Up to No Good (18 page)

I have to admit, though, that Sandra kept up with me every step of the way and even showed me a few new tricks. At one point, she had to stop and let me catch my breath. I was still getting over some kind of bronchitis, and her wild acrobatics in bed sent me into a coughing spell. She had a brother screaming by the time she finished with me. Maybe it was because she
was young and flexible, but she let me flip her around and bend her like a pretzel for what seemed like eternity, until we were both panting and sweating. Yeah, she might have made me wait for it, but it was well worth it. She made me feel like a young man again.

“Wake up, sleepyhead.” I carried the breakfast tray over to my king-sized bed.

Sandra slowly roused herself, rubbing her fists into her eyeballs. “What time is it?”

“Time for breakfast.”

“Is this for me?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“You’re so sweet.”

“No, you deserve it. I’ve done a lot of things in my life, but that was … wooo!”

“It was.” She flashed a smile. “So you don’t want me to leave?”

“You’re not going nowhere.”

“You’re not going to kick me out like you kick the other women out your bed, are you?”

I thought I was being playful, but her response made me realize I couldn’t joke about certain things with her. She knew my daughter, which meant she knew about my reputation for loving ’em and leaving ’em.

“No way. Never,” I assured her. “Here.” I picked up her fork. “Let me feed you.”

As I watched her enjoy her breakfast, I thought about how quickly she’d gone from a self-assured vixen in bed to a young woman unsure if she had just been used. Unlike some of the older women I ’d dealt with, who had become so hardened and cynical that they didn’t care if it was all about the sex, Sandra still had an innocence about her that made me want to wrap her in my arms and protect her heart. Life hadn’t knocked that starry glow of hope out of her eyes yet,
and I was going to try like hell not to be the one who did it.

“You know I meant what I said last night,” I told her.

She stopped eating and looked at me sweetly. “You did?”

“Yes.” I stroked her soft hair and then ran my hand along the smooth skin on her face. “There’s something very special about you. Something that just makes me want to be around you. Makes me want to be a better man. But I’m not gonna lie. You’re wife material, and I’m not looking for a wife.”

“Not yet, you’re not. But who knows what the future holds? I’m just glad that you’re letting me stay.” Her eyes sparkled with sudden tears. Now, I wasn’t about to cry or anything, but I was feeling pretty emotional myself. This woman had gotten into places in my heart that I didn’t even know existed.

Sandra wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me in for another one of those kisses that I felt all the way down to my toes. The breakfast tray was pushed to the side, and I was ready to be deep inside of her again.

That’s when my cell phone beeped, alerting me that I had a text. Sandra stopped kissing me, and from the look in her eyes, I could tell that her imagination was getting the best of her. I’m sure she was wondering which of my “recreational partners” was texting me for a booty call this morning.

She wasn’t necessarily right, though. For all I knew, the text was from a client. Any other time, I would have ignored it until we were finished in the bedroom. But she had put enough distance between our bodies now that I knew her mood was ruined.

I decided to put her mind at ease by looking at the text. If it was from a client, no problem. And even if it
was from another woman, I still had a solution. I was so into Sandra that I would reply to any woman with a text that said I was no longer interested. Sandra could read my text and see that I was serious about not hurting her, and then we could get back to making love.

Unfortunately, the text fit neither of those scenarios. It was from Jamie, and it read I’M AT THE FRONT DOOR AND MY KEY WON’T WORK! WHERE ARE YOU?

“Damn it,” I cursed under my breath.

“What’s the matter?” The way Sandra’s eyes darted around the room, I could tell she was already thinking of the worst-case scenario and was preparing to grab her clothes and leave. But in this case, her leaving would be the worst thing. We’d both be in deep shit if Jamie saw her leaving my house this early in the morning. How the hell would we explain that?

“Jamie is at the front door.”

“She is?” Sandra had a look of panic on her face. We’d never discussed keeping our budding relationship a secret from Jamie. There was no need to talk about it, because we both knew Jamie well enough to know that telling her was out of the question.

“Should I go?” she asked, making a move to get out of the bed.

