Authors: Rolonda Watts
Destiny Lingers (29 page)
“Come on, Destiny. I’m taking you home with me,” he says as he grabs my wrist and starts pulling me down the steps. “Enough already!”
“Let go of me!” I yell, but Garrett maintains a firm grip on my wrist and continues yanking me.
“We’ll talk when we get home, Destiny!”
Chase’s truck slams to a halt. Chase jumps out and races over. “Hey, hey, hey, buddy, what’s going on here? Destiny?”
“None of your damn business, and I ain’t your goddamn buddy!” Garrett spits at Chase, barely looking at him as he keeps pulling me toward his rental car.
“Hey, hey, hey—slow down. Let’s talk a minute, Let the lady go.” Chase is in civilian clothes, but I know he still carries a gun somewhere. I pray he doesn’t have to use it on Garrett today. I have never seen Garrett like this. As arrogant as he is, he has never touched me so violently before. But he’s desperate, and humiliated, and he’s doing whatever he can to save whatever little is left of his manhood from even more self-inflicted shame.
“This is my
wife
!” Garrett retorts.
Chase remains professional. “Yes, sir, but I’m still asking you to let her go.”
“Fuck you!” Garrett spits and tugs me harder down the stairs. I am desperately clinging to the banister with my other hand. At the bottom of the stairs, I finally start beating on his hand to let me go.
“I said, let her go!” Chase demands as he rushes over and grabs Garrett’s upper arm. Garrett lets go of me and takes a swing at Chase, who ducks and head tackles Garrett to the ground, where their mad tussle continues. I am screaming for them to stop, afraid that someone is going to get hurt, and we all make the evening news. Haven’t we all been hurt enough?
Garrett is cussing and fighting back hard as Chase punches him hard in the gut. “Owwww, man!” Garrett yelps. Chase then flips the doubled-over Garrett on his aching stomach, twisting his arm behind his back.
“Let me go, motherfucker,” Garrett spews into the dirt. “Let me go!”
“Settle down, or I will arrest you!” Chase demands.
“What the fuck you mean, arrest me, motherfucker?” Garrett squirms to free himself.
“He’s a cop, you idiot!” I scream.
“And I will arrest you for assaulting a woman
and
a police officer, you keep it up!”
Garrett freezes. “A cop?” he says. “What the fuck? Dee? Is he really a
cop
?”
“No, Garrett, he’s really the Topsail Island police
c
hief
!”
“Holy shit!” Garrett exclaims as he breaks free from Chase, rolls over, and painfully scrambles to his feet. “Hey, man, look, I didn’t know who you were. I—”
“Now,
you
look,” Chase says as he gets up. “You don’t need to cause any more trouble to Destiny or yourself, for that matter. She’ll be okay right here, where she wants to be, where she belongs.”
“Where she belongs?” Garrett looks back and forth at the two of us. “Oh, so it’s like that?” Garrett asks, finally putting all the pieces together. “You fuckin’ a
cop
? Holy shit! You fuckin’ the white po-po?”
“It’s over, Garrett. Just leave and sign the divorce papers as soon as you get them.”
“You
love
this dude?” Garrett points at Chase with an incredulous look on his pitiful face. He looks confused but finally resigned. “Fine, Dee, if that’s the way you want it. But we could have worked this out, you know.”
“Good-bye, Garrett,” I say.
“Get off this island and stay off,” Chase warns. “You leave Miss Destiny alone, and you won’t have any problems with me. But you step one foot back here—you get anywhere near this lady—I promise you, it’s another story altogether. Are we clear?”
“Yeah, no problem, man.” Defeated and deflated, Garrett walks to his car and opens the door. Then he stops and turns around to me. “You know that little blonde flight attendant with the big tits? She gave me her number this time. I wasn’t going to call her—till now.”
“Do whatever you want, Garrett. You’re a free man.”
Garrett looks like a pimp rolling off in search of another pussy adventure. As he drives away, I shake my head in utter disgust. How could I have ever married that man?
“Destiny, you okay?” Chase asks in a tender voice. He lovingly kisses my temple. I nod my head, though I am still shaken. Another storm just ended in my life.
Chase takes me inside the house that we shared as children and now share again as lovers. He cranks up his little cassette player up on a shelf that somehow also survived the storm.
