“Watch your mouth, man.” The words were spoken without heat, but Donnie knew Warren was quite serious.
“So I take it you’re a little interested in Miss Lisette Francois,” Donnie said. “And you know I meant no disrespect to her, it was just an observation. For a little bitty woman, she’s put together quite nicely. Dang, that makes me sound like a hound, doesn’t it?”
“That’s because you are a hound, Cochran,” Warren said with a wink. “Anyway, I told you she was the designer we hired to put the house together, right? And I’m sure I also told you that she was kind of instrumental in me finding out what my ex-fiancée was all about.” The game forgotten, Warren went over to the bar and sat on a tall stool while helping himself to a Corona. “Tracy was a first-class actress, I’ll give her that. And it’s not because she looks so cute in that Farmer Jack commercial,” he said with a wicked smile.
Tracy’s dreams of stardom had evaporated after their aborted engagement when it became apparent to those that mattered that her talents were fairly limited outside of some spectacular measurements. She now did local commercials once in a while, like the one for the Farmer Jack grocery chain, to supplement her income from selling furniture on commission at Art Van.
“She always acted like the sweetest thing in the world, so feminine and adorable. If I hadn’t walked up on her and her girls in that gallery dogging me like I was the biggest geek in the world, I would’ve actually tied the knot with that heifer. Lisette saved my life, man.” He took a deep draught from the bottle and stared at it reflectively. “I always had the feeling that she did it on purpose, you know? Like she set the whole thing up to head me off at the pass. I always wanted to thank her for that, but I didn’t know how.”
Donnie made a few more passes with his cue stick and replaced it in the rack. Joining his friend at the bar, he also took a beer. “So why don’t you tell her now? It’s never too late,” he said.
Warren shook his head and went around the bar to get a glass of ice water from the small refrigerator. “No way. If you could’ve heard the things Tracy was saying about me, calling me a fat chump, saying I’d break the bed down with my big butt, just generally clowning me...” his voice stopped and his expression turned glum. “It’s not the kind of thing you want to think about, especially when someone as beautiful as Lisette heard the whole thing. I need a woman who’s going to love me and respect me for me, not someone who feels sorry for me. And that’s what was happening there, Cochran. She obviously felt pity for me and she didn’t want to see my dumb butt get cleaned out by a gold digger. So, she intervened.”
After draining the glass of water, he put it in the small sink behind the bar. “I still want to thank her in some way,” he said thoughtfully. “And I must agree with you, Cochran, she sure is fine. And she’s as sweet as can be, too. We’re going to the Auto Show next week, you should come.”
Donnie looked puzzled. “You’re going on a date? You were just acting like you didn’t want to ask her out,” he said.
“No, I meant we’re all going, me and my harem, Paris, Angelique, Lisette and who knows who else. My sister might come, too. Angelique called me and asked if I would come with and I said sure. They’re all cute and they’re all fun. You need to come, too, so I won’t look like Dr. Pimpenstein with all those pretty women.” He gave a deep belly laugh and pointed his index finger at Donnie. “It’ll also give you an opportunity to keep an eye on Angel since that’s all you want to do. ’Cause if you think I’m scared of Lisette, it’s nothing compared to you. That little woman has you turned out and you just won’t admit it,” Warren gloated.
Donnie gave Warren a look of disgust “Throw me another lime, they’re in the refrigerator. And give me another Corona. If you’re gonna start with the snaps, I need to be well lubricated” he growled.
But what he was really wondering was when Warren had crossed over into the place where he could call Angelique by the pet name only family and very close friends called her. What was that hot nasty feeling? Surely it wasn’t jealousy, not over Evilene. A sudden spasm in his stomach made him change his mind. “Never mind the Corona, doc. Is there a Vernor’s in there?”
Warren gave him another evil grin. Vernor’s ginger ale was the Michigan remedy for all ills from upset stomach to flu to headaches, but as far as he knew, it wouldn’t cure budding passion. He kept this to himself and merely passed the green and gold can across the counter. “Drink up, Cochran,” was all he said.
