Southern Gossip: A Complicated Love Story (17 page)

“Nonsense,” Mama Gray said. “I invited the both of you here and I want you to stay.” She then looked in Jennifer’s direction. “Just calm down and don’t ruin breakfast. Jada isn’t here for Marlon.”

“And she better not be here for A’keem either,” Regina said as she appeared in the doorway of the family dining room. A’keem’s eyes widened from shock of seeing her there. He didn’t invite her, so why was she there?

“Regina, what are you doing here?” A’keem instantly asked.

Mama Gray immediately frowned with a look of uncertainty in her eyes as she glanced over at Seth and whispered, “Harpo, who is dis woman?”

Seth shook his head and grinned. “This keeps getting better and better,” he said under his breath almost wanting to laugh. He and Mama Gray had a way of playing off of each other’s mischievous behavior which was probably one of the reasons why they were so close.

“Why are you on pictures with her kissing like that as if you’re not seeing anyone?” she questioned while pointing at Jada.

A’keem frowned like he was confused as Jada and Tara just shook their heads at the madness surrounding them. “Regina, are you serious right now?” he asked.

“Very,” Regina answered. A part of her felt crazy for being there uninvited, but another part of her was willing to do whatever it took to fight for her man. There was no way that Jada was coming back to wreck what she’d started building with him.

“First off, we’re not doing this right here, right now.” A’keem said.

“Me either,” Jada said as she stood up. She was trying desperately to keep her cool. Tara followed suit as she stood up, too. “Mama Gray, we just want to say thanks for the invite. The food was good, but we’ll be leaving now.” Jada informed her. She already had a hangover and if one more person tried her it was going to take Jesus to get her off of them.

Mama Gray just shook her head. The women of today’s society seemed to have lost all respect for their elders or either they were foolish in love and couldn’t control their emotions. “I’m sorry girls.” Mama Gray said to them.

“It’s not your fault.” Tara said while giving Jennifer then Regina the side eye. “I guess a Kent woman just can’t catch a break around here, but just wait until we see y’all again outside of this plantation.”

Seth grinned to himself. He hadn’t seen this much action in a while. He knew that the Kent’s were no pushovers, but apparently Jennifer and Regina didn’t know. He stood up. “Let me walk y’all out.”

“No, I’ll walk them out.” A’keem said standing up from his chair. Regina was appalled as she stood there.

“So you don’t see me here?” She questioned.

“You ain’t even introduced yourself to my family; yet you’re in my grandma’s house talking trash about who I can and can’t see. I think I need to be walking you out with them.” A’keem said in the nicest way possible. Inside he really wanted to let her have it, but he’d never disrespect his grandma or his father and uncle like that. 

Regina was embarrassed enough and was already regretting how she had showed up uninvited. “No worries. I’ll walk myself out.” She said feeling like a fool now while looking at A’keem almost with tears in her eyes. And after saying that, she made a quick exit out of the house.

Jada and Tara weren’t far behind her as A’keem and Seth walked them out just to make sure that they didn’t jump on Regina once outside of the house.

Mr. Gray looked over at his brother, and then over at Mama Gray and shook his head.  He was feeling like the Kent and the Gray drama was back on the rise and unfortunately, he was now back involved in the mix of it.

Mama Gray turned up her glass filled with her favorite red wine. The unsettling expression on her face indicated more than what she’d bargained for by inviting the Kent’s over for breakfast. “Lynn and that damn gossip column of hers.” She said with an irritated shake of the head. “I guess we’re in for a really heated summer now.” She commented then went back to drinking from her glass.

Chapter 12

The next morning, Lynn walked inside of the Southern Hospitality Nail Spa during her weekly routine visit. She went straight over to the wall shelf to find which polish she wanted to wear for the week. The various nail polish colors by Essie were lined up and down the wall shelf. She closely looked at the pretty shades of colors while deciding which one she wanted to go with. 

Sitting on the other side of the nail salon were two women, one getting her nails done and the other sitting beside her as she waited patiently for her friend’s finishing touches. To occupy her time, she flipped through the Weekly Times Newspaper looking for the gossip column that spoke about the most popular residents’ of the city, especially those that lived on the wealthy soil of the Gray Plantation.

The friend that was getting her nails done glanced around the nail salon and spotted Lynn looking at the nail polish. She immediately tapped her home girl sitting next to her, and then whispered. “Isn’t that Lynn Hilton, the owner of the Weekly Times Newspaper that you’re reading?”

The homegirl instantly looked in Lynn’s direction with a surprised expression on her face. “Yep, that’s her.” She answered.

“See, I told you that we’d run into some local celebrities if we came here.” She said with a smile on her face.

