Lookin' For Luv

by Carl Weber

  “You didn’t have to say it, man. I knew what you wanted as soon as you called me today.” She leaned across the table. “Let’s keep it real. Why else would a man like you want to date a girl like me? Look at you. You’re what, forty? Maybe forty-five? You wear designer suits and drive a Mercedes-Benz. I bet you’re even married.”

  Maurice gulped but didn’t say a word.

  Janet continued. “What other reason do you have for dating a twenty-year-old woman with thirty-two piercings and this on my neck?” She pointed to a tattoo on her neck that read BITE ME HERE AND I MIGHT CUM.

  “So what else would you want except to fuck me? It’s not like you could take me to one of your stuffed-shirt social events.” She leaned back and folded her arms across her chest, waiting for an answer.

  Maurice was totally flustered. From the moment he had sat down, Janet decided the direction of the conversation and taken charge of the date. This was something he had not experienced in all his years of womanizing. He wasn’t sure how to deal with it, and he sure as hell didn’t like it. Trying to regain his composure and some control, he put his fists on the table.

  “Look, Janet. You’ve got this all wrong—”

  “Just answer the damn question! Do you want to fuck me, or what?” Janet interrupted him loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear.

  “Yes, Janet.” Maurice leaned close and whispered, “I want to make love to you. But I don’t want the whole diner to know.”

  “Then what the hell are we sitting around here for?” She dangled a key from the Jet Motel in front of his face. Throwing five dollars on the table for the coffee they had never even ordered, Janet ordered Maurice, “Let’s go!”

  Still a little flustered, Maurice followed as he was told. He was careful not to make eye contact with anyone as they walked past the tables and out of the diner. As soon as they entered Room 18 of the motel, Janet threw her coat on the bed and stripped off her jeans and halter. She stood proudly by the bed as Maurice stared. He had barely begun loosening his tie when he stopped in fascination as he noticed that Janet’s body was pierced in other places as well.

  “Wow, you really do like to pierce things, don’t you?” He walked closer to touch the rings hanging from her breasts.

  “It makes things more sensitive,” she said, arching her back as he massaged her breasts. She pulled Maurice close and slid her tongue into his mouth. He felt the metal ball that was piercing her tongue. Slowly she pulled him on top of her as they fell onto the bed.

  After a few seconds she found herself getting bored. She was definitely not impressed with the way Maurice kissed, so she slowly pushed his head down below her belly button. Maurice resisted, but Janet just kept pushing until he got the idea and went to work.

  “Ow!” she blurted out not long after, pushing him away. “Damn! For an older man, you don’t have much experience pleasing women, do you?”

  “My wife’s pretty frigid. She doesn’t like oral sex,” Maurice answered flatly as he sat up. As soon as the word “wife” left his mouth, he regretted it.

  “Ha! I knew you were married,” she said matter-of-factly. “This wife of yours, she does like to fuck, doesn’t she?”

  “Yes. She does like that.”

  He was humbled but also relieved she didn’t care that he was married. Janet was beginning to hope she hadn’t wasted fifty dollars on a room.

  “Then take your clothes off and let’s see what you can do.”

  She reached for his belt buckle to speed him along. Maurice’s embarrassment changed to anger at the way Janet spoke to him.

  Who the hell does this little bitch think she’s talking to anyway? he wondered, wishing they had gone to the Poconos so he could leave her arrogant ass behind.

  “You want to get fucked? I’m going to fuck the hell out of you!” he shouted at her as he ripped off his shirt.

  Janet liked this new side of the old man. She sat eagerly on the bed, watching him undress. When he took off his boxers, she was thankful for small favors. At least he was well endowed.

  Practically lunging on top of her, Maurice entered her with the confidence of a man on a mission. He wasn’t wasting any time on foreplay with this woman.

  “Oh, yea,” he growled as he listened to her moan. “Talk shit now, you little bitch.”

