His First Lady (19 page)

“What do you think Evan? You’re quiet over there,” Seducca asked.

Evan had stayed quiet to keep the spotlight off of her but Seducca wasn’t kind enough to allow that to continue.

Evan shrugged. “I just wonder what kind of a woman would do that.”

“I’m going to be honest; I check Kenny’s I-phone, Pad and pod. I leave no stone unturned,” Seducca said.

“Don’t you think that’s too much? I mean, who has time for that?” Evan asked looking around wondering why nobody else questioned Seducca.

“Sweetheart, you better make time,” Seducca replied.

Kristy glared sharply at Seducca. “Don’t pay any attention to her Evan.”

“She better pay attention before she’s raising another woman’s child.” Candy shook her head.

Seducca looked over at Kristy with her fork raised ready to take another bite. She didn’t bite though; instead she put her fork down. “Kristy, let me say this…you sit around like Ms. Holiness, all meek and timid with no make-up on while your husband checking the next chick. I need you to get real about this.”

Kristy stared at Seducca as if wondering if she should respond. She placed her fork down on her plate. “You don’t know a thing about my husband or my marriage. Is it my husband that fathered this child?”

Nina interjected as she looked around the restaurant. “Ladies, let’s remember who we are and where we are, please.”

Seducca smirked ignoring Nina but seemingly surprised at Kristy’s abnormally bold response. “I didn’t say it was your husband and I don’t know your marriage like that but you act like you think you’re different; better than us. Almost like you’re living under a rock.”

“No, Seducca. I’m not under a rock. I’m on my knees. I prefer to be there than constantly checking a phone, a pad or a pod.”

Kristy’s words left not only Seducca speechless but everyone else as well. Seducca got the message; she nodded then picked up her fork and put a forkful of lettuce in her mouth.

“Where’s the new tie that I told you that I wanted to wear today?” Leon questioned Evan who had been quiet in the bathroom for almost twenty minutes; he never did hear any water running.

He heard a faint response from her, barely audible. Frustrated, he shook his head at her muffled reply.
It was almost unreal how stupid she was sometimes
. He walked back into his closet and looked at the tie rack. He pushed the power button and watched the ties rotate around the spinner but still didn’t see the new silk grey with blue dots he had purchased recently. He walked back into the bedroom and sat on the bed and slipped on his polished black Bostonians.

“Have you seen the tie?” He yelled out again since the more he felt she was ignoring him, the angrier he got.

She opened the bathroom door slightly and peeked out. “No. There were like four or so hanging on the rack with the tags still attached. Was it one of those?” She closed the bathroom door not even waiting for his answer.

He ignored her; sometimes she irritated him to no end. He stood up and opened the drawers of his chest to see if it might have gotten misplaced. He rumbled through the drawer that wouldn’t normally even have an out of place sock much less a misplaced tie in it.

He slammed the drawer closed. “You know what time I have to be there for the groundbreaking and you’re not even helping me find the tie! I don’t get you sometimes!” He shouted at her through the bathroom door.

There was no response from the bathroom. Furious and knowing that she never locked the bathroom door, he walked over and opened it to make sure she heard him. She was sitting on top of the closed toilet seat lid with a pregnancy test in her hand and a look of utter shock on her face. He looked at the test then looked at her.

“Why did you do that?” She asked clearly humiliated by his actions which didn’t faze him in the least. From experience, humiliating her was the only way to get through to her sometimes.

“Because you apparently think I have time to waste this morning,” He replied snidely.

“Leon, the ceremony isn’t until 1 o’clock,” She shot back. “It’s nine o’clock.”

“I have other meetings that I have to attend prior to the ceremony. You should know that.” He grimaced, knowing fully well that she wouldn’t know that he was meeting with Aaron this morning. This morning meeting would allow Leon to finally rid himself of the walking virus.

“I didn’t,” Evan paused then looked at the pregnancy test stick waving it gently in her hand. “It’s negative,” She said.

“Did you remove my tie from my tie rack because I’m in a hurry?” He asked as if not hearing her and not even looking at the test stick in her hand.

