The Johnson Sisters

by Tresser Henderson

  “Before we get started on me, what’s wrong with you?” I asked.

  “Nothing. Why are you asking?”

  “Come on, Serena. I can tell something is going on with you. I know we don’t talk often, one on one, but you are still my sister. I can tell when something is up with you.”

  She sighed and paused, taking another sip of her water. She looked at me and said, “You didn’t come over here to hear my problems, Viv.”

  “Just like you just told me and, yes, I’m going to give your own words back to you. I’m here for you always.”

  Serena smiled and got up off the chair, walking out of the room. For a minute I thought I had offended her, but I couldn’t see how. It wasn’t long before Serena came back into the room. She plopped down in the chair with an envelope in her hand. When she held it up for me to read, my mouth fell open.

  “What in the hell is that?” I asked.

  “It’s what it says it is,” she explained.

  “But medical facilities aren’t supposed to print up envelopes like that. That’s an invasion of someone’s rights to privacy. Hell, I know about the HIPAA laws.”

  “This was in my mailbox today,” she said glumly.

  “Stop lying,” I said.

  “Vivian, I wish I were.”

  I was looking at a stamped envelope addressed to Tyree Coleman. In big, bold capital letters across the front for everybody handling this piece of mail to see, it said HERPES TEST RESULTS INSIDE.

  “Did you open it?” I asked.

  “You damn right I did. Sis, I was so mad I forgot about any federal offense laws and the possibility of me being arrested for opening his mail. I didn’t care. I had to see what was inside.”

  “And?” I asked curiously.

  Serena reached in the envelope, pulling out the piece of paper. She opened it and began reading it to me:

  “Get checked, Tyree, because you may have herpes. And since you have been sleeping with me, I thought you should know you need to get checked. Sorry for any inconvenience, sweetie. Love, Juanita.”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I said in astonishment.

  “This woman is certifiable. I mean, who does this? She sent this through the postal service on purpose, stamped, delivery confirmation and all. Look where it came from,” Serena said, pointing to the postal stamp.

  “New York,” I said.

  “Exactly. This bitch just left New York, taking her son to visit with some of her family. She sent the letter from there with this official-looking envelope,” Serena explained.

  “I’m sorry, sis. My problem is nothing compared to what you are dealing with right now. Does Tyree know?”

  “Yeah, I showed it to him and he was pissed.”

  “I hope he hasn’t left to go over and confront her,” I said.

  “He said he wasn’t, but who knows. As mad as he was, he might have. Really, I don’t care at this point. This is too much for me to deal with. I was so happy when you called me this morning wanting to come over.”

  “I feel bad now.”

  “Please don’t. As you can see, I needed you as much as you need me. Now let’s stop talking about me. What’s your deal?” Serena asked.

  “I did something that I think I might regret,” I began to reveal.

  “And what’s that?” She looked at me suspiciously.

  “I slept with Sheldon,” I said, flinching like what I said hurt.

  “For real?” she asked excitedly. “When?” Serena damn near jumped up and down on the chair.

  “The night of our disaster dinner. He came over after his hell date, and we chilled out like we always do.”

  “I know it was good. He looks like he can lay some good pipe—and real long pipe,” she said.

  “Serena,” I said, giggling.

  “I’m sorry, but that man is fine, Viv. I know it was good, wasn’t it? I want to know. Give me all the juicy details,” she said eagerly as she propped her elbow on the arm of the glider and leaned in to listen.

  I paused before saying, “It was real good. I mean, it was so good he had me gon good. G-o-n, gon. No man—and I mean no man—has ever made my body feel like Sheldon did.”

  “Damn, Viv. He put it down on you like that?”

  “It was so good, Serena, that when we got up the next morning, we did it again, and it was just as good, if not better, than the hours before. I was sore as hell, but I didn’t care. To have that man’s body next to mine felt right,” I said, looking down at little Nevaeh’s eyes beginning to close.

  “So, what now?”

  “That’s just it. I don’t know. Sheldon and I are best friends.”

