Monty

by Tina Martin

  I say, “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m sorry, too. I didn’t mean to upset you, Monty.”

  I withdraw from her, pull up my boxers and pants then fasten my belt.

  She lowers her dress.

  I remind myself of what I need to do:

  Talk to her. Explain yourself. No yelling. No frustration. Let the love shine through. The insanity. Give her the assurance she needs. Let her know you love her, how deeply that love runs and how worried you are for her.

  We’re still standing near the washer. We’re clothed. Bodies healed, but mentally, we remain distant. I want to change that.

  Explain yourself. No yelling. No frustration. Let the love shine through.

  “Cherish, when I told you not to go to your house alone—to ask me to come along—I wasn’t being controlling, sweetheart. I was protecting you. Your home was broken into and when I got the call that night about the alarm going off, you don’t know the panic, the fear that gripped me. I can’t lose you. I can’t.”

  The insanity.

  “You mean more to me than I think you realize, but now you need to know. I’m so in love with you, so far gone I don’t know who I am without you. You’ve completely flipped my life upside down. It’s only because of you that I know how it feels to be loved and I will fight to the death for you. Give my life for you. I would do anything for you.”

  Tears escape her eyes. I can’t stand the sight of them so I wipe them away.

  Give her the assurance she needs.

  “We’re one now. You and me. We’re no longer two entities. You don’t have a life independent of me anymore and this problem that exists between you, your mother and your stepfather is one that I’ve inherited. We’ll get through this together because that’s what married people do. We navigate through life together. I need you to understand that I’m not going anywhere.”

  Let her know you love her, how deeply that love runs and how worried you are for her.

  I take her hand and put it flat on my chest. On my heart. “Do you feel that?”

  She nods.

  “That’s you. Do you understand that, Cherish?”

  She nods again.

  “Talk to me. Let me hear you say it.”

  “I understand.”

  I lift her chin so she looks at me. “Do you?”

  “Yes. I do.”

  “I worry about you. You have problems with your mother that needs to be addressed. You live in fear of your stepfather. This needs to be taken care of.”

  “I know.”

  “Okay, so take the rest of the day to think about how you want to move forward and after we make love tonight, we’ll talk.”

  She smiles. “After we make love?”

  “Yes.”

  “We just did.”

  “I know, but I’ll want you again. You know that. And not against the washer, this time, but in my bed. In our bed where I can slow down and have you just the way I want you.”

  I kiss her lips again and we leave the laundry room.

  When we pass through the kitchen, Naomi and Minnie immediately stop what they’re doing to stare at us. Analyzing us.

  “Is everything okay?” Minnie asks, looking more at Cherish than she is at me.

  “Yes,” Cherish responds. “Everything is fine.”

  “Yes, we’re fine,” I say. “Just had to straighten some things out.”

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Cherish

  Monty doesn’t just make love to me. He breaks down my cells, my DNA, my soul until I am no more and then he repairs me. Rebuilds me. He puts me back together again, only to restart the entire process from the beginning. That’s what he did tonight. Three times he did this, and now I’m love-drunk, sweat-drenched and sleepy. But he wants to talk about stuff. Stuff I’m not interested in after coming down from several trips to euphoria.

  “Monty, can’t we talk about this later?” I slur. I make his chest my pillow tonight like I do every night.

  “No, baby.”

  “But—”

  “We need to talk about it now. You know you still have those dreams. You don’t wake up all the time, but you still have them. You can’t go on like this. It needs to be dealt with.”

  “Well, I did think about it. A little. Whenever I try to talk to my mother on the phone, she ends up hanging up on me or I hang up on her. So, on Wednesday, I was thinking that I could go to her job and talk to her in person if I can catch her in the parking lot before she leaves.”

  “That’ll be good. That way, you won’t have to worry about running into your stepfather.”

  “Right.”

  Now, I’m lying here thinking about the break-in, wondering if my stepfather was behind it. I think about the missing picture. I don’t recall bringing it here. The picture is actually missing.

  “What are you going to say to her?” Monty asks as his fingers stroke my back.

  “I’m not sure yet.”

  “What time does she get off work?”

  I lift my head to kiss his chest. I roll the tip of my tongue around on his skin.

  “Mmm…you better stop before I keep you up for another hour.”

  I laugh. I know he’ll do it. “She’s off work at one.”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I want to.”

  “I don’t know if I want you to witness what a conversation is like with my mother. It’s awkward and forced and—well, awkward....”

  “Similar to the way conversations with my mother used to be. You coached me through that—gave me a better approach when it came to her. Maybe I can return the favor.”

  “Okay. We’ll see how it goes. You said Wednesday, correct?”

  “Yes, babe.”

  “I’ll have to remember to get my secretary to block my calendar that day.”

  “You know besides your mother, Major, Paige and Hannah, I don’t know anyone you work with.”

  “You can come to my office any time you want.”

  “I don’t want to disturb you.”

  “Disturb me? Did you hear anything I said to you in the laundry room?”

  “You mean, while you were thrashing me?”

