Royce (32 page)

“Well I know it was her, the nasty bitch,” Amanda continued.  She’d been with Royce and he insisted on wearing a condom and the times she was with him as the night went on she longed to say, “Don’t bother I’m okay without it if you are,” longing to feel him inside her, feel him thick against her walls, his skin against hers, but she didn’t have the courage. “Mark my words she said something to him to make him not wear one.  I don’t know what it was, but she did and now all of you have to suffer for it.”  Amanda was on a tangent, and this wasn’t the first time she’d interfered in Royce’s life, it was her who put the idea in Collin’s head to force him and Joy apart at The Club and now her words buoyed Tammy. 

Tammy had always felt that way, that it was Joy, that Royce wouldn’t have betrayed her like that.  All he was trying to do was help Joy, helping her feel comfortable and somehow he got caught up.  “You think she did it on purpose?”  She said to Amanda, feeling shored up now that she knew Amanda was on her side. “I wouldn’t put it past her, who knows?”  And after that conversation she wanted to tear someone eyes out, preferably Joy’s.

Joy was happy.  The past weeks with Royce had breathed new life into her and she filled her lungs.  She didn’t know how much she loved hearing his car pull into the driveway and her heart would pound with excitement as if to say
he’s here, Royce is here. 

She didn’t know how much she’d love having him around.  His life was intertwining with hers so fluidly they hardly missed a beat.  She didn’t know how much she missed feeling a man’s weight draped all over her as he slept and feeling safe and secure in his embrace. 

She didn’t know how much she needed to feel free and let herself open and let go and let him make love to her without pain.  How she missed having a man fill her body with pleasure with his strokes.  She opened her legs and let Royce push deep inside her knowing she was safe and he was doing it for the pure pleasure of it and she raised her own legs up and let him have her. 

And he did have her he came to her every night and took her in his arms and loved her, his sweet hot breath kisses on her neck, and she knew that when he wanted her to take him to a place only he knew he would turn her over on her belly and kiss and suck hard on her round swells leaving his telltale hickeys.  Then he’d raise her up and say it, “You know what I want, fuck me,” and she’d move on him, release her body on him and when he could hold on no longer he would lose himself to the pleasure.  She would feel him go lax barely able to hold on and she would love feeling him like that.  She loved knowing she could do that do a man and she felt her strength and power coming back, and after these past weeks she finally knew what it was about Royce. 

She’d always felt it, always felt that draw, that pull to him, and now looking in his blue eyes and seeing him smile at her she knew she loved Royce, had probably loved him since their time at The Club
. 
She knew she always longed to see him, but she’d always had that pull, and now she knew it was love, she loved Royce.

Now she had to do something about Michael.  He was behaving like a complete asshole, just the other day had the gall to say, “Don’t forget I pay the bills over there.  Tell your fucking lover that!”  She didn’t know how he found out, probably one of the neighbors, but that’s why she had Royce park in the garage so the nosy neighbors wouldn’t have anything to talk about, but Michael found out and she was fuming.  She didn’t hold back or walk on eggshells around him anymore, “You left me remember and you had a lover first,” and hung up.

When Michael first left Joy he needed that break from her, he needed to be away from her, it was good, it gave him time to clear his head, to think.  He couldn’t think around her, all he felt was his broken heart.  She’d broken his heart and when he was around her all he felt was pain, and being away from her helped and he wasn’t in a hurry to see her again.  He knew he wasn’t doing right by the kids when he hadn’t seen them for weeks, but he needed space, even calling and hearing her answer the phone sent him back there, back to the pain, so it did him good to be away.  But after weeks he missed his kids, missed his life with her, missed Joy.  He loved her and knew he probably always would.  She was the kind of woman you married and loved, she was just made for that. 

After weeks he decided to go home.  He drove to La Casa Madrid and punched in the code and drove down to Guadalupe Street and what did he see?  He saw Royce’s car, his steel blue Mercedes pulling into his driveway, saw his garage door going up and Royce pulling into his spot.  He turned his car around and as he drove away he saw in his rearview mirror his garage door going down like he was home, “The bastard acts like he lives there!”  He was pissed and mad as hell at Joy, now he knew there had been something going on between them.  How long?  This was too quick for him to be this comfortable in his home.  And the next day he met Amanda in a downtown hotel and let it slip about the condom.

