Chapter Four #2
I tilted my head. “Is that smart?”
“I didn’t work to earn my reputation by being stupid.”
Hmm.
“You tryin’ to scare me?” I asked.
“Absolutely not.”
I held my breath at his tone and let him hold my gaze.
He did this until he wasn’t feeling it anymore and he shared
that by asking quietly, “Do you have plates?”
“I do. What I don’t got is the desire to eat fancy shit in
my house when I’m in the middle of the best movie of all time.”
“We can eat in front of the television.”
I offered an alternate scenario. “You can also call your
boys, get your stuff, and mosey on down the road.”
“I’m quite certain you know that’s not going to happen.”
I stared at him.
Then I sighed.
After that, I got plates.
I had fancy shit piled on one and a flute of champagne
Marcus poured me in my hand while aiming my ass at my couch when I declared,
“I’m not startin’ it up again. I’m good to re-watch
certain parts after it’s done, like when Clairee is in that locker room. But
I’m in the groove, even if it was interrupted, and I’m not re-startin’ my groove.”
“I’ll catch up,” Marcus told me, settling himself in my
armchair, which was the only thing in my place I liked.
Supple leather. Big brass buttons studded all up the front
and curve of the arms.
I bought it even though it didn’t match my inexpensive twill
couch and it cost a whack when I wasn’t making a whack. I was schlepping drinks
and wings at Hooters and wasn’t doing too badly because my hooters put the
“Hoot” in Hooters, but it didn’t touch what I made stripping.
And I bought it because it looked like it belonged in a
castle.
I wasn’t looking at my chair.
I was looking at him.
“Pardon?”
He set his champagne on my side table.
“I’ll catch up,” he told me.
“What do you mean, you’ll catch up?”
“How far into it are you?” he asked.
“I haven’t gotten to the wedding yet.”
His eyes twinkled.
Lord.
“I don’t know what that means, honey,” he said quietly.
“It means, not far.”
“Then I’ll catch up.”
“You sayin’ you haven’t seen Steel
Magnolias?”
He studied me even as he replied, “That’s what I’m saying.”
“How are you breathing on this earth, American, and haven’t
seen Steel Magnolias?”
His eyes kept twinkling.
Lord.
“I’m not certain how to answer that.”
“It’s the best movie of all time,” I repeated my earlier
declaration.
“We’ll see.”
We’ll see?
“You don’t get me, honey bunches of oats,” I began. “It. Is.
The. Best. Movieofalltime.”
He smiled at me. It was warm. Lush. Intimate. A thing of
pure beauty.
I ignored that smile hitting my coochie.
“Play the movie, Daisy,” he ordered.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I snapped.
“Darling, please start the movie.”
Crap.
That I felt in my coochie.
I glared at him, put down my champagne, snatched up the
remote, and started the movie.
Needless to say, the food was great.
Also needless to say, the champagne was fabulous.
More needless to say, it didn’t suck that Marcus not only
didn’t make me get up to get my bombolonis,
he also didn’t make me get up to fill my champagne flute.
And lastly, needless to say, when M’Lynn
lost her nut by Shelby’s casket and I lost my nut right along with her on my
couch in my apartment no matter that I’d seen that scene one hundred and fifty
times, I lost it again, a different way that time, when Marcus got up, nabbed
my remote, and hit pause.
“What are you doing?” I screeched.
“We should not be watching this film.”
Uh-oh.
I looked at his face.
He was looking at the tears on mine and he was not a happy
man.
“Do you have a comedy?” he asked.
“This is a comedy,” I informed him.
“You’re crying.”
“That’s Southern for comedy,” I educated.
“We just watched a young woman with a young child die, her
mother standing there watching as she passed after her daughter was taken off
life support. That is not a comedy, honey.”
At that, for some stupid reason, I let loose.
“She got married to the man she loved. She gave him a baby.
She had a momma who loved her. A daddy who adored her. Brothers who annoyed her
but also adored her. Friends who thought the world of her. Her hubby was a
lawyer who gave her a big house where she could make spaghetti in a big
kitchen, even if she did pass out and slip into a diabetic coma in that
kitchen. She had it all. She didn’t have it for long but she at least had it.
And she appreciated having it. She knew what it meant. And she knew how precious
it was. And she left this world with that preciousness held deep in her heart.
So she’s good to wait with God until their time comes to join her because she
entered those pearly gates knowin’ she left the world
having everything she needed.”
Marcus stood by me sitting on the couch, staring down at me,
and I felt his look like he wasn’t standing removed and staring at me, but like
he was close, holding me in his arms like he loved me, only me, had forever,
and would forever and always.
“That might not say comedy,” I pushed out in a whisper,
trying to get past his look. “But Ouiser and Clairee
are about to rip the lid off, sugar. You just haven’t gotten to that part yet.”
“Do you have a momma who loves you?” he asked abruptly.
I pressed my lips together.
He watched.
Then he bit out, “Right.” His gaze went from my lips to my
eyes. “A daddy?”
