“She’s a legend.”
“Was a legend. Her glory days are over. Seems like yesterday when I listened to her and tried to sing like her when I was a kid.”
“You’re still a kid—”
“Hey, watch it, brotha.” She laughed and disregarded his teasing. “Seriously, I’m glad we still have evidence of Whitney’s great singing recorded on CDs. That’s good enough.”
“So does she get your vote?”
“You get my vote, Wendell.”
Wendell looked shocked then pleased. He gently grabbed Lorraine’s face between his hands. He reached down and pressed his thick lips against hers. He thrust his tongue into her mouth. They closed their eyes and shared a passionate kiss at one in the morning in downtown Houston, where the only people who may have seen them were a few homeless derelicts and a limo driver.
If all her co-workers happened to drive by at that moment, Lorraine wouldn’t have noticed or cared. Right then with Wendell Holmes, she felt on top of the world. And she decided that’s exactly where she intended to stay.
9
Take Advantage of the Moment
Wendell and Lorraine spent the next few weeks talking on the phone in the evenings, meeting up for dinner one time at a popular Tex Mex restaurant, and checking out a sneak preview of an Idris Elba flick. Things felt so good between them that all they could both do was relish the moment.
By the time the last Friday in April arrived, everyone at EDC was excited. Wendell worked hard that morning and once four o’clock arrived he took off. He made a right turn and pulled into the parking lot of A&E Graphics on Richmond Avenue where the sandcastle workshop was being held. Before he could emerge from his vehicle, his passenger door opened. Faye slid into the seat and slammed the door. Wendell raised his eyebrows in shock. As usual Faye looked and smelled stunning.
“Is that White Diamonds?” Wendell asked, inhaling.
“You remembered.” She smiled. “I take a bottle with me everywhere I go.”
“And a new weave?” He eyed her.
“I just got it yesterday. You like it, don’t you? Here, give me your hand.” Without waiting for him to respond, Faye grabbed Wendell’s fingers and placed them on top of her hair.
“How does that feel?”
“Store bought.” He massaged her scalp and smiled.
“You’re so silly. But it feels good, doesn’t it?”
“I-I, um—”
“Go ahead, Wendell. I want to feel your hands in my hair. It turns me on.”
“Does it?” At first Wendell didn’t know what to believe. But his body answered for him. The more he played with Faye’s hair, the more he felt himself getting an erection. He didn’t know if he should take advantage of the moment and grope this woman all over while he had the chance, something he’d wanted to do in times past. Or should he stick to the matter at hand and attend the stupid workshop?
“Do you like what I have on?” Her eyes gleamed with desire. Faye wore a yellow silk halter dress with a plunging necklace that emphasized her cleavage. The dress stopped at her thighs. She crossed her legs and glanced down at them. There they were: some of the most luscious thighs Wendell had ever seen, only inches away from his fingers.
Faye’s body was in the best shape of any woman he’d ever known. Maybe it was because she regularly engaged in kick-boxing and cardiovascular training at the twenty-four-hour gym. She took pride in and worshipped her body like it was her god. Faye was so eye catching she could easily rival any Maxim cover girl and had the curves and legs to prove it.
“You haven’t told me if you like what you see, Wendell.” Her soft, delicate voice was barely audible.
“You look amazing, Faye. Always have.” He couldn’t believe she was sitting next to him in his ride. He’d always dreamed of being close to her, so for this to happen in such an unexpected way threw him.
Faye twisted around in her seat, crossed one leg over the other, and whispered, “I’m not wearing any underwear, Wendell.”
His eyes bugged as he moaned.
“I love hearing you moan like that. I want to hear you do it again, but louder.”
“Faye,” he gasped, hitting his hands on the steering wheel. “I think we’re going to be late. You aren’t even dressed to go to the workshop.”
“That’s because I’m not going to the workshop. I’m going to your place. C’mon, let’s go. Can’t you smell how bad I want you, Wendell? Can you taste it? I can taste you.”
