Let's Get It On

by Cheris Hodges

  “Guess Lauryn is still on it, huh?” Kenya said detachedly. She hated when thoughts of the past entered her head or when she felt jealous and insecure about Lauryn. Maurice was with her now, and their relationship might have been low key compared to the media spectacle that he and Lauryn had shared, but Kenya didn’t mind. What went on between the two of them wasn’t the business of the city or SportsCenter. Then again, maybe Maurice was trying to keep up the illusion of being single so that when the season started, he would have his choice of groupies.

  Stop it, Kenya chided herself as she slid into his car. If you can’t trust him, then you need to end this now.

  “Maurice,” Kenya said as he peeled out of the parking lot, “have you seen Lauryn since you’ve been back?”

  “Please don’t start that.”

  “I’m not starting anything, I’m just . . . it’s just you two were going to be married, and I’m sure . . .”

  “She made her choice, and I have nothing to say to her about it or anything else. Why do you keep harping on it?” he snapped.

  “Harping? I asked you a simple question, and trust me, I have a right to wonder about the two of you, considering the past.”

  “You want to stay stuck in the past, or are we going to move ahead? Really, Kenya, if you’re going to keep holding a nine-year-old mistake over my head, maybe I’ll go out and make a new one.”

  “Stop the car.”

  He slowed down and turned to her. “I didn’t mean that.”

  “Stop the damned car,” she yelled.

  He did, and she jumped out as if she’d been burned by the seat. Slamming the door, she took off speed walking down the street, into a sea of bankers and construction workers. How stupid have I been? she thought. Maurice is the same arrogant jerk that he was in college, and I am just his mid-season replacement. I won’t go through this again.

  Kenya wasn’t surprised that when she turned the corner, Maurice—illegally parked—was waiting for her. She ignored him until he got out of the car and jogged to catch up to her.

  “Kenya, I’m sorry. I just don’t want to think or talk about Lauryn.”

  “Because you still love her, right? What if she decides that she’s straight again? Are you going to go back to her and forgive her? Are you going to ask her to let her ex-lover join you two in a night of sex?” Kenya snapped, rolling her eyes as she spoke.

  “Hell no. Lauryn can flip-flop in terms of her sexuality all she wants. I’m done with her. But that whole thing with her hurt me. Maybe it’s just my pride that’s bruised. Can you imagine what I’m going to hear in the locker room? What defensive linemen from opposing teams are going to say to me on the field?”

  Kenya held her arms out as if she were playing an invisible violin. “Karma! I seriously hope you get over yourself. Men kill me. You and your egos. Maybe if you thought with your head and your heart and not with your penis, things like this wouldn’t happen to you! Maybe if you would have paid more attention to me in college, you would have known that I didn’t want to go to those smoky clubs and sip on liquor, because I was pregnant with your child.” She covered her mouth quickly because this wasn’t the way she’d wanted to tell him about the baby and the loss of it.

  “What did you just say?” he asked, his mouth hanging open like a shocked tourist meeting a drag queen for the first time. “You were pregnant?”

  “Yes,” she muttered. “But when I got to Clark, I had a miscarriage. I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to do to take care of myself and my unborn child. I was too afraid to tell you, because I didn’t want you to think I was trying to trap you into a marriage or staying in our relationship when I could feel you pulling away from me. And there was no way in hell I was going to tell my mother that I did what she told me not to do, go to college and get pregnant.”

  He stood there, soaking in her words. Pregnant. He had almost been a father. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.

  “Because I was only acting on a strong suspicion that I was pregnant and I was afraid,” she said quietly. “When I found out for sure, you were with Lauryn, and I was in the hospital, having a D and C.”

  “Come on. You had to know. Maybe if you would have told . . .”

  “If you had known I was pregnant, you wouldn’t have slept with Lauryn? What BS, Mo!” she yelled.

  “How do you know? You never gave me a choice. Do you really think I believe you didn’t know you were pregnant? How could you not know? Something was growing inside you! My child was inside of you. Miscarriage? Just tell me the truth. You had an abortion, didn’t you?”

