B.H.M. Book Spotlight: Love Lost 

Devon shrugs his shoulders. “It doesn’t help hospital and insurance provider pockets.” Changing the subject, Devon then looks at me and says, “Alise, you will never believe who I ran into today?” 

“Who?” I asked puzzled. 

“Jaylen Williams.” 

Him. That was not the name I was expecting, though I had no idea who he was going to mention. I try to hide my gasp. Everyone at the table pauses to gauge my reaction. Charlie and Joc start to have a very hushed conversation, which I’m sure is about me. 

“Jaylen? Where did you see him at?” I ask trying and failing to keep the excitement out of my voice. 

“Apparently, he opened his gym a couple of years ago. I know he had been talking about doing that for a while, but his divorce from Calondra took a lot out of him financially.” 

“I remember that,” I whisper. I don’t know why I’m suddenly breathless. Then again, yes, I do. My heart is racing at just the mention of Jaylen, the man that I loved with everything but never loved me back. I haven’t seen him in nearly four years, and I can honestly say I still love him. 

“Some of the guys at work were talking about playing basketball and I went with them. The gym we played at was Jaylen’s. We started catching up. He remarried three years ago and is already getting a divorce.” 

“Oh.” The news of this stings. He never loved me, so for him, there wasn’t anything to move on from. “I didn’t realize the two of you were out of touch. You used to be close. What happened?” 

“I asked Jaylen about that because I didn’t know what happened either. He said after he had ended things with you, he thought it would be best to distance himself from me, to spare you.” 

“Spare me,” I snap. Now my emotions are all over the place. 

“Alise, calm down,” Devon says with his hands up. “He knew he had hurt you. He was trying to keep from hurting you any further.” I take a deep breath. “Jaylen asked about you. He wanted me to tell you ‘hi.’” 

“Tell her ‘hi,’” Charlie and Joc say in unison, snapping their necks in Devon’s direction. 

“Don’t shoot the messenger!” Devon turns his attention back to me. “He also wanted me to give you this.” 

Devon passes me a business card. It is Jaylen’s. “He wrote his cell phone number on the back.” 

I caress the card. Jaylen wants me to call him. I sit there looking at the card for what seems to be an eternity. If anyone has said anything to me, I haven’t noticed. I’m feeling so many emotions right now. I’m hopeful and angry. Excited and ridiculously sad. I can’t focus on one, not to mention all of the questions running through my head. 

Why does he want me to call? Does he really think I would come running back to him after all this time? Does he suddenly want me again because he is going through a divorce, YET AGAIN? Does he finally realize the mistake he made in not giving us a try? I can’t decide if I am going to call him or not. I don’t know what I’m going to do.