Authors: Adrianne Byrd
Destiny smiled and winked before turning toward the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower.”
“You better not be holding out on me,” Lu Jin called after her.
With a mischievous laugh, Destiny closed the bathroom door, purposely leading Lu Jin to believe that something had indeed happened between her and Miles. And in some small way, something had.
Chapter 12
V
iolet took pride in knowing everything there was to know about her son and judging by the way he kept whistling while he worked on the bathroom pipes, she surmised something was going on. However, when she inquired into what had put Miles in such a good mood, he simply responded with a despondent shrug and said, “I’m just happy.”
“This sudden spurt of happiness wouldn’t happen to have been inspired by a lady, would it?” she asked, hopefully.
Miles laughed and disappeared once again beneath the sink.
It took everything Violet had to pretend that his withholding of information wasn’t getting to her, but she suspected he knew that already. She wanted to call her friends and tell them her suspicion, but there was a high probability that she could be wrong about this—again.
Leaning against the frame of the bathroom door, Violet tackled their stalemate from a different angle.
“Did I tell you that Lila’s daughter is getting married?”
“Oh?” he asked with a spark of interest. “Isn’t Barbara her daughter?”
Violet hid a smile and crossed her arms. “Uh-huh.”
He stopped what he was doing for a moment to say, “She’s a nice girl. I’m sure she’ll make her fiancé a very happy man,” and resumed working.
Violet attempted to read in between the lines, but came up empty. “You know it’s a shame that you two never hit it off. You both had a lot in common.”
“I guess it just wasn’t in the cards for us.” He maneuvered around her interrogation. “Can you hand me the wrench?”
Violet rolled her eyes and bent down to hand him the wrench that was well within his reach. “I swear, Miles. I don’t understand why you have to be so difficult.”
He laughed again. “You’re starting again,” he said in a teasing voice. “You promised not to bug me about settling down or fixing me up on blind dates.”
“I wouldn’t have to start if you would just be reasonable. I don’t want to fill the rest of my days watching you throw your life away. I want grandchildren and I want them now.”
Miles pushed himself out from beneath the bathroom sink with neither a smile nor frown.
Violet didn’t know what to make of his calmness. There was no real justification for her throwing such a tantrum, but as the years rolled by she was beginning to believe Miles’s declaration of never settling down and giving her grandchildren.
“Are you finished now?” he asked, looking up at her.
Still unable to read anything in his expression, she drew in a deep breath and nodded.
Miles finally smiled. “Good.” He got up from the floor and kissed her on the cheek. “I can’t have my best girl storming around here all upset.”
He walked out the bathroom, but not before she caught a glimpse of mischief in his eyes.
Suspicion crept over her again. Something was definitely up. She turned and followed him down to the kitchen where he retrieved a can of Coke. “You want one?” he asked, turning around to face her.
“You know perfectly well that I only buy those for you.” She sat the kitchen counter.
Miles popped the tab and took a deep gulp from the can.
Violet studied him. “There’s something different about you today and I’m going to hound you until you tell me what it is.”
“Is that right?” he asked with yet another laugh.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “So why don’t you just save me some time and tell me what it is?”
He moved to the counter where she sat and leaned closer. “I don’t know if you can handle what I’m going to say.”
“You’re engaged?” she asked, clasping her hands together. Hope bloomed in her heart and in her voice. At this point she didn’t care to what or to whom he was engaged—it was a step in the right direction.
“Okay, maybe you can handle it,” he said.
Violet jumped from her chair ready to dance a jig. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Hold on, hold on. No, I’m not engaged.”
“You’re about to be engaged?” She guessed again.
“No, that’s not it, either.”
Hope took a nosedive into despair as she covered her heart with her hand. “Dear God, please don’t tell me that you’re about to shack up with some floozy.” She reached for the stool again to sit down. “And she’s probably knocked up. My grandchildren are going to be born out of wedlock.”
“Whoa. Slow down. No one’s pregnant and I’m not going to shack up with anyone, either. You really do have a low opinion of me.”