  Before she could answer, a parking enforcement officer walked over to them. “Excuse me,” she said. “This car needs to be moved, or I’ll ticket you.”

  “This is not a good time,” Maurice snapped.

  “And this is not an authorized parking spot,” the officer replied. “Move the car, or I’ll have it towed. Hey, aren’t you Maurice Goings?”

  “Yeah, and I’m in the middle of something,” he said forcefully.

  The officer placed her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. “And I’m not the meter maid who Randy Moss ran over. I’ll kick your ass. Move your car.”

  “Move the car,” Kenya said as she began to walk away. Maurice reached out and tried to stop her from walking away. The officer stepped in between them.

  “Don’t you grab her. She obviously doesn’t want to talk to you,” the officer said, then pressed a button on her radio.

  Maurice tried to sidestep the woman, but their arms got tangled, and the officer fell to the ground.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said and held his hand out to help her up.

  “Don’t touch me!” the officer yelled, causing a group of onlookers to gather.

  Kenya ran back to them. “He didn’t mean it,” she said as she tried to help the woman to her feet.

  “He was just about to grab you, and now you’re defending him?” the officer asked incredulously as she rose to her feet, ignoring Kenya’s outstretched hand. Seconds later, two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police cars pulled up, and four officers stepped out.

  “Meg, everything all right?” one of the police officers asked.

  The parking enforcement officer pointed at Maurice. “He assaulted me.”

  “Mr. Goings?” said the other police officer. “Maurice Goings, the Panthers’ wide receiver?”

  “I don’t give a damn who he is. He assaulted me, and I want to press charges,” the parking enforcement officer exclaimed, waving her hands wildly in the air. “Arrest him, or I will report this to the chief.”

  The police officers looked at Maurice apologetically. “We have to take you in, sir,” said one of the officers.

  “Oh my God! This is a misunderstanding that you all are blowing out of proportion,” Kenya exclaimed. “This hag is just trying to make the six o’clock news.”

  “Kenya,” Maurice said, “I don’t need your help.”

  Kenya’s mouth dropped open, and hot tears of anger sprang into her eyes. Without saying another word, she turned on her heels and headed for the free trolley stop to go back to her office. Maurice could rot in jail for all she cared. Spoiled brat, she thought as she waited for the Red Line bus to pick her up. And to think he had the nerve to accuse me of having an abortion! I wasn’t the one caught with my pants down. He can pretend that he would’ve acted differently if I’d told him that I thought I was pregnant. He’s not going to lump me into Lauryn’s league. He wanted a way out so he could be single and free. Now he has it.

  By the time Kenya made it back to her office, her stomach was growling, and her feet were throbbing. The Red Line had dropped her off about three blocks from her office, and three-inch heels weren’t exactly walking shoes. She kicked her shoes off once she sat at her desk and rubbed her feet.

  “Miss Taylor,” her assistant said. “Mr. Goings is here to see you.”

  Thinking it was Maurice, Kenya fought the urge to tell him to go to hell. “Send him in.”
She bent down to put her shoes on, and when she heard the door close, she said, “You’re such an asshole, and I don’t know what you’re here for. I guess the police didn’t cart you off to jail.”

  “It’s James, not Maurice. Why would he be going to jail?” James asked.

  Looking over her desk, she smiled sheepishly at him. “Sorry.” She rose to her feet and began explaining what had happened uptown.

  James sat down. “So, you guys are arguing already,” he said.

  “Aren’t you going to go check on him?” Kenya asked.

  He shrugged his shoulder. “If he needs me, he’ll call. I’m concerned about you. I know that you and Maurice are trying this thing again, but I don’t want you to be hurt, and I don’t want to see my brother get hurt, either.”

  “It doesn’t look like you’re going to have to worry about Maurice and me being together anymore.” Kenya sighed heavily. “You can’t go home again, and you can’t relight an old flame.”

