She gestured for him to calm down. “Just take it easy, Jerry. I’m not trying to do anything to you. In fact, I’m looking to protect you from that leech.”
“Do you think I need you to protect me?” Jerry asked. “I’m the president-elect of the United States.”
“Yes, but if you really used the power that your impending office had, none of this would be the problem. You could have erased Maurice from the face of the planet if you wanted to.”
“Don’t you think I considered that?” he asked.
“You could have done it and saved us all the shit we’re going through.”
Jerry shook his head as he walked away from the desk toward the window, looking out. His back was to Sherise but she could see how heavily this was all weighing on him.
“I know what I could have done to him, Sherise. I thought of the hundreds of things I could have done to that creep for blackmailing me. I don’t want to be that person. I’ve never wanted to be that person.”
“I understand that,” Sherise said, even though she really didn’t. It wasn’t as if he was doing this drunk on the power he had. “But he threatened your son, Jerry. It would be your right to—”
“Then what?” he asked, turning back to her. “I felt bad enough having his record erased every time this happened.”
“You weren’t doing him any favors with that, but that isn’t the point right now. The point is, I get that you don’t want to cross a line your power allots you. I do.”
“This is my family and my—”
Sherise slammed her fist on the arm of the chair. “My career that I’ve worked my life for. Do you remember everything I’ve done for your campaign? The fires I’ve put out? The wheels I’ve greased?”
“I understand.”
“No,” she insisted. “I don’t think you do. But your problems with Maurice are bigger than mine, so I can understand that. I have a plan to get Maurice Blair out of your life and mine while keeping Stephen’s . . . problems secret and not ruining his life.”
“What’s your plan?” Jerry asked.
“That’s the thing.” She leaned forward in her chair, looking at him with earnest. “I can’t tell you.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re planning to break the law.”
“Not exactly,” she said, even though in a way, she was. “But I’m planning on . . . Like I said, I can’t tell you.”
“But you are telling me,” Jerry said.
“That’s because I need your help.”
Jerry shook his head. “I’m not getting involved in anything illegal.”
“What I’m asking you to do isn’t illegal, but it is a big deal.”
Jerry returned to his seat behind his desk.
Corey must have seen her coming because the second Erica reached the floor where his garden apartment was, the door opened. He didn’t step outside, just waited inside the door for Erica to approach. She found that odd, expecting him to be more excited to see her, but as soon as she reached his apartment, she could tell from the look on his face that he wasn’t.
“Hey!” She reached out, touching his shoulder.
She leaned in for a kiss, but he didn’t meet her halfway. When she pressed her lips against his, he only pressed his lips together.
Erica leaned back, confused. “You don’t seem happy to see me.”
“I wasn’t expecting you,” Corey said.
“You don’t mind a surprise, do you?” she asked, wrapping her arms around him. “I have something to show you.”
“What is it?” he asked, not budging from the doorway.
“You have to come with me,” Erica said. “Let’s go!”
She grabbed his hand and pulled at him, but he didn’t budge. When Erica looked back at him, she could see that he wasn’t planning on moving and he wasn’t happy.
“Serious?” she asked. “You’re mad that I dropped by unannounced? I thought you’d be happy to see me.”
“Why?” he asked. “Because we had sex and then I don’t see you for a week? Because you haven’t returned any of my calls, emails, or texts? What the fuck, Erica?”
She sighed, her hands falling to her sides. “Look, I know. I know I’ve been hard to reach recently, but . . .”
“Hard to reach?” He rolled his eyes. “You’ve been impossible to reach. I come over to your place and we have sex, you telling me that everything is good between us and you trust me. Then, crickets. For a week!”
“I can explain,” she said.
“Then you just drop by unannounced and want to play sweetheart?” He shook his head. “You must think I’m some kind of joke, Erica.”
“I don’t,” she answered, placing her hands on his chest. “I got into this big fight with Nate and it just messed me up inside.”
“And instead of coming to me,” he moved her hands off his chest, “you avoid me.”
“I was avoiding everyone,” Erica said. “You don’t understand, Corey. It goes back to a lifetime of supporting Nate, making sacrifices for him and . . .” Erica sighed, and feeling a sense of dread coming over her just at the thought of her last encounter with him, fought it off.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I don’t give a shit anymore. I didn’t come over here to complain. I want to show you my new condo! It’s a two-bedroom and everything is brand new. I’ve even got a doorman.”
Corey had no reaction to her news and it annoyed her. Was he really going to be sensitive about this? Was he going to try and ruin her moment?
“Corey, I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t return your calls. Let’s not make a big deal out of this, please. I just closed on a great new place and you’re the first person I’m telling!”
“So I’m supposed to feel privileged?” he asked. “That you’re gracing me with this news? What would have happened if you hadn’t closed on your place until next week, Erica? Would I not have heard from you until then?”
Annoyed now, Erica placed her hands on her hips. “Maybe not, especially with this attitude. I just needed some time away from everyone and everything, Corey.”
