Chapter 20 Pretty please
“We are not talking about this again, Carter.” Jimmy muttered, taking long strides out of his room.
“Of course, we are, Jimmy! You can’t just forget about her! You two were perfect!”
“Until she shut me out of her life like I meant nothing! Can you imagine how embarrassing it was? She treated me like I meant nothing in front of that ahole! She lied to me!”
“And I’m telling you to give her the benefit of doubt! Do you think she’d just tell you she took his kids and ran away from him? Any normal person would run away from such a person.”
“But I wasn’t going to run! I love her.”
“She wouldn’t know, okay? She was scared of losing you and that is why she told you that. I didn’t want to say anything because I wanted her to do it herself. Trust me, she left his house for very good reasons.
“I don’t blame her one bit. okay? So please calm down. She must have been on the edge because he found out where they were. Plus, don’t you even want to know how she’s doing? God knows what Arthur is doing to her as we speak.” Carter added, hoping he could convince Jimmy to finally reply to Aurora’s text, and possibly, get him to call.
Jimmy breathed out heavily and stared at his phone that laid next to him. “I don’t think I want to.” He shook his head in hesitation, but Carter suddenly grabbed his phone.
“If you aren’t worried about her, I am. If I had her phone number, I’d have checked up on her myself.” Carter uttered, showing Jimmy the screen of his phone.
“Unlock it. Let me call her if you can’t. So I’ll just get her contact information from you and call her on my phone.” Carter added.
“No. I am not unlocking it. Carter, don’t you get it? I need some time to process what happened!” He muttered, looking away from him and the phone.
“But don’t you even want to know how she’s doing?!” Carter yelled in frustration.
“We can always know that! I don’t have to be the one to call her! We don’t have to reach out to her directly. Why don’t you call your ex-boyfriend then? Isn’t he that bastard’s best friend?” Jimmy answered, snatching the phone from Carter.
Carter clenched his jaws and brushed his hair backwards with his palm. “I’ve warned you not to bring him up in our conversations.” He muttered, settling on the couch too.
“Well, I feel the same way about Aurora, okay? But you keep pushing me. So are you going to call Derick or not? Let’s find out what’s up with her. And don’t tell me you don’t have his number because you’re still so madly in love with him that you can’t even delete his number.” Jimmy retorted.
Carter let out a deep sigh and pulled out his phone from his pocket. He stared at it for a while and then looked at Jimmy again.
“Well, fk this! I’m only doing this because of Aurora.” He mumbled, as he began to look for Derick’s number.
“Or because you miss him.” Jimmy added, causing Carter to roll his eyes and ignore him.
Derick’s line began to ring and Carter’s heart began to race in anxiousness.
‘I really shouldn’t be calling him. I should get rid of him for life! He has hurt me so much and here I am, still calling…’
“Hello? Carter?” Derick called in a subtle voice from the other end, causing Carter’s heart to sink to his belly.
“Hi Derick.” He uttered, locking his gaze with Jimmy.
“Oh my… Carter! Why did you block me? I’ve been trying to reach you! Oh God, are you okay? Where are you? I missed you so much…”
“Stop, Derick. I didn’t call you to talk about us. I called to talk about Aurora. How is she?”
“What? Erm… Aurora is fine. Why?”
“Well…” He raised his head to look at Jimmy, who nodded to reassure him that he could go on. “You know she’s back in his house, right? Is he treating her well?” He further asked.
“I think so. It’s been a while since I visited him. I’ve been very busy with work. Do you want me to check up on her for you? I can do that.”
“No, I…” Carter uttered, but Jimmy kept nodding, telling him to say yes.
“Yes. Yes. I’d love to know how she’s doing.” He uttered, clenching his jaws.
“Of course. I’ll drop by his house tonight, okay? But only on one condition, Carter.”
“What condition?”
“I’d tell you how she’s doing only if you agree to meet me. I need to see you. I need to even know how you are so current about her whereabouts. Didn’t you lose contact with her five years ago?”
“I am not meeting you, Derick. You can always tell me how she’s doing over the phone.” Carter answered firmly, ignoring Jimmy who couldn’t stop nodding.
“Baby, please. Okay? I know I’m an ashole and I don’t deserve a chance to ever talk to you ever again. But pretty please. I want to see you.” Derick said in a subtle voice, causing Carter to swallow hard.
