Truth & Consequences: A Miss Independent Novel

by Leach, Kiki

  “Tell them to just mind their own damn business. This is an office complex, not a sit down on the Jerry Springer Show!”

  When they heard a knock on the door, Alexis and Vanessa turned to in unison and shouted, “WHAT?!”

  Samantha pushed back on the door and clung to the side of it while pressing her legs together to keep them from wobbling in fear. “It’s Harold calling for you, Ms. Brown,” she directed to Alexis. “He says his flight is delayed which means he won’t be back to the office until tomorrow morning.”

  “Great,” Alexis replied. “Just what we need, more problems. Tell him it’s fine, we’ll make do without him in the meantime.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Samantha closed the door and returned to her desk.

  Alexis took a seat on Vanessa’s couch and sighed. “When exactly did you and Maurice decide to end things?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it, Mother, alright? Let’s just go to this meeting and get it over with.”

  She looked up at her daughter, then nodded and went to the door. Vanessa followed but stopped when the phone at her desk began to ring. She went over to look at the caller ID, then turned back to her mother. “It’s Nikki. She never calls me this early because she’s usually in rehearsal, so it might be important. I’ll be in there as soon as we’re done.”

  “You best be,” she said, pointing at her daughter before leaving the office.

  Vanessa sat at the edge of her desk and reached around for the phone.

  “Hey, Nik,” she said upon answering.

  “V?”

  “Yeah.” She made a face as she heard sharp whistling noises passing through the earpiece. “Are you outside?”

  “In front of the Beatnick Café, you know that new place not far from Mo’s job?”

  Vanessa hung her head the second she heard his name, but knowing she was in public, tried to keep herself in check. “Yeah, I’ve heard about it. What are you doing all the way over there? I thought you had rehearsal for ‘Wicked’ this morning?”

  “I do, but William wanted to take a detour first. He said a friend owns this place and he wanted to give him well wishes.”

  “Okay.” Vanessa crossed her legs and shrugged. “I guess that’s nice. Is that why you’re calling me?”

  “No.” While standing to the left of the café, Nikki observed William through a giant window as he talked with his friend, then turned her attention to Maurice as he sat in a corner booth with Melanie. She exhaled sharply when she noticed them sitting a little too damn close for comfort, especially her. Just a few more inches and Nikki was certain the woman would’ve been in his lap. “I just had a quick question.”

  “Well make it as quick as you can because Alexis is already on my ass this morning.”

  “Sorry, I forgot you had a meeting. Um, does Melanie know that you and Mo are no longer together?”

  “Melanie who?”

  “Oscar’s soon to be ex-wife, Vanessa.”

  “Oh.” For a short time, she had gladly forgotten that the woman even existed. “I don’t know, I haven’t seen or spoken to her in weeks, not since she came running and begging me to put her on another magazine cover featuring other future divorcees. I can only assume she would’ve learned it from Oscar, who would’ve only known about it if you told him.”

  “I couldn’t have said anything because I haven’t seen Oscar since the Hamptons, Vanessa.”

  She hated lying to her best friend, especially when it came to her ongoing yet increasingly complicated relationship with her soon to be-formerly married-ex/sort of current but not completely available flame. But it wasn’t the time or the place to start being upfront with the truth regarding their relationship – considering that after a month of the constant back and forth between them since reconnecting inside of William’s bedroom, she was once again starting to become unclear of it all herself.

  As she raised to her toes and dipped her head, she saw Melanie leaning into Maurice suggestively while biting off the tip of a croissant. “Y ella me llama una puta.”

  “What?” asked a confused Vanessa. “And why are you asking me about Melanie, anyway?”

  “Because I can see her sitting here with Maurice in a corner booth inside of this café.”

  A flabbergasted Vanessa immediately dropped her feet to the floor and leaned in. “Say what?”

  “They’re sitting here inside this café drinking coffee and eating biscotti’s and croissants! She’s practically all over him, Vanessa. I’d get the puta a bib, but--”

  “Are you sure it’s the two of them together? Hell, are you even sure that it’s not somebody that just looks like Mo? Because you know that they say, everyone has a twin in the world--”

  “She just left for the bathroom.” Nikki took another peek and saw Maurice reaching for a coffee cup and taking a sip. “It’s Mo, I’m positive. Do you want me to go in there and ask him what the hell is going on?”

  Vanessa thought about it long and hard. Would he really be stepping out on her like this? Even if they were no longer together, officially. She knew it was virtually impossible for men to go without pussy for too long, especially a man like Maurice who had become accustomed to getting it when and how he wanted from many women around the city, long before her on a regular basis. But now she was no longer a viable option. And Melanie, who she was certain had been waiting in the wings even while still with Oscar, was.

  Slowly, she shook her head and exhaled. “No,” she told Nikki. “If he wants to hang with her, do whatever with her, it’s fine. I can’t keep him locked inside of a cage of celibacy when we’re not together anymore.”

  “V--”

  “Look, I gotta go, Nik, but Felicia’s birthday is this Friday. My mother is so damn afraid that her girls are going to mess up her furniture again, so she wants to have it at my place. Do you think that you’ll be able to stop by? I know that Felicia has never actually been your favorite person and vice/versa, but you and I haven’t actually seen each other in weeks.”

