Deliver Me (38 page)

The phone rang.

Monica picked up the
bowl and went back over to the sofa, expecting to see Eli’s number on the
caller ID. Instead, it was her brother’s cell phone.

Why was he calling
her? Monica picked up the phone, “Phillip?”

“No, it’s me.”

“Nia, why are you
calling from Phillip’s cell phone?”

“Because he
mistakenly took mine with him to the store.”

“What’s going on?”
Monica asked as she settled back on the sofa. She spooned a helping of the
apple, yogurt, and granola mix into her mouth.

“That’s what I want
to know,” Nia said. “I got a call from Eli.”

Monica let out a
loud sigh. Even though she knew Nia would be on her side, she was not up to
telling the story of how Eli’s other girlfriend showed up last night. She was
still in a bit of shock, and not at all in the mood to hear Nia’s ranting. Her
friend would definitely rant.

“Start talking,
girl,” Nia said.

Nia also was not
going to let her off the hook.

With another sigh
Monica relayed the events from when she opened the door at Eli’s expecting to
find a pizza delivery guy. Ever mindful of the pair of ears on the other side
of the door, she kept her voice level at a minimum.

“I told him I would
kick his ass,” Nia growled. “I
told
him. Did he not believe me? So, what did he say when you confronted him?”

“I haven’t
confronted him,” Monica answered. “I don’t want to hear anything he has to say.”

“You at least have
to listen to his excuses. They always have an excuse.”

“I should have known
better, Nia. His reputation is legendary. The nurses are constantly talking
about which woman he has on his arm any given week. Did I think things would be
different because he was seeing me?” Monica shook her head. “I walked right
into this, blindly stupid, as always.”

“Don’t you dare start berating yourself, or I’ll kick your
ass, too.”

In spite of herself,
Monica laughed. “I know, I know. It’s not my fault, although to be honest, it’s
not Eli’s either. He never actually said we were exclusive. I assumed it.”

“He’s the one who
should be making the excuses, Monica.”

She rested her
forehead in her palm. “You’re right.” She had made excuses for Patrick’s
behavior, too.

“Well, the two of
you are still working on the banquet, right? What do you plan to do about that?”

“I’m going about my
work the way I have from the beginning. I don’t care what he does.”

“It’s going to be
uncomfortable to work side by side with him.”

“No, it won’t; at
least not for me. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You sure as hell
didn’t. If anyone is embarrassed it should be him. He’s the one who cheated.”

Monica suddenly got
a feeling of déjà vu. Didn’t she and Nia have this same conversation the day
she found out about Patrick’s cheating? At the time, she just knew he would
come begging on his hands and knees. Instead, he had left with his perfect
wife. She wondered if Eli now planned to flaunt his girlfriend in her face the
way Patrick had. Monica wasn’t sure she could take it.

“I’ll be there in a
few days to give you big hug,” Nia said.

“Thanks. I need it.”

“I’ll talk to you
later, honey,” Nia said. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Monica hung up. She
listened for more knocks and concluded that Eli had left after fifteen minutes
went by without a sound from the other side of the door. She checked her cell
phone for any missed messages. There were none.

Well, it didn’t take
him very long to give up, did it? He was probably on his way to Miss
Legs-As-Tall-As-A-Tree right now.

That was just as
well. It was time for her to focus on more important things anyway. Whatever
she’d had with Eli—Monica refused to call it a relationship—was
starting to get in the way of what she valued most, her job. The little
diversion had kept her occupied, but from the moment she handed over her first
task for the banquet, Monica should have known something was wrong. She never
squelched on her responsibilities, especially those so important to her career.
It was probably better things ended when they did.

So why was her heart
breaking?

There was another
knock at the door. She jumped. “Monica, please just open up so we can talk.”

He was still out
there? Are you kidding me? Maybe she should...

Shaking her head,
Monica picked up her bowl and brought it to the kitchen. She scraped most of
the healthy concoction into the garbage, rinsed the bowl out and stacked it
next to the sink with the other dirty dishes. She would do some housecleaning
this weekend. For now, it was time to sleep.

Giving the door a
passing glance, Monica turned off the kitchen and living room lights and headed
for her bedroom.

***

When she arrived at
the hospital the next morning, Monica went straight to Dr. Slessinger’s office,
but was informed by his administrative assistant that the chief of staff was in
surgery. He would not be out for another three hours, so she made her way to
the conference room where the final pre-banquet meeting was being held.

Monica pushed the
door open. Eli was the first person she spotted. He sat at the table, engrossed
in conversation with Dr. Moore. Monica was momentarily caught off guard by how
good he looked. Wearing an unadorned polo shirt and khakis, the man was simply
scrumptious. But she could and
would
ignore him, no matter how delicious he appeared.

She walked over to
an empty seat at the table.

“Thank you all for
meeting me this morning,” she began. “I promise to keep this short and sweet.”
She retrieved a small stack of papers from the canvas bag she had brought in
with her. “Dr. Walker could not make the meeting, but sends great news. The
banquet is a sellout.” She smiled as applause erupted around the table.

“So, now that we
know we’re going to be playing to a full house, let’s talk about where we stand
on the rest of the details.”

Monica went down her
checklist, receiving confirmation on the status of everything from tent rentals
to the food.

“I apologize for not making the meetings with the plantation’s
curator and the decorator,” she said after Kenya James relayed the details of
both meetings.

