Faith turned around but not before she glanced at Lace, who had just recognized her.
“Your credit card.” The salesgirl was holding out her card.
“Faith?” Lace was walking toward her.
“How are you?”
Faith took the credit card and told Lace, “Fine and how are you?”
“Doing well.”
There was an uncomfortable silence between them that was broken by Faith when she said, “Well, I have to get going, I have an appointment.”
Lace moved to the side. “Oh okay, I don’t want to hold you up.”
As Faith walked toward the door, Lace told her, “Faith, call me sometime. I’d like to talk to you about something.”
Faith paused before replying, “I will.” She had no intentions of doing so.
On her drive home Faith wondered what Lace could possibly want to talk to her about. She hoped Sherry hadn’t opened her mouth and told her mother about the conversation they had.
Over the phone, Faith and Siddiq agreed to meet for dinner prior to seeing the show. She tried to put what Susan said to her out of her mind.
When she pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant Faith could feel her heart beating.
She turned the car off and looked around to see if she spotted anyone she knew. She always did this; she saw no one. She went inside the restaurant and stood by the entrance looking around.
“Looking for someone special?” Siddiq whispered in her ear. He had snuck up behind her.
Faith jumped and placed her hand on her chest. “You shouldn’t sneak up on a girl like that.”
Siddiq placed his hand on the small of her back and pushed her through the door with a light touch.
“Mr. Bradley,” the hostess greeted. “It’s so nice to see you again.”
“So you’re a regular here?” Faith noted.
“Let me show you to your seat,” the hostess said.
If Faith was not mistaken, the hostess was walking extra close to Siddiq. She led them to a table in the corner.
“She likes you,” Faith informed him when she walked away.
“You think?” Siddiq asked, amused.
“You know she does.”
Siddiq looked in the hostess’s direction. “She’s like what? Twenty? She’s a little girl.”
“Well, today’s twenty is yesterday’s thirty,” Faith pointed out.
Siddiq agreed but made it a point to let her know youngsters weren’t his style.
“That’s good to know.”
“What? That I’m not a pervert?”
“Exactly.”
Siddiq picked up the menu that lay on the table.
Faith followed suit. “What’s good to eat here?” she asked.
“Everything.”
“Well, what do you suggest?”
“How about I place your order and surprise you?”
“I’d like that,” Faith said.
Siddiq called the waitress over and placed their orders. He ordered the salmon dish.
When she walked away Siddiq leaned back in his seat. “Faith? What are we doing? We can’t keep seeing each other like this,” Siddiq told her.
“We’re having dinner.” Faith tried to act like she didn’t know what he was talking about.
He knew the game she was playing. “Talk to me, tell me what’s really going on in that heart and head of yours. I’m feeling you, girl, and I believe you’re feeling me.”
He was right, she was feeling him. Siddiq made her laugh, made her feel valued, made her feel appreciated and beautiful. All the things she hadn’t felt in a long time.
“I thought we were just supposed to be having dinner.”
“We are having dinner, but we need to discuss this ‘friendship.’ ”
“What’s there to discuss?”
“I think we’re more than friends.” He had put her on the spot. “I need to know how you feel about me,” he told her. “I think you care more than you’re admitting.”
He was right but she wasn’t ready to tell him that.
“Have you made a decision about your marriage?” he asked.
Faith told him, “I am getting a divorce.”
“Well, what does that mean for me, for us?”
“I’m not sure what it means, Siddiq. There’s no denying that we both are developing genuine feelings for each other. You’ve awakened something in me that I thought was dead a long time ago.”
“Do you remember when I told you that when I want something I don’t go through the back door?” Siddiq asked her.
“Yes.”
“Well, I want to make love to you.”
“I thought you were celibate.”
“I thought so too, but a man can only be around a woman he desires for so long.”
“I want to be with you too,” Faith told him.
“Stay with me tonight?” Siddiq asked.
Faith didn’t respond.
“Well, what do you have to say?” Siddiq asked.
Faith figured to hell with it. “Truthfully, Siddiq, we can skip the play.”
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” he asked.
“Yes,” Faith told him. “I’m saying let’s go back to your place.”
Siddiq called the waitress over and told her, “Make our orders to go.”
When they arrived at Siddiq’s house, they didn’t waste any time going into the bedroom. They stood in front of the bed and looked at one another.
“I want to taste you,” Siddiq told Faith.
“I want to taste you too,” Faith responded.
Siddiq moved closer to her and started to undress her slowly. Faith didn’t want him to take his time. She was ready to be naked and made love to. She felt like she’d waited so long for this moment. Her breath was caught in her throat.
She took a step back and said, “I’ve got this.” She started to take her clothes off. The second she was naked, Siddiq stepped toward her and gripped her ass. He pulled her into him.
“Aren’t you going to get undressed?” Faith asked.
“After I kiss you everywhere,” he told her.
