The Final Chapter
Georgia called Jamaica into her room one day as she was resting in her bed after a chemotherapy treatment. She was weakened and tired, but still fighting for her health. They had also grown closer, like Jamaica and Henry had.
Georgia patted the empty space beside her in her bed, and Jamaica went to her and sat down beside her. “How are you doing today?” she asked with compassion and love. Few people in her life had been as kind to her as Georgia was, and she wanted to always do everything that she could for her.
“Oh, you know. I feel like hell, but that doesn’t mean that I’m about to quit fighting. Right?” She laughed quietly. “I wanted to let you know that I have done something for you.”
Jamaica tilted her head and looked at the older woman in surprise. “What do you mean? Gosh, you have already done so much for me. You certainly don’t need to do anything else for me.” She laughed a little and Georgia took her hand and held it warmly.
“I wanted to tell you that I’ve arranged for you to have your first art show in two weeks. A real gallery art show.” Georgia smiled at her. “I want to see your dreams come true.”
“Oh my god… You shouldn’t have done that!” Jamaica exclaimed in wonder and surprise.
“Of course I should have,” answered Georgia with a smile and more than a little defiance. “It’s a thank you gift from me to you for my beautiful grandbabies. I love them, and I love you, and I wanted to do something special for you while I’m here to do it.”
“I don’t know what to say…” Jamaica whispered as tears filled her eyes and spilled freely down her dark cheeks.
“Well, I think a ‘thank you’ is fine, and I also think that you’d better get to work in that studio of yours and get as much art created as you can in the next two weeks so that you have a full show. I know that people are going to want to buy what you have, and you don’t want to go into your first show as a minimalist. Have a lot to take with you. Get busy and fill up the gallery where your show will be. Can you do that for me please?” Georgia asked with a grin.
“Yes, I can definitely do that for you, and thank you so very much!” Jamaica wiped the tears from her face and leaned forward, hugging the older woman carefully and closely in deep gratitude.
***
Henry had been busier than normal at work, what with Cara trying her best to keep him in the office with late hours, late and early meetings, and anything else that she could think of to keep him out of the house.
Jamaica hadn’t seen much of him when he came to her room late one night after getting back from his office in the city late. He knocked on her bedroom door and she opened it, surprised but pleased to see him.
“Come in,” she bade him warmly, welcoming him into her bedroom. He stepped in and looked around, and a smile formed over his face.
“This looks good in here!” he said happily. “I’m so glad to see that you’re all settled in and you feel this much at home here. This is your home, you know. I want you to be happy here.” He looked at her intently and she nodded and smiled at him.
“I know that, and I am. I have never been happier. Things are wonderful. What is it that’s brought you in here tonight?” she asked, gazing at him curiously.
He took a step toward her, his eyes holding hers, though his gaze had already swept down the length of her as she stood there before him in a satin night gown. His heart had start to beat more swiftly, and he reminded himself to remain calm.
“Well, Cara has me going out of town on a business trip pretty early in the morning, and she didn’t really tell me about it until later today. I wanted you to know that I’m going to be gone for a while. A week, I guess, working on this deal on the other side of the country.” He didn’t like saying it to her. He didn’t like that he was going to go, but he knew that he had to. He had wanted to tell her that he was going, and he had only intended to stop into her room for a moment and do that, but as he stood there with her, near her in her bedroom, he found that it was much more difficult to tell her than he had realized that it would be, and he didn’t like the idea of being away from her for a week.
“I hope you have a safe and productive trip,” she answered him with a smile. “I don’t want you to worry about the kids; we’ll all be all right. There are enough people to here to take care of them.”
“And you…” he added, walking toward her, his eyes steady on hers. Her heart began to beat faster and her pulse quickened, as the blood she felt flowing through her seemed to heat to a near fiery temperature.
“Me?” she asked quietly, watching him as he reached a place just inches from her. She looked up into his face and wished for the millionth time that things were just a little different between them. She had begun to daydream about kissing him, and when he was that close to her, it was difficult for her to remember that they were trying to keep their bond platonic as much as they could.
“Yes, you,” he answered. “You’re part of this family, and I want you taken care of, well taken care of, just as much as the babies are. You mean a great deal to me,” he said quietly as he reached his hand up and stroked her face with his fingertips.
She closed her eyes and turned her face inward toward his palm, letting her lips brush his skin there. She drew in her breath and ever so gently kissed his palm. “You mean a great deal to me too,” she answered him.
