Five Years

by Brooklyn Knight

  “God actually speaks to her?”

  “Well, yeah… kind of…” Now I did bristle, but I continued. “She gave me the scripture and the expectation is that I meditate on it every day, then she’ll call at the end of the month to discuss what the Lord revealed to me and give me a new one.”

  “Wow,” Maverick breathed. “That sounds… deep.” He narrowed his eyes. “So what is this month’s scripture?”

  I inhaled: “Colossians, chapter three, verse twenty.”

  “Which says?”

  I tried not to roll my eyes. “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases God.”

  Silence.

  “That seems pretty straightforward,” he muttered.

  I tried to smile, but it was faint.

  “Your mother seems like she was pretty strict.”

  “Was?”

  “Did you ever disobey her?” he asked. “You know, sneak out of the bedroom window? Hang out with your friends behind her back?”

  “Heavens, no!” I said, gasping at the thought. “My mama always had a way of just looking at me and knowing the truth. I never thought to lie or trick her. That’s why I’m the way I am now.”

  “And how are you?”

  I blinked, not knowing how to answer.

  Maverick set his plate down and pulled me into his arms. I nestled in the secure feeling of his embrace.

  “Mary, you’re okay with all of this, right? I mean…” he shrugged and gave me a light squeeze. “You’re so amazing and wonderful and it’s obviously because of your mother. I don’t want you going to hell on my account.”

  I twisted and looked up into his face. “I’m not doing anything I don’t want to do,” I assured him. “True, there’s the whole client-therapist thing.”

  His brows drew.

  “And true, I’m totally disobeying my mama by even being at a man’s house, who isn’t my husband or my boyfriend, for that matter.”

  Maverick frowned. “You belong to me, Amaris. I belong to you,” he whispered. “The only thing that’s keeping us from using a title is the American Counseling Association.”

  My heart expanded and I leaned forward to offer him a well-deserved kiss, but my buzzing cell phone cut off our intimate exchange.

  Nichola’s number was on the screen.

  Maverick groaned and tugged me into him. “Make it quick,” he commanded with a playful growl, and I laughed.

  “Hey Nic,” I greeted her, but the only response she had was a watery wail.

  I sat up straight on the couch. My plate almost fell from my lap, but Maverick grabbed it just in time.

  “It’s over, Amaris!” she cried out. “I don’t want anything to do with him. I never want to see him again! The marriage? It’s off! And you can tell Maverick to tell him to stop calling, and showing up, and –”

  “Nic, hold on, wait!” I demanded. Now I was up walking.

  Maverick stared at me from the couch, confusion and concern twisting his features.

  “Baby-girl, what the hell happened?”

  She drew a series of deep breaths. “That asshole, Blaine,” she spat.

  Damn! She was calling him Blaine. This definitely wasn’t a good thing.

  “He’s a liar and a cheater, and I don’t want anything to do with him!”

  “Linkie cheated on you?”

  Now Maverick was standing. “What the fuck?”

  I shrugged at him.

  He marched over to the phone, took it from my hands, and put it on speaker mode. “Nichola, what the hell are you talking about?”

  “Oh shit, Maverick?” She hissed through her teeth. “I don’t wanna talk to you either,” she spat. “For all I know, you aided and abetted this entire thing.”

  I frowned. “Nic, neither Maverick nor I know what you’re talking about,” I informed her, defensive.

  At least I didn’t think he did.

  I let the thought pass.

  “Slow down and tell us what’s going on,” I said.

  Nichola proceeded to tell me and Maverick how she’d found text messages from Blaine to some ‘bitch’ named Amanda. He’d made plans to meet up with her late at night. Then there were other messages which confirmed that they had, indeed met, referencing ‘the good time they had together.’

  My stomach turned, but Maverick’s face was steady.

  “I know Amanda,” he muttered. “She works at the firm.”

  “So this is true?” I balked at him. “Maverick!”

