Prying a little more, I told Titus, “It sounds a little shady, considering that you usually handle your own business, Titus. Tell me what is going on, for real. Make me feel better about this.” Despite the evidence I already had, I was open to accept one more of his explanations. I desperately wanted things to go back to the way they were before the money went to everybody’s heads. I wanted to reach the man in him that knew the true meaning of love. I wanted my friend that knew the meaning of friendship to show up in the room. If either of the two were to appear, God would have truly been working on my team at that very moment. I needed Titus to say something that would give me the strength to destroy the tape, start over fresh, and wipe the slate clean. All of that hoping and wishing that he could form the perfect words to say was diminished when Rhonda let out an exasperated sigh.
She said, “What are you trying to say, Shayla? Don’t beat around the bush. For once in your life, come on with it.” Was she ready to lay all of the cards on the table? Five minutes ago, I was ready, but her invitation to a battle of the words might reveal more than I could handle. The look on Rhonda’s face told me she was tired of the cat and mouse games, as well.
“You heard my wife,” Titus said, stepping up in an attempt to nip the exchange in the bud. He put an extra emphasis on ’wife’ as if he was clearly making the point for her sake to fall back. “My baby wanted to know what’s going on, so she gets to know what’s going on. Whatever wifey wants, wifey gets. It’s just too bad I had to spoil the surprise party, but it’s all good.” Titus glared at Rhonda silently daring her to say another word. I knew that look, so their exchange was irritating to watch. Actions definitely spoke louder than words.
Then he took me by the hand and said, “I have been missing you this entire weekend, and then you come up in here acting up. I see we have a lot to talk about when we get home.”
Fed up to my neck, I slid back into my sandals and took my husband’s hand that he offered without uttering a word. The two people that were supposed to have my back in the world were still performing surgery on my spine with their double-headed dagger. Titus’ little façade of acting like he missed me was something to watch. As far as I was concerned, Titus and Rhonda crossed the line from friends to enemies over a month ago. It was sad that sometimes we still love our enemies.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and walked out of Rhonda’s apartment hand-in-hand with Titus. He was my husband, and as sad as the situation was, I still loved him. The fact that I was successful in coming there to retrieve him from Rhonda’s claws, even though I knew that they were still scheming, was enough for me at the moment. Knowing that she would be pissed that he was going home with me, yet again, gave me a sense of satisfaction. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to my husband yet. I wasn’t ready to show my hand. When I was good and ready to let them know that I wasn’t half the fool they took me for, I would, and not a moment before.
Chapter 19
Gladys
I didn’t even run into Brenda the entire weekend I was in Florida. Ironically, every time I dialed her cell, it went straight to voicemail. Nevertheless, I could not help but think about how my experiences there really had revived a sister back to vibrancy. I felt alive, free, and energized like a woman born again. I had been happy and free to be me for a change. Finally, I was able to track Brenda down and thank her for the party invitation and free hotel that she had provided during my trip to Miami. I had dialed her cell phone, and for the first time, she picked up on the first ring.
“Hi, Brenda! It’s Gladys. Girl, I must tell you that your setup in MIA was off the hook! The party was fabulous, and it’s a shame I didn’t run into you the whole weekend. I tried calling you while I was there, so we could meet up! Thank you for inviting me, the hotel set up and everything.”
“Excuse me. Girl, what are you talking about? I wish I could take the credit for throwing what sounds like a bomb ass party in Florida, but I haven’t been to Miami in years.”
“Huh? You just threw a party down there two weeks ago for our college classmates. Remember, the masquerade party at the Fontainebleau Resort? Heelllooo?” I dropped the pencil I had been holding onto my desk and stared intently at the phone as if it had some explaining to do. I remembered running into several of my African American studies classmates while in Florida, so I knew Brenda must have been pulling my leg. There was no way she was senile enough to forget her own party.
“No, Gladys. Chica, you got it wrong this time. As much as I’m dying to travel, I haven’t been outside of New York City in three years. They have me down here working like a Hebrew slave getting things in order to get my new study program off the ground. It has been all work and no play for Brenda J.”
Rubbing my temples to relieve the stress pains growing there, I asked once more to be sure, “So, you didn’t send me an invite to Miami?”
“Um, that would be a negative.”
My voice began to tremble as the weirdness of the situation sank in. “Okay, well, thanks for clearing that up. I guess I have myself a little mystery to figure out. I have an idea of which direction to aim my investigation, though.”
“Good luck with that. In the mean time, help me spread the word by letting all of your friends know about the African American Leaders of the World study program that will be going global soon. I will send you an email with further details to share with the other execs at your company. This is an exciting progressive movement that I know your company will want to cosign on as it will undoubtedly bring more exposure to Naytek.”
