Chapter 5
Nikki turned to William. “Look, I need to run by Danielle's for a sec. I think I hurt her feelings about something.”
“You pay more attention to her than you do your own sister,” William said.
“Well, she is my best friendâjust like a sister,” Nikki said. She had been surprised when the much prettier woman wanted to be friends way back during their freshman year of college. But Nikki quickly realized that as outwardly put together as she was, Danielle needed a friend. And living in a strange city, Nikki had need for one as well. She had moved to New Orleans from Houston not knowing much about the city, except this school offered her a scholarship and a chance to shoot pictures.
“I'm just saying. Every time that girl calls, you go running,” William said. “She needs to realize you have a life and can't go traipsing all across town all hours of the night. You need to be at home with your family.”
Nikki kissed William on the forehead. “I'll be right back.”
“Okay, well, I'll make Psalm get her bath and go to sleep.” A mischievous sparkle lit William's eye. “So maybe when you get back, I'll have something waiting for you.”
“Hmm,” Nikki said, sidling up to her husband. “Will it be something . . . big?”
William smiled. “You just get ready. And don't do too much while you're out. You're going to need all your energy when you get back.”
“Is that a promise?”
“You bet,” he said, bending to kiss her. She slapped him on the rear and grabbed the keys to the Mazda Protégé they shared.
Fifteen minutes later, Nikki was letting herself into Danielle's spacious two-bedroom condo with the key Danielle had given her when she moved in two years ago. “Hey, Danny Boo, how are you?” Nikki employed the nickname she used when her friend was upset with her.
She found Danielle curled on the couch with the remote in her hand and a box of cookies on the floor. Danielle gave no indication that she heard her friend, so Nikki lifted the woman's legs from the sofa and sat down, placing Danielle's legs on her lap. “I'm sorry I couldn't talk to you earlier,” she said.
“It's okay,” Danielle pouted.
“You know if something is wrong with you, I want to know about it.”
“I know you have your perfect little family, and can't be bothered with me and my little problems,” Danielle sulked.
“It's not even like that, and you know it.”
“Remember how we used to talk? We both said we'd never be one of those women who kicked their friends to the curb for a man,” Danielle reminded Nikki.
“I didn't kick you to the curb.”
“Right.” Danielle's tone was dry.
“I didn't. I just had to pay attention to my husband for a minute. He had a stressful day. I was going to call you back.”
“You didn't know if I had an emergency or something,” Danielle said. “I'm always there for you. I would never just kick you off the phone if I knew something was wrong.”
“Come on, sis, I asked if you were okay,” Nikki reminded her friend. “You said you were all right.”
“Well, you could tell from my voice that I was lying.”
Nikki sighed. “Look, Danielle, you can't be so sensitive. You know I love you like a sister. We've been tight for almost ten years. I would never push you aside.”
“Humph.”
“I wanted to share a Word with you,” Nikki said, pulling a devotional and tiny Bible from her purse.
Danielle held up her hand. “Girl, I am not in the mood.”
“It'll make you feel better,” Nikki coaxed.
“I know everything in that book.” Danielle waved off the Bible. “I go to church just like you doâmaybe not as often, but I do go sometimes. So I don't need you coming over here trying to preach to me.”
“I'm not trying to preach to you,” Nikki said. “I'm just trying to minister to you.”
“Girl, please,” Danielle snapped. “I was quoting the Bible before you were ever even saved. I certainly don't need you trying to tell me how to live. Remember, I know who you really are, so don't try to act like you're all holy in front of me.”
Nikki looked down at her hands, then back up at her friend. “You didn't have to say that,” Nikki said quietly. “Look, I know I'm not perfect. And I know you knew God way before I ever knew anything about the Bible.”
“Yeah. So put your little devotional up,” Danielle said, waving her hand in a dismissive fashion. “I don't need to get preached to by someone who has no room to tell me anything.”
Nikki bit her lip. “I have no right to tell you how to live your life. I know that. I didn't grow up in a church. And I didn't have some of the experiences you had, always being around the Word.”
“Exactly,” Danielle interrupted. “My mama was always quoting some scripture whenever she wanted to get us to do something. Always dragging us to somebody's church service. I learned all that stuff while you were off being raised in your heathen family, so I don't need to hear it from you.”
Nikki winced. “I wasn't raised in a
heathen
family. We just weren't very religious. But I can't change all that. All I can do is try and minister to you today. All I want to do is encourage you.”
“Well, the only encouragement I need is for you to answer when I call you on the phone.” Danielle's tone was sharp.
“Look, I will put the devotional up for now.” Nikki shoved it back into her purse. “But I'm not going to let you talk to me like that. I came over here to help you. And I am here for you. Now will you let me be your friendâyour sisterâright now?”
