Read Online Second Thoughts by Kristofer Clarke - Free Book Online

Don’t leave me,” I pleaded again, but before I could complete my last plea, my mother was gone.  
    But I needed to think quickly, and thinking quickly meant coming up with something my sister would believe, though I wasn’t quite convinced she believed everything she heard.
    “I’ll speak to her this evening and…”
    “Nessa, stop it. There you go trying to take care of everything again.” I snapped.
    “Fine,” Vanessa agreed, looked at Dillon and then at me with curiosity, “I just don’t want last night to happen again.”
    That makes two of us, I thought.
    “It won’t,” I said aloud.
    I directed my response at Dillon. I walked out of the kitchen with my eyes fixed on him. You know what they say: If you can’t stand the heat. 
    I left Dillon and Vanessa in the kitchen. I walked to my room feeling double shame. Not only had I lied to my sister again, I had used unresolved feelings about my mother’s death to worm my way out of the possibility of Vanessa finding out about the desires I still had for her husband, or the desires he still had for me.
    When I walked into the bedroom, Quinton was still asleep in the center of the bed. I walked over to the dresser and stood looking at my reflection in the mirror. I didn’t like the person staring back at me. The woman who had come between DaMarcus and Belinda looked at me with menacing eyes. You’re never satisfied, I thought. Are you going to do the same thing to your sister’s marriage?
    “You had your chance with him,” I spoke aloud, trying to convince myself.
    “Taylor,” Vanessa interrupted.
    Her interruption startled me.
    “Can I talk to you?”
    “Come in,” I directed, but Vanessa was already on the inside of the door, and I hadn’t even noticed.
    I tried not to look at her as if I was wondering if she were reading my thoughts, or if she had heard my last remark.
    “I wanted to talk to you last night. I knocked on your door but you never responded. It was late, so you were probably asleep. Don’t know why I thought you’d still be awake.” 
    “Is everything ok?”
    I turned to face Nessa with my back towards the mirror.
    “I lost a patient last night.”
    “Oh my God, Nessa! I’m sorry.”
    I walked over to her and hugged her tightly, something I wished I had the nerve to do last night.
    She sat on the bed, in the same place where she’d sat in my dream.
    “It’s okay. She was expected to go at anytime. I just didn’t know anytime was going to be last night.”
    I sat next to Vanessa and listened to her tell me about the patient she’d watched for years as tumors went from benign to malignant, and eventually she’d lost a hard-fought battle. I watched her tear up, and she leaned her head on my shoulder. And this was the relationship I was threatening with an infatuation I still had for Dillon. Vanessa always seemed to get attached to the patients she knew wouldn’t be around too long. I don’t know how she did it.
    “She’s in a better place now, right?” I said, hoping my words would console her.
    “God, I hope so.”
    She looked at me and laughed. “Are you able to do lunch today?”
    “Sure. I can get away from the office for a few.”
    “Good,” Nessa said.
    She got up and began walking towards the door.
    “I’ll call or text you later.”
    “Okay.”
    I sat on the bed, and with this new information, I began to plan my day. I turned looking at Quinton who should be awake by now, but he was still dead to the world.
    “Hey,” Nessa interrupted.
    I turned to look in her direction.
    “Earlier, just before I asked if I could talk to you, you said ‘you had your chance with him’. Who were you talking about?”
    I looked at her wide-eyed before responding.
    “DaMarcus.”
    “Wait, are you still thinking about him?”
    “From time to time. I mean, that is his son,” I said, tilting my head in Quinton’s direction.
    He was just starting to wake. After the night he’s had, I wasn’t surprised he had slept