Until now.
Chapter 36
Either you deliver our money by tomorrow afternoon, promptly at three P.M., or it’s whistle-blowing time,” Minister Weaver threatened.
“I said you’d have it, and you will,” JT declared.
“That’s what you claimed last week, too, but we never got it.”
“But you’ll have it tomorrow for sure. You have my word.”
“I hope you’re right, because if I find out you’re trying to stall on us again, the situation won’t be pretty. It’s going to turn into something very ugly and unbearably humiliating. A lot of people are going to be hurt, particularly those five thousand members of yours who so blindly believe in you, and you’ll be kissing that lavish life of yours completely good-bye.” Then he paused and said, “You have a nice day.”
He never even gave JT a chance to respond, but it was fine, because in twenty-four hours, this would all be over with. It would all be a done deal, and JT wouldn’t have to worry about Weaver, Barb, or any other person from the past he no longer wanted anything to do with. Carmen was still a major issue that needed handling, but over the last eight days, she’d remained pretty calm-partly because he’d gone along with whatever she said and mostly because he’d given her sex whenever she’d asked for it. He’d slept with her at least five times, starting with the day after her mother’s funeral, but the good news was that it hadn’t posed much of a problem for his marriage. It hadn’t caused any strain because Alicia was now working day and night on her next novel and was always too tired by the time she got in bed. Nonetheless, this baby dilemma had to be dealt with once and for all. But first, he had to get the rest of that money from Diana.
“Another hundred thousand dollars is a lot more than I anticipated,” Diana said, clearly not happy about JT’s latest request.
“Baby, I know,” he said, sliding closer to her on the sofa and showing her the media proposal-the one he’d had the agency working on for a whole week now and the one he’d had e-mailed over to him first thing this morning when he’d gotten to the church. It had been the reason he’d left the house so early this morning, so he could download it, print it out, and then go over every figure and small detail. He’d needed some extra time to review it, so he could explain things as articulately and convincingly as possible to Diana.
“Does the campaign really require all this? I mean, are all these spots really necessary? Because based on what I’m seeing here,” she said, flipping to the next page, “they’ve got you airing spots during every single commercial break, all day long. So, what it sounds like to me is that this agency you’re working with is blatantly overselling the amount of spots you actually need.”
JT had to think fast. Why? Because this meeting with Diana was turning out to be a little harder than he’d expected. He’d known she would need proof of what she was paying for, but he hadn’t counted on her asking so many legitimate questions. He hadn’t even considered the possibility that she might read and debate every single page he’d brought to her.
“I know it’s a lot of money,” he said. “But, baby, you have to trust me. You have to believe that I know what I’m doing. I mean, sure, we could definitely do a lot less publicity on each station or eliminate some of the stations altogether, but I really want to do the kind of media blitz that everyone will have an opportunity to hear. I want them to hear these spots on the radio, see them on TV, and take notice. I want the words ‘New Life Christian Center’ and ‘JT Valentine’ to become household names. I want people to wonder what they’re missing by not attending our services, so they’ll be dying to come visit.”
“I understand that, but again, a hundred thousand dollars more is a lot. I already gave you one-fifty two weeks ago, so a quarter of a million dollars is a little over the top.”
JT took the proposal from her and slid into victim mode. “Fine. Look, I only came to you because you said you would help out and that you were behind me all the way. But let’s just forget it. Let’s just forget everything,” he said, standing up. “As a matter of fact, let’s cancel this whole campaign and pretend like it never happened…and actually, if you want to know the truth, I’m really not surprised by this at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember how I told you about my mom dying when I was a child and then my aunt dying when I was a teenager? Well, all my life, people have been forcing me to fend for myself, so I really didn’t expect you to be any different.”
Diana got up and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Now, honey, you know that’s not true. You’re the most special man I’ve ever met, and I think I made it pretty clear a while ago that I would do just about anything for you.”
JT kept his hands at either side of his body, refusing to embrace her.
“Baby, please don’t act this way,” she said.
JT unlocked her arms and backed away from her. “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”
“Do what?”
“This. Us.”
“Why not?” she asked, and JT heard the worry in her voice.
“Because I see now that I can’t trust you. I can’t depend on you, so it’s time for me to move on.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do,” he said, grabbing his suit jacket and heading toward the door. “You take care, okay?”
“JT, wait,” she hurried to say. “Okay. I’ll do it. It’s a lot more than I’m comfortable with, but if you really think this is going to help bring in hundreds and hundreds of new members, then I’m behind you.”
JT grinned before turning around and facing her. “You really mean that?”
“Yes. You’ve been keeping up your end of the deal by spending more time with me, at least for the last couple of weeks, anyway, so I’m going to do the same.”
JT squeezed her body close to his and said, “I promise you, you won’t regret it. And once things really take off, I’ll even begin paying you back.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Well, actually, you can do that right now.”
“And how’s that?”
Diana’s laugh was beguiling. “Take a wild guess, cowboy.”
JT smiled and couldn’t have been prouder. Of himself, that is.
It was already after six P.M., and as far as JT was concerned, the day simply couldn’t get any better. Tomorrow morning, Diana was going to transfer the remaining money he needed, he would then be able to make good on the funds Weaver and Barb were demanding from him, and he was all set with doing a six-figure marketing campaign. But if that wasn’t enough, he’d already gotten two calls from pastors in Atlanta and Cleveland who wanted to bring him in as soon as possible. JT had been sure he’d get a number of responses, but not ever had he expected to receive two on the same day and so soon after the packages had gone out. It hadn’t even been two full weeks yet, and here he was being invited to speak at churches that had a minimum of fifteen thousand members! Initially, when he’d gotten back from Diana’s about an hour ago and Janet had told him the great news, he’d sort of thought this was all too good to be true. But then he quickly thought otherwise when he realized these engagements were just an inkling of all the blessings he had coming to him. It was all so amazing and proof that God truly did work in mysterious ways.
JT leaned back in his chair, feeling more pleased than he had in a long time, but then Janet rang his desk phone.
“Pastor, you’re not going to believe this,” she said with sheer excitement.
“What’s that?”
“Pastor Braeden is on the line for you.”
JT sat up straight. “Pastor Donald Braeden? From Vineyard Christian Center?”
“Yes, and he’s calling you from home.”
“Unbelievable. Okay, give me a few seconds, and then put him through.”
“I will.”
JT hung up and tried gathering his composure. This was crazy.
JT breathed in and out and then in and out again, and waited for Janet to ring him. Finally, she did.
“Pastor Braeden, sir, what an honor and a privilege to be speaking with you,” JT said.
“No, son, the pleasure really is all mine because your father-in-law and I go way back, and I have the utmost respect for him. I’m a little bit older than him,” he said, laughing, “but he’s a friend for life.”
“Yes, my father-in-law is definitely a very special man, and I love him to death.”
“I haven’t spoken to him in a while, but I’ll have to make sure to give him a call.”
“Well, right now, he’s on a fourteen-day cruise with his wife, but I know he’ll be very glad to hear from you when he’s back home,” JT said, telling the best lie he could think of at the moment. He knew there was no way he’d be able to keep Pastor Braeden or any of the other ministers he sent information to from contacting Curtis, but the longer it took for that to happen the better off JT would be.
“Good for him. Two weeks is a long time and the kind of break everyone needs to take every now and again.”
“That’s for sure.”
“But back to you and the reason I’m calling. It just so happens that our scheduled afternoon speaker for our church anniversary has had to cancel. We just heard from his assistant a couple of days ago, letting us know he’s taken ill. So, while I know this is very short notice, I was wondering if maybe you’d like to take his
