Feelin' the Vibe (14 page)

She climbed in the bed and scooted her naked body close to me. “I know.”

I turned to face her and she wrapped her leg around mine. Her soft hands stroked my face. “Baby, I know that I can be spoiled
sometimes, but I don’t mean to upset you.”

I leaned in and stuck my tongue down her throat, cupping the back of her head and pushing my body against hers. I reached
down to touch her and she drenched my fingers. My penis stiffened. It turned me on that she was always ready. I plunged my
fingers in and out of her. “Get on top,” I whispered in her ear.

She didn’t hesitate to climb on me and lower her vagina onto my pole. Slushy sounds came from her as she bounced on me. I
pulled her close to me. Her breasts rested on me as she whispered in my ear, “I love the way you fuck me, Devin.”

I held her hips and thrust myself deep inside of her. She moaned louder and louder with every stroke. “You like that.”

She bit on my neck. “Yeah, baby. I like that.”

I flipped her over. As she lay on her back, I pushed her legs over my shoulders to get a better angle. Deep and strong, I
made love to my wife and released everything inside of her. Sweat poured from me and she wiped my face gently. My muscles
relaxed and I lay on her. We held each other, and she stroked my back.

“Devin, I’ll try to be more understanding.”

I didn’t respond, because she’d tricked me with that already. She knew it sounded good, but I wasn’t convinced that Taylor
wanted to be understanding. So to avoid ruining the moment, I stroked her face. We lay silently for seconds before my phone
buzzed. She glanced over at it, and I prayed she didn’t check it. Things were good this morning. The last thing she needed
to see was an inappropriate message from C Winston.

I said, “Are you going to work, baby?”

“Yes, Devin. I go to work
every
day.”

I rolled off of her and prayed she’d get up before me. Instead, she folded a pillow behind her head, and looked at me. “Did
you hear what I said?”

“About what.”

“I’m going to try to be more understanding.”

I looked at the clock and realized I needed to be out of the house in thirty minutes. I wasn’t ready to get into it with her.
So I sat up on the side of the bed. “Okay, baby. I appreciate that.”

I grabbed my phone and walked out of the room. When I touched the screen, I was slightly disappointed to discover that the
new text message was from Curtis, not Clark. After I showered, I cleared the log of previous messages and texted her:
WHAT TIME ARE YOU AVAILABLE TO MEET
?

When I came out of the bathroom, I put my phone on the charger, since it hadn’t charged all night. Just as I walked into my
closet, Taylor entered the room. She was bubbly and excited. “Guess what?”

“What?”

“I think I’m going to stay home today.”

“I thought you went to work every day.”

I put on a crisp white shirt and pulled a black cardigan sweater over my head. I wasn’t going to come home twice with makeup
on my shirt. As I stepped into my jeans, I heard my cell phone buzz. My heart dropped to my feet when I walked out of the
closet and Taylor had my phone in her hand. She was still smiling, so she couldn’t be mad. She said, “Here. Curtis said, ‘Same
time, same place.’?”

There was no way Curtis could have responded like that. It was Clark, and she probably wasn’t sure if C Winston was Curtis.
I almost didn’t want to take the phone from her when she handed it to me. It bothered me that I was being sneaky and she didn’t
have a clue, but right there in front of her I responded: ok.

K
enneth and I had probably spent no more than two nights apart my entire marriage, but when I woke up in the frilly teenager
room decorated for Morgan, I felt young and happy. I headed into the Jack ’n’ Jill bathroom that connected Morgan’s room to
Little Reggie’s room. I grabbed a washcloth from the freshly folded towels in the linen closet. Standing in front of the mirror,
I washed my face, but the smile just wouldn’t go away. When I walked down the stairs, my mother, wearing a peach and black
housecoat, was preparing a pot of oatmeal. She was the only person I knew that didn’t put it in the microwave. I grabbed a
couple of bowls from the cabinet. We chatted and ate breakfast. Then I reluctantly headed home.

I decided to stop at the group home first. I wanted to take care of business in the morning and have the entire afternoon
at home to primp and get prepared to see Devin again. I hadn’t had the chance to speak to Ms. Teeny since I left Devin. I
knew she was dying to know. I called her on her cell phone before I just popped up, since it was relatively early for me to
be coming in. When I walked into the house, some of the girls in the GED program were there, lounging on the couch.

“Hey, Ms. Clark,” one of the girls said.

Tiffany, another girl, said, “Ms. Clark, why your hair all over your head? I’ain never seen you look like that.”

“Mind your business, Ms. Tiffany.”

Ms. Teeny walked out of her office. “Girl,” she sang.

I hugged her. “Hey, Ms. Teeny.”

“You look real happy this morning. Let’s get some coffee.”

As we walked in the kitchen, she said, “And I know you ain’t go lurking after just seeing him once.”

I pushed her and she laughed. “Was it good?”

“Ms. Teeny, I didn’t have sex with him.”

“You look real loose like you had sex. I know you didn’t get none from Kenny.” She rolled her little slanted eyes. “Plus,
you look like you stayed out all night. What’s up with that?”

“I stayed over at Reggie’s house.”

“Tell Reggie he and I can have a one-night stand any day.”

“Ms. Teeny, you can’t do anything with Reggie.”

“You must not know ’bout me,” she huffed. “So what about you? What happened?”

“When I saw him, it was like…”

She pumped her arms in the air and yanked my arm. “It was like
whoa
.”

“No, Teeny. It was more like we were still connected. Real connected.”

“That big-head nigga better stop acting crazy before you be hangin’ out with Davon.”

I smiled. “
Devin
, Ms. Teeny. His name is Devin.”

