by Rhonda Bowen
“It’s okay. Go,” she said, waving him away.
“Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed with a small smile, taking another sip from her drink.
She made a face when she realized that it was practically lukewarm.
“Owen, can I get some ice?”
When Germaine finally returned a few minutes later, Jules was busy laughing with Owen. He had been telling her about a couple who had come in the week before and kept sneaking off to different parts of the Lounge to get busy. In one incident, security had caught them half-naked in the storage room near the back. After that they had been kicked out. But the way Owen told the story was what made it so hilarious.
“Glad to see you found someone to entertain you,” Germaine said, as he came up on Jules and Owen laughing. Even though Germaine’s tone was playful, Jules could have sworn she detected a slight hint of jealousy.
“Well, someone had to, after you abandoned me,” Jules said.
“Jules, I’m—”
“It’s okay, Germaine, I was just teasing,” she said, smiling. “I know you’re working.”
He said nothing, but looked at her curiously. Jules shifted uncomfortably as she watched his eyes scrutinize her. It was almost as if he was trying to read her mind, and it was unnerving.
“So there was something you wanted to tell me?” he asked, after what seemed like forever.
“Umm … yeah,” she said, gripping the edges of the bar stool. She took a deep breath. “I just wanted to tell you that—”
“Germaine, we got an issue with some guys near the front.”
This time it was Milton, the head of security for the Lounge.
“We asked them to leave, but they say they’re not budging till they see someone in charge.”
Germaine sighed heavily and looked at Jules.
“I’ll be right here,” she said, grinning.
He shot her an apologetic look, before following Milton into the crowd, toward the stage.
Jules sighed. It was going to be a long night.
* * *
By the time Germaine got back it was 12:05 a.m. Jules could feel the tiredness in her body and knew she couldn’t last much longer, especially since it was a Thursday night, and she had work early the next morning. She was trying not to get fired before she quit.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, taking her hands in his. He looked like a little boy who was about to get a scolding. Jules resisted the urge to reach out and pat him on the head to make him feel better.
“It’s not your fault, Germaine,” she said, smiling. “I understand. Really I do.”
He smiled, looking a little relieved.
“Okay,” he said. “But I promise no more distractions.”
“That’s too bad,” Jules said with a half smile.
“Why?”
“Because this would be the first time you break a promise to me.”
Germaine closed his eyes in defeat. “What now?”
“Jules, I’m so sorry,” Owen said, interrupting. She waved him off. She had seen him come up behind Germaine and knew that there was an issue at the bar.
“Germaine, we’re out of club soda.”
Germaine’s forehead crinkled in disbelief. “That’s impossible, Owen. I put a whole case back there earlier this evening, and we never finish that in one night.”
“Look around, boss; this place is packed. We’re running out of everything tonight.”
“Can’t you just get another case from the back?”
Jules tried not to laugh as she heard the slight frustration in Germaine’s voice.
“And leave all these people waiting here?” Owen said, nodding toward the growing number of men and women packed around the bar. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
Germaine groaned and turned his eyes reluctantly toward Jules, who had already slipped off the bar stool and grabbed her tiny silver clutch.
“Jules …”
“It’s okay, Germaine,” she said with a resigned smile. His eyes pleaded with her to stay, but instinctively Jules knew the rest of the night would be just like this. Besides, it was late, and she needed to get home.
Impulsively, she slipped her arms around Germaine’s neck and gave him a quick embrace.
“I’m really proud of you,” she said sincerely, as she hugged him. She took one last look at him before she let him go.
“Take care of yourself, Germaine.”
And with that she was pushing her way through the crowd toward the exit. Some things, it seemed, were just not meant to be.
Chapter 33
After what seemed like forever, Jules finally managed to push her way out of the Sound Lounge and step into the cool, morning air. It was amazing that even at this time of the morning, the streets of Toronto were still buzzing as if it was the middle of the day.
The music from the Sound Lounge mixed with the sound of the traffic, and the buzz from a bar across the street created a comfortable hum of street sound. Ahead in the distance, she saw a group of teenagers chatting and laughing as they walked down the street, uninhibited by the cool December wind. From somewhere nearby the sweet smell of Greek pastry wafted into her nostrils.
She loved this city. And if she had to spend the rest of her life alone, there was nowhere else she would rather be.
She tried to ignore the feelings of sorrow that were tugging at her heart. She wasn’t quite sure what she had expected when she came here tonight, but she knew what her heart had hoped for. And it wasn’t this.
“Geez, God, if You’re not going to let me be with him, the least you could do is take these feelings away,” she said out loud.
Feeling frustrated, and noticing people looking at her strangely, Jules walked a bit faster toward the side street where she had parked her car, all the time digging in her purse for her keys.
Suddenly she noticed heavy footsteps moving faster behind her. Could it be …?
