Ameer (The Brothers Ali Book 5) Read online

  The current situation felt like a landslide to Cheri: first, the woman at the school event, and now this one, both crowding in on her space and time with Ameer. It wasn’t fair that there was so much competition for his attention. And for Cheri, it didn’t matter that her crush on Ameer was a secret that she never knowingly shared with anyone. That was beside the point. The fact was she had a thing for him, and now there were all these other people trying to encroach on her space, and Cheri wasn’t pleased at all. Those feelings of frustration and anger spilled over into her work. Cheri’s calls were quick and clipped. Her coworkers were responded to with eye rolls and lip smacks. Cheri couldn’t wait for the lunch hour because everything and everybody was on her last nerve.

  “Why am I so nervous?” Siobhan mumbled to herself as she held onto her cellphone. She lifted her eyes from the phone screen again, making sure Messiah made it into school. Inevitably, though, her eyes returned to the screen, and the name, and her heart beat hard in her chest. It wasn’t the first time she started to connect the call and hesitated every time, her palms getting sweaty, her nerves standing on end.

  It’s a business call for Christ’s sake, Siobhan. Pull it together!

  “Oh, shit!” Siobhan screeched as a blaring horn from behind her in the parent drop offline jolted her back to reality.

  “Sorry,” Siobhan said, waving her hand apologetically. Putting the car in drive, Siobhan put the cellphone on the seat and navigated around the caution cones. All she could do was shake her head at herself. It had been like that all weekend since her encounter with Ameer. She was unfocused, distracted, lost in her own thoughts. At one point, when she and Messiah discussed the engineering program, Messiah brought it to her attention.

  “Mom, mom!”

  “What is it, young king?”

  “You’re not paying attention,” Messiah replied. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, yes,” Siobhan answered, offering her son a genuine smile, making sure he knew he once again had her full attention. “Everything is fine, Messiah. Just was thinking about some things. No big deal, right? She tried to reassure, reaching over and gently lifting his chin and inclining her son to her. “So, what do you think? Would the engineering program be something you’d like?”

  The rest of the evening, Siobhan made sure she was focused on her son, not secretly ruminating about someone else. She seemed to convince Messiah. He didn’t ask anymore or indicate she wasn’t paying attention, which was good. But in the back of Siobhan’s mind, Ameer was there.

  And now, here she was in the parking lot of her son’s school, staring at her phone again, trying to decide whether she should call him.

  It should not be this hard, girl, Siobhan quietly chastised herself. Just do it already, she coaxed.

  “Fine, fine,” Siobhan uttered aloud, her finger lingering over the send button.

  Just as she lowered her finger to push the button, a rap at the driver’s side window scared her. Siobhan’s eyes widened as she whipped her head around. He bent his frame low enough so she could see who it was.

  “What in the bloody hell,” she mumbled as she dropped back against the leather seat and promptly rolled her eyes. An agitated sigh passed through her lips as she pressed the button on the door, lowering the window. Her eyes contracted and narrowed as she set her gaze on him.

  “You have got to stop, Tyrese, seriously.”

  “I know Siobhan, but I can’t,” he replied.

  She wasn’t afraid of him. She was irritated more than anything. Siobhan didn’t have any problem getting out of the car to see what he wanted this time. Tyrese stepped back and allowed the driver’s door to open. He offered his hand to Siobhan to help her up, but she didn’t accept it. After closing the door, Siobhan took a few steps and rested against the side panel of the car.

  “Why can’t you stop, huh? It’s not like you ever say anything to Messiah. You never really show up in time to actually see him. You show up late constantly on these little pop-ups, and for what, Tyrese? I don’t understand.”

  “I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, Siobhan,” Tyrese began as he started to pace, three steps forward pivot, three steps back. “But I just have to know Messiah is okay, that he’s doing alright,” Tyrese paused. “That you’re doing okay.”

  “We’re fine, Tyrese,” Siobhan countered. “We’re fine.”

  “I see that,” he explained. “And somehow, I take refuge in knowing you all are doing well, even if it's without me.”