“That’s what I said. So what did y’all talk about?”

“We talked about where we went wrong. And I told him about the abortion. He was kind of upset. I broke down and started crying.”
I laughed. “I don’t know what got into me.”

“Girl. You so damn emotional lately.”

“I know. What’s up with that?”

“So are you going to see him again or what?”

“I wasn’t at first, but last night I was at Reggie’s and I called Kenneth to tell him that I might stay the night. He was
so nonchalant. It just feels like he doesn’t even like me right now for something I have no control over.”

She twirled her neck and let her head dangle a little. “Girl, I keep telling you. Gon’ and get your freak on. He’ll come around.
And see the fling came to you. You didn’t even have to go looking for it.”

“Ms. Teeny, you ain’t right.”

“Sometimes men ain’t right, either. So you got to step out, and when you do, they step up. It’s a proven fact. The key is
not to get caught.”

“I don’t know, Teeny. I still have feelings for him and I’m not sure it would be as simple as stepping out.”

“He’s married. All y’all can do is step out and at least you don’t have to get to know a stranger. Girl, you just got ding-ding
served to you on a platter. You better hop on it.”

I laughed. “You are so crazy.”

“No, you’re going to be crazy if you stay in that house with a man who won’t talk. He ain’t having sex. He’s so positive and
holier-than-thou, with his nose up in the air. You’re going to be the crazy one. But if you go get your freak on, trust me,
it will make your home so peaceful.”

“How do you know?”

“Look, this experiment is tried and true.”

We laughed like teenagers until one of the girls came into the kitchen. She looked at us suspiciously, and we returned her
look and started laughing again. Teeny grabbed my hand. “Clark, baby girl, you need this.”

She couldn’t possibly fully understand what I felt for Devin. There was no way she would believe that as good a man as Kenneth
was, I never loved him the way I loved Devin. That was validated in the way Devin captivated me when I saw him. He was even
finer and smoother and everything he told me he would be. I could imagine us together. He was never a fling to me. All I knew
was that I couldn’t wait to see him today, and it was the only thing on my mind. Teeny’s advice was dangerous, because she
was encouraging me to do something that could turn my world upside down.

I
rolled up beside Curtis, as he sat in his BMW 540 in the parking lot of the high school where we were hosting the mentoring
conference. He was studiously going over his notes, and I beeped the horn. He looked up and smiled, and offered me his corny
salute. I shook my head.

When I opened the car door, he put his finger up. I raised my hands, telling him to take his time. I pulled my black knitted
hat down on my ears and blew warm air into my fists. After a few more seconds of freezing my ass off, I walked into the supersized
school. This was the newest school in the county and cost nearly five million dollars to build. I looked around in awe. It
was what politics was all about for me. Change. Progression. Innovation. As I stood in the school’s atrium, spinning in a
slow circle, I smiled. Curtis rushed in during my daydream. And the moment he said, “Hey, man…,” a security guard popped up.

“Can I help you gentlemen?”

“We’re here to meet Dr. Woods and Mrs. Dillon about the Girl Power conference we’re having here. This is Devin Patterson.
Democratic candidate. District Four. U.S. Congress,” Curtis rambled.

He fumbled through his laptop bag, while I reached out to shake the young man’s hand. Curtis clutched his bag and clumsily
handed him a trifold brochure about me and my campaign. His neck snapped back, somewhat like he could give a damn. He nodded.
“A’ight then. Let me guide you down to the office.”

We’d obviously walked into the wrong side of the building, because it felt like we walked nearly a mile before we saw the
large, glass-enclosed front office. A couple of committee members sat patiently in the waiting area. I entered and put my
hand on my chest apologetically. “It’s not my fault. I was waiting for Mr. Perfection,” I said, referring to Curtis.

He snickered and reached out to shake the hand of a young lady as Mrs. Shawna Dillon introduced her. Then Mrs. Dillon reached
for a hug from me. She always embraced me endearingly, like she wanted me to make a move on her. She always leaned her soft
mocha cheek into mine and puckered up her thick lips to kiss the air. When I backed away from her, she gave me that same seductive
wink. I smiled and reached out to shake the other young lady’s hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”

“Michelle. Michelle Mason,” she said stiffly, smiling tightly with her thin lips.

“Okay, M & M.”

She chuckled some, and Mrs. Dillon shook her head. “Didn’t I tell you? He’s a trip.”

Dr. Woods came out of the office with a loud, infectious laughter, “Hey, gentlemen. Ladies. Missssussss Dillon.”

It was funny that he always accentuated Mrs. Dillon’s marital status. Maybe she gave him that flirtatious vibe, too. It may
have been his way to remind himself that she belonged to someone else. The fact that she was shaped like a damn plump pear
didn’t help her case. Even as grown-ass, happily married men, when Mrs. Dillon sashayed ahead of us in the direction of the
conference room, all eyes shifted to her tight-fitting black skirt. But, of course, we all quickly regained our composure.

We sat around a conference table, and Mrs. Dillon handed out the meeting agendas. “I e-mailed you guys minutes from the last
meeting,” she said, as she rested her hand on my shoulder.

Doing business with this chick was risky business. It was clear that I needed to handle this firecracker with care. She had
the potential to blow my fingers off. The fire inside her radiated from the palms of her hands. Shortly after the meeting
commenced, she made a major announcement. DC’s own Amerie would be the keynote speaker for the event. We needed to re-print
flyers and change some of the promotional material. All the workshops were outlined and the speakers were booked. There would
be a hair and fashion show. I felt like I was just the face of this mentoring extravaganza, because Mrs. Dillon had it all
together.