With a devilish glint in his eyes, Marshall said, “I ordered them before I joined you in the car, while I was reserving our table.”
“Thank you, Marshall, you can’t even imagine how much I needed these flowers right now.”
“You’re welcome...and maybe the next time I hand you flowers off a table, you won’t feel the need to hit me over the head with them.”
Looking a bit embarrassed, Danetta said, “I’m sorry about that, Marshall. I should have been gracious enough to accept those flowers just as I’m accepting these now.”
He stood up and held his hand out to her. “I’ll forgive you if you dance with me.”
Danetta glanced around the room. Everyone appeared to be having a good time, eating and listening to the soulful jazz music. She didn’t feel like being a party pooper, so she grabbed Marshall’s hand and allowed him to take her onto the dance floor.
They moved in a syncopated rhythm, from side to side, back and forth. Then Marshall twirled her around and slowed the dance down. “Marshall, people are staring at us,” she said as their bodies collided together.
He looked down at her with adoration showing in his eyes. “Of course they’re staring. Did you forget that you’re the loveliest woman in the room?”
Grinning from ear to ear, Danetta said, “Marshall Windham, sometimes, you say the darndest things.”
His words relaxed Danetta. She put her head on Marshall’s shoulder and allowed the music to lull her into a dream state as they continued to slow dance across the floor. They danced through three songs and then sat back down and ordered chocolate cake. The two were feeling good as they walked out of the restaurant and got in the car.
As Marshall held Danetta’s door for her, he said, “Thanks for going out with me, D, I really had a good time with you tonight.”
“I bet you say that to Veronica and all the other girls,” Danetta said, trying to make light of his comment.
Marshall shivered. “Please don’t mention that woman to me.”
“Why, what’s wrong with her? A couple of weeks ago, you were upset about not being able to take her on your business trip, now you don’t even want to hear her name... I swear I don’t understand men.”
“D, it’s not even like that. That woman is crazy. I had to get a restraining order on her.”
Danetta’s mouth hung open. “What?”
“She scratched my car and flattened my tires after I told her I wasn’t taking her out of town with me. So, really, it’s all your fault.”
She playfully shoved his shoulder. “Shut up.”
Laughing, Marshall said, “Oh, so you don’t want to take responsibility for the drama you caused, huh?”
Danetta shook her head in disbelief. “I just can’t believe you had to get a restraining order on Veronica. I’ve never known you to date crazy women before.”
“Well, don’t be too hard on her. If you had somebody putting it down right, you’d lose your mind when it was over, too.”
“Ha,” Danetta laughed at Marshall’s comment, and then declared, “I certainly wouldn’t lose my mind over some ‘love ’em and leave ’em’ hound dog who thinks he’s something because he’s talented in the bedroom.”
“You just haven’t had the right hound dog,” Marshall said with a devilish grin.
“I don’t want a hound dog at all. I’m not into hook-ups and then cross my fingers and hope that he’ll call me in the morning stuff.”
“So, again, I ask what are you doing trolling the internet? Because you know those guys only want one thing.”
“Don’t all men just want one thing?”
“Not all men.” He took his eyes off the road and glanced over at Danetta. “Variety is the spice of life, D. Sometimes a man just wants a woman he can talk to.”
“I still can’t believe that you got a restraining order against her. That just doesn’t seem like something you would do.”
“Danetta, I’m telling you, that woman is coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs. When she came over to my house the day I had to leave for that business trip, I thought she was going to knife me or something. But instead of that, she broke the ceramic lamp that you bought me for my thirtieth birthday and then she keyed my SUV.”
“What?” Her mouth hung open for a moment. “You didn’t tell me that she broke the lamp I bought you.” Shaking her head, she continued, “I only remember seeing her at the office once, but I would have never thought that she was that type of woman.”
“You and me both. I normally take applications before I start dating a woman...you know, find out if she has any mental health issues or if she likes playing with knives after an argument with her man...things like that. But Veronica looked so much like you, I naturally thought she’d be cool people.”
Did Marshall just say that he dated a woman because she reminded him of her? What does that mean? “What are you talking about, Marshall? Veronica and I don’t look alike. That woman is the flashy, model type you normally date; I’m nothing like that.”
He pulled up in front of her house and turned off the car. Marshall turned to Danetta and let his eyes roam the length of her. When he met her eyes again he said, “You look pretty flashy to me.”
“With the way you’re looking at me, you’d think I was at the Super Bowl and Justin Timberlake was exposing my breast to the world or something.”
“Well, you are definitely bringing sexy back.”
The silence was thick in the car as their eyes met and locked. Marshall had this look of surprise on his face, like he’d been caught off guard, and couldn’t quite get his bearings. Then they started leaning toward each other. They were about to kiss. Danetta didn’t know if this was such a good idea, but she couldn’t stop herself. The kiss he’d given her at dinner tonight was closed-mouthed; Danetta desperately wanted to know what an opened-mouth, tongues twirling, passionate kiss with this man would feel like.
She’d dreamed about kissing him since the day they met. But never in a million years did she ever think Marshall would look at her the way he was looking at her right now or that he would...
