Adonis knew what that procedure entailed, and he chose not to expound on the details. “You’re a better person than me. I could never get that done.”
“It’s no big deal. You should try it.”
Adonis shivered. “Call it a man thing, but ain’t nobody putting a tube in my behind.”
The receptionist appeared. “Miss Morrison, how was your experience at Lady Brenda’s Day Spa and Salon?”
Monique could only think of one word. “Fabulous.”
In the limousine heading south on Lake Shore Drive, Adonis noticed Monique’s new hair color. “I like what they did to your hair. Is it dyed?”
“Not all of it. What I have is called honey blond streaks. They took strands throughout my hair and bleached them.”
“It highlights your skin,” Adonis complimented.
“The streaks are called highlights, so I guess the salon did a good job.”
“What else did you get done?”
Monique leaned her head back against the headrest and exhaled. “Everything. They poked, they prodded, they rubbed, and they kneaded every inch of my body. While I was lying on the massage table, they put earphones on my ears, and I listened to water falling from somewhere. The sound hypnotized me. Then they turned me over so that I was laying on my stomach as they detailed my back. Someone took what looked like an oversized wooden rolling pin, kinda like the one that Gravy has in her kitchen, and ran it up and down my spine. I didn’t know I was drooling until someone wiped my mouth with a towel. I’m telling you, Adonis, I was so out of it, I didn’t even know my own name.”
Adonis was impressed, pleased that his money was well spent. “Wow, you make me wanna get on the massage table.”
“It’s a mind blowing experience.”
“I’m glad you’re satisfied, Monique.”
Monique extended her upper and lower limbs and stretched. “I’m satisfied, satiated, and sated.”
It was just about two p.m. when the driver brought them to the Buckingham Fountain. From the trunk of the limousine, Adonis retrieved a picnic basket and a large red and black quilted blanket. He led Monique to a grassy spot underneath a huge tree twenty feet away from the fountain. Adonis spread the blanket, set the picnic basket on top of it, then gently pulled Monique down to sit next to him.
“I hope you’re hungry,” he said to her.
Monique watched in awe as Adonis removed a bottle of sparkling white grape juice, cubed cut cheddar cheese, rolled ham and salami slices, potato chips, red seedless grapes, and an entire Eli’s cheesecake from the picnic basket. “How is it that you know what my favorite foods are?”
“Arykah is always helpful. And I told you once before that it’s a man’s job to know what his date likes and dislikes.”
Last week at Houston’s, Monique threw a ball into Adonis’s court when he made that same statement, but he threw the ball back at her. She wondered what he’d do with the ball if she asks him the million-dollar question again. “Is this a date, Adonis?”
“Monique, this could be a date, just two friends getting together, or a chance meeting. I really don’t care what we call it, because it really doesn’t matter. By the way, have I told you how exceptionally radiant you are this afternoon?”
“You told me I was beautiful, but you didn’t say I was radiant.”
“Where are my manners?” Adonis inserted a toothpick into a cheddar cheese cube and fed it to her. “You are radiant, beautiful, sexy, voluptuous, seductive, and flawlessly gorgeous.”
Monique smiled shyly and gave him a short wave. “Aw, Adonis, go on.”
He obeyed Monique thinking she wanted him to stop the flattery.
“I mean it, Adonis. Go on.”
They both laughed, and he poured sparkling grape juice into two flutes. He gave one to Monique and held his own flute out to her. “Here’s to you on your birthday. I pray that God will bless you abundantly. I’m talking about bountiful blessings, stupid fat blessings, the ‘eyes haven’t seen nor ears heard what’s in store’ type of blessing. The ‘just because I’m God, and I can do that’ kind of blessing. The type of blessing that makes people ask ‘why her and not me? The kind of blessing that just doesn’t make any darn sense.”
Monique was almost in tears sitting next to him. Adonis was gifted to render her speechless at the drop of a hat. “Who are you?”
He looked at her like she was nuts. “Excuse me?”
“Who are you and where did you come from?”