“Yeah, because who would’ve thought that Dr. Celeste Gray would’ve been here too.” She said looking in the back of the salon and seeing Celeste getting a fresh pedicure while also reading through the Weekly Times Newspaper. “Oooooh, I bet she’s reading the gossip column.”

The friend laughed a little while checking out her freshly painted manicured nails. “Yeah and I bet that she’s in it, too.”

“She always is,” The homegirl said then quickly flipped through the paper and found the gossip column called, ‘Here’s the Tea.’ She scanned it then burst out, “Yep, you’re right! Here she is right here,” she said showing her friend the newspaper with Dr. Celeste Gray’s name in it.

“Shhhh, don’t bring any attention over here. Now read the tea and tell me what it’s about.”

“Will do,” her homegirl said then began reading.

Meanwhile, Lynn grabbed the nail polish named Big Spender. It was a lush red-violet cream color. She was heading out of the country the next morning on a luxurious vacation and she would surely be shopping her entire trip.

“This will certainly match my personality while I’m away.” She said then headed to the back of the salon as one of the salon employees walked up to her.

“Hello Mrs. Hilton. You’re two days early. Are you here for your weekly pedicure and manicure?”

“Yes,” Lynn said with a smile as the salon employee walked her to the massage chair for her to sit down to get her pedicure done.

Celeste frowned while hearing a very familiar voice in her ear. She removed the newspaper out of her face to see who was sitting down next to her. “My gosh,” she said with an attitude. “I didn’t know you’d be here today. Otherwise, I would’ve waited until the end of the week to come.”

“It’s good to see you too, Celeste.” Lynn said with an unnerving smile. She and Celeste didn’t get along even though they both lived just minutes away from each other on the Gray Plantation. “I see you’re reading the tea.”

“Yeah your infamous, dirty gossip column.”

Lynn smiled as she put her bare feet in the warm water. “If that’s what you want to call it, Celeste.” She said with a slight shrug of the shoulders.

Celeste closed up the newspaper and sat it down on her lap. She then looked over at Lynn with a cut look on her face. “I’m tired of you putting me and my family’s name in that ratchet gossip column of yours. Lies are all that paper tells to keep these delusional city folks buying it every Sunday. ”

Lynn sighed. She was always targeted by the local citizens that happened to make her gossip column. Either they were thrilled to be mentioned among the other’s that were well known and talked about or they were quite upset that she’d put their business on Front Street for everyone to speculate about.

“So, what was in the paper that you feel was a lie, Celeste?”

“For one, my husband is not seeing Denise Kent. I need you to stop making up lies about that. Secondly, my son may have been arrested, but it was only for suspended license. It wasn’t even that serious for you to print that mess.” She said trying to remain as professional as she could out in public, because throwing an array of curse words her way was really what she wanted to do.

Lynn rolled her eyes thinking,
here we go.
“First off, your son also had marijuana on him not just a suspended license. So, quit fronting like your boys are so good. Secondly, we have proof that your husband was seeing Denise. We have the pictures.”

“You have pictures that show him coming out of one restaurant door and pictures showing her coming out of another. You act like you caught them kissing or coming out of a hotel room together. My husband was there with his brother, not Denise Kent.” She said to defend her husband, Mayor Gray.

“Come on, Celeste. Why do you keep fooling yourself?” Lynn bluntly asked. “Your husband has been in love with Denise since they were kids. You’re only his wife, because Denise couldn’t make up her mind if she wanted him or his brother. Hm, for all we know she could’ve been there to see them both if that’s the case. Why not reminisce about the good ol’ days when she had both of them screwed up in the head?” She said then continued like she’d thought of another reliable argument to protest. “Hm, I wonder why we didn’t get any pictures of Evan though. It was probably because he wasn’t there that night with your husband.”

“Don’t make me get ugly in here with you, Lynn!” Celeste irritably said through gritted teeth. She hated that people thought of her as being Mayor Gray’s runner-up, but she’d earned her place in the Gray family regardless of how they felt about it. Working hard while getting her Doctorates degree and becoming the city’s finest Family Psychologist had certainly earned her stripes. She wasn’t worried about Denise, a woman that hadn’t earned anything, because she’d been given everything on a silver platter.

Lynn sat there with her expensive Hermes bag in her lap while pushing her long bangs out of her face. She shook her head at Celeste with a distasteful frown. “Celeste, just because Ian married you and y’all have two sons together doesn’t mean anything. It surely doesn’t mean that he’s not in love with Denise anymore. That’s something that you’ll never be able to deny. It’s rare to love like that.”

“Yeah whatever,” Celeste uttered. “It was a rare love that was left in the past many years ago by my husband and Denise,” she said with an attitude then looked at her pedicurist. “Please, will you hurry up? I’m not trying to be rude, but I just can’t today.”