Marshall’s lips touched hers and all thought ceased. There was only the heat that radiated between them as his mouth devoured hers. Danetta scooted over, moving closer to the fire. She lifted her hands to wrap them around Marshall. But someone tapped on her window causing Danetta to jump.
Marshall ran his hand through his low-cut hair. As he pulled away from Danetta he turned a smile toward the person knocking at her window.
She turned her head and saw her Aunt Sarah standing outside the car. And that’s when it hit her—this was Thursday night. She normally hung out with her aunt on Thursday evenings. She’d forgotten to call and tell her aunt that she had a date. And now her aunt had caught her kissing Marshall. She opened the passenger door and said, “Aunt Sarah, I’m so sorry; I forgot all about you tonight.”
“I cooked dinner and left it in the house. I was just getting ready to leave when you and Marshall pulled up.” She leaned down and waved at Marshall. “How are you doing, Marshall?”
He gave a charming smile. “Doing well, Aunt Sarah.”
Danetta got out of the car.
“So were you and Marshall on a date?”
“No, Auntie, we were not on a date,” Danetta said with obvious irritation in her voice.
“I didn’t mean to pry, dear, it’s just that you look so pretty and you were just kissing Marshall, weren’t you?”
Marshall yelled from the car, “She was on a date, Aunt Sarah.”
Danetta turned back and glared at Marshall. How dare he sell her out like that?
Aunt Sarah looked from Marshall to Danetta. She then turned back to Marshall and said, “Get on out of that car and come in the house so we can talk.”
Danetta held up her hand and conf
essed, “All right, all right, if you must know, I was on a date tonight.”
“Oh that’s wonderful. Now you and Marshall come on in the house and tell me all about it.”
“Not much to tell,” Danetta said as Marshall rolled up the window and got out of the car. “I met this guy. We went out to dinner and then his wife showed up.”
Chapter 10
When Marshall told Aunt Sarah that Danetta had been on a date, he hadn’t been referring to the time she’d spent with Darnell and his wife. He’d been talking about the time they’d spent at dinner and dancing. But since she went there, Marshall decided to go with the flow as he walked into the house with Danetta and Aunt Sarah.
Danetta continued her story. “It was awful, Auntie. I thought this guy was perfect; I’m just thankful that Marshall was at the restaurant with us. He saved me from looking like a total fool.”
“Where’d you meet this guy?” Her aunt sounded concerned.
“He attended our annual dinner party.”
“Yeah, but Aunt Sarah, this man first saw her on some internet dating site.”
Danetta poked Marshall with her elbow.
“Is that true, honey? Are you dating men off the internet?” Aunt Sarah asked with wide-eyed terror.
“It’s no big deal, Auntie, I just joined this matchmaking service. I haven’t even accepted any dates from the site yet. Marshall is just running his mouth.”
Aunt Sarah sat down on the couch and shook her head.
“What?”
Aunt Sarah looked at her niece and boldly said, “I told you before, Danetta, that my Bible says, ‘the man who finds a wife finds a good thing and then he obtains favor from God.’”
Danetta rolled her eyes, because she’d heard this speech too many times to count.
Marshall chimed in. “I don’t know about whether or not the man has to find the woman, but I do think Danetta has lost her mind with this internet dating stuff.”
Aunt Sarah shook her head. “All I know is, if you’re out there trying to find a man, rather than waiting on him to find you, you’re just going to keep running into the same type of messy situations as you got yourself involved in tonight.”
She had run into her share of messy situations these past few weeks. But she wasn’t about to tell her aunt about that. “Aunt Sarah, please calm down. It is perfectly all right in this day and age for a woman to ask a man out. Right, Marshall?”
Marshall shook his head. “Don’t look at me. I don’t want no part of this. Like Aunt Sarah said, this whole thing is just messy.”
“Thanks, Marshall.”
He hit his chest with his fist. “Hey, I’m here for you.”
Aunt Sarah put her head in her hands as she shook it. When she faced her niece again, she said, “Right before your mama went home, I promised her that I would look after you.”
Danetta cringed at those words. Her aunt Sarah always said that her mom ‘went home’ as if she was just down the street and around the corner, and Danetta could go visit her whenever she felt like it. But in truth her mom was buried six feet deep in the cemetery where all of her other dead relatives were buried. Pauline Harris died before her only child graduated from high school.
During her mother’s brief illness, Danetta fully expected her mother to recover. She was young and her aunt Sarah had filled her head with the knowledge of a loving God. Since God was so loving, Danetta knew that He would never allow her mother to die while she was still so young. But He had, and that one cruel act solidified things for her.
“Maybe if you start wearing your promise ring again, that will help you to wait on the right man to come along.”
“I hate to break it to you, Aunt Sarah, but I took that promise ring off the day I lost my virginity to a guy I’d only known for two weeks.”
Marshall sucked in a breath and clamped his hand over his mouth as if he couldn’t believe women did things like that. “How you gon’ tell Aunt Sarah something like that?”
Sarah waved off Marshall’s concern as she responded to her niece. “I knew why you took the ring off. I’m just saying that if you put it back on, maybe you’ll start to remember why you wore it in the first place.”
