Skyline (In Progress)

          The Philadelphia skyline never looked more beautiful, Morgan stood on the second floor balcony, her long jet-black hair danced with the cool October night breeze, a glass of white wine in one hand and a plate of finger sandwiches in the other. She was dressed in an thirteen hundred dollar dress, that she couldn’t afford. The moment was so perfect, the fact that her seven year marriage was crumbling, her children didn’t listen to her and she was one write-up away from losing her job as a paralegal, nothing could spoil this moment. 
          Or so she thought, she stared deeply into the stars, almost as if they had a hold on her, then she felt a strong hold on her waist, and a pair of lips graze the back of her neck, she spun around, now face-to-face with her husband, Dion. 
          “Hi beautiful.” He smiled. “You look great.” 
          For years any compliment Dion gave her was graciously appreciated, now the spark was gone, she despised him now, the way he smelled, his voice, the way he’d curl his lips up when he smiled. She hated it all. 
          “Thanks.” She replied dryly. 
          Morgan didn’t know what it was that made Dion so repulsive to her, or why she couldn’t tell him that for the past six months she’d on multiple occasions came close to leaving him. 
          Things were more than perfect when they met nine years ago; both in their third year of college, they were practically inseparable; the ideal couple. Their friends envied their obvious love for each other, and their families were overjoyed when Dion proposed just six months after their first date. Things were moving along smoothly after they married almost a year later, their first child Dexter was conceived on their wedding night, and two years later came Dionna, by the time Dionna was born the family had already brought a house, had two cars and were both comfortably settled into their careers. 
          To the outside world, they still have the perfect marriage, but the feelings Morgan is struggling with is quickly beginning to bubble over. 
          “What’s wrong?” Dion asked, trying to hold his wife. 
          She moved away and sipped from her glass. “I don’t know...nothing.”
“You seem so distant, something’s up.”
“Nothing’s up dammit!” Morgan snapped.
Dion motioned for her to keep it down, and looked over his shoulders at the guest who were beginning to stare. The law firm that Dion worked for was having a partner’s banquet, and the last thing he needed as one of the few black men working there was to make a scene.
“Don’t you go telling me what to do Dion.” Morgan said, in an even louder tone. “I knew I should’ve stayed home tonight!”
“What’s your problem?” Dion demanded.
“You, you’re my problem!” Morgan calmly sat her glass down on the ledge and made her way through the crowd.
Dion stood motionless; full of embarrassment. “Hey Dee, is she alright?” Linda, a co-worker and friend asked, patting his shoulder.
“Mid-life crisis.” He joked.
As Dion tried to enjoy the rest of the night, making up stories about Morgan’s behavior, excusing himself pretending to call her. He knew from that night on, things were definitely never going to be the same.

Morgan stormed into her home, slamming the door behind her. Isabelle, the nanny jumped up on the sofa, pretending that she wasn’t asleep. “Hello, Mrs. Martin, I wasn’t expecting you guys for hours.”
“I decided to call it a night early, are the kids asleep?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, well you can go. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, are you alright?”
“Fine.” She spat.
With that Isabelle grabbed her coat and quietly left the house. Morgan undressed as she made her made up the stairs, she peered into the kids bedroom. It was for them she had been trying to make her marriage work. As a child she had been shipped back and forth from her mother’s and father’s homes and hated it, she didn’t want her children to go through the same thing she had.
After showering, she slipped underneath the silk sheets and closed her eyes. She’d always envision the good ‘ole days and that’s when she’d decide to give Dion another chance, hoping that maybe he would spark some of the old feelings she had for him. Tonight was no different, she saw them running through the park chasing their small children, Dion grabbing her and kissing her. Something she had been avoiding at all cost lately, there was always some excuse; she hadn’t brushed her teeth or she had some other errand.
Maybe Dion was out with another woman, or thought she was going through a difficult stage in her life, or maybe he just didn’t care; he never attempted to find out what the underlining problem was as the distant between them grew.

