Marcus held out his hand and showed Randa to the living room. She made her way to the couch and sat down. “Thank you. I always thought those chairs were so uncomfortable.”
“What do you want to talk about, Randa?” Marcus asked as he sat down.
“Is this how it's always gonna be between us, Marcus?”
“How do you think it should be, Randa?”
“Come on, Marcus. This is me. I at least thought we could be amiable towards each other.”
“I'm not being pleasant?”
“No, Marcus, you're not. You're very stiff and straight forward.”
“I'll try to do better,” Marcus put on a fake smile. “How are you, Randa?”
“That's a little better, but we could do without the fake smile. I don't need you to patronize me. But anyway, I'm fine. I started going to the gym again.”
“I can tell; you look good.”
“But not a model, though?” Randa asked and Marcus remained silent. “Okay, Marcus. I'll get to the point. I wanted to know if this thing between you and Carmen was something I had to worry about.”
“The only thing you have to worry about, Randa, is signing the divorce papers.”
“It wasn't a question, Marcus. It was, but not anymore. I saw the way the two of you look at each other.”
“How do we look at each other?”
“I can tell she's in love with you. That's why she left. She wants to give you a chance to get this over with,” Randa said. “Are you in love with her, Marcus?”
“I don't know.”
“You do. You just haven't admitted it to yourself yet, but you are.”
“Thank you for telling me.”
“You see, Marcus, I still love you and I was still holding out a little hope that you and
I could move past what happened and start over. But I know that there isn't. At least not now. Maybe there'll be another time for you and I. But now, I just wanna tell you that I'm sorry. Really sorry about what I did to us. Not that it makes any difference now, but he didn't mean anything to me.”
“It does make a difference. That's what hurt the most, Randa. That you would jeopardize everything we had for somebody that didn't matter. It'd be different if you were in love with him. But you risked everything we had for nothing.”
“I'll probably kick myself for the rest of my life for that. So the only thing to do now is make an appointment with Duck and sign my name,” Randa said rising to her feet. “I want you to know that after its final, I'll be moving, to Los Angeles or maybe Chicago. I can't live here being Marcus Douglas's ex-wife.”
Randa walked to the front door.
“If that's what you think is best.” Marcus smiled inside.
“Goodbye, Marcus.”
“Goodbye, Randa.”
“You could at least give me a hug?”
Marcus put his arms around Randa and she around him.
“I'm sorry, Marcus,” she said and a tear rolled down her cheek. “Sorry it came to this.”
Marcus freed himself from her embrace. And opened the door. Randa stepped out slowly. He watched her walk to her car. Marcus quietly closed the door on that part of his life.