In Her Mind (Mountain High Valley Low ) (11 page)

I checked myself out in the mirror and was pleased with my reflection. My new honey-colored highlights contrasted beautifully with my chestnut brown hair. Freshly applied individual eyelashes gave my eyes a sexy, dreamy look. The short, pink strapless sundress and matching pink and brown striped stiletto sandals gave me a playful but grown-and-sexy appeal. The sandals made my legs look even more fit than usual. I knew Brian would like what he saw. I even decided to wear my stunning pink diamond engagement ring. Only this time I wore it on my right hand. I didn’t want to jeopardize my future with Brian by making him too jealous. I grabbed my oversized white, Isabella Fiore bag and threw on a pair of pink-tinted Dior shades. After one last spin, I blew the mirror a kiss and said, “Brian, honey, eat your heart out,” before escaping through the side door of the home I had shared with Brandon in the suburbs. I needed to be gone before he came back from his Saturday workout.

I jumped into my Mercedes convertible and hit the button to activate the automatic garage-door opener. Before putting the car in gear, I checked myself in the rearview one last time. My pink-tinted gloss gave my lips a shine brighter than the morning sun. I threw the car into reverse, swung my arm around the back of the passenger’s seat, and turned to back out of the garage. That’s when I saw my haughty mother standing behind my car, with her arms crossed in front of her chest, glaring at me.

“Mother! What…what are you doing here?” I asked as if I was surprised. I knew it would only be a matter of time before she caught up with me.

“What the hell is going on, Shelly?” my mother asked as she clicked her ivory pumps in my direction. “I’m here looking for you,” she continued as she opened the driver-side door and ordered me out with a toss of her head. My mother flipped her brown-colored, extra long weave behind her back and turned toward the house where she continued to scold me as she waited for me to open the door. “You need someone to talk some sense into you.”

Obediently, I closed the garage door, rose from the car, and let my mother in. I didn’t want to go into the house with her. I was almost afraid to be in her presence without Daddy around as a buffer.

“I don’t have all day,” she said sternly. That was her way of letting me know it was taking too long to let her in.
Mother was one hell of a non-verbal communicator. She could have an entire conversation without moving her lips. A flip of her hand, the snap of a finger, a look, a toss of her head, a nod, a stare. Every gesture had a meaning. Whenever she added a new gesture to her non-verbal vocabulary, it was up to me to figure out what she was saying before she narrowed those large, brown, doe-like eyes and spoke firmly through tight lips. Fortunately, her non-verbal speech was far less brutal than her guileless audible assaults.
Without a word of protest, I followed each indicated demand. All the while, I was thinking of something to say to get rid of her.
Once I got the door open, she brushed past me into the kitchen, retrieved some gourmet tea from the cabinet, and set it down on the counter. With a simple wave of her hand, she instructed me to put on the teakettle so she could have a cup of tea. Inside I grunted. Brian was on my mind, and Mother was an unwelcome distraction.
“Come here and let me look at you,” she demanded as she stopped me from moving about the kitchen. “Where did that bastard hit you? Where is he right now? Does he realize what I will do to him? Why didn’t you say anything before now? I’ve been looking for you for damn near a week and you were stupid enough to come back here? I knew you were here because every time I went to the condo, you weren’t home. Why on earth would you come back here to this house after that man put his hands on you? Where’s my grandson? Was he around when this happened?”
I thought her head would pop due to lack of oxygen. It amazed me how my mother could go on without stopping to breathe.
“Mother—” I tried to interrupt, but it didn’t work.
“I still see remnants of the bruises. Did you think no one would ever find out? If it wasn’t for your father coming by that day, no one would have known anything. Then you call yourself disappearing and wouldn’t answer your phone. I know you saw our numbers. Why didn’t you at least call us back?”
“Mother! Stop it, please!” I begged.
“Don’t yell at me! Why did Brandon do this to you? Are you still chasing that nobody, Brian? Regardless of how ridiculous that is, it’s no reason for Brandon to put his weak hands on you. Just wait and see, by the time your father and I are finished with him, he’ll wish he’d never met you. He will be ruined. You might as well pack up the baby and come on back to Brooklyn, because by the time we are done with him, he will have absolutely nothing. There’s no way he will get away with this. Your father is way more powerful than his. I’ll see to it myself that he is blacklisted in our social arenas.”
“Enough about Brandon. I’m not worried about him,” I said.
“Well, you need to be!” she said with shock in her eyes. “What’s happening to you? Did anything I taught you stick? How would it look if someone was to find out my daughter was being abused by her husband?”
“I can’t believe you are concerned about what your friends would think.”
“I’m concerned about your well-being, but I can’t have you being in an abusive relationship, no matter who your father is.”
Trying to reason with her proved to be fruitless. Either I had to tell her the truth or make up an even bigger lie in order to get her off the subject before Brandon came home. Even though I didn’t care for him the way he cared for me, I still didn’t want to see him hurt.
I removed the kettle from the electric surface of the stove and turned off the heat. My mother reared her head back and looked at me inquisitively.
“What did you do that for?” she asked, waving her hand dismissively.
“I know a great place for lunch. Let’s go there and have our tea. I’ll tell you about everything that’s going on.”
I counted on my mother’s nosiness to derail her line of questioning and to help me get out of the house before Brandon came back. When I heard the garage door creak along with the hum of his Range Rover, I knew it was too late. Immediately, I began to push my mother toward the front door, hoping to get out before Brandon came in through the door leading from the garage. When my mother recognized the sounds of the car, her head snapped in the direction of the garage, one hand automatically rose to her hip, and she began to gnaw on her bottom lip. With no time to waste, I grabbed Mother’s hand and pulled her toward the front door. She fought me all the way, declaring that she couldn’t wait to see Brandon so she could give him a piece of her mind. Before I knew it, Brandon had marched happily through the kitchen door and my mother went charging at him, hurling insults all the way.
“How dare you put your hands on my daughter? Who do you think you are? Don’t you know I’ll ruin you?”
Brandon stopped dead in his tracks, shock on his face. “What would make you think I hurt Shelly? Shelly, did you tell your mother that I hit you?” Brandon asked, his question draped in confusion.
Both Mother’s and Brandon’s eyes were now on me. “Shelly! You didn’t tell your mother what happened to you?” he asked me, still confused. Mother’s eyes, on the other hand, cut right through me.
“Yeah, Shelly,” my mother mocked, “tell me what happened to you.”
I stood facing my mother with my head held high while my mind searched for a believable response. Brandon turned to my mother, amazed that she wasn’t aware of my situation. Or at least what he thought my situation was. When it took too long for me to speak, Brandon decided he would speak for me. “Shelly went to drop Brice off at his biological father’s house and his jealous ex-girlfriend beat her up!”
Mother’s eyes widened then closed to near slits and she held me locked in her sight. When her lips twisted I knew that in her head she was tossing about all the lies I had told. I grabbed my keys from the counter, ran out the door to the garage, jumped into my convertible, and sped off. I would have to deal with Mother later.

