Shante, Jacob, and Jonathan sat in the lobby of the doctor’s office waiting for Max and Joshua. She browsed through some old magazines until she heard the sound of small footsteps running down the hallway.
“Look, Jake, the doctor took my cast off, and he gave it to me to put in my room,” Joshua said. “He gave me this cool pencil,” he told Shante, showing her a pencil that looked like an arm in a cast.
“Does he need physical therapy?” she asked Max.
“No, there are no problems with his arm. He was able to do several things the doctor told him to do. There’s no nerve damage, but he still has to wear a soft cast for a couple of weeks. At least he can take it off when he bathes. Looks like he’s back to normal. Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah.”
“Tay, we have a change of plans. It has been a long day. Do you mind if we go to my house and order a pizza? I picked up some movies from the video store yesterday. I haven’t watched them. Maybe we can watch one tonight. I really feel like staying in.”
“That works for me. How about the boys?”
“It’ll be okay with them. You know they’re pizza junkies. We’ll have it delivered when we get to the house.”
They got into the car and drove the short distance to Max’s house. He had bought a house in the suburbs because it was convenient to everything, the schools were great, and it still allowed him privacy. As soon as they pulled into the driveway, the boys jumped out.
“Josh, buddy, we have something to show you. Come on, guys.” They all walked to the garage and Max let the garage door up. As it began to rise, they could see the wheels of three new bicycles. When it was fully raised, they could see two new BMX bikes and a smaller version with training wheels. Each one had a bicycle helmet attached.
“Dad, you got us all new bikes?” Jacob asked.
The boys ran to claim to their bikes. At the side of the garage, Shante saw three adult bikes, one man’s and two women’s. “The purple one is yours, Tay.”
“Mama Tay, you got a new bike too?” Joshua asked. “You bought me a bike? Why?”
“Well, I thought you could go riding with us sometime. I got Camille one, too. She can ride with us when she gets back from school. Do you like it?”
“Yeah, it’s nice. No one has ever given me a bicycle, not even for Christmas. Thank you, Max.” She lightly kissed his lips and got on the bike and rode out of the garage and onto the driveway next to the boys.
“Oh, noooooo,” Joshua piped up.
“What’s wrong?” Max was concerned he was afraid to ride.
Joshua jumped off his bike and ran into the house. He came back with Max’s bottle of anointing oil. “We have to pray for our bikes,” he said, handing the oil to Shante.
“Give it to your father. Let him do it this time.”
Joshua gave the oil to Max. He anointed each one on their foreheads with the sign of the cross. Shante took the oil and anointed Max’s forehead. Then Max anointed each bike. They joined hands and prayed.
The boys sped off on their bikes down the sidewalk. Jonathan was already doing tricks on his.
“Don’t go too far. The pizza will be here soon,” Max yelled at them.
“I thought you were only getting Josh a bike. Looks like everybody got a surprise today except you. Can I get you something? What would you like?” Shante asked coyly, lightly rubbing Max’s back.
“I’ll get mine later,” Max whispered in her ear.
“I’m going into the house. What movies did you get?” “They’re in the family room.”
She went into the family room and looked through the videos on the end table. She picked up a copy of the television show Martin and went to the door with it. “Max, where did you get this Martin DVD? You know that is one of my favorite TV shows.”
“It was on sale at the video store, so I got it. I planned to look at it when I needed a laugh.”
“Can we watch it tonight after the boys are settled? Which shows are on this DVD?”
“I don’t know. We’ll watch it later.”
The pizza arrived, and they all went to the family room and watched one of the videos. After they finished eating, Jacob asked if he could play his video game upstairs. Max said he could play, but for only thirty min utes. Taking Joshua with him, Jonathan said he was going upstairs to watch a show on public television.
Shante thought their behavior was strange; in fact, all of them were acting strangely. The boys were overly polite. They hadn’t argued over seats or what to do after the movie. They even offered to load the dishes into the dishwasher. She assumed they were tired; it had been a long day.
“Tay, looks like the boys are all settled in now. Do you want to watch that Martin video?”
“No, Max, it’s getting late. I’d better go home.”
“Come on, Tay. It’s only eight o’clock. One show is only thirty minutes long. Besides, we haven’t had any time alone today. Stay just for thirty more minutes?”
“You convinced me. If it were something other than Martin, I would be out of here.”
Max put the video on. She thought she heard the boys on the stairway, but when she turned around, she didn’t see them. Max returned to the sofa and they cuddled. She kicked off her shoes and put her feet up on the sofa and snuggled up to Max more. “This looks like the episode where Martin proposes to Gina. I love this one.” Shante laughed at the antics of the characters on the video. She knew the dialogue by heart. This was one of her favorite episodes.
“Mama Tay, I got you some flowers. I picked them out myself.” Josh handed her a bouquet of roses.
“Thank you, Josh,” she said kissing him on the cheek. “They’re beautiful, but why didn’t you give them to me earlier?”
Josh shrugged and walked away. She laughed. “I’d better go put these in water. Pause the video.” She returned with the flowers in a vase and placed them on the end table. “Did you know about this?” she asked Max.
