After Megan made the coffee, she walked back to the living room and found Phoenix sniffing and blowing her nose. Megan knew that while she was making the coffee, her friend would have time to collect herself. “Take this and be careful. It’s very hot. Where is Simone?”
“She is with mama.” Phoenix said as she put the cup to her lips and tried to sip the steaming hot coffee.
Megan looked at Phoenix and asked, “Tell me how you know that Devante is having an affair?”
“I saw his ass with some young woman about thirty years old. They were kissing in his parking lot at his job.”
“What makes you think she was so young? Girl, she is about two years younger than you, and you are an old ass.” Megan was trying to make Phoenix laugh.
“You are right. Bitch is about my age. I guess I was too upset to think,” Phoenix said as she sat her cup back on the coaster.
“I know you were upset you when you saw him kissing that stank whore, but I have a question to ask you, and I hope that I don’t offend you. How do you think he would feel if he knew you were seeing Juan?”
“What’s the difference? It doesn’t change what he’s doing.”
“There is no difference because you both are doing the same thing. So the way I see it, you are very hurt because your husband is seeing another woman, and he would be equally hurt if he knew about you.”
“But I keep my shit tight. He would never catch me.”
“That’s not the point. You are still having an affair with another man who is not your husband.”
“What is your ass, some kind of head doctor?” Phoenix looked at her friend with a disappointed face. She came here to find someone to join her in beating down her two-timing husband, not someone who wanted to talk about her indiscretions.
“I wish I was. Then I could analyze my own damn self. But I want you to really look at this picture, because I think you and your husband need to see a marriage counselor. It’s obvious you still love him if seeing him with another woman upset you so badly that you drove over thirty miles to come here.”
Phoenix held her head down in shame. “I was fucking Juan for money because I wanted things that we couldn’t quite afford. I just didn’t anticipate falling for him. I do love Devante and can’t imagine my life without him. I want him to be there for his daughter and to support me forever. He’s my life, and I guess I took him for granted.
“I should have talked him into going to counseling because of the sex problem. I want him to get his freak on. Lick me all over my body and put me in positions that only a pretzel could understand, but he seems so uptight. Juan loved to experiment and do things you only dream about.”
“Girl, you have to train your man. Like dogs train their puppies where to live and eat, you have to do the same thing. Maybe he wants to try different things but is afraid you wouldn’t be interested. I bet that whore is sucking his dick right now.”
“Woman, you supposed to make me feel better, not worse,” Phoenix said as the tears started again.
“What I’m trying to tell you is to go home and suck your man’s dick and let him know you love him. Trust me girlfriend, it ain’t nothing out here. These men don’t want to be responsible for no women. I certainly don’t see Juan asking you to marry him, and he’s single right.”
“Yeah, by death of his spouse, but he doesn’t want me. He just wants to fuck whenever he has the urge.”
“Well, I’m glad you came to your senses, because you need to work out your problems and get counseling,” Megan said shaking her head. “There ain’t a man out here better than the one you have at home. Trust me, I know this.”
“You are right. I am going to salvage this marriage even if it kills me.”
While they sat there talking, the doorbell rang and Megan got up to answer the door. It was Cecil. He looked great and she would love nothing better than to kiss his lips, but she had her friend here and she was in a crisis. “Come back later.”
“How much later you’re talking about?”
“Like tonight around 10:30. Can you pull that off?” She whispered in his ear and gently bit the bottom where his diamond stub was and said, “I want to suck your dick.” She knew that would make him come back.
“Megan, who was that?” said Phoenix.
“That’s the married dude I told you about. See, married people end up being boring and cold in the bed. They look for someone to stimulate them and wake up the dead in their needy bodies, when all they have to do is talk to their spouses and get help when words are no longer coming out. I don’t have a spouse to work it out with since Richard died, so I messed around with other women’s husbands, because the wives stopped talking a long time ago. Marriage is based on commitment and trust, and when you lose that, you allow enough space between you and that man so that a woman like me can slip in and ruin everything, when all you had to do was talk.”
“Megan, you are kind of deep.”
“It may not seem like it, but I’m for marriages staying intact as long as I can get a piece every now and then,” Megan laughed. “Now you go home and work on your marriage. Leave Simone with her granny and go get your man.”
They both stood up and hugged each other. “Thanks, Megan. I really needed someone to be honest with me. Most women would have been like ‘girl, take him to court and take everything from his ass.’ But you’re different. I never expected this out of you.”
“I’m like that. People don’t know how to take me. But remember that I would never lead you wrong.”
“I’m outtie. Thanks so much.”
“You are more than welcome. Go get that man.”
Megan watched her friend get safely in the car and then she walked toward the bathroom to run a bubble bath and get ready for her night of passion.
Chapter 35
Denver had just stepped out of the shower when she walked into the bedroom and found Lathan, naked and lying across the bed, looking at her photo album. It was clear in her mind what she had to do. Tonight she would have one great night of sex and let him go home to his wife. She had thought long and hard and knew what she had to do to make herself happy. She was moving. She was going back to school to get her medical degree. All her life, she had dreamed of being a doctor, and now she was going to take the steps necessary to fulfill that goal. Her mother Diane could forget about her becoming an attorney, because she was going to do what she wanted to spend the rest of her life doing—serving people and making them better.
