All That Drama

by McKinney, Tina Brooks

  “Before you go into Inspector Gadget mode, Dennis and I are just good friends,” I responded.

  “Some friend.” She huffed. “I don’t know too many men who would drive a truck for thirteen hours and fly back home at their own expense without expecting some sort of payback,” she stated flatly.

  “You don’t know Dennis,” I said, refusing to disclose any more details of our relationship than I had to. Dennis was another reason I had left Baltimore. I fell in love with him and for a while, I thought he loved me, too. But when he found out that I was not going to have any more children, our relationship cooled off quickly. I thought my heart would break when he told me that we should see other people. Secretly I had hoped that he would come to his senses and turn the truck around, but he didn’t.

  “Will I get to meet him?” she inquired.

  “Sure,” I said. “He’s staying the weekend so you will get to meet him tonight. We want to go out. Would you mind watching the kids for me? I promised him I would show him the nightlife.”

  Mom didn’t answer so I continued to babble. “Dennis wants to move here, too, but is afraid to leave his own mother alone.”

  “He’s close to his mother?” she asked.

  “They are real close. Ms. Malcolm is a very sweet woman. You would like her,” I said.

  “You must be good friends. You know his mother, too?”

  “Enough questions, Mother! What are we going to do about dinner? I need to unpack a few things and wash off some of this road dirt,” I said, rising from the table. I knew as long as I sat there, she would pump me for information.

  Changing channels, Mom said, “What does Keith say about your traveling across country with his children and another man?”

  “Keith has no say,” I responded. “What I do is none of Keith’s business!” I snapped.

  “He’s still your husband!” she said adamantly but not angry about my response.

  I breathed deeply and responded. “On paper only. As soon as he signs those divorce papers, that will be the end of it.” Talking about Keith always put me in a bad mood and I quickly left the room before I lashed out at my mother.

  “I gave Dennis the phone number. If he calls while I’m in the shower, get a number from him, please.” I kissed the children and quickly went off in search of a hot shower and some clean clothes. I dropped off the children’s suitcases in the other guest rooms and took several minutes to unpack them.

  “Take a bath in my bathroom,” Momma yelled.

  “Yes!” I exclaimed and leaped into the air. I was dying to get in that Jacuzzi, but was afraid to ask. That was just the type of relaxation I needed. I ran in hurriedly, turned on the water and positioned the jets as the hot water poured out of them. I liberally poured bubble bath and bath beads into the swirling water, turning the water blue. Locking the door, I quickly got undressed. I grabbed a scarf from my mother’s dresser and quickly wrapped my hair. Since I had forgotten my robe, I looked into her closet to borrow one of hers. I knew she wouldn’t mind.

  When I opened the walk-in closet, I noticed Mom still had Dad’s clothes hanging there as if he would be coming in at any moment to change. Tears began to flow again as if for the first time. I closed the closet and returned to the bathroom. Suddenly very observant, I noticed that Dad’s cologne bottles still lined the bathroom sink and his toothbrush still occupied its normal spot.

  The waiting Jacuzzi suddenly lost most of its appeal. I was depressed and I sorely missed my dad’s booming voice. I soaked for a while but didn’t nap as I had previously intended to do.

  I changed into a pair of shorts and a halter-top. Atlanta was hotter than Baltimore and Mom kept her house fairly warm. Although Mom was not yet sixty, her prior health problems were aggravated by cool temperatures.

  I was sweating again by the time I finished my bath. I used the ceiling fan to cool myself off as I dressed. It was 3:30 and I expected to hear from Dennis at any moment. I didn’t know where we were going, but I suspected we would find something to do downtown.

  “Where are the kids?” I asked when I got back to the kitchen.

  “Sleeping. They claimed they wanted peanut butter sandwiches, but fell asleep before I could put it on the table. I wrapped the sandwiches up and put them in the refrigerator,” she said, chuckling.

  “It figures. They were wired the whole trip!” I said.

  “Your friend called. Said he would be by at 7:30.”

