“Hey, li’l momma,” Arykah greeted when she closed the door behind her. She set Diva Chanel down and watched her roam through the living room, exploring every corner.
“Hey, Lady A,” Miranda responded. “Thanks for everything.”
Arykah looked around the living room and saw a light blue car seat, a light blue swing, an oak wood crib with light blue bedding with brown teddy bears. “You like what you got?”
“Yes. It’s everything I picked out at Babies ’R’ Us.” Miranda brought Arykah and Natasha into the dining room where Team Arykah was gathered.
“All right, First Lady,” Gladys greeted Arykah. “You’re looking as good as you wanna look.”
“What’s going on, Team?”
“Loving that dress, Lady A,” Chelsea said.
“And the stilettos,” Monique added.
“Why, thank ya kindly,” Arykah said in her Southern belle voice. “I brought Natasha with me.”
The team saw Natasha in her graduation gown. “Congratulations, Natasha,” they all yelled.
Natasha mimicked Arykah and said, “Why, thank ya kindly.”
Everyone chuckled.
“So, how was your graduation?” Darlita asked her.
Natasha looked at her. “It was awesome. Mom and Dad wanted to take me out to lunch to celebrate, but when Lady Arykah said she was coming here for Miranda’s shower, I wanted to come too.”
“Now that’s a real friend,” Monique said.
Diva Chanel made her way into the dining room and everyone made a fuss over her ivory lace dress and satin hair bows.
“So, was everything delivered, Gladys?” Arykah asked.
“Lady A,” Gladys started, “I just don’t know what to say about you. Yes, everything was delivered. Did you see my living room?”
“Monique, Chelsea, Darlita, and Myrtle brought gifts for the baby too,” Miranda said.
“Speaking of Mother Myrtle,” Monique said, “she just rolled up in a limo.”
“Yeah,” Gladys said. “I was looking out of the front window for Darlita and saw this long stretch limousine pull up right in front of my building. I didn’t know who was gonna get out. When the driver opened the back door and I saw Mother Myrtle, my mouth hit the floor.”
“Mother Myrtle, you’re making Cliff work on a Saturday?” Arykah asked.
Myrtle shrugged her shoulders. “He told me to call him whenever I needed him.”
“Never in my life have I seen a church’s secretary get chauffeured to the church,” Chelsea said.
“Well, there’s a first time for everything now, ain’t it?” Myrtle asked her. “This morning, Cliff drove me to the bank, then to the grocery store.”
“Hold on now, Mother Myrtle,” Arykah said. “Lance offered to pay for your transportation to the church, but I don’t know about—”
“I’ve already talked to the bishop,” Myrtle snapped.
“And he ain’t got a problem with it. And what’s between me and my bishop is between me and my bishop.”
That shut the conversation down.
“Well, all right then,” Arykah surrendered. “I ain’t got nothin’ else to say about it.” She sat down at the dining-room table. “I’m hungry.”
“The pizza will be here soon,” Gladys said. “Let’s all go into the living room and see all the baby things.”
There was hardly any room for the ladies to sit. The living room was completely filled with everything a newborn would ever need.
“Lady Arykah, look at what Darlita bought me,” Miranda said pointing to baby diapers stacked and shaped into a three-tier cake.
“Oh, wow, look at that,” Arykah said admiring it.
“And Mother Myrtle brought me this gift basket.” Miranda held up a large brown basket filled with baby wash, washcloths, baby powder, Q-Tips, baby ointment, baby Orajel, and a blue syringe used to remove mucous from a baby’s nose. The entire basket was wrapped in light blue cellophane.
“That’s beautiful,” Arykah said.
Miranda pointed to the chair. “And Chelsea brought all of those small light blue plastic hangers and the little blue baby shoes. Monique and Adonis bought all of those baby clothes on the couch.”
Arykah saw so many onesies and bibs and socks and blue pajamas and receiving blankets.
“And, Lady A,” Miranda started with tears in her eyes, “I wanna thank you for the crib, high chair, the car seat, and the changing table, and the diaper genie, and the bassinette, and the playpen, and all of the bottles.”
“You’re very welcome,” Arykah said.
“And I want you to know that I put the whole thousand dollars you gave me in the bank.”
