by Shelia Goss
“You’re talking about the piece that has a heart shaped face with the turquoise stone surrounded by little diamonds?”
“Exactly. I have the perfect outfit to wear it with.”
“I’m glad you like your gifts and I hope we can get together later on this week to catch up.”
Janice walked back in with their lunch, so Violet ended their call. “I’ll call you later and we’ll set something up.”
After a full stomach, they were able to concentrate more and devised a strategy for exposing Carlton, the real culprit in the entire mess. The first phase of their plan would be made at the board meeting.
28
ROSE
I’m glad to be back in the States. I enjoyed my trip up until the run in with Marcus. I still can’t believe he’s such a snake in the grass and had the nerve to threaten me. Queen Rose. A part of me is glad Violet was too busy to see me. I don’t know how I’ll be able to face her knowing what I do. She deserves a whole lot better than trash like him.
***
Her phone rang. “Hello.”
“Rose. This is Carmen. I’m glad to hear you’re back. Are you ready to start going on tour?”
“No. I mean yes.”
Carmen gritted her teeth. “Now, we talked about this before you left to go on vacation. People want to see you perform and I have the perfect concert tour lined up. You won’t be the headliner, but it will satisfy your fans need to see you.”
“What do you mean, I won’t be the headliner?”
“Rose dear. You only have one CD out and you’re good, but promoters want to see a profit, so they have to have a good headliner. An artist that’s more established, you understand me now?”
“I guess. I’ll only do it, because you’ve put up with me for so long.”
Carmen let out a sigh of relief. “Good. I will fax over the papers in a few minutes. Call me if you have any questions.”
Rose hung up with Carmen and turned the fax machine on. After reviewing the papers, she signed them and faxed them back to her.
She unpacked everything and was now ready to relax which was hard to do, because she kept playing the whole scene with Marcus over and over in her head. She decided to make herself an apple martini to ease her mind. Nothing Rose did would erase the fact that she was caught in the middle and didn’t know which way to go.
Her and Violet were finally getting their lives on track. Even being a small part of Violet’s life brought joy to her heart. They still had a long ways to go to becoming friends but at least they were talking to each other and spending a little time together. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she had led a lonely adult life. Her attempts at making friends always resulted in one of two things. Some of the women would be too competitive or accuse her of trying to steal their man. If it were a man she was trying to befriend, he would make a pass, so she basically became a loner. She made sure she kept good working relationships with the other actors and crewmembers on the movie sets she worked on. She would socialize with everyone, but didn’t let anyone too close to her.
***
I can’t let this man ruin my relationship. I have to think of something to do. I’ll set it up so she finds out, but not from me. I’ll teach him not to mess with the Purdue sisters.
***
Rose was heavy in thought trying to think of a way to expose Marcus, when her doorbell rang. Since Tina was given the afternoon off, she got up to answer. She could see the imprint of the man through her stained side glass window. She swung the door open. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Marcus responded, “You can either let me in or we can discuss this out here.”
Rose moved out of the way and motioned for him to enter. “You’re not welcome here. So please tell me what this visit is all about.”
With a smug look on his face, Marcus responded, “You don’t have to be rude. I wanted to make sure we were on the same page. You slipped away before I could confirm.”
Rose didn’t move. She lifted her hand and shook her finger in the air. “Marcus. It’s like this. We both know your little game. I have to admit you’re good, but there is no way I’m going to allow you or anyone else to come in between me and Violet again.”
He smiled. “So it means you’re going to keep your mouth shut right?”
“What that mean is, you need to break it off with my sister.”
The smile left his face. “I can’t and won’t do that, because I care for your sister,” Marcus stated.
Rose leaned her head back and let out a strange laugh. “You what? Let’s break this down once more. You lie to her and tell her you’re spending time with your parents. You take another woman on a rendezvous to another country. You threaten to ruin her relationship with her sister and you want to call that caring. Please!”
Marcus leaned in closer to her as if to make sure she understood where he stood on the subject. “Look here. I care about your sister and if you don’t interfere, I will be marrying your sister.”
Rose pushed him back and said, “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. You are full of crap. I’m not going to allow you to ruin her life.”
“I have no plans to ruin her life. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. You just keep your mouth shut and things will work themselves out.”
Rose got silent, because she was on the brink of losing her composure and she had to bide her time before exposing Marcus. She didn’t want to take the chance of him following through on his threat of lying about her making a pass at him.
“This is what I can do for you Marcus and after this I can’t make any promises. I won’t say anything about what I saw in Mexico for now; however, if I even hear a rumor that you are messing with another woman. All bets are off. I will tell Violet everything I know. Understood?”
Marcus turned to walk toward the door, with a look of satisfaction on his face. “Understood. Like I said. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.”
He walked out the door and Rose let off steam by slamming the door behind him. She went and sat on the bottom step of her stairway. She was mentally exhausted. She put her head on her lap hoping her migraine would disappear.
