by Reana Malori
His eyes turned a bit more serious and lost some of their shine as he pondered her questions, “It’s a unique method, but it seems to work for me. I’ll have to monitor it for the rest of my life to make sure the scars don’t return, but for now, let’s just be thankful that I found a cure.”
“Yeah, I guess so. You look great though, but…” she hesitated.
“But what?” he pressed.
“Whenever I pictured you, you were still the boy I knew in high school. The one I spent so many hours with every day. The one who I stayed up late with playing those stupid games. You were my Jaidon. Now…you’re this new and improved version.”
Talk about diarrhea of the mouth. One day, she’d learn to stop when she was ahead. “Not sure I was ready to see you like this.”
“Your Jaidon?” he asked with a quirked eyebrow and a smirk.
She stared right back. If he’d been too clueless to understand how she felt about him all those years ago, then that was his fault. Kenya threw him a challenging look that said more than any words she could form.
“Hmmm, well, we’ll have to talk about that later. Won’t we?” he challenged.
“Maybe,” she hedged. “So, do you live here in DC now?”
He gave a bark of laughter before he responded. “Nice subject change. Yeah, I’ve lived here for the past six years. Before that, I was in Atlanta with a consulting firm. After dealing with that rat race for a while, I needed a change. What about you?”
“San Jose, California until three months ago. After college, I was offered a job at the district attorney’s office and jumped at the chance,” she let the words flow easily. Her job was a sore spot for her. She’d loved the idea of being an attorney, but after years of dealing with white-collar criminals who seemed to escape all attempts at bringing them to justice simply because of who was listed on their speed dial. She’d realized it was time for a change.
“You’re an attorney?” he asked. She could swear he seemed to lean away from her.
“Yes. I went to law school after college. Wanted to do something different with my life. Something my parents hadn’t expected, but were still proud of. Law school seemed to be calling my name,” she said with a small smile. She loved what she did for a living, at least she did at first. Hopefully, this move back to the east coast would give her a renewed sense of purpose.
Things were already off to a great start if seeing Jaidon was anything to go by. At that moment, the waitress brought their food over. Thanking her as she finished, they both looked at each other’s plates and laughed.
“You and your cheesy eggs,” he said with a smile.
“You and your bacon,” she responded.
“I guess we don’t change as much as we think.”
“I hope not,” she murmured with a smile. Taking a sip of her drink, she placed her napkin on her lap. “I’m glad I saw you today, Jaidon.”
He gave her another penetrating glance before responding, “I am too. It’s really good to have you close by again.”
*****
Later that night, Jaidon wrapped his arm around Kenya as they strolled down the street in Georgetown, an area in the heart of DC.
“Did you know I lived here in DC before you moved here?” he asked.
“No, but I wish I had. I talk to my parents all the time and I told them about the job offer here at the District attorney’s office. They never mentioned you lived here, but I’m not sure if they knew.”
“Yeah, maybe. My parents usually talk about every detail of my life with anyone who’ll stop and listen.”
“Your parents love you, Jaidon. They’re just proud of you,” she responded.
Pulling her closer, he nodded and smiled, “Yeah, I know. Now, enough about them. We’ve spent most of the day together. I still don’t know if I’ve caught up with everything about you.”
“You know everything about me.” Kenya pulled out of his arms slightly and stood in front of him. Grabbing his hand, she continued to pull him along. “You’re the only one who knows that I snuck out of my house the night of Stacy Tenley’s house party.”
Shaking his head at their high-school antics, he gave her a stern look. “Yeah, because you got drunk off your ass and I had to come get you and drive you home.”
“Well, if you’d been with me, I probably would have never gotten drunk,” she reminded him.
“I wasn’t invited, Kenya,” he snapped. The words escaping his mouth before he could stop them.
Halting her steps, she dropped his hand and looked up at him. “When had that ever stopped you before?” she asked. “Where I was, you were there also. If I had an invitation somewhere, so did you. You knew that.”
“Did I? Because as I recall, whenever I walked into the room with you, all we got were stares and whispers. I don’t even know why we’re rehashing this. That was years ago. I had no desire to be your freaky best friend. The creepy-looking scarred guy who was always hanging around you.”
The anger and frustration from all those years ago must have still been lurking under his skin somewhere. Kenya wasn’t the target of his ire and he needed to let it go. Those things had happened so long ago. Almost a lifetime. He was a different person now. His classmates wouldn’t even recognize him if they saw him today. He was sure of it.
“Jaidon,” she whispered. “It mattered to me. I wanted you with me. I needed you there by my side. It didn’t matter if anyone else wanted you there. I did. You weren’t there for them. You were there for me, because I wanted you there. With me.”
Her words finally penetrated his brain and he looked at her with something akin to shock. Her aura light was muted with reds and purples. It seemed be reaching out to him in soft waves, as if drawing him in.
“Kenya?” He couldn’t have been that clueless all those years ago. Could he?
“Did you ever wonder why no one ever questioned why I never went anywhere without you? They all knew. You were the only one who didn’t.” Her sweet voice was like music to his ears.
