Behind Closed Doors

by Kimberla Lawson Roby

  “Regina! Marilyn! Will you guys please stop this? This is so ridiculous,” Larry said, sounding like a little wimp.

  Larry made another brave attempt to separate them and finally succeeded. Marilyn stroked her hair down on both sides, checking to see if any was missing, and Regina stood where she was, eagerly awaiting round two.

  “Marilyn, for the second time, can you please take your clothing into the bathroom and get dressed, so I can talk to Regina alone? That’s the least you can do since you’ve caused all of this in the first place. It didn’t have to turn out like this.”

  “Oh, so now I’m the cause of all this? Well, since that’s the case, let me set the record straight. Is it my fault that you’ve been fucking me every Friday night for the last few weeks, when your wife thought your lying ass was out playing cards? Was it my idea to go on your last two business trips? Was it my fault every time you lied to your wife about working all that overtime when all the time you were at my place, lying up in my bed doing the wild thing? Was it my idea to call your house and hang up whenever Regina answered? Was it my fault when you pretended it was just an obscene phone call whenever I called and you answered and Regina was sitting right in front of you?” Marilyn waited for Larry’s response.

  He didn’t as much as grunt.

  “Oh, I guess you don’t have anything to say now, right?” Marilyn asked and then picked up her black silk blouse and black dress pants. “Letting your little head think for your big one is what caused all of this. Make no mistake about that.” Marilyn waltzed into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.

  Larry glanced over at Regina and regretted it. How was he going to explain any of this to a woman who looked like she was ready to contend with Mike Tyson? Her hair was scattered all over her head, her mascara was smeared, and her clothes were wrinkled to no end. “I’m really sorry things turned out like this, Regina. I mean, you’ve got to believe me, I never meant for you to find out like this, and if I had only known you were coming down here, this never would have happened.”

  Regina walked in front of Larry. “So now it’s my fault, too, I guess? And in case you’ve forgotten, let me refresh your memory: We’re married, Larry. I shouldn’t have had to warn you or tell you about anything, and if you were a faithful husband, the way any married man should be, none of this would be happening. I still can’t believe you’ve been doing this to me all this time. I mean, that slut is right there in the next room, and I still can’t believe this shit.” Regina went over to the edge of the bed on the far side and dropped down on it.

  “All I can say is that I’m sorry,” Larry muttered. “This got way out of hand, and I didn’t mean for it to turn out like this. I have way more respect for you than that.”

  Regina turned away from Larry, retrieved a couple of tissues from the box sitting on the nightstand, and wiped her eyes and face. “Respect? What the fuck do you know about respect? Obviously, not a got-damn thing.”

  Marilyn jerked open the bathroom door, stampeded through to the living area, snatched up her non-designer, probably-not-genuine leather purse from the chair, and opened the door leading to the hallway. “I’m giving your ass one hour, Larry, and that’s it,” Marilyn said, strutting out the door without closing it.

  “You black bitch,” Regina yelled out to Marilyn.

  Marilyn stepped back in front of the doorway. “What did you call me?”

  “You heard me.”

  Marilyn came back into the room and was heading toward Regina when Larry moved in front of her. Without any argument, she rolled her eyes at Regina and then walked out the door again.

  “Damn,” Regina said. “That bitch is acting like she’s got papers on you.”

  Larry walked over to shut the door, but when he saw the guy from room service rolling up with the food cart, he pulled it farther open instead.

  “You can set it on the dresser,” Larry said.

  “All you need to do is sign at the bottom,” the hotel employee said, handing him the ticket and pen.

  Larry signed it, handed it back to him, and the guy from room service left. Larry eased the door shut.

  “Can you wait until I throw some clothes on?” he said to Regina. “I promise, it won’t take a minute.”

  Shit, that was the least he could do. All this parading around with hardly anything on reminded her of what he was about to do right before she’d busted his no-good ass, and to tell the truth, she was sick of it. “Go ahead, because I’m not going anywhere until you explain every inch of this shit to me.” Regina stood up, went into the other room, and sat down on the multi-colored sofa.

  She couldn’t help replaying everything that Marilyn had just said, but the two business trips stuck out in her mind the most. How could she have been so stupid? When Larry had gone to Philadelphia in January, Marilyn had supposedly been at an annual seminar that her company had sent her to, and when he’d made the trip to D.C. back in March, Marilyn had claimed she was going home to Cincinnati to visit her parents. She had looked Regina straight in her face both times and lied. Come to think of it, Regina had helped her pack for both of those trips and had checked on her condo for her while she was gone. “What a sick and immoral bitch,” Regina said out loud before she realized it.

  After a few minutes passed, Larry made his way back to the front room with his tail between his legs and sat down next to Regina. “Things have been going bad between us for some time now, and although I know it’s not right, I started seeing Marilyn. It wasn’t planned, it just happened.”

  “How does some shit like this just happen, Larry? Are you in love with her? Do you plan on spending the rest of your life with her? Do you want a divorce? What?”

  “I don’t know, I mean I just don’t know,” Larry said and buried his face in the palms of his hands.

  “What do you mean, you don’t know? How can you not know?”

