Let's Get It On

by Cheris Hodges

  “You had an abortion?”

  Kenya had shaken her head furiously. “No, the decision was made for me. I got sick, and when I woke up, I was in the hospital, and the doctor was telling me that I’d had a miscarriage.”

  “Does Maurice know?”

  “No, and he’s not going to. I’m not telling him, and you better not, either. Maurice has made his choice, and he can have that skank,” Kenya had replied angrily. “If he had known that I was pregnant, nothing would’ve changed. He probably would’ve accused me of trying to trap him. I’m glad he didn’t know.”

  “But you’re suffering alone. Did you tell your mother?”

  Kenya had laughed through her tears. “No way. Angela would have had a coronary had she known that I did exactly what she said I’d do.” She’d wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’ve decided that I’m never going to find myself in this situation again. I’m going to work on graduating, and I’m not going to let Maurice or any other man get in my way.”

  “So, you’re just going to shut yourself off from the rest of the world?” Imani had asked.

  “Yes.”

  Kenya had done a good job of shutting her heart to love and would’ve kept it closed if it hadn’t been the fact that she’d seen Maurice again. She was weak for him; he was her addiction. This time, though, she was going to go to Mo detox and get over this man once and for all.

  “I can do better,” she said aloud. She stood and headed to bed, despite the fact that it was only a little after nine. When she got into bed, Kenya tossed and turned, thinking of Maurice and his situation at the jail and memories of the past. Maybe she should’ve told him sooner about the miscarriage. Maybe she should’ve told him the first month that she missed her period that she thought she was pregnant. But what would that have changed? And why couldn’t she get past it? Maurice said things were over with Lauryn, but Kenya couldn’t help but wonder if he was lying and still harboring feelings for her, despite what had happened on his wedding day.

  Sitting up in bed, Kenya decided to call him just to see if he was all right. As she dialed his number, she thought about what she’d say to him if he answered. Should she offer him an explanation about the past, or should she just ask him if he was okay?

  “Yeah,” Maurice said when he picked up.

  “Hi. I was just calling to make sure you were all right,” she found the voice to say.

  “I’m fine,” he said coolly.

  “I’m sorry about what happened.”

  Maurice sighed audibly. “Sorry for what? Me finding out your little secret or me getting arrested? I want to be sure that you’re apologizing for something I’d be willing to forgive.”

  “Go to hell, Maurice. I’m not going to bend over backwards and kiss your ass,” Kenya snapped. “You want to act like a child, then fine. But think about this. Had I known that I was pregnant, do you really think I would’ve had the inclination to tell you after I walked in on you sexing Lauryn? Would you have pulled yourself out of her to play house with me and our child?”

  “You know how I feel about children. I’ve always wanted a child of my own, and you robbed me of that chance.”

  “I didn’t rob you of anything, because I didn’t have an abortion! Do you want to see my medical records?” she snapped.

  “Swear to me that you didn’t abort my child,” Maurice slurred.

  “Are you drunk?” She’d known that having a child was important to him, but back then there was no way either of them was ready to be a parent.

  “I’ve been drinking,” he said. “But you didn’t answer me. Swear that you didn’t kill my seed.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Swear it.”

  “Maurice, I swear I didn’t have an abortion. I would’ve never killed my child, no matter what I thought of you. I went through hell for years after the miscarriage, and I had to go through it alone.”

  “No,” he snapped. “No, you didn’t. You could’ve called me and talked to me.”

  Sighing, she wanted to tell him that she’d called him several times but hung up every time he’d said hello. “Where are you?” she asked.

  “At the Blake Hotel’s bar.”

  “You’re not driving, are you?”

  Maurice laughed. “My car was impounded. Can’t go anywhere, and I don’t want to.”

  “Well, I just wanted to check on you,” she said, masking her disappointment.

  “Are we making a mistake?” he asked. “Can we go back and start over, or should we just scrap it?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “You tell me.”

