She slammed her front door as Stan got into his car and then turned back to Marshall. “Are you happy now? He’ll probably never call me again.”
“If that’s the case, then I’m ecstatic.” Marshall turned, looked out of the window and watched Stan back out of the driveway. He then turned back to Danetta and said, “Wasn’t that the guy who wanted health insurance from you?”
“He wasn’t looking for health insurance a few minutes ago.” She poked a finger at her chest. “He just wanted me, and you ruined my chances with him.”
“I don’t believe this. You were actually thinking about getting with that guy?” When she didn’t respond, Marshall said, “So, if I hadn’t come over here, you would have slept with him, wouldn’t you? Do you really need sex that bad?”
Now she was offended. With hands on hips she said, “Don’t act stupid, Marshall. I don’t have to sleep with every man who walks through my doors.”
Lifting frustrated hands in the air, Marshall shouted, “What do you think he came over here for?”
“It’s up to me to say yes or no.”
“It’s not so easy to tell a man no once you’ve already said yes, Danetta. Not too many men will let a woman get them all riled up and then let them change their minds.”
Her irritation was rising. “You mean like how you did me last night? But funny thing is, I let you go without throwing you to the ground and going for mine anyway.”
“You’re twisting things around, because these are two totally different circumstances. You were trying to just hit it and quit it with me last night, and I don’t want that between us.”
She crossed her arms across her chest. “Oh, but it was okay for you to hit it and quit it with the woman who was at your house this morning.”
The phone rang before he could respond to that. If her aunt wasn’t in the hospital she would just let the phone ring and continue to watch Marshall squirm, but she couldn’t do that. She turned her back to him and picked up the phone. “Hello. Yes, this is Danetta Harris.”
After a moment of listening, Danetta gripped the table as tears sprang to her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Marshall asked, coming up behind her.
“Okay, okay.” She was in full cry mode now. “I’ll be right there.”
“What happened?” Marshall tried again.
She hung up the phone and turned to face him. “My aunt just had another heart attack. They’re taking her to surgery right now.”
“I’ll drive you to the hospital.” He wiped some of the tears from her face, but the waterfall kept coming. “I don’t want you trying to drive like this.”
Chapter 16
As Marshall drove them to the hospital, an Otis Redding song came on the old-school radio station he listened to. Marshall started singing, “I’ve been lovin’ you too long...can’t stop now.”
The song reminded her of the day that she and Marshall slow danced at their Valentine’s party and right now, she desperately needed to forget. “Do you mind if I change this station?”
Marshall glanced over at Danetta. He wanted to object. He knew why she no longer had any tolerance for this song. But the reason she didn’t want to hear it anymore was the reason he wanted to hear it over and over again...memories of their slow dance. But when he saw how tight her jaw was set, he said, “Go ahead.”
Instead of changing the station, she pushed in the CD that Marshall had ejected out of the player the moment they got in the car. “When a Man Loves a Woman” boomed through the speakers. Marshall ejected the CD again and then switched the station to a radio talk show.
“Didn’t want to waste your ‘get in the mood’ music on me, huh?” Danetta turned toward the window and began watching the white-and-yellow lines in the street.
“It’s not like that, Danetta. You’ve got it all wrong.”
She put a hand up and continued looking out the window.
She didn’t believe him, and right now was not the time to plead his case. He kept driving down the street as he pushed the CD back in the player and allowed his heart to bleed over every lyric that Michael Bolton belted out, for Marshall truly would trade the world for just one more chance at Danetta’s heart.
He pulled up at the front entrance of the hospital. Danetta jumped out of the car without looking back. She ran into the hospital and he sat there watching, making sure that she didn’t go into another panic attack. Michael Bolton was still singing, reminding Marshall of the good thing he had in Danetta. Instead of smiling or being overjoyed about the love that was in his heart, Marshall felt such misery, way down deep in his soul. He ejected the CD and then drove the car into the parking garage.
He met up with Danetta in the ICU. She was standing at the nurses’ station, waiting on the nurse to get off the phone. She looked up at Marshall as he walked over to her. “You’re staying?”
He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
The nurse hung up the phone and told Danetta, “Your aunt is still in surgery. It may take a few hours, but when he’s finished, the doctor will be out to speak with you.”
Danetta sat down in the back of the waiting room. Marshall told her, “I’m going to get us something to eat in the cafeteria. What do you want?”
She waved off the suggestion of food.
“You have to eat, Danetta. We don’t know how long we’ll be here tonight.”
She didn’t respond.
“I’ll be right back.” He headed down to the cafeteria and picked a dinner of mac and cheese, green beans and baked chicken for Danetta and mashed potatoes, gravy and fried chicken for himself. The food didn’t look all that appetizing, but at least they would have something in their stomachs.
As he headed back up to the ICU his cell rang. He checked the caller ID and saw that it was Kevin. Answering the phone, he said, “What’s up, man?”
“That’s what I’m calling to find out. You were pretty teed off when you left the club last night. So, are we cool or what?”
