Why did I take your love for granted? he thought as he stood underneath the hot shower spray.
“Hey, man, you got a crowd of reporters out there waiting on you,” one of his teammates called out.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” Maurice said as he shut the water off.
After toweling off and covering his body with a dry towel, Maurice headed into the locker room to answer the questions from the reporters. It didn’t take long for someone to ask him about his pending nuptials.
Forcing a smile, Maurice said, “I can’t wait. Not only will I have a Super Bowl ring, but I get a wedding ring, too.”
“Which one means the most?” a reporter asked.
“I’m not touching that one,” Maurice replied, making everyone laugh. “Guys, I have got to go and meet up with my fiancée. Are there any more questions?”
The reporters shook their heads and congratulated Maurice on his season. As he dressed, his cell phone rang.
“Yeah.”
“Brother man! You were on fire out there,” James Goings, Maurice’s brother, exclaimed. “I hate that I couldn’t come to the game. When are you coming back to Charlotte?”
“Probably in the morning. Lauryn and I are going to hang out down here tonight.”
“You know, Ma still can’t believe that you’re marrying her.”
“I don’t need to hear this tonight,” Maurice said. He’d had this conversation with his brother about their mother before.
Maryann had let everyone know that she didn’t like Lauryn, and she didn’t want her son to marry her.
“When you get back, me and the boys got a bachelor party planned for you,” James said.
“Looking forward to it,” he said. “I got to go before some more reporters come in here.”
When he hung up from his brother, Maurice slipped on his shoes and headed outside to cheers and Lauryn.
“Hey, baby,” Lauryn said as he pulled her close and kissed her on the neck. “You were awesome.”
“Thanks.”
“So, are we going to hit South Beach now?”
“Can we get to the hotel first? I need to relax for a minute.”
“Baby, you just won the Super Bowl. You need to party,” said Lauryn.
“You weren’t out there getting hit by linebackers. If you want to party, go ahead.” Maurice stomped away from her and headed for the team bus. Lauryn ran after him.
“What is your problem?” Lauryn snapped.
“Life is more than a party. Okay?”
“Fine. Mya and I will hit the clubs, and you can rest,” Lauryn spat before turning on her heels and stomping away.
Maurice wasn’t really sad to see her go.
After arriving at the hotel, Maurice sprawled across the king-sized bed, happy for a moment of peace. He turned his cell phone off and kicked his shoes off. He wasn’t about to go to a smoky club after the pounding he’d taken on the field. Quarterback Jake Delhomme had kept throwing the ball across the middle, and Maurice had gone for it every time, as had the opposing cornerbacks and safetys. He had nearly been knocked out on a play in the third quarter. Luckily, his teammates had been inspired, and the defense had avenged those hits by sacking the other team’s quarterback three times.
When Lauryn walked into the room, she shot a contemptuous look Maurice’s way before changing into a micromini skirt and silver halter top. “Sure you don’t want to go out with me?” she asked as she strapped on a pair of silver sandals with a four-inch heel.
“Hang out with your girl. It’s fine. And look, I’m sorry about before,” replied Maurice.
Lauryn walked over to the bed, climbed on top of Maurice, and smiled. “It’s okay. Next week we’re going to be married, and I know this is a little stressful. You relax. You earned it, MVP.”
He kissed her chin. “Your girl and Homer are getting tight, huh?”
“No. She’s not that serious about him. They’re just kicking it.”
“How do you know?” he asked.
“I know Mya. She’s not a one-man woman, so tell your boy not to get too attached, or he’s going to get his heart broken.”
“Sounds like you don’t want them together.”
Lauryn laughed nervously. “I really don’t care what Mya does. But those two don’t match.”
“Some people say that about us.”
“You mean your momma?” She rolled her eyes. “I guess she’s not going to like me until I give her a grandchild. Can’t she see that I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to you?”
Maurice flipped her over so that he was on top of her. “Why don’t you stay in with me tonight and let Mya and Homer kick it?”
“How often do we come to Miami? We have the rest of our lives to spend together and only one night here. I’ll try to come back early.”
Maurice hid his disappointment as he let her up. He knew that she’d felt the throbbing erection between his legs.
“You’re sure you don’t want to come with us?” she asked as she adjusted her clothes.
“Nah, I’m going to order some room service and call it a night,” Maurice said.
Lauryn blew him a kiss as she headed out the door.
Alone in the room, Maurice’s thoughts turned back to Kenya. Had the years been kind to her? Was she married? Still in Atlanta?
Maurice sat up, climbed out of bed, and crossed over to the minibar. Pouring himself a drink, he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d made a mistake all those years ago. Why am I thinking like this? I’m about to marry Lauryn, and I haven’t heard from Kenya in nearly ten years. Hell, I’m probably the last thing on her mind.
Kenya leaned back on the sofa, wondering why she was torturing herself. There she sat, watching replay after replay of Maurice Goings. She didn’t think it was possible that he could have gotten finer than he was in high school and college, but looking at him as a grown man, she knew that he was.
