Reva was nervously working the strap of her pocketbook with her fingers, looking completely miserable. The man beside of her spoke up again. “Ms. Denton, I’m Mark Wyatt and I believe you have met Reva before. We owe you an apology and an explanation.”
Suddenly Reva’s head came up and she turned to the man beside of her. “No Mark, I did this and I need to be the one to explain.” He reached over and gripped her hand, love evident in his eyes as he looked at her.
Ok, so obviously not a brother with the vibes flowing between them, so what now? Does she want to ask me about being the live-in nanny or something?
Then taking a deep breath and getting another squeeze of encouragement from the man beside of her, Reva began. “Suzy, I don’t really know where to start so I’ll just go from the beginning. Mark and I have been in love for several years. He works for my father as a security guard. You would have to know my parents to understand why this would be a problem. I love them, I really do, but they’re obsessed with climbing the social ladder and I’ve always been one of their ways to do that. When they found out that I was involved with Mark, they hit the ceiling. No way was their daughter going to end up with some blue collar worker especially one who worked for them. Th…They fired Mark and threatened to cut me off completely if I ever saw him again.”
Suzy had a feeling that she knew where this was headed. Even though this woman had turned her life into a living hell, she still felt sympathy for the obvious pain that she was going through as well. “Reva, can I get your some water?”
Both Reva and Mark turned a grateful expression to hers at the offer. When she returned with two bottles of water, Reva took a long drink of hers before continuing her story.
“Even though I wanted to keep seeing Mark behind their backs, he wouldn’t do it. He said that I either stood up to my parents or we were finished. I…I just couldn’t do it. I wasn’t strong enough to stand up to them so I let Mark go. I figured I could either make him jealous enough to take me on my terms or distract myself from my misery with someone new.” With a rueful expression, Reva said, “That’s where Gray comes in. I found out via a home pregnancy test that I was pregnant right before I met Gray.”
“You panicked,” Suzy said softly.
With tears running down her face, Reva said, “Yes, I did and thus started months of the most horrible behavior that anyone could ever fathom. Gray was a nice guy and I pursued him heavily even though I could tell that he really didn’t want to get involved with me. I think he only slept with me the one time out of pure pity. He’d probably never met a woman so desperate.” Looking over at Mark, Reva said, “I’m sorry honey, I know this is hard for you, too.”
“Yes, it is, love, but if I’d stood up to your parents, this probably wouldn’t have happened. Go ahead and finish your story and don’t worry about me.”
Reva kissed their hands where they were joined and turned back to Suzy. “Gray broke it off with me almost immediately and I took advantage of his guilt to literally stalk him for months. I was desperate to get him back. I don’t know why I didn’t just tell him I was pregnant after a few months, but something held me back. It would have probably been less painful for him than my constant stalking. In my defense, I think I really just lost it there for a while. When I finally couldn’t hide my pregnancy from my parents any longer, I told them that Gray was the father instead of the truth. Instead of looking upset, they both looked thrilled. I strung them along for a few months telling them that Gray was traveling a lot and that we would all get together when he was back home. Gray didn’t even know at that point.”
“My God Reva, you must have been about to collapse under the pressure.” Suzy gave a rueful laugh, “I can’t even be that pissed off at you when I know how much you have suffered.”
A smile lit Reva’s face as she looked at her in relief. “Suzy, it kills me that I’ve caused two such good people so much pain. When I met you for the first time in the bar that night, I could see how much you and Gray loved each other and I had probably my first attack of conscience. I had a feeling that Gray had another woman in his life, but I had no idea how serious it was. Gray stepped up after that and really tried to take care of me. He even suffered through dinner with my parents where they almost drooled with delight over me trapping such an eligible man. I still managed to go ahead with the deception. The night of my car accident was a turning point for me, though. Gray was by my side the entire time and then the next day I found out he’d missed your birthday. He was so sad after that. It took that for me to finally see all of the lives I was ruining.”
Suzy was wondering why it had taken her a month to come forward after that revelation, but held kept her silence, letting Reva finish without interruption.
“I’m not proud to say that I was still hesitant to do what I knew I had to. I’d never stood up to my parents before and the thought of doing it terrified me, but I knew that if I were ever going to be with Mark, that I couldn’t rely on him to fight my battles. Last night I told my parents the truth.” Then on the whisper, Reva admitted, “They don’t want to have anything else to do with me. I..I left there and went to Mark where I poured out the whole story. I’m going to start seeing a therapist because I know that a normal person would never have done all of the things I’ve done to Gray. I stalked him and tortured him because I was so terrified of what would happen when my parents found out about the baby. I was desperate for them to think it was Gray’s.”
“Holy crap, that’s a lot to take in. Reva, I’ll be frank and say you have put me through hell this last month and probably Gray, as well. Somehow, though, I think you have been kicked enough. It took a lot of guts to come here today and face me. How did you do that by the way?”
With a shy smile, Reva admitted, “Google Maps. Scary right?”
With a laugh, Suzy said, “You got that right. I’m sorry that your parents are being such bone heads, but it looks like Mark has your back.”
With a look of relief and gratitude, Reva reached out and took her hand. “Thank you Suzy for being so good about this. I can see why Gray loves you. I’m going to talk to him as soon as he gets home today.”
As Reva and Mark stood to leave, Suzy impulsively pulled her in for a quick hug. After a moment of hesitation, Reva returned the embrace. After she’d shut the door behind them, she fell down onto the couch and tried to process it all.
What if this made no difference? Had too much happened with Gray to start over now? Oh blah, find your backbone. That’s your man and it’s about time you stopped whining and went after him or do you need another disaster to realize how much you love him?
One fist pump in the air and Suzy had her game face on. She had a user conference tonight that she had to attend. It was the entertainment portion of the conference and consisted of drinks, dinner and live entertainment. She was going to pack a bag and when it was over, she was heading to Charleston and the man she loved. She was hitching up her big girl panties and going after what she wanted.
Chapter Twenty Six
Suzy found Beth going over the dinner menu with the caterers in the kitchen. “Is everything on schedule for tonight, sis? I don’t want any delays so let’s stay on top of things. Has the band arrived yet?”
Beth stopped to study her in surprise. This was the most animated she’d seen Suzy since her breakup with Gray. “Um, have you been drinking?”
“What? Of course not, why?”
“Well, you look kind of high or something. Are you feeling ok? Your face is all flushed, and your eyes are glassy.”
With a dramatic sigh, Suzy snickered, “I’m high on love, sis, nothing else.”
“Oh God,” Beth groaned, “You’re drunk. Couldn’t you have at least waited until we hit the dinner phase of the evening?”
“Beth, chill, I’m not drunk, geez. I’m a little more professional than that.” Then, with a little dance, she said, “Gray isn’t the father of Reva’s baby, and I’m going to Charleston tonight for some long over-due makeup sex.”
“What, how, who?”
“Close your mouth Beth before something flies in it. We’ll talk later. How about checking to make sure the band is ready to go on in about an hour, and I’ll finish here and check with the bartender next.”
Beth took off to find the band, shooting confused looks over her shoulder. She was probably still questioning her sobriety, but didn’t know what to do about it.
When she finished in the kitchen, she saw Nick standing at the bar talking to Jason. They were both due to give a brief speech tonight before the band went on. “Hey guys, how’s tricks?”
“Suzy, everything looks great. I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on the setup for the conference this year. I don’t know how you do it, but you constantly come up with something new every year.”
“Thanks Jason, it’s pretty easy when you have the world’s best job. Where is Claire this evening?”
Jason grimaced, worry evident on his face. “She wanted to come tonight, and I argued all the way to the door, but finally managed to reason with her. Her feet are the size of footballs, but getting her to stay put for any length of time is almost impossible.” With an exasperated shake of his head, he continued, “This pregnancy may yet be the end of me. I spend all my time trying to get her to take it easy, and she spends all her time trying to prove to me why it’s not necessary. If I have to hear, ‘back in the old days, women had babies in the fields while they continued with their work,’ I’ll explode.”
“You think that’s bad,” Nick piped in, “you should go to a meal with all the women and let them describe their female issues in full detail. I’ll never be right again after that. A man needs to stay ignorant to a certain point.”
With a nod of agreement, Jason bumped his fist against Nick’s shoulder and said, “I feel your pain man, for sure.”
Turning back to Suzy, Jason asked, “So who’s the band playing tonight?”
“Oh, it’s a local rock band that does a lot of 80’s music along with some current Top 40 stuff. I think you’ll like them. I’ve used them before and had nothing but compliments.”
When she looked at Nick again he was studying her in a way that had her raising a brow in question. He quickly turned away saying that he needed to hit the men’s room before his speech. She shrugged it off as she sent Jason towards the stage for the opening speech and met Beth at the back for a final status check.
~~~
Nick met up with Jason and Gray backstage. “Do you think she suspects anything?”
“Nope, nothing, bro. Hell I don’t think she could guess this in a million years. Hey you never told me what happened with the girl in accounts payable who was giving your new numbers to Reva? How did she even have access to that information?”
With a grim look, Gray said, “Apparently there is online access to our cell phone accounts to make changes and dispute charges. It also lists all of our phone numbers. She was fired by her supervisor this afternoon. Reva really didn’t want to tell me who her mole was, but I insisted. We can’t have people like that on our staff. She was actually Reva’s cousin.”
“Damn, I guess family loyalty will get you so far, and then it’ll get your ass fired.”
Jason shook his head. “This whole mess is like something from a bad soap opera. I’m glad Reva finally came forward, though, and hopefully soon you and Suzy will be able to look back on it and laugh.”
Nick chuckled. “She should at least be able to laugh about this evening, if nothing else.”
Jason walked onto the stage for his speech, and Nick clapped a hand on Gray’s shoulder as he prepared to make a complete and utter fool out of himself. If it worked though, it would be well worth it.
~~~
As she settled in beside her sister, she could tell Beth was dying to know what was going on, but with the speeches starting, it was impossible to carry on a conversation without disturbing a nearby table. Jason and Nick were both very good public speakers and used the right about of humor and sincerity to captivate their audience.
Finally, the entertainment portion of the evening arrived and Nick introduced the band as he finished his speech. Soon light rock filled the room as the band eased into the opening set with some lighter songs. After a short break, the lead singer took the microphone and joked around with the audience.
“Our next number goes out to a special lady in the house, your very own Suzy Denton. I’m going to step aside and sing back-up on this one.”
As the lead singer stepped back to make room for the guest singer, Beth looked at Suzy, “What’s going on?”
Suzy shrugged her shoulders, “I have no idea. It’s probably some joke at my expense.”