“What?”
“Whoever the woman is that you’re about to risk your life to go see. I hope she’s worth it. She must be a bad chick to make a man go through a snowstorm for her.”
Phillip smiled. “Yeah, she is.”
Chapter 24
CHARLENE
Charlene stretched her arms and yawned as she slowly opened her eyes. She felt tired, from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet, and even though she’d slept the better part of the day away, she still didn’t feel rested.
Charlene shook her head as she thought about the events that had shaped her day to this point. She’d started her morning by listening to Leslie Sachs’s live interview, which had left her with even more questions about what Leslie and Vivana were really up to. Then she’d followed that headache by having a big blowout with her daughter this afternoon over Lauren’s decision to drop out of medical school. And if that hadn’t been enough, she’d topped things off with a nerve-bending conversation with her son, who’d brought Johnny Mayfield’s name into the mix.
Charlene had felt so defeated that all she’d wanted to do was sleep and forget about the troubles facing her. She’d gone to her bedroom, reached into her nightstand drawer, and pulled out a bottle of Lunesta that her doctor had prescribed for her several months ago when she’d been battling insomnia. The sleep aid was fast-acting and powerful, so she’d known that she had to be careful. She’d used a pill splitter to cut it before taking only half of a dose. The medicine had done its job, giving her the rest she’d needed to calm her anxiety, if only for a few stolen hours.
Charlene stood up, stretched again, and tied her bathrobe around her waist. She rubbed her stomach, realizing she hadn’t eaten since lunchtime yesterday. “I’m starving. I need to eat something before I get sick.”
She slipped her feet into her bright red velveteen bedroom shoes and shuffled down the hall. But she came to an abrupt stop at the sight she saw when she reached the edge of her kitchen. Although it was beginning to get dark outside, she could see that snow was falling. She moved faster as she walked to the door leading out to her back deck and was shocked to see what looked like over a half foot of snow covering her deck chairs and table. “Lauren, Phillip!” she called out in an excited voice. “Get down here, it’s snowing!” She turned and walked to the end of the hall that led to the stairs and called out to them again.
Charlene didn’t wait for her children to come downstairs; instead she rushed into the family room and opened the blinds so she could see the beautiful snow falling outside. “This is unbelievable!” she said as she watched the fluffy white flakes descend from the sky. She turned on the TV and took a seat on the couch, sitting in rapt attention as she listened to the announcer give updates about the unexpected snowstorm that had roared through most of the southern states that afternoon, bringing travel and holiday activities to a halt. It was an emergency situation because none of the weather models had forecasted the storm, which was supposed to dump close to a foot of snow in some areas by early morning. As it stood, Amber would get at least nine inches of the white stuff, if not more.
Charlene looked up when she saw Lauren enter the room. “Can you believe this?” she asked her daughter. “I knew it was cloudy outside when I lay down for my nap earlier this afternoon, but I had no idea we’d get snow. Amber hardly ever gets snow, and certainly not this early in the season.”
“I know,” Lauren replied. “If I’d known I’d get snowed in and stuck in the house, I would’ve stayed in Baltimore.”
Charlene stared into her daughter’s eyes, which were laced with unmistakable frustration and disappointment at the fact that she was being forced to stay home. The exhilaration Charlene had felt just moments ago was snuffed out by Lauren’s comment. What have I done to make her resent me so much? she wondered.
There had been a time, not too long ago, when Lauren had considered Charlene her best friend. But now Charlene barely recognized her baby girl, either physically or emotionally. The neatly dressed, levelheaded, respectful, high-achieving daughter she’d raised had been replaced by a disheveled, irrational, rude, dropout with an enormous chip on her shoulder. And despite Lauren’s claims of being fine, Charlene knew there was something very wrong with her, and she planned to get to the bottom of it.
“Lauren, you’ve made it clear that you don’t want to be here, yet a few hours ago you said you wanted to move back here because you’d dropped out of school. Which is it?”
