Two weeks later, Cheryl and Stephen were sitting in her living room sipping coffee and talking nonstop when Randy came in from the bedroom wearing his pajamas and robe.
“Hey, baby. It’s about time you dragged yourself out of bed,” Cheryl said cheerfully. “Want some coffee?”
“Cheryl, can I speak to you a moment?”
“Well, good morning to you, too,” Stephen said irritably.
Randy didn’t even bother looking at him. “Privately,” he said, heading back to the bedroom.
Cheryl looked at Stephen and shrugged. “I’ll be back in a minute, sweetie.”
“Okay.” Stephen looked at his watch. “I want to get to Bloomie’s before the lunchtime rush.”
Randy was sitting on the bed when Cheryl walked into the room. “What’s up, baby? Something wrong?”
Randy stood up. “Cheryl, I was looking through your night table, and I found these.” Randy showed her an ivory-colored birth control compact. “Do you mind telling me why you have them?”
“What? I don’t know whose they are, but they’re not mine.” She took the compact from Randy and opened it. Six of the little yellow pills were missing. “Is this some kind of joke?”
“That’s what I want to ask you,” Randy said, a tremble evident in his voice. “All this time you told me you wanted a baby as much as me. Were you joking?”
“Are you serious? No, of course not,” Cheryl said indignantly.
“So outright lying, huh?” Randy’s voice was rising with each word. “Didn’t want to ruin your beautiful body, huh?” He stood up. “But why didn’t you simply tell me that, Cheryl? Of course I want to have a baby, but if you didn’t want to, why didn’t you tell me, you know? Why fool me like this?” He walked over to the window, and stared out for a moment before turning back toward her and shouted. “I guess you and your sissy friend out there have been having a big laugh over ‘young country boy,’ huh?”
“Randy, I don’t know what the hell is going on, but you need to get ahold of yourself.” Cheryl walked over and placed her hands on Randy’s shoulders. “Where did you say you found these pills?”
Randy roughly pulled away. “In your night table, where you keep them, Cheryl. And if they’re not yours, tell me who else keeps their birth control pills in your night table? I sure as hell don’t use them.”
“Well, neither do I!” Cheryl shouted, though she was still trying to keep her temper while she figured out what the hell was going on. “I don’t know whose pills these are, I don’t know how they got in my night table, but I do know I don’t like being accused of doing something I’m not doing. Why would I tell you I’m not taking birth control pills if I really were?”
“To keep me in shackles.”
Cheryl’s mouth dropped open. “Randy, this doesn’t even sound like you.” In fact, it sounds a helluva lot like that skanky-ass Sexy. I should have suspected that Randy was keeping in touch with that skank behind my back. What kind of shit has she been feeding Randy?
“Why? Because I don’t sound like, ya know, a pussy-whipped country hick? Someone you can twist around your finger? Someone you can keep using and using while you lie to me about wanting my baby?” Randy plopped down on the divan and cradled his head in his hands. “Cheryl, how could you do this to me?”
A pussy-whipped country hick, huh? Yeah, Sexy’s gotten to him. “Baby,” Cheryl said, dropping to her knees besides him, “you’ve got this all wrong. I haven’t done anything to you. Randy, I want to have a child as badly as you. You know that.”
“Then why are you taking those pills?” Randy demanded.
“I’m not taking any damn pills,” Cheryl shouted. “Will you get a grip?”
“YOU have the nerve to get pissed off at me, now?” Randy jumped up. “I have to get the fuck outta here.”
“Cheryl, sweetie,” Stephen’s voice rang out from the living room. “Sounds like you’re going to be busy for a while so I’m going to go ahead and get out of here. Call me when you get a chance.”
Cheryl watched Randy as he ripped off his robe, pulled off his pajamas, and threw on jeans, a shirt and sneakers, not bothering to shower, shave or brush his teeth. The pills weren’t hers, someone was trying to frame her, and the only person she knew devious enough to do something like that was that damn Sexy. But how had she managed to plant the pills? She couldn’t worry about that now, though. If Randy left believing that she had really deceived him, he wasn’t coming back. But how could she prove she wasn’t on the pill?
“Randy, I want a baby as bad as you, sweetie,” Cheryl pleaded. “You know that. Why would I say I wanted a baby if I really didn’t?”
“Because you’re afraid of losing your figure,” Randy shouted. “It’s like Sexy said; you’re more worried about your looks than about us starting a family.”
“What does Sexy have to do with this,” Cheryl stormed back. Damn it, I knew it!
“Nothing.” Randy grabbed his keys off the bureau. “She doesn’t have a damn thing to do with it. Except maybe she’s finally opened my eyes. All this time you’ve been calling her a conniving slut, but now I see you’re the one who’s been doing all the conniving.”
As much as she wanted to slap Randy for that statement, if she did, it was only going to hasten his departure. And if he left now, there was no doubt where he was headed, and she couldn’t chance him heading there in the mood he was in. “Randy, listen, wait; how about I simply prove it?” she said as he walked toward the bedroom door.
He stopped and turned toward her. “How?”
“There’s got to be some kind of blood or urine test I can take.”
“You mean . . . you’d be willing to take one?”
The way he said that made the hair on the back of Cheryl’s neck rise. He acted like he’d already thought about it, but had decided against asking her. But Randy would never think of something like that. Whatever . . . the test would prove she hadn’t been taking birth control pills. Then she’d have to figure out how Sexy had planted the damn pills.
Three hours later, Cheryl and Randy sat silently together waiting for the results. Both of their arms were crossed, and both stared straight ahead. It had taken them only an hour to find a diagnostics lab that could do the tests, and an extra three hundred dollars on top of the usual one hundred-dollar fee to get the results immediately instead of waiting two days. Boy, is he going to feel stupid when the lab tech comes back and tells him the results were negative. And as soon as we leave here, I’m going to find Sexy Sanchez and kick her little skanky ass.
“Mr. and Mrs. Alston?”
Cheryl looked up, and Randy jumped up.
Two minutes later, Cheryl slumped back down in her chair as Randy stomped angrily out of the office.