It Should Be Easy

Chapter 34

A/N: Annamae in the media for this chapter

ANNAMAE
NYC APARTMENT

"Q." I chided. I was still out of breath from what we had just done.

"Hmm?" He was leaving a soft trail of kisses down my side. He had been wearing me out like he used to when we were married, but we weren't young anymore.

Slyly, he started to tickle me, and pressed wet sloppy kisses all over my neck. I squirmed and giggled, trying desperately to catch my breath. Finally, I got the strength to speak. "Quinton, stop." I lightly pushed him away from me, and touched his smooth dark cheek. He was pouting the same way Caira did when you told her no. "We can't do this anymore."

I had killed the mood. He huffed and got out of bed. I had to bite my lip as I watched him walk, naked, into the bathroom, so that I wouldn't tell him to come back.

Quinton had always been irresistible to me. He was tall and lean, with a chocolatey complexion just like mine, and over the years I had watched him age like a fine wine. His witty sarcasm had turned into a stoic cynicism, though he could still make me cry with laughter, and even with all his seriousness, he had a soft spot for Caira and I. A few Grey hairs recently started to emerge on his face, which he had attributed to Caira's shenanigans; Caira was proving to be just as difficult as I had been.
I was only seventeen when I met Quinton, and 5 years younger than him, but I wanted so badly to be grown. I was the middle child, tall, dark, skinny, and mediocre in every way. My family and I weren't too close either. My two sisters were both very different from me. They were boisterous and commanded my mother's attention, which I could never do.

In school I was quiet, not into cheerleading or anything like that. People thought I was pretty, but I was removed from the social scene, and not very interested in the guys my age. My Dad, who I felt closest to, died in a car accident, pretty suddenly, when I was 16. My mother started to drink, my older sister graduated, and my younger one became much closer with my extended family and her friends.

I became increasingly uninterested in school. I had no real relationships or attachments to my life at that age. I remember feeling stuck in high school, and knowing there was so much more out there for me outside of our smallish town.

So when I stayed with my Aunt Cara, in Atlanta, the summer before I was to attend college, and met Quinton, it was as if my fate was already sealed. He was the first man to ever see me. And I gave myself all of him: my innocence, my youth, my first child...

But Quinton being my everything, especially so young, was the biggest mistake I have ever made.

"Where is my shirt?" It was then that I noticed Q had been getting dressed.

"Where are you going?" I knew he heard the tiny hint of panic that tainted my voice like it did whenever he was leaving.

"Naw, Anna. You don't get to do this. You don't get to reject me, and then keep tabs on what I do. Either you want try again or you don't." He moves towards me, and even after all these years, my instinct is to move backwards on the bed. I watch as he registers what I was about to do and immediately felt guilty because of the heartbreak on his face. He dropped to his knees beside the bed on the floor, pleading with me as he had when he first wanted me to marry him. "Anna. I'm not who I used to be. And I am in love with you. You are my wife-"

"I was your wife."

"Anna Mae. I know you are still in love with me too. Just give us a shot."

Both of us jumped when my phone rang. The soft iPhone music sounded much louder when it was interrupting such a tender moment. Quinton doesn't take my eyes off of me as I reach over and answer the phone on the nightstand. It was Tina, and if I didn't answer, she would just keep calling. I was saved, momentarily, by the phone.