Divine Encounters

Chapters 91-100

Pictures. Nika did not realize she was cheesin' as she waited for the image to finish loading on her cell. There he is, she thought with joy as Saber's face came into focus.

"Hey baby," he said, tilting his head and smiling at her.

Nika's heart did a somersault. "Hi," she sang and touched his face via the screen on her phone. "How are you?"

"Not too good," he answered seriously. "See, I've been gone for almost two weeks, and I've got a bad case of missinsomebody." He laughed and added, "You ever heard of that?"

"Yes, I have." I'm experiencing a rather severe case myself. "I thought you went out there to La-La Land and got married or something," Nika teased. "Lately, you've been in Los Angeles more than you've been home."

"Nah, nothing like that. I was working, networking, making deals. But I'm glad to be home. Oh, and I got two more commissions, both paid in full."

"Wow! Congrats, I'm very happy for you. And I saw the pictures of your installation. Oh, Saber, it was amazing!"

"Thank you so much, I appreciate that. Did you see the slideshow of the art work I did for that interior?"

"Yes, your pieces made such an impact on those drab paint colors and that awful furniture."

Saber agreed, then told her he had another picture he wanted her to see and was sending it by text.

"I've been working on it at night in my hotel room. It kept me busy enough to forget that I was lonely."

Nika clicked on the link and looked in astonishment at her reflection in technicolor. I'm speechless. She held the phone at a perpendicular angle, giving her a better view of... herself. It was a breathtakingly beautiful portrait. Oh my god...Is this how he sees me? she thought, completely awestruck by his rendering of Nika.

"Hello?" Saber's voice said in her ears, but Nika could not find her voice through the tears that were now streaming down her face. No one had ever given her such a magnificent, heartfelt gift before.

"I'll bring it to you when we go to dinner tonight," Saber said, his eyes fixed on her even while she cried.

A tearful "Thank you," was all she could manage.

Chapter 92

Needed. By early November, Chalk and Amaya were making great progress on his book. Ditching the interview questions and allowing him to just talk freely had been the ticket to getting the rich, flavorful content needed to turn an ordinary biography into an excellent read.

They were finishing up for the night, and since he was off the entire week, they planned to meet at least two more times before the holiday. Chalk had divulged the whole story of what went down between him and Tabitha, and Amaya said she would just wrap it into some of the obstacles he faced on his journey to becoming a world-famous surgeon. "I'll say something like, 'working twelve, sometimes sixteen-hour days didn't leave a lot of time for true love. While I relish the thought of being a husband and father someday, God, in His always perfect timing, will bless me with a wife and with children in His season.'

"You deserve so much better than what Tabitha gave you," Amaya said. She closed her notebook and placed her pen on the table. "I know you said you didn't want to discuss that part of your life after you told me your story, but I just wanted you to hear from me that you deserved better."

He nodded and thanked her for the kind words. "Why did you divorce your husband?" Chalk asked suddenly.

Amaya smiled and said, "I walked right into that one, didn't I?"