I Love You More Than (8 page)

Still unable to keep his hands off her, Harrison stroked the side of Felicia’s face as she tried to get her breathing under control. He couldn’t help but to let a little satisfied smile seep out. All Felicia could do as she gazed up at his satisfied smirk was shake her head.

“What?” he asked.
"I’ve been wanting to do that for quite some time now.”

“That I can understand, but do you have to look like the cat who just ate the canary?”

“Hey I can’t help but to feel a great sense of accomplishment here. And trust me when I say, had I ate you Felicia, you wouldn’t be able to stand on your own right now.”
Harrison kissed Felicia’s mouth that was hanging open from that last statement. Snapping her mouth shut, she let out a full heartfelt laugh.

“You are a mess!”

“Sometimes I can be. Have dinner with me Felicia.”

“I can’t tonight. Dana has a project due tomorrow we have to work on.” Harrison heard some of the disappointment that slipped through her tone.

“I didn’t hear myself say tonight. Saturday.” Harrison didn’t want Felicia to misconstrue his intentions. He wanted to date and spoil this woman if only she’d allow him to.

Looking at Harrison a part of her wanted to turn him down. He was just being nice right? He wasn’t seriously interested in her, was he? David was supposed to take the girls to Kansas City to visit some family Friday, she would be free all weekend.

“Okay.” The smile that spread across Harrison’s face as payment made it worth her while.

Felicia found it hard not to smile constantly. Every time she caught herself and thought she had corrected it, someone would be noting ‘
how pretty her smile was.’
And how ‘
someone must have had a good night!’
Felicia wished that were the case. She wondered what it would be like to come home to a man like Harrison. A man who seemed to want to be in her presence. So unlike her past and current reality where she was seen as just a piece of un-useful furniture…

“So I mean, are you going to tell me what happened after we parted ways at the gym yesterday?”

Jenna asked as Felicia attempted to appear focused on the task before her. Picking out fabrics, hoping against hope it would deter Jenna from asking any additional questions. Giving Jenna her best look of confusion, Felicia finally gave Jenna her full attention.

“Exactly what are you talking about Jenna?”

“I mean don’t get me wrong, you’re generally a happy and nice person to be around. But this…” Jenna declared waving her hands in front of Felicia. “This is not normal for you my friend. So what’s up with that? David give you the business last night?”

From the immediate frown that covered Felicia’s face, it was easy for Jenna to see that David had nothing to do with this new found lightness and happiness Felicia was bathed in today.

“Okaaaaay. So clearly it wasn’t David. Seriously Felicia. I am wracking my brain trying to figure out what could have happened from the time I left you in the parking lot. To when you got the girls, went home and work this morning. I mean you would think that you…wait! That’s it! Did you meet a muscle clad beef cake before you left GIR KIT?”

Felicia could not believe that Jenna was able to piece it together that easily the cause of her good mood.

“I ran into a friend before I left that’s all.” At the raised brow Jenna gave her, Felicia clarified. “An old friend. No biggie.”

“Un Hunh!! And does this old friend who’s no biggie have a name?”

Felicia couldn’t help but to laugh at Jenna’s tenacity. The girl was like a dog with a bone until she was satisfied she had all information.

“Umm yes. Harrison.” Felicia rushed the last part and dropped her pitch making what she said almost too hard to catch.
Almost
.

Frowning, Jenna was undoubtedly searching her mind of every male who was a member at GIR KIT. “Harrison……”

Felicia continued her search for the perfect fabric that would accentuate the Patterson’s new master suite they’d added and commissioned Tom Rich to design. Jenna was so quiet Felicia had forgotten she was with her. Until….

“OH MY GOSH! Ha! WOW! Felicia!” Jenna called as she raced to the back of the store where Felicia had made her way to. “Are you telling me this old friend is Harrison? As in Harrison Kincaid? The hottie mechanic/business owner, Harrison Kincaid?”

Felicia couldn’t help but to be kind of taken back at Jenna’s overflowing assessment of Harrison.

“Umm, yeah. I guess we’re talking about the same Harrison.” From the wide open mouthed expression Jenna was wearing, Felicia could tell that their time at the fabric store had come to an end. She had to get Jenna out of there before she got them put out.

