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“How is Jayden. I miss that baby so much,” Toya said after answering her sister, Tia’s phone call.
“I’m glad you miss her, big sis. Because I need your help.”
“Ask away.” Toya got up from her desk, looked around her home office for her house shoes. She hated walking on hardwood floors barefoot. But as usual, Princess was laying on top of her house shoes. “Get up, Princess. I need those shoes.”
The dog just stared at her but didn’t move. “Whatever.” Toya threw up her hands in frustration and then headed to the kitchen barefooted.
“Who are you talking to?”
“My dog.”
“When did you get a dog?”
“I didn’t. Actually, Princess belongs to Jarrod. But it’s a long story, girl. Just tell me what you need.”
“Robbie has a job interview in Nashville, so he’s going to be gone all night. I was hoping that you could spend the night with us.”
“Why is Robbie on a job interview? Don’t tell me he got fired again?”
“No, nothing like that. He’s actually interviewing for a management position. It would be a promotion. But he has to go to Nashville because the company’s headquarters is there.”
“That’s awesome, Tia.” Toya didn’t want to leave her environment, where she felt safe and secure. But she couldn’t ask Tia to pack all the stuff she would need for herself and a five-month-old baby. “Okay, let me get Jarrod to do some dog sitting for his own dog, and I’ll see you two later this evening.”
Jarrod was at work, so she left him a message and then finished making her sandwich. Just as she was about to sit down and eat it, Princess went into the mudroom, pulled down her leash, and sat it in front of Toya.
“Ah, come on,” Toya rolled her eyes heavenward. “How are you smart enough to grab a leash when you want to go outside, but you can’t stop laying on my house shoes. And why do you even need to go out again? I just took you out three hours ago.”
Princess lifted her paws as she sat up and whimpered.
“You’re worse than having a kid. My goodness, how can I even think about getting a job when I have to walk you four times a day.” Toya put the leash on Princess and then took her outside.
The daily walk, times four were actually very relaxing for Toya. The first couple of times she had to take Princess out, she was so worried about walking around the corner that she almost called Jarrod and told him to take Princess somewhere else. But when she looked into those watery eyes, she just couldn’t give her back. So, she took her outside. Toya was careful to check her surroundings at first. But now that she and Princess had been on their routine for almost two weeks, she forgot all about checking her surroundings and began to enjoy the walks.
“You had to pee really bad, didn’t you, girl?” Before Tia called, Toya had been in her kitchen, making a sandwich and daydreaming about how life used to be when she actually had a life. She had once been a lawyer climbing her way up the corporate ladder, now she was just a dog sitter. While she had been feeling sorry for herself, Princess kept trying to get her attention, but Toya was too busy trying to come up with her next move that she hadn’t noticed Princess until the dog got right in her face and begged to go out. “I’m sorry I ignored you. It won’t happen again.”
Just as Princess was finishing and they were about to walk further down the block, someone tapped Toya on the shoulder. At that moment, Toya almost peed her pants in the very spot Princess had just used. How could she have let her guard down like this? Why hadn’t she checked her surrounding before letting Princess do her business?
“Toya! I can’t believe it’s you,” the voice exclaimed with joy.
Instantly, there was a feeling of familiarity. She knew that voice. Toya turned around and found herself face-to-face with her best friend from high school. She hadn’t seen Gina Melson since graduation. They swore they would keep in touch, but they enrolled in different colleges that were in different states. Then, they never seemed to be home from college at the same time.
Then when Toya discovered that Gina had started dating Jarrod, that ended it for Toya. Her two best friends were attending the same college and falling in love, and even though Toya had been hundreds of miles away, she felt like a third wheel, so she distanced herself from both of them.
Jarrod was now back in her life thanks to Thomas marrying her mother, and she had just run into Gina. “You here visiting your parents?” Toya asked, holding Princess’s leash tightly.
Gina shook her head. “Not this time. I moved back here a month ago.”
“That's good to know,” Toya said and meant it. For years she had missed having both Jarrod and Gina in her life. “Are you staying with your parents?”
Gina pointed toward the townhouse in front of them. “Moved in last week.”
“Wow! I live in this community too. My building is right around the corner.”
Princess barked and started yanking her leash forward.
“You must work from home to be able to walk your dog in the middle of the afternoon.”
“Something like that.” Princess yanked the leash again. “Let me finish walking this dog.” Toya gave Gina her address. “If you have time, stop by, I should be back in a few minutes.”
“I just might do that.” Gina opened her car door and took two bags of groceries out. “Let me unload this, and I’ll come hang out with you for a minute.”
True to her word, Gina was at Toya’s door within twenty minutes. Toya grabbed a bag of Lays chips from the pantry. She took the onion dip out of the fridge. “Do you still like orange sodas?” She asked while the fridge was still open.
