by Hall, J D
Meredith didn’t have to knock. In his absentmindedness, he had forgotten to lock the door to his office.
Never in his life had he been so enthusiastic about Meredith’s presence. Meredith - now that was a woman who he could count on. At least he knew that she wanted him. She had made that very clear the last time they were together alone. Also, it was unlikely that her interest in him would waver. Meredith liked men and that was not likely to change anytime soon. The fact that he was way out of her league would certainly always make him appealing.
Still feeling bruised from Jillian’s rejection, he found himself actually contemplating giving Meredith what she wanted from him: a roll in the sack. He was just going to do what Roger had subtlety suggested he should have done, the previous night, with strange women. He knew that he would have received his friend’s approval.
Darryl decided that the best way to forget Jillian was to get involved with another woman. Meredith was certainly attractive and most of all, she was available and needy. Normally, he despised needy women, but he was beginning to see that they did have their merits. No more guessing or playing games, he reasoned.
“Good evening, Meredith. Working late today?” he enquired. She wore a tight black skirt and her breasts were popping out of the low neckline of her white blouse.
“Yes, Mr Baxter. I have the day off tomorrow, remember? I just wanted to finish some of the work I had pending so that I won’t be too bogged down when I returned.”
Mr Baxter? Did he hear right, he wondered. Was the world turning upside down? He and Meredith were alone together and she was being formal with him. He suddenly remembered what Roger had said about the fickle nature of women. Still, he wanted to make sure that he had heard right.
“Meredith, you are such a dedicated worker,” he prompted.
“Thank you, Mr Baxter,” she replied.
So there it was. Two times in a row. So even Meredith was losing interest in him, he thought sadly. He waited for the usual come on, but there was none. Instead, she was busy retrieving and replacing files on his desk. He stepped aside and observed her as she was performing her tasks. A few seconds later, he noticed something sparkly on her fingers.
“Meredith, don’t tell me! Is that an engagement ring you have on your finger?” he gasped.
“Yes. I am engaged.”
Darryl did not know whether to feel happy for her or to beat up himself over his lost opportunity. So it would seem that even Meredith was moving on with her life as well, he thought.
“So who is the lucky guy?” he managed to asked.
“You know Rob, the janitor?”
“Yeah. You are marrying Rob,” Darryl said in disbelief. Surely she could do better than that, he reasoned.
“No, silly. I am getting married to his brother, Joe. He is a police officer. You don’t know him, but I met him when Rob and I went out about three months ago.”
“Well I am truly happy for you. But isn’t that kind of fast? I mean to say, you have only known the guy for about three months.”
“I know that it seems all of a sudden, but for a long time now I have been searching for love. Maybe some would say that I have searched under every nook and cranny,” she said with a laugh and then continued, “but I am tired of having to force someone to like me. I met Joe and he accepted me for who I am and he makes me want to be a better person. It may not be the kind of love that you’ll find in the romance book, but it’s the kind of love that I need right now. I need stability in my life and I have found it in Joe.”
Darryl began to nod his head in agreement. He had felt the same way about Jillian. A connection like theirs was not commonplace. With Jillian, he had felt that all the stars had aligned in his favor. He was able to relate to what Meredith was refering to. He felt the same sense of stability with Jillian and that had motivated him to want to make a commitment to her. But now he felt that all hope for the future was lost and unlike Meredith and Joe, he was very much in love with Jillian. He could no longer deny his feelings.
“I never thought that I would find someone to make me feel this way,” remarked Meredith.
“You deserve it,” he said.
“Listen, if you ever find someone who could make you half as happy as I feel right now, never let her go.”
With those words, she collected the rest of the files and left the office. Darryl lay on the lazy chair and began to gather his thoughts.
He had meant for Meredith to provide him with a bit of distraction. Instead, she had him more uneasy than before. If she, of all people, was considering settling down once and for all, then that was a sign that he should do the same. But first, he had to get out of his comfort zone. He had decided in his apartment the night before that he was going to try to forget Jillian, but now that was no longer the case. This might be his only chance to find true love, he thought. Even if she had decided to go with some other guy, he still wanted to meet and talk to her, just for the sake of closure.
He got up off the chair and took up the phone. After a few moments, he was connected to his best friend.
"Up for a trip?" he asked Roger.
"Seriously?" Roger said. "You know you never have to ask that question."
That weekend they flew to Kentucky. Darryl had looked through an old yearbook to find Jillian's last name, which had not been too difficult. She was the only black person in the entire book. That still did not tell him where she lived, as her number was unlisted. So as soon as they arrived he headed for the place she had mentioned meeting up with friends. It was a little coffee shop on the corner of the main street. He knew that if she was going to be anywhere, that might be it.
That morning, before class, Jillian had snuck into the library, hoping to find Miley. Her friend was a little busy signing out books to the students, so she decided not to burden her with her problems. But Miley noticed her and shuffled the children away. She seemed very concerned when she saw Jillian’s face. She was aware of the tumultuous state of mind that her friend was in, as this was not the first time that Jillian had confided in her about Darryl’s inconsiderate action.
