Player Haters

by Carl Weber

  Wil

  Halfway to the party I got a message from Diane asking me to come home right away. She didn’t give me any details but the urgency in her voice had me running stop signs and dodging pedestrians until I pulled in the driveway. I jumped out the truck and ran up the walkway as fast as I could. All the lights were out and that wasn’t a good sign. When I opened the door I prepared myself for the worst. Was something wrong with the kids? Was it her illness? I’d just read a story on the Internet about a woman bleeding to death due to fibroids.

  “Di! Diane!” I hollered but didn’t get a response, so I hollered again. “Diane!”

  “I’m upstairs, Wil. Stay right there. I’ll be right down.”

  I walked over to the stairs and looked up. I didn’t give a damn what she said. I wasn’t about to stay downstairs after running five stop signs and nearly running over two joggers. I wanted to know what the hell was going on. But before I could climb the first step, she was gazing down at me from above.

  “Hi,” she whispered in this sexy voice I hadn’t heard in quite some time.

  “Hi, yourself,” I replied, swallowing hard as I watched her seemingly glide down the stairs. She was wearing a red-and-black lace bustier with red panties, a black garter and black stockings. Oh, and let’s not forget the five-inch black heels. Those heels just completed the package. Yeah, my wife was a big woman, but as far as I was concerned, her luscious curves should have been on the cover of Playboy magazine.

  When she reached the bottom of the stairs she gently touched my face and walked around me three times, strutting like a supermodel.

  “Have you been working out?” She grabbed a handful of my ass, startling me. I must’ve jumped about a foot in the air.

  “What’s got into you?” I glanced around for the kids. “And where are the kids?”

  “The kids are at your sister’s. Now stop talking and kiss me.” She pulled me in close and we kissed like I can’t remember us kissing in years. My hands instinctively began to roam her body, which was as soft and warm as I could ever remember. My manhood sprang to attention and I’m sure she could feel it rubbing up against her.

  “I got some good news and some bad news today. Which do you wanna hear first?”

  I hadn’t stopped rubbing my stuff against her. “Tell me the bad news first, then the good news. Maybe the good news will cheer me up.”

  “Linda and Ralph are getting divorced.” Linda was Diane’s older sister by seven years. She and her husband, Ralph, had been married for way over twenty years, but I can’t say that the divorce surprised me. Ralph had been complaining about their sex life the entire ten years Diane and I had been married. I always thought that his complaining was just his way of trying to make Linda step up in the bedroom. I guess he finally decided it was time for him to step out.

  “Oh, damn. I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “So am I. He moved in with some twenty-five-year-old bitch. Can you believe that? They were married before that home wrecker was even born.” She kissed me again, this time lightly. “I don’t want us to be like them, Wil.”

  “Neither do I, Di.” I kissed her back and then remembered she had more news. “So what’s the good news?”

  “Well, there’s a little bit more bad news.” She frowned.

  “Oh, God, more? What is it?”

  She looked up at me. “I know you’ve been patient but I’m still in too much pain to have sex.”

  I tried not to look disappointed, but I was upset that she teased me with her outfit. You couldn’t have paid me to think I wasn’t getting some a few minutes ago. Oh, well, that’s what I get for assuming things. Another day, another cold shower.

  I exhaled. “What’s the good news?”

  “I spoke to the specialist we went to see last week.”

  “Yeah, what’d he say?”

  “He said the tumor isn’t quite as big as he originally thought and that I’d be a perfect candidate for fibroid embolization. Wil, he’s gonna shrink the tumor. I’m not gonna have to have a hysterectomy.”

  I closed my eyes and thanked God. Now that was good news. “When’s he gonna do it?”

  “Next week at L.I.J. Hospital. He said it’d be a little painful but I could come home the same day.”

  “Now that’s what I call good news.” I squeezed her tight.

  “And I’ve got some more good news.”