  Turned on by Maurice’s aggression, Janet wrapped her thighs tightly around his back. Within seconds Maurice moaned loudly and fell on top of her.

  “What the fuck?” She was stunned. “What the fuck was that? I’ve had vaccinations that lasted longer than that. Get the fuck off me!”

  She shoved him off her and sat up in the bed. Maurice had enough of her attitude.

  “I’m tired of you talking to me like I’m some child, bitch. What the fuck is your problem?”

  “My problem, Five-Stroke Charlie, is I paid fifty bucks for this room and you’re gonna give me that money and car-fare too. Damn! I been with virgins that fuck longer than you, old man.”

  Maurice crumpled a hundred-dollar bill and threw it at Janet as she hurried to get dressed.

  “You should have told me your fee before we took our clothes off, whore.”

  “You’re right, motherfucker! At least then it would have been worth my while!” Janet shouted, picking up the money on her way out the door.

  At the same time that Maurice had been home brooding about her changed behavior, Sylvia was in her car heading for Tyrone’s apartment. She was happier than she had been in a long time to have this second chance with him. After several weeks of begging and pleading, Tyrone had finally agreed to speak to her so they could clear the air about the incident at the country club.

  As she gripped the steering wheel, she cursed under her breath. How could she have been so stupid as to smoke crack that night? Especially when she knew he had a drug problem.

  She pulled in front of Tyrone’s building and smiled when she saw him standing there. He had been waiting nervously for twenty-five minutes. She grabbed her purse from the front seat and hurried across the street to get to him.

  “Long time no see,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her gently. Both of them had missed being in an embrace like this. He opened the door to the building and held it for her as she entered.

  “Do you meet all your lady friends at the front door?” Sylvia asked coyly as they walked up the stairs.

  “No, but you’re the first one brave enough to park a Mercedes in my neighborhood. So I thought I would make sure you made it into the building alive.”

  They reached the fourth floor and stood at the landing while Tyrone unlocked the door to his apartment. Sylvia got to the point immediately.

  “I want to apologize again for what happened at the club Christmas Eve. I don’t know what got into me. I’m not a drug addict, and I’m usually not a drug user.” She wished she could find a way to express how truly remorseful she felt.

  “Listen, let’s just forget it, okay?” He left the key in the lock and turned to her sternly. “You’ve probably apologized a thousand times since then. So let’s not get into it, because the thought of that pipe in your mouth is going to really piss me off. I don’t know what the fuck you were thinking about that day.”

  “Okay, Tyrone, I’m sorry.”

  Looking around the hallway to avoid his eyes after the tense moment, she couldn’t believe the condition of the apartment building. The walls had obviously not been painted in over a decade, aside from the graffiti that covered them. Litter was piled in every visible comer, and one apartment had four bags of trash piled next to the door. The odor made her shiver.

  She wondered how a man so neat could stand to live among such filth. A roach ran down the stained wall. She jumped slightly. Tyrone unlocked the door and held it open for Sylvia.

  “I’m sorry about the way I spoke to you a minute ago. I just care about you so much. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” He stroked her face.

  “I know, Tyrone. I deserved every w
ord. I don’t know why I was so stupid.”

  “Let’s just put it behind us. Come on in.”

  He stepped aside to let her enter. As Sylvia’s eyes took in the incredible scene before her, Tyrone spoke.

  “I didn’t have a chance to give you your Christmas present, so what’s inside is both your Christmas and birthday present. I hope you like it. I don’t have a lot of money like your friends, so I tried to use my creativity. Welcome to Tyrone’s heaven on earth.”

  She walked into the studio apartment in awestruck silence. The small place, which consisted of a bed, a couch, a television, and a small kitchenette area, was aglow with what seemed like thousands of scented candles. The floor and bed were covered with dozens of small white balloons, while the ceiling was covered with helium balloons with long white ribbons.

  “Oh, Tyrone. This does look like heaven.” Sylvia walked over to the bed. Lying on the bed was a large rectangular gift wrapped in plain white paper with a huge red bow. Sylvia knew it must be a painting. “Can I open it now?” she asked excitedly.

