by Nicole Falls
“So bad that she put me out of her car phone once I tried to tell her both of y’all were at fault.”
“Wait a minute how were we—“
“You don’t think putting her out and telling her you’d call her tomorrow was overreacting, El?”
I quietly pondered the question. Devorah insulted me and my subsequent reaction wasn’t over the top to me. However, I knew that if we had continued talking, I would have gotten even more upset and possibly caused irreparable damage. That was the last thing I wanted to do. I needed to create some space so I could calmly tell her why her comment set me off. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the most mature move.
“Aight. I’ll accept my part in this. I probably shouldn’t have put her out. But you do get why I put her out right?”
“I definitely do. Which is what I was trying to explain to her before she hung up on me. Both of y’all are getting on my nerves to be quite honest.”
“I hate to keep putting you in the middle of this.”
“Then stop.”
We were silent for a bit then both burst out laughing. Cadence knew that this was impossible given how often she talked to the both of us. She and Bee have been best friends since they were swimming in amniotic fluid, so it’s inevitable that she’d talk to her about her man troubles…or lack thereof. I will admit an uptick in the frequency of our chats since Devorah and I have gotten together, but it was her damn fault for being so accommodating. If Cadence didn’t want to be caught in the middle she could have easily told both of us to shut up. She never will though because according to her we were canon OTP. Whatever the hell that meant.
“You know a phone call isn’t gonna cut it, right?”
“Which is why I had purple and white calla lilies delivered this morning with a note, handwritten might I add, letting her know to expect a call from me this afternoon.”
“Oh, you’re good.” Cadence replied, a bit of awe in her voice.
“I told you I ain’t new to this, I’m true to this.”
“Well, why you wasting time on the line with me? Don’t you have a call to make?”
I glanced at the dash and saw that it was a quarter of two. The note I sent with the flowers this morning told her to expect my call by three. I’d wanted to give myself more than enough time to make it through my client lunch and get settled back in at the office.
“We’re not scheduled ‘til three, but I just pulled back into the lot at the plantation. Got a couple things I need to take care of before I make that call, so I’ll talk to you later.”
“May the odds ever be in your favor, brother.”
I’d never been nervous to call a woman. Not even back in the sixth grade when I got Heather Daniels to give me her number despite being an eighth grader whose sights were set on high school dudes. I’d just ushered the lead graphic designer out of my office and had five minutes before I was supposed to call Bee. I didn’t have a clue of what I was going to say and it had me thrown to be honest. I always had a slick mouth that was skilled at convincing the ladies to give me what I wanted. This was different, though. Heaving a sigh, I picked up the phone, dialing Devorah’s office number.
“This is Devorah.”
“Hey Bee.”
I heard a slight intake of air on the other end of the phone before she answered.
“Hi.”
“Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“Nope. I blocked off three o’clock ‘til three oh seven as give Ellis time to grovel time on my calendar.”
“Seven minutes? Damn, that’s a whole lot of please baby please, Bee.”
She laughed softly. I took this as a sign that we were good.
“Thank you for the flowers, by the way. They’re beautiful.”
“Not as beautiful…nah, I can’t even finish that corny shit.”
Bee laughed loudly and said, “Thank you. Because had you done that, I’m certain I would have never let you inside me again.”
“And what a pity that would have been. Hey…you busy tonight? I don’t want to do this over the phone. I’d rather be looking you in the eyes as I apologize. Besides…we never got through the rest of the leaning in rules.”
“About that…” Devorah started.
“Nope, save it for later. Is seven cool? I’ll drop by after the gym.”
“Showered, hopefully.”
“Really, Bee? So seven…?”
“Seven is fine. I’ll have dinner waiting.”
“Aight. I’ll see you then.”
Bee paused briefly then said, “See you later, El.”
We hung up and I went back to the pile of RFPs on my desk that I needed to complete and submit before the end of the week. I’d been tasked with recruiting a few more local businesses to work with our firm for their marketing needs. We were trying to break into the small business sector, primarily targeting minority owned businesses. A larger firm whose focus was broadening the level of service that we provided to local start-ups had recently acquired my company. My team was researching businesses and crafting requests for proposals to pitch to their leadership teams. This kind of put me in direct competition with Devorah’s firm, as cross-pollination was inevitable when you have two similarly structured companies trying to acquire the same customers. Luckily, since Bee was a creative, we never went directly head to head. The rest of the workday passed fairly quickly as I delegated assignments to the sub-teams I supervised.
