Diluted Desire

by Desiree Day

  Mariah was upstairs in her room, giving Larkin and Clint their privacy. She had a week off, and tomorrow she was going to fly to Miami for some fun and sun.

  The doorbell pealed twenty minutes later at exactly nine o’clock. Larkin raced to the door eager to see him, she hadn’t seen him for a few weeks. She snatched open the door and jumped into his arms.

  “Hey baby, I missed you.”

  “Yeah, me too,” he replied, then pecked her on the cheek and when Larkin tried to kiss him on the lips, he averted his face. He stepped into the house and Larkin closed the door.

  She pouted at him, puzzled by his behavior. “What’s wrong? You haven’t said anything about how pretty I look.”

  He looked her squarely in the eyes, then said, “I want to talk to you.”

  Feeling a sense of déjà vu, Larkin’s heart dropped to her knees. “Sure. Let’s go into the living room,” she replied calmly.

  As soon as they walked into the living room, Clint saw the small spread on the table, but he ignored it. He sat down and grabbed Larkin’s hands. “I want you to know that you’ve made me so happy these few weeks, and I hate to do this especially with Christmas coming up, but I can’t see you anymore, I want to try to make my marriage work.”

  “I see,” Larkin said quietly. “You have to do what you have to do.” She pulled her hands out of Clint’s grasp and folded them on her lap.

  Clint continued, “Violet is my best friend and like all best friends we have our good and bad days, unfortunately we had more bad days than good, but I think we’re going to be all right,” he finished, his voice confident.

  Larkin giggled. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it, but that was sweet about being best friends and all. I think we have different definitions of best friends.”

  “Are you okay?” Clint asked concerned, he wasn’t expecting this reaction.

  Larkin tamped down her amusement. “I am. I like you. I really do, but I want you to know what type of woman you’re married to.”

  “What are you talking about? You don’t know Violet.”

  “Oh yeah I do.”

  “No you don’t.”

  “I do,” Larkin insisted.

  “How? Tell me how do you know my wife?”

  “Because she knows about us,” Larkin said calmly.

  “What the hell are you talking about? Did you call her and tell her about us?”

  “No, I don’t work that way. She hired me Clint…she hired me to fuck you.”

  “No way! I don’t believe that.”

  “Believe it. Do you want to hear all about it?”

  “Sure, amuse me.”

  “A couple of months ago, your wife had posted a listing on the Internet looking for someone to seduce her husband. She said that she suspected that he was cheating on her and she wanted to catch his cheating ass.” Clint swore under his breath, Larkin waited until he was done before continuing, “I answered the ad and she hired me. She gave me some money to get me started then—”

  “I still don’t believe it. If it’s true, where’s your proof.”

  “I’ll get to it later,” Larkin said calmly. “Just so you know, my showing up at the sport’s bar wasn’t a coincidence, Violet had texted me, telling me that you were going to be there. And I faked being drunk, I knew that you were a gentleman and would offer me a ride home, and after that it was easy breezy.”

  “Where’s the proof,” Clint hissed out between clenched teeth.

  “Give me a minute, I need to run upstairs for my phone.” Larkin got up and leisurely strolled out the room.

  Clint dropped his head in his hands. “This sounds like a fucking movie, it doesn’t seem real,” he grumbled to himself.

  “Here you go.” Larkin said and Clint lifted his head.

  “I don’t want to go through your phone, just show me what you want to show me.”

  “Sure.” Larkin sat down next to him, their legs touching but the fire that had been there previously had extinguished. “Let me start from the beginning.” She fiddled with her phone for a minute. “Okay, here’s the e-mail telling me to meet her in her office for an interview. I’m not sure if this is her real e-mail address or something she just made up for this assignment but it does have her work information. Here take a look.” She handed Clint her phone.

  He studied then returned it to her. “You could have gotten her work information from LinkedIn,” he spat at her.

