could have told her that he’d just recently exited a relationship. She had. Why couldn’t he? Why would he need to anyway? They were just sex buddies. Nothing more…
Thankfully the ride back to the motorcycle shop was short, but during the fifteen minutes or so she’d gotten the chance to cool down. The re were no words exchanged as Trent escorted her to her car which still sat next to Marcus’ Hummer.
“Tanya, look at me,” Trent said, leaning against the window frame of her car. “You good?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You need me to follow you home?”
“Don’t, and it’s not necessary,” she said, slipping the gear into drive.
“He ar me out okay?” Trent inquired, catching her off guard. “I know you’re mad at my brother. I would be, but that chick showed up out of the blue ready to cause trouble as she has done in the past. I knew, she knew, everyone knows that she and Marcus are done.”
She sighed. “I’ll get over it. Marcus and I are just friends. No need to waste time with this talk.”
“Friends, my ass,” Trent said. “He talks about you a lot, Tanya. The guy is infatuated with you. And by the way, according to what he’s been telling me he thinks of you as more than just a friend.”
“That’s funny, because that’s not what we agreed on. I don’t need all this drama and it appears he has an abundance of it. I’ve got to go. It’s getting late and I for one have class in the morning and work in the afternoon.”
“ ”I’ve not seen Marcus this happy in a long time. He’s made mistakes—and hell, we’ve all made mistakes. Give my brother a chance, Tanya,” he said, just before pushing off of the window frame.
“ Thank you for the ride, Trent.”
Chapter Eleven
Three days later…
Tanya glanced down at her cell phone as the LCD screen flashed notifying her that she had a text message. She placed the phone on top of the notepad on the lap desk folded down over her thighs and read the message:
Marcus: It’s been three days
Tanya: Don’t you think I know that
No matter how embarrassed she felt or angry that Marcus hadn’t shared such important details with her, she still couldn’t deny the fact that she missed the heck out of him.
Marcus: I miss you. I want you. I need you. Can I see you?
Tanya fidgeted in her seat, pretending to be engrossed in the instructor’s presentation. It was a lost cause with Marcus pursuing her by text messages now. She couldn’t bring herself to answer his calls or go anywhere near his building at lunch time with Zaira to prevent running into him. Every time they say each other, no matter where it was, they always ended up having sex.
Tanya : No
Marcus: I apologize for upsetting you. She was out of the picture. Don’t know why she showed up .
Marcus: Come see me
Tanya: No
Marcus: Call me and let’s talk
Tanya: I might
Marcus: Are you in class or something?
Tanya: In class
Marcus: I’ll talk to you later then
Her attention span waned after that. During the last thirty minutes of the class, her mind wondered from the professor’s lecture to Marcus Brooks.
Why was she tempted to play with fire again?
*
As Tanya was beginning to pull out of her parking spot at the University, her cell phone rang. She figured it was Marcus being persistent and calling her prematurely, so she answered it without checking Caller ID.
“H i Marcus.”
“Who is Marcus?”
Tanya’s heart literally jumped out of her chest at the sound of Justin’s voice.
“Justin?” She stopped the car short of backing up out of the parking spot and put the car in park.
“Yeah, it’s me,” Justin said. “Jesus! I thought you’d changed numbers. Do you know how long I’ve been trying to reach you?”
“Has it occurred to you that I didn’t want to be reached?”
“Let me guess?” Justin chuckled nervously. “Have anything to do with Marcus?”
“That’s none of your business.” She frowned.
Maggie Brendan
Barbara O'Connor
Jan Washburn
Terri Blackstock
Norah Simone
Barry Kemp
G.P. Taylor
Alan Cumyn
Linda Barnes
Lisa Jackson