“I did. I thought he had forgotten about them. Let’s watch the rest of the video.”
She snuggled back into Max and continued watching the video, barely noticing Jacob come in.
“Mama Tay, I brought you and dad something to drink.” Jacob was holding two wineglasses.
“Thank you, Jake. Put it on the table. You’re so thoughtful.” After he left she snuggled up to Max again.
“Dad, look what I found in my book bag,” Jonathan said, handing Max a box.
Shante sat straight up. She looked at the video and at the box Max had in his hand. She looked at the table and saw the wineglasses. She looked at the flowers. She heard soft music. Someone had turned on the stereo, and it was playing her favorite song, Donnie McClurkin’s, “Here With You”. It always made her cry. “Oh, my God.”
She watched Max get down on one knee with the box in his hand. He opened the box, and she saw the large oval-shaped diamond ring with smaller diamonds on each side. Her heart was beating fast. She could barely breathe.
“Miss Shante Elizabeth Dogan, I, Maxwell Theodore Patrick, am madly in love with you. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about you. You are my life. I love everything about you— your smile, your charm, your wit, and your correction. I love the way you walk. Sometimes I ask you to do things just to see you glide across the room. You have been my strength for the past several years. You are so good with my sons. They love you like a mother. When you’re not with me, I feel like a piece of me is missing. I feel empty inside until thoughts of you fill me. I can talk to you about anything. I trust you. There is no one else for me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?” Max’s hands were trembling as he looked into her eyes, nervously waiting for her answer.
She began crying. She looked toward the stairs and saw the boys sitting there—they, too, waiting for her answer. Max took the ring and put it on her finger. She was speechless. It was a perfect fit. How did he know what size ring she wore? She looked at the ring. She looked at Max. She turned and looked at the boys. It was all too much for her. She ran out of the house to her car. Max followed her.
“Shante, wait.”
“Max, I-I . . .”
“Please say yes. I love you.” He hugged her.
“Mama Tay, when are you coming to live with us? Jon said you’re going to live in daddy’s room. Dad can stay in my room. Are you moving in the morning?” Joshua asked, running toward them.
“Josh, go back in the house with your brothers,” Max said.
Shante turned around so Joshua couldn’t see her crying. Joshua turned and went into the house. Max turned her around to face him and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I know you’re surprised, but I didn’t expect this reaction. The ring fits perfectly. It looks good on you, Tay.” He hugged her and whispered in her ear, “I love you, Shante Dogan. Say you will marry me.”
This made her cry even more. She still couldn’t talk. She looked at the house and could see the boys staring out the window. She opened the car door and got in and closed the door.
“Mama Tay, are you going to your house to get your stuff? Are you moving in with us tonight?” Joshua asked, running from the house again.
“Josh, I told you to stay in the house.”
He stopped running and stared at Max for a moment, and then he looked at Shante crying. He walked to the car. “Mama Tay, what’s wrong? Are you coming to live with us? Don’t you love us? You said you loved my brothers and me. You said you loved my daddy, too, and when people love each other they live together. If you marry my daddy today we can live together.”
This was more than she could take. She began to weep. The tears were flowing down her face. She couldn’t look at Max or Josh. She couldn’t look toward the house because she knew the other boys were watching them. She started her car and backed out the driveway and drove away, leaving Max and Joshua standing in the yard.
She looked at the ring as she drove down the street. She couldn’t believe she didn’t see this coming. She pulled over and took the ring off and put it in her purse. Her phone rang. It was Max. She sent the call to voicemail. Now she knew she had gone too far. She couldn’t marry Max, not now. She began to weep loudly.
* * *
Shante ran past Gail as she entered the office. She had been up all night. No matter what she tried, she could not cover up the fact that she had been crying. She didn’t want Gail to notice the swelling and puffiness around her eyes.
“Morning, Pastor. Whoa, you look bad this morning. Is everything okay?” She didn’t want to face her. She did not want to talk to anyone.
“Pastor, before you go into your office, Reverend Patrick . . .”
She didn’t want to hear about Max. She quickly opened the door to her office without acknowledging Gail. She stopped short. “Max!” She was surprised to see him sitting in the middle of her office. There were flowers all around. She closed the door and unplugged her phone and intercom system. She wanted to make sure no one in the office could hear their conversation. “What are you doing here, in my office, with all these flowers?”
“You didn’t give me an answer last night. I thought you could give it to me today.” There was a tremor in his voice.
“How could you bring this to my office? You know I don’t like these people in my personal business. I can’t believe you.”
“I tried calling you last night.”
“I didn’t feel like talking to anyone.”
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“I guess I know the answer. I want to hear you say it,” Max said, trying not to cry.
“Max, I-I . . .”
“Say it, Shante.”
“I can’t marry you.”
“You want to think about it? You want to talk about it?” He stood and walked to her. “I can give you some time. You don’t have to make the decision today. How much time do you need?”
“Max, I can’t marry you, or anyone, right now. I have too much going on. I told you I didn’t want to bring you into it.”
