Several days later, it was early morning and Monique was in the kitchen with her sister, Jada as she watched her make some breakfast.
She crossed her arms across her chest and breathed out a small sigh before turning to glance down the window. It had been four days since her and David spent the night together and she couldn't help but get the impression that he was avoiding her. Due to him not calling or leaving her text messages like he always did, it made her start to overthink. Maybe she was overreacting, but she had thought that things would be different seeing as they slept together. She wasn't the desperate type or the type of person to completely flounder herself over a man, but it was different with David.
"What's the matter, Mo?" Jada questioned, placing the pancake mix down on the table, before turning her attention to her.
Monique turned her head to face her before slowly shaking her head. "Nothing, I'm just-
"I asked what's the matter, not for you to lie to me" said Jada, quickly cutting her off her sentence and arching a brow up.
Monique playfully rolled her eyes at her before biting onto her lip. She paused for a brief moment, thinking through what she was about to say before speaking up. "Alright I got a big problem... I think I'm in love with somebody... ugh my head is such a mess, this is why I always stayed away from getting to know people" she groaned under her breath.
"Well, this person you in love with... is he 6'ft tall, in his late 30's, fine as hell and happen to go by the name of your boss David Morris?" Jada chuckled lightly, placing her hand on her hips. "Girl, you two could've at least tried to hide the fact that you were fucking when you picked me up at the police station, but I gotta say he is not the type of man I thought you'd ever go for".
"Neither did I, but things just happen, and we've only slept together once" Monique shrugged.
"I know its none of my business, but he's big right? I could just tell" Jada whispered the last bit, causing Monique to laugh. "No but for real, you know I like David but just be careful okay, he's older and-
"Alright, enough about David for now, hurry up and finish making breakfast so I can take my ass to work"Monique snickered, before picking up a cup of coffee and taking a sip of it.
Jada gently stroked her hair before picking up a cigarette and lighter from the table and lighting it. "Its Daddy's birthday today" she muttered quietly, pouring some pancake mix into the pan. "He always hated celebrating his birthday we had to force him to remember?" she chuckled, blowing a whiff of smoke into the air.
Monique stared directly at her for a brief while before speaking up. "While you were in jail I saw mom again..." she spoke, causing Jada to quickly drop everything and snap her head back over to her.
"What did she want?" she questioned, with her hands shaking rapidly.
"She wanted to see me. She said all this bullshit about how she's sorry and how she's changed, but I just couldn't stand being around her... she also has a new family, a husband and two boys... she looked really happy with them" Monique explained briefly.
Jada removed the cigarette from her lips and placed it on the table, before taking a step closer to her. "We don't need her, we've never needed her, the two of us; that's all that matters okay" she muttered, taking another step back to lower her head and take a deep breath with a horrific look plastered across her face. The relationship with Jada and their mom was toxic and very dysfunctional. They had never gotten along as mother and daughter but things had gotten much worse after their father died.
After several seconds, Jada quickly shook her head to clear away all her thoughts before plastering on a smile onto her face. "So... tell me more about David" she spoke, quickly changing the subject. Monique chuckled lightly, but her smile slowly faded away seconds later as she thought back to David possible avoiding her. She knew exactly what she wanted from him, but she also knew that it wasn't going to be easy to get it.
A couple hours later, Monique was sitting behind her desk at the building reception as she typed something onto her computer.
She stopped for a while to rub her forehead frustratingly as her eyes flickered down to the phone landline beside her. Every morning when she got into work, David would ring the landline within 5-10 minutes to tell her good morning and ask her if she had slept well the night before and how her morning had went, but that morning was different as it had been an hour since she settled in at work and still no call from him. She knew that he was up in his office as she spotted his car parked outside, but each minute that he didn't call made her start to worry.
She pushed the landline to the side and kissed her teeth impatiently, before going to quickly type away on the computer, with an annoyed look evident on her face.
"Good morning, Monique" she heard someone say seconds later, and she looked up from her computer to see Steve smiling down at her.
"Morning Steve" she smiled back.
"Can you take these files up to Mr Morris, I have to head to a meeting in his place" Steve uttered, handing her the large document files. "Oh and be careful, he seems a little moody and out of place today" he said, nodding his head at her before walking off.
Monique watched as he strolled towards the entrance, before taking a deep breath and getting up from her seat. She grabbed the files of from the desk and with that she walked over to the elevator with millions of thoughts running through her mind.
A minute later, she arrived outside his office. She wasted no time knocking on his door before making her way in, not bothering to wait for him to say 'come in'.
David stood staring down his office bay window with his hands in his pockets. As he heard his door push open he slowly turned around to see Monique scowling over at him before strutting over to place some files on his desk. "Steve asked me to give you these files so here you go" she said sternly, before rolling her eyes away.
