Hey, girl. Meet me somewhere. I’m hungry.
Sorry, Dominic, but I just ate some pasta. Maybe later?
You brushed me off yesterday, Tayah. I’m not letting that happen again.
I really can’t. I’m busy preparing for the events tomorrow.
Why does it seem as if you’re avoiding me?
A long pause ensued.
I’m not; just busy.
What is up with you, girl?
Dominic please, I’m dealing with a lot. Just let it rest.
Whatever you want, Tayah. Call me whenever you can. I’m just concerned about you…
If she’d kept the text going, she knew Dominic would have never left her alone. He was a pest in the making. At the beginning of the week, she would have welcomed all the attention, but now, as she sat on her patio, adjusting a word document in her Asus Notebook, she felt smothered by it, especially after Phillip had gone on and on about him last night. God forbid, if she should see Dominic any time soon. Her BlackBerry went off again, but this time the text was from Ian Laing:
Let the caterer know the headcount for the breakfast seminar has increased by forty.
Wow. What happened there?
A large group from Atlanta flew in last evening. Good thing that we booked the bigger room in time.
Yeah, I’m glad the board listened. Don’t worry. I’ll get right on it.
Thanks, Tayah! I can always depend on you.
That reminded her, she hadn’t decided on what she was going to wear at the volunteer banquet tomorrow night. With so much going on in her life, she doubted she would have time to go out to buy anything new. She would just have to hunt through her closet and find something that fit. Her hair was another story. She hadn’t a single idea what she wanted to do with it. Should she wear it up or down? Should she wear a hair band or a cluster of flowers?
Under different circumstances, she would have been excited about getting prepared for this event, but at the moment, her mind was not in a festive state. It amazed her how her week had started in high spirits, and now it appeared to be ending in misery and gloom.
“Got off early?”
Tayah moved her eyes away from her notebook long enough to acknowledge Phillip, who was standing over her. Seeing him, set off her pain afresh. She fought to hold it together.
“So you’re giving me the silent treatment?” He pulled out a chair and sat opposite her. Reaching in his jacket, he removed a single red rose and placed it on the table for her to see. “I acted like a jerk last night, and I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any of those stupid things that I said to you. I don’t know what came over me.” He paused, wringing his fingers as if they were soaked with water. “Crap, this is harder than I thought…”
Negro, you had better come up with something better than that lame apology, she thought. ‘Cause even this cheap cologne you have on is working against you…
“Tayah, do you remember when I took you out for the first time?” he asked. “I’d begged you for two months before you agreed. You were so strong-willed, and I couldn’t understand why you refused to ride with me in my car…”
‘Cause I didn’t know you that well, fool. You could have been a murderer. Where’s this leading anyway? ‘Cause right now, Phillip, you’re not making any sense. Better yet, why don’t you just get up out my face?
“We went to the IMAX Dome Theatre on Busch,” Phillip continued, smiling as the memories flooded his mind. “We watched Stomp Out Loud. Do you remember how crazy that gig was? Their dance moves were tight. You tried to deny it, but you were impressed.”
Big deal. What's your point?
“I showed you that night that I was just as good, or even better. I showed you how much of a good time we could have together. That was the turning point for us, Tayah. We had fun. We laughed and enjoyed hangin’ out. That night I promised you that I would keep that pretty little smile on your face.”
So much for that. You men are nothing but big talkers. You fill a girl's head with lies. I must have been giddy that night to have trusted you with my feelings.
“We had fun, girl. I miss that about us…”
Yeah, right. You sure didn’t remember that when you called me a pig in a blanket…
Several moments of silence sped by, which raised a red flag in Tayah's mind, because Phillip was never at a loss for words whenever he had control of the conversation. Her curiosity begged her to get into Phillip's mind, but she was terrified of what she might find. These days, he was too unpredictable.
“So you just gonna sit there typing with your mouth shut?” He locked his fingers together and rested them against his lips, which for him, was a sign he’d been ticked off. “Am I wastin’ my breath on a piece of rock?”
Tayah sensed a change in his mood, but against her better judgment, she stayed mute and typed away as if she’d suddenly been struck with deafness. She wasn't prepared for what came next. Phillip jumped up and snatched her Asus notebook. In horror, she watched him search for a means of destruction.
