Knowing Is Not Enough (18 page)

The walk out of the medical center felt longer than going in. Unbeknownst to Ms. Thomas, our hearts were heavy. I didn’t want to go back to work. Maybe lunch would be good.

“Jake, you guys want to get some lunch? I haven’t eaten and I won’t have time before heading back if I don’t eat here.” Jake was game, but his mother was visibly wearing down. “I think I better get her home. It’s been a long day.”

“Okay, you’re right. I understand—some other time.” We reached their car and Jake carefully put his mother inside. She tried to attach the seat belt, “Oh, Mom, let me.” I jumped into action, placing the seat belt around her waist and latching it. Once she was inside, I lifted my head to see Jake across from me at the driver’s-side door.

“I guess we’ll talk later.”

He nodded. “I would like too, if that’s okay.”

“Of course . . . whatever you need. Call me later.”

“All right. Thank you for this, Alex.”

“No need to thank me, I’m happy to be here.”

Jake got in the car and I headed back to mine. The emotion of everything took me over. I sat, had another watershed moment then drove back to the office.

Messages from Linda and Tobey were waiting for me. I would’ve thought Linda knew what was going on. Whatever burning questions or comments they had for me were going to wait. First things first, I needed to get myself together and return some phone calls. Then field the questions from the girls.

It only took an hour or so for me to take care of business. Karen set up video conferencing so I could hit them all at once. Their images barely came into focus before they were firing off questions. I could hardly keep up.

“Wait a minute. Let me tell you what’s going on with his mother. Jake truly isn’t the story here, it’s about her,” I told them. “She isn’t well.”

“What’s wrong with her?” asked Linda.

“Breast cancer—it’s advanced. She’s pretty bad off, ladies.”

“Oh, my God, I didn’t know she was that sick.” Linda gasped.

“I thought you talked to Jake?”

“Well, remember, I told you I wanted to talk to Taylor about doing some work for me.”

“No, Linda, I don’t remember you saying you wanted Taylor about doing anything. Why would you talk to Taylor?”

“No . . . well, I’ve talked to both of them, but not at the same time. Potentially business with Taylor and the usual stuff with Jake—just talking, but it was a long time
ago, Alex . . . before the divorce.”

Judging my reaction, both Tobey and Karen told me they would catch up on the story tomorrow. I was having a hard time understanding what exactly Linda was telling me.
Am I to understand she has struck up a friendship with the woman who slept with my husband?
“What business could you possibly have with her?”

“She owns a party planning business on the side, but Alex, I’m not doing anything with her. I just talked to her about my anniversary party.”

“What? Okay, let’s step back a minute, because I’m getting confused. How did you even meet Taylor?”

“Jake introduced me to her, but Alex—believe me, I didn’t know they were messing around until Sanford and I saw them out.”

“Oh, God,
you’re
the mystery person Sanford was out with?” I couldn’t breathe. The air evaporated from the room. Still on video, Linda saw me grab my chest. “Breathe, Alex,” she said.

I was beyond hearing her. I ached from distress and ended the videoconference. My cellphone rang. I knew it was Linda, but I didn’t answer. Between Easton, Ms. Thomas, and this, there had been quite enough heart-stoppers for me today. Karen appeared at my door to inquire if I was okay. I didn’t know. What I did know was the time—three o’clock. I wanted to get out of there and escape to the sanctuary of my house. I made desire reality, and left.

Linda continued to call. At the third stoplight I muted the volume. I knew she wanted to explain and at some point I would be ready to hear it. Just not now . . . please, not now. But in true Linda fashion, she kept calling until I
reached my house to see her standing on the porch.

“Why are you here, Linda?”

“Because you wouldn’t answer your phone.”

I grabbed my purse and briefcase from the back seat. “I didn’t answer my phone because I didn’t want to talk to you.”

“Exactly, that’s why I’m here. I have to tell you everything.”

“You didn’t tell me everything when it happened. Why is it so important you tell me now?”

