Island Love

by Curtis Bennett

  Rounding off my meal, I indulged in a slice of New York cheesecake, covered with cherries. Once I devoured my delicious dessert, I wiped my mouth, left a generous tip, and headed out of the restaurant. Stuffed wasn’t even the word to describe how bloated I felt as I made my way down A1A on foot.

  Experiencing a sudden but slight headache I dropped by a CVS pharmacy along the way to buy a box of chewable aspirins. The pharmacy was located inside of a courtyard of two-story shops and restaurants. Inside I asked a store clerk on which aisle I might find boxes of aspirins. He pointed in the direction ahead of me and indicated two aisles over. I thanked him and took off. Turning the corner of the aisle I nearly collided with a woman who was rounding the corner herself. To my complete surprise it was Tina Marie Cortez, the young and beautiful woman who had returned my credit card to me. We both looked astonished.

  “My, what a pleasant surprise this is bumping into you here Marcus,” she chuckled with a radiant smile.

  “Yeah, literally,” I added gazing down into her dark eyes.

  “I haven’t seen you at the Shack since we last talked,” she said, using the shortened version of the restaurant’s name.

  “When were you last there?”

  “Matter of fact, I just came from there,” I answered. “I had dinner, and it was delicious I might add. So, you’re off today?”

  “No, I just worked an earlier shift,” she said. “I see that you’re out picking up a few items.”

  “Well, I was heading back to the office when I decided to get something for this slight headache of mine,” I replied, noticing for the first time that she had a small birthmark, one smaller than a dime, behind her right ear.

  “Working late, huh,” she said regarding my light colored purple shirt and purple pattern tie and pressed charcoal-gray trousers.

  “Actually, I was just heading back to the office to tidy up a few things before the weekend.”

  “What exactly do you do for a living, if I may ask?” she said still beaming.

  “I scout cities and locations for possible new sites for our restaurants,” I replied.

  “So, you’re in the restaurant business too, huh?”

  “I guess I am,” I said smiling. “But like I said, I just go out in search of new locations for expanding our business.”

  “Sounds as if you are on the road a lot.”

  “I am,” I answered with a wide grin.

  There was a pause.

  “Hey, you off this weekend?” she asked.

  “Yes, I am,” I answered.

  “You plan on stopping by the Shack tomorrow?”

  “Why, are you scheduled to work tomorrow?” I asked.

  “No, but I am stopping by there around 1:00PM to pick up my paycheck,” she answered. “I knocked off of my shift before our checks arrived today and didn’t feel like coming back to pick it up.”

  “I see,” I murmured, probing her eyes.

  “You know, I still can’t get over how we just happened to bump into one another like we did,” she said, tilting her head to one side as if to consider a thought. “Do you believe in providence?”

  “That and omens,” I came back, smiling.

  “You see, we actually have something in common already.”

  “It appears that way,” I said with a light chuckle.

  “Listen, I don’t have anything planned tomorrow,” she said, taking the initiative. “Would you like to get together for lunch, my treat?”

  Tina’s offer caught me by surprised, especially her offer to foot the bill for lunch. I was humbled by her gesture and graciously told her so.

  “Come on, you know you probably have nothing better to do,” she said playfully as she touched my shoulder with her hand.

  “No, I don’t,” I said, deciding whether or not to take her up on her offer.

  “Well, what do you say?”

  “I don’t know, Tina. I ｰ”

  “Look, just say you’d love to, Marcus, okay,” she pressed with a friendly flirtatious gaze.

  “Okay, I’d love to have lunch with you Tina,” I finally conceded.

  “Then it’s a done deal,” she said smiling, as she brushed a strand of loose hair back with her hand, her eyes still fixated on me. “Why don’t we meet at my job tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 PM, okay?”

  “Sounds like a plan. I’ll be there,” I assured her.

  After shaking hands we went our separate ways. Strangely, my conversation and walk with Tina lingered and long after we parted company. She had warmed me in a way that I had not experienced since Leïla entered my life. For the first time in a long time I was looking forward to facing a new day.

  Once at my condo, I replayed a video of Leïla in St Thomas before going to sleep. Why I did this I could not explain. I knew that I was only depressing myself further with this practice. Down inside, I still loved her and needed to feel close to her. On this night, memories of her left me feeling guilty about going out with Tina the following day. In the end I tempered this guilt with the reality of my situation with Leïla, along with the fact that I had done everything in my power to find her. I knew that I could not go on living the remainder of my life alone, a life based on a memory of a woman who was no longer an active force or presence in my life. I mean, how long is a person supposed to wait? And how long should one hold onto hope, or even a mystery? Whatever the answer, I knew that my life had to go on.

  Chapter Twelve

  We met as planned at the Shack that following afternoon, right after the initial lunch crowd had dispersed. Tina had already picked up her check and was waiting for me but not for long, she told me. Together, we made the short trek to my car. I was the consummate gentleman walking on the outside of the pavement protectively and opening and closing the car door for her. Once we were seated and buckled up, I drove off. Tina was wearing a light blue blouse and dark blue denim Capri pants. I was wearing my beige safari shirt and brown slacks and brown tinted shades. I felt awkward at first, being with her, but Tina’s soothing voice and quiet humor and quick wit eventually put me at ease.

