From his dresser drawer, he pulled out a pair of black boxers. He walked out into the hallway and grabbed a towel from the linen closet. Two steps back into his bedroom, Brian decided to retreat to the den and turned on the surround sound system, filling the house with a medley of his favorite gospel artists.
***
Shay drove her new Lexus down Interstate 580 like the piece of machinery was made just for her. With the V6 engine and more than 300 horsepower under the hood, she practically floated down the highway. She glanced down at the clock. It was five-thirty; right on schedule. She’d planned to have Brian’s favorite Mexican meal of chicken enchiladas with Spanish rice and black beans, ready by six-thirty. She even baked him a lemon pound cake, which she tried unsuccessfully to hide from Reggie. “I’ll bake you one tomorrow,” she vowed to Reggie.
Reggie wasn’t buying it. She had to cut him a slice to keep him from calling to tell Brian she was home. Just before she left the house, Reggie reminded her that she was expected to be home by midnight. That was part of the accountability system she worked out with Reggie and her mom to help her monitor how much time she and Brian spent alone.
Shay’s heart fluttered when her exit came into view.
***
Shannon parked her car in the driveway then retrieved the spare key from under the potted plant and quietly entered the house. She had expected to see Brian as soon as she entered, but didn’t. She knew he was there because the music was on and there was a light coming from a back room. She had never been inside so she took the opportunity to inspect the front of the house.
Although she couldn’t cook, she was impressed with the large size of the kitchen and loved the bay window overlooking the city from the living room. She looked at the picture of Reggie and Julia on their wedding day sitting on the mantle and again wondered what was it about Julia Simone that made a man like Reginald Pennington love her so much. She really admired Julia, but she knew after tonight, Julia wouldn’t like her at all. She would probably be banned from the church. That thought saddened her a bit, but she quickly pushed it to the back of her mind. Shannon loosened the belt on her trench coat and started down the hallway.
The closer she got to the light coming from the back of the house, she heard the shower. “This will be easier than I thought,” she said and stepped inside of what she figured was Brian’s room. The picture of Shay on the nightstand was a dead giveaway.
She rolled her eyes at the picture and proceeded to pull back Brian’s bed covers. She had just finished unbuttoning her coat when the shower stopped.
***
Brian causally dried himself and dressed in his boxers while humming the words to the song playing. He stayed inside the bathroom and trimmed his goatee before stepping into his room. He took two steps and his heart nearly stopped.
Chapter 52
The driveway was full so Shay parked on the street in front of the house. She assumed the Ford Focus parked next to Brian’s RAV4 belonged to Todd. She grabbed the two grocery bags and the cake from the trunk, then used her key to let herself into the house.
When she saw that the house was dark with the sound system blaring, she knew Brian was probably in his room asleep. He often slept to loud music. She decided to set things up in the kitchen before disturbing him.
***
“Shannon, what are you doing here?” Brian demanded.
Shannon didn’t seem worried at all. She seductively let the trench coat fall to her feet revealing the black lace and satin camisole. Before she answered him, she climbed onto his bed.
“I’m waiting for you. I told you I had something for you.” She licked her lips.
“Shannon, put your clothes on and get out!” he yelled.
“But, Brian, I’ve been a good friend to you.” She crawled on her knees on his bed to him and ran her hand across his chest. “Don’t you think it’s time for you to be a good friend to me?”
Brian jumped away from her at her touch. His jaws flexed and his chest heaved rapidly. He felt the nausea returning, he was going to be sick and Shannon perched there grinning.
“Shannon, I’m only going to tell you once more. Put your clothes on and get out!”
“Brian, please, just make love to me this one time and I won’t bother you again. You owe me that much,” she said and lay on her back waiting for him to join her.
His nostrils flared and his eye twitched. “If you’re not going to leave on your own, I’ll throw you out.” Brian picked her up just as Shay entered the room. At the sound of Shay’s gasp he turned around.
***
Time stood still as Shay looked from Brian’s horrified expression to Shannon’s smirk. There Brian stood nearly naked and in his arms was an equally undressed woman. The woman who Shay knew wanted Brian all to herself.
To Shay, it took her brain an eternity to tell her lungs to breathe again. “Br-Br-Brian?” she finally stuttered his name.
His mouth moved up and down, but no sound was made. When he didn’t respond, tears streamed down Shay’s face. Shay could only look at them a second longer before she felt like she was going to be sick. She turned and ran from the room.
Watching Shay run out on him unfroze Brian’s faculties. He literally dropped Shannon on the floor, stepped over her and ran after Shay. When he caught up with her, she was running out the front door. “Shay, wait!” he called after her.
She didn’t stop. Brian ran outside in his boxers and bare feet. He caught up with her at the end of the driveway.
“Shay, wait! It’s not what you think!”
She pushed him against the bushes. “Don’t touch me!” she screamed through tears and continued on to her car.
“Shay, please wait. Give me a minute to explain.” He ran around to the driver’s side.
Shay started the engine. “There is nothing to talk about! Stay away from me!”
Brian tried to open the car door, but she sped off, leaving him standing in the middle of the Campus Drive in nothing but his boxers.
