Broken Glass

by J. D. Mason

  Luther let the door close behind him before he heard the rest of the nonsense spurring from the woman.

  The door opened behind him. “Young,” Lanette finished, the door closed again.

  A few days later, Luther received a call from Lucy, at the theater.

  “Have you spoken to Terri?” She asked, concerned.

  Why the hell did everyone seem to think he had the Terri Dawson watch? The two of them had masterfully avoided colliding for the last month and he couldn’t be happier.

  “I haven’t, Lucy.”

  “Mavis and I stopped by her house to see if she was still willing to help out with the festival. Her car is there, but there was no answer.”

  “You tried calling?”

  “Several times. It goes straight to voicemail.”

  “Well, maybe she’s not in town, Lucy. She could’ve taken a cab to the airport.”

  “The airport in Baton Rouge?” she asked, sarcastically.

  The Baton Rouge airport was over fifty miles away.

  He sighed, “I don’t know where she is.”

  “We went by her place the other night and saw a light on. It went off as soon as we pulled up in front of the house.”

  Now, Luther was concerned. It was one thing for Terri to dis Lanette, but things were beginning to sound strange. Strange enough for him to conclude that maybe he did need to swing by her place and check on her.

  “Terri?” Luther called out after ringing her doorbell and knocking. “It’s Luther.” He waited and listened. “Terri?”

  All of a sudden, the door swung open. “That sonofabitch gave my part to that fuckin’ cow!”

  Terri’s wild, swollen bloodshot eyes bore into his. She wore an oversized tee shirt, socks and clutched a bottle of wine by the neck like she was trying to strangle it. Terri spun, turned up that bottle and left Luther standing, mouth gaped open, on the other side of her screen door.

  Reluctantly, he stepped inside. The kitchen counter was covered with opened boxes of cereal, bowls stacked together, and an open bag of chips.

  “What happened?” He dared to ask.

  She drew the back of her hand across her mouth and started talking so fast he could hardly keep up.

  “He told me the role was mine,” she said, walking around the small room, pacing like a tiger in a cage. “Sent my agent a goddamned contract.” She stopped and stared at Luther. “A whole fuckin’ contract, talking about, ‘Whatever you want, Terri. Just ask and we’ll get it in the contract.’”

  Terri started crying and pacing again.

  “I saw her that day, and I knew.” She paused and took another drink. “I knew in my soul, even though I tried telling myself that it wasn’t true. I knew that it was. I knew she’d come to take my part. Roxy told me, ‘No, Terri. That role is yours. You were hand-picked for the part. She’s just his friend. They’re working together on something else together,’ but that greedy pig of a woman looked right at me.” She stopped and glared at him. “Looked me dead in the eyes and acted like she didn’t know who the hell I was or why I was there. But that bitch knew.” She grimaced. “And she knew that’d she’d get the role that was written for me.”

  Luther was speechless, and watched Terri turn up that bottle again.

  “And then his punk-ass had the nerve to call Roxy and tell her that it wasn’t his decision. That the studios wanted her because her playing the role guaranteed a broader reach. More people will watch with her as the star of the film and not me because she’s more recognizable.”

  Terri planted her hand on her hip.

  “Damn,” was the best he could come up with.

  “Then the mother fucker had the nerve to offer me the role of the sorry ass detective.” She continued, glaring at Luther like he was that director. “Can you believe that shit?” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “It was my part, Luther. I kicked ass on that audition and everybody in the room knew it. I knew it. But that bitch walks in and all of a sudden, it’s not my role anymore. She got wind of the film, showed up out of the blue and gets my part. What kind of shit is that?” Terri broke down in a full-on cry.

  He didn’t know what else to do. Luther gathered her in his arms and held her.

  Terri let him.

  Baby Bird

  Terri sat with her feet tucked beneath her in the chair across from the sofa, where Luther was sitting. Her throat was aching from breaking down and sobbing like a baby in his arms, which mercifully ended after a good ten minutes.