Danielle didn't say anything, but Nikki could tell she was thawing. “Besides, I brought you something.” She pulled a bag of Danielle's favorite candy, jellybeans, from her pocket. Nikki tickled her friend's foot. “Now, stop being a baby.”
Her icy mood thawed and Danielle took the candy with a half smile. “Old meanie.”
“Big baby.”
Nikki twisted to get comfortable on the couch. “So. Tell me what happened.”
Danielle dug her hand into the bag of candy and pulled out a palm full of jellybeans. She shoved them into her mouth, sniffling hard to keep from crying. “I think Troy is seeing that woman again,” she said.
“Who?”
Danielle rolled her eyes. “The girl he was seeing when we started talking.”
Nikki raised a brow. “Oh, yeah,” she recalled. “Well, I told you to leave him alone, anyway. He's not any good for you. Besides, do you really want someone you picked up while he was putting gas in his girlfriend's car in the first place?”
“
Ex
-girlfriend,” Danielle reminded her friend tartly.
Danielle had met Troy six months ago at the gas station as she sashayed across the parking lot when he called to her, complimenting her on how good her legs looked in her short red silk Gucci dress and Prada heels. Danielle had been instantly taken with him: his dark skin, tall, muscled frame and the shiny convertible he was driving. She later found out the convertible belonged to his girlfriend, but that didn't matter when he told Danielle he had ditched the other woman for her.
“Well, whatever,” Nikki said. “Either way, he's a jerk.”
“He's not!” Danielle smarted under the insult to her man.
“Well, if he isn't, then why are you over here crying, thinking he is fooling around?”
“Because . . .” Danielle said, then retorted. “Look, you wouldn't understand. It's been so long since you've been with anyone besides old William.”
“Okay, so?”
“So, you don't know anything about anything.”
“Well, I know enough to see when someone is getting played,” Nikki said, waving off her friend's disparaging remark. “You're a beautiful girl. You're smart. Why do you keep dating these losers?”
“If you came over here to talk about me, you know where the door is,” Danielle said. She had always known she was prettier than her friend, and that was part of why they were such good friends. Nikki never tried to compete with her, not like some of the other women Danielle knew.
Danielle was five foot eleven with light, golden brown hair that hung past her shoulders and was carefully highlighted with honey blond, to perfectly complement her skin that was the color of milk-diluted coffee. She had put on more weight since college, but still had a good figure, with voluptuous breasts, a small waist and round rear.
“I'm just saying,” Nikki said. “You deserve better.”
“Don't worry about what I deserve,” Danielle said.
Nikki could tell Danielle was slipping back into the mood she had been in when Nikki arrived, so she tried to change the subject. “Do you remember that time we almost got arrested when we went to the community college to visit that guy you were seeing? What was his name?”
“You're talking about Scooter?” Danielle smiled at the recollection.
Their freshman year, Danielle and Nikki sneaked into the dorm room of Danielle's newest beau and hung out late into the night. They bolted out the window when the resident assistant banged on the door, insisting he heard girls' voices. The security guard saw them crawl out the window and yelled at them, causing the girls to break into a run. They outran the rotund man who hobbled after them for maybe a few feet and stopped, out of breath, gasping at them to come back as he threatened them with a box of chicken and waffles in one hand and a flashlight at his waist.
“Yeah, that was some funny stuff.” Danielle dissolved into giggles at the memory. “You remember that fat man's stomach looking like it was going to explode out of his shirt?” she guffawed. “Looking like a wave of wobbling Jell-O. I know he didn't think he was going to catch us.”
“Yeah, girl, those were the days.” Nikki laughed, glad her friend's mood had lifted.
“Back then, we wouldn't be sitting around crying over some stupid man,” Danielle said, chewing on a mouthful of the sticky candy. “I had men for days. Everywhere I looked somebody was asking for my number.”
“Yeah, you were it,” Nikki said. “But you still are. Don't let this guy get you down. He's not worth your time.”
“Yeah, you're right. He's not worth my time. He should be begging me to take him back.”
Chapter 6
Nikki arrived back home to a darkened living room. She carefully placed her keys on the cherry wood table next to the door and tiptoed into Psalm's bedroom, where she found the child asleep in her canopied bed, her teddy bear in her arms. She leaned in and kissed Psalm's temple and stood over her, watching the child's chest move up and down as she slept. This child was Nikki's treasure.
She then walked to her own bedroom. Nikki burst out laughing when she saw her husband lying across the bed in red, silk boxers, giving her his best mock seductive look, with an exaggerated licking of his lips.
“What is this supposed to be?” Nikki asked, pointing.
William pretended to be offended. “I'm sexy, girl, I don't know what you're talking about.” He threw an overstated kiss in her direction.
“You are sexy, baby,” Nikki cooed stepping out of her dress, her zebra print bra and panties her only adornment.
