The Girl in the Purple Heels ( Part Four)

The Girl in Purple Heels Part 4

As I drove home, I couldn't get Lyla out of my mind. I kept seeing her dark beautiful face and jet black hair shaped into a "bob" which made her look something like Rihanna. I decided I would call her tomorrow.

But when I did she didn't pick up the phone. It wasn't until I'd left three messages that she eventually called me back.

"Sorry I was out of it that’s why I couldn't call you earlier," she said in a hoarse voice like someone who had been crying.

"Lyla you have to tell me what’s going on, we can’t have a relationship if there's no trust or communication."

She sighed and said nothing for a minute or so.

"Are you still there?" I asked impatiently.

"Yes I'm here. I didn't want to talk about it but my grandmother passed away, that’s why I’ve been so upset. Sorry I didn't say anything earlier."

For a moment I didn't say anything I was stunned.

So that was it....she had been upset about her gran....

"I'm sorry to hear that. What happened, was she unwell?"

"Not really, she just died unexpectedly, that was the most shocking part. I actually called my family in St Vincent spoke last week and I spoke to her and she was fine."

"I'm really sorry. Do you want me to come over?"

"No, its fine. I just need to be alone for now."

"Ok but call me if you need anything. If there's anything I can do, don't hesitate to ask ok?"

"Sure I appreciate that."

"...Lylah remember that God will see you through this ok? I'll be praying for you."

"Thanks, I'll give you a call ok, maybe tomorrow or something."

After our conversation I felt relieved that Lylah had told me what was going on because I have to admit I had begun to get suspicions which I didn't like. I still wasn't comfortable with the idea of her smoking but maybe it was a one off. Maybe her gran's death had been too much and had forced her to give in. I guess I could let it go this time around. I remembered her warm smile and suddenly I felt good again, surely everything was going to work out fine. I prayed and then went to sleep dreaming about my bright future with Lylah.

Lylah didn't call for two days and when I tried to call her I couldn't get through to her. She eventually called on Friday and said she'd been grieving and she wanted to be alone.

"I understand that you may want to be alone but I'm your boyfriend. You should let me come over and cheer you up or just be there for you. I don't think it’s good for you to go through this on your own."

But Lylah declined my offer and said we could hang out on Sunday afternoon after church.

When I saw her on Sunday she seemed bright and cheerful and it seemed her grieving plan had worked.

"I liked the sermon today except the part about giving ten percent of your money...what do they call that again?"

"Tithing."

"Yeah that, what’s that all about?"

"Well it’s biblical," I replied and went on to show her scriptures in the book of Malachi that talked about tithing.

"I'm not buying that," she said after reading the scripture, "Do you know how much I earn, I take home about two grand and you expect me to give two hundred away every month just like that? No, not me, mama didn't raise no fool. Don't tell me you do it?"

"As a matter of fact I do tithe because the word of God says I should do so and because I'm grateful for everything God has given me. Everything I have including my job, God gave to me and if He wanted he could take it all away today. To be honest ten percent is little in comparison to what He's given me. And the best part is whatever you give to Him, He gives you back more in return."

"Yeah well if it works for you do it but I'll never be duped like that. That’s about two and a half grand a year. Imagine how many Jimmy Choos I could buy with that kind of money?"

As Lylah was talking I began to get an uneasy feeling. I had never realised that she felt so strongly about this. Maybe I just needed to explain it better and pray for her to get a revelation about it. Yes that’s what I would do. Our cars were parked on opposite sides of the car park so we went our separate ways and agreed to meet in Stratford.

As I walked to my car I saw Molly walking towards me with a guy I didn't know very well. They seemed rather friendly.

"Molly," I said calling out to her, "how are you?"

"I'm fine and you?" she replied as they got closer to me.

The guy she had been talking to gave her a hug and said "I'll see you later," then he walked off. I quickly walked towards her.

"So who's that?"

"That’s Dave,” she replied with a small blush.

"He seems nice," I said, hoping she would shed more light on the situation.

"Yeah he is."

I tried to act casual and engage in some boring small talk but my curiosity wouldn't let me walk away without knowing what was going on.

"So are you guys seeing each other?"

"Well he's told me he likes me and wants to get to know me and I think I'm gonna give it a go."

