Monty

by Tina Martin

  “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

  “Look, all I know is, y’all seemed like a pretty dang good couple. I was happy when I first saw him over here. I said to myself, Sherrish done got herself a man. Lemme tell you sum—you don’t want to get old like me and then start looking for a man. Time flies, Sherrish. Believe me when I say dat. One minute you’re running on the beach in a bikini and the next, you got skin hanging loose, flappin’ whichever way and your best friend is an overweight cat. Ain’t no man looking for an old lady with loose skin and no teeth. Find a man while you still got yur teeth, Sherrish. That’s the key.”

  I laugh. “That’s the key?”

  “You bet yur skinny britches it is. Now quit tending to dem flowers and go tend to dat beautiful man of yurs.”

  She walks off with the ax and goes back over to her yard. She comes back just as quickly and hollers, “Oh, one more thing, Sherrish—make sure you keep yur car doors locked at all times. Neighbor ‘cross the street said somebody done broke in her car last night. I checked my truck and sho ‘nuff somebody broke in it, too.”

  I laugh to myself. The woman never puts the windows up on her truck unless it rains. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a bird’s nest in there.

  “Ms. Kettleworth, you always leave your windows down on your truck.”

  “Whether dey down or up, if somebody been in my truck, they were crushpassing.”

  “You mean, trespassing?”

  “Yeah. Dat’s what I said. If somebody comes on yur prop’ty and they ain’t ‘sposed to be there, is dat not called crushpassing?”

  I chuckle a little and say, “Yes. You’re right.”

  “I knows I’m right. Now, keep an eye out and get you one of these bad boys,” she says holding the ax up in the air like a torch.

  She moseys on back to her house.

  Later after I’m done playing around in my flowers, I take a shower and consider doing something to get out of the house to help disrupt the boredom. I get dressed. I have nowhere to go but I’m dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt. I get my purse, sit on the sofa and think about Monty like I always do. I get up, walk to the bedroom where he used to sleep – my guest bedroom – and I can still feel his presence in the room. I sit on the bed, run my fingers across the comforter but it doesn’t comfort me.

  I’m happy for the distraction my phone provides when it beeps. It’s a text message from Major:

  Major: Hey, girl. How are you?

  Cherish: I’m okay. You?

  Major: I’m good. Long time, no speak.

  Cherish: I know.

  Now he’s calling…

  Crap!

  I don’t want to answer because I know he’s going to say something about Montgomery, but I decide to answer, anyway. He didn’t do anything to me. His brother did.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey, Cherish. What’s going on? How you livin’?”

  “You mean now that I’m jobless? Ain’t nothing going on. I’m an old lady these days, spending my days digging in flowers and entertaining my seventy-year-old neighbor.”

  He chuckles. “You could come by and visit us. Naomi and the girls miss you. Said they haven’t seen you in a while. They’re all concerned and quite frankly, so am I.”

  “I can’t come there for obvious reasons. I’m sure you’re well aware of them.”

  “Okay, so, you and Monty are not on the same page—does that mean you write everybody else off?”

  “That’s not what I’m doing, Major.”

  “That’s exactly what you’re doing.”

  “You know what—you’re quick to make judgments on things you know nothing about,” I tell him.

  “I know everything,” he replies. “Who do you think told Monty to find out his status with Paige? I did. Do you know why? Because I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Yeah, and how’d that work out?”

  He’s quiet for a moment, then asks, “Am I to conclude we were only friends because of Monty because I seem to recall being your friend before Monty knew you existed?”

  “You are a friend to me, Major. This is just a complicated time right now.”

  “Yeah. It’s not like I don’t know what that’s like.”

  “Gosh, you are impossible sometimes. You and Monty have that in common.”

  “And you’re a little stubborn.”

  “I’m not stubborn. I’m—I’m hurting.”

  “Who hurt you? Me?”

  “No, but I—” I take a breath. Now, I wish I didn’t answer the phone. “What do you want, Major?”

