9781618850638IfOnlyYouKnewBergman Read online

  “Why is he always talking about you all the time? Every day he refers to something that happened when you guys were in college or something else. And now, he’s at your place, all night long, what am I supposed to think?” she said, anger in her voice.

  This girl was totally pissed at me.

  “If you trust your man, then you shouldn’t have to worry about where he goes. Richard and I have history, and we always will have history regardless of who he dates or I date.” I could feel my blood pressure starting to rise.

  “When was the last time you had a date anyway? I mean, has it been that long that no one has wanted to take you out and now you have to go after someone else’s man? Why don’t you just leave mine alone? He wouldn’t want a fat bitch like you anyway!”

  She hung up the phone, and I swear I threw the phone clear across the room and heard it crash against the wall. I went on to take my bath, and I think I stayed in there for about an hour, until it got too cold for me to stand.

  Chapter Three

  “I have someone that I want you to meet.”

  Those are some of the most stomach churning words to make into a sentence, but that is what I heard over the phone earlier that day.

  “Who is it, Marie?”

  “This guy I work with in accounting, he is really a sweetheart of a guy, and girlfriend, and he is really hot.”

  That meant he was dull and boring and probably had a 5 o’clock shadow.

  “He wants to meet you because I’ve told him a lot about you and you being a writer. So, I set you up for a dinner date at eight, and you’re to meet him at The Japanese Steakhouse on Calhoun Avenue,” Marie instructed.

  “I can't believe you made a date with a guy that I don’t even know. How dare you, woman!” I shouted as I put lotion on my legs.

  “Whoa, woman, what got up your butt this afternoon?”

  “A skinny little Southern twig name Laura, she thought I was sleeping with Richard.”

  “Say what? Oh hell no! She thought you and Richard were sleeping together?”

  All I could do was shake my head in disgust as Marie continued to tell me about my “mystery date” for tonight.

  When I got to the Steakhouse, I stood outside and watched for my date. It was 8:05, and I was really hoping he wasn’t going to show up. “Marley?” said a voice from behind me as I turned around.

  All I could see was a chest. I had to look up to see the rest of him, and I had to admit, Marie made a good choice for a blind date. He looked at me puzzlingly, but when I told him yes, he flashed a very impressive smile.

  “Marie has told me a lot about you, a lot she didn’t tell me though, but that’s ok. I am Todd Lewis by the way.” He took my hand and softly kissed it. We both walked inside and went to get our table.

  What does he mean by “A lot she didn’t tell me?”

  “So, Marie told me that you’re a writer. What do you specialize in?” he asked as he poured me some sake.

  “I write about Romance, mainly contemporary. I turned in one of my novels just yesterday and I plan to do some book signings soon.”

  He smiled and it seemed to make his brown eyes twinkle a little. He was handsome, reminded me of that model Tyson. I sipped some sake, and before I could put down my cup, he was pouring me more.

  “Do you write any erotica?” he asked when the waiter came to our table. I looked at him and I had to laugh a little as he did the same.

  “Um, no, I sure don’t. I don’t think I could do anything like that in my writing.”

  “You don’t know what you have, there is probably a little sex demon lurking inside that mind of yours.” He said then stuffed his face with sushi.

  I had to keep myself from laughing so damn much at his comments because they were too funny. But what wasn’t funny was the fact that he kept trying to get me to drink more.

  “I don’t think I should drink anymore of this Sake, it’s going to get to my head pretty soon.” I said as I took a sip of water.

  “The night is young, come and live a little. Besides, I told Marie we would go down to this bar and meet her and some others there. Let me pay and we can go.” He snapped his fingers to get the waiter as I got my purse and made my way to the bathroom.

  It took me some time to get to the bathroom. I didn’t want to look like a complete drunk while I was walking back to the bathroom, so I took small steps. When I did get there, I looked in the mirror, and even though I knew I was a drunken mess, I still looked good.

