Insatiable (15 page)

B
raving the elements in style, Kai returned to work on a snowy Monday morning draped in dark blue braided chinchilla. She looked stunning, clearly out of place in the nursing home. Her mission, however, required her to look sensational.

Her sense of self-importance was boosted by her large bank account. Kai did not bother to confer with her supervisor in the Social Services department; she would deal with her later. Right now, she had to attend to more pressing business. Taking the stairs to the second floor, Kai swished down the carpeted hall that led to Kenneth’s office.

She tingled with excitement as she quickly ran her fingers through her curls, then breezed into his office.

Realizing the unsettling effect her beauty and obvious prosperity had on the have-nots who worked like slaves for their meager pay, Kai greeted Kenneth’s secretary with a humble smile that she manufactured to put the woman (whom she needed on her side) at ease.

“Hello. I’m Kai Montgomery. Would you please tell Dr. Harding I’m here?” Kai’s words dripped with saccharin.

Startled by Kai’s unexpected appearance, the secretary knocked over a container of paper clips. The way the woman gaped, one would have thought J.Lo had taken time from her busy schedule to grace the facility with her presence. Amused by the woman’s discomfort, Kai chuckled to herself.

“I’m sorry. Dr. Harding’s not available; he’s on vacation,” the secretary finally said, shaking her head regretfully.

“Vacation!” Kai blurted, forgetting her humble role. “Again?”

“Yes, he takes several trips a year,” she explained. “Was he expecting you?” The woman’s eyes squinted with concern.

Kai shook her head. Her impulse was to smack the silly secretary for relaying such disturbing news. Restraining herself, she took a deep breath and exhaled; her lips formed into a polite smile. “When will he be back?” She managed to keep her voice calm.

“Next week—Wednesday.”

“Thank you,” Kai mumbled as she exited the office.

Feeling forlorn and off kilter, she rode the elevator to the fourth floor. The heavy heels of her boots rapped the tiled floor as she hurried past the nurses’ station to her office.

The underlings gathered near the nurses’ station cast admiring glances at her coat.

“Her coat is sharp,” muttered a woman pushing a cleaning cart. “What kind of fur is that?” a nursing assistant murmured inquisitively. Slighting her co-workers by ignoring their presence, Kai whisked past wordlessly.

Walking toward her office, she approached two cleaning men engaged in the massive task of carbonizing one of the rooms. Complete opposites, one was young, extremely tall and muscularly lean; the other—middle-aged, short and squat. The tall man pulled heavy furniture out of the room, while the short man went behind him sweeping debris out into the hall.

Not wanting even a speck of dust to land on her shiny blue boots, Kai stopped suddenly.

“Do you mind watching where you fling that dust,” she said disgustedly to the undersized man.

“I see you, baby,” he said in a raspy voice. “I ain’t gonna mess up those pretty shoes.”

Kai thought for a moment, then
tsked
and moved on. The runt, with broom-in-hand, was not worthy of her response. However, when he uttered a suggestive guttural sound, Kai stopped walking, whirled around in indignation and advanced toward the man.

“Excuse me…Is this a work environment or did I mistakenly wander onto some street corner in the ’hood?”

“Naw, baby, this ain’t no street corner. I apologize,” the man said with uneasy laughter.

“Don’t refer to me as baby!” she snapped. “It’s offensive and considered sexual harassment, you know.”

“What?” The man looked around in disbelief. “I ain’t sexually harass you. I ain’t say nothing about sex…I called you
baby
…just tryin’ to be polite!”

“Well, I heard those vulgar sounds you made…and I don’t appreciate being called baby by the likes of
you
.” She looked him up and down, turning up her nose the way she did when she unwittingly traversed the corridor while the nursing assistants changed the diapers of residents who were incontinent of their bowels.

“I ain’t mean nothin’ by that. I was just playin’ with you.”

“Oh please,” she said disgustedly. “What’s your name?” She stooped slightly to read the name on his employee ID badge. “Spencer Blake…Hmm. I think you’d better make a call to your union representative, Mr. Blake, because I’m definitely going to file a sexual harassment complaint.”

“What!” Spencer Blake recoiled visibly. “I can’t believe this shit. Yo, big man,” he said, turning his attention to the tall worker. “Wasn’t I just playin’ with her?”

