“He said all that, boo?”
Lamesha grinned at Sharita and nodded her head. “He sure did. And he’s taking me out to dinner tonight. He said it’s somewhere special.”
Sharita had never had anybody say anything half as sweet to her. She couldn’t stop the feeling of jealousy from welling up inside of her. She knew that her and Lamesha were friends, so a part herself felt bad that she was feeling the way that she was. But that’s how I feel, she thought to herself. What makes Lamesha so special to have a man who so sweet? He fine as hell and he a doctor, too. A dentist really...but same thing. He got the word doctor in front of his damn name.
“Hey, what’s wrong, Sharita?”
Sharita hid the sour look on her face with a quickness. She gave Lamesha a pleasant enough smile. “Uh, nothing, boo. You lucky to have a man like Donovan.”
Lamesha smiled while sitting at her desk at work typing. “Girl, I prefer to call it blessed.”
Yeah...whatever, Sharita thought to herself as she frowned.
<<<<<>>>>>
Later on that Evening:
Lamesha looked around the upscale restaurant that Donovan had brought her to and smiled. “This is a very nice place, babe. You must be a regular here. The waitstaff people at the door seemed like they knew you.”
He nodded his head. “Yeah, something like that.”
“I don’t even want to try to figure out what to order. Can you do the ordering for us?”
“The coq au vin is pretty good. I have the chef’s word on that.”
Lamesha looked up at the person who’d just spoken to her. The man looked so much like Donovan that it was ridiculous.
Donovan grinned. “Lamesha, sweetheart...I’d like you to meet my brother, Jesse. This is his restaurant. He’s the head chef here and he owns the place.”
Lamesha grinned as Jesse Walker raised the back of her hand to his lips and planted a soft kiss on her flesh. He really did look a lot like Donovan, only an inch or so shorter. But he was still pretty tall considering that Donovan was six-one.
“Hey, bruh. Lay off my date,” Donovan joked.
Lamesha smiled at the good-natured banter between the two brothers. She could tell that they were really close and that they cared about each other. If she’d had a sister or brother, she would’ve wanted their relationship to be just like Jesse and Donovan’s.
Jesse gave Lamesha a quick once over. Then he turned his lips up in another grin. “I can see why you’ve been preoccupied lately, bruh.”
Lamesha knew that black girls didn’t blush, but she felt a heat in her cheeks that would’ve been called a blush if she hadn’t been black. Then a twenty-something came out of the kitchen and play-punched Jesse in the arm. The girl grinned at Lamesha. “Honey, pay this boy no attention. You hear me? He’s a mess.” The girl stuck out her hand. “I'm Panthea by the way. Jesse and I own this place together.”
Lamesha could tell right away that she liked Panthea. “Hi, Panthea. I'm Lamesha. Nice to meet you.”
Panthea smiled again. “It's about time that Donovan showed up here with a date. All he ever does is work, work, and more work. We were all starting to worry about him.”
Donovan held his hands in the air defensively. “Hey, you can't blame a brotha for liking his job, now can you?” Then his eyes met Lamesha’s. “Plus, I haven’t had a reason not to work so much...not until recently.”
“Wow, Lamesha. You’re one lucky sista. I wish I had a man looking at me the way Donovan’s looking at you.” Then Panthea turned and looked at Jesse. “Hint, hint, boo.”
Jesse chuckled. “You my girl, Panthea. You know I be looking at you like that all the time.”
Panthea playfully rolled her eyes at her long-term boyfriend. “Yeah right.” Then she turned back to Lamesha. “It really was nice finally meeting you, but now I have to get back to the kitchen...somebody's gotta get some work done around here.”
After Jesse had taken their order and left them alone at their little, intimate dining table, Donovan turned to Lamesha and said, “I hope you don’t mind us coming here. I wanted you to meet my family. You already met Mya at my office. Jesse is my brother.”
Lamesha understood that Donovan wanting her to meet his family was a milestone of sorts in their relationship. She smiled. “I don’t mind at all. It was nice meeting your family, babe. You don’t talk about your parents often...”
He frowned. It was a long story on why he didn’t talk about his parents often. One that he didn’t like bringing up. “Yeah. My father’s passed on, and my mother’s—,” his frown deepened. “My mother’s locked up for killing him.”
Lamesha reached across the table and covered Donovan's hand with her own. She could see there was a lot of pain behind what he'd just told her. "I'm so sorry, babe."
"Yeah. Me too."
