Page 85 of Truce Of The Matter

As I talk, his eyes never leave me and his body appears to be frozen.Muted and motionless but exposed.I feel a hand on my arm and I roughly shake it off. The intrusive voice speaks again.

“This is a church. Please leave,” it demands and I just huff, reserving my words for him.

“How can you claim to be a preacher, a man of God, when you can’t be honest. Huh? What’s the matter? You don’t have shit to say. Why? Is your wife here? What about your other children? You don’t want them to know about your oldest child? Is that it? Huh?”

“Tremayne!” a voice behind me screams and that gets his full attention.

“Baby,” he rushes out.

And although I know I’m surely not his baby, I respond, “Yes,” and that infuriates him. He finally moves and his hand crashes into the podium with so much force the microphone falls to the floor. Loud feedback from it fills the church and bounces off the walls.

“Shut up!” he yells and I just laugh.The nerve of this bastard.

Someone rushes past me and my focus finally shifts. A woman in a blue dress is rushing to the pulpit. Before she takesthe four steps up to it, she glances back at me. There’s a flash of something in her eyes, maybe recognition, I don’t know and I really couldn’t care less. The moment she’s on the stage, she’s in his face and they argue so I interrupt.

“I’m not shutting up shit. I will say what the hell I want when I want.” In case anyone in here missed my revelation in the midst of his wife’s interruption, I speak my next words loud and clear. “Tremayne, you and I created Daija together. She’s your daughter and all she wanted was to know you. You fucked that up. You broke her heart and I hope you suffer for that. Just know that you don’t deserve Daija at all. She’s too good for you and your hypocritical ass. It’s you missing out, not her. She has more pureness and goodness in her pinky than you have in your entire body. Whatever you said to her was wrong. Dead ass wrong. You better pray that God forgives you because I never will.”

His secret is out. If my baby has to deal with hurt, so should he. Feeling vindicated, I turn to leave. That’s when I notice the first two rows of pews are filled with people; we really had an audience.Good.The previously empty lobby also is occupied with about seven people.Even better.

With a satisfied smirk on my face, I walk out and see Daija sitting in the car with my daddy. She spots me and hops out. I step to her and she lovingly wraps her arms around me and I gladly embrace her back.

“I love you,” she utters.

“I know. I love you so much.”

Chapter 22

Our Memorial Day sale is one of our biggest sales next to Christmas. Fall and winter inspired pieces are reduced and the new line of spring and summer pieces are introduced with package deals. The showroom floor stays packed from open to close and my entire sales team basically works double shifts, relishing in the high commissions. My finance team is working overtime to approve accounts and deliveries are occurring every day. It’s all hands on deck and exhausting at the end of each day.

Today, when I picked Aryel up from school, instead of going home, we had to come back to the store. This morning, I had my scheduled iron infusion. I’m working late to make up for coming in late. Although she says she’s not getting a job until she’s old, her words not mine, she actually loves coming to the store and spending time in my office. When she’s here, she’s normally the center of attention, especially with Melia. Aryel becomes her assistant, two-way radio and all.

“Daddy. Daddy.” Her voice comes through on channel two of my two-way. I’m in the warehouse checking on a delayed order before I leave.

“Yes. Little Miss Goode,” I reply.

“The pizza and wings are here; tell everybody,” she says. I had Melia order early dinner for the team because we all worked through lunch. Leonardo’s is a staff favorite so she ordered pizzas, calzones, and wings for the showroom and warehouse.

“Thank you, baby. I will.”

“And our food is in your office.”

“Okay. I’ll be back in the store in fifteen.”

“Huh? Okay. I’ll tell them next,” she says, clearly not talking to me.

“Take your finger off the button, sweetie,” I hear Melia say before she calls me. When I answer, she tells me, “Kyle is bringing the food back there to the warehouse. Please let Furley know.”

“Got it. Thanks for taking care of this.”

After placing my two-way back into my pocket, I walk back to Furley and inquire about the delivery. We quickly discovered the delay was not on our end as the customer alleged. In fact, she was at fault. Her note on the delivery sheet was no deliveries Monday through Thursday. Today is Wednesday, which is why she doesn’t have her two bedroom sets.

“Thanks for clearing that up,” I tell him.

“Yeah and I’ll call her and see if she wants to reschedule. She’s lucky because I have an opening tomorrow between one and three. I’ll offer it even though this is her mistake.”

“Let me know what she says and Kyle is bringing the food. Make sure everybody gets something to eat.”

“Gotcha, boss. See you tomorrow to do this all over again.”

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