“Man, I’m not in this. I’m still on probation; I don’t want no trouble.”

“But this is bullshit.”

Aware of the friction, which was taking place in the corridor, the nursing assistants and other support staff, their faces creased with curiosity, started slowly progressing toward Kai and the two men.

“You makin’ it worse, man. Stop arguing wit her. Don’t say nothin’ else; just call your union rep,” the tall man counseled, shook his head and went back inside the room to resume working.

“Good advice,” Kai agreed. Then she pointed a finger at Spencer. “If you’re not out of here by tomorrow, the administration will be hearing from my attorney, and I don’t think they’re going to enjoy hearing what he has to say.”

There was a chorus of gasps from the nursing staff. Their eyes glimmered with excitement. “You gonna sue this place?” asked one of the women.

Kai ignored the question. “See you later, Spencer,” she said, then whisked down the hall to her office.

It was hot and stuffy inside her small office. She ripped off the chinchilla and carelessly slung it across the back of an empty chair. Sighing, she collapsed in her swivel chair.

Whom she should call first, she wondered: her supervisor or the director of Human Resources to report Spencer Blake. Better yet, perhaps she would call Kenneth’s Bala Cynwyd office and attempt to connive the dippy secretary at that office into disclosing his whereabouts. An unexpected visit to his vacation hideaway was an option she hadn’t considered. The thought brought a wicked smile to her face.

She reached for the phone, but withdrew her hand when someone knocked on the door. It was probably the runt, she surmised. He had to be nuts if he thought he could convince her to change her mind. There wasn’t a chance in hell she’d reconsider filing the sexual harassment complaint. Kenneth was somewhere in the Caribbean, carousing no doubt with his black whore. Someone was going to pay dearly for Kenneth’s transgressions and it may as well be the runt, Kai reasoned.

She swung the door open and was momentarily taken aback to find the tall man standing there. She hadn’t realized how good-looking he was. Her anger at the runt had blurred her vision. His looks, however, didn’t matter, she told herself. He was just a cleaning man and a black one at that.

“If you came to plead your friend’s case, forget it. I don’t have anything to say. My attorney will speak on my behalf,” Kai said huffily.

“Naw, naw. It ain’t like that. I don’t even know dude that well. I’m tryin’ to make sure you ain’t plannin’ on gittin’ me all caught up in this mess.” The tall man’s even white teeth grazed against his lower lip. “Check it…I just started workin’ here and I make sure to mind my own business. I don’t need my supervisor comin’ at me all crazy with no questions ’bout sexual harassment. Like I said, I’m on probation…I got a little daughter and I’m ’bout to git married. I’m just tryin’ to maintain…ya know what I’m sayin’?”

The man used gestures with practically every word. For some strange reason, Kai enjoyed watching his long body dip and bob as he spoke. It was an interesting sight. Sexy.

She’d disapproved of people who spoke in jargon; it sounded like a foreign language and listening to it was painful. Yet, listening to this young thug speak did not invoke revulsion. She was intrigued, actually. The man had a powerful presence. He was rough around the edges, but handsome and possessed an animal magnetism that she found oddly appealing. Sexually stimulating.

Yes, despite the glaring cultural differences, she felt drawn to him. Aroused by him. Without a doubt, she wanted to fuck him. Damn! She’d just been hit by a severe case of
Jungle fever!
The thought caused a hint of a smile to play at the corners of her lips. It didn’t matter that she was part black. She didn’t feel black, didn’t know anything about being black, and had never been sexually involved with a black man. She wondered if there was any merit in that saying: once you go black, you never go back. Hmm. She had a sneaking suspicion she would soon find out.

“What’s your name?” she inquired, eyeing his employee ID badge, straining to read his name. The badge, however, was clipped backwards to his shirt pocket—concealing his image and name.

The tall man frowned. “Why you wanna know my name? I told you I ain’t tryin’ to get all caught up in this shit!”

She shrugged. “I just wanted to attach a name to your face. Is that a problem?”

“Oh, aiight,” he said, obviously relieved. His dazzling smile lit up her gloomy office. Kai was deliciously enthralled.

“My name’s Marquise…Marquise Whitsett,” he offered as he turned the badge around for Kai to inspect.