She remembered how Danielle had thought William was goofy their first time meeting him, but Nikki had found his lankiness and boyish smile endearing. And he had filled out nicely as he got older, though he was still angular. He was long and lean, with butterscotch skin and teeth like those seen only in toothpaste commercials. He kept his hair shaved close and neat. William was the suit-wearing type. During his more casual moments, he wore khakis and loafers. He steered clear of throw-back jerseys and low-hanging jeans. He didn't have the animal magnetism or the jump-up-and-look-at-me handsomeness of some, but Nikki liked his clean-cut features. And she loved knowing she was secure.
William pulled her into his embrace, unhooking her bra at the same time. He kissed her mouth softly, then with more force. He leaned into her neck, breathing in the scent of her hair and skin, which still smelled faintly of peach blossomed shower gel. “You are so beautiful,” he said.
William always made Nikki feel special
.
Most of the other guys she had met prior to him either were immediately drawn to her much prettier friend, or, if they liked Nikki, they didn't make her feel the way William had.
He explored her body as if for the first time, kissing her skin and letting his hands roam in all the places he knew she liked them to find. When she tried to reach for him to reciprocate, he gently pushed her back down. “Just relax,” he said as she felt his breath on her neck.
They heard a muffled sound from Psalm's room and both instantly froze for a split second to listen for more. “She's still sleeping,” Nikki whispered. Relieved they had not awakened their daughter, they continued the marital dance that never got old.
Afterward, they snuggled together, Nikki's head on her husband's chest. She lifted so she could look into his eyes. “I love you so much.”
“I know what you love,” he said and bit her ear.
She giggled. “Well, that too,” she smiled, stroking him. “But seriously, I really do love you.”
“I love you more.” He let his fingers make lazy circles on her arm.
“I love you more than more,” she said.
“I love you more than more than more.” He kissed the top of her head. She giggled. But he had a strangely serious expression. “I'm for real. I thank God every day for you.”
“Why are you so serious all of a sudden?” Nikki said. “Lighten up. I know you love me.”
“No, baby, listen.” William shifted so she could see him clearly. He cupped her chin in his hand. “I know you could have had anybody, somebody with more money, a nicer house, two cars. I really thought we would have been further along by now. I'm sorry for not being able to give youâ”
Nikki put her finger to his mouth. “Shhh. Don't do that. We're in this together. I know you didn't plan on the computer business going bust, but it did. And it hasn't been easy, but we've made it. Baby, we made it when all those folks told us we wouldn't last seven months, let alone seven years.”
“Do you regret getting married so young?” She heard the uncertainty in his voice.
“Not a single day,” Nikki said, and a twinkle entered her eye. “Who else would I have this much fun with?” She shifted her position and pulled his face to hers, kissing his cheek. “Of course, I'll be glad when we get out of some of this debt.”
William sighed. “Yeah, I know the feeling. But don't even worry about it. We're just doing what we need to for now, but our day is coming.”
“I know, but sometimes I get scared,” Nikki said. “This houseâ” she waved her hand in the air.
William put his finger to her lips. “Shhh,” he said. “It's all right.”
“I know,” Nikki snuggled closer. “I know you've taken care of everything and always will.”
“You got that right.”
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A piercing, pain-filled shriek jolted Nikki awake at 4:00
A.M.
and she sprang from the bed, pulling on her husband's T-shirt in the same movement. She raced to Psalm's bedroom, with a groggy William at her heels, jerking on shorts.
“Baby, baby, Mommy's here,” Nikki cuddled Psalm to her chest. The screaming got louder. “What's wrong?”
William flicked on the light. “Does something hurt?” he asked the wailing child.
Psalm's mouth was open wide and large tears flooded her cheeks.
“I thought it was a nightmare but these are real tears, and she's hot,” Nikki said.
William got some children's medicine, but nothing seemed to work. No matter how much they held her, Psalm's wails continued.
“Baby, can you tell Mama what's wrong?” Nikki tried to sound calm, but panic made her voice crack.
Psalm seemed not to be able to get the words out, but she clutched at her stomach.
“Is it your tummy?” Nikki asked frantically, raising the child's shirt. She touched Psalm's abdomen, and the wails grew louder.
“Will, we've got to get her to the doctor,” Nikki said, rocking her daughter in her arms.
William didn't answer, but disappeared into their bedroom. “Put your clothes on, we're taking her to the hospital,” he said, emerging from the bedroom wearing jeans and sneakers.
“You think it's something bad?” Nikki asked, fear in her eyes. “I should have paid more attention to her earlier when she said her stomach was hurting. It's all my fault.”
“Whatever it is, the doctors can fix it.” William reached for Psalm. “I'll hold her while you get dressed.”
“I don't want to leave her,” Nikki shook her head. “Can you just pass me something?”
William grabbed underwear, jeans and one of her T-shirts. Nikki donned her clothing quickly, and they raced to the car, Nikki cradling the shrieking child to her chest.