Woman on Top Page 24

  Sasha stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs to greet me with a reassuring hug, then ushered me upstairs to her old office, now occupied by Michael, who’d recently been promoted to President.

  “How are you?” she asked, once we’d taken a seat on the couch.

  “Worst time of my life,” I told her, managing a weak smile.

  “You’re still among the living, so that’s a plus.”

  “Sasha, you don’t have to do this. All I need is to get outta Philly and up to my place in Montauk. I can sort it out there.”

  “Really, all by yourself? Because from what I’ve heard, your sorting it out consisted of Xanax and champagne. Odd combination.”

  “How bad is it?”

  “I won’t lie, it’s ugly. The good news is, it broke over the weekend. But before we get to that, you have to call your family.”

  “Haney did this to me, didn’t he?”

  “We’re still sorting through it, but Michael will lay all of that out for you in the conference room. Here, call your family, you’re going to need them.”

  My first call was to my parents.

  “Mom, it’s me, Tiffany,” I said, my voice trembling.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. Mom, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Where’s Nylah?”

  “Your father and Nylah are up at the rest stop.”

  “Is she okay? What about school?”

  “Malik had them send her homework, she’ll be fine. But Tiffany, I’m telling you, you need to get yourself together.”

  Next, I tried Kamille, who I could tell, sent my call to voicemail. There was no need in leaving her a message because I already knew she wouldn’t talk to me. I was sure she thought this was my fault, that somehow, I’d seduced Haney and maybe she was right, maybe everything was my fault.

  I tried Huli’s phone, it went directly to voicemail, but I did leave him a message. “Huli, it’s me. I know you heard what happened and I’m so sorry for embarrassing you. I’m gonna fix it, I promise. I love you, little brother.”

  Next, Sasha led the way into the conference room where they were planning whatever strategy they thought might work. I wasn’t worried about me, I wanted to fix things for Malik and my family, in hopes of saving them from any further pain.

  Walking into the conference room, I was surprised at some of the faces sitting around the table. In addition to Max, Lynn, Michael, and Phinn, there was Janae, Craig, Judge Renwick, Brother Sadiq, and even Gretchen Hockstein. Did they all really care that much about me?

  Burdened with self-pity, I cried, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

  “Here, take a seat,” said Brother Sadiq, pulling out the chair next to him.

  Janae sat across from me, her eyes sad, as she typed on her iPad. I’d disappointed her as well. What kind of role model had I been?

  “We wanted to be here for you. Now what do we need to do, young man?” Judge Renwick asked of Michael.

  Michael was about to launch into his plan, when the conference room door opened to someone that shouldn’t have been there, Cyndi Kilrain.

  “What! What the hell are you doing here, haven’t you done enough damage?” I yelled in her direction as if it were her fault I’d slept with Haney.

  “Tiffany, relax. I’m not so sure of that,” commented Sasha, who stood at the back of the room.”

  “She’s Malik’s mistress, don’t you understand?”

  “Cyndi was one of the first people to call me,” said Sasha.

  Hesitating in the doorway, Cyndi said, “I know what you’re thinking, but the Mayor and I have never had anything but a business relationship.”

  “That’s a lie! Your stuff, I kept finding it at my house. Your badge, cell phone.”

  “It was pure coincidence, everyone knows I’m a klutz. I leave stuff everywhere and I’m sorry, but we really did meet there, all of us; it was never just me.”

  “I don’t believe you,” I said, looking around the table for someone to agree with me.

  “I swear, Mrs. Skinner, I’m not lying and to be perfectly honest, it wasn’t me the Mayor was interested in.”

  That’s when I recognized something different about Cyndi, her hair had been cut and colored, her clothes fresh and tailored to fit her body and her makeup was flawless.

  “Wait a minute, so what are you saying? There was somebody else?” I asked, still not totally convinced it wasn’t her.

  Along with me, everyone around the table stared toward Cyndi waiting for a reply.

