Chestnut Brown And Cinnamon Happiness Read online

  “Hello, Mr. Martin do you need any help?” She said handing him a knife.

  “No, but you keep me company. Did you have fun with my wife?” He said with a smile.

  “Yes, I had so much fun with Marta. My mother and her would get along so well together.” She said almost jumping with enjoyment.

  “Marta is it? She didn’t even let Maria call her that. She must really like you.” He said with a little chuckle.

  “Your wife told me how you met. I want to know your side of the story.” Loren said with her cutest smile she would give her father.

  “So, she told you about D.C. did she? First off, my parents wasn’t so weird about me dating black women. My parents for some reason lived in a couple black neighborhoods until they moved here to this town. I grew up with black children and my parents were normally the only white family on the block. I don’t know why. My father got another job when I was about thirteen and his job moved us here. My father and mother didn’t even mind that my first girlfriend was black. They like the idea. What you have to understand that my father was left on the doorstep of a black family and they raise him like their own. My mother’s family was Quakers. So it wasn’t weird for me to start like what I was around. Black women.”

  “My parents really didn’t like most of the neighbors here because they said they were too racist for them. He was not going change to fit into society. I still visited my grandparents or the people who raised my father until the day they died. On one of the last days my grandparents had left I met her. Rose. I know people say ‘the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice’ they were talking about Rose. She had the smoothest dark skin I had ever did see. She really dark, but not dark to change color on you and I thought I was in love. It was her smile that did me in. If it never rain that night I would have married her and so would D.C. would have married Marta. I would image that if we had a daughter she would look like you. Just like you.”

  “That night when my best friend told me for the first time his girlfriend was white. He didn’t tell me because he thought I would react badly. I told him that just mean we would have some good–looking children. He laugh and the reason why we were all meeting is for us men to propose and for my best friend to met what I thought the love of my life. D.C. asked me to pick up Marta because her parents didn’t know about them. So I arrived at her door and her father answered the door and because I wasn’t really dating her I wasn’t scared of her father. He called her downstairs and got in a room alone. He asked me things like where I was going. I told him we are going to a café and I gave him the location and told him I was going to the movies. I also told him that we were meeting some friends of ours there. I guess her father like the fact that I gave him the location of where I was going because he didn’t give me the father speech. All I was thinking about my coco love. I didn’t even look at Marta when she was right beside me. In fact we didn’t talk at all in the car. And when the rain started to pour down as soon as got into the café I called her father with the number that he gave me and I told him that we were stuck at the café. Then after like an hour she turns to me and start talking to me.”

  “Was it love at first sight?” Loren said to see what he would say.

  “No, it was love at first conversation. Normally she wasn’t my type, but we talked the more she appealed to me. The more she talked the more I felt things for her. She may not been my coco love, but she was my white beauty. And the moment I fell in love with her, the moment the rain stopped. I dropped her off and I told her that I will call her in a week after I talked to D.C. But, when I came to talk to D.C., D.C. wanted to talk to me and I was glad that none of us slept with the women because this would be a little strange, but it wasn’t strange. A year later we all got married around the same time. We are still friends to day. I told Rose if her husband ever died I would marry her. She just laughs. D.C. says the same thing to Rose. But really I have never been happier in my life. Here is some plate go a head and set the table.”

  “What a story? Did D.C. and Rose have any children?”

  “They had a daughter we tried to have an arrange marriage for my son and their daughter, but they didn’t wanted to. I knew if they met when they got older then they would hit off. But, maybe it was wishful thinking.”

  After the table was set they all set down for dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Martin was thinking the same thing they wished that Loren was their daughter-law. She seem to light a room when she came into it. She was very truthful with them which they like that. They talked for the rest of night then they went to bed.

  Mrs. Martin fixes them some breakfast one last time before it was time for them to leave. Robert packed and put all their clothes in the back of the car. Robert kisses his mother good-bye and hugs his father. Loren hugs both Mr. and Mrs. Martin. Mr. Martin was ready to take them to the airport. Loren turns around and looks at Mrs. Martin.

  “Bye, Marta I had fun with you hope to do that again and maybe I could bring my mother. You two would be friends.”

  “Bye, Loren and bye Robert.” She said as she winked at her son.

  All during the car ride and during the plane ride he kept thinking that Loren called his mother by first name. His mother told him once that the day he brought home some one that she thought was the one for him she let them call her by her first name. His mother thought she was the one. He couldn’t believe it but, she still told him to wait. He knew that if he stayed him with her that he wouldn’t stay true to waiting. As soon as he is out of his divorce all he wanted to do is kiss her passionately. Even more passionately than she kiss him when he decorated her home. Their home. They had two days together and he wanted it to count.

