by Mary Monroe
“Vera, are you serious? You want me to move to California so I can hook up with Kenneth’s old maid daughter?”
“Bo, like I told you, the girl is up for grabs and she’s real interested in meeting you. Just a few minutes ago she told me to bring her to Houston the next time I come just so she can meet you.”
“She’s young. Young chicks say shit like that all the time.”
“Quit being so damn stubborn, Bo! Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Are you interested or not? You know Kenneth’s got one foot in the grave, so he’s anxious to marry her off before he kicks the bucket. She might just up and marry any old body just to please him. And what if it’s some creep like the Nigerian who was trying to get a green card? If you marry this girl, you and I would be on easy street for the rest of our lives.”
“For a minute, I thought you were just playing with me. But you really are serious, aren’t you?” Bo exclaimed.
“Honey, I’m as serious as cancer. Now, the sooner you get out here the better.”
“A new job is one thing. I could definitely use a change in that area. Uh, but I don’t know about the part where I’d go after Kenneth’s daughter. Something like that could backfire and a lot of folks could get hurt. Now, about this job working for Kenneth, what’s up with that? Have you discussed it with him?”
“You let me worry about him and everything else. He’s in the palm of my hand right now, so he’ll do anything I ask him to, if I approach him right. He’s got a few openings at all five of the stores, and he’s not going to hold them open for too long. He’s already interviewed a few folks. He needs a strong, personable brother like you to manage the office in his main store. You’ve got the education and the background. You’d be perfect.”
“That job sounds real tempting, Vera. I’m not going to lie about that,” Bo admitted. “But I don’t know. Something that sounds too good to be true usually is. It might not be all you say it is.”
I exhaled as loudly as I could. “Stop talking shit!” I wanted Bo to know how impatient and exasperated I was. “I’m offering you the life of a king on a platter—a job to die for and a rich, young, pretty wife. If you don’t want a package like that, maybe I’ll call up Cousin Lester in Detroit. . . .”
“Ow! That really hurt my feelings, cuz! Not only did Lester always get the jobs I wanted, but he always got the girls I wanted too.”
“Well, don’t let him pull the rug out from under you this time. Don’t let him get his hands on Sarah.”
“Uh-uh. You can forget about Lester. He changed after he left Houston. The only thing a black woman can do for him these days is lead him to the white women. He married some woman from Germany last month.”
“I didn’t know that. Oh well. You know what, forget I called you. Kenneth won’t have any trouble finding the right person to hire and Sarah will eventually find the right man to marry. Don’t say I never tried to do anything as big as this for you. But I will tell you now that I won’t try to do it again. Have a blessed day—”
“Hold on! Don’t hang up yet! Look, this would be a life-changing move on my part. You’re asking me to give up a lot. I have a lot of good friends down here and a secure job.”
“Your two jobs,” I reminded him. “You wouldn’t have to work two jobs out here. Honey, I’m offering you a lot more than what you have now. And you can make some new friends.”
“Can I think about it?”
“Yes, you can think about it. But if I don’t hear from you by this time tomorrow, you can forget it.”
Ten minutes after I ended my conversation with Bo, he called me back.
“What kind of benefits go with the job?”
“You won’t have to worry about any of that if you marry Kenneth’s daughter!” I laughed. “But since you asked, the benefits include medical, dental, all the usual things. And a retirement plan that won’t quit. You can’t lose! You know how happy Cash is working for Kenneth and living in this beautiful mansion.”
“Oh, please! Every time Cash and I talk on the phone, he reminds me of how ‘blessed’ he is because of you and Kenneth.” Bo paused and let out a great sigh. “Okay. If we’re going to move on this arrangement, we have to make it look real. Now, tell me—have you discussed any of this with Cash?”
“No, but I will eventually. That is if you go for it. We’ll need him to watch our backs.”
“Okay. I’m in, I guess. I’ll need enough time to tie up some loose ends down here, though.”
“What loose ends?”
