Diary of a Mad First Lady (28 page)

Today, I was at least walking normally. The operator who sat at the front desk had grown accustomed to seeing me come in early in the mornings or leaving late at night. She waved at me as I walked through the doors.

“Mrs. Johnson, is this the big day? Are you taking the little man home?” she asked happily.

I put on my proud mother grin. “Yep. It’s the big day.”

She clapped her hands in excitement. “I’m so happy for you. Li’l DJ couldn’t ask for a better mother.”

I laughed. “I’ll have to bring him by in a few years, and we’ll see if he feels the same way.”

Darvin walked into the foyer and kissed me in the sensitive spot on my neck. I giggled like a school girl. “You know that tickles when you do that.”

He looked at me seductively. “Really now? And what happens when I do—”

I slapped him on the hand to interrupt his next statement. “What is wrong with you? People can hear you,” I said, half serious and half jokingly.

“And who cares? Girl, do you know how long—”

I interrupted him again. “Darvin! Get a hold of yourself. We don’t want everybody in our business.”

“I can’t help if I miss you,” he whined.

“Well, we are on a mission right now,” I said as we walked to the elevators. “We’ll have to come back to this discussion later.” I pressed the button that led to the labor and delivery floor. “Besides, I’m not going to be one of those women pregnant at her six weeks check-up.”

“Hmph,” was all he said.

We exited the elevator and went directly to the nurse’s station to sign DJ’s discharge papers. After taking care of the necessary paperwork, a nurse wheeled DJ around to us. He was dressed in the Superman outfit that I’d left for him the night before. Darvin and I both had mile-long grins on our faces.

“Mr. DJ is all ready to go,” Rachel, his day nurse, said.

“And we’re ready for him to go,” I said.

In the car, I watched DJ the entire time as we drove home. He was sound asleep. We pulled into the driveway as everybody who had been watching for us came outside. Darvin came around and got DJ and his car seat out of the car as my dad helped me out.

Inside, the eating and entertainment began. People were in almost every room downstairs. The ladies were oohing and ahhing over the baby, and the men were in the living room trying to convince Darvin to smoke a cigar. I smiled as I took in all of my surroundings. Right, wrong, or indifferent, there was nothing like family.

I found my purse so that I could get my cell phone and call the girls. Our weekly meeting was in a couple of days, and I wanted to try to get them to all come over to my house for the meeting, instead of going to Houston’s.

When I realized that I had left my cell phone in the car, I snuck out the side door, because I didn’t want a million people stopping me and giving me 101 reasons why I shouldn’t be moving around too much.

I grabbed my cell phone and noticed that I had received a text message: Congratulations on bringing your baby home. Well wishes, Dawn.

For good reason, I’d spent the last two weeks trying to forget that she even existed, and had done a good job of it, until now. Dawn was a force to be reckoned with, and I didn’t have the energy to deal with her anymore. I’d spent a great deal of time with God in prayer and devotion, and one thing I had learned was that this battle was not mine, it was the Lord’s.

I had said this before, and I reneged. But now, I was no longer going to worry about Dawn and her motives. I was going to live my life like it was golden, and not worry about her childish tantrums. Darvin and I were together, and we were going to stay that way. Not even a woman with all of Dawn’s attributes could tear us apart. What we had had been bound in heaven, and no man or woman was going to set us asunder. If she wanted to get to me, she would have to come through Jesus Himself.

I made the calls to the ladies, and after chatting with them for a few moments, I sauntered back inside.

Darvin met me at the door. “Hey, you,” he said tenderly.

“Hey, baby.”

“Where have you been?”

“I went outside to make a call.”

“Oh.” He pulled me into him for a hug. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”

“Hmm . . . let me see.” I pretended to think. “I believe you told me yesterday.” I grinned.

“Well, let me tell you today. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

He kissed me affectionately. I temporarily forgot that we were standing in the middle of a room filled with people. I didn’t care a single bit; for this joy I had, the world didn’t give it, and the world couldn’t take it away.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Daphne

It had been a month since Michelle had been to church, and I loved every minute of it. I had become so visible in the ministry and meetings around Mount Zion that people had started to call on me when they needed something. Money might not buy you love, but it sure buys you a whole lot of power. Ever since I had started funding the youth trips, parts of the remodeling phase, and other financially deprived areas of the church, I was getting much respect around the place.

Darvin had made it practically easy for me too. Since the birth of his son, the last thing that seemed to be on his mind was the church. His answers to everything I suggested were “yeah” and “un-hunh.” Lord knows if you give me an inch, I will take a mile. So, I was marching around Mount Zion as if I were already the first lady.

That thought made me smile. Not only had I been busy around Mount Zion setting things up, I’d been setting things up away from Mount Zion.

After that night at my house, when I became sure that Darvin and I would be together, I went ahead and assumed the role of his wife. I even had all of my bills switched over to my new name, Dawn Johnson. I started a blog, Ladies First, for other first ladies to come and gain support from other ladies who just wanted to be normal ladies first, and first ladies later. I formed a charity in Darvin’s name in small, remote towns outside of Atlanta, and became the spokeswoman. Much to my shock, people loved me. Because he was so widely known, the few people that I interacted with as his wife were surprised they hadn’t heard about his divorce via the news outlets.

Truth was the media would have had a field day with that story. But leave it to me to have an answer for everything. I simply told those who inquired that it had been kept under the rug in an effort to do as little damage as possible to his reputation. They all bought that answer.

