I didnt think you existe.., p.1
I Didn't Think You Existed, page 1
I Didn’t Think You Existed
Hazel Ro
www.urbanbooks.net
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter 1 - Tiffany
Chapter 2 - Terrence
Chapter 3 - Patricia
Chapter 4 - David
Chapter 5 - Tiffany
Chapter 6 - Patricia
Chapter 7 - Terrence
Chapter 8 - David
Chapter 9 - Tiffany
Chapter 10 - Terrence
Chapter 11 - Patricia
Chapter 12 - Tiffany
Chapter 13 - David
Chapter 14 - Terrence
Chapter 15 - Patricia
Chapter 16 - David
Chapter 17 - Terrence
Chapter 18 - Patricia
Chapter 19 - Tiffany
Chapter 20 - David
Chapter 21 - Tiffany
Chapter 22 - Tiffany
Chapter 23 - David
Chapter 24 - Tiffany
Chapter 25 - Terrence
Chapter 26 - Tiffany
Chapter 27 - Terrence
Chapter 28 - Tiffany
Chapter 29 - David
Chapter 30 - Patricia
Chapter 31 - Terrence
Chapter 32 - Tiffany
Chapter 33 - Terrence
Chapter 34 - Patricia
Chapter 35 - Tiffany
Chapter 36 - Tiffany
Chapter 37 - Terrence
Chapter 38 - Tiffany
Chapter 39 - Terrence
Chapter 40 - Patricia
Chapter 41 - Tiffany
Chapter 42 - Patricia
Chapter 43 - Tiffany
Chapter 44 - Terrence
Chapter 45 - Tiffany
Chapter 46 - Terrence
Chapter 47 - Patricia
Chapter 48 - Tiffany
Chapter 49 - Terrence
Chapter 50 - David
Chapter 51 - Tiffany
Chapter 52 - Patricia
Chapter 53 - Terrence
Chapter 54 - Tiffany
Chapter 55 - Patricia
Chapter 56 - Tiffany
Chapter 57 - Terrence
Chapter 58 - Terrence
Chapter 59 - David
Chapter 60 - Patricia
Chapter 61 - Tiffany
Chapter 62 - David
Chapter 63 - Tiffany
Chapter 64 - David
Chapter 65 - Terrence
Chapter 66 - Keisha
Chapter 67 - Tiffany
Chapter 68 - Terrence
Chapter 69 - Patricia
Chapter 70 - David
Chapter 71 - Tiffany
Chapter 72 - Terrence
Study Questions - Tiffany
Readers’ Responses
The Author
Acknowledgments
Urban Books, LLC
300 Farmingdale Road, NY-Route 109
Farmingdale, NY 11735
I Didn’t Think You Existed Copyright © 2021 Hazel Ro
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.
ISBN: 978-1-6455-6236-8
eISBN 13: 978-1-64556-237-5
eISBN 10: 1-64556-237-9
This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.
Distributed by Kensington Publishing Corp.
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This book is dedicated to my loving and dear mother, Hazel “Faye” Chamberlain.
Chapter 1
Tiffany
My three-bedroom, ranch-style home was just the way I liked it—clean, cozy, and peaceful. After a long and hectic day, I’d rushed home to my place of safety and serenity. Now after washing and putting away the dishes from dinner, it was finally time to relax. The only thing that awaited me was a nice, hot bubble bath to soak all my cares away. I’d already begun to run my bathwater filled with scented salts and oils. Then, afterward, I planned on curling up in my queen-sized mahogany bed to finish the latest novel by my favorite author, Carl Weber. First things first, I needed to pour myself a glass of chardonnay to assist in my unwinding.
As the water ran, I turned on my Pandora to the Lalah Hathaway station. I thought about how I couldn’t believe I was about to give all of this up. David Allen, the man I’d had a long-distance relationship with for the past three years, finally asked me to marry him, and I’d gladly accepted. The weird thing was that I always thought I would have a completely different feeling about it. For some reason, I had thought that whenever that special someone God had created specifically for me entered my life, I would know without a doubt that he was the one. However, with David, I still had a ton of reservations.
We’d met three years ago in one of my favorite restaurants. My best friend and I needed a girls’ day out, which included pigging out on some good ol’ Southern cuisine at St. Louis’s own Sweetie Pies. It didn’t matter how many times I went there, I never grew tired of their food, especially since no one came close to making collard greens and cornbread like my mother except them. It had grown to be my home away from home, and I couldn’t wait to get there.
When we arrived, the restaurant was filled with nothing but women, except for one lonely man sitting off by himself at a table in the corner. That in itself made me curious, but my growling stomach told me to just sit down and enjoy my meal. My best friend had other plans for me though, seeing that I had been single well over a year before that day.
“Tiffany, girl, he’s kind of cute. You should go over there and introduce yourself to him,” she suggested while waving me in his direction.
“Keisha, why are you always trying to play matchmaker? First of all, he’s not my type. And secondly, I’m sure he has to be with one of these women in here.”
