A Woman's Worth

by Nikita Lynnette Nichols

  “We shall,” she answered excitedly.

  Outside, in the waiting limousine, Adonis placed a blindfold over Monique’s eyes. Again, she had to wait to find out her destination.

  At Navy Pier, Adonis guided Monique out of the limousine. Because she couldn’t see, she took each step like she was walking on eggshells. Adonis wrapped his arm around her waist for support. “Monique, just relax and walk normal. I got you. I promise not to let you fall.” After a few more steps, he brought Monique to a stop. “Okay, we’re here. Are you ready?”

  “Yes,” she said excitedly.

  Adonis slowly lifted the blindfold. Monique saw the word ODYSSEY in big bold letters displayed on the side of an oversized yacht. She was stunned as she looked from the yacht to Adonis. “I don’t understand. What did I do to deserve this?”

  “You were born,” was his answer.

  At the top of the gangplank, an elderly Caucasian man wearing a white military jacket, white pants, white patent leather shoes, and a white hat with a black rim greeted them in style. “Good evening, Mr. Cortland. I’m Captain Gaynes.”

  Adonis shook the Captain’s hand, then presented the woman on his arm. “Good evening, Captain. May I present, Lady Monique Morrison.”

  Monique extended her hand to the Captain who kissed her knuckles softly. “Miss Morrison, you are truly a jewel. Happy birthday, and welcome aboard the Odyssey. Mr. Cortland’s description of you is justified; you’re breathtaking.”

  “Thank you, Captain.” She blushed.

  Adonis and Monique were led to the formal dining room. It was designed to hold up to two hundred people. Monique noticed only one table set for two people in the center on the room. “Where are all of the people?” she asked the captain.

  “You and Mr. Cortland have the entire dining room to yourselves this evening.”

  She looked at Adonis. She just couldn’t believe how much effort he’d put into making her birthday a very special one. It was a birthday she’d never forget. “Who are you?”

  He chuckled and guided her to their table and pulled out her chair. Captain Gaynes informed them that in ten minutes, the boat would sail out onto Lake Michigan and return to Navy Pier at approximately midnight. When the Captain walked away, the waiter approached their table with a bottle of Cristal. “Good evening, Mr. Cortland. My name is Bryson, and it’s my pleasure to serve you.”

  “Thank you, Bryson.” Adonis extended his hand toward Monique. “The lady’s name is Monique.”

  Bryson bowed to Monique and smiled. “Happy birthday, Miss Monique.”

  He held the bottle out to Adonis. “Would you care for a glass of champagne before dinner, sir?”

  Adonis looked across the table at Monique for permission. They were away from the public eye. They didn’t have to worry about church folks seeing them sip alcohol and spread their business throughout the church. But if there was ever a time to celebrate, it was then. Monique felt like Cinderella. But she wasn’t living a fairytale. The limousine she rode in wouldn’t turn into a pumpkin come midnight.

  She smiled. “Just one glass.”

  Bryson filled Adonis’s flute, then stood and waited. Adonis took a swallow and nodded his head. Bryson then filled Monique’s flute, set the bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice on the table, and walked away.

  The sound of Kenny G and his saxophone flowed throughout the dining room.

  Monique looked all around her. Lavender silk drapes cascaded down the walls. The lavender Berber carpet looked as though Monique’s and Adonis’s feet were the first to have treaded on it. Antique chandeliers adorned with Swarovski crystals dangled above every table. Monique would be willing to bet her paycheck that the dinnerware on the table before them was from the 19th century. Pure elegance was all around.

  “How much did this cost you?” she asked Adonis.

  “Why? Are you gonna reimburse me?”

  “This is too rich for my blood. It’s Saturday night, no doubt the busiest night for this yacht, which means you had to compensate for at least one hundred people in order to have it privately. I can’t believe you did this.”

  Adonis leaned back in his chair and looked at her. “You know what your problem is, Monique? You don’t value yourself, and you don’t know your true worth. You’re so used to settling for whatever life throws at you instead of going after what you really deserve. You gotta get out of that mindset, because there’s so much more in life God wants you to have.”

