His First Lady (26 page)

Ariel sighed. “It’s not anybody’s fault, really.”

Daniela raised an eyebrow as she glared over at the salt and pepper shakers.

“Seriously, I know that men find me really attractive but I’m not going to sit here and believe that I’m at fault for problems in their marriages.”

“You don’t find it strange that a man who claims to be a man of God can do this so easily to his wife?”

“I don’t think about it.”

“Are you a Christian?”

Ariel tilted her head to the side and looked at Daniela. “Yes, I am. Are you?”

Daniela saw the obvious sarcasm in Ariel’s face and heard it in her voice. “Yes,” Daniela answered.

Ariel placed her elbows on the table. “Nobody’s perfect.”

“You’re absolutely right.”

Daniela suddenly wondered why she was even having lunch with this woman. It was obvious that they would never be anything more than acquaintances. Their food arrived and Daniela listened to Ariel who did most of the talking boasting about herself, including her past beauty queen accomplishments and titles.

“Dessert?” Ariel asked.

Daniela shook her head. “No, thank you. I’m stuffed.”

Ariel pulled out a credit card from her purse and placed the card inside the payment book.

“I’ve got to potty, again. This baby is always sitting on my bladder. I can barely go an hour without a bathroom.” Ariel stood up. “If the waitress comes, tell her that the card is with the check.”

Daniela watched Ariel sashay to the bathroom until she was totally out of sight. Daniela stared at the leather payment holder wrestling with the pretend angels on her shoulders whether to open it and look at the name on the card or not. Maybe Ariel’s guys’ name wasn’t even on the card and she’d be snooping for nothing. But then again, maybe it was. She looked back in the direction of the bathroom before inconspicuously pulling the leather holder over to her side of the table opening it then looking at the card. Her heart dropped when she saw the name;
Leon Ladson.

Wearing dark shades, Leon leaned against his glossy Mercedes; with any maroon or reddish car passing by catching his attention. He hadn’t been in any park in so long that he hadn’t realized how relaxing it was. He almost enjoyed the rustling of the leaves on the trees around him and the exercisers passing him by. He looked at the time on his cellphone. Aaron was late again having agreed to meet him a half hour ago. Leon dialed Aaron’s phone again before he heard a car driving toward him with loud thumping rap music playing.

He turned around to see Aaron pulling up beside him, leaned back in his pimped out Mercedes. Leon thought it a shame how a car with so much class could suddenly be low class in the hands of the wrong person;
almost made him want to trade his for an Audi
. Turning his cellphone off, Leon watched as Aaron got out and closed his car door. Leon shook his head watching a pathetic looking Aaron walk toward him wearing a maroon Adidas jogging suit, matching cap, shades, and that foolish grin.

“Do you just like drawing attention to yourself or are you just stupid?”

Aaron took off his shades. “I’m here,” He said taking the liberty to lean against Leon’s Mercedes beside him.

“Man, get your tail off of my car.” Leon frowned.

Aaron stood up straight. “What do you need, Pastor?”

Leon looked around the park. “I need you to take care of one more thing for me.”

Aaron grinned. “You said that you never wanted to see me or hear from me again.”

Leon concentrated on a woman holding the hand of a little boy as they walked toward the ice cream stand. He looked back over at Aaron. “Look, we’re not having this conversation because I like you. We’re having it because I have a problem that needs to be handled immediately.”

“I’m done with all that. I’m trying to get my life together. Mimi and I are getting serious and I want a future.”

“I know you’re not smart enough to still have money from the previous project and looking at that poor excuse for a Mercedes, you need more income.”

“Money can’t help me sleep at night.”

“I sleep better with money than I do without,” Leon rebutted. “Besides, I know Mimi. She loves nice things and she’s not going to be with a man who can’t give her what she wants for too long.”

Aaron bit his bottom lip and adjusted his cap. “What kind of job is it?”

“I’ve got two problems. I don’t want it gruesome; I just want them to disappear; evaporated.”

“It’s gonna cost you a whole bunch more than last time,” Aaron said.

Leon handed Aaron a picture of a young woman and a child at one of JMC’s functions.

“What is this?” Aaron made a face.

Leon looked off into the park. “I need them gone.”

Aaron looked confused. “A mother and a child? How can these two be causing you a problem?”

