by Shay Violet
I nodded, impressed. I never realized Ezra had been paying so much attention to my preferences. I was paid to know all of his.
“As much as I never want to leave this bed, or you,” he continued. “I have a conference call in ten minutes. And then, sadly, we have to get back to the States. Duty calls and all.”
I nodded, admittedly disappointed. I had no desire to go back to any time before last night. I wanted to stay here in Ezra’s arms, forever.
What was wrong with me? It wasn’t like me to be so not… pragmatic.
We held each other for a few minutes before begrudgingly slipping out of bed and into plush, cashmere bath robes. Ezra went to the other side of the estate to take the conference call.
I missed him instantly.
The chef and staff had set up breakfast for me out on the patio outside of the dining room, facing the clearest water I’d ever seen. The beach was deserted, and I realized it was because we were the only ones able to use it.
Private island. I’d never look at another vacation the same again.
* * *
As I ate the fluffiest and most amazing omelet of my life on the shores of the Maldives, I pulled out my laptop to catch up on email.
I know. I’m ridiculous. But work never stops for me.
I quickly went through my work messages since most of them were non-urgent (thankfully) and when I pulled up my personal email, I noticed a message from my Aunt Willa, my mom’s sister.
Tyesha—
Your momma didn’t want me to bother you, but I feel like you’d be very upset if you didn’t know what was going on. You know how she is. She doesn’t want to burden anyone even when she’s the first one we all lay our own stuff on. A couple of days ago, she went to the ER with a bad headache. They kept her overnight and ran some tests. I hate to tell you this over email, but you need to come home when you can. Your momma has a brain tumor.
I tried to call and text, but I know you’re overseas with work, so wasn’t sure if you got them. I’m sorry to lay this on you like this.
Love you, girl,
Aunt Willa
The shock of it, was like a tsunami. Suddenly I was nauseated and completely sick. I pushed my plate away and stared out at the sea, unsure of what to think or do.
I completely forgot about the night before, work, Ezra, everything.
I am not someone who cries much, but right there I couldn’t help it. I started to weep, quietly. The butler who had been standing by waiting to serve me anything else I needed became very concerned.
“Ma’am are you alright?” he asked me in heavily accented English. His eyes were kind, and his kind words touched me. “What can I do to help?”
I shook my head. “Just get me Mr. Brannigan. See if he’s done with his call. We need to leave. Now.”
* * *
While I waited for the staff to fetch Ezra, I started searching for flights online from the Maldives to DC. Ezra would be heading straight to New York from here, so I needed to get my own flight home.
I was still crying as I typed. My poor mother. I had just spoken to her the other day, and she hadn’t mentioned a thing about headaches or not feeling well. That was her way. She never thought of herself.
Here I was, shacked up on some private island with my boss while she was suffering. She needed me, and I wasn’t there.
That was changing immediately.
“Tyesha…”
I turned to see Ezra, his face confused. Once he saw I was crying he immediately went into comfort mode, holding me as I sobbed into his shoulder.
“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked as he stroked my head, his chin on top of it. “What happened?”
“My momma,” I choked out. “She’s really sick. I need to get home. I’m sorry.”
He pulled back from me, stunned.
“That’s terrible,” he said. “Well, let’s get the fuck out of here. I’ll get you to DC as soon as possible.”
“I’m looking at flights now,” I said, gesturing to my open laptop. “But it’s a blur, I can hardly think.”
He shook his head. “Book flights? Nonsense. We have a plane and I can have us on it and out of here within the hour. I’ll have the staff pack our things. Do you want to use my satellite phone? Call your family?”
I looked at him, shocked.
“But you have to be in New York,” I said.
“Fuck that,” he replied. “I need to be in DC. With you.”
He stood up, solid in his decision. Part of me wanted to fight him on it. I didn’t want my problems to be his. That wasn’t professional.
But our relationship wasn’t professional anymore. And I was exhausted. For once, I would let someone take care of me.
“Okay,” I sighed, suddenly grateful beyond words. “Let’s do it.”
9
Forty-five minutes later we were buckling our seatbelts and on our way to my hometown, Washington, D.C.
The flight would be over 18 hours, though Ezra assured me he could get us there even faster.
Even time itself didn’t stop him from getting anything he wanted.
We were also 10 hours ahead of my family, so that would help a bit to seem like a shorter journey.
Once we were in the air, I started to cry again. Ezra’s arm never left my shoulder. One of the flight attendants was kind enough to give me a pill to relax and help me fall asleep once we’d had our lunch.
Have you ever slept on a plane? It’s usually incredibly uncomfortable. But in Ezra’s world, planes had actual beds. I slept for a good eight hours on a queen-sized bed in the back of the plane. As we soared over Africa I was snoozing away, 35,000 feet above it all.
* * *
When we’d landed in DC, two black luxury SUVs had been waiting for us on the tarmac. One for Ezra and me, the other for his security. They’d driven us straight to my mother’s house in Greenway, in the southeast part of the city.
