Every Woman Needs a Wife (37 page)

“Why are you talking about
my
bedroom?” Howard asked with an angry gaze at the people nearby chuckling at his expense. “It’s you whose drawers are hanging out.”

“I’m just pointing out that you could be next, he could be next, anyone could be next,” Vernon said, pointing around the room. “No one here is blameless. For all that pious posturing, at least seventy-five percent of y’all have mistresses. So don’t point fingers my way. “I’m asking for your help, not your judgment. I know what I did was wrong, but how she’s treating me has far bigger implications. It’s all on the news and even talk show hosts are poking fun at it. If this sets a precedent and becomes a part of my divorce decree, the moment you mess up, you’ll also be taking care of wives, mistresses,
and
the children as part of a court order.” Vernon’s gaze swept across the audience. “So think about that before you laugh at me and let’s come up with a way we can put an end to this nonsense.”

W
eeks passed without a word from Vernon except when he came to pick the girls up every weekend. His silence didn’t sit too well with Brandi. The quieter he was, the more worried she became. Winter break had come faster than Brandi could imagine, but Vernon had planned some things with the girls and that picked up the slack. He still bristled every time Tanya answered the front door, but he’d stopped barking at her and also had given up on the little dinners with Brandi.

Something was up. Brandi was certain that eventually they would find out exactly what. She only hoped she would be prepared.

As she sat across the kitchen table from her girls, Sierra reached out to get her attention, asking, “Mommy, what’s a lesthian?”

Brandi dropped the fork in her hand. “A what?”

Sierra shrugged. “You know, a
lesthian.”

Brandi blinked twice before realization dawned. “You mean a—lesbian?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sierra said, nodding. “One of those.” She scooped a spoonful of Frosted Flakes into her mouth as she continued, “So what’s that?”

Brandi frowned, glancing at Tanya, who gaped, then collected herself and instantly turned back to the stove. “Where did you get that word?”

“Penny’s mother told her that you were a lesthian.”

“What?”

The little girl continued chewing her cereal, the crunchy sound drowning out the light jazz playing in the background. “And don’t tell me I’m not old enough, neither, ’cause Mrs. Williams told me the same thing.”

“Jesus Christ!”

The little girl stopped eating for a second. “
He
was a lesthian?”

“Quit saying that word!” Brandi shrieked, trembling with anger.

Sierra slumped down in her chair. “Okay, okay, okay!”

Tanya moved forward, clearing the breakfast dishes in record time.

Brandi was, frozen, unable to come up with a single word. Lesbian? People were saying things like that to her child?

“That’s okay,” Sierra said, lifting her head in triumph. “I’ll ask Daddy, he’ll tell me.”

Brandi didn’t miss the mischievous glint in her youngest daughter’s eyes. “The word is
lesbian
. And it’s, um…” She looked at Tanya, who shrugged and leaned against the counter. “It’s two women who love each other.”

“So I’m a lesthian because I love you, Mommy.”

Oh to be so innocent again.

Tanya let out a long slow breath, covering her mouth with a single hand, waiting for Brandi to make a comeback.

“Well, it’s more like adult women who love each other.”

“Oh,” Sierra said, taking in that bit of information. Then she looked up, gaze locking with her mother. “So why did Penny’s mother ask me if you slept in the same bed with Tanya?”

Brandi groaned inwardly, mumbling, “Oh, hell.”

B
randi strolled into her office, ignored her messages and Renee, closed the door, and blocked out the world as she laid her head on the desk.

Working eighteen-hour days was really catching up with her.

Thirty minutes later, her eyes flew open as the door cracked. Brandi looked up just in time to see Renee’s flailing arms trying to signal for her to get herself together.

Andre Adams, president of Avistar Manufacturing, pushed past Renee, crossing the threshold into the office.
“Mrs
. Spencer, I hope you have a few minutes to see me.”

Uh-oh. Her long-time client had called her by her formal name, rather than the normal Brandi. This wasn’t a courtesy call. She took a deep breath and sat up. “Of course, I always have time for you.”

He didn’t take the chair she offered. Another bad sign. Instead he stood, towering over her in a gray suit and a short Afro that had seen better days.

