The Next Morning:
When Joshua received the text message from Drulisa saying that she’d checked out of the hotel and had changed her mind about marrying him, his heart clenched in his chest. He could barely believe what he was reading.
“What?” he said to himself as he stood in front of the huge window in his hotel room reading the text message again. “You’re leaving me, Drulisa? You don’t want to marry me, sweetheart? That’s impossible. I can’t accept that.”
In a state of shock and disbelief, his first response was to go across the hall to her hotel suite to make sure she wasn’t there. Of course she wasn’t. But he’d found a note addressed to him left on the dresser. With his eyes narrowed he read the note and shook his head.
His next move was to make arrangements to fly back to Everette County on his private jet. He’d trying calling Drulisa’s cellphone, but she wouldn’t answer it. He was sure there had to have been some sort of misunderstanding. And he was sure that he would get to the bottom of it and they would work whatever the problem was out. We have to work it out, she owns my heart.
When he heard someone knocking on his hotel room door, every part of him was hoping that it was his baby and that she had changed her mind.
Caleb knew that there was something wrong the second Joshua opened the door. “Whoa, bro. Who rained on your parade?” Then he cracked an uncertain smile and jokingly said, “Drulisa didn’t dump you did she?”
Joshua frowned. Then he worriedly massaged his temples, trying to relieve the tension headache that was attacking him. “Yeah, man. She did.”
The grimace that made its way onto Caleb’s face matched the one that was on his older brother’s. He stepped all the way into Joshua’s hotel suite and closed the door behind himself. “Damn, bro. What the hell did you do wrong? That girl’s in love with you, bro. I could tell. How the hell did you mess it up?”
“As far as I know Caleb, I didn’t do anything wrong. We were at the function at the Conley Center last night having a pretty good fucking time. Then outta nowhere, she says she has a headache and wants to go back to her hotel room to sleep it off for the night.”
Caleb shook his head. “You think Cassandra said something to her? Cassie’s beautiful, but she’s a real bitch. She was there last night and I don’t think she’s ever really gotten over you.”
Joshua knew that it was a very real possibility that his ex-fiancee, Cassandra Scholtz, could’ve said something to Drulisa. The girl’s catty personality had been the second most important reason he’d called their engagement off a year and a half earlier. The fact that he didn’t really love her had been the most important reason.
Joshua walked over to his suitcase and began throwing his items inside. “Can you drive me out to the airfield, Caleb? Or do I need to call a cab? I’m going back down South. I have to talk to Drulisa...make her understand. Find out what went wrong and fix it.”
Caleb patted Joshua on the back. “I’ll be curbside in fifteen minutes. Let’s get you over to the Forrester Enterprises jet.”
*****
Back in Everette County:
Lexi pulled her truck into Drulisa’s mom’s driveway. Then she glanced over at her bestie — who was sitting there quietly with a pair of dark shades perched on her nose. “Okay, Leese...I didn’t say anything for the whole hour-long drive back here from Norfolk. Now that I got you home, tell me what’s going on. In other words...what went wrong between you and Joshua?”
Drulisa was quiet for several seconds. She’d cried her eyes out the entire night before getting on the commercial plane back home. If there had been another tear in her eye, she probably would’ve begun bawling again. Fortunately, she was all cried out.
“Come on, Leese...it’s me, Lexi. I know something’s wrong. I’m worried about you. Go ahead and spill it.”
Drulisa really did need someone to listen to her problem, and like Lexi had said, she was her bestie. Therefore, Drulisa sighed and said in a flat, almost emotionless voice, “I broke up with Joshua. We’re over with. Finished. Through.”
“What?!”
Drulisa nodded her head. “Yeah. His mother hates me. I already told you that I can’t marry a man whose family doesn’t accept me. I know thinking like that is ridiculous in this day and age, but that’s how I am, Lexi.”
“What do you mean by his mom hates you? I thought you said last week that she liked you.”
Drulisa sighed. “That’s what I had thought, too. Then when we were at the party, I overheard her talking to a friend of hers. She said I have no pedigree. That I’m uncouth.”
