Chapter 19

Once Terrance left, after Charlotte profusely assured him that she was alright and that if she needed to talk that he would be the first person she called, she threw herself into her work.

She started back working on the invitations and inserts that she designed that morning. Since most of her business is spread through word of mouth and websites online, she posts everything that she does in her blog so that potential clients can see what she is capable of doing before they hire her.

She was just about to send her design to the client, when an instant message box popped up on the screen. She didn’t recognize the name, but then again, her computer had been set up to keep her permanently logged in since forever ago, which was the last time she actually logged into it. As she was thinking back on it, she had no idea what her password was. But regardless, there, smack in the middle of her screen was a small box from ‘ibzdaone’.

Ibzdaone: I miss you.
WhosThatLady: Who is this?
Ibzdaone: Who else would be telling you they miss you? You talking to somebody else already?
Ibzdaone: You cheating on me, Charlotte?
WhosThatLady: Damien?! What do you want? Why are you sending me an IM? We broke up! Move on!

When she realized it was Damien she got upset. She hadn’t talked to him since they broke up. She hadn’t really even given him a second thought after she’d hung up the phone with him that day. But, leave it to Damien to act like that day never happened.

Ibzdaone: What do you mean ‘we broke up’? You talking ‘bout that little spat we had over the phone the other day? That didn’t mean anything. Baby, I miss you. Can I come see you tonight? I miss you so much.
WhosThatLady: OMG!!!
WhosThatLady: Are you serious? Are you out of your mind?!
WhosThatLady: I can do this right now. Don’t IM me, don’t call me, don’t text me, don’t send me emails!!! It’s over. We are not together anymore. You are no longer my boyfriend, man, significant other… whatever you used to call yourself. ITS OVER!

Then she closed out the window. She also clicked on the little smiley face in the bottom right corner of her screen and logged out of the messenger. She never used it anyway, so it didn’t matter anymore.

But she couldn’t believe his audacity. After days of not hearing from her, especially after the conversation they had that morning, he still thought that they were together.

She scoffed at the idea that he was serious and pushed it to the back of her mind, dismissing it as a joke he was playing to see if she would fall for it and roll over for him. Those days of her dismissing her anger with him were long over.

She went back to her design and sent it off to the client with a note asking them to get back to her as soon as possible so that she could get started on her project. She was getting that giddy feeling that she usually got when she was working. It was one of the reasons that she chose to do what she was doing. She loved her job and she loved working for herself.

She started thinking back to her younger days when she first started thinking about her career. Her mind immediately turned to Jeremy.

He played such a huge part in her life growing up, it was a wonder they let all that time pass since they’d seen each other.

Thinking about him just made her start thinking about the earlier events of the day. She wondered if Jeremy would take her call or if she had to wait for him to call her, if he ever did. She thought about calling his house number, but then decided against it when she checked the time. Robin could’ve been home. Her voice was the last one she wanted, or needed, to hear right now.

She went to her bedroom and grabbed her cell phone off the bed and dialed Jeremy’s cell number. After four rings, it went to voicemail. She hesitated at first, but then decided to leave him a short simple message.

“Jeremy, this is Charlotte. Please call me when you get this message. We really need to talk, especially after today. Whenever you get this message, and it doesn’t matter what time it is, please call me. I love you.”

She tossed the phone back on the bed and walked to her bathroom.

She hoped a nice, long, hot bath could help de-stress her. She was definitely ready for Calgon to take her away.
____________________________________________________________________

Jeremy pulled into the first parking spot he saw in the small lot of the emergency room at Hermann Hospital. He didn’t care that he was crookedly parked across two lanes. His wife was in the emergency room. If he got a ticket, he figured he’d deal with that later.

He ran across the lot and straight into the building up to the nurse’s desk.

“Excuse me,” he said to a nurse who was standing behind the counter looking into a file cabinet. “My wife, Robin Johnson, was admitted here a little while ago. Can you please tell me where I can find her?”

The nurse told him that she was in with the doctor at that moment, but that she had some paperwork that needed to be signed first.

He looked at her like she had five heads sticking out of her neck. He didn’t care about the paperwork, he wanted to see his wife and find out what was going on. He didn’t even know yet why she was admitted.

