Married Men

by Carl Weber

  I got out of bed and gave Kenya a peck on the cheek, then went to the bathroom to prepare for my male-bonding session with the boys. It was around eleven-thirty and I was supposed to meet Kyle at midnight to head to the party. When I finished taking my shower, I got dressed and headed straight out the door. Kenya didn’t even stop me for a good-night kiss, ’cause she was already snoring in the bed. So much for her wearing me out.

  It was half past midnight when I pulled in front of Kyle’s apartment and beeped the horn. A few minutes latter he strolled out the door, not looking too pleased at all.

  “Think you could be on time for once, my brotha?” He slid into the front seat with an attitude.

  “Please, man, them sorry-ass niggas don’t know how to party. The real party ain’t gonna get started ’til me and you get there and you know it, so stop bitching, dawg.”

  “I don’t give a shit! You know I hate to be late. Fuckin’ around with you I’m gonna be late to my own damn funeral.”

  “Yeah, well, if that’s the case, then we always gonna be late ’cause that’s one place I don’t want you to be on time to, my brotha.” I laughed as we pulled off to drive the mile and a half to Sutphin Boulevard.

  When we got in the club, contrary to what I had told Kyle, the party had already gotten started. Brothers were gettin’ their drink on and some were even gettin’ their freak on. The stage was surrounded by brothers watching two fine-ass sisters doing an XXX-rated lesbian show. It musta been a real freak show too ’cause brothers were reaching into their pockets and throwing money on the stage. Off to the right in a corner, Kyle’s lawyer Greg Thomas was butt-ass naked with some sister in a cowboy hat riding him like he was a bucking bronco. And there in the middle of everything was my boy Allen sitting on the traditional bachelor party throne wearing only his boxers. He had a beer in one hand and the butt of some fine-ass redbone in the other. Now that’s what I call enjoying your bachelor party.

  As we walked over to the bar, Kyle and I said our customary what’s ups and how’ve you beens to the brothers we’d invited to the party. Then we sat down at the bar and ordered two drinks, Dewars on the rocks for him and a Heineken for me. We hadn’t been sitting there long before Wil stumbled over drunk as hell. He hugged Kyle and ignored me.

  “What’s up with the camera there, big Wil?” Kyle laughed. Every time Wil went out, he was always carrying that damn camera.

  “I figure a party like this, there’s gonna be quite a few Kodak moments.” Wil grinned and snapped a picture of Kyle.

  “Yeah, well, you be careful with that camera. Shit like that could get a brother in some serious trouble. Don’t forget what happened to my brother Dwayne.” Kyle gave Wil a serious look. His brother had been divorced because his wife found the videotape of his bachelor party.

  “Come on, man, don’t you think I know that?” Wil slurred.

  “Just making sure,” Kyle replied. “What you drinkin’?”

  Wil held up his empty glass. “The usual.”

  Kyle turned to the bartender and ordered Wil a rum and Coke. That’s when I took the opportunity to clear the air between Wil and me. It had been a few weeks since I tried to speak to him, so I figured this was as good a time as any to see if he was still holding a grudge.

  “So what’s up, Wil?”

  “Nothin’.” He cut his eyes at me as if I was annoying him.

  “Hey, man, I just wanna apologize ...”

  “Save it, okay? I don’t wanna hear it.” He turned toward Kyle to continue their conversation.

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “Hey, Wil, I’m trying to apologize.”

  “You better get your hands off of me, Jay.”

  “What you want from me, man? You wanna hit me? Will that make you feel better?” I raised my hand, giving him the same opportunity he gave me a few months back. I honestly didn’t think he had the heart to take a swing at me until I saw Kyle grab his arm.

  “Nah, big Wil, you don’t wanna do that,” Kyle told him as he handed him a drink. Kyle kinda flicked his fingers at me as if to say take a walk while he cools off. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea that Wil had attempted to take a swing at me, so I decided he might be right. So I headed over to the stage to watch the show. Not that the show made me feel any better. I mean, you seen one lesbian show, you’ve seen them all. At least that’s how I felt at the time. I was about to order another drink when my phone vibrated. I glanced at the caller ID, but it read “unknown.”

