by Tracy Brown
“Don’t act like that,” he said. He shook his head for emphasis. “I missed you.”
“What about your wife?” Celeste demanded.
“I left her.” Rah-lo looked for Celeste’s reaction but got none. “It’s over. I know I don’t have a right to come back into your life after all these years. You probably think I’m crazy coming down here like this, but I need you.”
“You need me for what? I left New York four years ago, Rah-lo. I changed my whole life around. Why did you come here now?”
“So you changed your life and now there’s no room for me?” Rah-lo frowned.
“Get the fuck outta here with that, Raheem! I don’t want to hear that shit. You married Asia and let her have your children. Then when I left, all these years you’ve stayed with her. Don’t think you can come back here and pick up where you left off. Nobody sat around waiting for you. I wasn’t fucking knitting in the corner waiting for you to finish being married! Rah-lo, fuck you! Get the fuck away from me!”
Celeste hated his guts at that very moment. She wished she could hurt him the way she had been hurt after years of playing the background. She was done. He could kiss her ass.
“I’m not saying I was right—”
“You can’t say you were right, muthafucka!”
Rah-lo breathed deeply. “I’m just sayin’.”
“What the fuck are you just saying? As a matter of fact, what the fuck are you doing here? What do you want from me? Why can’t you leave me alone?”
Rah-lo looked at her and took another deep breath. “I can answer all your questions if you stop interrupting me.”
“I don’t need your answers, Raheem.”
“Okay, I see you’re real mad right now.” Rah-lo tried not to react to Celeste’s bitterness, but she was making it hard for him.
“I’m not mad, Rah-lo,” she said evenly. “Never that! In fact, I’m quite happy. So go back where you came from. Back to your fucked-up wife and your kids and leave me alone. She can have you.”
Celeste walked away, telling her heart that it better not break. She meant every word she said to Rah-lo. She hated him. But damn if she didn’t love him, too. Celeste’s heels clicked on the pavement as she stormed toward the exit.
Rah-lo was right behind her. He grabbed her by the wrist and she swung at him with her other arm, hitting him square in the jaw, which made him bite his tongue literally. The pain was evident on his face the moment it happened, and Celeste knew she had gone too far. Thinking she had knocked his tooth out, she reached toward him apologetically.
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry.”
Seizing the moment, Rah-lo kissed her softly. Celeste pulled away, but the feeling of his lips against hers lingered still.
She turned to leave and he stopped her, holding her by the arm until she met his gaze.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Celeste shook her head. “I know you didn’t think I was gonna just sit around forever and wait for you to get sick of being married,” she said.
“I knew you wouldn’t.” He thought about it and was scared to ask his next question. “You got somebody else?”
Celeste glared at him. She almost wanted to tell him that Ishmael was right upstairs in her house. But she knew that would end badly. She felt the urge to tell Rah-lo that Bryson had been fucking her better than he ever had. But she simply said, “Yeah.” She wanted to hurt him and she could tell by the look on his face that she had succeeded.
Rah-lo said nothing at first. He was crushed, although he knew it was selfish for him to feel the way that he did. He had a wife and during the past four years he hadn’t been alone. It was wrong for him to expect Celeste to be alone after all that time. “So, I guess I wasted my time coming down here, then.”
Celeste didn’t understand why she felt sorry for him. And she didn’t understand why she was secretly thrilled that he had finally come for her, that he had left his wife, and that he still loved her.
Rah-lo rubbed his hands together. “You want me to leave?”
Celeste couldn’t tell him to go, because she wanted him to stay. She realized then how much she still loved Rah-lo. Her gaze fell downward. She couldn’t believe that this was happening. Where had he come from? She had convinced herself that Bryson was the type of man she needed in her life. He had stability, intelligence, romance, a legitimate job, no wife or kids, and she felt comfortable with him. Still, he was not Rah-lo. He didn’t excite her the way Rah-lo did. And as Rah-lo stood before her she wanted nothing more than to fall into his arms and tell him how much she loved him.
