CHAPTER 6

Marietta was a nervous wreck as they headed to the elevator. What was the proper or politically correct way, to behave around a guy you shamelessly surrendered to at a moment of weakness? She was determined to stay as far away from Tobias as she possibly could. The elevator doors opened and just as she was about to step inside, she saw Peter, Sarah, and Tobias. Sarah was hugging Tobias’ arm in a clingy undesirable way.

“In or out?” Sarah asked.

Marietta raised her gaze from where Sarah held on to Tobias, to Tobias face and for a second, she could swear he looked apologetic. “Out, we’ll catch the next one.”

She stepped back and let the doors close. Marietta stared at her feet unable to look her assistant in the eyes. And when Jessie decided to rub her back in comfort she broke down. She didn’t know why she was crying but for some bizarre reason she felt heartbroken. Marietta bent over so that her tears could fall out of her sockets and on the ground and not on her freshly applied mascara. When the elevator came back up, she shook herself sober and stepped into it.

“In and out. In and out,” she chanted to herself as she walked towards the restaurant like a sheep towards its slaughter. She groaned when the memory of Tobias going in and out of her body clouded her mind.

“What are you chanting?” Jessie hissed at her.

“I’m just telling myself that as soon as McKenzie says whatever he wants to I am getting out.”

“You just had sex, Marietta. Relax.” Jessie laughed.

“You don’t understand.” Marietta herself didn’t understand what happened she didn’t expect Jessie to.

“What don’t I understand?” Jessie gazed at her concerned, “Listen we have been friends longer than you have been my boss. You can tell me anything.”

“I know that and once I figure everything out, you will be the first person I tell.” She gave her friend a bear hug and walked into the restaurant.

As soon as the reflective glass doors opened, Marietta’s ears were assaulted by shouts of surprise. Startled she froze for a second and looked around the brightly lit room. She still didn’t understand until she spotted a happy birthday banner.

“What is today?” She asked Jessie over her shoulder.

“It’s the sixteenth of March. You forgot your own birthday!” Jessie exclaimed.

“It isn’t the first time.” Marietta prepared herself for the millions of hugs she was bound to get. The first one from McKenzie. He put a party hat on her head and planted a big kiss on her forehead, “Happy twenty sixth. Your future is full of greatness.”

“Thanks.” One by one she hugged everyone, and it seemed like she was hugging over a hundred people. Sandra gave her air kisses, but Tobias kept his distance. He stood at the back of the room watching her.

Marietta was grateful when she finally got the chance to sit down. The tables were arranged in such a way that they were close but not too close to each other. They were like a family and for the duration of that movie they would be a family. The crowd of people almost filled the void that the loss of her family had left. But she wished one person was there. She hadn’t seen Chris in almost nine years.

“Excuse me ma’am.” A waiter held out a wrapped box to her.

“Who is it from?” Marietta looked around the room hoping for some indication as to who had sent it. She glanced at the usual suspects, Jessie, and McKenzie but they didn’t have any idea. Reluctantly she looked over at Tobias, but he shrugged and shook his head. She opened the box and in it was a black and white picture, framed in black marble. It was a picture of a little girl about four years old. Marietta knew all too well, writing in the dust with a stick.

“I call that the beginning of greatness,” a voice hummed in her ear.

Marietta held the picture to her chest for a second and let the sweet melody of memories flood her mind as the familiar baritone voice hummed in her ear. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I can’t believe you kept this picture.”

It was a picture of her when she was a child that Chris’ father helped Chris take. That was when his love for photography started, and she was his first subject. The little girl in the picture was smiling, her hair was shaggy, and she had a little white dress on. The picture was taken around the time when her family was complete, and everyone was happy. It seemed like a different lifetime.

“You know me. I’m always trying to make you laugh in some way.”

Marietta turned towards the six-foot-three, well-built black man. She stared at him for a second and just smiled. She needed to take this moment in. This day had been going in the wrong direction until now. She stood up and stepped into the man’s waiting arms. “I’ve missed you so much Chris.”

“You better have. It’s been almost a decade,” Chris muttered into her neck as he lifted her off the ground.

“You don’t know how much I needed to see you.” She could feel the tears spill out and soak into his t-shirt.

“Don’t cry. I’m here now,” he whispered to her. “She doesn’t want to share her cake.”

Marietta broke out laughing. In Chris’ arms she was comforted when she felt his whole body shake from laughter. His laugh was still the same, deep, and sounded more like chuckling than it did a normal laugh.