Adonis pressed the back of his hand against Monique’s forehead, searching for signs of a fever. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m serious, Adonis. No one has ever covered me in prayer like that before. I’ve never gotten roses delivered to me. No one has ever upgraded my car. I can’t remember anyone ever complimenting me the way you do. Today was my first trip to a spa, compliments of someone else, and this is my first private picnic. I never even got one carat, let alone five of them. This is unreal to me, and it’s too good to be true. I feel like I’m living in a dream that I’ll eventually wake up from.”
Adonis took Monique’s free hand and placed it on the center of his chest. “Do you feel my heartbeat? I’m a real person.” He moved her hand over to his shoulder and down his left arm. “This is real skin. It isn’t a dream. I’m really here, and I ain’t going nowhere.”
They sat staring into each other’s eyes for the longest moment before they were interrupted. A man dressed in a clown suit stood in front of them holding a Polaroid camera. “Would you lovebirds like to have your picture taken for seven dollars?”
“Yeah, we would,” Adonis answered.
The man positioned the camera. “Okay, lean into each other, and smile like you just can’t live without one another.”
Striking the requested pose came so effortlessly. Monique and Adonis sat cheek to cheek, held their champagne glasses up, and smiled.
“That’s perfect. Hold that pose.”
The man gave them the 3x5 colored photo in a paper frame, collected his money, and moved on.
Adonis admired the photograph. “We look good together, don’t you think?”
“You look good and I look good, so we’re destined to look good together.” The word ‘destined’ means ‘meant to be,’ and Monique wondered if she should’ve let it slip from her lips. “I meant to say two people who look good can’t help but look good together.”
“You said it right the first time.”
Monique thought it would be good to change the subject. “I’m hungry. Are you hungry? I think we should eat.”
For the next hour, Monique and Adonis sat, laughed, and ate. Adonis fed Monique ham and cheese as she fed him salami and potato chips. He stretched his legs forward and instructed Monique to lay her head on his lap. He held up a whole grape vine over her mouth and told her to bite off a grape.
She honored his request and looked up at him. “You know, Adonis? You have a way of making me feel like I’m the only female in the world.”
He ran his fingers throughout her hair. “If you were my woman, I’d make sure you always felt that way. When I was in music school, I met this guy named Jesse. He reminded me a lot of myself because he saw a woman whom he just had to have.”
Monique bit off another grape from the vine. “Did he get her?”
“Let me tell you Jesse’s story. Every morning before he went to class, Jesse would see this beautiful woman walk past his dorm room. After two weeks of watching her, he gathered enough nerve to go outside and talk to her. She said her name was Cynthia, and Jesse told her he thought she was pretty and asked if she would consider having dinner with him that evening. Cynthia was reluctant at first, but somehow Jesse talked her into it. She didn’t give Jesse her address, but she agreed to meet him out.
“They made plans to meet at Carson’s Ribs in Elmwood Park on Harlem Avenue. When Jesse got to the restaurant, Cynthia was already seated in a booth. He said she was so pretty, her face had a glow as though a ray of light was shining down on her. D
uring their conversation, Cynthia didn’t want to tell Jesse anything personal about herself like where she lived or worked. He said she even refused to talk about her family. Her excuse was that she didn’t feel comfortable sharing personal information on a first date.”
“I can understand that,” Monique said, biting off another grape.
“How about understanding her ordering two full slabs of ribs for herself and eating three quarters of them? Jesse said Cynthia just about ate both slabs. He only ordered a half slab for himself, and he could hardly finish it.”
“That’s impossible, Adonis. I think your friend was exaggerating when he told you this story. Two whole slabs? I don’t think so.”
“That’s what I thought too, but let me finish the story. After spending almost ninety bucks on dinner for a chick that chose to keep the conversation to a minimum, Jesse decided that night would be the first and last time he asked Cynthia to go anywhere. When they exited the restaurant, Jesse asked Cynthia where she had parked her car. He would walk her to her car to make sure she got in safely. She told Jesse that she didn’t drive to the restaurant. She assured him that she would get safely home on her own. It was late in the evening, and Jesse told Cynthia that he’d feel better about her safety if she allowed him to give her a ride home.