  “Oh, okay.” I was sorry that I didn’t get a chance to speak with him. I wanted to warn him not to say too much about us but I knew that he would play along with whatever I said.

  Dennis is such a joker. We met at a Halloween party. I was dressed as Tina Turner coming out of a club that he and his friend were going into. His friend talked me into coming back inside. He turned out to be a jerk but Dennis and I had been friends ever since. The memory brought a smile to my face.

  “Where did you say you met him?” Mom inquired again as if she had ESP.

  “Okay, Mother, I will explain this to you one time but I will not be interrogated about him. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” she said, eagerly pulling out a chair for me to sit on. Even though it was just 5:00, she had already prepared hamburgers and mashed potatoes with gravy so we both decided to eat and get it out the way. The children could eat when they got up from their nap.

  After pouring us both some fresh lemonade, I began telling her our story.

  “I met Dennis at a Halloween party. He asked me to lunch the next day and I went. That’s it. We are friends, okay.”

  “Must have been some lunch,” she said with a grunt.

  “Actually, he played a joke on me,” I said, laughing.

  “A joke,” she said, frowning. Mom had zero tolerance when it came to jokes. I inherited my sense of humor from my dad. Ignoring her sarcasm, I continued with the story.

  “We were going to have lunch the next day, and I got this call from the FBI…”

  “The FBI!” she exclaimed.

  “Calm down, Mother. Don’t get your panties in a knot,” I jokingly said. “The caller said they were from the FBI and that I was seen in the company of a suspected rapist.”

  “Oh my Lord!”

  “Mom, it was a joke. The caller asked if I would be seeing the guy again and I told him that I was having lunch with him that day. They told me they did not want me to alert the guy that they were on to him. They had been following him for some time and wanted to monitor our next meeting.”

  “Marie, this is not funny. You could have been raped!”

  “I know. I flipped out and kept telling the agent that I didn’t want any part of the date. The agent, I forget his name, kept saying that I had a civic duty to see the guy again. He reminded me of all the people that I might save if I played along and assured me that if he tried anything, they would be right there. I hemmed and hawed and was almost in tears before Dennis told me that it was him.”

  “That’s some joke,” she snapped, wanting to get mad.

  “Mom, it was perfect. I remained friends with him ’cause I want to get him back but I’ve never been able to really catch him off guard like he did to me.”

  Shit, if she is flipping out like this, I ain’t even telling her about David, I thought.

  Chapter 9

  After my initial separation from Keith, I went buck wild. I ain’t ashamed to say it ’cause I had a hell of a lot of fun. The only problem was, I was not used to casual relationships.

  My first affair started right under Keith’s nose. We were attending the same cookout although we took great pains to avoid each other. My girlfriend and neighbor invited me and her husband invited Keith. When I found out that Keith was coming I almost stayed home but the music was sounding too good! The noise coming from their backyard beckoned me, and it appeared like they were having a lot of fun.

  Sherry and Howard usually gave good parties, which lasted well into the night. Eventually the party would turn into several cutthroat c
ard games and I loved to play cards. Keith liked card games as well and we used to be a pretty good team but that night, I was not feeling that. Instead of going to the card tables I wandered off by myself to just enjoy the music and sip on my beer.

  Much to my surprise, a guy I had grown up with stopped by the party to grab a plate. I didn’t know that he was a friend of Sherry since she was much older than he and me. I had not seen him since I had worn pigtails.

  “Marie?” he asked obviously shocked to see me as well.

  “I don’t even believe this,” I said, jumping to my feet to embrace him. “David, oh my goodness, I haven’t seen you since we were kids!” I exclaimed excitedly. He looked me up and down and even swirled me around and as he did, my face grew plum red from the animal lust I saw in his eyes.

  “Damn girl, what ya been doing? The last time I saw you, you were…How should I say this…thick?” he stammered.