“Marcus—”
Just at me saying his name, he got me.
That’s why he interrupted me and went on.
“Brothers?”
I shook my head.
“Sisters?”
I bit my lip.
“Right,” he repeated softly.
“Can we watch the movie?” I whispered.
In response, immediately, he sat next to me. He also
stretched out his legs, crossed his ankles, and put his arm around me, pulling
me into his side.
As I was curled into the corner of the sofa, my legs under
me, my plate gone, my champagne in my hand, I wasn’t able to do anything but
teeter more fully into him so he had all my weight.
I tried to pull away.
I stopped when he announced, “You move, Daisy, this once,
right now, watching this fucking movie, I won’t let you.”
Well, that was clear enough.
“Roger that,” I muttered.
“Settle,” he growled.
Oh boy.
I felt that in my coochie too.
I pressed my lips together again and did as told.
“Fuck,” he went back to muttering, lifted the remote, and
started the movie again.
As I told him, within minutes, Ouiser
and Clairee ripped the lid off.
Even so, Marcus didn’t let me go.
He kept hold of me.
And he didn’t stop.
Not for the whole rest of the movie.
We stood in my open doorway.
Marcus was leaving.
I was marveling at the fact that at his texted command,
Marcus’s men showed, cleared everything, even to the point of cleaning the
flutes and putting the plates in the dishwasher (but even if they cleared
everything, they put the extra bottle of Dom in the fridge and left the
flutes). Then they took off leaving Marcus and me at the door.
I was also marveling at the fact that Marcus didn’t mind
that I rewound to the locker room scene (and played it twice).
Since my mind was otherwise occupied, it came as a surprise
when his hand fell light as it cupped my cheek.
My body jerked and my eyes darted up to his.
“Please don’t touch me.”
His hand dropped away but this time he didn’t move away.
He shifted closer. In my space. Not threatening. Not pushy.
Just…there.
“Have you talked to someone?” he asked gently.
“I’m talkin’ to you now,” I
pointed out.
“About what happened to you, honey.”
I looked to the side.
“Please, darling, look at me.”
I pressed my lips together, drew in breath through my nose,
and looked up at him again.
“You need to talk to somebody,” he urged.
“I’m doin’ a-okay,” I shared.
“You have trouble with me touching you.”
“You find that surprising?” I asked a little sarcastically.
“No. My fear is that, if you don’t speak to someone about
it, you won’t be able to get past it.”
I shook my head. “Had a lot of shit happen to me in my life,
sugar. This is just another load a’ shit I gotta get
around. And make no mistake, like all the others, I’ll get around this.”
His brows went up. “And it’s necessary for you to do it on
your own?”
“All a girl’s got is herself.”
That’s when Marcus Sloan rocked my world.
He did this by declaring, “You’re entirely wrong.”
“I—” I began and I got that one letter out but it didn’t
count because he talked right over me saying it.
“A woman like you should have had a momma who loved her. A
daddy who adored her. Friends who thought the world of her. She should have
grown up every day knowing that straight to her soul, never doubting it, not
for a second.”
I felt my eyes narrow for no other reason than to beat back
what his words were making me feel.
“You don’t know what kind of girl I am.”
“I know precisely the kind of woman you are, Daisy. And if you
don’t understand it, then it’ll be up to me to show it to you.”
Oh Lord.
Time to try another tack.
“Marcus, I’m tellin’ you, you
don’t got a pla—”
He put his hand up between us and shook his head, cutting me
off saying an impatient, “No.”
I kept trying.
“The food was real good and it was sweet, you bein’ all…” I didn’t know how to express the gorgeousness
of it so I used the universal, “whatever with me when M’Lynn
lost it at Shelby’s funeral. And I’m not sayin’ I
haven’t hit a rough patch. I know I have. I’m not in denial or nothin’. I’m workin’ through it,
but doin’ that my way. What I’m sayin’ is, this is sweet and all, but you don’t have a
place in that.”
“You’ve made that clear. I just don’t agree.”
Again, I was getting mad.
“Okay then, I’ll explain it this way. I’m not gettin’ used to some fine man showin’
me attention, bringin’ me fancy food and bein’ sweet only to hit that time when I get my gold
bracelet and a good-bye.”
He stared down at me, something flitting through his eyes.
Then he murmured, “Ah.”
“Ah, what?” I snapped.
It was then he got closer. Still not threatening, but coming
on strong.
I held my breath.
“It’s understandable, in a sense, that you’d say that. You
don’t know me. But I’ll tell you and then I’ll show you that I am not
a man who would come into a woman’s life, a woman who had what happened to you
happen to her, with the intention of doing what I had to do to get what I
wanted and then give her my good-bye.” He drew in breath and didn’t release my
gaze when he finished, “Although understandable, it’s still insulting as all
fuck.”
I blinked and felt my stomach twist painfully.
He shifted back.
“Goodnight, Daisy.”
And with that, he turned, walked down the hall, and
disappeared.