Up to No Good

by Carl Weber

  “Since high school, but that night you caught us was supposed to be the last time.”

  “You’re lying. There’s no way you could have been doing it that long without me knowing. Keisha would never do that to me.”

  “You don’t know Keisha, Darnel. You don’t know her at all. I wasn’t the only one.”

  “You fuckin’ liar. You want me to believe that I don’t know the woman I had planned to spend my life with? No, what you want me to think is that she was fuckin’ everybody else so that I don’t have to focus on you stabbing me in the back. But it was you she was screw-in’. It wasn’t some other bitch-ass nigga I caught with his dick shoved inside my woman. That was you. Don’t try and put that shit on nobody else. Your ass was the one who was foul.”

  “Yeah, I fucked up.”

  “You think?”

  “It don’t matter what you think about me, Darnel, but you needed to know the truth.”

  “You a dirty dog and a liar. You used your A game to seduce my girl and to take advantage of her naïveté. Isn’t that the big truth?”

  “Man, you’re gonna find out one way or another. The truth always comes out.”

  “Fuck you, Omar.”

  “I’m not lying to you.”

  “You ain’t shit.”

  “I may not be, but at least I’m not the one lying to you now.”

  I would have punched him in the face, but I could see my dad at the bottom of the steps, watching me, and the cop with his hand on his billy club, ready to pounce. I turned and walked away before I did some serious damage.

  “I wasn’t the only one, Darnel,” Omar repeated as I stepped off.

  I wish I could forget this conversation had ever taken place, but now that it had, Omar’s accusations were something I was going to look into.

  James

  21

  One month. It had been one month to the day since Sandra and I went to the Lakers–Nets game, since that night when she sent my world into a spin by doing something no other woman in recent memory had done—she shut me down sexually. But even though she still hadn’t given me any, somehow or another we’d ended up seeing or talking to each other every day since then. We’d gone out a few times, and whenever I knew Darnel wasn’t going to be around, we spent time at my place and a few evenings at hers, but we never made it to the bedroom. This night, we had stayed in to watch a game on TV and were snuggled up together on my couch.

  At first I was spending so much time with her just because I felt I had a challenge to conquer. All I really wanted to do was get between her legs and show her who was in charge. But as time went on and one sexless date became ten and so on, I realized I wasn’t in it for the sex anymore. I was in it because I really liked her. With most of my women, we bypassed all the formalities and just jumped into bed, but with Sandra, we were doing all sorts of romantic things that I found myself actually enjoying. I looked forward to our daily conversations and our picnic lunches and romantic dinners.

  As corny as it sounds, Sandra made me feel alive, and that in itself was very confusing, because I ’d never needed any woman to make me feel good about myself. Usually, as long as I got her to take off her clothes for me, I felt great. But this was different. We’d spend hours just hanging out, and she could get me to talk about things that I hadn’t thought about in years. She was funny, easygoing, and smart, and the combination had me “open,” as my daughter would say.

  “You comfortable?” Sandra stroked the top of my head as I lay on her lap, watching a movie. We had watched the game, and now we were into a Lifetime flick. Me, watching a Lifetime movie. Everything about that was foreign. Any other time, I would have been showing a sister the door if we had made it this far into the night and still had our clothes on. I dug this woman in a way I hadn’t planned to. I mean, sure, it would be nice to enjoy her body, but I was amazed that I was lying here with her and sex wasn’t my only mission. In fact, at that moment, it wasn’t my mission at all.

  “I’m relaxed.” I smiled up at her. She had these dimples that made her look even more beautiful.

  Sandra leaned down and kissed me, and it wasn’t no quick peck on the lips. It was passionate, like the one she gave me the night of our first date. I loved those kisses, but if we weren’t going to do anything, I didn’t want to go down that road. I ’d taken my share of cold showers behind Sandra’s give-a-brother-blue-balls kisses, and I was not in the mood to take one so early. I pulled away gently.

