Arykah watched him retrieve a checkbook from his interior suit jacket pocket. He signed his name on the bottom right line and gave the blank check to her. “You can fill in the rest.”
This was way too good to be true. Surely she was being punk’d. Arykah expected Ashton Kuchter to come busting out of the closet in any moment. She looked around the room for the hidden camera.
Lance was handsome, owned a construction company, could afford any house of his choice, knew his way around a kitchen, and he was single with no children. She thought that he must sell drugs. Arykah wondered if he were saved. She hoped to God he was saved, because if he wasn’t, she wouldn’t waste her time. Lance looked wonderful on the outside, but how was his spirit? It wouldn’t take long for an unsaved man to start asking questions like, ‘Why do you have to go to church every Sunday?’ or ‘Can’t you skip Bible class this time?’ She’d been down that road before, trying to convince a man to get saved, and found it to be too much work.
Arykah knew she’d better nip this in the bud. “Lance, what church do you attend?”
“I’ve been a member of Freedom Temple Church Of God In Christ my entire life.”
Arykah held her breath, waiting for his answer and was able to release a sigh of relief. “I’ve heard many good things about that church. Who’s the pastor?”
“I’m the pastor.”
Arykah’s knees buckled.
Theresa saw the balloons on her desk and walked to the door of Monique’s office, all smiles. “Thank you for my balloons.”
Monique looked away from the computer and toward Theresa. “You’re welcome. Come on in and have a seat.”
“Okay, let me get my pad and pen.”
“You won’t need them for this,” Monique said.
Theresa shut the door behind her and sat across from Monique. “What’s up?”
She turned to save the document on her screen then swiveled her chair around to face Theresa. “First, I owe you an apology. I’m not sorry about what I said yesterday, but I do apologize for the way I spoke to you. I understand that you care for me, and I appreciate that. However, the decisions I make about my personal business are not to be questioned by you or anyone else. I’ve made many mistakes, and I know that I’m not done making them. But when I confide in you about some things, Theresa, I just want you to listen and not judge me. I hope we can put what happened yesterday behind us and continue to be friends.”
Theresa smiled. “I’d like that, Monique. And I’m sorry for overstepping my bounds.”
Monique stood and came around the desk to hug her secretary. “Thank you.”
On her way out of the office, Theresa turned to Monique. “I’m going down the street to the café. You want anything?”
Monique smiled at her, glad that she and Theresa had resolved their issue. “A large white chocolate mocha latte with cinnamon would be nice.”
Ten minutes after Theresa had left, Monique was sitting at her desk looking over the instructions Mr. Wiley had given her on rotating the deejays hours. The telephone rang, and it wasn’t until the fourth ring that Monique remembered her secretary was away from her desk. She hastily picked up the extension. “WGOD, Monique Morrison speaking.”
“Good morning, Monique.”
She rolled her eyes in the air. Not him again. “Boris, how are you?” she asked dryly.
“I’m good. How are you?”
“I’m fine. What’s up?”
“Do you have some time to talk?” he asked.
She looked at the clock on the wall. “I have a meeting with a couple of my deejays in fifteen minutes.”
“Okay, then I won’t hold you up. I just called to see how you’re doing.”
“All is well with me, Boris.”
“Yolunda Rena Cooper from Blessed Events Consulting called the house and left a message yesterday. She wanted to know if we received the wedding invitations and if they were to our satisfaction.”
“The invitations arrived here at my office.”
“So how are they?”
“They’re perfect, Boris. Yolunda does great work. She was highly recommended to us. They’re exactly what we wanted.”
“You probably shredded them, right?”
Monique exhaled. Where was this conversation going? “No, Boris, I didn’t. But I will if you want me to. It was your check that paid for them.”
Boris heard the hostility in Monique’s voice. The conversation wasn’t going the way he had hoped it would. “Of course I don’t want you to shred them. What I want is for us to address and mail them.”