It had been surreal to drive through the projects in this car with my billionaire boss turned lover. Part of me was proud of how far I’d come, another part of me was sad I hadn’t done more for my community and my family, like I’d promised to.
I had tried to get my mother to move a million times. The neighborhood I grew up in was rough, and that hadn’t changed much. But she, like me, was stubborn. She refused to move, even when I offered her the world in return.
I made enough that I could buy my mother a very sensible and modern condo in a good area of town. But she’d hear nothing of it.
“Greenway is my home,” she’d say. “This is where I raised my babies. And where my grandbabies will visit me. I ain’t goin’ nowhere, girl.”
So, I’d given up on moving her, but tried my best to check in on her every day. Fortunately, we had a lot of family in the area, so she was never alone.
My brother Tyvon was still in D.C. along with my Aunt Willa and her kids.
I also knew that Greenway, to my mother, would always be my sister too.
I’d had a sister, once-upon-a-time. Her name was Tionna, and she was two years older than me. When she was four years old, she died from leukemia. She had been diagnosed with it shortly after her first birthday.
I don’t have a single memory of her. The only thing that proves she was alive are my mother’s memories and stories. And a couple of photos.
We never talk about her. Ever. Some things are too painful to discuss, no matter how long it’s been.
My father left us shortly after my sister died. None of us ever heard from him again.
I consider this is my mother's way of holding on to the past. Living in the same house in Greenway, in a way, Tionna never really dies.
So, I don’t push it with my mother. If Greenway is what she wants, Greenway is what she will have. Forever.
I shared all of this with Ezra on our way to her house. I wasn’t sure why. I hadn’t even shared the story of Tionna with my Leopard Ladies. They knew of her, but not about her, if that makes sense.
It was just easier that way.
But I wanted Ezra to know, since he was about to enter the museum of my life. He needed to know so he could be prepared. My mother had a huge photo of all of us as kids in the living room. I’m just a baby in it, leaning against my siblings in a frilly dress that had probably been worn by all my cousins before it got to me.
“Tyesha, I’m so sorry,” he said as we pulled onto my mother’s street. “Your family has been through so much. I can’t even imagine.”
“Sure, you can,” I said, sitting up, gathering myself. I had to be strong now. “You lost Winston’s mother. Your own mother died a couple of years ago. We all have loss, Ezra. That’s the one thing that crosses all lines.”
* * *
“You really shouldn’t have come all this way for me,” were the first words my mother said when we entered her bedroom almost a day later.
I sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me? I shouldn’t have to find out something like this through email, Momma. Let me help you.”
She batted me away. “I’m the parent. I do the helping, not you.”
It took her a moment to realize I wasn’t alone.
“And who is this?” Momma said, her eyes scrolling up and down Ezra’s six-foot five frame. “Now he's a tall glass of water if I ever saw one.”
I felt like I was eighteen years old but quickly remembered my manners.
“Momma, you’ve never met my boss,” I said. “This is Mr. Brannigan. He insisted on flying me here as soon as we knew about you being sick.”
“You can call me Ezra, please,” he said, stepping forward and holding out his hand. “I’m sorry we weren’t here sooner. We were literally on the other side of the world when Tyesha found out, but I got her here as fast as I could.”
“So you did,” she said, smiling. “All for me? It’s too much.”
“Not at all,” Ezra said. I realized he was nervous. It was… adorable.
“Momma, when do you see the doctor again?” I asked. “We need to figure out what the next steps are. I’m assuming they haven’t figured out if it’s malignant or not.”
“It’s in a difficult place,” Momma said, knocking on her own head. “They want to do surgery, but I don’t know, baby. It scares me… Someone cutting into my brain. Maybe if I just leave it be, it’ll be fine. I can take Tylenol for the headaches.”
I sighed.
“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “I’ll get you an appointment right away. We have to get it out of you, Momma. Medicine has advanced so much. There’s no reason—”
“I know someone,” Ezra interrupted now. “He’s a friend of mine, we went to boarding school together.”
Momma and I both stared at him, stunned.
“He’s a surgeon at Johns Hopkins. That’s not so far away, right?” Ezra asked, his smartphone already in his hand. “He’s the best in the world. I could have you see him tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” I asked. “But I doubt he’ll have the time—”
“Since when do people not have time for me?” Ezra pointed out, which immediately shut me up. He was right.
Part of me wanted to resist his help.
But mostly, I just wanted my mom to be okay.
So, for the second time in 24 hours, I let Ezra Brannigan have his way.
* * *
Dr. Jonathan Holmby had been Ezra’s roommate at Princeton. They’d gone through boarding school and then undergrad together. Ezra had become a billionaire mogul, and Jonathan had become a world-renowned surgeon.
I’d done my research that night. He really was the absolute best brain surgeon in the world.
And that also meant he was expensive. Even if he could see my mother and perform the surgery, how would we pay for it all?
Ezra never seemed to remember that most of us didn’t have even close to as much access as his money afforded him.
I’d stayed with my mother that night while Ezra had gotten a hotel room at the Four Seasons.
