The Perfect Marriage (2 page)

D
enise smoothed the back of her husband’s head, admiring how handsome he still was, and gazed at their beautiful daughter.
She honestly couldn’t have been happier. They were all sitting in the family room, she and Derrek on the soft, plush, burnt-orange
leather sofa and Mackenzie in one of the matching oversize chairs. Mackenzie’s long, slender legs were propped up on one of
the ottomans as she sipped strawberry soda from an ice-filled glass. Tonight was pizza night and while Denise hadn’t eaten
any, Mackenzie and her father had devoured as much as they could. They were also in the midst of watching
The Color Purple
for the umpteenth time and were enjoying every minute of it.

But as Denise glanced over at Derrek again, she thought about how blessed they truly were. They’d been married for fifteen
wonderful years, she still loved him more than ever, and he clearly felt the same about her. She knew there was no such thing
as a perfect marriage, but if there had been, her marriage to Derrek would certainly have to qualify; partly because they
undoubtedly had the love of a lifetime and partly because no disagreement or problem had ever come between them. Then, if
that wasn’t enough, God had blessed them with the best daughter. She was kind and smart, she loved everyone she came in contact
with, and she never got into trouble. She also had a knack for helping any of her schoolmates who were a lot less fortunate
than her whenever they were in need of something. She’d been gifted with an old soul for sure, and she was the kind of child
any parent could be proud of.

Then, in addition to their marriage and daughter, God had given them both successful careers. They’d each graduated from top
schools, she from Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor’s degree in nursing and then a master’s in nursing from the University
of Illinois at Chicago, and Derrek from Northwestern with a bachelor’s in business and then an MBA from the same grad school
as her. Denise had gone to college on a partial academic scholarship, but it also hadn’t been a problem for her parents to
cover the balance of her tuition since her father had been a top criminal defense attorney in downtown Chicago for years.
Derrek, on the other hand, hadn’t come from a well-to-do family and had been forced to struggle and work his way through school.
He’d also had to utilize as many grants and student loans as had been available to him. As a matter of fact, because Derrek’s
parents had gotten so caught up with drugs, it had been his maternal grandparents who had raised him and his twin brother,
Dixon. Neither of his grandparents had earned huge salaries, but they’d still given their two grandsons a good home and had
done the best they could with them.

When Denise heard Shug Avery saying, “I’s married now,” she gazed at the large flat-screen television and thought about her
own wedding. The ceremony had been amazing, and she still remembered every detail like it was yesterday. Eight bridesmaids,
eight groomsmen, two maids of honor, two best men, three gorgeous little flower girls, the most handsome little ring bearer,
and nearly five hundred guests. It had all been a dream come true for both Denise and Derrek, and their family members had
been just as happy. In fact, life had been good since the very first day they’d met, which had sort of happened by accident.
Right after completing her nursing program, Denise had immediately gotten hired by Covington Park Memorial, and as it had
turned out, Derrek had started working for the hospital’s finance department the same week. But the reason she’d always felt
their meeting had been by accident was because she’d received employment offers from two other hospitals in the Chicago area,
and it hadn’t been until a couple of days before her scheduled hire date that she’d decided against one of them and had checked
to see if the offer was still on the table from Covington. She’d changed her mind at the last minute for no particular reason,
although her mom always insisted that there were no such things as accidents or coincidences, only meant-to-be situations.
Her mom believed that everything truly did happen for a reason.

Derrek laughed at one of the funnier scenes in the movie and grabbed Denise’s hand. The romance between them was still very
much alive, and she couldn’t be more grateful. The only thing was, however, suddenly, she felt somewhat out of sorts and a
bit uneasy. She knew why, though: she’d had another long, hectic day at work, and she needed something to calm her nerves.
Nothing major but just a little something to help her through the rest of the evening and prepare her for a restful night
of sleep. But just as she started to get up, Mackenzie said, “Oh Mom and Dad, I forgot to tell you. Alexis’s parents are leaving
two days earlier than we are for their Christmas trip, so is it okay for her to stay here with us?”

“Of course,” Denise said. “She’s traveling with us for the holidays, anyway.”

“I told her you wouldn’t mind, but she still wanted me to ask. I think her mom is going to call you.”

“It’s no problem at all.”

“Gosh, only three more months,” Mackenzie said, beaming. “Jamaica is gonna be so much fun, and I’m so glad Alexis is going.
We’re gonna have an even better time than we had on the cruise last year.”

“I’m excited, too,” Denise said just before Mackenzie’s phone rang.

Derrek pressed the Pause button on the DVR, and Mackenzie checked her Caller ID screen.

“This is Alexis now. I’ll call her back, though, when the movie goes off.”