“Jenna go outside and wait in the car. I’ll grab these samples and we’ll go to lunch.” Jenna was a beautiful woman, but at this moment she was looking like that fish out of water Felicia was familiar with. Her mouth continually opening and closing trying to formulate into words what she was thinking. Something told Felicia she did not want anyone else knowing what was in Jenna’s head.

“I’ll be out in five minutes.” She physically grabbed Jenna by the shoulders, turned her around to face the exit and gave her a gentle push to jump start her journey to the car.

****

“Spill! And when I say spill, I mean every little detail. No matter how minute you may perceive it to be Felicia Montgomery.”

Felicia had tried to prepare herself for what was surely to be a Bengazi like interrogation.

“I need a drink first Jenna.” Seeing their waiter, Felicia signaled for him to come to the table. After they placed their orders and Felicia had the entire establishments décor memorized, she gave Jenna her full attention. “What do you want to know?”

“I told you! Everything. Do you know how fine that man is Felicia? Like for real?” Jenna had to stop her spirited tirade as the server brought them their beverages. Taking a nice long sip, Felicia sat back and made herself comfortable.

“There’s really not much to tell Jenna. Harrison and I have known each other for years. His sister and I were childhood best friends so I spent a lot of time at their house and vice versa.” At Jenna’s pleading look Felicia continued, “I have also been a client of his since he opened the first Kincaid’s location. I don’t know what else you want me to tell you. That’s about it.”

Sitting back into the booths padded back, Jenna grabbed her Washington Apple and drained the entire glass in one sip.

“Okay, so let’s go back to the childhood part. You were BFF’s with his little sister….what has happened to change that? You referred to it as a past friendship.”

“Well that’s pretty much another story in itself. But the Cliffs Notes version is that when I started dating David, none of my friends particularly cared for him. They tolerated his actions and put up with him for me. But the shitty way he treated me started putting a strain on my relationships with them. So of course I started withdrawing and stopped hanging out on our designated nights. Eventually removing myself all together. I wasn’t proud or even happy with the way I was being treated. David was the first man who actually showed me genuine interest and I fell fast and hard.

“Emma, Harrison’s sister was still down for the cause and was right there with me when I gave birth to Dana. She was even there when Elena was born. By that time I had no friends. And I do mean no friends, except for Emma and my cousins. But you know, they don’t count, they’re family. So anyway, things were never good with me and David. He’s always basically had a revolving door in and out my life. He uses it constantly. Knowing this still didn’t prompt me to get rid of him. If he didn’t want me, the mother of his children, who the hell else would?

“My pregnancy with Elena disappointed a lot of people. They thought I was on the verge of finally walking away from him. Don’t get me wrong, it had been heavily on my mind, but I don’t know if I would’ve had the strength to walk away then. I had hypertension the entire pregnancy. My pressure was through the roof and most of it was because I was worried about where he was and who he was with when he didn’t come home. I was making myself and my baby sick.

“I had started to have contractions and bleed one night. I thought I was going to miscarry. I called Emma. I couldn’t bear to face my parents alone when they thought David was there with me every step of the way. Emma being the ride or die friend she’s always been, raced over and took me to the emergency room. I was admitted into the hospital and had been trying to reach David like crazy. But he wasn’t answering my calls. Finally Emma got through to him. I don’t know what that conversation consisted of, I just know that things were never cordial between them after that.

“David finally arrived at the hospital the next day, right before I was set to be released. The attending physician sat in the room and expressed to all of us how important it was for me to remain as calm and stress free as possible. Otherwise, the baby was in extreme danger. Emma decided to take Dana home with her and I went home with David. David being David, as soon as we made it inside his car he went off! I mean he had never talked to me as bad as he did that day we left the hospital and that’s saying a lot.

“Of course this upset me. He successfully pulled me into the argument and …….it was just such an ugly scene. Well Emma must’ve seen either his movements or my face and she stopped in front of his car blocking him in. She hopped out and cussed him out seven ways from Sunday. She accused him of intentionally trying to cause me a miscarriage. What other explanation was there when just five minutes ago the doctor told us how important it was for me to remain calm?

