Free Fridays (3 page)

Despite the failed anniversary party, Leela fought the strong urge to question all she thought she knew. Samantha seemed to be taking everything in stride and behaved as if her crumbled marriage was nothing but a mere bump in the road.

“I'm gonna do some things I'd been putting off because I felt trapped,” Samantha said.

The comment brought Leela back to their conversation.

“Trapped? What do you mean by that?”

“Leela. Men act like a marriage license entitles them to ownership. Well, not all men. I mean, they just don't make them like your grandfather anymore. But all I'm saying is, for years, I avoided doing things that might cause conflict or problems with Bill and me. No more! I'm gonna do what the hell I want, when and where I want! It's that simple!”

“I never realized you felt so—”

“Well, I did.” Samantha cut her off. “But that's all in the past. I'm so over the years I wasted with Bill. It's time for me to start my new and improved life! That trifling bastard did me a favor; I just didn't know it at the time.”

“Sam. You sure you're gonna be okay?”

Leela thought maybe her friend was experiencing shock. Reality would hit when Samantha least expected it and she'd be devastated by the loss of her husband.

“Am I gonna be okay? Why wouldn't I be? Leela. Look, it's like I said; I knew something was going on. I may not have been able to verbalize what it was, but why do you think I hired that private investigator? I'm nobody's fool. I saw the little clues here and there, but I also knew I had to play my cards right.”

“I don't know what to say,” Leela said.

“Honey, there's nothing for you to say. I told you, I had a feeling something was going on. I just needed concrete evidence.”

Leela was experiencing a series of emotions that she couldn't understand nor explain. She seemed more devastated by the breakup than Samantha. She knew that wasn't the case, but Samantha was very nonchalant about what had happened.

Conversations about the Thomases' marriage only happened when Leela initiated it. Although she didn't want to make her
friend feel bad, Leela couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that the end of a marriage seemed to represent a new and exciting beginning for Sam.

Leela thought she would need to be near the phone to offer moral and emotional support, but those calls never came. Over the past few days, if she hadn't reached out to Samantha, Leela wouldn't have heard from her.

Although Leela had a problem with that, the current conversation made her feel like there was no point in bringing that up.

“And you know what?” Samantha asked.

Leela didn't respond.

“I hope they both get fired!”

“You want them to lose their jobs?”

“Why not? They didn't care about those jobs when they snuck away from the office for their little rendezvous. Why should they be able to keep them?”

For Leela, the conversation was becoming exhausting. Samantha was hurt, but it was also clear she was hell-bent on seeing Bill suffer.

“Leela, you work in HR. What would you do if you found out that two married senior executives were having an affair?”

Before Leela could answer, Samantha blurted out a response.

“Their asses would be canned! You don't have to admit it. It's not a good look, not in the office, not among the clients. It's not, and you know it. Those two knew it too, but they didn't care.”

Leela listened as Samantha carried on about all of the bad and painful things she prayed would happen to Bill.

•  •  •

Bouts of depression seemed to stick to Leela like a bad shadow that wouldn't go away. She'd go to work, go through the motions, then go home and prepare to do it all again. She did all of this as
she struggled to hide her emotional roller coaster from Riley because she knew his tolerance level was very low when it came to what he called her mood swings.

One weekend morning, Riley walked into the room and didn't speak.

His presence made Leela feel awkward. But she told herself there was nothing wrong with being in her bed in mid-afternoon. She had nearly convinced herself that it was okay, until Riley spoke.

“You getting outta bed today, or what?”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

Leela knew what he meant, but she wanted to hear his answer.

“Yeah, okay, Leela,” was all he said.

“Oh, and to answer your question, I'm meeting Big Mama and my mother for a late lunch in a little while, so please don't hog all the hot water.”

Several hours later, Leela talked to her mother on the phone as she drove. “I'm looking for the address, but I can't find it and I've been around the block three times already.” Leela was frustrated as she searched for the restaurant where she was meeting her mother and grandmother for lunch.