  Cautiously, this time she looked around the table, I’m sure, hoping someone would believe her when she said, “The affair your husband is having, Mrs. Skinner, wasn’t with me; it’s his friend, Tootie.”

  I jumped up from my seat. Brother Sadiq held onto my arm, trying to pull me back down. Pointing my finger at her, I yelled, “You lying slut! I know it was you! Malik would never sleep with Tootie, that’s his friend!”

  Remaining calm, her face stoic, Cyndi said, “I’m sorry, but it’s true, ask Phinn.”

  I whipped around toward Phinn who was seated at the end of the table. Lowering his head so I couldn’t see his eyes, he nodded, cosigning what she’d said, but adding fuel to that fire by saying, “Blu Eyes has been having you followed.”

  “Why? This doesn’t make any sense. You were with me all the time. Did Malik tell him to do that?”

  “I don’t think the Mayor knew, but Blu Eyes didn’t trust you or me.”

  “Why would he do that? Why would he have an affair with Tootie? She’s not even his type,” I lamented in defeat, falling back into my chair because it felt as if I’d been paralyzed by what they were telling me. Gretchen quickly went to the server and brought me a bottle of water.

  Cyndi began to talk, “Ma’am, I can’t answer—” but Phinn cut her off.

  “It started before you were married. They’ve been together, I mean, seeing each other for a long time.”

  “Where, when? I wanna know everything. Tell me Phinn, please?”

  Sasha spoke up, “It doesn’t matter, you need to put things in perspective right now, we all do. The priority is cleaning up the present dilemma.”

  “But the picture, who did that? Who sent that picture?” I asked of Cyndi and Phinn since they seemed to be the ones with all the information.

  Cyndi took over, “Blu Eyes paid Mendels for the photo and well, Tootie. . .”

  “Tootie?”

  “Yeah, we think she got hold of it and sent it out to hurt you, of course,” Phinn added.

  This was crazy. I’d come here to save Malik from shame and hopefully to save my marriage as well, only to discover those Point Breeze friends of his were the ones who’d done the dirty work.

  “Tiffany, I know this is a lot to process, but I need you to listen to me. You cannot mention to anyone about the affair or your being followed. That will be your ace in the hole, which means you can’t let your husband know until it’s in your favor,” Sasha told me.

  Gretchen added, “If you ask me, your husband’s a damn fool. He should be asking for your forgiveness right now.”

  “I don’t get it, why would he want her?” I asked, my head now flooded with every imaginable scenario.

  “One thing at a time,” said Gretchen.

  “Are you saying Haney didn’t have anything to do with all this? He did send me a text saying it wasn’t him.”

  Slamming his fist onto the conference room table, Phinn said, “Fuck Haney, he’s a piece of shit!”

  “I can get him taken care of,” offered Lynn.

  “I’d prefer to handle that,” said Brother Sadiq.

  Clearing his throat, Judge Renwick told them, “They’ll be no talk of handling anyone, at least not while I’m in the room.”

  Michael stood up to take charge of the meeting. “There’re a lot of moving pieces here, but we need to get back on track. Tiffany, we’ve scheduled a press conference for this Monday at eleven a.m.. It’ll be held at RTC Holdings.”

  “M
ichael, are you crazy? I’m not doing that. I need time to figure all this out. It doesn’t even make sense. What am I supposed to say? I’m sorry, for what? Malik is no better than me. And why would Raquel get involved anyway?”

  “She was the first person to call me,” Sasha interjected.

  “This is your only option, people are waiting to hear from you,” Craig said.

  “What can I say, I can’t deny it; the evidence is there,” I told the group.

  “Evidence of what?” asked Cyndi.

  “Of me with Haney,” I told her, still unable to absorb the change in her or what she’d told me about Malik and Tootie.

  “The photo’s gone viral and the Mayor had to shut down his Twitter account. Your name is trending on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and in the world of social media that means you broke the Internet,” Janae offered.

  “Well that counts for something, not everybody gets to trend,” said Craig, his uneasy laughter breaking through my heartache.

