Lady Elect (20 page)

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Authors: Nikita Lynnette Nichols

BOOK: Lady Elect
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He had sacrificed his relationship with his first cousin when he'd stolen Monique's heart from him. Even before Arykah knew that Adonis was in love with Monique, she, herself, was smitten with him. But Adonis only had eyes for Monique; therefore, Arykah had to back off. There was no way Adonis would jeopardize his marriage. Monique was his everything.
“Bishop Lance prepared some appetizers for us. Let's all go into the kitchen.”
“Can you take us on a tour of the house first, Lady Arykah?” Darlita asked. She had been waiting all week long to see if the rumors about the bishop's house were true.
“Oh yes, take us on a tour,” Chelsea said.
Monique sat down on the sofa. She sized Chelsea up from her feet to her face. She was built like a bitter grapefruit. Chelsea was yellow in complexion with freckles on her face and neck. She was also wide and round.
I'm gonna have to watch this chick
, Monique thought.
“Okay, sure,” Arykah responded to both Chelsea and Darlita's request. “First, I'll take you ladies down to the lower level to see the bishop's gym and the home theater.”
“Home theater?” Gladys asked. “This really
is
a mansion.”
Monique opted to stay seated on the sofa in the living room. She was a regular at the Howell home, so she didn't feel the need to follow Arykah around on the tour. Monique didn't wanna be bothered with Chelsea anyway. Chelsea had motives. Her aura was suspect and questionable. Monique thought that it was only a matter of time before Arykah realized that Chelsea wanted more than just a hookup to get fitted boots. She had an agenda.
“Oh, my goodness. Would you look at the size of that screen?” Gladys said as soon as Arykah opened the door to the home theater. “I've never seen anything so big. What size is it?” she asked Arykah.
“That's a wall projector,” Arykah answered. “But I have no clue what size it is. I'd have to ask the bishop.”
Darlita sat down in one of the ten oversized plush La-Z-Boy recliners. “Oh, wow. I could get used to this.”
“Do you and the bishop spend a lot of time in this room?”
“The bishop much more than me,” Arykah answered Chelsea's question. “He and I try to do a movie night at least once a week, but this is definitely his hangout on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Whenever you see the bishop rushing me out of the church doors after the benediction, he's usually trying to get home to some kind of game. Monique and I are often forgotten for hours while he and Adonis yell at that big screen.”
“So, Adonis spends a lot of time here, huh?” Chelsea asked.
What's up with this broad and all the questions?
Arykah wondered. “Well, he
and
his wife, Monique. You remember her, right? The woman upstairs in my living room. She's Adonis's wife.” Arykah wanted to make it perfectly clear to Chelsea that whatever game she was playing or whatever plot she was brewing wasn't going to work. “Monique is my very best friend, and because she and I are close, the bishop and Adonis have become good friends as well.”
“Amen,” Gladys murmured. She knew exactly what Chelsea was doing and she understood where Arykah was coming from.
After the tour of the home theater and gym, Arykah took the ladies back up to the main level to the master bedroom. When Arykah opened the double doors she heard all three ladies gasp at the same time.
“All I gotta say, Lady Arykah, is that I wanna be just like you when I grow up.”
Arykah laughed at Darlita. “Your king will come, Darlita.”
“Yeah, but I gotta get rid of the frog first.”
“I do believe that my entire two-bedroom apartment would fit inside this one room,” Gladys said. “This is crazy huge.”
“And look at how big this bed is,” Chelsea said before sitting on the chocolate-colored silk comforter and lying down on it. “Is this a California king-sized bed?”
What the—??? No, this tramp ain't lying on my bed.
“Get up from my bed, Chelsea,” Arykah demanded.
“Chelsea, what is
wrong
with you?” Gladys asked her. “Why would you even think of lying on their bed?”
Chelsea stood from the bed. “So, this is where the action happens, huh, Lady Arykah? Can the bishop lay it down in the bedroom like he lays it down in the pulpit?”