She gently grabbed the photo album from Lathan’s hand and pushed him on his back. She straddled herself over him, bent down, and kissed him. First, she teased him by kissing him lightly and then she kissed him with brute force. He grabbed her by the waist and held her tightly while whispering to her about how beautiful she was. Denver smiled and positioned herself over his penis. She grabbed him and tried to help him enter her. She wanted him badly. She had long ago fallen in love with him, even though she knew that it was wrong. As he entered her with one hard thrust, he tried to lift his weight off the bed but fell backward. “My chest,” he whispered.
“What?” she said while straining to hear him. He grabbed his chest while falling back on the bed.
“My God!” she screamed as she snatched the phone and dialed the emergency number 911.
Denver didn’t know what to do as she waited for the ambulance. The look on Lathan’s face scared her, and he couldn’t seem to catch his breath. Finally, there was a knock at the door. Denver let go of Lathan’s hand and ran to let the paramedics into her apartment. Right after she called 911, she quickly dressed and put Lathan’s underwear on, because she didn’t want him to feel embarrassed. As the paramedics worked on her lover, she grabbed her purse to ride in the ambulance with him. She wasn’t about to allow him to go to the hospital alone.
Once at the hospital, everybody started asking her questions that she could not answer. They wanted to know if he had insurance, how old he was—questions she was too shook up to answer and m
any she didn’t know the answers to. Finally, she admitted that she was not his wife and told them to check his wallet for information.
After checking, the hospital contacted his wife and she rushed to the hospital. Denver saw her with the doctors. She looked sad, and tears were streaming down her face. She saw his wife take out her cell phone and make a call. Then she disappeared. Denver walked up to the nurse to ask about Lathan, but they said that they could only release information about his condition to his immediate family members. This frustrated Denver, and she walked back to the waiting room, sat down on the couch, laid her head on the armrest, and cried. She didn’t know how long she had been there when she felt a hand softly touch her head. When she looked up, she saw Lathan’s wife.
“Hi, I’m Donna. Thank you for bringing him to the hospital and telling the nurses to call me. I wouldn’t have wanted him to be alone. What is your name?”
“I’m Denver Anderson. How is he?”
“Lathan died. I have contacted his fiancé and she is on her way to the hospital.”
Denver couldn’t believe what she heard. As if she was a zombie, she said, “What did you say?”
“Lathan died of a massive heart attack,” Donna said again.
Denver became hysterical and just stood there crying and calling his name. Then a young woman walked in and Donna went to her and held her in her arms as the lady cried. Denver was so confused. Who is that woman and why did Donna say she was his fiancée? she wondered as she stood there trying to figure out what to do. Finally, after what seemed like hours but actually was forty-five minutes, Donna and the other woman walked over to her.
“Denver,” Donna said with compassion in her eyes, “this is Carol Perry, Lathan’s fiancée.”
Denver looked at them both with a look of shock on her face. Her mouth fell open and she stammered, “What are you talking about? Lathan told me that you were his wife.”
Carol stood there, too frozen to say a word. Finally, Donna said between sobs, “I was for about fifteen years, but we separated five years ago. We remained good friends because of the children. Lathan has been engaged to Carol for two years, and they were planning on marrying in two months since our divorce was finalized.
Denver was screaming and becoming more hysterical. “Why are you lying to me? He said you were married.”
Donna covered her mouth and sobbed heavily. “That’s true. We were married, so that wasn’t a lie. I think he forgot to tell you we were divorced and there was someone else. We both know what you two were doing when he had the heart attack,” Donna said.
Denver looked at Carol, who suddenly came out of her frozen state and started screaming and flinging her arms at Denver. She had an angry and disappointed expression on her tear-stained face. The way she looked at Denver made her feel dirty. Before she could say anything, Carol asked her a question between gut-wrenching sobs.
“Are you a prostitute?”
“No, he was my lover, and we planned to get married after your kids got out of school.”
Carol and Donna both laughed and cried harder. Then Donna said, “My children are grown.”
Denver was humiliated. She couldn’t believe her ears. Carol looked at her and said, “You are a dirty whore and a murderer. You killed my fiancé.” Everyone in the waiting room waited to see what would happen next. She was crying and slinging snot and tears while she balled her fist and hit Denver hard in the face, knocking her to the floor. Denver was crazy with pain and anger. She picked herself up, swung wildly, and kicked Carol on the leg as hard as she could. Then she ran and stumbled toward the exit. She could barely see as she ran down the stairs, not having any place to go. She didn’t even have a car. She was alone.
After pacing and crying for over an hour in front of the hospital, she opened her purse and took out her cell phone. She dialed the only person she felt could help her.
Listening to the phone ringing, she asked God to forgive her. Finally, someone said hello.
“Jerickca?” she asked, weeping.
