Sister Girls 2 (15 page)

Faith didn't disagree with Susan and she didn't have the energy to go back and forth on it. She knew what she was she going to do and it wasn't open for discussion.

After talking a little while longer, Faith decided it was time for her to leave. She was walking to her car when she heard someone walk up behind her.

“Hey, pretty lady.”

Faith turned around. It was Siddiq.

“You're leaving so soon?” he asked.

Faith looked down at her watch and continued walking. “I've already been here a couple of hours.”

“You could stay all night if you want to,” Siddiq flirted.

Faith could hear the playfulness in his voice. “I apologize for being rude to you earlier.”

“Your apology is accepted.”

Faith unlocked her car door. She looked at Siddiq, who looked like he wasn't leaving his spot. “Well, I have to go.” She opened her car door.

“Can I see you again?” Siddiq asked.

Faith sat down, closed the door and rolled down her window. “I'm married.”

Siddiq wasn't fazed. “So you keep saying.”

“I don't date,” Faith told him.

“I'm not asking you for a date.”

Confused, Faith said, “But you just asked me out.”

“No, what I asked is if I could see you again. That could just mean over coffee or a quick lunch. It's your call.”

No words came out of Faith's mouth and seeing that she was stuck verbally, Siddiq pulled out a business card and handed it to her.

As she took it and read it, Faith asked him, “You carry business cards in your own house?”

Siddiq laughed and shook his head. “I'm not that much of a player. I saw you leaving and grabbed one out of the kitchen drawer.”

“Oh.” Faith was flattered.

“Don't throw that card away, call me when you're ready. It doesn't have to be a date. There's nothing wrong with having a male friend.”

Faith put the card over her visor. “Bye.”

“See you later, beautiful.”

Faith smiled all the way home.

 

 

That night when Faith arrived home, Raheem was in the living room asleep with his legs up on the table, head thrown back, and a book across his chest. For a brief second Faith stood there looking at him. She looked at him and remembered the happier moments. Moments when she stopped getting high for a long period of time and it was like their relationship was brand new. They were in love and enjoyed being in each other's company. She would come home from work late and he'd be up waiting on her. If he wasn't waiting on her, he'd be asleep on the couch with a book, like he was now.

Faith tried to glance at the title; she had no idea what his interests were now. She tried not to get too close, after all she was still pissed at him and she didn't want to wake him. Faith took off her heels, so she wouldn't be heard and went straight into the bedroom that used to be theirs but was now hers. She closed the door behind her.

She sat on the bed and asked the Lord to give her strength, the strength to leave Raheem.

“Faith?”

Faith looked at the door and then her clock. It was after midnight. “Yes, Raheem?”

“Can I come in?”

She didn't want to deal with him this late.

“Why?” Faith stood up and moved toward the door.

Faith could hear the exasperation in Raheem's voice. “You know what, never mind, we'll just talk in the morning.”

When Faith didn't respond, Raheem told her good night and she heard him walk away.

She placed her forehead on the door and felt her eyes well up. Her marriage was really coming to an end and there wasn't anything that could be done to save it.

Faith went into the bathroom and turned on the light. She stood in front of the mirror and stared at herself.
What's wrong with me? Why does everyone leave me?

This wasn't a new question she was asking herself, she'd asked it each time a man left her, cheated on her, or mistreated her.

It had to be her, maybe there was still something she was doing or wasn't doing enough of.
Maybe it's time for me to give up this whole relationship idea and realize that I should just be by myself.

Faith wouldn't have been able to stop the tears from falling if she tried, so she just let them run down her face. Faith shook her head, blew her nose, and got undressed. She was too tired to take a shower and decided to take one in the morning. She washed her face, brushed her teeth, pulled a pair of sweats out of her closet, and took a T-shirt out of her drawer. She put them on and climbed under the covers. She laid down and stared at the ceiling. She thought about what Susan said: “If you didn't still love him, you wouldn't care as much as you do.”

Faith closed her eyes and begged sleep to come. She didn't want to be up all night thinking about her failing marriage, but her mind could not stop racing, snippets of happier days with Raheem kept flashing before her, conversations they had, vacations they'd taken, and the few times they did something eventful with his kids.

What happened? When did it go wrong? Perhaps Raheem grew tired of being her caretaker.

She sat up in the bed and sighed. She knew it would take more than lying down for sleep to come, and she was going to go to sleep one way or the other, even if it mean taking a Tylenol
PM
.

ELSIE

E
lsie finally decided to have dinner with Trey after he called her every day for damn near a week and asked her to join him. The day he called the Center and she tried to call him back, he had made other plans just that quick, after that it was just hard to clear her schedule.

