by Mary Monroe
“Aw, Annette, you know what I mean.”
“Do I?” I barked, giving him a critical look. “Whether I do or not, it doesn’t matter. The thing is, that woman called here last week—several times—and she called again yesterday.”
“She did? Uh, for what?”
“She was trying to catch up with you, fool! She claims she’s been trying to reach you for days.”
“Oh. Well, it’s over between me and her, and has been since she left me and moved in with Peabo Boykin. If she calls here again, just hang up on her. That ought to stop her.”
“Don’t you think I’ve already tried that?” I snapped. “But until you talk to her, she’s going to keep calling here.”
“I . . . I . . . I’ll look into it,” Pee Wee stammered, waving his hands in the air. I could see that he was nervous and anxious to get away from me now. His hands were shaking so hard that when he squatted down to put his shoes back on, he put them on the wrong foot.
He knew that I was still bitter about him having an affair with one of my friends, and moving into an apartment with her. The relationship had lasted only a couple of months, and he had apologized profusely to me. He was trying to work with me to repair our marriage, but he had a long way to go to regain my trust.
However, the fact that I was just as guilty as he was, made our situation even more volatile. I had cheated on him first. I knew that it still bothered the hell out of him, because it still bothered the hell out of me.
Pee Wee and I still had a lot of work to do, if we wanted things back to the way they were before our extramarital affairs. But we had made a lot of progress in the last few weeks.
At one point, I had thought that the pain caused by our actions would never go away. It was not nearly as bad now as it used to be. It seemed like every time I saw him now, the pain hurt less and less. But I was realistic. I knew in my heart that we would probably never trust one another completely again, no matter what we decided to do.
Pee Wee gave me a dry look and shook his head. Then with a jerk, he turned and scurried across the floor like a frightened rat. He tripped on the area rug on the floor at the foot of my bed. He stumbled forward into the back of the door, smashing his face against it. He mumbled a few cuss words under his breath and grimaced in pain as he rubbed his nose. Still rubbing his nose, he snatched the door open so fast, the white terrycloth robe that I had hung on the hook on the back of the door fluttered to the floor. He didn’t like it when I brought up Lizzie’s name. Especially a few minutes after we had made love.
“You don’t have anything else to say to me?” I wanted to know, looking at him from the corner of my eye as he was about to flee.
Pee Wee’s hand was on the doorknob, clutching it like he was trying to escape. He didn’t even bother to turn around and look at me. He shook his head again. “I’ll call you,” he yelled over his shoulder, literally running out of my upstairs bedroom. He clip-clopped down the hardwood stairs so fast and hard, you would have thought that the cops were chasing him. This was the first time that he had left without kissing me good-bye. . .
As soon as I heard Pee Wee shut my front door, I got up and went to the window with the sheet wrapped around me. I raked my fingers through my hair, holding several strands away from my eyes so I could see him better. I watched him scramble into his red Firebird.
It was only seven thirty. It had rained a few hours earlier, so it was a chilly day for July. Because of the low, dark gray clouds hovering in the sky, it felt and looked like it was much later.
I released a loud breath and eased back down on the bed. I didn’t need to be at work until nine, but I usually went in earlier just so I could be prepared for any unexpected issues. You could expect just about anything to happen at Mizelle’s Collection Agency. A couple of weeks ago, I got caught up in a ruckus between two of the women who reported to me as bill collectors. The night before, Rita Lockett had discovered that Beverly Hawkins was dating her fiancé. Rita had come to work early to confront Beverly. It didn’t take long for things to escalate into a violent physical altercation between the two angry women. They had hurled staplers, paperweights, and other desk top items at one another. I got scared when Beverly picked up a letter opener, but I quickly wrestled it from her hand. Had I not been present at the time, there was no telling how much damage they might have done. I had no choice but to fire both employees. And until I replaced them, it was more important than ever for me to be in the office early now to help ease the workload.
