by Mary Monroe
“Indeed she is.” John had such a deep sexy voice, it was no wonder he had Joan acting like a fool. But a nice voice and tons of money was not all he had going for him. I had seen a selfie that Joan had taken of them a few dates ago. He looked as handsome in it as he did in his profile picture on the club’s website. Because of his good looks and suggestive club screen name, which was “LongJohn,” he was very popular. A lot of club members who’d been with him—including Joan—had rated him five out of five stars on the club’s review board.
The next voice I heard was Joan’s. “What’s up?”
“Your husband is here!”
“What?” Joan shrieked. “What did you tell him?”
“I didn’t tell him anything yet. I’m still cleaning off the back porch. Libby just came to tell me he’s here.” I swallowed hard and looked at the door again, glad to see it was still closed. “She already told him that the only time I left the house today was when Elbert picked me up to go to lunch!”
“Shit! Look—tell him that before we went shopping, Elbert badgered you to go to lunch with him. Around the same time, I got a call from Liza Mae and she wanted me to come over and do some things for her.”
Liza Mae was a bogus friend that I had created to throw Bertha off when I needed a good excuse to be away from the house to go on a date with a club member. I used it when Joan couldn’t be my alibi. It was such a good lie, she used it too. The story was, Liza Mae had attended high school with us. A couple of years ago a drunk driver hit her and she’d been in a wheelchair ever since. Joan and I took turns going to help her out because she had no family and only a part-time caregiver. Bertha and Reed had believed the ruse from day one, and still did. We had even given them a dummy telephone number, which was an independent voice mail service account I’d opened. Bertha and Reed had dialed the number several times, but because their calls always went straight to voice mail, and Liza Mae never returned any, they rarely called now.
“Okay. I’ll hold Reed off as long as I can, but I advise you to get back home as soon as possible.”
“Thanks, girl. Next time we get together, drinks are on me.”
I turned off my phone and put it back in my pocket. Then, holding my breath, I went inside and shuffled to the living room where Reed had joined Libby; her handsome husband, Jeffrey; their brooding teenage son, Kevin; and Bertha. Libby and her family were temporarily staying with Bertha and me because their house was being renovated. Jeffrey was a very nice man. He and I got along real well, so I didn’t mind his presence, but Libby and Kevin were two of the most mean-spirited people I knew. Just hearing their voices made me cringe.
Reed stood in the middle of the floor. Libby and Jeffrey occupied the couch, and Kevin and Bertha shared the love seat. The way Bertha was kicked back with a bottle of beer in her hand, it looked as if helping me clean off the porch was the last thing on her mind.
“Hello, Reed,” I greeted weakly, dragging my feet and wiping my hands on the sides of my jeans.
“Hello, Lola,” he muttered, giving me a guarded look. I blinked and glanced at the other faces. Bertha looked dazed. Libby looked amused. And Kevin, who had inherited Libby’s dumpy body and homely features, was so involved with his cell phone he didn’t even bother to look up. There was a puzzled expression on Jeffrey’s face. With his shaved head, well-developed body, smooth bronze skin, and penetrating black eyes, next to Calvin Ramsey, he was one of the handsomest men I knew. I couldn’t say the same about Reed. He had been very handsome and well-built once upon a time. I assumed marriage had taken a toll on him, because a few years after he’d been married to Joan, he let himself go to the dogs. The thick, curly black hair he’d once had was mostly gray now and looked like a burning bush. He was only ten years older than Joan and me, but he had dark circles around his eyes, lines on his face, and a belly that looked like it contained a four-month fetus. He narrowed his tired eyes, glared at me, and folded his arms. Dressed in a plaid shirt and shabby jeans, he looked more like one of the OGs from the hood than a prominent dentist.
“What did you want to say to me, Reed?” I asked dumbly.
“Where the hell is my wife?” he asked in a gruff tone.
Chapter 8
Lola
“DIDN’T SHE CALL YOU?” I BLINKED AND BIT MY BOTTOM LIP AS my mind struggled to come up with the next thing I should say to Reed.