She knew he wanted more than “just dinner.” She could hear the flirtatious tone of his voice in each conversation. Tonight over dinner, she would definitely have to let him know about her sexual preference.

Prior to Elsie arriving, Trey told the hostess he wanted to be placed by a window with a view. She did him justice by placing them so that they faced the beach. The view was romantic enough for anyone to stand a chance, if they were hoping to get lucky, which Trey was.

Elsie glanced out the window and could see the sun going down, it looked liked it was landing in the ocean. The reds, yellows, and orange rays were coming in through the windows, jazz was playing softly in the background and Trey was ready to get his mack on.

Elsie had to laugh to herself because even back in high school she remembered the girls teasing Trey, saying he wanted to be “Dr. Lovesexy.” It was so obvious that's who he was trying to be at this moment. It was a shame she was going to have to burst his bubble.

“So you finally decided to stop turning down my dinner invite?”

“I've just been busy.” Elsie told him. “I finally got a free evening.”

“Well, I'm glad you decided to spend it with me.”

Okay, I really need to let him know, I'm not interested in him like that.
“Trey—” Elsie began.

He cut her off. “So tell me, what's been going on with you? How have you been? Last I heard, you were Ms. Supermodel.”

Elsie laughed. “I don't know about all that.”

Trey leaned back in his chair and if Elsie wasn't mistaken, he licked his lips LL Cool J–style. “Well, you are a beautiful woman.”

“Thank you,” Elsie said, blushing.

“Then you became an attorney, opened your own firm, and now you have a nonprofit organization. I'm impressed, you've been a busy little bee.”

Well, damn if he knew all that, he should know that she only dated women. “How do you know all that?”

“I stay in touch with people.”

That still didn't answer Elsie's question. “People like who?”

Trey smirked. “Wouldn't you like to know?” He thought he was being charming.

That was not what Elsie wanted to hear, she couldn't stand when people played games and the “guess who?” game wasn't going to make it with her.

Trey must have saw the frustration on her face because he apologized. “I'm sorry, I'm just playing with you. I know a lot of attorneys, especially in my line of business and they talk amongst themselves. My attorney here in Jersey mentioned your firm and I recognized the name.”

Even that bothered her just a bit, but she decided to just try and let it go, because when you or your business are talked about in the corporate arena, it usually meant you were doing a hell of a job or that you were their competition.

“How'd you go from law to what you're doing now?”

“I wanted to make a career change.”

“It's more than a career change, it's a life change.”

He was right; that's just what she made, a life change.

“Tell me about you, what have you been up to, why movies?” Elsie wasn't just asking this question to take the focus off of her, she really was curious. When they were in school, Trey was a bookworm, always studying, and an honor student. What surprised people is that he also had a little flavor and a way with the girls on top of being smart. She recalled he was voted most likely to succeed. Half the school expected him to become a doctor, lawyer, or politician—the last category she would have put him in was entertainment.

“I love movies, on the weekends when I was growing up, that's what I did, spent my days at the movie theater.”

“Really?” It was then that Elsie remembered them going to the movies a couple of times and Trey trying to talk her into staying to see two movies. “I don't think I can sit that long,” she remembered telling him.

“Yep, I knew back then that I wanted to do something behind the scenes in Hollywood, I just didn't know what. So I studied and got straight
A
's because I knew if I did that I would be able to get a scholarship to the school of my choice.”

Elsie found that fascinating; here he was a teenager, plotting his future.

“So I went as far as law school.”

“Law school?”

“Yep, I thought I wanted to be an entertainment lawyer but realized that remembering codes, clauses, and laws wasn't holding my interest. So long story short, I moved to California and started working for one of the top agencies and from that experience, not only did I meet people, but I found out about various opportunities and here I sit doing something I love, producing movies.”

“Doing something you love,” repeated Elsie, “must be the best feeling in the world.”

“It is, because even when I'm having a bad day, I'm having a good day.”

Elsie wanted to reach that point in her life, when a messed-up, stressed, I-can't-take-it-anymore day, wasn't that bad because in the end, she was accomplishing what she'd set out to accomplish.

“So tell me, what have you been up to, who are you seeing, did you ever get married?”

Finally, the opening Elsie had been waiting on. She decided to hell with it, she wasn't going to beat around the bush. She was going to be upfront and let him know. “Actually, I'm gay.”

Trey sat up, as straight as a rod, with the quickness. “Did you just say you're gay?”

“Yes.”

“Gay or bisexual?”

Elsie laughed because she knew what he was getting at, if she was bisexual he possibly felt he still stood a chance. “No, honey, I'm just what I said, gay.”