I pulled up to Devorah’s house slightly before seven. I could barely focus on my workout trying to parse together what the hell I was going to say in this apology. I still didn’t think I was completely in the wrong, but I was taking Cadence’s advice about handling Bee with kid gloves seriously. One thing was for sure though; I was leaving here with a better understanding of what the hell was going on in her head. I grabbed the bottle of wine I bought from the grocery store and walked up the short walkway to the front door. Just as I raised a hand to press the doorbell, the door opened and a mass of red hair came barreling toward me.
“UNCLE ELLLLLLLLL!”
I gathered my niece in my arms for a hug and asked, “Hey Sweetpea, what are you doing here?”
Before she could answer, Cassidy, whom I hadn’t noticed was right behind her said, “We were just leaving. Thanks again, Dev. Heyyyyy, El.” She turned back toward Bee who was standing in the entry way between the kitchen and hallway that lead to the front door. They exchanged a series of blinks and eyebrow raises before Cass and Sophie shuffled out of the door.
“What was that about?”
“Oh. Cass got caught up at work and asked me to pick up Soph so she wouldn’t be charged extra for being late.”
“Nah, nah…I’m talking about—”
“What kinda wine is that?” Bee said and advanced toward me to take the bag.
I handed it over and shrugged my coat off to hang on the coat rack. Bee had already walked back toward the kitchen, so I joined her there. I smelled spaghetti; so going with the red wine was the right choice. I had a fifty-fifty chance though. Bee could only cook two meals well; both of them were pasta based –with either a red or white sauce. I made myself useful and set the table. After I placed the last of the silverware down, I looked up to see Bee staring at me with a look on her face I couldn’t quite place.
“I can’t figure you out,” she said finally. “Can you grab the salad out the fridge? I’ll bring this over so we can chow down.”
I grabbed the salad and dressing from the refrigerator and brought it over to the table. We plated our meals and tucked into eating. Conversation was sparse as we stuffed our faces, but we talked around the reason I had come over here anyway. Instead we chose to stay on neutral topics like work, Sophie, and the gym. After finishing our food, we cleared the table. Devorah loaded the dishwasher while I sat in the living room area waiting for her, at her insistence. As I sat waiting, I thought about what the hell I was going to say to get back in her good graces and get us over this stupid little fight.
I hadn’t even heard her approach.
“Either you’re a ninja or this carpet’s padding muffles every damn thing. I didn’t even hear you come in here.”
Devorah threw her head back with laughter. She quickly sobered and turned toward me.
“Before you start, can I say something?”
I was taken aback, but intrigued, “Shoot.”
She inched a little closer, fidgeting with her nails. I maintained eye contact until her gaze fell onto her hands. She released a small breath and then raised her head to look me in the eyes once again.
“So I just want to say that I was kind of a jerk the other night and I’m sorry that I made you put me out.”
The shock at her apology must have shown on my face because she just continued talking.
“I just…I sometimes don’t know what to say and that was a prime foot in mouth moment. I didn’t realize the impact my words would make. You always seem so nonchalant and I didn’t realize how harshly they may have been received.”
She grabbed my hand and continued, “I’m only annoyed because when your hands are on me I can hardly think straight and to be frank, I don’t like that feeling. I don’t like being out of control.”
I tucked that tidbit of information away to revisit later.
“So. Yeah. Sorry for being a jackass,” she finished, breaking eye contact once again.
I grabbed her chin, bringing her eyes up to meet mine before I spoke.
“We both overreacted. I’ll own up to my part in that. So if you accept my apology for kicking you out like you were Pamela James, then we can start this relationship on a clean slate.”
A small smile crept onto her face, while her eyes held a bit of confusion.
“Relationship?”
“Yep. Relationship. Let’s cut the bullshit, Bee. Despite whatever cloudy ass words you want to classify it — leaning in or whatever — this is a relationship. We’ve been exclusively screwing each other’s brains out for at least six months, albeit inconsistently…your fault…”
“Wait,” she interrupted, “Exclusively?”
“Have you been with someone else?”
“Well no.”
“And neither have I, so that’s how exclusivity works.”
“And how is the inconsistency my fault?”
“Really?” I replied, rolling my eyes.
“Fine. FINE. You’re right. But…”
“No buts, we’re doing this. Full steam ahead. I’m talking fancy restaurants, sexy lingerie, all that shit.”
“But you know we still can’t tell our families, right? I don’t want—”
“If you think Cassidy didn’t call Everett to tell him as soon as she breeched your doorstep, I’ve got a beach house to sell you in Idaho,” I laughed.
“If she hasn’t spilled the beans by now, I think I’m good.”
“Wait…she knew?”
“She’s my best friend, El!”
“Cadence is your best friend. And, I thought, the only person in our immediate circle beyond us who knew.”
“You can’t tell me that Cade’s the only person you’ve talked about this.”
