Authors: Nicholas Maze
“I understand.”
“Just view it as a lesson learned.”
“Okay.”
Later in the afternoon, Marla decided to stop by Angie’s office to see if she received the text about the meeting later that evening. Angie had not read the message, because she still had her cell phone on silent from last night. Marla informed Angie that it was very important that she be there and mentioned the time and place again. Angie confirmed her presence and decided to put her motel visits on hold.
Tina spent her afternoon at work, being consoled by Tony. Tony’s hormones were in overdrive and he was willing to listen to any problems that Tina had, if it meant another opportunity for him to sleep with her. Tina and Tony developed a love/hate relationship from the very beginning. They were able to get along with one another, when the situation was beneficial. Although Tony had not been working for T and C very long, he managed to build a relationship with Tina over time. One of the first few nights of hanging out together, they slept together. This placed a strain on the relationship, because there was definitely no love involved. The main ingredient was attraction. Tony definitely wasn’t looking for a serious relationship. And although Tina desired a serious relationship with one person, she chose to play the role with Tony. This only made the situation worst. With their constant ups and downs, they would only get together when it was convenient or when either was vulnerable. It probably was better to call their relationship a sex/hate relationship, because love was nowhere to be found.
Later that evening….
Outside of EL’s Brewery, Angie, Marla, and Stephanie had all arrived several minutes early. All three of them were on their phones. Stephanie was calling Reggie to inform him that she would be late coming home. Although they haven’t been on the same page lately, Stephanie chose to be considerate and let him know. With so much on her mind, she decided to keep the conversation short and sweet.
“Hey. I was just calling to let you know that I’ll be a little late getting home, tonight.”
“Okay.”
“Did you need anything, while I was out?”
“No. I’m good.”
“Okay. Bye.”
As they ended their conversation, four vehicles over from Stephanie, Angie received a text message.
[Reggie: I’ll be free for a couple of hours.”
[Angie: Sorry. I have plans.]
[Reggie: You cheating on me?]
[Angie: Never. I so bad want to be there.]
[Reggie: There’s always next time, I guess.]
[Angie: This is true.]
One minute before eight o’clock, Marla got out of her vehicle and walked into EL’s. Angie and Stephanie noticed Marla walking in and both got out of their vehicles at the same time. Angie made it to the door before Stephanie and held the door for her.
“Hey girl”, said Angie with a smile.
“Hey.”
Marla had already requested a table. She told the waitress four, because she believed that Rhonda wouldn’t be attending. Once Angie and Stephanie met up with Marla, all three got escorted by the waitress to their table. Several minutes after eight o’clock, Diane pulled up and entered the restaurant.
“Sorry, girls. Mother responsibilities”, said Diane as she had a seat.
“Where’s Rhonda?”
“She probably won’t be here”, replied Marla.
Once everyone was situated, they all placed orders of food and drinks. Marla felt it was better to tell everything, after everyone had ate their food and had gotten comfortable. After about forty-five minutes to an hour, Marla explained the reason for the urgent meeting. When she said that she knew who the note belonged to, the women got uncomfortable as they prepared to hear who the cheater was. When Marla said Michael, they all were in shock and somewhat happy. They weren’t totally happy, because the note had done its damage. Regardless if their companions were innocent, there was still a lot mending that had to take place. Each woman was trying to determine how they could fix the mistakes and assumptions they made. The only person that didn’t have any worry at the table was Angie. For the most part, Angie was happy. She had a ‘thing’ going on with Reggie and wasn’t committed to any particular man that she would have to work things out with. Her only issue might be losing the fun she was having with Reggie, once the situation got back in order with him and Stephanie. At the same time, Reggie may have lost interest in Stephanie and decide to leave her for Angie. Recently, Reggie had been spending more and more time with Angie. Reggie didn’t even bother to go home, last night. Instead, he stayed all night with Angie at the motel and Stephanie let the women know that he never came home. As she got teary-eyed explaining the struggles she was having with her long-term boyfriend, Angie just observed with nothing to say. It left Angie in an awkward situation, but at the same time she felt she had nothing to lose.
Before the meeting was over, Marla felt it was important to apologize to all of the women at the table for what they had went through. Although it wasn’t her that wrote the note, it was her that brought the note to their attention and initiated the “investigating ring”. The women agreed that she was at fault, but understood her reason for what she did. Each of the women hugged one another, before parting ways. Marla decided to stop by The Covering Hospital to see if Rhonda was there and if she could talk to her.
When Marla made it to the hospital, she went to Jimmy’s room, but saw another patient in the room. Marla wasn’t sure where they had moved Jimmy to and decided to go to the front desk and ask. When she asked the nurse sitting at the desk, the nurse didn’t know Jimmy’s name. One of the nurses standing in the back overheard his name and remembered who he was. She hadn’t worked with him on a regular basis, but remembered helping other nurses care for him. The nurse was hesitant, because it was obvious that Marla had no clue of Jimmy’s status. She eventually got the nerve to say something and approached the desk.