“Wow!” Trey sat back in his seat and crossed his arms. “I think I'm in shock, and here I was hoping.”

“You were hoping what?” Elsie asked.

“Do I even need to say it?”

Elsie laughed. “I guess not.”

Trey couldn't move on. “Were you gay when we were in school?” He had to know.

“I was something, I just didn't know what to call it at the time. I do know there were a couple of classmates I was attracted to.”

Trey cut her off. “Like who? Damn, I wish I had known, maybe we could have—”

“Don't even go there,” Elsie warned, knowing he was talking about every man's dream.

“I'm playing, but for real, who were you attracted to?”

Elsie shook her head. “Look at you, acting like you're getting a piece of gossip. You are too funny.”

“Well?”

“I plead the Fifth.”

“Well, have you ever been with a man?”

“Why so interested?” Elsie wasn't used to sharing information like that.

“I don't know, I think I'm just in shock because you're so beautiful and you don't look gay.” Trey paused. “Then again, with the way things are today, what does gay look like?”

Elsie picked up her up glass and asked, “So does this change your game plan?”

“I hate to say it, but no.”

“It should.”

“Well, I'm a determined man.”

Elsie laughed.

Still curious, Trey wanted to know if Elsie wanted children.

“I do eventually.”
Eventually
wasn't a true answer, she wanted children now, today, tomorrow, in nine months if it was possible. “Do you have any children?”

Trey shook his head. “Nah.”

“Wow, either you've been very lucky or extremely careful.”

“I'd like to think it's the second option. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've come close to it a couple of times but one was a false alarm and the other, well, she made her choice.”

“Do you want kids?” Elsie asked.

“Yes, yes I do.”

Hmmmm,
Elsie thought.
He's smart, ambitious and good-looking. He just might be the one.
That idea was something she was going to have to ponder when she was alone. Would he say yes to fathering a child and not taking part in the kid's life? After all, he was a busy man. In his line of work, he had to travel and be free, not be tied down. Could this be the reason he suddenly appeared in her life? Was this God's way of answering her prayers?

 

 

After they ate dinner and made small talk, Elsie could feel herself getting tired and was ready to turn in. She pushed back from the table. “I think this night is just about over, I've had a long day.”

Trey, not the least bit offended that she was ending the evening, asked, “Can we get together again, I'd like to stay in touch with you.”

Elsie told him, she'd like that too,
especially since he just might be the potential father of her child.

Trey called the waiter over. “We're ready for the bill.”

The waiter nodded and walked away.

Trey stood up and walked around the table. Elsie stood up. Trey gave Elsie a hug. “We'll talk sooner than later.”

“Thanks for the dinner, good food, and good conversation.” Elsie hugged him back. When she turned to walk away she could feel Trey's eyes on her every move.

She knew not to turn around because he might think she was expecting him to look. Elsie couldn't help but be amused, she knew when she told him she was gay that it was going to blow his mind. She also knew that he was hoping for some interest on her part. Well, now he knew that wasn't going to happen.

Even when she left him, she could see there was still some hope. It was all in the way he touched the arch in her back when he hugged her bye and the way he looked at her with lust even after she revealed to him she was gay.

Elsie wondered if she asked him to father her child, would he be interested in doing so. Maybe she should have hinted around the topic or maybe she should have just been forward and asked: Would you ever consider fathering a child out of wedlock by donating your sperm? If he said yes, she wondered what his expectations would be from her, if anything. Elsie knew she was getting ahead of herself but the excitement of approaching him on this was growing in her heart.

Maybe she needed to run her idea by someone first. She was definitely jumping the gun, this whole have-a-child thing had become her secret and she was ready to share.

Who could she share something like this with? Which one of the women she knew was open-minded and wouldn't judge her decision?

Elsie considered this question her whole ride home and the person she came up with was Crystal. She'd talk to her about it. If she decided to use a sperm donor, she wouldn't want to go through the process alone, she would need support.

When Elsie arrived home she collapsed across her bed and looked at the phone. She'd been thinking about calling Summer for a few days now, but kept putting it off. She didn't want to be rejected. How rejected could she be when the only reason she was calling was to say hello, to catch up, and maybe if she agreed to see her, to have lunch.

Elsie glanced at the clock and saw that it going on 11:00
P.M.
She wondered if it was too late to call Summer's house; if it was, she'd just deal with it. She needed to hear Summer's voice tonight before she went to bed.

What if she doesn't want to talk to me? What if she hangs up on me? What if, what if, what if ?
Elsie made the decision to stop what-if-ing and just pick up the phone only to hang it up again.