At Last (9 page)

The highlight of the evening was Durran winning for Record of the Year with Denso
“Give Me a Sign”
. He was invited by Denso to accept the award which he obliged.

“Thank God. Never in a million years did I expect to be on this stage accepting this award. This means the world to me. I want to thank my family, my management, and the people at Universal, my fans, and this man right here.” Denso said pulling Durran towards him, “Durran Johnson is why this record happened. He’s a genius and it has been reflected tonight. Seven awards for this man. I thank him for giving me vision and executive producing my album. This is for Philly.”

Durran leaned in and smiled, “And the D.”

Denso began to laugh, “And the D!”

I stood up and clapped for him as tears ran down my face.

Chapter Seven

“Did you enjoy yourself
?
” He asked as we sat in the back of the Hummer. This time Kendra rode with us.  I didn’t care much though. I was too proud of him to trip on her presence.

“Yeah I did.”  I grabbed his hand and he blushed. It was the first time in a long time that I’d actually seen him blush. It was refreshing. Right after the ceremony, we headed to The Palms where Durran was hosting a big Grammys after party. It was around midnight when we arrived and the club was off the hook.  I’d never seen anything like it in Detroit.

The crowd was thick with celebrities, entourages, groupies, and socialites.  Regular folks were few and far between.  Durran’s entourage met us at the club.

There were four of them. One’s name was Ken.  He was tall and dark chocolate.  He seemed cool. The other was a guy named Dre, who was the color of peanut butter and on the short side.  I couldn’t really get a vibe off him. He was really quiet despite the madness going on around us.

The third guy was Steve.  He was tall, thin, and had a nice smile.  He was a light caramel brown. The forth guy’s name was Bryan. He was chubby and his skin was the color of rusty copper.  He
clowned
Durran from the moment we entered VIP on the second level of the club.

“What’s good playboy?” He said giving Durran dap.

“Nothing, you got it.” Durran said sitting down in the area. I followed suit. The VIP area was covered with a sheer canopy which draped a queen-sized bed surrounded by a booth on each side. The fellas and Kendra sat at the booths while Durran and I sat on the bed. He wrapped his arm around my waist, holding me close, and I didn’t mind not one damn bit.

“How you feeling?
You all grinning and shit.” Bryan asked taking a drag of his cigarette and laughing.

“I’m good. 
Got my boys here, my girl.
  Everything is everything.  Life is good” He said as he kissed me on the cheek.

“I heard that.” Bryan said before dropping his cigarette and stomping it out. He grabbed a glass of champagne at our booth, “I wanna give a toast to my man. Everybody raise your glasses.”

Two champagne buckets filled with ice and bottles of Dom Pérignon were on the table.  We all grabbed our glasses, stood up, and waited for Bryan’s toast.

“To life, love and all that other shit.”  He proclaimed. We all began laughing.

“To life and love!”
We all shouted as we drank up.

Slowly everyone migrated out of VIP to the real party on the floor. Eventually, it was just me and Durran alone finishing off a bottle of Dom while everyone else did their own thing.

Sitting at the foot of the bed, I sipped on champagne as he stared at me. I couldn’t take it anymore plus I had a little liquid courage in me.

“What’s up?  Why you staring at me? ”

He cracked a smile.  “You never change.  You got that same attitude you gave me when I seen you in them red shorts.  You still got them?”  He laughed.

“Whatever, you like it. And for the record, I do have those shorts. I can’t fit them, but I do have them.” I said still sipping.

“I love it.” He replied moving closer to me.

“Spare me. You think you doing something, with your charming ass.”

He ran his hand down his mouth and smiled, “You think I’m charming, Keish?”

I sucked my teeth, “Don’t play. But I guess I’m a sucka,
cause
I’m crazy about your charming ass.”

Oops!!
I didn’t mean to say it out loud.  I guess he could tell that by my expression because he had a big joker ass smile across his face.

“It’s cool, few can resist.”

“Get over yourself.”

“Why?
You not.”

I stood up and stormed over to the edge of the booth. I began to watch everyone on the dance floor below while contemplating what had just happened. His comment pissed me off.  Not because it wasn’t true, but because his cocky ass had the nerve to say it out loud. He made it sound different. He made it sound like I was wasting my
time and that I would never get over him.  I felt him come up behind me and wrap his arms around my waist.

“It’s cool,
cause
I never got over you. Why you think I went through all this trouble to bring you out here? I could’ve had anybody be my date, but I chose you.”

