In Her Mind (Mountain High Valley Low )

by Renee Daniel Flagler

  “You’re something else, Brooke,” Brian said, smiling. “Sit down. Let me get you that water.”

  I couldn’t believe the two of them. For a minute I thought I was watching the first episode of Fake-Ass Friends, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew exactly what they were doing. Besides annoying me, they were trying to make light of my being upset and I wasn’t happy about it at all.

  “Brian, Brooke came over so we could discuss a few things. You can leave and I’ll call you later, and we can finish our conversation then.”

  “Leave? I live here, remember? Why would I leave?” Brian asked incredulously.

  My ears felt like they were on fire, which always happened whenever I became really mad. I wanted to scream. Brooke carried on a conversation with Brian as if everything was fine. Their small talk was making my blood boil. I was still holding the door open and wished Brian would get out. I couldn’t handle him being here. But he was right, he did live here.

  “Well, don’t you have someplace you could go?” I snapped. “I need some privacy right now.”

  “There’s no place that I want to go right now. I’m fine with staying home since I do live here,” he said sarcastically and turned his attention back to Brooke.

  I swung the door closed and silently walked toward the two of them on the couch. When Brooke saw the expression on my face she stopped speaking. Brian’s back was to me but when he saw Brooke’s face, he too turned to face me. I stared at him for a few seconds, fire flickering in my eyes.

  “Technically, babe.” I mocked, “only my name is on this deed. But if I recall correctly, you do have a place of your own where your name is on the deed.”

  Brian looked at me as if he wanted to say “no you didn’t just say that to me.” His narrowed eyes focused in on me tightly as I stood before him with my arms crossed, challenging his glare. I knew I’d cut deep with that one. But I really needed him to go. I figured that if I said something messed up, he would get upset and walk out. I think I finally pushed the right button. Brian’s eyes were fixed on me and his defiant stare temporarily cut right through me. In all the time we had been together, he had never looked at me with such venom in his eyes. Then again, I had never before said anything so nasty to him. As we glared at each other, I could see that he was contemplating what he wanted to say. Whatever was on his mind, I could tell he was struggling with whether or not he would let it pass his lips. I just knew he was cussing me out in his head. Brian broke the staring match when he stood, towering over me and biting on his bottom lip.

  “Well…” he finally began to speak, “I’m going to my bedroom, right over there, to lie down since I’ve been paying mortgage here for the past six months, even though my name isn’t on the deed. Take all the time you need to talk to your friend in privacy. But when you are all done, I’ll still be here,” Brian said as he brushed past me.

  “I know you didn’t just push me out of your way.” I said, my words dripping with attitude. I went there simply because he’d touched me as he passed by and now I was on a roll. Brian stopped dead in his tracks and glared at me once more. I hated the way he looked at me but I refused to back down, so I returned his glare. Then he put his hand up to halt my impending remarks.

  “Don’t,” was all he said while looking at me and shaking his head. Slowly he turned away and took calculated steps toward our bedroom.

  If he wasn’t the man that he was, he probably would have hit me. When he was out of the room, I swung back toward Brooke, who was sitting on the couch as quiet as a sleeping baby. Her look let me know that she felt I was in the wrong.

  “Now you know you went too far,” Brooke said, not wasting any time. “Your ass called me earlier, all teary-eyed, talking about the wedding is off.” Brooke mocked my words like a child would mock his parent after being scolded. “I get here and the whimpering little baby is gone, replaced by Miss Super Bad Ass. That man looked like he wanted to slap the taste out of your mouth. If Brian was any other man, I think he would have. We would have had to jump his ass if he did, but still, you went way too far.”

  I plopped down on the couch next to Brooke and put my head in my hands. So many feelings were running through me, I thought I would lose my breath. Brooke rubbed my back as I thought about the things I had just said to Brian, as well as the things he had said to me earlier. Was I really weak? Would walking away automatically give Shelly the win?

