Up to No Good (13 page)

“Are we supposed to let them dictate our lives? I love you, baby, and you love me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

I still felt the same way about her. After everything that had happened, I could still imagine myself spending the rest of my life with this woman.

“You promise me that you will never, ever be unfaithful?”

“Darnel, I promise. You are the only man I ever want to be with. I will never make that mistake again.”

“Then let’s do it.” As I said this, I felt a relief in my body like I had been holding my breath for weeks. Even with all the pain she had put me through, I still knew that making love to her, holding her in my arms, and taking care of her, was worth more than a thousand one-night stands with girls like Whitney.

“We’re going to get married?” she asked excitedly.

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Tonight. Fuck it. Let’s fly to Vegas.”

“Really?” she squealed. “Oh my God, Darnel, I love you! Why don’t you come over? I’ll look for flights online.”

And that’s when reality hit me.

“I can’t.”

“What?”

“I can’t leave the state.”

“Why not?”

“Court. I can’t leave the state until I go to court on those assault charges.”

Her voice was shaky, like she was about to start crying again.

“To hell with the court. How are they going to know? You don’t have to go back to court for at least a month. Baby, I want to marry you.”

“I wanna marry you too. But I’ve got to do the right thing. We’ll go to Vegas and get married right after I get these charges taken care of.”

“Darnel, we’re gonna get through this.”

“I know we are,” I answered. Now that I knew Omar had planned to seduce my fiancée, I was glad for every punch I ’d landed on his face. Having to go to court was a small price to pay, and I had faith that in the end, I would be found not guilty. Karma is a bitch, and Omar had plenty of it coming to him for what he’d done.

“We’re meant to be together, Keisha. Nothing’s gonna change that. I promise you that when this case is over, we are getting married.”

“What about your family?” she asked, obviously scared of what their reaction would be. And I can’t say I blamed her. Both Jamie and my mom would hurt any woman who even looked at me wrong. But I wasn’t a kid anymore.

“Keisha, you are my family.” If there was a choice between them and her, I was going to choose Keisha.

“Then don’t you think you should come home to Mama?” she teased.

“I’ll be right there.”

I hung up the phone and went back to Whitney’s room to find the rest of my clothes. She woke up when I sat on the bed to put on my shoes.

“You ready to go another round?” she purred at me.

“I got to go.” I leaned forward to stand up, but she stopped me, placing a hand on my chest.

“Maybe I can change your mind about that.” She lowered the sheet to reveal her perfect breasts. As good as she looked to me, I just couldn’t get excited.

“I’m in love with another woman,” I confessed, getting up and heading for the door. “I think we both know who I’m talking about. I’m sorry, but I got to go home.”

“Get out! Get the fuck out my house!”

At first I thought Louis didn’t really mean it, but when he repeated himself at the top of his lungs, I became a believer. Damn, what was he flipping out about anyway? All I did was ask him nicely whose blond hair was on his jacket. Well, maybe I wasn’t quite that nice about it, but what woman would be? I mean, I knew for damn sure that it wasn’t mine, so it was only natural for me to wonder who had been so close to my man that her hair ended up on his clothing. And it was real hair, not that synthetic stuff they use on them cheap weaves. Some sister spent a lot of money on that hair.

“Louis, calm down, baby.” I tried to keep my voice quiet, even though I wanted to go off on him for getting mad at me. He was the one who came home with incriminating evidence on his jacket, not me. I had every right to ask him about the hair. Still, I really didn’t want to fight with him, so all I could do now was try to ease the situation.

“I wasn’t accusing you of anything, baby. I was just asking a question.”

“Bullshit! You asked me about the damn hair because
you always think I’m doing something, Jamie. Living with you is like being under a damn microscope all the time, and I’ve had enough of this shit. I want your ass out.” He pointed at the door.

Damn, he was standing his ground on this one. Either this temper tantrum was a calculated act to take the heat off himself, or he was honestly sick of me. The thought of Louis actually breaking up with me was too much to handle, and I started to cry. “Louis, please don’t do this. Give me another chance. I promise I won’t accuse you of cheating anymore.”