“Jules, you forgot your keys on the bar.”
No, it was only Milton.
“Owen saw them, and asked me if I could run them out here to you.”
“Thanks, Milton,” Jules said, forcing a smile as her heart crashed into her stomach.
“No problem, girl,” he said, dropping the heavy, metal bunch into her palm. “You just be careful next time, okay?”
She nodded and smiled at the Latino man’s slight accent and overprotectiveness.
“I will.”
She watched him walk back to the Lounge, before briskly covering the rest of the distance to her car.
“Stupid girl,” she chided herself silently. “Who did you think it was, Germaine? Get real.”
She violently flipped the bunch of keys in her hand, in an effort to channel her frustration somewhere else.
She was so preoccupied with finding the right key on the bunch that she didn’t notice Germaine sitting on the car hood. She stopped suddenly and dropped her keys on the ground when she did.
He was looking at her curiously, the way he had been all evening. And just like before, it was completely unnerving her.
After what seemed like forever, he slid off the hood and retrieved her keys from the ground. But instead of giving them to her, he slipped them and his hands into his pockets.
She cocked her head to the side and squinted at him.
“How did you …”
“There’s a backdoor to this alley,” he said, nodding to an inconspicuous metal door in the side of the building near where Jules was parked. A few yards further into the alley was Germaine’s car. Somehow she hadn’t noticed it when she first arrived.
“There was something you wanted to say to me,” he said patiently, still watching her.
Jules opened and closed her mouth several times before she was able to say anything.
Why was she acting like this? It wasn’t as if she had never been this close to him before, and it wasn’t like they hadn’t had a million conversations
before this one. So why couldn’t she find the words to say what she had to say?
“I … it doesn’t matter,” she said pulling her gaze away from his and looking down. “Forget it.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
Jules nodded, not meeting his eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
“That’s fine, ‘cause there’s something I wanted to say to you anyway,” he said quietly.
Jules looked up. “What?”
Germaine took a deep breath as his eyes flitted around the quiet side street.
“This friendship thing, it’s not really working for us,” he said.
“What?” Jules asked in a slight panic.
“I … I don’t think I can be friends with you, Jules.”
Jules couldn’t breathe. She felt like she wanted to cry. The very thing she was holding on to, she was about to lose. This was too much.
“Why?” she squeaked.
“Because …” He sighed heavily and looked more uncertain than Jules had seen him in a long time. “Because I’m in love with you.”
Jules froze. Did she hear what she thought she heard?
“But you said …”
“I know what I said,” Germaine replied, cutting her off as he bounced her keys around in his pocket. “But I was angry and afraid that you might get hurt because of me. Plus, you never, ever do what I expect you to.”
“But you always knew I would be like that,” Jules said.
“I know,” he said. “But I didn’t expect it to frustrate me that much.”
Jules fingered the latch on her purse distractedly.
“So what changed?” she asked quietly.
Germaine smiled and took her hands in his.
“I saw how kind you were to my family even after we broke up. I saw how you never gave up on the God thing with Easy, and how you’ve been going out of your way to make things easier for Maxine. I guess I saw the real you, the Jules that God was trying to show me all along.”
Jules’s heart began to beat faster.
“And I realized that my life was way too boring without you in it.
“That’s why I can’t be your friend, Jules,” he said, pulling her closer. “Because I want more than that. I want you. All of you.”
Jules saw the sincerity in his eyes and knew that everything he said was true. He loved her. Just like she loved him. It seemed so unreal.
He took another deep breath.
“Look, I know I took a long time to tell you all this but …”
“Germaine?”
“Huh?”
“Shut up,” Jules said, smiling.
Then she reached up, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him just like she almost had that day in the hospital. It was like they had never been apart.
“I love you too,” she said, pulling back only slightly to look into his eyes. “That’s what I came here to tell you.”
“Then what took you so long, woman?” Germaine asked, his eyes dancing in that familiar way Jules loved.
Jules smirked. “Your bartender, and your security guard, and the guy from the—”
Before she could finish, his lips were on hers again, and his arms were holding her close. It was a good thing too, because she was so happy, she felt like she would float away. Nothing could ruin this moment.
Suddenly she pulled away.
“Wait,” she said, holding up her hand in protest. “What about LeTa—”
“Nothing happened,” Germaine said quickly.
“Did you—”
“Not even on the cheek.”
“So why did you even—”
“It was all Truuth’s idea,” Germaine said, grinning.
Jules’s eyebrows drew together. “I’m gonna kill that boy …”
“Don’t,” Germaine said, chuckling. “He felt bad that I was so miserable.”
Jules cocked her head to the side and smiled.
“So you were miserable without me, huh.”
Germaine raised an eyebrow knowingly. “Just as miserable as you were without me.”
“I was not miserable!”
“Yeah,” Germaine said, smirking. “I heard about your solo ice cream parties.”