29
VIOLET
Violet and Janice sat at the end of the table and listened to all of the accusations brought forth by the board. Violet was determined to hold her head up high, because she knew she didn’t do anything wrong. What surprised Violet the most was to hear some of her diehard supporters say disgusting things about how she had ran the community center.
Janice looked at her and gave her a reassuring look. They both scanned the room for abnormal behavior from Carlton. Although he was one of the few members, who hadn’t said anything negative about the whole situation, Violet wanted to slap the smug look off Carlton’s face. After everyone spoke, Violet was given the floor.
Violet stood up, so she could see everyone’s expressions. Andre Mason, the chairman, stated, “Violet you can sit if you like.”
“No, I would rather stand.”
“As you wish.”
She surveyed their faces before speaking. As she ended her speech, she felt better. “In conclusion, I would like to think the board is fair and will look at my recommendation for hiring an investigator. Yes, after carefully going over all of the records, including the notes of the auditors, it is true that some funds are missing; however neither Janice nor I know where or who has taken those funds. We haven’t done anything to abuse the trust you or the community has placed in us. We will do our best to work with any investigator of your choice to ensure who ever is responsible will be found out and dealt with accordingly. Thank you all for giving me the floor.”
Janice gave her a look that confirmed she did okay. She sat down and Andre took over from there. “Thank you both for coming. You can be excused for now. Either the co-chairman or I will call you some time tonight, to let you know what we have decided. The rest of us will take a fifteen minute break before concluding the m
eeting.”
As they got ready to leave the meeting, Carlton ran up behind them. “Ladies. You’ve done an excellent job of running the center. You can be rest assured that I will do whatever I can to make sure the Board is fair.”
Violet responded, “Thank you Carlton. We know we can count on you.”
They continued walking to Janice’s car. They didn’t say a word, until they were on the road back toward Violet’s house. “Can you believe the nerve of that man?”
Janice answered, “After finding out that Carlton has been dipping in the funds and spending it for his own personal use, nothing surprises me anymore.”
“As soon as I get home, I’m taking a long hot bath. I refuse to pace the floor waiting on the board to call me.”
“I know. It was intense in there for a moment. You were very impressive with your speech. It sounded impromptu, yet convincing.”
“Thanks. I couldn’t have done it without your help.”
Janice pulled up in front of her house. “I feel they will agree to the investigator.”
“I hope so.”
Janice gave her friend a reassuring hand tug and stayed in the driveway until she entered her house.
Violet heard Janice pull off and headed directly to her dresser drawer to find something relaxing to put on after her bath.
***
This has been a very long day. I didn’t think it would ever end. I have never had to go through anything remotely like this. I have to clear my name, because I don’t know how this is going to affect the kids or other center participants. I have worked too hard to get funding for various programs and I can see the positive results. I don’t want to lose their trust nor respect and I don’t want donors feeling vulnerable either.
***
Violet sat in the bathtub and relaxed to the smooth sounds of jazz. Her phone rang, bringing her out of a sedated state. She reached for the phone which she had placed on the towel next to the tub. “Hello.”
“Violet. How I’ve wished to hear the sound of your voice.”
Who is this?” she asked.
“It’s me.”
“David. I’ve told you to stop calling me. There is nothing we have to say to one another. Why can’t you get it through your thick skull? We’ve been divorced for how long now.”
David responded in a calm voice. “I know how you feel, but I can’t give up on us.”
Violet let out all of the built up anger from the past seventy-two hours. “Us? There is no us! There has not been an us in a very long time.”
David got silent.
Violet continued to say, “I have to go. I’m expecting a very important phone call.”
“I won’t give up.”
Violet slammed the phone down. She was no longer relaxed. She decided to get out of the tub. After dressing in her satin pajamas, she ate some leftovers.
She took the last bite of her meal. This time when the phone rang, she looked at the caller ID and picked up the phone when she saw it was the Andre Mason. “Hello.”
“Violet. I’m glad we caught you still up. Sorry, it has taken us this long to get back with you.”
“No problem. I was sitting here eating a late dinner.”
He cleared his throat. “I guess I should get straight to the point. We have decided to use your recommendation and hire an investigator.”
Violet remained silent, because she felt a “but” coming on.
“We also have decided it is probably best that you take a leave of absence while this investigation is being conducted.”
“But sir, how will things get done? Janice and I both can’t be out; no one else knows how to run the center.”
“We’ve thought of that too. Janice can stay on and take over things until the investigation is over. We’re sure you understand why we made our decision, right?”
Violet held back tears of frustration. “Sure. I understand. Let me know when I can return to work.”
She was about to end the call, when she heard him say.
“The investigator will be in touch. We ask for your full cooperation and I’m sure this will be resolved soon and you can get back to work. Look at this as a mini-vacation.”
