by Dorse Green
Everything was almost perfect for Tate. But, from time to time, he would have that one girl who would try to test him. This was something he would not tolerate and he would dismiss them immediately. Tate would not allow any girl to disrespect his wishes. Some would disrespect him and then come back acting as though nothing had happened; however, he wasn't having that. If you disrespected him once, he wanted nothing else to do with you. Unfortunately, those who attempted to approach him after they had disrespected him, would soon find out the hard way that they made a grand mistake by approaching him.
That was one mistake they would never make again. Eventually, Tate had been with so many girls that there were times he would find himself forgetting some of the girls he had already been involved with. One night while standing in the club with his friends, he saw a girl from afar. He leaned in close to his friends and said, "That's a nice looking girl right there". Tate was always on the lookout, trying to find the best looking girl in the club.
As soon as she got closer to him, he leaned closer to her and whispered in her ear, "How are you doing?" She responded with an upset tone in her voice, "Why haven't you called me!". Tate was now confused by her response because he had no idea who she was. But in his mind he knew that she could be one of his past girls and he had just lost her ‘face’ because he had been with many of them, and was never serious with any of the girls.
So he allowed her to talk because as she was speaking, he was listening to her every word to allow himself time to remember who she really was. There were times when Tate would be bored with himself, so he would ask his friends to pick out a girl for him and his task was to get her. Believe it or not, half of these girls Tate would not even call after getting their phone numbers. He just liked doing it, to see if he could. When it came to relationships with any of them, for some reason after having sex with them once, he would become uninterested in having sex with them again. Tate even had a verse of a song that reminded him of himself that was written by Jay-Z called Excuse Me Miss. Every time this song would play in the club while him and his friends were together, they would look over at him and laugh. The verse was, "Everybody's like, He's no item! Please don't like him. He don’t wife 'em, he one night 'em!"
Tate was so stuck on that verse that he even had it set as his screensaver on his laptop. Some of Tate's friends would laugh at him because they would say things like, "What have you been doing to these girls?" Like he was doing some extra sexual pleasures with them. Tate would laugh and make jokes about it. His reply would be, "You know the saying... Once you go black, you never go back? Well, once you go Tate, it's too late to change things around." Even when he grew up always hearing how men and women would talk about how great sex could make a person fall in love, Tate had a hard time believing that. Well, especially after all the girls he had been with and for that to be true, he would have thought by now he would be in love.
For the most part, Tate felt as if he was sexually satisfied with the performance of the girls he has been with. So, in his mind, the saying about great sex can cause a person to fall in love was definitely out of question. The single life for Tate fell short once again. But this time, it was very unexpected because at this time in his life, any type of serious relationship was out of the question. Entering Club Extreme with a couple of friends during a wet bikini dance contest had Tate's eyes caught in a deep stare. The way she moves her body up on stage had him intrigued.
The competition ended and she was announced as the winner, sending her into full excitement as the crowd went wild. Tate was on the search to find this girl that he was so intrigued by. He was searching through the crowd with her nowhere in sight. Then there she was, at the center of the dance floor! He made his way to her with no hesitation and softly grabbed her by the hand and asked her name. The conversation started rather quickly as they began to dance. Then out of nowhere, their dance was interrupted by this girl with a rush of excitement! This girl said, "I told you I was going to win, three times in a row. At that moment, Tate realized that he had made a mistake. Disappointed with the situation because he knew this was a task he would not be able to complete. Figuring there was no way around the situation, Tate continued to show interest in the girl he assumed was the girl on stage.
As the night passed and it became closer to the end of the night, Tate said to the girl, "Well, can I get your phone number? She hesitated and said to him, "Well I don't know if I should, because you seem like you are a player." This is a word that Tate despised the most, despite behaving like he was one. He hated being described as a player. So he said to the girl, "What makes you assume that I am a player?" She replied, "Because you have that pretty boy look about yourself."
"So just because I look this way, you assume I'm a player?" He responded while obviously being annoyed by her remarks. He continued to convince the girl otherwise, along with proceeding to ask her for her phone number. He could tell she was holding back from giving it to him but at the same time, her actions revealed that she wanted to, but had to continue to make it difficult. By this time, Tate was becoming very impatient. So he said to her, "I'm going to ask you one more time for your number. Can I have your number?" She hesitated once again. And, without hesitation, Tate turned away and walked off, leaving her standing there.
Even when he walked off, he did not really get disappointed because now he was back on the mission to find the girl. Once again, he found himself searching for this girl. Closing time was coming around quick, which meant he had to work fast on finding her. Tate heard the DJ announce the last song of the night and shortly after, the lights would be switched on as security escorts people out of the club. As he was exiting the club after the song had been played, there she was crossing the street and approaching the area which everyone was exiting! He quickly had to think fast on how to get her attention. So he said, “Excuse me, I don't know if that was your friend or whomever, but she's something else."
