Little Black Book

I remember the first time I saw them. I was in the front window booth of the coffee shop, cleaning off the table from my last customers. Anybody who caught a glimpse of them could tell they were in love. He chased her until he could grab her from the back and swung her around a bit as she let out a soft scream accompanied by laughter. Watching them interact with each other made me feel as though I was watching a live filming of one of the greatest love stories ever told. Almost every day around five in the afternoon, I would see them pull up in his black 1967 Convertible Mustang. He was always such a gentleman. He would park the car and immediately run to the passenger side to ensure that she would never touch the car door. And she was such a lady; she would sit there until he came around to open it. They would then head up the hill hand in hand until they disappeared under the long wispy arches of the willow tree branches. Without fail, I would get stuck in a trance as I watched their every move until the moment any trace of them was impossible to see. Even after I could no longer see them, I would gaze in their direction for another 10 minutes recreating the tale of their love story. I realized I was beginning to become a bit obsessed with them. I would practically plan my break around their arrival to make sure I didn’t miss them. I would try my best not to allow anyone to sit within my perfect view of them if it would interfere with the time of their arrival. Then one day, I saw him arrive alone. It felt weird not seeing them together. I almost felt as though I was cheating on them by watching him there without her. He didn’t stay very long. He disappeared into the trees and came back to his car about 30 mins later. About an hour passed by and then I saw her. She rode up on a white and blue moped and then she too disappeared toward the willow tree. She stayed about the same amount of time as he did and then she got on her bike and rode off. When they were together, I could effortlessly put together an exciting tale of what they were doing beyond that willow tree, but with them apart, I found it much more challenging.

For the next couple of days, they carried on with their new routine of arriving at the willow tree separately. Something just didn’t seem right about this, so I decided to investigate. I knew their routine, so the next day after the girl left I decided to wait a bit and then head to the willow tree. Although this was public property, I couldn’t help but feel as if I was intruding. As I approached the tree, my heart began racing and beating against my rib cage hard enough to convince me it was attempting to jump out of my chest. I tried to act as naturally as I could while I searched around the tree for any clues I could find. My nerves were so bad it caused sweat to drench my shirt and palms and made my clothes looked as though I had just been submerged in water. I began to grow frustrated because I couldn’t find anything, but in the back of my mind, I knew something had to be there. Before I gave up and headed home, I decided to climb up the tree. The tree was pretty big and fairly easy to climb. When I arrived at the first set of strong branches, I looked around and still I saw nothing. As I began to climb down, I saw it. There was an opening in the center trunk of the tree in between the branches that would have otherwise been overlooked by the naked eye. The hole was deep enough to create a dark shield of protection which made it a perfect place to hide something from someone nosey like me. I slowly stuck my hand inside and began to rummage around in hopes that I would discover anything other than the ants crawling up my hand. Finally, I swept my fingers across something that didn’t belong. I wrapped my fingers around the object and pulled it out of the hole and found myself holding a little black book. I was a bit frightened that I found something but intrigued enough to begin reading to see if the book belonged to my favorite mystery couple.

Michael and Laura; I could finally put a name to the faces I had admired from afar. My heart dropped as I began reading and discovered that the book contained correspondence from the couple because they no longer had the liberty to speak to each other freely in public. Michael came from a very wealthy family who owned a tech business that produced millions annually. When his family finally met Laura, one of the reasons they were unwilling to accept her because she was of Caucasian and African American descent. However, the biggest drawback was when they discovered that she coincidentally was a product of rape and the alleged father happened to be a huge financial contributor and majority shareholder to Michael’s family business. He had been like an uncle to Michael growing up. Once he heard about Michael’s involvement with Laura, he threatened to sell his share of the company. If he followed through with his threat, Michael’s family would lose ownership of their company. Michael was extremely close with his family, but he and Laura were so in love that they decided to continue in secret despite the threats. The willow tree was their favorite spot to meet, but they couldn’t risk being seen together so they used the little black book as a way to write each other important messages, love notes, and secret plans to meet. I almost had to pinch myself to make sure that what I was reading was real. I hated to hear the reason behind their breakup was due to circumstances out of their control. I was so affixed in the notebook that I failed to check my surroundings enough to see Michael walk up. “Is that my notebook you’re reading?” he interrupted me. Startled by his presence, I fumbled the book between my fingers and watched it fall the to ground. Terrified that I had been caught, I took off running to my car as fast as I could. I pulled off so fast you could hear the tires burn the pavement as I screeched off toward home.

That night I was unable to sleep. I stayed up conjuring every scenario that I might experience because of my juicy discovery. I understood the gravity of the situation and I knew that our encounter would not be our last. Did he know who I was? What if he followed me home? Anything could happen to me for digging my nose in a place it didn’t belong. I should have been brave enough to stay and talk to him and tell him that their secret is safe with me. The next day when I arrived at work, I noticed Michael’s convertible parked out front of the coffee shop. It took all the strength in me to not continue driving past my job and call in sick. I ran once, and I refused to run again, so I gathered my courage and headed inside. There he was sitting at the bar guarding that notebook with his life as he sipped his coffee. He looked up and locked his eyes with mine and began making his way over to me. “Let’s talk in private for a moment,” he said. I obliged and walked with him out of the coffee shop and stopped right in front of the window that I ironically would watch him and Laura from. “I’m not sure what you read in this book, but I am fully prepared to compensate you in exchange for your silence. But you would also have to be willing to sign a confidentiality agreement.” He explained. Then he pulled out a check for $250,000 and attempted to hand it to me along with a pen and the folded piece of paper that contained the papers that needed to be signed. “I don’t want your money,” I said kicking myself as the words fell out of my mouth. That money could help me out a lot and with everything I had going on in my personal life, it would be just the blessing I needed. Then I went on to say, “I have watched you guys all summer and admired the love that you have for each other. I really hate that I can no longer witness a true example of what real love is supposed to look like. I was so captivated by your encounters that when you two stopped coming together, I knew something had to be wrong, so I decided to check it out for myself. With everything you guys are going through, it broke my heart and I wouldn’t feel right being paid for my silence, so here.” I grabbed the pen and paper from him and signed the confidentiality agreement and walked back inside. I can not believe I just turned down $250,000. I was just offered $250,000 and I turned it down. No matter how many ways I reworded the experience in my head, it still made my stomach cringe over my inconvenient and some might say unwise decision to be noble.

To make matters even worse, I left the coffee shop that night with only $30 in tips. There was no way I would be able to afford rent this month at this rate. As I walked toward my car, I noticed a white piece of paper on the windshield. The letter wrote, “top secret information, you know where to look for more”. I threw the note on the ground and ran toward the willow tree. I climbed up, reached into the hole, and pulled out an envelope. Inside of the envelope, there was a check for $500,000 along with a note that said, ‘Maybe one day when this is all over, we will let you help us share our story, but until then, I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t honor your nobility. Now you are a part of our story. Thank you, Michael”. Although I had not been able to experience love as beautiful as what Michael and Laura shared, they made me a part of their story in a way I never could have imagined, and for the sake of real love, I promise I will protect their story for the rest of my life.