  Larkin shrugged. “That’s true. Let me get right to the point, and stop wasting each other’s time.” She clicked on her text messages, then opened everything from Violet. “Look at these, you’ll see that they are from her phone number.” She passed the phone to him.

  She watched Clint’s expression change from disbelief, incredulous to outrage. He wanted to throw up his dinner. “She did it. My wife hired someone to cheat with me,” he said shocked.

  “I like you, I don’t want us to stop seeing each other. Now you see what type of woman your wife really is. I’ll never do something like that to you.”

  “Are you crazy?” Clint shouted. “Is the whole fucking world crazy?” He punched the wall, his fist disappeared in the sheetrock, Larkin jumped in fear. He pulled it out and leaned toward her, he screamed in her face, “Here I was feeling so fucking sorry because I thought I was breaking your heart by not seeing you anymore and focusing on my marriage, but you both were in cahoots orchestrating this affair. I hope you both got what you wanted.” With that he stalked out of the house and slammed the door.

  Larkin glanced at her phone and debated whether to warn Violet.

  “I’ll let her find out on her own.” Then she walked to the foot of the stairs and called up to Mariah, “Hey girl, do you want some company in Miami? I got some bonus money to burn.”

  Chapter 17

  Violet picked up the roll of Barbie wrapping paper, then one of the five different Barbie dolls she had gotten Crystal for Christmas. “She’s going to love these and the clothes too.” She had gotten Crystal over thirty different outfits for her new Barbie dolls. Unwrapped Christmas gifts, wrapping paper, ribbon and bows were scattered over the family room. Donny Hathaway’s This Christmas was playing softly and she had some wine nearby. She and Clint had plans to go out over the weekend to pick out a live Christmas tree. She had cooked for Clint, something that she hadn’t done in months. The food was warming in the oven. She had called Larkin and ended her assignment, she had given her a five thousand dollar bonus. Larkin had done her job and then some, she had saved her marriage.

  With her face relaxed and a smile tugging at her mouth, she looked radiant. She was wrapping Barbie number three when she heard the front door slam and she frowned. “Why is Clint using the front door? He usually uses the garage door.”

  Clint began shouting, “Violet, where the fuck are you? Violet!”

  Violet raced out of the family room and saw her husband with his flushed face and heaving chest. “Hey honey, I’m right here, what’s wrong?” she asked, stroking his arm. Clint shook off her hand.

  “Get away from me,” he barked and Violet shrank back.

  “What’s wrong?” she repeated, but in her heart she knew.

  “Larkin told me.”

  “What are you talking about and who’s Larkin?” Violet stalled.

  Clint laughed harshly. “Oh really, is that the best you can do? You know damn well who Larkin is. Come on Violet, you played me once, let’s not try for a second.”

  Violet seemed to sag. “I really thought you were cheating on me again and I wanted to catch you,” she began quietly. “It wasn’t until after our vacation did I learn that you really were busy—”

  “Why did you do it?”

  “I told you, I thought you were cheating—”

  “Yeah, but why all the craziness, all you had to do was ask.”

  “I realize that now, but in the heat of the moment…”

  “There was no heat, you had a while to cool off. It took some time to write that posting.�
��

  “She showed you the posting?” Violet asked with a gasp.

  “She told me about it.”

  Violet clutched her husband’s arm. “Let’s start counseling next week instead of January.”

  “Get away from me,” Clint said with a sneer. “I won’t be going anywhere with you crazy lady, other than to divorce court.”

  Violet clenched her hands into fists. “Don’t you act like you’re the innocent in all this. You made me do this!” she cried.

  Clint barked out something that sounded like a laugh. “I made you do all this? How? Please enlighten me.”

  “Because of your history of cheating. You cheated on me once and my instincts were telling me that you were cheating again.”

  “Fuck my history. We can go around and around on this, but we’ll end up at the same place, you screwed me. And for the record Violet if you wave a steak in front of a hungry dog don’t you think he’s gonna take it?”

  “You’re right,” Violet conceded. “I was wrong, give me another chance. Can you give us another try?” she asked contritely.