“No!” I put my hand on her shoulder and pushed her back a little harder than I should have. “Sorry. But you gotta stay here until she’s gone. I’ll go talk to her, and you keep quiet up here, okay?”

I threw on some sweats and a T-shirt and headed to the door, trying to think of the quickest excuse to get rid of Jamie.

I peeked through the peephole and groaned. She had that crazy, self-righteous, “I’m going to run your business” look in her eyes. I decided my best line of defense
was to not let her get even a foot inside. As determined as she looked, she might just head straight for my bedroom, and then Sandra and I would both have to deal with her wrath.

“What, Jamie? I’m busy right now,” I yelled through the door.

“Daddy, let me in! My key won’t work.”

“It’s not supposed to. I changed the locks again.”

“What? Why?”

“Because this is my house and I wanted to.”

She started pounding and jiggling the doorknob like that was going to get her in. “Daddy! What is wrong with you? Just open the door!”

I cracked the door slightly but left my body pressed against it so she couldn’t open it farther. “You have a home, Jamie. I don’t have a key there, do I?”

“Yeah, but … but does Darnel have a key?” She seemed confused that I hadn’t just opened the door and welcomed her in. Usually by this point I would have given in to her tantrum. Shoot, I thought, lots of things about me were changing since I met Sandra.

“Nope. He doesn’t have a key either. Darnel moved out. He found his own place. Haven’t you talked to your brother lately?”

“I’ve been busy. Louis and I are having some problems. That’s why I came over.”

For a second, she almost got me. I hated to see my little girl as sad as she looked, and I was close to letting her in so I could talk to her about what was going on between her and Louis. But in the blink of an eye, she lost that look and was back to interrogating.

“Daddy, who’s in there? Why won’t you let me in?”

“I’ve got company. I told you about coming over here unannounced.”

“It’s Crystal, isn’t it? She done snuck away from her husband again, didn’t she?” She gave me a disgusted look. “What do you see in that woman?”

“Look, Jamie, I’ll give you a call later, but I’ve got some things going on right now, okay?”

“Oh, so you gon’ tell me you won’t let me, your youngest child, your baby, in your house?” Now she was giving me her best attitude, with hands on hips, lips poked out, and head tilted to the side.

I felt my blood pressure rising, but I was not in the mood for a long, drawn-out fight. Not when I had Sandra waiting in my bed upstairs. “Jamie, you’re a grown woman. Now go home and handle your own business with your own man.”

“You wrong, Daddy, but that’s all right,” she said, and then offered her final word before walking away. “I’m leaving now, but I’m gonna find out what’s going on with all this sneaking around you’ve been doing.”

“Do whatever you have to, baby, but do it from your house, okay?”

I closed the door and locked it, quite sure that she meant every word she’d said. If this thing between me and Sandra became anything more involved, we had a tough road ahead of us.

I stepped into Punta Rojo, a tasty Columbian restaurant on Hillside Avenue and walked past the hostess to the back, where Sandra was sitting in a booth. She was half eating, half playing with a salad, and if looks could kill, I would have been as dead as they come when she looked up from it.

She was annoyed because I was a full thirty minutes late for lunch, but I just couldn’t get out the door. Every time I got up from my desk, the phone rang or someone walked into the office. Usually, I would just say to hell with it and forward the phones to our service, but Daddy was trying to rush me out the door, which only made me take my own sweet time. I had a feeling he had a lunch date with this mystery woman he was seeing, and I was dying to know who was this heifer who was brainwashing him lately. I stuck around in the office as long as I could before Daddy finally shoved me out. From the look on Sandra’s face, it still wasn’t soon enough.

“Is your watch set on CP time or what?” She rolled her eyes playfully. “You know some of us only have an hour for lunch. Not all of us work for our rich daddies.”

“Jealous?” I teased as I slid into the booth across from her.

“Actually, I am. You know how I feel about real estate. I ’d love to have your job.”

“Well, it’s not up for grabs, so forget it.”

I ’d only seen Sandra a few times since the night I tried to fix her up with my brother. She looked good, working some gold highlights and a new shade of lipstick. Truth is, she kinda glowed. If I didn’t know better, I ’d think she’d gotten some recently.