“In the car, she told Jesse to take Harlem Avenue to Roosevelt Road, then turn right. When he got to the corner of Roosevelt and Wolf Roads, Cynthia told Jesse to let her out of the car. She said she would walk home from there. Jesse looked around and saw two cemeteries on the southwest and northwest corners. On the opposite side of the street was a gas station and a church. He asked Cynthia if she were sure she wanted to get out on that particular corner, and she said yes. Jesse persuaded her to give him her telephone number so that he could call and make sure she got home safely.
“She wrote a number on a piece of paper and gave it to him. She kissed Jesse’s cheek, thanked him for dinner, got out of the car, and walked across the street toward one of the cemeteries. He just knew there was no way this girl was going inside a cemetery, so he sat there and watched until someone pulled behind him and blew their horn to get him to move. He turned left onto Wolf Road and saw in his rearview mirror that Cynthia was definitely going into a cemetery.”
Monique stopped chewing the grapes and held onto every word Adonis was saying.
“Jesse made a U-turn and drove back to the corner of Roosevelt and Wolf Roads and pulled over to the curb. When he didn’t see Cynthia anywhere, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number she had given him. An elderly woman answered, and Jesse asked to speak to Cynthia. The woman asked Jesse who he was and she wondered why he was calling for her daughter. He told the woman his name and stated that he and Cynthia just had dinner that evening, and he wanted to make sure she got home safely. The woman became very upset and told Jesse that she didn’t appreciate him calling her house. She informed Jesse that it was impossible for him to have had dinner Cynthia, because she’d been dead for twenty years.”
Monique sat up so fast she made herself dizzy. Her eyes were the size of ping pong balls. “Oh my God.”
Adonis saw her eyes buck out of her head. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t suppress his laughter.
Monique didn’t see anything funny about this story. In fact, it was very sad. “What did Jesse do after speaking with Cynthia’s mother?” she asked anxiously. Monique’s eyes grew wider.
Adonis grabbed her hands to try and calm her. “Monique, it was a joke. There was no Jesse and there was no Cynthia. I made the whole thing up.”
She grabbed a handful of grapes and threw them at Adonis. “That was cruel.” Though she wasn’t really angry with Adonis, Monique couldn’t let him know that. She sat with her back to him and folded her arms across her chest and pouted.
Thinking that he had overstepped his bounds with her, Adonis wrapped his arms around her and pulled her backward into his chest. “I’m sorry, Monique. I didn’t mean to spoil your birthday.”
She saw the cheesecake next to the basket. She smiled mischievously and grabbed a handful and smashed it in Adonis’s face. Because he was caught off guard, Adonis released her. He was willing to take his punishment in stride until he heard Monique laughing at him. He grabbed a handful of cheesecake, and Monique tried to crawl away, but wasn’t fast enough. Adonis got a hold of her right leg and pulled her backward.
He turned Monique over and rubbed the cheesecake over her entire face as she squirmed and squealed. They looked at each other and laughed.
“Look what you did to my face, Adonis. The spa had my make-up just right.”
“You started it,” he said.
“Serves you right for telling that bogus story. Now how do you suppose we get this mess off our faces?”
“I have an idea.” Adonis moved closer to Monique and began kissing her face, concentrating on her lip area.
Monique’s first instinct was to stop him, but decided against it. Why let an entire cheesecake go to waste? What difference did it make if they ate it out of the tin pan or off of each other’s faces? Besides, that was the first time anyone had ever spread anything on her and kissed it off, and Monique enjoyed the attention she was getting.
When Adonis finished cleaning her face, Monique returned the favor. She too concentrated on the lip area.
Adonis walked Monique to her hotel suite. He inserted her key card into its slot and opened the door. She entered the room and noticed he wasn’t following her. “Are you coming in?”
“You don’t want me to.”
“Why would you say that?”