“I'll walk outside,” her mother said. “Give me a few seconds. I'm gonna stay on the phone with you.”

Linda Bishop walked out of the restaurant to look for her daughter. A frown lived on her face, even when she wasn't angry. Her dark-brown eyes matched her features and her attitude on most days.

Linda's was very outspoken regardless of the topic or issue. She was the bully of the family, and most of her relatives simply cowered in her presence because they didn't want to use the energy for a fight that was hard to win.

Leela kept the car in park as she looked around the West Chase
strip mall. All of the buildings and storefronts looked the same, and it was hard to read addresses even when they were visible.

Suddenly, she saw a figure in the far distance waving an arm. It was her mother, Linda.

“Oh. I see you,” she said. “I'm on the other end, but here I come.”

Leela drove to the opposite end of the strip mall and pulled into a parking space. Her mother approached her car and gave her a tight hug the second she came out of the car.

“Now, listen. Your grandmother wants to tell you what happened in her own words. She begged me not to say anything because she felt like you needed to hear it from her and be told in person. But I need to warn you. This is gonna be hard to accept. And, it's gonna be almost impossible for you to look at your Pah-pah the same ever again.”

A sinking feeling threatened to overwhelm Leela as she listened to her mother. Considering the mess between her best friend and her husband, she knew she wasn't ready for any more earth-shattering news. She especially didn't want to hear anything bad about her grandparents. Leela felt vulnerable; she simply couldn't handle any more.

“I don't like the sound of this,” Leela admitted. “I don't want to hear any more bad news. I'm scared.”

“Yes. I know. We all are. This is foreign to us all, but I think once you hear her side of the story, you'll agree, she didn't have any other option,” Linda said.

“What do you mean she didn't have any other option? OhmyGod! What's going on? What is the world coming to? I don't think I'm ready for this,” Leela whined.

Her mother stopped her abruptly.

“Leela. It's time for you to pull your grown woman panties up. This situation is real and it's going to change all of our lives. Your
grandmother needs your support right now. This is not a time to be emotional; she needs us all to be strong. I know you're probably still messed up over that situation with Samantha and Bill, but you need to pull it together!”

“I know, but—”

“There are no buts.” Linda cut her off. “It is what it is. Let's get up there and get this over with because she's waiting on you.”

Leela pulled herself together as best she could, pushed thoughts of Samantha and her own fears to the back of her mind. She followed her mother up the stairs to the little Mexican restaurant where her grandmother waited. Linda's incomplete explanation was the only preparation she'd received to deal with the kind of news that nobody should ever have to swallow.

S
tartled by a strange sound, Riley flinched. It felt like his heart had been zapped with one of those defibrillators. His handsome features contorted into a frown as sudden shock gripped his heart. The most important muscle in his body felt like it had taken a nosedive from his ribcage to the soles of his feet. Beneath the shower's hot, jet-like rays, he glanced around the spacious en-suite bathroom.

“Ww-what that fu…?”

Where's the bat? Is the nine-mil in the lockbox?

A twinge of adrenaline shot through him as he grasped the knob and cut off the water.

Riley pushed the smoked-glass door open and removed the thick, white, terrycloth bath sheet from a nearby hook. He stepped out of the shower, threw the towel around his washboard abs, and advanced across the floor. His house was more secure than the Pentagon, so he wasn't worried about an intruder, but he was concerned about his wife. She wasn't the most stable, but that was okay, because he couldn't deal with one of those so-called, strong-willed, independent women. He had grown to expect her mood swings, unexpected bouts of tears or blank stares.

“Leela?” he called out to his wife. She usually spoke up if she walked in after being gone. Lunch with her mother and grandmother ran kind of long. But he'd just returned from balling with the fellas, so it was all good.

When Riley heard Leela groan again, instead of answering, he rushed toward the noise. Flashes of the family room's sleek and contemporary décor mixed with the silk drapes, the chandelier, and area rugs, served as a backdrop for the most unusual sight.

