Right Beside You, page 6
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She sighed and shook her head. “My son is too immature for a woman like you. No wonder his wife took off and he can’t keep a girlfriend for more than a few weeks. You and Richard are perfect for each other.”
I gave Pam a thoughtful look and bit my bottom lip. “I’m glad to hear you say that,” I admitted. “You just made my day.” I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.
Instead of smiling back, Pam gave me a pitiful look. “You deserve to be happy. Life is short, Felicia. Don’t pass up a good thing. Let Richard know how you feel about him.”
I inhaled with my mouth open. “No way. I could never be that forward. I don’t chase after men. I never have, and I never will.”
“Who said anything about chasing? If you see something you want, go after it. I did.”
“You did what?”
“When I realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Carlton, I let him know. He’s no dreamboat in the looks department, but he’s beautiful on the inside and that’s more important to me than looks. We belonged to the same church and lived in the same neighborhood all our lives, so I got to know him real well over the years. When we were teenagers, he dated a lot of girls and I dated a lot of boys. By the time we finished high school, I realized he was the best man for me.”
“And how did he feel about you?”
“Even though we attended some of the same social events and he took me out a few times, he had never shown any romantic interest in me. We were more like brother and sister. Like you and Richard, and you and Clyde. But when I found out he was planning to join the army, I didn’t want to risk losing him. A lot of the boys I knew were being shipped to Vietnam, and a couple didn’t come back.” At this point, Pam paused and blinked hard. “A month before Carlton left for boot camp, I asked him to marry me.”
“What did he say?”
Pam sniffed and kissed her wedding ring. “Isn’t it obvious? Why else would I be wearing this ring? He was surprised when I proposed, but he didn’t waste any time accepting my proposal. We got married three days before he left. I was proud that he was willing to fight for our country, and God answered my prayers and sent him home in one piece in time for the birth of our first child.”
I swallowed hard. “That’s a touching story, Pam. I’m glad you shared it with me.”
She pursed her lips and gave me a wistful look. “I’m glad you shared your feelings about Richard with me. I hope things work out between you and him.”
“I have no idea how he feels. He’s been a great platonic friend for so long, I don’t want to ruin things by telling him I’m in love with him.”
“Why not?”
“Seriously? You and I have seen enough movies and read enough romance novels to know that’s one of the quickest ways to spook a man and end a good relationship. I’ll never tell Richard I’m in love with him. If all he’s ever going to be is a good friend and coworker, I’ll have to settle for that.”
“I hope you think about it some more and then make the right decision.”
“I’ve already made the right decision. If he has feelings for me, other than as a friend, he would have let me know by now after all the years he’s single.”
CHAPTER 10
RICHARD
The cafeteria in our building had a great menu and the food was excellent. It was a little pricey, but I still ate lunch in it at least two or three times a week. There were a lot of other places to eat that were within walking distance; and with Cleveland being so close, we had a lot of options.
Several of my male friends worked in the vicinity, so I occasionally went to lunch with them. With all the holiday activity going on, it had been a couple of weeks since I’d spent time with Steven Pardee, my closest male friend. Steven owned a house in Cleveland and worked as a loan manager at Mandell National Bank directly across the street from us. He’d been my best man and his wedding gift to us had been an all-expenses-paid two-week honeymoon in Mexico City. He’d also been one of Margaret’s pallbearers. “Hey, brother,” he greeted when I dialed his number. “What’s up?”
“How was your Thanksgiving, Steven?”
“Well, it was nice but not what I expected. Our oven conked out before the turkey finished cooking and we had a dozen guests coming.”
“What did you and Cynthia do when they arrived?”
“Oh, they were all very understanding. We offered to treat everybody to dinner at that buffet on Pike Street. It was the only place we could get a reservation for such a large group. My cousin Jimmy and his wife and son decided to go eat at her folks’ house, but everybody else wanted to go to the buffet. Jimmy’s brother DeShawn, the wrestler, went through the line so many times, the manager threatened to make me pay for him again.”
“I thought it was an all-you-can-eat-for-one-price place?”
“It is! But that’s for normal people. Jimmy’s monthly grocery bill is more than his mortgage.”
“Tell me about it. I’ll never forget how much he ate at my Memorial Day cookout last year. That was the first time we didn’t have any leftovers to eat the next day.”
We laughed. “So, what are you up to today?” he asked.
“I was hoping you could come over and have lunch with me in our cafeteria. Or we could go someplace else as long as I’m back by one.”
“I wish I could go. I’m about to go into our weekly staff meeting in a few minutes and they never end before two. Want to hook up after work for a beer or two?”
“Not today. I drove in and I want to dodge as much of the commute traffic as possible, so I’ll be taking off right at five.”
“I heard that. Well, maybe we can have lunch later in the week.”
“That’s cool. I’ll talk to you later.” I didn’t bother to call any of my other friends. I went to a Mexican restaurant on the next block. Five minutes after I sat down with my two beef burritos and Diet Coke, somebody tapped my shoulder.
