The Ex Chronicles

by Penelope Christian

  Let’s meet tonight for dinner, 7:00, Cafe Burgundy.

  Just as she knew he would, he replied: Anything you want.

  At six that evening, Paige sat patiently in the backseat of a cab in front of Christopher’s hotel. As much as she loved him, she’d decided that he was her past. Evan was her future and she had to let him know. By 6:30, there was no sign of Christopher, nor had he called or answered her texts.

  She began to wonder… did he change his mind? Did she herself make the right decision? Or maybe he got what he came for and wasn’t coming back.

  At 6:45, she checked her phone one last time in case she missed his text, but she hadn’t. Paige released a sigh of relief. She turned off her phone, placed it in her purse, wiped away a final tear and told the driver, “Take me to Cafe Burgundy on Park Boulevard.”

  ***

  The rain came down in a steady fall. As soon as Paige’s cab pulled off, Christopher exhaled. He’d been sitting in another cab across the street, watching her the entire time. He wanted so badly to get out and be with her, but he couldn’t. After watching Paige leave, he turned to his driver and said, “Take me to LaGuardia Airport.”

  As they pulled off, he glanced at his phone and re-read a text he received earlier that evening from Erika.

  I love you and I can’t wait ‘til you get home! We’re having a baby!

  “You can’t leave her hanging like that,” Christopher mumbled to himself as he sat waiting on his flight to California. He took a deep breath, picked up his phone and dialed Paige’s number. He held the phone close to his ear, waiting for her to answer. It rang… and rang… and finally he heard the familiar voice of the automated answering machine saying, “The person you’re trying to reach is unavailable… Memory Full!”

  Princis Lewis is a writer of short stories, poems, and plays. As a wife, mother and grandmother, she is creative and enjoys writing, designing, painting, and making arts & crafts. She earned her Master’s degree in Education, is actively involved in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and along with her husband Kenneth “Tony” is co-owner of Art & Soul Paint Studio in New Jersey.

  The Plot to Take Over Washington

  By Michelle Mitchell

  Tracee Hughes paced the length of the cherrywood floors in front of her friend, Charis Watts. She had all but chewed her nails down to the nub as she waited.

  “Ugh. Okay, so what do you think?” Tracee asked.

  “Don’t rush me,” Charis responded. “Go sit down. I can’t read with you hovering.”

  “I can’t sit still. Do you know how major this could be for me?”

  Tracee was interviewing to be the Director of Residence Life at Georgia Southern University. She had been a Resident Director for four years, and she was eager to be the one to add some diversity to the predominantly male, campus leadership.

  “Presentation looks great. I would put your talking points on another document and just use bullets to highlight your subjects.”

  “Thanks. Now, I need to make copies.”

  “About that—I forgot to buy ink.”

  “It was on the grocery list. How’d you miss that?”

  Charis began fiddling with her hair. “I didn’t make it to the store. I ran into Wallace and we went out for dinner.”

  “Really? So we don’t have ink or food? Wait, Wallace Washington?”

  “Yep,” Charis answered. “He finally asked me out. He said he was waiting for an opportunity to see me alone—since I’m always with you.”

  Tracee shook her head. She asked Charis not to date any of her coworkers. She did not want to wake up to anyone she worked with walking around the kitchen in their boxers. Plus, she couldn’t stand Wallace. They were friends—until Tracee got the attention of the higher-ups. When word got out that Tracee was being considered for a promotion, Wallace’s bigoted, alter-ego surfaced. Tracee overhead Wallace telling one of the men in the office that a woman should know her place, and that he would never work for a woman. She would never understand what Charis saw in him.

  “Why him? You know how I feel about mixing my life and work.”

  “Uh—last time I checked this was my life. Not yours, so you’ll just need to get into this because it’s happening.”

  Tracee grabbed her purse from the kitchen table, shaking her head in disgust.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing. I’m going to Staples.”

