Cafe Romance (27 page)

After a restless nap he decided to go for another ride to clear his mind. Suiting up, he filled his canteen with ice-cold spring water and took to the streets on his Harley. As he rode along the wide palm tree laden boulevards of Tampa he thought about Yvette and Antwan, her newly proclaimed love interest and he wondered what she saw in him. And he wondered if she truly loved him. The more he thought about her in the arms of Antwan, the more he hated himself for not pursuing her from the word
go
.

K
urt’s eyes were glued to the paperwork in front of him when he received a call from Yvette at his job. To his surprise, she wanted to know if he would stop by to have lunch with her. She’d always looked forward to having lunch with him, she reminded him. It had been over a week since their last encounter.

Kurt told her, quite conveniently, that he had been behind ‘
big time
’ in his paperwork, not that he was, but that's what he told her. But he assured her that he would be there to have lunch with her around noon. Privately his heart wasn’t really into it.

When noon arrived, it arrived a little too fast for his comfort.

"You're not saying much today," she said, after wiping a crumb from the side of his mouth with her napkin.

"I'm fine," he replied solemnly, sipping at his drink. "Just feeling a little introspective, that’s all."

            "About what, Kurt?" she gently prodded.

"Life in general, I imagine," he answered in a grim tone, his eyes averted.

"Got any plans for the weekend?" she tried again.

"No, but I'm sure you have," he said, his voice low but intense, as a waitress with another couple’s order passed nearby.

Rigid with frustration, having tried unsuccessfully to conduct a casual conversation with him, Yvette looked at him and said, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Kurt leaned back in his chair. Setting the glass aside, he leveled his eyes on her. “Yvette, it just means that a young and vibrant and attractive woman, such as you, must surely have plans for the upcoming weekend, unlike me. That’s all.”

After gazing searchingly into his eyes, she grimaced, set her fork aside, wiped her lips delicately with her cloth napkin, rose up from the table, and asked him to come along with her. His heart started to pitter-pat, just like it used to in grade school whenever his teacher called him to her desk after some minor infraction. Still, there was a strange tone in Yvette’s voice, as though she wanted to get something aired out, though not in the open forum they found themselves in. Kurt, filled with reserved curiosity, obliged her, rising up from the table just seconds behind her, and followed in her perfumed wake. She appeared headed for her office. Once there she unlocked the door, entered, then motioned him in. With an uneasy smile she closed the door, then took both of his warm hands into her hands, her brown eyes searching his eyes inquisitively.

"Now that we are alone, will you please tell me what’s really on your mind, Kurt?" she asked, half pleaded.

Looking down and away thoughtfully, then up into her liquid eyes, he said crustily, ready to unleash everything in his arsenal. "All right, Yvette. I’m going to level with you. Before I went home to Jersey things were different between us. Very different. We used to have fun. Lots of fun! You seemed on the verge of becoming my special lady. Actually, I thought you were. But after my return, I noticed that things had changed. You appeared aloof around me, almost elusive. Then, by your own admission, you tell me that you're involved with someone who was just an old friend before I headed up north to bury my grandmother. It's your life Yvette, but I just don't know where or how I fit in, anymore. I just know I can’t continue on like this.”

Yvette swallowed, then said, with mix emotions, "Kurt, you do fit into my life, you always will, but I
do
have a life, you know. Furthermore, you’re still married. I know you are separated from your wife but that doesn’t change the facts. Kurt, I cannot wait on you forever to decide on what you want to do. And yes, I know I've been spending a lot of
time with Antwan since you came back, but that's what people do when they're dating. And yes, I care for him, but right now I need more time to explore what I really feel. The only way I know how to do that is to spend time with him.”

"Yvette, just tell me, whatever happened with us?” he demanded to know, his voice rising.

Oh, he just had to go there, she thought. “Well, I wasn’t going to say anything, and I know I probably should have,” she began, biting down hard on her lower lip, “But do you remember a certain night I invited you to go out on the town, along with my friend Juanita?