  She chose not to comment, but he definitely gave her something to think about. They each took a sip of champagne, then Adonis stood and extended his hand to her. “Dance with me.”

  Monique placed her hand in his and followed Adonis out onto the deck. He pulled her close to him and placed his open palm against her lower back. Monique pressed her voluptuous bosom against his chest and laid her head on his shoulder.

  “You smell so good,” Adonis said.

  Wrapped in each other’s arms, they swayed back and forth under the full moon for an entire hour.

  Bryson walked out onto the deck and lightly tapped Adonis’s shoulder. “Dinner is served, Mr. Cortland.”

  Filet mignon, lobster tails, scalloped buttered potatoes, steamed asparagus with almonds, and dinner rolls were what Adonis chose for the menu. Monique was in heaven.

  Chapter 10

  On his way to the shower Sunday morning, Adonis walked past Boris’s bedroom and saw him standing at a mirror tying his tie. “What’s up, cuz?” Boris glanced at his wristwatch. “You’re just wakin’ up? It’s almost nine-thirty.”

  “I overslept.”

  “You were missing in action yesterday, man. I called your cell at least five times. Is it working?”

  “Yeah, as far as I know,” Adonis answered.

  “So what chick had you so occupied that you were unavailable?”

  Your chick. “What makes you think I was with a chick?”

  Boris tightened his tie around his neck and looked at his cousin. “Because the only other time you disappeared for a whole day was when you and that girl, Francis, was creepin’, and you didn’t want her old man to know.”

  “Boris, that was six years ago. I ain’t seen or heard from Francis since.”

  “Well, don’t keep me in suspense, who is she?”

  “There is no she. I was paged to a job site yesterday morning. A few houses in Markham lost power, and it took all day to get it back on.” Adonis despised the fact that he had to lie about spending time with Monique. It’s something that he wanted to share with the world.

  “I wonder why I didn’t get that page. I’ma have to check that out. Working on a Saturday pays double time,” Boris said.

  Adonis tried not to panic. Boris had connections at the electric company, and he’d gotten Adonis hired right after he graduated from music school. Boris had seniority over Adonis, which meant he would’ve been called for overtime before Adonis. If Boris investigated and found out there was no power outage, Adonis would have a lot of explaining to do.

  Boris picked up his pager from the nightstand and looked at it. “Aw man, you know what, cuz? My battery is low. That’s probably why I didn’t get the page.”

  Adonis exhaled a sigh of relief so loud, Boris looked at him. “You all right, cuz?”

  “Yeah, I’m cool. I’ma hop in the shower and get ready.”

  Boris put on his suit jacket and walked past Adonis. “See you at church.”

  Boris tried to get Kita’s attention throughout morning service, but to no avail. She too was missing in action yesterday with a non-working cellular phone. When Boris called her apartment that morning, Cherry informed him that Kita had left for church already.

  Even as she marched past the organ into the choir stand, it seemed to Boris that she purposely ignored him. Immediately after the benediction, Boris gave the musicians his weekly preparation speech for the upcoming rehearsal. He noticed Kita was quickly exiting the sanctuary. She was halfway down the street when he caught up with her.r />
  “Kita, slow down,” Boris called out.

  She stopped and turned around hastily. “What is it, Boris? I’m in a hurry.”

  “To go where?”

  “That ain’t none of your business.”

  Boris had no clue why she was behaving in such a hostile manner. “What’s your problem and where were you yesterday?”

  Kita held up her left hand for Boris to examine. “You ain’t put a ring on this finger, Boris. I’m three times seven plus four. Do the math, and you’ll realize that I’m fully grown and whatever I do is none of your concern.”

  She turned to walk away, and Boris firmly gripped her by the elbow. “Hold the heck up. You don’t walk away from me when I’m talkin’ to you. You have your monthly friend or something?”

  “Humph, nah that ain’t it. As a matter of fact, the color red won’t be flowing for a while.” Kita snatched her arm from his grip, got in her car and drove away.

  Boris stood with his mouth agape and the bottom of his brand new Stacy Adams shoes glued to the concrete.

  “Yo, cuz,” Adonis called out to him.

  Slowly, Boris moved in Adonis’s direction as though he were in a trance.

