Friday 2
Early in the morning, Michael was up as usual. He got his things together to get ready for work and didn’t bother waking up Marla to say anything. He noticed that Marla hadn’t got out of her clothes from last night. Although it wasn’t like Marla to go to bed with her work clothes on, he didn’t bother questioning it or saying anything about it. When he looked at Marla’s face, he saw a disgruntled look as she slept. He could see pain in her face. He assumed it was from the argument that they had yesterday. Yet again, he chose not to question it. Instead, he gathered his things and left for work. His ride to work was quiet and empty. He was still hurt by the way Marla reacted to the note she found. In his mind, she should have addressed it and brought it to his attention, instead of keeping it and snooping around. Though it was Friday, Michael wasn’t having a good day. While others may be happy about Friday being the end of the “work week”, Michael was happy to go to work. In some ways, he was more at peace while at work. At the moment, he wasn’t ready to deal with Marla. He was more comfortable dealing with his co-workers and the many clients that passed through.
Back home, Marla responded to her mobile alarm as usual. The familiar siren woke her up, but she truly did not want to get out of bed. She wasn’t ready to face the real world. She felt useless. So many things had went wrong in the past week, because of what she thought existed. And, it wasn’t so much about her making a wrong decision. The biggest issue is that she brought others into the picture and made matters worse. Whenever bad situations would occur in her life, Marla would simply take time off from work to recuperate. But, this was a new job and taking time off was not an option. Even if she had a nice amount of time on the job, it might still be hard to take time off from work. One reason was that her small staff was too busy taking time off themselves. So, Marla had to put on that extra layer of skin that she kept on standby. She had to face whatever that was to come. As she got ready to get out of the bed, she realized that Junior was asleep in her bed. He found his way to their room, in the middle of the night and went back off to sleep. As she looked at Junior, she remembered what she had to fight for. On her “mental list”, there was no option for “giving up”. There was no sacrifice greater than her son. Her mistakes were just that…. Mistakes. Something that occurred in the past and had no business taking up space in her future. She found a way to block out what had happened and move on with her responsibilities. “Number one: Get Junior ready”, she said to herself.
After getting dressed and preparing breakfast for Junior, Marla was ready to leave and take on the day. Any responsibilities or situations that were to arise would have no effect, in her mind. She felt an extra boost and had faith in herself. Once Ms. Loins made it to the house to watch Junior, Marla was on her way. She quickly got in her car, that Stanley and Diane managed to bring back last night, and turned the ignition. While eyeing the dashboard, she could see Rhonda and Jimmy’s house in the corner of her eye. Next, she made the mistake and looked directly at their home. Seeing Rhonda and Jimmy’s home was too much for Marla. She broke down in tears, while sitting in her driveway. She spent at least ten minutes crying to herself. Just finding out the news last night, the pain was still fresh in her heart. After a while, she gathered herself together and found her way to work.
When Marla got to work, she was a few minutes late. She knew it didn’t look good, especially since it was a brand new job. Instead of adding more worry to the situation, Marla decided to head into work and start her day. When she made it to her area, everyone was in there place and busy at work. Unknowing to Marla, Angie arrived at work a lot earlier than usual. She wasn’t able to spend a night at the motel, so there was nothing in the way to stop her from arriving to work on time. Marla wasn’t ready to tell Angie the news about Jimmy. She went straight to her desk and got started on her work. There were several projects waiting on her with new clients. It was a great opportunity to clear her mind with all of the thoughts she was fighting. On the other side, work went as usual. There was nothing out of the ordinary or crazy to interfere with the workflow. While going through her paperwork, Marla received a text message from Diane that asked, “How do you feel?” Marla didn’t feel like responding, but she knew that not responding might worry Diane. So, she decided to reply and inform Diane that she was ok. Although seeing Rhonda’s home sent her back into shock, she managed to get a hold of herself and continue moving forward.
On the other end of the floor, Angie was busy in her office, texting. She was so into her text messages, she didn’t even notice that Marla walked in late.
[Reggie: What about tonite?]
[Angie: I’ll have to see.]
[Reggie: Well, let me know. I miss you.]
Angie had to laugh to herself. She thought that all men were dogs. In Angie eyes, she believed there was nothing wrong in what she was doing. Even if it meant lying to herself, she would find good in what she was doing. She felt that a “good man” would never have a reason to sleep with another woman. She proclaimed that the day she found a good man, would be the day that the earth would end. Although she could point out all of the things a “good man” shouldn’t be doing, she purposely chose to ignore all of the foul things she was doing. She never once observed how she would place men in certain predicaments. Reggie was a great example of how Angie would purposely aim for a man’s weakness. She knew that Reggie and Stephanie had hit a sour spot, because of all the debacle that went forth about the “previously unknown note”. So, she purposely put herself in position to cross the line.
