Like Slow Sweet Molasses

by Like Slow Sweet Molasses

  “Always the same. Running away from controversy, Brock,” she accused. “Where are you off to tonight?”

  “Probably Angela’s,” Kelsy arraigned.

  “I’ll be at Aunt Belle’s.” Pointedly to his daughter, “Watch your mouth, young lady.”

  “Angela? She must be special to have her own jar of jelly in the refrigerator.”

  Chance winced.

  “Hit a nerve, I see.”

  “Angela’s none of your business, Tina.” He warned, “She is not a subject open to discussion with you.”

  Kelsy blurted, “She’s black, Mom.”

  For once, he saw the words slapped right out of his ex-wife’s mouth. She was speechless. But, not for long.

  “A petite, hourglass-figured somebody? Almond-shaped eyes that spangle when insulted? Drives an old heap,” she finished her description. “Is that Angela?”

  Chance’s heart plummeted to the pit of his stomach. Yet, he held his tongue.

  Tina relished the job of jabbing him. “Came by earlier today. Wanted to know if you were home.” She scooted to the chair’s edge, stood near him, reached up and ruffled the hair on his head. “I told her you were…” she watched his temper rise, “unavailable.”

  Chance took several steps around her giving her the once over and headed towards his bedroom. He drew up, thinking better about packing his satchel in anger. The last thing he wanted was to hurt his daughter’s feelings. She was destined to misconstrue the reasons with unfounded suppositions of her own. His meager belongings already at Aunt Belle’s would have to do.

  In a fatherly move, he hugged Kelsy close, kissed her cheek and started to the door.

  “Dad?” she called cautiously. He turned. “I love you.”

  Chance backtracked. “I love you, too.” He smoothed dyed black hair from her face remembering her bouncy red curls of childhood. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Tina disrespected his feelings enough times for him to know the short fuse burned quickly. She was the mother of his child. “I’ll lock up when I leave.”

  “We’re leaving tomorrow.” Tina’s voice stopped him on the stairs.

  “Our time isn’t over, Tina. School doesn’t start until Monday,” he reasoned.

  Kelsy looked from her father to her mother. “Dad’s bringing me back on Saturday, Mom.”

  He supported her statement. “I’ve already purchased the airline tickets.”

  “I came to get my daughter,” she worked up to a rant. “We’re leaving tomorrow.”

  “You’re upset, Tina,” he cajoled. “Sleep on it and we’ll talk tomorrow.” He eased the rest of the way down the stairs, checked the security of his concealed room and left the warehouse with one destination in mind.

  Angela’s drowsy eyes popped open to the sounds of branches brushing her bedroom window. His voice drove home the point—he wanted in and—Chance wouldn’t give up until that happened. She sat up to put the current happenings in perspective. His mission was to gain access to her home. Well, she wouldn’t let him into her heart ever again.

  “Angela.” The undertone sounded desperate. The window above his head rose. “Let me in.”

  She heard a plea wrapped in a command. Then he said the wrong thing.

  “I need you.”

  “Oh, I’ll let you in alright.”

  She shuffled into her robe, straightened her spine for the fight and charged to the door. He was there waiting when the locks turned. Angela stepped aside and he entered only as far as she leaned on the door. Quietly, the door shut them in. They stood in a muted beam of light from outside that spread through the glass insert. As a precaution to him getting the wrong impression, she bundled the folds of her robe in front of her chest.

  Chance had to test the waters. He moved one step closer for an unresponsive kiss to her unyielding lips. Her hands never let go of the fabric of her robe. That didn’t deter him and the pressure he applied as he closed in on her body caused a tender moan to escape. “I’m prepared this time.”

  The words were glacier water encasing her entire body. Never uttering a sound, Angela snatched open the door as wide was it could go. Chance wrestled it closed, forcing her hand. “I’m through with you.”

  “No, you’re not,” he contradicted. “You love me and you’re angry at me. But, you’re not through with me.”

  “I don’t feel well enough to play this game, Chance.”

