The Real Housewives of Adverse City

by Shelia E. Bell

  Gently, he eased her down onto the bed. She moaned softly as he laid her down.

  The sound of the doorbell rudely intervened.

  “Who could that be?” she said in as reasonable a voice as she could manage.

  “I don’t know,” Harper answered in a hoarse whisper.

  The doorbell chimed again.

  Harper got up, grabbed his robe from off the headboard, and went downstairs to see who the culprit was that was responsible for stopping him from making love to his wife.

  His voice was stern as he walked down the foyer and to the front door, as the doorbell rang a third time. “Who is it?” Harper opened the door and there stood Seth.

  Eva halted, dressed scantily in her matching silk thigh length robe. She had yet to meet Harper’s son. She’d only seen him on pictures and a time or two when she passed by Harper while he video chatted with him. For the brief moments she saw him standing in front of his dad, Seth had an uncanny resemblance to his father, only he was a younger version.

  Eva brushed her hair from off her face and stepped back, her breath suddenly short. For a split second, Seth’s gaze deflected to her and their eyes did a dance before she hurriedly turned and took off back up the steps to get fully dressed.

  On her way back downstairs after slipping into a black and white stripe maxi dress, Eva paused and listened. The muffled sounds of a heated discussion caused her to walk slowly in the direction of the voices. She could tell they were coming from the library. As she drew closer, she heard Harper’s escalated voice.

  “You drop out of school and think you’re just going to show up here like it’s nothing? All the money I’ve spent on you and this is how you repay me?”

  “That’s all you think about; money, money, money. You haven’t bothered to ask me why I dropped out. But you don’t care about that, do you?” Seth bit back, sounding just as angry as his father.

  “I know what it better not be; some grandiose idea that you can make a living in the music industry. “

  “You know what, Dad, it’s not some grandiose idea. I love music; you know this. You’ve always known this about me. I’m not like you. I don’t want to be a doctor.”

  The door to the library was slightly ajar. Eva planted herself on the opposite side of the door to avoid detection. She continued listening as father and son went back and forth, each adamant about how they felt about the situation. Eva could understand Seth’s sentiments. From what Harper told her, Seth was a talented musician and songwriter. But she also understood that Harper really wanted his son to follow in his medical footsteps.

  “I’m not you, and I don’t want to be you. All I’m asking for is your support of something that I know I was meant to do. Just like you know you were meant to be a doctor, why can’t you understand that I was meant to touch lives through my music?”

  Eva heard the tone soften in Harper’s voice as he seemed to finally hear what Seth was saying.

  “You know what, maybe you’re right. You do have your own dreams to fulfill. Who am I to shove mine down your throat? Tell you what I’ll do. The money I was going to pay for the next year of college tuition for you, I’ll invest in your music,” Harper said in a totally different tone.

  Eva leaned against the wall and smiled. Harper was a great person, a good father, and in spite of the fact that he spent more time away from home than at home, and he didn’t want another kid right now, she still would say that he was a good husband.

  “You won’t be sorry, Dad. Oh, and there’s one more thing I wanted to ask,” she heard Seth say.

  “What’s that, son?”

  “Can I camp out in the guest house for a few months? I promise I’ll do whatever I need to do, get a part-time gig, wait tables, whatever I have to do to support myself while I do this thing.”

  “Sure. I see making The Alchemist required reading really did pay off,” Harper said to his son, followed by a short deep chuckle.

  Eva stood straight up, turned around, and swiftly walked up the hall before either of them could come out and catch her eavesdropping. With a smile on her face, she went outside in the back yard. Standing on the outdoor covered lanai, she sucked in the fresh Florida air, looked toward the sky, and smiled. “God, thank you for working things out. If you worked it out between Harper and Seth, I know you’re going to work things out between me and Harper. All you have to do is give me a baby.

