“Preach, sis.”
I side-eyed Fran.
“Don’t worry,” she replied, “I’m not about to turn into Joyce Meyer or anything, but Mavis is right. I may not be all super religious like her, but I know the Lord forgives. And if He can forgive, then so can you.”
“And so can Greg. And so can Paula,” Mavis added.
Fran shook her head. “Um, yeah, maybe not Paula.”
“My point is, they can,” Mavis continued. “So, give Paula time to cool down and in a couple of days, go see her. Talk to her. Tell her how you made a mistake and you’re trying to make it right.”
I let out a heavy sigh as I tried my best not to cry. Not that I had any tears left.
“Just remember, healing takes time and you got to have patience. Here,” Mavis said, handing me a Bible out of her purse.
“What is this for?” I asked. “I have a Bible.”
“But obviously you’re not using it.” She opened the book for me. “You see the pages with the yellow tabs? Read those passages. If you don’t have strength, read Psalm 73:26. If you need help with forgiveness, try Acts 3:19. If you need to see a way out of no way, try First Corinthians 10:13.”
“And if you want to feel empowered, try The Book of Eli.”
Both Mavis and I stared at Fran.
“Isn’t that a Denzel film?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Honey, if Denzel can’t empower you, nothing can.”
Mavis shook her head at Fran. “You’re coming to Bible study with me next week. You need Jesus.”
A part of me wanted to smile. But the way my heart hurt, I didn’t have anything to smile about.
53
Paula
I HADN’T MOVED FROM MY spot on the sofa. I had no plans on moving ever again. I’d lost my husband and my best friend in the ultimate act of betrayal. The pills—some prescription my mom had gotten for me—were helping me calm down. But they didn’t quiet the raging pain in my heart.
“Mom, is it true?” Tahiry asked, standing over me. My precious daughter. So innocent, so oblivious. She’d been real subdued in the three days since I’d found out about Felise and Steven. At first I thought maybe she knew since Liz was with her the night of the party. But I had assumed Liz must not have known either because Tahiry hadn’t said anything about it, and to be honest, I was just too blinded by my anger to focus anything else.
But now, judging by the look on my little girl’s face, I knew without a doubt, she knew.
“So Nana slept with Daddy?”
“She’s not your nana anymore. And yes, her and your daddy decided to get—”
“Paula!”
I stopped as my mom entered the room. She glared at me before turning to Tahiry. “Sweetheart, go to your room.”
Tahiry looked at me, pain in her eyes, but she didn’t argue as she walked out.
“Why did you stop me from telling her all the gory details?” I said, throwing my blanket back and sitting up on the sofa.
My mother’s hands went to her hips like she was disappointed in me.
“That’s grown folks’ business. You don’t need to be talking with your fourteen-year-old daughter about issues with your man.”
I rolled my eyes and stared out the window.
“Baby, I know you’re hurt,” my mom said, sitting down next to me. “I’m hurting for you. I’m just as shocked as you are. But it doesn’t surprise me.”
That made me do a double take. “What? I thought you liked Felise.”
“I do. Well, I did. But I told you, I’ve always been uneasy about that boyfriend-swapping thing y’all did.”
“Boyfriend swapping? We didn’t swap boyfriends.”
“Did Steven or did he not used to date her?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“See, y’all and all this newfangled, new-age, peace-and-love crap is just too much. In my day, you didn’t have no woman all up under your man like that, especially a woman that he had had relations with.”
“I didn’t have Felise up under him.”
“Shoot, every time you turned around, you were driving to a double date, hanging out together. I guess you just wanted to pretend they’d never had a relationship.” She patted my leg. “But everything happens for a reason. You wouldn’t have had your beautiful family. I’m just trying to help you put things in perspective.”
“They both told me they didn’t have feelings for one another.”
“Obviously, they lied,” my mom replied. “I think they both may have really believed that, or tried to make themselves believe that. Maybe it was buried and they never acted on it out of respect, but something remained. But I’m sorry, I’m just from the school that friends don’t date friends’ men.”