Secret Liaisons (21 page)

Chapter Fifty-Nine

It'd been two days since Terrance saw Mona. She hadn't been in the office and they hadn't spoken after their last conversation. He'd been tempted to call her several times but the flashback of seeing Garrett's arms draped around hers stopped him. She'd made her choice. Terrance as much as he hated to needed to figure out a way to cope.

If she didn't come in today, he would have no choice but to call her. She needed to e-mail out the schedule to the team. He didn't know how to do it and Jerricka was too new for him to trust her with it.

“Mona, where are you?” he said out loud.

Terrance heard the chime letting him know someone had entered the office. He heard voices. A few minutes later, his mom entered holding a basket.

“I came to make peace.” Sara walked to his desk and placed the basket in front of him.

“Hi, mom. We're good.”

“You sure? You haven't been saying much since the jewelry store incident.”

“A lot has happened since then.”

Sara opened the basket and removed plates of food. “Let's eat and talk.”

Up until this point, Terrance didn't have much of an appetite, but the smell of the shrimp po-boy and pasta salad made his stomach grumble.

To top it off, his mom included a huge slice of her homemade lemon pound cake.

“I wasn't sure if you had anything to drink, so I brought you some lemon tea.”

She removed a thirty-two ounce cup and placed it near his plate.

Terrance ate his food as if he was starving. He listened to his mom talk while he ate.

“William and I have worked out our differences so we will still be getting married.”

“I'm glad things worked out for you, mom.” Terrance wiped his mouth with a napkin.

“So when do you plan on popping the question?” Sara leaned closer to the desk.

“All that's been put on hold for now. I'm not sure I'm the one Mona wants,” Terrance confessed.

“She may not be my choice for you but I'm sure she knows that she will never do any better than you.”

“Apparently, she doesn't realize it. Her ex is a doctor and he's been pursuing her and I think he's won her over.”

“Ludicrous. After the stink she made, and she picks him over you? Well, dear, the one way to get over one woman is to find another one and I know the perfect replacement.”

“Mom, I'm not sure that's the route I want to go. Let me deal with this situation before I step back out in the dating world.”

“Nonsense. Elle is around your age. She's the branch manager at the bank I go to. She's single and she has a great sense of humor. She'll be perfect.”

Terrance didn't have a desire to be with any other woman but Mona. His heart was breaking. He hadn't slept well in the last few nights. He needed to do something. Maybe his mother was right. Maybe going out with Elle would help him move on faster.

Terrance looked at Sara. “Mom, you're absolutely right. It's time for me to move on. I think me going out with Elle is a great idea.”

The moment he'd said those words, he'd felt his heart tug. Mona stood outside of the door staring at him with not only anger but pain in her eyes. Tears flowed down her cheeks. She turned and walked away.

“Mona,” Terrance called out.

“Let her go. She made her choice. Now you're making yours. Let her go, son.”

Terrance looked at his mom and then at the empty space in the doorway.

Sara was right. Mona chose Garrett. She was moving on and now so was he.

Terrance barely heard what else his mom said while she was there. He hugged and kissed her on the cheek after walking her to the door.

He turned and faced Jerricka. “Is Mona in her office?”

“No. She wanted me to let you know she's emailed the schedule out. She decided to work from home the rest of the day.”

“Finish what you're working on and you can leave yourself. I'll pay you for a full eight hours.”

“Thanks, Mr. Beckham.” Jerricka smiled.

Terrance walked to his office but stopped when he heard Jerricka call out his name.

“Yes,” he said, while turning around.

“Mona didn't seem like her normal self. You might want to check on her.”

“Mona will be fine. I assure you.” Terrance turned around and walked into his office.

He shut the door for privacy. He called his mother. “Mom, cancel the date setup with Elle. You've taught me to do the right thing. It wouldn't be fair to her for me to start dating her when I'm still in love with another woman.”

“Son, your dad would be proud of the man you've become,” she responded.

“Thanks. In the meantime, I'm going to forget women and pour myself into my work. I have a show to do and I'm going for the Emmy.”

“Now that's my boy. Love you.”

“Love you too, mom.” Terrance smiled for the first time in days.

Chapter Sixty

Mona ate the last scoop of chocolate chip ice-cream. The last few days had been the worse two days of her life. Her first love drugged her with intent to have sex with her without her full consent and she heard the man she loved make plans to move on and go out with some other woman.

If Sara had been the one to tell Mona, she wouldn't have believed her. She would have thought the old woman was just being mean and vindictive, but she heard Terrance say it himself. If what she heard was a mistake then Terrance would have come after her, but he didn't. Instead, he stayed in the office with his mom.