  He spoke into the phone. “Nic, I’m gonna find Blaine and have a talk with him. As for you…” he turned to look at me. “I think it’d be a good idea if Amaris came over.”

  “Maverick, I don’t wanna hear a word from him,” she cried. “And you can pass my message along: I don’t want anything to do with him. I never want to see him again! The marriage is off! And he can stop calling, and showing up, and –”

  “I know, you said that already,” Maverick interrupted.

  Before we’d even hung up, Maverick had his coat across his back and was helping me into mine.

  A sick feeling of dread was starting to strangle me.

  What the hell was going on? Had Linkie really done something like this? I’d seen the look in his eyes when he proposed to Nichola. The man was head over heels in love with her. If he could do something like this, what the hell kinda’ chance did I stand with Maverick?

  Maverick drove me to Nic’s apartment, and I threw the door open, ready to high-tail inside, but before I could exit, he grabbed my hand.

  “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m gonna find out, okay?” he whispered before pressing a kiss onto my lips. He trailed his finger over the bottom one. “Go and support your friend. We’ll figure this out.”

  I nodded and exited the car.

  Maverick pulled away and I watched him for a second, thinking about how I’d respond if something like this ever happened to me.

  “Men are cheaters by nature,” my mama said. “It’s an evolutionary thing.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “It means that they are designed to procreate. That’s the way God made them,” she explained. “Sex is not really so much about the pleasure, as it is to serve the purpose of replenishing the earth.”

  My brow furrowed.

  Was that why Linkie had cheated?

  Did that mean Maverick would do the same thing eventually? He had promised his fealty to me for five years, but of course, he was trying to get the cooch. What would happen once he got it?

  Was that why Linkie was with another woman? Because he’d gotten what he wanted from Nic, and now he wanted something else?

  The door flew open, and Nic appeared at the threshold looking like a live horror movie.

  “Oh, Nic!” I rushed to her and gathered her into a hug. Then I went inside, settled her on the couch, and retrieved an extra-large container of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from her almost bare refrigerator. For a second I wondered where all the food was, and then I remembered: she’d moved in with Linkie a few months ago.

  She hadn’t sold her townhouse. Linkie was paying the mortgage, with a view to rent it out, once they got married.

  I supposed that now, all of that would have to change.

  I plopped on the couch and peeled the top off the container.

  Nichola curled up into a ball and rested her head on my shoulder.

  She told me the story again, this time with more theatrics than could have ever been conveyed over the phone. I tried my best to console her, but the truth was, I didn’t know what to say.

  I’d never really had a man. Maverick was the closest I’d come to anything resembling a real relationship, and what we were doing barely made sense. How was I supposed to advise her?

  “I’m speechless,” I muttered running my hand over her tangled hair. “Linkie loves you. At least I thought he did.”

  “Clearly, he had us all fooled,” she spat. “He tricked me, Mary. He made me fal
l in love with him and the minute he had me where he wanted me, the truth was revealed.”

  “Where did he want you?” I asked

  She shook her head, as if the question had stumped her.

  “I’m not saying he didn’t do what you think he did – ” I started to clarify.

  “I have the evidence to prove it!” she said, shaking her cell phone in her fist.

  She’d showed me the messages she’d screenshot from his cell phone and sent to hers. At her insistence, I’d read them over and over. The truth was, there was no hard evidence, only circumstantial. Yes, he’d met with another woman, but what had they met about? Yes, she’d said they had a good time, but maybe they’d shared a coffee.

  I’d suggested those alternatives, but Nichola hadn’t been open to considering them.

  “Let’s wait for Maverick to get back,” I said. “Maybe he’ll have some answers.”

  20

  Maverick

  I didn’t wait for Blaine to let me in. When I got inside, he was sitting on his couch, head dropped into his hands, one of them clutching a cell phone.

  I paused, taken aback by the sight.

