excuse me, I need to catch the phones,” she joked.
I couldn’t believe it. When I walked out of the building, I felt like clicking my heels together. I could hardly believe this was happening. This man just wrote me a $100,000 check like it was a post-it note. I was trippin’. I guess it would have been too much to ask for a ride back to the airport. I decided to catch a cab back to the airport. I was on a standby ticket, so I was in a hurry to get to airport so I could make it back home tonight. No more layover flights for me. If I can’t get there in one shot, I’ll just stay on the ground.
It was late when I got back to Birmingham. After all I had done in this day’s work, I still managed to make it home before my absentee husband. Not that I was complaining because I wish, at times, he would never come home. I took a shower and climbed in the bed. I would check my messages and e-mail in the morning. I was way too tired to even think about that. Tomorrow was Saturday and it would afford some much needed rest for me. I slammed my head into the pillow and tried to go to sleep. As tired as I was, I couldn’t. There was something I had to do. As much as I knew I didn’t need to, I just had to. I picked up the phone and dialed *67 so my number wouldn’t show up on the caller ID. Then I dialed the number:
“Allen, it’s Nya. I’m sorry to call so late. I just needed to talk to you.”
“Like I told you this morning, you can call me anytime.”
“Allen, what’s going to happen between us?” I asked.
“Nothing that you don’t want.”
“I’m talking about in the future.”
“Like I said, nothing that you don’t want to happen. I’ve told you how I feel. The ball is in your court.”
“What are you saying? Am I supposed to leave my husband and be with you?”
“Is that what you want? ‘Cause if it is, that’s the only thing you can do. Right now, we are living in a fantasy. But soon, Lisa and the baby will be home. We won’t be talking as much. We will just be thinking about each other and it will get intense. We will start doing stupid stuff just to talk to each other and we are going to start leaving evidence. We will get paranoid and start trying to avoid each other. Ny, it’s getting deep and we have no way of digging ourselves out of this hole. If we want to be together, we need to make a move now, before we violate everyone’s trust and ruin a lot of relationships for the sake of our own.”
“What do you mean? Are you planning on leaving Lisa?”
“Nya, I wasn’t going to say anything but I may as well tell you. Lisa left me. She had me take her and the baby to her parents - to stay. She doesn’t want to be married to me anymore. I told her I wasn’t ready to let her walk out on me so she agreed to come back on Monday and see if we could work on our relationship. If there is any kind of future for you and me, I will let her ass stay right where she is! If not, I owe it to myself and to the baby to give it a shot with Lisa. So you see, I’m halfway out the door. Where are you?”
“Allen, what are you saying? If I leave Kenny, you and I can just up and get together? You would just start dating your brother’s ex-wife?”
“I would start dating and marry the lady I’m in love with. Kenny and everyone else will just have to deal with it. It’s about me this time, Ny. I’m tired of doing everything to make everyone else happy. I want some happiness of my own. So, like I said, where are you in this thing? Do you want Kenny or do you want me?”
“I want you but I can’t just leave Kenny like that. He would die if I left him to be with his brother.”
“Well. I guess you made up your mind then.”
“No, Allen. It’s not like that. I want you. I just want to go about this thing the right way.”
“Well, when you figure out what way that is, let me know. I just hope Lisa and I haven’t reconciled by then. I’ll leave the door open for you Ny, but I can’t