Don't Tell Daddy (11 page)

“But you’re so good at it, such a pretty girl.”

“Thank you.” Pamela blushed, having a drink of her orange juice.

After breakfast, Elijah took Pamela to Bryan’s office, letting her out and walking her inside. “I’ll see you later,” she told him, standing on her tippy toes to kiss him goodbye.

“Later,” he agreed, starting out of the building.

Before Pamela had even entered the building good, Bryan was in her face and she rolled her eyes. “I’m here. Just like you asked me to be. I haven’t done anything to you,” she reminded him. “Except have the boyfriend I’ve had the past four years.”

Elijah came inside as Bryan and Pamela had their staring contest. He really did think she needed to quit if this was causing them to go at each other’s throats, but he could no longer try to convince her of that. “Hey, Mela, can I just talk to you for a quick second?”

She looked up at Bryan, and he let her arm go. “You have five minutes, Pamela. Five.”

She simply nodded and went to speak to Elijah. He pulled her outside and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“What about?” she wondered.

“I can’t do this, Pamela. I… I want to break up.”

“Okay—”

“Look, I know it’s hard, but—”

Pamela knew this was hard on Elijah and for his sake, she had to make it a little harder on him. She had to make him feel like he didn’t want her back, that she didn’t care. She knew that if he told her he wanted to come back, she wouldn’t be able to be fair to him and tell him no. She’d take him back. She had to allow him to put this distance between them. She didn’t have the truth in her right now.

“Get over yourself. I said okay.”

She had half the mind to tell him he fucked stupid; but the fact that it was true made her keep that to herself. She wanted him to never want her again, but she didn’t want to send him to the next girl with such a bruised ego he would lose that sweet personality.

She’d been fucking everyone but him since school let out. Because he did it so stupidly. She’d been mentally fucking Bryan in her head every time she let Elijah hit anyway.

“You don’t have to hide the truth, Pamela. Just let it out.”

She burst into hysterical laughter then. “Elijah, I was with you simply out of convenience. Because we looked good together. Because it was the popular thing to do, when I was a senior to date a college boy. It’s not like I love you. It’s not like you gave me some sex worth missing. High school is over. So are we. So is this conversation. So you want to break up, I’m glad. Because I wanted to weeks ago. Goodbye.”

She walked into the office with a heavy heart, and she couldn’t make herself stick around to see the pain in his face. The right thing to do was to let him go on about his business and leave her where she was. He deserved so much better than what she was right now.

                                         
Chipper

Pamela woke up to the smell of breakfast. She looked beside her, and Bryan wasn't in her bed; but he hadn't been the previous night, either. His wife was home. Still, he was the only other person with a key to her condo. People in Detroit did some stupid shit. But to break into someone's house and make breakfast? It had to be Bryan. 

She got out of bed and went to brush her teeth before she headed to her kitchen and saw Bryan setting plates on the table. "Oh, you woke up already," he said and kissed her. 

"Don't sound so excited." She rolled her eyes.

"I was going to wake you up. Like this," he told her, kissing her lips softly, then her neck, and her chin, back to her lips. She smiled. 

"What did you make?" she asked, her eyes landing on the plate. Her stomach growled. She didn't even know Bryan could cook. He hadn't in the past. It was always Heather. "Mmm. Blueberry pancakes. My über fave."

 "I know." 

They sat down to eat, and she was still hungry after the first three pancakes and took his. He let her. He wasn't that hungry. "How are you here?" she asked, remembering it was their free day. 

"I'ma grown ass man. What do you mean, how sam I here?"

"Well, Mr. Grown Ass Man, your wife is back at home."

"What does that have to do with you?"

She said nothing to that and decided to start eating her pancakes again, taking drinks of orange juice. Her cell rang and it was Lila. “Hello?”

“Where are you, girl?”

“At home.”

“The movie is starting in twenty minutes.”

“Oh, shit. I’m sorry, Lila.”

She could almost see her girl shaking her head. “You owe me, Mela. Next time, you’re paying for my ticket. I can’t believe you would actually stand me up.”

“I love you,” she sang.

“Yeah yeah. Bye.”

The girls hung up. Bryan watched Pamela continue with breakfast. Afterwards, she started cleaning, cursing herself, looking around. “This place is a mess,” she mumbled, picking up a magazine from the floor where she, Lila, and Jada had been the other night, up all night. She picked up a bra and couldn’t tell whether it was Jada’s or Lila’s. They were both A-cups. She just knew it didn’t belong to her. “Does this look like Jada’s to you?”

“How would I know, Pamela? I don’t make it a habit to raid my daughter’s underwear.”

She rolled her eyes and tossed the bra in her hamper. She’d figure out which of them it belonged to soon enough. “You wanna watch the Vampire Diaries?” she asked. He sat on the sofa with her. He was actually getting into the show after Pamela had him catch up on it.

He sat there feeling through her hair. Although she had just done it the night before, she didn’t say anything about him fucking it up. She just let him do it because it felt nice.

Bryan left Pamela around one in the afternoon and headed home. “You sure seem perky,” Heather noticed. He shrugged.

“It’s a beautiful summer day. I’m alive. I have a beautiful wife. Smile. It’s good for you,” Bryan told her. She watched him, not really suspicious, but definitely noticing a change. Albeit, a small one, it was there.

“Hey, after work, make sure you and Pamela show up to Jada’s robotics competition.”

“What kind of father wouldn’t show up to his kid’s robotics competition?” he asked, feeling almost slighted. He had never missed any of kids competitions, plays, talent shows, award ceremonies. Nothing. What would make Heather suddenly feel this need to remind him of something?

“Hey, you’re suddenly young again. I gotta make sure you remember to be a responsible adult.”

Bryan rolled his eyes and went to get a water out of the fridge. “I’m going for a bike ride. Do you want to come?”

“I’m okay. I’ll make you some brownies. Okay?”

“Okay, baby.” Bryan kissed his wife goodbye and headed to the garage for his bike. He really did want Heather to come on his bike rides, but he left her alone about it. He just knew he was in a very good mood.

                                         
Work and Play

Pamela woke up and got ready for work. She took special care to straighten her hair and pushed in a lilac headband. She pulled on a pair of suit pants, and they were snugger than they had been the last she tried them on at the store a few weeks back. She tried to button the matching blouse. It was hard. When she finally got it to button, the button popped off.

She blew out a breath, causing her bang to move. This had happened to the last three blouses she’d tried on. So she decided to just go with a nice crop shirt and pulled on her blazer, hoping Bryan didn’t notice the discrepancy in her work clothes.

Her phone rang, and she answered with her Bluetooth as she looked for a pair of shoes. “Hello?”

“Hey, carpool with me to Jae’s competition today,” Lila said without a simple salutation.

“Sorry love, going with her father directly after work.”

Lila growled in frustration. “Okay.”

“Hey, are you missing a bra?” she asked.

“No. Why?”

“Either you or Jae left one.”

“It must be hers.”

“Speaking of bras, I can’t fit any of mine anymore.”

“Why? Karma pay you back and shrink your tits?” Lila asked, snickering.

Pamela rolled her eyes. “No. They grew a fucking cup size. Everything is too damn tight. My buttons keep popping off! I’m going on a diet.”

“Girl, you sound like a white girl now. Curves are good.”

“Yeah. But if I keep eating how I am, it’s gon be a lot more than curvy. I have to watch my figure.”

“Whatever. I gotta go. Mother is downstairs shrieking for me. It must be because of the glass I broke.”

“Good luck with her, Butterfingers.”

“Ha-ha. Fuck you. Bye.”

The girls hung up, and Pamela looked at herself and watched her reflection in her mirror. She saw a little blemish on her chin. “Oh fuck my life!” she complained. “Gaining weight and now I’m breaking out. Great.”

Pamela grabbed her purse and headed for the door. But she stopped in the kitchen to grab a cereal bar, and Bryan walked in. “Let’s go.”

“Wait, I’m hungry.”

Pamela grabbed one cereal bar, and then decided she could go for two, and she followed Bryan outside. He kissed her in the car. “You look nice this morning,” he told her.

“Thank you.”

“Keep the blazer on, and I’ll ignore the shirt.”

Damn, he noticed,
she thought, cursing herself. “I’m going to go to my mom’s boutique on break,” she promised. “All of my blouses are too small and my bras too. I’m not wearing one.”

“That will be just our secret,” he said and winked. She giggled a little bit as he merged into traffic on the freeway.

“What do we have today?” he asked. She reached for her PDA, and she read off the day’s goings. Bryan had insisted she stop using that dated planner. The world was technology driven. The irony in him telling her to get with the times was the highlight of her week.

He pulled into the headquarters of their meeting and led her up to the building, his hand on the small of her back, guiding her.

As they were walking to the elevator, Bryan ran into an old college friend of his, Antonio. He looked at his watch. Their meeting wasn’t for another twenty minutes, so he stopped to chat. “This is my assistant, Pamela,” he introduced.

“Pamela, you’re a beautiful woman,” he told her.

“Thank you.” She smiled. “Mr. Valdez, I’ll go get you a coffee,” she said, her voice holding just a hint of seduction as she touched his arm and walked away.

Bryan turned briefly and watched her head into the elevator. He couldn’t help watching her exits and entrances.

“Damn man, how old is she?”  Antonio wondered, recognizing in her features Jonta and Carmella’s little girl.

“Eighteen.”

“And how is she assisting you?” he asked, his tone insinuating about their chemistry. Bryan only chuckled, neither confirming nor denying the insinuation. “She’s a hot little thing. Jonta must have his hands full.”

“She’s competent. That’s the part I’m worried about.”

“Come on, man. You do a lot of travelling. Without your wife. You don’t get tempted? I know she’s your best friend’s daughter. Hell, looks enough like him to know. But she’s of age, and she is sexy.”

Bryan shrugged. “I have a good wife.”

“How is Heather?”

“Good. She just took Jada down to the Caribbean for her graduation gift.”

“What did you give her?”

“Her fucking lifestyle, man. She’s spoiled enough. She don’t get a gift for doing what she supposed to do.”

“That’s cheap.”

“She got a diploma for her benefit. Not mine.”

Antonio chuckled. “That’s cold, man. Real cold.”

“How is that cold? I bought her a car, paid for her quinceañera, turned around and paid for her to even have a Sweet 16, gave her a new car for her eighteenth birthday, paid to fix her teeth, pay for her hobbies, which are many and varied; and you mean after all of that, I also have to pay for her doing what she’s supposed to do? How many girls get a quinceañera and then a Sweet 16 too?”

“Thank God for all boys.”

Pamela came down and handed Bryan a mug of hot, black coffee with a smile. “Your meeting starts in fifteen minutes,” she informed him.

“Thank you, Pamela.”

She could tell that Antonio was looking at her, but she didn’t pay it any mind. She just turned on her heel and made her way back to the elevator to wait for Bryan. She pulled out her cell and called Carmella. “Hey, cariña. ¿Qué paso?”