  “I love you, Kenya. I love you with everything in me, but I don’t know if I can keep apologizing for what I did. I can’t say I’m sorry anymore, and I don’t want to have to answer questions about Lauryn every five minutes. Can you truly forgive me and give us another chance?”

  Her lip trembled as she pondered her answer. “I can’t just forget what happened, Maurice. Do you realize that you’re the only man I’ve ever loved? The only man I’ve ever made love to?”

  “You’re kidding!” He’d been sure that when she’d returned to Atlanta, she’d gotten over him by finding a new man. That thought had fueled his jealousy when he first saw her in the Bahamas. Now, knowing that she had truly been branded his, he felt proud. Drunk and aroused, Maurice invited Kenya to the hotel, claiming that he wanted to talk to her.

  “You know that ‘we’re just going to talk’ line is about as old as dirt,” she said, seeing through his request.

  “All right. Then come over in your black lace, and show me that we’re all right,” he said seductively.

  “Oh, we’re going to finish talking,” she said. “Then we can get to making up.”

  Maurice realized after hanging up the phone that he hadn’t even rented a suite yet. Slowly, so as not to lose his balance, he rose from the bar stool, then headed to the lobby to secure a room.

  As soon as he stepped into the hallway, he ran into a woman he never wanted to see again.

  Lauryn.

  “Hello, Mo,” she said.

  Rolling his eyes, he sidestepped her. Despite himself, he turned around and looked at her. She was still sexy and still wore clothes that were short and tight enough to show off her lithe body. She watched him as he gave her the once over and mistook his stare for a come-on. Walking over to him, she twisted her hips a little more than she had to.

  “You can’t speak, but you’re going to stand there and stare at me?” she said, with a smile on her plum-tinted lips.

  “Where’s your woman?” he asked bitterly.

  “We’re not joined at the hip. Seriously, though, how have you been?”

  Maurice shook his head. “Do you really think I’m going to have a conversation with you? You can go to hell.”

  “Would you like to join us one night and see how much fun we can have together?” she asked, biting her lip and raising an eyebrow seductively.

  Most men would have loved the chance to be with two sexy women at one time, but Maurice would never succumb to what Lauryn was proposing. It would be like saying that what she had done was all right and he approved of it. Besides, seeing her now and watching her pimp her girlfriend turned his stomach. “I wouldn’t touch you or Mya with a dildo,” Maurice snapped. “Excuse me.”

  She looked at him longingly as he walked into the bar. Lauryn had to admit that she missed Maurice, or at least his money. She’d hoped that he wasn’t still in a funk about their wedding and that he would beg her to come back. She loved Mya, but love couldn’t buy Prada. And Mya had changed. She wanted the two of them to be the poster children for gay rights, and Lauryn still wasn’t sure she was gay. Men still turned her on, especially if they had money. She definitely didn’t want to be known as “that lesbian Lauryn.”

  Mya, on the other hand, had joined the gay and lesbian community center’s board of directors, and she was working on the black gay pride event that was coming to Charlotte in the summer. La
uryn had had to get away from her activist girlfriend for at least a night, and that was why she’d checked into the Blake Hotel. Seeing Maurice was an added bonus that she hadn’t expected. Maybe if she could remind him of the good time they’d had she could work her way into his bed. It was obvious that he was alone here tonight, and after what she’d seen on the news, she imagined that he needed to release some tension, and she had the remedy for him.

  Just as she started for the bar, she looked up and saw Kenya walking through the front door. No, he didn’t dig her up to heal his heart, she thought as she stood in the shadows and watched Kenya walk into the bar where Maurice was.

  She grudgingly admitted to herself that Kenya looked a lot better now than she had when they were in college. She was slimmer, more stylish, and more confident. But she was still Kenya, and Lauryn wasn’t going to lose to her. She fumed as she watched Maurice kiss her and hold her tightly. I worked way too hard to let her come back and get all the money, she thought. If he doesn’t want me, fine, but she’s not going to get him.

  Kenya sat close to Maurice, smiling at him as he ordered himself a cup of coffee. “I was really surprised to find you in the bar,” she said. “I figured you’d had enough.”

