In Your Arms

“What did you say to her? Better yet, what did she say to you?”

“She asked me if I had been in the house. I just looked at her. I guess she got tired of me staring at her not saying anything, so she went back in the house. The two of them came out, got in the Benz I pay for, and left.”

“Damn! The least she could have done was make the nigga go home in a cab. Show you some respect. She needed to stay there and handle her business.”

“I thought so too. But remember, I’m a fool. What makes it worse is, after she leaves, the neighbor woman walks up to me.”

“The neighbor woman?”

“The neighbor woman, that’s what we call her.”

“Okay.”

“The neighbor woman says, ‘I’m glad you finally woke up. And don’t let her tell you that this was the first time.’ Then she walked away. Now I felt embarrassed on top of feeling stupid. If the neighbor woman knew, the rest of the block did too. Maybe even the whole subdivision.”

“I don’t know what to say, Marcus.” Yvonne stretched and repositioned herself on the couch. “Did Randa come back?”

“Yeah, she came back. While she was gone I thought about all the things I would say to her. How could you, who is he, how long has this been going on?”

“Maybe you should have asked the neighbor woman.” Marcus cut his eyes at Yvonne. “Sorry. Dagg, it was a joke.”

“When she came back I couldn’t say anything. She tried to explain, telling me that this was the first time. But the neighbor woman cleared that up. Told me how sorry she was. And she promised me if I forgave her it would never happen again. I couldn’t say anything. I thought of a hundred things to say but I was so mad, the words just wouldn’t come out. I sat there for a minute or two, then I just got up and left.”

“I’m so sorry, Marcus. I know that must have hurt.” She yawned.

“Of course it hurt. You know what’s funny about this whole thing?”

“What’s that, Marcus?”

“I met her the day after you moved to LA I remember thinking that maybe I’d get lucky and find a woman as beautiful and as sweet as you.”

“Oh, Marcus.”

“I love her, Yvonne.” Marcus stood up and began to wander around the room, talking while he paced back and forth. “But she betrayed all that. Not just me, but us. Everything about us, everything we meant to each other. She betrayed everything that we were. Everything we talked about. All of our plans. Our hopes. She betrayed our future. That’s what hurt. We used to talk about growing old together. Sitting on the porch watching our grandchildren run around. Grandchildren. We had been talking about having a baby. We had even gone out and started buying stuff we knew that we’d need for the baby. She betrayed all that. While I was building a future for us, she was tearing it down. I don’t know what I’m gonna do without her.”

Marcus stopped talking.

“No comment from the peanut gallery?”

He walked to the couch. “Yvonne? Yvonne?”

She had fallen asleep.

“Stop me if I bore you.”

Marcus went and got the spread off the bed. He laid the spread over Yvonne and kissed her on the cheek.

“Good night, Yvonne.”

Phase 2

When Yvonne woke up the next morning, Marcus was already gone. He left a note on the television that said: Gone shopping. Be back around noon. Please wait for me. Yvonne smiled when she read it. Then she picked up the box of hair color and went into the bathroom. When she came out, she no longer had long, black hair. It was now short, and auburn.

She gathered her things and called for a cab to pick her up. When they asked what her destination would be, she hung up the phone. She put on her sunglasses and left the room through the sliding balcony door and went into the lobby. She asked the desk clerk to get her a cab and said she would be waiting in the bar as she walked away.

Once the cab arrived, she offered the driver a fifty-dollar bill to take her where she wanted to go if he wouldn’t call it in. The driver quickly promised, and they were on their way. Yvonne told him to drop her off at the Indian Creek Marta station. She would walk from there.

Yvonne walked down Redan Road and up South Hairston to the Main Street subdivision to the home of Tyisha, with whom she had gone to high school with.