Hunks Pulled Over

by Marie Rochelle

  “Emerald I know this must be a shock for you, but it’s for the best.” He reached for her hand again to comfort her, but she removed it from the table placing it in her lap.

  No! She wasn’t going to let it go down like this. Why in the hell did she have to be nice and let him go first? This entire mess was her fault.

  “Adonis, listen, I need to tell you something. There was a reason I invited you to lunch today.”

  Adonis glanced down at his watch and then stood up. “I’m sorry. I can’t stay any longer. I’m expected somewhere else, but don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll find another guy and he’ll love what you have to offer him. Unfortunately, that guy isn’t me.”

  Before Emerald had a chance to respond, Adonis walked away from the table leaving her there in shock and alone. Snatching her purse off the table, she stormed towards the front entrance and walked out too pissed off to even think about getting something for lunch.

  Why was this happening to her today? First, Chance showed up and asked her out on a date and now the guy she planned on breaking up with ended up dumping her first.

  Something wasn’t right about all of this. It was like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Emerald headed for her car in the parking lot praying nothing else happened to her today that she wasn’t expecting. She didn’t have the time or patience to deal with it.

  Chapter Eight

  “I want to thank the both of you for meeting me for lunch,” Chance said, sliding into the booth across from Brian and Nash at his favorite fast food restaurant.

  He’d been really worried his buddies would continue to ignore his phone calls and he wouldn’t give him the chance to repair the damage he caused with his words spoken out of jealousy and stupidity.

  “You should be thanking Nash for even seeing me here,” Brian told him. “I still haven’t forgotten what you said about Sapphire.”

  Chance heard the anger in Brian’s voice and felt even worse. He got a bad feeling nothing he said today would repair his long standing friendship with Brian.

  “Brian you agreed to hear Chance out and then make your decision. Don’t jump to conclusions like he did,” Nash said.

  “Fine, I’ll listen to him, but one negative word about Sapphire better not leave his mouth or he’ll be picking his ass up off the floor. I don’t care if he’s a cop or not. I won’t let him talk about her like he did the other day.”

  Chance was amazed at how much Brian loved Sapphire. He wondered if he would ever be able to feel like that way about a woman. As of yet, no woman had come into his life that he wanted to get into a fight with his friends over.

  Taking a deep breath, Chance got his thoughts together before he continued. “Guys, I have tried getting in touch with both of you before to apologize for my hurtful comments but neither one of you would take my calls,” he said, looking back and forth between Brian and Nash.

  “I’m really sorry for the horrible comments I made about Sapphire and Shauntie. They’re two amazing women and both of you are lucky to have found them. I hope we can get past all of this, so we can continue to be friends.”

  There. Chance knew he couldn’t say or do anything else to show his friends how truly sorry he was about his insults. Now it was left up to them to either forgive him or end their close to fifteen year friendship.

  “I accept your apologize,” Nash said. “I’m too in love with Shauntie to let anything you say get me down or change how I feel about her. Besides, I’ve gotten used to your ‘speak first and think later’ personality.”

  Chance felt like half the weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Now, he was waiting to see what Brian would tell him. It could go either way with him.

  “Chance, you knew before coming here that Nash is a lot more of a forgiving person than me. I’m getting more and more fed up with your comments and then sorry apologies a few days later. However, I do agree with Nash on one thing. I’m too happy with Sapphire to stay mad at you because one day you’re going to say something flippant to someone and you won’t be able to take it back so easily or probably not at all, but I will forgive you.”

  He wasn’t as thrilled with Brian accepting his apology as he was with Nash. Chance knew he was without a doubt still on the fence with Brian. If he fucked up one more time, Brian was going to end their friendship and he couldn’t let that happen.

  Finding good friends was a rarity. Most people couldn’t accomplish it in this lifetime and he wasn’t going to lose his over stupid remarks on his part.

  “Brian, I’m truly sorry. I hope you can see that I am.” Chance apologized again.

  “We’ll see,” Brian said, reaching for the menu in front of him on the table.

  Chance opened his mouth, but from the corner of his eye he caught Nash shaking his head. He let it go, realizing he could find a way to talk with Brian at another time.

  Since he had repaired or tried to fix the horrible mess he caused with Nash and Brian as much as he could, Chance decided to relax and turn his thoughts to finding out more about Emerald.

  After leaving the medical examiner’s office the other day, he went back to the station and ran her name, but nothing came up for Emerald. Not even a speeding ticket, so Chance was still out in the cold about how he knew her; but he still got a gut feeling that their paths had crossed before. He was running out of ideas about the way he could have met her.

  Chance got the impression Emerald was lying to him about them not knowing each other. She knew actually how they were connected, but she was keeping her mouth shut and he was determined to find out why.

  “What put that look on your face?”

  Pulling his thoughts away from Emerald, Chance glanced across the table and found Brian watching him closely.

  “What look?” he asked.

  “Confusion. I’ve never seen you so deep in thought before. Care to tell us what is going on with you?”

