A Special Relationship (37 page)

 
“What’s the matter?” he asked her.

 
“You’re kidding, right?”

 
Robert hesitated, nervousness creeping in.
 
“Why would you think I was kidding?
 
Isn’t Carrie here?”

 
“Robert, Carrie Banks hasn’t been back since y’all went to Maryland.
 
She never came back.”

 
It was Robert’s time to stare at Marva.
 
He was terrified.
 
“What do you mean?”
       

 
“Just what I said.
 
She called in and said she wouldn’t be back.
 
Thanked me for all of my help.
 
I thought you knew—”

 
Robert began shaking his head.
 
“No,” he said.
 
“No, I didn’t.”
 

 
“Are you all right?”

 
“Yes, I’m . . . Did she say why—”

 
“She said what I just said.
 
Nothing more.
 
And I didn’t ask more. I just assumed, since you were back with Gloria, that
— ”

 
Robert looked at Marva.
 
“I’m not back with Gloria.
 
I’m just helping her out.
 
She’s in a wheelchair.”

 
“She’s in a wheelchair and?”

 
“And that’s why I’m helping her out.”

 
Marva shook her head.
 
“I never took you for a chump, Robert.”

 
Robert frowned.
 
“What?”

 
“You told Carrie that?
 
That you
was
helping out Gloria because she was wheelchair bound?”

 
“Yes, that’s what I told her.
 
That’s the truth.”

 
“And you expected her to believe that truth?”

 
“Marva, what are you talking about?”

 
“You’re helping Gloria because you want to help Gloria.
 
Wheelchair or no wheelchair, you jumped at the chance.
 
Not because of no pity.
 
It’s because you wanted to see if it could happen again.”

 
“If what could happen again?”

 
“If y’all could recapture the magic of your marriage before the lies and deceit.
 
At least, before you knew about them.
 
That’s what this is about.
 
That’s why you stayed away from Dyson.
 
That’s why you ran that poor child out of your house and put her up in your love shack.”

 
“I don’t have a love shack.”

 
“Whatever you wanna call it.
 
You
was
treating Gloria like she was your queen and Carrie like she was your slut.
Your whore.
 
Your mistress on the side.”

 
Robert couldn’t believe what Marva was saying.
 
How could she believe that?
 
He loved Carrie.
 
“I love Carrie,” he blurted out.
 
“How could you say such horrible things?
 
I could never treat Carrie that way.”

 
“Yes, you could,” Marva said with confidence, “because that’s exactly what you’re doing.
 
And one thing about Carrie Banks that I like, she don’t compromise her integrity for no man.
 
She’s a true Christian woman.
 
Best you leave her alone, I think.”

 
Robert stood dumbstruck.
 
What
has he
done, he thought.
 
He looked at Marva.
 
Marva shook her head.
 

 
“I never took you for that kind of man, Robert.”

 
Robert hated asking it, but he had to.
 
“What kind of man?”

 
“The kind that hedges his bets,” Marva said, and left the office.

 
Robert could hardly move.
 
And when he went to sit down, he almost missed his chair.
 
Was that why he so willingly helped Gloria?
 
Was a part of him still missing her, still attempting to recapture what was a lie to begin with?
 
Had he sacrificed Carrie for the sake of wanting it all, or hedging his bets, as Marva called it?
 
If Gloria didn’t work out, there was good ol’ Carrie waiting patiently for him?
 
But only she wasn’t waiting for him.
 
Because she, unlike him, knew exactly what was going on all along.

TWENTY-FIVE

Later that night Robert parked his Cadillac Escalade across the street from Mona Banks apartment building without a game plan.
 
All he knew was that he had to see Carrie.
 
He had wanted to get out and climb the stairs to the apartment himself, but he knew that Carrie’s sister would only give him grief and Carrie might not even want to see him.
 
He hurried to his condo earlier today as soon as Marva had told him that Carrie had quit, as soon as he had phoned the residence and got no answer, and, sure enough, there was no sign that Carrie had spent any appreciable time there.
 
She more than likely had left after he had left, when all along he had thought she was safely in place.
 
