Excerpt 24

Harold was trying desperately to maintain his relationship with his girlfriend of two years though it was obvious that he was losing the battle quickly. Her FBI mind had been analyzing and reanalyzing all the data that she had recently discovered. His mind also analyzed data that had been put on the examining table three weeks ago. His desire to enjoy life after the demise of his last relationship had led him on a path of uncharacteristic disregard by placing himself on internet sites. His roll of the dice on low key dating and high profile sex sites had paid off and landed him a thick sexy white down to earth FBI field agent 11 years his senior. Her 5’4” voluptuous frame with pretty brown eyes complimented his oversized 6’2” frame and their personalities matched most of the time. Paula could be the one but how? A professed hater of relationships had met his match. But now the third issue in two years had surfaced which threatened to push the potential match made in cyberspace over the edge.
The first issue dated back a year and a half earlier when he was working overseas with the Marines doing electronics work. They had only dated 4 months and Harold could not reciprocate the love that she has professed to him. She had made herself vulnerable and it hurt that he could show the love but couldn’t not put it in words. That caused a 4 month lull where she did her own thing and went back on the dating circuit and he in turn used his energy to work harder to keep his mind off of the sudden turmoil. Funny thing happened though, he went surfing on one of those hardcore sites and ran into her again. Things began again electronically and when he returned things started slow but went back to right where it was when he left.
The second issue dated back to when he went to visit his son Kevin last Christmas. Here is where jealously, a vicious thing that sometimes keeps relationships vibrant because of its extreme love and obsession of an object or person rose its ugly head in two places. The night before he left, they had scanned the list of promotions in the area and his name was not on it. Funny thing was Paula kept scanning for other names. That hurt Harold bad as she wouldn’t even tell him who she was scanning for. Not naïve by an means, Harold knew she had dated other contractors in the area but she was still not giving up the info. “Fuck it!” he thought. I will concentrate my energy on my son. But it continued to eat through his mind daily. And on the other side, her mind had incendiary thoughts of Harold messig around with Lana. Though there was never a inkling of evidence that he would ever be with Kevin’s Mom again, Lana seemed to be the source of evil for Paula. This festered until a big blowup which didn’t solve anything but it put both people back in their places. After this one, he still couldn’t figure out why they stayed together. The only answer that he could pull out of the clouds as he looked up was fate.
Of course other things kept the relationship on edge like Harold’s Mom. Paula felt as if she did not like her at all and Harold didn’t see it. The Obama victory pushed a surprising phrase out of Paula’s lips…”now black people can stop using the race card.” That one really stunned Harold but he could see the police value in that as a lot of criminals try to blame their faults on “The Man”. But yet he stayed…. Why? Again looking up at the clouds, another answer appeared and another four letter word appeared… Love. Love? “Get the fuck outta here” he thought. But it was true, the love was there and he could not fight it forever.
Now the third issue was again on Harold. He had left his profiles up online and she had stumbled across them. Did he believe she was looking for a family member who was suspected of being a swinger? Actually not but his blindness would cause him to believe anything with enough of her sweet logical talk. He remembered she had got on there to find dates when they had split. Maybe this is what was happening again. The fact that bothered him about the whole argument is that she was hypocritical. She had been on other sites and he had found that out by using her computer on a couple of occasions. Not that he cared but she was now accusing him of doing stuff she was doing or had been doing. He was mad at that fact and she was accusing him of cheating. Maybe chatting and looking at erotic pictures was cheating. He took it at face value and with her trip scheduled only 3 weeks away he told her he was done. Especially after her saying that she couldn’t deal with a few things in his life, all which were understandable except for him having a young son. How could he go back and change his mind with that? How could someone love you and not your kid? How many times do guys get the bad rap for saying that? He couldn’t change his mind. He did though… that damn Love thing again. He had been able to shake it so many times before but not this time why? Was it because she was a good match? It wasn’t the sex because though it was outstanding, he was way too old to be pussy whipped. Mom Dukes had too him looooong ago that your first should be the only one who does that to you. And he took heed and never was again after Victoria.
The reoccurring dream of two women in Harold’s apartment happened again. This time a face appeared on the female who actually pulled the trigger. It was Paula’s. Could she find a way to get her gun over here to the islands? Would she have that in her mind? Harold smiled. He knew his premonition was not in vain. She arrived in 3 days. What was to happen now….