Evenings With Bryson

by Tina Martin

  “Alright. When are you looking to post it?”

  “As soon as possible if it’ll reduce the amount of emails in my inbox.”

  “I hear ya. I’ll draft something up today and we can review it in the morning.”

  “Thanks, Lizzie. Now let me get to work. I’m meeting Isaiah for lunch today.”

  “Isaiah? You looking for another house?”

  “No. Not going through that process again anytime soon. I promised Isaiah I would take him to lunch as a good gesture for all of his hard work in finding this house for me, so it’s today or never.”

  “Didn’t you tell me Isaiah had a thing for you?”

  “He did, but he knows this is just business. Besides if I ever did decide to date, the man has to be older than I am. Isaiah is twenty-seven.”

  “So. He’s a grown, single man.”

  “Your point?”

  “He’s a grown, single man,” Lizette repeated, then laughed.

  Kalina laughed too. “Well women mature earlier than men so I wouldn’t go younger. Definitely older.”

  “How much older…like, what’s your cutoff age?”

  Kalina grinned. “I don’t know, Lizzie. I haven’t given it any thought.”

  “Okay, let me help you out…when you say older, are you talking like Idris Elba older or Denzel Washington older?”

  “It would help if I knew how old they were.”

  “Idris is in his early forties and Denzel is sixty.”

  Kalina frowned. “Denzel is sixty?”

  Lizette laughed. “Never mind. Let me let you get back to work.”

  Kalina grinned. “Good idea.”

  * * *

  Bryson leaned back in his chair after reading Kalina’s one-word response. She answered ‘no’ and didn’t give any further details. She’d never been in love...

  It seemed odd for her to have a profession, specializing in helping people with their relationship issues when she had never been in love herself. How could she accurately answer questions about love when she’d never experienced it – the good and bad of it?

  Still, she seemed to be pretty good at it. He’d watched her work yesterday and she must’ve answered ten emails in a matter of minutes. And he couldn’t help but recall the way her fingers moved around the keyboard as she typed. He also remembered how her hands were trembling when she had received that phone call.

  He’d been tempted to reply back to her email, ask her a follow-up question, but he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. They didn’t know each other but were going to be working together for the next month or so, and since he was who he was – the man who took charge and control of his own life – he would change that. He wanted to know her – not just the shell of information she’d made available on her website or even the little he learned about her from Edith. He wanted to get to know her from his own viewpoint and he would, starting this evening.

  “Mr. Blackstone,” his assistant said, tapping on the door of his office.

  “Come in, Rose.”

  Opening the door, she said, “I found the realtor everyone has been raving about in these parts. His name is Isaiah Russell.” She placed a yellow Post-it note on his desk calendar. “Would you like for me to schedule an appointment with him?”

  “No. I’ll take care of it, Rose. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, Sir,” she said, leaving his office.

  Bryson picked up the note, pressed the speakerphone button on is desk phone and dialed Isaiah’s number. When he didn’t get an answer, he left a voicemail:

  Hi, Mr. Russell, this is Bryson Blackstone calling. I need to sell my house and buy a new one and I need this turned around pretty quickly. I hear you’re the go-to guy for this. You can reach me at 910-555-8849. I look forward to your phone call.

  Bryson pressed the speakerphone button again to disconnect the call. He glanced at his watch. He was meeting Everson for lunch and didn’t want to be late, especially since his management-analyst brother could hardly squeeze any time out of his jammed-packed schedule to do lunch. He logged out of his computer, took his car keys from the top drawer of his desk, then headed out the door.

  CHAPTER 11

  “Man, I’m starving,” Everson said after he’d chugged down a full glass of water without coming up for air.

  “Starving or thirsty?” Bryson grinned.

  “I skipped breakfast this morning…had an early meeting with a client.”

  “Bet you won’t do that again.”

  “Yeah…I’ve learned my lesson. Even if I have to grab one of June’s protein bars the next time, I’m going to eat something.”

  Bryson chuckled. “A protein bar? You think that’ll hold you until lunch?”

  “Hey, it’s better than nothing.”

  They ordered quickly when the waitress came by then Everson said, “So that was some dinner last night.”

  “Yeah…I had to bail.”

  “Why?”

  “I couldn’t handle any more of the shenanigans.”

  “Seemed everything was fine until you got into that little back-and-forth with Candy.”

  Bryson shook his head. “She’s been angry at me since I threatened her boyfriend…”

  Everson frowned. “What boyfriend? I didn’t know she was seeing anyone.”

  “She’s not now…at least not him anyway. You remember that guy she was talking to named Quinton?”

  “Oh, yeah. The bald head dude that could never make eye contact with any of us.”

  “Yeah, that’s him. I saw this fool at some restaurant with another woman. So I approached him when he left the place, told him he better not contact Candice again, and he didn’t. But Candice called him and asked why he was distant, all of a sudden, and he told her I threatened him and that he didn’t want to see her anymore. He didn’t tell her I caught him kissing another woman. He told her I threatened him. Ever since, she’s had an attitude.”

  “Why don’t you just tell her you saw Quinton with another woman?”

