by Tina Martin
Barringer bit into the thick, beefy taco and took a napkin to clean up around his mouth.
Everson had taken the same, all-in approach, just with a hard shell taco.
Barringer washed down the first bite with a gulp of Sprite, then when he couldn’t hold it in any longer, he said, “Man, I’ma just come right out and ask. Are you cheating on June?”
Everson was prepping for another bite when Barringer hit him with the question. A look of exasperation and embarrassment took over his features. He dropped the taco in the plate and wiped his mouth again. “I cannot believe Bryson told you anyway after he said he wouldn’t.” Everson slammed his napkin on the table.
Barringer’s eyebrows peaked. “You are cheating on June?”
“No! I would never cheat on my wife. I told Bryson something in confidence and he assured me he’d keep it to himself, but clearly he’s told you.”
“Bryson didn’t tell me anything.”
Confusion paled Everson’s face. “Then how did…why did you ask me if I was cheating?”
“Because I watched you walk into a restaurant with a woman who wasn’t your wife unless June dyed her hair black, grew a few inches taller and one size thicker.”
Everson shook his head. That’s all he could do.
“Yeah, I was there,” Barringer said. “Cali saw you, too, and I have to say, it was quite disturbing to see my brother kiss a woman who wasn’t his wife. Real disturbing.”
“It wasn’t like that, man.”
“Your lips touched her face. What was it like? You’re telling everybody you’re in the ‘A’, lying to June and low and behold, you’re at the beach with some desperate looking side-chick eating crab legs and whatnot. I don’t care how bad things were between me and Cali. I have never set my eyes, put my hands, lips or anything else on another woman, and I never will. You know why Everson? Because I love my wife, no matter what. When she packed her bags and moved out, I still loved her. And it didn’t cross my mind to be with another woman.”
“It wasn’t what it looked like,” Everson said. “The woman you saw me with…I know her. You might recall her, too. Her name is Eliana…she was my girlfriend back in high school.”
“Oh, so you lied to your wife so you could spend time with an old girlfriend? And you think just because she’s an old girlfriend, it makes what you did, right?”
Exasperated, Everson said, “Why does it seem like you’re taking this personal, Barry?”
“Because I am taking it personal. How can you be so stupid, Everson?”
Everson pushed his plate away. “I can explain.”
“Do you think that line would fly with June? I can see you packing your bags now, looking for somebody’s couch to crash on.”
“Jeez. Will you give me a chance to talk?” Everson said, testy.
Barringer leaned back in his chair. “Yeah. Talk.”
“Thank you,” Everson said, frowning. “Not that I owe you an explanation, but she, Eliana, works for a company I contracted with out of Atlanta. We worked together for two weeks and all those memories of what we used to be started coming back. She asked me to stay at the beach with her for the weekend. I know it was wrong, but I did it. We stayed in separate rooms and hung out.”
“Hung out? What the—?”
“Look, it is what it is, Barry.”
“Did you sleep with this woman?” Barringer inquired.
“No. We talked, reminisced. Had dinner.”
“And I’m sure if June wanted to meet up with a guy to reminisce, you’d be cool with that.”
Irritation flashed on Everson’s face. “Can I not talk to my brothers without being scolded? I know what I did was questionable—”
“It wasn’t questionable. It was wrong,” Barringer interrupted him to clarify.
“Okay. It was wrong, but I didn’t sleep with her. Alright? Is that satisfactory enough for you?”
“Don’t ask me. Ask June.” Barringer shot back.
Everson sighed, no longer interested in continuing the conversation, the same as he wasn’t interested in eating. “What are the odds that you and Cali would be at the same restaurant as me?”
Barringer started on another taco, looking at his brother. He couldn’t imagine what was going through his head, and he didn’t want to pass judgment. Everybody had problems. People had their own way of dealing with those problems. He did, however, felt he needed to be stern so his brother could see the error of his ways instead of foolishly continuing on the same course.
“So you have nothing else to say?” Everson asked.
“I don’t know what else to say, Everson. I don’t even know why I’m so disappointed. After all, it’s your life, right?”
Everson smirked. “My life,” he mumbled. He took a sip of water, perplexed. “My life is falling apart, Barry.”
Barringer lifted a brow. “Falling apart? Man, you are probably the most together out of all of us.”
“No, that would be Bryson. Even after his divorce.”
“Even still, you’re not miserable. You didn’t join the family business. Like Bryson, you went out and did your own thing, and you’ve been successful at it. You have a beautiful wife, a nice home…why are you unsatisfied with your life?”
“That’s the thing—I’m not unsatisfied.”
“You have to be if you’re spending the weekend at the beach with another woman. June doesn’t do it for you anymore?”
“She does. She’s everything.” Everson looked towards the ceiling and blew a breath. “Seeing Eliana just made me remember all those feeling I used to have for her. I thought she was the one. No, I knew she was the one. When she moved, I fell apart.”
“And now, you’re wondering what if?”
“Something like that. And, I learned this weekend that she has a son.” Everson took the photo of Jaxson from his shirt pocket, handing it to Barringer.