Instead, she took her hand away and shook her head. “Yeah, you can leave. You can’t come in and out of my life whenever you see fit.”
Rah-lo took her hand back and held it tighter. “I’m here to stay this time. I swear, baby girl.”
As much as she loved it when he called her baby girl, Celeste pulled her hand away again and walked inside her condo. Rah-lo stood in her wake, speechless.
Asia stepped onto the elevator at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Buckhead. She had checked in late the night before when her evening flight had landed. The hotel was beautiful and conveniently located, and she felt right at home in her spacious suite. She figured she may as well enjoy cozy surroundings while she was here in Atlanta to fight for her husband. She waited patiently for the elevator to descend and looked around at all the activity in the lobby through the lift’s glass walls. The fountain in the lobby bubbled with large tropical fish swimming inside. People milled about on their way to and from their destinations. As the elevator doors opened to the exquisite lobby, she stepped out and strutted out to the parking garage to get started on her way. She looked amazing that day. Wanting Rah-lo to see her in the way he once had, she had gotten her hair done and her nails, too, before she had left New York. She wore skintight capris and a very low-cut top. She wore her GUESS sandals and carried the Dooney & Bourke bag Rah-lo had given her for Valentine’s Day. She hoped it was enough to change her husband’s mind.
She had rented a car at the airport and was now ready for the drive to Uncle James’s house. As she strolled along, her heels clicking on the pavement, she turned several heads and was pleased by that. Since she seemed to be having no problem attracting male attention from passersby on the street, maybe she would have equal success with the man whose attention she was determined to keep. Today was the day she would confront her husband and, she hoped, bring him back home where he belonged.
When she arrived at Uncle James’s house, Asia parked the rental car and got out, eager to get inside and surprise her husband. She all but ran up the steps leading to the front door of Uncle James’s house and eagerly rang the bell when she got there.
“Hold on; hold on a minute!” Uncle James called out. Somebody was ringing his doorbell like a madman. He was sitting on the toilet in the downstairs half bathroom, and he wasn’t done letting his load out.
“I’ll get it!” Wanda’s son Brian yelled as he ran downstairs. “Damn, you stink in there, James!” Brian fanned the fumes away from his nose as he caught a whiff of what was going on in the bathroom.
“Shut the fuck up and answer the door!” James barked. He shook his head, for the hundredth time wishing Wanda had no kids.
Brian opened the door and smiled when he saw Rah-lo’s wife standing there. He remembered Asia from the last time she came to visit. He had a crush on her then, and here she was again. “Hey!” he exclaimed, pulling her into a hug.
Asia felt caught off guard and it showed. “Hi,” she said with a fake smile. “What’s your name again?”
“Brian.” He sized her up. “I haven’t seen you in a long time! Why didn’t you come down when Rah-lo came the other day?”
Asia smiled. This kid was feeding right out of the palm of her hand. “I wanted to surprise him,” she said. “Where is he?” She looked around Uncle James’s living room for signs of her man but saw none.
Brian shrugged his shoulders. “He left last nigh
t. Right after he had some of my mama’s good cookin’.” Brian smiled proudly, as if he had cooked the meal personally.
“How is your mama?” Asia asked, not really caring.
“She’s fine.”
“Good. So did he say where he was going?” Asia asked.
“Right after he ate, he started making phone calls. Said he was trying to find somebody important down here and he wasn’t leaving till he did that.”
“Find who?” Asia asked.
Brian shrugged. He was smart for thirteen and he didn’t want to say too much. Rah-lo had sat up till the wee hours of the morning kicking it with Brian. His little brother, Nigel, had been asleep—just as he was at the moment—and old James had been in his bedroom with Wanda doing only God knew what. Rah-lo had talked to Brian about how it was living in Brooklyn and what it was like being married to one woman and loving another. “Don’t get married unless you really love a woman. Don’t do it ’cause anybody makes you feel like you have to.” That’s what Rah-lo had told Brian.
He shrugged his shoulders and ignored the question. “James told him to stay as long as he wants. So he left outta here and he ain’t been back since. Did you try to call him yet.?”
