The Company We Keep

by Mary Monroe

  “I don’t think so. He made a choice. And I don’t care what Yvette says, I’m sure she didn’t have to hold a gun to Harrison’s head to get him to take her home that night. He walked into that mess with both eyes open. And knowing her, she’s going to cuckold another fool soon, if she hasn’t already.”

  “Well, that’s for sure,” Nicole said with a touch of sarcasm. “She’s one rolling stone that won’t ever gather any moss. That sister rolls around more than a Chinese marble. Shit, she’s already involved with someone else. And it must be serious; she’s already moved in with him. Remember that blind rapper?”

  Teri gasped and her mouth dropped open so wide her jaws almost locked. “Well, only a blind man could not see what a piece of shit she is.”

  “Not him,” Nicole said, shaking her head. “His brother. Dude just got out of prison so you know he’s not too particular. I guess that just goes to show that there is somebody for all of us,” Nicole said rising.

  Not all of us, Teri thought to herself.

  CHAPTER 52

  Teri still avoided listening to Harrison’s show, and she declined invitations to parties or other events that she thought he might attend. She did hear from Nicole and Miguel and even Victor that Harrison still supported a lot of their artists on his show.

  Since Teri was never one to discuss her personal life with her coworkers, most of them didn’t even know she’d been dating Harrison in the first place, let alone that the relationship had been severed. Victor was too busy trying to hold his marriage together, so he had no more interest in Teri’s love life, or anybody else’s. And besides, his main interest in Teri was whether she continued to make him look good.

  Teri ran into Carla at a boutique the day before the Fourth of July and the first thing Carla asked her about was her relationship with Harrison.

  “Oh, that didn’t pan out,” she confessed, shifting her rapidly increasing weight from one foot to the other. “I’ve been meaning to make an appointment to see you, but I’ve been so busy lately…working my fingers to the bone trying to keep the company afloat while Victor takes his spur of the moment vacations.”

  “Things have slowed down quite a bit for me, so when and if you’re ready to talk, let my secretary—no, you call me direct like always and let’s schedule an appointment,” Carla told her, patting the side of her arm. “You don’t have to make an appointment if you just want to talk on a personal level. We’re still friends, Teri. And I hope we always will be.”

  Under normal circumstances, they would have strolled over to the Starbucks at the corner like Carla had suggested. But Teri avoided that when she remembered she’d promised her grandparents she’d stop by on her way home. She’d been avoiding them lately. Since she’d opened her big mouth and told them that she was bringing Harrison to the Fourth of July cookout with her, that seemed to be all they wanted to talk about. She hadn’t told them about the breakup and had decided that she wouldn’t. When they did ask her how he was doing she always told them the same thing—“He’s doing fine as far as I know.”

  She assumed the questions would stop after the cookout. It would be painful and awkward for her, but she’d help them talk about him like a dog for not showing up. It was the only way she knew how to save face.

  About an hour after Teri had run into Carla, she decided to backtrack and go to Starbucks anyway. Not the same one that Carla had suggested, but one in a strip mall near her condo. As luck would have it, five minutes after she’d picked up her latte and plopped down at a table in a corner outside the restroom, Carla exited the restroom.

  “Well, now this is a coincidence,” she yelled, ignoring the surprised look on Teri’s face. “Do you mind if I join you?” Teri let out a heavy sigh and nodded toward the seat across from her that Carla had already claimed. She wondered why people did things first, then asked if it was all right.

  Yes, I do mind if you join me, she wanted to say. And had it not been Carla she would have said it aloud. But in the back of her mind, she knew there had to be a reason for this turn of events.

  “Carla, please do me a favor and don’t mention Harrison Starr,” Teri requested.

  Carla gave her an amused look. “That’s fine with me. I hadn’t planned to. I’m more interested in telling you about all the great sales I stumbled across today.”

  “You see, things ended on a very bad note. After what Harrison did, I don’t think I will ever trust another man,” Teri announced. “I don’t know how much you know about what happened, but this is my side of the story…”

  Despite the fact that Teri had just said she didn’t want to discuss Harrison Starr, for the next ten minutes she shared with Carla every single detail she could remember about the events that had occurred that night. Some parts she repeated several times. “Now, according to Nicole, Yvette broke down and told Eric she’d set Harrison up.”

  “Why Harrison? If she wanted to set somebody up, wouldn’t it have made more sense for her to go after Eric and Nicole?” Carla asked.

  Teri nodded. “Yes, but she couldn’t get to them. She knew that by wrecking Harrison’s relationship with me, it would affect Nicole and Eric on some level.”

  “Teri, I can understand your feelings. But this was nothing more than a foolish ‘prank’ played out by a scorned woman so vengeful she didn’t care who she hurt,” Carla said, gently squeezing Teri’s hand.

  “It doesn’t matter now. I said some pretty nasty things to Harrison and I can’t take any of that back.” Teri paused and sniffed. The tall latte that she had ordered remained untouched. “Even if he was telling the truth…”

  “Teri, listen to me.” Carla leaned across the table and squeezed Teri’s hand even harder. “He was telling the truth.” Teri pressed her lips together and gave Carla a skeptical look. “And wipe that look off your face. You’ve known me long enough to know that I’m rarely wrong when I reveal something.”