“We all need that from time to time,” he said. “But we tell the people we claim to care about before that, so they don’t spend that time hurting or worrying.”
“You want to talk to me about hurting?” Erica asked. “I’m the one who has been hurting. You don’t know what I’ve been through, Corey.”
“How could I when you ignore me and won’t talk to me?” he yelled.
“I said I’m sorry! Can we please get past this?”
Corey shook his head with an amused smile. “You know what, Erica? I think . . . we need to slow things down a bit.”
“What?” Erica was not expecting this at all.
“I don’t want to go see your new condo,” he said. “I don’t really want to see you right now.”
“If you didn’t want to see me, then why have you been trying to contact me all week?”
He looked at her incredulously. “Are you fucking kidding me? You don’t even see what you’ve . . . I think you should go, Erica.”
She was in shock. “What do you mean? Are you trying to break up with me?”
“You’re erratic and angry and selfish,” he said. “You’re not who I thought you were. That’s my fault, but . . .”
“Selfish?” she asked. “How many things have I offered to buy you and—”
“I’m not talking about financially!” He gritted his teeth in frustration. “I mean emotionally. You’re selfish and inconsiderate. I tried to be a part of helping you, but I can’t.”
“Helping me?” she asked, enraged. “So you’re on the help poor little Erica bandwagon too, huh? I need help?”
“Clearly you do,” he said. “I tried to understand what you’re going through, but you keep fucking it up and I’m done.”
“How dare you?” she asked, seething with anger. “You asked me to tell you what was going on and I did!”
“Then you just disappeared,” he said. “
And that wasn’t the first time. Before that, you were ignoring me. I can’t deal with that shit, Erica. I won’t deal with that shit.”
“No one is forcing you to do anything!” she yelled.
“Good,” he said. “Then I wish you luck.”
Looking in his eyes, Erica felt a sting of pain that cut to the core of her. He really meant this. How could he do this to her?
“I don’t need luck,” she said. “I’ve never had it and I’m doing just fine.”
With that, she turned and ran away. Her heart wanted her to run away, but her dignity wanted her to walk with pride. The tears that started streaming down her cheeks forced her to walk as fast as possible. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her hurt.
She didn’t need him. She was better off without someone who was so needy and looked at her as a poor project in need of his help. She deserved a real man who could handle a woman like her. She deserved much better than Corey James.
“I told you not to worry about Erica,” Sherise said, speaking into the microphone attached to her headphones. “I’ll handle her.”
“I needed the distraction.” Billie was sitting on the bed in the guest room of Sherise’s town house after coming home from work. “Michael is all I could think about. Our last encounter.”
“Maybe you should have stayed and listened?” Sherise asked. “That’s what you’re thinking, right?”
“I’m angry because I feel guilty now. Why should I feel guilty?”
“You shouldn’t, Billie. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“But I feel like I did,” she said. “The way he looked at me. And then him sending me a text today saying he’s moving out tonight so I can come back home tomorrow.”
“You wanted him out,” Sherise reminded her. “The cheater is the one who should have to find a new place.”
“It was just that there was nothing more to the message,” Billie lamented. “No hoping we can talk again. No sentiment at all. No even wishing we can talk again one day.”
“That’s what you wanted,” Sherise reminded her. “Or what you thought you wanted until you got it.”
“Am I a bitch for having doubts now?” Billie asked.
“No,” Sherise said. “This has taken a huge toll on you, but it sounds like you need to talk to him again. What does your heart say? You should trust your heart.”
“I can’t trust my heart,” Billie said. “It’s broken. But I do think I need some closure.”
“I think you need to talk to him again,” Sherise recommended. “Even if only to get that closure.”
Billie sighed. “If he’ll even agree to talk to me after the way I’ve shut him out.”
“You’re being too much of a softy, Billie. Remember how this thing got started. All the wrong is on his side. He’s got no right to be angry about anything.”
“You’re right.” Billie sat up on the bed. “I think I’m going to call him, but we need to go see Erica too. This has gone on too long.”
“Okay,” Sherise said. “But just let me figure that out.”
“When are you coming home?” Billie asked. “You said you had to run out at nine. It’s almost ten thirty.”
“In a little bit,” Sherise answered. “I’ve got some business to take care of. Talk to you later.”
Sherise hung up, turning to Beth Martin, who was sitting in the driver’s seat. Her longtime P.I. was an attractive Asian woman in her late thirties who always undersold her good looks.
“It’s taking too long,” Sherise told her. “It didn’t work. He probably thought she looked too young and . . .”
Beth cleared her throat and nodded forward.
Sherise turned and looked down the street. “Is that him?”
“Look,” Beth ordered.
Sherise reached for the miniature binoculars on her lap and brought them to her eyes. She got excited at the sight of Maurice and the young woman Beth had found and paid to enact their plan walking up the steps of the District Hotel.
“You can trust her?” Sherise asked. “She’s a prostitute.”
“She’s worked with me on some other projects,” Beth answered. “We’ve paid her well. She thought it was funny.”