  “I know,” she said. “With rehearsal’s being back to back now that the play is only a week away, I haven’t had time for much, let alone any for mi mejora amiga. But I’ll be there.”

  “Thanks. Now I really have to go before she has my ass. Have a good time at rehearsal.”

  Vanessa hung up before Nikki could even utter a quick goodbye and headed out of her office for the meeting. The last she needed was to have her mind on yet another thing regarding Maurice that she couldn’t control.

  Part Eleven

  After pulling the phone back, Nikki quickly stuffed it inside her purse and took a good look around that café.

  “V may not think that anything should be said about this,” she muttered to herself. “But I sure as hell do.”

  She dipped inside the building and waved to William, who was still talking with his friend, then turned her eyes to Maurice, who had just picked up a paper from his table and began to read.

  Sneering and snarling, she headed over and plopped down in a chair in front of him.

  He lifted his eyes, then arched his brows when she reached out to his plate and grabbed a fistful of steak fries.

  “A little early for something like this, don’t you think?” she asked, chomping down on a few at the same time.

  Maurice sat the paper down and smirked. “Long time no see, Nik. And the first time I do in what, 4 weeks? You’re stealing shit from my plate. Good to know that the more things change--”

  “Like you?”

  He chuckled softly. “What are you talking about?”

  “What the hell are you doing here with Melanie?” She pointed her thumb toward the bathroom.

  “Having breakfast, which is what normal people do.”

  “I could tell from looking at her the kind of ‘breakfast’ she would rather be having.”

  “Stop it, Nik.”

  “Fine. I just thought that I should let you know that I talked to Vanessa before coming in here, and--”

&nbs
p; “V?”

  Maurice’s entire cocky demeanor suddenly diminished. Just the mention of his woman’s name turned the fiery blaze he had for her, one that would forever ignite his system and burn deep, into a towering inferno.

  He immediately adjusted himself in the booth and ran his hands through his hair. Nikki frowned as he fixed his tie and cuffs and tugged on his jacket and dress shirt.

  “She’s not here,” she told him. “I meant I talked to her on the phone.”

  “Oh.” He slumped down and grabbed his mug, taking another drink of coffee. Gradually, he sat it back down on the plate and tapped the table with the edge of a spoon. “How is she?”

  “Why don’t you go to her and see for yourself.”

  He nodded. “When’s the last time you saw her?”

  “Just know that I have. And when I don’t see her, we’re constantly talking on the phone.”

  He dragged his hand down the side of his face and around to the front of his throat. “If I see her again, Nik – if I actually go to her and see her face after all this time of being apart, everything I’ve wanted to do and say to her over the last month becomes real.”

  She leaned down on the table and squint. “What’s so wrong if it does?”

  “Nicole.” William placed a hand on her shoulder and nodded to Maurice. She looked up at him, regrettably, as she had been unable to hear the rest of what Maurice had to say. “I’m finished over there,” he said. “Are you ready, or do you need more time?”

  “Um.” She peeked around William and saw Melanie finally coming back from the bathroom. “We should get going before I’m late.” She stood up fast and turned her attention back to Maurice. “Whatever you want to do or say to her? Regardless of Page Six? I don’t think she’d mind. In fact, I think it might be long, long overdue.” She took William by the hand. “Let’s go.”

  They hurried out of the shop the moment Melanie returned to the table and sat back down.

  “Wow, sorry that took so long,” she said, ignoring Maurice’s swift disorientation with regard to everything and everyone around him. “They only have one stall working and apparently I picked the wrong time to go in.”

  Maurice gave her a quick smile and nodded, though he remained aloof.

  It was the first time since they had officially established a sort of ‘friendship’ so to speak, not long after he moved out of his house with Vanessa, that he appeared to not even notice her entire existence. She couldn’t understand what suddenly turned him away from her and was almost too afraid to ask, knowing the possibility of the answer would be equivalent to the reason her husband had still chosen not to come back home.

  Maurice glanced down at his watch and drank the remainder of his coffee. “I should get going,” he told her. “I’ve got a meeting with my boss this morning and I’ve--”

  “Okay,” she said. “Are you still wanting to hang out later tonight? Remember I told you that Oscar’s mother is supposed to be taking the girls and I’ve got--”

  “Um.” He closed one eye and scratched the side of his face. “You know, I think I’m going to spend some time in tonight, alone. I have a deadline with an ad that I’ve been working on for far too long.”

  “Okay. I understand that.” The reality was that she didn’t understand but believed she had no choice but to pretend. “Maybe tomorrow night, then.”

  “Yeah. Maybe.” He pulled out a few tens from his wallet and dropped it on the table. “I’ll see you.”

  “See you,” Melanie told him as he sprinted out the door.

  He couldn’t get out of there, or away from her, fast enough.

  Part Twelve

  Adrian sat on his couch in the living room watching the World Wide News when he heard a soft knock at his door.

