My Mail Order Wife (The Value of a Man Book 1) (8 page)

Monday morning brought a new set of challenges.  Getting her husband ready for work and out the door when Douglas was upset that Thurston was leaving was a trial that she was losing. It took Thurston three times to get Douglas to understand that he and TaeTay had to run some errands and that they would be back soon.  Douglas would not hear of it. He didn’t know the sitter.  He didn’t like the sitter. And he had no intention of staying with her, either. No one was going to depart that house without taking him.

A simple trip to the bank was going to make Thurston extremely late to work that morning.  He phoned his office and had all of his meetings postponed by an hour.  TaeTay apologized profusely, but her husband’s mind was somewhere else as they made their way through traffic.  She wore black slacks and a smart red two- piece sweater set made out of some of the softest material she had ever felt. He didn’t comment. She donned the pearls again because they were pretty and made her look classy.

In the bank office, TaeTay sat quietly as Douglas pelted them both with questions. Thurston looked at him and told him, “Douglas, Daddy has to do some very special paperwork with Mr. Grimes here, then I have to go to work.  If you are extra good, I will bring you home something special. But that is for today only. Can you do this?”

Douglas’ little head bobbed. “Please sit in the chair against the wall and mind your manners,” Thurston told him.  Douglas was quiet throughout all of the transactions that followed. TaeTay almost was not.

The first account that was set up for her was a household account.  This one he explained was for her to buy food, clothes, and pay any needed household expenses. “Since you have to buy furniture, I put in three months’ worth of your monthly allowance.  It will be replenished at the beginning of each month with $5,000.  It is important for you to say on budget.”

The second account was to be used for campaign costs only. Thurston told her, “If you buy a ribbon, a box of donuts or even coffee for the campaign headquarters, please use this account.  And whatever you do, don’t co-mingle the funds.”

The next account was for Douglas.  “You can add to this account as well.  It is for his college fund, his car, or whatever major expenses as he grows up.”

TaeTay was in shock especially with the final account.  “This is your rainy day fund. It is in your name only.  Once you sign on the line, I have no authority over this account or the funds within.”

Be a lady.  Be a lady.  You are now Mrs. Cromwell.  Act like it
. “That’s a lot of zeroes,” she told him as she signed her name on the line.  TataLavisha Renee Cromwell. It was done. 

Mr. Grimes spoke to her, “In a few weeks, your credit cards will arrive.  Here are your temporary checks and some pocket money until everything is set up.”

The money order Thurston had sent to her, she unfolded from her purse. “Mr. Grimes, can you please add this to Douglas’ account?”

“Of course, Mrs. Cromwell,” he told her as he closed up all of the documents and handed her the copies she needed.

“Darling, I have to run. I am late for several meetings. Also, you two need to get home; it’s going to rain this afternoon” he said as he walked them to the car.

“How are you going to get to work?”

“I’ll take the subway; you take the car.  I’ll see you at home.” He stooped down to hug Douglas. “You take care of your Mom until I get home tonight.”

“Okay, Daddy,” Douglas told him as he gave a mock salute.

“Thurston,” she called after him. “That was a lot of money moving around in there.”

His fingers rubbed her face, “I have to know and believe that when you come to my bed, you are coming because you want to be there, not because you are broke and have nothing of your own. You are a rich woman now. Anything you do from this point forward is because you want to, not out of necessity.”

He walked away without even a kiss. He had given her a great deal to think about as she and Douglas climbed into the car and headed back to Brooklyn.
I am rich.  I am a rich woman
. Thurston has given me the means to leave him if I want to, anytime I feel like it. The funny thing was, she didn’t want to walk away.

She never had any intention of leaving her husband. Ever.

Douglas was enthralled by all the noise, hustling and bustling of the big bad city.  TaeTay found it unsettling. She had seen too many movies of bad things happening in New York and there was nowhere to run because 3 million people were running that way as well. Yet, this was her new home.  She had to make the best of it.  Her feelings about the brownstone in Brooklyn were similar.  With some decorating and added touches, she could make it homey. “Carl,” she asked the driver, “Can we stop at a big box, office supply store?  I need to pick up a few things.”

Arms filled with a new tablet slash laptop, a cheap color printer, crayons, and workbooks for Douglas, she headed home.  She considered herself lucky to find the thank you cards with the embossed raised letter C on them on sale.  It was time to open gift boxes.

First things first, she gave Douglas a light snack and put him down for a quick nap.  He, of course, had to change into the Superman PJ’s before he lay down.  This was after he selected what he was going to wear when he woke up. At this rate, TaeTay was sure by the end of the week, he would have worn everything in the closet and drawers.  She grabbed the basket load of dirty clothes and took them to the basement. After she thought about it, she went up to Thurston’s room to collect his laundry, and while she was there, made quick work of making the bed, putting fresh towels in his bathroom, and tidying up a bit. Tomorrow she would dust and run a dry mop over the hardwoods.

Her stomach was grumbling so loudly she was sure the mailman heard it when he walked up to the front door.  There was a stack of cards addressed to Mr. & Mrs. Cromwell. 
Food, then tackle this
.  For some reason, a BLT sounded fantastic, along with a hot cup of coffee. While she ate, she set up her tablet and found several free Wi-Fi hot spots, which she used to check Pinterest for recipes for leftover crudités. 
Hmmm, large garden salad, with some mushroom roasted chicken
with a side of rice
.

Dinner planned, she headed to the dining room and began to open presents.  She was careful to double-check each gift against the sign-in register so she would know who had come to the wedding and who had sent a gift. Two hours later, everything was open and Douglas was awake and wearing black jeans and a black and white striped shirt, professing he was about to die from hunger. 

Looking at the gifts, TaeTay thought about Thurston.  He had not even tried to kiss her before he left.  That was not going to do. She found her purse and located her luscious pink lip tint, applied it thickly, and snapped a selfie of herself puckering up.  She sent it to him with a note, “You forgot your kiss this morning. Here ya go.”

For some odd reason, she began a mental debate with herself about whether to put the gifts away or wait to let her husband see them when he got home. 

My husband
.

She was feeling good.  A lovely salad bowl with some matching pretty plates was a part of the bounty they received as gifts, and she planned to put them to good use over dinner.  A dinner that she needed to start so it would be ready when her husband came home in less than an hour.

My husband
.

Thurston had been watching the clock all day, just waiting for six o’clock.  He was anxious to get home to his family. Maybe I should have taken some time off to get them settled in, maybe shopped with her for the pieces she needed for the house.  His phone chirped.  TaeTay had sent him a message. 

It was a kiss. 

He hadn’t kissed her this morning because he was afraid that if he had, he would not have made it to the office.

The way she handled his parents and even his brother…was nothing short of amazing.  TataLavisha was a remarkable woman and she was his wife. “Debra,” he called to his assistant,  “I am heading home.”

The first drizzles of rain started as he left his office and headed toward the subway line.  He hadn’t brought his umbrella and only hoped he wouldn’t get drenched by the time he walked the three blocks home.  Thurston looked down at his feet.  He wished he had worn a more comfortable shoe, but he had been so thrown by Douglas not wanting him to leave him this morning. That was a truly awesome kid. He knew he would be lying if he didn’t admit to getting choked up when Douglas called him Daddy. It felt so natural with the boy. It felt natural with TaeTay as well.  The two of them made him
relevant
.

Luckily, he made it home in time, getting only moderately damp from the rain. He opened the front door to hear the jangling of a bell.  “What in the world?” he said as he looked up, and true enough, there was a bell.

Douglas came around the corner at a full sprint, yelling at the top of his lungs, “Daddy!  Daddy’s home!”  Thurston bent low to scoop the boy up in his arms. His chest felt tight as he watched his wife round the corner with a gigantic grin, just for him.
I am relevant.  I matter.  Someone is happy that I made it home
.

“I hope you are hungry Thurston, I made roasted mushroom chicken and rice, and I recycled those veggies from yesterday into a fantastic salad.”  She said all of this as she took his briefcase, kissed his cheek, and scolded Douglas.  “Get down off of the man and let him get in the door good, Douglas,” she said.

“It’s fine. He’s fine,” he told her because it was.  His father never allowed them to greet him in such a manner.  His mother lined them up at the door each evening to give his Dad a handshake.  This was so much better.

“You two get washed up for dinner while I set the table,” she told them.

In the downstairs bath, a small footstool had been placed at the sink for Douglas to stand on to wash his hands. Thurston used the nailbrush to scrub his hands then watched Douglas do the same.  The boy was talking 50 miles a minute as he explained how he kept the house safe. “Mommy opened the door to get the mail, but she forget to lock it.  Then I saw a cute puppy out front and went outside. That was when Mommy went down to the store to buy the bell.” His little face was twisted. “I was put in timeout for a long time Daddy. She wouldn’t even let me change into one of those special outfits I wanted to put on.”

It took everything he had not to crack his face in laughter. From this day forward, his first 20 minutes through the front door was going to be devoted to his son.  When they got to the dining room table, it was set so nicely that Thurston’s eyes were wide in surprise.  TaeTay picked up on it very quickly, “I know, right?  I love this dish set.  It was a wedding present from Mrs. Horowitz.  It even included the salad bowl!”

“Do you know Mrs. Horowitz?” Thurston asked, surprised by the familiarity in her tone.

“No, but she gave us these dishes along with a nice note.  So I made a thank you card to send to her,” she said as she shook her head to an imaginary rhythm. “I also left out all of the gifts with name tags so you could see who sent what before I put everything away.  It is a nice haul.  You have some good friends.  Mine would have brought a bottle of Alize and some gift they stuck in a dirty Crown Royal bag.”

He laughed. Throughout dinner, he laughed some more as she told him stories. The laughter continued as Douglas shared with him the drawings he’d made of the two of them as super heroes on a mission to rescue all the lost puppies in the world.

“Oh, Douglas, go and grab my briefcase, please.  I have something for you,” he told the boy, who sprang from the chair faster than the speeding bullet he had drawn on the paper.

The case wasn’t heavy, but Douglas wasn’t very big for a five-year-old. He looked more like a four-year-old with an old man’s eyes.  Eyes that got wide with excitement when Thurston pulled out the Spiderman costume. TaeTay gave him an angry look, “Great, now he has to change clothes again!”

The boy couldn’t wait to get into the suit.  He stripped down to his Superman underwear and donned the costume, which came complete with web slingers that shot out Silly String. By 8 pm, the walls were covered in the stuff and so was TaeTay’s hair. Thurston realized his error too late. “Well, hopefully he will shoot off his load and it will wear him out enough to go to sleep.”

TaeTay turned real slowly and looked at her husband. She raised her eyebrows as Thurston shook his head no, “That came out all wrong…”

“I was about to ask, is that what you need as well, Thurston?”

He walked away saying, “I am not touching that.  I am not responding. I am applying the rule of thumb and getting a bucket and cloth to clean these walls before we go to bed.”

She let it go as well and focused on the little ball of energy. It took some effort, but TaeTay finally got Douglas out of the suit and into the tub.  He would not go to bed until Thurston read him a story.

In the living room, TaeTay had put on some soft jazz as she waited for her husband to join her on the very ugly, uncomfortable couch that she could not wait to get rid of. She poured herself a glass of wine and waited to see if he wanted something stronger.  “No wine will work,” he told her.

“Come sit with me,” she said as he took a seat in the corner of the chair, leaning into the warmth of his body.

“TaeTay, tomorrow it becomes official; my hat goes into the ring for the open congressional seat.  Once I apply, there is no turning back,” he said as his thumb rubbed her shoulder.

“I’m ready for whatever the course may bring,” she told him.

“You seem so calm and confident about all of this.  I’m a nervous wreck; I’m not sure if I am ready,” he confessed out loud.  His inner voice had been saying it since he found out, but now it was out of his mouth and she heard it.  The rain had started to pick up as heavy droplets were slung against the windows.

Her wine glass now on the table she faced him sitting on her knees, looking him squarely in the face. “As your wife, I support whatever decision you make; however, I would hate for you to pass up this opportunity then regret it for the rest of your life. I know nothing about being a congressman’s wife or even being a wife for that matter, but I do know that I will handle whatever comes our way.”

He pinched her.  “Ouch, what was that for?” she asked.

“I just wanted to make sure you were real.  How did I get so lucky?  I mean no one else snatched you up to make you his?  I know there are some broken hearts back in Compton,” he told her as he stared into her eyes.

“You lucky?  No, I am the lucky one.  I remember seeing you come through that back door of the conference center.  I was thinking a girl like me never gets a guy like that… well not unless we are a side chick or a jump off…”

“A what?”

A slight tilt of her head, “Thurston, where I’m from girls don’t get married.  The best we can hope for is a steady long-term relationship with the father of our child or children. What we get is a piece of a man that we are sharing with two other women, that we eventually have to all catch the bus to the prison to go and see.  I didn’t want that for myself, so I stayed to myself.”

His hand slid over hers, and she continued, “I found myself as a single mother to a two-year-old child of a man that was in prison. My sister was one of those women who died for her man, leaving a son. A son of man in prison. The week before we came here, he was shanked and killed.”

Thurston leaned forward on the couch, listening to what she was saying. “Ironically, that same week, drug dealers started showing up on my doorstep giving Douglas little odd jobs to do for money.  Two of them pretty much told me I had to make a choice between the ugly, violent one or the big nasty violent one.”

“TaeTay, I didn’t know.  I had no idea,” he told her as he pulled her onto his lap.

“There was no way for you to know, but we are the lucky ones Thurston. Douglas is a great kid and he deserves to grow up and be a good honest black man. I know they still exist because I married one,” she told him.

He couldn’t help himself; he pulled her in close and kissed her with everything in him. He was feeling greedy, needy and his thoughts were getting seedy. He let her go.  When she came to his bed, he wanted her to do it on her own, with no coercion from him.  He bid her goodnight, and headed to his room.

It was a little after midnight when he heard the light tapping at his door and what sounded like tears. “Come in,” he said as he reached for the bedside lamp.  It had to be one of the ugliest lamps he had ever seen in his life, even with his unfocused eyes.

“Daddy,” he heard the soft voice.  “I am scared.”  The rain had picked up from droplets hitting the window to a full-blown storm.  Lightening flashed and Douglas nearly jumped a foot in the air. When the thunder clapped, he screamed. 

“Open the door all the way and come on and climb in,” he told his son. He only needed to tell him once.  The lightning flashed again and you would have thought the boy was actually Spiderman as he leaped into the air and landed on the bed. He scooted under the covers, drawing the bedding over his head.

He was trying to comfort the boy when the thunder clapped and he looked up to see his wife standing in the door as well.  “Hell, I’m scared, too.  We don’t get storms like this in Southern California.”  She told him to move over as she climbed into the bed with them.

Douglas snuggled up close to him, and Thurston draped his arm across the boy and drifted peacefully back to sleep.
My family
.