The Bad Twin (21 page)

“Lance when are you not hard?” Rose asked.

He walked up to her playfully and whispered in her ear, “It’s your fault. You’re so beautiful.”

She kissed him and continued to get dressed. “I’ll walk downstairs with you.”

After kissing Lance, they went their separate ways. She let Lance assume she had errands to run, but she wanted to get out of the house to spend the day alone.  She drove up the coast and found her favorite beach spot. She enjoyed traveling, but there was no place like home. Although Shreveport, Louisiana was her hometown, she had long ago adapted to Los Angeles as being her home. It had been a couple of years since she visited with her mother, so she made a mental note to make a special trip to the Bayou state

 She took out her blanket, her big umbrella, and a novel by Francis Ray. She discovered some time ago that this was the quietest spot along the beachfront.  Families or rowdy teenagers usually ventured to another part of the beach.

She stayed there for the entire day. Her mind was at ease. Her stomach growled reminding her she hadn’t eaten anything the entire day. She decided to get Chinese food. She got home and continued her day of leisure out on her patio.

She noticed that her voice mail light was blinking, but she ignored it and made a mental note to check her messages later.

She ate her food and relaxed with another novel. A light bulb went off in her head. The book she read while on the beach would make the perfect movie.  She could see herself playing the heroine role. She usually did suspense and comedy films, but now she wanted to venture off into other areas and doing a romantic movie that was not a romantic-comedy would be exciting.  She would pitch the book she just read to a couple of producers to see what their take on it would be. If not, she would get with the author and attempt to finance the project herself.  She fell asleep under the starlit night with the novel over her chest.

The next morning she felt rejuvenated. She cooked an omelet and afterward checked her messages. She had several messages from Lance and one from Pearle. She decided to take a long hot bath before returning phone calls.

She lathered her body with rose petal fragrance lotions and her favorite French floral scented perfume. She dressed casually in a white pair of Capri pants and white cotton top. She found a pair of white slip-on sandals, grabbed her cordless phone and a glass of lemonade and headed to her patio to make some phone calls.

The first call she made was to Pearle. “Hi.”

“Rose dear. How have you been? Your Mama is getting up in age, so you might want to call and check up on me more often.”

Rose crossed her legs. “Mama, you’re as healthy as I am.” She uncrossed her legs and sounded concerned. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Pearle coughed. “I’m fine. I just have a little cold.”

“Are you sure? I can get you the best medical attention if you need me to.  I wanted to surprise you, but I’ll be down to see you in a couple of weeks. I need to wrap up some loose ends here, but if you need me sooner, I’m only a plane ride away.”

“No baby. I’m fine. I’m taking the medicine the doctor gave me and I’m feeling better already.”

“Are you taking your insulin shots?”

“My sugar is fine. When exactly are you coming to visit?”

“It’ll be in a few weeks. I’ll call you a day or two before I come.”

“Good. I’m not going to keep you long. I know you’re a busy lady.”

 “You make me sound like I don’t have time for my own Mama,” she said as she drank the last drop of her lemonade.

Pearle coughed again. “No dear, that’s not what I’m implying. Just hurry up and come see me okay. I better get off here now. Love you.”

“Love you too.” She hung the phone up and wondered if Pearle had been telling her everything.

She immediately found her palm pilot and checked her next available date. She called the airlines and made reservations. She let out a sigh of frustration, because under normal circumstances, she would have had an assistant take care of things like this, but after Lisa betrayed her years ago, she could never find an assistant that she truly trusted. She handled the major things through Carmen and her office, and everything else she personally took care of herself.

She was always happy to talk with Pearle, but it also left a bout of sadness.  When Violet first stopped talking to her, she assumed in time she would come around, so she poured herself into acting and singing.  As months went by, they were not making any progress. When Pearle told her Violet had moved to another city, it broke her heart and spirit. She knew it was a very slim chance of them reconciling.  She only knew what was going on with Violet if Pearle volunteered the information.  She cherished the two times of year that she would hear from Violet and those were during her birthday and Christmas. She never heard her voice, but would get a beautiful card in the mail acknowledging those two days. Other than that, she had given up hope.

***

My dear sister, the one time I was telling you the truth, caused a rip between us that’s lasted for more years than I care to count. I hope one day you’ll be able to forgive me.

***

Rose wiped tears from her eyes with her hand.  “What is wrong with me? I can’t let this get me down.”  She reached for the phone and made the rest of her phone calls.

VIOLET

Janice and Violet ended up rushing to the airport. They overslept and Violet didn’t count on Monday traffic being as horrendous as it turned out to be. “Janice, call me when you get there.”

Janice gave her a quick tight hug. “I will and don’t forget about what I said about Rose. Just think about it.”

“You won’t stop will you?”

“Not as long as I’m your friend, you can count on it.”

They hugged again and Janice went to catch her flight.

Violet had some free time, so she decided to do something she hadn’t done in awhile and that was shop. She pulled up to the nearest mall and ended up buying herself four new outfits and a couple of sexy lingerie items. Although she didn’t really date, she liked to feel sexy and satin or lace lingerie made her feel that way. As she was walking out the door to her car with all of her bags, David’s niece opened the door for her.

“Aunt Violet.”

“Cherokee.”

“Nice seeing you again; my uncle has only nice things to say about you.”

“Nice seeing you too. I hope you enjoy your stay here.”

