“Mike, what are you doing here? I thought you were going home for the evening,” she said.
Mike walked past her into the lobby.
“I was and then I decided that you needed a break and I’m sure dinner as well, so I thought I’d come and bring you both.”
She got a closer look at everything he was carrying. Besides the picnic basket, he was carrying a couple of blankets, a pillow and a large bag that appeared to be full of items as well. Her heart swelled knowing how much he cared about her.
“Michael Bailey, what is running through that head of yours and what’s in this bag and the basket?” she said, trying to get a look inside each one.
“Lock the door Loren and follow me.”
Mike already knew his way around, having been to her shop many times. He found his way to the rear of the shop to find the perfect spot for a night of romance.
Loren watched as he started moving things around to make a clearing. She stood silently while he laid the blankets down, then the pillow. He opened the bag first and took out candles, an IPod with speakers which he plugged in and put on some soft jazz music; her favorite of course. He then reached back into his bag of tricks and pulled out a short, silk white robe for her and a black one for him and several massage oils and towels, placing them on the blanket. She then watched as he removed two bottles of wine, one white and one red, from the basket along with some freshly sliced fruit, containers of Chinese food and two hefty slices of apple pie, another of her favorites. When he was done removing the rest of the items, he turned to her.
“Loren, I know you have a lot of work to do tonight and I’m not trying to distract you from that, but I wanted to help you relax. You sounded stressed on the phone so for a few hours, I’m going to help take your mind off of work while I give you a massage, followed by a delicious dinner. Then I’m going to stay and help you finish up whatever work you have to do.”
She couldn’t believe what he had taken the time to do for her tonight. She was speechless.
“Thank you,” was all she could get out without shedding tears of joy.
Loren went to Mike, placed her arms around his waist and leaned into him, loving the closeness she now realized she needed from him all day.
Mike kissed her forehead and handed her a robe.
“Now, go into your office bathroom, remove everything and put this robe on. In the meantime, I’m going to finish setting everything up.”
Loren excitedly did as he asked, being more than grateful for him.
When she returned, she found him sitting on the blanket in his black robe, surrounded by lit candles. He had turned off all of the other lights so that the candles would cast a romantic glow in the room.
When Mike saw Loren enter, he couldn’t help but notice how exotic she looked in the candlelit space. He was happy that he decided to do this for her tonight.
“I want you to lay down flat on the blanket. You can take your robe off.”
Loren was already getting turned on at the romantic atmosphere he’d set up.
He whispered in her ear, “No thoughts of sex tonight baby. You know I can read your expressions. My plan is to focus on getting you totally relaxed. We’ll save the sex for another night. Tonight is all about romance.”
Loren felt a chill, a shiver as he spoke. He was crazy if he thought he was going to set all this up and tease her. She would wait to see how the night played out.
She laid down on the blanket while Mike grabbed the oil, straddled her legs and started massaging her neck, then her shoulders. She was already feeling relaxed as he began working the kinks out with his magnificent hands.
While he continued to relax her, Loren could only think of how thankful she was for a man who was as thoughtful as he was, even if she couldn’t tell anyone about it. Just like tonight, he’d always shown her that he was always thinking about her. She would get deliveries of flowers or come out to get in her car and find a card or a note from him. He did lots of things to make her feel special and tonight was another she could add to the list.
Mike could feel when Loren finally started to relax. He began to sing to her softly as his thoughts turned to how appreciative he was for this beautiful woman whom he would do anything for and grateful for a great friend who put all of this together for him with just a phone call. He continued to massage her as watched her close her eyes and as he felt all tension dissipate from her body. This was his one and only plan for the evening.
Loren was ecstatic that things had actually worked out between her brother Duron and Taija. She was concerned at one time when it appeared they weren’t going to be able to repair the damage done to the relationship due to miscommunication.
Duron had spotted Taija’s ex-boyfriend at her house and assumed the two had resumed their relationship. Now that things were finally cleared up, she couldn’t be happier for them. She was thrilled that today, her brother was marrying Taija and she was serving as one of two maids of honor. The other was Taija’s friend Victoria from Boston. She was also looking forward to seeing Mike at the wedding since he was serving as one of the groomsmen.
They had been secretly seeing each other for over six months and so far other than Taija and Jase, who agreed to keep their secret, no one else has realized they had something going on.
Even with the happy occasion taking place, she felt saddened because after a few delay, Mike was finally making his move to California and didn’t expect the rush of emotions that flowed through her every time they talked about his move.
She had taken additional trips to the west coast, first to do a walk-through of the house that was just about completed, with the exception of some add-ons he wanted from the contractor and then to continue with her designs for the finished spaces.
She loved her trips their where the beaches were beautiful and she could do her own star gazing. She was tickled when she decided to shop on Rodeo drive one day and literally bumped into Denzel Washington. It never mattered to her how much older than her he was, he was still the finest man she had ever set eyes on, well that is except for her baby Mike. None compared to him.
She couldn’t wait to see him later today. She knew he was going to be the finest brother in the place in his tuxedo. This was the second time they would be at a major function with her entire family and they had to watch their interaction. She still wasn’t ready to tell anyone that they were seeing each other. Everything was going great and she didn’t want to rock the boat. She did have to admit that things between the two of them were better than she ever thought they would be. He treated her like a queen and he put his all into letting her know that she was everything to him. If it were up to Mike, everyone would know.
He had been pushing her more lately to come clean with her family. He was ready to deal with the backlash that he knew he would get from her brother Duron, but he was ready for it. Mike had been telling her that even Duron had been sensing something different about him and that he had not noticed Mike with any women lately. He assumed Mike was either getting tired of the womanizing or that Mike was so busy with work, that he didn’t make as much time for pleasure as he had in the past.
