Page 6 of Love Delayed

“Hola mamá, ¿cómo estás? ¿Traes tu trabajo a casa ahora?” I greeted my mom in Spanish. I knew she was a crusader, but I had not known her to bring any women or children to the house.

“Hola hijo y esta fue una situación extrema. Pronto llegará un coche.” She explained that this case was special and there were basically no other options.

“I came to talk to you and dad about something important.”

“Your papa is downstairs. I will join you two soon,” she assured me. I headed down the steps. Not long after, my mom joined us. I told her that I was ready to commit to Eliana. My mom was quiet at first and then assured me that she only wanted what made me happy. Like me, I knew she longed for Zamora to be my wife, but that ship had sailed and I had to deal with that reality. It had been years since I had seen or even talked to her. Eliana was my present.

With my parents blessing, the next day I made arrangements to meet with her parents. They were over the moon when I told them that I wanted to propose. Her father had zero hesitation and quickly gave me his blessing. After her mom assured me that our wedding would be fabulous, I gave them farewells and headed to the jewelers. Banks Jewelers had always been my place to patronize for custom jewelry and two weeks later I had the ring.

I planned a private dinner at the hotel, and after dinner, I got on one knee and uttered ‘will you marry me’to Elianna. The words I had on reserve for Zamora was recited to another woman and I had to coach myself to not cry for my failed relationship with ZeeZee, but to give my new fiance happy tears for our new journey. The future commitment to become husband and wife eventually.

Chapter One

Zamora

Ten Years Later…

I hate to admit it, but I was happy to bid my crew farewell. Although I was in Las Vegas mainly for a wedding, I extended my stay an additional four days. I planned to get some much-needed R&R and sample some of the desirable dishes I saw on Instagram. I was ready to give my mouth heavenly explosions of all the restaurants on my shortlist. On top of that, I was in no hurry to return home to tell my estranged husband that I was pregnant. I had been married for five years to a man who, after three years in, cheated on me and had a baby with someone else.

Yeah, my black ass stayed, believing the lie that it was only one time to salvage my circus of a marriage. He wanted a child, but I wanted to wait. Apparently, God was on my side because no matter how hard we tried, I didn’t get pregnant. We even went to the best doctors and fertility specialists, being told each time that we were both fine and to keep trying. We weren’t making any progress in healing our marriage, so I decided to ask for a divorce. Shortly after, I learned I had finally gotten pregnant.Pregnant?It wasn’t a question of how, but I was indeed pondering why. Why now, after I had mustered up the courage to tell Evan I wanted out?

Do I take on the role of a single mother, or do I pretend I’m happy in a marriagethat expired over two years ago?I can’t tell you exactly where we lost it; I just knew we had. I never wanted to see him again, let alone co-parent with him. However, the reality was that I wanted my baby.

I touched my lower abdomen, thinking of the life growing inside me. I was only two weeks pregnant, not far at all. I wished I hadn’t been so careless that night and let him enter my body. I was celebrating the grand opening of my catering company, The Z Spot, and Evan was there pretending to be a supportive husband to save face with our family and friends. We had indulged in good food and plenty of champagne, and before leaving the building, we turned up the heat in the kitchen, making love right there on the counter. Afterward, he drove us home, and we shared the night making love and behaving as if we were still a loving couple. When I woke up the following morning, he was gone. It was no surprise because he never diverted from his routine, so I knew he was at the barbershop.

Pulling my naked body from the bed, I went to relieve my aching bladder. As I listened to my business splatter into the porcelain bowl, memories of the night before flooded my head.

“Shit! Fuck! Shit! Fuck! Fuck!” I said with my hands formed into tight fists on my plump thighs and eyes shut just as tightly as I could close them. I was mad at myself for having slept with the damn enemy.

After wiping, I immediately started the shower. I went to my sink, grabbed my electric toothbrush, brushed my teeth, gargled, and then washed my face before I stepped into the massive shower. While under the stream of near-scalding water, I scolded myself for what I had done the night before with Ev. Damn, that was foolish, I couldn’t go back in time to make a wiser decision.

With all the baby-momma drama that involved trick-ass Terri, I was over Evan and his lies. During her entire pregnancy, our marriage was in limbo. Some days, I wanted to believe in Evan because he was so charming and good to me. After all, we’re only human and make mistakes. But then there were times when he would come home late, using the excuse of working late. Sometimes, he would pick a fight with me on purpose to have reason to storm out of the house and be gone for hours. Of course, he would say he just needed to blow off steam, but in my heart, I knew Terri had something to do with his actions.

Because I was so focused on getting my catering company up and running, Evan became that pot on the back burner, slow-cooking something you had to stir every now and then. The Z Spot was my only concern at that time, so I dealt with shit that I would have normally shut down. Fast forward to the birth of the other woman’s child. When we showed up to the appointment to take the paternity test, I took one look at that little boy and ran the hell up out of there. He chased me down with apology after apology.

“We’re fucking done!” I spat after slowing and turning to him. “Your dick was so desperate to make a baby. Well, now you got a son, and we are fuckin’ done!” I yelled and stormed off.

I kept walking with no destination in mind because I hadn’t driven, but finally stopped to get an Uber. I didn’t go home, though. Instead, I went to my sister’s, who comforted me as always. When I finally made it home, he was there.

“Can we talk?”

“No, but you can find another place to live,” I said, heading towards the bedroom.

“Zamora, please, just hear me out.”

I blew out the air held captive in my chest, then slid my ass down onto the chaise in our bedroom.

“Speak!” I demanded, my heart racing at a speed I had become accustomed to ever since the affair and pregnancy were revealed to me.

“I know I lied in the beginning about the entire affair and baby, and I’m sorry. I know you don’t believe me, but Terri was just ass, a roll in the damn sheets. All physical, baby; nothing serious. That’s it, that’s all. It happened, and I was wrong. But I never intended to get her pregnant. We didn’t get the test done today because I knew how upset you were, but I still don’t believe that baby is mine. Something is telling me shit is off with her.”

I chuckled loudly. “Just ass, huh? Ass, Evan? My goofy-ass husband tells me a woman who he penetrated without a condom was just ass! Is that shit supposed to make me feel better about this bullshit of a marriage you threw away over someass?” I yelled, fighting back the tears.

I didn’t want to cry another tear in front of his selfish, self-indulging ass. He didn’t deserve to see that type of emotion from me. He was a joke, and I did not want to show him my emotions or even give him any indication that I cared.

“We’vebeenway off, Zee,” he defended. I heard him, but I wanted to slap his cheating ass face. He had made foolish decisions that made shit even worse, so reminding me that things were not perfect did not lessen the blow to my damn heart.

“You’re right about that. How did you think things would be between us when you’re keeping whores on the side, Ev? Then you vowed to get your shit together, but our minute of peace turned to war after your side piece showed up on our doorstep with her pregnancy announcement. Yes, since that day, we have been way the fuck off. But prior to the bitch ringing my damn doorbell and telling me that my husband was going to be a father, we were fine. Well, at least I thought we were fine because I believed your lying ass when you told me that you were not stepping out on me. Now, there’s a woman across town who has your child. So, if there is nothing else you got other than ‘I’m sorry’, we are done, and I really need you to be somewhere else right now,” I said, swiping at my tears.