"Wow that’s good. I'm happy to hear that," I said although I was feeling a twinge which I couldn't quite identify. 

"Thanks, I hope it will work out. How’s Lylah?"

"Fine. Things are going well." I wondered why I was exaggerating. I used to confide in Molly before but somehow I felt embarrassed to tell her the truth about my relationship.

She said she had to go and attend an Usher's meeting and rushed off. As she walked towards the church door I couldn't but help wondering why it felt like I had lost something which I had never had.

Lylah and I went to Pizza Hut in Greenwich for lunch and then watched a movie. Then she said she needed to go home and prepare for work the next day. I had hoped we would spend more time together but she assured me that we would see each other some more during the week. I walked her to her Rav 4 and watched her as she drove off before I walked to my own car and drove home.

I was fast asleep when the phone startled me.

I picked up my mobile and saw that it was Lylah ringing. I frowned and checked the time.

12:05am.

"Hello, is everything ok?" I asked.

"Yeah but I need you to come over."

"Why, what's up?"

"I miss you and I want to see you."

"But I saw you this afternoon and besides it’s after midnight. I don't think it’s a good idea for me to come over at this hour."

"Why not?"

"Lylah c'mon you're an attractive girl, I'm a human being...I'm tired and my brain isn't thinking straight. I don't want to put myself in a position where I might compromise myself. To be honest I would really love to come and see you but if I come, I'm afraid that I may not be able to resist the temptation."

"Well you don't have to resist....I'm game if you are..."

Warning bells began to ring in my mind. My brain was telling me: This is the part where you run... but every fibre of my being wanted to grab the car keys and rush over to her place. I could just picture her at that very moment...and my pulse started racing, what was I to do? I wanted to go and see her.

I sat up in my bed and put my head in my palms. I was sweating badly now and my heart was racing furiously. I grabbed my coat and trainers. As I started tying the shoe laces on my trainers a voice in mt head kept telling me to get back into bed and forget this. But I couldn't stop myself...I wanted to see her so much...
"Are you still there...?" she asked.
"Yeah.."
"Well are you coming?"
I wanted to see her so much but it would be going against everything I stood for.

And in that instant I decided.

"Look Lylah I'm sorry but I can't do this. I have come too far to let a few minutes a pleasure pull me down. The bible clearly tells us how unmarried people should conduct themselves in matters like this. I firmly believe that sex should be reserved for marriage. I really like you and as much as I would have loved to come...I can’t."

"The bible is outdated, this is 2010 for crying out loud."

"Lylah I know you may not understand how I feel but this is a non negotiable issue for me."

"Suit yourself," she said, "Goodnight." And she hung up.

Gosh what was wrong with this woman? The dream girl that I had fallen for was turning out to be a different person whose values I wasn't particularly thrilled about. For a few minutes I couldn't think straight and I realised that I was trembling.  I felt a bit like a fool for passing up an opportunity with Lylah, but at the same time I felt proud of myself for doing what I knew would be the best thing in the long run.
I wondered whether to call her back and talk things over but something told me to leave it for now. I needed to speak to someone about my relationship, someone who could give me an objective view of things. I finally went to bed an hour later after resolving to call my long lost friend... Isaac.

"You know what your problem is Solomon, you fall in love too quick and too deep," Isaac said as he furiously punched buttons on his PS3 console, "What you need to do at the start of the relationship is to take things slow." I had gone over to Isaac's place after work to get some friendly advice. As we sat there playing Street Fighter I couldn't help but realise how much I had missed hanging out with my boy, playing games and eating Dominoes pizza.

"So what are you saying man? Stop speaking in riddles like an old man," I replied as I thumped on his fighter with a double kick.

"Hey I wouldn't be so cheeky if I were you after all you're getting first class counselling for free so don't complain. Now like I was saying man, you rushed into this without getting to know this girl and now you're beginning to see the real her and it sounds to me like it's not what you were looking for is it?"

"She's not exactly how I imagined her to be but get this she's not that bad infact..."

"No buts! Gosh you're more love sick than I thought. Look in a relationship the person is supposed to add to you, how has she done that over the last three months? She tried to seduce you and she doesn't stand for the things you do. You said so yourself so why are you still finding it hard to admit that she aint good for you and just let go."

"You wouldn't understand. It’s not that easy."

