by Jones, P. A.
“What is it?” I shouted from my bed. I wanted to sleep more.
Thanks to Carrie, Stephen was fine and sleeping with her. She’d grown fond of Stephen in no time, and she was the best.
“Who’d there?” I yelled.
“It’s me, baby. Gerome, sucker.”
“What do you want?” I didn’t like the way he’d forced himself on me last night. It was totally unacceptable behavior from him.
“Nothing, just came to say sorry.”
My mood lightened a bit. “Come in.”
“Hey, babe.” He looked a mess when he entered. I could smell the alcohol from ten feet away.
“Why are you awake so early?”
“Well, I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to apologize as soon as possible.”
“Say it, then.”
He came forward, bent on his knees and held my hand. “I’m so sorry for last night. But you have to understand my feelings here.”
“What feelings, Gerome?” My head was hurting. “The feelings from when you abandoned me and didn’t care I was carrying your son?”
He sighed hard. “I’ve been telling you this over and over. It wasn’t my choice. I had a gun at my head not to call you or contact you. I spent two years in Africa to be away from you. And I had no choice, dear. I missed our son so much. By the way, where is Stephen? I haven’t seen him in days.”
“It was two years, Gerome, and you didn’t even try to know if I was dead or alive.” I was getting very angry with him.
“Look, Nikki, the past is the past. Please forget it. I want to make it up to you,” he said, innocently.
“How can I trust you on this? You came here only few days ago, and you are expecting me to trust you again?”
“Just give me a kiss and makeup on this. Did you forget how we made up our fights with sex when we were in deeply love?” He tried to smile, but it looked miserable on his drawn face.
That brought up many memories in me. “Let it be. I need time, Gerome. I can’t tell you anything right now.”
“Hey, Nikki,” Carrie’s voice popped up through the door.
I looked up. She was standing there with Stephen in her arms. She was looking at Gerome. “Oops, sorry. I might be here at wrong time.”
“Hi, Carrie, how are you?” Gerome turned around. “Is that Steph?”
He stood up and picked Stephen from her arms and kissed him on the cheek. Stephen looked at him once and then smiled at him. “Cho Chweet. I love you, my son.” He pulled him closer and kissed him again and again. But then maybe because of so many kisses, Stephen started crying.
“Give him to me, Gerome. Don’t push your fatherly love on him in one single day. Leave some for tomorrow,” I said sarcastically.
“Sorry.” He gave Stephen back to me. “I should leave, then, but think on it, Nikki. Goodbye, Carrie. It was nice to see you after so many long.” He waved goodbye and walked out.
“Strange, what were you talking about?” Carrie asked.
“Nothing. He was trying to tell me how much he missed me in the last two years.” I kept looking at the direction he’d gone. My brain was trying to absorb all the things he’d just said.
“And...?
“And, nothing. I’m not ready yet. I need some time, Carrie.”
I started walking with Stephen. It was time to put him to sleep.”Did you feed him on time?”
“Yes. Just before we left, I gave him milk.”
“Thanks.”
“Well, I need to move my ass now. I have a date planned.”
“Date? With your boyfriend?”
“Yes, we are going to do role playing today.” She winked at me. “You know what I mean... I’ll be a nurse and he will be a salesman.”
“You dirty people.”I slapped her on her shoulder, giggling.
“Bye, honey. See you tomorrow.” She waved goodbye.
I put Stephen to sleep in his room and lay down on my bed, thinking about Tristan.
Holy God, I missed him so much already. I missed his kiss, I missed his touch and I especially I missed his fingers touching my whole body like I was an instrument and he was playing it to give the finest performance of his life. I miss you Tristan.
All I could think about was the way his hands played with my breasts—I closed my eyes and pressed my own breasts. The way his hands grabbed my ass and pulled me on him. My hands were moving on my thighs. The way his tongue sucked my skin everywhere. My hands were inside my lacy underwear, touching my special spot. The way the tip of his tongue sent tingles across my whole body like lightning bolts when playing with my clit. My fingers were rubbing myself hard.
“Come for me, baby, come for me.” His words echoed in my ears like an angelic sound.
I didn’t know when I started touching myself in his memory and when I realized, I’d already had my orgasm. My skirt was pulled up, my lacy underwear was scattered and I was shuddering on the bed after the waves of pleasure. It wasn’t anything close to what he did to me, but I felt like he was around and touching me everywhere and giving me a virtual orgasm.
How can I live without you, Tristan, when you have invaded my mind and body so much?
Someone knocked on my door, and I was snapped out of my thoughts. I quickly arranged my clothes and sheets and opened the door. Outside, the father of my son was standing with a rose in his hands.
“What now?” I said, Irritated.
“Nothing, I just wanted to give you this and say I’m sorry for what I did yesterday. I’m ready to wait for you until you are ready.” He gave me the rose. A hint of guilt spread across my mind. “And I still love you, babe.” He kissed me on my cheek and moved back.
I kept staring at his back when he chose to go down stairs instead of the elevator.
