No One in the World

by E. Lynn Harris; RM Johnson

I texted him after it was made and immediately got a response text, letting me know that he would meet me here and that he was looking forward to seeing me.

  I had called him four times today just to confirm, but he hadn’t picked up his phone or called me back. I left messages, making sure to leave the time, the address, and the room number, but still there was no Tyler.

  Tyler wasn’t the sort of man to be tardy. Something was going on. Maybe he was still paranoid, or no longer wanted to continue our relationship, or both. Either way, I needed to find out.

  I stood from the bed, grabbed my keys from the nightstand, and left the room.

  Half an hour later, I pulled up in front of Tyler’s northwest suburban home. I gazed up at the beautiful brick, four-bedroom house with the manicured lawn, surrounded by the white picket fence. It was a dream—the house and the family inside it—something Tyler had said he had always wanted.

  But if it was a dream, I thought, pulling the key from the ignition of the Mercedes, couldn’t that also mean it wasn’t real?

  I rang the doorbell, wanting to confront him. He needed to know how I’d been feeling regarding his absence in my life.

  His wife, Kennedi, answered. She was a tall, beautiful, fair-skinned woman with dark, shoulder-length hair that looked as though she had just stepped out of the stylist’s chair.

  I had dropped by unannounced. I knew I wasn’t to do that, even though Tyler had no problem just popping up at my place anytime he saw fit. But I didn’t realize just how wrong I was till I was leaning in to give Kennedi a hug and a peck on the cheek. “Is he home?” I asked.

  “Sure, Cobi. Come on in. He’s out grilling dinner with the girls. Go on back. He’ll be glad to see you.”

  I told myself I didn’t think so.

  I walked through the kitchen, slid the patio glass door back, and stepped out into the backyard. Tyler’s back was to me. He was working over a smoking grill. He wore an apron, walking shorts, T-shirt, tennis shoes, and a baseball cap—the traditional dad costume.

  “Look who’s playing chef today,” I said.

  “Hey, Uncle Cobi,” Tyler’s daughters said in unison, turning from the grill and skipping over to me. Konni and Kara were six and eight years old. They were tall for their ages, and both had heads full of thick brown hair, parted down the middle and tied into pigtails.

  I wrapped my arms around them and kissed their foreheads. When I looked up, Tyler was holding a meat fork in his fist, giving me a vicious glare.

  “Girls, why don’t you go inside for a while and give me and Uncle Cobi a few minutes to talk about work stuff, okay?”

  “Okay, Daddy,” the girls said, playfully bounding into the house.

  Tyler waited till he saw the patio door close. “What the hell are you doing here? I told you never to come here unannounced.”

  “How could I announce my visit, if you don’t pick up the phone?” I said. “I mean, what’s going on? Are you dumping me?”

  Tyler looked down at the smoking meat on the grill and poked a couple of the steaks.

  I stepped closer to him. “You know that I love—”

  “Shut up!” He whispered harshly at me, alarm in his eyes. “I’m at home, Cobi. My family is just inside the house, and you’re talking that shit. That’s the problem with you lately. It’s like you’ve forgotten just how much is at stake here.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The thing with the kid who blackmailed you, your brother walking in on us—that stuff could blow up in your face. And now you have a chance to do something that could actually help your situation, but you don’t want to do it. And you wonder why I’m distant.”

  “I told you, I’m going to marry her. I told you that, so you can stop ignoring me. Everything is going to be fine. Just come back to me. I miss you,” I said, wishing I could touch him.

  He looked down again, the bill from the baseball cap shading his eyes. “I don’t think I can do that. Not right now. I think we ought to take a break from this for a little while.”

  “No. You told me you loved me, that you would consider leaving your wife—”

  “Cobi!” Tyler said, grabbing me by the lapel of my jacket, yanking me into his face. He glanced at the house to make sure no one was watching. “Really, how much of a chance do you think there is of that actually happening? Do you think I would ever leave Kennedi and the girls?”

