The Real Housewives of Adverse City Read online

  The Real Housewives of Adverse City

  BOOK 1

  Copyright 2016 Shelia E. Bell

  Published by Shelia E. Bell at Smashwords

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Acknowledgements

  I always have to say “thank you” to my literary supporters, to those who take the time to purchase and read my books. This journey I’m on is one that I had no idea would transpire in my life. It’s absolutely mind boggling how God orchestrates and directs our lives. My writing career was birthed out of tragedy. Who would have thought out of the darkest time of my life, that God was about to do a new thing in me, through me. and for me.

  I thank every book club, every friend, and acquaintance past and present who contributed to my literary dreams. Thank you to my family, my amazing sons, and to my mother who shower me with unconditional love and acceptance.

  Thank you to Lacricia A’ngelle and Regina Dobbins for editing and proofreading my work. Thank you for taking the time to make sure that what I write is the best writing possible.

  Finally, but definitely not least, I give ALL praises, honor, and glory to God for loving me and for making me his Amazing Girl. There is no Me without YOU, Lord.

  “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache, carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.” Napoleon Hill

  Chapter 1

  “Real friends don’t get offended when you insult them. They smile and call you something even more offensive.” Unknown

  “Girl, I don’t know how you do it,” Avery said, stirring the lemon in her flavored seltzer water.

  “Do what?” asked Meesha, sipping on a virgin lime margarita. The sun was high, and the breeze from the Florida coastline swayed her Brazilian weave from side to side.

  “You know what I’m talking about; deal with all of those hoochies at the church pawing all over Pastor Porter.”

  “Don’t mind Avery,” Peyton said, sucking down her second full strength Vodka martini.

  “I pray about it and go about my business. I can’t live my life distrusting my husband. Besides, I keep myself fit and fabulous for him. Those so-called, uh, what are they called today?”

  “THOTS,” Peyton answered quickly.

  “Those THOTS don’t stand a chance.” Meesha laughed, throwing her head back, revealing her flawless figure.

  “Four kids, you’re doing more than staying fit and fabulous. Sounds like you keeping him happy between the sheets, too,” Eva, a native of Bolivia, said in her thick Spanish accent. She pushed back her long, flowing, thick black hair from off her face. Hair that women like Meesha paid for.

  The four housewives sat on the outside patio of one of Adverse City, Florida’s most exclusive restaurants, dining on some of the best foods and drinks in the city.

  Adverse City, a quaint town was tucked between Fisher Island and Miami Beach, with homes of the rich and famous lining the white sandy beaches of the Atlantic Coastline. The temperature hovered most of the time between 70-80 degrees.

  “Anyway, I have too many other things to deal with besides worrying about what woman is chasing after Carlton. I’m secure in our marriage. I’ve given him four sons and this body can give him more kids, if that’s what he wants.”

  “Girl, please. You better sit yourself down somewhere.” Peyton finished off her vodka martini and beckoned their server. “I’ll have a cosmopolitan this time.”

  Yes, ma’am,” the male server stated. He left and moments later returned with her drink.

  Peyton lifted the glass to her lips and scoured. “Take this back,” she told the server before he had time to leave her table. “Tell the bartender to fix me a real drink, top shelf! I don’t taste a hint of vodka in this.”

  “I apologize, ma’am. I’ll bring you another one.”

  Meesha, Eva, and Avery laughed as the young man scurried away from the table.

  “What’s so funny?” asked Peyton.

  “You. Girl, you had that young boy so scared, I thought he was going to pee in his pants,” cracked Avery.

  The young server returned with another drink. Peyton tasted it, looked at him, and nodded her approval. He smiled and looked pleased then turned and walked away.

  “Seriously, you need to hold back on the liquor, girlfriend. The day is still long,” advised Meesha.

  “I can handle my own. These drinks are nothing more to me than what you’re drinking.”

  “Okay, whatever. But, you’re the one always crying about your weight. I’m just saying, liquor adds fat and calories to your waistline.”

  “Just because you’re skin and bones, don’t eat meat, and don’t drink liquor, don’t try to judge me.”

  “I’m not trying to judge you. I’m just saying, you’re the one who’s always the first to cry about being overweight.”

  “Whatever, Meesha.” Peyton flung her blonde locks back off her face and threw up one hand.

  “Now ladies, ladies,” Avery interjected. “We’re here to enjoy what’s supposed to be our girls’ day out. It’s supposed to be fun and relaxing. You know how hectic all our schedules are, and it’s not often that we can get together for some girl time. Don’t blow it with all of this female bickering. We are not like those TV housewives.”

  “Avery’s right. I have enough drama in my life on a daily basis. When I’m with my girls, I don’t want to hear all of this ying yang,” added Eva.

  Peyton rolled her blue eyes in her head and took another swallow of her cosmopolitan.

