Sidechick Chronicles (5 page)

3

Our plane landed and we were standing at baggage claim waiting for our luggage.  He reached out for my hand and I held it out to him.  He pulled me to him and we started kissing.  We were like two teenagers in love.  I guess the old saying was right, "
Just wait on God and he will send you the person he has for you."

Who would’ve thought he would be the person sitting next to me in an advertising/marketing class.  I waited 35 years and my king; my soul mate had finally arrived.

"You two make a beautiful couple," a lady standing next to us said.

We clearly forgot we were in public and started blushing.

"Thank you," Byron said.

"I remember when Cecil and I were like that," she said.  She looked over at the man I presumed was Cecil.  I smiled at her because I wanted that kind of love. I wanted that forever love with Byron.

He pulled me close.

"How long have you been married?" he asked.

"50 years," Cecil responded proudly.

They smiled at each other and you could see they still loved each other.   They reminded me of my parents who would be celebrating 40 years of marriage soon.

"Wow, that's beautiful," I said.

"I know," she said.

They laughed at each other, as if they were the only two who knew the secrets to their love. The pure, raw secrets that could have torn them apart, somehow they prevailed.

"Miriam and I were just like you two at one point.  We want wanted the world to know we were in love.  We couldn't keep our hands or lips off each other. It drove people crazy," he said chuckling.

I bucked my eyes. I hoped this story wasn't going to get too X-rated because that would be weird.  She blushed at his response like a teenage girl who had her first crush.

"What's your secret?"

I loved asking older couples this question.  I was always intrigued to hear the advice they would give as to how they endured. How they made it worked despite the adversity they faced. You don't make it to 50 years without adversity and endurance.

"There is no secret?" Miriam responded.

I gave a puzzled look.

"She's right. There's no secret you just have to remember two things. First, always be honest with each other even when you feel it may hurt.  A lie will always sting far worse in the end, rather than the temporary pain of the truth being told at that time."

"And the second thing?" Byron asked.

They looked at each other. She caressed his face and smiled at him.  You could see the love in their eyes.  Real love. The kind of love that showed they had endured plenty of things with each other.

"Always be each other's light in the dark moments. Due to life’s ups and down, you will have plenty of dark moments.  Dark times when you won't be able to see your way through and you will want to give up.  As long as you remember to be her light and she remains yours, you will make it through."

I caught the tear in the corner of my eye. She was beautiful.  They were beautiful and the love they shared was nothing short of it.

He stepped away and grabbed their luggage.

"It was nice to meet you both," I said.

"Same to you," she said.

He handed her one of the suitcases, they waved and walked off.  I was still mesmerized by them.  They were adorable and I was sure a handful at one point.

"I want that Mariah."

I turned to look at him.

“What do you mean?”

"I want that with you," he said.

I moved closer to him.

"Is that right?" I asked.

He grabbed our suitcases off the carousel as we stepped out of the way of the people behind us.

"Yes that’s right. I want forever with you. I want to be the light in your dark moments."

The tears I was trying to stop from falling ran down my cheek.  I knew at that moment I was undeniably in love with this man.  His wiped my cheek. I stood on my tip toes and kissed him passionately.

"I want to be your light too Byron; now and forever."

He kissed me again.

"And you will be baby. It will be me and you against the world.”

4

God this man was
fine
.  Not to mention brilliant.  I loved to watch him give presentations.   We had left the airport, dropped our stuff at the hotel and headed to our meeting.  Now I was sitting here daydreaming.  He spoke so well and would literally have people eating out of the palm of his hand.

Money.

Sex.

Intelligence.

Power.

He possessed them all.  I was in awe of him every time we were together.  I was excited our meeting was almost over.  I was ready for our romantic weekend to begin.  I knew he had a special evening planned, but I wasn't sure what he had up his sleeve.  Either way I knew it would be memorable.

"Girl that man is so fine."

I was completely lost in my daydream I hadn't heard a word she said.  I guess she realized it when she saw by the look on my face when she startled me by touching my arm.

"Mariah did you hear what I said?"

"No girl I was listening to the presentation as you should be,” I said while laughing at her.  I was hardly listening to this presentation.  She didn’t need to know that though.  I was staring at the man I was in love with.

"Mmm hmmm. I'm sure you were.  I was trying to, but I can’t focus with all that sexiness up there.  Hell the other women in here are probably distracted too."

I chuckled and shook my head.  I was flattered that other women found my man attractive.   No need for me to be jealous, I did too.

"You so silly Rhonda."

