The Pastor's Other Woman

by Boone, Denora

“Wait, I thought Andrew was home already.”

  “No. Why would you think that, Daddy? I told you he had a speaking engagement in Charlotte,” I reminded him.

  He had me confused as to what he was talking about. I knew he wasn’t losing his memory, so the fact that he was thinking Drew was home and I had given him the schedule was beyond me.

  “Doesn’t Bryce go with him when he leaves town?” He asked me.

  “Yes.”

  I had no clue what he was getting at.

  “Do they always come back together?”

  “Yes. Daddy, why are you asking me these questions?”

  Now I was starting to worry again.

  “I just saw Bryce at the grocery store. I stopped to talk to him for a few minutes about when he was going to finally decide to become a pastor. I see nothing but the hand of God on his life, and I know he will be an awesome addition for the kingdom in that capacity. Unlike….” He trailed off.

  My emotions were all over the place, and I couldn’t understand why Bryce was back and I didn’t know where my husband was.

  “Daddy, I have to go. Tell mom I’ll call her back later on and check on her. Love you,” I said hanging up the phone not waiting on a response from him.

  Something wasn’t right, and I began to wonder if the vision God gave to me the other night was about to come to pass. If so, I was going to need all of His strength to get through this. Before I picked up the phone to call the hotel my husband should have been at and to check in with Bryce so that he could explain why he was home but Drew was MIA, I reached in the top drawer of my desk and pulled out my bottle of Zoloft and popped two into my mouth. God in heaven knows if this didn’t go right my next breakdown might send me over the deep end. The last time I slipped into a deep depression I was stuck in the bed for almost three weeks, and if it hadn’t been for Bryce coming to the house that day to see Drew, my children would have been motherless. That man had really been there for a lot of the most difficult times in my life when my husband should have, but none the less, I was grateful for him.

  Hopefully now, he will have some answers for me that contradicted what my mind was already telling me.

  Chapter Eight

  Drew

  Sitting behind the pulpit, I looked out into the faces of my congregation as they celebrated me. This was my church, my ministry, my flock. I ran this show and had been for the last ten years, so today, on this Pastor's Anniversary, I was going to sit back and watch as the people worshiped me. How could they not? If it wasn't for me half of these people would be jobless and without lights and food. They owed me, so to speak. I looked over to the woman sitting beside me with the light make up, bouncy curls and wide body and smiled. If I cared even a little bit about my wife I could say that God had truly blessed me with my Jewel. But I didn’t. I was here for only one reason, and that was to make a come up. Tomorrow morning would be the end of this charade I was putting on with both Jewel and Jasmine.

  My wife and the mother of our two beautiful daughters, Jewel was some man’s dream, just not mine. My reality didn’t include her for too much longer, but I would act like it. She wasn't enough. I needed more. I chuckled to myself at that thought. Jewel was more than enough, but I meant that literally.

  Of course, I heard the warnings daily from the Lord, and even from my best friend, Bryce, but I was too smooth with mine. Unlike most men, I was covered behind the cross. God may have warned me, but He would never expose me. I preached His word to His people like He instructed, and in return, He kept my secrets covered.

  I sat up in my seat and straightened my tie while the choir sang about His goodness. Yes, He was good, very good, but I was a little better. I was the epitome of a Man of God on the outside, but on the inside, that real life I lived was what kept me going. Something about this other life of mine kept the fire burning in me. Yearning for more. The excitement of knowing my wife, children and church would never know I pulled the wool over their eyes daily gave me a sense of power like no other.

  I guess I owed a little thanks to Jewel for getting me here though. Had she not been about to receive some big inheritance, there was no way I would be getting ready to head to take her for all she had. I couldn’t care less what she and the girls would be left with once I was gone because I was sure I would be good for the rest of my life.

  When the choir finally stopped singing and the people in the congregation got themselves together I stood to give my thanks as a feeling hit me like a ton of bricks. Another warning from God I suppose.

  "This is your last warning, son," I heard but shook it off.

  He'll never expose me for who I really am, I'm His servant, I thought to myself. I looked over at Bryce, and he had a look of satisfaction on his face. Not sure what that was about but I turned to my other side, and as I bent down to kiss Jewel, as I always did before preaching, instead of her kissing me back, she turned her head to face the many faces of Living Testimony Christian Center.

  Taken aback for just a quick second, I gathered myself, smiled and walked up to my podium. Right as I was opening my mouth to start my speech, the doors of the church opened, and I heard a voice that made me sick to my stomach.

  "Good evening everyone. I'm Constance, the Preacher's other woman."

  Chapter Nine

  Jewel

  To say I was speechless would be an understatement. My whole body went numb as the revelation of my husband’s infidelity hit me like a ton of bricks. I looked over to Bryce, who wore the same shocked expression on his face that I had on mine. So many thoughts were going through my head, yet nothing was forming to make sense at the moment.

  I thought my heart had shattered when Bryce told me what Drew was up to, but right now I felt like my heart was non-existent in my chest. God had allowed this man to snatch it right out of my body, and I didn’t understand why. I was a good wife and mother and tried to be the woman that Drew needed, but it still wasn’t enough.

