A Merry Little Christmas (22 page)

Angelique shrugged her shoulders to indicate assent. “Of course you can. They’re your dogs, after all. Maybe you’d like to take both of them,” she said, holding out the scooper.

Donnie’s jaw tightened very slightly, but he just smiled. “No, I want to come with you. And I see you handing me that scooper. You think you’re slick, don’t you?” he said as he took it from her hand. “Let’s go, guys.” The four of them left the house and walked out into the damp cold.

They walked in silence for a couple of blocks until Donnie put his hand on Angelique’s shoulder. “We’ve got to start talking to each other, Angel. I can only imagine how tough this is for you, but trying to ignore me isn’t helping.”

“I don’t know what else to do,” she said honestly. “When I wake up in the morning the first thing I wish for is that none of this ever happened but when I open my eyes, there’s that ugly wallpaper and I know it’s all true.”

“Hey, the wallpaper was there when I moved in,” Donnie said defensively. “And I wish I could make it all go away, but
I can’t. I know that’s what I told you would happen, but I was wrong and I apologize.”

“Adonis, you don’t have to keep apologizing. It wasn’t your fault that we were seen; it wasn’t your fault that the story got out. I’m not even mad at you about making it seem like we got married on purpose. Well, I’m not mad anymore,” she amended.

Donnie grinned at her. “Are you sure? You were pretty hot for a while. You said you’d never forgive me for making you live a lie,” he reminded her as he draped a long arm over her shoulders.

Angelique pushed against him playfully and gave him a small smile. “Don’t remind me of that, please. I know I was being a drama queen, but I think I had good reason.” Both of them fell silent as they each recalled the aftermath of the impromptu wedding.

As soon as she’d walked into the house on her return to Detroit, the phone started ringing and didn’t stop. The first call was from her oldest brother, Clay. “Angel, we’re sending the jet to pick you and Cochran up. We need to talk to both of you,” he’d said in a dangerously calm voice. He seemed to be the spokesman for the brothers because she didn’t hear from the rest of them. Her mother, however, had called right after she hung up with Clay and the memory of that conversation still made her stomach hurt.

“Angelique, I can’t imagine why you would do something like this. To just run off into the night and get married without a word to a
nyone!  W
hat in the world have I done to make you behave like this? I know we haven’t been as close as we should have been, but how could you let me find out from some television gossip that my only daughter is married? Why, Angel?”

Angelique shuddered at the memory and unconsciously pushed closer to Donnie, who still had his arm around her shoulder. They had indeed gotten on the TDG jet the next morning and flown to Atlanta to face her family. The scene with her mother was every bit as bad as she’d anticipated; she simply couldn’t find the words to explain what had happened and just bore her mother’s anger and pain in near silence. Lillian was the one person Angelique didn’t want to disappoint and yet that was all she ever seemed to do. To her, Lillian was the personification of elegance and loveliness, a true gracious lady, and she deserved a better daughter than Angelique could ever be.
 
Without realizing it, she leaned her head against Donnie, who stopped walking and put both hands on her shoulders.

“You’re thinking about your mom again, aren’t you?” She nodded without speaking. “Let’s go home. It’s pretty cold out, how about if I make you some soup?” She nodded again.

In a short time they were in the warm, bright kitchen while Donnie prepared what he referred to as his Soon
-
to
-
be
-
World-Famous
-
Hamburger
-
Soup, which Angelique confessed sounded quite gross.

“It sounds weird but it’s really good. If it makes you feel any better, i
t’s not my recipe; Tina, my sis
ter-in-law, gave it to me.”

While he started the preparations for the soup, he tried to imagine how Angelique was feeling. The trip to Atlanta hadn’t been the epitome of a warm welcome home. As she had predicted the consensus seemed to be that somehow she was responsible for the debacle. Benita didn’t say
it;
she was completely neutral, albeit surprised
.
Angelique’s other sisters-in-law, Selena, Vera, and Ceylon,
were
also careful not to place blame and like Benita, were supportive of Angelique.
The Deveraux men, however, were less supportive and more critical of the situation but in a manner that rubbed Donnie the wrong way. He recalled his conversation with her brothers Malcolm and Martin and could feel his jaw tighten up again.

“Donnie, of course I have no idea what happened between the two of you, but I assure you that getting it annulled shouldn’t be a problem. I have to tell you that I’m really disappointed in my sister; I thought she’d outgrown these kinds of pranks,” Malcolm had said in a weary tone of voice.

Before Donnie could say anything, Martin had spoken up with something about how irresponsibility had always been Angelique’s middle name and he was sorry her foolishness had led to this. “She didn’t even consider the fact that we’re in business together and what it could have meant from a corporate standpoint,” Martin observed. “I really thought she’d stopped this kind of acting out.”

Back in the
mom
ent, Donnie gave a particularly vicious chop to the onion he was preparing for the stockpot. Something about the way her family seemed to just assume she was somehow to blame irritated him in a way he’d not expected. He’d been terse to the point of being curt with her brothers and he wasted no time in letting them know that the decision to marry had been a mutual one and he wouldn’t tolerate any criticism of his bride. He’d been equally cool with her mother and stepfather. He liked and respected all of these people, having known them from the time his sister first started dating Clay, but the very notion that someone could make Angelique uncomfortable by even a wrong look was something he wasn’t having. Family relationships were on shaky ground in Atlanta, but they weren’t much better in Detroit.