Just as Morgan began to doze off, the bedroom door opened. She hoped that Dion would wind up on the computer in his office all night, the last thing she wanted was hm bugging her about what happened.
“Honey....Morgan, are you awake?” Dion whispered, sliding his shoes off. “Honey.”
Morgan ignored him, and squeezed her eyes tighter, hoping is she’d opened them he’d be gone. No such luck, Dion leaned over her and gently shook her shoulder.
“What Dion? What do you want?”
“Wow, what’s your problem?”
“I don’t have a problem, I was trying to sleep.”
“I didn’t think you were asleep, you weren’t snoring. Can we talk?”
“I don’t snore, and no we can’t I’m trying to sleep!” Morgan snapped, yanking the covers and wrapping them around her shoulders.
“Is there someone else?” Dion blurted out, it had been on his mind for some time, but he could never conger up the nerve to ask.
“No, there’s no one else. I just want you to leave me alone.” Morgan shouted.
Dion sat down on the foot of the bed, and pulled his tie off and threw it to the floor. His mind was working a double, he couldn’t figure out why the woman he considered his soulmate was becoming his worst enemy and what if anything he could do to fix his marriage.
He massaged his temples, feeling a headache coming on. He started wracking his brain, trying to think of something to say, he didn’t want Morgan to get even more upset, but he knew he needed to find out what was wrong.
“Morgan...” He paused. “I love you, I don’t think I could ever have the same kind of feelings towards anyone as I have with you. I love the life that we’ve built; our home, our careers and our children, all my friends adore you and my family loves you and the kids. I will do or give anything in my power to keep you happy and healthy. I’ve been going crazy for the last few weeks trying to figure out what was going on, if you found someone else, if you just stopped loving me and it’s killing me, Morgan I can’t do this.” Warm tears slid down his cheeks.
“Please, please baby let me fix whatever it is, talk to me. What is it?”
Hearing Dion cry made Morgan cry, she began to feel guilty; putting herself in his shoes and how hurt she’d be, if he was treating her the way she had been treating him.
Dion grabbed her and held her in his arms, they cried for what felt like hours as Morgan tried to think of what she wanted to tell Dion.
As he stroked her hair, and kissed her forehead she replayed the good times they shared and pictured her young children and knew she couldn’t leave.
“It’s not you Dion, I’m just unhappy with work and things there just aren’t going right.”
“My paycheck can take care of the bills and with the money we can save if you stay home with the kids instead of paying Isabelle, we can manage, you don’t have to work. I just want you to be happy.”
“I am, thanks for being so understanding.” She pasted a phony smile on her face and fell asleep in Dion’s arms.

The next morning, Dion surprised Morgan with breakfast in bed, she smiled as she sat up looking at her husband and children as they gleamed with happiness.
“We helped make breakfast mom.” six year old Dexter smiled.
“Yup, we helped.” Dionna chimed in, climbing in bed beside her mother.
“Thanks, it’s looks and smells great.” Morgan hugged Dionna and kissed Dexter’s cheeks. “Thanks Dion.”
He smiled, thinking that pancakes and eggs could mend what was ailing Morgan.
“I have some time this morning, I already called for Isabelle to sit with DiDi, I want to take you out, buy you something nice, to help you get past this.”
Dion sat on the edge of the bed and watched his beautiful wife, completely overjoyed that he had resolved this issue, he hoped that things would eventually go back to normal, he missed the old Morgan and would do anything to get her back.
“I’m going to drop Dexter off at school, be ready in about a hour.”
“Okay Dion.”
As Dion and Dexter left, Isabelle arrived. Morgan threw on a pair of jeans and a Temple University sweatshirt, and threw her leather jacket on top. She hopped in her car and left.

She drove around mindlessly, with no where to go and avoiding Dion’s calls, she reached a coffee shop, she hadn’t touched her breakfast, she decided to stop in and get a cup of coffee and a pastry. Once she placed her order, she found a empty table at the back of the café and sat down.
“Morgan?” a deep voice boomed from over her shoulder.
Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest, she couldn’t believe Dion had actually found her over and hour away from the house. She turned around and scanned the strange man’s face, surprised and relieved that it wasn’t Dion.
“Yeah, do I know you?”
“Of course you do, it’s me...Nicky from West Philly.”
Nicky...Nicky, she repeated in her head. Checking out his smooth chocolate skin, perfect white toothed smiled and expensive looking gray suit. Then it clicked, her high school boyfriend Nicholas Davis.
“Nicholas....Davis?”
“In the flesh.” he joked.
“What a surprise, seeing you here. How have you been?”
“Great, can I join you?”
“Oh, um of course. Sit.”
Nicky sat down and he smelled so good to Morgan, he looked like he was definitely living well.
“I’m a district manager for Bank of America, what are you doing with your life these days?”
“Well I’m a paralegal, married for seven long years, I have two kids...are you married?”
“No, divorced. You look real good, life’s been good to you, huh?”
She giggled, the waitress came over and placed her order on the table and quickly walked away.
“I guess. You too, sorry to hear about the divorce.”
“Nah, it was a disaster from the start.”
“No kids?”
“Oh no, no kids for me. I work too much to be a parent.”
“I’m so surprised you still live in the city.”
“I don’t; I live in New Jersey, I come to Philly every now and then to visit my mom, who’s too darn stubborn to let me move her out the hood.” He chuckled.
“Their generation are so modest and stubborn.”
“Yeah, I heard that. Hey I’m on my way to work, how about you let me take you out to dinner tonight, you and your husband if you like.”
“So what do I say, my boyfriend from high school wants to take us out to dinner?”
“You could.” He grinned, lifting his brow. “Or, you could just tell him that you ran into an old girlfriend from high school and she wants to take you out for dinner.”
“Me lie?”
“You were so good at it when we were kids.” He laughed.
“Whatever.”
“Morgan, really I would love to catch up. Take my card, give me a call, so we can set something up.” Nick pulled a business card from his pocket and jotted down his cell phone number, gave Morgan a warm hug and was on his way.

Morgan sat alone thinking of what she’d tell Dion about going with Nick and if she even should, then she convinced herself that it was harmless.