“No, she didn’t, and she’s not answering her phone. Libby told me you went to lunch with Elbert, not shopping.”
“I did, but Joan and I had planned to go shopping. She didn’t want to have lunch with Elbert and me.”
“I see.” Reed shifted his weight from one foot to the other and gave me a guarded look. “If Joan didn’t go shopping with you, where the hell did she go? She left home several hours ago.”
“You remember Liza Mae, the invalid Joan and I help out from time to time? Her nurse had a family emergency, so she won’t be able to see Liza until later tonight.”
“So Joan is with this Liza Mae woman?”
“Uh-huh.” I sniffed. “I would have gone myself but I had to come straight home after my lunch with Elbert and help clean up the mess on our back porch. Do you want me to call Liza Mae’s house and see if Joan is still with her?”
Reed shook his head and gave me a weary look. “What’s this woman’s address?”
“Her address?” I gulped. The ruse about Liza Mae had always been flimsy at best. I found it hard to believe that an educated man like Reed was still buying it, and that he had bought it in the first place.
“Joan gave me that woman’s phone number and I’ve called it several times in the past. All I ever got was a voice mail recording. It’s time for me to meet this woman, or at least know where she lives.”
“Let me call her first. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to just show up at her house without notice. She’s got this thing about people she doesn’t know having her address,” I managed, pulling out my cell phone again.
“Try Joan’s number first. Maybe if she sees your name on her caller ID, she’ll answer!” Reed said harshly.
“O . . . kay.” I brought up Joan’s number from my contact list and hit the call button. I was so relieved when my call went straight to voice mail. “Hi, Joan. I know you’re probably not able to take my call, but when you get my message, please get back to me as soon as you can.” I sniffed and looked at Reed. “I’ll call Liza Mae’s number now.”
“If that woman answers her telephone this time, which I doubt she’ll do, I’d like to speak to her myself,” Reed said firmly.
“Um, yeah, sure.” I punched in the telephone number and got the voice mail that I had set up, with Joan disguising her voice so well, even Reed couldn’t tell it was her. “Hello, Liza Mae. This is Lola,” I began with caution. From the corner of my eye, I could see Bertha and Libby staring in my direction with anxious looks on their faces. “I hope you are doing well today. I just wanted to let you know that Joan’s husband is here and he wants me to give him your address. Please call me back as soon as you get my message and let me know if it’s okay to give it to him. I’m sorry I couldn’t come with Joan this time, but I’ll see you again real soon. Have a blessed day. Bye.” I hung up and blinked so hard a few times, my eyes ached. “Reed, you know how funny some people, especially women, are about somebody giving out their personal information.”
“Sure I know.” Reed gave me a cold gaze for a few moments. Then he shook his head and looked at his watch. “I’ve wasted enough of my time trying to find Joan. I have other things to do. If you hear from her before I do, remind her that we are entertaining Dr. Weinstein and his wife this evening. She needs to get her tail home so she can get dinner started.”
“I’ll do that,” I mumbled as he gave me a skeptical look. “I guess I should go finish straightening up that porch.”
I breathed a sigh of relief when Reed rushed out the front door. Despite the curious looks I was getting from Libby and Bertha, I ignored them and r
eturned to the back porch. Just as I was about to pull out my cell phone and call Joan again, Bertha stumbled out the door with that curious look still on her face. “That Joan. She ought to be ashamed of herself, running around like she doesn’t have a care in the world. She’s a married woman and should act more like one. I don’t know why Reed has not kicked her to the curb by now! Oomph, oomph, oomph!”
“She’s always been a free spirit,” I defended.
“Free spirit, my booty! She’s a selfish, spoiled, inconsiderate floozy who doesn’t appreciate all the good things in her life. I don’t care where she goes, she needs to let her husband know where she is at all times. I never made a move without telling your daddy. Even when I was only going to the corner store or the beauty salon. I hope you behave better than that wild woman when you get married. If Reed doesn’t get Joan under control soon, next thing we know she’ll be fooling around with other men.”
