by Tina Martin
“Mommy, I’m hungry.”
“What do you want to eat? Do you want cereal?”
“Yes. Can I have Fruit Woops?”
“Okay. Let’s go in the kitchen, sweetie.”
I made Roman a big bowl of Fruit Loops as he had requested. My cell phone rang right after I turned on the TV in the kitchen.
“Hello.”
“How is everything? How is Roman?” It was Sean. After last night, I wasn’t expecting to hear anything from him to be honest. Now, he was talking like nothing ever happened…like everything was back to normal.
“Roman is fine. He just woke up a lil’ while ago.”
“He’s just waking up now? It’s almost noon.”
“I know, but he was up late last night, so he slept in this morning. He’s eating cereal now.”
“Okay. Look, Warren is coming over around five to watch Roman. I want you to meet me at El Grecos on 91st and Appleton.”
What! No way, no how, not going to happen. He has some nerve even asking me to go anywhere with him.
“I know where El Grecos is, but why am I meeting you there?”
“Because I’m taking you out to dinner tonight and they have excellent food.”
Sean was in a much better mood. Just last night, we were yelling at each other, and now, he seemed very cheerful. So, I joked around with him, too.
“How are you just going to call and demand to take me out to dinner without even asking?”
“Because if I ask you, then I run the possibility of you saying no, and I don’t want to take that risk.”
I smiled. He had me there. Guess this time I was speaking to the charming Mr. Beauvais, the one I had a secret crush on. When he turned on the charm, I might as well have been a snake being enticed by a pungi. He had me in the zone.
“Monica, you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Can you meet me? I’ll be outta here around five-thirty. How ‘bout you meet me there at six?”
“Okay. I’ll meet you there.”
“That’s what’s up then. See you at six, ah’ight?”
“Okay. Bye.”
Now what have I done? How could I have just agreed to have dinner with this man? I should’ve immediately called him back and cancelled, but he probably would’ve flipped on me. So, I had to be cool with it now, although this was probably going to be a continuation from our shouting match last night. Or maybe it was just an innocent dinner for two. Somehow, I find the latter to be impossible.
Warren showed up at four o’clock, an hour earlier than Sean told me to expect him. He let himself in and found me upstairs in my bedroom trying to find something to wear to dinner, while Roman was jumping on my bed.
“Hey, Monica.”
“Oh, hey, Warren.”
“Hi, Uncle Warren,” Roman uttered out of breath, but he kept on jumping.
“Hey, Roman.”
Warren walked over to me. I was taking outfits out of the closet one-by-one, holding them up to me to see how they looked.
“So you and Sean going on a date or what?”
“I wouldn’t call it that. Your brother just asked me out to dinner.”
“Sounds like a date to me.” Warren grinned as he watched me hold a blouse against my upper body while looking in the mirror to see if it would look good on me.
“Roman, why don’t you go play in your room for a few minutes, hun.”
“Okay, Mom.”
I sent Roman away for a purpose. Now was a good time for me to find out what Sean really thought of me. If anyone knew, it was Warren.
“Warren, let me ask you something. Do you think Sean is feelin’ me?”
“Hmm,” Warren said, like he didn’t want to disclose any information.
“What do you mean hmm?”
I peered into his eyes and watched him smile from ear to ear. He was lackadaisical, like he knew something but didn’t want to tell me.
“Why don’t you ask him tonight? Ask Sean if he’s feelin’ you.”
“I don’t want to ask Sean. That’s why I’m asking you.”
“I mean, what do you think? Do you think he likes you?”
“Sometimes yes. Then there are days I think he could care less about me. He’s very wishy-washy. I can’t read him.”
“Well, if he didn’t like you, I don’t think he would call and ask you out to dinner.”
“Touché. However, you can fuss somebody out over dinner, too, you know.”
“And you honestly think he wants to argue with you over dinner?”
“No, but I’m just saying…”
Warren smiled again and stuck his hands in his pockets.
“What? Why are you smiling?”
“You really don’t have a clue do you?”
“A clue about what? What are you talking about?”
“My brother is crazy about you, Monica.”
I played cool and pretended like I didn’t know Sean was into me. “And how do you know that?”
“Remember how I told you that Sean suppresses his emotions a lot?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, he can’t hide ‘em from me. I grew up with him. I know everything about him, even down to the kind of woman he likes. Now don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not his type at all. Sean usually falls for the light-skinned, high-maintenance, gold diggers, but you I don’t get. You are more of my kind of woman – laid back, relaxed, ambitious, pretty, and even after all that, you have a sense of humor, which to me is the icing on the cake. I like that about you.”
“Aww...thank you, Warren.” Now he had me blushing.
“Anyway, the dude is crazy about you. Now, I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I think you might got my boy falling hard for you.”
“Okay, that’s a little farfetched.”
“I’m serious. I heard about the breakfast he made for you. Sean…ain’t…neeever cooked no woman breakfast. And when he talks about you, I can see the glow in his eyes.”
“What glow?”
“You know, the glow.” Warren laughed, and then he asked me, “Have you been in love before?”
“Yeah…once.”
“You remember how that person used to look at you, especially right before making love?”
