It was electric, and Amaryllis knew, at that moment, that she was going home with Charles.
All throughout the party, Amaryllis felt Charles’s gaze on her, so she had put on a show for him. As he sat in a corner and watched her every move, she made sure to sashay past him numerous times. She turned him on, and she knew it. Her promiscuity was evident when she allowed Charles into her passenger seat and also into her bed that night.
Their steamy relationship lasted for four years until Amaryllis got wind that she wasn’t the only trick Charles was treating. But there was something about him that made her keep going back. It was the way he touched her that caused her knees to collapse.
Charles knew that Amaryllis was weak. Each time he called, she’d come a-runnin’.
The very last time Amaryllis left Charles’s bed, she vowed to never return. She knew the quickest way to get over a man was to find herself another one. It wasn’t long after when she was approached by her next ex-boyfriend, Randall Loomis. Just like most men, Randall had fallen for Amaryllis when he first saw her. She was trying on shoes in Evergreen Mall. He introduced himself and ended up buying her the shoes she was trying on. That day was the last day Amaryllis had any thoughts of Charles.
“What do you want, Charles? I thought I told you to never call me again,” Amaryllis spat through the telephone receiver.
“Come on, Delicious. Don’t be like that.”
“My name is Amaryllis. Don’t make me cut you.”
“That’s what I said, Delicious Amaryllis.”
Charles was still no different from any other man who approached her. The conversations would start out sounding promising. They seemed to be interested in her as a person. They’d want to know what she did for a living or pretended to be hanging on to every word she said, but eventually, the true bow-wow in them showed up.
Charles made her weak in the knees. His smooth, milk chocolate skin with sultry eyes and a mustache and goatee that were always trimmed perfectly had kept Amaryllis running back to his bed.
Just two days after Amaryllis had given her life to the Lord, and only one day after she had gone to Holy Deliverance Baptist Church to apologize to Randall, Amaryllis ran into Charles while on her lunch break in downtown Chicago. She tried her best not to look into his eyes because she knew the affect they had on her in the past. She had revealed to Charles that she was a new creature and her old ways were behind her. They had been out of touch for a while and Charles wanted nothing more than to have a taste of her again. He played the understanding part and let her know that he fully supported her new way of living and had no intentions of pulling her back to where she had come from. Still, he pressed her for her telephone number. She relented and allowed him back in her life.
That following Saturday, Charles took Amaryllis on a horse and carriage ride in the Loop, then treated her to a formal dinner cruise aboard the Odyssey yacht over Lake Michigan. He dined Amaryllis and presented himself as a brother who appreciated a good woman’s wonderful company.
For most of the evening, Charles had been the perfect gentleman. Complimenting her hair, makeup and perfume, added with pulling her chair out for her and sliding her napkin across her lap told Amaryllis that Charles had indeed changed and was a keeper.
When the evening was over, Charles did the proper thing by walking Amaryllis to her door. Her intentions were to thank him for a lovely evening and call it a night.
However, Charles had another plan to bring the evening to a close. He wanted to go out with a bang, a big bang. Amaryllis turned the key in the lock, then turned around to face him.
“Charles, I really had a wonderful time tonight. Dinner was lovely, and the conversation was great. Maybe we can do it again, soon. Next time, it’ll be my treat. Thank you and good night.”
Charles towered over Amaryllis’s five feet four inches, so she stood on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek. Then she walked into her apartment, gave him one last smile, and gently shut the door. Charles stood in the hallway stunned for about ten seconds before knocking.
Amaryllis opened the door and looked at him confused. She couldn’t figure out what part of good night he hadn’t understood. As she opened the door wider, Charles thought that was his invitation to come in.
Abruptly, however, Amaryllis placed the palm of her hand on his chest to stop him. “Where are you going?”
Now, Charles looked confused. Did Amaryllis really think he was going to settle for a light peck on the cheek? The dinner cruise had cost him one hundred eighty dollars. To valet-park his car had cost sixty-five dollars. The horse-and-carriage ride had cost one hundred dollars. In less than five hours, Amaryllis received almost three hundred forty-five of his hard earned dollars.
Charles looked at it as an investment…or a down payment. But not for a soft kiss on his jaw. He had other things in mind he wanted to cash in on. “Uh, I thought we could sit and talk for a while and really get to know each other again,” he said.
Amaryllis heard the emphasis he put on the word “really” and knew right then that Charles was still a playa. But little did he know two could play that game. She knew what to do.
“I’d like that, Charles. Come on in and have a seat in the living room,” she stated. Then she excused herself and went to her bedroom to relieve her aching feet from the four-inch stilettos she’d worn that evening.
While she was changing, Charles could hardly keep still on the sofa. He remembered that Amaryllis was easy and always willing. But she came with a high price. Charles figured that spending three hundred forty-five bucks on her should send him home with a satisfied smile on his face.
Five minutes later, Amaryllis came and sat next to him wearing a light blue FUBU jogging suit. “Oh, I feel so much better now that I’m outta those heels. My feet were killing me.”
