We Take this Man (6 page)

“So what you want, Wade?” I asked. I knew he wanted something.

“Baby girl, I need a favor. I need to borrow some money.”

“Wade, I am not a bank. You’re not going to keep borrowing money from me.”

“Please, I need to pay my car note. I only need six hundred,” he said, stepping in front of me and pleading with his hands together.

“Six hundred dollars,” I said as I raised my eyebrow.

“Yeah, I gave them a partial payment last month and I have to pay the rest and this month’s payment. I’m starting a job Monday. I promise I’m going to pay you back,” he begged as he knelt in front of me.

“Get up, silly. I’m going to give it to you. But you’re going to give me all my money back altogether, not in pieces, Wade.”

“I promise you can have my first paycheck.” I reluctantly took out my ATM card and gave him my PIN. He went to the ATM to take the money out. The damn bank that financed his car needs to be put out of business. He saw a commercial that said all he needed was one pay stub and a driver’s license and he could get the car. The next week he got fired. Now every month he’s running around to pay the damn car note. I wish he would stop quitting jobs and become a stable grown-ass man.

After Wade left, I ordered a pizza and prepared to watch another episode of
That’s So Raven
. Both Jordan and Destiny knew every line by heart.

“Mommy, can we call Daddy?” Jordan asked.

I dialed his phone and got his voice mail. I said, “Daddy’s working. Let’s eat and then we will call him again later.”

While they ate dinner and watched television, I was going to try to get some work done and put a load of clothes in the washer. As soon as I sat at my desk and turned on my computer, Jordan walked in and pouted. “I miss Daddy.”

“Me, too! Can we call him again, Mommy?” Destiny said, running into the room and climbing onto my lap.

“Bring the phone here and I’ll call him.” I dialed Dwight again. This time Dwight answered and Jordan screamed.

“Where are you? Daddy, I miss you.”

“Let me speak to him,” Destiny said, as she snatched the phone out of Jordan’s hands.

“Daddy, when you come home?” Jordan pushed Destiny for taking the phone from her and made her fall. Destiny got back up and punched Jordan in her arm.

“Stop it, girls. Give me the phone and go get ready for bed.”

“What are y’all doing?” Dwight asked.

“They’re watching television and I was trying to get work done. How are you? How is the job?”

“Everything is going pretty good. I just wish y’all were here. I’m not used to coming home to an empty house.”

I could tell in his voice that he was lonely. I pretended I didn’t hear what he said and changed the subject. “Dwight did you get all the pictures I sent you?”

“Yeah, I got all one hundred sixty-two of them,” he said, laughing.

“You know I’m dangerous with a digital camera. Well, I’m going to put the girls to bed, and I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“You don’t want to talk to me.”

“I have a lot of work to do. The girls really wanted to talk to you. I love you. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Before Dwight could say anything else I ended the call. Let him get homesick and bring his ass home.

After I put the girls to sleep I walked through the house picking up toys and missing my husband. I wanted to call Dwight back. But I couldn’t give in to him. I had to be strong and he will come running home. I know he will. I sat on the sofa and sighed. I looked over at our family photo and smiled. It was of all of us dressed in black against a white background. We had the traditional stance—me and Dwight standing in the back and the girls sitting down in the front smiling.

“Mommy, tell Destiny to stop crying,” Jordan yelled from the top of the steps. I ran up the steps and heard muffled crying.

“Destiny, why are you crying? What’s wrong with you?”

She lifted her head from her pillow and cried while hyperventilating. “I miss Dad-dy, Mom-my. I wa-nt Dad-dy to-to come home.”

I took a deep breath and sat on the bed. Speaking to her, but trying to convince myself, I said, “Stop crying. He’ll be home soon.”

She continued to cry. “But I still miss him.”

“I miss him, too, but he has to work,” I said, patting her back.

“Why he got to work far away? Why, Mom?” She continued to cry.

“His job moved and he had to go with them.” My words didn’t comfort her. She began crying louder.

“Des, stop crying. Daddy will be home this weekend. And I’ll let you call him tomorrow. Okay?”

“Mommy, can I sleep in the bed with you?”

“Me, too!” Jordan asked.

