Married Men

by Carl Weber

  “Jay, man, what’s the problem?” Wil stepped between Malcolm and me.

  “This fool’s the problem. He threw a plate of food on me.” I pointed at the floor. “And look what he did to your carpet.”

  Wil turned to Malcolm angrily.

  “I’m sorry, Wil. It was an accident. I’ll pay for your carpet to be cleaned.” Malcolm reached into his pocket and handed Wil a hundred-dollar bill.

  “It’s aw’ight, man,” Wil replied.

  “What about my suit?” I asked.

  “I’ll get it cleaned. But I’m buyin’ you a new tie. Where the hell did you get that thing from, Kmart?”

  I looked across the room and saw the embarrassed expression on Kenya’s face. I couldn’t help myself. I broke free from Wil’s grasp and slapped the shit outta Malcolm. “My wife made this tie!”

  Malcolm charged at me, but before he could swing, I hit him right between the eyes, knocking his dumb ass out. The next thing I knew they were dragging me outta the house.

  “Jay, man, calm the fuck down. It’s us.” Kyle tried to snap me out of my rage.

  “Where’s Kenya and Tiffany, Kyle?” I didn’t want Malcolm’s family going after my pregnant wife.

  “I’m right here, Jay.” Her tone was full of attitude.

  I turned around. Both Kenya and Tiffany were standing behind me.

  “What is wrong with you, Jay?” Kenya shoved me.

  “What’re you talkin’ ’about?”

  “I’m talking about this macho man shit. Why did you hit that man?”

  “I was protecting you. Didn’t you hear what he said?”

  “You weren’t protecting me. You were embarrassing me. I don’t even know that man. Why would I care what he had to say?”

  I looked around at all the people standing there. If she wasn’t pregnant, I might have slapped her for embarrassing me like that in front of my boys.

  “Is it all right if she spends the weekend here, Wil? ’Cause I’m sick of her shit.” I cut my eyes at my wife.

  “If she wants to,” Wil replied, obviously uncomfortable with the whole scene.

  “That all right with you?” I asked Kenya, though I really didn’t care if it was.

  “Just pick me up tomorrow night.” She grabbed Tiffany’s hand and walked back in the house.

  “I’m outta here,” I told my boys as I headed to my car.

  “Jay!” Wil called.

  When I turned, he was standing between Allen and Kyle.

  “Stay outta trouble.”

  “I don’t think so, Wil.”

  When I got home from the baptism, I stayed in my house for about two hours before I headed for the New Jersey Transit train station. On the way to the station, my cell phone was ringing, but I didn’t have to check the Caller ID. I knew it would be Tracy. She’d taken two buses and two trains from Brookville, Long Island, to come see me in Jersey. She was waiting for me at the train station.

  “Hello?”

  “Jay, I’m here.” Tracy’s voice was sweet and sexy and I couldn’t wait to get in her pants.

  “Okay, baby, I’ll be right there. I’m about two blocks away.”

  I’d broken down to temptation. When I got home and checked my cell phone messages, I had two messages from the nineteen-year-old college coed. Her first message was the usual just-checking-in message. She wanted to know if I was interested in hanging out since she had just finished finals and hadn’t seen me for a while. Of course she didn’t know the real reason we hadn’t hooked up was that I’d decided to be faithful to my very pregnant wife. When she didn’t get a call after her first message, I guess she decided to turn up the heat a little, ’cause her second message was off the hook.

  “Hi, this is Tracy. I fell asleep waiting for your call and had the wildest dream. The two of us were together, and I was your personal sex slave. I did everything and anything you wanted without question. You had me wear a thick black dog collar with a chain, and anytime I misbehaved, you would spank my bare bottom with your hand. God, Jay, that dream was so hot.” She sighed heavily into the phone. “If I told you I wanted you to make my dream come true, would you do it? Just the thought of calling you master as I sit naked at your feet, ready to do whatever you ask, is getting me moist. I bet I can make it the kinkiest time you’ve ever had. Gimme a call tonight. I’m leaving to go back home to DC for the Christmas break tomorrow night.”

