Free And I Trusted You by Jamela Page A

watching me.
     
    The next morning I awoke to John kissing me on the cheek. I smiled then got up to get dressed for work. I went to work with the intention of breaking my good news to Ray. But I was not prepared for Ray’s mood. I was sitting at the desk checking messages when he came in. “Hi, how was your weekend?” I asked him.
     
    “I don’t wanna talk about my weekend. I hope yours was better than mine.” He said and walked into his office and slammed the door closed.
     
    Whenever he was in a mood like this, I didn’t say anything to him. I didn’t give him messages or put any calls through to him. I handled everything until the end of the day. So, I interviewed all of the new applicants. I took all the job orders and filled them. I did the payroll and made sure we had all of our supplies for the week.  Finally as I was about to leave, Ray came out of the office. He stood in front of the door and just stared at me. “I wish to God I had met you before John. If things don’t work out with the two of you, please remember, I will love you until the day you die, Leslie. You would be my whole world.” Then he calmly stepped out of the way and I walked out of the office.
     
    I had to breathe a sigh of relief when I got into the car. I had never seen Ray like this. I’m sure he’ll tell me about it when he’s ready. He always did.  I drove home to start dinner and put my life back in order at my house. I had to find a way to make up to John. Even though I still had a small nagging doubt, I could see how he got into that situation. But he could have avoided it if he had just paid attention. But, that’s water under the bridge.
     
    The rest of the week was normal except for Ray’s mood. I can’t explain it. Every day, he did the same thing. Come in, went into his office and stayed there all day. He returned only the very important calls and I handled everything else. I wanted to discuss my schedule, especially because of the baby. My job wasn’t hard, but I was concerned about overdoing it. But I had to wait until Ray’s mood changed, ‘cause I couldn’t predict how he’d react. Joanne must have done something really bad this time. So, when I came in on Wednesday of the following week, things had changed. Ray walked into the office with a bouquet of red roses. He put them in a vase and put them on my desk.
     
                  “This is for all you put up with last week. Thank you for not pressuring me and for handling everything.” He said as he bent down to kiss me on the cheek.
     
    I was glad he was at least communicating. It was kinda lonely in the office without some conversation between clients. “Thank you for the flowers and they are my favorite, too. I hope whatever was bothering you is worked out. And it’s nice to see you in a better mood.” I said smelling the flowers.
     
    I got up to put a file away and walked into Ray’s office. “You know Leslie, I meant what I said to you last week. You probably think my mood the last week had something to do with Joanne. But you’re wrong. Come here and sit down, please.” He said patting the sofa.
     
    So, I sat down and he stood across the room from me. “You see, I’ve been wrestling with my feelings for you for a long time. I’ve been staying with Joanne because I knew I couldn’t have you. I’ve made sure I had plenty of female friends on the side and I know you think I’ve been having sex with all of them. But you’re….”
     
    “Ray, that’s none of my business and I really don’t wanna hear about your escapades.” I said holding up my hand for him to stop.
     
    “I’m not telling you about my escapades. I’m trying to get you to understand something about me. I’m not the kind of man you think I am. I have been faithful to Joanne. I want you to know that because I want you to understand I will be faithful to you. Now, I know about what happened between you and John and Cynthia. I told you that already. But