Fortune & Fame: A Novel (7 page)

“Up popped the devil!”

And in that instant, clarity came. She’d been tossed into the lion’s den. Natasia turned her attention to the lion.

“Jasmine!”

At the same moment, Jasmine spoke, “Natasia!”

Then, simultaneously they said, “What are you doing here?”

Melinda answered for both of them. “Natasia, I told you that Jasmine was going to be on the show.” Then, she turned to Jasmine. “And I wanted to surprise you. Reunite you with an old friend.”

Melinda grinned like the Cheshire Cat and Jasmine and Natasia both growled. Jasmine turned her glare from Natasia for just a moment and shot daggers of hate toward Melinda.

The way Jasmine stared Melinda down, as if she wished she’d drop dead right there, made Natasia feel a bit better; she wasn’t the only one who’d been set up.

Jasmine grabbed her bag from the table. “Are we done, Melinda?” she asked, though she didn’t wait for an answer. Jasmine swept by Melinda and barely gave Natasia another glance.

Natasia frowned as the smile on Melinda’s face widened, until the old woman stood up. With a slow stroll, the woman whom Natasia finally recognized as Jasmine’s elderly friend moved closer to Melinda. The smile that the VP had worn from the moment Natasia stepped into the room faded and now a shadow of fear covered her face.

But the woman’s attention went straight to Natasia. “Up popped the devil,” she said again as she brushed past Natasia.

Natasia waited until the door was completely closed before she turned to Melinda. “I didn’t know Jasmine was going to be here,” she said accusingly.

Melinda simply shrugged. “I’m only in for the day and I had to set up back-to-back meetings.” Then, her lips curved into a saccharine smile. “That’s not a problem, is it? I thought you and Jasmine were old friends.”

Natasia crossed her arms. She had set up too many people, put together too many scenarios, played out too many schemes, not to recognize this game. She knew that Melinda was a smart woman who did her homework; who vetted the people she’d be working with. Surely she knew something about the history between her and Jasmine.

“You know that Jasmine and I were never the best of friends, right?” Natasia asked. Her question was a setup of her own, in hopes that Melinda’s answer would give Natasia some insight into what was going on in Melinda’s mind.

“No,” Melinda said. “I didn’t know that.”

Liar!

Melinda added, “But it’s all business, right? You’ll be able to handle this.”

“Definitely,” Natasia said as she finally took a seat at the conference table. At least now she knew where she stood with Melinda. This chick could not be trusted.

“Okay, well, let’s get started,” Melinda said.

Natasia pasted her own fake smile on her face and nodded as Melinda spoke about the plans for the show. But while she sat as if she was giving Melinda her full attention, her mind was on her own plans that had just imploded.

This was supposed to be a legitimate way for her to arrange a meeting with Hosea. But Jasmine being here messed all of that up. Because Natasia had no doubt that Jasmine would run home, tell Hosea, and block any chances of Natasia being able to contact him. Not only that, now that Jasmine knew Natasia
was working on the show, of course she would do whatever she could to get Natasia dumped the way she had when Natasia had worked on Hosea’s show.

She wasn’t worried about that this time, though. Natasia came with high credentials, an impressive résumé. This reality show was lucky, no,
blessed
to have her name attached. Jasmine wouldn’t be able to get to Melinda. At least not in that way.

Jasmine’s poison would come in on the other side of her plan, the Hosea side. There was no way she’d be able to stay with her original plan of contacting Hosea. Not with the element of surprise now gone.

Well, she wasn’t about to give up. She had to get to Hosea; she’d just have to be direct about it.

The forty-five-minute meeting with Melinda lasted forty-four minutes too long, and if Natasia had had the energy, she would’ve stood up and danced atop the table when Melinda finally said, “Well, that’s all I have. Do you have any questions for me?”

“No, not at all,” Natasia said. “You’ve explained it all clearly.” She used the conference table to brace herself before she pushed back.

Melinda stood with her. “Your ticket for Atlanta has already been purchased. My assistant will email you the details. Oh, and we have reservations for you at Buckhead Tower, you know, the four-star, extended-stay hotel.”

“I know it well,” Natasia said.

“Well, we have a one-bedroom suite there for you.”

“That’s fine,” Natasia said, glancing at her watch.