  “A fine best friend at that,” Serena said.

  “Now that we’ve crossed this line, I wonder how is this going to affect our friendship. This man knows more about me than y’all do. He knows my favorite ice cream and has seen me looking my worst without makeup. He knows my bad habits and deals with my attitudes no matter what. He knows about all the men I’ve slept with and vice versa. We are so close that if I get a pimple, this man will pop it. We pass gas around each other. As crazy as all this sounds, Serena, I love him for that. He is my comfort zone.”

  “Wow. He sounds like the perfect man for you, Viv,” Serena said in a suggestive tone.

  “But he’s my perfect friend. I never thought of him as my man.”

  “Never?” she questioned.

  “Never,” I said.

  “Y’all didn’t talk about what happened that morning?”

  “When we finished, we both fell back to sleep. When I woke up, he was gone.”

  “You haven’t called him?” Serena asked.

  “And say what? ‘Hey, how’s it going? By the way, let’s talk about the sex we had the other night’?”

  “Yes,” Serena blurted, chuckling.

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Why are you scared?” my sister asked.

  “I just am. I can’t explain it.”

  “You have known Sheldon forever. Talk to him. You will be okay. Just like you said, this man knows everything about you, so regardless if you talk to him now or later, when you do see him, he’s going to know something is up by your demeanor.”

  My sister was right. I never looked at it like that. This man could read me like a book.

  “I don’t want this to ruin our friendship. Sheldon is the best thing that’s happened to me in a very long time. I could confide in him about anything, Serena. If sex changes this between us, I’m going to be devastated.”

  I removed the bottle from Nevaeh’s mouth and picked her up, placing her on my shoulder, patting her back to burp her. She was sound asleep and looked so beautiful. I could feel her little breaths on my cheek, which caused me to smile.

  Serena said, “Viv, you can’t pretend like this never happened. You never know; you might get around him again and your hormones might start to rage. You know you are going to jump his bones again.”

  “It can’t happen again,” I disagreed.

  “If you say so, but I know it is. If it’s as good as you say it is, and for that man to come back for seconds the following morning, it’s going to happen again. You two need to talk this over if you don’t want it to ruin you all’s friendship for real.”

  Serena was right. As much as I wanted to pretend like nothing happened, my body let me know it did. I could still feel the residual effects of what his manhood brought to my body. Thinking of Sheldon used to make me happy. Now the thought of him made me horny. I loved him as my friend, but I loved him even more as my lover. I didn’t want to fall in love with him, but in a weird sort of way, I already had. The sex took it to the level I’d been fighting a long time. I didn’t want to feel this way if he didn’t feel the same about me. I knew that was what my hesitation in this entire situation was about: him not feeling anything for me after our night together.

  I hoped Dawn wasn’t right. I hoped Sheldon wouldn’t be another man who would use me for what he could get
out of me. But why should I think this way? This was my best friend. He would never use me. I did know him better than that. What I didn’t know, and feared most, was if this would break our bond. The thought that I could lose him saddened me.

  Chapter 21

  Vivian

  I took Serena’s advice and decided to call Sheldon, who agreed to come by and see me that afternoon. I was so nervous. I had never been nervous about him coming over. This man could walk in my house without knocking and it hadn’t bothered me one bit, but now I was pacing the floor like a stranger was about to walk through my door.

  Every time I heard a car drive by my house, I peeped out the window to see if it was him. I was disappointed at least ten times, until I looked out and saw Sheldon’s gray SUV pull up in my driveway. Just like Sheldon to have this music blasting when he arrived.

  I wrung my hands together, hoping it would help decrease the uneasy energy rocketing throughout my body, but it wasn’t working. I then went over to my loveseat to sit down like things were cool. I had to look normal. I had to act like what happened between us didn’t affect me one bit.

  My front door swung open and Sheldon walked in, saying, “What up, Viv?”

  He was in a great mood, which helped a bit with my own anxious mood. I smiled and said, “Hey, Sheldon.”