  “Why did you rush out of the church?” Adonis asked. “Is everything okay?”

  The neighborhood was spinning all around Boris. “You ain’t gonna believe this. I screwed up big time, man.”

  The expression on Boris’s face told Adonis that his world was falling apart. “Let’s go somewhere and talk,” Adonis said.

  In the buffet line at Betty’s Soul Shack on south Cottage Grove Avenue, Adonis topped his plate with pork spare ribs, roasted garlic potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, candied yams, sweet peas, and white rice. Boris chose to go with a simple lettuce, tomato and cucumber salad. Once they were seated in a booth, Adonis gave thanks to the Lord for their food then looked at Boris’s plate. “That’s all you’re eating?”

  Boris was still in a state of shock from the bomb Kita had dropped on him. “I ain’t hungry.”

  Adonis dug into his potatoes and gravy. “What’s going on with you, cuz? Is this about you and Monique?”

  “Nah, it’s Kita.”

  Adonis rolled his eyes in the air. He’d rather discuss a boring tennis match than engage in conversation about the church ho. “What about her?”

  “She’s pregnant.”

  Adonis almost dropped his fork. “What?”

  “Yeah man, she just told me.”

  “How can she be pregnant? You ain’t use nothing?”

  Boris didn’t answer. Adonis laid his fork on his plate and looked directly into Boris’s eyes. “Cuz, I know you weren’t dumb enough to touch that girl without putting a glove on. Come on, man, please tell me you ain’t that stupid.”

  Boris sat his elbows on the table and placed his face in the palm of his hands. “I made a mistake; what else can I say?”

  “You mean a grave mistake because a baby ain’t the only issue you gotta worry about.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We’re talking about Kita, Boris. She’s nasty.”

  Boris frowned. “Nasty how?”

  “Come on, cuz, stop playing. Kita is well known around Chi-town, and it ain’t because she can sing. You need to see your doctor and get yourself checked out real fast.”

  Monique walked into Myrtle’s living room using the spare key Myrtle had given her. “Ooh, Gravy, I smell it. I smell it.”

  Myrtle yelled from the kitchen, “Come on in the kitchen, Baby Girl.”

  Monique saw Arykah sitting at the table already indulged in homemade buttermilk biscuits and gravy. “What are you doing here? This is my birthday dinner.”

  Arykah licked her fingers clean. “Be that as it may, in church this morning, Mama Cortland extended me a cordial invitation to feast at her dinner table, and I graciously accepted. The devil will have on a pair of drawers made out of popsicles before I turn down a home cooked meal.”

  “You could’ve at least waited ‘til I got here before you ate.” Monique rolled her eyes at Arykah and walked to Myrtle standing at the sink washing dishes. She kissed her cheek. “How was church this morning, Gravy?”

  “Church was real good. Bishop preached like a fool. He came out of the pulpit and walked across the deacons’ laps, whooping and hollering.”

  Monique sat down at the table while Myrtle prepared her plate. “The bishop clowned this morning, huh?”

  “Like a fool,” Myrtle said.

  “Like a baldheaded fool. He almost made me cut a step,” Arykah added.

  “Well, Apostle Donald Lawrence Alford wasn’t a punk this morning either. He told us that if we can see our dreams, we can seize our dreams. Then he asked us how badly we wanted our dreams. Before he finished taking his text, half the church was on the floor. The folks over at Progressive Life-Giving Word Cathedral are straight up ghetto when it comes to praising God. They don’t care who’s watching. I looked around and saw people falling like dominos. One brotha leapt so high, I swear his shoes were at least three feet off the floor. It was like everybody was having seizures. And that’s when it happened.”

  Arykah and Myrtle asked at the same time. “What?”

  “Well, I was just standing and watching everybody get their praise on, and the Holy Spirit asked me what my problem was. I answered that I was just getting a feel for things. Then the Holy Spirit said, ‘Oh, I got something for you to feel.’ Next thing I knew, I started having a seizure like everybody else.”

  Arykah and Myrtle laughed at Monique’s description of morning service at Progressive Ministries.

