Another Man Will

by Daaimah S. Poole

  “Yvette, seriously think about what I’m saying. I don’t want you struggling anymore. I don’t want you in a crammed-up apartment. I want to take care of you and provide you with the best. I’m going home to pick up Jalena. Please think it over.” He put his jacket on, grabbed his keys, gave me a peck on the cheek, and told me to call him once we had closed up.

  Back out front I didn’t know what to make of the conversation I had just had with William. I felt cold hands cover my eyes and heard a voice say, “Is the boss lady available?” I took off the hands covering my eyes and turned around to see Geneva standing there with Eric.

  “Hey, girl. What are you doing here?”

  “Date night. We are hungry. How long do we have to wait for a table?”

  “You don’t have to wait for a table. Follow me.” I grabbed menus and seated them at the same table Geneva and I had sat at when we first had dinner here. “How you been, Eric? I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

  He greeted me.

  “This table looks familiar,” said Geneva.

  “It should.” I laughed.

  “Where is the man?” she asked, looking around.

  “I gave him the night off,” I joked. “He went home to pick up Jalena. The nights I’m here late, he gets to spend more time with her and to have just a night or two for himself.”

  “That’s nice of you.”

  “Yeah anyway, let me get you guys some bread and something to drink.” I walked over to the kitchen and I grabbed Geneva dinner rolls, and then I had the waitress send them over a bottle of wine. Between running around, serving, I managed to take a break and pull a chair up to Geneva and Eric’s table.

  “You’re working. You can’t sit down with us,” Geneva said.

  “What? Remember, I run this place. I can do whatever I want to.”

  Eric got up from the table.

  “Where are you going, baby?” Geneva asked.

  “Have your girl talk for a moment. I’m going to take this call,” Eric said and excused himself. With Eric gone from the table, I took full advantage of the chance to catch up with my best friend.

  “So have you found a place yet?” Geneva asked.

  “I still haven’t found a place. Everything is so expensive. I might as well wait until I can buy a house again. But you will never guess what William asked me tonight. He wants me to move in with him and Jalena. He gave me a speech about how he knows what he wants. He is getting older and wants to build a future, and he doesn’t want me struggling anymore. I just don’t want to feel like I need or am using someone. Then I think he needs help with Jalena.”

  “Didn’t you say he had a nanny for her? And you aren’t using him. Hell, you are using each other. Everyone needs something from someone. He needs you just as much as you need him.”

  “I suppose. But what I’m most afraid of is turning control of my life over again to someone. After everything I’ve been through with Phil, it makes it a little hard to trust anyone.”

  “He’s not anything like Phil. Phil took and William gives.”

  “I know, but what if I move in with him and then we break up and then me and the kids are homeless and I have to find another place?”

  “Only you know what you are ready for. Do you love him? I think he is a good man. He has already proven himself. Look how your life has changed since you met him.”

  “I don’t know about love, but I care for him deeply and, yes, my life has changed drastically. Girl, I was thinking about that yesterday—how hard of a time I was having. I’m so glad I’m out of it.”

  “I know. I’m happy to see you smile again, Vette, and I think it is win-win and win. You’ll have security again, because he’ll be an excellent provider. The kids will be in good schools, and he has someone to help him with his granddaughter.”

  “I know. That’s all the things I thought of.”

  “Just pray on it.”

  “I will, because there isn’t any way I’m moving in with him and working for him. It’s one or the other.”

  CHAPTER 63

  Crystal

  Four months later ...

  “Happy Mother’s Day, Mommy. We made you breakfast,” Nasir said as he ran into my new spacious bedroom and jumped on the bed.

  “Mom, I made you that,” Jewel said, pointing at the cereal and toast that she set on the side of the nightstand.

  “Mommy, you like your surprise breakfast?” Nasir asked.

  “Yes, I love it. Thank you so much.” I sat up and munched on a piece of toast and gave both of them hugs.