  Tracee walked out the door and got into her car. She could not believe that Charis went against her wishes. Tracee put the car in reverse, turning up the radio to try to help relax her mood. She rolled her eyes when the beat kicked in for TLC’s single, What About Your Friends.

  “My thoughts exactly,” Tracee mumbled.

  ####

  Charis sat on the sofa still looking toward the door that Tracee exited. She did not understand why Tracee thought she could tell her who to date. She turned back toward the laptop and realized that Tracee left her flash drive.

  Charis jumped up to try to catch Tracee, to no avail. She grabbed her cellphone to give Tracee a call.

  “Hello,” Tracee answered.

  “You left your flash drive. How far are you?”

  “Dang, far enough that I would hate to have to drive back. Listen, can you please load the file to Staples.com and request same day pick-up?”

  “Yeah. I’ll do it right now.”

  “Thanks…and sorry about earlier. It’s your life.”

  “It is my life. Glad you came to your senses. Who would I get to be my maid-of-honor?”

  “See. That’s what I’m talking about.”

  Charis laughed. “Lighten up, Tee. It was a joke. Well anyway, loading the file now.”

  “Thanks and that wasn’t funny.”

  ###

  Charis leaned over to tighten up the laces of her sneakers. She loved going for Saturday morning runs. She had been trying to get her roommate to join her, but Tracee was not into jogging.

  Charis had lost ten pounds since joining Black Girls Run and was starting to slim down in all of her problem areas. She still had her full hips and that nice dip going toward her round behind, but her waistline was almost snatched how she’d always wanted. She would be too fine by the summer time.

  Just as she was opening the door to leave, she ran into Wallace.

  “Oh—ouch,” she said, hitting her head on his raised arm.

  “I’m the one in pain,” he said, rubbing his elbow.

  They shared a laugh.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I thought I would come by and see if you wanted to grab breakfast.” He paused. “I’m not even gonna lie and say I was in the neighborhood cause I wasn’t.”

  Charis blushed. “Wow! I like it. A man who knows what he wants. Come on in.” She stepped aside. “I was just about to go for a run.”

  She smiled hard as she watched him look her over.

  “I can see that. I can wait while you change. That is…if you want to go?”

  “Absolutely. Let me go freshen up. The remote is on the table.”

  Charis could not believe how great things were going. They went from occasional flirting to two dates in the same week. She was going to have to put on her I’m-the-only-woman-you-need dress for this date. Tracee was clueless; this man was not here to play games. She may be asking her friend to be a maid-of-honor after all.

  As soon as Wallace heard the water running in the bathroom, he quickly stood and started looking around the room. While he thought Charis was nice, he was not into her. He knew Tracee and Charis were roommates and thought this was his chance to see what she had planned for her interview presentation.

  While he knew he could do the work, he knew that Tracee was an overachiever and she would stretch herself to impress the committee.

  He started in the kitchen and looked through some files on the table. No luck there.

  Wallace combed through the letters and papers on the desk by the entryway, but that proved to be another w
aste of time.

  Feeling defeated, he sat back down on the sofa, nearly knocking the laptop off the table with his knees.

  “No,” he said aloud. “It can’t be that easy, can it?”

  He reached for the laptop and hit the space key. To his surprise, it wasn’t locked and on the screen was Tracee’s presentation. He threw his head back and cheered silently.

  “God is good,” he murmured.

  He opened the web browser, logged into his yahoo account, and emailed himself a copy of the presentation.

  He heard some motion from the room where Charis was getting ready, and put everything back as it was, right as she came out of the room.

  “Sorry I took so long. I’m ready,” she said.

  “Trust me, you were worth the wait. Besides, I managed to keep myself busy with thoughts of how good you were going to look.”

  “Wallace,” she said swatting at his chest. “You are too much.”

  “Hopefully, I’m just enough for you. After you, my lady,” he said, gesturing toward the door.

  As she walked in front of him, Wallace glanced over at the laptop and smiled. Nothing like a hard day’s work.