“She got him to pick her out of all the women on H Street,” Sherise said. “So she has to be good.”
“I paid a few of those women to hit the road for the night,” Beth said. “I made sure she was the freshest, youngest-looking one there. That was the easy part.”
It was the easy part, Sherise thought. Now was the hard part. In many ways, their plan was ridiculous, but it had to work, so Sherise threw that thought from her mind. As she watched the door close behind her mark and his friend for the night, Sherise did something she’d never done when enacting her plans.
She crossed her fingers.
The second Billie walked into her apartment, her heart felt like it had been stabbed. Nothing was different, but everything was. This was the first time she’d been there since running out after catching Michael with Darina. She didn’t expect it to be easy and she was right.
Her eyes went straight to the counter that separated the kitchen from the living area where she’d last seen Michael’s turned-off phone. He’d turned off his phone. Michael was addicted to his phone. The only times she’d seen him turn it off were when he was trying to seduce her and didn’t want any distractions.
He wanted to be alone with Darina.
She walked over to the counter and placed her hand on it. She thought of the times Michael had propped her up on there and made mad, passionate love to her. She felt her body heat up just at the memory.
Or maybe Darina had turned off his phone and he didn’t even know it.
These competing voices in her mind had been gaining steam after her encounter with Michael and then her last conversation with Sherise. It was impossible to separate her heart from her head in this, but she was trying as hard as she could to separate her past from her present.
“Michael?” She called out his name although she knew he wasn’t there.
She had made sure he was out of the apartment before showing up, but didn’t put it past him to lie to her and end up being there so he could get her alone and try to lie to her some more.
Or maybe explain the truth.
These conflicting thoughts were killing Billie. She couldn’t determine the difference of what her common sense and experience told her to believe from what her heart wanted to believe in order to stop hurting.
Slowly she walked toward the bedroom feeling nausea begin to creep in. She reached the doorway and looked in at the scene of the crime. She felt an intense sadness, as if this pain would never go away. She was silly to demand Michael find a new place to live. Standing there, looking at the bed they once shared, the bed he defiled, Billie knew she couldn’t live there anymore. She’d left the home she shared with Porter for Tara’s sake, wanting to keep as much the same for the little girl as possible.
But no, she knew now that she couldn’t stay here. It would be hard enough getting over Michael’s betrayal if she started anew. But what if . . .
“Stop it,” she told herself. “You stood right here, Billie. You saw him lying in bed with her half-naked and . . .”
But they weren’t lying in bed. He was sitting on the edge. Darina wasn’t in the bed next to him. She was standing near the bed, getting dressed. Billie hadn’t actually seen them in bed together.
She turned away from the bedroom, heading for the kitchen, hoping there was a bottle of wine in the refrigerator.
The only reason she hadn’t seen them in bed together was because Darina obviously heard her come home and call out Michael’s name. She had gotten out of bed and was trying to get dressed before it all went down.
But why wasn’t Michael doing the same? When Billie entered the bedroom, Michael was slow, confused. She’d thought it was sleep at first, then possibly the marijuana she smelled. But what if . . .
Alarmed at thi
s realization, Billie rushed back to the bedroom. Standing inside, she fought the emotional wave that clouded her mind and tried to remember, actually remember what happened.
Michael had been groggy, slow to get out of bed. He wasn’t trying to defend himself. He was asking her to give him a moment to think. He was trying to understand what was happening.
“Oh my God!”
For the first time, in a real way, Billie felt she had reason to doubt. She wasn’t willing to doubt what she’d seen with her own eyes, but now she had realized that she wasn’t going by what she’d seen with her own eyes. She was going by what she thought she was seeing with her own eyes, by what her heart and life experience told her she’d seen.
“Don’t be a fool,” she told herself. “Don’t lie to yourself about what you saw.”
She had to make sure she wasn’t changing the facts to rationalize what her heart wanted. It wanted Michael to be telling the truth. It wanted him to hold her in his arms and make the pain go away. Was she willing to trick her mind into believing what it needed to in order to justify taking him back; to justify believing his ridiculous claim?
A story she hadn’t fully listened to, after all. He deserved that at least.
Before Billie could think further, the doorbell rang and her heart leapt out of her chest.
“Michael!” She called out his name before she reached the door.
When she finally reached it, she grabbed the knob and swung the door open. Her heart was open, ready to listen to him, hoping he could explain this. Hoping he was telling the truth. But it wasn’t Michael that she faced when the door opened, and the person she saw made her gasp.
“What are you doing here?” Billie asked.
“Hello, Billie,” she said kindly. “Can I come in?”
“Michael isn’t here,” Billie said sharply after getting over her disappointment that it wasn’t him.
“I know,” she said. “I came here to see you.”
After a long hesitation, Billie stepped aside and let Dee Dee enter the apartment, closing the door behind her. She watched as Dee Dee silently stood in the foyer, looking around the apartment.
Power, Seduction & Scandal Page 25