by E. N. Joy
“No. I’m not hungry.”
“So you’ve had dinner already?”
“Yes, no . . . Well, I, uh, grabbed something earlier,” Lorain said nervously as she arrived at the top of the steps.
“What did you eat?” Nicholas continued to question his wife, but to Lorain, it felt more like being badgered by cops in an interrogation room. Well, call her a hostile witness, because she wasn’t having it!
Lorain turned around abruptly, almost causing Nicholas to run into her. “What is it with the hundred and one questions?” Lorain asked. “If there is something you want to ask me, come right out and ask.”
“Okay. Fine,” Nicholas said. “Are you having an affair?”
Lorain stared at Nicholas to see if he was serious about the question he’d posed. He looked dead serious.
“Nicholas Leon Wright, I can’t even believe you fixed your mouth to ask me that!”
“Why not? We’ve always had the kind of relationship where we can ask each other whatever is on our mind. And we’ve always told each other the truth. I hope that hasn’t changed.”
“Of course not.”
“Of course not what? You are not having an affair, or we have changed and we’ve stopped telling each other the truth?”
“Both,” Lorain said. “I don’t know whether to be mad at you right now, insulted, or what.”
Lorain headed into the bedroom. She couldn’t believe Nicholas actually had suspicions that she was cheating on him. The only other man she’d looked at with the least bit of desire since marrying Nicholas was the chocolate hunk from her doctors’ wives’ meeting who had greeted the women upon entering her home. But she’d only looked and certainly had not touched, or even thought of touching for that matter. A liar she might have been, with good reason as far as she was concerned. But a cheat she wasn’t. No way was anybody going to be holding a conversation about her defiling her marriage the way they were doing at the twins’ dance rehearsal that day regarding the famous gospel singer’s cheating husband. Could Lorain blame her husband, though? After all, she had been acting suspicious.
As the women had pointed out in that conversation at the dance studio, Lorain knew that what was good for the goose was good for the gander. If it was okay for her to be in Nicholas’s business in the name of marital accountability, then he darn sure had every right to be in hers.
“It’s a reasonable question, you know, considering that in the past week you haven’t answered your cell phone a couple times when I’ve called you,” Nicholas said. “Ordinarily, you’d at least call me back once you’d seen that I’d called. In addition to that, some of your time has been unaccounted for.”
Lorain turned around and faced Nicholas. The two of them stood in the middle of their bedroom. “My time has been unaccounted for? Since when do you keep tabs on my time?”
“Since you stopped answering or returning my calls. Since this is the second time in a week you’ve come home late. We’ve always lived a pretty predictable life, and now, all of a sudden, things are changing. I want to know what’s going on. That way we can nip things in the bud.”
“Well, believe me when I say there is no bud to nip. Trust me.”
“Can I?”
Lorain looked at Nicholas sideways. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that to me.”
“We can pretend when we are role-playing with Leon, but right now this is Nicholas, and I’m dead serious. Is our marriage okay? Is there anything you are not telling me? Hiding from me?”
Lorain looked into the eyes of a man who was genuinely and sincerely concerned about her . . . about them. She respected him so much more for calling her out on her mess, rather than ignoring it and letting their marriage get out of control. She was blessed that he wasn’t a man who allowed his ego to keep him from showing concern about his marriage. She wished to God she could share with Nicholas everything that was going on, but she couldn’t. She hated lying to him, but hopefully, she wouldn’t have to lie to him for long. But in the meantime, she needed all the help she could get to keep the truth from him.
“You coming down for dinner?” Lorain asked as she peeked into Nicholas’s home office. The relationship had been a tad bit strained since their argument a couple days ago, but Lorain was hopeful that things would be back on track soon.
“Sure. In a minute,” he said to her over his shoulder, not bothering to turn around and look at her. His desk sat facing the wall. His back was to the door. Nicholas was very much absorbed in the spreadsheet he was working on, on his computer, that and the checkbook on his desk.