Jules’s mouth fell open in surprise, but in moments she was grinning sheepishly.
“Okay, maybe I was this miserable,” she admitted, holding her thumb and forefinger only millimeters apart.
“I think you were a little more miserable than that,” Germaine said knowingly, tilting his head toward hers.
“Okay, maybe, just a little more,” Jules murmured just before his lips found hers again.
And just like always, it wasn’t long before she forgot what they were arguing about in the first place.
Chapter 34
“‘Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, to join in holy matrimony, two souls which the Lord has sought to bring together.’”
As she stood at the front of Scarborough Memorial Church gripping her bouquet of yellow and white tulips, Jules’s eyes began to tear up at the familiar words. There was something about weddings that made her weepy. Today was no different.
Even though she was supposed to be looking at the minister, Jules couldn’t help but steal a glance at Germaine. His eyes met hers, and he gave her a slow smile, and a quick wink from down in the pews. She couldn’t stop the smile that curved her own lips, anymore than she could stop the warm glow that flowed through her insides. She had to make a concerted effort to tear her eyes away.
She glanced over at Maxine, who was sniffling beside her. It seemed like everyone was a bit teary-eyed today—everyone except Tanya that is, who only had eyes for her groom. The both of them, it seemed, were in their own little world that consisted only of each other. In fact, since the moment Tanya had stepped through the rear doors of the church and made her way to the front in her beautiful Dior wedding gown, ‘Dre hadn’t been able to take his eyes off of her. It was no wonder—she looked absolutely stunning.
The whole wedding had come as a surprise to everyone. It seemed like ‘Dre and Tanya had only been engaged a week before they announced their wedding day to be a month and a half later.
Jules had thought they were crazy to think they could pull off planning a whole wedding in so short a time, but somehow they had managed to do it. It wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be since, both Tanya and ‘Dre had only wanted a small ceremony with a few close friends and family.
So here she was, maid of honor to her best friend, who finally got to marry the love of her life. Jules smiled. She couldn’t think of anyone who deserved it more.
“‘Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.’”
Endurance.
That was definitely something she had learned a lot about these past couple months. Endurance and patience and trust.
Looking back, she knew now that these were lessons that she had to learn, and learn the hard way. It was what God had let her go through to teach her to depend on Him more, both for the big and the little things. As she thought about her resignation letter, which she had handed to her boss at Toronto Grace just earlier that week, she knew that there was a lot more depending to do, and a lot more lessons to be learned. But she was ready for them, whatever they might be. As long as God was there with her, she’d be fine.
“By the power invested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Jules cheered with the rest of the bridal party and guests, as ‘Dre pulled Tanya into his arms and kissed her soundly. It was a good thing Momma Clayton wasn’t there to see her son kiss his bride. She would have probably had a heart attack.
Jules sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. This was a day to remember.
As the crowd spilled out of the church, into the parking lot, Jules stood on the front steps and looked around for Germaine. She stood on her tiptoes and tried to scan above the heads of the guests for that special head of low cropped hair, but it was nowhere to be seen. Just as she was about to get out her cell phone, she heard a voice behind her.
“Looking for someone?”
Jules spun around and found herself face to face with the man who she had been looking for all her life.
“Yeah, I am actually,” she said coyly. “He’s about your height, and complexion, but much cuter,” she teased.
“Is that so,” Germaine said slyly, stepping closer to her.
“Uh-huh,” Jules said, trying to keep a straight face.
“Well, I don’t see him anywhere,” he said, slipping an arm around her waist. “So I guess you’re stuck with me.”
“Yeah, I guess I am,” Jules said in mock disappointment.
Germaine chuckled, as he pulled her closer and kissed her slowly. Jules closed her eyes and relished the feeling of being loved. It was amazing how that never got old.
“Did I mention that you look gorgeous?” Germaine murmured against her ear. “I think I need to send someone a thank you card about that dress.”
Jules laughed, glad that Tanya had made them pick their own dresses instead of forcing them to wear some hideous bridesmaid creations.
“You’re not looking too bad yourself, Mr. Williams,” Jules said, as she reached up to straighten his tie. In his slate gray suit, pink shirt, and matching tie, he was looking ridiculously fine. In fact, as far as Jules was concerned, he was the best looking man in the room—no exceptions.
“I can’t believe you and Tanya pulled off this whole thing in about a month,” Germaine said. “You guys are something else.”
Jules shrugged. “Tanya’s my girl. She would have done the same for me,” she said, straightening his tie.
“I hope you’re right,” Germaine said. “ ‘Cause you might need to collect on that favor soon.”
“Careful,” Jules said, smirking. “You might start putting ideas in my head.”
“That’s the intention.”
Jules’s hands froze, and her eyes snapped up to meet Germaine’s.
“What are you saying?”