Back to Your Love

by Kianna Alexander

  “Are they all over eighteen? Jacki looks like a high school kid.”

  He chuckled. “She’s nineteen, and she’s the youngest.”

  Imani shook her head, sharing in his laugh. “Hopefully now that I’ve met your extremely young staff, you’ll quit bugging me…” Her words trailed off as she noticed two women walking toward them.

  The blue-eyed woman in the front, sporting a blunt-cut blond bob, had a press pass dangling around her neck. She was followed by another woman, dark-skinned, with a fierce afro. The second woman had two things around her neck: a press pass and an expensive-looking camera.

  Oh crap.

  Imani’s eyes darted around the corridor, seeking an easy escape route. But before she could duck into an empty office, the blond woman spoke.

  “Xavier Whitted? I’m Cara Carson from the N&O. This is Renee, my photographer. We were hoping to get a few shots of you and your staff, and a few quotes for the paper. Got a minute?”

  Turning on his megawatt smile, Xavier nodded. “Sure, but it’ll have to be brief.”

  Renee raised her camera, and Imani barely managed to shield her face with her hand before the flash went off.

  Lowering the camera, Renee remarked, “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you, miss…”

  Xavier stepped in then. “This is Imani. She’s not on my campaign staff. She’s…” He looked to her for guidance.

  She tightened her lips, signaling him that she’d rather not air her personal business.

  “She’s a good friend of mine, and she’s camera shy.” He gestured toward the open door of the campaign room. “Why don’t you ladies head on into the war room? My staff is already in there, and they’re feeling really chatty today. I’m sure they’ll give you the good stuff.”

  “Awesome.” Cara clapped her hands together and started toward the office, with Renee following her.

  Once they were alone in the hall again, Imani lifted her gaze to his. “Thanks. I’m just not ready to be making announcements and all that.”

  He waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. I get it. I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know any reporters were coming today. That’s the fun part of running a campaign. You never know what’s going to happen.”

  The two of them moved down the corridor and around the corner that led back to the entrance. As she placed her hand on the door handle, he stopped her.

  “Thank you for coming by, Imani. It means a lot to me.”

  She smiled. “I know. That’s why I came.”

  He reached for her, splayed his fingertips up the back of her neck until they were buried in her hair. Then he turned her face up and pressed his lips to hers.

  Her eyes slid closed, and she saw fireworks as his tongue eased between her lips. She gave herself over to the kiss, letting the hunger she felt inside have its way. When he finally released her, she felt dazed, breathless.

  “I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll call you later, sweets.”

  And with that, he and his intoxicating presence disappeared around the corner.

  She glanced around, wanting to make sure no one had seen them.

  It was only then that she noticed the reception desk, tucked in a corner to the far left of the door. But the receptionist appeared absorbed in a phone call, so she assumed they hadn’t been spotted. Gathering her wits, Imani pushed down on the door handle and slipped out of the office suite.

  * * *

  A whistling Xavier strode into his office Tuesday morning, his suitcase in hand.

  Rita, seated in her usual place behind the reception desk, greeted him. “Good morning, Mr. Whitted.”

  “Good morning, Rita.” He noticed the slight frown on her face. Because his secretary was a sunny person by nature, he knew something was up. “What’s going on?”

  She hesitated for a moment. “Mr. Fields is waiting for you in your office.”

  “Oh boy.” Whatever Tyrone had come to discuss would not be good. Rita’s face told all. “Well, wish me luck.”

  She nodded, and he straightened his tie and went down the hall. As he came to his open office door, he saw Tyrone sitting stiffly in a chair in front of his desk. Bracing himself, he walked in and set his suitcase on the desktop.

  “Good morning, Tyrone.” He dropped into his leather chair and waited for the reckoning to begin.

  His scowling friend scoffed. “Not as good as you think, Xavier.” Extracting a newspaper from his briefcase, he opened it and tossed it onto the desk.

