Peeling Back the Top Layer 🇯🇲

6| Gifting his way back

There's a new gift from Steven each day for the remainder of the week. On Tuesday, it's a box of chocolates with a note saying "thinking about you". He sends a fruit bouquet and a good morning card stating "Patiently waiting" on Wednesday and a gift basket with some of my favorite fragrances, body butter, and hand lotions on Thursday. This last treat is accompanied by a printout of the hook from Passenger's 'Let her go'. He signed the page at the end and wrote "Let's have lunch tomorrow".

His daily gifts have created a stir in the office with some of my colleagues milling around to find out who they're from. Throughout it all, he never once initiated contact and neither did I. The gifts and treats are most likely a precursor to 'lunch'. He's trying to make me more pliable for the occasion.

Memories of our relationship when we just started outcome to mind, warming me inside out. I had just returned to Jamaica after completing my master's degree overseas and I was out of a job. At that time, Steven was working as a reporter at one of the country's major newspaper outlets. It so happened that we were both interviewing for the same role in the marketing department at a top telecommunications entity.

We made small talk in the lobby while we waited and at first, I thought he was sizing up the competition but after the interview I found him lingering on the property near the exit. He offered to take me to my destination since I wasn't driving and that's when we exchanged contact information.

Neither of us got the job and Steven started his law degree soon afterward. We stayed in touch and after a few months we began dating. That was five years ago. Our relationship only lasted a little over three years.

A knock on the door drags me out of the memory and back to reality.

"Kelsie, I'm asking if you could please extend the deadline for the two tech pieces. I'm waiting on some feedback from a correspondent but it hasn't come yet," says Shanice when I look up.

"Do you have any backup info that you could use to support your article?"

"No... suh mi really hoping to get a response soon."

"Okay. While you wait I suggest reaching out to someone else or searching the Internet for supporting arguments you could use in case your source falls through. If you find anything satisfactory I will show you how to reference it," I tell her.

"Thanks, Kelsie," she nods.

We again cross paths shortly afterward when I'm using the restroom. She and another woman enter, chatting and laughing while I'm locked inside one of the stalls.

"Yuh see how Miss Jay son look good?" Shanice asks.

"Weh you stay see Miss Jay son? After mi no know a who dat," comes a voice I don't readily recognize.

"Mi get a drive from dem when mi did a come back from lunch di other day. At first mi a seh a face boy but him go come outta di car and gal! Him body turnt right up!"

Both women giggle like idle schoolgirls. "Mi muss find a way fi get him number," Shanice vows. Can someone say thirsty?!

Their conversation comes to an abrupt halt at the sound of the toilet flushing. When I step out of the stall, I come face to face with Tanisha from accounting. The two young ladies behave oddly, neither meeting my eyes, at the realization that I overheard their conversation.

"Don't worry about me ladies. Just minding my business," I smile mischievously as I wash my hands before leaving. Shanice might not always get her work done correctly but she's right about one thing — Miss Jay son looks damn good.

Despite the idle bathroom chatter, her two articles are in my inbox early Friday morning and I'm done editing all the outstanding pieces by 11:30 am. There was no gift from Steven when I got here. Him mussi give up.

As I am checking my phone for new messages, Miss Jay rings my desk phone to inform me that there's a Mr Morgan here to see me. I ask her to show him to my office not knowing that it would turn out like a scrumptious five-course meal being paraded before a horde of hungry beggars.

Steven rounds the corner looking absolutely fuckable in his slate gray suit. He isn't wearing a tie and the top button of his white shirt is open. In one hand he's holding a bouquet and the other is nestled casually in his pants pocket.

The eyes of my female colleagues follow his every move through the main office over to the entrance of my office and I can't help the smug feeling that arises from knowing that he's here for me.

"Ready?" he asks.

"Mi never agree to this enuh but let me get my stuff," I chuckle.

We get to an Indian restaurant within 10 minutes and I order garlic cheese naan for starters, Thai chicken curry for my main course, and pineapple juice. Steven also places his order before turning his attention to me.

I'll admit that his actions this week have my thoughts skewed towards giving him that second chance. All the attention he has been giving me makes me feel like he has really stepped up his game and I'm curious to see where things might go. It's easy because he's familiar too and I will finally be able to toss my inadvertent abstinence a much-needed bone.

Steven is also kind and enjoys the company of others when he isn't too busy working. In the initial phases of our relationship, we often hung out with friends, planning games nights and beach outings.

"So, have you given any thought to my request?" he asks once the waitress steps away.

"What request? All I see is a bunch of statements and commands."

"Kelsie, when mi see yuh last week it bring up back all the feelings from before. I never get over you and I still want you. I'm asking... will you be my girlfriend again?"

His confession, true or false, has my heart speeding up a beat or two. To add fire to fury, he reaches across the table and touches my hand, sparking a tiny flame within my core.

"What's gonna be different?" I ask, trying to sound unaffected by him.

"For starters, I'm in a better position now to treat you the right way and I'm far less stressed so I can keep up with you," he winks.

I can't help giggling at his indirect reference to the times his dick went flaccid during intercourse. Nuh get mi wrong enuh, when it up him good but inna di last part him jus couldn't keep it up long enough.

"Unless yuh have somebody else."

"No I don't," I admit, my laughter dying down.

"What yuh find so funny then?"

"Nutten. I'm just nervous," I lie.

"Oh," he says. "So what yuh think then?"

"I won't lie. I still find you attractive but gimmie till the weekend to decide on the relationship part."

Throughout lunch, we catch up on each other's lives and he updates me on his career and his mom. He's her only child and his father was killed when he was only 10 years old. Being a staunch Christian, she insists on Steven finding a suitable wife and producing some grandchildren for her to spoil.

Lunch is short and our conversation is light and easy since we both need to get back to work. The rest of my day is spent preparing proposals to present at our planning meeting on Monday before going home. But little do I know that I'm in for a weekend of discovery.

On Saturday afternoon, I'm doing my routine cleaning and chatting on the phone with Steven when Marsha calls and frantically tells me to meet her urgently at a hotel in New Kingston. I get there within a few minutes and come upon a commotion in the parking lot.

At the center, is Marsha!

Wah kinda mess dis she call mi inna now?!