  “You lied to me?” I slapped his hand off me and stepped back.

  “I said what I wanted to have happen, but I knew it never could—know it never can. This is the way things are, the way they need to be, and you’ll know that once you get married. We can talk about getting back together then.”

  “You cowardly motherfucker,” I said, my voice low. I was boiling with anger. “You’re man enough to meet me in hotel rooms, but not man enough to take ownership of who you really are.”

  “I am owning it,” Tyler said. “This is who I am.” He pulled at his T-shirt that read “Greatest Dad in the World.”

  “You are sorry and selfish.” I laughed sadly. “Fine. Since you can’t man-up, why don’t I just go in there and tell your wife what you and I have been up to? Maybe she’ll have something to say about that.” I was expecting Tyler to jump me, try to poke me with that fork like he was stabbing those steaks.

  “Whatever you want to do, Cobi,” he said, and continued fussing with the meat. “But I know you love me, and despite how angry you are, you’d never want me to lose my family.”

  “I’m going to go in there and tell your wife,” I said, pointing at the house with a trembling finger. “I swear. I’m going to do it.”

  “Don’t let me stop you.”

  I turned and marched inside the house. I glanced at the girls in the kitchen, playing at the sink in some dishwater. “Where is your mother?” I asked, managing to sound calm.

  “In the living room, I think,” one of the girls said.

  I made a beeline for the room. I let her finish her phone conversation before I ruined her life with what I had to tell her.

  Kennedi smiled at me, and into the phone said, “Okay, girl. Well, I’ll talk to you later, okay? Bye bye.”

  She punched a button on the phone, set it on the coffee table, and said, “Hey, Cobi, what’s up?”

  All that I had to say was on the tip of my tongue. It could bring down this entire house, shatter Kennedi’s make-believe reality, kill the girls’ futures. All I had to do was tell this woman the truth. But Tyler was right. I did love him too much to want him to lose his family. I became the coward Tyler knew I was and simply said, “Just wanted to give you a hug before I left. See you next time.”

  I rushed out to my car, trying to hold my emotions until I climbed in and shut myself inside. I buried my face in my hands and tried not to cry.

  Moments later, I pulled myself together, sniffled, took a deep breath in, released it, then pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, and dialed a number.

  When the phone was answered, I said, “Blac, I have a room reserved. I want to see you tonight.”

  73

  Eric stood just outside the living room doorway. Austen was in there watching television. As he waited, he wondered why Cobi was keeping the terms of his marriage a secret. He thought about asking his brother but wasn’t sure if Cobi would tell him the whole truth and told himself, who better to ask about this than Austen.

  Eric stepped into the living room, catching Austen’s attention. She looked up at him and smiled.

  “What you watching?” Eric asked.

  “Evening news.”

  “You mind if I watch, too?”

  “’Course not.” Austen scooted over on the sofa. Eric sat beside her and silently watched the TV. “The stuff you told me the other night, I didn’t know any of it.”

  “What stuff?”

  “About the contract, about you and my brother getting married, any of it.”

  Austen shifted her body around to Eric, a suspicious smile on her face
. “How could you not know? You’re his brother. You live in this—”

  “I just moved in.” Eric hesitated a moment, then told himself it made no sense to continue to hide who he was. “I just got out of prison. Three years ago I needed money to take care of my new baby daughter and my girlfriend, and I foolishly went out there and tried to steal a car.”

  “And you got caught,” Austen said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Me and Cobi haven’t seen each other in thirty years. My mother put us up for adoption, and by some miracle or something, Cobi was walking through the jail and just bumped into me.”

  There was an uncertain look on Austen’s face Eric could not read. “Why you looking at me like that? You think different of me now because I was in prison, right? I guess I can understand.”

  “No. I made my share of mistakes, too. Not putting away enough money, not planning for what’s going on right now. So I’m broke, and I’m marrying your brother so I can save my house and have somewhere to live. But this is tougher than I thought it would be, and we aren’t even married yet. I keep saying I don’t feel like I have control of my own life.”

