“Is this about Brother Cartwright?”
“What do you think this is about?” he returned sarcastically.
For the second time in one day, Arykah had to catch herself from losing her cool. Yes, Lance was indeed her husband and head of their household. But speaking to Arykah as though he were scolding a rebellious teenager, Lance was not going to do.
“Okay. Before this conversation goes any further, you better change your tone. Don’t you dare speak to me like I’m a child, Lance.”
Lance cocked his head to the side and raised his eyebrows. “I better change my tone?” His tilted head and arched eyebrows didn’t intimidate Arykah one bit. If Lance thought he was going to place blame where it didn’t belong, he was in for a rude awakening.
“Yes, you better.” Arykah placed the ball in Lance’s court. If he wanted to talk the issue out calmly, she was willing. There were no other options.
“I don’t appreciate you telling me what I better do, wife.” Lance put special emphasis on the word “wife” to remind Arykah who was in charge.
Arykah caught the emphasis, and it made her chuckle. “Oh, you must not know about me.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked her.
Arykah mimicked Lance and folded her arms across her chest. “It means that I am not the one. Okay? I ain’t the one, husband.”
They stared at each other like a lion and a hyena ready to battle. Truth be told, Lance was caught off guard by Arykah’s straightforwardness. When Mother Gussie informed him that Arykah had failed to represent him at Brother Cartwright’s house, Lance was all set to come home and demand an explanation. However, he wasn’t prepared for Arykah to stand toe-to-toe with him.
“Can you please explain to me what happened today ?” His voice was calm.
Now that her point was made, Arykah began massaging her temples again. The migraine was trying to make a comeback. “Look, Lance, I don’t know what to tell you. I went to Brother Cartwright’s house at one o’clock, the exact time Mother Gussie told me to be there. She tricked me.”
Lance looked at Arykah like she was from another planet. “What do you mean, she tricked you? Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? Why would Mother Gussie purposely give you the wrong time to go and comfort the Cartwrights? It doesn’t make sense.”
Arykah was stunned. She was totally expecting Lance to see that she had clearly been set up. After all, he was well aware of the dislike the mothers of the church had for her.
Arykah took a step backward and looked into her husband’s eyes. The same husband who promised to love and cherish her forever. The same husband who vowed to honor and respect her at all times. The same husband who had convinced her that he’d protect her from the lions, tigers, and the two barracudas at Freedom Temple.
“Wow. I didn’t see that coming.”
“You didn’t see what coming?” Lance asked her.
“I never would’ve thought that you wouldn’t back me up. Because of your secretary, I missed out on a huge deal this afternoon, but I guess that means nothing to you, huh?”
“I spoke to Mother Gussie and—”
“Of course you did.”
Arykah’s interruption told Lance that she was highly upset, but so was he. “I spoke with Mother Gussie, and she assured me that she told you to be at the Cartwrights at eleven.”
Arykah chuckled. “And that’s what you’re banking on, her assurance?”
“She’s been my secretary for years, Cheeks. And not one time have I ever missed or been late for an appointment. It’s because of Mother Gussie that I didn’t blow a major deal with Hiroshima Technologies this morning.”
“So, what are you saying, Lance? You think I’m lying on your faithful church secretary?”
“I’m not saying that anyone is lying.”
Arykah’s voice raised an octave. “Oh, somebody is definitely lying.”
“Look, maybe with your house-showing appointments, it’s possible that you got your times mixed up. You’re a busy woman. It could happen.”
Don’t curse, Arykah told herself. Don’t curse. “And it’s not possible that Mother Gussie set me up? That could never happen, right?”
Lance didn’t respond.
“Think about it, Lance. Just yesterday you fired Mother Pansie and put me in her place. You know that she and Mother Gussie are tight, and they both loathe me. Why is it so difficult for you to comprehend that Mother Gussie gave me the wrong time? She is avenging her friend, and they are in this together. And this whole thing is playing out exactly how they planned. You’re upset with me. Their mission was accomplished.”