I paced a circle in Jeff’s carpet as I waited for him to prepare us another stiff drink. Though I was still living with her, Lexie and I hadn’t spoken much in the past week. We’d been moving around the house like strangers passing in the night, excusing ourselves politely when we got in each other’s way. Brice spent the entire week at my mother’s house. She refused to let me take him home until I “fixed things” with Lexie. I hung with Brice every night until he fell asleep or until my mother kicked me out, telling me to go home to my Fiancé. The truth was, I did all I could to avoid Lexie because I had no idea how to fix this mess. A part of me was still upset by the comments she’d made the week before, but I was able to get past that. I knew she was just being mean because she didn’t know how to handle her emotions.

As for me, I was trying to look at the bigger picture. We had two weeks left before our wedding and we needed to actually decide whether we were going to go through with the marriage. A dangerous mix of pride and stubbornness played on my emotions but at the end of the day, I knew I loved her too much to let her just walk away. Lexie hadn’t called off the reception or canceled any of our appointments, but she also hadn’t done much of any other type of preparing for the wedding either, unless she’d been doing it when I wasn’t around.

Besides being able to see Brice every day, Shelly’s absence was one of the few bright spots in my life. At one time, I thought Lexie was finally coming around because she came home with a few outfits for Brice. She knew Shelly hadn’t left him with much and took it upon herself to help out.

“I can’t believe this, man. What are you going to do? Do you think she will come around by the wedding? She can’t be serious about calling it off, man,” Jeff said as he handed me a tall drinking glass half-filled with ice and cognac. “Sit down, man. Tell me this one more time,” he said before plopping down on his worn black leather sofa.