  When I came back, I walked into the bright red waiting area and saw Todd standing there. “You ready?” I asked him with a smile. He nodded and we walked out of the restaurant. When we walked outside, I almost felt as if I was going to fall, and that’s when he caught my arm, “Are you ok?”

  I felt so damn lightheaded it was unreal, so I held onto him until we got to his car and he helped me in.

  * * * *

  “Hey you guys, over here!” shouted Marie, waving us over to our favorite table when we got to the bar.

  Andrew was there along with another woman who ended up being Laura behind some shades. Oh my God, I know she isn’t wearing shades inside of a bar at night. I plopped down next to Andrew as he gave me a hug while Marie introduced Todd to everyone.

  When Richard came to the table and saw me sitting with Todd, he looked concerned or something. Maybe it was the Sake playing with my mind.

  “Hey, Marley, how you doing?” he said with a smile.

  “Fine, Richard. This is Todd, my date for the night.”

  Todd stood and went to shake his hand, and I saw the look in Richard’s eyes, it looked weird as he shook Todd’s hand and pulled off a fake smile as he sat back down next to Laura.

  “Does anyone want a drink, let me refresh everyone’s. I’ll be right back.” Todd said, heading toward the bar. I started sipping water and Marie asked, “So, how do you like him?”

  “He’s nice, really nice. He seems like he’s really interested in my writing.”

  “You know it’s interesting that I haven’t seen any of your books around the book stores, Marley,” Laura said as she sipped some of her drink.

  I ignored the little wench because I was still pissed at her, but I couldn’t pass up making her look like a complete ass at that moment, “I’m shocked that you even went to a book store, Laura.” I said with a coy smile as Todd brought the drinks back to the table.

  Everyone grabbed their drinks but I didn’t see mine, “Where’s my drink?”

  “Damn, hold on, let me go back and get it,” Todd said as he walked through the crowd.

  He came back with a coke, which I was happy about. I really wasn’t interested in drinking anymore alcohol. “I thought I would get you some coke instead.” He smiled as he sat down next to me and I took a long sip.

  It had a strong kick, even for coke, which always made me kind of growl a little from the soda taste when it hits your throat and makes it feel like it was burning.

  For some reason, it hit even more when I took that long gulp. I took another sip, put the drink down, and listened to everyone talk. The room seemed like it was tilting for some reason, and I was just sitting down. I looked over at Marie who seemed to be talking in slow motion, all of her movements were in slow motion, and my head felt heavier. I looked over to see Richard talking to Laura and pouring beer in a glass for her. That beer was going so damn slow into the glass it was unreal.

  What the fuck is going on?

  Richard looked at me really concerned, “Marley, are you ok?”

  Why was he talking so slow, and why was the chair I was sitting in sinking. Andrew looked at me, and I was sweating really badly. He stood, along with some of the other people at the table.

  “Are you ok, Marley? We need to get her outside, come on.” Todd stated as he and Andrew helped me out of my chair.

  I tried to walk toward the door, but before I could get up, yours truly ended up falling down on the hardwood floor in a slump.

  I don’t rem
ember anything after that; everything went completely black once I hit the floor. When I woke up, I found myself in a hospital, and Richard and Marie were in the room with me. My head felt like a two-ton truck ran over it, and I was still dizzy.

  “Where am I?” I mumbled, rubbing my head.

  “You’re in the hospital. You’ve been here three days now. Oh Marley, I am so sorry for setting you up with that idiot, Todd.” Marie started crying a little, and I didn’t understand why.

  “What the hell happened, and why am I here?”

  “You were drugged that night with Todd, he put that date rape drug in your drink when you went to the restaurant, and then he put it in your coke, but he doubled it and that’s what got you so sick.”

  I looked down and saw his hand taped. “What happened to your hand?”

  “I ended up punching the hell out of that son of a bitch. Got in a big fight with him in the bar, it was pretty wild.” He smiled as he sat down next to me in the bed.

