Esteban, Ready to Risk It All

Chapter 7 ~ Play Along

Estefania and I were out shopping for Remi's birthday. Shopping with Fania was always an adventure. We have been doing a lot of shopping with me as I switch up my image.

"What's going on with you and The Beauty?"

"We are spending time together getting to know each other," was my response.

"Is she your girlfriend?"

"We don't have any titles?' Estefania asks questions to confirm what she already knows.

"Fania, What's up?" Her silence sends a warning to my brain to brace myself.

"Nothing is up. Just curious about you and the beautiful Ms. Remi-Blu. I haven't seen you with any other women, not even Serenity or Monique, and you used to keep those two in heavy rotation." She laughed and spoke the truth.

I no longer had the urge or felt the need to juggle multiple women. I had things to do, and women were a complication I didn't want. Remi is the exception.

"What information did you find, I know you checked her background." Fania knows something but doesn't want to tell me, this is going to be bad.

"Nothing everything she told me about herself matched the report"

Fania makes her facial expression unreadable and asks "Why don't you ask her to be your woman for her birthday and see what she says?"

"That would be perfect, but we are not there yet, it's been three months. I'm not in a rush and I don't want to scare her away"

Estefania gave me a skeptical look. My feelings for Remi-Blu grew stronger each day she stayed away. But that was the problem: she seemed to stay away the closer we got to each other.

We made it to the jewelry store to pick up Remi's birthday gifts. The tennis bracelet was made of Alexandrite and the Pearls set in platinum. It was delicate and unique. The bracelet was just one of the items I planned to give her during the romantic dinner I planned for her birthday.

If Remi keeps her word, she'll call me in a few days, and I will confirm the plans with her then. Estefania and I were leaving the jewelry store, when I heard a familiar voice call my name.

"Navi!"

Turning around, the person coming our way had a smile on their face, a smile that wasn't returned.

Fania and I watched as Tina, my ex-wife, approached.

"Estefania, Navi, how are you doing?" Tina asked

"Wow, Navi, you look handsome as always."

I saw the want in her blue eyes as they traveled up and down my body. Tina looked the same, her sandy brown hair was longer and straight, same tan skin. She had kept the tattoo of my name on her chest above a heart that I knew didn't exist.

Tina's absence during my trial ruined any chance of reconciliation. Tina's true colors came out the weekend before my trial began. Tina and I had just finished getting it in, when she received the call. She told me it was her mother, and she needed her to run an errand for her.

I was served divorce papers less than an hour after she left the house. It sealed our fate as a married couple and confirmed what I always knew. She was only with me for the lifestyle; she had never loved me, knowing that made it easy for me to accept the divorce.

We could have been cool after the divorce if she hadn't been so slick about it, I was shit as a husband. This was her final fuck you to me for all the times I hurt her by my bullshit.

I let her have that, but she would never have me again.

"We are fine," Estefania responded, slinging her bag over her  shoulder. By her new defensive posture my sister was waiting for Tina to say something out of order.