Hurt by the chain of events, Mona couldn't stand to be in the office so she stopped by the convenience store and bought her favorite junk food.

She removed her office attire and put on her fluffy pajamas. Her phone rang. If it was Terrance, she didn't want to hear any of his lies or excuses. Charlotte's name flashed across the screen.

“How are you?” Charlotte asked.

“Let's just say I've had better weeks.”

“Are you with Terrance or by yourself?” she asked.

“Being by myself is going to be the norm.”

Mona shared with Charlotte the scene at the office.

“I'm sorry to hear things aren't working out with you and Terrance.”

“I knew it was too good to be true.”

“I hate to be the bearer of more bad news.”

“I got a big chocolate bar waiting for me so go right ahead.” Mona tried to joke but barely mustered a laugh.

“Garrett was taken to the police station for questioning but he has a good attorney so they didn't officially arrest him. Something about insufficient evidence. According to my friend at the police station, Garrett made you out to be a scorned ex who was bitter.”

“I hate the day I ever laid eyes on Garrett,” Mona shouted. She hit the sofa pillow several times out of frustration.

“I can have Trevon, whose the owner of GT Securities, investigate more if you want.”

Mona thought about it. She was ready to move completely on with her life. She didn't want anything else to do with Garrett. “Can you do me a favor? Can you have a message delivered to Garrett for me?”

“Sure, doll. Anything for my bestie.”

“Inform him if he ever contacts me, speaks to me or reaches out to me in any form or fashion, I will expose him publicly.”

“I can have Trevon do it as a courtesy but be warned it may not end up the way you want. It could have the opposite effect. Garrett might not take to threats too well.” Charlotte sounded concerned.

Mona wasn't scared. “One thing that hasn't changed about Garrett is the fact that he's all about his reputation. Even if I can't prove he drugged me, the mere fact he could be guilty will put a spot on his stellar reputation. He'll back down.”

“Consider it handled. Anything else I can do for you?”

“Yes. Can you mend my broken heart?” Mona started bawling out loud.

“After I handle this for you, I'm coming by.” Charlotte ended their call.

Mona curled her legs under her in a ball on the sofa and cried tears of hurt and frustration.

Later on that night, Charlotte and Kem invaded Mona's place. They brought over DVDs, pizza and more ice-cream.

Mona wasn't used to having visitors. She was the one usually crashing out at their place. Kem said, “Where's the remote to the DVD player? I'm ready to get the sappy movie watching over with?”

“You write the type of stuff but act like you don't want to watch it,” Mona said.

Things were slowly getting back to normal. She and Kem were back to their friendly debating.

Four hours later, they were all snoring. Mona sat on one end of the couch and Charlotte on the other. Kem was laid out on a huge pillow on the floor.

A cell phone ringing woke them. “It's Sean,” Charlotte said. “I'm still at Mona's. No, I don't need you to come get me. Kem will drop me off in the morning. Love you too.”

Mona listened to Charlotte as she finished her conversation. “Since you're going to stay over, you two can have my bed and I'll sleep on the couch.”

Kem turned. “I'm fine right here on the floor.”

“Girl, your couch will be even better if I can stretch my legs out. Go to bed. We'll be here in the morning.”

“Let me get everyone some cover.” Mona got off the couch and returned with two blankets. She handed them each one before returning to her bedroom.

Mona's phone was in the middle of the bed. She turned it on and saw she had several messages. Some of them were from Garrett. She could tell he was livid by some of the crazy messages he left. She started to delete them, but saved them just in case she would need them later on.

She laid the phone on the nightstand feeling disappointed that Terrance still hadn't reached out to her.

At this point Mona was unable to sleep. She picked up her laptop from the nightstand and placed it on the bed. She logged on to her 2-Of-A-Kind account. She scrolled until she located the name Falcon. She saw his profile was active but he hadn't logged on recently.

She decided to send him a long email explaining her absence. She typed, “I hope you understand my disappearance had nothing to do with you. You've come across as a nice guy so I'm reaching out to you as a friend. Maybe you can give me a different prospective since you don't know me.”

Mona gave Falcon a brief overview on what happened with Garrett without using Garrett's name. She also shared with him how she'd gotten her heart broken recently by someone else and at this point, she didn't know if love was in the cards for her. “I wish you luck on finding your soulmate. You deserve a woman who can love you fully without the baggage.” She signed it Raven.

She felt better confiding in the stranger. She logged off and was able to drift off to sleep.

