Secrets On Lake Drive (27 page)

I still couldn’t believe it, although he
plainly stated his case to me.
I have a brother?
I guess all
those business trips my father took weren’t all about business. In
the back of my mind, I knew that anyway. But I have a brother. He
appeared to be a few years younger than me. He stood about six feet
tall with a fresh fade and a nice smile. He sounded like an
educated brother.

“Wow, I can’t believe this,” I said, hugging
him.
So there were some sane people on earth that were related
to me.
Well, at least he appeared to be sane.

We exchanged phone numbers and addresses. He
lived on the south side of Milwaukee, near Mitchell International
Airport, the same area where my father had lived.

I hugged Kevin again. “It was so nice to
meet you. I’m glad you took the time to introduce yourself.”

“I am, too. I was hoping we could get
together soon and talk.”

“I would like that very much.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you later then.”

Finally, I was able to get into my car without being
stopped by someone and breathe a sigh of relief. It was all over
and done with. When I got home, I crashed. It had been a long day,
and all I wanted to do was slip into my pajamas and lay down. I had
a lot to think about. I just found out I had a brother. And out of
all the days I could have known about this, I found out the day my
father was laid to rest. That was enough to swallow in itself. Then
I got to thinking about my mother’s involvement in all of this. I
wonder if she knew I had a brother. I’m sure she did. Heffa.

In addition to those thoughts, Sean showed
up at my father’s funeral with his family, hinting that I should
call him if I needed anything. Maybe his father’s death made him
think he actually knew what I was going through. He sincerely
wanted to help me, only I didn’t need his help. I wasn’t mourning.
If anything, I was angry because I never had the chance to bond
with my daddy. Now, it was too late.

My cell phone went off amidst my pondering.
I recognized the new number as Kevin’s.

“Hello.”

“Hey, Monica.”

“Hi there!”

“Are you busy right now?”

Busy?
I definitely wasn’t going to
leave my apartment. It was too cozy and there was no way I was
coming up out of those pajamas.

“Ah…no. I’m just relaxing at the
moment.”

“Could you use some company? I would love to
talk to you, play catch up…you know, brother and sister stuff.”

I smiled. “Okay. Come on over.”

He must have been somewhere in my
neighborhood, because ten minutes later, he was ringing my
doorbell. It was about seven o’clock.

“Hey, Kevin. Come on in.” He took off his
snow-covered boots and left them by the door. Then he sat on the
couch. “So, what’s up?”

He said, “It’s just crazy how we can be
siblings and I don’t even know you. There are so many things I want
to know.”

“Okay, well I can handle one question at a
time.”

“Alright. What do you do?”

“For a living?” I grinned.

“Yeah. I’m sorry. What do you do for a
living?”

“I’m a teacher.”

“Oh yeah? What grade?”

“Kindergarten.” I could already foresee that
this was going to be a long night. Kevin was going to have more
questions for me than contestants on Jeopardy. So, before we got
heavy into discussing our lives, I said, “I’m going to grab a soda.
Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Sure. I’ll take whatever you’re getting for
yourself.”

I came back into my living room with two
cans of Pepsi.

“Ah, Pepsi drinker. Yep, you’re definitely
my sister.”

We laughed and popped our sodas open at the
same time.

“So where was I?” Kevin said right after he
took a sip. “Are you married?”

“Oh no. I haven’t been so lucky in that
department.”

“Well, love takes time, I guess.”

“What about you? Married? Kids?”

“Yep. Been married going on four years now
and we have a three-year-old daughter.” Kevin took a photo of his
family from his wallet and showed it to me. His wife was a little
stout and light-skinned with long crinkly hair. His daughter’s
complexion was a mixture of both genes, but she definitely had her
mother’s hair and her father’s looks.

“You have a beautiful family.” I looked at
the picture again. “What are their names?”

“My wife’s name is Chandra and my daughter’s
name is Ciara. She’s four.”

“Okay.” I took a sip of Pepsi. “So you got
married pretty young, huh?”