“I regret to inform you that we’ve chosen to stay with The Perfect Fit.”

Disappointment seared her soul and it took every ounce of control to remain calm. “Even though I’m the person who brought you in?”

“Well, um…,” He cleared his throat. “For
stability’s
sake, I’m sticking with Vernon. I’ll expect our files to be returned to his office promptly.”

Great! Just what she needed to hear a week before Christmas. She chose her words carefully. “But he’s not even in a position to handle the business right now.”

“I just gave him two-hundred-fifty thousand as an advance so I think
he’ll do just fine. You may want to rethink this Perfect Match thing, though, and go back to your husband. Some of my colleagues are not too happy with this personal vendetta you have against Vernon.”

So, members of the League had banded together on Vernon’s behalf. The good-old-boys network was alive and well. No surprise there.

“But he’s the one who didn’t keep his promise to me. Now I’m supposed to roll over like a pet dog and let him scratch my underside?”

“I talked with him,” Andre said, pacing the floor. “He’s learned his lesson. It was really nothing.” The man actually had nerve enough to pat her hand. She wanted to take that same hand and smack him upside his football-sized head. “And if you were the woman I thought you were, you’d forgive him and move on.”

How dare he give her advice on her personal life. “He didn’t cheat on you.”

Andre gave her a stony glare, but didn’t say a word.

“The contract states that you’re to give three months’ notice, not one day.”

“So sue me,” he said, with a lopsided grin. “You can afford that, right?”

Actually, she couldn’t. Avie was not a contract lawyer. She’d have to bring in another attorney. Avie aside, Brandi did not trust lawyers.

Andre’s grin widened. “That’s what I thought.” He leaned over her desk so that he met her gaze head-on. “Play some silly little games and hold my files, and see if I don’t destroy you. Hear? Vernon’s got more friends than you know.”

He sauntered out of the office knowing that those few words had destroyed her bottom line. Tanya’s expenses, the children, payments on the house she couldn’t move into, and payments on a house she didn’t want were sucking up finances better and faster than a Hoover.

And that was just the beginning of her hellish day.

“Mrs. Spencer, I need to speak with you.”

Brandi looked up into Marie Johnson’s round face and deep-set eyes.

The woman was dressed down in a sweatsuit, since everyone was working on files and organization these days. Some boxes that were sitting in conference rooms hadn’t even been touched.

Wringing her hands, Marie said in a wavering voice, “I’m giving notice that I’m quitting—today.”

Music to any employer’s ear. Brandi felt a sudden sense of foreboding that Andre’s deflection and this new development were connected.

Brandi took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves. “May I ask why you’re leaving so suddenly?”

“I’ve got a better job offer and it starts tomorrow.”

Brandi leveled a stony gaze on the woman who had been in charge of new hires for five years.

“Vernon offered four dollars more per hour,” she said, then added, “To all of us.”

Brandi couldn’t say a word as anger raged inside.

Marie’s thin hands spread out, in an earnest plea. “Mrs. Spencer, I’ve got two kids in college and no husband. I have to look out for us.”

Game could recognize game, and Vernon had just upped the ante. All she could manage to get out was, “I understand, Marie. I wish you the best.”

♥♥♥

Marie was just the first of a stream of employees who suddenly became former employees with the same seven words followed by a host of excuses—or lies. By the time four o’clock rolled around there were only five left.

Renee poked her head in. “Are you okay?”

“If you want to leave, too—”

“No way! I’m sticking with the original. Copies tend to get dull and lifeless after a while.”

Brandi managed a weak grin.

B
randi paced the carpet of Sesvalah’s office as she and Vernon looked on. His business suit draped his muscular frame in a way that would turn most heads. Given a chance, Brandi would love to turn Vernon’s head—right off his body.

Sesvalah had traded in her characteristic loose-fitting gown for a cream-colored pantsuit that showed every curve to perfection.

“First things first. You stole my clients, then my employees,” Brandi said angrily.

Vernon’s sensuous lips lengthened into a wide grin. “And you expect me to apologize for that? It’s business, Baby. Strictly business.”

