Who's That Lady?

by Andrea Jackson

  Shonté inhaled sharply, her lips drawing into a thoughtful frown.

  Crystal immediately felt something inside her unwind. “Yes,” she said with firmer resolution. “I’m too close to help you, Shonté. I can’t tell you what to do anymore.”

  Shonté ventured another question. “Will—will you go with us to Mom and Dad’s for Thanksgiving? I can’t face it without you.”

  Crystal gazed at Shonté in puzzled weariness. Why wasn’t she glad that Shonté was asking for her help again? She didn’t get a chance to think it through.

  Key returned to the room with the box of pizza and plopped it in the center of the table.

  “So are you girls still talking in code or can anyone join the conversation?”

  They both flashed him weak smiles. Crystal took a slice of pizza from the box and nibbled on it. Shonté took a slice and picked burnt cheese flecks off the crust without eating.

  Key talked in random chatter, not waiting for any response. Eventually the tension eased and the two women put in a few words now and then and began to smile in quick flashes.

  Shonté was drinking a glass of milk when she suddenly sputtered with laughter. The other two looked at her questioningly while she wiped off her mouth.

  “I can’t believe Graham accused us of having a ménage a trois!”

  “And with Trevor!” Crystal added with a shudder.

  Shonté snorted. “You really do hate him, don’t you? He’s a brilliant surgeon, you know.”

  “And a miserable human being.”

  “You aren’t planning to see him anymore, are you, Shonté?” Key gave her a stern look.

  “I guess that would be stupid,” she murmured.

  Crystal looked at her sharply, but Shonté’s expression showed nothing but sadness. She hadn’t actually said she was through with Trevor. Surely—

  Crystal pushed the speculation out of her mind. She didn’t understand her friend anymore. It was best to mind her own business.

  Soon afterwards, they prepared for bed in their separate rooms. Key took the couch in the living room. As she went through her bedtime ritual, Crystal’s mind still revolved around what her future options were.

  Joe and Vonetta wanted her to come for the annual gathering. She believed they would always treat her like one of their own. And she and Shonté would eventually come to some kind of new balance. But Key—she still wasn’t sure about the future of their relationship.

  She did love making love to that man. She’d never had sex like that with anyone else. But it was more than physical, she knew. Key filled some deep emotional needs also. He was captivated and passionate now, but how could that last? He should be with some woman who was worthy of him.

  She stood in front of her bedroom mirror in her nightgown. Let’s face it. I’m not his type. He should be with someone like Nina. Not someone who was scholarly, plump and boring.

  She fell asleep from sheer weariness.

  * * *

  “Anyone need a rest break?” Key’s voice sounded rusty and unnatural.

  It was the first that anyone in the car had spoken for at least an hour. Shonté and Crystal muttered negatively and another exit sign rolled past the windshield.

  Crystal wanted to kick herself for not driving her own car. She had listened to Key and agreed to go in his car, which was the usual procedure. She loved Key’s Explorer under normal circumstances, and it certainly provided a nicer ride than her five-year-old Taurus. But this trip was hardly normal circumstances. This was a taste of hell.

  Shut up together for five hours, all of them bristling with emotion but unwilling to talk about what was on their minds, was agonizing. They made polite conversation. When that was too tiring, they were silent. The music from Key’s supply of CDs provided the only relief. The world outside was just out of reach, signaling to them with road signs that invited them to eat or shop or go somewhere, anywhere, else. But they couldn’t break free of their own dysfunction.

  Shonté was stretched across the back seat of the SUV, her arm thrown across her eyes. Crystal sat on the passenger seat with a book on her lap, but she hadn’t managed to plow through one page.

  They finally left the interstate for the long passage across the Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnel as twilight shadowed the landscape. On the other side, they passed through a number of small towns on a long two-lane highway bounded by farms and woods. Finally they turned off on a long driveway bordered by red and gold maple trees.

  There was a palpable lightening of the atmosphere inside the car. Shonté sat upright in the back seat and Crystal put away her book. Key turned off the CD player and the air took on the sparkle of anticipation.

