Until My Last Breath Read online

  Until My Last Breath

  By

  Tiffany Patterson

  Copyright © 2019 by Tiffany Patterson

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  A special thank you to There For You Editing ([email protected]) for editing.

  Chapter One

  Then … Spring 1974

  Deborah

  “This has to be a mistake,” I mumbled to myself as I stared at the paper in front of me. Written in blue ink was the name Robert Townsend. My new, semester-long partner for this World Mythologies elective I’d decided to take my final semester. This isn’t going to work.

  My left hand shot into the air. “Excuse me, Professor James,” I called, my voice reaching the professor’s ear as he moved to the front of the large lecture hall.

  “Yes, Ms …” He paused as he peered down at this clipboard running his index finger down the row of seats he’d meticulously assigned us to.

  Seriously, what type of professor gave his students assigned seats? In a class of over a hundred students no less?

  “Ms. Tate, how can I help you?”

  “There has to be some sort of mistake. I think I received the wrong partner assignment.”

  His bushy, greying eyebrows scrunched together and brown eyes narrowed behind the thick-rimmed glasses he wore. He lowered his head to look down at the clipboard again, this time flipping the page.

  “Let’s see … it says here you’re partnered with Mr. Robert Townsend, is that correct?” He raised his stare to me.

  “Yes, but—”

  “Then it’s correct.”

  “Right, but I’m sure there’s been a mix up. Is it possible to be reassigned?” I briefly caught a few students looking back at me, likely wondering what the big deal was.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Tate,” Professor James responded in a voice that made it clear he wasn’t actually sorry. “Partner assignments are final. Now …” he began to continue on with the rest of the lecture.

  I slammed my back against the wooden, foldable chair, tossing the paper on the wraparound desk in front of me. This was ridiculous. I waited years to take this elective. For four years I’d pushed myself to power through my grueling course load including trigonometry, applied mathematics, and statistics courses to get my degree in mathematics. I’d opted to take the World Mythologies class in my last semester, thinking it’d be a breeze in my final semester here at Stanford, and yet—

  “Don’t fret, princess. I don’t bite … well, only on the rare occasion.”

  I stiffened, my eyes moving before I slowly pivoted my neck to the right, twisting around to find myself staring into the dark brown eyes of none other than Robert Townsend. In typical fashion, his lips were parted, half smirking, but his eyes were dark, contradicting the smirk. Those freckles that lined his upper cheeks prominent as he grinned.

  I narrowed my gaze but didn’t respond to his words. Silently, he stared at me for another second before I turned to face the professor who was lecturing about some Greek god I’d probably heard of already.

  Just great.

  “We need to discuss this project,” I stated, impatiently, as students hurriedly exited the lecture hall. I’d stopped Robert just outside of the door, needing to get this over with. This might be a low level class, taken by mostly freshman and sophomores, but I wasn’t going to let it mess up my nearly 4.0 GPA.

  “What’s there to discuss, princess?” he asked, a dark eyebrow raised.

  I huffed, hating that stupid moniker he’d used with me ever since our first encounter freshman year. I rolled my eyes at that particular memory.

  “My name’s Deborah. D-e-b-o-r-a-h. Got it?”

  Another smirk. “I think so.”

  “Freakin’ trust fund babies …”

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing. Listen, you might have been okay with skating your way through these last four years and—”

  “Is that what I’ve done?” He folded his arms across his chest, voice deepening.

  Shaking off the silly shiver that moved down my spine, I straightened my back, lifted my chin, and looked up … and up, until my eyes caught his. He stood tall, towering over my five-foot-six frame by at least eight inches. I opted not to stare directly into his eyes for too long, for reasons I couldn’t quite put my finger on, at that moment.

  “Look, I don’t care what you’ve done these last four years. It’s our last semester and I’m not going to let you mess up my nearly perfect GPA. We need to develop a plan for this final project. I’ve written out a schedule to track our progress—”

  “Really? Already? Today was the first day of class.”

  I blinked and tilted my head. “And?”

  He didn’t respond, not directly, anyway. He chuckled.

  Swallowing, I had to avert my eyes as anger and something unfamiliar bubbled up in my chest at the sound.

  “Don’t worry, princess. I wouldn’t dream of destroying your precious grade point average. But I have another class to get to. We’ll have to meet some other time.” He tilted his head, winked at me, and then sauntered off, leaving me fuming.

  Why I was so angry, I didn’t know, nor did I care to actually explore. I had another class to get to as well, and it was halfway across campus. I was grateful to have a reason not to just stand there and watch Robert as he walked away. Despite my gratitude, however, I couldn’t help my eyes from staring at his back as he strutted off as if he owned the entire campus. Loathe as I was to admit, I’d observed him from afar over the past four years, although I’d done everything to avoid Robert Townsend and the snooty group he socialized with.

  All I needed to do was get through the next sixteen weeks of the semester and I’d never have to see, speak of, or think about Robert Townsend again.

  “Good riddance,” I murmured as I turned and headed in the direction of my next class.

