Robin had fallen down three steps before she flipped over the railing, which had caused her face to slam into the brick siding of the porch before she fell to the ground and bumped her head on a large stone on the ground. She had spent the night in the hospital for observation and had been released the next day with a broken nose, a busted lip, chipped teeth and a miscarriage. Monique had taken the children to stay with their grandmothers’ for the next few days and had taken some days off of work to care for Robin’s any and every need. Monique had reprimanded Velle, for causing the accident, even though Robin had tried to no avail to prove that it wasn’t his fault.
The accident also made everyone aware that she had been carrying Jay’s child and even though she hadn’t wanted the child, she found herself with a void due to the lost of it. She felt empty. She had just started to accept the idea of having another baby and now she had to accept having lost one. There is something about the lost of a child during a pregnancy, whether wanted or not, that can bring even the strongest of women to her knees. She cried all that day and nearly half the night away before she found peace in a prayer and good night’s sleep.
The next few days were filled with questions and shame for Robin. Now that everyone knew she had been pregnant, they all correctly assumed that it was Jay’s baby and with that assumption came the laundry list of questions. Did Jay know she was pregnant? Was she going to tell him that she’d lost the baby? Why didn’t she tell anyone? Did she even know she was pregnant? How was she going to take care of another baby alone? All good question, but all questions that she felt none of her family had any right to ask her. No, she hadn’t told Jay about the pregnancy and didn’t plan on telling him about the miscarriage. Yes, she knew she was pregnant and she had planned to raise that child the same way she was raising the one she had already. Robin got so tired of the questions that she finally just lied and told her family that the baby wasn’t Jay’s and was the result of a careless one-night stand. It wasn’t the way she wanted her parents to see her, but it quickly ended all conversation on the topic.
The swelling in her lips had gone down and now it was time to see a cosmetic dentist to see what he or she could do about restoring her once perfect smile. Presently, she was walking around town looking as though she chewed rocks for a living, not a good look. Velle used his connections to get her in to see Dr. Carlyle, the premiere cosmetic dentist, who was extremely hard to get an appointment with and insanely expensive. Robin wasn’t worried about the cost though because, her daddy had given her the go ahead to spend as much as she needed to make her feel better; that was one of the perks to being a daddy’s girl. Initially, Robin was apprehensive about using someone suggested by Velle, especially a dentist because she felt as though he would try to use the opportunity to reunite her with Ryan, but her suspicions were calmed once she remembered that Ryan was a pediatric dentist. Besides, she needed her teeth fixed so she almost didn’t care if he did work there…almost.
She was painfully nervous as she waited for the dentist to come talk with her. The dental hygienist, Karen, had been very pleasant and done her best to reassure her that they could fix her smile with little or no discomfort, but Robin didn’t believe her. She hated everything about the dentist’s office and the only thing she wanted to know was if he could put her to sleep for the entire procedure. She flipped through the pages of some of the before and after smiles the doctor had supposedly crafted but of course Robin was convinced the book wasn’t of the dentist’s actual work. She wanted to bite her nails; something she did when she was nervous, but with the shape her teeth were in she didn’t want to take a chance of causing any more damage.
She was at her wick’s end when the door finally creaked open and in walked her ultimate lover with his head buried deep inside a folder. Robin wanted to curl up in a ball and roll herself right out of the room. What was he doing there? She wasn’t a child and this wasn’t a pediatric dentist office. She immediately felt self-conscious and didn’t want him to see her looking the way she did.
“Okay, Ms. Harrison,” he started without so much as glance in her direction. He walked pass the chair and over to the sink to wash his hands before he continued, “I’m Dr. Carter. Dr. Carlyle is on vacation in Hawaii, so I’ll be filling in for him today. Your chart says you had an accident and…Robin?“ Just like that, he’d lost all of his words when he saw it was her.
He just stared at her, frozen as he took a seat on his little stool. Robin too was at a lost for vocal words, but she was cursing Velle with every word she could find in her head. He looked as though he was about to say something when Karen entered. The silence strangled the room, as Robin and Ryan shared that weird awkwardness that usually happens the morning after a one-night stand. That ‘do you want me to call you a cab’ moment that stamps the seal on the end a passionate tryst.
“What brings you into the office today,” he said and then paused as if he had to decide what he should call her. He cleared his throat and in as professional voice that he could muster he continued, “Ms. Harrison.”