“Besides the point. The person I told is not married into the family!”
“Ah ha! I knew it! Oh my god, who else knows?”
“Trey, but he’s my best friend, Bee!” I said, mimicking her tone for justifying telling Cassidy.
“Har de har. But for real, can we hold off on telling the family until we see where this is going? I just…” Devorah broke off and looked away again.
I grabbed her arm, pulling her closer.
“You just…” I prompted.
“I just need a little time is all. Can you give me a little time?”
“I dunno, Bee. I mean...I might need some incentive to keep my mouth shut.”
A sneaky little smile crossed her lips before she slowly licked them. She stood, moving directly in front of me. Using the tip of her foot, she nudged my legs apart and stood between them. Not breaking eye contact, she grabbed the hem of her dress, slowly raising it. As the hem traveled up her thigh, so did my gaze. She soon revealed a set of black, lacy panties and a matching bra, which barely restrained what, was undeniably my favorite part of Bee’s body, her beautiful breasts.
As she whipped the dress over her head, my hands charted a course beginning at her thighs, over her ass and up to cup those mounds. Devorah’s eyes slid closed as I teased her nipples into hardened peaks.
“Mmmmm,” she moaned as I moved forward, tugging her bra up slightly to take a peak into my mouth, while still stimulating the other with my left hand. My right hand traveled south, skimming down her stomach to the waistband of her panties.
She brushed my hand away, stepping back slightly. She was a sight, chest heaving, bra twisted, eyes sparkling with barely restrained lust. She adjusted her bra and turned to walk out of the room. I sat there on the couch until I heard her ask, “You comin’?”
“So what were the other rules?” Ellis’ low rumble pulled me out of the orgasm induced hazed I’d been in. I was dozing off when he asked the question I had no definite answer to. The only real rule I had regarding the rollout of this relationship was how it would eventually be revealed to the family. The last thing I needed was Imogene Landon-Lee calling me and going on about how good girls don’t hop from brother to brother. Or how I should have never gave Everett to that damn ginger girl for the millionth time.
“Well…er…um…” I stalled.
“Wait a damn minute. There aren’t any rules beyond don’t tell my mama are there? Auntie Im got you that shook?” Ellis laughed.
“It’s not just my mama I’m worried about…”
“Well who else? Certainly not Everett.”
“Hell no. That fool probably already knows because Cass can’t hold water.”
“I thought you said…”
“I said nothing; you assumed,” I laughed.
“So who else? Certainly not my mama.”
I remained quiet, playing with the scalloped lace edges of my sheets. That’s exactly who had me shook. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely didn’t want the judgment from my mother, but I could just ignore her ass for a few days and she’d get past it. But Auntie Randi…I couldn’t be the lil heffa who messed around with both of her sons. I’d always been closer to her than Cadence’s mom Auntie Berta because of our shared love of dance. Auntie Randi was the one who encouraged my mom to put me into Hurston Dance Company after she saw me messing around with choreography on my own around the house. When Everett and I broke up, Auntie Randi had nothing bad to say, but I always felt like she was a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t become her daughter-in-law, popping out little dance grandbabies. Don’t get me wrong, she loved Cassidy, but they were about as opposite as two folks could get. Thank goodness Sophie Bean inherited her grandma’s dance genes.
“For real, Bee? Quit playin’, you know Miranda loves her some Devorah.”
“Yeah, but will she love the Devorah that’s fucked both of her sons?”
“Bee, just the tip doesn’t count.”
“It totally doe---wait! You know about that? Oh my gooooooood,” I moaned, burying my face in my hands and turning away from Ellis.
Everett and I swore we wouldn’t tell anyone about our failed sexcapades. I mean I’d told Cade, obviously, but he had to know that was a given. There was rarely anything that I didn’t tell her. But that didn’t mean he could tell his brother. Ellis grabbed my shoulder and pulled me into an embrace, kissing my forehead as he chuckled.
“Baby, that was over ten years ago. Besides…I won anyway! You let me get all up in them…”
“Stop. Ew. Do not finish that sentence or you will never get all up in me ever again.”
“Yeah right,” Ellis drawled, running his hand down my body to cup my ass.
“Stop tryna distract me. I’m serious though.
Please let’s just chill on letting the old heads know about whatever this thing is.”
“This thing being our relationship. Say it with me, Bee. Our rela…actually, scratch that. I’m about to make you take an oath. Repeat after me. I, Devorah Nicole Lee…”
I rolled my eyes, pushing against Ellis slightly to loosen his embrace. He pulled me in even closer, locking a leg around mine to keep me in place. I looked up to see him waiting with one eyebrow cocked.
“All right, fine. I, Devorah Nicole Lee…”