“Ma’am”, said the Nurse to Marla.
“Yes?”
“How do you know Jimmy?”
“I’m his next door neighbor. I haven’t talked to his wife in a few days, so I decided to come up here and check on him.”
“Ma’am, Jimmy passed away last night. We did all we could, but there were no options available.”
Marla became very quiet as she stared at the nurse. She was staring so hard that it was as if she was looking through her. Neither, the nurse or Marla knew what to say, as they looked at each other. Marla suddenly walked away to leave. “I’m sorry”, said the nurse. Marla never responded and just continued to speed walk out of the hospital. When she made it to her car, she couldn’t find her keys. Although the keys were in her purse, Marla was unable to focus and could never find them. Suddenly, she dropped the purse, rested her hands and face on top of the vehicle, and cried. The sudden death of Jimmy was a mental shock to Marla. She was already carrying the burden for causing disruption in others’ relationships and now she had to deal with a death that she blamed herself for. Being that it was late in the evening, there wasn’t a lot of people around. This allowed Marla to have time to herself, as she continued to cry.
She was afraid to drive herself home and decided to call Michael to come and pick her up. After several attempts and no answer, she gave up. Michael was not answering, because he went to bed earlier than usual. He was still frustrated from the argument he had with Marla and needed time to rest and clear his mind. Marla eventually called Diane, who happen to still be awake and watching television. Diane could tell how distraught Marla was through the phone and quickly left to go pick her up. Diane left so fast that she didn’t bother to tell Stanley she was leaving. When Diane arrived, Marla was sitting on the concrete with her back against the driver side door. She was no longer crying. She just sat still, with her mind racing. Marla didn’t notice that Diane had made it there. After several attempts, Diane managed to get Marla’s attention and helped her get in the car. She had no choice but to leave the vehicle at the hospital, overnight. Diane drove Marla home, helped her into the house, and returned to her own home. For the rest of the night, Marla and Diane barely slept. Marla mind was occupied with thoughts of death, while Diane was too concerned with the well-being of her sister.
Early in the morning, Michael was up as usual. He got his things together to get ready for work and didn’t bother waking up Marla to say anything. He noticed that Marla hadn’t got out of her clothes from last night. Although it wasn’t like Marla to go to bed with her work clothes on, he didn’t bother questioning it or saying anything about it. When he looked at Marla’s face, he saw a disgruntled look as she slept. He could see pain in her face. He assumed it was from the argument that they had yesterday. Yet again, he chose not to question it. Instead, he gathered his things and left for work. His ride to work was quiet and empty. He was still hurt by the way Marla reacted to the note she found. In his mind, she should have addressed it and brought it to his attention, instead of keeping it and snooping around. Though it was Friday, Michael wasn’t having a good day. While others may be happy about Friday being the end of the “work week”, Michael was happy to go to work. In some ways, he was more at peace while at work. At the moment, he wasn’t ready to deal with Marla. He was more comfortable dealing with his co-workers and the many clients that passed through.
Back home, Marla responded to her mobile alarm as usual. The familiar siren woke her up, but she truly did not want to get out of bed. She wasn’t ready to face the real world. She felt useless. So many things had went wrong in the past week, because of what she thought existed. And, it wasn’t so much about her making a wrong decision. The biggest issue is that she brought others into the picture and made matters worse. Whenever bad situations would occur in her life, Marla would simply take time off from work to recuperate. But, this was a new job and taking time off was not an option. Even if she had a nice amount of time on the job, it might still be hard to take time off from work. One reason was that her small staff was too busy taking time off themselves. So, Marla had to put on that extra layer of skin that she kept on standby. She had to face whatever that was to come. As she got ready to get out of the bed, she realized that Junior was asleep in her bed. He found his way to their room, in the middle of the night and went back off to sleep. As she looked at Junior, she remembered what she had to fight for. On her “mental list”, there was no option for “giving up”. There was no sacrifice greater than her son. Her mistakes were just that…. Mistakes. Something that occurred in the past and had no business taking up space in her future. She found a way to block out what had happened and move on with her responsibilities. “Number one: Get Junior ready”, she said to herself.
After getting dressed and preparing breakfast for Junior, Marla was ready to leave and take on the day. Any responsibilities or situations that were to arise would have no effect, in her mind. She felt an extra boost and had faith in herself. Once Ms. Loins made it to the house to watch Junior, Marla was on her way. She quickly got in her car, that Stanley and Diane managed to bring back last night, and turned the ignition. While eyeing the dashboard, she could see Rhonda and Jimmy’s house in the corner of her eye. Next, she made the mistake and looked directly at their home. Seeing Rhonda and Jimmy’s home was too much for Marla. She broke down in tears, while sitting in her driveway. She spent at least ten minutes crying to herself. Just finding out the news last night, the pain was still fresh in her heart. After a while, she gathered herself together and found her way to work.
