“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
Travis’s words stuck in his throat for a moment. It wasn’t Beryl’s voice.
“Hello,” the woman said again.
“Ah, yes. Who am I speaking with?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m Betsy. I was supposed to say my name when I answered. Please forgive me. How can I help you, sir?”
“Uh, yes, may I please speak with Beryl Highgate?”
“Beryl Highgate?” The woman repeated in question.
“Yes, Beryl Highgate,” Travis repeated.
“Oh, that’s how her name is pronounced,” Betsy said.
Beryl’s name was pronounced just like the name Cheryl but with a B. Travis didn’t feel like talking with the woman and didn’t feel like going through all the formalities and niceties. “Look, Betsy, I am in a bit of a rush. Is Beryl available or not?”
There was a pause on the other end. It was obvious that the woman had been offended. “Well, sir, I am sorry but Ms. Highgate is not available. She no longer works here.”
“Say what?” Travis asked in disbelief.
“She no longer works here, sir. Now is there anything I can help you with, sir?” The woman sounded snippy now.
“No,” Travis said.
He guessed Betsy was tired of being customer service friendly as well because the next thing he heard was a click in his ear. Now he sort of wished he’d been at least a little more cordial to the woman, because now he couldn’t ask her any questions about where Beryl was and what happened for her not to be there anymore.
Travis sat dumbfounded for a moment, wondering what was going on. Beryl had worked at that office for almost a decade. She was a dedicated employee who had been employee of the month several times and employee of the year once. Now new questions formulated in his mind. Beryl no longer worked there? He wondered what was up. Had they had layoffs? Did she quit? How was she getting along financially without any support from him?
There were many times when they were married that Beryl used to nag him about working and keeping a job. It was hard for him to find steady work. He often applied for jobs but the people hiring didn’t appreciate his associate’s degree in general studies. At that time it had been hard enough for their family to make ends meet on Beryl’s steady income.
Now he felt a twinge of guilt. He wondered if Beryl had been calling him so much the last few months because of her job loss. She probably really did need some money.
His cell phone rang, and without looking at the caller ID, he picked it up hoping to hear Beryl’s voice. Instead of hearing his ex-wife, he heard the sultry voice of Jade on the other end.
“Hello, may I speak to Wayne?” Jade said.
“Hey, Jade,” Travis said. Even though he was disappointed it wasn’t Beryl, Jade was a pleasant distraction.
“Well hello, handsome,” Jade said. Her voice held a seductive tone.
“Well hello to you too, stranger,” Travis said. He wondered what Jade was up to and why she was calling and trying to sound so seductive.
“I am so sorry I haven’t made contact with you. Things have just been really busy for me at work and there were a few personal things I had to take care of. So pleeeaaassse forgive me.” She’d held out her please a little longer than needed to stress her need for forgiveness.
“You are forgiven,” Travis said, now sort of glad she had called to take his mind off of the situation with his ex-wife. “So to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”
“Well, I was wondering if you were going to be busy this Friday,” Jade said.
“Well that depends. What’s up?” Travis asked.
“There is a dinner party for my job that I completely forgot about until yesterday and I need to take a date with me. You immediately came to mind,” Jade said.
“Are you serious? I am the first person who came to mind?”
“You sure were.”
Travis didn’t believe the woman. She was so good looking that she would surely have her pick of many men. So she either asked a few other people and they had declined or her original date had to back out at the last minute. But all was well and good.
“Where is this dinner and when?” Travis asked.
“It is at Ginny’s this Friday, the twenty-fourth, at seven,” Jade said.
“It’s at Ginny’s?” Travis asked, thinking that it sounded like it should be a nice dinner party and that whatever company Jade worked for, they had a lot of money.
“Yeah, Ginny’s. Have you been there before?”
“Oh, yeah. It’s my favorite restaurant. I love their food.”
“Great. So how about it? Can you make it?”
“Sure,” Travis said.
“Oh yeah, and Wayne,” Jade said.
“Yeah?” Travis asked with question in his voice.
“There is one more little thing,” Jade said.
“What’s that?” Travis wondered.
“It is a formal affair. Do you happen to own a tuxedo ?”
“Baby doll, are you serious?” Travis asked.
“Ah, yes,” Jade said with what sounded like concern in her voice.
“Only real men own tuxedos,” Travis said.
He could hear what sounded like a sigh of relief in her voice. “Great. I knew you looked like a man who would own your own tuxedo. Wonderful. You can pick me up at six,” Jade said.
“Ah, say what?”
“You heard me. You seem like a nice enough guy. Not a stalker or anything or a serial killer. So you can pick me up. Do you have a pen so you can write my address down?”
“Ah, yeah,” Travis said.
“Great. I live at 61 LaFayette Street. It is in the Wellington Down’s subdivision.”
“Okay, 61 LaFayette Street in the Wellington Down’s subdivision,” Travis repeated.
“So I’ll see you at six Friday night?”
“Yep. I’ll pick you up at six,” Travis said.
“Bye,” Jade said.