“Oh, thank God.” She propped her elbows up and lowered her head into her hands. “You gave me quite a scare there for a moment.”
Miles frowned. “Wait a minute. Are you saying that you wouldn’t love your grandchildren if they were born out of wedlock?”
She jerked her head up. After reading his expression, she slapped his hand. “Stop playing. Don’t you know it’s not nice to tease your mother like this?”
Still laughing, he pulled her into a quick hug. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t resist.”
“Uh-huh.” She pulled out of his embrace and waved a slender finger at him. “Don’t think you’ve gotten off the hook. You still haven’t told me what has you in such a good mood.”
His laughter deepened. “I swear nothing gets by you.”
“No, it doesn’t. So cough it up. What’s the good news?”
“The good news is that a friend of mine has finally showed me the error of my ways. Since time is ticking away and I’m not getting much younger—”
Violet pressed her fingers to her ears. “If this is going to be another speech about you dying, I don’t want to hear it.”
Miles gently pulled her hands away from her ears and said with a wide smile. “My good news is that I
want
to find the right girl and settle down.”
* * *
Lu Jin didn’t know what to make of Destiny when they went shopping. On a day she’d expected to watch her friend load up with more business suits, she was stunned when Destiny had instead gone into Victoria’s Secret to carouse for lingerie.
“What do you think of this one?” Destiny held up a deep purple number that would have done Prince proud.
“Since when did you start wearing thongs?” she asked, frowning.
“Since now. I think it’s time that I change my whole outlook on life.” She turned and held up the same outfit, but in red. “Now this should turn a few heads, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know you anymore.”
And on it went for two hours. In the end, Lu Jin guessed her friend had bought at least one item from every collection and in some cases two or three in different colors. Destiny then passed up the chance to shop in her favorite stores: Lord and Taylor and Neiman Marcus. Instead, she shopped in private boutiques where Destiny only tried on outfits that were very short and very tight.
“I think you lied to me,” Lu Jin finally said, sitting on a small bench outside of the changing room and waiting to see what her friend would look like in yet another outfit.
“What do you mean?” Destiny’s head jutted over the stall door.
Lu Jin shook her head determined not to buy her little innocent act any longer. “Something happened between you and Miles last night and you’re holding out on me.” She fell back against the wall and bumped her head. “Ouch, damn it.”
Destiny’s head disappeared behind the door. “Chill out, Lu Jin. Nothing happened.”
“So what’s with all this?”
“What’s with all what?”
Lu Jin stood. “All of this—new clothes and sexy lingerie. This isn’t exactly the behavior of a woman who just broke off her engagement.”
Destiny stepped from behind the door in an eye-popping, black number that Lu Jin thought suited herself a lot more than her friend.
“So what do you think?” Destiny stretched out her hands and twirled in front of her friend.
“I hate it,” Lu Jin said in a pout.
Destiny rolled her eyes and turned to face a mirror. “You do not. You’re just being contrary.”
“Okay, then. It doesn’t suit you.”
Destiny frowned, and then chewed her bottom lip as she assessed her appearance. She reached up and removed the clip from the nape of her neck and shook free her hair. “I don’t know. I think I can work with this.”
Lu Jin sighed.
Destiny smiled and caught her friend’s gaze through the mirror. “I thought that you’d be happy that I finally got out of the house and started doing something.”
“I would be even happier if you started acting like yourself and not like me. It’s eerie.”
Destiny turned. “You want to know what happened last night?”
Lu Jin’s frown curved the opposite way. “Finally. The truth.”
“Last night while I sat talking to Miles in his darkened apartment, I had an epiphany.”
“Layman terms, please.”
“Talking to Miles made me realize what I’ve been doing wrong with my life. He made me realize that I needed to seize the day—to try and live life to the fullest because tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone.”
Lu Jin stared at her. “Did you fall and bump your head?”
Destiny slapped her open palm against her forehead as she walked past Lu Jin to return to the dressing room. “I know it sounds crazy,” she said through the door.