“I don’t pay you to ask questions,” Leon said.

“I don’t do kids.”

Leon got angry. “I’ll add another ten on top of that.”

“I don’t hurt kids,” Aaron said sternly, “man.”

“Twenty more and nothing gruesome…just a bad accident.”

Aaron rolled his eyes as he looked at the picture of a smiling mother and her child.

“So you’re just going to get rid of anybody you don’t like, pastor?”

Leon glared at Aaron and removed his sunglasses to stare him squarely in the eye. “So you’re holding the moral compass now? If I needed a conscience, I wouldn’t get it from a convict.”

“I guess if a pastor doesn’t have a moral compass then we’re all doomed to hell.”

Leon snickered and placed his sunglasses back on his face. “I’ll have everything to you soon.”

“Half upfront and the rest immediately upon completion.”

“That’s not a problem; just don’t be sloppy.”

“You’ve got it all planned out, don’t you?”

Leon opened the door to his Mercedes and hopped in. “You got to have a plan in life son or you’ll end up always working for someone who does.”

Daniela had that breeze by look when Nina opened the door for her. She rushed pass Nina while Nina stood staring at her in disbelief.

“Come on in Daniela.” Nina raised an eyebrow before closing the door and following her into the dining room.

Kree and Candy stopped chatting and looked relieved when Daniela walked in to Nina’s dining room. Daniela didn’t invite all of the ladies to meet her at Nina’s just those that she was closest to and trusted most.

“You had better have a good reason for calling me away from the church for this emergency meeting,” Candy said throwing a fistful of cashews in her mouth.

Kree flipped her hair. “Daniela, what’s going on? I have now,” She looked at her watch, “15 minutes.”

“Where’s Linda?” Daniela asked.

“She couldn’t get away,” Candy said. “No babysitter.”

Daniela sat down at the dining room table across from the ladies. Nina closed the French doors separating the dining area just in case someone was to walk in.

“What was so important that you demanded we meet here?” Kree asked.

“I have a dilemma,” Daniela said.

Candy sighed and crossed her arms in front of her on Nina’s shiny Mahogany table. “Girl, what is it?”

Daniela cleared her throat. “I had lunch today with Ariel?”

“Who’s Ariel?” Kree asked.

“My ultrasound patient with the pastor boyfriend that I told you about.”

Candy frowned and put her hand up. “Wait, wait, wait… Ariel who? Not the Ariel that I’m thinking.”

“Ariel Parker. Anyway we had lunch and...” Daniela continued.

“Ariel Parker who used to be Ariel Decostas?” Candy interrupted with a stunned look on her face.

“I don’t know her that well, Candy,” Daniela said snidely. “But she’s the patient that I was telling you about.”

“What? Really?” Candy asked looking shocked. “Small world.”

“Why does that name sound so familiar to me?” Nina asked looking perplexed.

Candy looked over at Nina. “You met her at Evan’s church ground breaking, remember? My soror that I introduced you to.”

Nina remembered. “Oh, the one with the hair and the bright lipstick?”

Candy nodded as she and the ladies all seemed to wait for Daniela to continue.

“Anyway, we had lunch,” Daniela said.

Nina sat down across from Daniela. “Okay, and?”

“The pastor boyfriend that she keeps talking about is Pastor Ladson.”

The room went silent as the ladies all looked stunned, then around the table at each other.

“What!” Candy exclaimed looking puzzled at the news.

“Okay,” Kree said looking slightly relieved.

A worried look crossed Nina’s face. “Daniela, how do you know this for sure?”

“I saw the credit card he gave her,” Daniela said.

Candy’s mouth opened as she seemed to ponder in thought. “Wow,” Candy said amazed.

“Candy, how well do you know her?” Nina asked.

“We were never close but this certainly doesn’t surprise me, that’s for sure.”

“She still doesn’t know that you’re married to a pastor?” Nina asked Daniela.

Daniela shook her head. “No, we never got around to discussing that part of my life,” Daniela said.

“How do you get around that?” Kree asked.

“Because she loves talking about herself,” Candy answered for Daniela.

“What should we do?” Kree asked.

“Nothing.” Nina stood up and walked over to start coffee.

“Why not?” Candy asked looking crossed at Nina.

