Married on Mondays (11 page)

Honesty was important but didn’t mean she had to reveal every detail of her life to her wife or her sisters. Whom should she
tell Rain had made the ultimate demand?

He spoke. She listened. “We need to resolve this. You made me look like a fool in my city. Got my officers snickering behind
my back. This is the largest city in the country, and you’ve humiliated me. You do think I’m a joke don’t cha?”

Victoria exhaled. “Here we go.”

“Here we go, my ass. You made me wait a whole year to be your first, then you changed your mind. You changed your mind, Victoria.
Why?”

Why?
Why was he acting like they didn’t have that conversation yesterday? She sighed heavily. “I didn’t tell you to brag to your
friends about what’s between my legs. You made yourself look foolish.”

Rain had become police chief for the wrong reasons. He’d retaliated against the teenagers that beat him up back in high school.
Ostracized his parents. Now he was demanding what wasn’t rightfully his.

“My patience is gone. I want you right now. I took you to all the departmental functions, showed you off. Then for no rational
reason, you let me propose to you.”

What?
Shaking her head, she rolled her eyes. He’d spoken down to her yesterday and again this morning as if she was one of his
subordinates. As if what was important to her didn’t matter to him. Would it have been better for her to fake it? Tell him,
“Yes, I will marry you,” when she didn’t mean it? Accepting his proposal wasn’t some sort of badge of honor and giving up
her virginity to him wasn’t happening. Victoria ended the call, then silenced the ringer on her cell, and went back to bed.

T
o whom much is given

Less is earned

More is taken

With little concern

For those with no power

Mercy is not their friend

To whom much is given

The less time they spend

With those who are not

Akin

She closed her eyes. In the middle of her dozing off, the home telephone rang. Victoria opened her eyes. It was 4:15.

The cordless was on her wife’s side of the bed. “Hello,” Naomi answered stretching her arm above her head. “Just a minute.…
Victoria, it’s for you. And it’s not DéJà,” she said, tossing the phone on the bed. Naomi looked at her; looked at the phone;
said, “Handle it, sweetcakes”; then left the bedroom.

Victoria’s eyes opened wide as she picked up the cordless. A hesitant “Hello” escaped her lips. Her stomach churned, praying
he wasn’t foolish enough to call her house.

“Why, Victoria? I’m not going to stop until I get what I want.”

“I see why your parents disowned you. You are—” She stopped midsentence in an attempt not to meet him at his low level. What
man would beg for a woman who didn’t want him? “You have no right calling here. I didn’t give you my home number.”

“Sweetcakes, you leave my parents out of your mouth. See that’s why men don’t like opening up to you crazy females because
the minute you get pissed off you throw our weaknesses in our face like we’re garbage. You started. I’ma finish.”

Victoria stared at the cordless. Was she talking to an adolescent or a grown man?

“I can legally do whatever I want, including shut down your business and send you and your sisters to jail,” he said.

Victoria grunted. “I’m not your damn sweetcakes! You… are… crazy! What part of ‘I don’t want to be with you’ don’t you understand?”

He interrupted, “I don’t know. Maybe your screaming ‘Oh, my God, Rain, I’m cumming!’ yesterday morning is hella confusing
or the fact that my dick was buried in your ass while you were cumming. Help me out.”

Help him out? This wasn’t about him.

“I’m happily, happily married. Can’t you be happy for me?” Victoria didn’t want to risk having Naomi see her upset or overhear
her conversation with Rain. She returned to the guest bedroom, flopped on the edge of the bed.

“Hell, no. You refused my engagement ring and dumped me for a bitch. You owe me. My patience has ended. The pussy between
your legs is mine.”

Ugh!
Victoria’s blood pressure rose instantly, giving her a migraine. For a second she’d stopped breathing. If he were close to
her, she’d hit him upside the head with the phone like Whitney had done to Bobby. Was he this unreasonable as a child? “This
is my pussy, and I will never let you fuck me again.”

“Yes, you will. You said that shit the day before you got married and what happened?” His next threat—“If I have to, I’ll
rape you, Victoria. And what are you going to do? Call the police?”—made her think about shooting him with his gun, then entering
a plea of temporary insanity. She was insane for loving the way he fucked her in the ass. He knew how to make her cum fast,
slow, back to back. If she shot him, he’d have the law on his side and she’d have the best lawyers on hers. Who’d win? Perhaps
neither of them would.

“You are one demented man. I’m going to report you,” she cried. What had she done to deserve his relentless verbal attacks?
Why couldn’t he be content with being her client?

“Okay, I’ll compromise with you. Take me on as a
daily
client,” he demanded. “We’ll start there. Then we’ll work on getting back together.”

“Over my dead body. I’m already fucking you for free,” Victoria lamented. “I can’t give you all of my slots. I do have other
regulars.” She paused, then blurted, “Oh, my God. Please say you’re not serious!”

“Save that ‘Oh, my God’ for later when I’m fucking you. I’m dead serious.”

Her stomach churned. She wanted to vomit. She hadn’t made a fool of him nor did she owe him anything. The main reason she’d
declined his engagement ring was he lacked the character she thought he’d had. His infectious personality had captured her
heart. He used to make her laugh. His magnetic dick attracted her ass whenever she was near him. His promise to protect and
serve her was convincing. But when Rain proposed to her, then said, “As my wife you’ll be bound to ‘the blue code of silence,’”
Victoria knew there was no long-term future for them. His job was his responsibility.