  Joe and Vonetta Emerson had moved to a smaller house on Virginia’s Eastern Shore when they retired. Even though this wasn’t Key and Shonté’s childhood home or the place Crystal had called her second home, any place that held these two people took on the aura of a safe haven.

  Key pulled the car onto the grass in front of the door and all of them tumbled out as quickly as they could. An earth mother with silver hair swooped out the front door and enveloped them in wings of fluttering, ethnic-patterned clothing. Crystal started smiling as she watched Vonetta Emerson go from daughter to son, hugging, standing back to admire, and hugging again.

  When her turn came, Crystal held on tightly, inhaling the herbal perfume and feeling the bulky jewelry at the older woman’s throat and wrists press into her flesh. But her hands were soft and welcoming. That was Vonetta Emerson—hard and soft and smelling delightful. Vonetta complimented her hair and hugged her again.

  “Here’s my helper at last,” she exclaimed, smiling at Crystal. She threw an arm over her shoulder, drawing her in the front door. She glanced at Shonté and Key. “If you two had frightened her away, I don’t know what I would have done with you.”

  Joe waited on the front porch to greet them and they all went inside. Crystal gazed lovingly at the man and woman who had been like parents to her. Vonetta still had flawless skin despite some wrinkles and a few added pounds. Her rosy smiling mouth and small sparkling eyes were the same. Joe Emerson, in shirt sleeves and jeans, wore square gold-rimmed glasses. He had big hands with square-tipped fingers, much like Key’s. His unlined coffee-dark skin didn’t match the years of wisdom in his molasses brown eyes. Crystal had often marveled at the physical similarities between Joe and his adopted son.

  As they stepped inside the house, Masai lumbered out and shamelessly begged to be petted. The ancient dog drooled buckets, but all three fell to their knees to hug the pet tenderly. More of the tension eased away.

  “Anyone have anything you want to discuss?” Joe asked as they got to their feet.

  The three younger people exchanged looks, embarrassed, questioning, furtive.

  “No, nothing,” muttered Key and Shonté practically in unison.

  Crystal shook her head, looking down at the dog.

  Joe surveyed them with a stern look. “Good. I want this to be a happy family gathering, a weekend to renew our bonds, feel what’s good between us. Got that?”

  They nodded.

  His expression immediately lightened with a smile. “Okay then. Let’s get this party started.”

  Vonetta had already shopped for vegetables and perishables, organized her refrigerator and taken her turkey out of the freezer. Crystal walked into the kitchen feeling more centered and balanced by the minute. She had spent nearly every Thanksgiving of the last thirteen years with the Emersons. She thrived on the traditions and the unspoken values of family and home that permeated the entire holiday period.

  There had been some years when Key played in football games on Thanksgiving weekends. On those occasions, his parents came to town and somehow managed to recreate the same family atmosphere in a rented suite or restaurant, complete with guests and homemade touches.

  Crystal and Shonté were assigned jobs to do and were soon working side by side. Key and his father finished some household chores, then went out
to buy soft drinks, beer and wine to fill the coolers on the porch.

  During a brief period alone with Vonetta in the kitchen, the older woman looked at Crystal with her sparkling, intense eyes. “Are you better now?” she asked. Her fingers moved rapidly, snapping and stringing green beans into a bowl on the table where she sat.

  Crystal, mixing stuffing ingredients, smiled and bowed her head. “Yes. I was silly. Shonté and I had a disagreement and I—”

  Vonetta interrupted. “I’m not even going to ask what you and the kids were arguing about. You are all grownups and can manage your own business. But no matter what happens between the three of you, promise me you’ll remember that your friendship with Joe and me is completely separate. You’ll always be welcome here, my precious.”