  “Of course you can, baby.” He stood beside her as she reached for the gift.

  Anxiously ripping the paper off, Sylvia gasped as she uncovered a stunning painting of an angel. In the comer was Tyrone’s signature.

  “I used you as the model for her face. I would wake up at all hours of the night thinking about you and use my memory to paint a little each night.”

  “Oh, Tyrone, it’s absolutely beautiful. A true work of art.” She put the painting down and turned to wrap her arms around his waist

  “I guess I was God inspired, living here in heaven.” He smiled.

  “You are the most romantic man I’ve ever met.”

  “Baby, it’s all about you. My job is to make you happy,” he murmured, kissing her deeply.

  This was truly all he did want. There was something about this woman, who had been denied any real affection for so long, that made him want to work twice as hard to please her. Even the drug incident had been forgiven, and he didn’t think he could ever excuse someone else’s drug use again in his lifetime. But over the weeks that he thought about it, he realized he couldn’t push her away over one mistake. In his own life he had chosen drugs to escape, and perhaps as she was making all these changes in her life, she got a little scared and needed to escape. Whatever her ultimate reason was, he knew he was crazy about Sylvia and had missed her terribly, so he decided to give her another chance.

  “Just being near you makes me happy,” Sylvia told him.

  “And you make me happy, Syl. I think we’re really good for each other.”

  “Oh. Really? How am I good for you?”

  She wanted to be told that she was important to someone. She desperately needed that kind of affection in her life.

  “Sylvia, you’ve shown incredible faith in me, encouraging me to reach for my highest goals. Nobody’s ever really done that for me before. You introduced me to the black elite and made me feel like one day I could get out of this place and be one of them.”

  “You would want to be like those people at the country club?” Her eyes widened.

  “Not really.” Tyrone laughed. “But it is a good feeling to think that your woman believes you have the potential to be accepted there.”

  She draped her arms over his shoulders, and they began to slow-dance as she softly sang, “Heaven, I’m in heaven...”

  It was six o’clock the next morning when Sylvia awoke. Tyrone was across the room, ironing his shirt for work. She decided that the bathroom could wait a few minutes and lit a cigarette. After their long night of passionate lovemaking, she was a little stiff. Making love to Tyrone had been the most wonderful experience of her life. Not only did she have an orgasm, but she had multiples for the first time in her life.

  “Good morning, how are you feeling?” Tyrone asked. He had stopped ironing and sat next to her on the bed.

  “A little overwhelmed but good.” Sylvia rested her head in his lap.

  “Overwhelmed?”

  “Yes, overwhelmed. I’ve been with my husband for twenty years, and until now I never realized how bad he is in bed.”

  This thought upset Sylvia, and she stood up and walked into the bathroom to avoid discussing it further with Tyrone. He watched her. The sight of her body made him smile as he remembered how appreciative she was each time he had made love to her that night.

  “You want me to make you something to eat before you go to work?” she asked as she came back out of the bathroom. She wanted to do something nice for him.

  “No.” He kneeled at the edge of the bed and smiled naughtily. “I think I can find something to eat right here.”

  “Tyrone, you’re going to get me started and be late for work.” She giggled.

  “No, I won’t. You can drive me.”

  He nibbled on her ankle and kissed his way up her thigh, finding the spot Maurice never cared enough to look for. Forty-five minutes later the two of them climbed into Sylvia’s car.

  “Damn, I’m gonna be late.” He sounded worried.

  “Don’t stress yourself.” She was completely relaxed after Tyrone’s early morning gift. “There’s nothing you can do about it now anyway. I’ll drive as fast as I can. Now, where are we going?”

  “Springfield and Francis Lewis. The Alternative High School for Boys.”

  Her heart was in her mouth. As large as the New York school system was, it had never occurred to her that he might work at the school where her husband was principal.