  “Where are we going for Mother’s Day today, Mommy?” Jewel asked.

  “I want to go to the indoor water park. No. Dave and Buster’s,” Nasir declared. Rell walked in and leaned over and kissed my forehead and said, “Okay, let Mommy enjoy her breakfast, and go get ready.” The children left the room racing towards the bathroom arguing about who was going to take a shower first.

  “Jewel, let Nasir in the shower first.” Rell called out. “And go pick out what you are going to wear.”

  “Okay,” Jewel answered back.

  “Is Kori still asleep?”

  “Yeah, she is.”

  “Thanks for my breakfast.”

  “You’re welcome. They tried to make you pancakes. I said, ‘No Mommy likes cereal.’ Oh I forgot to give you this. Happy Mother’s Day.” Rell pulled out a red square box.

  “What’s this?” I said, opening the box and seeing a necklace with all five of our birth stones dangling down in a clump and at the bottom in cursive it read family.

  “It’s beautiful—thank you, Rell.”

  “You’re welcome; didn’t I tell you I was always going to upgrade you?” he playfully said as he wrapped the necklace around my neck. I got out of the bed to see how it looked. Staring in the mirror I began to clam up.

  “And you know it’s more room for our son that we’ll have one day and oh and the kids’ doggie.”

  “Our son, yes, one day; the doggie never,” I smiled trying not to cry as Rell stood behind me in the mirror.

  “Are you okay, Crystal? You like it.”

  “Yeah, I love it. It’s just sometimes I get scared.”

  “Scared of what?”

  “Scared of what life would be like without you.”

  He hugged me then, turned me around, gently grabbed my face, and said, “What did I tell you when I first married you?”

  “To never doubt you and that you weren’t going anywhere.”

  “And I’m not. I’m never leaving you. I love you, Crystal Glover, and I’m always going to be here for you. You understand?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  Rell exited the room, and I fell back in the bed under the covers for a moment. I began reflecting on how happy I was with my life and how far I had come. I thanked God daily for my new life, my children, and my husband.

  When I first met Rell, I was scared to give up control or surrender to a man. But in reality I wasn’t surrendering to him. I was instead becoming his partner, and there is a difference. Rell stepped in and took the heavy bricks off of my back and now he is carrying them for me. I know it’s not always going to be easy or perfect, but to know Rell is by my side makes me the happiest woman in the world. Rell was my boo bear, my friend, my protector, and my husband. I wished I had noticed him in sixth grade and had avoided Jason, Maurice and Kenneth, but then, I thought, I wouldn’t have my children and I had to go through all of that drama to appreciate the man I was married to now. All the mistakes, all the heartbreak were all worth it, and I would do it all over again if Rell was my prize.

  CHAPTER 64

  Yvette

  I heard a truck backing up. I peeked out the window to see a moving truck. I opened the door and told the movers that they could take the stacked boxes on the porch and that more were coming.

  “Brandon, Mercedes, the truck is here. Start bringing the rest of the boxes out here.”

  “Mommy, I’m so happy we are finally moving
,” Mercedes exclaimed.

  “Yeah, I am too!” Brandon huffed, carrying the remainder of the big brown boxes to the door.

  Seeing the movers load the boxes onto the truck gave me a sense of satisfaction. I knew I wasn’t going to live here forever, but I didn’t know when I would be able to move and get things together again. I was just so happy that they were. I felt like I was getting another chance at life and this time I’m going to live it right.

  I had to choose between working with William or living with him. I couldn’t do both, so I was going to continue to manage the restaurant.

  I was moving to a town house I was renting in my old neighborhood. I had thought long and hard about moving in with William, and I realized I didn’t know him well enough and our relationship was too new. And, more importantly, I didn’t want to put myself back in a situation I would later regret. And before I move in or marry again, I want to work on me some more. I signed a one year lease. Everything has truly come full circle, and in a year maybe I will move in with William, but right now that’s not for me.

