“Gentlemen, I think that concludes the order of business for this month’s meeting. You’re all very busy men with your own successful operations, so, as always, I want to thank you sincerely for taking time from your schedules to meet here today. If there is no further business, I believe we are ready for this meeting to be adjourned.”
“Excuse me, Luke,” Stan spoke into the silence. “I do have something to bring before the board.”
Luke’s frown showed his annoyance. He ran a very tight ship and liked to know everything that was going on before it happened so he could have as much control as possible. He and Stan had spoken briefly earlier, and Stan hadn’t mentioned anything that needed discussing. “Uh, sure, Doctor Lee. The floor is yours.”
Stan took a moment and gathered his thoughts. He knew Luke was angry, and Stan felt bad about having to spring this news on him in this fashion. But it was the only way. Luke could sell snow to an Eskimo, and if Stan had confided in him privately, before the meeting, Luke would have convinced him to change his mind and the announcement would never have been made. “It is with a great degree of disappointment that I must tender my resignation from this illumined board, effective immediately.”
There was a soft rumble among the eleven other men sitting around the table, looking from one to the other. Luke’s eyes widened. A few voiced mild objections. Bryce, however, looked as cool as a cucumber. His expression never changed.
“I’ve thought about it, prayed about it, and discussed it with my wife. Logos Word is undergoing a series of transformations, and aside from that, our children are growing up faster than we can blink, and they, especially my sons, need more of my direct involvement in their lives. I’ll still be available by phone, Luke, if you ever need my counsel. But this is my last meeting with you gentlemen. My prayers will continue to be with this exceptional board and outstanding ministry. Luke, I am honored that you asked me to be a part of it.”
Shortly after the meeting ended, Luke pulled Stan away from the group. “You could have warned me, brother,” he said softly, his tone belying his agitation.
“You would have talked me out of it,” Stan replied honestly. “Few people can say no to you, Luke.”
“I just hope you haven’t started a domino effect.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Bryce Covington. One of the reasons this board position appealed to him is because he knew you were on it.”
Stan was taken aback by this news. Bryce had told him as much, but Stan didn’t know that Bryce had told Luke. “There are many fine gentlemen on this board, Luke, and yours is a fine ministry that benefits Bryce’s constituents. I can’t see any reason why my leaving would change how much you two could help each other, not to mention the city of Detroit.”
Luke’s expression was somber as he looked hard at Stan. Then he broke into a charismatic smile and offered Stan his hand. “I hope you’re right, Doctor. I sure hope you’re right.”
After saying good-bye to the other members, Stan exited the church’s executive offices and headed to his car. He thought he’d escaped, when a voice pierced the cool, April evening.
“Stan!”
Stan stopped but did not turn around.
Bryce quickly closed the distance between them. “What? You’re going to leave the city without saying good-bye to a dear friend? I noticed you hugged and communed with everyone else except me. What’s that about?”
Stan turned around. “You know very well what it’s about, Bryce, just like you know what the resignation is about. I won’t be returning to Detroit, for any reason. And while I will always think highly of you, I won’t be seeing you again. Good-bye.”
Stan turned to get into his car. Bryce put a hand on the door, preventing Stan from opening it. “No, Stan. I’m not going to let you run away from us.”
“I’m not running from you, Bryce. I’m running to my wife, my children, my godly life. I’ll admit it, seeing you again churned up feelings I thought long gone. But God is not the author of confusion, and I will not remain in any situation that brings disorder into my life.”
“You’re right, Stan. God is not the author of confusion, and once a person embraces their truth, confusion disappears. You know you love me,” Bryce continued quietly. “And you know you want to be with me, in every way.”
Stan made another attempt to open the door. “Don’t make a scene, Bryce. I have a plane to catch.”
“Prove it.”
“What?”
“Prove that you are delivered, that you have no desire to be with me. Spend the night with me—in my home, in my bed. If you can deny me, while wrapped in my arms, then I’ll believe.”
Stan glared at Bryce, his mind in turmoil. A part of him wanted to accept Bryce’s challenge. Stan was a man who rarely backed down from anything, and he would take immense pleasure in proving Bryce wrong, in proving that he was absolutely, one hundred percent heterosexual. But another part of Stan was afraid that if he went to Bryce’s home, he would be the one proven wrong.
“Bryce, this is over. Let me go.” Stan reached yet again for the door handle.
Bryce looked deep into Stan’s eyes, moving closer to him. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
Stan thought no one had ever looked more beautiful than Bryce in this moment: his eyes, full of admiration and desire; his lips, soft and wet; his body hard, emanating a woodsy, citrusy scent. “I’m sure,” he finally whispered.
Bryce looked around, and seeing no one else in the parking lot, he leaned over and placed a kiss on Stan’s mouth. “Give me a hug.”
Stan hesitated only briefly before wrapping his friend in a hard, warm embrace. “I’ll be praying for you, Bryce,” he whispered.
Bryce continued the hug for a long moment, silent, savoring the feel of the man he loved. Finally, he stepped back. His smile was bittersweet, and his words were sincere. “I’ll be praying for you, too, Stan. For your family and your happiness.”
