Negotiating for Love

by Sharon C. Cooper

  “Hell no, you can’t talk to me! As long as you’re talkin’ crazy about the state stripping unions of their bargaining rights, you and I have nothing to say to each other.” She turned and stormed away.

  “Martina!” Paul started after her but stopped when she picked up speed. Running away from him apparently wasn’t enough. She lifted her hand and gave him the finger without missing a step.

  Infuriating, loud-mouth, stubborn woman.

  He watched her and Peyton exit the building through a side door. She was the most pigheaded woman he had ever known. Why’d he even bother trying to talk to her? It was useless trying to get her to do anything she didn’t want to do.

  Paul didn’t know how long he stood there before feeling a presence behind him and then there was laughter. Not a chuckle, but an outright, deep belly laugh. He didn’t have to turn to know who it belonged to. Davion, his cousin, who happened to be his best friend, grinned like an idiot as he approached.

  “Did that woman just tell you to get lost and then give you the finger?” Davion could barely get the words out before he fell out laughing all over again.

  Paul didn’t bother responding. The whole morning had been one verbal battle after another. First with his matchmaking mother, and then his father who was living vicariously through Paul’s political career, and now Martina.

  “So that’s her, huh?” Davion asked. He dabbed at his eyes with the heel of his hands, a grin still covering his mouth.

  Paul frowned when he thought about Davion’s question. “Her who?”

  “The woman who has had you all twisted up inside for the past year. I caught a little of the conversation.”

  Paul scrubbed his hands down his face. He never told anyone about Martina, not because he hadn’t wanted to. Definitely not because he hadn’t wanted to. Each time he asked her to be his date for an event or invited her to his parent’s home for dinner, she had always turned him down. As far as she was concerned, they weren’t dating, they’d been hanging out. Her words, not his. Somehow in the six months that they had dated, he fell in love.

  Hell, he loved everything about the woman from her wit to her fearlessness. He even loved that she said whatever was on her mind. Add her love of sports, food, and their incredible sex life to the equation, and he’d been a goner within weeks of meeting her.

  It wasn’t until he had spoken those three little words, I love you, did she start changing. Slowly she pulled away from him, canceling their dates, and finding every excuse not to see him.

  “No need trying to deny it,” Davion said. So caught up in his thoughts, Paul had forgotten Davion was standing there. “The answer is written all over your face. But what I don’t understand, is why you never mentioned that little spitfire.”

  He’d never mentioned her because she treated him like some dirty little secret. Though he had been able to talk her into going out sometimes to bistros, the movies and a few sporting events, she preferred they stayed behind closed doors.

  Their last argument invaded his mind. Frustration stirred inside his gut the way it had back then. Martina walked out on him claiming it was because of his political platform, but he knew her departure was about something more. Unfortunately, he never bothered to find out what. He’d had enough. The disagreements and secrecy had taken its toll by then.

  “So are you going to continue standing there looking goofy, or are you going to tell me about her? Who is she? Seeing how passionately she cursed you out in there, I assume she knows someone in a union.”

  Paul hadn’t seen Martina in a year. He had finally come to grips with losing her and had moved on. But now, after seeing her again, he wasn’t so sure it was possible to move on from Martina Jenkins.

  “She’s a carpenter.”

  Davion’s eyebrows shot up. “Get the heck out of here. Seriously?”

  Paul nodded, an involuntary smile spreading across his lips. He would never forget the first day he’d met her. He didn’t know what captured his attention first, her lovely face, that shapely ass encased in the tightest jeans he’d seen on a woman, or the construction boots. Then she opened her mouth and started talking sports to the other construction workers who she’d been with. Paul had fallen for her at that moment. But it had taken him three attempts before she finally agreed to give him her telephone number.

  “Carpenters definitely look different these days.” Davion shoved his hands into the front pockets of his pants. “So I assume there’s a history between you two. What happened?”