“Have you been crying again?” she asked.
“I can’t help it,” replied Jillian.
“Did this guy mean so much to you?”
“Yes and no. I mean, we have never even met face to face but the connection was so strong. I felt as if I had known him all my life. I was so certain that he was the one. This disappointment is just too much for me to bear. What if this is a sign that I am meant to be alone? Forever alone.”
Miley looked on helplessly as her friend burst into sobs. She wanted to empathize with Jillian, but she never had a boyfriend of her own, despite being forty years.
“Shush, Jillian. Don’t be like this. You will find someone and he will be someone special. This is not the end of the world. Look at it this way, that guy was a jerk. You are better off without him. I think that it is a good thing that it happened this way, before you got more emotionally involved. Besides, now you are free and single and available to someone who is truly worthy of you.”
“Well I thought that he was someone special.”
The tears began to flow incessantly. Miley decided that it was best that she cried and get it over with.
A few minutes later, Jillian was drying her eyes and blowing her nose on a tissue. The little crying session had done a lot to relax her mind. She began to see things in a clearer perspective. Yes, it was not the end of the world and even if she never found anyone, it still wasn’t going to stop the Earth from rotating on its axis, she reasoned. If Darryl was playing games and did not love her, the least she could do was to love herself.
She straightened her clothes and thanked Miley for the little heart-to-heart chat. When she left, she called Viveka on the phone. If there was one person who could help her on the road to recovery, it was Viveka. Having a conversation with her would certainly make her toughen it up. Viveka was already on the road, after just having finished off with a client
. They agreed to meet at the coffee shop in ten minutes. When they got there, Jillian was a lot more composed.
“Hey, chick! You look so great!” she told Viveka. Her enthusiasm was not at all fake. Viveka really looked great. Then again, she always did.
“You don’t look too shabby yourself. I like what you did to your hair,” responded Viveka.
The mention of her hair caused Jillian’s stomach to sink. She had gone to the beauty salon to get the perfect style for her date with Darryl. Her braids were replaced by a long flowing relaxed look. She had been ecstatic with the outcome of the style and had been positive that Darryl would have felt the same. Somehow, it did not matter anymore. They were never going to meet. Destiny did not have it in the cards.
Jillian looked at Viveka puffing on a cigarette and felt a stab of envy. A good smoke would have put her heart and mind at ease, but, as a teacher, it would have looked very inappropriate for her to be smoking in public. Besides, she was not even a smoker, though she was prepared to ignore that fact if it could bring her some level of tranquility.
The noise in the coffee shop was not loud enough to drown out her thoughts. She had asked Viveka to meet her there because she did not think that she had enough will power to get through the day, much less the weekend.
“So what are you musing about?” asked Viveka, interrupting her thoughts.
“Aw, nothing. It is just that I missed you girls. I miss our nights out.”
“Well, we can resume it now that you have no reason to say home anymore.”
As insensitive as Viveka could be at times, she did recognized how her words were hurting her friend. She then decided to change the topic.
“You won’t believe what happened to Jessica.”
The mention of Jessica’s name caused Jillian to bow her head in embarrassment. All the while she had been moping over her disappointing virtual relationship, she had not even given a second thought to her friend.
“Oh, tell me.”
“She ran off and left Edison.”
“What? I don’t believe it,” said Jillian. She was both alarmed and impressed. Jessica had finally found the courage to leave her abusive marriage. Somehow her own situation seemed less significant in Jillian’s eye. If Jessica could rise above her problems, than she certainly could overcome hers.
“Yeah, but that is not the greatest part,” said Viveka. She was really a dramatist and was enjoying how she was building up a climax.
“What is it?” asked Jillian, at the edge of her seat.
“She ran off with another man!”
Jillian felt as if a bomb had dropped in the room.
“But what about the kids?”
“She took them with her. They are off to another state. She refused to tell me where out of fear that Edison might hound me down for information. I did not push her to tell me either. I am just so happy for her.”
Leaving one’s husband and running off with another man was one thing, but finding a guy who would accept your children into the bargain was a whole different ball game, Jillian thought. She did not consider Jessica’s actions to be immoral. She knew her friend and the standards she had and for Jessica to do that, just up and abandon her marriage, it must have meant that she was crazy in love with the guy. He had to be someone special for her to risk doing something like that. Also, the fact that this guy was willing to accept another man’s children took it to a whole other level. So there were still some good guys out there, she thought.
Jillian smiled. She always liked a happy ending, even though one had eluded her thus far.
Outside of the coffee shop Roger grabbed Darryl by the arm.
“Now what are you going to do when you get in there?" he demanded.
"What if she's there. What are you going to say? You can't be a whimp about this," Roger insisted sternly.
"I don't know. I'm just going to ask her if she wants to talk," he replied with a shrug.
'And what if she says no?" Roger asked.
"Then we'll go get drunk." Darryl grinned. "And I'll protect you from my hometown rednecks."