“All right, then. I’ll see you downstairs in a minute.” Lorain went to close his office door behind her. Before she could do so, Nicholas posed a question to her.
“Baby, you haven’t been doing any more shopping than usual, have you?” Nicholas asked.
Lorain swallowed hard. “Uh, no, not really.”
“I didn’t think so. I mean, I haven’t seen you carrying in any bags or anything. I haven’t noticed any new major purchases around the house.”
“Why do you ask?”
“Nothing. I’ll figure it out.”
“Well, why don’t you come on downstairs and eat? You’ve had a long day. Let me take a look at things and see if I can’t figure it out. I’m sure you just switched a few numbers around or something.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” Nicholas agreed. “I’ve been looking at charts all day. I don’t know what made me think I could come home and balance our checkbook and look at credit card statements. I’ll figure it all out another time.” Nicholas closed the document on the screen and stood up. “Right now I’m going to enjoy dinner with my beautiful wife and daughters.”
Lorain smiled. She held the door open wide for her husband to walk through, allowing him to get ahead of her. Before following him, she turned and looked at the checkbook that lay open on Nicholas’s desk. She might be a liar, but numbers didn’t lie. It was only a matter of time before Lorain would have to come completely clean with her husband.
Chapter 24
“Baby, can you run my things to the cleaners for me?” Nicholas asked Lorain when he was about to walk out the door. “I kept forgetting to ask you, and I’m down to my last white coat.”
“Sure, baby. I’ll get them there before the cleaners closes today.”
“Well, actually, I need them there before ten this morning in order to get next-day service,” Nicholas stressed. “The one I’m wearing today I already wore yesterday. I managed not to stain it too badly, but who knows what today holds.”
“But, honey, I . . .” Lorain stopped herself. If she told her husband she had somewhere she needed to rush off to the minute he walked out that door, he’d start asking questions . . . and then she’d have to start answering them. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, which meant that sooner rather than later she would no longer have to keep Nicholas in the dark when it came to her daily activities. But for now she had to keep the blindfold tied over his eyes.
Nicholas stood there with his hand on the doorknob, waiting for his wife to tell him that she couldn’t make it to the cleaners before ten, which was very unusual. Usually, he never had to ask her twice to do anything, but today, for some reason, she seemed hesitant. Nicholas raised an eyebrow, an action that reflected his feelings of concern.
“Sure,” Lorain said with a smile, although inside she was spitting fiery darts.
Nicholas kissed her on the lips and then headed out the door. “Have a good day,” he called over his shoulder before he closed the door behind him.
That door wasn’t even closed fast before Lorain started scaling the steps two at a time. She made it up to her bedroom in record time and quickly shed her robe and lifted her gown over her head. She kicked her house slippers off, and they went flying across the room. She washed up in the sink, saving time by eliminating her usual shower. She brushed her teeth and did her hair. She threw on an Old Navy long-sleeve tee and some jeans. She
didn’t even take time to put on earrings, which was something she’d taught her little darlings to never leave home without. Purse, earrings, lip gloss, and a nice scent were a girl’s basic essentials before showing herself to the world.
Lorain grabbed her purse and raced down the steps. She got all the way out to her car before realizing she’d forgotten to grab the dry cleaning bag. “Snaps!” Lorain shouted as she got out of the car and went back into the house. By the time she got to the top of the steps, she had sweat beads on her forehead and she was breathing hard.
She went into the bathroom, opened the linen closet, and grabbed the dry cleaning bag from off the floor. Within one minute’s time, she was back in her car and pulling out of her driveway like a bat out of hell. The driver of the car that was passing her driveway at that very moment lay on the horn, and that was what kept Lorain from driving out into traffic and possibly totaling her car.
“Jesus!” Lorain cried out. She then waved an apology to the driver through her rear window. She took a couple deep breaths, then looked at the clock on her car’s dashboard. She had approximately twenty minutes to be in two places at one time. This time before she pulled out of her driveway, she made sure there were no oncoming cars.
