She sounded so frantic over the phone wanting an answer for my disappearing act. I suddenly remembered what happened when I saw Derrick at the charity ball, the big fight we had got into, and how we ended up rolling around in bed together. I didn’t give one thought about the charity event and all the guest I left unattended. “Oh damn…” I sighed. “I completely forgot about it. Who gave the announcements? And who…” “Everything was covered….” Marisol said cutting me off. “Cat gave the announcement…Meg thanked everyone and the rest of the hired staff helped me close up.” I breathed a sigh of relief thanking God I had good friends that had my back. “Oh thank you guys so much you have no idea how grateful I am. You see, I got a little sick from too many drinks and ended up making a dash home. I must have passed out or something.” I easily lied.
There was no way I was going to admit to my assistant that I skipped out on a charity event to have sex…good sex but still sex. “But a couple of guest said that you left with some guy…” Marisol inquired. I felt a sense of panic but played it off real cool before Marisol noticed. “Yes I was a little dizzy and somebody helped me into a cab to make sure I got home safe.” “Oh that’s good…he didn’t try anything did he?” She slightly joked. In the mist of our conversation I sensed a large presence behind me. I tensed up a bit in fear already knowing who it was.
As I turned around my jaw dropped to the floor as I saw Derrick standing before me with a towel soaking up the dampness of his long dark hair and nothing else. I was in shock as my eyes beheld his huge masculine frame. I saw how his broad shoulders barely fit through the door frame of my bathroom, how his huge chest resembled a bronze shield of amour, and don’t get me started on those speed bumps that appeared to be abs carved into his stomach. As my eyes went lower they became stuck and focused on the main attraction to his one man show. “Hello…Destiny…Hello…” I jumped out of my trance and turned back around when I noticed that Marisol was still on the phone. “Yes…um…Marisol…um…thank you and the girls for last night that’s was a big… I mean that was very kind of you guys. I will see you in a few hours…got to go bye.” I quickly hung up the phone and tried desperately not to throw Derrick back into the bed and continue what we started last night. I finally turned around to face him, his piercing eyes were now focused in on mine and staring me down leaving me unable to speak…just watch him watching me.
Derrick
Destiny seemed rather quiet during the morning after, I couldn’t blame her…the after effects of one night with me could leave you speechless. I continued to stare into her almond shaped grey eyes as they widened while exploring my body. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I saw her admiration, it was so shamelessly obvious. No longer wanting to waste any more valuable time I quickly walked up to her and placed my hands in her soft hair bringing her mouth to mine. There was nothing like kissing some beautiful lips in the morning, they always had such a sweet taste to them. Destiny couldn’t do anything but moan as she helplessly endured the passion that was building up between us…just the same as last night.
As I continued to kiss her I could still feel the same intense desire we had for each. I placed my hands under her robe and grabbed her breast firmly while placing kisses on her neck. “Oh Derrick…Derrick…stop…Derrick stop.” Destiny yelled pulling away from me. I looked at the panicked look on her face and was confused. “What the hell is wrong with you?” I laughed. Destiny covered herself, looked down at my naked body, and turned away from me. “Oh please...” I scoffed. “You have seen it all before no need to get shy on me now.” I said wrapping my arms around her waist.
Destiny tugged and pulled out of my grasp. “Derrick stop it…and put your towel on.” “For what?” I chuckled at the fact that she was actually uncomfortable by me being naked in front of her. Destiny refused to turn around and face me until I was covered. I groaned and did as she asked. “It’s on Destiny…” She finally faced me with a very stern look on her face which kept me in confusion because of the incredible night we had. “Look Derrick I don’t exactly remember what happened last night but…”
My facial expression finally told her to cut the bullshit. “Ok I do remember what happened last night…but it was a mistake.” I looked at her weirdly. Destiny sounded more like she was trying to convince herself of that than me. I shook my head and took a comfortable seat on the side of her bed.