  ****

  Present

  I inhaled his signature scent prior to feeling his embrace, just before those thick arms of his wrapped themselves around my waist from behind. I didn’t bother to look over my shoulder, preferring to continue staring out the window viewing the construction of the playground on the property we were in, as I leaned back against my husband’s hard chest.

  “You know, I hated you at first.”

  I grinned as my eyes fluttered shut when Robert lowered, the small hairs of the short beard he’d recently let grow out brushing against the sensitive skin of my neck, as he pressed a kiss there. I sighed, again becoming enveloped by the smell of lavender and nutmeg from his L’Occitane Eau De Toilette cologne. The only fragrance he’d worn since I first bought it for him as a Christmas present years ago.

  “You didn’t hate me.” He pressed another kiss to my neck, causing me to shiver. Even after all of these years he still had that effect on me. He braced my shoulders with his large hands, turning me to face him.

  I stared up into his dark eyes.

  “You couldn’t stand how I made you feel.”

  And because, naturally, he was correct, I angled my head, lifting my chin. He lowered his head, our lips meeting in the middle. I was expecting a short, sweet kiss, but nothing was short or simple with Robert Townsend. His lips parted as he used his tongue to separate my lips, deepening the kiss. Luckily, before we got too carried away, I pulled back.

  “You thought you knew me,” I stated, returning to our original dialogue.

  His pink lips parted on a smirk. The same cocky gr
in he’d given me after that World Mythologies class, decades earlier.

  “I did know you, maybe not every detail, but from the first moment you parted those sleek thighs and let me slip inside of you, you’ve been mine. Every. Single. Part. Of. You.”

  “Aw, c’mon! We don’t need to hear that shit!”

  I laughed as Robert’s eyes narrowed and he spun around to face our third youngest son, Joshua. I giggled even harder seeing the disgusted expression on Joshua’s face as his green eyes shifted between his father and I.

  “Leave them alone, Josh. It’s so adorable how in love they still are after all of these years.”

  That was one of my daughters-in-law, Kayla, Joshua’s wife.

  I watched as Joshua shifted his gaze from us, down to his wife at his side, and his eyes softened. My heart shifted in my chest. Just like his father, Joshua wore his love for his wife on his sleeve. All of my boys did.

  “Destiny’s on the phone finding out the delivery time for the computers,” Carter, our oldest son, chimed in, pushing his way past Joshua, as he entered the conference room we’d been standing in.

  The room was mostly empty, save for a few office chairs and lots of empty cardboard boxes.

  My stomach grumbled as soon as the scent of the pizzas Carter carried hit my nose.

  “Lunch is served,” he stated, setting the three boxes of pizza on the one desk in the room.

  One by one, the rest of our children began piling in.

  “What was Josh so pissed about?” Carter asked at the same time as he handed his wife, Michelle, a paper plate with a slice of pizza on it, before holding out a chair for her to sit.

  I smiled at how chivalrous all of my boys were.

  “Your brother was upset because I was about to remind him of how sexy your father still is.”

  In unison all four of our sons—Carter, Aaron, Joshua, and Tyler—groaned in horror. Each of their faces were a display of disgust, as their wives giggled.

  Tyler, our youngest, who happened to be holding one of his own children, covered his daughter, Annalise’s, ears. “There are children around!” he stated, with narrowed eyes looking between Robert and I.

  “You nor your child would be here if it weren’t for us, so can it,” I admonished, just before Robert moved past me to pluck our granddaughter out of Tyler’s arms. Anna, as I called her, giggled when Robert tickled her little belly.

  A second later, Tyler’s wife, Destiny, entered the conference room, hanging up the phone. “Computers will be delivered in an hour, and cable and internet company will be out first thing tomorrow morning to get us all connected,” she stated, excitedly.

  “Good news,” I responded, handing Destiny, who reminded me of a younger version of the actress, Nia Long, a slice of pizza.

  “Thank you,” she gushed. “I haven’t eaten all day.”

  At that, Tyler frowned. “Why the hell not?” he questioned, his voice darkening from the lighthearted tone he’d expressed just a minute earlier.

  Destiny rolled her eyes, before looking up at her football player husband. “Because we have three children under the age of one, I run my own company, and my sisters and mother-in-law have been working our butts off to open this new women’s shelter. In other words, I’ve been a little busy.”

  “We have a damn chef just to make sure this doesn’t happen.”

  “Lay off her, Ty,” I interjected, knowing how possessive and controlling my sons could be. They learned it from their father.

  “He’s right, princess.”

  I rolled my own eyes at Robert’s words. I knew he’d take Tyler’s side.

  “All of you ladies have been busy working your asses off to get this project off the ground, but you need to take care of yourselves first.”

  “Thank you, Father,” Tyler agreed.

  “Robert—”

  “Don’t Robert me. Did you have breakfast this morning before you left the house?”

  I looked to Tyler. “See what you started?”

  “See,” Destiny chimed in, “now you’re causing a rift between your parents. Happy with yourself now?”

  “He’s right,” our second oldest son, Aaron, added, causing, his wife, Patience, to roll her eyes.

  “Let it go, Destiny, you’re not going to win this argument with these four. Aaron practically force feeds me if it’s past ten in the morning and I haven’t eaten.”