I turned to him and broke his grasp with my face scrunched up, “Is that supposed to be a selling point? ‘I’ve got all these bitches to choose from but I chose you’?  That’s not enough anymore, Durran!! I’m not some little girl who’s just happy to say that you’re my man.  That’s not enough.  I need and want more!”

“Keisha…”  He said staring into my eyes.

“I want you!! I don’t want to share you with anyone. I don’t want to be second to you.  I just want to be first like I always tried to make you. Why is that so hard for you to understand?!”

I was shaking by now. It was the first time in years that I had laid out my feelings for him on the table.  Instead of responding, he stood back and stared at me.

“Come on.”

Before I could protest he grabbed my arm, led me out the booth downstairs to the DJ. They had a quick conversation before we headed over to the dance floor.

“What was that all about?”  I asked still agitated with him.  I’d poured out my heart and he’d yet to respond.

Standing on the dance floor, he gazed into my eyes. He didn’t say anything and neither did I.  It was like we were both looking for answers.  Soon the DJ came on the mic.

“Y’all having a good time?”
  He yelled over the mic.

The crowd yelled out in approval.

“Alright, the man of the hour has a few requests. I hope y’all like it.”

“What is he talking about?” I asked.

“Just listen.”

All of a sudden Frankie Beverly’s voice blasted throughout the club.

“Whoa, whoa...ho...

You made me happy

This you can bet

You stood right beside me, yeah

And I won't forget

And I really love you

You should know

I wanna make sure I'm right, girl

Before I let go”

With nothing else to do, I looked up at him trying to hide my smile.
“You gone leave me out here alone?”
  He asked with his hand out.

I couldn’t resist.  We began to dance as if no one else was in the club.  I could hear people chattering and talking as we danced. I guess they couldn’t believe that the Crunk music had been cut off in favor of something old school. A few brave couples joined us on the floor but outside of that, the others pretty much just stared in confusion. We on the other hand, didn’t care in the least. 

It was just like the old days.  Whenever Durran did something to piss me off he would play me a song that he knew would melt my defenses away.

The next song that the DJ played was Maze’s
“Can’t Get Over
You
.”

He was working hard. 

He knew that damn song was my weakness. Then he had the nerve to sing the song to me in my ear as we swayed back and forth.  His voice was beautiful-sensual and smooth.

“
I know I brought it on myself, I owe no blame to no one else, And now I realize I can't get over you, And though I do my very best, I just can't find happiness And it's all because I can't get over you.”

“This how I feel.
I feel the same way you do.  I’m tired of going back and forth.  I’m ready to give you everything you need.”  He said while he gently stroked my cheek.

The mood picked up once the DJ threw on Dwele,
“Find a Way”
.  We ballroom danced our asses off, showing Vegas how it was done in the D. And after that every song the DJ played for like an hour was like a soundtrack of our relationship.  Stevie Wonder’s,
“All I Do”
, Mint Condition’s,
“Pretty Brown Eyes”,
112’s “
Crazy For You
”, and my favorite “
Love No Limit
” by Mary J. Blige.

By the end of the night everyone was on the dance floor having a ball.  Exiting the dance floor we were all over each other. He was rubbing his large hands firmly down my backside as he sucked on my collarbone.  I was so caught up in the lust, but I loved it.

“I’m ready to go DeeDee.”  I said while playing with his pants.  He had already taken off his suit jacket and I wanted to see more. I hadn’t called him “DeeDee” since way back.  I only called him that when I was ready for him to give me the business.

“Anything you want Mama,” He said while palming my backside. When all was said and done, I’d left the ball with my Prince Charming.

             
Chapter Eight

Here we were standing facing one another. The room was completely dark except for the flicker of the candles he lit once we arrived back at the hotel. We’d nearly ripped off each other’s clothes upon entering the room. His hands roamed up and down my body, teasing every inch of it as I did the same.  I’d almost forgotten how good his body felt up against mine.

             
Riding back in the limo, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.  As soon as we got inside he pulled out my breasts and sucked on them gently.  Sliding his hand up my dress, he pushed my moist thong to the side and plugged two fingers inside my love canal.  I was creaming all over the place. The divider was up, but I knew the limo driver could hear me moaning. I didn’t care.  Durran was making me feel so good.

I’d unzipped his pants and pulled out his long, thick pipe and stroked it gently with my hand.  We were like two teenagers who hadn’t made out in a grip. When we got out we looked like Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne in
“What’s Love Got to Do with
It
?”
after the fight in the limo.

My hair was all over the place and my dress was disheveled.  Durran’s pants were unzipped and the bottom half of his shirt was sticking out through his fly.