Bro-mance 101 (5 page)

He
frowned. 
“I can’t believe you’re pissed
at me because your man left you
. 
D
on’t
you think his absence
could be your fault?”

“No! 
It’s definitely because of your meddling. 
Don’t Get Got.
That’s the juv
enile shit you tell your listeners
.  Did it ever occur to you to let people work out things on their own?  Who the hell are you to tell someone to leave their woman?”

“I’m a licensed
therapist with a
m
aster’s
d
egree in P
sychology.”

“
So what? 
A degree doesn’
t make you an expert in relationships.
Y
ou gave
my man
the absolute wrong advice
, and y
ou acted prematurely without knowing all the facts.
”

“So, you’re saying
he
broke it off for no reason?  You had no other problems?”

Zhané
stopped short. 

Well, not exactly no problems. 

Okay a few.
 

But
I’ll
be damned if
I admit that
to Devlin Hart!

“S
o you did have problems
,” he guessed.  “You don’t need to
say it.
”

“
Eve
r
yone has problems
, Mr. Hart
.
Conflict is
healthy
.
”
 
She pointed her finger in his face.  “
Your a
dvice pushed him over the edge.”

With a
subtle
nudge
, he moved her hand
from his face
.  “
Over
the edge?   Listen to yourself. 
You are
in denial, woman.”

S
he was surprised
by his gentle touch.  Her
father
told her never to put her hand in a man’s face unless she wanted it slapped.
Right now, she was too mad to care.  “I’ve seen the evidence of your
interference
first hand.  Does it make you happy to know you destr
oy relationships?”

Devlin
leaned against the elevator wall furthest from her. 
“
You may as well calm down and have a seat
, M
s
.
Williams
.
With this storm, i
t’s obvious w
e’
re going to
be here for a while.
”

“
First, you’re a
psychologist
. 
N
ow
you’re a weather man
?”

“
No,
the weather man
is wrong three times out of
five
.  I
’m
never
wrong.
”

She glared at him
, fury rising inside her
. 
“
That platter is lo
oking better and better.”

He shook his head pitifully.  “You’re just mad because you know I’m right about your
boyfriend
, what’s his name?”

“
Malik
!”  Her anger refused to take a back seat.  How dare
Devlin
stand the
re talking to her as if he weren’t
responsible for her circumstances?  “You are an arrogant son of a bitch
,
”
she charged.

He crossed his muscular arms over his chest
;
his
fitted
t-shirt cl
ung
to every inch of his chiseled torso.  “I prefer the term
self-assured
.
You should be familiar with that.  In fact, you’re
so
sure of yourself,
you can’t see pa
st the truth.”  He s
mirke
d.  “
You’re either self-assured or crazy
.
”

Zhané
choked back a string of colorful words. 
“
Look at me
!
” she demanded.  “
Do I look like
a crazy woman
?
”

He stared back
, not batting an eye. 
“It’s usually the beautiful ones who are crazy on the inside.”

She swept his backhanded
‘beautiful’
comment under the rug. 
It was time to set this guy straight. 
“
I’m
an educated woman with a career,” she s
eethed. 
“
I’m a V
.
P
.
for an oil and gas company. 
I volun
teer at
Big Bro
thers and Sisters.  I’m involved with–”

“When did you have time for
Malik
?”

“Excuse me?”
 

“I’m listening to all the things you’ve got going on.  When did you have time for
him
?”

“
Are you insinuating a woman cannot have a career and a
healthy relationship?”

He shrugged his brawn
y
shoulders. 
“If the relationship was healthy, your man wouldn’t have called into my show to begin with.”

Zhané
stiffened. 
This man was rude
,
insensitive
, and
brash
.  “How can you get your pants on with balls that big?” she snapped.

Inste
ad of playing her tit for tat, D
e
vlin
pointed back to the facts.  “When two people care for each other, they make time to be together.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.  If you
put
your relationship last, it’ll be the first thing to suffer.”