  “Just came for the coffee,” he replied, then slipped his hand between her thighs. “I want to be alert and attentive when we get up to my suite.”

  Leaning in, she kissed his lips gently. “Maurice, should we really be doing this?”

  “I don’t see why not. Listen, I know that I was harsh earlier, but I thought that you had aborted my child, and you know how I feel about being a father. As I thought about it, I figured that you were young and in denial. Remember when we got to college and your mother sat us down and said she wasn’t ready to be a grandmother?”

  Kenya nodded. “She told me not to run from you and Lauryn. But when I told her that I wasn’t leaving because of that, she was happy to get me into Clark.”

  “What happened to you wanting to go into PR? Not that you’re not a great lawyer, but you said you wanted to own your own business and . . .” He stopped talking, remembering that the public-relations firm Kenya had planned to start was going to be half his as well.

  “Well,” she said, as if she was reading his mind, “my partner was otherwise occupied.”

  “Do you love what you do now?”

  Shrugging her shoulders, she replied, “It’s a living. I can’t complain, because I’m very successful at what I do.”

  “Doesn’t mean you’re happy.”

  She looked deeply into his eyes and smiled, but her smile didn’t conceal the wave of sadness that had washed over her. “What’s more important? I know plenty of people who are happy and struggling. Really, I’m fine. But who can be happy working nearly ninety hours a week?”

  “Slight workaholic?” he teased.

  Kenya wanted to tell him why she worked all the time. It was to keep her mind off him and what could’ve been. What if she had paid more attention to her body? Would she be a mother now, with a little girl or boy that had his eyes? Would she have fought harder for their relationship, or would she be bitter and hating him? Maybe she didn’t need the answers to those questions, because they were poised to write new chapters in the book of their lives.

  “You want to get out of here and take my clothes off?” she asked boldly.

  Maurice smiled devilishly because he had been ready to make the same suggestion.

  “You don’t have to ask me twice.” He waved for the bartender so that he could pay for his coffee.

  Like two teenagers sneaking to a motel, they laughed and giggled as they headed for the front desk to rent a room, but the laughter died on Kenya’s lips when she saw Lauryn heading in their direction. What’s she doing here? Kenya thought. Her mind immediately flashed back nine years. It could just be a coincidence. Just because she’s here doesn’t mean she’s here to be with Maurice. Maybe there’s a gay convention being held here.

  Looking at Lauryn, Kenya wondered why Maurice had ever wanted her in the first place. Lust could only take you so far, and Lauryn didn’t have a soul. She could tell by looking into Lauryn’s cold eyes.

  “Hello again, Maurice,” Lauryn said. “Is this Kenya? Wow, was it Weight Watchers or lipo?”

  “Excuse me?” Kenya snapped.

  “Your dramatic weight loss,” said Lauryn. “I thought by now you’d be at least three hundred pounds. You actually look all right.”

  Kenya inhaled deeply to calm herself. She wasn’t about to get into a childish shouting match with Lauryn. But what had Lauryn meant by “hello again”? So Maurice had seen her recently? Had he turned to her for some reason?

  “Excuse us, Lauryn. We’re leaving,” Maurice said as he and Kenya walked away from the desk clerk.

  Lauryn watched as they got on the elevator and Maurice pressed the button for the twentieth floor. Quickly, she hopped on. “I’m going up, too,” she said, smiling brightly. She turned to Kenya, who had linked her arm with Maurice’s, and said, “So, how much weight did you lose? How did you do it?”

  “Lauryn, why don’t you give it a rest?” Maurice said.

  Batting her eyelashes, Lauryn turned to him and said, “You never did. That’s one of the things that you loved about me. The fact that I wasn’t fat and took care of my body. Remember how I used to—”

  “How’s your girlfriend?” Kenya asked. “You’re a lesbian now, right?”

  Lauryn looked from Maurice to Kenya. “You-you told her that?”

  “Oh, he told me a lot of stuff. Mya was your college roommate, right? How long have you and she been doing this sort of thing?” Kenya asked.