This time it was Lexi who shook her head. “You think it’s because of your skin color? Because you’re black?”
Drulisa sighed again. She was starting to wonder the exact same thing. Before hearing Eleanor Forrester say what she’d said, Drulisa hadn’t had a second thought about being in an interracial relationship. She’d always been taught to look at people’s hearts, not their skin color. “I don’t know for sure, Lexi. But the bottom line is, she said what she said about me.”
Being a woman of color as well, Lexi frowned. “Wow, Leese. I’m so sorry, honey.”
“Yeah. Me, too.”
“Your mom’s out of town and won’t be back until Tuesday. You sure you okay with being alone right now? Maybe you should bring your bags over to my house and stay with me a few days.”
Drulisa shook her head. “Thank you for being an awesome friend, Lexi. But I’ll be alright. I have to try to get Joshua out of my system in my own way.”
Lexi gave Drulisa’s hand a sympathetic little squeeze. “Okay, honey. But make sure you call me if you need anything. And I do mean anything, Leese.”
Drulisa felt very grateful to have a friend like Lexi. She tried to give her a little smile, but failed miserably. Then she took her bags into the house. She hoped her mother had left that bottle of red wine chilling in the cooler. She was going to need it. That and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, too.
*****
Drulisa stared down at the empty pint of Everything but the Kitchen Sink ice cream and frowned. It had been full when she’d started on it a half hour earlier. Her plan to concurrently drown her miseries in a bottle of wine hadn’t worked out. There wasn’t a drop of hooch in the house — not even a beer. In other words, the well was completely dry.
Needing something else to dull the ache in her soul, she picked up her keys and started towards the front door. She had every intention of solving her missing booze problem. She figured a bottle of wine — or maybe even two — would make her feel just right.
She pulled the door open and ran straight into a solid wall of muscle.
Joshua reached out and wrapped his hands around Drulisa’s arms to stop her from falling. “Babe,” he said. “We need to talk.”
She wanted him so bad, she wanted everything between them to be alright. But she shook her head and said, “I’ve said everything that I’d needed to say to you in my note. I’m sure you read it. I left it out on the dresser where you couldn’t miss it.”
He didn’t let go of her arms. “I read the note, sweetheart...and I got your text. But I don’t understand. I thought social class didn’t matter to you. I thought all you cared about was our hearts. We may be from two different worlds, but our love is the glue that is going to hold us together.”
He was killing her heart with his words. She shook her head. “I don’t belong in your world, Joshua.”
Now it was his turn to shake his head. “Then I’ll come into yours. I’d give up every material possession that I own so that we can be together. Is that what you want...what you need, babe?”
She could feel his eyes on her, but she refused to meet his eye gaze. “No. You worked hard for everything you have. I wouldn’t dare ask you to give up what you’ve put your life blood into. Plus, it’s not the material items that’s the problem.”
He placed his hand under her chin and tilted it. “Well, what is, Drulisa? I can fix it.”
How she wished he could. But she knew he couldn’t. I have to put an end to this senseless inquisition, she thought to herself. She finally looked him dead in the eye. Forcibly ignoring every emotion she felt for him she said, “You can’t fix it, Joshua. It’s better that we go our separate ways. I’m not fitting into your world...period.”
“I can’t lose you, Drulisa. I’ve waited too long to have you in my life. I love you too much, sweetheart. Ask my brother. Ask my mother and father. Ask anyone who knows me.”
Him mentioning his mother was the last straw for Drulisa. She kinda lost it from hearing him mention that little part. “Your mother?! Yeah...you can ask her alright. You might be surprised to hear how she really feels about me. How I’m non-pedigreed and uncouth!”
He quickly shook his head. He frowned. “Sweetheart. My mother adores you. She’d never think anything of the sort about you.”
Her eyes held fire. “Well obviously...you don’t know your mother as well as you think you do. I heard her with my own two ears saying that about me.” She was huffed up by this point. “Family is important to me, Joshua. I could never be with a man whose own mother hated me, despised my guts.”