  I must have listened to that message eight times before I called her to find out if she was serious. My own personal sex slave. Damn, that shit had me turned on like a mothafucker. And after what had just happened with my wife, I was through with this faithful husband charade.

  When I pulled into the terminal, I spotted Tracy right away. She was one fine young sistah. About five-ten, Tracy had a smooth honey brown complexion with a short, nappy bleached blond hairstyle. Her makeup was flawless. I swear she looked like a supermodel standing there in her stylish black trench coat and high heels. My nature began to rise when I remembered she’d promised to be completely naked under her coat. Grinning from ear to ear, she jumped in the car and gently kissed me on the lips. Her lips were so soft my heart skipped a beat.

  Tracy didn’t have any idea that I was married. I’d lied when we met and told her I lived with my sister and her two kids. So I felt more than a little uneasy taking her back to my house instead of a hotel. But money was real tight with Kenya out on maternity leave. I’d planned on asking Kyle for a little loan after the baptism, but never got around to it after the bullshit fight with Malcolm. Not that I was worried about Kenya popping up. With her being pregnant and without a car, she wasn’t going anywhere until I was good and ready to pick her up from Wil’s house.

  The ride home was short and uneventful for the most part. Tracy and I talked about her studies and when she was coming back from Christmas break. The subject of her sex-slave dream never even came up during the ten-minute ride to my house. When we pulled in the driveway, I made a quick mental check to be sure I had hidden all my wedding pictures. I’d spent almost an hour making sure all the evidence of my marriage was stowed away. I also made a diagram of where everything belonged so I wouldn’t get myself busted putting things back in the wrong place. The last thing I needed was for Kenya to find something out of place and start asking a whole bunch of dumb questions.

  When we entered the house, Tracy didn’t even look around. She just turned to me with a sexy smile.

  “Where’s the bedroom”

  “Upstairs, second door to the right.” I pointed to the staircase and she gently took my hand to lead me up the stairs. Standing outside the spare bedroom, she wrapped her arms around me. Her hazel eyes seemed to sparkle as she seduced me with her gaze.

  “I’m about to make this a night you’ll never forget.” She pulled me down for a kiss.

  To tell the truth, I was disappointed. I’d heard that same line from a few dozen women over the years, and most of them, I couldn’t even remember their names. For some reason I’d hoped Tracy would be different. Luckily, not long after her overused line, she proved herself to be anything but common. That girl gave me the French kiss of a lifetime. Enough to make me weak in the knees. The way she moved her lips and tongue against mine made me feel like I was in some type of erotic trance, floating on air. I’d never had a kiss like that in my entire life, and every time she broke the kiss, I would pull her in close for another. We must have stood in the hallway kissing like that for twenty minutes before she guided me into the bedroom. I was still mesmerized by her mouth and eagerly accepted more when she pushed me back on the bed and straddled me. She hadn’t even taken off her trench coat, yet I was more excited than I’d ever been in my life.

  “I really like you, Jay Crawford.” She kissed me on the bottom lip. “And I want you bad, real bad.”

  She stepped back, reaching into her coat pocket to pull out a black dog collar. My eyes bugged out of my head as she buckled it around her neck. When the collar was secure, she reached into her
other pocket and pulled out a long chain that she hooked to the collar. She took a step forward and placed the chain’s leather handle in my palm. In one fluid motion she let her trench coat hit the floor. All I could do was gulp and stare. Words can’t describe what my eyes were seeing. Tracy had the finest body I’d ever seen. She was so perfect I was afraid to touch her.

  I’d had sex with over a hundred different women in my lifetime, but with Tracy standing there in front of me, I felt as if I’d never been with a real woman before. I remember thinking to myself that this had to be a dream. No woman could make me feel the way I was feeling. We hadn’t made love yet, but I could feel myself getting choked up with emotion. I wasn’t sure if I was about to experience true love, but I sure as hell wanted to. I felt like the woman who had never had a real orgasm. She always heard her friends talk about it, but just once she wanted to experience one for herself, to see what the fuss was all about.

