by Desiree Day
53
Don’t Go Fishing Until You Can Stomach Gutting a Fish
Thanks so much for making sure I got home okay,” Tameeka said gratefully, and gave Tyrell a watery smile. Tameeka nervously cleared her throat, then laid her hand on his arm. “Tyrell—”
He shrugged her hand off as if it was an annoying bug. “Hey, don’t worry about it,” he muttered, then flashed her a weak smile. The billionth apology was on the tip of her tongue and he sensed it.
“Okay, I need to bounce. I’m already late for work. Need to make that cheese, otherwise this big cat ain’t gonna eat. And you know how much I love to eat…” His voice drifted off as his gaze locked with Tameeka’s. Tyrell broke the spell. “Call me if you need anything.” He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly and Tameeka wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life. After a heartbeat, he sighed inwardly and gently untangled her arms and pushed her away. “Take care, okay. Don’t forget to call me.” He was halfway to the door when she shouted.
“No! What happens if he comes back to get me?” Tameeka cried pitifully, and rushed across the room and clutched Tyrell’s arm.
“Oh damn, I didn’t know he got your purse too,” Tyrell groaned and smacked his forehead with his open hand. “That’s some shit. We’re gonna have to change the locks.”
“He didn’t get my—”
“You okay?” Tyrell asked, concern marring his face as he looked down at the top of her head. She nodded softly and when she looked up at him, her eyes were glassy with tears. She blinked and they rolled gently down her cheeks and plopped on his sleeve and into his heart.
“He didn’t get my keys,” she sniffed. “But he got my purse and I had a whole bunch of stuff with my address on it,” she lied, then swiped her hand across her eyes. Everything was safely tucked in her desk drawer. “He could get me,” Tameeka sobbed.
“That’s okay, baby,” he soothed, and pulled her into his arms and she nestled her tear-soaked face against his chest. “Nobody’s getting in here while I’m here. I’ll take care of you,” he vowed, her knight in shining armor.
“You will?” Tameeka murmured; she felt Tyrell nod. “I’m ready to go to bed now. I’ve had a long day,” she whispered in a little girl voice and peeked up at him.
“Yes, you have,” he said, comforting her. “C’mon, let’s go.” He tugged her arm and led her toward the bedroom.
“Do—you—think—I—should—shower—first?” she hiccupped, then gave him a look that made his heart melt and his penis hard.
“Um—er—yeah. Go on, take a shower, I’ll stand guard by the front door,” he joked faintly, and silently thanked God for the baggy clothes he was wearing. He began backing out of the bedroom.
“Hey! Where’re you going?” Tameeka whined. “Don’t leave me alone. I’m scared.”
Tyrell stopped at the door and casually dropped his hands in front of his pants. “Just giving you privacy, baby.”
“Oh, thank you…but I’ll feel a hundred percent safer if you sat on the bed while I’m in the shower…you never know where he might show up…and he is pretty big,” she whispered in a fearful tone.
“Okay,” Tyrell huffed, then stomped over to the bed. “I’d better call in and let them know I’ma be late.”
Inside the bathroom, Tameeka stood in front of the mirror, where she knew Tyrell could see her from his perch on her bed. She giggled to herself, then put on a face of nonchalance as she began undressing.
She slipped off her top, wadded it into a ball and tossed it in the trash can; she didn’t want any reminders of the robbery. Her lacy black bra was next; she rolled her shoulders as she ran her finger slowly over the left strap, then slid it over her shoulder. She did the same with her right strap. Then she let her fingers play and skip over the clasp. Tameeka peeked in the mirror and saw that Tyrell had inched to the edge of the bed wearing a look of rapture as he stared at her reflection. With one flick of her fingers her breasts sprang out like two cantaloupes and she could’ve sworn she heard a moan of desire coming from the bedroom.
Tameeka hid a smile as she shimmied out of her pants; then toed them into the garbage. She was glad that she had worn a thong; the silky black material was nothing more than an extra-wide piece of floss. She ran her finger along the elastic waistband and gently tugged it down past her hip. Then she pulled her hands out as if she had changed her mind. She almost giggled when she heard Tyrell suck in a mouthful of air. She seductively ran her hand over her behind as her hips began gyrating and she slowly swayed back and forth while slipping her thong down past her hips, down past her thighs, letting it drift down like a feather to her feet.
