by Mary Monroe
Teri let out an exasperated sigh before she whirled back around to face Dwight. When she did, she looked him straight in the eye and she wasn’t smiling. “And did she also tell you that I’d tell you to go to hell? You had your chance and you blew it, Dwight. When are you going to get that through your head?” She gently mauled his head with her fist.
“Aw, baby, don’t be like that. I had a lot of things going on in my life back then. It was nothing against you. I just was not ready to settle down,” he told her, blinking hard. He was trying not to show how much he really wanted her. “And to be honest with you, you never did tell me what I did to make you stop seeing me,” he whined.
Teri’s jaw dropped again. “You men amaze me. You didn’t give me much choice. You stopped returning my calls, you stopped coming by. What else could I do? You wanted to see me on your terms. Which meant you’d see me only when it was convenient for you. Well, that wasn’t good enough for me. I’m not a faucet that you can turn on and off.”
“You never tried to talk to me about the way you were feeling—”
“I couldn’t do that if you weren’t around or didn’t have time to return any of my phone calls. And when you finally decided you had some time for me, I told you I might be pregnant. You didn’t waste any time putting the blame on me. You accused me of trying to trap you. I don’t need to trap you or any other man. You got that?” Teri saw a few people staring at her but she didn’t care.
“Look, baby. Nobody blamed you,” he said, defensively, speaking in a low, controlled voice. He was seething with anger. But he didn’t want any of the other guests to know that or hear him getting dressed down in such a brutal manner. So he forced himself to smile. In case anybody was interested, he made it look as if he and Teri were having a pleasant conversation. With his hand stroking her shoulder he said, “I want things to be right between us. Even if that just means we can only be friends. I can live with that. I would still like for us to have a drink or two sometime or, whatever…”
“You need to get right with yourself before you can get right with me. The way you are looking right now, I could swear you prayed to Jesus to be born again.”
“Maybe I did. And maybe I am.” Dwight looked like he didn’t even believe his own words, and from the look on Teri’s face, he knew she didn’t either.
“Oh, please give me a break. Then, after the pregnancy scare, you didn’t call me for two weeks.”
“I was on a much needed vacation. You knew that!”
“Vacation?” Teri gave Dwight an incredulous look and shrugged her shoulders. “So what? You never leave home without your cell phone, and I am sure that wherever you went, you had access to a telephone.”
Dwight didn’t know what to say next. He just stared at Teri. Then he shrugged and threw up his hands.
“Forget you, Dwight.”
“Forget me? Bah! You know you can’t forget me, woman.” He liked the sound of his words. He thought it was a good comeback. “I know you better than you know yourself, and I know what you want…”
“Oh really? Me and how many others? Well, let me give you some advice I am sure you can use. Keep on playing musical beds with all the groupies and hoochies and whatnot out there, and you won’t be around for anybody to want you. This sister does not have to be part of your insanity.”
Before Dwight could respond, a pretty young woman butted in, looking at him as if he were the only man on the premises. “Can I get your autograph?” she cooed, holding up a pen and napkin with nails so long they curled. “You are fantastic. Do you mind?”
“Sure,” Dwight said with a recycled grin.
“You are so much cuter in person.” The woman giggled.
“I wouldn’t stand too close to him, honey. You don’t know what he has,” Teri warned, strutting away.
Dwight’s face stung as though he’d just been slapped. The young woman gasped and looked from Teri to Dwight. “Aww, she’s just another fan and she likes to joke around at my expense. Don’t pay any attention to her,” Dwight said, his voice hard and loud. “Now, what’s your name, sweetheart?”
Several other women crowded around Dwight. Teri looked back and got even more pissed. Harrison was just a few feet away and had heard every word of her conversation with Dwight. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a brother get so verbally coldcocked and still be standing. He left the group he had been talking to and approached Teri.
“Something tells me that you are a passionate basketball fan,” he said to Teri, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Not anymore,” she replied in a serious tone.
“Or are you not into any games period?”
She gave him a thoughtful look before she responded. “Not anymore,” she repeated.
CHAPTER 22
Dwight had double-zero chances of ever fucking Teri again. Harrison was the only man who did have a chance, but only if he approached her the right way, and at the right time. He grabbed two glasses of champagne off a passing waiter’s tray and handed one to Teri.
“You look like you could use another one of these,” he told her. She accepted the drink with a forced but weak smile. She had to keep reminding herself, whether or not she ever slept with Harrison again, that if she wanted him to keep showcasing the artists associated with Eclectic Records, she had to continue to be nice to him. However, she didn’t want to overdo it. She mumbled a thank-you and nodded. “You know anything I do for you is my pleasure, Teri.”
“I’m feeling that,” she muttered, taking a sip from her glass. She had lost track of how many drinks she’d already had, but she promised herself that this would be the last one. She still had to drive herself home and the last thing she needed was a DUI.
“After just witnessing your encounter with Dwight, I know this is probably not a good time to ask you again, but I will anyway. Can I get in touch with you, uh, maybe sometime early next week?”