A sarcastic chuckle escaped her lips. This fool is crazy. “You must’ve paid a visit to Bubblegum this morning. Why waste folk’s time in getting dressed and coming to the church for a wedding that’s not going to happen?”
“Our wedding is still on the church’s calendar.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Monique, please don’t do this.”
Was he serious? Her voice rose. “Please don’t do what, Boris?”
“Don’t break us up.”
Monique’s voice raised an octave higher. “You’re telling me not to break us up? I’ma tell you what broke us up. When you decided to chase after the church ho, that broke us up. And when you decided to do whatever the heck you wanted to do without giving me a second thought, that broke us up. So don’t call my job trying to put this crap on my shoulders, Boris. You screwed up, not me.”
It was extremely rare that Monique lost her temper. Boris knew that whenever she let heated words flow like that, there was almost nothing he could do to calm her down.
“Baby, I’m sorry for all of that. I know I was wrong, but I can’t change the past. I know I messed up, and I’m living with that.”
“I didn’t say you messed up, I said you screwed up. There’s a big difference. Don’t get it twisted. You’re ticking me off because you want to down play this situation.”
“I know you’re upset, and you have every right to be.”
“You’re doing it again. I didn’t say I was upset, I said I’m ticked off.”
Boris couldn’t win for losing. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re always sorry. Every time you screw up, you expect me to forgive your crap just because you apologize. When am I gonna stop hearing those worthless words come out of your mouth? See, evidently you don’t know what it feels like to devote your heart, mind, body and soul to someone who doesn’t appreciate it. Well, guess what, I got somebody loving on me now. There’s somebody who actually cares how my day goes. It feels good to be appreciated, loved, respected, and needed. I can’t tell you the last time I had to put gas in my own car.
“You didn’t even call me on my birthday, Boris. But I’ll tell you how much icing was put on my cake anyway. First of all, this bracelet I’m sporting was a gift and it came from Tiffany’s. And on the morning of my birthday, I was chauffeured by limousine to a spa where I, Monique, was pampered and treated like royalty. Absolutely no expense was spared for my satisfaction. Then I was treated to a picnic. And it didn’t stop there. I was taken aboard a yacht for a private dinner over Lake Michigan, and I was dressed for the occasion. So I had my cake, and I ate it too. All of it. This is how I’m living now, so you can keep the drama. I no longer have to tolerate it.”
Monique didn’t care that she may have told too much of her business to Boris. He needed to know that she wasn’t miserable without him. That she wasn’t sitting around feeling sorry for herself. But more importantly, she wanted him to know that she was better off without him.
“Baby, I can do all of that for you. I can change,” Boris pleaded.
“Uh-uh. We’ve tried that change thing, remember? This is not the first, second or third time we’ve gone through this. I’ve learned that people can’t change who they are on the inside. You’re just ignorant, Boris.”
“Baby, I need you.” He sounded pitiful.
“You don’t need me, you need a woman you can manipulate and abuse
her self-respect. Well, I’m not that girl. So see ya.” Monique slammed down the telephone and walked out of her office on her way to her meeting.
Theresa had returned from the café, so she stopped at Theresa’s desk for her mocha latte.
When the elevator doors closed, Monique’s extension rang again.
“WGOD, Miss Morrison’s office,” Theresa answered.
“Hi, Theresa. Can I speak to Monique?”
“Hi, Boris. I’m sorry, Monique is in a meeting.”
“I was just talking to her a minute ago.”
“I understand that, but she’s in a meeting right now.”
Theresa heard a click in her ear.
Later that evening, Arykah paid a visit to Monique’s hotel room.
“This is a surprise. What are you doing here looking like you just stepped out of Ebony magazine?” Monique asked.
“I’m passing through on my way to Oakbrook Terrace.”
“You’re showing a house this late?”
Arykah sashayed into the room and sat on the bed. “Nope, I have a dinner date.”
Monique closed the door and leaned against it. “Whaaat? You mean the great and wonderful Arykah Miles will grace a man with her company?”
