warren laughed, and
then he asked me, “Have you been in love before?”

“Yeah…once.”

“You remember how that person used to look
at you, especially right before making love?”

Did I ever?
Right before me and
Cornelius made love, he would be so content and focused. I could
see desire and passion in his eyes, and before he even touched me,
I knew it was going to be on and poppin’ that night.

“Yeah, I remember that.”

“So that’s what I’m talking about. The
glow.” Warren grinned again.

“Oh, so you’re saying Sean wants to make
love to me?”

“I’m not saying that. I mean, maybe he does,
but all I know is that he gives you the look.”

I took a yellow blouse off of my bed and
held it up to me. Then I asked Warren, “So y’all be talking about
me?”

“Ay, you have to take that up with your
husband.”

“He told you that, too?”

“I pretty much know everything that goes on
around here.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. He told me that he
mentioned the marriage thing to you, Derrick, and Nikki.”

“Un huh. And when he told me, he didn’t seem
to be upset by it. I actually got the impression that he was going
to enjoy being married to you.”

I was under that same impression. The
marriage mix-up wasn’t a big deal to Sean at all. Like Warren said,
I think he liked the idea of being married to me. Enough about all
that, though. Sean wanted to know everything about me and my life.
Now it was my turn to find out as much as I could about his.

“So what really happened between Sean and
Shanelle?”

“She cheated, he divorced her. Simple as that.”

“There’s more to it than that. Sean told me
that he didn’t love her.”

“He didn’t. I don’t even know why he married
the girl.”

“Where did they get married?”

“At the courthouse. Then a few months later,
they adopted Roman. The strange thing was that I got the vibe from
Shanelle that she didn’t even want kids.”

“Yeah, that is strange. Why would you marry
someone you don’t love and then turn around and adopt a child? It
just doesn’t add up.”

“Yeah, you’re right. One thing I do know is
that while they were married, Sean started looking for Roman’s
birth mother. He became obsessed with finding this woman.”

“And did he ever find her?”

“Not sure. I think he stopped looking last
year. He doesn’t really talk about it anymore, so if he did find
her, he didn’t tell me.”

“I wonder what would make him search for
her.”

“Probably the same thing that would want to
make a mother search for a child that she put up for adoption. Yep,
he told me that, too. Looks like you and my brother have something
in common after all, huh?”

“It looks that way. Well, I have to get
ready. I wish we had more time to talk.”

“Ah’ight. Well, have fun on your date.”

“It’s not a date,” I yelled to him while he
went walking down the hall.

I CURLED MY hair into spirals, and after
trying on five different outfits, I decided to wear a yellow
low-cut, v-neck shirt with some black capris and ankle strap
stilettos. Sure enough, Sean was at El Grecos at six. I pulled in
the parking lot a few minutes after six and he was sitting in his
truck waiting for me. I parked in the space beside him and we
walked in the restaurant together, not hand-in-hand, but close
enough that we could’ve been holding hands. The waitress sat us in
a booth near a window with a good view of Timmerman Airport.

“So, how was your day at work?”

Sean smiled. “You know, I don’t ever think
you asked me that before. Are you trying to be a real wife
now?”

I smiled. “Honestly, I just wanted to know
how your day was.”

“My day was good. Do you want to know what
the highlight of my day was?”

“What’s that?”

“Talking to you on the phone this morning.” I
blushed as Sean stared, not even blinking. “I love the way your
voice sounds.” After he said that, I thought I saw what Warren had
described as
the glow
in Sean’s eyes. He was sincere in his
expressions. “I brought you here because I wanted to come to some
sort of terms with you regarding your plans to move. Remember when
I said Roman wasn’t the only person that needed you?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I was referring to myself in case you
didn’t know. I need a wife and Roman needs a mother. You’re both
right now. Why change that?”

“Because I’m not really your wife, Sean.
That contract was a mistake.”

“The contract is real and you
are
my
wife,” he insisted. “Just because we don’t acknowledge it doesn’t
mean it’s not so.”