What am I doing? I thought I would give him a chance, but I ain't doing it. I didn’t have the answer. But one thing was sure; I wasn’t going back to Tristan and I would be trying to rekindle with Gerome, in spite of how I hated him when he’d left me alone.
Chapter 12
Nikki
“Mama.....” Stephen called me with his little lips. He looked damn cute. I picked him up and kissed him.
Stephen was playing in front of me. I’d just bought him a toy car and he was a happy with it.
“Yes, baby, do you want anything?” I whispered in his ears.
He nodded his head and I watched him in amusement. It’s a miracle how much happy you can get seeing your kid play. He was the sole reason I could be happy every day; otherwise, most of my nights were troubled because of Tristan. I thought I could get him out of my head. But still, even after three month since Gerome had come, I was still struggling with my feelings for him. Like he was imprinted on walls of my mind and I just couldn’t wash him away.
Why did you do it, Tristan? Why did you have to be like this? He was the most honest man I’d ever found in my life and he’d betrayed me in one night. Some days, I thought I might be just wrong to think that about him. Maybe Trisha was there for some work and I took it wrong. But then I looked at Gerome, who was trying hard to get my attention. He acted like a jackass sometimes. He was a jack ass before he left for that MMA championship and I’d hated him more than I’d loved him in last few months of our time together, but now he was somehow changed. He was taking care of Stephen, he was acting nice with me and he was even looking after the business which I didn’t even try to take over after my dad’s death. But still, I couldn’t get myself to trust him again. Not after what he’d done to me earlier.
My thoughts were disturbed by a loud noise. I looked up. Gerome dropped a few files in front of me. The sound unbalanced me and I was shocked for a second. Even Stephen started crying.
“What the hell, Gerome? What’s the meaning of this?” My eyebrows furrowed.
“This means the trouble in your business.” His forehead was full of creases. He was doing something on his tablet and Stephen was crying loud. Everything was so irritating.
I picked Stephen up and
gave him another toy so he could calm down. It worked, because I gave him his favorite toy.
“What happened?” I asked Gerome, as Stephen calmed down.
“Do you know your dad pulled up lots of bad credit on your so-called MMA business?”
“The one I have with me?”
“Yes, the one you are supposed to be looking at, dear.” He emphasized the word ‘you’.
“Why are you so pissed off? I didn’t tell you to look into the business for me. I have many people here who can do that for me.”
“Name a few.”
“Um...” He was right. I didn’t know anyone who could look after the business for me.
“You know squat, Nikki. Sucker.” He collapsed on the couch near me.
“So what? My dad has lots of money—and what about this bad credit thing?” I picked up a file, but I couldn’t understand a thing from it.
He gave me the tablet he was holding.
“What’s in it?”
“Our accounts. The red bar shows our spending, the blue bar shows our remaining credit and the green one is our earnings.”
“It looks good. Green is higher than red.” I couldn’t get what he meant.
“No, this was a year ago. Now slide to the right.”
I slid to the right. It had a new graph where the red and blue bars were much higher than the green bar.
“This is crazy. Where are we spending all this money? And why didn’t you tell me this last month?” I asked, furiously. I read the figure below the red bar—it was 4 and 5 zeros on it. “What the fuck? Why is it so high?”
“For the last two weeks, I’ve been trying to find out what’s going on with the business.”
“And?”
“It’s the bad credit, Nikki. Your dad took out lots of credit against this business.”
“But he always said this is the sustainable business.” I remembered, him talking with Chase one day about the future of his underground league fighting. He was very hopeful and looking forward for this business.
“He had access to money from other businesses.” He held his head in his palms. “Slide it again.”
I slid it, and now the Green bar was huge, the red bar and blue bar were smaller. “What’s this?”
“That’s our complete business forecast. See, the money is there which can save this business, but it’s not our money anymore. The MMA thing is just five percent of your dad’s empire, and still it has eleven percent of the bad credit. Sucker.”
“That’s bad.” I had no idea what to say. I didn’t know much about the business and how to run one, and I was thrown into the driver’s seat already. “There should be something we can do? Isn’t there?” The fear of losing Stephen was grasping me hard. I couldn’t let him slip away from me again.
“I don’t see any except a couple of things we can do. But I can see the roof falling down in the near future. There is nothing that can save us going bankrupt on this one.” He sounded very low.
“No, that’s not an option. They will take away Stephen from me. We need to do something.” My heart was beating faster and faster; my spine was aching at the possibility of losing Stephen again.
“First thing, you need to get on board. If you start showing up yourself, the banks will see your dad in you and they will give us more time to settle and perform better. They are very eager to close on the business after your dad died.”
“Okay, I can do that.” But that meant I’d need to look at myself again. In the last month, I hadn’t gone out, I didn’t work out and I must have put few pounds on myself. “And what’s the second?”
“We need to contract someone popular in the league, who can give our club the spotlight. He can bring a lot of money to us, Nikki. We just need to find one and get him with our club.” He relaxed back on the couch. “Just think how much money we could make if we get this thing right. Right now, we have very few players remaining with us and they’re not enough.
I saw a hint of lust in his eyes, but I ignored it. He was the only hope I had at that time. And I couldn’t lose Stephen again.