“Yeah, a little.” She turned. “In one night, this man you couldn’t stand for five years has convinced you to stop being yourself and start doing God knows what.”
Destiny’s head appeared over the stall. “That’s just it, Lu Jin. I haven’t been acting like myself. I’ve been trying to live a lie. I’ve been so busy trying to do things I thought Adam would or be the person he wanted to be that I had long stopped being myself.”
Lu Jin stopped frowning and Destiny, once again, disappeared behind the stall.
“And do you want to know what the sad part is?” Destiny asked.
“What?”
Destiny opened the door. Now dressed back in her clothes. “I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what I want to be. That’s the real reason I broke up with Jefferson—and that’s why I’m going to quit my job.”
“You’re quitting?”
Destiny nodded. “I have to. It’s smothering me.”
Lu Jin drew in a deep breath and just stared at her friend. “I had no idea that you were so miserable. I thought that you were just going through a phase, or suffering through some early midlife crisis.”
Destiny waved off the distress that was creeping into her friend’s expression. “I did, too, until last night.”
“Oh, I feel awful. I should have been there for you last night.” She opened her arms and Destiny accepted her embrace.
“But you did help me. There is no need for you to feel bad. You’re my best friend. I know that I can always count on you. You’re my rock.” Destiny pulled away, smiling.
“How did I help?”
“You told me if I hated my life so much then to get up and do something to change it. And that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“Yeah?” Lu Jin smiled and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.
“Yeah,” Destiny reemphasized. “And it was the best advice I could have gotten,” she said, smiling.
“I can’t believe I’m blubbering like this.” Lu Jin’s smile wobbled as she continued to mop her face dry.
“Yeah. You better quit it if you don’t want anyone else to know how much of an old softy you are.”
Lu Jin laughed. “Good point. I do have a reputation to protect.”
“So, are you up for some more shopping?”
“Bring it on, baby.”
Chapter 13
M
iles woke up Wednesday with a deep sense of dread and foreboding, mainly because it was his fortieth birthday. But he pushed himself out of bed determined to shake off those bad feelings. After brushing his teeth and splashing water onto his face, he donned his running clothes and rushed out of the apartment.
“You’re five minutes late, Birthday Boy,” Destiny said, tapping the face of her wristwatch. In a stylish workout suit, she looked more prepared to strut down a fashion runway than to tackle a two-mile run.
Miles shook his head. “How many outfits did you buy on your shopping spree this past weekend?” He locked his door, and then turned back to face her.
She shrugged. “A few.” She moved over to him and removed a large, but thin, square package from behind her back. “Happy birthday.”
Surprised, his eyes darted from the box’s sky-blue wrapping back up to her smiling face. “You really shouldn’t have.”
“I know, but I did, so open it.”
He hesitated and then tore into the box. He laughed when he pulled out an old Miles Davis album.
“The other morning when we went jogging you said you didn’t have this one.”
“Where did you find this? I’ve looked everywhere for this album.”
“Actually, my brother loved him. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind my passing this on to another fan.”
Touched, he didn’t quite know what to say. “I’m not sure if I should accept this,” he said honestly.
She held up her hands, refusing to take it back. “It’s yours. Besides, for the last seven years it has done nothing but collect dust in my place.”
He smiled again, and then leaned down to kiss her tenderly on the cheek. He caught the subtle scent of roses from her hair and her skin. “Thank you,” he said. He turned and reentered his apartment to put away the album.
When he returned, they headed toward the elevator bay.
“You know the point of working out is for the exercise—not to try and pick up guys while jogging through the park.” He brought the conversation back to his early comment about her clothes as he pressed the down button.
“Uh-huh.” She crossed her arms as her lips twisted into a sarcastic frown. “How many women have you met over the years during your morning runs?”
Amusement curled the corners of his lips before he had a chance to stop it.
“My point exactly,” she said, not waiting for a response.
The elevator arrived and they stepped inside together.
“Well, I have to admit that I’m impressed. This is your fifth day in a row running with me. After that first one, I assumed you’d give up.”
“I don’t quit too many things.”