“Kai Montgomery,” she said, offering her hand.

Marquise took her hand, squeezed it lightly and released it quickly. “Well, nice meeting you…uh, Miss Kai…”

“Hey, you don’t have to be that formal. Call me Kai. Please.”

“My bad. Okay. So…we’re straight, right?” Marquise asked, biting on the corner of his bottom lip.

“Sure. And you can tell your little friend that I’m going to give him another chance. But in the future, he’d better watch how he speaks to me. I won’t tolerate his disrespect.”

Marquise nodded. “Now that’s whassup. My man was just actin’ stupid; he ain’t mean no harm.”

“We could debate his intentions all day,” she said, laughing. It felt good to be in the company of a real man. Had she known thugs were so desirable, she’d have dabbled long ago.

She suddenly remembered that Marquise had mentioned something about getting married. Hmm. Oh well, it didn’t matter. Pending nuptials would not deter her.

Marquise looked at his watch. “Yo, I gotta get back to work before my supervisor starts lookin’ for me.”

Kai felt let down; she didn’t want him to leave.

“I’ll hollah at you later.” He disappeared before Kai could think of a response.

There were unlimited possibilities with that beautiful Mandingo warrior, Kai mused, but she would need a crash course in Ebonics if she expected to converse with her new thugged-out lust interest!

I
t was lunchtime, but food was the last thing on Terelle’s mind when she entered the cafeteria. She surveyed the room, spotted Melanie eating alone. Taking advantage of the opportunity to speak to Melanie privately, Terelle walked briskly toward Melanie’s table.

“Hey,” Terelle said, pulling out the chair next to Melanie. Melanie’s plate was piled high with double portions of fried wing dings and onion rings.

“Whassup?” Melanie greeted her with a smile, which Terelle interpreted as an invitation to get straight to the point.

“I’ve heard that a female in your department’s been crackin’ on Marquise. Know anything about it?” In all honesty, Terelle hadn’t heard anything concrete, just the vague information that Marquise had allowed to slip out. He hadn’t identified the woman and he most definitely had not indicated that she worked in the Laundry Department.

Melanie shook hot sauce on her food. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. “Somebody in the Laundry Department? You lyin’? Who?”

“I don’t know. I figured you must have heard something.”

“Girl, I ain’t heard a thing about nobody in my department—but I did hear somethin’ ’bout some girl who works in the kitchen.”

“Oh yeah, what’s her name?” Terelle stood up, prepared to storm into the kitchen to confront her enemy.

“She’s not on the day shift,” Melanie said.

Disappointed, Terelle sat down.

“She works three-to-eleven.”

“Okay, I’ll pay her a visit before I clock out today at three-thirty. What’s her name?” she asked again.

“Heather…But, girl, don’t be puttin’ my name all up the middle of this shit. I’m just goin’ by what I heard. And from what I’m hearin’…she ain’t the only female in this place that’s pushin’ up on Marquise.”

“Who else?” Terelle’s brows furrowed with worry.

“Too many to name…” Melanie paused, screwed up her lips. “Girl, the females ’round here been disrespectin’ you real bad.”

Terelle’s entire body felt inflamed. “Don’t they know me and Marquise…?” Her mouth went dry. “Don’t they know we’re engaged?”

“Don’t matter. That makes it more excitin’. You know how these hoes play…I just can’t understand why you would bring your fiancé around all these haters.” Melanie shook her head disgustedly and then went on. “I wouldn’t dream of bringin’ my man up in this whorehouse.” Her tone was tinged with accusation, as if she blamed Terelle for their co-workers’ lack of scruples.

Her man!
Melanie didn’t even have a man. She must have been referring to some phantom-lover because Terelle had never known her to be in a long-term relationship. And listen to the pot calling the kettle black! It was rumored that Melanie had slept around with so many men at the nursing home, there wasn’t a soul on the premises who would go anywhere near her worn-out coochie.

“So, are you going to name names or keep me in suspense?”

“I ain’t trying to get all caught up in the middle of this mess.” Melanie poked out her lips and tore open a packet of ketchup. “By the way—where was Marquise last Friday night?” she asked as she squeezed ketchup on the onion rings.