  “I just don’t know.”

  Damn. Actually, she was being sarcastic when she’d asked him about wanting a divorce, but the man was sounding like it was a serious possibility. “You know, Larry, the thing that pisses me off the most is that you didn’t have the decency to tell me before now. I gave your tired ass plenty of opportunities to ’fess up, but you chose to keep lying to me. I’ve been asking you on and off over the last few weeks if there was someone else, and you kept saying you didn’t want anybody else, that you loved me, that I was blowing everything out of proportion, that I was being too tight on you…and the list goes on. How come you couldn’t just be a man and admit that you were screwing some whore I’ve been friends with for more than a decade? Shit, I’m the one that introduced the two of you in the first place, and then you go and do something like this? Before today, I never would have thought you would try and hurt me this way, but as usual, I was just a little too naive for my own good. And worse than that, you had the audacity to call me this morning like you were so in love with me, like you missed me so much. Hmmph. Isn’t that a bitch.”

  As expected, Larry ignored that last truth and copped out by saying, “This is a terrible situation, I’m confused and right now I don’t have the slightest idea about what I want or what I’m going to do.”

  “So what am I supposed to do while you take the luxury of deciding what you want and who you want it with?”

  “I know it might sound cruel, but you’re going to have to be patient.”

  “What about Marilyn? What is she going to have to do?”

  “She’s going to have to do the same thing.”

  Regina was hesitant about issuing Larry any kind of an ultimatum right now, but she decided to roll the dice anyway. “Look. With the exception of the last few months, we’ve had two great years of marriage, and if you want to keep me, you’re going to have to get rid of Marilyn as soon as she gets back up here. Not tomorrow, not next week, and not next month. Today.”

  “Look, Regina, don’t push me on this. I told you I’m not sure what I want. I need some time to work things out in
my head.”

  He was starting to sound irritated. What nerve!

  “Well, I’ll tell you what, as much as it hurts me, I’m not going to accept this shit.” Regina heard her voice starting to crack and then elevate. He was pissing her off again. “Men get killed for shit like this every day, and now, more than ever before, I understand what they mean when they say, ‘There’s a thin line between love and hate,’ because as of today, I’m a witness that it sure in the hell is.” Regina stood up, walked over to her pile of luggage, picked up her purse and each of the three pieces of baggage she’d brought with her, and headed toward the door, opening it.

  Larry stood up. “Where are you going? Do you want me to call down to the front desk and book you another room?”

  “Are you going to do the same for Marilyn when she gets back?”

  Larry just stared at her with no expression. “I can call down there right now if you want me to.”

  “You know, you’re turning out to be the most inconsiderate, self-centered, sorry-ass man I’ve ever met. And to answer your question, no, I don’t want you to reserve me another room. What you can do, though, is kiss my ass. Both you and your black bitch.” Regina slammed the door as hard as all of her luggage allowed her to and rested her head against the door. Tears poured down her face so heavily now that she couldn’t recognize anything outside her immediate proximity. She had to pull herself together. She wasn’t about to stay in the same hotel with her whorish husband or his black-ass mistress. Wasn’t even going to stay in the same state with them. She was going to find a restroom, spruce up her makeup, brush through her hair, and book a plane reservation on the first thing smoking back to Chicago.

  CHAPTER 9

  AFTER ARRIVING HOME, Karen took a long, hot, relaxing bubble bath, washed her hair, blow-dried it, and smoothed over it with the curling iron. Although she’d gotten to work late yesterday, she’d still decided to leave at noon today. At first she’d felt guilty about taking time off two days in a row, but since it was already May and she’d hardly taken any vacation time since the end of last year, she didn’t see one reason why her boss or anyone else should have a problem with it. Shoot, she’d shown her dedication and then some. And anyway, today was her birthday. She deserved to have at least the afternoon to herself, and she needed ample time to pamper herself and prepare for the big evening out on the town John had promised her. He hadn’t given any specifics as far as what they were going to do, but something told her that he was taking her somewhere special. Maybe even to one of the black production plays downtown. Things were finally getting back to normal with them, and it was about time. He’d kept his word and come straight home with his payroll check last Friday, and when she’d spoken with him at work this morning, he’d assured her he was going to do the same today. All the praying she’d been doing was really working.

  Karen sat down on the cream leather sofa in the great room and unscrewed the top of the Harlem Hip Hop nail polish she’d purchased a week ago from her nail technician. Fuchsia was her favorite color, but this had to be the most beautiful shade of it she’d ever seen. Her nails still looked superb from when she’d left the nail salon, but they needed a slight touch-up, since she’d been washing dishes almost every night this week—something John never understood, since their dishwasher was practically brand new.

  She stroked the baby finger on her left hand a few times, repeated the same procedure on the other four, and continued onto her right. She’d been getting sculpted acrylic fills for a little over seven years and had been with her current technician, Sharon, for close to five. Sharon was a perfectionist, and Karen admired that about her the most. She was the only technician Karen knew of who, because of sanitary reasons, kept the buffers and files for each of her clients in separate plastic envelopes. She’d always done an excellent job, never a half-ass one like some of those wannabe nail technicians who couldn’t care less about customer satisfaction and were only in the business to make a quick buck. Karen had recommended, at minimum, five new customers to Sharon in the last twelve months alone, and each and every one of them swore they had no plans of going anywhere else. The girl was that good.

