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Episode
#5
Destiny
was still laughing as she left Sharay's office to head back to
work. Sharay always
managed to make light of things, helping Destiny to see that
things weren't as horrific as her dramatic life led her to
believe. As soon as
Destiny stepped into her office, she was wowed at the massive
vase on her desk that housed two dozen long stemmed red roses.
"Beautiful, huh?"
Destiny turned around and found her assistant Dara
smiling. "When
the delivery guy brought them up, everyone was hoping that they
were for them. But
you were the lucky winner."
Destiny smiled as she walked over to her desk
and bent her head slightly to take in the flowers' aroma.
"The card is on your desk," Dara added as she
followed Destiny into the office.
Settling in to her seat, Destiny lifted the card and
read, Just a lil something
to let you know I'm thinking about you.
See you tonight, Devon.
Blush rose in her cheeks.
"Hmmm," Dara laughed, "secret
admirer?"
"No," Destiny answered, her voice a
thick whisper, "not anymore."
"Well, you enjoy your flowers, oh and
your mom called while you were out…said she wanted to touch
base."
To Dara's departing back, Destiny shouted,
"Thanks Dara."
With her door fully closed behind Dara,
Destiny beamed a smile that outshined the sun.
"This man is really trying to get on my good
side," she said as she picked up her receiver to call her
parents. "Might
as well give them a call now."
On the third ring, a robust bass voice
answered, "Love residence."
"Hey Daddy."
"Babygirl, you must have gotten your
mother's call today. It's
been a while since we heard from you."
"Dad," Destiny laughed, "all
of a week. That's
it." They
both laughed.
"Well you know a day without you around
equals a year around here, Baby."
Destiny
slipped a stockinged foot under her bottom.
"So what's going on, Dad?" Her eyes never
left the vase of roses.
"You know I'm thinking about retiring,
well, taken on less cases this year, so I've been on the lookout
for a partner to the practice."
"I know Mom must be thrilled.
She can finally get her husband back, and you guys can go
on the vacation to
Greece
you've been promising her since Creation."
Chuckling, Destiny's father, Gavin replied,
"I know, I know. Your
mother makes sure to tell me at least twice daily of how I've
wronged her all these years."
"I have not!"
Destiny laughed, hearing her
mother, Carol in the background defending herself.
"Am I silly to want to spend time alone with the man
I love?"
"See," Gavin laughed, "she
goes for those loving hints."
"Yeah, I see," Destiny said, still
laughing. Destiny
always considered herself lucky to have parents like Gavin and
Carol Love. They
were college sweethearts, having met at a college down south
during orientation. Gavin
had dreams of becoming a lawyer, and Carol of being a professor.
Four years later, and just before Gavin began law school,
the two married and had been so for the last thirty-five years.
Destiny chuckled to herself as she remembered the looks
on people face's when she told them that Gavin and Carol were
her parents, both not looking a day over 40.
Being overachievers by
nature, Gavin quickly opened his own firm, becoming one of the
lead black attorneys on the East Coast while Carol wrote and
professed at a local university.
After 35 years of
marriage, Destiny thought, a
vacation definitely seems in order.
"So, you want to speak to your
mother?" Gavin asked, interrupting Destiny's trip down
memory lane.
"Yeah, Dad, and I promise I will try and
make it over."
"You better, we're only 45 minutes away
for goodness' sakes."
The soft breathy voice of her mother as she
said, "Hey Girl" made Destiny smiled.
"Hey there. Miss Thang," Destiny
said. "What was so important of a call that you made it
sound like I've estranged myself from you guys?"
Carol laughed.
"I just wanted to hear from my only daughter, see
how everything was going."
"I'm okay, can't complain."
"You still going to see Dr. Cache?"
Destiny sighed, rubbing along the back of her
neck. "Yeah, I
am. You know what he
told me last week?"
"Probably go out and meet some men.
I know that's what I've been telling you for months
now…for free."
They laughed.
"Oh hush. But you're right, that's exactly
what he said. Told
me not to let Frank win."
"I totally agree. You have too
much to offer someone. Shouldn't be wasting your time
being bitter."
"I know, Mom.
It's just hard, I mean Frank was my first love.
I pictured him as my forever
like you and Dad, you know?"
"Honey chile, please, now you know that
your father and I have had our moments." Carol chuckled.
"We can get on each other's nerves like I don't know
what."
"Yeah, but you keep it real, you know?
You guys have a very solid foundation that you built a
marriage on, and I wanted that with Frank."
"Well, I know how hurt you were about
all that, Baby, I do. Remember,
I made your gown, still have it here boxed up in your old
bedroom."
Destiny sighed.
For the last six months, she had struggled to put in the
past the memories of how Frank had done her so wrong.
Tried to forget the magical moment in
Jamaica
during their yearly vacation when Frank got down on one need and
asked her to marry him while slipping onto her finger a
two-carat diamond. Tried
to forget all the preparations, the gown, the church, the
invitations, only to be crushed a month before the wedding with
the revelation that Frank wasn't what he appeared.
That he had been questioning their relationship, their so-called love.
It was the most heart breaking moment of
Destiny's life, and as the past flashed before her eyes, tears
sprung to her eyes, dampening her cheeks.
Wiping them, she whispered, "I can't even hate him,
Mom. I feel so weak
because it's like if he came to me, begging and pleading and
professing his deepest love for me, I think I might be stupid
enough to take him back."
"That wouldn't be wise," Carol
said, a hard tone inflected into her voice.
"I don't want to be charged with murdering my only
daughter." They
laughed.
"I know that's not going to happen…the
Frank coming back to me thing," Destiny said.
"I guess I'm just feeling inside out, upside down
right now. A part of
me just wants to be alone to continue licking my wounds and
focusing on my career…"
"And the other part?"
"The other part misses what it was like
to have a man hold me or talk to me or laugh with me or kiss me.
I don't want to forget what those
things feel like, Mom."
"Do you have any prospects in the
horizon? I know my
baby, and you too beautiful to not have at least one, even if
you do give him the cold shoulder."
Destiny laughed. "You know me so
well."
"I'm your mother, it's what I'm not paid to do, so tell me about the prospects."
Destiny's eye fell to the
roses again, and she felt a warm glow infiltrate her skin.
"Well, I don't really have any."
"Don't really?
What's that mean?"
"There's this one guy…"
"A HA," Carol yelled, laughing.
"Who is he, what's his name?"
"Calm down, Mom, don't go taking out the
gown just yet…we haven't even been on an official date yet.
But it's
Devon
, Devon Michaels, the head sports writer/editor here at The
Sentinel."
"Whoa now," Carol responded.
"I've seen his picture in the sports section.
He's cute."
"Yeah, and he thinks so, too."
Laughing, Carol asked,
"So when do you expect your first date will be?"
"Actually, it's tonight, so I need to be
reading through some letters here and get home to change.
It's very casual…dinner, talking, normal stuff."
"I'm too excited for you, Honey,"
Carol cooed. "Well,
don't let me keep you because I know you need to hurry and get
home to look absolutely irresistible for Mr. Michaels."
"Ha!
He'd be happy to see me even if I had on old, dingy jeans
and a beat-up tee shirt. He's
kinda been asking me out for a while now."
"And you're just now having a
date?"
"What can I say?" Destiny laughed.
"I'm going through a major crisis here in my
life."
"Baby, it's only a crisis if you let it be one. Remember,
things are never as bad as we think they are."
"Yeah, they do say that, don't
they?"
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