“You’re in love with Zora.” It wasn’t a question.
“No,” he shot back too quickly.
Kendra dipped her chin and gave him a “who do you think you’re fooling” look.
“I mean, I know Zora owns part of the company but…” Mike was dumbfounded. “She’s more of a silent partner. She’s not around enough for you to draw that kind of a conclusion. What makes you say that?”
“I’m not blind,” Kendra said in her sassiest voice.
Panic coursed through Mike. Why was everyone telling him he was in love with Zora?
What am I missing?
It was always the missing pieces that scared him the most.
His mind drifted to Lucas. He wished when he thought about his little brother he remembered the happy times. The joy on Lucas’ face when he found Mike’s hiding place, his chubby toothless smile in their family pictures. He wanted to remember all the firsts and beginnings. They were still there, but the image always at the top of Mike’s mind wasn’t a happy one. It was Lucas’ ending.
Every time Mike ventured to imagine a new beginning, it scared him. What if he was five minutes late? What if the stars were already aligned and fate decided before he took his position? What if he couldn’t save her like he couldn't save Lucas?
Mike couldn’t imagine any type of ending with Zora.
“I think this has little to do with her and more to do with you,” Kendra said in tune with his thoughts.
“Have you ever missed being there to help when something bad happens? I just want to be there for her, but I don’t want to add to her pain. Does that make sense?”
“Completely.”
Mike felt validated in his thinking.
For about two seconds.
“Let me tell you one thing my mother said it to me,” Kendra said. “If you’re always looking in the rearview mirror, you’ll never see the beautiful view in front of you. Do you know what that means?”
Mike nodded slowly but he didn’t want to forget about Lucas and he couldn’t forget what losing her mother had done to Zora.
“What you’re talking about is not this. Love can be either an explosion or an implosion. You can tell the person how you feel and risk all the falling, breaking, and gooey good stuff about gluing each other back together into one piece, or you can fall apart inside. It’s that simple, but it’s always your choice.”
Mike dropped his head and wringed his fingers as he considered her advice. A sense of urgency flooded his insides and he was suffused with warmth and a fresh energy. He was weightless and floating on air.
But he was also desperate.
She was right. All this time, he’d been falling apart inside.
Kendra cleared her throat and Mike snapped his eyes to hers. “You know their grandmother, Barbara, used to tell me about all of you guys,” she said. “She’d really hoped you two would end up together.” Her features and tone softened. “Barbara said you guys were made for each other, but neither of you would ever admit it. As far as I can see, she wasn’t wrong.”
“She said that?”
“What have you got to lose?”
Mike drummed his fingers across the glass tabletop. “I’ve actually thought about it.” He laughed, holding up a hand to list the risks. “Let me think—the only family I’ve ever known, my best friend, possibly my job, and my only chance at love. How’s that for a gamble?”
Kendra flashed him a full, proud grin as she stood and smoothed her skirt. She ambled over to the door then turned to look at him. “Sounds like you’re making the right choice. It’s only ever worth it when all your chips are in.”
His spirits soared. In his heart, it was settled. Over the next month, he was going to up his ante and call Zora’s bluff.
Chapter Eleven
Zora
Later that afternoon, armed with her new tools of salvation, Zora finished her packing in a breeze. She was weightless and carefree and ready to go into her new living arrangement feet first. Mike usually left work late, which meant there was plenty of time for her to kick back, relax, and take a load off before packing up her car for the move.
Besides, it was five o’clock somewhere. Wasn’t it?
She’d earned a drink after finally making a decision. She’d made a choice, even if it was to maintain solely a platonic relationship with Mike. It was definitely cause for celebration.
The weight of the world was off her shoulders.
Today, she would meet with him, acknowledge her feelings for him—remembering to keep it brief to maintain her sanity—then cut them off before they could do any more damage and before she moved onto his territory.
It was the only solution—complete and brutal honesty.
Once she and Mike were solidly comfortable in their conversation, Zora would tell Mike about her date with Andre.
Really, the whole thing is genius.
“Why am I even sweating it? I should have done this a long time ago.”
This deserved a toast to her own brilliant, empowering decision to let her past go. She poured herself a glass of Prosecco and lifted it before taking a long swig. The bubbles were contagious. She felt lifted. Overjoyed. She was positively buoyant with having the weight of her crush off her shoulders for good.
“Cheers!”
Sip after sip, elation suffused her being, and by her second glass, Zora was cozied up on the living room sofa, deep into the movie Coming to America. Akeem had just stood on the subway dressed in all his princely garb and renounced his thrown. He was professing his love for Lisa McDowell when Zora’s phone vibrated.
With her buzz fully going by now, she labored to press pause and reach for her phone on the coffee table. It was only a few inches away, but she was starting to feel heavy and relaxed.
Mike: Sophia texted and asked if we could stop by the restaurant to check the inventory. Headed over there now. Starting the weekend early. Why don’t you meet me there, we’ll grab a to-go box, then get the moving under way. After, maybe we can catch a movie on Netflix and just chill???
Zora glazed over most of the message. Her focus centered on the three question marks then the four words that preceded them. Was she drunk? Was Michael Dwayne Kennedy really asking to Netflix and chill?
“That’s some good ass wine.”
Her head bobbed slightly as she leaned in way too close to look at the label. Her mouth was dry, and the air was a little stuffy, but she had to be drunk. It was the only way to explain this kind of hallucination. She and Mike never Netflix and chilled.
Did anyone over twenty-one really hook up on the couch under the pretense of watching some lame, non-eighties movie? No, they most certainly did not.
“Snap out of it.”
Zora slapped her cheek then pinched the bridge of her nose. She was not in the right state of mind to deal with this kind of proposition.
The trusty rules of her plan streamed through her head.
I need to start establishing the rules now. What was it? What is it? Rule number one…talk about it out in the open.
Squinting, she held the phone at a distance before pulling it within an inch of her nose. She squeezed her eyes shut then blinked as she tried to sit up, only to be forced to lie back down again from light-headedness.