“You sure?” he asked.

“Uh-huh.”

Derrek pressed the Play button, and Denise scooted toward the edge of the sofa. “I need to review a couple of care plan files
for tomorrow, but I’ll be back down in a half hour or so.”

Mackenzie looked at her mother. “But Mom, you’re gonna miss the rest of the movie.”

“Well, maybe not all of it. I’ll try to finish up as soon as I can.”

Mackenzie didn’t say anything else and turned back toward the television. Derrek did the same, and Denise strolled through
the hallway and up the carpeted winding staircase. They’d only lived in this particular house for five years, but it was their
dream home. They’d owned two houses prior to this, first their starter home, which had been fifteen hundred square feet, then
their second, which was nearly double that size, and now this one, which was right at five thousand. There were three finished
levels that included four bedrooms, a theater room, an exercise room, and three fireplaces. They’d built it brand new, so
not only was this their third home, it was their last. This was the house they would retire in and the one they would eventually
sell many years from now when they were too old and too tired to worry about normal upkeep. They would then happily and readily
scale down to a nice little condo.

Denise stepped inside her bedroom, closed the door and hurried over to her handbag. She’d gone all day without taking anything,
but now her stress level was getting the best of her. So, she unzipped the middle compartment, pulled out an unlabeled bottle
and opened it. She tapped it with her left forefinger until one large, white, oblong pill fell into her hand. Then, she went
into the bathroom and turned on the faucet. She wasn’t too keen on drinking from the tap, mainly because she was so used to
drinking bottled water, but she knew tap would have to do because she didn’t want to traipse all the way back downstairs to
the kitchen and take a chance on Derrek seeing her and questioning what she was doing.

She ran the water for sixty seconds or so, waiting for it to cool down, and then she lifted a decorative cup from the top
of the vanity. When it was half full, she tossed the Vicodin into her mouth, gulped down some water and swallowed. She immediately
drank the rest of it, went back into the bedroom and sat in one of the high-back chairs in the sitting area. Then she waited.
She did this because she knew her body would be relaxed in no time. She’d been pretty hungry when she’d first gotten home,
but the reason she hadn’t eaten pizza with Derrek and Mackenzie was because a few months ago she’d learned that when she took
Vicodin on an empty stomach the euphoria was much more intense and it gave her a warm feeling. It also only took thirty minutes
or less to take full effect, and this was the reason she’d had no choice but to lie to her daughter about having to go upstairs
to work. She hated being dishonest, but she’d needed an excuse to get away for at least forty-five minutes to an hour so she
could enjoy the way the Vicodin made her feel. She would also take another before going to bed. Not because she needed to,
but because she wanted to. She knew Derrek wouldn’t agree and wouldn’t understand, but no matter what he said, she saw nothing
inappropriate about feeling good. She also knew he’d be livid if he somehow discovered that she hadn’t fully given up cocaine,
either, or that she’d secretly found her own dealer to buy from. Derrek was still dead set on going to those Narcotics Anonymous
meetings every now and then, meaning he hadn’t done any cocaine since that first gathering he’d dragged her along to, but
Denise hadn’t gone back. She also knew Derrek wouldn’t be happy if he found out she now took Vicodin on a pretty regular basis—even
though the pain in her hip, a result of her falling on a sheet of ice, had vanished months ago. He’d be terribly disappointed
if he ever learned that her orthopedic specialist hadn’t written her a prescription for Vicodin ever since and he would certainly
hit the roof if he somehow discovered that she now got her pills any way she could: at first from doctor friends, who hadn’t
seemed to mind writing her a prescription, but when they’d eventually stopped taking her calls, she’d begun buying them from
the same guy who sold her cocaine. Actually, it was a good thing she was the one who handled their family finances because
it was for this reason that Derrek hadn’t noticed the extra money she was spending.

But no matter how Denise looked at things, she saw nothing wrong with any of what she was doing. Not when she clearly had
total control and wasn’t addicted to anything. Still, she would keep her Vicodin and cocaine moments to herself. She decided
her silence was best for everyone involved.

D
errek was repositioning his tie in front of the dresser mirror, making sure it wasn’t crooked, when the home phone rang. It
was pretty early on a Friday morning for anyone to be calling, but when he stepped closer to the phone on the nightstand and
saw that it was his brother, Dixon, he rolled his eyes and ignored it. He was glad that even though a lot of time had passed,
Dixon still had the same cell number because had he changed it, Derrek might have thought someone else was calling and he
could have made the mistake of answering.

“Who’s that?” Denise asked.

“Nobody.”

Denise shook her head, slipped on one of her hoop earrings and snapped it closed. “So honey, exactly how long are you planning
to go without speaking to your brother? It’s been at least three years now.”