“David was livid from being berated by
her
and in his anger, he made Dana go with him. Ruining the vacation Emma had planned for them. When I tried to intervene it only made things worse. That put a major strain on our friendship.

“That and the fact that I refused to leave. I was going to stand by my man and see to it that my babies had the same family unit I had growing up. After Elena was born we saw each other once more. She came to visit and told me that she loved me too much to sit around and witness me being treated like shit. I was going to make her catch a case and since I clearly loved it, she decided to like it from afar.”

Felicia picked up her margarita and drained the entire glass. Jenna sat across from her, mouth hanging open, looking like a fish again.

“Felicia……I am so sorry.” Felicia flashed her a bitter sweet smile.

“Don’t be. Such is life. I didn’t tell you to make you feel sorry for me, just to give you a little background.”

“David is a fucking douche bag!” That was exactly what Felicia needed. A laugh to clear away the old feelings of sadness and failure.

“You get no argument from me Jenna. That he is! Not even a disposable one at that. But I’m doing some serious purging and he won’t be around for much longer. There’s no point. We’re not together. His presence with the girls doesn’t provide that much help, so yeah…… it’s definitely time to get off the shitty pot.”

“Amen to that! So have you talked to Harrison about these changes you’re wanting to make? Do you have a timeline? What?”

Felicia wasn’t shocked by Jenna’s rapid line of fire questions. She would’ve been more surprised if Jenna had no questions.

“Ummm, no I have not talked to him about this yet. I’ll admit I’ve been dragging my feet, but I’m ready now. As long as we’re doing this awkward dance, I’ll be steadily blocking my blessings. I don’t have a timeline per se, but I was thinking thirty-sixty days….. We’ll see.”

Jenna put her fork down, scaring Felicia and giving her, her full attention.

“So since you brought it back up with the blocked blessings and all…..just how did Harrison come to put that smile on your face last night Chica? Spill.”

Catching the attention of a few fellow patrons as she laughed at loud, Felicia finally gathered herself together enough to talk.

“Honestly Jenna he didn’t do much. Harrison is like that you know? Just a thoughtful, caring guy who thinks of others as well as himself. He ran into me while I was searching for my keys and we talked for little bit. Just shot the shit, nothing major. He asked me out to dinner. Then I went home.”

Felicia said the last part so fast Jenna almost didn’t catch it….almost.

“Oh my gosh! So when is the big day? What are you wearing? Are the girls going? What’s the plan?”

“Ummm I’m not a hundred percent sure what the plan is. We are getting together on Saturday. No the girls are not coming, David is taking them to visit family in Kansas City tonight. They’ll get back Sunday evening.”

“Well look at you. Single and fancy free. No kids. No adult child. You are so not going to know what to do with yourself. But don’t you worry, I can definitely give you an idea or five. Ohhh just last night Antonio hit this move mid stroke and…”

“No!” Felicia shouted, stopping Jenna before she could finish. “I mean, I am good. Seriously Jenna. I think I can handle whatever comes my way.” Felicia was terrified of whatever it was that was about to fly out of Jenna’s mouth. The girl didn’t have a filter. There was no stopping her when she felt she had something to say.

“Okay…. But if you change your mind, just give me a holler. I will be more than glad than to give you some ideas.”

“Ummm…thanks?”

“Anytime girl. Anytime. Wow. Fine ass Harrison Kincaid. Girl I love just watching him workout on the sly at the gym. That body… Have you seen that body bare chested?”

Jenna shook her head at Felicia’s admission that she had not had that privilege.

“Girl all I can say is God was definitely giving us a little something extra to look at and enjoy when he made that man. I notice quite a few of the regular females have changed their times to be present when Harrison comes in to lift weights. They simply have no shame.”

“Jenna didn’t you just say that you even watch Harrison working out on the sly?”

“Yes. But it’s my job to be there and help Antonio out as his fiancé. Now it’s just my luck that he and Harrison workout together. So technically I’m watching Antonio, Son is just an added bonus.”

“You are a mess Jenna!” Felicia declared as they got up to leave the restaurant. Both full from good food and great drinks.

“Yeah so they’ve been telling me since I was babe….I’ve come to accept it. You should too.”