I Want Candy (25 page)

“Ain’t nothing I can say able to change this or make it better. There isn’t a thing I could tell you to make you love me again. I didn’t push you, but for all you believe, I may as well have,” Eric choked out. “I wanna spend the rest of my life tryin’ to make this right, though I know I’ll never come close.” Eric briefly left her side. He returned minutes later with a cup of tea and her cell phone.

“Your parents, your boss, Dallas, and Jasmine have been ringin’ the phone off the hook. You’ve been asleep, but if you’re up to it, here’s your phone so you can call ’em back. I’ll do whatever you want me to do. If you want me to leave, I’ll leave. If you want me to stay, I’ll stay. Please know and remember this, though, I lost a baby too. I loved her too. Just because I was scared didn’t mean I didn’t love her. I helped paint her room. I bought her some things I hadn’t shown you yet.” Eric pointed to a large white plastic bag in the corner with a doll halfway sticking out of it. “Just remember,” Eric cried deeply into the cradle of his arm. “Just remember, I lost a baby too.” He sobbed severely. Candy looked at him. Her thoughts raced – mixed emotions of anger, sadness, and empathy.

She delicately reached out and touched the back of his lowered head, wrapping his dark curls around her forefinger. She patted him softly.

“I know, Eric. I know.”

After several minutes, Eric stood up and went into the bathroom. He emerged wearing wrinkled, white pajama pants. Walking timidly towards the bed, he slid next to Candy, holding her around her waist as she slept. His warm breaths bathed her neck. Her cell phone beeped continuously until she finally awoke, reached over, and turned it off.

* * *

CHAPTER 10

“So how long’s this supposed to last? I mean, how long will you be gone?” Eric questioned as he washed and dried the morning dishes. As his anxiety increased, the scouring of a rather stubborn piece of fried egg on a plate became his “public enemy number one.”

“About four days,” Candy answered as she poured herself another cup of coffee. She dropped two large spoonfuls of sugar into it, stirred briskly, and put the light blue mug up to her freshly glossed lips.

“I just, I mean, we were just getting better. I know you have to work, though,” Eric said as he rinsed the plate off and put it on the rack to dry.

“Yeah, I have to return sooner or later, and I really need to fly down to Florida to see what’s going on with this plant. I’m going with the auditor, and we have to cut costs or this fiscal year’s gonna take a serious hit. There seems to be a lot of waste from simple errors, so we’re gonna adjust their budget to put a little fire under them. I hate this part of my job, but that’s what I get paid to do. They spoke about closing the location, but we’re trying to avoid that,” Candy shrugged.

“So soon after, though. I mean, Candy, it’s only been five weeks.” Eric kept his back turned towards her as he placed the squeaky clean juice glasses back into the cabinet.

“It’s time, I feel better now physically at least. Besides, you know me. I do better and I heal better when I’m busy with work. I have to stay busy.”

Eric rolled his eyes as he closed the tall kitchen cabinet filled with assorted juice glasses. “OK,” he finally uttered.

Candy took the last sip of her coffee and stood up, stretching her arms in the air and yawning. She disappeared up the steps like a slinking cat and retrieved her purse, luggage, and airline information. She returned to the kitchen and gave Eric a hearty embrace. She felt his resistance, then felt him finally melt in her arms. He nestled his face close to her neck, sniffed her light, floral perfume, and breathed her in more deeply.

“Hurry home. I’m missin’ you already,” he uttered as he squeezed her harder.

“I will, Honey. It’ll only be a few days. I’ll call you as much as I can.” She kissed his lips slowly, deliberating over the affection. Turning her back, she left the house and drove away as her radio droned “Sweet Dreams are Made of This” by the Eurythmics.

* * *

“You need to go to the Bahamas with us!” Jasmine urged, her speech slightly slurred. “We’ll go to Egypt down the line sometime, but that’s an expensive trip – plus we can’t get tipsy there!”

“Jasmine, you’re tanked! I told you to stop drunk-dialin’ me,” Candy laughed as she flipped through her suitcase looking for her makeup remover.

“I might be drunk, but I speak the truth. I had to come out and celebrate Dallas’s promotion. Shame you had to leave on your business trip!” Jasmine yelled, hiccupping at the same time. “We’re goin’ with a bunch of ladies from the book club. As much of a book worm as you are, I’m shocked you haven’t come to more meetings, but anyway, after everything that…that’s happened to you – I mean…”

“I get it, Jasmine. You don’t have to tiptoe around me. I do need a getaway, but the timings all wrong. Maybe that trip to Egypt would be nice, but I need to focus on other things right now. I need to work on my marriage,” Candy sighed as she slumped onto the hard bed with stiff white sheets. Plumping the flattened pillow behind her billows of curls, she sprawled her legs and flexed her toes as Jasmine continued.

“Work on your marriage?” Jasmine sucked her teeth. “That Nigga need a damn divorce filed on his ass! Why can’t you and Dallas man up and…”

“Jasmine, I don’t need this shit right now,” Candy said with exasperated breath. “Anyway, just keep me in the loop about any future trips. I do need to get away, just later.” Candy slowly removed the cap from her Diet Coke and listened as the carbonation escaped from the bottle. She felt the light mist hit her lips as she brought it to her mouth. She smiled as Jasmine rambled on, finally hanging up the phone. After channel surfing for a few minutes, she pulled out her laptop and began looking through work emails. She responded to them in corresponding fashion, noticing one near the bottom of the list from her supervisor. Taking another sip from the cool bottle, she double-clicked on it.