  “Good evening everyone,” the woman named Constance said again.

  “Babe, what are you doing here?” Drew said, clearing his throat.

  You could hear a pin drop the church was so quiet.

  “Drew, what’s going on?” I asked finally finding my voice, but I couldn’t stop it from shaking.

  “Shut up, Jewel. Answer the question, Constance,” he said, not even looking at me.

  “NO!” I said, letting them all know I was not playing this time.

  “What’s going on, honey, is I’m tired of not being able to have my man home with me and our children on a regular basis,” Constance informed me.

  There was no way I could keep the tears from flowing no matter how hard I tried. Looking at this woman stand in front of me made me sick to my stomach. She was gorgeous. I knew her hair wasn’t real, but the long blond weave was freshly curled and fell around her caramel colored face. Her eyes were dark and slanted, almost like if you wore a ponytail too tight and it caused your eyes to be stretched. As bad as I didn’t want to look at her body, I couldn’t help it. The woman was flawless compared to me. She wasn’t real tall, but she was taller than me, and her weight complimented her frame well. Constance was everything I wasn’t, and thoughts of Romeo came flooding back to my memory.

  Without a second thought, the embarrassment I felt carried me down the stairs of the stage and out of the side door leading to my office. I had to get out of there, and I needed to fast. If I didn’t, the rage inside of me would have taken over at that moment. Although I wanted my husband to come behind me to make sure I was ok and to let me know that this was all just a misunderstanding, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

  Drew looked at her with so much love in his eyes. Love that in the last eighteen years I’ve known him I’d never once seen. That’s when it hit me. Andrew Webber did not marry me because he loved me. He married me because he wanted what I had to offer. Bryce had already filled me in on what was going on, but I didn’t want to believe him. I had no choice now. The truth just wa
lked in and stared me in my face.

  I heard the door to Drew’s office slam shut and was immediately followed by arguing.

  “God give me comfort because if you give me strength to handle this situation I’m using it, and I’m going to jail,” I said out loud.

  Before I could reach the doorknob on the adjoining door that led to the Pastor’s Study, my main office door opened and Bryce came in.

  “J, just go home. Let me handle this for you,” he said.

  Instead of listening to him or responding, I opened the door and walked through it.

  ******

  “I told you that if you didn’t leave her I was going to make sure she did myself!”

  “You had no right! I told you that I was going to leave once everything was final.”

  “So this was planned, Drew?” I asked, startling them both.

  “What do you think, Sherlock?” Constance said to me.

  The beautiful woman I had just seen ten minutes prior was now so ugly to me.

  “Man. Go on, Jewel. I’m talking to my fiancé,” he said without a hint of remorse.

  Red. That’s exactly all I saw right now, and as I charged at the both of them, I felt Bryce grab me from behind to stop me.

  “I hope you ate your Wheaties this morning, bro, ‘cause that’s a big one you holding back,” Drew said laughing.

  “How could you say and do something like this, yo?” Bryce asked him as I continued to cry.

  Before Drew could answer, the main door to his office opened up and in walked Jasmine.

  “Yea, how could you do this, Drew?” She asked, walking further into the room with my three year old God son in tow.

  I felt the grip Bryce had around my waist get tighter, and I wondered why. And what was Jasmine doing here anyway? When I invited her to the anniversary she told me that she couldn’t make it because her son, DJ, was sick.

  “Jaz, what are you doing here?” I asked.

  Instead of her answering me, she kept her eyes trained on Drew. That’s was when it hit me like a ton of bricks. Jasmine wasn’t asking why he did this to me. She was asking why he was doing this to her.

  “Who are you?” Constance asked, looking from Drew to Jasmine.

  “I’m the mother of his child,” she simply replied.

  “Oh God, no,” I said as I felt like the air in the room was slowly being sucked out.

  Chapter Ten

  Drew

  This could not be life right now. This was not the way that this was supposed to be happening. This time tomorrow I should be on a plane to an island somewhere with Constance. I knew that last warning that God sent me I should have taken heed to, but I couldn’t walk away until I got what was owed to me. I deserved whatever it was that Jewel was getting from her grandfather just for dealing with her all of these years. She definitely owed me.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked Jasmine, completely ignoring everyone else’s questions.

  “Don’t play dumb now. I told you that I was tired of waiting on you to leave her,” she said tilting her head in the direction of Jewel.

  Bryce still had a hold on her, and I knew he was getting tired because she wouldn’t keep still. That was a lot to hold on to.

  “Come on, you know I told you I don’t know how many times that I wasn’t going to settle down with you. Even after you had my son, you knew that wouldn’t change my feelings for you. You were just a means to an end for me,” I finally told her the truth.

  I was tired of playing these games with these women. It was time that I put it all out there what was going on.

  “Ok. Everybody want to know the truth then here it is,” I said, prepared to take them back down memory lane.

  ********

  I was chopping it up at a frat party when in walked Jasmine and Jewel. Jasmine and I had already been fooling around for some time when she mentioned to me one night how much she disliked her roommate. She went into detail about how good Jewel had it, but how she was always complaining. Jewel’s self-esteem was so low, and it made no sense to her. She would do anything to live the life that Jewel was.

