Page 17 of Unwrapped

“Because you’re thirteen years older than I am, and you’re my mother’s boss. I can’t continue to lie to her.”

“We won’t lie. We’ll tell her and go public.”

“Go public? What exactly does that even mean?” she asks, and for a second, I’m reminded of how young she is, but then I also remind myself that I don’t care.

“I never intended for you to be a secret. We’ll tell the truth. We met at the party, and now we’re dating.”

She doesn’t speak for a while, but I can hear her breathing into the phone.

“Have you ever dated a black woman before?” she asks, her voice small. I pull the phone from my ear, close my eyes, and count to ten.

“Do you really care about that? Or are you just making excuses? In what reality do you live, Miranda? We’re in the twenty-first century. Who gives a shit about that? I don’t. Do you?” I lean back in my chair, totally unprepared for her to throw that roadblock at me this morning.

She takes a deep breath and says with a tremor in her voice, “I’m sorry. I can’t. I’ll never forget you or last night, but one night is all it was. I have to go.”

She ends the call before I have a chance to respond.

CHAPTER 12

MIRANDA

He hasn’t called or texted in the past two days, but he’s all I’ve thought about. Hours after breaking things off, I found my heart in my throat when I checked my text messages. There were three bubbles indicating he was typing a message. I held my breath and waited, but a message never came through.

I spent the entire first night awake, reliving the night before in my mind, wishing I were back in his bed. Kissing him. Tasting him. Feeling him inside of me. Thankfully, work has been busy. Unfortunately, today is my day off, but I’m hoping they call me and ask me to come in.

When I’m working, I can focus on customers and keeping the store organized, but when I’m home all I do is think of how my life has completely upended in a matter of hours.

I lie in the middle of my bed, which is much smaller than his, and stare at the ceiling. It’s almost lunchtime in the middle of the week, and I’m dressed, ready to go to work should I receive the call. I made sure to let my manager know I’d be available, which is why when my phone buzzes on my nightstand, I let out a whoop as I reach for it, only to be disappointed when I see Mom flashing on my screen.

“Hey, Mom,” I say, doing my best to sound upbeat.

“Hey, baby girl. Did they call you in for work?”

“Not yet.”

“Do your mom a favor. I left my lunch at home, and I don’t have time to go out today. Can you bring it for me? I want to show you the pictures from the Christmas party anyway. You look so pretty in them.”

My stomach drops at the thought of going into the office and possibly seeing him, and I curse the fact that I’m not at work this morning.

“Sure,” I mutter. Desperate for any information about Nick, I ask, “No problem, but how come you won’t have time to go out for lunch?”

“I have a meeting with the boss I need to prepare for. He’s doing a bid, so we need to discuss budgets.”

“You two getting along better?” I ask. “He didn’t seem all that bad at the Christmas party.”

She’s silent for a minute. I can imagine her face now. It’s probably pinched as she thinks about her boss.

“Trust me, he was on his best behavior the other night. The man has the manners of a pack of hyenas. Thank God I barely see him, and the few times I did see him today, he was walking around here like someone kicked his puppy.”

My heart constricts at her words, and my head spins at the thought of being responsible for his sadness.

“Oh,” I say, all emotion gone from my voice. “I’ll be there in about twenty minutes with your food.”

^^^^

I inhale and exhale about a million times after parking my car next to my mother’s. In and out. All I need to do is go in, give my mother her lunch, turn around and walk out. That’s what I tell myself as I walk across the parking lot and through the front door.

I tell myself the plan again as I ride up the elevator to the third floor. My heart is in my throat as I cross the threshold and am greeted with a smile from Sherry. Luckily for me, she’s on the phone and can’t engage in conversation.

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