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Authors: Cydney Michele; Rax Lutishia; Grant Lovely

Crush (29 page)

BOOK: Crush
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14
Change for the Better
The next Friday morning, an endless blue sky stretched across the sandy beaches of Galveston Island. Seagulls soared over miles and miles that made up the Gulf of Mexico. As far as Lorraine’s eyes could see, people of all colors, shapes, and ages gathered on every inch of East Beach. She smiled as she knelt on the blanket, hoping to keep from getting messy. It didn’t matter. Sand was everywhere. She wielded the carving knife, being careful to smooth out the rough edges of the sculpture created by EDC. Named “The Fountain of Youth,” the exhibit consisted of three children playing around a water fountain.
Competition was stiff. One firm built roller coaster tracks with cars; another designed a skyscraper with windows, a roof with a bar on top, and an outside elevator. Another firm laid out a beer-guzzling drunk who had passed out on the street clutching a huge container of the frothy liquid.
“This has been an unbelievable experience,” Natalie squealed. “My hands are filthy but I love it.”
“Humph. Everything I eat tastes like glass and dirt. Not loving it,” Lorraine teased. She felt good inside and looked great outside. She wore light makeup and sported a new medium-length layered hairstyle that she’d requested for the summer. She wore their firm’s bright orange T-shirt and a tight pair of denim shorts with decorative beading.
“Well, I think my work is done. I’m tired. I stink. I’m thirsty,” Lorraine complained.
“I’m game for getting a bite to eat.”
“I’m right behind ya.” They ventured a few yards over and stood under the shade provided by the company tent. The ladies picked up prepacked lunches and beers and sat down in some lawn seats so they could check out the happenings and take a break.
“Don’t look right now, but guess who just showed up?”
Lorraine stiffened. “Oh no.”
“Be cool. And yes, she’s with him wearing big old sun shades like she’s some type of movie star. I can’t stand people who put on airs.”
“Why is she with him? She’s on a competing firm.”
“Obviously not.”
“I’m sorry, but it is so rude and insensitive for Houston to bring that lady here. He knew I’d be here.”
“Girl, it just goes to show you that some guys only care about what they care about.”
“I’ve lost my appetite.”
“Like hell you did.” Natalie glared at Wendell, who took a seat a few feet away from them. “This brisket sandwich is to die for. Take a bite. Now!”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Hello, ladies.” Wendell nodded. He came and stood next to them with a nervous smile on his face.
Natalie said hello. Lorraine kept eating.
“Wendell, we’ve almost finished the sculpture. Why did you even show up if you were going to be late?”
“I had some business to handle before driving down.” He coughed and cleared his throat.
“What’s up, bitches?” Faye smiled and stood next to Wendell.
“Did she say what I think she said?” Lorraine asked. She hated when people she barely knew acted familiar with her.
“She’s just kidding,” Wendell explained. “Faye is friendly like that.”
“So I’ve heard,” Lorraine murmured.
“Eww, I see some folks that I want to chat with,” Faye said excitedly. “Hook up with you later, love?” She gave Wendell a quick peck on the cheek and hobbled off toward a group of women.
Wendell gave a stunned look but quickly recovered when he caught Lorraine staring at him.
“You picked her,” Lorraine finally spoke. “And for what it’s worth, I hope you’re very happy together. I mean that.”
A couple hours later as the crowds dwindled, Lorraine was relaxing by the company tent when she noticed boisterous activity toward the end of the beach. She spotted Wendell rushing toward that direction and tapped Natalie. “Let’s see what’s going on.”
They edged closer to the scene and heard loud voices.
“Please tell me the truth. I already know everything anyway,” yelled Daither’s wife.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, lady,” Faye screamed back.
Daither’s wife reached out and tried to smack Faye across the cheek. But a tall, gorgeous brunette blocked her from hitting the bikini-clad Faye.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the woman said quietly. She placed her arm around Faye’s waist and comforted her. “I told you about spreading yourself thin like this, now you’re going to have to get yourself under control or else I’m out.”
