Married Men (55 page)

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Authors: Carl Weber

BOOK: Married Men
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“Val! I know you’re here.” When I didn’t get a reply, I put my briefcase down and angrily headed for my bedroom. It had been quite a while since I’d seen Val in person. But what I saw next made me put aside my anger and take a deep breath. Some women look nice in candlelight. Others look good in lingerie. But Val? Let’s just say Val had it
goin’on
as she lay on my bed wearing a sheer white baby doll nightie with feathers around the edges and a matching thong. To say she looked breathtaking in that candlelight was an understatement.
“Hi,” she purred. “I was starting to think you weren’t going to come home.” She reached over to the ice bucket and poured a glass of champagne.
“What are you doing here, Val? This is breaking and entering.” I folded my arms across my chest to show my displeasure, but I must admit it was getting mighty hard to be angry with a woman who looked so damn fine. She got up off the bed and walked over to me. The sway of her hips and breasts was even more enticing than ever and she knew it.
“I’m here to apologize, Kyle,” she said in a sincere voice, handing me the glass of champagne. I smiled. As much as we’d been through, I had to admit it was good to see her. I thought she hated me, and for her to take the high road and apologize was truly honorable. Hell, I could totally understand her wanting an apology from me.
“Apologize about what? You don’t have to apolo ...” She took her finger and placed it on my lips to quiet me.
“I want to apologize for the way I’ve been acting lately. Especially the phone calls. It’s just that I missed you and I needed to hear your voice. I’m sorry.” She took a step closer and kissed me. I didn’t resist, so she did it again, this time parting my lips with her tongue.
“Come on. I wanna show you something.” She grabbed my hand and led me into the kitchen where she lifted the lid of the big pot. The smell that came out of it was to die for.
“About a month ago I called your mother and asked her for the recipe to those ox tails you’re always talking about. It took me a while, but I finally got all the ingredients to make some. You’d be surprised how hard it is to find freshly slaughtered ox tails. So when I found them I figured I’d come over and make you your favorite dinner. Kinda make up for all the trouble I’ve been causing you. Oh, and just so you know, I didn’t break in. I used my key.” She took a spoon and dipped it into the pot, offering me a taste, which I gladly accepted.
“Damn, that’s almost as good as Mom’s.” I took the spoon out of her hand and dipped it in for another taste.
“Well, thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment. Why don’t we sit down and eat? I’ve got a long, exciting night planned for you.” She licked her lips then lifted her head for a kiss. I gave her exactly what she wanted with no regrets. After the day I’d had, what she was offering was like a breath of fresh air, and as long as she didn’t mention Lisa or the divorce, we were straight. At least for tonight anyway.
We’d been eating, drinking, and talking for the better part of two hours, and both of us had a little buzz. She’d even managed to make me laugh a few times, which was no small feat considering my mood lately. I was on my third plate of ox tails and about ready for a little dessert in the bedroom, especially since Val had been teasing me by massaging my inner thigh with her bare feet all night.
“Hey, how about we go in the room and I give you one of my patented massages?”
“Sure,” she smiled, raising her eyebrows a few times. “But first I’d like to propose a toast.” She filled our glasses with champagne.
“So, what are we toasting?” I lifted my glass. So did she.
“Your divorce. We’re toasting your divorce. Thank God it’s finally over.” She sounded as if this was the happiest moment of her life. She even tried to clink glasses, but I pulled mine back. She didn’t realize it, but she’d offended me. And all of a sudden her presumptuousness reminded me that Lisa and I might still be together if she hadn’t busted in that night, talkin’about how she was pregnant.
“What the hell do you mean, we’re toasting my divorce?” I rolled my eyes and sucked my teeth. The entire day’s misery began to creep back into my mind again. “Do you actually think I wanted to get divorced?” I took my napkin off my lap and threw it on the table. I don’t think she liked my attitude or my tone because her smile became a frown right away.