  It was bad enough that I’d gotten caught, but Malik and Tootie, I couldn’t even fathom. I could hear them all talking, but my head was elsewhere.

  “Janae, you need to clear her schedule for the next week,” Michael said.

  “The women’s conference, too?”

  “Hold off on that until after the press conference,” Sasha added.

  “You’re really making me do this?”

  Brother Sadiq responded with, “First Lady, when you get boxed into a corner, as you’ve done, speaking out about it takes away people’s power to keep you there. You have to own it.”

  “You won’t be alone, we’ll all be right there with you, you can call us hashtag Team Tiffany,” said Janae who was now full engaged.

  But I didn’t want a team. I wanted my questions answered. I wanted to talk to Mr. Haney. I wanted to confront Tootie and what I really wanted at that moment was to kill my husband.

  Chapter 22

  Eye of the Storm

  I woke up Monday morning to the smell of coffee brewing and bacon frying and even though I hadn’t heard from Kamille, I was hopeful she might’ve been downstairs.

  “Good morning, it smells good,” I said, greeting Max in the kitchen.

  “You’ve been sleeping all weekend. I thought I was going to have to force you to wake up,” she responded, having insisted on staying with me for the weekend, after we’d left Platinum Images.

  I could hear Michael in the dining room talking with someone, and asked, “Who’s in there with Michael?”

  “Hair and makeup, courtesy of Salon Tenshi.”

  “For what?”

  “My friend, have you looked at yourself?” She laughed, then added, “There’s someone else in there, too.”

  Maybe it really was Kamille, but to my ultimate surprise, it was my brother.

  “Huli, what are you doing here?”

  “You’re my sister, where else would I be? Come here, give me some love,” he said. For which I wasted no time falling into his open arms.

  “I’m so happy you’re here, but wait, you’ve got a game, you’re in the World Series. Mom and Dad are out there with Nylah. Are they back?”

  “Calm down, it’s cool. Raquel Cosby-Turner flew me here.”

  That surprised me. “Are you sure, you’re not going to get in trouble? I’m so sorry you had to come.”

  “We’re flying back out after your press conference. C’mon big sis, you know better. So what? You messed up. I still love you, we still family.”

  I teared up. “What about Kamille? Does she hate me for all this?”

  “She’ll come around. Kamille’s out there with the boys; she’ll be back in a few days.”

  Michael interrupted us. “There will be no crying this morning. We cannot have your eyes all red and swollen. It’s time to eat.”

  I was starved and having breakfast with Huli, Max, Jose, Michael and Lizzie, the stylist made it all better.

  By ten a.m., we were traveling down JFK Boulevard to the Comcast Center with Phinn driving the Tahoe with me, Max and Michael; and following behind us in his Benz were Huli, Lizzie, and Jose. Bypassing the news trucks and bystanders, we pulled into the underground garage, where I held my brother’s hand until we arrived to the 52nd floor of Raquel’s office.

  Once inside, Gwendolyn, who immediately caught my brother’s eye, whisked us into a small conference room. Greeting us inside the room were Sasha, Gretchen, Janae, Judge Renwick and Brother Sadiq. I greeted everyone and was especially glad when Sasha told me that Michael would open the press conference, then I would speak and there’d be no questions. She said the entire press conference should be over in less than seven minutes.

  “Have you heard from Malik?” I asked, hoping she had because neither Malik nor my sister had responded to my several calls and text messages. However, I refused to give up.

  “I hear he’s conveniently gone to Little Rock, Arkansas, a solar energy panel or something. But wherever the Mayor is, you can believe he’ll be watching.”

  “What about Haney? Have you heard from him?”

  “Not important. Now here’s what I need you to do. I don’t want you giving the sullen, poor me face. But you can’t be too powerful either. You have to land somewhere in between. The purpose of this is for you to own your mistake, ask for forgiveness, and move on. You understand?”

  I laughed and said, “Well what if I give them the finger?”