“I’ve been carrying this guilt around. I need to get it off my chest. I’ll understand if you’re mad at me, but you have to hear me out.”

We continued up the walkway toward the porch, opened the door, and entered the house. I motioned Linda to the living room where we sat down to hash it out. “You’re not here for me. You’re here for you. You’re feeling responsible and you want me to help relieve some of that guilt. I’m telling you it’s been a long day I need a minute.”

“Yes, do I feel responsible—of course I do, but not for what you think. I’m not going to give you time to make up this story. Let me tell you what actually happened, and if you’re mad I’m ready to deal.”

I crossed my arms and legs. “Okay, you’re here, what’s the story?”

“Jake did introduce me to Taylor, but that was a long time ago. I told him I was thinking about doing an anniversary party for us—Mitch and me, but nothing definite, which is why I never mentioned it. He said he knew somebody at work who does that, which is how I
talked to Taylor. I never
met
her.”

“I thought you said you met her.”

She shook her head. “Be clear, I never met her. I saw her for the first time with Jake at the restaurant.”

“So if you never met her, how did you know that was her at the restaurant?”

“I got that from you. You said that was who he was with. I put two and two together it wasn’t that hard to figure out.”

“Why didn’t Sanford just tell me he was out to dinner with you? Why all the secrecy?”

Linda took in a deep breath. She appeared conflicted. “Sanford wanted to talk to me. I agreed to meet him, and then we saw Jake and this woman and all hell broke loose.” Tears began to form in her eyes. “I’m sorry, but Sanford didn’t want you to know. Your friend saw Sanford, but she didn’t see me—so, I kept his confidence and didn’t tell you. You got mad at Sanford—it snowballed from there.”

“What were you talking about that was so serious you wouldn’t tell me?”

“My God, Alex, don’t you do this shit for a living? Isn’t it obvious?” She walked into the kitchen and returned with tissue.

“Apparently not,” I said.

“Well, I’m not here to enlighten you. The rest is not my place to tell—you have to get that from Sanford. I won’t betray him.” She sat back down. “I don’t think it matters now, anyway.”

I stood up, full of nervous energy. “What doesn’t matter?”

Linda stood up and gathered her things then walked to the front door, leaving me standing alone in the living
room. “I’m truly sorry if I hurt you. I’ll still pay for the trip, but I’m not going. Maybe that’ll give you time to figure this out.

I felt Easton’s eyes studying me. After what seemed like a minute or two, he said, “You’re so beautiful, but you look tired. Anything I can help with?” He made me feel at ease.

“I wish you could. My life is reading like a Greek tragedy right now, with me in the lead.”

He smiled. “Maybe this is the part where the hero shows up.”

I smiled. “Perhaps it is.”

“Let me try and take your mind off of things. First, I need to know if you absolutely have to go back to work.”

I looked up in search of a reason why I did. Nothing came to mind that I couldn’t reschedule. “You know what? I do, but I’ll call Karen and have her reorganize everything.”

I pulled out the cellular, excused myself from the table, and called Karen. She thought that after my argument with Linda taking the afternoon off would be a good idea.
Truly, how much help could I be to my clients when I’m in need of some
intervention myself?
Easton was willing to provide it.
I just hope he’s up for the task
. I returned to our table. “Okay, I’m all yours, but I have one request.”

“For you beautiful lady, anything. What do you want?”
God, it sounds good to hear a man say, whatever I want. I don’t think I’ve ever heard those words uttered to me. Easton is getting serious points with me already
. I smiled. “I want to get out of here and pick up something we can eat at a park. Can we do that?”

“We sure can—any park in particular?”

“We’re in Mason, so I don’t know where the closest park is, but I need the peace right now. I think the park can get me there.”

“Let’s go.”

Easton got out of his chair and motioned for me to walk in front of him. We left the restaurant and submitted the valet ticket. We settled on leaving my car there, and taking his truck.