  Curious and confused, he picked up the paper. It was the local section of the News and Observer. He scanned the page for a moment but couldn’t figure out what Tyrone wanted him to look at, so he shrugged.

  Arms folded across his chest, Tyrone stated tersely, “Center page, about three quarters of the way down.”

  When he looked again in the place Tyrone indicated, he cursed. He read the headline aloud in an anger-filled voice. “‘City Council Candidate Rekindles Old Romance’!”

  Tyrone nodded solemnly. “You know nothing is private when you run for public office. What was Imani doing in the office yesterday?”

  “I asked her to come by and meet the staff.”

  Tyrone rolled his eyes. “Dude. We talked about this. You can’t be dating right now, not in the middle of the campaign. And you certainly can’t be bringing women here to meet the staff.”

  Xavier sighed. “Ty, I already told you. There are no similarities whatsoever between Imani and Jess. She’s not going to do me wrong, man. I know it.”

  “I can’t believe you let them get all these photos of you. Look at this one, with you two kissing in the office. And look at this one—are you two coming out of a hotel? What the hell were you doing there?”

  Xavier raised his eyebrow. “You know what I was doing, man. But I can’t see how this got out so quickly.” He thought about it for a moment, then remembered his encounter with Aaron Givens in the hotel restaurant. “Wait a minute. Imani and I saw Givens and his wife in the hotel lounge.”

  “He’s not the source.”

  “What?” He was sure if anyone wanted to sabotage him, it was Givens. So who else would have gone to the papers?

  Tyrone shook his head. “It wasn’t Givens. Like you said, he only saw you eating with her and there’s no scandal in that.” He paused, pointed to the paper. “I read the article. The source was a young girl who works room service at the hotel.”

  He smacked his palm against his forehead. Imani had mentioned that there was something odd about the girl, but he’d dismissed it. Never again would he ignore his lady’s intuition. “What could she possibly have to gain from going to the papers with this?”

  “Turns out she moonlights for the Givens campaign.” Tyrone leaned back in his chair, his face finally relaxing out of the scowl. “I’m willing to bet the campaign gave her a fat check for this little tidbit.”

  “You’re probably right.” Xavier ran his hand over his eyes and groaned. “Imani is not going to like this. She’s not a girl who likes the spotlight.”

  “We’re just lucky there’s not a racier photograph to go with the story.” Taking the paper back, he tucked it away again. “Besides, it’s not her you should be worried about. They didn’t say all that much about her. The voters aren’t going to take kindly to a story like this so close to Election Day.”

  This was the part of the campaign he loathed most: having to be so careful about everything he said or did. “I’m a single man. Am I supposed to be celibate while I’m running for office?”

  Tyrone chuckled. “No, but you’d damn well better make it look that way.” He ran a hand over his head. “Look, man, I know you’re a modern thinker but this is still the South. Taking a girl to a hotel for a night is not proper behavior when you’re on the campaign trail.”

  His shoulders slumped, because he knew Tyrone was right.
“But this isn’t a fling. Imani means everything to me. We just got caught up in the moment.”

  “How is the public supposed to know that?” Tyrone stated. “I’ve already checked the damage, and we are down ten points in the polls.” Smoothing his jacket front and slipping a pair of dark shades over his eyes, he got up to leave. “If you want that council seat, you’ve got to cool it with Imani—at least until the votes have been cast. All right?”

  Xavier pressed his hand to his forehead. “You’re not serious, Ty. How can you ask me to do that when you know everything I’ve gone through to get her back?”

  Arms folded over his chest, Tyrone shook his head. “You won her back once. You can woo her again. After the election.”

  Xavier groaned, burdened by the truth of his words. With a terse nod, he acquiesced. “Fine.”

  After Tyrone left, Xavier got up and stood by the large window behind his desk. Outside, the sunny scene belied the chill in the air. The bright-green leaves of the oak near the window rustled in the breeze.

  Damn. Imani is going to hate me for this.

