Love, Lies & Consequences

by Frazier, Natasha D.

  “She’s still herself. She is eighty-two years old and set in her ways. She feels like she’s lived the best years of her life and refuses to undergo chemotherapy,” Tammy said as she thought about how the entire family disapproved of her grandmother’s choice. Tammy’s grandmother has been a smoker for as long as she knew and still had no plans to stop, even though she had been diagnosed with the disease.

  “Be sure to love on her while she’s still here. Try not to focus on this being the end and enjoy the time you guys have left,” Raegan said as they all stood to cover Tammy and her family in prayer.

  CHAPTER 15

  ∞

  After breakfast, more sisterly discussion and prayer, they all said their good-byes and went their separate ways. Raegan decided to run errands. Before leaving, she received a call from Rico.

  “Hello pretty lady,” Rico’s smooth voice echoed on the other end of the phone.

  “Hey, how are you?” Raegan asked with a smile on her face.

  “I’m great. Guess who’s in town?”

  “Your mother?” she asked. Rico never mentioned introducing her to his mother even though he seemed convinced he wanted to marry her. She asked once but he came up with an excuse as to why it would have to wait.

  “No ma’am. She is not coming out here. She is scared to drive on the freeway.” That was another one of Rico’s excuses to present a barrier as to why Raegan would not meet his mother.

  “Well, tell me then.”

  “My best friend, Michael. He wants to meet you. I’ve told him all about you and he wants to see this beauty for himself.”

  “Way to rub on the butter. I may be able to meet you all somewhere. What do you have planned today?”

  “We’re headed to Buffalo Wild Wings to grab a quick bite to eat. I know its short notice, but can you swing by? We’ll actually be at the location near your house,” Rico went on, hoping that since they would be in her area, she would choose to attend.

  “Well,” she said dragging out the word. “Since you’re going to be so close, I will stop by in between my errands. I can’t stay to eat with you guys, I’m only coming in for a quick minute to say hello to your friend.”

  Raegan went to the dry cleaners and stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few items. She figured that by the time she finished those two things, they would have arrived and ordered their food. After returning the items to her house, she stopped by the restaurant.

  As soon as Raegan entered the restaurant, she spotted the guys and her heart immediately fell to the floor. Oh my world, what on earth is Caleb doing here? she thought. Her stomach tightened, her throat became dry and she suddenly felt the need to use the restroom. How would she be able to go over to that table with Caleb sitting there? What is he doing here? And with my boyfriend? This cannot be happening. This has to be some kind of joke. She tried to think of any excuse not to walk over there, but before she could come up with anything, Rico spotted her. “Help me Lord,” she prayed silently. It was a good thing she looked great while running her errands today. The weather was very nice for November so she was dressed in a beautiful royal purple cashmere sweater, form-fitting blue jeans and sassy peep-toe heels, with just enough opening to show off her freshly pedicured toes.

  “Hey sweetie,” Rico said as he gave her a hug and brushed a kiss on her cheek. Rico introduced her to his fraternity brothers –Michael and Caleb. They were in town for a fraternity convention.

  Her body stiffened as she stood there in shock. She felt as if she was in a warp zone. This cannot be happening. What are the odds? She thought. She knew about the convention but had never expected to see Caleb.

  Before Rico could finish the introductions, Caleb stood up and cut him off. “Raegan Camille Sanders!” he said with surprise and pleasure, never once taking his eyes off her, oblivious to both Michael and Rico.

  “Caleb, how are you?” she asked as politely as she could. Her eyes flashed with a myriad of emotions. Caleb and Raegan’s history dated back to college. She loved him so much and he cheated on her with one of her sorority sisters. Although she wasn’t very close to the sister, the pain didn’t sting any less. After his profession of love, he demonstrated it by pulling his pants down with anyone who would open her legs to him. The feelings of disgust and anger were beginning to return, but she decided she would not give him the satisfaction.

