Her Good Thing. Vanessa Miller

often wrangled an invitation to dinner from Aunt Sarah, so he didn’t have to interrupt her during dinner, because he was there, eating it with them.

      At that moment she realized that she had made herself too accessible to Marshall, and she was tired of living on his terms.

      “Well, I may have walked out early, but I think she said the most important thing before I left.”

      “And what was that?” Surry asked.

      “That we as women need to enact our success plan.”

      “What are you talking about, Danetta? You’re already successful. After all, you are co-owner of a multimillion dollar advertising firm,” Ryla reminded her.

      “I’m not talking about business success. I guess I’m just fed up with being single and feel that it’s time to enact my Get Love Now plan,” Danetta said with conviction in her voice.

      “What did that mongrel do now?” Ryla asked, as she rolled her eyes heavenward.

      From the moment Danetta had first spilled her guts about Marshall, Ryla had dubbed him a mongrel. She’d said that he was half human and half dog. Danetta had laughed at the time, but the way she was feeling today, Danetta wondered if Ryla was being too generous. As far as she was concerned, Marshall was a full-bred hound dog.

      “Why would my discontent have anything to do with Marshall Windham?”

      “Well, let’s see,” Surry pretended to be thinking. “You have been in love with the man for over a decade, and you bake up a dozen brownies and eat them with a bucketful of vanilla ice cream each time Marshall starts dating someone new,” Surry answered.

      “I’m done with all of that.” Danetta stood up and grabbed her purse. “Come on. I’m going to take you two home, so I can get started on making new plans for my life.”

      Ryla harrumphed. “You can’t plan out every detail of your life, Danetta. Some things just happen and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Ryla had learned that simple fact all too well. She was a twenty-eight-year-old single mother of an adorable seven-year-old princess.

      “I planned out my business life, and if I do say so myself, I have become quite successful.” Danetta put her key in the ignition and started the car the moment Ryla and Surry closed their doors. As she drove out of the parking lot, she said, “What hasn’t been going so well is my love life, and that’s because I’ve been too busy with business and hanging with a bunch of women—”

      “Hey,” Ryla protested.

      “—to develop a meaningful relationship with a man,” Danetta finished.

      “Well, excuse us for inhaling the same air as you,” Surry said from the backseat.

      “I know you’re not objecting to my wanting to find a man, Surry. You seem to have a new man every week.”

      “That’s because I haven’t met one that I wanted to keep yet.” Surry corrected Danetta, “And it’s not every week...maybe every other week.”

      “I’ve met some of the men you’ve dated. They seemed perfectly fine to me,” Danetta challenged.

      “That’s until you dig a little deeper,” Surry said. “None of them are serious about righting the wrongs of blacks and most don’t even know who Marcus Garvey was. And what has really ticked me off lately with some of these so-called brothers is that most of them wanted to take me out, but didn’t want to help me canvas the streets for President Obama’s reelection campaign.”

      “Don’t expect any tears from me. These men drool all over you, like you’re their Nubian queen and all you do is toss them aside.” And who could blame them, Danetta thought, even with all her eccentric behavior, Surry can’t hide the fact that she looks like the supermodel, Iman.

      “Yeah, Surry, don’t expect us to feel sorry for you,” Ryla chimed in. “I can’t date because of all the mess I’m already in with my child who has never seen her father. So, I’m not trying to go down that road again.”

      “And whose fault is that? You’re the one who left that man without so much as a word about your pregnancy,” Surry answered back.

      “Okay,” Danetta held up a hand. “Let’s not get started on a subject that will take us someplace we don’t want to be.”

      The three women agreed and then continued discussing Danetta’s Get Love Now plan. By the time she had dropped her friends off, she had pretty much convinced herself that a change of plans was exactly what she needed.

      She stopped off at the bakery around the corner from her house and purchased two brownies. Yeah, yeah, Danetta mused, Marshall starting up with this Veronica chick does bother me, but I’m not going to spend an entire week eating a whole pan of brownies and a tub of ice cream. I’ll drown my sorrows tonight, but tomorrow I’ll learn to swim in a new pond.

      Chapter 2

      Yawning and stretching, Marshall eased himself into a sitting position. With his back against the headboard of his king-size bed, he rubbed his eyes as he looked at the clock on his nightstand. It was six in the morning and the doorbell was ringing. Reluctantly, he got out of bed and made his way to the front door. He unlocked the door and then opened it. He was surprised to see Veronica standing on his porch holding a small suitcase.

      “I’m here,” she said with a bright and cheery smile on her face. “I’m ready to go.”

      With her hair pulled back into a ponytail, Veronica looked more like Danetta than he’d noticed when they’d first met. Danetta, however, would never have just shown up on his doorstep after he’d already informed her that she would not be taking this trip with him. At that moment, Marshall felt the need to remind Veronica that they were no longer dating. “You do remember that you broke up with me, right?”

      “I was just mad that you tried to cancel our trip, but I’m over all that now.”

      She looked so cute with her honey-blond hair pulled back that he wanted to ignore Danetta’s request, get his overnight bag and ride out of town with Veronica. Danetta just didn’t believe in having fun anymore. But whether Danetta knew how to have fun or not wasn’t the issue. Marshall had promised her that he wouldn’t mess things up for their company, and he planned to keep his word. “Sorry, hon, I can’t take you on this trip.”

      Veronica’s smile disappeared as she snarled, “You jerk. So, it’s like Diane said, huh? You really are going to take her on this trip instead of me.”

      “Diane is just messing with your head. Now I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go, Veronica.” He closed the front door and headed back toward his bedroom. Two weeks after he and Diane had called their relationship quits, Marshall had accepted a dinner invitation from Veronica. Diane had gotten so upset that she’d been lying to her about him ever since. He’d unknowingly dated a pair of friends back when he was in high school, and it had ended badly: with the air being let out of his tires.

      He would have taken the time to explain things a little more to Veronica and would have even let her in on the situation with the retreat, but Marshall was offended that Veronica would accuse him of two-timing her with Diane. He might date a lot of women, but Marshall had this rule to only date one woman at a time. And he never went back for seconds. Once he was done with a woman, that was it. As a matter of fact, he didn’t even like the idea of dating friends; that high school incident had taught him well. The only reason he’d even considered dating Veronica was because she looked so much like Danetta, but he probably needed therapy to uncover why that even made a difference to him. He went into the bathroom off his master bedroom, turned on the shower and got in. As the hot water steamed up the room, Marshall’s thoughts drifted to Danetta Harris, the only woman, besides his mama, that he’d managed to have a decent relationship with for over a decade. She was his buddy, his comrade. Their friendship had even survived a seven-year business partnership.

      Marshall had