By the time I’d hung up, Miriam didn’t want to talk anymore. Good thing, because I was wrung out from whispering I love you and I miss you while talking to the enemy. The entire time I wanted to ask him about Sirena and if she really was his first love and why if it was true had he felt the need to keep it from me. But I was taking my own advice. What did it matter if it were true? We were in the here and now. The past was gone and buried.
I’d gotten Miriam settled into the guest bedroom next to my mother’s room. The entire left side of the house was filled with rooms I would never use. The house was a monstrosity that seemed to grow bigger every year. The busier I got, the less I ventured beyond Jake’s office downstairs or Mya’s bedroom one door away from ours. I didn’t want cobwebs to accost anyone who crossed the threshold so I had a housekeeper come every other week strictly to vacuum and swipe at the air.
Next, I dialed Robert Stanton’s cell number. He picked up before it even rang. “You looking for me?” he asked in a lazy seductive voice.
I put on my professional parent hat. “Senator, I know I said I would drop Jory off, but we ended up at my house kind of in crisis mode. I was hoping you could pick Jory up from here.”
“Absolutely not,” he said jokingly. “You keep him. That kid’s nothing but trouble.”
“So about fifteen minutes, then?” I said, ignoring the chuckle in the back of my throat. I looked at my watch. In fifteen minutes I had a date with the information highway.
Taste Like Honey
“Have I told you how amazing you are?”
Jake had only hung up a few seconds ago and figured his wife was calling back with something she forgot to say the first time. Instead it was Sirena’s voice in his ear. He grinned into the phone. “Nah, not this week.” He yawned. “Wassup?”
“I’m laying here with my eyes wide open.”
“Still got that insomnia thing, huh?” He yawned again.
“Yep, and I see you still need your beauty sleep. What time do you usually go to bed in suburbia?”
“Ten, eleven. Suburbia is a big job. Lots of responsibilities.”
“Carpool, yardwork, PTA meetings? You’ll be back in fairy-tale land tomorrow.” Sirena chuckled. “I’m totally impressed the way you’ve settled …” She let the word hit him between the eyes before she finished, “… into your life, Jay as a father, husband, and now superstar.”
“Just a regular superhero.” He could play along. Or he could fight back and say he wouldn’t trade his life for a second of hers. But he’d learned a while back not to put up a fight unless there was a benefit, preferably the kind with dead presidents.
There was definitely no benefit in antagonizing Sirena. She had a devilish temper. One snap … she was not someone you wanted on your bad side. Once a week it seemed he had to endure her zingers about his marital status, how boring his life must’ve been before she appeared to save the day. There was no point in fighting back. Insecurity. Hers. Not his. Not his issue. “So what, you want me to sing you to sleep?” he asked, adjusting himself in the luxurious king-size bed.
“God, no.”
“Right. Off-pitch.”
“Among other things. I just called to say good night.” She paused. “And to say we make a good team. Thank you.”
“You’re thanking me? I wouldn’t be here without you, and I know that. But you, you’re Sirena Lassiter. You didn’t need me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. If you hadn’t written ‘Taste Like Honey’ for me all those years ago, I wouldn’t be Sirena Lassiter. I’d be some no-name wishing for stardom.” She sniffed into the phone. Tears. “I need you. I’ve always needed you.”
He had no response. No right answer. “Try to get some sleep.”
She stayed silent. Jake had his finger on the button to end the call. Before he could push it, she asked him a simple question. “Do you ever wonder what would’ve happened with us?”
You mean if you hadn’t run off stealing the writing credit on the song that sold a million records?
“Taste Like Honey” had put Sirena on the map, but he never came out and called her on it. One of their many unspoken truths that would remain buried. “I try not to worry about the past. What’s the point?”
“Good night, Jay.”
“Good night.”
Sirena hung up, but kept the phone tightly gripped in her palm. She couldn’t come up with anyone else to call. She scrolled down the same countless frennemies in her address book. Her fiancé, Earl Benning, wasn’t even on the list. He did not like to chitchat about mundane issues such as emotions, only a black and white world, no area or time for gray matters.
Last resort was her father. She pressed the button and waited for him to answer.
“I saw you on that entertainment news show,” Larry said over the phone. “You and JP still have that magic together.”
She smiled, finally hearing something pleasing to her ears. “We do make a nice couple.”
“Dumpling, he’s a married man. I think you’re the one who told me that. With a family, a daughter, am I right?”
“That’s not my problem,” she said, more so to tease. He didn’t respond. “I’m just kidding. Really. He does have a beautiful family and I’d never try to come between him and his life. I’m just saying, sometimes, fate has a way of working out. Sometimes things are already written in stone.”
Again, no response from Larry Lassiter. If he knew anything about his daughter it was that she hardly left anything to chance. She worked for every scrap and crumb, leaving nothing on the table. If Larry Lassiter knew anything about his daughter, it was that Jake Parson’s world was about to be turned upside down.
“I wish you could be happy, just once, babygirl. You have so much to be thankful for.”
