MORE THAN A FRIEND- PART 2

Nov 20, 2007 - 15:51 PM PST




After leaving Mavis’ house, Andre thought even more about Cindy and the fact that it was still so easy to talk to her. It comforted him that that aspect of her was still the same. For the most part, Andre liked the changes in Cindy. But there were some differences in her that deeply disturbed him.

It bothered Andre that Cindy’s smile never quite reached her dark brown soulful eyes anymore. What did that green-eyed rascal do to her? He wondered, thinking of Cindy’s ex-husband.

Suddenly Andre’s lingering desire for Cindy gave way to a few new emotions. Not only was he angry with Charles for mistreating his friend, he also found himself jealous that the other man had had Cindy at all. Now Andre was really confused.

As he prepared to leave Mavis’ street, Andre turned left instead of right, deciding to take the long way home. He had a lot to think about. For one thing, these new feelings towards Cindy had to be sorted out and a long drive just might help make that process quicker.



Mavis and the kids showed Cindy to the guest bedroom. Like the rest of the house, it contained numerous hardwood pieces. The area that will now be considered as Cindy’s room sported a queen-sized sleigh bed accented with hand carved details and a pecan-colored veneer inlay. There were about six beige and white pillows of various shapes and sizes atop a matching comforter. On the nightstand sat a private telephone and an antique lamp. The two tall bay windows allowed the evening light to pour freely into the room, beckoning Cindy’s healing to begin.

“I love it, Mavis. It’s wonderful.” Cindy sighed with pleasure, hugging her sister in gratitude.

“I’m glad. Eric and I redid it after your last visit. We thought that this would be the best room for you during your stay. I hope you decide to stay for a while, Cindy. Not only because I need your help with the kids, but because we love having you here.” Mavis released her sister and walked over to the lamp to turn it on. It would be dark out soon.

“Thanks, sis. I think I need to be here, too. Around family that loves me and accepts me for me.” Cindy’s eyes suddenly grew very serious.

Mavis instantly saw the change in her sister’s countenance and responded accordingly. “Uh…kids, go watch TV for a bit. I need to talk to your auntie alone.” As they reluctantly, but obediently left the room, Mavis pulled Cindy towards the bed to sit down. “Now tell me what happened to you down there in Florida. I want to hear it all.” Her voice was gentle and caring.

Being in such a loving environment prompted Cindy to bear her soul. Finally she could open up to someone she trusted, someone that she knew would love her no matter what. Then Mavis listened as her baby sister told her how Charles used to constantly put her down whenever she tried to move outside of the suffocating emotional box he’d created for her. How he’d cheated on her for years and how he even had the nerve to blame her for his behaviour. Cindy cried as she revealed how she always felt as if she had to earn his love by doing what he wanted or expected of her.

“Charles used to make me feel as if it was a privilege to be his wife. That he could have any woman he wanted and that I should be glad he chose me,” Cindy continued, involuntarily popping the knuckles on her hands, a nervous act she’d hadn’t done since she was fifteen.

Years ago Cindy sat in her room doing the same thing to her knuckles as she waited up for her older sister to come home from a date with a football jock who had a bad reputation for ‘loving them and leaving them’. After three hours of worrying, she finally got up the nerve to wake her parents and tell them about Mavis missing her eleven o’clock curfew. Cindy had been afraid that her sister was hurt or in trouble.

As it turned out, Mavis had been in trouble. Floyd Jenkins (her date for the evening) had put her out on the side of a lonely dark road, out in the middle of nowhere, leaving her to find her own way home all because she refused to have sex with him and become another notch on his teenage libido belt.

Knowing Floyd’s address, Cindy led her parents to his house. After restraining her father from throttling Floyd and her mother from calling the police, she got the scared young man to reveal where he’d left her sister. Instead of being angry, Mavis had been extremely grateful to Cindy. And despite the fact that she received the scolding of her life for choosing Floyd simply for his outer appearance instead of his inner qualities, she was more than happy to be spared that long walk home in the cold dark night.