He sighed softly at the feel of her kiss on the inside of his hand, and he couldn’t stop himself from lifting her mouth to meet his. Their kiss was light and sweet at first, but the moment heated, and the kiss became deeper as they both began to give in to what their desires really drove them to.
They grew breathless as their mouths moved together and over each other, followed by their hands which began to caress their arms and backs, and it wasn’t but a few moments later that she felt his hands cup her breasts, feeling the satin of her nightgown as it was the only thing separating her skin from his touch.
He groaned at the feel of her breast in his hand, and she grew breathless, feeling the need in her for him mounting to a point where she could no longer ignore it and try to turn it off.
“I’m sorry,” he breathed in a thick whisper as he kissed her mouth and her neck. “I should be… I shouldn’t…” he tried to say as she kissed him back, twisting her fingers in the locks of her hair as her lips moved over his skin.
“Yes, yes you should I want you to. God I want you to,” she whispered back to him and he stopped and looked down at her into her eyes.
“Do you really… Do you want to change this between us?” he asked in quiet wonder.
“Yes, I do,” she answered him, gazing up at him and smiling. “More than I have ever wanted to change it with anyone. I don’t think I can find another reason to make myself stop. I need you,” she told him honestly.
“I need you, too,” he answered, pulling her close to him again and kissing her passionately.
Their clothes slid from their bodies and puddle on the floor as they gazed at each other in wonder and need, moving to the bed in her room, tasting, touching, kissing, holding each other, and exploring every part of the two of them.
The need between the two of them ignited, and before long he had spread her legs and moved in between them, filling her with his thickness, gliding back and forth in her as they held each other tightly and found a level of joy and pleasure that neither of them had ever known before.
They rocked together, loving and crying out in their bliss until they both held fast to one another and let their orgasms overwhelm them. Then they fell asleep in each other’s arms, and when she awoke in the morning, he was gone. There was nothing but a note that he had left for her, saying that he wanted to talk with her about something important when he returned from his trip.
She was happy and blissful, while simultaneously sad that he was gone. She wished that he could have stayed and loved her more, loved her longer, and never let her go from his arms.
Her morning was not filled with bliss for long. She was walking down the hallway when she saw Cara coming out of his bedroom, and the other woman waved at her and came to talk to her. She paused and waited, wishing that Cara didn’t need to be in Henry’s bedroom and wondering just what it was that a private secretary needed to be in her boss’ bedroom for.
Cara reached her and touched her shoulder. “Good morning my dear. I’m glad to see you. We really need to talk. I think that there are some things that we need to go over, and it’s important that we talk about it now. I think I’ve let things go on too long with you and Henry.”
Jamaica blinked in surprise. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?” Her heart skipped a few beats and she began to feel an unease in her stomach.
“Well, I know that he can be flirtatious sometimes, and you shouldn’t take that to heart. He is just that kind of man and it’s in his nature to flirt, but it’s innocent flirtation and it doesn’t mean that he wants anything to happen because of it,” she began, looking at Jamaica as if she was doing her a kindness by telling her the truth.
Jamaica’s blood began to rush in her ears. “What are you saying to me? What is this?” she asked in a whisper, knowing deep down in her that she didn’t really want to know at all.
“Oh well, it’s just that I know he can be a flirt and I don’t want you to take that seriously. You see, you were just here to have the babies for us, and now that they are well under way, your job here is done. You see, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Henry and I are lovers. We’ve been having a secret affair for years, and the babies were for us. I know that you might think that he likes you, but really he’s just playing a game with you because you’re handy and you’re here, and he knows that he can play you and have a little fun before he and I get married, but I thought that you should know the truth.
“In fact, he just asked me this morning, after we just had our little morning tryst in his bedroom, if I wouldn’t mind getting you out of here while he’s out of town. He feels bad about letting you go and asking you to leave the house and the babies, and he just doesn’t handle guilt well, so he asked me to take care of it, and now I’m stuck with the thankless task. But in any event, I thought that I would let you know that he does want you gone from her before he gets back from the business trip. As a matter of fact, he did say that the sooner you were gone the better. That made me kind of wonder if he has gotten what he wanted from you. What did you let him do, have an orgasm? Yeah, he’s done with you now. He left this morning and was pleading with me to have you gone as soon as we could.” Cara looked at Jamaica with veiled sympathy. None of it felt genuine to Jamaica.
