Chapter 72

...to be done with this marriage, and this life too. She is barely available for little Martha and I fear that Martha may begin to ask questions about why they live there and why she had no friends—you know how kids are. Her sign language has gotten really good—almost as good as mine. I feel the need to move on too, and Janet—she gives me that adrenaline rush to.want to move on. I can't live like this, I don't deserve a loveless life, I want to be happy. I want to have someone to come back to, a warm smiling face to return to. Janet, she is that person."

"How do you know this? What of she turns out to be like—"

"You wanna know how I know? I cannot explain how I know but I am just so sure that she is the one I am waiting for. She is the one that I want to do forever with. I just feel it down in my heart that she's the one I want to do forever with. So, if it'll take me listening to her as she makes meatballs, I'm ready to do so, and if she turns out like the rest, then I will accept my fate that I have been domed to be miserably single for the rest of my life and I will stop trying to make anyone love me. I will focus on other things." Marcus looked pitiable as he said that and he hoped that Janet was going to be his last stop. He was going to try to impress her with all that he's got and if she is still not impress, he might have to let her be. He decided to take things slow with her so that she'd get to know the real him, not the version of him that his other wives discovered and got scared of.

Michael nodded, he had more to say but he was not going to say anything since his boss was definte about Janet.

Marcus's phone rang and it was Janet so he snapped his fingers, signalling the end of the meeting to Michael and Sergio.

"Hey beautiful"

"You wouldn't believe that I just ate the tastiest meatballs of my entire life and I'm not even joking. The meatballs were so juicy and I could have sworn I did something else with the recipe."

"I think I know what it is"

"You do? Tell me about it"

Marcus playfully rubbed his chin and said, "If I were to guess I'd say it's the love I was sending through my brainwave into the meatballs. You know what they say about cooking with love right?"

Janet laughed heartily and said, "Marcus, please. I would say it's because I have gotten remarkably good at what I do."

"Oh yeah? Look at it this way, you have been making this same meatballs all this while and suddenly because you were speaking to me when you were making it, it turned out perfect. Might I add that I was envisioning what it'd taste and smell like."

Janet chuckled and asked, "Do you even know how meatballs are made?"

"No, but I have you to tell me all about it."

Janet's cheeks flustered. Marcus said things that could make her insides juggle without even trying. She did not know why she was initially doubtful of him, he seems okay. They continued talking about the meatballs till she said, "You know what? I want to teach you how to make meatballs, I love them, you love them, it's only fair that you know how to make them so that if either of us needs them, the other person can make them."

"Perfecto! I love the sound of that. I can't wait "

Janet nodded and then took her plate to the sink. "You did not tell me how your day went"

"Oh, when do you want Intels on, before I came for lunch or after lunch?"

"Both, but start with before"

"Get ready for the worst narrating ever. I woke up feeling like a nine years old not that has just been told that Santa Claus left him his favorite present on Christmas morning. I was so excited that I actually sang and danced in the bathroom—"

Janet burst out laughing and said, "No you didn't, did you really?"

"Yup. I really did. Then, after that, I had a small breakfast and went to work, but on my way to work, I checked to see if you had seen my message—all the while praying you don't think I'm a weirdo. I was just really excited."

Janet smiled and then moved to her couch and sat on it. She proceeded to hug one of her knees to her chest and then said, "Glad to know it wasn't just me that was excited. In fact, I was too excited that I grew a sit overnight"

Marcus chuckled and said, "I know, I thought it was cute though."

Janet's eyes widened and then she asked, "How did you know? I covered it up nicely, how did you find out?"

"You kinda touched it and sort of smeared the makeup so I saw the head of the zut but it's okay, everyone gets one of those ones in a while. Stress makes it visible and you're working so stress is inevitable."

Janet could not believe that Marcus had seen what she was so bent on hiding and thought she had hidden well enough.

Well, it is over. My worries and fear is done, he saw it. And, it is a normal thing so I don't understand why I was so worried and deep in my head, she thought to herself.

He continued talking about his day, "Then I went in and say at the entrance corner of the restaurant because it's easier to see who comes in and I did not want to lose watching you as you come in. Then we had the best lunch ever, and when I left you, I just went back to work and got some things sorted out and ready for tomorrow. So, yeah, that's basically all I did today."

"You lied."

"What did I lie about?"

"You lied about being an awful narrator, that was interesting. I enjoyed listening to you."

Marcus chuckled. "What happened when you got back to work?"

"Hm, not much actually. I just had to talk a bit with my friend, Fawn. By the way, I have decided that our date, our dinner date is tomorrow night. I was supposed to hang out with my Fawn and her friends but I'd rather hang out with you."

"I'm flattered. Though, I gotta ask, why don't you want to hang out with them?"

"Don't you want me to hang out with you?"

"I do, I just want to know if your decision of not being with them tomorrow night is something you're doing because you want to do it and not because you think I would feel a certain way if we do go tomorrow—"

"Marcus"

"Yeah?"

"I wanna go out with you. Those women are not really close to me, only one is and I would rather hang out with you than them tomorrow, so it's a decision that I took because I wanted to too."