  “Well, master, what’s your first command?” she asked humbly.

  I held that chain in my hand and was honestly speechless for the first time in my entire life. What she was offering was so enticing and overwhelming, but so not what I wanted.

  “I don’t wanna command you. I don’t wanna fuck you. I just wanna make love to you, Tracy.” I couldn’t believe those words had come out of my mouth, but they did. God, I sounded like a soap opera, and the crazy thing is I meant every word. I can’t ever remember wanting someone the way I wanted her. I didn’t just want her physically. I wanted her emotionally too. Honest to God, I wanted to make love to her, to make her body sing in a chorus of my love.

  “Okay.” She nodded. “I know exactly what you want. I want that too. I just didn’t think I would get it.” She unhooked the dog collar and stepped closer to me, placing both hands on the side of my face. Gently, she eased me down on the bed and kissed me. We made love so passionately that I swear I was crying the entire time. I can’t remember when we stopped, but when we did, she fell right asleep in my arms. I didn’t wanna let her go for anything in the world.

  Sometime before sunrise I woke up and she was still in my arms. I’d never been so happy and so confused at the same time. My body was still tingling from our passion. Her body was curled up against me and she was still sleeping like an angel. If I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn I was in love. But I was too old to confuse good sex with love. Or was I? She rolled over and kissed me, then closed her eyes to fall back to sleep. She was so beautiful. Even after sweating off her makeup she looked like an angel. When the sun came up, I went downstairs to make breakfast for my young sweetheart. I wasn’t Allen’s mom, but I could cook some mean pancakes.

  While I was cooking, I picked up the phone and called Wil’s house.

  “Good morning.” Wil sounded wide awake. I could hear Teddy and Tiffany playing in the background.

  “What up, dawg?”

  “What’s up, Jay?”

  “Nothin’. I just woke up and wanted to check on the family ”

  I considered telling Wil about the woman in my bed and how I felt, but he would never understand. Shit, I didn’t fully understand what I was feeling. All I know is that Tracy was the first woman I’d ever met to totally satisfy me. And it wasn’t just physical.

  “Kenya wasn’t feeling too good, so I’m watchin’ Tiffany and Teddy. I think she’s lying down. Want me to wake her?”

  “Naw, just tell her I’ll pick her up around eight tonight.”

  “Aw’ight, bro. I’ll see you then.”

  “Hey, Wil. She ain’t still mad, is she?”

  “Man, let me tell you. Ten minutes after you left she was talkin’ about how sorry she was.”

  “Get the fuck outta here.”

  “For real.”

  “That’s good to hear. Tell Diane not to cook. I’ll pick up some Chinese on my way over.”

  “Bet. Make sure to get some shrimp fried rice.”

  “Okay, bro, I’ll talk to you later. My pancakes is burning.”

  I hung the phone up and finished making breakfast. When I came in the room, Tracy was just waking up. I watched her stretch and admired her fine, young body.

  “Good morning,” I smiled.

  “Mornin’,” she replied, trying to see what was on the tray I was carrying.

  I placed the tray over her lap and kissed her passionately. I wanted to throw the tray on the floor and make love again, but she resisted.

  “I’m so hungry. The food in the dorm is horrible.”

  “Can I feed you?” I felt like a kid in a candy store.

  “I’d like that.” I took the linen napkin out of the holder and placed it on her lap in front of the tray. I fed my little princess. I’d never been so excited to be with a woman in my life. After we ate, Tracy and I made love for most of what was left of the morning and into the afternoon. She was by far the most incredible lover I’d ever been with. When we finished making love, she laid on my chest.

  “Jay?” she whispered.

  “Yes?” I whispered back.

  “I don’t want to complicate things, but I could fall in love with you.”

  “Yeah, I know the feeling.” I stroked her hair.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe we should try to take it one day at a time.”

  “I’ll do whatever you want. I just don’t wanna get hurt.”

  “Tracy, if you knew what I was feeling inside, you’d know the last thing in the world I wanna do is hurt you.”

