“JAAAYYYYY, that is not the type of love I’m talking about, and you know it. You deserve love, real love too. Joseph may be the one or he may not, but you’ll never know if you don’t open yourself up for the possibility. Besides, have you seen him! Damn is all I got to say, and I am not even attracted to men but for him… I might give it a try.” She wiggles her eyebrows.
I’m holding my stomach with laughter. “Stop it please,” I say around my laughing. “You know good and well you would not! But I get where you are coming from. Girl, if you had seen him walk in McCurdy’s wearing that charcoal grey suit and his hair free and hanging down his back… Is it any wonder I was bent over in a stock room in under five minutes? And girl, he had me ready to promise him anything. Hell, I almost didn’t give him the damn contract. No T, let it go,” I say when I see her opening her mouth again. “I am going to see him to discuss the contract one more time and if he still refuses to sign it, I won’t be seeing him again. Period.”
I have played the conversation on repeat in my head second guessing my decision, but I have to stick to my guns. I texted him so long ago and didn’t get a response, so I guess that’s his answer to us getting together when I go back to Mississippi. I close my eyes and try to sleep since I have to catch my flight early in the morning, but sleep continues to evade me. I turn over for the millionth time when I hear my notifications go off. I roll over so fast I forget I am on the edge of the bed and almost fall off. I look at the text. It’s Joseph finally and he said yes. Sleep finally claims me after I place the phone back on the nightstand and lay back down.
My goodness, I think as Peter walks into his office, and I once again look at his wedding finger. No one has snatched his ass off the market yet, and I don’t know why.
“Let’s get down to business,” he says as he takes a seat behind his desk and opens a folder. A few hours later we are finally done, and I go find some lunch. Peter is a fair but firm businessman, who really knows what he wants for his company. We came to an amicable arrangement; now all I have to do is have my lawyers look it over and if everything is on the up and up, I will be back to Mississippi one last time to bring the signed contracts and finalize our collaboration. I found a great little restaurant to have lunch in. I order and have a seat to wait for my food. As I sit there, I think about tonight and how I hope my talk with Joseph turns out. I head upstairs to change and get ready to meet with him. We decided to meet in the coffee shop at the hotel so that we don’t end up having sex instead of talking.
I subconsciously lick my lips when I see Joseph as he saunters into the coffee shop. The man is sex on two feet and every other woman in the coffee shop agrees too if their drooling is any indication.
“Joyce,” he says as he leans in and kisses me on the cheek. That one kiss turned on every switch in my body; the man is dangerous in the worst way.
“Joseph. Thank you for meeting with me. How have you been?”
“You text me to come meet you to talk about mundane things? Say what you called me here to say,” he says curtly.
“Straight to the point, huh? That’s fine,” I say, fiddling with the coffee stir in my drink. “If there were changes in the contract, would you be willing to sign it then?”
“I am not signing a contract just to get to know you, Joyce. Why can’t you understand that?”
“I’m trying, Joseph. Can’t you try to meet me halfway?”
“Did you already make these changes?” When I nod, he says, “I’ll look it over, but I make no promises. I have been clear about what I am comfortable with.” He holds his hand out for the contract and I reach for my purse and open it, but I cannot find it. I drop my head and huff out a deep breath.
“I must have left it upstairs. I can go up really quick and grab it.”
“Joyce, we are both grown adults. I am sure we can go upstairs and get the contract together. After all, I think we’ll probably need a bit more privacy for this conversation.”
“OK.”
As we head to the elevators, Joseph is attacked by a very pretty little young woman.
“Uncle Seph, what are you doing here?”
“How’s my baby?” he says as he hugs her to him. “I’m here taking care of some personal business.” She looks over at me.
“Does Mom know about this personal business?” She does air quotes when she says personal business.
“No and she does not need to know, thank you. I am a grown man.”
“But are you though?” She puts her hand on her hip looking up at Joseph. “I might be able to keep this from her if you get me that brand new black on black Jeep.” She wiggles her eyebrows at him.
“Extortion, Skai? You’re going to blackmail your favorite uncle?”
“I have another one,” she says, grinning.
“I’ll see what I can do. We are being really rude. Joyce, this is my niece Skai. Skai, this is my friend Joyce.”
“Hello,” We greet each other.
“Well, I better go. I stopped by to drop something off for Mom. Nice meeting you and I’ll see you later, Uncle Seph.”
Fuck a duck, I think as I wake up wrapped in Joseph’s arms. We were on our best behavior and then we weren’t. Before I knew it, I was on my back being fucked within an inch of my life. We have to come to some sort of arrangement today. I cannot keep breaking my own rules and expecting him not to.
“Your thinking has woken me up. Say what’s on your mind.”
“You already know what’s on my mind, Joseph. I don’t do this like this. I need security. You make me break my own rules and that scares me. Will you please sign the new contract?”
“Joyce, we have been together several times. You still wanna talk about this contract? I’m not a child. I do not go around talking about the women I am involved in like I’m a high school football player in a locker room. What we do, what we say stays between us.”
“I do not understand. If you are willing to do everything, I am asking you to do in the contract, why won’t you just sign it?”
“It’s the principle, Joyce. It's a matter of trust. I do not take putting myself in legally binding situations lightly.”
“Where does that leave us then, Joseph?”