by Coco Pulliam
He bent down all the way to kiss her forehead, close to but not touching her stitches.
“Hurry up and sleep, darling.” He kissed her on the forehead again. “Just sleep and get better.” He traveled down from her forehead to her collarbone and then kissed her chest, hovering over each nipple before kissing her through the fabric. “Don’t scare me like that ever again.” He buried his head in her chest. She pulled him closer with her arms, playing with his hair with her hands.
“Hubby Coyer…” she murmured softly. “My Hubby Coyer—”
“Aish, so that is how our crazy daughter got herself married.”
Omma was at the door with her arms crossed over her chest. The rest of the women were behind her, trying not to laugh as they watched the scene in front of them.
“Seeing as you’re getting along okay without us, we’re going to go home and get you some food. Make sure you’re resting by the time you come back. Don’t just be here breaking hospital beds,” Omma ended.
At the woman’s words, both Tammy and Eric broke apart in embarrassment. As the other woman walked out, Monica came out from behind her, walking up to Tammy’s bedside with her bag and her cell phone. Tammy held Monica’s hand, and they exchanged a look which Monica transferred over to Eric. He got up slowly in response to the hint.
“I’m going to go to the bathroom for a bit. I’ll be back.”
After he closed the door behind him, Monica sat down.
“I can recognize that ‘Oh Shit’ look from a mile away. Now what trouble did you get yourself into this time?”
Tammy sat up without any of the previous humor on her face.
“You know what you said would happen? That Eric’s ex would come back? Yeah, well, it happened. I just didn’t know that she would bring a baby with her.”
“She brought a baby?! Oh damn!” Monica took a hair tie out of her pocket and tied her hair into a messy bun. Then she took off her gold hoop earrings to put into her bag.
“I need to make sure that this isn’t true without the help of a DNA test. I want to make sure that everything I have won’t be taken away by someone who walked away first. By someone who doesn’t deserve it…” Tammy said as she sat up. “You have the police connections, right, Monica? Just make sure they’re ready.”
“Are you sure you want to bring the police into this, or the mafia to get rid of her instead? Either way, Tam, I have someone on either side.”
There was a hard knock on the door.
“We’ll talk later.” Monica got up quickly.
“Sleep, baby, and talk to your sister when you’re better.” Eric walked into the room with a smile on his face, one that didn’t quite reach his green eyes. He waved to Monica as she left the room, then returned his focus to Tammy’s body as he sat down in the bedside chair. He rested his head on her stomach. “Go to sleep. I’ll be here waiting for my baby to wake up.”
Tammy’s time in the hospital had been haunted by the way she thought of the time she had with Eric in doubles. No matter how much he came into her room to look after her, she could see his shadow in ways that she hadn’t before. Thoughts of him leaving her were reflected in the darkness. She hadn’t felt this unsure of herself since her days in high school. She felt, in a way, replaceable. And once you feel replaceable, then the only thing left to do is to wait for everything to come undone.
But she couldn’t wait silently this time.
She contacted Monica the minute Eric had stopped hovering over her after she’d left the hospital. Her sister had kept her under suspense as she prepared everything, but suddenly one day she called to make sure she was ready. Both sisters walked into the restaurant like Men in Black. Monica had brought them the matching wardrobe of high-waist black pants and a crisp white shirt with dress jacket. She wanted both of them to look professional when they went to ask her police contact for a favor.
“Where did you say that you met him again?” Tammy asked.
“I don’t say anything more than once, love,” Monica said as she took off her sunglasses and put them in her breast pocket. “I don’t have time to do things like that.”
She strode past her and walked to the back of the room. Tammy followed quickly. The man in front of her was working on his second coffee before he looked up.
Somehow the man in front of her looked familiar.
He had a shaved head, though the last time she had seen him had been with cropped black hair. He stood up when both women approached to shake their hands. He was still tall and muscular, but she had found herself looking at him too hard for a second.
“Where did you find him from again?” Tammy leaned down to her sister and whispered.
“Daniel, the repeat baby daddy who won’t stalk me—his third baby momma gave him as his contact if I ever needed any police help. I didn’t think that we would know him.”
“I’m Thomas Grainger. Baby, don’t you remember me? Did you call me up after so long to take me up on that taste of vanilla?” Thomas’s words came with the same sleazy smile from three years ago. Tammy tried but failed to hide her grimace.
“Sorry man, you missed her by a mile.” Monica raised her sister’s hand to show the circular-cut single diamond ring and one piece of a matching wedding band set, which Eric had bought as a surprise during their sexless first few weeks of living together. The ring shone brightly in the other man’s face brightly.
“And by proximity,” Tammy said slowly.
“What do you mean by proximity?”
He sat down and quickly urged them to do the same. He asked the question, but the words seemed to go inside his head and configure slowly. There was no way that it could be—
“Eric? Not my best friend Eric. He’s been basically like a widower for the past few years.”
“Yes, you’re looking at the new Mrs. Coyer. But we’re not here to talk about the past. I need to know if you can locate the previous Mrs. Coyer candidate, Maria.”
