by Mary Monroe
“Jeffrey, I really appreciate your offer, but you don’t have to buy me any new furniture or anything else. I can pick up a few things from Goodwill.” I paused because I had a couple of things I wanted to say and I didn’t know which one to say first. “You’ve always been good to me, and I wish you nothing but the best. But after all Libby and Marshall have done to me, I never want to see or speak to either one of them again as long as I live. And you can tell them what I said! I hope you and I stay friends and can get together for drinks or dinner every now and then.”
“I’m going to make sure of that. I can’t wait to see this new place you’re moving into.”
“I . . . I—” I stopped abruptly. “Bye, Jeffrey.” I decided not to tell him the other thing that was on my mind . . . yet.
After I ate breakfast and drank three cups of coffee at a nearby coffee shop, I decided to visit Kandy’s House of Beauty to get my nails done. I had been neglecting them since the day Bertha died, so they looked pretty shabby. As soon as I walked through the front door, Kandy, the sixty-year-old muumuu-wearing blabbermouth who owned the salon, waved me to a chair. She started yip-yapping like a magpie right away. First she complained about how bad my nails looked. Then she told me how sorry she had felt when she saw me get booted out of the church after Bertha’s funeral. “Libby came in today to get her nails done. She left about fifteen minutes ago. She bragged up a storm about how she’d locked you out of Bertha’s house and how she had the junkman pick up your stuff a little while ago,” Kandy reported with a horse-like snort.
“And she said she wished she had kicked your ass more that time when she thought you were screwing her husband,” said the beautician working on the hair of a woman in the seat next to me.
“Lola, if I was you, I would kick that cow’s ass,” the woman getting her hair done added. “Don’t let that bitch get away with disrespecting you like that!”
“I am not going to stoop to Libby’s level,” I said in a strong voice.
“Girl, you need to fight fire with fire. There must be something you can do or say about Libby that would knock her fat ass off the high horse she’s been riding all her life,” Kandy told me. “If you take her to small claims court for getting rid of your stuff, you might get on the Judge Judy show. You could make mincemeat out of her in front of millions of folks.”
I didn’t want to sue Libby, because I didn’t even want to be in the same courtroom with her, especially one on national TV, but I had to do something to get back at her. “You’re right. There must be something I can do to get back at her and I know I’ll figure out what it is real soon.” I turned around so Kandy could see my face. When I winked, she smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. I already knew what that “something” was, but I didn’t want to share that information with the beauty salon posse yet. They would all hear it soon enough. I had a “weapon” that could cause Libby more pain than a bullet between her eyes. It was time for me to tell Jeffrey the one other thing that I had almost told him during our conversation earlier. I knew that when he heard what I had to say, all hell would break loose and Libby would finally get what she deserved.
* * *
When I strolled out of the beauty salon and returned to my car, I immediately called Jeffrey’s number again. I didn’t even wait for him to greet me before I started talking. “I’m sorry to bother you again so soon, but I have something to tell you.”
“Oh? Can it wait? I’m in the middle of a crisis right now.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. What I have to tell you will probably cause another crisis, so call me back as soon as you can. Today if possible before . . .” I didn’t finish my sentence on purpose because I wanted to pique Jeffrey’s interest enough to make him want to stay on the line.
“Before what?”
“Before I lose my nerve.”
“I’m listening but I have only a few minutes to spare right now. Libby and I are still discussing that little stunt she pulled on you. She’s very sorry she got rid of your property and she promises to make up for it. She even attempted to retrieve everything, but it was too late. She’s sitting right here crying her eyes out. Would you like to hear her apologize yourself?”
“No, that won’t be necessary. I’m not ready to speak to her again yet, so I hope you don’t mind asking her a question for me.”
Jeffrey hesitated before he replied. “What’s the question?”
“Ask her if she’s still fucking Greg.”
Jeffrey let out a loud, very painful-sounding gasp. “Excuse me?” he said in a raspy voice.