  This was what a woman could do to a man. Not any woman. The woman. And Nichola was the woman for Blaine. For the past three years, Blaine had been at her beck and call. He was living to please Nichola Sullivan. The man had been taken by her the minute he’d laid eyes on her. Shit, he’d proposed to her and that was something I never thought I’d witness.

  So if that was the case, what the fuck was he doing creeping with Amanda Brinkley, his goddamn ex?

  I slammed the door close, but he didn’t budge. “What in the entire fuck is going on?” I barked.

  His shoulders dropped. “Don’t come at me like that, Mav,” he mumbled. “Not right now. This shit is already out of hand. The last thing I need is you escalating it.”

  My jaw jerked.

  Blaine sighed and finally sat up. His eyes were bloodshot, like he had seen the sun rise three days in a row. “I’m trying to call her.”

  “Yeah, I know. She told me to tell you to stop.”

  His chest lifted and dropped. “I won’t stop,” he declared. “Not until she hears me out.”

  “Did you do it?”

  “Fuck no!” he said, jumping off the couch. “Mav, why the hell would I need to cheat on Nichola? I asked her to marry me. Would I ask her to be my wife if all I wanted to do was dick around?”

  I shrugged, barely impressed with his emphatic response. “Maybe you started having second thoughts,” I suggested. “Maybe the pressure of being locked down for the rest of your life got to you. Maybe you had a change of heart.”

  Blaine sighed again.

  Maybe I’d hit a button.

  “No, none of those things,” he muttered. “She said she needed my help with something. Said it was urgent.” He scoffed at himself and dragged his hands over his face. “I felt obligated. After the way it had ended, I felt like I owed her the favor. Nichola has made me into a better man, a different man. I guess I thought…” The words faded.

  Finally, I walked deeper into the house and sat on the couch, next to the dent he’d made in it.

  “I should’ve fucking known better,” he muttered.

  “Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.”

  “She was a spiteful bitch when we were dating. Why would I even fall for that shit? She heard that I’d proposed to Nic. Looked up her Facebook profile, her Twitter and Instagram feeds – all that petty shit. Started saying shit like, Nic isn’t in my league, I can do better than her… what would my mother say…”

  My jaw clenched.

  “I’ve tried to talk to her, Mav. It’s been less than twelve hours, and already I feel like I’m losing my shit.”

  I knew what that feeling was like.

  “What am I supposed to do?” He stared at me, waiting for words of wisdom.

  I raked my hands through my hair and squeezed my car keys together. “Let’s go,” I ordered. “Amaris is over there. She and I can mediate.”

  He was already stepping into his sneakers. He looked like shit, but I had a feeling he didn’t care. Besides, if Nichola saw how bad he looked, she might even feel sorry for him.

  Well into the morning, Amaris and I sat at Nichola’s barren dining room table across from Nichola and Blaine as he bared his soul to his woman. Every now and then, she’d burst into shrieking tears and Blaine’s head would hang low, his hair falling into his eyes.

  “Tell me now, Blaine,” she hollered at him. “If I’m not enough for you, let me know, because I can guarantee you, there’s a shit-ton of other men I could be entertaining!”

  “Baby, you’re more than enough,” he said. His voice shook. “Nic, I made a dumb, dumb mistake. I never should have engaged that bitch.”

  Nichola glared at him.

  Amaris and I sat silently, allowing the process to run its course.

  “Did you fuck her?”

  “No.”

  Her mouth pinched. “Did you kiss her, Blaine?”

  “My mouth, every part of me, belongs to you.”

  She cut her eyes away from him.

  Amaris cleared her throat. “Nic, Linkie says he’s telling you the truth,” she surmised. “Now, it’s up to you, whether you choose to believe what he’s saying and move on or hold onto it and let go.”

  Tears sheened Nichola’s eyes.

  “Do you love her, Blaine?” I asked.

  “More than life.” His answer was prompt.

  Amaris leaned close to Nichola. “Do you love him, Nic?”

  Her eyes fluttered. “I do.”