“Look, don’t act all stink with me because she divorced your ass. Not after I spent all day cooking your ass ox tails and spending all my money on this outfit and candles. You would want to act grateful.” She was heated, and so was I. We were definitely not on the same page.
“You know what, Val? I think you should leave.” I got up and walked into the bedroom with her hot on my tail.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Kyle? I would think you’d be relieved to finally get rid of that bitch.” I turned around in a fury.
“I love that bitch, Val! Okay? Do you understand? I love her!” I picked up her clothes and handed them to her.
“Yeah, I understand perfectly. You go to the black bitch when you want some pussy, but it’s the white bitch you wanna go home to. That’s fucked up, Kyle!”
“You got it all wrong, Val. It’s not about what color she is. It’s about the woman I love. The woman who had my three kids. If you can’t understand that, I don’t know what to tell you. Now can I have my key back?” She threw the key at me.
“You’re going to regret this, Kyle.” She slid into her jeans. “I swear on my dead grandmother you’re gonna regret this!”
“You know what? I already do, Val.” I started to blow out the candles around the room.
“You think I’m playin’, don’t you? Aw’ight, mothafucker. When I get finished, you’re gonna regret ever fucking with me.” She slipped on her shoes and stomped out.
When I finished blowing out all the candles and straightened up my place a bit, I sat on the couch trying to relax. All the weight of the divorce and the shit that just went down with Val was torturing me. I’m not gonna lie. I felt bad about how I had treated Val. She was the kind of woman any man would want. It wasn’t her fault that I was still in love with Lisa. I should have been man enough to ask her to leave when I first got home, instead of letting my stomach and my hormones get in the way. I was about to pick up the phone and call her with an apology when I heard a car alarm go off. A car alarm that sounded just like mine. I jumped up from the sofa and looked out the window. Yep, it was my car all right. The horn was beeping and the lights were flashing, but more importantly Val was standing next to it and she was holding something shiny in her hand. Whatever it was, she used it to stab my front tire. I watched that tire die right before my eyes and my anger erupted. I almost ripped the window off the track trying to open it.
“Get the fuck away from my car before I kill your ass!” I couldn’t believe what she was doing. And would you believe she had the nerve to look at me and smile as she made her way to the rear tire? I closed my eyes when I saw her hand go up in the air.
“Fuck this shit,” I yelled, as I grabbed my keys and ran out the door. I decided against the elevator and bolted down the staircase, hoping to stop her before she killed my remaining tires. If she was smart, she’d be gone before I got down there. I wasn’t the type to hit a woman, but if I got outside and she was there, I was not gonna be responsible for my actions. When I raced outside and saw my car, I couldn’t see Val but I could hear the loud hiss of one of my tires being punctured.
“I swear to God! I’m gonna kill you, Val!”
She must not have thought I’d get downstairs so fast ’cause she popped her head around the side of the truck and let out a scream before taking off down the street. About two seconds later I was on her tail. We must’ve run down Highland Avenue two or three blocks before I was close enough to catch her. And she must’ve sensed I was right on her heels because she put on a burst of speed as she zigzagged across the street without looking. Unfortunately for her she was headed right into the middle of the street and a car.
“Val, Goddammit! Look where you’re going!” I screamed.
She wasn’t paying me no mind, and I realized her only chance was for me to stop her. Thank God I was able to grab hold of her blouse and throw her to the ground before she entered the street again. But her blessing was my curse as my momentum took me right into the middle of the street and into the path of the car. I slipped and fell and only had a few seconds to get out of the way. I was scared like shit as I tried to scramble to my feet. Unfortunately, when I finally got up, there was loose gravel on the road and I slipped and fell to the ground again. This time I knew I wasn’t going to make it and braced myself for the impact as I heard Val’s scream. I don’t remember being hit, but I do remember Lisa and the girls flashing through my mind right before everything went dark ...
44
 
