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“Probably. Look, Nay, I’m not gonna sit here and worry about Nicky. If anyone knows how to take care of their self, it’s her.”
“True.”
“All right. I’m gonna go get the wine. You shuffle the cards.”
“Yes, little sister,” I said, as I picked up the red deck of cards and prepared to whoop Angie in a game of spades.
*****
I was sitting at my desk a few days after that, wrapping up some charting when a text came through.
Lorenzo: Your chariot awaits, Doc.
I smiled. This had been our routine since about my third week of living with him. I’d text him some time in the day and let him know when I’d be ready to go, since the nature of my job sometimes caused my working hours to be irregular, and he would send Rell to pick me up. Sometimes he’d be in the car, too, and sometimes he wouldn’t, depending on how deep he was in his writing cave. This started when I had to leave in the middle of the night for a home birth. The thought of me being out that time of night by myself really upset him, and he insisted that Rell drive me. I felt bad for Rell and told him so, but he gave me a smile that assured me he didn’t mind. I was glad, because there was no convincing Lorenzo that I could drive myself, even though I’d been doing it for years. After that, me getting driven to and from work, no matter the time, became a daily thing.
I didn’t bother to text him back, just gathered my purse and cell phone and left my office. This was one of the rare occasions when my departure time from Genesis coincided with its regular closing hour and there were no laboring patients in any of the birthing rooms, so several staff members, including Janine and Cass, were out on the parking lot heading to their cars.
Rell had already opened the door for me and was standing next to the car. I greeted him with a smile, and when I saw that Lorenzo was sitting in the backseat, said, “Hold on,” and called for Janine and Cass. Cass wore a curious look on her face as she crossed the parking lot toward me. Janine, who had been eying Lorenzo’s car while pretending to unlock her own car door, almost fell trying to hurry over to me.
Once the ladies had made it to the car, I leaned in, and said, “Baby, get out. Got some folks I want you to meet.”
Lorenzo gave me this questioning look before climbing out of the car in a suit that made him look positively scrumptious. I grabbed his hand and turned to face my friends-slash-coworkers. “Cass, Janine, this is Lorenzo. Lorenzo, Cass has been my friend since nursing school and is co-owner of Genesis with me, and you’ve met Janine. She’s one of my oldest friends, as well as our receptionist.”
He took and kissed both of their hands, and they gushed all over themselves and him about how nice it was to finally meet my new boyfriend.
“Wait, you are her boyfriend, right?” Janine asked.
He smiled and nodded. “Yeah, when she lets me be.”
I rolled my eyes as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “Yes, Lorenzo is my boyfriend, bae, man crush every day, my man. I know y’all have been speculating along with everyone else in the office, so now you know for sure.” Rell was still standing by the car, so I added, “Oh, and this is Rell. I’m sure you’ve seen him before, too.”
Rell smiled and nodded at the two ladies, and then I watched Janine slide her eyes up and down his massive body. Rell was big and solid like Lorenzo, only younger, bigger, and much more muscular, and he must’ve been about six-seven. At first glance, Rell’s sheer size could scare the crap out of you, and it didn’t help that he usually wore this serious expression on his face, but he was actually pretty nice-looking—dark skin, almond eyes, great smile when he wore one, and Janine’s little short butt looked like she was a second away from sopping him up with a biscuit. Rell’s eyes were glued to her, too.
“Well, Lorenzo, I’m glad you’re her new man. Lord knows I was thrilled when she got rid of the old one,” Cass said.
My mouth flew open.
“I’m glad she did, too. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to fall in love with her,” Lorenzo said.
Cass and Janine virtually melted all over the parking lot.
Minutes later, as we sat holding hands in the back of his Escalade, I noticed the tiny smile on Lorenzo’s face as he gazed out the window.
“What are you grinning about?” I asked.
He shifted his eyes from the window to me. “Just glad you finally pulled me out of the closet. I was beginning to think you were ashamed of me.”
I frowned. “Ashamed of you? Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“What could I possibly be ashamed of, Zo? The fact that you’re gorgeous, handsome, sexy, rich, kind, generous, treat me like a queen, and sex me properly every single night?”
“Damn, that’s what you think of me?”
“Yes! Now what in the world do you think I’d be ashamed of?”
He shrugged. “My past? The fact that I used to be a drug dealer who now writes books with a lot of cursing, killing, and screwing in them. The fact that you’re a nurse and a reputable business owner, and I’m just…me.”