  “I was more than thick; I was down-right fat!” I exclaimed, punching him in the arm. I had slimmed down and was showing curves that I never knew existed. For this cookout, I wore a black bodysuit without a bra that left nothing to the imagination. I was enjoying his attention and started to warm up to his mild flirtation.

  “Well, let me say, you got it going on now!” he yelled and dropped his voice for a deep bark. I felt my nipples stand up and he noticed it immediately.

  “I didn’t know that you knew Sherry,” I said, trying to change the subject.

  “Girl, my mom used to live across the alley at the corner house, so I’m over here a lot. My brothers and I have the house now since Mom died, but I ain’t never seen you here,” he said. “I heard you got married and shit,” he said as he realized for the first time that we weren’t alone.

  As a child I never found him to be attractive since he was a year younger than me and always full of games but as a man, the brother was cut! I fought to keep from looking at his broad shoulders and his muscular arms.

  “Let’s catch up,” he said as he steered me back down to the bench I had been sitting on. I looked around to see if we were being watched. Even though Keith and I were officially separated I did not want to flaunt a man in front of his face. After a few too many beers, he had a tendency to get belligerent.

  “I ain’t gonna bite ya,” he said, patting the seat beside him.

  “I know.” I sat down and tried to appear as nonchalant as he was but I was failing in my attempt.

  “So, fill me in on the gaps. I know that you got married and moved away. Did you have any children?” he asked.

  “Two, they are around here somewhere,” I said, again scanning the crowd.

  “There, see that little one with all the curls on top of her head. That’s Keira.” He turned his head and body to look in the direction of my pointed finger.

  “Hell, if I would have looked around, I would have been able to pick her out of a lineup. She looks just like you!” he said.

  “And, that’s Kevin holding onto Sherry’s leg. He is already a ladies man and he is just turning three!” I said, laughing.

  “He looks just like you, too! There is no way that you would ever be able to deny either of those two. What about your husband, where is he?” I shifted in my seat and took a big swallow of my beer. I crossed my legs and then quickly uncrossed them. He placed his hand over mine and looked deep into my eyes. “I wasn’t trying to pry. It’s just that I haven’t seen you in so long,” he assured me.

  “It’s okay, really, it’s fine. We are separated but he is here tonight. He and Howard are friends,” I said, referring to Sherry’s husband. He pulled back his hand and looked around at the crowd. I felt him pull away from me and I did not like it. I could hear Keith talking shit as usual at a card game.

  “That’s him, with the big mouth,” I said when he glanced back at me.

  “He’s willing to let all this go?” He eyed me up and down again. Another smile tugged at my lips.

  “When did you grow up to be such a flirt?” I said. “Back in the day, all you wanted to do was throw snowballs and pull my hair. You gave me such a hard time I almost developed a complex.” His smile was too sexy. He had the whitest teeth and two perfect dimples. Funny, I just didn’t remember him that way. I related more to his serious brother than I did to him as we were growing up. Not that we didn’t speak, we just didn’t talk.

  “Dance with me,” he said, pulling me onto my feet and into his arms. He wrapped his arms around my waist and gently pulled me to him until I was flush against his chest. My head automatically tilted and was laying on his shoulder. Damn, it felt good! His breath was warm against my neck as he sung softly into my ear. I felt his nature rising and could not resist grinding against it. Johnny Gill was crooning about a red dress and high heels as we danced under the stars.

  “I’ve loved you since I was ten,” he said, kissing me softly on the neck. I pulled back from him to look into his eyes. Surely I was imagining things.

  “Get the hell out of here. You treated me like crap!” I said ready to disengage from his arms but lacking the willpower to do so.

  “I didn’t know how to tell you,” he said, kissing me again on the neck. His dick pulsed and so did my clit.

  “Well, you sure had a messed-up way of letting me know,” I said, playfully punching him in the chest. “You told me that all girls were stupid and I was the leader of the pack! I used to go home crying every day,” I said as the bittersweet memories came back to me. All the boys used to tease me then. My body developed early and it drew unwanted attention. As a defense mechanism, I ate. I grew round all over and that just caused the neighborhood boys to pick on me more, but David was the worst.

