The Man in 3B (23 page)

I began frantically looking for my purse. I wanted to find Avery before the police did. No black woman wanted to see her man—current or ex—go to jail.

“Hold up, Connie. Calm down. I’m not letting you go look for him.” Daryl managed to grab hold of me and rest his hands on my shoulders. That’s when it sank in that I’d kicked back into wife mode. My emotions for Avery were transparent.

“I’m sorry, Daryl,” I apologized. “I—”

He shook his head. “Connie, you don’t have to apologize. You have a good heart. I know you don’t want to see anybody hurt or in trouble, no matter what they’ve done to you. That’s why I care about you so much.”

Hearing those sweet words almost made me forget about Avery.

“Look, let me handle this. I’ll go talk to Krystal and let her know what’s going on. Let her go deal with her old man. You sit here and get yourself together, okay?”

Daryl walked me over to the couch, where I sat down, feeling far more relaxed. I pulled him down next to me.

“No, you and Slim don’t get along, and if he catches you down there with her, it’s gonna be a fight,” I said. “I’ll go talk to her. It’s about time the two of us had a talk, woman to woman, anyway.”

I thought his ass would never leave,
I thought when Charles finally left for work.

I didn’t bother walking him to the stoop to put on our usual good-bye-kiss routine, because my mind was on other things. I couldn’t wait to get to Ben’s so he could take care of the throbbing between my legs. I’d been thinking about getting some ever since I woke up in the middle of the night after an erotic dream starring me and Ben. It had me so wet that for a second, I’d even considered waking up Charles’s snoring ass and climbing on top of him. We’d stopped having sex together a long time ago, though, and the thought of doing it with him had practically the same effect as a cold shower. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, counting the hours until I could get out of the apartment and get me some.

Once the kids were off to school, I didn’t even bother to get dressed. I threw on my housecoat, slid on some flip-flops, and then exited my apartment like I was busting out of jail.

I took the stairs up to the third floor, peeking out of the stairwell before I exited. Charles and I might have had an understanding about the state of our marriage, but I didn’t see any reason to advertise that to every nosy fool in the building. I liked to keep my visits to Ben as discreet as possible, so I didn’t necessarily want to be seen knocking on his door still dressed in my nightgown. Fortunately, the halls were empty.

I knocked on the apartment door but got no answer. After a second try, the door cracked open.

Ben stood at the door, half awake and wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. He must have worked the night shift.

I looked past him into the apartment and asked, “Is Benny around?”

“He’s not here,” he answered, sounding annoyed. At first I thought he was still pissy with me about the engagement ring thing, but then he said, “He’s probably sleeping at a friend’s house.”

Obviously things between him and his son hadn’t improved, and I was not about to make the same mistake bringing up that subject again. Best to get right to the sex, because I had urges that needed to be taken care of.

“Good. You’re not planning on wasting any time then, are you?” I followed him into his living room, losing clothes on the way.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, barely noticing that I was also naked now.

“I’ve been thinking about you all night. I need you, baby.” I pressed myself up against him.

Unfortunately, my eagerness was met with a frown. Now that I was up close and personal I could see sadness in his eyes.

“What’s wrong, Ben?”

“I’m stressed!” he barked, making me flinch.

I stepped away from him to be on the safe side. “Hey,” I said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you don’t have to take it out on me, you know.”

He didn’t respond. Didn’t even look my way. I probably should have left, considering how rude he was being, but I was horny as hell, and I didn’t want to leave until I at least tried to get some. Maybe I needed another approach.

“Well, it looks like you need to de-stress, then. Lucky for you I know a few really good relaxation techniques.” I led him to the couch and made him sit down. I slid his boxers down around his ankles, and then I assumed my favorite position, on my knees in front of him.

Usually Ben loved it when I gave him head. I’m damn good at it if I do say so myself. It’s a power trip for me, knowing that when I have a man inside my mouth, I’m in complete control. Shoot, I can
do tricks with my tongue that most hookers don’t even know about. I know how to drive a man crazy.

Unfortunately, after a few minutes using some of my best techniques, Ben was still barely hard.

