Authors: Mary Monroe
Muh’Dear paused and laughed long and loud. I was so happy that she was happy. Especially given the hard life she’d endured and the fact that she’d raised me alone. “Your daddy is loungin’ on the beach, with a drink in each hand. And that Charlotte. That hardheaded scamp is in her room, whinin’, because she done already disturbed an eel and contracted the same rash that caused her so much misery on previous trips to the islands.”
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“Muh’Dear, I’m glad you all made it to the islands safe and sound, and I’m glad you’re having such a good time. But let me tell you something real quick. Jade’s getting married in a couple of weeks.
I just found out,” I blurted.
“Aw, shuck it! I hope Rhoda and Otis don’t expect us to cut our vacation short to come home for that. You know I don’t like that little jezebel no way. I loved her to death when she was a little girl, but she grew up to be a stone-cold heifer,” my mother hissed. “Let me go tell Frank what you just told me and see what he wants to do. Shoot!”
“Don’t you dare come back home for that!” I ordered. “I don’t even know if I am going to that wedding myself.”
“Oh? Well, do us a favor and don’t tell Rhoda or Otis you even talked to me or Frank. Matter of fact, if they ask about us, tell them we will be out on somebody’s boat for the next two weeks. Make that the next three weeks, in case they delay the weddin’ on account of us. And if they delay it even more, tell them you can’t get in touch with us at all.”
I looked at Pee Wee and pointed to the telephone. He promptly shook his head and held up his hand. Muh’Dear made a few more rhetorical comments. Before she hung up, she complained about Jade some more, her arthritis, and about having to clean the fish that my daddy had caught that morning.
“Muh’Dear said to tell you everything is going fine for them down there,” I told Pee Wee. “And in case Rhoda or Otis asks you if they can make it to Jade’s wedding, tell them that they are on somebody’s boat and can’t be reached. And make sure you say that they can’t be reached
indefinitely.
”
He gave me a blank look and shrugged. “Whatever you say.” That was the last thing my husband said to me before I left for work.
From all the smiles that greeted me when I got to the office, I decided that the Monday luncheon had gone well. I could see that everybody was busy making calls and dodging some of the colorful assaults that they received from almost every delinquent debtor they called.
“Annette, I hope you are feeling better,” Gloria Watson told me as she handed me a stack of folders. “You still look a little peaked, though. Maybe you should have taken today off, too.”
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“I’m feeling much better, thank you,” I said with a cough. “Uh, did I miss anything important yesterday?”
“Girl, you missed a hella good lunch yesterday.” Gloria followed me into my office and stood in front of my desk as I plopped down.
“We had all kinds of Chinese goodies. Who would have thought that a restaurant run by black folks could offer that much diversity?
That Louis Baines sure knows his stuff, don’t he?”
I gave Gloria a noncommittal look. “He sure does. Oh, on the same subject, please call Hannah and tell her to send all the invoices from Louis Baines directly to me,” I instructed. “From now on.”
Gloria hesitated so long, I glanced up at her with a slightly impatient look on my face. “Oh? Did she lose another invoice again?”
she asked.
“Uh, not that I am aware of. But since this is a new account, I’d like to give it my personal attention.” I cleared my throat and glanced at my nails.
“And it’s an important account, too. Them oxtails over fried rice that we had for lunch yesterday were screaming.” Gloria swooned and rolled her eyes. “Girl, the only time I eat this good is when I visit my grandma or my ex’s mama. I have to put up with all kinds of foolishness from them just so I can get me a good meal. This is . . .
this is perfect, Annette. This is way better than us having office picnics and them dull Christmas parties. And Off the Hook is
off the
hook.
”
“Well, you all deserve it,” I proclaimed. “I just wish I had thought about sponsoring the Monday lunches sooner.”
“What about the rest of the new accounts?”
“Huh? The other new accounts? What about them?” Gloria’s question had startled me. However, it was a reasonable thing for her to ask.
“Yeah. Like the new office supplies vendor you decided to switch to.” There was a confused look on Gloria’s face.
“Uh, I’ll give them my personal attention, too,” I said, knowing I didn’t need any more work than I already had on my desk. But I was glad that Gloria had mentioned the other new accounts. This way it wasn’t so obvious that I was singling out Louis’s account.