  A few minutes later Brian emerged from the bedroom and walked straight out the door. He didn’t say a single word, nor did he acknowledge Brooke and me on the couch. He simply walked out and slammed the door behind him. The door slamming shut sent a streak of trepidation through my body.

  Chapter 18 Shelly

  I wondered how Lexie and Brian were getting along with Brice around. It had been more than a week since I’d left him at their house. Surely, that served as a great example of what life with Brian would be like as long as I was his baby’s mother. I wanted her to marinate on the idea for a while. But missing my little boy began to get the best of me, so I decided to go get him. Hopefully the damage had been done and Lexie had sent Brian packing, right along with our cute little replica. Brian couldn’t have returned Brice to me because I had purposely stayed away from my apartment the entire week. And there was no way he’d take him to my parents’ house—he wasn’t that vindictive. But I admit, I was disappointed that he hadn’t called me all week to ask me to come and get Brice.

  All of my bruises from my bout with Brian and Lexie had healed, and I was back to my old self again. I needed to look my absolute best when I saw them again. Lexie had to know what she was up against and Brian needed to be reminded of what he once had, and could possibly have again if he played his cards right.

  I checked myself out in the mirror and was pleased with my reflection. My new honey-colored highlights contrasted beautifully with my chestnut brown hair. Freshly applied individual eyelashes gave my eyes a sexy, dreamy look. The short, pink strapless sundress and matching pink and brown striped stiletto sandals gave me a playful but grown-and-sexy appeal. The sandals made my legs look even more fit than usual. I knew Brian would like what he saw. I even decided to wear my stunning pink diamond engagement ring. Only this time I wore it on my right hand. I didn’t want to jeopardize my future with Brian by making him too jealous. I grabbed my oversized white, Isabella Fiore bag and threw on a pair of pink-tinted Dior shades. After one last spin, I blew the mirror a kiss and said, “Brian, honey, eat your heart out,” before escaping through the side door of the home I had shared with Brandon in the suburbs. I needed to be gone before he came back from his Saturday workout.

  I jumped into my Mercedes convertible and hit the button to activate the automatic garage-door opener. Before putting the car in gear, I checked myself in the rearview one last time. My pink-tinted gloss gave my lips a shine brighter than the morning sun. I threw the car into reverse, swung my arm around the back of the passenger’s seat, and turned to back out of the garage. That’s when I saw my haughty mother standing behind my car, with her arms crossed in front of her chest, glaring at me.

  “Mother! What…what are you doing here?” I asked as if I was surprised. I knew it would only be a matter of time before she caught up with me.

  “What the hell is going on, Shelly?” my mother asked as she clicked her ivory pumps in my direction. “I’m here looking for you,” she continued as she opened the driver-side door and ordered me out with a toss of her head. My mother flipped her brown-colored, extra long weave behind her back and turned toward the house where she continued to scold me as she waited for me to open the door. “You need someone to talk some sense into you.”

  Obediently, I closed the garage door, rose from the car, and let my mother in. I didn’t want to go into the house with her. I was almost afraid to be in her presence without Daddy around as a buffer.

  “I don’t have all day,” she said sternly. That was her way of letting me know it was taking too long to let her in.

  M
other was one hell of a non-verbal communicator. She could have an entire conversation without moving her lips. A flip of her hand, the snap of a finger, a look, a toss of her head, a nod, a stare. Every gesture had a meaning. Whenever she added a new gesture to her non-verbal vocabulary, it was up to me to figure out what she was saying before she narrowed those large, brown, doe-like eyes and spoke firmly through tight lips. Fortunately, her non-verbal speech was far less brutal than her guileless audible assaults.

  Without a word of protest, I followed each indicated demand. All the while, I was thinking of something to say to get rid of her.

  Once I got the door open, she brushed past me into the kitchen, retrieved some gourmet tea from the cabinet, and set it down on the counter. With a simple wave of her hand, she instructed me to put on the teakettle so she could have a cup of tea. Inside I grunted. Brian was on my mind, and Mother was an unwelcome distraction.

