"Best friends truly are forever"
Reviewed by Helen Williams
Posted January 20, 2016
Women's Fiction | Inspirational | Multicultural Contemporary Fiction
BEST FRIENDS FOREVER is a novella by Kimberla Lawson
Roby about what infidelity in a marriage can cause. Ms.
Roby
does a great job in telling this story and showing all the
effects. Keith Richards is unhappy with his marriage and has broken
his
marriage vows to his wife Celine. Meanwhile Celine has
been
diagnosed with breast cancer. When she informs Keith of
her
diagnosis, he tells her he is still moving out. Thankfully
Celine has a best friend to give her all the
support she needs. You will really see just how despicable
Keith is. But God protects and guides the downtrodden. I really despised
Keith and his overall attitude. Just imagine
how you would feel if in this situation. Not only does
Celine have to deal
with her
diagnosis, but she has to try and explain to their ten-
year-old daughter why
the father is not there. The wonderful part
of BEST FRIENDS FOREVER is how Celine's best friend is
there for her through
it all. I had so many strong
opinions on what I would do. When you have a child
involved
begging you to let the father come back home and you
are weak from getting treatment that is
stressful and is also a lot of pressure to be under. BEST FRIENDS FOREVER is a wonderful story in showing what
true friendship is
and how a woman's faith can get her through the most
devastating times. This best friend comes through in the
most
remarkable way proving that best friends are truly forever.
SUMMARY
Things are falling apart in the Richardson household.
Angry
arguments between Celine and her husband, Keith, have
become
routine. She resents that he's working long hours and
staying out all night, and he accuses her of not giving
him
the attention he deserves. Their marriage is at a
cross-roads and Celine worries how her 10-year-old
daughter,
Kassie, will be affected. But the situation turns devastating when Celine is
diagnosed
with breast cancer. As her relationship with Keith
deteriorates, Celine worries that she'll be left to
navigate
the difficult process of cancer treatment alone. But
comfort
and support come in the form of Celine's best friend,
Lauren. They've been attached at the hip since they were
children and it is Lauren who's there for Celine in her
darkest moments. Now, Celine will be forced to make tough decisions-about
her
marriage and otherwise-and for the first time in her
life,
she wants to give up. Lauren vows to help by any means
necessary and makes the kind of sacrifice only a best
friend
can. But will it be too late?
ExcerptChapter 1Celine Richardson sat in fury as her husband walked in
their bedroom. "Keith, do you know what time it is?" "Five a.m.," he said, clearly sounding as though this was
no big deal. "And you think you can just leave the house and waltz
back in here whenever you feel like it? You must be out
of your mind if you think I'm going to put up with this
kind of crap. I almost called the police to report you
missing." Keith pulled his short-sleeve shirt over his muscular
shoulders and dropped it on the chair. "Time got away
from me." Celine folded her arms. "Where were you, Keith?" "At a friend's. A bunch of us guys played cards and had a
little too much to drink. And I fell asleep." Celine laughed out loud. "And you think I believe that?
You think I'm that naïve?" "Believe whatever you want. That's on you." "You have a lot of nerve staying out till the wee hours
of the morning and then acting like you're the one who's
upset. How dare you." "I'm upset because anytime a wife decides that her work
is more important than her husband, she shouldn't worry
one bit about where he's going . . . or what he's doing." "Excuse me? So you're now staying out late and sleeping
with only God knows who because you feel neglected?
Please." "I've been telling you this for months. More like a whole
year. But nothing's changed. You spend all your time
online doing work for your clients, and that's basically
where things end with you." "That's not true, and you know it." "Well, actually, you're right. You spend lots of time
with Kassie, but with the exception of our daughter,
everything else revolves around your business. Which
means there's no time for me." "Why is it that you can spend all the time you want
focusing on your career, but I can't? It took a lot of
hard work for me to build up my client list, and it's
completely unfair for you to ask me to give that up.
Especially since I've never asked you to give up
anything." Keith was vice president of sales for a health care
insurance company, and Celine had always supported him
and encouraged him to excel every step of the way. So
none of his complaints about her spending hours on her
social media marketing business made sense. It was as if
he now despised the fact that she was finally seeing some
real success with her career. She'd started her business five years ago, and she'd
worked her behind off, doing everything she could not
only to get it off the ground, but also to gain as much
exposure as possible with both small companies and major
corporations. It was the reason she now sometimes had to
pass on projects or refer clients to some of her
colleagues. "Do whatever you want," he said, pulling on his pajama
bottoms. "Because that's exactly what I'm doing." Celine pulled her flowing hair around to her shoulder.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" "It's not like I stuttered. My words were very clear." "So who exactly are you sleeping with, Keith?" she asked,
ignoring his last comment. "Look, I'm tired, and I have to be at work in three
hours. So can I at least get an hour of sleep in peace?
