The Last Husband (Forever Love #2)(25)
Author: J.S. Cooper

“Zane, are you okay?” Lucky walked over to me and touched my shoulder lightly. I looked up at the concern in her eyes and nodded.

“Sorry, I must have spaced out.”

“It’s okay.” She took hold of my hand. “I’m not mad about what you did. It’s even kind of romantic and sweet in a way.” She smiled. “Don’t worry.”

“Thanks,” I beamed at her, letting her think that that was the reason I had spaced out. “You’re the best.”

“As long as you tell her that every day, you’ll be okay,” Sidney shouted from the corner. “Now, let’s go and look at those papers.”

“Yes, sir.” I jumped up, and Lucky and I followed him out of the room.

“Just don’t keep anything else from me, okay?” she whispered and I squeezed her hand.

“Of course I won’t.” I waited outside the room for a moment and took my phone out of my pocket. I looked up to make sure Lucky wasn’t looking and replied to the text I had gotten on the drive over to the Johnsons’.

Hey Angelique, I can’t call you back right now but I’ve been missing you as well. I’d love to go to dinner. Are you free tomorrow night? xoxo.

I pressed ‘send’ and walked into the room quickly. I loved Lucky, but I couldn’t let Angelique go, especially not at this moment.

Chapter 6

Lucky

There was a warmth in my heart that I couldn’t shake. I couldn’t quite believe that Zane had decided to take up this project because of me. I felt my mouth aching to grin like an idiot, but I kept the huge smile off of my face because I didn’t want Sidney and Betty to think I was some sort of weirdo. He really did like me. All thoughts that this was just about sex left my mind. He had done everything he could to get me to a party, and then when that didn’t work, he had gone forward with a documentary that he had no real interest in, just because of me. All because he had wanted to be with me and get to know me. He had been as attracted to me as I was to him. I felt giddy inside and I looked up to see Mr. Johnson staring at me with a knowing look. I looked down, slightly embarrassed, but I just couldn’t wipe the wide smile off of my face.

As Zane walked into the room, I stared at him with a new perspective. All those months, I had just thought he was a handsome, cocky, and sometimes nice and interesting guy who came into the diner. I had grown to like him, but had always berated myself for falling for a guy I just knew had to be a player or wouldn’t be interested in me. And while I had reasons for those concerns, the truth of the matter was that Zane, like most of us, was just a really complicated human being. And he had been through a lot of shit. A lot of shit that had made him the man he was today: loving, shy, uneasy, jealous, untrusting. Sometimes I wondered if I had done the right thing coming here. Sometimes I felt like love was the daydream that you wanted to exist but never really lived up to the glory. But I realized that once you get a taste, a good sample of the real deal, you can’t let it go. The biggest issue I’d been worrying about was that Zane liked me, but had acted on it spur-of-the-moment. Knowing that he had been plotting and planning for ways to get me into his life cemented for me that this was real for Zane as well. This wasn’t about a possible baby, or some sex for him. This was about real feelings. This was about a mutual attraction we had built up for three months and finally acted upon. This was about us finding our happily ever after.

“Do you want to tell him, Lucky, or should I?” Zane’s voice cut into my thoughts, and as my eyes focused, I could see a concerned expression on his face.

“Sorry, what?” I blushed, embarrassed that I had zoned out and completely missed the conversation.

“Sidney was just asking if we knew what we wanted to focus on for the documentary. Any particular part of his life?”

“Oh, sorry.” I turned to Sidney and smiled. “Well, I think the central theme will be you, but we will use your family members’ stories and relate them back to you. If that’s okay.”

“It sounds good to me.” Sidney grinned. “To think, someone’s making a movie about my life.”

“I still want to focus it on what your early life was like,” I continued. “I think it’s important for people to know exactly what happened when African Americans moved to the North from the South. You know there is this general sentiment and belief that the North was more welcoming to blacks than the South, but that isn’t really true.”

“The North had its own problems.” Sidney nodded. “It wasn’t just us blacks, though; the Irish had it bad, the Italians, the Jews. None of us really fit in.”

“But they were able to assimilate a little bit better.” I paused. “Actually, maybe assimilate isn’t the right word, but they were able to fit into the norm a bit easier.”

“Well you know that song about when you’re black?” Sidney laughed.

I shook my head. “I don’t know the song, but I think I know what you’re talking about.” I looked over at Zane and he looked baffled, so I tried to explain it to him. “You know, when the Irish immigrated in mass numbers to the States, they were staunch Catholics, so they weren’t really accepted by the traditional WASP-y types who were Protestant. This was the same issues with the Jews. Most of the groups remained pretty insular, and there was a lot of hatred and mistrust among them. I guess the unknown and the different always does that.” I shook my head sadly. “But eventually the groups were able to come together a bit better, and these groups were able to move up the chain. Unfortunately, the same circumstances made it a bit harder for black people, because they were different in a way that would always be visible.”

“Ah, I see.” Zane looked at me thoughtfully. “But many black people did well for themselves, right? And when segregation ended, they had the same opportunities as everyone else.”

“That’s what we’d like to think,” I sighed. “But that wasn’t really the case. Many cities and states were vehemently against the ending of segregation and opposed it. There was one city, I think in Virginia, that basically stopped the school session for a pretty long period.”

“What?” Zane looked shocked. “That’s awful.”

“Well, you know the stories of the Little Rock Nine, right?” I looked at him curiously. “And how they were treated when they integrated the high school?”