Chapter Six
Kendra stopped writing in her palm pilot and sat still. She couldn’t believe what Gracie was telling her.
“So, is this the same Marcus that I missed by three months, two days, and eleven hours?” Gracie had broken off her relationship with Marcus before she and Kendra met and became dorm mates.
“Yeppers. That’s the one.”
Kendra readjusted the straw in her cold drink that she had picked up on her way back to work and took a sip. “Dang, and I just had to run to the drug store. You know I would have gotten you hooked up!”
Kendra wasn’t one for sitting around mourning over a man for too long. She believed in living and living a little more; part of the reason why she wished she had been there when Gracie saw Marcus. There was no doubt she would have gotten his attention.
“So you think he and Miss Prissy have something going on?” Gracie shook her head, amused at her best friend.
She was afraid to give too much information to Kendra. She knew Kendra had a way of doing a lot of checking up on people and would do the same to Marcus. Even though she was a real “sista” at heart, looking at her outer appearance, one would think that Kendra herself was prissy because of her beauty.
“Well, I think so,” Gracie answered while resting on the office’s sofa. “From the description my momma gave me, it’s her. The girlfriend. If not more.”
“Well, we are just going to have to get the point across to old Marcus that the name on the building belongs to you.” Gracie opened her mouth to protest, but Kendra continued. “Hmmm, what about having a Bring Your Partner to Workout day?”
They looked at each other for two seconds with deadpan expressions before kneeling over in laughter.
“You gonna have that girl trying to kill me,” Gracie said. “She’ll think I’m trying to steal her man right from under her nose.”
She thought it would be a good idea to just sever all ties with Marcus when they broke up, so Gracie made her parents promise to not let him in on her life at any level. She thought she wouldn’t want any surprise visits or phone calls from him, but now she wished he knew that it was her gym. She secretly regretted keeping her success away from Marcus.
Kendra shrugged. “Well, it’s a thought. Sleep on it. It’ll be a good idea.”
“You’re crazy!” Although she knew it was a crazy idea, Gracie gave it a thought.
Gracie got up from the sofa and walked over to her desk phone to check her messages at home. She already knew there wouldn’t be important messages, but she liked to keep herself amused.
“We are calling concerning an important issue. This message is for a G. Gregory. Would you please contact the Human and ...”
“Dang it!” That automatic message had been left on her home voice mail every day for more than two weeks, Gracie quickly pressed the number three key in the middle of the greeting to delete it. “I’m so sick of this crazy automated message in my inbox everyday.”
Kendra looked up from her her palm pilot. “Girl, shoot. You never know. You could have won a romantic get-away to the Bahamas. You better listen next time.”
“Whatever! With the luck I have, I don’t think so. Who would I take anyway?”
“Uh, excuse me? You’re looking at your romantic date right here,” pointing to herself.
Shortly after, Gracie left their joint office and left Kendra alone in the spacious area. Kendra laid on the sofa and readied herself for her favorite mid-day television show to hit the screen. She was caught off guard when her personal cell phone rang. She usually got calls on her business cellular phone during the day. Kendra made her way to her desk and retrieved the call.
“Hello?” she answered as she tried to identify the number on the caller ID.
“Hey there ... Kendra?”
“Yes,” she responded as she sat down in the swivel chair. “Who’s calling?”
Starting the conversation with a slight chuckle, Dr. Shields eased Kendra’s worries. “You mean you don’t know the voice of the person that charges you an arm and a leg for a good stretch? Dr. Shields here.”
“Ha! Hey there! You can say that again. Are you calling me to give me a refund?”
“Not at all.” He laughed again. “Listen, I wanted to check and see how the vitamins are working for you. Any side effects?”
“Hmm, no. Not that I’ve really been keeping track, but I believe everything is up to par.”
“Great. Hey, but can you do me a favor? I need to talk to you about some things, but I can’t really discuss them over the phone. Do you think you can come in?”
“Uh. Well. I guess if you need to talk to me, I’ll have to make time. Is everything okay?”
Without answering her question, Dr. Shields let it be known that he would pencil her in for that afternoon. “I’ll see you when you get here.”
After she hung up, Kendra called Gracie, leaving a message that she would be out for the remainder of her break and would be back in the afternoon. Kendra got ready for her appointment with Dr. Shields. She knew that he was more than her doctor, but a friend. She already knew what he needed to talk to her about. It was something that she had been putting off talking to him about, but now it was time.
After exhausting herself at work, Gracie headed home and drew herself a long hot bath in her whirlpool tub. As the water caressed her skin, Gracie felt silly for thinking about moving out of the apartment. Despite those painful memories of Dillian, she realized the level of comfort the apartment brought to her. Gracie abandoned all her intentions of running away from her home.
After her bath, all Gracie could think about was climbing into her bed and drifting off into a deep sleep. That was what she always did after a hot soaking bath. Fearing she would oversleep, Gracie set her alarm clock thirty minutes early and passed out into the comfort of her bed.
Sleep came easily to Gracie. At least for four hours anyway. But almost in a flash, her sweet dreams turned in a familiar nightmare. The nightmare woke her up in a cold sweat and made Gracie sit up in her bed, with her breaths coming fast and hard as she tried to remember the face she had seen in her sleep.
“What is this about?” Gracie moaned as her mind spun, trying to figure out what the dream could mean.
The dream started like it always did. At the beginning of her relationship with Dillian, a relationship she thought was sturdy and loving. The sweetness of their love quickly faded, replaced by rough spots where the pair were hardly talking to one another. Dillian turned and walked away from Gracie, and she found herself running, trying to catch up with him, wanting to know why things went the way they had.
Gracie finally reached Dillian while he jogged on an outside track. She tapped his shoulder. Her face scrunched up in confusion when Dillian turned to face her. She could have sworn it was him; she knew his backside from anywhere, but the face didn’t belong to Dillian. He’d somehow aged beyond his years.
Dillian opened his mouth but no words came out. Gracie watched his movements. His hands reached out and his eyes were wet. She felt that he was trying to say he was sorry. Over and over he motioned his apology. Gracie stood, confused and distraught, as Dillian backed away from her. His face was apologetic and tears of blood fell from his red eyes. Gracie screamed and begged for him to come back to her, but Dillian disappeared into a thick, gray fog, with the word ‘sorry’ echoing through the fog, scaring Gracie awake.
Gracie crawled from under her blankets and dangled her legs over the edge of her king-sized bed. She reached for her pager and texted Dillian her plea for him to respond. Her gut told her that she would get no response, but she would never know if she didn’t try.
She just wanted the reason. Why did he leave? Why didn’t he talk to her? Why didn’t he give their relationship a chance? Gracie believed her dream was telling her a little more than she had known. Why else would Dillian spend so much money on her engagement ring and all of a sudden disappear into thin air? Something went wrong with Dillian, and Gracie had no idea what. She couldn’t just let it go.
After drifting back to sleep, hours later, Gracie opened her eyes and found her head on the pillow and the pager still clutched in her hand. She wasn’t surprised to find only one message: the weather watcher. She sighed heavily and scrolled to see how the day’s weather would be. She got up to start her day.