“Think way back, now. Do you remember telling me you were in for the night? Does Club Neptune’s Reef mean anything to you?”

There was a long brittle silence.

She need not say much more. The anxious look on his face told her he remembered.

Suddenly he knew what this was all about as wave after wave of shock ripped through him as he turned his eyes away. Obviously, Yvette was there or knew someone who was there that night who had spotted him with Roxanne. There was no denying it.

Facing an unresponsive Kurt, she continued as casually as she could manage, “I just wanted you to know, I saw you and
Ms. Thang
dancing the night away, all chummy-like. And to think I trusted you Kurt!”

Feeling that she had already closed the door and her mind, he felt it was not worth his time to try to explain all that occurred that night. But he decided to try anyway.

Leveling his eyes on hers, he snapped, his voice rising, “Look, what I told you was the truth, about my turning in. What you saw that night began with a phone call and a promise months earlier I had made. Yes, I went out that night with her. But I had not planned on it being that particular night. I was just seeing an old friend who had asked to see me while she was in the area. That’s all it was. Nothing more.”

“That’s what I expected to hear,” she snapped back, as she walked slowly over to her desk. Once there, she turned and leaned against the edge of it, her arms folded under her heaving chest while he stood in place, uncertain what to do or say next. With a heavy heart, she stared back at him in waiting silence.

“Yvette, I swear on my grandmother’s grave that I’m telling you the truth.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me this that night?”

“Like I said, she called after I told you that I was in for the night.”

Yvette took a moment to absorb his statement. Not many people swear on their grandmother’s grave and are not telling the truth, she reasoned. And she knew how much Kurt loved his grandmother.

Exhaling, she said, “I just don’t know, Kurt.”

With a sigh of utter resignation, he shrugged, then turned to leave.

“I take it was Roxanne, your ex-girlfriend? Am I right?” she asked, wanting to know and wanting to hear it from his own mouth.

Stopping dead in his tracks, he turned until he was face to face with her and their eyes leveled with each other. “Yes, it was Roxanne,” he professed calmly.

“Roxanne.” Yvette murmured, her eyes widening. “So, your ex-fiancée is here. In Florida, with you.”

With agitation registering in his voice, he said, “No, she’s not here with me. Her husband is here on a business assignment. He’s inspecting oilrigs out in the Gulf.”

“Oh, I see, “she snapped sarcastically, “So while the husband is out inspecting oilrigs, as you say, you’re dancing the night away with the wife?”

“Look, I told you it wasn’t like that, Yvette,” he blinked.

“Kurt, all I know is that you told me one thing and did another.”

Walking over to her, he said, softly, “Yvette, I wished there was a way all of this could have been avoided. I’m trying my best to explain away something that is not easy to explain away. And you’re not making this any easier for me. What I have said is the truth. Perhaps you are not interested in the truth.”

Turning to leave for the second time, she reached out and touched him at the shoulder.

Solemn, he paused but did not turn to face her.

“Look, we have had some wonderful moments together. Nothing will change that, Kurt. You are very dear to me and I'm appreciative of what you've done for me. You have made a difference in my life. Don't ever think that I’ve taken you for granted. But I’m seeing Antwan at this time. I owe it to him to give our relationship a try. As for your friend Roxanne, I saw the way she was looking at you, and if I’m right, you have a big problem on your hands. You may want to reconsider seeing this woman in the future. Take it from me, she’s bad news. And she’s married. And so are you.”

Kurt did not immediately reply. He had already stated his position about Roxanne, to Yvette, and did not wish to cover the subject again. And why did she have to bring up Antwan. Her expressed commitment to Antwan was piercing to him. There was nothing more unsettling to him than to hear the woman he loved talk about the man she loved, especially when that man was someone else. Now he just wanted to get away. Before he did, he turned and faced her, though saying nothing. One last look, that’s all he wanted. With his head bowed, his spirit sinking even lower, he leveled his eyes on hers. Somehow, he had lost the woman he loved and before he had a chance to tell her how much he truly loved her.

