Propped in front of the TV, Melanie and Tiana were scaring and laughing themselves to death over the latest campy horror flick when the apartment buzzer sounded. Melanie paused the movie, looked at her roommate with wide eyes, and mouthed, “Go check,” as if the visitor could hear two floors down
“Why do I have to check?” Tiana whined at full volume.
“Because it could be Damien making an impromptu visit, and I don’t want to see him right now,” Melanie whispered.
Tiana moved the bowl of popcorn from her lap and shook her head. “You know you’re behaving like a child.”
“Says the girl who changed Nathan’s screen saver to a picture of the Village People.”
“Whatever.” Her roommate stomped to the intercom. “Yes?” she asked in a can’t-be-bothered voice.
“Package,” replied a voice Melanie didn’t recognize. “Leaving it on the stoop.”
“All right. I’ll come down and get it.”
Tiana glanced at Melanie and rolled her eyes. “I suppose you want me to go down and get the package? Just in case it’s a setup?”
“Good idea!” Melanie eagerly nodded. “That’s why you get paid the big bucks.”
“Yeah, I’ll add ‘ex-boyfriend screener’ and ‘gofer’ to my resume. That’ll surely up my value.” Arching her back, she stretched her arms in the air. “Be right back.”
Tiana returned with a medium-size white box. “Surprise, surprise. It’s for you.” She dumped the box at Melanie’s feet. “I think it’s from Damien. And as penance, I demand to open the box and examine its contents.”
“Deal.” Melanie ran to her room to retrieve a pair of scissors and handed them to her roommate. “You do the honors.”
“Damn right I will,” Tiana murmured, sticking her tongue out in concentration as she ripped through the tape. She peered into the opened box. “There’s a letter.”
Melanie tried to grab it, but Tiana snatched the paper away.
“Nuh-uh. I get to read it. Because I am a gracious and a giving friend, I’ll read it out loud.”
“Fine. But if it gets too personal, I’m taking it back.”
“And I’ll happily give it back. Now hush and listen.”
Mel,
I’ve rewritten this letter a thousand times, trying to craft the right words to say to you. But then I realized that this isn’t a press release for the media. This letter needs to be real. To show you just how sorry I am for taking you for granted.
I’m guilty of a lot of things. Hurting us both, thinking that you were too young, too good, and too pure to pursue.
Tiana snorted. “Too pure, my ass.”
“Just read the dang letter, T!”
“Fine, fine.” Clearing her throat, she resumed her impression of Damien’s deep voice.
But I realized that we were both guilty of putting each other on a pedestal. Being with you these past few months made them the best in my life. It was so much better loving the real Melanie as opposed to the untouchable Melanie. So we allowed ourselves to go beyond friendship and fall deeper and deeper in love until we faded from our individual selves and became one, a unit, a posse. We had each other’s backs, but when you were up to bat, when you tried to support me when Vanessa’s lies nearly tore us apart, I tried to be that big brother and protect you.
I screwed up.
You told me you wouldn’t be a fool for me again. That one thing you said looped in my mind again and again. So I looked up the word fool.
A fool is “a person who acts unwisely or imprudently. A silly person.”
I know I hurt you. I know I made you feel you were silly and that it’s been imprudent to love me. And maybe I can’t erase how you felt, but I can meet you where you are.
Because I don’t mind being a fool for you.
As a matter of fact, I’m gonna show you just how foolish I can be.
Your loving fool,
Damien
“What in the heck does that mean?” Melanie ripped the paper from Tiana and skimmed the letter.
“I don’t know. But I’m getting some popcorn ready for the show!”
“Ahhh,” Melanie groaned. “I don’t want to look at what’s inside. That package will make me soft. That letter nearly did me in.”
“And that’s what I’m here for!” Tiana dug around the box, paused over a picture, and said, “Aww!”
“‘Aww’ what? You never aww.”
“I thought you didn’t want to see?”
“I don’t.” Melanie snuck a peek at the picture in Tiana’s hand.
“Just come over and look.” Tiana tossed the picture back into the box. She rose from her knees and walked toward her bedroom.
“Why are you leaving?” Melanie asked, backing away from the box toward the couch.
“Because,” Tiana said, her eyes softening, “this is something you should do by yourself. We can talk later if you want.”
“Okay.” Melanie peered at the box. More like Pandora’s box. Moving closer, she took a deep breath. “Here goes.”
She picked up a picture of her and Damien at senior prom. The theme, Happily Ever After, shined in the archway above their heads. Damien had added a caption:
Will you let me make this come true?
“Ha! Good one, but no.”
Then she picked up a worn and faded friendship bracelet she’d given him for his high-school graduation. He’d twined a thin piece of paper around the bracelet that read:
Friendship was the foundation of our relationship. I’ll always cherish and protect it.
“Oh, boy,” she whispered, clutching the bracelet and lowering her head. She bit down on her lip and on the hope that swelled in her chest. Unable to halt the stroll down memory lane, she continued to dig in the box and found concert tickets to various boy bands she’d dragged him and Terrance to see and a menu from Olli’s, the restaurant where they’d dined and dashed when Damien found her lost in New York.
A thin, yellow scrapbook was wedged in the corner of the box. She flipped the pages and saw every article and blog post she’d ever written. Some were originals. This was not something done last-minute but had been put together over time and with great care and love.
Happiness and sorrow surrounded and suffocated her. She gathered the scrapbook to her chest. “Oh, Damien. What am I going to do with you?”
Placing the items back in the box, she left the memories in the middle of the floor, went to her room, and burrowed under the covers.
The trillion-dollar question of the day: did she want him back?
He’d nearly destroyed her the first time around. What would happen if there were years invested in the relationship and he decided to leave, because of boredom, fear, or he simply stopped loving her? What then?
Throwing off the covers, she jumped from the bed and paced the floor of her tiny room. She couldn’t do this again. Memories of their relationship assaulted her. The way his kisses made her senses short out like a faulty computer chip. The way his hands against her skin made her soul flutter. Not to mention his taste and those lethal lips. When he kissed her, she was heated all over, inside and out, up and down, rushing and overwhelming and drowning her until he embedded himself so deeply she could only go under and float listlessly until he pulled her back from the deep.
There was no captain, no anchor, and no life jacket when it came to Damien. And he wanted her to hop back in that dinghy, knowing a storm could wash him away. “There’s no way.” She settled herself back into bed. “He’ll give up.”
But when she woke the next morning, she started to doubt her self-assurance.
A light rap on the door roused her from her thoughts of Damien. Without waiting for an answer, Tiana opened the door with a newspaper in her hand.
Melanie rolled over, narrowing her eyes at her rude friend. “What did I tell you about Saturdays?”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t wake you before noon. But, girl, you have to see this.” Tiana placed the newspaper in Melanie’s hand.
Rubbing her eyes, Melanie grabbed her glasses from the nightstand. “What in the … ” She stared at the picture of Damien with a sad, puppy-dog expression and a cute little kitten in his hand.
Please forgive me, Mel.
Love, Damien
P.S. If you don’t find me cute, perhaps you find Mr. Cuddles cute?
Melanie shook her head and asked, “How on earth did he get a cat?”
“Girl, forget the kitty. He put an ad out in our neighborhood paper!” Tiana grinned hugely. “You have to admit this is cute and creative. This entire fool campaign is genius!”
“More like embarrassing. For him. He used to represent athletes, and they’re gonna give him crap about this if they ever find out.”
“Well, I like it,” her friend declared, shrugging. “Can’t wait to see what happens next.”