“Not just a man, but the man.”
“Who is the man?” Monique asked.
“Well, first of all, I had the easiest sale of my career this morning.”
Monique lay across the bed. “Oh, really? Tell me about it.”
“Yesterday, I got a call from a man named Lance Howell. He wanted to see the six hundred thousand dollar estate for sale in Oakbrook Terrace on Caridine Lane. I set up an appointment for us to meet at the estate this morning. He was almost a half hour late, but when he finally showed up, baby, baby, baby. This man stepped out of a brand new, black Lincoln Town car wearing Bill Blass on his buffed up torso and Stacy Adams on his feet. Monique, he wore Tiffany’s Man cologne, and you know how good that stuff smells.”
“But was he fine?”
“No, he wasn’t fine. He was foine. And his voice sounds just like Barry White’s.”
“Did you pinch him to make sure he was real?”
“Oh, he’s real all right. He’s dark with flawless skin and his mustache and goatee were trimmed perfectly. I accidentally asked if I could lick him.”
Monique’s eyes grew wide, and she sat up on the bed. “Please tell me you didn’t. I told you that your mouth was gonna get you into trouble one day.”
Arykah raised her right hand in the air. “I promise you, I did. And he said yes.”
“Oh my God. You didn’t do it, did you?” Monique was really worried. At times her best friend could be hot to trot.
“No, but I was tempted to.”
“He bought the house?”
“With a blank check.”
“What do you mean a blank check?”
“This is where the dinner date comes in to play. He said he loved the house, so I made him an offer. He asked if we could discuss it over dinner. When I accepted his invitation, he told me to meet him at the estate tonight and he would cook for me.”
Monique’s eyes grew wider. “He cooks too?”
“Yeah, girl. Lance owns a construction company, and he’s a chef.”
Monique stood from the bed and stared at Arykah. “Oh my, this story just keeps getting better and better.”
“I’m not finished yet. I told Lance that I could not allow him to use the house if he didn’t own it, and that’s when he signed his name on a personal check and told me to fill in the rest.”
Monique couldn’t take anymore. “Girl, if you don’t shut up, I’ll faint.”
“Hold on, I might have something for you to faint about in a minute. You know I try to stay away from men who aren’t saved, right? If Lance wasn’t in church, I wasn’t gonna waste my time having dinner with him. I asked what church he attended, and I was happy when he told me that he’d been a member of Freedom Temple Church Of God In Christ his entire life.”
“Arykah, that is such a plus. So, he’s a C.O.G.I.C. man, huh? Who pastors that church?”
Arykah displayed all of her thirty-two teeth. “He does.”
Monique gently lay down on the floor, crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes. “Lord, you sent her a pastor? I done seen it all. You can take me now.”
Five minutes after Arykah left, Monique’s telephone rang.
“I’m gonna spank those hips when I see you,” the voice on the other end of the telephone said.
“You’re always spanking me for something, Gravy. What did I do this time?”
“You ain’t rang this phone in awhile.”
“When was the last time you called me, Gravy?” Apparently, Monique didn’t know who she was talking to. Her flip lip was about to get her into major trouble.
“First of all, who’s the doggone momma, me or you? Second of all, have you lost what sense you had, talking to me like that? You’re cute and everything, but I will still snatch a knot in your behind.”
Monique knew she’d better check herself before Myrtle did it for her. “I’m sorry, Gravy, it’s been a rough day.”
“I don’t give a rat’s behind what kind of day it’s been. I had nothing to do with that. Don’t you ever use that tone with me again, Baby Girl. Do you hear me?”
“I said I was sorry, Gravy.”
“I heard what you said. Tell me what happened today that almost got your teeth knocked out.”
Now that Myrtle was calm, Monique teased with her. “You think you can take me, Gravy? You can’t punch hard enough to knock my teeth out.”
