Full Figured 3: Carl Weber Presents

by Hampton, Brenda

  “He seemed too sure of that shit he said to me for ya’ll to have never done anything.”

  “I went on a few dates with him. That’s it.”

  He was quiet after that. To be honest, I was scared that I had said the wrong thing. You never knew what would set him off. My head would not stop hurting. I could hear the rustle of the covers as he moved around. He pulled me close to him and wrapped his arms around me. I could feel him hardening on my back. He loved to sleep naked.

  “Chyanne.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I will hurt you up if you even think about fucking that nigga. Don’t make me go there.”

  I didn’t respond. I was just happy that was all he said. It wasn’t long after that we made love. It was like heaven of course. Not the usual aggressive Aric. He made love to me slow and long. He had me climbing the walls and snatching sheets off the bed. Our bodies were wrapped so tight I didn’t know where mine ended and where his began.

  I was looking forward to spending the Christmas holiday with Aric. I had been making arrangements and preparations for the last couple of weeks or so. I had bought food and a couple of new outfits and we both had helped to decorate each other’s houses, inside and out. I was falling behind on my Christmas shopping because I had gotten sick for about three days. Somehow I caught a stomach virus. But Aric took care of me. He had made me come home with him and he took two days off just so it wouldn’t look suspicious with us both being out, but I was better now.

  I parked my car in Aric’s garage and pulled out the bags of food I had with me. As I unlocked the door and walked into the kitchen I could hear him on the phone. Whoever he was talking to had pissed him off. As soon as he heard me come into the kitchen he stopped talking and walked into his office. I heard him lock the door. I shook my head. He had been doing that a lot lately. I popped three Tylenol to help my headache and scratched my nipples. He didn’t come back out of his office for another thirty minutes and I was too tired to argue with him. Instead, I cooked. We ate and we went to bed shortly thereafter. I could barely keep my eyes open and I didn’t understand why I was so sleepy because I had basically slept all day and the night before. While in the bed that night he told me that he had decided to go home, to New York, to see his parents for Christmas. At first, I put up a fuss and I actually shed some tears. I had been doing a lot of that lately. It wasn’t because he wasn’t going to be here for Christmas. It was because I knew he was lying. I knew a woman had been on the other end of those secret phone calls, but what could I do? I had heard him tell her he loved her tonight and that bothered me more than anything. I was weak for this man and I hated myself for being so weak. He knew that I knew he was lying.

  I could tell by the way he was looking at me when I was cursing and yelling at him and we were standing across from each other like opponents in a fight. I could tell when he pulled me close to him and tried to get me to calm down. I could tell when he stripped me of my clothes and placed kisses that ignited my insides all over my body. I could tell he knew when he spread my lips and sucked on that most sensitive part of me and when he licked, kissed, and sucked on my wet oasis. I could tell when he long stroked in and out of me. I could tell. . . .

  For a week, I didn’t see Aric. I didn’t hear from him. Seven whole days. Seven whole nights. It broke me. I’m not going to lie. For the first few days I was sick about it. I stayed in bed crying myself stupid, but after a while I found myself calling Jamie. I needed someone to talk to and he had been that person for a while now. I had found that whenever I had problems concerning me and Aric, I called Jamie. Most times, all he did was listen, and only when I asked did he give me his opinion.

  That night, he invited me to his house for dinner. He lived in Atlanta and I had to admit I was excited to see him as I knocked on his door. From the outside his place looked like an old firehouse or police station. You saw that a lot in Atlanta. Old buildings would be turned into lofts. I had on a Polo red velour sweat suit that Aric had bought me with a pair of Polo Brenly Leather sneakers. My hair was flowing down my back and around my shoulders. I was shocked when he opened the door. His locs were in disarray and he was only in a pair of cream linen draw string pants. He had on no shirt and that was the first time I had seen the tribal tattoos surrounding his upper chest. Jamie’s body was the business. His upper body had the cut of a cobra head. Broad chest that fanned out and then curved down into the perfect V that had a nice package hanging beneath it. I could hear light mood music playing in the background.