“I got this. It’s on me today. I owe you for try’na set you up with my brother anyway. Did he ever call you?”

“Yeah, he left me a message apologizing. Said something about him and his ex were getting back together.”

I pantomimed a gagging motion. The thought of Darnel wasting his time with Keisha made me sick to my stomach.

Sandra just shrugged. “You know, story of my life. That’s why I don’t fool with these young dudes.”

“Sorry, girl. I really thought it was gonna work out. Trust me, it’s his loss.” My brother was a damn fool for passing on someone like Sandra. Where else was he going to find someone with a good job and a great body who knew how to respect herself? He sure as hell wasn’t gonna find it if he kept messing with that skank. Sandra wasn’t like Keisha or the rest of these tramps I saw chasing after Darnel and my father. She had class. Why couldn’t my father or my brother choose someone like her?

“That’s a’ight,” she said. “I’m seeing someone.”

“And you kept it from me?” I pretended to be offended, but really, I knew I was just as much to blame. We weren’t best friends or anything, but we did try to
get together at least a few times a month to catch up on gossip and talk about the men—or sometimes the lack of men—in our lives. I ’d been so busy worrying about what Louis was up to lately that I hadn’t checked in with her the way I usually did.

“Yeah, I’m just seeing how it goes for now. But, gurrrl, I think he’s definitely a keeper.”

“That’s it? I want to know everything. Is he fine? Is the sex great? Does he have a job? College graduate?”

“I don’t want to jinx it by talking about it,” she said, looking everywhere but straight at me. “I just got my fingers crossed on this one.”

“No, no, no, no. That’s not how we do it. You gotta give me some details, girl. How long you been wanting to meet someone, and now that you have, you don’t want to talk about it?”

“Jamie, I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m superstitious. I don’t wanna mess it up.”

I had never known her to be so closemouthed about a man, but whatever. I was dealing with enough of my own drama. “At least answer this: Is he a brother?”

“Yes!” Sandra laughed. “And I will tell you that I haven’t had this much fun with a man in a long time.”

“Really? Well, the sex must be great, ’cause you got that look,” I teased her.

“What look?” Sandra blushed.

“That I’m-being-fucked-really-good look.”

“Who, me?” She pointed at herself with a sly smirk. “Why would you say that?”

“Yes, you. And you know why I’m saying it. Now, is he packing or what? Come on, girl. Give up some details.”

“Let’s just say I don’t kiss and tell. But I’m sure if you had your chance, you’d want a man just like him.”
The way she was looking at me said this man must be the bomb.

“I know that’s right. He really must be something.”

We high-fived and laughed. If Sandra wanted to be superstitious and silly about this dude, then she could go ahead. I just hoped for her sake he was worth all the fuss.

“Long as he’s treating you good.”

“Good? Girl, it’s better than good. I haven’t had to open my wallet once since I met him.”

Sandra always did have expensive tastes, so whoever this mystery man was, he’d better have a fat bank account if he wanted her to stick around.

“Sounds like he meets all your requirements,” I said.

“Yeah, he’s pretty amazing.” She got this dreamy look in her eyes for a second, then said, “But enough about me. What’s up with you?”

“My life is crap right now.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“God, where do I start? First of all, my father is seeing some wench.”

“So what’s the problem?”

I wanted to ask her, “Are you for real?” She had heard me talk about my father enough times to know that I never liked anyone he dated. Most times, she would nod her head and bash the bitches right along with me, but today she tried to play it off like she had no idea about my history with my father’s women. I didn’t know what her problem was today. But instead of jumping on her, I explained my point.

“He’s been acting strange. I mean, he’s doing shit that’s not like him at all.”

“Really? Like what?”

“Like I went over to his house last week and he was in the garage, bench-pressing.”

“So?”

“My daddy doesn’t press weights. He ain’t got to impress nobody. You should hear him. He be all huffing and puffing and shit,” I said with a laugh.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything. Maybe he’s just try’na get in shape.”

“No, I know my father better than anyone, and trust me, he’s seeing some new skank. I tried to make him dinner, and he told me no and then ate some damn Lean Cuisine! I’ve never seen him eat frozen food. He don’t even like leftovers.”