“A mistake huh? It didn’t feel like a mistake to me”
“Well we were both drunk and things just got out of hand…”
“We were not that drunk…”
I said cutting her off not understanding why she was saying this. Destiny closed her eyes and sighed. “Well I was… I behaved in a manner that I normally wouldn’t have. Listen Derrick let’s just forget it ever happened and move forward with our lives.” I sighed becoming extremely annoyed by her behavior. “Move forward huh?” I stood from the bed and paced the floor trying to quell my frustration. “I don’t get you….I really don’t fucking get you. You damn near rip my head off for not coming to see you, we finally do the one thing we have wanted to do since we had first met, and now you’re standing here today telling me it was a mistake and you want to move forward.”
Destiny scoffed at me. “Excuse me…wanting to see you doesn’t entail that I want to have sex…and as for last night I was drunk and upset and yeah I did something stupid but…look Derrick I want us to maintain some form of a relationship with you but nothing like this.” I looked at her and nodded while she continued to make her point.
“So you would rather have relationship with the Uncle Tom I saw you with last night?” Destiny looked at me with a blank expression and sighed.
“You don’t know anything about that…”
“I think I know enough.”
I actually laughed at the situation finding it all ironically humorous. “I don’t even blame you…a lot of people don’t like to shit where they eat.” She looked at me offended by my quick judgments of her. “I didn’t say that…” “Well you know what I wish you would finally grow some got damn balls and be honest…but hey I got what I came for.” I said challenging her to be honest with me for the first time. Destiny looked at me enraged and snapped. “You want the truth…ok here we go. I don’t trust you. On paper you are a walking nightmare…I can’t even take you seriously…with your background history…all your children… you should come with a caution sigh …so yeah maybe I think the Uncle Tom at the charity event is a better choice…maybe I actually have a future with him. But what does it matter…you got what you came for right?”
All I could do was stand there as her venom spewed out all over me, it felt as if I was spinning on a wheel with knives being thrown at me but I shrugged it off. “Well good luck with that.” I began gathering all of my clothes and getting ready to get the hell up out of there. Destiny watched me frantically clearly upset as I got ready to leave. “Derrick I don’t want you to leave like this.” She finally blurted out. I placed my jacket on and looked at her like she was crazy. “What…you want me to be happy that you think I’m a fucking scrub.”
“I was upset.”
“Don’t be…” I quickly grabbed my wallet and keys and made my exit.
16
Fight for what’s right
Derrick
“Alright y’all be good…” I called out to the fellows as they made their way off of the church yard. We had been working all day and were in good progress with the expansion of the church. It had been a minute since we had gotten started, but now that we had everything was coming along nicely. While everyone made their way out I stayed behind and cleaned up. Not wanting to leave the sanctuary as of yet, I instead just took a seat at one of the nearby tables and called it a day. It had been a weeks since I had last seen Destiny and too be honest I didn’t really care anymore. As much as I didn’t want to believe she was just another bougie woman looking for a big house in the suburbs and a Mr. Huxtable waiting for her with the keys, it was becoming more and more o
bvious. I knew I wasn’t the dream package that most women hoped for, but hell it is what it is and I make no apologies about it. Destiny was just another bird who flew in and then right back out when her time was done…whether I wanted her too or not.
There were so many things on my mind; so much was happening in my life that I just didn’t understand. It had been almost a year since the accident and my head had been spinning around ever since. I felt so unsure of myself. For years I had been robbing, mobbing, and everything else living off of other peoples riches. I never actually thought it would catch up to me. “Well the hell am I doing?” I asked myself. “I don’t have time for this shit. Here I am eating crumbs from the table when I could have a full coarse meal. Hell I could be getting paper right now.” I grabbed my things and headed for the door with every intention of getting back into the game but before my hands could touch the knob my feet refused to move any further.
