I finally said, “That’s not going to happen, Dru.”
She shrugged. “You never know. Someone may step up.
So what are you and Jeremy going to get into?”
I turned my glance back to him and sighed. “I don’t know.
I’ll hang out with him for a little while at least. He misses
Reverend Robinson so much.”
“Yeah, well.” Then, she leaned closer to me and whispered,
“Baby! He had a baby,” but before she noticed the shocked
look on my face, she scooted up the aisle laughing al the way to the door. I couldn’t imagine what she would do if she were
to ever find out that she’d been right, but she needed to make baby plural.
Turning back to Jeremy, I yearned to be by his side just in
case he needed me. But he was in full-fledge campaign mode
and standing beside him wouldn’t have been appropriate. I
was not his wife. So I turned, maneuvered to the left, then,
dipped into the ladies’ room.
Moving to the lounge part of the area, I pulled out my
cosmetic bag, rested it on the counter and just as I began to
powder my face, First Lady Eunice Blake pushed open the
door and sauntered in.
I’d always said that if she hadn’t been a First Lady, she
would’ve been a heck of a full-figured model because not
only did she have the features, she had the style...and then,
she had that strut.
“Ginger.” She also had a Boston accent that I loved. “It is
so good to see you.”
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“It’s good to see you, too, First Lady Blake.”
I’d shared several meals with her at the Robinson’s home,
especial y after her husband, Reverend Evander Blake passed
away about a year and a half ago. He’d been the pastor of First United Missionary Baptist, our sister church. But First Lady
Blake had left the church that her husband had pastored for
over twenty years after their board elevated Reverend Blake’s
arch rival (one of the deacons who’d been trying to bring the
Blakes down) into the role of Senior Pastor. She’d been an
unofficial member of Pilgrim’s Rest ever since.
“I’m glad we’re going to have a few moments here.” She
glanced around the lounge. “Are we here alone?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, I think so.”
She moved to the space outside of the lounge that held
three stalls, checked it out, then returned to where I was
standing. “It’s just us.”
As she leaned toward me, my heart began to pound.
Suppose she wanted to talk to me about the Robinsons?
Suppose she knew about Shaniqua? No! I didn’t want to talk
about anything or anyone.
Even though she knew we were alone, First Lady Blake
still lowered her voice. “What’s the deal with you and Jeremy?”
Her question made me blink, made me lean back a little.
“Oh!” I paused and tried to rewind my thoughts. “Well...uh...
I’m not sure what you mean. We’re really good friends.”
She dismissed my words with a wave of her hand. “Oh,
I know that. Everyone knows that. What I want to know is
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what’s going on now? Are you going to stay friends or are you
ready to take the next step?”
I wondered why she was asking me this. “Well, we’re still
in school. I mean, we’re graduating in a few weeks, but there’s still....”
Again, she waved her hand. “Ginger, you know what I’m
talking about,” she said with a bit of impatience in her tone.
“Now, Jeremy told me you were his girlfriend and I just want
to make sure the two of you are on the same page because I
don’t want him to be hurt.”
“He said I was his girlfriend?” When I heard my voice,
I shook my head to snap out of it. I sounded like a little girl with her first crush.
“Yes. I spoke to him the other night about his desire to
lead this church and one of the things I told him was that it’s important to have a wife already by his side, no matter where
he ended up pastoring.”
My lips parted in surprise.
First Lady Blake said, “And he told me he didn’t have a
wife, but he had a girlfriend who he hoped would be his wife
one day. Since you’re the only woman I’ve ever seen him with,
I’m thinking that girlfriend is you.”
When I’d decided to give up my fears and gave into my
feelings for Jeremy, I’d gone in all the way. Hearing that he
was calling me his girlfriend really did make me feel grade-
school giddy.
“So?” First Lady Blake folded her arms.
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“Well, yes, I guess you can say that.”
“Say what?” She didn’t give me time to respond before
she said, “You need to be clear about this, young lady. Because Jeremy Williams is a young man on the move. Whether or
not he gets the position in this church, he’s going to get it
somewhere. And there will be plenty of women who will be
willing to stand by his side.”
Her words made my eyebrows rise, but her tone, made
me say, “I understand. I just wasn’t trying to put our business out there like that.”
“Well, what you need to do is put it all the way out there
because there are wolves who need to know that Jeremy
Williams is involved with Ginger Allen.”
The bathroom door opened and First Lady Blake stood up
straight as a tall leggy woman in a spandex dress that left little to the imagination and rose to her mid-thigh as she moved,
sauntered in. She paused, then scowled, her lips pinched like
she’d just sucked a lemon as her eyes journeyed up, then down
my body.