  “Hey, how are you,” I asked him as he embraced me.

  “Good, come in.”

  He moved to the side and ushered me in. The smell of vanilla and peppermint hit my nose as soon as I stepped inside. The inside of his place was like a wide open space. This place was so huge I believed if I would have yelled there would have been an echo. He had stained cement floors and his sofas and art work were all earth toned colors. He gave me a quick tour of the place and I must say I was impressed. Everything was in place minus a few pair of his jeans lying around. After dinner, after everything had been put away, Jamie and I lay on his oversized sofa talking about nothing and everything all at the same time.

  “So I take it Aric is not around? That would be the only reason you are here right now. Am I right?” He asked.

  I looked at him. “No, he’s not around, but that’s not the only reason I’m here.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, OK Chyanne. I was born at night, but not last night.”

  The only luminosity we had was by candlelight but I could still make out the offhand smirk on his face. I was about to try and defend my actions, but he stopped me.

  “Don’t play games with me, Chyanne. I am not going to be the man you can run to when you and ole boy have problems. I am not a toy. You can’t put me down and pick me up when you feel like it.”

  His voice was raspy and deep as he looked at me through hooded lenses. It was eleven-thirty at night Christmas Eve and here I was with Jamie. I wouldn’t have thought I would be here, but here I was.

  “I understand that,” I said back to him. “I am not trying to hurt you Jamie, but to be honest, I don’t know where he and I are going to go. I haven’t heard from him in a week. I’m lonely and I just needed someone to talk to.”

  Neither one of us said anything for a while. I knew I had probably made him feel some type of way about what I had said, but I hated to be lied to. So I was not about to lie to him. We laid with each other well into the night, sometimes talking, at times touching. The later it got into the night, the more intense our touches became. My mind wandered to Aric. I wondered what he was doing . . . wondered who he was doing. A few times I got this feeling that I couldn’t shake along with images of Aric in between another woman’s thighs, sexing her like he sexed me. I wanted to call him, but couldn’t bring myself to hear another call going to voicemail or another text going unanswered. That’s probably what made me turn to Jamie and place his hand between my thighs once more.

  Only this time, he didn’t stop at just touching. Before I knew it all of my clothes were on the floor and I was about to give to Jamie what only one other man had gotten. As Jamie worked magic between my thighs, images of Aric flashed through my head. Not to say that Jamie was lacking because he definitely was not. Jamie had skills that had me salivating from the mouth. He gave me what I needed to take my mind off of Aric for a while. Not just tonight but the next night and the next one too. Jamie didn’t celebrate Christmas so I helped him to set up for Kwanza. I learned that he was a freelance photographer on the side too and I let him take snap shots of me that I thought I would never do. During one of our slow sexing sessions, I let him set the camera in front of his bed and snap pictures of us.

  Although I was having fun with Jamie, I found a way to send Aric a text. Simply because . . . I was missing him like crazy. I knew he was probably with whoever that woman was on the other end of the phone, but I just needed to hear something from him. He had asked me to tr
ust him, so that’s what I was doing.

  I love you, I sent to him. I stayed in the bathroom for about ten minutes, hoping he would text me back. I got nothing. My feelings were hurt. I wanted to cry until I was walking out of the bathroom and my phone buzzed.

  Ditto was all he replied, but that was enough for me. He may have been with whomever, and as crazy as it sounds, in my heart I knew he was thinking about me.

  Chapter 9

  The New Year found me back to my usual routine. There was work and there was Aric. I took it upon myself to question him on his whereabouts over the Christmas holiday. We had a knock down drag out fight about that.

  “Why are you always questioning me like I am your damn child,” I remembered him yelling at me.

  I just shook my head and answered, “Whatever Aric. This coming from the man who will mess me up if I even think about being with another man right? Last time I checked, I was a grown woman too!”