“Ugh,” she exclaimed as she turned the TV off. “I am not going to sit here and ponder what if. Maurice made his choice, and I hope he can live with it.”
But when she went to sleep that night, all she could dream about was kissing Maurice.
Chapter 4
Three weeks after the Super Bowl and one wedding-date change later, Lauryn and Maurice were in full wedding mode. The church had been booked. They’d been on every local morning show from radio to TV, and SportsCenter had even done a profile of the couple.
Maurice was ready for it all to be over. He’d booked a tropical getaway for him and Lauryn, and she’d promised no interviews on their honeymoon. It was going to be about the two of them starting their life together.
“It’s not too late to back out of this,” Maryann said as she and Maurice ate lunch at her favorite restaurant in Charlotte, McCormick & Schmick’s, a swanky seafood place nestled among the skyscrapers and bank buildings in uptown.
“Ma, when are you going to accept Lauryn? We’re getting married.”
“And I don’t trust her. You men are so blind. You let a pretty face and a nice body take away all of your common sense. Your father, God rest his soul, was the same way. He let pretty women turn his head, and what did it get him?”
“I’m nothing like Daddy,” Maurice spat bitterly.
Maryann raised an eyebrow. “Oh no?”
Maurice silently chewed his fish as he thought about the hell his father had put his mother through during their marriage. He remembered one incident in particular.
“Richard, I’m not doing this anymore. You can go out with your whores and flaunt your affairs, but you will not come into my house at five in the morning, making a mockery of our marriage,” Maryann had shouted one night long ago, waking James and Maurice.
“I pay the bills in this damned house. I’ll come and go as I please,” his father had snapped.
Maurice had crept from his bed and had inched toward the stairwell so that he could make sure things didn’t get out of hand. Sure he only ten years old, but he was prote
ctive of his mother. When he saw his father raise his hand as if he was going to slap his mother, Maurice had sped down the stairs and had jumped between them.
“If you touch my mother, I’m going to kill you,” he had exclaimed.
Richard and Maryann had taken a step back, with shock and frowns etched on their faces. The next morning, Richard was gone, and two weeks later a jealous husband had shot and killed him.
Maurice had sworn then that he would never make a woman cry the way Richard had made Maryann cry. Maybe that was why Kenya had stayed on his mind after all of these years. He’d broken his solemn vow.
“Maurice,” Maryann said, snapping him out of his thoughts. “I don’t trust her, and I don’t think you’re going to be happy.”
“And I love you, but it’s my life.”
Maryann rose to her feet. “I know that, but I’m not going to stand by and watch you make the biggest mistake of your life.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m not coming to your wedding, and I’m not welcoming that tramp into my family. I’m going back to Atlanta.” Turning on her heels, Maryann stormed out of the restaurant.
Mya ran her finger down the curve of Lauryn’s arm. “And you’re still getting married tomorrow?”
Lauryn pushed her hand away and groaned. “Don’t start this again.”
“Start what? You know how I feel, and you know what I think of this wedding. Look me in the eye and say you don’t love me, and I’ll back off.”
“You know I can’t choose you.” Lauryn couldn’t look at her.
“Why do you keep coming here then? You ruined my relationship with Homer by putting that little bug in Mo’s ear.”
“You didn’t care one thing about Homer.”
“You won’t let me care about anyone else. Every time I try, you find some way to sabotage it.”
“That is not true,” Lauryn exclaimed indignantly.
“Really? Then what would you call what you do when you see me spending time with someone else?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Anytime you see me with someone else, I become the top priority in your life. Why won’t you admit that you want your cake and ice cream, too?”
“I want to be with you, and even if I’m married to Maurice, I can still be with you. Nothing has to change.” She reached up and stroked Mya’s cheek.
“What happens when you have kids? Will things still be the same then? Right now, Lauryn, you have to choose me or him.”
Lauryn rose to her feet. “I do love you, and if things were different, then I would choose you, but I can’t.”
Mya rolled over on her stomach and buried her face in a pillow, silently sobbing. Lauryn leaned in to comfort her. “Don’t cry,” she whispered in her ear.
“I deserve so much better than this,” Mya said. “If you walk out that door, don’t come back.”
“Mya, please,” Lauryn pleaded. “Don’t do this to me the night before my wedding!”
Mya leapt from the bed. “We’ve had this argument before, and I’m sick and tired of it. Just go and live your little NFL wife life, and be miserable. When you show up at my door after your honeymoon, don’t expect me to open it.”
Lauryn pulled Mya into her arms, but Mya pushed her away.
“No,” Mya said. “Not again. You’re poison to me, Lauryn. I don’t know why I thought I could change your mind and make you see that I was the one for you. You’re nothing but a gold-digging witch. You’re going to break his heart, too. He’s just too stupid to see that.”
“You did this to me! You made me want you because you thought making the straight girl queer was a game.”
“I love you. I’ve loved you from the day I kissed you. And I didn’t make you do anything that you didn’t want to do.”
Lauryn closed the space between them and pulled Mya into her arms, kissing her until she felt her knees quake. “God, help me. I love you, too,” Lauryn whispered into Mya’s ear as they fell back into bed.
