Page 20 of Where We Found Our Home
“You already chose.” She slips her engagement ring off and leaves it on the dresser. I don’t remember moving, but next thing I know I am behind her at the front door.
“Goodbye, Linc,” she says barely above a whisper, so quiet I think I imagined it. She spares me one last glance and then she’s gone.
I stumble back to the bedroom, but when I get there a woman is standing by the window with her back to me. Her box braids fall to the middle of her back. Her body is like a siren song. She turns to face me, and I’m stunned. Ciara.
“What’s going on? How are you here?” I ask her.
She gives me a sad smile and then grabs a suitcase that I swear wasn’t there before. She walks up to me and gently places her hand on my cheek. “She’s right, you know.”
“Who? What?”
“We’ll never work. I’m not your second chance at love.”
I shudder under her touch. What the fuck is happening right now?
I try to stammer out a sentence, but all that comes out is incoherent nonsense. She clicks her tongue and carries on like I never spoke. “I’ve got secrets, Lincoln. You’ve got skeletons. Do you really think we can fight them together?” She moves her hand from my cheek, and it feels cold without her. She grabs the suitcase and starts walking toward the door. I snap out of my haze and chase after her. I’m reaching for her, but no matter how close we are she’s always just out of reach.
“Ciara, wait!” I yell right as she gets to the door. She stops with a sigh and turns to face me. Those chocolate eyes and their gray ring mesmerize me once again.
“Make a choice, Lincoln.”
“A choice between what?”
“Your past and your future.” And with that, a second woman walks out on me.
My eyes slowly flutter open, and I look at the clock on my phone. Four a.m. Shit. What the fuck was that? I’ve been forced to relive the moment Erica left me in my dreams countless times, but Ciara being there threw me for a loop.
Make a choice between my past and my future? I don’t even know what to say to that. Was she trying to say that she’s my future if I let her be? No. I need to get it together. There’s no future for me and Ciara or anyone else for that matter.
But as I drift off again with Ciara’s lips on my mind, I wonder who exactly I’m trying to fool.
Lincoln
No, no. Don’t even think about it. You don’t need to go to Sasha’s. There’s absolutely no damn reason to go there.
In the past two weeks, I’ve been to Sasha’s at least once after every shift. The gorgeous, sassy, incredibly witty woman who has been haunting my dreams has been in the shop every day, and I’m drawn to her like a moth to a flame. Our interactions have mostly consisted of her waving in my general direction. No banter back and forth like we had that first night.
To top it off, Sasha and Dom opened their big-ass mouths to the rest of my dickhead friends about the incident with Ciara, so they’ve been giving me shit nonstop. I open my group chat with the guys to find them still at it.
Isaiah: Hey hero boy, seen your lady love lately?
Kai: He’s probably drooling over her through Sasha’s window right now
Me: Fuck off
Shane: *inserts gif of Homer Simpson drooling and wiggling his fingers*
Dom: That’s exactly how he looked at her when he was carrying her to the ambulance
Me: There was no drool, asshole
Dom: Little bit of drool
Isaiah: Stop being a creep and shoot your shot
Kai: *inserts gif of Blake Griffin shooting a hey into someone’s DMs*
Me: Damn don’t y’all have better stuff to do?