  “Michael, it is great to meet you. How are you?” she asked with a brighter, more sincere smile, extending her hand to him. “I’ve heard so much about you. It’s nice to meet you. How is your wife?” Raegan turned to Michael in an attempt to civilly dismiss Caleb.

  “She’s doing great. I will tell her that I met you while I was here. She wanted to come down and shop while I attended the convention activities, but she had plenty of work to catch up on.”

  “I can understand that. How long are you here? I may be able to catch up with you guys some time later, but I really have a ton of things that I need to finish before today is over,” she said, trying to forget that Caleb was even present. But she could feel his eyes burning a hole through her skull. He remained standing, relishing in the moment although he sensed she was still harboring a grudge against him.

  “I won’t have much time after today. I’m actually planning on traveling back home early to be with my lovely wife.”

  “How sweet is that?!” she said, winking at Rico. “Please take notes from Michael over here. He seems to have the right idea. He could be a good influence on you in the future,” Raegan playfully tagged his chest.

  “Taking notes ma’am,” Rico said as he took air notes in his hand. Pulling her closer to him, he asked, “So how do you know Caleb? I just met him today.” Rico had noticed the look in Caleb’s eyes when looking at Raegan. He could tell that Caleb had feelings for her and that didn’t sit well with him. He knew that wasn’t just some regular hello but there was definitely meaning behind it.

  “We went to undergrad together.” She was trying to dismiss the conversation, but Rico wasn’t quite letting it go. “Bye Michael, I will see you again soon,” she said and just waved good-bye to Caleb as she began walking away.

  “It doesn’t sound like you two just went to college together. He knows your full name. I don’t think I even knew your middle name,” Rico continued to press the issue as he walked her back to her car.

  “We used to date,” she said without any further explanation. “Can we not talk about this right now?” she asked. She needed time to gather her thoughts.

  “All right now, I don’t want any mess out of you young lady,” he said smiling. “I’m going to head back inside. Please be safe. I will call you later,” Rico said as he closed her car door. Rico somehow had the feeling that he was no longer the only one with secrets. The way Raegan and Caleb looked at each other caused a knot to develop in his stomach. He knew there was something going on and he planned to find out later.

  “Will do,” she mouthed to him as he walked away. She slid back into her coupe and proceeded to call Kensi. This was one call that just couldn’t wait. She was trembling as she dialed the numbers. Please pick up. Please pick up. Unbeknownst to her, Caleb was walking outside looking for her, just as Rico went back inside. Caleb excused himself from the table to go to the restroom. Luckily for him, the restroom was close enough to the door, allowing him to exit without Michael and Rico noticing. He spotted her sitting in her coupe on the phone.

  “Hello! What’s going on? I thought you were out running errands?” Kensi said as she answered the phone.

  “I was until I stopped to meet Rico and his friend at Buffalo Wild Wings. I’m about to have some sort of attack out here. You will never ever believe who was inside and sitting at the table with Rico!”

  “One of your ex-beaus!” Kensi said jokingly.

  “Yes!” Raegan shouted through the phone.

  “I was only kidding. Who could it have been? You have so many.”

  “This is no time to be joking, Kensi. Caleb is here!!”
After Raegan said his name, there was complete silence. Kensi was hardly ever at a loss for words but she didn’t know what to say. She knew all about Raegan and Caleb’s history. Raegan loved the guy and although she never said anything, Kensi was pretty convinced that he was part of the reason she left Damian at the altar a couple of years ago.

  “So you aren’t going to say anything?” Raegan asked, needing her friend to say something to help calm her down.

  “What do you want me to say? I’m just as stunned as you are. What is he doing—? Oh wait, his fraternity convention is this weekend. What a small world! I didn’t even think of that, let alone think that you would actually see him. Why was he with Rico?”

