Can't Just Be His Friend Read online

  “I said I’ve been busy, Reggie.” I placed my hand on his chest to hold him away from crowding my space more than he already was.

  “Well let’s see…I called you Saturday to come and kick it with me and you blew me off. I called you about five times on Sunday. No answer. I call you again today. No answer. I thought something was wrong because I know my best friend wouldn’t intentionally ignore me. But I guess I was wrong, huh? You look healthy to me. You ain’t sick…so tell me what’s going on, Tiffany.”

  “Reg, I just been…”

  “What? Busy? You wanna stop lying to me and tell me what’s up?”

  I tried to gently push him away again so I could get up but still, I couldn’t move him. “Reggie, I’ll call you later on, okay. I have a lot of work to get done here.”

  “I’m not leaving this office until you talk to me. I mean, what is it, Tiffany? Was your date that good? I see the man sent flowers and everything…one date with the guy and you forget all about me?”

  “No, Reggie. It has nothing to do with my date.”

  “Then what’s going on? How can we be cool one minute and the next I don’t know if you’re dead or alive?”

  I wasn’t going to tell Reggie about Shontay, at least not now anyway. But to get him out of my office, I had to say something. “I just need some space, okay?”

  I could see the heartbreak in his eyes after those words left my mouth.

  “Space?” he said with a forced chuckle. “You need space from me?” he asked out of disbelief. I couldn’t believe I said those words to him either. “You’re joking, right?”

  I said nothing in answer to his question. I was speechless.

  “Ah’ight. You want space, you got it. I’m out.”

  Reggie walked out of my office and slammed the door behind him. I darted out of the door behind him.

  “Reggie, wait!” Of course he didn’t listen and there I stood with my colleagues looking at me like they wanted to know the scoop of what was going on. I heard most of them thought Reggie and I were a couple. It ain’t no telling what other rumors had been flying around this office.

  Reggie ignored me and walked out the door. He was always stubborn and hardhearted when he felt like someone had wronged him. There were plenty of times we would fight and make up, but this time had to have been one of the worst. I hurt him and the worst part is, Reggie wouldn’t understand the reason why.

  I tried to wait a few hours before calling him. I thought that if he had time to cool off he would answer my phone call. I would apologize and everything would go back to normal. That didn’t happen. Now the tables were turned and it was me calling him, listening to his voicemail pick up because he surely didn’t.

  Sitting on my living room couch, I wondered where I got the nerve to say those words to Reggie, the man I loved with every inch of my soul. All I could do was sit there and cry. Reggie wouldn’t take my phone calls and if I went over to his place, he probably would leave me standing outside. I was so bothered by the situation with Reggie, I called Derrick to cancel our date. There was no way I could go out and have a good time with him knowing I hadn’t resolved my conflict with Reggie. I told Derrick I would call him back to reschedule.

  I called Reggie again before I got into bed. Still, he didn’t answer. And I couldn’t sleep. Reggie had never been this angry with me before. I needed to see him. I needed to make things right between us. Then I thought about letting this fight be my way out. Maybe this was the separation we both needed to break away from each other and live our lives independently.

  Then again, maybe not.

  I felt awful and downright miserable. My stomach ached but my heart ached even more. I needed to talk to Reggie face-to-face.

  I got out of bed and drove over to his apartment. It was close to eleven o’clock. Reggie only lived four miles away from me so it only took a few minutes to get to his place. I was stiff walking up to his door to ring the doorbell, my stomach in knots. I didn’t like angry Reggie, but truth be told, I would rather have that than no communication with him at all.

  He came to the door bare-chested with a pair of Diesel jeans and no shoes. After he flung the door open, he turned around and walked away. He didn’t even take a good look at me. Didn’t speak or nothing.

  “Can I come in?” I asked him.

  “I opened the door didn’t I?” Reggie said testily as he kept on walking into the kitchen. That was a bad sign. He didn’t even want to look at me.

  I cautiously followed but stood in the doorway, watching Reggie stand in front of the stove facing me.

  “Reggie, I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry for what? You said exactly what you wanted to say to me.”

  “But—”

  “But what, Tiffany!” he yelled at me. “You wanted space from me, right? So what are you even doing here?”

  I could see his veins bulging out of his arms and neck while he grilled me. “I just want to explain myself.”

  “I’m not sure I want to hear anything you gotta say right now,” he said bluntly, not even giving any consideration to what I would say to make this situation right between us.

  “Reggie…I just…” I took a deep breath and made up my mind to tell him about Shontay. I had no reason to be loyal to her. Besides, I didn’t like the girl. “Shontay came to see me a few days ago. She was crying and she said that she loves you very much and she wanted me to leave you alone so your relationship with her would be better.”

  “She said that to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why didn’t you come to me? Why didn’t you tell me that?”

  “She didn’t want me to.”

  “‘She didn’t want me to’…are you listening to yourself? Who have you known the longest, me or her? Hunh?” Reggie slowly walked up to me. “Hunh!”

  “You,” I said, feeling a tear roll out of my right eye.

  “But yet, you listened to her but didn’t bring it to me?”