Everybody’s eyebrows rose up as if on cue.
“I didn’t spend any of it on myself. I’m going to use it all for the baby.”
Arykah felt uncomfortable. She told Gladys that she didn’t want the money she’d given Miranda to be made known.
Gladys looked at Arykah with guilty, bulging eyes. She forgot to tell Miranda to keep Arykah’s monetary gift a secret.
“That was from me and the bishop,” Arykah said. “Did the cake come?”
“Oh, yes,” Miranda said excitedly. “It’s in the kitchen. I love it. It’s light blue and has monkeys all over it just like the bedding in the crib.”
The doorbell rang. “That’s the pizza,” Gladys said. When she opened the door she was shocked to see Lance and Deacon Bronson Marshall. “Look who’s here.”
“Bishop,” Natasha and Miranda shouted and ran to the front door. They both hugged Lance.
Lance hugged Natasha and congratulated her on her graduation. “I’m proud of you.” He turned to Miranda and saw her huge belly. “Ooh wee. You sure you ain’t got two babies in there?”
“Nope, just one,” Miranda responded. If Lance was upset with her, he didn’t show it, and Miranda was glad about that.
“Come on in, Deacon,” Gladys said. “I’m surprised to see you here.”
Deacon Marshall followed Lance inside. “I’m here for the pizza the bishop say y’all is havin’.”
Lance and Deacon Marshall walked farther into the living room.
“Hey, Bishop. Hey, Deacon,” the ladies greeted.
“Are we too late for the cake?” Lance asked.
“We haven’t cut the cake yet, Bishop,” Miranda said. “We’re waiting for the pizza.”
“All right now,” Chelsea said when she noticed Deacon Marshall’s attire. “Look at how fly Deacon Marshall is.”
Myrtle’s eyes were drawn to his khaki-colored linen pants. Deacon Marshall wore a white short sleeved cotton shirt with a khaki-colored collar. He had a white Kangol cap on his head. It was golf attire, but Myrtle thought he looked good. He looked younger. She was impressed.
“I ain’t recognize you, Deacon,” Arykah teased. “You look nice.” She looked at Myrtle and smiled.
Myrtle rolled her eyes at Arykah.
The doorbell rang again. “Now that better be the pizza,” Gladys said. She opened the front door and accepted four pizza boxes from the deliveryman. Gladys gave the boxes to Lance.
“Bishop, will you carry these into the dining room?”
“Of course,” Lance said. He took the pizza boxes from her and followed her into the dining room, then set them on the table. Once everyone was assembled around the table, Lance blessed the pizza.
Gladys brought paper plates, napkins, and paper cups from the kitchen. Natasha and Miranda placed two-liter bottles of Pepsi, Hawaiian Punch, and 7-UP on the table. Gladys’s dinette only seated four people so she, along with Darlita, Chelsea, and Monique, ate their pizza at the kitchen table. Miranda and Natasha took their pizza and beverages into the living room.
“You and Deacon Marshall finished golf pretty early today,” Arykah said to Lance. “Normally, you don’t come off the greens until after sunset.”
Lance bit into a slice of pepperoni pizza. “It’s really hot outside today, Cheeks.”
“Darn ne
ar a hunnid,” Deacon Marshall added. “It’s all sun out theya. Ain’t safe fa nobaddy.”
“It’s a wonder you ain’t have a heat stroke,” Myrtle said to Deacon Marshall.
“Dat’s what I know,” he chuckled. “Ole man like me ain’t got no bidness in nat kinda heat.”
Myrtle saw Deacon Marshall’s cup of Hawaiian Punch was almost empty. “You want me to pour you some more punch?”
Lance, Arykah, and even Deacon Marshall shot their heads in Myrtle’s direction.
“Sho, sho,” he said.
Myrtle stood and refilled his cup. “You want more pizza?”
Arykah kicked Lance beneath the table. When he looked at her she motioned for him to follow her. They both stood and took their plates and drinks into the living room.
“All of this is for just one baby?” Lance asked when he and Arykah entered the living room. He allowed Arykah to sit on the only empty chair. He sat on the floor next to her legs.
“Yep,” Natasha said. “That boy ain’t gonna need nothing.”
Lance looked at the crib, bassinette, swing, and high chair. He saw the gift basket, the clothes, and diaper cake. “Do you have everything you need?” he asked Miranda.
She looked all around the living room at her gifts, rubbed her swollen belly, smiled, and nodded her head. “Mmm-hmm. I think so.”
“You ready? Your life will forever change when the baby is born,” he said. “You know that?”
Miranda nodded her head again. “Yep. I can’t change nothin’ now. He’ll be here in less than two weeks.”
“Why aren’t the Williams’s here?”
Lance already knew the answer to his own question. The night before Arykah had shared with him the conversation she had with Saminta. Lance wanted to see how Miranda felt about her child’s father being absent from her life.
Miranda shrugged her shoulders. “I mean, I guess they don’t wanna be here. Titus don’t even look at me when we’re at church. Ever since I told him that I was pregnant, his parents won’t let him come anywhere near me. I left him so many messages on his cell, but he won’t call me back. My mom says she tried to reach out to Sister Saminta and Brother Doug, but they won’t talk to her.”
The more Miranda talked, the more irritated with the Williamses Arykah became.
“And how does that make you feel?” Lance asked her.
“I mean, it’s cool, Bishop. I can’t make Titus be here. I can’t make him talk to me, I can’t make him call me, and I can’t make him be a father. It is what it is.”
It broke Lance’s heart to hear Miranda explain why her son won’t have a father in his life. It was at that moment that Lance decided that he’d do all that he could to make sure that Miranda’s baby boy would be loved and cared for. “I’m gonna give you my personal number. If you need anything—anything at all—call me. You understand?”
“Yes. Thank you, Bishop.” Miranda came and sat next to Lance on the floor. She reached over and hugged him tight.
Lanced pulled away from Miranda and looked her in the eyes. “I mean it. Don’t let me find out that you or the baby were in need of something and you didn’t call me. You understand?”
“I understand,” she said.
Arykah’s eyebrows shot up in the air. Only the deacons, Minister Weeks, Myrtle, Brian the church’s custodian, and herself, had Lance’s cellular number. It touched Arykah deeply that Lance was falling in love with Miranda and her baby, just as she had fallen in love with them.
“Who wants cake and frappé?” Gladys yelled from the kitchen.
“I do,” Natasha yelled back. She rushed from the living room.
Lance stood from the floor and saw Miranda struggling to get up. She turned on her right hip, then turned on her left hip, but couldn’t gain the leverage she needed to stand.
Lance stood in front of her. “Give me your hands.”
She stretched out her arms toward him. Lance gripped Miranda’s wrists and gently pulled her up from the floor.
In the kitchen Gladys cut the cake and served frappé to everyone. Arykah noticed that Myrtle and Deacon Marshall were eating their dessert at the dining-room table. She also noticed that they shared a slice of cake and one cup of frappé. “Hey, now . . .” Arykah said to herself.
Later that night, Lance wrapped his arm around Arykah’s waist as they lay in a spoon position. She was drifting off to sleep when he called her name.
“Cheeks, you asleep?”
“Almost.”
“Did you notice how small Gladys’s apartment was?”
“Mmm-hmm,” she moaned with her eyes closed.
“The living room is small, the dining room is smaller, and the kitchen has standing room only.”
“It’s a galley kitchen, Babe.”
“I can only imagine how tiny the two bedrooms are.”
Arykah opened her eyes and turned to face him. “That’s why the baby’s crib was set up in the living room. Miranda’s bedroom is small with a full-size bed. There’s no space in there for the crib. Gladys’s queen-sized bed takes up all of the space in her room so the crib can’t fit in there either.”
Lance frowned. “So, the baby will have to sleep in the living room?”
“Not right now. For the first few months, he’ll sleep in a bassinette next to Miranda’s bed. But eventually, I guess he will have to be in the living room.”
That didn’t sit well with Lance. “That’s crazy, Cheeks.”
“I know. Gladys is working two full-time jobs. She works afternoon and nights.”
“What?”
“Yeah, she chose those shifts so that she could be home during the day for when school starts in the fall. Gladys has to be home with the baby when Miranda goes to school.”