Kenya leaned back in her desk chair. It was nearly midnight, and she wasn’t any closer to leaving work than she had been at five p.m. The case she’d been working on was going to be the feather in her cap when the yearly reviews came up.
She wanted to make managing associate this year. She’d be the youngest lawyer in the firm’s history to do so. Besides, this case had come at the best time. Now she didn’t have to see the details of Maurice’s wedding on all of the entertainment shows and ESPN. Even the local news had run a story on “Atlanta’s former high-school standout and Super Bowl champion.”
She had to wonder when Maurice had become such a glory hound. Then again, this had Lauryn’s dirty fingerprints all over it. Even when they were in college, Lauryn had had a flair for the dramatic.
Why am I even thinking about this? Kenya thought as she cross-referenced a precedent case with her brief. She stood and walked over to the window overlooking the streets of midtown. Everything was quiet, and only a few cars darted down the street. Kenya pressed her hand against the window. Why had she let heartbreak turn her into this? Outside of her job and her family, she didn’t have a life. She couldn’t spell fun anymore. And love? What was that? So what if she did become the youngest managing associate, which was one step below partner? She would still be alone and lonely.
“I can’t keep blaming Maurice for this,” she said, thinking aloud. “He probably doesn’t even think about me. So why have I wasted nine years thinking about him?”
Walking back to the computer, Kenya decided she’d done enough work, and she was going home.
As she headed down to the parking garage, she decided that she needed to recharge her batteries. Maybe it was time to put the superwoman act on the shelf and do something she hadn’t done since she was a freshman in college—take a vacation. She deserved it. How much work was she supposed to squeeze into 365 days, anyway?
The next morning, Kenya awoke with a start, thinking that she was late for court. However, it was only a few minutes after five. Still, she rose from the bed, showered, and fixed herself a pot of Irish creme coffee and a bowl of sugar-free oatmeal.
God, my life is so boring, she thought as she ate her bland hot cereal. She tried to remember the last adventurous thing that she’d done, and she couldn’t. She made a mental note to call her mother after court to get the name of her travel agent. Though Georgia winters weren’t brutal, Kenya wanted to go somewhere tropical, where her only decision would be whether to wear a one-piece or two-piece bathing suit.
If the thought of a vacation had cheered Kenya up on the drive to work, the decision from the mediator in her land-dispute case put her on cloud nine. The ruling favored her client and gave G&C Industries the right to build housing for low-income families on over one hundred acres of land in Cobb County that had been unused for nearly thirty years. The real estate had originally been zoned for retail use, but the city had changed this to residential use fifteen years ago.
Some adjacent businesses wanted to block the G&C project because they wanted more upscale housing in the area. However, the developer wanted to make sure that people like his grandparents would have someplace to live in the county they’d grown up in.
After months of going back and forth, Kenya had finally won. When she walked in the office, she realized word of her victory had already reached the right people, mainly her manager, Janice Howell.
“Kenya, may I see you in my office?” Janice said, with a smile on her face.
Kenya walked into the corner office that overlooked the capitol building. The huge windows let in the gold reflection of the capitol’s dome, bathing the room in a golden glow. Everything looked as if King Midas had touched it. This was the kind of office that Kenya had been working to have. But once she got the office, what would she do then? What professional goal would she set for herself to mask her loneliness?
When Kenya took a seat across from Janice’s desk, she had no idea that her life was about to make a 360
-degree turn.
“First of all, congratulations on today,” said Janice. “I didn’t have one doubt about you winning.”
“Thank you,” Kenya said.
“Your hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed here. All of the long nights and your winning percentage are off the charts. That’s why we want you to head up our new office.”
Yes! Kenya thought excitedly. This is it.
“This firm is really trying to put it’s footprint on the southeast,” Janice said. “We’ve done that in Atlanta, and we’re hoping to do the same in Charlotte. I would love for you to head up our effort.”
“Where?” asked Kenya. Her happiness had deflated like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon hooked on a light pole. “You want me to relocate to Charlotte?”
“Yes. You’ve shown that you’re the best person for the job. Your record speaks for itself. There’s no way we’d lose with you heading up our North Carolina team.”
“Well, uh, I need some time to think about it. My life has been in Atlanta for a long time,” Kenya said, stumbling over her words when what she really wanted to say was, “There is no way I’m going to Charlotte and running the risk of running into Mr. and Mrs. Goings.”
“I’d like to say take all the time you need, but we want to pull the trigger on this in the next three months,” said Janice. “I need an answer sooner rather than later.”
“Uh, okay. I can’t turn this down,” Kenya said. “But if it’s all right with you, I’d like to take some time off.”
“You’ve earned it.”
Kenya rose to her feet. “Thank you, Janice.”
Yes, Kenya needed a vacation, and she certainly planned to enjoy this one. She rushed back to her desk and called her mother to get that travel agent’s telephone number.
Chapter 5
Lauryn nervously applied lip liner as time ticked away. It was her wedding day, and she wasn’t even sure if she could go through with it. Mya’s words echoed in her head. Mya’s kiss burned on her lips.
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