  He rotates his body so he’s on top of me. “Thrashing you, you say?”

  I giggle. “Yeah. Thrashing me against the washer.”

  He nips at my neck. Pulls my swollen lips into his mouth. I feel him solidifying against my thigh, digging into me with steel. “I’m going to thrash you again.”

  “Monty, you said you were going to let me sleep.”

  “I was until I discovered you weren’t paying attention earlier.”

  “I was paying attention,” I say giggling. My body shivers when he rolls his tongue on my neck.

  “Then how could you possibly think coming to my office is a disturbance when I told you—you’re my priority?”

  The smile falls away from my face as I stare into the eyes of this man who loves me. It’s the moment I realize everything he told me was true. I’m his heart. He’d do anything for me.

  “Cherish?”

  “Yes?”

  “Why are you—?”

  I lift my head to silence him, kissing his lips with deliberate power, hoping the connection leaves a mark. Hoping it tells him I get it now. He loves me. I love him the same.

  He opens the drawer on his nightstand, grabs protection and he’s back over to me.

  My legs open for him automatically and while he’s kissing me, he moves inside of me. My shriek is lost in his mouth. We’d made love for an hour straight already once tonight, but every time he enters me, he makes an impact.

  “Mmm…I can’t get enough of you,” he hums. Strokes to sell it. Gassing me up. Making me think I have some special power over him.

  He strokes. I whimper. He strokes more. I whimper more. I look into his eyes. They make me do things. Makes me lift my hips from the mattress and meet him stroke for stroke.

  “I like tha
t, baby. Keep doing it,” he says. He groans. “That’s it. Keep—ahh. Mmm.”

  “Monty!” I scream.

  He groans, throws his head back and tumbles with me to paradise.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Monty

  I’m at the office but I spend most of the day coordinating the dinner I have planned for Cherish tonight. I could’ve hired someone to do it for me, but I want to do it so I can have control over every aspect of it. Nothing will go wrong tonight.

  I arrange for a chef to come by to cook a feast fit for my queen. She knows this night will be special, but she doesn’t know she’s getting a true proposal or a ring. Doesn’t know I’ll officially declare to everyone she’s mine.

  I press the speakerphone button to dial her cell from my desk. It rings twice, then she answers, “Hey, you.”

  Just the sound of her voice is enough to make me want her.

  “Hey, baby. What are you doing right now?”

  “I was just talking to Naomi.”

  “Listen, I’m having dinner prepared for us tonight. I want you to wear that black dress.”

  “Oh. I was going to ask you about that. Did you pick that out for me?”

  “I did”

  “You’re making it a habit of picking out clothes for me, I see.”

  “You spent two years doing it for me. Think of it as me returning the favor. I should be able to pick out your clothes, right?”

  “Can’t argue with you there.”

  “No, you can’t. Wear it tonight. Just the dress. Nothing else.”

  “Nothing else, meaning…”

  “No bra. No panties. I want you naked beneath it.”

  “Really now?” she asks. I imagine she’s biting her lip right about now.

  “Yes.”

  “And why’s that, Monty?”

  “The less you have on, the less I have to take off and I will be taking it off.”

  “Why do you sound so serious?”

  “Because I am.”

  “You’re making me nervous.”

  “You should be. I’ll see you this evening. I have meetings until five-thirty.”

  “Okay.”

  “I love you, girl.”

  “I love you, Monty.”

  * * *

  Naomi keeps Cherish occupied until seven. In that time, I have our family and friends gather in the dining room. Minnie, Isidora, Mother, Major and Consuela are all here. The food is spread out on the table. I’m standing, waiting for my girl to walk in.

  She comes around the corner.

  My heart drums. Can’t I see her and not want to immediately jump her bones?

  Her braids are hanging loose. Her body looks so good in that dress, I consider taking her upstairs before I bust my zipper.

  I breathe. Pace myself through this.

  “Come on in, Cherish,” I tell her.

  She comes to me, gives me one of those subdued, cordial hugs then says, “Hey, everybody.”

  They speak and tell her how beautiful she looks. She looks at me and whispers, “What’s all this, Monty?”

  “It’s dinner for my lady. A special dinner.” I leave a kiss on her temple, then take her hand and lead her over to my chair at the head of the table. I sit down and tug at her hand so she knows to sit on my lap.

  I feed her. Literally. She playfully takes turns doing the same to me. People can’t eat for watching us.

  Cherish turns her head to look at me. She whispers, “Maybe I should sit in a chair instead of on your lap.”

  “No.”

  She finds my stubbornness humorous. When I slip my hand under her dress, her laughter ceases. She stares me in the eyes as if to ask what I’m doing. I touch more. She fights to hold in a gasp.

  “Cherish, why don’t you tell everyone how long you’ve been in love with me,” I tell her.

  We have everyone’s attention now.

  Her cheeks flush.

  I’m still touching her. Still teasing. No one is aware. Only me and her.

  She bites down on her lip and lowers the croissant she has in her hand to the plate.

