I Know I've Been Changed (13 page)

“Oooowwee. I ain’t talked to your mama in five years,” Mama Tee replied.

Shondella rolled her eyes. “Why would you bring her up?” She stopped talking and turned her attention to Lexus, who was climbing on top of the picnic table trying to reach for another hot dog. Shondella reached over and popped Lexus on her bottom. “Girl, get your tail down before I beat the hell out of you.”

“You really shouldn’t curse at the children.”

Shondella cocked her head and squinted her eyes. “You really should mind your own business.” She grabbed Lexus’s arm and pulled her off the table. Lexus, who had managed to snag the hot dog, took a quick bite, then scurried off.

I decided against saying anything else to Shondella and turned back to Mama Tee. “Rose called me last week.”

“Did she now?” Mama Tee didn’t seem the least bit fazed. She kept spreading barbecue sauce over the meat.

“Well, not me, directly. She called in to my talk show, asking how she can get her daughter to forgive her for abandoning her.”

“Well, what did you tell her?”

“There ain’t no forgiving her.”

“Umm-hmm” was all Mama Tee muttered.

“That’s all you have to say?”

“Umm-hmm.”

I fiddled with the napkins. “What was I supposed to say?” I finally asked.

Mama Tee flipped a slab of ribs over, brushing the thick sauce across the meat. “I guess you was supposed to say whatever your heart led you to say.” She closed the top on the grill, allowing the meat to smoke some more. She wiped her hands again, then walked toward me. “Baby girl, I don’t expect much from you. You barely talk to us. It don’t surprise me one bit you won’t talk to your mama. But I got a feeling one of these days you gon’ figure it out. Sometimes family is all you got.” She squeezed my chin, then walked off, leaving her words to simmer in my head.

Chapter 21

I
groaned as I walked out of the break room. Another day of being nauseous. “I’ll be glad when this first trimester is over,” I mumbled.

I woke up feeling like crap, but came on in to work because I wanted to save all my sick days for my maternity leave. Although I was dressed to the nines in a canary yellow Prada suit, I didn’t have a drop of makeup on, which was unusual for me. I always wore at least a little makeup until I could get in to see Sasha, the station’s makeup artist. But I was feeling so crappy this morning, I hadn’t even bothered.

I’d eaten some crackers, hoping that would calm my stomach. I probably shouldn’t have been drinking the coffee that was steaming in a paper cup in my hand, but my mornings just didn’t get off to the right start without my daily cup of coffee. I had just taken another sip when Tory, one of the photographers, bumped into me and made me almost spill the drink.

“Would you watch where you’re going?” I snapped as I stuck the cup out, trying to keep it from wasting on my suit.

“Oh, Rae, I’m sorry. I was busy being nosy,” Tory said as he slyly pointed toward Dina’s office.

I was about to say something else when my eyes made their way toward the office. I frowned at what I saw. Simone was in Dina’s office and they were laughing like old friends. I turned my nose up. Dina never laughed with anyone. What made Simone so special? Maybe she was brown-nosing Dina, something I was not about to do.

I lagged around the bulletin board, pretending to read the latest flyer about some party I wouldn’t be attending. In actuality, I was trying to hear what Dina and Simone were talking about.

The sudden sound of sirens blasting across the scanner caught my attention.

“I need all crews to head to Sanchez Elementary School on Broadway. Key map 535J!” the assignment editor screamed into the two-way radio.

The commotion caused Dina to come running out of her office. Simone was right behind her. “What’s going on?” Dina asked.

“We got a hostage situation at an elementary school. A teacher has gone berserk and taken a cafeteria full of students hostage!” yelled the assignment editor, Joe.

“We need to break into programming right now,” Dina commanded. “Where’s Keith?”

Keith was the anchor on the noon news.

“He’s out sick. Rae is right there.” Joe pointed to me standing by the bulletin board.

Dina spun toward me. “Rae, I need you on the set five minutes ago!” she snapped.

I looked at her as if she were crazy. “Sasha is just about to do my makeup and my hair hasn’t been curled.”

Dina shot me an incredulous look. “What?”

“Give me fifteen minutes.” I started toward the dressing room. “I’ll just slap some makeup on and throw a few curls in my hair, then I’ll be good to go.” If there was one thing I didn’t do, it was go on the air looking like any old thing.

“Are you on drugs?” Dina raised her voice. “We have a teacher holding a cafeteria full of kids hostage and you want me to give you fifteen minutes so you can get pretty?” Dina shook her head like she couldn’t fathom my request.

“Dina, surely you don’t want me going on the air looking unprofessional,” I tried to reason.

“You need to look professional when you walk through that door!” She looked like she was about to go off on me, then decided against it. “I don’t have time for this; I will deal with you later.” She turned to Simone. “Do you need time to get ready?”

“I came to work ready,” Simone replied eagerly.

“Can you handle this?”

“Absolutely.”

“Good. I want you on the air right now.”

Simone had a huge grin on her face. “You got it.” She raced to the news set.

I could not believe my eyes. I knew they were not about to put this little tramp on in my place.

“Fine! I will go on without my makeup,” I said.

