She let out a long sigh of relief when Trevor met Opal and D’marcus on the walkway and nodded, but didn’t hesitate.
“Still want to make coffee?” Ruby asked her.
“Sure. Come on in.”
“He’s a decent enough guy,” D’marcus said. “What happened that caused you to dump him like that?”
“He got too possessive.”
“Maybe he got uptight when Luther kissed you,” Opal said. “Of course, it’s none of my business, but what was Luther mad about? He didn’t seem affectionate. And last night, you two acted like you hardly knew each other. I don’t get it.”
“Neither do I,” Ruby said and headed for the kitchen, grateful she had to make the coffee. When she returned to the living room with a tray, she stopped and stared at the newlyweds locked in a sizzling kiss. It hadn’t take them long to switch their minds off her and Luther, she thought. She put the tray on the coffee table and cleared her throat.
“I hope you and Luther straighten out whatever’s wrong between you,” D’marcus said, picking up the conversation where they’d left it. “He’s a great guy, and this family is very important to him. Who knows? Something could even develop between you two.”
Didn’t she wish! But Luther wanted no part of her, and he’d made that clear. Even when she’d shamelessly kissed him back tonight, hoping to let him know how he made her feel, he’d pushed her away. He’d done it gently, but he’d done it, and that told her more than words could have. Why did he have to be the man to teach her what lovemaking was all about, to cherish her as if she were the rarest gem and to make her explode again and again in orgasm? He wasn’t the first, but he was the only one who mattered.
She sipped the coffee and remembered D’marcus’s comment. “Me and Luther?” she exclaimed. “I was pie-eyed about him when I was three. I’m grown up now.” She looked at her brother-in-law with one raised eyebrow. “Wouldn’t that be a humdinger!”
Ruby slept late New Year’s morning and awakened feeling lost. For the first time in her memory, she didn’t feel like calling Luther to wish him a Happy New Year. Her reluctance to talk to him sprang from her fear that he would reject her gesture. How times had changed. Luther had been her solid rock, and now she feared calling him. Who would ever have imagined it?
She scrambled out of bed, showered, dressed and went downstairs to cook her breakfast. “If this is what the remainder of the year will be like,” she said to herself, “I’m not looking forward to it.”
After breakfast she decided to do her laundry. Nostalgia gripped her when she took the bedding from the hamper, remembered her lovemaking with Luther and thought how ephemeral happiness could be. She sat down on a stool in the laundry room and mused about her chances of finding that feeling with someone else.
I want to find out more about it while I’m still young and I can enjoy it, and I’m going to. Luther wouldn’t have noticed me last night if I hadn’t been wearing that sexy red dress, so I’m going shopping.
She spent the remainder of the day purging her clothing, most of which was better suited for a woman twice her age. The following Monday morning she called the Salvation Army. Then she went shopping.
She didn’t have to be told that the fashionable clothes, shoes and accessories she bought raised eyebrows, and with her hair cut in a pixie style and three-inch-heeled suede boots on her feet, she attracted a lot of glances. As she strolled through Twelve Oaks Mall, she couldn’t believe the amount of male attention she received.
A few evenings later when she walked into her house, the telephone began to ring and, thinking that the caller was one of her sisters, as was usually the case, she dashed to the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hello. This is Lawrence Hill. I hope you remember me. We met at the Harvest Ball the day after Thanksgiving, and I remember how well you dance. I’m calling to ask if you’d go with me to the local Kappa dance Saturday. I’d be honored.”
“Yes, I do remember you,” she said. “Let me think about this a little bit. Call me tomorrow evening. It’s formal, isn’t it?”
“Black tie. I’ll call about this time tomorrow, if you don’t mind, and I hope you’re going to say yes.”
“We’ll see. Thanks for calling, and have a pleasant evening.” They said goodbye and she hung up. You bet, she remembered Lawrence Hill. Who could miss him? The man was a stud if she’d ever seen one, but she’d turned over a new leaf; she was no longer the family wallflower who stood by while her sisters found their mates, fell in love and married. Not that she wasn’t happy for them. Lord knows she was, but there had always been that little voice inside that asked, “Why not me?” Maybe she’d go out with Lawrence Hill, and maybe she wouldn’t. If things were normal, she’d phone Luther and ask his views on the matter, but life was lopsided there right now, so she called D’marcus instead.
“Do you happen to know Lawrence Hill?” she asked him.
“If it’s the guy I’m thinking about, he’s a fraternity brother. Seems nice enough if you can handle a stiff dose of ego.”
“He asked me to go to the frat dance with him Saturday after next.”
“Must not be the same Lawrence. I don’t know of a Kappa dance coming up anywhere near here.”
She didn’t press it. “Thanks. Must not be the same guy,” she said, but she knew it was the same man.
She gave it to Lawrence Hill straight when he called and asked her, “Well, what will it be? I’ve waited impatiently all day for your answer.”
“I can’t imagine why, Mr. Hill. I spoke with my brother-in-law who I think you know. D’marcus Armstrong. He said the local Kappa fraternity isn’t having a dance on Saturday. Goodbye.” She hung up without giving him a chance to speak. Was he planning to say the dance had been postponed and then suggest that they go some place else? She wished she hadn’t been so hasty. It would have been fun to watch him wiggle out of the hole he’d dug for himself.
If this was a sample of the current dating game, Ruby didn’t want any part of it. With her sisters married as her mother wished, she could at last focus on her career, and that was what she planned to do.
Fine particles of snow dusted her face as she stepped out of her house and strode to the waiting taxi, her form of transportation until her car was serviced. She loved her work at Everyday Opportunities, Inc., and with her family responsibilities behind her, she was in a position to develop the consulting firm into a huge business. After all, small businesses employed more people than corporations did. In an expansive mood, she overtipped the taxi driver and marched with buoyant steps into the building that housed the consultancy, greeting employees and building attendants as she went. She hung up her coat and headed for her office, the company’s second most spacious accommodation.
“Looking good this morning, Miss Lockhart,” one of the clerks told her, his white teeth sparking against his nut-brown face.
Her new shoes, with the pointed toes and spiked heels, didn’t feel good on her feet, but apparently they made her look good. She gave the clerk a bright smile.
“Yes, indeed,” said her secretary, who happened by at that moment. “With those legs, Miss Lockhart, you ought to pitch all your flats straight into the garbage. ‘If you got it, flaunt it.’ That’s what my brother always said, God rest his soul.”
Such comments gave Ruby courage to accept as normal that men found her interesting and wanted her company, though it was a new experience. She kept that in mind when Joel Coleman, owner and operator of Diet Sensibly, Inc., a small business that she counseled, invited her to dinner. She accepted.
“Who’s the new man in your life?” Joel asked