Carmen would be a different story, however, and she had already made it clear she would never walk away so easily. But when the time was right, JT would see to it that she was no longer a threat to him or the life he wanted to have. After that, he would welcome all the new church members he was positive his citywide media campaign would bring in, he would travel to as many speaking engagements as possible, and he would make a motion to double the annual salary he was receiving from the church. He would exercise his right to do whatever he wanted, since he’d been the one to found NLCC in the first place. There would surely be a few officers and associate ministers who might have a problem with it, specifically Minister Weaver, but they would each soon get over it-either that or they’d be booted out of the ministry altogether and onto the street. Then, when he was making a million dollars a year from his church income alone, he would purchase a nice, comfortable home in a suburb far away from where he and Alicia lived. He’d purchase something only he knew about and would begin flying Veda in for weekly visits. At the same time, he’d be able to give Alicia the extravagant life he’d been promising her all along, and this meant he’d finally have the best of three worlds: a beautiful wife and first lady of his church, an out-of-town mistress who made him feel better sexually than any woman had ever made him feel, and a local mistress who gave him sex, too, plus all the financial support he could ever want. He’d have everything and that got him excited.
Veda gently turned her body, looked up at him, and they smiled at each other.
“So, I see you finally woke up, huh?”
“How long was I asleep?” she asked.
“I don’t know, maybe about an hour.”
“All this morning, I worked on some reports I had been putting off, and they were very intense. But I guess I was more tired than I realized.”
“Well, you didn’t seem all that tired earlier,” he said, slightly laughing.
“Yeah, I guess not.”
“You were full of energy, and I loved it,” he said, stroking her hair.
“I loved it, too.”
“And you know what else?”
“No. What?”
“My feelings for you are a lot stronger than I realized. I knew I liked you a lot, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to stop thinking about you.”
“I feel the same way, and the strange thing for me is that this has never happened before. I mean, not only was the other night the first time I’d ever slept with any man only an hour after meeting him, but it was also the first time I had ever messed around on my husband.”
“Sometimes situations like this can’t be helped.”
“Yeah, but this is so out of character for me and dangerous, too, because for all I know you could be some serial killer.”
“Okay, I admit that you definitely have a point,” he said, laughing. “But I promise you, I’m far from being anything like that.”
“Well, that’s good to know.”
“So, tell me,” he said, caressing her back, “exactly how bad is your marriage? I mean, did the two of you basically just grow apart over the years or did something else happen?”
“I don’t know that we were ever what you would call desperately in love with each other, and now I realize the only reason we got married was because I got pregnant during my sophomore year in college.”
“So, you went to the same school?”
“Yes, and even though my parents took care of our son until we graduated, my husband still wanted us to do the right thing. Actually, I wanted us to do the right thing, too, so that our child would be able to grow up with both his parents. But now it’s time we go our separate ways.”
“That’s understandable. So, you were about twenty when you had him?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you certainly look a lot younger than thirty-eight.”
“Thanks. And since we’re on the subject, how old are you?”
“Thirty-three.”
“Just a baby, huh?”
“Not in the least.”
“Does age matter to you?”
“Nope. Does it matter to you?”
“No. Not at all.”
“Then that’s that,” JT said, kissing her on her forehead. “Because all I want is to make you happy.”
“You say that now, but once I’m gone you’ll quickly forget about me.”
“Not a chance. And if things go my way, we’ll be seeing each other all the time.”
“Hmmm.”
“What? You don’t believe me?”
“Well, it’s not like you don’t have a wife.”
“True. But that won’t change the way I feel about you.”
“We’ll see. I do have a question for you, though.”
“Which is?”
“What is it that you do for a living?”
JT paused and then said, “I’m not sure I should tell you.”
“Why?”
“I’m just not.”
“Well, I really want to know.”
“Why?”
“Because as shallow as this may sound, if I’m going to take a chance on messing around with a married man, knowing full well that he’ll probably never leave his wife and marry me, I want to make sure I at least get to enjoy some of the finer things in life. I know it may sound bad, but I think it’s only fair that I be honest with you.”
“I’m a minister.”
“Whoa. Do you have your own church?”
“As a matter of fact I do, and it’s a pretty sizable one at that.”
Veda didn’t respond.
“Does that bother you?”
“Sort of. I mean, I know it’s wrong to sleep with any married man, but somehow, having an affair with a pastor makes it seem even worse.”
“Look, baby, we’re both human and no one on this earth is without imperfections. Every person alive is flawed in some sort of way, and God understands that. He understands, and He still loves us anyway.”
Veda breathed deeply, seemingly still uneasy about what they were doing, so JT moved her chin closer to his and kissed her. Then he said, “Plus, if you think about it, how could something that feels so right really be all that wrong?”
Chapter 22
Alicia listened as the choir sang, but mostly she sat thinking about JT, how late he’d gotten home last night and the shady excuse he’d given her. All this morning, she’d been trying to think on a rational level and not rely on unfounded assumptions, but JT was making it very hard for her. It was one thing for him to be gone for two to three hours, but leaving right after four P.M. and not returning until shortly after midnight, well, that was another. Sure, he’d claimed he’d gotten caught in traffic during his drive to the hospital because of some accident on I-294 West and hadn’t arrived until almost two hours later, but she hadn’t believed him. Then, when she’d asked him what time visiting hours were over, he’d told her that the staff had given him special permission to stay much longer because the man he’d gone to see was very ill. This, of course, was a story Alicia might have accepted had she not told a similar one to her first husband. She still remembered the day Phillip’s father had passed and how she’d concocted this huge lie once she’d realized she hadn’t been there for him. She’d told him how there had been bumper-to-bumper traffic on the freeway and that her car had broken down, when actually she’d really been shopping at the mall. She’d told Phillip everything she’d thought he might want to hear without the slightest flinch, and she had a feeling JT was doing the same thing.
When the choir members took their seats, JT stood and strutted up to the glass podium. Alicia smiled, but for the first time since marrying him, she wasn’t all that happy to be there.