And now Joy wanted a divorce and he won’t let her have one. “It’s done Michael, I don’t know how it can be repaired,” she’d said repeatedly.  He knew it had been coming from the moment Royce found them.  It could have worked if Royce hadn’t shown up in their lives.  He would have accepted Justin, he would have just been a reminder of what he’d done to Joy, to his marriage.  He would have needed that so he would never do anything like that again, but Royce showed up and reminded him every day of what happened between him and Joy and he felt the unraveling then.  Royce was his biggest fear.  When he asked Joy how he found them and she said, “I don’t know,” but he knew, it was the same way he’d found her. 

When she’d given him her address at the party and the next weekend he drove to Philadelphia.  He didn’t know a thing about Philadelphia, but he knew he wanted to find that girl.  He took I-95 to Philadelphia, and once he got there he drove around and around lost, all he had was an address and the information Joy gave him when she wrote it down, “I live in South Philly in Point Breeze.  It’s well known so it’s not hard to find,” she’d said and he must have stopped a dozen people asking for help finding her street, “Do you know where Greenbrier Court is in Point Breeze?”  He kept going and he must have been all over Philadelphia.  He drove around almost two hours until he found her, turning here where one person told him, turning there from another until, “Take Vine Freeway and a right on South Twenty-second, that’ll get you there,” a man on the corner told him and he found Joy.  Love found her, and Royce had been the same. 

All he had was an address and love did the rest.  He knew then at that moment Royce could love her more than he did, that Royce was the better man for her right now.  He’d known how much he loved her when he saw him on his knees crying out his love for her, only a man deeply in love would make a desperate plea like that for everyone to hear, even he couldn’t have done that.  He’d rather lie through his teeth than expose his feelings like that in front of everyone and now the reality was here.  Royce had her and she wanted a divorce and he couldn’t let her go.

After Tammy’s conversation with Amanda it stayed on her mind that that bitch Joy had somehow convinced Royce not to wear a condom and ruined her life.  That weekend it was Royce’s weekend to take the kids and that Friday the kids ran out the door as usual, all smiles and happy to see their father and now she knew Joy stayed over to help with the bastard.  She was burning inside at the thought of that, Joy under the same roof with Royce and her kids.  She went to the wine cooler and took out an expensive bottle of wine uncorked it and turned the bottle up to her lips and drank it down.  Then she went to the cooler and took out another uncorked it and when she was good and thoroughly drunk she dialed Royce’s number. 

Royce heard the phone ring and went to answer it.  They were sitting in the family room watching a movie, Joy lying against his chest and Justin resting against her with his Mr. Bear.  The phone rang and it startled them, the phone hardly rang now that he had a cell phone.  He eased from under Joy, already missing her warmth and glanced at the caller ID, “T. Harrington,”
Oh Tammy
, w
hat could she want?
  She hardly ever called since he told her not too, she’d only called a couple times and both were regarding his family.  Her plot to win points he was sure, once because she was sending the kids to spend a few weeks at the ranch and the other was over Thanksgiving and he had to endure that insufferable visit.  His father was pissed at him for divorcing Tammy and having a baby with another woman. “For a negra Royce?  For a negra,” and he gave him a look like,
I don’t understand you,
“You divorced your wife over that!” His father said, “Over that!”    He knew his father was racist in the way of all privileged white people.  There were those who deserved all the benefits of being American and there were those that didn’t.

Now he saw Tammy’s number on his caller ID and he wondered what insufferable family event had she set up now?  He decided to answer, “Hello.” “Is that bitch Joy over there Royce?  I don’t want her near my children, you hear me!  You hear me!”  Tammy yelled and slurred in the phone and he knew she was drunk. “Oh go to hell Tammy!” He said too loud and too angry and slammed the phone in the receiver and everyone turned to stare at him.