  This is going to get very complicated, she thought nervously as they drove away from Tyrone’s building. She knew she would have to choose carefully the time to reveal to Tyrone who his boss really was. For the time being she just wanted to bask in the afterglow of their beautiful reunion.

  20

  KEVIN

  “Two hundred and ninty-seven! Two hundred and ninty-eight! Two hundred and ninty-nine! Ahhh, Three hundred!”

  Antoine barely got the words out as he finished the last sit-up. He and Kevin were doing their daily workout in the gym, fitting in one last session before the school closed for the midwinter vacation. Although he was starting to notice results from his workout and diet routine, Antoine would never have a physique like Kevin’s. Yet every time they got together, he would push himself to match Kevin set for set. On this day Kevin decided to work a little harder to see if his buddy would really try to keep up with him. It was a friendly competition.

  “You boys working up a good sweat?” Tyrone shouted as he entered the weight room with a wide grin across his face.

  “Yeah, and you need to get out of that uniform and start sweating too,” Kevin answered, giving his friend a light hug. “You’re twenty minutes late.”

  “Bro, I got my workout last night.”

  He wished he could tell his friends about his relationship with Sylvia without ruining his reputation as a ladies’ man. His relationship was definitely smoothing the rough edges of his personality, but there was no way he was about to let his boys know it.

  “So you finally hit that little freak you been telling me about, huh?” Kevin gave him a high-five. “I hope you put it on her?”

  “Let’s put it this way.” Tyrone hesitated for a second, trying to get his lies straight. “Tesha Walker asked me to be her baby’s daddy last night.” He laughed along with Kevin.

  “What’s so funny about that?” Antoine asked.

  “I probably could have gotten some last night myself,” Kevin interjected. He wished sometimes Antoine could just be lighthearted with them.

  “You almost got some?” Tyrone grinned in mock amazement. “I thought your girl was trying to get you locked up for harassment.”

  “Don’t go there, Tyrone.” Now Kevin was the one becoming serious. “I was talking about that woman, Denise, I told you about.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Antoine remembered. “That’s the woman you went to the Knicks game with last night. How’d that go anyway?”

  “Perf
ect, except for one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “She’s white.”

  “What! Kevin, what are you doing going out with a white woman?” Antoine was not pleased at all.

  “So what?” Tyrone exclaimed. “Was she ugly?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Then what’s the problem? You said she’s a lawyer. That means she’s got loot.” Tyrone patted Kevin on the back to show his approval. “So, she was fine, huh?”

  “You should have seen her, Ty. She’s got this natural blond hair down to her shoulders, with these crystal-blue eyes and an ass like a black woman.”

  Even with his reservations about interracial dating, Kevin had to admit Denise was very attractive. She was the kind of woman some would refer to as a trophy.

  “Damn, I always wanted to get with a natural blonde.” Tyrone’s voice showed a hint of jealousy. “I once dated this really cute blonde a few times. Then, when she took off her clothes, I found out she was a brunette. Damn, was I pissed.”

  “Yeah, I could see you getting mad. The thought of sleeping with a woman who’s blond down there is kind of exotic.” Kevin laughed as Tyrone continued his story.

  “Man, that girl took off her clothes and I was like a kid whose parents bought him books for Christmas. The books were nice, but they definitely weren’t what he wanted.”

  “I wonder if Denise is a true blonde?” Kevin asked himself.

  “There’s only one way to find out. Why didn’t you hit that last night anyway?” Tyrone asked curiously. “I thought you said from now on, if a woman wants you to stay, they’ve got to give you some play.”

  Meanwhile Antoine’s objections had practically been forgotten by the two friends as they bantered about sex with a blonde. Although Antoine didn’t consider himself to be prejudiced, he had strong feelings against interracial dating, feelings he had assumed Kevin shared with him. He sat listening to Tyrone and Kevin with displeasure on his face. He had to speak his mind.

  “Kevin, what the hell are you doing going out with a white woman? I thought you were against interracial dating.” He folded his arms and waited for an answer like an angry parent.