He was preparing to move to the west coast soon and she knew that when Duron inquired about his personal life and he had nothing to tell him, he figured it was due to the move and never drilled him on it. Even now, knowing how well things were going, she wasn’t ready for anyone to know. They had some issues to work out.
Loren expressed her concern about some of the women Mike had been casually involved with. Though she believed him when he said he hadn’t been seeing any of them, there was one in particular that didn’t want to accept that he was no longer interested. She also knew of his very active sex life and wanted to be sure he didn’t have desires that she didn’t know about. She believed in keeping things fresh and new and knowing how high his sex drive was, she wanted to be sure she was fulfilling all of his needs. He assured her, she was all he needed.
Mike shared with her about this one woman that he had been seeing for a while. Though they were not having a relationship, they had fallen into a pattern of satisfying each other’s needs and doing so often. This woman named Shelly still continued to contact him as if he had never told her he was no longer interested. Mike assured her Shelly was no issue, but even after a lot of time has passed, she was still trying to be a part of Mike’s life. Loren figured what had occurred between Shelly and Mike was much deeper for Shelly than it was for Mike. She decided to let him handle it and she trusted him when he said it was over between them. One thing Loren knew was that women did not let go as easily as men. She knew what a great catch Mike was and she was sure this Shelly woman knew as well.
She removed all thoughts of Mike and any other woman from her mind as she continued getting ready for the wedding.
~~~
The seven weeks following her brother’s wedding was a very busy time for Loren. She was preparing for another trip to the west coast to work out some design finalities with Mike’s house. Completing the work on the office turned out to be easier than she thought. The house was another story. It was large and very beautiful. She had to convince Mike to brighten up some of the rooms and to get away from the plain, dull colors men often wanted.
Since her flight was very early the next, she decided to stop by her parent’s house beforehand. When she pulled up to the house, she saw her oldest brother Jake’s car in the driveway. She also noticed the car seats in the back which meant her niece and nephew were with him. She loved Lyric and Milo as if they were her very own. She couldn’t wait to see them again. Lyric had served as a flower girl at her brother’s wedding and Milo was the ring carrier. They looked cute all dressed up for the affair.
“Anybody home?” Loren hollered into the house as she entered.
“We’re in the kitchen, Loren,” her mother shouted as she came through the door.
When she reached the kitchen, her mother, brother and sister-in-law, Kim were sitting at the kitchen table looking at pictures from the wedding.
“Hey everybody!”
“Hey,” they all chimed at the same time.
“Let me see the pictures when you’re finished.”
“Look at them fast Loren. We’ve been here a while with mom and dad and we were about to leave. Kim wants to get the photos in a nice book for Duron and Taija and we need to get them to the photographer today,” her brother stated.
“Okay, I’m not staying long either. I still have some packing to do and my flight is early in the morning.”
Loren’s mother looked up at her, from viewing the pictures.
“I really don’t like you taking these flights to California by yourself. It’s not safe for a young woman to be traveling there alone.”
“Mom, I’m going to be fine. I’ll only be gone a few days and besides, Mike will be there this time. He flew out this morning to take care of some business and will meet me at the house tomorrow to go over some last minute ideas I have. I’ll be fine so don’t worry.”
“When is Mike actually moving? I hear things are just about ready,” Jake asked.
Loren loved talking about Mike. She hoped her over excitement didn’t show.
“First, where are my niece and nephew? I saw the car seats?”
“They’re with dad in the back yard. He’s having a mini playground built and they wanted to watch the men set it up.”
“Okay, I’ll say hi to them in a few minutes. To answer your question, Mike has another couple of weeks before he actually moves. The project starts in about three months and he wants to be completely settled by then. It’s exciting and you should see the new offices they are opening. I’m planning to fly back out with Duron and Taija for the grand opening in a few weeks. Speaking of the newlyweds, has anyone heard from them since they got back from the honeymoon?”
Her mother answered.
“Yes, they stopped by last week for a quick visit. They were still in the midst of moving the rest of Taija’s things from her place to the house. They’ve also been adjusting to being back at work. Besides that, I think they’ve been hibernating like newlyweds should.”
Loren had no doubt that they were.
“Well I’ll catch them when I get back in town.”
She flipped through the pictures while everyone talked around her. When she finished, she stopped to give her niece and nephew a quick hug and then left so that she could finish her packing.
As she drove, she couldn’t help but think of the conversation she and Mike had earlier in the day. He was getting frustrated that months later, they were still sneaking around. He felt that enough time had passed and that she needed to decide if they were going to work out or not. He would be moving soon and he wanted their relationship established openly before he left. To him there was no doubt. He knew she didn’t have doubts that they would work out. She just couldn’t find the right words to have the conversation with her brother and she knew she needed to tell him first. He knew the longer they waited, the angrier Duron would be.
The last week or so they had both been busy that the subject didn’t come up until today. He wanted to be free to visit her in Atlanta and to have her visit him in California without the cover of a lie. His house would soon be finished and there would be no need for her to continue her trips out. How would she explain it then? Loren didn’t know. Right now things were going well for them and she didn’t want to rock the boat, not with his move on the horizon.
Loren had made Mike a promise that if he let her get through this trip, she would tell Duron when she got back to Atlanta. He was back from his honeymoon and he and Taija were busy enjoying their new married life. She didn’t want to bring up anything that would cause drama. She asked him to be patient with her for a little while longer. Of course he gave in, as he always did, but he told her after this trip out to California, if she didn’t tell Duron, then he was going to tell him. She knew Mike was of dragging out the inevitable. He had done a good job proving to her what being in a relationship with him would be like. He had proved he could be faithful to her and deep down, she agreed with him that they were made to be together. She would talk to Duron when she got back and however things turned out, she and Mike were ready to deal with it, together.