Page 18 of Passion

“Okay. Bye.”

I ended the call, and the tears came out of nowhere. I’d made a mess of things, but I could only pray things would work out for the best. As I drove, my phone rang. Looking at the screen in my car, I saw it was Gentry. I sniffed and tried to pull myself together before answering. “Hello?”

“Don’t try to sound like you okay. I learned enough about you this past week to know this is killing you. It’s gonna be rough at first, but it will all work out. I’m going to do my best to be understanding of where he’s coming from. I don’t have kids, but I can imagine how protective I would be if I did.”

I wiped my eyes as he said softly, “I got’chu, baby. Don’t worry.”

“Thank you, Flem. I’ll do my best not to worry. I’ve been praying in my spirit already, so I’ll continue to do that.”

“I’ll do that too.”

“See you in a couple of hours.”

“A’ight, baby.”

I ended the call and only cried more. Gentry having my back and being understanding of my situation meant everything to me, especially after knowing this was my fault. While I was busy blaming myself, it was like the spirit of God spoke to me. Had he known beforehand, you wouldn’t have met Gentry, because he would have never been okay with this.

I took a deep breath and thought about what I heard in my soul as if someone were sitting next to me. It was loud and clear, and I knew that it was right. Clayton would have said a resounding, hell naw, and I wouldn’t have done it. I would still be alone and miserable in my love life, craving the man I had now.

Things had to work out. If they didn’t, there was no way I would sacrifice my children for Gentry. I didn’t want to let go of the man I felt God blessed me with. I could only pray that God would touch Clayton’s heart… soften it to see how much Gentry already meant to me and how I wouldn’t jeopardize my children’s security and safety for my own desires.

While I thought he should have known that already, what I’d done wasn’t something I would have normally done. I was a planner. I was far from spontaneous and didn’t take risks. I’d done just that when I married Gentry, so Clayton didn’t know what to believe about me.

Taking a deep breath, I whispered, “God, please intervene.”

When I got to Giselle’s apartment, I realized I was ten minutes early. I got out of the car and made my way to her place. I’d brought her here earlier when we first got back, so I knew exactly where to go. I didn’t have the greatest feeling about this nigga, but I did my best to keep an open mind. Giselle had indeed fucked up, but I couldn’t hold that against her. She was trying to make it right, so my job as her husband was to be supportive of her. Husband. That shit still sounded weird.

I would be on my best behavior. That shit was going to take effort. I wasn’t easily intimidated and could be downright rude at times. This was important to Giselle though. I refused to make this more difficult for her because I couldn’t control my mouth and reactions. If he outright disrespected her, then all that shit would go out the window. He didn’t know me, so I could understand his irritation.

I knocked on her door, and she answered almost immediately. She smiled as her attention shifted to the flowers I held. “Hey, baby. I missed you already,” I said as she stepped aside to allow me in.

“I missed you too, Gentry. I got so used to you always being close to me.”

I turned to her and kissed her forehead then handed her the flowers. She closed her eyes as she sniffed them. “Thank you, Gentry.”

“You’re welcome. Let me put them in water for you while you get your shoes on,” I said, noticing she was barefoot and that an empty vase was on the countertop.

“Okay.”

She gave them back to me and made her way back down the hallway. By the time I got her flowers situated, she was reentering the room with her heels, purse, and keys. She looked so beautiful in her black form fitting, off-the-shoulder, dress. Her braids were pulled up into a bun, and her makeup was flawless. Those red lips were calling me, and I couldn’t wait until this awkward ass dinner was over so I could taste them.

“Damn. You look beautiful. I’m sorry I didn’t say so before.”

I was in my head about this damn dinner and had failed to address just how gorgeous she looked. She smiled. “Thank you. You look nice as well.”

I wore black slacks and a black short-sleeved shirt, nothing extravagant. Adding my diamond studs and my Audemars Piguet watch to the mix only made the fit look dressier. I grabbed her hand and led her to the door, prepared to stand as a united front for her “friend” baby daddy, no matter how much I thought that friendship part of it would be tested. When it came to those kids, their friendship had nothing to do with shit. I could already see that, and I hadn’t met Clayton yet.

When we got to my car, I helped her inside, glancing down at her cleavage. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her sexy ass. Hopefully, I would be able to at dinner, long enough for him to take me seriously at least.

Once I walked around and got in the car, she grabbed my hand. “I know we said we would always be open with each other, so I want to say that, for some reason, I’m nervous about this. My gut usually doesn’t steer me wrong, and although it’s restrained in this girdle, it’s saying it doesn’t like this shit one bit.”

Now that shit was saying a lot. She knew him way better than I did, and she was sensing some foul shit. That proved it wasn’t just my disdain with the situation. “You think dinner gon’ be fucked up?”

“No. He’s gonna be cool, but I just feel like he’s not going to be as receptive as he’ll pretend to be. I know I caused all this, so we’ll see how things go. I just hope I don’t have to get niggerish with him about my kids. He’s a good dad, and I know he’s uneasy about this, but I don’t know. I will only give him so much time.”

I nodded repeatedly. It was good to know that she was planning to stand her ground. That made me feel better about laying low and letting her handle things. I planned to do that anyway, because it wasn’t my battle, but I wouldn’t play on the back fiddle for too long.

When we got to the restaurant, I parked then helped Giselle’s fine ass out of her seat. As we walked to the entrance, she stopped. I followed her line of vision to a man with a slight frown on his face. I had to assume that was him. When he saw I was looking, his facial expressions eased a bit. Giselle held my hand a little tighter as he approached.