by Sienna Mynx
We got out the door and I expect a driver. But Coco slips her arm around my waist and we start in the other direction. There’s a jeep waiting for us, and its loaded with our luggage.
“What’s going on?”
“Ever heard of Pinney’s Beach in Nevis? It’s supposed to be the most beautiful beach in the world. They have private beach bungalows out near the shore. We have to hurry to catch our ferry.”
“We? Where is Georgie and Marcel?” I ask.
She lets me go and goes around to the jeep. I get in on the passenger side. She turns on the car and punches in the directions in the GPS.
“Georgie and Marcel are going to enjoy their vacation. It’s just you and me. We need this, Brick. No pressure, okay? But no more drinking either. Just you and me. Let’s work through our stuff. Deal?”
“You taking me to a private beach? After everything I did.”
“You’re my guy. Even if you don’t believe it,” she says. She shifts the jeep into reverse and drives us out to the road. I can’t stop staring at her. She glances at me a few times and smile as the wind blows her hair from her ponytail all around her face. I’m in my soiled clothes, looking hung over. But I’m smiling with her. I just want a little forgiveness until I can sort my anger out. And she’s understanding me, vibing with me, like we used too years ago. I think about the times she’s come to my rescue. After the Vietnamese kicked my ass. After Pops beat me up, or when her brothers nearly killed me. She was there, and never turned away. And even now, when I’ve been a total dick to her, she’s here. I can’t even remember why I’m mad at her. Or if I ever was. I’ve been hating myself every day since I lost her.
“There it is! The ferry. We have to hurry Brick. It’s the last one for the day.”
I look back at all her luggage. “Damn Coco, you had to bring everything?”
“What did you call me?”
I frown. “Coco?”
She smiles. She leans in and kisses me after she parks. “Finally! I swear if you called me Colette one more time I was going to strangle you.”
I laugh with her. We get out and I grab her luggage, and mind. she has to carry some of her own. Hell, I only have two arms and one back. Together we make it up to the Ferry in time to load it with our things. We board and she takes my hand. A calypso band is paying for us as the boat drives away from the pier.
“Dance with me,” she says and starts working her hips.
“No, I’m not in the mood,” I tell her.
“Aw, c’mon, no pressure. Just a little fun. I think I deserve it. We got four days, Brick. Remember you have to do what I say. That was the deal.” She pulls my hand to the back of the boat where the band is playing. I give up. I spin her around and dance with her. Three other couples join us. Before long she’s swaying in my arms and grinning brightly. I want to kiss her, but I don’t. Holding her is enough. We dance until the band takes a break. Exhausted and panting, the crowd of spectators clap for us.
“You two are so cute!” An older lady says with her husband. “Are you on your honeymoon?”
“Yes!” Coco says.
I raise my brows to her proclamation. She hugs my waist.
“Just adorable. Look, honey. So sweet to see young love! Have fun!” The lady and her husband wander away. Coco turns in my arms and laugh. “Feeling better?”
“You have a way of making me feel better,” I admit.
“Good! You stink! Can’t wait to get you to a shower.”
I chuckle and let her pull me over to a bench seat. We sit there and look out across the water. We ride in silence for several long minutes when I feel brave enough to speak.
“So how mad is Marcel?”
“Pretty mad. You owe him ten grand,” she says.
“And what do I owe you? For taking me to this beach resort?” I ask.
She removes her sunglasses. “You owe me a chance to explain. To really explain. And you owe me an explanation too, Brick.”
“For what?” I ask.
“Why you’re so angry. As much I want to think it’s about our love, and what happened to us, I know it’s not. Why are you so angry?”
“I dunno,” I mumble.
“Should I tell you why?”
I sigh and relax back on my seat. The sun is beating down hard on me. She scoots in closer. “You miss it, don’t you?”
“Miss what, Coco?”
“The sax. Playing? The Bone Room. Smoke? All of it. Don’t you?”
“I’m fine with it.”
“It was part of you, Brick. At least at admit it that much.”