Barringer quickly wiped his hands before touching the picture. His eyes grew bigger as he stared at it. He glanced up at Everson, then at the picture again. “I’m afraid to ask. Is this your son, Everson?”
“I haven’t done a DNA test yet, but—”
“From the looks of it, you don’t have to. Wow! You have a son?”
“One I didn’t know about for fourteen years.”
“I take it June doesn’t know any of this?”
“No. I have to keep it that way until I find a way to tell her.”
“Dang.” Barringer shook his head. “You have a son. Does Bryson know about this?”
“Yeah. I told him.”
“So, Bryson knows everything…even about where you spent the weekend and who you spent the weekend with? All that?”
“Yep. I told him.”
“Then maybe we can put our heads together and help you out.”
“I appreciate that, but I’ll figure something out. I just need to get through this family dinner first.”
“If it’ll help, we can move the dinner to our house. That way, it’ll be one less thing off of your plate. I’m sure Cali wouldn’t mind.”
“Thanks, Barry, but I got it. Everything will work out.”
Chapter 11
June parked her white Beemer in an empty parking stall in front of the cleaners, then gathered the clothes from the backseat. Along with Everson’s shirts, suits and pants, she had a few dresses that needed cleaning. Walking into the establishment, she placed an armful of clothes on the spacious counter and blew a breath.
“Good morning, Mrs. Blackstone,” the owner said cheerfully, a Vietnamese-American man in his late fifties. Short. Slightly balding.
“Whew—hey, Mr. Seoul. I have another drop off as you can see.”
“I see. I see. Yes. You keep me in business, I tell ya.”
June laughed. “My husband was out of town this weekend so I wanted to go ahead and get his clothes cleaned.”
“Sure. Sure. Good wife. When do you want to pick up?” Mr. Seoul asked, examining the garments, removing a piece o
f paper from one of Everson’s sports jackets, handing it to June.
“Oh, thanks,” she said, taking it, not giving it a second look. “There’s no rush on these. I’ll pick them up whenever they’re ready.”
“Okay. I give you a ticket. One moment.” Mr. Seoul proceeded with filling out a slip for the drop off.
Humming while she waited, June fiddled with the paper in her hand before glancing at it. Typically, she’d put anything she found in Everson’s pockets in her purse and leave it on a table at home or his nightstand. This time she unfolded the paper and looked at it. Read it. Frowned. It was a receipt from this past weekend. From his hotel. Oceans Resort in north Myrtle Beach.
“Wait...Myrtle Beach?” she said quietly. “I thought he was in Atlanta this past weekend.” She looked at the date to make sure she was seeing it correctly. She was. It was from the weekend. He’d checked in on Friday. Checked out Monday.
“Mrs. Blackstone?”
She looked up at Mr. Seoul. “Yes.”
“Here’s your ticket,” he said handing it to her.
“Oh. Okay. Thanks. Thank you,” she said, discombobulated for a moment.
“Are you all right?”
“Fine,” she said. “I’m—I’m fine. Thank you.” She walked out of the cleaners and sat in her car. Just sat there, staring at the paper in her hand.
Oceans Resort.
Myrtle Beach.
One thing she knew for certain – Everson had lied. Her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her. He told her he was in Atlanta this weekend. Why lie if he was really in another city altogether?
She intended on finding out. As his wife, she had a right to know, didn’t she? Especially after her intuition told her something was amiss. Now this? A receipt to a Myrtle Beach resort?
“Okay, one thing at a time, June,” she said, folding the paper, stuffing it in the side pocket of her bag. Then she started the car.
She found herself lost on the drive to Kalina’s office. She was coherent enough to drive, but like an automaton, she was just performing a task. Several times, she got honked at for sitting at a green light too long and she even hit the curb as she approached Kalina’s office and tore it up again while she attempted to parallel park.
After taking a much-needed breath, she opened the door, walked up to the house – Kalina’s old house where her office was still located – and headed up the stairs.
“June, is that you?” Kalina called out to ask.
“Yep. It’s me.” Once she was at the top of the loft, she said, “It’s been a while since I’ve been in here. Where’s Lizette today?” she asked, glancing at Lizette’s workstation.
“She’s off today,” Kalina said, typing the ending to a blog post she’d been working on. “She’ll be back tomorrow.”
“I’ll just take her chair, then.” June sat down and watched Kalina while she typed. Kalina’s hair was styled into a French roll with a curly side bang. She always had herself together. She ran a successful business, had the perfect body and a new husband – she was proof that women could have it all which had her thinking about how she wanted that – a career – but Everson liked her being at home.
“June?”
June blinked quickly, focusing in on Kalina now. “Yes?”
“Girl,” Kalina chuckled. “You zoned out on me. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, girl. I’m fine.”
Kalina quirked up a brow. “If you’re fine, what did I just ask you?”
“You asked if I was okay.”
“No, before that.”
June thought for a moment. “Okay. I don’t know.”
“Exactly. You were out.”
June placed her purse on Lizette’s desk.
“Dish,” Kalina said. “Something’s wrong. I can feel the tension floating around in my otherwise drama-free workspace.”