“Don’t worry about it. You just go get pretty,” Dina said, flicking me off as she turned back to Joe. “Get the helicopter up. I want Simone to toss to the chopper so the pilot can give us a bird’s-eye view of what’s going on.”

“Dina, you can’t be serious. I’m the anchor here,” I protested.

She ignored me and just kept barking orders.

“Dina…” I stepped in front of her.

“Rae. I am dealing with a crisis here. You need to move out of my face,” she said calmly.

I saw her look of anger and figured I would just let this slide. Fine. Let little Miss Simone mess it all up. It would serve them right. I stepped out of her way and headed to my office just as Simone popped up on the air.

“Hello, this is Simone Sanders and we have a breaking-news situation we want to tell you about…”

I plopped down on my sofa and waited for the ball to drop, for her to flub, stumble, anything. I was stunned when she didn’t.

“I told you that girl is going places.”

I looked up to see Shereen standing in my doorway. “What do you want, Shereen?”

As usual, she ignored my attitude. “Why are you in here and she’s out there?”

I rolled my eyes. “Long story.”

Shereen turned her attention back to the television. The helicopter was up and Simone was giving a play-by-play of the events as they unfolded. She wasn’t missing a beat.

“You might need to watch out for that one.” Shereen was shaking her head in awe.

“I don’t need to watch anything.” I stood up, stomped over to my computer, and began typing as if I weren’t interested in Simone’s report.

“Really, you do,” Shereen said, not taking her eyes off the TV. “I thought she was just getting a chance because Dina is best friends with her sister—”

I spun around so fast I nearly fell over in my chair. “What did you say?”

“I said I thought Simone was just getting a chance because Dina and her sister are best friends, but I think she’s earning her right to be here.”

“Did you say Dina and Simone know each other?”

“Yeah, didn’t you know that?”

“How would I know that?”

Shereen shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought everybody knew.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that. So that explains everything.”

“Yeah, I think Dina and her sister are sorority sisters or something,” Shereen added nonchalantly. “Oh, well. Gotta get back to work. I just came down to see why you weren’t on the air.”

“Call me tonight and I’ll explain it all to you.”

I grabbed the remote, muted the TV, then leaned back in my chair. That’s why they were all chummy. I wondered if Stan knew that.

“I might just have to have a little talk with him,” I muttered.

I turned my attention back to the TV. The sight of Simone was making me even sicker. I flipped the TV off, then tried to finish transcribing a tape from an interview I had done earlier.

I was halfway done with the transcription when my intercom buzzed. “Hi, Rae.” It was Jamie, Dina’s secretary. “Dina would like to see you in her office right now.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine.”

“Oh, and Rae,” she whispered, “if I were you, I wouldn’t keep her waiting. She doesn’t appear to be in a good mood.”

I turned up my nose. Like I gave a fat rat about her mood. Still, I was in the doghouse, so why cause any more trouble? “I’m on my way.”

I took my time, straightening items on my desk for a few minutes before heading to Dina’s office.

“You wanted to see me.”

“Close the door and have a seat.”

Great. A closed-door meeting. Those were never good. I walked in casually, pushing the door shut behind me.

Dina purposely kept her eyes glued on the document she was reading for several minutes, no doubt trying to piss me off. It was working.

“We seem to have a fundamental problem,” she said just as I was about to ask her why she was wasting my time. “You apparently are used to the way things
were
, and not how they
are
.”

I was ready to interject. She must have noticed because she held up her hand. “There are no stars around here. I don’t care what kind of ratings you bring in, or how valuable you
think
you are around here. You are dispensable. Do you understand that?”

I was really trying not to let my attitude show. “I am valuable,” I replied with conviction.

“No, I repeat, you are
dispensable
.
The Rae Rollins Show
bears your name, but we can easily change that. I could find another just-as-talented six-o’clock news anchor. See, the bottom line is, I’m the head sista in charge. That means that if I tell you to get on the set, you get on the set. It’s as simple as that. And if you have a problem with it, I would be more than willing to let you out of your contract so you can pursue other opportunities elsewhere.”

I was fuming inside. “Other stations would love to have me.”

“I’m sure they would. They’ll just have to wait a year to get you. You have a noncompete clause in your contract, remember?”

Oh, yeah, that. That noncompete clause forbade me from working at another station in a one-hundred-mile radius within a year of leaving Channel 2.

“What’s your problem with me? I would think we would try to stick together,
my sister
.”

Dina laughed like that was the funniest thing she’d heard all week. “Rae, I don’t play those games. I’m about business. I don’t have a problem with you, but I know your type. You think the sun sets around you. But things don’t work like that around here. Accept it or move on.”

I wanted so badly to give her a piece of my mind. Two more minutes and I probably would have. But she didn’t give me a chance. She shook her head in disgust and said, “That will be all. You’re dismissed.”

And then she turned her chair around and started typing on her computer. I wanted to take the paperweight that was sitting on the corner of her desk and smash her in the head with it. Instead, I rolled my eyes and stormed to the door.

“Oh, and, Rae?” she said just as I reached the door. “Please stop back by before you leave today so you can sign your letter of reprimand for refusing to go on the air today. That will not be tolerated. So I am writing you up, and it will go in your file.”

