You Get What You Pray For

by E. N. Joy

  “Oh, I see.” Unique nodded her understanding.

  “Can I expect the same from you?”

  “Of course,” Unique replied wholeheartedly.

  “Great.” He took another breath. “I know you’ve been through a lot, Unique, so I don’t want you to feel like I’m putting you on trial or badgering you. So feel free to give me yes or no answers or even just say you don’t want to talk about it. But I do think some talking is in order. Fair?”

  “Fair,” she replied. Did she want to talk about all this now? No. But she’d opened the can of worms, and she’d be the one doing the squirming if she didn’t hurry up, let the worms free, and close the empty jar, with nothing left to be said.

  “Okay, good, then,” Terrance said before he dived right in. “Are Heaven and Victoria your daughters?”

  “Yes.” That was all Unique offered. She’d also learned from the Judge Judy courtroom television show that sometimes when people offered more details than they were asked to supply, they ended up losing the case.

  “Is Eugene their father?”

  “Yes.” Unique was in between a boulder and a place that wasn’t so soft. This was when she could have shared more information, offered more than a yes, but she didn’t want to jeopardize the case. On the other hand, she feared that her response could be considered lying by omission. So she decided to go against what she’d learned from Judge Judy and offer more. “But—”

  She’d taken too long to decide to be more forthcoming. Terrance was already on to his next inquiry. “The girls call you sissy. But do they know that you are really their mother?”

  Unique shook her head. “Lorain and Nick adopted them. They call Lorain Mommy and Nick Daddy. As far as the girls are concerned, Lorain is their mother and I’m their big sister.”

  Terrance fell back into his seat and exhaled, as if the wind had been knocked out of him. “So another man will be raising my stepdaughters? My stepdaughters will be calling another man Daddy?”

  “No, your sisters-in-law will be calling the man they know to be their father Daddy.”

  “But, Unique—”

  “You are not their father, Terrance,” Unique said. “And I am not their mother. Nick and Lorain have legally adopted the girls.”

  Unique went on to tell Terrance about the initial plan of having Lorain be the girls’ legal custodian. Then she revealed that after the death of her sons, she didn’t feel fit to be a mother and wanted Lorain and Nick to adopt and take care of the twins permanently. She explained how she felt it was in the best interest of the girls to be raised to adulthood by the newlyweds and to know Unique only as their sister.

  “Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll share everything with them. But maybe not.” She shrugged. “I have no idea what the future holds when it comes to this. But what I do know is that for now, this is how it is, and my mother, Nick, and I . . . we are all in agreement. Now, down the road, with you being my husband, of course, you will have a say if we want for things to change. But if we don’t want for things to change, you are going to have to accept that, Terrance. And what I don’t want is you ever trying to change my mind for me. Because right now I’m content with the way things are, and I honestly don’t foresee ever wanting the situation to change.”

  The expression on Terrance’s face was not lining up with what Unique was saying, and he was shaking his head.

  Unique turned her whole body toward Terrance. “You are being thrown into this. I get that basically, you’ll have to live with the consequences of the decisions I’ve made. And if you feel that’s not something you can live with . . .” Her words trailed off. She’d let Terrance speak for himself.

  Terrance took Unique’s hands in his. “Look, I’m not trying to come into your life and change things,” he said. “I’m trying to understand them.”

  Unique exhaled. “That’s good to hear, Terrance, because if you think Annie had a life of hard knocks, then you should take a look at my past. There is so much that can’t be changed. But you know what? My past is just that, my past. I love you. And I know you love me. And when you really love somebody, you meet them right where they are in life, and you don’t try continually to revisit their past.”

  Terrance nodded his head and smiled. His little Unique knew a lot, even though she was much younger than his forty-year-old self. She was smart beyond her years. Here, he thought he’d have to school her on some things in life, and already she was schooling him.

  “So, can we agree to move forward?” Unique asked. “There’s nothing we can do about past decisions that have been made, anyway.”