  Paul didn’t want to discuss Martina. Heck, he was still trying to come to grips that he had seen her again. It had been a long time. Too long.

  “We didn’t work out.” He glanced at his watch and nodded toward the banquet room. “I should probably get back in there.” He stepped around Davion, but his cousin blocked his path.

  “Not before I hear about the firecracker who made steam come out your ears. Spill it. You can even give me the CliffsNotes version.”

  Paul sighed and ran his hand over his low cut hair.

  “I met her at a coffee shop, and we hung out for a few months.”

  “So what went wrong?”

  Paul shrugged. “I’m not sure, man. We never really talked about what went wrong. One thing I do know is that we wanted different things. I wanted marriage and a family, and she wanted a sex partner. I was tired of being her dirty little secret, boy-toy, or whatever you want to call it. She moved on, and so did I.”

  Paul knew early in their relationship that Martina didn’t want the same things out of life when it came to marriage and children, but he hadn’t wanted to lose her. He stopped bringing up marriage as a topic for discussion.

  Paul lifted his head to find Davion standing with his arms folded and eyes narrowed.

  “What?”

  “Hanging out in D.C. with all of those stuffed shirts must have finally gotten to you. That’s the only explanation I can come up with that can explain how my woman-magnet cousin let a fine piece of tail like the carpenter go. And she wasn’t hounding you for a commitment. Really?” Davion shook his head. “Let me get my hands on a hottie like that—”

  “And I will knock you the hell out,” Paul growled and jerked hard on his cousin’s lapels.

  They hadn’t fought since they were kids when they both fell for Jasmine Conner. Sure Martina looked like every man’s fantasy woman, but he would not stand there and listen to Davion or any other man talk about all he wanted to do to her.

  “I’m not playin’ D. Every one of your perfectly straight teeth will be lying on the ground if I find out you stepped to her.”

  Davion shrugged out of Paul’s grasp. “Man, I don’t want your leftovers. I don’t care how fine she might be. You know me better than that. I might talk trash, but I have never done any shit like step to someone you’ve dated!”

  Paul glanced around, hoping no one had witnessed his momentary lapse. He dropped his head and rubbed the back of his neck.

  “You’re right. I’m trippin’. Sorry about that.”

  “Your ass is more than trippin’. I don’t know exactly all that transpired between you two, but clearly you haven’t moved on the way you claim.”

  Paul didn’t want to admit it, but he knew Davion was right. There were plenty of days that he had thought about Martina and didn’t act on the desire to contact her. Yet today, after seeing those fiery brown eyes and pouty lips, need churned within him. He needed to talk to her. He needed to know why she had walked out on him, and he was finally ready to hear her reason. Unlike before, when he hadn’t cared to take the time to know.

  Davion rubbed his chin. “Well, I’ll be damn. It’s worse than I thought.”

  Paul waved him off and dropped into the nearest chair. There was no sense going back into the banquet room at this point. His reappearance would only distract the current speaker. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to sit in the hallway either, especially with Davion wearing that stupid grin.

  “It’s no wonder you ha
ven’t wanted to hang out as much when you’re in town.” Davion sat on the arm of a chair across from Paul. “I knew it probably had something to do with a woman, but I didn’t know it was like this.”

  Paul didn’t bother asking what he meant by “like this.” He was sure he didn’t want to know.

  “How long are you going to pine over this spitfire?”

  “Martina. Her name is Martina.” Paul smiled at how angry she’d gotten when he called her Martina. She preferred MJ, but he had refused to use her nickname. He had once told her that Martina was a beautiful name for a very beautiful woman.

  Knowing that his cousin was still waiting for a response, Paul leaned forward in his seat, his elbows on his thighs.

  “Man, it’s been a year. I’m not pining over her. I’ve moved on.”

  Davion shook his head and chuckled. “You definitely haven’t moved on.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I do, but since you think you’ve moved on, we can double date tonight. My girl has a friend, and she’s been trying to get me to fix the two of you up.”