“Look, if he were with someone, then why is he sitting all alone? And there’s nothing wrong with a simple introduction. Besides, you won’t know if he’s your type unless you get to know him.”
Physically, I wasn’t attracted to David. He was a lot shorter than I liked. Based on my eye test, he appeared to be between five foot eight and five ten, and even that was a stretch. His complexion was a caramel brown, and I was more into dark chocolate. He was also a little on the pudgy side, which was all right, but not my taste. I didn’t want to come across as shallow, but I also felt that a person had to be at least a little attracted to whoever they were pursuing. None of that stopped Keisha, however. She was determined to hook me up by any means necessary. After I’d begged and pleaded with her to leave it alone, we still found ourselves enjoying the rest of our lunch in Mr. David Allen’s presence.
We learned that he drove a tour bus on a weekend women’s retreat, which explained why he was the only man in a roomful of women. He said they were from Dallas, Texas, and would be in St. Louis for the weekend. His conversation was cool, and he really didn’t seem that bad of a guy, but still, he wasn’t the guy for me. Not to mention, I’d never dated someone long distance or even someone his age, for that matter. David was twelve years my senior, although he didn’t look a day over 35.
We finished up our small talk and lunch, but I was still starved from trying to eat daintily instead of totally pigging out. That was when David caught me by surprise.
“So, Tiffany, do you think I can call you or even see you again sometime?”
Before I answered, I looked over at Keisha, who gave me the evil eye and kicked me underneath the table. After a couple of moments of contemplation, I figured that a simple phone call would be all right. Especially after realizing how much I missed conversing with the opposite sex.
“Well, I guess a phone call wouldn’t hurt—”
“Great! I plan on taking the ladies to the Galleria Mall and then to the riverfront, but I can give you a buzz sometime after that.”
“Sounds good,” I said with a partial smile on my face. I gave Keisha the same evil eye she’d given me before.
David called around eight that evening. There was no denying my nervousness, because I hadn’t conversed with a man in that way in a long time. So that I wouldn’t come across too forceful or anxious, I allowed him to take the lead, and let things flow naturally from there. To my surprise, it turned out to be one of the best conversations I’d had with a man in a long time. David had the greatest sense of humor, and I laughed the entire time. We actually stayed on the phone until three the next morning like a couple of high school teenagers. Neither of us wanted to let the other go, to the point that we both fell asleep on the phone.
Needless to say, he turned out to be a really good guy who I didn’t mind hanging out with whenever he came into town. Little did I know he would come that very next weekend just to see me, then the weekend after that and the weekend after that. We started to enjoy each other’s company so much that he visited me twice a month, and I, in return, visited him in Texas twice a month. That was all of three years ago, and now, only one month ago today, he’d as
I was overjoyed, to say the least, at the mere thought of being married, although it would require me relocating to Texas. He’d already made it very clear that St. Louis wasn’t somewhere he could ever consider home, so I would make the sacrifice and move there instead. Even though I still had my inhibitions, I decided to go along with the whole idea. In my mind, I felt I wasn’t getting any younger with 40 approaching only two years away. Not to mention the fact that my family had grown to adore David. Besides that, I was also ready for a change and new scenery with the recent loss of my mother. Everything here reminded me of her and kept me in a state of depression. So I needed to do something drastic, and moving to Texas was definitely drastic.
With all of that in mind, I assumed any jitters I felt were because I was leaving my comfort zone. I tried to talk myself into believing that anything I felt unsettled about would reveal itself once I was there with him. In the meantime, I laid my head back in my Jacuzzi-style bathtub and began to talk to God.
“God, I’m so scared and confused. I truly need to hear from you. Please talk to me and tell me if David is the one for me before I make what might be the biggest mistake of my life. I mean, I love him but . . . Wait, there really shouldn’t be a but, huh? Anyway, God, please talk to me, even if it may not be what I want to hear. Please tell me what I need to hear.”
That was the very last thing I could recall before I was awakened by a loud, thunderous sound. My eyes shot open wide, and my body trembled, frightened and shaking from the now ice-cold water. Thinking that someone had to be inside of my home, I jumped out of the tub, wrapped my bathrobe around me, and grabbed my bat from my hallway closet. Slowly, I began to search the house.
No one was there, and I giggled at myself when I realized it must have been a bad storm outside. Even after all these years of living alone, the slightest noise still scared the hell out of me. I went and looked out my window to see how bad it was outside, but oddly enough, I saw nothing but the dry ground. Walking toward my master bedroom, I felt completely puzzled. Things were strangely just as quiet and peaceful as before, other than the sound of the water that dripped from my bathroom faucet.
Right away, tears began to stream down my face as I remembered the last thing I heard with the exuberant sound. The voice that now replayed over and over again in the back of my mind said, David is not for you.