  “I feel the same way,” Eric said.

  “How is your daughter?”

  Eric lowered his head. “Haven’t seen her in two years. Her mother is trying to get my rights taken away. But Cobi is helping me do everything I can to get her back.”

  “I’m sorry,” Austen said sincerely, placing a comforting hand on Eric’s shoulder. “Why would she do that?”

  “I don’t know. I loved my daughter, treated her as best I could, and . . . I don’t know. Maybe it was because I’m a bad person and she doesn’t want her around me no more.”

  Austen gave Eric a sympathetic look and moved her hand to his arm. “I don’t think you’re a bad person, and I think you’ll be able to see your daughter again.”

  “You’re sweet for saying that.”

  “I’m a sweet person,” Austen said, smiling.

  “You are.” Eric smiled and looked away.

  “So is your girlfriend—”

  “She’s not my girlfriend anymore,” Eric said, turning back to Austen. “Whatever we had ain’t there anymore.”

  “I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better.”

  Eric didn’t know how to take what Austen just said. It was suggestive as hell, but he knew she couldn’t have meant what he wanted her to mean. He wanted nothing more than to grab Austen and kiss her. Hell, lean her back on that sofa and make love to her. That would’ve made no sense. She was to marry Cobi, so he put the thought out of his mind. “I guess I should go up to my room,” Eric said, forcing himself to stand.

  Austen unexpectedly stood with him. She stared in his eyes. Eric believed the look asked him to kiss her, but he knew he had to be wrong. “So I’m gonna go on up,” Eric said. “Can I give you a hug . . . for . . . you know, listening to me?”

  “I would like that,” Austen said.

  Eric slowly wrapped his arms around her. He felt her arms move around his waist. She pulled him close to her, and although he tried, he could not stop himself from being excited and growing in his pants. He was embarrassed, knowing that she felt him throbbing against her belly. He backed away slightly, but felt her pull him closer still as if she wanted to feel him.

  “I’m sorry about that,” Eric said. “It’s been a long time.”

  “Don’t be,” she said, softly. “I would be hurt if you didn’t have that response.” Her lips were inches from his. This was the time, he told himself, but pulled out of the embrace. “I really think I should go, before I do something I regret.”

  74

  Blac lay next to Cobi till the man’s heartbeat started to slow and his body began to relax against the bed.

  “That was amazing,” Cobi breathed, his eyes half open, an extremely content half smile on his face. “I so needed that.”

  After leaving Cutty’s empty-handed, Blac had been worried for his life, still not certain how things would go with Cobi. But lying there next to Cobi, Blac felt hopeful again. All he needed to do was continue to execute his plan to perfection.

  “I’m glad I was able to help you, baby,” Blac said. He scooted over to Cobi and gave him a soft kiss. Blac knew he couldn’t just come out and ask him for $150,000 just for laying the pipe, no matter how good it was. He would have to ease Cobi into the idea of giving him money. It would be a small amount at first. Blac would continue to give him the best sex he ever had, making himself more valuable in Cobi’s eyes. Then each time Blac asked for money, the amount would increase and so would the intensity of the fucking.

  In a week, Blac would tell him he needed the amount required, just in time to pay Cutty off. Cobi would probably hesitate at first. Blac would threaten to leave, take away all the good sex Cobi had grown accustomed to, then Cobi would break down and give up the money. Why wouldn’t he? Money like 150K was nothing to Cobi.

  Blac suddenly jumped out of bed and walked naked over to a window. He heard movement in the bed behind him, knew Cobi had probably lifted up and was staring at his ass. That was fine with Blac.

  He pulled back one of the sheer curtains and looked out at the lake. “This room ain’t no joke.” He turned around to face Cobi, who was sitting up in bed. “It must be nice living like you do.”

  Cobi grinned but didn’t say anything.

