Chapter 34

            “Hey, you wanna play?” Shawanda asked, interrupting Juanita’s reflections.

            “Uh . . . no, I’m not much of a basketball player,” she said as she backed off.

            “Well, you watch, Mrs. M., and I’ll make your hubby look good?”

            “Mrs. M.?” Juanita questioned as she looked to her husband for explanation.

            Shawanda answered for him.  “Oh, he’s Muscles, so you’re Mrs. Muscles -- M for short.  You see, I give everybody a nickname.”

            “Yeah,” George jumped in, “then I’m going to call you ERBB, for Eveready battery bunny, because your mouth just keeps going and going and going like it says in that TV commercial.”

            Everyone had a great laugh, after which they settled down to play the game.  Afterwards, George invited everyone to a meeting of the new fellowship they were starting on Saturday evening.  Everyone was enthusiastic, but Shawanda was hesitant.

            “Oh, I don’t know, my parents brought me up Pentecostal and crammed more religion down me than I could stomach,” she explained.

            “Hey, this won’t be like the formal religious institutions you may be familiar with.”  Charles offered.

            “It’s just people coming together in an informal atmosphere eating, having fun, loving one another and sharing God’s word.”

            “Well, maybe” Shawanda answered.  “Is it all right if I bring a date?”

            “Sure,” Aaron said enthusiastically.

George enjoyed Shawanda’s banter, but knew he had no claim on her.  Still, he was slightly disappointed that she might be coming with a male friend.

             He was sure that would dampen their usual exchanges he had come to enjoy.  Although it was ever so slight that only a wife could notice, Juanita did notice the change in her husband’s mood and facial expression when Shawanda mentioned bringing a friend.  She now knew, even if he didn’t, that he was falling for her.

             After all the guests were gone, and George and Juanita were getting ready for bed, she challenged him.  “You like her, don’t you?” Juanita asked.

             “Like who?” George played dumb.

             “Come on, honey, I can see it in your eyes” Juanita pushed.

             “Well . . . uh . . .you mean Shawanda?”

             “Yes, dear; stop playing games and tell me the truth.”

             George was in a dilemma.  He didn’t want to lie to his wife, but he didn’t know if she could handle him having feelings for another woman.

            “She’s fun to be around,” he hedged.

             “So you do like her?” Juanita mused.

             “In a way, I guess, but you dear are the love of my life” he quickly added.

             “Stop trying to change the subject!” Juanita insisted.

             “Okay, okay . . . but what are you trying to do?  Start a fight or something?”  George queried.

             “No dear, I’m just trying to get you to admit you have feelings for her” she stated calmly.

             “Okay!  I like her,” George stated, feeling cornered.

             “No dear, we’re just getting started” Juanita returned sweetly.

             George began to think “Oh, no, I’m in to one of those nights.”  He was referring to one of those nights when a wife goes over and over and over the same ground on the same topic.  Most men would finish and go on.  But there is something about wives that make them want to go on and on and on.

             This night was rough in a sense, but the coming Saturday fellowship would be rougher, but in a different way.