  Crystal nodded, stirring furiously and sniffing to keep back the tears. Amazing how this couple could make her feel like she belonged. They had taken her in as one of the family during her senior year of high school. When her mother was transferred to a new base, she had agreed to let Crystal stay in Fayetteville with the Emersons. After that, Crystal took for granted that all her holidays and vacations would be spent with the Emersons. She really had felt like one of the family until her ricocheting relationships with Key and Shonté made her question her role. Now Vonetta was assuring her that she would always have a place in their hearts. Crystal hoped that was true.

  CHAPTER 17

  Crystal was helping to put away cooking dishes when Joe called from the other room, “Crystal, telephone. It’s your mother.”

  She went into the family room, unoccupied at the moment, to take the call. She could hear Vonetta, Joe and their children talking in the kitchen. The sound was familiar and comforting.

  “Hi, Mom,” she said into the phone.

  “Crissie? Is that you?” There was a windy roar on the line that made it difficult to distinguish her mother’s voice.

  “Can you hear me, Mom? Happy Thanksgiving.”

  “Crissie, I can never remember your cell phone number, but I knew you’d be with the Emersons this weekend. Just like always.”

  “I keep telling you to save the number to your phone.”

  “I thought I did. Tell me again.”

  Crystal bit off her exasperated retort. “I’ll call you, and this time save it. So what are you doing for the holiday?”

  “They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving over here, but I’m going on a trip this weekend with Marshall.”

  Alicia Taylor chattered about how she planned to shop in Tokyo, spend a day in a huge amusement park, then go club hopping with her latest boyfriend. Crystal’s mom had always loved change and excitement. After leaving the Air Force, she’d gone to work for a consultant firm that kept her moving all over the world.

  “How about you?” she finished. “What are you doing?”

  “The usual. We’re cooking a big meal, and Vonetta’s invited a bunch of people here.”

  “Really? Nothing new with you? You should come out and visit me sometime. I can introduce you to some nice men.”

  Crystal’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Thanks, Mother, but I’m fine. I’m really busy with work and my friends here.” Her mother would not understand her conflict about her feelings for Key. Alicia flowed with her desires.

  “If you say so. But come sometime anyway. Just let me know and I’ll send you a ticket.”

  Crystal felt no longing for the excitement of her mother’s life. Alicia sounded excited and satisfied, but Crystal liked the stability of the Emersons’ house.

  They talked a few more minutes before hanging up.

  Crystal still sometimes wondered if she and her mother weren’t from different planets. She knew that her mother had done her best and had made sacrifices to provide for Crystal as she was growing up. But she’d had no emotional reserves when Crystal reached out to her. Not until she came to the Emerson family had Crystal felt she had someone she could depend on.

  She was shaken once more when she remembered how close she’d come lately to losing this kinship. Vonetta had promised that she and Joe would always be her friends, but would Joe and Vonetta still consider her a part of the family if they had to choose between her and one of their children? She pushed the thought deep into the back of her mind. This weekend she would simply enjoy the close-knit ties.

  Dinner that night consisted of a simple corn soup and hot cheese biscuits. They sat up late, drinking wine, playing board games, listening to music and checking the items baking in the oven, which filled the house with the satisfying smells of candied yams, three kinds of pie, two kinds of cake, and the stuffing.

  Crystal gazed around the spacious family room, furnished with odd and interesting items from around the world. Joe and Vonetta had both been teachers, and now they enjoyed traveling in between their non-demanding home-based businesses of tutoring and writing. Masai lay near the patio doors, snorting occasionally in his sleep.

  She inhaled deeply, dizzy with the contentment of being here. How could she give up this family and this house?

  Shonté hooked up the Karaoke mike and belted out a soulful rendition of “Let’s Give ’em Something to Talk About”. Crystal was happy to see that she seemed to have gotten over her sullenness about Trevor.

  Crystal smiled at Key, who was lying full length on the couch with a bowl of popcorn on his stomach. Energy crackled between them, and she shivered as she dragged her gaze away. In some ways this was going to be a long weekend.

