Pastor Needs a Boo (26 page)

Xavier frowned and rolled away from Tatiana. He said, “So what did you have to do to get that car?”

“The exact same thing you did to get yours, my love,” she spat out at him. Xavier could be so dense at times. He worked overtime to please Camille to get what he wanted. She remembered how Xavier went MIA on her for close to two months when he was working to convince Camille to sign him up for the coveted American Express Black Card.

Xavier sighed. It was getting harder and harder to keep up this affair. He was tired of sneaking around and wished he could find a way to get rid of Camille in exchange for Tatiana and still run for bishop. But it didn't seem like he was going to find a viable solution to this problem any time soon.

“Where are you on the divorce?” Tatiana asked, hoping he was somewhere in the vicinity of having asked Camille for a divorce. She had never done well with sharing.

“I'm running for bishop,” Xavier answered her in a solemn voice.

“What's that got to do with it? The Gospel United Church has some divorced bishops, right?”

“No,” Xavier said. “We've never elected a man who was divorced—even though the current bylaws don't prohibit a divorced preacher from running for and being elected to serve as a bishop.”

“But Denzelle Flowers is running for bishop, right? I know he's divorced, because I divorced him.”

“Yeah, he's running, love. But the difference between Denzelle and me is that he has been divorced for a long time, and everybody in the church knows you left him for Todd. So some folk don't hold that against Denzelle. They feel like he was left with no choice in the matter.”

“So, I'm still confused. Denzelle can run divorced, but you can't?”

Tatiana sat up in the bed and grabbed the bottle of champagne off of the night stand. She looked for a glass, and then decided to take a few swigs out of the bottle. She wished there was something stronger to drink to help her brace herself for this conversation. Something told Tatiana she was not going to like what was about to pop out of Xavier's mouth.

“If I run as a divorced candidate, I'll be running as a newly divorced man. It'll be clear I left Camille for you, Tatiana. Plus, I won't even be divorced when I announce my candidacy. I'll be separated but still legally married to Camille.

“You know as well as I do, Camille is not going to let me run a race like that in peace as long as we still have legal papers on each other. She is going to make a big stink and tell everybody you broke up her marriage. She is also going to force folk to deal with her as long as we are still married.”

“I don't care what the cow says about me, Xavier,” Tatiana told him, and took another swig out of the champagne bottle.

“What Camille says may not matter to you, Tatiana, but it will matter a lot to the women in the church she says it to. Some of them are delegates and have voting power. Some of them are married to delegates, or have family members who are delegates. They will get real angry and cast their votes for someone other than myself.

“As long as I am still legally married to Camille, she will have the right to enjoy all of the privileges of being the candidate's wife. Many of the church's women's organizations are not even going to recognize you until after the divorce decree is issued. And unfortunately, some of them are not going to recognize you then.”

Tatiana drained the champagne bottle with tears streaming down her cheeks. This was so unfair. Most of those women didn't even like Camille Franklin.

Xavier sat up and grabbed Tatiana in his arms. He kissed her on the mouth and held her tight.

“Please don't cry. We'll think of something.”

“But Xavier, if what you are saying is true, that's all the more reason to hurry up and ask Camille for the divorce.”

He kissed Tatiana again. Only this kiss, unlike the previous one, was not full of love—it was about lust, pure and simple. Xavier knew he was wrong. But being forced to tell Tatiana the truth about what was going on turned him on.

At first Tatiana was falling for this version of the okey-doke. But Xavier had run that game on her one time too many for her not to figure out this play in his game book. She pulled away from him before things got too heated and said, “Things aren't going as planned. Correct?”

Xavier nodded, and lay back on the pillows with his hands behind his head. How was he going to tell Tatiana that “things aren't going as planned” was an extreme understatement? Tatiana had a delicate disposition and didn't do well with disappointing news. Xavier saw how upset she was over being in his arms while laying on upper-middle-class instead of rich-folk sheets. How would Tatiana react when she learned he didn't know when they could be together as husband and wife?