At the same time, no one was aware that Reggie and Angie were sleeping together. In the back of Stephanie’s mind, she had a feeling that Reggie was cheating, but it was all assumptions and no solid proof. After finding out that the note belonged to Michael, Stephanie had a little more faith in Reggie. All awhile, Reggie kept finding ways to sneak text messages to Angie and schedule meetings at the motel. Angie began to feel uncomfortable about the situation, because it seemed as if Reggie was starting to have feelings for her and she didn’t desire a real relationship with Reggie. It was a dangerous web being formed and eventually someone was going to suffer from it. It remained to be seen what was to come from the affair.
Angie’s phone chirped again to announce another text message.
[Walter: What happen? I thought you said I was going to see you]
# # #
Rhonda had been at her house since yesterday. She laid in her bed, with no desire to get up. She laid, curled up on her side of the bed, with her back towards where Jimmy would lay. She was trying everything possible to block any thoughts of Jimmy. Although she laid in bed all morning, staring at the wall, there was no way of blocking out her thoughts. The one thing she couldn’t stop was her mind. There was no mute button that would eliminate everything. Rhonda would be happy if she could just pause it for a moment. She kept abusing herself mentally about the death of Jimmy. She placed all of the blame on herself. She continuously replayed the incident in her head. The thoughts were so vivid, it was as if she was right there all over again. It didn’t help that everything took place in their bedroom. There was no way possible she could not think about it. It felt like she could hear the car crash at that very moment.
Rhonda hadn’t told anyone about the end result. Jimmy’s family wasn’t aware that he was gone. Rhonda was still in disbelief about everything, from what led to the crash to what happen after the crash. Also, there was no way she could tell his family members that he was dead. To her, it would be like telling them “I killed your loved one” and Rhonda wasn’t mentally stable to do it. Last night, it took her almost three hours to get back home. With so many things racing in her head, she could never find her way. After a couple of hours, she pulled over to the side of the road and managed to gather herself to drive home. Once she got home, she laid in bed, unsure of what to do. Every decision seemed bad. Just trying to look at the empty space next to her was a struggle. All of it was too much at one time. With her mobile phone on mute, no one was able to reach her. She chose to stay in bed and struggle with her thoughts.
# # #
Stephanie had just woke up to start her day. As she stood up from the bed and stretched, she looked back and noticed that Reggie was still asleep. She was amazed to see Reggie in the bed. As of late, Reggie had found a new place to sleep. For Stephanie, it was ok. Although they were living together, nothing was official. She was determined to not sacrifice everything for a man, again. Her bad experiences with men in the past caused her to be somewhat cold-hearted. Deep down, she was in love with Reggie, but she forcefully held back from giving her all. She believed that marriage was the seal for a relationship.
Even after Reggie seemed to be giving his all to Stephanie, there remained to be a barrier in the way. She tried her best to not display it, but she wanted to wait until after the wedding to put all of her trust in him. There truly wasn’t a reason to be this way. Reggie never displayed any signs for her not to trust him. She chose to bring experiences from previous relationships into her relationship with Reggie. For the most part, Reggie couldn’t tell the difference. He believed that Stephanie was the one and that they would spend their lives together. As of late, those ideas were down the drain. With Angie in the picture, Reggie had no real reason to stick it out. The main reason he hadn’t walked out the door was because Stephanie made good money and he wanted to keep the roof he had over his head. Another key reason was that Angie hadn’t gave the green light. The motel ‘hook-ups’ were fun and adventurous, but it wasn’t a relationship. So until Angie wanted to move things forward, Reggie chose to make the place that he shared with Stephanie his home.
In a way, Stephanie was happy to have Reggie lying in bed. It helped her believe that he was different from every other man. As she thought about it, it had been a while since they discussed any wedding plans. Although they had been living together for quite some time, no arrangements had been made to say, “I do”. Stephanie was so excited about the possibility of being proposed to that she completely blocked out the actual marriage. Expecting to hear Reggie ask for her hand in marriage, she quickly moved him in. In her heart, Stephanie had been yearning for that day. Outside of the typical comment of “baby, I want to spend my life with you”, she never had a man propose to her. The experience seemed so blissful that she had to have him with her, every day. After some time, they lived like a married couple and never went into detail about having an actual marriage. Stephanie felt that today would be the day to talk to Reggie about setting a date and getting married. Since the note did not belong to him, she didn’t see a reason why they couldn’t move forward.