“Hello, Sharonne,” the First Lady said, even though she
hadn’t acknowledged her.
The transformation was instant when the woman turned
her attention away from me. Her scowl flipped to a grin. “First Lady Blake. How are you today?”
“I’m well.” She nodded and then with her hand, motioned
toward me. “But I’m not the only one standing here.”
The woman—Sharonne—turned back to me. “Hi.”
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I frowned, wondering where all the hate was coming
from. “Hello.”
The woman moved to the other side of First Lady Blake,
leaned over, getting her face closer to the mirror, checked
her reflection, then fluffed stylish bob before she spun and
sashayed toward the door. “You have a great day, First Lady,”
she said over her shoulder.
We were silent until the door closed behind her. Then
First Lady Blake said, “And that right there—that’s what I
was just talking about. She’s one of those wolves who wants
what you have.”
I pressed my hand against my chest. “What I have?”
“Yes. You have Jeremy and that’s who she wants. So you
better stake your claim and then get ready because these
women out here, when it comes to pastors....”
She left her words there but she didn’t have to say much
more. I knew what she was talking about. I’d lived the struggle, I knew the story.
But I guess I hadn’t really been paying atten
tion to the
women who had shown interest in Jeremy. I mean, yeah, I’d
noticed lots of them always taking long looks at him, but that wasn’t any kind of surprise. Jeremy Williams was everything
that a young woman would want in a man—he was fine and
he had a future.
“Don’t worry,” First Lady Blake said as if she were reading
my mind. “Jeremy has no interest in anyone else, especially
not someone like who thinks it’s attractive to show all her
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goodies. A man like Jeremy will choose his forever companion
careful y and while Sharonne would be good for a rol in bed,
she’d never be the woman who’d stand next to him at the altar.
But women like Sharonne don’t go away peacefully. So you
have to stake your claim.” She tapped my shoulder. “Jeremy
has the talent to go far. But there is more to this journey than just having talent. And you have what it takes to help Jeremy
rise to the next level. You hear me?”
I nodded. “I do.” I’d heard her for sure, loud and clear.
“Good.” She patted my hand. “I’ll be praying for you and
Jeremy. “You just take care of your business.”
Again, I nodded, then stayed in place as First Lady Blake
checked her reflection before she did her own runway strut
out of the bathroom. When the door closed, I turned toward
the mirror, rested my hands on the counter and let out a long
breath.
That little encounter with Sharonne had reminded me
of the vow I’d made just six years ago. Was I sure about this?
Did I want to move forward to see where this would lead with
Jeremy when there were so many wolves preying on pastors
out there?
But then, I looked up at the mirror and I thought about
Jeremy and how I loved being with him. I loved sitting with
him and talking and laughing. I loved studying with him and
how he always knew the right answer when I was stuck on
a problem with statistics. I loved reading the Bible with him
and our discussions of the living God in our lives.
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I loved him. I loved Jeremy Williams.
It was too late. My vow had been broken and now I was
all in with this man. My only prayer now, was that I hoped
he was just like my daddy.
Chapter Five
Jeremy and I sat in his car, both of us stiff with surprise.
The lights of his Nissan were on, beaming on the theatre
that we’d just left. If I thought Slumdog Millionaire, the movie we’d just seen had drama, it didn’t compare to the phone call
Jeremy just received.
He was holding his Blackberry away from his ear so that
I could hear Reverend Lewis.
“I didn’t want you to come to church tomorrow without
knowing the announcement the board would be making.”
As soon as he said that, I knew what Reverend Lewis’s
next words would be.
“A new pastor has been selected to lead Pilgrim’s Rest and
I think you’ll be pleased with the board’s....”
“Wait, hold up. Someone has been selected already?”
Even though I knew that was what Reverend Lewis was
going to say, I had the same surprise as Jeremy. It had only
been two months since Reverend Robinson had left. When
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I was growing up, and around pastors with my father, it took
churches at least a year to find a new leader between all of the interviews, the guest speakers who were tested out, and the
background and financial checks. So how had Pilgrim’s Rest
done this so quickly? Unless...this had something to do with
Shaniqua. Had someone found out about her before Reverend
Robinson had even stepped forward? Had someone pushed
Reverend Robinson out? That was the only explanation I had
for the church being able to move this quickly.
“Yes, Jeremy. We’ve asked Reverend Derrick Harwood
to be the Senior Pastor of Pilgrim’s Rest and he’s accepted.
He’ll be introduced officially to the congregation tomorrow.”
With the way everyone had reacted to Reverend Harwood
a month ago, I was sure there would be no problems from the
membership.
Glancing at my boyfriend, his heartbreak was etched all
over his face and without closing my eyes, I said a prayer for him.“Everyone at Pilgrim’s Rest loves you, Jeremy, but this
was just not your time. Give yourself another ten years or so.
Go to school, get on our staff full-time. And the next time
there’s an opening....”
Jeremy interrupted him, “Thanks for letting me know,
Archie,” then he clicked off his phone.
If I didn’t know how upset Jeremy was before, I certainly
knew now. First, he never called Reverend Lewis by his first
name; that was just basic respect to Jeremy. And second, he’d
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practically hung up in Archie’s face. If I hadn’t been sure of how upset his was, I knew now.
“Can you believe that?” Jeremy finally said.
“I’m surprised,” was my answer because I could believe
it. But what I couldn’t say to Jeremy was that as fast and as
shocking as the board’s decision was, I agreed with them.
People were still talking about Reverend Harwood. He was
going to be a good leader for Pilgrim’s Rest and I had a feeling he was just what the church needed right now.
Jeremy nodded and when I saw he was cool, I was glad
for the way he was taking this. But then a second after I had
that thought, he slammed his hand against the steering wheel
so hard it made me jump. “That’s what’s wrong with these old
churches. They see my youth as a negative. If anything, it’s a positive. It’s what we need to grow.”
“I agree,” I said rubbing his back and keeping my voice
soft and soothing. “But Reverend Harwood isn’t that old.”
“He isn’t old compared to Reverend Robinson,” Jeremy
huffed. “Harwood is about forty, I think. So yeah, he’s twenty years younger than Reverend Robinson, and I’m twenty years
younger than him. If they want to move forward, they need
someone younger, someone who has a vision on how to take
the church deep into this millennium.”
“Well,” I said, trying to measure my words, “they didn’t
have your vision, but that doesn’t mean you can’t implement
it.” He frowned when he looked at me.
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I said, “Reverend Robinson believed in you. I believe
in you, and yes, I would like to see you continue to at least
getting your Master’s because that was all you talked about
before Reverend Robinson stepped down. But I believe you
would be an amazing pastor. And so maybe you don’t have
to sit on someone’s staff. Maybe you don’t have to wait until
your turn. Maybe you just go and make it happen. In your
own church. One day.”
He nodded slowly as if he was pondering my words. But
then, a smile came to his face. A smile that was genuine, a
smile that rose all the way to his eyes, a smile that I hadn’t seen since all of this Pilgrim’s Rest drama had started.
“You may be ri
ght. I may have been too big and too much
for Pilgrim’s Rest. I may be too big for any church. I may have to do this myself.”
I hadn’t said all that, but all I did was nod.
“Yeah, you’re right,” he continued. “And anyway now may
not have been the best time for me to be appointed.”
“You think?”
He chuckled. “I know.” He paused. “Thank you for
believing in me.”
“That’s what best friends do.”
“Best friends who are in love,” he said.
I was startled by his words but I didn’t show it.
When he continued with, “And anyway, we have other
things to think about,” I smiled because he’d taken away the
pressure of me having to tell him that I loved him, too, and I knew what he meant by us having other things to think about.
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“That’s right. Graduation. For both of us.”
“And the celebration begins tomorrow.”
“What’s happening tomorrow?” I asked.
“Oh nothing. I just mean it’s the beginning of our final
week in school.”
“Yup. We’re about to head into our future.”
“You got that right.” He pushed the car’s gear into ‘Drive’,
then squeezed my hand. “Remember when I told you it was
gonna be a hella ride with me?”
“Yeah.”
“Buckle up, baby. We’re about to take off.”
Chapter Six
“Welcome to Pilgrim’s Rest.” Jeremy shook Reverend
Harwood’s hand.
I was so proud that not only had Jeremy decided to come
to church, but this morning, we’d sat in the front pew of the
church as Pilgrim’s Rest welcomed their new pastor.
And at the end of service, Jeremy and I had stood in line
with the other parishioners to greet Reverend Harwood and
now, finally it was our turn to give him our good wishes.
“You’re Jeremy Williams,” Pastor Harwood said before he
pulled Jeremy into one of those brotherman hugs. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you and I’d love for us to
get together this week, maybe have lunch one day.”
“Well, this week may be a little difficult. We’re graduating
on Saturday.” Jeremy turned to me. “This is my girlfriend,
Ginger Allen. She’s graduating from Xavier and I’ll be
graduating from Dillard.”
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All of the Reverend’s attention was on me now. “Wow,
you’re a beautiful young woman. Something about hazel eyes
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