Actually, being his wife was easy. I couldn’t understand why Michelle had ever complained. The only problem I ran into was in the person of Sabrina, Michelle’s assistant. She had a tendency to pounce on my last nerve. We had a brief argument one day when she accused me of trying to take her first lady’s place. She treated me as if I had already fired her, which was going to be the first thing on my agenda as the official, new first lady.

I hadn’t interfered with Darvin too much because I knew that he was going through a stressful time with his son being born premature. Quite frankly, I didn’t care about the baby; however, I was concerned about him, being it was his first child.

I wasn’t particularly overjoyed when everyone at church was shouting about how the baby had pulled through the crisis, because I didn’t want Darvin tied to Michelle for the rest of his life. I didn’t feel like having to deal with baby mama drama. She was sure to make our lives a living hell.

Other than that, all else was well. Darvin was planning to come to the church tonight for a meeting that I had set up. I’d told his assistant to block two hours of his time so I could speak with him concerning some ministry ideas that I had, and to give him updates about what I’d done since Michelle had been gone.

He had come to the office one day, and I stopped him on his way out and told him that I had heard about what happened and would step up and take over Michelle’s duties while she was away. Interestingly enough, he didn’t object, and I had not gotten a call from her signaling her displeasure. So, I did what I said: I took over.

That showed me that he indeed trusted me and didn’t see me as a threat, but an asset. I planned to be just that, so he would see that I was capable of handling the role.

In the times when I happened to think about them going and coming with the baby, I would get a little troubled, but I would quickly dismiss those thoughts, for it was only normal for him to want to be close to his son. I was sure that Michelle was only tolerating him at this point. I had won. The game was over.

I went into the restroom of the guest office where I had been working at the church, and reapplied my lipstick. Darvin was set to be in the conference room in five minutes. I planned to be early with my reports, ready to present to him. I smoothed my hair, checked my teeth for smudges of misplaced lipstick, dabbed a little perfume on my pressure points, and headed out to meet my man. I had ordered take-out from The Pecan, one of his all-time favorite restaurants in East Point, and had it waiting for him.

I entered the conference room and set my folder on the wooden executive table. I checked the food order for accuracy, pulled his chair out so that all he had to do was sit down, and went to wait on him by the floor-length windows that flanked the oversized conference room.

I stood there for so long, daydreaming about the journey I was about to begin, that I didn’t realize that Darvin was more than fifteen minutes late. He was a very prompt person, and if he was ever late for anything, it was because something was wrong.

My heart sped up, and I stepped outside to ask Sabrina if she had heard from him. Of course, the little wench wouldn’t have told me if she had, so I stepped back inside. Darvin’s assistant, Ann, had taken the week off, so I couldn’t ask her. I contemplated calling his cell phone, something that I had not done since moving back. As Daphne, I used to call it at least once a day for one reason or another.

I paced the floor until finally I decided to walk over to the place where I set my things down to get my cell phone from its case. I scrolled down my new BlackBerry’s contact list until I got to his number. I dialed, and it went directly to his voicemail. I looked over at the steak dinner that was rapidly getting cold. My one mind told me to call his house to see if he was okay, but I knew Michelle would have a darn fit if I did that.

I tapped my fingers on my arms that were now crossed over my chest. I didn’t know whether to be mad or worried.

The knock on the door stopped my thoughts.

“Sorry for disturbing whatever meaningless things you’re doing,” Sabrina said. “You have a call holding on line three.” She then walked out of the door.

I raced to the phone, sure that it was Darvin. “Hello?” I said.

“Dawn, hey, this is Pastor. How are you today?” he asked, chipper as ever.

I glanced down at my watch. He was now twenty minutes late. “I’m good, Pastor. How are you?”

“I’m well, thank you. Listen, Sabrina told me you were waiting on me. I apologize, but I’m not going to be able to make our meeting today.”

“But, Pastor, I already have your lunch waiting. I ordered a steak dinner from one of your favorite little spots,” I said, trying to convince him to come anyway. “And also, I have a ton of things to go over with you.”

“I see. Well, I’m not going to be able to make it. Something more important has come up.”

I raised an eyebrow. What could be more important than discussing matters of the church? I’d spent all of my time preparing to accept this role as his wife knowing that with it came hectic hours. That was why I decided to get involved, so that our hours would intertwine.

“Wow, that’s interesting, Pastor. I haven’t ever known you to miss a meeting unless it was a matter of life and death.” I paused. “Is it a matter of life and death?” I asked, agitated.

“No. Everything is fine. I just decided to take a day off and spend it with the family.”

“In the middle of the week?” I snapped.

He chuckled. “Yes. In the middle of the week. If I had any sense at all prior to now, I would have spent more time with my wife instead of at that church. Whatever is pressing can—no—will have to wait until later. Life is just too short, Dawn.”

I heard the sounds of his son cooing in the background. I was livid at the thought of him having family time with anyone other than me. Michelle was supposed to be on a fast track to being history, yet he was spending the day with her? I didn’t understand. I was sure that things were over between them. Then I thought, men get sensitive about their kids, especially boys. Maybe it was the baby. Maybe the baby was the thing keeping them together. I began to wonder what would happen if the baby didn’t exist.

“Okay, um, I’ll just have to reschedule,” I said with disappointment lacing my voice. “Do you think we can get together before the end of the week?” I asked, holding on for any sign of hope.

“I don’t know. I’m considering taking off the entire week.”

What had Michelle done to him? He sounded as if he had been brainwashed. Spending time with the family? What kind of hogwash was that?

“Well, all right. You enjoy your day, and I will push this aside to a later time.”