He laughed a little. But inside he was really nervous. When he opened the door to the coffee shop, he noticed that there were surprisingly several black women inside. His hometown had certainly changed a lot. He realized he might not recognize Jillian. People did not always put up their real pictures on a profile, or sometimes they were old pictures.
At the back of the room, Jillian sipped her cup of coffee. She was trying not to think about the picnic she and Darryl had planned. She didn't want to think about the fact that this weekend was supposed to be amazing. Instead she was at the coffee shop with Viveka. Just thinking about how happy Jessica was with her new man made her become emotional. She had been successfully fighting back her sadness, until now.
"Don't," Viveka cried out when she saw the tears in Jillian's eyes. "Why did you let this guy get in so deep? I tried to warn you, Jillian."
"Jillian?" said a voice from just beside their table. Darryl had heard her name and instantly recognized her from her picture. She was even more beautiful in person.
Jillian froze as she heard his voice. She recognized it right away.
"Darryl?" she asked as she looked up at him and held her breath.
"Darryl?" Viveka's eyes widened as she stared at him as well. Then she bowed her head when she remembered that they had been exchanging some pretty hot and heavy messages. Now he was in front of her. They had made plans to meet up but she didn’t think that he had taken her that seriously. How did he even get my address, she wondered. Immediately her mind began to work on overdrive. What was Jillian going to think when she found out about her betrayal? Viveka had not told Jillian that she was still communicating with Darryl on the website. She took a deep drag of her cigar and exhaled, hoping that the great puff of smoke would hide her deception.
Roger immediately moved from beside Darryl and introduced himself.
“I’m Roger,” he said to the two women. "Viveka," said Viveka and settled her gaze on Roger's attractive frame. She liked the way he held himself like a street thug. There was something dangerous and alluring about the way he was sizing her up too.
Jillian waved for Darryl and Roger to join them. There was an awkward silence around the table. Darryl was the one to break it.
"What happened?" he asked, feeling even more perplexed now that he saw that nothing was wrong with her and that she was not with another man. "I couldn't reach you."
Jillian was seated facing him. Just having him so close gave her goose bumps. He had come to find her. Still, that did not excuse the way he had treated her. She was not going to hold back just to make him feel better.
"You had no problem reaching someone else," she shot back, clenching her jaw and trying not to notice how handsome he was in person.
Darryl face displayed his confusion. Somebody else? He had thought that she was a sensible woman. Why would she jump to such a silly conclusion? He never gave her any reason to suspect that he was interested in anyone else. All of his spare time was spent in talking with her, in hope of deepening the connection and growing the relationship. Now she was accusing him of something that he had no knowledge of. He wanted to walk out of the coffee shop then and there and put her out of his mind, but all of a sudden, he remembered what Meredith had said. He did not want to be alone anymore, or like Roger, moving from one shallow relationship to another. He had to get down to the root of the issue.
Jillian noticed his countenance and almost pitied him. She thought that he had a lot of nerve to travel all those miles to just lie to her. She began to wonder why he would go through all that trouble.
"ViVi22. Ring a bell?" she asked sharply.
She looked at him carefully, hoping to see if what she had said would cause him to reveal himself. However he seemed more oblivious than ever. He watched her with a blank expression on his face. While that name did not exactly ring a bell to Darryl, there were two other persons at the table who had
a better idea of where she was coming from. Roger and Viveka both gasped.
"ViVI22?" Roger said with a sly grin. "Wow, she's amazing."
He looked sheepishly at his friend and hunched his shoulders. Roger leaned forward as the conversation had become a little more interesting to him. Sure he recalled the foxy chick that he had been chatting up. She intrigued him, although he did not really think that there was ever going to be anything between the two of them. She seemed a little too perfect. She was a freak and willing, just the right combination he liked in a woman. He did not intend to get worked up about it because he knew that people were prone to lying about their identity on the internet. He was living proof of that himself. Still he was puzzled that Jillian would mention this particular name. Maybe Jillian was a stalker, Roger thought.
"What?" Darryl said. He directed the question first to Jillian and then to Roger.
"What?" Jillian said to Roger.
The air in the room seemed to become suspended for a few minutes.
"Oh God," Viveka muttered as she tried to hide her blush. It became clear to her what was taking place. Darryl was in fact Jillian’s Darryl. Roger was the one she had actually been chatting with. He had pretended to be Darryl and it was he that had been the recipient of her flirtatious and sexually explicit messages.
"Wait, just a minute," Darryl said with a frown. "What exactly are you talking about?"
"My friend Viveka here messaged you. Don't deny it, Darryl! You told me you wouldn't hurt me, and then you started hitting on the first girl who messaged you."
Viveka was staring at Roger. Roger was staring at Viveka.
"You're ViVi22?" he asked breathlessly.
"Maybe," Viveka replied, avoiding his eyes.
"It wasn't me!" Darryl cried out. "I let Roger use my profile, because I had already met you, and I didn't care about any other women on the site!"
He stared at Jillian, hoping that she would believe him. His love was on the line.
"Then who was talking to Viveka?" she demanded.