“Can’t what, Celeste? Bare the truth.” Lynn asked.

“There is no truth to your scandalous paper. I only get it because you conveniently have one of your employees personally deliver it to my house. Of course I’m going to read it to see what fabricated lies that you’ve come up with for the week. The reason why it sells is because this city’s population is only about seven thousand. I call that pretty small and if you ask me some of their minds are even smaller to be following up anything that’s in, ‘Here’s The Tea.’ So, I don’t need you telling me anything about my family and especially my husband.”

“Yeah I guess you don’t have to worry about that, but you better be worried about Denise’s daughter being back in town. The same drama you went through back in the days with Denise in trying to keep your husband is now the same drama that Jada Kent is about to start up with your sons… Again,” she added.

“I’m not concerned about that, either. My sons have moved on. Just like Ian and Evan did years ago.” She said speaking of Mayor Gray’s brother. “I don’t care if she’s a Kent woman or not, one woman can’t please two men; especially brothers and think they’re going to keep falling out about her. They’ll eventually move on. I’m proof of that,” she said holding out her twenty carat, diamond wedding band to show her that she definitely meant business. “The same thing is going to happen to Jada if she thinks that she’s coming home to try and play with my boys. That isn’t going to happen this time around.”

“So, you say.” Lynn said with a half smile on her face like she enjoyed taunting Celeste about her marriage and her family. “It’s ironic how family history has repeated itself for three generations between the Kent’s and the Gray’s.”

“No, what’s ironic is that even though history keeps repeating itself there has never been a marriage or a complete union between a Kent woman and a Gray. So, I think that you should give it up already. That myth or story line is the only thing that keeps your paper relevant.”

“I have more things in my newspaper besides you and your family. However, I’ll print anything that’s worth releasing to keep the people in this city on their toes. If you don’t want to be a victim of my newspaper then leave your husband and move off of the plantation. That’s the only way you’ll be safe from me.”

“You know that’ll never happen, but wishful thinking.” Celeste said as the pedicurist finished up polishing her last toe. The ladies had certainly had their differences over the years and without a doubt they were probably each other’s worst enemy.

The minute the pedicurist was done Celeste quickly grabbed her leather, Limited Edition Birkin Bag and got up. “Thank God,” she said just above a whisper. She was just ready to get out of there.

Lynn grinned to herself, but admired Celeste’s chic outfit. She didn’t like her very much, but the woman had some stylishly expensive taste.

She looked at Lynn before walking out of the nail salon. “I’ll be glad when someone finally puts your business in that newspaper.”

“That’ll never happen. It’s my newspaper.” Lynn said.

“You better be glad it’s yours, because I’m sure that people would like to know who your real father is.” Celeste told her causing Lynn to frown as she looked at her feeling speechless for once. “For a woman that’s supposed to be biracial, you sure don’t look it. I heard that Ol’ man Gray was your father a long time ago. Could it be that you’re caught up in your feelings, because you weren’t raised up in the huge Gray family home with your possible siblings? Does it bother you that Ol’ man Gray was your father’s best friend, but was having sex with your mom? Or,” she said now taunting Lynn with a bitter taste of her own medicine. “Are you mad because Ol’ man Gray never claimed you? Let’s keep it real, Lynn. That’s probably the reason why you keep us in such a negative light in that no good newspaper of yours.”

Lynn hissed with an unpleasant mean mug on her face. “You sound like a delusional woman now, Celeste.” She responded while shaking her head and again tossing her naturally, dark brown hair out of face. “I’m not going there with you. Those are lies.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re not going there with me. Oh and lies you say...” She hesitated as if to say, wait for it. “Your skin color proves that’s the truth, not a lie.” Celeste responded with one hand on her hip. “Just remember, you’re not the only one with gossip. I think I might start a little bit of my own and show you what it feels like to be on the opposite end of the trash talk.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Lynn said with an irritated look on her face.

“Just watch and see.” Celeste said, and with that she walked off. As she stopped to the front counter to pay for her services, the two friends were getting ready to leave too.

One of the friends looked at her homegirl and questioned, “Did you see the tension between those two back there?” 

“Yes, I did, but could you blame Dr. Gray? Did you see what the newspaper was hinting around too concerning the Mayor with those pictures?” The homegirl questioned while still looking from Celeste to Lynn. They were like icons in the city and she just felt privileged to be sharing their space.

“Yeah, I saw that.” The friend said.

Celeste paid for her services then said to the salon employee. “I’m sure that Lynn Hilton can pay for her own services, but today it’s on me. Tell her to never say that I haven’t done anything for her.” She said while also handing the employee the money to pay for Lynn’s services. She turned to face the friends as she softly spoke. “Hi girls,” she said in the calmest tone ever, and then she walked out.