“Why? So I can get all pissed off all over again?”
“Yes,” she says. “If you get angry about your pain it’s easier to deal with it. Stop blaming me, or Pops, or Marcel. And most importantly, stop hating yourself Brick. I know you’ve done things….”
“You have no clue about the things I’ve done.”
“I’m not stupid. I know you’ve done things. And I know that I can’t change it. But I remember you, my Byran Bondurant. The man. You’ve got good in you too, Brick. If you would only believe it.”
“I’m done talking about it,” I sigh.
“Okay. That’s fair. I just had to say my peace.”
I smile. “You want something to drink?”
“Sure,” I tell her.
She puts on her sunglasses and leaves my side. I look over to the old couple holding hands and riding side by side. They have to be in their eighties. And I can see how much they love each other still. I’m in the middle of paradise with the only woman I love and I’m pissed. Either I’m crazy or going crazy. All I know is I’m going to try to deal with this shit and fix whatever is wrong with me. Maybe one day I can have what that old couple has instead of an early grave.
I can’t believe my eyes. The bungalow is like something out of a travel magazine. We are taken by an open train car to the private resort beach cottages. And then the driver carries the luggage with my help across the sand to our little slice of paradise.
“It’s so beautiful,” Coco says as she goes inside. “Georgie and Marcel are going to be so jealous when I send them these pictures. She’s snapping images from the outside view of the hammock tied between two very shady palm trees, to the turquoise blue water and the boat on the shore. Inside there is one bedroom. And the shower is something outside under the trees in a wooden stall. The bed is draped with sheer curtains and large enough to sleep four. The futons in the living room have thick fluffy pillow seats. The kitchen is stocked with everything to cook our meals. I tip the driver and he wishes us a nice stay, gives Coco a side-ways look and then leaves. I’ve been catching the looks she’s been getting in her shorts all day. I know it’s silly but a man does feel pride when others see how beautiful their woman is. I am a jealous man, but Coco is pretty. And she can’t help it that others notice it.
“Do you like it?” she asks.
“I love it.”
“Well you know what you have to do first,” she says. She takes me by the hand and leads me to the bathroom and then out the door to the outside shower. Yes. I want to make love to her. Right now. Let’s do it!
“Take a shower, Brick. I’ll get you some clean clothes.”
“Huh? Why don’t you join me?” I ask and pull her to me.
“Not yet. First we get you showered. Then we talk. That’s the plan. Remember?”
I groan. She smiles and goes back to the luggage. Outside, I look around at the trees above. The large palm leaves are blocking out the sun and cooling the heat. On the wooden floor I look down to see a hermit crab slowly crawling by. I pick it up and stare at it. The crab comes out of its shell with one big purple claw and a second smaller pincher. It wiggles its antennae at me. We really have entered another dimension of time and space. I put the little guy down on the step so it can make its way out to the sand. I start to shed my clothes.
“How far are we from the restaurants and shops?” I ask. She can hear me from inside.
“You saw them when we came in. A mile. We can walk there tomorrow and hang out. Sound like fun?”
“Sounds like fun,” I tell her. I actually don’t want to talk. I don’t want to argue. I want to forget the past and just be with her. I’m not angry, not any more. I’m scared, yes. Coco’s rejection cut me to my core. But she’s here with me and the entire world is away. I’m not some Cajun swamp rat, and she’s not some black princess. We’re just Brick and Coco. Can’t we just stay this way?
“Do you have soap?” she asks.
“No, bae-bee,” I tell her.
Out of my clothes I step into the stall and turn on the water. The shower head is one that you have to stand under and is attached to a long pipe that recycles in rainwater. Its cool jets are heavenly. The stall door opens. She hands me some squeeze perfumed soap of hers. I frown. “What am I’m supposed to do with this? I need Irish Spring.”
“Then you should have packed some.”
I look at her. She’s looking at my johnson. I don’t have an erection but it’s still something she can’t look away from. “Come inside with me,” I tell her.