“I’ll have to get back to you on that.” Harrison didn’t try to hide his disappointment. His smile faded within seconds. She had cooled off a little about seeing him acting so cozy with Mia, but she didn’t want to look too eager about him calling her. Teri was glad to see Carla walking in her direction.
“Teri, can I talk to you for a minute?” Carla asked as she approached. She didn’t even give Teri a chance to reply. She just took her by the arm and led her across the room near the front window. Teri had wanted to continue her conversation with Harrison, but she’d still let Carla whisk her away. When she glanced around and saw him still standing in the same spot with the same look of disappointment on his face, she knew she had to adjust her agenda if she really did want him to continue showcasing the artists she worked with.
Despite the fact that she felt as if she were about to burst out of her clothes, Nicole couldn’t seem to stay away from the buffet table. Her thong panties were feeling a lot tighter than they’d felt when she’d slid into them a few hours ago. She had turned down the last three requests to dance, but men were still coming at her from all sides.
“Sister, I’ve been watching you for a while. I love to see a woman enjoy her food. I wouldn’t even waste a minute of my time on none of these flat-butted, toothpick-leg skanks running around this city these days.” Talking to her was a man in a plaid jacket and white pants, chewing on a toothpick. “You one of them catwalking supermodels or something?” he asked. He had a folded white handkerchief in his hand. When he lifted it to wipe sweat off his shiny forehead, Nicole noticed coarse, scraggly hair on the back of his hand. It looked like a brown cat’s paw. She leaned her head back when he reached toward her face with the same napkin. “You got a few crumbs on your jaw,” he told her.
“That’s all right. I’m fine.” She blocked his hand with hers.
“Like I said, I love a woman who loves to eat. My mama would love to meet you,” the man told her, still chewing on that toothpick.
It was a shame that men didn’t have better pickup lines these days. No man in his r
ight mind would mistake a woman her height and weight for a supermodel—unless he meant a plus size model! It was an even bigger shame that people as classy as Carla and Reuben knew people this tacky.
“Sorry, but I’m married,” she lied. She still wore the cheap ring that Greg had given to her on the day they got married. She had stopped wearing it for a while, but when she told men who she didn’t want to be bothered with that she was married, the first thing they did was look for a wedding ring. She held her hand up and wiggled her ring finger in her admirer’s face, making him look at her as if he wanted to bite her hand and her head off.
“Well, your man must not be doing his job! Not with all the skinning and grinning and dancing and booty rolling you been doing since you walked up in this place.” The man sniffed, leaned back, and looked Nicole up and down.
“That’s none of your business,” she advised, one hand on her hip. “I am a married woman and that’s that.”
“I hope you stay married!”
Not a minute later, Nicole heard the same man using the same supermodel line on another woman. It must have been what that woman wanted to hear because from that point on, he was the only man she danced with or talked to.
Dwight was still enjoying all the attention he was getting from some of the other women. He was totally ignoring Mia. But she didn’t care. Her roving eyes had settled on Harrison Starr and he seemed to be more than a little interested in her. When she asked him to dance again, he wrapped his arm around her waist and practically skipped to the dance floor as if he were Fred Astaire or Michael Jackson. What Mia didn’t know was that the only reason Harrison agreed to dance with her was because he was beginning to feel that he would never be with Teri again.
Surprisingly, Harrison enjoyed dancing with Mia. She felt nice and warm and soft in his arms. And he was glad that it was a slow song, one of Luther Vandross’s most sensuous tunes. He closed his eyes and moved with her body.
“Be careful with that gun in your pocket,” Mia whispered, happy to know that she’d aroused him. “Don’t hurt anybody with that.” She nudged his crotch with her hip.
“Sorry,” he said, chuckling. “This is kind of embarrassing,” he admitted, stopping. “You want to sit down?”
Mia shook her head. “I don’t want to sit down and…I want you to keep doing what you were doing,” she told him in the most seductive voice she could manage. “I am not complaining.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” he said with relief, grinding against her some more.
“I’m a woman who speaks her mind. I want you to know that.”
“Oh? Is there something on your mind you’d like me to know right now?”
“There is, but I’ll save it for later. Maybe in a more private setting?”
With this vague promise of some possible action, Harrison gave Mia the kind of look that made her even more aggressive. From her actions and movements, he could tell that she was ready, willing, and able to do whatever he wanted her to do. What was that they said about one bird in the hand being better than two in a bush? And since he didn’t have much luck getting any kind of commitment from Teri, it looked like Mia was going to have to be his bird tonight.
He looked toward the door that he’d seen Teri walk through with Carla a few minutes earlier. Had she walked back into the room before Mia could secure her hooks in him, it would have made all the difference in the world. But Teri didn’t return to the room in time.
CHAPTER 23
While Harrison and Mia were practically dry fucking on the dance floor, Teri was in the same room where Carla had read for Nicole. She was crying softly, wiping her tears with a napkin.
“It’s your mother and father. They weren’t around long enough for you to get to know them,” Carla said, holding Teri’s hand across the desk. She reached for a tissue from a box next to the speakerphone on the corner of her desk and handed it to Teri. “That’s what’s bothering you. They are on your mind all the time.” Carla dipped her head and gave Teri an encouraging look.
