One of a kind, p.29
One of a Kind, page 29
Anthia went on to explain, “We attended the executive board meeting. I was so nervous. I tell you, if I never see another television news camera it will not be too soon for me.”
“Well, thank goodness it’s over,” Dana said, patting Anthia’s hand. “How did the meeting go? They weren’t looking to fire him, were they?”
“He had some opposition, but the boys he has helped over the years came, some with their families to speak on his behalf.” She went on to retell their individual testimonials.
“That’s fabulous. I can’t imagine where they could have gotten such a wild story that Dex had been convicted of manslaughter.”
Anthia met her friend’s gaze head-on. “It was not made up. That part is true. Dexter did time for manslaughter in Texas. It was an accident. He was trying to stop his wife’s suicide attempt when the gun went off. His wife and their unborn child were killed.”
“How tragic. It must be terribly painful for him to relive it publicly.”
“Yes, it has been.” She looked around, “It’s too quiet in here. Where are the kids?”
Dana forced a smile as she glanced at the wall clock. “They’re with their father, visiting his grandmother.”
“What!” It popped out before Anthia could stop it.
Dana was immediately on the defensive. “If I can understand why you support your man, why can’t you see why I support mine?”
“What did I say? For heaven’s sakes, Dana! I was just surprised. I’ve never known you to leave the kids with anyone outside of your own family.”
“Are you implying I don’t trust Jerome’s people? Or Jerome for that matter with his own kids?” Dana persisted.
“Excuse me, but I thought we were talking about your babies?” Anthia knew better than to get into any kind of discussion with Dana about her lover. He could do no wrong in Dana’s view.
Dana was so upset, she was shaking. “This is about Jerome and we both know it! You don’t like him. Oh, please! Girl, don’t you think I know you can’t stand my Jerome?”
“And why is that Dana? His brother is in jail for armed robbery and my son would be in the next cell if it was left up to Eddie.” Anthia fumed, as the painful memories washed over her. “Besides, Dana, you know that Jerome makes no secret of the fact he can’t stand me or mine. He resents me because my son didn’t do jail time. You were here when he threatened me.”
“He has never threatened you,” the younger woman insisted, close to tears.
Anthia sighed heavily. This entire conversation was pointless. Dana’s love blinded her to the man’s faults. All she saw when it came to her lover was what she wanted to see.
Anthia said, “I apologize if I upset you. Can we please drop this right now?”
“Hello, Mrs. Douglas. I’m Dexter Washington. I’d like to speak to Tina.”
She had apparently just gotten out of bed. Her hair had not benefitted from a comb and she smelled of stale beer. She swore heatedly. “After what you put my baby through? No way! The police been here trying to trap her. And that investigator you sent to shake us up. Well, it didn’t work! Them damn reporters camped outside the front door all morning, trying to get in to talk to Tina. Enough! Now, get the hell out of my face!”
“I have no idea how the reporters knew that Tina is behind the story in the newspaper. I certainly am not responsible.”
“You heard me!”
Dexter’s quick action caught the door and prevented it from being slammed in his face. “I didn’t come here to upset you or Tina. I’d like to get some things straight.”
Dexter wisely keep his thoughts to himself. He did not remind her that Tina had been the one making the threats. So how could Tina be trapped into something if she were the innocent party? None of it made much sense to him since his return from Houston. How had Tina learned about his past? How had she found out?
Her mother was acting as if Tina had not gone to the newspaper with the story. Perhaps she hadn’t expected it to mushroom into such a media frenzy. It was too late for regrets. His life was in shambles.
It was his future that was threatened. What really bugged him was that when this was all over with, he would not even have his good name to offer Anthia. He had no other choice but to pursue the matter.
“I told you...”
“Not meaning any disrespect Mrs. Douglas, but I’m telling you that Tina has not taken the time to think this thing through. Scandal can stick to her as negatively as it will stick to me.” Gritting his teeth, he fought to keep his temper under control. His emotional state was volatile, but he was wise enough to know that giving in to it would not help him.
“Mrs. Douglas, Tina’s still very young. If this continues she may be ruining her future. Who’s going to hire an uneducated person who’s capable of falsely accusing her boss of a crime? Who would be that stupid? No one I know.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” Mrs. Douglas yelled, clenching her stained robe to her thin, bony frame. “My girl hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“Then why didn’t she go to the police to press formal charges against me? Why did they have to come to her to investigate the story in the paper? Huh? Why was she afraid to talk to the television reporters?”
The older woman evidently hadn’t taken time to analyze Tina’s actions because she appeared visibly shaken by the questions. Finally, she boasted, “I believe my girl.”
“That’s good because I don’t plan to sit back and quietly let her ruin my life. I have hired an attorney, Quinn Montgomery.” He watched her eyes go wide with apparent recognition. He pressed his advantage, “I’m considering taking legal action against you and your daughter.”
Mrs. Douglas was clearly disturbed by that revelation and was using the doorframe for support.