  I started laughing a little and then I laid my head back down on the pillow. “I’ve got to get back to work, but I’ll be coming by your place today. The doctors said if they think you’re well enough, they will let you go on home.”

  She walked out of the room and we both sat there in silence. Then he took my hand and squeezed it softly.

  “I’m just glad that you’re ok. You had me scared, woman, thought I was going to lose you there for a while.”

  I snickered a little and squeezed his hand some more. “It’s going to be a while before I leave you.”

  Leaning over, he kissed my forehead, looked into my eyes, and smiled, “I’ll let you get some rest. I’m going to see where the doctor is because I’m taking you home today.”

  He walked out of the room and left me alone as I sighed. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest, he knew I was in trouble and he came to my rescue.

  * * * *

  “Do you think you can make it inside, or should I just carry you over the threshold?” Richard joked as I started walking inside of my apartment.

  “Ha, yeah, and if that was to happen then we will be right back at the hospital for your broken back.” I walked in, went to the window, and opened it a little to get the stuffiness out of the apartment.

  Richard answered his phone and walked toward the kitchen, talking while I took in a deep breath of air. It feels good to be in my own place and able to relax finally. I decided that I wouldn’t be going out on any “blind dates” for a very long time.

  “That was Laura; she wanted to know if you were ok and all.”

  That was a surprise, she wanting to know how I was. I sat down on the couch as he came around and plopped down next to me.

  “You know, Marley Mar, you really gave me a scare that night. I didn’t know what to do when I saw your eyes roll to the back of your head like that.”

  He took my hand and held it tight in his, and I swear I could see that he was trying not to cry.

  “You and I have always been a team, through thick and thin, we have been there for each other.”

  He kept looking at my hand as he held it in his. The Band-Aid from my IV was still there and he softly kissed it. It felt like a million points of light were shooting through me when his lips touched my skin.

  “So what would you like to do tonight? We could order in some food or I can go to the marketplace and grab something to make here.”

  I started laughing for a second and he looked puzzled, “What?”

  “You can’t cook worth a damn and you know it.” I chuckled as I grabbed my purse and got up.

  “Yes, I can too cook. How can you say that I am a bad cook?” he asked as he too got up.

  “How about the Kitchen Fire of 1993 or did you forget about that?”

  He rolled his eyes and shook his head. I continued laughing as he opened the door.

  “I swear you will never ever let me live that down, will you?”

  “Hell no! You will be constantly reminded of that day even when we are sitting in our rocking chairs in some old folks home.” I laughed as we walked into the hallway.

  The Kitchen Fire of 1993 will probably go down in history as the “Ultimate Blunder of All Time” or what I would like to call it, “The Biggest Achievement to Impress a Girl that Ended up Almost Getting Everyone Killed.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to help with cooking the food?” I had asked him that night in 1993 at his apartment. He had told this girl that he had been dating that he would cook her dinner that night, the only thing was…well Richard couldn’t cook worth a damn.

  “Yes, I am positive that I don’t need you here. If she sees that I had someone cook for me, she will know that I am lying,” he told me as he got the chicken out of the fridge.

  “But you did lie, about everything you told her. I almost had a heart attack when you told me all the crap you said. Man, you guys will do anything to get a girl to like you or jump their bones.” Richard laughed as I shook my head while he scrambled around the small kitchen, making sure that everything was together.

  “You better go because I’ve got to get ready for Emily. I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know how everything went.”

  When I started hearing sirens around nine o’clock, I looked out of my window and shouted to some passersby, “What’s going on?”

  “There’s a fire over at the Inman Court!”

  I could have won the 100-yard dash with how fast I sprinted to Richard’s place. There were so many campus and city police along with the fire department around. The place was a complete zoo with the fire fighters putting out the fire and some of the students looking and pointing at the gutted hole where Richard’s apartment once was.

