Four Hearts, One Love

By Clarence Molloy and Clarence A. Molloy III

Taj, an African-American man, is not just struck by love but sustains a bullet wound in an attempt to save the life of his one, true love -- the beautiful, blonde, Merrie. She is eternally grateful for his heroism but wants nothing to do with him since he was the source of the worst heartbreak of her life 20 years ago. Deciding to take a chance on love, the young, successful redhead, Nadine, admits her feelings to Taj and yearns for them to be more than just casual acquaintances. And then there's Margot, the mother of his child, who tries everything within her power to win him back, especially when she sees that Taj and her arch-enemy, Merrie, are spending more and more time together!  Who will Taj eventually end up with? 122 pages of intrigue, endless drama, and unexpected turns around every corner!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clarence A. Molloy III
• Release date: Jul 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223772613

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COPYRIGHT © CLARENCE A. MOLLOY III  2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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I’M SORRY

MERRIE TOOK A SEAT at the small table and gulped down half of the white wine in her glass that her date had taken the liberty to order for her. She needed liquid courage for what she was about to do. She looked at Taj and smiled then threw the rest of the drink in his face. Everyone at the surrounding dinner tables in the five-star restaurant stopped talking and eating and looked at the couple in amazement. The waiter, Vince, ran over to the table and asked if everything was all right. Taj, wiping his face with his napkin replied that everything was okay and there was nothing to be concerned about. 

I’ve been patiently waiting for the opportunity to do that for the past twenty-two years, Merrie said with a sly smirk on her face after Vince walked away. 

Believe it or not... I don’t blame you for doing that. I honestly thought that you would have punched me in the face when I asked you to have dinner with me tonight, so I’ll take a little white wine dripping down my shirt and into my pants instead. 

Good, replied Merrie. Look, I don’t even know why I agreed to have dinner with you... I’m sitting across from you and I’m like having all these negative emotions towards you resurface and I’m starting to feel grossed out by the fact that I’m dining with the guy that caused me the worst heartache of my life.

Taj, on the other hand, was hoping for a miracle when she accepted his dinner invitation. She looked more beautiful now at age 40 than she did at age 18 when she was his high school sweetheart and the love of his life. Taj was one of the few African American guys at the high school they attended. The girls either gravitated towards him because he was different, or they stayed away from him because they knew they couldn’t take him home to meet Mom and Dad without their parents throwing a fit and threatening to disown them if they ever had anything more to do with that black boy. 

Taj and Merrie became inseparable during the very beginning of their senior year as they worked side by side on the yearbook committee. Her parents always made him feel welcome whenever he came by to see her. 

He knew he messed up big time twenty-two years ago when he started dating Merrie’s best friend, Margot, then soon got her pregnant. They were young and dumb and started seeing each other out of lust and loneliness. Merrie had left Charleston, South Carolina for college in California and Margot’s boyfriend, Chad, who was also one of the other few black guys at the school, had enlisted in the Marines. Merrie had gotten accepted into Stanford and felt it was too good of a deal to let slip through her hands. What she didn’t plan for was how expensive it would be to travel back and forth from the west coast to the east coast for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring break, and the summer or any other long weekend that came around. She had gotten a full scholarship and her parents didn’t have the means to assist her with her college expenses, much less airfare to travel back home several times a year. 

A few weeks into her freshman year, she heard through the grapevine that Taj and Margot were spending a lot of time together. What her friends back home were telling her was that the two seem to be inseparable. When Merrie inquired as to what was going on with her boyfriend and her best friend, Taj denied that anything serious was going on. After saying that they had just become very good friends, she started hearing less and less from him until he began ignoring her text messages and phone calls.

It was the same with Margot. Every time they spoke it was the same story – that she and Taj had become great friends and nothing more. There was nothing to worry about she would say convincingly. When asked about how things were with her boyfriend, Chad, she would say she didn’t know. She never heard from him again since the day he left for boot camp.

Merrie, I was hoping we could have a nice dinner without dredging up the past, but I can understand you still being upset with me. I just figured that time would have healed our differences and worked to my advantage where we could kinda start a new slate and we could at least resume some sort of friendship. I’m sorry that I wasn’t man enough to admit to you back then that I was messing around behind your back with your best friend. I wasn’t prepared to do this tonight, but I think I at least owe you an apology and an explanation for what happened, Taj said.

You don’t owe me anything... It took me a long time, but I eventually got over you, and Margot. I’m a grown woman now and I truly have more things to be concerned about than my ex having a child with my supposed best friend twenty-something years ago.

I know saying ‘I’m sorry’ this late in the game probably means nothing to you, but... I feel like a miserable piece of hot turd for how I treated you.

I don’t want to hear it... This was a bad idea. I thought I was big enough to sit across from you at this very nice restaurant and be civil and polite, but I just can’t do it... Time really does not heal all wounds... I need to leave. Merrie got up abruptly from her chair.

Please don’t... I think I’m still in love with you, Taj said.

Merrie quickly sat back down and tore into Taj. Are you outta your mind or something? You have no idea what that word means. You’re still in love with me? If I had another drink in front of me, I would be throwing it in your face right about now! You backstabbing, gigolo think you can appear outta thin air after twenty years and smooth talk your way into my life as if nothing ever happened? You are absolutely the last person that I want to hear ‘I love you’ from. You are nothing but a lying, cheating, dog and an untrustworthy scoundrel. So please, don’t you ever utter those words to me as long as you live. Do you hear me?

Merrie was glaring at Taj and so was everyone else within earshot of her. As she chided her ex, she became progressively louder and louder until Vince was standing beside them once again asking if everything was okay.   

DUCK!

TAJ RACED OUT OF THE restaurant after paying for the white wine and the untouched fried calamari appetizer. He saw Merrie crossing the street and heading toward their hotel. He called out to her, but she didn’t stop or turn around. She either didn’t hear him or was intentionally tuning him out. 

Taj ran across the busy street, almost getting hit by a minivan in the process. Merrie! he shouted again.

This guy can’t take a hint Merrie thought to herself as she walked even faster towards the luxury hotel’s front entrance. The sound of a gunshot rang out and Merrie felt herself being tackled to the ground. People began screaming and running for cover as another gunshot was fired. Taj was on top of Merrie, using his body as a shield to protect her from any more oncoming bullets.

Ten feet away from them lay a man, motionless, in a black suit with a green shirt on the sidewalk in a pool of blood as they smelled burning rubber from the white car that sped away from the scene.   

Another wave of screams could be heard in the background when a few other ladies who had ducked behind cars parked along the sidewalk realized that there was a lifeless body near them.

Taj... You saved my life, Merry said with her voice shaking.

Taj groaned loudly and rolled off Merrie onto his back. She began screaming too and when she noticed that he was also laying in a small pool of blood. Some of his blood was also on her thigh.

Merrie hovered over Taj and shook him. Taj... Taj... She looked up and shouted, Somebody please help!

A short, older guy with a blonde ponytail came running out of the hotel’s lobby a few seconds later and knelt down beside Taj, and checked his pulse. He then radioed for someone in the hotel to call for an ambulance and mentioned that there were two people with bullet wounds. He