Page 23 of After Him, There Was You
In my eyes there wasn’t such a thing as talking it out and making it work, especially when I found out she was careless enough to get pregnant which meant she wasn’t using protection. To me, that was the final line to cross aside from having the next man’s baby.
“No, you can say it to me now,” I stated, shaking off thoughts of the future we would never have.
“You know the guy I’ve been dating?’
“The one with the lazy eye?” I asked seriously, making sure we were on the same page.
“Zeke, why do you have to describe him like that every time I mention him? His name is London. It’s not hard to remember.”
“Does the man not have a lazy eye?” I questioned, folding my arms across my chest, recalling the day he brought her lunch to the store and she made the introduction.
We had been apart for close to three years, and we had a mutual understanding to let each other know when we were getting serious with someone and wanted to introduce the person we were seeing to the girls. In the past three years, London was the second guy she had introduced me to.
Chante had decent enough judgment, and in the fifteen to twenty minutes I talked to him, there weren’t any obvious red flags.
“Yes, one of his eyes is a little lower than the other, but it doesn’t define him. He’s a good man, and the girls like him.”
“Yeah, okay, so what about him?” I asked, checking my watch for the time because the conversation was lasting longer than I expected, and from where I stood, it didn’t seem like it was directly affecting our daughters, so she was on borrowed time.
“He asked me to marry him.”
“What did you say?”
“I said yes,” she announced, holding her hand out to show me her small diamond engagement ring.
“Congratulations.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
“I’m happy for you,” I added in a questioning tone, unaware of the reaction she wanted.
“You really don’t feel a way about me moving on with someone else?”
“Yeah, I care,” I confirmed, causing a smile to appear on her face. “I care about him being around the girls, so naturally I want to have another conversation with him before the two of you officially take this next step. However, as long as he treatsthem good and respects you, I don’t see why I would have a problem with what y’all are trying to do.”
“You’re right, Zeke. Just forget I said anything, and thank you for being happy for me.”
Despite what Chante thought, I wasn’t clueless to what she wanted my reaction to be. Nevertheless, it was a reaction she would never get from me. It wasn’t like she hadn’t made it clear she wanted me back time after time, but with each plea toget her family back, as she said it, I made it clear we were done, and it would never happen.
Standing in front of her, I was almost tempted to ask her if I was missing something merely so she could get it off her chest, and I could remind her she needed to keep the past where it was at, but the ringing of my phone prevented me from doing so.
Typically, I wouldn’t have had my phone on the sales floor with me, but due to the circumstances surrounding my mama, there weren’t too many moments where my phone wasn’t on me.
Seeing Shannon’s name flash across my screen had my feet in movement to the back of the store where my keys were sitting on my office desk.
“Hey, Shannon. What’s going on?”
“Hello, Mr. Simmons. Please come to your mother’s house as soon as you can. She’s been taking shallow breaths for the past few minutes, and her body temperature is dropping significantly.”
I’d had a feeling those were going to be her words, but when they registered, it wasn’t something I could have ever been prepared for.
Hanging up the phone, grabbing my keys, and racing out of the store, I couldn’t process how I was ever going to go forward without my mama, but something in my heart let me know I would soon be finding out.
Chapter 11: Don’t Change - Tara
Across Town
“Mr. Simmons, I just spoke to your brother. He ended the call, but I’m sure he’s on his way,” Marjorie’s nurse stated, bringing the warmth associated with her spirit into the room where I was seated next to Zane.