“Cheeks, that’s ridiculous.” Lance just couldn’t see the logic in Arykah’s accusation.
It took every ounce of energy she had for Arykah not to call her husband a dumb, stupid fool. She picked up her purse and briefcase from the center island. “Okay, I can clearly see who won this battle. I guess this is the first of many.” She turned and headed out of the kitchen. “Be sure and congratulate Mother Gussie in the morning,” she said over her shoulder.
During dinner, Arykah refused to make eye contact with Lance. They sat and ate in silence until Lance couldn’t take it anymore.
“You’re giving me the silent treatment?” he asked Arykah. He noticed she was not eating but only picking at her meatloaf.
“What do you want me to say?” she replied without looking at him.
“Tell me about your day.”
Arykah almost dropped her fork. She looked across the table at Lance. “Are you serious? I mean, really, are you serious, Lance? You know exactly how my day went, but since you want to hear it step-by-step, here it goes.” Arykah laid her fork down on the table next to her plate. “I had an appointment to show a two-million-dollar estate this afternoon at one o’clock. But Mother Gussie called to tell me that Brother Cartwright had lost his son and you needed me to take your place to go and console the family.”
Arykah made quotation signs with her fingers to quote Lance’s words to her. “So, because I am ‘dedicated and committed to your needs,’ I had no choice but to pass the listing to another agent.
“I arrived at Brother Cartwright’s house at one o’clock, the exact time that Mother Gussie told me to be there, only to find that no one was home. I called the church to tell Mother Gussie that I was at the Cartwrights’. That’s when she told me that I was two hours too late. Then I pulled the piece of paper out of my purse that I had jotted the address and time on. I saw that I had written down one o’clock and went back and forth with Mother Gussie about the time she’d given me and she had the gall to hang up on me.
“Because of her, I missed out on a two-million-dollar sale, I never got to comfort the Cartwrights, and I returned to my office to find the entire staff congratulating the agent who inherited my listing.”
“So, because Mother Gussie is still pissed at you for marrying me, she became pissed with me also. And you get pissed with me when she pisses on me. And while all of this pissing is going on, I’m pissed with you because you’re not pissed at the right person.”
Arykah stood up from the table, threw her linen napkin on her plate, and stormed out of the kitchen.
A half hour later after Lance had cleaned the dinner dishes, he walked into the master bath and found Arykah soaking by candlelight in the oversized jetted tub. Fred Hammond’s “Give Me A Clean Heart” was playing on her iPod that lay on the ledge of the tub close to her ear.
Lance sat on the ledge of the tub. He dipped his entire left hand in the hot water and created a rippled effect by moving his hand toward Arykah’s upper torso. “A penny for your thoughts,” he said to her.
Arykah looked up at her husband. “Oh, honey, you don’t wanna know what I’m thinking. Trust me on that, Bishop.”
Lance looked at the bubbles dancing in the water. “Is there room for two?”
It was Arykah’s expression that answered Lance. He saw tears on the verge of falling from her eyes.
“Why the tears?”
“You wouldn’t understand, Lance.”
“Try me.”
A single tear fell from her right eye onto her cheek. “I did.”
“I’m over the Cartwright situation.”
“Well, I’m not over it!” Arykah snapped. “I know what time Mother Gussie told me to be there. I’m not stupid, Lance.”
Lance reached forward and wiped her tear away. “No one said you were. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.”
Arykah’s neck began to dance. “Well, excuse the heck out of me for trying to get you to see my side of the story. I’ll tell you what; I’ll just shut my darn mouth. How about that?”
“Your behavior is not called for,” Lance said as he stood and left Arykah to her bath.
She could have easily said something that would’ve given Lance just cause to set all of her belongings outside and have the county sheriff serve her with divorce papers.
Who the heck was Lance to tell her that her attitude was uncalled for? Perhaps taking one of his golf clubs and going upside his head, then driving across town to Mother Gussie’s house and going upside her head may be uncalled for, but Arykah would’ve felt justified.
