Read the Warning Label First

by B. M. Hardin

  At least not to live.

  It was just time for me to go.

  Maybe in Charlotte, there was a husband somewhere there waiting for me.

  Even though I was on a love strike, still, I wasn’t giving up on love.

  I wasn’t giving up on a happy life and a future filled with a husband and kids.

  But this time, I wasn’t giving up any of myself either.

  I wanted it all.

  I hadn’t found a house to buy yet in North Carolina, but I’d managed to find one to rent until I could get there and learn the area.

  Life was only about to get better.

  I stopped at the coffee shop across the street from work, one last time for my expresso.

  I smiled as the taste harassed my tonsils as I walked out the glass doors.

  “Excuse me.”

  I turned around.

  For some reason, my heart felt as though it had dropped out of my chest into the pit of my stomach.

  It was the woman that had been stalking me for what seemed like almost a year now.

  I clutch my purse.

  I was packing and one wrong move and she was going to have a very bad day.

  This was the first time that I actually looked her in the face.

  She was very pretty.

  She wore a lot of make-up but you could tell that it was the expensive kind and the long weave in her hair was just as pricey.

  To be honest, she looked like a model.

  Her frame was tall and slim like one too.

  “Who are you and why have you been following me all of this time? Do I know you or something?”

  “No.”

  “Then what is it?”

  She was quiet for a second.

  I could tell that she was no threat but I still wanted to know what the hell it was that she wanted.

  “Actually, standing here, something just hit me. All of this time, I’d gone through the trouble of figuring out who you were. I was upset that he’d chosen you, when really I had no reason to be angry with you in the first place. I should have been angry with him.”

  Lord, I knew that she had something to do with Tristan.

  My guess was that she was one of his baby’s mamas or that other girlfriend that he’d mentioned.

  “I’m sorry to have ever had bothered you. It finally dawned on me that I deserve better. He loves you, not me and I finally need to just accept it. I wish you and Brass all of the best of luck,” she said and turned and speedily walked away.

  What?

  Who the hell is Brass?

  I was going to call after her, but I let her go.

  I didn’t know anyone named Brass.

  I couldn’t help but chuckle.

  She’d been following and stalking the wrong person all of this time…how crazy is that?

  When all she’d had to do in the first place was just ask.

  And then I thought about it.

  Maybe Brass was Tristan’s real name or something.

  There was no telling what all he’d lied about but I shrugged my shoulders.

  I didn’t have to worry about her anymore from what she’d said and the fact that I was moving anyway confirmed it, just in case she changed her mind.

  Settling into my office, I sent Hunter an email.

  I’d wanted to be the one to tell him and I wanted to tell him first before telling the rest of the office.

  With a knock on the door, I looked up with a smile expecting to see Hunter, but instead I saw the janitor…Freeman.

  I looked at him confused.

  Freeman was dressed in an all-black Armani suit.

  I knew Armani when I saw it.

  What I didn’t understand is how a janitor could afford it and why he was dressed that way.

  I smiled as I noticed that he was holding a vase full of lilies.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi.”

  “These are for you,” he said walking towards me and reached me the vase.

  Immediately I recognized that it was the same vase that once held the roses but I checked the label on the bottom to be sure.

  Yep.

  “It was you who were sending the roses?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  “Why?”

  “Well, over a year ago, I walked into this building and I saw the woman that I was destined to marry. The way you walked. The way you dressed. The way you tilted your head back when you laughed or the way you squinted your eyes when you smiled. I’d come in to meet with Hunter for the first time but I just knew that I had to have you.”

  I was lost.

  I was so confused.

  Surely if I’d saw him dressed like that I would have noticed.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m a little on the shy side. I’m terrible when it comes to speaking and talking to women. But here lately you have helped me with that. I’d asked Hunter to introduce me, but he’d said that you hadn’t budged at the invitation to get set up by him so, I went to plan B.”

  Plan B?

  What exactly was Plan A?

  I was so confused.

  “You see, I’m technically not a janitor. I actually own the company. The janitors, the whole cleaning staff of this company are contracted hires of my company. My father left it to me. Well over a year ago he passed away and I’d come to meet with Hunter for the first time. I have employees at over 50 facilities, just in Washington alone, and I’d just wanted to take the time to come and introduce myself as the new face of the company. But when I saw you, you were all that I could think about. I wanted to be near you and as Hunter put it, that wouldn’t be an easy thing to do, so I took on the role as playing a janitor. I’d come in the day time just to see you and watch you from a distance. And when Hunter told me that you would mostly stay all night, I’d made him agree to let me know so that I could come in just to be here with you. I would only stay until I watched you leave. No matter how late you stayed, I would stay right here until you left. After you were gone, the real janitor would come and resume his position.”

  I couldn’t believe my ears.

  Who would have thought?

  What I was hearing was like a mixture of flattery and obsession, but for some reason, it made me feel good in the inside.