“I have never touched Tina or said anything in a remotely sexual way to her. I did give her a job and encouraged her to take advantage of our GED classes, so that she could go on to college while she continued to work at the center. I wanted her to be able to get any kind of job she would like. She could learn the skills to become an executive assistant, if she applies herself. That’s all I want for her... a better life.”
Janet Douglas frowned. Until Mr. Washington was willing to hire her, Tina could not find a decent job. The best she had been able to come up with was slapping hamburgers between two buns at the fast-food place on the corner. Because of him, her little girl was in a position to be about to go full time to college in the fall. There was no argument about that.
“Please, may I speak to Tina? You’re welcome to stay in the room. I have nothing to hide.”
“She ain’t feeling well today. She been lying around. You’re welcome to come on inside.” Mrs. Douglas stepped back out of the way. They lived in the bottom level of a two-family flat.
He ignored the neglect and disorder in the crowded living and dining area. He took the single straight-back chair she had cleared so that he could sit down.
“I’m only letting you in because all you said is true. These things don’t hurt men the way they do women. I don’t want her to end up with a bad reputation.”
Dexter had to bite the inside of his jaw to keep back the angry retort rising in his throat. When he spoke, he said quietly, “I’m over forty years old. I’m involved with a very special lady who also volunteers at the center. Tina knows this. I’m not sexually attracted to children, Mrs. Douglas. In my mind Tina is a child. She knows how I feel.”
Mrs. Douglas stared at him, suddenly remembering how upset Tina had been with him because he had been seeing someone at the center. Was that what changed her attitude toward him?
Did she think she could force him into wanting her? Had Tina decided that a man was the answer to her problems, like so many woman these days? Hadn’t she learned anything from her own mother’s mistake? Tina’s father had walked out on them because he couldn’t handle the responsibility of a family.
She only had to look at him to see why. Dexter was a tall, good-looking brother. He was all that and then some. But to do something so evil as to lie about the man. Was that why she had not wanted to go to the police?
Janet Douglas walked into the hallway and screamed at the top of her lungs, “Tina! Get dressed and get your behind out here, girl!” When she didn’t appear fast enough to suit her, she screeched. “Tina!!”
“What?” Tina yelled back.
“Get the hell out here. I want to talk to you now!”
“What! ” Tina snapped, entering the room while rubbing sleep from her eyes. She was dressed in leggings and long T-shirt. She stopped abruptly, then asked with agitation, “Why did you let him in?” She didn’t wait for an answer but walked over to the front door to fling it open. “Get the hell out!”
Her mother was fuming as she walked over to her and slapped her. “Shut the damn door! Then take your narrow behind over to the couch and sit down!”
Angry tears filled Tina’s eyes as she poked out her lips like a small child, but she did exactly as her mother demanded.
Mrs. Douglas folded her arms across her frail body, before she said, “Why did you lie?”
“I didn’t!”
As her mother approached Tina, she swore long and heatedly. “I don’t have time for this. We both know you had a thing for that man. So why did you lie?”
“I did not lie. He touched my breasts and he forced himself on me,” she said glaring at her mother. “Why don’t you believe me? Why don’t you ever take my word for anything!”
“When and where did this happen, Tina?” Dexter said rising slowly to his full height.
Tina looked away, unable to even look at him. “You had no business coming here. Haven’t you done enough all ready?”
“What have I done, Tina? What have I done to make you so angry that you had to get back at me this way?”
Tina shook her head, covering her ears as if she could tune him out. “Leave me alone!”
Dexter paced the length of the room before he turned back to face Tina and said, “You went to the newspaper with this story to hurt me. We both know that. What I want to know is why? I have never laid a hand on you in a sexual way. Nor have I spoken to you out of turn.” He was holding on to his temper by a solitary thread. Maybe Anthia and Quinn were right? Maybe he was making things worse by coming here.
“I hate you! Do you hear me, I hate you!!” Tina yelled, jumping to her feet and screaming the words at him.
“Sit down, Tina.” He spoke with quiet authority, his voice tinged with frost.
She sank onto the sofa. “I want you out of my house.”
“Girl, you don’t pay nothing up in here, so shut your mouth.”
“I don’t have anything to say to him.”
“You had plenty to say the night you waited for me after closing. The night I drove you home. You made a play for me that night. Did you tell your mother about that? Did you tell her how I turned you down?” He came right up to her. “Why can’t you look me in the face? This all started when I began seeing Anthia, didn’t it? You have resented her since she first started volunteering at the center.”
He should have seen the trouble coming. But no, he had been so caught up in his feelings for Anthia and in his work at the center, that he had not noticed Tina at all. As long as she did her job, he had not had a problem. How could he have been so blind?
“You overheard me asking her to go away with me for the weekend, didn’t you? Was that what made you try to hurt me? You couldn’t stand the idea of our being together?”
“Tina? Is what he says true? Did you throw yourself at him? And when he said no did you make up a story? Did he or did he not fondle you?”
The girl could not meet her mother’s pain-filled eyes or Dexter’s dark, angry ones. She had never expected the newspaper to take such an interest in the community center. Who could have guessed it would blow up into the media circus, it had become. It had turned into a nightmare, with no end in sight.