“Tay, we all have problems. That won’t stop the love we have for each other. We can handle our problems together.” He tried to hug her. She backed away and sat in the side chair. He sat on the sofa facing her. “Tay, look at me. Tell me you don’t love me. Tell me you don’t love the boys. Look at me, Shante.”
She couldn’t look at him. She began to cry. “How could you do this to them? How could you have them involved in something like this? I wish they hadn’t been there. Oh, my God. Josh, my baby, he doesn’t understand. How could you do this to them, Max?”
“They love you like a mother. They wanted to be there.”
“No, you wanted to put pressure on me to say yes. That is what you were doing. You were trying to manipulate me. How could you?”
“I wasn’t trying to do anything like that. We talked. They wanted to be there. They love you, and I do, too.”
She got her purse. She reached in and took out the ring and handed it to him. “No. The answer is no. I can’t believe you would use your own sons to get what you want. I thought I knew you.”
“It’s not like that. I don’t want it back. Keep it. Think about it, Tay. Think about how good we’ll be together.” Max moved closer to her. She didn’t move. She stood there with the ring in her hand, still holding it out to him. He pulled her to him and placed his head on her shoulder. “Don’t do this to me, Tay. Don’t do this to us. We’re so good together. I love you,” he whispered in her ear.
“You said that. Get off me. Take this ring. You have your answer. Please leave,” she said, trying not to cry. She tried to act as if this were no longer having an effect on her, as if she were angry. She stood stiffly, her outstretched arm making it clear she was not going to keep the ring.
“Tay, don’t.”
“Here, Max. It’s probably a good idea if we don’t see each other again. Please leave.”
“You’re breaking up with me?”
“Breaking up? In order to break up, we have to be a couple. I told you we were just friends. I told you that, Max. I told you I didn’t want a relationship with anyone right now.”
He was stunned. “Tay, I thought . . . with the way our relationship was going . . . I thought . . . how can you throw our love away like that?”
“I never told you I loved you.”
He stepped back. He knew she was right. She had never told him she was in love with him. When he’d told her he loved her, she had said she knew. He couldn’t think of one time she had told him she loved him. “You’re right. You never told me. I just assumed . . .”
“Max, don’t make this harder on us. Please leave.”
Her cellphone rang. She picked up the phone and looked at Max and asked him to leave again before answering the phone. Max walked out of the office with tears in his eyes. “Hello.”
“Ms. Dogan?”
“Yes.”
“This is the school nurse at Queen City Middle School. I have Jonathan Patrick here. He is upset. He didn’t want us to call his father. He insisted we call you. I think something is going on. You’re listed as an emergency contact in his records. I spoke with the principal, and she agreed that it was okay to call you. If you have a moment, he wants to talk with you.”
“Please put him on the phone.”
“Mama Tay, I know you love us. Why won’t you marry my dad? Why won’t you marry us?”
Tears began to run down her face. This was why she didn’t want the boys involved in something like this. She knew she had taken the relationship too far, especially after Joshua’s accident. She loved them. She wanted to be there to protect them from harm. She got caught up in the comfort she felt when she was with Max. She didn’t want to hurt the boys. They were like her sons.
“Jon, I love you guys. Don’t ever forget that. It’s not the right time for your dad and me to get married.”
“Are you going to think about it and get married later?”
She knew what he wanted to hear. How could she tell him she was no longer seeing his father? She couldn’t tell him over the phone and while he was at school. “Jon, calm down. I tell you what. I’ll pick up you and your brothers this weekend and we’ll go somewhere and talk. We can go to the fun park and play laser tag. Would you like that?”
“Shante.” She looked up to see Max staring at her. He had forgotten his keys and had returned to the office to get them off her desk. He had overheard her conversation with Jonathan. “Give me the phone.”
“Jon, your dad wants to talk with you. ”
“Jon, I’ll be at the school in a few minutes to pick you up. Tell them I’m coming to get you. I’m going to talk with Shante now.” He handed the phone to Shante. “I’ll let Jon know that you won’t be coming to pick him up this weekend.”
“What? Why not? I just told him I would. You’re not going to make me look bad in this, Max.”
“You’re not going to bring the boys any deeper into this than they already are. It was my mistake to bring them into it in the first place. I’m sorry I did that, but I’m not going to let it go any further.”
“Max, you can’t take the boys away from me. They’re my godchildren.”
“They are my children, Shante. They are my sons. I’m not going to expose them to your little games. I won’t let you do this to them,” Max said, pointing his finger at her.
They stared at each other. Silence filled the office. Max shook his head and walked out.
Sadness rained down on Shante. She hadn’t anticipated losing the boys. She couldn’t imagine Max taking them away from her. She began to cry. She didn’t want to lose her relationship with the boys.
“Pastor, I’m sorry to interrupt. Tank called and said the board will be meeting next week. Is everything all right? I heard loud talking. Do you want to talk?”
Shante tried to look strong. “Gail, help me put these flowers in your car. I want you to take them to the nursing home down the street and pass them out to the residents. I’m taking the rest of the day off. I don’t feel so good right now.”
“Okay, Pastor. If you want to talk . . .”
“I’ve had enough talking for today, Gail. Please take these flowers to the nursing home.”