Gloria nodded and folded her arms. She was so satisfied with herself that I could have knocked her over with a toothpick. I read 196
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her like a book, so I knew that she felt like she had a little more power in the office now that she and I were more civil to each other.
“You sounded like you were at death’s door when you called in yesterday morning. I hope you are feeling better. I prayed for you last night.”
“Thanks, Gloria,” I said, with another mild cough, trying not to overdo it.
“I got some cough drops in my desk,” she offered.
“Oh, don’t worry about me,” I told her, holding up my hand.
“I’ll be just fine.”
“Well, like I said, you still look a little peaked to me.” Gloria folded her arms and gave me a motherly look. “Now don’t you let this job get in the way of you taking care of your health. It’ll be here when we are all dead and gone.” She glanced around, then back at me, and said in a whisper, “These white folks wouldn’t jeopardize their health if we owned this company. We don’t need to do it for them.” She winked.
I chuckled and winked back. “Gloria, if I don’t feel any better by noon, I’ll go back home,” I said. That seemed to satisfy her, but she gave me another motherly look before she left my office.
There were already four messages on my voice mail. Two delinquent debtors had returned my calls just to tell me in no uncertain terms not to call them again. Rhoda had left an “urgent” message for me to call her ASAP. And Louis had called to say that he missed me and was “itching” to see me again.
I decided to return Rhoda’s call first. To my everlasting horror, Jade answered the phone.
“May I speak to your mother, please?” I asked in as nice a voice as I could manage.
“You don’t have to be so rude, Annette,” Jade retorted.
“I didn’t realize I was being rude,” I snapped.
“Look, lady, you need to loosen up. I don’t know why you just can’t get over that little prank I pulled last year. I have.”
“I’m sure you have, Jade. And believe it or not, I have, too. Now if you don’t mind, please put your mother on the phone, if she’s available.”
Jade took her time responding. “I heard you want to come to my wedding.” I didn’t have to be in the same room with her to see the GOD AIN’ T BLIND
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smirk on her face. I knew it was there, and I was certain that it was more severe than it usually was.
“Believe me, I don’t want to come. Your mother asked me to be there. But if you don’t want me there, I won’t come.”
Her response was a loud, exasperated groan. Suddenly, I heard a slap and then a whimper. From what I could determine, Rhoda had slapped Jade upside her hard head. That gave me a great deal of satisfaction. The next voice I heard belonged to Rhoda.
“Hey, girl,” Rhoda said. Her voice was so calm, I never would have guessed that she’d just slapped her daughter, had I not heard it with my own ears. “I really didn’t want to bother you about this, but I need your help. I’ve got a hundred invitations to send out, a million and one things to attend to before the wedding. Could you, uh, work with your friend Louis on the caterin’? At this point, he could serve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, for all I care. I just want you to make sure that whatever he serves, it’s somethin’
good. Work out all the details for me, please.”
“I can do that,” I said with fake eagerness.
“I spoke to Louis this mornin’, and he’s very excited about it. And because it’s such short notice, he’s goin’ to get a huge gratuity.”
“Will he be there to help serve and supervise?”
“Well, he didn’t really commit himself to that. But I have a feelin’
his attendance depends on you. And, you know I don’t like to beg, but you’d be doin’ me a huge favor by bein’ there. You
and
Pee Wee.”
“You can forget about Pee Wee,” I said quickly. “And my folks, too, for that matter. They are off somewhere on a boat and can’t be reached,” I lied.
“Well, I didn’t expect your folks to come back here just for a weddin’. Especially since my own parents can’t come, either. But I am sorry to hear that Pee Wee won’t be present. He’s Jade’s god-father, you know.”
“How could I forget?” I said dryly.
“What about you? Please tell me you’re still goin’ to be there for me!”
“I will,” I replied, almost biting off the tip of my tongue because I had such a hard time getting the words out. “I promise.”
C H A P T E R 4 0
Louis called me up before I left work and invited me to have dinner with him that night. I appreciated his offer, and as much as I wanted to be with him again, I reluctantly declined.
