Pay Day Read online

  “What do you mean we need to do things different?” I asked. “I got something different for you. How about you stop watching all those damn talk shows and just be yourself.”

  I got out of the car, slammed the door, and proceeded to walk into the restaurant.

  No sooner had I put our name on the waiting list for a table, I spotted my high school classmate, Veronica Walters standing at the bar. I didn’t think it was possible, but she looked better than she did when we were in school. Nearly every male in the school wanted Veronica. She still had that bubble butt as we used to say. Her long, wavy hair was still long, though less wavy. She looked like she needed to be playing herself in a movie called “Fine and Finer.”

  Veronica’s deep dimples popped as soon as she saw me. But before I could speak, Sheray waltzed in and locked hands with me. “How long is the wait, Baby?”

  I wasn’t surprised that Sheray came in pretending like we were the happiest couple on earth. Heaven forbid anybody thought we weren’t.

  “About fifteen minutes,” I replied, my heart dropping as Veronica turned back to her friends at the bar.

  “They have a lot of tables outside,” Sheray said.

  “I want to sit inside,” I replied.

  Either she didn’t care about my attitude, or she was going to keep up her perfect façade, because she just said, “Okay, well I’m going to go to the ladies room and freshen up a bit.” She pranced off, and I watched my wife’s perfectly proportioned curvy body disappear around the corner.

  A few minutes later, three quick taps on my shoulder startled me. I turned around and fought to contain my cool. “Hey, Veronica. What’s been up?”

  After flashing her bright smile, she said, “Nothing much.” She looked me up and down. “Dang, ten years and you’re still hot.”

  Me? I mean, I knew I wasn’t some buster, but I would’ve never imagined Veronica had ever considered me hot.

  She held her arms out. “Well, give me a hug.”

  I leaned in. Our hug probably lasted a bit longer than it should have but she felt, and smelled so good.

  I inhaled. “Mmm. You smell amazing. And I don’t have to tell you that you are still as stunning as I remember, because I’m sure you know that already.”

  “Ahem.” Sheray stood with her arms crossed and her weight shifted to one side.

  I stepped back and nervously said, “Sheray, this is one of my high school friends, Veronica. Veronica, this is…” I hesitated. This was my first time introducing Sheray as my wife.

  “His wife, Sheray,” she said, stepping up to shake Veronica’s hand. I was definitely going to pay for that pause.

  “Nice to meet you,” Veronica said. She turned back to me. “Well, it was good seeing you, Terrance. You take care of yourself.”

  Sheray draped her arm through mine and flashed a fake smile. “That’s what he has me for.”

  Veronica just smiled like she found the whole thing amusing. Me, on the other hand, I wanted to die.

  “Take care, Veronica,” I said as she walked away. Her hips swayed from side to side like a pendulum on a clock, and I felt myself drifting into a trance when Sheray elbowed me in the side.

  “Really, Terrance?”

  “Wh-what?” I stuttered.

  “What was all that about?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I heard you talking to her when I walked up. Don’t play with me, Terrance.”

  “Okay, you’re trippin’ for real,” I replied. “I hadn’t seen the girl in ten years.” I was grateful when the hostess walked up to show us to our seats.

  I was hoping Sheray would let the whole thing with Veronica drop but of course, she wouldn’t. As soon as we sat down, she went in.

  “As your wife, you’re going to have to respect me more.”

  “As a married man, you can’t flirt with other women.”

  “Steve said…”

  At that point, I tuned her out. The margaritas at Cyclone Anaya’s were good at mellowing me out. So I ordered another one, then sipped away as my wife rambled on.

  Chapter 5

  Janine

  If I could find some way to kill my husband and get away with it, Lord knows I would. And believe me, I’d thought about it. From cyanide to carbon monoxide, to cutting his brakes, you name it, it had crossed my mind. But since I’d watched enough Lifetime to know that the woman always got caught, I pushed aside all thoughts of homicide and focused on keeping my tears at bay.

  But as I watched my husband pack the last of his belongings, the tears betrayed me and broke free.

  “So, just like that, you’re gone?” I asked. I had been silently watching him pack for fifteen minutes.

  “It’s not just like anything,” he replied. He closed his suitcase, then stood erect to face me. “We both know this has been a long time coming. I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m tired of being unhappy.”

  I hated that Tony looked so good right now. I wanted him to be as ugly as he acted. But with his Idris Elba swag, and Shemar Moore looks, ugly could never be used to describe him.

  “I’ve done everything I can to make you happy,” I told him, struggling not to cry any more than I already was. “I cook, I clean, I screw you when you want to be screwed. I’ve done everything to be a good wife.”

  “Except be there for me.”

  “What are you talking about?” Tony hadn’t really given me a reason for his unhappiness, except that he “just wasn’t happy.”

  As if I couldn’t feel any lower, his exasperated tone made me feel like a little girl getting on her father’s nerves.

  “Let’s not make this any harder,” he said. “Just let it go so we both can be happy.”

