Page 46 of The Friend Zone
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The sun was going down as Omar stepped onto the balcony where his father relaxed and smoked a cigar because Dorothy didn’t let him smoke in the house.
“Hey, Pop.”
“Hey, son.” Senior let a puff of smoke drift past his lips.
Omar sat across from his father, the argument with Dana a constant in his mind.
We’re not compatible.
The words haunted him. He had taken rough falls on the football field, but nothing hit as hard as those words. Gut-punching him would have been kinder.
After Dana left his place yesterday, he texted Tracy and gently but firmly told her she could no longer send nudes or suggestive photos. He should probably send a text blast to all the women in his phone because Tracy was not the first time—nor did he expect her to be the last time—he received explicit texts.
Father and son sat in companionable silence for a while before Omar spoke.
“Do you have any regrets?” he asked.
“Regrets about what?” Senior asked.
“Regrets about actions you should have taken a long time ago but never had the courage to take.”
His father chuckled. “Everybody has regrets like those. You thinking about something in particular? A relationship maybe?”
“Something like that.”
“You pining for Athena?” his father asked gently.
Omar frowned. “Hell, no.”
For some reason people thought he still harbored feelings for his ex. Maybe because they co-parented a child, they expected old feelings to remain. But his love for Athena died along with the end of their relationship, and if he were being truly honest, meeting Dana and developing feelings for her didn’t help.
“I don’t regret walking away from her, and I don’t think of her as more than the mother of my son,” Omar continued.
“Then what are you talking about?”
“I’m thinking about a specific person. Dana.”
Being with her was surreal. Waking up together and sharing gentle, affectionate kisses with the scent of her perfume all over him was the highlight of his mornings.
“Oh,” Senior said, the word loaded with commentary.
“I haven’t said anything because she and I are keeping our relationship low-key for now, but we’re seeing each other.”
“I don’t often hear you use the word relationship. Must be serious.”
“It is—for me, anyway. For years, my thoughts about her have been more than friendly, and I finally acted on those thoughts.”
“You slept with her?” His father quirked an eyebrow. Of course he would be blunt.
“Yes.”
“You right, that’s definitely more than friendly,” Senior said with a hearty chuckle. “I’ve never met Dana, but your mother met her a couple of times when she stopped by the foundation and speaks very highly of her. We should have her over to the house one day.”
“Maybe in a few days, after she calms down.”
Omar explained about her reading the dirty texts and how they caused her to pull back. He reached out to her earlier today, but she never responded to his message.