I didn’t know how long our romantic relationship was going to last, so I wanted to do everything I could think of to keep it fresh and exciting. I knew from experience that too much of a good thing too soon was not a good thing. Even though he had asked several times to see me more frequently, I didn’t want to get bored with him by seeing him too often. And I didn’t want him to get sick of seeing me. I decided that once or twice a week was enough for now.
Later in the week, I regretted not taking Louis up on his offer, because I didn’t see him the following Thursday, like we had planned.
And there was more than one reason for that. Rhoda was too busy planning Jade’s wedding, so I had not been able to catch up with her to coordinate our Thursday night bowling ruse.
With all the last-minute preparations and running around she had to deal with, she was too exhausted to go bowling that night she said when she finally did return one of my calls. And since she was my cover, I couldn’t use her as my alibi, in case Pee Wee went to the bowling alley when I was supposed to be there and wasn’t.
Ironically, he was the other reason I had chosen not to see Louis that Thursday night.
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I had called the barbershop during my lunch hour to give Pee Wee a message from his daughter and was told that he’d left for the day. As usual, I didn’t identify myself as his wife, and this time I didn’t even attempt to find out where he’d gone. My dear, sweet Rhoda supplied that information herself a half hour later. She could not have called me up at a better time. I had just concluded a particularly disturbing call. A debtor had threatened to come to my office and blow my brains out if I “harassed” him again about a bill he claimed he was unable to pay. The threat had come right after I told him that when I’d called his number a few days before, his roommate had informed me that he was “still on his Mediter-ranean cruise.” I had received numerous threats from debtors over the years. So far, none had carried out their threats, so I didn’t let this one scare me much, either. Besides, I had other more serious situations to be concerned about.
“Is Pee Wee feelin’ any better?” Rhoda wanted to know. “Did he make it home all right?”
“Better than what? What are you talking about?” I asked.
“I went to finalize the cake details at Joset’s Bakery a little while ago, and I saw him comin’ out of Dryer’s Drugstore next door. He told me that he’d left work because he was sick,” she said. “He had just picked up a prescription.”
I was immediately concerned, but I didn’t want to jump the gun.
I decided to make light of the news Rhoda had just shared with me.
“I bet it was some more Viagra,” I replied.
“Some more Viagra? Is he really usin’ that shit to perform?”
“He must be!” I exclaimed, my head throbbing and my ears ringing.
I still had no proof that my husband was seeing another woman, but trying to convince myself that he was made it easier for me to continue my behavior with Louis.
“Well, if he is seein’ another woman, she must be fuckin’ the livin’
hell out of his ass. He looked like Rasputin with lead poisonin’.”
“You should have seen him the day he came back from his alleged overnight fishing trip. He looked like roadkill.”
“Anyway, Jade changed her mind about the cake again. Now she wants angel food.”
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“That was her first choice,” I said, my voice rising. I wanted it to sound like I was a lot more concerned about Jade’s wedding cake than I was about my husband.
The truth of the matter was, I was truly concerned about him leaving work to go home because he didn’t feel well. I could not remember the last time he’d done that. I almost wished that Rhoda had not told me about him picking up a prescription. I wanted to believe that it was for Viagra and not something that I had to be worried about. I was concerned, but I was also curious. I wanted to know what was going on with my husband, but I knew that he was the only person who could tell me that. Well, I was now at a point where I was tired of guessing. I wanted to know what I was up against. What Pee Wee had to tell me would help me decide just how far I wanted to go with Louis.
He didn’t answer the telephone when I called our house five minutes after my conversation with Rhoda. I tried every fifteen minutes for the next two hours. Finally, I left the office and rushed home, praying I wouldn’t walk up on his corpse in my living room.
Or something much worse. Like him fucking another woman in my bed.
I drove like a bat out of hell, narrowly missing a tree. A few blocks after that, I made such a sharp turn at a corner, I almost hit a mailbox sitting on the curb. A few blocks later I almost hit a pedestrian who was taking his good old time crossing the street. I almost hit several other vehicles along the way. I wasn’t concerned about getting a few tickets, but I was concerned about causing a serious accident. Halfway to my house, I slowed down considerably. Turning on the radio helped; by the time I reached my street, I was fairly calm.