“Yeah, and I still don’t have a thing to say to him.”

Just thinking about the way Dixon had treated him was enough to piss Derrek off. Derrek had done everything for his brother—his
twin brother at that—but all Dixon had done was lie, tell more lies, and use Derrek every chance he got. He was outrageously
selfish and while Derrek had allowed Dixon to borrow money multiple times, promise to pay it back, and never make good on
it, the stunt he’d pulled three years ago had been too much. For years, Derrek had loaned Dixon two hundred here and five
hundred there, but with this last occurrence, Dixon had called him up claiming he’d been laid off from his job and that he
needed five thousand dollars to cover his bills: mortgage, car note, utilities, and a few medical expenses. Derrek had known
it was a lot of money to be loaning anyone, even his own brother, but after he and Denise had discussed it and Dixon had sworn
he would pay them back just as soon as he borrowed money from his retirement account, Derrek had gone to the bank and gotten
a cashier’s check. Dixon had thanked him profusely and promised again that he would repay the money in a couple of weeks or
so. Sadly, a couple of weeks had come and gone and by the time a full month had passed, Derrek had learned from a mutual friend
that Dixon had taken his girlfriend on a ten-day trip to Paris. Derrek hadn’t wanted to believe his own flesh and blood would
deceive him this way, but sure enough when he’d called Dixon and questioned him about the money, Dixon had stuttered between
words but then flat out told Derrek, “I don’t have it.” Then, when Derrek had asked him about the trip, Dixon had said, “Look,
man…okay, yeah, it’s true. I took my girl on a nice vacation just like you do with Denise every year. So why don’t you stop
badgering me about that funky little five thousand dollars? It’s not like you need it right back anyhow.” Derrek remembered
how he’d almost cracked up laughing at his brother because surely he couldn’t have been serious. Surely he hadn’t meant a
word he’d just said and had only been joking. But after thirty seconds of total silence, Derrek quickly realized his brother
had
meant every word he’d said, and Derrek hadn’t spoken to Dixon ever since.

“Honey, are you listening to me?” Derrek heard Denise saying.

“I’m sorry, baby, I guess I was somewhere else.”

Denise ran a brush through her bouncy, black, shoulder-length hair and moved closer to him. “You were thinking about your
brother, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, but not anymore.”

“Honey, I really wish you would talk to Dixon. Listen to what he has to say and then just forgive him. Life is way too short
for this.”

“Dixon should have thought about that three years ago.”

Denise set the brush on the dresser and held Derrek’s hands. “I understand how you feel, but baby he made a mistake. And it
was a long time ago.”

Derrek gazed at her with sad eyes. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but as far as I’m concerned, I don’t even have
a brother.”

Denise walked back over to the bed and placed a few items in her purse. Derrek could tell she wasn’t happy with his response,
but he couldn’t help the way he felt. A part of him wished he could let bygones be bygones because sometimes he truly missed
his brother, but for some reason he just couldn’t. Not this time. Not when his brother had totally disrespected him and acted
as though what he’d done was no big deal. Not when his brother had hurt him to the core, knowing full well that the two of
them had already suffered more than enough during childhood. In fact, his mother and father had left both of them with such
painful memories, Derrek still hadn’t forgiven them, either. How could he? How could anyone forgive a mother and a father
who could so easily choose drugs over their own children? Leave two little eight-year-old boys home alone for days without
food or clean clothing? How could Derrek forgive any adult who could be so awful to any human being?

That had been almost thirty years ago, but sometimes the mere thought of his parents and what they’d done to him and Dixon
brought Derrek to tears. After all this time, he still hadn’t gotten completely over his childhood and wondered if he ever
would.

There was something great that had resulted from it all, though: his grandparents. They’d both passed away a few years back,
but he thanked God for them because had they not brought him and Dixon to come live with them, he wasn’t sure how their lives
might have turned out. His childhood woes were also the reason he’d sworn he’d never be anything like his parents—​the reason he loved, honored, and cherished his gorgeous wife, the reason having a close relationship with his daughter
was so important. It was also because of his parents that he’d vowed to never do drugs under any circumstances. To his great
disappointment, though, he’d resorted to using cocaine. He hadn’t planned on doing it, but one day he’d gone to a colleague’s
home to watch a football game and the next thing he’d known, one of the guys had passed him a line, and he’d taken a hit.
It had been the stupidest thing in the world for him to do, but it also hadn’t taken him long to realize how much he liked
it. He’d loved how free it made him feel and how the emotional stress he’d struggled with since that morning hadn’t mattered
to him for the rest of the evening. To this day, he still hadn’t told Denise what had triggered his decision to try cocaine
for the first time because he hadn’t wanted to upset her—and he never would tell her—but earlier that day he’d been told he
might have cancer. His doctor had run a couple of scans on what had seemed like some sort of small, malignant tumor in his
groin area, but once the growth had been removed and a biopsy had been performed, Derrek had learned it was benign. He hadn’t
been told the final results, though, until a couple of days after his initial scare and by then, Derrek had snorted cocaine
three evenings straight. He hadn’t wanted to stop, and for the rest of the week, he’d simply told Denise that he’d been working
late. Ironically, she actually
had
been working longer hours than usual, so with her being much too tired for sex for a period of days, she’d never even noticed
his scar.

