Her Unexpected Valentine

by Sherelle Green

  Kendrick leaned back and ran his long fingers over his face. “That’s the problem, Ms. LeBlanc.” His eyes met hers. “Whenever I’m around you, I can’t seem to stop myself from opening up and wanting to learn more about you. Have you always had this effect on men?”

  Never... “I can’t say that I have. I spent my twenties searching for someone who would understand me the way that you explained, and in the end, I lost myself in the process. Now that I’m thirty-three, I finally realize that loving myself is the most important thing, and every day I work toward that goal.”

  They sat there for a couple minutes in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. The sound of the bell to switch daters woke them from their trance.

  “That was a long round,” Kendrick said.

  “No, it wasn’t,” Monty replied as he approached the table. “You both talked for two rounds. Since you were so engrossed in your conversation, we skipped you.”

  “I didn’t even realize,” Kendrick said as he stood. Before he sat at the next table, he looked at her over his shoulder and smiled. Yup, I’m a goner.

  “I’m not as suave as Kendrick, but I’ve been known to charm a woman or two.” Monty made a motion of flipping his hair over his shoulder. “Either that or they entertained me because I was funny to look at.”

  Nicole laughed when Monty winked at her. “I needed that laugh.”

  “I figured.” Monty sat straighter in his chair. “So, do you want to talk or do you want me to tell you the embarrassing thing that Kendrick did the first day we officially met.”

  “Embarrassing moment, please.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.” Monty’s voice got lower. “It all started when we were on set of our first commercial.”

  A minute into the conversation, Nicole was laughing so hard, tears streamed from her eyes.

  Chapter 6

  “Welcome to Bare Sophistication,” Nicole said when she heard someone walk into the boutique.

  “Did anyone order a sassy aunt to kick off this shindig?”

  “Aunt Sarah,” Aaliyah screamed. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  “My sweet girl,” Aunt Sarah said as she pulled in Aaliyah for a hug. “How was your flight?”

  “It was okay,” Aaliyah said. “I landed late last night, and we’ve been prepping all morning.”

  It was Wednesday night, and the pop-up shop had been doing well. It seemed that Bare Sophistication was finding its own sweet spot in LA. This evening, they had decided to throw a party to introduce the boudoir studio. Nicole would be offering makeup tutorials all night, and Aaliyah would be taking photos. Kyra would manage the floor with the two employees they’d hired. The goal was to book at least fifteen appointments for the weekend before Aaliyah went back to Miami.

  “Okay, what can I do to help?” Aunt Sarah asked after Aaliyah had introduced her to Kyra.

  “Follow us,” Nicole said. “The studio is in the back, and we need quite a bit of help.” Nicole and Kyra had been so busy getting the boutique together, they’d waited until the last minute to organize the studio.

  “The furniture is all here, but we have to get the rugs down first, set up the appetizers and wine. We also have to set up the booking table so that we can take appointments.”

  “I’ll manage that table,” Aunt Sarah said. “But this furniture looks like it needs a little manpower. How about I call my boyfriend and his son to do the heavy lifting?”

  Aaliyah and Nicole glanced at one another before turning back to Aunt Sarah. “You have a boyfriend?” Aaliyah asked. “Since when?”

  “Since three months ago.”

  “Three months ago? Is that why you moved to LA?”

  Aunt Sarah sheepishly looked at Aaliyah. “Maybe.”

  “Maybe?” Aaliyah walked over to her aunt. “When you told Dad and I that you needed this change and had to move to LA to fulfill a dream you had, you failed to mention anything about a boyfriend.”

  “That’s because you would have thought I was crazy,” Aunt Sarah said. “Sweetie, we can talk more about this later. For now, we have work to do.”

  Nicole placed a calming hand on Aaliyah’s shoulder. Aaliyah’s aunt meant everything to her, so she’d been devastated when her aunt informed the family that she wanted to move to LA. Especially since her aunt had given them a scare when she’d gotten extremely ill.

  “Don’t forget,” Nicole whispered to Aaliyah, “Aunt Sarah has had a rough ten years. I know this is all a shock to you, but she needs some happiness in her life. Happiness that I’m sure she gets from having a companion.”

  The tension in her friend’s shoulders lessened. “You’re right,” she said. Aaliyah walked over to Aunt Sarah. “I overreacted. We’d be happy to have your boyfriend and his son help us.”

  “Great.” Aunt Sarah clasped her hands together. “Because they are right outside the door.”

  “Aunt Sarah,” Aaliyah said as she placed her hands on her hips, “had you always planned to introduce us to your boyfriend today?”

  Aunt Sarah shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, they are in the boutique now, so let’s go.”

  As Nicole approached the boutique behind Aaliyah and Aunt Sarah, she was surprised that she knew one of the men talking to Kyra.

  “I know you,” Nicole said to the younger of the two gentlemen. “Isn’t your name Bryant?”

  The man squinted his eyes. “Do I know you?”

  “We met at the bar a couple weekends ago, and I work with your cousin Kendrick.”

  “Ah, I see,” he said. “So, we don’t know each other. We just saw each other.”

  Wait, what? “Why does it always feel like you’re offending me every time we talk?” she asked.

