Nobody Girl (2 page)

Jason didn’t think she was trash. He had married her. He had to love her at some point. And that was enough for her.

After hanging up with her sister, she put her luggage into her dressing room so Jason would never know she’d considered leaving. She eyed a black see-through
nightie
that she hadn’t worn in years and considered surprising him with it as he opened the door.
No, she thought, we need to talk first. 

She looked at the clock over the bed they rarely shared together.
Nine-thirty.
Even though Jason got off work at five, he usually didn’t come home until ten. If she hurried, she could make a nice spread on the dinner table using the leftovers from last night.

Last night.
The night that should have been their four-year wedding anniversary.
The night that had turned into the final straw.
Delia spent the day preparing his favorite meal, lighting candles and covering the house with rose petals, only to have Jason not show up. At eleven, Delia blew out the candles and put the food away. Then she climbed into bed sullen and empty. She couldn’t even eat the rack of lamb, rosemary potatoes, and strawberry soufflé she’d slaved over.

Sometime during the night, Jason crawled into bed next to her and wrapped her in his strong arms.  She should have kicked him out then and there, but instead, she pretended she was asleep and nestled herself further into his warm, masculine body. She pretended they were still in love even though he smelled of women’s perfume.

The morning after the failed anniversary surprise, Donna Lee came over and helped Delia pack her bags, trying to convince her to leave immediately. But Delia wanted to stay and at least give him an explanation. Not that he had ever bestowed upon her the same courtesy.

After setting the table … again, and lighting the candles … again, she reconsidered the
nightie
. Maybe that’s what they needed to rekindle their relationship. He always wanted her to explore her sexuality more. She was always much too shy and timid to try the games he wanted to play in the bedroom. The occasional dirty movie and slinky lingerie was as far as she would go. Maybe that’s why he found it necessary to go elsewhere. Yes, the
nightie
was what she needed. The
nightie
was the key.

As she slipped the silk nightgown off the hanger, her cell phone rang again. This time it was Jason.

“Hey, Baby, sorry I’m late. I had to help out a friend.” His voice sounded tired and far away, yet still sexy as ever.

“It’s okay. When will you be home?” Her voice sounded hopeful to the point of desperate and she hated that but didn’t know how to change it.

“Actually, I’m turning on to our street as we speak. I’ll be up in a minute.”

Delia clicked off the phone then hurriedly undressed. She slipped on the
nightie
, dabbed on some perfume then dashed to the living room in order to see his face when he opened the door. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror above the couch. She looked good, really good.
Large chest, delicate waist, and firm behind.
She stared at her oversized breasts for a moment. They were a wedding gift from Jason. She never thought anything was wrong with her size before, but he had insisted that going two sizes larger would make her feel better about herself.  In reality, they just made Jason feel better about her. All she got out of them were painful shoulder indentations from piercing bra straps.

As she heard Jason’s key turn in the door knob, her heart began to race. What if he laughed at her? What if her body wasn’t up to his standards anymore? But the look on his face when he got a glimpse of her told her that wasn’t the case.

“Wow!” he said, putting down his briefcase. “You look amazing. You haven’t worn that in years.” He embraced her and placed a passionate kiss on her lips. A kiss that made her whole body
ignite
. No one could kiss quite like Jason James.

“I was hoping you’d say that.” Delia smiled and licked her lips seductively. “Look,” she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the dining room, “I made a romantic meal for us. I’ve already eaten, but I thought you could eat and then we could go to the bedroom for … dessert.”

Delia sneezed. She didn’t know why she was nervous. This was her husband. She shouldn’t be nervous in front of her own husband. But the increasingly uncomfortable expression on Jason’s face worried her. “What’s wrong, honey?”

“Nothing,” he said as he scratched his head. He let go of Delia’s hand then rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s just that, I had no idea you were planning any of this and I kind of brought company over.”

“Company?”

“Yeah, the friend I was helping out, well, she needs a place to stay.”

“She?”

“Gina,” he called out into the hallway. In walked a beautiful, leggy, redhead carrying a suitcase extremely similar to the set Jason had bought for Delia on their second wedding anniversary.

Tears stung behind Delia’s eyes, but she didn’t have the energy to cry. It took all of her strength and thinking capabilities to just keep breathing. She felt cold all over as she stood nearly naked in front of a painstakingly arranged dinner table facing what was most likely her husband’s latest conquest.

“Are you okay, Baby? You look a little ill.”

“Do you want me to get her some water, Jay?” Delia’s eyes expanded as she watched Gina walk straight to the
kitchen,
open a cabinet and retrieve a glass.  How did she know where the glasses were? “Here you go,” she said cheerily as she held out a glass of water to Delia.