I put my work off until the morning and laid in bed with my daughters. The moment they touched the sheets, they both feel asleep. I laid there and stared at the ceiling. I dreaded how long this might last, because we all wanted Daddy home.

CHAPTER 7

Alicia

J
ust when I thought my schedule would get better with Dwight around, our team inherited a brand-new system with a bunch of old issues. Dwight and I were spending countless hours at work trying to develop a game plan to tackle it.

Three weeks had passed and I couldn’t make it to my Thursday girls’ night out, but I was damned if I wouldn’t be there tonight. Especially since they agreed to meet somewhere close to my job just so I could work late and still get there in time to unwind. I sat at my desk with pages and pages of database design documents, trying to decipher some kind of reasoning. It was a mess and our job was to figure it out. How do some people get jobs? And more important, how the hell do they get away with shit like this? Their negligence was messing up my personal life. Dwight and I were working parallel, in hopes that two brilliant minds could unravel this foolish design.

The only problem with that is he never knew when to say quit, and he expected me to work as long as he did. Obviously he had nothing better to do, but I did. When I noticed it was close to eight, I looked at my cell phone and realized my friends had called to ask what I wanted to drink. They were there and I was here. Although I wasn’t close to a solution, I started wrapping things up and documenting my conclusions. I was all packed up before I sent Dwight an e-mail message of my status. My plan was to press
SEND
, wave good-bye, and dash out the door.

Well, I sent the message, waved good-bye, and Dwight darted out of his office.
Shit.
I turned around and before he could speak, I said, “I sent you an update. I have to go. My girls are at P.F. Chang’s waiting for me. They’ve been . . .”

“I’m sorry. I just didn’t understand something in your e-mail.”

We both laughed because there is no way he read it that quickly. He admitted, “I’m just trying to get you to stay here with me, man.”

“I’ve been working like a field slave. And I . . .”

“You’ve been doing a spectacular job.”

“I’m glad you noticed.”

He reached his hand out to give me dap. “I definitely noticed. I think you might be one of the smartest engineers I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“Not at all. I’m really impressed.”

“Me, too.”

Maybe we were both uncomfortable with the compliments because we stood in silence for a minute. Finally, he spoke, “I must admit when they told me that you were a chick, I wasn’t real happy about that.”

My mouth hung open. He said, “I mean, I know that’s slightly asinine of me, but honestly, most female engineers aren’t as smart as you. Most of them are just in it for the check and they know just enough not to get fired. You, on the other hand . . .”

I nodded before he could finish and said, “I, on the other hand, am stupid enough to actually think like a man.”

We laughed and he asked, “So, are you really going to leave me here tonight?”

“I am.” I said affirmatively.

“You know we have that briefing on Monday morning?”

“Yep, but it’s Thursday night and I have a meeting with my girls tonight.” He looked bewildered as I wrapped up the conversation. “So, are you leaving early tomorrow? I’ll pick up where you leave off so we’ll be ready for Monday morning.”

“Actually, I canceled my flight. I’ll probably stay here this weekend. There’s too much riding on the briefing and I don’t want to drop the ball.”

“I told you that I got it.”

“Nah, I’m going to stick around and make sure we get it right.”

“Wow . . .”

“What?”

Just when I thought we’d made a breakthrough, we returned to the starting block. He didn’t trust me to handle it. I repeated, “Wow . . .”

“Alicia, look. This has absolutely nothing to do with you and all to do with me being a perfectionist.”

“Well, go ahead and work yourself to death. I’m going out for a drink.”

“Do you think your girls would mind if I tag along?”

“Noooo . . .” I teased. “You have work to do.”

“Stop playing. Do you think they’ll mind?”

I pulled out my cell phone and called Gina. “Hey . . . my coworker wants to hang out with us.”

“With
us
? Where the hell are
you
?”

My eyes shifted, alerting Dwight to the drama on the other end. “I’m coming. I got held up at work.”

“We’ve already had two drinks. Hurry your ass up so you can catch up.”

“Is it okay for my coworker to tag along?”

Gina chewed in my ear. “As long as it ain’t that dry-ass Desiree.”

“No, not Desiree.”

