Some Came Desperate: A Love Saga (32 page)

TWENTY-FIVE

Shay walked into Jules office early that next morning to find Jules seated at the conference table very subdued.  Her face was laced with heavy makeup, which Shay usually knew what that meant, and she wore her tinted prescription eyeglasses.  But at first Shay didn’t notice, coming in with her mouth going non-stop.  But when she realized she wasn’t getting any real reaction from Jules, but an occasional ‘um,’ or ‘I see,’ even when she told her she was having second thoughts about testifying against Mookie, she knew something was wrong.  She sat at the conference table and looked at her sister, who was reviewing contracts.

       “Okay,” she said, “what has he done now?”

       That stopped Jules cold.  She thought her makeup had covered up all the marks.  Had she missed something?  She looked at Shay.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she decided to say.

       “I’m talking about you and Jeremy, who else?  The only time you look like this is when Jeremy has been slapping you around, which, I must say, is beginning to be really regular lately.  So give.  What’s Mister Wrong done this time?”

       Jules looked at Shay.  “Why did you tell him, Shay?” she asked her kid sister.

       “Tell him what?”

       “About Les.”

       “Who the hell is Les?”

       “The guy I saw at the gas station.  My friend from high school.  Why did you mention that to Jeremy?”

       Shay smiled.  “What difference does it make?  He called me and asked what we had been up to, and I told him.  He’s always checking up on you, you know that.”

       “But why did you lie?  Why did you tell him that Les touched me?”

       “He did touch you!”

       “Shay, we hugged hello.  That’s all.”

       “And that’s what I told him.”

       She was lying.  Jules knew it.  She embellished the meeting because that was what she always did.  Embellished.  Overstated.  Lied.

       “Anyway,” Jules said, deciding the subject was best changed, “what is it you wanted?”

       “And nice to see you too.  I want you to talk to Ethan.”

       “Me?  About what?”

       “About my testifying.  I don’t like it.”

       “What’s there not to like?  You go to the deposition, tell what happened, and  receive a get-out-of-jail-free card. What’s there not to like?”

       “I’m no snitch.”

       “Girl, please.”

       “I’m not!”

       “Okay, fine.  Don’t be a snitch.  Go to jail, get you a girlfriend to protect you, do what you gots to do.”

       “It’s not funny, Jules.”

       “You damn right it’s not funny.”

       “Could you just talk to Ethan?  See if he can cut another deal?”

       “Nope.”

       “Jules!”

       “No.  Besides, I don’t know Ethan like that.”

       “You’re paying his salary.”

       “And that’s all I’m going to do.  If you want to change your plea agreement, then you need to talk to him yourself.  Or get Simone to talk to him.  She’s the one he likes.”

       “Child please.  Simone?”

       Jules didn’t understand.  “Child please what?  She’ll help you out.”

       “I know she’ll help me out.  And I won’t hear the last of it for the next sixty years.”

       “I get on your case too.  You never have any problem asking me.”

       “Yeah, well.  It’s different with you.”

       Jules exhaled.  If Shay only knew how hard Simone tried to get custody of her for so many years when she and everybody else had moved on with their lives.  And Jules knew it was all her fault, especially when she sent Shay that letter criticizing Simone, making it seem as if it was her, not Simone, who had been working on Shay’s behalf all along. 

       Jules looked away from her sister.  She regretted that move to this day.  But she was listening to Jeremy.  Do to her before she does it to you, he said to her.  Make Shay hate Simone or she’ll hate you.  That was what he told her.  And she did it.  She put a knife in Simone’s back. Sometimes she wondered why she even went there.  Was it her own guilt at not trying harder to gain custody of Shay?  Even Jeremy said he would have gotten Shay out of foster care, if she had only asked him.  She didn’t know if that was true, but it was a fact: she never asked him.  Maybe it would have been different.  Maybe Shay would have turned out differently if she would have joined forces with Simone, instead of agreeing with Jeremy, and done something sooner.  But it was what it was, she thought, and went back to her contract review.

       “Well?”  Shay said.  “Are you gonna help me or not?”

       “No.  I’m not kidding this time, Shay.  No.”

       “Come on, Jules.”

       “No.  Either get Simone or go to Ethan yourself.”

       “You are so cold,” Shay said and Jules smiled.

       “Got that right,” she said.

       Shay hesitated. Jules looked at her.  “What is it now?”

       “I got a visit from Ham.”

       Jules frowned.  “From who?”

       “Ham.  Hamilton Lucas.  The banker?”

