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Jeremiah’s hand lifted and he squeezed my shoulder. “I’m really glad you’re back, Chap. Come to my office in a few, a’ight?”
I nodded, coming to grips with the fact that after he left, Nova and I would be alone. I should have followed behind Jeremiah, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. My feet were planted. Nova stood, and each slow step he took in my direction caused my heart to beat harder—faster.
He made his way in front of me… so close there was less than an inch of space between us. With my heels on, he was just a couple of inches taller than me. I could feel his breath on my forehead as he looked down at me. Licking my lips, I swallowed hard and inhaled a deep breath.
“You’re in my favorite dress, wearing my favorite perfume.”
His hand reached out, but he pulled it back, as if touching me was like touching fire, and the heat was enough of a warning for him to not want to be burned.
I looked into his eyes, and mine watered. With flaring nostrils, I blinked back tears. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry in front of him and let him see how much his actions hurt me. He didn’t care enough to not do it, so he wouldn’t care about the pain. But the longer I stared into his eyes, the harder it was for those feelings to not resurface.
My chest started to heave as my breathing grew choppy. He reached for me, but I pushed him away.
“Do not touch me,” I demanded through gritted teeth. “You’re not worthy.”
His head bobbed and hung before he released a shaky breath. “What are you doing here, Chapel? For real?”
With a bit of space between us, I felt like I could breathe. “Getting back what belongs to me.”
His head lifted, and those tight eyes were filled with remorse. I couldn’t ignore the sad expression that covered his handsome cocoa-brown face. There weren’t too many things about Nova that were different. He was dressed in all black, as always. His short beard drew attention to his skin-colored lips. The tapered afro with shaved sides was new, and it gave a rugged edge to his otherwise clean look.
“Does that include me?”
I wanted to tell him hell no, but that would ruin my plan. Though I wanted to get him back just to break his heart, I couldn’t make it easy. If I did, he would value me even less, and I wanted this shit tohurt. There was a line I’d need to straddle between making him suffer and giving him access to me. No matter how hard it would be, I’d make him and Tiffany pay, even if I had to play nice.
“Do you want it to?”
The left side of his mouth lifted into a smile as his eyes scanned me from my heels to my eyes.
“Chapel, I…”
Tiffany swung the glass door open widely, looking from Nova to me with a frown.
“I need to talk to you,” she blurted.
Shoving his hands into his pockets, Nova gave her a nod. “Okay. I’ll come to your office in a second.”
“Now, Nova. Please. It’s important.”
Without waiting for him to agree, Tiffany closed the space between them and tugged him out by his hand. He left willingly, looking back and staring at me the whole time she dragged him away.
5
Later that Evening
There was onlyone person who would be at my door at this time of night, and that was Jeremiah. I’d seen his calls and texts and just didn’t want to be bothered. Instead of going ghost, I told him I needed some time to process the day’s events. Jeremiah wasn’t the kind of man who didn’t go after what he wanted. He was very persistent and dedicated. If he wanted to make sure I was okay, me asking for space wouldn’t stop him. I was surprised he’d waited as long as he did to stop by.
I checked the time again, shaking my head at the sight of 11:59. As irritated as I was that I had to get out of bed, I couldn’t help but smile. Jerry was truly my favorite person. Even when I wanted to be alone, I didn’t mind having him around because we were like one. After grabbing my satin robe out of my master bathroom closet and tossing it over the satin sleep set I had on, I made my way to the door to let him in.
As soon as I opened the door, Jeremiah was scolding me about the flickering light outside. How my townhome was set up, you had to walk up a set of stairs to get to my front door. While I was gone, something must have happened with the wiring because that light flickered all night.
“Why you ain’t tell me about the light? I would’ve gotten some bulbs on my way here.”
“It’s not that big of a deal, Jerry. I don’t leave much while it’s dark out so it’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. What if it goes out while you’re walking down the steps and you fall?”
“You act like I’m clumsy.”