“That can’t be…” she stammered, trying to wrap her head around what Cara was telling her.
“Oh, I promise you honey, it can be. Why do you think that I chose you as the mother of the babies? It was because you’re black, and he would never fall for a black girl, he’d never fall for anyone like you. Did he tell you this morning that he wanted to talk with you when he got back?” she asked, peering at Jamaica closely.
“Yes…” Jamaica was barely able to answer.
“Well, that’s the talk. That’s the ‘goodbye, please leave’ talk. Now, you can stick around here if you want to, and he will come home and have that talk to your face, or you can pack up quietly while he’s gone and save yourself a little dignity, and already be gone when he gets back. It’s your choice. Personally, I’d go while he’s gone, just to make it easier on myself.” She gave Jamaica a little thin smile and crossed her arms over her chest.
Jamaica felt her throat tighten and she could hardly breathe. “My god…” she began, and Cara just nodded with pseudo sympathy. “I… I don’t know what to say!”
“You say goodbye, and you pack up your things and go. In fact, here I have this check for you for the full amount of the job. Five hundred thousand dollars. You’ll see that he signed it. So, take the money and go while he’s gone, and get it all over with as easily as you can. And Jamaica, thank you for what you’ve done for me and him; we are grateful.” Cara gave her a wink and a grin, and Jamaica felt as if her whole world had just ended.
***
It didn’t take her too long to get packed and leave the Ellison home. She was back at her own house within a day. She was quiet about it, and went into Georgia’s room to say goodbye to her, but found that she was out at the hospital having a chemo treatment. She realized that it was probably best just to go without too much fuss.
The most difficult goodbye was leaving Casey and Beth, who were named after the babies in her dreams. They were happy to see her, and she knew that they were much too young to understand the heartfelt goodbye that she gave them, but she spoke it anyway, and then she took the last of her things and left.
Her own home felt empty and abandoned. There was still a great deal of herself in it; her furniture and many of her possessions, but there wasn’t the same feeling of home that there used to be before she had lived at the Ellison’s. That was gone.
The days slowly went by and she didn’t hear from Henry at all, and with each silent empty day that passed, she began to realize that Cara had spoken nothing but the truth to her, and that there was no way back to where she had once believed that she was.
She tried to focus on her work at the school, but it was all that she had left, and she felt as if something had died inside of her, and her life would never be the same again.
At the end of the week she was sitting in her classroom looking at artwork that the students had turned in for a project when she heard the door open and close, and she looked up, expecting to see Penny standing there, asking her to go out for cocktails.
It wasn’t Penny, it was Henry. He looked haggard and tired, as if he had not slept in days and had cried so much that his eyes were swollen.
She stood up slowly from her chair and walked over to him. “Henry! What on earth are you doing here?” she asked, going to him and stopping just in front of him.
“I’m here to find out why you left. I can’t stop thinking about it. Cara said that you just packed everything up and walked out. You left the babies, you left my mother, you left me… you just… walked out on all of us. That’s a horrible thing to do, Jamaica. It doesn’t sound like you at all. What on earth did you do that for? I need an answer!” he pleaded.
She felt a fire begin to burn deep in her. “She told you that I just left? Well, she told me that I had to leave because you and she have been having an affair for years and I was only brought in to have the babies for the two of you, and then you were just using me for a quick fling, and you were going to kick me out when you got back from your business trip!”
His mouth fell open in shock. “What? That’s not it at all! We aren’t having an affair! Nothing of the kind has ever happened between us!” He went straight to Jamaica and reached for her hand. “You have to believe me!”
She stared at him and began to realize that everything Cara had told her was a lie. She went through every situation that she had had with Cara, and for each one, they both talked it out and discovered that there was a fallacy at the heart of it.
By the time the talk was over, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard. “Jamaica, I love you. I love you more than I have ever loved any woman in my life, and I want you to come home. You have a family who needs you. Come home and be a daughter and a mother… and… and be my wife. Please… come home to me. I love you and I want you there forever. Cara is gone either way, but I can’t lose you. Please… come home to us all.”
Jamaica felt tears spring to her eyes as they always seemed to do. “I would love to marry you, Henry. And I would love to come home to you and be your wife. Forever.”
He grinned then and kissed her once more, and she knew that nothing was ever going to come between them again.
Message From The Author:
Hiii
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Susan x