For Better or For Worse (8 page)

As she pouted in the corner
I could do nothing but stare at her in embarrassment. She wore a
cute pink fitted sweater and jeans but her sour mood turned me off.
I loosened off my jacket as the waitress came over and took our
order. “What can I do for you today?” She had bambi like eyes, full
lips, bright skin and long black hair pulled into a ponytail. The
burger joint uniform didn’t take away from her looks, she was a
cute girl. I smiled at her. “Yeah I would like the burger special
with large fires and Coke. What do you want baby?” I said looking
over to Lucy. She had her neck twisted and if looks could kill me
and the waitress would be dead. Lucy sat up correctly, cleared her
throat, and spoke as if she was a first grade teacher. “What I want
is a new waitress because obviously this one is serving up more
than just food.”

She said pointing at the
waitress. The girl looked offended and stepped back. Her bright and
bubbly eyes were now turning cold and I feared the worst. “Excuse
me?” The waitress said. I tried to calm the situation. “Lucy what
the hell are you doing?” Lucy turned her gaze to me. “I’m not doing
anything… yet. But what I am not going to do is sit here and get
disrespected while you and this yellow hefa flirt all up in my
face. If that’s what’s going down, then I can go home and you and
her can go behind a dumpster and handle your business.”
Oh my God
, I thought. I
was absolutely floored by her comments. The waitress was getting
heated but wasn’t going to lose her job over nothing. She calmed
herself down and tried her hardest to put that nice smile back on
her face.

“
Look I don’t have to
listen to this…I’ll get someone else to assist you” She walked off
to another table not before cutting her eyes at Lucy one good time.
“You do that.” Lucy said, ignoring the girl’s gestures and nodded.
“And I don’t need this either, take me home… Now!” She got up and
stormed out of place, while I sat there wondering how the hell did
I get myself involved with this crazy ass female. I saw her
standing by the car and let us both in. Once again Lucy slammed the
door to prove a point of how mad she was. She was treading on thin
ice with that shit. I pulled out of the driveway and got on the
main road. “You are stupid as hell do you know that?” She said
staring straight at me; I kept my focus on the road.
Just take her home
, I
thought.

Grant take her home, drop
her crazy ass off and never look back
. “I
am so glad I’m going off to college because you are just a waste of
my time.” I just shook my head and focused on the road but Lucy
seemed determined for me to go to jail tonight. “You know this is
just what I need. I need to leave your trifling ass alone and find
me a well-educated brutha who is going places with his life. Who
wants to be there for me, support me, take care of me, and hell be
a man. Instead of wasting my time with your tired, lying, stupid
ole…” I swerved the car of off the road almost making Lucy crash
into the window as we entered a vacant lot.

I looked dead at her unable
to maintain my composure any longer. “Ok first of all, I was just
trying to spend some time with your crazy ass before you started
school…second I don’t need you to be here if you don’t want to be,
and dammit to be honest I can’t wait until you leave because
clearly you out of your damn m….” It wasn’t a second later until
she pressed her lips against mine, crawled over and sat right in my
lap. My tongue couldn’t help but mingle with hers, as she got
comfortable on my lap. I pressed the seat back giving us more room
and buried my hands in her curly hair that always smelt so good, I
felt her c cup breast that were making an appearance at this point,
and strolled down her perfectly rounded ass.

Lucy kept swirling her
tongue around in my mouth and sat down lower on my pelvic causing
my libido to jump. Realizing where this was going I quickly threw
her off and back into the passenger seat, while I managed to crawl
out of the car. It took a minute before I got the feeling back in
my leg and slowly stood up. Lucy and I hadn’t engaged in any type
of sex during our relationship so far. She wanted her first time to
be special but a second later she would have been in trouble in the
backseat. I quickly caught my breath and she stepped out of the
car. “What’s wrong with you?” Lucy asked innocently. I looked at
her like she was insane. “What’s wrong with me? What the hell do
you mean what’s wrong with me...You just have been acting a fool
all night then out of nowhere you jump on my sack. What the hell is
wrong with you?”

