Page 36 of Blood Ties
He rolls his eyes. "I can tell you the answer now to keep you from wasting your time."
"Better to wait until tomorrow.”
"I won't change my mind."
"I don't know, sometimes a good night's sleep helps."
He walks over to the door and pulls it open. "Unfortunately for you, I haven't slept well in years. Goodbye, Miguel."
I walk toward the door, pulling him by his collar, hovering my mouth over his. "I prefer to see you later."
I breathe him in one last time before walking out of the room, whistling the song we had played the first time we made love. He had tried to end things many times between us in the past and even though I knew it was a good idea, I refused to let him go. He's always been that addiction I couldn't quit, the sweetest drug I refused to share with anyone else. The memories flood back in my mind of the first time he'd tried to walk away from me.
He had come to me the night of mine and Julia's ninth anniversary party, dragging me out to an alleyway behind one of my clubs.
"Hold me," he said with red rimmed eyes.
My eyes widened at his command. He did it with such certainty. His face was so soft and genuine. It was the first time I ever saw him so needy and vulnerable, so I knew it was something he really required from me. Enough to push back his anger and resistance he had the previous night when he said he couldn't see me anymore. I brushed my thumb along his cheek bone. "For as long as you want."
He buried his face into my chest, sobbing gently. A dangerous man like him letting his guard down that way was something special only meant to be shared between the two of us. Only for him could I ever be soft and accommodating. It was those moments when I felt human. Where I could look in the mirror and see someone other than the monster I normally woke up to. He wasn't done making requests. I could tell with the way he clung onto my jacket.
"If you still love me the way you say you do, then I need you to do something for me. More than this."
"Anything." I inhaled the scent of his hair. His sharp cologne mingled with sweat.
"I want to pretend things are the way we always dreamed they would be. Not tainted and broken. You are mine and I am yours. You aren't you and I'm not me. We are merely two people in love without all the complicated bull shit."
I held him tighter, stroking his hair, focusing on his unreachable fantasy, and grasping on tightly to the idea that everything is perfect to keep my heart from breaking. "Okay. You are a baker, and I am a college professor. We met upon chance, running into each other while I was picking up a cake for a coworker. I crashed into you, rushing through the front entrance of a shop and you nearly dropped a tray of lemon bars."
He chuckled against me. "A baker and a college professor, huh?"
"It's the best I got. Take it or leave it."
He swallowed hard. "What happens next?"
"I ask you out after you're done screaming at me for not watching where I'm going. You say no at first, but eventually I talk you into one cup of coffee and offer to buy all your desserts in the display case."
He looked up at me with brighter eyes. "And then?"
"We exchanged numbers first and you gave me the wrong one. So, I came back to your job with two cups of coffee in my hand and a bouquet of white roses. I made you laugh and convinced you to come try the best enchiladas I've ever had. Once you agreed, I knew I had you. Then we kissed. I savored the lemon on your lips and knew you'd always be mine."
He pressed his lips gently against mine, rubbing our noses together. "And then we lived happily ever after?"
"Yes. As happy as two normal people can."
He inhaled and exhaled sharply, closing his eyes and pressed his head to my chest. "Good."
I smile at the memory, getting in the back of the car Marcus has waiting for me outside ready to take me anywhere I want to go. "Take me to the nearest floral shop and then to a bakery that sells lemon bars."
The guy stares back at me in the mirror. "I was told to take you to one place and that was it."
"Fine, to the floral shop it is, and I'll grab a ride from there."
"Are you sure?"
"More than positive."
I jump out the moment the car stops in front of a place called Mimi's Floral Shop. I slam the door shut and glance around me, feeling like I can breathe easier without my usual men in tow. No guards anywhere. I'm alone for once and it's almost freeing. In this moment I am like everyone else, a college professor picking up white roses for his precious baker.
