Cover Girls by T. D. Jakes Read Free Book Online Page A

big, cheesy smile spreading across her face. She looked up to see that Tonya’s smile had gotten even bigger. So what? What difference did it make anyway? Maybe Shad was right. Maybe Tonya wasn’t so bad after all.
    She smiled briefly at her team leader, then opened the card. The inscription was handwritten. It had been a while since she had seen Todd’s handwriting.
    Michelle, I know the past few months have been hard for you.
    Todd was always thinking of her, always sensitive to what was going on in her life. He always felt her. Maybe the R&B singer Ralph Tresvant was right; maybe she did need a man with sensitivity. And wasn’t it just like Todd to be thinking of her even when he was in a hurry. His handwriting looked familiar, but unfamiliar. He must have been rushed.
    Don’t give up, Michelle. The Lord loves you and He is always with you. For, as the Bible says, even when your father and your mother abandon you the Lord will receive you.
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    He was always putting himself out for her. He made her feel warm and protected. Why was she ever stupid enough to leave him?
    Michelle, things will get better. Trust the Lord. He will not fail you.
    She didn’t deserve such a sweet, loving man.
    Know that you are always in my prayers.
    Todd must have definitely been in a hurry. His handwriting was so strange. But that was Todd, always praying. He was a good man, a very good man.
    Michelle read the salutation.
Blessings to you, Michelle . . . Tonya.
    Todd was the sweetest man. How many women wouldn’t kill for a husband who sent them flowers, who prayed for them day and night, who was a passionate and powerful lover—
    Michelle’s head snapped up at the same instance she snapped back to reality. She reread the salutation.
    Blessings to you . . . Tonya.
    Tonya?
    Tonya!
    Tonya?
    Another name came to Michelle’s mind and to her lips—a word that was sure, once she said it, to get her fired.

Chapter Seven
    I t was ridiculous. There was no space in the office that seemed to be hers. There was no space that was free of Tonya’s influence. Michelle was sick of her.
    Let them fire her if they wanted to—Michelle was not going to be driven crazy by people at a job. She stared daggers at her team leader. Tonya still had that goofy smile on her face. What was it going to take for her to get it?
    She didn’t care what happened, she was going to give Tonya a piece of her mind. Michelle jerked her desk drawers open. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have gotten sucked in? Of course it wasn’t Todd’s handwriting. Of course it was Tonya. It was Tonya, who had taken Michelle on as her personal missionary task. It was Tonya, who kept giving her unwanted gifts—unwanted because Michelle knew there was really a price to be paid for everything.
    She looked in her lower right-hand drawer at all the little books of
inspiration
Tonya had left on her desk in the past few months. Of course it was Tonya. Who else was so very
holy?
Who else was out to make her life so miserable? The books were irritating and Tonya was irritating.
    Michelle looked across the room. Tonya was still sitting there—looking tired, dried up, and stupid. Where did she get off doing this kind of stuff? Michelle used her hand to knock the little books around her drawer. They were all colors—blue, red, yellow, purple, orange, and white. There were booklets authored by people with names unfamiliar to her. Michelle had read about one page of each of them before she dropped them into the black hole at the bottom of her desk drawer. The drawer was filled with them, all little gifts from Tonya. And underneath all the books that were scattered like confetti was a Bible—a
Woman Thou Art Loosed
Bible. It was still in its original packaging, still unopened.
    This was it.
This was it!
Michelle shoved the flowers toward the edge of her desk and almost knocked them over. This was it. Why couldn’t she just have some peace? This was the last straw.
    What is