  Teri knew she couldn’t argue with that because it was true. “I could apologize to him for what I said, but I don’t know where to go from there.” She shook her head. “Do you think I should call him up anyway?”

  “You have to make that decision.” Carla reared back in her seat and pursed her lips.

  There was no place else for this conversation to go. “Uh, I’ll call you soon,” Teri said, rising. She left the latte on the table, still untouched.

  Teri crawled out of bed the next morning with a splitting headache. As much as she loved her grandparents the last thing she wanted to do today was attend their holiday cookout and deal with a dozen or more of their friends and neighbors. She knew that she’d probably be the only person in her age group present. For a painful moment she even considered calling up Dwight and inviting him to join her—with his sleazy self! But he hadn’t pestered her in a while. She wasn’t even sure he was still interested. The last thing she needed at this low point in her life was for him to reject her. Knowing how crude he was, he would no doubt reject her in a profoundly brutal way to get back at her for giving him the brush-off so many times.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by her cell phone ringing on the nightstand next to her bed. She didn’t want to answer it, but on the fourth ring she did. The caller ID was mysteriously blank, which usually meant the call was coming from a telemarketer or some other party who had a blocked telephone number. “Hello,” she said softly, yawning. She sat up on the side of her bed and looked around her bedroom. The caller didn’t respond. “I said hello,” she repeated.

  “Teri, this is Harrison Starr.”

  “What?” She stood up, dragging the bedding behind her like a train. “What in the world—”

  “Baby, please don’t hang up on me! I know I am probably the last person on the planet you want to talk to, but please don’t hang up.”

  “I won’t hang up,” she assured him. She was glad he had called and she was anxious to hear what he had to say.

  “I called because I need the address and directions to your grandparents’ house.�
��

  Teri covered her mouth so he couldn’t hear her gasp. “What? Why?”

  “Well, I promised I’d attend their Fourth of July cookout—if it’s still on.”

  “It is. But I didn’t think…”

  “If you think my presence will be too upsetting for you, I won’t come,” he offered.

  Her headache had intensified and now her head felt as if it were going to explode. “I don’t know what to say,” she admitted. “The invitation is still open.” She was confused and elated at the same time. She rubbed the back of her head, then her neck, and then the side of her face. “I didn’t think you’d still want to come after…after what happened.”

  “Teri, that’s over and done with. We’ve both moved on and that’s all that matters now.”

  “I…We at Eclectic appreciate the fact that you still show our artists a lot of love on your program.”

  “I know. And you can tell Victor he can stop thanking me by sending me all that damn champagne. I’m running out of room.” He laughed. She laughed with him. “Are you going to give me that address or not?”

  “Uh…uh, yeah.” She rambled off her grandparents’ address. “Don’t ask me to give you directions. You can get them from MapQuest.”

  “Sure. Oh, before I hang up, I just need a few particulars. I presume I can dress casually, and can bring a guest? Should I bring a bottle or a pie or something? This would be one way for me to get rid of some of those bottles Victor sent.” He laughed again, but this time Teri didn’t. She was still thinking about the part where he had mentioned bringing a guest.

  “Uh-huh. You can bring a bottle, or two and yes, it’s okay to bring a guest.”

  “Good. Trevor’s on his own today and I thought it would be nice for him to do a little celebrating. He loves good barbeque as much as I do.”

  “Trevor? Uh, yeah. He’s welcome to come.”

  A full minute of silence passed before either of them spoke again.

  “Do you want to talk?” she asked, holding her breath as she awaited his response. “About us…”

  “Will it do any good?” he asked her so quickly he almost choked on the words.

  “I think it will,” she admitted. More silence followed. “I am willing to listen to anything you want to say to me now. Then, we can go from there.”

  “I’ve had a lot of things on my mind that I wanted to discuss, Teri. But so much time has passed, and so much damage has been done, I doubt if they will have the same effect now.”

  “You don’t have to keep your promise about attending the cookout. I didn’t expect you to, and if you want to back out now, I will certainly understand.”

  “What do you want me to do, Teri?”

  “I want you to come,” she said with a sniff. “After my grandparents stop making a fuss over you, we can sneak off to an empty room and talk.” She wanted to say the room she had in mind was her old bedroom, but she didn’t.

  She could hear him breathing. “What time should we get there? I hope it’s not too early because Trevor operates on CP time.”

  “Him and everybody invited to the cookout operates on Colored People’s time—including my grandparents—and even our non-black friends.” It felt so good to laugh some more. “Anytime after two is fine, if you still decide to come.”

  “I will see you at two, Teri. And I’m really looking forward to seeing you again.”

  “I’ll see you then for sure?” she said, asking as if she still needed more confirmation.

  “You will see me for sure,” Harrison assured her.

  A few miles away, Carla Andrews stared at the caller ID on her cell phone. She chuckled and decided not to answer Teri’s call because she already knew why she was calling. Carla didn’t want to tell Teri that this time things would work out between her and Harrison. She wanted her to find out for herself.

  DAFINA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  850 Third Avenue

  New York, NY 10022

  Copyright © 2009 by Kensington Media LLC

  Written by Mary Monroe, based on the original screenplay by Roy Campanella II

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Dafina and the Dafina logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 0-7582-4044-9

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Also by Mary Monroe

  Title Page

  Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 52

  Copyright