When Marla got to work, she was a few minutes late. She knew it didn’t look good, especially since it was a brand new job. Instead of adding more worry to the situation, Marla decided to head into work and start her day. When she made it to her area, everyone was in there place and busy at work. Unknowing to Marla, Angie arrived at work a lot earlier than usual. She wasn’t able to spend a night at the motel, so there was nothing in the way to stop her from arriving to work on time. Marla wasn’t ready to tell Angie the news about Jimmy. She went straight to her desk and got started on her work. There were several projects waiting on her with new clients. It was a great opportunity to clear her mind with all of the thoughts she was fighting. On the other side, work went as usual. There was nothing out of the ordinary or crazy to interfere with the workflow. While going through her paperwork, Marla received a text message from Diane that asked, “How do you feel?” Marla didn’t feel like responding, but she knew that not responding might worry Diane. So, she decided to reply and inform Diane that she was ok. Although seeing Rhonda’s home sent her back into shock, she managed to get a hold of herself and continue moving forward.
On the other end of the floor, Angie was busy in her office, texting. She was so into her text messages, she didn’t even notice that Marla walked in late.
[Reggie: What about tonite?]
[Angie: I’ll have to see.]
[Reggie: Well, let me know. I miss you.]
Angie had to laugh to herself. She thought that all men were dogs. In Angie eyes, she believed there was nothing wrong in what she was doing. Even if it meant lying to herself, she would find good in what she was doing. She felt that a “good man” would never have a reason to sleep with another woman. She proclaimed that the day she found a good man, would be the day that the earth would end. Although she could point out all of the things a “good man” shouldn’t be doing, she purposely chose to ignore all of the foul things she was doing. She never once observed how she would place men in certain predicaments. Reggie was a great example of how Angie would purposely aim for a man’s weakness. She knew that Reggie and Stephanie had hit a sour spot, because of all the debacle that went forth about the “previously unknown note”. So, she purposely put herself in position to cross the line.
At the same time, no one was aware that Reggie and Angie were sleeping together. In the back of Stephanie’s mind, she had a feeling that Reggie was cheating, but it was all assumptions and no solid proof. After finding out that the note belonged to Michael, Stephanie had a little more faith in Reggie. All awhile, Reggie kept finding ways to sneak text messages to Angie and schedule meetings at the motel. Angie began to feel uncomfortable about the situation, because it seemed as if Reggie was starting to have feelings for her and she didn’t desire a real relationship with Reggie. It was a dangerous web being formed and eventually someone was going to suffer from it. It remained to be seen what was to come from the affair.
Angie’s phone chirped again to announce another text message.
[Walter: What happen? I thought you said I was going to see you]
# # #
Rhonda had been at her house since yesterday. She laid in her bed, with no desire to get up. She laid, curled up on her side of the bed, with her back towards where Jimmy would lay. She was trying everything possible to block any thoughts of Jimmy. Although she laid in bed all morning, staring at the wall, there was no way of blocking out her thoughts. The one thing she couldn’t stop was her mind. There was no mute button that would eliminate everything. Rhonda would be happy if she could just pause it for a moment. She kept abusing herself mentally about the death of Jimmy. She placed all of the blame on herself. She continuously replayed the incident in her head. The thoughts were so vivid, it was as if she was right there all over again. It didn’t help that everything took place in their bedroom. There was no way possible she could not think about it. It felt like she could hear the car crash at that very moment.
Rhonda hadn’t told anyone about the end result. Jimmy’s family wasn’t aware that he was gone. Rhonda was still in disbelief about everything, from what led to the crash to what happen after the crash. Also, there was no way she could tell his family members that he was dead. To her, it would be like telling them “I killed your loved one” and Rhonda wasn’t mentally stable to do it. Last night, it took her almost three hours to get back home. With so many things racing in her head, she could never find her way. After a couple of hours, she pulled over to the side of the road and managed to gather herself to drive home. Once she got home, she laid in bed, unsure of what to do. Every decision seemed bad. Just trying to look at the empty space next to her was a struggle. All of it was too much at one time. With her mobile phone on mute, no one was able to reach her. She chose to stay in bed and struggle with her thoughts.
# # #
Stephanie had just woke up to start her day. As she stood up from the bed and stretched, she looked back and noticed that Reggie was still asleep. She was amazed to see Reggie in the bed. As of late, Reggie had found a new place to sleep. For Stephanie, it was ok. Although they were living together, nothing was official. She was determined to not sacrifice everything for a man, again. Her bad experiences with men in the past caused her to be somewhat cold-hearted. Deep down, she was in love with Reggie, but she forcefully held back from giving her all. She believed that marriage was the seal for a relationship.