Louis didn’t budge. “It’s not going to work this time, Jamie. I just can’t take your jealousy.”

“I don’t mean to be so jealous. It’s just …” I paused to wipe away my tears. When I glanced at him, he was still frowning. This confused me a little, because I was used to my tears getting me some sympathy. The expression on Louis’s face only made the tears fall faster now. “You don’t understand.”

“You’re right. I don’t understand.”

I had no idea why he was so angry. What was wrong with a woman trying to protect her relationship? As far as I was concerned, only a stupid woman wouldn’t have asked the question. How could he be threatening to kick me out when any reasonable woman would have done the same thing?

“Louis, please don’t do this. It’s not my fault that I’m a jealous person. You know my history. You know the way I watched my father mistreat women. I have a hard time trusting any man because of him.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t deserve to be punished for your father’s actions.”

“You’re right. I know that.” I tried to reach out and touch him, but he stepped back.

“I’ll go to counseling. I’ll do whatever it takes. Just don’t leave me. Please.”

We stood silently and stared at each other for a long time before he finally shook his head and said, “I don’t know why I’m doing this, but you can stay.”

I wanted to jump into his arms, but he kept them crossed firmly over his chest. “But that don’t mean you’re off the hook, Jamie. You need to stop this shit. If it happens again, you can just move back over to your dad’s house, since that’s where you seem to want to be all the time anyhow.”

I wiped away the last of my tears as I watched him head for the bedroom. He closed the door, and I knew I ’d be sleeping on the couch tonight.

I cried myself to sleep that night but woke in the morning with hope renewed. You can’t keep a good woman down, I decided. Louis had been pissed at me, but I was determined to get our relationship back on track. I kind of liked it when he showed me who was boss, which surprised me. I don’t know, maybe I did need to see a counselor. I mean, my father had always had a huge influence on me, and now it seemed like I enjoyed it when Louis put me in my place. Maybe I was attracted to father figures. But whatever it was, I was impressed by Louis’s strength and determination the night before. It just convinced me even more that I needed him in my life, and I would do whatever it took to keep him.

Louis had already left for work when I got up. The fact that he hadn’t said good-bye meant he was probably still mad, but I wasn’t worried. I knew just how to smooth things over.

I called Daddy and told him I wouldn’t be coming to work; then I got dressed and headed to the mall. In Victoria’s Secret, I bought a sexy negligee; then I went to an expensive organic market and purchased olive oil, garlic, saffron rice, lobster, and crab legs—everything I needed to go into paella, Louis’s favorite dish.

When he arrived home that night, Louis still didn’t have much to say. He just plopped down on the couch and watched TV until dinner was ready. I was a little concerned at this point, because he’d never given me the silent treatment for such a long time. But once we sat at the table and he tasted the paella, his shoulders seemed to relax and his eyes looked a little less guarded. After his third helping, he looked enough like his old self that I figured it was safe to talk.

“You like?” I asked.

“Yes, I like. It was very good,” Louis complimented me, unbuckling his belt and running his hand over his stuffed belly. “But you’re still not off the hook for last night.”

Damn, he was going to make this harder than I thought.

“I’m not trying to be off the hook. I know I was wrong,” I said, even though I really didn’t think I was wrong, and no one would ever convince me I was. “I just don’t want to lose you, Louis. I’ve never been in love with a man like you before. I don’t want that taken away from me the way it was taken away from my brother.”

He let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m not Keisha … and I’m not your daddy either. If you can’t start trusting me, we’re never gonna make it.”

I got out of my chair and walked around the table. I sat on his lap and asked, “Do you still love me?”

“I never stopped.”

He allowed me to lean in for a kiss, and as soon as our lips met, I felt so much better.

“Louis, let’s never fight again.”

“I’ll do my best. But it would help if you could stop being so jealous.”

“I promise.” I kissed him again, glad that this ordeal was finally coming to an end. “Hey, let’s go watch that movie you rented last night.”