She took a deep breath and
walked closer to me her face was somber and it threw me off. “You
are going to forget about me aren’t you?” I rubbed my face trying
to understand what she meant. “What?” She eyed me watching my body
language intently like some CIA type of shit. “I’m going to go off
to college and you are going to forget all about me. You’re going
to find some other girl and not give me the time a day. The same
way you did at the burger place. I figured the end was coming for
us so why not finish it now.” She hung her head down and I saw her
blinking back tears. I shook my head and thought, did she really
think so little of me? I stood right in front of her and brought
her face up to mine. “Woman, how many times do I have to tell you
if I wanted somebody else, I’ll go be with them? Just because
you’re going off to college doesn’t mean shit? I’m not going
anywhere.” She gave me a faint smile, the one I had been waiting to
see all night.

“
Unless your ass continues
to act crazy like you did tonight.” I said with a stern face. She
laughed at her own actions and I shook my head. “It isn’t funny; I
could have strangled your ass tonight.” She fell into my arms and
gave me a hug. “I’m sorry.” I held her up against the car she gave
me the sad eyes which everyone woman did when she knew she was
wrong. “You forgive me?” I looked away wanting to make her sweat it
out. “I forgive you, but I’m not over it.” She laughed at my
mockery and brought my lips down to hers. As my tongue slipped in
her mouth my legs went numb again. She broke away from me and
asked, “You over it now?” I nodded, “Yeah I’m good.”

***

Lucy

Grant and I argued for
hours last night, this was the second time I had to cancel a
business dinner with is coworkers. We spent the whole night yelling
to the top of our lungs and not in the good way. Nothing got
resolved as usual and I showed up to work looking a hot mess. My
light blue button up shirt was not tucked, my navy suit looked
wrinkle, and to my own embarrassment I wore the wrong shoes. “Oh
honey, you look awful, what happened?” Megan saw as I came in and
quickly rushed me to my office not to be seen. I hung my head down
in my chair and confessed the whole story. “We’ll have you ever
tried listening to his side, he may feel like you’re not there for
him.” Megan kept a hand on my shoulder and handed me a tissue while
trying to mediate. I groaned and wiped my nose. “Ugh…..What about
me?” I shot up from seat and looked at her.

“
Does everyone think I’m
so unimportant…..He wanted to move across the country away from my
family, friends, my entire life. I did that…..He wanted to have a
baby hell I did that too…” Meg watched pitying me as I continued to
ramble on. “I do everything he wants but when I try to take a
little piece for myself I’m selfish….No, this is where I draw the
line, he is not taking my career.” I huffed and puffed and paced
back and forth through my office.
Damn,
I thought.
I could give this man one of my kidneys and it still wouldn’t
be enough
. I was sick of this, always
feeling guilty for trying to do something for me. For once in my
life can’t I stop putting others before myself? I reached over and
looked into my purse to find an empty body of Advil.

“
Damn.” I yelled throwing
my purse at the wall. Megan was in shock. “Luce …honey… listen to
yourself.” I looked at her and nodded. “I am …I am going to listen
to myself…for once in my life I’m going to listen to myself.” Damn
it, I have had enough. This was the most important event in my life
and I was not surrendering. Not to him, not to her, not to anybody.
“Excuse me ladies,” Gabrielle entered my office and stood in the
doorway in awe.
Oh shit, how long had she
been standing there,
I thought. I quickly
recomposed myself but it was of no help. “I’m sorry to interrupt
this discussion, but I have designers waiting to showcase their
work
.” Oh damn I remembered we had a
meeting for the designers.

