Delilah felt no remorse for sleeping with Samson—well, a little—but the feeling passed through her quickly as she thought back to the moment Samson took the first move. Granted, she made it hard for him to resist her, but he could have walked away. He didn’t, though. He didn’t have to come over to her place, but he did.
She didn’t lie to Samson when she told him that she didn’t have any cameras hooked up. She didn’t need them because she had a permanent video of them and their sexual encounter embedded in her head. She lay in bed most of the morning, hugging the pillow where Samson laid and replayed their time together the previous night over and over.
The phone ringing interrupted her daydream. “Hi, Samson. I’m so glad you called. I missed you too.” Delilah was so excited to hear Samson’s voice on the other end, she didn’t give him a chance to talk.
“Delilah, I wanted to make sure things were cool between us.”
Delilah sat up in bed. “More than cool. I got your back. You know it.”
“Good. Then I don’t have to worry about you telling anyone what happened last night, do I?”
Delilah knew she should be mad. He seemed to only care about what others would think. She had to look at things from his point of view. He was the pastor and now a married man. “Samson, our little secret will remain between us, okay?”
“About our next session, maybe we should—”
Delilah didn’t allow him to finish. “I need our session more than ever. You helped me get through that bleak moment.”
“There won’t be any repeats of last night.”
Delilah laughed. She knew and he knew that what happened between them was only the beginning. If he wanted to pretend it didn’t mean a thing, then she would play along with his charade. “Whatever you want, Samson.”
“Thanks, Delilah. You have a good day now.”
“I will now that I’ve heard from you.”
Delilah hung up with Samson and quickly dialed Keisha’s number. She blurted out what happened. Keisha repeated over and over: “You’re going to burn in hell. Ooh. I can’t believe you slept with him again. Girl, God is not going to let you get away with that.”
Delilah listened as Keisha went on and on about why she thought Delilah was wrong. “Are you finished?” Delilah asked.
“You ain’t got to worry about me. You need to be on your knees asking God to be easy on you.”
“It’s not like I made him sleep with me. He made the first move.”
“Come on. You set the stage for it, playing the ‘woe is me’ role.”
Delilah couldn’t disagree with her. She knew exactly what she was doing the moment she dialed Samson’s number and asked him—well, tricked him by faking emotional distress—to come over. Delilah ended her call with Keisha. Her phone beeped reminding her about the Pastor’s Aide committee meeting scheduled for later that afternoon. The meeting was set about an hour before Bible Study.
Delilah spent the rest of the day working on a report she owed a coworker at Trusts Enterprise. She finished the report and hit the send button in her e-mail. When she was finished with that, she surfed the Internet. “I wonder if Samson’s online.”
She attempted to send him an instant message, but it wouldn’t go through. She logged on to her Facebook account and sent him a private message. She typed the words: I didn’t say anything to give away what happened last night. I just said thank you for helping me. If anyone wants to read more into it, then that’s them. Once she hit the send button, she logged off her computer and headed to church.
Delilah arrived in the church parking lot at the same time the Pastor’s Aide meeting was scheduled to start. She headed straight to the fellowship hall. She waited outside the door until Dorothy finished praying. When she heard Dorothy say amen, she walked into the room.
“What are you doing here?” Dorothy asked.
“This is a Pastor’s Aide meeting, right?” Delilah stood staring Dorothy straight in the eyes.
“Yes, it is.”
“Then I’m in the right room.”
“I thought you dropped out.” Dorothy frowned.
“Well, you thought wrong.” Delilah found an available seat and sat down around the table with the rest of the women.
“Humph,” Delilah heard someone say.
Delilah ignored her and retrieved her notepad and pen from her purse.
“Ladies, we only have an hour, so let’s get straight to business,” Michelle said.
Dorothy stopped rolling her eyes at Delilah and looked back at her notes. “As we all know, the pastor’s anniversary is coming up, and unfortunately a few people can’t participate in the program because of other commitments.” Dorothy read off what roles were still needed to complete the program.
Delilah raised her hand along with the other women. Each was called on. Delilah was ignored. Delilah raised her hand again. No one else did. Dorothy had no choice but to acknowledge her. “I would like to recommend Keisha Green to do one of the solos. She’s a great soloist. If you’ve ever been to First Baptist, then you’ve heard her sing.”
Some of the ladies knew of Keisha and added, “She brings the Spirit with her. Not only can she sing, she can play the piano too.”
Dorothy asked, “How do you know this Keisha?”
Delilah contemplated whether to reveal their friendship or keep it a secret. Since the other ladies could vouch for Keisha, she was proud to say, “She’s one of my friends.”
Marie said, “I say why not see if Keisha can do it. I mean, we did need one more soloist, and she is good.”
To Dorothy’s dismay, they voted to ask Keisha to perform a solo.
Delilah left and went into the hallway to call Keisha. “Guess what? I got you on to sing a solo at our pastor’s anniversary program. Please tell me you can do it.”
“When is it? Because I’m supposed to sing at this church down in Grand Cane in June on the second Sunday.”
“It’ll be the following week,” Delilah assured her.
“I’ll do it,” Keisha responded.
Delighted, Delilah said, “Thank you, girl. I owe you one.”
“And I will be collecting.”
Delilah caught the tail end of Dorothy’s speech when she re-entered the room. “Since nobody else is going to say it, I will. In light of how Delilah treats the first lady, I don’t think she should be a part of Pastor’s Aide.”
Delilah looked Dorothy in the eyes. “I’m not resigning from the Pastor’s Aide committee, so you might as well get used to it.”
Dorothy said, “We all know you don’t like First Lady Julia, so why do you want to be on the committee responsible for celebrating our pastor and his wife?”
“Has anyone in here ever heard me say that I disliked our first lady?” Delilah scanned the room. No one responded. Some dropped their heads. “Exactly. So please don’t speculate. Now, we have less than an hour before Bible Study starts, so if we want our meeting to be over by then, I suggest we get back to it.”
Delilah walked back to the table and took a seat. Dorothy looked annoyed, but didn’t say anything else concerning Julia. The meeting continued until it was time to adjourn for Wednesday night Bible Study.