***
“So it’s settled. We’ll have a big Super Bowl party here and invite Warren and make sure you guys get some quality time,” Paris said happily. She was in her element when she was mating up likely couples.
Angelique was curled up on the end of the sofa and her face was bright with excitement. “This’ll be perfect. We’ll make a lot of food and invite some fun people, and before everyone gets here, we’ll make sure you have a moment or two alone with Warren,” she said. “Make sure you wear something kinda sexy—oh, never mind you could come in a sack and you’d still look good.” She laughed.
Lisette also laughed a little, but out of embarrassment “Oh, please. That’s enough about me and Warren, when are we going to do something about you two?” she asked archly.
Paris held up her hand “I’m not looking for a serious entanglement. I’m going to be finishing up my internship here and heading back to Atlanta for the rest of my management training. My cousins love me to death, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want their money’s worth. I have too much on my plate to get serious with anybody right now. I’m having fun with my friends and that’s all I need.”
Lisette then glanced at Angelique, who was studying her fingernails. “Okay, that sounds like a legitimate reason for a fabulous woman like you to remain casual about your relationships. But that doesn’t excuse your sweet cousin, who is obviously intrigued by Mr. Cochran,” Lisette said mischievously.
Paris had to put her two cents in and cosign Lisette’s statement “Well, Angel, she does have a point,” she said cheerily. “I rather think there’s some mutual interest there, don’t you, Lisette?”
“Yes, I absolutely do, Paris. I think we might have the makings of a wonderful couple here,” she said with a smile. “What do you think, Angel?”
To their surprise, Angelique slumped back against the throw pillows without saying a word. When she spoke, it was with an air of finality that was most unlike her. “I can admit that Adonis Cochran is not repulsive in any way. He’s very attractive, very smart, he has nice manners most of the time and he’s not boring. He at least has a sense of humor.” She sat up and pulled her hair behind her ears, looking at the two women observing her every move with great interest “But I’m not crazy, and there is no way he would ever be interested in me as a girlfriend I’m not his type,” she said quietly.
“Not his type? You’re every man’s type! You’re pretty and funny....” Lisette’s words died off as Angelique held up her hand to silence her.
“Honey, ‘pretty’ is not going to get the job done. I’m sure Paris hasn’t told you this, but I’m dumber than a box of rocks, Lisette. I almost didn’t graduate from high school and I couldn’t even finish a two-year program at a community college. I have dyslexia. I can barely read. A man like Adonis Cochran wouldn’t be caught dead with a nitwit like me,” she said in a dead voice. “I’m going to make some more popcorn.” Without another word, she got up and took the big bowl into the kitchen, leaving Lisette staring at Paris in disbelief.
Paris looked so sad and distant Lisette didn’t dare ask her any questions. Paris, however, began to explain.
“Angelique is not stupid by any means. It’s obvious that she’s very intelligent. But she’s never been able to accept that. Like most dyslexics, she’s actually very bright, very creative and extremely talented. Her mind just processes information differently than other people. She does an amazing job of coping with it, though, and she has a very severe form of dyslexia. And whatever you do
, please don’t start rattling off a list of famous people who’ve overcome dyslexia, it drives her crazy.
“She’s had a hard time all of her life because of the way she learns. Like a lot of dyslexics, it wasn’t diagnosed for some time. By the time they figured out what was wrong, she was in middle school and was so traumatized by school in general that she had all kinds of behavioral problems. She ended up having to go to boarding school, and it was supposed to help her, but it almost killed her. For her it was like being sent into exile. It was like the ultimate punishment, being away from her family. I don’t think Aunt Lillian realizes to this day what it did to Angel to be sent away. But her family really thought it was for the best. They just didn’t know what else to do,” Paris said softly.
Angelique reappeared, bearing a heaping bowl of fragrant popcorn and a fresh pitcher of iced tea. “They didn’t know what else to do because I had driven them all crazy,” she said flatly. “Don’t sugarcoat it, Paris, I was hell on wheels and you know it.”