Victoria knew “the blue code of silence” was an unwritten code whereby police officers refused to betray one another’s errors—from
misconduct to murder to sending innocent people to jail. To break the code was considered snitching, betrayal, and could cost
a cop his or her life in friendly fire. And the officer who’d pulled the trigger and the officers who knew the truth would
forever remain silent.

On his knees, in the middle of proposing, Rain had confessed, “I have blood on my hands. Being on the force is like having
a love-hate relationship with the devil, but hey, somebody’s gotta get the job done. I’m that man. I’m your man. Victoria
will you marry me?”

Perhaps his confession was to clear his conscience or to let her know what she was marrying into, but at that moment, he’d
proved to Victoria he had zero character. He wasn’t the man she wanted to hug all night or cook breakfast for in the morning.
A real police chief wouldn’t abuse his authority to enforce the law. Maybe he had to. But she didn’t. Victoria had politely
declined his offer.

Her tears dried. He hadn’t responded. If she hung up, he’d call her house again.

What had she done to make Rain want to fuck her over? Had to be more than his ego. Victoria had let him fuck her in the ass,
and she’d given him the best blow jobs he’d ever had. She never sexually deprived him. If his obsession about having her virginity
didn’t change, Victoria would have to tell her father. Telling Mason would be worse than telling her wife. Victoria’s biggest
concern was Rain’s threat to shut down Crème Fantasyland and prosecute her and her sisters. She prayed they’d be proven innocent.
It was her fault. She should’ve never taken him to Crème Fantasyland.

Was the blue code of silence stronger than the truth? Yes, it was. If Victoria continued refusing Rain, she’d jeopardize the
family’s business. If she gave in, she’d jeopardize her marriage.

“I can ruin you in a heartbeat, sweetcakes. If you care about your wife and your sisters, stop by my house on your way to
work,” he said, then ended the call.

Victoria went to the bathroom, cried, washed her face, cried, washed her face again, then entered the kitchen. She sat at
the table staring out the window. She had no appetite for the hot oatmeal Naomi placed in front of her.

T
rapped inside

Nowhere to hide

Temptation winks an eye

Who me

Not me

I don’t cheat

Justify the lie

Selfish gain

Beget pain

Once

No longer

Denied

Though she’d spread her legs the width of a few of her ex-men’s hips, she had never allowed any man to put his head inside
her vagina. Being a virgin made her better than her sisters. Like Rain, no man she’d met was worthy of breaking the tissues
of her precious hymen. Not allowing him to do so made her smarter than Foxy who freely let Dallas rob her of her precious
jewel. Not much to say about DéJà and Acer. If they had marital problems, they were the only two who knew.

Victoria’s wife so loved the fact that she was pure, Naomi vowed at the altar never to vaginally penetrate her. “Sweetcakes,
what’s going on?” Naomi asked, sitting at the kitchen table next to Victoria. She placed her hand on Victoria’s. Whenever
possible, they sat next to, not across from, one another.

“Nothing, just plotting… I mean, planning my day. Thinking about the pastry specials for today. What do you think about cupcakes?”
Victoria prayed that if she didn’t mention the phone call, neither would her wife. Rain was probably in his bed asleep. Dirty
dog.

Naomi stared at her, tapped her hand.

Victoria ignored Naomi’s touch, gazed out the ceiling-to-floor kitchen window into the backyard. Orange, red, pink, yellow,
and white orchids were in bloom. For a few seconds a peaceful feeling resonated within her. Why were humans the highest life-forms?
Trees lived longer. Tangled roots intertwining underground could cause devastation forcing their way to the surface. The same
held true for her buried secrets.

She stared in silence. Most of the flowers were a blend of orange and white or pink and red. Their exotic garden was scattered
with colorful tulips and roses. Bougainvillea arched along the top of the gazebo. The sunrise peeped over the lake. The remorse
for her deception was overwhelming.

Facing Naomi, Victoria curved her lips downward but didn’t part them. She was afraid of losing her wife over a few senseless
acts of infidelity. Victoria admired Naomi’s beautiful mixed features from her white father and black mother. Naomi’s short
blonde hair framed her face as her crystal blue eyes pierced Victoria’s thoughts. Radiant flesh with the glaze of a natural
tan—Naomi’s skin was flawless. Her large breasts, small waist, and flat stomach attracted attention from men and women, but
Naomi was clear about her sexual preference. She wasn’t interested in men.

Oh, no. Tell me that wasn’t what I thought?
Victoria prayed then confirmed, it was.

Naomi’s nostrils flared for one of two reasons. Either she was sexually charged or she was annoyed. The latter appeared to
be the case as Naomi replied, “He’s getting bolder. This time he called our house. Don’t think I don’t know he calls or texts
your cell every day. I think you should think about what’s really important to you and let me know when you’re ready to discuss
it. It’s getting old, Victoria. And it’s not too late for you to change your mind, and it’s not too late for us to get an
annulment. That’s what I think.”

Were lawyers human? She hated and loved Naomi’s practical approach to every damn thing. They’d agreed not to sweat the small
stuff, not to pressure one another to do or say anything. They’d also agreed their marriage was based on a need-to-know basis
and what was shared inside their home stayed between them.