But even with that little outburst he wouldn’t let Tammy bring him down.  He was having the time of his life.  He had Joy every night, every night he went home to Joy and he couldn’t have been happier, he practically lived at her house.  When he told her he wanted to be her boyfriend and spend time with her he didn’t know he meant every moment he wasn’t working, but once he got off work he went straight to Joy’s he couldn’t think of any other place he wanted to be, and she always had dinner going and he loved being in the kitchen with her.  He only went home to get more clothes and work out.  He only stayed at his house on his weekends with the kids.  He was walking on a cloud he was so happy being with her but he wanted things to move further.

Thinking of Joy and this situation he scanned through his rolodex and dialed, “Jameson, this is Royce Harrington,  I need you to look into someone for me.” “Yes, it should be easy you know him, you’ve had to find him before, its’ Michael Abrams.”  “Uh huh, yes he’s seeing another woman…yes…yes she knows…This information is for her,” he answered Jameson’s questions and gave him the particulars, “Yes, I want to know who he’s seeing. I want everything you can find on him, everything, I want you to dig so deep in his ass I want to know how many times he takes a shit in a day.”   It was clear Michael wasn’t going to give her a divorce, now he had to help move things along.  He knew Joy wanted one, he’d seen to that.

After loving her these past weeks he knew there was no way he was leaving her, he loved her too much, “I want more Joy,” he said to her as he lay on top of her to love her and he looked deep in her eyes, “I love you Joy and I love being with you but it’s not enough I want more.” “Oh baby, I’m trying to be reasonable with him, I’m trying to work it out, just give me time.”  “How much time Joy, how much time is enough?”  He’d said in frustration, “I want us to move past this…this limbo, okay,” he kissed her then, and showed her how much he loved her and she responded and he knew she’d been working Michael to give her a divorce.  He’d heard her on the phone and he’d hired his divorce attorney and Michael had refused to sign or agree to anything.  He was an attorney and knew how to prolong cases and that’s what Royce was afraid of that he’d keep Joy and that meant him in limbo for years.

After that call the next week he met Jameson at The Meridian and he handed him a large orange envelope. “I think I have everything you need in here.  The pictures were hard to come by, but I got what I could, it’s all in there.” “Thanks I’ll let you know if it’s enough,” and as soon as he got in the car he opened the file and there was Michael in the lobby of a hotel meeting Amanda, and his mouth dropped.  The next pictures were of them in the hotel room, it was grainy, like it was taken from far away and through the sheer hotel curtains but it was them, naked in bed.  He flipped to the next picture and it was of a woman he didn’t know and these were taken at a house and he seemed at home with this woman. They were eating dinner, doing normal stuff and then they were in bed together.  He flipped on and his mouth dropped again, there was Gina Spot.  Michael was meeting her at a different hotel, and this time the pictures weren’t grainy the person was in the room.  There weren’t any naked shots, but the pictures seemed just as intimate.  There were shots of Gina in a bathrobe, and Michael in his suit pants and no shirt.  Royce was impressed with the work Jameson had done and shocked that he was sleeping with three women and two of them he knew. 

Michael wanted Joy back.  Even though he knew he was fooling himself thinking they could work things out, especially since she’d asked for a divorce so many times now he’d lost count.   And him what was he doing, he wanted Joy but he was also getting more involved with a woman he met at Barristers named Tanya Bennett.  She’d come with her friends one night, and they sat her beside him, “Here sit, if you don’t want to be bothered by men he is safe, we know him,” her friend said and that was that they started talking.  She was from Bosnia and had come to America when she married an American Army sergeant.  Now she was divorced with two children, and he was starting to like her, so why was he fighting so hard to get Joy back,
because you love her and you don’t want Royce to have her,
that was it.  If he just loved her maybe he could let her go, let her be happy, but Royce, he was the one that threw the wrench in it.  His hatred ran deep seeing him with Joy. 

To Michael, Royce had unexpectedly come into his life like a plague and proceeded to wipe out, tear down and destroy everything he’d built, and he wasn’t prepared for it and nor did he know how to fight against it.  But fight he would, he was fighting hard to keep Joy, he’d asked her to meet him at his office, “Let’s talk face to face, you and me, no lawyers, just us, husband and wife,” he said and she agreed and was coming over today.