The Chase I (Double XX Book 1) Page 14

  I looked at her, “Yeah.”

  She said, “Well here is a note for you. Maybe this will explain everything.”

  She gave me the note and left. I opened the letter and read:

  ---------

  Xena,

  Your furniture, clothing and accessories have been relocated to our condo. Anything that could not be transported or utilized has been moved to storage (see the code below). Your old apartment has been paid out for the rest of the lease, so you can use it set to up your practice or sublet the space. Dinner is at 7:00 PM, I will see you then.

  X

  ---------

  Behind the letter was the location and code for the storage facility and in the envelope was a key card and garage opener for his condo.

  That son of a bitch!

  ****

  The speed limit had definitely been ignored, as I drove so fast to his place, I know I should have received several tickets. We had been good for three weeks and then he went and did the most asinine thing to undermine me and completely take the choice out of my hands. I was seriously on the edge of losing my shit. He was about to see Lady Dragon.

  With the envelope clenched in my fist, I swing the door to his building so hard it made a loud bang. Deek hesitantly greets me as I storm past him. All I know is once those elevator doors opened up, I was about to unleash all hell. The first person I see when the doors slide open is an older woman with elegant silver hair, few wrinkles and a humongous smile on her face. She is absolutely beaming, as I am wondering yet again if I walked into the wrong place.

  The woman shrieks, “She’s here.”

  I raise my eyebrows and look around to see if Xavier was here. Then, an older man came into view, he was good looking, resembled Xavier, but mostly Matt and was dressed in khakis, golf shoes and a polo shirt. He came straight to me, “So nice to meet the woman that has brought my son to his knees.”

  “Dad,” I heard Xavier warn from the kitchen.

  The older man turned around and motioned to the older woman, “This is my wife, Clara and I’m Hector Andrews.”

  I stared at them with my mouth open and Clara said, “Xavier didn’t tell you we were coming did he?”

  My head moves sideways, as I walk to them to shake their hands. The mother pats my hand away and goes in for a big hug. Hector joins in on the hug and I can see Xavier’s shadow outside the kitchen as he watched the interaction.

  That son of a bitch.

  His parents may not want to hug me so soon because if I castrate their son, they’ll have to depend on Matthew to have another child if they wanted more grandchildren. Hopefully, he can get his playboy tendencies in order. I hugged them back and apologized for being taken off guard.

  Clara turned to glare at Xavier, then said, “Why would you do that?”

  Okay, she might be nice as I joined in on the glaring. Moving past his parents, I walked over to him and quietly whispered, “Can we talk privately?”

  Hector mumbled to his wife, “Uh oh, somebody is in trouble.”

  He smirked, then shook his head no. I whispered to him, “Xavier, we need to talk now.”

  He lowered his head to my ear and whispered, “This is not a good time, we are having dinner with my parents and once they leave we will talk.”

  Bitch.

  I raised my left eyebrow at him, then slowly turned towards his parents. I said, “I’m sorry guys, but I didn’t know about this dinner and I won’t be …”

  Immediately, Xavier grabbed me by the arm to guide me to his bedroom, cutting my little speech off.

  I heard Clara say, “Yup, he’s in trouble.”

  Xavier closed the door, then turned to glare at me. “Have you lost your fucking mind?” He grounded out.

  “Have I lost my fucking mind, you son of a bitch. You moved me out of my apartment without notice or my fucking consent and then you invite your parents over here without telling me and then tell me we can’t talk,” I shriek.

  “You are the one that has lost your goddamn mind,” I said in his face.

  He bends down to get in my face. “Baby, my parents are sitting out there worried that the woman they keep hearing about is not going to be able to stay for dinner after they have begged me to meet you on numerous occasions. My mother looks worried and that little stunt you pulled is unacceptable. Let me tell you how this is going to go. You are going to go out there, reign in that attitude, impress my parents like you impressed me, eat dinner, laugh and be yourself and then when they leave we will have this discussion. Do you understand me?”

