The Makeover (2 page)

On the way home from work, Greg drove past his favorite fast food restaurants with determination. But when he checked his kitchen, he could find little to eat. He ended up with a salad and some nuts. Afterward, he called Daria. He was trying and he wanted her to know. But she didn’t sound impressed. In the background, he could hear a man talking on the television. He thought that was odd because he’d assumed she’d gone to her parent’s house and her parents almost never turned their television on. They always complained that there was never anything on but sex and violence.

He was still pondering it when his doorbell rang. Opening the door, he recognized the willowy redhead as a friend of Daria’s, but he couldn’t recall her name. “Hello. I’m sorry. Daria’s…not at home.”

“Oh, I know she moved out. Can I come in?” Without waiting for him to answer, she was already brushing past him. “Daria borrowed some china of mine and I’d like to have it back
since she’s not coming back here.”

Greg buried the hurt those words brought him and tried to focus on the moment. “China?” He didn’t know what she was talking about, but she was on her way to the kitchen. He followed and watched as she searched his cabinets.

“Yeah. She said she was borrowing it for some special occasion, but that was months-” She broke off as she opened another door. “Ah, ha! Here it is.” She started pulling down plates and cups. “I’ve got a box in my car.”

“Wait,” Greg said, coming over to examine the delicate white cups with their gold trim. “Dare, bought these at an estate sale.” With the money she’d gotten for his gaming systems.
Of course, Greg had been pissed. What the hell were they supposed to do with fancy plates and cups? She didn’t even cook. But Daria had been so delighted, saying that she was buying things to enrich their home. Then she’d kissed him so sweetly that he hadn’t been able to remain angry with her. The kisses had soon led to sex and well, he’d been too mellow after that to argue.

“Um, no. I inherited these from my grandmother.
”

Greg plunged his hands into his hair as he thought it over. He supposed it was possible. Daria had
also come home with some designer new shoes about that same time. “C-could you hold on for a second? Let me check with her.” He went into the den where he’d placed his cell on the coffee table.

Daria answered on the first ring. “What do you want now?”

He ignored her irritated tone. “Did you borrow china from some girl with red hair?”

“Meg. Yeah, just let her take it. You won’t use it anyway.
”

“You told me that you brought that china at an estate sale.”

“You obviously misheard me. You never listen.”

Greg frowned. Occasionally he did space out when she was talking. “Daria-” He broke off as he heard Daria speaking to someone over the phone. Her voice was muffled as though she had her hand over the receiver. Meg exited the house and came back with a box.

“Look, Greg, I’ve got to go.”

“What’s going on? Is everything, okay?”

“No, everything is not okay. It’s not okay for you to keep calling me. Move on with your life. I have.” Then she hung up on him.

He’d called her a sum total of twice. What did she mean she’d moved on? She’d moved on since fucking yesterday? He put the phone down and went to watch Meg take half of his dishes. “Meg, I don’t know if you’ve talked to Daria or not, but, um, if you do, could you let her know that I love her and I want her to come home.”

She gave him a look so full of pity that he shuffled his feet and cringed. “Babe, move on.”

“It was yesterday,” he snapped. He swallowed and took a deep breath. “I mean,” he began in a much calmer tone, “She just left yesterday. She gave me some bull about us not meshing, but nothing’s really changed. I’m really confused. I don’t know what I did wrong.”

Meg crossed to him and patted him on the shoulder.
“You’re not her type.”

That was as unhelpful as anything Daria had said. If he wasn’t her type, then why had she moved in with him? He tamped down on his frustration. “What does that mean?”

“You’re a nice guy. Nice guys finish last.” She picked up her box. “I’m sorry.” He followed her so that he could open the door. “If it’s any consolation, I don’t think the thing she’s got going with Gary will last either.”

Greg inhaled. “G-Gary? You mean her fucking trainer?”

“Oops.” Her eyes widened. “You didn’t know?”