  “Hello?”

  “Jay?” I could barely hear whoever it was.

  “Can you hold on a minute? I can barely hear you.” I walked out the front door into the cool spring air.

  “Hello?” I said again.

  “Jay, is that you?” a very sexy female voice asked. For a second there I thought I was hearing things ’cause I coulda sworn it sounded like Tracy.

  “Yeah, this is Jay. Who’s this?”

  “Tracy.”

  The world stopped at that moment, and for a second I honestly didn’t know where I was. I dropped the phone, as my entire being flooded with emotion. I’d been waiting for this call for three months, and now that it was here, I didn’t know what to do. Pick up the phone, that’s what you gotta do, dummy, a little voice in my head told me. So I bent down and picked up the phone.

  “Jay, are you there?” Her voice knocked me out of my fog so that I could finally answer her.

  “I don’t believe this. Is this really you, Tracy?”

  “Yes, it’s really me.”

  “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for months.”

  “I know,” she replied.

  “Have you gotten my messages? How come you didn’t call?”

  “Yes, I got your messages. I just wasn’t feelin’ you at the time.” I have to admit that hurt.

  “And now you’re feelin’ me?”

  “We’ll talk about that when I see you.”

  “When’s that gonna be?” I asked desperately.

  “Tonight.” She was telling me, not asking, and I didn’t care.

  “Okay,” I replied quickly. “Where you at?”

  “I’m at school. You remember how to get to my dorm, don’t you?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Okay, just call when you get here and I’ll come down. Oh, and Jay?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Why don’t we go back to your house?”

  “Ahhhh well ... umm ... I ... ah ... 1 ... ah ... I don’t know if that’s a very good idea.”

  “Why not? I mean, you do share the place with your sister, don’t you?” You know, it almost sounded like there was sarcasm in her voice.

  “Yeah, I do, but my ... ah ... ah, my nephews are gonna be home and well ... ah, that’s not, uh ... the right example I wanna set for them. Yeah, that’s not the example I wanna set.”

  “You know what, Jay? You’re full’a shit. And I’m not in the mood to be playing games. So just forget it.” She sounded like she was about to hang up.

  “I’m not playing games with you, Tracy, I swear to God.” I couldn’t believe this was happening.

  “Yeah, right. Look, I’ll call you, aw’ight?” Damn, everything was fine a minute ago. Why did she have an attitude now?

  “Oh no. Come on, Tracy, don’t do this. I been waiting almost four months to see you. Don’t do this to me. Please, I gotta see you.” I knew I sounded desperate begging like that but the truth is I was desperate. Desperate as hell and I wanted to, no, I needed to see her more than anything in world.

  “Look, Jay, I changed my mind. I’m going to bed. If you wanna see me, come pick me up Sunday morning at ten.”

  “Sunday? That’s three days from now.”

  “And?” she snapped. I could hear some laughter in the background.

  “Tracy, why can’t I just see you now? You don’t sound that tired.”

  “Jay, if you wanna see me, pick me up Sunday or just forget it, okay?” She didn’t sound tired but she sur
e as hell sounded like she was giving me an ultimatum.

  “Okay, I’ll pick you up at ten.” I sighed. “Tracy?”

  “Yes?”

  “I ... ah ... I ... ah,” I wanted to say “I love you” but instead I said, “I missed you.”

  “I missed you too, Jay.” After all the sarcasm she’d just spewed, she finally sounded sincere, but I was suddenly feeling so insecure.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, really, Jay. I don’t know why, but I missed you.” The way she said it I could almost see her smile. “Bye, Jay.”

  “Bye.”

  I walked back in the club to let Kyle know I was leaving. I couldn’t stay. I needed to be alone to think about why Tracy might have had an attitude. She was probably still mad about me leaving her in the house.