Tracy
 
I was in the rest room of the Lobster Inn on City Island admiring my new engagement ring. I was so happy, my smile stretched from ear to ear. Jay had just proposed over dinner and I’d slipped into the rest room when we finished eating to fix my makeup. I must have cried a river of tears I was so overjoyed at his proposal. Not just because he asked me to marry him but also because this finally proved that he loved me. I’d really been having my doubts about us lately, especially since he kept calling me by his wife’s name. I hadn’t pointed it out to him but he’d been doing it more and more lately. My friend Tia practically had me convinced I should leave him and move in with her, but I was trying to stick it out for the baby’s sake. Besides, I was in love with the guy.
“Mmm, mmm, mmm. Girrrrrrl,
who was he?” a pretty brown-skinned woman sighed as she walked into the rest room. She went into a stall and closed the door while her friend, a supercurvy light-skinned woman with a cheap weave stood in front of the mirror next to me. “Girl, that man was so fine he looked like a chocolate god. And the way he smiled at us with those dimples. Lord, he made me wanna feel his rhythm in my thighs. Why ain’t you introduce me, Keyshawn?”
The woman beside me sucked her teeth and her words made me drop my purse. “Please, Renee. Trust me, you do not want no introduction to Jay Crawford.” She barely glanced at me as the contents of my purse scattered across the tile floor.
“Jay? That’s the brother you used to talk to when I was livin’ in Atlanta? The one who used to send you flowers all the time and took you to that fancy hotel on the beach?”
“Mmm-hmm,
that’s him.” She twisted her lips as she teased her weave in the mirror.
I felt a little queasy all of a sudden. She had to be talking about the Beach Comber Hotel in Bayville, the one Jay had sworn up and down he’d only been to with me. I picked up my purse and rushed to put everything back in it. Jay was about to get a piece of my mind. I can’t believe he would lie about something like that.
“I thought you said he was ugly.” Her friend flushed the toilet and came out of the stall to wash her hands. “Girl, he is not ugly. That man is
fine.”
“He may be cute, but he sure as hell is a dog. And when was the last time you saw a pretty dog?” They both laughed. “Besides, Renee, that fool’s married.”
“I don’t know, Keyshawn. Fine as he is, I think I could deal with him being married.” I lifted an eyebrow and glanced at her out the corner of my eye.
Not if he’s married to me, bitch,
I thought. But I kept my mouth shut and my ears opened.
“Hmmph, think I wasn’t dealing with it? As good as that dick was, I didn’t give a shit about his marriage. It was the VD I had a problem with. That fool gave me gonorrhea.” She faced her girlfriend, head bobbing as she spoke.
I gasped and dropped my purse again. They both turned to me with evil glares. I smiled like a fool as I picked up my belongings for the second time.
“Forget her.” Renee waved her hand and got back to the subject. “You mean to tell me that fine-ass nigga out there burnt you?”
“Like a Yule log,” Keyshawn said matter-of-factly as she applied her lip gloss.
“Damn, now that’s fucked up.” Renee shook her head.
“No, I’ll tell you what’s fucked up. That bastard had the nerve to accuse me of givin’ the shit to him.”
“Well, did you?” I couldn’t help it. I had to interrupt their conversation. They were talking about my man and I know he ain’t give no one VD.
“Hell no! I ain’t give him shit.”
“Well, how can you be sure? How many guys was you fuckin’?” She was about to answer me, until I guess she came to her senses. Her long, red fingernail was waving in my face.
“Who the hell are you, and why are you all up in my business?”
“Come on, Keyshawn. Let’s go. She’s pregnant.” Her friend pulled her a few steps away from me.
“I know. But she needs to mind her business. She don’t even know me like that. What’s up with you, anyway? You mess with Jay or somethin’?”
“No, I don’t mess with him. I’m engaged to him.” I flashed my ring and she examined me from head to toe, shaking her head.
“Damn, girl. He gave you one of those cheap-ass rings too? I guess some things never change.” She shook her head again. “Do yourself a favor. Before you go runnin’ around tellin’ people you’re engaged to Jay Crawford, make sure that he’s divorced. ’Cause believe me, his wife ain’t never gonna let him go.”

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