  “Xavier, you have reached a new fucking low, dragging your parents in this. I will go out there and eat with your parents, but let me be clear, this is for them, not you and damn sure not because you said it. I don’t give a fuck what you have to say anymore since you clearly don’t include me in on major decisions. This is not an equal partnership. This is not x squared, it’s subtraction. I got the wrong damn tattoo.”

  He stepped back like I’d slapped him and I know that I did because I was aiming below the belt on that one. I know how much that tattoo meant to him, but he just violated me and he needed to understand the magnitude of that.

  I walked past him and slammed the bedroom door. I stopped in the hallway, gathered myself and calmly walked towards the kitchen to apologize to his parents. His mother had finish the food that Xavier had been cooking. I joined her in the kitchen, while she asked me 3,000 questions. I answered each of them and she looked at me with her son’s eyes. That’s where he must get that searching people’s faces from. His mother.

  Then, she said, “Honey, that man loves you and I can tell you love him, but he is going to mess up over and over again. You’re just going to have to roll with the punches or throw some of your own.”

  I smiled at her, “I think that is my problem. I throw too many punches, even when there is not a fight.”

  She smiled at me, “That’s probably why he likes you.”

  I laughed, “He doesn’t like me now.”

  She chuckled, “Well, whatever you said to him has confined him to that room, so I’m thinking you are right.”

  She snapped her fingers and motioned for Hector to go to the bedroom.

  Clara and I continue to talk and laugh in the kitchen and eventually Hector joins us and chimes in on the conversation. Apparently, Xavier was on a business call in his office that required his immediate attention. That was rude. Clara must have thought so to because she went to fetch him after Hector delivered that message. She came back empty - handed and apparently, he really was putting out a work fire.

  Hmm.

  Dinner was ready when Xavier finally joined us. He looked stressed, but I did not ask because I was still fuming. He walked up behind me and wrapped his hand around the back of my neck then bent down to kiss me behind me ear. He knew that was my spot, so I closed my eyes and kept my groan to myself, as his parents were carefully watching our interaction. Xavier pulled a chair out next to me to sit down, then he grabbed my hand. I looked at him as he pulled my hand up to his mouth, closed his eyes as his lips touched my knuckles.

  His mom leaned over to me and whispered, “That’s about the only apology you’ll get out of these Andrew men.”

  While that was sweet, it was still unacceptable. He would need to fix this shit. A kiss on my hand and closed eyes doesn’t mean a damn thing for something of this magnitude. I continued to look at him, but said nothing, which communicated my exact point. Not enough.

  We all ate, talked, laughed and watched funny videos on Xavier’s humongous screen in the family room. He was laid back and relaxed around his parents, unlike at his job or sometimes even with me. This was another side of him that I hadn’t experienced. Well, it was only a little of a month that I met him. So, I guess that is to be expected. Just because you realize you love someone doesn’t mean you know all that there is to know about them.

  Around 11:00 PM, Hector stood to stretch, “Alright mama, time to head on home and get out
of their hair.”

  She looked a little apprehensive and said, “Oh, alright. Xena, it was so good to meet you. Don’t be a stranger, just because our son is.”

  “Come on, mom, you know how busy I’ve been.” He replied.

  “Yeah, so busy you fell in love and forgot to call your mother and tell her?” she sassed.

  I liked her. She was sassy and threw her own punches. Hector tapped her on the butt twice and said, “Leave him alone, mama.”

  Hmm, this must be where Xavier gets that from. Nicknames, taps on the ass, whispering in women’s ears. It must work too because Clara melted into him and let it go. Wow. I smiled at their interaction and Hector caught me. He said, “Don’t be too hard on him, he means well.”

  I smiled, then hugged him goodbye. That turned into a group hug because Clara jumped in as well. Xavier walked them down to their car and I gathered my thoughts, arguments and points to make when he returned. When I heard the ding of the elevator, I looked up ready to pounce. However, Xavier was on his cell phone and I got even more heated. I stood up and motioned to him about the time – pointing to my wrist.

