Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

by Brenda Hampton

  “Do you mind if I lay down here with you?” she asked.

  “Not at all,” I said, opening my arms to her. She lay close to me and crossed her leg over mine. Getting more comfortable, she hugged my chest and placed her head on it.

  “Are you comfortable?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  I wanted to ask if I could make love to her, but after our encounter earlier today, I was sure she’d tell me no. I wasn’t up for rejection, so I accepted her just being in my arms. I rubbed her back until she fell asleep. Once she did, I did too.

  I slept well, but when I woke up, Cydney was gone. I went upstairs and she was in our bedroom getting ready for work. She was dressed in a dark gray suit with a pink blouse and pink accessories. Her hair was full of loose wavy curls that were combed back and hung on her shoulders. I was surprised that she allowed so much of her bruised face to show, but more surprised that she was getting ready for work.

  “Why don’t you take the day off with me?” I asked.

  “Because Darrell is on vacation and I promised him that I would handle things while he’s away.”

  “Aren’t you worried about people questioning you about your face?”

  “Not really. The only person who will probably question me is Carol. I’ll make up something and keep my door shut.”

  “What about lunch? Would you like for me to bring you some lunch today?”

  “Yeah, that would be nice.”

  “What would you like to eat?”

  “Surprise me,” she said, grabbing her purse. I pecked her cheek. She smiled. “Be good, Isaac. I’ll see you later. Don’t get yourself into any trouble.”

  “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were concerned about me.”

  “Very concerned. Just be careful.”

  Cydney left. I guess she could tell that I was on a hunt for Miguel again, and she knew damn well that I wasn’t about to let what had happened go.

  I showered and put on some clothes so I could go back to Miguel’s place. When I arrived, his car wasn’t outside, but I went upstairs to check things out. Still, there was no sign of him. His loft had been vandalized even more. I figured some of the other tenants must have broken in and done more damage. That pleased me, so I left and headed for the station to see if anybody had seen him around or heard from him.

  No sooner had I walked through the door, Sarg yelled my name. I went into his office and he told me to close the door. He tore into me.

  “Tell me, how am I supposed to keep Internal Affairs out of here if I continue to get reports filed like this?” He dropped several folders in front of me.

  “I don’t know what those files contain, but if Internal Affairs have a job to do, then go ahead and let them do it. Besides, I told you before that Miguel and I aren’t very well liked on the streets.”

  “Well, Miguel was in here earlier today. After I showed him those files, the coward turned in his badge and gun then told me to fuck off. That proved to me that some of these complaints must be true. And if they are, you’d better hand your badge over too.”

  I looked down at the folders and opened up the first one. There was a complaint from a woman who claimed she’d been strip searched by Miguel and me. I remembered the incident, as Miguel went overboard and I had to stop him. The second and third folders were instances where we both were accused of using excessive force. In those cases, we did. It was required because the fools resisted arrest, spit on me and provoked me to kick ass. Four of the folders were simply about money. Money that was taken from houses and vehicles. I was just as guilty as Miguel, and even though he was the one who took the money, he always gave me a healthy share. The last two folders were complaints about us planting drugs on people in order to make an arrest. Again, Miguel was the culprit, but I went right along with it.

  Knowing my guilt, I closed the folders and scooted them close to the Sarg. I stood and reached in my pocket for my badge.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you the truth or not. Besides, I’m sure you’re not telling me everything Miguel told you. In the meantime, you have a job to do. I’m prepared to make it easier for you, so you’ll have my resignation letter by morning.”

  I tossed my badge on his desk and walked towards the door.

  “I really wanted this to work out, Isaac. And I may consider a suspension. Right now, I just can’t continue to ignore all of these complaints because Internal Affairs has been coming down hard on me.”

  “I get it. Like I said, you have a job to do and consider it done.”

  I took a hard swallow then left. My stomach turned in knots. I enjoyed my job, but I wasn’t no fool either. I knew that I would someday have to suffer the consequences for what I’d done, or I’d have to eventually walk away as I just did. For now, walking away seemed like the right thing to do.

  Finding Miguel was starting to become a difficult task. I’d search for him all morning, and when I checked my watch, it was almost time for lunch. Chinese was Cydney’s favorite, so I stopped by China Wok to get her something to eat. To make her feel even better, I stopped at a flower shop and bought her two long stem red roses.

  I arrived at her office, but her secretary wasn’t at her desk. Cydney’s door was closed, so I knocked.

  “Come in,” she said.

  I opened the door and stuck my head inside. “Are you busy? I bought lunch for us.”

  “No, I’m not busy. Come in, but close the door.”

  I closed the door and walked over to the sofa to take a seat. Cydney got up and came over to sit with me. Before getting to our food, I pulled the roses from the bag and gave them to her.

  “I know how much you hate these, but I couldn’t resist.”

  She grinned and took them from my hands. “Thanks,” she said. “But you really didn’t have to.”

  She went over to her credenza and pulled out a crystal vase from inside. She then placed the roses inside and looked at me.

  “They need water. Do you mind going down the hall to the kitchen and putting some water in the vase? If you look in the cabinets, you’ll find some paper plates and forks for our food too.”

