by Nicole Falls
I laughed at the skeptical look on Shep’s face, “Yeah, man. It’s cool. Send him back.”
Seconds later, Robert Parker, Senior was walking through my office door again. I stood briefly, gesturing toward the chairs in front of my desk for him to take his pick. He moved hesitantly, as if he expected to be put out again at any second. I sat back down as he selected and sat in the left most chair.
Things were tense initially as I said, “Look I know I extended the invite, but you were so anxious to talk to me. So…talk.”
A few more moments of silence passed before he cleared his throat before beginning to speak. “I…I feel like I owe you an apology, Karim.”
My eyebrows shot up, as those were not the words I expected to come out of his mouth. My mother mentioned that he wanted to talk as a means of building a relationship, but I was certain that he’d want it on his terms. And I certainly wouldn’t think that those terms would begin with an apology.
“Scratch that, I know I owe you an apology. I didn’t press your mother hard enough to be in your life when you were growing up. And I know you had Jimmy there, but that was no excuse. I should have stepped up and been a man.”
“Well…yeah, that’s a given. But why now, man? You let all this time pass.”
“You may not remember, but when you were really little. No more than two or three, Jimmy would let me come by and see you while Bren was at work. It was for no more than maybe an hour at a time, but we’d horse around—play in the backyard and man…those were some of the best days. Sometimes I’d even bring RJ if his mama was feeling up to it. One day, Bren came home on lunch, saw us on the porch playing and about lost her mind. She wouldn’t talk to Jimmy for months after that. She felt betrayed, but your granddad was just trying to do what he thought was right by you.”
I had no memory of any of this. How could I? And my granddad always changed the subject whenever I brought my dad up to him. I guess he felt like interfering back then was as far as he wanted to take it.
“Aight, so what about when I left my mama’s house? You had ample opportunity to reach out then…when I was in undergrad, working…over ten years between. Why is it so important now?”
“Because I promised Jimmy on his deathbed that I’d mend this. We always kept in touch over the years. He was the one who kept me in the loop about you, making me lil scrapbooks highlighting your achievements in school and sports over the years. Always finding a way to make sure my birthday gifts got to you—that I got a ticket to your graduations. He knew Brenda was being ornery, but also didn’t want to overstep his bounds again and risk losing her forever. So he became my inside man, feeding me piecemeal information about the son I had to watch grow and mature from a distance. Look son, I’m done trying to offer excuses. The older I get, the more regret I’m saddled with. And losing my wife—it put a whole new perspective on life for me. And on relationships and what I hold dear. So I reached out to your mother, appealing to her softer side to try and help me make the deathbed promise I’d made her father come true. She and I sat and talked for quite some time. She had no idea how close Jimmy and I had grown over the years.”
“I’m surprised Granddad never said anything to sway me in your favor,” I said, for lack of anything else to say. He was dropping some pretty heavy shit on me and I honestly needed a bit of time to process it.
“He said he tried a few times, but he didn’t know who was more bullheaded, you or your mother,” Robert said, with a slight chuckle.
I laughed and rubbed the back of my head as I did remember Granddad trying to bring up my dad in my late teens years. By this time I’d known who he was and that he knew of my existence, but hadn’t—to my knowledge, anyway—tried to be bothered with building a relationship with me. I think this was around the time I’d started telling anyone who asked that he was dead, so I could see how Granddad may have been reticent to broach the situation with me.
“Yeah, I think the last time he tried, I’d killed you in my mind.”
“Ouch,” Robert said, wincing slightly, “I guess I deserved that based on all you knew at the time. But now…now that you have a bit more of the story? Am I still dead or is there even a chance for…”
“I gotta be honest man, if you expected me to accept you with open arms and have a kumbaya moment after one conversation…the only reason you’re here is because my mom and my lady have been double teaming me with the guilt trips.”
“Fair enough,” he replied, with his hands raised, “But if I may say one thing…about your lady?”
“Tread lightly old man…”
“Relax, son. I was gonna say she was a good one. As intelligent as she is beautiful and I hated seeing her mixed up with JP. That boy…sometimes I’m not even sure he’s truly a Parker. At any rate, God knows she was too good for him. So I’m glad she was able to find love with you.”
I was so caught off guard all I could respond with was a dumbfounded, “Thank you.”
“This was a good start, Karim. And I hope we can continue on this path.”
“I…can’t make any promises, but we’ll see,” I said, extending a hand for a shake and effectively ending this conversation for today. I needed a little time to process all that had happened today.
“Wait…I’m supposed to be looking for the what now?” Celena asked me, as she rooted through the toolbox where I housed my wrenches and sockets.
She had a rough day at work, so we were working off a little tension in the garage. And I was certain that as hard as I was working to distract her from work shit, she was working to distract me from the talk I’d had with Rob Parker. The problem for me was staying focused on teaching her how to change out the spark plugs. She’d shown up to the garage in what she called her summer coveralls—a set that she apparently had custom made that covered barely a damn thing. When she arrived at the garage I was thankful that all of the guys were long gone because her ass in these short shorts would have definitely had me knocking a fool out for staring at my girl too hard.
