Chapter Thirty-Seven
“How is she doing?” Casper asked him. “I mean we have been working for hours getting this place cleaned up, but Maymi is walking around like she’s in a trance.”
Jensen laid a piece of wood against the wall staring at Maymi across the room. He was just as concerned as Casper about her. When he had first gotten here, the sight of Sinful shook him so badly that he wasn’t able to say anything to her.
What hurt even more was the two assholes he had the fight with were the ones who did this.
“I think she’s going through the motions, but she’s in denial. She telling everyone Sinful is ruined, but I believe in the back of her mind she thinks she can get this bakery back up and running. We both know it will take a lot of money to make that happen and Maymi doesn’t have it. She told me how much she had to do getting it this far.”
“Damn it. I wish I could’ve caught Kenny and Marty. I would have beaten them within an inch of their lives. They aren’t going to get away with this. I like Maymi a lot. She’s one of the sweetest people I have ever met.”
“I love her,” Jensen said, without thinking and then paused as the shock of discovery hit him full force. A new and unexpected warmth surged through his body at the thrill it gave him to speak the words.
Intense astonishment touched his brother’s face as he stared at him. “Have you told Maymi this?”
“No, I just now realized it myself. I knew I was falling for her when we took the walk in the park, but I hadn’t put it together yet. However, when she called me tonight crying and upset about the break-in at Sinful I couldn’t get here to her fast enough. All I could think about was taking away her pain.”
“Big brother, I think you have been bitten by the love bug. Who knew it could happen to you?”
Mixed feelings surged through Jensen. He knew without a doubt in his mind that he was in love with her. Somehow it had eased up taking over his heart, but he wasn’t scared of it. In fact, he fought down the urge to rush across Sinful and tell Maymi. He couldn’t tell her here, not with everything she had going on tonight.
Maymi hadn’t even given him an answer about being an official couple. How would she take the news he was in love with her? She might be puzzled by his abrupt change in his mood. A strange and disquieting thought began to race through her mind. What if she didn’t want anything more from him than what they had?
The thought tore at his heart and stabbed his insides. It was impossible for Jensen not to have a little fear at what was going on inside of Maymi’s head. Shit! She could start blaming him for this and not want a thing to do with him. He wouldn’t get the chance to make her see how good he could be for her. All of these ideas gnawed away at his confidence and a panic like he’d never known before welled in his throat.
“I never thought it could happen to me,” Jensen said, jumping right back into the conversation, “but I’m concerned. Maymi might not want me. She has enough to deal with now. I’m sure declaring her love for me isn’t one of them.”
“Jensen, you shouldn’t assume you know what Maymi is going to tell you. She might feel the same way. Weren’t you the first person she called? Not her two best friends Jazmaine and Tatum, but you. That has to count for something.”
Jensen looked back over at Maymi staring at her as she moved to the other side of the room. She touched some of the spray paint tags on the wall and brushed tears away from her eyes.
Turning his back to her, Jensen grabbed Casper by his arm. “Look at her. She’s heartbroken and being with me caused some of it. Marty and Kenny came after the bakery because I kicked them out of Fitness 24. I can feel her pain all the way over here. She isn’t going to ever look at me the same again.”
“Look, we both know this place is gone. She won’t ever be able to get it back into the same shape it once was. So, how about you think of a way to give her back her dream?”
Letting go of his brother’s arm, Jensen folded his arms over his chest. “What are you talking about? How can I help Maymi? I would do anything to take all of this pain away from her.”
“You have to give her something new to focus on instead of what she has lost,” Casper suggested.
Standing there, Jensen tried to figure out how he could take his brother’s suggestion and make it happen for his woman. All Maymi ever pushed for in her life was to have a bakery making all of her grandmother’s famous recipes. She’d had it until a few hours ago when her world got turned upside down. He had to think of something to give that rush of feeling back to her. Seeing, Maymi with tears in his eyes was tearing at his heart but it wasn’t like he had a vacant building just sitting around...wait a minute!
“Health Pro,” Jensen said as he uncrossed his arms. “Casper, I have it!”
“I’m not following you,” his brother said, frowning in his direction.
“I know how to get Maymi’s mind off of all of this. I can buy this building from the property owner and combine it into Fitness 24.”
“I don’t think that will help Maymi,” Casper said softly, staring at him with confusion. “She’ll hate you forever.”
“No, this happening to Sinful might be the best thing ever for me and Maymi. I can—”
“What in the fuck did you just say?” a female voice hissed.
Jensen spun around and his heart dropped to his feet when his eyes landed on the look of pain on Maymi’s face. “Maymi, you misunderstood me.” He took a step towards her, but Jazmaine jumped in his path followed by Tatum. Over their shoulders, he watched in sheer agony as Maymi turned away from him and ran towards the front door.
“Maymi, baby, please wait. It’s not what you think. You misunderstood me,” he yelled and then tried to go after her, but Tatum held her hand up stopping him.
“She didn’t misunderstand one word out of your mouth,” she snapped, pointing a finger in his face.
