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teaching? Well, he knew how disappointed you were in him because he could see it in your eyes and most of all,” Tia continued as she placed her hand on her heart, “He could feel it here. You didn’t care about his feelings. All you worried about was what everyone else would say…your mother, the people at church, the people that you bragged to that your husband was going to be a partner in the most prestigious law firm in Houston. You cared about everyone’s feelings except his. He just could not stand the fact that he wasn’t ‘the man’ in your life anymore.”
       Nikki looked puzzled. “And just how would you know all this?”
       “Because the night he left you, he came to my house.” Tia never took her eyes off of Nikki as she braced herself for what she knew was coming. She quickly added, “Now don’t get it twisted. He needed someone to talk to. That’s all we did, Nik, we just talked. I tried to get him to go back to you and talk it through, but he was afraid that you would not understand. He had already crossed the line with ‘little miss home-wrecker’ and he knew that you would never forgive him for that. Sweetie, what I am trying to tell you is to learn from your mistakes. You are one of the nicest people in the world, but you want everyone else to dance to your music, and frankly honey, it’s you who needs to get a new step.”
       She sat quietly for a moment to let Nikki absorb what she was saying before she went on, “Now tell me that you’ve got that fine young Puerto Rican thing interested in you. So what if he’s younger than you? It doesn’t seem to bother him. And if that boy thinks you’re the greatest thing since chocolate, so be it. The last time I checked, wasn’t nobody payin’ your bills but you. You know you want that boy. I mean man,” she corrected herself, “I saw how you looked at him the other night when you thought I was too drunk to notice. Nikki, you are asking for a guarantee and, baby, he’s being honest by telling you that he can’t give you one right now. Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring, but don’t you owe it to yourself to find out? You told me that you thought that he has been honest with you so far. Just because he didn’t offer you a wedding ring on your first date, you want to cut him loose. You want to go from A to Z and forget all the letters in between. Nikki, you can’t do that, sweetie. You have to allow relationships to grow.
       When Tia finished, Nikki hugged her tightly and thanked her for being so honest. She realized now, that by worrying so much about what others would think of her, she had driven Carlos away.
       Tia smiled. “Now, what are you going to do with what I just told you?”
       “I am going to get my man back,” Nikki said, laughing, as they slapped five.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
         When Nikki arrived home, she decided to put the plan into action that she and Tia had cooked up. Carlos’s phone number was still on her caller I.D. and she would give him a call. She knew that she didn’t have time to cook the dinner for him that she would have liked, so she stopped at a local restaurant on the way home and picked up a take-out meal and dessert. She only hoped that he was not still so angry with her that he would refuse her invitation.
         As she was picking up the phone to dial Carlos’s number, it rang. She answered it without looking to see who it was first. “Hello?”
         “Oh Nikki, I’m glad you’re home,” her mother’s voice came over the phone. “ I was going to leave a message. If you’re not busy tonight, I want you to come with me over to your sister’s. She and Turner are home from their cruise and she has some pictures of their trip she wants to show us. You can pick me up around seven.” She didn’t even wait to hear whether or not Nikki was busy.
         “No mother, I can’t tonight.”
         “Excuse me?”
         “I said I can’t,” Nikki