“I was meaning to play this for you before the hurricane.” He pushes the button on the player and walks over to me. “May I have this dance?”
“Yes, Chief,” I reply, with tears in my eyes and even more love for this man in my heart. “I want to dance with you forever.”
“Me too, Destiny. Me too.” Chase leans in and kisses me as our song begins, with Johnny Hartman crooning, “
It’s very clear, our love is here to stay—not for a year, but ever and a
day
…”
Chase and I slow dance right there in the middle of the mold and mildew, holding fast to each other, happier than ever before. I don’t know how we ended up here together, after all this time, but I have to believe the fates, God, and good old Aunt Joy had a lot to do with it. We vow to let nothing keep us apart ever again. Yes, time moves on, but destiny lingers. Chase and I are proof of that. And we both know that neither our lives, nor our beloved island, will ever be the same again.
“Are you ready to start a new life with me?” Chase asks as he squeezes my hand.
I smile. “I have been ready all my life.”
“Me too,” Chase replies as he dips me like a prized dancer. “Me too.”
For more than three decades, Rolonda Watts’s name, face, and distinctive voice have been known by audiences of all ages everywhere, thanks to her many award-winning works in television, radio, digital media, magazines, and film. Watts is the CEO of her Watts Works Productions, as well as an Emmy- and Cable Ace Award–nominated journalist, TV and radio talk show host, executive producer, actor and voice actor, novelist, speaker, talent manager, and humanitarian.
Most know her by one name—Rolonda—under which she launched her own internationally syndicated talk show, produced by Watts Works and King World Productions.
Rolonda!
ran for four seasons: 1994 to 1998. Ro has not stopped talking since! Today, she continues as creator, host, and executive producer of
Rolonda On Demand
, a one-hour lifestyle, current events, and celebrity interview podcast heard weekly on Play.It, the new CBS local digital media platform: RolondaOnDemand.com or Play.it/Rolonda.
Rolonda began her television career as a local CBS news reporter in Greensboro, North Carolina, before joining New Jersey network WNBC-TV, and later WABC Eyewitness News in New York as an investigative news reporter and anchor. She hosted Lifetime television’s talk show
Attitudes
before joining
Inside Edition
as weekend anchor, producer, and senior correspondent, and then she launched her own internationally syndicated TV talk show. Rolonda’s deep, rich, and raspy voice is one of the most recognized in the business, serving as announcer for
Divorce Court
(FOXTV) and
Judge Joe Brown
(CBS).
In animation, Rolonda stars with Tyler Perry in his first animated movie, Tyler Perry’s
Medea’s Tough Love
(Lionsgate). Ro also voices the role of Professor Wiseman in
Curious George
(Universal) and Warrior Priestess Illaoi in the
League of Legends
game. In movies, Rolonda stars in
American Bred, Sister Code, and House Party: Tonight’s the Night
(WB),
Broken Roads, House Arrest,
and
A Mother’s Love,
which won the highly coveted Five-Star Dove Award. Ro’s other movies include
Second Chance Christmas, Christmas Mail, Soul Ties,
and
25 Hill.
She stars as Hollywood legend Dorothy Dandridge in
Defying the Stars
and Josephine Baker in
Return to Babylon.
In television, Rolonda’s extensive acting credits include
The Blexicans
sitcom pilot and
Light Girls
, both directed by Bill Duke (OWN). She also has played recurring roles in
Love That Girl!
(TVOne), and
Mann & Wife
(BOUNCE).
A committed philanthropist with an honorary doctorate from Winston-Salem State University for her humanitarian efforts, Rolonda supports Our Children of Our Troops, her charity drive for military families. She has served on the board of directors for Literacy Volunteers of New York City, the board of advisors for the Rahway State Prison’s Lifers Group, and the board of advisors for the United Negro College Fund. The Spelman College Alumna Association awarded Ro for her community service and contributions to the entertainment industry, and the McDonald’s Corporation honored her as “a Broadcast legend.”
Facebook & Business
magazine calls her “the queen of all media.”
Rolonda holds degrees from Spelman College, where she was graduated magna cum laude. She holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she served as president of Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists. Rolonda holds an Honorary Doctorate from Winston-Salem State University. There are official “Rolonda Days” in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. Ro lives in Los Angeles, California.