       “Oh, yeah.  I thought that was off.”

       “It is.  It was.  But he had a little attitude because his old silly daughter went out on the town with me.”

       “You was wrong for that, Shay.”

       “I ain’t thinking about that crawfish.  Came talking all his big talk.  Trying to handle me.  I cussed his ass out and sent him right back where he came from.”

       Jules placed her hand to her forehead.  “Why you would have gotten hooked up with some joker like that to begin with is beyond me.”

       “He’s not a joker.  He’s a banker.  I thought he was my ticket up.”

       Jules looked at her.  “Your ticket up to what?”

       “Respectability.”

       “Respectability?”

       “I’m not respectable, Jules, it’s just a fact.  And that’s what I want.  Respectability.  Like what you got with Jeremy.”

       Jules shook her head.  If Shay only knew what she had with Jeremy she’d wash her mouth out with soap and apologize for even suggesting she wanted that.  “So it’s completely over now?”

       “Over?” Shay said as if she was offended.  “Are you drunk?  Of course it’s not over.  It ain’t over ‘till Shay-Shay says it’s over.”  Then she leaned back, her bravado gone.  “Yeah, it’s over,” she admitted.

       The intercom buzzed at the conference table phone.  Jules pressed it.  “Yes?” she said.

       “Miss Simone Rivers is here.”

       ““Send her in,” Jules replied and then looked at her baby sister.  “Come to my birthday party Friday night,” she said.  “That’ll cheer you up.”

       Shay smiled.  “Bet that,” she said as Simone walked in. 

       “Hey lady,” Simone said as she headed for the conference table.  “And Shay.”

       “Ha ha ha,” Shay replied.  “What you doing over here?”

       “I can’t come see my sister?”

       “You can come,” she said as Simone sat down opposite her at the table, with Jules at its head.  “But that ain’t why you came.”

       “I didn’t come because I could?”

       ‘Right.”

       “Actually wrong.  That’s exactly why I came.”  Then she hesitated.  “Needed some advice.”

       “Everybody runs to Jules for advice.  She can’t be the world’s policeman.”

       “The what?” both Jules and Simone said in unison. 

       “I heard it on this show about politics the other night.  They kept saying that the United States can’t continue to be the world’s policeman.  I thought it was kind of cute.”

       Simone shook her head.  “Help her, Lord.”

       “What advice?” Jules asked, looking at Simone.  When Simone hesitated, she knew what it was about.  And her heart dropped.  “Don’t even think it, Simmie,” she said.

       “Think what?” Shay asked.

       “Tell me you are not even thinking about that.”

       Simone hesitated.

       “Simone?”

       “He called, that’s all,” she finally said.

       “Simone!”

       “It was just a phone call, Jules, okay?  It’s nothing serious.”

       “Y’all better tell me what’s going on.  Who are y’all talking about?  Who called?”

       “Nobody, Shay.”

       “Oh, so y’all ain’t gonna tell me?”

       “Nick Perry,” Jules said, and Simone looked at her as if she’d just betrayed her.  But somebody’s got to knock some sense into her head before she made the biggest mistake of her life.

       “Nick Perry?” Shay said, astounded.  “Nick Perry called you?  Are you crazy?  You’re seeing Nick Perry again?”                                         

       “She went to his house for dinner with Ethan,” Jules said.  “He’s trying to recruit Ethan for his law firm.”

       “Dang, everybody wants Ethan.  But Simone.  Him?  After what he put you through?”

       “It’s nothing like that,” Simone said.  “The man is married, okay?”

       “Married?  To who?”

       “Some woman named Delia.  She used to be a model.”

       “Oh,” Shay said.  “So he married her.”

       Simone looked at Shay.  “What you know about it?”

       “No, no.  I’m just, I figured some other woman had to be on the horizon when he dumped you so easily.”

       “He didn’t dump me.”

       “Yes, he did, Simmie,” Jules said.  “And he left you so distraught that you—”

       Simone was grateful that she didn’t have the nerve to continue.  Shay, however, did.  “That you tried to kill yourself,” Shay finished on Jules behalf.  Simone exhaled.

       “That won’t happen again if that’s what you’re worried about.”

       “How do you know?” Jules asked.

       “Because I’m nothing like that emotional girl I was then.  I’m nothing like that now.”

       “Yeah, right,” Shay said.  “The right man comes along and forget about it.  You’re worse than before.”

       “Speak for yourself.”

       “I am,” Shay said.

       “So what did he want when he phoned you?” Jules asked.