  “Don’t stop. I really like you, James.”

  “Me too,” I said as I sat up and faced her.

  “And I want you.” She gave me another killer smile, all intense and self-assured.

  I hesitated, hoping like hell she wasn’t just teasing me this time. “You do?”

  She nodded, placing her hand in mine. When she pulled it away, she left behind a condom. I stared at it, letting the realization of what we were about to do sink in. I ’d been waiting for this moment for a month, but for some reason, I was still hesitant, which was sure not like me. What in the world was this woman doing to me?

  “Are you sure? I need you to be sure.”

  She didn’t speak. She just slid from the couch down onto the rug, her knees on the floor; then she leaned over and slid her tongue into my mouth, and damn if I didn’t feel myself start to loosen up.

  Next thing I knew, Sandra had unbuckled my belt. Once she got my pants off, she started kissing my inner thighs. I instantly hardened in anticipation, but instead of putting me in her mouth, she tasted every inch surrounding my member.

  When I was fully erect, she stopped and stood up. I watched as she untied the sides of her leopard-print wrap dress and sensuously removed it, letting it drop to the floor.

  “Damn,” I managed to mutter, though her beauty left me almost speechless.

  I was so used to dating women my own age that I had forgotten what a body unaffected by age or childbirth looked like. Now, don’t get me wrong; I have always preferred a woman with some miles on her, but this was something else. I hadn’t seen a figure like this in years, except on visits to a titty bar, which was usually a “look but don’t touch” situation. Sandra definitely wasn’t the kind of woman you’d find turning on a pole for tips. Her body was nearly perfect, and her standing there offering it to me made me feel like the luckiest man on the planet at that moment. Before now, I ’d thought my days of being in the presence of this kind of beauty were long over.

  “You sure?” I asked again.

  “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life. Make love to me, James.”

  The next morning, I was whistling my rendition of Ray Charles’s “Georgia on My Mind” as I whisked eggs in a ceramic bowl. I make a mean omelet, if I do say so myself. I mixed in mushrooms, tomatoes, and black olives. While the eggs were cooking, I poured a glass of orange juice and buttered the toast. When everything was done, I put my best china and crystal goblet on a tray, placed a rose by the plate, then climbed the stairs to my bedroom.

  Sandra was still sound asleep. I couldn’t remember the last time I ’d let a woman spend the whole night and then woken up happy to see her still there. But Sandra was a beautiful vision, looking almost angelic all curled up under the covers. Her face wore the contented look of a woman well satisfied. Yeah, the old man still has it, I thought proudly.

  I have to admit, though, that Sandra kept up with me every step of the way and even showed me a few new tricks. At one point, she had to stop and let me catch my breath. I was still getting over some kind of bronchitis, and her wild acrobatics in bed sent me into a coughing spell. She had a brother screaming by the time she finished with me. Maybe it was because she was young and flexible, but she let me flip her around and bend her like a pretzel for what seemed like eternity, until we were both panting and sweating. Yeah, she might have made me wait for it, but it was well worth it. She made me feel like a young man again.

  “Wake up, sleepyhead.” I carried the breakfast tray over to my king-sized bed.<
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  Sandra slowly roused herself, rubbing her fists into her eyeballs. “What time is it?”

  “Time for breakfast.”

  “Is this for me?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “You’re so sweet.”

  “No, you deserve it. I’ve done a lot of things in my life, but that was … wooo!”

  “It was.” She flashed a smile. “So you don’t want me to leave?”

  “You’re not going nowhere.”

  “You’re not going to kick me out like you kick the other women out your bed, are you?”

  I thought I was being playful, but her response made me realize I couldn’t joke about certain things with her. She knew my daughter, which meant she knew about my reputation for loving ’em and leaving ’em.

  “No way. Never,” I assured her. “Here.” I picked up her fork. “Let me feed you.”