“Do you mind if I share your table?” It was Regina. She worked as an accountant for a construction company two blocks over, so we often ran into each other on our breaks. She had a tray that contained two tacos and a tall glass of iced tea. As usual, she was dressed to the nines.
“By all means.” Even though there were three other empty chairs at my table, she plopped down in the one next to me. “Did you get your car taken care of?”
“Thank God, I did. But I’ve decided to trade it in real soon. I don’t want to get bamboozled by a sly car salesman and end up with another lemon, so I might bug you to go car shopping with me.”
“Uh . . . yeah.” I scratched my neck and looked around the room.
“I know you’re probably as busy as I am, so I’ll wait until January or February. Unless you’re available this Saturday.”
“No, I won’t be. I promised Marva and Carol we’d put up our tree earlier than we did last year. We’re going tree shopping first thing Saturday morning. After that we’re going to get some of our other shopping out of the way.”
“Hey! I was going to do the same thing. Mind if I tag along?”
People accused me of being too nice and passive for my own good, which was the reason I usually got myself in situations I would rather have avoided. But this time, I decided to be a little more assertive. “I’m sorry. The girls made me promise we’d spend some quality time doing fun things alone that day.”
“Oh. Well, I can understand that. I probably wouldn’t have enough spare time anyway. I’ll be busy getting my house in order. Brad Burris—the man I was with when I ran into you at the steak house last month—he’s coming over either Saturday or Sunday to help me hang my outside lights. You know how I always like to have the most lavishly decorated house on the block every Christmas. And I can’t do it all by myself.”
I nodded. “Uh-huh. I helped you decorate your house last year,” I said, groaning at the thought of how I’d spent several hours that day catering to Regina. We laughed. I don’t know what made me look around the room but when I did, I spotted Felicia and Pam at a table near the front.
Regina and I finished our orders and got up to leave. I had paid for my lunch when I picked it up, but she still had to pay for hers. We had to walk past the cashier to get to the exit, so we headed in the same direction. Before we reached the counter, she stopped in her tracks. “Oh my God! I just remembered I have only two dollars on me until I go to the bank this afternoon. Richie, can you get me on this one?”
“No problem.” Felicia probably wouldn’t have even noticed me if Regina had not grabbed ahold of my arm and started giggling about how embarrassed she was about not bringing enough money to cover her lunch. Before we reached the exit, with her still holding my arm and giggling loud enough for people to hear, Felicia turned her head and gazed around the room with a preoccupied expression on her face. When she saw me, her head stopped turning. I nodded. She gave me a weak nod and an even weaker smile.
“Look who’s here,” Regina whispered. Before I could respond, she did the last thing I wanted her to do: She steered me in Felicia’s direction.
CHAPTER 11
FELICIA
I suddenly lost my appetite and my breath caught in my throat as Regina and Richard approached.
I inhaled out of astonishment and whispered, “Oh no! They’re coming this way.”
“You be nice now,” Pam advised.
I was so glad I had on my new black padded Stella McCartney jacket, matching boots, and one of my cutest winter dresses. My makeup couldn’t have looked better if a professional had applied it. I didn’t feel the least bit nervous this time. When they stopped by the side of our table, I greeted them with the widest smile my lips could form.
“Ladies.” Richard looked directly at me and nodded again. “Enjoying your lunch?”
“You’d better believe it. This place serves the best Mexican food in town,” Pam replied, purposely bumping my knee with hers.
“Hi again, Felicia,” Regina chirped. She cleared her throat and glanced at Pam. “Your name’s Pam, right?”
“Every day,” Pam replied in a dry tone. “Is it cold enough for you two?”
“Too cold,” Richard said with a frown and a shudder.
“Pffftt. This is nothing compared to Alaska where I used to live.” Regina paused and snapped her fingers. “We’d call this a warm day.” She adjusted the knitted cap on her head and gazed at me, as if sizing me up. “Felicia, it was nice seeing you again so soon. I wish we’d known you two were here sooner. We could have shared a table and chatted for a while.”
“Maybe next time,” I responded, still displaying my wall-to-wall smile.
“Well, I’d better get back to my office before Sam panics,” Richard told us with an exasperated look on his face.
“I have so much work on my desk, we’ll be leaving in a few minutes too,” Pam stated.
“Me too. I have a conference call to L.A. coming up in about an hour,” Regina announced as she pulled Richard away. She held on to his arm like she was afraid he’d leave without her.
They didn’t wait for us to say anything else. We watched until they walked out the door.
“Well!” Pam snapped.
“Well what?”
She bit off a chunk of her burrito and didn’t answer until she’d chewed and swallowed it. “I think they look mighty cozy.”
“If they are ‘cozy,’ so what?”
Pam reared back in her seat and glared at me. “Is that all you have to say? I thought you were in love with that man.”
I hunched my shoulders. “I am.” I had no idea how a woman as strong as I was managed to sound so meek. “He’s got so many other female friends vying for his attention he’s probably not interested in adding another one. Least of all, me.”
Pam rolled her neck and snapped her fingers. “You don’t know what’s on Richard’s mind.”
