Ben (The Sherwood)

“I did see her at the hospital,” I defended myself. “I told you that I wanted to see her. Jasmine decided to leave her with Jenny and Elijah.”

People were passing us in the aisle. We were having a personal conversation here. I didn’t really want my business spread all over Sherwood.

I wanted to reach out and caress her like I had at the pub, but I knew she wouldn’t like that. “Disa, I’m sorry about the other night.” I wasn’t sorry. I needed to explain I realized when I saw her face take on a look that seemed to be hurt.

“I mean I’m not sorry that I kissed you. Never sorry about that,” I rambled. She shook her head at me. Still I was uncertain about this woman and what she was thinking or feeling. Once a long time ago, I could read her well. “I’m just sorry that it happened when I was drunk and in the men’s restroom at Ike’s.”

She laughed at me then. A soft, sweet sound. I had forgotten how good her laughter sounded and how it made me feel. I smiled at her

“Ben, do you want to have lunch?” I was shocked by the invitation because the tension between us had been bad since she found out I had slept with her cousin. It wasn’t any better when she had to help me get my zipper unstuck.

“Why?” I asked scrutinizing her closely. We hadn’t been on the best of terms recently because of Jasmine. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go to lunch with her because I did. I would spend any time with this woman that she would give me.

“I’d like to see Asia,” Disa replied without batting an eyelash.

I didn’t have to think about a response. “Sure,” I declared. “I’ll have lunch with you, so you can see Asia.” I wasn’t kidding anyone, most of all not Disa about why I wanted to have lunch with her. I wanted to spend time with her. Just being in her presence filled me with thoughts and feelings I knew I shouldn’t be having but I couldn’t stop them. I couldn’t turn my heart or my head off where this woman was concerned.

She named a restaurant two doors down from where we were right now. “Twenty minutes?” She asked.

“Sounds good,” I replied.

I started to grab another two packages of blankets off the shelf when Disa turned to me. “Ben?” I looked up at her. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“For what?” I had already forgotten her insult of the past few minutes apparently.

She swallowed. “For a lot of things.”

“Sure,” I replied. Although I wasn’t sure what she had to apologize to me for. I had hurt her.

I watched her walk away. Disa was beautiful. Long, curly blonde hair. A natural blonde, I was pretty sure. There were no dark roots. Big, blue eyes. She didn’t wear make-up except at the pub where she worked for my dad. Then, she only wore a little eyeliner and a bright red lipstick.

She was a knockout all right, but she was off limits according to my dad. His conversation with me still stung after all these years. She worked for Dad and Disa Riley was innocent. He told me in no uncertain terms to back off.

Disa was virgin innocent saving herself for the right man and that man could have been me six years ago, but Ben Hatfield didn’t do virgins according to my dad. Dad thought he knew me so well. There were all sorts of complications attached to being with a virgin. I looked back at that conversation with my father and wondered now why I hadn’t fought him harder because obviously I hadn’t gotten over Disa.

She was twenty-one then and had just started working for Dad when she moved out of her family’s compound. I was probably twenty-two at the time or maybe had just turned it. We weren’t that far apart in age. I had known her our whole lives only being a year apart in school. She was friends with my sister, Danni. Disa knew the bad boy reputation I was just starting to earn but was not deterred by it.

She was sweet and innocent. We dated over six months. My reputation with women was like AJ said, a little blown out proportion. Rumors started and suddenly I was a legendary ladies’ man but with Disa I was different.

Respectful. Caring. I was falling in love then one day at the pub a girl was flirting with me. I was just being nice. I smiled and was friendly. Dad took me aside. He told me that I was just like him and too young to settle down. He liked Disa too and wanted her to remain the way she was and not become one of the many women who drunkenly complained to him at Ike’s that I never called them back.

I tossed the two packages of blankets into the cart almost hitting my daughter. Lucky for me, the handle caused the packages to drop to the side instead of hitting her in the face.

I gasped. “Baby girl, I’m so sorry.” She was sleeping, oblivious to what was going on around her.

I sighed. That was close. I needed to pay better attention to what I was doing with Asia. I grabbed a package of onesies then another. Then moved down to sleepers and picked out a few before heading to checkout.

I could see Disa two checkout lanes over. I laid my things on the belt and watched the numbers adding up while peeking over at Disa Riley too. Man, she only became prettier as the years passed. I wondered if she was dating anyone now that she had dumped Kevin?

“Child, you are expensive,” I told my daughter when the associate finished with my purchases. My daughter continued to sleep, sucking on her pacifier.

The woman behind the register chuckled at me. “It only gets worse,” she teased. “Wait until you have to buy prom dresses at three hundred dollars a pop for a dress she will wear one time.”

I didn’t need to hear that. “Thanks.” I sighed at the baby sleeping peacefully in the carrier. I think she really had adjusted well to her mother being gone. Except at night. I needed to figure that one out still.

I slid my credit card through the machine and put the bags in the cart. Then I saw the boxes beneath the cart.

“I’m sorry, I forgot these,” I told the associate.