We Take this Man by Candice Dow, Daaimah S. Poole

get sleepy.”
    “Nah, I’ll pass. I thought having dinner with you was a better idea, but since that’s not possible, I’ll just go home . . .”
    “And talk on the phone to your wife.”
    He hung his head. “Try talking to a woman who’s fed up with everything. It ain’t fun, I can tell you that.”
    Inside, I smiled. Things hadn’t changed. He was still in a long-distance hell with no water in sight. Just as I celebrated, I looked up into his lonely eyes and pitied him. He was strong, smart, and devoted to a wife who was obviously a complete asshole.
    As my mind wandered, he shook his head. “A’ight, Ms. Dixon. You’re in another world. Have fun at the movies.”
    He slouched out of my cubicle and I stared at the emptiness he left behind. Momentarily, I thought about canceling on my mother, but I knew she’d be too disappointed. So I did what good women do: put my mother over men.
    My mother was standing in the doorway when I pulled up. She waddled out of the house, carrying a Diet Coke. She smiled from ear to ear as she stuffed herself into my car. “I won big last night.”
    “Good, so does that mean you’re treating?”
    She cut her eyes at me. I laughed because I was her return on investment. She stopped treating me a long time ago. The last thing she paid for was that high-priced lawyer who saved me from going to jail with Deshaun. I’ve been taking care of her since I graduated. Some things you just get used to.
    By the time we left the movies, it was close to eleven and I was completely exhausted. I turned my phone on out of habit. Five new voice messages.
    “Hey, Alicia. It’s Dwight. I need you, baby girl.”
    My heart dropped. I listened to the rest of the message. “The servers went down and I need you to come in as soon as possible.”
    By the fifth message, he sounded desperate. I called back. “Yes, Mr. Wilson.”
    “You ain’t gonna believe what happened.”
    “I already don’t believe you,” I said, laughing.
    “I know you don’t. Honestly, though, the servers are down and if you could come back in, I would owe you one.”
    “You already owe me.”
    “I know. C’mon, I need you.”
    “Why didn’t you call Desiree?”
    “Man, I don’t trust her.”
    “That’s your damn problem. I’ll be in. I have to drop my mother off first.”
    When I hung up, I quickly turned up the stereo. My mother snickered and my head snapped in her direction and I couldn’t resist shouting, “What?”
    “You need a job with regular hours.”
    “Regular hours can’t pay your bills and mine,” I said, raising my eyebrow.
    “Yeah, I know. But you’re never going to have a husband or a family working the way you do.”
    Although it was something I put out of my mind a long time ago, her words bothered me. Would I be just like her, never worthy of a good man? Just as it crossed my mind, I thought about Dwight. Why were all the good ones with the wrong woman?
    “Why should I get married to get divorced?”
    She shook her head. “You’re so tough, aren’t you?”
    I zoomed down her street and unlocked the car doors. My brakes screeched as I pulled up in front of her door. “I love you, too, Ma.”
    “You know I just want the best for you. You’re all I got.”
    Even though she said that all the time, it rattled me. Sure, I had my job and a group of good girlfriends, but did I really want to be fifty-five, hopeless, and alone? I leaned over for a halfhearted hug. “I know. Don’t worry, I’m fine.”
    Her face sagged like she hadn’t done all she could do. Like somehow she’d led me wrong. I smiled to lighten the mood. “A’ight, Ma. I gotta go.”
    When the light from her foyer peeped from the door, I sped off, back on Route 295, heading toward Annapolis Junction, wondering if my life would amount to nothing but a job. I got off at the Route 198 exit so I could stop at Exxon and grab a few cans of low-carb Monster drinks. I needed something to keep me awake.
    Before I got back in