Carla sucked in her breath and sat up straight as soon as Teri started to talk. “They died in an automobile accident when I was eight. I’ve been with my grandparents ever since,” Teri stated.
“I know,” Carla said with a nod and a sigh. “I knew it long before you ever told me.”
Teri snorted, rubbed her nose, and let out a sharp laugh. “Of course you already knew! Why do I even bother telling you anything? You know just about everything there is to know about me anyway.” She blew her nose into the tissue and started to wipe her eyes with it when she realized it was soaked and about to tear. Carla handed her another tissue and Teri wiped her eyes until they ached. They stung when she looked at Carla, who was looking at her with an annoyed expression on her face.
“Listen, I know that some of my methods are unconventional, but I am serious and compassionate when I tell you that I already know something about you, Teri. Please don’t take it lightly.”
“I’m sorry, Carla,” Teri said with her head bowed submissively.
Carla stifled a yawn and continued. “Just know that I know the kind of pain you feel when you think about your parents and what happened to them.”
Teri pressed her lips together and gave Carla a guarded look. The last thing she wanted was for Carla to think that she didn’t respect her abilities. “Carla, I believe everything you tell me and I really do appreciate it. And just to let you know, I’ve experienced other things that were unconventional.”
“Such as?”
“Something I experienced a long time ago that was really weird.” Teri wrapped her arms around her chest and shivered, even though the room was too warm, if anything.
“Do you want to talk about it? I’d love to hear about it, if you don’t mind.”
Teri blew her nose and slumped in her seat. “My grandmother is the only other person who knows what I’m about to tell you. I haven’t even told Nicole, or anybody else.” Teri’s eyes darkened and she blew her nose again before she continued. She was taking her time and that irritated Carla.
“Well, are you going to tell me what it is this week?” Carla asked, not even trying to hide her impatience. She leaned forward and rested her chin in her hands.
“The day my parents died, we’d been at the park having a picnic. It was just them and me, and my dog Snoopy. A pit bull, if you can believe it. He was so docile our cat used to chase him around. Anyway, a tractor broadsided our car on the way home. Snoopy and I managed to crawl out the back window with just a few scratches before the car exploded. One of the few things that survived the explosion was the camera that we’d taken a lot of pictures with that day. About a month after the funerals, my grandmother got the film in the camera developed. Out of twenty-four shots, only one came out fully developed. All the others were blank, totally blank. It was a picture of Snoopy and me walking away from the wrecked car.” Teri shivered every time she recalled the strange incident. Carla gasped and felt a sudden chill.
“Holy shit…” Carla said, blinking so hard she saw two of everything. She rose and rubbed her eyes, mumbling under her breath. She gave Teri a hard look before she returned to her seat. “I’m sure…I…that’s one of the most haunting stories I’ve ever heard,” she admitted. “And I’ve heard some doozies! I am baffled,” she said, shaking her head and wringing her hands. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Teri as if she was still seeing double. “Maybe…maybe one of your parents took the picture…”
“Carla, like I said, the picture showed me walking away from the crash that my parents had died in. Just me and my dog.”
Carla was so stunned she was speechless. All she could do for the next few moments was sit there with her hands on top of her desk, staring at Teri.
“Don’t ask me who, or what, took that picture. All I know is that it was not something normal. My grandmother made me promise I’d never tell my grandfather or anybody else in the family about it. To this day…well, you’re the only other person who knows abo
ut it. So you don’t have to worry about me not taking you seriously when you tell me something from an unconventional point of view.”
“You’ve been holding this inside you.”
“I have, and if you don’t mind I don’t ever want to talk about this again. It’s enough for me to deal with the loss of my parents.”
“I see. Well, you don’t have to worry about me bringing it up again. You, um, you’re still angry with your parents for leaving you?” Carla couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so uneasy.
“No, I am not angry,” Teri insisted, shaking her head. “I’m just…so alone. I love my grandparents to death and I’ve got some great friends, but sometimes my life feels so…empty.”
“And it’s because of that emptiness that you are fighting with yourself,” Carla suggested. She closed her eyes and mumbled what sounded like gibberish to Teri. What Teri didn’t know was that Carla was doing everything she could to divert her attention away from the eerie secret Teri had just shared with her.
Carla slowly opened her eyes, feeling somewhat more at ease now. For a brief moment, she seemed so much older than her actual age. Her eyes looked heavy and tired. She seemed to hold so many secrets and knowledge about other people that she never asked for in the first place. That had to be a burden on some level, Teri decided. She didn’t know why, but she suddenly felt sorry for a woman in Carla’s position.
“What do you have to prove to others? Trying too hard pushes you further away from what you want.” Carla paused and then muttered more gibberish. “You need to reacquaint yourself with love, Teri. And you need to share that love. Don’t run away from the man who wants to share that love with you.”
“What the—what do you mean by that? Who is he?” Teri asked, her eyes shifting from side to side as if she expected the man in question to crawl through one of the windows.
“I know, and I know you know,” Carla said with a harmless smirk. “Don’t play games with me, Teri. We’ve been friends too long for that.”