I stopped my tongue action and looked up at him. “Uh, hello! Is something wrong? We’ve got a slight problem down here.”

Ben looked down like he was surprised to see me there. I swear to God, if I hadn’t spoken up, that man might have forgotten that I was even in the same room with him, let alone going down on him. That shit right there was a blow to the ego for sure. But instead of making him feel as bad as I felt now, I decided to let it slide. It was obvious something had his mind really fucked up. I could lend him my mouth later, but for now it looked like he needed me to lend an ear.

“You all right?” I asked.

“Huh?” he said absentmindedly. “Oh, uh, no problem. It was just feeling good is all.”

Who did this man think he was fooling? I sighed and then slid up from between his legs to sit next to him. “Your mouth might be saying that, but your dick says otherwise.” I twisted my lips and pointed at his limp member.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he apologized, finally sounding like his mind was here in the room with me. “Benny and I had an argument and he’s been gone a few days. I haven’t heard from him, and I have no idea where he is.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the couch.

“It’s gonna be all right. He’ll come back, and you two will work it out.” I kissed his cheek. “You and Benny are closer than any father and son I’ve ever met.”

“Yeah, we were once,” he said with a sigh. “Until that punk-ass pretty boy in 3B stole my son.”

I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by
stole
, but my gossip-girl instincts told me there was a juicy story behind this. I couldn’t resist. I had to dig for details. “You really think Daryl
stole
him?”

“Maybe that isn’t the right word, but ever since he moved in,
he’s had some kinda hold over Benny. He acts like the guy’s a damn superhero or something. Like he can do no wrong.”

I thought about the girls on the stoop—myself included—who sat out there every morning waiting for Daryl’s fine ass to walk by, and I couldn’t help but think that I kinda understood Benny’s obsession with this guy. Daryl had this magnetism that was irresistible. Of course, I couldn’t say that to Ben. He was obviously feeling rejected by his son, and as his dutiful girlfriend, I had to listen—even if all I really wanted to do was get back to work between his legs.

“So what if he can fight and knows how to play video games?” Ben continued. “There’s a hell of a lot more to being a role model. He wasn’t around when Benny had the flu or when he broke his arm skateboarding. He damn sure wasn’t the one who made coffee and sat at the table all night when Benny had to study for finals.”

“I know that’s right,” I replied. I could see him loosening up as he got this off his chest, and I hoped it was only a matter of time before he was relaxed enough to get busy with me.

“Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I think he’s trying to sabotage my relationship with Benny. For all I know, he’s the one who gave Benny that gun.”

His last words kind of pricked my conscience. I was the one who’d told him that Benny had been arrested for gun possession. I wasn’t trying to rat Benny out or anything, but I felt it was information his father needed to know. If it hadn’t been for me, Ben might never have known his son was in trouble. Now I wished I had never said anything, because they were fighting and I wasn’t getting any action. I needed to help them make up somehow, because it looked like I wasn’t going to be having sex again until they did.

“Well, have you asked him where the gun came from?”

“Nope,” he answered. “He’s barely been talking to me lately. Every time I see him he’s on his way out to be with Daryl. We definitely don’t talk the way we used to.”

“You know, Ben, that’s kinda normal. Most teenagers stop talking to their parents at some point. Maybe Benny’s doing it a little
later than most kids,” I suggested. “Maybe it has nothing to do with Daryl.”

Ben gave me a skeptical look. “My son is not most kids. He wouldn’t stop talking to me for no reason. It happened right around the time he started hanging out with this guy.”

“Well…” I leaned my back against the couch and folded my arms over my chest. “If you really want to know what’s going on in your kid’s life, you could do what I do when they’re not talking.”

“Oh yeah, and what’s that?” he said with a smirk.

For a second I wanted to smack him because the sarcasm in his tone said he thought I was the last person who should be giving parenting advice. I mean, just because his son was a mini-Einstein didn’t mean he had to judge me. My kids were constantly getting into trouble at school. Did that make me a bad mother?

I sucked my teeth at him but continued anyway. All I cared about at that moment was setting his mind at ease so he could relax and make me cum.