"Fine"

They talked about other things the rest of the night and by the time Janet was ready to go to bed, Marcus told her that he wanted to get ready for bed and that he'd call her or text her when he was done. She decided to wait for him but she moved to her bedroom and laid on the bed, waiting for his call. It came but when it did, she was fast asleep so he sent her a text.

The next day, the two of them kept texting each other and Janet was smiling more than usual at her phone and got easily distracted. Fawn noti Ed but did not talk about it because she had customers to attend to—impatient customers too. She just wanted to make sure when she'd ask Janet about her relationship with Marcus, she did not have up to ten people waiting on her.

Before work was over, Janet hurriedly left, she just told Fawn that she had to go belack home and get herself ready for the dinner date and she would text her and tell her all about it.

Fawn knew that the possibility of that happening was low considering that Janet barely replied to the messages she had sent her that morning. She was happy that Janet was finally happy and excited about her personal life.

The date was beautiful, Marcus was very chivalrous and it feel like they had known each other way before then. Janet realized that he was funny and sweet. The dinner was classy and Janet loved every single of it.

"You know, I never really asked but I'm assuming you're in your mid-thirties, I never asked but I'm curious, why did you stay single up till now? Was it a conscious choice or did you just not find any luck with love?"

Marcus chuckled and said, "Well, after the death of my first love, Martha, things just kind of went down from there. I have loved and lost at it. There were times I shut myself from the world because I couldn't bear the pain of being hurt again."

"I don't understand, what happened between both of you"

"Well, we moved into this town newly and we're just trying to be America's cute couple, we were expecting our little bundle of joy and—you know, we picked out baby names, we got the crib done, we started trying to put in protective gears around the house in preparation, everything was actually going very well, till the accident"

Janet put down the glass of champagne immediately he mentioned the accident. "She had an accident with the baby?"

"Not really, she got murdered"

Janet's eye's widened and she said, "Oh my God! Why could have down that to her? Did you know the people involved?"

"It wasn't really a direct attack. She happened to be at the right place at the wrong time so that happened. The town was rough at the time and as her husband, I should have down a better job trying to protect her and our little baby. I should have gotten her some bodyguards or something, I just didn't do my job well and it cost them their lives."

Janet reached out and touched his hand on the table, he looked and sounded very vulnerable and she felt good that he was sharing this information with her. She patted his hands and said, "There, there. You shouldn't blame yourself for their death, you did you best as a husband and I'm sure they would be proud of you wherever they are."

Marcus smiled sadly and said, "I know. Anyways, I blamed myself for a long time and it affected every other relationship I had after that. But, I must say every other relationship I got myself in during the time I hadn't healed suffered in a way. I feel like I was not emotional ready to commit and it was a strain on the relationship."

Janet nodded and just listened to all he was saying.

"So, what about you Janet? I know you're not in a relationship currently."

Janet chuckled and asked, "Why do you say so?"

Marcus gave it a thought and then said, "You're not the kind of woman that would date multiple men at the same time, you're too sophisticated for that lifestyle."

"I don't know if sophisticated is the word I'd use to describe me. Disciplined does a better job at describing the kind of person I am."

"Don't sell yourself short"

Janet's cheeks flustered again and she said, "Okay, I won't. You're right, I am not in any kind of relationship but I was in a relationship once with a guy named Dylan."

She proceeded to tell him how she met Dylan and the things that her younger self had thought was cool and felling love with, which no longer made sense to her. She talked about how her ambition made him relax and how it turned him to a version of himself that disposed her and disrespected her constantly.

"That is just not right. I don't even know what to say."

"I wish that was all he did but nope, he went on to start stealing from me and gambling it all away. And I knew he was stealing from me but I just did not have the energy to fight about the twenties and tens that he stole out of my bag. I was more worried about how he'd remind me that I was an ungrateful bitch and how he practically got me the job I was working at the time. Dylan used every chance to make me feel so indebted to him that when he would cheat in me, I would not get angry to see what he'd done as wrong."

Marcus had an expression that showed that he was getting upset at the things she had to endure. When she told him of the time that he got a girl pregnant and had the audacity to bring the pregnant girl to the house and even went as far as telling the girl that he owned the apartment even though he had not paid the rent in years, Marcus could not conceal the disgust he felt towards Dylan.

"Men like that should not be allow to have girlfriends, let alone a child. That man was an embarrassment."

"Yeah... You know, I tried one of those things he used to smoke and I almost ran mad. This man smokes this shit everyday and was okay to do it. I felt like I was about to explode from inside out. I could not understand how and why anyone would honestly want to do that all day."

"What was it that he used to smoke?"

"I don't know but I felt like my blood was flowing backwards after I took it."

Marcus laughed, he knew what she was talking about because his scientist was the one who made that combination. He added some substances to the usual dried leaves to help his customers feel like they're in cloud nine and help them relax well. During the time afterit is used, it can cause a first time user to feel so many feelings at once, leaving them confused but a regular user would be happy they got hooked on it. The only side effect was the feeling of bliss and stress-free when the person wakes up.

Of course, Marcus was never going to let Janet know that he was the owner of something that she said almost killed her. He hoped to have that conversation with her something in the future though, as long as it will be funny to her then...