  “Tell us what’s going on with you and Ryker. I saw on CNN that he was representing that NFL player who was accused of giving some stupid girl that went up to his hotel room, the date rape drug.”

  “Some of these women out here need to get somewhere and sit down,” Meesha said.

  “They act like they don’t understand what they’re getting into when they agree to go to a hotel room with a man just because he’s rich and famous,” Avery said.

  “I think they’re no different from a prostitute,” Eva stated.

  “I agree with you, but that still doesn’t give him the right to drug her. If she’s willing to go to his room, she was probably going to give up the cookies anyway. All he had to do was play his cards right. He was just as stupid,” Peyton added, as she turned up the cosmopolitan and took her last swallow. She followed up by tracing her lips with her tongue like she was trying to savor the taste of the mixed drink for as long as she could.

  “Anyway, since you all are so nosy, and always wanting to know about me and Ryker, let me assure you that we’ve never been better.” Avery’s eyes flitted over the faces of each of her friends. Each of them looked genuinely attentive to what she was saying about her recently troubled marriage.

  ‘That was quick,” Peyton said and chuckled.

  Avery gave Peyton a raised eyebrow and then kept on talking. “I think Ryker and I are finally back on track. I know things were rough this past year, but I love my man, and I’m not about to give up on my marriage.”


  Meesha spoke up while she used her fork to play around in her garden salad. “God is in the business of making crooked places straight, which is why I had no doubt he would heal your marriage.”

  “Good for you, and for Ryker too, if he realizes that he almost lost a good woman.” Eva frowned slightly. “I mean, I don’t know if I could have been as strong as you if I discovered Harper cheated on me. It’s just too much.”

  “I’m not saying it was easy. Quite the opposite; it was tough, real tough. I thought I was going to lose my mind when I found out he was cheating. Then you know that skank didn’t have any morals whatsoever. You would think that she would have realized that he wasn’t going to leave a wife and two young children.”

  “Most married men never leave their wives for the other woman,” said Meesha. “She’s a lawyer, just like Ryker. Seems like she would have had enough smarts to know that.”

  “Obviously, she didn’t,” Avery said. “I guess she really had the notion that sleeping with the head of Ryker and Klein Law firm would help her make partner. Instead, what she got was humiliated and pushed out the door.”

  “Probably because Ryker realized if he kept screwing around that he was going to lose you and his girls,” Peyton told her.

  “Not only that,” Meesha said, “you could have taken his butt to the cleaners and left him high and dry.”

  “I know that’s right,” Eva said. “Girl, if that had been Harper, he wouldn’t have a law firm or anything else.”

  All the ladies laughed.

  “I agree,” Peyton added. “Hey,” she called out as the server walked pass their table. She lifted her glass toward him. “I’ll have another one.”

  The server nodded in response.

  “You need help,” said Avery.

  “She needs prayer,” Meesha corrected.

  “Look, I don’t need help or prayer. I have this under control. Now I wish you all would get off my back.”

  The ladies continued their conversation, laughing, exchanging updates, reveling in their ultra-rich lives.

  Chapter 2

  “Love is when he gives you a piece of your soul that you never knew was missing.” T. Tasso

  Eva slowly turned over in the custom-made double king sized bed. Her eyes opened at the same time she eased her perfectly sculptured body next to her husband, only to fully open her eyes and see that once again she was in the bed alone. She stretched out her arm and ran it up and down the cold Egyptian cotton sheets.

  How much more did he expect her to take? Harper rarely came home before midnight and left their home most mornings before five a.m. She understood being the Chief Medical director at Adverse General Hospital and a well-respected cardiovascular surgeon demanded a lot of his time. As if that wasn’t enough, twice divorced, Harper’s multi-millionaire status was also due to him being the author of several bestselling medical books, and for seven years he hosted his own award winning TV medical show. Now that he had stepped away from his TV show, he devoted his time to Adverse General hospital.

  Eva was young, just twenty-nine years old, and she wanted a life, a real life. She thought Harper was the man who would make all of her fairy tale dreams come true. Sure, he was a great provider; whatever she wanted or thought she wanted, he had no problems making sure she got it, except for one thing: him. He was never around, they rarely spent time together, and their sex life was all but null and void. Something had to give.

  She and Harper had been married for almost three years. He was ten years her senior with a twenty-three year old son named Seth who Harper fathered when he was only sixteen years old. He married Seth’s mother when the couple turned eighteen, but the marriage slowly unraveled as Harper’s education took precedence over his marriage and family.

  Eva wanted to give Harper a baby too, but he told her that he wanted to wait until he had more time to devote to raising another kid. Eva reluctantly agreed, but what she hadn’t agreed to was spending her days and nights alone. Harper encouraged her to get involved in things that she was interested in, that she gave him credit for. He wasn’t the jealous type but sometimes Eva wished that he was; then maybe he would give her a little more of his undivided attention.

