by Mary Monroe
“What are you talking about?” he shrieked, flapping his arms like he was about to take off flying. He gave me a wide-eyed look, and he stopped flapping his arms as his body froze. “Who told you I was talkin’ to a lawyer?”
“If you really must know, it was good old Scary Mary. The lawyer that you talked with just happens to be one of her regular tricks!”
“Shit!” he barked, the word shooting out of his mouth like a bullet. “That old lady pimp needs to mind her own damn business. That damn woman has been a thorn in my side since the day I met her!”
“Well, she is like family to me, so she looks out for me. By the way, she told me about that night you tried to rent one of her rooms so you and your whore could lay up.”
“That’s a damn lie. Lizzie had lost her house key, and her mama and stepdaddy were in Toledo. The motels didn’t have any vacancies, and Lizzie didn’t want to impose on you and spend the night on our couch.”
“So you took a woman to a brothel to try and get a room? What did you think Scary Mary would make of that?”
“That old battle-ax didn’t give me a chance to tell her why I was tryin’ to rent a room that night. I was goin’ to get Lizzie situated, and then I was goin’ to come on home like I was supposed to.”
“Yeah, right. So what were you talking to that lawyer about? Vietnam? Or was it some sporting event?”
Pee Wee’s shoulders sagged. He stumbled as he made his way to the table, where he collapsed into a chair. “Annette, I was talkin’ to that lawyer about a minor tax situation. I don’t know what he told Scary Mary, but I know that old blabbermouth didn’t say nothin’ about me talkin’ to him about a divorce. Now did she?”
“Well, no, she didn’t. But under the circumstances, what else could she or I think?” I sat down across from him.
“I don’t want a divorce,” he said. He was very emphatic about it. “I told you that back when you, uh, you know.”
“Yes, you told me you didn’t want a divorce when you found out about me and Louis. But what do you want now?”
He covered his face with his hands and shook his head. When he looked at me again, he looked so confused I almost felt sorry for him. “I’m just tryin’ to sort things out, that’s all.” He rose and started walking toward the living room. I was close behind him. “Where’s my daughter?” he asked, still walking.
“She’s having dinner with the Turners,” I reported.
“I guess them greens done finally got to her. I got a feelin’ that is what I smell right now.” He sniffed a few times and continued walking. He stopped when he got to the dining room doorway.
“That’s right,” I said.
He looked at the table; then he turned and looked at me. I had on a hostess gown with a very low-cut neckline. “I—why are you dressed like that?”
“I’m expecting company for dinner this evening,” I explained, smoothing down the sides of my gown with both hands.
Then he whirled back around and looked at the lavish spread on the table. “Well, if the company you expectin’ ain’t Gandhi, it better be Nelson Mandela! I know goddamn well you didn’t go to all this trouble for that cheesy-ass motherfucker I seen you slobberin’ all over that night outside the Red Rose!”
CHAPTER 46
“Yes, I am expecting that…that particular man you just mentioned,” I answered, glaring at Pee Wee. Now that we were no longer in the kitchen, I couldn’t grab that rolling pin if I needed to. But I wouldn’t hesitate to grab one of the thick wooden chairs from the table to “defend” myself. “What’s it to you?” I leaned over the table and straightened the two place mats.
“What’s it to me? I’ll tell you what it is to me. Jacob ain’t the kind of person I want my daughter around.”
“That’s too bad. I guess we still have at least one thing in common. Lizzie is not the kind of person I want my daughter around,” I retorted.
“Lizzie is a good woman,” he had the nerve to say.
“So you keep telling me. In that case, you’d better get on back home to her before she gets suspicious.”
“Lizzie ain’t got no reason in the world to think I’m foolin’ around with another woman.”
“I didn’t either—or so I thought,” I said glumly. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like for you to leave. My company is going to be here soon, and I am not in the mood to deal with a confrontation.”
“You told me a long time ago that Jacob Brewster wasn’t your type. Do you remember tellin’ me that?”