  I didn’t know who this man was standing in front of me. We’d met when I was eighteen and working at Chili’s Restaurant and he and his friends had come in after a basketball game. We’d immediately connected and since I’d been living with my aunt (my parents died when I was younger) he’d all but moved me into his apartment within two weeks. I got pregnant with our son and although we didn’t get married immediately, he did marry me on William’s first birthday. We’d built a decent life. It seemed like we never had enough money and I wanted more kids, but Tony was against it. But other than that, I would’ve never deemed us as “unhappy.”

  I couldn’t figure out if Tony was going through a midlife crisis or if that little sleaze bucket had his nose wide open.

  Then, Tony had the audacity to take my hand. “I didn’t mean to hurt you and I hope that you can find it in your heart to one day forgive me.”

  I snatched my hand away. “What about William?”

  “I’m always going to be there for my son.”

  “I don’t want him around some bimbo,” I snapped. That had been what I called her since I found out – via her sext messages to him – that they’d been having an affair for the past year. I’d gone digging through Tony’s phone after the disastrous dinner, when he announced he wanted out. I wasn’t normally a snooper, but I was trying to make sense of everything.

  “See, that right there.” Tony shook his head in frustration. “I’m not about to do any baby mama drama.”

  My mouth fell open. After giving him the best years of my life, I’d been reduced to a baby mama?

  “Get out,” I said, pushing him toward the door. “Get the hell out.”

  “And this is why men go to the other side.”

  I was just about to haul off and smack him when I saw my son standing there.

  “Dad, you’re leaving?”

  I hurried to my son’s side. “Baby, your dad -”

  “And don’t you badmouth me to him,” Tony warned.

  I turned and cut my eyes at him. Did he even know me? I couldn’t stand him but I would never turn my son against his father.

  “Honey, mom and dad are having some grown-up issues right now,” I said, trying to sound reassuring.

  “Is dad leaving?” he asked, staring at his father’s
suitcase.

  “Just for a little while,” I tried to sound comforting, but who was going to comfort me?

  “Son, your mother and I are getting a divorce,” Tony announced.

  I stared at Tony in disbelief. We hadn’t talked about telling our son that!

  “Tony!” I snapped.

  “What? It’s no sense in sugarcoating anything,” Tony said. “The boy has to learn to be a man. That’s the problem, you’re always babying him.” He put his hand on William’s shoulder. “Son, I’ll never leave you, but your mother and I are over.”

  Hearing Tony say those words tore at my heart. I don’t know why. I surely didn’t expect us to stay married after he left me for that Pop Tart.

  He continued, “But that has nothing to do with you. I will always be a part of your life.”

  William’s eyes grew wide with panic. “Why, daddy? What did we do? Are you really leaving us?”

  As tears began streaming down my son’s face, my hatred for my husband deepened.

  “I promise I’ll be good, please don’t leave.” He reached for his father, but I pulled him back and into a hug. As my trembling son began sobbing like a baby, I gave Tony the eye to tell him if he knew what was best, he would get out now.

  Tony leaned in and kissed our son on the head. “I love you and I’ll be in touch.”

  And with that, he walked out of our lives.

  I led my son out of our room and back into his.

  “Mama, I don’t understand. Why is daddy leaving?” William wiped his tears. He was trying to be a big boy, but I could tell it was killing him.

  “Sometimes grown ups grow in different directions,” I told him. “Your dad and I are just taking some time to figure things out. But know this, we both love you so much.”

  He looked at me with tear-filled eyes, like he didn’t know what to believe. All I could do was take him into my arms.

  I don’t know how long we sat on his bed, me holding him tightly, but we both ended up dozing off. When I awoke, I eased him under the covers and made my way downstairs. It was almost eleven, so I needed to get ready for bed anyway. Shoot, I needed to get ready for the next chapter of my newly single life.

  I had just turned off the lights in the kitchen when my front doorbell rang.

  “What in the world?” I said. Who would be at my house that late at night? Maybe Tony had come to his senses. But then, why would he be ringing the doorbell? I glanced out the peephole and was shocked to see Angelique standing on the other side.

  I swung the door open. “Angelique? What in the world are you doing here?”

  She burst into my living room. “Are you alone?”

  “William is upstairs sleep.”

  “Where’s Tony?”

  I sighed. “Long story. But he’s not here. Why? What’s going on?”

  She was shaking so bad, I felt like she was on the verge of convulsing.

  “Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” she stammered.

  “What? What is wrong?” I said. My heart had started pounding. “Did something happen with Marcus?”

  Angelique reached in her bra and pulled out a little pink slip. “Look at this,” she said, handing it to me.

  I looked at it and said, “It’s the lotto ticket. Okay, and?”

  She thrust another piece of paper at me. “And look at this.”

  “What is this?” It looked like a printout of a website.

  She tapped the paper. “It’s the winning numbers from tonight’s lotto.”

  “Okay.”

  “Look, look. They match!” she screamed.

  It took a minute for it to register, then finally I said, “What?”

  “We won! We won!” Angelique danced around my living room.

  I looked at the ticket in my right hand, then the paper in my left. I did this two more times before staring at her. “We’re millionaires?”

  “We’re millionaires!” Then, Angelique released a piercing scream loud enough to wake up the entire neighborhood.