  “Because I don’t want to hurt her. I keep telling myself she’s still in her twenties. Still growing and maturing. She’ll get over it one day.”

  “Let’s hope so.” Everson looked around the restaurant for a moment, wondering where the waitress was with the food. “I can’t believe Garrison and Vivienne are having a baby. That’s crazy.”

  “It is. I know I won’t hear the last of it when mother returns. She’s been on my case about getting remarried. She’s expecting grandchildren from all of us, you know.”

  “Well she’s certainly not getting any from me and June any time soon. I want to be married for at least three years before I start trying to bring a new life into the world.”

  “I don’t even think I want children anymore. A new wife either,” Bryson said.

  “You’re still not with it, huh?”

  “Not at all. Not after I was lied to. I wasted six years of my life with Felicia and I was nothing but faithful to her.”

  “But you can’t pre-judge every woman based on what Felicia did to you.”

  “True, so I guess you can say, it’s my preference. I have no desire to marry again. Mother should get enough grandkids from all of you to meet her needs. She won’t even notice I don’t have any children.”

  Everson shook his head. He realized his brother was speaking from anger, but after keeping the same stance for two years – being anti-marriage and anti-children – Everson knew he had to say something. Bryson had always wanted children. That didn’t need to change just because his marriage didn’t work out. “It won’t be that easy, Bryce, and if you want children, you shouldn’t let a bad experience keep you away from that. Dad started his own business and had four sons and a daughter to leave it to. Even though Barringer, Garrison and Candice are the only ones who chose to work there, you could’ve chosen to work there and so could I because Dad established it for us. He was thinking long term. Who are you going to leave your business to? When Bryson Blackstone is of
retirement age, what happens to Blackstone Tree Service?”

  Bryson leaned back in his chair and thought about everything Everson was telling him. His brother was right, of course, but starting over again, meeting a woman worthy of marrying and one who wanted to have children would require a lot of time. Besides, he didn’t like the idea of starting over. He was very laid back and old school – not lazy by any means, but also not as enthusiastic as his brothers. The truth of the matter was, they’d never been through a divorce. They didn’t know what it was like to be misled by a woman – to have her lie to your face, cheat on you and then try to turn it all around to make it seem like her infidelity was your fault. Later, he found out Felicia didn’t even want children…

  When the food arrived, the men didn’t waste any time diving in, especially Everson since he’d been starving himself for most of the day. Bryson had tossed a French fry into his mouth when he looked up and saw Kalina walking in with a man in tow. And she was dressed up – had on a turquoise blouse and a knee-length, white skirt. She also wore heels – nude, five-inch stilettos that showed off the muscle definition behind her legs. Her hair wasn’t wild and wind-tossed as it normally was whenever he saw her. It was combed, appeared silky straight, falling down to the middle point of her back. He watched her smile when the man had whispered something to her. Then she swept her hair behind her ear, revealing a pair of gold hoop earrings and the fact that she’d painted her fingernails the same color as her blouse.

  Talk about a transformation…

  Was this even the same woman, or was this her drop-dead, gorgeous twin? This Kalina was definitely different from work Kalina. Café Kalina. While café Kalina was beautiful, she didn’t make any effort to enhance that beauty and since she had today, Bryson could only assume she was on a date. And here he was thinking she had no time for a personal life. That all of her time was devoted to work. That she was single. Maybe Edith didn’t know everything about her niece.

  His eyes followed her to the table as he watched the tall, light-skinned man she was with pull out a chair for her. After she was seated comfortably, the man sat down at the seat across from her, looked at her and smiled.

  Everson took another bite of his cheesesteak sub when he looked up and noticed that something, or someone, had taken Bryson’s attention away from his food. Bryson was looking at a table near the back of the restaurant, staring at something and seemingly in a trance. Had the man even blinked? And why was he not eating?

  Everson turned to look in the same direction as Bryson had been looking. He wanted to see what it was that had his brother’s undivided attention. Then Everson saw a familiar face. “Hey, it’s Kalina,” he said.

  That took him out of his trance. Bryson hid a frown and looked at his brother. “You know her?”

  Everson nodded since he had tossed the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth. With a mouth full, he went on to say, “She’s one of June’s friends. They met at an Alzheimer’s walk three years ago and have been friends ever since.”

  “They met at an Alzheimer’s walk?”

  “Yeah. June’s mother had Alzheimer’s, and I’m almost certain Kalina’s mother has it too. I can’t remember if her mother is still alive or not, though, but June’s mother died like four years ago.”

  “Oh,” Bryson said. That’s all he could say at the moment since he didn’t know Kalina.

  “How do you know her?” Everson inquired, wiping his mouth with a brown napkin.

  “Who?”

  “Kalina.”

  “Oh…um…I see her at Edith’s Café pretty often,” he said, not wanting to go into details about working with Kalina. “So her mother has Alzheimer’s?”

  “Yeah, and now that I think about it, her mother is still alive. Kalina was over at the house, about four months ago, in tears, telling June how her mother had fallen and hurt herself. She mentioned she was in one of those assisted living facilities or something.”