  “This last week has been surreal,” she began, staring across the room through the window. “I came back from L.A. and started looking for places to stay in Detroit,” she sniffed. “That’s where we were going to be filming. I’d even started packing—ordered a bunch of boxes and tape.”

  Terri reached for the bottle on the table, then set it back down without taking a drink.

  “You sure the role went to someone else?” he asked, probably for lack of not knowing what else to say.

  “I had the part, Luther. Biggest part of my entire career. A role that would’ve changed everything,” she reminded him. “Last week, Roxy called, apologizing profusely, before telling me that Joy Graham’s agent had gotten wind of the part, called the studios and told them that she was interested in playing Irene.”

  Terri blinked away tears. “She’s a bigger name than me,” Terri continued. “The studio execs salivated over the fact that she wanted the part, and they gave it to her. Then, offered me the role of the detective.” She rolled her eyes in disgust. “A bit part character that nobody will ever fuckin’ remember, not even the actor playing it.”

  She felt like such a fool. Like fate, the universe, all those people she’d auditioned in front of, even God, were all laughing at her.

  “I’ve worked so long and so hard for an opportunity like this, Luther. I thought, finally, all the sacrifices, tears and faith that I’ve always had in myself, in what I do, had paid off.”

  There was no hope left in Terri. Roxy had been blowing up her phone, but Terri refused to take her calls. It wasn’t that she blamed her agent. Roxy would undoubtedly, bend over backwards trying to reassure Terri, promising her that the role she was meant to play, the one written just for her, was out there, and Roxy would find it. Terri wasn’t interested.

  She had no idea how much time had passed before she realized that he had hardly said a word. Luther was in the kitchen filling two cups with hot water. A few more minutes passed, and Luther showed up standing next to her like some, tall, dark, handsome genie handing her a hot cup of tea.

  “I have tea?” she asked.

  He sat back down, took a sip from his cup and shrugged. “Surprised the hell out of me.”

  Terri managed to smile. “I was doing just fine before this happened.” Terri pursed her lips and blew steam from her cup. “I was working my way toward making peace with my retirement and actually getting excited to be part of the Devastation Annual Theater Festival.”

  “Yeah, I could tell you were really into that,” he teased.

  Terri’s brief laughter was quickly followed by rogue tears. “I really am done this time. No more auditions,” she sobbed. “Nobody knows—nobody understands wha—”

  Next thing she knew, Terri was airborne, scooped up in Luther’s arms, then lowered himself into the chair she’d been sitting in with her in his lap. Terri rested her head on his shoulder until this new stream of tears stopped flowing.

  “Can I ask you something?” he said, his lips inches away from hers.

  She was feeling vulnerable and vulnerability mixed with a handsome dude coming to her rescue could, in their case, lead to something neither of them wanted.

  “Of course,” she answered with reluctance.

  “How do you eat like that” — he glanced over his shoulder at the kitchen— “and not get big as a house?”

  Terri looked over at all the cereal boxes on the countertop, then turned back to him. “I’ve put on ten pounds since I moved here.”
/>   “Only ten?”

  “So far,” she answered, eyeing him suspiciously. Was he giving her a backhanded compliment? Or no?

  “Mavis has more scripts she wants you to read.”

  Terri grimaced. “Have you not heard me? Do I look like I’m in any frame of mind to read more bad plays?”

  “No,” he said, matter-of-factly. “You don’t, Terri. What they did to you was shitty, baby. But what they did does not define who you are.”

  “Don’t start, Luther. Don’t sit here trying to cheer me up and make me feel better about myself. I feel like a sucker. Let me sit here and feel like a sucker.”

  He laughed, “My bad. Forgive me for trying to shine light on your beautiful, magical ass.”

  “Thank you. I don’t want to feel beautiful and magical right now.”

  “Noted.”