“I don’t know. At this point, I don’t even know what I want to do.”
“Aw, don’t even start that, man. I knew you before Lexie came around. And I see how you’ve changed since she came into your life, so I know you don’t really mean that. You don’t have to put on an act for me, man. I just can’t believe after all this time that, number one, that psychotic Shelly decided to show her face, and two, Lexie is talking about calling off the wedding. This shit is heavy, man.”
“Who are you telling? Last week I saw a side of Lexie that I didn’t like at all and that’s what’s got me having second thoughts.”
“Wait a minute, brah. You have to put this in perspective. The stuff that Shelly’s been pulling is more than enough to scare any chick away. If you really want Lexie to stick around, you’ve got to let her know you’re on her side all the way. If this is going to work, she needs to have your back. But you’ve got to do something about Shelly.”
I downed the rest of my drink and slammed it down on the floor next to me. Jeff automatically picked up my glass and refilled it.
“That’s the problem. Shelly is hard to manage and even harder to control. It’s like she’s back with a vengeance. In about two weeks, she’s managed to throw my entire life off course. She’s had me arrested, dropped Brice into my lap without warning— she’s trying everything she can to make my life miserable just because I don’t want to be with her.”
“Damn. Women are no joke.”
“You’re telling me!” I said before getting up and continuing to pace. The drinks Jeff had been making didn’t seem strong enough to numb the pain of my situation any.
“Well, you’ve got two weeks left. You need to finalize something. What’s your game plan?”
I sighed hard.
“There’s no game plan?”
Just then, my cell phone rang and Lexie’s number flashed across the screen. “What’s up?” My greeting was purposely dry.
The two of us had been playing that game for days, purposely acting unaffected by the other’s voice and presence. It was all bullshit. I knew I was jacked up inside and was quite sure that she was too.
“Um…You might want to come back here right now! Shelly’s at the door and refuses to leave. If you don’t come and get this woman from my door, I’m going to—”
“I’m on my way,” I said quickly, cutting her off and flipping my phone closed. “The saga continues,” I said to Jeff, holding the phone up. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you once I find out what’s going on.”
“Who was that?”
“Lexie. Shelly’s at our door,” I said. Jeff frowned and shook his head.
I drove the few blocks separating Jeff’s home from the one I shared with Lexie in minutes. Shelly’s Mercedes convertible was parked in front of the building. I trotted up to the condo as fast as my feet would allow and found Shelly standing outside my door.
“What can I do for you, Shelly?” I asked, trying to appear nonchalant.
“I came to pick up Brice. Where is he? I know you didn’t leave my child in that house with that woman.”
“You weren’t worried about her when you dropped him off last week and sped off. Now you want to be concerned with who he’s with and who he’s around?”
“You are his father, Brian. I left him here with you. Why don’t you have him with you? He needs to come home now.”
“Did you call me to say that you were coming to get him?”
She looked puzzled for a moment.
“No, but why should I have to? I’m here to get my child, and that woman refuses to open the door for me. She could be doing anything to Brice. How could you leave him here with her?”
“Why don’t you go on home and I’ll bring Brice by later?”
“No, I want him now, Brian. I have important things to do. Where is my son? I want to see him now!” Shelly demanded, looking like a black Barbie doll, swathed in pink.
“He’s not here! I’ll drop him off later. What time will you be home?”
Shelly huffed and kicked the door. Lexie, who was obviously listening from the other side, opened the door and gave Shelly the evil eye, inviting her to battle. Shelly flipped her bouncy locks and stormed away.
“Have him home by six,” she commanded without looking back.
As I approached the door, Lexie walked further into the apartment, leaving the door cracked. She continued making herself busy around the place, ignoring me.
“Are we still getting married?” I asked, not having the patience to beat around the bush. I didn’t care about anything else.
Lexie stopped puttering about but didn’t respond.
“That’s all I need to know, Lexie. You can continue to be mad at me, but I can’t play games with you anymore. So tell me—are we getting married in two weeks or do I need to tell my people that the wedding’s off?”
Still not answering, Lexie sat on the floor right where she stood. Her hands covered her face then pushed her hair back from her forehead. “Do you still want to get married?”
“Lexie, I didn’t ask you if you were hungry or something simple like that. This is serious. I asked you if we are getting married. I want a straightforward answer. You already know where I stand. I’m not going to keep up with this tipping around bullshit we’ve been doing for the past week. If you’re with me, then let me know. If you really don’t want to be with me, then let me know that, too. I’ll leave today. And before you ask, I don’t know how to fix this situation with Shelly yet. I will do something about it, but I just don’t have all the answers now.”
Quietly, Lexie remained on the floor with her head in her hands. I could see tears falling from her eyes like drops of crystal rain. It was clear that her mind and heart were at odds. I silently rooted for her heart to win. Watching her caused my gut to wrench. I knelt before her, moving her hands from her face. Lexie looked to the ceiling, blinking quickly, trying to hold back her tears. I kissed the wetness of her face. She turned away and sobbed. With her beautifully high cheekbones cupped in my palms, I turned her face back toward me, forcing her to look me in the eyes, and then pulled her lips to mine.
“I told you, right now I don’t have all the answers. But I want you in my corner. You are supposed to be my partner, remember?” I smiled, hoping that she would smile, too, but she didn’t.
“Shelly has nothing on you. But you need to let me know whether or not you are with me. If you are, then we go all the way. If not, don’t let me waste my time. I’ll go because I won’t spend another day here with you if my presence makes you that miserable. I’ve got pride, too, and it’s been working on me all week. But I know what I want, and I’m not willing to let my pride win at the cost of losing what I want the most. So what’s it going to be, Lex? Are you with me or not?”
Before she could answer, I kissed her hard, hoping that she would feel me inside her soul. I was relieved when she kissed me back. Reassurance was what she needed right now, and I hoped the kiss would connect us in ways that words couldn’t.
Instead, Lexie pulled back, ran into the bedroom still sobbing, and slammed the door behind her, shutting me out and shutting me down at the same time.