“And do you have anyone in mind?”
“No, not as of right now, but I’m already working on it. We will find someone very soon. But before that, you have to start attending board meetings.”
“Yes, I will start doing it next week.”
“Next week is too late, Nikki,” he said, frustration in his voice. “I think you have to start from this week.”
“Okay, I will do it,” I said, with lots of confidence.
Chapter 13
Nikki
“Is it working, Gerome? It’s already been six months since my dad died and we’re still struggling,” I asked in disappointment. Nothing was working with the business. Gerome and I tried hard, but all I’d gotten was disappointment.
“A little. At least you are getting used to the board meetings and the dirt they throw on you.” He tried to smile, but working ten hours a day wasn’t helping any of us. It just brought out the evil in us. We were fighting about small things, quarreling like small kids because of the failing business.
I didn’t care about the situation of the business, or the money. The only thing I cared about was Stephen. I didn’t want to lose him at any cost. But Gerome seemed more concerned about the business.
“Don’t worry, Gerome. We have to fight this one and win this at any cost. I can’t let them take away my son.”
“I’m trying ,Nikki. At least we’ve got few more days to pay the debt because of you showing your ass at the board. I’m sure we can do some better things after that.”
The clock on the wall was ticking slowly, but its second hand was stuck on twelve. My life was moving ahead, but I was stuck like that second hand. My emotional life was stuck in between Gerome and Tristan. It had been two months since I last saw Tristan, but nothing had changed for me. I still loved him more than anything and I still hated him for his betrayal. The only thing clear in my head was to try to give one hundred percent to Gerome, the father of my son. But that wasn’t working, either. I was still stuck like that second hand of the clock.
“Are you even listening to me?” Gerome touched my shoulder and I jumped on the couch in shock. He’d caught me off guard.
“Yes...no. What were you saying?”
“Sucker. I was saying we need to fine some way out of this, and as soon as possible.”
“Yes, you’re right.” I was still looking at the hand of the clock.
***
"Hey, Nikki."
I was playing with Stephen when Gerome called me. "Yes?" That was the only comfort I had been getting in those days of tension.
"I've got good news."
"What good news? Are we bankrupt already?" Sarcasm was running through my veins these days.
"No, I found the man who can bring our company to profit again."
"The man? Who is he? An angel?"
"Nope, a devil, actually. His tagline is very interesting."
"What is it?" I stopped playing with Stephen.
"There are angels in this world, and then there is me."
Something about him intrigued me. Something about that tagline—I might have read it somewhere. "Who is he? And how he can help us?"
"His name is Maxim and he is the dark horse of the MMA world right now."
"I’ve never heard of him." I was pretty sure I’d never heard his name. Going in Dad's club frequently made me aware of the new things happening in the MMA world.
"He is new. Joined the MMA world two months ago."
"So he is a rookie," I said. I didn't like the idea of placing a rookie at the heart of our problem.
"That would be your mistake. He isn't a rookie, but a very skilled and brutal MMA fighter. In the last two months, he’s won sixteen matches in a row. And trust me, all of those with a knock-out. "
"That's a streak or something?"
"Even I couldn't win more than ten in row when I was playing."
"And do you think o
f yourself as a pro?" I giggled. Teasing Gerome was so much fun.
"Don't change the subject. What I'm saying here is that I got an appointment for this evening and I want you there. He wasn't ready at first, but then I begged his manager and she agreed."
"Why does he have a lady manager?"
"I don't know. Maybe you can ask him when we meet him. Now, please don't ask too many questions. If you want to save the company, you’d better be ready for the meeting at six sharp," he said, and walked out of my room.
"Okay, dokie." I muttered.
***
"Hello, Nikki." It was Gerome.
I'd just dropped Stephen at Carrie’s place and I was waiting for Gerome to pick me up.
"Where are you? We’re already running late."
"Hey, babe, sorry. I might be late because of traffic. Can you book a cab and get there? I need you to be there if I'm late. I don't want to ruin this opportunity at any cost. And I mean it, at any cost."
"Okay." I sighed. Dealing with a stranger wasn't always my strong point, but now it seemed that I’d have to deal with a total stranger.On my own.
I dropped my car at Carrie’s house and took a cab to the Hotel Atlanta. That was the most expensive hotel in New York. The name of that hotel sent a surge of memories through my mind. It was the same hotel where I took Tristan for lunch, and later we had amazing sex. Where are you, Tristan? Why did you do this to me?
I reached the reception desk and asked for Maxim. The lady directed me to the most expensive suite of their hotel. I knew it because I had been here once with my dad, but it was five years ago.
"Please wait here. Maxim will come soon." A lady welcomed me as I opened the door of the suite.
"Thank you." I sat on the couch. The suite was well-decorated and I doubted anything placed there was cheaper than a few grand. Even the glasses placed on the table were expensive ones. You seem to be a rich one, Maxim.
From where I was sitting, I could see the corridor leading to the bedrooms and inside the kitchen. The suite had five bedrooms and two guest rooms. Somebody walked out of the bedroom. A lady, I guessed, by the tap of her high heels.