9781618850638IfOnlyYouKnewBergman (7 page)

“I told Richard that he needed to
talk with his lady and ask her what she said to you to make you so upset. He
told me that he would. He seemed really upset that you were so upset and left
during his moment in the sun.” I groaned as I continued chewing what was in my
mouth.

“You know, she told me that she is
having a party at her apartment tomorrow evening, told me she wanted me to tell
Marie about it. She said she was going to tell you about it, but I guess she
hasn’t yet, huh?” Andrew asked as I got up to stretch and I looked at him as if
he was crazy.

“I don’t think so; she hasn’t said a
thing to me about it. That was her plan all along anyway, not telling me about her
party.”

I had known Marie going on five years,
and I always knew when she had that look in her eye, the look that she was up
to something. “Alright, tomorrow we are going shopping for the party. We are
going to make you look so damn good that Richard will wonder what he has been
missing all of these years.”

Chapter Five

“How many stores have we been to
today?” I asked, sipping my tea.

“I think we have been to about ten
already. I didn’t like any of the dresses I saw on you,” Marie said.

“I swear, you sound more and more
like my mom, we can do this all day long, and she never…”

That’s when I stopped and realized
that I was walking by myself. I looked around and saw Marie staring all bug
eyed at this shop window. I walked over and she couldn’t stop looking at the
window. So, I looked and my jaw dropped, right there was “the dress.”

We both ran inside the boutique and
saw the dress in three different colors. “Can she try these dresses on,
please?” Marie asked the saleswoman as she quickly picked out three in my size.

When I came out in the cream dress,
Marie and the saleswoman both looked at me as I looked at myself in the
mirrors. “I have always loved this dress; the empire bust line has always been
flattering to full figured women. It shows off your best assets plus looks like
it holds in your stomach,” she told me as she held my stomach.

“So what do you think?” I asked,
looking back at Marie.

“I think it looks really good on you.
I was going to ask you to try on the pink one, but I really do like the cream
one. All you need is a pretty necklace, actually, no; you really don’t need one
at all.” She smiled as she put her chin on my shoulder.

“We’ll take it!” we both said, then
started laughing.

Marie made an appointment with her
hairdresser at the salon she went to, for around seven thirty. “Lucky for us,
the salon has a shower so you can take one before you get your hair done, plus
you can get ready there. You will love Andre, he works miracles with my hair,”
she told me as we walked out of the boutique.

“Damn, hold on, that’s my phone.” She
pulled it out of her pocket, “Hello? Richard, how are you? Fine, I’m doing just
fine. Oh no, I haven’t heard from Marley since last night. She’s probably with
Agnes at her office or something. Are you ready for tonight?”

She looked at me wide eyed and I
couldn’t help but giggle a little bit. “Well I’ll see you at the party. I have
to go; Andre is waiting for me at the salon. See you tonight. Bye!” She started
laughing as we continued on our way to her place.

By the time Marie was ready, and I
had come back from picking up some personal things from home, we went to the
salon, and that’s when I met Andre.

“Marie!” he squealed like a long lost
friend. “Welcome, girlfriend, how are you, this must be Marley, oh my God, I
can’t believe that I am right in front of Marley Rockford. I have read every one
of your books, and I feel so honored right now to do your hair,” he said in
such an outrageous accent that I didn’t know where the hell he was from.

All I could do was smile as he shook
my hand and walked me to his chair. “First things first, we have a shower. I
know you want to freshen up before we do all this. Janice, can you show Marley
where the shower is please?”

I can tell you that I was pampered
and well taken care of that afternoon. My hair washed and styled; I had a
pedicure and a manicure along with my makeup done. I was going to be the
princess of the ball.

“So, when are you guys going to hurry
it up?” Andrew asked, just arriving at the salon to go with us to the party.

“She is almost done; they are doing
her makeup right now. Are you somewhere near ready you guys?” Marie shouted
back to us.

“Alright, you guys, after primping
and making miss
thing
the diva she deserves to be, I want to introduce
to you, Ms. Marley Rockford,” Andre announced.

When I walked out from the back, the
look on both Marie and Andrew’s faces was good enough for me to know that I
looked good.

“Does the dress look ok? Does it show
a lot of my breasts?” I asked, looking at myself in the mirror. I had to do a
double take. “Oh my God, look at me.”

I am gorgeous!

“She wanted so badly to see herself
in the mirror while we did her hair and makeup, but I never let her peak. I
have to admit, she is one of my best works yet,” Andre said. I looked at Marie
and I felt myself about to cry.

“Well?” I said and she got some
tissue to dab my eyes.

“You look beautiful, Marley, and
everyone will be jealous when we get to that party.” Marie smiled and hugged
me.

“Well ladies, let’s go.” Andrew said,
opening the door for us.

Man, I swear, I don’t think I was
ever so nervous in my entire life, well maybe that time in the fifth grade when
I had to give that speech in front of the entire school. Yeah, I take that
back, this ranks up there with the all-time scariest moments of my lifetime.

“Damn, your hands are sweaty, Mar,
everything will be just fine.” Andrew squeezed my hand.

I smiled and took a deeper than deep breath
as we slowly went up in a freight elevator. I could hear chatter and music
going as we made it to our floor, and when Andrew opened the elevator, a
charming guy was there to greet us. “Hello and welcome to the party. Let me
take your coats ladies. My name is Colin and the bar is over there,” he said,
flashing us his five thousand dollars worth of dental work.

When we were walking over to the bar,
everyone kept looking at me, making me kind of uncomfortable, but I thought
that as soon as I drank something that maybe I would calm down.

