Eric (Men of Honor 2)

“Change of plans. We’re going in, but let’s wait and see where this is going.” As far as I know, Justine has no dealings with Janine, and this little soiree was being run by Janine unless there was something else going on here, which I doubt. I’d already cut class and was already here, might as well see this through.

Justine

As I walked through the entrance to the Country Club behind another group of well- dressed women, I got an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. “I’m having second thoughts about this. Maybe I should’ve thought this thing through some more.” It was the first time I’d ever been this rash, and I told Janelle as much as that feeling in my gut intensified.

“Nope, sometimes heat of the moment is the way to go. You have nothing to worry about, trust me on this. You just follow my lead, and by the end of this thing, you’ll have that hag out of your hair. I don’t know how Eric hasn’t buried her under one of those hotels he builds yet.”

I shouldn’t want to laugh at such a horrid idea, but it was close. “Where are we going?” Instead of heading straight to the private dining room where Janine was spearheading some kind of monthly meet-up group, Janelle dragged me in the direction of the bar.

“First, you need to get a stiff one in you for courage. When you’re about to face a wild beast, you cannot falter in any way, shape, or form. That wildebeest can scent blood in the water, and she’ll eat you alive if given half a chance.” A stiff drink sounded good even though it was barely noon, but the rest of that I could do without.

I didn’t hear what she ordered from the bartender who looked like he had just finished setting up for the day, but it wasn’t long before a long cold glass of something pretty was slid into place in front of me. I eyed Janelle’s glass, and she shrugged and grinned. “I wouldn’t dare, my asshole husband has radar for such things, and my bitcher in law is just cruising for a reason. It’s virgin.” She shook her glass at me.

Now, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear she disliked her husband the amount of names she calls him, but nothing could be further from the truth. The few times I’d seen them together, it was glaringly obvious that they were both besotted with each other.

“Now, here are some truths you need to know before you go in there.” She took a sip from her concoction before putting the glass down again after an appreciative sigh. “Janine was born poor; in fact, she was even worst off than Eric when the two of them met and apparently, according to my big brother who’s been friends with Eric for years before he started working for him, she’d latched onto him once it was known that he had plans and was going places.”

“Eric won’t ever say it, but Tyler was an oops baby. Don’t get me wrong, Eric loves his son to the moon and back and was totally on board from the word go, but from what I’ve heard through the grapevine, he wanted to wait until he was on his feet before starting a family. She poked holes in the condoms and stopped taking her birth control without telling him.”

That only makes what she did to poor Tyler years later worst. I felt like my heart would burst and refrained myself from rubbing a hand over it to ease the pressure I felt there. “Like I said, Eric might’ve been heated at first, but from what I know, he was in love with that kid even before he was born.”

“When things didn’t go the way she expected, meaning, he wasn’t making the kind of money she expected because he decided to take care of his son when her lazy ass won’t, she decided to bounce. This is the condensed version so try to keep up. She went on the prowl, and we still don’t know how she did it, but she landed herself a fat fish and turned up the bitch-o-meter to a thousand. She did everything but accuse Eric of being raised by wolves to get her way.”

“It was bad; it was really bad. She accused him of some awful shit that had his friends not known the real story could’ve got him ostracized in this town. Fine, the bitch left, and Eric went into survival mode. It took him a while to get over the shock of what she’d done, but his only purpose for living back then was Tyler, and Eric would walk across fire in gasoline drawers for that kid.”

“Fast forward to a few years later; her husband got hit a few years after the recession. By then, Eric was coming up, so guess what that heifer did, she tried it. Eric didn’t even look in her direction. I’m not sure if she knew right away that her husband’s business ventures were failing, because she didn’t start acting up right away.”