“I’m twenty-eight now…got married when I was
twenty-four. I knew I loved her, so there was no need for me to
wait, right?”

“Yeah, you got that right.”

My cell phone went off. I looked at it, and
noticed Sean’s cell phone number.
Why is he calling me
?
Ignoring the call, I continued my conversation with Kevin.

“So what do you do for a living?”

“I’m a real estate agent. I work for
Shorewest.”

Interesting. He was in the same line of work
as Sean. I had to find out if he knew him, just to satisfy my
curiosity.

“Do you know Sean Beauvais?” I asked him
attentively, as I sat on the edge of the couch with
anticipation.

“Yeah, I know him. That cat is making mad
money on his own. I think I’ll branch out like he did one day. And
speaking of Sean Beauvais, didn’t I see him at the funeral today?
Did he know Dad?”

“Nah, he knows me. He just stopped by to be
supportive, I guess.”

“How do you two know each other?”

“I was babysitting his son over the
summer.”

My cell phone went off again. I knew it was
Sean before I looked. Still, I wasn’t about to answer it. I put it
on vibrate so my conversation with Kevin could go on
uninterrupted.

“You’re running a hotline tonight, huh?”
Kevin said with a slight chuckle.

“It looks that way.”

“You can go ahead and take your calls. We
can do this another time. We’ll have plenty of time to play catch
up.”

“No, Kevin. Stay. I insist.”

Sean was really starting to embarrass me
with these back-to-back phone calls.
What does he want with me,
though?

I turned my attention back to Kevin and my
phone vibrated on the coffee table. I looked at Kevin and smiled,
then glanced at the screen on my cell and noticed it was Warren’s
cell phone number. I definitely was going to answer his call. Maybe
I should have told Kevin to go after all. The night was turning out
to be busier than I had expected. I excused myself from Kevin and
went into the kitchen to answer the phone.

“Hello.”

“Hey, Monica. It’s Warren.”

“Hey, Warren.”

“I didn’t get a chance to talk to you at the
funeral and I just wanted to give you my condolences. I’m sorry
about your father.”

“Thanks, Warren. I really appreciate
it.”

“How are you doing?”

“I’m okay.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear that. And if you
need anything, I mean anything, call me ah’ight?”

“Okay, I will. Thanks for calling.”

“No problem. Take care.”

“I will.”

“Okay. Bye.”

I returned to the living room.

“People are starting to call now to offer
their condolences. I’m sure you’re gonna get a lot of calls, too,”
I told Kevin.

“Yeah, I know.”

Those phone calls from Sean remained on my
mind. He had me curious, but right now, I had to focus my attention
on Kevin. After all, he was my guest and I wanted to learn more
about my brother. So, I intentionally left my phone on the kitchen
table so it wouldn’t be a distraction to us.

“Now where were we?” Kevin asked, while
rubbing his hands together.

As soon as he could get the words out, I
heard my phone vibrating on the kitchen table. I couldn’t just let
it ring without first checking to see who it was. So, I jumped off
the couch like an Olympian, dashed into the kitchen, and snatched
the phone off of the table before the fourth vibrating ring. It was
Sean…again. I put the phone down and left it in the kitchen, and as
I walked back into the living room to join Kevin, my doorbell rang.
There were three quick rings followed by a pause, then three more
quick rings. I looked through the peephole and saw Sean standing
there, anxiously awaiting the door to be opened up to him.

Great
. Now I was stuck. I had to
answer the door or Kevin would know I’m in the middle of some
drama. Looks like he was going to know anyway.

I cracked the door open. Sean was standing
there wearing a brown leather jacket, some blue jeans, and a pair
of boots.

“Sean, what are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you, and since you wouldn’t
answer your phone, I figured I’d just show up.”

That’s the problem with men with money. They
think they can do anything they want and get away with it,
especially Sean. He was cocky enough to do anything.

“You can’t just show up at my house
unannounced!”

“I tried calling.”

“And?”

“You didn’t answer the phone, Monica.”

“Look…what do you want?”

“Can I come in?”

“No, you can’t come in. I have company. Now
what do you want?”