Well that didn’t last long, when I
turned around, I saw Laura and Richard walking into the room with a bunch of
friends from outside. Both were smiling and laughing. Laura was talking with
her friends, and Richard walked over to some other folks. Then he looked my way,
and his jaw dropped so far to the ground that I swear it had to go through the
floor.

“He saw me and he’s coming this way,
oh my God,” I said as he came toward us.

 
Each step he took, my heart seemed to jump out
of my chest. “Wow, you look, wow, Marley, you look stunning.” He stammered as
he kept looking at me.

All I could do was smile as I saw
Laura come toward us. She took one look at me, and her pretty smile faded fast.

“Hello you guys. Hello, Marley, nice
dress,” she said in a tone that was as flat as stale beer.

“Thanks.”

“Is everyone ready to eat, please
help yourself. Don’t worry, there is plenty. After everyone is full, Richard
has a special announcement to make. Enjoy everyone!” she shouted as everyone
made their way to the buffet meal.

I had to admit, she put out a pretty
good spread, even though she really didn’t cook anything. The whole thing was
of course catered. I kept looking for Richard then noticed him watching me;
everywhere I went he watched my every move.

You got his attention girl; go for it
now!

I started walking in his direction,
and that’s when
she
stepped in front of me.

“You think that just because you’re
wearing that dress and all made up that you’re going to get him. You had better
think of something or somebody else, Richard is mine. He will always be mine;
do you hear me? Stay the fuck away from him or you’ll regret it. Do you really
think that he would want to be with someone that looks like you, when he can be
with me?”

I had to remember that this was her
house, her party, and her friends. So, by the time I counted to twenty, I
calmed down and walked around her, toward Richard.

“Attention everyone, Richard,
sweetheart, would you come over here please?” she shouted as he started to make
his way over.

Laura 1…Marley 1…looks like a tie
folks, this could go into sudden death!

“Well everyone, as you know Laura is
supposed to be going to France for 2 months to do some modeling. She asked me if
I wanted to go, and I told her I would think about it. I’ve decided to go with
her and I’m excited, very excited indeed.”

Everyone started clapping and some
whistled, but you kind of block all of that out when your heart is slowly
breaking. Everything sounded so muffled, and I tried my best to keep a stiff
upper lip during the whole thing. I took another deep breath and started
clapping as I saw the expression on Laura’s face.

‘I got him now’…that’s what she is
saying to me.

Marie saw how I was looking and put
her hand on my shoulder. We started walking outside toward the terrace as I
gulped the champagne.

“I am so sorry, Marley.”

I didn’t say anything as I looked at
the sky.

 
“I’ll be right back.”

She walked away, and I tried to keep
my emotions from coming out because, even though I looked so pretty on the
outside, inside, I felt so low.

Marie returned…with Richard by her
side.

“Richard, Marley wanted to talk with
you. I will leave you two alone.” She smiled as she left the terrace and closed
the door behind her.

“You wanted to talk with me, Marley,”
He took my hand and twirled me around as I smiled at him. “And by the way, you
look gorgeous.”

“Well, I wanted to talk with you
about something that has been on my mind for a very long time now and I need to
tell you. I don’t know how you’re going to react to what I am going to tell
you, but I just want you to know that it’s from the heart. I am so in love with
you, Richard. It’s been this way since we first met back in college, all those
years I kept my feelings for you to myself, and Andrew and Marie. But I thought
if I told you how I felt that I would lose you, and I couldn’t bear losing you.
You mean everything to me, Richard.”

I watched for some expression to come
over his face, he looked so shocked. I could feel his hand squeezing mine as if
to tell me, “Go on, I’m listening.”

“I know that you’re into Laura, and I’m
happy for you. At first, I got along with her because you liked her so much,
but now, I can’t stand to be in the same room with her. Tonight, she’s been
making snide remarks toward me about my dress and how I am not going to get you
and shit. I don’t care if I don’t get you, all I wanted you to know is that I
love you so very much, and I’ll always love you, no matter what. It’s been
eating me up so badly inside all this time, and with what’s been going on
lately, I had to tell you how I felt.” I could feel the tears rolling down my
face.

“I don’t know what to say, Marley. I
didn’t want you to hear how she was rambling on the phone about where I was and
all the other crap. I told her that you and I are friends, have always been
friends for life. I hate that she acted so badly toward you. I don’t know what
to say,” he said, running his fingers through his brown hair.

The expression was enough to make me
really start crying. He was in shock, complete and utter shock, but then I saw
him smile.

“Of all the girls I’ve been with, I
should have known that I had the best one right here with me all along.”

I started laughing as I wiped tears
from my eyes. He came up to me and wiped a tear from my cheek that I missed. His
eyes sparkled at mine, as he stood closer to me. We were so close on that
terrace, God I felt like I was going to melt at that moment.

“Richard!”

What the hell does this woman have,
physic powers or something?

“Laura, how are you?” he stammered,
moving quickly away from me.

“What the hell are you doing with my
man?” she shouted, storming her way toward me.

Believe me; I was ready for whatever
she had to dish out.

“We were just out here talking, Laura,
that’s all.”

 
“It doesn’t seem like you were, you guys were
too close to be just talking. What is really going on, Richard?”

“You really want to know what is
going on Laura. I told Richard that I was in love with him. Yes, in love with
him, I’ve always been in love with him, since our school days. I just didn’t
know how to tell him how I felt; I had the chance to do it tonight. So that is
what we were talking about, Law-rah.” I emphasized her name in a fake southern
drawl that even tickled Richard a little, forcing him to try his best not to
laugh.