  Chapter 19

  “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . ."C. S. Lewis

  “So, this was your first time meeting Harper’s son?” Peyton asked as she and Eva talked on the phone while Peyton was on her way to today’s ladies’ day out. “Is he as fine as his daddy?” Peyton teased.

  Eva, en route too, steered down Adverse Boulevard toward Bianca, another exclusive, celeb central spot inside the Delano Hotel where the housewives often dined. “I don’t understand you sometimes.”

  “What is it you don’t understand?”

  “You can be so superficial. Is that all you can think to ask is how fine he is?”

  There was a moment of silence between the phone lines.

  “Hello,” Eva spoke louder inside her car, thinking that she may have lost her connection with Peyton.

  “I’m here.”

  “Oh, I thought I’d lost the call. You weren’t saying anything.”

  “I’m waiting on you.”

  “Waiting on me to what?”

  “Answer my question. Is he as fine as his daddy?”

  Eva laughed over the phone this time. “Peyton Hudson, I don’t know what to say about you, except I can’t help but love you. So, to answer your question, girl, yes, the boy is fiiine!

  The women both laughed this time as Eva made a left turn followed by a quick right into the valet parking area of the hotel.

  With the four of them gathered together, almost immediately they began to talk about the latest news they wanted to share with each other. There wouldn’t be too much that Eva and Avery hadn’t already shared with one another during the course of the week, seeing that they talked almost every day. Surprisingly, however, Eva hadn’t told Avery about her stepson popping up on her doorstep the day before.

  “Are you sure Harper is cool having his grown son living there? I mean, you said that he hardly visited before, and he never lived with Harper full time, so what kind of adjustment is it going to be for Harper?” asked Meesha.

  “For Harper? You mean me, don’t you? Think about it, what does Harper have to worry about? He’s not home half the time, and Seth is going to be staying in the guest house.”

  “Still, the fact that another person is going to be living on your property does make a difference,” added Avery.

  “What did Harper say to you? Did he even discuss it with you to see how you felt about his son appearing out of nowhere and now all of a sudden he’s taken up residence in your home? I don’t think I could deal with it,” Peyton said. “I don’t care how fine he is.”

  Meesha remained quiet. She sipped on a hot cup of Red Robe tea, apparently choosing to keep her opinions about Eva’s dilemma to herself. Perhaps she felt that she had no room to dabble in anyone else’s problems when she had enough of her own.

  “What do you think about it?” asked Eva.

  “Huh?” Meesha replied, placing the cup back down on its saucer.

  “I said, what do you have to say about Seth living with me and Harper for a few months?”

  “He is Harper’s son; he’s an adult so it’s not like you have to change his diapers and keep his nose clean.”

  The three housewives suddenly stopped their chatter and all eyes zoomed in on Meesha.

  “What?” Meesha asked, looking curiously back at each them. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Because,” Peyton said, being the first one to speak up, which of course was definitely not unusual for Peyton. “You don’t have anything to say about praying and
asking God for guidance. You know all of that stuff you always say when one of us is going through something.”

  “Of course, praying and asking God for guidance is a given, but,” Meesha looked directly at Eva, “I shouldn’t have to tell you that, right?”

  “Well, I can’t say that I prayed about it. I mean, think about it. He just popped up yesterday. I haven’t had time to think about what I feel, how to react, and definitely I haven’t thought about going to God. I’m just telling you what God loves: the truth.”

  “That’s understandable, but you don’t need to put matters off. Pray about it, go to Harper - today. I don’t care if you have to go see him at the hospital; go and talk to your husband. He needs to tell you something. You’re his wife. You deserve to be part of the decision to bring someone into your household.”

  Avery nodded her head in agreement. “She’s right about that.”

  “You’re a wise woman, Meesha.”

  Meesha blushed. “Peyton, do not humor me.”

  “I’m not humoring you. I’m serious.” Peyton didn’t crack a smile as she spoke. Her voice almost sounded on the verge of breaking down, like she was about to cry. Her face turned red and her bubbly laughter was nowhere to be found.

