Married Men

by Carl Weber

  “I’ve gotta get you to promise me something, Allen,” he sniffled. It was so hard for me to watch him like this.

  “What’s that?”

  “That you’ll never tell anyone about this. Not even Wil or Kyle. And if it ever comes up, I got arrested for DWI.”

  “Aw’ight, Jay, but you’ve got to stop this shit, man.” I don’t know why I agreed to keep his little secret. If the roles were reversed and I had been the one arrested instead of him, he would’ve never let me live it down.

  “You hungry?” he asked, opening the car door.

  “Yeah, I could use a bite.” I looked up. and the sun was coming up over the horizon.

  “Why don’t you follow me over to the house? I’ll make you some breakfast.” I knew that his real reason for wanting me at his house was to run interference with Kenya. With me there, he had a perfect alibi. She’d never have to know he’d spent the night in jail if he walked in the door with me.

  It was nine o’clock when I pulled into Ma’s driveway. I figured I’d stop by and check on her before heading back over to Rose’s for the rest of the weekend. What I hadn’t figured on was that Rose would be at Ma’s house waiting for me. In fact, when I walked in, she and Ma were sitting on the living room sofa like they’d been best friends for twenty years. Now that was sure a sight I thought I’d never see in my lifetime. Still, I wasn’t too sure I liked this scene. It was a little too sudden for them to be so friendly.

  “Hey, baby,” Ma smiled. “We was just talkin’ ’bout you.”

  “You were?”

  I looked at Ma, then at Rose suspiciously. I didn’t know what was going on, but something was definitely up. There hadn’t been any love between these two since Rose and I got engaged and she had rejected Granny’s ring. No way was I gonna believe that everything got patched up this quickly without a good reason.

  Ma got up with tears in her eyes and wrapped her arms around me tight. “Congratulations, son.”

  “Thanks, Ma.” I hugged her back weakly. I had no idea what she was talking about and that scared me. When she sat back down, she placed her hand on Rose’s knee, patting it gently. That scared me even more. A lot more.

  “What are you congratulating me for? Don’t tell me my numbers came up on Lotto last night?” If that was the case, I was gonna die ’cause I forgot to play Lotto this week.

  “You didn’t tell him yet?” Ma turned to Rose.

  “Tell me what? Damn, my numbers did come up, didn’t they?” I stomped my foot in frustration.

  Rose looked up and smiled. “I know you wanted to tell your mother yourself, Allen, but I couldn’t help myself. When she called this morning, I just had to tell her I was pregnant.”

  My expression went blank. I’d completely forgotten about Rose’s supposed pregnancy. “Ah, hun, I thought we were going to keep that little bit of news to ourselves ’til we had it confirmed.” It had only been about two weeks since the first time we had sex without a condom.

  Rose grinned. “I took a home pregnancy test this morning. Look for yourself. It’s positive.” She picked up a three-inch plastic object and handed it to me. She wasn’t lying. The damn thing had a pink plus in the middle.

  “Oh, Allen, I’m so proud of you.” Ma smiled. “Now why don’t you come over here and have a seat? I was just about to sign these papers Rose brought over.”

  “What papers?” I looked over on the coffee table and there was the manila envelope I’d seen at our apartment. I looked at Rose and she wouldn’t make eye contact, but she did push the papers closer to Ma. She looked like she wanted Ma to hurry up and sign. Damn, what the hell was she up to? I walked over to the sofa and sat down next to Ma, nonchalantly picking up the pen before she could.

  “What exactly does Rose have you signing, Ma?” I gave her a nervous smile. Rose’s lack of eye contact gave me that same uneasy feeling I had the night before.

  “A life insurance policy. Rose has one for all of us. Isn’t that right, Rose?” Ma turned to Rose. “Gotta make sure we look out for my grandbaby’s security. Isn’t that right, Rose?”

  Rose smiled, nodding her head. She still hadn’t made eye contact with me. Probably because “security” was a word right out of her mouth. And she seemed to have Ma wrapped around her little finger all of a sudden.