“I want to talk to you.

Kevin got off the couch and walked over to
me. “That’s okay, Monica, I’ll leave. We can talk later.” He put on
his boots and zipped up his jacket.

“No, Kevin. I don’t want you to leave.”

“Don’t worry. We can talk later, but not too
much later, okay?”

“Okay, Kevin. I’m sorry about this.”

He hugged me and spoke to Sean as he walked
out the door. Sean turned around to look at him, and then he looked
at me. We remained standing at the front door.

“Who was that?” he asked right away in a
strong, domineering tone.

“Don’t worry about that. Why are you
here?”

That was the question of the day. I would
rather have spent more time with my newfound brother than have
another shouting match with Sean.

“I’m here because I was worried about you,
and I wanted to come by and make sure you were okay. But I see you
don’t need
my
help, so I’ll be on my way.”

Sean turned his back to me and slowly walked
back to his truck.

“Be on your way then,” I yelled to him. “You
should not have even come over here in the first place!”

I didn’t take Sean to be the jealous type,
but he sure was upset to see a strange man walking out of my
apartment. That’s what he gets for assuming things and showing up
at my crib unbeknownst. And I definitely wasn’t about to run after
him. How stupid would I look chasing a man that kicked me out of
his house? I was never one for running after a man. Didn’t matter
how fine he was. So, I went back into my apartment and shut the
door.

I sat on the couch and took a deep breath.
I have a brother
, I said to myself. That really had me
trippin’. I wanted so badly to call Kevin and tell him that he
could come back now. On second thought, I didn’t want to scare him
off. I just chilled on the couch for a minute. I needed a moment to
relax anyway.

BZZZZZZZZ!

My cell phone vibrated on the table again. I
don’t remember the last time I had this many calls in one day.

“Hello.”

“Hey, Monica. It’s Nikki.”

“Heyyy, Nikki. I haven’t heard from you in a
while.”

“Yeah, girl, I know. I just been busy
traveling. I just wanted to extend my condolences to you. I heard
about your father. I am sooo sorry.”

“Thank you.”

“If you need to talk, I’m here. Okay? I know
what you’re going through.”

“Okay. Thank you so much.”

“Alright, girl. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, and thanks for calling.”

“Okay. Bye.”

Before I could put the phone back on the
table, it vibrated in my hand. It was Sean again. I ignored the
first call, and he called again. He was really starting to annoy
me.

“What!” I shouted as loud as I could
into the phone.

“Why are you yelling at me?”

“Why are you calling me?”

“Because I want to talk to you, Monica!” he
yelled back.

“You had your chance to do that a few
minutes ago. You walked away. So what you calling back now
for?”

“Because we really need to talk.”

“And what is it that you have to say to me
that you couldn’t say ten minutes ago?”

He was silent for a moment, then he said, “I
may have done a lot of things to you, and I admit I’m not perfect,
but I have always been faithful to you.”

Talk about being left in the dark…I had no
idea what he was talking about. Maybe he was referring to our
marriage, but we both knew and understood it was a mistake in the
contract. Sean, however, seemed to have taken it seriously. I just
sat there with the phone in my hand, puzzled, not knowing what to
say to him.
I have always been faithful to you?
What does
he mean by that?
I had to find out more.

“Sean, what are you talking about?”

“Who was that guy?”

“Don’t worry about all that.” I was about to
show him that he wasn’t the only one that knew how to cop an
attitude at the drop of a dime. “What do you want?”

 “Is he your boyfriend?” He completely
evaded my question, but he wanted me to answer his –
just like a
man.

“What if he is my boyfriend, Sean? What’s it
to you?”

“Is he your boyfriend, Monica?”

I was seconds away from hanging up on him.
“Is that what you meant by always being faithful to me? You think
Kevin is my boyfriend?”

“I don’t know if he is or not. That’s why
I’m asking.”

“No, he’s not. But what if he was?”

Sean was losing it. He was treating me like
I was his woman.
           
“If he was, then I would have a problem with that obviously.”

I laughed out loud. “Oh, you would,
huh?”