A Rich Man's Baby (13 page)

I
spent the entire weekend with Mark; then he didn't call. What was up with that? And then I couldn't even leave a message on his answering machine, because once again, it was completely full.
He was the worst,
I thought. I was going to try him one more time before I completely wrote him off. I really liked him, and I didn't know why. It was just that he had this sexy confidence. Like I said, he was not that handsome, but his swagger made him gorgeous and the millions didn't hurt either.

After the club that night, he didn't even attempt to touch me at first. I think he just gets so much pussy he didn't even want any more. No, that wasn't true. It wasn't that he didn't want any more, it was just he must be tiring himself out. And I knew he didn't have anything, because he was very strict with his condom use. As soon as he reached for one I yelled, “I'm allergic to latex, baby. It breaks me out. I'm on the pill.” I said everything, and he still didn't take the bait. When I tried to just swipe his dick against the lips of my girl, he asked me what I was doing and told me to stop. One more time, one more call. That was all he got, and after that I was going to say “fuck him.” The phone rang once, and on the second ring Mark answered.

I took a deep breath and said, “What's up, Mr. Owens?”

“What's up, gorgeous?”

“Do you even know who you talking to?”

“Of course I do.”

“No, you don't. It's Adrienne.” I paused and then said, “Orlando weekend.”

“I knew who you are. Your name came up in my phone.”

“Umm, so you got my number and you didn't use it? I'm about to be through with you,” I said playfully.

“Don't be through with me. I just be busy. You know how that can get, right?”

“I suppose. So, what you been up to?” I asked.

“Staying busy and out of trouble. When you coming to see me?”

“As soon as you get me a plane ticket, I'll be there.”

“All right, I'm going to call my travel agent. You out of Houston, right?” he said.

“No, Philly. Damn, that's a shame you don't even remember what city I'm in.”

“It is not like that, I just have a lot on my mind; it is the middle of the season. I have a lot of games.”

“So as soon as you send for me, I'll be there,” I said.

“Give me your info and we are going to make that happen.”

I sent him my first and last name, and within an hour I had a one-way ticket to Cleveland with no return date. That was interesting. I guess he liked me more than I knew. Mark had some guy pick me up. He was a little, short, older guy, and he didn't say too much to me the entire ride. He just put my belongings in the car and took them out when we got out of the car. When we stopped, I looked up at his big house. I knew Mark was living good, but not this good.

“What up, Philly?” he said as I entered. His friend dropped my bags off at the door.

I walked through the house a little. He came behind me and asked me if I wanted to see the rest of the house.

“No, I'm okay.”

“You sure?”

I nodded. I had taken a tour with my eyes already. He had grand high ceilings and a leather brown, tan, and cream sectional with ottoman footrests. Even though I said I didn't want a tour, he took my hand and led me around his house anyway. The kitchen was huge. The cabinets were some kind of expensive-looking maple wood, and two islands stood in the middle. In the corner near a big window was a kitchen table with six chairs. Right through the window I saw tall trees and a big pool and hot tub. After showing me the kitchen, Mark took me downstairs into the basement. He had a wine cellar with no wine and a bar set up with gigantic bottles of liquor. In the back of the basement he had a big futuristic-looking black pool table and a cinema room. In the cinema room was a large movie screen and eight big black leather reclining chairs. It was nice, real nice. I was impressed, but he did not know.

When we came back upstairs, he introduced me to his three friends. They were coming into the house with four girls. I guess the extra one was for Mark, and when she saw me, she was like
damn
. We all went down to the pool room and he turned on some T.I. Mark's friend Carlos went behind the bar and began mixing and serving drinks, and his other friend Darrell starting rolling a blunt and passing it around the room. The mood began to change once everyone had drinks and weed in their system.

The girlfriends were all coupled up except for Lonely Girl. And she kept trying to make conversation with Mark. And my presence didn't deter her. It was okay. She was a mess, and Mark knew it. She had this gigantic fake Louis Vuitton bag, a tight purple dress with three fat roll creases, and Ugg boots. She was breaking too many dress code violations for me. Anyway, Lonely Girl kept leaning over to talk to Mark, letting her breasts bubble out. Then she complimented him on all his success and did a few hair flips off her shoulder and tongue twists. She was so obvious. But Mark just kept ignoring her. I smiled at her, letting her know I knew what she was up to. After a while I got tired of her, so I pulled him away to the cinema room to talk. I started kissing on him and hugging him, placing his hands on my butt and hips.

“I came to spend time with you. Not them. Finish taking me on the tour. I want to see the rest of the house.”