  “I understand that. The past is the past, and I agree. But I don’t want to be in a situation like today, where your past comes back and confronts me in the face . . . literally.”

  Unique shrugged. “I can’t promise you that. Today was not my doing. That was all my mother’s doing.”

  And Unique couldn’t wait to have a one-on-one with Korica to find out what the heck she was thinking by inviting Eugene to have dinner with them. While standing in that kitchen back at Korica’s, though, she’d felt it was neither the time nor the place to have that discussion, not with Eugene and Terrance there. Korica had the most unfiltered tongue of anybody she knew. Nothing could be caught before it fell off her tongue, so Unique didn’t want Terrance, or Eugene, for that matter, to be within earshot when Korica spoke.

  “I’m sorry that you were put in an awkward position today,” she continued. “And trust me when I say I will definitely be having a conversation with my mother about it.” Unique squeezed Terrance’s hands. “Just know that there is nothing in my past that I would ever hide that I know could intentionally come back to hurt you.”

  Terrance stared at Unique for a moment. He then pulled her to him. He placed his lips on hers, and the two kissed passionately.

  “It’s hard to believe that once upon a time I thought very little of you,” Terrance said once they broke the kiss.

  “And once upon a time, I wanted to take off my earrings, my shoes, put Vaseline on my face, and fight you.”

  “And now we’re in love.”

  Unique smiled. “Yes, in love, till death do us part.”

  The couple shared yet another passionate kiss before Terrance put the car in drive and pulled back onto the road, which was once again dappled with sunlight.

  Korica’s middle name had to be Death, because little did the happy couple know that she was going to make it her business to see to it that they parted before they ever even came together in holy matrimony.

  Chapter 18

  “What do you think about this dress?” Lorain asked Eleanor. The two women had dropped the girls off at dance practice and then had walked over to a bridal shop in the same strip mall as the dance studio. Lorain held out the white mermaid-cut dress she’d found, like a needle in a haystack, among the rows of dresses in the small specialty boutique.

  “It’s white,” Eleanor said with a frown.

  “It’s beautiful,” Lorain said.

  Eleanor looked at the dress again and then at Lorain. “But it’s white.”

  “And what’s wrong with my dress being white?” Lorain asked. “This is my first time having a wedding, so it’s kind of like my first time getting married.” Lorain placed the dress against herself and admired it in the mirror, imagining what it would look like on.

  “It might be your first time having a real wedding, but, honey, white is for virgins.” Eleanor let out a chuckle. “And it sure ain’t your first time—”

  “Mom, dang! Really? Can’t a bride wear white if she wants to?”

  Eleanor shot Lorain a look. “Do you really want to have that conversation with me, of all people?”

  “Mom, you are so old-fashioned. Besides, you wore white when you married Daddy, and you were pregnant with me at the time.”

  “Only a month. Heck, I didn’t even know I was pregnant.”

  “But you knew you weren’t no virgin.” Lorain raised an eyebrow.
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  “Child, I’m not ’bout to sit here and go tit for tat with you. If you want to wear white, by all means, wear white.” Eleanor walked over to a rack and began looking through the dresses. “Ooh, look at this.” She pulled a tiny white dress off the rack.

  “That would be cute . . . if I was five years old.” Lorain smacked her lips.

  “Not for you. For the girls . . . to wear in Unique’s wedding.”

  Lorain’s entire demeanor changed, and this didn’t go unnoticed by her mother. She went from being jolly to joyless.

  “Oh, Lord, here we go,” Eleanor sighed.

  “What?” Lorain said.

  “Don’t ‘what’ me. You know what. This thing with you and Unique. Can’t you see that girl is trying to move on with her life, get married, and maybe start another family with that soon-to-be husband of hers? The last thing she’s thinking about is trying to come and take Heaven and Victoria away from you. Besides, it was her idea in the first place for you and Nick to adopt and raise them as your own. It’s not like you had to convince her or go to her house and steal ’em out of their crib.”