  “Y’all go ahead and laugh, but I’m telling the truth. We were running around the church and jumping over pews. It’s like doing something you wouldn’t want anyone outside of the church to see you do because they wouldn’t understand it. An unsaved psychiatrist would highly recommend the entire congregation, from Apostle Alford on down, be committed to a psych ward. Crazy praise is the only way to describe it.”

  The three of them laughed so loud they didn’t hear Adonis come in the front door.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked.

  Monique averted her eyes to the plate of food Myrtle sat in front of her.

  “Ain’t nothin’ funny,” Myrtle said with an attitude. “Where is your cousin?”

  Adonis kissed her cheek. “He went home after church. He said he had a headache.”

  “Hey, Adonis,” Arykah spoke.

  “Hi, Arykah, it’s good to see you. How are you doing, Monique?”

  She looked into his eyes. “I’m fine, Adonis; how are you?”

  “I’m cool,” he answered, but didn’t return her gaze for fear that the love he felt for her would show.

  “You want something to eat?” Myrtle asked him.

  Adonis knew that if he told Myrtle that he’d eaten food other than what was on her stove, she’d curse him out, and then ask God for forgiveness later. “Nah, Auntie, I ain’t hungry. I just came to see you.”

  “Well, say happy birthday to Baby Girl. Yesterday was her big day.”

  Arykah decided to be messy. “Yeah, her birthday was yesterday, Adonis. You didn’t know?”

  “Uh, nah, uh, happy birthday, Monique.”

  “Thanks,” she said without looking up from her plate.”

  Myrtle sat down at the table with Monique and Arykah. “So, were you able to stay in bed and relax like you planned, Baby Girl?”

  Adonis stood behind Myrtle and leaned against the sink with a silly grin on his face.

  Arykah went to the stove and pretended to refill her plate while portraying the same silly grin as Adonis.

  “Yeah, I had a nice, relaxing day, Gravy,” Monique said.

  Arykah brought her plate back to the table. “Monique, are you sure you spent the entire day in your suite? I called your room several times yesterday and never got an answer.”

  She glared across the table at Arykah. “That’s because I unplugged the phone so I could
get some rest.”

  Myrtle turned around and spoke to Adonis. “Speaking of telephones, I called your cell phone a few times yesterday and didn’t get an answer. Where were you all day?”

  “I was at work,” he quickly answered.

  “On a Saturday?” Myrtle asked.

  Arykah relished looking at the sweat beads that formed on both Adonis and Monique’s faces.

  “Yeah, Auntie, a few houses lost power in Harvey. It took all day to get it back on again. I left my cell phone in the work van.”

  “That wasn’t on the news last night. Why did the city lose its power?” Arykah asked, knowing full well that Adonis was fabricating a story for his and Monique’s sake.

  If Myrtle wasn’t sitting between them, Monique would’ve destroyed Arykah’s shin under the table with her stiletto.

  As he answered Arykah, Adonis slightly gritted his teeth to let her know she was working on his last nerve. “We never figured it out. Almost half of a block in Markham was without power for about fifteen hours.”

  Myrtle looked at him confusingly. “Harvey or Markham?”

  Arykah could no longer hold in the silent laugh. She pretended to cough to let it out. Monique closed her eyes and prayed that Adonis would be able to pull this off.

  “I meant to say Markham; I mean, Harvey.” Adonis nervously grabbed a plate from the dish rack and began to fill it with potatoes and gravy.

  “I thought you said you weren’t hungry,” Myrtle said to him.

  “Gravy, as usual, you put your foot in this gravy,” Monique said, trying to get Adonis off the hot seat. But as Monique lifted her fork with her right hand, Arykah shrieked.

  “Where did you get that beautiful bracelet? Is it a birthday gift?”

  Monique felt her bladder begin to betray her. Before Myrtle could address the bracelet, there was a loud shatter behind her. She turned around and saw Adonis’s broken plate on the kitchen floor. Mashed potatoes and gravy were splattered all over the place.

  “Boy, what the heck is wrong with you?” Myrtle fussed. “I just mopped this floor.”

  Adonis nervously knelt to clean up the mess. “I’m sorry, Auntie, it slipped.”