  Aaron, with his ever present scowl, simply glared down at his wife and shrugged because what else could he say? Everyone in the room new Patience was telling the truth.

  A frowning Destiny finally decided to drop it and continue eating.

  “Deb, did you know Robert was the one when you first met?” Michelle asked once we were about halfway through eating our lunch.

  Robert turned to me, giving me the same smoldering stare he’d been giving me for forty years, and nodded.

  “Of course.”

  “Psh, don’t believe him,” I responded, glancing between our children and two of our now ten grandchildren. The rest were back at our home with three nannies and two babysitters between the eight of them.

  “No, princess didn’t realize I was the one. But I knew early on.”

  “Oh, we all know the story,” Carter added, causing us all to glance his way. “You both met in college, fell in love, and the rest is history.”

  Robert and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

  “History, huh?” Robert questioned.

  “You’ve told us the story, Father,” Aaron added.

  “You got the abridged version, son. Maybe it’s time we tell them the full story,” Robert stated, staring at me.

  Lifting my eyebrows, I shrugged. I looked at our children whose faces had shifted to ones of curiosity instead of impatience. “I don’t see why not.”

  Chapter Two

  Then

  Deborah

  I crouched down low behind the bar, pulling my notecards from my shoulder bag to study for the next twenty minutes before my shift began. The loud music, constant chatter, and strobe lights that were gaining so much popularity in clubs like this, didn’t make for the easiest of studying locations, but I fit my studying in wherever I could. Thus, as uncomfortable as I was, I snuggled into the far corner behind the bar where patrons couldn’t see me, and where I was out of the way of Pia, the bartender for the night’s, way, and went about memorizing the notes I’d taken earlier in my Theory of Probabilities class.

  “Hey, you’re studying already? Wasn’t this, like, your first week of the semester?”

  Startled, I looked up to find Pia’s two long, blonde pigtails hanging low as she tilted her head downward, staring at me.

  I nodded. “Yeah, but our professor gives us a quiz each week. Just trying to stay prepared,” I muttered the last part before turning back to my notes to continue studying.

  “You’ve got another ten minutes. And don’t let Mike catch you back here doing that.”

  I nodded, not bothering to look up. I knew Pia would alert me if he came out from his back office. I’d gotten used to the absurdity that studying while not even on my shift could be a thing to hide. Mike, the owner, wasn’t looking for girls who wanted to study to make it out of this place.

  “Trinity’s on tonight and it’s a Friday. You know what that means,” Pia continued as she wiped down the bar.

  Again, I nodded, but kept my eyes on my notecards. I really wanted to start the semester off well. As a math major, I loved numbers and working analysis by running numbers, as we did in statistics. However, when it came to theory courses that required the understanding of historical explanations, as well as written papers to explain said theories, that was a weakness of mine. I needed to focus on doing well from the very beginning.

  After what felt like only a few minutes, I looked at the watch on my wrist and saw that I only had another two minutes before my shift.

  “Time flies when you’re having fun,” I mumbled to myself, before inserting my noteca
rds into my leather, over the shoulder backpack, and pushing it all of the way behind the boxes of unopened liquor bottles under the bar.

  “Time to get to work,” Pia noted as I stood up and smoothed down the edges of the red, checkered mini-skirt I wore.

  “It’s that time,” I responded, using my hands to adjust my boobs so they sat up in the midriff, white T-shirt I wore. I pulled up the suspender straps holding my skirt in place. The knee-high white socks and platform heels I wore completed the supposed school girl outfit the owner of Richie’s was going for. After three and a half years of working there, I no longer thought about the ridiculousness of the outfit. The pay was decent, but the tips more than made up for it, and my while my academic scholarship paid for my school and living expenses on campus, I worked to save so I’d have money to move once I finished school.

  “How do I look?” I held out my arms, asking Pia.

  Her pink lips spread into a wide grin. “Damn good. Now go make that money.” She smacked me on the ass as I walked past her.

  I pushed her arm away, used to her teasing by now. As soon as I stepped from behind the bar, the main lights darkened and the strobe lights turned up. I looked up as the music started playing. I immediately recognized The Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar”. Trinity had a thing for anything by the Rolling Stones. Her long, thin frame made its way from behind the red velvet curtain to the stage.

  “Hey!”

  I turned toward the bar to Pia.

  “Mike says we’ve got a big crowd coming in. Potential big spenders or something. Look alive.”

  I stood up straight.

  “Poke your tits out. Come on, you know the drill!” she yelled back.

  Rolling my eyes skyward, I stood up straight, shoulders back so that my boobs stood at attention, and pulled my long, brunette locks, over my shoulder.

  “That’s it. Now work those baby blues of yours!”

  I blinked rapidly, emphasizing my eyes.

  “Go get ’em,” she called just before moving farther down the bar to make a drink for a patron that’d just entered.

  Spinning around, I grabbed one of the circular trays I carried the drinks and plates of food on, when ordered, ignoring the growing voices of the men catcalling Trinity as she danced on stage. I could tell at what point of her set she was on by how loud the cheers were.