Adonis scanned Monique from her newly highlighted hair down to her freshly painted toes. “Trust me, you don’t want me to.”
Monique walked over to the king-sized bed and sat down. “How do you know what I want, Adonis?”
He looked deeply in her eyes. “You’re trying to seduce me on the down low, Monique.”
She forced a phony shocked expression to appear on her face. “Seduce you? Why would I seduce you?”
“Oh, so I’m reading you wrong, is that it?”
Monique took strands of her hair and seductively placed them behind her ear while staring into Adonis’s eyes. He was in the doorway with one foot in the hotel room and one foot out of it. He had a decision to make. Should he enter the room or walk away from it? Monique was trying to act innocent, but she knew exactly what she was doing to him; he was sure of it.
The left side of Adonis’s brain was battling with the right side. “What am I waiting on?” the left side asked. “She wants me to get under those sheets. I better go ahead and show her what I’m working with.” Then the right side of his brain said, “If there’s any chance of Monique and I spending the rest of our lives together, I gotta do it right. God won’t bless any mess.”
Monique snapped Adonis out of his thoughts. “Are you coming in?”
He looked at her. “You better be glad I’m saved.” He sat her key card on the dresser and gently closed the door behind him.
Monique was grateful that Adonis was the strong one. She, herself, had had a weak moment.
Adonis got on the elevator, paced the small space, and gave himself a pep talk. “You did the right thing, man. You did the right thing.”
When he reached the limousine, the driver asked Adonis for the next destination.
“Take me home quick. I need to take a shower,” he replied.
After watching Monique and Adonis snuggling up in the backseat, the driver knew what kind of shower Adonis needed to take.
A soft knock on the door aroused Monique from her nap at 6:15 p.m. She got up, slipped on her bathrobe, and looked through the peephole. “Who is it?”
“It’s Joanie from the front desk. I have a delivery for you, Miss Morrison.”
Monique opened the door and Joanie gave her two white boxes.
“Who sent these?”
“I’m not sure, ma’am. I just happened to see them on the counter with your name and roo
m number written on them.”
Monique gave Joanie a ten dollar tip and thanked her. She sat the boxes on the bed and opened the larger box first. On top of the wrapping tissue paper was a small envelope.
Monique read what was written on the inside of the card.
‘Your birthday isn’t over yet and neither is the celebration. Slip into this number and join me in the lobby in twenty minutes.’
Adonis
Beneath the tissue paper was a red Donatella Versace strapless sequin and satin gown. “Oh, my God” was all Monique could say. She took the dress and stood in front of a full-length mirror and pressed it against her body. There was no denying the dress had cost a pretty penny. She opened the smaller box and saw red Jimmy Choo satin sling back, three-inch heels and a small red satin clutch. Once again, Monique was rendered speechless. She took a shower and got dressed.
She emerged from the elevator with a look that was to die for. Adonis was standing at the front desk dressed in a black custom made Bill Blass tuxedo, white shirt, a black satin cumber-bund, and tie. In his hand, he held a red rose wrist corsage for Monique. She came and stood in front of him and Adonis thought she was even more beautiful than when he’d last seen her earlier that day. As usual, her make-up was done to perfection.
Adonis loved the ruby red lipstick she wore. The strapless gown fit her every curve. Monique looked as though she was born in it. Adonis recalled earlier in the afternoon when Monique tempted him. After his cold shower, he got on his knees and prayed for strength. He desired Monique but knew that God wouldn’t be pleased if he took her.
He leaned forward and kissed her on both cheeks. “There isn’t a word in Webster’s Dictionary that describes how lovely you are this evening.”
She smiled. “You’re quite dapper yourself.”
Adonis couldn’t help but notice her bright smile. Against the red lipstick, Monique’s teeth stood out like stars against a pitch-black sky. “Girl, you make a brotha wanna propose right here and now.”
Again, she flashed the stars. He slipped the corsage onto her right wrist, then held his elbow out for her to slip her arm through. “Shall we?”
A Woman's Worth Page 13