Darlita gasped. “Oh my God.”
“Girl, are you high?” Gladys couldn't believe Chelsea's gall.
How dare she come into their pastors' home and disrespect it? Chelsea's inappropriate behavior is exactly why black folks aren't invited to nice places,
Gladys thought. She was embarrassed. “I can't believe you just asked Lady Arykah that question. Where is the respect?”
Chelsea looked at Arykah. She really didn't mean to be disrespectful. “I'm sorry, Lady Arykah. I don't know what came over me. I was so excited to be here and be a part of your evening that I lost control. Please forgive me. I never intended to overstep my bounds with you, and I certainly didn't intend to disrespect you or your home in any way.”
Had it only been she and Chelsea present, Arykah would have gone to war with her.
Arykah would have told Chelsea about herself and maybe even dismissed Chelsea from her home altogether.
It was obvious that Chelsea had a problem. Maybe she had an attention deficit disorder, or Chelsea could very well be bipolar. Arykah didn't know what her issue was at that moment, but it was clear to everyone that Chelsea was a little off balance. From the moment she entered Arykah's front door, her mood, tone, and behavior suggested that she lacked common sense.
Arykah didn't know why Chelsea was acting out. Maybe Chelsea felt comfortable misbehaving because Arykah had shared with the ladies how she role-played for Lance. From now on, Arykah would be very careful what she shared with anyone. “It's okay, Chelsea. You just need to calm down,” Arykah said. “Lying on my bed wasn't a cool thing to do, though.”
Gladys and Darlita stood in the middle of Arykah's bedroom wondering what Chelsea would do next. Both of them felt that Arykah would've been justified if she asked Chelsea to leave her home. But the three of them carpooled in Darlita's car. If Arykah put Chelsea out, she'd have to find her own transportation home because neither Darlita nor Gladys was going to miss out on what Lady Arykah promised to be an evening to remember.
“I apologize, Lady Arykah.” Chelsea looked from Arykah to Darlita and Gladys. “I apologize to all of you.”
“You should apologize to Monique too, Chelsea,” Gladys advised. “She doesn't know you from a can of paint, but you came at her from a bad angle. You basically implied that her husband isn't acting like he's married.”
“You're right, Gladys. I'll go and talk to Monique right now.”
Arykah, Darlita, and Gladys all watched Chelsea leave the bedroom.
“Wow,” Darlita said when she was sure that Chelsea was out of hearing range.
Gladys chuckled. “Lady Arykah, I wish you could've seen the look on your own face when Chelsea plopped down on your bed. Your mouth fell open.”
“She almost got jumped on,” Arykah laughed. “But I'm trying to stay in first-lady mode.”
“Can we move on to your closet, Lady Arykah?”
Huh?
Arykah panicked. She wanted to play dumb and ignore Darlita, but Arykah had clearly heard her question. Arykah's pleasure chest was in her closet. She knew the ladies would want to see the house but Arykah never thought Darlita would ask to see her closet. “My closet?”
“Yep, that's what I wanna see. Chelsea, Gladys, and I were talking last week at the restaurant and your wardrobe came up. We were saying that in the six months you've been at Freedom Temple, you haven't worn a repeater. I know your closet has to be gigantic.” Darlita was honest about being nosy.
Being a pastor's wife put Arykah under a microscope. And it was no secret that she loved to dress nicely. Indeed, she was a shopaholic and had plenty of dresses, suits, and skirts for church. Arykah was exquisite and “vanity” was her middle name. But she had no idea that folks were watching her that closely to know that she hadn't worn a repeater in six months. She herself really hadn't paid that much attention and didn't do it intentionally.
Darlita noticed Arykah's hesitation. “Come on, Lady Arykah. We know you got some fly threads. Are you gonna show us your closet or what?”