Wendell’s quick footsteps slowed down until he was standing still. He watched the tall woman kiss Faye on the lips. “What the hell is going on?” he asked.
Lorraine sighed and asked Natalie to excuse her. She went and faced Wendell. “If you need someone to talk to, I’m here to listen. No judging, just supporting.”
“I feel like such a fool.”
“You can’t help that you were attracted to her. And you had the right to find out if she’s the best woman for you.”
“Now that I know she’s not, I feel like I let a good one get away.”
“Wendell—”
“No, Lorraine. You really are the best woman I’ve known. I can’t blame you for getting sick of my shit.”
“Well, thanks for admitting it, although I am doing fine right now. It’s no biggie.”
“You’re the best, Lorraine,” he said with regret. “And another thing. I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but you were right: Men are complicated. We are. Half the time, we don’t really know what we want. And our egos lead us the other half of the time. If I were a woman I’d be confused, too.”
“If you were a woman you’d probably have a better chance of hooking up with your girl,” she said and pointed at Faye and her girlfriend, who were walking away together.
“Oh, that’s cold. I never thought . . .”
“You can’t always judge people by how they appear on the outside.”
Lorraine smiled at Wendell and decided to keep her mouth closed about Faye’s other sluttish ways with Tim Daither.
Let him find out on his own.
“Ms. Eafford, if it’s okay, I want to make things up to you.”
“You really don’t have to do that.”
“No, I have to do something to prove to you I’m not the asshole you thought I was. I’m a decent guy who temporarily lost his good judgment. It happens. There’s no good excuse but I owe you.”
“But I don’t want anything from you, Wendell.”
“Can I have one small thing, though? Can we just start all over . . . ?”
“As friends,” they both said at the same time. They laughed and hugged.
Two months later
Lorraine couldn’t believe her eyes. She and Wendell had just finished having dinner at McCormick & Schmick’s in the Houston Pavilions. She’d thoroughly enjoyed their conversation and couldn’t get enough of her delicious entrée of Oysters Rockefeller. As they were about to leave, Lorraine knew she’d drunk way too much wine. She could no longer hold it in and needed to relieve herself. Just when she was about to enter the small corridor leading to the restrooms, she saw a man with short-cut hair wearing a pin-striped suit.
She sucked in her breath when she heard his voice.
Posse?
“Hey, Lorraine Eafford. How you doing?”
She took in all of Posse; the way his jaw was free of facial hair, she could see his entire set of teeth: the gold teeth were gone. He looked almost normal.
“I’m shocked to see you here in Houston. You haven’t moved here, have you?”
“Nope,” he laughed. “We drove down here just to eat at this spot. My girl, she loves some steak and I wanted to make her feel special.” Posse looked longingly at Lorraine. She resisted the familiar longing tug that used to make her weak. Part of her was happy that he seemed to be doing well. The other part of her was a bit jealous that he’d take the woman he now loved to a nice restaurant all the way in Houston.
“This woman you took out, she must really be something special.”
“She is,” he responded with a grin. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Now Posse,” Lorraine responded, unable to help herself. “You mean to tell me you were faking it when we were together ?”
“Oh, you got jokes.” They laughed. It felt good. She felt at peace. Lorraine knew it was okay to finally let go. Her past had been healed. Her ex had moved on and seemed to have matured and more important, he had stopped begging her to be in his life. He no longer dominated her thoughts. If she really loved him like she thought she did, she had to be willing to wish the best for him and not interfere with childish envy.
“Well, it was good seeing you, Posse. I mean that,” she said. She grabbed her belly and rubbed it. She really needed to get going before something embarrassing happened.
Just then a short, bony woman exited from the ladies’ room and pushed past her.
“Before you go, this here is the best woman who ever happened to me. Mama, I’m sure you remember Lorraine?”
He kissed Lorraine’s hand and let it go. She was shocked. He really had changed for the better. That realization caused her to feel conflicted inside. Maybe if she’d been patient, she would have been around to benefit from his eventual transformation.