  He realized what he’d just agreed to do and how hurt Imani would be. Tyrone had told him straight up that dating her would be detrimental to his campaign, and now that he’d seen the story in the paper, he believed him. Tyrone had always been a truthful friend, which was why Xavier asked him to be his campaign manager in the first place. There was so much work he wanted to do in the community, and the council seat held the key to doing those things. To him, this wasn’t about politics. It was about making Raleigh a better place for all its citizens, especially the elderly and the disadvantaged.

  Telling Imani that he couldn’t see her for a few weeks was the last thing he wanted to do right now, but he saw no other choice. He didn’t want to cheapen the special bond they shared by sneaking around with her, and he knew she wasn’t ready to become a candidate’s fiancée and step out into the limelight with him. After she saw the article, he knew Imani would lash out at him, and he couldn’t really blame her. He’d spent all this time chasing her, and now he was about to push her away, just when she’d surrendered to him.

  He hoped that room service girl was happy, because she’d just ruined the most important thing in his life: his relationship with the woman of his dreams. Turning away from the window, he sat back down at his desk to tackle accounts payable for one of his clients. Even as he began running the spreadsheet, thoughts of Imani and how he would explain the situation to her crowded his mind.

  The buzzing of his cell phone alerted him to a text message. Picking it up, he opened the message from Maxwell. Saw the paper. Don’t worry. The Thetas got your back.

  That gave him a modicum of comfort. The backing of the Epsilon Alpha chapter of Theta Delta Theta meant more to him than any other endorsement he’d received. Plenty of people and groups had supported his campaign in one way or another, but the Thetas were special. Every step of the way, they had lived up to their fraternity motto: Gentlemen, Leaders, Brothers.

  He could only hope Imani would be as understanding as his friends when he broke the news to her. Somehow, though, he doubted it.

  * * *

  Imani stretched her arms above her head, then tightened the scarf she’d tied around her hair to protect it from the dust. A glance outside the window showed the sunny Monday evening becoming a bit overcast as clouds rolled in from the south. Blowing out a breath, she trudged back into the closet and pulled out yet another old box.

  Alma stuck her head in the open bedroom door. “How’s it going in there, baby?”

  She sighed. “With any luck, I’ll be done by Christmas.”

  Her mother chuckled. “I’ve been asking you to clean out this bedroom since before you started your residency.”

  “Now you see why I’ve been putting it off so long.” She slid the heavy box across the wooden floor, toward the bed, and flopped down on the edge of the mattress. “I’ve held on to way too much.”

  “I brought you a soda.” Setting the icy beverage on the nightstand, Alma turned to leave. “I’ll be downstairs. Good luck.”

  After her mother left, Imani grabbed the glass and took a long sip. Then she set it down and brushed away some of the grime on her hands. It shouldn’t be a surprise that pulling out all these things would kick up a cloud of dust. After all, they hadn’t been touched in a decade. But her mother wanted a functional guest room, and it really was time. She was a grown woman now, in the process of building a medical practice. She knew she no longer needed the things that reminded her of her teenaged days, so she’d come over right after the practice closed and waded in.

  Part of her wanted the cleaning to last long enough for her mother to fall asleep. She knew that as soon as she finished, her mother would want to play twenty questions, and the topic would be her date with Xavier. With a groan, she opened the last box she’d pulled out of the closet.

  She recognized the contents immediately.

  The box was full of stuffed animals, silk roses, and letters she’d received from Xavier. Looking through the box led her back down memory lane, and in light of her newly revived relationship with him, she decided to leave everything in the box and take it with her to her apartment. A smile spread over her face as she thought of how he’d react when he found out she’d held on to mementos from the old days, just as he had.

  Those were the days. Life was so much simpler then, back when her biggest concerns had been homework, extracurricular activities, and her social life. She remembered the Saturday nights spent on group dates with Xavier and a bunch of their schoolmates, seeing the latest releases at the movies or hanging at the mall. Remembered her Dad handing her the keys to his old Buick and a couple of twenty-dollar bills so she could hang out with her friends. “Be back by eleven or else,” he’d said.