“Yes, who is this?”
“It’s Denver Anderson.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at Barnes Hospital. Can you pick me up? Please, I need you.”
“Are you okay?”
“No, please come.”
Jerickca asked her, “Do you know where the front of the hospital is?”
“Yes,” Denver sniffed.
“Go there and wait for me. I will be there in thirty minutes. You do know that I am thirty five miles from the hospital, right?”
“Yes.”
“Give me time to get there,” Jerickca said, worried that Denver would become impatient waiting on her. “I will be there soon.”
Denver hung up the phone and walked over to the brick bench in front of the hospital. A security guard asked if she was okay. She told him yes, and he walked back over to his post. While sitting there, she had time to think about her love for Lathan. Why did he lie to me? she wondered. I really trusted him. If he was divorced and engaged, that meant he never loved me. While thinking about this, she started crying again. When she looked up, a black Lexus was pulling up and she saw Jerickca. Before she could get out of her car, Denver ran over. Before she could get in Jerickca jumped out and walked over to the passenger side. Denver started crying again after seeing a friendly face. Jerickca held her in her arms and allowed her to cry. Finally, Jerickca told her to get in and she drove in silence. “Do you want to go home?” Jerickca asked.
“No, please take me to your house. My married lover had a heart attack there and I can’t ever go back to that place.”
“Is he okay?”
Denver cried harder, “No, he died. The cheating bastard died, and now I can’t get any answers.”
“I’m sorry,” Jerickca said.
“His ex-wife came to the hospital and told me that they had been separated for five years and recently divorced and he was engaged to someone name Carol. Then the bitch shows up at the hospital and asks me if I was a prostitute. How could he do that to me? I guess I wasn’t good enough for him because he lied to me and made me think that the only reason he couldn’t marry me was because he wanted to wait until his children were older. Guess what, they are grown.”
Jerickca almost laughed thinking about that scene at the hospital. Boy, she hoped that she’d never experience something like that. She reached over and lightly touched Denver’s hand. She didn’t know what to say to make her feel better. She risked her own heart messing with a married man. She always tried to tell young women that the men who messed around on their wives were not worth having, and that they never seemed to have good intentions for the women who allowed them to have access to their bodies with the promise of a future life. But as usual, they never listened. So she drove to her house, took Denver to her guest room, and made her comfortable. She told Denver they could talk in the morning unless she wanted to finish their conversation now.
Denver told her that she wanted to sleep and thanked her for coming to her rescue. Jerickca decided to let her go to sleep, because she didn’t know what to say to her. She left Denver in the guest room, went to hers, crawled into the bed, and went to sleep, hoping tomorrow would better for everyone.
Chapter 36
“Hello, whom am I speaking with?”
“Who are you calling?” Megan hissed. She hated when people called, didn’t identify who they were, and then had the nerve to ask whom they were speaking to. First, they should inform the caller of who they were. This was the protocol for people who made the call in the first place.
“My name is Bertha Macklin, and I keep finding your number on my caller identification box, and also on my husband’s pager. We have two children, so I wanted to talk to the lady who is having an affair with my man.”
Megan hesitated, because she was feeling pissed off that this woman would stoop so low and call her. If she couldn’t keep that fine man of hers home and satisfied, it wasn’t her fault. After all, when she fin
ished giving his ass the best loving he ever had, she always sent him back home. Now, here she was talking to someone by the name of Bertha. Anyway, her name sounded so familiar. Exactly where had she heard that voice before? she wondered. While trying to figure out the voice on the line, she was also trying to decide how to respond to this hussy. “Let me explain something to you. You sound like you’re young and inexperienced, so before you ever call another woman—the so-called mistress, as you say—make sure you understand the consequences. First, don’t ever go looking for trouble, because what you seek you will find. Next, it takes two to tango, and you should be discussing this with your man. So don’t ever pick up that damn phone to call me or any other woman to talk about your man.” Megan wanted to continue to read her the riot act but decided it wasn’t worth it.
Bertha sucked her teeth and asked, “So I guess you’re saying I should let some whore who can’t find her own man just have my husband, am I right?”
“First of all let me explain something to you about a real lady. A real lady does not look for dirt, because if you go digging a hole for one, you better dig one for two.” After a long pause, it finally hit Megan who she was speaking to. “Is this the Bertha Macklin who attends the Department of Adolescent and Children Resources parenting classes?”
“Yes,” Bertha responded. “Whom am I speaking to?”
“This is the counselor from the department, Megan DuPree. Girl, I know damn well you ain’t calling me accusing me of sleeping with your husband. Why in the hell would I stoop that damn low to sleep with some public aid recipient? I ain’t having nothing like that. Take that shit somewhere else. I pick people off the ground but I don’t take them home.”
This pissed Bertha off and she would just report this woman to her boss. She wasn’t even worth talking to and she was tired of her putdowns. Bertha decided to tell Ms. Dupree that she would talk to her later, but Megan said the conversation was over. “Ms. Dupree, thank you for talking to me. I will handle this professionally.”
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