“Yeah, we’re cool. I was just in a bad place last night. It had nothing to do with you.”
“Are you going to meet me at the gym for our workout in the morning?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
“Have you talked to Danetta about what happened with you and her?”
“Not yet. We’re at the hospital right now. Her aunt’s in surgery.”
“Aw naw. I’m sorry to hear that, man. Give Danetta a hug from me. I know how much her aunt means to her,” Kevin said.
“Thanks, Kevin, I’ll do that.” They hung up just as Marshall walked back into the ICU and handed Danetta a Styrofoam container and said, “Eat.”
She opened the Styrofoam container. She loved macaroni and cheese. She glanced over at Marshall’s container. He had mashed potatoes and fried chicken. Danetta didn’t like fried chicken and Marshall knew it.
He handed her a sixteen-ounce cup. “I got you a soda. I know you keep iced tea at home, but you usually drink Sunkist at work.”
He was right. This man sitting next to her knew who she was and what she was about. She had tried everything to get over loving him. But now that her aunt was in surgery fighting for her life, Danetta didn’t have the energy to fight Marshall. She realized that she wouldn’t have wanted Stan or anyone else to be with her at a time like this. She needed Marshall and that was that.
Marshall saw the look in Danetta’s eyes and knew that she was worrying about her aunt. He put his hand over hers. “You know that Aunt Sarah is a strong woman, right?”
Danetta nodded.
“She’ll come through this and she’ll be strong enough to chase me around another room with an umbrella.”
Danetta’s eyes bucked. “You remember that?”
“How could I forget it? There I was crashing at your crib
, trying to get over a massive hangover, when your aunt busted through your bedroom door and started screaming at me.”
“Do you remember what she said?” Danetta asked, with the glint of laughter in her eyes.
“Woman, if you think I could ever forget something like that, then you don’t know me at all. Aunt Sarah was waving around that long umbrella like it was a weapon, saying,” his voice went higher as he mimicked Sarah, “‘The works of Satan will not prevail up in this dorm room. Now you get your too-cute-for-your-own-good self on out of here.’”
Danetta was in full-blown laughter now as she doubled over. “I-it took m-me a week to convince her that I had slept on the couch and not in bed with you.” As she sat back up, their eyes met and locked.
Marshall felt something pass between them and he knew that this was the moment he’d been waiting for. He blurted out, “I didn’t sleep with Marissa.”
“Huh? What?”
“Marissa...the woman you saw leaving my house this morning.”
Danetta turned away from him and began eating her food.
“Okay, I know you don’t believe me, but it’s the truth. I met Marissa a couple of years ago. And I slept with her, promised to call, but I never did.” He shrugged. The truth was all he had right now, no matter how harsh it sounded. “I ran into her again at the last business retreat I went on.”
“The one I asked you not to take any women to,” she said as she took a bite of her chicken.
“I didn’t hook up with her at the retreat. She was there because she has a business of her own. She saw me there and when I didn’t remember her, she reminded me that I had slept with her and then never called, and then she slapped me.”
Danetta tried not to smile, but she couldn’t help it. The thought of some woman slapping Marshall was too awesome for her to contain her giggles.
“It wasn’t funny when it happened. If I wasn’t such a gentleman, I would have slapped her back. God knows I wanted to.”
Danetta eyed him as he called himself a gentleman.
“Hey, I am a gentleman. Anyway, I ran into Marissa last night when Kevin took me to a nightclub to calm me down... I had been so angry because of what happened between you and me that I couldn’t relax. I was headed home, then I saw Marissa.” He wasn’t going to admit that he hadn’t known the woman’s name. He just couldn’t take any more of this laughfest Danetta had going on. “I apologized to her for the way I treated her. I told her that I now knew how she felt.”
Danetta stopped laughing. “Wait a minute. Did you tell that woman about what happened with us?”
“I didn’t tell her your name. I just told her that I felt hurt by the fact that all you wanted from me was sex...and that helped me to see her point of view. Then we left the club and went to my place so that she could tell me about herself. But I swear, all we did was talk.”
Now it was Danetta’s turn to admit the truth. “Look, Marshall, I thought you wanted me to say that I just wanted sex and nothing more. All you’ve ever wanted was to date women who understood the no-strings-attached rule.”
“I want more now.”
Danetta raised her hands, trying to put a halt to the conversation. “Look, none of this is my business. You told me a long time ago that all you wanted was friendship from me. I’m the one who misunderstood what was happening between us yesterday and tried to take it to the next level.”
“But that’s just it. You didn’t misunderstand anything. I did want to be with you.”
“You don’t have to placate me just because my aunt is sick.”
“That’s not what I’m doing. If you would just listen to me—”
“I’ve got a headache, Marshall. I need to close my eyes for a few minutes, so can we please just stop talking?”
With her eyes closed and her head leaning against the wall, Danetta tried to shut out all the noises around her so that she could process the things Marshall had just said. Was he really trying to get her to believe that he wanted her last night? If that’s the case, then why did he run out of her house like Satan was serving ice water in Hades and he had to get in line to quench his thirst?