“I’m sorry to be the one to break the news to you. You’re the last person I’d want to hurt. I promised Libby I would never tell you that I caught her with another man.”
“Now you hold on a damn minute, Lola! What the hell are you talking about?”
“It happened on a Sunday several weeks ago. I was in the house alone when Libby showed up with a man I’d never seen before. They had sex on Bertha’s couch and then she brought him upstairs. I overheard her tell the dude that she didn’t want to have sex in the same bed she shared with you but they could use my bed. She didn’t know I was in the house. I saw and heard everything.”
Jeffrey cussed under his breath. “Why didn’t you tell me this shit before now? How do I know you’re telling me the truth? For all I know, you could be making this up to get back at Libby. And I don’t blame you. But this is way—”
“Jeffrey, we’ve known each other since I was a little girl and I’ve never lied to you. I have nothing to gain by causing problems between you and Libby. I’m telling you because it’s time for her to stop causing me so much pain without having to deal with any consequences.”
Jeffrey cussed under his breath again. “Lola, what’s the dude’s name again?”
“Greg is all I know. She told me that he was only the second handsome man since you who’d shown any interest in her. That made me feel sorry for her, so I promised her I would never blab. Anyway, not long after that day, she told me she was not going to see that man again.”
“Greg, huh?” Right after Jeffrey repeated the man’s name, I heard Libby in the background boo-hooing like a baby and no doubt scrambling to avoid the bus I’d just thrown her under. “Thanks for sharing this information with me. When you get a chance, send me a text with your new address. I’ll come over to visit when it’s convenient for you.”
When I turned off my phone, I felt like a cat that had swallowed a giant canary.
Chapter 43
Joan
LOLA CALLED THIS MORNING AT TEN TO TELL ME SHE HAD JUST left the beauty salon and would stop by to have a drink and chat for a little while. I had a glass of wine ready for her when she arrived. We sat down on the couch and she gave me an amused look. I took a sip of wine, then set my glass on the coffee table and gazed at her. “All right now. I know what that look means. Don’t beat around the bush and you’d better tell me everything,” I prodded. She crossed her legs and drank from her wineglass, almost draining every drop in one pull. And then she started talking so fast I had to tell her twice to slow down. What she said made me gasp and shake my head the whole time. I couldn’t believe that Libby had her bed and the rest of her stuff hauled to the dump. And I was glad to hear that Lola had finally told Jeffrey about Libby’s affair.
“I wish I could have seen the look on her face when she realized I’d blown the whistle on her,” Lola sneered. “With what I had on her, she should have been licking my butt to keep me from blabbing. She went out of her way to push my buttons.”
“Humph! As mean and nasty as that bitch was to you for so many years, you were too nice to her—for way too long. I would have told Jeffrey on her a long time ago,” I snickered. “Keeping shit that scandalous a secret is too stressful anyway.”
“You’re right. I feel so much better now. Oh, by the way, I’ll be moving into that house on High Street this evening. The gas, water, and electricity are already on, and I made an appointment for the cable gu
y to come out and install my landline, TV, and Internet service.”
“I’m glad Jeffrey brought some of your stuff to you before Libby dumped it. Did he bring over any of your linen?”
“No, he didn’t.” Lola got quiet. “Other than some of my clothes and a few other personal items, I don’t have much, so I’ll have to replace a lot of things. I’ll pick up whatever I can from Goodwill later today. And if I have time I’ll swing by the Salvation Army and a few other thrift shops.”
“No, you’re not.”
“No, I’m not what?”
“You are not going near any of those places. You deserve something much better than a bunch of used, soiled, tacky items from secondhand stores! Yuck!”
“Joan, I don’t want to buy any used merchandise, but I don’t have much of a choice. I’m on a budget—”
“Well, I’m not on a damn budget. I’m going to go to Macy’s and Nordstrom and pick up some linen, cookware, and everything else you need. Give me a call and tell me when to meet you at the new place. Then we’ll go to the market and pick up a few groceries and some liquor.”