  ####

  Today was the big day.

  Tracee felt prepared and confident that she could win over the search committee. She walked over to the receptionist, Angela, to sign in for the interview.

  “Good morning,” Tracee greeted.

  “G-good m-morning,” she stammered.

  “Are you okay?” Tracee inquired.

  “Well,” Angela lowered her voice to a whisper, “they moved your interview time back.”

  Okay, now she was nervous.

  “I was scheduled for eight, what time do they have for me now?” Tracee asked. “And can you tell me what happened?”

  “That snake, Wallace got here at seven o’clock this morning talking bout he had a family emergency and needed to interview earlier. I think he lied, but anyway, they moved you back by thirty minutes.”

  Tracee released a sigh of relief.

  “Okay. That’s cool. You had me a little scared.”

  “You might still need to be. That Wallace was looking sketchy like he was up to something. I don’t trust that boy.”

  Tracee shrugged and kept her face neutral. Angela was cool, but she was also the campus gossip.

  As Tracee sat down in the lobby, she sent up a silent prayer and positive thoughts. She had been researching other institutions for a while, so she knew what it took to get this job and she did not take this opportunity lightly. She knew this was the job for her, now she just had to convince them.

  She sat up straight as she heard the door opening.

  “Gentleman, it was a pleasure meeting with you. Thank you for the opportunity.”

  They caught eyes briefly before Wallace turned back to the group to throw what he thought would be a dig in her direction.

  “Dean Witherspoon, don’t forget, I reserved a tee time for us this week.”

  “I’ll have Angie put it on the calendar, son. Great presentation.”

  As the committee closed the door to discuss Wallace’s future, Tracee diverted her eyes to one of the collegiate magazines on the table. She reached over to grab one.

  “Allow me to help you with that,” Wallace said before placing a magazine in her lap.

  He was so inappropriate, she thought. Angie caught the exchange and gave her a sympathetic look.

  “Have a great afternoon, Wallace,” Tracee said, dismissing him.

  “My day has already started off great. I only anticipate it getting better. Can’t say the same for you,” he chided before walking away.

  “What was that about?” Angela whispered.

  Tracee didn’t respond, she knew better.

  Wallace thought women shouldn’t be allowed to hold positions of authority; she was about to be the exception to his crooked rules.

  “Mrs. Hughes? You can come on back,” one of the interviewers announced.

  “It’s Ms. Hughes,” Angie stated, giving Tracee a wink.

  This caused him to frown slightly. Noted, Tracee thought. They think a married woman should get this role. She inhaled and smiled. Got to remain positive.

  “Good morning, Dean. How’s your wife, Kathy, doing? Recovering well?” she asked.

  He smiled. “She’s doing wonderful. Her surgery went great, thanks for asking.”

  “No problem. The students really enjoyed participating in the letter of encouragement project I implemented in the dorms. I hope she received them.”

  He looked stunned. “That was your brainchild? Here, we thought Mr. Washington was behind that. She did receive it and loved it. Thank you. Come on and have a sit.”

  Tracee stiffened when she heard Wallace tried to take credit. No worries, she thought. He will not defeat me.

  She finished setting up her presentation to the SMART Board, and turned to the group preparing to blow them away.

  “Gentleman, thank you this opportunity. I want to discuss how I plan to elevate residence life programs through what I like to call the three P’s, Planning, Preparation, and…”

  “Partnership? Is that the final P, Ms. Hughes?” Dean Witherspoon asked. She noticed his brows furrowing.

  “Yes. Exactly, great minds think alike,” she said, turning back to her presentation.

  “Or slow minds steal the ideas of great minds,” one of the committee members mumbled.

  Tracee raised an eyebrow. The air in the room was getting thick with tension. She could feel herself beginning to sweat under her arms.

  “Gentleman, if I may, I would like to present to you how I plan to use those three P’s to accomplish my goals for residence life initiatives.”

