46
flowers or with anything. Geri‘s life was already more than filled with dangerous excesses. He didn‘t want to make it worse for her.
The moment that Nathaniel knocked on the door, Geri was taking a shower. Nathaniel only knocked the door once. He waited as Geri turned off the shower, covered her body with a towel, stepped out of the shower, went to her room, put on a rose robe, removed the towel from underneath the robe, walked out of the room, walked the hallway to the living room, and then walked to the door and answered it. All that happened in twenty minutes, but Nathaniel would wait forever if he had to. “Hello, Geraldine. How are you doing?”
Geri smiled. “Hi, Nathaniel, how are you?”
He handed her the flowers and said, “These are for you. I couldn‘t be better now that I‘m with you.”
None of the men in Geri‘s life had ever told her anything romantic, except for Ricky.
Ricky had told her the most beautiful things that he could ever tell a woman because Geri was
his first love, and he adored her, but she was never in love with him. Ironically, Ricky had also
been Geri‘s first love and first mate. When they started, neither one of them had been with
anyone before. Geri wasn‘t in love with Ricky because at the time she was too young to be in
love with anyone. Then, when she met Marlon at age eighteen, the same day that Ricky met
Marlon, everything changed. It was then that Geri fell in love; really fell in love, for the very first
time. At first, Geri felt that Marlon was only her platonic love. She couldn‘t have him because
she was committed and engaged to his best friend, Ricky Riley. The night that their love became
physical, she felt like she was in heaven, despite the fact that her body was enduring the most
excruciating pain. The moment that she found out about Marlon‘s death, her world had come to
an end. This man that was in front of her right now, he was incredibly-gorgeous, like Marlon
was. He had the body of a bodybuilder, like Marlon did. He had the smile of an Adonis, like
Marlon did. This man reminded her of Marlon entirely, and that made her smile and recall all the
moments she‘d shared with the love of her life, but there was something different about this man,
something different from Marlon and every man she‘d met. This man, like every other
supernatural man, his irises were of a different color. Nathaniel‘s eyes were not brown, green,
blue, or hazel. They were a really-bright lilac color, and his pupils were very bright also. The
intensity of this man‘s eyes was too overwhelming for Geri, but she loved every minute of it.
“Come in,” she said, kindly.
“You‘ve never invited me in, Geraldine,” said Nathaniel, awed, as he came in and she closed the door behind him.
“Do you want some coffee?” she asked, smiling.
“Yes, please,” he said, surprised, and still openmouthed. “I‘m kind of tired. May I sit down?”
“Sure,” she said as she walked to the kitchen to get started on the luscious cappuccino that she was about to make for him.
“So, has life been kind to you, Geri?” he asked as he picked up the remote control from the coffee table, and turned on the TV.
As Nathaniel browsed the satellite TV guide for something that he wanted to watch, Geri said, “Life sucks. Marlon‘s gone. The only man I‘ve ever really loved is gone, and the man that I was about to marry, he doesn‘t want anything to do with me.”
Marlon’s not gone. Marlon is here with you. I am Marlon. I am going by the name of Nathaniel Rivers because Marlon Smiley is legally dead, so until I solve that little problem, I will