Page 41 of Betrothed To Love

“What happened to good night, wife?” she asks, to my delight and surprise.

“Just a slip. Sweet dreams, my wife,” I say and I hear her sexy giggle right before she ends the call.

I’m wearing her down.

THIRTEEN

Quintus: Have fun with your girls.

Me: I always do.

Quintus: Call me when you get home.

Me: I will.

Quintus: Make sure you actually do this time, my wife.

Me: I promise, husband.

As I type my last response, I can’t stop the smile forming on my face. All I do is smile when I talk to or even text him.

“I’m guessing that’s the new husband,” Alex says, pulling me from my phone.

“It is. He’s just checking on me. I told him I was meeting y’all here.”

“Just meeting me here. Looks like Giselle and Kyrah can’t make it. It’s just us. Let me order our cigars and drinks so you can tell me all about the man who has my serious judge sister smiling so damn hard.”

With a smile, Alex leans onto the high back leather chair, then orders our cigars and drinks to start our evening. We’re at Elegance & Ash, a private cigar lounge located off the mountain. As a minority owner, she has a lifetime membership, which includes exclusive lounges with luxury seating, personalized humidors, private lockers, guest passes, and premium networking opportunities. If one place sums up Alex, it’s this place—private, exclusive, and full of people with lucrative portfolios. In here, she’s the financial guru Alexcia, with privileges.

“What premium cigar are you introducing me to tonight?” I ask.

“To properly celebrate your nuptials, an Oro Blanco. Its blend is exquisite and it’s rarely made. There’s a limited stock here and most are in my private locker.”

“Not the private locker! I’m honored.” I beam because I’ve learned that her private locker is a cigar aficionado’s dream. She has aged, rare, and master blend cigars.

“Only the best for my friends. And I know you are boycotting bourbon,” she says with a smirk. “So how about a drink that complements the creamy, smooth, and delicate profile of the cigar. I’m thinking a single malt scotch. Macallan 18?” she says, almost as a question.

“I’m going to leave that up to you. This is your domain and you are the expert. I trust your taste. Plus, this above my tax bracket. I can’t afford a membership here. I’m an elected official,” I say, then grin. She rolls her eyes.

“Bitch,” she tsks. “I manage your investments. I know you can, in fact, afford a membership.”

I’ll never forget the first words out of Alex’s mouth the first night I met her at Giselle’s housewarming party at her first place. Right after we hugged, she asked, “Do you have someone handling your investments?”

I was taken aback at first but the look on her face quickly let me know she was serious as hell. So I answered her truthfully. I was in college and barely had five hundred dollars in my savings account and probably two hundred in my checking. “No,” easily rolled off my lips.

She rambled on and on about two hot investment opportunities back then, crypto currency and gold bars. I was unfamiliar with both but trusted her with my five hundred dollars. To this day, that was one of the best decisions of my life. By my second-year of law school, thanks to Alex, I was able to pay my own tuition with no help from my grandparents and no student loans. She’s been managing my investments since that night. A membership here won’t break me but I don’t love cigars like her.

“Cigars are all you. This expensive ass membership isn’t a sound investment for me,” I counter and we both laugh.

“Cigars and drinks ordered,” she says before placing her phone on top of her handbag. After crossing her hands across her chest, she says, “Now, tell me about this man of yours.”

It takes me a minute to come up with the right words to explain how Quintus makes me smile, quickens my pulse, and has excited something I didn’t realize has been dormant in my life. After I lost Ma, I lost a part of myself too and I threw myself into my career and the law. Of course, I had my girls and our FNF nights, but I didn’t have much else. Men were merely a means to an end when self-pleasuring and toys were lacking. They weren’t a necessity and my dream husband and family were starting to get further and further from my reality. But then I woke up married to him and everything is changing. I look forward to our calls and texts and I’m counting down the hours until tomorrow evening.

“Quintus is unexpected but appreciated,” I finally say.

“I love that for you. I haven’t seen you smile like this in a minute. Marriage looks good on you. Do you think you might consider staying for real, after the campaign?” she asks and her words kind of catch me off guard.

“That would be crazy, right?”