Her shower was short and quick. She wrapped an oversize towel around her, then padded into the bedroom, where she found Tyrell sitting on the bed, trying hard not to look at her.
“I feel a hundred percent better. Thank you, my strong, black king, for protecting me,” Tameeka gushed. Tyrell snorted in response and pushed himself off the bed.
“ ’K, I’m out,” he announced, and Tameeka’s face crumbled. She scurried over to her dresser and began rearranging her bottles of perfume, lotions and fingernail polish. “See ya,” Tyrell called out to Tameeka’s back. Tyrell shrugged, then ambled to the bedroom door. What he didn’t see was Tameeka’s mouth turning into a grin when her hand rested on a bottle of lotion.
“Can you do me one little itsy-bitsy favor before you go?” she asked in a super-sweet syrupy voice. Tyrell glanced over his shoulder and what he saw made him stop in his tracks and cause his penis to pump up to three times its normal size. Her towel was gone and drops of water glittered over her naked body and it sparkled like it was encrusted in diamonds. “I can never reach my back…can you please do it?” she asked, and held the lotion out to him.
Tyrell stared at the lotion in her outstretched hand as though it was poison.
“Er—I really have to get to work. Maybe some other time,” he fumbled as he tried to back out of the room while keeping his hands in front of his crotch.
“It’ll only take a minute. If it takes more than that, you can spank me,” Tameeka teased. “Not that you haven’t done that before.” She winked and he flinched as though she had hit him. “C’mon, puh-leeze,” she begged. “It’ll help me go to sleep.” It was ten o’clock in the morning and she was going on twenty-seven hours without sleep.
“Just your back. Nothing more,” he growled, and took the lotion out of her hand. “Turn around,” he demanded. Tameeka did as he said, but then she peeked over her shoulder.
“Right here? You wanna rub lotion on my back right here? Wouldn’t the bed be a lot better?”
“Here is fine,” Tyrell mumbled.
“What happens if I fall? I read a story on the Internet where a lady fell right on her face when her husband was rubbing lotion on her back; he inadvertently pushed so hard that she fell flat on her face and broke her nose. I don’t want that to happen to me,” she said, and pulled away from him.
“You’re not gonna fall!” He glared at her and Tameeka stared at him. “Fine!” Tyrell almost shouted. “We’ll do it on the bed. C’mon.” He flopped down on the bed and Tameeka sat down in front of him.
“Okay, I’m ready,” she whispered, and her voice was like a caress over Tyrell’s skin.
“Whatever,” Tyrell mumbled as he squirted a dollop of lotion in his hands. As soon as he touched her skin, he knew he had made a bad decision. Her skin felt as smooth as silk. It took every ounce of his energy to focus on rubbing the lotion in.
“Oooh,” Tameeka moaned. “That feels so good. Can you do the front?” And before Tyrell could protest, she had turned around and had her breasts in his face. “Can you lotion these too,” she whispered seductively.
“Um—er—Meek, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“What? Lotioning a friend’s body. What’s wrong with that? C’mon now, we’re past all this. Are you afraid something will happen?” she asked, cocking her head to
the side.
“Not at all,” Tyrell shot back. His hands wavered for a heartbeat over her breasts before he dipped his hands and started lotioning them. Using small, circular movements, he worked the lotion into her breasts, inched down to her stomach, then worked his way back up to her breasts.
Gawd, his hands feel sooo good! Her nipples hardened to dime-size buds and what had started off as a trickle between her legs had grown into a river. “Oh God, T, you make me feel sooo good,” she moaned. “Here, baby, momma want you to taste this.” She cupped one of her breasts and swiped her nipple across his lips. “Go ’head, take it,” she encouraged. She sucked in a stream of air when Tyrell’s hot lips clamped over her nipple. Tameeka grabbed the back of his head and pressed his face into her chest, giving him a mouthful of her breasts. “Do the other one,” Tameeka demanded, and Tyrell obeyed.