  As soon as she started telling me about how Jewel would get an inheritance once she got married, the wheels in my head started turning. She was so focused on venting that she didn’t even know that I was fishing for info from her. Pillow talk could be a gift and a curse in a relationship.

  “What kind of inheritance?” I asked as I began to caress her thighs while we sat on the couch in my dorm.

  I knew it wouldn’t take much to get the information from her. She couldn’t hold water in a cup.

  “Her grandfather left her father, her and her brother some money when he died, but there were stipulations in place, and if they don’t meet them they can’t get the money,” she said.

  “Stipulations?”

  “Yeah. She had to graduate at the top of her class and get married in order to receive it.”

  “How much is it?” I pried.

  “Now that I don’t know. She keeps hush mouth about that, but it has to be a lot. She said he had money because of all of the businesses he owned and the church that he started from the ground up.”

  “But I thought y’all were cool,” I said, just to see where her mind was about Jewel.

  If my gut was right her answer would confirm it to me.

  “Boy bye! I only hang around her ‘cause when her parents do for her they do for me. And if I play my cards right when she gets her money she won’t have a problem sharing. Besides, I’m the only friend she has.”

  That night Jasmine and I came up with an air tight plan to get that money by any means necessary, and the night of the party was just the beginning.

  “So, you plotted against me?” Jewel asked, bringing me back from my thoughts.

  “Girl, don’t act like you didn’t know something was up. Look at you. You’re fat, and you dressed like an old woman. Why would he want something like you on his arm unless you had something that he wanted?” Jasmine scoffed.

  “She has a point there. Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t have gotten the time of day from me, but all I saw was dollar signs,” I said, pouring salt on Jewel’s open wounds.

  “Where do you fit in?” Jewel turned to Constance and asked her.

  I had almost forgotten she was there because she had been so quiet.

  “I don’t know. Where do I fit in, Drew?” She asked me.

  Without a word, I walked over to her pulling her in close to me and giving her the deepest most passionate kiss I had ever given her. Next thing I knew, Jasmine had let go of my son’s hand and was landing blow after blow on Constance. It took her a minute to get her bearings together from being caught off guard, but once she did, it was over for Jasmine.

  It took me at least two minutes to pry Constance’s hands from Jasmine’s hair and to stop the blows that were landing each and every time. My son, DJ, was yelling at the top of his lungs from all of the commotion and trying to grab my leg.

  “Bryce, man, help me!” I yelled, needing him to help me get this situation under control, but I was still struggling. “BRYCE!” I called out again.

  When I still didn’t get a response I turned around to see Bryce and Jewel were no longer in the room, but my two daughters were there with tears in their eyes. It caused me to pause for a brief moment as I looked into their innocent faces, but I didn’t feel any remorse at all.

  “I hate you so much!” Avery screamed as she grabbed Kammy’s hand and ran out of the room.

  I turned back around to face the other two women in my life who I could tell were finally getting tired of fighting.

  “Y’all done?” I asked with a smirk on my face as they both parted and stood on each side of the room.

  “Choose,” was all Jasmine said.

  Without another word, I walked over to her as a smile began to spread across her face. I could tell she thought she had come out on top, but that smile would soon fade with my next few words.

&nbs
p; “You’re dead to me,” I said with each syllable laced with ice.

  “What about DJ? All of these years together and you are just going to leave us?” She cried.

  I didn’t bother to even respond as I grabbed Constance’s hand and headed to the front of the church. As soon as I rounded the corner leading to the outside, I was surprised to see so many people still there. I guess I shouldn’t have been because people loved it when a scandal jumped off no matter where it happened, but the church poured the best tea I guess. I knew by the look on their faces that they expected me to be running behind Jewel and our daughters or giving some kind of explanation of what was going on, but I owed no one a thing. So, I kept my head up as I cockily walked out with Constance in tow.

  “Pastor! Pastor Webber!” I heard Mother Johnson call out to me right before I got to my 2015 Mercedes S550.

  I had just bought this car the other day with the rest of the money I had in my separate account that Jewel didn’t know anything about. It didn’t matter to me that I had spent those few dollars. Little did my wife know, I had found the necessary documents that I needed in order to change the account info for the inheritance deposit that would deposit tonight at midnight. I was about to be a millionaire, and it was way overdue. Tomorrow, Constance, our two children and myself would be high in the air on the way to our new life in Aruba.

  “Yes Mother?” I said, not trying to hide the fact that I was annoyed and ready to go.

  “Why are you doing this, son? This isn’t right, and God is not pleased,” she said with tears in her eyes.

  “And what am I doing, Mother Johnson?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

  “All of this! Cheating on your wife with all of these lowlife women and fathering all of these children behind her back. What true man of God would carry on like this?”

  Clearly she was upset, but it didn’t move me, but I bet what I said next moved her.

  “I don’t know what kind of man would do his wife like this. Why don’t you ask Deacon Johnson and Sister Thelma?”