Eternally Yours - Brenda Jackson [78]
Trevor laughed. “Losing your touch, Clayton?”
He gave his friend a grim smile. “Just my interest.”
Trevor lifted a brow. “You not being interested in a woman will be the day they prepare you for burial.”
Clayton smiled and didn’t say anything. Instead he stood and pulled several quarters out of his pocket. Since this was Monday night, there was no live entertainment. Music was being provided by a huge jukebox that sat in the corner of the room. It contained a number of the latest hits, as well as quite a few of the oldies.
“Excuse me for a minute.” He walked over to the jukebox and after depositing his quarters, punched a couple of songs, “The Track of My Tears” by Smokey Robinson and “What Becomes of a Broken Heart” by Jimmy Ruffin. He walked back over to the table and sat down. The songs he had selected were all indicative of how he felt.
Trevor folded his arms and pinned Clayton to his seat with a curious stare. “What’s wrong with you? You’re acting like a lovesick puppy.” Trevor chuckled. “But since I know that can’t be the case, at least not with you anyway, what’s your problem?”
“Don’t have one. And what’s so bad about falling in love?”
Trevor looked up and frowned, not believing Clayton had asked such a question. “What’s wrong with it? Everything’s wrong with it. That’s when a man’s troubles begin, once he falls for a woman.”
Clayton cocked his brow. “And I take it you’ve never fallen in love.”
Trevor shrugged. “Not voluntarily, no.”
“And involuntarily?”
Trevor squirmed slightly in his seat. “I may have had a short moment of madness.” Trevor thought about the woman he had met over a year ago, Corinthians Avery. She was head geologist for Remington Oil. Their initial meeting was anything but normal. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d disliked him on sight and he’d disliked her equally as much…or so he had thought. But the infrequent times he had seen her since their initial meeting, when they’d been thrown together due to work obligations, he had found himself wanting to seek her out and make hot, torrid, passionate love to her. He hadn’t done that, of course. The woman hated his guts. But that hadn’t stopped her from invading his dreams at night, or his thoughts during the day.
“What happened?” Clayton asked.
“Nothing happened. The woman doesn’t like me. Besides, she’s in love with someone else. She’s in love with a married man.”
Clayton arched one eyebrow. “You’re kidding?”
Trevor shook his head. “Wish I was kidding. Can you believe that, especially after what happened with my old man. I almost fell for the same kind of woman who destroyed my parents’ marriage.”
After almost emptying a bottle of hot sauce over his fried chicken then topping it off with ketchup, Trevor tilted back in his chair and eyed his friend. The second song Clayton had selected was now playing. “Are you or are you not going to tell me what’s going on with you?”
Clayton exhaled a deep, drawn-out sigh. “I’ve fallen in love.”
Trevor didn’t say anything for the longest moment. He just stared at Clayton in disbelief. Finally he spoke. “Must be one hell of a woman.”
A smile tilted Clayton’s lips. “She is.”
“Who is she?”
“Don’t ask.”
Trevor rubbed his hand over his jaw, thinking. “Man, she isn’t married, is she?”
Clayton glared at Trevor. “Of course not! You know I don’t do married women.”
Trevor smiled. “I thought you didn’t do falling in love, either, but you did.”
Clayton couldn’t help but return Trevor’s smile. His friend had him there, unfortunately.
“So, what’s the problem? Whoever the woman is I’m sure she’s elated, since you’re the biggest catch in Houston.”
“She doesn’t want me.”
Trevor almost choked on his chicken. He grabbed his water to wash down the piece of meat caught in his throat. “A woman doesn’t want you! Are you serious?”
“Yes, as serious as a heart attack.”
Trevor pursed his lips. “She actually rejected you, man?”
“Yep.”
Trevor shook his head. He then pushed his plate aside and tapped his thumbs together for a few seconds. “Do you have any more quarters?” he suddenly asked Clayton.