Lady Arykah Reigns
Page 25
“For real?” Arykah asked Monique. “He’s answering her phone? You think they’re shacking up?”
“I can’t say for sure. I asked her why Deacon Marshall was there so late and she told me to stay out of grown folks’ business.”
“What going on over there?” Arykah asked Myrtle.
Everyone at the table heard Arykah and followed her eyes.
“What y’all over there hee heeing and haw hawing about?”
Both Myrtle and Deacon Marshall looked like deer caught in headlights.
“Yeah,” Monique added. “That’s what I wanna know.”
Everyone seated at the table waited to see what would happen next.
“Why are you two always in my business?” Myrtle asked Arykah and Monique.
“Because you’re always in our business,” Monique answered.
“You both have wonderful husbands. Now it’s time for me to have one.”
The entire table yelled out. “What?”
Diners nearby heard the members of Freedom Temple and turned to look their way.
“For real?” Chelsea asked Myrtle.
“Let’s show ’em,” Deacon Marshall said to Myrtle. He and Myrtle held up their left hands and revealed matching gold wedding bands.
Deacon Marshall smiled. “We gat mard at the coathas las tooday.”
The table shrieked again. “What?” Deacon Marshall’s Southern accent was strong, but every word he spoke had been understood.
“And you said nothin’, Deac?” Lance asked him.
He looked at Lance, then he nodded his head in Myrtle’s direction. “She say it wadden y’alls bitness.”
“You robbed us the chance to throw you a bridal shower,” Darlita said to Myrtle.
Gladys nodded her head in agreement with Darlita. “Mmm-hmm.”
Myrtle just shook her head. “That’s for you young folks. When you get to be my age, you’re just thankful for the husband.”
“Were you ever going to tell us?” Adonis asked the newlyweds.
“Probably not,” Myrtle answered.
Arykah didn’t understand why Myrtle was so secretive. “Why?”
Myrtle looked at her. “’Cause you too damn nosy and bossy and opinionated and controlling. We wouldn’t have a moment’s peace.”
Arykah’s eyebrows shot up in the air. Everyone at the table looked at her.
Miraculously, the waitress appeared at the table.
“We ain’t ready to order yet,” Arykah told her while glaring across the table into Myrtle’s eyes.
The waitress sensed hostility in Arykah and walked away.
Arykah was huffing and puffing.
“Calm down, Cheeks,” Lance said.
Arykah’s inhaling and exhaling didn’t move Myrtle at all. “You ain’t gotta tell her to calm down,” she said to Lance. Myrtle looked at Arykah. “What you gonna do, Cletus? Come on over here, but you’re gonna limp back.”
The table yelled out laughing at Myrtle’s imitation from a scene in the movie, The Nutty Professor.
Arykah was offended by Myrtle’s words. “I don’t think anything is funny.”
“All I’m saying,” Myrtle started, “is that you would have wanted to throw us a big, lavish, over-the-top, blinged-out wedding. You wouldn’t have taken no for an answer. The deacon and I did thangs the way we wanted. Yes, you are the first lady of Freedom Temple, Sugarplum, and everybody knows that you’re rich and love to spend money, but you can’t be in control of everybody’s everything all the time.
“When folks come and confide their problems in you, that don’t mean you gotta find resolutions to them all. Some people just wanna get stuff off their chests and know that you ain’t gonna take their secret nowhere else. Learn to sit down and let folks fend for themselves and do what they wanna do, even if it ain’t big like you would do it.”
Arykah heard everything Myrtle had just said, but she didn’t care. “But you ain’t even give me a chance to buy you a cake.”
Myrtle waved her hand at Arykah. “Girl, go on somewhere. All you think about is cake. If somebody die, you wanna have a cake. If somebody gets married, you wanna have a cake. I’ll tell you what to do. If you want cake so bad, get that waitress that you so rudely dismissed to bring you a slice.”
Lance clapped his hands together one time and looked around the table. “Okay, anybody else wanna share some shocking news?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Everyone gasped and looked at the person who just blurted the words out. The table shrieked again. “What?”
There was another baby coming and that meant a baby shower would have to be thrown and Arykah would get to have her cake.
Book Club Discussion Questions
1. Why was Arykah so reluctant to see a therapist? Was it wrong for Lance and everyone else to force her to go?
2. Why was it so difficult for Arykah to stop cursing? Do you think she really wanted to?
3. Arykah and Monique were as close as sisters. Was it wrong for Monique to jump Angela Moore?
4. Do you agree with Monique that it was necessary for Lance to tell Arykah about Angela Moore?
5. Did Lance do the right thing when he blackmailed Angela to drop all charges against Arykah and Monique? Even though Lance and Angela are no longer a couple, should he continue to pay for her brother’s medical bills and therapy?
6. Was Arykah out of order when she spoke to Lance about traditions in the church? Do you agree with the changes that Lance had made?
7. Lance fired Sharonda as the church secretary. Do you agree with his decision? Was it wrong for Lance to ban Angela from Freedom Temple?
8. Did Lance and Arykah overstep their bounds when they took it upon themselves and leased an expensive condominium for Gladys, Miranda, and baby Max?
9. How do you feel about Arykah bringing her dog, Diva Chanel, into the sanctuary?
10. Lance and Arykah drank Bacardi rum together. Was that appropriate?
11. Why didn’t Arykah want to reveal how large her bedroom closet was?
12. As the first lady of a church, should Arykah have accepted the role as godmother to Maximillian? Was it wrong of her to want to throw Miranda a baby shower at the church?
13. Arykah kept Stephanie’s secret when she learned of her husband and sister’s indiscretion. Should Arykah have told Lance?
14. Do you think Arykah is the perfect wife for Lance? Is she the perfect first lady for Freedom Temple?
15. In the last chapter, someone revealed that she was pregnant. Who do you think it was?
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Lady Elect 2: Lady Arykah Reigns Copyright © 2015 Nikita Lynnette Nichols
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