“Yes, I remember telling you that. What’s your point?”
“So why him? Why of all the men in this town did you run after him?”
“Why not him?” I quipped. “And for the record, I didn’t run after him. There isn’t a man on this planet that irresistible to me.”
A disappointed look spread across his face. “Not even me?”
“Especially you!”
Pee Wee looked at the floor; then he looked at me again. His eyes looked like they’d seen the devil. Then they started twitching. For a second I thought that he was going to throw some kind of a fit. But all he did was give me a dismissive wave before he rushed out the door like his pants were on fire.
And not a minute too soon. As soon as he drove back out onto the street, Jacob pulled up in a shiny silver luxury car and parked it in front of my house. I didn’t know much about cars. As a matter of fact, all I really knew was how to drive one. I didn’t even know how to change my oil, and I could barely pump gas. I loved my little Mazda, but the way Jacob stood looking at his vehicle, and the way that he was brushing a spot on the hood with the sleeve of his shirt, I could tell that that car meant a lot to him. I didn’t know what it was about men and their cars, and the way they worshipped them. It was one of the many things that irritated me, especially when it involved a middle-aged man. Rhoda’s husband treated his Jeep like a mistress. He was in love with it. Pee Wee was the same kind of fool when it came to that damn red Firebird he drove. I will never forget the day that car entered our lives. When the dealer delivered it directly to our house, Pee Wee snatched the key out of the dealer’s hand and kissed it.
Jacob stood back and stared at this car; then he got back in it. He didn’t see me looking out the window, but I watched as he moved the car closer to the curb. When he got out this time, he wiped another spot on the other side of his hood.
“I didn’t know you had two cars,” I said as soon as he made it inside. The other times he’d come to the house he’d driven a beat-up old rust-colored jalopy that I couldn’t even identify. It had surprised me when I found out that it was an old Thunderbird.
“I use the T-bird most of the time. I only use the Lexus for special occasions, like tonight. I thought that after dinner, I’d take you to a movie or to that new bar out on Sawyer Road for a few late-night drinks,” he told me all in one breath. He handed me a bottle of Chianti as he removed his thin cotton jacket. Like Pee Wee, Jacob was no fashion icon. He wore a pair of jeans, a white shirt, and a red tie.
“They must be paying you some long money down at that brickyard for you to be able to afford a brand-new Lexus,” I teased.
I hung his jacket on the rack by the door and led him to the living room. I had already placed a bottle of wine and two wineglasses on the coffee table in front of my couch.
As soon as his butt hit the couch, he slid out of his shoes. Then he promptly raised his arms, stretched his mouth open like a lion, and released a fierce yawn. Something told me that this man was about to make himself right at home. And that was the way I wanted it to be. If I was going to be spending time with him, the sooner we got better acquainted the better. I had no time to lose.
“Oh, I don’t make much money over there. The brick business is not what it used to be. But I stay there because I got tired of changing jobs every two or three years.” He leaned slightly to the side so that his elbow rested on the arm of the couch.
“I am glad to see that you are still doing so well. Did you
ever buy your own house? You used to talk about becoming a homeowner a lot back in the day.”
“Yes and no. When my mama passed, I got the house. She had already paid off the mortgage. That was enough of a blessing. But like the old folks say, ‘God is good.’ And sure enough, He proved it. Come to find out, my mama had a two-hundred-thousand-dollar life insurance policy. Girl, when that insurance man contacted me and told me that I was the sole beneficiary, I had such a serious panic attack I quit the job I was working at the time on the spot!”
Jacob popped open the bottle of wine that he’d brought and poured himself a glass. I waited for him to pour some into my glass, but he didn’t. That puzzled me, but it was not important enough for me to mention. I just hoped that he was having as much fun learning more about me as I was learning more about him. Our previous relationship had been so brief, I had only met his mother and a couple of his other older relatives. I didn’t even know that he was a smoker until he fished a pack of Newports out of his shirt pocket.
“You got an ashtray?”
