by Tracy Reed
“That’s not true. He was with my brother, at his bachelor party.”
“Yes, he was. And then he left and came here, and we spent the night and the morning of his wedding making love.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Answer me this. On your wedding night, did he leave to get condoms?”
“How did you know that?”
“Because he was on the phone with me. Who do you think got him all excited so he could make love to you? I told him to turn the lights off and pretend he was making love to me. The Tuesday after your wedding, he was here with me, all afternoon celebrating his marriage.”
“Stop it,” Olivia pleaded.
“He told me you two always make love with the lights off. That’s so he can pretend he’s with me. Why do you think he always wears a condom, even though you’re on the pill? Because I told him the minute you got pregnant, it was over.”
“Stop it,” Olivia pleaded again.
“Why do you think he never had sex with you on Sundays?”
“Because we’re both too tired from the long day.”
“The Eric I know, wouldn’t let that stop him. No sweetie, he knew if he wanted to play with me on Monday morning, he had to be rested up. Why do you think he was always in such a hurry to have sex with you on Saturday mornings?”
“How did you know that?”
“He told me. It was because he was missing me. Your husband, may care about you, part of him may even love you, but it was our bed he desired. Every little sordid, disgusting thing he liked…being tied up, talking dirty to him, spanking him. Heck, he took me to his favorite strip club so I could learn how to strip and give him lap dances. Whatever and however he wanted it, I did it.”
“Stop it,” Olivia cried.
“No, you wanted to know. Every piece of furniture in this apartment, the shower and the bath tub all bear the memories of our lovemaking. I have done things with your husband that you could never imagine. He would bring DVDs so we could imitate his favorite scenes. Eric has a voracious sexual appetite that needs to be constantly fed.”
“Stop it,” Olivia pleaded again.
“He would call me on our off days and ask me to talk him through lunch. By now, he’s probably going through withdrawal, because he hasn’t been able to…express himself like he wants to.”
“STOP IT!” Olivia shouted. She walked over to the window and stood, staring. DeeDee stood up and brushed the back of her skirt. Fighting the tears, Olivia asked, “When did… when did you meet?”
“Every Monday and Wednesday morning and Tuesday and Friday afternoon. We’d hole up here for a few hours and then I’d send him home to you to rest.”
“So you were his morning VIP patient?” Olivia stood still with her arms wrapped around herself.
“Yes.”
“The business trips and conferences?” Olivia asked.
“Some were legitimate trips, the others were our vacations.”
“Why tell me now?” Olivia asked.
“I didn’t want to, but the Holy Spirit wouldn’t leave me alone. And DeeDee and the man I’m seeing said it was the right thing to do.”
Olivia turned around. “So what…you’re all saved and sanctified now and looking for redemption?” she asked smugly.
“Get out.” Kyla started toward the door.
“Kyla, calm down. She’s in shock,” DeeDee jumped in.
“She’s got a funny way of showing it.”
“I’m sorry.” Olivia looked around the beautifully decorated apartment. “I want it.”
“What?” Kyla asked.
“The apartment.”
“Olivia I don’t think that’s a good idea,” DeeDee replied.
“Why do you want it?” Kyla asked.
“I have my reasons,” she replied. “I’ll give you twenty-five percent over market value.”
“Are you insane?” DeeDee asked.
“Normally, I wouldn’t question such an offer, but…,” Kyla replied.
“Are you using it?” Olivia asked.
“No, this is the first time I’ve been here in over six months,” Kyla answered.
“What did you pay for it?” Olivia asked.
“Five fifty.”
“I’ll pay twenty-five percent over whichever is more, the current market value or the original price, and I want the furniture,” she replied calmly.
“You’re serious?” Kyla asked.
“I’ll have my lawyer contact you tomorrow.” She picked up her bag and started toward the door and noticed the bags by the door. “What’s this?”
“Some lingerie I was going to throw out.”
“Leave it,” Olivia said.
“Leave it…why would you want it?” DeeDee asked.
“I have my reasons. I’ll be outside, when you’re ready.” She turned to face Kyla. “I wish I could say it’s been my pleasure, but seems only my husband can honestly say that.” She walked out and slammed the door.
DeeDee walked over and hugged Kyla, “Are you okay.” Kyla was shaking.
“I’m fine. Man, if this were a couple of months ago, I’d be leaving in handcuffs, and she’d be leaving in a body bag.”
“And I would have said it was self defense.” They laughed. “I’ll talk to you later.” DeeDee opened the door, looked back at her new friend and closed the door.
Kyla let out a deep breath. “God, I didn’t want to say those things. I wanted to keep that part of me a secret. It wasn’t how I wanted to do it, but it was how You wanted it done. I see now, that I needed to say those things, to confess my sin so Satan couldn’t try holding it against me. Thank you God. I feel clean and free. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
She walked around the apartment looking to see if there was anything she wanted to keep. After a few minutes, she realized the only thing she wanted, wasn’t in the apartment, but on his way to her home. She slipped into her jacket, turned off the lights and walked out. She closed the door hard, locked both locks, took a deep breath, turned around, got on the elevator and didn’t look back.
