The Reunion - Episode 9

 

‘The night is young’, a popular phrase that keeps on giving, but not for Mariah …she was tired AF, but if given the chance to hang out with Michael again that same night, she would, in a heartbeat. She walked into the hotel room with shaky legs and a thankful heart for the cool air conditioning ,as she tried to get the door wide open, she felt the door bump into a lifeless human figure ,figuring how scary it seemed ,she walked in with a cool ,calm, collected vibe ,and was shocked to say the least . Lisa had found a way to lay flat on the floor, looking as lifeless as a petite doll.

“Uhmm watchu doing?” Mariah asked as she kicked the door shut. 

“I’m dead.” Lisa said with her hands over her face ,Mariah then decided to lie beside her in the same way ,only ,less lifeless …so together, they laid on the ground ,with their head side by side . “He tried to kiss me.” Lisa proceeded. 

“Who did?” Mariah asked, she was clueless

“Jeremy, jerry.” Lisa replied in her muffled but imitative voice.

“And why is that a problem?”

“He is twenty five, I’m twenty eight …I’m not ready to be a cougar, I’m not ready to feel old.” She whined in a way that made her sound like a spoilt brat on a verge of a loud ugly cry. Mariah took a second to laugh lightly at her friend’s dilemma.

“I don’t think that cougar town works that way ,I think you have to be like a  decade older to be part of the cougar community ,so what if you’re three years older ?” Mariah asked with nothing short of sense and sensibility.

“let’s say I get married to him ,when I clock fifty ,he’d still be in his forties …men leave their wives for younger ,more attractive women every day …what will happen to me then ? He’ll probably leave me for a girl in diapers.” Lisa ranted ,Mariah was shocked to say the least ,Lisa was always ‘the go big or go home’ kind of girl, she never ever considered the risks before doing anything ,and for Mariah ,this was a sign ,a sign that her friend was on the verge of falling for someone ,finally.

“First of all, that girl in diapers talk is just …weird, secondly, who said anything about getting married to him, and you just met the guy.”

“M, we are old …our biological clock will soon start ticking ,all this boyfriend and girlfriend talk is getting old …we have to start thinking about our long term goals ,I like jerry ,but that’s not the issue …the issue is ,can he be my long term goal ?” Lisa explained in one long breath.

“Preach!” Mariah yelled in the tackiest deep bass voice.

“How was michaellll?” Lisa asked like an over excited teenage girl on steroids.

“He almost kissed me.” Mariah replied subtly which activated a screeching scream from Lisa who felt the need to jump up in excitement; she changed her posture as she lay on her side, with her head resting on her palm as she gave Mariah the permission to go ahead

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/the-reunion

. “He would have, if Stevie hadn’t interrupted.” Mariah said as she let out a sad sigh.

“Damn Stevie.” Lisa said in protest “go on.” she urged Mariah excitedly in a fancy southern accent.

“he asked me out on a date ,and I said yes…he brings out a side of me that I didn’t even know I had, today …I found out that Judith’s husband had a side chick …if you see the drama I acted..” Mariah was in her whole moment when Lisa cut it short.

“Wait, rewind aunty …what did you say?” Lisa asked with all the attention in the world.

“I said yes, obviously …did you not hear the part about Judith’s scum of a husband?” Mariah said in a highly expressive duh tone.

“Ooh that! Poor Ju…serves her right for being a bitch to you.” Lisa replied unsympathetically as she moved from the floor to the bed in an elegant fashion.

“No woman deserves that, not even Judith …she’s a nice lady deep down.” 

“No she’s not, did you see the way she looked at you the other night? I’m telling you M, she’s vicious...but you’re right, no one deserves to be cheated on, men are scum.” Lisa said.

“Yeah.” Mariah said with an undeniably long expressive yawn.”

“Whoa! Don’t swallow me abeg, I have a date with an attractive youngie.” Lisa joked with an extensive grin on her face; the day was finally over for them. Lisa fell asleep as she chatted the night away with her youngie while Mariah fell asleep on the floor, thinking, thinking about Michael, thinking about Dayo, but Most importantly, thinking about herself, considering the fact that she loved herself more.

                **************

The morning brought everything good, from the beautiful gush of wind, to the most beautiful sunrise that woke Lisa up, to one of God’s beautiful creation, otherwise known as Dayo.

“Mariah …M...aunty bubbles.” Lisa cried out mockingly on all fours as she tried to wake sleeping beauty Mariah up.

“What?” Mariah dragged sleepily.

“Dayo is here, he is at the door.”

“What?” Mariah asked as she jumped off the hard floor. “Oww!” she exclaimed as she tried to put her neck back in place.