“Bye.” Travis hung the phone up as he thought about his dilemma. All of a sudden he was going to have to figure out a way to pick Jade up. She would be expecting him to pick her up in his candy apple–red BMW. He thought about using the excuse of the car being in the shop. The he wondered how much it would be to rent a candy apple–red BMW, but figured Enterprise Rent-A-Car or Alamo wouldn’t just happen to have one sitting on their lots waiting to be rented. Somehow he was going to have to figure something out.
That Friday evening Travis rang the doorbell on the front door to Jade’s home. It was a two-story brick home situated at the middle of a cul-de-sac. She came to the door wearing a tight-fitting off-white A-line dress that hugged her in all the right places. Again she looked as if she had just stepped out of the beauty salon.
She greeted Travis as she stepped out of the front door and locked it. “Hey, Wayne. I like a man who is punctual.”
She hadn’t invited him in or anything. He figured she wanted to make sure she made it to the dinner party early. He let her walk in front of him down the sidewalk and to the driveway.
“So this is your BMW?” Jade asked as she walked around to the passenger side door.
“Yep,” Travis said, hoping she wouldn’t hear the nervousness in his voice.
He opened the door for Jade to let her in and then returned to his side of the car to let himself in. Just after cranking the car he paused for a moment and said a very quick silent prayer to himself, praying he wouldn’t get a scratch on Brent’s car.
“Are you okay?” Jade asked.
Travis opened his eyes, clinched the wheel, and said, “Yeah, I’m good.” Then he gingerly backed out of Jade’s driveway.
It wasn’t until he was fully out of her driveway and driving safely down her street that he spoke again. “You look very nice,” he said.
“Thank you. You look pretty nice yourself,” Jade said.
“Thanks,” Travis said. Again Travis had returned to Brent’s closet to put on the tuxedo he�
�d seen. It fit perfectly and now he actually looked like Richard Gere from the Pretty Woman movie.
They rode most of the way in silence as Travis paid as much attention as he could to the road and the other drivers. He would be glad when he got back home and could park the BMW back in the garage. Not only was he scared of damaging the car, but the trip to Jade’s had already cost Travis twenty-five dollars in gas money. As soon as he’d cranked Brent’s car he realized it was almost out of gas. He’d gone to the gas station to fill it up. But he realized that the gas meter was reading almost twenty dollars and it had only filled about five gallons worth of gas. So instead of filling up the tank, he decided to only pump twenty-five dollars worth.
“So, how was your day?” Jade asked.
“Good,” Travis said. He didn’t offer anything further. His mind was on figuring out where there would be a safe place to park downtown. The last thing he needed was to have Brent’s car stolen.
Jade made a couple more attempts to make small talk with him and Travis answered the couple of closed-ended questions she had, but didn’t offer any questions in reply to her. He knew he was acting a bit strange, but at that point he didn’t care.
When they got downtown much of the parking close to the restaurant was taken, so Travis ended up parking in a parking garage that cost him ten dollars. He wasn’t pleased with this additional expense, but did at least feel slightly better about the safety of the car. So far he had spent thirty-five dollars on his date out with Jade. And by his calculations the savings he’d started was now going to be down to about only forty-five dollars. He knew he was going to have to start watching his spending and he was going to have to do better in the savings department.
He still had a paycheck coming to him from the car wash, and would have received a check from Alley’s, but was informed that his check would be used to buy another alligator suit and to pay for the cleaning bill of the customer whose clothing had been stained with red ICEE juice.
As he tried to enjoy the night with Jade at the dinner party it reminded him of something. And after racking his brain, it came to him. In a way, Jade reminded him of Gabrielle Union when she played the role of Eva in the movie Deliver Us from Eva. In the movie Gabrielle was a beautiful business woman who focused on work and had a heart of ice. Jade seemed like she was on some sort of mission that night and the mission wasn’t really to get to know Travis better.
Travis felt more like an arm piece or an accessory to Jade. Her demeanor toward him changed drastically when they hit the doors of the restaurant and Jade saw some of her coworkers. She clutched on to Travis as if the two had been a couple and had known one another for years. She was trying to put up some kind of front for them. It was a fakeness that Travis had never noticed before and he didn’t like it at all. He played along with her game of “this is my boyfriend” as he enjoyed the ambiance and food.
At the end of the night he delivered her back home. At her home she thanked him for accompanying her to the dinner party and failed to invite him in her house when he walked her to the front door. There she gave him a peck on the cheek and said good-bye.
Upon pulling the BMW back into the garage, Travis breathed a sigh of relief. He was never going to do that again. Borrowing a few pieces of clothing was one thing, but taking his friend’s expensive sports car was a whole different story. And again he’d dished out way more money than he’d had to dish out and needed to spend. If he kept on putting up the false pretense of being Wayne, he was going to be broke again, real soon.
Chapter 14
The next Sunday morning, Travis kept his vow and arose bright and early to make it back to New Hope Church to attend the 8:00 service. This time he cooked himself a breakfast of scrambled eggs, grits, and country ham. The meal didn’t taste like his mother’s, but it would do. Once he finished eating his stomach was full and satisfied.