She put down the refreshments and resumed her seat on the couch, curling her feet up under her. “Lisette, I was the worst child in the entire five-county area that makes up metropolitan Atlanta. I was possibly the worst child in the state of Georgia. If I live to be a thousand I can’t undo all the damage I did to my family, so don’t let Paris kid you that I was some poor sad little child. I was a bad little child, that’s what I was.”
With studied nonchalance, Angelique helped herself to more popcorn. She met Lisette’s inquiring gaze and gave her a wry smile. “When I was little, I wanted to go to school so badly I could taste it. My brothers were the smartest, handsomest, sweetest men on earth and I wanted to be smart like them. They knew everything as far as I was concerned. When my father died it was kind of a surreal experience for me because I was so young. He traveled for business a lot and he was gone a lot, so I was much closer to my big brothers than I was to him; well, I knew them better than my father, if that makes sense.” Suddenly she gave a huge, genuine smile.
“I used to call Clay and Martin and Malcolm my daddies. If someone messed with me, it was, ‘I’m gonna tell my daddies! ’ ” She laughed at the memory. “Even Marcus was more like an uncle than a brother. We’re very close in age but he was always so grown-up, he seemed a lot older. He never hung out with guys his age; he hung out with Clay and the twins. All he wanted to do was be grown, like them. And I wanted to be like them too, in a sense. They were brilliant and they could do anything. I thought they all hung the moon and it shone just because they wanted it to.”
She stopped and took a long swallow of tea, then sighed. “Then I started school and it was not pretty,” she said ruefully. “I was okay at first, in kindergarten and first grade, but as I went on it was just really hard for me to keep up. I tried and tried but I always got bad grades. It was so confusing for me. Everybody else could do the work, but nine times out of ten, I’d be screwing something up. And I would be trying so hard to do it right, to get good grades. The frustration was just unbearable.
“I was so frustrated that I stayed mad all the time. I was the most hostile, the meanest, angriest child you ever met. And I was pretty cute when I was little, so that made it worse. For some reason people have all kinds of expectations for you if you look a certain way. If you’re cute you’re supposed to be this way, if you’re ugly you’re supposed to be that way; you know how people are. It didn’t take very long to get labeled a dummy. ‘She’s a pretty little thing but she sure is stupid. Lillian better hope that child marries money ’cause she is definitely slow.’” Angelique perfectly imitated a gossipy-sounding older woman. “I was just mean, Lisette. I was like a wild animal at times. Paris, you remember Lonnie Brown? He still crosses the street when he sees me coming.” Angelique gave a short laugh.
The ringing telephone put an end to the conversation. Angelique was heard to verify that, yes, she knew how to take a relay call, and she excused herself and left the room with the cordless phone.
Lisette looked at Paris and her confusion and sympathy was all over her face. Paris sighed as she rose from the floor and came to sit on the sofa in the spot Angelique had vacated. “That relay call is from her friend Mateo. He’s hearing-impaired, so this call will take a while. The operator has to relay the information from Angel to Matt and from Matt back to Angel. But we need to talk fast. Look, there’s a lot more to the situation than Angel is telling you. She makes it seem like she was just this terrible person but it’s not true.
“That Lonnie Brown she mentioned? The first summer I visited Angel and her family in Atlanta, this Lonnie creature was making fun of me because I was fat. Angel never said a word; she just picked up a rock and decked him. Cold-cocked the evil little troll,” she said with a shake of her head. “But then she wouldn’t explain why she’d done it. She got in so much trouble! She was on punishment and missed trips to the zoo, to Six Flags and everyplace else. She missed out on so much that summer because she refused to say why she’d done it, and she told me not to tell either, because she didn’t want me to get in trouble. I finally broke down and told, though. Of course she shouldn’t have hit him with a rock, but that’s how she is: mess with somebody she loves and it’s on, baby. Angel will walk over fire for her family and her friends.”
Lisette finally managed to speak. “My goodness, I had no idea. She thinks she’s not very bright and yet she’s one of the most resilient, clever people I’ve ever met,” she said with wonder in her voice. “When she used the word ‘complicated,’ she wasn’t kidding, was she?”