I gave her a woeful look and let out a loud breath. “I doubt if it’s me. Almost every time I go near his workstation, I see one of those young secretaries on his floor prancing back and forth in front of his office. The day before Thanksgiving, I saw him having lunch in the cafeteria with the one that resembles Be-yoncé.”
“JoAnn Meecham? Pffftt! Don’t worry about her. I know for a fact she’s trying to use Richard to get to his buddy Steven who works in the bank across the street.”
“He’s married!” I wailed. “I met him and his wife at Richard’s wife’s funeral.”
“So? Some women have no shame. If she’s brazen enough to go after a married man, you could at least be brazen enough to go after one who is very much available.”
“How many more times do I have to tell you I want to keep Richard as a friend? There is no telling what he might think if he ever finds out how I feel about him. It could make him uncomfortable, not to mention what a fool I’d feel like. I’d have to start riding a later or earlier bus to and from work to avoid him. And anyway, you rarely hear about a relationship between two people who work close together working out.”
“Ha! My sister Della and her husband were working for the same factory when they got together. They’ve been married for twenty-five years and still work at the same place. I know other folks who worked together and got together and are still together. Why don’t you invite Richard over for dinner?”
“I’ve done that already,” I said quickly.
“When?”
“Last Christmas Eve, remember?”
Pam gave me an incredulous look and waved her hand. “There were two dozen other folks at your party, including me, his daughters, and one of those women who works in our payroll department.”
“I invited him to my Super Bowl party two years ago and he came—without a date.”
“Girl, please. A dozen other folks and I were at that same party. I’m talking about you inviting just him over. In all these years, you’ve never been alone with him.”
“What about the day I went with him to the jewelry store on our lunch hour to help pick out something for his daughter? A few weeks after that, I went there with him again to help him find something for his mother-in-law. Each time he told me to pick out something that I’d choose for myself. That way he knew it would be something very nice. He and I were alone those times.”
“That doesn’t count. You were on company time. You should invite him, nobody else, to have dinner with you at your place.”
“Maybe I’ll think about that sometime in the future. But I’m not sure it’s a good idea to invite him to my house while he’s so into Regina.”
Pam exhaled and gave me a pensive look. “You may have a point there. Maybe she is ‘the one’ for him.”
“Maybe she is,” I agreed.
“Oh well. Maybe it is better if you just remain friends with him.”
I gave Pam a puzzled look. “Why did you suddenly change your tune? I thought you wanted to see us together as a couple.”
“I did. I mean, I do. But keep in mind that nice friends don’t always make nice mates. If things stay the way they are between you two, he’ll always be a friend. In some cases, that’s better than an intimate relationship . . .”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” I admitted.
CHAPTER 12
RICHARD
I groaned when I saw all the new voice and e-mail messages waiting for me when I returned to my office. I didn’t know where to begin. And they ran the gamut. My cousin Helene had left a voice mail gushing about a “great lady” she wanted to introduce to me at her Christmas Eve party. She’d be one of the last ones I called back.
After I’d responded to five of the eight other voice mail messages, my desk phone rang and Pam’s name appeared on the caller ID. I answered her call right away. “Yes, Pam.”
“Richard, would you like to help organize our office Christmas party?”
“Sure. That would be fun. You can count on me.”
“I knew I could but I wanted to confirm it with you anyway. By the way, how was your lunch today?”
“It was nice, Pam. Thank you for asking.”
“That Regina is so stunning.”
“Yes, she is. Um, can we talk later? I have a lot of things going on right now.”
“Okay. I’ll see you on the bus this evening—no, you drove in. I’ll see you on the bus tomorrow morning.”
“Bye, Pam.” I hung up and listened to the next message. In a frantic voice, Sam told me he had left his credit card at the cafeteria where he’d eaten lunch today. He wanted me to retrieve it because he was expecting some important calls and couldn’t leave his office for a while (I couldn’t wait for his secretary to return!).
There were several messages from coworkers who needed technical assistance with their devices. A pushy secretary in the payroll department had left one inviting me to attend the upcoming Christmas Eve party she was hosting at one of our most popular bars. The other messages were even more mundane, so I saved them for later. Regina had left a message thanking me for “treating” her to lunch today and wanted to know when she could treat me. I shook my head. As much as I liked her, I knew that someday I would just have to be blunt and tell her to back off and quit trying to make something out of nothing. She had several other men on her roster, so I couldn’t understand why she gave me so much attention. It seemed like the only person I hadn’t heard from was Felicia.
I sat at my desk and stared off into space for a few seconds before I pushed everything on my mind to the side and focused on Felicia. She had seen me with Regina twice since last Friday. There was no telling what she thought about that. Like so many other folks, she probably thought there was something serious going on between Regina and me.
My feelings for Felicia seemed to get stronger each day. Being in her presence made me feel warm all over. But riding with her on the commuter bus, interacting with her at the office, and having lunch or coffee with groups that included her (we’d never even had coffee alone) was no longer enough. It was time to move beyond our friendship. I was going to ask her to have lunch with me tomorrow. At least that would be a start.
