Always Unique (3 page)

Unique was on the Honda’s bumper, where the license plate was conveniently concealed behind a patch of mud. The driver got the message and knew Unique wasn’t to be fucked with. The Honda made it known that it wanted out of this cat-and-mouse game, mashing the pedal to the metal, but it was no competition for Unique and her V12 engine. Unique was right on the Honda’s bumper, and she was thinking about ramming the Honda in the rear end. She knew she had the Honda exactly where she wanted it and could make it stop.

But enough was enough. She had somewhere she needed to be. As she contemplated bringing this whole mess to an end with an accident, she hesitated too long, giving the driver a chance to veer onto the George Washington Bridge. Unique screamed at the Honda as if it could hear her, “That’s right, keep booking, beyatch!!!!”

LOVING BEING LOVED

On her way home Unique was trying to decide what she should tell Kennard. She wanted to tell him to get his exes in check. Still, hindsight being twenty-twenty, she was embarrassed by the way she had acted and wondered what Kennard would think of her. But all of her thoughts went out the window once she put her key in the door and stepped into the house.

She could not believe her eyes: Kennard had gone all out for her.

The lighting was dimmed to a seductive low. And flickering candles provided just enough illumination to make out the trail of rose petals he’d left for her to follow.

“Kennard,” she called out sexily.

When he didn’t answer, she kicked off her heels and followed the white rose petals. The floral path continued through the foyer, through the great room, up the spiral staircase, down the Australian hardwood hallway, and into the master bedroom.

There she found more candles, and rose petals on the bed in the shape of a big heart. There were hundreds of petals of various colors: red, white, yellow, and pink.

“Material Things” by Avant flowed from the custom speakers that were built into the walls. Kennard still hadn’t revealed himself, but his presence was definitely felt all through the house. As she looked around, Unique couldn’t help but think that if she lost all of this, one day she might be a mad bitch in a Honda, too.

“I hope the reason you’re taking so long to get here is because you are getting undressed,” Kennard said from the bathroom.

Unique’s nipples perked up at the sound of his voice. Her vagina had been wet since she stepped into the house and smelled those scented candles.

“I’m going to let you undress me,” she said as she stepped into the spa-sized bathroom. “If that’s okay with you?”

Kennard had continued the rose theme in the sunken Jacuzzi. He sat in one of the dressing chairs, wearing nothing but black silk pajama bottoms and a seductive smile. His body was hard and chiseled like a Greek statue. “Your wish is my command, my queen. You merely have to say it, and it shall be granted.”

“Then what you waiting for?” Unique was ready to get this party started. “Come, daddy, and undress your queen.”

Kennard did exactly what his woman asked. He methodically removed one piece of clothing at a time: dress, then panties, then bra. It was like peeling a banana. He paid extra attention to the
soft spots.

Unique’s body was on fire by the time her designer clothes hit the marble floor, and she was ready to be extinguished. As if he could read her mind, Kennard stepped out of his bottoms and scooped her up off of her feet and carried her to the Jacuzzi, which was big enough to hold eight people. The rose petals parted as he submerged her naked body into the perfectly heated water and the scent of lavender wafted through the air.

They made slow, jet-powered aquatic love for the next hour, but the real sex took place above water, in their bed. Kennard had thought of everything. They got freaky with the
Kama Sutra,
along with oils, chocolates, fruits, and whipped cream as an appetizer. The night progressed like a hedonistic holiday. It was Independence Day, and the fireworks didn’t stop exploding until deep into the wee hours of the morning. Afterward, they fell asleep and spent the night in each other’s arms.

When the alarm on Kennard’s phone sounded and nudged them awake at exactly 8:00
A.M.
, he hit the snooze button. They spooned for the next fifteen minutes on crumpled rose petals until the pushy alarm went off again.

“Babe, we need to get up,” Kennard said.

Unique pouted. “Don’t we have time for a quickie?” She wanted him to think of nothing but her while he was at work.

Kennard looked at the time, then reluctantly pulled himself from the bed. He playfully whacked her on the butt. “How about you give me a rain check?” he said. “I have to wash this chocolate out of my ears before I go to work.” His semi-hard manhood had a mind of its own, however, and it seemed to like Unique’s idea better.