  “Not funny, but you do look great,” she commented, taking notice of the brown and cream boucle St. John’s suit that Michael had chosen for me to wear.

  Twenty minutes later, Michael walked out to the table set with microphones and waited until the reporters settled down. He spoke briefly, then nodded for me to take a seat with my brother taking a seat beside me, but not before Brother Sadiq whispered in my ear, “First Lady, you go out there and show them that you’re still the woman on top of this city.”

  Having always stood at Malik’s side, I never knew what it felt like to have those microphones waiting for your voice, and today there were too many to count. I wanted to pretend I was someone strong and resilient, but staring into the audience of reporters whose job it was to decipher not only my words, but my body language as well, made it rather difficult. I took note of what was around me, two bottles of water, a note pad and pen, and the script Sasha had written, which I’d already memorized over the weekend.

  However, knowing that somewhere both Malik and Haney were watching, and my brother was beside me, I was suddenly ready, if for no other reason than to get it over with.

  While Michael gave them the purpose and parameters of the press conference, reiterating that there would be no questions, I clasped my shaking hands together in front of me. Silently I said the Lord’s Prayer, and tried to find someone on whom I could focus. Then I saw Lou Mendels, ruthlessly smiling my way.

  “Good morning and thank you for coming here today. I sit before you to offer my sincere apologies for my recent irresponsible behavior that has hurt my husband, my family, and the City of Philadelphia. For this grave mistake, I take full responsibility. The transgression that I committed has surely let my city down, but in no way does it reflect the man and leader that my husband has become for Philadelphia. My inappropriate behavior as First Lady and lack of judgment is neither a reflection on my commitment to this city or that of my husband in his efforts to continue moving this city forward. I love my husband, your Mayor, Malik Skinner and would ask that you give our family the privacy we need to heal. Thank you.”

  It was over, I’d done it. I’d asked for the public’s forgiveness and hopefully, I could move on, which also might mean some sort of reconciliation with my sister, and my husband.

  Raquel was gracious to receive us afterward with a catered reception on her wraparound deck, complete with a wait staff serving her signature champagne, and expensive Veen bottled water. Although I was hungry, I was too nervous to eat, choosing to sip on ginger ale. All I really wanted to do was go home and pr
ay for Malik to call.

  Everyone was pleased with my delivery, but at the same time the afternoon was chaotic with all the phones ringing and vibrating. Michael and Janae were reporting that I was again trending on social media, and that in addition to a fan page, I even had my own hash tag, #FLOP, First Lady of Philadelphia. Then Janae informed us that the organizers of The Pennsylvania Conference of Women no longer wanted me to host a workshop, they now wanted me as keynote speaker for their luncheon.

  After individually thanking everyone, especially Sasha for coming to my rescue, I had to find words to thank Raquel for her support. However, I wasn’t sure if I could break her away from my brother. It was funny seeing her enamored by someone other than herself, and even harder to determine if she wanted to adopt Huli or sleep with him.

  Finally, he broke loose from her clutches so that he could head back to California, but little did Raquel know that flying in her private jet with him would be Lizzie, my new stylist.

  “Your brother is a smart man, he could do a lot of things when his baseball career is over,” she said, coming to stand at the elevator with me after we’d said our goodbyes.

  “Hopefully that won’t be for a long time. I really appreciate you flying him out here for this. Your support means a lot to me, I’m not sure how I would’ve done all this without you.”

  “The pleasure was mine, especially flying with your brother; it gave me a chance to get to know Julian personally.”

  “You were on the plane with him out here?”

  “Actually it was he who insisted. Julian is quite the ladies’ man,” she said, with a teasing smile.

  “Yes, that would be my brother,” I replied, praying that Huli hadn’t had sex of any kind with this woman. “Raquel, you are an amazing woman. You have the ability to touch everything and know everything.”

  “My dear, when it’s important enough, I take care of things myself,” she said, sliding her arm through mine as we made it out to the deck. “We women have to stick together, you know?”