“Hellooooo, Earth to Karim,” she said, moving from in front of the large tool box to stand in front of me, “While you were over here daydreaming, I think I figured it out.”
She attached the spark plug socket to the wrench and headed back near the Chevy. As she bent over, using the wrench to remove the spark plug from its housing, her ass bounced slightly with every ratchet. She was three cranks in before I settle in behind her, pulling her body back against me with one hand and slamming the hood down with the other.
“Karim! What are you—” she started before I cut her off with a passion filled kiss. It didn’t take long for her to melt into the kiss, sinking against me as my hands moved down her back to cup her ass and set her on the hood. Once she was settled, my kisses moved from her mouth, down her jawline to her collarbone. I swiped my tongue in the hollow of her throat before bringing my mouth back to connect with hers.
The tempo of our kiss was unhurried, as I plied her mouth with lingering, lip smacking kisses. I pulled back slightly, just long enough to snake a hand between us, catching the zipper that ran down the center of her coveralls. Slowly, I pulled it down, raining kisses on each section of beautiful brown skin the descent revealed. I removed the coveralls completely, leaving her on the hood of my cherry red Chevy clad in black lace. An image that was picture perfect, but a camera was the last thing on my mind as I grabbed her left leg and settle it atop my shoulder. I kissed a path from her ankle to her inner thigh, ending just where the juncture of her thighs met to repeat the process with her right. Celena groaned in frustration as I teased, pressing kisses along the waistline of her underwear.
I left her legs draped over my shoulders as I kissed my way up her body to her breasts, tonguing her nipples through the lace of the bra until they hardened. Then I kissed my way back down, sliding my hand into her underwear, seeking the wetness whose smell permeated my senses.
“Fuck,” I groaned, as I stroked her into frenzy. Her breaths were coming in sho
rt, hard pants when I slid down and added my mouth to the mess my fingers were making. I settled in with a hum, licking and slurping as my thumb pressed against her clit, moving in a quick back and forth motion that mimicked a vibration. I alternated between rapid, tongue flicking licks and deep, slow all encompassing licks as I flattened my tongue and ran it from top to bottom of her pussy and back up again.
“Uhhhh-oooooh,” Celena cried out as I spread her open, delighting in her unique flavor, “Shit…yes…right there, please don’t—ahhhhhh!”
She came with a loud cry that echoed through the garage. I kept my mouth on her, lapping her up through the aftershocks, and then kissing my way back up to her mouth. After a few short kisses, I pulled back, looking around to retrieve her panties and clothes so we could finish what we started at home. Celena was still slumped on the hood, as I slid her underwear onto her body and back into place. As I started to pull her coveralls up over her body, Celena sat up and looked at me with a devilish gleam in her eye and shook her head. She reached into one of the tiny pockets on her coveralls and produced a gold wrapped condom.
“You wore this on purpose.”
“Maaaaaybe, maybe not,” she replied, with a smirk.
“Nope, you definitely set me up. Get down, turn around, and bend over,” I said.
She happily acquiesced, hopping off of the hood and positioning herself with her hands braced atop it; ass protruding. I stepped up behind her, peeling off the underwear I’d just replaced. As soon as she stepped out of them, I slapped her on her bare ass. She yelped in surprise as I soothed the sting of the spanking by rubbing and massaging her. A couple more quick slaps had her moaning, completely bent over now, sticking her ass out for more. I quickly pulled my pants down, donned the condom and slid into her from behind. She groaned as I slowly withdrew and slammed into her over and over until I was on the brink of losing control. As I started to pick up speed with my strokes, she began throwing her ass back—giving as good as she got. I felt myself tensing up, knowing I was moments from coming when she melted around me in bliss, her walls milking me into orgasm. Momentarily winded, I slumped over, somehow managing to not crush Celena between me in the car.
“That was…”
“I know…”
I pulled myself upright and slid out of her, paying careful attention to the condom.
“Let me take care of this, so I can get you home and give it to you some more…unless you have more surprises hidden in that lil outfit of yours.”
“Nope,” she replied, grinning as she pulled her underwear up and into place.
We both quickly dressed and I locked up the garage. We exited walking hand in hand, both with dumb grins plastered to our faces. When we reached where our cars, Celena turned to me and said, “Hey, I got a question.”
“Shoot.”
“Why did you wait so long to give it to me like this again?”
“Awwww, come on, babe. Here you go. Can’t you just bask in the afterglow, woman?” I said, with a chuckle.
“Oh sweetheart,” she said as she moved closer to me, biting her lower lip, and tugging on my belt, “now you know I’m not the afterglow type.”
Epilogue…
Six months later…
I scraped the plate with the tines of my fork, making sure I got every last bit of the pie that was left over. I swear I didn’t understand how Karim wasn’t five hundred pounds getting these darn pies from his mama every other week. Miss Brenda’s ice box pie was too damn decadent, but I couldn’t leave it alone. I groaned just thinking about the additional time I’d have to spend running on the treadmill tomorrow. The lingering lemony goodness on my tongue was totally worth it though.