  “Come here and let me look at you,” she demanded as she stopped me from moving about the kitchen. “Where did that bastard hit you? Where is he right now? Does he realize what I will do to him? Why didn’t you say anything before now? I’ve been looking for you for damn near a week and you were stupid enough to come back here? I knew you were here because every time I went to the condo, you weren’t home. Why on earth would you come back here to this house after that man put his hands on you? Where’s my grandson? Was he around when this happened?”

  I thought her head would pop due to lack of oxygen. It amazed me how my mother could go on without stopping to breathe.

  “Mother—” I tried to interrupt, but it didn’t work.

  “I still see remnants of the bruises. Did you think no one would ever find out? If it wasn’t for your father coming by that day, no one would have known anything. Then you call yourself disappearing and wouldn’t answer your phone. I know you saw our numbers. Why didn’t you at least call us back?”

  “Mother! Stop it, please!” I begged.

  “Don’t yell at me! Why did Brandon do this to you? Are you still chasing that nobody, Brian? Regardless of how ridiculous that is, it’s no reason for Brandon to put his weak hands on you. Just wait and see, by the time your father and I are finished with him, he’ll wish he’d never met you. He will be ruined. You might as well pack up the baby and come on back to Brooklyn, because by the time we are done with him, he will have absolutely nothing. There’s no way he will get away with this. Your father is way more powerful than his. I’ll see to it myself that he is blacklisted in our social arenas.”

  “Enough about Brandon. I’m not worried about him,” I said.

  “Well, you need to be!” she said with shock in her eyes. “What’s happening to you? Did anything I taught you stick? How would it look if someone was to find out my daughter was being abused by her husband?”

  “I can’t believe you are concerned about what your friends would think.”

  “I’m concerned about your well-being, but I can’t have you being in an abusive relationship, no matter who your father is.”

  Trying to reason with her proved to be fruitless. Either I had to tell her the truth or make up an even bigger lie in order to get her off the subject before Brandon came home. Even though I didn’t care for him the way he cared for me, I still didn’t want to see him hurt.

  I removed the kettle from the electric surface of the stove and turned off the heat. My mother reared her head back and looked at me inquisitively.

  “What did you do that for?” she asked, waving her hand dismissively.

  “I know a great place for lunch. Let’s go there and have our tea. I’ll tell you about everything that’s going on.”

  I counted on my mother’s nosiness to derail her line of questioning and to help me get out of the house before Brandon came back. When I heard the garage door creak along with the hum of his Range Rover, I knew it was too late. Immediately, I began to push my mother toward the front door, hoping to get out before Brandon came in through the door leading from the garage. When my mother recognized the sounds of the car, her head snapped in the direction of the garage, one hand automatically rose to her hip, and she began to gnaw on her bottom lip. With no time to waste, I grabbed Mother’s hand and pulled her toward the front door. She fought me all the way, declaring that she couldn’t wait to see Brandon so she could give him a piece of her mind. Before I knew it, Brandon had marched happily through the kitchen door and my mother went charging at him, hurling insults all the way.

  “How dare you put your hands on my daughter? Who do you think you are? Don’t you know I’ll ruin you?”

  Brandon stopped dead in his tracks, shock on his face. “What would make you think I hurt Shelly? Shelly, did you tell your mother that I hit you?” Brandon asked, his question draped in confusion.

  Both Mother’s and Brandon’s eyes were now on me. “Shelly! You didn’t tell your mother what happened to you?” he asked me, still confused. Mother’s eyes, on the other hand, cut right through me.

  “Yeah, Shelly,” my mother mocked, “tell me what happened to you.”

  I stood facing my mother with my head held high while my mind searched for a believable response. Brandon turned to my mother, amazed that she wasn’t aware of my situation. Or at least what he thought my situation was. When it took too long for me to speak, Brandon decided he would speak for me. “Shelly went to drop Brice off at his biological father’s house and his jealous ex-girlfriend beat her up!”