  Looking around, I saw Richard sitting in the ambulance with an oxygen mask over his face and his hair and clothes covered in black soot. I ran to him, and he looked up at me as I gave him a big hug.

  “What the hell happened?” I asked as he took the mask off his face.

  “I turned up the heat on the chicken with the liquor in it. Some of it splattered onto the kitchen counter and some boxes that I had near it caught fire. It was awful, Marley, and I tried to put it out but it kept getting bigger and bigger and then Emily started screaming. I swear I have never seen anything like it before in my life.”

  He continued to hug me even more, and all I could do was shake my head and try not to laugh.

  “And after all that mess, I was shocked that they didn’t make your parents pay for all that damn damage you did.” I snickered as I looked over the breads.

  “Shut up, Marley.”

  I smiled even more as I pointed out a warm loaf of French bread and the baker put it in paper and handed it to Richard.

  “I think we have everything here, No we don’t we forgot about dessert. What would you like to get?”

  “Hummingbird Cake, oh you have got to try this cake, it is unbelievable.” I said as I dragged him to where the cakes were and we got half of my new ultimate weakness.

  When we got home, I could hear the phone ringing. “Hello?”

  “Hey baby, I see you made it home alright,” said the soothing voice of my momma.

  “Yeah, I made it in just fine, Richard brought me home. We just came back from getting something to eat for tonight.”

  Richard mouthed, “Who are you talking to?”

  “It’s momma,” I whispered.

  He smiled and shouted, “Hi, momma!” I couldn’t stop laughing and neither could my mom.

  “I swear that boy kills me, calling me momma like that. You tell him momma says hello. Why haven’t you snatched him up yet?” she asked for what was now an unprecedented two hundred and forty five times.

  “Momma, don’t start that now. I’ll tell Richard you said hello but I am fine. Tell pops and grandma I said hello, ok?” She chuckled and all I could do was smile. She knew I was avoiding answering that question for the two hundred and forty fifth time.

  “Bye baby. Call me later w
hen you’ve rested.”

  “Bye, momma and I promise I will”

  I hung up the phone, and Richard was still putting the food on the platter for us to munch on. “Momma said ‘hello’ by the way” I started munching on an olive, and he opened his mouth for me to throw one into it.

  “Go long!”

  He went across the room toward the hallway, and with such accuracy, I threw the olive and was shocked that it went in.

  “Goal!” we both shouted as he paraded around the room as if he scored the winning goal in soccer. I couldn’t stop laughing as I brought the platter to the coffee table, and he brought the ginger ale and two glasses. We didn’t just eat our food; we ended up throwing it into each other’s mouths.

  “Ouch, dang, that hit me in the eye,” he whined, holding his eye for a second as I moved closer to see if I really hurt him.

  “Let me see, hold still!” I said as he blinked his eye a little, then I saw that beautiful orb looking back at me.

  Even though it was a little red, it still looked beautiful, none the less.

  “You’ll be ok, you’re a tough guy.” I smiled as he wiped his eye and looked back at me.

  He kept looking at me and, for some reason that I don’t know, I started feeling really uncomfortable.

  “What?” I finally asked him as I started drinking some ginger ale.

  Shaking his head as if he was trying to wake himself from a dream, he started laughing and said, “Nothing.”

  Wow, was that an awkward moment or what?

  When Richard came back with the cake after dinner, I asked him, “Tell me what happened that night I passed out, I mean the fight and all?”

  Rolling his eyes, he started chuckling before he told me, so I figured it had to be funny as hell.

  “When you fell, I got scared as hell and everyone in the bar started crowding around us. Andrew started screaming, call 911!’ repeatedly while Todd and me tried to get you up on some tables that some folks put together. I had never seen you look that way in my life and so clammy too. Todd was looking nervous, and I knew that something was up from the way he was looking at you. So, I asked him what he did to you. He told me I was tripping hard, and Laura, she said the same thing even though I could tell she was kind of concerned about you.”