  Synthesized guitar riffs brought Joe and Key both to their feet to wrestle the microphone from Shonté and start rolling with the Isley Brothers. While Shonté postured in center stage with her nose in the air as “That Lady,” Key and Joe shared the mike for an energetic performance. Vonetta and Crystal clapped in time to the beat. But Crystal lost the beat when Key knelt and gazed directly into her eyes to croon a few lines of the song.

  Then he bounced to his feet, strumming dynamic air guitar along with Ernie Isley’s hair-raising, Hendrix-inspired lead guitar line. He and Joe Emerson ended the song in a wild air guitar competition.

  And since Joe Emerson was such an Isley fanatic, that song was followed with “Shout”, then “Groove with You.” He finished off with a slightly tuneless but still romantic “Lay Lady Lay” sung to Vonetta, who rolled with laughter and loving appreciation.

  Crystal and Shonté later went to the room they were sharing. Since they were both tired and pleasantly tipsy, there were no uncomfortable silences or attempts at talking.

  * * *

  Key followed shortly, going to the guest bedroom to get ready for bed. Opening the door that had previously been a closet, he was shocked to find himself in a dazzling bathroom. His parents had apparently redecorated, combining the former closet with the master bath on the other side of the wall. The room was now a mirrored, gilded spa in ivory and crimson. The room was not large, but care had been taken to decorate the space with sumptuous details. He started to laugh, guessing his mother’s taste had overpowered. Shaking his head at the overblown splendor, he brought his shaving gear into the bathroom, laying it carefully on the tiled counter beside the sink.

  As he looked in the mirror to brush his teeth, he caught a reflection of the gleaming red porcelain whirlpool tub behind him. Abruptly he was shaken with a vision of Crystal in the tub, his body pressed against her back so that he could soap her body slowly, sensuously, while watching their reflection in this mirrored wall. Then she stood dripping wet, his own dusky Venus de Milo rising out of the sunken tub. His arms encircled her, his dark hands spread to cup her voluptuous breasts, mounds of sweet dessert. He imagined nuzzling the back of her neck while gazing hungrily at the reflection of her curved waist and belly shaped to bear a man’s children and the dark vee between her thighs a man could cuddle into….

  “Ouch!” He gave a soft curse as the electric toothbrush pinched his lip. Turning it off, he leaned both hands on the sink, pressing his lips together. He was getting in way over his head in this affair, wa
lking around like some kind of spellbound zombie half the time. One sidelong glance from her syrup-dark eyes could send blood rushing to his groin. Yet she was still so much his Shortcake, his friend he could talk to for hours without even thinking about sex. Not much, anyway.

  He’d tried hard to take it slow. Crystal was always so in control. She knew just what she wanted and how to get it. In the meantime, he was having the nightmares again, reliving the deep abiding fear of being abandoned. What did he really have to offer Crystal? She had brains and drive. There was no doubt she would succeed at whatever she chose to do with her life. And now she had sex appeal oozing out of her pores.

  Watching her blossom in the last few weeks into a gorgeous, wild sexual being had been miraculous. Other men gave her looks that aroused his jealousy. How long was she going to be satisfied with a jock like him? He knew he could count on her loyalty and love as a friend forever, because that was how she was made. But no matter how much he hated to think of her with anyone else, Crystal Taylor deserved a man who was her equal in every way. He would just have to enjoy her while he could.

  * * *

  “Psst!”

  Crystal lifted her head and peered sleepily at the hump of covers in the twin bed parallel to hers. She had been half awake, listening to the roar of the furnace blowing heat through the vents, savoring the lingering delightful smells of baking.

  Shonté was still obviously asleep. She dropped her head back onto the pillow, searching for the energy to get up and shower, then go help get the turkey seasoned for the oven and the potatoes boiling and the beans—

  “Psst!”

  Her eyes popped open to look toward the door.

  Key’s head leaned inside and he jerked it to signal her to come out.

  She jumped out of bed, grabbing a robe on the foot of the bed and darted out in the hallway to Key. Masai, on his bed at the end of the hallway, looked up, snuffled, then went back to sleep. Key planted a swift, sensual kiss on her lips almost before she had closed the door of the bedroom.