CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Three weeks later and it was still going good. No shoes were trying to drop and they were beginning to appreciate their new, happier lot in life. And all that talk of separate bedrooms flew out the window that first night in Grant’s home when they slept together. They’d been sleeping together, in peace and harmony, ever since. And Grant was still leaving Marti his usual notes. And they all contained that one same proviso: eat breakfast.
But when Marti saw it this time, she realized she still had not asked him why. After getting up, bathing and dressing and hopping in her car, backing out of his garage, and making her way to work, she decided to phone and asked him. She always forgot to bring it up when they were together. She was determined to bring it up this time. Especially since she was leaving too late for breakfast.
“Hey.” He had been at work for over three hours already.
“Why do you always put that in your note?”
“Put what in my note?”
“For me to eat breakfast.”
“Because I know you don’t eat breakfast.”
“How would you know that? You’re always gone when I wake up, and we haven’t known each other that long. How would you know my eating patterns?”
“Because you’re small. And I don’t want you to get any smaller. I told you I want meat on your bones.”
“But I’m not skinny.”
“I didn’t say you were skinny,” Grant said, “but if you keep missing meals you will be.”
Marti smiled as she turned into the McDonald’s parking lot. “I thought you liked skinny women.”
“Why would you think that? I said just the opposite.”
“Celeste is skinny.”
“Celeste isn’t my woman. She’s somebody I used to sleep around with. You aren’t in that category.”
“But you sleep around with me.”
“I do not sleep around with you. I sleep with you. That’s different.”
Marti smiled again. “If you say so,” she said doubtfully. Then she added: “Let me place my order.”
“Where are you?”
“McDonald’s. I’m grabbing a coffee. The coffee at the office sucks.”
“Grab an Egg McMuffin while you’re at it.”
“I don’t like Egg McMuffins.”
“Do it, Marti.”
Marti rolled her eyes.
“May I help you?” It was the woman on the drive through intercom.
“Yes, ma’am, I’ll take a coffee with two sugars, no cream, and an Egg McMuffin.”
The woman gave her the total, and she drove past the order window and waited in line.
“And make sure you eat it,” Grant said.
“I’ll try. Eating this early in the morning ain’t my thing.”
“Eating any time of the day doesn’t seem to be your thing. Just do it. But anyway, I’ve got to go,” he said, and then he just ended the call.
After paying for and retrieving her order, she got back on the highway to make her way to the station. But the way he abruptly ended their call after barking out orders to her was beginning to concern her. He always did that to her. And he way he insisted she order food she didn’t even like concerned her too. Sometimes he came across as if he knew what was best for her even if she disagreed with him. It was as if he was in complete control of their relationship. A relationship that was solidly under wraps, not just at work, but around town too. She couldn’t even park her car on his driveway. She always had to put it in his garage. And whenever they sat outside on his gorgeous front porch, it was always late at night. They had no dinner dates out. No movie nights. Just the two of them inside his house. Which was fine for now. Their affair was still young. But eventually she was going to want more.
And ever since that night he told her that he loved her, he hadn’t said it again. They’d talk on the phone and when he was ready for the call to end, he’d just end it. No l ove you, bye , or not even just bye . He hung up. And Marti was allowing it. But only because she so wanted this relationship to work! Even though, if she was to be truthful with herself, none of her past affairs worked out despite her best efforts because of the cheating. They were all cheaters. All of them. That was the level of man she always picked, and always ended up losing herself over.
Grant isn’t that kind of man, she reminded herself as she made her way to town. But she would have never thought Roger was that kind of man, either, or Dexter or Mikey or Lawrence or any of the others that came before. And also like them, Grant was domineering. He was a control freak. She knew that the moment she met him. And it was beginning to look very familiar to her because all of her priors were control freaks too. But Grant’s control always centered around helping her. Doing for her. Paying attention to her. What he thought was best for her. The men in her prior relationships were all about her catering to them and being there for them and doing for them. It was all about them. Grant was all about her. That was what separated him from them.
BAM !
She heard the crash before she felt it. Then she felt the tail end of her Charger lifting up and then slamming back onto the street. She quickly looked through her rearview mirror and saw one of those huge four-door pickup trucks ramming into her car again, causing her car to swerve so recklessly that it nearly swerved out of control.
But she regained control, realized that this was no accidental crash, and put her pedal to the metal. She floored it and sped away.
But the fact that the back of her Charger was dragging in the street, creating sparks and fire, slowed her tremendously. She couldn’t take off the way she wanted to and that massive pickup was able to stay on her tail and ram her again.
But when she was able to control the swerve such that she only went side to side briefly, and as they were approaching an intersection, the driver of the big truck apparently lost patience and sped up beside her car and attempted to perform a PIT maneuver on Marti’s car.
But Marti was a cop to her soul. She knew how to perform PITs, and she knew how to avoid them too. She avoided the first one, as she moved side to side to prevent that truck from slamming the side of her automobile.
But as she entered the intersection and was forced to run the redlight or be killed by that big truck, she suddenly had to slam on brakes when another car, who had the green light, was flying through the intersection. She avoided the car because the car saw her and swerved out of her way, but the truck was able to slam into the side of Marti’s Charger with such force that she found herself spinning in the middle of a busy intersection.
Most of the cars were able to stop from hitting her. But one car, driven by a texting teen, slammed into her mid-spin and both of them went careening across the divide until they both ended up in the ditch. People, horrified by what they’d witnessed and how close it nearly took them out, too, hopped out of their vehicles and ran to assist the two drivers.
But the driver of the pickup truck that had been tormenting Marti before that crash, turned left at that intersection, and kept going.