I started to relax at her words. "Do I think what?"
"Do you think he's seeing someone else?"
Where in the hell was that whiskey? I needed it down my throat like yesterday. Elana had asked me out to drinks to see what I knew about who her husband might be fucking? There was no way in hell I was going to fess up and say oh yeah up until a year ago, me and your husband’s dick were personally acquainted on a regular basis.
Taking a deep breath, I looked around and saw the waiter was headed back over. "Elana, what makes you think that?"
She took a deep breath of her own as the waiter arrived. We both took sips of our drinks and then she spoke. "This."
I watched as she fumbled in the purse she'd tucked on the back of her chair. Her hand dipped inside the cheap Walmart brand accessory and came up with a paper. She handed it to me; a jagged yellow piece of paper that had come from South Atlanta Metro Laboratory Corporation. I read over to paper to see that Nathan had tested positive for chlamydia exactly three months ago.
"Oh Elana...."
"I've tried to give him everything he needed, you know. I've put in almost twenty years with him. I love him."
Tears started to edge up and she caught them, dabbing with her fingertips. Her eyelashes closed tightly for a moment, acting as though they were the gatekeepers to said tears. I hadn't seen it before out of jealousy, but I'd always thought she was mousy as hell. Now, I knew better. Elana West had never needed makeup; she was just a woman who preferred a simpler look.
I felt ashamed.
"This isn't even why I called you here," she shook it off.
"Oh?"
My stomach started twisting again.
"Claudette's sixteen and I was late on getting her into the social season shit.... Nathan would kill me if he knew I was asking you."
A smile pulled on my lips. "Fuck what Nathan thinks.... Claudette’s as good as in. This will shape her entire life and I'm going to personally sponsor her.”
Elana’s eyes grew wide. “That’s too much. Sponsoring her?”
The whiskey finally arrived, and I relaxed. “No such thing as too much. Claudette deserves it. She makes good grades?”
“She’s a straight A student,” Elana smiled proudly.
“Then she more than deserves it. I was being kind of flighty and got into Spelman by the skin of my teeth….,” I grinned.
“I don’t believe that at all,” Elana sipped on her own drink.
“What about you? Were you all straight As and shit?”
Elana looked over her glass and gave smile. “I was a little bit of geek.”
“I knew it,” a giggle escaped my lips.
“I’m really mad we’ve never spent any time together outside of family events here and there,” Elana held up her drink. “Let’s toast to building a better friendship.”
Agreeing, I clanked my glass against hers. “It’s partly my fault.”
“What is?”
“I’m a bitch,” I shrugged offering her just a hint of the truth. “Nathan knows how I am, and he didn’t want me influencing his woman.”
Elana gave me a look but whatever it was she was thinking, she never said. She swept her hair out of her face and ordered another drink and so did I. Before we knew it, we were both pretty sauced and needed to Uber.
“Let me pay for it,” I told her, leaning up against the front entrance.
She hiccupped, “No way.”