"Oh yeah try me?"

"It's complicated; let’s just focus on the game for now."

"KO" the game announced as Isaac knocked me out with a double twist kick and punch. I put the controller down as Isaac started a new game.

I knew he was right; Lylah was just as good to me as kryptonite was to Superman. What's a man in love to do?

As I turned back to the TV screen I could see Isaac shaking his head and I didn't blame him I was sinking faster than the Titanic...

I had not heard from Lylah since her midnight call two days before, so I decided to call her the following evening. She didn't pick up so I decided to go over to her place so that we could talk about everything. I didn't like the way things were going and if things didn't change I couldn’t go on like this. I was gonna lay it all out on the table and hear what she had to say.

As I rang the bell I wondered whether to start by saying sorry for brushing her off and not calling. But then again she was in the wrong so technically she should have called me, to apologise.

The door swung open to reveal a slim tall guy. 

"Is Lylah here?"

"Yeah and who are you?"

"I'm her boyfriend, and who are you?"

"I'm her ex, dude how come I'm the one in the house and you're the one standing outside the door. This is some twisted role reversal huh?"

I disliked his type, the ones who thought they were wise cracks.

"If you're her ex, what are you doing here?"

 "Hey brother, what’s a man to do? Your girlfriend called me in the middle of the night asking me to come over."

"I think you should leave. Lylah and I need to talk."

“Anything you wanna say to her, you can say to me.”

"Jay, who is it?" Lylah called out from the kitchen.

"It's your so called man."

Lylah was out of the kitchen faster than a rocket.

"Solomon, what are you doing here?"

"Lylah what’s going on? Who's this guy?"

"Solomon it's not what you think...Jay doesn't mean anything to me. He's just my ex."

"Oh so now I'm just your ex huh? So is he the father then?"

"What is he talking about?" I asked turning from Jay to Lylah.

Lylah was quite for a few seconds which to me felt like eternity.

"Lylah, I said what the heck is going on?"

"I'm pregnant." It came out almost like a whisper. For a moment I wasn't sure if I had imagined it.

"What? How?" I asked feeling tiny sweat beads developing on my brow. 

And then it dawned on me. The jigsaw pieces began to come together. The whole time she had probably been seeing her ex behind my back. I felt my knees beginning to give in and I staggered to a nearby chair. The room seemed to be spinning frantically and I felt like the air had been sucked out of my lungs. Surely this couldn’t be happening to me.

“Solomon I’m sorry. Please say something...”

 I didn’t know what to say. I could now feel that thin line between love and hate that people often talked about. I wanted to grab her and shake her so hard until she begged for mercy. I wanted to cause her intense pain like she had done to me but I restrained myself. She wasn’t worth all that trouble.

I only had one more question to ask and then that would be it.

"Lylah did your gran die last week?"

Jay who had been listening to our exchange with interest began laughing.

"Delylah...you killed your grandmother again. You're pathetic. Dude she goes around pulling that lie every time she needs some sympathy. This girl's gran died six years ago."

I stared at them both in disbelief. It had all been a lie.

"...and is your name really Delylah?"

"Yeah that’s my full name," she said quietly.

A part of me wanted to lash out at her and tell her exactly what I thought of her but as I looked at her I felt sorry for her. She was so lost and she didn't even seem to realise it.

I looked at her for a few seconds, puzzled that the beauty that I had once seen seemed to have somehow diminished. She had no substance- it was like looking into an empty glass case, there was nothing there.

“Solomon I can explain...”she began to say but I didn’t want to hear it.

"Lylah, or should I say Delylah.... spare me the soap drama. I guess it goes without saying that it’s over between us, I hope someday you'll find love in Jesus because He's the one man who can help you transform your life and enable you to love someone else sincerely."

And with those words I walked away from my Girl in Purple Heels.

The End.

© 2010 Gospel Girl

This story is dedicated to all the Single people out there.... I believe that God has a good plan for your life, as His word clearly says in Jer 29:11. 

You may be in courtship, engaged or still looking for the One... but wherever you at, even though you may face difficult and lonely times, remember God is faithful and if you will trust Him and submit to His guidance and direction, He will lead you to a wonderful mate and eventually into a God centred and God glorifying marriage. 

All things are possible, only believe! (Mark 9:23 paraphrase)