But tonight Mavis was extremely angry, yet still not at Cindy. She was mad with Charles. “That green-eyed, two-timing monster. He should have been glad to have someone like you!” Mavis shot out, brimming with fury.

“Sis, I think he stayed with me as long as he did, because I made him look good among his peers. And you already know about the prenuptial agreement he tricked me into signing a week before our wedding day.” Cindy got up and started pacing the floor, trying to keep her thoughts together.

“Honesty, Cindy, I don’t know how you stayed with him after you found those papers in his files. I mean to tell you that you’re signing the deed to the house, knowing full well that some of those forms contained a prenuptial agreement is just plain cold-hearted.”

“I know I should have left Charles then, but I just couldn’t. I still loved him and I felt so embarrassed by my stupidity. I also didn’t want Mom and Dad to be right. I wanted to prove them wrong about him.” Cindy shrugged and continued. “And then he apologized and started treating me like such a queen that I soon lowered my defences and forgave him. He assured me that he was sorry about the way he’d presented the papers to me, and that it was his wealthy family that had pressured him into protecting his and their interests like that.”

Charles’ explanation had made sense to Cindy who, at that time, found it easy to believe anything negative about the Kirkland’s. Even now she could still recall how snobbish Charles’ family had been towards her. The way they were always making subtle remarks about her complexion, saying ridiculous things like ‘you’re cute to be so black’ to remind her of how different she was from the rest of them. In fact, Cindy was the darkest in-law in the family. This was largely due to the fact that the predominantly light-skinned Kirkland clan tended to marry other same skin toned persons. In their eyes, Cindy’s only redeeming quality had been the long, straight black hair her Korean heritage afforded her.

Instead of being angry with them, Cindy had felt sorry for them, often wondering what had happened to make the Kirkland’s despise such a very important part of their own heritage? Their emphasis on her hair was one reason she’d kept it cut short. Charles had been another. He liked it short. Now that she thought about it, he seemed to take a perverted form of pleasure in irritating his family with little things like that, even though he appeared to go along with them on the surface.

Maybe that’s why he married me, Cindy mused hotly, wishing that she could erase the last six years from her memory altogether.

“Why didn’t he just tear the papers up after you confronted him?” Mavis probed, trying to pull her sister out of her deep thoughts. Cindy needed to purge herself, not hold this mess in to fester and cause unnecessary problems later on.

“Stupid me. I’m the one who kept Charles from tearing them up. I wanted to prove to him that I loved him, not his money or position in the community. I really loved Charles and he betrayed me time and time again. All I have left now is the house,” she said tearfully, sitting back on the bed with a plop. A sad sigh escaped Cindy’s lips.

Mavis handed her a tissue from the nightstand and waited for a moment while her sister collected herself. “Well, what are you going to do with it? The house, I mean.”

“Sell it, I guess. I don’t want it now,” Cindy resigned, dabbing at her eyes with the tissue. Oh, I hate when my eyes get all puffy, she mused, thinking that she’d already worked them enough today.

“I tell you what, let Mom process the sell for you. You know how good she is. She can sell anything. Florida property usually goes pretty fast anyway and that gorgeous house you got ought to make you a pretty penny.” Mavis’ advice was two-fold. She wanted Cindy to have funds to re-establish her, but she also wanted to help her sister remove all traces of that fair-skinned, wavy-haired beast she’d been married to.

“That’s a great idea. When will they be back in town?” Cindy was feeling increasingly better by the minute.

“Tomorrow night. I’ll go over there with you and we can work out the details then.” That reminds me, I forgot to water Mom’s plants today.

“Thanks, Mavis. Once again you’re right on the mark. I love you, big sis,” Cindy said with a hug.

“Love you too, little sis. Now get some rest.” Mavis gently returned the hug, before leaving the room. After she left, that’s exactly what Cindy did – rest. She hadn’t slept that good in years.

Meanwhile Mavis and the kids made a quick trip to her parents’ house. She had some plants to tend to.