He couldn’t take it anymore, so he pressed the red button and kept his phone away from him.
“Hey!! Why did you hang up?!” Jimmy uttered.
“I am not going to see him.” Carter muttered, standing up.
“Why? Didn’t you say you care about Aurora? You can’t do this for her?”
“Of course I care about her! But Derick would try to crawl back into my life, can’t you see? After all he has done!”
“So you can’t forgive him? But you want me to forgive Aurora like it never happened.” Jimmy retorted.
“This is different, okay? Derick has shattered my heart twice! I won’t let him do it for the third time. I am not that stupid.” Carter uttered, lowering his head.
“But this is about Aurora, not you! At least if you know how she’s doing, you’ll get off my back. Just go and see him. It’s not like he’ll trick you into his house or something.” Jimmy added.
Carter stared into space and breathed out deeply. He picked up his phone again and opened Derick’s message box.
“I’ll send you the address soon. Don’t you dare do anything stupid.” He texted him and quickly kept his phone away from him.
“You did it?” Jimmy asked with a chuckle.
“Shut up, Jimmy! You don’t even love Aurora. If you did, you wouldn’t hesitate to check on her. I don’t even know why I’m doing this.”
“Maybe because you can’t just move on from Derick too. It’s like killing two birds with one stone. You haven’t been yourself since you left him, can’t you see?” Jimmy added.
“We are not doing this, okay?” Carter muttered, picking up his phone as he stood up and walked out of the living room.
After Carter settled down in the restaurant he asked Derick to him, he pulled out his phone so he could reach out to him and ask where he was.
While he was telling to put a call across, he felt something behind his ears. Turning his head sideways, and his eyes met with a rose bouquet.
“Hi, Pretty.” Derick whispered behind him, planting a peck on his neck.
“What are you doing, Derick??” Carter asked, quickly moving away from him and looking around to see if people were looking at them.
“What? Why are you looking around?” He asked, walking to the other side of the table and sitting down.
“Are you crazy? We are outside and people are here!” Carter said in a loud whisper.
“I know, Carter, and I don’t care. Here… I got this for you.” He retorted with a smile, stretching the flowers to him.
“Why are you giving me flowers?” Carter asked, keeping his eyes on the flower.
He knew he shouldn’t have come. Derick was an expert on getting him to fall head over heels anytime they were together. He had Carter’s favorite haircut, suit outfit and cologne on, just to impress him.
“Because you deserve beautiful things, Carter.” Derick answered, and Carter sighed.
“Just tell me how Aurora is. That’s why we are here.” He replied, ignoring the flowers he wanted to accept so badly. Roses were his favorites.
“Baby, Aurora is…”
“Don’t call me baby, okay?” Carter hastily cut him short, avoiding eye contact at all cost. Derick heaved a sigh and nodded.
“Aurora is fine, Carter. And presently, she’s in my house. I took her to my house so that you can see her.” He said with a grin.
“What? Why your house? Why didn’t you bring her to the restaurant?” Carter asked in disbelief.
“Because I would do anything to keep you close to me, Carter. I know I fked up, but I’m going to make it up to you.” He responded, causing Carter to scoff.
“You think this is going to work? You think I’m just a fool that will always come running to you when you don’t even know what you want?!” Carter retorted in a raised tone.
“Shhh!” Derick placed his finger on his lips, stopping him from talking. He slowly dragged his finger down his lower lip before getting his hand off him.
He reached for his phone and began to type.
“What are you doing?” Carter asked in confusion as he watched him.
He said no words, instead he dialed his mother’s number and put it on speaker, placing it in the middle of the table so Carter could see who he was calling.
Carter saw it was his mother, and his eyes popped wide open. “Why the hell are you calling your mother?!” He asked in awe, but before Derick could respond, she answered the phone.
“Hi, Son.” She greeted him from the other end.
“Hi, Mom. You have always wanted to know who I am seeing right?”
“Yes, of course! Why are you bringing it up?”
“Let’s have dinner at my place tomorrow. You’ll know who I’m with.” Derick answered, and Carter’s eyes widened again.
He hung up the call and smiled softly at Carter.
“I am not going to run away anymore. I’m going to tell them you’re my boyfriend. So please, come and have dinner at my place tomorrow.” He uttered, leaving Carter speechless.
“I promise you that this time, there is no going back. I love you and I want to be with you. So please, let’s have dinner together.”