“Thanks for sleeping on the floor by the way, the bed was extra comfy.’” Lisa said, she was in a good mood, she had a breakfast date with jerry, she didn’t know what he planned and she liked it, no guy had ever done anything thoughtful for her, Jerry was surprisingly thoughtful, and she liked that fact so much that it made her skin crawl, in a bad good way.

“Why is he here?’” Mariah was scrambling around the room thinking of her next move, till she stopped, she noticed that her ‘friend’ was dressed up to kill. “Where are you going?” she asked Lisa.

“Youngie and I practically stayed up all night chatting, and we decided to make our date a breakfast thing …guess who else I chatted with?” Lisa asked excitedly, and all she got from Mariah was a death glare accompanied with folded arms “dayooo! He’s a cutie, I don’t know what happened between you guys, I made him my friend so that he will give me the 411, but the guy is as tight lipped as you are, anyways …I invited him here, have fun babe.” Lisa said as she nearly suffocated Mariah in a hug.

“Lisaaa, please make him go away, I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet.” Mariah whined.

“don’t worry ,if you’re not so fashionable self didn’t chase him away ,I don’t think your bad breath will …I will see you later and I’m letting him in ,in three ,two …” Lisa opened the door and she had a huge smile, she let Dayo in as she walked out .

“Hey.” Dayo said charmingly ,his shirt was buttoned up and he looked better than Mariah could remember ,the years have been good to him ,she thought as she silently ran into the bathroom for a quick brush ,she came back out to a comfortable Dayo ,he always knew how to make himself comfortable …she walked slowly ,all the while ,avoiding eye contact with Dayo ,she silently sat on the bed beside him .

“You look beautiful.” he said with a smile on his face, Mariah let out a scoff in denial of his statement.

“Dude, I’m in my over sized pajama’s, how do I look beautiful?” she asked defensively.

“I don’t know, you just do …almost effortless.” He said as he moved closer to her.

“what are you doing?” she asked as she tilted her head to look at him ,she knew that move ,first he’d move closer ,then he’d wrap his arm around her neck ,and then he would do whatever he felt was ‘next’. She knew that move all too well.

“ nothing , I don’t like the space between us …and I don’t mean just right now .” he clarified ,Mariah was silent ,since she was the cause of the space between them ,they were once undeniably close .First it was just her ,then it was her and Dayo ,then Chinelo joined the party …they became best friends ,and the rest ,like they say; is history. “What happened to us?’ He asked rhetorically. “You know ,I never got over the fact that you royally snubbed me from high school ,till now …you’re good at this .” he said rather thoughtfully ,but she could hear the echoes of sadness in his voice as she spoke ,she felt like a monster, she felt like his monster

“How have you been?” Mariah replied as she ignored his previous statements.

“I have been great M…I just won my first big case.” He said in a matter of fact undertone.

“Ooh wow, so you’re a big shot lawyer now?” 

“yeah ,a big shot lawyer that got dumped on the altar .” he said with a smile that could have interpreted anything at all , Mariah was quite surprised ,she never got an invitation or anything of that sort ,in some weird way ,she thought she was irreplaceable ,she was obviously wrong .

“You were engaged?” she finally asked.

“Yeah, it was fun while it lasted, till she didn’t show up at our wedding because she was hooking up an ex boyfriend.” Dayo rolled his eyes at his own story; he had told it so many times …it usually got him sympathy from the ladies, in a good way.

“Ouch! I’m so sorry Dayo.” Mariah said, she sat even closer to him as she placed her left hand on his right hand, she felt sad for him in more ways than one, he was a good eye that never got the girl he truly wanted, and that second, she wasn’t sure if she pitied him or actually felt something way bigger than that.

“It’s cool; I’ve moved on …I had a lot of practice thanks to you.” He said with an uneven smile that made Mariah even sadder than she initially was. “Have you had breakfast yet?” he asked with every shred of care he had.

“I literally just woke up.” Mariah said smiling ,her smile game got better when she got a text .it was a text from Michael , he gushed about how adorable she was ,and of course …he was thinking about her ,’basic guy moves’ she thought ,but that didn’t stop her from blushing till her skin was all glowed up  ,Dayo noticed the whole scene ,and of course he knew what it meant.

“Are you dating Michael?” he was a straight shooter and that was one of the things Mariah liked about him.

“Not yet.” she blushed, as she stared at her phone thinking of a smooth reply “I mean...no.” she corrected shyly.