  “What was I supposed to do, Reggie? She was crying and upset…”

  “You were supposed to come to me, Tiffany! But instead you’d rather tell me that you need space? After all we’ve been through, you tell me something like that and you expect me not to be hurt!”

  Reggie had me crying as we both stood there in the hallway. He was beyond angry. Then he looked at me and said, “I’ve always been there for you, anytime you needed me, I’ve been there and you have the audacity to look me dead in my eyes and tell me you need me to back off. I thought we were better than that.”

  “Reggie, I said I was sorry.”

  “Sorry ain’t gonna cut it this time, Tiffany.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you hurt me!” he yelled and turned around so I couldn’t see his face. I’d assumed his emotions got the best of him and he didn’t want me to see him cry. “I want you to leave now! Just go. Don’t talk to me anymore.”

  “Reggie…”

  “Go Tiffany! I have nothing else to say to you.”

  I did as he requested. I picked up my face off of the floor and bailed. I don’t think I’d ever seen Reggie so angry with me but he was fuming.

  Instead of irritating him further, I decided to wait for him to come to me. The only thing was, I didn’t know if or when that was going to happen.

  WEDNESDAY CAME AND went, not a word from him. Thursday, nothing. Friday, nothing. This fight between us really put a damper on the fire Derrick and I had going on. Now, I had no desire to call Derrick. He had called me earlier at work to see if I wanted to go out tonight, but with the dispute between Reggie and I, I didn’t want to go. I needed the normality of our friendship again before I could even move on with my life.

  I forced myself to call Derrick back.

  “Well, hi stranger,” he answered.

  “Hey, Derrick.”

  “Hi. It’s good to hear your voice again.”

  “It’s good to hear you too.”

  “So are you calling to turn me down�
��again?”

  I let out a heavy sigh. “Derrick, I’m sorry. I’m going through some things right now.”

  “Tiffany, if you ain’t feelin’ me, then you can go ahead and tell me, okay?”

  “No…that’s not it. I’m feelin’ you a lot. It’s just that…look, Derrick, I’m gonna be straight up with you. Maybe you’re wasting your time with me. I’ve just been—”

  Derrick cut me off quickly. “I don’t think I’m wasting my time. I just think we need to spend more time together. Don’t try to end what we have without even getting to know me. There is something there between us. I felt the chemistry on our first date and I want to explore this. I want to get to know you.”

  “I want to know you too.”

  “Then come out with me tonight.”

  He gave a convincing argument. And I really needed to get out of the house and get my mind off of Reggie for a change.

  “And if I say no, you’ll be angry.”

  “No. If you say no, you’ll be angry.”

  Derrick had me smiling at his reverse psychology.

  “Okay. I’ll go.”

  “Okay. So I’ll be there in an hour. Is that okay with you?”

  “That’s fine, Derrick.”

  When I got off the phone with him, I rushed to get ready. I had no idea where we were going, so I wore a flirty pink and purple halter-top summer dress with some pink sandals. I brushed my hair so that it hung down, free flowing, shaping my face.

  I tried to call Reggie again before Derrick arrived. No answer. This time, I didn’t know what it would take for Reggie to forgive me.

  Derrick showed up about forty-five minutes after we had initially spoken on the phone. And he brought flowers again. Lilies. I hugged Derrick, put the flowers in water and then we walked out and got into the car.

  “So, where are we going?” I asked while looking at him as we drove off from in front of my apartment. Derrick was one fine man. He looked good, smelled good and had the most adorable smile I’d ever seen.

  “Are you hungry?”

  “No. Not really. You?”

  “Nah.”

  “So what are we going to do tonight, Mr. Brooks?”

  “What you wanna do? It’s all about you, hun,” he told me while checking the mirrors and changing lanes.

  “Well, we could always go to the beach. There’s always something going on out there.”

  “Okay. We can do that.”

  We pulled on up 26th Street and Atlantic Avenue. We were just in time for the Caribbean music festival. There was a crowd of people out there having drinks and dancing barefoot on the sand. Derrick had already found a park and we went walking to join the crowd.

  “Do you dance?” Derrick asked me.

  “I’ve been known to do a lil’ somethin’ somethin’ on the dance floor.”

  “Oh shoot,” Derrick said. “Well, let’s see what you can do on this sand.”

  “Okay.”

  Derrick led me over to the crowd. I took off my sandals and held them in my hand. He had on a white button-up shirt and some loose-fitted brown slacks.

  Derrick was tall, but boy could he move. He was moving and gripping me like he was used to that style of dancing. He spun me around a couple of times and dipped me once. Then he pulled me up close to him and spun me around again and pushed himself up against me. We were grinding to the music, dancing like we were auditioning for some reality TV dance show.

  “You tired?” Derrick whispered in my ear, nearly out of breath. He was starting to work up a sweat. So was I. We’d been dancing for thirty minutes straight. We even had an audience.

  “Yeah. I’m a little tired.”

  “Let’s go get a drink.”

  We escaped the dancers and hung on for dear life at a bar table. Derrick ordered us strawberry margaritas.