  Chance pondered over how much he should tell his buddies about Emerald. What would they think about it? Usually, he was bragging about women running to him, not away. He wasn’t used to a woman like Emerald who truly seemed uninterested in him and Chance suddenly realized that he didn’t like how it felt. This was a new experience for him.

  “I’m having problems with a woman,” he admitted, hating how the words sounded. A suggestion of annoyance hovered behind his statement and if he heard it, Chance knew that Nash and Brian heard it, too.

  “You’re kidding.” Nash laughed.

  He shot his friend a hard look. “No, I’m not kidding,” Chance snapped. “I met her the other day while I was at work. I mean she’s stunning with curves in all of the right places. I was instantly attracted to her light brown eyes and smooth caramel skin, but she acted like I wasn’t worth her time.”

  “She’s black,” Brian cut in surprised.

  “Yes, she’s black. Why are you so shocked?”

  “How can I not be taken back because as long as we’ve been friends and it has been for a very long time you have never shown any interest in dating a black woman.”

  Chance wanted to deny it, but he had to admit at first he was taken by surprise with his burning fascination with Emerald, but something about it felt right. Like he’d been waiting all of his life to find her; yet she wasn’t experiencing the same thing. He had to find a way to fix it and soon.

  “No, I hadn’t dated a black woman in the past, but there is something about her. I mean Emerald is different. She has this inner spunk that drew me to her.”

  “Did you say her name is Emerald?” Nash asked him then immediately glanced over at Brian.

  “Yes. Why?” Chance answered. “Do you know her?”

  “Well—”

  “No, we’ve never heard of her,” Brian interrupted, cutting Nash off before he could answer him. “I mean I know I would remember a woman with such an unusual first name.”

  Frowning, he looked at Brian. Something here wasn’t right. Chance noticed how Nash was staring at Brian before his ga
ze swung back over to him. He couldn’t figure out what it was, but he knew his buddies were keeping something from him.

  “Nash, is there something wrong? Were you going to tell me something?” he asked. Nash was usually pretty up front and honest with him, so if Brian was hiding something from him about Emerald, Nash would be the one who would tell him.

  Nash paused for a few minutes before finally answering him. “No, there isn’t anything wrong,” he answered. “I was going to invite you to the engagement party Sapphire is throwing tomorrow night for me and Shauntie. Do you think you’ll be able to come?”

  Before their falling out, Chance would have thought of a way to get out of attending; however, now he had to prove to his friends that he truly wanted to patch things up between them.

  “Sure, I’ll be there,” Chance answered. He wanted to do everything he could to prove he was trying to change. “What time should I show up? Do I need to bring anything?”

  Brian shook his head. “No, Sapphire wants to do everything herself. All you have to do is show up a little after seven o’clock.”

  “Great, I’ll be there. I really want to get to know Sapphire and Shauntie better since they’re becoming a part of my life too.”

  “I hope you mean what you’re saying because unlike Brian I won’t threaten to punch your lights out, I’ll just do it,” Nash warned, in a low voice. “I won’t allow you to hurt Shauntie’s feelings.” Chance knew Nash wasn’t lying to him. Nash adored Shauntie and would do anything to protect her.

  “I’m telling the truth,” he insisted. “I promise you that I’ve turned over a new leaf. How about we order something before the manager kicks us out for loitering?”

  Everyone stopped talking and as they read over their menus Chance tried to focus on the typed print in front of him but all he could do was think about Emerald. He wanted to get to know her better. However, she didn’t hide the fact that she wanted completely the opposite thing. She didn’t know it yet, but it was this aloof attitude that attracted him more and more.

  Since Emerald wasn’t too open at talking to him at her job then he would have to find another way to meet up with her outside the workplace.

  ****

  Forty-five minutes later Nash waited in the booth with Brian until Chance was completely out of the building before he said anything to his buddy about their lie.

  “Why didn’t you tell Chance we knew Emerald?”

  “Did you see how he was acting?” Brian laughed. “I’ve never seen our cocky friend in such a tailspin before about a woman. Why should we give him any help with Emerald after the way he talked about our women? No, I think we should let it play out.”

  Nash wasn’t so sure about this. Shauntie had told him about what occurred at the cottage between Brian, Sapphire and Emerald. He got a tiny feeling Brian still wasn’t the biggest fan of Emerald, but he would let it go for now.

  “Alright, I won’t tell Chance that Emerald is friends with our girlfriends; however, I got the impression he thought he knew her from somewhere else.”

  Brian nodded at him. “I got that feeling too, but it isn’t for us to worry about. Chance will be able to figure out things for himself.”

  Nash wanted to continue the conversation, but he could tell from the closed off expression on Brian’s face that he was done talking about Chance. Yet, he knew one thing was for sure. Tomorrow night’s engagement party was going to be more interesting than anyone would be expecting especially for Chance and Emerald.

  Chapter Nine

  “I’m so glad that you could make it tonight. I would have hated if you cancelled at the last minute. You know how important this is for Shauntie.” Sapphire grabbed Emerald by the hand pulling her inside the house. “You look too hot. I love those shoes.”