Before he could even get out what he was about to say concerning the girl, she said to him, "That's my sister." (As if things couldn't get any worse.) Tate, feeling a little down at the moment, responded, "I know you may not believe me, but truthfully, I introduced myself to the wrong girl." She appeared to be slightly confused by this. So he said, “Let me explain, I entered this club and spotted you on stage in the wet bikini contest. From that point on, I was searching all over the club to find you. I spotted this girl which I thought was you, only to find out I was wrong. How I figured that out was because your actions on stage were the same as when you approached your sister and I, while we were on the dance floor. By that time, I knew I had approached the wrong girl. Being that you had seen that I was with her. I knew that there was no chance of me getting to know you. So I continued on trying to get to know your sister."
That was quite a long explanation, but it was enough to get a response from her. "I understand, it happens often. People mistake me and my sister for one another." Tate told her, "Your sister assumed I was a player by the way that I look and gave me false hope which caused me to become uninterested. Which I didn't mind because the girl I was looking for is standing before me now." She laughed and said, "Whatever." Tate always believed if you can get the girl to laugh the better are your chances in getting to know her. So he said, "Well my name is Tate, by the way. What's your name if you don't mind me asking?" "Angela, she replied.
"So, I see you won the wet bikini contest". He responded with his heart pumping, seeing that the conversation was still ongoing. "Yeah, I've won every time I've entered and I do it only for the money," she said. He said to her, "There's nothing wrong with that." Tate had a way of getting girls to do things for him in a way that would have a person thinking he was only using them. He said to Angela, "So how about you take me out to eat?" Angela was surprised, “What? You're supposed to take me out to eat." They laughed together before Tate said something more, "You're the one who just won free money in a contest. You can take me out to eat. Please... I'd like t
hat."
Angela laughed and casually responded, "Okay, but not tonight because my friends are waiting on me. That's where I was headed now to find them." So they exchanged numbers and she walked off to meet her friends. During the exchange of the numbers, Tate noticed his friend, Daniel, trying to get his attention to come over to where he was and standing next to him was Angela’s sister. Waving off to his friend "no", Daniel approached Tate, telling him Angela's sister wants to talk to him. But he explained to Daniel he is no longer interested. Walking back to the car and crossing their path at that moment was Angela, and Tate walked her to her car. Tate was so intrigued by Angela that all his attention was focused on her. He made her laugh the entire walk to her car. Once they approached her car before opening her door, Tate turned her towards him and began to sing. "I can't believe it's real. I can't believe it’s true. I can't believe its happening. I can't believe it's you and I can't believe that you are here with me and I am here with you."
After singing, he had really taken her off guard, so it became easy to casually kiss her goodnight – which he did. Oh how Tate loved impressing the girls with his singing, and it hardly failed! As soon as Tate got in the car, Daniel handed him a piece of paper with Angela's sister’s number on it. He immediately got upset with Daniel because he felt as if he was being put in a bad situation since he was already focused on Angela and didn't want her thinking he had anything to do with getting her sister's number. But at the same time, Tate was wondering why Angela's sister would give him her number now after seeing he was now talking to her sister? He was now thinking to himself that it was very odd for her to now want to give him her number.
Nevertheless, the day was over and ushered in a new one. For Tate, it was a great day because that’s when Angela came by for a visit. During the visit, he wanted to take her outside and enjoy nature with her. "It's nice outside, so how about we take a walk and maybe that will give us a little time to get to know each other?" They came across a small diner, nothing real fancy, just a little area where they could sit down and relax. They found themselves spending all afternoon together – something that Tate rarely does when it comes to girls, but there was something different about Angela. Later that evening, they ended up at Tate's apartment and they decided to watch a movie.
Everything was going perfect for Tate as was expected. He had a way with the girls, and for some reason, they felt very comfortable with him. Just another name about to be added to the list, Tate thought to himself. The way she moved her body and undressed herself brought chills to his skin. Her touch was like a touch he had never felt before. Definitely, it was a night that was about to change his life. The next day, he was very anxious about telling his best friends about the girl he had met. The following weekend, she blessed him with her presence once again. A week later, it was as if they were inseparable, to where somehow she ended up staying more frequently at his apartment until she eventually moved in completely.
Tate had no interest in hanging out nor going out with his friends anymore because he found himself wanting to spend all of his time with Angela. A month into seeing Angela, he asked her to stop taking her birth control because he wanted her to have his baby. Things were definitely moving extremely fast, causing Tate to do things that he normally would not do. Tate knew from the beginning that he was highly attracted to Angela, sexually, which caused him to act in such a way. A couple of weeks after asking Angela to stop taking her birth control, she discovered that she was pregnant with his soon to be first child. You would think, by Tate's actions in everything that was going on with Angela, which things were going great.