Bryce walked away quickly after that, and Stan opened his car door without looking in Bryce’s direction. Seconds later, he was out of the parking lot, speeding toward the airport where he was hoping he could book a red-eye flight. Originally, he’d planned to leave the next morning, but Stan knew he needed to get out of the city as quickly as possible. He’d pay first class, full price if he had to. No ticket price was too high, he figured, when it came to saving his soul.
Stan gripped the steering wheel as he entered the freeway. Thank you, Jesus, for being my strength. Stan had stopped an affair from happening, but he couldn’t stop the tears that flowed from the time he turned out of the church parking lot until he turned into the rental car parking lot. Once there, he wiped his eyes, blew his nose, straightened his back, and walked to the van that would take him to the airport and to the plane that would take him back to normal, back to the life he’d built over the past twenty-five years.
Bryce and Stan thought they were alone in the side parking lot, where they’d both parked, totally by chance. But actually, there was a third person there. And as soon as Bryce’s car followed Stan’s out of the parking lot, this silent observer reached for his cell phone.
42
Bedroom Business
“Hey, hot chocolate,” Lavon said as he walked into his wife’s spacious executive office in the MLM Network building.
“Hey, Hershey,” Carla responded, using one of the many pet names she gave her husband.
“Good show today.” Lavon leaned down and planted a warm kiss on Carla’s waiting lips.
“You think so? My mind was so distracted that if it hadn’t been for the cue cards, I wouldn’t have even known who I was interviewing.”
“The cameras couldn’t see that, baby doll, and that’s all that matters. What was on your mind?”
“Brianna. I’m not trying to be a snoop or a spy, but I just happened to look on her computer when I was in her room the other day….”
“Oh, I see. That computer jump up and trip you,
did it, while you were on your way out of your daughter’s room?” Lavon plopped down in the large cushiony seat in Carla’s brightly decorated office. The mustard-yellow chairs complemented the other bold colors of purple, red, orange, and green. Used incorrectly, these shades would have collided, but each complemented the other. An eight-foot-long striped couch using all of the colors pulled the palette together beautifully.
“More like what I saw on her computer tripped me. You know how photos from our picture file are our screen saver?” Lavon nodded. “Well, Brianna’s is that same way. There was a picture of her in a bikini, in a very suggestive pose. I guess it was taken last month when she and that group from school went whale watching, because she was on a boat.”
“So, she was in a bikini. Weren’t they all in bathing suits?”
“I guess so, but that’s not my point. This picture was overly sexual, in my opinion. Her little butt cheeks, which aren’t so little anymore, were spilling out of her bikini bottoms, and she was proudly displaying her assets.” Carla emphasized the first syllable while turning back with a seductive smile. “So the next thing I knew, I was looking at her MySpace account.”
“Wait a minute. How did the computer jump from the screen saver to online?”
“My hand just fell on the mouse,” Carla said, laughing. “And when I looked up, there was her MySpace page.”
“I don’t know, Carla. What you did sounds precariously close to snooping to me.”
“I don’t care. I’m her mother, and I don’t like what I saw on her page. All of her pictures, well most of them, anyway, look as though she’s advertising. I need to have a talk with Miss Thang and remind her that she’s only fourteen years old.”
“Now, baby, you aren’t gonna like this, but the apple don’t fall far from the tree. You’re the sexiest woman alive. Just stands to reason that your daughter is gonna be all kinds of sexy too.”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. I started screwing at fifteen, and let me tell you from personal experience, that’s way too young to start experimenting sexually. See, the problem is, you think you’re grown at that age—you think you know everything—but, baby, you haven’t even begun to live. And by the time you find that out, it’s too late. A woman can never get back her innocence, and nine times out of ten, the first man who pops the cherry is the least deserving of it. Because if he was, he wouldn’t be popping it, right?”
Lavon leaned forward. “Do you think Brianna is sexually active?”
“I don’t know, but that’s why we’re getting ready to start a conversation. I can’t be telling millions of people how to handle their daughter if I can’t handle my own. I’ve got a call in to Tai, to get some hands-on advice. She and Princess went round and round for a minute, but it seems the two now have a close relationship. Her younger daughter, Tabitha, is just a year or so older than Brianna, I think. So she’ll be good to talk to.”
Lavon rose from the chair and walked around to Carla’s side of the desk. He opened his arms. “Come here.”
Carla eyed the love of her life, smiled, and gladly rose to be in his arms. Lavon gave the best bear hugs. He could make a woman who weighed three hundred pounds feel as if she were light as a feather. Carla was every bit of one eighty, yet Lavon picked her off the floor and swung her around, until she squealed like a teenager. “Put me down, man!” Yet when he did, she stayed in his embrace.
Lavon kissed Carla on the lips, once, twice, and again. He kept her hand in his as he walked over to her office door and locked it. He walked to the speaker phone and pushed a button. When a voice answered on the other end, Lavon’s directive was simple: “Hold our calls. We are not to be disturbed for any reason.”