  I knew I was pushing the limit with that, but to hell with it. Yeah I had to endure him yelling and telling me, of course, not to try him, but I was not holding my tongue anymore. Forget that. He could kiss my whole entire juicy behind. So yeah I got hemmed up in a corner and I got him in my face, but he got a piece of me too. That was about a week or two ago. It is now the thirteenth of January, my birthday. Yesterday was his birthday. Yes, our birthdays fell one day after the other one. We celebrated his birthday yesterday and all he wanted to do was be inside of me all day. Not that I was complaining, but it was already a bit much to handle. He said he was making up for what he missed during the Christmas week. We went out for a while but all we could do was think about getting back home to his bed. Sambuca was a great place to celebrate with the live jazz and all, but with the romantic atmosphere and dim lighting, it didn’t help our horny mood any.

  While sitting at my desk, I was working on a memo to send to all of the executives. I opened my top desk drawer and noticed there was a small maroon velvet box. My heart raced and then skipped a beat. It was from Aric. I slowly picked up the box and opened it. The sight of the tear drop diamond ring set in platinum gave my heart a conniption. I almost jumped out of my skin. I calmed myself quickly, picked up the box, and walked into Aric’s office.

  He looked up at me and gave a smile when he saw it in my hand. “What does this mean?” I asked him. I needed to know because he was the one insisting we have no official title. “What finger do I put this on?” I asked before he could answer the first question.

  I waited impatiently for his answer.

  “You can put it on whatever finger you want. I don’t care as long as you put it on,” he answered.”

  Whatever thoughts and hopes I had went right out of the window. I was so sick of crying, especially over him. He walked around to the front of his desk.

  He sighed before asking, “What are you crying for, Chyanne?”

  I closed the box and looked up at him. “For a minute I thought maybe you actually cared about my feelings like you say . . .”

  He cut me off. “I do. . . .”

  “But we don’t need the title right? Just as long as you can mark and tag your territory.”

  He frowned and walked over to me. “Why do you keep doing this, Chyanne? I keep telling you how much I care about you. My feelings won’t change just because we don’t have a title or just because you feel you need more to be secure. I told you there is some shit that I have to take care of first. You have to let me do that. Don’t try to pressure this or try to force this into what you want it to be. The ring is not about me marking my territory. This ring is just another way to show you how deep my feelings are and how much I really do care about you.”

  I wiped the tears from my face and looked down at the box in my hand then back up at him. “What do you want from me Aric? You don’t want us to have a title, but we do all the things that people in committed relationships do from the arguing to the love making. Is there even any future in me doing this with you?”

  He pulled me into him and hugged me. “You’re thinking too much about this and getting yourself all worked up over nothing. We’ll talk later okay? It’s your birthday, don’t do this today.”

  I wrapped my arms back around him and we stood there until we heard the elevator ding. He removed the ring and quickly slid it on my left ring finger and then gave me a quick peck on the lips. A few minutes later we were in the break room where Justin had set up a surprise party for me. It did surprise me and we all were in for a surprise when Jamie was escorted in by security with a big flower arrangement of carnations and roses. He had about six balloons that all read happy birthday. He also had about three different gift bags. He had on dark denim loose fitting jeans, a red scoop neck sweater, and black Tims. His locks were braided back into two braids.

  “Damn, bitch,” Justin whispered to me. “You ain’t tell me you were pulling them like that!”

  The mouth of every woman in the break room had dropped to the floor. I could hear the whispers and the ‘damns’ traveling around the room. My eyes diverted to Aric and the smile he was carrying only a few seconds before had disappeared. If looks could kill, Jamie would be road kill. Jamie smiled and walked over to me and pulled me into a tight hug and Lord help me, but I was not prepared for the kiss he planted on my lips. And I could have died a thousand deaths when he kept the kiss going so long that Justin started hissing and making cat calls with the other women in the room.