  I stood and took the vase from her. “There should already be forks inside of the bag.” I looked, but there wasn’t. “Okay, so we need forks too.”

  Cydney smiled and I left to go to the kitchen. When I came back, she was sitting on the sofa waiting for me. Just as she did this morning, she looked so beautiful. Face bruised or not, my wife seriously had it going on. I couldn’t keep myself from continuously staring at her. And right then, I wondered what in the hell I’d been thinking during all those years of cheating. Certainly, everything I needed and wanted was right here in front of me.

  I placed the plates and forks on the table in front of the sofa and put the vase on her desk. Afterwards, I opened the boxes of Shrimp fried rice and Egg Foo Young.

  “That smells delicious,” she said. “Did you go to my favorite place?”

  “You know I did. Don’t you recognize the aroma?”

  “I guess,” she said, standing up. “Take a seat. I can handle this.”

  “If you say so,” I said, allowing her to serve us.

  Cydney fixed my plate first, and then hers. I looked at her heart-shaped ass and couldn’t help but touch it. She grabbed my hand.

  “Isaac, don’t do that, please.”

  “Why not? It looked too good to resist.”

  “Control yourself. Now isn’t the time.”

  “Then when is my time coming? Do you ever plan on making love to me again?”

  She reached out to give me my plate. “We have other things to deal with right now. Sex isn’t going to solve anything. For you to think it is, I don’t quite understand.”

  “Well, it’s a start. I’m not saying that it’s going to solve everything, but don’t you think that it’s a move in the right direction?”

  “Honestly, no, I really don’t. And who mentioned anything about salvaging our marriage? At thi
s point, I don’t know what I want to do.”

  With that being said, I started to eat my food. Cydney noticed my demeanor and pulled my plate away from me. She placed it on the table.

  “I didn’t mean to rain on your parade, but the truth of the matter is, just yesterday, you were in bed with another woman. According to her, you’d been with her for several days. I don’t feel as if I should have to put that behind me right now and move on. What you’ve done is hard to swallow.”

  I cocked my head back in disbelief. “What I’ve done? What about what you’ve done? How do you think I feel? You act as if your cheating doesn’t matter.”

  “It was nothing compared to yours.”

  My eyes grew wider—she couldn’t be serious. “The last time I checked, cheating is cheating. It doesn’t matter how many times it happened. I wish like hell that you’d stop blaming me for everything and start taking responsibility for some of this mess that has happened.”

  “I do, Isaac. But I also know that it wouldn’t have happened if you had done what you were supposed to do in this marriage.”

  At this point, I was tired of hearing it. Instead of finishing our lunch, I stood and placed my hands in my pockets.

  “I need to go make some runs. I’ll see you when you get home,” I said.

  “You’re not going to finish your lunch?”

  “I’m not hungry anymore.”

  I opened the door and left.

  For the rest of the week, things between Cydney and I were quiet, but cool. We didn’t argue, but she couldn’t help but question me about my daily runs. I hadn’t told her about my job situation yet. She thought I was on vacation. When I told her I stopped looking for Miguel, she didn’t believe me. Actually, I’d been on a mission all week long. He must have skipped town because I couldn’t find him anywhere.

  On Friday, Cydney seemed a bit strange. Without saying goodbye, she rushed out of the house and I saw her dialing out on her cell phone as she pulled out of the driveway. When I called her, she didn’t answer. I even offered to bring her lunch again, but she said no. I wasn’t sure what was up, but something surely wasn’t right. During my mid-day phone call to her, I could tell my suspicions were correct.

  “What time do you think you’ll be home?” I said.

  “I’m not sure. I told Darrell I’ll keep things in order until he returns. He’ll be back on Monday. I want to make sure everything is taken care of, so I’m working rather late.”

  “Late as in seven o’clock late or ten o’clock late?”

  “Isaac, I don’t know but I will be home as soon as I can, okay?”

  “That’s cool, Cyd. I’ll see you later.”

  She hung up and I quickly got dressed to go see what was up. Since Cydney still had a few hours before she got off work, I stopped at Miguel’s sister Trinity’s house. They were very close, so maybe she knew what he’d been up to and was willing to shed some light on this situation. The two-family flat that she lived in was located on the Southside of St. Louis and was in a quiet neighborhood. I stepped to the door and rang the doorbell. Trinity was a beautician and she set up her beauty shop in her home. She always talked about getting her ex-husband to buy her a beauty shop, but I wasn’t sure if that had happened yet.

  I rang the doorbell again and Trinity finally opened the door.

  “What’s up, Isaac?” she said with a comb in her hand. Much attitude was displayed on her face and she sounded bitter. “I thought I’d never see you around here again.”

  She didn’t invite me in, so I stood outside. “Have you seen your brother?”

  “No, I haven’t,” she quickly answered. I could tell she was lying.

  “When is the last time you’ve seen him?”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m looking for him, that’s why?”

  She walked away from the door, leaving it open for me to come inside. I followed her up the steps and couldn’t help but look up her red short skirt that hugged her fat ass. Her caramel smooth skin always glowed and her model shaped legs were thin and pretty. She was my type of woman, but all I wanted to do a while back was fuck her. Knowing that she had my attention, she switched from side to side. She had the audacity to bend over when she reached the top step. I got a glimpse of her baby blue thong.