“She hung up and screamed. “Vacation. The nerve of them.”
She got up and went to her den and found a comedy movie and placed it in the DVD player. She needed a good laugh, just to keep from crying. As she placed the movie in the player, her doorbell rang.
She looked at the time and knew she wasn’t expecting anyone. She got up and looked out of the peephole and to her surprise it was Marcus.
She unlocked the door and welcomed him into opening arms. He kissed her passionately. “I’ve missed you so much.”
She led him into the den. “I’ve missed you too. I didn’t expect you back. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back today?”
He hugged her and said, “I wanted to surprise you.”
“A nice surprise it is.”
They made up for being separated for the past two weeks. Violet took his hand and he followed her to the bedroom and they made love throughout the entire night.
30
ROSE
Rose woke up with a nerve-racking headache and she couldn’t get rid of the pain. She didn’t realize until the previous night that she had ran out of her medicine. She called Tina and told her to stop by the pharmacist on her way over that morning.
While Rose waited on Tina to come with her medicine, she decided to call Violet so they could make plans to get together for lunch or dinner soon. “Violet, I was trying to catch you before you left for the office.”
Violet sounded as if she was just waking up. “I’m not going into the office today.”
“Really. So you’ve decided to tell the board about this Carlton fellow and what he’s been doing with the center’s money?”
“I wish it was that simple. I’ll have to tell you about it later.”
Rose, trying not to be impatient, said, “I have time. You can tell me now or do you want to meet for lunch later on today?”
“Let’s just say that now is not a good time.” Violet sounded distracted. “I’m a little preoccupied, but lunch sounds good. Why don’t you come over say around one? I’ll cook us up something really nice.”
Rose heard what sounded like someone kissing Violet. “One will be fine. I’ll bring the dessert. Bye.”
***
Rose spent the rest of the morning going over her itinerary for the upcoming weeks. She worked with Tina to get her wardrobe together. She also talked to Carmen and confirmed flights and hotel accommodations. Although she paid them both well to help keep her on schedule, she tried to make sure she knew what was supposed to happen and when.
Rose pulled into Violet’s driveway at exactly one o’clock. She was relieved to see Marcus was not there. With the dessert in one hand, she rang the doorbell with the other. Violet met her at the door with a tight sisterly hug. “Welcome back.”
“Thank you,” Rose said as she held out the bag in her hand. “Look. I brought your favorite.”
Violet took the bag and placed the lemon meringue pie on her dining room table. They each took a seat and Violet said the grace. “Thank you Father for bringing my sister safely back to us. Thank you for showing us mercy and grace. Thank you for allowing us to fellowship with one another once again. God Bless this food that we are about to eat. Let it nourish us, as we allow you to nourish our souls. Amen.”
Rose looked up teary-eyed. “Amen.”
They had light conversation while they enjoyed the turkey ham sandwiches Violet prepared. She also made a scrumptious seafood pasta salad. By the time it came to dessert they were both full, but decided to indulge in a slice of the lemon meringue pie anyway.
Violet was the first to get up. She grabbed some of the dishes to take to the kitchen. Rose got up to assist her. “Violet, why don’t you let me help you with it?”
“No. Sit. It’ll only take a minute for me to put these
in the dishwasher.”
Rose didn’t hesitate to say, “Okay.”
While she was putting the dishes away, Rose wandered into Violet’s living room and admired the figurines she had purchased for her. She noticed Violet had placed them on her mantel and for some reason that brought a smile to her face.
Violet walked in the room. “What are you smiling at?”
Rose placed the figurine back down on the mantel then sat on the couch. “Just thinking about the past few months and how I’ve enjoyed getting to really know my sister. You are a remarkable woman.”
Violet followed and sat on the opposite end of the couch and crossed her legs up under her. “Thank you. I really needed to hear that.”
Rose turned to face her. “What’s going on? I didn’t want to bring it up over lunch, but you seemed a little pre-occupied. Is it Marcus?”
“Oh no. What would give you that idea?”
“I was just checking. I know how some men are. If it’s not him, then what is it?”
“It’s the job. I guess I should tell you, just in case you get a distorted version.”
Rose sat with a curious look on her face. “Is that why you’re not at the office today?”
“Yes. I guess I should start at the beginning.”
Violet explained how her and Janice figured out Carlton was using some of the community center’s money for his own personal use. “We’re depending on the investigator to provide us the paper trail that will lead back to him.”
“Are you sure you can trust their investigator? I can hire another investigator if you like.”
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary, but thanks for the offer.”
The conversation shifted as Rose told her everything about what happened in Mexico, with one exception; she left out the encounter with Marcus. Rose’s cell phone rang. “Excuse me Violet, I have to get this. Hello.”
Carmen sounded antsy. “Rose, we need to talk. Do you have a minute?”
