Raising False Hopes
By Necee
“Mommy, mommy good morning! I made you something!” Nikki was always happy to see Isaiah in the morning. Being a mother almost made up for the lack-luster relationship with Brandon.
“Good morning, sweetie! Where are my hugs and kisses?”
Brandon gently stroked the back of Nikki’s neck and kissed her on the cheek. Nikki thought, “It’s funny how Brandon can show his attention and support for her through Isaiah.” Nikki turned on the light, and sat up in bed. She waited as Isaiah and Brandon presented their recognition gift to her.
Tears welled up in Nikki’s eyes as she read the hand-made card from Isaiah. She took a deep breath as she fought back her tears.
“Son, it’s beautiful! Did you do this all by yourself?” The blue and gray letters spelled out:
Congratulations to my Mommy, A Partner!
I’m so proud of you. Love You Much!
Isaiah
Isaiah had even drawn a picture of a lady with a briefcase symbolizing his mom. Nikki looked at her son and continued to fight back the tears. She was able to fight them off until Isaiah handed her a single yellow rose.
Yellow roses were her favorite flower, and it was the first gift Brandon had ever given her. For some reason it felt so long ago.
“No, Daddy helped me. I’m really proud of you mommy.”
“Well, thank you Isaiah. I feel so honored that you would make me such a beautiful card and give me such pretty flower. Where did you get so much money?”
“I saved it from my birthday. I only had five dollars, so Daddy had to give me two more for the flower, but I promised to pay him back.”
Nikki kissed Isaiah on the forehead. “Thank you again. You need to get ready for school if you want to have time to eat some pancakes, you know you have that field trip to the petting zoo today, so remember to dress casual … no uniform today!”
Isaiah ran towards his room yelling, “pancakes, pancakes, I get to eat some pancakes and wear my favorite jogging suit!”
Nikki watched him in awe at how tall and handsome he was getting. He looked older than his five years. It seemed like yesterday that she had him, only three months after graduating from law school.
She thought things with her and Brandon would be much better after Isaiah was born.
They had been together for nearly three years before Isaiah was born. She would never admit it to anyone, but she intentionally forgot to take her birth control pills a few weeks right before she got pregnant with Isaiah.
Nikki was in the kitchen making the pancakes she had promised Isaiah. When she heard Kirk Franklin and The Family on the radio, Nikki hurried and turned up the radio dial so that she could get her praise on with Kirk. This was one of Nikki’s morning rituals. Before she starts each day, she has to give thanks to God for her many blessings and to give him the praise he so much deserves.
Brandon walks up behind her and grabs her around the waist. It felt good for him to touch her in such a relaxed way. It had been too long since he held her. Brandon was dark, stood at least 6’2 with very broad shoulders. He definitely had that NBA athletic-built going on.
Brandon kissed her on the neck. “Good morning, I hope things went well for you last night.”
“Yes, everything went well. However, I really missed you.” He pulled away and the cold man she had come to know so well returned.
Brandon had already rehearsed what he was going to say to Nikki. He knew she would have something to say about him not being there. He wanted to be there for her, but he just wasn’t in the mood to deal with all those rich, arrogant, fake ass people. He refused to attend another “why is she still with him?” event.
When Nikki won her first big case, the firm gave a reception in her honor. The first question everyone asked Brandon was “what do you do for a living?” When he responded that he was a team leader at the United Package Service, the conversation didn’t seem stimulating enough to continue.
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there last night. We’ve been having some theft problems occurring on the second shift and I had to stick around to investigate. Besides, I haven’t been to my apartment in over a week and I needed to check on it. I wasn’t trying to miss your big night, but it’s better that I don’t come than to come late, right?”
He grabbed hold of her again and pulled her close to him. Nikki could never resist his bright smile and gentle eyes. “I know how important making partner is to you. Let’s plan to go out next week to celebrate.” Brandon kissed her so deeply that she forgot about the pancakes she had been cooking for Isaiah. It took the fire alarm going off to break the trance he had put her in.
“Here, I have a little something for you to show how much I love you?” Nikki really did feel that Brandon loved her. He just had a funny way of showing it. But Nikki is such a sucker for romance. She opened the card and in his handwriting it read:
There is no one like you. I thank God each day for sending you to me. Can’t wait until we become a family and you, my wife.