He pulled out his cell phone. “That’s impossible.” His fingers began flying over the screen, navigating to his text messages. “Here, look. This is what my mother texted me about you just this morning. She doesn’t know anything about you wanting to call things off between us.”
Drulisa looked down at his phone and began reading the text. Dear Son. Just wanna let you know how much I adore Drulisa. She’s a real sweetheart. I’d be honored to have her as a daughter-in-law.
Drulisa couldn’t understand. “But...but I heard her telling some woman at the charity event that I was non-pedigreed. That I was uncouth.”
He swiped over to the dialer on his phone. “Let’s call her and clear this up.”
Eleanor Forrester answered her phone on the first ring. “Hello, son. You know your mother’s always happy to hear from you...from your brother, too. What’s going on?”
“Hi, mom. I wanted to ask you a few questions about the charity event yesterday.”
“Sure, sweetheart. Ask away.”
Joshua didn’t beat around the bush. In other words, he got right to the heart of the situation. “Did you tell someone yesterday that Drulisa was non-pedigreed and uncouth?”
Eleanor’s response was instantaneous. “Of course not. I think she’s a sweetheart. I’ve already told you that a couple of times.”
Drulisa didn’t understand. She definitely knew what she’d heard.
Eleanor continued speaking. “Now that you’re mentioning non-pedigreed and uncouth...I was talking to Kathy McDonovan about that puppy that your brother brought home this weekend. He says he wants to eventually breed her with my Baxter — Baxter’s a purebred dalmatian you know. I told him ‘of course not’...because his puppy is non-pedigreed and uncouth. I told Kathy what I’d told your brother. Kathy’s a professional breeder...remember?”
How could I have jumped to such a conclusion? Drulisa thought to herself. She felt like such an idiot. She didn’t even hear the rest of the conversation that Joshua had just had with his mother.
Joshua had a smile as wide as the state of Texas on his handsome face. He could tell just from looking at Drulisa that he’d gotten to the bottom of the problem. He finally told his mother goodbye and disconnected his phone call. Then he reached out his hand and pulled Drulisa into his arms. He smiled. “Are we back on now?”
She gave him a sheepish grin. “I thought she’d been talking about me. Your mom told that woman that her son had brought a girl home with him, and that the girl was non-pedigreed and uncouth. I thought I was the girl she’d been talking about. But she was obviously talking about a dog”
Joshua dipped his head to Drulisa’s and placed a soft kiss right at the corner of her lips. “You ready to make up now? I think you owe me something for leaving me and almost breaking my heart. For making me panic.”
Drulisa couldn’t stop the sexy little grin from coming on her face. “I think I owe me something for leaving you and almost breaking both of our hearts.”
Joshua was instantly turned on by the look his fiancée had just given him. “Is your mother home?” he leaned into her ear and whispered.
“No she’s not. But wow, Mr. Forrester,” she whispered hotly right back. “You’re a little on the naughty side aren’t you? Trying to get me to fool around with you in my mother’s house and whatnot.”
With his body beginning to tighten with need for the woman he loved with his everything, Joshua was more than willing to show his fiancée a thing or two about being naughty. He scooped her up in his arms and walked them through the front door, straight into the living room.
“My room’s up the stairs, first door to the right,” she whispered in a husky voice. Drulisa didn’t wait for him to lay her down on her queen-sized bed — or even make it up the stairs for that matter. She was already unbuttoning his shirt and entangling her fingers in the silky hairs on his chest.
Their first time together couldn’t have been more perfect to Drulisa. Their lovemaking had been scorchingly hot, but tender at the same time.
Lying with his beautiful fiancée naked in his arms, Joshua leaned in and whispered, “Was it worth the wait, sweetheart? Was I worth the wait?”
Totally in love with her man, Drulisa giggled then sexily whispered back, “Definitely, but an encore would be nice.”
A sexy grin made its way onto his lips. He flipped his woman over and began giving her exactly what she’d asked him for. He’d willingly give her a million encores. He smiled again. I’m gonna love her all my life.