Chapter 27 : Unforgettable
The next morning I woke up to Omar giving me a forehead kiss before he left for work. It was 4am and I could barely see him enough to kiss him back. I immediately rolled over and threw my face back onto my pillow.
A few hours later I woke up for good and began getting ready for work. I turned on some old school R&B music and began combing my hair out.
When I finished getting through it I slicked it back into a low ponytail, laid my edges down and threw on a pair of black scrubs before heading out the door.
When I arrived to work my boss and all of my coworkers checked on me following my breakdown yesterday.
I assured everyone that I was fine and jumped right into helping pull patients back.
"You're such a lovely young lady," an older black gentleman exclaimed as I took his vitals.
"Thanks so much Mr.Oden," I replied as I stood up removing my gloves.
I placed his chart outside of Dr.Adams' office and walked back up to the lobby for the next patient.
When I clocked out for my lunch break I grabbed my lunchbox and decided that I would go eat in my car, I just needed a little privacy.
When I reached my car I pulled out my phone, clicked on an episode of girlfriends and propped my phone up on the dashboard. I pulled my Cobb salad and ranch dressing pack out of my lunchbox and combined the two.
As I sat munching on my salad watching the show I received an Instagram DM notification. I exited out of Netflix and clicked on the notification. It then brung me to a thread from an anonymous user. The message read "I'm unforgettable not unforgivable, please meet me for lunch."
Only one person was capable of being so corny and messaging me something like that from a fake page, Jackson.
I swallowed the bite of salad I had been holding in my mouth and instantly blocked the message. There was nothing for me to discuss with him, nothing at all.
I hated the thought of having to watch over my back again or the thought of reliving my history with him, I just wanted to remain at peace. I sobbed quietly into my hands and then took a deep breath. I opened my phone back up and dialed Omar.
"Hey queen, I owe you a real date since last night we had to stay in," he answered.
"Okay, surprise me then," I chuckled.
Hearing his voice soothed me, but I needed to update him on what had happened.
"Look baby I hate to bring this to you but I thought you should know. I received a weird DM from an anonymous person a few minutes ago. I'm pretty sure it's Jackson," I admitted.
There was a brief moment of silence, but silence always says a lot.
"Is he going to be someone I need to handle?," he blared.
His voice sounded the opposite of how it usually sounded. He sounded pissed, cold, direct. I could hear his breathing through the phone and sensed the anger.
"I would never have you jeopardize anything because of him but I needed to tell you incase anything comes up," I explained.
I wanted to make sure he knew that my respect for him overtopped everything else.
"At this point baby it's a respect thing. By now he gotta know you ain't fucking interested so he better back off," he snapped.
I gulped and continued to listen in silence.
"I'm not trying to startle you I know you hate violence but I will never let him take you from me or come near you without making him have hell to pay," he continued.
As the words came out of his mouth I realized he was willing to protect me by all means. I valued that.
"I'm hoping he takes the hint, I blocked him. I love you," I replied.
"Love you too. I'll make sure there's nothing for you to worry about," he answered, disconnecting the call.
I looked at the clock and realized I had 3 more minutes before it was time for me to clock back in. I threw away the rest of my salad and ran back into my building.
The rest of my shift went fairly quick, luckily. I was emotionally exhausted and needed to lie down.
Unfortunately, I knew I wouldn't be seeing Omar again until Friday when he would accompany me to Ashley and Trev's dinner. I wasn't happy about having to wait that long, but it came with the territory. He was a business man, a busy one at that.
When I got home I jingled Nala's collar calling her to come for her walk, she trotted in the kitchen smiling and began jumping on me. I walked her around the complex a couple times and returned back to the apartment.
While I was outside with her I noticed that my complex pool was back open. I had been craving a nice swim. I decided that I wanted to invite the girls' over to see if they'd join me.
I got no response from Jada and Natalie but Ashley picked up right away and said she'd head over as soon as she finished up with her last client.
I sighed in relief and told her I'd meet her there. I could use the company and someone to vent to other than Omar.
I threw on a white and black floral one piece swimsuit, applied lotion to my legs and put my feet into my white bow flip flops. I grabbed a beach towel out of my linen closet and headed out the door.
When I got to the pool area there were about 6 other people in total there. Two teenage boys were jumping back and forth into the deep end challenging one another, a older couple laid side by side on two lawn chairs and two younger girls sat on the pool stairs recording tiktoks with their phones.
I placed my items on a nearby table that was available and ran and dove into the deep end. When I resurfaced I seen Ashley walk into the pool area looking around confused.
"I'm over here girl," I screamed out giggling lightly.
She laughed and made her way towards me.
She jumped in and began paddling towards me.
"How's everything going," I asked, while moving my legs to keep me above water.
"A bit stressful. You know I gotta look perfect for this dinner Friday," she answered.
I could see the noticeable bags under her eyes. I'd known her forever and could tell she was definitely stressing.
"Don't stress yourself Ash, you're gonna look amazing," I assured her.
She smiled and thanked me. I updated her on all of the events that had happened since brunch, the most recent being Jackson anonymously contacting me. She was just as pissed about it as I was.
"He's got a lot of nerve, I hope Omar beats his ass blue," she screamed.
The teenage boys near us began giggling and whispering, I could tell they thought Ashley was pretty.
"I bite arghhhh," she growled at them causing them to run off.
I bursted out laughing and splashed her insisting that she knock it off.
I missed Jada and Natalie but I'm sure they had a reason for not picking up. I just was ready for Friday to roll around. I was happy for my friend and her man and even happier to see my own again.
I couldn't help but think of the possibility of me running into Jackson in the future but I promised myself I'd just have to handle that when and if the time came for it.
For now, I was only allowing my energy to center around things and people that were good for me. Simple as that.
A/N : Thanks for reading guys! My next chapter will jump right into Friday night which is the night of Ashley & Trev's anniversary dinner. There will be ALOT of drama in that chapter I might even separate it into two parts. Stay tuned. 🦋🖤
Edited by author on 5/21/22 💫