  When I got inside, Kyle was nowhere to be found. And for that matter, neither were Allen, Wil, or any of our other close friends. I pulled one of the owners to the side and asked where everyone went. He pointed to the VIP room.

  “Knock on the door three times and they’ll let you in,” he told me.

  The VIP room was a medium-size room in the club with sofas and love seats. On most nights it was used as a place the girls could take guys for a little one-on-one, but on nights like tonight it was used for special shows. As I stood outside the door, I could hear the laughter from inside and I knew whatever was happening in there musta been quite a show. I knocked three times.

  “Yo, man, your boys are crazy,” one of the bouncers laughed as he opened the door to let me in.

  I walked in and realized how right he was. Right there in front of twenty witnesses was Wil, sitting on a love seat, butt-ass naked with not one, but two naked dancers on either side of him rubbing their breasts up against his chest. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there was a third dancer on her knees with his johnson two inches from her mouth. I swear to God if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I would never have believed it. Now don’t get me wrong, Wil’s no angel. He likes to have a good time just as much as the rest of us, but when it comes to touching or being touched by a woman other than Diane, he ain’t havin’ it. We’d been to at least twenty bachelor parties and a ton of strip clubs over the years and he’d never gone as far as to accidentally rub up against a stripper. I walked over to Kyle and Allen, who were standing in front of him taking pictures.

  “What the hell’s going on?” I asked Kyle.

  “Hold on, let me get this shot and I’ll tell you.” He snapped two pictures then handed the camera to Allen, who directed the girls into another pose.

  “Wil passed out,” Kyle slurred as he laughed. He was a little drunk himself.

  “What?” He wasn’t making sense.

  “Wil drank so much he passed out.” Kyle laughed even harder when he saw the pose Allen had moved the girls to.

  I looked toward Wil. His eyes were closed and he hadn’t moved at all. Now things were starting to make sense. Kyle and Allen were having some laughs at Wil’s expense.

  “So you decided to strip him down in front of all these people and take pictures of him? Yo, man, that shit is wrong.” I was about to walk over and snatch the camera from Allen when Kyle jumped in front of me, blocking my way. I didn’t care how much the two of us were fighting. There was no way I was gonna allow them to humiliate Wil like that. He might have been acting like an ass lately, but he was still my boy. Plus he would never do this type of thing to one of us.

  “Come on, Jay. You have to admit this shit is funny.” Kyle pointed at one of the women squatting over Wil’s face as Allen took a picture. Wil’s mouth was open, and he had slobber running down his chin. If you didn’t know the fool had passed out, you would swear he was going down on her.

  “Yeah, it is funny,” I admitted, but before I could finish, he shut me up.

  “So stop bitchin’.”

  “Yeah, but this shit is wrong, Kyle, and you know it. Especially the pictures.” Kyle smiled. Not his regular smile, but a devilish smile. More like something I would do.

  “Pleeeeease. If Wil didn’t want his picture taken, he shouldn’ta brought a camera.” Yep, that confirmed it. Kyle was making up excuses. He would never make excuses unless he was up to something.

  “What are you up to, man?”

  “Nothin’,” he insisted, but wouldn’t make eye contact.

  “Aw’ight. It’s your funeral when he sees the flicks.” Kyle nodded like it was all good. “Look, I’m outta here. I gotta meet somebody,” I told him.

  “A woman?”

  “Yeah,” I lied.

  Kyle smiled. I know what he was thinking. He was thinking I was finally over Tracy and things were back to normal. He couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

  “Look, you think I can borrow a hundred? I need to get a hotel room. I’ll pay you back on pay day.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a money clip, peeling off two hundred-dollar bills. I probably shoulda told him about Tracy and that we were going to meet Sunday, but I knew he woulda given me a hard time.

  “Have fun, man. I’ll see you tomorrow at the rehearsal dinner.” We grabbed hands and hugged.

  “Kyle, do me a favor.”

  “What’s that?”

  “When you’re finished having your fun, make sure Wil gets home all right.”

