I sucked in breath reconsidering the guest room and instead considering escaping out the back.
Then, because it was Martha, I walked to the door.
I opened it to see Martha plus Elvira as well as another black woman with tawny eyes and an enormous afro that had to have its own zip code and they were all accompanied by a woman who, at first glance I would have sworn was Dolly Parton. After blinking, I saw she was younger but she still had the masses of fabulous platinum hair, enormous bosoms and she was wearing skintight stonewash (yes, stonewash) from shoulders to toes (including platform boots made of stonewash). The entirety of this was adorned with what looked like a layer of glitter not to mention a heavy array of rhinestones decorating the shoulders and down the front of her jeans jacket.
Whoa.
"You exist," Martha snapped and my eyes moved from Dolly to her.
"Hey," I said softly.
Suffice it to say, with my life as crazy as it was, I didn't have time for Martha except for some random texts and quick phone calls.
And suffice it to say, Martha wasn't down with that.
She pushed in and her posse pushed in with her, Elvira giving me a wide-eyed look that spoke volumes and those volumes were that I needed to brace because Martha was on a tear.
She didn't have to warn me. I'd known Martha a long time. I knew before I even opened the door.
Damn.
I closed the door behind them, turned and trailed them as Martha made a bee-line to my kitchen, introducing, "This is Shirleen and Daisy, they're friends of Elvira and Gwen's.
Gwen met Shirleen during her thingamabob and with Shirleen came Daisy and with Gwen came Elvira and with Elvira comes me and now we're all here."
I looked to Shirleen and Daisy and greeted, "Hi guys."
Daisy gave me a bright smile and I knew she was Daisy because she said, "Hey, I'm Daisy."
"You're Tessa of Tessa's Cakes," Shirleen (the black lady) announced like I didn't have that information.
"Yes," I confirmed.
"I been to your place, like, a lot. Too much. It's important for a black woman to have booty, but not a Tessa's Cakes booty. You owe me at least ten pounds, you get what I'm sayin'?" she stated.
"Uh... yeah," I replied because I did but even if I didn't, she was kind of scary of the Elvira variety so I still would have agreed.
"Only two things better in the whole world than your frosted sugar cookies with daisy sprinkles and those are pigs in a blanket and a man with a fine package. This I know as fact,"
she declared, I blinked at this unusual compliment, Daisy emitted a little giggle that sounded like bells, Elvira grinned big at me but Martha shouted.
"What the frig? "
We all turned to her to see her glaring at the empty, ornate, milky green glass cake stand at the edge of my counter (I'd rotated).
"What?" I asked.
Her eyes cut to me and she jabbed a finger at the cake plate. "What's that?"
I looked to the cake plate then I looked to her.
Then I answered, "That's my fabulous, ornate, green glass cake plate."
"It sure is fabulous," Daisy agreed, eyeing my cake plate. "I need to get me one of those."
But Martha's eyes narrowed, as in went squinty, I knew what that meant so instead of thanking Daisy, I kept my focus on Martha.
"It's empty," she pointed out.
I looked at the cake plate then at her.
"Yeah," I agreed unnecessarily.
She glared at me.
What on earth?
"Martha " I started.
She cut me off to say, "We're going shopping and, after, we're hitting Club. We dropped by to see if you wanna go."
No way in hell. Not that I didn't want to spend time with her but I was shopped out.
Buying presents for Brock, his boys, his family and my personal list had beat even me, a seasoned shopper dedicated to remaining as such. I had vowed to myself (and shared with Brock, who not only approved, he also laughed his ass off when I shared it), that I had sworn off malls until March.
Therefore, I had to find a kickass nightie for his Valentine's present online (for I might have sworn off malls but I figured online shopping didn't count).
"I've sworn off malls," I announced, saw Martha's eyes get big and heard Elvira and Daisy suck in shocked breaths. "Christmas did me in. The bakery was crazed and having to buy presents for Brock, his boys, his family, you, all my employees, Mom, my sis and "
"I know your network has expanded, Tess, I know, " Martha cut me off to say.
Oh man.
There it was.
"Martha "
"I also know my Tess never but never has an empty cake stand at her house. And my Tess could shop until she dropped as evidenced by you getting up with me at five o'clock in the morning when that travelling, discount designer shoe emporium opened up their tent at the flea market and we stood in line for four hours to get in and we tried on every single pair of shoes in our size even if we didn't like them just in case they looked hot on when they didn't in the box. And my Tess could get busy at the bakery but she'd pry herself away to meet for a quick lunch or pop by for a glass of wine or be home occasionally so I could pop by her place."
"I went to that emporium," Daisy whispered to Shirleen. "Found me three pairs of boots.
Three. It was hot."
"Mm hmm," Shirleen muttered back, not tearing her eyes off the action.