“Then who?”

“You haven’t met him.”

“Him?”

“Yeah . . . him.”

I could hear Andrea and Tammy in the background questioning her as she questioned me. “Is he cute?”

“We’re on our way.”

I quickly hung up before Dwight discovered that I was a member of a crew of horny single women. His eyes stretched. “Do we have the green light?”

“Yeah, we’re cool. Hurry up and get your things.”

Outside in the parking lot, I told him to follow me. Once we hopped on Route 32 heading toward Columbia, I called Gina back to give her the 411 on Dwight. He was off limits and not quite tempting enough to consider lurking with.

When we walked into the restaurant, I heard them giggling before I saw them. Suddenly, I felt like this may have been a bad idea. Dwight seemed cool and definitely down to earth, but a part of me wondered if he was really prepared for my candid friends.

I pointed in their direction. “They’re over there.”

“Wow, I hope y’all don’t get together to male-bash.”

We stepped up to the table and I looked at him. “We’re here now.”

“Ah, man.” He looked around. “Just checking for the emergency exits.”

“Hey, y’all!”

They all spoke in unison. “Hey, girl.”

“This is my new work friend, Dwight.”

“Hey, Dwight.”

We sat down and Dwight went around the table to get everyone’s name. They wasted no time getting his story.

“So, Dwight. What brings you out tonight?” Tammy said.

“This really nice young lady that I work with.”

Gina said, “Okay, Dwight. You can cut the act with us. Let me give you the rules.”

His neck snapped back. “The rules?”

“Yes, the only rule: We keep it real.”

We laughed because we all hated that played-out line. She continued. “I mean, we know that saying is whack, but at the end of the day, that’s what we do. No high-level bullshit. You dig?”

Tammy said, “So, again? What are you doing out tonight? Are you pissed off with your wife? Are you checking for our girl or what?”

“None of the above. Your girl and I have been busting our asses this week. I was torn between staying at work or coming out for a drink.”

Andrea said, “That was an easy decision.”

“Basically,” he said.

I felt it was necessary to let them know that Dwight was my manager in hopes they would pipe down their conversation.

Gina exclaimed, “So!”

Dwight seemed to be getting a kick out of them so I eased off. He was rather impressed that we were all good friends and that we’d maintained our friendship since college. Three or four times over the period of an hour, he said, “It’s amazing to meet four women that all know enough about each other to finish each other’s sentences.”

I concluded that he must have been married to one of those chicks who has no girlfriends. Finally, Gina said, “Whatever, we’re all we got. Shit, I don’t have a choice but to hang out with y’all.”

We laughed. Dwight checked his phone and a series of uh-ohs rippled around the table. His smirk questioned our responses.

Gina said, “I guess your wife is telling you to get your ass home.”

He shook his head and stuck his phone back in his pocket. I said, “Go ahead and answer. We’ll be quiet.”

“Nah, I’m cool.”

“We don’t want your wife to come in here and start spraying,” Tammy said from experience.

He laughed. “You don’t have to worry about that. She’s in Jacksonville.”

“What’s there? Work?”

He said, “Family.”

Andrea said, “Family? Aren’t you family?”

Gina said, “When is she coming here?”

He slightly hung his head. “I don’t know.”

A bombardment of questions followed as they tried to rationalize a situation that I reckoned to simply let go. It was absolutely and unequivocally senseless. A few nods and a few ohs later, Dwight looked at his phone again. I said, “I think you better get that.”

Tammy leaned over the table, as if to expose her nonexistent cleavage. “Dwight, does your wife know that the most beautiful black women in the country live in the DC area?”

“You guys are something else.”

Gina said, “Nah, for real.” She pursed her clear-glossed lips, which always accentuated her high cheekbones. “Does she know that?”

“I’m not sure. I certainly didn’t make it my business to let her know.”

Although both Gina and Tammy were putting their selves on display, he couldn’t keep his eyes away from Andrea. I wasn’t sure if it was the simplicity in her little curly ponytail or the slight resemblance to his wife, or that she didn’t have a Post-it note on her forehead stating that she was single. I said, “Dwight, I understand. There is no reason to make your wife insecure.”