  “Maybe the real issue is that you’re too sensitive.”

  Nicole placed her hands on her hips. “Why are you always so rude?”

  “Ignore my son,” the older gentleman said as he extended his hand. “My name is Benjamin. You must be Nicole. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “It’s nice to meet you too.”

  “The world is so small,” Kyra said. “I never met Benjamin and Bryant, but before you guys got here I was telling them about the Burrstones that I knew in Chicago and realized they were a part of that family.”

  “Really?” Aunt Sarah asked Benjamin.

  “Yes, it’s true. My sister and I were the only two of the Burrstone clan to move to California. Now, our children are here too.”

  “Yes, we are,” Kendrick said as he approached from restroom area. Although she’d seen him at work earlier that day, it still caught her off guard when he approached.

  Like at the bowling alley, the tattoos on his arms were exposed and the sight of the sexy ink made her mouth grow dry. She was a sucker for a guy with sexy tattoos, a goatee, broad shoulders, hypnotizing eyes and a body that she was sure could work hers in ways she never imagined.

  Kendrick Burrstone was like a fantasy. A fantasy that she wanted to have every night with no interruptions.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Uh, yeah,” she said, tuning back into the conversation that had continued without her.

  “Does that plan work for everyone?” Aunt Sarah asked. Nicole nodded in agreement, although she had no idea what she was agreeing to.

  “Great! Let’s get to work.”

  Aaliyah pulled Nicole aside. “In case you weren’t paying attention, Aunt Sarah suggested we break up into teams to get everything set up before the party starts in a couple hours. You and I are going to get our stations set up.”

  Nicole breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. I thought she was going to team me up with Kendrick, and there is only so much torture my lady parts can take from being that close to a man and not being allowed to touch him.” Nicole had filled in Aaliyah and Kyra about Kendrick after s
he’d run into him her first day on set.

  “Girl, nah,” Aaliyah said. “I’m a free spirit full of energy, and Bryant is so serious and monotone. One conversation with the guy and he was drying up all of my happy energy. My aunt knew better than to team me up with him.”

  A voice directly behind them made them gasp in surprise.

  “You shouldn’t talk about people behind their backs,” Bryant said, his eyes solely on Aaliyah.

  “Yeah, well, you shouldn’t sneak up on people. Were you trying to give us heart attack?”

  “That wasn’t my intention,” he said, stepping closer to Aaliyah. “Forgive me?”

  This dude is so intense. A part of Nicole was surprised that he’d apologized. She expected Aaliyah to respond right away, but instead, they both just seemed to be staring at each other. After almost a minute, Nicole felt more awkward than they looked. She jabbed Aaliyah in the side.

  “Apology accepted,” Aaliyah said. After Bryant had walked away, she whispered to Nicole. “What is it with the younger men in this family? They are attractive as hell, but it’s obvious they don’t know how to charm a woman.”

  Nicole didn’t say anything. What could she say? Kendrick may have relationship issues, but he’d been slowly pulling her into his web of seduction ever since she’d spilled her drink all over his shirt.

  * * *

  “Are you sure you can’t come to dinner with us?” Uncle Benjamin asked. After a successful launch party for the Bare Sophistication boudoir studio, he insisted on treating everyone to dinner.

  “Sorry, Unc, I have to take a rain check. We start filming at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow, and I still have some prep work to do.”

  That was only partially true. All night, Kendrick’s eyes had been glued to whatever Nicole was doing, whether it was talking to bloggers about the launch, customers eagerly signing up for appointments, or other local store owners who came by to show their support. Watching Nicole in action had been mesmerizing, so much so that Kendrick had to face a hard, true fact... His attraction to Nicole was not going to wear off anytime soon, so he better get used to the constant hard-on he had whenever she was in his vicinity.

  “Okay, then, I’ll catch you later,” Uncle Benjamin said. Kendrick was almost out the door when his uncle called to him. “And walk Nicole home. She isn’t going to dinner either.”

  “That’s okay,” Nicole said, swinging her purse over her shoulder. “I can walk myself. I’m only a few blocks away.”

  “Nonsense,” Aunt Sarah said. “Kendrick will walk you, right, Kendrick?”

  Shit. “Of course. Come on, LeBlanc. I’ll keep you safe.”

  “Ha-ha,” she said sarcastically. “Very funny.”

  Once they were outside, Kendrick welcomed the nice evening breeze. It was only ten at night, so the streets were littered with people either getting a late dinner or getting ready to party.

  “To be so young again,” Nicole said. He followed her line of vision to a group of guys and girls who looked no older than twenty-two.

  “They’re barely legal,” Kendrick said. “I’d take thirty-five over those days, anytime.”

  “As far as my maturity level, I would too,” Nicole said. “But I wouldn’t mind having my twenty-one-year-old body again. You know what, scratch that. I miss my twenty-six-year-old body the most.”

  “I’m not sure what you miss about it,” Kendrick said. “Your thirty-three-year-old body is putting those young bucks over there to shame.”

  When she smiled, Kendrick felt it all over his body. “Thanks,” she said. “Actually, the day I turned thirty, I knew that it was going to be a lot better than my twenties.”

