Diary of a Mad First Lady (10 page)

No longer able to hide my frustration, I wheeled around on my feet in the direction of the door through which I’d entered, and after tonight, the door I planned to never use again.

As I walked away, Darvin called, “Sister Daphne!”

I whirled around with images of fire in my eyes, and through gritted teeth, said, “I am not your sister!”

He stopped in front of me. “I know that. It’s just a term we use in church.”

“You know, contrary to your belief, I know a little something about church. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve stepped foot in one.” I shifted my weight to my right side and placed my hand on my hip. “Who do you think I am? Some hopeless woman in need of saving and sanctifying?”

Darvin looked apologetically into my eyes. “No. I don’t think that at all.” He paused. “Daphne,” he said, intentionally not placing the word
sister
before my name. “Thank you for coming tonight. How did you enjoy the service?”

What! Did he really think I was able to focus on a service? “It was nice, Darvin.” I released a sigh. “However, I just have one question.”

“Shoot.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were a pastor?”

He cast his eyes to the floor and then returned my gaze. “Because I didn’t want you to think that I was being nice to you simply because I was a pastor.”

“Then why were you nice to me?”

I looked around his back and noticed that Michelle was watching us even as she was talking to another churchgoer. “You still should have said something. I mean, I was totally blown away when they announced you as the pastor tonight.” Michelle was staring at us so intently; I shifted my body more to the left so that Darvin’s body would shield mine.

“Maybe I should have. But . . .” He paused.

“But you wanted to flirt with me,” I finished his statement. “Not to mention that you never said anything about being married.”

His eyes told me the truth, but his mouth said, “No. I was not intentionally flirting with you.” He looked at the floor once more. “Daphne, there’s something special about you. I really think that you have great things in store for you, and hopefully I can assist in that.”

What the heck was he talking about? Was he a prophet too? Or was Darvin trying to send me a coded message? Little butterflies began to flutter inside of my stomach. For whatever reason, my hope had returned. I continued to gaze into his eyes, and for a moment, neither of us said anything.

“Darvin, sweetie, are you ready to go?” Michelle’s voice interrupted my bliss. Little did she know that I had enough to last me through the night.

“Pastor and First Lady, it was a pleasure meeting you.” I put on the best smile I could muster and moved to walk away.

“Daphne?” Michelle called.

“Yes?”

“Don’t forget to stop by the visitor’s information desk on your way out to get your complimentary gift and information about our church.”

“I’ll do that.” I turned again and followed the signs that led to the area that Michelle spoke of, as a new plan was already forming in my mind.

I arrived at the desk, where volunteers dressed in black were smiling and greeting the visitors. I filled out an information card and exchanged it for my gift bag with the volunteer.

I took my bag and went out the door, dreading the return trip on that dreadful church bus. But I was so excited to get home to further devise my plan that I didn’t mind being temporarily inconvenienced.

Twenty minutes later, I walked into my apartment, kicked off my shoes, threw my purse on the couch, and headed to my room to get my pen and paper. I needed to write down all of my ideas and place them in order so that I could get to work immediately. I took a notepad and pen from the nightstand and began making notes.

N
UMBER
1 - F
IND
OUT
MORE
ABOUT
D
ARVIN
AND
M
ICHELLE
(
I
.
E
.
HIS
AND
HER
BACKGROUND
,
HOW
LONG
THEY
’
VE
BEEN
MARRIED
,
ANY
KIDS
,
ETC
.
)

N
UMBER
2 - C
ALL
THE
CHURCH
OFFICE
AND
SET
UP
AN
APPOINTMENT
WITH
M
ICHELLE
.

N
UMBER
3 - G
ET
A
NEW
CAR
.

Chapter Ten

Michelle

Since Dawn had shown up, it was difficult not to spend my extra time thinking about both her and Daphne. The two of them were so much alike, in that they were both persistent.

Dawn, just as her sister, was obviously determined to show us that she would be a part of Mount Zion whether or not we wanted her to.

As I entered through the doors that led to the administrative wing of the church, I thought back to a rainy day similar to this one, when I’d walked into my office to find one of our newest members. It had been Daphne.

I had been ready to start the new work week, glad that our Annual Empowerment Revival was finally over. It had been a lot of work leading up to the revival and I, for one, was glad that it was over. It had proven to be a successful event, and more than forty people had given their lives to Christ. Daphne Carlton had been one of them. Up until the revival, she’d been doing everything that she could to arrange a meeting with me, but I would always conveniently find something to do. That day, I’d run out of excuses. It was either me or Darvin.

“Good morning, First Lady,” Sabrina, my executive assistant said.

When Sabrina said that, I had a déjà vu moment. My thoughts escaped back to that day in my office.

“Good morning, Sabrina. How’s Caleb?” I said, referring to her two-year-old son, who’d recently been sick with chicken pox.

“He’s fine. Just as hyper as usual.” She beamed.

I returned the smile. “Well, that’s good to hear. Any calls for me yet?”

“No, ma’am. No calls. Um, Daphne Carlton did arrive early, and I seated her in your office. I hope you don’t mind, but all of the conference rooms are being used at the moment, and Pastor said that he would sit in there with her until you arrived.” She must have detected my confusion. “You know, for extra precaution. You can never be too careful these days,” she clarified.

