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Adrienne smiled. “Hello.”
“Adrienne is Mel’s wife,” Big Boy added.
Now there was no mistaking Mel’s discomfort. He was practically as green as Lillian’s dress. There was a lot of rustling around as Lillian and her children found places to sit. Adrienne saw Debra grab Big Boy by the arm and tug him toward the kitchen. She looked angry. Lillian now looked upset as well.
“Mel, what is going on?”
“I don’t know what you talkin’ about.”
Adrienne didn’t know what she was talking about either, but then Ann started whispering in Tina’s ear. When she finished, the young girl let out a whoop and they both looked earnestly from Lillian to Mel to Adrienne and back again.
Debra and Big Boy came back. They had obviously been fighting, because Debra rolled her eyes at him and made a point of sitting as far away from him as was possible in the tiny space. Adrienne watched as Lillian again murmured to her children. They both nodded obediently and walked over to stand in front of Mel. The taller one piped up. “Hello, Mr. Jordan. Mama wants to know when you comin’ back to our house.”
No one was talking. Adrienne’s eyes met Lillian’s, and the woman’s chin went up. She gazed back at Adrienne in open defiance. Adrienne started to think the unthinkable.
“The little girl asked you a question, Mel. Why don’t you answer her?” Adrienne said calmly. “She wants to know when you are coming back to her house.”
Mel gave the child a smile. “I don’t know, sweetheart.” The children skipped back to their mother. Mel glared furiously at Lillian, and the woman stared back. There was malice in her gaze.
Debra leaped to her feet. “Let’s play some cards y’all, and turn up the music—it’s too quiet in here!”
Adrienne watched as everyone started moving around, taking plates to the kitchen and mixing drinks. Big Boy grabbed Lillian and started dancing.
Adrienne looked at the little girl and wondered what Mel had been doing in her mother’s home. The child had big eyes like Delilah. She remembered one night when Delilah was about three weeks old and wasn’t sleeping well at night. She kept waking up and crying until Adrienne finally took her out of the crib and into the living room. She settled into an armchair with the infant in her lap. “Shush, sweetie, Daddy has to get up at six. He only has two more hours of sleep. Be a good girl for Mommy. Don’t wake Daddy up.”
She had been so exhausted from taking care of the baby all day and most of the night that she was close to tears. She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew, Mel was gently taking Delilah from her arms. “Go get some rest, baby,” he said. Adrienne gave him a kiss of gratitude, and Delilah just stared at them both with big brown eyes that matched her father’s.
Adrienne rubbed her temples. “Mel, what were you doing in that woman’s house?”
“Putting up kitchen shelves with some of the other guys.”
“I don’t believe that.”
Mel shrugged. “If you want to cause a scene for nothing, I can’t stop you. Just go on over and ask her.”
Adrienne’s pride would not let her do it. “The only place I’m going is home. Right now!” Her head was starting to throb. The pain was so intense, she just wanted to go home, take some aspirin, and lie down in her bedroom with the lights off.
“Sure, baby,” Mel answered easily. “Let’s get our coats.”
Adrienne stood up and followed Mel. She turned her nose up at Lillian as she passed. The look told the cheaply dressed tramp that if her game plan had been to cause trouble in Mel’s marriage, it had failed. It told the floozy that all she had done was make a fool of herself.
Over the next two days, Adrienne kept thinking about Lillian and her two little girls. As she walked out the door for work one morning, she wondered for the hundredth time if Mel had slept with Big Boy’s cousin. No, Mel would never be physically unfaithful to her, but he hadn’t told the whole truth, either.
By the time she sat down at her desk, Adrienne had faced a cold, sad fact. Her marriage might not last, and if they were headed for divorce, she shouldn’t be thinking about getting pregnant. It was time to start using some sort of birth control.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Mel drove along his route, thinking about Easter dinner. If he could have wrapped his hands around Lillian’s throat and choked her to death without fear of going to jail, he would have done so without hesitation. What kind of funky shit was that she had pulled on him? How could she use her kids to get even with him for not sticking around to be her man? No matter what Debra said, she had willingly climbed into bed on the first date with a man she knew was legally tied to someone else. He thought about going to her house and telling her stupid ass exactly what he thought, but then he decided that such a step would only make matters worse. She would make sure that Adrienne found out, and how would he explain that? Not that Adrienne had bought his story anyway. He had seen the truth in the grim set of her jaw the following morning.
Mel felt that Lillian’s antics had forced the hidden tension between him and Adrienne out into the open. Now it was just a matter of time before war was officially declared. Until then, he could only do just what he was going to do now: drive the bus, grab a drink after work at the bar, and go home to wait for the inevitable explosion. A drink would calm his nerves, slow his thoughts down to a pace where he could handle them. Slow them down just enough to help him stave off the other desire that seemed to be getting stronger. No, what he needed was a stiff drink, not no more of that coke. Mel concentrated on the black road ahead of him, on the hellacious New York traffic and taxi drivers, and tried hard to steer his thoughts away from that pretty white dust.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Adrienne selected a black Italian two-piece pantsuit from her closet and a Valentino scarf from her dresser drawer. She had purchased both at an upscale discount boutique called Le Firme, on Fifty-seventh street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The suit had been marked down from twelve hundred dollars to six hundred dollars, and the scarf had been a steal at only thirty-five dollars. She wriggled into the suit, feeling a delicious sense of anticipation. As she pulled her Bleecker Satchel coach bag from the top shelf of her closet, she glanced at another pile of bills that were stacked neatly beside her accessories, and hastily closed the door. Mel had worked the night shift and wasn’t home yet.
She walked quickly through the chilly morning air and reached Parton, Webster & Elliott a few minutes early. Sherry was already there, sipping coffee and reading the newspaper.
“Good morning,” Adrienne said as she pulled off her coat.