Opinions varied in his family but the only neutral vote
was his brother Adam. Big Benny
was very fond of Angelique and referred to her as
Babydoll
, that “little spunky gal.” For some reason they’d always gotten along like a house afire and he was rather pleased they were married. Andrew also was supportive, as he knew Angelique better than the other brothers. Alan and Andre, the legal counsel for Cochran Communications, were frankly livid. They had nothi
ng against Angelique personally;
they simply couldn’t believe their brother would do something so foolhardy without
so
much as a prenuptial agreement.

“From a legal standpoint, this is like suicide, Donnie,” Andre had railed. “Our companies are connected and you take this foolish step without considering what it could mean to us from a fiscal standpoint. That little girl could cause us untold grief when you divorce.”

It was his casual use of the word
divorce
that had really rankled Donnie;
the assumption that there was no way they could possibly stay together, that she was too fickle to maintain a relationship. It was all there in Andre’s tone of voice. Donnie had wasted no time in letting his brothers know what time it was, that this was his business and had nothing to do with them and that if they even thought anything unkind about Angelique, they’d have him to answer to.
Considering the fact that he’d always been exceptionally close to his family, the new coolness governing them was galling, to say the least. Donnie was taking out his angst on the celery now, chopping it with a good deal more vigor than was called for. But his conversation with his brothers was still weighing on his mind, especially the part where Andre had reminded him that a mere two months ago he had proposed to another woman.

“You were ready to marry Aneesah before Christmas and now you’re married to Angelique Deveraux. I don’t know what a shrink would have to say about this, but it doesn’t sound to me
like you know what you’re doing, Donnie.” Andre’s smug tone had almost made Donnie lose his temper.

“Just l
eave Aneesah out of this, Andre.  S
he has nothing whatsoever to do with any of this.” Donnie’s voice would have frightened anyone but an older brother; Andre had persisted with his questions.

“Does Angelique even know you were engaged to Aneesah?”

“No, she doesn’t, and she doesn’t need to know. The only people I told were my brothers and their wives. Pop doesn’t even know I asked her. So as long as my brothers keep their mouths shut, it’s a nonissue,” he said with icy finality.

As the soup began to simmer and the fragrant aroma filled the kitchen, he looked at Angelique who had volunteered to make co
rn
bread to complete the meal. She looked thinner than usual, and pale. He knew it was due to the stress she’d been under and the strain of her family’s disapproval. Plus, she was in the midst of preparing for her exhibit and needed serenity more than anything. If he could have thought of another way to handle that mob of reporters at the hotel, he would have. But acting like a happy couple had been the quickest way to defuse the bomb of inaccurate media coverage, and it had worked. He also never wanted anyone to know the truth behind their wedding; he felt that would hurt Angelique even more. So they had decided to stay married for a while and think of some logical reason to part after all the hoopla and speculation had died down.

It wasn’t a perfect plan by any means but it was the first thing he could come up with. What he wanted more than anything at this point was to protect Angelique from any kind of humiliation or shame. They’d both been a little cra
z
y that night, no question, but why should she have to suffer for it? The gist of the story had finally come out when Matt and Nicole had returned from their island honeymoon. They had supplied the details the champagne had taken away. Nicole had called and Donnie and Angelique each got on an extension.

“You two started drinking champagne on the plane and you were both a little silly,” Nicole reported. “And while we were doing all that waiting around you drank some more. And some
more,"
she added gleefully. “And the more you drank, the happier you got and the more affectionate you got. You guys were holding hands and kissing and talking mush talk and after we got married you decided that you had to get married too, and you did. It was really sweet; Matt and I were your witnesses. Then you decided to go to the Bellagio and we went off to the airport and didn’t hear anything about it until we got back, but we didn’t really pay it any attention because we were
there,
you know? We knew what went on so we weren’t worried about it. Maybe we should have stopped you two, but you looked so happy.”

Even though it was good to have some details supplied it didn’t answer the big question of how and when the inevitable divorce would occur. And it didn’t answer the question that kept nagging at Donnie, the question of why there had to be a divorce at all. For a reason he couldn’t explain, the very idea of divorcing Angelique was one he didn’t want to contemplate. He wasn’t ready to say why, but he knew he wanted to stay married.

***

Paris and Lisette looked at each other
and
then looked at Angelique, who definitely was not acting like herself. She was quiet and distracted and picking at her food. Since Lisette had made a fabulous meal, she was naturally concerned that her friend wasn’t eating.

“Angelique, what’s the matter? Surely you can tell us, you know we’d understand, whatever it is,” she said comfortingly.

Paris reached over and stroked her cousin’s arm. “Look, Angelique, after you explained the whole situation with the so-called wedding, we kept it on the down low, didn’t we? Even after those brothers of yours were raking me over the coals, I kept my mouth shut. That’s between you and Donnie and nobody else
needs
to know. I know pretending to be in a real marriage is hard, and I know you must have some things to get off your chest, so tell us what’s going on, sugar,” she coaxed.

Angelique made a little face and tried to smile. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain. I just
have a ton of stuff on my mind like t
he exhibit, for one thing, and my family for another. I think I broke my mother’s heart, my stepfather is upset with me because I upset
her,
my brothers think I’m an idiot and I’m pretty sure I’ve permanently offended God by making a drunken mess of the marriage vows. The person I respect more than anyone, A.J., is so disgusted with me, we’re barely speaking. Oh, and before I forget, I don’t want to divorce my husband. Other than that, everything is just peachy,” she said bitterly.

Lisette and Paris both lit up at that last piece of information. Lisette jumped up and removed the remains of dinner, chattering like a magpie as she di
d so. “Forget this stupid pasta;
we can always nuke it later. This calls for dessert and right now. Paris, you get the plates and I’ll get the gateau and then we’ll talk.”