Not a Day Goes By Read Online Free Page B

side where she slept held a telephone and a silver-framed photograph of Basil, looking handsome as usual. On the wall that greeted her each morning was an ode to Yancey. She had carefully arranged photos of herself in various shows and framed magazine covers from
In Theater, Playbill, The Paper,
and
Interview,
when Yancey had adorned each magazine as cover girl. There were spaces anxiously awaiting the covers from
People, Ebony,
and of course,
Vanity Fair
.
    The room itself was painted in a soft gold. There was a corn-yellow leather chaise lounge covered with several dolls and stuffed animals. The hallway between the master bedroom, living room, and servant’s quarters was a sea of chocolate walls covered with
Playbills
from Broadway shows and beautiful paintings by Deborah Roberts and Paul Goodnight. Yancey’s penchant for tidiness, as well as the maid’s biweekly visits, ensured her domain sparkled brighter than any star in the heavens.
    For over a year, Yancey had had a roommate to help with the cost of her townhouse and expensive tastes. She had run an ad in
Backstage
and
New York,
but the applicants were beautiful up-and-coming divas and a couple of gay men. Yancey wasn’t having any part of that, so she was happy when someone she vaguely knew came back into her life.
    Windsor Louisa Adams was a broadly built woman, about five seven and 165 pounds, with reddish-brown medium dreads framing her plain nut-brown face. Windsor had met her when Yancey transferred from Vanderbilt University to Howard University and moved onto the same dorm floor. The two weren’t close friends, because Yancey didn’t let other women get too close, but they had been in a couple of university theater productions and had once organized a Christmas party for an old folks’ home near the campus. But the only thing it seemed they had in common was that each had legally changed their middle names. Yancey changed her middle name from Elizabeth to Harrington after her favorite character from the movie
All About Eve
. Windsor just made a small alteration to her birth middle name of Louise, changing it to Louisa.
    Windsor was not considered beautiful by most standards, but she ruled Howard University with her mesmerizing personality. She was president of the dorm, the number-one tennis player, and Homecoming Queen her junior year. The last time Yancey had seen Windsor was at a Greek show after she had pledged Delta Sigma Theta. She had even tried to get Yancey to pledge, but Yancey said she wasn’t interested in joining a sorority because she thought sisterhood would go right out the window the first time some soror’s boyfriend looked at Yancey longer than a minute. Windsor didn’t know Yancey had been turned down for membership in another sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. Yancey was so crushed that she moved off campus with her boyfriend, Derrick.
    When Windsor greeted her at the stage door when she was performing in
Chicago,
Yancey assumed she was just another fan. She startled Yancey when she raced up and gave her a big hug and said, “Honey, you worked that stage! You were the best one and this is a long way from some of our HU productions.”
    Windsor had put on a little weight since college, and she no longer sported the long, layered hairstyle with hazel contacts. She realized Yancey didn’t remember her, so Windsor reminded Yancey of the night they had sung a duet at the annual spring talent show. “Remember? We sang ‘Enough Is Enough’ and wore them out!”
    “You’re from Detroit, right?” Yancey asked, finally remembering the overly friendly dorm mate.
    “Yeah, that’s right. Remember, my mother used to send me fried chicken and coconut cakes in the mail and I used to share them with the floor?”
    “Oh yeah,” Yancey said as she looked Windsor up and down, thinking her mother must still be sending her food through the mail.
    After a few minutes, Windsor suggested they go for a cup of coffee and talk about their days at