  As I watched her enjoy her breakfast, I thought about how quickly she’d gone from a self-assured vixen in bed to a young woman unsure if she had just been used. Unlike some of the older women I ’d dealt with, who had become so hardened and cynical that they didn’t care if it was all about the sex, Sandra still had an innocence about her that made me want to wrap her in my arms and protect her heart. Life hadn’t knocked that starry glow of hope out of her eyes yet, and I was going to try like hell not to be the one who did it.

  “You know I meant what I said last night,” I told her.

  She stopped eating and looked at me sweetly. “You did?”

  “Yes.” I stroked her soft hair and then ran my hand along the smooth skin on her face. “There’s something very special about you. Something that just makes me want to be around you. Makes me want to be a better man. But I’m not gonna lie. You’re wife material, and I’m not looking for a wife.”

  “Not yet, you’re not. But who knows what the future holds? I’m just glad that you’re letting me stay.” Her eyes sparkled with sudden tears. Now, I wasn’t about to cry or anything, but I was feeling pretty emotional myself. This woman had gotten into places in my heart that I didn’t even know existed.

  Sandra wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me in for another one of those kisses that I felt all the way down to my toes. The breakfast tray was pushed to the side, and I was ready to be deep inside of her again.

  That’s when my cell phone beeped, alerting me that I had a text. Sandra stopped kissing me, and from the look in her eyes, I could tell that her imagination was getting the best of her. I’m sure she was wondering which of my “recreational partners” was texting me for a booty call this morning.

  She wasn’t necessarily right, though. For all I knew, the text was from a client. Any other time, I would have ignored it until we were finished in the bedroom. But she had put enough distance between our bodies now that I knew her mood was ruined.

  I decided to put her mind at ease by looking at the text. If it was from a client, no problem. And even if it was from another woman, I still had a solution. I was so into Sandra that I would reply to any woman with a text that said I was no longer interested. Sandra could read my text and see that I was serious about not hurting her, and then we could get back to making love.

  Unfortunately, the text fit neither of those scenarios. It was from Jamie, and it read I’M AT THE FRONT DOOR AND MY KEY WON’T WORK! WHERE ARE YOU?

  “Damn it,” I cursed under my breath.

  “What’s the matter?” The way Sandra’s eyes darted around the room, I could tell she was already thinking of the worst-case scenario and was preparing to grab her clothes and leave. But in this case, her leaving would be the worst thing. We’d both be in deep shit if Jamie saw her leaving my house this early in the morning. How the hell would we explain that?

  “Jamie is at the front door.”

  “She is?” Sandra had a look of panic on her face. We’d never discussed keeping our budding relationship a secret from Jamie. There was no need to talk about it, because we both knew Jamie well enough to know that telling her was out of the question.

  “Should I go?” she asked, making a move to get out of the bed.

  “No!” I put my hand on her shoulder and pushed her back a little harder than I should have. “Sorry. But you gotta stay here until she’s gone. I’ll go talk to her, and you keep quiet up here, okay?”

  I threw on some sweats and a T-shirt and headed to the door, trying to think of the quickest excuse to get rid of Jamie.

  I peeked through the peephole and groaned. She had that crazy, self-righteous, “I’m going to run your business” look in her eyes. I decided my best line of defense was to not let her get even a foot inside. As determined as she looked, she might just head straight for my bedroom, and then Sandra and I would both have to deal with her wrath.

  “What, Jamie? I’m busy right now,” I yelled through the door.

  “Daddy, let me in! My key won’t work.”

  “It’s not supposed to. I changed the locks again.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because this is my house and I wanted to.”

  She started pounding and jiggling the doorknob like that was going to get her in. “Daddy! What is wrong with you? Just open the door!”

  I cracked the door slightly but left my body pressed against it so she couldn’t open it farther. “You have a home, Jamie. I don’t have a key there, do I?”

  “Yeah, but … but does Darnel have a key?” She seemed confused that I hadn’t just opened the door and welcomed her in. Usually by this point I would have given in to her tantrum. Shoot, I thought, lots of things about me were changing since I met Sandra.

