Getting Even

Chapter 10: Not Tonight

Rashad

Demetria: I will be traveling to Charlotte for a friend's baby shower next weekend. I want to see you again.😋

My phone suddenly became hot coal in my hands when I saw that FB notification pop up on my screen. I hadn't heard from Demetria in months, not since the morning she left my room and now she wanted to see me again. With everything I had been going through, hearing from her was the last thing I needed.

I deleted the message and tossed the phone onto my desk. I tried to focus on the four work computer screens encircling me, but all I could think about was the fight I had with Joy. I couldn't understand how just as things started getting better between us, that it took only one marriage counseling session to pull us all the way back to square one.

I tried to find comfort in the words Dr. Osborne said to me as I was leaving his session, "things always get worse before they get better." I didn't think it would get as bad as it did between us. On our ride home, I thought I could break up the tension with spontaneous sex, and at first, it was working. But then a switch went off and the next thing I knew, Joy was pushing me away. And it was like that for the rest of the night.

I forced myself to focus on the work I was trying to finish up. I couldn't leave and go play ball with my boys until I did so. There was suddenly a knock at my door and in popped one of the financial planning analysts, Vanessa Spencer.

"Hey, you got a minute?" She asked.

I glanced at my watch, I had half an hour before I was supposed to meet up with my boys at the gym. "I know you're not bringing work to me this late in the day?" I joked with her.

"You know I only come to you when I really have to," she said pouting her lips like a kid begging for a toy.

"You know I'm messing with you. What you got for me?" I asked waving her inside.

"I know that you're ready to get out of here to go to your game, but I'm having a problem with my laptop and I think it might be tied to an email that I opened earlier this afternoon."

I held out my hand so that I could take her laptop from her. After handing it to me, she sat in one of the navy blue chairs.

"Let's see what we got here," I mumbled under my breath while waiting to see what the computer was doing. "And why are you keeping tabs on what I do after work?" I joked.

"Don't flatter yourself," she said leaning back in her chair and crossing her long legs. "We all know that on Tuesdays and Thursdays that we have to catch you before you go play ball."

"Aye, that's how I stay in shape." I noted while scanning the current message on her screen. "What was in that email that you opened? Was there a file attached?"

"Yea, I received an excel spreadsheet from a vendor and shortly after I opened it is when my computer started acting up," she explained. "Everything's been running slow and I haven't been able to get into any of my files since."

I could already see that her computer had been exposed to something, "that file that you opened had a virus in it." I confirmed.

"Are you serious?" She asked with exasperation. "I can't afford to lose any of my files. Please tell me you can fix it without me losing anything?"

I looked up from her laptop. "Who are you talking to?" I asked her, studying her as I did so. Vanessa reminded me so much of the character Rainbow from Blackish. She was a cutesy nerd-type. From her big curly hair that she would wrap up in varying styles to her eclectic way of dressing. Vanessa marched to the beat of her own drum and the two of us had always been cool. We were close to the same age, both prior military- she was a veteran of the Air Force- and as two of the few miniorities in our building we always tried to look out for each other.