Hunter
"So the word is You've been back in town for months now but not once have you contacted your old pal to let him know you were back" I heard the familiar voice of an old friend I once knew 5 years ago I snorted though at the reference he made of himself
"Hasn't anybody told you yet? Nobody says pal anymore buddy" was my response
"you're kidding me?"
I laughed as I turned around and was met face to face with my old friend a guy I went all the way back with to elementary school we lost contact with each other pretty much during the time I started seeing Stacy we had disagreements mostly about Stacy he never liked her from the beginning and thought I had the potential to do so much better than what I had settled with at the time and this then resulted in Stacy and jeff constantly bickering all the time which then led to jeff not being able to take it anymore he basically asked me to choose between him and Stacy and what can I say at the time I chose love
Ask me if I'd choose the same or different again. I wouldn't be able to answer that question. at the time I was smitten with Stacey so that'd be pretty hard for me to ponder off on but who knows now maybe running into jeff was a chance for the both of us to reconcile "how've you been man what are you up to these days how's your.............wife" I didn't miss the way jeff had said the word wife in the way he did but I chose to ignore it not wanting to get too much into it with him
"I've been good and I'm not really up to much these days but running the company alongside heath and as of wife im a newly separated man" I let him know with a shrug I didn't bother getting into details due to me not wanting to hear the end of it from jeff like how he'd told me so how he was right and I should have listened when I had the chance I he didn't look at my marriage to Stacey as a mistake actually I looked at it as a life lesson really in the begging during Stacey and I honeymoon stage I loved her I really did I would have given her the moon if it meant that it was me being the one responsible for keeping a smile on her face every day
But during the course of our marriage, Stacy changed and it wasn't in a good way she began to get money hungry and obsessed I didn't mind Stacey spending my money as she wished what was mine was hers and what was hers was mine I mean the woman and I were happily married at least for a while but then the heavy drinking and smoking began than there were the parties a man could only handle so much until he told himself it was time to put his foot down that time for me came when my baby had been aborted without my knowledge
Stacey and I haven't really talked about ever having children but then by then it was already too late to bring up the conversation man do I wish we did have the conversation though it would have saved the both of us a lot of heartbreak well I know me for sure it would have
"Oh yeah what happened?" jeff asked with an already knowing smirk
Fucking smug bastard the hell if I was about to tell him anything essential to the demise of Stacey and I marriage so then what he could rub it into my face yeah right I think not
"What about it man in the end things just didn't work out people drift apart" I let him know keeping it simple and short
Jeff rolled his eyes "yeah yeah yeah I get that but I think I deserve the full disclosure at least seeing as I told you not to continue your relationship with the woman in the first place but what do you do instead you go ahead and marry the woman instead tuning out my warning better yet not even inviting me to the wedding what the hell was up with that if I wasn't there I wanna know who the hell your best man was"
"Sorry man I didn't really think you'd want anything to do with the wedding seeing as how the three of us left things it just didn't seem appropriate but to answer your question about the best man thing heath served as my best man"
"You're kidding me right the guy who stole your first girlfriend first love got married to her then had kids, wow that's a slap to the face" yup you heard right first girlfriend and first love before there was heath and laura there was a hunter and laura but that was a long time ago I'm not even sure I want to get into that whole messy love triangle I think maybe I'll save it for another day all that's important to know was that in the end everything worked out for the best and I was completely over the whole thing seeing as it hadn't crossed my mind in over centuries until little Mr. I wanna recominst everything about the past had said something
"Heath and I are brothers plus I got over that whole thing years ago man so should've you"
Jeff rolled his eyes then patted my back "it would've been nice to at least get an invitation so that I could politely decline it would've been nice"
"Yeah well, I'm sorry I didn't feel like wasting my time, now enough about me what's up with you?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean how've you been since you and I cut off contact with each other? What have you been up to?" I asked jeff while grabbing my drink from the bar
"Okay well I've got a three-year-old daughter now her mothers not in the picture though she died during childbirth and as you can also see I'm a proud owner of this successful establishment here in this club I'm single though don't really have time for any one night stands or dating busy taking care of claire and working but on-- as jeff rambled on about his life since we last talked to each other I couldn't help but to feel envy for the guy once he revealed he had a kid he had to be the luckiest guy from my perspective but that could only be me talking from the hurt I was still feeling from stacey aborting my baby without my knowledge but I still felt a light tug on my heart once he'd mentioned the fact it seemed that ever since our departure hed done well for himself from the looks of it and I wasn't hating on him for any of that I felt proud of him and his accomplishments I was happy he finally gotten his game and himself together it was nothing for me to feel upset about but pride
"Wow man, I'm happy for you but if I'm going, to be honest with you last we talked about kids you were hellbent on never having them what changed your mind?"