I stood frozen in place unable to do anything. I sighed throwing my stuff back on the grass and sat back down at the picnic table. I felt so conflicted inside, I was one foot on solid ground and another one somewhere else. It frustrated me that I was stuck in this rut where I couldn’t be the man I once was, the Derrick that was strong, confident, that was a boss. This Derrick…I didn’t know who this was. I got up from the picnic table not wanting to be consumed in my own thoughts anymore…when they arrived. Four big burly dudes made their way to the backyard of the church looking like full grown linebackers dressed in all black and for some reason they seemed oddly familiar. They all had wicked grins on their faces like wolves that had just cornered their prey. Never one to be easily intimidated I stood toe to toe with my unwelcomed guest. “May I help you?”
I said sternly and unfazed. One of the huge gorillas stepped up in front of the rest, his hand grazed his chin bringing attention to the platinum grill that was in his mouth and sadly he looked the least literate of all of them. “Well what’s good playboy…we have been looking for your little pretty ass all over this place…never would have guessed to find you up in a church.” He said smiling but looking at me coldly. “Well you found me…what’s up?” I said clearly not backing down. The four of them seemed a little impressed, damn near shocked that I wasn’t running for my life especially riding solo with no strap. The ring leader of the monkeys eyed me suspiciously. “C’mon Mr. Lyfe…you know very well why we are here bruh.” As my memory came back to me I finally remembered where I had seen these cats before.
They were the same dudes that were there at Julio’s house when I cased the joint. I sighed as I removed my work gloves and eyed my adversaries. “So the boss sent some more trained puppies to do is work huh?” The first one swayed his hands. “We have come to collect but you are clearly looking broke as a joke…so since we can’t bring the boss his papers were going to bring him your fucking head. I think he has room for it right on the mantle.” They all chuckled and sneered as if they had me right in the bag. I nodded, still not fazed by the talking monkey.
“Hmmm…out of all the places… y’all want to do this at a church?”
“Well if you rather we take you out to the middle of the street and kill you that’s cool too.”
I watched as they spread out surrounding me like vultures, slapping each other five … little did they know. Soon as the first one came at me I grabbed the nearest ratchet handle and swiped him across the face sending him wailing back in pain gushing blood. His nearest partner started swinging like Frankenstein letting my easily clip him in his trachea. The next one snuck up behind me putting me in the choke hold while the only one left standing Mr. Platinum grill, clutched a sharp box cutter in his hand. “Don’t you love it when they fight back…” He gnarled laughing. “Makes it so much more fun.”
As he walked toward me with the box cutter I managed to land a kick to his face and quickly elbowed his partner in the ribs. While he grabbed his side he failed to see my size fourteen boot coming up sending him down into the dirt. I may not have a majored in accounting but I had a full on PHD on how to kick a muthafucka ass. Mr. Platinum grill got back to his feet, face a little jacked due to a broken nose but he still stood toe to toe with me.
“You muthafucka…you really think you slick huh?”
“Try and watch your mouth bruh…” I chuckled. “This is a church.” I spread my feet out in the dirt and paced myself. He did the same as he prepared to come back at me with the box cutter. “Then I hope you done said your prayers man.” He lunged at me again but he was too slow, I moved out the way and landed a right hook to the side of his face. I didn’t see it coming when countered with a left hook sending a shock of pain to my cheek. He caught me by the throat and I grabbed his as well. We struggled for the longest time until I felt like my eyes were going to bulge out of my head. I decided to end the struggle by throwing in a vicious head-butt, the box cutter ran across my shoulder blade slicing me up but I was still good. When he saw I was bleeding a smirk fell across his face.
“Looks like you leaking buddy.”
“Leaking aint dead.”
He charged at me again and this time I was smart enough to grab his hand twisting it, back putting him on his knees until he released the knife. After subduing him I landed a solid punch to his face knocking him out cold. I eased up against the wall feeling out of breath and clutched my still bleeding shoulder. I didn’t even notice when Pastor Wallace came out with two officers. “Derrick what happened…I heard commotion going I thought you might need help.” He said leaning me up against the wall. I smiled a little as he helped me up. “Well Pastor you thought right.”
