“Of all the places,” I replied.
In the background, Marlene’s doorbell rang.
“Sounds like you have company.”
“Michael’s here to pick me up. He’s taking me out to eat at a Japanese restaurant for dinner and then we’re going to the movies.”
“Steve’s weekend?”
“Yeah.”
“Enjoy.”
“I will. Do you want to come?”
“Good-bye, Marlene.”
I ended the call, shook my head with a smile, and put my phone down.
My song was replaying.
As Chyna Forbes sang, I closed my eyes and thought about what was to come. Marlene was stepping down. I was going to take her place, not because of what had happened, but because it was time. The fire that burned inside of me hadn’t gone out, but it had dimmed.
I realized that one day talking with Aida and Rebecca over coffee at Barnes & Noble.
They were both telling me about the new clients they had. Aida had her family reunion to crash and Rebecca’s friend Kay had finally reached her breaking point with her husband. The fire in their eyes and the excitement in their voices had been high. They were looking forward to the game play, the manipulation. Things I used to crave.
Until that day.
That day I realized that I needed something different. I needed a new challenge.
I took a breath, held it, and then exhaled slowly.
I thought about Marlene, Steve, Kyra, Myles, Aida, Vivian, Shante, Ryan/Griffin, Rebecca, and all of the others in between.
My life.
From beginning to end, it was one hell of a story. It would make one hell of a movie too.
“Amado Mio.”
I listened to the melody, the piano in the breakdown. I enjoyed the hot water’s caress over my skin.
I imagined a scene where a woman sitting at a bar in a hotel slams down her cell phone and curses about her unfaithful husband to a coworker, sitting on a stool beside her. A female coworker. One with telling eyes, sexy lips, and a body made for sin.
The coworker would complain to the female about how her husband was probably off fucking his secretary at that very moment.
The female would watch her frustrated coworker with a disapproving gaze, and after a few minutes, she’d ask one simple question: “Why don’t you just set him up?”
“Amado Mio” would be playing from speakers above them.
My life.
It would be one hell of a movie.
Home Wrecker would be the title.
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Eye for an Eye Copyright © 2010 Dwayne S. Joseph
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Eye for an Eye Page 22