It was no secret to her or anyone else that Edmund Keating did not play house or any other games with people. Not ever. But he held his peace.
“I don’t want a companion,” she said, “and I’m too damn old for a boyfriend. I want a husband,” she said with great emotion in her voice. And then she looked at him again as if she needed to see his reaction. To see if it validated hers.
His home was so quiet that her voice seemed to reverberate when she said that last word. It even shocked the walls. But it didn’t shock Edmund. He’d had this conversation, in various reiterations, with every single relationship he’d ever had.
But his answer never wavered.
“I will never get married. And when I say never that is not up for interpretation. I am not going to be anybody’s husband, including yours. I am not going to be committed to you or anyone else. I never was committed. And I never will be committed. I told you that on day one. For me nothing, and I mean nothing, has changed.”
She looked as if it was brand new to her when he knew it wasn’t. “You don’t have any feelings whatsoever for me, Edmund?”
“I enjoy your company or this would have been over long ago.”
“And that’s it?”
He stared at her. If anybody stood a chance, it would have been her. But nobody stood a chance. “That’s it,” he said honestly to her.
She looked at him as if she still couldn’t believe how cold this man could be. Five long years and all she had to show for it was that he enjoyed how she did him in bed? Because that was what he meant when he said heenjoyed her company.It felt like a slap in the face.
She grabbed her purse and her phone and stood up. He stood up too. “You are a deplorable human being,” she said.
“Because I stuck to the bargain I’m deplorable? Because I wouldn’t change for you when I told you, from day one, that I wouldn’t, I’m deplorable?”
“Yes!” she yelled out. “I hate your guts!”
“Just a moment ago you wanted the man you hate to be your husband? Love can turn to hate that fast?”
“Who said I ever loved your ass? I loved the lifestyle you could give me. I loved your wallet and your dick. I never loved you and never will. And I’m so glad I never did!” And on that note she began leaving.
Edmund’s heart dropped. Because he knew it all along. It was the same with all the others. Their true colors came out bright and vivid when it was clear they weren’t getting from him anything but what they had with him. And that was why they never got more.
But as soon as she went to his front door and flung it open, she stopped in her tracks. “Who are you?” she asked.
Puzzled that somebody would be at his home uninvited, Edmund made his way to the front door too. And that was when he saw a woman standing on his front porch. And as soon as he saw her, a rush of warmth, of something emotional, came over him. What on earth?
But Maude hadn’t even seen him. She was looking at the beautiful black woman that was standing there. “Are you Mrs. Keating?” she asked her.
The woman stood aghast. “Mrs. Keating? Not in this lifetime nor twenty to come,” she said bitterly and pushed past Maude as she hurried away from that front porch. Before she began walking down the steps, she looked back at the younger woman and then at Edmund. “You sure have a type, don’t you?” she said to him. Then she looked at Maude. “Run, young lady, run. Don’t walk. Run!” Then she looked at Edmund again, hurried to her jet-black Lexus LS 500, hopped in, and sped away.
But Edmund wasn’t thinking about Teri’s ass. Especially after she revealed her true reason for being with him. He was staring at this stranger at his door. And it wasn’t even the stranger part that caught him off guard. It was the immediate reaction his entire being had to her as soon as he laid eyes on her. It was as if his heart soared as soon as he saw her, but only for a split second, and then it returned back to earth. But that split second confused him. He’d only had a reaction like that once before. But he couldn’t place when, where, or why.
And she wasn’t even looking at him! She was watching his formercompanionsail off of his porch and hurry to her car as if she was hurrying away from danger.
But that was how Edmund felt too. He felt as if danger was on his front porch. And when she finally turned to him he didn’t think it, he knew it. Because his heart once again, and once again only for a split second, soared. And a sense of heavy emotions washed over him. “May I help you?” he felt compelled to ask her.
Maude was too much of a bundle of nerves to have any kind of soaring heart when she saw the man she assumed was Natasha’s brother. And the way that woman fled his home andvowed to never be anything remotely resembling a Mrs. Keating was alarming too.What had she gotten herself into, was her first question. “Are you Edmund?” was her second.
Edmund had to settle down his own nerves. He could not believe the reaction he had to her. “I’m Dr. Keating,” he responded to her question. “Who are you?”
“My name is Maudetta Drayton.”
Before Edmund knew it, he was frowning. “Mawho?”
Maude was used to that. “It’s Mau-ded-ta. Maudetta Drayton. But everybody calls me Maude. Only Maude with an e. But it’s pronounced the same as Maud without an e. But only my nickname has an e at the end of it. It’s also my pen name. I use it in my bylines. Theemakes it look better on paper than without thee.”
It was definitely TMI for Edmund. “Got it.”
“It’s like that lady in that really old TV show. Then there’s Maude? Only thethen thereisn’t the name of the show. The show was called Maude, but when they would sing the theme song they would singThen There’s Maude. Like she’s so different.”
