Don't Even Go There. Brenda Hampton

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СКАЧАТЬ about the three years I’d wasted with him. What a setback.

      I finally found my keys, and as I left my apartment, I bumped into my neighbor, Lance, who was leaving his apartment too. He seemed to be running late as well, and we met up on the steps.

      “Good morning,” he said, extending his hand for me to go down the steps in front of him. “Ladies first.”

      “Thanks, Lance.” I hurried down the steps in my high heels and thick winter coat. The light snow had been falling for a few hours, and when Lance and I reached our cars, they were covered with snow.

      He looked at his watch. “I guess there’s no need to hurry because I’m already late.”

      “Me too,” I laughed.

      He brushed the snow off his car with a snow scraper and offered to do mine. I had a towel that I’d gotten from my trunk and it really wasn’t doing much. I accepted Lance’s offer and stood shivering as I watched him clean both of our cars. Lance was just an okaylooking brotha. He looked to be in his late thirties, had a shiny bald head, and wore a trimmed mustache. I could never tell if his body was hooked up or not, because his clothes were always too big and, quite frankly, too slouchy. I had seen several different women at his apartment; I guess it really didn’t matter how a man looked, as his collection was always more than one. Besides that, he drove an older model Ford Expedition that needed some work. He was always outside trying to fix it, and had asked me for a jump at least twice. I wasn’t trying to judge; after all, Lance seemed like a really nice person.

      “You’re good to go, Chase,” he said, stepping away from my car. “Be careful on the roads and have a good day.”

      “You too, Lance. Thanks.”

      I got into my clean burgundy car, quickly turning it on so it could heat up. Lance waved again before pulling away. I followed him, making my way to work.

      I was twenty minutes late, and the only person who had made it there before me was my other coworker, Veronica. Her cubicle was behind mine, and instead of peering over it like she always does, she came around it to talk to me. I hung my coat on the coat rack, and her eyes were checking me out.

      “You always look so nice in your suits. How many of them do you have? I swear I’ve never seen you wear the same thing twice.”

      I was a clothes and shoe fanatic, but I knew how to coordinate my outfits to make them look different. The gray pantsuit I wore today was accented with a silk pink blouse and silver and pink accessories. My sleek ponytail was flipped on the ends and my makeup was a work of art. I understood why Veronica seemed jealous.

      “You know how much I love clothes, but you look cute too,” I lied. The flowered skirt was not working for her and she looked like a blooming fat petunia. The hip-length sweater she wore was too tight, and if Veronica would have glanced in the mirror a little longer this morning, she would have seen what I did. Aside from that, she did have a pretty, round face, and her natural hair was full of tight curls.

      “Thanks for the compliment, Chase. I guess we’ll have to wait for Liz to get here. She already called and said she’d be about thirty minutes to an hour late. I got an early start, so traffic wasn’t a problem for me.”

      “Well, it was for me.” I nudged my head toward Claudette’s cubicle. “Did she call in yet?”

      “No, not yet. I’m sure she’ll be showing up soon. She hasn’t missed one day of work.”

      As Veronica spoke, I got a closer look at her. I noticed a small bruise close by her eye, and squinted before questioning her. “What’s that underneath your eye?”

      Instead of saying anything, she walked over to her cubicle and pulled out a compact mirror from her purse. She touched the bruise with her finger, then pulled out a tube of foundation to dab the spot underneath her eye. “Stupid me,” she said. “I bumped into my door yesterday and hit my eye. I didn’t know it had gotten that bad and I tried to cover it up.”

      I knew what Veronica said was a lie, and this wasn’t the first time I’d noticed a bruise on her face. I couldn’t help but confront her about my suspicions. “Veronica, you don’t have to lie to me, all right? I suspect that your boyfriend has something to do with those bruises that I keep seeing on you. You really need to leave him alone, especially if he’s putting his hands on you. If there is anything that I can do to help, let me know.”

      Veronica’s eyes had already started to water. I reached out to give her a hug, and gave her a Kleenex that was on her desk. She dabbed her eyes. “We get into it all the time over stupid stuff. I try to keep my mouth shut, but he always calling me names and saying things that hurt my feelings. I do fight his butt back, but there’s no doubt that he always gets the best of me.”

      I shook my head with disgust. I had seen and heard about that kind of foolishness too many times. Veronica didn’t even realize how she was keeping herself in a situation that could easily turn tragic. She had a cute little girl, too, and I wondered what she was going through at home. Her situation kind of reminded me of mine when I was little. My parents argued all the time and I would sit in my room, crying my butt off. My hands covered my ears to drown out the noise, but it was never enough. I was so glad when my mother left him, and it led to us having a peaceful home. My mother never brought any charges against him, but later in life she told me she regretted that she hadn’t. She encouraged me never to put up with an abusive, cheating, or lazy man, and her encouragement was enough for me to know when I was in the wrong kind of relationship. I put my thoughts to the back of my head, and got back to my conversation with Veronica.

      “Why don’t you just leave him alone, Veronica? There are other men out there, and plenty of men who won’t put their hands on you.”

      “I know. But we’ve been together for six years and it ain’t all that bad. We have our good times, too, and I know when enough is enough. I’ll be okay.”

      There wasn’t any thing left to be said. I could talk until I was blue in the face, but Veronica had to wake up in her own time. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too late for her.

      I returned to my cubicle, and before I sat down, Claudette came from around the corner with a bright smile on her face. She was always so bubbly, and that kind of fakeness really worked my nerves.

      “Good morning,” she said, rushing to take off her coat. “It’s cold as Alaska out there, isn’t it?”

      Veronica and I both went over to Claudette’s cubicle. Of course, we had to do the morning check, compare what we were wearing. Claudette had on a gray pantsuit too, but to me, the suit looked cheap. She wore a canary yellow shirt underneath and threw in a hint of red to make herself look colorful. Her style in no way worked for me, but I guessed it worked for her, or so she thought. She checked out me and Veronica, and we already knew what was coming next.

      “Don’t y’all look cute today,” she squealed. “Is Liz here yet? I want to take an early lunch and I hope she doesn’t mind. I made an appointment to go look at some flowers for my wedding and no other day or time was available.”

      “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind,” I said. “Just let her know.”

      “Let me know what?” Liz said, coming around the corner with a cup of Starbucks Frappuccino in her hand. Now, none of us could come close to the class Liz had. That still didn’t stop her from checking me out, and she knew that I too had a style and sexiness about me that couldn’t be duplicated. She was СКАЧАТЬ