Chapter Sixty-One

Jerricka's bubbly personality grated on Terrance's nerves. He felt like Scrooge. He didn't want to see other people happy when he was feeling so miserable. Losing Mona was like losing a part of himself. With his film schedule, he didn't have the luxury of moping and hanging around at home. He had to push his feelings to the back of his mind and continue his duties of making sure the production happened.

He hoped Mona would remember regardless of what happened with them, she had her obligations as well. He would give her the rest of the week to get herself together but come Monday, she needed to report to the office every day. If she wasn't up to par, then he would have to make an executive decision and force her to do her job or be replaced. He'd lost her to Garrett but he refused to lose the deal with the network.

Terrance's emails were filled. Jerricka wasn't as fast as Mona was about clearing out his email. He scanned his inbox. His eyes stopped on the email from Raven via the 2-Of-A-Kind website.

Terrance clicked on it. He wondered what Raven, also known as Mona, had to say to his alter ego, Falcon.

Terrance read Mona's message. He hit the desk with his fist. Garrett tried to rape her. Terrance could kick himself because he saw them that night. Mona needed him but instead of him being there for her, he'd let his pride and ego get in the way and left her to fend for herself. Thankfully, she got away from him unharmed, but what if she hadn't?

Terrance dialed Mona's number. Charlotte answered her phone. “May I speak to Mona?” Terrance asked.

“I'm sorry Terrance, but she doesn't feel like talking to you right now.”

“Tell her it's important.”

Terrance heard Charlotte mention his name to Mona but he couldn't hear her response.

Charlotte got back on the phone. “Is it work related?”

“No. It's personal.”

“It's personal,” Charlotte yelled. There was a pause. Charlotte said, “She said if it's not business related, she can't talk.”

Terrance sighed out loud. “Fine. Tell her I will see her bright and early Monday morning.”

Terrance didn't wait for Charlotte to deliver his message. He disconnected the call.

How could he have been so stupid? He gave up on their relationship too fast. He could only imagine what Mona thought of him. And she heard him tell his mom he was ready to move on.

Terrance's head pounded. The intensity of the pain was so strong. It felt like someone used a hammer to bang a nail in his forehead. He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out some aspirin. The bottle recommended two but he took three. He swallowed the pills down with a bottle of water.

Terrance needed his head to stop hurting. He couldn't think clearly.

Jerricka called out on the intercom. “You have a call on line one.”

“Who is it?” Terrance asked.

“Sean Maxwell.”

“I'll take it.” Terrance hit the button on the phone. “Sean. Just the man I need to talk to. I need a favor. A huge one.”

“Anything for you man.”

Terrance enlisted Sean's help in winning back his woman. Now if he could only get Mona to talk to him.

Terrance logged on to his 2-Of-A-Kind website. He sent a response to Mona. “Raven, I think you're a remarkable woman. I'm sorry you've gone through so much since the last time we chatted. I want to make things right with you for not meeting you that night. Are you available to meet me tomorrow night at seven p.m. at the Studio in Laguna Beach? I will go ahead and make the reservations. After all you've been through you deserve the royal treatment.”

Terrance hit the send button. He called the restaurant to reserve a private dining room. It cost him extra due to the last minute reservation but he didn't care.

He could barely work due to checking his email constantly waiting on Mona's response. He held his breath when he saw Raven's name appear. He opened the email. “I will be there wearing black. Who should I ask for?”

Terrance exhaled. “Yes!”

He typed, “Ask for Falcon. The maitre'd will escort you to my table.”

Mona responded, “Falcon, it will be great to finally meet you. Thanks for listening to my long rant.”

Terrance typed, “That's what friends are for. Until tomorrow.” Terrance signed the name Falcon and logged off.

Jerricka's voice came across the intercom. “Your mom's on the phone. She calls you every day doesn't she?”

Terrance laughed. Some young people have no filter, Terrance thought to himself. “Just pass the call through.”

“Mom, before you go into your spill there's something I want to tell you.”

“You're going after Mona again aren't you?”

“Yes. It's been a big misunderstanding on my part and now it's on me to fix it.”

“What do you mean?” Sara asked.

Terrance explained to his mother what he'd learned. “So, Mona wasn't choosing Garrett over me. He'd forced his way into her life. All of this could have ended tragically but thank God it didn't.”

Silence. Sara didn't say a word.

“Mom. Are you there?” Terrance asked.

“If she's the woman you want, then you have my support.”

Terrance needed to make sure he heard her correctly. “What did you say?”

She repeated herself. “So how do you plan on getting her to speak to you, let alone propose to her?”

“Let's just say I had a virtual friend help me out.”

“Whatever that means. Keep me posted. Love you.”

Terrance felt like another weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Having his mom's support meant more to him than she would ever know.