"Girl, I'm just saying that's a lot of damn sexiness up there.  I don't know how you keep your legs closed around him.  If I didn’t have a man I would probably be all on his desk after hours."

I gave her a puzzling look. She had always been a little too blunt. I liked her honesty; it was just her timing that threw me off.  We were cool, but not that damn cool.  I could hear Byron concluding which meant our meeting was wrapping up. I figured I would converse with her just to see what was being said about him, me and our late work nights around the office.

"What do you mean?  We do work together.  You remember that part right?"

"Yeah I do. What exactly does that mean though?  There are a couple of men at our company that are known ladies men and a couple of women who aided in their rep after hours.”

She was right.  I had heard some of the office gossip.  At least half of them were quite popular with the women.  At least two of them were married so I didn't have a clue as to why they had reputations.  It didn't matter though, it wasn’t my business and I was not dating them.  I was dating Byron.  He was nothing like them.

I just laughed at her.  Rhonda always had the juice and would add some comedy on top of it.

"You right Rhonda.  They are a hot mess at that job.  Byron seems to be different though.  He's cut from a different cloth."

She gave me a
yeah right
look.  It made me a little uncomfortable.  I wanted to ask her what she meant; though I wasn't sure I wanted to know.  I was a firm believer in not asking a question you really didn't want an answer to.

"I didn't mean it like that Mariah.  Byron seems to be different.  Although, I had heard he was married at one point."

"Married?"

Now she was reaching.  I was trying to keep my face from frowning up.  Nobody we worked with knew about our relationship.  We wanted to keep it private so there wouldn't be any work drama or gossip.  I needed to remain calm so I could get the rest of the information.  I had never heard any rumors about him being married, however that didn't mean there weren't any circulating.

"Yeah girl about four years ago I had heard he was married to some woman who was a personal stylist.  Apparently she travels a lot and is never in town.  I've never seen her and she's never come into the office, so I paid them no attention."

Rhonda was one of Byron's executive assistants.  She had been working for him 6 1/2 years so she of all people would know everything that went on within the office.  I figured she was right since I had been there for three and hadn't heard any myself.  I was just about to milk her for more information when Byron walked up.

Damn!

"Rhonda, Mariah and I are going to stay behind to make sure the paperwork is signed.  If you want to go ahead of us you can. I know you want to get home to your kids."

"Sure Mr. McDaniels. Did you want me to do anything else?"

"No I will have the paperwork sent to your room for you to take back to the office.  What time does your flight leave?"

She looked at her watch.

"I believe 6 o'clock Mr. McDaniels."

"Ok I will have the paperwork messengered to you within the hour.  See you Wednesday and enjoy your holiday."

"Same to you, boss.  Mariah I will call you later so we can finish our convo."

I nodded and winked at her.

"Sure thing Rhonda."

She grabbed her computer case, coat, and purse and headed out the door.

As soon as I saw she was on the elevator, I turned to look at him.  My face was somewhat distorted due to what Rhonda had just mentioned.  He looked at me and gave me a questionable look.  He was trying to figure out what was bothering me.

“Are you okay baby?”

I dropped my head a bit because I wasn’t sure.  I was confused and unsure what to believe.  He had never given me any reason to believe he was being deceitful.  I knew didn’t want to get into this here.  Not at our place of business.

“Byron, are you married?”

“Who told you that?”

“Rhonda and I were chatting after your presentation.  She may have mentioned there were some rumors years ago about you being married. I just want to hear from you they are simply rumors.”

He stepped closer to me.

“So when did we start letting rumors come between us?”

“We haven’t so don’t take it out of context.  I mean I was just asking.”

“I love you Mariah.  You’re the only woman for me. I don’t care what those sill women say about me behind by back.  I have never participated in office gossip and I don’t plan to.  I keep my personal life separate from my professional to prevent situations like this.”

I looked at him and smiled.

“You’re right and I love you too Byron.”

He wanted to kiss me. 

I wanted to kiss him.

I remembered we were still at work.

“I know baby.  We’ve been going strong.  Don’t let some silly office gossip come between us.  Our relationship is our business, not everyone else’s.  I don’t get involved in all of that because I have you.”

He was right.

It was silly office gossip and we were good.  Our relationship was growing stronger every day.  We had other things to focus on.

I smiled at him.

“You ready for this weekend?” he asked.

“Yes I am even though I have no clue as to what we’re doing.”

“No worries.  I promise it will be unforgettable.

“Well then let’s go Mr. Unforgettable.”

We laughed, said our goodbyes and walked out.