She was grateful to have the elevator to herself. “Thank you God for this new beginning. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
She walked outside and hailed a taxi. Twenty minutes later she was about two blocks from her street where she got out and started walking. She needed some fresh air. She wanted the stench of her old life completely off her before seeing Sean. She turned the corner and, coming up from the south end of the block was her best friend. Sean’s hands were full…the dog leashes in one hand and the dinner bags in the other. Both dogs started barking and pulling Sean toward her.
He looked up and his smile instantly calmed her. She hurried toward him. A few seconds later, she stopped in front of him smiling.
“Hey baby,” he said, smiling. She pulled his face down to hers, kissing him passionately. She pulled back smiling. “Wow, that was some kiss. I take it everything went well?”
“Not like I planned.” She took the dogs’ leashes and grabbed his hand. They walked into her building and stopped at Jerome’s desk.
“Well, if it isn’t the happy couple,” Jerome teased.
“Hi Jerome,” Kyla smiled.
“Hey, Jerome. Wait a minute baby,” Sean reached inside his pocket. “Jerome, are you a Knicks fan?”
“Die hard,” Jerome said proudly. “Since I was a boy.”
“I have a couple of tickets I can’t use. Do you want them?”
“Are you serious?”
“These are behind the players bench,” Sean handed him the tickets.
“You’re kidding?”
“They’re yours if you want them.”
“Sure do. My grandson and I…man, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” They walked down to the elevator and got in.
“You’ve just made a friend for life,” Kyla said smiling.
“He’s a good guy.” He lifted her hand up to his mouth and kissed it. They stood quietly the rest of the ride up to her floo
r. The elevator stopped, they walked down the hall and entered her apartment. She let the dogs off their leashes and Sean set up dinner while she changed her clothes.
“Hey baby,” she called out. “Can you come here, I need your help.” She stood in front of the closed door waiting for Sean. As he came around the corner, Winnie and Simon lead the way.
“What’s up?”
“Here.” She opened the door to the guest room, led him inside and stood at the foot of the bed. “What do you think?”
“About?”
“The room.”
He looked around and it was decorated in her style, but it was very masculine. He recognized the headboard, it was from his last collection and the fabric was one she had asked him about. He remembered that she said it was for a new client. He continued looking around and in the corner was a dog bed with “Simon” stitched on the front. And on the bed, a pair of white cotton pajamas.
“What’s going on?”
“I figured, if you have a meeting up town and don’t have time to go home to change or rest up, you could do it here. There’s room in the closet if you want to leave some things and a bathroom so you can freshen up.” He walked over to where she was pointing and saw a white bath robe with his initials “SMP” hanging on a hook, and a toothbrush on the counter. “And since you and Simon are here a lot, I thought Simon might want his own spot to hang out.”
He walked over to the closet and pulled out the dog sweaters hanging there. He tried to hide his smile. “Ky, this is nice, but I don’t think…”
“And my place is closer to the airport, so when we go on trips, you can stay here and not have to get up so early to pick me up.”
“Ky, I don’t know about this.” She handed him the small brown box she’d been holding on to for the past couple of weeks. “What’s this?”
“Open it.”
He pulled the ribbon off the box and opened the lid. His face lit up as he lifted the silver key ring. “Keys…to what?”
She playfully socked him. “The gold key opens the front door and the silver key opens this room.”
He looked at her trying to hold back his smile. “Thank you, but I…”
“Sean, if it makes you feel better, only use the key and room if you want to. Besides, there’s going to be a time when I’ll need you to check on Winnie, or pick something up or drop something off for me.” She smiled as she repeated the words he said to her when he gave her the key to his place.
“I vaguely remember hearing something similar.” He pulled her close and kissed her. “Thank you.”
“What did you bring for dinner?” she asked, as they walked back into the kitchen.
“I went to that Italian place a couple of blocks over and got some spaghetti with meat sauce, linguine with pesto and chicken, salad and garlic knots.”
“Garlic knots…I guess you didn’t plan on kissing me tonight.” He tickled her. “Stop it. Did you get some gelato?”
“Of course.”
They sat down and fixed their plates. He took her hand in his and prayed, “Thank you Father, for this food and for this time of fellowship with my girlfriend. I pray there is nothing in this food that will harm either of our bodies, but that it will nourish and strengthen us so we can do the assignment You have called us to. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.” He leaned over and kissed her. “Since you said I couldn’t kiss you after eating a garlic knot.” She smiled. He waited a few minutes before asking, “So, are you going to tell me what happened?”
She took a deep breath and shifted in her chair. “It was horrible. I didn’t want to tell her everything but, she insisted.”
“What?”
“DeeDee told her she didn’t need to know the details, but she insisted.”
“And you told her?”
“I didn’t want to, but…”
“Ky…”
“I didn’t think she should know what her husband was like. The more I tried not to answer her question, the stronger I felt I had too. It was like I was being pushed to fully come clean.” She waited for Sean’s reaction, but nothing. “I never wanted anyone to know the things I did in that apartment with Eric, but God didn’t see it that way.”