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, I do.” Her voice got sexy again. “I meant what I said about not ending up like my sister. She forgot what got her Ralph in the first place.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She forgot about meeting her husband’s needs.” She started to kiss my neck while her hand fiddled with my zipper. “I might not be able to have sex, but I can still…”

  “Ohhhhh, shittttt,” I moaned. Her warm hands had taken hold of me and she could have led me to hell and back with the way she was making me feel.

  “Like I was saying, I can still take care of my baby.”

  She slid to her knees and I gently cradled her head as she went to work using her tongue and mouth, making me moan and groan loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear. When she finished, she stood up and smiled. “Happy now?”

  I couldn’t talk. All I could do was nod my head and smile at the woman I loved. I felt like I was a virgin and I’d just been deflowered by an expert.

  She winked. “Good. Now whenever you want some more, just ask. There’s plenty more where that came from.” Again I didn’t speak. I just nodded. “Now don’t we have a party to go to?”

  “We?”

  “Yeah, I wanna go. I haven’t missed an end-of-the-season party since we started dating.” She walked over to the foyer closet and took out a red dress that had obviously been put there earlier for this exact moment. She took the dress off the hanger and slid into it. “I’m gonna change my shoes, but I want you to remember what’s underneath this dress for when we get home.”

  “I don’t think that’s something I’ll forget.”

  “I hope not.” She turned around so that her back was to me. “Will you zip me up, please?”

  “You sure you wanna go to this party?” I asked as I zipped her dress. “You know Maxine is gonna be there?”

  “So?” She walked over to the foyer mirror to fix her hair. “I don’t have anything to worry about, do I? There’s nothing going on between you two that I don’t know, is there?”

  “No. Not a damn thing.”

  “All right, then. I’m just going to have a good time with my friends and my husband.” She turned around, smiling wickedly. “How do I look?”

  I took one look at my wife in that dress and said, “Good enough to eat.”

  “The way I’m feeling right now, I might take you up on that later.”

  “Please do.” I smiled. She took my arm and we headed out the door.

  When Di and I arrived, I was not only surprised at the number of people who showed up at the party but at how many of them were actually dancing. Here I was thinking that I was working with a bunch of nerds the past few months, but these white folks were partying their asses off. I don’t think I saw one person without a drink in his or her hand. So when a few of Diane’s former coworkers accosted her at the door, I decided to head to the bar and grab a drink myself.

  “Let me have a rum and Coke,” I told the bartender.

  “Hey, handsome. Buy a girl a drink?” Mimi slid onto the bar stool next to me just as the bartender brought me my drink. I glanced in Diane’s direction. She was still gossiping with her friends, but if she headed in our direction I was planning on making a hasty retreat.

  “Sure.”

  “I’ll have an apricot sour,” she told the bartender.

  “So did you get everything straight with human resources?”

  “Yeah I’d say everything I was concerned about is pretty much a dead issue up there.” She took her drink from the bartender. “All I have is one more thorn in my side to take care
of.”

  “Well, I hope you take care of it soon, because there’s no one I can think of who deserves to be happy more than you.”

  “Thanks, Wil. That’s sweet. I feel the same way about you.”

  I glanced over at Diane again. Her old boss, Juan Sanchez, had just dragged her on the dance floor. That was good, because I needed to tell Mimi that Di was here and that the slow dance she asked for was not gonna happen.

  “You keep looking over there on the dance floor. Would you like to dance?”

  “Nah, maybe later.”

  “Come on, Wil. You promised me a dance.”

  “I know, but…”

  “But what? You don’t know how to dance or something? Come on. I love Fabolous.”

  “Mimi, I have to tell you something.”

  “Tell me after we dance. Come on.” She tugged at my sleeve.

  Ah, what the hell, I thought. Just one dance can’t hurt. Besides, it will give me the excuse not to slow dance with her later.

  I let out a sigh. “All right. Come on.”

  We headed out to the dance floor.