  Ma picked up a stack of papers that had my name on them and handed them to me. I got a little chill when I saw the policy was for $500,000 and Rose was the beneficiary. I picked up the stack with Ma’s name on them. It was a cheaper policy, only $200,000, probably because she was older and would be more expensive to insure, but once again Rose was the beneficiary. How the hell could she make herself the beneficiary of my mother’s life insurance policy? That was damn sure gonna change.

  “Where’s your policy, Rose?” I asked with an edge to my voice.

  “Why?” she asked, reaching for the stack of papers in front of her. I reached across Ma and grabbed the stack of papers at the same time she did, winning a tug of war. When I looked down at the papers, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Although I was her beneficiary, Rose’s policy was only for $25,000.

  “I thought these policies were for the baby’s security? Why’s your policy so cheap?”

  Rose glared at me as if she could will my mouth shut. “Why don’t we talk about this at home, Allen?” She tried to sound sweet, but I could tell she was on the verge of screaming.

  “No, I wanna know now!”

  Rose jumped at my unexpected outburst.

  “Allen,” Ma said sternly, “don’t you upset this girl.”

  “But Ma ...” I couldn’t believe Rose had brainwashed my own mother so quickly.

  “Look, I said leave her alone. She’s at an early stage of her pregnancy. Anything could cause her to have a miscarriage. Now you know how much I wanna have a grandbaby. Leave her alone!”

  Ma grabbed the pen and signed the papers, then handed the pen to me.

  “Sign the papers, Allen,” she demanded.

  I glared at her in stunned silence.

  “Allen, do you remember when your father died?”

  “Yes,” I nodded.

  “You remember what kept us above water?”

  I didn’t say a word. I knew the answer, I just didn’t wanna say it. Neither Ma nor I had to work for almost five years after my dad died ’cause he took out two large life insurance policies. Ma’s policy was so large she was able to retire and pay off the house.

  “Allen, I asked you a question. Do you remember what kept us above water?” She was sterner this time, talking to me like I was eight years old again.

  “Yes, Ma.” I hung my head like a scolded kid.

  “I don’t know about you, but I want the same security for my grandbaby and your new wife that your daddy left us. Don’t you?” Ma patted Rose’s knee again.

  “Of course I do, Ma. But ...” I stopped myself before finishing that sentence ’cause what I was about to say was cruel. Not to mention the fact that it would probably make Rose call off the wedding and have Ma kick me out of the house for upsetting poor, pregnant Rose. I figured I’d better not tell Ma that the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of Rose and a life insurance policy was her hiring someone to bump the two of us off. I knew it wasn’t probable but it was definitely possible.

  I looked past Ma into my fiancee’s eyes. “I hope you appreciate what Ma and I are doing here, Rose.”

  “I do, Allen,” she said humbly, rubbing her still-flat belly. “I just want what’s best for Junior.”

  “Sure you do,” I said, signing the paper without another word. Once again Rose had won and gotten her way, but what she didn’t know was that I’d be watching her very closely from now on. She’d crossed a line that no one should ever cross A bond between a mother and son.

  20

  Kyle

  It had been a long time since I’d kissed someone other than Lisa, and Val’s perfume took over my senses as her lips parted from mine. We’d just gone ou
t for a late dinner at the Soul Café in Manhattan, after I’d finally convinced Jay to take his butt home, that is. Val had really surprised me with the sudden kiss when we walked up to her door. I was still savoring the taste of her lip gloss when she pressed her lips against mine again. This time I parted her lips with my tongue and kissed her back passionately. Moving my hands from my side to her hips, I slowly caressed the softness of her curved behind. For the first time in recent memory I felt my manhood spring to life. It had been a long time since I’d felt true desire for a woman and it felt good.

  “I thought we were just going to be friends,” I whispered as I kissed her neck.

  “I was just trying to show you how friendly I could be,” she giggled, rolling her neck around so I could kiss the other side. I knew I’d found her spot when her breathing became heavy and she pulled me into her apartment. As we kissed again, my nervousness had disappeared and the only thing I could think of was how wonderful it would be to make love to her.