I had been going in an hour early all this week, but two days ago the temp agency that we worked with sent me a young Asian man. Not only was he extremely personable, he was so efficient that he got us all caught up before noon on his first day. It was because of Daniel Hong that I didn’t think it would be a problem if I took my time going in today.
I was even thinking about taking the day off. I needed to get my nails done, I needed a facial, and I wanted to run a few errands that I had been putting off. I also wanted to treat myself to a nice lunch and a movie. Afterwards, I could come back home, put my robe on and kick back on my couch with a large margarita. I couldn’t get that comfortable at home on the weekend or in the evening, because that was when most people dropped in on me unannounced. Another inducement for me to take the day off was that I would not have to rush home to cook dinner today like I usually did. I still had some of the barbeque in the freezer left over from the Fourth of July cookout that I had hosted a couple of weeks ago.
I already regretted the harsh way that I had jumped on Pee Wee about Lizzie calling my house. It wasn’t his fault that she was such a bold-ass bitch. As a matter of fact, I was even thinking about calling him up and offering to take him out to dinner as my way of “apologizing” for my outburst. These were some of the things dancing around in my head.
I was happy that things were going so well between Pee Wee and me. In spite of our separation, we still had one of the strongest relationships in town. I knew people who had never been separated who didn’t have a relationship as strong and hopeful as ours. I couldn’t deny the fact that Pee Wee was the best thing that had ever happened to me, as far as men were concerned. One reason I thought it was in my best interest to get back with him was because in spite of his cheating, he was still a good man. He was dependable, successful, generous, hard-working, smart, and family-oriented. I was all of those same things myself, so I felt that I was just as good of a catch as he was.
I decided that it would be smart for me to wait a couple of hours before I called him. I didn’t want to seem too eager. And, I wanted him to cool off a little so that when he heard my voice, he wouldn’t get defensive. In the meantime, I planned to relax in my bed for a few more minutes.
Before I could get comfortable and finish reading the latest edition of Jet magazine, the telephone on the nightstand rang. I looked at the clock next to the telephone. “Now who in the world is calling my house this time of morning?” I asked myself out loud. Other than my relatives and my closest friends, the only time my phone rang this early was when somebody dialed my number by mistake.
The telephone in my bedroom didn’t have caller ID, so I had no idea who was calling me at this ungodly hour. It was none of the above. To my everlasting horror, it was Lizzie Stovall again: the woman who had broken up my home.
I was so taken aback, there was only one thing I could think to say: “Well, speak of the Devil!” I shrieked.
“Whatever!” Lizzie hissed. She sucked on her teeth before continuing. I didn’t know if that was because she was tuning up her mouth to say something I didn’t want to hear, which would be anything that slid out of her mouth, or if she was nervous. “Annette, I advise you not to hang up on me like you did the last time I called.” This woman had no shame whatsoever!
“What the hell—” I almost choked on my words just as she cut me off.
“Let me speak to Pee Wee. And don’t fix your lips to lie to me like you usually do, and tell me he’s not there. I just pa
ssed your house a little while ago and I saw his car parked out front,” Lizzie snarled, her words striking my ears like rocks. “Like I told you the last time I called, I’ve been trying to get a hold of him for several days! I am not going to stop until I reach him. You can tell him that. The sooner he talks to me, the sooner I can stop bothering you.”
“Bothering me? Woman, as long as you live in this town you will be bothering me. You didn’t care about bothering me when you were fucking my husband! Well, I’ve got news for you; just hearing your name bothers me these days!”
Something that I didn’t know and didn’t want to know, were the details of Lizzie’s affair with my husband. Like exactly when it started, or which one of them initiated the affair. But the one thing that I really didn’t want to know was where they’d made love the first time. The thought of her sleazy ass stretched out in my bed was unbearable. If I ever found out that they had been tacky enough to make love in my bed, I would not be responsible for my actions. There was just no telling what I would do to Lizzie—and Pee Wee—even though their relationship was over.