  When the elevator stopped on the tenth floor, Lauryn hopped off. Before the doors closed, she hissed, “Even if I’m a lesbian, I was more than woman enough to take Maurice from you before, and if I want to, I’ll do it again.”

  The doors closed before Kenya could reply. Maurice rubbed her back gently in an attempt to calm her down, but inside she fumed. Turning to him, she said, “Do you believe her? And just what did she mean by ‘hello again’? Were you two together?”

  “Don’t start with that,” Maurice said. “I ran into her while I was in the bar, waiting for you. I don’t want anything to do with Lauryn.”

  Where have I heard that before? she thought bitterly. Kenya had figured out that Maurice was in Lauryn’s sights when she saw how Lauryn would cheer every time he made a touchdown and how she’d scream his name across campus when he walked by. He’d said he didn’t want anything to do with her then, but lo and behold, he’d ended up in bed with her.

  “Maurice, I think I’m going to go home,” Kenya said.

  “This is too much, and I’m not going to be the same fool twice.”

  “What are you talking about? If you think that I’m still involved or want to have something to do with that woman, then you’re wrong. When are you going to realize that you’re the woman I want?”

  She wished that she had the answer, wished that there was a magic word that he could say that would make her memories of being hurt and finding them in bed together disappear.

  “Kenya, what more can I do?” he said. “What more can I say to make you understand that I don’t want Lauryn or anyone else but you.” He drew her into his arms. “The biggest mistake I’ve ever made was letting you walk out of my life, because I was blinded by sex.”

  She wanted to believe him; everything inside her told her that she could trust Maurice and his love. But there was that nagging voice that said she’d be hurt again.

  “Mo,” she whispered, “I’m afraid.”

  “You don’t have to be, because I love you. I need you more than I need my next breath.” Stroking her cheek, he wanted to make love to her right there in the elevator, for the security cameras and everybody to see. He wanted to prove to her that the past was dead and their future was right there, and that all they had to do was step into it. “Kenya, this is real.”

  Her body quivered a
s he held her and touched her gently. “All right,” Kenya said. “I believe you.”

  “Then you’re going to stay with me tonight and forever?” he asked. His voice seemed desperate.

  “Yes,” she moaned. “I’m yours.”

  The elevator doors opened on the twentieth floor, and Maurice swooped Kenya off her feet as if she were his bride on their wedding night. With great skill, he unlocked the door to his suite, with Kenya in his arms, and kicked the door wide open. Then he laid Kenya on the bed. She looked up at him, smiling at him. Her innocent look sent a shock wave though his body, filling him with a hot yearning that nearly caused an explosion in his trousers.

  “I want to taste every inch of you,” he moaned as he began to peel her clothes from her body. He unbuttoned her blouse and lifted her bra until her breasts slipped out. He salivated at the sight of her nipples and took them into his mouth as she moaned in delight. Tonight, he was going to make love to her body, soul, and mind. He blazed a path of kisses down her stomach to the waistband of her pants. With his teeth, he unbuttoned them and was surprised to see that she wasn’t wearing any panties. That brought a smile to his face. Kenya used to be so reserved, so timid, when it came to lovemaking. Now, she was different, more passionate and willing. He loved it. Needed it. Hungered for it.

  Slipping her pants off, he spread her thighs and felt the heat radiating from her womanly core. Seductively, he licked her inner thighs, causing her to arch her back and silently urge him to taste her. He was happy to oblige. Burying his face between her thighs, he sought her sensitive bud with his tongue, reveling in the taste of her juices and going deeper and deeper into her as she clasped her hands around his neck.

  Kenya’s body shuddered as the waves of an orgasm began to wash over her underneath Maurice’s tongue lashing. Her body responded to his touch as he reached up and squeezed her breasts while continuing his kiss. She was wetter than she’d ever been, and Maurice got off on it. She felt him grow harder and harder as she let go and gave in to ecstasy. “Maurice,” she moaned. “Oh God!” He blew gently on her hot core, making her shudder and shiver.