She laughed. “Really? Happy? Daddy,” she sang out with a tsk-tsk, though she never called him Daddy unless she wanted something. She called him Larry, the same as a buddy on the street. He’d always begged her to call him Dad, Pop, or some other false endearment that implied love and protection. “There is nothing I want more. You’re right. I think it’s about time I found happiness.”
“Now listen, this is not the time to start any trouble.”
“Thank you. Wise words of advice as always.”
“I know what you’re thinking. But he’s got a life. You don’t want to hurt him.”
“I’m not trying to hurt anybody. Besides, he’s a grown man. No one can make him do anything.”
“Grown men are nothing but boys looking for the latest and greatest toy. You don’t want to be his temporary plaything. I suggest you keep it sophisticated.”
Sirena squinted with disgruntled confusion. Larry Lassiter had always thought so little of women, especially her. She wasn’t gullible anymore. She thought he’d gotten the memo, especially after she’d instructed her accountant to cut back on the three thousand a month stipend. Instead of taking care of the household he’d been squandering it on Indian casinos for the last year or so. She was the one who called the shots. Sirena Lassiter didn’t owe anybody a damn thing.
“Whatever, okay. I have to go.”
“Well, you haven’t even asked about Christopher. He’s got a role in a play. Going to be Romeo. The boy’s real proud. Maybe you can come.”
“I got another call.” She didn’t wait for him to say good-bye before hanging up. Again her phone sat silent in her palm.
Information Highway
As soon as I settled onto the couch to impatiently wait for the senator, the door knocker clicked. I thought about rushing to get Jory so I wouldn’t have to let the senator in. In that short time, he knocked again. Guess everyone was in a hurry these days.
“Coming.”
“I thought you’d never give in. And look, it’s after midnight and my dreams have been answered. Take me.” He opened his arms.
I snatched him inside. “Would you stop that?”
He stuck out his lips. “I bet if you kissed me, you’d l
ike it. Then we could carry on a passionate love affair for about three months,” he whispered.
“And then what … after the three months? Tell them what we’ve won, Bob.” I raised my arms and announced, “Divorces for everyone. Broken homes, sad and depressed children, and a lifetime of bad memories.” I folded my arms over my chest. “Now you need to stop it, you hear?” I poked him in the center of his chest. “You’re setting a bad example for your son.”
He stroked the area. “I will never wash this shirt again.”
“Go. Sit. Over there. I’ll get your little prodigy.”
When he was wrapped in his jacket and scarf, Jory gave me a long hug good-bye. I ran my hands over his dark blond curls and told him he was welcome anytime. For his dad I simply closed the door, nearly catching his shoulder in the doorway. After I’d sent the dashing duo off I rushed to the laptop computer with eager fingers. I needed more information on Sirena.
According to what I found, Sirena Lassiter knew she was going to be famous. Her mother, Tammy, only eighteen, had entered Sirena into a baby pageant when she was still in diapers. Her father liked to besmirch Tammy’s good name, calling her a gold digger and opportunist. She abandoned her baby and husband after all, for a backup singing gig with Sly and the Family Stone. Obviously Sirena’s mother had believed in her … at one time. So it didn’t matter what her father said. She kept the first-place trophy sitting on her mantel to show proof to anyone who doubted her story, right behind the album cover. The sepia-toned image of Tammy’s face half covered by another band member’s shoulder was the only picture she had of her mother. The picture and the trophy were what kept her going. Some called it destiny. She called it determination.
When her father heard her sing, he first wanted nothing to do with it. No daughter of his was going down that road. Eight years old and all Sirena wanted was to be Janet Jackson. The music was in her head night and day. If friends came over, she ushered them downstairs in the basement and made them her audience while she performed. She’d let her long hair cascade over her shoulders and hold the comb as her microphone. By the time she was twelve, she had given up on school altogether. Her father opened the report card and saw failing marks and asterisks of unused potential. He finally agreed to take her to her first audition in exchange for her to try harder in school.
Unbeknownst to Larry Lassiter, his daughter would never see the inside of a classroom again. After a nine-hour drive from their home in Detroit to New York, she arrived fresh and ready to take on the world. She was the fourth picked for the preteen girl group, New Sensation. After a year of training, recording in a studio, and being groomed for stage presence, the group was on their way. On the road with tutors and handlers, Sirena was on her way and no one could stop her, not even her father, who she’d left behind. Punishment in a way. She’d show him what an opportunist and a gold digger really looked like. Speaking of her mother that way, all those years, was like speaking directly to Sirena. She’d show him and everyone else.
But the girl group never made it out the door. All the practice and studio time had been a huge waste of time. Sirena had to go back home. Disgusted and determined to be free, this time she got on a bus with the advance money she’d gotten from the girl group and headed to Hollywood. She forged her father’s name on her worker’s permit and attended auditions nearly every day. At sixteen she was living on her own, supporting herself with video work.
When a music producer finally gave her a shot in the studio, she came ready with song in hand. Overnight success only took a decade, but she’d arrived—and not a mention of JP, Jake Parson.
I was satisfied, and found a new appreciation for Sirena. She worked hard, she persevered, case closed. Not something you could be mad at; if anything, she deserved more of my respect. Whatever that journalist was trying to stir up wasn’t worth a minute more of my worry. I closed the laptop, and slept like a baby.
