Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Chapter 6

After the call from Jeremy, Charlotte was wide awake and floating on air. She didn’t care that they had some serious relationship issues to talk about, that she was dreading, but she was just so happy to be able to say that, for now, she had Jeremy back in her life. She couldn’t be happier.

She rolled over and was just about to get out of bed when her phone rang again. Feeling a sense of déjà vu, this time she looked at the caller ID. It was Damien. How he seemed to call her directly after each of her calls with Jeremy was a mystery to her. She didn’t care, though. Nothing could bring her down.

“Hey babe, what’s up?” she casually said into the phone.

“Wow, you’re up early, and chipper at that. What’s going on on?” he asked, warily. “You are not usually a morning person. What’ up? You got a job today?”

“No, sweetie, I’m just up. I do have some errands to run today, but I’m good. Did you have fun last night? How is Rhonda?” she asked him. She didn’t really care what he did last night. She was still mentally preparing for her “date” with Jeremy.

“Yeah, it was cool. I could’ve stayed at home with you, though. Look Char, I was hoping that you had time to fit me into your busy schedule today. I haven’t seen you since yesterday and I really need you. It’s been two days and you know how I get when I haven’t have any in a long time. You gotta stop holding out on me. You know I need it on a regular. So are you coming over here or do you want me to come over there?”

Charlotte almost dropped the phone. Listening to him, at first, she thought he missed her and wanted to see her to spend some quality time with her, but that wasn’t the case at all. This wasn’t the first time that he called her up to ask her for sex. Yes, he is her boyfriend, BUT she thought she was more than just sex to him.

“Are you serious? Are you seriously calling me at 7 o’ clock in the morning to ask me for sex?! Please, somebody pinch me and tell me I’m dreaming!” Her tone was rising, as well as her temper.

“You know, this is not the first time that you’ve pulled this stunt. Is that all I’m worth to you, just a piece of ass? Well, I’ve got news for you…”

She stopped talking and contemplated this whole thing. Why was she putting up with him. He was a lousy boyfriend. He never took her out, he was always with his friends, and if he did talk to her about taking her out it was always last minute, which made her think that he didn’t really want to do it. Like when he told her about the party last night. She was just tired of putting up with him and his antics. It’s been too long.

“You know what, Damien. I’m so over this and I’m so over you. I’m done. Please don’t call me anymore.”

And with that, she hung up the phone. They’d only been together for about a year but she wasn’t sure if you could count the whole thing. This was their first breakup, but it seemed like she was single a lot of the time. She wasn’t one of those people who did the “on again, off again” relationships. It was either all or nothing, and with Damien, it was nothing. She felt like she was devoting all that time to someone who was not on her level. At all.

When they first met, he was great. He spent time with her, wanted to be around her, introduced her to his friends and family. And she, in turn, did the same. Then, the second half of the relationship turned to shit. He was never there when she needed him, he was forgetful, he only cared about her when he wanted sex and they never did anything together.

Why she didn’t let him go long before now was still a mystery to her.

She got up, went to the bathroom to do her morning routine and walked down the hall to her kitchen. Just as she opened the refrigerator, she heard the phone ring. Thinking that it was Damien, she let it go to voicemail.

After fixing and eating breakfast, she went back to her room to get dressed. She sat down on the bed, picked up her phone and dialed her voicemail. She put the call on speaker and then put the phone down. She was in her walk-in closet when the talking started.

“Charlotte, that was foul breaking up with me over the phone. But its all good anyway. I don’t know why I put up with your frigid ass in the first place. But you know what? I got news for you! YOU wasn’t nothing but my side HO anyway. So who’s done with who, huh? Oh, by the way, have a good day!”

When the message ended, Charlotte thought that she’d be mad, but she wasn’t. She found herself laughing, really laughing, at the situation. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for Damien. She had no way of knowing if he was lying or not, but she was glad that she didn’t sleep with him as often as he wanted if he was telling the truth. But at this point she didn’t care.

She pulled out her undergarments and then went into the bathroom and jumped in the shower. She stayed in a while to try to wash away the drama that she’d encountered this early in the morning. It was barely 8 o’ clock in the morning. She wondered what else she’d have to deal with over the course of the rest of the day.


After straightening up around her house and getting dressed, Charlotte decided to go and do some window shopping before her meeting. She stopped at a mall that was on the way to meet Jeremy. She had a little time to kill, so what better way to do that than by doing a little shopping.

She knew that this meeting with Jeremy wasn’t a real date, but she couldn’t help but wonder “what if”. She knew, though, that she had to stop that. The man was married!!!

She walked into a clothing store and decided to look around. She immediately grabbed a few pieces that she liked and headed back to the dressing room. On her way to her stall, she noticed a woman frantically crawling around on the floor.

“Excuse me, Miss, is something wrong?” she asked the lady.

“Damnit!” she hissed. “I can’t believe this. My husband is going to kill me!!!”

She woman stood up and turned towards Charlotte.

“I’m sorry, that wasn’t directed at you. I lost something and I can’t find it. I was trying not to be too obvious, but I guess I’m starting to lose my cool. If I don’t find it, my husband is going to have my head!”

Charlotte looked at the woman warily. She was talking, but not making a lot of sense.

“Is there something I can help you look for?” she asked the woman. She looked so lost and sad and, for lack of a better word, pathetic.