  The fact that she didn’t work a nine to five added to her frustration of being all alone in an oversized house, except for the company of her three Yorkshire terriers and the hired help. She looked at the foot of the bed and all three of the pooches were huddled together fast asleep.

  Eva sat up in the bed and the three little pooches simultaneously woke up. Hopping across the bed, they were all over her, giving her sloppy kisses on her face and neck.

  She petted each of them while alternating between speaking in her native tongue and English as she talked doggie talk to them.

  Eva was often told she heavily resembled the Mexican singer Paulina Rubio. Granted, like the singer, it was difficult at times to understand Eva because her accent was so pronounced.

  Eva, poured love on her doggies one more time before she stretched and got out of the bed. After taking a long hot bath, which she preferred over taking showers, she dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen where she made herself a boiled egg, a slice of wheat toast, and a glass of grapefruit juice. She fed the dogs and after they finished eating, she gathered their leashes from the mudroom and got them ready for their daily morning walk.

  Eva walked a mile every morning along the walking trails inside their gated community. Peyton and Avery lived in the same community and Meesha lived in another private community about seven miles east.

  When she finished her walk, she sat down on one of the benches in the dog park, removed the leashes off the pooches, and let them run around with several other dogs that frequented the private park.

  Ding. Her text message notifier chimed. She removed the smartphone from its pouch on her side and looked down at it. It was Harper.

  “Hope u njoy ur day sweetheart. I love u.”

  Eva smiled. Harper was really a great guy. She didn’t want to sound like the unappreciative wife, but it was hard to go day after day, week after week without love and affection from her husband, other than his text messages and the lavish gifts he showered her with. All of that was well, but it didn’t satisfy the physical ache of being touched, caressed, and made love to by her man.

  “I love you 2. R u comin home early tonight?” she texted back.

  “Not sure. I’ll try, but if u hve plans keep them.”

  “I miss u. I woke up this morning and u weren’t next to me. I need u, baby.”

  “I miss u too. I promise I’ll make it up to u.”

  Eva understood right away what that meant. She could expect a few dozen roses or another diamond bracelet or piece of jewelry, but that didn’t satisfy her sexual needs, or her desire to spend time with the man she loved. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was beginning to realize why his other two marriages may have failed.

  “Going to b a long day. Love u. gotta go,” Harper texted.

  Harper was strong in his faith and his belief in God was unshakeable. They met each other when he visited Bolivia three years prior as a medical missionary. He was part of a missionary group called Matters of the Heart. They were a group made up of Christian doctors and heart surgeons that freely performed heart surgery on some of Bolivia’s poorest. Eva worked for pennies as a part-time receptionist at the community center turned makeshift hospital where doctors and their medical staff performed a variety of medical procedures on the country’s poor.

  Harper’s thick black eyebrows, broad shoulders, cinnamon toast complexion, and winning smile won her over the moment he approached her counter. He was drop dead gorgeous and her heart seemed to skip a beat, maybe two, when he introduced himself and asked for her help in finding where he and his staff were to set up. That day was the beginning of a whirlwind courtship. Harper remained in Bolivia for three and a half weeks. By the time he finished his mission work, he and Eva had become a couple. Almost every night, a
t the end of his shift, the two of them were together. He made her laugh and she helped him improve his Spanish vocabulary. Some days, after work, she would prepare him and his staff dishes of her favorite Bolivian delights. Cooking happened to be something she was extremely good at. She had thought about becoming a chef but coming from a poor family, she decided against it and instead worked any job she could to help support her parents and her younger brother and sister. She had another brother who was a year older then she was, and much like Eva, he did whatever he could to help support the family. Her parents worked hard for very little money.

  “God, how much longer do you expect me to do this?” she prayed and looked up toward heaven as she stood in front of the floor to ceiling kitchen window. The day was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was perfect, and the sun was shining bright but inside she felt like her light was dim and her heart was growing heavy. What was a girl to do?

  Chapter 3

  “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” Maya Angelou

  Meesha got up to prepare for sunrise devotion. It was a daily ritual for her. Every morning, like clockwork, she rose from her bed at 5:30 a.m. Carlton was already up and in his study preparing to share a daily message with those who called in on a regular basis to listen to his devotional followed by a prayer and his blessing on his faithful followers.

  Meesha dialed the conference number as she perched herself up on the bar stool in her chef style kitchen to listen in. She sat at the kitchen island, her elbow resting on the spotless granite counter top. Their four sons were still asleep.

  After Meesha entered the code to join the conference call, she started listening to her husband’s inspiring message. She sipped on her freshly made Americano espresso, which consisted of a shot of espresso watered down with about seven ounces of hot water.