  Terri’s nether parts were starting to tingle. Her body melted into his like warm, gooey caramel, and more than anything right now, she wanted to close her eyes, wrap all of her around all of him, and make the whole world vanish. But she’d sworn off Luther long ago and the last thing she needed was to pile more regret on top of the shitty pile she already had.

  “You should leave,” she told him instead, pushing away from him..

  “I should,” Luther agreed, staring deeply into her eyes, and tightening his grip.

  “I’m an emotional wreck, Luther, riddled with bad judgment, toxic emotions and busted pride running on turbo.”

  “I know.”

  He said it, but Terri wasn’t convinced that he really did know that this moment was heating to a rolling boil. A part of her wanted to escape in it, in him and dissolve into this man until they were one cohesive blob. But messy was becoming far too relevant in her life now, and the last thing she needed was more of it.

  “We said this wouldn’t happen again Luther. I made it clear to Nick that it was over between us, but we need to stop—now.”

  Luther was silent. That dreaded vulnerability slithered up her spine though, threatening to overtake what remained of her fragile self. With everything else she’d been through, Terri needed him to answer the question plaguing her since the two of them had, had sex.

  “You felt it too, right?” She swallowed. “When we were together.” A lump swelled in her throat, reminding her that more tears were just one wrong answer away. “I wasn’t just another booty call?”

  She felt as pitiful as she sounded, and Terri wished those words had never passed her lips.

  “I feel it, sweetheart,” he replied, warmly and with enough sincerity to be believed. “You were not a booty call, Terri. You were not a conquest or an accident.” Luther paused, bobbing his head, slightly in introspection. “You and me are victims of bad timing.” He smiled. “And worst luck. That’s all.”

  Terri allowed herself to ease into the comfort of his words, misguided or not, right or wrong. What he said, mattered. She released a subtle sigh, then rested her head against his shoulder, again. “I’ve decided to move to Houston.”

  “Is that really what you want to do?” he asked.

  “I’m in a terrible place, right now, Luther. Good judgement is not on my side, but I’m sitting here with you, knowing that if you don’t leave soon, we’ll… and I want to,” she admitted. “I desperately do.”

  Terri wanted more of him without feeling like shit for indulging. She wanted to make him forget about all his other girlfriends and convince him that he couldn’t live without her. Terri wanted to pretend, that she was exceptional and desirable and more special than any other woman in the world. Idealistic shit like that was so uncharacteristically her that it set off a quiet panic inside her.

  “I can try to pretend that I don’t want you, Terri, but I’d be lying,” Luther admitted. “I’m trying to do the right thing, by Nick, by you. But the right thing for me, is you, no matter how much I keep denying it, honey.”

  “Maybe it’s just sex—for both of us,” she reasoned, looking up at him.

  Deep down, Terri hoped that the attraction between them was purely sexual, because that would be easy to deal with, like as simple as taking a pill or something and all of a sudden being cured.

  “You believe that?” he challenged, raising a brow. “Is that all it was for you?”

  He posed the question like he already knew the answer, so Terri didn’t bother with a response.

  “I’ve been pent up, emotionally for a long time, afraid to connect to another woman because I didn’t feel I deserved to. I didn’t even know if I could love another woman after Ava.”

  “Wait. Love?” She shot up a brow.

  “What? No. Did I say that?”

  “You did. You love me?”

  After a long pause, Luther responded. “If I got out of my own way, I could let myself go there, but—”

  Did she love him? Could she? All she knew was that he was the only person she’d let into her house after getting back from L. A. She trusted him with her pain in a way she didn’t even trust Roxy or Nona. Was that love? Potentially?

  Without thinking, Terri pressed her hand against the side of his face and pulled his lips to hers. The image of Nick’s face jolted her thoughts like an electric shock. Terri squeezed her eyes shut tighter, and held on to Luther with every ounce of strength she had. Yes. She was going to have to leave this town. There was no way she could live this close to him and deny herself Luther Hunt.

  “Terri,” he said, easing back and breaking the seal of their kiss. “We can’t do this.”