Before bed, Arykah was in her closet on her knees. “Father, I let You down today. I don’t know if I’m cut out for this first-lady role. I just don’t think that I can do it. I tried real hard not to cuss today, Lord. I bit down on the inside of my mouth so hard that my tongue is raw. But I almost let that broad get the best of me. And, Lord, sometimes men can be dumb as heck. I mean, why did You make them so dumb, Lord? I pray that You deposit some common sense into Lance real soon because I’m almost at my breaking point.”
Lance turned over and found himself in bed alone. The digital clock on his nightstand read 2:38 A.M. He got out of bed and searched the master bath for Arykah.
When he didn’t find her there, Lance walked up the spiral staircase and found her asleep in one of their guest bedrooms. He tapped her lightly on the shoulder. “Cheeks, get up and come to your own bed.”
Arykah stirred. “I am in my own bed,” she responded without looking at Lance. The bed she was sleeping in had been her bed in the townhome she owned before she moved into Lance’s estate.
Lance exhaled. “You’re behaving very silly, and I’m not gonna play this game with you. Come to bed.”
Arykah was facing away from Lance. She looked over her shoulder at him. “And what if I don’t? What are you gonna do? Make me?”
“If I’m forced to,” Lance answered.
Arykah giggled sarcastically. “Humph, I’d like to see you try. That’ll be the day.”
Her giggle may have been a sarcastic one, but Lance also heard a little playful daring in her voice. Since he and Arykah had been married, they’d never slept in separate beds. Lance needed to establish some ground rules in his household. The first rule? Argument or no argument, there will be no going to bed angry, and the guest bedrooms were for guests only.
“Don’t play with me, Arykah,” he said while placing his hands on his waist wondering just how he would pick her up out of the bed.
The day they had returned from their honeymoon in Jamaica, Lance tried to carry Arykah over the threshold. But he let out a loud groan when he hoisted her in his arms, and Arykah felt pity for her new husband.
“Put me down, honey. I can walk through the door myself. I need you to save your strength for other things.”
Arykah turned her back to Lance and pulled the sheets up to her neck. If Lance couldn’t carry her over the threshold four months ago, he sure as heck couldn’t pick her up now. She’d gained at least ten pounds since she’d vowed to love and cherish him.
Lance was a skillful chef, and his nightly home cooked meals added more weight on to Arykah’s scale. Sometimes Arykah didn’t know if Lance’s gift in the kitchen was a blessing or a curse.
His wife had challenged him. He needed to show Arykah that he wasn’t a punk. She may have outweighed him by seventy pounds, but he was still head of his household, and he would maintain that position by any means necessary. He took a deep breath, his feet placed apart at shoulder width, and squatted down. In a single motion, Lance scooped Arykah in his arms and lifted her up, sheets and all, out of the bed.
The same groaning noise Arykah heard the day he tried to carry her into their home for the first time she heard again.
The bishop took her by surprise. “Lance, what—?”
“Hush!” he demanded as he turned from the bed and carried Arykah out of the guest bedroom and down the spiral staircase. By the time he reached the bottom step, he was panting like a cheetah that had just run one hundred miles at ninety miles an hour.
As he turned toward their bedroom, Arykah felt Lance’s arms weaken. She let out a giggle knowing that Lance was struggling to prove his point. His knees bent, and he almost dropped Arykah, but he managed to hold on to her. He slowed his pace as sweat beads popped out on his forehead.
“Oh God, my back. My knees. Oh, my knees,” he moaned.
Arykah couldn’t help but to laugh out loud. She played every bit of the damsel in distress as she placed her head against Lance’s shoulder. When he had made it to the doorway of their bedroom, Lance looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. He was bent over forward with Arykah almost resting on his knees. But he was only a few feet away from their king-size bed, and when he saw that he was in the home stretch, Lance went for it. He mustered enough strength to hoist Arykah up in his arms, placed one foot ahead of the other, and charged toward their bed. He made it just in time before his arms gave out and he dropped Arykah on the mattress.
