Flirt, page 19
When Marley’s body quaked uncontrollably, Chris held her and softly stroked her hair until she seemed to calm down. They walked toward Chris’s Chevy in silence as Marley tried to contain her unbearable sorrow. Chris opened the car door and helped Marley into the tricked-out ’97 Caprice. He closed the door after she fastened her seat belt and walked around to the other side. When gravel crunched under his Stacy Adams, Chris thought about the way the gravel crunched under his and DeJuan’s basketball shoes back when they played Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson on an old basketball hoop in the driveway before Miss D saved up enough money to buy another new hoop and have the driveway paved. He shook his head and then looked toward the sky. He pounded his chest twice with his fist, kissed it, and then thrust it toward the sky.
“I love you,” he whispered before opening the door and sliding into the driver’s seat. Chris placed the keys in the ignition and started the car. He stared at Marley’s face, studying the outline of her distinct features. He placed his hand at the back of the headrest behind Marley’s head, looked over his shoulder, and backed out of the backyard. Marley continued to stare at DJ’s picture on the front of the funeral program that rested in her lap and said nothing. Chris steered the car toward I-95 and pressed his foot to the gas pedal. His mind was clouded with visions from the funeral while he drove at high speed down the highway, maneuvering in and out of traffic. Inside, he wanted to break down, but Chris understood that he needed to be strong for Marley and Miss D so he held it in. He was hurting, but not only for the loss of his friend, but for the loss of his blood.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity, Marley spoke.
“Where are you taking me?” she whispered. Chris quickly glanced to his right when he heard the soft voice. He stared at Marley briefly, and his own eyes began to water. Marley’s eyes were puffy from crying silently and blackened from the running mascara and black eyeliner. Whenever she tried to wipe away the falling tears, she smeared more of the black mess onto her cheeks.
“My brother gave me the keys to his house in Kensington Estates. They just use the house as a drop spot,” Chris offered. “No one is living there, so he told me to stay there until I got my head together and shit. You don’t mind, do you? I think you could use a little time away from everyone and everything,” he said.
Marley shook her head. “You are so right,” she whispered. “I don’t have clothes or anything, though,” she said, looking down at the funeral program again.
“We’ll worry about that a little later. It’s been a long-ass day. We really do need to try to get some rest. We’ll figure out all the details in the morning. Do you need to call your moms?”
“No, she knows I’m fine.”
“All right.”
When they pulled into Kensington Estates, Marley looked around the subdivision. She never expected Chris’s brother’s drop house, whatever that was, to look like any of the houses she was admiring. Even in the spotlight of floodlights and dimly lit walkways, Marley could make out specific architectural features on the homes, and her mind ran wild when she tried to imagine the decorating that was done on the inside of each. Chris pressed the button on the remote garage opener and slowly drove inside as the door rose.
Chris used the key to open the door and walked over to the alarm and entered the code his brother made him memorize. Marley looked around at the spacious but scarcely furnished home.
She walked around until she found the fully furnished televi sion room. She couldn’t help but laugh. The house was a typical bachelor pad. No furniture except in the bedroom and, of course, television room. A sixty-inch plasma television hung on the wall in a room complete with a plush black extended sofa and pool table.
While Marley went from room to room, Chris searched through his brother’s walk-in closet for a robe or something that Marley could change into after she showered. She surprised him at the closet door after he’d found a blue Sean John terry-cloth robe. He handed her the robe and smiled.
“Towels are in the closet. I’m sure one of my brother’s friends probably left some kind of smell-good shit that you women use in there.”
Marley took the robe from Chris’s hand and smiled. She wrapped her arms around his neck and then stepped back.
“Thanks for being here for me,” Marley said before she turned and walked down the long hallway toward the bathroom. Chris watched Marley’s hips sway from left to right. The way her hair hung down the middle of her bare back was the sexiest thing he’d seen in a long time. He shook his head quickly before sneaking one more glance.
Chris walked back into the closet and began removing his brother’s boxed Nikes and other sneakers from the top shelf. He pulled the handle to the homemade secret compartment. He keyed the numbers into the safe, opened it, and placed money inside.
For months after the funeral, Chris and Marley retreated to Kensington Estates to get away from everything. They went to dinner and movies together. They went for picnics at the beach. Chris attended Marley’s graduation and the party her family threw for her afterwards.
When the crowd dispersed, they loaded into Chris’s Chevy and drove to Kensington Estates. Marley and Chris had been growing closer with each passing moment. Feelings that they could not contain were beginning to take over. It wasn’t long before things got out of hand.
As Marley lay across the bed in short shorts and a tank top reading Essence magazine, Chris flipped through the sports channels. He tried to keep his eyes off of her ass, but each time she moved, a part of her cheek was exposed. He continued to change the channels until Marley snatched the remote and turned her back.
“Come get it,” she said out of the blue. She held the remote control close to her chest but when Chris reached for it, she refused to let it go. His huge hand covered hers as they playfully struggled for the control. Finally he climbed on top of Marley and held both her wrists. He placed her arms over her head while she laughed hysterically. When she finally calmed down, they locked eyes.
“What?” Marley asked.