When she neared a school, a couple of parents who were walking their children to school yelled and held up fingers—they were not making the peace sign—to let Lorain know that she was going a little faster than the law permitted in a school zone.
“I know we are supposed to follow God’s laws and man’s, but I’m sorry.” Obedience was better than sacrifice, so surely Lorain should have obeyed the speed limit laws. But she was willing to sacrifice whatever she had to by not doing so.
It was 9:53 a.m. when she pulled into the parking lot of Lawson’s Dry Cleaners. Lorain got out of the car and headed for the entrance. “Dang it!” She’d done it again. She’d forgotten to grab the bag of clothes to be dry-cleaned.
She went back to the car, retrieved the clothes, and then tried again. The chime that rang above her head let both her and Mr. Lawson know that she’d made it into the establishment.
“Hey, Mr. Lawson,” Lorain called, greeting the owner of the only dry cleaners in Malvonia.
“Hey, Miss Lady. How are you?” He gave her a huge, toothless grin. He had the kind of smile that always made the jaw of everybody around him hurt.
“I’m actually doing pretty good.” Lorain walked over to the counter and began emptying out the dry cleaning bag. As she placed Nicholas’s items on the counter, she flipped his pockets inside out, like she always did, to make sure he hadn’t left anything in them. She’d adopted this practice after he left his hospital ID in a pocket once.
“Well, that’s good to hear, seeing that I don’t see you over at New Day that much anymore.” Mr. Lawson began going through the clothing as Lorain continued to place pieces on the counter.
“You know I got married. Had to follow the husband. We attend his family church now.”
“Don’t mean the both of you can’t visit every now and then. If not as a guest of Jesus Christ, you can at least be a guest of your mother’s.” A huge grin spread across his face at the mention of Eleanor.
“Well, all right, then, Mr. Lawson. I have to go. I have somewhere I have to be.” Most of the time Lorain would stand there and talk to Mr. Lawson for a few minutes, but today she didn’t have the time.
“But you don’t even have your receipt yet. Hold your horses.” Mr. Lawson finished up counting the pieces, rang them up, and then handed Lorain the receipt.
Lorain snatched up the receipt and then headed for the door. It was customary for customers to pay for their items once they came and picked them up.
“Uh, Lorain, do you mind doing me a favor?”
“Goodness, man, did you not hear me say that I have somewhere I have to be?” That was what Lorain was screaming on the inside. But instead, she said, “What is it, Mr. Lawson?” between gritted teeth.
“Will you, uh, put in a good word on my behalf with that beautiful mother of yours? Woman won’t pay me no never mind in church.”
“Sure,” Lorain said. She hated to be so short and rushed with Mr. Lawson. She was on the verge of being rude. “It was good seeing you, Mr. Lawson. I’ll talk to you soon,” Lorain said as she backed away hurriedly, almost tripping and falling.
“Watch it now, girl. Slow down, unless wherever it is you have to be is a matter of life and death.”
Lorain simply smiled and then rushed out the door. She didn’t want the person she had to meet to think she wasn’t coming and to leave without the two handling their business. Because whether he knew it or not, Mr. Lawson was right. It was a matter of life and death. Her life with her twin girls and the death of her marriage.
Lorain pulled into the extended-stay hotel parking lot ten minutes later. She jumped out of the car and headed straight to the hotel room, where she had been expected to arrive ten minutes ago. It would now be her second time sneaking off to this hotel room, with only one other person knowing she was there. That was the person she was there to meet.
Lorain knocked on the door. There was no answer. “Come on,” she pleaded to the invisible gods. She knocked again. When there was still no answer, she placed her ear against the door. “Please, please, God,” she said, her voice breaking, on the verge of tears.
When Lorain was about to bury her face in the palms of her hands and stand there and cry, the door swung open. Standing there was a shirtless man, barefoot, wearing only a pair of jeans.
“Glad you could make it,” he said to Lorain sarcastically. He looked behind his shoulder, over at the clock on the nightstand. “You’re late. I thought you were going to let me get kicked out of here and put on the streets. If I were to get custody of my daughters, I would hate for the three of us to have to live on the streets.”