She even left his BMW parked in its parking space, along with the keys on the dining room table.
 
She had made and meant to have made a clean break, Robert thought, his heart breaking.

 
And he couldn’t get her out of his mind.
 
Had he abused her as Marva had indicated?
 
Had he used her as a back-up should his reconciliation with Gloria failed?
 
It was a horrible thought, one he still could not believe he’d have attempted.
 
But by bringing Gloria back into his world, he had tried something.

 
He sat up from his slump position in his SUV when the door to Mona’s apartment building sprung open.
 
Carrie, her sister, and some muscular, bald-headed man came out of the apartment.
 
Robert’s heart lurched at the sight of Carrie and he immediately, without thinking, got out of his SUV and hurried across the street toward her.

 
Carrie was following Mona and Dooney to Dooney’s car so that they could go to work that night.
 
So far they had kept their word, since Dooney needed an honest cashier, and she was able to do her job without any harassment.
 
But she hated the job.
 
She hated the environment. And every day she continued to search endlessly for a better opportunity.
 
But she was saving every dime she made.

 
“Carrie,” a strained voice said and as soon as Carrie looked across the street and saw Robert approaching her, she had to blink twice.
 
It had been two weeks and he had not even tried to reach her.
 
She had assumed he had moved on.
 
With his ex-wife.

 
Carrie was about to respond to him, but Mona got in front of her.
 
“What do you want?” she said to Robert.
 

 
“Hey, ain’t that the dude that was in my club that
night
?”
 
Dooney asked.

 
“That’s him,” Mona said.
 
“She
don’t
wanna see you,” she said to Robert.

 
Robert made his way up to the threesome, but kept his eyes on Carrie.
 
“Carrie, I need to talk with you,” he said, trying his best to contain his desperation.

 
“She ain’t got
nothing
to say to you,” Mona said.

 
“I have to get to work, Robert,” Carrie said, to avoid any confrontations.

 
“Work where?” he asked, unable to suppress his fear.
 
“With her?”

 
“Yeah, with me!”
Mona interrupted angrily.
 
“What’s it to you?”

 
Robert took Carrie by the arm.
 
No way was his woman working in a joint like Simms.
 
“You’re coming with me,” he said, but Mona snatched Carrie’s arm away from him.

 
“She ain’t coming no-where with you!
 
You better go home to your cripple wife,” she added, and Dooney laughed.

 
“Y’all get in the car,” Dooney said and got in himself.

 
“Come on, Carrie,” Mona said, pushing her sister toward the car, too.
 
“Let’s go.”

 
Carrie looked at Robert, at the hurt in his eyes, but she left anyway.
 
He’d made his choice.
 
And although he may not have realized it at the time, she wasn’t playing second fiddle, either.
 

 
She got in Dooney’s car and they left.

Robert drove home in a daze.
 
Carrie seemed so devastated by what he’d done that it devastated him.
 
He had no idea that he was hurting her.
 
He had no idea!
 
He thought she’d understand.
 
He thought she’d allow him time to help his ex-wife get back on her feet, and then they could begin their life together unencumbered.
 
He thought she understood that.

 
But would he?
 
Would he have understood it if the shoe was on the other foot?
 
What if Carrie brought some ex-lover of hers home one day, and kicked him out.
 
Would he sit quietly in the corner and let her?
 
Of course not.
 
Not if he wanted to keep his self-respect.
 

 
Then why in the world had he ever expected her to?
 

 
It was nearly eleven by the time he made it home.
 
He had told Gloria that he was going to stay the night at his apartment in town because he had to meet with some people over dinner and would not feel like the drive out to Ponte Vedra.
 

 
He didn’t know why he had told her that, since it was a lie.
 
But he
guess
he had hoped that he’d be spending tonight with Carrie in that apartment.
 
And now that Carrie wasn’t going to be there, had gone on with her life in a way that frightened him, he couldn’t bear being in that condo alone.

 
He got out of his SUV and walked slowly around the back of his home.
 
The lights were on, which they always were, but he was surprised to see the kitchen lights on also.
 
And when he walked through the French doors that led into the kitchen, surprised was not the word.
 
He was floored.