Loved The Right Way (My Husbands Best Friend)

Chapter Fifty

School has been back in for a little over a month. Little L is super excited about being a big brother. I have filed for divorce. Needless to say, Lamar was not happy about it. He and Crystal are still not official, but the baby girl is beautiful. I haven't seen Terrence since that day in the lobby. I guess he's trying to avoid me as much as I am with him. Little L is so excited about being a big brother that he hasn't asked about Uncle T.

It was a day that I had no work, so after I dropped Lamar off at school, I went to get a cup of coffee. When I looked in my purse to get my wallet to pay my bill, I came across the six-month checkup card I had put in the bottom almost three months before. I paid for my coffee and muffin, then sat down at a table. I pulled the card back out of my purse and looked at it. I stood up from the chair, grabbed my coffee, left my muffin, and walked out. I went to my car and got in. I drove to the dental office and sat outside. I saw Terrence's car. I was scared to go in, but I had to. I had to know. I knew that I didn't want Lamar anymore, and Anthony had been off my radar, but I couldn't say the same about Terrence. I pushed my car door open and stepped out. I took in a deep breath and let it out. I closed my door and pushed the button for the alarm. I started walking over to the office and turned back around. I walked back to my car unlocked it, opened my door, and sat back down. I took a sip of my coffee and then closed my car door. I started up my car, and then someone knocked on my window. I jumped back because I was frightened. I looked over, and it was Charlene, Terrence's cousin.

She muffled through the window. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you."

I smiled and then let down the window. "That's okay."

"Are you here to see, Terrence?"

"Well, uhm." Nothing, I had nothing. I didn't have anything to say. Then I thought about the card that came to my house and pulled it out. "I received this card in the mail."

She looked at me with a, please don't even try it look. But she was nice about it. "Okay. Well, he is in there with a patient right now, but I can put you in a room until he is finished. Then you can tell him what you want to have done or just tell him what you want." She opened the door to my car.

I let up my window, stepped out, and clinched onto my purse as if I were an old lady who needed help walking down the street. The closer we got to the door, the more tense I got. I closed my hand so tightly that I balled up the card that I had in my hand. She sat me in one of the rooms and told him he had a walk-in in the next room when he finished. I sat there shaking my legs so hard that they went numb. I heard him walk past the room with his patient while discussing some do's and don'ts after an extraction.

"Charlene do you have the chart for the patient in room three?" I heard him ask.

"Uh, you know what, I think I left it on the desk in the room."

I closed my eyes, hoping that I could just make myself invisible.

He walked into the room, grabbed the folder off of the desk, and said okay, Mrs. Stokes..." Then, there was an awkward, long silence.

I turned around and decided to say something. I looked down at my hand, and I still had the card balled up in my hand. "Um, this came to my house." I said as I opened my hand and tried to flatten it out.

His face, it was crushed. "Adriana, what are you doing here?"

"Like I said I received this this card in the mail, um months late, it went to the house first and then was ripped and I got it in a damaged envelope and here," I handed him the card. "I am rambling on and on like a psycho. I'm sorry."

He took the card from me stood there, and looked at me with an empty look.

"Say something." I said to him.

"What do you want me to say? Everything that I had to say I have said."

I cleared my throat. "Well, I'll say something." My eyes teared, and I licked my lips. "Everything you said to me it was true. I miss you. I love you. I do. I know I didn't know it then, in a way I probably did, but I know now. I love you."

"So, when did you realize this? The day that I left or when you saw Madeline?"

"I don't know. I just know that I do."

He shook his head side to side and then said, "So you think you see me with another woman, and you get jealous, you decide you love me now, and think I am supposed to take you back? It doesn't work that way."

"I know that you think that I am a selfish bitch, but I truly didn't want to go into a relationship with you and didn't know why I was actually doing it. I wanted to know for sure."

"So, tell me." he said as he sat down in the chair in the room, "How do you know that you do now?"

"Of all the things that I have been through these last two years, I have never felt like this. I've been a mess. It has been so hard to keep myself together for Little L. All I can do is think about you." I wiped my tears. "You have always been there for me. Thinking back any of the times I felt my worse is when you were not there. The reason why I didn't know that I loved you was because I think I have always loved you. Maybe him cheating helped me release the pinned-up feelings that I had for you. I don't think that I ever saw the signs of the late nights and many work trips Lamar went on, because you were always there. You understand me better than anyone. You know my likes, my dislikes, my wants, my needs, and everything else there is to know about me. I took that for granted. You may not agree with what I did and how I did it. But I realized that, what we have, its true love and it was staring in my face the whole time."

"I'm sorry, Adriana but, I'm in a relationship now, with someone who knew that she wanted to be with me. I just can't pick up and come back to you because you decide that I am the prize at the end of the game. I cannot hurt, Madeline like you hurt me, it's too late."

I stood up with tears flooding my eyes. "Please believe me when I say that it was never a game for me. My feelings were being pulled in three different directions. It all changed the moment you walked out my door. All these years, I was being loved the right way, and didn't even know it. "

"So, if you knew it then...why has it taken you so long to tell me?"

"You were hurt...and I was the cause." I wiped my face and then said, "You said I was worse than. Lamar. I didn't know how to approach you after that. I had messed up and I knew it. Not only did I lose you, but my son did, too. I know that you are in a relationship, and you deserve to be happy. I just knew I would be a mess forever if I didn't tell you how I felt. Also, I want to let you know that whenever you want to see Little L, it is okay with me. Text me and let me know. He can come to your place." I looked at his nostrils flare. I was upsetting him. "Well, I guess I am done making a fool of myself for a lifetime. "Truly, I hope that you are happy, and I hope that one day you can forgive me." I then put my hand on his shoulder and kissed him on his cheek. Then I walked out.