Story Board

Sandie picked over her order of Alice Springs Chicken, looking a bit wan as I reminded her that 'Alice didn't spring for this chicken,' as O tried to lift the mood. Given the course of the completed conversation, it was not to be.



"When we agreed to meet that time in Chicago, I thought you may have been feeling something special about us, Cassandra (yes, she had stopped being 'Sandie', at least to me)."

"That ... that was then. The coincidence of your visiting your sister and my going out that way to visit family, was only chance," she replied, conveniently ignoring that she wasn't 'visiting' until after I told her I was going to see my sister. It also ignored the time we spent together, almost inseperable. You had to wonder if we came to visit family or came to see each other. Almost four entire days spent within an arms reach, and I can't believe that I was the only one who felt the spark.



"My family haven't sacrificed for me to go to school and then graduate to struggle. I can't see what you see, not sure if I want to, either. But you knew that, didn't you?"



My brows crinkled. Yes, I did 'know' but I never let myself 'believe'. For whatever reason, she was stuck on the thought that not having a degree would lead to pure poverty. I was tired of trying to get her to understand that it was also no gurantee either. Nor did it mean that I couldn't make something happen. That WE couldn't make something happen ...



... if we stuck together.



"Mark," she began her voice soft, but solid. " I never made any promise to you, not in an email, not in a phone call, that we could ever be more than good friends. I have kept that end of out bargain, and as you liked to say, 'you knew the environment'."



And what was that 'environment'? When I met her at the Nationals, she was with a 'Slick Willie' character, which is why I was able to talk her into giving me her contact information. She wanted someone to 'treat her right', and not to take her for granted.



By the time I got to Kansas City, got into UM-KC, she was involved with another someone ... had been all the while we were doing the long distance thing. But I was HERE now, changed my life to be with her and he was still ...

... I shook my head to clear it. She was right. And at that moment, I didn't know what hurt worse, my head after the Jackson fight, or my heart right at that moment. Things were falling into place, and I may not have known what was next, but I did know that I was going to do something.