seven syllables. “Are you saying you knew?”
“No.” She waved her hands. “Of course not. Because if I’d
found out before you, your husband would be dead. No, I just meant that Jeremy’s not who he used to be. He’s different.
He speaks to me differently. Like back in New Orleans, the
three of us were friends. But now, he treats me...well, as an
employee. I mean, that’s what I am, but you don’t treat me that way.”
“Because you’re my best friend first.”
“Exactly. But it’s not that way with Jeremy. It was when I
first came here to D.C. with y’all. But especially since we’ve been in the new sanctuary and on that campus, he’s really
different. I’m surprised you haven’t noticed.”
I shook my head. “And I’m surprised you’ve never said
anything.”
She shrugged. “What was I supposed to say? Your
husband’s caught up? It was bound to happen. All that money
now, all that power. People shout out his name when he walks
by. He’s in demand as a speaker. He’s the right Reverend
Jeremy Williams now, you know?”
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I filled my cheeks with air, then exhaled slowly.
“So what’s the plan? You’re the First Lady, so you can’t go
rolling up on this Katrina chick. Does Jada know?”
“I didn’t want to talk to anyone before I talked to Jeremy.
But now that all these days have passed and he’ll be home
tomorrow....”
“Well, Jada and I can roll up on that homewrecker and
take care of her tonight.”
Even though Dru was trying to lighten the moment, I
couldn’t find a smile. Shaking my head, I said, “No. She didn’t wreck my home,” I said with a sigh. “This is on Jeremy, if it’s even true.”
She frowned. “What do you mean if it’s even true? You
don’t believe her?”
“I did in the beginning because everything fit. But I guess
I’ve had too many days of thinking and stewing and thinking
and crying and thinking and....”
She held up her hand. “I get the picture.”
“And then on top of that, there’s this deal with Amazon.”
I filled Dru in on what happened at the meeting.
“High. Seven. Figures?” She shook her head. “I cannot
believe you kept all of this from me. I just thought you were
off because of Mother Hayden.”
“And that’s another thing. Isn’t it weird, Dru, that this
happened with Katrina and then, Mother Hayden died.”
“Huh?” She squinted as if my words sounded crazy. “You
think Katrina had something to do with that?”
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“No, of course not. What I mean is that when Mother
Hayden died, that stopped everything. I couldn’t talk to
Jeremy and I had to just sit on this for the last six days.”
“Oh, and so you’re wondering if....”
“God is trying to tell me something.”
She shrugged. “Well, we know God hates divorce.”
“Exactly.”
“Except in the case of adultery.”
“Exactly.”
“Yeah,” she nodded slowly, “I can see why you’re in a
dilemma.”
“I’m just wondering if I should give it more time before I
say something to Jeremy.”
“Why? If he’s coming back tomorrow, why not talk to
him?”
I waited a moment to continue, trying to put together the
words to explain what I’d been thinking and feeling, especially in the last few days. “Because bringing it up to him now forces me to take action and I’m not sure what action I need to take.”
Dru leaned back, her expression pensive, like she was
thinking and then weighing what she wanted to say. Then,
she said, “You know what? I think you may be right.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, because right now, all you really have is the word
of some trick from Southeast.”
“I have her word and I have her text. Oh, and I have
something else.” I paused. “She told me she wasn’t the only
one that Jeremy’s been with.”
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“Wait. WHAT?”
“Yeah, she went on and on about how he was cheating
on her.”
Dru’s eyes widened. “You’ve got to be kidding me. These
side chicks are real bold these days. But now, I really don’t
know if I believe her and I’m thinking that you need to hold
up for a minute. Because not only does she sound crazy, but
if you say anything about her to Jeremy, he’s probably going
to tell you that she is crazy. What else can he do? He’s not going to say, ‘yeah, I have a crazy jump-off who lives a couple of miles away.’ He’s going to deny it.”
Leaning forward, I held my head in my hands.
“Let’s do this.” She scooted to the edge of the sofa and
rubbed my back. “Let’s wait just a few more days. Let me talk
to Jeremy.”
I sat up straight. “What? No! If anyone is going to talk to
him about this, it’ll be me.”
“No, not about this. I’m just gonna have a chat with him.
Not say anything directly. But I don’t know, Ginger. Let me
talk to him and let us figure this out some more. Because
really you’re right; you don’t have enough yet. You don’t have enough to make the decision to walk out the door.”
And that right there was my quandary. Was I willing to
leave Jeremy and take Jasmine and Jayden from their father
over the word of a woman? “But,” I had another question,
“what about if Katrina has said something to him?”
“Well, if she tells him that she told you, she’s a fool.
Because she’d have to deal with his wrath. But if she did and
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he says something to you, then you handle it. For now, though, I really do think you’re right. You can’t say anything. Not yet.”
I nodded, then, leaned back against the soft couch and
closed my eyes. Dru was right; Jeremy would never admit it.
Not with just a text and some woman’s word. He would tell
me Katrina was lying. He’d remind me of the stalkers he’d had
in the past. He’d just say Katrina went further than the others.
I was an action person and I couldn’t do anything with
what I had now—I needed more.
“Okay,” I said. “Talk to him. Let’s see what happens.”
“All right. And what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to do the only thing I can do at this point; I’m
going to pray.”
Chapter Sixteen
For once, I was glad I had a First Ladies Council meeting,
especially since it was just the executive board: me, Sonya,
and unfortunately, Cecily.
But today, I needed this. Jeremy had been home for two
days. I’d been praying for Jesus to be a zip on my lips and so far, my prayers had been answered; I’d said nothing about
meeting Katrina. And he’d said nothing to me.
Keeping the secret had been easier than I thought; since
he’d been home, Jeremy had been a bit distracted. I was sure
it was because of Mother Hayden. For the two days, he’d gone
into the church and done his duties, but he’d left the office
bo
th days before five, getting home before me and sending
Carmen on her way. He’d been spending as much time with
the kids as he could.
Jeremy had done this before—it was as if when he had to
deal with death, our children reminded him of life.
Of course, I loved when he spent time with Jasmine and
Jayden. That was a good thing—except right now, it gave
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me and Jeremy too many hours together, during the day at
church, and then at home at night. And I was concerned—too
many hours might lead to me saying something.
But I’d lasted. Because the bottom line was—I needed
more before I could make a decision. I just didn’t know when,
where or how I would get information to find out one way
or the other.
I pushed all those thoughts aside, though, as I strolled
from the parking garage and into Georgia Brown’s. I certainly
didn’t want to have this on my mind as I met with Sonya and
Cecily, which was why I’d decided to arrive fifteen minutes
early. I wanted to give myself time to settle down and have my game face on because I didn’t want either of them, especially
Sonya, to pick up on any of my distress. The last time Sonya
had seen me, I was rushing from her apartment. Today my
facade would be cool and ever so collected.
At the hostess stand, I was just about to ask for our
reservation, when I saw Sonya and Cecily, already seated at
a table by the window. I glanced at my watch; had I mixed
up the time?
I pointed to them as I passed the hostess and weaved my
way through the tables. Sonya and Cecily hadn’t seen me yet;
they were too involved in their conversation. Their heads were down, close together as they whispered.
They didn’t even notice when I stood at the table. “Hello.”
Both of them looked up, startled. “Oh, Ginger,” Sonya
said. “I didn’t see you come in.”
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She stood to hug me and as I slipped into the chair across
from her, I said, “I can tell.” Turning to my right, I said,
“Cecily.” My greeting was curt, I knew that. But I never had
much to say to her and the vice versa was true, too.
“What’s up, girl?” she said as if we were friends.
I didn’t know what that was about, but I said, “I’m good.
So you two got here early.”
They exchanged a glance before Sonya said, “My mother
always told me if you’re fifteen minutes early, you’re on time.”
“Then, I’m right on time,” I said. “Because I was trying to
get here fifteen minutes early.”
“Great,” Sonya said. “Wel , let’s order and then we can get
to the business at hand.”
Cecily and I nodded together, probably the only thing we
would agree on at this meeting. As I perused the menu, on the
sly I studied Sonya and Cecily. As always, they were both put
together, though Sonya was the much more matronly one as
she was today with the scooped neck rose-colored dress she
wore that fell almost to her calves. Cecily hadn’t stood, but
I didn’t have to see the hem of her spaghetti-strap sundress.
Every skirt or dress she wore, barely skimmed her knees and
her shoe game was almost as on point as mine.
But even as we glanced over the menus, I could tell there
was something going on with these two. I felt this vibe, like
Sonya and Cecily were still communicating, though they
spoke no words. It was in the way they kept glancing at each
other and Sonya kept shaking her head. I’d walked in on
something.
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After the waitress took our orders, I was ready to get to
business. While I was glad to have the reprieve from being
around Jeremy, there was an expiration time I had when it
came to spending time with these women.
“So,” I started, “I wanted to give you both a run-down on
what happened at the job fair and then talk about how we’re
going to schedule the high school visits. I’d love to set up that up today so we can take it to the other First Ladies, get their approval and then, get started.”
“Of course,” Sonya said. “But before we get into all of
that,” she waved her hand as if what I had to say wasn’t
important, “I wanted to ask....” She paused and with her arms
resting on the table, she whispered, “How are you?”
The beat of my heart sped up. “I’m...fine...why?”
“Oh, well, the last time I saw you.” She glanced at Cecily.
“Ah,” I said as nonchalantly as I could, then I turned to
Cecily the same way Sonya had done. “Jeremy and I were
supposed to have dinner with Sonya and Charles,” I explained.
“But our babysitter got sick.” Returning my glance to Sonya, I said, “But it was just a little cold. She’s fine, the kids are fine, all is well.”
Sonya and Cecily gave each other a long look and now
I was sure...something was going on. But I wasn’t going to
allow them to take me down their gossipy road. Since the
Dress for Success program hadn’t gotten them on track, I
tried another approach. “Oh, you know what I want to talk to
you about,” I began, keeping my tone light. “Our anniversary
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celebration. I know you mentioned, Sonya, that you and the
First Ladies Council wanted to make a presentation.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “We really want to if you can fit us on
the program.”
“Definitely. This is so nice of you.”
“Well, we don’t want to do it just to be nice.” She glanced
at Cecily and she nodded. “We want to make a presentation
to New Kingdom Temple, but we also want to do a special
tribute to you.”
“That’s right,” Cecily said, peering at me through the
black diamond-studded cat-eye glasses that she wore today.
Sonya continued, “We want to recognize what few people
do—that there are a lot of responsibilities that go along with being helpmeets for our husbands. And at times, that can be
overwhelming.”
“At times?” Cecily piped in. “You mean most times.”
Now, they nodded together.
“Well, I appreciate that,” I said.
“And we appreciate you,” Sonya said. “When God blessed
me with this idea all those years ago to create this support
group, I did it for women just like you.”
“Thank you,” I said. Feeling a great need to turn the
conversation back to business, I added, “So I’ll have Lizzy,
Jeremy’s assistant get the program over to you.”
“It can be so overwhelming being a pastor’s wife,” Cecily
said as if I hadn’t said a word.
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“I agree,” Sonya said. God knows that my forty years of
marriage has needed support from time to time. We all need
the blessing of being around other women with like minds.”
I couldn’t stop my eyebrows from rising with those words.
Like minds? I had nothing in common with these women and
this would have been a good time to bring up some of the
iss
ues I had with the Council, especially the gossiping. But
again, I tried to steer the conversation to where I wanted it
to be. “Well...being part of the Council has been...interesting for me. Especially because of the good work the Council does
in D.C..”
“And I wouldn’t have survived without the Council and
their support,” Cecily held up her hand as if she was about
to testify.
Again, it felt like neither one of them were listening to
me.Cecily continued, “I mean, I haven’t had the issues that
so many of the wives have, unfortunately, had to go through.”
She paused and placed her hand on my arm. “I mean, my
husband and I have had a good marriage, thank you, Lord.
But still, sometimes a woman just needs other women to talk
to. That’s what we want you to know. That we’re here for you.”
The way Cecily sat on the edge of her chair—I’d seen that
stance before. I’d seen the hungry gaze from her eyes. I sucked in air. They knew about Jeremy and Katrina!
I pushed down the rising stone in my throat. “I’m grateful,”
I said, “but really, today, I don’t want to talk about anyone or
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anything. I just want us to get to the business that we came
here to discuss.”
Sonya leaned toward me. “We don’t have to talk about
any of that today, Ginger. That’s not why I wanted us to get
together. I knew you needed us without the other women
around.” Reaching across the table, she patted my hand. “You
don’t have to put up a front for us.”
They knew. Oh, my God. They knew.
I blinked, trying to think of something to say, trying to
gain control of this conversation. There was no way I was
going to talk to them about Jeremy and Katrina.
“I’m not...putting on any front. But the thing is, I don’t
want to talk about any personal business.”
“It’s not really personal when it affects all of us,” Sonya
said. “Everything that happens in every church affects all of
us. You know that.”
“Yes,” Cecily jumped in. “We’re intertwined. We’re family,
baby.”
Those words made the stone fill up my throat. She’d said
the same thing to Rena. I wanted to jump up, toss a couple
of bills on the table, and get the hades out of here. But I was stuck in my seat. It took me a moment to find my voice.
“Look,” I began. “I appreciate why you formed this group and
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