  “I know you are trying to make me feel better, Mom, but please don’t stand there and try to pretend like you didn’t hear it,” Lorain said.

  “Hear what?” Eleanor looked around. “Did you fart or something? No, I didn’t hear it. But let me get my little bottle of air freshener I carry with me from out my purse. Those silent ones are the most deadly.” Eleanor began to dig in her purse.

  “I did not pass gas. That’s not what I’m talking about,” Lorain said. “You mean to tell me you didn’t hear Unique slip up and almost refer to herself as the girls’ mother that day she introduced them to Terrance?” Lorain said.

  Eleanor looked up from her purse. She then turned, put the little dress back on the rack, and shuffled around, looking some more. She was trying to avoid answering Lorain’s question. Clearly, her actions showed that she’d caught Unique’s slipup too, that and the fact that she hadn’t yet denied hearing what Lorain had heard.

  “I knew it. See? I told you.” Lorain went and flopped down on a bench, placing the dress in her lap. “The more time she spends with them, the more . . . I don’t know.... The more that mother thing is going to kick in.” Lorain’s knees began to shake. Worry covered her face.

  Eleanor went and sat down next to her daughter. “Baby girl, I truly wish I had the answer for all this, but I don’t. It’s too much. I’ve already told you what I think you should do, and that’s talk to Unique. She’ll tell you what I’m telling you, that she wants those girls with you and Nick. But maybe you should talk to God first. Have you tried that?”

  Lorain shook her head. “I’m too ashamed.”

  “To talk to Unique or to talk to God?”

  “How about both.”

  “Well, daughter, I can’t blame you. You should be ashamed.”

  “Mom!” Lorain stood to her feet. “Forget it. Let’s keep looking for a dress.” Lorain took the dress she’d selected and placed it back on the rack, and then she began to look through the other dresses. “We have to find something, because the clock is ticking.”

  Eleanor stood and began to help her daughter in her search.

  The clock was ticking, all right, and if Lorain didn’t move fast enough, she just might run out of time. To make things right not only with Unique, but with her husband as well.

  “Lorain, I want to thank you for agreeing to have lunch with me.”

  Lorain simply smiled. No “You’re welcome” or anything came from her mouth. She hadn’t agreed to have lunch with Tabby because she wanted to. Nicholas had done everything but put a gun to her head to get her to go and reconcile with his friend’s wife.

  “This isn’t high school, Lorain,” Nicholas had told her. “And besides, Lance and I don’t want what’s going on between our wives to affect our professional relationship or our friendship. They’ve invited us to their house for dinner next week, and I accepted.”

  “But—”

  Nicholas had put his hand up, halting her words. “I will not walk through the doors of their home yet again without my wife on my arm. Period. So between now and then, do what you need to do to fix it. Lance is having the same conversation with his wife, so I’m sure she’ll be reaching out to you to get together. Take the credit card and go pick out something nice to wear.” Nicholas had then entered the bathroom and had closed the door before Lorain could even refuse.

  Nicholas had never asked Lorain for much. He’d always gone with the flow. So for him to interfere in her social dealings and put his foot down meant this was really something he wanted and expected from her. Considering that Nicholas had done everything in his power to give Lorain and the girls the world, she felt she could at least fulfill this one little request.

  So the next day, when Tabby sent her a text inviting her to lunch, she had had no other choice but to reply and ask when, where, and at what time she wanted to meet. Now the two of them were sitting across from each other at Brio in Easton Town Center in Columbus. It was a nice, cozy, upscale Italian eatery with a classy atmosphere.

  “I just wanted to tell you face-to-face how sorry I am about what happened at last month’s wives’ meeting,” Tabby said, apologizing. “I should be and I am ashamed of my behavior. Not even in high school did I ever get caught up in the rumor mill.”

  “And now here you are, blowing the hot air that keeps it spinning.” Lorain raised an eyebrow at Tabby.

  “I deserved that. You have every right to be angry with me. I’m willing to take whatever you dish out and swallow it. Even if we’re not the best of friends, our husbands are friends. Lance truly admires Nick, and I think it’s safe to say that the feeling is mutual. I don’t want my childish behavior to come between our husbands and damage their relationship. So what do you say? Can we at least be cordial?” Tabby waited in anticipation.

  Lorain had no problem keeping her waiting, either. She did not want to make this comfortable for Tabby, as she hadn’t been the least bit comfortable standing in Tabby’s dining room last month, being the topic of rumors. Lorain took a sip of her seltzer, then looked at Tabby.

  Tabby’s words had sounded genuine enough, and the expression on her face matched. Behind those eyes of hers, it looked as though regret had pitched a tent. Not one to get off on holding grudges and having people at her mercy, Lorain decided to go ahead and set Tabby free.

  “I forgive you, Tabby.” Lorain exhaled.

  Tabby’s shoulders lifted, her eyes filled with happiness, and she opened her mouth to speak, only Lorain cut her off.

  “On one condition,” Lorain added.

  Tabby slowly closed her mouth, her joy quickly evaporating. She hadn’t foreseen that a condition would be attached.

  “If there is anything, anything at all,” Lorain stressed, “that you want to know about me, please do not hesitate to come directly to me. I might tell you that it’s none of your darn business, and I might spill my guts.”

  “Hmm. Funny that you should say that,” Tabby said.

  Now Lorain was the one with a sour look on her face. “What makes you say that?”

  Tabby opened her mouth, then closed it again. “Oh, nothing. It would just be me blowing the hot air that keeps the rumor mill running. And you wouldn’t want me to do that, now would you?” Tabby shrugged and then picked up the menu. Just that quickly Tabby was making Lorain eat her words. “Eat up,” Tabby said. “I’m buying.”

  Chapter 19

  “I know you’re mad, but before you say anything, let me explain,” Korica said to Unique as Unique sat down in the booth at Captain Souls. Korica had called and invited Unique to her favorite restaurant to make a truce. Unique had immediately accepted, because for one, she couldn’t wait to have a conversation with her mother and get to the bottom of the whole Eugene situation, and two, Captain Souls was her favorite restaurant.

  “Is this why on the reality shows the women are always out somewhere eating?”
Unique asked. “Because they think that because they are out in public, a person won’t clown? Or is it because they think they can calm the roaring lion with food?”

  “Both,” Korica said.

  Unique shook her head. “Mommy, how could—”

  Korica put her hands up. “Wait, now, honey. I said to let Mommy talk first.”

  Unique settled herself back in the booth and nodded. While Unique was known for her stubbornness and attitude, she’d never aimed them at Korica. She’d always had the utmost respect for the woman who had raised her. “Okay, shoot.”

  “That boy is hurting too. That boy lost his son too.”

  Unique was quick to lean forward again. “It’s because—”

  “Wait. Now, you said you’d let me talk,” Korica reminded Unique.

  Being a woman of her word, as hard as it was, Unique willed herself not to speak until she heard what Korica had to say for herself.

  “First off,” Korica said, leaning in, “I don’t want you to think for one minute this is about that boy. I don’t give a rat’s a—”

  The waitress walked up to their booth. “Ladies, can I get your drink order?” she asked the mother and daughter. It was a tense and inopportune moment, indeed. Slightly annoyed, as they were ready to get into the meat of the conversation, the women placed their drink orders. Then Korica continued.

  “Unique, I see how angry you are at Eugene.”

  “And you should be angry at him too,” Unique spat. “But instead, you’re trying to feed that Negro. You’re supposed to be on my side. You’re supposed to have my back. Any other time, even if I’m wrong, I could always count on you to be there and be wrong right along with me, as I have always been for you. But now it’s like you’re on his side.”

  “You know I’ve got you through thick and thin. I’m not even about to let you question my loyalty to you, Unique. But this isn’t about sides. This is about you getting right. Now, your religion has helped you deal with and heal from the death of the boys, but the anger you have for Eugene is going to be the death of you. You have to forgive him.”