“I’ll need to get rid of my furniture and my car. I have to give notice at my jobs, in case I need to come back. Maybe I can rent a U-Haul and bring some of my stuff to Frisco with me.”
As hard as I tried not to, I laughed long and loud. “Bo, I’ve seen the shit you have in your house. I know you are not thinking about driving halfway across the country with all of that junk! What you can’t give to Goodwill, leave behind. And I promise you, you won’t ever need to go back to those dead-end-ass two jobs.”
“Well, there’s something else . . .”
“What?”
“I do have a new lady friend here, see. I was just getting to know her.”
“Oh? What kind of work does she do?”
“She’s between jobs right now. But she used to work in a car wash until she got laid off last week.”
“A car wash? What the—Lord have mercy. How can you even consider passing up a gold mine like Sarah for a woman who worked in a car wash and is ‘between jobs’ now? If you are interested, you need to move on this as soon as possible. You know that I am not a patient woman.”
“Just give me at least a week or two to get rid of my stuff and to break it off with Nelda.” Bo paused. “I’d still like to think this through a little more.”
“Okay. You have until this time tomorrow to make up your mind.”
“Oh, all right! I know you won’t stop until you get your way, Vera. I can handle the job, but if this thing with Kenneth’s daughter blows up in my face, I am going to hold you responsible.”
“Don’t worry about her. She’s a goose just waiting to get cooked and I’m the chef.”
Bo and I laughed so hard, my sides were aching by the time I got off the telephone.
CHAPTER 23
KENNETH
I’D HAD A LOT OF AFFAIRS SINCE I MARRIED VERA, BUT I HAD ALWAYS been discreet. To this day, the only affair Vera was aware of was the one with Sarah’s mother. Up until then, I never gave her any reason to think I was cheating on her. Had Sarah not entered the picture, Vera would have never found out that I had an affair with her mother.
I felt that if a person had to cheat, they should do it right. Make it as painless as possible, meaning try not to get caught. Hearing about how blatant Bo’s ex-wife, Gladys, had been with her affairs made me mad as hell. People like her made it hard for people like me—the old me. I was through cheating!
And since Vera adored Bo so much, when he was in pain, so was she. I hated to see my woman in distress, so I comforted her as much as I could.
We were lying in bed that Sunday morning when I witnessed her latest meltdown regarding her beloved cousin. This was a subject that came up at the most peculiar times. I had just made love to Vera and she was still in my arms, naked and covered in my sweat. Her head was on my chest, bobbing up and down with every breath I took. It felt like I had a big rock sitting right on top of my heart, but I didn’t complain. Vera was the kind of woman that a man would walk through fire for.
“Poor Bo,” she said, almost in tears. “I can’t believe how Gladys abused him!” She paused long enough to reach behind her to grab a tissue off her nightstand and blow her nose. “Every time I talk to him about this shit, I can feel his pain.” She blew her nose again and choked on a sob. “She was also fucking another one of his friends before she left him for the one she’s with now. She spent Bo’s money on cocaine and in the casinos, and she made a complete fool out of him every other way possible. On top of al
l that, she was violent. She tried to run him over with his own car. She’s such a good liar; everybody believes everything she tells them about Bo. She’s beaten him over the head with skillets, but she’s got everybody believing that he was the one beating her! Now he has to sit back and watch her traipse in and out of the house next door, all hugged up with that fool she left him for.”
“That heifer! Shame on her!” I yelled.
“Tell me about it!” Vera yelled back. “And Bo was such a good husband. He reminds me of you. . . .”
Vera’s last comment caught me completely off guard. It had been a long time since she had given me a compliment, so I was flattered. I was glad to hear that she still thought of me as “such a good husband” too. Especially after the way I had cheated on her with Lois. I knew a lot of women who would have left their husbands for just cheating on them, let alone fathering a child with another woman.
I shook my head and let out a disgusted groan. “Bo needs to get as far away from that woman as possible,” I suggested.
“That’s what I told him. I told him he’d be so much better off leaving Houston.”