“I’m strictly on water these days. I did a sugar fast a few years ago and haven’t gone back since.”
“So, you’ve gotten healthy on me.” Toya held up the chip bag. “Do I need to put this back and get the celery instead.”
“Oh no, I haven’t gotten over my love of Lays chips, which is one of the reasons I run a couple of miles every day.”
“Such discipline. I wish I had it. Whenever I’m feeling down, I eat a half bag of these chips with this onion dip.”
“Well, it isn’t affecting you at all. Looks like you weigh the same as you did when we were in high school.”
Toya laughed. “I passed that fifteen pounds ago.” She put the chips in a bowl, handed Gina a bottle of water and then sat the chips and dip in front of them as they took a seat in the living room.
Gina scooped a few chips in her hand and dipped one. “You’re hiding those extra pounds well because I can’t tell you’ve gained anything at all. Now me, on the other hand, I’m shaped like an apple, so when I start gaining weight, it shows up in my belly first. Which is not good, so I work hard to keep those dreaded pounds away.”
Toya sat down on the sofa with Gina. Before they knew it, two hours had gone by, the bowl had three chips left. “You want another bottle of water?” Toya asked as she got up to add more soda and ice to her glass.
“No, I’m good.” Gina held up her bottle to show that she still had some water. “But you know what I’m curious about?”
“What?”
“Okay, I get that you’re not married, just like me but I don’t understand why?”
Toya wasn’t ready to discuss Marvel with Gina just yet. In their two-hour conversation, they had talked about many things, but not the most horrific parts of her life. So, she simply shrugged and said, “Just haven’t met the right man, I guess.”
“But you’ve known him all your life, Toya. I just don’t get why things didn’t work out with you and Jarrod.”
“Me and Jarrod?” Toya looked at Gina as if she had suddenly grown two heads. “You and Jarrod were a couple in college, remember?”
Gina drank the rest of her water and then joined Toya in the kitchen. “Oh, I remember alright. All he did was talk about you every time we were together. We barely even kissed, because Jarrod didn’t really want me as his girlfriend. He wanted someone he could share memories of you with.”
“That’s crazy, Gina. You and Jarrod both told me that you were dating.”
“I think Jarrod thought he wanted to date me at first, but when you stopped calling us and wouldn’t accept our phone calls, things really got bad for him. He mopped around campus and even threatened to call your mom to talk some sense into you.”
A look of embarrassment crossed Toya’s face as she handed Gina another bottle of water. “So, y’all knew that I was mad?”
Gina nodded. “I tried calling you so many times. I thought for sure that when you came home for Christmas our junior year that you would call me, and things would go back to the way they had been. But I never heard from you.”
Toya tapped on her forehead as she went back in time, trying to remember what she was doing. “Wait a minute. I did come home that Christmas. And I saw Jarrod and his family, but he didn’t tell me that you two weren’t dating anymore. Nor did he attempt to ask me out.”
“I can’t believe that. Before we left school for our break, I made him promise that he would fess up about how he felt about you. I can’t believe he chickened out like that.” Shaking her head, Gina then said, “Now everything makes sense.”
“You’re losing me again.” Toya had been completely caught off guard by the whole conversation. Jarrod had never expressed any interest in her. He treated her like a little sister.
“All I know is Jarrod changed when he came back to school. He rarely spoke to me, then he started dating all these random women like he needed to prove something to himself. I honestly thought he would get it together once you and he started dating.”
“We’ve never dated,” Toya practically screamed the words.
“Wow.” Gina’s eyes widened as she tried to make sense of what she had heard. Then she asked, “Did he ever slow down and get married?”
Toya shook her head. “Still dating a bunch of big boob women.”
Gina laughed at that. “I don’t remember if the women he dated in college were big breasted, I just know that there were so many that I eventually stopped counting and started minding my own business.”
“Same here.” Toya pointed toward Princess. “I even let him turn me into a dog sitter so he could have all his free time for the ladies.”
“Well, at least you two are friends again.”
“That doesn’t bother you, does it?”
“Of course not. I told you, Jarrod and I were never a thing. Believe me, Jarrod was not the love of my life. Sometimes I wish he had been. He has a good heart.”
The way Gina said that made Toya think that whoever her friend had fallen in love with, the man must have been some kind of monster. Right then she wanted to spill the beans about the monster in her own life.
Gina looked at the time on her cell phone. “It is getting late. I’ve got to get going.”
“Don’t be a stranger,” Toya said as she walked her to the door.
“Same to you. I showed you where my house is, so the next visit is on you.” Just as she was walking out the door, Gina turned back to Toya and said, “I really needed this. So glad I ran into you today. Please don’t ignore my calls this time.”
They had exchanged phone numbers during their conversation. Both of them had locked each other's contact info in their phones. “I won’t, I promise.”