  “Don’t try it, Tyrese,” Siobhan replied, lifting her frame from the car. “Don’t even try it.”

  As Siobhan stepped forward, Tyrese stepped back, step for step.

  “Messiah doesn’t know you because that is your choice.”

  Siobhan stepped forward.

  “Messiah doesn’t see you because that is your choice.”

  She stepped forward again.

  “We don’t have you in our lives because that is the choice you made, sir. So please, don’t you dare try it with me.”

  She didn’t say anything more because if she did, Siobhan knew she would lose it on him. She held her lips tight to keep her mouth in check. She knew Tyrese had been through a lot, but what he suggested, she wasn’t going for. Conviction was written all over Tyrese’s face. He knew everything Siobhan said was true, and the truth hurt.

  “What if I wanted something different, wanted to see my boy for real, and do right by him?” Tyrese offered.

  “Do you believe what you’re saying right now?”

  Siobhan leveled a gaze at Tyrese that he found difficult to maintain.

  “I didn’t think so,” she huffed. “Stop wasting my time.”

  She turned on her heels and padded back to the car. Siobhan never looked back in Tyrese’s direction. She slammed the car door after opening it and put the car in drive. Tyrese was left standing in the parking lot with his promises of broken promises.

  Chapter Eight

  “Cheri, you wanna go grab a sub down at the sandwich shop,” one of the girls in the secretarial pool asked.

  “No, I’ve got plans,” Cheri sniped as she pushed up hard from her desk, grabbing her purse. She didn’t notice that on her departure, she was the recipient of plenty of eye rolls, including the woman who invited her to lunch. She wouldn’t have cared anyway. Cheri didn’t care about making friends. That had never been a big part of her life, and she had no intention of starting. The only thing that she was concerned about, the only person outside of her aging parents that Cheri cared anything about, was Ameer, and she hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing him yet. But she had every intention of rectifying that situation immediately as she made her way to the elevator midway down the hall. The impatience that persisted earlier in the day resurfaced as Cheri’s eyes were glued to the arrows above the car door, waiting for the up arrow to light.

  Finally, the elevator chimed, alerting Cheri that the car had arrived. The doors opened, and she stepped forward, not caring if anyone needed to step out.

  “Excuse me,” Cheri insisted, turning sideways, so no one bumped into her. She reached across, whoever stood nearest the front and repeatedly hit the button to the executive floor, demanding the door close fast. The automatic door finally closed, and once again, Cheri’s eyes returned to an upward glance as she watched the numbers ascend. Cheri’s nose flared, and her cheeks pushed out from tightened lips every time the elevator stopped on the way to her destination. It was taking way too long. Finally, the elevator stopped on Ameer’s floor. No sooner than an open crease appeared in the door, Cheri prepared to go through it.

  “Oh!” She exclaimed, nearly bumping into him. “So sorry, Mr. Ali,” Cheri uttered as her eyes traveled upwards, coming to rest on his exquisitely handsome face.

  “No worries,” Ameer smiled as he classily avoided a head-on collision. “After you?”

  “Oh no,” Cheri adjusted quickly. “It was my mistake. I got off on the wrong floor,” she asserted.

  “Well, aft
er you then,” Ameer replied, extending his hand across the elevator doors so Cheri could cross the threshold again.

  She was pleased when they were the only two people in the car. It allowed her to gauge how things were going with the new girl and, hopefully, to find out where Ameer was off to. She didn’t push a destination button when she walked back in the car; instead, waiting to see what button Ameer pushed. It didn’t take long for his alluring masculine scent to fill the diminished capacity of the elevator. Cheri inhaled deeply, and her eyelids dropped dreamily as she took his essence into herself.

  “I didn’t know Geneva was going to be gone, and for a week,” Cheri mused. “How will you ever manage?”

  “It’s a struggle, right?” Ameer replied, focusing on the descending numbers above the door, not noticing the dazed, entranced look on Cheri’s face.

