BWWM Interracial Romance 5: Love After Halftime by Elena Brown

as she slid the chain back on the hotel lock before clicking the deadbolt open.
    “I can’t do that,” he smirked, bursting through her door. “You know I can’t do that.”
    She noticed him noticing the flowers on her foyer table. “Hey, you two-timing me?”
    Marlene chuckled, running her hands through the beautiful flowers Tina had just dropped off. “They’re from your ex,” she said.
    Joe arched one eyebrow. “Why?”
    Marlene sighed and padded into the kitchen, Joe hot on her heels. She reached for a second glass – make that a third, counting Tina’s – to help her finish the bottle of red she’d started when she decided not to meet Joe for dinner that night.
    “She and I had it out earlier this week,” Marlene confessed, remembering the ugly scene at lunch and how it had just confirmed for her how wrong it was to be with Joe in the first place.
    “Jesus, Merl,” Joe said, running his fingers through his hair as he paced along the kitchen floor. “You told her?”
    “I told you I might,” she said. “I just… I couldn’t live that lie, Joe, don’t you see?”
    “It’s not a lie if she never knows the truth.”
    “ I’d know the truth,” Marlene insisted, sipping her wine to calm her jittery nerves. “Anyway, it’s fine now. She just left, matter of fact…”
    “No shit?” Joe chuckled.
    “What?” Marlene asked, heart fluttering. “You saw her? She saw you?”
    Joe held up a hand to soothe her, but it was his soft, gentle smile that did the trick. “Relax,” he said, but his tone wasn’t condescending in the least. “Nobody called the cops for domestic disturbance, so… we’re all good.” Joe slid down into the stool across from the butcher-block table in her kitchen.
    “I know I shouldn’t worry so,” she said, smiling at the presence of Joe in her kitchen, in her home… in her heart. “It’s just…”
    “It’s just… what?” he asked, reaching for his wine.
    “Complicated,” she confessed, chuckling humorlessly. “She said all the right things, Joe, and so did I, but… it’s not the same as it was.”
    “ We’re not the same,” he said, reaching for her hand. “Life’s not the same. I know Tina, she’ll get over it.”
    “I just feel so lowdown,” Marlene confessed. “It’s like, I couldn’t even wait a year after your divorce to hop into bed with you.” Even saying the words made her blush.
    He squeezed her hand. “We waited long enough, Merl. We did nothing wrong.”
    “Then why does it feel so wrong?”
    Joe slid his hand away and reached for his wine, taking a nice, long sip before considering her. “I’ve been thinking a lot about us,” he said, “and thinking a lot about you, and why we waited so long.”
    “Do tell,” she teased, but inside she was thrilled to think he’d been thinking about them; about her.
    “You’re not your mother,” he said, simply, calmly. “I’m not your father. We are not them, and even if we have ups and downs, even if we break up, or never fight, you’re never going to feel free to love if you’re so afraid of heartbreak you can’t let yourself love.”
    She sighed, her lip quivering as two soft, clear teardrops fell.
    “Hey, hey,” he said, standing, rushing to embrace her. “I didn’t mean anything by it!”
    “It’s not you,” she said, voice fraught with emotion. “It’s me. I just… I’ve spent so long living in the shadows, Joe. First in the shadow of my mother’s pain, then in the shadow of my father’s betrayal, then in Tina’s shadow, as she got the dream life I wanted until finally I just… gave up on my own happiness.”
    He chuckled, dragging her from her chair. “You don’t have to be unhappy anymore, Merl,” he whispered as they danced in the kitchen, without any music but the pounding of their own hearts, deep in their chests.
    Their dance was slow and tender as the words fell away and the heat built up. Marlene had been planning a quiet evening at home, alone with