not be taking this trip with him. At that moment, Marshall felt the need to remind Veronica that they were no longer dating. “You do remember that you broke up with me, right?”
“I was just mad that you tried to cancel our trip, but I’m over all that now.”
She looked so cute with her honey-blond hair pulled back that he wanted to ignore Danetta’s request, get his overnight bag and ride out of town with Veronica. Danetta just didn’t believe in having fun anymore. But whether Danetta knew how to have fun or not wasn’t the issue. Marshall had promised her that he wouldn’t mess things up for their company, and he planned to keep his word. “Sorry, hon, I can’t take you on this trip.”
Veronica’s smile disappeared as she snarled, “You jerk. So, it’s like Diane said, huh? You really are going to take her on this trip instead of me.”
“Diane is just messing with your head. Now I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go, Veronica.” He closed the front door and headed back toward his bedroom. Two weeks after he and Diane had called their relationship quits, Marshall had accepted a dinner invitation from Veronica. Diane had gotten so upset that she’d been lying to her about him ever since. He’d unknowingly dated a pair of friends back when he was in high school, and it had ended badly: with the air being let out of his tires.
He would have taken the time to explain things a little more to Veronica and would have even let her in on the situation with the retreat, but Marshall was offended that Veronica would accuse him of two-timing her with Diane. He might date a lot of women, but Marshall had this rule to only date one woman at a time. And he never went back for seconds. Once he was done with a woman, that was it. As a matter of fact, he didn’t even like the idea of dating friends; that high school incident had taught him well. The only reason he’d even considered dating Veronica was because she looked so much like Danetta, but he probably needed therapy to uncover why that even made a difference to him. He went into the bathroom off his master bedroom, turned on the shower and got in. As the hot water steamed up the room, Marshall’s thoughts drifted to Danetta Harris, the only woman, besides his mama, that he’d managed to have a decent relationship with for over a decade. She was his buddy, his comrade. Their friendship had even survived a seven-year business partnership.
Marshall had been a junior and she had been in the second semester of her freshman year when they’d met. He’d thought she was one of the prettiest girls on campus. Not beautiful, but pretty and wholesome...the kind of girl his mother would have begged him to marry. That was the reason he’d kept Danetta in the friend zone. He had been too young to fall in love, and had no clue how to keep a woman like Danetta happy. So when Danetta had come to him one night after finals and confessed that she wanted to hook up with him, Marshall had told her that he liked her much better as a friend and didn’t want anything to spoil their friendship...like a marriage, three kids and a nasty divorce.
Even after that awkward evening, Danetta had stuck by him. Whatever he needed, she had always been there for him. And in return he’d made her a full partner in the company he founded. When he’d offered her the job, Marshall had told Danetta that he needed her to help him conquer the world. He didn’t know why he felt that way, but it was true. With Danetta as COO of Windham Enterprises, the company had tripled its profits within three years. As far as Marshall was concerned, he’d made a good call when he chose Danetta as a friend.
Slam...bang...boom!
“What the devil?” Marshall heard a loud crashing sound coming from his bedroom. He turned off the shower, put a towel around his waist and then opened his bathroom door. The first thing he noticed as he stepped into his bedroom was that his mirror had been shattered and the ceramic lamp Danetta had bought him for his thirtieth birthday was broken into hundreds of pieces and now lay in the middle of his floor. “Are you crazy?” he asked Veronica. “How did you get into my house?”
“Shouldn’t leave your door unlocked when you’re trying to be a player.” Her eyes darted wildly around the room as she looked for something else to throw.
“How am I playing you?” He was perplexed. He thought he was perfectly clear with her. “What are you talking about?”
“I just called Diane and she said that she was packed and waiting for you.”
He held up his hands in frustration. “She’s lying. If I had wanted Diane, I would have never started seeing you.” Marshall had dated Diane for about two months and then Veronica for three...about a month longer than he should have. But he enjoyed companionship on his business trips, and Veronica had been fun to hang out with. So, he’d kept the relationship going a little longer than he should have.
“Yeah, right. Then why aren’t you taking me to this retreat?”
As far as Marshall was concerned, Danetta look-alike or not, he would never take this woman anywhere again. But she had that mad-black-woman look in her eyes, so he wasn’t about to let her in on his little secret. He just wanted to keep the peace, and get her out of his house. “It’s business, Veronica. That’s why I’m not taking you. There’s no other reason.”
She picked up one of his Italian leather shoes and threw it at his head. “You’ve taken me on business trips before,” she said, as she ran out of the bedroom.
He ducked like former President Bush and then, Marshall thought about running after Veronica, but he needed to figure out how to maneuver his way around the room without getting broken glass in his feet. He jumped on his bed and then climbed down on the opposite side of the room. He really didn’t want to go after Veronica. The only reason he was even attempting to find her was in case she was in his kitchen grabbing a butcher knife. He’d seen Fatal Attraction and all those other some-man-did-me-wrong-and-I-done-lost-my-mind movies. “Veronica, where are you?”
She didn’t answer, but he heard footsteps that were headed toward his living room. He just hoped that she didn’t decide to break up any of the valuable antiques in that room. Most of the antiques and portraits in his living room had been purchased during trips outside the country. So, it wasn’t as if he could just run over to Italy or England and replace the stuff. “You’ve got it all wrong, Veronica. I’m not taking you to the retreat because my business partner doesn’t think it’s a good idea. I’m not taking anyone else either.” He tried to smooth things over before his mad black woman went Madea on him...found his electric saw and then cut his leather couch in half. Even though the guy in that movie was completely wrong for the way he’d treated his wife, Marshall had still cringed when Tyler Perry’s Madea had started tearing up the house. No man wants the stuff he’s worked hard for to get torn up. And every guy he knew could think of at least one woman with reason enough to tear his stuff up.
“Liar,” she screamed as she opened the front door and slammed it behind her.
Marshall pumped his fist in the air. “Yes!” he said, as he heard the door slam. But he wasn’t taking any chances. He rushed over to the front door and locked it before going back to his bedroom. He grabbed his cell phone off the nightstand and called his cleaning lady. She agreed to come back to the house and take care of the bedroom. He then threw on some clothes, pulled his overnight bag out of the closet and grabbed his keys. When he stepped outside and saw the key marks on his midnight black Cadillac SUV, he simply shook his head. This wasn’t his first time dealing with a woman who couldn’t handle the end of a relationship, but he hadn’t gone through this kind of drama since his late twenties. At thirty-two, dealing with a scorned woman was getting a bit old.
* * *
Danetta had done five miles on her treadmill. Two was the most she normally did in the morning, but after eating both of those brownies and half of her bucket of ice cream last night, she