Jeff picked up his glass of whiskey and looked down at his glass in shame I assume before looking back up at me and letting out a deep sigh "I didn't in fact when I found out the girl I was seeing at the time was pregnant with my child I insisted shed aborted the baby and if not I didn't plan on being in the babies life we had a whole argument that night which ended in me walking out trust me I was prepared to sign papers and everything I was certain that I did not want any children at all and nothing to do with the baby then nine months went by I hadn't heard a word from anna or anything and I was fine with that until id gotten a call nine months later from anna herself telling me that she was about to give birth I yelled at her telling her that I didn't care it wasn't my problem by the time I was finished with my little rant anna's last words to me over the phone was to take care of her
I hadn't known what that meant until the next day i'd gotten a call from a doctor letting me know that i needed to pick up my daughter from the ICU turned out anna didn't make it during the childbirth she died of eclampsia she knew the risk yet she still took them so that our daughter could be living today by the time i reached to the hospital i was told that i was the baby's only guardian anna's parents weren't in the picture and she was an only child if i didn't take up responsibility claire would have ended up in the system but man as soon as i held claire in my hands for the first time it was like everything for me had changed the whole world stopped around us and it was just the two of us it was like a feeling i never wanted to end and fortunately for me it never did thank god anna's last request was that our baby been named claire after her mother i had literally broken down in the hospital so ashamed of my actions throughout the nine months that had passed by im scared what today would have been like had anna survived during the birth of our daughter i know it's a horrible thing to say but i'm truly mortified at how things would have come about"
"Wow" had been my only response the whole story had sounded so emotionally crazy to me I mean I know jeff had his doubts about kids but I never knew it was that serious until he told me about the story I wasn't judging him though I'm sure Jeff had his reasons on why he never wanted kids in the first place that he'd never told me about but I had no right to judge him in fact I was proud of him for eventually stepping up to his responsibilities as a father, in the end, jeff knew exactly what he had to do
"You're judging me aren't you.....I mean I don't blame you that was some pretty mest--" I cut jeff off
"Not at all in the end you ended up doing the right thing that's really all that matters right"
I watched as jeff slugged his shoulders down then leaned himself forward on the bars table pushing his weight onto it "I guess you're right but I still can't help but feeling like id been let off easier than I deserved I mean take for instance how hard anna fought for our babies life while I sat around telling her every chance I'd gotten that I wanted nothing to do with the baby yet she was the one that ended up not making it she'd been robbed the luxury of getting to know claire watching her grow up seeing her get married those are things anna will never get to experience all because she...............all because she can't it not fair man"
"Were you in love with anna?"
"No, not really but I can't help feeling that maybe if I stuck around a little longer than I did it would have been a possibility honestly the woman was great I wish I'd seen it sooner"
I patted jeff on his back and comforted him as he reconciled the days he treated the mother of his child but pretty soon he'd moved from that topic to then talking about his daughter and how much of a handful she was and how she kept him on his toes it honestly sounded as though she was his world I couldn't have been any more happy for him and excited to meet her soon
The sound of my phone ringing dropped my attention off of jeff I pulled it out to look at the contacts number and heavens face was popped up on the screen
She was face timing me that was a new one shed usually just stick to regular calls or texting I wonder what the occasion was for I excused myself from jeff to take heavens call I moved to a more quiet section so that i would be able to hear her clearly
"Hey"
I watched as heavens eyebrows went up in question as soon as I answered the phone probably trying to figure out where I was at "I'm at a bar" I shouted through the phone in case she couldn't hear me
Next thing I saw heavens lips moving and some faint words coming out but I couldn't exactly hear her through the semi loud music so I decided to end the facetime call and text her instead making things far more easier
I'm at a bar
Yeah I see that what are you
Doing there ?
I'm sorry mistress am I not supposed
Be there😂
Come on hunter you know that isn't what I meant😒
Ofc I know that baby I'm just
Playing around with you what's up
Nothing much really I just missed
You I came by the house tonight but
You weren't there I figured you were
Working late
Wait you're serious?!
Had I known that heaven was stopping by the house today, to be honest, I would have rescheduled my meet up with Jeff I Hadn't seen my girl in almost an entire month
Yeah I was there at first but
Decided I wanted to sleep at a hotel tonight instead I was just calling to
Ask if you wanted to meet me there
Also
How come you're staying at a hotel?
I'll explain when and if you
Come here
Ofc I'll be there you definitely
Should have just assumed
That's good but don't rush your
Self at my expense
But that wasn't the case though I was doing it at my expense but I wouldn't tell her that
Okay I'll be there soon
That's great I'll be waiting
Should I have felt bad that I was ultimately looking to ditch jeff just to be with heaven, of course, i should have but I really missed heaven and I could have met up with him anytime that I wanted but I hadn't seen heaven in a month and yeah maybe that argument could also be backed up to the fact that I hadn't seen Jeff in 5 years but still potato Patata tell me I was whipped I wouldn't deny it
I headed back over to the bar to get my things ready to leave "leaving so soon while the nights still young?"
I contemplated in my head whether or not it would have been a good idea to let Jeff in on my true intentions but decided against did I really want to let jeff know that I was inevitably ditching him just so that I could be with my girl who I hadn't seen in person for a month I didn't think so maybe it might have been selfish of me but hell this was heaven I was talking about here
Damn the more I thought about it the crazier it sounded about to me. I hadn't even been with heaven for less than three months and it was as if I was obsessed with the woman shed constantly took over my thoughts even when I didn't realize she always had me worried or wondering what was heaven doing? What could she have possibly been up to at this moment? Had she eaten? Slept? What was her mood? Now with all these questions clouding my head on a daily imagine how I could have felt after not seeing her in person for a over a month
Anxious that was what
"I'm really sorry jeff but id just gotten off the phone with Jennifer and she called me letting me know that she wasn't feeling well she asked if I could pick up some prescriptions at the pharmacy for her so that's about where I'm headed right now"
"Oh wow, that's unfortunate. I'm sorry, would you like me to accompany you?"
"Oh no man it's fine seriously I've got it all under control you just enjoy yourself I'll call you if I need anything"
"Alright well tell Jennifer I said hi I hope everything turns up alright it was great to see you again man and the talk was nice also I look forward to next time"
"I look forward to meeting claire man"
Jeff laughed "of course no problem"
By the time id reached outside with all of my things in hand headed to my car all I just told jeff had finally sunk in perhaps it should have scared me how easy I found it to be to lie to a friend of mines face from whom I've known for a long time but it didn't cause I told myself it was for the greater cause but what greater cause exactly?