Without all these ridiculous questions?" "You're the one who decided to stay out, so I'll ask any
questions I want." Keith sighed and got in bed, turning his back to her. "I'm telling you now, I won't put up with this," Celine
said. Keith didn't respond. "Are you listening to me?" He still didn't say anything. "Keith!" she yelled, becoming angrier. He finally turned toward her in a huff and sat up. "What?
And why are you screaming at me when you know Kassie is
sleeping?" "Because I want answers, and I want them now." He pointed his finger at her. "I told you months and
months ago that I was tired of going to bed at night with
no one lying next to me. I told you how tired I was of
you staying in your office until well after midnight.
Work, work, and more work. That's all you've cared about
for more than a year, and I finally got sick of it. I
complained and tried to talk to you about it several
different times, but you never took me seriously. You did
what you wanted, and now I'm fine with it." "But you know how hard it is to start your own business.
Before I even decided to go forward with it, you and I
talked about what it would take. We discussed all the
time I'd have to spend to make it work, and you were good
with that." "Yeah, I supported you a hundred percent, but when I
started to see how you had no problem talking on the
phone to your friend Lauren for sometimes as much as two
hours and how you never miss any of your favorite TV
shows, that's when I realized how unimportant I was to
you. Your priorities are totally in place, but they
certainly don't include me. And don't get me started on
how little we make love. Sometimes only once a month. And
in case you haven't noticed, I stopped asking you to do
that a long time ago." Celine thought about everything Keith was saying, and she
couldn't deny that some of his statements were true. She
hadn't paid much attention to the time she spent doing
other things, but now she had no choice but to
acknowledge it. Nonetheless, this still didn't give him
the right to break his vows to her. He wouldn't admit
that he was having an affair, but no man stayed out as
late as Keith had unless there was another woman
involved. "I'm sorry," she finally said. "I had no idea things were
this bad between us. That you felt so neglected." "Well, I did. But when you ignored me, I finally stopped
talking about it. You acted as though I should just grow
up and get over it, and I have." "Baby, I'm sorry. I never meant to make you feel that
way. But for the last five years, I've had to put my all
into my business. If I hadn't, it would've failed very
quickly." "And I get that. I always did. But it's like I just told
you, instead of spending some of your free time with me,
you did other things. Stuff that obviously gave you a lot
more satisfaction than I could." "Do you really believe that?" "Not only do I believe it, I'm sure of it." "Why? Because I talked on the phone to Lauren sometimes?
And I watched a few TV programs? I did those things to
unwind, but never because I didn't want to be with you.
And it's not like you and I haven't done things together.
We've taken I don't know how many weekend trips, and we
also have date nights." "No, we used to take weekend trips and have date nights,
but we haven't done either in over a year." "So because you had a few unhappy months out of twelve
years of marriage, you decided to find someone else?" Keith sighed again. "This isn't about someone else. It's
about you and me." "But just tell me flat out. Are you having an affair or
not?" Keith turned his back to her again and laid his head on
his pillow. Celine wanted to ask him once more. Make him tell her
what she already knew. But a part of her honestly didn't
want to hear her own husband admit he was sleeping with
another woman. Not when she was worried to death about
something else-the lump she'd discovered in her left
breast yesterday morning. She'd noticed it while in the
shower, doing her monthly self-exam, but she hadn't told
Keith anything about it. She hadn't told her best friend,
Lauren, either, although Celine knew her silence mostly
had to do with her believing it couldn't be anything
serious. She also couldn't bear the thought of how their
ten-year old daughter would be affected. Along with God
and Keith, Kassie was everything to Celine, and the idea
of not being there for her brought Celine to tears. But regardless of how much Celine wanted to pretend she
hadn't felt anything in her breast, she knew she couldn't
ignore it. Whether she wanted to or not, she had to call
and make an appointment with her gynecologist. Not
tomorrow or next week, but today. She needed to see Dr.
McKinley as soon as possible.
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