I asked, “When was the last time you searched his room? Or looked through his computer?”

“Search his room?” he said in that same dismissive tone. “I’ve never done that before, and I’m not about to start now. Who goes checking up on their twenty-one-year-old kid?”

“Shoot, I don’t care how old my kids get. I’m gonna always be up they ass, checking up on them. You never know what kids can be up to these days.”

He gave me a look that said,
Yeah, and a lot of good that does your bad-ass kids.
It’s a good thing that my kids were not something we usually discussed or Ben and I would have ended our affair a long time ago.

“Well, the more I think about it, you’re right. He does seem to be spending an awful lot of time with Daryl. Seems like every time I see Benny he’s either with Daryl or he’s talking about Daryl.” What I was saying wasn’t even really true. I’d never heard Benny talk about Daryl. Benny was like any other kid who walked by us on the stoop. If he spoke to us at all, it was only to say hello and keep it
moving. I was only trying to get back at Ben for insulting me as a mother. Shoot, I stayed married to an asshole for the sake of my kids. If anything, I deserved a mother of the year award for that.

“You better check on your son, Ben,” I insisted. “You never know what these young people are up to these days. If he’s carrying a gun, he could be selling drugs or even using them.”

He snapped his head in my direction. “What did you say?” Finally, I’d gotten his attention! I had to basically accuse his son of being a drug dealer to do it, but hey, can I help it if Ben pushed me that far?

“Get the hell out of my house,” he hissed, his eyes filled with rage.

“Oh, calm down. I’m just trying to be one hundred with you. It’s better you find out something like that on your terms versus—”

“I said get the hell out.” He got up and put his boxers back on.

A laugh rose up deep from my throat. “You can’t be serious. You are not about to put me out of your apartment, Ben. ’Cause you know if you do, it’s gonna be a long while before you get some of this again.”

“Please,” he said. “The pussy’s not that good. I’m pretty sure you’ll miss me way before I miss you.”

“You son of a—” I was breathing so hard I couldn’t even finish my sentence. I was furious. I got up off the couch, cursing under my breath as I put on my nightgown and housecoat.

I slipped into my flip-flops and then stood there watching Ben as he paced the floor. Bastard didn’t even try to apologize.

“Benny wouldn’t use drugs, would he?” he mumbled as he paced.

I didn’t answer him because he wasn’t talking to me anyway. He was talking to himself, worrying about his perfect son, wondering if what I’d said was true. Obviously my words bothered him. Served his ass right. He never should have pushed me so far.

Since I was basically invisible to Ben at this point, I followed behind him when he stormed out of the living room and headed to Benny’s room.

Who’s the crazy one now?
I asked myself as I stood in the doorway and watched Ben doing exactly what he acted like I was a fool for suggesting. He was searching Benny’s room from top to bottom.

“Shit!” he yelled when he lifted the mattress and found nothing.

He flopped down in the chair by Benny’s desk. Poor thing looked drained. I took a chance and stepped into the room.

“Ben, check his computer,” I said quietly.

Ben looked toward his son’s desk and then back at me. If what he said before was true, he’d never violated his son’s privacy, and he was obviously struggling with it now. The way he looked at me it was almost like he was waiting for me to give him permission.

“If he’s in some kind of trouble, don’t you want to know about it?” I asked.

He looked at me with sad eyes. “I have no idea how to work this damn thing. When I need to send an e-mail, Benny does it for me.”

“Move the mouse,” I said, walking over to where he sat. I put my hand over his and then placed it on the mouse. He didn’t stop me.

As soon as Ben moved the mouse, the black screen gave way to the screen saver. It was some sort of slide show with little pictures inside bubbles that kept floating onto the screen. Ben exhaled sharply as if someone had punched him in the gut. It wasn’t hard to figure out why when I took a closer look at the screen. Inside every single bubble was a picture of Daryl.

“What the hell?” Ben said when he could finally speak. He started clicking the mouse wildly, as if that would make the pictures of Daryl go away. The screen saver disappeared, and in its place was the default Microsoft desktop background.