Between Sisters

  Copyright © 2008 by The Queen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of a brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incident are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Printed in the United States of America

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9827-2231-2

  ISBN-10: 0-9827-2231-X

  For information regarding special ordering for bulk purchases, contact: Queendom Dreams Publishing, PO Box 93832, Las Vegas, NV 89193

  Website: www.queendomdreams.com

  Between Sisters

  Book One

  The Queen

  Queendom Dreams Publishing

  www.queendomdreams.com

  Prologue

  1

  “I’m getting sick of going to the jazz club each week for girls’ night out. The same damn club week after week. D.C. has too many spots to go to. Why can’t we do something different sometimes?”

  “Kelly, you know how your sister is. She acts like none of us have enough sense to decide on something else.”

  “You have always been Elaine’s favorite. Why don’t you tell her we want to do something different this week, Shawnee?”

  “PULEASE! How do you figure that? Elaine Wiggins is all about herself. She is her only favorite. Besides, it’s not just Elaine. I guess you forgot about your other sisters. We’d still have to check with Harmony and Charise, and be glad Sandy is not around. Otherwise, you’d have to check with her, also.”

  “I already know Charise wants to do something different. We’ve been talking about it forever. As for Harmony, Momma birthed that girl without a backbone. She’ll do whatever.”

  “That is so not cool, Kelly. How are you going to talk about Harmony like that, when she always comes to your rescue each time you get in some mess? When you bought that new Land Rover straight off the showroom floor that had your ass stuck on the side of the road a couple of months ago––in the middle of the night no less––while coming back from Detroit, who came for your silly behind because you forgot to renew your AAA?” Shawnee chuckled. “Furthermore, Harmony is not one to sleep on. She’ll dropkick all of your asses in a heartbeat.”

  Kelly laughed. “Okay, you’re right. To be honest, I think none of us have a backbone when it comes to Elaine.”

  “Tell me this since you’re closer in age to Elaine than I am, and I pretty much was gone while you all were coming up. How in the hell did she become so damn mean and spoiled? Is that a Taurus thing? Hell, I don’t remember her ever getting her way with Momma.”

  “It must be her Taurus trait ‘cause she never got her way with Momma. Daddy was the one always buying her stuff, and Momma was the one she was always fighting with. I guess she figured she could go a few rounds with Momma, so now she thinks she can walk all over everyone else.”

  “Oh hell no! Wilhelmina Josie Mae Wyatt-Wiggins never let Elaine walk all over her.” That is the way Shawnee would often refer to their mother, with her strong personality and whom they feared greatly while growing up. “Shoot, while Momma was on her deathbed just two years ago, I still was afraid of her kicking my ass. That woman was no joke,” Shawnee laughed.

  Kelly slightly laughed before shifting into a whiney voice. “Yeah, but whatever the case, we need to do something about this girls’ night out thing. We’ve been going to this same spot for over a year now. Shawnee, you’re the oldest. You should be the one stepping up and changing the order.”

  “Kelly, I have a good husband, a nice home that I don’t mind spending my free time in, and a great job. I wouldn’t even be out in the streets if it weren’t for us trying to keep our pact since Momma’s death of always having girls’ night out once a week. Sandy broke our pact already. She packed up and moved clear across the country with her family when she got married.”

  “That’s because Sandy’s dog of a husband, Lewis, was always hitting on every damn body, and she couldn’t stand us always getting on her case about giving him the boot. She’s content living in her fantasy world and thinks moving to Denver is going to help his cheating ways.”

  Shawnee laughed heartedly. “Yeah, and she moves him to the same town where black men are scarce and in high demand.” She paused for a moment and then shared, “Hmm, now that I think about it, Sandy met Lewis at that same jazz club. I would hate for any of my other sisters to end up with a loser from that club.”

  “And don’t forget about Elaine now hooked up with that broke down sax player,” Kelly threw in.

  “Well, at least he doesn’t try hitting on everyone like Lewis does, and that ‘broke down sax player’ loves him some Elaine.”

  “Shawnee, we shouldn’t be forced to go to the jazz club just because Elaine is screwing the sax player. When do the rest of us get to just let loose and have a good time? I feel like the oldest twenty-six year-old, sitting week after week with a bunch of stuffy old-ass men, while they swirl around their brandy and don’t have a damn thing in common to talk about. To be honest, I don’t even like jazz. I tolerate it,” Kelly pouted through the phone.

  Shawnee laughed. “Oh, but you love those ‘old men’, as you call them, when they send us drinks for the table. See if any young guy will do that.”

  “Well…” Kelly couldn’t help but to laugh, also. “Okay, so they’re good for something. I’m just saying… Let’s do different things sometimes.”

  “Alright! Alright! I’m sold. Get with Charise and Harmony to decide where we will go this week. I think we will be switching things up from now on.”

  “Yay!” Kelly squealed with excitement, clapping her hands like a small child. “Will you be letting Elaine know she won’t be calling the shots anymore?”

  “I got this, Kelly. Now, I have to get back to work. I’ve had about ten faces at my door trying to talk with me about something. Besides, my soup is getting cold for the third time.”

