Chapter 9
Mort had dropped Deja off at her house about two hours ago. She had already unpacked and was sitting on the phone with her childhood friend, Dominique.
"So how was it!" Dominique questioned.
"I'm not about to go into the details of it with you!"
"Since when have you ever held out on me with your sexual exploits?"
"Haha, nice try Dominique," Deja quipped, "but you aren't getting juicy details from me."
"Well, I'll remember that the next time you want to hear about my adventures with Bob," Dominique said sassily.
"Girl, please," Deja laughed. "You know I could care less about what goes on between you and Bob in the bedroom."
They both began to laugh. Deja loved chatting with Dominique but hated the fact that she was so nosy. Dominique would use any means necessary to pry for details, but Deja almost always remained silent. There were a few times when she would give in to her friend, but there was something different about her relationship with Mort. It's almost as if she wanted to protect it from the world. If no one ever found out about the two of them, it wouldn't bother her one bit.
"Well," Dominique continued, interrupting Deja's thoughts, "since I see you're not going to give up the goods on your new beau I'll guess I'll be going."
"Sorry to disappoint," Deja replied sincerely.
"Love you," her friend responded.
"Love you too," Deja said as she hung up.
Just as she laid the phone back onto it's receiver, it began to ring again. Darrell, she thought to herself.
"Hello?"
"Hi hon, it's me," Mort said on the other end.
Thankful for it to be him, and not Darrell, a smile took over her face.
"I know you must be sick of me by now," he continued, "but I just wanted to tell you something, and you don't have to respond at all."
Curious about what Mort might have to say, she listened intently. She heard him take a deep breath. This must be serious, Deja thought to herself.
"...Deja...I love you," he finished.
She was completely stunned. She had felt the same way, but didn't want to say anything because she felt it was too early.
"Deja? Are you there?" Mort questioned.
"Yes, Mort...I'm here and...I love you too!" she said excitedly.
"You don't have to say it if you don't mean it," he replied.
"Don't mean it? Can't you hear the excitement in my voice!" she went on, "I never thought I'd be able to love this much again, but I do! And it's all because of you, Mort. You changed my life."
"Wow," he stated, "I feel the exact same way. It's like every moment with you is new and refreshing. You give me inspiration."
No one had ever said anything remotely like that to Deja. She was overcome with emotion. She wanted nothing more than to be with him at this very moment.
Interrupting her thoughts, Mort finished, "Well, I'm sure you've got a busy day ahead of you so I'll let you get some rest. Sweet dreams." And the line was silent once again.
The rest of Deja's week was routine. Mort had come into the diner twice that week, but because he needed to get some work done on his latest story he told her he wouldn't be able to make it that night.
There wasn't much going on in the diner on this Thursday night and since there were two other waitresses on the clock that night, Mike decided to let Deja off early.
Deja was grateful for the night off because it afforded her the chance to do some reading. She had recently purchased Mort's book "Everybody Drops The Dime," and she couldn't wait to get started.
Just as she settled into her couch with a blanket, she noticed a flash out the corner of her eye. It was her answering machine. Someone had left a message. She walked over and played it. It
was Darrell. He was calling to check on her. She decided to finally give him the time he'd been hoping for.
The telephone rang and rang. And as Deja was just about to hang up, the familiar voice she had once loved answered.
"Hello?" she heard his heavy voice coo.
"Hi Darrell, it's Deja."
"Thanks for calling me back," he sounded grateful.
"No problem. So, what's up?" she asked.
"Not much," he replied, "I was just calling to see how you were doing."
Over the next hour, Darrell and Deja caught up on old times. It almost seemed as if nothing had gone wrong between the two of them.
"Wow," Darrell laughed, "we've been on the phone for over an hour."
"I know, we completely lost track of time," Deja responded.
"This was really nice catching up with you."
"Yeah, it was," Deja admitted.
"Maybe we can get together sometime and hang out?"
Unsure of how to reply to that, Deja just remained silent.
"Still there?" Darrell asked, wondering if she'd heard him.
"Yeah, I'm still here."
"Alrighty then...," he paused, "by the silence I take it that you don't want to hang out."
"It's not that," she was finally able to put her words together, "it's just that I'm seeing someone right now and..."
"Deja, I'm not trying to turn this into anything romantic," he went on, "as a matter of fact, I recently met a young lady and I think she may be the one."
Deja was stunned. Darrell hadn't mentioned anyone else to her, so she naturally assumed he was still single. It caught her totally off guard. "Oh," was all she could manage to say.
"Listen," he continued, "I enjoy your company that's all. If you don't feel comfortable being out in public with me, I understand, but believe me when I say that it's strictly platonic on my end."
"Well, let me think about it and I'll get back to you."
"Not a problem, babe. Take care of yourself and don't be a stranger," Darrell said right before hanging up.
Deja wondered to herself if she actually could have just a platonic relationship with the man that she once considered her everything.