  “Nope. He doesn’t have a key either. Darnel moved out. He found his own place. Haven’t you talked to your brother lately?”

  “I’ve been busy. Louis and I are having some problems. That’s why I came over.”

  For a second, she almost got me. I hated to see my little girl as sad as she looked, and I was close to letting her in so I could talk to her about what was going on between her and Louis. But in the blink of an eye, she lost that look and was back to interrogating.

  “Daddy, who’s in there? Why won’t you let me in?”

  “I’ve got company. I told you about coming over here unannounced.”

  “It’s Crystal, isn’t it? She done snuck away from her husband again, didn’t she?” She gave me a disgusted look. “What do you see in that woman?”

  “Look, Jamie, I’ll give you a call later, but I’ve got some things going on right now, okay?”

  “Oh, so you gon’ tell me you won’t let me, your youngest child, your baby, in your house?” Now she was giving me her best attitude, with hands on hips, lips poked out, and head tilted to the side.

  I felt my blood pressure rising, but I was not in the mood for a long, drawn-out fight. Not when I had Sandra waiting in my bed upstairs. “Jamie, you’re a grown woman. Now go home and handle your own business with your own man.”

  “You wrong, Daddy, but that’s all right,” she said, and then offered her final word before walking away. “I’m leaving now, but I’m gonna find out what’s going on with all this sneaking around you’ve been doing.”

  “Do whatever you have to, baby, but do it from your house, okay?”

  I closed the door and locked it, quite sure that she meant every word she’d said. If this thing between me and Sandra became anything more involved, we had a tough road ahead of us.

  Jamie

  22

  I stepped into Punta Rojo, a tasty Columbian restaurant on Hillside Avenue and walked past the hostess to the back, where Sandra was sitting in a booth. She was half eating, half playing with a salad, and if looks could kill, I would have been as dead as they come when she looked up from it.

  She was annoyed because I was a full thirty minutes late for lunch, but I just couldn’t get out the door. Every time I got up from my desk, the phone rang or someone walked into the office. Usually, I would just say to hell with it and forward the phones to our service,
but Daddy was trying to rush me out the door, which only made me take my own sweet time. I had a feeling he had a lunch date with this mystery woman he was seeing, and I was dying to know who was this heifer who was brainwashing him lately. I stuck around in the office as long as I could before Daddy finally shoved me out. From the look on Sandra’s face, it still wasn’t soon enough.

  “Is your watch set on CP time or what?” She rolled her eyes playfully. “You know some of us only have an hour for lunch. Not all of us work for our rich daddies.”

  “Jealous?” I teased as I slid into the booth across from her.

  “Actually, I am. You know how I feel about real estate. I ’d love to have your job.”

  “Well, it’s not up for grabs, so forget it.”

  I ’d only seen Sandra a few times since the night I tried to fix her up with my brother. She looked good, working some gold highlights and a new shade of lipstick. Truth is, she kinda glowed. If I didn’t know better, I ’d think she’d gotten some recently.

  “I got this. It’s on me today. I owe you for try’na set you up with my brother anyway. Did he ever call you?”

  “Yeah, he left me a message apologizing. Said something about him and his ex were getting back together.”

  I pantomimed a gagging motion. The thought of Darnel wasting his time with Keisha made me sick to my stomach.

  Sandra just shrugged. “You know, story of my life. That’s why I don’t fool with these young dudes.”

  “Sorry, girl. I really thought it was gonna work out. Trust me, it’s his loss.” My brother was a damn fool for passing on someone like Sandra. Where else was he going to find someone with a good job and a great body who knew how to respect herself? He sure as hell wasn’t gonna find it if he kept messing with that skank. Sandra wasn’t like Keisha or the rest of these tramps I saw chasing after Darnel and my father. She had class. Why couldn’t my father or my brother choose someone like her?

  “That’s a’ight,” she said. “I’m seeing someone.”