Chapter 46 Geneva
Geneva
I’d been sneaking calls from the stockroom, trying my best to get hold of Crystal. But her secretary said she’d taken the day off. All I was getting at her apartment was her answering machine, and her cell phone kept going to voice mail.
I really needed to talk to her about this whole situation with Deeka. It was killing me, keeping it from her, and I just couldn’t spare the ten dollars I’d have to spend for a phone card to call Noah.
So I was going to tell Crystal and get some decent advice for a change. I was about to pick up the phone and dial her number for the eighth time when Darlene’s head popped around the door, and she exclaimed, “Lover boy is outside!”
“Shit. Did you tell him I was here?”
“Yes, I did,” she said gaily before disappearing.
Panicked, I remained where I stood and was just about to dash out the back door when I heard Darlene’s voice shrilly stating, “Hey, you can’t go back there!”
“Geneva!”
I turned slowly around to face him.
“Why are you doing this to me, ’Neva?” he asked.
His face seemed drawn, his eyes red. Had I done this to him?
“Deeka, it’s not right; it’s just not right.”
“What’s not, ’Neva? That I love you? When did loving someone become wrong?”
“But you’re so—”
“So what, Geneva? So young? Age is just a number; it has nothing to do with what a person feels in his heart.”
“Look at me,” I said, my eyes welling up with tears. I spread my arms out at my sides. “Is this what you really want?”
“Yes.”
Deeka rushed to me then and embraced me. I fought weakly for a moment, and then I melted into him.
“I love you, Geneva. You’ve got to believe me,” Deeka whispered into my neck.
“But—” I started, but he hushed my objections with a long, lingering kiss.
“But…” I began again when we finally came up for air, “but what if it doesn’t work?”
“If it doesn’t work, at least we can’t say we didn’t try.”
We kissed again, and somewhere off in the distance I heard Darlene blubbering like a two-year-old.