  “Not interested.”

  “Trust me man, when you get a look at Peppermint, you’re going to be thanking me.”

  Paul’s mouth twitched. “Peppermint? Her name is Peppermint.”

  “Yeah, but don’t judge the woman by her name,” Davion said with a straight face.

  “Is she a stripper or something? I have a reputation to protect. The last thing I need is a scandal centered on someone named Peppermint.” He shook his head. “No way has her parents named her Peppermint.”

  “Man, her name is beside the point. When you see her, her name is going to be the last thing on your mind. She’s a little quiet, unlike Martina, but I think you’ll like her. So are you in? Or are you going to admit that you’re still hung up on that hot tamale who just left?”

  Paul couldn’t believe he was seriously considering going out with someone named after a hard piece of candy. Yet, this might be a way for him to prove not only to Davion that he’d moved on, but also to himself.

  “Set it up, but I better not regret this.”

  Chapter Three

  Martina couldn’t get to Peyton’s car fast enough. The jackhammer pounding inside her chest had her breaths coming hard and fast. She marched between parked cars on wobbly legs trying like crazy to tune out her cousin’s constant yammering.

  “You and Senator Paul Kendricks had a fling. The moment he said, I will never forget anything about you, I knew. That is frickin’ unbelievable!” Peyton unlocked the doors to her Chevy Malibu. “When I tell the others, they are going to flip!”

  Martina dropped into the car and slammed the door, wishing she could just make herself disappear. She and Paul were able to keep their relationship a secret for six months. Today, after a year of being apart, their secret was out. During the past year, she had badmouthed Paul and his policies to her cousins, threatening to behead them if they so much as mentioned his name in her presence. Now, once Peyton told them the real deal, they were never going to let her live this down.

  Martina laid her head against the headrest. Just thinking about Paul made her stomach do somersaults. They didn’t travel in the same circles and with him spending much of his time in D.C., she was comfortable in knowing that she probably would never see him face to face again. But now that she had, would she be able to stop thinking about him?

  “All this time, you made the Senator look like the enemy.” Peyton pulled out of the hotel’s parking lot.

  “He is the enemy! What he and his cohorts are trying to do is downright cruel.”

  “Yeah, but you were sleeping with the enemy, MJ!”

  “Who said I slept with him? Not once in that brief conversation back there did either of us say that we slept together.”

  “Ha! Are you kidding me? It’s a wonder all three of us didn’t go up in flames with the sparks bouncing between you two. I have known you all of your life and never have I seen you react to any man that way.”

  Martina stared out the passenger window, the scenery passing by in a blur. She couldn’t deny her cousin’s observation. Her whole body had heated with desire the moment Paul called her name, and then she turned around.

  She shivered remembering how enticing he looked in his navy blue, pinstriped suit.

  “We are having a girl’s night at your house tonight. Actually, I don’t think this can wait. I need to get the cousins together now. There is no way we’re letting you off the hook on this one. Get ready to tell us everything!”

  “There’s nothing to tell.” Martina lied. There was so much she could tell. Like how whenever he kissed her angels sang in the background. Or how there had never been a time when a man’s hands had affected her so profoundly. His touch alone made her panties damp, and her toes curl.

  Oh yeah, she could tell them stories that would have them fanning themselves.

  “Quit playing,” Peyton chided. “I’m sure there’s a lot to tell. What you need to be concerned about is what Grampa is going to say when he finds out how you represented the company this morning. I’ve seen you open your big mouth and say some crazy stuff, but today I almost didn’t recognize you.”

  The conversation with their grandfather was one she was not looking forward to. Steven Jenkins was serious about how his children and grandchildren represented the company and the family. He didn’t tolerate public displays of ignorance.

  You’re a reflection of me, and you’re a reflection of this family. The choices you make don’t only affect you, they affect all of us in some way. He would say in his deep baritone voice.