“So, Miranda and the baby will be left alone overnight?”
“That’s the way it has to be for now, Lance. Gladys has no family. She’s doing the best she can.”
Lance lay silently for a few minutes. “I think we should help Gladys.”
“We do help, more than you know. I just gave Miranda one thousand dollars to use toward the baby’s needs. I had to beg Gladys to allow Miranda to accept it. And even though Miranda needed everything she received at her shower today, I could tell that Gladys felt some type of way about me purchasing most of it all. Whenever I try to help Gladys, she shies away from me. I think she feels that she and Miranda are a burden.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I know. I feel the same way you do.”
Lance exhaled and said, “I am not at all comfortable with the baby’s crib being stuck in the living room, so close to the front door.”
“And it doesn’t sit well with me that Miranda will eventually be left alone, overnight, while Gladys works. I mean, how can she be alert and productive at school if she’s up all night with a fussy baby? And what if he has colic at three in the morning? A sixteen-year-old girl won’t know what to do.”
“There are five bedrooms in this house. We share a bedroom and Diva Chanel has a bedroom. The other three bedrooms are furnished, but no one sleeps in them.”
Arykah clapped her hands twice, and their bedroom lit up. She sat up on the bed and looked at Lance. “Uh-uh. No way.” She knew where he was going.
Lance looked at her. “Why?”
“I wanna stay married—That’s why. I’m not sharing my home with another woman. It won’t work.”
“Cheeks, this house is massive; we’ll never see them. Our master is on the first level. The guest bedrooms are on the second level.”
Arykah vigourously shook her head from side to side. “I don’t care if we had ten levels. Ain’t no other woman coming up in here. Now if you’re that worried about Gladys, Miranda, and the baby, then maybe we can consider buying them a condo or a single-family home.”
“You would agree to do that?”
“Of course. And if Gladys doesn’t have to worry about a mortgage payment, she won’t need to work a second job.”
; Lance nodded his head. “Then she can be home at night.”
“But you know Gladys is proud, Lance. If she has a hard time accepting baby donations and money, what makes you think she’ll accept a house?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, but we gotta do something quick. The baby is coming real soon. We can’t let Miranda and the baby be alone in that apartment overnight.”
“When I get to the office on Monday morning, I’ll look for a condo near the South Shore area near Miranda’s high school and Gladys’s primary job.”
“That’s great, Cheeks. Buying Gladys a home is easy. Now convincing her to move in it will be difficult.”
“We’ll leave it in God’s hand,” Arykah said. “He’ll work it all out.”
Eleven
Arykah stepped from her closet dressed in a tangerine-colored sheath made of Georgette material. It stopped just above her knee. It was the first outfit she modeled for Lance. Her platform gladiator stilettos were made of metallic gold. Rhinestones and crystals lined the straps of the heels, and they circled Arykah’s thick calves all the way up to her knees.
She was watching an episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta when she saw a scene where Porsha Stewart shopped in a shoe store in Atlanta. When she saw the salesclerk slip Porsha’s feet into a pair of stilettos and wrap metallic gold and crystals around her calves, Arykah instantly came close to an orgasm. Her blood pressure escalated. Her temperature rose. Her legs shook. Her body convulsed, and her heartbeat raced. The only other times Arykah’s body exploded like that was when Lance touched her the right way.
“Ohhh, Gawwwd,” Arykah practically sang. Drool leaked from the side of her mouth as she watched Porsha strut in the gladiator stilettos. Never in her life had Arykah seen a stiletto as elegant as the ones Porsha modeled on television.
When Arykah heard the salesclerk tell Porsha how much the gladiator metallic stilettos cost, she immediately logged on to her laptop and searched the Internet for the website of the shoe store Porsha Stewart was in. She found what she was looking for, then searched for the stiletto. Arykah found them and ordered them in a size eight. She authorized sixty dollars for express delivery through UPS next-day air. Arykah only had to wait twenty-four hours for the seventy-five hundred-dollar heels to arrive at her front door. She never allowed a price tag to prevent her from having exactly what she wanted. It was the luxury Arykah enjoyed from selling million-dollar homes.
Lady Arykah Reigns Page 20