Love, Brandon
The card accompanied a half dozen of red roses. That was one of the things she loved most about Brandon–genuine and simple. She hugged him for a very long time, letting him know without words that everything was okay.
*****
“Good morning boo, what’s up? I hope it’s what I think it is …”
Pearl started to move her hands under the silk sheets searching for Robert’s second head, which wasn’t hard to find. Robert pushed her hand away. He immediately noticed the look of disappointment in her face. He grabbed hold of her hand and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek.
“I love you, but you know I don’t like to do it in the morning, especially when I have to go to work in a couple of hours. I’ll be exhausted for the rest of the day. I really need to be alert today.”
Robert worked for the Memphis International Airport in the IT/Air Traffic Control Department. He enjoyed working, working and hunting. Robert’s smooth, chocolate skin and well-groomed beard made Pearl shiver with excitement every time she laid her eyes on him. It didn’t hurt that he was six-feet-five-inches tall, lean, and muscular with a size 14 shoe either. Pearl has been hooked on the man since the day she met him.
Even though Robert was well endowed, having sex any time of the day in every which way is not one of his top priorities. His idea of having sex consisted of one position, after sunset, about once or twice a week. Pearl hadn’t had that much experience in the sex department. It wasn’t that Pearl some kind of freak, she had only slept with two other men before Robert. But at least she had experienced the pleasure of giving, and receiving, a lube job and performing sexual acts in the most inconspicuous places.
Pearl was careful not show all of her frustration, her mother had taught her better than that. But, she was growing impatient with Robert. He hadn’t even noticed the new skimpy lingerie she had on. “You have to go into work early again? You promised that we could have sex one morning this week. I was hoping it was going to be today! I need you, I want you.”
Robert leaned in and kissed her on the lips. “I’m sorry baby, but I have to get to work. I know I made you a promise, and it will happen, just not this morning. By the way I love the new teddy, it’s my favorite color too, make sure you wear again, okay?” Pearl spent most of her spare time trying to look and dress sexy for her man. She has that dark brown skin tone with the most amazing brown eyes. She’s small frame but has a very attractive shape that would catch most guys attention.
Pearl had to push back her smile. She knew she had a good man. “Okay, but I’m not letting you off the hook.”
Robert was relieved. He quickly got moving, jumped in the shower, and was off to work. Sometimes he felt Pearl, women in general, were obsessed with sex. He felt that way because women came on to him all the time, especially at work. He didn’t see himself as handsome. He didn’t even dress sexy. He wondered what it was about him that made women go wild for him.
“Good afternoon, Robert. How are you?”
“Hello, Sasha. I’m doing well. Robert said with a smile.” He had been noticing Sasha for some time, but made a point not to let it show. He didn’t want anyone accusing him of sexual harassment or anything.
Sasha Benay was a TransAmerican Airlines director in customer service. Of all the women that had come on to him, Sasha was the only one he often thought about sinning with. Sasha was a fine, five-foot, eight inches, 145 pounds, smooth chocolate skin, long beautiful hair that she wears in braids most of the time, perfect nails and teeth, and a body women wish they had, and men wish they could spank.
She even looked great in her TransAmerican uniform. She would flirt with Robert from time to time, but it was done very tastefully and discretely. Today felt different for Robert, he decided to flirt back just for the fun of it.
“How about coffee later?” Sasha asked.
Sasha was expecting him to respond with his usual, “maybe.” She almost lost her cool when he accepted. She had been trying for months to get him to a least look at her like he wanted her. He was a challenge now, someone that she just wanted to see if she could be with.
Sasha was thinking to herself, “this brotha doesn’t know who he’s messing with.” Sasha treated men like boy toys. She enjoyed her single life to the fullest. With her flight benefits, she had men in different states and countries. She often reflected on something her granny used to tell her about men, “Honey, let every state furnish their own man.” Lord, knows her granny didn’t mean for her to have a man in every state or country. Sasha decided to expand her granny’s scope to cover states and countries and just stick with granny’s literal meeting. Sasha chuckled at the thought.
It was around 3:00pm, and Robert started walking towards Starbucks. Sasha was also walking towards Starbucks, but in the opposite direction. As he walked down the corridor, Sasha visualized what it was going to be like having sex with his tall lanky self.
She pictured herself pinned to the back of her office door, straddling him, arms flying in the air as if she was at church feeling the holy spirit, then holding his face gently but firm right between her 36D breasts ….
