The Tyler Perry Chronicles

"OVERHEARD" Part 15

Author: CBW1986

DISCLAIMER: Story material is not based on actual events and all content (with the exception of character names) is completely fictional, as a result of creative story telling for recreational purposes only. All story material is copyrighted and all rights are reserved to the original creator.

Gelila quickly ended her call to Tyler before it was even connected; she didn't want to ruin a possible surprise. Her smile was a mile wide as she held the small black velvet box to her chest tightly. Gelila began to get extremely excited and couldn't stop smiling as she took a seat on the couch. She opened the box again to admire the beautiful ring that rested inside, and took it out, slipping it on her left ring finger. "Perfect fit." Gelila thought to herself. She couldn't take her eyes off of its sparkle. She loved the way it danced in the light and the way it looked on her delicate hand. Gelila thought about how everything she'd been through with Tyler seemed so worth it, now. The past year and a half she had spent dealing with his hot temper, bad moods, and nasty attitudes, seemed to have finally paid off. All the arguments turned fights over Briana...

Suddenly, Gelila's mile-wide smile faded and the light in her eyes turned to dark sadness as she came to a terrible realization. Her heart sank as tears formed in her eyes. "Who am I kidding?" she asked herself. "Just like that damn earring, this ring is probably not even for me." Gelila sat back on the couch and let the tears fall down her face."Tyler and I haven't even talked about marriage...he's never even mentioned anything like that to me, so why would it be?" Gelila asked herself. Her warm tears of sadness turned into hot tears of anger as she shook her head slowly and took the ring off of her finger, placing it back in the box. Gelila wasn't even going to play herself by hanging onto the small possibility that the ring may have been intended for her. She was done playing games.

Gelila found herself contemplating the same ways to destroy the ring as she had thought of when she found Briana's earring. Trash. Fireplace. Garbage disposal. God know's she wasn't going to meet up with Briana again, but Gelila wanted to do something just as big and bold, before she left the relationship...something that made a real statement. She looked at the time on her cell phone; it read eight thirty. Gelila wasn't sure when Tyler would decide to come back home, so she knew she had to act qickly.

She looked around Tyler's study for a phone book and found one in the bottom drawer of his desk. Gelila quickly thumbed through the pages looking for a cab company and proceeded to call herself a cab. The cab company said they would arrive in half and hour, and Gelila felt that was enough time to do what she had to do...

~*~*~*~*~*~

Briana turned her cell phone off, placed it in her purse, and stole a quick glance over at Eli. He was actually taking a phone call himself so she was sure he wasn't paying her phone conversation much attention. Eli is Briana's head musical director and lead keyboardist for her recording and touring band, and has been so for almost four years. They work very closely together in the studio and on the road, and for the past year, have been casually dating.

Eli had been instantly attracted to Briana since the first day he started working with her, but had always kept a professional distance. Once they started spending more and more time around each other, feeding off of each other's creative and spiritual energy, Eli asked Briana out...several times. Briana had given him every excuse to not go out with him from, "I don't want to mix my personal life with my professional life", "I'm focused on my music right now", to "I just don't want to date anybody right now." But one night in the studio, after a very long and productive session, Eli and Briana were the only two left, and they just sat and listened to the audio playbacks. Briana watched as Eli bobbed his head to the beats and sounds, partially biting down on his bottom lip, and slowly running his hand over his dark goatee. It was then Briana stopped denying her feelings and attraction towards Eli, rolled her chair over to his, and kissed him deeply. From that point on, the two had entered into a new love affair.

It was a year later, and Eli was now trying to make things with Briana more official, as far as pursuing a committed relationship, but he could tell something was holding her back.

Briana sat and stared out the window of the car that was driving them to the airport. She was really starting to worry about Tyler. Usually when he drinks and decides to get behind the wheel, he would just circle the block a few times, have a little talk with Jesus, then head back home, but now he was talking crazy, saying how he would drive all the way to New York and what not. Briana sure hoped Tyler wasn't serious and was out on the highway somewhere. She closed her eyes and said a prayer. No matter how much she loved to hate Tyler, or hated to love him, the fact of the matter was that she did love him and cared about his well-being.

Briana was so deep in thought and prayer, that she didn't hear Eli calling her name:

ELI : "Briana!"
BRIANA : "Huh?" (snapping her eyes open and turning to face Eli)
ELI : "Are you okay? You've been doing that all night."
BRIANA : "What?"
ELI : "Zoning out. All through the session. It's like you weren't even there."
BRIANA : "Sorry."
ELI : "No apology necessary. Just tell me what's going on." (turning towards Briana)
(brief silence)
ELI : "Does it have anything to do with that phone call you just had?"
BRIANA : (says quickly) "No."
ELI : "Then, sweetheart, what is it? You came in the studio all upset. You left out a couple of times with tears in your eyes. Something's wrong. Just tell me what's bothering you."

Briana took a very deep breath. Eli had been so patient with her for years. Not just personally but professionally as well. He put up with her hetic schedule and her sometimes compulsive demand for perfection. He spoke to her so gently...so calmly, and he never pressured her to do anything. Briana wanted badly to tell him everything. She wanted to tell him why she's afraid to get commit to him. Why she's afraid to let him love her. She wanted to tell him the real reason she's holding back, but how could she? How could she tell the man in her life, about the other man in her life...?

~*~*~*~*~*~

Tyler realized that there was no use in continuing to call Briana, because all of his calls were going straight to her voicemail, an indication that she had turned her phone off. He tossed his cell phone in the passenger seat, and sighed a very heavy and defeated sigh. Tyler then proceeded to get off at the next exit and head back home.

The pouring rain had ceased to just a light drizzle, but it had left the roads very slick. Tyler veered over to the right and got onto the sharp curving exit ramp, but his speed was too fast for the 20 MPH sign he passed and he began to skid. Feeling as if his black SUV would turn over on it's side, Tyler's heart pounded as he slammed on brakes and tried to steady the steering wheel. Over-correcting, he hit the guard rail with the left front corner of his vehicle and scraped the entire left side of his vehicle as he continued down the ramp. Sparks flew at the meeting of the two metals, and Tyler's left headlight was shattered. He looked in the side-view mirror and saw jagged streaks of silver where black paint once was.

Tyler steadied his breathing but his heart still felt as if it would jump right out of his chest. He hands were shaking, causing him to grip the streering wheel tighter. He took his time driving back into the city, eyes wide and not going over 35 MPH. That was a very sobering experience and he was thanking and praising God the whole way home, because it could have been a lot worse.

He pulled into his driveway and just sat in the car for a while. Tyler didn't even want to get out and inspect the damage. He just sat and listened to God tell him that he couldn't play with lives. Tyler just kept hearing that over and over. He realized that God was not only talking about his own life, but Gelila's and Briana's as well. Tyler knew that he had to make some very serious decisions and soon.

Tyler got out of the car and looked at what once was a brand new vehicle. He stood with his hands in his pockets, staring at the huge guard rail-like imprint mashed into the side of his car and he closed his eyes, lifted his head towards the heavens, again thanking and praising God for what could have been.

Tyler let out a long breath he had been holding in for most of the drive back and realized whatever he was mad at Gelila over, just didn't seem to matter anymore...that was until he opened the door to his house and stood in horror seeing the condition it was in...

To Be Continued…