Claiming Carter (6 page)

I spent the next couple of hours being distracted by the thoughts of Kelvin. I couldn’t get over how perfect his smile was. It was nothing like Tim Bulger’s smile. Kelvin had a flawless set of white teeth in his mouth and his lips were so thick and juicy, I couldn’t help but fantasize about lightly biting them as he kissed me. I wondered if he would be picking me up in his fancy Bentley, and if his driver would escort us around the city? Where would he want to go for dinner? Would he want to go come inside after bringing me back to my house? Would I be willing to sleep with him on the first date? All the questions swirled around in my head throughout the morning and all the way up to lunch.

It wasn’t until the bell rang after recess that I started to worry that Kelvin might not call. I knew that he was gorgeous, and he probably had multiple women chasing after him, and I found it difficult to figure out why he would want to be with me anyway. It was true that I didn’t have a problem getting attention from men—my look was pretty unique—but I had never gotten the attention of a man who looked like Kelvin. He was obviously somebody wealthy and important and I’d never even been around anyone like that, let alone gone on a date. Men who were wealthy and important usually were busy as well, so he probably wouldn’t have time to call me, anyway. I didn’t know what it was that Kelvin Carter Jr. wanted from me, but as the hours passed and the school day crept closer to a close, I began to doubt that it was anything serious.

At three o’clock—twenty minutes before school let out—as I sat at my desk scrolling through Facebook, my cell phone began to vibrate on my desk. I picked up the phone and stared at the incoming number on the screen and smiled brightly when I realized that I didn’t recognize it. I swiveled my chair around so that my back was to the class before I nervously answered the phone.

“Hello?” I said anxiously.

“Hi, is this Lily?” a sexy, baritone voice rumbled in my ear, sending a wave of butterflies fluttering to my heart.

“Umm, yes. This is Lily. Who is this?” I asked, even though I already knew.

“Hi, Lily. This is Kelvin. Do you remember me from the gas station last night?”

How the hell could I possibly forget him?

“Umm, yes, I remember you. How are you?” I lowered my voice. I didn’t want my class listening in on my conversation.

“I’m good. Just wondering how you’re doing. How has your day been today?” Kelvin asked. His voice was pure seduction.

I was shocked that he’d asked me how my day had gone. I couldn’t remember if Tim Bulger had done that at all during our entire six months together.

“My day has been good, so far. Thank you for asking,” I answered. It took everything in me to avoid saying
“It’s even better now that you’ve called.”

“That’s good. I’m glad.” Kelvin said. “So, I was wondering if you were still available for dinner tonight. Is five o’clock still okay with you?”

“Sure, five is great,” I said with a gigantic smile and an accelerated heartbeat.

“Okay. So, what’s your address?”

“I’m at 1226 Duncan Street. Up by West Ridge,” I said.

“Okay, great. I can put it into my GPS. I’ll be there at five, sharp,” Kelvin said confidently.

“Okay, awesome. I’ll see you then.”

“Okay. Oh, and Lily,” Kelvin interrupted just as I was about to hang up, “wear something nice. Nice, but sexy. Like you what you wore at Applebee’s. I’m going to make all the boys jealous tonight.”

The blush flashed up my chest to my hairline, and had trouble coming up with a response. What was this man doing to me? He was entirely too gorgeous to be flirting with me, but I grinned from ear to ear when I realized that that was exactly what he was doing. “Applebee’s? You thought that was sexy?” I whispered quietly.

“Sexy enough to get my attention, that’s for sure. And I assure you, that’s hard to do. Look, you don’t have to try to do anything over the top. Just do what you always do and that will definitely be enough. I have to get going, but I’ll see you soon,” Kelvin said, just before I heard the line go dead.

My entire body was warm all over as I sat in my chair in utter shock. Kelvin Carter Jr. was some sort of successful business man—or something like that—and he was absolutely beautiful, and somehow he seemed genuinely interested in me. I smiled at the thought of him calling me sexy and wondered if it was possible that compliments like that one would continue. Tim used to call me sexy too. After about a month, however, the romantic gestures and loving terms of endearment came to a screeching halt. Deep down inside, I hoped that Kelvin wouldn’t be anything like Tim. So far, Kelvin was already light years ahead of him.

School let out at its usual time and I found myself too excited to sit at my desk grading the day’s papers. Instead, I rushed out the door, down the white and blue hallway, out into the staff parking lot, and into my car. When I ran passed Lexy’s door, I heard her calling out after me, but I was in too much of a hurry to stop. Kelvin wasn’t giving me much time to get ready, and with Chicago rush hour traffic about to hit, I desperately needed to get on the road so that I would have time to change.

The drive home was surprisingly light. The traffic jams weren’t as hectic as they usually were for me this time, but I could see in my rearview mirror that I had left just in time as the line of cars behind me was beginning to pile up. When I finally made it home, I had already burned twenty-five minutes and was down to an hour and fifteen minutes before Kelvin would be showing up—if he was on time, course.

I rushed out of my car and ran up my driveway and into the house. When I came running through the door, my brown and white Singapura cat, Meghan, stared at me like I was an idiot as she lay on my dining room table. I ignored her, dropped my purse on the couch in the living room and began kicking off my heels as I ran towards the bathroom to take a shower. Tonight had the potential to be special, and I didn’t want to ruin it by smelling like I had been wrestling with twenty screaming, sweating, crying, nose-picking seven and eight-year-olds all day.

Ten minutes later I was out of the shower and standing in my closet trying to figure out what the hell I was going to wear that was nice, but sexy. Kelvin had told me not to do anything that was over the top, but just by asking me to wear something “nice, but sexy,” he’d unintentionally put me under a tremendous amount of pressure. I felt obligated to show him something better than what he’d seen at Applebee’s only two days earlier, but every outfit in my closet seemed to want to do the opposite.