  “What’s going on with you?” asked Meesha. “This doesn’t sound like you. You look like you just saw a ghost.”

  “I can’t talk about it. I wish I could, but I can’t.”

  “Yes you can,” Eva spoke up. “If we can air our dirty laundry to you Lady TMZ,” Eva chortled, “I know you should have no problem telling us what’s going on with you.”

  Peyton shook her head, picked up her cosmopolitan and took two swallows. “When I can tell you, I will.” She spoke in a soft whisper.

  “I don’t like the way you sound.” Avery, sitting on the right side of Peyton, patted her on the back. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m good. Seriously, I’ll tell you when I can. Now stop giving me the third degree.” She looked at each one of her friends and gave them the old Peyton stare down.

  “Well, if you want to talk, I’m here for you,” Meesha said.

  Peyton looked at Meesha with a look of discomfort in her eyes. She hated to keep her secret from Meesha, or the other housewives, but until she could talk to Carlton herself, there was no way she was going to divulge anything. Breyonna couldn’t have really confronted Carlton or had she? Was Breyonna the reason Carlton asked Meesha for a divorce and if so, what was he planning to do about Liam? And why hadn’t he said anything to her?

  “That includes me,” said Eva, interrupting Peyton’s thoughts. “We’re all here for you.”

  “It goes without any of us saying, but I’ll say it anyway, no matter what it is, we are the Housewives of Adverse City and we stick together,” Avery chimed. “Now raise your glasses.

  They did.

  “To friendship everlasting,” said Avery.

  “To friendship everlasting,” the rest of them repeated.

  ●

  After spending the afternoon with the housewives, Peyton left the hotel restaurant and headed home. On the way, she called Liam on his cell phone to see if he was still at his best friend, Paul’s house. He was. He told her that he would be home later that afternoon. Being that it was the weekend, Peyton didn’t mind if Liam wanted to hang out with his friends.

  “Hey, there,” Derek greeted her almost as soon as she walked inside the house and up the hallway toward their bathroom.

  Peyton looked up and around and faced Derek. “Hi.”

  “How was your girls’ day out?”

  “Good,” she said nonchalantly. “Why the sudden interest in how my day has been?”

  “See, there you go. When I try to talk to you, this is what I get.” He turned and started walking away.

  “Hold up. I’m sorry. It’s just that we hardly ever talk anymore. And for you to ask about my afternoon, well, it caught me off guard. It was good. How was your day?”

  They stood in the hallway at least a few feet apart from one another as they talked.

  “Busy, not that I’m complaining.”

  Peyton smiled. Derek, despite her accusing him of using her for her money, was a self-made millionaire. She would tell him early in their marriage that he should be sitting on the team of Shark Tank; he was just that shrewd in business. Derek developed and launched an app when he was fresh out of high school. The app became so successful that he sold it several years ago to a leading tech company for millions of dollars. From what Peyton had come to learn over the years, Derek’s older brother and his grandfather were well respected investment bankers and financial wizards in their hometown of Jacksonville where his family still lived, though they never reached the level of financial success as Derek. Derek always wanted more. He reveled in the status and respect he had achieved, and the amount of fame and fortune that had come along with having a boat load of money and means. Peyton wasn’t one to complain about his busy lifestyle because it afforded her to live a life that she had been accustomed to growing up as a child of privilege. She wanted that for Liam, too. She also wanted her parents to be proud of her, that she had married a man who was just as dogmatic about being successful and rich as her father had been.

  When she met Derek, there’s was a whirlwind romance. They met and dated for less than a year when he proposed and she readily accepted. It was love at first sight for the both of them. Derek didn’t mind that she had a son. Peyton told Derek she adopted the boy shortly after both of his parents were killed in a car accident.

