Page 47 of The Friend Zone
“Real talk, she doesn’t trust me, and it pisses me off. She knows me—has known me for years, but she can’t get the idea of me as Mr. Casanova out of her head. I guess she sees me as always on the prowl, seducing hundreds of women a week or something, which is completely ridiculous.”
Mr. Casanova. He never hated the name more than he did right now.
“Sounds like she has her heart sewn up in an airtight bag to protect it.”
“You’re right.” Omar fell silent. “I’m sure I’ve been falling in love with her—or have been in love with her—for years, and I regret never making a move before. If I could do it all over again, as soon as my engagement with Athena ended, I’d start working on Dana.”
“Regrets don’t do us a bit of good,” his father said. “They make you feel terrible. Action is the only way to improve your circumstances. Maybe you and Dana need to sit down and have a heart to heart.”
“I would if she answered the phone. I left a couple of messages for her, but she hasn’t responded yet.”
“She’ll come around. Right now, she’s hurt, but you two have known each other too long to let a few angry words come between you.”
His father was right. He didn’t intend to give up on Dana but hated not being able to talk to her when he wanted. When they were only friends, sometimes weeks passed without contact because she was spending time with her girlfriends or he was hanging with his guy friends, but anytime he reached out she answered his call. Not now, and the loss of contact was destabilizing. Dana was his rock and had helped him through plenty of tough spots since they became friends. Next week he launched Kitchen Love, and he wanted her by his side.
She was smart, and he could talk to her candidly without judgment. She helped him sort through his ideas, and he learned to lean on her a lot over the years—probably more than he should—treating her like a partner instead of simply a friend.
She helped him pick the location for the foundation, after traipsing all over town with him and a real estate agent to look at properties, and they weighed the pros and cons together. When he told her about his idea to open a restaurant, which would double as a means to fight food insecurity, she stayed up all night with him while they performed preliminary research on the Internet.
Cole came onto the balcony and greeted Omar and Senior. With his back facing the yard, he tucked his hand into his pockets. “What are you two talking about?” he asked.
Omar took a moment to consider his answer to the question. His relationship with Cole was a little better, but not by much. About a month ago, he was in a foul mood for a few days but never told any of them what happened. Then he played golf with Omar and Senior once, but he didn’t do very well, became upset, and left the grounds cursing. They were never able to convince him to return. For those reasons, their relationship remained tenuous at best, so Omar wasn’t in the mood to divulge any information about his personal business to his brother.
“Nothing much,” he answered, and quickly moved on with, “You’ve been off work for a while. When are you going back?”
“Why? You trying to get rid of me?” Cole sounded like he was joking, but Omar sometimes couldn’t tell if he was or not.
“Nah, man, just wondering how you’re able to take so much time off.”
“I have a lot of banked leave. Use it or lose it, so I decided to use it. I’m going out for a bit.” He left them on the balcony.
Senior looked at Omar and shrugged. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He’s been restless since he came here. Something’s definitely wrong, but he hasn’t said a word to me or your mother. He’s going through something, though.”
“I wish he would talk to us,” Omar said.
“You have as much chance of your wish coming true as having an end to poverty. Never gonna happen.” Senior took a drag on his cigar and let the smoke float into the air.
Omar hoped his father was wrong and whatever was eating at his brother was resolved soon.
21
After receiving a stern talking to from her friends, Dana admitted the error of her ways. Wednesday was the last time she spoke to Omar—a full three days ago, and she missed him like crazy. Acting like a jealous shrew was not going to help their relationship, so she was going to surprise him by showing up at his place with his Father’s Day gifts.
Gift-giving to a man who could literally buy anything he wanted was not always the easiest task, but with Omar, the thought truly counted. Since she could never buy him extravagant gifts, it forced her to think of unique or cute ideas he could appreciate, and she was especially excited about her choices this year.
She couldn’t decide between two sets of father-son T-shirts and ended up buying both. One was black with silver lettering and said,The Original, while the child’s T-shirt in the same color said,The Remix. The other T-shirt saidMewhile the smaller kid’s shirt saidMini-Me. Both were too adorable to pass up. The third gift she purchased was a one-year membership to a hot sauce of the month club because of his penchant for spicy food. The first month’s bottles were included in the gift-wrapped box.
She left Omar a voicemail earlier to let him know she was stopping by with his gift a day early because a while back he told her that he, his father, his brother, and Prince were spending Father’s Day together.
When she arrived at the building, she greeted the doorman and used the key card Omar gave her a while back to access the upper floor where he lived. She stepped off the elevator, almost skipping down the hall with the silver and blue wrapped box cradled in her arms.
She could hardly wait to see his expression when he opened the package. She rang the doorbell and waited.
He didn’t come to the door, so she rang it again. Maybe he wasn’t home, and she’d have to leave the package downstairs.
Then the door was opened and her ear to ear smile fumbled when she saw the woman standing in front of her. Dana recognized her right away from a few of Prince’s special occasion photos Omar had shared.
This was Athena, Prince’s mother and the woman Omar used to be engaged to. Full-figured with honey brown skin and long wavy hair—which at the moment was wrapped in a towel—she stood in the doorway, her obviously naked body covered in the same blue and white terry-cloth robe Dana used on the nights she stayed over. Athena looked at home, as if she lived there.
