Chapter 6
Michael had left the house on Saturday night and still wasn’t home three days later. He had refused to answer Karli’s calls, and if it hadn’t been for Jessica sneaking in a call to her on Sunday and telling her that he was staying at her house, Karli wouldn’t have known whether he was dead or alive.
After three days of missing her husband and being in turmoil over her marriage, she broke down and confided in Catrina. She had to before she lost her mind. She’d called Catrina immediately after work that day, and as soon as Catrina got home, Karli had gone over in baggy sweats, hauling a box of tissues. She had been a red, puffy-eyed mess of tears for the past hour, as she’d described the events after the botched surprise dinner.
“Tell me again why you didn’t tell the man you were on birth control,” Catrina said insistently as Karli wiped her eyes and clutched her friend’s throw pillow as they sat on the sofa.
Karli sighed. “Stop trying to make sense of it. Of course, now it doesn’t seem logical. At the time, I wasn’t thinking.”
“Honey, it was logical when you made the decision, but that decision was made four years ago, Karli. Jesus. Why haven’t you told him in four years? I would be upset too. We all know your mama and him have been waiting on the edge of their seats to hear the word pregnant. Hell, I thought you were off birth control my damn self.”
Karli jumped up. “I don’t need you to judge me. Damn! I came here for comfort. I know what I did was messed up,” she hollered before collapsing back down on the sofa. “Honestly, I never meant to not tell him, but then once he started going on and on about kids, I became scared, because so much time had lapsed, and then I started avoiding the conversation altogether.”
Catrina rubbed Karli’s back and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “That’s understandable. Did you try to explain that to him?”
Karli nodded. “Yes, but he left before I could, and I haven’t talked to him or seen him since.” She cried harder, leaning into her friend. “My husband hates me.”
“Aww, honey. He doesn’t hate you. He’s just upset. He’ll come around. You just have to give him time to digest this so you all can talk.”
“I’m trying. I just don’t know how to pull myself together. I just got this promotion, the gala is Saturday, and I begin my position next week. I can’t deal with the job while my marriage is in shambles.” Karli continued to cry. “I don’t want to lose my husband.”
Catrina eyed her sympathetically. “Don’t worry about the gala. If Michael is not back, we’ll just say he had to go out of town on business. In the meantime, take Monday off to give yourself a day. You don’t want to lose Michael, so don’t. You are a strong woman. You’ve fought for everything in your life, and you won’t stop now. So on Monday you make your husband’s favorite lunch, put on one of those bad-ass outfits that highlight your voluptuous behind, go to his job, and get your man.”
“I don’t even know his schedule for Monday, and again, he’s not answering my calls.”
Catrina held up her finger. “Watch me work,” she said, dialing a number on her cell phone. “Hey, you. How are you? Good. I wish I could say this is a pleasure call, but I need a huge favor. Can you please look at Attorney Sanders’s schedule for Monday and email it to me? Nothing like that. I’m just trying to set up a surprise for him and Karli. Thank you, sweetie. We’ll do dinner next week. Bye, cutie,” she cooed. Then she hung up the phone and rolled her eyes.
Karli couldn’t help but laugh. Catrina always had a man in her back pocket, and her fierce model looks surely helped. Karli didn’t even have to ask who had supplied Catrina with all the information. She knew it was Jamal Timms, one of her husband’s junior associates. He had it bad for Catrina. She’d never give him the time of day, but she’d never let him know it. She had a habit of collecting men in business, mostly to do what she’d just done—get the inside scoop.
“Michael is going to have Jamal’s head one day for entertaining your foolery. While you’re lecturing me, you do know that whenever you and Harris get serious, you’re going to have to cut that out.”
Catrina waved her off. “Harris and I are good just the way we are. Great friends with excellent benefits,” she joked.
Karli couldn’t do anything but shake her head and laugh with her friend. Catrina and her antics were the perfect temporary distraction from her personal hell. Soon Jamal sent the email with Michael’s schedule, and Catrina opened it on her phone. It showed that Michael had nothing scheduled from one o’clock until two-thirty on Monday afternoon.
* * *
Karli checked herself out in the mirror once more before she left to surprise her husband. There was no way Michael could resist her in her fishtail pencil skirt, her deep V-cut buttoned-down blouse, and her sexy Zanotti pumps. Her hair was on point, make-up was flawless, and she smelled scrumptious.
She ran to the kitchen and double-checked her picnic basket, which was filled with Michael’s favorites: homemade turkey and ham club sandwiches, veggies with ranch, and Voss water. She’d even gotten him one of his favorite sweets, chocolate cheesecake cupcakes from Brooklyn Cupcake.
Karli drove to his office and said a small prayer as she exited the car and made her way into the building. She got on the elevator, and when it dinged and opened on Michael’s floor, she took a deep breath, exited, and then approached Stephanie, his receptionist.
“Mrs. Sanders, how are you?” Stephanie greeted her.
“Hey, Steph! Is Michael in his office?”
“He sure is. He doesn’t have any clients or phone calls, so you can go on in.”
Smiling, Karli thanked her, then walked to Michael’s office and lightly tapped on his door.
“Come in,” Michael called out.
Karli entered his office and closed the door behind her. He never even looked up from the paperwork he was completing.
“Hello, Michael.”
