This wasn’t the life I wanted to have, but the one I wanted was already occupied by someone else. That wouldn’t be for long though, and everything I worked so hard for would surely be mine in the end. We put in too many years of planning for this to not work. Jasmine Ray was about to become Mrs. Andrew “Drew” Webber. Believe that! My son was about to have both of his parents at home together and in love, unlike how I grew up. My prayers were finally about to be answered, and I had God and my so-called best friend, Jewel, to thank for that. Before I had the chance to dwell on those thoughts anymore, I heard the intro to the song for my next set.
Exit Jasmine and enter Onyx. I had gained a little weight over the years but in all the right places, unlike some people. Staying in shape wasn’t an issue for me because the pole life was nothing but daily exercise. The bundles of Malaysian body wave that I had just gotten sewn in fell right in the dip of my back where my all natural fatty began. My face was beat to perfection, and the rest of my body was on point as usual. The girls sat up nice and high, my abs were covered in baby oil and glistened under the lights and my thighs were tight and right. Yep, I was a bad one, and Drew knew that from the first time his eyes landed on me.
“What you know ‘bout the grind in the streets
He move and work out of town every week
I know about it
I know about it
What y'all know ‘bout them girls on the pole
She make her money every night, taking off her clothes
I know about it
Yep, I know about it oh
'Cause all my life I've been struggling and stressing
That's why I come up in this piece with aggression
Where I'm from, niggas die every day
Bet you ain't never seen a nigga die in your face
The life the life, the sacrifice
The grind and the grind you get sometimes
I know about it
Don't judge if you know nothing ‘bout it
We try and try to live it right
But we get blinded by the light, oh oh
I know about it”
K Michelle and Meek Mill filled the speakers throughout the club with the soundtrack to my life. If this didn’t describe me to the tee I didn’t know what did. Jasmine was the girl that wanted more and had the education and brains to get there, but no one wanted to recognize that in me. So it was Onyx that got their attention. Onyx was the no nonsense get it how you live chick.
See, I didn’t have the type of parents that cared about my education enough to save up for me to go to college. I had to do that on my own, unlike my roommate, Jewel. She had it all. Her parents weren’t filthy rich, but they made sure her and her brother were good. When I first met them our freshman year of college I initially liked her, but when I started to see how low her self-esteem was it irked me to no end. I just couldn’t understand how she could have this loving Christian family who supported her with everything she decided to do, but she was still unhappy. Had it been me, I would have been all smiles.
Don’t get it twisted, Jewel was a pretty girl to be on the heavy side, but dudes weren’t checking for her back then. Once she told me that the reason she felt so bad about herself, I kind of lost respect for her. There was no way that any man could make me feel bad about myself. I had never been big, but I knew that no one could make me feel less than what I was. Forget that. She had it all and didn’t even see it, and I didn’t care enough after that to let her know. I actually found it quite comical. The night she broke down everything about who she was and what her parents expected out of her in order to get an inheritance, I knew I had to put a plan in motion so that I could live that life.
I finished my set and went to the back to count the money I made for the night. A funky two grand was all that I walked away with, so I knew that I was going to have to work the floor tonight as well and do some private dances in order to get the full five that I wanted. There were some red bottoms I had my eyes on at Lennox Mall, and I couldn’t wait on my man to buy them. Drew was taking care of all of my bills and our son DJ, but the extra things that I wanted right away, I had to get myself for the time being until he was finally all mine. It was easy for Drew to tell Jewel that the things he was paying for with the church money was for different families in the congregation or other people that needed the church’s assistance in the community. Part of it was true, he was helping those people, but his true love and son were getting taken care of as well.
Jewel was so stupid that she trusted everything that he told her without even checking behind him. Had that been me, babyyy, I would have asked to see receipts for everything he paid for all the way down to his draws and socks! Soon this would all be over with though. At least, that’s what I hoped and prayed for. I had let Drew in on what I knew about her inheritance, and he was only supposed to be with her for just a few years. He was to earn her trust, get her pregnant and stay married to her for five years in order to receive whatever it was that her grandfather had left her. When that time came, I asked why he hadn’t left. He told me that it wouldn’t look right and that he had to stay just a little while longer to make it believable. I was cool with that at first, but here we were almost eighteen years later, and I was tired of waiting. I wanted my family and whatever it was that was a part of that inheritance.
I knew that Drew was on his way to Atlanta for the next two weeks, so I was going to make sure I gave him any and everything he wanted while he was here. I wanted him to know when he left this time that he had until the church anniversary to come clean, or I was going to let Jewel know exactly what had been going on right under her nose. I mean, my so-called best friend and God daughters deserved to know the truth finally. Drew may be mad at first, but since I knew this was where he wanted to be and our bank account would be looking lovely, he would get over it real fast.
Chapter Six
Avery
Chris Brown was singing about how these girls these days weren’t loyal to the dudes they were with, but someone needed to talk about how these men weren’t either. I don’t know how my mother couldn’t see what her husband was doing right under her nose. I used to look at some of the girls at school and think love couldn’t make you blind like that, but about a year ago, I started understanding why. My mother was just like them, and I couldn’t stand it.
I prayed nightly that when I did find a boyfriend he wouldn’t treat me like the boys at school, and most importantly, nothing like my so-called father. He would come in some nights so late the sun was about to come up then there were some nights he wouldn’t even come home at all. Ministry was what he called it, but I knew better and for the life of me didn’t know how my mom was so oblivious.
The first night that I could remember him coming home late was the night I lost the little respect for him that I had. I was so tired from studying, but I had to make an A on this upcoming Honors Algebra exam I was about to take the next morning. Mom had gone to bed about nine o’clock because she had been planning a women’s conference, and it had started taking its toll on her body. That’s one thing I admired about her, she was such a go getter for God and her family. She worked hard for us, and I loved her for that.
Kammy was in bed watching Frozen and could barely hold her eyes open. I knew she was waiting on either Mommy or myself to come tuck her in. I walked into her room and went over to her princess canopy bed and got under the cover with her. I loved my little sister and knew that she looked up to me, so I had to make sure I was a good role model for her. Kam slid closer to me and put her head on my shoulder, and soon after, she began to lightly snore. I turned off her TV and turned on her night light. If she didn’t have it on and woke up in the middle of the night she would freak out.
Making sure she was tucked in, I headed out of her room and down the hall to mine. I loved my personal space. It was decorated in purple and silver. My queen size bed was covered in a shimmery purple comforter set with silver accents. There was a 42” inch
television on the wall across from the bed, and I had my computer desk in front of my bay window. Even my carpet was a fluffy purple material that I loved to sink my toes into.
Turning off my overhead light, I made my way over to the bed where I left my laptop and cellphone. I had missed a text from my friend, James, who lived in Georgia. I met him at one of the vacation Bible school camps that we attended each year. It was his first year since moving in with his father, who was also a pastor, and his step mother. James and his little brother, JJ, had been through so much, and my heart went out to them. He was so sweet, and I could tell him everything without feeling like I was being judged. I sent him a simple text back letting him know that I had just put Kam to bed and was about to study, but I would call him tomorrow.
Placing my phone on the charger, I started to climb in the bed, but before I could, I heard a car door shut. I knew that Dad wasn’t home because I didn’t hear the garage door come open, so I got up to peek outside. I wasn’t worried about someone noticing me because with my light off you couldn’t see my shadow. The closer I got to my window, the harder my heart seemed to beat. I had no idea what I was about to see, but right before I slid my curtain to the side, I felt a sense of calmness. Like God was wrapping His arms around me at that very moment so that I would keep calm about whatever it was I was about to face. I felt that feeling often when things were tough for me, and it got me through.
I opened my window and prayed that God would let my mother and sister feel that calmness and protection from God once He revealed to them what I was looking at. The woman that was standing in front of my father I couldn’t recognize, but from the look on his face, he knew exactly who she was. They were parked right in our driveway, like this was their house instead of the house he shared with his family.
The woman put her arms around him, and they kissed long and hard before she got in his car and drove away. Once she was out of sight, he turned around and walked towards our front door. As my heart shattered and the tears ran down my face, my phone began to vibrate on the nightstand. I walked over to it, and without looking to see who it was, I answered.
“Hello?” I said in a raspy voice.
“Ave? That you?” I heard James ask me.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
Tears were beginning to flow so rapidly, the anger was setting in and I didn’t realize I had begun hyperventilating.
“Avery, calm down. You’re gonna pass out if you don’t calm your breathing,” he said to me in his deep baritone voice.
“How could he do this to her?” I said, not necessarily to James but more to myself.
“Listen Avery, I know it’s late. I don’t know what’s going on, but God led me to pray for you tonight before I go to bed. If that’s okay.”
“Yeah. Fine.”
My thoughts were all over the place, and I wanted so badly to go wake my mom up and tell her what I just saw. But as upset as I was, I knew that she wasn’t in the right mind frame to deal with him and his shenanigans just yet.
“Avery, I want you to close your eyes and take your focus off of anything that’s going on around you. I need you to close your eyes and focus on God. God, I’m not sure the issues that are going on at the present moment, but we know You are able to do the impossible. God, I’m asking that you begin to wrap Avery in Your arms and let her know that what she sees is only the work of you. Let her know, God, that all things will work together for her and family’s good because they are lovers of you.
I’m asking that every tear shed from this day forward would be tears of joy and not tears of sorrow. I bind any bitterness and hatred that she may hold in her heart, because we know these are things sent by the devil to distract us from you. God, use Avery to be the source of strength in her home, give her the ability to weather this storm. Your word says that your strength is made perfect in our weakness, and at this moment, Avery is weak and in need of your strength, Father; and God, we know that the only person that can take the pain away is you. So we are giving you everything tonight, from this point on what she sees and hears will not affect her faith, but it will be made stronger. And God, we love and we know these things are already done in your son Jesus’ name, Amen. Avery, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m always a phone call away. Let God do what He has to do in this situation. We make it worse when we touch it, ok?”
“You’re right. How did you know that I needed you?” I asked, as the prayer James just prayed for me resonated in my spirit.
Since meeting him, he had always been there for me, even from hundreds of miles away.
I could hear him smile when he said, “I told you we are connected, and no matter what, I got you.”
“Thanks James. I’ll call you tomorrow and tell you all about it,” I told him.
Just that fast my tears had been dried, and my frown was now replaced by a toothy smile.
“Ok. I’ll be here. Love you, Avery,” he said.
This wasn’t the first time that he had said this, but it was the first time I felt a spark in my heart when I heard it.
“I love you, too,” I said, rushing off of the phone because I was unfamiliar with the feeling that I was feeling.
One minute I was feeling proud as I put my sister to bed, then the next I was feeling rage watching my father with another woman, to now feeling butterflies in my stomach when my friend told me he loved me.
I was tripping now, for real, and knew that no studying would get done tonight. Just as I got under my covers and put my computer and books on the floor, I heard that man come up the stairs. I couldn’t even call him my father anymore because I didn’t know who he was.
Pulling the covers over my head, I left a little opening so that I could see my door but appear to be asleep. And just as I imagined, he slowly opened my door to peek in and make sure I was asleep. I knew my room would be the one he checked because it was in the front of the house, and he had to make sure he had gone unnoticed. Well, little did he know, not only did God see him, but I did too, and in due time, everyone one else would see him for who he really was. A no good snake in the grass that wore a collar and toted a bible.
It may not have been very Christian of me, but every day since that night, I prayed that just like God rained down burning sulfur onto the city of Sodom and Gomorrah that He would somehow do the same to Pastor Andrew Webber.
Chapter Seven
Jewel
I sat at my desk inside of my downstairs office and looked at the clock in the right hand bottom corner of my computer screen. The display showed the time as four in the afternoon and six days since Drew left to head to Atlanta. The time and date also reminded me that it had been six days since I last talked to him. If it wasn’t me calling his phone it was Kammy trying to FaceTime him, only to have the phone go straight to voicemail or just ring. As of nine this morning, I had left so many messages that his mailbox was now filled to capacity.
I stopped making attempts to reach him the moment I logged into my personal Facebook page and saw that he had been posting and checking in at different locations in Atlanta. At least he wasn’t dead, but once I reached him, he was going to wish that he was.
Trying my best to take my mind off of what could possibly be going on with my husband, I focused all of my energy and attention on the final details of his pastor’s anniversary that would take place in four days. I was so excited for this new level that God was about to take us to, but for some reason, I didn’t feel like Drew was taking it as seriously as I was. Maybe he was just nervous. This was a big step in ministry, but I knew that he could handle it. Before I had the chance to get back to making sure everything was in order, the house phone rang. Praying it was Drew finally calling, I looked at the caller ID and saw it was my father.
“Hey, my gem,” he greeted me.
It seemed like he sensed when something was going on with me because he would always call at the right time.
“Hey Daddy. How are you? Where’s mom?”
“Oh, I�
��m fine. We just got back from one of her doctor’s appointments,” he said, reminding me that she did have to go and get another mammogram done.
Since the breast cancer that had claimed her left breast was in remission, her doctor wanted to do regular mammograms and run tests to make sure it hadn’t returned.
My mother, Francis, was a trooper though, a real soldier for the Lord, and no matter what went on with her, she still gave God praise, even in the darkest of times.
“That totally slipped my mind. What was the outcome?” I asked quickly, saying a silent prayer that everything was still good.
I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I heard him say that everything was just fine, and I was able to exhale. My mother was the reason that my father passed up being the head pastor of the church because he knew how much time was required when it came to ministry. His main focus was taking care of his family at home, because if his home life was out of order, there was no way that he could lead a church. I admired that about him, he really loved his family. I knew what it felt like to have such a positive man in my life growing up, and what a husband should be, but there were days I felt like I didn’t have that, no matter how hard I tired ignoring the signs.
“I was calling, baby girl, to see how you are though. God has had you heavy on my heart and mind these last couple of days,” he said.
I had gotten so caught up in my thoughts I forgot he was on the line.
“I’m ok. Just trying to make sure these last minute details are together before Drew gets back in time for the anniversary.”
The Pastor's Other Woman Page 3