Back to Life Series Box Set

by Danielle Allen

  I was so stunned that I didn’t realize I had dropped the flower in my hand or had plopped down in my chair. “He was there?” My tone was hushed as I tried not to listen to my heart’s reasoning for his appearance.

  “He didn’t want me to say anything and I didn’t plan on it. I figured he had his reasons. But when we had our meeting on Monday, he suggested you choreograph the dance and I figured that was why he was there. Even though…”

  I bit my lip. “Even though?”

  “Even though, he’s asked me about you every day since the showcase.”

  My belly tensed with excitement. In order to temper my fluttering heart and reacting body, I brushed off her statement. “Okay, I am pretty sure he was just excited about getting free choreography by a soon-to-be world famous choreographer. And you know he’s a worrier. I was all over the place that night so I’m sure he was just worried about me.”

  “Mmm hmm… More like he was worried about that arm candy you had.”

  “What?”

  “The guy who was obviously your date for the evening.”

  My eyebrows furrowed and my forehead creased. “My date?” I thought long and hard because I didn’t have a date that night—not to the showcase at least. ”Who?”

  “He was about six feet tall. He looked nice in his tuxedo. He kind of had a slim build. He had a nice smile, but what stood out to me was his posture. He walked like he could balance a book on his head—like he was your cotillion date or something.”

  I threw back my head and laughed. “Rodney? You’re talking about Rodney. He’s one of the instructors here and we are not dating at all. I mean, at all. He’s a good guy, but we are not each other’s type. He’s probably who I’m going to ask to choreograph this New Year’s performance with me.”

  “Well, that’s good to know. I’m sure a certain brother of mine would be very interested in that information.”

  I thought about it for a second. “No,” I decided. “Let him think what he wants. He has a girlfriend so it shouldn’t matter who I’m dating anyway. And if he has a question about it, he needs to ask me. You are separating church and state, remember?”

  She giggled, “You’re right, you’re right.” She sighed dramatically. “But you didn’t see the look on his face as he asked me for the last twelve days if I knew anything about that guy. I joked that he seemed pretty jealous for someone in a relationship and he stopped asking me. I know it’s still bothering him though. It has to be.” She giggled. “You both are funny.”

  “You know who’s not funny?” Not waiting for the actual answer, I continued, “His girlfriend.”

  “Touché. Speaking of girlfriends, did you make a love match last night?”

  “Ha!” I scoffed. “Love? No. Like? Maybe. A good time? Yes. He sent flowers today so that was sweet. He’s good looking and seemed pretty cool, but I don’t know. He doesn’t give me the feels yet. He asked me on a second date though. I said yes.”

  “I hope he doesn’t have a girlfriend like the loser you went out with from that dating website two weeks ago.”

  “He said he was single, but I don’t trust anyone anymore so I don’t know. I mean, I asked him straight out if he had a girlfriend and he said no. I followed up with ‘do you have a boyfriend? Wife? Husband? Female you’re allowing to believe she’s your girlfriend? Someone you’re talking to?’ and he said no to all of those questions. But after finally being ready to date again after Anthony’s bullshit, I question everything because you know people lie without hesitation these days.” I sighed. “Now that I think about it… dating kind of sucks.”

  Addison laughed. “Not every guy is a reincarnate of your soon-to-be ex.”

  “Oh!” Her words reminded me of why I called to begin with. “Guess what?”

  “What?”

  “He signed the paperwork!” I cheered. “It’s over. It’s finally over.”

  “Thank God,” Addison cried. “How did it finally go down?”

  “I reminded him that the state medical board wouldn’t take too kindly to knowing how he drugged me.”

  “Oh shit! You are such a bad ass.”

  I giggled. “I didn’t want to have to go there, but he pushed me.”

  “He did it to himself. He turned out to be such an ass. I’m sorry. I’m glad it’s over.”

  “Yeah, me too.” I paused, sighing lightly. “That’s what scares me about dating. I’m a great judge of character and my husband was able to lie and cheat on me from the beginning of our marriage—probably the beginning of our relationship. If he was able to swindle me, how am I supposed to trust these men I meet after a few conversations?”

  “Faith.”

  I sighed. “It’s hard. I’ve gone on three dates this month and on paper, they seem like a good fit for me. But then I meet them and they just…aren’t. None of them piqued my interest after we actually met for coffee except one. This guy, John, who sent the flowers. He’s been the only one to get me to go on an actual date and the date was great, the conversation was great, everything was great. And to top it off, he sent flowers the morning after. But something is missing.”

  “Mm-hmm. Are you going to see him again?”

  I smiled. “Yeah, he asked me to go to this show with him so I accepted. I don’t know… something is missing though. Maybe the second date will win me over.”

  “Maybe it’s because your heart is already taken.”

  Hearing the smile in her voice, I rolled my eyes. “My heart is in my chest where it belongs.”

  Chapter 19

  Saturday, November 25th – 11:41pm

  “You’re not my boyfriend,” I replied into the cell phone, rolling my eyes.

  I stared at my reflection in the mirror and turned to the side. The metallic and leather formfitting dress was a splurge that I’d made the day before on Black Friday. It fit like a glove. Even though the deep, sweetheart neckline and fitted design were sexy, it was the material that made the dress look like sex. And in it, I looked like sex personified.

  I did another slow twirl in the mirror before eyeing the leather booties and the long span of leg that stretched between my boots and the short hem of the dress.

  “Emily, you and I have been dating for almost five weeks now,” John pointed out as I fingered my dark hair. It hung in waves around my shoulders.

  “We’ve gone on about five dates, yes,” I clarified. “But we haven’t gone out in a couple weeks. Ever since I said it wasn’t going to work between us, right?”

  “We have fun together. I treat you like a queen. You treat me like a king. The sex is incredible. This breakup seems out of the blue and a little irrational.”

  The sex was not incredible. It was decent, at best. I hadn’t had sex in almost a year and he was nice, had a clean bill of health, and I was enjoying getting to know him.

  But telling him that would be rude.

  I took a breath. “You treated me the way you should treat all women and I treated you the way all men should be treated. You’re a great guy, John. You will make some woman very happy. But that woman isn’t me. Like I told you from the beginning, I’m not looking for a husband right now. I’m looking for someone who is going to give me the feeling, you know? I think you’re looking for a wife. Either way, you and I are not on the same page. We’re not looking for the same things.”

  He attempted to argue, but I cut him off.

  “And that’s okay. People date and sometime it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. But knowing who you are and what you want makes it easier to distinguish what’s going to work from what’s not going to work. The point of dating is to find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with.”

  “And I can see spending the rest of my life with you.”

  I sighed, tears of annoyance stinging my eyes. I liked John as a person, but I didn’t want to be in a relationship with him and he was starting to ruin the party for me. “We are so not on the same page. Are you hearing me? I can’t see spending the rest of
my life with you,” I said slowly. “And you don’t even know me. This is why I want to end things now before they’ve had a chance to turn serious.”

  “Emily, are you serious right now? You’re breaking up with me?”

  “We weren’t together, but for all intents and purposes, yes, I am breaking things off with you.”

  “I got tickets to see the Nutcracker for us. What the hell am I supposed to do with them now? I only pretended to like that shit for you.”

  “And that’s what I’m talking about. You don’t know me and I don’t know you. You were pretending to like stuff to get me to hang around, but what’s crazy is that some of the stuff that you wanted to do for our dates weren’t even things I was interested in. It’s like you wanted to do it just because you heard or you read that a dancer would like to do it.”

  “So you’re breaking up with me because I wanted to try new things.”

  “No. We were never exclusive. If I remember correctly, you said you were taking someone named Susan to a Christmas party in a few weeks. Give her the tickets. Try new things with her.”

  “Yeah, whatever. I’m sure Susan knows how to appreciate a good man since you can’t appreciate one.”

  “John, you’re a good man, but there’s something missing and I don’t want to hold you back from someone who loves every single part of you. I want you to find your happily ever after. I want the best for you. I want the—hello?”

  I pulled my phone from my ear to find myself confronted with the picture of me with my niece and nephews that I’d saved as my screensaver.

  “He did not just hang up on me,” I mumbled to myself as I tossed my phone back into my clutch and fished out my lipstick. Puckering my newly painted red lips, I tossed that back in my bag as well. “I am so done with online dating.”

  After approving of the way my ass looked in the dress, I walked out of the restroom with extra confidence in my stride. The energy at the bridal shower party was electric. I felt someone come up behind me and place their hand in the middle of my back.

  “If I’m your date, does that mean hitting on that woman over there is inappropriate?” Rodney asked as he escorted me back to our table.

  I leaned into him to whisper. “Just be discreet. That’s not even just a tip for me; that’s for you too. No self-respecting woman wants a man who tries to pick her up while he’s on a date with someone else. Let her know that we’re friends and that we do business with the club and thought it would be better to come together than with individual dates with whom we may be saddled with entertaining the whole night.”

  He nodded. “That’s good.” He lowered his voice. “It sounds a lot better than my friend is using me to make the man she loves jealous.”

  I made a face to try to keep from grinning. “Who said anything about making someone jealous?”

  He backed away, head cocked to the side. “Who didn’t say anything about the word love?”

  “Well obviously that’s…”

  Not true.

  Rodney had ducked through the crowd before I had a chance to finish the rest of my sentence.

  Shaking off Rodney’s ridiculousness, I headed to the bar and ordered one of the engagement party specials. “I’ll take a Blushing Bride-to-be, please.”

  Once I was handed the rose colored champagne, I propped myself up against the barstool and eyed the crowd. I quickly found Addison and Tyree in the middle of the dance floor moving their bodies seductively to the beat.

  They are clearly having premarital sex right here in front of everyone.

  I turned my head and caught Bennett making out with some blonde I hadn’t seen before, but based on what she was wearing, she worked for December.

  I wonder what ever happened between Bennett and Natasha.

  I recognized a few people from Delta Southern University. They were a few years older and graduated three years before I did, but I didn’t think they remembered me. Mostly everyone was drunk at the party or on their way to being drunk so I wasn’t offended when a guy I know I had taken two years’ worth of Spanish with didn’t remember me. We’d been celebrating Addison and Tyree since eight o’clock and people were feeling it.