Evan stood up without a word and exited the bathroom with her long silk gown sticking close to her body with every move she made.

Leon watched her walk past him without an answer. “Did you hear me?” He asked indignantly.

Evan quickly turned around facing him. “Did you hear me?” She asked before walking into their closet. She returned with a bright pink dress she had chosen for the ceremony.

Leon eyed the dress. “You’re not wearing that, are you?”

Evan sighed. “I planned to.”

“No. Besides it won’t match my tie.”

Evan sighed with frustration. “But you can’t find your tie.”

He stood looking at her and shook his head. “Even if I never find it, that dress is awful. The mayor will be there, city council members, and lots of cameras.”

It sounded harsh but the truth always did. Besides, she wasn’t about to upstage him in that bright dress especially since the photo ops were going to be outrageous today. This was his time; he was going to make his name known. He was preparing for future endeavors like the senatorial seat and nothing and no one was going to dim his shine.

“Are you serious?” She asked still holding the dress.

“Where’s the dress you bought for the ceremony?”

“I just thought I’d wear a different one.”

“Don’t think; just listen,” Leon said splashing on cologne. “Oh, ask Rosalie if she moved my tie for some reason; I’m not good at Spanish.”

“She speaks English.” Evan glared back at him as she walked into their closet to hang the dress back up.

“You could have fooled me since she acts like she can’t understand it whenever I’m speaking it.”

“Maybe it’s the way you speak it to her,” Evan mumbled from the closet.

Leon admired himself in the mirror. “Go ask her to look for it. I’m in a hurry.”

Evan walked out of the closet and into the bedroom carrying the new dress; the gray one that he had anticipating her wearing.

“Is this better?”

“Much,” he responded watching her through the mirror place the dress on the bed then walking toward the door.

She turned around looking at him. “The test was negative. I took two.”

Leon adjusted his collar and turned to her. “Okay.”

“I don’t think we’re spending enough time together.”

Leon wanted to laugh. This girl was such a prude that she couldn’t even say the word
sex
. She was right; they weren’t having a lot of it but he didn’t care. He wasn’t that attracted to her and it was difficult pretending he was.

“Sex,” Leon said. “It’s called sex.”

Evan placed her hand on her hip instinctively waiting for him to continue.

He shrugged. “Maybe your heart isn’t right about adopting this baby.”

“What?” Evan asked defensively.

“I think you need to pray and let God deal with your heart because it seems that you’re resistant to bringing a child into our home that isn’t our own. I told you where my heart was. We discussed it and we’re going forward with the adoption.”

Evan looked confused as she stood at the bedroom door. “This has nothing to do with the adoption. You may not know my heart but God does. I agreed to the adoption but you also agreed to try.”

“I’ve already spoken to an agency and there’s a woman due in February. That’s where we’re at.”
He had to lie and didn’t feel bad about having to
.

“Due in February? What are you talking about? You did this without me?” Evan asked with a bewildered look on her face.

Leon shrugged. “It wasn’t necessary for you to be there. I was just getting some information.”

Evan folded her arms. “You shouldn’t have done anything without me,” She said irritably.

“I want to make sure that you are where you should be before you meet with the agency. Your attitude could affect the entire process and we can’t risk that.”

“My attitude?” Evan asked trying to calm down. “I told you that I’m ready for a family and I mean it.”

“Then concentrate on that.” Leon fumed not even looking in her direction.

Evan looked stunned but said nothing. Beginning to walk out of the door, she stopped and turned around. “This was kind of a big deal to me because I was really praying that it was positive.” She sighed. “And I was hoping that it would be a big deal to you too.”

Leon stared at her. “It’ll be a big deal to me when you tell me that it’s positive.”

Looking beautiful in her ceremony ready attire, Evan stood to the side of the church clapping her hands and swaying to the awesome tunes of their choir. She was prepared all around for today’s ceremony, from whitened teeth to her new dramatic eyelashes that Leon felt would create better pictures for her. She knew that no one could have guessed that their gorgeously dressed, manicured, powder puffed First lady was aching inside. She hid it well at church.

