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

Tonya’s malfunction anyway? Is she stalking me?
Michelle slammed the drawer shut. She was sick of all of them—Trench, Todd, and Tonya.
    Actually, Michelle knew what the malfunction was. She didn’t need advice from Ann Landers, and she didn’t need to ask Abby or even Erma Bombeck. It was the same thing that had been going on, probably since time began. It was the story of someone who viewed himself as more powerful trying to lord it over the little guy. It was Goliath against David. It was corporations against small business. It was bosses against employees. It was men against women. It was superpowers against third world countries.
    It was Tonya against her.
    Let’s get ready to rumble!
    It was all the same thing—someone more powerful, someone with more authority, forcing his or her will on someone weaker. The issue might change but it was all the same thing. It was the basis for time clocks at work. It was all about power. Power made her mother’s boyfriend feel that he could abuse her. Power made her mother force Michelle to be silent about it. Power made Todd think after he married her that he could control her. Power made Tonya think she could keep Michelle off the phone and that she could make her
find religion.
    She grabbed the used tissues off her desk. Not today, not anymore—she was not the one. It was time to get rid of the clutter in her life. She was going to get stuff out of her life that was confusing her and causing her pain—and she was going to start right here and right now.
    This was where the throw-down was going to go down. Michelle threw the tissue into the trash, then popped and stretched her neck. She got up from behind her desk. She’d started with the tissue and right now she was going to move on to Miss Tonya. Her can was going to be next for the can.
    Michelle began to laugh to herself as she walked toward Tonya’s desk, shaking tension out of her muscles so she would be ready to pounce on Tonya like a cat on a mouse. This was it. Whatever happened, it was going to be worth it. Sometimes a sister just had to take a stand. As Michelle walked, she looked back at the floral arrangement on her desk. They were going to be planting those flowers on girlfriend’s grave. Job or no job—Tonya was not going to make her lose her mind up in here. As she walked toward Tonya’s desk, Michelle felt as though she was walking in slow motion, wading through water in cement boots.
    Time was winding up for the busybody, the Jesus lover, Miss Holier-than-thou!

Chapter Eight
    M ichelle sat at a table in the cafeteria-style restaurant on the lower floor of the building. Shadrach sat across from her, shaking his head.
    “I swear, a man will never be able to understand the mind of a woman. I don’t understand how two women going through the same thing—two women who have so much in common—refuse to help each other and end up fighting instead. I don’t understand it.” Shad used his fork to pick at the boneless spareribs on his plate. “I just don’t get it.”
    Michelle almost gagged on a French fry. “Shad, what are you
talking
about? Me and Tonya are as different as night and day.
Look
at her.” Michelle picked up another fry and gestured in the air. “You know I’m not like her, with her dried up, boring, dull self. And she so caught up in this job—and Mrs. Judson, like Mrs. Judson is the be-all, end-all. Me and Tonya alike? I don’t know where you get that from, Shad. I really don’t.”
    Shadrach scooted his chair back from the table and crossed his legs, as though he was preparing to sit for a while. “You go right ahead, baby girl. I don’t want to interrupt you while you’re on a roll.” He lay down his fork and pushed his plate forward. “You got it. You got it all figured out. Go for it. Let it flow.”
    “Look, Shad, I am just tired of taking stuff off of her. What for? For a job? Other people can take that stuff if they want to, but I’m not the one.”
    Shadrach