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I shifted closer to her and explained, “You offered your body to me. I never pressured you. It was bad timing. After we were together, I had to make decisions that altered my life. Decisions I couldn’t tell you about.”
“You knew my family, what my father did to pay the bills, and you didn’t think you could trust me with the truth? You trusted my brother, but the girl you said you loved, well...you patted me on my head, told me some bullshit that you weren’t the same Gianni. The next thing I know, I’m at my brother’s funeral, you’re nowhere to be found, and then my father is killed. Now, I’m supposed to walk back in your arms, forgetting all that shit, because you just happen to be the sexiest man I’ve ever seen, got me wet, and we almost fucked. Well...fuck you, Gianni Andreas DeLuca. You have to do more than come to my job saying you want me.” She pushed back from her desk. “Now, if you can excuse me, I do have work to do.”
I spoke quietly, “How about I tell you what you really want to hear.”
She frowned. “I don’t want to hear anything else you have to say.”
“If you didn’t, you would have stood up by now. You’re hoping I don’t leave your office without begging you to go out with me.”
Diamond scoffed. “Even if you beg, I wouldn’t go out with you.”
“Good, because I don’t beg,” I said evenly.
“Oh, I’m not deserving of your begging for my forgiveness?”
“I’m assuming you turned the cameras off. Because if it’s not, I suggest you do it now.”
She crossed her arms and lifted her head haughtily. “The cameras are off.”
I swiveled her chair around and leaned down over her. “Ms. Paris Rochon, I apologize for hurting you but not what I did. Even if I had to do it all over again, I would have made the same decision regarding protecting you because I fucking loved you. We were so young that I figured you would meet some man who would give you the future I could no longer. I didn’t know if I would be killed or somehow get you killed. I couldn’t afford to have a fear of losing you to be the soldier I knew I had to be. And now that I know you’re in the game like me, truly understand what it takes to be my woman, then fuck yeah. I do want another chance because I still love you, Paris or Diamond, or whatever you want me to call you. I’ve never stopped loving you; truth be told, I never allowed a woman near my heart. Whatever business we need to handle to co-exist, we will. But right now, I need you and me to be personal like a mothafucka.”
She gripped my swinging tie, pulled my head even closer, and slid her tongue into my mouth. I eagerly accepted her sensual intrusion, and before I could really indulge in her kiss, she pushed me away. “Please wipe my lipstick off your mouth, take a seat back over there, and let me open this account for you. Mark is expecting it.”
Wiping my mouth off her lipstick, I looked down at her. “After everything I just said, that’s all I get?”
Diamond instructed again, “I need you to sit back over there. You told Mark about opening an account, and you’re putting a blemish on my perfect record if you leave here without doing so.”
I slunk down in my seat, wondering what else I needed to do or say to get this woman to be with me. “Ask whatever questions you need. I said I would open an account, and I will.”
“Thank you. I just need your driver’s license to get started.”
I reached into my jacket pocket, and instead of my license, I pulled out a shiny orange pencil and placed it on the desk between us. “Remember when I surprised you with that charm necklace at school to mark that we’d been together for a month? You were so embarrassed because you hadn’t been focused on how long we’d been together and didn’t have a gift. You scrambled through your bookbag and gave me this pencil as a gift.”
Diamond gasped and gazed at me in wonder. “You’ve kept it all these years?”
“Yes. I usually keep it in my jacket pocket to remind me of you and the true, sweet love we shared, no matter how brief. And before you ask if this is just a copy, your teeth marks are still there.”
Her eyes watered. “You really did love me.”
“Realized the other night when I saw you, I still do.”
Diamond picked up the pencil, and her smile grew soft when she noticed the teeth marks. She then arched one perfectly shaped brow. “Driver’s license, please.”
At a loss of words and uncertain what to do to gain her favor, I pulled out my wallet and gave her my license. She spoke while typing in my information on a computer. “Lunch at Delmonico for two. Your treat.”
Hope sprang from my heart. “We can eat at my restaurant.”
She repeated, her eyes still on the computer. “Delmonico for two.”