He said, “Good night, y'all,” as I yanked him up the steps. Lonely Girl and her crew were heated. I waved good-bye to them and shot them a wink. We got upstairs and didn't turn any lights on. We didn't need to see to touch. I heard him fumble around in his nightstand drawer for a condom. I stopped him and unzipped his pants. I bent down and began licking and kissing his perfect body. He had almost no body fat. I traced the dip in his side with my tongue and trailed over to his midsection that was tight and cut like the casing of an army grenade. Then I placed all his erectness in my warm, salivating mouth. I let my tongue go up and down every inch. My mouth was making a slurping sound each time I reached the top and came back down to the shaft. His eyes were closed as he enjoyed the moment. He would occasionally bite his lip and say, “Damn.” I was trying my best to turn him out, and it looked like it was working. All he kept saying was, “Damn, you a beast.” I wobbled my neck back and forth as he started to moan, I tucked my teeth under my lips so I wouldn't bite him. I circled the mushroom part of his dick with my tongue as the Jennifer Hudson song sang in my head, “You're going to love me.” That's what I wanted him to do, love me. When he reached his peak, he grabbed the condom and rolled it down his shaft. I got back on my knees and sucked him some more, ensuring his readiness. In the moment I managed to bite a hole at the tip. I heard the condom rip, but he didn't. Then I got on top of him and rode his pelvis up against mine. When it was all over I snatched the condom off him and flushed the evidence down the toilet.

I stared up at him, my eyes about to roll back, and didn't come up for air for hours.

I
knew I was about to get married. I had my dress; we picked our location. Even paid for it. But all that couldn't keep me from wanting to be with Kevin. Terrance was out of town, and I thought this might be the last time I could see him for a while. I took off Monday and Tuesday to fly to see Kevin. It was kind of insane to do a full day of traveling to be with Kevin for only three days. But I missed my other baby. I had my plan ready. I was going to tell Terrance I was going with Camille to an art show in New York. I just had to make sure Camille didn't call him or me for something stupid.

“Camille, do not call me until I call you. Do you understand?” I said. I had to explain things to her, because I knew she would forget and call me and leave messages on the answering machine, and Terrance would find out everything.

“Yes, I understand. How long are you going to continue to do this?” she asked.

“As long as I can get away with it.”

I was used to the long flight to Rome. Every trip, I just took a nap. I loved it there. If I could, I would live there. I spoke a little Italian, and the people were always so friendly. The city was so different and moved at a different pace. The people weren't rushing around. They took time out to enjoy life and family.

I took a taxi to Kevin's place. I had a key and walked in to surprise him, but was greeted with a note. It said he had to run errands and go to practice, and that he would be back later. I was so happy to be in Kevin's space and spend time with him for a few days.

Kevin's place was modern and comfy. He had a picture of us on his black end table. That made me smile.
I love Kevin so much,
I thought. I wished I could pick him up and take him to the States.

I took off my shoes and lay across the bed. I was tired from all that flying. I heard Kevin come in and couldn't contain my excitement.

“Kevin,” I said as I leaped into his long arms.

“So you still about to get married to that clown you call your boyfriend?” he said, eyeing my hand.

“Don't talk about him, Kevin. How was practice?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Practice was practice.”

“So you happy to see me?”

“Yeah, I guess,” he said, shrugging his shoulders on his lanky body.

“You know you happy to see me,” I said as I stood on the tips of my toes and brought his face down to kiss me.

At first he didn't kiss me back, but the swirl of my tongue against his made him relax. I pushed him to the sofa and straddled him. Kevin didn't want to love me, but he didn't have a choice. The warmth between my legs met the warmth between his. We kissed passionately, and our bodies ground up and down on each other. Within minutes my legs were wide open, and I was sprawled across his sofa. He lunged his body into my body rapidly until we both collapsed in each other's arms and prepared for round two. Every time I was with Kevin, I wished and prayed that things were different and we were together. But they weren't, so I just had to make good of the time we spent together.

I was waiting for Kevin to finish getting dressed. We were about to go to our favorite restaurant, Zampano. It was a cozy, traditional restaurant. They had over a thousand wines to choose from, and their clam ravioli was delicious. This older man, named Ettore, yelled out, “America,” and bent down and gave my hands a kiss every time we went. While he was showering, I checked my messages and made my mandatory call to Terrance. He was on my voice mail two times. I called him back without listening to the messages.

“Terrance, hey, babe. How is your trip going?”

“Yeah, we finished up early. Will you be able to pick me up? You're done at the art show right? I looked online. It ended today.”

“Yeah, it did end today,” I said nervously.

“My flight is arriving at nine tomorrow.”

“Okay, I'll see you there. If anything changes I will call you.” I hung up the phone.

I couldn't believe Terrance was coming back early. I had to cut my trip short and get home before Terrance did. The flight home was going to take ten hours. I had to call to see when the next flight left; then I had to make up a reason to tell Kevin. I turned around and saw Kevin brushing his teeth in the doorway of the bathroom.