“Business? No, honey, that’s just straight-up robbery.” Brandi huffed. “Do you realize I’m going to have to cut back on things for the girls? Especially since everything you’re supposed to pay comes a week late, if at all.”

“I’ve got my girls covered.” Then he shrugged. “Oh come on, Bee.”

She whirled around, glaring at him. “Don’t call me that!”

“I’ve
always
called you that,” he said in a calm tone that irritated the hell out of her.

“Yeah? Well, lately you’ve been adding four other letters behind it. I don’t want you to slip up—again. Then I’ll have to stomp your ass.”

“You know I didn’t mean that,” he said with a small shrug followed by an even weaker grin. “I was just angry.”

“I don’t know what you mean anymore.”

“Well, you called me an asshole!”

She cocked her head, noting that their counselor had remained strangely silent. “And what part of that isn’t the truth?”

A bouquet of orchids lay on the sofa next to her briefcase. Cymbidium orchids, ones he hadn’t bought. “Where did you get those?”

“Michael,” she said with a sly smile of her own.

“You’ve been dating Michael?” His nostrils flared.

Finally, something had gotten under his skin. “Yes,
that
Michael. So what if I am? I have to fulfill my needs somehow.” She couldn’t wipe the smile from her face. “My husband’s too busy whining like a bitch in heat and stealing things to do the right thing.”

“Is this funny to you?” he said, bearing down on her. “I’m here at counseling trying to make things right.”

“No, you
think
you’re trying,” she retorted, slipping back down onto the sofa. “In no shape, form, or fashion could you have thought that anything less than my new demands would be acceptable.”

Vernon faced her head-on. “I’m not coming home until she’s gone.”

“Somehow you haven’t figured out that isn’t the threat it used to be.”

“Jesus! And why would you go to Michael instead of taking me up on my offer?” he said softly. “Maybe if you got laid you’d lose that crappy attitude.”

“No thanks, masturbation is working out entirely too well,” she said. “But you’re speaking like a true lover.” She shimmied and gave him a little wink. “I liiike it!”

“Okay, getting things out in the open does help a lot,” Sesvalah said, taking a deep breath and shaking her head a little. “But let’s move on to our lists.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” Vernon said with a cursory glance at the orchids. Both women waited for him to continue.

“Let’s not do this at all.”

Sesvalah stared up at him with a sad glint in her dark brown eyes. “You do realize that not completing the counseling can work
against
your case.”

“I don’t need counseling,” he said, eyeing her with disdain. “I want my life back.”

“If you’d really try to put some effort into the counseling,” she said gently, “this can be a step in the process.”

“Not if you’re not telling her to get rid of Tanya.”

Sesvalah shook her head. “I can’t tell anyone what to do. I can only point out obvious issues for you to discuss or suggest alternatives.”

“Then
suggest
she get rid of her.”

Sesvalah’s thin lips parted in a patient smile. “I can’t do that, either.”

“Well, why not?” Vernon paced the floor, anger expanding with each step.

“That was Brandi’s way of dealing with a disappointing and heartbreaking situation. When she’s ready to let Tanya go, then she will. Your response to it is only making her dig in her heels.” Sesvalah looked at him again, her small expressive face a mask of concern.

“So I should just follow her program and move in with her and Tanya,” he said sourly. “Lady, are you crazy?”

Brandi laughed but quickly covered her mouth. “You’re posing that question to a therapist?” Then all humor left her face as she said. “And I didn’t say that when you were on the sneak tip.”

Vernon finally turned to face his wife, eyeing her cautiously. “So if I move back in, I still get to sleep with Tanya, too?”

Brandi looked at Vernon with an openmouthed stare.

“If that’s the only question you can come up with,” Sesvalah said softly, “then you’re not serious about returning to your wife.”

“I’m leaving!”

“The court has ordered you to be here.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, throwing his coat over one arm. “I’ve been ordered to pay child support, maintenance for my wife, and Tanya, half the rent on the Wabash house, half the rent on the Cregier house, and after all these years I’m back at my mother’s. Don’t worry, lady,” he said, bitterness dripping from every word, “it seems like the court’s already against me.”