She drifted off to sleep and met up with the Marshall of her dreams rather than the one seated next to her. Both were scrumptious to look at, but this Marshall adored her above all others. There was no Marissa or Veronica in his vocabulary. The only name coming out of his mouth was Danetta and he was screaming it over and over again...
“Danetta, Danetta, wake up.” Marshall shook her.
Danetta jumped up as her eyes popped open. She looked around as if trying to get her bearings. “Huh? What?”
Marshall had a devilish grin on his face as he asked, “What were you dreaming about?”
“What? Why?”
“You were moaning.”
She smacked him on the shoulder. “Stop lying, Marshall. You just have a dirty mind.”
“I know what I heard. And I wish I could have been a fly on the wall of your dreams so I could have gotten my happy on, too.”
You didn’t have to be a fly on the wall, you were the star of the show, Danetta thought as she attempted to exorcise Marshall from her mind, heart and dreams. She was beginning to think that her misery was of her own making. She had foolishly gone into business with a man that she knew she was infatuated with...even though she knew he didn’t feel the same way about her. For years, she stood by and watched Marshall go from one relationship to the next, her heart cracking a little more each time.
With her aunt now in bad health and Danetta’s emotions spiraling out of control, there was no way she could continue to deal with Marshall and all the drama surrounding him. She turned to her friend, took his hand in hers, looked him in the eye and said, “I need to take a leave of absence.”
He hesitated and then asked, “Why do I feel like this is about more than taking care of Aunt Sarah?”
She lowered her head as she tried to find a way to make Marshall understand without throwing herself on the altar of humiliation once again. But before she could respond, someone tapped her on the shoulder. Danetta dropped Marshall’s hand and turned to face a man in a light green surgical uniform.
“Are you Danetta Harris?”
“Yes.”
The doctor smiled, as he offered her his hand. “I’m Dr. Wakefield.”
Danetta and Marshall stood up; as she shook the doctor’s hand. “How is my aunt doing?”
“She came through surgery like a trouper.”
“Thank you so much,” Danetta said. She hugged the doctor and then hugged Marshall.
“I told you Aunt Sarah was going to be all right,” Marshall said as he held on to Danetta.
Danetta eased out of his arms and turned back to the doctor. “When can I see her?”
“She’s asleep right now, so you may want to wait until she wakes up sometime during the early morning hours.”
“All right, then. Is it okay if I spend the night in the waiting room?”
“That’s fine. I’ll tell the nurses to come and get you when she wakes up.”
“Thank you so much,” she said before turning back to Marshall, but he was no longer standing next to her. She looked around and saw that Marshall had commandeered two love seats and moved them against the wall on the opposite side of the room to where they had been sitting. She noticed that the love seats were directly in front of the flat-screen TV that hung on the wall. Marshall walked over to the nurses’ desk and asked for pillows and blankets.
Danetta walked over to him and said, “Thank you for taking care of that for me. I thought I would have to sit up in that chair all night. I never even noticed those love seats.”
“It’s not going to be that much more comfortable, but at least we can lie down and watch television.”
She heard the we
, but didn’t process it until the nurse came back and handed Marshall four pillows, two sheets and two blankets. Turning to him, she asked, “Are you staying here with me tonight?”
“I know how you feel about hospitals and I don’t want you to be here by yourself.”
“B-but, it’s the weekend. I thought you’d probably be going out with Kevin tonight.”
“D, I’m sick of hanging out at nightclubs. That’s just not my scene anymore. And anyway, I’d rather be here with you.” They walked over to the love seat which didn’t appear to have enough cushion to provide a comfortable night’s sleep. But Marshall didn’t complain. He took off his jacket, spread the sheets over the love seats, and placed two pillows on one side and the other two pillows on the other.
“Climb in,” he said as he climbed in on his side of the makeshift bed.
As Danetta got in and Marshall pulled the covers over them, she was reminded of the “When a Man Loves a Woman” song they had been listening to in the car. They weren’t out in the rain, but Marshall had sure enough given up all his comfort, just because Danetta wanted to stay at the hospital. She loved him all the more for what he was doing, but what did this say about his feelings for her?
Chapter 17
There was a long line of women standing outside of an office building, holding applications in their hands. Danetta looked down and noticed that she had an application in her hand, also. But she wasn’t standing in the line. A tall, dark brother came from out of nowhere and began escorting her up to the front door of the office building.
As she passed the women, Danetta became acutely aware that she knew a lot of them. Diane stood in spot number seventy-eight. Danetta had eaten a dozen brownies and a tub of cookies-and-cream ice cream when Marshall had started dating her. Veronica was in spot number sixty-five—five brownies, and Marissa was in sixty-four—two brownies, would have been three, but she had left the box at home when she rushed back to the hospital. As she continued to look at the long line of women, Danetta realized that many of the women in this line had helped her put on the extra ten pounds she had been saddled with. Because each one of them had dated Marshall.
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