  One thing is for sure: God made you go through some things sometimes so you could realize how blessed you were. I’d learned so many lessons from this whole experience, like I would never take anything for granted. I would always put something up for a rainy day. And I thought I was going to be a one-woman man. I was not going to mess up this relationship with William. I’ve also learned you can’t pray against your enemy, you must pray for them. God takes care of people when he is ready and not when you are. For months I had waited, hoping and wishing that Phillip got his. All I had to do was sit back and wait. When I stopped worrying about Phillip, my dad called me and told me to get the paper, because Phil was in it. I grabbed the paper and read the headline: TEXTING AND DRIVING SEPTA CRASH. My heart sank. Karma had finally slapped Phillip in his ass. He was texting while driving his route and ran into three parked cars and a convenience store. He injured five people and was in the hospital with a broken pelvis and leg. The accident was under investigation, and he was out on leave. That meant he was getting fired. Which further proved to me that what goes around always comes back around. The one thing that amazed me about all of this was that, if Phil hadn’t stolen my money and got me fired, I would never have worked at Service Air, walked into Lena’s, and met William. I just didn’t understand it. I hated to say it, but maybe it was a blessing in disguise.

  As the movers loaded the last of the boxes onto the truck, I took a mental picture of the apartment that I’d called home for almost the last year and then happily closed the door and that chapter of my life.

  CHAPTER 65

  Dana

  “Okay, are you sure, Dana? Once I drop them, there is no turning back.”

  “I’m sure, Adam. You are the person I want to see when I close my eyes and when I open them, and in November I will officially be your wife.” Staring deep into my eyes he asked was I sure once more.

  “Positive. That’s why I accepted this,” I joked as I gazed at my engagement ring, with its three-carat, gleaming oval stone.

  “You did. Well, it is settled, we’re getting married,” he said as he released the mailbox handle and the door swung closed. He opened the mailbox door once more to make sure all the cream-colored save-the-date envelopes had fallen to the bottom of the mailbox. We kissed and then held hands and walked to the car. Adam opened my door; once I was in, I reached over and opened his. When he started driving, I leaned over and kissed my man again.

  Adam is so special and loving and I don’t want to be without him. After I told him the truth about Marcus, a lot of men might have left me. And I was scared that he was going to. But I knew I had to tell him the truth; I didn’t want it to come up later. I figured we would just continue to date and go from there. So I was totally shocked when Adam blindfolded me in the car, drove, dropped to one knee, and proposed in front of the same inn where we first spent the night, and I accepted with no hesitation. We spent the night there and the next morning he had my parents, my sisters, and his mother and sister meet us for brunch. Adam is not perfect; he has his quirks and he is still a man, but he is about me and us and that’s why I love him.

  They say every encounter is for a reason or a season. I don’t know who they are, but I do think they are right. Mr. Marcus Walker came into my life for a season. I enjoyed, cared for, and adored Marcus, but I didn’t love him. I couldn’t deny that I had thoughts about him. I did wonder what he was doing and how he was making out, but I was sure he was going to make somebody really happy one day. Who knew what would have happened if I had met him first? But I did know that you never left a sure thing for a what-if. But I believe the reason he came into my life was to prove to me that there are plenty of great and wonderful black men that were doing the right thing. If I hadn’t met him, I would have probably kept buying into the myth that there weren’t any left. But now I knew better. And good men and jerks come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Tiffany lucked out with a great man in Solomon, and they are on their way to setting a date. And Leah got dumped by a jerk like Stephen. He still hasn’t given her any explanation as to why, no closure at all. She was heartbroken and felt like she wasted so much time, but she was getting over it and dating again. While you are dating you never know what kind of hand you’re going to be dealt, but I know I would tell any single lady, have fun, date, explore your options, live your life and stay away from time wasters—aka the Stephens and Todds of the world. I know for sure there is a man out there who will give you his all, not stand you up, introduce you to his family, make you his wife—and if he won’t, another man will.