Riley stopped abruptly at the vision before him: his wife sat on the ottoman with a look of bewilderment on her face. Riley couldn't help but wonder whether she'd been spooked by someone or something.

At the sight of her, he wondered whether she had gotten her period and was about to get all emotional. He hated that time of the month the most. It seemed like Leela was bipolar during that time, the ups and downs, the constant complaints about cramps. He hated it.

His eyes looked around their lavish home for anything that might be responsible for Leela's sudden torment. They had plans to go to a colleague's party after they both got home. He wondered if her mother or grandmother had told her about a fatal illness. Something had happened, and whatever it was, it had left his wife broken. Her shoulders were hunched in despair as she stared off blankly into space. Riley could tell she barely wanted to look up at him, but he had already heard her cries, the evidence that something had gone terribly wrong.

“Jesus! Leela, what's the matter?” he asked. “Did something happen when you were with your mom and Big Mama?”

When Leela finally looked up, her tear-stained face was lined with anguish. Her eyes were bloodshot, and it bothered Riley to see her in so much pain.

“Big Mama left my grandfather,” she muttered, her tone filled with angst.

For a moment, Riley stood open-mouthed as he tried to make sense of the words she'd just said. It might as well have been a riddle,
because his brain couldn't compute. His wife's grandparents, affectionately known as Big Mama and Pah-pah had been married for nearly fifty-two years. That was longer than he'd been alive.

Riley remembered how, on his very own wedding day six years ago, his late mother whispered that Leela had come from good stock. She referred to Leela's grandparents' marriage and told Riley to look at them for guidance on happily-ever-after. Riley's mother was a divorcee.

At a loss for words, he rubbed her back and tried to convince himself that there had to be a good reason for the separation. Maybe the old man got tired of his wife mouthing off all the time, or maybe Big Mama had forgotten her place in their household. The Bishops were headed for divorce? It simply couldn't be.

He'd never known anyone personally who'd been married more than fifteen years. What did his wife always say? The Bishops were an institution, at church, and at work. They had been the real-life symbol of black love. Obviously, that wasn't really the case.

Riley looked down at his wife and struggled for suitable words because he knew nothing in his vocabulary could fit the situation. He wanted to tell her to hold off until she got the whole story, but he didn't.

“What do you mean?” he managed.

“They're getting a divorce, selling the house, and…” She choked up before her voice trailed off. Her sniffles erupted into a full sob and Riley was frustrated.

He had lots of questions, but didn't have the patience to endure more crying if he asked them. Did Mr. Bishop cheat on his wife? Nah, that silver fox couldn't still have it in him, could he?

The sound of the ringing phone broke the eerie silence that had blanketed the family room. They both looked in its direction, but it was Riley who reached for the phone.

“Shit,” he said. “The party,” he added. “You know what, we don't have to go.”

Leela looked up with a frown. “No. We've gotta go, Babe. We can't just not show up. That's your co-worker.”

With all that was already going around the office about Bill and Kelly's affair, Riley knew his absence would be noticed, but if he couldn't make it, he couldn't.

“You sure?” Riley felt if he explained what had gone down, anyone would understand. Things like birthday and anniversary parties were really for females anyway.

“Go on; go finish getting ready,” Leela said.

“I don't think you're in any condition to party,” Riley said.

Before Riley could say anything else, Leela rose and strode across the room. “I'm okay, Babe. Gonna go shower,” she said over her shoulder as she darted around the corner.

In the master bedroom, Leela tried to pull herself together before she returned a missed call from Samantha. Thoughts of Samantha, and now Big Mama's failed marriage, made her heart heavy.

Leela decided she'd try to forget about the news she'd just received. It would be a major challenge since she could barely swallow it herself. There was a part of her that never wanted to admit it to Riley, but there was no way she would've gotten away with keeping that unbelievable news to herself. Of course they should still go to the party.