  “Rico’s best friend is a member of their fraternity as well. Apparently the best friend and Caleb met during the convention and he invited Caleb to come along for lunch…Why me?” Raegan whined. Glancing up, she saw Caleb. “Oh, no! Kens, this dude is standing in front of my car, motioning for me to get out and talk to him. What should I do?” Raegan asked, her voice almost a whisper. She spoke as if Caleb could hear her every word. That was an awkward question coming from Raegan, who was always so confident. She fumbled with the phone and dropped it on the floor.

  “Well, you know I’m going to say go talk to him, and not because I think you really need to talk to him but because I want to know what he has to say. Just do it and call me back later. Love you,” Kensi said and immediately hung up the phone to avoid protest or debate from Raegan.

  Back inside the restaurant Michael questioned Rico’s sanity. “What do you think you’re doing man? Why are you leading Raegan on? She seems like such a beautiful woman.”

  “Dude, what are you talking about? I love Raegan.”

  “While that may be true in some odd way, you shouldn’t be treating Chloe like this. She doesn’t deserve it and neither does Raegan. And you have this woman believing that you are actually going to marry her. Do you not see how wrong that is?” Michael chastised him.

  Rico assured Michael that everything would be fine and that Chloe would never find out. However, Michael warned him, “Man, you know you reap what you sow. And the next time, leave me out of it!” He didn’t want any part of Rico’s mischiefs. Michael loved his wife and didn’t want her to have any doubt about his commitment to her because of Rico’s issues.

  “What about your vows? How do you plan to keep this secret from Raegan? As a matter of fact, why are you parading her around? Do you want to get caught?” Michael pressed him. He didn’t agree with Rico’s actions but he also thought that Rico wasn’t even acting wisely while doing his dirt.

  “Man, chill out! Chloe’s nose is so far up in that hospital that she would never find out.” Rico was confident that his transgressions would go undetected by Chloe because she worked long hours at the hospital.

  “I’m just telling you that you’re wrong.” Michael shook his head. He didn’t want to be involved in Rico’s lies and warned him again to keep him out of it.

  CHAPTER 16

  ∞

  Caleb continued to beckon Raegan out of the car. There was no way he was going to miss an opportunity to talk with her now that he had laid eyes on her again. With sweaty and shaky palms, Raegan opened her car door and stood just inside the door without moving away from the car.

  “So, what do you want?” she asked Caleb. She was so nervous that she swore she could hear the sound of her heart beating in her ears. It had been such a long time since she last saw him and she had such mixed emotions seeing him now. A part of her wanted to give him the biggest hug she could muster while the other part of her wanted to scream at him, releasing the frustration that she never released years ago when she broke up with him.

  “You,” he stated quite plainly and without any sign of a smile. He stood there staring into her eyes so intensely that Raegan could feel a stirring in the pit of her stomach.

  “Caleb, please don’t do this. What do you want? I don’t have time for this,” she said, becoming outwardly agitated but inwardly excited. She was stunned by his response. She was definitely not expecting to hear him say that, although a part of her welcomed the admission. There may have been some feelings lingering around for him. She did love him very much at one point, but that was until he hurt her. Deeply. She had to admit that a small part of her still wanted him, always had. Maybe it was to hurt him like he hurt her, or it could have very well been that she believed they were meant to be together.

  “I know you believe what you thought you saw or heard that night but I wasn’t even—”

  “None of that matters anymore, Caleb!” she said, cutting him off, her voice slightly elevated. “What were you thinking? Wait, please don’t answer that because I don’t want to know. I don’t want to hear any excuses. That was such a long time ago and we should both let it go, okay?” She didn’t believe the words as she spoke them. The more he stood there in front of her, the more she wanted an explanation of what happened, hoping that it could somehow change things between them.

  “Well, let’s be fair Cami.” He was the only one who ever called her by her middle name, and a shortened version of it at that. “You never really gave me a chance to explain. You slapped me and stormed off. You wouldn’t accept my calls, any of my messages through your friends, and you wouldn’t respond to my letters, e-mails or voicemails. You wouldn’t even answer the door for me when I showed up to your place. What was I supposed to do? You walked out on me and didn’t even think twice about giving us a chance. I really thought we had something,” he paused for a moment, his eyes locked on hers. “If what we had was real, how could you be so quick to give up on us?” That was the question he pondered for years. How could she just walk out on their relationship like that?

