Friday, May 2, 2014

Book #2: You Will Never Find Another Love Like Mine

One day I was sitting in Panera Bread, people watching. As I people watch, I like to make up stories in my head about what I think their lives may be like (No, I am not crazy...just a writer who likes to make up stories from time to time). Now anyone who knows me, knows I also love music and I sing. So I was sitting enjoying my lunch and people watching, Lou Rawls' song, "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine," just popped into my head, so of course, I had to answer the call of music, and I started humming.

I started thinking about how we all need love, and it is the one, universal truth that connects us all. It doesn't matter if you are male or female, black or white, gay or straight, everybody needs and wants love..

So I decided to create a book of short stories, which chronicles the lives of ten people, from different walks of life, and how each answers this call to love....I have posted an excerpt from one of the stories, my character Lauren, who is dealing with an ex-boyfriend who is a stalker...You Will Never Find Another Love Like Mine, coming the end of May 2014!



Lauren
“So you are not going to do anything?” I was slowly getting more pissed by the minute. Here I was trying to lodge a formal complaint against my stalker ex-boyfriend, and this guy was staring me down like I had two foreheads or something.
“Ms. Thomas,” I don’t see anything that he has done. Maybe called you a few many times, but that is no different than a telemarketer.  I need to see a history of threatening behavior or some indication of your life being in danger. “This is the response from the desk sergeant who is taking my statement. This guy looks about nine months pregnant, with twins, teeth badly stained from cigarettes and years of cough drinking, and looks like the type of man who hasn’t had a woman since Clinton was in office, the first term. For guys like him, women are probably only good enough for the few moments of pleasure that he can muster up, which is why he is not taking me seriously.
“So I am supposed to wait until he actually kills me, and then have my ghost come down to the station and apply for a restraining order?” I massaged my throbbing temples to try to diffuse the headache that was creeping up and also to keep myself from reaching across the desk and wrapping that much too short tie, around his fat, almost nonexistent neck.
“Don’t think we are not taking you seriously Ms. Thomas. Just keep documenting your interactions with Mr. um….”
“Troy, Troy Davis.”
“Yeah, Mr. Davis.
“We really are sorry,” answered his much younger and better looking partner, Mr. Tall Glass of Chocolate Milk.” His badge said Officer H. Rogers, and I am guess the H stood for handsome, because he was. I am talking pearly white teeth, milk chocolate skin, nicely, chiseled cheekbones, and long, perfectly manicured fingers. Did I mention that he has big feet? But who am I kidding? I am trying to get away from a crazy stalker, the last thing I need to do is divert my attention to someone who maybe a stalker as well. Although something tells me that as fine as Officer Rogers is, he is probably the one getting stalked.
I lunge my Michael  Kors purse over my shoulders and roll my eyes at both of them to signal my disgust. All of my tax dollars paying their salaries, and I basically get treated like I am a hypochondriac, but in the legal sense.
I walk to my car, prepared to just get in and drive home, but guess who is leaning against the hood smiling like a Cheshire cat?
“What are you doing here?” After that interchange in the police station and now faced with the very problem I was trying to rid myself of, my anger was a level 10.
“The question is, what are you doing here? Is somebody bothering you bae?”
“I am not your bae, baby, or any other variation of the word. Yes, somebody is bothering me, and that somebody is you!”
“Why you got to be like that? You wouldn’t answer your cell, so I decided to follow you.”
“Do you know how deranged that sounds? Especially, since you are not my boyfriend anymore, and I don’t want to have anything to do with you. Get a clue!”
“You are just mad right now. Once you have had the opportunity to calm down, you will see things my way.”
Is this lunatic actually listening to himself?
“I am going to give you five seconds to disengage yourself from my car, or else I am walking back into that police station and getting the restraining order that I couldn’t get before.”
“Restraining order? You are going to put the white man on the brotha?”
“Don’t try that brotha crap with me. You need help, several intense sessions on a couch with a therapist.”
“No, what I need are a few sessions between your thighs.” He looked as if he had just solved the Pythagorean Theorem, as opposed to saying something highly ignorant and offensive.
I turned on my heels, and indicated that I was about to make good on my threat. He held his hands up.
“Truce?”
“No, truce! I want you to leave me alone!”
“I just love you so much, and can’t imagine my life without you”
“Well, imagine it, because we are done!”
“Just give me one more chance.”
“No”
“After all that we have been to each other, that is all I get? A one word response, which is supposed to end four years of happiness.”
“I don’t know what relationship that you were in, but the one that ended for me three months ago, was anything but happy, since my boyfriend is a stalker.”
“That’s kinda harsh.”
“Well, what do you call being told repeatedly to leave someone alone? Or calling multiple times a day, after I don’t pick up the first time? Or following me around town, when I have told you that it creeps me out?”
“Love.”
“Excuse me?”
“I call it love,”
“You are sick!  I mean it, you need serious, professional help.”
He was now standing on the passenger side door, and I used this opportunity to unlock the driver’s side and get myself in. I immediately started the engine, which he used as an opportunity to lean against the passenger’s side.
“Either move, or you are about to be road kill.” I didn’t even give him the energy or courtesy of rolling down my window, just shouted as loud as I could.
“You wouldn’t do that. You love me too much!”
I put the car in reverse, and started to pull out of my parking space. Some people can’t be told, so they have to be shown!


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