The Deal, the Dance, and the Devil by Victoria Christopher Murray Page B

nobody.”
    “What’s got your thong in a bunch?” Brooklyn snickered.
    Looking at me, Tamica said, “See what I’m sayin’? Talkin’ ’bout thongs to church folks.”
    With a laugh, Brooklyn peered across the table at Tamica’s brochure. “What’s that?”
    Tamica hesitated, and since I knew why, I answered for her. “Oh, Tamica got some information from Howard.” I spoke in my most supportive voice. “She’s thinking about going back to school.”
    “You’re kidding, right?”
    “Nope,” I kinda whispered.
    Brooklyn looked at Tamica. “She’s kidding, right?”
    “No, she’s not!”
    “Oh, come on.” Brooklyn laughed. “Now you’re going back to school? Last time we talked, you said you were going to become a missionary so that you could find yourself inside some rain forest in Africa. You can’t make up your mind, can you?”
    It was on now. Even though Brooklyn spoke the truth, Tamica wasn’t about to let that go. So I leaned back and sipped my tea. This was pure entertainment, and the reason why, after I’d talked to Adam about our weekend plans last night, I’d called my friends to get together today.
    Even though I saw Tamica and Brooklyn every Sunday in church, we hadn’t had one of these get-togethers in more than three months. Tamica had tried to gather us about six weeks ago, but I’d been so busy with my life. Thank God my friends never held that against me.
    Brooklyn and Tamica went on and on, back and forth, and finally Brooklyn held her palm up in Tamica’s face. “Enough!” Turning to me, she said, “This is all about you. So, dish the dirt, because if you called a Saturday meeting, this has got to be big.”
    It was true. We hadn’t gotten together in a long time, but whenever we did, because of me, we met on any day but Saturday. Saturdays were reserved for our family—the day Adam, the children, and I drove ninety minutes south to visit his mother. When Adam said last night that we’d be going on Sunday instead, I jumped right on the telephone. But I just wanted the distraction. I didn’t want to talk about me. Even though we were close, they knew nothing about what was really going on in my life right now.
    Our food arrived before Brooklyn could pressure me anymore, and she took my hand and Tamica’s as we bowed our heads. As the first lady of Holy Deliverance All Saints Covenant Christian Center of Grace, Brooklyn always said the blessing. And her prayers over our food were always as long as the name of the ten-year-old church that she and her husband, Cash, had founded.
    Yup, she’d married Cash, the man she’d loved since she was five. Not only had he stayed out of jail long enough to marry her but he’d also traded in the drug game for a new hustle. He’d gone from just being Cash, to Cash Supreme, the biggest dealer in Barry Farm, to finally ending up as the right Reverend Cash Supreme. (He saw no need to change his name.) Recently, he’d appointed himself Bishop; I guessed he could do that, since it was his church.
    After her sermon-size grace, Brooklyn picked up her triple-decker hamburger. “So you wanna tell us why you called this get-together?”
    Looked like she wasn’t gonna let me get by with saying nothing. “Can’t I just want to hang out with my girls?”
    “Yeah, but …”
    “And it’s not like I can get a word in over the two of you, anyway,” I joked.
    Brooklyn dropped her burger on her plate, then raised herhands. “Everybody be quiet!” She spoke so loudly that even people at the other tables stopped talking.
    After a moment, she said, “Okay, Lady Evia, speak.”
    I could’ve just laughed it off. If I’d kept my mouth shut for a few seconds, Brooklyn and Tamica would have been back at it. But, no. I don’t know what made me do it, but before my brain could catch up with my lips, the words spilled from my mouth. “Someone offered me five million dollars to sleep with Adam.”
    At first, my girls said nothing, as if my words