“So you're about to leave?”

“I have to. If he gets home and I'm not there…You understand, right?”

Kevin didn't say anything. I knew saying nothing was saying a lot for him. Kevin was tired of me, and I was tired of lying and cheating. It was only a matter of time before I got caught.

I
called Kevin and left him a message during my lunch. Hopefully he'd call me and tell me the next time he'd be in my city.

On my way home I saw an unfamiliar number appear on my cell phone. It had to be Kevin. I fumbled with my phone and picked it up after three rings.

“Hey,” I said cheerfully.

“It's Kevin from the game.”

I was about to say something, but before I could ask him how he was doing or what was up, Kierra began screaming loudly in the background. I put him on mute and told her to keep it down.

That meant “scream louder and act crazier” in her mind, because as soon as I took the call off mute, she yelled, “Mommy.”

And all I heard him say was, “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

I didn't want to say yes, but Kierra wasn't letting this conversation happen. She wanted all my attention.

“Kind of. Can I call you back?” I asked.

“Okay, dial me at this number,” he said as he gave me this long international number.

“All right. I'll do that in a little bit.” I didn't want to sound broke, but I knew an international call would be expensive. I was still paying down my cell phone bill. He heard the hesitancy in my voice and then told me he would give me a few hours and call me back.

I came in and did Kierra's homework with her. Then we a watched a little television, and I made her get ready for bed. I was going to allow her to watch television until nine. I searched for what I was going to wear for the next day and did the dishes. Jamil was in his room playing
Halo
.

I spoke to him, and he said, “Hey, Mom,” without taking his eyes off the screen.

“Did you do your homework?” I asked.

He turned to me and said, “Yeah,” as he put his game on pause. “Yeah, it is right there.”

He played that game all day and night, but he did well in school and it was better than him getting in trouble somewhere. Alexis was still at work. I was so happy she got a job at McDonald's. I wanted to put that work ethic in her. I wished I had done it earlier. She saw how she worked a bunch of hours and didn't get any money. She was so upset but learning. But with the little money she had, she'd been buying her own clothes and shoes.

Like he promised, Kevin called me back.

“So you put your daughter to sleep?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“How old is she?”

“She's five.”

“So it is just you and her?”

I didn't feel like I could tell him the truth. “Umm-hmm. Yeah, I just got divorced. So, where do you live?” I asked, changing the subject.

“I live in Rome. You know, Italy.”

“Italy, what do you do there?” I asked.

“I play basketball for an Italian team called the Lottomatica Roma. How about you? What do you do?”

“Oh, me? Umm, I work at a hospital.”

“What do you do?”

“I'm a nurse at Alton University Hospital.”

“A nurse, that's nice. Must be an interesting job. How old are you, like twenty-five?”

“No, I'm older than that.”

“I'm twenty-seven, so you can't be older than me.”

“I'm twenty-nine. So, how long have you been in Rome?”

“I have been over here for about three years. I was born in Richmond. I went to Georgetown, and after I didn't get drafted into the NBA I came here.”

“So how do you like living in another country?”

“To be honest, I love my team, but it is real lonely.”

“Lonely,” I giggled.

“Yeah, lonely,” he said as he coughed and took his mouth away from the phone.

“You don't have friends there? I'm sure there are some beautiful women in Italy. Like models.”

“I had a girlfriend who was a model in London, but she just was a little young and immature. She was only twenty-one.”

A model,
I thought.
Twenty-one. Wow.
I thought I was being smart by saying “a model.”

“I've adjusted. It is clean, it is quiet. After a game or practice, I have dinner with a few of my teammates, but for the most part, I read and stay on the Internet.”

“So you don't do anything else? That's kind of hard to believe.”

“Honestly, I get my mother and sister to send me DVDs and magazines. They don't have any American television here. We have British cable called Sky Broadcasting. It shows a lot of American television from last year, like
Dr. Phil
and
America's Next Top Model.
”

Just as I was about to respond to Kevin, Kierra came busting into my bedroom. “Mommy, Mommy,” Kierra kept yelling. “Mommy, can I have some snacks?”

I put the phone on mute. “Tell Jamil to get it for you.”

“He said no.”

“Jamil, get her some Cheez-Its.” I closed and locked my door.

I came back to the telephone and unmuted my phone.

“So, what were we talking about?” I asked.

“I don't remember. Can you hold on for a minute?” he said.

When he came back to the phone, we talked a little more. He got me tricked up a couple of times stumbling with my answers. But I kept thinking on my feet. He had this deep, rich voice. Every word he spoke reminded me of how cute he was.

By the end of our conversation I'd forgotten about how many things I lied about. I lied about my age, how many kids I had, even that I was a nurse. I didn't know why I lied, I just did.