I scurried into the kitchen and returned with one of several ashtrays that I kept in a cabinet. I only brought them out when a smoking guest visited, or when Pee Wee lit up a joint.
“Like I was saying, my mama left me all that nice money. And since I was so overwhelmed, I needed to relax. I did that on a two-week cruise, visiting spots in the Caribbean that I’d always wanted to visit. I ate spit-roasted prime rib for breakfast! Had two cuties on my arms at all times. I got some sun, not that I need more sun with my black ass.” He paused and guffawed long and loud. “I was living like a king for those two weeks.” He gave me a misty-eyed look. “My mama sure was a thoughtful woman. She surprised the hell out of me!”
“Why? If you were her only child, who else would she make her insurance out to?”
“She’s got a couple of greedy kinfolks who got a little upset when they found out she left me the house. They stopped speaking to me altogether when they found out about the insurance money, too. See, me and my mama didn’t really get along that well. I didn’t get to visit her that much in the last days and…and I feel kind of bad about that. But I can’t change anything now!” Jacob slapped his thigh. “Anyway, I just went on that cruise and enjoyed myself. I’m the kind of man who enjoys and appreciates the good life.”
“A cruise,” I swooned. “That must have been nice.”
“Uh-huh.” He nodded; then he sniffed and looked toward the dining room where the aroma of the lavish dinner that I’d prepared was coming from.
“Collard greens and rump roast. And I remembered how much you liked peach cobbler,” I said with glee.
“Is that right? Damn! I wish I hadn’t eaten that super burrito before I left work. But don’t worry, if I don’t eat before I leave tonight, you can fix me a couple of plates to take home.”
Jacob and I had talked about my cooking dinner for him several times in the last couple of days. I couldn’t understand why he had eaten a super burrito just before the dinner that I had spent so much time and money on. I let all of that slide. But something told me right then and there that if I continued to see Jacob, there would be a lot of other things for me to let slide, too. And I didn’t like that.
When he whipped out a book of matches and scraped one across the top of my coffee table, I let that slide. But the more cigarettes he smoked, the more I frowned. I didn’t have a problem with people smoking in my house. But I did have a problem when people ignored the ashtrays that I put in front of them and still shook a few ashes onto my carpet! That’s what Jacob was doing now.
“If you don’t mind, would you please make sure your ashes land in the ashtray, not on my carpet,” I said. “And please use the matchbook cover to strike your matches, not my coffee table.”
“Oh! I’m so sorry. I’m just so excited to be here with you, I can’t keep my mind straight.” He had smoked only half of his fourth or fifth cigarette, but he mashed it out in the ashtray, then turned to me. “I’m going to make you a very happy woman, Annette. This time for sure. I shouldn’t have let you get away from me that other time. If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t be sitting around depressed about that fool Pee Wee running out on you.”
“I’m not exactly depressed, Jacob.”
“The hell you’re not. I know a depressed woman when I see one. Now give me some sugar.”
I hesitated, but I puckered up and kissed him. From that point on, all he was interested in was my body.
CHAPTER 47
After he had removed my clothes and his, he folded everything and placed it on top of the coffee table next to the wineglasses. The latest edition of the Richland Review newspaper was already on the coffee table, opened to the sports section. He glanced at an article about Tiger Woods winning the Masters Tournament by a record of twelve strokes; a first for a black person. “Hmmm. I didn’t know black folks played golf,” he said with a snicker. That was such a stupid remark, I chose not to comment on it. Then he covered my body with his, spreading my legs open with his knee. We made love on my living room floor.
I was not the kind of woman who liked to do a lot of talking when I was this close to a man, but Jacob couldn’t stop yapping. “Baby, you are going to love this,” he promised, yelling into my ear. Now that was a bit irritating. When I moaned and turned my head to the side and shuddered, he thought that it was because I was in ecstasy. “See there!” he panted. He moaned a few times as he slammed into me. As soon as he caught his breath, he started yip yapping again. “I knew you were going to have a meltdown as soon as I got my hands on you. You’ll be begging me not to stop! And it won’t be long before I have you so sprung, you’ll have to be weaned off me. I’m going to put something on you that a doctor can’t take off. Oh baby!”
