(Read part 1 here)
“You what?” Sharon stood up.
“You heard me. It was, like, a lifetime ago.”
“Hold on, you’re still married? You never told me you were ever married?” Sharon started to pace back and forth. “How is it you never brought this up? We’ve talked about dang near everything and you never mentioned being married.”
Liz shrugged. “I kind of just erased it. Long story, you know. I figured I’d deal with it if I ever wanted to get married again- which I don’t.”
“No Liz, I don’t know. You’re just around here dating other people knowing you have this attractive husband on the other side of the country? That’s so deceptive, so rude, so, so . . .” Sharon stopped pacing and looked at Liz, “wrong!”
“Why are you so bent out of shape about this? Ya’ll just had one date. Plus, he’s dating someone else seriously. He just texted me that he thinks he found the one. Some girl he met in Vegas. Sorry you had to hear it from me. But can you imagine how odd that would have been if ya’ll had hit it off and you found out he was my husband?” Liz threw her head back and let out a loud cackle of a laugh.
“He said he found someone in Vegas?”
“Yeah, girl. He said he needed to clear up our ‘situation’,” she scrunched her fingers to create quotation marks, “because he thinks he met the one. Who meets the love of their life in Vegas? Like that will last.”
“He literally said ‘the one’?”
“Yeah, but cheer up Buttercup! There are other fish in the sea. Some sharks too but I’m sure you’ll find your dolphin. I hear they’re the most social of the sea. At least you’re finding this out now before you slept with him or something.”
“Yeah, uh, you’re right.” Sharon grabbed her purse and her phone and let Liz know she had to get going. She planted a quick kiss on her cheek before rushing out the door.
Back at her own place, Sharon paced the floor and picked at her fingernails. What was she going to do? Apparently, Jerell felt as strongly about her as she did him. He called her “the one.” There was definitely more than a spark. She checked her phone and saw that he had sent her a message.
JERELL: Hey beautiful! I have been thinking about you all day.
SHARON: Good things, I hope.
JERELL: Of course! But I need to talk to you about something. Nothing too major but wanted to be sure
you would be avail at our normal time this evening.
Sharon could guess what he wanted to discuss but was he going to share what she already knew?
SHARON: Yep, I’ll be free.
JERELL: Cool. Talk soon.
Sharon tried to busy herself while she waited for their evening chat time to roll around. She wondered how much he would share. Should she say that she knows Liz or play it safe? She remembered when she first met Liz. They were both standing in line at Starbucks and Liz had ordered the spinach feta wrap. Sharon ordered one right after her. While they were waiting for their food, the Barista came up to notify them that they only had one wrap left. Sharon immediately asked what else they had since Liz had ordered first, but Liz interrupted, insisting that Sharon take it. Sharon, while thankful, couldn’t imagine taking it and the two went back and forth. The Barista suggested they split it in half and that’s exactly what they did. Sharon thanked Liz profusely and noticed that she had a recent copy of Jodi Picoult’s book, Small Great Things, peaking out of her tote. They went from sharing a breakfast treat to discussing race, women’s rights and views on civil rights in America in the middle of Starbucks. They exchanged information and started following one another on social media. That led to meeting up for a happy hour, exchanging book notes and going to Saturday brunch.
Their friendship had come at the perfect time for Sharon. She had just moved to the Bay Area and was hoping to make it feel like home. Liz showed her the top spots to eat in Oakland and introduced her to some of her favorite locations such as the Saturday farmer’s market at Lake Merritt or shopping in Walnut Creek.
Over the past six years, Liz had become more like a sister, not just a friend, which made it so difficult to believe that she could have gone all this time without mentioning that she was still legally married. There had even been a couple of times when Sharon had introduced Liz to co-workers or other guys she thought she would hit it off with. How could she leave out a detail like being married to a man, especially a man who looked like Jerell?
He was simply stunning. Broad shoulders, kind eyes and a smile that made her melt every time she saw it. She knew she was wrapped up in infatuation, but it had been so long since she had felt this way about someone – anyone.
—
She felt bad lying to Liz but reasoned the guilt away by pointing out that Liz had also withheld information from her. How could she not share such a major part of her life? There was no way she could have known who Jerell was? Was she just supposed to throw away the feelings she felt in Vegas because of her friendship with Liz? This was her future. Would Liz do the same for her? She was always talking about being flexible and fluid, not confining herself to the constraints of biased social standards. Sharon always thought that was hogwash and Liz’a way of saying she was going to do what she wanted to do and wouldn’t let anyone making her feel guilty about it.
Sharon considered what would happen if she behaved that way. She knew it wouldn’t last because she didn’t have the good looks, charm, grace or social inept attitude that Liz had. She would be the bad guy. She would be the privileged white girl.
Her phone started to ring. It was Jerell’s nightly facetime call. She straightened her hair and checked in the mirror to make sure she didn’t have anything in her nose before answering.
“Hi, you.”
“It’s always such a pleasure to see your face before I go to bed.” Jerell was lounging in his bed with his shirt off and glasses on.