“Just your job and your engagement?”
She laughed. “Something like that.”
Their run through the park was nice and Destiny smiled at the small community of joggers. She knew no one’s name, but nodded her greetings to familiar faces as she passed them. She no longer had difficulty breathing, but she appreciated Miles cutting his usual four-mile run down to two until she built up her endurance level.
“So now that you’re not working for Phillips, Anderson and Brown, do you have any idea what you’re going to do next?” Miles asked her out of the blue.
“Not really. I thought a lot about taking a year off and doing some traveling or even going back to school.”
“Back to school?”
“It’s just an idea.”
“For the record, I think you’re making a big mistake,” he said as they rounded yet another curve on the narrow trail.
“Why?”
“Because you’re one hell of a lawyer.” When she said nothing to this, he went on. “I know you’ve been on some kind of mission to complete the things you think your brother had set out to do, but have you ever thought that maybe this life or career was meant for you all along?”
Destiny frowned as she looked over at him. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “By your own admission, every member of your family had careers in law. Your mother was even a paralegal at one time, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So. Maybe you haven’t been trying to fill your brother’s ambition, but were simply following your own.”
Destiny frowned as she mulled over Miles’s words. They were definitely food for thought. After ten minutes of silence had passed, she glanced at him again. “Were you always so insightful?”
“Yeah, but don’t tell anybody.”
She laughed. “I’ll carry it to my grave.”
“You know, you’ve been a lot of help for me, as well.”
“I have?” she asked, astonished.
“Yeah. I thought a lot about searching for that mysterious soul mate you were talking about the other night.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. You’re actually going to settle down, have two-point-five children and buy a dog?”
It was his turn to laugh. “Something like that.” He returned her earlier flippant response. “I’ve even made it official by telling my mom.”
She stopped laughing and emitted a low whistle. “That does make it official,” she agreed. “But I don’t remember saying
I
believe in soul mates. I just said that other people search for things like that.”
“You don’t?”
“No.”
“Then why did you break your engagement to Jefferson?”
“Because we’re not that well suited.”
Miles slowed down.
“What?” She stopped and waited for him to catch back up with her.
“You’re lying, that’s what. You and Jefferson had more in common than you’re letting on. Trust me. I know the man. You want to know what I think?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“I think you broke up with him because you do believe that there’s someone better for you out there. Maybe you like the idea of a knight in shining armor riding up and rescuing you.”
“For your information, I don’t need rescuing.” She started jogging again. “And yes, I broke up with Jefferson because I thought that there had to be something out there that’s better for me, but that doesn’t mean I believe there’s a
perfect
someone for me, just a better one.”
Miles frowned beneath the weight of her stare. “So you think I’m overshooting it with looking for a quote-unquote soul mate?”
“Why don’t you start off with baby steps and actually go on two consecutive dates,” she answered with a sarcastic smile.
He grimaced at the thought. “You know this may be harder than I originally thought.”
“You’re hopeless,” she said, shaking her head. She removed the bottle of water from her hip and began to drink greedily from it.
“You know what, Destiny? I think you’re the first attractive woman I don’t want to sleep with,” Miles proclaimed. His voice filled with a certain measure of awe.
Destiny nearly choked. “That’s good to know.”
“No. I mean it. In the last two weeks I haven’t been tempted once to make a pass at you.”
“You made a pass at me yesterday.”
“We were joking around. I mean a real pass—one I fully expect you to take me up on.”
“Oh. I’m glad you cleared that up.”
“Come on. I’m being for real. I’ve never had a real woman friend before. This is a step toward maturity for me.”
Destiny laughed and shook her head as she returned the water bottle to her hip. “Well, I’m real happy for you.”
“What about you?” he asked.
“What about me? I took the plunge into maturity a long time ago. I have plenty of male friends.”
“Sure you do.”
“What? I really do.”
“Are these guy friends of yours single?”
She shrugged. “Yeah, so?”
“So, I’m willing to bet you put them in that friend zone against their wills. Every one of them is just waiting for the opportunity to be something more to you, even if it’s just for one night.”