  “I hope I’m not freaking you out. It was just something about you. I wanted to talk to you so many times and little by little you begin to notice me. And then here lately, we somewhat have become the best of friends. To be honest, the whole pretend to be a janitor may have been a bit extreme, but aside of being nervous to approach you I wanted you to see me for me. I wanted to see if you would see a janitor. And you did. You actually saw me. All of my life, people have only seen me as a dollar sign. My father started this company thirty years ago, and I was left with millions, but I didn’t want you to see that part of me. I just wanted you to just see me. When you started speaking to me, more so than anyone else ever took the time to, I knew that you were special. You always told me thank you, even if you were extremely busy. And then finally, you started to hold conversations with me and ask me questions. I finally got to know a little of you and you were able to see a part of me. But what made me realize that it was time was your comment the other night. The one when you said the only thing that you wanted was love. You didn’t say money. You didn’t say comfort or stability. All you said was love. I knew that it was time to make my move. I knew that it was time for me to love you.”

  My mouth dropped open.

  At that moment, I was reminded of a saying that mama would say to us when we were younger.

  She would say that when you were down to nothing, God was always up to something.

  And right here, right now, that was the only thing that I could think about.

  I didn’t know what to say or what to do.

  “So you’re single?” I finally managed to ask him.

  I’d always assumed that he was taken by the way that h
e’d acted so I’d never even asked him about his personal life.

  “Very. I was in a relationship, but I broke it off a long time ago. I’m a praying man. A man of faith, and something just told me that she wasn’t the one…you were,” he said.

  So this is what the old folks meant when they said that you didn’t have to go looking, your Boaz would find you?

  What was I supposed to do with all of this?

  What was I supposed to say?

  “Tori, you needed to see me? Oh Hi Brass! So you finally talked to her huh?” Hunter said entering my office.

  Brass?

  Freeman…was Brass?

  So the woman that had been stalking me had been stalking me because of him?

  Huh?

  “I thought your name was Freeman.”

  “It is…but everybody calls me Brass. It’s a nickname given to me by my father,” he said.

  So, she was right.

  She’d said that he’d left her for me and that he loved me.

  He loved me?

  How?

  Why?

  “See Tori, I’d tried to introduce you to him. He’s a damn good guy. Any man that walks around picking up trash, just to get your attention, deserves a shot, or at least a date,” Hunter joked.

  I was still trying to take it all in.

  I only knew him from the talks that we’d started having but just from those alone, I knew that he was a good catch.

  He’d pretended to be a janitor, all for me, and I couldn’t see it.

  Had it not been for the heartbreak of Tristan, I’d probably never started having the deep conversations with him. I probably would have never gotten to know how amazing he was.

  I guess everything that happens, does happen for a reason huh?

  But who does something like this for a woman that they didn’t even know?

  And all because of his faith?

  I looked at the lilies.

  He’d been sending me flowers for months…how special and committed was that?

  Every sign and everything about him pointed towards happiness.

  I know, I’d been fooled before, but something told me that this, and that he, was different.

  I could feel it in my gut and my gut was telling me to take a chance.

  “Tori, what was it that you wanted to tell me?” Hunter asked again.

  That’s right.

  I was supposed to be moving to Charlotte.

  I couldn’t leave now.

  I couldn’t move after all of this could I?

  I couldn’t move after what he’d just said.

  Hell no I couldn’t!

  My Boaz was here and so this is where I had to be.

  “Oh, never mind,” I said to him.

  The truth was that I could always move in the future if I needed to but looking at the man in front of me, the chances of that happening were slim to none.

  “So Tori, I’ve waited for a long time to ask you this. Can I take you to get some breakfast?” Freeman-Brass, ask.

  I looked at Hunter.

  He smiled and winked his eye, giving me the go ahead.

  I smiled back and took a deep breath.

  Here we go.

  This was it.

  I was taking another chance on love and this time, I knew that love was going to be kind to me.

  He grabbed my hand and walked me out of the building.

  He pressed the alarm on the black Benz and walked around to the passenger side to open my door.

  I took another deep breath, smiled and got in.

  I fastened my seat belt, and as he got in on the other side, I glanced across the street at the coffee shop.

  And…

  There they were.

  It was Tristan, Delilah, Bryson and the woman from the house that day.

  Tristan and Delilah were hand and hand, while the woman from the house held hands with Bryson.

  They were all laughing and smiling.

  I couldn’t figure out if they had some kind of freaky relationship, or if they’d lied about who the woman actually was, but Tristan held the door for them all to enter and then kissed Delilah as she entered last.

  They looked happy.

  They really, really did.

  I’d always thought that I would feel hatred and anger if I ever saw them again, but I didn’t.

  I felt nothing.

  It was a miracle.

  I felt absolutely nothing.

  I was free!

  “Are you okay?” Freeman-Brass asked.

  I took on last look and turned away from the coffee shop to face him.

  I smiled and grabbed his hand.

  “I’ve never been better,” I said and he smiled as we drove away.

  *************************************************

  The End

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