  I’d been hanging with Val for a little over a month now. Nothing romantic, just friendship. At least until now. Truth is, I knew she wanted me. She’d sent me more than enough flirtatious signals the past few weeks to make up for the rejection she’d given me that night in my apartment. I was just afraid to make a move because I didn’t wanna embarrass myself if I couldn’t get it up. But judging by the lump in my pants, that wasn’t going to be a problem tonight.

  “I want you, Kyle,” she whispered, gently blowing in my ear. If she only knew how much that excited me.

  “I want you too, Val,” I whispered back.

  I kissed her again, slowly undressing her in the middle of her living room. As each piece of clothing fell from her body, I gently ran my fingertips where the clothes belonged until she was standing in front of me wearing only a G-string.

  “Now that you’ve got the package unwrapped, what do you plan on doing with it?” she asked as she slowly removed my suit jacket.

  “First I plan on giving you a very delicate, sensual massage. Then I’m going to make your body sing with my tongue. You think you’d like that?”

  “Uh-huh,” she moaned as if I’d already started. “I’d love for you to make me sing.”

  I smiled. Things were getting hot, and I could feel perspiration form on my forehead.

  “Then after I taste what makes you a woman, I’m going to make love to you in every way imaginable.”

  “Oh, God that sounds so good,” she whispered. “There’s just one thing.”

  “What’s that?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine a problem the way she was panting by now.

  “Condoms.”

  “Condoms?” I didn’t get it.

  “Do you have any?”

  Now I got it. No condoms, no sex. I’d been married so long I forgot about condoms.

  “No, I don’t have any.”

  “Neither do I.”

  “Damn,” I knew this was too good to be true. I was praying she wouldn’t change her mind about the whole thing. “Want me to go get some?” I raised my eyebrows, pleading with my eyes.

  “I think that would be best.” She kissed me. “I promise it’ll be worth it.”

  I took one last appreciative gaze at her naked flesh.

  “Of that I have no doubt.” I reached down to pick up my coat. She handed me her keys.

  “Let yourself in. I’ll be waiting.” I wanted to get back to her so bad, I almost ran to the door.

  It felt like I’d been to every corner store and bodega in Brooklyn before I found a store that sold lambskin condoms. I wanted Val so bad I probably woulda dealt with the rash a latex condom would give me if she had one at her place. But since I had to go to the store, there was no reason to mess around with my allergy to latex.

  When I got back to Val’s apartment and opened the door, I could smell the incense she was burning and could hear the romantic music in the background. A smile spread across my face when I realized she was playing Montel Jordan, my favorite singer. It was nice to know she was the kinda woman who remembered things like that. As I took off my coat, I couldn’t help but notice the large box sitting on the coffee table. I picked up the note on top of it.

  Kyle,

  Take off your clothes. There a present in the box for you. There’s a bottle of champagne in the fridge and two glasses on the counter. Pour us some. I’ll be waiting in the bedroom.

  Val

  I opened the box and there was a powder blue satin robe and a pair of matching boxers. Man, she had really gone all out. I guess she had planned this night all along. I stripped off my clothes and put on the boxers and the robe, checking myself out in the mirror above the sofa. I had to admit I looked pretty damn good. Strolling into the kitchen, I filled the two glasses with champagne and made my way to the bedroom. The door was closed, so I knocked gently.

  “Come in,” Val purred sweetly.

  I opened the door and did a double take. Val looked so damn good I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. She was wearing a sheer, sexy teddy with a matching thong, the same color as my robe and boxers. But it wasn’t just what she was wearing that made her look so awesome. It was the way she was posing. Her pretty brown thighs were fully exposed and crossed over each other as she lay on her stomach, looking up at me.

  “Mmm, mmm, mmm, don’t you look good?” She licked her lips.

  I didn’t say a word. I just smiled as I walked over to the bed and handed her a glass of champagne.

  “Here’s to a wonderful night.” She raised her glass.

  “To a wonderful night,” I echoed as our glasses clinked. We kissed between sips of champagne.

  “Did you get them?” She was looking at my hands.