She closes the stall door and I laugh. She goes back inside as I rinse away the past night from my pores. I can hear birds in the trees above. I look up with soap in my eye and I can swear I see a parrot. It flies into the thick of leaves and is gone before I can be sure. I’m cool with this outside shower, but my baby is deathly afraid of insects. How is she going to handle it? Looks like she’ll need me to protect her every time she showers. I smile and lather my skin.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I laugh so hard with Brick my stomach cramps. The porch swing slows and he pulls me in over closer. I sip my lemonade and look out at the ocean instead of into his eyes. After his shower I prepared an early dinner for us. Sandwiches. I didn’t feel like cooking. Brick wolfed down his food and the fresh lemonade I had for him. The resort had really stocked the kitchen with everything I needed.
We ended up out on the front deck, on the porch swing talking about movies he and I seen over the year, and debating playfully politics since it was an election year. Brick doesn’t vote. Hates every politician. And he has reason. His father has bought and paid for most of them in New Orleans. Still, I make him promise me to register when we get back to civilization.
Now the small talk is over. We can’t skirt around it any longer. Now we have to put it all on the line. I guess it’s time for me to start. “My brother Nathan had six corrective surgeries to his face. He looks a bit better, but not much.”
Brick goes silent.
“The day my grand-mère woke and saw him tied to the tree, Brick, it was the day everything fell apart for me. We thought he was dead. I got to the hospital and didn’t recognize him. I felt so helpless and scared.”
Brick continued to rock the chair.
“I should have come to you. Talked to you about my anger and my fear. But I felt so guilty. You couldn’t speak. You’d been beaten almost to death by Nathan. How could I turn to you for sympathy?”
The chair we are on stops rocking.
“I hurt you, Brick. I know. I’m sorry. Not because of how I ended it, but I’m sorry for why I ended it. After Nathan I just didn’t think we belonged together. And that means I gave up on you, on us. And then Bobby was attacked. It spiraled beyond my control.”
“No,” he said. “You did what you were supposed to do, Coco. You chose your family. I don’t blame you for that.”
“You do blame me. If I had left you for Nathan, you would understand, but I married Xavier. That was different.”
Brick looks over at me. “There’s something you should know.”
“Okay?”
“I was angry. I was mad at the world when you married him. I wanted to kill him. Went to Pops and begged him to kill Xavier. He wouldn’t. It was stupid.”
“I understand.”
“Let me finish. After a year of being angry, I was drinking in the Quarter. At a bar not far from my house. I couldn’t go to the Bone Room anymore. It just reminded me of everything I lost.”
“What happened?”
“I was drinking in the bar and I saw a ad for Xavier Lacroix. Announcing his desire to run for Senator of Louisiana. A picture of you at his side.”
“I’m sure that must have ended badly,” I say.
“Not the way you think. A few of the guys at the bar were laughing. Calling him a fag. Saying everyone knows he’s gay.”
The swing starts to rock again. My heart raced to hear him say Xavier was gay out loud. I couldn’t speak so I listened as Brick did the talking.
“I didn’t know what they were speaking on. Asked a few questions and was given a name. Demetrius Clairemont. In the Quarter you can be whatever you want. And your secrets are kept, to a point. This was the breaking point. I found Demetrius and I forced him with my fists to tell me everything about Xavier.”
“I don’t want to hear anymore.” I say and get up. I feel sick.
“I got the sex tape from him, Coco.”
I glance back at Brick. He stares at me. “I was the one that leaked it to the press.”
“You...what... you... did that?” I stammer.
“Yeah I did it. And it felt good. You married him knowing he was gay. Didn’t you?”
I can’t answer. I’m frozen under the accusation. And the anger in Brick’s tone and face is clear.
“You knew, didn’t you? That’s why you came down to the French Quarter and played those games with me. That’s why you never cared about your fiancé finding out. Right?”
“No.”
“I asked you why he wanted to marry you and you never said. So this was all a game from the start? Some sick game between you two?”