Asia noticed that Brian had ignored her question, so she in turn ignored his. “He hasn’t called since he left?”
“Nope. I guess he’ll be back here soon. You can stay here and wait for him if you want.” Brian rubbed his hands together. He would love to play peekaboo with Asia.
James came out of the bathroom at last. He wore a pair of red athletic shorts with tube socks pulled all the way up to his knees and a black muscle shirt that showed clearly that he had no muscles. He tried to spray the air freshener discreetly but failed. When he saw Asia, his heart sank. He knew that Rah-lo wouldn’t want to see her. But even worse was the fact that Brian had been talking to her for several unsupervised minutes. James wondered what his dumb ass had told Asia. James scowled as he entered the room at the kid.
“Hello,” James said, pretending to be happy to see Asia.
She smiled. “Hi! Brian was telling me that I missed Raheem. I came to surprise him.”
James nodded. “He’ll sure be surprised. He didn’t seem like he was expecting you.”
Asia caught James’s meaning. She wondered if she was too late. Had Rah-lo found Celeste already? “He didn’t tell you who he was looking for?” Asia asked.
Who had told her that he was looking for someone? James immediately shot a penetrating glance at Brian.
James shook his head. “Nope. He didn’t mention any names.”
Asia looked at Brian to see if he had anything to add. She wanted to see if he looked like he believed James. Brian shrugged, seeing that she was trying to gauge his reaction. He knew James was lying. But Brian couldn’t say so.
James wanted to kick Brian’s ass, but the phone rang. “Excuse me,” James said, and went into the kitchen to answer it. He hoped it was Rah-lo so that he could warn him of his unexpected visitor. The minute James was out of earshot, Asia turned to little Brian.
“I got twenty dollars if you tell me where Rah-lo went,” she said. “I know you know something.”
He smirked. He liked her style. She was so “New York”! “You can keep your twenty and let me see your titties,” he suggested. She was a dime piece for real!
Asia wanted to slap the shit out of his young ass. “Do you want the twenty or not?” She waved it in his face invitingly. Little bastard!
“Yeah. Rah-lo went to find his old shorty,” the kid said matter-of-factly. He snatched the money, smiling. He tucked it discreetly into his sock.
Asia was pissed. “He told you that?”
“Yes, ma’am. He didn’t tell me her name, but he said he was here to find her.”
James came back into the room and cleared his throat heavily. He shot a look at the kid that made it clear that his input wasn’t wanted. The look on James’s face said, Shut the fuck up, but Brian didn’t seem fazed by it. He had a twenty in his sock, and that was all that mattered.
James looked at Asia. “This is Wanda’s son Brian,” he explained. “She went out shopping again and his nappy-headed ass don’t know how to stay out of grown folks’ business.” James glared at Brian.
Asia suddenly needed to get out of there. She felt like she wanted to burst into tears, but she certainly didn’t want to do so in front of Uncle James and his too-mature-for-his-own-age stepkid. “Okay. I’m gonna go. I’m staying at the Embassy Suites in Buckhead.”
“You want me to tell Rah-lo you’re here?”
Asia was already at the front door. “No,” she said over her shoulder as she made a hasty exit. “I’ll tell him myself.” Asia ran out to her car, got in, and peeled out. She looked in her rearview as she left and saw Uncle James pop little Brian in the head for talking too much. She wiped the tears from her eyes and dialed Rah-lo’s cell phone number.
His phone went straight to voice mail and she was furious. When she heard the beep she began her tirade. “You motherfucka! I know you’re with that bitch! And when I find her I’m gonna kill her, I swear. I went to your uncle James’s house, so I know you’re not there. And that little bastard he has running around there told me that you went looking for your shorty. Call me back, Rah-lo!”
Asia hung up the phone and immediately redialed. She left five messages and each one was more venomous than the last. As she pulled up at the hotel, she was eager to get to her room so that she could have a good old-fashioned cry.