Thankfully, though, that terrifying dream he’d had two months ago had made him think long and hard, and he was glad he’d come
to his senses—glad he’d realized that he and Denise had begun loving cocaine just a bit too much and that he’d suggested they
go to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. No, they hadn’t lost their jobs and cleaned out their savings accounts, nor were they
living on the street, but just knowing that he and Denise had begun snorting lines together every evening had made him think.
It was true that maybe his insisting that they attend a meeting centered on a twelve-step program was a bit over the top,
but nonetheless, it had stopped them both from getting high and he was happy about that.

After Derrek slipped on his shoes and tied them, he grabbed his blazer. Denise slid on her watch, snapped the clasp shut,
and they headed downstairs. Mackenzie was already parked at the granite-topped island eating a bowl of cereal and reading
one of her textbooks, and Denise went over to the coffeepot. For years she’d been adding fresh coffee grounds to the filter
each night before going to bed, so all she did now was press the Start button.

“Sweetie, you have debate practice after school today, right?” Denise asked Mackenzie, because on those days, Mackenzie couldn’t
take the bus home or carpool with her friends who had stay-at-home moms. Either Derrek or Denise had to pick her up.

“Yep. Oh and we’re staying an extra two hours tonight. Mr. Braxton says we need to put in a little more time this week, so
we’ll be ready for the competition next Thursday.”

“So is the topic still about K–12 students in the state of Illinois and whether they should attend school year round?”

“Yep. And while I don’t necessarily think it would be good for any of us to go without a summer break, I’m sort of glad our
team will be showing the benefits of it. There’s so much information out there to support that particular aspect of the argument.”

Denise smiled. “I’m so glad you joined the debate team. I loved being on debate when I was in school because we learned so
much about controversial topics.”

Derrek placed two slices of bread in the toaster. “I loved being on the team, too, when I was your age. I was also on the
high school team all four years,” he said, looking over at the ringing phone. It was Dixon again, and Derrek pretended not
to hear it.

Mackenzie watched him move to the other side of the kitchen. “Daddy, is that Uncle Dixon calling?”

“Unfortunately, it is, sweetie.”

“Well, Daddy, why won’t you talk to him? And why can’t I see him anymore?”

“I’m sorry things aren’t good between my brother and me, but you’ll understand when you’re older. Plus, if your uncle really
wanted to talk to us or even apologize, he’d leave a message.”

Mackenzie lowered her eyes. “Maybe he’s afraid to.”

Derrek didn’t say anything.

Still she continued, “Daddy, I think you’re wrong to treat Uncle Dixon like this because by now, I’m sure even God has forgiven
him for whatever he did.”

Denise finally chimed in, and Derrek was surprised she hadn’t done so before now. “Sweetie, you’re right,” she said. “God
forgives us for everything. All we have to do is ask Him.”

Two against one. Derrek knew there was no way to win this conversation, so he flipped the television on and turned it to CNN.
He watched Soledad O’Brien, Roland Martin, David Gergen, and two other popular political analysts for a few minutes, but once
the coffee was ready, he drank a cup, ate his toast, and grabbed his briefcase. But the phone rang again.

Denise walked over to it. “Baby, why don’t you at least see what your brother wants? He’s made a lot of calls over the last
few days. For at least a week now.”

Derrek did something that was rare for him: he blatantly ignored his wife’s comment. “Mackenzie, if you’re ready, we’d better
get going. Unless you want to take the bus.” He always teased his daughter every chance he got about getting rides versus
taking the bus, but today he did it as a way to change the subject.

Denise folded her arms, though, clearly aware of what he was up to.

“I’m sorry,” he said, walking over and kissing her on the lips.

“I just wish you’d rethink your position on this.”

“I love you,” he said. “And I’ll see you later.”

Derrek kissed her again and walked out to the garage. He wished he could feel differently but if his brother didn’t stop calling,
Derrek would contact the phone company and have his number blocked. He would do whatever he had to do to get rid of him.