Hmph. Extra precaution, all right. “Of course,” was all said. I grabbed a stack of books that Sabrina had ordered for me and had not yet taken to my office, and walked one door down from the reception area where Sabrina sat, in the direction of my husband and Daphne. Lord knows I didn’t want to have this meeting with her. I agreed to give her a chance, but I certainly didn’t want to know anything more than I had to know about her.

I opened the door to my office and was greeted with laughter echoing from both Darvin and Daphne. Daphne sat on my cream-colored leather couch, dressed to kill in a turquoise St. John knit suit, and Darvin was next to her, looking equally as delectable in a black linen pantsuit. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought they were a happy couple, waiting to share some important news with me.

I cleared my throat because obviously my presence was not felt, and they both turned toward me. Darvin was the first to stumble to his feet. He greeted me with a kiss on the cheek.

“Hey, sweetheart. You look gorgeous today,” he said.

I half-heartedly smiled. Any other day that compliment would have meant the world to me, but not today, as I stood in the room with America’s Next Top Model. “Thanks, baby,” I managed to say.

“Daphne was just sharing with me some of the different, creative ways, I should say, that the men here at Mount Zion are using to try to get her attention. I tell you, I’m going to have to do a better job at teaching the brothers on how to attract a woman like Daphne. Those played-out lines they’re using have been reduced to mere quotes in a joke book.”

Darvin looked over at Daphne and they both laughed. I didn’t find anything that he said funny. Did he say, “a woman like Daphne”? And since when was it the pastor’s job to do a men’s Bible study on how to attract a woman in the first place? It was hard not to start a verbal war, but I held my peace.

“Yeah, you’re just going to have to do that.” I shifted the focus back to why we were here. “Daphne, Sabrina said you have been trying to meet with me for the longest.” I walked past them and to my chair behind my mahogany desk. “I apologize, but I’ve been extremely busy with the revival, and had no free time. It was always this meeting and that meeting.” I exaggerated the statement with a circular movement of my hands.

“But I’m sure you enjoy every minute of it.” She looked at Darvin before looking back at me. “I know that I would.”

The little skeezer. I was no model, and in my opinion, I wasn’t above average in the looks department, but I had plenty of common sense. I knew enough to know that she didn’t come here to simply meet with me and share what the Lord had been speaking to her lately.

“Looks can be deceiving, Ms. Carlton. If, and I do mean if, you are ever to be in a position such as mine, you’ll understand why I say what I say.” I sat down in my chair. “The life of a pastor or his wife is not all glitz and glam,” I said, satisfied with my comeback.

“Life is what you make it, First Lady. I’ve come to know that it can be whatever you want it to be,” she slammed back.

Darvin decided that it was a good enough time for him to escape.

“Baby, Daphne, it’s been real, ladies, but I’ve got to get to my own pastoral duties.”

He turned toward Daphne. “Daphne, we’re glad to have you as a part of Mount Zion, and if there’s anything that we can do for you, just let us know.” He then walked over to my desk and once again kissed me on the cheek. “See you for lunch, baby.” He turned and walked out the door.

As he walked out, the residue of the smile that he left on my face vanished when I saw the same smile on Daphne’s face. If I didn’t have Jesus all over me, through me, and around me, I swear I would have slapped that silly grin off her face.

She detected my annoyance with her. “First Lady, let me say that I’m so glad to be a part of the ministry here. I’ve been visiting here for almost three months, and it was past time that I made that next step.”

Feeling my “first lady mode” coming on, I said, “As Pastor has stated, we are glad that you chose Mount Zion to be your church home.”

“I really appreciate that.” She lowered her eyes. “I know you’re wondering why I wanted to meet with you.”

Finally. The reason why we were here. I couldn’t wait to find out, because the sooner I knew what she wanted, the sooner we could be done.

“I must say that I have been interested to know why you’ve been so persistent.”

She looked pointedly in my eyes. “First Lady, I believe that God has sent me here. To this church. For you.”

“He has?” I said, trying to contain the laughter that was threatening to erupt. I seriously doubted that God had told her anything close to that.

“Yes. I believe that I’ve been sent here to serve you. I as well as anybody know that you can’t lead where you can’t first serve.”

“Oh.” It was starting to make more sense. “So, you’re expecting to be in my shoes one day?”

“I don’t know about your shoes, First Lady,” she said. “But maybe some similar.”

I ignored that comment because its sarcasm was filled with the potential to start World War III. “And how similar?”

“I really believe in my heart that one day I will be a pastor’s wife. And since I’ve watched you for the past three months, I can’t think of anyone else I would rather learn from. You are the epitome of what a first lady should be.”

I looked deep into her eyes, trying to find any trace of deceit, but I found none. She seemed innocent enough.

“That’s an honor. I appreciate your kind words; however, I don’t know what you can learn from me. I’ve never had a request such as yours. Outside of that, I’m not sure that you can ever really learn how to be a first lady. There’s not a step-by-step guide out there.”

“I can learn a lot from you. I already have. I’ve paid attention to your temperament. Your dislikes and likes. How you respond to difficult people such as myself.”

She let that comment linger, and I pounced on the opportunity to respond. “What do you mean by that?”