“Dammit, Faye,” he muttered to himself. He’d promised to meet Lorraine at the workshop so he could go over the objective of their team project. He knew she was running late and would be expecting to see him. But Faye looked so hot. She had all his attention. She aroused him till it hurt. And he’d been told to never let a good hard-on go to waste.
“So,” she said, licking her lips. “See what I’m doing to my lips?”
He nodded.
“I want to do that to your dick.” She paused. “Every man has a name for his penis. What’s yours?”
“Joe-Joe,” he uttered.
“I’m going to stick Joe-Joe deep in my mouth. I’m going to lick Joe-Joe with my tongue like he’s a chocolate ice-cream cone sprinkled with nuts. And then I’m going to suck your asshole from top to bottom. You ever been sucked there before?”
Hearing Faye describe what she wanted to do to him made Wendell grow harder by the second. A little tent popped up in his slacks. He felt dizzy and weak. His mouth sprang open in his attempt to respond. Faye quickly leaped on him and thrust her tongue into his mouth. He let her take him deep inside her mouth where it was hot, wet, and slippery.
Faye reached down and grabbed his pants and rubbed him over and over until he exploded in orgasm.
His cheeks flushed with red. “I’ll have to go home and change.”
“Now that’s change that I can believe in. Let’s go.”
“What about your car?”
“Wendell, are you even serious?” She leaned back, buckled her seat belt, and waited for him to start the ignition. Within seconds they were speeding away from the A&E building. Wendell heard the horn of a car honking but he ignored it and prayed that if things got messy between him and Lorraine, they could be cleaned up and worked out eventually.
He couldn’t get home fast enough. Even after they got out of the car, Wendell looked to his left, his right, and behind him.
“Oh, you think she followed you?”
“Huh, what are you talking about?”
“Stick-figure chick, that’s who, but enough about her. I’m the one who’s coming home with you to come inside of you when we make some serious love in your bed.”
Wendell wanted to say so much; he had a million questions but he decided to keep his mouth closed. He opened the door of his condo and let Faye inside. She immediately walked past the living room, dining room, and kitchen, and went straight to his bedroom even though this was her first time ever setting foot inside his place.
“How’d you know where—?”
“You’ve seen one bedroom, you’ve seen them all.”
She turned on the overhead light and observed his neatly made king-size bed.
“That’s perfect, Wendell.”
He ignored her while he walked past her to the master bathroom. He closed the door, unzipped his slacks, and stepped out of his soaked drawers.
“Hey.” She knocked. “I’m coming in.” She opened the door and stood gaping at his hard-on while he stood holding his penis in his hand.
“Do you mind?” he croaked. But he couldn’t protest for long. Faye’s nakedness was a sight to behold. She stood with her hands on her hips looking sexy and confident. Her long hair grazed her shoulders, her breasts resembled plump melons, and most important, she had a Brazilian bikini wax.
“I want you to eat my pussy, but I want us to take a shower first so I can get it good and clean for you. C’mon, turn on the water and make it as hot as possible. Do you have any shower gel?”
> Wendell stood speechless as he watched Faye step into his stall.
“What are you waiting on? I can’t wait to fuck you. Hurry up so we can get started.”
He shook his head, tried hard not to laugh, and twisted the knob until a blast of steaming hot water shot out. All thoughts of Lorraine completely vanished.
Faye giggled and embraced Wendell from behind, lightly kissing his shoulders. She grabbed his penis and stroked it over and over again.
“Hi, how are you doing Joe-Joe? When we’re done showering I’m going to introduce you to Luscious . . .”
I can’t believe Faye is here with me, naked in my shower. Faye is the baddest bitch in the game.
Later that evening, Wendell pulled up across the street from Lorraine’s apartment and put the Sebring in idle. He saw her waiting on the other side of the street. He honked his horn and waved.