“No, Brick. I swear it isn’t like that. I found out on my wedding night.”
Brick frowns.
“He and my dad had it all planned. They were using me. He wanted to cover up his lifestyle through me. And I was supposed to fall in line.”
“Why did you? Why not blow him out the water?”
“My mother.” I walk over to the step and sit down on it so my feet rest in the sand. Brick stays on the porch swing. He watches me. I have to tell him the story. “The day we came to my grand-mère and you were beaten, my father attacked me. He hit me.”
Brick looks on concerned.
“My mother got in between us. She told my father she would leave him. No one really believed her. Including my father. And then Nathan got hurt and she learned about you being so badly hurt in the hospital. It was too much to forgive. She wanted to end her marriage. My dad struck first. He filed for divorce and kicked her out of our house. She had nothing. He vowed she would have nothing. So I went to see my grand-mère to make a deal. Turns out the only deal they wanted was for me to marry Xavier. That’s what I did. And I protected his secret. I was supposed to protect him until after the election. But Xavier would have probably found a reason to trap me and force me to stay.”
“And I blew him out of the water,” Brick said.
“Yes, he was devastated. I was in New York in film school. I had to hide from the press. They ripped me to shreds. Thank you for that.”
“I was angry Coco.”
“You’re always angry, Brick. You walk through life like you’re the only one in pain. I get it. And it doesn’t matter. I was free. Freedom always comes at a price.”
“So you did this to protect your mother?”
“And you did this for revenge?” I say. I get up from the step and walk out into the sand. The sun is halfway into the sea. I want to see it disappear. I can hear Brick come down the sand toward me. He puts his hand on my hip. And then he comes closer and wraps his arm around me. I close my eyes.
“I won’t hurt you again, Coco. I won’t again. I swear it.”
“I don’t want you to make that promise. What I want you to say is you won’t hurt yourself anymore.”
I turn and face him. I touch his face. “Promise me you will sto
p this. Really stop and accept the past. All of it. No more drinking. No more running loose through life. Stop and be my Brick again.”
“I’m not sure I can.”
“Try. For me?”
I kiss him gently on the lips. He pulls me in and kisses me deeper. So deep I’m unable to breathe. I have to slow him down by pushing at his chest. It’s not that I don’t want the kiss, or that I don’t want him. What I really need is the promise.
“There’s nothing between us anymore, Brick. Nothing. Just you and me.”
“I’ll have to start over, Coco. Start over from scratch. I may even have to leave New Orleans.”
“It’s okay, baby. I’ll go wherever you want to go. I’ll take you where we need to be. I love you, Brick, with all my heart. I’m not going to let you go again.”
Brick kisses me again and I swear he might take me down in the sand. He’s much stronger than I remember. I laugh and we wrestle to the ground. Somehow I manage to get him off me and run for the porch. I almost make it. He catches me and swings me around in the sand.
“Put me down! Please put me down!”
“I can’t. I won’t.” He says as he carries me up the stairs and back inside. When we enter our bedroom he brings me down in his arms and I’m carried like a bride the rest of the way.
It’s my turn to kiss him. And I want all of him, in my mouth and on my body. That special part of him pushing into me. He lets me go and I ease down his tall frame. We stand there for a moment staring at each other. How many times has Brick visited me in my sleep when I was married, alone, and missing him? How many times had he visited me in my dreams since then? Too many to count.
I unbutton my jeans and push them off my hips. They drop down to my sandy feet and I step out of them. I take down my panty next and stand before him bottomless. He unbuttons his jeans. He doesn’t have on a shirt and his feet are just as sandy as mine. When his jeans drop his erection is revealed, because he has no underwear. His gaze lowers to my pussy. His cock, which hadn’t fully gained it’s girth slowly thickened and lengthened before my eyes. When his hand grips his shaft and he gave his length several firm tugs my throat goes dry. My gaze lifts and I can’t take my eyes off him—his face is tight and hard with arousal, the muscles along his ripped belly is tense and his lovely cock is jutting from a nest of black hair.