“As soon as I get the info in my hands, it’s a done deal, girl. I will get the information to the CEO. She is very progressive and always looking to help other black businesswomen. I will get back with you on the details when I’ve talked to her.” With that said, we said our goodbyes. I was so dazed and confused with the information she had just laid on me that I let the phone slide back onto the console on its own. As I was known to do when I had a dilemma on my mind, I decided to call Shayla. She answered on the second ring.
“Hello,” she answered, sounding much less than chipper. I could hear water running and dishes moving around as if she was doing some cleaning.
I took a deep breath and said, “Shayla, honey, are you sitting down?”
“Oh, no. Should I be?”
“Please sit down, so you can help me sort some things out. First of all, you will never guess what just developed when I called Brenda Jackson to thank her for the Miami getaway hookup.” I stood up and walked over to look out of my large office window. Cars thirty feet below were bustling through the digested Atlanta downtown traffic. Everyone knew exactly where they were going. Yet, I was stuck in place in my office wondering what my next move would be.
“What…. what is it? Did she invite you to another one? Because from what you told me so far, Stella’s groove is already back. If you mess around and go on another one of her trips, there could be wedding bells ringing even though you’re already married. Just make sure he ain’t gay like Stella’s man, okay?”
While allowing the realization that Brenda had not invited me to Miami sink in, I contemplated how to tell my friend the news. “No. It’s nothing like that. Brenda wasn’t even the one that invited me to the party.”
“Huh?” Shayla turned off the water that was flowing in the background, and her line was completely silent.
“I know this sounds crazy, but when I called her to thank her just a few minutes ago, she was completely clueless about the whole Florida thing. She said she had not been out of New York City in three years, so there was no way she could have invited me to a party in Miami.”
Still speechless, Shayla only said, “Oh,” It was apparent she was just as confused as I was about the whole ordeal. “I see,” she sighed when the hazy details appeared to sink in.
“So, you see that I have quite a maze to figure out – like who concocted this whole Brenda-Jackson-is-throwing-a-party-in-Florida deal. I have a pretty good idea of the direction
to start out in, but I do not know why he would try to get me down there under false pretenses.”
“Maverick?”
“Exactamundo!”
“You think he set the entire weekend up?”
“At first, I was surprised at the coincidence that we ended up in the same place at the same time with the same amount of passion burning for each other, but now knowing that Brenda didn’t set it up stacks up against coincidence.” I walked back to my chair and solemnly sat back down burying my head into my free hand.
“How would you feel if you knew he was the one that arranged it all, using Brenda’s name as an alias, to get you there?”
“I don’t know how to feel about that. I’ll know how I feel after I call him to get this cleared up.” I was about to say my goodbyes, but Shayla cut me off.
“Do you want to know what I think you should do?”
“Sure, what would my sister do?”
“First of all, I think it was a very sweet gesture of Maverick’s and knowing that he set the entire thing up makes for a nice setup of a romantic tale. Setting him up to sweep you off of your feet and steal you away from your everyday grind to give you a magical weekend… A weekend that you said yourself you will never forget. I think you should be happy that he cared enough to do all of that for you is what I’m trying to say.”
“And Shayla, trust me I am happy. But this changes the dynamics of everything. Sure, it’s a sweet gesture, but I’m the type that likes to know what’s up without too many surprises, you know? If he’ll lie about something as special as our reason for reuniting, what else has he lied about?” That thought touched a chord. My mind was full of questions, and my heart was tugging in different directions. Should I be happy? Should I be sad? Is it possible to be both at the same time? I could feel a sense of déjà vu coming upon me – was I finding another reason to get angry at Maverick just when things were going well, just like back in college? Could I be setting myself up for a fall again, possibly risking losing the best thing to ever happen to me besides having my children?
“Well, let me know as soon as you talk to Maverick. On a lighter note, make sure you are at my surprise party Saturday, bright and early, and dressed to impress. I need you there, because I don’t know what Rhonda and Titus are up to exactly.”
“I will be there, and don’t I always dress to impress?” We laughed at the inside joke. Shayla was always teasing me about the way I dressed. Then, she became silent and I realized I was the only one laughing.
“Gladys?” she asked, sounding as if something was bothering her suddenly.
“Yeah, honey?” I asked, wondering what could be the matter.
Instead of answering, she quickly brushed it off, and said, “No comment.”
“Are you sure you don’t have something on your mind, Shayla?”
“I’m sure. I’ll talk to you later,” she said before adding, “love you.”
“I love you, too.” And with that said, we hung up. I had a important call to make to Mr. Douglas.
Chapter 20
Shayla
Waking to the sound of the doorbell ringing, I rushed into my robe and slippers. Sleepy eyed, I walked down the stairwell to answer the door. I peeped through the living room curtains and saw a Rent A Pool Guy truck in the driveway. There was a man holding cleaning supplies standing in the doorway looking too happy for it to be only seven in the morning. Despite my irritation, I kindly called out through the door, “May I help you?”
“I’m Anthonio, Tanya’s friend. Your husband hired me to service your pool today.”