Xavier knew Tatiana would not be able to stomach them simply going together year after year after year. Tatiana couldn't stand the thought of Camille getting accolades as his wife. She hated it when Camille called Xavier to discuss some pastor and first lady church business, and Tatiana had to sit in the background quiet, as if she did not exist. The last time that happened Tatiana stomped on his Rolex, and then sobbed for hours. Telling Tatiana the truth about his situation was going to be painful and unpleasant.

“Baby,” he began carefully. “Some powerful preachers are behind my run for bishop. In fact, they are the ones who convinced me to run in the first place. Bishop Sonny Washington and Reverend Marcel Brown are in my corner one hundred percent, and they are going to put together the PAC money needed to run this campaign.”

Tatiana sat up in the bed and clapped her hands in delight. If Bishop Washington and Reverend Brown were behind this, it meant Xavier was rolling high in the Gospel United Church, and big things were in store for her man. Sonny Washington and Marcel Brown may have some shaky reputations in the church, but they were still powerful players—not to mention very, very rich. She said, “Honey, that is wonderful! Now I really can't wait for us to be together.”

She put her hands to her cheeks and exclaimed.

“Oh my! I need to get up to New York to find an exquisite purple ensemble to wear to the Episcopal consecration ceremony!”

This was going to be harder than anything Xavier could have imagined. They were not even separated from their spouses, and Tatiana was planning a trip to some overpriced store in New York to find a purple, church lady's suit for the new husband she couldn't even marry. The consecration ceremony was a ways off—and he had to get elected bishop to participate in it. Tatiana was making his head hurt.

His mentors, Sonny Washington and Marcel Brown, always told him a woman could be light-years ahead of a man when it came to envisioning plans for the future. He had shrugged that observation off as some old player rumblings. Now he understood exactly what they had tried to warn him about—especially when it pertained to hot and torrid relationships with his other women.

Xavier took Tatiana's hands in his and looked her in the eye. He said, “Tatiana, I can't divorce Camille and be able to run for bishop.”

Tatiana stared at Xavier like she wasn't hearing him right.

“Baby, the Board of Bishops is planning a meeting to vote in a policy that prohibits a man or woman who runs for an Episcopal seat, or is holding an Episcopal seat, from remarrying if the ex-spouse is alive.

“If I were to divorce Camille and marry you, I couldn't run for bishop. If I win an Episcopal seat and then marry you, I'd have to step down. I could divorce Camille and remain a pastor, but I wouldn't make the kind of money bishops in the Gospel United Church are pulling these days.”

“Xavier, what kind of money are you talking about? I always thought bishops earned modest six-figure salaries.”

“That has changed in the last ten years. Bishops presiding over the smallest and poorest districts in the Gospel United Church make at least $275,000 a year. Bishops who preside over the more affluent districts make even more. And that doesn't include the perks and salary bonuses that come with the job.”

“How much are we talking about for you, Xavier? And what district do they want you to preside over?”

“At least half a mil. And they want to send me to the Seventh Episcopal District.”

“So, Bishop Jimmy Thekston Jr. is stepping down so you can win and preside often the Seventh District.”

Xavier sat up and frowned. He had asked the same question when Bishop Sonny Washington and Reverend Marcel Brown first told him that he was needed in the Seventh District, which covered Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. He'd never known anyone who was able to get that district from a Thekston. But Bishop Washington had assured Xavier he didn't have to worry about Jimmy Jr.

“Tatiana, preachers with more clout than the Thekstons told me I won't have to worry about them when I am assigned to the Seventh District.”

“Why do they want you there?”

Xavier got real quiet. He knew he was not supposed to trust Tatiana with the real plans involving the Seventh Episcopal District. Bishop Washington, Marcel Brown, Bishop Jefferson, and the attorney, Luther Howard, had warned him to never breathe a word of this plan, which was worth tens of millions of dollars, to anyone.

