Cherry Bomb

by J.W. Phillips

  He was not the man who fathered me, but he had been the only dad I had ever known. He was there for me and Katie when no one else was. Jerry Hart was family, and had enough sense to know this was all about Cherry Webb.

  “She found out the way we came to know each other. I went to North Carolina to finish up the work I was doing on her husband,” I answered and stared out over the pool.

  He popped the top of the beer bottle he was holding. “Shit, son. How is she doing?”

  Not good. I don’t know. God, I wish I knew. “I haven’t talk to her since . . . I needed to have solid proof of everything.” I jerked the bottle out of his hand and tipped it back.

  “Don’t give up on her.” Jerry stood and fisted my shoulder. “Come on, you have more than one woman to make up too.”

  Drake Hart

  Waking up to the sound of pure laughter and a small hand tickling the sole of my foot, I moaned. I had stayed up till one, watching the Corpse’s Bride. All was forgiven by Grace, but I was not so lucky with Katie. It was the first time in Katie’s life that she had held a grudge against me. I seemed to be having that effect on the people I actually cared about lately.

  “Oh, no, the tickle monster is in my bed,” I said, trying my best to laugh.

  Giggling, Grace took a nose dive under the blanket, trying her damnest to hide.

  In one swift motion, I yanked the covers back and growled. Grace squealed, showcasing her missing two front teeth, and had my nose in a death grip.

  “Good morning, Gracie,” I said, sounding like a squeaking chipmunk.

  “Good morning to you, too,” she said, mocking my voice.

  Grace leaped in my arms. I cradled her and showered her face with kisses. My little red-headed angel, if she only knew how much I needed her.

  Smacking my lips against her forehead, I whispered, “I’ve got to do a little work then we will go get some breakfast.”

  Grace stared up at me, wide-eyed. “Pawpaw said I could go but Mommy said she wasn’t going.” She jumped up and took off down the hall, without another word.

  I climbed out of bed, ran my fingers through my hair, and headed over to the small desk in the corner of the room. I picked up the manila envelope, containing everything James had done over the years. I prayed the information didn’t drive a steak farther into Cherry’s beautiful heart. Taking out a clean sheet of paper, I took a seat at the desk.

  Cherry,

  What James said was true. I was paid to either prove you were with someone else or sleep with you myself. But as always, plans never go as planned. When I first saw the pictures of you, I wanted to know you. I couldn’t figure out why. No woman had ever given me those feelings before. Then I watched you for three solid weeks. Just being near you silenced the demons in my head. I got memorized by your voice, the way your hips moved as you walked, the way you love your kids. Then we met. You fell at my feet and ripped my heart from my chest all in one brief moment. I’m different with you. I actually care about what you have to say, how you feel, if you’re happy. I never cared before.

  After knowing you, I couldn’t in my wildest dreams figure out why someone would throw a love such as yours away. So I started to look into James. The time I left for work, this was what I was doing. I never left you. Shit, I’m bad at this. I’m so sorry I didn’t call you. It killed me knowing it was going to hurt you when you learned the truth. The guilt was overwhelming. Now, I realize not calling hurt you even more. I’m so fucking sorry.

  What I learned was . . . God, I wanted to be holding you when I told you this shit. He did cheat with Linda but coerced her into the affair. He needed you to leave him but for reasons he never wanted you to know. My beautiful soda pop, he did buy a business in Raleigh, NC for his wife. Ten years ago, the hospital hired a twenty-one-year-old research assistant by the name of Brenda Taylor. James fell head over heels for her. They had already been together two years when she announced she was pregnant. James was going to leave you than but at the same time you learned you were expecting Noah. James hated the idea of walking away from his children, but most importantly, giving you a cent of the money he believed was his. So he moved Brenda to Raleigh, her hometown, and bought the pharmaceutical company for her. It was her dream.

  A week before Noah was born she gave birth to a son, James Allen Webb Jr., JJ for short.

  Though not a legal marriage, he viewed it as a marriage in every sense of the word. He had lived this lie for seven years until Brenda found out she was pregnant again and demanded he leave you for good. By this time, you had Henry too. James couldn’t stand the idea of giving up his sons to you. So he conceived the idea he would get you to leave then frame you into being an unfit mother. He even seduced your boss, Amy, to help him out with his plans. She sent you to me. He wanted proof you were fully submersed into an unfit lifestyle. Amy was even going to falsify a drug test on you.

  I am so sorry, baby. I would give anything to have you in my arms when you learned the truth. All the information you need to send to your lawyer is in the envelope.

  If you need anything I will always be here for you.

  I love you, Drake

  I placed the letter into an envelope, sealed it, and then kissed it. That god awful clawing in my chest set in. All I wanted to do was protect her, instead I was going to rip her life apart.

  I placed the envelopes in my briefcase and picked up a pair of jeans and t-shirt off the top of the dresser.

  Thirty minutes later, I was showered, dressed, and waiting at the front door for Grace.

  She bounced down the stairs in a smocked gingham dress, her eyes glimmering with delight. “I wore my new dress for you. Do you like it? Claire bought it for me.”

  “I love it. You’re the prettiest date in the world.”

  She smiled and made a little curtsying motion. I took her hand and placed it in the crook of my elbow. “Come on, little lady,” I said and led her to the car. “We have to drop a package off at a friend’s house then it will be a Drake and Grace day,” I added before boosting Grace into her car seat and placing my briefcase in the front passenger seat. I opened the car door and let out my first deep breath in days. I had done all I could for Cherry. It was up to her where we went from here.

  Cherry Webb

  “Mommy, I saw Drake outside. Is he coming to play today?”

  Were the two phrases that struck fear into my heart. I didn’t have a clue how to tell Henry that Drake was not coming back. The men in my son’s life and trust did not exactly go hand in hand. But the sentence that stopped me dead in my tracks was, "Drake was outside." I raced to the bathroom window and peeked out at the driveway.

  “Baby, no one is here. Now go get ready. You’re going to day school while Mommy works.”

  Amy had sent numerous texts informing me the publisher was getting agitated at my most recent MIA status. She even hinted that I was hiding a new secret life. If she only knew.

  A quick glance in the dresser mirror revealed a thirty-six-year-old woman that had eaten from the tree of knowledge. The make-up covered the scars and imperfections but nothing was capable of covering up the emotions in my eyes. I had experienced death, hurt, and heartbreak but also life, love, and great joy.

  I twisted my brown, dull hair into a knot on top of my head then straightened the collar on the pale blue blouse I was wearing. I glanced down at the black peekaboo heels that were already cutting into the side of my feet. Sorry, feet. I knew I would pay for wearing them but I needed the boost of confidence that only a great pair of heels could bring.

  “Noah, Henry, are you ready?” I shouted down the hall. “Mommy is already running late.”

  I took one more look in the entry hall window before my boys joined me at the door leading to the garage.

  “It’s not fair. Ruby doesn’t have to go to baby school,” Noah said and crossed his arms in a look of defiance.

  “I love day school. We make stuff," Henry chimed in as he ran into the entry hall with both shoes on the
wrong feet.

  “You would because you’re a baby,” Noah said then pushed Henry on the shoulder.

  “Noah be nice, now, and help your brother with his shoes.”

  “Why did you even have him,” Noah said, rolled his eyes, and bent down to fix Henry’s shoes.

  We had him because one night I tried to get your dad to love me, I thought.

  “Cause they knew they could do better than you,” Henry answered when Noah slipped his last shoe on.

  “Boys, stop it.”

  I yanked their backpacks off the hook, and started down the steps into the garage when I saw it. A manila envelope with a small, white one taped on the top of it.

  Please read first was written in a very familiar handwriting on top of the smaller one. Henry had been right. Drake had been there. I tucked them into my purse, and gently pushed Noah to the car where Henry was already seated and buckled in.

  Thirty minutes later, I had drop the boys off at school and had pulled into the parking garage at work. I gripped my purse to head inside when I slipped out the envelops instead. I stared at them for longer than I would ever admit, terrified of what they held. After taking a deep breath, I slid my finger along the seal, opening it. The letter fell out onto my hand. I unfolded the note and settled down in the seat, and reluctantly read the first sentence.

  What James said was true. I was paid to either prove you were with someone else or sleep with you myself.

  I stiffened, my heart catching in my throat. At least he wasn’t lying. But to see the words and know the only thing we truly had between us was a paycheck, cut. I couldn’t decide if I should read anymore or simply toss it all away. But instead of listing the ramification of what that decision would mean, I kept on reading.

  My beautiful soda pop, he did buy a business in Raleigh, NC for his wife. Ten years ago, the hospital hired a twenty-one-year-old research assistant by the name of Brenda Taylor.

  My hand twisted the corner of the paper. My life as I knew it vanished. It was all a lie. A big fat facade. Just the idea of it all sent a violent shiver through me.

  I held my hand over my mouth, positive I was about to be sick. A wife, another fucking wife. My God, I wanted Drake to hold me too. I wanted him to wrap his arms around my waist and never let me go. But should I want that. Our brief affair was built on a lie.

  My heart pounded in my chest as my reality shrunk into blackness. I registered that there was a dozen or so people walking in and out of the building. Just a normal day for all of them, they didn’t have a clue that I sat in my car with my reality crumbling away.

  A week before Noah was born she gave birth to a son, James Allen Webb Jr., JJ for short.

  A son the same age as ours. James always wanted a son named after him, and I could never understand why only a few weeks before Noah was born he suddenly had a change of heart. But now I understood, Noah wasn’t his firstborn son. He was the son that kept him from the one he really loved.

  I opened the bigger envelope and pulled out a picture of the woman James had tried to turn me into the last sixteen years, young, beautiful, petite, and blonde, and in her arms was a carbon copy of my husband. He was definitely Henry’s brother.

  He even seduced your boss, Amy, to help him out with his plans.

  No wonder, other than my kids, I had only ever felt connected to one other person, Drake Hart. He had been the only one that had chosen me over James.

  But the part hardest for me to understand was that I didn’t give a damn. No tears started, no yearning to make James pay, just a deep need to hear Drake tell me it would all be okay, hear his voice repeat the words he wrote in print.

  I love you, Drake.

  He didn’t leave me and most importantly, that he loved me.

  My heart collapsed. It stopped beating with one final thud.

  I grabbed my purse and shoved the papers into it, still not looking at any of the evidence Drake had gathered. I didn’t need to see proof that James was a loser.

  Getting out of the car, it hit me what I had to do. I took the elevator in the parking garage to level four and stepped out onto the vestibule and a set of revolving door leading into The Showcase. I was so proud of myself when I landed the freelance writing job there only five years earlier. I had put my dream of writing to the side when I married James, and this was I believed the opportunity to revise my dream and be a mother too. Now I had a new life to live.

  “Good morning, Cherry,” the receptionist, Maggie, said.

  I paused to admire her indigo-colored sheath dress. She was African-American, and extremely fit and pretty. The only 'flaw' James could have found in her was her hair which happen to be pitch-black and cut into a sleek bob, not long and blonde as he required. I lightly chuckled; It was quite possibly the only thing that kept him from trying to stick his dick into her.

  She buzzed me into the main office space, and as I stepped through the double-door entrance, I flipped around.

  “Maggie, do you have a box I could use.”

  “Sure,” she said as her head disappeared under the large crescent-shaped desk. “Here.” She reappeared holding a medium size box. Perfect. “Oh yeah, Amy, needs to see you ASAP.”

  “Can you let her know she can find me in my office?” I stated which caused an unfamiliar smile to appear on my face. It had been ten days since a natural smile flirted with my lips.

  I made a left then a right, and ended up in a formerly open board room, which was now partitioned off into cubicles. The smallest one was mine. I headed straight to it and started to gather any personal belongings I had inside the box. I had decorated my desk with framed pictures of the kids and one of James and I on are last trip to Cabo San Lucas. I placed the kids’ pictures in the box and turned the one of James and I face down on the desk.

  “Cherry, what are you doing?”

  I braced my hands on the desk to face my boss. “Are you going to tell me about you and my husband?” I asked then crossed my arms.

  Amy fell down in the chair in front of my desk. Her hands shook in her lap. She brought one hand up to her face when she finally lifted her gaze. “What are you talking about? I barely know James.”

  “Is that you barely know him socially or in the biblical sense?” I leaned back on my chair, fully aware for once I had the upper hand. Amy and I once shared a bond, I viewed as special. But obviously it was entirely one-sided.

  She sighed, then her words flowed in a rush. “I never meant to hurt you. But he’s so good to me. He buys me flowers, tells me I’m beautiful. He is the first person to make me feel loved.”

  “He once made me feel that way too.” I slid the last of my things into the box. “I’m resigning effected immediately.”

  I picked up the box and started to walk down the hallway when I heard Amy chasing me and was saying she was sorry and didn’t mean to hurt me over and over again. I stopped but never looked back. “The sad thing is that it doesn’t hurt. Believe me when I tell you that you are more than welcome to him." I smiled. "Thanks for sending Master to me too."

  I started back walking and never slowed down until I was back in the safety of my car.

  Cherry Webb

  I drove through town jamming to Metallica’s One, headed to the one place just a day ago I never believed I would ever go again. His beloved club. It had been ten hours since I first read those words that would forever change the trajectory of my life.

  I had dropped Drake’s investigative work off at my lawyers, never looking at any of it, knowing Drake’s work would be thorough and meticulous. My suspicion was affirmed when the lawyer’s eyebrow raised then a smile appeared and he confirmed James would only see my kids in the form of supervised visitation from this day forward. He could have his other family but mine would be sheltered from anymore of his lies.

  I picked the boys up from day school and took them and Ruby out for ice cream and to catch a matinee at the movies. I never comprehend what a burden James had been in my life until Drake removed the
mask that had been cloaking my life with him.

  I had dropped the kids off at home and arranged to have Pat keep them for the night. Before I could even begin to try to explain to them this sins of their father, I had a few things to figure out myself.

  My fingers drummed along on the steering wheel, staring unseeing at the bright lights of the city, lost in my own little fantasy land. I was high on life. A wonderful, exhilarating high. My life with James had been one giant smoke screen. But Drake had shed a light on it. I could see clearly now. I had given James the last piece of me. It was time to move on, and I knew who I wanted to move on with. My affair with Drake might have been brief but my heart bled to give us a chance.

  I pulled into the side road leading to the one place where I discovered who I really was. The Dungeon. The world viewed this place taboo, but to me it was safety and security; the way soft, well –worn rope felt against my tender flesh. Discovering it and Master made me for once feel beautiful and loved.

  The parking lot was swarming with cars and people. The nerves finally set in. I parked and crawled out of the car, almost forgetting the heels I was wearing until my feet pounded the pavement. Damn, puppies, I need you to walk so please don’t give out on me now.

  A couple walked by. The man was dressed in leather pants with matching suspenders and no shirt. As odd as he looked it didn’t compare to the lady, she had on a black patent-leather bikini with carefully placed holes to expose her pierced nipples. I wrung my hands over my neck, missing the choker Drake had given me after spotting the thick leather collar around the lady’s neck.

  I glanced around the parking space, some of the people were dressed as if they were headed to a ballgame, a few dressed in suits and gowns, and others were dressed like the first couple I witnessed. I had always viewed people as pack animals. Always letting the hierarchy dictate how they were supposed to move, dress, basically live. To be an outcast was an unthinkable fate by most. Luckily, I didn’t fall in that category. I looked around one more time, hoping Drake didn’t find solitude within this group.