When I heard the pinning of my phone I looked down to see who it was that had just texted me and couldn't contain the smile that had broken itself onto my face when I had seen that it was heaven who had just texted me the address of the hotel she was staying at
I got into my car and got it started headed into the direction of the address id just been sent
꧁꧂
By the time I'd gotten to the hotel and was pleased to know that heaven had already checked me in downstairs with the checking lady she just asked some miner questions and checked for ID and when that was over with I was pointed in the direction of my room
"Thank you ma'am" I thanked her making my way into the direction of the elevator
When I reached the door id swiped my key card in then opened the door finally
When I finally opened the door I was finally met with the breathtaking sight of heaven in what looked to be like a deep slumber
Deep slumber or not I didn't care creepy or not I would have pulled up a chair and stared at her sleeping form all night had I not known that I needed a shower
But damn if I didn't miss my woman
I took a few minutes staring at her even went as far as to pulling my phone out to get some pictures of her in her adorable slumber but then I told myself that was enough and set my phone on the dresser I laid my lips onto heavens forehead then made my way into the direction of the bathroom for a well-needed shower
By the time id gotten out, I realized I had no sleeping clothes with me and would most likely have to sleep naked maybe Heaven wouldn't have minded but being completely naked while I slept unless I had sex the night before was extremely uncomfortable at least to me it was
When I walked back into the room I started searching around the room in an attempt to see if Heaven had left any lotion lying around so that I could moisturize but found no such luck
That was until I spotted the couch that had two separate large target bags on top of them holding out hope that Heaven at least stopped by to purchase or bring some necessities I made my way over to the two mysterious bags
By the time I reached to look at what had been inside I wanted to grab her up from her slumber and just shower the woman with kisses the bags had exactly everything that I would need including body washes cologne toothpaste lotion deodorant a towel and clothes
Clothes for days in fact I started to wonder how long did Heaven actually plan on staying here?
Deciding not to put too much thought into the question I got out the lotion and deodorant and began to do my business
Once I finished getting dressed I turned then took my phone that I laid on the dresser before I left for the shower after that I went back over to the bed but as I made my way closer to the bed I could see heaven eyes were wide open scrolling through her phone as though she'd never been asleep in the first place how come I hadn't noticed this when I came out the shower most importantly why hasn't she said anything
"Woman there better be something wrong with your voice box" was my greeting as I got on the left side of the bed
Heaven's response was a laugh then she turned to me so that we were face to face before I could even get another word in heaven attacked my mouth as if she didn't do it now she wouldn't get the chance to do it later on and I, of course, replied to her kiss with the same hunger that shed shown me if not more
The kiss had gotten to the point where it began to get so heated that I flipped heaven on top of me while holding a very tight grip on both her ass cheeks she began to grind herself on top of my clothed erection moving her hips at just the perfect motion to make me want to remove all the clothing shed had on right then and there but I stopped myself before I could let it get to that point I wanted to savor this moment and take advantage of it I wanted to have a real conversation with her face to face now that we were here together next to one another its been way too long
".......heaven Hunny"
"Okay baby as much as I want you right now I think that you and I should talk seriously," I said as soon as I felt heavens lips begin to trail butterfly kisses down to my neck
Once I said that it was as if a switch had went on in heaven she didn't get off me instead sat onto a sitting position as if that was any better but whatever "your right I'm sorry I just really enjoyed watching you get dressed"
"Had I known you were awake I would've stayed in the bathroom to dress myself"
"Not like it would make much of a difference really if id already seen everything"
"Okay but still;....."
"If it makes you feel better I'll return the favor someday"
"It does"
"Okay then"
There had been a 5-minute silence after that not awkward though but just silence basking into each other company
that was until I broke it though "I missed you, you know"
Heaven turned my way with a knowing smile then started to caress my cheek "I know" she said "but you know what they say absence makes the heart grow fonder"
Even though I never really thought that to be true or beloved in any of that shit cause even when Heaven was near I missed her even close to me I just figured when you loved someone you loved them no amount of days their gone would make a difference from when you feel when they are already around you but I just continued to let Heaven go on cause I found the woman to be adorable
"Your probably right," I said all the while pulling her closer to me so that I could spoon her and she didn't put up any protest
We soon fell into the same familiar silence we'd been in 3 minutes ago but this time I felt it to be different than the last I could tell heaven wanted to say something to me but something had been holding her back to do so I don't know why heaven knew she could tell me anything she wanted and I'd listen
"What is it, babe?"
She looked up at me then looked back down as if she wanted to tell me but something was holding her back
"What is it?" I asked again.