“You are crazy.” She looked up at him wondering how it was possible that she had survived this long without his comforting arms. He seemed to be able to gather her up whenever she was falling apart. She turned to the rest of the table that included Jessie, Tobias and a few other crew members, “This is Chris. Chris this is everyone.”

“Not everyone, said Jessie. I’m the one who tapes the pieces back together when she’s falling apart.” Jessie stood up and managed to get a one-armed hug.

“Who’s the guy staring dagger eyes at me?” Chris whispered to Marietta.

“What do you mean?” Marietta looked around, unsure why someone wouldn’t like Chris when they had just met him. That was when she spotted Tobias and true to what Chris said, his eyes looked murderous.

Before Marietta could process what, the look was supposed to mean, McKenzie came out with the birthday cake. It had twenty-six lit up candles on it and a script design on the top. She bore through the singing and then blew out the candles. She read the words on the cake but got hung up on one, ‘birth’. Marietta swallowed hard and tried to remember when her last period was. But she had been too busy, and her poor diet meant her period fluctuated. She looked around and no one seemed to have noticed her panic. McKenzie was busy sharing the cake with the group and Chris seemed to be taken with whatever Jessie was telling her. Marietta moved around the dining room looking for Tobias.

When she finally found him, he was in a corner watching her once more. And Sarah was there, hanging on his arm like a forgotten sleeve. Trying not to get irritated, she walked across the room.

“Hi, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure,” he muttered.

“But—” Sarah begun to protest.

“Let go,” Tobias said sternly.

“You didn’t have to snap at her,” Marietta said once they were out of the dining area.

“What did you want to tell me? Before that, who is that guy?” Tobias looked imposing. His hands were tucked in his pockets as if he was keeping himself from doing something. He rocked back and forth on his heels and his eyes burrowed holes in her skull.

“He’s a close friend of mine. He used to be my boyfriend.”

“Why is he here?”

“Listen, I don’t owe you any explanations. I just wanted to ask you one thing.” She took in a deep breath. “Earlier during—”

“When we had sex,” he finished.

“Yeah, when that happened. I was a bit preoccupied; I didn’t notice if you had a-,” she found herself choking on the word. She glanced at Tobias, but he didn’t seem to know where she was going with her question.

He shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t read minds.”

“Did you have a condom on?” Marietta let the words spill out of her mouth the whole time looking at his chest and not his eyes.

“No, why? Don’t you use birth control or something?” Tobias shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal.

“No, I don’t. I don’t go popping pills, hoping that someone is going to burst into my room and have their way with me. I am not dating any one and I haven’t had sex since-,” she fell silent. She didn’t want Tobias to know that he had been her first in almost nine years, “I don’t have a reason to be taking birth control.”

“Are you worried?” he stiffened then combed his fingers through his shaggy hair. “Don’t you have some map or calendar safe day thing.”

Marietta scratched the back of her head at odds as to what to say.

“If you get pregnant, we can raise the baby together. It’s not a big deal.”

Marietta was taken aback at how calm he sounded. Talking about a baby the same way he would refer to a dog, “My father left when I was nine and my mother killed herself just after my brother died because she couldn’t bear to raise only one of her children and the guilt of... What makes you think I would make a good parent?” She hissed at him, the anger taking her over and forgetting her filter.

Tobias’ calm demeanor disappeared, and he stared at her as if she had suddenly grown a new head. He tried to hug her, but she stepped out of his reach. Tobias made a sharp exhalation then asked, “What do you want me to do?”

“I need to get one of those pill things.” Marietta begun to itch. It was a nervous tick, and she wouldn’t stop itching until she was able to solve her problem.

“Pill things? If you don’t know, how am I supposed to figure it out?”

“Cards on the table.” She waited until Tobias nodded his head, “Chris was my first then… you.”

First Tobias looked in doubt, convinced she was joking. But when she didn’t laugh and held her serious glare, he knew she wasn’t joking. “Are you serious?”

Tobias had never borne the responsibility of being the first, he made sure of that. He mainly kept to the well-seasoned women, those who knew the rules of the game. But being a second and the first in nine years he felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders.

“I’ll figure it out.” He gave her a weary smile.

“Thanks. I’m going to go back in.”

“Sure, enjoy your birthday.”

Tobias didn’t go back in until he had given express orders to Peter to hunt in the hotel for the magical wonder pill. When he walked back into the room, it was filled with people, but his eyes searched for only one person. He spotted her leaning into Chris’s arms laughing harder than he had ever heard her laugh the past three months. She looked happy and part of him wished he could have been the reason for that happiness. Just as he stared at her, her head lifted, and their gazes were locked. She gave him a quick smile then directed her attention to the small crowd around her.