Just before leaving he grabbed his Bible, a pen, and his notebook. He also grabbed the woman’s Bible he’d picked up a few Sundays before with hopes that he would see her again and would be able to return it to her. If he remembered right her name was Marla.
The regular pastor had returned from his vacation so he preached that morning instead of Phillip. Travis still hoped he would get the opportunity to talk to Phillip and Shelby after one of the services to at least say hi to them. In retrospect, he now wished he had exchanged numbers with the couple at the end of the marriage retreat, but he had let Beryl handle the matter of getting contact information for them.
Travis sat through and enjoyed the first service, then stayed for the second service. As he had done a few Sundays before, he moved up closer to the front of the church and placed his notebook and the Bibles in the seat next to him, saving the seat just in case he saw the woman.
A few minutes later he saw the woman walk down the aisle, also toward the front as she looked for a seat. He made eye contact. She smiled and joined him.
“Good morning, Marla,” Travis said.
“Good morning,” the woman replied.
Travis moved the books from the seat so she could sit down; then he handed her her Bible. “Here you are.”
“Thank you. I’ve been looking all over for this. I thought I might have left it here but couldn’t remember.”
“You’re welcome. You got out of here so fast that Sunday that I couldn’t find you to give it back, so I just figured that maybe I would get the pleasure of seeing you again and would be able to return it to you.”
As she had done a few Sundays ago, she blushed. “Thank you.” Marla’s voice was soft-spoken and had a wholesome quality to it that Travis liked. She was also shorter than him even with her high heels on. Her hair was short with full-bodied tight curls and she reminded Travis a great deal of his older sister.
“I had to go over to the nursing home to see my great aunt. She looks forward to my Sunday visits.”
“That is sweet. How old is your aunt?” Travis asked.
“She’s ninety-six,” Marla said.
“Wow, I hope we can all make it to that age,” Travis said.
“Me too. She is completely in her right mind, and if her legs and hips would work a little better for her, she’d still be at home taking care of herself.”
“That is so nice that you go and visit her at the nursing home.”
“Yeah, she likes my company, but she also likes sweets. I had to go to the store to pick up a few of her favorite candies before heading over to the home,” Marla said.
The worship and praise music for the second service began playing. People started standing up and clapping their hands.
“I am so very sorry,” Marla said. “Please tell me your name again.”
“Travis.”
“I’m sorry. I thought that was it but just wanted to make sure.”
They both stood and joined the congregation in clapping their hands and singing with the musicians and the choir. When the pastor preached his sermon on accountability, Travis did just as he had the first Sunday he had attended. He jotted down scriptures and notes, while mouthing out many of them as he wrote and the pastor spoke. The message from the second service was almost a carbon copy of the first service.
Again Travis could see that Marla was impressed with what she thought was the spiritual gift of knowledge that he had. And to Travis it felt nice to have someone admire him for a change. At the end of service Travis walked with Marla to the foyer of the church.
With both services being over, it was time for them to part ways, although Travis wished he didn’t have to. He enjoyed talking to Marla.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you next Sunday,” Travis said.
“Oh, okay. Are you not going to the fellowship hall?” Marla asked.
“To the fellowship hall? For what?”
“Dinner. They have plates in there.”
“Oh, I didn’t know. Sure.”
They walked to the fellowship hall, and each got a plate. They found two seats at a table and ate together and
talked. Travis was pleased to have been able to spend more time with Marla and to also get a meal on top of everything else.
Throughout the next couple of weeks Travis ended up getting a job with a cab company. He figured that with driving a cab he’d be able to make money and would also be able to get around without having to wait for the bus. But his stint there was short-lived. He had been given the graveyard shift to drive, and on his third night working, one of his new coworkers had been robbed at gunpoint.
Travis realized that he didn’t want to put himself in a situation like that and turned his keys back in to his new boss. He had also found that it wasn’t easy to just take the cab anywhere he wanted to go, which defeated one of his original purposes for wanting to drive the cab in the first place.
It had been over three weeks since he’d seen Beryl and the boys. And he still had not made contact with her. At first he called her hoping she would answer the phone so he could talk with her. Then he finally decided to go ahead and leave her a few quick cryptic messages—messages that wouldn’t hint that he knew anything about her new friend and job loss.
But he still hadn’t heard from her. He was starting to get a bit worried and had even contemplated calling one of her family members but knew that his calls and questions would fall on deaf ears. Her family didn’t have too much to do with him ever since they had separated and finally divorced.
He was sure that her family had probably gotten an earful the last couple of months that he hadn’t had contact with her. They wouldn’t be forthcoming with any information about their loved one.
He’d gone out on a few more fun dates with Tory and had also gone out on a date with Jade, taking her to a touring play. Travis had enjoyed the comedy throughout the play; Jade, on the other hand, acted as if she was bored and had somewhere else to be. Travis didn’t know why he was trying so hard to impress a woman who obviously wasn’t that in to him. But every time he looked at her body, he figured that had something to do with it.
The Marrying Kind Page 10