I said to my friend, "Martha, honey "
She threw up her hands. "But oh no, not you. Not the new Tess. Brock's Tess. Brock's Tess barely has time to return a text because she's busy with him, his boys, his family, staying over at his house, having his fancy-ass new truck in front of hers "
I interrupted to ask, "Are you still stalking me?"
"Am I Martha Shockley, your best friend since fifth grade?" she asked back.
"Martha, things have been busy," I snapped.
"Yeah, busy with you gettin' a little somethin' somethin' from a bad boy," she leaned in, "liberally. You don't have time for me but you have time to haul your kick-boxing ass to his house on average three days a week seeing as your car isn't here or the bakery."
Jeez, she'd totally been stalking me.
"Oo, lawdy," Elvira muttered.
"You got that right, sugar," Daisy matched her mutter.
I glared at Martha.
"I'm in a new relationship," I reminded her. "It's always intense when it's new."
"You're in over your head is what you are," Martha shot back and my torso jerked back.
"Oo, lawdy," Elvira repeated.
"You got that right, sugar," Daisy whispered.
"You don't know what I'm in," I said softly to Martha.
"No, you're right, I don't," Martha agreed. "Because I never see you or talk to you." She shook her head and crossed her arms on her chest, saying, "I never thought you, you, Tessa O'Hara, my best friend since I could remember would toss me aside for a guy, I don't care how hot he is."
"Depends on what he's packin'," Shirleen whispered to Daisy and Daisy audibly stifled another giggle.
I kept my gaze on Martha.
Then I announced, "I'm in love with him."
At that, her torso jerked back and she added her eyes getting big. The rest of the women shuffled their feet but kept silent.
I kept talking.
"I've shared this with him and Brock has shared he feels the same about me."
"Oh God," Martha whispered, sounding slightly horrified.
"I'm happy," I told her. "Happier than I've ever been in my life which makes it suck that his wife is playing games and using her sons as pawns to do it, filling their heads with crap about Brock being with me meaning they can't ever have a family again and making plays to get Brock back when he hates her only slightly more than I do."
"Oh God," Martha whispered, sounding definitely horrified.
I nodded. "She's a piece of work and a pain in the ass and the kids are totally confused because they like me but she's pretty much telling them they can't because if they do, that means they don't love her."
"Oh God," Martha repeated on a whisper, staring at me.
"And, if that wasn't enough, Brock's Dad has cancer and might be dying from it. There's history there that's unpleasant and his possible future demise is stirring up stuff that has long since been buried and Brock's dealing with his own emotions with all that as well as his Mom's, his sisters' and his brother's."
"Oh Tess, I didn't know." Martha was still whispering.
"I did," Elvira mumbled to Daisy and Shirleen. "I had Thanksgiving with them and we'll just say his people are not The Waltons 'cause, far's I know, The Waltons never dropped the f-bomb repeatedly."
I ignored Elvira's commentary and replied to Martha.
"No, you're right, you didn't because I haven't had time to tell you because all that's happening on top of the bakery being busy and if that wasn't enough, when Brock came back into my life, Damian came over for reasons only Damian understands."
Martha's torso shot back again but this time her eyes got wide and she sucked in a breath.
"That's her ex, he's cornered the market on asshole," Elvira explained on a mutter to Shirleen and Daisy.
"Lotsa those," Shirleen muttered back.
"No, sister, I mean he's cornered the market on asshole, " Elvira stated firmly and Daisy and Shirleen stared at her with dawning understanding then they looked at me.
"Why did he come over?" Martha asked softly.
"I don't know, Brock answered the door and wouldn't let him in. Then he threatened that if he ever saw Damian anywhere near me, he'd deal with him. Then he shut the door in Damian's face. Then he called his law enforcement buddy and told him to tell the DA to tell Damian's attorneys that he wouldn't only be facing drug charges but also harassment, assault and sexual assault charges."
More air being sucked in all around as understanding fully dawned.
"This Damian Heller we're talkin' about?" Shirleen asked and I nodded to her. "Shit," she muttered.
"Unh-hunh," I agreed.
"Tess, I had no " Martha started and I looked to her and cut her off.
"I know you didn't and you wouldn't because I didn't have time to tell you. But now I hope you understand why I didn't have time to tell you. And that's just that. I didn't get into the fact that Damian is poking around in Brock's life to find some way to make him miserable."
"Holy crap," Martha mumbled.
"No joke," I replied.
"Girl, I'm so sorry. This all sucks," she said quietly.
"Yeah, it does. Because he's a good guy, Martha. The best. I didn't even know they made guys like him but I can tell you I'm not only happy to know I'm beside myself with glee that he's mine."
She held my eyes.
Then she whispered, "You do love him."
"Yeah," I replied. "He thinks I'm beautiful and told me so. He thinks I'm funny because I make him laugh all the time. He's fantastic in bed and when I say that not once, not even once have we been together where he hasn't taken care of me and it's not unheard of he takes care of me twice in one go."
"Oh boy, TMI," Elvira muttered.
"Yowza," Daisy muttered.