  “Ooops, I must have dropped this on my way downstairs.”

  She picked up a folded dollar from the floor. She put it inside of her bra then gave me a wink. I followed Trinity into the kitchen where she was giving a young lady a perm. Another lady sat at the kitchen table while flipping through a magazine.

  “Y’all, this is Isaac,” Trinity said.

  “Nice to meet you, Isaac,” said the lady with the relaxer in her hair. “We’ve heard a lot about you.”

  The other lady looked me up and down while pursing her lips.

  “Trinity, you were about to tell me where I could find Miguel,” I said.

  “I wasn’t about to tell you nothing. I invited you in here because that was the appropriate thing to do. Also, I wanted to know where you’ve been hiding. Evidentially, you must have worked things out with your wife.”

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  “Yeah, right. I saw you running around with this other chick a few weeks back, so you and your wife didn’t work out nothing.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe we didn’t. But if you want the truth, the truth is I got bored with you.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Bored? You didn’t appear to be bored during sex.”

  I cleared my throat as one of the ladies giggled. “Look, Trinity. For whatever reason, things didn’t work out between us. I know you don’t want to stand there and tell all of your business to your customers, do you? All I came here to find out is if you’ve seen Miguel.”

  “He’s out of town. I don’t know where, and I don’t know when he’s coming back. If I talk to him, I’ll be sure to let him know you’re looking for him.”

  Feeling as if I wasted my time, I walked towards the steps. I waited at the bottom for Trinity to unlock the door with her key. She came down the steps then turned to me when she reached the bottom.

  “I thought you came over here to apologize for hurting me like you did. I can’t believe that you have no sympathy for how you treated me. You knew how much I cared for you, Isaac.”

  “I apologize for whatever hurt I caused you. But you knew I was married. I told you that I wasn’t going to leave my wife.”

  She moved closer to me. “That’s what your mouth said. Your actions showed something different.” She reached for my hand and placed it underneath her skirt. She guided my hand on her ass so I could feel the smoothness. “Nice, isn’t it.”

  “Very nice,” I said.

  “Then come back later and touch all of me. I promise not to bore you and I doubt that I ever did.”

  She let go of my hand and it remained on her ass. Actually, I took my other hand and reached up her skirt as well. I massaged her ass cheeks, and being nearly the same height as me, she leaned in for a kiss. I accepted it.

  “I love your thick lips,” she said. “I just prefer them to be somewhere else. Can you make that happen?”

  “I always do, don’t I?”

  I removed my hands. She unlocked the door then opened it.

  “What time shall I expect you?”

  “I got a few errands to run. After I’m done, I’ll call you.”

  Trinity nodded and watched me until I got in my truck and drove off.

  On my way to Cydney’s office, I thought about Trinity being my only connection to Miguel. She was so vulnerable when it came to me, and maybe if I fucked her, she’d tell me what I wanted to know. I wasn’t sure if I’d return or not, but if he knew I was still involved with her, maybe it would give him some incentive to show up.

  For a few hours, I waited in the parking garage and listened to some music. At 5:45 p.m., Cydney finally left the building. I followed, and when she got on highway 40 going west, I knew
she wasn’t headed for home. She drove to Mariono’s in Chesterfield and got out of her car. Afterwards, she went inside. I parked my truck so I could see what was up.

  As I walked past the door, I quickly looked inside and saw her waiting by the front door to be seated. Soon, the waiter escorted her to a table, but she sat alone. Suspecting that her companion would arrive soon, I went back to my truck and waited. Nearly ten minutes later, he showed. He drove a black Mercedes, and as soon as he parked his car, I got out of my truck. I watched Raymond walk inside. The waiter directed him to Cydney’s table. She stood to embrace him.

  The wrinkles on my forehead deepened. My insides burned. I knew something was up and for her to continue to see him, after all we’d been through, was a stab in my damn back.

  I swallowed and headed back to my truck. Damn her, I thought. To hell with her. I didn’t have time for this, and if she didn’t want me anymore, so fucking be it.

  Instead of going home, I stopped to pick up a gift for Erica. Yesterday was her birthday and I wanted to let her know that I hadn’t forgotten about her. I asked the clerk at the store to wrap the books, dolls, and learning tapes into one box for me. She did and placed a huge pink bow on the top. I drove to Laquinta’s place, and even though I was a little ashamed to show my face, I went to the door. Laquinta opened it. I reached out to give her the box.

  “I wanted to give this to Erica for her birthday,” I said.

  She reached for the box. “She’s not here. We had a party for her over at her grandmother’s house yesterday and she stayed over there. Erica’s been asking about you. I’m sorry that she missed you. You can always go to my mother’s house and take your gift to her.”

  “Naw, that’s alright. You know how your mother feels about me. Just make sure Erica gets her gift.”

  I stepped away from the door, but as expected, Laquinta grabbed my arm. “You…you can come in, you know.”

  “Come in to listen to you gripe? No thanks.”

  “I promise you that I won’t gripe. Just come in for a while.”