“Sure.”

We poured ourselves two glasses of wine and walked to the living room arm in arm. I now knew why people could be such fools for love. This man had my nose wide open. I had never felt so loved now that he took me back in his arms. Louis was no longer mad at me. If I died right now, I would be happy.

I put on
Training Day,
a movie we both loved and had rented several times before. We’d watched it so many times that we could quote lines together. As we cuddled on the couch and became engrossed in the movie, Louis got this contented look on his face. I felt like we were vibing again.

“I can see how Denzel got the Academy Award for this part,” Louis commented when the movie was over. “This role went totally against the type of characters he usually plays.”

“Yeah, he was one dirty cop … Do you think there are real cops who are that dirty?” I asked.

He sipped on his glass of wine and grunted. “I’m sure some cops are worse than the ones portrayed in this movie. People can be really good at concealing the parts of themselves they don’t want the world to see.”

Then he let me know that all conversation was over, and I didn’t mind one bit. He pulled me into his arms, and we began kissing passionately. After all the stress from our fight, I knew this was going to be some amazing
make-up sex. I felt Louis’s erection through his pants, but I didn’t want to rush into anything. I liked this foreplay. The more we prolonged it, the better the sex would be.

Some twenty minutes later, I was just about ready. Louis was sucking on my breasts and I was in seventh heaven.

Suddenly, his cell phone chirped, letting us know he had a text message. He picked it up, glanced at it, and then put it back down as if it were nothing. He slid my panties down and stroked my thighs gently. I let out a moan and said, “Make love to me, baby. I want to feel you inside me now.”

He reached for the waistband of his boxers, but then backed up off me and stood up. “Damn,” he cursed.

“What is it?”

“I’m out of condoms.”

It took all my strength not to say we could do it without a condom. I was so horny, I was almost willing to roll the dice on getting pregnant.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “You don’t have one in your wallet or something?”

“No.” He shook his head, looking as disappointed as I felt. “I gotta run to the store and get some.”

“All right,” I said with a sigh. I hated to wait, but now that we had made up, I didn’t want to start complaining. “Hurry back, baby. I’ll wait right here for you.” I spread my legs to give him a better view of what he could have when he got back.

He licked his lips and took a deep breath, looking like he was tempted to dive in headfirst. “Damn, girl. You gonna make a brother go to the store with his stuff all hard, ain’t you?”

I gave him a wicked smile. “You know that’s right.
Now hurry up and get the condoms so you can come back and take care of me.”

Louis put his clothes on quickly and headed out.

As soon as he closed the door behind him, I heard a familiar chirp. I looked down at the floor, where I saw his cell phone. He must have received another text. Louis usually kept his phone in his pants, so he never left the house without it. But when he checked that text earlier, he probably placed it on the floor and didn’t notice it when he rushed out.

The phone beeped once, indicating there was an unread message, and it was like a switch went off in my head. Suddenly, I had to know who was texting him. It was probably nothing important, because otherwise he would have reacted differently after the first text. But I couldn’t change my suspicious nature overnight, so I did what came naturally to me: I picked up the phone to read the texts.

The one that had just come in was from a number I didn’t recognize, and it read CALL ME! The one that had come while we were getting busy was from the same number. It read WE NEED TO TALK. Who the hell were these from?

Now my curiosity had the best of me. I went to get a notepad so I could write down the number. I know I ’d told Louis I would stop accusing him of cheating, but I didn’t ever say I ’d stop suspecting, did I? I would just keep the number in a safe place and call it the next day while he was at work.

Just as I sat on the couch and copied the number, I heard the front door opening. I quickly closed the phone and dropped it on the floor, then stuffed the notepad between the couch cushions.

“Hey, baby, that was fast,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound nervous.

“Yeah, I just came back for this,” he said, bending down to pick up his phone off the floor.

“Oh … okay. Hurry back, baby,” I said, just as I had before, except this time, my words were hollow. I was no longer turned on. I felt like we were back at square one.