Sensing that Melanie was about to drop a bomb, Terelle repositioned herself in the chair, cleared her throat. “He…um…he was out with his friends.”

“At Chrome—on Delaware Avenue?”

Terelle shrugged. “I don’t keep tabs on Quise.”

“Maybe you should start,” Melanie said. “Word has it, Marquise was out with some big ballers at the club. They was treating all the women to Hypnotic and Remy Martin. Now I don’t have the whole story, but I heard that a certain nursing assistant from the second floor was all over Marquise—actin’ like he was her man.”

Terelle’s stomach did a double flip. She couldn’t bear to hear another word. Abruptly, she pushed back her chair and stood up. She had to find Marquise and hear what he had to say about Friday night.

“I’ll talk to you later, Melanie.” Terelle fled the cafeteria.

Running up the stairs, Terelle made it to the fifth floor without feeling even slightly winded. Her search for Marquise didn’t take long. She found him sitting on the bench in front of the elevators. He was kicked back, his long legs sprawled out—relaxed—with an arm outstretched across the back of the bench. Beside him sat a nursing assistant named Danita, a big-breasted heifer who worked on the second floor and who was notorious for dressing provocatively. She bought uniforms several sizes too small and pranced around the facility flaunting her body in skintight scrubs.

In the throes of laughter, Danita’s head bobbed and fell back, resting on the back of the bench near Marquise’s outstretched arm. She was deliberately giving the impression of intimacy, making it appear as if Marquise had his arm draped around her shoulder. Jolted by the sight of her fiancé and another woman interacting with such familiarity, Terelle stopped dead in her tracks. She silently absorbed and tried to make sense of the scene before her. When Danita, emphasizing a point, brushed Marquise’s kneecap with the tips of her fingers, a chill went up Terelle’s spine. She gasped in horror. A sledgehammer began pounding inside her chest as the shocking realization washed over her: Danita was the woman who had been up in Marquise’s face at Chrome. Making matters worse, Danita and Marquise had the audacity to continue carrying on—at work—completely out in the open for all eyes to see.

Seconds later, with her lips pressed together tightly and a confrontational hand positioned on her hip, Terelle approached Marquise and Danita. Her eyes, blazed in anger, burned holes through the faces of the two cheaters.

Briefly perplexed, Marquise looked up. His lips spread into a slight, uncomfortable smile. “Whassup?” he asked. There was annoyance in his tone and his expression quickly changed from discomfort to agitation.

Danita, apparently intending to resume her conversation with Marquise, didn’t budge from her position. “Hey, Terelle,” she said, regarding Terelle with curiosity, as if she expected Terelle to state her business and quickly move on.

“
Whassup?”
Terelle asked indignantly. “I should be asking you two that question! What’s all this?” She nodded at Marquise’s arm, which remained casually outstretched across the bench, a defiant testament that he’d done nothing wrong.

“What’s what?” Marquise chewed his lower lip and scowled.

“Excuse me, Danita. I’d like to speak to my fiancé in private.” Contempt dripped from every word.

“Excuse
you!”
Danita exploded. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere. Hmph! I was sitting here first; he sat down and started talkin’ to me.”

The hand on Terelle’s hip instantly balled into a fist. “Bitch!” was all she had managed to say before Marquise sprang up and grabbed her. Knowing Terelle was a second away from putting her fist in Danita’s mouth, Marquise pulled Terelle away from Danita and backed her out the door leading to the stairwell.

“What’s your problem? Why you startin’ your jealous shit on the job?” he fumed through clenched teeth. “You tryin’ to git us both fired?”

Breathing hard, heart hammering, Terelle jerked away from Marquise’s grip. “You’re disrespecting me on my job, and you have the nerve to ask me,
what’s my fuckin’ problem?”

“Ain’t nothin’ goin’ on between me and Danita; she’s just a co-worker,” he said in a tone that was low and deliberately calm as if he were talking to a crazy woman with a tendency toward extreme violence.

“Just a co-worker my ass,” Terelle fired at him. “Was she just a co-worker Friday night at Chrome?”

The question caught him off guard. As he struggled to come up with words to pacify Terelle, Marquise bought time by making a big show of looking shocked—looking falsely accused.