Before leaving out of the house, Stephanie gave Reggie a kiss on the lips as he slept. The light kiss did cause him to move a little, but it didn’t wake him. In her heart, she felt it was time to let go and give her all. As she drove to work, she could hear wedding bells singing. She kept picturing herself in various wedding dresses and how her wedding would look. She felt like a new woman all over again and wanted to tell the world!
# # #
Later in the afternoon, Marla decided to do some shopping on her lunch break. If she were to sit somewhere and eat, her mind would run rampant. She knew that browsing the mall and looking at clothes, shoes, purses, and perfume would help occupy her mind. There were no intentions on spending money. It was just something to do for an hour. She decided to go to a mall that was closer to the job. She rarely visited the mall, because it was further from home. With so many shopping malls in the area, there was no need to go out of the way. Unless, there was an item hard to find.
Being that it was mid-afternoon, there wasn’t a large crowd of people roaming the mall. Majority of the people there were shopping on their lunch break as well. As she walked the concourse of the mall, Marla spotted a colorful lemonade and cupcake cart from a distance. The combination seemed therapeutic to Marla as she made her way towards the cart. Halfway there, she noticed someone out the corner of her left eye. When she turned her head, she saw the brunette that worked with Stanley. She was sitting at a table, in front of a pizza stand. Seeing the brunette shocked Marla. And, it looked as if the person sitting with her was Stanley. He had his back turned, so Marla couldn’t see his face. But, it had to be him. She knew Stanley too well. He began to feed her a breadstick, from his plate.
Marla quickly walked into the clothing store, next to her. She went to the clothes that was by the open window, so she could get a good look of the two. Just as she thought, the man was Stanley. Stanley was neatly dressed in an all gray suit, with a light blue dress shirt and hazelnut tie. The brunette was wearing a one-piece, black dress. She wore vibrant, red lipstick and nail polish to accommodate her dress. Marla assumed they were on lunch break, but what they were doing was definitely not professional. The brunette took a couple bites of the breadstick and smiled as she chewed. Stanley was saying something to her, but Marla couldn’t hear what he was saying. Underneath the table, the brunette kept her hand on Stanley’s leg the entire time. This was beyond a business lunch and Marla felt that she saw Stanley and the brunette together for a reason.
“Marla?”
The voice was familiar. Marla was unsure of who it was, so she didn’t respond. The person behind her asked again, “Marla?” Marla slowly turned around and saw that it was Kevin Reeves. The 6’3 specimen of man that became a distraction at her previous job was standing in front of her, looking better than before. Ever since the day Marla abruptly quit, she hadn’t laid eyes on Kevin. And, that was a good thing for Marla. She was starting a new chapter in her life and wanted to put her past away. At the same time, she wasn’t on good terms with Kevin. Seeing him at this very moment was shocking and awkward. Marla completely forgot why she was in the store to begin with. As she stood speechless, Kevin took it upon himself to speak.
“I thought it was you. Wow. I didn’t expect to see you.”
“Same here.”
“And, you’re still beautiful as always.”
“Thank you. And, you don’t look too bad yourself.”
Kevin wasn’t in his business attire as he would normally be. Today, he wore an all-white, polo shirt and tan slacks. Marla assumed he was off of work. Although they hadn’t seen one another in quite some time, the conversation was kept very short. Kevin mainly wanted to know how Marla was doing, while Marla wanted to quickly end the conversation. With her back towards the shopping window, she was unaware that Stanley and the brunette had left the pizza stand. Kevin showed concern, but Marla would only respond with one-word answers. After several yes and no’s, Kevin took the hint and walked away. Even with things being shaky at home, Marla was not about to make things worse.
Once Marla remembered why she was standing in the store, she turned around only to see that the two were gone. She felt disappointed, but also felt that she had saw enough. Always being protective of her baby sister, Marla believed she had to do something. The only problem was how. She didn’t want Diane to continue in an unhealthy relationship, but there was also the concern of breaking Diane’s heart with the bad news. Knowing that Diane is very emotional, Marla was unsure of which route to take. She even considered approaching Stanley and confronting him.
On her way back to the job, she tried to come up with ways of addressing Stanley’s infidelity:
“Like any man, Stanley would deny it to his grave. Simply providing details of location, time, and what actually took place isn’t enough. I’ll have to present actual proof. Maybe take a picture with my cell phone, because this cannot continue on. Diane is a great woman and she does all she can, as a housewife to provide for Stanley and their family. I have to continue on this. I will put a stop to it.”
