Page 25 of Night and Day
“I wanted someone who listened. Who treated my needs like a priority.”
“And jumped through the hoops that you set before him,” Anton added.
“You never appreciated me, but I’ll tell you this, behind every successful man is a good woman. You had a good woman, Anton, and you blew it. Good luck to you.”
Melissa stormed into the spare bedroom, and he fought the urge to punch the wall. The nerve of her, to suggest that his success hinged on his relationship with her. She was certainly full of herself.
“Good luck, Calvin,” he muttered.
He and Melissa had been together almost two years, but about six months into the relationship, she started hinting around about them not spending enough time together because of his work schedule. He finally gave her a key to his place so she could come and go as she pleased. Then she’d claimed it was more convenient to leave a few items of clothing at his apartment, but those few items turned into a drawer and almost half his closet.
Then she started spending more time at his place than at hers, and he was so busy with work, it was too late before he figured out what she was doing. She gave up her apartment and moved in, saying she didn’t see the point of them having two places when she was there most of the time, anyway. The invasion of his apartment had been gradual but effective, and after a while he’d found the intrusion untenable. When he told her a while back that they needed to talk, she effectively kept dodging the conversation. Last week she told him that she was going on a business trip and could talk when she returned. Little did he know she’d planned to ditch their relationship and spring her new man on him.
“Goodbye, Anton,” Melissa said, following Calvin to the door.
Anton walked toward them. “Keys,” he said, extending his hand.
Melissa swung around to face him. Despite his animosity toward her, he couldn’t deny she was an attractive woman. She’d caught his eye at a party, and he’d approached her because she had a beautiful face and nice body. Over time, he made excuses for why her personality didn’t quite mesh with his and convinced himself that she had plenty of other good qualities. But the truth was, she wasn’t the right person for him. They weren’t the right people for each other.
“I left them right there.” Melissa jabbed a finger at the apartment and mailbox keys on the coffee table. Then she slammed the door on the way out.
12
Because it was a weeknight, the Double Trouble Bar wasn’t very busy, but Anton was not enjoying the after-work distraction. He was irritable and jittery, and it was all Tamika’s fault. He missed her.
How could he miss someone he barely knew? Someone so different from him. She was talkative and loud. He didn’t talk nearly as much and was more reserved. Yet his attraction to her was unmistakable. He thought about her all the time and even asleep he couldn’t rest. One time he woke up in the middle of the night after a very vivid dream and reached for her, encountering nothing but empty space and cool sheets. Rest only came after he grabbed the lotion and quickly got rid of his hard-on.
Beside the pool table, Anton watched his two coworkers. He and Marvin were junior attorneys around the same age, while Axel Becker was a senior attorney and about seven years older.
“How long has it been? A month?” Marvin asked, shoving his glasses higher on his nose before bending over the table to line up a shot.
“Something like that,” Anton admitted, talking loudly to be heard over the noise in the bar.
A bunch of guys and their girlfriends played at the other tables—drinking, yelling, and engaging in raucous laughter.
“And you’re still thinking about her. Must be love.” Marvin took the shot, but the striped ball missed the pocket and bounced off the side.
They’d been talking about dating. Axel was engaged to a woman he’d fallen hard for while on vacation in Belize. Marvin was happily married with a baby on the way. With both men off the dating scene, the conversation had centered on Anton’s dating life, or lack thereof.
He admitted that he’d only gone on one official date since his break up with Melissa. He didn’t count eating pizza on the floor of Tamika’s apartment as a date, but that night had been way more interesting than the one he’d spent two weeks ago with a woman he met online. After a boring conversation over dinner, he’d said good night at her door and gone home to an empty bed. He never called her afterward.
“How well did you know Tamika?” Axel asked. He was dark-skinned with a beard and was Anton’s mentor, taking him under his wing and providing guidance on cases.
“I didn’t know her well at all. That’s the crazy part.” So why couldn’t he forget her?
“From what you’ve told us, doesn’t sound like you have a lot in common, either.”
“We do and we don’t.” Anton shrugged, thinking about their mutual loss.
“I thought for sure you and Melissa were going to get married,” Marvin said.
Anton wrinkled his nose in disgust. “What? This is proof that you’re living in some kind of love bubble. You never listen to what other people say. Itoldyou I was thinking about breaking up with Melissa.”
Axel chuckled and lined up his shot.
Looking unperturbed, Marvin straightened his glasses on his nose. “Not my fault I found the love of my life and can’t concentrate on anything else.” He grinned.
At first glance, he appeared timid, but Marvin had the confidence of a lion and was as crafty as a fox circling a hen house. While those skill sets served him well as a criminal defense attorney, he also used them to capture the love and attention of his wife—a statuesque former model who topped him by four inches.