There was still a little time before the throng of people would swarm the church grounds for the ground breaking ceremony. She had to admit that she was a little anxious yet excited about it all. She had invited Nina and the First ladies that she had lunched with previously almost feeling like she had to since the ground breaking had been the talk of the church folk for weeks she’d heard. How would it look if she didn’t invite them?

Everyone was busying themselves around the church like worker bees decorating, congregating and getting camera crews where they needed to be. She had no idea that it would turn out to be such a huge event; Leon was slowly but surely becoming the star that he wanted to be. But that wasn’t where she wanted to place her energy. Instead, she watched the choir proudly wearing gigantic smiles glowing in their new white and gold robes. It was an amazing feeling but she couldn’t help but think of Sundi.

She missed the little girl so much. When she had the microphone, she always had the congregation on their feet and it wasn’t hard to see that singing was what she was created to do. Evan couldn’t imagine what the excitement of this day would have been like for her. Evan’s thoughts of Sundi and Katie had suddenly darkened the joy of watching the excited choir who praised God to the top of their lungs eager to perform for the cameras to show why they were chosen to sing for the President of the United States.

As the song ended, everyone hanging out in the sanctuary applauded and the choir seeming to feed off the crowd’s enthusiasm, started another song. As much as she wanted to continue to listen, Evan needed to catch up on a few things in her office before the ceremony began. She began making her way to her office hoping not to get stopped by any of the many people filling up the church so she could get something accomplished.

Evan hurried down the aisle when she felt a hand gently grab her arm causing her to stop and turn around abruptly.

“Hi,” Ariel said. “I was calling your name but you were just rushing out of here.”

“Were you?” Evan asked.

“Yes.” Ariel placed her arms around Evan in a friendly hug. “How are you? You look so beautiful.”

Evan smiled embracing Ariel. Evan had always felt that Ariel was one of the few deacons’ wives that she hadn’t yet figured out. She once thought it was all in her head but the more time she spent with her, the more she was convinced that it wasn’t.

“Thank you,” Evan said responding to Ariel.

“We’ve been missing each other lately,” Ariel said taking a step back looking at Evan. “I expected to see a little bulge in the stomach area but as tight as that dress is, nothing’s in there.” Ariel laughed, placing her hand on Evan’s stomach.

“Excuse me?” Evan asked removing Ariel’s hand from her stomach.

“The church is waiting on those two words,” Ariel said.

God, why was she having this conversation with Ariel?
Evan sighed not knowing how to take Ariel.

“You look very nice,” Evan said choosing to ignore the comment. “I love that dress.” Her mother had always taught her how to diffuse a situation; place the attention back on them. She did admire how Ariel always seemed at the head of the class when it came to appearance; no hair ever out of place and perfect face all the time. And today, maybe it was the lighting but she even seemed to have a slight glow.

“Thank you; I didn’t see Pastor Leon today,” Ariel said looking around the sanctuary. “Do you know where he is? I wanted to congratulate him on the ground breaking.”

“He’s all over the place today. I know that he had some meetings lined up before the ceremony so he could be anywhere. But I’m sure he’ll appreciate the thought.” Evan nodded hoping to move on from the awkward conversation with Ariel.

The church was getting busier and louder. Evan really needed to make it to her office and the stranger the conversation was with Ariel, the stronger the urge was to end it.

“I better go make sure that Leon’s ready for the cameras,” Evan said raising her voice above the now chaotic noisy church hoping to make a quick exit.

Ariel moved a string of hair from Evan’s face. “Go find your husband. You know he needs you. I don’t know what he’s going to do when you get that baby and have so little time for him.”

Evan wanted to smack Ariel’s hand away from her. All of a sudden, it went from just an urgency to get away from Ariel to wanting to hear the girl out.

Ariel seemed taken aback by the look on Evan’s face. She reached out and touched Evan’s arm. “Rick told me that you two are in the process of adopting.”