If her aunt wasn’t so serious, the very idea would be laughable. You couldn’t put the genie back in the bottle and become a virgin again. She’d put that promise ring on when she was fifteen and eager to pledge that she would keep her virginity until she married. But when her mother died, suddenly nothing seemed to matter anymore.
She’d stopped caring about what God thought was best and began living life on her own terms. She wasn’t thinking about any purity promise ring or about God and the so-called man He could bring into her life. Her own father hadn’t wanted to be a part of her life. He’d remarried and wanted nothing to do with the child from his first marriage. So, with the help of her aunt, she had taken care of herself since she was seventeen. So, Danetta was quite capable of finding her own good thing, thank you very much.
“Well, just think about what I said, okay?”
“Why are you rubbing your arm like that?”
Sarah looked down. She hadn’t noticed that she was rubbing her arm, but now that Danetta mentioned it... “It’s been going numb on me.”
Danetta rolled her eyes. Her aunt took care of everybody else, but neglected herself as if she were superhuman. “When’s the last time you had a checkup?”
She shook her head. “I know what you’re going to say, and I don’t want you to worry about me. I’ve been busy with all of my volunteer work, but I promise I’ll make a doctor’s appointment.”
Danetta sat down next to her beloved aunt and put her arm around the woman. “See that you do. You’re all the family I have left, so I need you in my life.”
“That’s right, Aunt Sarah,” Marshall said. “You lie down and get some rest; I’ll deal with Danetta and her little dating problem.” He grabbed Danetta’s hand and they walked out of the living room.
In the kitchen, Danetta put her hands on her hips. “You’ll deal with me, huh?”
“Look, I’m just trying to help.”
“How is that?”
“To stop you from doing all this internet dating, maybe I’ll take you out.” He took a loose strand of hair and put it behind her ear. He lightly touched his lips to hers and then pulled back. “What do you say?... Wanna go out with me?”
She was absolutely appalled. First her aunt tells her she should wait on God to send her a mate...then Mr. I-Think-I’m-God, offers her a pity date. “Go home, Marshall. I don’t need your help.”
* * *
“Kevin, open up!” Marshall banged on his friend’s door like he was the owner of the property and his bum of a tenant owed him rent money. “Come on, man, I need to talk to you.”
“Who’s there?” a voice called from inside.
“It’s me, Marshall. Open the door.”
Kevin opened the door and stepped back as Marshall rushed in. “What’s up, man? Is the police after you or what?”
“I kissed Danetta. I can’t believe I did that.” Marshall moved back and forth while rubbing his temples. He didn’t understand what was happening to him or why he was feeling these emotions about Danetta.
“What are you talking about?”
“She’s just so sexy,” he continued. “I can’t get her out of my head. And I’m so jealous of the men she’s been going out with.”
“Who is sexy? And who are you jealous of?”
Marshall stopped in his tracks. He stared at Kevin for a moment. “Haven’t you been listening to me? I’m talking about Danetta.”
“Danetta who?” Kevin asked.
“Boy, are you dense or what? You know what Danetta I’m talking about...my business partner.”
“Whoa, wait a
minute.” He held up his hands. “Are we talking about Danetta Harris? The woman you told me, from your own mouth, that you were just friends with and would never even entertain developing a relationship with?”
“Yeah, but she’s driving me crazy with this new attitude she’s developed. You saw her at the party.”
“Yeah, and baby got back, and curves and bumps... I wanted to ask her out myself,” Kevin said.
“See what I mean? But it’s not just how sexy she is. I can really talk to Danetta. We have history and I’m comfortable with her.” Marshall was exasperated. “Now what am I supposed to do?”
Kevin shrugged. “Holler at her. She probably made all those changes to get your attention, anyway.”
“I can’t just start seeing her. Danetta and I have been friends for ten years and business partners for seven. I can’t jeopardize our relationship.” Marshall walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. “And anyway, she turned me down when I asked her out.”
Kevin laughed as he followed Marshall into the living room. “Say what the what?”
“You heard right. But that wasn’t even the worst part of it. Because I really wanted her to say yes.” Marshall shook his head. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Look, man,” Kevin said reasonably. “You’ve been content to bounce from one woman to the next for as long as I’ve known you. But maybe you’re ready to settle down now and maybe that’s why you’ve started seeing Danetta differently.”
Marshall stood back up. “I value Danetta as a business partner and a friend. I don’t think I could deal with not having her in my life if I tried to have a romantic relationship with her and it blew up.” Marshall had never been able to remain friends with any woman he’d ever had a relationship with. He could not even imagine life without Danetta, and didn’t want to.
“So, what you’re saying, then, is that you’d rather keep Danetta in the friend zone.”
Marshall pointed at his friend. “Exactly. And besides, Danetta has changed. She’s meeting all these men online and becoming someone I don’t even really know.”
“Well then, my friend, let’s head out to the club tonight. Let’s just hang out and have a good time. Maybe you’ll meet someone who’ll take your mind off Danetta.”
Her Good Thing Page 8