  “Soup? In June, Shawnee?”

  “Girl, what you talking about? Crab soup is damn good in June.”

  “Ooh, crab soup. I want some,” Kelly playfully begged.

  “Yeah, it tastes much better when you don’t have to microwave it three, four, and five times because you keep getting interrupted every time you try to eat your lunch,” Shawnee laughed.

  “That’s what comes with being a senior partner in an advertising company.”

  “This is true, and I wouldn’t trade one bit of it for anything. But, those interruptions also come from having too many aggravating sisters working my last nerve with something or other every five minutes.”

  “Whatever! Not me. Must be all those other sisters,” Kelly laughed.

  “Uhm-hmm, if you say so,” Shawnee laughed with her.

  “Well, alright, sis, get back to work. I have contracts to get cracking on anyhow. I’ll call you tonight and let you know what we came up with.”

  “Sounds good. Love you, lil’ sis.”

  “Love you, too,” Kelly said, then pressed the off button on her phone and logged into her email account.

  Gotta love being my own boss. No one up my ass telling me I can’t check my emails anymore. Life is lovely! Kelly thought to herself as she smiled and looked around at the office she created out of the den of her home that she purchased a year after graduating from Howard University three years ago. The home made her mother reiterate her pride in Kelly for doing so well and staying focused to achieve her goals of
having her own business and home by the age of twenty-five.

  “Junk…delete…delete…delete. Hmm, this looks interesting,” she said out loud to herself while clicking on an email titled: ‘The Groove Crew Shake Their Moneymaker This Wednesday.’

  The email that opened to graphics portraying six exotic dancers read:

  Ladies, Come Kick off the Summer With

  DC’s Hottest Guys, ‘The Groove Crew’

  Featuring the internationally known:

  Mandingo

  As They Shake Their Moneymakers

  It's All Going Down/Coming Off This Wednesday

  At the All-new - Megaplex

  Doors Open at 6 p.m., Showtime 7:30 p.m.

  2-for-1 Apple Martinis from 6-7 p.m.

  Music Provided by DJ Hot-n-Nuff

  Gentlemen Welcome for the After Party

  9:30 p.m. – 1:00 a.m.

  Admission $15 – Ladies, $5 – Men

  “WHOOO! WHOOO! Gotta call somebody! Gotta call some damn body!” Hardly able to contain her excitement, Kelly picked up her cell phone to call her youngest sister Charise.

  “Hey girl, what’s up?” Charise answered when she saw it was Kelly calling.

  “Hey, kid! I spoke with Shawnee about doing something different this Wednesday besides the jazz club. She’s on board,” Kelly said, excited.

  “It’s about damn time! Shawnee has a husband, so she doesn’t care about us poor, single, desperate women.”

  Kelly squealed. “Well, I have just the thing for us to do this Wednesday. I just received this email, and I must say I was getting kind of excited just reading it. No, let me correct that. I got excited looking at it,” said Kelly, fanning herself.

  “Ooh! I want to see it. Forward it to me so I can get excited, too. What is it?”

  “It’s exotic dancers at the Megaplex, the new spot they just opened on New York Avenue. Oh my, they are absolutely gorgeous in this picture. They even have an after party, Charise. You know I’m long overdue to shake my ass.”

  “Calm down, sis! Now let’s get real here. Although I’m all for it, Shawnee’s married. She’s not going to have it. Elaine is too uptight and probably wouldn’t know fun if it came and bit her in the ass. Harmony…well, she’ll do whatever, but you know Harmony is quite embarrassing on a dance floor. She has no rhythm whatsoever. I know you haven’t forgotten her doing a warp-ass version of the Snake and Cabbage Patch at Shawnee’s wedding.”

  The pair laughed hysterically at the memory of their rhythmless older sister.

  “Charise, all we have to do is get Harmony to agree. I’ll let Shawnee know what we’ve come up with, and she’ll drag Elaine. It’s not like we’re asking to see strippers every week. This is only one week.”

  “Kelly, you don’t have to try to convince me. Hell, if it were up to me, I’d say let’s find a strip spot every week instead of that bourgeois jazz club we have to go to and act happy. Hell, I’d be happy with a movie or video instead.”

  Kelly laughed at her sister’s sentiments. “I just forwarded the email to you and Harmony. Girl, wait until you see the picture.”

  “You do know I sit in a stupid cubicle where everyone is all in my conversations, looking over my shoulder all the time, and reading my emails? Everyone keeps looking at me on the phone with you now. Is it safe for me to open, or do I need to check it from home?”

  “Charise, you don’t have the willpower to wait another four plus hours to see this email?” Kelly joked.

  “So what, you’re two years older than me and think you know me so well, huh? I might just wait now to prove a point,” Charise joked back.

  “Correction, I am not two years older. I am twenty-seven months older than you. And no, you can’t wait. All of your one-night stands are proof of that,” Kelly laughed.

  “Ouch! I can’t help that I’m a girl who knows what she wants and goes after it,” Charise said in her defense. “Why you all up in my business anyhow?”

  “Are you kidding?!” Kelly almost choked on the water she was drinking. “How about because you call me after every new dick you get and then want to share the nasty, graphic details. You need to channel some of that one-night-stand energy into your career so you can work your way up from working in a cubicle to having an office with a door.”

  Charise could feel herself getting annoyed like she always did when she had to defend herself to her big sisters. She always resented being the youngest of her five sisters. To add insult to injury, her nineteen-year-old brother Angelo got on her case as well about her reckless behavior. In her mind, she felt everyone should be happy that she was twenty-four, a University of Maryland graduate, had her own apartment, and didn’t have any children compared to Sandy who had three children before turning twenty-two. Each child had a different father and none belonged to her dog-husband who constantly made passes at Charise. Actually, Charise enjoyed the passes Lewis would make and often found herself fantasizing about what he would be like in bed.

  Nonetheless, Charise was not in the mood to be lectured by Kelly of all people. Kelly would be the most flirtatious of them all in the jazz club, but when a man approached her, she would whip out her long list of rules that started with the “three-month rule”.

  On very rare occasions, Kelly and Charise would venture out to Zanzibar, Martini’s, or H2O nightclubs together. She couldn’t tell anyone that those guys she freaked and rubbed on in the club had to wait three months for her to give up the goodies. Kelly’s men typically vanished two weeks later, which according to Charise, was probably when she gave it up.

  Charise was ready to end the call. “Kelly, I have to get going now, but count me in for Wednesday,” she said, unable to hide her annoyance.

  “Okay, heifer. I know you don’t want to hear what I have to say, but you know I love you. Anyhow, I’ll call Harmony and tell her the plan, and let Shawnee know what we’ve come up with.”

  “Your momma’s fifth daughter is a heifer,” Charise said dryly. “Love you, too, sis.”

  They both laughed as they ended the call.

  Prologue

  2

  Against her better judgment, Shawnee let her younger sister talk her into this “one-time” male stripper party. Not only did she have to get Elaine’s hot tempered behind on board, she had to think about what, if anything, she would tell Robert, her husband of four years.

  Robert had always been a good husband, until more recently when he started keeping later work hours. Typically, women would say that’s the first sign of infidelity. However, with Robert being a corporate attorney, there was no telling. One thing for certain, his late hours and increasing lack of intimacy at home had Shawnee raising her eyebrows.

  Shawnee had an equally demanding work schedule, which was why the couple postponed any thoughts of having children, but despite their demanding schedules, they always made time for each other and had regular dates out on the town. Additionally, Shawnee vowed to make time for her sisters’ night out once a week. However, this stripper party may have been more than she bargained for.

  With no more time to think about it, Shawnee picked up her phone to call Elaine, but not before taking a relaxing hot bubble bath in her large garden tub in front of the large, unobstructed window that offered a spectacular distant view of the bright lights of the Pentagon among other landmarks.

  “Hey, big sis, what’s going on?” Elaine pleasantly answered upon seeing her sister’s number on her caller ID.

  “I just got out of my bubble bath.”

  “Must be nice. Where’s Robert?” Elaine asked

  “Working, as usual. To tell you the truth, it’s getting kind of lonely. When he is home, he’s too tired to talk or anything else. And all the little gifts and flowers I used to get seem to not be finding their way to me.”

  “Wow! I’m sorry to hear that. Hopefully things will get better, but at least we have Wednesday to look forward to.”

  Shawnee cringed. “Uh…speaking of Wednesday, that’s what I’m cal
ling about.”

  “Don’t tell me you can’t make it. You know I’m not having that,” Elaine said.

  “Actually, there’s been a change of plans, and everyone else is on board.”

  Elaine felt an imaginary migraine coming on. “Change, huh? And you say ‘everyone’ already has made this decision? Was there some family meeting I missed or was deliberately not invited to?” she asked, transforming into bitch mode.

  Shawnee sensed Elaine’s temper coming. “Look, Elaine, we’ve been doing the same jazz club for a little over a year now, and to be frank with you, I’m getting bored with going week after week. I would…actually, we all would like to switch things up from time to time. A jazz club is nice, but we don’t have to do the same jazz club. We could also do movies, sporting events––something other than the same thing week after week.”

  “So, Shawnee, what exactly did you have in mind? You know I like to be there to hear Russell play. I want to be supportive of my man and don’t need the headache of having to choose between my man and my sisters,” Elaine snapped.

  “You know, I really don’t need any drama about this. Girls’ night out is not just about Elaine. That’s downright selfish of you to feel all of our lives are supposed to revolve around you and Russell. You can support your man on your own time and not have us roped into it with you. As for this Wednesday, we have decided to go to a party at the Megaplex. It wouldn’t feel right without you, so hopefully, we won’t be without you.”

  “Did I hear you say a party at the Megaplex? Why would I want to go hang out at some ghetto party at the Megaplex?” Elaine raised her voice. “Shawnee, I can’t believe your married behind would even consider something like that. Worse than that, don’t you think you’re a little too old to be trying to party with a bunch of hoochies? Are you really that lonely?”