  “Young lady, this is absolutely unacceptable. For you to come in here with your head all high and commit this unethical act is beyond me.”

  Tracee looked from one frowning face to another, she was confused.

  “Sir…I’m not following. Did I do something to offend?” she asked, looking over her outfit and presentation materials.

  Dean Witherspoon stood up and pointed at the screen. “Are you really going to sit here and act like you didn’t steal this presentation from Mr. Washington?”

  Steal from Mr. Washington?

  “Excuse me? I’ve been researching this subject matter for almost a year and started the presentation months ago. I can show you my data.”

  “We’ll be investigating this, but for now we will not be moving forward with you, unless you want to come clean and have your own work to share.”

  “I have my flash drive right here, and I can quickly have my personal laptop here. I have the proof.”

  “Very well. We will discuss this with human resources and get back to you soon.”

  “What about the interview?” she asked, desperately hoping to change their minds.

  “That’s the least of your worries, gal,” one interviewer said.

  “Gal. Oh, no he didn’t,” Angela said from behind the door, completely blowing her cover.

  Everyone in the room looked toward the door.

  “Fine. You contact HR, and I’ll be contacting my lawyer and filing an EEOC claim as well. Excuse me,” Tracee said as she collected her belongings before leaving the room.

  So Wallace wants to play games? She knew how to play games, too. He should have never thrown the first blow because she did not plan to fight fair.

  ####

  Tracee burst through her front door. She was livid. How could this have happened? The only people who had access to her presentation was Staples and Charis. Charis?

  She paused. Instantly shaking off the thought. Charis would not betray her for a man, or at least she hoped not. Tracee walked over to her laptop and opened it up.

  She went into her browser history, hoping for a clue. Just when she thought everything was normal, she looked and saw that a Yahoo page was open.

  Tracee clicked on the page, and almost wanted to laugh when she saw t
hat Wallace never signed out. Oh, this was going to be good.

  As soon as Charis walked through the front door, Tracee pounced on her.

  “Charis. Come sit down.”

  She casually strolled over to where Tracee sat.

  “What is it? You know I worked third shift at the hospital and I’m too tired to surf the web with you.”

  “Sorry. Umm, was Wallace at the house this past weekend?”

  She knew the answer, but she wanted to see how Charis would respond and gauge whether her friend was an accomplice.

  “Oh yeah.” A smile spread across her face. “He surprised me and took me to brunch on Saturday. I didn’t mention it to you because you don’t like him. Why?”

  Charis looked confused as Tracee inhaled deeply and stared blankly at the computer screen.

  “Okay, walk me through this. Did he come in or did he just walk up and you walked out?”

  Charis sat down on the sofa, visibly annoyed.

  “He came in. I got in the shower,” she said, following Tracee’s eyes to the computer. “I wasn’t in too—oh…oh no,” she said, understanding before Tracee said anything else. “I cannot believe this. I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault. I should’ve told you to close my document and shut down my laptop after you sent the file.”

  “Wow. That’s why he didn’t mind waiting. He probably planned this.”

  “I’m going to print this email as evidence, but not before I make sure he knows not to mess with me. I’m thinking mental warfare.”

  Tracee got up and walked over to the desk to get the cartridges she had purchased. Usually she would not seek revenge on someone, but he had it coming for more reasons than one.

  As Tracee went to the printer, Charis leaned in and looked through the rest of Wallace’s emails. Just when she started to feel guilty for snooping, she saw the email exchange between Wallace and a woman named Danielle.

  Danielle, I can’t wait to see you. Thank you for being patient, baby. I just need to kiss up to Charis a little longer so it won’t look like I used her to get close to Tracee. If I leave her alone now, she may not vouch for me if this whole thing blows up in my face. I hate to admit it, but Tracee’s a smart woman and will eventually put the pieces together. I need to keep Charis nose open, she’s hooked and will defend me. I love you and can’t wait to see you in that bikini in Mexico.