“Nothing,” Chris whispered. He shook his head and repeated his statement.
“Kiss me, then.”
“What?” Chris said.
“Kiss me.”
“What? I . . . wh—Marley. D—”
“I want you to.”
Chris slowly lowered his head toward Marley’s waiting lips. He closed his eyes and forgot about everything. While he kissed DJ’s girl with uninhibited passion, he released her wrists and Marley slowly wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. She wanted Chris. She figured it was time for her to move on with her life.
Chris grinded against Marley’s lower body with his, through his basketball shorts he playfully teased her small button with his erection. When she moaned softly, he tenderly placed his mouth over hers. Together they moved their bodies in perfect rhythm until Chris suddenly jumped up.
“Yo . . . we can’t do this,” he said.
Chris stood at the edge of the bed and admired Marley. She was lying with her legs wide open, bent at the knee, her long dark hair was spread across the white pillowcase, and her small shirt slightly exposed her bare stomach. She looked confused, and Chris knew that he owed her an explanation, but he knew that he couldn’t tell her the truth.
“What’s wrong, Chris?” Marley asked. She sat up in the bed and stared blankly past Chris.
“This—this shit is wrong,” he said.
“You’re right, this is wrong. I’m sorry.”
Chris couldn’t believe that he’d almost taken it there with Marley. At first he was disgusted with himself when he thought about what could have happened, but after a couple of blunts and Hennessy and Coke one lonely night, Chris decided he didn’t care. If his love for Marley hadn’t changed after all this time, he didn’t think it ever would. He called her that same night and asked her to come over.
Marley and Chris rekindled their budding romance. Chris was falling in love with Marley without even being able to sample the goods. It wasn’t about that. Chris figured it would happen sooner or later. He decided to just be patient and wait it out, but while he was being patient and falling deep in love with Marley, he was also becoming deep in the game. Chris’s brother’s business was growing, major clientele was established, and Chris was his right-hand man. He tried to keep his lifestyle secret from Marley, but the more he laced her with jewelry, gifts, and eventually a new car, the more inquisitive she became. It wasn’t long before everything was out in the open.
“You never told me what you were into either. If I had known that, we would have never gotten as close as we did,” Marley said. “And you know it, Chris.”
After almost one year of dating Chris, Marley graduated from interior design school, and Chris’s brother immediately hired her to redecorate the house in Kensington Estates. It was there that Chris’s secret was exposed. When she disassembled and removed the old shelving in the closet, she found the secret hole in the wall that held the drop house’s profit.
She thumbed through the crisp bills and immediately began to piece together the stories of the past. Now the answers Chris gave to simple questions didn’t seem sufficient. When she asked him where his money came from, he told Marley he inherited some money when his mother passed away the prior year. Chris seemed to have a never-ending cash flow, which never seemed to bother Marley much until the very minute she sat on the floor in the closet of a drug house holding thousands of dollars. That was the demise of the relationship in her eyes.
When Marley gave Chris the ultimatum—his business or her—Chris decided he wanted to secure his future. He didn’t ever want to have to work for another man. He wanted to be able to take care of his sisters and brothers. He hoped Marley would eventually come around, but she never did. In fact, when she distanced herself from Chris, he became all about his business. Nothing came before money ever again. Nothing and no one.
Chris looked at Marley with sympathetic eyes. “What can I say?” He shrugged and then reached for the clip on the side of his jeans and pulled out his vibrating cell phone. Chris held up his index finger and turned away from Marley.
“Okay, when? That’s not going to work, I’m busy . . . I can’t do that.” Chris stood up, walked away from the chaise, and stood near the glass surrounding the VIP room overlooking the club. Marley stared at his lips while they moved, trying to read them as he spoke. She couldn’t make out anything, but she assumed some kind of deal was being made. She watched Chris as he paced back and forth with one hand in the pocket of his jeans.
“Who was supposed to take care of that? So what now? Yeah . . . yeah I’ll be there,” he said. Chris ended his call and walked to where Marley sat waiting. He slowly knelt beside the chaise and ran his finger softly up and down Marley’s legs. Chris kissed the back of her thigh and whispered, “I have to go, love. . . . Business.”
Marley shrugged.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Let’s hook up tomorrow, spend the day together or something. I should be back around twelve,” he said, softly kissing her leg again.
“I don’t think so. This was a mistake. Go take care of business, Chris. As usual, it comes first.”
Chris shook his head and stood. He tried to kiss Marley, but she placed her hand directly in front of his face. “Just go,” she said.
She watched Chris exit the room and rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe it. She’d almost let him back in. But in an instant, she was reminded of the hold his business had on him. She shook her head and pulled out her Sidekick. I don’t even know why I called him back.
Marley flipped her screen to cover the keyboard just as Jay returned to the table. She grabbed his hand and admired him before he sat down.
“You look so good, papi.” Marley pulled Jay close and inhaled deeply. “You smell good, too,” she said.
