I placed my fork down and finished chewing my food, then looked that man directly in his eyes and asked: “What did you say?” Feeling extremely confident, he repeated the questions verbatim: “If you could describe happiness, joy and peace in your life—how would you describe each of them? What activates these three emotions in your life daily? When determining what you will or will not allow in your life, do you consider how it will impact your happiness, joy and peace? If you do—why do you; if you don’t why don’t you? What is the source of your happiness, joy and peace? If you could build a new life around those three emotions, how would you go about doing so and ensuring they never fade?”
I tossed my napkin onto the table and through clenched teeth said to him: “I did not sign up for this nonsense. As a matter of fact, I am here tonight, only out of courtesy for Naima.” He stretched his hand across the table, gently touched my hand and said to me: “Rue, what did I say that made you so angry?” I snatched my hand away from his and shouted at him: “So you believe that facilitating some test is going to work for you? Source of happiness…joy and peace? No man, not even my late husband has ever asked me what makes me happy, joyful and peaceful. No sir, this that you’re doing right now, it will not work with me!”
By this time, he was on his feet staring at me with the most confused look on his face. What made me angrier was how clueless and concerned he was acting towards me—passive aggressiveness at its finest.
Bodie stared into my eyes and calmly said to me: “Rue, I asked you those questions for two reasons: the first reason is because I am very much interested in pursuing you and getting to know you, if you will let me.”
“The second reason is because you just started working for my company, so I want to capture everything you’re passionate about and custom-make a position that allows you to fulfill your dreams. I want to make you happy Rue. I should have been upfront and forthcoming with you regarding my intentions. I am sorry for not doing that and so sorry for offending you. Please forgive me.”
I heard everything he said but was too far gone in my state of anger. I quietly stood up from the table, grabbed my clutch purse and rushed past him out of the restaurant. He followed me out of the restaurant to the car and said: “Rue, if you would just consider coming back inside of the restaurant with me and talking to me, I know we can work this misunderstanding out. Rue…”
I jumped, no I threw myself into the backseat of the car that was waiting to take me home. I slammed and locked the car door before he could even reach for the door handle, then leaned my head back against the headrest as the driver drove off. Bodie was left standing on the sidewalk looking bewildered and shocked.
Immediately, my cell phone rang; it was Bodie. Instantaneously, I sent his call to voice mail and blocked his number from my cell. I closed my eyes and sighed as I thought about why this man’s string of questions made me so angry to the point I couldn’t answer them. Bodie’s questions exposed what I hadn’t taken the time to notice until now: my late-husband was the answer to each and every one of his questions.
Rue abruptly stopped typing, snatched her ear pods from out of her ears and wondered: has my joy, happiness and peace really been wrapped up in a man for all of these years!?
Look out for the next installment of this short story series by Lynnette Easter!