I stood inside of my tiny walk-in closet, staring at the row of clothes hung up in front of me. On the left side were all of my pants: sweats, jeans, leggings, and capris. I immediately ignored that side of the closet and all of the t-shirts next to it, and moved to the center where I kept all of my skirts. The first skirt I grabbed was black with tiny red squares all over it that came up to about mid-thigh. I took it off the rack, gave it a quick glance over, and slammed it back into its place. I grabbed the skirt that was directly next to it—blue with a silver trim running up the right leg—and quickly put it back as well. I didn’t really know the definition of “nice, but sexy,” but I knew that what I was looking at wasn’t it.

After another five minutes of frustration, I finally looked to the far right side of my closet and spotted a dress that I hadn’t worn since the staff Christmas party I’d attended during my first year as a substitute at North Park Elementary. The dress brought back memories of the myriad of stares that I’d received that night from husbands of the staff members I was working with. I had gotten plenty of dirty looks that night from a lot of the women that I now called my associates and co-workers. I figured if the dress had gotten that much attention a couple of years ago, maybe it would bring me some good luck tonight.

I pulled the dress out of the closet and gave it a once over: a white, knee-length bandage dress, with black and white straps that looped around the chest and over the shoulder. The dress was two years old, but I figured it would still fit, since I hadn’t grown too much since then. It took me five minutes to get the dress on, but once I did, I knew I had chosen the perfect combination of nice and sexy. At five-foot-six, one hundred-twenty-three pounds, the garment fit perfectly to my body, and even put a little emphasis on my ass, which was always a plus.

I had removed the headband that I’d worn to class during the day, and let my hair fall naturally into the bob haircut that everyone raved about when I’d decided to cut it eight months ago. I side-swept my bangs and inserted two tiny diamond earrings into each ear lobe, and one even tinier diamond stud into my nose. To top off my ensemble, I chose a pair of white and black Stiletto heels that only made it out of the box on special occasions.

At four-forty-five I was fully dressed and ready to go. I walked into my living room and sat down on my blue couch after inspecting it for cat hair, and my text alert on my phone went off.

Lexy:
Can’t believe you wouldn’t let me be there to witness this. Is he there yet?

I laughed out loud when I saw Lexy’s text, but I was glad that she’d texted me. Now that I was only minutes away from Kelvin’s arrival, the nerves were starting to kick in and I could use the comfort of my best friend.

Me:
Kind of wish you were here now. I am nervous as hell. It’s 4:50 and he isn’t here yet. The suspense is killing me.

It took Lexy a few minutes to respond.

Lexy:
See! Should have let me come. I forgive you this time. How do you look?

Me:
Thanks for forgiving me, LOL. I look okay, I guess
…
hold on, I hear something outside
…

As I was typing my message to Lexy, I heard a powerful, rumbling engine coming from outside. I sent her my message, then hurried over to the window. When I raised the blinds, I let out a loud gasp that made Meghan’s head snap in my direction.

Me:
OMG!! I have to go Lex. He is here!! Stay up. I’ll have lots to tell you about when I get home!!!

I slightly raised the blinds again to get another look at the sumptuous, dark gray Bentley parked next to the curb in front of my house. The chrome rims were even more extravagant than I remembered, and I again began to wonder what Kelvin did for a living that he could afford such a car.

Just then, I noticed the back door of the lavish ride pop open. It seemed like everything slowed down as the door slowly opened wider. After a seemingly intentional pause, my heart rate went through the roof as I watched an extremely fancy, white and black shoe plant itself firmly on the concrete.

He was mind-blowing. Kelvin stepped out of the extravagant car wearing a black suit with white pinstripes and a white tie. As he carefully stepped up onto the curb, my eyes were immediately drawn back down to his amazing black and white shoes. The front half of the shoe was black, shiny patent leather, while the upper back half was white leather with thin black laces.

I watched from my window as Kelvin walked around to my driveway—obviously to avoid walking in the grass of my tiny yard—and I felt like I was holding my breath as he approached. His beard and hairline looked as if they had been perfectly edged just minutes before he arrived, and the thick diamond earrings in his ears were twinkling with every step that he took. On his left wrist was a glistening white watch with a black face. As he stepped closer, I noticed that the numbers on the watch were missing, and tiny black diamonds were in their place. He was flawless from head to toe, and I had to force myself to snap out of it when I heard him knock on the door. I took a deep breath, straightened out my dress, and then slowly pulled the door open.

“Hi,” I said as I pulled the door wide, fully revealing myself.

When he saw me, Kelvin tilted his head the same way he had done at Applebee’s, and slightly squinted his eyes as he looked at me from head to toe and back up again.

“Wow,” he said, finally locking his eyes onto mine. “You look incredible.”

I felt the heat rushing to my cheeks as I began to blush.

“Thank you. So do you. Those are some pretty fancy shoes,” I replied, instantly feeling like an idiot.

Kelvin smiled ever so slightly and it sent a shock wave coursing through me. “Thank you. I kind of have a thing for shoes and watches. You ready to go?” he asked.

I nodded my head and Kelvin reached out his hand for me take. I hesitated for a second, but only because I hadn’t fully wrapped my mind around how incredible he was. I reached up and took Kelvin’s hand into my own as I stepped over the threshold of the door, closing it firmly behind me. My black purse was hanging off of my right arm and I could feel the vibration of the phone as the text alert began chiming loudly. I knew it was Lexy, and I knew she wanted a full play by play of what was going on, but all I could think about was how I was going to have to let go of Kelvin’s hand just to switch the phone to silent.