“I’ll have you looking like a snaggled toothed pumpkin on Halloween. Adonis can vouch for that. When he and Boris were little, I wouldn’t let them go outside and play until I got home from work. They knew my normal time getting home was about six-thirty. My neighbor, Shirley, told me that Adonis would be outside playing with his friends until six o’clock, then he’d come in the house so I wouldn’t catch him. The next evening, I left work early, and sure enough, as soon as my car turned onto the street, I saw his lil’ tail take off running toward the house. He ran so fast, all I saw was the dust he left behind.”
Monique was laughing hard. “What did you do, Gravy?”
“When I walked in the front door, he and Boris were in the living room watching T.V. Adonis’s chest was heaving up and down like he was having an asthma attack because he was tired from running. He had tears in his eyes because he knew I was gonna get that butt. I walked over to him and asked why he was outside. When he parted his lips to speak, I punched him dead in the mouth and knocked out one of his teeth. I didn’t even give him time to explain because if this house wasn’t on fire, he had no business outside.”
“You were tough on them, huh, Gravy?”
“Chile, I had to be. The boys were taller than me when they were just twelve years old. It was nothing for me to reach up and knock the heck out of them. I still have Adonis’s tooth upstairs on the top shelf in my closet. I keep it in one of those purple Crown Royal bags with the yellow drawstring.”
“Crown Royal bag? What are you doing with that, Gravy?”
“If you are without sin, Baby Girl, cast the first stone. In other words, mind your own business.”
“I may not be able to cast the first stone, but I can surely cast the second or third one.”
“I don’t think so. I know too much of your business. You’re engaged to my son, while at the same time, courting my nephew. Humph, you can’t even cast the hundredth stone.”
When Myrtle mentioned Monique’s engagement to Boris, she thought it was a good a time as any to tell her about the decision she’d made.
“Um, Gravy, I canceled the wedding.” After she spoke, Monique held her breath.
“Well, it’s about time.” Myrtle was pleased.
Chapter 13
Adonis turned his key into the lock and opened the door. Boris was sitting in front of the television with a half e
mpty forty-ounce bottle of beer on a dinner tray next to his La-Z-Boy. Adonis set his duffle bag by the front door and walked into the living room. “Whaddup, cuz?”
“Just chilling. How was Detroit?”
Adonis wanted to leave the problems of Detroit where they were. “It was a mess, but I don’t wanna talk about that. What’s going on with you? How was choir rehearsal last night?”
“I canceled it,” Boris said as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t feel like going.”
By the look on Boris’s face, Adonis knew his troubles had gotten worse while he was away. “You all right, man?”
In Boris’s hand was a white envelope. He held it up for Adonis to take. Inside, Adonis saw the card he had bought for Monique the day her car was detailed.
“How could you do this to me, cuz?” Boris asked.
Adonis felt his knees weaken. How in the world had Boris found out, and how did he get his hands on that card? Surely Monique wasn’t careless enough to have given it to him.
Boris stood and looked at Adonis. “Huh, cuz? Why didn’t you tell me Monique had a dude on the side? You talk to her.”
Adonis exhaled a sigh of relief, happy that his and Monique’s cover hadn’t been blown. He didn’t know how he would have handled the situation. “I don’t talk to her all that much and she’s never mentioned another dude. I doubt if Monique would trust me with something like that anyway, since you and I are cousins.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Boris sat in his La-Z-Boy again.
Adonis looked inside the card and silently thanked God that he didn’t sign it. “Where did you get this card?”
“From her glove compartment the other day. She came by here to get something and I searched her car and found it. Did she tell you some dude got her car detailed and put Lowenharts on it?”
“Nah, she didn’t tell me that.”
“And she’s wearing a bracelet he bought from Tiffany’s.”
Adonis eyebrows raised. “She told you that?”
“Yeah, man. I called Monique today to see if she would have dinner with me. She went off and cussed me out.”
“Cussed you out? Monique?” Adonis found that difficult to believe.
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