The worst had been when the police had come to question her. She had been terrified. She tried to say as little as possible. She did not want to go to jail. She did not want him to go to jail either. Why couldn’t they see that she was the one who had been hurt?
When Tina looked at him, her hands were balled into fists while tears ran down her face. She hissed, “What did you see in her? I did everything right. I never worked so hard at anything as I did at the center.” She sniffed wiping at the tears that she couldn’t seem to stop.
“I really liked you from the very beginning. I did everything you wanted me to do. I worked hard and I went to school.” She hesitated wiping at her tears. “I always took time with my hair, my nails, my clothes. I did all that! But you never even noticed me! You saw me as a little kid. And I wasn’t. I was all grown up! But you never even looked at me, not like you look at her!” Glaring at him, Tina asked belligerently, “What was so special about Anthia? She’s old. She has a grown kid! What did you see in her?”
“I love her,” Dexter said quite openly, suddenly realizing it was the simple truth.
He had been in love with Anthia for a very long time. She had won his heart by the courageous way she would not give up on her child when he was lying shot in hospital bed in critical condition. She never, not once gave up on Jeff. Dexter’s admiration for her only seemed to grow over time.
“I’m just as pretty as she is!”
“It has nothing to do with her looks, Tina. Her beauty comes from inside.” Suddenly Dexter wanted nothing more than to be with Anthia and be able to give her the good news. It was nearly over.
The girl’s mother was near tears herself when she said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Washington. I’ll make sure that Tina does the right thing.”
Dexter nodded, yet he took no pleasure from Tina’s mistake.
“About the lawsuit, we don’t have no money,” Mrs. Douglas whispered fearfully.
Dexter said, “All I want is my good name back. Or as much of it as I can have. My lawyer will be contacting you about a press conference to straighten this all out.”
Mrs. Douglas wept as if her heart were broken. Dexter felt sorry for her, for both of them. Tina in her efforts to get back at him had not only hurt him, but her mother and even more importantly... she had hurt herself. The hurt was something she was just beginning to understand.
She heard the anguish in her mother’s sobs. “Oh, Mama. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it to turn out like this.”
Dexter rose saying, “Thank you, Mrs. Douglas. Good-bye.”
Twenty-Four
As if she were unable to remain seated a second longer, Dana moved back and forth to the door several times before she stopped abruptly and said unhappily, “You’re my friend. Doesn’t that count for something?”
“Yes, it does.” Anthia nodded, “Don’t I have to be honest with you? Dana, you are a wonderful person. I think you deserve so much better than Jerome.” Anthia hated the way the man treated her friend and that was all she was focusing on when she went on to say, “He lives here but, can you honestly say he even takes care of his kids financially?”
Dana looked away. “I never asked you how many nights Dexter spends in your bed.”
Anthia answering truthfully, “As many as possible. I’m not ashamed of how I feel about him. But there is a difference in our situations. I don’t support him. And I don’t have his babies, although, I must admit I would like nothing more.” She did not add that if Jerome would even look after his own kids, then Dana would be able to work a few hours outside of her home. “You would consider having a baby with Dexter?”
“Absolutely. I just don’t want to have to raise another child alone. It’s too hard. Dana, honey, I’m older than you. I know what I’m talking about.”
“I know you only want the best for me. But I love him, Anthia. I can’t help it.” Her unhappiness was evident in her eyes.
“Love should not hurt so much.”
“You don’t know him like I do. He has a sweet side, a tender side that he doesn’t show anyone else but me. Sometimes a black woman has to go beyond the norm to keep her man.” Anthia did not know what to say, did not know why she was even arguing the point. This was Dana’s life, she could not live it for her. But she could not stop feeling as if Dana were making some really bad choices.
“You have more than yourself to think about. You have those four beautiful babies. You have to do what is best for them.”
Dana sank back down beside Anthia. “Yes, I know. Right now they have to come first. They’re still so young and totally dependent on me.”
“Girlfriend, I was lucky. Although I got pregnant way too young, I had my mother to help me and guide me.”
After Dana’s parents divorced, she lost contact with her father. Her mother was a very religious woman and she strongly disagreed with Dana having children without marriage.
“You have accomplished a great deal on your own.”
“Thank you, but so can you. You’re very talented, Dana.”
She was only half listening. Every few minutes, she stared at her watch then ran damp hands down her pant legs.
“What’s wrong?”
“They should be back by now. It’s past my girls dinnertime. Where could they be?”
“Perhaps, you should call Jerome’s grandmother?”
“I’ll give him another half hour,” Dana said, refusing to verbalize her fears. Jerome could be responsible, if he were sober. And he had been straight when he left with the children, otherwise she would have not let them go. The question was, was he still in control of himself? What if he ran into some of his boys? Surely, he would bring the babies home to her before he took off with them.
Anthia felt helpless as she watched Dana move restlessly from the living room into the dining room and back again. “If you don’t want to call, let me.”
“No! I don’t want him thinking that I don’t trust him with the girls or that I’m checking up on him.” Dana shuttered at the thought of unleashing his temper. He was not always an easy man to live with, although he had never hurt her.
