“Wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest?”
“I own the damn company. It seems I should be entitled to bend the rules. Here’s what I propose…you get paid a handsome salary while you gain experience. When you feel the time is right to move on, do so.”
“That’s a generous offer, but I can’t work and live with you. Nothing would have changed.”
“I’ve got that covered, too. I’ll provide the down payment for a place of your own. The job and down payment will be separate from the terms in our di…” Virgil paused. He looked at her with a more saddened expression. “Divorce,” Virgil continued.
April took her turn at being a mute. Her head lowered, and she twisted two of her fingers in thought.
“Virgil,” she spoke. “Understand that I don’t want your money. Our divorce papers need not reflect anything more than what you just stated. I’d argue that I’ve sponged off you for years. You provided me a life beyond my wildest dreams. Helping me get into a place I can call mine and the job is enough. I want to be my own woman as I started out trying to do years ago. Liberated, remember me saying that?” April asked, not requiring an answer. “I’ll change it to having my own independence.”
“I understand a desire such as that can drive you on to greatness. Take your time, though; don’t decide this very moment. I just want to be fair.”
“You’d be more than fair just by honoring what we’ve discussed. That’s all I need.”
“Then it’s settled. Despite everything and what you may think of me, you know I’m a man of my word.”
NINETEEN
Things moved fast for April. In three days’ time, she started her lower-six-figure salary job. Two days later, she stood inside her sixth-floor condo within walking distance away from her job.
April started her new life with no bills other than the mortgage, utilities and food expenses. She decided to take her time to decorate. She had no kitchen table to speak of, an air mattress to sleep on, and one pan to cook with. Virgil insisted on taking care of these minor necessities, but she decided to experience independence at its fullest.
She walked to the living room window, glanced at the people walking the busy street below and then looked upward to praise the heavens. She saw in a short time the blue sky transform into a threatening gray one. April grabbed her purse, umbrella and headed toward the elevator. Moments later, she stepped into the revolving door of the condo lobby just as the skies let loose. The sound of thunder roared as lightning ripped across the sky. The storm seemed to drop buckets of rain along its rolling path. People ran for cover.
>
Ariel turned around just as the torrential rain fell and stepped back into the revolving door of her building. She pushed the bar to circle through, but it remained still. She looked left and saw someone familiar to her.
“It’s you,” both April and Ariel spoke simultaneously.
April let the door turn, her eyes never left Ariel. After a complete amusement park-ride-like circle, April and Ariel stood face to face, awed in silence. Both women touched each other’s face in a place familiar to them. One woman’s finger rubbed a face mole and the other stroked a scar above the eye.
THE END
Rique Johnson was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia to proud parents Herman and Dorothy Johnson. He finished high school and then joined the U.S. Army six months later because he believed the world had much more to offer than his not-so-fabulous surroundings. After a three-year stint as a soldier, he moved to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area in 1981 and has made his home in Northern Virginia since 1992.
Rique has always had a passion for the arts. From his desire to be an actor; demonstrated by his role in a homemade “Kung Fu” movie to him writing a monologue to be performed on the original Star Search. He trained as a commercial artist and became a proficient photographer in high school. He was a fashion/print model during the first half of the 1980s and has been featured in magazine and newspaper ads for the Hecht Company. He was a local favorite for the fashion designers in the D.C. metro area and has done runway modeling for the Congressional Black Caucus. He was Mr. October in the Black Men of Washington calendar in 1985.
Yet, he has always penciled something. As far as he can remember, his passion for writing started well before his teenage years with love notes to girls that he liked. One of his earliest memories was a love letter he wrote to his fourth-grade teacher. Since that time, he has penciled many songs and various pieces of poetry. He writes things that he simply calls thoughts. Sometimes these thoughts expressed the particular mood he was in and other times they were derived from things that were happening in the world at the time.
His imagination comes across in his novels as creative, bold and sometimes edgy. Rique is often called a storyteller. He writes so that readers can place themselves into the pages of the story and make the pages play like a movie in their own imaginations. He is a passionate writer who is unafraid to reveal the sensitivity of a male or himself, thus, evoking an emotional response from the readers.
He lives in Springfield, Virginia.
Rique Johnson is the author of the Detective Jason Jerrard novels, Love & Justice, Whispers from a Troubled Heart, and A Dangerous Return; and of a novel, Every Woman’s Man. His story “Life Happens” appears in Sistergirls.com, edited by Zane.
You may visit the author at www.riquejohnson.com or email him at [email protected]
FOR THE GOOD TIMES
SHAWAN LEWIS
SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL
SAPELO, GEORGIA, 1965
In Sapelo, Georgia, we call the promise of a new day dayclean. When the clouds dissipate from a velvet sky, and the sun penetrates its rays through sand imprints of lovers from the thick of night. This is dayclean.