Page 23 of Fervor

Her eyes widened, and she began jumping up and down and clapping in excitement. I laughed. Had I not been so tired, I would have been jumping up and down with her. “Congratulations, Doctor Mott! I’m so happy for you! This is exciting, especially the mystery of it all. Is it the same company Giselle went through?”

“Thanks. It is,” I said with a smile.

I headed to my office to put my things down. The first patient would be here at eight fifteen, so I had thirty minutes to get myself together. When I got to my office, the phone was already ringing. I straight up ignored that shit. I couldn’t talk to anybody right now. If they left a message, I would call them back.

I heard them talking up front, and I wasn’t sure who they were being all friendly with. We weren’t even open for business yet. “Doctor Mott! You have a delivery!”

I frowned. I never got deliveries.What kind of delivery?I peeled myself from my chair and went up front to see a beautiful floral arrangement. My eyes widened. I didn’t think it could be from the groom to be. He didn’t know who I was. I frowned slightly as I grabbed the arrangement and went back to my office as the nosies looked on.

The minute I set it on my desk, I pulled the card from the stem. When I pulled it from the envelope, my breath got caught in my throat.

Friday was nice, and I wish it could have been more. Thank you for giving me pieces of you, although that shit has me craving the whole masterpiece. Take care, Yunique.

I swiped a tear from my cheek, and I didn’t have a clue as to why that note produced tears. While I wanted to reach out and thank him for the flowers, I felt like this was his way of getting closure from what happened between us Friday night. I closed my eyes and swallowed the lump in my throat. Friday was indeed nice. I could have danced and fucked all night with him. Friday had me once again wondering if I’d made the right decision.

Had I given him a chance the first time we met, maybe we would have had something special, and I wouldn’t have gone to Arranged Hearts until I saw where a relationship with him could lead.Jesus Christ.He had my feelings and emotions going topsy turvy, and I didn’t know what to do about it. I took a picture of the note and flowers and sent it to Keke.

She sent back the wide-eyed emojis, then called. “Hello?”

“Damn, sis. He was really feeling you.”

“Yeah. I hope I didn’t make a mistake by letting him get away. What if he was the man I was supposed to be with?”

“Or what if he was the devil? Don’t do that to yourself, Nique. You did what was best for you.”

“You’re right. I just feel like I hurt him.”

“Don’t feel that way. He knew you had been matched. Vegas told him before all that shit took place Friday night. He didn’t know that match had been rescinded. He knew what he was getting into wasn’t anything permanent.”

“You’re right,” I said, not revealing to her that I’d told him about my match rescinding.

Either way, he still knew that I would be rematched. Simply because my match backed out, didn’t mean everything was over. I had to be rematched, and I thought I made that clear.

“Sidenote… did you get any sleep?”

I rolled my eyes as I flopped in my chair. “Girl, less than four hours. I feel like shit.”

She giggled. “I bet you carry your happy ass to sleep tonight!”

“You damn right. I’ll talk to you later. My first patient will be here in a few minutes.”

“Okay. Quit tripping and focus on the man that’s about to be your forever. You about to be a married woman!”

“Thanks, Keke. I appreciate you.”

I ended the call, glancing at the flowers and the note once more, then left my office to make a day out of it.

Icouldn’t believe that she’d set a date already. I was ready, but damn. I expected her to take a little time, but I supposed she was ready too. That was the whole point of going through Arranged Hearts. I’d just landed in Houston and planned to tell my brother about my pending nuptials. He wasn’t going to believe I’d done this shit. I could barely believe it. I let that chocolate drop get me caught up.

Yunique didn’t respond to my flower delivery, but I didn’t expect her to. It was meant for closure. Had she called, that would have only opened the lines of communication. It just felt like our chemistry was so damn strong. I could only hope I had that shit with my future wife.

After deboarding with my duffel bag, I headed toward baggage claim where the exits were. I walked out the sliding doors to see my brother pulling up right on time. I walked to the truck and threw my duffel bag in the back seat. When I got in, hesmiled and slapped my outstretched hand. We hadn’t seen one another in nearly five months. I’d only made one trip home since I’d been gone, and that was when I was still trying to get settled.

“It’s good to see you, bruh. You looking good.”

“Thanks, Harlan. It’s good to see you too. I see Charmaine got you looking good too.”

He chuckled then rubbed his face with his hand. “You see she got a nigga skin and beard just shining and shit. I told her she just making me look good for the ladies.”

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