He paused instantly and took a moment before he placed his pen down and looked up at Karli. Slowly, he sat back in his plush leather chair and wiped his hand down his stress-ridden face.
“What are you doing here, Karli?”
After walking up to his desk, she placed the small picnic basket on top of it and stood back. “I . . . um . . . well . . . You didn’t get to come to the gala, and I didn’t see you at church yesterday, so I decided to make you some lunch and bring it to you. Have you eaten?”
“No, and thanks,” he said dryly as he picked up his pen and began tapping it on a notepad. “Is there anything else?”
This was harder than she’d anticipated. In all the years she known him, he’d never been so cold and short with her. Karli swallowed the lump in her throat. His demeanor alone told her that she needed to make her plea quickly.
“Michael, I miss you. I miss us. I haven’t seen you in a week, and I miss you at the house. Aren’t we going to talk about this?” She began getting choked up.
Michael let out an exaggerated chortle. “Talk? Oh, so now you want to talk? Clarify this for me, Karli. Do you want me to talk to you just like you talked to me when you chose to get on birth control? Or do you want me to talk to you the same way you talked to me when you didn’t tell me for the past four years how you were on birth control? Better yet, do you want to talk to me about how you don’t want children and how you never intended to talk to me about that? If that’s what you want, then I think we’ve said all there is to say, which is nothing.” Michael’s nose flared, and he was absolutely brimming with anger.
Karli raised her hands in defeat. “You’re right. I was wrong for that, and I own up to it. I want to talk about us. I’m not ready to give up on us.”
Michael stood and walked around to the front of his desk, leaned on it, and folded his arms. “Well, I don’t. I’m not ready to talk to you. I’m not even ready to see you.”
Karli had expected many things, but not this brash treatment, which instantly overwhelmed her and filled her with emotion. Couldn’t he see how truly sorry she was? Didn’t he care about their marriage anymore? The tears that welled in her eyes began seeping out of the corners as she stared at him. He looked away from her.
“Please, Michael. What are we supposed to do? Live separately? You’re my husband. I love you, and I need you at our home.”
“I can’t come home right now.”
“If not now, when?”
“I don’t know,” he stressed impatiently, trying to keep his composure. “To answer your question, I skipped church because I didn’t feel up to it. Pastor Monroe knew I wasn’t going to be there. And what did you tell your boss and colleagues about me not being at the gala? Let me guess. You lied to them too?”
Karli put her hands up again. “That’s not fair. I couldn’t very well tell them the truth.”
Michael looked away, because he knew he was being petty. He was just still so angry. “Look, Karli. I will come home. I’m just not sure when. I need my space and time to get through this.”
She slowly approached him to test the waters and placed her hands on his chest. “Michael, we’re married. We’re supposed to get through our tough times together. We can’t do that if you’re in one place and I’m in another.”
He swallowed the lump in his throat. He loved his wife, and everything in him wanted to pick her up and make love to her on his desk right then and there. Her scent was intoxicating him, and she had on an outfit that just wouldn’t quit, with some of the sexiest pumps that had ever graced her dainty feet.
Closing his eyes, he gently grabbed her hands. “I may come home this week, Karli. I don’t know. Even if I do, it’s only out of respect for our marriage. I’m not ready to discuss things with you or to pretend we’re the couple we were a week ago. I can’t even say I’ll move back into our bedroom.”
Karli gasped. “Michael,” she said in exasperation. “What are we going to do when you’re back at home? Live like roommates? We’re practically roommates now. I can’t deal with this turmoil in my life with this new promotion—”
“Oh, so it all comes back to you and this damn promotion, huh?” Instantly, Michael became infuriated. “You can’t function at your job, so that’s why you want me home. I can’t believe you,” he snarled. He glared at her. “Get out,” he demanded as he dropped her hands and gently pushed her away from him.
“Baby, you know that’s not what I meant—”
“It’s always about you and what you want and don’t want. Just like that selfish move to get on birth control. I can’t deal with this now. Get out,” he barked, interrupting her again.
She attempted to reach for him. “Surely, you don’t mean—”
“Get out now! Go,” he demanded forcefully.
Karli jumped, taken aback by his harshness and fearful of his anger toward her. She placed her hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. Your lunch is in the basket.”
She turned slowly to leave, trying to hold back her tears, but her body began to tremble slightly, and her throat was thick with emotion. She knew she wouldn’t make it to the elevator before she was a heap of tears. But Karli did manage to make it to the restroom, and she rushed through the door and locked it behind her before she silently cried her eyes out. When she was finished, her face was red and her eyes were puffy. There was no way she could ease past Michael’s receptionist or anybody else in the office while she was looking this way. At the sight of her, someone would surely call Michael, and then all their business would be out in the street. She had to get ahold of some modicum of dignity. Checking her purse, she was relieved when she found that she had some essentials inside it to work with.
After easing up to the sink, she stared at her reflection in the mirror. This should have been one of the happiest times of her life. Now, it was one of the worst, all because of a simple error in judgment and a dream position at work. Was her mistake worth all this hurt and pain? she wondered. Could they simply not find a way to move past it? Coming out of her thoughts, she decided to hurry and get herself together before someone came knocking on the door. She washed her face, put on her Shade Dolls aviators, and retouched her Poetic Designs lip gloss in an effort to mask her emotions. Luckily, she made it out of the office without anyone becoming alarmed and to her car before breaking down again.