“To my handsome dinner companion.” They touched and then sipped from their glasses. “Would you like me to serve you, Marcus?”
“I would be honored.” Carmen served Marcus his meal and then her own. They ate in silence until Marcus said, “Carmen, this is delicious. What do you call it?”
“Beef En Daube.”
“Whatever you call it, I love it, Carmen,” Marcus proclaimed and continued to eat. “Whatever you call it, it was to die for,” he said and took a sip of his drink. He looked back at Carmen. “Is something wrong, Carmen?”
“No,” she uttered quickly without looking up at Marcus. When she did look up, Marcus was looking in her eyes. “When you said, to die for, it made me think of Dez.”
“I'm sorry, Carmen. Really poor choice of words.”
“It’s okay, Marcus,” Carmen declared reaching for his hand. “Really, I'm fine. It's just that I found another letter that she started writing me. It was written two years before she died. She would start writing me these letters, but she never finishes them.”
“What did it say?”
“About her contemplating suicide. She wasn't happy in her marriage, with her life. She called it a life of lies. I know if I go through all her files I'll find more. But, Marcus, I never had any idea how depressed she was. She was reaching out to me with these letters. And it hurts me that I wasn't here for her.”
“Carmen, I can't even imagine what this must be like or how hard it must be on you, but can I offer you a little friendly advice.”
“Well, you do owe me for giving you such good advice,” Carmen smiled at Marcus and squeezed his hand.
“Try not to beat yourself up too bad.” Marcus smiled. “You need to forgive Carmen for not being here and move on.”
“That's not fair,” Carmen said jerking her hand away. “Giving me my own advice.”
“At least you know it came from a good source.”
“Good recovery, Marcus.”
“Thank you, Carmen, I'm a lawyer you know, words are my business,” he said with a bow. “Did you find out anything else today?”
“Yes.” Carmen looked curiously at Marcus.
“Well what did you find out?”
“I'm trying to think of a delicate way to put this,” Carmen tipped her head from side to side. “Fuck it, there isn't one.” Carmen sat up straight and cleared her throat. “My sister Desireé was bi-sexual.”
“You're right, Carmen, there was no delicate way to say that,” Marcus said shaking his head.
“I met India today, one of her lovers. She told me that Roland is impotent and he liked watching India have sex with her.”
“I tell you what; you definitely made up my mind about what I'm going to do tomorrow.”
“What's that?” Carmen asked innocently.
“I'm going to spend it with you. Your days are definitely more interesting than mine.”
“Why, how did you spend your day?”
“I slept through most of it.”
“Why?”
“After I dropped you off, Garrett came by. And we went out.”
“Did he have something for you?”
“No he just needed to talk. His wife left him.”