Can't Just Be His Friend

by Tina Martin

  “We’ve already lost a month,” he said, holding me tight. “I don’t want to lose any more time with you. I love you so much, baby.”

  “I love you too,” I said, inhaling his scents, cologne, hair products, and whatever else he had on that made him smell so desirable.

  “Come on. Let’s go in.” I took him by the hand and led him into my apartment.

  “You think Reggie will be okay with that?”

  “Yeah. It’ll be okay.”

  When Reggie saw us step in the front door, he stood up. “I’m going to get going, Tiff.” He stretched and yawned.

  “Okay, Reggie.”

  Then Reggie did the most mature and amazing thing I’d ever seen him do in all our years. He walked up to Derrick and said, “I’m sorry for the way I acted towards you, man. I know you love Tiffany, and I respect that. She deserves love and happiness in her life and you bring both. I can’t be mad at that.”

  Was his statement honest? Probably not. Reggie was still feeling me. At the same time, he knew I was in love with Derrick.

  Derrick flashed a half smile and said, “I’m not trying to take her away from you but I do love her.”

  “I know.” They shook hands. “Hopefully we can be friends as well.”

  “Most definitely,” Derrick responded.

  Finally, the men in my life came to an agreement. I could be shared, just in different ways. That would be something new all three of us had to deal with but it had to be done.

  Chapter 27

  “Baby, baby, watch that glass.” Derrick and I were setting the table for dinner at his place and I was a nervous wreck. The time had come for me to meet his parents. I felt like my heart has sunken deeper into my chest.

  “I’m sorry, Derrick. I’m so nervous.” I grabbed some paper towels to clean up the water I spilled all over the dining room table. Derrick helped me finish the job. Then he took me by the hands.

  “Baby, there’s nothing for you to worry about. My parents will love you, just like I do.”

  “And what if they don’t?”

  “They will. Trust me.”

  Meeting his parents was a very important milestone in our relationship. If his Mother didn’t like me then all bets were off. I might as well have handed him the ring back if I didn’t impress her.

  “Why don’t you sit down?” Derrick told me. “I’ll finish setting the table, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  While he finished up in the kitchen, I stepped into the bathroom. My hands were shaking. Calm down, Tiffany. Calm down. I tried my best to shake this feeling but it wouldn’t go away. When I heard the doorbell ring, it only got worse. I felt like I was going to be sick, but I sucked it up, took a deep breath and joined Derrick in the kitchen.

  “You ready, baby?” he asked me, forming his lips to kiss me.

  “As ready as I’m gonna be.”

  “Okay. I’ll go let them in. You stay here.” Derrick rushed off to open the door while I dealt with a feeling similar to stage fright. I heard Derrick tell them to come in.

  “Hey, son. Where’s Tiffany?” I heard his Mom ask.

  “She’s in the kitchen, Mother.”

  Seconds later, the kitchen door swung open. I smiled at his parents. A friendly smile never made a bad impression on anyone.

  “Tiffany, this is my Mother, Evelyn, and my father, James.”

  “Hi. It’s so nice to meet you both.”

  “Likewise,” Evelyn told me, looking me up and down. James kissed my hand like a gentleman. Now I saw where Derrick got his charm.

  I stared at them for a moment, to see which one Derrick looked the most like. His parents were a good-looking couple. They were both light skinned. Evelyn was a little shorter than me. Her hair was chestnut brown, cut into a short style that looked cute on her. She had on a black skirt suit with three gold necklaces, a pair of gold earrings that reminded me of chandeliers, rings on all her fingers except the thumbs, a couple of gold bracelets and a gold watch. His father was the low-key, laid-back type – rocking a pair of black slacks and a beige shirt. Derrick looked like him the most.

  We took a seat at the table. Derrick brought over the food. He’d made some homemade lasagna, a Greek salad, and garlic bread.

  “Let’s dive in,” Derrick said as he set the main course on the table.

  “Mmm, looks good, son,” Evelyn said. Then she looked at me. “Do you cook, Tiffany?”