“Don’t you look all extra Clark Kent? I like those glasses.”
“I’ll be your Super Man any day.”
“I’m more of an X-Men type of gal. Wolverine was my guy.”
“Aw, okay, you prefer I rip people to shreds?”
“You need to brush up on your X-Men knowledge. Wolverine didn’t rip people to shreds. He faced his opponents head on and gave it to ‘em right in their face.”
“I’m married!” He blurted it out abruptly, stopping Sharon mid-smile. “Sorry, there is no easy way to say that but let me explain. I got married really young and thought it would last until we grew up and grew apart. She’s a lovely woman and I’ve already asked for us to finalize the divorce but I didn’t want there to be anything in between us. Plus, I’ve been meaning to get that taken care of any ol’ way and now is as good a time as any.” Jerell was panting as if he hadn’t taken a breath the entire time he talked.
Sharon didn’t respond right away.
“Say something, Sharon. I promise it will be all done in a matter of days. I already had my lawyer draw up papers. She just has to sign. She doesn’t care and we haven’t even seen or talked to one another in over five years. I just kind of forgot about it or you know what, made myself forget about it. But then I met you and everything changed. I’m not proposing or anything but I just don’t want there to be any secrets between us.” Sharon paused for so long, Jerell thought the screen had frozen. “Are you still there?”
“I am and I know.”
“Huh? What do you mean you know? Did you do a background check on me or something? I know we laughed at our ID pictures, but you didn’t, like, take a picture or something while I wasn’t looking, did you?”
“Jerell,” Sharon let out a sigh, “I know who Liz is.”
This time he was so quiet, Sharon thought her screen had frozen.
“How do you know Liz?”
“She’s one of my closest friends and really, my only friend in the Bay. I was telling her about you and that’s when it came out that you’re her husband.” Liz’s shoulders felt like they were touching her ears. “Imagine my surprise.”
“I’m so sorry Liz. I wanted to be the one to tell you. It’s not what you think.”
“Not what I think? My new boo is married to my best friend. There’s no need to think. This is some Jerry Springer type stuff.”
“Did Liz tell you everything?”
“Of course not. Liz hasn’t told me anything other than you texted her about clearing up your ‘situation,’ “Liz scrunched her fingers the same way Sharon had. “She’s been prancing around here like her life is perfect while she has secretly hidden a whole husband and marriage.”
“She kind of had to keep it hidden until I was legal.”
“What do you mean? Oh, please don’t tell me you were underaged when you got married. She always says ‘black don’t crack’ so I literally have no idea how old she is to this day. Her skin is the clearest, most beautiful skin I have ever seen. The woman doesn’t have one wrinkle.”
“Uh, no. I’m from South Africa and she married me so I could legally stay in the United States. I was about to be deported and needed to stay in America to stay alive.”
Sharon wasn’t sure how to respond. She was what society considered a WASP and outside of news stories or television, never personally experienced the social injustices related to ethnic or racially-motivated biases. However, she didn’t vote for Trump and made a conscious effort to educate her fellow WASPs on white privilege and its impact on the world’s deeper hued brothers and sisters. Liz always joked about how “woke” she was and how Sharon was invited to the barbecue.
“Oh, ok. That changes things. It’s not like you loved each other. It was a transaction, right?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Maybe you need to say more then.”
“It was the summer after her junior year in college. I had just graduated, and my student visa was about to expire. We were young, in love and willing to do anything to stay together. My only hope of staying was marrying a US citizen. At the time, it made perfect sense. We scrounged enough money for a wedding license, went to the justice of the peace and became Mr. and Mrs. Once I was legal, job opportunities opened up. I moved to Chicago and we had a long-distance relationship until she graduated. Even though we were legally married, we weren’t ready to be your traditional husband and wife. Liz wanted to travel the world and eventually move out West. I was enjoying my job and didn’t want to risk losing it. So, we tried to make it work for a while but this was before facetime, text messaging and social media were ways of communicating. Eventually, keeping in touch became too hard and our relationship sorta fizzled out and well,” he paused, “nine years later I find myself falling for you.”
Sharon shook her head. This couldn’t be happening. What if Liz was still in love with him? There were so many unanswered questions, no closure. Liz hadn’t dated anyone seriously the entire time she and Sharon had been friends. When a guy wanted to get serious, she always made an excuse to bail out or did something to hurt his feelings and make him leave. It all made sense.
“Have you ever considered that Liz is still in love with you?”
“No, uh . . . no, that’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Why what? If she wanted to be with me, she would have come home. She would not have wandered off to California and forgotten about me. I waited for her phone calls, her letters and even her visits home, hoping to see her face one more time. After several years passed, I gave up and moved on.” Sharon heard his heart in every word he said.
“Jerell,” Sharon was about to ask something she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know the answer to, “do you still love Liz?”
“My relationship with Liz is complicated, Sharon.”
“So is mine but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I love her. I love her too much to let a man I just met come in between us. She has been my friend and my sister when I needed it most. It’s time I return that favor. Bye, Jerell.” Sharon ended the call and put her phone down before he could respond.