  Blac walked back over to the bed and gave Cobi a kiss good-bye. “I really gotta be taking off.” Blac grabbed his jeans and slid into them. “The tow truck guy said—”

  “Hold it. Tow truck? What are you talking about?” Cobi said, throwing his legs over the side of the bed.

  “My damn car stopped a block from here. I called a tow truck to take it in and get it repaired, but I really wanted to see you, so I told them to come in a couple of hours.” Blac looked down at his watch. “I really should be going.” He made his way toward the door.

  A moment later, Cobi was behind him, grabbing him by the arm. “Hold on. Are you going to be all right? Will the repairs be expensive?”

  “I don’t know,” Blac said. “It’s something with the transmission, so I don’t know. Nine hundred, maybe more. Why?”

  Cobi reached into his suit jacket pocket. He opened his checkbook, jotted something on one of the checks, tore it out, and handed it to Blac. “Get it fixed. That should be enough, but let me know if it’s not.”

  Blac glanced down and saw that it was made out for $3,000. “I can’t take this,” Blac said. “We just made love, and it makes me feel like you’re paying me off or something.”

  “Stop it. It’s nothing like that. You need something, and I’m in the position to provide it. Is that so bad?”

  “No. I guess not.”

  “Good. Now you get out of here before you miss that tow. And like I said, don’t hesitate if you need anything else.”

  75

  Entering the house, I heard the TV on in the family room, so I walked in that direction, hoping Eric was in there.

  I was surprised to see Austen on the sofa, watching an episode of American Idol she had recorded.

  She looked over her shoulder, then stood, as if having to formally greet me. “Hey, Cobi, I was just—”

  “Sit down, sit down,” I said. “Sorry to interrupt your show.”

  “No interruption,” Austen said, sitting again. “Just watching these kids sing for their lives, you know. You ever watch?”

  “No. You ready for the fund-raiser tomorrow?” I said. I didn’t really want to engage in a long conversation with her, which seemed wrong, considering I’d be married to her in just a week.

  “Sure am. I love stuff like that.”

  “Good.” I walked over to the sofa and sat down beside her.

  She looked surprised.

  “I need an honest answer, okay?”

  Austen nodded her head.

  “Are you okay with what’s going on? This feels cruel to me, like we’re abusing you in some way, but my sis
ter seems to think that we’re benefiting equally. This is the last time I’ll ask, so now is the time to say something. If you don’t see yourself getting something out of this, I promise, I’ll do my best to call this whole thing off.”

  Austen looked at me, her eyes filled with both gratitude and sympathy. “Your sister’s right. We’re all coming out ahead. Let’s just make the best of it, okay?”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  I stood outside Eric’s door, wondering if this situation really was as simple as Austen saw it. Maybe it was. Hopefully it was. Time would tell, I told myself as I knocked on the door.

  “Yeah,” I heard Eric say.

  I stepped in. He was in bed, fully clothed, his shoes on, sitting up, two pillows behind his back. His legs were crossed and his hands were folded in his lap. He didn’t appear to have been doing anything more than just sitting there, staring at the walls.

  “I wanted to let you know I called Jessica’s attorney, and he still hasn’t gotten back to me.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Eric said, not seeming to care.

  “Well, I just wanted to let you know that. I’m going to bed.” I turned toward the door and was about to walk out.

  “Cobi.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Who is the woman down the hall? And why haven’t you let me meet her?”

  “Oh, her name is Austen Greer. Sorry I haven’t had a chance to mention her. It’s a long story and—”

  “It’s okay. That stuff is probably none of my business anyway, right? I mean, why would I expect to know every little thing about you? This is your house, and you can do whatever you want in it.”

  I knew that Eric was taking a shot at me for forcing him to tell me about his conviction. He felt he was being treated unfairly. But he was right about what he just said, and the situation was what it was.

  “That’s right,” I said, turned off by his ungrateful attitude. “This is my house, and you shouldn’t expect to know everything about me or what goes on here.”

  76