  After my former Spanish classmate finished hitting on me, he left and I caught a glimpse of CJ and Cameron. They were near the exit and while she was wearing a little jacket, he was not. She gestured into the building and he shook his head forcefully. They seemed to be having an intense argument and I didn’t want to stare, but I couldn’t take my eyes off them. Suddenly, Cameron’s eyes met mine and then narrowed. I looked away as fast as I could.

  Sheesh. What was that about?

  I turned toward the bartender and finished off my glass. Waiting a few minutes, I asked for another Blushing Bride-To-Be.

  “What is this? It’s the best champagne I’ve ever had in my life,” I asked when he handed me my drink.

  The bartender opened his mouth to answer, but a deep, sexy voice cut in and caused an unexpected uptick in my heart rate.

  “It’s Armand de Brignac Brut Rose Champagne,” CJ interrupted.

  I turned quickly to find CJ standing so close to me that if I were to move an inch in either direction, left or right, our bodies would’ve made contact.

  “Hi.” My voice shook a little when I greeted him.

  Every other time we’d spoken over the course of the evening, I saw him coming or I approached him. Addison teased me about the way I got moony-eyed when CJ and I got wrapped up in conversation. Even though I’d start out fine and treat him like a friend, he would say something funny or one of us would make a jab at the other and she said the sparks would just start flying. I didn’t know where his girlfriend was lurking, but with the look she gave me and the fact that he still even had a girlfriend, I didn’t need to have a conversation with him one-on-one. It was too risky.

  “Do you like the Blushing Bride-to-be?” CJ asked, his face void of any one expression.

  “Do you like the Vows and Vodka?” I eyed his empty tumbler, putting my glass to my lips. Before taking a sip, I added. “That’s what? Number three?”

  “Are you keeping count of how much I drink? Because you’re doing a terrible job. This is number five.”

  I giggled, putting my hand to my chin to wipe the champagne that dribbled down it. “You’re funny,” I commented as I continued to laugh.

  Grabbing a napkin, CJ dried my chin and then his eyes dropped to my chest. I saw his throat move down and then up as he stared at my cleavage. “You have…um, you have.” His eyes moved up my chest and neck, lingering on my lips for a second before he met my eyes again. “You have champagne on your chest.” He put the napkin in my free hand.

  My skin still felt hot where his gaze lingered and it took me a minute to gather myself. “Thank you.” I cleared my throat as I dried off the moisture on my chest. I cut my eyes at him and scanned his grey suit over his beautiful body. “You look nice.”

  “You look like trouble.”

  I smirked. “Don’t pretend you don’t like to get into trouble.”

  He gave me a look that incinerated my panties on the spot. “I’ve never denied that.”

  His words wiped the smirk off my face and took my inhibitions and common sense with it. For one thirty-second period, I would’ve debased myself for that man. Any dirty, kinky thing he wanted from me, he could’ve had it.

  He winked and I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.

  This is why I can’t flirt with him. He plays too much.

  “So are you with that guy?” CJ asked.

  “Did we come together? Yes. Is he my date tonight? Yes.” I tried to look nonchalant as I took a long sip of my beverage before I met his eyes again. “Why do you ask?”

  His dark brown, almost black eyes seared into mine as if he was taking possession. He leaned close, bringing his face within inches of mine. “Because you can do better.”

  My stomach dropped and fluttered at the same time as he walked away.

&
nbsp; Well, damn. First my chin, then my chest, and now my panties.

  I gripped the bar and tried to keep myself steady. I inhaled and exhaled loudly as I forced myself to get it together.

  “I got her number,” Rodney informed me as he popped his collar. Immediately, he folded it back down. “She asked me to ditch the party and head back to her place. I wanted to check with you first because I didn’t want to abandon you…Are you okay?”

  I licked my lips and tried to focus on my friend’s face. “Yeah, yeah I’m okay,” I answered quickly. “Go back to her place and have fun. I’m okay. But keep your phone on and don’t drive. I’ve left my car in that parking deck overnight before. It’ll be fine.”

  He eyed me suspiciously. “Your face is red and your eyes are glazed.” He lowered his voice. “Are you drunk? I thought you were only having a couple glasses of champagne.”

  “That’s all I’ve had.”

  He leaned back and assessed me further. “Well, don’t leave for the next hour, because even if you aren’t drunk, you look it.”

  I snapped out of my daze and laughed. “Just go and enjoy yourself. Wear a condom! I don’t have to remind you of what happened to my brother. You don’t need an Ashlyn situation.”

  It was Rodney’s turn to laugh.

  We bumped our fists against each other’s and then he headed straight to the woman he was speaking with earlier. They scurried out of December like two teenagers.

  I took a deep breath and when I saw Bennett heading my way, I asked for a bottle of water from the bartender and then entered the dance floor.

  An hour later, I was sure that I’d won the internal dance competition I was having with other people in my mind. Most of the men that approached me thought they were dancing with me, but little did they know, I was dancing against them—and winning.