“Look, lady, I don’t have time to sign insurance papers or whatever that is. I need to find my wife and find out what’s going on. I don’t even know what she’s doing here. This morning, before she went to work, she was fine. Then I get a call saying that she’s in the hospital and still no one has told me what’s going on or what happened?”

“I can tell you what happened,” a voice said from behind Jeremy.

When he turned around, there stood a tearful Greg.

“I can tell you what happened to Robin.”

“Wait, you work with her, right? I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name.”

“I’m Greg, Greg Taylor. I…”

“Mr. Johnson,” a doctor said, walking up to him from the nurse’s station. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m Dr. Randall, your wife’s doctor. I need to get some information from you. We need to get this paperwork signed.”

“Like I told the nurse, I can handle the paperwork later. I want to see Robin. Now.”

“Mr. Johnson, we need to get that paperwork signed. We can’t perform any surgeries or do the proper blood work without it. Your wife is incapacitated right now and you have to make the decisions, but you need to do it now. What blood type are you?”

Jeremy had taken a step back from the doctor. He had no clue what was going on with Robin, but from what the doctor was telling him, she was in really bad shape. He didn’t know what to think or do. But he knew that he had to listen to the doctor. Whatever he needed to do, he was going to.

“I’m A and she’s O. We found that out when she had her miscarriage a few years ago. Doctor,” Jeremy said, “I can’t give her blood if she needs it.”

“I can,” Greg said.

Jeremy looked at Greg, who still had tears in his eyes. He wondered what this man’s deal was. He was grateful that Greg was there when Robin needed someone and it was very noble of him to stay at the hospital for her support until he could get there, but Jeremy was becoming uncomfortable with the situation now.

“That’s very nice of you, sir, but...,” the doctor started to say before Greg cut him off.

“I can’t explain it right now, but this is something I have to do. Losing Robin is not an option,” he said, and then looked at Jeremy, “for either of us.”

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…

Chapter 2

Charlotte walked over to her closet and started going through her clothes to figure out what she would wear to wow! Jeremy. She laughed to herself because she realized that this is ten years later and anything she has in her closet has been unseen by him. But she still wanted to be dressed to the nines, no matter what. She pulled out her favorite outfit, that hugged her in all the right places, and set it aside to be sent to the cleaners.

Just as she laid the clothes across her bed, the phone rang. She didn't bother to look at the caller ID because she just assumed it was Jeremy.

"Hello?" she nonchalantly said into the phone. "Hey baby! What's going on over there that's got you sounding so sexy?" I wasn't Jeremy, sadly, but her own boyfriend, Damien Howard.

"Oh, nothing. Just going through my closet. What's up, babe?" she asked, not really caring. She thought back to her conversation with Jeremy to try and remember if she'd mention Damien to him. She couldn't remember his name coming up at all.

"I was just calling to tell you that I'm going over to David and Rhonda's tonight. You wouldn't happen to want to go with me, would you?" he asked.

She knew that when he asked the question like that that he really didn't want her to go with him. She was also getting tired of him always waiting to the last minute to ask her to do something with or for him. It was getting exhausting. But she pretended to think about it for a moment.

"No, I think I'll stay in tonight," she said. "Besides, you know David and I don't get along. Just tell them I said hello and if you see Samantha there, ask her to call me please."

Sam was Charlotte's younger sister and also best friends to David's girlfriend, Rhonda. David and Damien are good friends but Damien has a problem. He can't seem to keep his hands (as well as other personal body parts) to himself. Everytime Charlotte was around him he would flirt with her. Damien always told her that was just how he was, playful like, but there is a certain line that you should draw with your friend's girlfriend. And Rhonda was no better. He cheated on her left and right and she takes him back everytime. Its so sad.

But anyway, Damien and Charlotte talk a bit more before they hang up. Since she didn't have anything to do that night, she thought she'd go ahead and drop her clothes at the cleaners to pass some time.

____________________________________________________________

On the other side of town, Jeremy picked up his cell phone and stuck his wallet in his back pocket. He jumped in his car and rode down the highway until he came to his exit. He'd made this trek so many times he could probably do it in his sleep.

He rode down until he got to David and Rhonda's street. Cars were double-parked all the way down the entire street. He slowly drove down the street until he got to the house where all the loud music was coming from. Surprisingly, there were no cars in the driveway, so he pulled in and turned off the ignition. He walked up to the front door and into the house. He was greeted by a very pretty young girl.