Easton pulled into the nearest convenience store. When he got back he had directions to Sullivan Park, not far from where we were. The park was perfect. He turned on some music and retrieved a blanket from the back of his truck, laying it out in the sun for me before bringing out food he’d bought at the store. We each grabbed a soda from the bag. He poured them out and refilled the bottles with wine.

The park, quiet since most people were at work, seemed a million miles away from everyone and everything. I could smell Fall approaching. It was shaping up to be a pleasant day, with good food—well, edible food—wine, and Easton.

Easton folded his jacket into a makeshift pillow for me. I listened to my song, while the warmth of the sun speckled my body through the changing leaves. I hadn’t gotten a chance to really look at Easton. He looked different from when I’d first met him. He seemed taller, too. He was really cute. I hadn’t seen his body before, but I could see the shape of his chest through a starched white shirt. Mama likes.
Maybe I’ve been putting my energy into the wrong person
.

Easton lay down beside me, and I thought,
this is really nice. It will be even nicer if I can stop staring at him
.

“You want to talk about your day?” he asked.

“Well, it wasn’t my day that was bad, it was my evening—last night. I got into a disagreement with my sister.”

“Is she your only sister?”

“Ah no—not hardly . . . there’s seven of us. She’s right above me. We are—well, we
were
extremely close.” I paused. “I shouldn’t say that . . . we’re still close.”

“Why did you say you were playing the role of the lead in a bad play?”

I’d forgotten I’d said that. “Well, you see—wait, are you sure you want to hear this? It really doesn’t put me in the best light.”

“I don’t care if it doesn’t make you look good. I just want to help you if I can.”

“You’re sweet, but you can’t help me. My sister kept something from me—well, I felt like it was a betrayal. She doesn’t seem to think so. What I learned yesterday has changed everything for me. Now my up is down and left is right. Up until yesterday my life made sense to me, now I’m questioning everything and everybody.” I took a deep
breath. “I’m still hurt by what she did.” I paused. “I told you I was divorced, right?”

“Yeah, I think you did, but you didn’t go into any details.”

“I’ve been divorced about four or five years. My ex’s . . . his name is Jake.”

“So what happened to Jake?”

“He’s still around. We were together yesterday at the doctor’s with his mother.”

“Oh, you’re still cordial with his mother? You must be okay with him considering you were with him yesterday.”

“Well, there is nothing like a good old-fashioned crisis to bring people together. In our case the crisis is his mother. We hadn’t talked in a long time because of Jake not wanting us to. Anyway, we hadn’t talked in a long time. Jake’s an only child, so what are you going to do?” I shrugged. “To be honest, I was okay with us not talking. Don’t get me wrong, it hurt, but despite your best attempts there are causalities in war. I needed to do what was best for me, so I back away from the relationship as gracefully as I could and didn’t look back.”

“What did you and Linda—it’s Linda, right? What did you argue about that has you rethinking your relationship with your sister?”

“Here’s the Reader’s Digest version. My husband continued to date after we got married, so I divorced him.”

“A lot of men feel that monogamy isn’t realistic for a man.”

I took a sip of wine as my eyes narrowed. “I’ve heard it all in my profession . . .
I don’t belong to you and you don’t belong to me. It goes against a man’s nature to have one woman.
We’re not property or possessions—oh, and the free will one which is my personal favorite
. My response is why get married? If a man feels they don’t want to go against his law of nature then don’t enter into the law of the land. Marriage.”

“Okay, Alex, I said a lot of men, not me.”

“I’m sorry,” I winced. “I’m just an angry black woman right now. I should have warned you I’ve played that role longer than I care to remember.”

Easton patted me on the leg. “So keep telling me what happened.”

“Taylor, in the role of the mistress and part of the reason, though not the whole reason, Jake and I ultimately went our separate ways. Now Linda, my sister, was with my friend Sanford and saw Jake out with Taylor, but didn’t tell me.”