Zhané
fumed inwardly as she digested Devlin’s
remarks
.  His
words
were arrows lodging deep in
side
her heart.  Part of what he said was true. 
She and
Malik
had so many other priorities they’d drifted apart.  In fact, it seemed like lately they’d just
been
going through the motions.
She
’d
expected him to propose because that’s what people did who’d been dating for six months
–th
ey took their relationship to
the next
level.  But was that really what she wanted?  She’d driven blindly to dinner tonight and got blind
-
sighted.  She cringed thinking how she’d arrived a
t the restaurant a
few minutes early and
presumptuously
took the liberty of ordering strawberries and champagne.
Her bubble got popped along with the cork.

“Your ex was looking for any reason to break up,” Devlin
continued
.  “That relationship was a disaster waiting to happen.”

“No, it wasn’t,”
Zhané
argued.  “You planted that seed in his head.”

“How often did you two have sex?”

She gasped.  “None of your business!”

“Must not have been much.  I can tell by your response.”

“Of course, we had sex…many times.  Often.” 

Oc
ca
sionally
. 

Zhané
tried to remember the last time she and
Malik
had been intimate.  It was rushed, and she
’d
wanted him to cum quickly so she could get back to reading her reports. 

“Did you
anticipate coming home to him?  Seeing him at the end of
a
long day?”

No
, I didn’t
.

“Did he make your panties wet thinking about him?”

No, he didn’t.

“Did he make your toes curl?  Did he stroke your body in all the right places?  Did he leave you hungry for more?”

No! No! No!

“Okay, that’s enough,”
Zhané
interrupted
.  “This isn’t about me.”
Devlin Hart had a nasty habit of interjecting self-doubt into her arguments.

“If you’re looking for someone to blame, pull out your compact mirror
,
”
Devlin accused.

“You don’t know me!” she charged.

“Yeah, but I know your type.”

“
Oh, r
eally?  You know fiercely independent women working their way to the top who don’t take shit from anyone?”

He smiled and shook his head.  “Poor
Malik
.  He didn’t stand a chance.”

“Damn you!
”
She stood before him, her feet planted firmly in front of his leaning form.  How dare he casually stand there with his arms folded and that holier than thou
attitude
? 
The
energy in
the
air was like kindling, ready to be lit by a spark from either one of them at any moment.  He wasn’t backing down, and neither was she.
 
“What do you have against women?” she
demand
ed.

“Nothing
,” he answered.  “
I just steer clear of the
scheming
ones.”

“
I think I understand now.  You
avoid women
, and you advise other men to avoid relationships with women.  You must be
gay
.”

His polite smile didn’t quite reach the dark eyes that stared at her with amused interest
. 
“I assure you I am not
gay
.”

She
shrugged
.  “
Sadly,
w
e’ll never know.”

“Once you’ve had a taste of me, there will be no doubt in your mind.”

Their eyes
locked. 
She couldn’t
beli
e
ve
she was
stuck in
the
elevator with
this
jerk
.  His charm wa
s riding shotgun with his
arrogance.
  He was trying to
captivate
her with th
a
t disarming smile and those a
rresting eyes, b
ut she wouldn’t fall prey to his manipulations.
Something made this guy tick and she
had
nothing better to do than try to figure it out. 
She wanted to get under his skin the way he’d burrowed himself under hers.

“
I think you’re af
raid of women
,” she challenged.  “
That
’
s why you
s
ay,
Don’t Get G
ot!
  How st
up
id is
that?
”

“
It makes sense when you’ve been through
tough times
.
”

“
Bull. 
You’re callous
and hard-hearted
.  I don’t think you’ve ever loved in your life.  If you did, you would never advo
cate
a man
leaving
the woman he
loved.”

“
You’re wrong.
  Just because you love someone doesn’t mean they’re right for you.
”

“You hide behind your radio show telling men to do all the things you wish you could do
. 
Y
ou’ve
probably
n
ever even been in their shoes
,” she accused.  “
You’re
an imposter!”

“Cool it, lady,” he warned.

“What’
s wrong
? 
You d
on’t want anyone to find out your show is
a
platform of lies?”