  “How so?” he asked.

  She glanced out at the street before looking at the sidewalk ahead of her. “I guess you could say that I was carrying a lot of baggage back then as a result of bad relationships, strained family relationships and friends who weren’t necessarily good for me.”

  “I can relate on all accounts,” Kendrick said as they turned a corner. “Except, my baggage carried on into my thirties too. It’s only been a couple years that I’ve felt like I’m finally headed in the right direction.”

  “It’s funny, isn’t it?”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  Nicole brushed a few curls out of her face. “When you’re in your twenties, everyone expects you to try and figure your life out so that you can be prepared for your future. Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of people who had everything figured out during that stage of their life. But, there are others who take longer to realize their potential, and I was one of those people. There were some days where I wanted to yell to the world, ‘My name is Nicole and some things in my life are fucked up, but I’m working on it.’”

  “I was one of those people too,” Kendrick said. “Only in my case, I had a mother who was riding my ass about staying in school and making something of myself. You’ve already met my uncle and I’m sure you can tell that he’s an amazing man, but he’s not just that. He’s a provider. He owns Burrstone Winery and Distillery and he built his business from the ground up. My mother—Uncle Benjamin’s sister—is the same way. Right now, she’s currently building a school in a small African village through the educational foundation that she started working with eighteen years ago.”

  “Your family sounds amazing.”

  “They are,” he said. “They really are. And so are the rest who live in Chicago. We have family spread across the nation, doing good and living up to their potential.”

  “And you feel like you fall short,” Nicole said. “Don’t you?”

  Kendrick took a deep breath. He never talked about this, but for some reason Nicole made him want to speak about it. “Yeah, I do. Unlike my cousins, I was the one who was constantly getting into trouble. My single mom raised me, and although she had the support of her family, she wanted to do everything on her own. I’m close to the Burrstone clan, but they are a no-nonsense bunch, and back in the day, I was getting into trouble left and right.”

  “I experienced something similar,” Nicole said. “I’m close in age with one of my cousins who has always had everything together. When we were younger, I despised him because I didn’t understand how he always seemed so sure of himself. He stayed with my grandparents for a couple years after my aunt had passed. Here I was searching for answers in all the wrong places, when he was going through life so confident. So focused. Despite the loss he’d suffered. I almost think that back then, having certain people in my life who understood my potential had a more negative impact on me than having people who didn’t care if I achieved greatness or not.”

  “Growing up on the South Side of Chicago wasn’t easy for me. I didn’t understand why my cousins had a different life than I did. I didn’t understand why my life didn’t mirror the kind of happiness I saw reflected in their eyes whenever we went to barbecues. I became bitter of the circumstances I had to face and deal with that those around me didn’t. After every family gathering in my grandparents’ big suburban house, the streets were like a welcome-home gift. A heaven-sent one because the folks in the hood got me. They understood me. No one questioned why I wanted to cover my body in ink because they knew that each tattoo meant something personal to me. They knew that I wasn’t purposely trying to fail my classes in school, but that the city didn’t care about my school getting any funding, so my education wasn’t important.

  “I was a product of my environment, torn between what I knew and what I’d learned in the streets versus what my mom’s family was trying to instill in me. It’s difficult when you feel like you never fit in. What do you do when every facet in your life is pointing you in a different direction?”

  “You wild out,” Nicole said, nodding in understanding.

  “Exactly. You try and fill that void however you can, counting the moments in which you actually feel fulfilled.”
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  “Then when you do,” she said, “you hold on to that moment with all you’ve got. I was probably holding on to more moments than I should have, until I finally learned a valuable lesson that I will never, ever forget.”

  “What did you learn?”

  Nicole looked him in the eyes, the realness reflected in her gaze so strong it caught him off guard. “I realized that everyone who may rock with you is not always for you. There are people who will be placed in your life to teach you a lesson. Some will offer friendship. Others will be in the form of an enemy. Some may smile in your face, but talk about you behind your back. Others may even talk about you to your face. Only a select few are trying to help you. Encourage you. Uplift you. And within that group of individuals who are placed in your life for a reason—for a lesson—it’s up to you to figure out what you can gain from each individual or situation to mold yourself into a better person and not the person they are trying to make you out to be.”

  Kendrick glanced at her, completely in awe at how raw and honest she was with her thoughts. They may have only been a couple years apart in age, but in that moment, he felt like she was years ahead of him in what she’d learned. He had no doubt that they’d both suffered a great deal of pain. Some self-inflected, and pain brought on by others. He hoped one day he’d be able to peel back even more layers of Ms. Nicole LeBlanc.

  “We crossed paths at the bar for a reason,” he said to her when they neared what he assumed was her apartment complex.

  “I know,” she said with a smile. “We are meant to help one another in some capacity. We just have to figure out what capacity that is.”

  His eyes dropped to her red-colored lips on their own accord. Per usual, they looked appetizing and very suckable.

  “You’re not going to ask me what flavor I’m wearing?”

  Kendrick blinked a couple times. “Uh, flavored what?”

  She giggled. “Your mind is in the gutter. I was talking about my lipstick. It’s cherry in case you were wondering.”