“I didn’t drop out, I withdrew,” Lauren snapped.
“Same thing,” Charlene snapped back at her. “If you wanted to move back here, then why are you saying that you wish you’d stayed in Baltimore?”
Lauren was silent, and her lack of a sarcastic comeback let Charlene know that she’d struck a nerve in her rebellious daughter. “Nothing you’ve said has made any sense to me. I want to understand you, really I do. But it’s hard to talk to you because you have your guard up, as if you have to protect yourself from me. Baby, I’m your mother, and all I want to do is help you.”
Suddenly, Lauren broke into tears. “I’m pregnant.”
Charlene tilted her head in confusion. She thought she just heard her daughter say she was pregnant, but Lauren was sobbing so hard that Charlene wasn’t sure. “What did you say?”
“I’m pregnant, Mom. That’s why I withdrew from my classes and why I wanted to come home. I lied when I said Hakeem wanted me to stay in Baltimore with him, and honestly, he’s the one who suggested I come back home because he made it clear that he doesn’t want me or our baby in his life.”
Lauren stood in the middle of the family room and cried as if she’d fallen off her bike and skinned her knee. Charlene’s heart ached for her, and she wished she could make everything better with a kiss and freshly baked cookies the way she used to when Lauren was a little girl. But those days were long gone, and Charlene knew she had to stand in the reality that was right in front of her. Lauren was a grown woman who was about to walk down a rocky road, and she needed a mother’s strength, love, and guidance to help her along the path.
“How far along are you?” Charlene asked.
“Three months.”
Although Lauren was no longer a small child, she would always be Charlene’s baby girl. Charlene rose from where was sitting and walked over to her daughter, wrapped her in her arms, and rocked her back and forth. “It’s gonna be all right, baby. Everything’s gonna be all right.”
Charlene sat across from Lauren at the breakfast table as they sipped from their second cups of double hot chocolate that Charlene had made from a recipe her mother had handed down to her. She glanced out the window, noticing that the wind had picked up, causing the heavy snow that was falling to completely blanket everything in sight. For a brief moment, the picturesque scene made her forget about all her troubles because everything seemed so perfect. She was sitting inside her beautiful home, safe and warm, sharing quality time with her daughter during the holidays. But unfortunately, that surface portrait belied the complications bubbling underneath.
Charlene had spent the last hour listening to her daughter tell her the truth about what had been the real cause for her steady decline over the last two years. And just as Charlene had suspected, all roads led back to the terrible revelation when Lauren discovered she’d been dating her half brother. But the part that Charlene had been in the dark about and was shocked to learn was the truth behind why Lauren had brought the boy home in the first place. She’d been pregnant then, too.
When she’d met Jeffery, a handsome young man in one of her premed classes, he’d been her first real boyfriend and eventually, her first sexual experience. She’d been in love and so had he. One night they slipped up, losing themselves in the heat of passion, and two months later she learned she was pregnant.
Lauren and Jeffery had every intention of keeping the baby, getting married, and both continuing on with medical school while they juggled raising their child. But their youthful, idealis
tic dreams were vanquished when she’d brought him home to meet her family. After the “who are your people?” quiz, the truth was revealed, a young love was shattered, a decades-old marriage was destroyed, and Lauren’s downward spiral had begun.
“After we returned to school, Jeffery and I talked and decided it was best that I had an abortion,” Lauren said in a solemn voice. “He told me he would be by my side, but on the morning of the procedure he was nowhere to be found. A friend of mine ended up driving me to the clinic and then took me back to my dorm. I tried calling Jeffery but he wouldn’t pick up his phone, and two weeks later I found out that he’d transferred to Auburn. I haven’t heard from him since.”
“Lauren, I wish you had come to me,” Charlene said as she reached for her daughter’s hand. “You shouldn’t have gone through that alone. I would’ve helped you, baby.”