Even after Reggie seemed to be giving his all to Stephanie, there remained to be a barrier in the way. She tried her best to not display it, but she wanted to wait until after the wedding to put all of her trust in him. There truly wasn’t a reason to be this way. Reggie never displayed any signs for her not to trust him. She chose to bring experiences from previous relationships into her relationship with Reggie. For the most part, Reggie couldn’t tell the difference. He believed that Stephanie was the one and that they would spend their lives together. As of late, those ideas were down the drain. With Angie in the picture, Reggie had no real reason to stick it out. The main reason he hadn’t walked out the door was because Stephanie made good money and he wanted to keep the roof he had over his head. Another key reason was that Angie hadn’t gave the green light. The motel ‘hook-ups’ were fun and adventurous, but it wasn’t a relationship. So until Angie wanted to move things forward, Reggie chose to make the place that he shared with Stephanie his home.
In a way, Stephanie was happy to have Reggie lying in bed. It helped her believe that he was different from every other man. As she thought about it, it had been a while since they discussed any wedding plans. Although they had been living together for quite some time, no arrangements had been made to say, “I do”. Stephanie was so excited about the possibility of being proposed to that she completely blocked out the actual marriage. Expecting to hear Reggie ask for her hand in marriage, she quickly moved him in. In her heart, Stephanie had been yearning for that day. Outside of the typical comment of “baby, I want to spend my life with you”, she never had a man propose to her. The experience seemed so blissful that she had to have him with her, every day. After some time, they lived like a married couple and never went into detail about having an actual marriage. Stephanie felt that today would be the day to talk to Reggie about setting a date and getting married. Since the note did not belong to him, she didn’t see a reason why they couldn’t move forward.
Before leaving out of the house, Stephanie gave Reggie a kiss on the lips as he slept. The light kiss did cause him to move a little, but it didn’t wake him. In her heart, she felt it was time to let go and give her all. As she drove to work, she could hear wedding bells singing. She kept picturing herself in various wedding dresses and how her wedding would look. She felt like a new woman all over again and wanted to tell the world!
# # #
Later in the afternoon, Marla decided to do some shopping on her lunch break. If she were to sit somewhere and eat, her mind would run rampant. She knew that browsing the mall and looking at clothes, shoes, purses, and perfume would help occupy her mind. There were no intentions on spending money. It was just something to do for an hour. She decided to go to a mall that was closer to the job. She rarely visited the mall, because it was further from home. With so many shopping malls in the area, there was no need to go out of the way. Unless, there was an item hard to find.
Being that it was mid-afternoon, there wasn’t a large crowd of people roaming the mall. Majority of the people there were shopping on their lunch break as well. As she walked the concourse of the mall, Marla spotted a colorful lemonade and cupcake cart from a distance. The combination seemed therapeutic to Marla as she made her way towards the cart. Halfway there, she noticed someone out the corner of her left eye. When she turned her head, she saw the brunette that worked with Stanley. She was sitting at a table, in front of a pizza stand. Seeing the brunette shocked Marla. And, it looked as if the person sitting with her was Stanley. He had his back turned, so Marla couldn’t see his face. But, it had to be him. She knew Stanley too well. He began to feed her a breadstick, from his plate.
Marla quickly walked into the clothing store, next to her. She went to the clothes that was by the open window, so she could get a good look of the two. Just as she thought, the man was Stanley. Stanley was neatly dressed in an all gray suit, with a light blue dress shirt and hazelnut tie. The brunette was wearing a one-piece, black dress. She wore vibrant, red lipstick and nail polish to accommodate her dress. Marla assumed they were on lunch break, but what they were doing was definitely not professional. The brunette took a couple bites of the breadstick and smiled as she chewed. Stanley was saying something to her, but Marla couldn’t hear what he was saying. Underneath the table, the brunette kept her hand on Stanley’s leg the entire time. This was beyond a business lunch and Marla felt that she saw Stanley and the brunette together for a reason.
“Marla?”
The voice was familiar. Marla was unsure of who it was, so she didn’t respond. The person behind her asked again, “Marla?” Marla slowly turned around and saw that it was Kevin Reeves. The 6’3 specimen of man that became a distraction at her previous job was standing in front of her, looking better than before. Ever since the day Marla abruptly quit, she hadn’t laid eyes on Kevin. And, that was a good thing for Marla. She was starting a new chapter in her life and wanted to put her past away. At the same time, she wasn’t on good terms with Kevin. Seeing him at this very moment was shocking and awkward. Marla completely forgot why she was in the store to begin with. As she stood speechless, Kevin took it upon himself to speak.