  “Even in the darkness I know your signs, Angel. You want me as much as I want you.”

  “I want you…to leave.”

  “All you have to do is ask the question, Angela. I’ll give you an honest answer.” He traced her lips with his finger.

  “I don’t believe you know the definition of the word.” Her resolve broke down. “I won’t go through this again. I promised myself I wouldn’t.”

  “I’m not your former husband, Angela. I didn’t cheat on you.” Her body lost a little of its iciness.

  Angela’s ears heard what he said. Regrettably, her heart denounced his words. “I saw what I saw.”

  His mouth was next to her ear. “I heard what you saw and also saw the same myself. Now, let me tell you what you really saw.”

  “Are you telling me…” she breathed short, shallow breaths. “…I didn’t see a gorgeous half-dressed woman in your place?”

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying,” he objected. “I’m saying you saw my ex-wife who made a surprise visit to collect Kelsy. It’s the holiday and the hotels are booked.”

  “It appeared to me she wanted to collect more than Kelsy.” Angela broke his hold. “It’s not worth the trouble, Chance. I won’t have anyone with an appetite for rebound affection from an ex turning to me for dessert.”

  “Angela.” He brushed her arms with feathery touches. “Yours is the only affection I want. I wasn’t home when you came by. I dropped her off and left. Did you know that?”

  “No,” she uttered surprised. “Unavailable is what I was told.”

  “I’ve been unavailable to her for years.” He kissed her again, feeling her ice maiden persona melting against him. “I love you and although dessert sounds good—I want the full course meal.”

  “It’s not the right time, Chance.” She rebuffed his advances.

  His hands coerced her to close the distance between them by roaming from her neck down to her buttocks. “It’s time, Angel. You can feel that it is.”

  Her forehead butted his solid chest. “I need more time, Chance.” She had a couple of issues—one shameful enough to sanction her refusal. The other weighed in due to her physical incapacitation because of the procedure.

  “Your body says otherwise.” His assault persisted. “Give me what we both want. Let me love you tonight, Angela.”

  “There’s something you must know if I consent to this.”

  His heart quickened for he thought it meant an admission of her guilt.

  “I’ve not been intimate with anyone since my divorce,” she confessed.

  “I know you’re kidding.” How about this last week?

  “Are you calling me a liar?”

  He measured his response to her question. “Things have come full circle, Angel. It’s your turn to be honest.”

  “You are accusing me of fabricating the truth?” She still rested fully on his body and was well aware of the deflating aspect of his posture.

  “You and I both know you weren’t in Chicago over the last few days. The only thing I don’t know is…who were you with?”

  A chill caused Angela’s body to shudder violently. She knew what caused the seizure-like shakes and kept mum when he quickly found the switch to flood the room with light. Hugging her upper body tightly simply made her trembles more pronounced. Little by little, the shaking subsided enough for her to meet his alarmed eyes. “Let yourself out.” Her gait straddled the aisle to the stairs as she left him openmouthed. “I’m going back to bed. Alone.”

  Chance pounced with the speed of an agile cat. “What the crap just happened, A
ngela?”

  “Nothing really,” her teeth chattered as she spoke, “if you overlook being accused of having a tryst by the man who claims to love you.” She endured his examination as he walked around her, closely inspecting her features and could no longer meet his eyes when he paused to stare into her face. “I can’t stand this, Chance. Please…leave me alone.”

  “Are you ill?”

  “You know,” she said. “I actually began to think loving again was a good thing for me. Letting go of the past to stake my claim on the future.” Sadly, she added, “I was a fool to allow anyone to get this close again.”

  He used the back of his hand to test her forehead. “You don’t feel hot. Maybe, just a little warm.”

  “It’s nothing, Chance. Probably coming down with the flu. You’d better leave before you catch it. You wouldn’t want to contaminate your family with the bug.” Her fingers melted to the front of her robe.