Brian ran back inside. Shannon sat on his bed, like her actions hadn’t turned his world upside down. Brian hurriedly threw on sweats and a pair of Nikes. Before he ran out, he glared at Shannon. This time his tone and his eyes were deadly. “When I get back you had better be gone!”
Chapter 53
Shay made it home safely only by the grace of God. The entire drive hot and heavy tears obstructed her vision. Wave after wave of nausea constantly rushed through her body as thoughts of Brian and Shannon being intimate flashed before her. She had to pull over twice on Interstate 680 to empty her stomach. When she pulled into the circular driveway at Blackhawk, she barely stopped the car before she opened the door and jumped out.
Reggie and Julia were sitting in the den watching television when Shay slammed the door and ran up the stairs wailing.
Julia stood to follow after her, but then Brian burst through the door.
“Where’s Shay?” He was breathless.
Julia recognized the fear in Brian’s eyes and knew something was very wrong. “What happened?”
Brian ignored the question. “Where did Shay go?”
“She’s upstairs, but—” Julia started, but Brian couldn’t wait.
In no time, he hiked the winding staircase two steps at a time and entered Shay’s room. He found her in the adjourning bathroom leaning over the toilet bowl. He watched as she finished emptying the last of her stomach contents and for the heaving to stop. He waited for her to rinse her mouth and handed her a wet towel for her face.
“Brian, get out!” she finally yelled, without looking at him.
When he stepped out of the bathroom the crying started all over again. This time tremors shook her body. When she finally stepped into her bedroom, he was still there; sitting on her bed.
“Brian, I told you to leave,” she screamed.
He stood up. “Shay, I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”
Shay turned to face him. “I don’t have anything to
say to you, not now, not ever!” He stepped toward her and reached for her arm. She snatched it away. “How could you do this to me?”
“Shay, sweetheart, I didn’t do anything. I promise.”
“I may have been stupid and naïve to fall in love with you, but I’m certainly not blind,” she yelled. “And don’t call me ‘sweetheart’.”
Her words hurt, but he couldn’t let it show, not now. “I know what it looked like, but, Shay, all you saw was me trying to take Shannon out of the house.”
“What I saw was you carrying half-naked Shannon to your bed.” Her voice quivered. “To the same bed that you shared with me.” She pounded his chest repeatedly. “How could you? How could you even think of doing the same things to her that you did to me in the same bed?”
He didn’t stop her from hitting him, but absorbed the blows without resistance. She inflicted more pain on her fist than she did to his steel-like torso. Frustrated and exhausted, she gave up and gave way to more tears. If she noticed the drops trailing down Brian’s cheeks, she didn’t show it.
“I dated Jason for six months and not one time did I remotely consider sharing my body with him.” She held her index finger up for emphasis. “Not one time did I allow him to touch me intimately, because I didn’t desire anyone but you. I can’t believe I was so stupid.” Then the thought came to her, “Is this your way of getting back at me for Jason? Is this the real reason why you wanted me to wait two years for you? So you could continue messing around with her? Have you been sleeping with Shannon the entire time?”
Brian shook his head as if to clear it. “Sweetheart, I—”
“I told you not to call me ‘sweetheart’ ever again,” she snarled. “I hate you!”
Brian heaved and wiped his face. “Shay, I swear I have never slept with Shannon. I have never even had the desire to.”
She stepped back and folded her arms. “So what were the two of you doing half- naked in your room?”
“When I came from the shower she was there. I don’t even know how she got inside the house. When she wouldn’t leave on her own, I picked her up, but only to put her out, not take to her to bed. Shay, I promise that’s what happened.”
Brian’s gentle and sincere tone tore into her resolve, but she hid the effect.
Brian’s lips moved as if he were praying as he stepped closer to her. “Shay, you know me. I love you and I would never hurt you like this. I have never lied to you.”
Shay lowered her head so she couldn’t see the tears in Brian’s eyes.
“You’re the only woman I want and the only woman I desire. Please, you have to believe me.” He held his arms open to her as he’d done countless times in the past.
Shay felt that familiar tug in her heart. She wanted to believe him. She wanted to run into his arms and forgive him. She would have if an image of Brian and Shannon in bed together and the smirk on Shannon’s face hadn’t flashed before her eyes. She immediately stiffened.
“Get out!”
“Shay—” Brian tried to put his hands on her shoulders, but she pushed him away.
“Don’t ever touch me again. Don’t ever speak to me again.”
“But—”
“Stay out of my life.” She released the clasp on her wrist. “I don’t want you and I don’t want this!” she screamed and threw the silver heart he had given her at him. He caught it just before it hit him in the face. She quickly turned away from him, ignoring the hurt in his eyes.
***
Brian stood there for a moment praying she would change her mind. He waited for her to turn back around and tell him she really didn’t mean what she had just said. He waited for her to yell or hit him again, anything that would make things go back to the way they were. Shay didn’t do any of that.
Finally, he stepped close behind her and whispered in her ear. “No matter what you may think, I love you. I will always love you.”