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  CHAPTER 1

  Adrienne Sheppard

  Seeing the glowing orange and red sun emerge from the blue waves of the Atlantic Ocean every morning while running on the beach was one of the perks of living in Miami. I loved breathing in the fresh sea air in the morning. Running not only made my body look fit and incredible, it gave me time to reflect on my life. I’ve done a lot of living in twenty-nine years. I’ve been a baller chaser, football wife (now ex-wife), a baby mother, a lover, a nurse, and an accessory to a murder that didn’t happen.

  People are usually judged on their own accomplishments: what they do for a living, where they went to school, but when your man is a professional athlete none of that is important. It doesn’t matter if you are a CEO of a Fortune 500 company or if you graduated summa cum laude. The only thing that matters is what team your man plays for, how much his last contract was for, and if he’s contributing to the team’s wins.

  I don’t know about you, but I like being on a winning team. I can’t deal with anything less. I had my fair share of underemployed, stingy, cheating, lying men. I dated my personal trainer, and he borrowed money to get his car fixed and never paid me back. Then I dated a nice coworker at my job when I was a nurse at a hospital. He sent the naked pictures I texted to him to every employee in the building.

  That began my quest for higher loving. I figured if I was going to get cheated on, used up, and lied to, I might as well be able to go shopping afterward to compensate for my pain.

  Initially, I attempted to date well-established men with careers, but I found athletes easier to deal with. They didn’t have a lot of time and were very generous.

  Plus, dating a professional athlete gave me a feeling of accomplishment. I was sleeping with someone’s hero—someone whom kids idolized and whose number grown men wore on their backs. It was great for the ego, but with the good comes the bad. Once you get a professional athlete, you have to keep him.

  My daughter’s father, DeCarious Simmons, plays in the NFL. I wanted him to impregnate me so I could receive eighteen years’ worth of guaranteed money by way of a chi
ld support check. I did that. Then my next goal was to get my daughter’s father to marry me, and that was accomplished also. I wanted my daughter to have a two parent home, and I wanted a nice life for myself, too. I fell short on that one.

  My ex-husband, if you want to call him that, had our marriage annulled after a few months. He married me because I faked a pregnancy and got him to take me to Vegas and make me an honest woman. I said let’s stay together, but he wanted to break up.

  To get rid of me quietly, he agreed to pay me five hundred thousand dollars. I was reluctant to accept his offer; I wanted a million to walk away. However, my lawyer advised me to take what I could get. I followed her legal advice, and a month later he signed another contract with the Atlanta Falcons. If I would have waited a little longer, I would probably be two million dollars richer.

  If someone was to give you five hundred thousand dollars, you would probably be pretty happy and think you’re halfway rich, right? Hmph. A half a mil is not all it seems. When I first saw all those zeros deposited in my account, I wanted to scream, “Balling!” I had so many plans of what I thought I could do with it. Pay off my student loans, my house, take a vacation, go on a few shopping sprees. Now, flash-forward a year and a half, and I have spent a good amount of my small fortune. I’ve made so many impulsive decisions that I’m not proud of. There were a few really nice dresses, a must-have bag, and well, if you think about it, if you buy ten pairs of designer shoes, that’s ten stacks right there. I honestly don’t know what happened to my money. I just know that between giving my mom some money, shopping for myself and my daughter, Malaysia, upgrading my vehicle, taking a trip or two, making a down payment on my condo in Miami, I spent a lot of money. Too much money!

  My condo actually is what I spent the most on, but it was a great investment. When I purchased it, it was selling for a hundred thousand dollars cheaper than other condos in the area. I just couldn’t pass it up. And I’m glad I didn’t. I love living in Miami and being close to the beach. I run on the beach in the morning, and I love the night life. There is always something to do and somewhere to go. Miami is almost like New York City, but with warm weather all year round. Being from up north I appreciate the serenity, but I also know the flash and glitz are right here in South Beach if I want it.