She laughed out loud when Lance collapsed on the bed next to her. He rolled onto his back and panted for air.
“See, that’s what you get for trying to be the boss,” Arykah teased. “You darn near gave yourself a heart attack.”
Lance wiped sweat from his moist forehead. He could barely get his words out without losing his breath. “That’s ... okay. I ... pay ... the ... cost ... to . . . be ... the ... boss.”
Arykah looked into her husband’s face. She found Lance to be kind of sexy lying helplessly on his back without an ounce of strength. She sat up on the bed and straddled her husband. With her weight, she pinned him down on the mattress, and she heard all of the wind leave his lungs.
“Am I too heavy for you?”
He placed his hands on Arykah’s waist, straining to get his words out. “Didn’t ... I ... just ... prove ... that . . . you ... weren’t?”
“What you just proved was that you’re nuts.”
Lance looked into Arykah’s eyes. “What I just proved was that we’ll never go to bed angry or separately.”
“Well, I’m still angry,” Arykah said.
In one move, Lance miraculously flipped Arykah over and changed positions with her.
He kissed her lips and neck seductively. “You still angry?”
Arykah’s eyes rolled to the back of her head when Lance’s tongue tickled her cleavage.
She purred like a kitten. “Angry about what?”
Chapter 4
Mid-Tuesday morning, Mother Gussie sat at her post. She could hardly keep still in her chair. Lance was extremely late getting to the church. She was anxious to find out how he dealt with his incompetent wife yesterday. If given the opportunity, Mother Gussie would have sacrificed the activity of her limbs for a chance to be a fly on the wall when Lance confronted Arykah.
Mother Pansie had already called the church three times that morning, dying to find out how much hot water their first lady was in. Mother Gussie’s plan couldn’t have gone any better, and she couldn’t wait to speak to Lance. It was 11:40 A.M. when Lance approached her desk for his messages.
“Good morning, Bishop,” Mother Gussie greeted. “It’s almost noon. I didn’t think you were coming to church today. You’re always here before nine.”
“Morning, Mother. How are things?” Lance retrieved his mail and mes
sages from the “in” basket that sat on the left-hand corner of Mother Gussie’s desk, then proceeded to his office.
Mother Gussie rose from her seat and followed him. She couldn’t tell by his expression or demeanor if Lance was angry or not. He seemed normal. His greeting was casual. But Mother Gussie did take notice that Lance didn’t offer her an explanation why he was tardy.
“Mother, I wished that I’d listened to you and Mother Pansie when you tried to warn me about Arykah. She’s bossy, way too outspoken, and I can’t rely on her for anything.
She dresses provocatively and spends too much money on material things. I’ve decided to speak with my attorney about getting our marriage annulled.”
“Mother?”
Mother Gussie snapped out of her daydream. “Yes, Bishop?”
Lance chuckled. “Where were you just now? You were smiling up at the ceiling.”
Mother Gussie blushed. “Oh, um, I was just thinking about something that Pansie told me. Would you like some coffee? I just put on a fresh pot.”
Lance sat behind his desk. “No, thanks. I’ve already had my caffeine fix for the day.”
“You stopped off at Starbucks?” She knew that every now and then Lance liked to indulge in Starbuck’s white chocolate mocha flavored coffee.
Lance logged on to his computer. “No. My beautiful wife treated me to a breakfast date at the Pancake House this morning. Have the arrangements for the Cartwright funeral been finalized?”
Errrrrrrrr. Mother Gussie heard screeching tires coming to a halt. Wait a minute. What? She couldn’t absorb the question that Lance had just asked her. Her brain was trying to process the words he stated before he asked her the question about the funeral.
What did the bishop mean that his wife treated him to breakfast? Why did he call it a date? Only people who enjoy being in each other’s company go on dates. Why wasn’t he angry that his wife didn’t carry out the task he’d asked of her? Something wasn’t right. What the heck happened?
Lady Elect Page 5