“Your night out with the boys…,” she reminded him.

“I
was
out with the boys. Danita just happened to be at one of the spots we was at.”

“What a coincidence.”

“Whatchu tryin’ to say? You think I took her out Friday night?”

“I’m trying to say that there’re ain’t no secrets in this nursing home, Quise. Everybody knows you hooked up with Danita at the club.”

“I ain’t hook up with no damn Danita…I bought her a few drinks; that’s it.”

“Is that right?” Terelle said sarcastically. “So, when you came home Friday night, you just forgot to mention that you spent time and money on someone we both work with?”

“Yo, Terelle. I ain’t got time for this bullshit. I gotta git back to work and so do you. We’ll talk about this when we git home, aiight?”

“No, it’s not all right. You know how people talk, and you didn’t even have the decency to prepare me for the gossip circulating around here. People are talking about you—about us—on every floor of this damn nursing home.”

“Fuck ’em; I don’t give a fuck what they think.”

“And obviously you don’t care what I think either. If you did, you would have had some consideration for my feelings before you struck up a conversation with the woman you’re accused of fuckin’ with.” Terelle’s voice raised several octaves.

Marquise covered his face with both hands and shook his head in exasperation. He removed his hands. “Oh, so now I’m fuckin’ Danita?” He chuckled as if Terelle had lost her mind.

“Since we both know you were too worn out to fuck
me
Friday night, why don’t you tell me who you’re fuckin’?” Terelle angrily poked him in the shoulder.

Marquise shot her a look of fury and then took a menacing step toward her. He towered over her, but Terelle didn’t feel threatened. In fact, she welcomed the release of a physical altercation, she took a defensive stance, reached up and poked him in the shoulder again.

His eyes told her he wanted to hit her, but he punched the wall instead. He stared at his bruised knuckles, opened his mouth to speak but abruptly closed it when a male employee from the Respiratory Department bounded the stairs lugging a green oxygen canister.

“How ya doing?” the man said, looking surprised to find the couple huddled in the stairwell. Terelle mumbled, “Hello,” and then lowered her head, taking a sudden interest in the concrete floor. Marquise nodded a greeting and even managed a low, “Whassup, man?”

After the man had passed from view, Marquise held Terelle in a fiery gaze.

“I’m through wit this conversation. And I’m gittin’ fed the fuck up with your insecure bullshit.”

“Then make me feel secure,” she yelled.

“You need to check yourself. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” Marquise pushed the door open and attempted to pass through, but Terelle, having a lot more to say, grabbed his shirtsleeve. He yanked away from her grasp, slipped through the door and slammed it closed.

She started after him, but suddenly stopped. Staring at the door, she was struck by the realization that Marquise had not only closed the door, but had closed his heart as well. Feeling abandoned and betrayed she burst into tears. The family life she’d worked so hard to create was swiftly deteriorating and she was helpless to stop it.

It was as if Marquise were doing everything in his power to keep the relationship from going to the next level. He’d put a ring on her finger and seemed content to remain in the engagement mode forever. His fear of commitment was why he’d been behaving so recklessly, she decided as she blotted her tears.

Well, she damn sure wasn’t going to just sit back and allow a bunch of bitches to disrespect her. But she wasn’t going to play herself by getting physical with any of them, either. She’d provide her girl Saleema with the name of each and every smut she even thought was crackin’ on Marquise. She knew Saleema wouldn’t get her own hands dirty, but she’d put together a squad of tough young girls who feared nothing. They’d be on the case without hesitation.

And Danita’s name would be the first on the list.

Marquise, she decided with a smile, was going to make good on all his promises. She’d have to devise a new plan of action—come at him from a totally different angle. No more actions motivated by jealousy. No more admissions of insecurity. No more signs of weakness. No more living to please him.

Starting today, she’d shift her focus from Marquise and concentrate on herself and Markeeta. It was time to reinvent herself. She’d begin the transformation by buying new clothes, get her hair styled, learn how to wear makeup, and start going out and having fun with Saleema. She’d show Marquise that it wasn’t all about him. And in time, motivated by the fear of losing her, Marquise would come around, see things her way and finally agree to set a wedding date.

Rejuvenated by visions of a September wedding day, Terelle happily bounded the stairs.