  “So, what do you have in mind for lunch?” I asked, glancing over at her.

  “Well, though we’re one of the best in the area, I eat enough seafood at the Shack so how about Italian?” she asked.

  “Do you like Italian food?”

  “Love it,” I quipped spiritedly. “My favorite Italian dish is baked Veal Parmigiana over a mountain of spaghetti and homemade tomato sauce.”

  “My favorite is spaghetti and meatballs with parmesan cheese but I also like oven-baked lasagna as well, with toasted garlic bread.”

  “Okay, I’m sold,” I chuckled. “Let’s go Italian.”

  “There’s an Olive Garden not too far from here,” she said, as she glanced out the window and then back at me.

  “I know exactly the one you’re talking about,” I replied as I turned right at the corner.

  We were parked and inside of the restaurant in minutes. Shortly after our arrival we were seated. A large wooden bowl of garden salad followed within minutes. A basket of toasted garlic and buttered bread sticks was placed on the cloth covered table as well. As I sat there thinking of what to say Tina beat me to the punch.

  “So, what’s on your mind?” she asked, posing a question I had not anticipated.

  “Oh, I was just wondering about your name,” I said.

  “I already know your question,” she chuckled. “Yes, my mother named me after one of her favorite songstress, Tina Marie. She loved her and her duets with Rick James”

  “Yes indeed, that Tina Marie and Rick James used to throw down,” I added, shaking my head sideways. “I liked them a lot, now they’re both gone.”

  “I liked them too,” she said softly, picking up a bread stick.

  “You know, I was wondering, how is it that a beautiful young woman like you find yourself spending your day off with a man who is obviously going through a rough period of his life, and I’m not saying that my life is on
e of drama,” I asked, picking up a breadstick too.

  She looked up at me and leveled her eyes and said, in a soft benevolent tone, “It’s not that much of a mystery, Marcus. I looked around one day and saw a man who looked as though he could use a friend. That’s why I am here.”

  “You are something else,” I told her, a smile breaking out on my lips. “And I appreciate you for being so thoughtful, kind, and considerate.”

  “Why, thank you,” she said, wiping a crumb from her mouth with the cloth napkin.

  “Tell me Tina, what is your story, your mystery?” I asked, gazing at her soft facial features.

  “You really haven’t finished telling me yours yet,” she countered. “You go first.”

  “Fair enough,” I said pausing. “It’s like this. I fell in love with a woman I hardly knew but was on the way to knowing, or so I thought. She was a woman who professed that she was in love with me. Then after an incident that should have brought us closer together, she vanished from the scene.”

  “And in what way did she vanish?” Tina probed.

  “Not in the crime show sense,” I clarified. “I just stopped hearing from her.”

  “I take it you two are from different parts of the country or state.”

  “Actually, she is from another country.”

  “I see,” Tina murmured.

  “Hey, who knows why these things happen?” I said, exhaling.

  “What was it that made her special in your eyes, if I may ask?”

  “Um, that one is easy,” I began, setting the breadstick I was holding down. “She was very considerate and kindhearted, and a lot of fun, as well. She was intelligent and ambitious too. And she was very attractive. She was a beauty contest winner at one time. But most of all, she and I just seemed to be made of the same cloth.”

  “I can see that you’re still very much in love with her,” Tina said peeling back a layer of emotional reality that I had tried so hard to repress.

  “You know, I imagine that I am,” I professed, my eyes averted. “So, what about you? What’s your story Tina?”

  “I umm,” she muttered, struggling for the right words. “God, I don’t really know where to begin.”

  “How about at the beginning,” I suggested as the waitress arrived with our orders.

  “Okay. It’s like this,” she began with a thoughtful gaze that appeared to reside in another time and place than the one we shared at this moment. “I met Emanuel in high school and we soon began to date. We were going to get married after we both turned twenty-one.”

  “Why twenty-one?” I injected abruptly.

  “Because he wanted to go to college, which he did, and then into the army,” she answered. “He came out as an officer. And I, I was going to go to school for the culinary arts.”

  “Sounds as if you both were on the right track,” I said, chewing my food. “So, what happened?”

  “Fresh out of training Emanuel received orders to Afghanistan,” she said her voice trembling. “He was there for less than two months when he was killed by an IED.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” I replied sensing the pain in her voice as she relived that tragic part of her life.

  “For nearly a year I was in a deep depression,” she continued. “I dropped out of culinary arts school and retreated into my own world. I became reclusive, you might say.”

  “How did you snap out of it?” I was curious to know.

  “I imagine that after sometime, I just accepted the fact that he was not going to walk through my door again and after that revelation, I slowly came out of my fog,” she explained.

  “Well, I can see why you were able to empathize with me,” I said. “You understood the pain and agony that came with the loss of a loved one, even though my loss was real, it was metaphoric in nature. As far as I know, Leïla is still alive. ”

  “So, her name is Leïla,” she said, seemingly fully recovered from her painful trip down memory lane.

  “Yes, Leïla Johns-St Martin,” I uttered. “She is from the island of Antiqua.”