"Hey, Rhonda, how you doing?" Jeremy asked the girl as he hugged her.

"I'm fine. What's been going on with you lately? How're things with you and Robin? You two okay?" she asked.

That was Rhonda for you. When she had it in her mind to talk to you about something, she was goint to get it out in the open before you even have a chance to really react to it.

"Yes, Rho, things are better now. I mean we still have our little arguments, but we're working them out, you know." Jeremy tried to answer her question without really giving up too much information.

"Well, that's good. Oh, and let me say again how much I appreciate you doing this for David and I. I really want him to be able to have fun and enjoy himself tonight with no distractions."

She looks at Jeremy, cocks her head to the side and squints.

"Speaking of distractions," she says to him as she pointing at him, "I have this funny feeling somethings going on with you. Got any idea about what I'm saying?"

He had a feeling this was coming. He could tell by the look in her eyes. He smirked at her and told her that nothing was going on, at least nothing with him. He trusted her when she talked like this, though, of course, he would never admit it to her. She was dead on most times. He wasn't sure if it was because of Louisiana background or if it was something else. Whatever it was, he was on the defensive now.

"Rhonda, everything is good. Let it go." He was ready for this conversation to end. Now.

She knew that that was her cue to back off. Plus, she didn't want to make him mad and he left before taking her son.

"Okay, Jeremy. I'll leave it alone, for now. I'm gonna go get Mikeyfor you. He's been so excited all day long." She starts to walk towards the back of the house. "Oh, and David's in the kitchen, you can go on in."

Jeremy walked to the kitchen to find David. They did that man-hug thing that guys do and started talking.

"Man, how come you're not staying? We could've asked Rho's mom to watch Mikey," David mentioned. Jeremy was going to babysit David's son for the night while they partied away. Jeremy never did understand why David and Rhonda partied so much. It's wasn't like they were celebrating anything. Jeremy was hoping that the next party would be a reception, but that didn't seem even remotely likely to happen any time soon. And why should he mind if Rhonda didn't?

"Naw, man, its all good. That's my godson, so its not an issue. Besides, I love that little boy." And he meant every word of that. David was his daddy, but Jeremy was like a father to Mikey. David drank and smoked whatever, whenever, whereever, regardless of whether or not Mikey was there. Jeremy wanted to present a good example for him. And, when the time was right, he hoped to have a little boy, or girl, just like Mikey.

"Plus," Jeremy added, "Me and him need to catch up." He'll be starting school soon and I gotta teach him about little girls." David and Jeremy laughed.

"Man, me and you need to catch up. You and Robin run around in your own little world and ya'll forget about us little people. We haven't kicked in months," David said matter-of-factly.

"So we'll get together and do something soon. It'll be cool." Jeremy was ready to go. As much as he loved his friend who was like a little brother to him, he hated some of his habits. One of them was smoking, which David was just about to do right then. Mikey was still in the house.

Jeremy was just about to say something about it when he heard his name being called.

"Uncle J! Uncle J!" Mikey yelled as he ran to Jeremy and jumped on him.

"Hey lil' man! You ready to go?" Jeremy wanted to get Mikey out of there as soon as possible. He was only four and was very much the copy-cat.

"Yep! Bye Daddy, bye mama, by D!" Mikey waved at everyone in the room. "See you tomorrow!"

Jeremy and Mikey started walking to the door when David started talking again.

"D, my bad, man," David said to the guy that was standing next to him. "Jeremy, this is my boy Damien. D, this is my brother, Jeremy, the one I was telling you about earlier." Damien and Jeremy do that man-hug thing.

"D," Jeremy says, "it was nice meeting you. Dave, Rhonda, I'll check in with ya'll in the morning. Ya'll have good, clean fun tonight, you heard."

They all laugh as Jeremy turns to go. On his way to the door he scoops up Mikey in his arms and walks out to his car.

Once there, Mikey starts asking tons of questions, as usual. Jeremy was only half listening, though. His mind was on what Rhonda was telling him. He had to admit, things with him and Robin had been really bad. She always had these crazy mood swings. One minute she was all over him, wanting to be loving and caring, and then within seconds, she would be yelling at him, throwing things and storming out, sometimes not coming home until the next morning.

But as far as he knew, things were finally settling down and getting better for a change. It had been a while since they'd had a major blowup. He still wondered, though, what could possibly be about to happen now?