  “I see you chilling. And you not in the bed,” he said, tossing his keys on the coffee table. “That’s good to see.”

  When he said I wasn’t in the bed, I got more rigid, because I kept envisioning the two of us having sex.

  Sheldon sat down beside me on the chair, and I pushed back a bit, sitting with my legs beneath me. As usual, this man looked sexy as ever. He smelled even better as I caught a whiff of his cologne. Black and gray were Sheldon’s favorite colors, so it was surprising to see him in dark blue denim jeans and a bright green collared polo shirt and white sneakers. Of course, his clothes fit his body like a glove. Just looking at him brought out sensations in me that I knew I had to restrain, the main awareness being the sudden throbbing between my thighs.

  “Man, I’m tired,” he said, slouching down and leaning his head back on my sofa.

  “You had a rough day?” I asked as casually as I possibly could.

  “It was a’ight,” he said, pushing his dreads from his face. He didn’t have them tied back today. He was letting them hang freely around his chiseled face. He had a midnight shadow effect going on, as his beard had grown in slightly. It looked sexy on him. I liked when he let a little stubble grow.

  Sheldon continued to say, “I washed my ride, did a little bit of grocery shopping, and then washed some of my clothes. You know, the small stuff you let go until you really need to do it.”

  “I know. I need to wash clothes myself,” I admitted, trying to sound normal, but I guess I didn’t.

  Frowning, Sheldon tilted his head and asked, “Is everything okay with you?”

  “Everything is good,” I lied. “Why do you ask?”

  “Are you sure? Because earlier you sounded like something was wrong. Now you’re looking like you about to cry or something. Did something happen?”

  “No,” I said.

  “Please tell me it’s not Eric or your sisters again,” he said, reaching over and putting his hand on my knee. Just that touch caused me to become tense, but the smell of him caused me to drip.

  Trying to urge the sexy thoughts of Sheldon out of my head, I said, “I’m done with Eric. As for my sisters, nothing has changed really between us. The only one I’ve talked to since the altercation is Serena.”

  “Okay, so what’s going on with you?” he asked, staring back at me as he got more comfortable with the cushions of my loveseat.

  Sighing, I said, “I called you over here to talk about what happened between us the other night.”

  “Okay. I was wondering when we were going to get around to talking about that.”

  “So what happened, Sheldon?”

  “You don’t know?” he said jokingly with a smirk on his handsome face.

  “Boy, I know, but you know what I’m saying. How did it happen? We are friends. Best friends at that,” I said, sincerely happy that the conversation was underway.

  “You talking like what happened between us was a bad thing,” he said apprehensively.

  “No. I’m not saying that. I don’t want what happened to affect the friendship we have,” I said.

  “And how will it do that?” he questioned, clasping his fingers together as he positioned them across his broad chest. I felt like this was some type of defense mode, but I kept talking.

  “You know once sex gets involved things change,” I said.

  “Nothing has changed for me. Are you trying to say it has for you?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said with uncertainty. “I don’t want what happened to change our friendship, that’s all. I love what we have.”

  Sheldon nodded as his full lips thinned from bringing them together. This let me know he really wasn’t feeling what I was saying. Then he stood, saying, “Okay. I understand. Look, I got to go. I got some things to handle.”

  Standing, I said, “Sheldon, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong, Viv. I got what you saying.”

  “So why do you seem upset?” I asked worriedly.

  “I’m not. I just got things to handle,” he said, opening the door. “I’ll talk to you later.” And out the door Sheldon went, leaving abruptly.

  And there it was: the changing dynamic of our friendship that I feared would happen. I didn’t know how to take his reaction. The awkwardness crept in. I was wondering, should I have said anything at all? He came in fine but left distressed. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut and pretended like nothing happened; but something did happen, and no matter how many times I tried to erase the moment we had with one another, it crept back like raging waters during a flash flood. I’d thought about our moment at least a hundred times.