  Emerald looked down at her leopard print high heels and couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She’d bought them last week at a fifty percent off sale at the mall. “Thank you. I love them too. I thought they were the perfect fit for this little black dress,” she replied, running her hands down the fabric.

  “They’re amazing,” Sapphire agreed. Turning around, she headed in the direction of the kitchen. “You better watch out because Shauntie might try to steal them from you. You know how much she loves leopard print. Let’s get something to drink.”

  Walking behind Sapphire, she saw a few people she recognized from Shauntie’s office and even a few from Sapphire’s job. “Where’s Brian?” Emerald asked, looking around the party. She didn’t see him anywhere in sight. And she even noticed that Nash and Shauntie weren’t at the party yet. “Where are the guests of honor?”

  Inside the kitchen, Sapphire picked up a glass of champagne and handed it to her. “Shauntie called and told me she and Nash are on their way. I think they got caught up at home, if you know what I mean.”

  Emerald grinned. “I still can’t believe Shauntie agreed to this party,” she said, staring out into the crowd, listening to the music playing around them.

  “She was totally against the idea until Nash talked her into it,” Sapphire admitted. “Now, my Brian is still at the office working on a website for a client. He should be here within the next twenty minutes. I’m so proud of him that he finally decided to start his own website business. I never thought he would be able to do it, but he did and I’m behind him.”

  Taking a sip of the champagne, Emerald noticed how Sapphire’s entire face lit up when she talked about her boyfriend. She hated how she almost had a hand in ruining her friend’s happiness.

  “Sapphire, I really want to apologize again for what happened at the cottage. I can see now how much you belong with Brian.”

  Sapphire placed her hand on her arm. “I’ve forgiven you. It’s over for me. Brian and I are good. We’re in love and I couldn’t ask for more.”

  “Has Brian forgiven me or does he still hate me for opening my mouth in the first place?” She already knew the answer, but she wondered if Sapphire would tell her the truth.

  “Oh, let me deal with my boyfriend,” Sapphire said as she moved her hand off her arm and picked up a glass. “He’ll get over it. Sometimes, Brian has a habit of holding a grudge for too long.”

  Brian still wasn’t a fan of hers. At least Sapphire hadn’t tried to lie to her and pretend he was fond of her.

  “Don’t stand here all night staring into the crowd. I want you to mingle with the rest of the guests. Did you notice that there are a lot cute single guys here? Open up to someone. Remember you were the one who challenged us to find a sexy guy. Where is the outspoken Emerald who never let anyone stand in her way? Find her and bring her back. I’m going to leave you here because I need to check on a few things, but I warn you. If you don’t find someone to dance with, I’ll pick out the guy for you. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, I understand you,” Emerald answered.

  “Good.”

  Spinning away from her, Sapphire disappeared into the crowd leaving her alone to think. Her mother and Sapphire were right, she was tired of not being the way she used to be a few months ago. It was time for her to stop feeling bad for herself and get back out there.

  At least, she could enjoy herself tonight without the possibility of running into Chance. He wouldn’t be anywhere near Sapphire’s house. Emerald took another sip of her champagne before placing it back on the table, and headed out to the dance floor to find a dance partner

  ****

  Getting out of his car, Chance reached over into the passenger seat grabbing the present he brought for Nash and Shauntie. Despite Nash telling him not to buy a gift, he still felt like he should bring something because one of his buddies was getting married.

  Tonight was his engagement party; Nash needed something to remember this night by. Besides, he wanted to do something to show Shauntie he wasn’t still the same asshole she first met at Peppers.

  Leaving his car parked in Sapphire’s driveway, Chance made his way towards her front door. He came here tonight to celebrate Nash
’s engagement and work more on mending his friendship with Brian.

  At least while he was here tonight, the celebration would help him get his mind off Emerald for a few hours until he figured out a way to get her to agree to go out on a date with him. As long he got to accomplish one thing with her, he would wait a little longer on the second thing on his list.

  Chapter Ten

  Walking through the crowd of people inside Sapphire’s house, Chance finally spotted Nash and Shauntie talking to Brian along with Sapphire on the other side of the room. He was a little apprehension about approaching the group since he hadn’t been around the two women since he insulted them.

  He knew Nash probably hadn’t repeated a word of his stupidity, but he wasn’t so sure about Brian. His buddy promised to have an open and honest relationship with Sapphire after the incident at the cabin and the problems that came from it afterwards.

  Well, he was about to find out in the next few second if Sapphire knew about what he had implied about her.

  Chance stopped next to Nash. He smiled at Shauntie who was standing across from him. “Congratulations on your engagement to Nash,” he said, handing her the small box.

  “Chance, it so good to see you,” Shauntie said, returning his smile. “You didn’t have to bring us a present.”

  “Oh, I wanted to get you something,” he replied. “It’s not every day that one of my best friends gets married.”

  “Well, thank you. I know we’ll both love it.”

  “Yes, thanks Chance,” Nash told him, patting him on the back. “I didn’t think you had enough patience to go out shopping for a present.”