His face was hot and his heart was threatening to beat out of his chest.
“She’s got a thing going with Gary? The guy who I p-paid to come over here twice a week?” Her lack of response told him everything he needed to know. Daria had played him for a fool, right under his nose, and with his money to boot! He closed the door in Meg’s face.

He put a hand over his mouth to ensure he wouldn’t yell. Hurt and humiliation burned in his gut. “Fuck.”

Chapter Two

“Please, baby, please, take me back. I’ll do whatever you want, whatever you say.”
The man groveled on his knees in the driveway. Tears coursed down his cheeks. He reeked of beer and desperation. Both were a turn off to the woman standing impassively over him.

“Crap, this again,” said a second woman. “Can’t we go out just one Friday night without you showing up?”

Mykal turned to see best friend Tani
a coming out of her house. She’d hoped to get rid of Mario before this situation escalated. She lived in a nice neighborhood and she didn’t want any kind of drama going down in her front yard. “Mario, get up from there this second,” she whispered fiercely. A quick glance around revealed empty front lawns. She could smell the smoke from a barbecue and hear the sound of a bouncing basketball, but no one was about to witness Mario making a fool of himself.

Tania grunted. “Let him beg.” She came to stand behind Mykal. Frowning down at Mario,
Tania placed her hands on her curvy hips. Her slinky black dress shimmered in the evening light. Mykal wore a similar dress in hot pink. Tania had loaned her the sexy bit of silk. The front plunged daringly between her breasts. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t be show off so much cleavage, but the idea was to get back out on the dating market, thereby forgetting the loser currently in front of her. “Is he drunk?”

Mykal grimaced. “I think so.”

“How did he get here?”

“I think one of his boys dropped him off.”
Only Tania’s white SUV resided in her driveway. While she was glad Mario hadn’t driven in his current condition, she also didn’t want to be responsible for driving him anywhere. She’d given him all of time she intended to ever waste on him. “Tania, go inside and call him a cab.”

Tania scoffed. “They’re not going to want to take him if they think he’ll barf in their back seat. I’ll call his cousin. We used to date.” She reached into her purse and pulled out her cell to make the call.
Shooting a glare at Mario who had lapsed into drunken singing, she moved to stand on the porch so that she could hear.

Mykal bent and grasped Mario’s elbows. “Get up from there.”

“No!” He jerked away from her touch
and almost fell onto his ass. “I’ve got to make this right. Get you to forgive me.”

“I can’t talk to you like this. Go home and sober up and we can talk tomorrow.” Not that it would do any good. It was over between them and nothing he said or did was going to change that.

“You’re lying, but that’s okay. I’ll forgive you, if you forgive me.” He
swayed precariously. He began singing again, loud and off key.

“Mario
, stop it!”

“
Demarion will be here in fifteen to get him,” Tania announced.

Mario wrapped his arms around
Mykal’s legs, almost knocking her to the ground. “I’m not leaving. I’m staying until you tell me you love me again.”

Mykal expelled a sound of disgust. At times like this, it was hard to remember that when she’d met him
, Mario was a sweet boy who worked as a manager in his father’s shoe store. He had been shy and reserved. She’d had to ask him out. Being with her had made him more confident.
Evidently, too confident
, she thought, her full lips flattening into a thin angry line.

She tried to pry Mario’s arms from around her to no avail.
“Let me go.”

“
Never! I love you, Mykal. Please take me back. I’ve never been happier than when I was with you.”

“Man, show some dignity. Get up from there,” said a husky male voice.

Mykal looked up to see her neighbor
to the right making his way over to her yard. He was barefoot, in a worn blue bathrobe, and pajama bottoms that were so old they were see-through. He carried a bag of garbage. Mykal winced. She’d never met Greg, but she’d heard about him through the neighborhood gossip, Jacqueline. According to Jacqueline, his girlfriend had just left him for her personal trainer. The affair had been going on for some time. Apparently, Greg was devastated by the loss of her. Mykal usually took Jacqueline’s gossip with a grain of salt, but seeing him for herself, she thought that perhaps for a change the woman hadn’t been exaggerating.

Greg dropped his trash in his yard and came over. “What’s your name, man?”