Stepping closer to her, he brought their bodies within inches of each other. Lifting his hand to her jaw, he exhaled as he felt the softness of her skin against his palm.
His hands had taken countless lives over the years for the sake of vanity. For no other reason than to eliminate the scars that he felt had been holding him back from being his true self. But as he cradled the face of the woman that held his heart for so many years, his past no longer mattered.
“What didn’t I know, Kenya?” he asked.
Her brown eyes sparkled in the night. The lights from the clubs and restaurants surrounded them as they stood off to the side while other patrons walked by the two of them.
“You didn’t know how much I loved you. How much I wanted you with me,” she admitted.
Dropping his palm, he took a step back. “No,” he said with a growl.
“Yes,” she said again, stepping closer as he moved away.
“But my face…” he began.
“Was only a part of you. From that first day we met—”
“Yeah, when you thought you were protecting me.” He laughed.
“How was I supposed to know that your hands would have been considered lethal weapons?”
“True. You saw me surrounded and took pity.”
Nodding her head, she smiled slowly. “At first, yes. I had no idea you would come to mean so much to me. At the time, I just wanted those bullies to leave the new kid alone. But then, it changed. Jaidon, how could you not know? All my friends knew. Hell, most of the school knew. My parents knew. That was one of the reasons I left.”
“They wanted you to leave because of me?” His heart fell as he said the words. His relationship with her had forced her away from her home.
“No, it wasn’t like that. They wanted me to go out and enjoy life a bit and then come home. If I lived enough life and decided that I wanted something different, they would support it.”
Looking around them as she spoke, Kenya seemed u
ncomfortable saying the words to him. Deciding to give her a break, he took that one step toward her, bringing his body almost flush with hers as he grabbed her arm.
“Hey, do you want to get out of the cold? Come back to my place. We can get warm and talk about what’s really been happening over the past years we’ve been separated. Being outside in the cold isn’t really my thing.”
She eyed him for a second before nodding her head. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“How do you like being an attorney?” he asked.
“That’s a loaded question,” she responded. Taking a sip of her drink, she rested her head on the cushion of the couch and took a deep breath. “I love the law. The knowledge of what’s right and what’s wrong. Going after the bad guys and making them pay for the crimes they’ve committed against people. I love that.”
“Sounds like there’s a ‘but’ to this story,” he prodded. Placing his drink on the table, he grabbed her legs and placed them over his lap. She’d long ago taken her shoes off and he needed to touch her. To be close to her. All those years ago, this was how they normally would sit.
Stomach tightening at the feeling of comfort flowing through him, he tried to tamp down his desires. This was not the time or place. They’d only reconnected earlier today. She’d probably never forgive him if he made a move this fast. Giving her a side glance, he caught her staring at him. Raising his eyebrows in question, he waited as she looked her fill.
Finally, she answered his question. “But…seeing these companies get away with so much has worn thin. The corruption. The greed. And the district attorney’s office being used as a hammer for their own crooked purposes. I’d finally had enough. That’s not why I got into law. That’s not my purpose.”
“So, what will you be doing out here?” Jaidon was surprised at how quickly they’d fallen back into the normalcy of their relationship.
“I need a change of pace. I’ll be going after the bad guys. Still working with the District attorney’s office, but with a focus on convicting those who have committed serious crimes.”
He loved the determined look in her eyes. “That’s my girl. I always knew you had big plans for your life. This fits.”
“Yeah, it does. I guess I just got lost along the way,” she said in a soft voice.
“It’s okay. We all do at some point,” he said in agreement. “The true test is what do we do after that.”
If only he followed his own advice. He was the type of man she would be soon be prosecuting. Was it fair to continue down this path knowing who he was? Knowing what he’d done?
With Kenya sitting next to him, in his home, as if they’d never been apart, he didn’t really care about fairness. All he cared about was her.
Her next words interrupted his thoughts. “Is there a Mrs. Jaidon? Or a wanna-be Mrs. Jaidon?”
Glancing at her, he noticed that her colors were popping and zinging. She was nervous. Oh, how he wanted to laugh at this. Holding back his smile, he focused on picking up his glass and taking a sip. If Kenya knew how much she was giving away at this moment, she’d never forgive herself.
Watching her as she waited for him to answer, he could see her getting more nervous every second that passed without a response.
“No. If there were someone like that, you wouldn’t be here. I don’t do well with commitment, Kenya.”
A frown came over her face and she began to pull her feet from his lap. “Oh, I see.”
Stopping the motion and holding her in place, he continued, “There’s never been anyone that I’d want to be that close to. Well, there was someone. A long time ago.”
“There was?” she asked in a sad tone.
“Yes, there was,” he responded. Maybe it was cruel to make her suffer. “She was everything to me. When I met her, my world changed. Her soul was as beautiful as her outer appearance. I was drawn to her from the very first moment she walked into my life.”
Kenya looked at him and he could see the sadness in her eyes. “What happened? Why aren’t you together anymore?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“Well, she left me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kenya murmured.
