Miss Opportunity - Ch. 44.3

The next day, Millsap felt a lot better about his life. He’d finally broken through his heartbreak enough to sleep with another woman. Now he was almost proud of himself.

Although Daysha still didn’t measure up to Cami in the bedroom, even with her new tricks, she was better than nothing. She was definitely a start in the right direction. The healed heart direction.

Deciding to go to his country home on that windy Saturday afternoon, Millsap got his mother to pick him up and take him to his jeep. He also retrieved his extra set of car keys from her.

The whole ride over, Bonnie kept talking about the smile on his face. About how he looked lighter and more relaxed now. Then she outright asked if he had a new woman in his life. If that was the reason behind his new attitude.

“Let’s just say that I decided to hook back up with one of my exes and leave it at that,” Millsap replied, keeping the bulk of his personal business to himself as usual.

“I hope it wasn’t Cami.” Bonnie frowned, behaving as if she hadn’t already heard the good news from Daysha.

“No, it’s not Cami,” Millsap concluded and then promptly switched subjects to a topic that she would really enjoy – another shopping spree. Daysha suggested that he send his mother on one since the seasons were about to change soon.

As expected, Bonnie completely forgot all about Millsap’s love life. The thrill of getting a new spring wardrobe had all of her attention now.

After dropping his mother off at her home along with one of his credit cards, Millsap stopped by the same twenty-four-hour supermarket that he always visited on his way out of town. He needed to buy a few groceries for his rural home, mostly perishable items since his cupboards stayed stocked to capacity.

Unknown to Millsap, Cami and Towanna were also in the store, getting food items for Mama Ingram on their way home from work. Millsap might have recognized Towanna’s white Buick if it hadn’t been recently painted gray. Had he known Cami was anywhere in the vicinity, he would have gone to another store…even if it was all the way on the other side of town.

Millsap didn’t find out Cami was in this store until he was one aisle over from her. He heard the sound of her voice as she conversed with her friend about forgetting something from the frozen food section.

His body instantly hardened from just the sound of Cami’s sweet voice. It was as if he hadn’t had sex in months instead of just last night. He frowned, resenting her ability to still affect him so easily.

Go get those pot pies, Millsap willed to Cami, wanting to put some distance between them. When he heard Towanna volunteer to get the missing items instead, his frown deepened. He cursed under his breath in frustration.

What Millsap heard next touched his heart, chased the anger away…and made him weak in the knees. He literally had to lean against the grocery cart and the nearby shelves to keep from falling to the ground.

What did Millsap hear?

He heard Cami singing along with the current tune filtering in through the store’s sound system. Though she was no great songstress like some of her other relatives, she could hold a decent note.

Yet Cami’s vocal ability wasn’t what Millsap focused on right now. What got to him was the words she sang and the way she sang them. Oh, did they get to him…

Deeply.

The song Cami sang was Jasmine Sullivan’s I Need U Bad. She was singing it with her whole heart. As if she really felt each and every word. She did…

Deeply.

“If I had you back in my world.

I would prove that I could be a better girl.

If you let me back in.

I would sho’ nuff never, never let you go again.”

By the time Cami started to sing the chorus, tears had entered her voice and her eyes. Towanna reentered the aisle just as some of those tears started to run down her friend’s cheeks.

“It’s going to be all right, girl,” Towanna soothingly told Cami as she wrapped her arms about her.

“When?!” Cami sobbed openly, uncaring who saw or heard her crying in so public a place. “When am I going to stop loving him? When am I going to stop wanting him back?” She choked on a sob. “I miss him, Towanna. I miss everything about him.” Her words grew angry. “What the heck was wrong with me to mess up something that good?”

Oh, baby, Millsap mused in anguish on the next aisle. Although he heard Daysha declare her love for him just last night, when Cami said those words they seemed to pierce his heart and echo in his soul. They made him want to reciprocate those sentiments, not just nod like he’d done with Daysha last night.

Almost everything in Millsap wanted to go to Cami and just…just make them both feel better right now. But he couldn’t. She was off limits to him again. Cami had crossed Millsap in one of the worst ways a woman could cross a man. If he went back to her, she might think she could do him like that again or worse.

Millsap couldn’t have that. As a result, he left his semi-full cart of groceries right there on the bread aisle and headed for the nearest exit. He’d get what he needed from another store. Right now he needed to get as far away from Cami as possible.

© 2008 by Suprina Frazier

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To hear Jasmine Sullivan’s I Need U Bad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCAFGoOfK8U&feature=related