She crossed the street and watched as Wendell jumped out of the car to open her door.
Lorraine slid into her seat, folded her arms, and glared once he settled in again.
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“You still haven’t given me a good excuse as to why you missed the workshop. I waited and waited on you. When I tried to contact you, all the calls went to voice mail.”
“I told you, something came up. I turned off my phone and let it charge for a couple of hours.”
“I’m sorry, Wendell, but from what I know, you do not need to turn off a cell phone just to let it charge.”
“You don’t believe me?” he exclaimed, trying to look offended.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore,” she huffed and blew out a frustrated breath. “I just think that if you need to tell me something, now’s your time to do it. Does that sound familiar?”
Inside Wendell was dying, torn, and plagued with guilt. How was it that he went from zero women to two hot chicks in less than a few weeks? He couldn’t believe he was in this situation and had to figure out how to handle it.
“Raw truth, Wendell.”
“Are you sure you know what you’re asking?”
“If I’m going to get hurt, it may as well happen sooner than later.”
“I don’t want it to happen at all. It’s not going to happen. And that settles it. All you need to know is that I’m here with you right now. We’re about to go on a fantastic date. I’m still trying to build something with you. I am. And that’s the truth.”
“Are you serious, Wendell? I hate being toyed with.”
“Either take it or leave it, because that’s all I can tell you. You gotta trust me.”
“Hmm, I still don’t believe that you think that men are simple and easy to understand. It’s just not true.” She wrinkled her nose then sneezed.
“Gesundheit!”
“Thanks. Must be something in the air.”
“Love?”
“Don’t even try it.”
He laughed cheerily and forced himself to relax. As he drove off from her apartment, he tried to hold a conversation with Lorraine. But his thoughts were heavy with the good time he’d just shared with Faye. Was Faye a keeper or a part-time lover? Was it worth it to juggle the two women for a little while longer, or should he release Faye if he felt like he’d gotten her out of his system? If he did have enough guts to tell the raw truth—that he actually admired and wanted to hang out with both females—would he still get what he wanted in the end? Truth was good but also risky. For now, he decided to keep his thoughts to himself. Especially since Lorraine was still pissed at him for standing her up.
They ended up downtown again. But this time Wendell had a concrete plan. He parked near Discovery Green. They walked past the fountain where dozens of children splashed and ran through the water as it blasted through the spouts. A menagerie of trees, flower beds, and gardens filled the green park and exposed Lorraine to one of the most natural settings she’d ever visited.
“It’s good to see a little bit of a smile on your face,” he exclaimed. “But I don’t know how long that’s going to last.”
“Why do you say that?” she asked defensively.
“Because of that.” He pointed at a hot air balloon that was tied to a wooden post right in the center of the park.
“You expect me to go on that?”
“Yep, I do. I want to take you places you’ve never been before ; we’re going to do things we’ve never done.”
“Oh, Wendell, I don’t know,” she replied with uncertainty.
“Come on. ‘Disco Green’ is the place to be when you want to have good, clean fun. And that’s what we’re about to have, dammit. I need this. Bad.”
Twenty minutes later Lorraine and Wendell found themselves three hundred fifty feet in the air, floating around downtown Houston from inside a huge white hot air balloon decorated in aqua and red stripes.
“Damn, I can’t believe how far out we can see. There’s the freaking Williams Tower.” Lorraine laughed and pointed.
“And if you look over here, you can see the Gulf of Mexico.”
“This is insane, Wendell. You’re insane.” She loved the feeling of the wind hitting her cheeks. Riding made her feel as if she was transported from all her worries.
“I hope you mean that in a good way.”
“Humph, I hope so, too.”
Following their sky-high excursion, Wendell took Lorraine to Scott Gertner’s Skybar and Grille, where they enjoyed the best views of downtown she had ever seen. Lorraine had a good time relaxing on an open terrace while listening to jazz and sipping on mojitos. When Lorraine asked Wendell to join her for a dance, he felt he was in the clear.
