me & tomfoolery

Permission, FINALE | Gary Payton II Short Story

Gary was awaken abruptly from his sleep. The sweat apparent on his forehead. His nightmare was as realistic as it could get, it had already happened. It was a memory of his parents fighting that caused him to leave for college early. He needed to get away from their madness as quickly as possible.

The argument itself was stupid, but it revealed so much about relationships, he tried his hardest to stay away. Looking to the side of the bed he could see that his previous companion wasn't there.

After the San Francisco trip, things were weird between the two and Novia didn't stay through the night anymore. This would be the third time she's left without saying goodbye. Gary hated that feeling. He hated that he caught feelings for her and it wasn't what was planned.

He doubted she felt the same, but he rather her say that. At the same time he just didn't want it to end. If that meant living with no clarity, he would hold on as much as he could.

Two days later....

After a successful presentation, Gary wanted to do nothing but relax at home. His father, proud of him kept hinting at celebrating but could tell his son just didn't want to. As the rest of the partners went out to enjoy a good time, Gary went home.

"Surprised to see you here." Novia stood outside of his door waiting for him to come home. As much as she spent there, his doorman never minded letting her up. Even assumed she had key.

"We need to talk Dwayne." She sighed as he let her in.

That statement was never good.

"Listen, if you calling it off, you could've done that over the phone." He shrugged. Gary wanted to protect himself. He felt like it was happening and needed to beat her to the punch.

"What?"

"Is that not what you were gonna say? I mean you've been acting like you don't wanna be around me anyways." Which was true, Novia pushed herself as far away as she could these last few weeks. It scared her how close they had gotten.

He didn't run off when she shared her past, the fiancé who cheated on her, the handful of guys who played her because of her position in life. They made her fall just to pull the rug from under her. Simply to feed their ego and claim they broke the strong woman, and sometimes they did.

Nothing was going to hurt worse than what Gary was doing.

"That's not true at all." She tried to reason but he wasn't hearing it. She did everything to push him away, and now she officially succeeded.

"Listen, it's cool. It's no hard feelings." Being dismissed was something she hated more than anything. Pretending she didn't care usually went fine for her. But in this moment her emotions took over.

"Is this really what you want?" Her voice cracked. It was the most he had gotten out of her, that change of tone had him looking at her for the first time.

No, that's not what he wanted.

"It seems like it's what you want." Novia approached, placing her hand on top of his. "I never said that."

"You didn't say otherwise." He slid his hand from under hers. "Is this how we're really gonna end?"

Was it? Could this all just be a momentary thing that had no purpose past this point? Did they mean more to one another?

"I think so." Novia despised the idea, it crossed her mind many times but she never imagined it getting this far and this deep. She respected him for it though. If he needed to protect himself from her, she had no choice but to respect it.

Six months later...

Gary looked over the balcony of the place he never thought he would be back to, that mansion. Six months ago he let Novia walk out and it was a mistake on his end. He wouldn't answer her calls and then they stopped. He missed her, dearly. When he had bad days, there was no one there. When he had good days there was no one to share it with.

"Would you like another drink Mr. Payton?" Felicia, his personal server asked. "Yeah, I'll take—"

"A rum and coke."

Gary chuckled because he couldn't get her voice out his head if he tried. "Yeah, what the lady said." Felicia nodded and dismissed herself. 

"Ms. Bryant, it's been awhile." Walking over to him she smiled, "It has. How've you've been Dwayne?"

Terrible.

"Career wise, wonderful. Personally, it's been hell." She placed her hand in his, stepping into his space. "Do I wanna know why?"

"You know why." He kisses her hand before holding it a little longer. "I can say the same."

Novia had went on a rampage for the first month after leaving Gary's condo. After unfulfilling sex, crying and breaking things, she picked herself up and make it work. At work she soared, and she began unpacking what caused her the pain she wanted to protect herself from repeating and protect him from.

Didn't work, they both got hurt.

"I have to admit, I missed you a lot." Gary wouldn't hide that. He had the chance to change what happened between them, "this is my fourth time here hoping you would be here."

"I missed you too. It was a little too painful to answer the phone or come here, I knew you had been here. That's why I'm here tonight." She admitted.

"What do you wanna do with that information?"

"Can we take it slow?" She asks starting to feel nervous. "How slow?"

"Like we just met."

"No sex?"
"No sex."

"Well Ms. Bryant, are you giving me permission to date you?"

What did she have to lose?

"I'm giving you permission, yes."