“You weren’t complaining about how sticky you were last night,” she said playfully.

“That’s because last night I was putting in work.”

“And you definitely were, babe,” she agreed. “I tell you what … if you come back to bed right now, to save you some time, I’ll lick the chocolate off of every part of your body and clean you up real good, baby,” she offered in her sexiest voice.

She wiped her tongue across her lips to show him what he would be missing in case he’d forgotten.

While Kennard thought about the proposition his dick bobbed its head, as if it wanted to say,
Can I get some action?
He didn’t think about it for long before jumping back into the bed.

“You’re incorrigible,” he said.

She eyed his fully erect manhood and then gave him a devilish look. “You’re the one holding the gun, not me.”

“I beg to differ since you’re the one who is about to blow my brains out.”

Kennard started kissing her Australian-style—
down under—
and didn’t come up for air until she shook. Unique gratefully returned the favor. Afterward, Unique slipped on her thigh-length Agent Provocateur robe and went downstairs to fix Kennard breakfast while he showered.

She whipped up turkey bacon, scrambled eggs, and cheese, and was making sandwiches on toasted croissants when she heard Kennard calling her.

“I’m in the kitchen, babe,” she yelled back.

“Damn, something smells good in here,” he announced a second later, coming up behind her. He wrapped his hands around Unique’s waist, kissing her on the back of the neck. She loved his touch and the chemistry they shared.

Unique turned around and got a look at him. “Dayum!”

Kennard wore a brand-new tailored, Italian-cut suit, light gray with a four-button jacket; a crisp, striped, buttoned-up gray, black, and white shirt; and black leather Gucci loafers. “Somebody’s looking good this morning!” she said.

Kennard struck one of his patented magazine poses. “That’s where you’re wrong, baby.”

“Am I?” she said, handing him a plate full of food. “Here, babe.”

“Yes, you are.” He took a bite of his sandwich. “Because…,” he said, with his mouth full, “I look good every morning.”

Unique laughed. “And that you do. I’d be the first to second that.” She tried to give him a playful love tap on the chest. “But your butt is way too conceited.”

“Try confident,” he said, brushing off the love tap.

“Try narcissistic,” she came back, with a bigger smile.

“Whatever,” he said, ending the debate. “You know you love it, though.”

“Now, that’s true,” she confessed. “But that’s only because I love everything about you. Even your snoring.”

“I only snore when I go to sleep on a full stomach,” said Kennard defensively.

She gave him a tell-it-to-somebody-that-don’t-sleep-with-you look.

“Okay, so I snore,” he admitted. “Now, are you going to walk me to the door or are you going to continue to beat me up about the few faults that I may or may not have?”

“Baby, whatever your faults are, I love you all the same, so you’re perfect in my eyes.”

“You giving me those sweet nothings already and it ain’t ten
A.M.
yet,” he said.

“Yeah, your rewards for rising and shining early. You know what they say, the early bird gets the worm.” With a sexy smile, Unique walked up and cupped his package.

“And that’s exactly why I need to head out. I’m already late.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that because the early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”

“You have way too much wisdom for your own good,” he teased. He took one last bite of the sandwich and left the remaining half of the sandwich on the plate on the table. He rose from his chair and hugged her. “Thank you for breakfast.”

“Anytime, baby.” She smiled.

“I gotta go get the bacon,” he said as he kissed her on the forehead and slowly let her go. Then he grabbed his briefcase, and headed for the door. Like a little puppy dog, she followed closely behind him.

Before he left the house, they kissed in the foyer. It was a long, passionate kiss. Unique stood in the doorway until Kennard got into his car and his Maserati had disappeared completely from her sight.

Unique closed the door with a content smile on her lips. It was funny how her life had changed in just under a year. Her life had become a real-life motion picture, and as she stood in the foyer looking around her home, she exhaled in wonderment. Marble floors, granite countertops, vaulted ceilings, a theater room, and a Jacuzzi tub. She couldn’t believe this was all hers. Well, half hers. The craziest thing of all was that she was actually in love and hadn’t even been looking for it.

