The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 143

"Why do you think Shirley is trying to slot herself back into your life?" Mabella asked.

"I have no damn idea. You are the shrink. You have a better shot at understanding her." Chloe retorted.

"I have no desire to understand women like her. I only want to understand you." Mabella pulled her over and kissed her gently.

"It’s a good thing I’ve never been readier to open up to you. Both literally and figuratively," Chloe teased, earning a light smack.

"About that. You said you wanted to talk about Angel first before venturing into matters related to us. We are yet to touch the latter."

"Right." Chloe sighed nervously.

"I’ve thought about your implication and I understand why you would think I’m taking you for a rebound. But I need you to know that it’s not how I see you."

"Chloe, rebound feels so real you will not even know it until it’s over." She argued.

"Then let me show you that this is real. Give me a chance, okay?" She tucked a strand of Mabella’s hair behind her ear. The latter bit her lip, and it was confusing for a moment until it finally made sense. "You are not confused about my feelings for you, are you? Something has you terrified and it has nothing to do with me."

Mabella hung her head. "I can’t openly go out with you." She finally said. She knew it would hurt Chloe but there was no mild way of putting it.

"Are you ashamed of being with me? Or is it the fact that I’m a woman that scares you?" She asked.

Mabella knew neither of the options she was being given was better, and it was not fair to fire off a speech of ’it’s not you, it’s me’. She thought hard about her words and realized keeping her in the dark was recipe for more misunderstandings.

"It’s my family." She shut her eyes when she finally admitted it. "They’re homophobic."

"Are you kidding me? Damon wouldn’t be friends with me if he was." She retorted. "Avery basically urged me to tell you how I feel. If she had a hint of homophobia in her, she would never want me close to her. Especially not when I made a fool out of myself when I first met her."

"Are you forgetting something? Damon is my half brother and Avery is not my family. Well, I hope she will be one day, but she is my friend for now. And Angel is too young to have any opinion about sexuality but...my parents, Chloe. They’ve tried every method under the sun to get me together with a man. Blind dates, family retreats that ended up in me being left alone with the man of their choice, locking us up in a room, you name it, they’ve tried it."

"They did what?" Chloe was ready to spit venom.

"They drugged me too. I can’t believe my mother would do that. I want to imagine she was forced to but my father is an asshole. He would definitely suggest something like that without flinching."

"Did he..." Chloe asked cautiously.

"No. He told me he had been paid to, but he didn’t. He took me to the emergency room without their knowledge. After that, I didn’t want anything to do with them. I reconnected with Damon."

In relief, Chloe hugged her. "It doesn’t matter if they never approve of us. As long as you want to be with me, nothing else matters."

______

Meanwhile, Avery and Damon had just returned from their date. After their much needed shopping spree, Julie had called to ask if Angel could go home with her for a play date with Aubrey. So after letting Angel’s homeroom teacher know that Julie would be picking him up, they had taken advantage of the chance to have a date on their own.

They stumbled home at close to 10pm. Stumbled, because she was laughing her butt off at a childhood story he had been telling her on the way from the garage.

"Then I went home with a bleeding nose, and my grandmother spanked the shit out of me." He concluded. She shook her head.

"I didn’t think you had it in you, Damon." She pressed her hand against his chest in disbelief. He had just told her the story of the first time he ever hit on a girl. He was only thirteen, and he had asked an eighteen-year-old to make out with him, hence the bleeding nose.

"I’m glad she didn’t aim for my balls like someone else I know." He teased.

She rolled her eyes when she realized he was making fun of the time he grabbed her by the shoulders in college, when she ended up jabbing him. "I didn’t know it was you. You scared the crap out of me." He would never let her live it down, would he? 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"You were in the freaking library, but blasting music from your earphones. Don’t you think you needed to check who was tapping your shoulder?"

"Grabbing." She insisted, and pushed him against the wall. "And I want you to shut up."

She shut him up with her lips before he could retort. Her fingers treaded into his hair and pulled his head down for a kiss. She nudged his lips open and sucked on his tongue when it connected with hers, letting out a gentle moan that sent a jolt down his body. He held her by the waist and turned them around so she was pressed against the wall.

"Did I ever tell you how much I love you pregnant?" He spoke against her mouth.

She giggled. "Wait until my stomach is bigger than my breasts." She was joking, but if she looked anything like she did when she was expecting Angel, he might find her unattractive. She had not cared back then, but it made her a little insecure now. But his eyes told a different story.

"At the risk of sounding like a total jerk, I have been picturing you with a showing belly ever since you told me the news."

She could swear his eyes were blazing with desire.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer.

"I also have to warn you, I’m in the mood to murder someone half the time." She reminded him.

"What about the other half?" He was curious.

"For the other half, I want to cry and snuggle up with you."

He found it comical. Avery had always been a bossy woman, with an intimidating posture that made everyone think she had the whole world at her disposal. Seeing this very woman acting clingy was probably the sweetest thing. Well, not her clinginess in itself, but the fact that he brought that out in her.

"Why do you suppress it?" He asked, since he had not noticed any of the things she had said.

"For starters, I’m not one to let out my bad mood on everyone. The world doesn’t have to stop just because I’m pregnant, right? I have bigger fish to fry."

He hooked a thumb under her chin and lifted it so their eyes met. "You can be honest with me. I would like to be part of everything including how you feel. No matter how petty you think it is, it is important to me." He promised.

Her eyes stung and she blinked. What the hell was wrong with her? A few pretty words and she was getting emotional?

"And if you are angry, feel free to take it out on me."

"We will both be angry then." She warned.

"Good. Because I know a few ways to put our anger to good use." He winked with a hidden meaning, which she immediately caught on.

"You are quite cheesy, do you know that?" She rolled her eyes, but had her arms hooked around his neck. "And you are always late. And you..." She stopped and looked at him. "Is there anything I can say to anger you?"

He chuckled. "You don’t need to. I also know several ways to put happiness to good use." He scooped her off the floor and with her legs wrapped around his waist, carried her upstairs to her bedroom. He kicked the door open and put her gently on the bed, not giving her time to adjust herself before he parted her legs wider and buried his face between them.

She was wearing a lacy thong which couldn’t hide how wet she was. He grazed her core gently. "Are you wet for me, baby?"

Her response was to squirm. He chuckled. "I want to hear you say it."

She didn’t have the chance to. His phone chimed moments before his did.

"Whoever it is can wait." He kept holding onto her knees but she sat up.

"Wait. What if it’s Julie? Angel is over at her house. If she sent us both texts at the same time, could it be about Angel?"

He doubted Julie would text if it was an emergency, but he also knew Avery would never fully relax when Angel was spending the night away from her. He felt the same way but only because he missed his son. Avery, on the other hand, was a bundle of nerves.

He raked his hands through his hair, hating to stop this, but took out his phone nonetheless. He frowned when he read the text message from Chloe, and when their eyes met, he knew she had received a similar one. Chloe had sent a broadcast message.

"I can’t believe she is back." He sighed.