“Okay. Something is wrong, and I don’t want to make it a big deal, but—”
“Just tell me what Everson did,” Kalina said.
June chuckled.
“Whenever there’s something wrong with a woman, there’s guaranteed to be a man in the mix somewhere.”
“You’re right about that,” June said. “Do you remember me telling you that Everson was in Atlanta this weekend?”
“Yeah, and that he was acting weird about the trip like he didn’t want you to come.”
“Right.”
“Did you talk to him about it?” Kalina queried.
“No. I just dropped off our dry cleaning before I came here and I found this in Everson’s coat jacket.” June handed the paper to her.
Kalina took it, scanned it over. “Okay. A receipt to a hotel...what’s wrong with this? He was out of town.”
“Look at city the hotel is in, Kalina.”
Eyes glued to the paper, Kalina’s eyes got brighter as they zoomed in on the city – Myrtle Beach. She frowned. “Myrtle Beach? He was supposed to be in Atlanta which means—”
“He lied to me,” June said. She stood up, rubbing her throbbing temples while she paced the floor. “Why would he do that?”
Kalina found herself in a place where she didn’t want to be – in the middle of other people’s drama. Calista told her that she and Barringer saw Everson in Myrtle Beach with a woman, but she couldn’t break Calista’s trust by telling June anything about what Calista had told her. At the same time, she felt sorry for June. How was she going to handle this?
“Ummm…” Kalina said, trying to think up a response. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I guess now you know why he didn’t want you to come.”
“Yeah, but it still doesn’t explain why he lied, Kalina. Unless…”
“No,” Kalina responded quickly as if reading her thoughts. “You don’t think there’s someone else, do you?”
June didn’t respond right away – not a good sign, and Kalina could see her mind working overtime. June loved her husband, but she wasn’t stupid. If he lied regarding his whereabouts, it must have been for a reason, and the most obvious reason was being up to no good—or in other words, sneaking around behind her back with some worthless heffa. Maybe that’s why it had been so difficult to reach him. Why he couldn’t respond to her text messages.
“Okay, June...let me be team Everson for a minute. Everson loves you.”
“I know.’’
“He adores you.”
June nodded.
“He’d do anything for you.”
“No. He does everything for me, which is probably the very reason he’s cheating on me.”
“You don’t know that, June—” Kalina paused when June sat down again, burying her face in her hands. “I’m certain there’s an explanation for this and you won’t know what that is until you talk to Everson.”
Releasing a breath, June said, “I—I don’t know what to do.”
“Talk to him June,” Kalina said, rolling her executive chair closer to June. “There’s no need to beat yourself up with worry when you don’t know what’s going on. He’s home right now, isn’t he?”
“Don’t know. He texted me and said he was meeting Barry for lunch.”
Knots tightened in Kalina’s stomach. If Everson was meeting with Barringer, she knew Barringer would bring up the subject of Myrtle Beach. Calista said Barringer wanted to handle the situation. Is that what he was doing now? Handling it?
“Well, we can figure out how to write this post later on. I think it’s important right now that you handle this situation first.”
“No,” June said. “Let’s just proceed. I’m already here now.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, June. You’re not focused enough, and that’s okay. We’ll pick up on this later. We have time. Your marriage takes priority. Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay,” June said, in a daze. “My God, Kalina. What if he’s actually cheating on me? What am I going to do?”
“Listen, June,” Kalina said, touching her thigh. “I think it’s important that you talk to him instead
of dwelling on something that may not have even happened. It’ll be okay. Alright?”
June nodded, then stood up.
Kalina stood up too and embraced June. “Are you okay to drive home? You look a little dazed.”
“I’m fine.” June bent down to take her purse from the floor.
“Call me later.”
“I will.” Mind clouded, she headed downstairs, then outside. She started her car, sat there a moment thinking, then slowly drove off.
Chapter 12
This was perhaps the most insecure she’d ever felt pulling up to her house, pressing the garage door opener, not knowing what the state of her marriage would be within a few minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. Everson had been the constant in her life for a long time and was there for her – a crutch when she had to endure the first anniversary of her mother’s passing. He was a good provider, always making sure she had whatever she needed. And the way he made love to her made her blush just thinking about it. It was more than enough love to make her feel like she was the only woman he could ever want. Maybe that was his specialty.
She knew who she was marrying – a reformed player – keyword being reformed meaning he was no longer a player and that he’d transformed his life and changed his ways to be with her. At least she hoped he’d given up those player tendencies to dedicate himself to her and their marriage. When they were dating, she could recall him telling her that he had no interest in marriage. And when she told him she did and held firmly to that conviction, he didn’t like it but eventually caved. He didn’t want to let a good woman go. But maybe he should have, especially if he wasn’t done playing the field.
June sighed, shut off her car, then pressed the button to close the garage door. She quickly tried to devise a plan on what to do concerning the incriminating hotel receipt she had in her possession. A frontal attack would be too much for her to handle. Actually, it would seem accusatory if this was all just a big misunderstanding. She had to find out what she needed to know by more subtle means, by talking to him the way she normally would.