Her Good Thing. Vanessa Miller

but pretty and wholesome...the kind of girl his mother would have begged him to marry. That was the reason he’d kept Danetta in the friend zone. He had been too young to fall in love, and had no clue how to keep a woman like Danetta happy. So when Danetta had come to him one night after finals and confessed that she wanted to hook up with him, Marshall had told her that he liked her much better as a friend and didn’t want anything to spoil their friendship...like a marriage, three kids and a nasty divorce.

      Even after that awkward evening, Danetta had stuck by him. Whatever he needed, she had always been there for him. And in return he’d made her a full partner in the company he founded. When he’d offered her the job, Marshall had told Danetta that he needed her to help him conquer the world. He didn’t know why he felt that way, but it was true. With Danetta as COO of Windham Enterprises, the company had tripled its profits within three years. As far as Marshall was concerned, he’d made a good call when he chose Danetta as a friend.

      Slam...bang...boom!

      “What the devil?” Marshall heard a loud crashing sound coming from his bedroom. He turned off the shower, put a towel around his waist and then opened his bathroom door. The first thing he noticed as he stepped into his bedroom was that his mirror had been shattered and the ceramic lamp Danetta had bought him for his thirtieth birthday was broken into hundreds of pieces and now lay in the middle of his floor. “Are you crazy?” he asked Veronica. “How did you get into my house?”

      “Shouldn’t leave your door unlocked when you’re trying to be a player.” Her eyes darted wildly around the room as she looked for something else to throw.

      “How am I playing you?” He was perplexed. He thought he was perfectly clear with her. “What are you talking about?”

      “I just called Diane and she said that she was packed and waiting for you.”

      He held up his hands in frustration. “She’s lying. If I had wanted Diane, I would have never started seeing you.” Marshall had dated Diane for about two months and then Veronica for three...about a month longer than he should have. But he enjoyed companionship on his business trips, and Veronica had been fun to hang out with. So, he’d kept the relationship going a little longer than he should have.

      “Yeah, right. Then why aren’t you taking me to this retreat?”

      As far as Marshall was concerned, Danetta look-alike or not, he would never take this woman anywhere again. But she had that mad-black-woman look in her eyes, so he wasn’t about to let her in on his little secret. He just wanted to keep the peace, and get her out of his house. “It’s business, Veronica. That’s why I’m not taking you. There’s no other reason.”

      She picked up one of his Italian leather shoes and threw it at his head. “You’ve taken me on business trips before,” she said, as she ran out of the bedroom.

      He ducked like former President Bush and then, Marshall thought about running after Veronica, but he needed to figure out how to maneuver his way around the room without getting broken glass in his feet. He jumped on his bed and then climbed down on the opposite side of the room. He really didn’t want to go after Veronica. The only reason he was even attempting to find her was in case she was in his kitchen grabbing a butcher knife. He’d seen Fatal Attraction and all those other some-man-did-me-wrong-and-I-done-lost-my-mind movies. “Veronica, where are you?”

      She didn’t answer, but he heard footsteps that were headed toward his living room. He just hoped that she didn’t decide to break up any of the valuable antiques in that room. Most of the antiques and portraits in his living room had been purchased during trips outside the country. So, it wasn’t as if he could just run over to Italy or England and replace the stuff. “You’ve got it all wrong, Veronica. I’m not taking you to the retreat because my business partner doesn’t think it’s a good idea. I’m not taking anyone else either.” He tried to smooth things over before his mad black woman went Madea on him...found his electric saw and then cut his leather couch in half. Even though the guy in that movie was completely wrong for the way he’d treated his wife, Marshall had still cringed when Tyler Perry’s Madea had started tearing up the house. No man wants the stuff he’s worked hard for to get torn up. And every guy he knew could think of at least one woman with reason enough to tear his stuff up.

      “Liar,” she screamed as she opened the front door and slammed it behind her.

      Marshall pumped his fist in the air. “Yes!” he said, as he heard the door slam. But he wasn’t taking any chances. He rushed over to the front door and locked it before going back to his bedroom. He grabbed his cell phone off the nightstand and called his cleaning lady. She agreed to come back to the house and take care of the bedroom. He then threw on some clothes, pulled his overnight bag out of the closet and grabbed his keys. When he stepped outside and saw the key marks on his midnight black Cadillac SUV, he simply shook his head. This wasn’t his first time dealing with a woman who couldn’t handle the end of a relationship, but he hadn’t gone through this kind of drama since his late twenties. At thirty-two, dealing with a scorned woman was getting a bit old.

      * * *

      Danetta had done five miles on her treadmill. Two was the most she normally did in the morning, but after eating both of those brownies and half of her bucket of ice cream last night, she figured she needed those extra miles. She towel dried her face and neck as she stepped off the treadmill, and then walked upstairs to her home office.

      On Saturday mornings she normally kicked back and tried to relax after her workout but she had work to do today. Today’s work had nothing to do with the advertising agency. Although, maybe some of the skills she’d acquired as an advertising executive could help her out with her manhunt. After all, she was skilled in product placement and creative design. Some of her knowledge would come in handy for the task at hand.

      Opening her file cabinet, Danetta searched for the file labeled Husband Material. As she pulled it out, a picture of her and Marshall tumbled out and fell to the floor. As she bent down to pick it up, a smile crept across her honey-toned face. They had been hugging as they sat on the steps that led to the Howard University student library and a friend had snapped a picture of them. Danetta’s head lay on Marshall’s chest, while he put his arms around her and drew her closer to him. Danetta had hoped that Marshall would open his eyes and see her as more than a friend. But the night she threw herself at him, he’d made it abundantly clear that he was just not that into her.

      Humiliated after that crushing blow to her self-esteem, Danetta had gone from one man’s bed to the next, trying to take back her heart. But none of the men she’d dated had measured up to Marshall Windham, and her heart remained broken. So, she finally stopped trying to date and just concentrated on her career.

      And now she needed to move on with her life. She opened the file and began reading the list she had created about five years ago that detailed her perfect man. At the top of her list was the fact that she wanted to spend her life with a man that she could trust with her heart.

      “So why’d you keep this picture of Marshall inside your Husband Material file?” she wondered out loud. Marshall was his own number-one fan and couldn’t possibly do right by her. But as she read the rest of the list and was reminded that she wanted a man who would be about his business, charming, handsome, adventurous, financially secure and someone who was able to make her smile...who enjoyed the same things she did, she realized that Marshall fit every characteristic but the first one.

      Then Danetta got to thinking about where she had gone wrong. She reasoned that no one was perfect, and if she continued to wait for a man who satisfied her every hope and dream, she might be alone for a long time to come. But what if she threw away her list and just began to date men whom she found interesting. She jotted “lose the list” on the notepad on her desk.

      She stood up and began pacing the floor. “Okay, I can forget about everything but my number-one item. I have to be able to trust the man I marry...bottom line.”

      She walked into her bedroom and stood in front of the full-length mirror. Danetta knew she wasn’t beautiful or what men would consider sensual or alluring by any means. She had long hair