  Mimi and I were dancing for about five minutes and everything was cool except that I felt paranoid about Diane watching us. My fear was pretty much unwarranted, though, because Diane was on the other side of the dance floor minding her business, dancing with Juan. She didn’t even seem to miss me at all. So I started to calm down and let my guard down. Big mistake. Diane wasn’t the problem. The problem was dancing in front of me, as I discovered as soon as the DJ put on a Busta Rhymes record. That’s when Mimi turned around and started to back that ass on up. The more she backed it up, the more I backed away. I backed away so much I backed my ass right into someone who grabbed my waist so I couldn’t back up anymore. That someone was Diane, and believe it or not, she was starting to dance just as freaky as Mimi was. Those two had me in the middle of a size sixteen sandwich, with both Diane and Mimi trying to outdo each other on the dance floor. I had Diane grinding everything she had up against me from the back and Mimi bouncing her phat ass all over me in the front. And the funny thing is, they both seemed to be having a good time. They were both laughing and smiling, like we were all old friends. And that in itself scared the hell outta me. To make matters worse we’d attracted a crowd around us that was spurring Diane and Mimi’s competition even more by chanting, “Go Wil! Go Wil! Go Wil!” At least they were until that stupid ass DJ put on a slow song and snapped the three of us back into reality.

  That’s when the axe came down on my head because Mimi grabbed one hand and Diane grabbed the other, then they both said, “Let’s dance, Wil,” in unison.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Mimi asked, taking a step toward Diane so that they were eye to eye.

  “That’s none of your business. Who the fuck are you?” Diane replied with attitude, shoving Mimi out of her face.

  “Diane,” I scolded, stepping in between them. I was facing Mimi, hoping I could stop her from retaliating. “Mimi, this is my wife, Diane. Diane, this is Mimi.” Neither of them said a word; they just glared at each other.

  “Wil, are you gonna dance with me or not?” Diane demanded.

  “Yeah, Di, I’m gonna dance with you. I’ll see you later, all right, Mimi?” Mimi didn’t budge and it was pretty obvious she was about to explode at any second, so I thanked God when Henry Wickens, the vice president of sales, interrupted the song. Well, at least until I heard what he had to say.

  “Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen. I’m sorry to interrupt the party but I have a little bad news. Jeanie Brown, the assistant director of human resources, was found dead in her office. They haven’t confirmed it but the police told us it looks like she had some type of allergic reaction.”

  31

  Melanie

  I was pretty much an emotional wreck the entire ride over to the clinic the next morning. I barely slept at all the night before and the little bit I did was filled with nightmares. Plus, I had Trent pulling over every ten minutes because I felt like was gonna puke my guts out, even though nothing came out. And if that wasn’t enough, I was having a damn nicotine fit like you’d never believe. Trent offered me a cigarette but I declined. I was about to have an abortion, yet the mothering instinct in me wouldn’t allow me to smoke while the baby was inside me. Like I said, I was a wreck.

  Trent circled the block, then pulled the car up in front of Choices and turned to me. “Why don’t you get out here while I park the car? It doesn’t look like I’m gonna find a spot on this block.”

  “All right, I’ll wait out here for you.” I stepped out the car.

  “Hey, Mel?” Trent called as he rolled down the window.

  “Yeah?” I stuck my head in the car.

  “You sure about this? ’Cause me, Momma and Wil, we can help you with the baby if you want.”

  “I know that, Trent, but I can’t see myself having a baby right now.”

  “Aw’ight. I just wanted to make sure.”

  I watched him pull away, feeling a little woozy but happy to know my brother cared. Two minutes later I heard a familiar male voice call my name. A very familiar voice that made me feel even woozier.

  “What are you doing here, Prince?” I hadn’t even turned around when I started my question, but when I did my eyes were given a treat. Lord, he was the last person I wanted to see, but that man was fine.

  “Your brother told me you were coming here.”

  “Damn it, why the hell couldn’t he just keep his mouth shut?”

  “He was trying to help,” Prince said as he approached.