Did I ever? Right before me and Cornelius made love, he would be so content and focused. I could see desire and passion in his eyes, and before he even touched me, I knew it was going to be on and poppin’ that night.
“Yeah, I remember that.”
“So that’s what I’m talking about. The glow.” Warren grinned again.
“Oh, so you’re saying Sean wants to make love to me?”
“I’m not saying that. I mean, maybe he does, but all I know is that he gives you the look.”
I took a yellow blouse off of my bed and held it up to me. Then I asked Warren, “So y’all be talking about me?”
“Ay, you have to take that up with your husband.”
“He told you that, too?”
“I pretty much know everything that goes on around here.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right. He told me that he mentioned the marriage thing to you, Derrick, and Nikki.”
“Un huh. And when he told me, he didn’t seem to be upset by it. I actually got the impression that he was going to enjoy being married to you.”
I was under that same impression. The marriage mix-up wasn’t a big deal to Sean at all. Like Warren said, I think he liked the idea of being married to me. Enough about all that, though. Sean wanted to know everything about me and my life. Now it was my turn to find out as much as I could about his.
“So what really happened between Sean and Shanelle?”
“She cheated, he divorced her. Simple as that.”
“There’s more to it than that. Sean told me that he didn’t love her.”
“He didn’t. I don’t even know why he married the girl.”
“Where did they get married?”
“At the courth
ouse. Then a few months later, they adopted Roman. The strange thing was that I got the vibe from Shanelle that she didn’t even want kids.”
“Yeah, that is strange. Why would you marry someone you don’t love and then turn around and adopt a child? It just doesn’t add up.”
“Yeah, you’re right. One thing I do know is that while they were married, Sean started looking for Roman’s birth mother. He became obsessed with finding this woman.”
“And did he ever find her?”
“Not sure. I think he stopped looking last year. He doesn’t really talk about it anymore, so if he did find her, he didn’t tell me.”
“I wonder what would make him search for her.”
“Probably the same thing that would want to make a mother search for a child that she put up for adoption. Yep, he told me that, too. Looks like you and my brother have something in common after all, huh?”
“It looks that way. Well, I have to get ready. I wish we had more time to talk.”
“Ah’ight. Well, have fun on your date.”
“It’s not a date,” I yelled to him while he went walking down the hall.
I CURLED MY hair into spirals, and after trying on five different outfits, I decided to wear a yellow low-cut, v-neck shirt with some black capris and ankle strap stilettos. Sure enough, Sean was at El Grecos at six. I pulled in the parking lot a few minutes after six and he was sitting in his truck waiting for me. I parked in the space beside him and we walked in the restaurant together, not hand-in-hand, but close enough that we could’ve been holding hands. The waitress sat us in a booth near a window with a good view of Timmerman Airport.
“So, how was your day at work?”
Sean smiled. “You know, I don’t ever think you asked me that before. Are you trying to be a real wife now?”
I smiled. “Honestly, I just wanted to know how your day was.”
“My day was good. Do you want to know what the highlight of my day was?”
“What’s that?”
“Talking to you on the phone this morning.” I blushed as Sean stared, not even blinking. “I love the way your voice sounds.” After he said that, I thought I saw what Warren had described as the glow in Sean’s eyes. He was sincere in his expressions. “I brought you here because I wanted to come to some sort of terms with you regarding your plans to move. Remember when I said Roman wasn’t the only person that needed you?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I was referring to myself in case you didn’t know. I need a wife and Roman needs a mother. You’re both right now. Why change that?”
“Because I’m not really your wife, Sean. That contract was a mistake.”
“The contract is real and you are my wife,” he insisted. “Just because we don’t acknowledge it doesn’t mean it’s not so.”
Here we go. Before we could even order food, things seemed to be going opposite of what I had anticipated. While I was home getting ready, I imagined we would be sitting at the table sharing stories about our childhood and just having general but pleasant conversation. I thought I was going to have a nice, relaxing dinner, but I was wrong. There was nothing relaxing about the wifey talk. I understand the concept of a contract, but I knew one thing for sure…I didn’t walk down the aisle with no one. Sean had to understand that.
“Look, Monica. I don’t want you to leave me, ah’ight?”
I know it took a lot out of Sean to admit he wanted me to stay. He was not the type to put himself out there like that, but he did.
“Why, because of Roman?”
“Yes…and me.”
“You?”
“Yes…me.”
“Sean, I’m working for you because of Roman. I thought we agreed to keep ourselves out of this.”
“We did, but…”
I interrupted him. “But what? What changed?”
“The way I feel about you changed.”
“And what way is that?”
Sean gave me a hard, direct stare. He cleared his voice, took a sip of water, and interlocked his fingers, but he didn’t answer my question.
“Hello? Sean, are you still with me?”
Sean took another sip of water and loosened his necktie.
“Sean?”
“I love you, Monica,” he said quickly.
My heart was racing so fast I thought it would just beat its way out of my chest and fall on the table. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what I just heard, but it confirmed that Keisha and Warren were right all along. I felt my body tightening up.
“Are you alright?” Sean asked.