‘be careful M…I know he is Michael …and you think he is this amazing guy that no other guy could match up to ,but trust me when I say that Michael is probably up to no good ,at all.” Dayo dropped his two cents on the issue as he got off the bed “shall we?” he asked as he held out his arm to Mariah ,she looked up at him in amazement ,not because she didn’t know what he was talking about …but because , she felt it . He still liked her, even after all their years apart; she was his ‘Michael’.

“Shall we what?” she asked.

“We are going to have breakfast.” he replied in a duh tone.

“okay ,how about you wait for me at the lounge or something ,I have to at least take a shower .” she said ,he smiled at her in a way that made her smile back ,he nodded his head in agreement and silently made his way out of the room . “hey ,I’m sorry for what I did to us …I just felt awkward when you asked me out ,I was naïve and stupid …I shouldn’t have stopped talking to you …I really miss you ,I miss us.”  Mariah confessed, she regretted all of it.

“It’s cool, you weren’t naïve or stupid …you’re the smartest person I know, sure, you made the wrong choice, but who doesn’t?” he stated lightly, he smiled at her and with nothing but a small space between them, he walked out.

Mariah had never felt so refreshed ,not just because of the steamy bath she just had ,but because of the text from Michael ,and partly because of Dayo ,she didn’t realize how much her life sucked without him, she picked up her phone ,still thinking of a smooth reply ,she stood silently for a while as she watched the vertical bar on her message screen blink and blink ,she couldn’t think of a reply so she tossed her phone aside as she got ready to meet Dayo.

                                      *******

Lisa was finally loosing every bit of patience she had, she knew dating a younger guy would come with baggages, but she was ready to look past it. Here she was, at the lounge waiting for a guy who obviously found pleasure in making ladies wait, waiting was not a good look for her, and so she used the cover up technique valuably provided by her smart phone.

“Lisa …I’m so sorry.” an apologetic jerry exclaimed as he stormed towards Lisa, she got off the chair and tried to walk past him, till he grabbed her hand.

“Look, I don’t care what your excuse is …but this is a warning sign from whoever, I can’t do this with you.” she said in an attempt to describe ‘this’.

“I know, I actually have a good excuse …my sister was craving a lot of things, I had to run out and get them, I came here as fast as I could.” he explained honestly.

“Like I said, I don’t care.” she replied as she forced her hand out of his. “look…you’re nice and all, you’re even a good brother ,Mariah believes in signs …I don’t ,but this seems like a sign ,I can’t start anything with you ,as much as it sucks to even admit this ; I really like you ,I haven’t liked anyone this much in forever ,but …” she said .

“You’re scared.” Jerry interrupted.

“What?  I’m not scared of anything.” she retorted.

“You are, you are scared that you will eventually fall for me, you know you will.” He replied with a smirk on his face ,Lisa didn’t appreciate the fact that he had diced her feelings accurately ,but she wasn’t about to feed his ego by staying ,so she walked away before jerry could think ,or even try to stop her .

Mariah had no clue that she was walking in the wrong direction as she tried to find Dayo, she looked around the lounge in search of him and she was starting to feel stupid as she paced back and forth in one circle, she was about to take a step in the right direction when she bumped into a very manly figure.

“I’m so sorry.” She said as she tried to look at him.

“You didn’t text me back.” he said, she was beyond speechless; she smiled at him because he was smiling.

“I’m sorry about that Michael, I’ve been busy all morning.” that seemed like smooth talk to her as she moved a step backward.

“It’s cool, so who are you looking for?” he asked.

“Dayo …you remember him right?”

“Yeah sure, he doesn’t like me very much, I think I walked passed him when I saw you.”

“REALLY? Where? Do you know where I can find him?” Mariah asked all in one breath, she didn’t want to give Dayo the impression that she was ditching him, judging by everything she knew; he probably had enough of that for one life time.

“He is walking over here right now.” Michael said, she turned over to see Dayo, he smiled at her and she felt like she had received a lot of smiles that morning alone to last her a whole life time. Dayo and Michael shared a friendly handshake.

“What’s up bro?” Michael asked, and in a matter of seconds, an awkward silence enveloped their triangle.

“I’m good dude.” Dayo replied simply.

“I heard that you were ditched at the altar, tough blow man …sorry about that.” Michael said almost mockingly, all Mariah wanted, was for Michael to walk away, Dayo didn’t necessarily give Michael a reply, he barely nodded his head

“Have dinner with me, tonight?” Michael asked charmingly ,Mariah’s tongue was suddenly tired ,so she smiled and nodded in agreement ,Michael gave Dayo a subtle nod ,gave Mariah a heart melting warm kiss, and just like that ,he walked away leaving nothing but silence behind .