  “Antiqua,” Tina echoed. “I’ve heard of it.”

  “It’s a lovely island, though I did not enjoy my visit as much as I had hoped I would,” I added with apparent emotional stress registering in my voice.

  “You were there to look for her, I gather,” she quipped.

  “Yes, I went down there in search of her but was told by her father that she had come to the States to finish up her undergraduate work,” I said. “Strange thing, he refused to tell me where, though.”

  There was a pause as we both finished chewing our food.

  “I understand your dilemma, now,” she said, taking a sip of water. “You were in one of those long distance love affairs, it seems. Those are the hardest to maintain.”

  “You’re right about that,” I said in agreement.

  “How did you two meet?”

  “We met for the first time here in Ft Lauderdale,” I answered, not going into detail. “Then I ran into her again when I was in the Virgin Islands.”

  “Which part?”

  “St Thomas,” I answered.

  “I see,” she mumbled. “So, it was in St Thomas that your love for her blossomed. Am I right?”

  I nodded yes as I too, felt as though I had been transported back to another time and place.

  “I can imagine how romantic that must have been,” she said glancing my way but only briefly. “You both are feeling things for one another and in a beautiful tropical setting. It must have been like paradise for the both of you.”

  “Island girls,” I crooned softly, electing to sidestep her last statement.

  “What about them?” she asked with inquisitive eyes.

  “They are some of the most beautiful women I have ever met but I’m starting to have my doubts about ever getting involved with them again.”

  “Ever?” she asked incredulously.

  “Ever,” I echoed perfunctorily.

  “Hey,” she chuckled lightly. “I think you ought to know that I’m an island girl, myself.”

  “You are,” I said wishing I could take back my last statement.

  “I was born in Puerto Rico,” she revealed. “I came to the States with my mother when I was around six years old. This was after she and my father divorced.”

  “Well, I imagine that I will just have to eat my words,” I said apologizing.

  Tina, being a good sport, humored me. She understood that I had spoken out of frustration and that helped put me back in good standings with her.

  After lunch we decided to visit the Swimming Hall of Fame and take in a movie. That evening I dropped her off at her car, which was parked a block away from the Shack. I could see that she had enjoyed our time together and as much as I had.

  “I really enjoyed myself today Tina,” I said towering over her.

  “Not as much as I did,” she said lightly with a heartwarming smile.

  “Here’s my business card,” I said offering it to her. “I wrote my cellphone number on the back.”

  “Thank you Marcus,” she said taking the card. Searching her purse she pulled out a small piece of paper and jotted down something as I watched. “Here’s my cell number,” she said handing me the paper.

  “I would like very much to see you again, if that is all right with you,” I said with supplication in my voice.

  “I’d like that very much, Marcus,” she cooed into my ear as we hugged in parting. As we stood facing one another it was apparent that she wanted me to kiss her. As much as I wanted to, I didn’t. As lovely as Tina was and as wonderful a time I had had with her, Leïla weighed heavy on my mind. Her memory was like a cold case file that kept crying out to be reopened so that some form of resolution could be achieved. I had to get to the bottom of her departure if I was ever going to move on with my life. I could not go on pretending that what Leïla and I shared never happened. It did happen and it was as real as anything I had ever felt, even what I now suspected I was
beginning to feel for Tina.

  Over the next two weeks the two of us went out on the town, visited numerous shopping centers and took to the beach in the early evenings, she in various pastel-colored bikinis, some with artful pattern designs, and I juggling between my black swimming trunks and my dark blue ones. Much like Leïla, this island girl had a body to die for. And the more I saw her in a bikini, the more difficult it was for me to resist the urges and temptation growing inside of me. Women like Leïla and Tina oozed sexuality. They were women most men would love to fall in love with, seduce and ravish. More unscrupulous types might look upon them as challenges to their egos, women to bed, brag about, and then dump. In my eyes, they were women to befriend, get to know good, have lots of fun with, and maybe, just maybe, fall in love with. But then I did fall in love. And it was proving to be very hard to remain faithful to a distant memory.

  That evening, I made my way to my bedroom, kicked off my shoes, and flung myself full-length on my king size bed. As I lay there, my thoughts bounced between Tina and my memory of Leïla. Not surprisingly, both women made my heart pound wildly inside at the thought of them. But how could this be? And two island girls at that. From the onset all I wanted was to get to the bottom of Leïla’s disappearance. But I was not fooling myself. My chances of finding her, and my interest in doing so, were diminishing with every outing I made with Tina. I was growing more and more attached to her and on a more emotional level. I was also growing quite conflicted inside. The budding relationship Tina and I had developed was taking us in a direction neither one of us had anticipated. Still, I told myself that it was the present that mattered. In my heart I knew that I might have to let Leïla go. I had to if I was going to survive and maintain my sanity.

  Meanwhile, I lay there writhing in emotional turmoil wondering if I should take another chance at love. Both Tina and Leïla’s charming and inviting smiles and soft spoken words, flashed across my mind and in an intoxicating way as I pondered my course of action. I quietly admonished myself for allowing Tina to get so close to me before I could fully reconcile my feelings for Leïla. Both women deserved better.