“You know I’m amazed that your head isn’t more pointed because you really do have a narrow mind.”
“I’m just being honest.”
“That’s what’s scaring me.”
“I’m telling you how a man thinks, that’s all. It’s very rare for a man not to want to sleep with every woman he sees.”
“Are you telling me that at one time you wanted to sleep with me?”
“The minute I laid eyes on you.”
Her head jerked in his direction, astonishment seized her features. “You’re kidding.”
“Please. In my mind’s eye, I had you stripped and lying beneath me before I ever bothered helping you with that box.” He smiled at her shocked and reddened face. “Come on. You’ve got to know that you got a cute little figure there.”
“I think we should change the subject.”
“Why? It’s just starting to get interesting.” When she said nothing, he couldn’t help but ask, “How about you?”
“How about me what?”
“What did you think of me?”
“I’m not answering that.”
Miles enjoyed her deepening coloring. “Come on. You can tell me.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“You wanted to jump my bones, didn’t you?”
“That’s a lie,” she said with a little too much force.
“Uh-huh,” he said, unconvinced. “If you say so.”
“You know in the past week, I’ve forgotten how big your ego inflates.”
“Can it be that you use sarcasm to hide a deeper feeling?” He watched as her jawline hardened and he laughed. “All right. All right. I’ll stop. I was just trying to give you a hard time.”
“And you’re doing a damn good job of it, too.”
“You’re way too easy to embarrass. You need to try and loosen up a bit.”
“Why? Do you think I’m a prude or something?”
“No. Well, not anymore.”
Destiny frowned. “So, you mean at one time you thought I was.”
“Well...it was kind of hard not to.” He winced. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her feelings and judging by the look on her face that was exactly what he was doing. “But hey, this was all before you had your mini breakdown last week.” He grimaced. Now he’d managed to successfully jam both feet into his mouth.
She glared over at him. “My, don’t you have a way with words?”
“Sorry,” he said, and meant it.
She held his gaze for a brief moment, and then her features softened. “It’s all right. You’re right. Lu Jin has been calling me a prude since college. I don’t know, maybe I do need to learn how to loosen up.” She focused her attention back onto the trail. “You know, you both have a lot of similar qualities. Maybe I should try and fix you two up.” An image of them together caused a sour taste to pool in her mouth.
Miles laughed. “You forget I’ve met Lu Jin.”
“What? You don’t find her attractive?” she asked with perhaps a trace of hope in her voice, but he disappointed her with his next statement.
“Are you kidding? A man would have to be blind or dead not to find her attractive—and I’m neither. But one of the main rules for a player is not to date another player. It’s a bad mix.”
“I have a feeling I should be writing all this stuff down,” she said.
“If you’re about to jump back into the dating scene, then maybe that’s not such a bad idea. You know I could teach you all the games to look out for.”
“Okay, then, I’ll bite. Why is it bad for a player to date another player?”
“I don’t think that you’re going to like my answer to that question.”
“That’s okay. I haven’t liked most of what you’ve said.”
Miles laughed. “Well, it’s kind of like how a man looks at infidelity. He can lie to himself as to why he does it or why it’s okay, but he could never forgive his girl if she does it. That’s pretty much what a female player is all about. She’s bouncing from one guy to the next for one reason or another. And the coolest brother out there can’t handle that.”
“Sexism at its best,” Destiny replied with disdain. “I can’t believe you actually think like this.”
“Hey, I’m not the only one.”
She shook her head.
“I told you you weren’t going to like my answer.”
“I’ll never doubt you again.”
They jogged out of the park and within a few minutes Destiny spotted their high-rise looming before them.
“You know the good thing about all of this is we’re the exception to the rule,” Miles said suddenly.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s like I’ve said before—you’re the first attractive woman I don’t want to sleep with. And you’ve admitted that you’re not attracted to me—so we’re free to have the perfect female-male friendship, right?”
“Right,” she agreed, not bothering to correct him on the fact that she’d never said that she wasn’t attracted to him—far from it.