  Karen cautiously picked up the remote control, making sure not to disturb her freshly coated polish, and flicked on the television. There must have been a talk show on every major network channel and even a few of the cable ones. None of the topics looked very interesting to her, so she flipped through the pay channels. Disney, Cinemax, HBO, Showtime, The Movie Channel, and Bravo. They didn’t have any decent movies on either. What was the purpose of paying that huge cable bill every month if there wasn’t anything on worth watching? But John would literally die if she made the tiniest attempt to cancel the subscription.

  She flipped the channel to AMC, the American Movie Classics, and spotted a love story with Cary Grant. It appeared to be one of the few Cary Grant movies she hadn’t seen, so she decided to watch. Half of it was already over, but at least it looked like it was interesting enough for her to pass the time until her nails were completely dry.

  After an hour elapsed, the movie ended and Karen turned off the television. It was getting close to the time for John to get home from work, so she figured she’d go upstairs and start laying out her clothing. She wondered why she hadn’t heard from Regina this morning, since she usually called her every day whenever she was away on a trip. Not to mention, Regina had never missed calling her to wish her a happy birthday for as long as she could remember. But then, she was probably having the time of her life shopping at some boutique and just hadn’t found the time yet.

  Karen rose from the sofa and heard the doorbell ringing. Who could possibly know she was home this afternoon? She’d purposely not told a soul so that she wouldn’t have to be bothered with anyone. If it was some get-rich-quick salesman trying to solicit something, she was going to get rid of him as soon as she opened the door.

  The bell rang again. “Just a second.”

  When Karen pulled the door open, she saw Regina standing there with bloodshot eyes and looking as though someone had just died in her immediate family. What in the world was she doing back here so soon? She’d left not even forty-eight hours ago. “Girl, why’d you come back from Atlanta so quickly?”

  Regina burst into tears, with her body trembling uncontrollably, and said nothing.

  “What’s wrong, Regina?” Karen placed her arms around her friend and escorted her inside. “What happened?”

  Karen led Regina to the sofa and hurried to sit her down. It was obvious that Regina was too weak to continue standing and wasn’t far from collapsing down on the floor. “Girl, talk to me. Tell me what’s wrong?”

  By now, Regina was whimpering and sounded like she was having a difficult time breathing. “Larry…and…Marilyn…”

  “Larry and Marilyn what?” Karen was confused.

  “I…can’t…believe…they’d do…” Regina muttered and cut the sentence off again.

  This girl was acting as though she was having a nervous breakdown, and Karen was scared. “Regina, please try and calm yourself down so you can explain to me what has happened. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on,” Karen said, picking up the box of Kleenex she’d been using while doing her nails. It was a good thing she hadn’t had to go look for it, because Regina was in no kind of shape to be left alone. Not for one minute. Karen snatched out a couple of tissues and passed them to her.

  Regina wiped her face, blew her nose, swallowed hard, and took a deep breath. “When I got to Atlanta yesterday, I found Marilyn in Larry’s hotel suite stepping out of the shower.”

  Karen bugged her eyes and dropped her mouth wide open. “You found who?”

  “You heard me. Marilyn. She and Larry are messing around, and from the looks of it, it’s been going on for some time now.”

  “How did you catch them? I mean, why did Larry let you in, in the first place, if he knew Marilyn was in his room?”

  Regina kicked off her slip
-ons, drew her left knee up on the sofa, and turned toward Karen. “First of all, when I knocked on the door, he opened it and walked away. He thought I was room service bringing up their food. When he realized it was me, though, he had a strange look on his face, but I just figured he was shocked because he had no idea I was coming down there. Then, after I hugged him, I heard the shower shut off, and when I asked him why it had just shut off like that, he said, ‘I really wish you had told me you were flying down here.’ I knew something wasn’t right, so I went into the bathroom and sure enough, Marilyn had her no-good ass stepping out of the shower and was looking as if she had every right to be there.”

  “Girl, no. Then what?”

  “Marilyn started talking a bunch of shit, and I slapped her ass. Larry jumped between us and tried to hold Marilyn, but we started going at it anyway. It was such a nightmare.”

  “Girl, you don’t know what I would have given to have been there with you, so that silly bitch could have gotten a piece of me too. I knew that slut wasn’t your friend. She’s been jealous of you and Larry the whole time you’ve been married. And wait a minute. Didn’t Marilyn go shopping with you last week when you were buying that lingerie for your trip?”

  “Yeah, she knew I was going all the time and never said one word. She wanted me to find out about them, and that’s why she didn’t say anything.”

  “Oooh. Just hearing this shit makes me sick to my stomach. What Marilyn needs is her little ass kicked, and I wouldn’t mind being the one who gives it to her. You know I never liked that bitch in the first place.”

  “I know, and I wish I had listened to you. It’s just that she acted like she was such a good friend of mine. I mean, I really liked Marilyn. I can’t believe I was so naive.”