“I miss this,” he moaned, and gently nudged Tameeka so that she was lying on the bed facing him. He stood up and pulled off his shirt and the rest of his clothing quickly followed. Naked, he stood over her in all his glory. “My black king,” she murmured, and her eyes filled with tears. He’s so beautiful. Bending to his knees, Tyrell leaned over and showered the inside of her thighs with butterfly kisses. Her feet were next. Every toe was treated to a long, lingering suckle. Tyrell retraced his kisses and buried his face in between her legs and Tameeka clamped her legs around his head and bucked her hips. They were working in perfect harmony, her hips and his mouth.
Tameeka was muttering incoherently as Tyrell’s tongue worked on her. “Oh, baby, baby,” Tameeka groaned as her body thrashed wildly on the bed. “I’m about to—I’m about to come!” Her body bucked wildly and then she lay on the bed, gasping for breath.
“What’s wrong? I’m too much for you to handle?” he teased, then leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips. Tameeka barely managed to shake her head. “Whatever,” he grinned as he reached into her nightstand and pulled out a condom and slipped it on. “Ready or not, here I come,” Tyrell sang, then mounted Tameeka and slid himself into her. For the first time in a long time, she felt whole.
“Ah Tyrell, do me, baby,” she groaned. With her arms wrapped around his neck and her hips matching his stroke for stroke, she was tasting heaven on earth.
“I’m doing you, baby,” Tyrell grunted. “Do you want me to do you like this?” he asked, slowing his stroke. “Or do you want me to do you like this?” He picked up the tempo and moved so fast that it left Tameeka breathless. “Or maybe you want me to do you like this?” he teased, rotating his hips in tight little circles, and Tameeka whimpered as wave after wave of pleasure washed over her.
Seeing that she had been satisfied, Tyrell let loose. “Yeah, baby, I like it when I do you like this,” he groaned, and increased his speed until he found his release.
“Man!” a dazed Tyrell murmured. This wasn’t supposed to happen, he thought. And it wasn’t supposed to feel good. Without glancing down at her, he rolled off of Tameeka and ambled to the bathroom.
“Thank you,” a droopy-eyed Tameeka moaned with a smile. She was lying on top of the blankets, curled up into a ball, when Tyrell returned to the room.
Tyrell bent down and begin plucking his clothes off the floor and quickly dressed. All the while Tameeka was lying still on the bed. “Tameeka,” he called. “Tameeka!” he repeated. “We need to talk.”
“Oh, okay,” Tameeka mumbled, and managed to pry open her eyes. “Wasn’t this fun?” she giggled sleepily. “When are we gonna do it again?”
“We’re not,” Tyrell muttered, and averted his eyes.
“What?” Tameeka demanded. The shock knocked the sleep out of her. “What do you mean, we’re not? You come over here and fuck me! You think you can use me whenever you want?”
“Use you? Fuck you? Listen, Tameeka. You called me. You played that little game in the bathroom. You played the game with the lotion.” He began mimicking her, ‘Here, massage me, just my back. Nothing will happen.’ Well, something did happen. And I’m sorry it did,” Tyrell huffed.
“You wanted me just as much as I wanted you,” Tameeka said in a watery voice, and her eyes began filling with tears.
“I did want you and I still do. But it’s over between us. I can’t trust you, Tameeka. I don’t ask a lot from my lady, but trust is definitely up there.”
“Can’t we try again?” she pleaded. And her heart broke when Tyrell shook his head. “We can be fuck buddies, you know. Strictly sex. What do you think about that?”
Tyrell silently eyed her while contemplating her question.
54
Why You Should Never Cheat on Your Fiancé, Part II
You totally lose his trust if he finds out
You feel like shit after doing it
Your fiancé will be devastated
You’ll probably never be able to look him in the face afterward
Stacie’s name blared over the PA system. She glanced at Crawford; he was sleeping. Not bothering to wake him, she scurried across the waiting room to the nurses’ desk. “Ms. Long, the doctor will see you now.” On leaden feet, Stacie followed the nurse to the exam room. At least she was out of the emergency room; the two-hour-long wait had been nearly unbearable. “Undress from the waist down, use this to cover yourself,” she said, tossing a sheet of paper at Stacie. “The doctor will be in shortly,” she announced before turning on her heel and stepping out of the room.