To: Candy Benet

From: Gabriel Justice

Candy, I would have called, but this was easier. I received your report regarding elimination of the practice of staff cutting in favor of shortening hours. HR passed the information along to Jensen. We can discuss this further, but the numbers do line up well and may help. I’m not convinced that no staffing cuts will result, but there will surely be fewer if we implement this plan instead. Once again, you have proven to be fair, but also business-minded. Give me a call when the time permits.

GJ

Candy smiled as she flexed her toes again. She picked up the phone and dialed Gabriel.

“Hi, Candy,” he answered, the sound of jazz music playing in the background.

“Hi, Mr. Justice, I mean, Gabriel. How are you?”

“You owe me five dollars. You called me ‘Mr. Justice’ again. We’re friends, Candy.”

“I know, I know!” Candy laughed. “I can’t help it! I mean, I know we’ve had great, off-the-clock conversations, but it’s just a habit. It’s bad, I know. That five dollars means a lot to me, too,” she joked.

“Hey, with the price of gas these days, it should. I’m doing great, if I say so myself. I take it you received my email.

“I sure did. Thank you so much for the compliments. You flatter me entirely too much. I’m just trying to keep the peace.” Candy smiled.

“You deserved every word I said. Hey, watch it!” Gabriel yelled.

Candy laughed. “What in the world’s going on over there?”

“I’m at a club. People are acting a bit rowdy like the ladies from ‘Sex in the City.’”

Candy burst out laughing. “Gabriel, you’re a mess. I can’t believe you watch those crazy shows.  I had to stop watching. It just got too over the top for me.”

Gabriel laughed. “I never miss an episode, and if you tell anyone, I’ll blatantly lie. I will look whomever it is square in the eye and tell them that you made the entire thing up.” Candy burst out laughing again, holding her stomach.

“And I also watch ‘Desperate Housewives,’ and if you repeat that as well, bad things could happen.”

Candy doubled over, cackling. “You really need help. I could get paid a lot of money if I let this leak to some gossip rag,” she joked.

Gabriel laughed. “Don’t tell them about my special eraser collection then. I’m not sure if that makes me crazy or not.”

“What? Please tell me you’re joking? You have an eraser collection?” Candy asked as she wiped a humor-drawn tear from her eye.

Candy burst out laughing again. “If I ever need some money, I promise you I’m reporting all of this. Too funny!”

“What about you?” Gabriel asked. Candy could sense he was smiling on the other end of the phone.

“What about me, what?”

“Tell me something strange or embarrassing about yourself, just one thing. I promise not to tell,” he laughed.

Candy sat back and thought for a moment as she placed her finger up to her lower lip, “Hmmm. OK, I’ve got it. You know those fake press-on nails they sell at the drug store?”

“Yeah, my daughter has some.”

“I’m afraid of them. They totally creep me out.”

There was silence, then boisterous laughter.

“What for?” Gabriel asked over the loud music.

“I don’t know,” Candy chuckled. “They just look creepy!”

“Well, if you get out of line, I’ll just put some Lee Press-On nails on your desk before you come in some morning. That’ll set you straight!”

Candy snickered. “If you do that, I’ll set your entire eraser collection on fire.”

Gabriel snorted. “Oh, God, as wonderful as this conversation has been, I have to go. Thanks for the laugh. You don’t know how much it means to me. I love it when we joke around like this.” There was brief silence.

“I do too. You always make me laugh. We have a good time together despite yout being my boss. You’re good people. Thanks,” Candy said solemnly.

“You too, Candy, and call me anytime.” Candy reflected on the phone call, still smiling.
Her smile soon left her face as she looked at the time.

“Damn it. Where is he?” she said out loud as she phoned home again. She had been trying desperately to reach Eric to no avail. The voice mail answered.

“Eric, this is, well, you know who this is. I’m startin’ to get concerned. I left two voicemails on your cell phone and one here earlier. Are you OK? Call me. I’ll be up for a while longer.” Candy hung up, chewed her bottom lip, and briefly closed her eyes. She slowly stood up and removed her clothing one layer at a time. Yawning, she made her way into the small bathroom with cheap single-ply toilet paper.

‘This is a nice hotel. I know they can do better than this,’ she thought as she turned on the shower. Gathering her loofah sponge and coconut-lemon body gel, she stood in the shower and allowed the warm water to coat the strands of her hair, run down her face, and flow down her chest while some puddled in her navel. She hummed to herself as she covered every pore, washing the day away. Ten minutes later, she stepped out of the shower and quickly dried off. Lotioning herself down, she sat back down on the bed and half-heartedly looked at the 2:00AM infomercial about real estate flipping. She felt her stomach knot up as thoughts of Eric drifted in and out of her mind. Quickly moving toward her luggage, she pulled out the large box of chocolates, tearing the wrapper away. She began to devour them, one by one, even the ones she hated. Her eyes rolled back as she received their sweet medicine. Wrapping her robe tighter around herself, she started on the second row, still staring blankly at the television until over eighty-five percent of the chocolates were consumed. She eventually fell asleep, having vivid, disturbing dreams. The sweetness of the chocolate made her queasy as it swirled around inside, mingling with caramel, vanilla cream, and syrupy Coca-Cola. A tear streamed down her face as she continued to slumber. She murmured, “Wish I could start over.”