*I apologize in advance for the grammar. It's late and I'm sleepy but I wanted to get this one up as I have to go back to work tomorrow. I'll try to tweek it later.*
“I’m sorry,” Robin said, as she began to eat an enormous bowl of crow. Not only had she accused a widower of lying about his wife being dead but she had also managed to bring up a painful topic for him. She had apologized profusely to his family, especially J.C. because she wanted to make sure she was still on good terms with the one person she needed to end her legal ties with Jay. She wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to shield herself from the cold. It was getting chilly and the signs of fall fast approaching made it that more difficult for Robin to find the words to say what she needed to say. Still she tried saying, “I just really thought that you were lying to me about your wife and then I saw you and J.C….I don’t know, I just.”
“It’s okay,” Ryan said as he hunched his shoulders. He brushed her wind blown hair from over her eye and pushed it behind her ear. He rubbed his hand down the side of her cheek before he continued, “it was just a big misunderstanding.”
“I know but,” Robin said then paused, looking around the quiet neighborhood before she returned her attention to Ryan. He was looking at her as if forgiveness was the only word he knew. He didn’t seem resentful or upset; just sort of relieved that his version of the truth had been proven. Robin hated to be wrong and hated to have to admit that she was wrong even more. She exhaled deep as she said, “ever since this thing with my ex-husband…it’s just been really hard to believe what anyone says, you know. He was married to me, engaged to someone else with children by us both; all while we lived under the same roof. It just makes it hard to trust anybody.”
“Uhm,” Ryan moaned as he scratched the right side of his face before he said, “yea, speaking of your husband, he came by my office to see me the other day.”
“Jay?” Robin questioned stunned by what she was hearing. She couldn’t believe that Jay would actually go to see a man he didn’t even know and she could only imagine what he went there for. Still she asked, “what did he want?”
Ryan smiled as he took her hand and laced his fingers between hers before he said, “he wants me to stay away from his wife.”
“Are you serious?” Robin asked, her obvious disdain for her estranged husband’s actions showing through in the wrinkles in her forehead.
“Dead serious,” Ryan said as he wrapped his free hand around her waist before he pulled her close to his chest. She inhaled his scent and loved that smelled exactly like a man was supposed to smell…sexy, strong, and delicious.
“and what did you say?” Robin said impressed by the defiance in his voice. It was the first time she had heard any kind of strength in his day-to-day tone.
“I told him to get the fuck out of my office,” Ryan said as he kissed the top of her forehead. Robin laughed, because she had never heard the dentist use such language. Her laughter made him laugh and before long their eyes found each other, as did their lips. It was sweet. The anger of the previous week made the seduction of his kiss the sweetest joy Robin’s lips had ever known. The kiss sent enough heat throughout all the most sensitive places to make the cold night air feel like a tropical breeze. The sound of the neighbor’s dog barking a few houses over interrupted their passion and caused the doctor to say, “I don’t know what I’m going to do about this thing that I’ve got for you. The whole time you wouldn’t talk to me I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep…ready to beat the crap out of your ex for telling me not to see you. What are you doing to me?” Robin could only smile as Ryan continued, “Until tonight, I thought that your husband was the one that was telling you that I was married.”
“He is not my husband,” Robin said as she slid her hand across his chest to feel his muscles. She treasured the opportunity to examine how toned his body truly was. She knew it was wrong and down right childish to have feelings based on sexual attraction alone, but that was where her feelings for him seem to come from. She didn’t know anything about him yet she couldn’t help feeling that if she couldn’t have him again she would fall to pieces. Her thoughts made her smile as she said, “he’s just my baby daddy.” They laughed and as they did all of the tension and resentment from the previous week melted away, as she sank deeper into the feelings she wasn’t supposed to be having.
Robin and Ryan agreed that after the “meet the parents” fiasco from Saturday if they were going to keep seeing each other they needed to learn more about each other than each others bedroom mannerisms. Robin had insisted that they not see each other for a week so that they would be forced to talk, as well as, listen to each other when they were on the phone. Not seeing each other was Robin’s idea but still she missed him…having sex with him mainly, but she missed him all the same. She had even gone against everything she believed and sent him an apology bouquet for bringing up his mother at dinner. It was now that she really resented that she had limited their phone calls to once per day, because she as much as she didn’t want to waste her one phone call; she really wanted to see if he liked the flowers.
Robin had, however, gotten countless calls from someone she wished would just fall off the face of the Earth. Jay had been calling her seemingly nonstop trying to pressure her to reconcile, something she had no intention of doing but no matter how many times she said that to him he didn’t seem to listen. He had shown up on her doorstep almost every day needing to see her and sometimes demanding to take her daughter with him. He had even shown up at her job earlier that day to take her to lunch so that they could talk about why he hadn’t signed the divorce papers, but again she had denied his request as the only thing she wanted was be separated from him permanently.
She may have wanted to kick a hole in Jay’s face every time she saw him, however she did still have a great relationship with his family, especially his cousin Justice, whom she’d gone to lunch with that day instead of Jay. She was glad that he had moved back home and taken a job with federal government but it required him to travel a lot but even so he was still home more than he was when he was away at college. He was living with his girlfriend, Nikki and for the first time since Robin had met him he seemed happy about where he was in his life.