David gaze over at her before running his hands down his face and going to walk towards her. For the past four days he had been an emotional wreck and it was all because of Michelle. He didn't know what to think or do, which lead to him distancing himself from Monique a bit, but as he saw her standing there with a hurt and pissed off expression on her face all he wanted to do was just hold and reassure her. His head might be clouded and confused more than ever, but one thing he was sure of was that he was falling for Monique, he just wished he knew how to move on so he never had to distance himself from her again for any reason.
He never thought that he could gain feelings for somebody else again after Michelle, he never thought it'd be with a girl like Monique either.
"You're avoiding me" Monique spoke up, breaking the silence between them. "You didn't bother to call me and when I did call you, you never bothered to pick up, why's that?... do you regret us sleeping together, is that it?-
"No, I don't regret it one bit" said David as he removed his hands from his pockets to walk over to her.
"Then why?-... look David I don't have time to waste so-
"There's been a lot going on in my mind for the past several days and I've been very busy with certain things. I know that's not an excuse but I'm sorry... please forgive me" he whispered the last bit, whilst slowly wrapping his arms around her waist pulling her closer to him.
As she gazed up into his eyes she found herself starting to slowly calm down. Before a simple "I'm sorry" meant nothing to her, but everything was so different when it came to him. She lowered her head for a few seconds before lifting it back up to snake her arms around his shoulders, flashing him a small smile along the way.
"I'm picking Steph from school in the afternoon and we're going to do some last minute Christmas shopping to pick up a few things, would you like to join us?" he asked, gently rubbing her lower waist.
"I'd love to yeah" she replied. They were about to lean in for a kiss, but before they could they were quickly interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Come in" David uttered, slowly loosening his arms from around her waist.
"Mr Morris, the report for the company's advertising policy just came in" one of his employees stated, slowly pushing the door open and taking a step inside.
"I should head back down to work" Monique whispered over to him. He sent her a sly wink and she grinned sheepishly before turning around to head out his office with her smile not leaving her face till she got down to the desk.
It was three in the afternoon, and David and Monique were stood outside Stephanie's elementary school waiting to pick her up.
David laughed at a joke Monique had told, before gaping ahead to see Stephanie waving goodbye to her friends before running over to them whilst clinging onto her backpack. David bent down to pick her up and twirl her around before placing kisses on her cheek.
"How was school today, princess?" he asked placing her back down on the ground.
"It was good, we did some portraits in art class" the little girl replied, before turning to look up at Monique. "Hey Monique, its been a while... are you shopping with us today?" she asked, grinning up at her before flicking her eyes back up at David. Her positivity and cheerfulness was extremely contagious and Monique couldn't help but smile. Not many kids her age were this joyful, but every time Monique was around her she was always happy and smiling.
"It has, how have you been?" Monique questioned bending down to her height as David watched on.
"I've been good... except, I told Jasmine I had a crush on her last week and she laughed at me" the little girl sighed, whilst lowering her head slightly.
"Her loss" Monique scoffed, lifting her head back up. "You're still young, by the time you get to high school you'll have everyone begging to date you" she muttered, causing her to chuckle.
David smiled as the two girls chatted on, before glancing down at his watch to check the time. "Monique, do you mind watching Steph? I'm just gonna have a talk with her teacher about parent's night next week" he asked politely, before opening the car door for them before walking off.
They watched as he walked off whilst getting some attention his way from especially the moms, before getting in the backseat together.
"So are you and my dad finally together now?" Stephanie questioned, catching her a little off guard at the straight-forward question. "I mean it just looked like it and I'd be happy if you were, I want him to be happy. After what happened with Michelle and my brother last year I never thought he'd wanna be with somebody again... oh sorry I shouldn't have said that, I mean-
"Its okay, I already know everything that happened with Michelle" Monique uttered, quietly reassuring her, before quickly changing the subject. The last thing she wanted to do was to be reminded of the girl who probably still had David's heart. It made her heart ache just thinking about her.
Hours later, it was around 7 in the evening and David, Monique and Stephanie were back in the mansion.
Monique sipped onto the glass of wine in her hand as she gazed up at the huge white Christmas tree in the living room. "How long did it even take y'all to put this up?" she asked, taking her time to look at each decoration and ornament in amazement.
Stephanie stood up from wrapping the last of the presents before going to walk over to her. "A couple hours, but daddy did most of the work, I just hung the ornaments up" she explained briefly. "Hey why don't you and your sister come and spend Christmas with us it'll be fun, plus I'd love to meet her".