  “I want one of him for my birthday,” I heard someone say and a few other ladies laughed loudly and agreed.

  When Jamie was done kissing me he handed me the gift bags and looked over to Aric. He gave a head nod and asked, “What’s up Aric?”

  I now knew how a person having a heart attack felt. Of course Aric gave a head nod back, since no one knew about what we had going on and now all of the rumors may stop since Jamie had pulled this stunt.

  “Can I speak to you outside?” Jamie asked.

  I didn’t know what else to say so I nodded and let him lead me out into the hall.

  “Did you get the pictures?” he asked.

  I nodded. He had sent me the pictures he had taken of us and he made a few into artistic nudes.

  “Yeah. I checked the mail this morning and they were there.”

  “You like them?”

  “Love them. Didn’t know they would come out so perfect.” We were quiet for a minute before I asked, “Why did you do that, Jamie?”

  He shrugged. “Because I could. What is he going to do? Let everyone know he’s having sex with his assistant?”

  I cut my eyes at him.

  He held his hands up like he was being robbed. “Well, hey. You said you guys weren’t in a relationship. Not me, but look I have to go. I’ll get at you a little later.”

  We said our good-bye and he was gone. When I walked back into the room Aric was gone and a few of the other executives were as well. We finished up the party and then it was back to business. Aric didn’t come back to his office for the rest of the day, and I didn’t get to finish all of my work until about six. I tried calling him a few times but got no answer. I already knew what would happen as soon as he laid eyes on me and I was preparing myself for the fight. I stopped and picked up a few items for my house before going home. As soon as I saw his platinum colored 7 series BMW in my driveway my head started to hurt. I quickly got all of my bags out of the car and made my way inside. I headed for the kitchen and started putting away the items I had purchased. I was shaking and my nerves were on end. So much so that I knocked over the three glasses sitting on my counter.

  “Damn!” I felt as if I was about to pass out.

  I rushed out of the kitchen to get the broom from the small closet in my dining room. I didn’t see or hear Aric, but I knew he was here. I could feel his anger. I swept the glass up and was going to go to my bedroom until I walked out of the kitchen and saw Aric was sitting on my sofa. I already knew it was about to be some mess. I could tell by the way he was sitting and by the
way his eyes cast a despondent glance at me. Once again his arms were thrown across the back of the couch and he was sitting with his legs spread wide. He had changed into some gray sweats with a white thermal shirt and all white Nike Air Force Ones.

  “Aric I don’t feel like fighting . . .”

  “You fuck him?”

  Something in his voice unnerved me.

  I lied. “No.”

  He stood and his eyes told me to try again.

  “Don’t lie to me.”

  I was balling and un-balling my fists trying to get my nerves together.

  “I said no.”

  I panicked when he slowly began to walk over to me. I wasn’t prepared for him to pull the brown envelope with the pictures of me and Jamie out and throw them in my face. I turned my head and put my hands to my face to avoid impact. I had left them on my dresser this morning because I was in a hurry leaving. I didn’t think to put them away. I looked down at the pictures of me and Jaime having sex . . . Jamie’s face between my thighs . . . me with my head thrown back enjoying it . . . me on top of Jamie . . . Jamie on top of me . . . and so on . . . and so on. The pictures had flown all around my living room. Before I could fix my mouth to say anything Aric was in my face. He looked like a mad man. His eyes were red and his breathing was rampant. With his hand gripping the back of my neck and my hair, he pulled me to him. I don’t know but a certain level of defiance arose in me.

  “Let me go, Aric,” I screamed and struggled with him.

  He nearly lifted me off of the floor and threw me across the room. I got up to try and run for my room but slipped on one of the pictures and twisted my ankle again. I didn’t have time to relive that pain because Aric had snatched me up by my shirt and yanked me to him. With the way he had me I had no choice but to look up at him.

  “So did you fuck him?” he asked me again. His voice was deep, low, and lethal.