  “Monty’s not here. Why don’t you come by?”

  “Sounds like a setup.”

  “It’s not. Well, it kinda is but not in the way you think. I told Naomi to make extra sandwiches because I would convince you to come by at least for an hour or so.”

  “Okay. Fine. I’ll leave now.”

  “Good.”

  * * *

  When I arrive at the estate, they’re all sitting out back by the pool at one of the umbrella tables on their lunch break. Naomi prepared ham and turkey subs and sweet tea. There are chips – barbecue and plain – and pickles, the kind Monty likes.

  “How’s everything been, Cherry?” Naomi asks.

  All eyes land on me. Isidora raises her brows. Minnie stares intently. Major takes a bite of his sandwich, eating like he’s trying to get out of starvation mode.

  “I’ve been okay. I take it everybody knows what happened?”

  “Yeah,” Minnie says, crestfallen. “We know. I wish things were different for you, Cherish. We sure miss you around here.”

  “And so does mister,” Naomi says. “He’s lost without you.”

  “I doubt that. He has Paige.”

  “That’s not fair to say,” Major says. “You know how Monty feels about you, Cherish.”

  “He can’t stand Paige,” Naomi says. “Nobody here likes that girl.”

  I take a sip of tea and try to eat a little more.

  Naomi asks, “When is Mrs. Sylvia coming back, Major?”

  “She’s supposed to be back tomorrow. I’ll have to call her later to confirm.”

  “Where is she?” I ask.

  “She took a vacation—she’ll be back on Friday but didn’t tell nobody where she was going. I think Monty got her stressed out again.”

  Speaking of Monty…

  I nearly lose lung function when I see him walking toward us. I haven’t seen him in days and he’s walking out here, wearing a navy blue suit – the man has all the swagger in the world.

  “I thought you said he was at the office today?” I ask, looking at Major.

  “He was…must’ve came home for something.”

  “You told him I was here, didn’t you?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Major, I’m going to kill you,” I say between gritted teeth.

  “I promise you, I didn’t. He has a connection to you,” Major says. “An internal one.”

  “He also has surveillance,” Minnie says. “I bet he saw you the moment you rang the bell.”

  They stop talking when he’s closer.

  “Good afternoon everyone,” he says.

  They all respond while I sit there chewing hoping he doesn’t bother me.

  Hope goes right out the window when he grabs a chair from the neighboring table and places it beside my chair. I can feel him looking at me. The heat of him, his smell, his overbearing male presence has the hair standing up on my arms.

  I’m not ready for this. Not at all.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Monty

  “Good afternoon, Cherish,” I say directly to her since noticing she didn’t speak to me. She’s the only one I want to hear from. I wasn’t looking at anyone else. Just her.

  “Hi,” she says dryly, then sips tea.

  I watch her for a moment trying to determine her mood. “How have you been?”

  She frowns a little, makes no effort to look at
me when she responds, “You know how I’ve been. You don’t have to ask.”

  “I haven’t seen or heard from you in five days. How am I supposed to know how you are?”

  She stands, tells the others she’s leaving. I leave, too, following her to the front driveway before she can reach her car.

  I reach for her arm. She snatches it away from me.

  “Cherish.”

  “What do you want, Monty?” she asks, looking at me.

  We’re steps away from her car. “I want to talk to you. Want to know how you are. How you’re doing. That’s all I asked and it solicited this kind of reaction from you?”

  “Why wouldn’t it?”

  “Look—I know things didn’t go as planned between us, but at the very least, we could still be friends.”

  She frowns. “Friends?”

  “Yes.”

  She shakes her head and looks offended that I made the suggestion. “We can’t be friends.”

  “Cherish—”

  “I know you can’t help it. The billionaire in you is used to getting everything he wants, but no, I can’t be your friend. I don’t want to be your friend. I will not stand by and watch you love another woman. I won’t do that to myself.”

  “You know I don’t love her. I—” I pause. My words are falling on deaf ears. I’m not getting through to her now. She’s scorned. Angry. She has every right to be.

  “You’ve been dealt a life—deal with it,” she tells me. “Who knows, maybe you and Paige will be happy together. Have you thought about giving it a real shot instead of resisting it? That maybe your mother truly knows what’s best for you. Sylvia’s a smart woman. Maybe she sees something in Paige you don’t. Maybe a man with your status and level of success needs a white woman on his arm. Maybe it’ll help you further your career—open doors that might’ve remained closed. All I know is, I can’t be around to watch it happen.”

  She gets into her car, drives away, taking my heart with her.

  “Ay, you alright?” Major asks as he gets closer.

  “No. I’m not. I’m not alright with any of this. How can I be? I—”

  I can’t say anymore. Words are just words and I’m tired of talking about how much I love this woman and how much I want to be with her. It’s time to do something about it.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Cherish

  I can’t sleep. It’s one o’clock in the morning and I’m wide awake thinking about Monty. After running into him again, those old feelings stir inside of me. I love him, he loves me but we can’t be together. That’s the crux of my problem. If two people love each other, nothing should stand in between that. No one should settle for a person because they couldn’t have the one they really wanted. I don’t want to settle. If I can’t have Monty, I’ll just be another Ms. Kettleworth.

  As I’m slowly drifting off to sleep, I hear a thump that makes my eyes fly open. I glance around my room, make sure my bat is next to the bed. I sit up, listen keenly for any further noises. I don’t hear a thing. It’s probably the house settling, at least that’s what I tell myself hoping to stop the frantic beats of my heart. Ms. Kettleworth has me on edge now talking about somebody breaking into cars in the neighborhood. I’m being extra vigilant now – the way I used to be before I met Monty.

  I know it’s not him at my door, disturbing me. If it was, it wouldn’t be the first time he came over unannounced in the middle of the night but that was before he told me about Paige. There’s no need for him to come over here now.

  There’s another thump – sounds like it came from the front of the house. Now, I’m a little scared. I ease off the bed, grab my bat and tiptoe to my bedroom door. As I grab the knob to open it, I hear a loud crash. The alarm sounds, blaring so loud, it probably wakes the entire block.

  Somebody’s breaking into my house. Somebody’s breaking into my house!

  The alarm is steadily going nuts. I’m hiding in my room in pajamas and a bat wishing I had Ms. Kettleworth’s ax or shotgun.

  My hands are trembling. Someone’s breaking into my house.

  My cell phone is ringing now. All the noise in this house – the alarm, my cell phone has me on edge. I don’t know if someone is in my house because I’m too afraid to come out of the room. What if it’s a burglar? The car break-in guy? What if it’s—Webster?

  The piercing sound of the alarm seems to get louder – so loud I can’t hear any commotion in the living room. I unlock my bedroom door, peep out into the hallway. I walk a few quiet steps and can clearly see that my front door is kicked in. The door is wide open. Frame busted.

  Now, I’m freaked out. I run back to my bedroom, close and lock the door. The intruder could still be here, but I didn’t see anyone. Didn’t hear anyone.

  My phone is ringing again. I run over to the nightstand to grab it with my trembling hand. It’s the security company. I whisper, “Somebody’s in my house. Somebody kicked in the front door and broke into my house! Please send the police. Please. Hurry!”

  “Okay. Stay calm ma’am. The police are already on their way.”

  “Okay,” I whisper, then get a call-waiting beep.

  “Stay on the line with me.”

  “O-okay. I’m here.”

  Montgomery is on my call-waiting. The security company probably called him, too, since he’s the one who had this system installed.

  My hands are still shaking. I’m still on the phone. Door still locked. Bat still next to me. I hear sirens now. I hear the police announce themselves. I hang up the phone and yell, “I’m in here!”

