Mama Knows Best ♡

Part 8

"How dare you show up to my mother's funeral unannounced?!" Cherish cried incredulously at the one man she hated more than anything. "Look,babe, can you keep your voice down?" A "fuck off" sat at the tip of her tongue. But not wanting to cause a scene she dragged the man further away from the memorial. She stopped when they were a good little distance from the session.

"You have five minutes,"she spewed angrily glaring at him. The man had the nerve to smile. "I miss you,"he said,"And I miss my baby girl,too." Shocked Cherish did the only thing that made sense to her. She laughed. A laugh that was bitter and full of resentment. "You what??"she screamed at him. "You fucking left us, L'Duka. You left without an explanation or even without so much as a goodbye! And you miss us! Boy, please!"

The smile vanished from his face. "Cher, I swear. I can explain. Leaving was the best option at the time." Cherish turned up her face at him. "You didn't just leave me you selfish fucktard. You left your four year old daughter as well. She asked about you nonstop. She thought you left because of her! And now you're saying that you had to leave,"she scoffed. "Darling, please spear me the lies."

L'Duka's face wore an anxious to please expression. "I swear. If you just let me explain. It'll make sense to you."

"Fuck you!" Then that was followed by Cherish spitting in his face. She would have turned on her heels and walked back up to the funeral if Amoura and Belle had not joined them at that time. Perfect.

"Mommy, Belle won't stop crying," Amoura complained. Her face turned rigid when she saw L'Duka. "D-Daddy?"she tried out. L'Duka's face quickly broke out into a grin. He was glad that she was able to recognize him after all those years.

His grin quickly disappeared into one of pain when Amoura kicked him hard on his leg. Grabbing her sister's and mom's hand she marched back up to the funeral. If she wasn't so stunned, Cherish swore she would have been in stitches from laughing too hard.

Served him right.

Half way up the stairs Cherish was met by a very concerned Brad. He saw her pissed off face and asked,"Hey- are you okay?" Quickly she masked how she truly felt with a sultry smile. "Sure. Thanks for asking, I'm good. Me and the girls just needed a breather." Brad offered her a sad smile. "Yeah." Crooking his arm in hers he led the way back to the funeral.

The funeral was concise and to the point. Cherish said the predictable few good words that she could come up with about her mother and the girls' sang or more like gibbered out Westlife's I'll See You Again.

Cherish was super glad when it was all over. Her head pounded and her feet hurt, not used to her being in heels for so long. She collected the well wishes from many of her mother's friends and tried to shed a few years here and there. She picked up the urn that held her mother's ashes and followed Brad to his car. The girls' were already inside sleeping.

The car ride back to her mom's place was filled with a pleasant silent aura. Cherish was so happy that Brad wasn't the talkative type. It allowed her time to think. And boy did she have a lot on her mind.

She knew it was foolish. But a part of her felt excited that L'Duka was back. After all he was the love of her life and the father of her girls'. Speaking of which, she wondered if she should let him know that Belle was also his. He did have every right to know despite him being a piece of shit.

Was she an idiot for imagining a future with the girls' and the man who broke her heart so long ago? Yep. She was foolishly still in love with the man even after that devastating heartbreak. Crown her Clown of The Year or better yet Man Clown seemed to be a more befitting title. She released a pent up sigh when she saw her mother's huge house come into view. Time to drown her stupidity into some alchol.

Being the gentleman he was, Brad offered to carry a still sleeping Amoura up to her room. Because her mom's place was so big and spacious, the girls' now had their own rooms. She planned to take them shopping tomorrow so they could bring their rooms to life with how they envisioned them to look.

After both girls were settled into their respective rooms, Cherish invited Brad to have a much needed glass of wine with her.

Laughing Brad said,"you remember when we were younger and you tried to give me a haircut and you then ended up shaving off all of my hair because it was so badly uneven?" Cherish giggled. "Yeah. I was grounded for almost a month." The sides of Brad's mouth were still lifted in a smile when he said, "thanks to you I was nicknamed Avatar."

Cherish almost choked on her fourth cup of wine. She covered her hand with her mouth as she let out a howl of laughter. "Oh my gosh. I had no idea." Brad grinned.

Somehow they seemed to have gotten so dangerously close. And Cherish couldn't remember moving. She hiccuped and stared into Brad's eyes. "Did I tell you that you looked amazing today? I almost didn't recognise you. You literally glowed all the way up." Cherish smiled. "Yeah. Puberty has been pretty kind to me,"She lied. "More than," Brad replied.

Impatiently, Cherish leaned forward for Brad to kiss her. She was tired of waiting for him to make the first move. And who made up the stupid rule that said boys always had to make the first move anyway? Besides she could tell he wanted to kiss her; who wouldn't want to?

There lips were oh so close when Cherish heard someone give out, "if you kiss her you're dead!"

*************

Upset, Cherish glared daggers at the man sitting on the couch in her living room. L'Duka wore a smug look on his face. "C'mon Cher, you can't possibly still be mad. I came back to finish where we left off." Cherish let loose a dry mirthless laugh. "You're joking,right?" She gave him a pathetic look. "You must really think I'm still dumb."

Choosing to ignore what she'd just said, L'Duka commented, "You look good,too."

"No, thanks to you."

L'Duka rose from the couch and at 6"3' he stood well over Cherish's petite frame. "Cher, believe me when I say that I have never stopped thinking about you. About Ami. And I know you still hate me but please I'm begging you to forgive me." His hands trailed all along the length of her exposed back causing her to shiver. He still knew her weak spots. Curse him.

His neck dipped as he placed tiny kisses at the base of her throat. All of a sudden she felt weak kneed. It had been oh so long since she'd experienced these shivers. Nobody knew her body as well as he did. Nobody.

Against her better judgment she found herself returning his kiss. A desperate, needy kiss. She could always blame it on the wine afterwards, right? At this point just hand her the big red nose and bright red lipstick because God did she love this man. She loved him so much that even without so much as an explanation she was ready to take him back.

She didn't realize how much she actually needed him until now. Nobody could have filled this aching except for him. And it was as if he knew that.

The kiss deepened and soon they were both naked. Forget clown of the year, she should really be crowned Man Clown of the century for sleeping with the one man who had caused her so much pain and tears.

But would one night of pleasure and lust really hurt? Would it be so bad?