She dismissed my words with a wave of her hand. “Oh, I know that. Everyone knows that. What I want to know is what’s going on now? Are you going to stay friends or are you ready to take the next step?”

I wondered why she was asking me this. “Well, we’re still in school. I mean, we’re graduating in a few weeks, but there’s still....”

Again, she waved her hand. “Ginger, you know what I’m talking about,” she said with a bit of impatience in her tone. “Now, Jeremy told me you were his girlfriend and I just want to make sure the two of you are on the same page because I don’t want him to be hurt.”

“He said I was his girlfriend?” When I heard my voice, I shook my head to snap out of it. I sounded like a little girl with her first crush.

"Yes. I spoke to him the other night about his desire to lead this church and one of the things I told him was that it’s important to have a wife already by his side, no matter where he ended up pastoring.”

My lips parted in surprise.

First Lady Blake said, “And he told me he didn’t have a wife, but he had a girlfriend who he hoped would be his wife one day. Since you’re the only woman I’ve ever seen him with, I’m thinking that girlfriend is you.”

When I’d decided to give up my fears and gave into my feelings for Jeremy, I’d gone in all the way. Hearing that he was calling me his girlfriend really did make me feel grade-school giddy.

"So?” First Lady Blake folded her arms.

“Well, yes, I guess you can say that.”

“Say what?” She didn’t give me time to respond before she said, “You need to be clear about this, young lady. Because Jeremy Williams is a young man on the move. Whether or not he gets the position in this church, he’s going to get it somewhere. And there will be plenty of women who will be willing to stand by his side.”

Her words made my eyebrows rise, but her tone, made me say, “I understand. I just wasn’t trying to put our business out there like that.”

"Well, what you need to do is put it all the way out there because there are wolves who need to know that Jeremy Williams is involved with Ginger Allen."

The bathroom door opened and First Lady Blake stood up straight as a tall leggy woman in a spandex dress that left little to the imagination and rose to her mid-thigh as she moved, sauntered in. She paused, then scowled, her lips pinched like she’d just sucked a lemon as her eyes journeyed up, then down my body.

"Hello, Sharonne," the First Lady said, even though she hadn’t acknowledged her.

The transformation was instant when the woman turned her attention away from me. Her scowl flipped to a grin. "First Lady Blake. How are you today?"