  Here goes, I said to myself, instantly doubting my abilities all of a sudden.

  “Yes, I cook, but not as good as Derrick.” Derrick smiled at me right before he served me a chunk of lasagna. Then he passed the dish to his Mother.

  “So Tiffany, what do you do for a living?” Evelyn asked me.

  “I work in accounting.”

  “You know, Derrick has his own business,” she felt inclined to say, as if I would not have known that already.

  “Yeah. I know. He’s told me about it.” I glanced at Derrick. He was smiling, probably feeling my nervous energy.

  “So how’d you guys meet?” James asked.

  Derrick spoke up, “Well,” he said then cleared his throat, “I was doing an advertising campaign for Tiffany’s Mom’s company and Ms. Water told me she had a single daughter that she wanted me to meet. She didn’t tell me how beautiful she was, though.”

  I smiled at Derrick.

  He continued, “So her Mom set us up on a blind date…and here we go.”

  “How old are you, Tiffany?” Evelyn asked.

  I cringed when she asked me that for two reasons. One – that’s a question a woman shouldn’t have to answer no matter how old she is, and two – did she suspect right out the gate that I was too young for her son? Did she find me immature? Was I too innocent?

  “I’m twenty-three. I’ll be twenty-four in March.”

  Mrs. Brooks didn’t seem to like my answer. It was written all over her face. She said, “That’s quite an age difference between you two, don’t you think?”

  I glanced at Derrick, surprised by the look of guilt on his face as he stared down at his plate, picking at the lasagna but not eating a bite. I told Evelyn, “Well, it’s not that bad, considering there are only seven years between Derrick and I.”

  “Seven years? Didn’t you say you were twenty-three?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well…” Evelyn chuckled. “To be in accounting, you sure are a bit rusty on your subtraction.”

  I scratched my head and said, “Huh? I’m not following you.”

  “You’re twenty-three and Derrick is thirty-five…that’s what? A twelve year difference?”

  Thirty-five? I’m sure Derrick told me he was thirty. I looked at him and he was staring down at his plate. He looked up briefly into my gaze, but didn’t refute what his Mother told me – his true age.

  Evelyn and James sat there looking at me, probably wondering how we, Derrick and I, could call ourselves an engaged couple in love and wanting to make the commitment of marriage when I didn’t even know how old he was. In an attempt to smooth things over, I responded, “Well, what’s age when you’re in love?”

  “Have you ever been in love before?”

  Evelyn was asking a lot of personal questions. I never imagined this was how our conversation would go.

  “Yes, I have,” I said, wondering if Derrick realized that I was talking about Reggie in this instance.

  “You’re pretty young to know what real love is,” James told me.

  “Okay, can we talk about something else please?” Derrick asserted. It was about time he came to my rescue.

  “We’re just trying to get to know her, son,” Queen Bee responded. “Tiffany, do you want children?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “You don’t think you’re too young to be a Mother?”

  Evelyn was really starting to get to piss me off. I asked her, “Are you telling me or asking me, Evelyn?”

  “I was just asking.”

  “Well, it’s not like I’m
gonna get pregnant right now…”

  Evelyn glanced over at Derrick and said, “The woman for Derrick will need to get pregnant soon. He’ll be forty in a few years.”

  I took a moment to get myself together, thinking about what Derrick’s wicked, stank-perfume-smelling Mother had to say to me. For her to be so pretty, she was one grouchy, stuck-up woman.

  “Mother, please. I know Tiffany would make a wonderful Mother,” Derrick responded, finally.

  Then James changed the subject by asking me, “What are your goals in life?”

  Now he wanted to get in on the verbal assault, asking me questions about goals. What was this? A job interview? I’d imagine the next question would be – so, where do you see yourself in the next five years?

  “I just want to be happy. I already have a wonderful man and a successful career…”

  “And what exactly is it that you do again?” James asked, frowning.

  “Accounting,” I said dryly. I was certain they would find something wrong with that too.