“I’m sorry,” Melinda said. “Am I holding you from something?”

“No, I just want to make sure that I get back to LaGuardia in time.”

“You’re flying out tonight?”

Natasia nodded. “I just came in for the meeting with you,”
she said, looking Melinda straight in the eye. If Melinda could lie to her, then she could lie, too, with the same straight face, with the same sugary smile. “I have to get back to Chicago and close out my job.”

“Is everything okay with that?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m taking an extended leave of absence. The network was glad to have me get this extra exposure on OWN.”

Melinda nodded. “Well, it’s too bad you’re leaving tonight. I was going to ask if you wanted to go out for drinks. Or maybe even a quick dinner.”

“Sorry, not this time,” Natasia said, knowing that she would never break bread with this woman—at least not on a social level. Melinda had moved to the top of her skank list. “Maybe once we get to Atlanta we can hang out,” she added anyway.

Melinda paused, stared at Natasia for a long moment. And in Melinda’s eyes, Natasia could see Melinda was trying to figure her out. “Yeah, we’ll get a chance to do that a lot in Atlanta.”

With just a few more words of goodbye, Natasia walked out of the room with her head high and her back straight. It wasn’t until she was in the hallway that she slowed her steps, giving herself time to gather her strength. Inside the elevator, she leaned against the panels and pushed the meeting with Melinda from her mind. It was time to focus on Hosea.

When the elevator stopped on the first floor, Natasia stepped out tentatively and looked around, half expecting to find Jasmine and her ancient, fur-covered sidekick waiting to pounce on her. But all was clear. She stayed on high alert when she stepped outside into the early evening madness known as Times Square.

With just a few steps to the curb and then a raise of her hand, a cab rolled to a stop and she slipped inside. “The Plaza Hotel,” she said, and then leaned back on the cracked pleather seat.

Melinda may have believed that Natasia was on her way to the airport, but she wouldn’t be doing that today. Instead, she had a two-night reservation at one of New York’s premiere hotels, and she had hoped that she’d see Hosea at least one of those nights.

Her thought had been to wait until she was securely in her hotel room to make the call, but even though it was just a short ride to the Plaza, she no longer had that kind of patience. Seeing Jasmine had made her anxious, made her wonder if she could pull this off.

Her hand was shaking as she pulled her cell from her purse and scrolled through the names until she came to Darlin’. She pressed *67, then clicked on Hosea’s number and closed her eyes as the phone rang.

“Please, God, please, God,” she whispered.

And then, “Hello.”

Natasia’s eyes popped open.

“Hello?”

With a sigh, Natasia clicked off the phone.

The voice was like nails on a chalkboard. Jasmine!

Jasmine had answered Hosea’s phone. Jasmine was on to her. And even though she had blocked her number, Natasia was sure that Jasmine knew who was on the other end of that call.

There was no way Natasia would get to Hosea now—at least not during these two days.

“Miss . . .”

Natasia blinked.

“This is the Plaza,” the driver said.

Natasia peered through the window; she hadn’t even realized that the cab had come to a stop. “Oh,” she said. And then, in the next moment, she added, “Would you mind waiting? I left my bag with the bellman and I just want to run inside and get it.”

“Okay, where’re you goin’?”

She paused for just a moment. “To the airport, LaGuardia.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll be right here.”

She pushed herself from the cab and walked as fast as she could into the lobby, all the time thinking that she hadn’t lied to Melinda after all. She was going home tonight. There was no need to stay in New York if she couldn’t see Hosea.

She would just have to come up with another plan.

*  *  *

As the airplane descended and the Atlanta skyline came into view, all Natasia could do was sigh. In the time that had passed since New York, she hadn’t come up with anything else. And now she was about to be in Atlanta . . . with Jasmine. Natasia didn’t know if Hosea would be joining Jasmine, but from what she remembered about the man she still referred to as the love of her life, he wouldn’t want any part of reality show madness. But he was also a man who loved his family and even if he wasn’t on the show, he would definitely come to visit Jasmine and his children, who she assumed would be with their mother.

It wasn’t going to be easy, but during one of his visits, Natasia was going to see Hosea alone. The only challenge was that it would have to be soon. It would have to be before her time ran out.