  “I hope so, Jay, ’cause I can be a real bitch when someone hurts me.” With that she laid her head on my chest and we both fell asleep.

  I had no idea what time it was when I woke up, but I could see it was dark outside and the street lights were on, so I suspected it was early evening. I turned over to kiss Tracy and panicked when I realized she wasn’t in bed. She’d mentioned something about catching a train back to Long Island before it got too late, but I didn’t think she would do it without saying goodbye. I’d wanted to drive her back myself. That way I’d be able to spend a little more time with her before she left for DC. I was so relieved when I heard the shower running in the bathroom that I jumped up to join her. I poked my head into the steam-filled bathroom and called to her.

  “You aw‘ight? You need shampoo or a towel or somethin’?”

  “Baby, the only thing I really need in here is you.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. Everything she said made me feel good. I was about to grab a towel from the linen closet when I heard what sounded like a car door slamming in my driveway. That’s when I got this chill, and intuition told me to take a look out the window. I was glad I did. In my driveway, parked behind my car, was Diane’s car. My heart completely stopped beating when I saw two women walking toward the front door. One of them was Diane, and the other was my unmistakable pregnant wife.

  Now I’d been in quite a few sticky situations in my life, but this had to be the stickiest. Tracy was in the shower waiting for me to join her, and Kenya was about to walk through the front door. I had to think quick. I knew I had to stop Kenya from coming in that front door. So I leaped down the stairs in three tremendous strides, trying my best to put on a sweatsuit as I went. By the time I hit the door, Diane was standing in the foyer.

  “Hey, what’re you doing home?” I startled Diane, who dropped Kenya’s keys.

  “Jay, you scared the hell outta me.” Diane picked up the keys. “Your wife’s about to have this baby.”

  “Why didn’t you take her straight to the hospital?” I gave Diane a nasty look as I approached Kenya, who was leaning against the entry, holding her stomach. “You okay, honey?”

  Kenya nodded with a grimace.

  “She wouldn’t go to the hospital without you,” Diane stated flatly.

  “Have you ever heard of a telephone? I could have met you there.” My mind was spinning. I didn’t know what to do. I looked down at Kenya, who looked like she was gonna pass out. Shit, I was so nervous I felt like I
was gonna pass out too.

  “We tried to call, Jay, but the line was busy and your cell phone was turned off.”

  “Oh, yeah, I was on the Internet most of the afternoon,” I lied. I’d taken the phone off the hook right after I made breakfast. The truth is, I wanted an excuse just in case my wife did try to call. At least if she got a busy signal, she couldn’t accuse me of being out of the house with another woman. I guess this time I was too damn smart for my own good.

  Thud!

  Something fell upstairs and Diane immediately looked up the stairs then glanced at me suspiciously. My knees almost gave out, I was so scared I was gonna get busted.

  “I’m gonna kill that damn cat of yours, Kenya,” I stated more for Diane’s benefit than Kenya’s. I don’t think Diane believed me, though, ’cause she looked up the stairs again with a smirk. Thank God Kenya had another contraction and yelled out in pain.

  “Ahhh, the contractions are getting closer,” Kenya moaned.

  “Girl, we need to get you to the hospital,” Diane demanded. “Come on, Jay.”

  “Look, Diane, you get Kenya over to the hospital. I’m gonna lock up here and put some sneakers on.” Kenya grabbed my wrist.

  “Jay, I want you to take me. You missed Tiffany’s birth, I don’t want you to miss this baby’s birth too.”

  “Don’t worry, honey. I just have to put my shoes on and I’ll be right behind you.”

  “No, Jay. I want you to take me.” I looked up the stairs, terrified that any second Tracy would call my name or stroll out of the bathroom naked.

  “Okay, honey, I’ll take you. Diane, put Kenya in your car while I get some shoes and lock up. We’ll all drive over together in your car, okay?”

  Kenya let go of my wrist and nodded. I looked up the stairs again as I helped them back outside. Once I got them both in the car, I came into the house and closed the door behind me nervously. I heard Tracy call my name and ran up the stairs as fast as possible. She was standing in the hallway, naked.