  “Is there a future in that? Derrick’s last wife was a lawyer. Now that’s a job with a future,” James said enthusiastically, like he was a college recruiter or something.

  “Dad, what are you talking about? Tiffany is very good with numbers. She has a job most people dream of.”

  “She must not be that good with numbers…she didn’t know how many years older you were than her. And how much money does that accounting stuff pay anyway?” Evelyn asked.

  Now she was just being mean…didn’t care whether or not she hurt my feelings. And again, instead of retaliating (only because they were Derrick’s parents) I said, “It pays enough.”

  “Enough meaning that you can make it on your own, or meaning you need my son’s money to make it?” Evelyn asked with an evil grin on her face.

  I tried to take all I could, but Evelyn crossed the line. “You know what,” I said wiping my mouth and standing up. “I’ve taken enough insults for one day. Derrick, I’m leaving.” I jumped up, snatched my purse and rushed out the back door.

  “Tiffany. Tiffany!” Derrick called out for me but I kept on moving. I stomped to the car without distraction. I started the car and screeched out of the driveway like a woman gone mad and got home in record time. It was a good thing I didn’t run into any cops. I would definitely have gotten a ticket.

  I was so upset, I had to call Reggie. I needed to get this off of my chest.

  “Hey Tiff,” he answered.

  “Reggie, you will not believe what just happened to me.”

  “What? Where you at? I thought you were having dinner at Derrick’s house tonight?”

  “I was. I left. I couldn’t handle it. Check this out…Derrick told me he was thirty. I found out tonight that he’s thirty-five.”

  “What!”

  “Yeah. Then over dinner, his stuck-up parents treated me like a second-class citizen. Said I was too young to have babies and that I was working a dead end job. His Mom made me out to be a gold digger.”

  “That’s jacked up.”

  I sighed, thinking to myself that if Derrick’s parents were so negative towards me, where did that leave Derrick and I? Then I went on and told Reggie, “I can’t believe they would say those things to me. And Derrick hardly said anything to defend me. I almost felt like he wanted them to drill me.”

  By that time in the conversation, I heard my doorbell ringing followed by quick knocks, the same pattern repeating twice more.

  “Reggie, I gotta go. I think Derrick is here.”

  “Ah’ight, Tiff. Just calm down…don’t want you stressing out. If I have to come over there and whip that dude, just let me know.”

  I smiled and said, “Bye, Reggie.”

  “Later.”

  I dropped my phone in my purse and rushed to the door, noticing Derrick through the peephole. It was time for me to let him have it.

  I flung the door open and yelled, “What? What do you want? You wanna drag me back to your house to be humiliated some more? Or does your Mom have more secrets to tell me about you?”

  “Tiffany, calm down,” Derrick, said touching my shoulder. “That’s how my parents are at first.”

  “Derrick, don’t put your hands on me,” I said, brushing him away.

  “Tiffany.”

  “You lied to me, Derrick!” I said sitting on the couch, feeling my heart race and remembering how Reggie told me not to stress myself out. “You’re freakin’ thirty-five years old? Why did you lie to me?”

  “Because if you knew my age, you wouldn’t have given me a chance,” he said, a comment that made absolutely no sense coming from a man of his caliber and confidence level.

  “Maybe your Mom is right. I am too young for you,” I told him. “We might as well walk away from this. They don’t like me. I’m too young, stupid, and apparently I’m a gold digger since my job doesn’t pay enough money for me to take care of myself, huh?”

  “Tiffany, my parents can be a little critical at times but—”

  “A little…a little, Derrick? I’ve never been more humiliated in my entire life! And you sat there and didn’t say a word...didn’t even defend me.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t plan on any of this happening,” he said.

  “Yeah, and I didn’t plan on marrying a thirty-five year old,” I said, holding my head, feeling my blood pressure rise.

  Derrick turned around and walked away, slamming the door behind him. I knew that was a low blow but I didn’t care if he evaporated at that point.