I ignored Bertha’s comments and started digging through another one of the piles of junk.
She hopped over one of the boxes I’d already emptied and moved closer to me. “Ooh-wee. Things are looking real good, Lola Mae. I’m glad we didn’t put off doing this unpleasant chore too much longer. This porch hasn’t looked this organized in years,” she swooned. “There’s not much left for us to do.” She shook her head and grinned. “Now, don’t work too hard. You already look kind of tired.”
“I’m not tired, Bertha, but you look tired. You can go back inside and I can finish up by myself.”
“Okay, sugar. We’ll clean out the kitchen closet and tackle the garage next.”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said as she skittered back inside.
I didn’t even bother to dial Joan’s cell phone number this time. I called the hotel and had the operator ring John’s suite again. I was glad he answered on the first ring. “Yes!” he snapped.
“John, this is Lola again,” I said in a low voice.
He let out a loud sigh before he hollered, “Holy moly!”
“Um, I’m sorry. I know you’re busy and I hate to keep disturbing you, but I need to speak to Joan.”
“Can she call you back, luv? She’s sitting on the crapper taking a leak.” I could tell from his impatient tone that I was annoying him. “I’ll have her ring you when she’s finished.”
“If you don’t mind, I’ll hold. It’s really important for me to speak to her now,” I insisted.
“So be it,” John snarled.
About half a minute later, Joan came on the line. “You again? Well?” she said.
“Well what?”
“Well, what did you tell Reed? Is he still there?”
“I told him you were with Liza Mae because her nurse had to cancel at the last minute so she called you. He asked for her address this time.”
“Address? How did you get around that one?”
“I made a bogus call in front of him and left a message for Liza Mae to get back to me and let me know if it’s okay to give out her address. He didn’t push the issue after that. We’ll have to revise this Liza Mae thing if we’re going to keep using it. And I think I know a way. There is this shady woman who comes in the store several times a week. Last year she spent time in jail for identity theft, so she’s had experience posing as other women. If we give her a few bucks, I’m sure she’ll pretend to be Liza Mae. She lives alone, so we could use her address and rent a wheelchair—”
“Now you stop right there. I don’t want to involve anybody else in any of our schemes.”
“Joan, I don’t want to do that either, but we have to do whatever is necessary if we don’t want people to know our business. And you just have to be a lot more careful from now on. Sooner or later, your luck is going to run out,” I warned.
“Humph! Don’t get too smug, Sister Poole. Your luck could run out too!”
“Yeah, but I don’t have a husband to answer to. You’re the one with the most to lose. The worst that could happen in my case is that Bertha and Libby could find out I belong to a sex club and talk trash to me—which is something Libby has already been doing since the day I met her. I have nothing else to be concerned about.” A split second after my last sentence, a premonition of doom entered my head and I got an instant headache. I blamed it on the stress brought on by my turning down a date with Calvin and lying to Reed.
Chapter 9
Calvin
I HAD LET SYLVIA MAKE ALL THE ARRANGEMENTS FOR OUR ENGAGEMENT party, and she’d wasted no time. The day after I’d proposed last week, she started making plans. She’d used phone, e-mail, and text to contact everybody we wanted with us to help celebrate. I was glad we agreed to keep the list short. Not everyone could change their plans or afford a trip to Vegas on such short notice, so only eight of the dozen folks we’d invited confirmed their attendance. The only member of my family on the guest list was my husky, sad-eyed older brother, Ronald. He was my only relative who communicated with me on a regular basis. But there were some limitations. His wife had a beef with me because Glinda had slept with the dude she’d been with before she married my brother. Like several of the women I knew back then, relatives and friends alike, Ronald’s wife had made it clear that she had no use for my wife and didn’t even want her to set foot in her house. Because of that, even after Glinda disappeared, I didn’t visit my brother as often as I wanted to. My older sister, Vickie, sent me cards on my birthday and at Christmas, but she never invited me over, and vice versa. Her husband was also one of the men my wife had fooled around with before I married her, and a few times afterward.