Luther Howard was a high-profile black defense attorney who had made his name representing corrupt politicians, mafia bosses, and CEOs of major corporations who had done things to bring them on the brink of a very ominous stint with the law. Rumor had it that Luther was the brains behind the defense team that represented the famous Dinkle brothers of the Dinkle brothers drug cartel.

Xavier was afraid of Luther Howard, even though he always acted like he could hold his own whenever Luther was around. Attorney Luther Howard was the coldest, hardest, and most ruthless and calculating man Xavier Franklin had ever met. It didn't even seem to bother Luther that he represented some of the most dangerous and evil men in the United States. Xavier wondered how the man slept at night, knowing he had gotten so many frightening people acquitted after they had done some pretty bad things.

Luther Howard wanted Reverend Xavier Franklin elected bishop and assigned to the Seventh Episcopal District because he needed a preacher to serve as a reputable-looking front man for the dummy corporation he planned to run out of Louisiana. The corporation would be designed to help Luther get his hands on money that would be channeled through churches in the district to help with the lingering environmental and financial problems caused by the Gulf Coast oil spill. It was going to take a lot of skill, cunning, and ingenuity to pull this off, and Luther had warned everyone of the peril that could befall anybody foolish enough to mess with these plans at any time, on any level.

Xavier knew Tatiana was waiting on an answer from him. He also knew that if he told her the details, and she revealed anything about what they were planning, they would both end up down in the gulf, absorbing all of the oil that was still having an impact on sea life at the ocean's surface.

Tatiana was watching her man intently, trying her best to figure out why he was being so cagey and secretive about his plans to run for bishop. She knew Xavier was hiding something from her.

Xavier was not going to say anything that would get them killed. But he also had to get Tatiana off of his back and off track on this. Xavier rarely used this tactic, because it was so down and dirty. But it was foolproof and worked every single time.

He closed his eyes and rubbed the side of his head like he was trying to get rid of a really bad headache. When Xavier was confident Tatiana was watching him intently, he let his head drop down until his chin rested on his chest, and then released a noise that sounded like he was trying to hide a sob. Xavier kept his eyes closed until he felt Tatiana's fingertips on his chest. Before she could say a word, Xavier lifted his head up slowly and looked deep into her eyes.

“I can't believe this,” Xavier said in the softest and sweetest voice Tatiana had ever heard coming from him.

“Believe what, Xavier?”

“I … I … I…”

He stopped and coughed, like he was choking back another sob.

“I'm in shock over this, Tatiana.”

“In shock over what, Xavier?” Tatiana asked him with worry creeping into her voice.

It took everything Xavier had in him to stop the grin that was deep down in his chest from popping up on his face. Xavier knew he had Tatiana in the palm of his hands, and went in for the kill.

Xavier bowed his head and kept it down for a few seconds. He needed some time to think of something real sad (like wearing a cheap suit and driving a small domestic car) to make him feel like crying. When the misery of those sad thoughts hit home, and the tears began to well up inside, Xavier knew it was safe enough to raise his head back up.

Tatiana got real upset when she saw a single tear trailing down her man's cheek.

“I can't believe I'm so deeply in love with you, Tatiana,” Xavier said with a voice about to break into a heavy sob. “How did I get you? What have I done to deserve you and your love?”

Xavier began to cry, and reached for Tatiana. She could barely believe he figured out a way to love her so deeply and with so much passion, he would break down in her arms. Tatiana didn't need and didn't want to ask her man anything about these plans. As long as he loved her like this, it would be alright.

Xavier held on to Tatiana and braced himself for some good loving. He had outdone himself. An old army superior officer taught him this trick when he was stationed over in Germany.

His superior had said, “Young brother, whenever you need to gain control over a situation with your woman, remember this foolproof tactic. Think of something that makes you feel so sad, it's all you can do to stop yourself from bursting into tears.”

“Like someone dying?” Xavier asked with some hesitation. He wasn't comfortable pretending somebody was dead long enough to make you want to break down and cry.