  I WENT TO work the following day. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to do anything. All I could think about was Derrick’s evil parents and the number thirty-five. But did his age really matter? People say it doesn’t but I think there has to be a line somewhere that says this person is too old for you. Maybe that’s why he wanted to get me hooked on him before I found out his true age. Honestly though, with his good looks and swag, Derrick didn’t look a day older than twenty-eight.

  I saw Mom’s number flash on my caller ID as I lounged back in my chair doing nothing but staring out the window, watching Bentley flirt with the new temp in the parking lot. I hit the speaker button.

  “Hey, Ma.”

  “Hello there, Mrs. Brooks. Have you started calling yourself that to see how it sounds, scribbling it on paper, drawing hearts?”

  “No, and after the disaster last night, I may never will.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s see...I met Derrick’s parents last night. They are a couple of old, stuck-up snobs. You ought to see them walking around with their noses up in the air like they are so much better than everybody else. We had dinner at Derrick’s house last night and his parents started drilling me, asking me all these questions like I have to go through a pre-marriage interview to get to be Derrick’s wife.”

  “Tiffany, they’re just trying to get to know you.”

  “Ma, his Mother asked me if I could take care of myself without Derrick’s money.”

  “What!”

  “Exactly.”

  “What did Derrick say?”

  “He kept trying to interject, but somehow, they would talk right over him. Finally, I got fed up and left. Oh, and here’s the part that really has me upset. I found out that Derrick is actually thirty-five, not thirty like he told me. How could he lie to me like that?”

  “Ah…well…that’s partly my fault.”

  “What you mean?”

  “Before your first date with him, I told him to tell you he was thirty. I thought if he told you his true age, you would pass him over.”

  “Maaa! I can’t believe you did that! I yelled at Derrick for lying to me and you’re telling me that his dishonesty is your fault?”

  “I’m sorry, hun. I just didn’t want you to pass up a good man like Derrick. Derrick is a good man, Tiffany. I don’t care how old he is and neither should you.”

  “But why you tell him to lie to me? I love Derrick. I wouldn’t care if he was forty-
five…I just don’t like being lied to.”

  “You’re right. I guess I should call Derrick and apologize.”

  “No. Let me take care of Derrick. I mean, he didn’t even tell me that you told him to lie about his age, so at least he’s loyal. He could’ve squealed on you,” I said smiling.

  Mom chuckled and said, “Yeah, he could have.”

  “Ah’ight Ma. I gotta go so I can get some work done today. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “All right. Love you.”

  “Love you too. Bye.”

  I spun my chair around again, and logged on to my computer. I had some journal entries to make, emails to return, three conference calls and a lunch date with Brenda (where I would give her all the scoop on my life). It was going to be a long day, especially without hearing from Derrick. He was still upset with me and I guess he had every right to be.

  WHEN I LEFT work for the day and arrived home, Derrick’s car was parked out front of my place. We got out of our cars at the same time.

  I rushed to the front door. Even after my Mom had already told me that she told Derrick to lie about his age, I was still upset that he let his parents go after me like I was some hussy who didn’t deserve to be with their wonderful son.

  “Tiffany, wait!” Derrick yelled from behind me.

  I stopped in my tracks and looked at him. “What?”

  “I’m sorry. My parents can be rude at times but they only want what’s best for me, just like your Mother wants what’s best for you.”

  “My Mother never drilled you like they drilled me. They made me feel like I was unworthy of you. Am I, Derrick? Am I worthy of your love?”

  Derrick turned away, upset, then looked at me. “Who are you marrying? Me or them?”

  “Well they say when you marry the man, you marry his Mother too. Ain’t that the way it goes? And your Mother doesn’t like me at all.”

  Derrick placed his hands on my face, then grabbed me close to him and asked, “Who’s your man? Hunh?” He kissed me, just a few quick taps on my lips and asked me again, “Am I your man?”

  “Yeah,” I said softly, loving the way he snatched me up, kissing me, controlling me.