A pensive Yvette reached out and grasped his hand tenderly.

"Hello!  Are you listening?" she said, gazing into his hurt-filled eyes.

"I heard you, Yvette," he tersely quipped, gazing into her eyes, then down and away, wondering why she was clawing away at his heart and feelings for her, and in the blunt manner she was.

"Please, let’s be friends," she replied, her voice drowning with emotion.

"At least I know where I stand with you," he said, withdrawing his hands from her grasp.

Yvette decided not to respond his last statement.

With a big dose of those serious dark brown eyes and a very brave and heartwarming smile, he added, "Look, I think the world of you. But right now, I just have to go." 

It wasn’t the best line in his arsenal but it expressed what he was feeling at the moment. With that he kissed her tenderly on the cheek, politely excused himself, and left her office, for the second time in one week, a heartbroken man.

Yvette took a few steps but paused. Grief-stricken, she collapsed against the door, her forehead against her arm, and cried, reliving the pain of that final scene.

That evening she suffered the worst headache she had ever experienced.
Life!
  She thought petulantly.
Why does love have to be so complex?

Laying her exhausted body across the bed, she gazed upwards towards the ceiling as though it was opened to the stars beyond it, her eyes wet with tears. In the span of a week she had managed to profess her love to one man and deny what she deeply felt for another. It could not get any worse than this, she thought, especially since the man she turned away was a man she probably loved just as much, just as deeply, as the one she loved now.

After an endearing phone call to her sister Joyce, who lived in South Georgia, Yvette dialed her friend and confidant Juanita to share with her one of her most emotional and trying days to date.

E
motionally down, Kurt tried his best to bounce back by throwing himself into his work at the office, along with his pet project away from the job. He had always been an upbeat person. He took his lickings, whatever form they came in and kept moving on. But this was different, for some reason. Yvette had touched him in a way no other woman had. But it was Yvette who had defined the rules of the game so well.

As far as he was concern, she was a woman happily in love…and with another. He could not see where he fit in anymore. He understood that a woman in love needed a certain amount of space to explore and nurture her newfound feelings. So he had decided to give her all the space she needed. Besides, he had other important things to do.

A week earlier, his lawyer had come across another two story building, which used to be a small business office that had been recently placed on the market. He had been informed that it was in need of some repair and renovation but overall the building itself was structurally sound, having been built in the late seventies. Kurt was scheduled to make a tour of the building during the upcoming week. If it was as good a deal as his lawyer and accountant felt it was, he would make the purchase, then begin renovations the following month.

That night he lay across his wide bed for an introspective moment. If he couldn’t build a loving relationship with the woman he loved, perhaps his tutoring center could be the monument that was equally as loving a symbol as his love for Yvette was. With a yawn, he grabbed a pillow and tucked it between his arms and closed his eyes. When he did, his thoughts drifted back to Yvette. Had he blown it with her, he pondered?  And what was all that talk of Roxanne being bad news?  A woman’s intuition?  The way he was feeling, right now, he could care less.

C
hapter 15

I
t was a beautiful day in Tampa with its scenic boulevards and numerous strip malls, restaurants and roadside merchants. In addition, it was a warm and relaxing spring day, a perfect day to share Tampa with a visitor. Kurt's brother, Arthur Davenport, was in Florida vacationing with his two daughters. The three were on their way over for a visit in a chauffeured limousine, from their hotel. Kurt had extended an invitation to Arthur to visit when he was in New Jersey to attend grandma's funeral. Arthur, Kurt’s younger half-brother, was a self-made man, and a very successful one, at that. Raised in Philadelphia, he completed his undergraduate studies then attended the Wharton Law School at the University of Pennsylvania and after a year's stint with the State Attorney's office in Philadelphia, entered Pennsylvania state politics. Four terms later he was elected into the United States House of Representatives where he served six very productive years as a Congressional Democrat. He eventually ran for a vacated Senate seat and won.