Free The Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan

smell?”
    “I hope it’s not my new cologne,” he says, as he folds back the corner of the duvet, slides his hand behind my shoulder and slowly leads me over to the window as if I’m handicapped.
    “Look,” he says, pointing to the driveway where I see what looks like a big fat yellow and black motorcycle. It looks exactly like those Harley-Davidsons I see in motorcades on the freeway, but I must be hallucinating because this is our driveway and I’m 90 percent sure that my forty-five-year-old husband, who is afraid of a mouse, would not be caught dead on one of these things nor does he or would he ever wear leather anything and he certainly has not come into our bedroom in the middle of the fucking night to wake me up and show me a motorcycle that he himself has purchased.
    “Whose is it?” I ask, for the hell of it, while I wipe the sleep from my eyes.
    “Ours,” he says with what at first appears to be a wicked grin, but then I see it’s sheer pride. There’s something different about Leon. I can’t put my finger on it. Like all of a sudden he wants to go to the gym? What’s that about? And since when did he start wearing cologne? I walk back over to the bed in a somnambulant manner and slide under the covers. I hope he doesn’t have anything more to say to me.
    “Marilyn?”
    “Yes,” I groan. “Keep it down, please, Leon.”
    “Sorry,” he whispers. “But what’s your surprise?”
    “I’ll tell you about it in the morning.”
    “Come on, Marilyn. I showed you mine. Can’t you show me yours?”
    “No, I can’t, Leon. It’s not that kind of surprise.”

Chapter 5
    W hy didn’t you call me back, Marilyn?”
    “What time is it?”
    “Early. Why didn’t you call me back like you said you would? I waited and waited and waited until I just got tired of waiting.”
    “I forgot,” I say, realizing that the sun should be out by now but it looks like it might rain. Leon’s side of the bed is empty, I notice. I take the portable and walk out to the landing and look down. I don’t see anybody but I do hear cartoons coming from the family room, which is right next to the kitchen. And then I hear the revving engine of the motorcycle that does not exist. What is he still doing here? He’s usually at work by now.
    “What if I was dying or something bad had happened to Lovey?” Joy is saying.
    “You said Lovey was doing fine.”
    “I said she was losing her mind from one week to the next and sometimes minute by minute, but other than that, she’s healthy as a ox but that ain’t why I…”
    “What do you mean, ‘losing her mind’?”
    “Just what I said. She ain’t putting two and two together like she used to.”
    “Hell, who can? Don’t answer that.”
    “She keeps going back in time. Remembering stuff that makes her reminisce. It’s about the only time you can get a smile outta her.”
    “Where is Lovey right now?”
    “Probably asleep. She sleeps a lot.”
    “Well, you didn’t sound like anything out of the ordinary was wrong. All you said was that you were in bad shape, which is pretty much the norm.”
    “Norm was my last boyfriend, Miss Smart-Ass, and I would appreciate it if you would not mention his name to me on this particular day, thank you very much.”
    “Get an education, would you Joy. And then try getting a job while you’re at it!”
    “You know what, Marilyn? Maybe if I’d married into money like you I probably wouldn’t even be making this call.”
    “You kill me, Joy. You know good and well Leon was fresh out of college and broke as hell when we got married, so come up with a better one than this.”
    “How much money do you make?”
    “How much money I make is none of your business. What’s this got to do with anything?”
    “Do you have a job, Marilyn?”
    “Yes, I do.”
    “Doing what?”
    “You know where I work and what I do.”
    “Refresh my memory. I’m drawing a blank screen.”
    “I work part-time at a craft store.”
    “Could you