The sight of Ryan had caused Robin to place her hand over her mouth. She was mortified that he would see her with her mouth in such a pitiful state with a broken nose to match. She wanted to run right out of the office and just wait for Dr. Carlyle to return so that he could fix her smile but if he were in Hawaii who knew when he would return. She decided that she too would remain strictly professional and replied, “I fell down some steps and cracked my a few of my teeth. I was referred to Dr. Carlyle by,” she said before pausing as she thought about how Velle had set the whole thing up. She cringed as she wrinkled her brow and said, “a friend.” She paused again for no particular reason before she continued, “He said this was the best place to go.”
“Well, he was right,” Ryan said as he flashed his sexy smile. He pulled on a pair of latex gloves and continued, “let’s have a look shall we?”
“I was so freaking embarrassed, Mo!” Robin exclaimed as she filled her cousin in on her eventful trip to the dentist. She continued, as she pulled pots from inside the cabinets to start on dinner, “There I was looking like I break bottles with my teeth and in walks Ryan. When I see Velle, I’m going to punch him right in the face. He knew Ryan worked there and he probably knew Dr. Carlyle was on vacation.”
“Wait, I thought Ryan was a pediatric dentist or something,” Monique said as she chopped vegetables. She continued as she threw the diced veggies into a bowl, “Anyway, your teeth look great, so at least he knew what he was doing.”
“That’s the other thing,” Robin said as she filled her pot with water. “This is just a cap or something. I have to go back in like two weeks to have two root canals, my teeth filed and then get the veneers put on. I don’t even want to go back.”
“Well, was he nasty to you or something?” Monique asked, unable to see what the problem was.
“No,” Robin replied.
“Well, what’s the big deal? You said that you didn’t like him and he seems like he knows what he’s doing. I don’t know what the problem is. He and Velle are friends, so you had to know that you would run into him again eventually. He’s in the wedding, ya know.” Monique said.
“No,” Robin said, as this newfound information seemed to come completely out of left field. She slammed the pot on the stove and continued, “No, I did not know he was going to be in the wedding! When did all of this happen and when were you going to tell me? How does this guy just appear out of nowhere and now he’s in the wedding?”
“Apparently, he and Velle have known each other for years and Velle asked him to be his best man-“ Monique started.
“Best Man! Mo, that means that I have to walk down the damn aisle with him. What the fuck, Mo!” Robin snapped. She felt as if she would burst from anger. It seemed as though there was some conspiracy to get her and this man together in the same room no matter how hard she tried to avoid that happening.
“I can’t tell him who his best man can or can’t be.” Monique replied.
“Why the hell not? That’s what wives do. You could have told me so that I could tell you that I’m not going to be in your damn wedding if I have to walk with guy I had a one-night stand with,” and with that being said Robin stormed out of the kitchen and into her room. The two didn’t say another word to each other for the rest of the night.
Two weeks had gone by and Robin had slammed the front door in Velle’s face a total of thirteen times, as he tried to apologize. She had given him a very disgusted part of her mind as she told him what she thought of him setting her up in the manner, which he had done. She had gotten over the deceptive manner in which he’d reacquainted her with Ryan, but she was still upset that his choice for best man was keeping her from being in her cousin’s wedding. Why hadn’t he just chosen his friend, Justice, like everyone assumed he would do? Now, she’d have to sit out the wedding like a common guest and she was not at all happy about it.
She had just finished taking the last of the two sedatives that Ryan had prescribed to put her to sleep during the procedure and she was just stating to feel the affects of the first one. She had taken it an hour earlier and had been complaining for the last forty-five minutes that the pills didn’t seem to have any affect on her. Monique’s constant chatter started to sound like the squeaking of a chipmunk; something Robin found hysterical. Monique squeaked all the way to the doctor’s office and soon Robin seemed to be losing chunks of time, as she couldn’t for the life of her remember walking into the office. She closed her eyes for a second and there was Karen handing her another sedative to take, which she did, and before long all she knew was a Heavenly sleep. Periodically, she would open her eyes to see Ryan with a strange look of disbelief on his face, while Karen was smiling like the cat that ate the canary.
Some time later, Robin was awakened by a gentle shake from Karen. She stretched herself fully awake, feeling totally refreshed. Karen was still smiling as though she had just gotten an extra hundred in her paycheck. She scurried over to the door and poked her head out as if she were looking for someone. She then came back, had a seat on the stool and rolled it as close to Robin as possible.