  Mother’s eyes widened then closed to near slits and she held me locked in her sight. When her lips twisted I knew that in her head she was tossing about all the lies I had told. I grabbed my keys from the counter, ran out the door to the garage, jumped into my convertible, and sped off. I would have to deal with Mother later.

  Chapter 19 Brian

  I paced a circle in Jeff’s carpet as I waited for him to prepare us another stiff drink. Though I was still living with her, Lexie and I hadn’t spoken much in the past week. We’d been moving around the house like strangers passing in the night, excusing ourselves politely when we got in each other’s way. Brice spent the entire week at my mother’s house. She refused to let me take him home until I “fixed things” with Lexie. I hung with Brice every night until he fell asleep or until my mother kicked me out, telling me to go home to my Fiancé. The truth was, I did all I could to avoid Lexie because I had no idea how to fix this mess. A part of me was still upset by the comments she’d made the week before, but I was able to get past that. I knew she was just being mean because she didn’t know how to handle her emotions.

  As for me, I was trying to look at the bigger picture. We had two weeks left before our wedding and we needed to actually decide whether we were going to go through with the marriage. A dangerous mix of pride and stubbornness played on my emotions but at the end of the day, I knew I loved her too much to let her just walk away. Lexie hadn’t called off the reception or canceled any of our appointments, but she also hadn’t done much of any other type of preparing for the wedding either, unless she’d been doing it when I wasn’t around.

  Besides being able to see Brice every day, Shelly’s absence was one of the few bright spots in my life. At one time, I thought Lexie was finally coming around because she came home with a few outfits for Brice. She knew Shelly hadn’t left him with much and took it upon herself to help out.

  “I can’t believe this, man. What are you going to do? Do you think she will come around by the wedding? She can’t be serious about calling it off, man,” Jeff said as he handed me a tall drinking glass half-filled with ice and cognac. “Sit down, man. Tell me this one more time,” he said before plopping down on his worn black leather sofa.

  “I don’t know. At this point, I don’t even know what I want to do.”

  “Aw, don’t even start that, man. I knew you before Lexie came around. And I see how you’ve changed since she came into your life, so I know you don’t really mean that. You don’t have to put on an act for me, man. I just can’t believe after a
ll this time that, number one, that psychotic Shelly decided to show her face, and two, Lexie is talking about calling off the wedding. This shit is heavy, man.”

  “Who are you telling? Last week I saw a side of Lexie that I didn’t like at all and that’s what’s got me having second thoughts.”

  “Wait a minute, brah. You have to put this in perspective. The stuff that Shelly’s been pulling is more than enough to scare any chick away. If you really want Lexie to stick around, you’ve got to let her know you’re on her side all the way. If this is going to work, she needs to have your back. But you’ve got to do something about Shelly.”

  I downed the rest of my drink and slammed it down on the floor next to me. Jeff automatically picked up my glass and refilled it.

  “That’s the problem. Shelly is hard to manage and even harder to control. It’s like she’s back with a vengeance. In about two weeks, she’s managed to throw my entire life off course. She’s had me arrested, dropped Brice into my lap without warning— she’s trying everything she can to make my life miserable just because I don’t want to be with her.”

  “Damn. Women are no joke.”

  “You’re telling me!” I said before getting up and continuing to pace. The drinks Jeff had been making didn’t seem strong enough to numb the pain of my situation any.

  “Well, you’ve got two weeks left. You need to finalize something. What’s your game plan?”

  I sighed hard.

  “There’s no game plan?”

  Just then, my cell phone rang and Lexie’s number flashed across the screen. “What’s up?” My greeting was purposely dry.

  The two of us had been playing that game for days, purposely acting unaffected by the other’s voice and presence. It was all bullshit. I knew I was jacked up inside and was quite sure that she was too.

  “Um…You might want to come back here right now! Shelly’s at the door and refuses to leave. If you don’t come and get this woman from my door, I’m going to—”