  He raised his index finger and mouthed, “One minute.”

  What?

  I raised an eyebrow at him and walked towards the bedroom to get my purse. I’d sleep on the floor of my empty apartment before dealing with this nonsense. He followed me to the room and closed the door.

  He was still listening on the phone when he finally said, “Fine, report back in 15 minutes.” He hung up and looked up at me with my purse in hand standing in front of him.

  “Where do you think you are going?”

  “Away from here.”

  “I thought you wanted to talk.”

  “Apparently, this topic is not important to you, so I figured I might as well avoid the hassle and let you handle your business.”

  “Anything regarding you is important to me.”

  “Could have fooled me.”

  He stared at me, then sighed. “Xena, a lot is going on right now and I want to talk to you, but I really need to focus on this situation. Our talk is important to me, I just have a crisis at work, which needs to be dealt with now.”

  “Fine, Xavier. You handle your crisis and I’ll get out of your hair,” as I motion for the door with my hand.

  He shakes his head sideways. “No, I will handle my crisis and you will remain here, so that when I have time to talk, we can talk.”

  I shake my head sideways. “No, you will handle your crisis and I’m going to leave. I know you think everything revolves around you, but maybe you forgot, I wanted this night to prepare for my school reopening next week.”

  He closed his eyes in acknowledgement.

  I continued, “So, I need my time, my space, and my own place to do that. You have taken that away from me, so I’m going to get a hotel and figure it out from there. No thanks to you. Now, if you will get out of my way, I can be on my way.”

  He exhaled, “Xena, I know you are upset, but if you could just put your anger on hold for tonight and follow-me. I can let you do exactly that.”

  “You’ve already asked me to put my anger or attitude on hold. I’ve done that. Now I’m not doing it anymore. Move.”

  Xavier grabbed my hand, opened the door and pulled me behind him. We arrived in front of a room at the end of the hall that was always locked. He opened the door and in there was my studio apartment. My bed, my sofa, TV, and furniture. It had everything besides the kitchen table and computer desk. Spinning me around, he took me across the hall to another room that used to be locked as well and in there sat my computer desk, chair, book case and some other furniture I did not recognize.

  “This is your own personal office and this is your own personal space.” He pointed, “I know you think my moving you was heavy handed, but I hated seeing you go back and forth. I hated that apartment for you and I hated that you wouldn’t let me do anything to help my lady out. If you want your space, you can have it here. If you want to work, this is your home office.”

  He grabbed both of my hands, “Don’t you see I want you to be safe? I prefer you here with me, but more importantly I want you to be safe.”

  I looked him in the eye, “Don’t you get I wanted the option?”

  He simply said, “I gave you an option, but you didn’t take them.”

  I said, “No, you gave me an ultimatum and then when I didn’t comply you just came in and took over.”

  He nodded, “Yes.”

  “That’s not an equal partnership.”

  “I never said it was,” he replied.

  I stepped back in shock and he stepped forward to close the distance. “Baby you know …”

  I cut him off, “I don’t want to hear this shit.”

  I jerked my hands from his, went into my new room, slammed the door and locked it. Thank goodness my room had a bathroom that had all of my toiletries and clothes. After taking a shower, I turned on my radio and passed out.

  19 HOME WITHIN A HOME

  Jerking awake, by a subtle noise. It was a light knock on the door. At first, I didn’t recognize my surroundings, then it hit me, I was in my home within his home.

  Son of a bitch. I was still fuming at that.

  The knock came again, but I chose to ignore it. The alarm clock read 11:20 AM. Dang. I slept the morning away. Looking around the room, I saw my pictures that I never hung up on the walls. It looked so nice, as it reminded me of my home in Philadelphia. I was currently renting it out, but it was my first home that I bought and loved. When I moved to New York, I took my artwork with me, intending to hang them up, but the apartment building has strict rules about putting holes in the walls. Not that I was going to abide by the rules, but I could not get the screws in the walls anyway. Now, here they were, hanging up in my “personal space.”