“So, you are Ryan’s Cinderella,” she said as arranged an assortment of dental tools on the tray.
“Excuse me?” Robin said. She couldn’t believe this girl had the nerve to ask her such a personal question.
“When you got here this morning, you wouldn’t stop apologizing about not calling him after you two slept together,” Karen said in a hushed tone; a cheese-eating smile planted firmly on her face.
“What!” Robin exclaimed; embarrassment creeping into her cheeks.
“Yes!” Karen whispered as if she didn’t want anyone to hear her but Robin.
“Oh my God!” Robin had exclaimed. Karen handed her a hand mirror as she continued, “What did he say?”
“He was a little embarrassed but at least you said he was good in bed.” Karen said before she suddenly stopped.
As if Karen’s spider senses had been tingling, in walked Ryan in what looked like scrubs. He shot Karen a dirty look as though he knew what she had been doing. “So, Ms. Harrison, what do you think of your new smile?” He said as she took a seat on the opposite side of Karen.
Robin finally looked in the mirror that Karen had handed her. She was amazed. Her teeth looked as though there had never been an accident. She was so tickled that she couldn’t stop smiling. She giggled and said, “You did a great job, Ryan!” Upon hearing herself call him by his first name she paused then quickly corrected it, “I mean Dr. Carter. Dr. Carter, you really did a great job.”
Her faux pas caused Ryan and Karen to exchange looks. Karen’s one that said “I knew it” and Ryan’s one that said “shut up”. To Robin he said, “Karen will get you checked out. It was a pleasure working with you.” He then left the room seemingly hesitantly.
Karen asked some standard questions before printing out checkout paperwork for Robin. She wrote something on the bottom of one of the sheets before handing them to Robin and then walked Robin down the hall that led to the checkout desk.
“I’ve worked with Ryan for the past five years and he’s a really sweet guy. When he told me that he’d met somebody, I was really happy for him because he hadn’t dated anyone since Sophie died. He’s been talking about you ever since you guys went out. Did he just not float your boat or something?” Karen said as they made their way down the hall.
“No, I just really wasn’t trying to start dating anybody when we went out,” Robin replied still not believing how forward this girl was being with her. She asked, “Karen, is there something going on between you and Ryan because I’m not-“
Karen laughed as though Robin had just told the funniest joke in the world before she said, “Girl, no! I married with three babies. I’ve been working with Ryan since I graduated and he’s like family. I was just hoping that he’d found someone, you know? He’s been so lonely and withdrawn since Sophie died that it was just good to see him happy about something.”
“Karen!” Ryan exclaimed as he rounded a corner in the opposite direction. Ryan sounded as though he had just caught Karen going through his wallet. Worry was written all over his face as he continued, “I need you to get 5 ready for the 3 o’clock.”
“Make sure to read through all of your care list…all of it and remember what we talked about,” Karen said as she placed her hand on the back of Robin’s shoulder before she turned to leave.
Robin watched as Ryan followed Karen down the hall. She felt a little disappointed that he hadn’t said anything other that what was necessary to conduct his business with her. She wanted him to at least ask her why she hadn’t call and now that he hadn’t she felt kind of stupid. She felt as if she had been worried for nothing. She checked out with the front desk and then went to sit on an outside bench to wait for her brother Ross to pick her up. She was still feeling a little lightheaded from the sedatives so she was glad that she’d followed direction and hadn’t driven herself.
About ten minutes later, Ryan walked outside looking from side to side before he made his way over to the bench where Robin sat.
“I just talked to Karen and I wanted to apologize for anything she may have said. I just want you to know, that I didn’t tell her anything about us and-“ Ryan started.
“It’s fine. She didn’t really tell me anything,” Robin lied. She continued, “I’m sorry I never called you back. I just had a lot on my plate.”
“No, I understand,” Ryan said. He paused for second then said, “No, I don’t understand. I thought we had a good time but then you never called me and I couldn’t call you because 777-9311isn’t a real number…it’s a song by Morris Day and the Time.”
Robin giggled, “You’re the first guy to figure that out. I’ve been giving that number out since high school. I heard it on one of my mom’s old school remix CD’s.”
“It’s too bad that I didn’t realize that when you gave it to me,” Ryan smiled.