“First of all,” Justice said as the waitress handed them their menus before leaving to get their drinks, “didn’t I tell you to be good to Ryan so that we could have a dentist in the family. What did you do to him? He was all moping around when we went to play golf last Saturday. He said you accused him of being married and he said you slapped him. Now, how am I gonna get a free cleaning if my sister is slapping the shit out of the dentist. Not a good look Robin, not a good look.”
Robin smirked at Justice’s sarcastic take on the situation. She still felt a strange with him referring to her as his sister, especially since everyone knew that they had slept together once in college. She was glad they had been able to hold on to their bond through more trying times then most friends ever faced. She waited for the waitress to put the glasses down before she said, “There you go trying to use me for your benefit. Me and Ryan worked out our differences and we’re cool now. I went over and had dinner with his family on Saturday.”
“Yeah, I know you two worked it out. I heard about the dinner,” Justice said before taking a sip of his drink, “Don’t look at me like that. He tells Velle everything and you know that Velle’s going to tell me.”
“All of y’all gossip like a bunch of girls. What did he say?” Robin said.
“Nothing. He just said that you came to dinner at his parents house on Saturday,” Justice said before scooping up some salsa with the chips the waitress had brought to the table.
“Speaking of parents, did you know his were white?” Robin said before following Justice’s lead and taking a chip from the bowl.
“Yes,” Justice smiled.
“Wh…what? Well, did you know that my lawyer was his sister?” Robin replied.
“Yes,” Justice said as he nodded his head.
“Well, why you ain’t tell me?” Robin asked.
“I don’t know because I thought it would be funnier if you found out on your own, which by the way I heard it was…for J.C. anyway,” Justice said just as their food was brought to the table. He changed gears completely, as soon as the waitress left, by saying, “and guess who’s back in town acting as if nothing ever happened.”
“Jay,” Robin sighed.
“Yes! You’ve seen him?” Justice asked.
“He came by the house one night last week talking about he wasn’t gonna give me a divorce because he wanted us to reconcile or some shit. Then he was like, “whatever you have with this dentist guy is over”. That’s who I should have slapped the shit out of.” Robin replied.
“Well, he showed up at the clubhouse on Saturday, walked up to me and hugged me. Just hugged me like he was ecstatic to see me. All I kept thinking was “didn’t this motherfucker say that I was dead to him after I got shot and now he in here pretending like he just got back from band camp or something,” Justice said in between shoveling food in his mouth.
“What is that all about?” Robin said shaking her head in disbelief, “Why is he back here and why the hell is he acting like nothing ever happened. Ryan told me that he came by his office and told him to stay away from me.”
“Really?” Justice said with his fork midway between his plate and his mouth.
“Yes,” Robin said returning the same bewildered look that Justice was giving her.
Justice placed his fork back on his plate without taking another bite of his food. Robin knew what he was thinking because she was thinking it too. Jay was had been kicking up a shitload of dirt to signify his return, which was leaving both Justice and Robin blinded by his dust storm. Justice blew out a deep breath before he said, “I don’t know what he’s doing but I’ll play his game. You know what they say about keeping your enemies closer.”
“Y’all cousins. What about blood being thicker that water?” Robin replied.
Justice picked up his glass before he said, “Well, when my blood was flowing from my body like water he denounced me as family so mother made ‘em, mother fuck ‘em,”
It was definitely fall, as by the time Robin walked out to her car after work it was almost completely dark and it was only a few minutes after six. She waved goodbye to some other co-workers before getting in her car and heading out to leave. She had gotten about a mile up the road and made it to the road that lead to a shortcut she took home when she didn’t have to pick up the girls from afterschool care when her car started to slow down. She pumped the gas a couple of times before she noticed that the gas light was on. She managed to pull the car over to the side of the road before it cut off completely. “Son-of-a-bitch! I just put gas in this damn car,” Robin said. She turned the key in the ignintion once more to make sure she was in fact out of gas…she was. She slammed her fist hard against the steering wheel. “Shit!” She cursed as she unsnapped her seatbelt. She grabbed her purse from the empty passenger seat and quickly started searching for her cell phone.
As she searched, the only thing she could think was that someone had to have siphoned the gas from her car because she had almost a half a tank. She remembered because she had just gotten gas the previous day to make sure she had enough to make it through the rest of the week and now she was on “E”. The light hadn’t even been on when she returned from lunch with Justice earlier and here she was stranded a few hours later. To make matters worse she couldn’t find her cell phone and though this road ran straight through an exclusive subdivision, she still didn’t want to have to knock on someone’s front door during dinner.
She turned on the interior light of the car so that she could have a better look inside her purse. It was while she was removing things from her bag and placing them on the seat that a car pulled behind her and parked. She tensed up as lights from the car’s headlights reflected off her rearview mirror, blinding her for a second before they dimmed completely. She instantly reached over and clicked the power lock button on the door. She turned the light off, when she saw the door open and a man exit the car behind her.
She was terrified. Her mind ran to the places where her darkest thoughts lived and she rationalized that this guy was probably responsible for her current situation. He probably siphoned the gas out of her car then followed her until she ran out of gas. Her heart felt as if were about to pound right out of her chest as she stared petrified into the rearview mirror. Her breathing was becoming uncontrollable with each step this guy took. She didn’t have anything to defend herself with and no phone to call for help. The closest house was still too far away for her cries for help to be heard, so in short she was is mortal danger.
She held her breath, her hand clenched tightly over her heart as she watched the man reach her bumper. She was frightened and could feel the fear in her throat. Even though they were expected, the taps on the window still almost made her jump out of her skin but the it was the person on the other side that left her mortified.