  My pride would not let me see the sweetness of this. In the past, I know I have the potential to overreact, but he really crossed a line, so I felt justified. Another knock came to the door. Xavier said, “Your brunch is at the door.”

  Right after he said this, my stomach growled. I heard him walk away, so I went through my morning routine of brushing my teeth, washing my face, and combing my hair. Opening the door, I grabbed the brunch tray and locked the door back. This felt like I was in a hotel with room service, as the tray was covered with a silver top and elegant, detailed handle. Uncovering the food, I noticed the cut oranges were on top of a sealed envelope. There was no need to read that, so I put that to the side, ate the BLT, the oranges, and drank the lemonade. Just like room service, I returned the tray where I found it along with the unopened envelope.

  I stayed in my room until 4:00 PM catching up on my TV shows. Around 4:30, I took a shower and went to the kitchen to get something to snack on and ran into Xavier coming out of the family room. He saw me and looked like he wanted to come to me, but then he must have thought otherwise. Smart man!

  He simply stared at me, while I made a sandwich and a cup of lemonade. I walked back to my ‘personal office’ so I could do some work. I finished around 7:30 PM, which was not bad because I felt confident that next week would go through without a hitch. Appointments were set up for my life coaching seminars and group sessions were scheduled. There were a few speaking engagements that I needed to prep for and I was supposed to be a panel speaker for several conferences. After that award and news spot, I had become quite popular.

  Taking the summer off was my own tradition because I needed time to rest. I started doing this a few years ago, after my therapist made the suggestion. Now the school year was about to be back in session, so it was about to get very busy.

  I carried my plate and glass to the kitchen, when I saw a lit candle next to a plate of food with a note. Lifted the warmer, I saw it was baked fish, asparagus, and brown rice. The note was visible this time and it said:

  ---------

  Talk to me.

  X

  ---------

  I felt his presence in the
room and smelled his aroma, so I rinsed my plate and glass off, then put them in the dish washer. Quickly grabbing the plate of food off the table, I poured some water into my glass and turned around to exit. Only this time, Xavier blocked my path and that meant he was through being patient with me. He took the food and drink out of my hand, placing them both on the counter. Then he turned to me, picked me up by my waist, so my legs wrapped around him, like he often did. He took me over to the bar, sat me down on top and went back to get my food.

  He cut everything into pieces that could fit on a fork and he began to feed me in silence. When I was done, he rinsed the plate off and put it in the dishwasher. He gave me my water, so I took a few sips. Once he moved the glass further down the bar, he eyes remained on me.

  “Are you ready to talk now?” he asked.

  “I should be asking you that question. You are the one that is so busy.”

  “I’m ready.”

  “Fine,” I inhale, “Do you get how serious it is that you completely violated me and my wishes, just to please yourself? That makes me think you are selfish, inconsiderate, and have no regards for me or my desires. I do not like that and I do not want to be in a relationship with someone like that.”

  “Why did you start to call me Daddy?” he asked.

  What?

  “What?”

  He repeated the question again.

  “What does that have to do with anything we are talking about?”

  “It has to do with everything.”

  “My calling you Daddy has nothing to do with this situation.”

  “Okay, indulge me, why call me Daddy?”

  “I know you like it.”

  “Why else, come on. Think about it. You like it, it turns you on, your clit starts to throb, your pussy gets wet, when I call you baby girl, good girl, naughty girl, my girl and when you call me daddy. Why?”

  “I don’t know. It just feels right.”

  “I’ll tell you. It’s because a father and daughter share a special bond. Nothing sexual, but in that relationship, she learns how a man is supposed to treat a woman. He protects her, keeps her safe, and provides security for whatever she needs. He is the first man she loves, but when she gets of age and starts loving men in a different way, that relationship between the father and daughter changes. Again, nothing incestuous, but his role in her life changes to an advisor, counselor, etc. She is on her own until she takes a man in her life, who she will love and replaces the role her father played. A protector, care taker, and provider. Hence, Daddy.”