  “I’m sorry,” James said. “Then again, maybe I’m not. Maurice blew his chances with you a long time ago, and you can do a lot better.”

  Crawford Calhoun, one of the firm’s associates, burst through the door of Kenya’s office. “Turn on the news. Maurice Goings was arrested and charged with assault. They’re comparing it to the whole Randy Moss situation from a couple of years ago.”

  James rose to his feet quickly. “I’m going to head down to the county jail and see what’s going on.”

  Kenya fought the urge to go with him. But Maurice’s words rang clearly in her ears. Kenya, I don’t need your help.

  Maurice was treated like a rock star when he was booked at the Mecklenburg County Jail. He signed autographs for jailers and a few of the deputies. He even smiled for his mug shot. Inside, he fumed. Kenya didn’t have to blurt out that kind of news on the street. Did she expect him to believe that she had a miscarriage? He remembered her anger when she left JC Smith. She had known that she was pregnant, and she’d wanted him to suffer. So she’d killed his child. Maurice had always wanted to be a father so that he could be a better one than his own father had ever been. He had shared that with Kenya time and time again. When they’d started having sex, he’d always told her that he would take care of her and their child if that time ever came.

  I’m sick of lying women. First Lauryn, and now I find out that Kenya has been lying to me for years, he thought as he sat in his holding cell. He couldn’t help but wonder what he’d done to deserve this fate. Now he had to worry about the team and the league punishing him for these trumped-up charges, and then there was the possibility of a civil suit. Second-degree assault, he thought. That old hag should be charged with assaulting the concrete with her big butt. The last thing that I need is a reason for the media to bring up my past again.

  “Mr. Goings,” a jailer said as he opened the cell door, “you’re free to go.”

  He didn’t need to be told twice. Maurice leapt to his feet and headed toward the jailer. “Charges dropped?”

  The man nodded. “It seems that you guys were underneath one of the uptown cameras, and the incident was caught on tape. It was clearly an accident, and just between me and you, Meg is an evil witch who needs to get laid.”

  Maurice nodded and laughed. “I thought it was just me,” he said. “Anyone out there?”

  “If by anyone you mean the media, yeah. But I can show you another way out, if you want me to.”

  Maurice shook his head. “I’d better deal with it now,” he said as the jailer led him downstairs to pick up his personal belongings.

  On the front steps of the jail, every media outlet in Charlotte seemed to be waiting for him. “Mr. Goings, Mr. Goings,” the reporters called out.

  “Have you been charged with a crime?” one reporter called out.

  “No. This was all a misunderstanding and has been cleared up, so there is no story here,” said Maurice.

  “One of the uptown parking enforcement officers said that you assaulted her. Is that true?” another reporter asked.

  “Unfortunately, that meter maid and I got tangled up, and she fell. I tried to help her up, but she didn’t want my help. That’s what happens in a crowded city,” replied Maurice.

  “So, what was going on? She said that you were going to assault someone. Was that you ex-fiancée?” asked another reporter.

  “I have no comment about anything other than the fact that I wasn’t charged with a crime, and I’m sorry that this all happened,” Maurice said, then walked down the stairs, refusing to answer another question. He wanted to go home and close himself off from the world, at least for a day. He had to figure out how to deal with Kenya and her revelation. What if she was telling the truth? Her mother would have been very disappointed if she had gotten pregnant. And he wasn’t ready for fatherhood back then. Still, she could have given me a choice, he thought. She could have told me. And I guess I could have told her about Lauryn after that first night. We’ve made so many mistakes. Should we even be trying to do this again?

  “Mo,” James called out. “Trying to be the Randy Moss of Carolina?”

  “Man.” Maurice waved his brother off.

  “Kenya told me what happened.”

  “Oh, did she? Told you everything or just her version of the truth?” His voice was filled with venom. “I’m sick and tired of these women who think they can lie to me over and over again and I’m supposed to take it. Whatever. Kenya wants to throw Lauryn in my face every five minutes, and she’s been lying and keeping secrets for years. I’m not going through this again.”