Good Morning, Heartache
My mother was fixing breakfast and offering her wisdom when I arrived in the kitchen. Miriam stared straight ahead as if she were listening but I knew what was going through her mind.
Pauletta scooted the eggs in the frying pan from one side to the other. “I’m telling you, men will do the right thing if you give ’em a chance. You can’t always be their shadow. You’ve got to give ’em their freedom—that way it takes the fun out of their sneaking. It’s the getting away with something that brings the thrill.”
“My mother knows everything,” I said sweetly to Miriam.
“I do know everything. And what I don’t know hasn’t happened yet.”
“How’d you sleep?” I squeezed Miriam’s shoulder.
“Very well, thank you.”
“I have to get to the floral shop but you’re welcome to stay here. I’m sure my mom would love the company.” I was feeling chipper and as fresh as the orange juice sitting in front of me.
“Absolutely, stay and visit,” Pauletta said with so much conviction it kind of scared me. Thinking about all the wonderful things she might say to Miriam that she couldn’t say to me, since she swore I stopped listening a long time ago. Starting with the time I cut off my high-maintenance straightened hair and decided to go natural. “Don’t no man want a nappy-head woman, I can tell you that right now.”
Wrong. The first words out of Jake’s mouth when we met were, “I like your hair.” He may as well have been on one knee proposing a lifetime of bliss at that very moment because I think that’s when I fell in love with him. I’d been wearing it natural for a couple of years but kept it cut pretty short. I got the hang of what kind of products to use to keep it moist and light. I was a far cry from the video vixens Jake had been surrounded by in his lifestyle of rich and famous, but the way he looked at me made me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.
I guess I shouldn’t judge my mother’s advice too harshly. If anything, I hated the fact she was right more often than she was wrong. Like the fact that she could see through Airic from day one. She said he had shifty eyes, which meant he was either thinking of a new lie or figuring out how to keep the old one a secret. When he came to pick up Mya for his bio-daddy visitations, Pauletta never hesitated giving him a piece of her mind. But in the end, she liked to point out, I was the one who chose him.
Miriam flipped a hand, trying to appear relaxed. “I appreciate your hospitality, but I’m going home. I have plenty to do. I have everything all figured out.”
“You know what would be fun: if you came to work with me today. I’ll pay you. I have a huge wedding to prepare for this weekend.”
“Pay me? I’m not destitute.”
“I wasn’t implying—I’m sorry.” I sipped my orange juice and decided I should keep my mouth closed. Besides, call me selfish, but I was way too happy about not finding any proof to coincide with the journalist and her lies to let Miriam bring me down. And even if it were true, I’d decided that the past was the past. All that mattered now was the life Jake and I had made for ourselves. Nothing could tear us apart. We were solid as a rock.
“No. Really, I have something important to do today.” The dullness of her tone matched the lifelessness in her eyes.
“Sure,” I said, feeling like I’d run out of offers. Pauletta set plates down in front of us.
“You two eat up. I’ll go get the girls.”
As soon as she was gone I leaned forward to get Miriam’s eye.
“Listen, I know you’re hurting right now, but everything is going to work itself out. I’m sure it’s all a misunderstanding. He forgot to pay a bill, it’s not the end of the world.”
Her high cheekbones pulled up in a smile that didn’t match the sadness in her eyes. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“Too late for that. I’m a dedicated member of the busybody society. I get it honestly. You’ve met my mother.”
“Well, don’t,” she exclaimed firmly. “You certainly can’t worry about what you have no control over.” She added with a bit mo
re reason, “Besides, you may like being in the dark, but I don’t and I never will again.”
Ouch. It only hurt for a minute. I kissed Pauletta on the cheek, snatched up Mya for school, and headed out the door to In Bloom. Even seeing Trevelle couldn’t ruin my day.
I dialed Jake’s number while I was driving. He didn’t pick up. “Hey, Mr. Rockstar, just reminding you of Mya’s dance recital tonight. Please tell me you’re on your way home. I love you.” I hung up without a doubt in my mind. He’d be there. Jake had never let Mya down, or me.
Captured Audience
Sirena picked up the vibrating phone to see the incoming call. Jake had left his phone on the table right next to his fork, next to his plate where he’d hardly touched his breakfast.
Wifey calling again.
They’d finished their morning radio interview for the popular 90.1 FM. The call-in lines were lit up and never went dead. They made a great team, bouncing off each other’s lines, knowing how to finish each other’s sentences. Too bad there was the small problem of Venus. Sirena knew the depth of Jake’s commitment. No half stepping. If he was in, he was all the way in.
She held the phone until it stopped ringing, then set it back down exactly where he’d left it between the cooled coffee and plate of half-eaten egg whites. She noticed how he obsessed over every piece of food he put in his mouth. Worse than most of the women she knew. No red meat or pork. Olive oil and lemon juice on his salads. No mayonnaise, sour cream, or any other creamy condiments. She had to admit all the effort was worth it. His body was chiseled perfection.
Un-Nappily in Love Page 5