  That night we had ended up falling asleep after eating in bed and watching a mini marathon of Family Guy, which was one of our favorite shows. The next thing I knew, Sheldon was cuddled up behind me, asleep. We were in the spooning position. His arm was around my waist. I had to admit I loved when he did this. We did this quite often, and at times I did wonder if that was what friends did. Nevertheless, I felt like this was how it was supposed to be.

  I tried to fall back to sleep, but it was difficult with Sheldon’s hardness against my behind. Feeling it up against me did cause emotions within me to stir, but I knew I couldn’t react to them. I also couldn’t figure out why, of all the times we’d done this, I was now turned on by this man’s body being pressed up against me like this. Had he always been erect like this and I never paid attention? No, as big as he felt, I knew I would have remembered this feeling.

  I closed my eyes and tried to fall back to sleep. Sheldon shifted a bit. It seemed like he moved closer to me, pushing his stiffness into me. I think I sucked in breath when he did this. I must have, because the next sound I heard was Sheldon asking me a question.

  “You okay?” he muttered.

  Hearing his voice startled me. I thought he was asleep. I replied by saying, “I’m good.”

  “Why you jump?” he asked in his deep baritone voice.

  “I didn’t.”

  “Yes, you did.”

  “Boy, go back to sleep. You talking crazy,” I said, trying to play it off as his hardness continued to stimulate me.

  “I know why you jumped, Viv,” he said, moving his hand to my hips. He began rubbing me soothingly, sending tingles through me.

  “Why?” I asked naively.

  He pushed himself closer to me, causing me to feel his full erection even better, saying, “This is why.”

  I couldn’t say one word. His manhood stole my voice. Sheldon continued to stroke my hips. With each stroke the heat between my thighs intensified. As much as I liked it, I didn’t move. I didn’t know what to do. He was my best friend, and things lik
e this weren’t supposed to happen.

  He nestled closer to me, his chin resting in the crook of my neck. I could feel his warm breath on the nape of my neck. I knew my heart was pounding at this point, and I hoped he didn’t hear it or feel it. Sheldon then kissed the nape of my neck gently. It was a seductive kiss, the kind of kiss where I felt the warmth from his mouth and the softness of his lips, which made my body quiver.

  My mind was spinning and my womanhood was throbbing. The more he stroked and laid kisses on me, the more turned on I became.

  Sheldon tugged on my shoulder, turning me to my back. He wanted to take this further, which made my heart thump even more. I didn’t think it could pound any harder. I didn’t want to push him away and say this couldn’t happen, but I didn’t know if I wanted this to stop. Was it the wine? Was it feeling his hardness against me, or was this inevitable? Either way, I was going to go with the flow.

  Sheldon propped himself up on his elbow and gazed down at me. I wouldn’t allow myself to look at him. Not yet. I peered up, looking at the ceiling. He gripped my chin, gently tugging for me to face him. Our eyes met. He didn’t say anything, but the expression on his face told me everything I needed to know. He wanted me. Sheldon leaned in and kissed me tenderly. Just our lips converged, soft sensual pecks done leisurely and seductively. I didn’t kiss him back. I closed my eyes, relishing the fact that this was happening but wondering what we were doing. It wasn’t seconds before my lips perked up to gently kiss him back.

  What started out as a sensual kiss soon became animalistic. Sheldon began to kiss me deeply. I recklessly responded as I threw myself into him. His hand roamed my body, becoming familiar with it for the first time ever in this erotic way. As much as I was enjoying this, I was still uncomfortable, because I wasn’t happy with my body.

  I released our kiss and tried to pull away from him, thinking this was going way further than I thought it should, but Sheldon wouldn’t let me. He begged, “Please don’t pull away from me.”

  The way he said this mesmerized me into a trance to obey. He kissed me again, this time letting his hand maneuver its way to my womanhood to explore regions that had been off-limits during the duration of our friendship. Sliding his hand beneath the material of my PJs, Sheldon found my opening. One of his fingers parted my lips as another made its way inside me. Gently plunging as far as he could push his fingers into me, he skillfully pleasured my womanhood, making it drip with bliss. I was in heaven.