  “I will, Daddy,” was her constant reply. A few words and a smile, and all was right with the world.

  Adult life had proven to be much more complex and nuanced.

  She thought back on the article she’d seen in Sunday’s paper and the pictures of her and Xavier appended to it. The flash of light she’d sensed when he kissed her at his office Monday had apparently come from a flashbulb, though at the time she’d thought it was her body’s reaction to him, making her see fireworks. He exuded a raw male power, and somehow it managed to overwhelm her whenever he was around.

  The article had spoken of their “rekindled romance” in mainly positive terms, but it still made her uncomfortable to think about the reporters lurking around, waiting to document Xavier’s every move. The more involved she got with him, the more likely that those same folks would become curious about her past. And there were parts of her past that simply couldn’t be known by the public.

  There was one last box to be opened, so she sat down on the floor and lifted the flaps. Inside were many of her old textbooks and items from her Spelman days. She had fond memories of attending the all-female HBCU and credited the experiences she’d had there with preparing her so well for medical school and business ownership.

  Near the bottom of the box, she found a familiar blue journal. It was a simple, leather-bound book she’d kept as her personal diary during her college days. Back then, she’d faithfully recorded everything of note that happened to her. Every evening, she’d sit down and pour out her thoughts in the book, which she’d kept hidden away at all times. Her meticulous documentation of her entire college experience was both a treasure and a curse.

  Recorded within the journal’s pages were accounts of the awful harassment she’d endured during her time in the secretarial pool at Doyle and Callahan, up to and including the day she’d been assaulted. Seeing the journal again brought a tear to her eye, just as seeing her attacker again had brought fear to her heart. But parts of her couldn’t let go of the journal, because of all the happy memories it contained. It was her life in words, and for years since college, she�
��d held on to it, taking the bitter right along with the sweet.

  She stacked the college box on top of the other one and stood. Doing her best to tamp down the anxiety she felt whenever she thought about those days, she made a decision.

  She’d take both boxes home with her.

  And at the first chance she got, she’d get rid of that damn journal.

  With the room vacuumed and dusted, and her boxes of possessions moved downstairs, she ventured into the kitchen to get something to eat. She saw her mother sitting at the table with the day’s News and Observer spread before her and a mug of her favorite mint tea. The spicy aroma permeated the air, competing with the fragrant smells of Alma’s cooking.

  Seeing her mother sitting there made her want to turn and flee. But her stomach protested that idea with a loud, angry growl. She sidled over to the stove and lifted the lids off the blue ceramic pots her mother had cooked in. Inside them she found smothered steak, fried corn, and green beans seasoned with turkey bacon and onions. She pulled a paper plate from the stack on the counter, filled it, and took a seat across from her mother.

  She lifted a forkful of the corn to her mouth. As she savored the buttery, pepper-seasoned corn, her mother’s voice broke the silence.

  “You know, you’re gonna have to tell me how your date went eventually.” Alma took a sip from the cream-colored mug of hot tea. “May as well get it over with.”

  Nervous butterflies flapped crazily inside her chest. There was no getting out of it, but she vowed to spare her mother the details of her steamy encounter with Xavier. “It was nice. We ate at the Marquis Lounge inside the Staff and Cape Inn.”

  Alma nodded, her eyes on the newspaper. “Was the food any good?”

  “Yes, it was excellent. I really enjoyed myself.”

  “Did you enjoy Xavier’s company?”

  The pointed question made her cringe. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to get into with her mother. “Yes, Mama, I did. You’ll be happy to know that we’re back together.”

  Raising her gaze to meet her daughter’s, Alma smiled. “Good. Xavier’s a good man, and he’s got a good heart. With all that work he does for the wayward youths, he’s proven himself honorable.”