Monica refused to
look down the table where Eli sat. Her surprise trip to Hattiesburg was the
reason she had missed one of the meetings. Just thinking about all they’d done
in his hotel room made her temperature rise to astronomical heights. She had to
stop thinking about him. She would go crazy if she didn’t.

“That’s about it,”
Monica said, blessedly grateful to bring the meeting to a close. The sooner she
removed herself from Eli’s presence, the better. “If there is anything that
pops up, feel free to call my home or cell number if you’re not able to get a
hold of me in the ER.”

“What about the
entertainment, Dr. Gardner?” someone asked.

Monica inwardly
cringed. She was hoping to get through this meeting without having to address
Eli. Taking a steadying breath, Monica trained her gaze on him. He didn’t look
at her. Instead his eyes focused on his hands, which rested on the table in
front of him.

“Dr. Holmes?” Monica
said, “You took over the entertainment facet. Is Aria Jordan still scheduled to
perform?”

Finally he looked up
and nodded. “I’ll confirm with her manager when I see him tonight, but as far
as I know, she’s still on tap for Saturday.”

“Thank you for all
your hard work,” Monica managed to get out. She needed to leave right now. She
was dangerously close to losing it.

“Any more questions,”
Monica asked. She made the mistake of looking at Eli. His expression stated
more clearly than words that he was full of questions for her, questions that
had nothing to do with the banquet.

“If that’s it then I’ll
see all of you on Saturday.”

The doctors, nurses,
and administrators filed out of the conference room. As she had expected, Eli
lingered. Monica tried to leave, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm.

“Dr. Gardner, could
you give me a minute please?”

Monica’s eyelids
slid shut. Her insides trembled as she waited for the last of the people to
make their way out of the room. Shoring herself up, she turned and faced him.

“Yes?” she asked.

He hunched his
shoulders and raised his hands, total confusion clouding his handsome face. “What
happened?”

As if he didn’t
know. “I told you, it wasn’t working for me.”

“That’s bull,
Monica. There was nothing wrong with our relationship. Now why in the hell did
you leave like that?”

“Your girlfriend
showed up,” she bit out.

“My what?” he asked,
his eyes widening.

Annoyance cut
through her. “I am so not in the mood for playing the dumb routine. I’ve been
through this before, and I have no intentions of going through it again.”

“I don’t have a
girlfriend, beside you, that is.”

“You had it right
the first time, you don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Dammit, Monica,
would you stop talking in riddles!”

“Do not take a tone
with me. I don’t owe you anything. I told you I wanted out and that’s the end
of it.”

“The hell it is.” He
grabbed her by the back of her head and crushed his lips to her. Monica’s
entire being melted at the sensation of that decadent mouth her body had been
screaming for these past few days. It amazed her how addicted she had become to
his kisses. Living without them had been torture.

She opened her mouth
and he plunged his tongue inside. He kissed her until her knees were weak. When
Eli finally dislodged his mouth from hers, it took all Monica had just to
remain standing.

“Now what part of
that doesn’t work for you?” he asked.

She could not put
herself through this again. Despite how much her body cried out for him, her
heart could not bare the pain.

“I can’t do this.”
Monica barely choked out the words. “It’s over, Eli.”

The intensity of his
stare nearly burned a hole through her. His eyes went cold. With a rigid shrug,
he said, “Fine. You want to throw everything we had—everything we
could
have had—away, that’s up to
you.” He moved in closer, his voice a chilling timbre. “Months from now, when
you’re thinking about what you gave up, just remember who made this choice.” He
straightened his shoulders. “I won’t bother you again.”

As he brushed passed
her, Monica’s eyelids dropped along with her head as despair overwhelmed her.
She was unable to stop the tears from cascading down her cheeks. Her body
shuddered, but she refused to give way to the sobs she so desperately wanted to
let out. She would save them for later, when she was at home. Alone.

Wiping her tears
with the sleeve of her white coat, Monica turned, checked her reflection in the
door’s slim window, and headed out to face the rest of her day.

She had survived a
heart-wrenching breakup before. She would do it again.

Eli mentally
prepared for the confrontation that would commence as soon as he stepped into
his mother’s house.

He deserved to be
shot.

It wasn’t until he’d
listened to his voicemail that he realized he’d missed his mother’s birthday
dinner. He had seriously considered packing a couple of bags and running away.
He could still do it. He could send Mama the deed to his house as a belated
birthday present.

Eli parked in front
of his mother’s house and got out. At least Mama’s ranting would divert his
mind from Monica for a little while. Eli winced as a familiar ache pierced his
chest. It had been a constant companion these last few days, brought on simply
by thinking about her.

Jazzy came up the
driveway, pedaling her new bike. She jumped off, ran up to him and wrapped her
arms around his thigh.

“Hey, Uncle Eli.”

“Hey there, Jasmine.”
He patted her on the head and extricated her from his leg. “I need to go inside
and talk to Grandma.” He continued to the house, using the front door instead
of going around the back. He found his mother snapping the tips off of freshly
picked green beans.

“Hey, Mama.” He
kissed her cheek. “I’m so sorry I missed your birthday.”

His mother used the
towel that was draped over her shoulder to wipe her hands. She pushed the bowl
of beans toward the center of the table and started peeling the skin from one
of the three potatoes that were sitting on top of a brown paper bag.

“I know my sons are
grown men,” she stated. “And I know you all have lives of your own. But I don’t
think it’s too much to ask to have you call every now and then.”