Human Nature

Chapter 29

March 10th, 1992

He had been at Neverland in a sort of limbo. He hadn't called Mariah and she hadn't called him. Although he appreciated the time away to clear his mind, he missed her. Thinking had brought him to two solutions:  to lay down some clear boundaries in their relationship or to just walk away and hope for better. 

He decided to call Janet, who he felt was a neutral party.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Dunk. Got a minute?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I wanted to ask you about something."

"Go ahead."

"Well, me and Mariah are going through it-"

"I could tell, I was watching the Grammys and I'm like 'Did they break up or what?' People are starting to talk, you know how stuff gets around."

"Have you talked to her?"

"Yeah, yesterday. She was sad, she said she missed you."

"I miss her too, but I don't know about this, Dunk."

"She was your future wife about a month ago"

Michael sighed when he thought back to that conversation. He had been planning to buy Mariah's engagement ring after he came back from touring so that they could settle down, but now he was rethinking all of it.

"Yeah, but her relationship with Tommy is really annoying. She tells him everything and he just goes 'yeah, Mariah you're right. You didn't do anything wrong' and she feeds into it. Then I'm the bad guy, he messes with her mind."

Janet was quiet for a minute. "Both of ya'll stubborn as hell, that's the first problem. Then can't nobody tell either of ya'll nothing. She don't think she's wrong for being friends with Tommy and confiding in him and you don't think it's wrong to dedicate songs to a woman you told the world  that you were in love with on several occasions."

"So what's the verdict?"

"Both of ya'll dead wrong so fix it. She needs to stop letting that man in all ya'll business, he has no place speaking on ya'll."

"Exactly."

"And you publicly humiliated her by pulling that stunt with Diana. You might as well have went on Diane Sawyer and said 'yeah I'm with Mariah Carey, but if Diana Ross called me right now I'd leave Mariah for her.'"

"Okay, I see what you mean. I'll fix it."

"Good, I like her and so does Rebbie."

"Bye, Dunk. Love you."

"Love you too, Mike."

He hung up the phone, feeling lighter after listening to Janet's insight.  He had to ask himself if he still had feelings for Diana before he said anything to Mariah. Diana had been his first everything before she had run off to get married back in 1986 and Michael had sworn to never fall in love again. At least until he met Mariah. Mariah reminded him of Diana so much sometimes it hurt: she was flirty, sweet, humble, independent, and it didn't help that Mariah's birthday was the day after Diana's. 

Do I love Mariah or do I love the fact that she's like Diana? Am I even over Diana?

He needed a second opinion so he called Marlon.

"Hello?"

"Hey Marlon, I need some advice."

"Mariah chewed your ass out?"