Once he’d ensured their privacy, he led Carla over to the sofa. He rearranged the pillows on it, lay down, and pulled Carla on top of him. They enjoyed exploring each other’s mouths with their tongues for long moments. Lavon reached down and cupped Carla’s thick backside. A side from her over-flowing mounds, her luscious lips, her large shapely legs, and her beautiful face, her “baby got back” was one of the things he loved best about her. He kneaded it gently, even as Carla began to grind into his already hardening manhood.
“Um, careful, you about to start something we can’t finish right now.” Lavon rolled out from under Carla and positioned her on her stomach. He knelt beside the couch and began a massage from her shoulders down her legs and back.
“Ooh, Lavon, that feels so good. This is exactly what I needed.” They enjoyed a companionable silence, broken only by Carla’s oohs and ahs.
Lavon was almost finished, when his hands went still. “Baby…”
“Hum?”
“I almost forgot.”
“Forgot what?”
“Forgot to tell you about a call I received, something very interesting I might add.”
“What?” Carla asked drowsily. Lavon’s strong hands and expert ministrations were putting her to sleep, and she couldn’t think of any kind of news she wanted to hear at this moment.
“Friend of mine saw Stan kissing a dude in the Cathedral’s church parking lot.”
This news woke Carla right up. “What?” she asked, lifting her head from her arms.
“Well, actually, the dude kissed Stan. But that was after they had some kind of intense conversation. Stan was trying to leave and the man—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Carla said, sitting up. “You’re talking about Stanley Morris Lee, my ex-husband, father of my three children, pastor of Logos Word Interdenominational—”
“Yes, yes, and yes!” Lavon sat down next to Carla.
“Kissing a man you say?”
“Bryce Covington.”
“The politician?”
“The one and only.”
“The pretty boy?”
“Ah, I don’t know about all that…”
“That fine, light-skinned brothah who’s so pretty he looks like a cross between Rick Fox and Vivica Fox?”
“Ha! Woman, will you stop focusing on fine foxes and let me finish telling you what I heard?”
“Wait a minute. Who did you hear this from? You know I don’t believe one bit of gossip I hear, especially coming from church folk. I’ve been the subject of that, remember?”
Lavon fixed Carla with a look. “How can I forget? Anyway, this news comes from someone reliable, a friend of mine. We used to work media together in a ministry in Minneapolis. He’s now the media director at the Cathedral. He was sitting in his car in the parking lot, talking on the phone, when he saw this all go down.”
“All of what go down?” Carla’s mind was reeling, even as her intuition had her more believing the story than not. It would explain a lot of things about Stan Lee, particularly when it came to the demise of their marriage.
“That’s all. Just this dude kissing Stan…on the lips. Stan was walking to his car when Bryce called out to him, and my friend said at first it looked like Stan wanted to get into his car. But Bryce kept holding him back. They talked quietly for a few minutes, and then Bryce kissed him, they hugged, and then—according to my source, who shall remain nameless—they both got in their cars and left.”
“Oh, my…,” Carla said, her hand to her chest. “My, my, my…”
“So what do you think? Stan’s a down-low preacher? You know that as quiet as it’s kept, there are more than a few—”
“I don’t know if I can believe this, Lavon. Isn’t Bryce married with children?”
“Isn’t Stanley?”
“Touché.”
“And more than that. Bryce is no longer married. He divorced his wife last year and came out.”
“Came out?”
“Admitted he was gay. He didn’t do it in a grand way, with a press release and news conference, but he doesn’t try and hide it either. My friend tells me he’s seen around town with a young, dark, super handsome brothah—his partner, I guess. That’s why my informant was so shocked to see Bryce kiss Stan. He knew Bryce was gay but had no
idea that Stan might roll that way.”
The intercom interrupted their conversation. “I know you said no interruptions, Lavon, but it’s Princess Brook on the line and you said—”
“And I meant it,” Lavon said, a smile in his voice. “Good job, Susan, we’ll take the call.”
Carla shifted back into talk show host mode and spent the next half hour conversing with her good friend’s daughter. She could tell she was going to love doing the show with Princess, who had the right blend of straightforwardness and personality that made one a star. They decided to air the show live, on the same day the book came out. If everything went the way Carla and Lavon planned, Princess’s book would make the New York Times bestseller list.
Shortly after they finished the call, the Lees decided to leave the office and handle anything else that needed attention from home. Aside from work, there were several matters that demanded their attention. They both were concerned about Brianna and decided to talk to her that night. For Lavon, he also wanted to finish what he and his wife had started in her office. When it came to Carla, Lavon was insatiable. There was no place he’d rather be than on top of her.
Carla was juggling those two issues, and one more. She had to find out the truth about Stan. Was he gay? Perhaps bi? And if he wasn’t down low, just how much about this other relationship did his wife, Passion, know? Some would say it wasn’t her business, but Carla was making it hers. She and this man had two natural children together, and he’d adopted Brianna as well. His being gay would also totally explain his aversion to having sex with her. Yes, Carla was making Stan’s bedroom business her business. And soon, she knew, it would be time to have a conversation with Passion Perkins Lee.
Heaven Forbid Page 19