Rah-lo rang the doorbell and waited. Soon he heard shuffling outside of the door and the locks being undone. A slightly smaller and much older version of Celeste peeked out the cracked door. “Yes?” Nana asked the handsome young man standing before her. Rah-lo was dressed presentably in a pair of jeans and a button-up.
“Hello, Mrs. Styles. My name is Rah-lo. I spoke to you on the phone.”
Nana smiled. “Yesssss, Oslo!” she exclaimed, opening the door wider. “Come on in.” She held the door ajar as Rah-lo entered. He started to correct her but decided against it. Judging from the volume of her voice, he assumed she was hard of hearing. As he entered the house, a large Rottweiler barreled up to him and Rah-lo was caught off guard. He expected the dog to bark at him and act aggressively. But instead, the dog jumped on Rah-lo and began to lick his face.
“Zeus! Get down!” Nana yelled at him. “He’s not usually this affectionate,” she said.
Rah-lo smiled. “This is Zeus? I gave him to Celeste as a gift when he was a puppy. God, he got so big!” He petted the monster’s large head and smiled.
Nana was amazed. “They say a dog never forgets a scent. I guess it’s true.” She led Rah-lo into her living room, with Zeus following close behind. “It’s too bad you just missed Celeste’s mama. My daughter, Zara, just went down to choir rehearsal.” Nana gestured toward the sofa, and Rah-lo smiled and took a seat.
“It’s all right. I doubt she would want to see me. I actually came to talk to you.”
Nana sat down slowly in her rocking chair and kicked her size 6 feet up on the ottoman. “Really?” she asked. “Why me?” She sized Rah-lo up and saw why Celeste was so smitten. Rah-lo was handsome, tall, and strong. He seemed like he’d be a real powerhouse in the sack.
“I came down here to see Celeste,” he explained. Rah-lo laid out his entire love life for Nana’s inspection. He told her about loving her granddaughter while he was married to another woman. He told Nana about his children, his career choice, his love for Celeste, and his desire to be with her for real this time. Rah-lo spoke about the demise of his marriage and how he’d come to Atlanta to win back Celeste’s heart. Nana listened in silence, nodding every now and then, absorbing all that he said.
“So, you say that you love my grandbaby, but you kept her quiet for how many years?” she asked, her brow slightly furrowed.
Rah-lo sighed. “It was a long time, Mrs. Styles—”
“You can call me Nana, handsome.”
&
nbsp; Rah-lo smiled, caught off guard. “Nana, I really love Celeste. I do. And I did keep our relationship a secret for years. I know I messed up and I never should have let her leave. But I’m here to fix that now. All I need her to do is listen to me. I was hoping you could help me.”
Nana nodded. “Let me tell you a story,” she said.
Rah-lo sat back and crossed one leg across his lap. He figured that this could be a long one.
“I used to be something in my youth, chile. I had a man I loved back when I was nineteen years old. See, in those days there wasn’t no shacking up or sleeping around. You got married or your daddy would whup somebody’s ass for messing around with his daughter.”
Rah-lo laughed at Nana’s narration.
“So when I fell in love with this man—who was twenty-four and married with two kids—I kept it quiet from my family. He kept telling me that he was gonna leave his wife someday soon and he was gonna marry me. I held on and waited and waited. One year turned into the next and before you knew it I was twenty-two and still waiting to be this man’s wife. My family couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t date anybody or try to find a suitable husband. And I couldn’t tell them because it was my big secret. I had to keep it to myself. Eventually, I realized that my mister wasn’t going to leave his missus. So I finally managed to get over him and I met my husband. We were married, and then two years later Zara was born. A year after that, my husband died from pneumonia. I can’t help wondering if all those years I spent waiting for my married man could have been years spent with my husband, enjoying more of his time than what I had with him.”
Rah-lo sighed, figuring his attempt to get Nana on his side had been fruitless.
“We women often tell our daughters and our granddaughters to stay away from married men because they never actually leave their wives. Most of the time that’s the truth. But you have actually done it. And you seem to be really in love with my Celeste. I think that is beautiful. And I hope it’s not too late for you to win her heart. But what’s to stop you from cheating on her and leaving her when the going gets tough?”