“I knew you weren’t to be trusted,” Jazmaine said, jumping in. “Stay the hell away from our best friend. Don’t you dare show up at her place! Because I will be there, and to make sure you don’t try anything, I had a date for later tonight, but I’m going to cancel it so I can be there for her.”
He brushed Tatum’s hand off his chest. “Neither one of you can keep Maymi from me. I will talk to her if I want to. She has to understand. I wasn’t actually saying what happened to Sinful was a good thing for me.”
“We all heard you loud and clear,” Jazmaine said, turning away from him. “Now, I need to go and check on my best friend to make sure she’s okay.”
“Casper, I don’t have a problem with you,” Tatum said, looking past him over to his brother. “However, you should make sure your brother understands he isn’t welcome around Maymi anymore.” She glared at him, pivoted and then hurried behind Jazmaine out the door.
“The hell I will allow those two to tell me what to do,” Jensen uttered. He started for the door, but was caught by the back of the arm.
“No, you can’t follow them.”
“Get the fuck off of me,” he yelled, jerking his arm away from Casper.
If his brother thought now was the time for him to take Maymi’s side, he was crazy! She was right outside thinking the worst possible thoughts and he had to fix it.
“Will you stop acting like a madman,” Casper hollered. “You aren’t going to get anywhere with Maymi tonight, so why chase after her.”
“I’m going after her because I love her. She needs to know how I feel.”
“She will but not tonight. Let’s finish boarding up the windows, and you can finish telling me what you want to do with Health Pro. I think I know, but I want to hear it from you,” Casper said.
Jensen thought about arguing, but deep down he hated that his brother was right. As much as he wanted to see Maymi, Jazmaine and Tatum weren’t going to let him within touching distance of her tonight. Hell, it might take a few days but he wouldn’t wait too long to get Maymi back.
“Fine, I’ll listen to you this one time
but I’m not going to allow too much time to past.”
He wasn’t going to let Maymi push him out of her life, if he had to camp out in front of her house, he would do it to talk to her. She wasn’t going to get away from him before they cleared the air.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Three weeks later...
He couldn’t wait any longer. He had gone to her apartment, but either Jazmaine or Tatum answered the door instead of Maymi. He hadn’t laid eyes on her since that horrible night at Sinful. When he called her cell phone, it went straight to her voice mail and she never returned his calls. Jensen got the feeling that Maymi wasn’t even listening to his messages anyway.
At least Marty and Randy had finally pleaded guilty to the charges against them instead of making Maymi attend a trial. He wouldn’t have known any of this if he hadn’t heard it on the local news. He doubted Maymi would’ve picked up the phone and given him a call.
“I knew Krissy was lying to me. You are up here. Why are you standing there staring out of the window?”
“Chloe, what are you doing here?” Jensen demanded, glaring at his ex-girlfriend. She wasn’t the type of woman to go away without a fight.
He hadn’t heard from her in weeks and he wasn’t upset about it. He should have known she would have come to him. It was all over town about the incident at Sinful and how he bought the property at a cheap price.
“I don’t know why you aren’t happy to see me. I haven’t done anything to you. I thought you would be happy to see a friendly face since Maymi hates the mere mention of your name.”
“What Maymi feels for me isn’t any of your business,” he snapped. “I want to know why you think it is.”
Chloe gave him a wide-eyed innocent look. “Will you stop yelling at me? I’ll tell you again that I’m only here as a friend. I’m telling you the truth.”
Moving away from the window, Jensen walked a little closer to her. “We aren’t friends. You came here for another reason. Spill it.”
“Maymi didn’t deserve you. We understood each other, but instead of being mad at her for dumping you, you’re standing there screaming at me. I don’t get it at all. Shouldn’t you be more excited?
“Sinful is no longer a threat to Fitness 24. There’s no way she’s coming back from this. All you have to do is sit back and wait for your gym to get even bigger. It has been a damn good several weeks for you.”
Standing in the middle of his office, Jensen stared at Chloe wondering where in the hell she had gotten this idea of hers from. Why would she ever think he would be thrilled about his girlfriend losing her business? He loved her...No, wait he was in love with Maymi from the way she smiled at the smallest gifts he had given her down to the way she defended her friends with everything in her.
For weeks now, he had fought what was right in front of his face, but the truth hit him full force the night he was helping her at Sinful. He adored Maymi more than anything he could ever own. Nothing was more important than holding her in his arms.
Chloe was in front of him truly thrilled about Maymi’s loss. She actually hunted him down at work thinking she still had a chance with him.
Jensen knew Chloe had a mean streak, but he never thought she would take her bruised ego this far. Maymi lost her dream, but he was working hard on getting it back for her. Gaining Maymi’s trust again might be hard, but he was willing to do anything to do it, because he had found the woman he was meant to share his life with for the next fifty years or longer. He wasn’t about to let Chloe snatch it all away from him with her hopes of them being a couple again.
“You’re wrong,” Jensen said. “I’m not excited about any of this. I didn’t want Maymi to lose everything because of Kenny and Marty. You need to get over our breakup and let me go.”