  Under the stars and in the presence of my soon to be ex-husband, my neighbors and God, he kissed me. Good Golly Miss Molly. All the years of sexual repression and frustration melted into a hot ball of lust. It was not a meek kiss either. He put it on me! We acted as if we were alone and naked on a beach some damn where. Moisture seeped through my underwear and my nipples strained against my bodysuit. I wanted to step away but was afraid that the moisture would show in the crotch on my outfit. Abruptly, he pulled away. Although he still held me in his arms, our lips were no longer locked.

  “I’m sleepy, Momma,” Kevin said, locking his arms around our legs. I looked down into my little man’s eyes. He really did look like me and my heart swelled with pride.

  “Kevin, this is David. We grew up together,” I said. David released his grip on me and went down on one knee to talk to Kevin.

  “What’s up?” he said, holding out his hand for Kevin to give him five. Kevin played along while suppressing a yawn.

  “I gotta go,” I said, searching the other partygoers looking for Keira. She was at the table near her father fast asleep. I glanced at my watch and noticed that I had been talking with David for almost two hours and could not remember anything except the feel of his dick on my leg and the touch of his tender lips.

  “You’re living in your mother’s house now, aren’t you?” he said. I looked up at those words.

  “Damn, you have been keeping an ear out, haven’t you? Mom and Dad moved to Atlanta and I got the house. I’m looking to buy it but they are not cooperating,” I said, clearly pleased that he was keeping tabs on me.

  “What do you mean, not cooperating?” he asked.

  “They don’t want to sell it to just me. They only want to sell it to me and my ex and that ain’t gonna happen,” I said.

  I gathered the kids’ things and started to head toward home. “Sherry, I will be back for Keira in a minute. Just let me carry this stuff home,” I said.

  “No problem. I’m glad you could make it,” she said, winking at me. So much for David and I being discreet, I thought.

  “I’ll carry her,” David said, swooping her up in his arms and following me down the alley to my house.

  “Get your hands off my daughter!” Keith said, jumping up from the table and knocking over his drink. He was drunk and stumbling as he
lunged for Keira. I stepped between them and grabbed Keira. “Go away, Keith. I got this,” I said. Confused, Kevin dropped my hand and grabbed David’s. David looked down at him and smiled.

  Keith noticed this but was slow on the uptake. He turned around totally disoriented. “Come here,” he said to Kevin in a fierce tone. Kevin started crying, tightening his grip on David’s hand.

  “Look, Keith, it’s late; we are all tired. They will see you later but right now, we are going home,” I announced. Kevin did not respond well to yelling and I could understand his tears when his father started acting the ass again. I was fighting to keep my voice low but my tolerance level for Keith was non-existent. I spun around and started for the house with David following close behind me. At that moment I knew there would not be another chance for me to be alone with David but I was grateful for the time we had. It had been so long since I had felt desired by anyone of the male species or since I had desired a man, for that matter. David had done wonders for my self-esteem in the short time we were together. Surprisingly, Keith did not follow in protest.

  David paused at the back gate not sure how to proceed. I switched hips since Keira was entirely too heavy to carry. I looked into David’s deep brown eyes.

  “I want to see you again,” he said softly so that the children could not hear.

  “Me, too,” I said and opened the gate to our yard. Keith was still standing in the alley glaring at us. I told David goodnight and went into the house. I undressed the kids and put them down to bed. I, on the other hand, was too restless to sleep. I drew a hot bath to soak. I could still hear the music from the party and could even imagine hearing David’s sexy voice. I climbed out of the tub all shriveled and cold. The cool water helped to soothe my hot flesh but did nothing for my heightened libido.

  Switching on the ceiling fan, I pulled on a plain Jane nightgown and turned back the covers on my bed. As I was climbing into the bed, I heard a knock on the door. It wasn’t the nigger knock of the police; rather it was the knock of someone that did not want to draw attention to themselves.