“How’d she take it?”
“Before or after she called me a prostitute?”
“What?” He almost choked.
“She called me prostitute and said I was lying. Then she accused DeeDee of setting all this up because she doesn’t like her husband and didn’t want to share her decorator. Oh yeah, and she wants to buy the apartment.”
“What?”
“She said she wants to buy the place and offered me twenty-five percent over market value or what I paid, whichever is more.”
“Are you kidding?”
“No, and she wants it as is, furniture and all.”
He sat staring at her with his mouth open, before responding. “She’s probably going to put him out.”
“Then why…oh, so he can live with the memories.”
“Exactly. She’s going to put him out and send him to live where he spent most of his time. That’s cold blooded.” He put another forkful of pasta into his mouth and chewed. “I gotta say, if pushed, I might do something similar.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
“Ky, you haven’t seen me angry. When people are in love, they do strange things.”
“If that’s love, I don’t know if I want any part of it.” She sipped her water.
“You’ve never been in love?” he asked.
She thought for a moment. “No. And if I had, I’d like to think I’d be in control of my emotions and behavior.”
“That’s just it. When you’re in love, you kinda do strange things.”
“Really?”
He looked at her smiling. Everything he’d just said, she was doing. She had completely changed her life, given him a key to her home, made room for him and Simon, and closed the last door to her past. “And as the relationship grows and changes, so do you.”
“Well, I hope if that happens to me, I won’t do something insane.”
He looked at her dark eyes and he was excited, because for the first time since they started getting to know each other, he sensed her naivety. She had no idea she was acting like a woman in love. “So are you going to sell it to her?”
“I was thinking and praying about it on the way home.” She noticed his smile. “What? Why are you smiling?”
“Nothing.” He kissed her. “So what did you come up with?”
“I think I’m going to do it. The apartment is just sitting there and I have no use for it.” She reached for his hand. “Baby, the smell and memories, literally made me sick.” He gently squeezed her hand. “I couldn’t wait to get out of there. You do understand why I didn’t want you to go with me?”
He brushed the side of her face. “Yes.” She turned her mouth up in a slight smile.
“Thank you.”
Chapter 55
“MEET ME AT THE APARTMENT at 1:30 this afternoon. I miss you. If you get there first, I’ll meet you in bed.”
Eric’s face instantly lit up as he held the crisp white note card. He had been waiting over six months for a note like this. Finally, a chance to explain himself. He had been rehearsing what he’d say when he got the opportunity. After Kyla returned the case of champagne, the diamond bracelet and earrings, he didn’t think he had a chance with her.
He checked his watch and rearranged his afternoon. Then he called Olivia and told her he would be working late, and not to expect him for dinner. He was on fire. He hadn’t felt such energy in a while. Since his breakup with Kyla, he had tried self- service, but that didn’t quite satisfy him. Instead, he increased the number of times he made love to Olivia, trying to make up for the excitement he was missing from being with Kyla. The frequency helped, but it lacked the passion and fire he had with Kyla. It was difficult for him to get aroused. When Kyla cut him off, he channeled his anger, but that energy was short lived.
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br /> He tried to get Olivia to experiment, but she refused. She wouldn’t touch him unless he asked her to, and even then it was forced. He and Olivia had never been in sync sexually, and he attributed it to her lack of experience. He always felt that if they had slept together beforehand, he would have known they weren’t compatible. He was cool with her inexperience though, because he had Kyla, and she more than made up for what he was missing at home. Now that she was back in his life, he felt like a teenager.
He started planning his schedule, but first he’d make Kyla pay for the way she had treated him. It would take more than her showing up with only a pair of boots and a necklace on to get back into his good graces. No, she was going to have to play the game his way if she wanted him back. He picked up a couple of boxes of condoms and a couple of bottles of her favorite champagne.
He was getting excited, thinking about all the things he was going to do with her. They’d start in bed and work their way throughout the apartment. He was trying to figure out how he could spend the night with Kyla, and continue this freakfest throughout the night and into the morning. He closed his eyes and pictured her naked body, feeling himself getting excited. He looked at his watch, one o’clock. He rode up to the apartment, hoping she wasn’t there yet, because he wanted to shower first. He entered the apartment and looked around. It was just as he remembered.
He hopped into the shower, brushed his teeth and covered his body in baby oil and aftershave. Kyla was very particular, and dry, rough skin wasn’t acceptable. He finished preparing himself, grabbed the champagne and glasses, and placed them on the chest next to his side of the bed.
He looked at his watch, one-twenty. She’d be here any minute. He turned off the lights and waited. A couple of minutes later, he heard the door open, followed by the sound of stilettos tapping across the floor coming toward the bedroom. The closer the footsteps got to the bedroom, the more excited he grew.
He turned the lights on. “Sexy, come see how much I’ve missed you,” referring to the many times before, after a long separation, she’d asked him to show her how much he missed her. He pulled the sheet back revealing his excitement.