Chloe stared back at him with false innocence plastered on her face. “Jensen, I never said I was pleased about what happen to Little Miss Bakery. But, come on. Honestly, how long do you think the two of you could have lasted?
“I mean you’re molded for fitness magazines and she’s a chocolate chip cookie away from being in a Jenny Craig commercial. The two of you don’t belong in the same room with each other. How could you be serious about wanting to date her?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jensen interjected as his patience started to wear thin.
“I mean a five should stay with a five and pretty people like us who are in the double digits should never date down. Jensen, I thought so much better of you. Didn’t you learn anything from dating me?” Chloe demanded.
He was furious!
Jensen clenched his teeth trying desperately to swallow down some of his anger. He couldn’t afford to lose his cool.
“Chloe, I’m not dating down. I don’t know where you got that idea from, but it wasn’t from me. Maymi isn’t beneath me and I want you to understand how much I love Maymi. She isn’t going anywhere. Sinful is a part of her like Fitness 24 is for me. We both get immense satisfaction from owning our own businesses. I won’t allow you to talk down about her to me or anyone else. Don’t ever let me hear you or you will regret it.”
Her nostrils flared with fury. “How are you going to stop me?” She spat out the words contemptuously at him. “I mean...will Maymi really believe you cared about Sinful getting closed down. I know she can’t even be that stupid.”
“Chloe, get out before I throw you out of my office. I’ve warned you about talking about my girlfriend and I’m not going to warn you again.”
Jensen was surprised by how relatively civil his tone was despite his seething anger. Maymi was his girlfriend. It didn’t matter to him that she never accepted it. He did and that was the only thing that mattered.
She shot him a look of disdain. “I can’t believe how protective you are being of the cupcake lady. You would have never done that for me, but that’s okay. She’s still worthless.” Chloe snickered then turned away. Walking over to the door, she opened it and walked out slamming it closed behind her.
His mind refused to register Chloe’s insults against Maymi because her words meant nothing.
A war of emotions raged within Jensen. The urge to rush over to Maymi’s apartment and yank her into his arms had him rushing towards his office door, but he stopped himself before his hand touched the doorknob.
She wouldn’t let him within touching distance of her. Not after hearing only part of his stupid comments weeks ago. Maymi had run out of the place so fast, and when he didn’t go after her he knew it only fueled her wrong ideas about his true feelings.
Running Fitness 24 took up a huge part of his time, but it never filled up the emptiness that his heart until he found Maymi. Falling in love with her had come completely out of left field. He wasn’t expecting to love her nearly as much as he did now. Yet, it was the best thing that had ever happened.
The first time he laid eyes on her, all he could think about was getting her away from his thriving business as fast as possible. However, the most important thing for him to do now was get Maymi back.
He knew he had hurt her because he still saw the pain on her face every time he closed his eyes at night. If he got...no, when he got Maymi back, he was going to work damn hard to make sure no one hurt her again including him.
****
Standing out on the balcony of her apartment, Maymi held the drink in her hand staring blindly off into the distance. This part of the loft captivated her the moment she walked through the front door. She had been willing to pay extra for it but luckily she got this place at a steal from Tatum’s parents.
It had taken her about two weeks to make Jazmaine and Tatum understand that she was strong enough to be by herself now. They had taken turns spending the nights with her and sometimes they were both here on the weekends. She still felt bad that Jazmaine cancelled her date with Akito to take care of her, but she was a mess the night of the break-in at Sinful.
Maymi didn’t know what hurt worse, truly knowing that her business was a total lo
ss, or hearing how happy Jensen was about it. She heard he had gotten the property at a steal because of the damage done to it. He had broken her heart.
She thought she wouldn’t ever get over Hudson’s death, but Jensen helped her see she could love again. However, he only did it to stab her in the back.
Bringing the glass to her mouth, she took a sip of the liquor swallowing it. She hoped it would numb some of the pain still in her heart, but nothing was helping her forget her time with Jensen. They had such a good chemistry that turned into more for her. She loved him... no, she had fallen in love with him.
How could he betray me so easily without even a second thought?
“Enough, you can’t keep trying to figure him out,” she whispered to herself. Jensen wasn’t the man she believed and it was time for her to start letting go. Three weeks was long enough to be held up in this apartment drowning her sorrows in liquor and junk food. She had to find a way to shake it off and get back on track.
Turning around she went back into the apartment and was headed for the bedroom when her cell phone rang. Maymi slid her hand into the pocket of her robe and grabbed it.
“Hello,” she answered.
“Please talk to me.”
Maymi shivered at the sound of Jensen’s deep voice on the other end. She hadn’t heard his voice since that night because Jazmaine had been screening her phone calls.
“No, I don’t think that would be a good idea. I can’t deal with you right now...maybe never.”
“Let me come and see you,” he asked not giving up.
Walking over to the kitchen island, Maymi placed the glass down and took a seat. “No, I don’t think that would be a good idea either. We have nothing to say to each other. By the way, congratulations on getting Sinful’s old building. I heard the construction is about to start.”
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