“Sasha, Sasha, where would you like to sit?” Robert’s sexy voice broke her soon-to-be wet dream. Sasha was embarrassed.
“Oh, oh, oh, I’m sorry, I don’t know where my mind was, how about over here in the corner. Can you please order me a regular coffee with two raw sugars?”
As Robert walked over to the table, Sasha was pleading to “Jane” to calm the hell down. But, nooooo there she goes, getting all moist and bothered. Sasha tried harder to shake those visuals of Robert out of her head. This was a bad time for Sasha. She’d been off the rag for two days and was hornier than ever.
“So, Robert, tell me about yourself.” Robert appeared to be extremely nervous. Every time Sasha opened her mouth, he looked to his left then to his right before responding. You would think they had just committed the crime of adultery and he was about to be stoned by Jesus, himself. Sasha could tell right off that this was probably his first thought about being naughty. Sasha thought to herself, “this brotha doesn’t have a clue, doesn’t he know he’s messing with fire!”
“Well, I have been married for seven years, and working for the Airport for about 14 years.”
“Do you have children?”
“No, none yet, one day we will though.” Robert tried to push the nervousness out of him voice, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Pearl. He didn’t want to hurt her, but there was something about Sasha from the way she licked her lips to the way she walked. She was just too sexy.
“Is that it, surely your life is more exciting than that. How do you like to be entertained?”
“I enjoy reading mysteries and hunting.”
“You see, we have something in common. I enjoy reading as well. When I’m not traveling, my normal routine on a Sunday is going to church, brunch, and Starbucks for coffee and reading. You ought to join me sometime, and we can read together.”
Robert knew that he would do things with Sasha he shouldn’t be doing if he met her for coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. The meeting would just be the appetizer to a meal he couldn’t wait to sink his teeth in.
“I don’t know if we should…”
Sasha stopped Robert by putting her finger over his mouth. “You don’t have to worry about me I’m a big girl. I’m not looking to break you and your wife up. I only want to have a little fun. Don’t you think we could have fun?” Sasha was just too breathtaking. Her hands were even softer than he imagined.
Robert let a smile go, trying to push back images of him and Sasha in bed with her riding him. “I just might take you up on your offer.” He didn’t understand why she was so interested in him. In his world, no woman would or could be satisfied being the “other” woman. Not only had she sparked his curiosity, he couldn’t wait to get a taste of her body.
“So, tell me, what do you like to hunt?”
“Uhmmm, deer, wild turkey, duck, rabbit,… you name it, I will or am willing to hunt it.”
“Wow, how exciting! I often wondered what enjoyment one gets out of hiding, lying, and waiting for the right opportunity to catch its prey.”
“It’s more than just mere excitement. It’s more like a release of tension, relaxation and dominance … all emotions working together, simultaneously. Hunting is more than just a sport to me, it teaches you things that are not easily learned in life. For instance, let’s take discipline and patience. There are many guidelines when it comes to hunting.”
“Such as, hunting deer, you can only do so during daylight hours. You have to start early and be extremely organized because you don’t have time to loose. I can recall many times hanging in a tree for hours in the cold, rain, high winds, just for the hunt … not even thinking twice about giving up. I owe much of my life successes to this game. I apply those same principles to my personal life and career.”
“Quite the sportsman, you are. I didn’t think hunting was that serious. You have definitely peaked my interest. I could use a little patience and discipline in my life. Perhaps, you could teach me a thing a two.”
“Really? So, you’re telling me that you would be willing to dress up in camouflage and bright orange gear, cap, vest, boots and use a 30 30 rifle?”
“Yes.”
“Waking up around 5:30 in the morning, getting into position around 6:45, and waiting in the same position for 3-6 hours at a time… “
“Yes.”
“Staying overnight at a camp site, sleeping in a tent, in the month of November in the countryside of Oakland, Tennessee?”
“Yes, no problem.”
“You are something else!”
“Hey, when you’re ready to give me lessons, here’s my number, call me.”
Excerpted from Grooming Him for Her by NeCee. Copyright © 2007 Posted by permission. All rights reserved.
Necee was born and raised in Michigan, USA, where she still reside. Grooming Him For Her is her first novel. You can read more about her at www.Neceeonline.com
Please e-mail comments to comments@thenewblackmagazine.com
Send to a friend |
View/Hide Comments (0) |