  “Um, I—”

  “Aw…look at her,” Naomi says. “She’s blushing. You’re embarrassing her, Mr. St. Claire,” Naomi says.

  “She can handle it,” I say, slowly strumming a song on her guitar strings.

  Consuela says, “Well, seems like the cat got her tongue, but let me tell y’all…Cherish has loved him from the beginning. I remember when I first met Cherish. She was out there working in those flowers and I remember thinking to myself, doesn’t she know that’s my job.”

  The women laugh.

  Consuela continues, “But then I realized why she was doing it. I never told her I knew, but I knew. Then, one day, I saw her staring at Mr. St. Claire and I mean she was in a trance! Couldn’t look away. I said her name like five times and she still didn’t hear me.”

  “Is that right Cherish?” I ask her.

  She turns to look at me again, face flushed. My fingers are working her overtime. “Monty,” she whispers.

  “Yes?” I answer with a straight face, holding keen eye contact with her.

  She bites down on her lip. Words fail her. She turns to face everyone and forces out, “Um, Consuela is right. I—” She fights a gasp. Tries to talk again, “I did love Monty from the beginning. I just—I—I—I thought he was mean. When I watched him leave for work, he was always so well put together. Everything about him was perfect. And he was so beautiful. So handsome. He’s the kind of man that women, myself included, gawk over. The kind of man you want but know he’s out of your league, so you’re just satisfied with being able to see him every day. I never thought he would actually like me. Never thought I was the kind of woman who’d catch his eye, but I’m glad by some miracle I did because I love him so much.”

  She gasps, covers her face. Her body trembles on my lap. Her nectar drenches my finger. She holds in a scream. They think she’s emotional over her words, and she is, but she’s also in the middle of ecstasy. Blinded by release. Buried by the weight of body spasms hitting her.

  “Aw, look at her,” Mother says.

  “That’s a woman in love,” Minnie adds.

  “It is, isn’t it?” I ask, moving my hand away from her. I prompt her to stand. Her legs are so weak, she holds the edge of the table.

  I stand and say, “I invited you all here because you’re not just workers. You’re friends, more so of Cherish than you are with me. She adores you and I wanted you to know I adore her. I love this woman. For those of you who don’t know, Cherish is my wife now but we didn’t have a ceremony. I want to fix that. She means so much to me, I want her to have everything she deserves. So—”

  I drop down to a knee, take her hand and look up at her. Tears run down her face. I say, “Cherish, I never knew how good love could be until I met you. You’ve changed my life. You taught me how to love. I will always be grateful to you for that. I love you from the depths of my soul. I love you more than I love myself, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

  She nods and says, “Yes.”

  I slide the ring on her finger and stand to kiss my woman. I kiss her good – like there’s nobody in this room but us. I imagine they’re clapping and cheering but my tongue is so far down her throat, I’m not paying them any attention.

  Cherish has all my attention.

  My wife.

  My lover, and I want her. Now.

  I pull her lips with my mouth when I end the kiss. Still holding eye contact with her, I say to our guests, “Excuse us for a minute.”

  I take her hand and lead her straight to our bedroom. It’s at the edge of the bed, where I loosen my belt and bury my length inside of her. She moans.

  She holds on to me and moans.

  “I can never get enough of you,” I growl stroking wildly. I lose myself in pleasure listening to her sounds. Feeling her muscles contract around me. I love it when she does that, and then she screa
ms her pleasure and I find release soon after.

  I secure my clothes while she steps into the bathroom. She comes out and asks, “Are we going back downstairs?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ve been up here for twenty minutes. They know what we’ve been doing?”

  I shrug. “I don’t care, and neither should you.” I kiss her lips. “Let’s go.”

  All eyes are on us when we return to dinner. Naomi asks, “Is everything okay?”

  “Everything is fine,” I say, pulling up a chair so Cherish can sit next to me and enjoy her dinner.

  Mother says, “I’m taking care of the arrangements for the wedding ceremony. It’s going to be next Saturday at three. How does that sound?”

  “Sounds good to me,” I say. “Is that okay with you, baby?”

  “Yes,” Cherish says. “But I don’t have a dress or anything.”

  Mother smiles. “No worries. We have an unlimited budget. You’ll have a dress in no time. Oh, and be sure to let your mother know about it.”

  “Uh-okay,” Cherish says.

  Mother doesn’t know the history Cherish has with her mother and stepfather. Now is not the time or place for her to find that out. I can tell just the mention of her mother is bringing her anxiety.

  I lean over and whisper, “It’ll be okay, baby.”

  She smiles and resumes eating her food.

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Cherish

  I’m up around nine. I get dressed in a pair of black pants, a red sleeveless top and a pair of black flats. I’m going to see Monty this morning. It will be my first visit to Hawthorne Innovations’ headquarters. I’m all set and ready to go, but I can’t find my car keys.

  I run downstairs with my purse and check the kitchen counter. Nothing.

  “Good morning, Cherry.”

  “Good morning, Naomi,” I say in a frenzy. “Have you seen my car keys by any chance?”

  “Your husband told me he sent you a text about that.”