  “So, you took it out on the meter maid? What kind of secret was Kenya keeping? I mean, she’s the most straightforward woman that I know, and I can’t imagine that she’d be lying to you about anything,” James said.

  Maurice narrowed his eyes. “You don’t know everything. Again, why do you think Kenya is this paragon of virtue? She’s a woman, and by nature, women are evil.”

  James eyed his brother as if he had sprouted devil’s horns and a forked tongue. “What?”

  “Even in the Bible, a woman always brings down a man,” Maurice said. “Look at what Jezebel did to Samson.”

  James shook his head. “That was Delilah, and you need to go to church and find out what’s wrong with you. What did Kenya lie about? And why do you think you have a right to be so angry? A few months ago you were about to marry another woman. Everyone has a past, and Kenya is . . .”

  “Kenya is what? You act as if you want to be with her. If that’s the case, then go get her! Maybe she’ll keep your child.”

  “Your child?” James’s face wrinkled in confusion. “You got her pregnant already?”

  “No,” Maurice said. “Before she left school, Kenya was pregnant, and she didn’t say a word to me about it.”

  “How could she? From what I understand—”

  “Understand this. I don’t buy her brand of bullshit. How could she not know that she was pregnant? I thought a missed period is the first clue. Then she claims that she had a miscarriage. I think she had an abortion.”

  James didn’t believe Kenya had aborted Maurice’s child. He understood his brother’s attitude, though. Maurice had hated the way their father had treated them as children, and he had vowed to do a better job when he had children of his own. “What if she’s telling you the truth?”

  “What if she isn’t?”

  “Mo, you weren’t ready for fatherhood back then. Both of you were young, and you’d have just dumped her. Even if she had an abortion . . .”

  “Wasn’t her decision to make alone. She’s being a hypocrite.”

  “What?”

  “I messed up and I hurt her. I can admit that. But she hid this pregnancy from me for all of these years. She keeps throwing Lauryn in my face, but I’m supposed to forgive and forget?” Maurice shook his head. “So, you think she’s pure and pious?”

  James shrugged his shoulders. “There’s always two sides to a story, Mo.”

  Maurice w
aved his brother off and started for his car. Then he remembered it had been impounded. Turning around, he looked at James, who had fallen in behind him. “You think I can get a ride?”

  “I was wondering when you were going to get around to that,” James said, with a laugh. He walked up to his brother and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. “Ever think that maybe you and Kenya aren’t meant to be?”

  “All I want to think about right now is getting my car, heading to a bar, and getting a drink.” Maurice had spent more time in jail than he’d ever wanted to. He deserved a drink and a lot more.

  Chapter 16

  Kenya sat on the sofa in her apartment, home by seven for the first time in a long while. Part of her wanted to call Maurice and explain everything to him about the baby and her miscarriage. But she was angry. How in the world did he expect her to feel sorry for him? She went through losing the baby alone, she never told her mother, and a year passed before she even shared her loss with Imani.

  One evening, Imani and Kenya had been hanging out in her dorm room. Johnson C. Smith’s spring break was a few days before Clark Atlanta’s, and Imani had come to Atlanta to hang out with her best friend. As they’d sat on Kenya’s bed, Imani had commented on her friend’s new look.

  “I can’t believe you cut your hair,” she’d said.

  “I needed a change,” Kenya had replied as she ran her fingers through her Halle Berry type of cut.

  “What’s wrong, Kenya? And please tell me that you’ve gotten over Maurice. With all the fine brothers that I’ve seen around here, I know you can replace his rusty behind.”

  Closing her eyes to hold back the tears, Kenya had said, “I wish it were that simple. Imani, something happened when I got here.”

  Imani had reached out and clasped Kenya’s hand. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Kenya had begun to sob, her shoulders shaking with each tear that fell. “I was pregnant. I had my suspicions, but I didn’t want to know for sure, especially after I found them together.”