I looked from Gabrielle to
Meg and back again. “Yes…Umm…Right this way.” Meg stood up and
smoothed back her hair into place. “I’ll talk to you later.” She
watched as Gabrielle and I made our exit. I followed Gabrielle to
the board room but when I reached for the handle to the door she
put her hand on my lower back, pushing past our appointed
destination and guided me to a secluded area. “I overheard you
conversation.” She said sternly. Her eyes were sharp in a no none
sense business fashion. Immediately I was embarrassed. “Gabrielle
I’m so sorry I…” “Listen.” She cut me off and brushed lent off her
dark designer dress. “Normally I wouldn’t intervene on a situation
like this but I hate to see good potential go to waste…” She paused
to make sure she had my full attention and when she saw she had,
Gabrielle spoke again. “On the rise to the top some people are able
to tag along while others…well they fall by the waste side…and
sometimes they set up road blocks on the way to success. Now you’re
a very smart woman. I’m going to let you think about that for a
moment.”

She put a strand of my
hair back in place reminding me she liked order and proper dress in
the work place. “I am waiting when you’re ready.” With that
Gabrielle went into the boardroom while I stood and thought about
my future. I wanted to be successful, I wanted it badly, but I
didn’t want to lose my husband along the way. Was I actually
considering the unthinkable? I had given up everything to be with
Grant. I love him and our family. How could I turn away now? How
could I …
Oh no
,
I thought. I rested my hands on the window sill. My instant
laughter was turning into soft sobs as tears started to form. I
thought about these past few years. And I couldn’t think of one
time that I actually enjoyed being outside of work with my family.
My work had consumed me, I had become so focused on doing what I
wanted to do that I lost sight of the most important thing in the
world to me.

“
Like mother like daughter
huh?” I muttered. I instantly hated myself knowing that I had did
something that I vowed to myself that I would never do…leave my
family behind. I took calming breathes trying not to breakdown.
Gabrielle was right, after taking a few moments I knew exactly what
I had to do. I walked right into the boardroom in front of all my
colleagues including Meg and potential designers. They were all
waiting to see the showcases for the annual ball that was coming
up, that was supposed to be my big coming out event. There were
clothes on the racks, models waiting to walk, while everyone else
was taking a seat ready to ooh aaah over the new fashion talent. I
made my way through all the constant moving workers set on a
mission to do what I needed to do. Gabrielle spotted me looking
lost among the commotion and motioned for me to come forward where
she was. “Natalia come have a seat, we are ready to start.” I
nodded and made my way to the podium that was set in front of
them.

“
First I have something
that I would like to say.” The room grew silent as they all stared
at me, Gabrielle grew tense making her beautiful face become stern.
She wasn’t a woman for random outburst. I looked down at them and
decided before fear set in to go an ahead and get this over with.
“Well first I would like to say what an honor it was to be chosen
to host the annual ball and I want to thank all of you for your
hard work and participation in this event. But….But I am no longer
going to host the annual year ball.” Gasp and confused looks filled
the room. Even Meg thought I had must have lost my mind standing up
there and Gabrielle’s already stern face grew even tenser. “Not
that I am not grateful for the opportunity but I have other
obligations that are more in need of my attention at this time.”
Although heads nodded faces still held the look of confusion. I
looked to Meg who eyes had grown softer; she knew exactly what I
was saying.

I continued on. “I believe
there is someone else more deserving of this opportunity and she
would create greater works than I ever could.” Gabrielle looked
toward Meg whose jaw had dropped all the way to the floor then back
at me. “She’ll do a great job.” I nodded and came down from the
podium. Meg managed to greet me as I got down. “Lucy are you crazy.
I can’t take over the ball.” Her green clover eyes were in a panic,
it was a different look from her confident model face. I patted her
shoulders. “Meg you will do fine. You deserve this, now show them
what you got.” Meg really did deserve this opportunity, she was a
hard worker, she may not have had that cutthroat type of attitude
that I have but she was very creative and people oriented. She
shook her head at me. “Luce I don’t know if I can...” “Megan…” We
looked over to Gabrielle who stood across the room like stone
amongst the chaos. “May I have a word please?” Meg looked to me and
I nodded. “Go.” She looked back to Gabrielle.“Yes I’m coming.” As
she motioned over to the next level of her career I watched proudly
feeling no sense of loss. She turned back to me and mouthed the
words thank you. I nodded and watched her go on.
Where to next Lucy?
I
thought. I glanced at all of the workers roaming the board room and
then to the exit.
Next
stop…Home.