"It's nothing, serious baby...... I just like this" Heaven said as she began to caress the stubble on my face
Yeah the stubble might have been something new that I'd been trying but I could tell heaven was just trying to distract me from the fact that something else was actually bothering her
"Thank you but I know that's not what you were in deep thought about just now Heaven I at least thought that by now you'd at least trust me enough to let me know whenever there was something wrong with you heaven"
Heaven looked at me then sighed in defeat "fine" she said "it's about your nephew"
Once heaven mentioned who it was that was making her overthink the way she'd been doing my interest peaked more at the mention of Jonathan I knew it was also serious when I'd seen heaven remove herself from my embrace and moved on over to the edge of the bed where she sat while also looking back at me
"Today when I went over to the house nobody was there yet at least I didn't think anybody was so I relaxed a bit before deciding I wanted to take a bath so I did when I did Jonathan knocked on my door talking about he wanted to talk to me about something I don't know but I shouldn't have indulged his ass in the first place I'll admit that anyway, the main topic is that Jonathan told me and I quote "Woman like you are the reason thousands of girls get abused and raped every single day I hope you know that"
By the time heaven was done explaining about her quarl with Jonathan, I was shocked to say the lees what man in their right mind would ever dare to utter a sentence like that to a woman to anyone for that matter what I just heard made me feel like my nephew was sick and needed help was this how he truly felt about woman had he no regards for respect or any of that shit
I wished that I could have blamed it on Jonathan being young and not knowing any better but at this age, there shouldn't have been any excuse really not even if he was a 10-year-old kid
none
"What did you tell him?" I asked heaven trying my best to stay calm after the things I'd just heard
"Believe it or not I didn't say anything I was too stunned by that outburst so as soon he left the bathroom I finished my bath then packed some of my stuff and got the hell out of there I didn't feel like spending another minute there
"What he did-said wasn't right and either way I think that you should have let him have it cause it's what he would have deserved maybe worse even but I'll be sure to speak to heath about his father's behavior"
"NO'' heaven was quick to shout in that moment
"No?" I questioned confused myself about why she wouldn't want a parent of his to know
"No" she confirmed again
Heaven sighed then looked away from me for a second before looking my way again "look I'm at his house that's his son I don't think it's my place to say anything to his parents to them it would probably seem like I'm throwing an accusation towards their son and I don't want it to seem like that"
"Say that but how many girls is he going to treat that way before he faces any consequences he needs to understand that it isn't okay to talk or do anything he feels like to woman just because he's never held accountable for it if not his parents how about I talk to him"
"I don't want you talking to him at all hunter im serious I told you this because I needed somebody to talk to about it plus you wouldn't leave it alone but all that was said was told in confidence to you and I'd like it if you wouldn't break my trust by going around me if I'm specifically telling you to leave it alone it isn't like it would change anything anyways there's always going to be somebody else who has the same mentality and I can't do anything about it but get used to the world that we live in"
"But what if you could make a difference with at least one person wouldn't that at least be worth it?"
"What I said was final hunter and I mean it! Yeah okay maybe it would make a difference with one person but one person isn't the whole world"
"Heaven you're not underst–"
"No hunter, you're not understanding! I don't want to do anything about it and I'd like for you to respect my wishes I'm not asking anything more of you, gosh I don't even want to tell Jennifer if it's going to be a recurring thing with him then yeah I'll say something but as of right now I don't even want to think about it and if you'd respect my wishes hunter I'd really appreciate it"
After that, I didn't say a thing I was frustrated, to say the least, but I knew that I had to understand where it was that heaven was coming from
"I'll respect it," I told heaven to put her mind into ease but in my mind, there was a whole different situation going on how would I know something like that but choose to stay quiet it's like knowing someone is getting abused but choosing to stay silent and heaven was a woman that I grew to care deeply about there was no way in hell I was going to stay silenced
"Now could you please come to bed it's been a long day and I've really been just looking forward to just cuddling with my man throughout the night so what do you say" heaven suggested
"Fine," I said with a small smile playing on my lips
I pulled heaven towards me from the edge of the bed so that she now laid on top of me she laughed a little at the gesture but eventually, that silence just fell into silence until I watched her eyes close all the while she laid on top of me
I smiled at the sight before me then kissed the top of my woman's head I reached over then turned off the lamp from top of the bedside then I adjusted heaven to lay on top of me comfortably with the comfort on top of us
I squeezed her waist a little with my arms wrapped around her then layed there until I finally succumbed to the darkness