It took a moment for Thomas to straighten out his surprised face before proceeding forward.
“I don’t know how you got my number, but I’m not in the position to help you all find Maria, no matter how much you want to find her. I don’t know why you want to find her, but if it’s going to hurt Eric in any way, then I can’t allow it.” Thomas sounded pained as he spoke.
Monica let out a sharp laugh. “I don’t want to help the bitch. I want to know why the hell she’s appearing in front of my sister.”
“Honestly, it’s not that I feel a little uncomfortable having her back now—I feel very uncomfortable, to tell the truth…but she didn’t even come alone. She has a child with her.” Tammy breathed out hard. “Eric and I got married in a rushed way. Well, more than rushed, it was very impulsive of us. But I’m happy with my life now. I just want to know if there’s a chance that anyone can take that happiness away from me.”
Thomas nodded his head and tooka black book from his shirt pocket.
“Can you give me a basic description of her?” He shook his head lightly. “No one knows, but she might have changed after three years.”
Tammy followed his introductions and answered his questions. The back and forth ritual cleared her mind and kept her focused.
“Do you ladies mind if I ask you two short questions?”
Monica nodded, but Tammy held her back.
“Of course we don’t mind.”
“I wonder what you’re going to do after you find Maria…but don’t tell me that. I might be Eric’s friend, but I’m still a cop. And this one...” He pointed to Monica. “Seems to believe in her own kind of law force.”
He got up out of his seat as he gave Monica a wink. Tammy suppressed her laughter at her sister’s uncharacteristically shy smile.
“The next question is… What are you going to do if the baby is his? Eric isn’t the kind of guy to just leave someone with his child and do nothing about it. Plus, I don’t know the extent of your relationship with him now since you’re married and all, but he lo
ved her. He loved her enough to push everyone else away and wait for her for three years. I don’t think feelings like that go away in two seconds,” he said. Both of them watched Thomas leave the restaurant.
Tammy grabbed Monica’s hand. The other woman grabbed back tightly.
* * * *
Maria being late isn’t out of the ordinary, Eric repeated to himself.
After overhearing Monica and Tammy talking about the woman who had left him over three years ago being back, he had been shocked out of his mind. But the fact that she had shown up in his life after running away from their wedding three years ago made him want to retract his statement. She wasn’t late, because there was nothing waiting for her. He was a married man now. Everything she had left was in the past. Now the only thing was to convince her of that so she would disappear from his life for good.
The front door slammed shut, and Eric looked toward it. Tammy walked into the living room slowly. Her head was down even though he knew that she was usually cheerful whenever she came back from visiting her sister. He watched as she moved through the house slowly. She finally ended up on the couch, trembling slightly.
“I missed you, Tams.” He leaned over her on the couch, enclosing his arms around her shoulders. She jumped up, startled from his embrace, but slowly leaned into him.
“Weren’t you doing some extra work for the company?”
He let go of her to walk over to the other side of the couch and sit down beside her. She moved over to give him more room. For a second, he looked taken aback by the space she’d left between them, before he reached over and pulled her closer to him.
“I told them to delegate some of my lesser work to younger employees. I don’t need to be doing any extra work when I have a wife waiting for me at home.” He drew her even closer to him and smiled into her hair. “Plus, the amount I do right now equaled the work of three employees…so I guess I earned a little break.”
Tammy turned her head so that her lips could reach his face, but she didn’t kiss him. She just looked over the familiar features that she now considered part of her own. Green eyes followed with her in her inspection.
“Baby, your eyes are so green…”
Eric ran his fingertips over her mouth to stop her from talking. He replaced his fingers on the sides of her face and pulled her closer.
“Ah…I don’t want to talk about my body. I’d rather it be pressed against yours instead.”
He ran his hands underneath her white shirt, opening all the buttons as his hand traveled down. She felt him reaching into the cups of her breasts as his other hand pulled down her bra straps.
“Ah, now that I’m married, my body is no longer mine,” Tammy said. She reached down to reach the zipper on her pants. Then she took off her jacket and shirt fully.
“You have to remember. Of course your body is not yours, and my body isn’t only mine either.”
He removed his shirt and jeans as he looked her body over. He knelt down in front of her and opened her legs. Before he could think of traveling any farther around her body, his hands found their way onto her stomach.
“I’m naked and you’re naked, but there is a stall in my reaction…I can’t think of sexy things anymore. Well, I can’t think of anything sexier than you having my baby.” His mouth replaced his hands against her stomach. He kissed her again.
“When should I just get you pregnant? Should I get you pregnant today?”
“Babies should only be brought up when their parents aren’t trembling when they think of having them.” Eric looked up at her as she shivered. “I’ll give you children. But first I’m going to make you scream. Stand up.”
Eric stood with a slight smile. She took his cock full into her mouth and pumped back and forth. The smile slid off his face. Lust returned instead.