Lorain stood there, wishing she could snap this jive turkey’s neck and deep-fry him for Thanksgiving dinner. But she didn’t know much about him. She didn’t know how he operated. Unique had never talked much about any of her sons’ fathers. The only thing Lorain knew was that they were all, in a nutshell, dope-slinging street thugs. Lorain had dated a street dude or two several years ago. She knew how ruthless some of them could be, so she had to feel this one out. Even though he had been locked up the past few years and had possibly lost his street connections, Lorain knew enough to know that serving time had given him that much more street credit, and it wouldn’t be that hard for him to go out and find a little wannabe thug to do some dirty work for him. Especially one looking to gain some street cred of his own. She didn’t want some gangbanger using her life to make a name for himself on the streets. She couldn’t jeopardize her family by coming at him wrong. She couldn’t jeopardize her girls by not coming at all.
“Come on in,” Eugene said, inviting Lorain into the dimly lit hotel room.
Lorain peeked in and looked around as much as she could before stepping inside. But truthfully, she was going to enter that room even if there were a pack of lions sitting in there, waiting to devour her. She’d have to pray God would save her from the lion’s den.
“Have a seat,” Eugene said, locking the door behind her.
Lorain looked around the small, cluttered, and stuffy room. There was fast-food trash, snack packages, and beer bottles everywhere.
“I’ll stand,” Lorain said.
“Suit yourself.” Eugene sat down on the double bed. He opened up the pizza box that was at the foot of the bed. He pulled out a cold slice. He took a bite and then looked at Lorain. While chewing, he said, “Want some?”
“No thank you,” Lorain said. She wanted to throw up, and not just at the thought of eating pizza that she couldn’t put a date on in a nasty hotel room. The fact that she was being blackmailed made her want to throw up too.
“So, you’re here, which means you’ve thought about everything we talked about,” Eugene said with a mouth full of food.
“Yes, I have thought about it
. . . and . . .” Lorain had thought long and hard about everything Eugene had said since that day he called her while she was at the twins’ dance rehearsal. His phone call was what had interrupted the discussion about cheating that she was having with the other dance moms and dads. His phone call was what had had her in the bathroom, puking her guts out.
Initially, he hadn’t said much, just enough to make Lorain nervous.
“You don’t know me, but I know you,” Eugene had said through Lorain’s cell phone receiver. “You’re raising my daughters. Funny thing is, though, nobody even told me that I had twin daughters. I bet that wouldn’t go over too well with the judge who signed the adoption papers. But I think I might have a solution to all this, and I’d like to discuss it in person. I’ll text you about where you need to be, what day, and what time. Otherwise, I’ll see you in court.”
The line had gone dead, and Lorain didn’t even have to think about who had been on the other end. When Unique got pregnant with the twins, she told Lorain that she hadn’t even bothered telling Eugene he was the father. She couldn’t come up with one reason why he needed to know. She was convinced he wouldn’t take care of the twins any more than he’d taken care of the son she’d had by him. Unique knew the man far better than Lorain did, so she didn’t argue with her. Now it was coming back to haunt her.
“Before we get started,” Eugene said, “thanks for looking out and copping me this room. My moms was tripping. My ninety days was up, and she had my bags packed and at the door. So this was right on time.”
“So you’re doing this because you needed a place to stay?” Lorain asked him.
“No, no. Not just that, but it helped.”
Lorain was a tad disappointed. If it was the thought of being homeless that had prompted him to seek her out, that was an easy fix. Lorain had done some volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity. That was her and Nicholas’s adopted charity. They’d taken dollar houses and fixed them up, turning them into nice, livable homes for low-income families. It might be difficult to arrange a house for Eugene since he had a record, but Lorain could pull a few strings, make up a sob story about Eugene losing his son and needing society to give him a second chance, blah, blah, blah. She could get him hooked up and out of her hair. Could probably even get him a job with the organization. But it looked as though he wanted more.