  When they got married, Derek wanted to adopt Liam as his own, but Peyton always balked at the idea, determined to keep the discovery of her son’s true identity a secret. That period of her life and marriage was troubling for Peyton. She prayed day in and day out that Derek would not discover that Liam’s birth records had been falsified. As bad as she hated to admit it, and she never had, she used the social security number of her deceased uncle. Unlike Liam’s make believe daddy, her Uncle Gary really did die in a car accident.

  Now with the sudden appearance of Liam’s biological mother, Peyton was terrified. How would Liam react if she was forced to tell him the truth; that he was not her biological son? And then there was her marriage. Derek would definitely implode if he discovered she had been lying to him all of these years. Her marriage would be over if her lies were exposed. There were already times when Derek threatened to leave her because he thought she drank too much, but thank God, he never had. But to find out something like this? Peyton realized that no amount of pleading or I love you’s or promises to stop drinking would save her.

  Derek was one of the good guys. He worked hard but he also liked to play hard. There used to be a time that she liked to play hard right along with him, accompanying him to high society social events. Going to formal dinners, the symphony orchestra, the ballet, live theatre, ballroom dancing, and co-mingling with some of the bigwig account holders at Adverse City Bank, were all the kinds of things Derek enjoyed.

  Slowly over the years, things had changed, at least they’d changed on her end. As for Derek, he still played hard, only most of the time it was without Peyton hanging on to his arm.

  Peyton shuttered like a cup of ice water had been poured down her back as she thought about how she had embarrassed him some years back. They were at a charity event hosted by one of Derek’s filthy rich associates at a private golf country club on Fisher Island. She hadn’t intended to drink as much as she had that evening. Everything happened so fast. She and Derek danced, mixed, mingled, and rubbed elbows with money - money that made their millions look like pennies. The drinks kept appearing from out of nowhere, and Peyton wasn’t one to turn down the offer of a good stiff drink.

  How was she supposed to remember being so inebriated that she walked into the wife of one of Derek’s associates with such force that the woman lost her balance and fell to the floor with Peyton landing on top of her. From what Derek told her, she couldn’t get up off the flo
or. People gathered around to help her and the woman up off the floor, only to have Peyton fall back down as soon as they helped her to her feet. She was so drunk that Derek had to shamefully excuse himself, and her, from the event. Since that time, Peyton could count the times Derek invited her to events like that. But that was nothing, compared to this thing with Breyonna. There was no way on God’s green earth that Derek would ever forgive her. He based his life on being honest and trustworthy and Peyton was neither.

  Chapter 20

  “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do.” NLT Bible (Hebrews 10:25)

  A guest preacher delivered the Sunday message. He wasn’t half as good as Carlton. If she had to grade him, Meesha would give him a C.

  Meesha, and the housewives, along with Derek and Ryker lined the second church pew. The wide brimmed Sunday hats the housewives wore blocked the view of probably six or seven rows of people planted behind them.

  Eva sat next to Meesha. Again, Harper was missing in action. He’d gotten a call from the hospital at the crack of dawn, got up, dressed in his scrubs, and headed out the door before the sun peeked from behind the clouds.

  Avery adjusted her stylish hat and then laid her hand on top of Ryker’s hand. Did she feel him stiffen at her touch? She told herself to ignore it and enjoy the fact that he was at church with her. Worshipping the Lord on Sunday morning, as Ryker called it, was a given. Being raised by parents who took him and his siblings to church every Sunday and two times during the week, Ryker felt Sunday mornings belonged to God. Avery tightened her grasp on Ryker’s hand as she leaned in and looked over at their daughters. A smile of satisfaction appeared on her face. Save my relationship, dear Lord, she prayed to herself.

  Peyton was glad she made the decision to wear a wide-brimmed hat that swooped down in the front, partially shielding the fear she was sure could be detected in her eyes. She stood with the rest of the congregation as they recited the church declaration. Closing her eyes, she saw an image of Breyonna standing in front of her threatening to take Liam away. A tug on her hand brought her out of her daydream. She opened her eyes as Derek eased the Bible between the two of them to read the passage of scripture along with the preacher and the rest of the congregation.