  “Having fun?” he asked me, his face sweaty.

  “Yes—” I gasped for air. “Yes I am. I’m glad you dragged me out. I needed this.”

  “So you really didn’t want to come, huh?”

  “No. I was still upset. Don’t get me wrong though. I’m glad we’re out.”

  “What are you upset about?”

  I hesitated to share my problems while on a second date with Derrick. I didn’t want to scare him off though it seemed like he wasn’t the type to give up so easily.

  “I got into a fight with Reggie.”

  “Who’s Reggie?”

  “Oh, sorry. Reggie is my best friend.”

  “Oh.” Derrick took a sip of his margarita. “What was the fight about, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “I did something stupid and now he’s angry with me.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Well, in a nutshell I’ve been avoiding him.”

  “Why? You owe him some money or something?”

  I laughed at Derrick. “Noo.”

  “Then what?”

  “His girlfriend asked me to leave him alone and now he’s mad at me for listening to her.”

  “Wait a minute – his girlfriend told you to leave your best friend alone?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Reggie pays more attention to me than he does to her. The sad part is, she’s right. So I’ve been avoiding Reggie and we got into a fight…blah, blah, blah…he ain’t talking to me anymore.”

  “I wonder why that would make him so angry though.”

  “That’s how Reggie is. He’s very protective of me and our friendship. He feels as if I should’ve discussed the matter with him instead of taking it into my own hands.”

  “Oh. I see.”

  “Don’t misunderstand – Reggie is a good guy and has been a wonderful friend to me over the years. Sometimes we have disagreements like any other relationship I guess.”

  “I understand.”

  We sat there and finished our drinks. Derrick kept staring at me in spurts like he wanted to say something but refrained. It almost seemed as if he was memorizing my face or trying to read me.

  “Tiffany.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You wanna go for a walk?”

  “Sure.”

  We walked in the dark along the shoreline. The further we walked away, the lower the music became. Derrick took me by the hand as we went for our quiet stroll along the Atlantic. It made me think about the last time I was out here, with Reggie, after graduation. That was a good night, so good that thinking about that right now was making me miss him even more.

  “This is an amazing feeling,” Derrick said.

  He caught me off-guard, especially since I was thinking about how amazing it felt to be out there with Reggie. “What is?”

  “Being here with a beautiful woman.”

  “I’m sure I’m not the only beautiful woman you’ve taken to the beach.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  I laughed at his straightforward response. “So what’s so amazing about this time?”

  “You...I mean, you’re an incredible woman.”

  “And you know that after two dates?”

  “I knew that after the first date.”

  Derrick had me smiling.

  He continued, “You have a good head on your shoulders, you’re beautiful, and you can dance.”

  We stopped walking and Derrick took my hands into his and said, “So, tell me what you think of me so far.”

  I took a deep breath and stared at him. I wanted to say the right thing without being too eager but not too elusive at the same time. “I think you’re a good person.”

  “That’s it? Just a good person?”

  “I wasn’t finished.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry. Continue.”

  “I think you will meet the perfect woman one day.”

  “So you don’t think you’re the one for me?”

  “Wait…let me finish. I think you will meet the perfect woman one day and if that’s me then I’ll be the luckiest woman in the world.”

  Derrick smiled
. Then we stood there again staring at each other. The sound of waves splashing together was nice, but wasn’t as romantic as it was when I was out here with Reggie.

  “Tiffany.”

  “Yes?”

  “Can I kiss you?”

  I smiled wide, felt my heart skip a beat.

  “Why are you smiling?” he inquired.

  “I didn’t know there were still men in this world who asked for permission before they kissed a woman.”

  “Well, I guess you can call me a gentleman,” Derrick said, staring at me. “So is that a yes or a no?”

  I couldn’t bring myself to say yes though my body language said I wanted to kiss him. I was staring at his lips as he leaned over to me. He pushed his moist lips onto mine. I closed my eyes and could feel my lips trembling. The kiss lasted no longer than a few seconds but still, I was jittery.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  I stood there with my eyes closed still holding his hands while the breeze wrestled my hair.

  “Yeah, I’m okay.”

  “You sure? Your eyes are still closed,” he said chuckling.

  “Yeah. I’m trying to make this moment a permanent deposit into my memory bank.” I opened my eyes and he was standing there smiling. “Everything feels so perfect. I’m so glad I came out with you tonight.”

  “Me too. It would’ve been lonely out here by myself.”

  I smiled at him. Then we began walking back to the car.

  It felt good to spend time with Derrick. There was something refreshing about him. He didn’t come with a lot of drama. Being with him had a calming effect on me. Or maybe it felt that way because Reggie and I were fighting. Normally, Reggie was my comfort but we hadn’t talked in days.

  When we got back to my apartment, Derrick walked me to the door again.

  “So, I had a very relaxing evening with you and I would like to see you again very soon.”

  “I had a good time with you too and I can’t wait to see you again.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really.”

  I hugged Derrick for a minute then after a brief peck on the lips, we said our goodnights. Derrick and I had another good time together. Even after only two dates, I could already see he was a good man. And he had a thing for me.