A tear fell from Lauren’s eye. “I was so embarrassed and ashamed, and I didn’t know what to do. It’s one thing to fall for the wrong guy, but to fall for your own brother, and then get pregnant by him?”
“Baby, nothing that happened was your fault. There’s no way you could’ve known . . . that’s on your father.”
Lauren nodded. “I know, and I’ll never forgive Dad for that. But what was my fault was the fact that I was careless and ended up pregnant.” She paused and took another sip of her hot chocolate. She looked at her mother as her voice began to tremble. “You’d think I would’ve learned about how to pick the right guy and protect myself. But I fell for a loser, and now I’m pregnant—again. I know you’re disappointed in me, and so am I.”
Charlene wanted to break down and cry because she hated hearing the pain in Lauren’s voice, but she knew that Lauren needed a steady hand to guide her fragile heart. “I’ll always be proud of you,” Charlene said. “I’m proud of you right now, in this moment, because even though you’ve made some mistakes—which we all do—you’re going to move forward and do great things. You’re still young and you have your whole life in front of you. Living here with me will cut your expenses, and once you have the baby, next fall you can enroll in med school at the University of Alabama, and life will keep on moving right along.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
Charlene shook her head. “Baby, don’t mistake my optimism for fantasy. It won’t be a walk in the park, but it also won’t be as bad as you think. You’ve got support, a roof over your head, and people who love you. You and my grandchild are going to be just fine.”
A long moment passed between them. They both looked out the window, each thinking about a future that was full of uncertainty. Finally, Lauren spoke.
“I love you, Mom.”
Charlene smiled. “I love you, too, baby.”
“And I’m really loving this double hot chocolate,” Lauren said as she took another sip. “If I’m not careful, I’ll be working on my third cup.”
“There’s more on the stove, so help yourself. I made a huge pot because I thought your brother would be down here by now. He loves my hot chocolate almost as much as you do.”
Lauren shook her head. “Phillip’s not here.”
“What?”
“He’s not here.”
“Where is he?”
“He left a couple of hours ago while you were still asleep. I told him not to go out in the middle of a snowstorm, but he was determined.”
“Where did he go?”
Lauren pursed her lips. “Where do you think?”
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you.” But in all truth, Charlene knew exactly where her hot-blooded, woman-chasing son was. “He went to see a woman, didn’t he?”
“You know it.”
Charlene looked out the window, picked up her phone, and dialed Phillip’s number.
“His cell is dead. He didn’t have his charger, and because he has an iPhone he couldn’t use your charger or mine.”
Charlene shook her head. “I can’t believe that boy got behind the wheel in the middle of the worst snowstorm the Southeast has seen in over fifty years.”
“Some men have done a lot worse.”
“But he has no means of communication,” Charlene said with frustration. “It’s dark outside, what if his car gets stuck and he’s stranded . . . risking his life just to see a woman?”
“Like I told him, she must be one bad chick.”
Charlene looked out the window and prayed that her son was all right.
Chapter 25
DONETTA
When Donetta left Phillip the first message, she hadn’t been too concerned that her call had gone straight to voice mail. She’d known that he’d been in the middle of some sort of family drama when they’d briefly spoken earlier, so she’d kept her message short and simple, asking him to call her when he got a moment. But after several hours went by and she still hadn’t heard from him, she’d begun to worry. She left him another message, this time more detailed, letting him know she was worried and that she hoped everything with him and his family was okay. She knew that when he listened to the message he would hear the desperation in her voice, because despite trying to hide it, that was exactly how she’d felt, desperate and vulnerable. She longed to hear from him and be with him. The feeling had both excited and frightened her.
Geneva had texted her an hour ago to see how her conversation with Phillip had gone.
Geneva: Hey girl, how did it go? Is everything all right?
Donetta: Left him a message but haven’t heard back . Will let you know when I do.
Geneva: Okay, don’t worry, everything will work out. I’m praying for you.