Since it was Friday, Marla decided to put her investigation on hold until Monday. There was little chance that Stanley would try to spend time with his mistress over the weekend, with his wife at home. She decided to set aside the weekend for her family. The recent decisions she made had created too much damage, so it was up to her to “right her wrong”.
# # #
Stanley made it home from work and went straight for Diane. He approached Diane, as she sat on the couch and gave her a kiss on the lips. He made it a point to always show Diane attention. Regardless if it was a long day from work or just family time during the weekend, Stanley would always give Diane his full attention. And after years of being together, Diane came to expect it. It was routine. If Stanley were to enter the house and drop onto the couch, Diane would think something was wrong. By constantly providing a kiss or asking Diane how was her day, he had nothing to worry about. As Stanley stepped back and began to undo his tie, Diane noticed something unusual. Stanley noticed the odd look, but wasn’t sure what it was for. Instead of questioning Diane, he did a mental examination of himself to make sure everything was in place. After a minute or so, Diane finally questioned Stanley.
“Did you waste something on yourself?”
“Where”, asked Stanley.
Diane stood up from the couch and pointed at a small spot on his shirt that was near the tie. “It looks like tomato sauce”, she said. Stanley looked where Diane was pointing and noticed the small stain on his shirt.
“Oh, yeah. I had a few breadsticks, today. I guess I was a little too messy”
“Aww. My baby needs a bib.”
They both laughed at Diane’s solution to the stain on Stanley’s shirt. Once Stanley discovered he had a stain on his shirt, he unbuttoned his dress shirt as well. Afterwards, Diane held on to the shirt and made plans to drop it off at the cleaners by Monday. Stanley didn’t really have an appetite, once he got settled in at home. So instead of having dinner after work, he sat with Diane and the children and watched TV.
# # #
Marla made it an effort to make it home on time, after work. Her only stop was the grocery store to find something to cook. She was determined to restore happiness and peace in the household. She made sure to gather all the foods that Michael liked from the grocery store. When she finally made it home and entered the front door, Michael was sitting on the couch and reading a newspaper.
“Hey”, said Marla, as she closed the door.
“Hey.”
Michael didn’t bother to move the newspaper to look at Marla. He was busy looking through the paper and decided to glance through the obituary section. It was a habit that he picked up from his mother. The name, Jimmy caught his attention. It was a brief, two sentence announcement of his death. When he saw the age, 39, he knew that his next door neighbor was close to that age. But, he couldn’t remember Jimmy’s last name. “Marla, what is Jimmy’s last name, next door?” For a moment, Marla didn’t bother to respond. She put two and two together and knew that Michael must have saw his name in the paper.
“Marla?”
“Yes, Michael?”
“Do you know Jimmy and Rhonda’s last name?”
“Why?”
“This guy in the death section is close to Jimmy’s age.”
“Oh.”
“Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen his vehicle in a while.”
The thought of Jimmy brought tears to Marla’s eyes. She hung her head over the kitchen counter, trying to hold herself together. After a moment of silence, Michael called for Marla again. She was unable to respond, as her voice became weak. Confused, Michael got up from the couch and went into the kitchen to check on Marla. When he entered, she was in the same position with tears clashing onto the counter.
“What’s wrong Marla?”
“He didn’t deserve this”, said Marla as her voice trembled.
Marla turned towards Michael, wanting to be held. Michael was unsure of what Marla was trying to say, so he kept his arms around her until she was able to gather herself. Marla looked up at Michael and confirmed Jimmy’s death. She explained how she had found out last night, but was unable to tell him why. Michael didn’t even know that Jimmy had been in an accident. When he asked Marla why she didn’t tell him about the accident, her excuse was that she was dealing with a lot of other things. The food that Marla purchased to cook was left on the counter, as Michael helped her into the living room to sit and gather herself. The rest of the night, Marla and Michael sat and talked. They managed to cover a lot of ground and soothe things over. Marla refrained from telling Michael what was the cause of Jimmy’s accident and death. She was too ashamed of what she had done. She was more concerned with Rhonda’s well-being, as was Michael. This had been one of the longest Fridays that Marla had ever had. She truly just wanted some rest and time to get things together. She still had to face Rhonda, as well as confront Stanley and his lies. Michael decided to put the groceries away for Marla. Once he found out that Marla was planning to cook his favorite dishes, he was appreciative of the thought but no longer had an appetite. Realizing he would never see his good spirited neighbor again was a tough pill to swallow. His heart was heavy and food was the last thing on his mind.