Formerly titled "dear you"
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32, Tremaine Maverick needed help around his office. Especially after his long time assistant Valerie went on maternity leave weeks ago. Fed up with firing thee sixth replacement sent to him that week, he was runni...
"John Harris Maverick *coughs* here, and it's year 2018 and I got some bad news, doctors say I have something called prostate cancer. Doctors say I have one to five years of survival. Well at my age I don't think I have five more years left in me *laughs lowly* I don't know how the boys are going to take it, honestly I don't even know if I wanna tell them, I mean, they have their own lives ya'know? Tremaine is in New York busy, Micheal is married with a family, I don't want to burden them, but, I just ho.. hope... Hope,"
"No, no, c'mon don't do this," Tremaine sighed as he looked over at the tape recorder. "C'mon don't mess up," He grabbed the tape recorder up, shaking it with his left hand, he kept his right on the steering wheel.
"C'mon on you stupid fucking thing!" He hit it against the steering wheel.
"I..I just hope when I'm gone? That both my boys know I'm proud of them, and that I love them very much, though I sometimes had a funny way of showing it, I'd lay my life down for both my boys, and if you guys ever find this? I want to say though I didn't get the happy ending I wanted? I was happy in end, so Micheal, Tremaine? Listen to your pops, no matter where this life takes you? Or what it throws at you? The number rule on this earth is happiness, whether it come from you or someone else. Make sure you're happy, promise me that? That'll you'll choose happiness over anything, life's too short to waste it sad, and mad..."
The tape ended, Tremaine overwhelmed with tears. Pulled the car over to the side of the road. Getting out quickly, he gasped a harsh breath of air. Immediately sideswiped with grief. "Oh, man--" He cried to himself as he paced back and forth by the car.
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Back at the house, Stevie, had gotten up, showered and got dressed for the day. While straightening up a little, she replayed the argument from last night in her head repeatedly, she felt a bit bad for overreacting, yet, something about that conversation struck a nerve deep down inside of her, which caused thee sudden sense of hostility.
Listening to the Etta James record on the record player she found while cleaning up, Stevie stood in the kitchen making lunch for when Tremaine got back, while singing along to the music, completely unbeknownst that he'd arrived just minutes ago.
"I would rather, I would rather go blind boy. Then to see you, see you walk away me, child, woo-oh," She sang waving her finger in the air.
Hearing the screen door hit against the frame, her head whipped around to see it was only Tremaine, sighing relieved, she smiled at his presence. "Hi, I didn't hear you pull up," She turned back around towards the countertop.
"Stevie," He stood there leaning against the counter. "Stevie --"
She glanced back at him, doing a double take. She noticed the tears trailing down his cheeks. Empathy washes over her, as she grabbed a towel to clean her hands. Moving around the island, she walked over to where he stood.