“Maybe it was for the best. I was heartbroken when she got on the plane. Didn’t eat or sleep for a few days. I was so torn up inside. But she had to live her dream. I understood it then, and I understand it now. Maybe life will give us a second chance.”
“Well, I hope it was worth it,” she snipped.
“Was what worth it?” he asked with a curve of his lips.
“Whatever she left you for. If she left someone who cared for her the way you did, I hope she got what she wanted. That her dreams were worth leaving you,” she finished.
He could tell she was mad, but he was also surprised she couldn’t see the reality of what he was saying.
“I don’t know. For her, I hope it was,” he returned.
Giving her foot a light rub, he looked over at her and waited a few seconds before continuing, “So, tell me Kenya. Was your dream worth it? When you left for Texas and never came back, was it worth the heartache we both went through?”
Her body jerked as she looked up at him. “What does me leaving…? Oh,” she exclaimed. Tears came into her eyes as she realized the truth in his words.
“Baby, it was you the entire time. How could you not know?” he asked with a low laugh.
“But you never said anything,” Kenya said in a shaky voice.
“We’ve been over this. I didn’t think I was good enough for you. The way I looked. How beautiful you were—and still are. It would have never worked back then. You deserved someone better than me. Why would I tell you how I felt, only for you to laugh in my face at how foolish I was being? Come on now. Why would I have done that to myself?” he countered.
“Jaidon,” she whispered. Her soft voice was both a boon to his soul and the one thing that could rip him apart at the same time.
“Sweetheart, I didn’t say that to hurt you…” His voice was soft as he stared at Kenya.
After a few deep breaths, she gave him a wobbly smile as she began to speak, “I’ve never actually said the words to anyone. Everyone knew how I felt about you. Everyone that is, except you. Even now, you don’t understand that my happiness seeing you today is not just because you were my best friend. It’s because I’ve missed you. It’s because if I could go back to that moment I came to your house all those years ago to tell you I’d been accepted to college in Texas and was leaving, I would have done things so differently.”
“What does that mean?” The need in his voice could be heard from a thousand miles away. He hated that she made him soft. He felt raw from her presence in his home, but he needed it. Wanted it.
“It means I’ve loved you since the day you came to my house at eight in the morning on a Saturday to bring me pancakes,” she answered sweetly.
He knew exactly what she was talking about. “Well, the night before, you said you were craving them and that you wouldn’t be happy until you got some. I had to make you happy. It was my job.”
“How did we not know?” she asked.
“Because we were young and clueless,” Jaidon said as he stared into her eyes.
“I’ve missed you. Missed us.”
“I’m here now,” he said.
“Yes, you are. So, what are we going to do about it?” she asked.
Her finger had begun rubbing circles on his forearm.
The sensation of her touching him caused ripples of desire to flow through him. If she didn’t stop soon, there would be no going back.
“Kenya, baby, don’t start anything that you’re not willing to finish,” he growled.
“Who says I can’t finish what I started? I’m no quitter,” she said with a laugh.
He stopped rubbing her feet and reached over to grab her by the waist. Pulling her over his lap, her legs straddled him as he looked up at her. “Jaidon,” she squealed in surprise.
“S
weetheart, I’m not the boy you used to know. It’s been a long time since I’ve been that shy kid,” he admitted.
“I know that. But you’re still the Jaidon I know. I don’t know what has changed over the years,” she said as she lifted one hand and rubbed lightly against the side of this face. Looking around his apartment, she sighed, “Whoever it is that you’ve become, the man who lives in this gilded cage, I still want to know you.”
“What if you don’t like what you find?” Watching her closely, he knew he shouldn’t use his gift to gauge her honesty and how she felt about him, but it was something he’d become used to doing over the years. It had saved his ass quite a few times.
“What if the roles are reversed?” she asked instead. “What if the girl you knew in high school no longer exists. Then what?”
Tilting his head as he watched the change in her body language and tone. Her rainbow of colors had turned a bland brown. She was hiding something. What had happened to his beautiful hummingbird since they’d been apart? Pausing before answering, he wanted to be careful with his words.
“There’s nothing I could learn about you that would change how I feel. Life isn’t easy. Sometimes we all must be that freak, that monster, the outsider who doesn’t fit the model of what others expect from us,” he said in a clear, calm tone.
Kenya dipped her head, breaking eye contact with him as he finished. Oh yes, his beautiful dove had gone through some shit. If he needed to kill some motherfucker for hurting her, he wouldn’t hesitate.
Placing one hand under her chin, he lifted her face up so that they were looking into each other’s eyes again. “I know you’re that same girl who tried to protect me from the bullies. Who stood up for a kid she didn’t know.”
“I don’t like bullies,” she said in a strong voice.
“Exactly. You’re the one who became a lawyer because you wanted to protect the innocent,” he whispered to her as her brown eyes bore into his gray ones. His large hands came up to cradle her face. His thumbs rubbed along the smooth skin and he thanked the Gods that she’d walked back into his life.