“At least you figured it out. Look Ryan, it’s nothing against you. It’s just I’d never slept with someone on a first date and I just didn’t know how to face you the next day. You must think I’m a total slut.” Robin said, as he took a seat beside of her.
“But we talked about that that night and I thought we both agreed that I didn’t think you were a slut. I thought I we agreed that I was just so irresistible that you just couldn’t help yourself.” He said before he laughed at the evil eye Robin was giving him.
“Oh, whatever,” Robin said as she gave him a playful shove. She shook her head before she started, “Seriously, when everything was said and done, I still felt like one.” Robin replied and was relieved that part was at least true.
“Well, I’m sorry for making you feel like one,” Ryan said with a little disappointment in his voice.
“It wasn’t anything you did or said,” Robin said as she patted Ryan on his knee. She continued, “It was all about how I viewed myself. We just met at the wrong time.”
Ryan nodded and said, “Well, when it’s the right time give me a call.” He smiled and patted her knee before he left to go back inside the office. Robin checked her watch, as she felt Ross should be there by now. She decided that she’d start reading some of the paperwork the Karen had given her. She read through one or two sentences on the first page before she began flipping through the rest of the papers. She was just about to fold the paper to put in her purse when she noticed something scribbled on the last sheet. It read: Give Him A Call 213-345-8765 signed Karen.
Robin had been transported back to high school. She had dialed Ryan’s number at least a dozen times, hanging up each time before the phone could even ring. She needed to talk to him but she had no idea what she wanted to say or why. It had been three days since she’d been given his number and she still hadn’t worked up the courage to talk to him. She didn’t want to seem desperate even though she was. She was desperate to hear the mellow sound of his sweet voice in her ear, even if it were only through the phone. Her hands were all sweaty and her breathing was nervous. Finally, she decided that the best thing to do was to just bite the bullet and make the call already. Besides, she just wanted to talk to him that was all. To her surprise when she picked up the receiver to find someone one the other side.
“Hello…is Robin there?” It was him. He was calling her…first. She was relieved beyond belief for a moment but then the reality of having to talk to him set in. “Hello—“ he sang into the phone. “Is anyone there?”
“Yes, hello,” Robin said so glad that he couldn’t see her smiling from ear to ear on the other end of the phone. She tried to contain her joy as she continued, “This is Robin. Who is this?”
“It’s only been three days don’t tell me that you forgot about me already.” He said and as he said Robin swore that she could hear him smiling. He continued, “It’s me, Ryan. I got your number from Velle. I hope that’s okay.”
“Yea, that’s fine,” Robin said, unsure of what she was supposed to say next. She hadn’t even worked up the nerve to call him so how was she supposed to know what to say.
There was an uncomfortable pause before Ryan cleared his throat and said, “So, uhm, I was calling to see if you wanted to go out with me tomorrow night. I have tickets to uhm-“
“Sorry Rye,” Robin interrupted saddened that she had to say no. It was her weekend to watch the kids so that Monique and Velle could have their night out. Monique always spent the night off whenever she and Velle had a Friday night date. Robin explained, “I can’t. This is my weekend to watch the girls. Monique and I trade off weekends so that we both can have a free night every other weekend. You know, so we can go out or whatever. Of course, I’m always here on the weekends regardless.”
“Oh,” he said and she could hear the deep sigh of regret.
Robin thought for a second and then did something she always said she wouldn’t do. Before he could say another word she said, “Why don’t you just come hang out with me? We can watch a movie or something. It’ll have to be after the girls go to sleep though.”
“Okay,” he said, the sound of his smile returning. He added, “Yea, that sounds like fun. What time do you want me to come over?”
“Well, the girls go to bed at eight, so let’s say about nine. I’ll bring my favorite movie of all times and you bring yours.” Robin said. She was letting this thing get to far to fast. What was she doing inviting this guy over to her place. Monique would have a fit if she knew that he was coming over. Plus, suppose their date ended the same way their first one had. She didn’t know how she would live that down…but wait, nothing was going to happen and it wasn’t as if Monique was coming home until the next morning and he’d be long gone before then. She gave him directions to the house before hanging up the phone. She really did feel like a schoolgirl who’d just scored a date with her major crush. She didn’t like it but her mind automatically went to the dirtiest of places, when she thought about him coming to see her. It had been more than a month since she had the pleasure of him ravishing her body and the possibility of it happening again made her trickle just a little. She pleasured herself three times to her memories before she went to sleep that night.