  Muting the television, he wasn’t originally sure of what he had heard until the tapping suddenly got louder and was more frequent in rhythm. After flipping off the set, he reached for his shirt on the arm of the couch and slipped it on. Then he got up and walked over to the door.

  “Who is it?” he called out.

  “Sheila,” the voice said from the other side.

  It was a voice more beautiful to him than any other he had ever heard before. It was also a voice he had vowed to forget, seeing as he hadn’t seen or heard from her since they had both decided that it was best to go their separate ways over a month ago.

  But damn, did he miss her like crazy. He didn’t even have a picture to look at to help ease the pain of being without her. All he had was his memory of her, of her face, of her scent, of her lips and thighs.

  Any other woman would’ve been pushed aside the moment she entered his life around the time he was still pining for Vanessa. But Adrian knew that Sheila wasn’t just any woman.

  After opening the door to her, he stared directly into her eyes just as she had his.

  There were so many things she wanted to say.

  So many things he needed to say.

  So many things she felt he had to know.

  So many things he was certain she deserved to know.

  So many things they were both convinced that had to wait.

  He took her face in his hands just she dropped her purse to the ground.

  And he kissed her. Softly. Slowly. Deeply. Sensually.

  Within a matter of seconds she felt herself getting too caught up to the point that her entire body was giving out beneath his grip. He draped his hands around her waist, then down to her ass and lifted her up so that she wouldn’t fall too far away from him.

  As he pulled her into his apartment, he kicked her purse inside with them, and then kicked the door shut.

  Tonight wouldn’t be just any night for them.

  It would be the beginning of everything.

  And the end of a nothing they never hoped to know again.

  Part Thirteen

  Vanessa was standing in the kitchen scrubbing down the ‘good’ dishes her mother had lent to her in preparation for her sister’s upcoming birthday dinner, and trying like hell to get her mind off of what Nikki had told her earlier in the day regarding Melanie and Maurice, when she heard an abrasive knock at the door.

  She ignored it at first, thinking that it must have been a mistake, but couldn’t deny when she heard it again. Annoyed, she sat a plate on the edge of the counter near her stove and went over to the table to grab her cell phone. When she looked down at the time, she noticed that was almost 11pm.

  “Shit,” she said to herself. “Who the hell is this?”

  When the knocking turned to banging, she slammed her cell phone down next to the towel she had been using for the dishes and rushed out to the foyer, waiting a few seconds until the person on the other side started banging again.

  She stood as far back from the door as she could in case the person was a complete maniac and asked, “Who is it?”

  “It’s Nathan, V. Open up.”

  She didn’t realize until that very second that she was only semi correct about the maniac part.

  “Nathan, who?” she grumbled.

  Slowly stepping forward and pressing the palm of her hand down against the door, Vanessa lifted to her toes, closed one eye and peeked through the peephole.

  When she actually saw her ex standing there, his face clear thanks to the light from the lamp shining down above his head, she grit her teeth, flared her nostrils and muttered all while shaking her head.

  “Shit.”

  “I can still hear you from the other side, Vanessa. The doors aren’t made of concrete.”

  “Which is a damn shame right about now.” She dropped back down to her feet and snarled. “When the hell did you get back to town?”

  “A few hours ago. This is my first stop.”

  “Lucky me. What the hell do you want at almost eleven o’clock on a Wednesday night?”

  “We need to talk about some things,” he said. “I might’ve been MIA but my mind never left the city, or you. Which means I’ve done a lot of thinking--”


  “Yea and I’ll just bet that you’ve had a hell of a lot to think about.”

  “What?”

  “Please don’t play stupid with me this late in the game. Sheila came by here a few weeks ago and told me everything, from your meeting with Joan, to your disappearing act which took place right after she let it slip to you about --”

  “You being pregnant with Adrian’s baby?”

  Vanessa frowned the minute she heard his tone switch from moderately civilized to downright hateful as soon as the word ‘baby’ escaped his mouth. She stepped back even further from the door and crossed her arms.

  “Me losing Adrian’s baby – my baby,” she corrected, her response now hard and burning with indignation. “What the hell do you even want?”

  “You don’t want to know where I’ve been?”

  “I know that you weren’t in Queens. Otherwise, Harold would’ve blabbed weeks ago and it would’ve been splashed across the front cover of the NYDN within the same damn day, like everything else in my life. So aside from that, no, I don’t really give a damn where you’ve been over the last four weeks. I only want to know what the hell you want now.”

  He sighed heavily. “Like I told you, we need to talk. You’re right, I didn’t go to Queens, which means I didn’t see Adrian. I wanted to, even thought about traveling out there this morning after coming back from my parent’s townhouse in Connecticut. But I held back and decided to come home instead, to see you.”

  Nathan stepped forward and rested his hand on the doorknob. He swallowed hard and focused his eyes down on the cracks in the ground, the ants crawling back and forth across his shoes, the shadow of the moon as it landed directly behind his head and reflected off the light above it – anything to keep from busting that entire door down and entering her house unwanted.

  Vanessa shifted her stance and exhaled nosily. “If you’re going to give me shit for what happened with him back then, during a time when you weren’t even around--”

  “I’m not!” he shouted, cutting her off.