  She’d be ready. It wouldn’t be the first time that he had to give her one of his speeches, and she was pretty sure it wouldn’t be the last. Besides, if he could get over the time her cousin Toni ended up, unknowingly, at a drug house and got arrested, he could get over anything.

  Fifteen minutes later, they pulled up to Martina’s small bungalow. She was so tired of hearing Peyton go on and on about how she had bamboozled her and their cousins all this time about Paul. Sure she had called him a louse, who shouldn’t be allowed to represent the state. And maybe she had compared him and his senator cohorts to cockroaches, but still. Her cousins couldn’t hold that against her.

  Martina had to admit that she might’ve gone overboard the past year or so regarding her feelings about Paul. In all honesty, he was a good man. As a senator, he had done a lot in proposing and supporting bills that had helped the country as a whole. It hadn’t been until the past year, when he supported the governor’s idea about taking some of the power from unions, that had her seeing red. She didn’t hate him though she wanted to since he had reneged on his agreement to her while they were dating.

  “Let’s get back to you and the Senator.”

  “Let’s not,” Martina said as they walked up the stairs to the house.

  Peyton’s cell phone rang and Martina hoped it was a call that could save her from the interrogation she knew was coming.

  Martina unlocked the front door and stepped into the house with Peyton pulling up the rear talking on her cell phone to their cousin Toni. Martina tuned out the conversation, dropped her purse on the sofa, and headed to the small half-bath steps away from the living room.

  Washing her hands, she took notice of the new mirror she had recently installed over the pedestal sink. She was on the tail end of finishing the renovations in the home that was her latest flip. Buying and selling houses for the past five years, this was the only one she had moved into while doing the renovations.

  Normally the homes she purchased weren’t in the best of neighborhoods and some weren’t even livable initially. This one had been different. She had fallen in love with not only the neighborhood but also the small bungalow. She was tempted to hold on to the home instead of selling it, but she stood to make almost twice as much money as she’d paid.

  Martina walked the short distance to the kitchen. Despite not needi
ng as much work as some of the others, the house had taken her a little longer to complete. Attending night school to finish her bachelor’s degree in business, and all the extra hours she’d been putting in at work had slowed progress on the home.

  “Girl, I know. I almost fell over when I realized they knew each other.” Martina overheard Peyton say.

  She rolled her eyes and grabbed two small bottles of orange juice from the refrigerator. Setting the bottles down on the black quartz countertop, she glanced at the local newspaper spread open to an article that featured Paul. Speculation was growing about a possible run for the presidency during the next election.

  Martina sipped her juice. Reading the article before leaving home, she wished it would have made mention that Paul would be a guest speaker at the event she and Peyton had just attended. Although, maybe it had mentioned the event. She had only scanned the article. Instead, her attention had locked onto the photo of him. Even now, his handsome face held her attention. His intelligent, sexy eyes drew her in every time, punctuated by his beautiful smile that highlighted those full tempting lips.

  A swarm of butterflies fluttered in her gut. She still hadn’t recovered from the shock of seeing him in person. Even now, thinking about the man had her body prickling with need. While they were together, he had been an addiction she couldn’t shake, and there were still days she suffered through withdrawal.

  “Have CJ pick up a pizza on her way,” Peyton said of her sister Christina, her voice interrupting Martina’s thoughts. “You know we’re not going to get any information out of MJ if we don’t feed her.”

  “Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” Martina snapped. The kitchen overlooked the living room where Peyton lounged on the leather sofa. “She can bring as much pizza as she wants. I’m still not telling you busybodies anything.”

  “Oh, I forgot CJ is sick.” Peyton ignored Martina as she continued her conversation. She shook out of the jacket that matched her navy blue skirt and tossed it on a nearby chair. “Serves her right for letting MJ goad her into eating that ginormous hamburger last night, knowing she hadn’t eaten meat in a year.”