“I hope he listens to you. There is no reason in the world for him to put up with that kind of mistreatment. I’m surprised he hasn’t killed that damn jezebel!”
“And that’s another thing. I’m afraid he’s going to snap one day and kill that woman if he doesn’t put some distance between himself and her.”
“If he kills her, or even hurts her, he’ll spend time in prison. I sure would hate to see that happen. I hope he takes your advice and gets away from her before it comes to that,” I said. “I like Bo. He’s good people.”
Vera let out a sharp yelp and sat bolt upright. “Baby, I just got a great idea!” There was an anxious look on her face. She was taking too long to reveal what her “great idea” was.
“Well, can you share that information with me?” I said impatiently, rearranging the pillows under my head. I was glad she had lifted her head off my chest, but now her arm was around my neck and that didn’t feel too good either. I had had a neck spasm while we were making love and the muscles in my neck were still giving me a lot of discomfort.
“Bo’s got great management and interpersonal skills. He’s trustworthy, dependable, efficient, and a team player. He’s just what you need to manage the main office!”
I pursed my lips and scratched my head. Running a business was hard work. Finding good people to help me run it was one of the most difficult aspects of the job. “Oh, I don’t know about that,” I replied, rubbing Vera’s back. “I don’t know anything about Bo’s work abilities or his general habits.”
“Well, I do! I practically helped raise Bo, so I know he’s a righteous man. Honey, Bo would be perfect for the company,” Vera insisted. I hadn’t seen such a gleam in her eye in years. “He could be running a Fortune 500 company if he wanted to.”
“Then why isn’t he?” I asked. “If he couldn’t control his woman, how well do you think he’d be able to manage the three dozen employees in my main store? And hell, half of those employees are women.”
“That’s different. Trying to control a crazy bitch would be hard work for any man, even you. It would be like putting perfume on a turd! No matter how much you spray it, it’s still going to stink.” Vera reared her head back and looked up at me with a hopeful expression on her face. “Baby, next to you, Bo would be the best thing to happen to the company. Please give my cousin the chance he deserves.”
I didn’t know Bo that well, but I’d never heard Vera say anything negative about him. Other than Cash, he was the only other one of her relatives that she communicated with on a regular basis. If he was half as good as she claimed he was, he was just what I needed. Since it meant so much to Vera (and since I was still trying to make up for my cheating on her), I had to give her request some serious consideration. “Is he currently out of work?”
“Uh, not yet. His personal problems have had a bad impact on his work lately. His boss has warned him more than once to get his shit together or he’s going to be standing in the unemployment line. But he’s so depressed, just being in Houston where he still has to see that woman all the time is ruining his life. She even has the nerve to still be going to Bo’s church with her new man.”
“Say what?” I gave Vera an incredulous look. Just as I opened my mouth to speak again, she cut me off.
“Baby, do this for me. If he doesn’t work out, or if for some reason you are not happy with him working for you, he’ll go back to Houston. I’ll make sure of that.” That hopeful look was still on her face.
“You really care a lot about your cousin, don’t you? My goodness, you are such a compassionate woman.” I kissed Vera’s forehead and rubbed her shoulder. “That’s one of the many things I love about you, baby.” Even as I made this statement, I was still concerned about how Vera and Sarah were getting along. Things appeared to be going well, but I still had some reservations about that situation.
“Even Sarah wants Bo to move out here,” Vera blurted. She really surprised me with that statement.
I sat up straighter. My hand was still rubbing Vera’s shoulder. “Oh?” Both of my eyebrows shot up and formed arches above my eyes. “Sarah’s never even met Bo.”
“She saw a picture of him and got all worked up. She couldn’t stop talking about him.” Vera gave me a peck on my neck. Her warm, moist lips made my flesh tingle. “You know how girls her age are. Especially now that she’s currently not dating anyone.”
My jaw dropped and I let out a loud gasp. Then I chuckled. “Well, if you’re thinking about playing matchmaker, don’t. Sarah’s too young for Bo. She’s twenty-three. He’s well into his forties.”