Or was it?
“Are you still fucking my husband?” Even if she was, I didn’t expect her to admit it. But I had to ask anyway.
“Annette, you’ve got some nerve asking me that. How dare you!” Lizzie erupted.
I could not believe how calm I managed to sound. “Well, are you?”
“No, I am not still fucking your husband! I wouldn’t let that man touch me again even if he had healing hands!”
My pulse was racing, and my eyes were burning. I had balled my free hand into a fist. “Why did you call my house again? Why do you keep calling here? Don’t you have anything better to do with your time these days? Can’t you find another innocent woman to torture?” I jeered.
“You innocent? That’s a joke! You’ve got a lot of nerve to even think of yourself as innocent—”
“Get your ass off this phone, bitch!” I hollered. “You’re about to make my bowels move!”
“I will hang up when I am good and ready. Look, I know you’re still jealous of me, but I can’t help that. It is what it is. I gave your man something that you weren’t giving him, and probably never did. That was some good loving. The very first time he was with me, he realized what he’d been missing . . .”
These were not the words that a scorned woman, especially a scorned black woman, wanted to hear. If Lizzie had been standing in my room saying that shit to my face, she would be stretched out on the floor by now with my fist mauling the side of her head. I couldn’t imagine what Pee Wee had said to her—if he had said anything about our sex life at all—for her to think that I didn’t give him what he needed in the bedroom before she slid into our lives. I didn’t believe what she had just said for one minute—at least not her version. I knew that some women, especially a home-wrecking heifer like Lizzie, would say any and everything they could think of to hurt the woman of the man she’d stolen.
“Hmmm. Then will you tell me why he is not still with you? Why is he coming over here to be with me whenever I let him? And I can assure you that we do a lot more than just talk when he’s here. Does that sound like I don’t know how to give him what he needs?” I taunted.
“Whatever, Annette. I just need to talk to Pee Wee.”
“Pee Wee is not here—goddammit!” I roared. “And let me tell you again—”
“You’re a damn liar! He is there! Now you look, girl! I am not in the mood for any of your shit this early in the morning!”
I hated profanity. It was crude. I didn’t like it when people cussed in my presence, and I didn’t like to cuss myself. But under the present circumstances, there was no reason for me to act like a “lady” with Lizzie. “Now you look, bitch! If you don’t want to deal with my shit this early in the morning, don’t call my fucking house this early in the morning!”
There was a long moment of silence. I wasn’t even sure that Lizzie was still on the line. I was just about to hang up when I heard her spit out a few sobs. Then she started to wheeze and cough like she was choking on some air. I had heard enough. I slammed the telephone back in its cradle. I felt like I was on fire now, so I needed to get out of the house as soon as possible. I no longer considered playing hooky from work. I couldn’t wait to get to my office now.
Just as I was about to go to my closet and pick out what I was going to wear to work, Lizzie called back. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Annette.”
“Look, bitch, I’m going to hang up again. This time I’m going to leave the phone off the hook, so don’t waste any more of your time calling here again,” I told her.
“Don’t you hang up on me! I advise you to put Pee Wee on this telephone, Annette,” she ordered in a voice that was dripping with a combination of anger and desperation.
“I advise you to go straight to hell.”
“Let me ask you again; may I speak to Pee Wee? I don’t want to keep calling your house anymore than you want me to, but I don’t have any other choices.” She had toned down her voice, but that made no difference to me. “This is really important. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be trying to get in touch with Pee Wee this hard.”
“Why don’t you tell me exactly what it is you need to talk to my husband about? I can tell him, and if he wants to talk to you about it, he’ll call you.”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Lizzie grunted in an ominous tone of voice. It sounded like she had a mouth full of food, or that her hand was covering part of her mouth. “And believe me, you won’t like it.”
Dafina Books are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2008 by Mary Monroe
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
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ISBN: 978-0-7582-7146-4