  “I’ll help you upstairs.” He went to brace her body against his only to receive the cold shoulder treatment. Angered, now, he challenged, “You want to continue this discussion? Alright. When I spoke to you the Friday I left to get Kelsy, I overhead a male voice ask you a question. You passed the exchange off on a passerby. I know that wasn’t the truth.”

  A strangled laugh sounded, the strident vibration foreign to her ears. “A male voice in the vicinity and I’m a whore?”

  “Angela, I didn’t call you that,” he countered. “I just want the truth from you. Where were you? And with whom?”

  “You are not my keeper or my warden. I come and go as I please.”

  Her flippant answer riled him. “No. I’m no one deserving of your faithfulness. Only the man who professes to love you beyond any faults.”

  “My faults…like sleeping around?”

  “My ex-wife pinned down the market in that arena. Always complained I was away from home too often. Well, I guess she got lonely enough to seek companionship.” He wished he hadn’t kicked that ball in her corner. It was out of his mouth and poisoning the air before he could stop. “You didn’t last a day.”

  “Doesn’t it count for something that as soon as I got back to town I ran to you before even going home?” Her head dipped. “To have your ex-wife confront me about peddling myself to you. I was nothing more than a woman-of-the-night as far as she was concerned. Now, to have you brand me with the same label.” Angela came up for air. “I respect me more than you do. I love you, Chance. I just don’t like you very much. And love minus like is unimaginable in my book.”

  “We’re an unlikely pair, Angela,” he conceded. “We’re both letting the indiscretions of our past loves rule us. I confessed to not having a romp with Tina because it’s true. I wanted to hear the same from you.”

  “I came to share the reasons for my absence with you today because I thought you were the one person I could count on for understanding. I wanted to see you so badly.”

  “Here I am, Angela.” He thumped his chest with the flat of his hand. Arms widespread to receive her, “Come to me.”

  “It’s too late, Chance.” She climbed the stairs leaning heavily on the banister. “Lock the door when you leave, please.”

  Chance, at a loss for words, watched her disappear into her bedroom and grimaced as the ultra quietness in the house magnified the metal lock as it boomed into its iron plate. He toured the charming first floor with his eyes planting the memories in his heart a fraction behind the love that bloomed there for Angela. One more wishful glance up the stairs, he retraced his steps, flicked off the ceiling light, locked the knob and backed out of Angel’s place.

  She was privy to all of his movements after she departed because of his diligence and hard work. The sight of his wistful looks as he prepared to leave her place bruised her heart for she knew the depths of his joy when he spent time there with her. The painful cracks in her heart attested to how much she loved and would miss him. Racial differences was what she feared would be their downfall. She never envisioned trust to be their stumbling block. Yet, there it was—dismantling their future together, chasing him out of her life.

  But, Chance wasn’t so sure their future disintegrated as was proven by the conversation he now engaged in with his aunt. His size elevens hadn’t crossed the threshold into the kitchen before she jumped him with her take on things: from Kelsy’s unruly behavior to Tina’s intrusive visit.

  “If you ask me,” she stepped behind the open door of the refrigerator, “Kelsy’s too grown for her britches,” popping out with two cans of beer. One plopped in front of him while she snapped the tab on the other and chugged a swig of the ice cold brew.

  His roar of laughter lightened his heart and he felt hopeful again. So much so until he reached over to kiss her forehead. “I can always count on you to cheer me up, Aunt Belle.”

  “Whew,” she blew. “I took a chance running off at the mouth like that. She’s your daughter and should have inherited some of your good manners. That Tina—”

  “We’re not going to malign Tina, Aunt Belle.”

  “Malign her my foot. She sets a bad example for that child if she doesn’t step in and parent when needed. I don’t know how they live in Montana, but, like the cock on the fence, Kelsy crowed tonight.”

  He had to admit the truth. “Yeah. I was surprised, too.” Chance debated telling her the Tina story, his eyes shifting around the room when her astute eyes plugged him.

  “What?”

  “Angela had the bad fortune of running into Tina at my place today.”