When Siddiq’s lips met hers, it sent a shock wave through Faith. She thought she could feel his every breath. He grabbed the back of her head and tilted it. He ran his tongue across her throat.
Faith moaned.
Siddiq let go of her and pushed her back on the bed.
“I’ve been wanting to do this since I met you.”
And before she knew it, his face was between her thighs.
“You smell so good,” he told her and he opened her pussy lips and ran his tongue down the center.
Faith lifted her hips up to meet his face. “Don’t tease me,” she told him. “Give it to me.”
Siddiq stuck his tongue as far up in Faith as he could go and started pressing his tongue against her walls.
It was obvious that he enjoyed the taste of her. He went from licking her insides to running his tongue across her clitoris.
All Faith could do was moan over and over. She tried to grip his head but he grabbed her hands and held them on each side of her leg. It was then that he attacked her clitoris, not letting up until he felt her bucking beneath him.
When she finished coming all over his mouth and chin, she told him, “Your turn.”
Faith had never begged for any man’s dick to go in her mouth, but she wanted to taste Siddiq so bad, she wanted him to fill her mouth up with his thickness, she wanted to swallow everything he had in him.
Siddiq stood up and took his clothes off, before he could even get his pants down his legs, Faith grabbed hold of his dick and squeezed it. She pulled it and him toward her mouth and covered it with her lips. She tried to take in every inch of him, tried to make him touch her throat.
She started to move her head up and down the length of him. She came all the way up, licking the head and going back down, massaging his balls the whole time.
“I need to lie down,” he t
old her. “I can’t take it.”
Faith didn’t want him to lie down, she didn’t want him to be able to take it so she ignored his request and pushed his legs open and started sucking between his balls. One at a time, she played with them inside her mouth and stopped to go back to his dick.
“Oh no you won’t,” he told her as he pulled her up and placed her on the bed.
Siddiq climbed on top of her and told her, “I’m going up inside you now.” There was nothing she could do but wait as he rubbed the head of his dick against her pussy.
“You want me inside you, don’t you?” he asked.
What was she suppose to say? No? “Yes, Siddiq, I want you inside me.”
Slowly he slid his dick inside her and pushed up as far up as he could go and slowly he slid out. Faith could feel her pussy walls stretching, it had been so long since she’d had this feeling, too long. She closed her eyes and gave herself to him.
He placed his hands under her buttocks and pushed himself deeper and deeper inside her. “Oh girl, you’re going to make me explode inside you.”
Faith could care less all, she brought her mouth up to his and tongued him down while he erupted inside her.
It was when Faith and Siddiq had just finished making love and and were still basking in the afterglow that she received the phone call that changed everything.
Who knew that her day would end up with a potential tragedy. She definitely didn’t.
However, the conversation she and Raheem had that morning should have been a sign that it would be an eventful day.
When she woke up that morning she didn’t know Raheem was home until she walked into the kitchen and saw him reading the paper and sipping on coffee.
“Good morning,” he said as he placed the paper on the table.
“Good morning,” Faith replied. Just because she decided to leave him it didn’t mean she had to be a bitch. Her best bet would be to end this marriage in a civilized manner.
“Did you get a good night’s rest? I thought I heard you up watching television half the night.”
“I was up watching The Twilight Zone.”
“Old habits die hard, don’t they,” Raheem joked.
“Some of them, but not all.”
They were talking about two different things; he was talking about when they first met how she was addicted to science fiction shows. She was talking about him and his ways.
Faith went over to the coffeepot and poured herself a cup.
“Would you like me to make you some breakfast?” Raheem asked.
“No, thank you.” Faith turned to look at him. She leaned on the counter and frowned. What is he up to? she wondered. Whatever it is, I’m not trying to hear it.
Faith stood up and walked over to the chair opposite him.
Before she could get a word out, Raheem announced, “I don’t want a divorce.”
“Huh?” Faith sat down.
“I don’t want a divorce. I also don’t expect us to go on in the matter that we’ve been going. I’m ready to do whatever it takes to keep you. If it means counseling, I’ll do it. If it means me working from home for a while, I’ll do that too.”
Faith stood up to leave the kitchen. She couldn’t believe that he finally said what she wanted him to say a long time ago.
“Where are you going? You’re the one that kept saying, let’s talk, let’s talk, let’s talk. Well, I’m ready to do more than talk, I’m ready to change.”
Tears formed in Faith’s eyes before she had the chance to stop them.
Faith leaned over and kissed Raheem on the lips. “It’s too late for all that,” she told him and turned to walk away but he grabbed her wrist to stop her.
She looked at him. “Let me go, please just let me go.” She meant it in more ways than one. “Please just let me go,” she repeated.
He released her arm and told her, “I can’t, I didn’t realize it until now, but I can’t. I’ve only loved two women in my life, you and Lace.”
Faith shook her head, how could he pull this, how could he declare all this love when she no longer felt any? Is this the way it happened? Was God really that spiteful? Did he really play these kinds of tricks on people?