  “You’re standing in front of me begging for me to slap you again! How can you say something like that? You were the one who gave up on us when you cheated! How could you be so cold to me after all that we shared? Really Caleb, how?” she asked as her eyes began to sting from the tears that were now welling up. She hated how he was able to get so much emotion from her. He doesn’t even deserve the conversation that I’m giving him, she thought.

  “C’mon Cami, don’t you think it’s about time that you hear me out? I didn’t—”

  “Forget it! I don’t want to hear anything else that you have to say.” She ended the conversation by getting into her car, slamming the door and speeding out of the parking lot.

  “Ugh! He just makes me so sick! What in the world is he doing here anyway? How could he have ended up in the same place as Rico? This can’t be real.” Oh but it is, she thought. “I know Rico is going to ask about this again. I don’t know what to tell him or even how to tell him the full story,” she said to herself as she drove off. At this point, she was becoming convinced that she didn’t quite know the entire story. Am I really being unreasonable, she questioned.

  The ringing and vibration of her phone interrupted her monologue.

  “Girl,” Kensi spoke into the receiver, dragging the word out. “What happened? I couldn’t wait until later, I need the deets now,” Kensi said. Raegan could hear the excitement in her voice.

  “Where are you and how did you know that I wasn’t still talking to him?” Raegan said, still a little flustered.

  “You’re forgetting one thing Rae…I know you! You weren’t going to talk to him for too long and probably wouldn’t have talked to him at all if I didn’t encourage you,” Kensi said laughing.

  “Anyway,” Raegan said rolling her eyes, “We need to sit down for this. Let’s meet up.”

  “I was actually heading to the new coffee shop west of the theater district to catch up on some work before my training next week. Meet me there. I’m approaching now.”

  “That sounds good. I hear they have great lattes. I’m heading your way now. Give me about fifteen minutes,” Raegan said as she ended the call. She was still visibly shaken from her recent interaction with Caleb. It took the remainder of the car ride for h
er to calm down.

  CHAPTER 17

  ∞

  Kensi pulled up to the coffee shop and went inside. She could see the blinking signage hanging in the window, Try our new caramel lattes. She grabbed cozy booth seats for herself and Raegan and decided to snoop around on the internet to see what Caleb was now up to, or at least what he allowed the world to know through Facebook. Hmmmm, she thought. Still single. Handsome. She wished she could have witnessed the reunion between Raegan and Caleb, at most just to see Raegan’s face when she first saw him. Just as she was clicking through his profile and pictures, Raegan walked in.

  Without wasting any time, Kensi asked, “What happened with Caleb and why are you looking like that?!” Her eyes bright, she leaned forward in her chair and motioned for Raegan to sit down.

  “Why?” Raegan questioned in her most dramatic tone of voice, throwing her hands in the air imitating a terrible actor.

  “Skim the dramatics. Tell me what happened,” Kensi pushed.

  “Typical pretty boy Caleb, wanting to get his way with me, flashing his pretty teeth and giving me puppy dog eyes,” Raegan began. She inwardly swooned at the sight of him. He was more handsome than she remembered. “He went on with some noise about wanting me and that I should listen to him to at least get the truth about that dreadful night.” Raegan continued on without giving her friend a chance to speak because she knew what she would say. “I mean, really! It’s been so long and so much has changed since then. I mean, what are the chances of me even seeing him today?” Raegan sighed and paused for a moment. “Part of me wants to talk about it now so that I can get some closure, but it really wouldn’t change anything.” At least I don’t think.

  A handsome waiter interrupted them. “Here are your two caramel lattes,” he said cheerily, showing a bright white smile. Kensi had ordered their drinks while she waited for Raegan to arrive.