“Phillip, what are you doing? Give that back to me. All of my files are on it!”
“Phillip, what are you doing, give that back to me,” he mocked her. “You pay this stupid thing more attention than you do me.”
“Phillip, I don’t wanna play–”
“Awwh, babeeeee, don’t be a party-pooper.” He craned his neck to the left and spotted their mildew-covered water fountain he’d been promising to sanitize from the day the New Year rolled in. He turned his eyes on her again and peeled his lips back into a devilish grin. “You know, ideas cost a fortune–”
“Phillip, I’m warning you–”
“Some of them,” he continued, “are worth so much that a company would spit out twenty million smackeroos to an Urkel-looking whiz kid. Do you even care about what I do, Tayah?”
“You know I support you in everything, Phillip.”
“Oh, really? Did you ever ask your father for the money I practically begged you for?”
Tayah kept her eyes on her laptop, pleading to God that her husband would not flip and toss it in that water fountain. This was the moment she regretted not backing up her files as frequently as she should have. “I just didn’t have the time, honey. You know I’m busy planning this–”
“Lies! All you had to do is pick up the phone and call. I lost two potential investors yesterday because of you. All I needed was a few measly thousand dollars to acquire the software for my prototype.”
“Maybe it’s not too late. We can call him right now–”
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Phillip kicked a chair and sent it tumbling across the patio. “You’re only concerned about your stupid job and your stupid life!”
“Phillip, you’re not being fair. Every night for the last several months, I have waited up for you, but you always found an excuse to stay away from home. What do you expect me to do? I mean, really. I volunteered to take on additional work to fill the emptiness that I feel in my life. And God knows, I’m dying to have your child, but you don’t want me to raise the issue. You don’t even want us to go and see a fertility specialist…”
Because the problem ain’t with you, darling heart. I’ve just been told I’m shooting blanks. How I’m supposed to live that down if you found out that piece of information? “Because it’s a waste of time! You’re the problem why we can’t have a child.”
Tayah swallowed hard to keep back her tears, but she was not going to let him win this one. “Phillip, that’s not necessarily true. I’ve been reading a lot on the Internet. The problem doesn’t always lie with the woman. It’s now discovered that forty percent of infertility is due to female factors and forty percent is due to male factors, the other twenty percent is…”
Read all you want, doll face, I’ve already seen a specialist. You might as well drop the bloody subject. “There’s nothing wrong with me! It’s you, Tayah, it’s you!”
“I never said there’s anything wrong with you. All I want is for us to make an appoint
ment to–”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” He tossed the laptop on the table. It landed with a hard slap before it dropped to the concrete. “You refuse to leave this crap alone…”
Tayah hadn’t heard another word after she saw what Phillip had done to her laptop. The only thing she could focus on was how to salvage her files. Rage rose from her feet and shot through her mouth. “You didn’t have to that. You really didn’t have to do that. You are so dumb and so immature!”
Phillip twisted his neck in shock. “What did you call me?”
“You’re behaving like a ten-year-old child; just because you can’t get your way. I’ve never seen a grown man act so retarded…”
It only took Phillip two jumps and he was at her throat. He careened her up against the wall, and would have choked the daylights out of her if the doorbell hadn’t rung. He released her and rushed inside to answer the doorbell. Tayah followed him, rubbing her neck to assuage the pain and burning in her windpipe.
“Mr. Paxton,” Phillip expressed with a jubilant smile. “Haven’t seen you in these parts for a while. What brings you by?”
Leroy looked like a man who’d lost all hope, but Phillip was too wired up to notice. “Where’s Tayah?” Leroy asked.
“I’m right here, daddy,” she said, sticking her head out, standing next to Phillip. “What’s going on?”
“I need to speak with you, darling,” Leroy said. “It’s concerning your mother. But if this is not a good time, I will understand.”
Phillip felt Tayah pressing her fist into his back, which seemed to indicate that if he turned her father away, she wouldn’t hesitate to tell him her husband had almost sent her packing to her grave.
“Sir, it’s not a problem,” Phillip said, keeping that glorious smile on his face. “Come in. I’ll put some cups in the microwave to make some tea.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven