Xavier knew Charlotte’s suspicions weren’t totally unfounded because of the history of extracurricular activities he’d had during his first marriage. Activities he’d vowed to not bring into his current marriage.
When he and Charlotte had started dating and he saw that things were getting serious, he sat down with her and had a long talk about the reasons his previous marriage had come to an end. He’d been sorry for what he’d done and apologized to his first wife, but she’d sought divorce on grounds of adultery instead. He’d learned his lesson. He assured Charlotte that his old ways were behind him, and the slate was clean.
But ultimately, he hadn’t kept that promise to Charlotte. It ended up being harder than he thought it would be. He loved his wife. She was everything he could ever want in a woman. She was intelligent, caring, and beautiful. At home he hadn’t lacked for anything from Charlotte. She was attentive to his every need. But for some reason, Xavier had a strong proclivity for women.
When he wasn’t around his wife, the women were luring eye candy. He couldn’t avoid them. There were so many of them around, especially at his job. Since the dealership had started the commercials, the influx of women had gotten even worse. They seemed to come in multitudes. He’d tried his best to ignore them.
And if that weren’t enough, the Internet complicated things even more. One afternoon while he was sitting at home checking his e-mails, a window popped up on the screen, showing women in suggestive poses. He clicked on it and the screen opened with an array of beautiful eye candy from which he couldn’t avert his eyes. These women weren’t real. It wouldn’t hurt to look at them. It wasn’t like anyone could see him, and it wasn’t like these women could make any advances toward him. It was totally innocent, and it gave him a rush of a lifetime.
In the weeks that followed, he’d returned to the Web site, whenever he needed a fix. When he got bored with that website, he’d found others with more pictures and varieties of things to behold. Xavier found that surfing the websites helped him keep a better focus at work, especially after he found a site in which he could chat with the women.
Charlotte emerged from the bathroom, covered in her terrycloth robe. She’d forgotten to take her clothes into the bathroom with her. Again doing her best to ignore her husband, she pulled a pair of pants and a top out of the bag, already ironed and ready, then she returned to the bathroom. Minutes later, Xavier heard the shower turn on.
He finally sat up and shook his head, wondering when Charlotte was finally going to stop her nonsense and talk to him. They didn’t need to waste precious days during the retreat for her to come around. They needed to use the time wisely.
Looking back at his phone, his thoughts trailed back to Yasmine. He shook his head again, wondering why the heck the woman had picked that exact moment to call. This was the time in which he and Charlotte were finally on a course to getting their relationship back on track.
Yasmine had been his nightmare for months, and then the nightmare turned into reality. Xavier tried to use the alluring images from the websites to control his need for being with other women, but the Internet had only been a temporary solution.
Slowly some of his old ways returned as he made small talk with the female clients during test drives. It wasn’t hard since so many women flirted with him on a daily basis. He didn’t see a problem with taking their phone numbers to continue talking to them over the phone.
Remembering how his last marriage ended, he didn’t want the same results. He was going to have to be more careful this time and let the new women friends he was talking to know that he was not looking for a long-term relationship, making sure there weren’t any misunderstanding on the womens’ parts. He also told them to only call his cell phone during working hours. He figured the women should be able to deduce that he was a married man by those instructions and the ring he wore on his left hand. It was all innocent enough. He hadn’t done anything with the women, he just liked to talk and flirt.
For months his personal life was on top of the world. He had his beautiful trophy wife at home, newly found friends on the side, and handy websites at the touch of his fingers when he needed an extra fix. On the business side, he was the top-selling salesman in the dealership and across the state of North Carolina.
Things were going pretty smooth until Yasmine entered—stage left, as the thespians might say. From day one, meeting Yasmine had been like something out of a dramatic play debuting on Broadway.
There were signs of trouble from the first time Xavier had met her at the Starbucks down the street from the dealership. Starting with the low-cut red dress that looked like it had been painted on. Her cleavage hadn’t been hard to miss, neither had been the devil’s horns he saw extending from her head ... or at least he thought he saw a pair. He’d done a double take until she changed positions in her seat. There had actually been a mural behind her on the wall which gave the illusion that she had horns.
She’d introduced herself as Yasmine and made herself comfortable at his table without asking if he were expecting anyone else. She’d recognized him as the guy from the commercials and talked and asked questions for the better part of his thirty-minute break. When it was time to leave, she gave him one of her business cards. She was an IT specialist for a local company.
A few days later, he’d come across the card and thought about calling Yasmine to see if she might be in the market for a new car. The thought had only been on his mind for a fleeting moment before he saw Miss Yasmine strolling around the dealership looking at the cars on showcase. She was wearing another painted on dress, but this one was hot pink and was even lower cut in the front than the dress she’d worn a few days prior. Surprised, he made his way over to her and asked if he could be of any assistance. She said she’d been thinking about getting a new car and had seen some she liked. She wanted to test drive a few, but only if Xavier went along to tell her about the cars’ features.
Xavier ended up going with her on three test drives until he realized the woman was only a fan trying to get as much free time alone with him as she could. Time was money, and he’d wasted enough of both on her already.
Xavier shook his head again as he remembered. He so wished he’d taken the red dress, the horns, and her pushy aggressiveness as a sign to run and hide. Instead, trying to make a buck, he pressed her about whether she wanted to buy a car or not. She said she did, but was trying to make up her mind on which to choose.
After a week of her coming to the dealership on a daily basis, supposedly making up her mind, she finally purchased a vehicle. Xavier wondered if all the time he’d spent had really been worth the commission. But he was glad the woman—cleavage or not—was finally going to be out of his hair.
A mere week after the purchase, Yasmine again strolled into the dealership offering to buy Xavier lunch to thank him for all his help and time. Something told him to decline, but his growling stomach got the best of him. And when he really thought about it, he didn’t see any real harm in grabbing a bite with the woman.
During their lunch, Yasmine made a number of suggestive overtures that could not be ignored. Xavier did his best—in the beginning—to disregard those advances, but had ultimately been unable to. From there everything was a blur. Before he knew it, he was seeing her more often and spending time with her at her apartment at night when he couldn’t be seen. Whenever he was at Yasmine’s place it felt like he was in his Cyberworld—in 3D. She was everything the Web sites promised and more.
He was in a virtual heaven; at least until the pain started each time he went to the bathroom. Then after a while, in addition to the pain, he also noticed a discharge. He went to the doctor and found out he had gonorrhea. This totally freaked him out. The only other person he had been with besides his wife in the previous couple of months had been Yasmine. He hadn’t seen a need to pursue any kind of relationship with the other women he’d been corresponding with, especially after seeing how easily accessible Yasmine was.
He b
roke contact with Yasmine as soon as he found out about the STD. He didn’t answer her calls and told co-workers the woman was stalking him. His co-workers had laughed at him, but obliged with his wishes to assist in breaking any contact she had with him.
At first, the messages Yasmine left sounded urgent. Then she just sounded hurt. After that, she started leaving messages threatening him to contact her. He took the threats as idle and figured she’d get the message sooner or later and leave him alone.
Meanwhile, he’d gotten the medicine he needed to treat the STD and prayed to God he hadn’t spread the disease to his wife. After he’d found out about the diagnosis, he’d even avoided sleeping with her for a few weeks, making up excuses—excuses which sounded like the ones most women would use to get out of sleeping with their husbands. He had to buy time until he could figure out a way to tell his wife.
But he’d waited too long, and before he knew it, Charlotte had confronted him with her own test results, saying she had gonorrhea. He fessed up and told her about Yasmine. Not everything. Just enough to let her know he’d slept with another woman. But he didn’t tell her about his other female friends. He wasn’t trying to dig an even bigger hole for himself.
Things had been worse than tense at his house for months, and Xavier feared Charlotte would have probably left him already if he hadn’t set up the marriage counseling at the retreat for them. Waiting for the date of the retreat had bought him some time, and ever since, he’d been doing his best to make amends. He felt lower than dirt for what he’d done to his wife.
So now here he was, sitting on the floor of a cabin in the middle of nowhere without contact with the outside world. But it would all be worth it if he could get his wife to forgive him and give him another chance.
If only Yasmine hadn’t called. And why had she called, anyway, he wondered? How stupid could he have been? He should have known Yasmine wouldn’t give up so easily. Xavier thought he was finally free of the woman. One day she was calling almost every other hour, and then it was as if she had fallen off the face of the earth. He truly wished she had.
Chapter 12
Xavier Knight
Tuesday: 8:06 A.M.
“Something sure does smell good in here,” Xavier said.
“Thanks.” Shelby smiled. “I am cooking omelets to order. What would you like in yours?”
“What kind of ingredients do you have?” Xavier asked.
“She’s got just about anything you can name,” Travis said.
Xavier noticed Travis’s lack of appetite from the previous night had heartily returned. His plate held what looked like two omelets.
“Yep, I’ve got a smorgasbord over here.” Shelby turned an omelet in a pan.
Xavier cracked his knuckles and took a seat at the table. “I’ll take one with bacon, ham, cheese, onions and green peppers.”
“Coming right up. I’ve got one order in before yours. Go ahead and help yourself to some juice,” Shelby said placing an omelet on a plate. “Here you go, George. One omelet with extra cheese and ham,” Shelby said.
“Thanks, Shelby. This omelet sure does look good. I can’t remember the last time I had one,” George said.
“Nina, you just want veggies in yours, right?” Shelby asked.
Nina didn’t answer. Her head was down and she seemed to be dozing at the table. George nudged her.
“Huh? What, George?” Nina asked.
“Shelby is talking to you,” George said.
“I was asking you if you want just veggies in your omelet,” Shelby said.
“Yeah, I don’t eat pork,” Nina said.
“I’ve got some turkey bacon I can put in there for you if you’d like,” Shelby said.
Nina wrinkled her nose. “I tried that stuff once, and it tasted pretty nasty to me. Just vegetables will be fine.”
“Okay, one vegetarian omelet coming right up,” Shelby said.
“So, Xavier,” Travis said between bites of his omelet, “do you have your own dressing room and a makeup artist?”
“Huh?” Xavier asked. He had no idea what this guy was talking about.
“You know, when you do your shoots for your commercials.”
“Oh no, man. It’s nothing like that. They might put a little powder on my skin to absorb any oil, but that’s where it ends. I don’t wear makeup.” The furthest thing from Xavier’s mind was shooting commercials.
“So how long does it take you to learn your lines?” Travis asked.
Xavier felt Travis was asking him questions like he was some type of movie star or something. “The commercials don’t really have that many lines. Some days I get the script an hour or so before shooting, it just depends on my general manager. But the cue cards help.
“And by the time we’ve shot it a few times, I pretty much have it memorized.”
“Right, right.” Travis nodded his head as he spoke, still chewing on his food. His eyes sparkled with awe.
Xavier was used to women looking at him with awe. They’d done so since he was in high school and college. After his acne cleared up, the braces were removed, and he’d had a growth spurt of five inches within a year, the sorely picked on Xay Xay, as the neighborhood kids called him, had metamorphosed like a caterpillar into a butterfly.
Xavier stared at the crooked teeth of the man sitting in front of him and shuttered to think what his teeth would have looked like if his parents hadn’t seen fit to put braces on them. He was also thankful to God that he’d had his growth spurt in high school or else he might have been a squat in stature just like Travis. Sometimes he felt bad for the little guys of the world.
“I’ve seen all the commercials you’ve done. I really liked the mini series you did around Christmas last year,” Travis said. He smiled, showing a few of his crooked teeth.
“Oh, that series was called Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” Xavier said. He figured he might as well appease the man while he waited for his omelet.
Travis closed his eyes for a moment as if remembering something. “It was so nice how everyone got the gift they wanted in the end; especially the old lady with the foster kids.”
“I actually came up with the ideas for that series. I told my general manager we should do a series of commercials sort of like a soap opera with a story that viewers could follow. Our sales increased by fifteen percent over our Christmas sales in previous years.” This was an accomplishment Xavier was very proud of.
“But I still don’t understand how that nurse ended up getting her SUV. Especially with all the problems she was having with her credit,” Travis said.
“You don’t? We did a whole commercial on how she was able to get a co-signer and won money off of a scratch off ticket. Enough money for her to be able to place a down payment,” Xavier said.
“Ah, man. I must have missed it,” Travis said. His face was truly perplexed.
Xavier wondered if all the man did was watch TV all day, because even he hadn’t seen all of the commercials on the airways.
“Here you are, Nina. One vegetable omelet.” Shelby handed Nina her plate.
Without a word of thanks, Nina took the omelet and started inspecting it with her fork like she was in an anatomy class, dissecting it.
Xavier thought this woman was the epitome of rude, and wondered how the famous G.I. Jones could have ended up with a woman like her. Opposites must truly attract; especially when it came to George and Nina Jones.
“Xavier, you said cheese, ham, bacon, onions and green peppers, right?” Shelby asked.
“Yes, please,” Xavier replied. “You remembered all that without writing it down? Were you a waitress or something?”
“Nope, just a good memory that’s all,” Shelby said.
Upon looking back at Travis, Xavier saw the same look of perplexity still covering his face. The commercials ran for six weeks prior to the week of Christmas. Each episode ran for seven days at various times during the day and night. So it didn’t seem too farfetched that the man could have
missed a commercial.
“Did you say you’ve seen all my commercials?” Xavier asked for clarification.
“Yep,” Travis said, nodding his head as if he’d won a blue ribbon prize or something. “Although from what you just said, I must have let one slip by.”
Xavier was even more perplexed that the guy had said he’d seen all of his other commercials. Not just the six they shot for last Christmas holiday, but forty-something others. Xavier didn’t really keep up with the count, but was pretty sure they were getting close to the fifty mark.
Curious as to what line of business Travis was in, Xavier asked, “So what type of work do you do?”
At this question, Travis, who was about to put another bite of omelet in his mouth stopped the fork in mid-air and glanced nervously at his wife. Beryl looked expectantly at her husband for an answer.
Travis put the fork down and picked up the glass of water to drink before he answered. “Well, I’m between jobs right now. I had a few problems at the last place I worked.” He nodded his head as if trying to convince himself. “I have an associate’s degree in General Studies, so I am a jack of all trades.”
Xavier nodded his head at this.
“I’ve been looking, but it’s hard out there trying to find a job. And I don’t just want any job. I want a job where they’ll appreciate my experience and educational background,” Travis continued. “There are a couple of jobs I was looking at in the paper before I came here, and I am going to call them as soon as I get back home.”
“Here you go, Xavier. One hot and cheesy omelet,” Shelby said as she handed him his plate.
The omelet looked just like the ones Xavier had seen pictured on the menus of the IHOP restaurant. Steam rose from it, and the cheese glistened as it dripped through the sides. His mouth watered. He couldn’t wait to take a bite.
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