On his way out Brian laid the silver chain on her dresser. When she heard the door close, Shay fell onto her bed and cried until she couldn’t cry anymore.
On the other side of the door, Brian cried tears of his own. Between his sobs, he heard Shay’s and that made him hurt more. But as long as she shut him out, there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He couldn’t comfort her against her will. Before he composed himself enough to go downstairs to face his father and Julia, he prayed for Shay’s heart to soften and heal. He prayed she’d reopen her heart and let him back in.
Julia and Reggie waited anxiously in the kitchen. Both were pacing.
Julia didn’t waste any time. “Brian, what’s going on?”
Brian sat down at the table and rubbed his forehead and tried to calm the storm raging within him. He didn’t speak.
“Brian, what happened tonight?” Reggie’s voiced bordered on frustration and irritation.
Brian took a deep breath and began the horrid details. “Shay walked in on me in my bedroom—with Shannon.” He hung his head down, not daring to look his father in the face.
Julia’s cappuccino skin turned red and she fought with everything in her to keep from lashing out at Brian. Fighting to gain control of her anger, she stood and leaned over the sink.
In all the time he’d known his father, Brian had never heard him yell outside of preaching. Tonight that would change.
“What was Shannon doing at the house and why on earth was she in your bedroom?” Reggie yelled.
Brian swallowed hard and summoned the strength to meet his father’s gaze. “Dad, I honestly don’t know how she got inside the house. All I know is when I came out of the shower there she was in my room, barely dressed.”
Julia whirled around. “Exactly what did Shay walk in on?”
“I told Shannon to leave, but she wouldn’t. I was going to physically put her out.” Brian swallowed hard again. “When Shay walked in that’s what I was trying to do. I had picked Shannon up and I was about to carry her outside. That’s the truth.”
Julia didn’t say a word, just turned and faced the sink again.
Reggie had no problem voicing his anger. “How did Shannon know you were home?”
Brian thought back to the conversation he’d had with her earlier in the week. “I told her I would be home today.”
Reggie banged his fists on the table and Brian and Julia jumped. “How many times have I told you to limit your communication with Shannon? How many times have I told you to watch her? Telling her when you will be home is like giving her an invitation!”
Brian hurt even more now because this was the first time he had disappointed his father. His whole world was crumbling right before his eyes. The woman he loved had just ended their relationship and now Mama J was so angry that she couldn’t stand to look at him. Brian lowered his head again in an attempt to hide the tears he felt threatening to escape.
“Hold your head up!” Reggie ordered.
Finally, with much effort he looked his father in the eye. “Dad, I’m sorry. You’re right I shouldn’t have told her my plans. But the truth is, I didn’t invite her in. She was there when I came out of the shower, barely dressed with my bed linens turned back. I had no intentions, and still don’t, of sleeping with Shannon. Please, Dad, you have to believe me.”
Reggie studied Brian’s face as if searching for the truth. One thing Brian wasn’t was a liar. But his disobedience may have cost him his relationship with Shay. “I take it Shay didn’t believe you?”
Brian shook his head. “No, she didn’t.” He couldn’t say anymore without breaking down.
Chapter 54
Julia knew Brian told the truth. She knew Brian and she knew Shannon. Julia was well aware Shannon only attended church for Brian’s benefit and hadn’t changed much. But that knowledge didn’t remove the pain she felt for her daughter. Julia was smart and a woman, therefore, she knew how women thought. She listened as Reggie and Brian tried to figure out how Shannon gained access to the house. Todd wouldn’t have let her in under any circumstances. She fina
lly turned around and asked, “Brian, do you still keep an emergency key underneath the planter out front?”
Brian’s facial expression answered her question. She unfolded her arms and walked over to Brian and placed her hand on his shoulder. She spoke friendly, but stern, “Brian, I love you, but you had better clean up this hot mess you’ve helped create—fast.” Julia stormed from the kitchen to go check on her daughter.
She found Shay lying across her bed, shaking. She discarded the used tissues and lay down next to her. Shay didn’t say a word; she just cuddled under her mother like she used to do when she was a little girl. Julia stroked her hair while Shay released a fresh batch of tears.
“Mama, how could he do this to me?” Shay asked between sniffles.
“Honey, are you sure he did something wrong?”
Shay raised her head and looked at her mother’s face. “I know what I saw.”
Julia was careful with her. “What did you see?”
“I saw Brian about to have sex with Shannon,” Shay stated unequivocally.
“Did you see them in bed together?”
“No, but he was carrying her to his bed.”
This is just how the devil works, in illusion and delusion, Julia thought. It was pointless to try and convince Shay otherwise. Right now, Shay wasn’t open to reason. Julia didn’t ask any more questions. Instead she sang Shay’s favorite song to her until she fell asleep.
The following morning after Julia finished her meditation time, she checked on Shay. “Baby, it’s time to get up, if you’re going to make service.” Julia sat on the bed and brushed hair strands from Shay’s face.
Shay moaned and stretched then frowned.
“You look so much like your father when you do that.”
Shay groaned. “Mama, you always say I act or look like my father when I act crazy or do something stupid.”
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