The peephole revealed nothing, so Yvonne reluctantly said, “Who is it?”
“It’s me, Yvonne, I forgot my key.”
Yvonne opened the door and was shocked to see the two men that were waiting by her car in the parking lot the night before.
“Good to see you again, Yvonne.” The first man said as he slapped her. Yvonne fell to the floor and tried to crawl away. The second man snatched her up from the floor.
“Love what you’ve done to your hair.” He slapped her too, picked her up and threw her on the bed. “Where is it, Yvonne?” The first man said pointing his gun at her.
“Where is what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her heart pounded. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Check the room. But don’t make a mess.”
The other man searched the room and found nothing.
“I’m not going to ask you again, Yvonne. Where is it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she screamed.
The man grabbed Yvonne by her hair and punched her in the eye. He drew back and was about to punch her again.
“It’s not here!” Yvonne yelled.
“Where is it?”
“I can’t get it until tomorrow.”
“I guess we’ll just have to keep you company until then.”
He grabbed Yvonne by the hair again and pulled her to the door.
“Now, we’re going to walk through that lobby. If you scream or try to run, I’ll kill you. It don’t matter to me; I’ll still get paid.”
At nine o'clock that night, Marcus returned to his room, armed with a new wardrobe and a bottle of Hennessy.
“Yvonne. You here?”
He put down his packages and looked around. He had thoughts all day about Yvonne and hoped that she would be there when he got there, but she was gone. He sat down on the couch. He could smell the scent of Yvonne’s perfume. It made him smile.
Throughout the day, Marcus allowed himself to slip into the fantasy of Yvonne standing by and supporting him through his divorce from Randa, and then they would get married.
“Maybe she’ll be back.”
He poured himself a glass of Henny. He stayed up, waiting for Yvonne to come back until he fell asleep after two in the morning.
The following morning, Marcus woke up and slowly came to the realization that he would never see Yvonne again. He tried to shrug it off as if it didn’t matter. But it did. The truth of the matter was that nine years ago he had fallen in love with Yvonne. He thought that her coming back into his life on the very day that he left his wife was some kind of sign. He put his dream down and prepared to go to the office.
He arrived at his office after 1:00 to see his first client. After they left, Janice told him, “This package came addressed to Yvonne Haggler. I was wondering why you seemed so happy today.”
Marcus took the package from Janice and carried it in his office, closing the door behind him. He was overjoyed. He jumped up and down and danced around like a kid on Christmas morning. This meant he would see Yvonne again. He put the package in his desk and locked it.
At 4:00 Yvonne called.
“Hello, Yvonne. How—”
Yvonne had no time for pleasantries. “Did a package come for me?”
“It came about an hour ago.”