“As long as it’s not some incurable case of VD,” I joked, huffing and puffing and writhing as I tried to keep up with his thrashing hip movements.
We both laughed. For one thing, he wore a condom, so him putting something on me that a doctor couldn’t take off wasn’t likely to happen. However, he made me feel so good that, when he attempted to rise and return to the couch, I pinned him to the floor. I didn’t release him until I was thoroughly satisfied.
It was nice. It was nice to be in a man’s arms again, even if that man was not my husband. Jacob was a fairly good lover, and he seemed to be more interested in satisfying me than he was himself.
We eventually ended up in the same bed upstairs that I had shared with Pee Wee. But by that time we were both too tired to continue. I fell asleep with my head on his shoulder.
When we woke up at the same time a little while later, he licked up and down my chest and face, and played with my titties for a few minutes. I tickled his butt and fondled his balls, but that was all. And I was glad that that was all we did. I knew it was going to be hard for me to enjoy making love in the same bed that I’d shared with my husband for so many years. That was something that I wanted to ease into.
When Jacob left a few minutes after midnight, the scrumptious dinner that I had prepared for him was still on my dining room table. I put everything away, drank a glass of warm milk, and then took a shower before I returned to my bedroom. I straightened the sheets and blankets, and crawled back into bed, but I couldn’t fall asleep. For some reason, I couldn’t get comfortable on the same sheets where I’d just wallowed around with another man. Especially since the sheets were still damp with his sweat. I jumped up and changed the bedding; then I slid into the bed and slept like a baby.
The next morning when I called Rhoda and told her about Pee Wee’s visit, then Jacob’s, she couldn’t stop laughing. “Maybe the next time you prepare a meal like that, you really should invite Gandhi. Or at least Nelson Mandela.”
“The next time I go to that much trouble to prepare dinner, it won’t be for a man,” I vowed. “At the end of the day, it’s all about sex with them. By the way, how is Bully?”
“Now don’t you start talkin’ trash about my sweetie. He’s f
ine if you must know. He’s fifty if he’s a day, but he’s in better shape than men half his age. I’m blessed. And you are, too.”
“I don’t know about that. I’ve lost my husband to another woman, and I’ve got some serious concerns about the man I’m with now.”
“Jacob? He’s harmless. And didn’t you just tell me how good he was in bed? What more do you want?”
“He’s too pushy for me. Also, he’s got some hygiene habits I don’t like. He doesn’t like to use deodorant.” I stopped talking and we remained silent for a long uncomfortable moment.
“Don’t leave me hangin’ just when it was gettin’ good!” Rhoda yelled. “Explain what you just said.”
“I don’t like it when he shows up without calling. That’s one thing. He did that the very first time he came to the house. I was not expecting him, so I looked like a fishwife and the house was a mess. And it’s bad enough when it’s my house involved, but he has already dropped by my office a few times with flowers for me. I don’t share my personal business with the people I work with, but they know I’m married. I don’t even want to think about what some of them must be thinking about his visits.”
“Or what they are sayin’. You know how the people in this city like to spread gossip.”
“Tell me about it. And another thing that I don’t like about him is that, when he takes baths in my house, he leaves his dirty underwear on the floor, and he doesn’t even bother to let the water out of the tub when he finishes.”
“What is so bad about that? I have that same problem with Jade.”
“Jacob is usually covered with that oily dust from the brickyard when he comes by after work. You wouldn’t believe the black ring it leaves in my bathtub. And he leaves the soap in the water, too. So it melts and floats on top of the water. By the time I go into the bathroom to clean up after him, it’s a mess.”
“Well, sister-girl, all you have to do is tell him to clean up after himself. And don’t leave it open for discussion. Shit. That’s your house, and he should respect your rules. What about his house? Does he do the same thing there?”