T
his was where she was
supposed
to be. This was the life she was
supposed
to live.

As Mary sat in the second pew of Pleasant City Missionary Baptist Church, she couldn’t help but smile at how far God had brought her. Gone were her cut-too-low blouses and cut-too-high skirts. She was dressed in a respectable, metallic jacquard suit that she wouldn’t have been caught dead in a year ago.

Mary had longed for this life with Lester Adams, and at the time, couldn’t understand why she couldn’t have it. Now, she knew it was because God had something better in store. That something better was standing in the pulpit, straight showing out.

“Family,” Nathan said, a huge smile on his face, “you’ll have to excuse the extra pep in my step.” He did a little jig. “The bounce in my ounce. But y’all know, the missus is home and let’s just say, we’ve been like some bunny rabbits.”

Mary gasped as the congregation erupted in laughter.

“But I come to you today to tell you that dreams do come true,” Nathan continued, his voice rising. “When I came to this
church, I took a leap of faith. I walked in that faith because I knew there was something great in store.”

A chorus of amens rang out as Nathan talked about all of his plans for Pleasant City. It didn’t escape Mary that not once had he preached the Word or referred to any scripture; he’d just spent the last twenty minutes talking about all the big things in store. And the congregation had been eating it up. Maybe this is what they did in church. Lord knows she didn’t know. A product of the foster system, Mary never saw the inside of a church growing up and had only started going when Rachel’s enemy hired her to seduce Lester.

Yet here she was, not only going to church, but sitting up as First Lady. If anyone from her past could see her now, they wouldn’t believe the woman that she’d become.

Mary brushed a piece of lint off Alvin, who was sitting beside her. The-eleven-year-old fiddled with his belt before scooting closer to her. They’d instantly bonded these past two weeks, almost as if Alvin longed for a mother figure. That was probably because his father was never at home. Alvin actually lived with his grandparents. Mary wanted him with her and Nathan, but Nathan had been adamant, saying, “Not yet” because Alvin was such a help to his parents.

“Church,” Nathan continued, snapping Mary’s attention back to the pulpit, “I told you all right before I went to pick up my wife that I had a blockbuster announcement.” He smiled as he looked at Mary. Immediately, something didn’t feel right. Nathan’s eyes were dancing and though they hadn’t spent much time together, she’d quickly learned that when he had something up his sleeve, his eyes gave it away.

“Well, I can’t hold it in any longer. The missus doesn’t even know about this yet.”

That made Mary lose her smile. She didn’t care for surprises, especially surprises in front of hundreds of people.

“Many of you know that reality shows are the hottest thing on
TV right now. How many of you watch them?” There were some small rumblings, but only a few people raised their hands.

“Come on, you’re in the house of the Lord, be honest.” Laughter filled the room as several hands finally went up. “Um-hmm,” Nathan sang. “You know you get your fill of Stevie and Mimi.” A few more hands went up. “You can’t wait to see NeNe and Kenya.” Even more hands. “And some of y’all even find yourselves rooting for Honey Boo Boo. Let the church say amen?”

“Amen!” someone from the third row yelled.

“I’ll admit it, I love Honey Boo Boo,” someone shouted.

“I’m a
Basketball Wives
fan,” someone else yelled.

Mary looked around, stunned. All these people were actually admitting to following that foolishness?

Nathan continued. “While many of these shows are degrading, millions of people are tuning in on a regular basis. And the Lord spoke to me and said ‘Pastor, that’s an audience waiting for the Word.’ We can reach those people through the back door.” He slammed his palm on the podium. “Y’all know we believe in reaching people by any means necessary here at Pleasant City.”

Mary scrunched her face and peered at her husband. She definitely didn’t understand where this was going. Why was he talking about reality shows?

“Well, I found a new way to spread the gospel.” Nathan turned to Mary and smiled again. “My wife is all set to appear on a new First Ladies reality show.”

“What?” Mary found herself saying as a low rumble filled the room.

“I told you I have a big surprise for you, honey. One that was going to make you famous.” Nathan was talking like he’d just announced they’d won the lottery. He ignored her glare as he turned back to the congregation. “While my wife will be the one featured, they’ll show us,” he swept his arm over the
congregation, “and we’ll be able to spread the Word and bring more souls to Pleasant City.”