The woman walks close to Charlotte and whispers in her ear. “I’m looking for a medium sized white envelope. It has $5,000 cash in it. Please help me. I was supposed to take it to the bank first thing, but I got sidetracked when I saw the sale here. You can understand, right?” The lady dropped her head in her hands. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do if I don’t find it.”

Charlotte looked at the lady in disbelief. If she had $5,000 cash money on her person, she would not be walking around a mall with it in her purse. Hell, her husband would be a smart one to drop it off himself. Not to say that he shouldn’t trust her with it, but who knows what kind of crazies would decide to attack a woman going to the bank alone?

“I’ll help you look for it. Are you sure you had it in here? What about the main floor of the store. Did you report it to the clerks?” Charlotte didn’t want to make the woman even more uncomfortable, but this was a big store and most people who find things, especially money, won’t return it.

“I told the dressing room clerk and asked her to discreetly tell the other clerks, but I don’t think she believed me. Please, will you help me find it?”

The lady was pleading now. Charlotte saw that she was crying and it looked like she was about to turn hysterical.

“Okay, have a seat right here. I’m going to backtrack in here and see if we missed anything,” she said, trying to calm the lady down. She didn’t want to ask anymore questions because it seemed she was at her breaking point.

Charlotte pushed open all the stall doors and searched each room. She came to one stall that had a purse and a couple of dresses in it. She assumed that was the stall the lady had been in before she started looking for the envelope. She picked up the purse and brought it back to the lady.

“Please check your purse again. Hopefully you just overlooked it,” she said to the lady.

Charlotte then went back out on the main floor. She then tried to find the racks that held the dresses she had in hand. It was a good thing the store was boutique-like and small because otherwise it would’ve been hard to spot.

She walked over to the first rack and looked all around it, under it and on top, where there was a bin of belts. She didn’t find anything.

She walked to the second rack and did the same thing she did at the first, but this time, she hit the jackpot. On top of the rack, there was a bin of brooches and pins. The same ones that were on the dress matched the rack of dresses. She figured that the lady must’ve put her purse on top of the rack to do something with the dress and the envelope fell out. It was a good thing no one else was looking on that rack.

Charlotte raced back to the dressing room where the lady was shakily drinking a cup of water one of the clerks got for her. When Charlotte came into view, the woman’s eyes got bright and wide. She noticed the envelope right off in Charlotte’s hands. She jumped up and hugged Charlotte before she could even make it back to the dressing room.

“How can I ever repay you?! You don’t know how much this means to me. I can’t believe you found it. Where was it?! I can’t believe this! You are a lifesaver!” The woman was all over the place.

Charlotte couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. She was proud of herself and she proud that she could help someone in need.

“Ma, ma, where are you?” someone said from behind all the commotion.

A woman, about Charlotte’s age, walked up to the woman who’d lost the envelope. The younger woman hugged the older woman.

“Mom, what’s wrong? Are you okay? I got your message and you sounded terrified. What’s wrong?” The younger woman looked really concerned. Charlotte stepped back to give them some room.

“I’m fine now, dear. This young lady,” she motioned to Charlotte, “helped me find it. I’d lost the envelope your father gave me this morning to deposit and she searched high and low until she found it for me. I don’t know what to say. I’m eternally thankful.”

The younger woman turned to Charlotte.

“Thank you so much for helping my mother. I don’t know what she was thinking coming in here with that in her purse, but I really appreciate you helping her. Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Oh, my bad, I’m Charlotte, Charlotte Roberts.” Charlotte held out her hand for the woman to shake.

The woman shook her hand and told Charlotte her name. “Nice to meet you Charlotte. I’m Robin Johnson.”

Charlotte racked her brain to try and figure out where she knew that name from. She couldn’t think of anything and figured eventually it would come to her.

“How can we repay you for what you’ve done for us? We have to give you some kind of reward or something,” the older lady told Charlotte.

“No, no reward is necessary. I’m just glad I could help you out.” Charlotte looked down at her watch. She had about thirty minutes before she was supposed to meet up with Jeremy.

“I know how you can repay me. I’m an Event Planner, so if you or anybody you know is ever in the need of one, make sure I’m the first one they think about. If you can do that for me, we’re even.”

Robin took the business cards and handed one to her mother. The two ladies looked at each other and then back at Charlotte. “As a matter of fact, I think we could use your services. This money,” she said while holding up the envelope,”was to serve as a deposit for our 35th wedding anniversary in two months. We want to go all out and I think it would be fantastic if you would help us.”

Robin chimed in. “Yeah, that would be great and a weight off me. Would you be able to do it?”

“I’ll tell you what,” Charlotte said, “why don’t you call me later on and I’ll take a look at my calendar and we’ll see what we come up with. I would be honored to take on such an important event. How does that sound?”

“Sounds like a plan,” the older woman said. “Again, thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome. I’ve gotta run now. Take care.” And Charlotte waved at the two women as she went to pay for her items, that she never got to try on, and left the store.

When she thought about what else could happen today, finding a woman’s missing envelope containing $5,000 was NOT on the agenda.

She could only hope that her meeting with Jeremy was just as interesting…

4 comments:

mum said...

OH, NO! It really is a small world. mum

mum said...

and good riddance, Damien! mum

Kaboodall said...

Hi Lady! I'm loving your blog.....keep up the great work!! I'm all caught up now and agree with Mum.....glad to see Damien go, he's no good! Kaboodall

Dido said...

Juicy stuff - I like it!