Two minutes after Lola left, I called Reed’s office to let him know I’d be out shopping for a few hours.
“Again?” he said in a nasty tone. “With who this time?”
“I’m going to go shopping alone,” I smirked. “Lola’s moving into a house this evening and she needs just about everything to get started. I told her I’d pick up a few things for her.” I had already told Reed that Libby had evicted Lola.
“What about all the stuff she had before? Didn’t she take any of it with her?”
“Libby didn’t give her a chance to get it all. She stuffed some of Lola’s clothes and other things into garbage bags and set it all on the porch. Lola got those things, but Libby had a junkman haul away her bedroom furniture and everything else to the city dump before Lola could arrange to have somebody pick it up,” I said hotly. “That’s pretty low, even for a mean bitch like Libby.”
“I won’t argue with that! She makes the typical bitches I know look like Mother Teresa!” Reed exploded, which surprised me since Lola was not one of his favorite people. “I heard that Libby and Marshall had a yard sale the day before Bertha’s funeral. Those greedy devils sold her things instead of donating everything to charity or Goodwill like normal people.”
“That’s a damn shame. Lola lost family mementos and other sentimental things that she can never replace. And Libby knew that! I didn’t know she hated Lola enough to give her stuff away instead of selling it so she could make money like she did with her own mother.”
I was so glad Reed felt the same way I did about Libby. “Libby will get what she deserves someday,” he said hotly. “It’s hard to believe that she’s married to a nice guy like Jeffrey. Knowing her, she’ll eventually put him in a trick bag too.”
“Tell me about it,” I agreed. I almost blurted out the news about Libby’s affair, but I’m glad I didn’t. With all the skeletons in my closet, infidelity was a subject I avoided with Reed.
“Baby, spend as much as you have to, and if Lola needs any financial assistance, be generous. When she feels up to it, let’s invite her over for dinner.”
“Thanks, sweetie. I guess I should get going. If I’m not here when you get home, you and Junior can either order some takeout or heat up some of the chicken and rice left over from yesterday. Don’t worry about me.”
“Um . . . I may be home a little later than usual today,” Reed informed me.
“Okay,” I said with a shrug. I had so many other things on my mind, I didn’t bother to ask why he was going to be late, and he didn’t offer to tell me. He had not been badgering me so much about my frequent absences lately, and I didn’t want to rock the boat by asking him about his. I knew that by the time I got Lola situated, I’d be ready for a big date—and I prayed that a hot, new club member would put in a request or that I heard from one of my regulars.
For the next few hours, I did some serious shopping. The only reason I stopped when I did was because my feet started aching. I didn’t get back home until six. I left everything I’d bought for Lola in the backseat and trunk of my car because I planned to take it to her in a little while. Junior was home alone, holed up in his room doing the homework he should have completed hours earlier. “Where is your daddy?” I asked as I entered his untidy room, picking up smelly socks, clothes, and fast-food containers off the floor as I approached him at the desk facing his bed.
Without looking at me, Junior shrugged and mumbled, “I dunno.”
“Didn’t he tell you where he was going?”
“Nope. He got home at five-thirty, and a minute after he walked in the door, his cell phone rang. He told the person on the other end, ‘I’m on my way’ and he took off again.”
“Hmmm. It was probably Dr. Mansfield. Reed’s been helping him prepare the speech he’s going to give in L.A. at the medical conference they’re going to next weekend.”
Junior looked at me and shook his head. “Dr. Mansfield came by here and dropped off Daddy’s golf clubs a few minutes after he left. He said he was on his way out to dinner with his wife and her parents and would call Daddy tomorrow, so Daddy can’t be with him.”
“Well, I’m not going to worry about which one of his boring friends he’s with.” But I was worried about who Reed was spending so much time with these days. And I was sure I’d find out who it was soon.
