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“No, she won’t admit it, but it’s all over her. I feel bad for her. Having experienced a love like that and then losing it must be excruciating.”
“Definitely,” I agreed, explaining, “But as bored as I am and as bad as I feel for her, there’s no way I’m sleeping out in the boondocks. Her place is interesting, but I’m not outdoorsy enough for it.”
“Girl, just say what you really mean. You don’t want some ax murderer to hunt you down and fuck you up.”
“That too.”
From my seat, I had a good view of the street below and watched as cars passed by my building. The sound of a car’s horn blaring made me jump a little.
“On the other hand, you might need the quiet because Main Street stays busy,” Memphis pointed out. “How do you sleep at night with all that honking and shit?”
“My bedroom is in the back of the apartment, remember? It’s quiet back there.”
“Right…wait, doesn’t the back of that building butt up against an alley?”
“Yep. There are three alleys—one on each side and the third one in the rear. I park my vehicle in the back.”
“You’re not worried about that?”
“Worried about the alleys? No, I’m not going to just be hanging out in them if I can help it.”
“Good. Well, I’ma let you go. I was just checking on you. Talk to you later.”
“Okay. Love you.”
“Love you too, sis.”
As we ended the call, I kept my eyes on the street below, now focused on the bodies moving up and down the sidewalk.
“I didn’t fuck him!” she screamed. She was a tiny woman, but her voice was massive. Deep, too, for a woman.
“Do they call it something else now? ‘Cause y’all was definitely fucking, Jada!” the man countered. He was tall, thin, kind of unhealthy looking from what I could see, which wasn’t much at all through drowsy eyes at one in the morning.
These two had awakened me about ten minutes earlier with this argument in the alley under my bedroom window.
“We were-we were dancing, nigga!” Jada explained.
“Dancing naked in my got damn bed?!” the man shouted.
My mouth fell open. This was some crazy tea!
“I had a bra on!” she countered. Weak comeback.
“Jada, I swear?—”
Flashing lights appeared out of nowhere, followed by a quick “woop,” interrupting the man’s words.
The police had arrived to break up the lovers’ squabble, taking with them some prime entertainment. I wondered who called them or if anyone called them at all. As far as I could tell, no one was living in the apartment above the retail space in the building on the other side of the alley. As a matter of fact, the entire place was vacant, having formerly housed a donut shop. Maybe the cops just happened to ride by at the right time.
Moving from the window, I settled back into bed in my dark home, thinking about how I was becoming a professional people watcher. When I wasn’t busy doing nothing constructive while being in my employees’ way at the boutique or dodging phone calls from damn near everyone I knew, I was sitting in my living room gazing at the happenings on the street. Or I’d sit on the side of my bed and stare down at the slim alley that divided my property from the neighboring building to the right. There was no window access to the alleys on the left side or rear of the building. I didn’t see much from my bedroom window other than a few vagrants taking a piss now and then. There was one, an older man who wore the same dingy clothes every time I saw him, who must’ve really loved pissing down there. Nope, not exactly exciting shit happening in the alley. Jada and her man were a rare treat. Other than those two, the regular sights were decent distractions that kept my mind off things…until they didn’t.
I was staring down at Main Street the next evening when he arrived in his burgundy Cadillac CT5, parking right in front of my building. My heart stopped beating for more than a second before I hopped up from my seat in the living room and rushed to my bedroom, aiming my vision at the side of the building. I saw him enter the alley, and he looked good. Shit, he looked great. He always looked great, honestly. Obviously, some of my family members didn’t agree, but I liked his regular dude appearance.
When he disappeared from view, I knew he’d reached the public entrance to my apartment located at the side of the building. The ringing of the doorbell confirmed this. My first inkling was to ignore him, but I did care about the man, and he wasn’t a bad person. Not at all. Actually, the reason I was in this predicament was his goodness, his self-sacrificing kindness. For all intents and purposes, the man was a damn saint! So, I glanced down at the billowing kaftan I wore and sighed before making my way into the living room where I froze. It had taken a lot to finally decide to leave a relationship I’d dedicated many years to and a man I’d given my heart to, a lot of thought, a lot of angst, a lot of tears. If I let Marlon in, the loneliness that’d been plaguing me would make me reverse my progress. So, I turned and went back to my bedroom, to my bed, and fell into a troubled sleep.
3
Marlon and I met at a wedding, his sister’s wedding to be exact—a lovely woman who happened to be one of my sorority sisters. Coincidentally, he and I ended up next to each other in the buffet line when he struck up a conversation. Although we sat at separate tables, he later found me as the guests began to thin out, taking a seat in a newly emptied chair beside me. His smile, so perfectly white and bright, drew me in along with his wit, his ability to engage in meaningful discourse, and his attractiveness. Back then, I’d just turned thirty—still a baby, really—and my faith in love and happily ever after was huge. I’d had boyfriends, but this? This was a fully-grown man. This was different in many ways.