“Hi, Lorraine. Son, isn’t this the same woman you were just talking about like a dog while we ate?”
Lorraine frowned. Posse glanced at the floor then at her.
“Well, isn’t she?”
“No, Mama. That was Loretta, not Lorraine.”
Lorraine made a move toward the ladies’ room.
“Say what?” he said loudly, drawing unwanted attention. “You think you all dat? You just gone walk away from me without saying good-bye, dawg?”
She stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around.
“I knew it was too good to be true, Posse. You haven’t changed at all. You’re such a loser and I wish I’d never met you.”
“What the fuck? You trying to clown on me, bitch?”
“Posse, I’m not your bitch. I’m his,” she said as Wendell walked in the corridor and came and stood next to her, placing his arm around her.
“And another thing,” she said. “Remember when you came over to my apartment and brushed your teeth with that nice blue toothbrush I got you? Well, I scrubbed the toilet seat with it the day before. So now you’re literally full of shit.”
“W-what?” He looked sick and spat on the carpet.
Smiling with confidence, Lorraine turned around and let Wendell escort her from the restaurant. When they got to the parking lot, she looked up into his eyes.
“Thanks for dinner. It was great.”
“Glad you enjoyed yourself.”
“Yep. And I guess I’ll head on home since I really have to use the potty.” She pointed at her belly.
“Right,” he laughed. “So . . . can we do this again real soon? As friends, of course?”
“Um, no.”
“No?”
“I’m afraid not. No doubt you’ve done a good job at trying to make amends. I love that about you.”
“But?”
“You’re a good man, Wendell. A class act, and although I know you’re not the type to call your momma, or even me, the b-word, you still can’t be with me.” Lorraine smiled and gave him a confident look. “So sorry.”
She shrugged and walked away, with her thoughts already on the possibility of a new lover.
If you enjoyed
Crush,
don’t miss
Suspicions
by Sasha Campbell
Coming in May 2011 from Dafina Books
Turn the page for an excerpt from
Suspicions
....
TIFFANY
“
Guuuurrrrrrrl,
I met this dude from Jamaica last weekend. Trust and believe me when I tell you, he was a straight-up Mandingo!”
“Peaches, sit still before I burn your ear!” Damn! How was I supposed to style her hair if she kept moving? Besides, I don’t know what made her think I wanted to listen to her talking about getting some from a dude she barely knew.
“Oops, my bad!” Peaches chuckled. “It’s just not often that I find a man with some good dick.”
“Ooh! I know that’s right,” cackled some toothpick with a jacked-up weave, sitting in the chair beside her. “I ain’t had a man with anything worth talking about in a long time. They either can’t get it up or when they do, it ain’t worth my time.”
While everyone on the salon floor started talking about men’s private parts, I simply pursed my lips and kept on flat-ironing Peaches’s hair. I don’t know why my clients always think I want to hear about their sex lives.
“Shhhh-shhhh! I don’t know if y’all know this or not, but . . . Tiffany don’t know nothing about getting laid.”
I grabbed a comb and pointed it at Debra, ready to cuss her behind every which way, but decided not to waste my breath. She’s the newest stylist at Situations and, unfortunately, my booth happened to be right next to hers, which meant she had eavesdropped on one too many of my conversations. In fact, it was a bad habit I was determined to break. “Debra, nobody asked you to be spreading my personal business,” I mumbled. What she needed to be worried about was that no-good baby daddy of hers.
Debra gave an innocent look, then had the nerve to wave her hand like she was dismissing me. “I don’t know why you getting mad. You should be proud to let everyone know you’re not getting none.”
“Not getting none?” Peaches’s head snapped in my direction, her bubble eyes big as saucers. “What’s up with that?”
Now all eyes were on me. Damn, why she all up in my business? “I’m just not out there trying to give it up to everybody.” I wasn’t yelling, but I had definitely raised my voice.
