Page 34 of Her Exception

“I regret the hurt this has caused the both of you, but I don’t regret our decision to do what was best for our children,” Karen said. “When you have children of your own, you’ll have the same innate urge to do what’s best for them, even if it hurts them or makes them unhappy.”

“No, you don’t get to do that,” he said, pointing a finger in her direction. “You don’t get to absolve yourselves of what you did wrong by saying it was for our good. You can do what’s best for your children and not lie to them or rip their hearts out with secrets in the process. You saw how losing her affected me. You let me cry on your fucking chest. I felt weak as hell in that moment, yet you happily comforted me, and it was all your fault!”

“You know what?” Chuckling, I tugged him backward by his hand. “It doesn’t matter, love. We have the truth now and they are not going to see the error of their ways. They think they did the right thing, no matter how much it hurt us.”

“You’re damn right we did the right thing,” Daddy said. “Look at you, the both of you. Look at what you’ve accomplished. We did the right thing, and if you hate us for it, at least we’ll know that choice led to who you are today.”

“And at least…” Mama paused and looked at Daddy. “At least you have a second chance to love.”

The small smile he gave her wasn’t lost on me, but I was too hurt over their betrayal to care about what they had going on.

“Let’s just get out of here,” I said, turning and heading toward the door.

Karen told Mecca to call her, and all he did was shake his head. I didn’t think either of us would want to talk to our parents any time soon. At least we’d finally gotten the truth and would take it from here. Mecca walked me to my car, and we agreed to take some space tonight to process what had just happened without one person’s feelings affecting the other. We needed to decide how we would handle our parents going forward. I was secure in us and that we’d have the future we always desired and deserved but our parents being included in that future was certainly up for debate.

* * *

I was absolutely smitten with Mecca Smith. He was a man of action and intentionality, and I loved that about him most. When we were with Carina and Parker, I mentioned never learning how to skate since he never got the chance to teach me. This evening, he taught me how to skate. It was a fun yet painful at times lesson, and I loved every minute of it.

After the skating lesson, we went downtown where skaters of all races and ages met up and skated with drinks, food, and live music. It was truly nothing like I’d ever experienced before, and I loved the community aspect of it. I even made a new friend, Angela, who was dating and kid-less like me. I loved my crew, but Carina and I hardly ever spent time with Draya and Stephanie, so it was nice to meet someone new.

When we left there, we grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading back to his place. Symphony was gone for the weekend, so he had an intimate night for the two of us planned. Though I didn’t know all the details when we arrived, my excitement grew as I waited for him in the car.

It had been three days since we confronted our parents, and I hadn’t talked to mine since. Both had called and texted and I told Heaven to let them know I needed time and space. I didn’t care about them trying to force their way back into my life. In fact, that would make me take longer to talk to them. They made the choice to do something that hurt me, and they didn’t get to decide how I responded and how much time I took away from them. Mecca hadn’t been speaking to his parents either, which didn’t surprise me.

Mecca opened the garage door and beckoned for me to come inside. I hurriedly made my way out of the car to see what he had in store for me. We’d discussed our love languages, what aroused us, and what turned us off. His love language was physical touch and mine was quality time. Mecca was a very sensual man. He loved things that looked, smelled, and tasted good—and that included me. I was visual, and him in his military green sweater with tan slacks was an amazing color combo that complemented his peanut butter-colored skin.

At the sight of the rose petal trail, I gasped and covered my mouth. “Love,” I almost sang, looking up at him. He gave me a confident smile. “What is this?”

“Follow the trail and find out.”

And so I did. The petals led to one of his guestrooms. A massage table waited for us with oil on top. More rose petals covered the floor along with candles. A love song that I was unfamiliar with played in the background.

“Mecca, this is beautiful. Thank you.”

“There’s more. This is only the beginning.”

He gave me a sweet kiss before walking me over to the massage table, where he undressed me and gave me the best massage of my life. I dozed off quite a few times before he was done, and I was completely relaxed as I got off the table. I offered to give him a massage as well, but he insisted the night was about me.

“I want to spoil you too,” I told him as he led me out of the room.

“You spoil me with your love and gratitude. That’s all I need tonight.”

I believed him, but I could see in his eyes there was more to it than that. Stopping, I took his free hand into mine. “If something is on your mind, you know you can talk to me about it, right?”

He sighed and gave me a soft smile. “You still know me very well.”

“It’s my job. So what’s wrong?”

“I just… feel a little guilt over not fighting harder for you back then. If I had put my pride aside and tried to find you, we could have still been together.”

“It wasn’t just on you. I could have tried harder too. We were kids, hurting, and unsure what to do with our feelings. Our time apart is on our parents, love, not us.”

As he nodded, I lifted on the tips of my toes and gave him a kiss. It lasted longer than I think either of us meant for it to. When he moaned into my mouth and pulled away, my eyes lowered to his dick. I wanted it.

“I have more in store for you, so cool it with all that.”

“All what?” I asked innocently with a chuckle as we continued down the hall.

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