Since they were getting close enough that she was now in tune with his emotions a good deal of the time, she knew he didn't really want to talk about the situation. So she decided to try to move the conversation on to happier topics.
"I think you're gonna enjoy my church when you come to services Sunday. My pastor is phenomenal and the spirit of the Lord be all up in the place — and I'm talking every single Sunday."
He finally smiled. "If you say so, I'll believe it."
They enjoyed eating dinner together that evening. When they were done, Donovan left a twenty dollar tip on the table for their waiter. Then he came around the table to help Lamesha out of her chair.
She stood. Even in her four-inch heels, the top of her head only reached the top of his shoulder.
As they passed the maitre d at the front, Donovan smiled at the man. “Tell my brother that I’ll call him later, Andre.”
The man nodded his head in agreement.
They stepped out onto the Atlanta sidewalk hand in hand. It was still hot, even though it was close to nine at night. Heat came with the territory in Atlanta during that time of the year—the summertime.
“Well, the night’s still young. What's next, Dr. Walker?” Lamesha smiled up at him.
He smiled right back. Being with Lamesha did good things to his heart. “Walk with me for a bit. There’s a nice park around the corner.”
Since they were in a decently safe part of town, she figured that was an excellent idea. They took a seat on a park bench and both of them stayed quiet for several minutes. They didn’t need any words at that particular moment. They were just enjoying being in each other’s presence.
“I know I probably don’t look it, but I’ve had a rough life, Lamesha. It was hard growing up in a blue collar family where my father was a violent alcoholic. A man who would get out of his mind drunk and punch around his wife and kids in a heartbeat.”
He wasn’t looking at her, he was just staring out into the darkness. Without saying a word, Lamesha took his hand into hers and he kept talking.
“The first memory I have from my childhood is of my father beating my mother. The last memory I have of my childhood was her killing him. Because of all the violence I witnessed growing up, I told myself that I’d never have a family of my own. A part of me was scared that I’d end of being the monster that my father was.” He shook his head. “But I’ve been doing a lot of praying over that belief of mine of the last few months or so. And then you suddenly walked into my life.”
He bent over and placed a kiss on Lamesha’s cheek. “You make me want it all, Lamesha. A wife...kids...the house in the burbs with the white picket fence. You make me want all of it, sweetheart.”
Lamesha wasn’t exactly sure of what to say to all of that. With her hand still in his, she gave his hand a tiny squeeze.
He smiled. “I guess what I’m trying to say, babe, is that I love you and I want you to marry me.” He smiled again. “Now I’ll understand if you don’t say yes right now...after all we haven’t been dating but a month. But trust and believe, I’m gonna ask you again.”
Lord, what do I say? Jesus, what should I say? She hadn’t been expecting the man to ask her to marry him.
He reached over and placed a finger over her lips. “Shhh —,” he smiled. “Don’t say a word, sweetheart. You don’t have to give me answer right now on whether or not you’ll marry me. I just wanted to let you know how I was feeling about you. I needed you to know how serious I am and how important you are to me.”
He stood up at that point and held out his hand to help her up as well. “It’s getting late. Let’s get you home.” He winked his eye. “Plus, we still have our skating rink date for tomorrow evening.” He laughed. “If I keep you out too late, you might just cancel on me. I can’t have that happening. I’ve been looking forward to us having some old fashioned fun.”
She finally grinned back. “Okay. Let’s go.”
<<<<<>>>>>
Later on that Night:
Lamesha finished saying her prayers and padded over to her bedroom window. She looked up at the stars and picked out the two that Donovan had compared to her and him. She smiled. “Lord, that man is something else. I should’ve just told him yes when he asked me to marry him tonight. I know I’m already falling head over heels in love.”
Then she sighed. “But there’s really no harm in marinating over it a few more days...just letting everything sink in.”
She walked back over to her bed and kicked off her slippers. She climbed under her covers and looked at the empty pillow beside her own. One of these days I won’t be sleeping by myself. One of these days I’m gonna have my soulmate right here beside me.
<<<<<>>>>>
Twenty Four Hours Later:
Donovan bent down and tied the laces on Lamesha's rental skates.
She frowned. “I don't know how you managed to convince me to come rollerskating, Babe.” She wrinkled her nose. “Rollerskating is for teenagers...not grown tail men and women.”
He stood up and pulled her off of the bench with him. “You're not afraid are you, sweetheart?”
Lamesha cut her eyes at him. “Of course not. I just hadn't put my feet into a pair of skates since I was fourteen.”