“Tammy, you don’t have to…” He was hushed by her quick intake of his cock. Her hands traveled over her taut breasts and her clit as she worked him. She was putting on a show for him, one that his body couldn’t help but respond to. She tried to take him in for another thrust, but he pulled his cock away. She looked up in surprise as he bent all the way down.
“Ah, I can’t even go through with things like this in front of you,” he said. He spoke to her stomach. “Future baby, I’m going to take care of your mommy first, then I’ll be able to welcome you home.” Before Tammy could object, he sunk himself deep within her. The feeling of having him back within her after such a hard day had calmed her troubles.
I’ll just have this moment, she thought. I’ll just let him in this far for a while...and think about tomorrow, tomorrow.
Chapter Four
No matter how much Tammy tried to avoid Eric’s affection, he always found a way to get her to get sexy with him. Though she knew she wasn’t the first woman in the world to avoid getting pregnant with her husband, it felt strange since she just might be the first woman to avoid trying to make a baby by a husband who could be considered perfect. Eric was handsome, patient, and understanding. He was the total package. It was just that the package came with a toxic ribbon to unravel. Other wives had to deal with evil in-laws, drunken, gambling, or cheating husbands. There was nothing bad about Eric. But she couldn’t feel patient about loving him with Eric’s past able to stand in front of her wearing a size-two dress and holding onto a maybe two-year-old blond boy.
“I have to break Maria before anything comes of this.” Tammy put her lemon tea down, making sure that none of it splashed on her long-sleeved white lace dress. “There’s no other way.”
“Finally you’re talking in the way I understand,” Monica said.
Her sister had called her to talk over shopping. The only thing was, she didn’t mention the fact she’d have to sit in her sister’s house playing dress-up with the two women whose sexual advice scared her most. The two Korean sisters Sun Dae and Yi Hee sat across from her after they had changed into their purchases, a short cream ruffle dress and a leopard mini-dress.
“I told you she would get married quickly.” Sun Dae looked at her sister with a cheeky smile. “It was because of my advice.”
“No, I think it’s because of mine, dear.” Yi Hee readjusted her short dress as she sat down.
“Since neither of you can decide on the winner, I’ll disqualify both of you.” Monica walked over to her sister in her new flowing orange maxi dress.
Monica decided on Tammy’s dress, since it mirrored the wedding dress she didn’t get to see her sister walk down the aisle with. But she called the other women over to make sure that she would never have to see her sister in another wedding dress again.
“We have older brothers, oppas, in Japan who could flatten her out for you if you want,” Yi Hee said. “I don’t think Lee Young Oppa is available to do that, but Chun Min Oppa can with your convincing…”
“Why do I always have to be the one to ‘convince’ people?”
Tammy rolled her eyes at the two other women. “So do we have a deal? Are you going to help me out in this, or will we have bought all of these dresses for nothing?”
“No, we are going to the fashion show right now.” Monica went over to the table bowl to grab her keys. “Don’t worry about anything other than that.”
* * * *
Becoming a married man must have ruined my friendship skills, Eric thought.
He had been sitting with his best friend since high school, Thomas Grainger, just talking about the weather as they ate pasta in Italy town. Both of them had come to the busy restaurant to make sure they had their agendas straight when it came to each other, but now they were beginning to seem like a pair of lovers who had lost their way to one another. The conversation was tenser than fans watching the end of a close Olympic hockey game.
“Are we going to start talking about something real, or will we have to just look at each other for the rest of the time?” Eric said.
“There’s something going on with Tammy. Have you heard about it?” Thomas poked at his ravioli with his
fork. He had wanted to tell the other man for days, but there hadn’t been enough time.
“Heard about what? She’s just been around her sister’s house more than usual. I think they miss each other already.”
“Really…” Thomas balanced his straw between his fingertips before placing it in his glass. “I wonder… if you rushed into this marriage without thinking about it enough. I met with Tammy out of the blue again, and she told me a little bit about what happened, but I need more back story from you. I mean, are you even over…Maria?”
“She left me more than three years ago. Do you think it’s even humanly possible to still have feelings for her right now?” Eric twisted his spaghetti around his fork. “Tammy is my wife and the woman I chose to marry.”
“Well, you might have all of your feelings planned out, but have you told her anything like that? Right now she’s acting like a woman who’s getting her battle plan ready in case she’s going to be replaced soon.”
Eric dropped his fork loudly onto his bowl. He made a gesture of apology to the crowd, but everyone was too busy talking to even notice his action.
“Talk clearly—what is Tammy doing now?”
“Look, Eric, the marriage process is easy. A man can sign some papers and make a wife out of any ordinary woman. But you didn’t just make her into your wife; she fell in love with you as well. How do I know? It can only take the insanity of love for a person to go up to a police officer and ask favors that are two slides away from federal offenses. She’s in love with you, man. But you did this all backwards. Have you even had a conversation about what happens when Maria, the woman whom she basically thinks she replaced, returns?” Eric shook his head at Thomas’s question. The other man sighed. “This is why you need me in your life for all decision-making moments. I’m sorry for stepping outside the lines there; I just didn’t want to put on another monkey suit for another year.” He put up his beer glass for a toast.