“Maybe we can get together for lunch or dinner before I leave.”

“Let’s do that.” She didn’t really mean to make plans with David’s niece. She remembered as a little girl, Cherokee always looked up to her.

She had a time trying to open her car door, but managed to do so without dropping a bag.

Once she reached home, she was in the mood to cook some baked chicken, so she put it in the oven and put up the items she recently bought. As she was unpacking, her phone interrupted her. She almost tripped over a bag trying to answer the phone, but avoided falling by an inch.

“Hello.”

“Hi. My flower.” The sweet sounds of Pearle’s voice came from the other end.

“Mom. Whew. I was trying to avoid tripping on something I had on the floor.”

“You okay?”

“Yes. How are you? I just talked to you a few days ago. Is that cold better?”

 “Yes,” she said as she cleared her throat. “The medicine the doctor gave me is working fine. I feel fine, but this nasty cough is lingering.”

Violet didn’t like the fact that she had been sick for almost two weeks. “Just make sure you do what the doctor tells you.”

“I am. I wanted to see if my baby could come see me sometime soon.”

“I can be there tomorrow if you’d like.”

Pearle interrupted her and said, “No baby. You don’t have to rush. How about coming down in two weeks? If you can, try to come for an entire week.”

“Sure. I’ll make my reservations today.”

“Good. I will see you soon. Now take care.”

“Take care of yourself. Love you,” Violet said, before hanging up the phone.

***

Violet overslept the next morning, but instead of rushing, she took her time getting dressed. After her shower, she sprayed on some lilac smelling perfume.  She went to her closet and took out her favorite lilac suit. Instead of wearing her hair pinned up as she normally did, Violet decided to wear it down. She found her lilac pumps and some accessories and although she didn’t wear much make-up, she put on a color of lipstick that complimented her outfit.

Violet encountered rush hour traffic as she headed to David’s office; however, she still felt like she had enough time to get from one side of San Jose to the other. Violet barely made it to her meeting in time. She rushed to get on the elevator and whoever was on it, held it open for her, before it could close all of the way.

“Thanks.”  She looked up into David’s gorgeous eyes.

“You are quite welcome,” he responded with a twinkle in his eyes.

She tried to ignore the feeling of attraction that seemed to linger between them. When she was in Los Angeles, he hounded her to get back with him. Here it was years later and since they’ve come in contact again with each other in San Jose, he had yet to make a pass.  She could feel his eyes roaming over her body.  She began to fidget with her purse as if she were looking for something. The elevator stopped on the top floor. He held the elevator door for her again.

She refused to look up. She said, “Thank you again.”

David looked as if he was going to say something else, but Helen, one of his business associates, came up and interrupted. “We have a problem on line one. I was trying to reach you on your cell phone and since you didn’t answer, I figured you were in the elevator on your way up.”

David responded to Helen. “Excuse us for a moment.” He turned and addressed Violet. “Today’s meeting will be in my office. Helen will show you the way. I’ll be there as soon as I can. In the meantime, help yourself to some danishes and coffee.”

Violet followed Helen to David’s office. She took a danish off the tray and made herself a cup of coffee with two packages of sugar substitute. She admired David’s office and noticed a picture of a little girl on his desk that looked as if she was either three or four years old. He didn’t have any other personal photos on his desk.  She made a mental note to ask him about the little girl.   She was daydreaming when David entered the room. She didn’t know how long he had been standing observing her, but when she felt his eyes on her, she acknowledged him and walked around his desk and sat on the other side.  For a moment neither said a word.

ROSE

Rose spent the next few days doing last minute promotions for another movie scheduled to be released later in the month. She and her co-star Trey Dash, one of Hollywood’s sexiest black male actors, were hitting all of the hot spots together. The rumor mill around town stated that they were romantically involved. Trey, who chose to drop his last name, was every woman’s fantasy. Not only did he have a body built solid like a rock, he was handsome, down to earth, and had charisma for days. He could make an old woman give up her pension with his golden boy smile.

They were coming out of a posh Beverly Hills restaurant, when Rose bumped right into Lance as he and his friends were entering. “Excuse me.”

Lance was able to recognize her although she tried to hide behind a pair of shades and scarf which covered her hair.  “Rose. What are you doing here?”

Rose motioned for Trey to continue walking. “I was having lunch with Trey.”

Lance told his friends to go on without him. “I thought you were busy, otherwise, we could have had lunch together.”

Rose took her shades off, so that he could see her eyes. “Lance. I don’t feel like getting into this right now. This is business. Deal with it or not. Your choice.” She placed her shades back on and twisted off in the direction of where Trey had just pulled up in his convertible silver Jaguar.  Rose looked in the side mirror and saw that Lance was still standing there, looking at them as they drove off.

Curious, Trey asked, “Everything all right back there?”

“Yes. You know how some of you men can be jealous for no reason. Besides, it’s not like he and I are in a committed relationship.”

 “I can understand how he feels. If my girlfriend was as fine as you and was seen out with someone else, I would be a little jealous too.”

Rose pushed her shades up over her forehead. “Trey. Let’s get this straight. In the world of romance, I am a free agent. No one has papers on me. Lance is just something to do to pass the time.”

Trey started flirting with her. “So you’re telling me that what I’ve heard about you two isn’t true, and if another man wanted to take you out, you would go?”

“What I’m saying is this. I can go out with whomever, whenever, and do whatever I please.”