  “So, Geneva’s replacement,” Cheri suggested, giving Ameer an opportunity to talk about what Cheri knew were her vast shortcomings.

  “She’s doing okay,” Ameer answered, much to Cheri’s dismay.

  “She doesn’t know you, though, how you tick, how you move and operate,” Cheri explained. But I do.

  “She’s catching on quickly,” Ameer replied. “I think she’ll be fine.”

  We’ll see about that, Cheri thought.

  The elevator door opened on the lobby level.

  “Good to see you again, Ms. Jones,” Ameer uttered as he stood in front of the opened door so Cheri could make her exit.

  “You know what? I forgot something upstairs,” she muttered. “Good to see you, too, Mr. Ali.”

  Cheri watched Ameer stroll across the lobby like he owned it. Well, technically, he did, but that wasn’t the point. It was all in the way he moved, the way he carried himself that was so damn irresistible. Although she would have loved to continue conversing with Ameer, to see where he was headed, Cheri had a new mission. There was something else she needed to do.

  She’s doing well, huh, Cheri contemplated, a menacing sneer lifting her upper lip. We’ll see about that. Cheri was stewing, impatience spilling out of everywhere. Instead of returning to her floor, she returned to Ameer’s floor. If the new girl were true to form, she would be on lunch, the perfect opportunity to see what she’d been up to.

  “That’s why they should have hired me as his replacement in the first damn place,” Cheri fussed, finding Shannon conveniently absent from her station as Cheri anticipated.

  “How are you going to be gone when the boss is gone,” Cheri huffed, taking up residency behind the desk. “That kind of stupidity just don’t make no sense.”

  Even though she was right about everything, Cheri knew she didn’t have a lot of time. She scanned everything that was open on Geneva’s desk. She really didn’t regard Shannon as significant in the matter. This was Geneva’s desk. Cheri looked at the calendar, the planner, messages that had been notated, gaining as much intel as possible.

  “I wonder,” Cheri mused aloud, looking around the space and down the hall to make sure no one was coming. When the coast was clear, Cheri wiggled the mouse, and the computer screen lit up.

  “She didn’t even log out,” Cheri scoffed, shaking her head disgustedly. It was an opportunity Cheri couldn’t pass up. A few quick strokes on the keyboard and Cheri was satisfied. She made sure things were returned to the way she found them and made her way out of the suite.

  “Now, we’ll see just how well that substitute bitch does.”

  Ameer, hoped, by this point, Siobhan would have called. He didn’t want to press but give her a chance to move in her own time.

  It’s a business call, Ameer tried to convince himself as he made his way down the block to the juice bar. But it didn’t feel like Ameer was waiting for a business call. Business calls Ameer was always prepared for, he prepared for them in advance and made sure he was on point with every detail, figure, and supposition the caller could imagine. Ameer had never felt more unprepared for the call he was hoping would come from Siobhan. Sure, it would start with a conversation about the engineering program, but that’s not where Ameer hoped the call would end. And that’s the part he wanted but wasn’t sure about. Even as he stood in line at the juice bar, Ameer’s thoughts never left Siobhan. And then he thought about Messiah, the young king. A smile eased across Ameer’s lips as he remembered how impressed he was with him. He was smart, well-spoken, respectful, and those characteristics and qualities were ascertained in just the few moments he had with him. Ameer never dated a woman with a child before. He thought about it after placing his order. Had he made a conscientious decision not to date a mom?

  That was a thought he pondered as he strolled back to Ali International. Although Ameer was considered one of the most eligible bachelors in the southern region, he didn’t chronically date. Like some of his older brothers, Ameer prioritized work because he loved it. He was dedicated to ensuring the Ali legacy was strong. That didn’t mean he didn’t date, but Ameer was no player. He was a one-woman kind of man, dating one woman at a time. He thought back over those women. None of them had children. So, was not dating a mom a conscious choice, or did he somehow unconsciously rule them out if he learned that that was their situation?

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Ali,” Shannon greeted as Ameer entered the executive suite.