Paris put her hand on Lisette’s arm. “Lisette, I hope you don’t start treating her any differently. Aside from me, you’re the only girlfriend she has. She has four sisters-in-law and she loves them like her sisters, and she’s close to Renee Cochran, who is Donnie’s sister-in-law. But friends are different—you know how special it is to have a real friend,” Paris said earnestly. “Angel has two friends from that boarding school and she’s talking to one of them on the phone. The other one is a woman named Nicole; they were all tight in school and they’re still friends. But friendship is something that has been in very short supply for her. Women used to pretend to be her friend so they could push up on those fine brothers of hers. That was devastating to her, although she pretends like it didn’t bother her. She tries to be tough, but trust me; she’s not as hard as she would have you believe.”
“You don’t have to explain that to me, Paris, I can see that she’s not tough at all, at least not in that way. But in other ways, she’s quite something, she really is.”
Angelique came bouncing back into the room with a big smile. “Guess what? Mateo and Nicole are coming to Detroit next month, how cool is that? Lisette, these are the coolest people in the world. We all went to the rich dummy academy together and we were best friends.” She laughed at Lisette’s expression.
“Oh, that’s what we called it, the rich dummy school. It was an ‘exclusive boarding school for creative students who needed academic challenges not available in a traditional classroom setting.’ In other words, it was for wealthy problem children whose families had run out of options, like my family did. Anyway, they’re coming here and you get to meet them!”
Changing the subject swiftly, she asked what the menu would be for the Super Bowl party; standing in front of the coffee table, she tapped her finger against her lower lip.
“We don’t have long to get this arranged and it can’t look thrown together if we’re going to make it successful,” she reminded the two women. She looked at Lisette and smiled. “You and Warren deserve this; it’s your turn for some extra happiness.”
Lisette surprised Angelique when she got up from the sofa and gave her a fierce hug. It’s your turn, too, Angel. It will be your turn, she thought.
Chapter Eight
The day of the Super Bowl party dawned bright and clear although it was quite cold. Angelique surveyed the backyard with mixed emotions. There was enough snow out there to qualify as winter, bu
t not nearly enough for Angelique. “When are we going to get some real snow?” she asked no one in particular. “I thought y’all kept snow up to your kneecaps all winter long.”
This made Lisette laugh. “Sorry to disappoint you, sweetie, but I’ve lived here almost my whole life and you just never know about the weather here. I’m perfectly happy with the snow we have; we don’t need any more, if you ask me. But like they say, if you don’t like the weather in Michigan, just wait five minutes, it’ll change.”
The two women were in the kitchen surveying the already prepared food and anything else that still needed to be put together. The refrigerator held a huge pot of gumbo, which only needed to have the rice made and shrimp added during the last part of reheating. There was also another variation of Lillian’s shrimp salad, this one made like a traditional potato salad with the addition of cooked shrimp. The vegetables were all washed and cut up for a big pretty tray of crudites; there was cut-up fresh fruit for those who didn’t indulge in rich desserts and there would be cheesecake and homemade ice cream sandwiches for those who did. Angelique had also procured some wonderful breads and rolls, with a huge platter of sliced roast beef and smoked turkey for sandwiches. Now they were trying to figure out if anything was missing.
“Let’s see, pickles, olives, three kinds of mustard, two kinds of mayonnaise, hot pepper rings ... oh, I know what— lettuce! We need lettuce and sliced tomatoes for the sandwiches,” Angelique said. Paris entered the kitchen in time to hear her last words.
“I got you covered kid. I sliced up some tomatoes early this morning and I washed and wrapped two heads of romaine lettuce,” she said.
Lisette had made two huge cheesecakes, one with a raspberry swirl and one praline, but she was also about to make her special dip for the fruit. “It’s so easy it’s ridiculous but it tastes very complex and rich. All you do is take some plain Greek yogurt and stir brown sugar into it until it’s all blended. People think you slaved over it and it’s so easy, a child can do it,” she said with a grin.
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