“Ah, excuse me for a minute.” I grabbed my purse and ran to the nearest bathroom to flip open my cell phone and call Keisha.
“Hey, Monica. What’s crack-a-lackin?”
She was obviously in a playful mood, but I had some serious business to attend to.
“Keisha, Sean just told me that he loved me and I don’t know what to do.”
“Girl, where are you at, and why do you sound like you’re out of breath?”
“I’m at El Grecos, in the bathroom.”
“In the bathroom doing what?”
“Didn’t you just hear me? Sean just told me that he loved me!”
“So when he told you that, you ran to the bathroom?”
“Yeah! I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Girl, you better go and talk to that man.”
“What am I supposed to say? My hands are shaking.”
“Just talk natural. Don’t let him see that you’re nervous. And take a deep breath. Relax.”
“Okay, I’ll try.”
“Monica…wait, wait, wait.”
“What is it?”
“Deep breaths…okay? Deep breaths. Let me hear it.”
I breathed in and out so Keisha could hear me. I’m glad no one else was in the bathroom. They probably would’ve thought I was having an asthma attack and called for help.
“Okay, now relax.”
“Okay, I’ll do my best.”
“Oh, and Monica, one more thing…”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t see nothing wrong…with a little bump and grind,” Keisha taunted me, singing R. Kelly again. Then she started laughing.
I laughed, too. “Bye, Keisha.”
I crept out of the bathroom to join Sean at the table. “I’m sorry about that.”
“Are you ah’ight? I was about to come looking for you.”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I took a few sips of water. “Sean?”
“Yeah?”
“When did you realize that?”
“Realize what? That I was falling in love with you?”
Sean was so cool and calm about the whole thing. He didn’t seem nervous at all.
But just to hear him say those words again made me quiver.
“Ah…yeah.”
“I would say when I spent those nights with you in the hospital.”
I sat there in disbelief. Although I knew that any woman would jump at the opportunity to be with Sean Beauvais, I wasn’t one of those women. I cared about him, but I didn’t love him.
“The reason I asked you here is because I have another proposition for you. There are two weeks left in August. What I propose is that we be husband and wife in real life like we are on paper.”
“What? Sean, I don’t have time for games.”
“Who said it was a game? I’m serious. Be my wife for these last two weeks, and when September first rolls around, if you still want to leave, I’ll open the door for you.”
“Sean, this is…how do you expect…” It was difficult for me to get a question out. I thought he was pulling my leg, but he was serious about this.
“Just do this for me, Monica. I’m not asking you to give your life for me, just asking for two weeks...just two weeks.”
“Okay…but...” I technically didn’t agree to it, but I might as well have.
Sean said, “Ah’ight. If you’re going to do it, then you have to do it r
ight, and there are rules.”
“Oh, here you go with rules again. Why is it that you always get to make the rules?”
“Well, I suggested this, so I pretty much have been thinking about it for a while. So here is how it’s going to go down. We will share everything. I will give you keys to both cars and access to my bank accounts. You will sleep in my room, in my bed with me. You don’t have to touch me or even look at me, but we will sleep in the same bed.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes, one more thing – you have to tell me that you love me every day. Even though I know you don’t mean it, I still want to hear it. Do we have an understanding?”
“Whatever you say, Sean.” I wasn’t feeling that at all, but if that’s what it took to make him happy and give me a few final weeks of peace, then so be it.
“Oh, and before I forget…” Sean took a little black box out of his inner left coat pocket and sat it on the table in front of me. “You have to wear this.”
“That’s not what I think it is, is it?” Sean was really getting into the marriage routine. I guess he wasn’t for play.
“Open it,” he coached me.
I opened the box to find a platinum wedding band. There were five round, sparkling diamonds at the top of it. Sean took it out of the box and asked for permission to slide it on my finger. For this marriage situation to be pretentious, it sure felt like we were married for real. That’s when I knew Sean meant business. I looked up at him and he looked like he was about to cry, as if our phony marriage was real and heartfelt. This man really loves me, I thought to myself as I sat there looking at him.
He had on a black suit with a pink shirt and a black, white, and pink tie. His curly hair was flawless. I looked at his lips and it just so happened that he licked them at about that same time. He took my left hand and kissed the ring, while I rocked it on my ring finger. I was so nervous, I didn’t move a muscle. I don’t even think I blinked. I just went with the flow to end the night on a good note. Besides, I couldn’t squash his idea now.
It had already gone too far.
Entry 8
I don’t know what I have gotten myself into. And right now, sitting on my bed, my heart is thumping and my fingers are sweating. I’ve never been so nervous in my life. The finest looking man on the planet just asked me to be his “pretend” wife, effective immediately. And this ring is dazzling. He must have paid thousands for it. I don’t even know if I can go through with something like this. Even though I said I would, Sean must understand what kind of predicament this puts me in. Or maybe that’s just it. He doesn’t care. Maybe he feels that if I wear the ring and play the role, I would become comfortable in it and accept it in these next few weeks. I can see myself now, crying my eyes out the day after Labor Day, then having to take off this ring and hand it to Sean. But what can I do now to reverse this thing? If I tell Sean that I changed my mind, he would go ballistic.
