close to her. Smiling his slickest, most seductive smile, he put his hands on her arms and began to stroke them up and down.
“Clarice, Clarice,” he whispered, “there’s no need to go on like this. We can work this out.”
He pulled her to him, saying, “Here’s what I think. Let’s plan a little trip together. Maybe go see Carolyn in Massachusetts. Would you enjoy that? I could buy you a new car and we could make it a road trip. Just you and me.”
His mouth was at her ear now. “Just tell me what you want me to do, baby. Tell me what I can do.” This was Richmond at his best, Richmond the lover. That part of their relationship had always been perfect. But now, when she thought about his extraordinary abilities in the arena of lovemaking, she was forced to think about the countless hours he’d spent honing those skills with other women.
Clarice put her hand on his chest and pushed him away. She shoved him harder than she meant to and he lost his balance for a second. She was shocked by how good it felt to see him stagger, on the brink of crashing ass-backwards into the glass-topped coffee table.
She said, “Evolve, Richmond. What I want you to do is evolve.”
He started pacing again, faster this time. “I don’t get it. All these years and you pull this on me now. You had plenty of time to say something if you weren’t happy. This is on you, Clarice.” And more softly, to himself, “This is not my fault.”
She could see the gears turning as he tried to figure a way out of this. When he couldn’t come up with a way to turn things around, he settled on rage. He stalked up to her and bent over so his square chin was just inches from her nose. His breath hot on his wife’s face, Richmond said, “And I’ll tell you something, Clarice, I’m not moving out. This is my house every bit as much as it is yours. More, actually, since I paid for it. So, you’d better think this foolishness through a little more.”
He crossed his arms over his broad chest and stood up straight, looking satisfied that he’d made his point successfully and put her tantrum in its proper place.
Clarice walked out of the living room then, and headed toward the stairs and their bedroom. She said, “That’s okay, Richmond. You’re welcome to stay here. I’ll leave.”
That night, after stopping by Odette’s place to pick up the keys, Clarice carried a suitcase of clothes and a cosmetics bag into the front door of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson’s old house in Leaning Tree. When her piano was delivered two days later, Clarice inaugurated this new phase of her life by playing Beethoven’s melancholy, powerful, and joyful Les Adieux Sonata and allowed the second love of her life to reassure her that she’d done the right thing in leaving the first.
Chapter 23
Despite Clarice’s pleas, her parents maintained their insistence that Odette chaperone all of their daughter’s dates throughout her senior year of high school. Barbara Jean was as disinterested in dating boys as boys were eager to date her, or so it appeared at the time. So she often came along to keep Odette company. From Clarice’s standpoint, the situation was tolerable when it was just the Supremes and Richmond out for the evening. Richmond, the lone male among a group of females, enjoyed the appearance that he was keeping a harem. And Odette and Barbara Jean were good about giving her some time alone with Richmond. The arrangement was upended when Barbara Jean began to decline Clarice’s invitations in order to spend more time with Chick. Claiming she had taken on extra hours at the salon, Barbara Jean withdrew from the foursome.
So Richmond dragged James Henry along again. Late nights out came to an end and conversations about topsoil resumed. Even on the rare occasions when Clarice was granted an extended curfew, usually as a reward for a well-reviewed piano performance or as a way to end her relentless begging, the presence of sleepy James was guaranteed to cut the evening short. Finally, after one too many nights of getting back home before ten o’clock, Clarice put her foot down and demanded that Richmond find someone for Odette who kept grown-up hours. That was when Richmond began bringing Ramsey Abrams along to serve as Odette’s date.