“Answer me this one question, Raheem.”
He waited.
“Why all the other women? Why out in the open? Why hurt me that way?”
“Faith, you really need to understand that when I cheated on you in the past it had nothing to do with you. I mean, all that time that you were getting high I looked at it like you were cheating on me or should I say cheating on us. I felt that if I stayed in this relationship with you and never committed an indiscretion I would forever be angry at you. When I cheated it was like my equalizer, you did us wrong and I made it even. I never met anyone of substance. I never fell in love with anyone else and I wasn’t looking to.”
Faith let him continue.
“When you would get high, I always thought of the worst-case scenario, like you were in the crackhouse having sex with multiple partners, or having these crazy sex sessions with your dealer. I don’t want you to think that I’m trying to make you feel guilty. That’s not what I am doing. I am not trying to make you feel guilty about anything in the past. I just want you to understand a little of what my world was like. When we got married and the reverend said for better or worst I took that shit serious, more serious than I did with Lace. So Faith, I’m asking you to please just think about us a little more, think about what we meant to each other and what we can mean to each other again.”
Faith couldn’t make him any promises and even with the speech he just gave her, she felt like her mind was made up. “I have to go,” she told him and went into the bathroom, dropped her robe, took off her panties and bra, turned the shower on as hot as she could stand it, and stood under the water, letting it beat against her body. She tried to release all the emotions she carried with her and all the confusion she felt down the drain with the water.
Afterward she got dressed and left the house. That was when she went to the store and ran into Siddiq.
Now here she lay in his bed telling him, “I have to find out what hospital he’s in. I have to go.”
“I’ll help you,” Siddiq offered.
Faith looked at him in disbelief, she couldn’t believe he was willing to help her locate her husband. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll call Susan.”
“What if I want to?”
“I can’t let you.” Faith sat up. “I’m going to call Susan, take a shower, and go to her house. Once I know something, I’ll call you.”
Siddiq told her, “Make sure you do that.”
“I will.”
On the drive to Susan’s house, Faith couldn’t even think about what had transpired between her and Siddiq; she was too preoccupied with finding out what happened to Raheem.
Together, Faith, Susan, and Crystal—who was visiting Susan—called several hospitals to try and locate Raheem.
“What if it’s one of his women, just trying to upset me?” Faith asked Susan.
“What if it’s not?” Susan told her. “This is not something you should take a chance with.”
They finally tracked Raheem down to a hospital in North Jersey. They wouldn’t give Faith any information over the phone, other than, “You need to get here.”
Faith hung up the phone in a state of shock. She couldn’t even get the words out to Susan and Crystal. Seeing what kind of state she was in they both told her they’d ride with her.
In the car, no one said a word. Susan and Crystal knew that anything they could possibly say simply would not be heard. They knew to wait and see what they were getting themselves into.
“I’m here about Raheem Banks,” Faith said when she approached the reception area.
The person behind the counter punched in his name and told her, “He’s in ICU.”
“We’ll wait here for you,” Susan told her.
Faith felt like she was in a daze. Could this be
for real, was he really in ICU? ICU meant intensive care, which to her meant death. Was he going to die? What the hell happened? Who was it that called her? How did they even know to call her?
As she asked herself these questions, Faith was being led into ICU.
The nurse stopped in front of a door and told her, “He’s in there. Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Faith told her.
When they stepped into the room, Raheem was lying in the bed, hooked up to tubes and apparently unconscious. Faith couldn’t help but ask, “Is he asleep?”
“No, sweetie, he’s unconscious,” the nurse told her, already knowing Faith was his wife.
Faith couldn’t bring herself to move.
“Go ahead,” the nurse nudged her. “Go to your husband, talk to him, and let him know you’re here.”
Her husband? The man she wanted to divorce, the man who said he wanted to try and make their marriage work was unconscious and Faith wasn’t sure what she felt or how she felt.
“Get it together,” she mumbled under her breath. “Get it together.”
Faith thought about a family that came to the hospital she used to work at. She tried recalling their names. Oh yeah, the sister’s name was Layla Simone, her brother was in a car accident and was in a coma. Through the power of prayer and faith he came out of it.
What remained to be seen was if Faith had faith. If she didn’t, she knew she was going to have to conjure it up some kind of way.
Faith stepped closer to the bed and took Raheem’s hand. It was then the tears fell. Just because she wanted a divorce, it didn’t mean she wished harm on him. This was the last thing she would have wanted.
Faith looked around for a chair and saw one in the corner. She walked over to it and just happened to glance out the door where she saw Susan and Crystal.
Faith placed the chair next to Raheem’s bed and went to let them know what was going on.
They spotted her as she approached them.
“What happened? Is he okay?”
“No, he’s not okay,” Faith told them. “He’s unconscious, he was in an automobile accident.”
Neither of them knew what to say.
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