Chapter 2
Terrence
I pulled my black Cadillac Escalade up to my four-bedroom, three-bathroom home and sat there, sinking my head back into my plush leather seat. It had been such a long day. Actually, all my days were long. They normally started around three in the morning, when I had to get up to be at my first job with the Texas Department of Transportation. After that, I would race to my second job by three in the afternoon at North Dallas High School, where I coached and mentored the varsity football team. By the time I finished up with practice, games, and all of my paperwork, it would be around eleven at night. I wouldn’t make it home until well after midnight. Then if all went well, I could try to hit the sack no later than one in the morning, only to be up by three to do it all over again. That was if all went well.
However, it had become a normal routine of arguing with my wife, Patricia, once my feet hit our living room floor. Night after night, I would come in and immediately be hit with, “Who is she? Why is she making those comments on your pictures? Why can’t you just delete her?”
Needless to say, Facebook and other forms of social media had started to take over her mind as well as ruin our marriage. If it wasn’t that, then she stressed me about our kids. Biologically they were hers, but I’d stepped up to the plate the minute we began dating since their father was such a deadbeat. The boys needed a man in their lives, and whether they liked it or not, I was it.
The oldest was Kendall. He was 20 years old. He’d dropped out his first year of college and couldn’t seem to find a job. Patricia made excuse after excuse for him, but I knew good and well it was only because he couldn’t seem to pass a drug test. Then there was Keith. He was 16 and seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, although he came out of the closet a few months ago. Now his only goal in life was to be a model, in a men’s magazine, no less. So as one would expect, there was always some type of drama that I had to come home to.
Patricia and I had only been married for the past two and a half years, although we’d known each other for at least eight. Things actually started off great between us. We always laughed and talked, went on dates, and not to mention, had some of the wildest sex you could imagine. But as crazy as it sounds, all of that seemed to change the very minute we said, “I do.” After the wedding, we started to go out less and less. Our conversations became voicemails or text messages. And the sex . . . well, let’s just say there was always some type of excuse, whether it was a headache, the boys might hear us, or her very favorite, that time of the month. Either way, I wasn’t getting any, so that combined with our daily arguments had started to become more than a notion.
For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t happy. She hadn’t worked in the past year since her last job relocated. Besides that, she didn’t have to worry much about money since I brought in decent income to support us with my two jobs. I purchased this house just for her and the kids and made sure there were two luxury cars available for our leisure. Although we weren’t rich by a long shot, we lived a good, modest life, and she had nothing to want for.
Even with all of that, Pat still wasn’t happy. Her only focus was on who I might be flirting with on social media. She bypassed all my suggestions like getting a part-time job, writing a book, or better yet, furthering her education. Instead, every night, I came home to her in flannel pajamas, a scarf or bonnet on her head, and her laptop on her lap as she surfed Facebook.
That was the very reason I now sat in my truck contemplating going to a hotel for the night. There was no way I could stand another night of arguing over something I wasn’t doing. All I wanted was a hot bath and a peaceful three hours of sleep, but even that seemed too much to ask for. A few more minutes passed before I decided to go inside and face whatever fate I was dealt for the night. That was until my phone started buzzing across the center console of my truck. I looked down and let out a huge, aggravated sigh. “Damn, here we go again.”
Terrence, where are you? Why aren’t you home yet? We need to talk about this chick Sasha who’s been commenting all over your pictures on your Facebook page! Who is she, and where do you know her from? I want you to delete her!
I barely finished reading the text before I realized that I’d started my ignition. It didn’t even matter where I went as long as I was far away from Patricia and her nightly antics. I turned off my cell phone and drove toward the nearest Best Western.
“Tonight, I’m going to get some rest even if it kills me. God, please help me.”
Chapter 3
Patricia
Terrence hadn’t answered my calls or texts, and it was driving me crazy. He should have been home by now, and I started to feel like I was losing my mind thinking that he might be with her.
“Who in the hell is Sasha anyway? And I swear you’d better not be with her right now, Terrence Montgomery, or you’ll have hell to pay!”
Pacing back and forth, I dialed his number again only to hear that his voicemail was now full. Not being able to leave a message pissed me off even more. If I knew where to start, I had the right mind to go out there and look for him, in pajamas, bonnet, and all. Instead though, I shot him yet another text, making sure he knew I meant business whenever he finally decided to come home.
You need to get home, Terrence! I’m not playing. You’re going to tell me who the hell Sasha is, or you won’t hear the end of it from me! I promise that!
Throwing my phone down on the bed, I thought back to the day we first met. I could tell he was younger than me, but he was extremely sexy, so I bypassed the age difference. His skin was dark and creamy, his body was built like a professional athlete, and he had so much swag that it made me crave to know more about him. I’d learned that he was somewhat down on his luck at the time, after losing everything from his previous marriage, but I didn’t care. I could help pick up the pieces while training him to be the perfect man for me. We’d both worked extremely hard to get us to the point we were now. It took some doing, but we did it together, and here we were. Of course, we weren’t completely where we desired to be, but we were comfortable, and that was all I could have asked for—until now.