  “Good afternoon, Ms. Young,” Ameer replied. “What does the rest of my day look like?”

  “Let me pull that up for you,” she replied, turning her attention to the computer screen. “Shall I meet you in your office so we can discuss it?”

  “Sure,” Ameer answered. “I’ll see you in a few.”

  It would have been easy for Shannon to be entirely distracted by Ameer. He was undeniably fine, and she wasn’t at all blind. But Shannon was distracted by something else. Initially, Shannon thought she might have pulled up the wrong page to access Mr. Ali’s calendar. She checked and cross-checked the computer, but there was nothing there. The entire calendar was blank. Shannon tried not to panic, but it was hard considering she was merely a substitute. But the more she searched and came up empty, the faster her heart started to beat. She checked the handwritten calendar on Geneva’s desk, but there were only a few marks there, and for the date she needed, there was a big X through it for Geneva’s vacation.

  Shannon was appointed to Ameer because Geneva knew she would take care of him like she did. Geneva recommended Shannon personally and staked her reputation on how well Shannon would do. She didn’t want to disappoint her. More importantly, Shannon didn’t want to fail Ameer. He might overlook his calendar momentarily, but if she didn’t come through, Shannon knew he would be disappointed, too.

  Come on, Shannon, figure this out.

  Geneva was highly organized. There had to be another way, Shannon thought to herself. Geneva wouldn’t leave something as crucial as Ameer’s schedule to chance or the whims of electricity or the internet or the failings of an incompetent.

  Think, Shannon, think.

  For a moment, Shannon stared at the computer, trying to think what Geneva would do. Her fingers strummed against the keyboard without depressing a key as she contemplated.

  Shannon asserted as she tapped the keys in earnest and pulled up Geneva’s email.

  “Got it!”

  The relief she felt when she hit print and produced Ameer’s schedule was great. Geneva emailed it to herself, the perfect backup. Shannon secured the calendar from the printer, smoothing down her skirt as she made her way to Ameer’s door. She exhaled deeply as she rapped on the door. She didn’t want Mr. Ali to see her frazzled like there was any problem.

  “Come on in,” Ameer called from behind his desk.

  Shannon opened the door and padded across the room.

  “Are you ready to discuss your afternoon, Mr. Ali?”

  “Sure,” Ameer looked up from his desk with a smile.

  That was reassuring to Shannon. Maybe he didn’t notice how long it took her to come.

  “Please, have a seat,” Ameer sugge
sted, extending his hand, directing Shannon, not the seat in front of his desk. She did as Ameer suggested and rattled off the schedule like there hadn’t been any drama in securing it. Yet, the entire time she spoke with Mr. Ali, Shannon tried to figure out what the hell happened with the computer. She would undoubtedly investigate to see if there was a systemic problem or an unforeseen error on her part.

  “Appreciate that, Shannon, thank you.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Ali,” Shannon replied, lifting in one smooth movement from her seat. “Will there be anything else?”

  “No,” Ameer replied, “but thanks for asking.”

  Relieved that things went as well as they did, Shannon quietly exited the office. She had only one focus after that, seeing what happened.

  Ameer’s afternoon was busy, yet, all he could think about was Siobhan. And all she could think about was Ameer; even after leaving Tyrese standing in the parking lot looking lost, even after driving far enough away from him that he didn’t see her pullover, even after being frustrated and her thoughts temporarily returning to why Tyrese was in her life in the first place. As soon as that thought was clear, though, Siobhan’s prevailing musings were of Ameer. She sat in her car in front of her dance studio. Siobhan’s eyes slowly lifted to the marquee, and she thought about how hard she worked to finally open her studio after everything that happened. Siobhan thought about how much had been taken from her, put on hold, delayed because she allowed the past to cloud her vision for the future. Tyrese showing up again this morning felt like a resurgence of that thing she needed to distance herself from that kept her feet still, her life stagnant, her heart unable to open again. Siobhan’s eyes narrowed as she mentally traced each letter of the sign in her mind.