But a few months into their relationship, he began to miss hanging out with his best friends and it was just a matter of time that his selfishness would get the best of him once again. Tate's intentions of going out with his friends were innocent in the beginning, but it was just a matter of time that the temptation would get the best of him. This would be even more of a task for Tate. How does one juggle having a pregnant girlfriend at home while interacting with other girls without getting caught? Tate's had a way with his girlfriends that some might not understand.
After his first couple of relationships, he started to convince himself that any girl he became serious with would fall deeply for him. Why his girlfriends would become so emotionally attached towards him was indescribable. Some might say he used it to his advantage. Taking advantage of these situations caused an uncontrollable emotional hurt that his girlfriend’s chose to endure, but he never felt the need for anyone in a relationship to be controlled. You may call it manipulation because, for every action he took, there was always a reason behind it – things definitely always set to fall in his favor.
It would appear that Tate was everything that a girl could ask for. He was very protective and dominant when needed to be, and blessed with good looks, great sense of humor, romantic, loving, sensitive and very caring. A blessing that he took full advantage of, not thinking of all the pain it would cause. From the looks of things, you would think Angela was just the girl Tate wanted in his life. She was very athletic and very much into sport as Tate was himself. She was also in her senior year of college which was a major attraction for Tate.
Angela was a very strong determined individual. Every word she spoke expressed how important it was for her to graduate and be successful in life. Now expecting her first child, you would think she would be less determined, but that was far from the case. She pushed herself even harder. 9 months later at the age of 23, Tate had his first new born baby girl. Their first child was definitely a blessing for the both of them. They were filled with excitement, enough to fill a whole room! But the new adventures as parents were soon to come – which is not always that easy.
Angela's caring for their new born along with having to continue with her schooling was very difficult. Tate's behavior changed temporarily due to the birth of his baby girl, but in no time, he was back to his selfish ways. Angela clearly suspected his actions but feared the thought of losing him so she kept quiet. She was stuck in the middle – does she address Tate's actions and take the chance of him abandoning her or is she better off saying nothing?
Just a few weeks after the birth of their new born, Angela approached Tate in tears. At that moment, he was worried that Angela had found out something concerning him and other girls and it had him uneasy. With hard tears falling down Angela's face, she cried out to Tate, I'm pregnant and I can't do this! Tate embraced Angela with full affection, letting her know that she is not alone, that she has his full support and told her everything is going to be okay. You would think that this would cause Tate to step back and care less about the thought of trying to get with other girls, but not even that was enough to keep his full attention. Bad choices can sometimes come back to hurt a person if they’re not careful.
Now moving back to Lynn’s story, she somehow found her way into Tate’s life, and it was during the same time as Tate was with Angela. After finding out that Lynn was a coworker of Angela's sister's boyfriend, Tate continued to interact with her. While constantly reminding himself of this bad situation, he was building trust for Lynn, and he became too comfortable in the process, which he would soon regret. Although Lynn knew that Tate had a pregnant girlfriend and child at home, she continued to pursue his attention. Now Lynn was also aware that Angela's sister’s boyfriend works with her, and therefore, it was just a matter of time before he knew it. But she wanted it to be like that – she was determined to find a way to let it be known that she was a friend of Tate's.
One evening, Angela said to Tate, “Hey, a friend of yours works with my sister’s boyfriend.” While being told, Tate was playing it off as if he was uncertain of whom she could be referring to as he shrugged his shoulders. He did not say anything as he tried to avoid a bad situation with Angela. Angela continued to question this friend with concern. “Well, this friend tells my sister that you and her are really good friends.”
No longer able to avoi
d what is being brought to his attention, he saw that he now had no choice but to intervene so that he could clarify the whole situation. “Oh yes, Lynn, her and I have been friends for quite some time now.” He said while mentioning that he was unaware that Lynn was a coworker of her sister's boyfriend while trying to convince Angela that this friend was of no importance. Angela knew her limits when it came to Tate, so said nothing more. Tate patiently waited to call Lynn to address this situation in private. He waited until he arrived at work later that night. The right approach was very important to him because he knew that the wrong approach could become very threatening towards his relationship. Picking up the phone while nervous because he did not know how her reaction would be like, he dialed her number.
Lynn answered the phone and there was laughter and loud music playing in the background. “Hello.” She spoke into the phone in a loud voice that was seemingly fighting its way through all the noise in the background. “Hey, can you talk?” Tate wanted the chat between them to be civil and matured so that nothing goes wrong. But it seemed as if Lynn was busy being concerned more about whatever was happening in the background, and that riled Tate.