  Clint shook his head. “I can’t. This marriage is dead, our short trip temporarily resuscitated it, but it’s dead. And to tell the truth, I don’t like you anymore.”

  “Come on Clint, please reconsider,” Violet begged.

  Clint brushed past her and stalked up the stairs to their bedroom. He went into the closet and pulled out a suitcase, then went to his dresser and began filling it with several undergarments, he selected his favorite colognes and dropped those into the suitcase.

  Violet ran into the room, sobbing. “Don’t do this Clint. We can work this out. I thought you wanted a baby.”

  “I did but that was before I found out what you really are and we will not be procreating.” He went to the closet and flung three different outfits over his arm, he didn’t want to fuss with a garment bag.

  He picked up his things and walked down the stairs, Violet was right on his heels. As soon as she hit the last step, she swerved around him and raced to the front door where she blocked it with her body.

  “I’m not letting you leave,” she said, black streaks of mascara streamed down her face, her red lipstick was smeared and her usually coiffed hair was standing on ends, she looked like a horrible caricature of her usual self.

  Clint sighed. “Come on Violet. You’re better than this.”

  “Clint?” she croaked.

  Clint shook his head. “It’s over,” he said quietly and Violet dropped to her knees.

  “I do love you, but I don’t like you. Good-bye Violet,” Clint said before stepping over his wife and walking out the door.

  Violet drew herself into a ball and howled.

  Chapter 18

  Summer strolled into Sugah Cakes and found Clint working on a wedding cake. “Oh, that’s pretty,” she gushed. And it was. The cake was antique white, with a quilted pattern, delicate piping and vibrant colored sugar paste flowers.

  “Yeah, I’m almost done. They’re a nice couple, I hope they make it,” Clint said wistfully and Summer remained silent.

  It was February and Clint had served Violet with divorce papers in January but she wasn’t leaving without a fight. Fortunately, for him, she had insisted that they sign a pre-nup before they got married. He had happily signed it because he had naively thought there wasn’t going to be any need for it. Unfortunately, there was.

  She alleged that she and her lawyer were going over everything with a fine tooth comb, but Clint knew that it was just a stalling tactic, Violet was hoping that he’d change his mind and reconcile with her. That wasn’t going to happen.

  Recently he had made an appointment to see a therapist to figure out why he cheated on Violet and how to prevent it from happening again if and when he remarried.

  “Is there anything you want me to do for the Valentine’s Day party?” Summer asked breaking the silence.

  “I don’t know, you tell me manager.”

  Summer grinned. She finally accepted the title and the bump in salary was pretty good too. “I think we have everything under control,” she answered confidently.

  Violet strolled into her psychologist’s office and sat on the couch, she had been seeing her for the last month, with her help, Violet was beginning to see how she was sabotaging herself.

  “How are you today Violet?” Dr. Larkowski asked.

  “A lot better than last week,” Violet responded.

  “That’s good, any progress is a positive step, no matter how insignificant you think it might be. So let’s revisit your childhood, let’s talk about your emotionally absent father.”

  “Okay.” Violet settled into the soft leather and started unburdening herself.

  Larkin wove her way through the crowd. Big Thug, a multi-platinum selling rapper, had just opened a new restaurant in Atlanta and invited Atlanta’s local and international celebrities. Larkin scoped out the crowd, there were many rich men in attendance. She saw the one that she wanted; she snaked her way through the people and stopped in front of him. “Hi, I’m Larkin,” she said, beaming at him.

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  Sawyer Longley, soon-to-be Sawyer Spector, looked up at her older sister Campbell. “I can’t believe that Walt and I are finally getting married,” she said softly.

  “Yep, and I can’t wait until it’s all over with, you’re driving me crazy,” Campbell lovingly scolded, while she inspected her sister. With her hair pulled back into a sleek chignon, her makeup impeccably applied, and her ivory, curve hugging, wedding dress, she was beautiful. She reminded Campbell of the exquisite Barbie dolls that her sister enjoyed playing with when they were little. Sawyer loved Barbie so much that she had started a collection, so far over two hundred dolls filled her house. “You weren’t quite a Bridezilla, but you did work my nerves. And lucky you, today is going to be a perfect day for a wedding. There’s nothing more beautiful than a May day in Savannah.”