"Well I'd have to ask Jada, and you'll have to ask your dad-
"I'm completely fine with it, that is if Jada agrees" David interrupted, strolling out the kitchen with a tray of cookies that he had baked earlier for the both of them.
Monique smiled over at him before going to pick up a cookie from the tray alongside. "Alright, I'd ask her when I get home" she muttered before taking a bite. Ever since she was 16, Jada and her had spend Christmas with just the two of them, nobody else mattered but the both of them as Jada liked to say, and it made her happy to think that things could be different this year.
"Daddy, do you mind if Monique and I put on some music on the radio?" Stephanie asked.
"Of course, baby" he replied, before taking a seat on the sofa and she quickly rushed over to the radio with Monique following from behind.
Monique slowly scanned through several of his music CD's till she came across one she didn't expect him to have. "You have a Toni Braxton 'You're makin' me high CD?" she laughed, glancing down at the CD then back at him. "That's my favourite song and Toni's my favourite singer too".
"I forgot I had that. I was a big fan of her in the 90's and went to a couple of her concerts" he stated.
"She was daddy's first celebrity crush" said Stephanie as Monique laughed.
"Well I think I have to play it now" she said, before placing the CD inside the radio.
David leaned back on the sofa and laughed to himself as Monique began to sing along and dance with Stephanie joining her. He couldn't remember the last time he laughed that hard and that much. He watched as Monique twirled Stephanie around and whispered something in her ear before turning around to walk over to him whilst continuing to dance along the way.
"Come and dance with me, David" she spoke, grabbing hold of his hands and pulling him up the sofa.
"Oh no, I don't dance" said David, going to sit back on the sofa, but before he could he was quickly stopped by Monique who pulled him further away.
"Too late, come on" she laughed, raising her hand up in the air.
David stared down at her for a few seconds before giving in, and with that he began to dance with her, shocking her at how much rhythm he had as Stephanie watched on smiling widely to herself. In that moment he had forgotten about everything and had let loose, which is something that he hadn't done in years.
"Who knew you had moves, huh?" Monique scoffed, whilst circling around him.
"You underestimate me too much, I'm a pretty good dancer" he said, going to spin her around. She had never seen this side of him before and she loved it. For a while they were able to just forget about everything together and have fun, wishing that it never had to end.
Two hours later. After tucking Stephanie into bed, David strolled back down his flight of stairs to see Monique fast asleep on the sofa.
Smiling to himself, he reached into the nearby cupboard to pull out a blanket, before walking over to place it over her, also trying not to wake her. He bent down and gently pushed the hair out of her face, whilst admiring her beauty. After a while, he lowered his head and sighed to himself as Michelle's words instantly popped back into his head. "I was gonna choose you... I was always going to choose you" how was he meant to just forget something like that so easily.
A couple minutes later, he heard Monique's phone ring and he glanced down at the caller Id to see that it was her sister Jada. Looking back at Monique, he slowly picked it up and answered.
"Hey Mo, could you pick up something for me on the way?" Jada spoke from the other end.
David slowly stood up and slipped his hand on the pocket before replying. "Hello Jada, this is David. Monique came to do some last minute Christmas shopping with my daughter and I and she's asleep right now on my sofa, I guess she must have been really tired" he explained pressing the phone closer to his ear before turning to peer down at her.
"Oh I see" said Jada chuckling lightly to herself afterwards. "Well I don't want you to wake her so do you mind bringing her home tomorrow?".
"Absolutely, good night".
"Good night to you too, see you tomorrow" she said, before hanging up the phone.
As he placed the phone back on the table, Monique began to slowly flutter her eyes open, whilst yawning to herself. "Was that Jada?" she asked tiredly with half her eyes closed.
"Yeah, she just wanted to know where you were" he whispered bending down to stroke her hair. "I have to quickly run to my office to pick up an important document I forgot, I'll be back soon alright" he muttered quietly.
She slowly nodded her head before shutting her eyes to drift back of to sleep. He placed a kiss on her forehead before getting up to pick up his car keys from the centre table and head towards the front door.
A short while later, David was in his car driving over to his company building.
He turned on his radio to listen to music before stopping at a traffic light seconds later as he waited for the light to go green.
He heard loud music coming from the bar across the street and he slowly looked over to see two people strolling outside. His eyes widened once he recognised it was Jay with a random girl, who held onto him carefully as he stumbled side to side as he figured he was probably very drunk out of his mind.
David watched from afar as they chatted for a brief while and what happened next had almost caused him to rush out the car in anger.
The random girl, who clearly wasn't Michelle, had gotten on her tip-toes to kiss him on the lips, but instead of pulling away he had his kissed her back, and with each second that David watched on he felt his blood boiling inside him.
End of Chapter 17.
How do you think Jay is gonna get out of this one?