CHAPTER 35

 

 

He drove his jeep home for the first time in a week. In the passenger seat, he saw an envelope containing the money he’d given her. I don’t love you anymore. He never thought it would come to that. Giving her a few days at the beach alone had driven them apart instead of doing the opposite. Now, he was paying the price for breaking a woman’s heart.

I don’t love you anymore.

Desmond poured a shot of vodka then tossed it back to his throat. Sherita was the only woman he loved, the only woman he cared for. And she said she didn’t love him…

He sat on a barstool in his kitchen, his elbow resting on the countertop, his hands covering his face.

“Des, where you at, man?” Dimitrius shouted from the living room.

“I’m in the kitchen,” he said, unenthusiastically. He didn’t even glance up when Dimitrius and Dante stepped in.

“He got the Grey Goose out. That’s not a good sign,” Dimitrius said.

Dante walked over to the cupboard and took out a couple of shot glasses. He bought them over to the island, then poured a shot for himself and Dimitrius.

“No need for you to be in here drinking alone, man,” Dante said after tossing a shot back.

Dimitrius took one down, too.

“I really screwed up with her,” Desmond admitted.

“This is all my fault,” Dante said. “I should not have tried to put you guys together. I thought I was doing what was best for my little brother because I knew you wouldn’t make a move.”

“How could you be so sure?” Desmond asked with worried, pinkish eyes, turning to the right to look at Dante.

“Because I watched you stare her down for two years without doing anything about it,” Dante said.

Desmond smirked. “Stare her down…”

“You did. Dimitrius saw it, too.”

“I saw you looking at Sherita at my wedding,” Dimitrius said, tapping his shot glass on the countertop. “And it was so obvious you liked her when you would call around to make sure she wasn’t at our houses before you would show up. I recognized that approach right away, since I did the same thing with Melanie. I avoided her for a long time before I decided I wanted her for myself.”

Desmond cracked a half smile, though he didn’t feel like smiling at all. “Do you recall the first dinner we had with Victor?”

“Who can forget that night?” Dante quipped. “You and Sherita were on fire.”

Desmond smirked, remembering how Sherita had whispered in his ear, held his hand and kissed him. It was a kiss he would never forget.

Dimitrius grinned. “Melanie had asked me if she should pry you two away from each other with her salad fork.”

The men chuckled.

“I was really shocked, though,” Dante said. “I know I told you two to pretend you were in love, but I didn’t think you would go all-out like that. If you would’ve kissed any longer, you would’ve set off the sprinklers.”

Dante and Dimitrius laughed.

Desmond covered his face with his hands and sighed heavily before lowering his hands to the countertop again. “That’s the night our relationship changed…the night we became more than just two people working together for the sake of a business deal.”

“It’s been going on for that long?” Dante asked.

Desmond nodded. “She had me doing things I could never see myself doing before…had me wanting things I never wanted before, and I blew it.”

“You didn’t blow it, Des,” Dimitrius said. “Sherita still loves you.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because Melanie once said she didn’t love me, and it nearly killed me. It hurt. It was a lie, obviously, since we’re together now, but at the time, it hurt when she said it. I later found out she had a reason for saying it, and I’m sure Sherita has one, too.”

Desmond shook his head.

“So don’t give up little brother,” Dante said.

“Give up?” Desmond said. “I don’t give up. I told Sherita right out the gate that she was mine, and I meant it.”

“Well, it seems you have a lot of work to do, bro,” Dante told him.

“Looks that way.”

Dante stood up. So did Dimitrius.

“Well, I’m going to get back home,” Dante said. “I’m sure Emily is waiting to talk to me about all of this.” Dante patted Desmond on the shoulder. “Love you, man.”

Dimitrius laid his hand on the opposite shoulder and said, “Love you, bro.”

“Put the alcohol away, take a shower and try to relax,” Dante said.

“Sounds like something Dad would say,” Desmond said.

“It does,” Dante agreed. “Later.”

“Later, Des,” Dimitrius said.

“Hey, Dante,” Desmond called out from the island.

Dante turned around. “What’s up?”

“Do me a favor.”

“What’s that?”

“Get out of the matchmaking business.”

The brothers chuckled, then Dante responded, “Now that my brothers are married to the loves of their lives, I’m already out of business.”

 

 

When his brothers exited, Desmond walked down the hallway to the basement door and on into the basement apartment where a lot of Sherita’s things still remained. He assumed she’d be by to collect her items at the same time she came to get the car.

He walked pass the couch, near the bed recalling how they’d made love there. How she experienced her first time there. Revisiting those memories made him realize and remain firm to his resolve to get her back. But nothing could prepare him for what he saw next – an opened pregnancy test box jutting out from underneath the bed. He bent down, picked it up then sat on the bed with it in his hand. The test was missing.

With a racing heart, he searched through the bathroom wastebasket and when that didn’t turn up anything, he checked the kitchen. Nothing. Was she pregnant? A year ago, he couldn’t fathom the thought of having a child. Now, as he sat on the bed again, thinking there could be a real possibility Sherita was pregnant, that’s all he wanted. His child. And her.