  “That’s a very strong foundation, and love is all you need,” Amaris concluded. She looked at me and I nodded, then I took her hand into mine and pulled her up from the table.

  “Let’s go,” I suggested. “Let’s leave these two to finish talking.”

  Amaris smiled.

  She embraced Nichola, and I pulled Blaine into a man-hug, and we left.

  When I returned Amaris to her apartment, I watched as she opened the door and stared into the darkness, the way she always did. I turned her around to face me, and when I noticed tears wetting her cheeks, my heart jolted.

  “Baby, what’s the matter?” I asked searching her face.

  “It’s nothing,” she said trying to smile. “I’m just happy that Nic and Linkie were able to work through that. It was scary.”

  “What was so scary about it?”

  She shrugged a small shrug. “I guess… I just kinda wondered what would happen if something like that happened to us. I mean, I know we’re not real.”

  “We’re very real, Mary,” I interrupted her. “That we’re taking our time, means nothing about the strength of our feelings for one another. And there’s no way you’ll ever have to worry about me making a mistake like that. Blaine is a good man. He had a lapse in judgment; but I’ve been around the block enough to know to avoid those kinds of errors. The only woman I want is you, Amaris. You complete me. You were my therapist, now you’re my therapy. I’ve waited three years to make you fully mine. Another two is nothing.” I wiped her tears away and kissed her lips, but in seconds, the sweet show of affection turned rabid.

  Amaris’s hands scaled the breadth of my chest and her fingers grazed the hollow of my throat.

  My breath caught up in my lungs as I took the kiss to another level.

  She cradled the back of my head, tearing her fingers through my hair. Her body was a flame, incinerating me, as she rubbed her peaking breasts against me.

  I growled. “Baby… what are you –”

  She devoured my question.

  Before I could say anything, Amaris was pushing me inside. Her mouth never left mine. She was ravening, taking my mouth with deep thrusts, taking the lead in a way I’d fantasized over a million times. I’d never seen this side of her. I’d always known it was there. I’d visualized this very moment: the one in which she’d ravage my body and command me to ravage hers.r />
  Her fingers dropped to my belt buckle. Timid at first, they quickly turned aggressive. The sound of metal releasing and leather unthreading from around my waist rose to mix with the smacking noises of our craving.

  She ripped at my pants, forcing them to my ankles.

  Now I was standing before her in a t-shirt and severely tented boxer briefs. When her eyes fell to my bulging package, she actually licked her lips.

  Fuck…

  I watched, frozen on the spot, as she lifted her own t-shirt over her head and threw it to the floor. I’d never seen her bare breasts before, and even though they weren’t bare now, they were covered by only a thin layer of red lace, which barely supported her firm, ample titties. Her brown nipples assaulted the delicate fabric, and my mouth filled, ready to feast on her body.

  Then her leggings came off. Her fat pussy glared at me, daring me to throw her onto the couch and bury my face into her wetness.

  I pulled my eyes up. “Baby, what are you doing?” I whispered.

  She gave me a vixen grin. “I’m taking the lead. All you need to do is follow it.”

  21

  Amaris

  If Maverick was a beanstalk, you could call me Jack, because with the way he was standing there, like a god touched down to earth, I was ready to climb him all the way to the top.

  Even though I had no idea how to climb him; but my extremities were itching, like they had a mind of their own. I was certain that if I followed my intuition, I’d know exactly what to do.

  For example…

  The way his dick was standing to attention against his boxer briefs, thick and intimidating, I had an inclination that I should wrap my mouth around it. It would be like the lollipops I used to get after church. All I had to do was suck it, wet it with my saliva, and pull on it until sweetness exploded on my tongue.

  And my pussy was throbbing so much, there was no doubt in my mind that sinking his dick into its depths would soothe the agonizing ache.

  I needed Maverick. I wanted him. Three years later, I didn’t care about the ACA Code of Ethics. All I could think about was how much I wanted him to satisfy my body, right here and right now.