The first person that he saw was Bobby. “Hey, Pop.”
“What you doing here?” Bobby asked RJ, but he was looking at Venus.
“I came for dinner.”
Bobby laughed. “You never come to dinner anymore,” he said smiling. “And who is this lovely lady?”
RJ put his arm around her. “This is Venus Phillips.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Ray.”
“It’s nice to meet you too, Venus.” Bobby looked at RJ. “She’s beautiful. I see you inherited my taste in women.”
“And I see where RJ got his good looks,” Venus replied.
Bobby laughed. “I like you. You might be all right,” he said and led the way to the dining room where everybody was just sitting down, and Pam was bringing out the food.
“Hi, Mommy.”
“Oh my God,” Pam said startled. “This is unexpected. Why didn’t you call and let me know you were coming?”
“I wanted to surprise you.” RJ took Venus’s hand and they walked toward Pam. “And I wanted you to somebody, Mommy.”
They stood in front of Pam and RJ put his arm around her. “This is Venus Phillips.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Ray.”
“It’s nice to meet you too, Venus,” Pam said.
“And these are my sisters, Tenikka, Barbara, Brenda and Bonita; this is Venus.”
“Hi,” Venus said and received a chorus of hellos from the sisters.
Pam took her hand and began walking Venus toward the kitchen. “RJ has never brought a woman anywhere near this house. I couldn’t tell you one woman’s name if my life depended on it.” She laughed. “And then one sunny Sunday afternoon, he shows up here with you … in time for dinner. I want to know all about you, Venus Phillips,” she said with a smile. “Come on, you can help me bring out the rest of the food.” Then Pam stopped and looked Venus in the eye. “You aren’t one of those women who are useless in the kitchen, are you?” she asked bluntly.
“No, ma’am. I can cook,” Venus said quickly.
Once Pam and Venus brought out the rest of the food, everybody sat down, Bobby blessed the food, and then looked proudly as his family shared a meal together.
After they left dinner, RJ dropped Venus off at her car and she went home. When she got there, Sterling was waiting. He snatched the keys from her and confronted Venus about where she’d been all day.
“I was out shopping with Patra,” Venus lied quickly.
“If you was shopping all this time, why ain’t you got no bags?” Sterling asked.
“I didn’t see anything that I liked. So tomorrow, we’re gonna ride out to Deer Park and go to Tanger Outlet. And then I got my nails and toes done, and then we went to dinner at Rainhas Churrascaria.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s an all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse. I don’t know what your problem is,” Venus said defiantly.
“The problem is I been calling you for hours, and I get voicemail every time.”
Venus quickly reached in her bag, pulled out her phone and shoved it in Sterling’s face. “The battery is dead,” she said, knowing that she had turned it off while she was having sex with RJ and she hoped that Sterling wouldn’t try to turn it on. Venus also hoped that he wouldn’t call Patra to verify any of her story.
Sterling nodded his head and then handed the keys back to Venus. He didn’t believe a word that she had said, but he decided not to press the matter. He was well aware that if something was going on and Venus was fucking somebody behind his back, and he had a feeling that he knew who it was, that he would find out sooner, if not later, and then he would kill them both.
Later that night, and with a plan in mind, Sterling took Venus to The Four Kings. They hung out for a while and then Sterling said that he was going to do some gambling, and left Venus alone. She waited about five minutes and then she got up from the table and went to the office. When Venus got to the office, RJ was in there with Marvin. After Marvin spoke to her, he left the office.