  I unlock the bedroom door and wait for them. They are checking the rest of the house and once they clear it, they come to talk to me. I tell them what happened. That I was in bed and heard a loud crash. Then the alarm went off.

  My hands are still shaking at the gravity of what’s happened while I’m standing in the living room talking to them. I can see the splintered wood from where the door frame cracked. The screen had been ripped out of the screen door.

  “Ma’am, can you stay at a friend’s or relative’s house tonight?”

  “I—I—I don’t know.” Tears come to my eyes. Who could’ve done this?

  “Sherrish! Sherrish!” Ms. Kettleworth is standing on the front porch.

  “Who are you?” one of the officers ask.

  “She’s my neighbor,” I tell him.

  “What happened, hun?”

  I walk out there while the police talk amongst themselves in the living room and say, “Somebody kicked in my door.”

  “Oh my—are you alright?”

  “I—I guess. I don’t know. Why would somebody target my house, Ms. Kettleworth?”

  “That’s a good question. Doesn’t look like they bothered yur car at all, whoever it was. And of course the po-leese show up after er’thang’s over. That’s why I keeps my shotgun. You keep on waitin’ on the po-leese to get here…you’d be laid out dead.”

  In the darkness, I see the headlights of a black Mercedes pull into my driveway. It’s Monty’s car. He gets out, runs up to the house and grabs me into his arms, holding me so close to his chest, he nearly cuts off my air circulation. “My God, girl. I tried to call you a million times. Are you okay?”

  It’s when I break down. When the tears flow. When the adrenaline slowly starts to leave and now I’m left with the realization that somebody kicked in my door and disrupted my life.

  “Cherish, baby, look at me,” he says placing his hands on my face. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, I’m—I—I’m not hurt.”

  “What happened?” he asks, wiping tears from my face. He looks panicked and scared. I’ve never seen him this way.

  “I was lying in bed about to go to sleep and—and somebody kicked—kicked in the front door.”

  “Do you think it was Webster?”

  “I—I—I don’t know, Monty. He’s never done anything like that before.”

  “Ms. Kettleworth, did you see anything?” he asks her.


  “No, but like I told Sherrish—neighbor ‘cross the street said somebody broke in her car, and somebody been in my truck, too. I tell you what—wish whoever did this would’ve come to my house. I would’ve laid him out right where he stood.”

  Monty goes to talk to the officers. He looks frustrated with their responses to his questions about dusting for prints and checking through the neighborhood for possible eyewitnesses. They assure him they’ll do everything they can to find out who’s behind this. They take a statement from Ms. Kettleworth and then they leave.

  Montgomery comes over to me and says, “Pack a bag. You’re coming with me.”

  “Okay,” I say because I know I can’t stay here. Truth be told, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to again. Right now, I can’t be here. I grab the smaller of my suitcases, throw in clothes, undergarments, shoes – I don’t know all of what I tossed in there. I’m just ready to get out of here.

  Monty tries his best to secure the broken front door. I’m sitting in the car, waiting for him to finish up. My hands are still shaking. I can’t believe this happened to me.

  * * *

  When we’re at Monty’s house, he tells me to take a warm shower to help settle my nerves. I stay in there for a good twenty minutes, shaking and crying, getting it out of my system.

  When I step into his bedroom, he’s sitting by the windows. He tells me to join him.

  “I made you some tea.”

  “Thanks,” I say then take a sip.

  “Are you sure you’re okay, Cherish?”

  “Yes. As okay as I’m going to be until they figure out who did this.”

  “When the security company called to notify me of the alarm, I couldn’t breathe. Then when I couldn’t reach you—”

  He scrubs his hands down his face. “I don’t know what I would do if anything ever happened to you, and I’m not willing to find out. I know things are messed up between us right now, but that doesn’t diminish the love I have for you. I’ll always love you, no matter what, and I will do everything in my power to protect you. I know I hurt you. I know I did, but I give you my word I’ll do what I have to do to make it right.”