Chapter 44
Lola
“I TOLD YOU THE PLACE HAD A COUCH BED I CAN SLEEP ON UNTIL I get another bed, so you didn’t need to buy a sleeping bag—and a Spider-Man sleeping bag at that,” I said when Joan arrived a few minutes before seven Friday evening. We had just unloaded everything from her car and set it onto the living-room floor of the house where I’d just signed a month-to-month lease. She had purchased everything I needed, from a small flat-screen TV to the sleeping bag.
“A used couch bed,” she reminded with a dramatic neck roll. “There is no telling what kind of germs the previous tenants left on that damn thing. And reusing something that personal is so not cool!”
“Do you know how many other people have wallowed on the same hotel beds we’ve been—”
“Shut up! That’s different!” Joan laughed and wagged her finger in my face. “Anyway, it was my money and I wanted you to have some really nice, new stuff. And the sleeping bag looked so cute, I couldn’t pass it up,” she defended.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be here, and I don’t want to have too much stuff to move into another place,” I said, looking around at all the shopping bags and boxes of new merchandise. Everything had come from some of the most expensive stores in town, even the toilet paper.
“I know how addicted you are to chips, so I picked up a bunch. There’s bread and stuff to make sandwiches in one of those bags. I forgot to pick up mayonnaise and other condiments though.”
“We can get some from the convenience store across the street and have dinner and some wine.”
Joan looked at her watch. She frowned and shook her head. “I’ll have to take a rain check. Today is Mama’s birthday. My stepfather, and Junior and I, are taking her to dinner at that new Japanese restaurant on Morgan Street this evening.”
“I had promised to take Bertha to the same place for her birthday in August. . . .”
“Lola, I know it’s hard, but you need to forget about Bertha. One thing you should never forget is that she left you out of her will!”
“Libby and Marshall made her change it. If they hadn’t, she would have left me something,” I defended.
“For once in her life, Bertha should have stood up to her rotten-ass children.”
“I’m sure she changed her will because she didn’t want them to get mad at her.”
“Pffft! The way they treated that poor woman, it sounded like they’d been ‘mad at her’ all their lives. I wouldn’t—”
I held my hand up and cut Joan off. “I am over it, so let’s change the s
ubject. In spite of what Bertha did, or didn’t do, for me, it’s not easy for me to forget about the woman who practically raised me.”
“I’m sorry.” Joan gave me a hug and a pat on my shoulder. “I need to keep my big mouth shut more often.” She tilted her head and gave me a solemn look. “Uh, I know you have a lot on your mind lately, but you haven’t mentioned Calvin today. Does he know everything that’s going on?”
“Most of it. He was very sympathetic.”
“Are you going to see him anytime soon?”
“I sure hope so. Until then, all I can do is think and dream about him.”
“Sweet dreams,” Joan quipped. I gave her a tight-lipped smile and shook my head. I could tell it made her uneasy, but her unnecessary remark had done the same thing to me. She checked her watch and abruptly stood up. “It’s later than I thought. I’d better get over to Mama’s house before she sends somebody to look for me. I’ll call you,” she said on her way out.
* * *
I fixed myself a sloppy ham sandwich for dinner. Joan had bought some wine but no cups or glasses, so I drank it straight from the bottle. By eight p.m. I was tired and too buzzed to do anything else but go to bed.
Two of the three bedrooms were in the back part of the house. The one directly across the hall from the living room was the smallest, but it was the one I chose to sleep in. That night, I slept like a baby.
When I crawled out of that silly sleeping bag around eight a.m., I checked my cell phone for messages. I had requests for dates from three men I had previously been with. Because of all the stress and chaos I had endured since Bertha’s passing, I was anxious for some male company, but I was more interested in spending time with a man I really wanted to be with. And there was only one: Calvin. I prayed that he would get back to me before I decided to accept a date with another club member. Elbert had also sent me a text: