Borrow Trouble. Mary Monroe

or treat!” I yelled as I snatched open my door, expecting to see the faces of some of the neighborhood kids grinning up at me. I was shocked to see Inez standing in my doorway, loaded down with gifts and souvenirs.

      What was even more shocking was the fact that Leon was with her. “This handsome devil you married was sweet enough to pick me up and drive me home from the airport,” Inez squealed. She leaned toward me and air-kissed my cheeks.

      “He what?” I mouthed, puzzled. The bowl suddenly felt twice as heavy in my hand.

      “I tried to call you, and everybody else I know, to come pick me up. Leon was the only person I was able to reach,” Inez explained, with a sheepish look on her face. Over her shoulder, I saw Leon dragging his feet up our walkway. There was an odd expression on his face. He looked like the grinning jack-o’-lantern I had set on our front porch banister a few days ago. “Your honey was sweet enough to bring me by here first.” Inez said the word “honey” like it was painful. I looked from her to Leon and back to her, trying to figure them both out. They were not acting like two people who couldn’t stand one another.

      I didn’t know what confused me more: the fact that Inez had suddenly returned and come straight to my house, or the fact that Leon—who had just referred to her as the poor man’s Paris Hilton the night before—had picked her up from the airport.

      “Girl, I’ve been dying to talk to you!” I squealed, hugging Inez. I set the bowl of candy on the end table next to my sofa and threw my arms around her. She had lost a few pounds, which made her body look even more luscious. But with her hair hidden under a scarf and no make-up, she looked rather plain from the neck up.

      “I want to hear all about Barbados and Jamaica,” I told Inez, smiling at Leon as he made his way into the living room.

      “I’m going to fix myself a drink. Why don’t I fix you sisters something, too?” he suggested, his gaze darting back and forth from Inez to me.

      I looked at Leon and blinked. There was a nervous smile on his face.

      “I’d like a large cosmopolitan,” Inez said, flopping down on the sofa, dropping the shopping bags on the floor.

      “A cosmo it is,” Leon sang. “And I’ll fill up the largest glass in the house,” he added, with a chuckle. He stepped forward a few feet, with his arms stretched open like he wanted to hug the world. This was one man who was full of surprises.

      “And don’t be stingy with the vodka,” Inez warned Leon.

      I was surprised but pleased to see my best friend and my husband speaking in such a friendly manner. It was a reason for me to celebrate.

      “I’d like a margarita,” I chirped, smiling at Inez as I eased down on the other end of the sofa. As soon as Leon left the room, I turned to her, with both my eyebrows raised. “It takes thirty minutes to get here from the airport.”

      “True,” Inez said, tilting her head to the side, an amused look on her face. She slid the scarf back off her face, revealing mild sunburn on her forehead. “And?”

      “And what did you and Leon talk about for thirty minutes?” I wanted to know. I was so pleased to see Inez that I didn’t really care what she had discussed with my husband. It was enough for me to see that they had reached such a milestone in their “relationship.”

      Inez shrugged. “Nothing much. I slept most of the way.” She rose, lifting one of the shopping bags. “I got you one of those straw purses you’ve always wanted.”

      I sighed, suddenly slipping back into the slight and mysterious depression I’d been experiencing since my marriage. “Let’s do lunch tomorrow. I need a sounding board,” I told Inez.

      She glanced toward the doorway leading to the kitchen, and then she gave me a concerned look. “If you promise not to yell and scream at me about sticking my nose in your business, I can. I’ll meet you at the deli across the street from my shop.”

      “I just want you to listen to me.” I leaned toward her and squeezed her hand.

      Inez gave me a bleak look, but she nodded. “Fine. We have a date.”

      She turned all the way around and looked toward the doorway again. I didn’t like the look on her face when she returned her attention to me. “Have you seen what’s behind his mask yet?” she whispered, grabbing my hand.

      I reared back, snatching my hand away from hers like I’d been burned. “What’s that supposed to mean? Look, Leon is my husband now. If he is the demon you sometimes make him out to be, you should have told me before I hooked up with him.”

      “I tried to,” Inez wailed, with an exasperated sigh. “He is your husband now, and I do respect that. I can put up with him if he can put up with me, I guess. The fact that he offered to pick me up from the airport says a lot. Don’t you think so?”

      “I love him and he loves me and that’s all that matters,” I insisted. A few moments later Leon entered the living room, with our drinks on a tray. He sported a smile that covered almost half of his face. “Baby, Inez was just saying how nice it was of you to pick her up from the airport,” I told him, taking a long swallow from my glass.

      “It was no trouble at all,” Leon said, scratching the side of his head. He plopped down on the sofa, next to Inez, even though there was more than enough room closer to me. It was the first time that I’d ever seen my best friend and my husband within a foot of each other.

      I felt better already, and the strong margarita had a lot to do with that. As a matter of fact, I decided that I didn’t need to meet Inez for lunch and cry on her shoulder, after all. I needed to be with my husband.

      CHAPTER 14

      Inez didn’t waste any time getting back into the single life. A week after she got back from her latest jaunt to the Caribbean, I heard that she had found herself a new man. An Iranian this time. That didn’t surprise me, but the way I found out did. Leon told me!

      “Who told you that Inez was involved with an Iranian?” I asked him. We were in the new Range Rover he’d just purchased, on our way to Mama’s house for dinner that Sunday evening. Mama had called up and invited us, and Leon had accepted without even checking with me. I had planned to spend the day grading papers and doing laundry. It didn’t bother Leon when I told him that I didn’t like always having to rearrange my schedule at the last minute. All he did was roll his eyes at me and give me a stupid grin.

      “Nobody told me anything about that woman and her Iranian. I saw her with him at the Victory Club the other night,” he revealed, keeping his eyes on the road.

      “I didn’t know you still went to that club,” I gasped. I removed my arm from around his shoulder and gave him an exasperated look.

      “There are a lot of things that you don’t know about me, Renee.”

      “I knew that a long time ago, Leon. The man I met that night in the Victory Club is not the man that I married. I am really getting worried about what other surprises you might have in store for me,” I said hotly. My ex, Robbie Dunbar, was meek and docile compared to me. But I was meek and docile compared to Leon. However, there were times that I was so assertive, I surprised myself as much as I surprised Leon. “I am not your fool, Leon!” I said in a loud voice.

      “Don’t you start that shit, woman. I am not in the mood for a fight.” He gripped the steering wheel, his eyes still on the road. Just from looking at the side of his face, I could see that he was angry. I didn’t care, because I was angry, too.

      “I’m not in the mood for a fight, either, but you brought it up. First, you tell me something about my best friend that I didn’t know. Then, you tell me that you were at the same club where everybody in town goes when they want to meet someone.”

      Leon turned sharply, giving me a harsh look. “I went there for a drink with some of my boys. You went there to pick up somebody, but I didn’t. I just happened to be