Debra started laughing. “Everybody? Hell, you haven’t given it to anybody.”
I gave her a nasty look. With God as my witness, before long she and I were going to have it out. “Some of us were raised to hold on to our virginity for the right man while others weren’t.” I don’t know why I was even trying to explain to a bunch of chicks who wouldn’t understand that some of us didn’t believe in giving it up to every Tom, Dick, and Harry they come across.
“Okay . . . lemme get this straight. You saying
you’re
a virgin?” Peaches asked for clarification and swung her seat all the way around so she could look at me dead in my mouth. Thanks to Debra, they were all trying to get in my business.
“Did I stutter? I’m saving myself for the right man,” I replied with a mean glare. “Now turn around.” I was done discussing my personal life. Unfortunately, Peaches wasn’t finished yet.
“Hold up, Tif. What about that cutie pie who picked you up the last time I was here?”
I glanced around to see if anyone else was listening. The last thing I wanted was one of these trifling females in the salon to try and push up on my man. “What about him?” I said with attitude.
“I
know
you gotta be getting some of that,” she said like she’d caught me in a lie.
“Sheee-it,
I would.”
“Puhleeze,” Debra cackled. “Tiffany ain’t gave him shit!”
“You lying?” Peaches’s mouth was hanging open, then all of a sudden she and Debra looked at each other and burst out laughing. “Dayuumn, Tiffany. I ain’t mad atcha!” I was seconds away from telling Peaches to get the hell out my chair because I didn’t give a damn if she believed me or not, but she was one of my best clients and times were hard.
The skinny chick sitting in Debra’s chair threw her hands up in surrender. “Hell naw! I heard it all.”
The conversation wasn’t anything new to me. My girls had always thought it strange that I was twenty-seven and still a virgin. All of them couldn’t wait to fall in love and have sex, while I had the willpower they didn’t have to say no. I won’t say it had always been easy, but it was either wait or deal with Ruby Dee. My mother was one woman you didn’t want to mess with. If she said keep your legs closed then you better do it. Her fist was the only chastity belt I had ever needed.
I glanced around the floor, then took a deep breath before I said, “Why is it if a woman says she’s a virgin, she has to be lying?”
“Damn, Tiffany, it’s not like it’s a bad thing. It’s just, well . . . almost unheard of,” Debra said defensively.
When Peaches finally stopped laughing, she said, “Also, there is this thing called
being horny
. Hell, I lost my virginity when I was fourteen.”
And that’s why she had four kids. I reached for a brush. “So what? Everybody ain’t like you. My mother taught me that what I have is precious and I need to make a man earn the privilege after he makes me his wife.” I probably sounded like I thought I was all that, but so what. Women needed to have more respect for themselves.
Debra sucked her buckteeth like a horse. “I know that’s right, girl! Make those niggas beg for it.” That wasn’t at all what I meant, but I doubted Debra would know the difference.
That anorexic-looking chick with the jacked-up weave had the nerve to give her two cents. “You a better woman than me, because there ain’t no way in hell I would marry a man before I knew what he was working with. I think about all those women back in the day who couldn’t have sex until after they got married, only to find out that not only couldn’t her husband fuck, but his dick wasn’t even circumcised.”
“Ugh!” Peaches was laughing so hard, she practically fell from my chair. “I couldn’t even imagine. Call me a ho if you wanna, but to me it’s just like sampling a piece of meat in the deli. I need to know what I’m getting before I spend my money!” She flinched. “Ouch!”
“That’s what you get for moving. I told you to sit still,” I replied and tried to keep a straight face. That’s what she got for being all up in my business.
Now everybody wanted to get in the conversation. They were shouting back and forth across the room with the chicks sitting in the waiting area. I half listened as I worked on my client’s head. I’ve heard this topic time and time before, and I’ll admit there have been times when I wondered what it would be like being married to Kimbel and what if he doesn’t satisfy me. But on the other hand, as my best friend told me, you can’t miss what you’ve never had.