  Chapter Eight

  When they arrived back home he pulled out his phone and start making plans the next night to go to a four star restaurant when she went to the restroom. All he wanted to do is watch some TV and just sit beside her. The whole time that they were at his parents’ house they didn’t spend any time together. When she came back from the restroom he could tell from her face that they needed to talk. He gets the luggage and start walking to the car. She puts her luggage and the car.

  “Robert, I am not riding with you. I will be at home around five or six. Jason is picking me up. I just need to talk to someone right now.” Loren said seriously.

  “I am somebody. Why can’t you talk to me? Why is it always Jason?” He said a little hurt.

  “You are somebody but,…..” What she was really thinking is that she couldn’t talk to him because she was afraid of falling for him. She had always been afraid. “I need to talk to my best friend right now.”

  “Aren’t we friends?” He watches her nod. “Then why can’t you talk to me. Since the day I met you every time we hit a brick wall in our friendship you always go to him. Is it that you are in love with him?” He was taken back by his last statement.

  Before Loren could say anything Jason started to head their direction. She called Jason up the night before saying that she needed to see him in person. And they needed to talk. She told him where to park so that all she would have to do is go to his car. Now she is thinking that maybe this wasn’t a good idea. She didn’t know how to tell Robert that she thinks that it is now a good idea for him to move out. She wasn’t in love with Jason at least she didn’t think so. No, she knows she isn’t. What she like about him is that he would say something to her that made her move. He was there to stop her from doing something dense, brainless, or even something dim-witted. Sitting beside him on the plane was a little too much for her to bare. All she wanted to do is kiss him but, she keep remembering that he was married and what his parents said to her.

  “Of course. Of course! Have fun.” He said before Jason was close enough to hear them.

  When Jason arrives where Loren and Robert, he could tell that once again she didn’t tell Robert about him picking her up. He tried to tell her last nig
ht to wait until she and Robert came from the airport, but she hadn’t listen to him. He didn’t to become the line between them.

  “Hi, Jason what are doing here?” Robert said trying to control his anger.

  “Well, I got a call last night from Loren about picking her up from the airport.” Jason said hoping Robert understood.

  “You called him last night. Last night.” Robert said dishearten to Loren.

  “Yes, Loren we might as well tell him. To day she was going to get you ago away gift. We had been planning it for two weeks now. Last week she couldn’t get it because she had a long week at work. Which the gift that we getting couldn’t be ready until to day. So she asked me to pick her up from the airport so that we can pick it up and that way you two could have some time to talk.” Jason said being glad that really that was the truth. Loren had planned on giving a gift to Robert. And it so happens that gift couldn’t be ready until to day. He also knew that she forgot that.

  “You are lying. I don’t believe you.” Robert directed the statement to Loren.

  “No, Robert I did have a gift that I was planning on getting you. That really is the truth. If you don’t believe me then here is the receipt.” Loren said while handing him the piece of paper.

  “I am sorry for this.” Robert said while going to his car and driving off.

  Loren watches Robert car leave. She knew what told him was only half true. She did forget that she had the gift for him. Loren remembered the first time that she met Robert and how she knew that loved the poem “The Raven” by Edger Allen Poe. He told her that when he was little he would read it over and over. So Loren thought because he was doing something for her that she do something for him

  “Loren it was a good thing that you really had to pick up a gift for him or I don’t know what we would do. I know you long enough to know when you forgot something. And you totally forgot about that. What were you and Robert arguing about?”

  “We were arguing about you. He wanted know why I never talk to him about issues in our friendship and I am always coming to you.”

  “And what conclusion did you come up with?”

  “I didn’t come up with one. You walk up before I could answer that question.” Loren said walking with Jason to his car.

  “Well, if you could answer the question?” Jason opening passenger side of the car for her.

  “I probably would have lied. The truth is that I come to you to talk about my friendship with Robert because I was scared that I would fall in love with him and I will lose our friendship.”

  “But aren’t you in love with him now?” Jason said as they left the airport.

  “I don’t know.”

  “What is going to happen when Maria signs the divorce papers or worst dies where does that leave you? One day and it looking like it would be soon you are going to answer those questions. Every since he came in the cooking class you had a crush on him. Going to London is a good thing. This will give you time to think and also give you time to see how Maria is doing.”

  Jason pulled in front of the place and Loren got out of the car. She came out of the building with a package that looked like a poster and another thing with a box. She knew that she told Jason all she was going to do is frame the poem, but package that looked like a poster really was a large frame of his favorite childhood poem and some of his poems that he published when he was a teenager and also he did before he married Maria. The month that Robert lived with her she research some of his earlier work got the magazine sent to her.

  It took two weeks for the frame to be put together. Every side of the frame was different. At the top of the frame it was fish because he likes fishing. On the left side of the frame were footballs. On the right side of the frame was dancing shoes. At the bottom of the frame was plates, forks, knives, and spoons. She was surprise how good the detail was. Every fish, shoe, football, and etc. was so detail if was by itself. She paid the people an extra five hundred dollars to speed up the time. The box opens up to pictures that she took when they met. Jason dropped her at her house.

  “Jason wish me luck.”

  “Good luck. Call me before you go London and write me.”

  “Will do.” Loren said as got out of the car.

  She took a deep breathe and unlocked the door. It was the silence that made her uncomfortable. She looked in the kitchen to locate him, but he wasn’t there. She went into the den and he wasn’t there. Then she knocks on his door and she hears no answer. Then she opens the door. Robert was sitting on his bed. His face was red, but this wasn’t cause by anger, this was cause by tears. He stood up.

  “Can you come to the den? I want to give you something.” Loren said softly.

  He didn’t talk he just followed her. He couldn’t say anything. He didn’t really look to see what was on the receipt just the date in which had to be picked up. His situation had been too much for him. Loren hands him this big wrap thing that was the size of a poster. He was half expecting it to be something that looked cheap, but he was taken back when he saw it. He barely even notice the frame, but he notice what was frame. It was the first poem he ever published and some that he wrote while was in high school. His favorite childhood poem was around written around the frame to make the main focus his written work. That was enough to make him kiss her. Then he saw the frame. He was astounded how much detail went into the frame from fish to footballs to dishes to shoes.

  “Now, I am really sorry about what I said earlier. This is amazing detail. I can see why it took two weeks to have ready. I want to say is….” He said just amazed by this.

  “Before you say anything you have one more gift.” Loren said with a smile.

  “But, if you just got me this, this was enough. You have already done enough.” He said feeling unworthy to get anything.

  She hands him a box which was the size of a small toolbox. He opens it up. It wasn’t sure what he was looking at. Loren opens the top of the box and reveals pictures of her and his friends when they are playing poker, football, and watching sports on TV. She opens the side of the box. He had different spaces where he could put different things like his baseball card collection. He had always been losing his pens so there was a place for that.

  “Do you want know what the best feature out this box is? You can close it up and carry around your laptop.” She said with a slight giggle.

  “I am not going to lie I didn’t know what I really looking at, but when you open it I can see its use. I really like it. Now I feel bad for not giving you anything.”

  “When I give gift that’s what I do. Give. I am not expecting to get something in return. I was feeling bad about going to London because we were becoming so close. So every time I feel bad really inside I give someone something. I do that so someone would have happiness.”

  He goes and takes her gifts and put it in his room. Every part of his body wanted to take her into her bedroom and kiss her every where. But he didn’t. He gave her a hug. In the last ten years Maria threw away the same articles that Loren gave that he was keeping as a keepsake. When the marriage is almost over he gets it back. He really did like the box because it showed him and who he was, not who he was married to. He went back to his room and hung up the picture in his bedroom. He was going hang a poster of a car like did when he was high school, but this was better. He even had a place for the box to sit on his desk right by his laptop. He was going to give her space, but instead he heard the sound of the television. He goes out of his room and he didn’t realize that he was in his room for a while because he heard the doorbell ringing. Loren opens the door and gives the pizza delivery man some money. She puts the pizza on the table. The doorbell rings again. And again Loren opens the door to a man delivering Chinese food and hands him some money. She puts the food on the table. The doorbell rings again. How much food is she going to order? This time it was bakery delivery ma
n. This was the only bakery that delivers cakes and pastries. She pulled out plate and pulls out a slice of cheese pizza. She went into her refrigerator and pulled out a jar of pickles. She got a small bowl and stuffed it full of pickles. She puts some chicken lo mien besides the pizza. She then gets another plate and watches her put a small German chocolate cake on her plate. He went inside the kitchen and got a TV food stand for her and put it the den. She carries out her food to the den.

  “What are you doing?” Robert said wondering why she brought so much food.

  “Well, we went on a plane for four hours and I haven’t had any food for six hours I am hungry.” Loren said.

  “I can see that.” He laughed.

  “And you wanted me to talk to you. Right? You think I go too much to Jason. Right? Lets talk.”

  “But, I said sorry about that remember?”

  “You did but, that didn’t mean that you didn’t feel that way. You want to know what I do with Jason. This? Come and fix a plate.”

  “So your comfort foods are pizza and Chinese food?” He realizing that she had some flaws.

  “No, my comfort foods are tuna, Gouda cheese, pickles, French bread and Coffee Ice Cream mix in with Oreos.” She said as she saw his expression.

  “That sound more like a good sandwich. Then why the pizza and Chinese food?” He said liking she was going include him.

  “I just had a taste for some cheese pizza and some Chicken lo mien. Plus what your father cooked was so good. I wanted some more Chicken. I didn’t feel like my regular comfort foods. That’s what I eat when I go over Jason’s house and you are not Jason. Plus I didn’t want to cook.” She said seriously.