“Damn,” I whispered under my breath, as I disabled the alarm and unlocked the front door. I was too tired and sleepy to be dealing with pool maintenance this morning. Then I remembered Titus had wanted to have the pool area serviced before my party this Saturday. The early morning visitor was a Hispanic young man that sounded too chipper to be out doing his job so early in the morning. His Spanish roots were evident as he spoke. His shiny black hair was pulled back into a cute little ponytail. “Oh, that’s right. We were expecting you,” I lied, because I had completely forgotten. Titus told me about the new pool guy’s appointment after I had pulled him out of Rhonda’s apartment, but no sooner than he told me I had forgotten. I suppose I had bigger fish to fry that day.
His baby cousin, Tanya, referred Anthonio because he was one of her classmates at the local community college. He did maintenance as a side business along with working part time at a local department store. Titus liked the young man’s hustle, so he hired him to clean our pool area up for the party to give him some extra business. I invited him in so that he could get his job started, knowing the quicker I let him in the quicker he would be leaving.
Once he stepped into the foyer, I could not help but to check him out from head to toe. He was young, built nice, and easy on the eyes.
“Good morning, Mrs. Wilson! How are you doing today?”
“I’m fine, you?”
“I won’t complain. Which way is the exit to the get to your pool area?” he said, in a chipper singsong tone. It was only his voice that snapped me out of internally sizing him up. He really was a cutie.
“Oh, where are my manners? Good morning to you, too, Anthonio. It’s right this way.” I pointed in the direction of the pool and sauntered ahead of him in the direction of the patio side door. I don’t know why I thought about it, but I wondered if he was watching the way my hips sensually swayed from side to side as I walked. “The pool is out this door. When you want to come back in, ring the buzzer, and I will come down and let you in.
From the look on his face, he had been watching me walk. After getting him squared away, my plan was to go upstairs to get dressed, but [see what had happened was] instead I decided to sit in the patio window and watch him perform the maintenance on the pool. After all, I had to make sure he did things right since this was his first day on the job. A tiny voice in my mind told me I should carry on just as if the older old white pool guy who did the job before Anthonio was there. But I ignored that voice and watched Anthonio’s hunky tight obliques, covered by perfectly tanned skin, accompanied by sexy muscular hips put in work for the next few hours. I even had the nerve to pop a bowl of popcorn and sit in my lounger, watching him like a movie.
At one point, the sun beamed down so hard, he took off his t-shirt, exposing his firm chest that was covered only by a white wife-beater. When he took the shirt off, I couldn’t take it any longer. I got up to go take a cool shower and get dressed. I had to have a change of scenery before I did something foolish.
When I returned back downstairs, I took him a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade so that he would not get dehydrated. I didn’t know what he was used to where he was from, but I was ready to introduce him to some southern hospitality.
“Anthonio, you have been working nonstop since you got here. Take a break and have a glass of lemonade with me.” The sunshine reflecting off his skin was only second to heaven itself. Yes, that would be his nickname from now on Sunshine. The fact that fantasizing about him being my sunshine could only lead to trouble helped me to push the thoughts to the back of my mind and go on about my business. “On the second hand, I know you have a lot of work to do, so I’ll just leave a glass of lemonade on the patio table for you to drink whenever you’re ready for a break.”
His face lit up as if a cool drink had been just what the doctor ordered. “Thanks, Mrs. Wilson. I’ll take a quick break now.”
“Okay, well, I’ll be on the inside if you need anything.” I quickly sauntered into the house ready to get out of arms width of this hunk of a man. Three hours after he had started the job, Anthonio was finished and rang the buzzer to come back inside.
“We didn’t leave it in too much of a mess, did we?” I asked, knowing that a bad thunderstorm had destroyed the pool cover two months ago.
Flexing the muscles in his chest, he said, “I had my work cut out for me, but I got the job done.”
“And you did
an excellent job, so when can I expect you back?” My face turned flush red with embarrassment as soon as I asked that question. The man had just completed the job and lo and behold if I wasn’t trying to get him back over to do it again. I didn’t know if the starry-eyed look I gave him when I asked the question was enough for him to think that I was crazy, but I sure felt crazy asking the question.
“I could come back next month for a routine check, but it looks like you’ve been taking great care of the pool. Even with the cover being destroyed, it wasn’t in that bad of shape. Plus, with the bottom being made of marble, it won’t need that much professional care.” He wrote some numbers down on his receipt book and then handed me the bill.
“I’ll take care of this now. Wait here just a second.” I told him, before walking into the kitchen to get Titus’ checkbook. I wrote the check out for one hundred dollars more than the invoice amount and handed it to him. In the midst of the exchange, I allowed my hand to intertwine with his longer than a usual transaction.
It was then that he suggested, “Unless you need the pool cleaned out sooner than my one month check? I have no problem coming back over here as many times as you need me to.”
Secrets of a Kept Woman (Volume 1) Page 15