Destiny
“So you might as well go ahead and tell us the truth… because we know damn well you didn’t go home from the charity ball alone.” Cat grilled me. We were at a local diner finally able to do some catching up on some much needed girl talk when the subject of my disappearing act from the charity ball came up. I rolled my eyes while taking a bite into my chicken salad. “Fine…fine…I don’t even feel like lying today. I saw Derrick at the party, we got into this huge fight and before I knew we were back at my place having sex…Happy.” “Whoa!” They screeched out. “Just like that girl…” Lucy nudged me. “I knew it was going to happen sooner or later.” Alayah gave me a pat on the back. “Good job girl… so how was it?” We all hung our heads down knowing what a sexual deviant Alayah was. “Seriously Alayah. Did you really have to go there?” Cat playfully scolded.
“But since she did how was it?” I couldn’t help but burst into laughter at my friend’s nosiness. They all sat back and were waiting for my answer. “It was descent…I mean it was…oh hell it was good.” I finally just came out and said it. Derrick was the best sex I ever had and I was thinking about him like crazy and was sadder than ever at the way I treated him the morning after. “What…not beating around the bush…I have never seen this Destiny before.”
Meg grinned. “Meet the right penis it will bring about changes…” Alayah said, clinking my wine glass with hers. Everyone chuckled while I sighed at my dearest friend’s vulgarity. “Look I told you hefas everything now can we just drop it?” “Well no you didn’t tell us everything…what were you two fighting about?” Lucy chimed back in. I looked down at my plate then back up at them. “He saw me with James at the party.” Suspicious looks and groans passed among the table at the crazy situation I had put myself in. “Oh and as for our good friend James whatever happened to him?” Cat asked inquisitively. I rolled my eyes at the thought of him. “Oh he is out indefinitely…that bastard tried to pimp me out to his business partners?” “What!” they exclaimed.
I shook my head in anger reflecting back on that night. “Yeah, talk about social climbing …it will be a cold day inn hell before we go out again.” “Damn Des… and what about Derrick?” Lucy asked. I was surprised at how much my heart ached at even the sound of his name. I missed him so much and it made me angry with myself. “Derrick…I don’t know, I think he has had enough of my back and forth.”
/> “What do you mean Destiny…I thought you two were good, didn’t you go home together?” Meg asked confused. “Yeah but the next morning I just went off and told him I didn’t want to be with him…I was scared. And now I don’t think he will ever talk to me again.” My friends saw my dower expression and sympathized with me. “I’m sure he can’t be that mad at you girl…just give him some time he’ll come around.” Lucy tried to soothe me. I nodded and continued to eat wanting to believe her words were true. I really didn’t want this to be the end between me and Derrick…not yet. I noticed certain uneasiness when I looked up at Cat.
“What’s wrong girl?”
“Girl hide your wine glasses hear come Pastor Wallace.”
“What!” We all exclaimed.
We looked back to see Pastor Wallace making his way inside wearing some powered blue outfit. We quickly gulped down our glasses and changed the subject. “Yes girl the Lord is good all the time…I can’t count all the blessings he has brought into my life.” Alayah loudly protested. “Amen.” We agreed hoping Pastor Wallace would not come over and give us the disapproving glare. Instead he seemed rather shaken up and somber. “Hello sisters how y’all doing today?” “Fine pastor is something wrong?” Lucy asked for all of us. Pastor Wallace just sighed. “Oh nothing that the Lord can’t fix…I’m just here to pick up some food for Brother Derrick, that poor man.” My ears perked up and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. “What happened?” I asked. The Pastor just shook his head. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you…some hooligans came to the church and attacked him.” “What!” I nearly fell out of my chair. “Oh yes…” The Pastor went on. “Cut his shoulder up and everything, but you wouldn’t believe he actually…” Before he could even finish his sentence I was out the door and jumping into my car. I was so frantic I thought I was going to lose it; I quickly pulled out of the parking lot until the main road and was on a desperate attempt to find Derrick.
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