“Mario.” He sniffed and buried his face against
Mykal’s thigh. She cringed at the feel of his tears and,
gag
, snot penetrating her dress.

“Listen, Mario, this isn’t the way. All you’re doing is embarrassing
yourself, man.”

A white Lexus parked at the end of her driveway and Demarion got out. Upon seeing his cousin groveling and hanging onto her legs, he winced. “Oh, shit, man, get up from there.”

“No, I love her, bro.”

Demarion sighed.
He cast a significant look at Greg. The two of them dragged Mario off to the car. He fought it for a bit, but eventually he surrendered when they had him buckled in the front seat of Demarion’s car. He couldn’t seem to figure out how to work the seatbelt to release it. Mykal could hear him yelling that he loved her even after they closed the door. Demarion rolled his eyes before thanking Greg. “See you guys around,” he said, giving Tania a long once over before sliding in behind the driver’s seat and driving off.

Pulsing with embarrassment, Mykal turned to Greg. “Um, thank you-”

“Save it. I didn’t come over here for you.” He sneered at her. “I did it for him. You beautiful women are all the same
—selfish and insensitive.”

Mykal gasped at the unexpected attack. So stunned was she, that
she didn’t say anything as he stalked back to his yard and put his trash out at the curb. “What the hell-”

“Well, at least he called you beautiful,” Tania said. “Ew, girl. You’re going to have to change that dress before we go to dinner. You’ve got Mario slime all over it.”

“Yeah, in a second. I’m going to go straighten out my neighbor.”

Tania gave an exasperated sigh. “I’m getting hungry.”

“This will only take a minute.” She picked her way carefully across the yard and waltzed up to Greg’s door and knocked.

Greg opened the door and she pushed her way in. “I don’t appreciate you giving me attitude. I’ll have you know I was the wronged party in our breakup. H-he is the one who-” She stuttered to a halt as s
he took in the disaster that was his den. Her mouth dropped open. “Oh. My. God.” There were several pizza boxes with various numbers of uneaten slices in them littering the floor, couch, and coffee table. Paper towels, soda cans and beer bottles were everywhere. The room reeked of old food and dirty clothes, of which there were plenty tossed randomly about, some of them making a path up the stairs. Yellowed ficus plants flanked the fireplace.

But Greg was the biggest disaster in the room.
His hair was disheveled. He looked as though he had not shaved in a month. His hair was an untidy, greasy bird’s nest. He’d shed the abysmal robe, but the t-shirt he wore beneath it was no better. It was gray and covered in stains and had worn so thin in spots that it was torn.

“Say what you came to say and get out.”

She snapped her mouth shut and glared at him. “As someone who was cheated on as well, I would think you’d be more sympathetic. That pathetic display out there was the direct result of me
catching him and another woman going at it like bunnies on his living room couch.”

His eyes narrowed on her. “How do you know I was cheated on?”

“Well…” She hedged. Telling him that everyone
in the neighborhood knew wasn’t going to make him feel better. And glancing around at her surroundings, he definitely needed to feel better.

Greg made a strangled sound. “I don’t believe this. I don’t even know you and you knew she was cheating on me. Did everyone in Greenville know?”

“Hey, it happens to the best of us. The thing is to get back out there and not let it get you down.”

He crossed to his sofa, knocked some boxes to the floor and sat down. “I don’t want to get back out there. I want Daria back.”

Mykal frowned. “Really? Why?”

“Not that I owe you an explanation, but she was my dream girl. I’ve gone through the anger from the betrayal, but I still love her and I want her back.” He sighed and pushed his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry. When I saw that guy out there begging for another chance, it reminded me of my own situation. I never fell to my knees like that, but don’t think I haven’t felt like it.”

She felt her heart contract with sympathy. He must love her very much. Mykal experienced a brief pinch of guilt. Did that mean she hadn’t loved Mario? She had never considered forgiving him. But there was a difference. She’d seen Mario cheat
ing, caught him butt naked on top of another woman. No way could she ever forget that image and the pain it had caused.