  “Yeah,” she said, hastily climbing off his lap. “You’re right. Thanks for stopping by.”

  Bullet dodged!

  Terri rigidly held herself together as she followed him to the door, replacing thoughts of regret with ones of packing and of calling Nona to let her know that she’d be in Houston at the end of the month. The sooner the better, and this time, Terri really would bury her head in the sand and fade from the public eye forever. She nearly bumped into him when he abruptly stopped, filling nearly every square inch of her doorway, blocking out the afternoon sun. She was just about to give him a good, hard shove, when he turned, wrapped one long, strong around her waist, lifted her off the ground and filled her mouth with his tongue.

  Terri wrapped both legs around his waist, feeling as if she was sailing from the living room to the bedroom. This would be the last time, so shit. Why not?

  Grown Folks Business

  Luther refused to leave this encounter with Terri abbreviated like before. She’d made up her mind to leave Devastation, and he agreed that her moving away was the only answer. If she stayed, so would temptation, and Luther wasn’t strong enough to resist her. If she was leaving, then now, this moment was all he cared about. Was it a lame excuse to cross that line with her again? Absolutely. It was certainly a selfish one, but there was no turning back.

  What if he let it all go? The guilt? Regret? Punishing himself for not being there for his wife and son when they needed him most? What if, for now, he surrendered to the fantasy of this woman and make her his, and create an alternate universe where there was just her and him?

  Luther stood, braced against the side of the bed between Terri’s thighs, and took off his shirt. His gaze locked into the eyes of this beautiful woman, seeing possibilities he’d denied himself access to from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her. Terri sat up and began unbuckling his belt. The world outside the intimate gathering of them disappeared in a vacuum and inhibitions, regret, guilt, faded with them.

  Terri freed him from his jeans, and it took every ounce of restraint he had not to drive himself into her. Luther refused to rush this… this precious and last time the two of them would have together.

  He lowered his mouth to hers, then coaxed her onto her back. Terri’s legs spread wide, accommodating him, but Luther held back, making love to her mouth, sexing her tongue with his. Fuck! When was the last time he’d kissed a woman like this? When was the last time he’d wanted to?

  She dug her f
ingers into his back, tugged on his lips with her teeth, drew her knees higher, coaxing him to ease into her. Luther’s dick bucked in protest of his defiance and his determination to make this last as long as he could. He eased back and slid the hem of her shirt over her breasts and hungrily engulfed one beautiful, dark and erect nipple, and then the other. Terri arched her back, moaned her response, and whispered something—something he—

  It didn’t matter what she’d said. Luther was driving.

  Luther lowered his mouth to the soft folds of her pussy and inhaled, savoring her scent, slipping his tongue between the folds of her sex, grazing his tongue lightly over her thick, sensitive clit. Terri cried out, clutching Luther by the head, trembling against him. He ached to be inside her, but not yet. Terri undulated hips against his face, clutching, moaning and calling his name, until finally, they bucked wildly as she came.

  Luther pushed to stand, wiped his mouth, and stepped back, taking in the beautiful sight of her writhing on the bed from what he’d just done to her. He had to keep his distance. Luther paced back and forth, and eventually sat down in the chair across from the bed to ease the pressure building inside him, a desperate need so maddening that he was afraid he’d hurt her if he didn’t calm the fuck down.

  Damn! She looked delicious! Glistening dark skin, soft thighs, full, round breasts. Terri’s hand slipped between her thighs, disappearing into the folds of where his tongue had been, and met and held Luther’s gaze, daring him to stay in that damn chair.

  He stripped naked, walked over to the bed, braced himself on one knee, wrapped one arm around her waist, picked her up and pushed her closer to the headboard. Luther kissed her again, and drove inside her, balls deep, and stopped. Terri tried moving her hips, but he pressed down on her, stopping her from pulling too much too soon from him.

  “Look at me,” she whispered, cradling his face between her hands.

  Terri’s dark eyes locked onto his.

  “I see you, sweetheart,” he murmured.