Ms. Conrad lifted the hooded dryer from her head. I should have known her nosy behind was listening. “I’ma tell y’all, I was married to my husband for twenty years before he decided he wanted his freedom. Charles was the only man I had ever been with so I had no idea what I was missing. But leaving me was the best thing he could have ever done for me. I now got a man in my life who makes my toes curl.”
“Shit, I know that’s right. This dude I was with last night had my toes curled and me calling out his name!” screamed some tall chick sitting in the lobby.
Ms. Conrad glared at her. “That’s the problem with all you young folks. You’re too busy trying to get yours. Relationships are supposed to be about a lot more than just sex.”
Debra waved a hot comb in the air as she spoke. “True, but sex is important. If the sex is bad, then so is the relationship.” She shook her head. “Tiffany, I don’t see how you can do it.”
Toothpick chick gave me a curious grin. “So, is your fiancé a virgin, too?”
Damn, they’re nosy. “Nope, but he knows I am and he respects that.” I wasn’t about to tell them Kimbel spent half his time trying to convince me to give it up. Part of me felt the only reason he proposed so soon was because he knew that marrying me was the only way he was going to get some. But Kimbel was rich and he could have any woman he wanted, yet he picked me, a little girl from the projects who grew up in a single-parent home. I truly believed he wouldn’t have asked me to be his wife if he didn’t love me.
“How long y’all been together?” Toothpick asked.
“Six months. He proposed on Valentine’s Day.” I held out my hand so she could see the three-carat solitaire surrounded by emeralds that I wore proudly on my finger.
She barely looked before she frowned. “And you think your man’s been faithful all this time?” As soon as I nodded, she started laughing. “Honey, puhleeze! Just ’cause you’re not fucking doesn’t mean he ain’t. He’s a man and a man’s got needs that someone else is more than willing to fulfill.”
I hated bitches like her. I shook my head. “I trust my man.”
“I trust mine, too . . . as far as I can see him. Because the second you turn your back there’s some hoochie trying to ride his dick. My baby is fine; therefore, I keep his ass on a short leash.”
Debra started yanking weave out her head. “That’s because Ricky ain’t no good. Ursula, shut up.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, you know what I’m saying is true.”
Ms. Conrad came to my defense. “All of you need to quit. There is nothing wrong with this young lady saving herself for the right man.”
Peaches turned on the chair again. “Yeah, but how do you know he’s the right man until you find out what he’s working with and, better yet, if he can work it?”
“I know that right!” Toothpick high-fived Peaches and ignored the pissed-off look on my face.
“Just because we don’t have sex doesn’t mean we don’t do other things.” I don’t know why I felt like I needed to prove something to these ghetto chicks up in here.
Peaches glanced over her shoulder and gave me a strange look. “Things like what? And I hope you’re not talking about oral sex. Because last I checked, that was considered sex as well.”
“No, it isn’t,” Debra said and tossed a sponge roller at her.
“Yes, it is. There was a news report on
Dateline NBC
a while back about all these high-school kids giving each other head because it’s supposed to be cool. Kids think it’s okay to have oral sex.”
While they debated the issue, I tuned them out and thought about what they said. I would never admit it to any of them, but there were many times when I was tempted to give in to the moment and let Kimbel have exactly what he wanted. But every time I was that close to spreading my legs, I heard my mother’s nagging voice in my ear, saying, “Why buy the cow if the milk is free?” But I’m not going to lie. These heifers in the salon had me thinking. It had been six months since we started dating, which meant Kimbel hadn’t had any in half a year. I was confident he wasn’t getting any. Some might call me arrogant. Others might call me stupid, but I trusted my man. However, the last thing I wanted was for him to get tired of waiting, then go out and get him some from one of those trifling chicks in the streets. Now don’t get it twisted. I wasn’t about to give up my virginity before saying, “I do.” Nevertheless, my mama ain’t raised no fool. I was just going to have to prove to my man that what I have would definitely be worth the wait.
BOOK: Crush
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