  Chapter 6

  Angelique

  I know it was crazy, but here it was midnight, and Janine and I were on our way over to Raquelle’s. Our screams had awakened Janine’s son and so we’d loaded him into the back seat and headed to Raquelle’s to share the news. We had actually thought about waiting until morning, but both of us knew there was no way we’d be able to sleep. Marcus was working the overnight shift and couldn’t be reached while he was in the field, so I’d have to wait until morning to tell him the good news.

  Both Janine and I had called Raquelle and Terrance, but Terrance’s phone was going straight to voicemail. There was no way I was going to call Sheray since she didn’t even want him to play. We told Raquelle to hang tight as we were on our way over.

  “I still can’t believe this,” Janine said, nervously bouncing her leg. “Our lives are about to change forever. We could go to any store we want and buy stuff without trying to figure out which bills we hadn’t paid yet.”

  “Who are you telling?” I replied. “I know we play the lotto all of the time, but honestly, I never thought we would win.”

  Both of us smiled. The shock of everything was still setting in. We pulled into Raquelle’s driveway, jumped out, and rang the doorbell over and over. I knew her kids were asleep, but I didn’t let up on pressing the button. If they were awakened out of their sleep, I’m sure they would be happy to know that it was because they were rich. When I was young, I sure wouldn’t have minded if someone had woken me up to give me some news like that.

  Raquelle finally swung her door open, with a ‘Who died?’ look on her face.

  “What in the world is going on?” she asked as we walked in. “I had just fallen asleep when y’all called. And after the day I’ve had… all I can say is this better be good.” She rubbed her eyes and looked from me to Janine and back to me. Then, following a yawn, she said, “All right, one of you needs to start talking.”

  William dragged himself past us and over to her love seat, plopped down, and fell back asleep.

  “Why do you have that baby out at this time of night?”

  Raquelle asked. And then she noticed the bottle in my hand. “And why do you have wine?”

  I walked over to her and put my hands on her shoulders. “Okay, you need to sit down for this one.”

  “What’s going on? Are one of you deathly ill? ‘Cause if so, I can’t take it.” She massaged her temples. “I just can’t take any more bad news.”

  Janine stepped toward her and said, “Girl, calm down. No one is gonna die. Not now anyway. And if they did, we could put them away nicely.”

  I giggled. “Really nice.”

  Raquelle squinted and held both hands up while she shrugged. “I’m lost and one of you better catch me up now or I’m gonna take myself back into my room and go to sleep.”

  “So here’s the deal.” I reached into my bosom and pulled out the piece of paper with the lotto numbers along with our ticket, and then I handed both to her.

  Raquelle unfolded the ticket, did a quick scan of the numbers and the paper, then looked at us. “Is this what I think it is?”

  Both Janine and I nodded in excitement.

  “So, we’re rich?” When we nodded again, she looked down at the ticket. “This has to be a joke.” She turned the ticket over and looked at the fine print on the back like she was trying to make sure it wasn’t some kind of prank. After a moment, her grin spread so wide that all of her teeth were visible. “We won?”

  After another round of squealing and William whining that we “kept waking him up,” we finally settled down.

  “Can you believe it? You know we couldn’t have called you with news like this. I’ll bet you don’t want to go back to sleep now, do ya?” Janine laughed as she sipped the Moscato I’d broken out in celebration.

  Raquelle stared off and her smile faded. That made both me and Janine lose our smiles. How could she not be happy? “I have something to tell the two of you,” she finally said. r />
  Suddenly the room felt cold and stiff. I saw tears well up in my friend’s eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Is this about what happened at work today?” I’d called her after work, but got her voicemail. I’d meant to call later in the evening, but then got sidetracked. “Lorna said something about you being fired.”

  She fidgeted, but didn’t reply.

  “You know you can tell us anything.” I peered over and shot a curious look at Janine.

  Raquelle took a deep breath. “I know I can tell you two anything, but this…” She shook her head. “I don’t even know how to say it.”

  I rubbed her shoulder. “Just take your time and start from the beginning.”

  Raquelle was a model employee. I couldn’t imagine what she had done to get fired. The longer it took for her to talk, the more anxious I got. And the Lord knows I didn’t need to get nervous or anxious, because it only caused me to want a snack. Hunger had a way of sneaking up on me when I was nervous. If someone were to use my weight as an indicator of how nervous or afraid I’d been over the course of my life, they’d probably guess that I’d must have been scared all of the time. I refrained from walking into Raquelle’s kitchen and rummaging through her pantry to find a late night snack to munch on while she discussed her situation with us.

  Raquelle’s chest lifted, then she blew a long breath before saying, “There is no easy way to put it, but ah, I might be going to jail.”

  “Jail?” Janine and I blurted out at the same time.

  “Yes, you heard right.” Raquelle looked down at the floor and allowed her long black hair to hide her face.

  I couldn’t see her face, but I could tell she was no longer teary eyed, she was crying.

  “I stole money from the company,” she confessed, before releasing an all-out sob.

  It took a few minutes, but she finally calmed down enough to continue. She proceeded to explain how she took a little money here, then a little there until she got enough money for Shaun’s medical bills.