Donetta was glad she had Geneva in her corner, because no matter what Phillip’s reaction might be, Donetta knew that her best friend would be there to either rejoice with her or wipe her tears.
She’d remained perched by her phone and her television all afternoon, watching news coverage of the unexpected record snowfall hitting Amber, and anticipating Phillip’s call. Now it was dark outside, and she finally decided to stop moping because it wouldn’t make Phillip dial her number any sooner. “I need to cheer myself up,” she’d said, “and I need to turn lemons into a lemonade martini.” She walked into her kitchen, pulled a lemon from her crisper and vodka from her wine refrigerator, and within a few minutes, she was sipping a delicious drink.
She was off from work for the next six days, which meant she could relax. She had a refrigerator and a pantry full of food, which meant she could eat good meals. And she had a huge supply of firewood, which meant she was going to be nice and cozy whether it was Phillip or her fireplace keeping her warm. She walked back to her living room and looked around. She needed something to do to occupy her mind and time. “This is a perfect time to pamper myself.”
Donetta took a long, hot shower, washed her hair, and gave herself a facial that made her glow with radiance. She smoothed sweetly scented body butter over her skin, layered it with one of her Victoria’s Secret perfume mists, and then slipped on a brightly colored silk negligee and matching robe. “I might not have a man who I can look good for, but I can damn sure look good for myself,” she said as she peered into the mirror and applied her cocoa-tinted lip gloss to her perfect pout. She ran her hands through her wavy, freshly air-dried hair, looked into the mirror again, and blew herself a kiss. “Girl, you look fabulous, you know that?”
Donetta walked into her kitchen and started taking out ingredients to make a savory pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions. After she finished prepping the dish, she put it in the oven to let it slow-roast, and then took out a pack of noodles to boil once the roast was close to being done. She opened a bottle of red wine, poured herself a glass, and went into her living room to relax in front of her cozy fireplace.
She was about to switch the channel on her TV from the weather to HGTV, when her doorbell rang. “Who in the world could that be?”
Donetta looked through her living room window and didn’t see a car out front that would indicate she had a
visitor. As a matter of fact, her street was blanketed with snow from one end to the other and there wasn’t a vehicle in sight, save for a few of her neighbors’ who’d opted to leave their cars parked in their driveways, rather than their garages. But as she looked closer, with the help of the streetlights, she saw a set of tracks through her front yard leading up to her door. She thought it must be one of her neighbors stopping by to either check on her or borrow some food staples to help them while they were snowed in.
Donetta walked to her door, looked through the peephole, and couldn’t believe her eyes. She opened her front door so quickly she nearly knocked herself over. “Phillip, what are you doing here?”
“It’s nice to see you, too,” he said as he panted and huffed. “Can I come in?”
Donetta moved to the side and let him in, along with a rush of arctic-like air. His jeans were soaked from the waist down, and his shoes were covered in snow. He removed the bag he’d strapped across his body and let it fall to the floor. He was shivering, and his teeth were chattering.
“How did you get here?” Donetta asked. “I’ve been watching the news and they said the roads are impassable.”
Phillip peeled out of his coat and let it fall to the floor alongside his bag. “Yeah, they’re right. I had to leave my car parked off the exit leading to your neighborhood.”
Donetta blinked. “That’s about two miles away.”
“Tell me about it. It’s a good thing I work out every day, because it was a rough walk getting here. Some of the snow drifts were taller than me, and I fell in one. It was hell crawling out of that thing, that’s why I’m wet from head to toe.”
“Oh no. Come on, you need to get warmed up.”
Donetta and Phillip walked into her living room and stood in front of her fireplace.
“You have no idea how good this feels,” Phillip said. “It took me over an hour to get here from the time I left my car. For a minute I thought I was in real trouble because it’s freezing and the wind and heavy snow made it hard to see. But I knew if I could make it here before it got completely dark, I’d be okay.”
Deadly Satisfaction Page 20