  They were in the corner of what Sawyer had nicknamed the Holding Pen, the room that the church had set aside for bridal parties to use before they took that long life-altering walk down the aisle. Sawyer savored this alone time with her sister, she knew once she got married, their chances of continuing to spend a lot of time together would become as rare as a forty-five year-old woman winning American Idol.

  Her ten bridesmaids were clustered together on the other side of the room, chattering and laughing while putting on their finishing touches. Sawyer chuckled at the image, she was finally having her fairytale wedding, the one she had been dreaming about ever since her mother had given her a wedding Barbie.

  Sawyer agreed with her sister. Then, “I can’t wait until tonight,” she shyly admitted to her sister.

  “So you guys are finally going to do the do,” Campbell said. “I don’t know how you held out so long, I would’ve gone crazy.”

  “Trust me, I almost did, but fortunately I had Steele, if I hadn’t, I would’ve dumped Walt a long time ago,” she revealed and Campbell snickered. As soon as she and Walt decided that they wanted to abstain from sex until they were married, Sawyer had immediately gone out and bought a ten-inch dildo that she had named Steele and had used on a frequent basis.

  While neither one was a virgin, Walt had a five-year-old daughter, Shelby. And Sawyer had slept with more men than she could count, with most of those short-term relationships ending horribly. She had found that as soon as they hit the sheets they either decided that things were moving too fast and they needed to slow things down, which really meant that they got what they wanted and was itching to leave or they just went MIA. She was tired of both scenarios. So she was more than willing to comply with his request. Walt wasn’t like any man she had dated before, he treated her like a lady.

  “I spent a ton of money at Victoria’s Secret. I got
so much lingerie that it’ll fill up a suitcase. And I ordered some stuff off the Internet…some freaky stuff,” she whispered, not that she needed to since the chattering from the bridesmaids provided enough noise that hearing anybody that wasn’t within arm’s length was impossible.

  Campbell chuckled. “That’s a good idea, but I don’t think Walt will need all that. All you have to do is show up and it’ll be a wrap. Trust me I know. I barely got dressed on my honeymoon, all I wore was a bathing suit and when it was time for dinner, I mean when we actually left the room, I threw on a sarong.” She smiled at the memory.

  Just then their cousin Moesha chose to stroll over and Sawyer tensed, bracing herself for Moesha’s onslaught, she didn’t know what it would be, but she knew it would be something, and she was right. “So you’re finally gonna get fucked tonight, huh girl?”

  Sawyer gritted her teeth. She had only asked Moesha to be in her wedding because their moms were each other’s favorite sister. And she promised her mother that she’d include Moesha, no matter how uncouth she was. “Yes, Walt and I are going to consummate our marriage, if that’s what you mean,” Sawyer answered. She knew that her friends and relatives talked about her behind her back and she regretted the moment she had let them in on such an intimate matter of her relationship, but at the time it seemed like a good idea.

  “Damn girl. You don’t have to talk like you’re at work surrounded by a bunch of White people.” She gestured to the other people in the room. “It’s just family. You can say it, you’re gonna get fucked tonight, that is if you’re doing it right,” she said with a snicker.

  “Moesha Tamika Barnett watch your mouth!” Priscilla, Sawyer’s mother demanded and she shot her a grateful smile. “This is a church and I will not have you disrespecting it with your potty mouth.”

  “Aw Auntie I was just telling it like it is, we all know what she and Walt are going to be doing.”

  Priscilla pressed her lips together and shook her head at her niece. Moesha was twenty-five-years-old, had a five-year-old daughter, named Destiny, and still lived with her parents. Moesha rarely stayed at a job long enough to accumulate vacation days, so far this year, she had four different jobs.