Stacie swore she saw a smirk on the nurse’s face; but she was too tired to say anything. It was two o’clock in the morning and all she wanted was to be home in her own bed and not sitting on some life-size ice slab. As soon as she tucked the paper covering under her legs, the doctor strolled into the room. He was forty-something, gaunt, and tall. His black hair was plastered to his scalp with either water or gel; Stacie didn’t know which and didn’t care to find out. His clothes were wrinkled and two days of new growth hid his chin.
Without introducing himself or issuing a greeting, he said, “So Ms. Long, your chart says that you have a condom stuck inside you.” He said so matter-of-factly that it made Stacie wonder if her condition was a common occurrence and he extracted lodged condoms nightly.
Even if that was the case, it didn’t alleviate her embarrassment. “Yep,” she muttered, and fiddled with the paper sheet.
“Okay, let’s take a look,” he said as he set the chart down and plucked two latex gloves out of the box, then slipped them on. “Put your legs up in the stirrups,” the doctor instructed.
Stacie had been to enough gynecologist appointments to know to scoot all the way to the end of the table until it felt like she was going to fall off, then stuck her legs in the stirrups. “This will be a little cold and you’re going to feel a little discomfort,” he said as he inserted the speculum and expanded it. It felt like hours to Stacie as he poked and prodded her, but it was really only a couple of minutes. “Yep, there’s a condom in there,” he needlessly confirmed.
“Thanks for verifying that,” Stacie replied in a nasty tone.
“We’ll get that right out of you,” he tersely replied. Then with all the warmth of an uptight Catholic schoolteacher, he inserted his finger and methodically rooted around until he snagged the offending piece of rubber. It dangled on the tip of his finger. It was empty. Stacie shot up on the table.
“What the—? What happened to all the stuff that was in it?”
The doctor gave her a strange look, then said, “It emptied inside you.”
“You mean,” Stacie gasped, “his stuff is inside me?”
“I trust that you were using another form of birth control?”
“No,” Stacie moaned, then fell back on the examining table and curled into the fetal position.
“You know you have options,” the doctor said.
“What are you talking about?” Stacie mumbled.
“We have an emergency pill just for situations like yours. It’s called the morning after pill, and you take it after having unprotected sex. It’
ll prevent pregnancy.”
Stacie’s eyebrows shot up, then she slowly shook her head. “No, I don’t want any pill. Sometimes life’s problems can’t be solved with a little pill. I’ll just wait and see what happens,” Stacie said, jutting her chin out.
55
Life Is Your Personal Orchestra and You’re Its Conductor
Tameeka picked up the picture she and Tyrell had taken at the circus and studied it, looking for any signs that could have predicted their future. A smile teased her lips as she gently placed the picture in the “Tyrell box.” The box held everything that reminded her of Tyrell. She dragged it into her bedroom and pushed it into the back of her closet.
Reaching into her nightstand drawer, she pulled out her journal, then padded into the living room and stretched out on the couch to begin writing.
I just packed away my last Tyrell memory. I know that memories aren’t really packed away because everything is still in my heart, where I can take a peek whenever I want.
I guess I should’ve thrown all the stuff away, but that would’ve been like destroying a piece of me, a part of my history. All of which made me who I am today.
But I am so proud of myself, I did it all without shedding a tear. I thought I would be blubbering like a baby, but I wasn’t.
Cheating…Tameeka the Cheater. Crap! It still looks bad in writing. I can’t believe that I did that to another human being. Especially to someone who loved me. I guess I can tell myself that at least I didn’t commit murder. But in a way I did. I broke his heart and killed his trust in me.
But I guess he’s surviving, because Stacie told me that he’s dating someone new. I truly wish him the best. He’s a wonderful guy and he deserves a woman who can love him the way he deserves to be loved.
I’ve learned that life is about making choices and sometimes we don’t make the best decisions. But we always have to be accountable for our actions, no matter what. It has taken me a while, but I’ve forgiven myself. I guess that’s interesting to say…that I’ve forgiven myself, because it does sound odd to me. If I were to hear someone say that, I’d ask them: “How can you possibly bestow forgiveness on yourself?” But I believe that I must purge myself and let go of the past so that I can move forward. So that’s what I mean, by forgiving myself. I don’t know if I’ll ever really be over Tyrell, he’ll always hold a piece of my heart.