Charles looked at the jogging suit. In the past when he brought Amaryllis home from an expensive date, she’d always excuse herself and say that she was going to slip into something more comfortable. When she reappeared, she’d have on a short teddy. She would come and parade before him in some type of feminine material like lace, silk, or satin. The short teddies were easy to maneuver around and gave him quick access to her body, but this jogging suit she was wearing right then threw him off.
“I thought you were changing into something more comfortable,” he complained.
“I did. I’m very comfortable.” In her hands were two books. She placed one in Charles’s lap.
He looked at the front cover. HOLY BIBLE stood out to him in gold lettering. He read the words, then looked at Amaryllis. “What’s this?”
“It’s a Bible.”
Charles inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly. Amaryllis was killing his romantic flow. “I know what it is, Amaryllis. Why did you give it to me?”
“Because, you said you wanted to sit and get to know me again. This is who I am now. Every night before I go to bed, I do a little Bible study.”
She opened her Bible, the King James Version, to Jeremiah 29:11–14. “I wanna share something with you, Charles. It’s my favorite scripture that I read every night before bed.”
She crossed her legs in a pretzel on the sofa and read the Word of God to the devil seated next to her. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity.”
Amaryllis closed her Bible and looked at Charles. The expression on his face told it all. He wasn’t there for Bible study; he wanted to study Amaryllis.
“Charles, I got saved last week in Las Vegas. I love this scripture because it tells me that if I continue to seek God, I’ll find Him. I have been held captive by sexual sin for most of my life. But I’m free now. The Bible tells me that God will keep me if I wanna be kept. An
d I’m just that crazy to believe that. As long as I stay prayed up and ask God to keep me, I know He’ll do it. I don’t care if you accept that or not, but you must respect it, because that’s how I’m living now.”
That conversation over three weeks ago had sent Charles home quickly. It was the next day in church when Amaryllis had met and began dating Tyrone Caridine. Now, Amaryllis found herself standing in Chicago Ridge Mall fighting the wiles of the devil again.
She knew that she needed to end the telephone call quickly. “Good-bye, Charles, and please lose my number.”
“Wait a minute, baby. Why are you treating me so cold?”
“Look, Charles, I can remember a time I called when you didn’t recognize my voice. You called me by six other women’s names before you got to mine.”
“Girl, I was just playing with you. You are the only woman for me.”
“Well, you’re not the man for me.”
“That’s cold, Amaryllis.”
Amaryllis signaled Bridgette by pointing to her purse then pointing to her own phone in her hand. Bridgette understood exactly what she meant.
“Charles, I’m gonna ask you one more time, why are you calling me?”
“I want to see you tonight.”
Amaryllis knew exactly what Charles wanted to see. He’d made too many compliments about her voluptuous breasts, long hair, and curvy hips. Suddenly, both Charles and Amaryllis heard a beep on the phone line. “Hold on a minute, Charles.” Amaryllis clicked over. “Thanks, Bridge. This fool is on a roll. You should hear the crap he’s talking.”
She clicked over again. “Charles, I gotta go. It’s an important call.”
“Okay, but what about tonight? Can I meet you at your place, let’s say around eight?”
“No. But you can meet me at church tomorrow morning, let’s say around ten.”
“Church?”
“Yep. If you wanna see me, that’s where I’ll be.” It wasn’t that Amaryllis was being disrespectful to her boyfriend, Tyrone, the head musician. She simply knew that Charles wouldn’t show up.
After a long pause, Charles replied with, “Uh, I’ll call you back and let you know.”
Amaryllis heard the click in her ear and knew that she wouldn’t hear from Charles any time soon. Playing the church card seemed to work. She and Bridgette started walking again.
“Charles again, huh?” Bridgette asked.
“Girl, yeah. He has yet to figure out that he’s got a better chance of rolling between the sheets with his momma before he can touch me again.”
“Amaryllis, I gotta tell you that I’m extremely amazed at how you’ve been able to abstain from sex. I mean, this time last year, you were addicted. You sure you ain’t got something long and hard stashed in a box under your bed?”
Amaryllis chuckled. “Let me tell you something, Bridge. If I just gotta have it like that, both Charles and Tyrone are on my speed dial. And if I do mess around and get caught up and have to go to the altar, it won’t be for a toy. If I’m gonna repent, it’ll be for the real thing. You can believe that.”
They strolled past a gourmet popcorn shop and Bridgette’s mouth started to salivate. “I haven’t had gourmet cheese and caramel popcorn in a long time. You want some, Amaryllis?”
“I can go for a minimix.”
At the counter, Amaryllis told the cashier that she’d be paying for both her and Bridgette’s order. Her selflessness pleased Bridgette. “Thanks, Amaryllis.”
“I’m paying for everybody’s popcorn today.”
Bridgette looked around the popcorn shop and saw that the two of them were the only customers. “Everybody, like whom?”
Amaryllis bent over and placed her face directly at Bridgette’s pelvic area and spoke loudly. “Hey, David, Robert, and Kevin, y’all want some popcorn?”
Amaryllis laughed at herself so hard she was in tears. Bridgette looked at the clerk.
“Pray for her; she ain’t saved.”
The cheese and caramel popcorn was warm, fresh, and finger-licking good. The two best friends snacked, walked, and talked as they did a lot of window-shopping.
“Amaryllis, you know we gotta study the Sunday School lesson for tomorrow,” Bridgette reminded her.
“Yeah, that’s first on my list when we get home.”
“I hope I don’t fall asleep in Sunday School,” Bridgette complained. “It’s boring as heck.”
“What’s boring about it?”
“Sunday School, plus morning service and evening service? Girl, that’s way too much church for me. Besides, I ain’t trying to learn anything about Fatback, Tupac, and the big negro in the diary burner.”
Amaryllis almost choked on her popcorn as she laughed. “Bridgette, your behind is going straight to hell. It’s Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, you fool. That just goes to show that Sunday School is exactly where you need to be.”
Bridgette shrugged her shoulders. “Whatever. It’s still way too much church.”
They heard ringing coming from Amaryllis’s purse again. She exhaled loudly. “If this is Charles, I’m gonna put some papers on him for harassment.”
Amaryllis saw PRIVATE CALL on the caller ID before she answered.
“Amaryllis speaking.”
“I guess you think you’re cute with all that weave on your head. And that pink sundress is too tight.” It was a female’s voice. Amaryllis could hear hostility as she spoke.
She instantly stopped walking. Bridgette stopped walking also and looked at her. Amaryllis looked all around at the people walking past her and Bridgette. No one seemed to be paying them any attention.
Bridgette saw the shocked expression on her friend’s face and mouthed, “Who is it?”
Amaryllis waved Bridgette’s question away and spoke into the phone. “Excuse me? You must have the wrong number, and I’ll tell you why. First, wherever you are, you’re not close enough to see that my hair is all mine. Second, my dress fits me well.”
“Oh, I got the right number, and you are not excused. And tell your girl in the white pants and yellow top that I’ve got her number too.”
Suddenly, Amaryllis’s phone line went dead. She looked at what Bridgette was wearing. “Girl, some heifer just called us out. She described what we had on and said she had both our numbers.”
Bridgette glanced around the mall. A man was seated on a nearby bench with bags from various clothing stores on the bench next to him. He also held a female’s purse. Surely, he was waiting patiently for a wife or girlfriend to return. People were riding up and down the escalator in the middle of the mall. A couple held hands as they walked and enjoyed ice-cream cones. Bridgette saw a woman approach a security guard to ask for directions. No one looked suspicious.
Amaryllis placed her phone in her purse. “Whoever it was blocked the call, so I wouldn’t know who she was. What does that tell you, Bridge?”
“That she’s a coward.”
Bridgette dismissed all thoughts of the call and went back to eating her popcorn and window-shopping. But Amaryllis couldn’t help but wonder who the caller was and the reason she had called.
She was walking the straight and narrow now, but she had once been a husband stealer and relationship destroyer. It was possible that the caller was an angry wife or bitter girlfriend of one of the men Amaryllis had bedded before she decided to give her life to Christ. First, Charles reemerged, then a threatening telephone call from an obviously unsettled female. If Amaryllis’s past were indeed catching up to her, and if it were true what was said about karma, the anonymous phone call proved to be what Amaryllis knew was inevitable. What goes around comes around. It worried her that she didn’t know exactly what was coming her way or who may be bringing it. The one thing she did know for sure was that she had a lot to reap.
Chapter 3
At seven o’clock Sunday morning, Amaryllis and Bridgette were up and listening to WGOD, the FM gospel radio station. Edward Primer & The Voices of Joy Community Choir was blast
ing the entire condominium singing, “It Won’t Work.”
Bridgette was in her bedroom putting together what she’d wear to church. Amaryllis was in the kitchen frying ham and eggs. Unexpectedly, there was a loud knock on the front door. Amaryllis peeked through the peephole. She saw who it was, frowned, then yanked the door open.
“It’s seven o’ clock in the morning, and it’s Sunday. What are you doing here, Ty?” she spat.
Tyrone could hardly keep his balance as he leaned against the doorway. “Good morning to you too.”
Amaryllis noticed his speech was slurred and his eyes were bloodshot. “Are you drunk? And what did I tell you about coming to my house without calling first?”
“Why I gotta call? You got another man up in here or somethin’?”
Amaryllis could smell the alcohol coming through his pores. “I’m sick and tired of you coming here unannounced.”
Tyrone could barely stand. “Baby, can I come in?”
Amaryllis almost lost her religion. “Heck, no, you can’t co—Look, Ty, why are you trying to make me do tha fool on a Sunday morning? I’m in here getting my praise on. I ain’t got time for this.”
“Amaryllis, please. Can I have an aspirin or something? My head is killing me.”
She looked at him with disgust. Lord, you know I wanna kick him in the groin, don’t you? “Tyrone, get your drunk behind out of my doorway. And if you ever come to my house drunk or unannounced again, there’s gonna be consequences and repercussions.”
She slammed the door in his face, went into the living room, and turned the volume on the stereo up to the maximum as she began singing with Ed Primer’s group. “Gotta go, can’t stay. Can’t remain feeling this way. Lord, please. See about me.”
Crossroads Page 4