I missed spending time with my family. A few cousins still called and came around, but that was usually only when they wanted something. I had nieces, nephews, and other young relatives I had never met. Glinda was responsible for the turmoil between my family and me. None of them had accepted her and flat-out told me that if I married her, I’d be sorry. I found out after I’d fallen in love with her—which was the same night we met—that she had been the town tramp for years. Since she and I had moved in different circles, information about her shameful reputation came to me too late. My mother told me she’d never speak to me again if I brought such a slut into our family, but I’d married her anyway. It was the biggest mistake I ever made, and it looked like I was going to spend the rest of my life paying for it.
Sylvia was going to be a good wife. Even though she was not drop-dead gorgeous like Lola, and could stand to gain a few pounds, she was attractive and smart. With my looks and brains, hopefully she and I would produce some cute and intelligent children. Even though I was practically beating women off with a stick, Sylvia was the best choice for a long-term relationship.
* * *
The engagement party we had thrown together so quickly started off with a bang a few minutes before eleven p.m. Before we checked in, the casino host had had our suite decorated with green and white balloons and white roses, and they tacked a huge banner above the door that said CONGRATULATIONS SYLVIA & CALVIN! in bold print. Room service delivered several platters of snacks and enough complimentary champagne to fill a bathtub. One of my coworkers had brought his iPad with wireless speakers so we had music to dance to. Despite all the fun our guests were having, they were anxious to get to the casino floor to gamble. I didn’t protest when they all began to slink out the door after only a couple of hours. My brother was the last to leave.
“Bro, I wish Mama had lived long enough to meet Sylvia,” he told me, clapping me on the back. Then he turned to Sylvia and said, “You’re the kind of woman my mother would have been proud to have for a daughter-in-law. My wife’s father is from Brazil, so you and she have something in common.”
“Thank you for saying that. I hope I get to meet your wife soon,” Sylvia said with her voice cracking.
“I’m going to make sure you do.” Ronald winked at me and added, “I think it’s time for folks to let bygones be bygones. Nothing is more important than family.” He turned back to Sylvia. “I’ll do all I can to make sure you g
et a warm welcome into the family.”
“Thank you. I’m going to do my best to make Calvin happy,” Sylvia said with a nod.
Ronald gave her a big hug and me another clap on the back. “You two enjoy the rest of the evening,” he said before he left.
As soon as I closed the door, Sylvia immediately told me, “Baby, I have bad news. I feel my period coming on early, so we won’t be able to celebrate our engagement tonight like I wanted to.”
“Oh shit, sweetie,” I complained. “And I’m as horny as a big dog in heat.”
“Well, I can’t control Mother Nature, but I do have some good news.”
I squinted and gave her a guarded look. “And the good news is?”
“Since I’ve gotten older, my periods last only two or three days. We might get a chance to get busy before we leave Vegas.”
“I certainly hope so. I’d like to have some real fun tonight,” I whined. My dick was so hard it was throbbing. And I was going to do something about it. Sylvia was not into oral sex that much. She balked every time I asked her to give me a blow job, so I couldn’t even fall back on that. I had only two choices: I could masturbate or find another woman. I didn’t want to masturbate. . .
I followed Sylvia to the bed, and we sat down at the same time. She heaved a heavy sigh and gave me a pitiful look. “Honey, I am sorry our timing was so off. I really wanted to make serious love to you tonight.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I know you don’t want to go to a show or stay in and watch movies like I’m going to do, so why don’t you go down and gamble.”
“I think I will do just that,” I mumbled. “I’m feeling kind of lucky this evening.”
I avoided my brother and our other guests at the blackjack table and walked briskly in the opposite direction. I didn’t stop until I got to the garage where I had parked the rental car I’d picked up.