She wanted to smack it out of her porcelain white hand, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t even blink. She just stared. She stared at the beautiful redhead standing in her living room. And she really was beautiful. Delia touched her own mass of dark brown curls as she enviously noticed the perfectly coiffed cherry colored hair of Gina. She wondered what her own hair would look like in that color. She wondered if Jason would love her if her hair were that color.

Somehow she ended up on the dreaded couch wrapped in a blanket listening to some ridiculous story about how Jason and Gina were friends from work and Gina’s roommate failed to pay the rent so she was being evicted and needed a place to stay. Delia stared at the lavish furnishings of their apartment. The coffee table trimmed with gold and crystal, the baby grand piano in the corner that no one played, the plasma television that rose from the floor. Everything seemed so hollow and empty.

“Delia, the car’s running and I’m not leaving without you so
— ”
Donna Lee stopped short when she entered the penthouse apartment and saw the situation.

“Gina, this is Delia’s sister Donna,” Jason offered after an awkward silence.

Donna Lee stared at Jason with a glare that could’ve melted his face. “I’ve known you for over four annoying years. You know
good
and well my name is Donna
Lee
. Call me Donna again and I’ll kick you in the nuts.”

Jason rolled his eyes and sighed. It was hard to tell with him whether he really forgot how much Donna Lee hated to be called Donna or whether he was just so disinterested in anything that didn’t concern himself that it didn’t strike him as necessary to remember.

“Sister?
How can they be sisters? Delia’s black and she’s Chinese,” Gina said with a perplexed look on her face.

Donna Lee crossed her arms and stepped toward the giant of a redhead. “First of all, I’m Korean not Chinese, you flat-
chested
, bird-brained, bitch. Second of all, what the hell are you doing in my sister’s house?”

Gina took a step back clearly intimidated by the petite Donna Lee. Jason stepped between them and said, “Donna Lee, watch your language. I won’t tolerate you disrespecting my guests in my own home.”

“Well, here’s an idea Jason,” Donna Lee said with sarcastic sweetness. “How about I not tolerate you disrespecting my sister anymore?”

“What goes on in this house is none of your business. We can solve our own problems.”

The way Jason looked at both Gina and Delia when he said “we” made Donna Lee take a step back and survey the situation again. “What do you mean ‘we’?” she asked with fierce skepticism. A tense silence fell over the room. Delia continued to stare blankly at the coffee table. Jason turned aside and rubbed the back of his neck. Gina chewed on her thumbnail and tried to blend into the background. “Would someone please tell me what’s going on here?”

 “I’m moving in, so technically, this is my home too,” Gina volunteered with tentative confidence as she looked to Jason for support. He continued to avoid eye contact with anyone.

Donna Lee looked from Gina to Jason and back several times. “Why you son of a
— ”
Donna Lee lunged for Jason and got a good punch in before he grabbed her wrists and restrained her. “How dare you? Are you out of your God damn mind?”

“It’s not like
that  —
” Jason protested as he easily picked up the petite Donna Lee and tossed her into  a chair.

“The hell it
ain’t
. Delia, get your stuff, we’re leaving.”

Delia didn’t move. She couldn’t move. She focused on her 3 inch Jimmy
Choo’s
in order to keep from thinking about the insanity of the situation and passing out. She had about fifty pairs of heels in her overstocked closet. Jason still didn’t think that was enough. He loved to see her in heels.
Especially these particular heels.
He thought they made her look ridiculously sexy. It was odd how her life was completely falling apart in front of her but all she could think about was shoes. She giggled to herself. She must have been losing her mind.

“Dee, what are you laughing at? Get your stuff. We are out,” Donna Lee said.

A smile spread across Delia’s face as another thought entered her mind. It had to do with what her sister said about Jason’s nuts earlier.

Slowly she got to her feet as her smile spread wider and her giggle grew louder. Everyone in the room stared at her probably thinking she was having a nervous breakdown. After several moments, Delia finally stopped laughing. Then with all her might, she kicked her husband in the balls.

Delia’s life spiraled into an abyss of oblivion. Jason had left her with no marriage, no money, and no identity. Yes, no money. There was a prenuptial agreement, which she had signed against Donna Lee’s adamant opinion.
Worse than the lack of money was the lack of identity.
After marrying Jason, she felt like she belonged to someone for the first time in her life. She had a name that she had chosen, not one that had been given to her. So, now, once again she felt trapped inside nothingness and she didn’t know how to crawl out and find herself.

Immediately after the break-up, Delia moved in with Donna Lee and her two roommates, Shannon and Sharon. She didn’t leave the couch for weeks as she wallowed in her failures. The longer she moped the more she failed. She lost her job as a research analyst for the National Science Institute. The only thing she succeeded in was annoying and imposing upon her sister and her two roommates.

“Delia, I love you, but this has got to end,” Donna Lee said one evening as she came home from work.

Trying to block out the forthcoming nagging session, Delia rolled over on the couch and placed a pillow over her head.