  “That couldn’t have been good.”

  “It wasn’t,” he admitted. “Tina alluded to having an intimate relationship with me while here.”

  She made the tsk-tsk sound. “That poor child didn’t fall for that, did she?”

  “I think she did,” he droned.

  “Then, you have to straighten that out.” An assumption occurred. A weathered finger displaced the bubbles streaming down the cold can while her sharp eyes raked him over. “You didn’t, did you?”

  “Didn’t what?” he asked for clarification, his eyes holding her hostage.

  Bold as she could be, Belle said, “Sleep with Tina.”

  “Aunt Belle,” he exclaimed. “I’m not in the habit of discussing my bedroom joys or woes.”

  Belle impacted the conversation by thumping her can on the table. “Yes or no?”

  “No. Crap! I’m not a school boy. You can’t make me talk if I don’t want to,” he sniveled.

  She smiled a knowing smile. “You’re right.” The can twirled as she swished the last dregs of beer for the guzzle. “So, how are we going to open Kelsy’s eyes to becoming a little less judgmental?”

  “My plan is to plant that seed tomorrow. It’ll be our last day together and you can believe I intend to put it to good use.”

  “Is Tina going?” she pried.

  “No.” He mocked that sly smile on her lips with a cocked brow.

  “Angela?”

  “No.” He regurgitated the word, drained his can and crushed it flat. “We’re no longer an item.” As her mouth opened to lambast him, he said, “That’s that, Aunt Belle. I’m going to bed.” Chance felt her despondent vibe as he crossed the kitchen and paused in the doorway. “It wasn’t meant to be.”

  “I know you love her.”

  “I know I do, too. Angela even knows that.” He strolled back to pat her hand. “Sometimes it takes more than love to forge a lasting relationship. That glue never did stick for us.” He traipsed heavily out of the kitchen. “Goodnight, Aunt Belle.”

  “I’m not giving up on you two,” she called to his back.

  “That’s the spirit. Keep hope alive.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Angela sprawled across the bed all twisted up in the sheets and comforter after a horrendous night’s sleep had her tossing and turning. A sharp twinge reminded her of the tubing recently removed from her chest as she fitfully readjusted her body to a more comfortable position. The hand applying pr
essure to the sore spot fended off the pain of stretching to check the clock on the bedside table. It was just a little after eight am the Friday after Thanksgiving Day which meant she had six hours to pamper and soothe her battered body to be ready for the school’s performance at the mall. Her obligation to the excursion, the least of which was to perform with a small ensemble of teachers, also included chaperoning the children during the outing. Today would be big a day in terms of her surviving the drain on her energies that already bottomed out and she hadn’t left the bed.

  The TV clicked on as she rolled over the remote lost under the bedcovers while forcing herself to a sitting position. No sound encouraged her to look towards the television in time to monitor Chance’s walk from the front of Mrs. Thatcher’s house to hers. Her heart trembled in anticipation of his visit. He bent, retrieved her morning paper, advanced up her walk and placed it at the front door. Her heart tumbled when he did an about-face without creating any disturbance other than cranking up and driving off. Angela fell back hiding her disappointment by throwing her arms across her face. The pleasure derived at the thought of him unable to stand being away from her for any period of time was a hypocritical slap to her face. She dissolved into a puddle of self-pity.

  On cue, her phone rang. She let the answer machine get it.

  “Mrs. Munso. This is the clinic calling to check on your recovery in light of the fact you signed yourself out against doctor’s recommendations. Please give us a call if you encounter any complications.”

  Sobbing renewed her faith in self and cleansed the way to reconnecting with the drive that propelled her to this point in her life. She needed no one to justify her worth. Certainly, she knew this. After all, having no one’s feelings to consider but her own worked well for her in the past. New Orleans sidetracked her by tugging at her heartstrings. The richness of the culture enamored her…magnetized her to its reviving qualities. She spent all of her intrinsic resources to restoring hope and positively impacting as many young people as crossed her path.