  “Don’t worry, man. We’re both gonna catch a cab home in a few.” He gave me a reassuring look.

  22

  Kyle

  “Excuse me, miss, can we get another round over here, please?”

  The cocktail waitress nodded as I finished up what was left of my iced tea. We’d all decided that we’d been drinking way too much lately and that we probably should hold off on the alcohol until tomorrow afternoon during the wedding reception. I glanced across the table at Wil, who still looked hung over from the night before. Man, was he wasted last night. I’d never seen him that drunk. I checked my watch for the time and was surprised it was almost midnight. I’d only gotten about two hours of sleep after the bachelor party last night, so it was a good thing Allen and Rose had suggested we stay at the Manhattan Marriott where their wedding reception was being held. Truth is, after the rehearsal dinner none of us felt like driving back to Queens.

  “Hey, could you bring us some Buffalo wings and some nachos with that?” Wil asked the waitress. “Matter of fact, make that a double order of Buffalo wings.” The waitress scribbled down his order and disappeared.

  “Damn, Wil, you hungry or what? We just ate an hour ago,” Allen laughed.

  “No offense, Allen. I know you didn’t pick out the restaurant, but I didn’t eat any of that sushi they were serving. That shit is nasty.”

  “Yo dawg, heads up,” Jay whispered, tapping my knee. I glanced toward the door to see Diane, Kenya, and Lisa walking in. Lisa was holding the hand of a tall, handsome Hispanic brother. I tried to hide it, but a wave of jealousy tensed every muscle in my body.

  “Damn, dawg, she don’t give a fuck. She just walked up in here with her new man like you ain’t shit.” Jay shook his head.

  Jay was right. She didn’t give a fuck. How the hell could Lisa embarrass me like this, showing up the night before my boy’s wedding with some Ricky Martin look-alike? I would never do something like that to her. And on top of all that, she was wearing my favorite dress.

  “I’m sorry, Kyle. I didn’t know she was gonna bring a date.” Poor Allen looked as miserable as I felt.

  “It’s not your fault, Al. You had to invite her if the girls were gonna be in the wedding.” I patted him on the back.

  “She probably thought you were gonna bring Val,” Wil said nonchalantly. It was obvious he was more interested in the plate of nachos the waitress was handing him than in my little problem.

  “Shit, I wish I had brought Val now. She cursed my ass out this morning when I told her it would be disrespectful to bring her to the wedding. I should call her up right now and tell her to catch a cab on over here.” I picked up my iced tea and took a sip as I
watched my soon-to-be ex-wife sit down with her new man on the other side of the room.

  “Wait a minute.” I turned to Wil angrily. “How the fuck does Lisa know about Val anyway?”

  Wil almost choked on a nacho as he looked up from his plate. “Uh, I mighta slipped and told Diane that you was talkin’ to Val.” I could tell by his expression that there was no “mighta” about it.

  I turned to Jay, who leaned back in his chair looking totally satisfied. He’d been trying to tell us for a while that Wil had a big mouth. He’d tried over and over to warn me Wil was telling Diane our business. I just never believed him until now.

  “Wil, this is happening way too much.” Allen said, surprising me. I’d noticed that he’d been getting a little bolder lately, challenging people he might not necessarily have stood up to in the past. I had to admit I was impressed.

  “Look. Y‘all makin’ way too much out of this. If you’re seeing Val, then what’s the problem?” Wil shoved a nacho in his mouth.

  “The problem is it’s not your fucking business to be tellin’ anyone who I’m seeing.” I was pissed. “Especially not your wife, so she can blab to Lisa. My fucking divorce isn’t even final yet. She could try to get me on adultery.”

  “He’s right, Wil,” Allen agreed. Jay stayed out of it. He and Wil were having their own problems.

  “And what about last night?” I asked.

  “What about last night?” Wil replied.

  “Before your drunk ass passed out, you couldn’t stop apologizing for breaking up my marriage.”

  Wil’s high-yellow face became a pasty white and his expression went blank. “I told you about that?”