“Uh, sure,” Arykah said. She didn't mind Gladys and Darlita seeing her clothes, handbags, and shoes. Her pleasure chest was hidden in her closet beneath long dresses. Arykah didn't know what she would do if either Gladys or Darlita saw the chest and asked what was in it. Exposing the reality that she and Lance were total freaks was something that she would never do. Because of what just happened with Chelsea, Arykah didn't know what she'd do if the ladies found out about the props she and Lance entertained themselves with. Their toys and battery-operated gadgets had to remain their secret. She prayed the chest wouldn't be seen.
Arykah stepped to her walk-in closet door and pressed her left thumb against a black magnet that was mounted beneath the door handle. Gladys and Darlita saw a red light on the magnet turn to green, then they heard a click.
“You have
got
to be kidding me.” Gladys was dumbfounded when Arykah turned the doorknob and pulled it open. “Only
your
thumbprint will open the door?”
“That's right, Gladys,” Arykah answered. “A girl needs her private sanctuary.”
“So, the bishop can't get in here?” Darlita asked.
“Nope. He has his office for his personal space, and I have my closet that I use for my private time with God. The bishop's closet is next to mine.”
“He has a lock on his office door?” Gladys asked.
Arykah looked into Gladys's eyes. “Chile, please. He knows better. There's only one door in this house that locks, and it's
my
closet.”
Darlita walked into Arykah's closet with her mouth open wide. Her eyes were the size of golf balls. She tried to see all of the contents of the closet in one glance but couldn't do it. Darlita looked all around as though she were a child entering Walt Disney World for the first time. The closet was the size of a large bedroom. Dresses, slacks, and blouses, some with tags dangling from sleeves, hung on wooden hangers. The same exact hangers that Darlita had seen on the racks at Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom's.
In the middle of the closet was an island with rose-colored granite. Drawers were all around the island, and Darlita guessed they held Arykah's jewelry, belts, scarves, and undergarments. At the far end of the closet was a floor-to-ceiling mirror covering an entire wall.
All of Arykah's shoes, two hundred pairs, were in glass shoe boxes. Twenty shoe boxes were stacked on ten racks. Darlita saw that the highest rack was over eight feet tall, but she didn't see a ladder anywhere in the closet. “How on earth do you get to the shoes on the top rack?”
Arykah pressed a button on the wall just inside the closet. The racks started to rotate.
Gladys stood in disbelief as she watched the racks move. They put her in the mind of the big spinning wheel on
The Price Is Right
. When the highest rack had lowered to Darlita's waist level, Arykah pushed the button on the wall again. The racks stopped moving.
“That's how,” she said to Darlita.
“I've never seen anything quite like this,” Gladys said. “What gave you the idea of putting a revolving shoe rack in your closet?”
“I watch the HGTV Channel faithfully. I'm always amazed at the latest designs and gadgets they put in new homes. If I see something that I like, I get it. The revolving shoe rack was installed after I almost fell off a ladder while trying to reach a shoe box that was way too high.”
Darlita looked at all of Arykah's shoes through the glass boxes and noticed something about them. “Lady Arykah, not one heel is lower than five inches.”
“The taller the heel, the sexier I feel,” Arykah stated.
“But how can you walk in them?”
“Every stiletto isn't made for walking, Gladys.” Arykah opened a glass shoe box and pulled out a black stiletto. It had a six-and-a-half-inch heel with a two-inch platform. The stiletto was designed by Jessica Simpson. “For instance,” she said, “this style is called the Beckery. This right here wasn't made for walking. The pair came with instructions. You're supposed to put them on when you get to your destination, then sit down, cross your legs, and look stunning. I may be able to walk in these to the ladies' room if it's close, but the the Beckery design is definitely a ‘sit-down' type of stiletto.”
“Is there a certain type of class you take for learning how to walk in heels that high?” Darlita asked. The heel Arykah held in her hand was longer than half of a ruler. She just couldn't imagine balancing herself on them.

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