A part of her was waiting for the credits to roll, the lights to come up, and to find that she was still in that small bedroom in her grandmother’s house in Virginia. But the truth of the matter was that the curtains weren’t ready to drop because this drama was hardly at the end.

In fact it was about to get real interesting.…

FROM WHORE TO HOUSEWIFE

Unique was still floating on Cloud Love as she walked back into the kitchen to wash the breakfast dishes but as she was about to enter the room, she got stopped in her tracks.

“I thought I would never find your sneaky ass,” a voice said. “I bet you didn’t think I would, either, huh?”

Startled, Unique’s head jerked toward the voice, and when she looked, she couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw who was sitting at her kitchen table, eating the rest of the sandwich that Kennard had left behind.

The man was slim and dark-skinned with a big nose and mean eyes. She’d never seen him before. Her first instinct was to run; her second instinct was to pick up something to defend herself. He saw her eyeing the butcher knives on the counter but her hands were not as fast as her thoughts were. She was reaching for the knife when he whipped out a big 9mm.

“Don’t even think about it,
Unique,
” he warned, his voice firm and intimidating. He said her name as if it were a deadly cancer. The gun was trained steadily on her. In return, she looked at him as if he not only smelled like shit but he
was
shit. This man had the nerve to come in her house and sit at her table and talk smack to her? What part of the game was this?

But the warning wasn’t needed. Unique knew better than to bring a knife to a gunfight. As she stood there eyeing his gun, he let out a chuckle.

“You don’t even remember me, do you?” Then he smiled at her with a mouth filled with silver teeth.

That’s when it hit her like a freight train. She’d know that yuck mouth anywhere.

“Fat Tee,” she said, nodding. “Definitely a blast from the past.” She knew him from her days in Richmond, Virginia, only he wasn’t fat anymore. All the weight he had lost, and the fact that his face looked like all the life had been sucked out of it, made it almost impossible for her to recognize him on sight.

“And what the hell are you doing in my house?” Unique knew that he wasn’t there to catch up on old times. The last time she had seen him, it hadn’t ended on good terms. She had pretended that she liked him so that Took, her boyfriend at the time, could rob him blind. He should’ve known better. Why would he even believe that a chick as fine as her would look his way other than for monetary gain? There was no denying that Fat Tee was getting money back then and had the whole neighborhood on lock, but judging how he was looking now, it seemed that things had slackened off a little for him.

Fat Tee had been an obnoxious oaf, but he had proved to be an easy victim for Unique during her guttersnipe days. After gaining his trust, Fat Tee kept no secrets, including where he kept all his money and drugs. That’s when Unique persuaded him to take her to Atlantic City while Took and a couple of friends dressed as movers and cleaned out his house. They stole a half million dollars in drugs and cash, and didn’t stop there. They stole all his furniture and even took the food out of the man’s refrigerator. The sting went off so sweet that Fat Tee’s neighbors even aided them; they didn’t care for him much anyway and were ecstatic at the thought of him moving. Happy to be getting rid of him, they actually served “the movers” lemonade to help fight off the heat.

When Unique and Fat Tee got back from Atlantic City, she didn’t even go back to Fat Tee’s house with him. She made up a b.s. excuse about how she needed to stop by a girlfriend’s place. Being the doting boyfriend, Fat Tee obliged. He dropped her off and told her he would see her later. Well, later was seven years ago.

“I’ve been looking for you for a real long time. Heard you had made your way to the Big Apple—big city, big dreams.” He drank the rest of the orange juice out of the carton that had been left on the table. He belched. “I’d been in this overcrowded city searching for you for over three months now on a one-bug scavenger hunt, from hood to project, from project to strip club, and then I hit up the record labels.”

Unique didn’t say anything. Two things ran through her mind: first, she hoped that Kennard hadn’t left anything behind, causing him to double back and walk through that door; second, how in the hell was she going to get this loser out of her damn house?

He smiled. “And just when I was about to give up, I saw you on ESPN. Fucking ESPN. Who’d have thought? I was shocked, but I ain’t surprised. After I saw you and your boy, I Googled him, got his work address, and then waited outside his office for three hours until you pulled up in your brand-new Benz.”