  “Oh.” So Kalina knows Everson and June, Bryson thought to himself. He wondered why Kalina never mentioned that.

  Everson finished his glass of water. “Well, I hate to eat and run, but I have a one-thirty appointment on the other side of town.”

  “Alright, Everson. I got the check.”

  “Thanks, Bryce,” Everson said, standing up. “Hey, think about what I told you, man. It’s not too late to start over.” He gave Bryson a pat on the shoulder before he walked away.

  Bryson couldn’t wait until the waitress returned with his Visa card so he could walk over to Kalina’s table. He’d been dying to know who this guy was she’d been chatting it up with, laughing and carrying on. Was he her man? She made it seem like she had no life, like she wasn’t interested in anything relationship related. And when he emailed her to ask if she had ever been in love, she had said no. But here she was, having lunch with some dude, and from the looks of things, she was enjoying his company.

  Bryson took a long swig of water. He didn’t know why the sight of seeing her with another man bothered him so much. After all, she wasn’t his woman. She was free to have breakfast, lunch or dinner with whomever she chose.

  Once he had his card back, he stood up, tucked his wallet into the back, right pocket of his pants and headed towards her table. “Hi, Kalina.”

  Kalina quickly looked up towards the direction of the smooth, deep voice she recognized and saw Bryson standing tall at her side. The sight of him there caught her by surprise. A little ruffled at first, she mellowed out and said, “Hi, Bryson. You having lunch?”

  “No. I already had lunch. I was heading out when I saw you over here…thought I’d come over and say hi.”

  “Cool…glad you did. Oh, by the way, this my realtor, Isaiah Russell. Isaiah, this is my friend, Bryson Blackstone.”

  Bryson looked confused for a moment and said, “Wait…you’re Isaiah Russell?”

  “In the flesh,” Isaiah said.

  “Well isn’t this a coincidence. I just left a voicemail for you. You came highly recommended and I need the best.”

  “He’s definitely the best,” Kalina added in.

  Bryson felt his eye twitch at her statement, even more so when Isaiah glanced at her and smiled as if he was giving her an appreciative, nonverbal thank-you.

  Returning his attention to Bryson, Isaiah asked, “Are you buying or selling?”

  “Both. I need to sell my house and buy another one right away.”

  “Okay. I’ll give you a call. Once I get a price range, I can send you some options to look at.”

  “Anything with a list price up to eight-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will work, but it must have four bedrooms.”

  Four bedrooms? Why a single man needed four bedrooms was beyond Kalina. Then again, she was single and had three bedrooms. Maybe he just likes his space.

  Isaiah took a card and a pen from the inner pocket of his suit jacket, flipped it over, then began writing notes about what Bryson wanted. “Okay, got it.” He took another card from his pocket and handed it to Bryson. “Look for a phone call from me tomorrow.”

  Bryson took the card and said, “Sounds good. Let me give you my business card as well.” He took out his wallet, slid out a business card and handed it to Isaiah.

  “Thanks, man. I’ll be in touch,” Isaiah said.

  “Hope you two enjoy the rest of your lunch. Have a good one.” Bryson glanced at Kalina before turning to walk away. He was tempted to tell Kalina that he would see her later this evening, but he didn’t know what kind of relationship she had with Isaiah, so he quietly exited the restaurant. He would find out all he needed to know later.

  CHAPTER 12

  Kalina watched Bryson walk into the café empty-handed. Where was his laptop? He strolled in nonchalantly, his eyes fixed on her after he’d briefly spoken to Edith.

  “Hi,” he said, pulling out the chair across from her and not beside her as they’d sat yesterday. He was the one who requested, no insisted, that they sit side-by-side. For some reason, he
chose to sit across from her this evening.

  “Hi. Where’s your laptop?” she asked, looking at him.

  Bryson sat there, holding her gaze before his eyes traveled down to her pink-tinted lips that matched the hint of color on her cheeks. She hadn’t changed clothes. She wore the same outfit as when he saw her earlier at lunch. And her hair was still long and straight, falling down to her breasts.

  “Bryson?”

  “Yes?” he responded, his eyes connecting with hers again.

  With raised brows, she said, “Your laptop?”

  “I didn’t bring it,” he said, interlocking his fingers.

  Kalina frowned. “What do you mean you didn’t bring it?”

  “I think it’s important for us to spend this evening getting to know each other, Kalina.”

  “You know who I am…well you know enough, anyway. I’m a girl who needs help answering emails.”

  “And you’ll get that help. As a matter of fact, I want you to send me fifty emails tonight and I promise I’ll have them all answered by tomorrow evening. But right now, precisely at this moment, I need to know who you are.”

  “And just what do you want to know?”

  “Well, where are you from?”

  Kalina felt her body temperature shoot up a few degrees. This isn’t what she signed up for. He was supposed to be working, not interviewing her. “Fayetteville, North Carolina.”

  “Is that where your parents live?”

  Kalina inhaled a deep breath. He wanted to talk about her family – a subject she liked to stay away from. Her family hadn’t been a family in a long time, but, to appease him, she answered, “The man who used to call himself my father, still lives there.”

  “Care to elaborate?”