He took her hand into his and they pushed themselves out onto the rink. He grinned over at her as a couple of teens whizzed past them. “Don't worry Lamesha. I'll make sure you stay safe.”
She gripped his hand as her foot went out a little too far to the left. His reflexes were quick. He pulled her back inline with him in a flash. “See I told you. I'll always keep you safe, Babe. Always.”
After five minutes or so, the deejay switched to a song with a much faster tempo. Lamesha knew there was no way she could keep up the pace, so she decided to take a break on the sidelines. “You can skate this one without me. I'll be sitting right over there. Alright?”
Donovan grinned at her. “You sure?”
She knew he loved skating, so she didn't want him to be forced to take a timeout because of her. “Yeah, I’m positive...like a hundred and ten percent positive.”
Lamesha watched in fascination as Donovan took to the rink. His elaborate twists and turns blew her mind. She could’ve sworn that she was watching a professional ice skater, not someone cutting the floor on a rollerskating rink.
When a petite caramel-colored girl with a fat butt and wavy natural hair down her back skated up to Donovan, Lamesha frowned. Her frown got even deeper when they exchanged a few words and began gliding smoothly together around the rink. They went around the floor three times and then other skaters began clearing the circuit to give them the floor to themselves. It looked as if they were dancing a choreographed routine, not just two random people who had happened to bump into each other at the roller rink. When the song ended, the crowd broke out clapping. The girl pulled Donovan into an embrace, kissed him on the cheek, then whispered something into his ear.
Lamesha narrowed her eyes. Her first instinct was to skate out onto the rink and snatch little miss ghetto Barbie's hands off of her man. But then common sense sunk in — in other words, she knew that action would be classless and childish. She shook her head. Plus, with my limited skating skills, if I carry my behind out there, Imma end up flat on my rear end. I ain’t about to be embarrassed. I can't let that happen.
Lamesha was relieved when little miss Barbie and Donovan parted ways after a few more seconds of chit chatting.
Donovan skated over to Lamesha and took a seat beside her on the bench.
She tilted her head and gave him a little smile, one that didn't really reach her eyes. “Very nice performance, Donovan...very nice.”
He grinned at her, then frowned. He knew something was wrong. “Uh, thanks, Babe.”
She began unlacing her skates.
Donovan was confused. They'd only been at the skating rink a half-hour at most. “Is something wrong, Lamesha?”
She flashed him a smile, this one overbright. “No, I'm just tired. I'd like to go home now.”
Donovan drew his brows together and began unloosening his laces. “Sure, Babe.”
Donovan turned Lamesha's skates in to the attendant. He slung his pair over his shoulder since they were his personal property. Then they exited the facility.
Several minutes later, Donovan merged his SUV onto the interstate and reached across the console for Lamesha's hand. She pulled her hand from within his reach.
Donovan changed lanes. Now he was sure that something was wrong. He let out a breath on a deep sigh. “What's the matter, Babe?”
Lamesha was pissed. “What do you mean by what's the matter? Why don't you ask little miss ghetto Barbie back there what’s the matter?”
He frowned. “Who’s little miss ghetto Barbie?”
“The girl you were gyrating with on the roller rink back there.”
“Oh, her. She did try to come on to me, but I told her I had a girlfriend and that I was in love.” Then he smiled. “This world is full of beautiful women, babe...I ain’t even gonna try to front about that. But in my eyes, none of them can hold a candle to you, Lamesha. Girl, you’re gonna always have my heart. I can feel that about us. You and only you.”
It was crazy, but at that moment Lamesha realized that she really was in love with Donovan. She realized that she had a ‘no turning back’ type of love for him. That’s why I reacted like I did when he was skating with that girl back there.
She gave him a tiny smile. “You need to bring me out here to this skating rink more often so that I can improve on my skills. I don’t want a do over of what happened here tonight. We’re never gonna make it to the altar if that keeps happening.”
She smiled even harder. “And by the way, I’ve been thinking about what you asked me last night and I don’t need any more time to think about it. I love you, too, Donovan and my answer is yes. Yes I’ll marry your fine, sexy behind.”
He almost ran off the side of the road from taking his hands off of the steering wheel and pumping his fists in the air. “Yeah, boyyyyy! That right there is what I’m talking about.”
He reached his hand across the center console again, then he matched her grin with one of his own. His heart felt like it was about to burst from happiness. “I love you, Lamesha. I can’t wait to start really spoiling you and making you happy. I’ve prayed on it. We’re gonna have a blessed life together...a sweet, beautiful life together. You’ll see.”