“I can stay here,” he said as we’d whispered to each other in the hallway. Out of my mother’s sight now, he pulled me into him and suddenly I remembered our night in the Maldives.
“No, it’s better you don’t,” I said. “It doesn’t look… professional. And until we can get past all of this, we need to keep it as professional as we can.”
I could tell it hurt him, but he seemed to understand.
“Well, I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I’ll be with you tomorrow when we see Jonathan. He said to be at his office at 10 am. I’ll pick you both up at 9, just in case traffic is heavy.”
“It’s always heavy around here,” I said. I leaned in and kissed him. It was long and lingering — a promise for more later.
“I know this is a hard time,” he said. “But I can’t stop thinking about you, Tyesha.”
“Me too,” I said, gently pushing him out the door and to his waiting SUV. “We’ll talk more later. I haven’t forgotten anything.”
He smiled then, reassured.
As if I could ever forget him. Not in a million years.
* * *
Everything moved quickly once we saw Dr. Holmby, who I immediately liked and trusted. He treated my mother with such care and after looking at her test results he made it very clear he wanted to perform the surgery my mother needed as soon as possible.
“Will I make it?” my mother asked, breaking my heart. She’d never gotten so much as stitches in her life, much less surgery. “This is all so scary. I really can’t just wait it out.”
“Afraid not,” Dr. Holmby said. “But you will absolutely make it. I perform these surgeries all the time. I am literally the world’s expert in brain surgery, Mrs. Baker. I won’t let anything happen to you. And now, you’ll get to live a much longer life. But I need to get in there and see what we’re dealing with. These types of tumors tend to be benign, which is the good news. But they can still do damage. We need to perform this surgery as soon as we can, so we can get you on the road to recovery.”
He was so confident, which set us all at ease.
I still wasn’t sure how we’d pay for it all, but I’d worry about that later. My mother had Medicaid, and I had savings. We would make this work.
* * *
Two days later, it was go time.
I don’t know how Ezra had arranged it all, but two days later my mother was having brain surgery to remove what turned out to be a benign tumor, but a rapidly growing type that would have put her life in danger had it not been removed.
I had paced the hallways of the hospital that entire day. It was a long surgery and the most stressful day of my life.
Despite knowing he had a million things he should have been doing, Ezra never left my side. It blew me away what an oak he was for me. My aunts and uncles had joined us at the hospital and curiously enough he blended in perfectly with them, this privileged billionaire from a whole other universe.
He had been the comfort I needed to get through what otherwise would have been a life-changing event, the kind that would have knocked me down completely if it weren’t for him.
Once she was out of surgery and stable, I knew I had to get back to my life and my job. And Ezra. We had to really figure out what was going on between us.
As much as I loved him, I also had ambitions and plans. I had promises I’d made to myself about what my life was going to look like, and what I would accomplish.
I couldn’t let anything distract me from that. What if I was just Ezra’s fling of the month? Where would that leave me?
I decided not to think about it for now and live in the moment. My mother was going to be okay according to Dr. Holmby.
My family would help her through her recovery and I would come home on the weekends to watch over her.
Ezra and I needed to get to New York. He’d put so much off for me, I couldn’t let it go on any longer. We both had jobs to do.
Still. I missed him. I wanted him.
Maybe we could have one last moment before
we had to go back to reality.
I was to meet him at the Four Seasons the next day at ten.
I had other things in mind.
10
I will never forget the look of surprise on his face when I showed up that morning. It was early, but I’d hardly been able to sleep thinking about him.
Knowing that Momma’s surgery had been a success, and that she was in good hands with my aunts and family, made it that much easier to get back to work… and to Ezra.
“Good morning, Mr. Brannigan,” I said, stepping past him as I entered his massive suite at the Four Seasons. I could see he’d just woken up. The sheets were a mess, and he was still in just his boxer briefs.
I’d worn a long trench coat, tied tightly around my waist.
“Well, good morning to you,” he smirked as he closed the door behind him and walked toward me. “You’re early. I thought we weren’t leaving for New York until ten.”
“Do you mind?” I purred. I was so horny, I could hardly stand it. Could he tell?
“You know I don’t,” he whispered. He was in front of me now, all naked chest and tousled hair. “What’s under that coat, Tyesha?”
He didn’t wait for my answer. He roughly yanked me by the belt of my trench, opening it and threw it aside.
“Nothing at all,” I said, lust in my voice.
I was completely naked except for thigh highs and teetering stiletto heels, ones he’d bought for me three Christmases ago.
“Fuck,” he said, kneeling in front of me now, his mouth already on my sex as I rolled my head back and cried out, almost coming from his touch alone.
He ate my pussy — he was so eager. His hands clutched my ass and kept me still as he fucked me with his mouth and even if I’d wanted to, I’d never have gotten away from him.
“I’ve been jerking off to the thought of you in those heels for years,” he said, pausing from tonguing my clit. “Did you know that?”
“No,” I admitted. “I would never have imagined.”
His tongue was back inside me now and I yelped and then moaned, swirled inside me giving me an ecstasy I also never imagined.