Nina put her hand on her hip and grimaced. “Because Candace, I don’t know Evan like that. None of us really know her like that. Besides she and I discussed a similar situation and she thought that man of hers could part the Red Sea. Far be it from me to interrupt his spot in history.”

Kree groaned. “We know her well enough to know that we all carry the same title as First lady and we know how we’d feel in that situation.”

“Amen,” Candy said.

Nina shook her head. “What do you think she’s going to do with the information but think that we’re ruining her ideal life? Besides, she didn’t seem that strong to me. I’m content with tending to my business and praying for them both.”

Candy sucked her teeth and turned from Nina. “Not me; I would want someone to tell me.”

“This girl is bragging about how he takes care of her and how she’s having a baby for him,” Daniela said.

Candy winced. “I don’t get any of that. This is some crazy stuff.” Candy chimed in then feeling Nina’s Yorkie’s nose sniffing her leg, she looked down and frowned.

“Peaches go!” Nina said seeing Candy’s reaction to her dog. She watched the dog walk off and go lie in his bed in the corner of the kitchen.

“Thank you,” Candy said. “Okay back to Evan’s situation.”

Nina looked displeased. “Ladies, it’s gossip and we’re feeding into it at this point.”

Candy frowned. “No we’re not. We’re trying to figure out what is going on with our sister and what to do about it,” Candy said.

“Maybe she knows and doesn’t care. We really don’t know the situation,” Kree said, “maybe Nina’s right.”

“What should we do?” Daniela asked.

“We’re going to mind our businesses,” Nina said taking coffee cups from her cabinet.

“What if it were one of us?” Daniela asked.

“Exactly. If it were me, I’d want to know,” Candy said.

Nina sat the cups down on coasters in front of the ladies.

“No thanks sweetie,” Kree put her hand up stopping Nina when she placed a cup in front of her. “I’ve got to meet Josh like right now.” Kree stood up and put her purse on her shoulder. “Ladies, I’m going to say that this is Nina’s decision and if she says no then that’s what we go with.”

Nina took a deep breath. “In my opinion, we need to leave this alone and just be there if and when Evan may need a friend and she wants us involved. We just don’t have all the facts. I also think that Daniela should immediately stop having contact with this girl. No more phone calls or lunch, strictly business.”

“Okay then,” Kree said. “It’s settled and I’ve got to run.” Kree began walking out of the dining room after blowing a kiss at the ladies.

“I’ll walk you out dear,” Nina said to Kree.

Candy watched Nina and Kree walk out of the dining room then leaned forward toward Daniela. “Look, I for one don’t think we should let this go. Ignore Nina. She likes God to fix everything but sometimes God uses us to fix things.”

Daniela looked surprised. “Nina might be right and we just need to stay out of it.”

“Nina is not right this time. We’re all First ladies and we have to look out for each other. As long as these women think they can get away with this mess and break up our families, they will.”

“So what can we do?” Daniela asked.

“I’d like to have a talk with little miss Ariel. Maybe we can all do lunch or dinner or something.”

“I don’t know. I just feel awkward about that since she’s still one of my patients and we’ve become friendly. She might think she’s been set up.”

“Not if we have dinner or something.” Candy reached for her purse to leave. “I’m not mentioning this to Nina. But I’ll call you.” She stood up.

“Okay.” Daniela stood up to give Candy a hug as Nina walked back in to the dining room.

“Ladies, would you like some coffee?” Nina asked walking toward the coffee pot.

“No, thank you. I’ve got to get back to the church,” Candy said.

Nina began pouring coffee into a cup. “Candace, I know how you feel about issues like this and I completely agree but when it comes to marriage, you tread a thin line with friends.”

Candy sighed and crossed her arms. “Nina, you’re right but we have always stuck together and supported each other. No, we don’t know Evan well but she’s a sister and has become a friend. That’s just my take.”

Nina nodded. “I get it.”

Candy reached out and hugged Nina, winking at Daniela.

“I’ll see you later.” Candy waved.

“Smile.”

The sun shone brightly outside of the Ladson residence on Evan and Leon as they sat on the back deck of their home with the photographer snapping countless pictures of the two. The staff Leon’s campaign hired for the ads set a perfect background with orange and yellow marigolds surrounding the dark stained wood bench they sat on. It was the perfect stage for the perfect family pictures that Leon was perpetrating for his upcoming campaign ad.