A Merry Little Christmas(32)

       
           



       

"Do you want to go out? You want a walk? Okay, let's go," she said,  rising from the bed. They went downstairs where Donnie was watching  television. She tried to slip out the back door without saying anything,  but Pippen was so excited about the prospect of going out that he  grabbed his lead and trotted into the living room with it. Angelique  watched him leave in dismay, hoping Donnie wouldn't take the cue.  Unfortunately, he entered the kitchen with the lead in one hand and a  heavy jacket in the other.

"Come on, boy, we'll get Jordan and go for a nice long walk, how about  that?" he said as they entered the room. His eyes took in Angelique,  wearing a jacket, hat and gloves and holding Jordan's lead in one hand  and the ubiquitous pooper-scoop in the other. "Well. I guess we had the  same idea. Do you mind if I come along?"

Angelique shrugged her shoulders to indicate assent. "Of course you can.  They're your dogs, after all. Maybe you'd like to take both of them,"  she said, holding out the scooper.

Donnie's jaw tightened very slightly, but he just smiled. "No, I want to  come with you. And I see you handing me that scooper. You think you're  slick, don't you?" he said as he took it from her hand. "Let's go,  guys." The four of them left the house and walked out into the damp  cold.

They walked in silence for a couple of blocks until Donnie put his hand  on Angelique's shoulder. "We've got to start talking to each other,  Angel. I can only imagine how tough this is for you, but trying to  ignore me isn't helping."

"I don't know what else to do," she said honestly. "When I wake up in  the morning the first thing I wish for is that none of this ever  happened but when I open my eyes, there's that ugly wallpaper and I know  it's all true."

"Hey, the wallpaper was there when I moved in," Donnie said defensively.  "And I wish I could make it all go away, but I can't. I know that's  what I told you would happen, but I was wrong and I apologize."

"Adonis, you don't have to keep apologizing. It wasn't your fault that  we were seen; it wasn't your fault that the story got out. I'm not even  mad at you about making it seem like we got married on purpose. Well,  I'm not mad anymore," she amended.

Donnie grinned at her. "Are you sure? You were pretty hot for a while.  You said you'd never forgive me for making you live a lie," he reminded  her as he draped a long arm over her shoulders.

Angelique pushed against him playfully and gave him a small smile.  "Don't remind me of that, please. I know I was being a drama queen, but I  think I had good reason." Both of them fell silent as they each  recalled the aftermath of the impromptu wedding.

As soon as she'd walked into the house on her return to Detroit, the  phone started ringing and didn't stop. The first call was from her  oldest brother, Clay. "Angel, we're sending the jet to pick you and  Cochran up. We need to talk to both of you," he'd said in a dangerously  calm voice. He seemed to be the spokesman for the brothers because she  didn't hear from the rest of them. Her mother, however, had called right  after she hung up with Clay and the memory of that conversation still  made her stomach hurt.

"Angelique, I can't imagine why you would do something like this. To  just run off into the night and get married without a word to anyone!  What in the world have I done to make you behave like this? I know we  haven't been as close as we should have been, but how could you let me  find out from some television gossip that my only daughter is married?  Why, Angel?"

Angelique shuddered at the memory and unconsciously pushed closer to  Donnie, who still had his arm around her shoulder. They had indeed  gotten on the TDG jet the next morning and flown to Atlanta to face her  family. The scene with her mother was every bit as bad as she'd  anticipated; she simply couldn't find the words to explain what had  happened and just bore her mother's anger and pain in near silence.  Lillian was the one person Angelique didn't want to disappoint and yet  that was all she ever seemed to do. To her, Lillian was the  personification of elegance and loveliness, a true gracious lady, and  she deserved a better daughter than Angelique could ever be. Without  realizing it, she leaned her head against Donnie, who stopped walking  and put both hands on her shoulders.

"You're thinking about your mom again, aren't you?" She nodded without  speaking. "Let's go home. It's pretty cold out, how about if I make you  some soup?" She nodded again.                       
       
           



       

In a short time they were in the warm, bright kitchen while Donnie  prepared what he referred to as his  Soon-to-be-World-Famous-Hamburger-Soup, which Angelique confessed  sounded quite gross.

"It sounds weird but it's really good. If it makes you feel any better,  it's not my recipe; Tina, my sister-in-law, gave it to me."

While he started the preparations for the soup, he tried to imagine how  Angelique was feeling. The trip to Atlanta hadn't been the epitome of a  warm welcome home. As she had predicted the consensus seemed to be that  somehow she was responsible for the debacle. Benita didn't say it; she  was completely neutral, albeit surprised. Angelique's other  sisters-in-law, Selena, Vera, and Ceylon, were also careful not to place  blame and like Benita, were supportive of Angelique. The Deveraux men,  however, were less supportive and more critical of the situation but in a  manner that rubbed Donnie the wrong way. He recalled his conversation  with her brothers Malcolm and Martin and could feel his jaw tighten up  again.

"Donnie, of course I have no idea what happened between the two of you,  but I assure you that getting it annulled shouldn't be a problem. I have  to tell you that I'm really disappointed in my sister; I thought she'd  outgrown these kinds of pranks," Malcolm had said in a weary tone of  voice.

Before Donnie could say anything, Martin had spoken up with something  about how irresponsibility had always been Angelique's middle name and  he was sorry her foolishness had led to this. "She didn't even consider  the fact that we're in business together and what it could have meant  from a corporate standpoint," Martin observed. "I really thought she'd  stopped this kind of acting out."

Back in the moment, Donnie gave a particularly vicious chop to the onion  he was preparing for the stockpot. Something about the way her family  seemed to just assume she was somehow to blame irritated him in a way  he'd not expected. He'd been terse to the point of being curt with her  brothers and he wasted no time in letting them know that the decision to  marry had been a mutual one and he wouldn't tolerate any criticism of  his bride. He'd been equally cool with her mother and stepfather. He  liked and respected all of these people, having known them from the time  his sister first started dating Clay, but the very notion that someone  could make Angelique uncomfortable by even a wrong look was something he  wasn't having. Family relationships were on shaky ground in Atlanta,  but they weren't much better in Detroit.

Opinions varied in his family but the only neutral vote was his brother  Adam. Big Benny was very fond of Angelique and referred to her as  Babydoll, that "little spunky gal." For some reason they'd always gotten  along like a house afire and he was rather pleased they were married.  Andrew also was supportive, as he knew Angelique better than the other  brothers. Alan and Andre, the legal counsel for Cochran Communications,  were frankly livid. They had nothing against Angelique personally; they  simply couldn't believe their brother would do something so foolhardy  without so much as a prenuptial agreement.

"From a legal standpoint, this is like suicide, Donnie," Andre had  railed. "Our companies are connected and you take this foolish step  without considering what it could mean to us from a fiscal standpoint.  That little girl could cause us untold grief when you divorce."

It was his casual use of the word divorce that had really rankled  Donnie; the assumption that there was no way they could possibly stay  together, that she was too fickle to maintain a relationship. It was all  there in Andre's tone of voice. Donnie had wasted no time in letting  his brothers know what time it was, that this was his business and had  nothing to do with them and that if they even thought anything unkind  about Angelique, they'd have him to answer to. Considering the fact that  he'd always been exceptionally close to his family, the new coolness  governing them was galling, to say the least. Donnie was taking out his  angst on the celery now, chopping it with a good deal more vigor than  was called for. But his conversation with his brothers was still  weighing on his mind, especially the part where Andre had reminded him  that a mere two months ago he had proposed to another woman.