Here we go.
Before we could even order food,
things seemed to be going opposite of what I had anticipated. While
I was home getting ready, I imagined we would be sitting at the
table sharing stories about our childhood and just having general
but pleasant conversation. I thought I was going to have a nice,
relaxing dinner, but I was wrong. There was nothing relaxing about
the wifey talk. I understand the concept of a contract, but I knew
one thing for sure…I didn’t walk down the aisle with no one. Sean
had to understand that.

“Look, Monica. I don’t want you to leave me,
ah’ight?”

I know it took a lot out of Sean to admit he
wanted me to stay. He was not the type to put himself out there
like that, but he did.

“Why, because of Roman?”

“Yes…and me.”

“You?”

“Yes…me.”

“Sean, I’m working for you because of Roman.
I thought we agreed to keep ourselves out of this.”

“We did, but…”

I interrupted him. “But what? What
changed?”

“The way I feel about you changed.”

“And what way is that?”

Sean gave me a hard, direct stare. He
cleared his voice, took a sip of water, and interlocked his
fingers, but he didn’t answer my question.

“Hello? Sean, are you still with me?”

Sean took another sip of water and loosened
his necktie.

“Sean?”

“I love you, Monica,” he said quickly.

My heart was racing so fast I thought it would just
beat its way out of my chest and fall on the table. I was shocked.
I couldn’t believe what I just heard, but it confirmed that Keisha
and Warren were right all along. I felt my body tightening up.

“Are you alright?” Sean asked.

“Ah, excuse me for a minute.” I grabbed my
purse and ran to the nearest bathroom to flip open my cell phone
and call Keisha.

“Hey, Monica. What’s crack-a-lackin?”

She was obviously in a playful mood, but I
had some serious business to attend to.

“Keisha, Sean just told me that he loved me
and I don’t know what to do.”

“Girl, where are you at, and why do you
sound like you’re out of breath?”

“I’m at El Grecos, in the bathroom.”

“In the bathroom doing what?”

“Didn’t you just hear me? Sean just told me
that he loved me!”

“So when he told you that, you ran to the
bathroom?”

“Yeah! I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Girl, you better go and talk to that
man.”

“What am I supposed to say? My hands are
shaking.”

“Just talk natural. Don’t let him see that
you’re nervous. And take a deep breath. Relax.”

“Okay, I’ll try.”

“Monica…wait, wait, wait.”

“What is it?”

“Deep breaths…okay? Deep breaths. Let me
hear it.”

I breathed in and out so Keisha could hear
me. I’m glad no one else was in the bathroom. They probably
would’ve thought I was having an asthma attack and called for
help.

“Okay, now relax.”

“Okay, I’ll do my best.”

“Oh, and Monica, one more thing…”

“What’s that?”

“
I don’t see nothing wrong…with a little
bump and grind,
” Keisha taunted me, singing R. Kelly again.
Then she started laughing.

I laughed, too. “Bye, Keisha.”

I crept out of the bathroom to join Sean at
the table. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Are you ah’ight? I was about to come
looking for you.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I took a few sips of
water. “Sean?”

“Yeah?”

“When did you realize that?”

“Realize what? That I was falling in love
with you?”

Sean was so cool and calm about the whole
thing. He didn’t seem nervous at all.

But just to hear him say those words again
made me quiver.

“Ah…yeah.”

“I would say when I spent those nights with
you in the hospital.”

I sat there in disbelief. Although I knew
that any woman would jump at the opportunity to be with Sean
Beauvais, I wasn’t one of those women. I cared about him, but I
didn’t love him.

“The reason I asked you here is because I have
another proposition for you. There are two weeks left in August.
What I propose is that we be husband and wife in real life like we
are on paper.”

“What? Sean, I don’t have time for
games.”

“Who said it was a game? I’m serious. Be my wife for
these last two weeks, and when September first rolls around, if you
still want to leave, I’ll open the door for you.”