“So you’re not mad anymore? You forgive me, my lady?”
“Your what?”
“I think it’s okay to start calling you that, don’t you?”
“I don’t know. I think you need to quit while you’re behind.” She smirked to let him know she was teasing.
“I think you enjoy giving me a hard time, Lo.”
“Ugh, please don’t call me that. I’ve done a great job trying to forget about my ex. He hasn’t contacted me in a minute and that’s the way I like it.”
Wendell gave her a sober look. “Are you really trying to move on?”
“I am. If only I could know you’re doing the same.”
“If you knew that, then what?”
“Then I’d be okay with you calling me your lady. But until then, Lorraine will do, thank you very much.”
10
How Much More Can I Be Humiliated?
Faye couldn’t believe it. She was accustomed to men chasing her in hot pursuit while she looked over her shoulder and laughed. Being desired by men was like pressing a needle in her vein and injecting herself with heroin. Nothing felt better than making men lose their minds. But Wendell Holmes was different. She’d assumed after they’d had sex that night he’d be blowing up her cell, begging her to return for a repeat. Or maybe he’d do what others had done and insist she move in. Wendell did neither. That intrigued Faye. It was as if he had used her, and not vice versa.
Tonight she was at home, fuming mad. Earlier she’d placed some oversized dark sunglasses over her eyes, rented a fancy sedan, and driven past Wendell’s condo a couple of times. But his place appeared to be completely dark. The drapes were drawn. It meant he wasn’t home. Or if he was, he was having sex. With Stick Figure. Faye shook her head vigorously, not wanting to believe that Wendell would choose someone so dreadful and desperate looking over her. Jeez, what was the world coming to? She blamed her string of bad luck on jerks like Tiger Woods, men lucky enough to have beautiful, intelligent, cultured women at their side—women so stunning they made men look like kings—but instead the undercover sluts preferred to get it on with trashy pole dancers who got their start sucking on bananas. She hated men like that.
In her heart, Faye knew that Stick Figure didn’t quite fit the “ho bag” description, but in her mind, if a man picked any woman over her, the girl was an automa
tic low-life wannabe tramp player hater who could never truly compete with her. Yet in a way, Stick Figure was competition because if she wasn’t, wouldn’t Wendell be with Faye?
“This is not even happening,” she said through clenched teeth, almost wanting to scream. “How much more can I be humiliated? I don’t do humiliation!”
Faye wailed as she stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror. She resembled a young Donna Summer: huge, pretty doe eyes, thin nose, and thick, pouty lips. Faye’s bone-straight hair was so long it reached her behind. She clamped her hair in a ponytail just to avoid sitting on it. She’d purchased eighteen-inch hair extensions because she knew most men were shallow enough to be swayed by lengthy hair. And she needed men to love her. Every man. That’s also why she wore new clothes daily, preferring to buy dresses and skirt sets fresh from the mall rather than dry clean the clothes she already owned. She had a strong need to always stand out in a crowd and would do anything to achieve that.
But now she didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t believe that although she’d gotten weak and called Wendell three times, three, he hadn’t called her back. She didn’t leave a message. She wasn’t the type of woman to leave a message. But the fact that Wendell had caller ID should have been motivation enough for him to return her call. See if she was okay. Phone her to let her know he’d been missing her bad and wanted to kick it with her.
“I always get what I want. And I want Wendell.”
Wendell stood in the doorway of Lorraine’s apartment. They’d just returned from their date. He briefly came into the apartment to use the restroom and chitchat. But now he was ready to head out.
“Listen, young man. I had an incredible, unforgettable time. But it still doesn’t excuse you for leaving me in the lurch at that workshop. I felt so lost.”
“Sorry about that. But the other team members were there. I knew Lance was coming and asked him to help you out if needed. Did you see him?”
“Lance is such a boring gossip, plus he can’t hold a candle to you.”
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