“I have missed you, baby girl. What’s been keeping you so busy these days? I was getting sick of talking to your voice mail. I’m glad that you finally decided to call me back. I was wondering if I was ever going to see you again.” Jay rested his arm against the back of the chair and leaned back. He admired Marley while she sipped her wine and then slowly ran her fingers through her wavy hair. He lowered his eyelids and angled his head to surreptitiously admire the cleavage jumping out of her dress.
Marley’s text message alert sounded and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She meant to silence it after the message. She slowly pulled the phone out of her purse and pressed the off button without reading the text.
“I’ve been working like crazy. New clients and new projects. I’m working on a doctor’s office, so I’ve been pretty occupied,” she lied. She only had to put the finishing touches on the office and she’d be done. “I’m sorry, papi. I’m here now.” Marley leaned across the table and kissed Jay softly on the cheek. “Now, let’s eat.”
After dinner, Jay reached for Marley’s hand as they walked across the pier that stretched out over the unusually calm ocean. When they reached the end, Jay pulled Marley close and stood behind her while they watched as the sunset over the horizon.
“I’m in love with you, baby girl.”
Jay called her “baby girl” just like DJ did back in the day, and she loved it.
When Marley found out Chris’s little drug secret, she slowly saw less and less of him until she wasn’t seeing him at all. She’d taken a small break from the dating scene, but the more she “coincidentally” ran into Javier, the more she grew to like him and enjoy their dates. He was one of the sweetest, sexiest men she’d met in her life. Javier was easy to fall for, and for the first time in a long time she just went with the flow, no rules.
“No, you are not, Jay. You think that you are, but believe me . . . you don’t love me. We haven’t even been seeing each other that long.” Marley laughed, but Jay didn’t smile at all.
“I know that this is love. I think about you every day, every minute of the day. I want to be with you, Marley. I want you to meet my family and everything. I’m serious. I have never felt like this about anyone,” he said.
“Wow, papi, you are serious huh?” Marley laughed.
“As a heart attack,” he said.
Jay pulled Marley close to his body and looked into her eyes. When the wind blew her hair into her face, he softly pushed it away from her eyes. He kissed her softly one time on her glossed lips. “I love you, baby girl.”
She smiled. “Can we go slow, Jay? You know that I have issues.”
“Of course we can. Just not too slow.” He laughed.
On the pier in the shadow of the sunset, Marley and Jay kissed like two newlyweds on their honeymoon. Marley’s body responded to Jay’s masculine touch with uncontrollable shivering. He kissed her with such force, and when he wrapped his strong arms tightly around her body, she melted and she forgot about everything. Once again, she was lost in the pure feeling. Marley experienced the typical man drama that most of her friends had endured. Marley’s man drama always consisted of something drastic. Her relationships always developed from the inside out, where most of her girlfriends developed their relationships from the outside in. Back in the day, Marley embraced the difference; now she wasn’t so accepting, because her relationships always ended in unfathomable circumstances. Jay and Marley walked hand in hand toward his Cadillac Escalade talking and laughing. Jay was throwing Marley’s game off, and she didn’t even care. He was pulling her in, and she couldn’t resist. When his phone started to ring, he snatched it from the clip on his waist and pressed the TALK button.
“What’s up?” Jay held Marley’s hand while he talked. He started off talking in English, but by the middle of the conversation, Jay was speaking Spanish. Marley smiled and tried to make out the few words that she knew in Spanish. “Okay,” he said before ending the call.
He turned to Marley and kissed her lips softly before speaking. “That was my boy. I told them not to disturb me tonight. I said it in Spanish, just in case he didn’t understand when I said it in English,” Jay joked.
After the walk on the pier, Jay wanted to have drinks at HEAT, but Marley knew there was a chance they would run in to Chris and his friend, and she insisted they go to Jay’s place for a romantic nightcap instead. Jay set the mood by lighting the candles and starting soft music as he usually did while Marley opened a bottle of wine. She walked into the living room, and Jay pulled out two cigars, broke them open, and filled them with marijuana. After he sealed the ends closed with his mouth, Marley handed him a glass of wine and stretched her legs across his thighs as he sat on the couch. The silky sounds of Jon B. played softly in the background while Marley and Jay sat on the couch sipping pinot grigio and inhaling the relaxing treatment. Jay massaged Marley’s feet gently when it was her turn to puff. Jay knew that he was falling fast, faster than he’d ever fallen for any woman, and there had been plenty of women in his past. There was something about Marley that kept him intrigued. He loved her independence, her wit and charm, and most definitely her beauty. He also appreciated the caution she took with her heart. She had taken things very slowly with him, which was also a new experience. Usually women were dying to lie in his bed, but Marley was different—she had taken the time to get to know him inside and out before she would let him have her body. Jay fantasized about making love to Marley for the first time, every day from the day he met her. Javier knew that he would feel closer to her once he was inside her.
Jay sexily puffed on the el while Marley waited for her turn. When he passed it to her, she eyed him sexily and smiled. She inhaled calmly and ran her hand down the back of Jay’s neck. She stopped and lightly pulled him toward her. When he opened his mouth, she exhaled the smoke she’d been holding in her lungs, and Jay inhaled. The shotgun hastily transitioned into a long, slow kiss. Their tongues wrestled playfully while Jay exhaled the smoke through his nostrils.