Vera stiffened. “I’m glad you didn’t feel that way about age when we met! I was in my early twenties and you were well into your forties—just like Sarah and Bo! And didn’t you tell me that older husbands make better husbands?”
“Yeah, you’re right. I remember telling you that, and more than once,” I admitted with a sheepish grin. “I can overlook the age difference, but I don’t feel comfortable about my baby hooking up with a man who is still going through trauma with his ex-wife. Sarah’s had a hard life, and now I only want the best for her. Especially when it comes to her men friends.”
“Like that garbage collector she was running around with? Or that cabdriver?” Vera snapped. “And by the way, the Millers’ cross-eyed chauffeur asked me about Sarah the other day. He wanted to know if she had a boyfriend. Don’t you want our daughter to do better than that?”
It pleased me to hear Vera refer to Sarah as “our” daughter. She didn’t do it enough, though. “Yes, baby. I want our daughter to do better than that. But if she loves a man who happens to be poor and he loves her, what’s wrong with that?”
“Kenneth, you and I both know that Sarah would not be happy being married to a poor man. Of all the men she’s been running around with since she came to live with us, not a single one of them could provide the lifestyle she’s become accustomed to.”
“But you know Sarah. She’s not a materialistic girl at all. She still shops at Walmart and Target and the Dollar Tree, for God’s sake. She’s even been threatening to trade in her Ferrari for a Honda. I don’t think she’s comfortable being rich.”
“Let me ask you this: Do you think if Sarah had the chance to move back to that hellhole she lived in with her grandmother, she’d go?”
That was something I had to think about. I must have been thinking about it too long because a few moments later Vera brought up another important point.
“Let me put it this way, Kenneth. If something were to happen to you and . . . say you left this world unexpectedly, would you want Sarah to go back to the ghetto?”
“Of course not. But I—”
“I doubt she’d want to stay in this house or have anything to do with me, if . . . God forbid . . . you should suddenly pass. She’d probably pack her bags before they even put you in the ground.
With you out of the way, that garbage man or that cabdriver or some other opportunistic punk will milk her like she’s a Guernsey cow. Do you want that to happen?”
I rubbed the back of my aching head. “I think we need to change the subject.”
“All right. But I’m just trying to help. I’m going to pray for Sarah,” Vera whined, wiggling out of my arms. “I guess I’ll get dressed and see what fattening things Delia has cooked up for breakfast this time.”
“Wait a minute, baby,” I said, grabbing Vera by her arm. “I think we should look at things from a different point of view. First of all, we may be jumping the gun. We don’t know what’s going on in Sarah’s head, but I hope she wants the same things in life that we want for her. Like a good solid marriage and a family of her own. She’s considerably younger than Bo, but the big difference in our ages didn’t stop us from getting together and look how happy we are. And even though I don’t know Bo that well, I do like him. And I believe he’d be a good employee. But his love life, and Sarah’s, are really none of our business. They are both grown and no matter what we want for them, they need to make their own decisions about who they want to be with. If they hook up on their own, all we should do is hope for the best,” I said.
Vera’s face lit up like a flashlight. “Does this mean you’ll give Bo a job?”
“Well, first I’d like to talk to him and feel him out. I’d like to hear what he wants to do, and I’d like to hear it from him. If he wants to move out here and needs a place to stay until he gets sorted out, he’s more than welcome to stay with us. But I don’t want you trying to get him interested in Sarah. You are not Cupid, so I want you to stay out of their personal affairs. I don’t condone people scheming when it comes to an intimate relationship. If they do get together, I want it to happen naturally like it did with us.”
CHAPTER 24
SARAH
I HAD BEEN FANTASIZING ABOUT BO HARPER EVER SINCE VERA SHOWED me his picture a week ago. I needed a man like him. Last night when she told me that he was moving to San Francisco and would be working for Daddy, I went up to my room and danced a jig.