  “Help how? By telling you I’m pregnant, so you can harass me. What do you want, Prince?” I used a nasty tone to mask the fact that I was actually a little happy to see him.

  “I came to ask you not to kill my baby.” He looked so sad I could barely take it.

  “Who said it was your baby?” I glanced down the block to see where Trent was, then tried to step around Prince and walk into the clinic. I didn’t think I was ready to handle this conversation right now. Prince didn’t touch me, but he blocked my path with his body.

  “Come on, Melanie. Let’s stop playing games.” His sad face became stern.

  “This is not a game, Prince. This is my life. I can’t have a baby now. I’m not married. I haven’t even finished school. I can barely take care of myself. How the hell am I gonna take care of a child?” I was starting to get emotional. “So no, this is not a game.”

  “I understand that, and if you really wanna have an abortion there’s nothing I can do about it. Sure, I could try to stop you today by acting the fool but if you’re serious you’re just gonna be right back here tomorrow. All I’m asking is that you hear me out. Let me tell you how I feel. And what I’m willing to do to help you if you keep the baby.”

  “And what’s that?” I placed my hand on my hip. I had to keep reminding myself that I was really mad at this man for what he did to Desiree. He was not the kind of person I wanted to be connected to by a child for the next eighteen years. I was not about to change my mind, but he was right. The least I could do was listen to what he had to say.

  “Well, first of all, I love you, Melanie and…” He reached out and put a hand gently on my shoulder. I shook him off with a look.

  “Don’t, Prince,” I snapped. “It’s not helping your cause. One bit.”

  He backed off. “Look, I know it’s hard being a single mother. And I don’t want you to be a single mother. I want us to be a team and raise this baby whether we’re together or not. I’m willing to take responsibility.”

  “Responsibility, huh? How the hell do you expect me to believe that, Prince? I’ve heard so many guys tell girls that same bull when they was pregnant. But when the baby came? Sure, they stuck around for a while, but when they realized they wasn’t getting no ass, poof, they were gone with the wind. No phone calls, no child support, not even a damn Christmas card.”

  “Look, Melanie, I’m not gonna pretend I don’t want you. I do. But I want
this baby just as much. I’m twenty-eight and I ain’t got no kids and my moms ain’t got no grandkids. I ain’t gonna run out on my kid and neither is my mom. And I’m willing to give you this to prove it.” He reached into his coat and handed me a thick brown envelope.

  “What’s this for?” I looked down at his hand but didn’t take the envelope from him.

  “That’s my guarantee that I’m willing to be a good father if you have this baby.” He put it into my hand and his eyes pleaded with me to open it. “That’s a copy of my birth certificate, my driver’s license, my social security card, my pension plan, my last three W-2s, and a $100,000 life insurance policy I took out on myself with you as the beneficiary. Everything you need to collect seventeen percent of what I make for the next twenty-one years of my life, or a little more if I die. You tell me what man who’s not willing to be a father would give you that?”

  “Prince…” I didn’t know what to say as I thumbed through the contents of the envelope. As emotional as I already was this morning, I wasn’t prepared for this. It was so hard for me to comprehend that the same man who could try to get with my best friend was now making such a heartfelt plea to do the right thing by me and my baby. He was starting to melt some of my defenses.

  “Melanie, please don’t kill our baby.” His voice was so gentle and so sad. “I’ll stay out your way. I promise.”

  “I can’t have a baby, Prince.” I fought to hold back my tears. I was crying for the decision I had to make, I was crying for this unborn baby, and I was crying for the relationship Prince and I had lost.

  “Yeah, you can. You already have one inside you.” His eyes went to my still-flat stomach, and he looked like he wanted to reach out and stroke it to be close to our child. “You’re not concerned about having a baby, Melanie. You’re concerned about raising it.”

  “I don’t know if I’m ready to give up my life yet, Prince.”

  “Then just give up nine months. Me and my moms will raise the baby. You can come get the baby on the weekends if you want.”