“What?”

“That will be all.”

Okay, I had to get out of there before I said something to get me in even more trouble. But if Miss Dina thought she could just treat me like any old thing, she had another thing coming. This woman really and truly didn’t know whom she was messing with.

Chapter 22

“T
hat woman is out to get me.” I was sitting on my living room sofa with my legs draped across Myles’s lap. He was engrossed in the paperwork for the new six-thousand-square-foot house we planned to buy and seemed oblivious to my sulking. “I said, Dina is out to get me.” My mind had been swirling since I’d left the office. I had to figure out a way to get rid of Dina.

“Umm-huh,” Myles responded without taking his eyes off the paperwork.

I pushed the paperwork down. “Myles, I need you to listen to me. This is serious.”

“Isn’t everything always serious with you?” He continued reading.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I pulled my legs down and sat up.

“Nothing, just drop it. I’m trying to make sure this contract for the house is right.”

Now, not only was he ignoring me, but he was trying to blow me off. I snatched the paperwork from him. “I’m talking to you, Myles.”

Myles huffed. “Rae, I’m not in the mood for this. I’ve had a very bad day. I want to review this contract, then watch TV in peace.”

I was so sick of this. Myles never had time for me or my problems. I just needed someone to talk to, to vent to. And my own man acted like that was too much of an inconvenience.

“Well, excuse me for being a nuisance.” I stood up and stormed into my exercise room. I half-expected him to stop me. I don’t know why I was surprised when he didn’t.

I stomped over to the treadmill and hopped on. I should have changed into my exercise clothes, but the T-shirt and shorts I was wearing would have to do. I had to blow off some steam—now.

After about twenty minutes on the treadmill, I’d managed to calm down and see the bigger picture. I saw the life Myles and I could have together. The picture-perfect life. The life I dreamed of growing up in Sweet Poke. Two professionals with 2.3 kids. Maybe even a little Pekingese dog. The dream home. The doting mother-in-law. We would have such a normal family. So, in my opinion, it was worth putting up with Myles’s sometimes insensitive ways.

“Rae!”

I heard Myles calling my name, but I ignored him.

“Rae!”

I stopped the treadmill, got off, grabbed a towel, and wiped my face. I then headed to the bedroom without saying a word.

He walked into the bedroom behind me. “Oh, so you’re ignoring me now?”

I cut my eyes at him. “Oh, so you have time for me now?”

Myles walked over and began massaging my neck. “Don’t be like that, baby. I don’t want to fight with you.”

I felt myself melting at his touch. “I needed to talk to you. You never have time to talk to me,” I whined.

Myles eased me down on the bed. “I’m sorry. I’m listening, baby.”

“Never mind, now.”

Myles took a deep breath. “Look, Rae, you wanted to talk, so talk.”

I stared at him. We needed to get some things straight. “Look, Myles, I try to be there for you whenever you need me. But I can’t say you give me that same thing.”

“Rae, you know how I work.”

“I also know that I need to be a priority in your life. I know we are set to be married in three weeks, but if this isn’t right, we need to cut our losses now.” I didn’t know where all of this was coming from. If he had said fine to leaving me, I probably would’ve had a heart attack.

“Is that what you think I am, a loss?”

“I love you, Myles. I just don’t want to feel like I’m in this thing alone.”

“I love you and I want us to work, okay? Now, why don’t you update me on the wedding progress? It seems all I’ve been doing is writing checks.”

Now I couldn’t help but break out in a big smile. Planning my wedding had been the only thing keeping me sane. I had hired one of the best wedding planners in the city. She was excellent at last-minute stuff and we got along wonderfully.

“We have the flowers picked out, Shereen’s bridesmaid dress and my dress, which, by the way, you are going to love. We’ll get married at First Baptist Church downtown and the reception will be held at the Westin in the Galleria. The only thing left to do is find the flower girls’ dresses. Your nieces are still doing that, right?”

Myles nodded. His brother’s twin daughters were going to serve as flower girls for the wedding. “Martin said the girls are excited. So just let him know what he needs to do. What about the invitations? Have those gone out yet?”

“I got your mother’s list and those went out last week.”

“Let me ask. Did you invite your family?”

He was ruining a great moment. “No. I don’t want anyone messing up our day.”

“Do you think you might regret that one day?” he asked, his voice full of concern.

“Please.”

“So you don’t want to invite anyone from your hometown?”

I sighed. “I really would love for Justin to be there. And maybe even Mama Tee. But you don’t know my family. They’re a package deal, and to invite one is to invite them all.”

“If you say so. I just don’t want my side of the church to be packed and yours empty.” He grinned.

“Oh, I’ve taken care of that. There won’t be any bride/groom sides. Everyone will sit wherever they want.”

“So it looks like all I have to do is show up.”

“That’s it.” I smiled.

“You’re going to make a beautiful wife,” he said as he stroked my hair.

I felt myself blushing. “We’re going to be so happy.”

“I will die trying.” He pulled me to him. “I’m looking forward to the life we’re going to have together.”

“Me, too, baby.” I kissed him passionately, happy that everything was going as planned.