  “Get what?”

  “You know, the condoms.”

  “Yeah, I got them.” I reached into the pocket of the robe and pulled out the box of condoms. You shoulda seen her smile. Val reached up and turned off the light, leaving only the glow of the two candles to illuminate the first lovemaking I’d do in almost six long months. God, what a time I was about to have.

  Two wild, sex-filled hours later I was lying on my back, looking up at the ceiling fan as Val snuggled up next to me. She was snoring lightly. The candles had burned down and the champagne was gone, but I had to give her credit. She’d really done her thing. I never thought anyone would be able to match Lisa in the bedroom, but Val had come damn close. Once she got to know my body, the possibilities were going to be truly endless.

  If the night was any indicator, Val was about to become a big part of my life. I decided it was time to finally move on. I’d never give up my girls, but it was time for Lisa and I to go our separate ways. The divorce papers had been in my briefcase for almost three weeks waiting to be signed, and for whatever reason I just couldn’t get myself to sign them. Well, that was about to change. I got out of the bed, trying my best not to disturb Val. I walked into the living room where I had left my briefcase when I dropped Val off to change after work. I sat down on the sofa and opened it. There it was, the divorce decree, looking up at me. I removed the papers and flipped through them to the final page where my signature would go. With one quick swipe of the pen, I would be throwing away seven years of my life. After all Lisa and I had been through, I never imagined things would come to this. A tear ran down my face as I picked up a pen and signed the papers. Now it was just a matter of time before Lisa and I ended up in front of a judge to finalize child support and alimony to officially end our marriage.

  21

  Jay

  “Oh shit, Jay,” she gasped.

  Squeak!

  “Oh, God!”

  Squeak!

  “I’m almost there, Jay!”

  Squeak!

  “Don’t stop!”

  Squeak!

  “That’s it!”

  Squeak!

  The bed was squeakin’, Kenya was screamin’, but me, I was just goin’ through the motions. We’d been doing the nasty for the better part of an hour,
and like the rest of my life lately, it wasn’t very interesting. Kenya, however, was on a mission. She was trying her best to wear my ass out before I left the house for the night, but she was the one gettin’ worn out. It’s amazing how easy it is to fool a woman into thinking she’s doing the job when you could be thinking about anything but what she’s doing to you. All it takes is a few Ohhhh babys, a couple Damn, that feels goods, and some weird facial expressions and she thinks she’s sent you to heaven. Women have always assumed they owned the patent on faking pleasure, but I’d put on a few Academy Award-winning performances myself over the years.

  When I was sure Kenya had gotten hers, I decided to end my little charade by closing my eyes and pretending she was Tracy. Within minutes I had done my thing and it was all over, Kenya none the wiser. Lately, anytime I was with my wife, I had to imagine Tracy to complete the act. Not that it was hard to conjure an image of Tracy. She was all I could think about. It had been six weeks since I’d been arrested and over three months since I’d seen Tracy, but I still couldn’t get her out of my head. It was hard even for me to believe how much I loved her, let alone explain it to someone else, but somehow she’d seeped deep inside my soul and taken over my mind.

  “Now you can go out,” Kenya said with a satisfied smile, startling me out of my momentary fantasy.

  If she hadn’t been staring me directly in the face, I would have laughed at her. It just seemed incredible to me that she actually thought our little forty-five-minute romp was going to stop me from having a good time at Allen’s bachelor party. She had to be fucking crazy. As one of Allen’s best men, I was gonna be hosting the bachelor party and it was gonna be off the hook. We’d rented the entire Players Club on Sutphin Boulevard, with the help of Kyle’s money, of course. And I’d made sure they were going to have thirty of the finest women you ever wanna see performing. I was a club member, so I’d picked these beauties myself. Players was a private strip club that didn’t even open up ’til midnight. but that didn’t stop it from being the best strip club in Queens. It was owned by two cops and they required either membership or an invitation from a member to get in. The club’s exclusive clientele meant the girls inside were fully nude, with no restrictions when it came to sexual acts onstage or off. The club’s slogan was “You pay, you play.”