“Babe,” I said, nudging Karim in the arm, “You good?”
His pie sat, mostly untouched, on a plate in front of him as he stared at the television, that he didn’t seem to actually be watching. He had been acting weird all day, starting at PJ’s AAU basketball game earlier. He was distracted to the point of making my spidey senses tingle.
“Hello…Earth to Karim,” I said, waving a hand in front of his face.
That was enough to get his attention. He looked over at me with a forced grin.
“What’s good, babe?”
“That’s what I just asked you. Everything good? You’ve barely even touched your pie. And you’ve been kinda strange and standoffish all day,” I said, trying to keep my internal panic out of my voice. After having been played by too many negroes in the past, Karim’s odd behavior today did not make me feel secure right now.
“Nah…I’m good,” he replied, “Just super into this SVU is all.”
I looked over at the television to see Mark Harmon as Jethro Gibbs striding into his field office.
“Um…we’re watching NCIS,” I laughed, “Are you sure you’re good?”
“Yes. I’m fine.”
“Okay…”
“Okay.”
We sat there for a few more minutes in silence. Me pretending to watch TV, but sneaking surreptitious glances Karim’s way and him not even trying to pretend like he was watching TV as he stared into space with a pensive look on his face.
“I’ll be right back,” Karim said, suddenly, taking off toward his bedroom.
I don’t know what this strange ass behavior was about, but I didn’t feel like sticking around to find out. I grabbed my light jacket and put it on. Karim walked back out to the living room just as I was sliding my feet into my sandals.
“You going somewhere?” he asked, standing in front of me with his hands behind his back.
“I…I think we might need some space. You seem like you need some space. So I’m gonna go home.”
“What?! No…” he replied, stuffing whatever was his in hands into the pockets of his sweats.
“You’ve barely said a word to me all day. I figured maybe we’d finally passed the honeymoon stage and you were getting tired of me. It’s cool. I’ll save you from having to say it and think you were hurting my feelings. Which…by the way…it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if you had said it. But just…I’m just gonna go.”
I turned to walk out the door, but Karim grabbed my wrist and dragged me back to the couch. We sat down and for two minutes we were pretty much in the same positions we were in earlier until Karim heaved a deep sigh, ran his hand over his head and reached into his pockets. His hands came out balled in fists, which he crossed in front of me, saying “Pick a hand.”
“Karim, I’m really just not in the mood for games.”
“Pick. A. Hand,” he said again, his voice a bit more firm this time.
I looked into his eyes to see his usual warmth back there and a hint of mischief. I had no idea what this was all about, but I guess I had to pick a hand to find out. I quickly tapped his right hand. He stuck whatever was in the left back and his pocket and opened his right hand to reveal a small, black, velvet box. My eyes went wide and I immediately began shaking my head no. I hadn’t even noticed that I’d even begun moving backwards until Karim reached out and grabbed my wrist.
He laughed and said, “Calm down…you trust me, right?”
The look on my face must’ve been one of fear because he just laughed again and moved to get down on one knee. I tensed thinking he was out of his fool ass mind because we had not known each other long enough for him to even think about doing what he was thinking about doing.
“Celena, these past few months have been…they’ve been a ride, girl. But I loved every minute of them with your crazy ass. I know we haven’t known each other that long, but…” he trailed off, reaching to open the box
Now how in the hell was I gonna let this man down gently I thought as I looked down at the box in his hand. Nestled in the silky fabric was a set of keys. Wait…keys?
“What did you say?” I asked, completely unaware of the rest of his speech after I focused on how to say no to his proposal in the gentlest way.
“I asked if you would do me the honor of living in sin with me?” Karim sai
d with a smirk, “Not the proposal you thought it was gonna be, huh?”
I let out the biggest sigh of relief and smacked Karim on his shoulder.
“God, yes! I was over here tryna figure out how to tell you know without fucking this up completely. Get up!”
He got up, immediately gathering me to his side., “So?”
“I don’t know. You sure you won’t get tired of me being in your space all the time?”
“How’s that any different from now? You’re stalling. Yes or no, Celena Marie?”
“Don’t try pulling rank with me like Patty does with that first and middle name mess. I…let me think about it,” I said, biting back a smile.
“Girl, quit playing! I can already see you mentally redecorating this space,” Karim said, laughing.
I joined him in laughter knowing he was correct. I could put my place up for rent or on AirBNB to make a lil extra cash when I moved in here. Besides, the man was in desperate need of the expertise I’d gained watching countless hours of GHTV. All of this baby’s first apartment IKEA furniture was on its way out. I needed to introduce my man to West Elm, CB2, and all the other wonderful grown up furniture and accessory places.
“Okay,” I said.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
We sat there for a few minutes in silence before I asked what was in the other hand. He pulled out an identical black jewelry box.
“You made two sets of keys?”
A slow smile crept across his face as he shook his head.
“Nah…that box contains what is apparently your worse nightmare. I got six months to a year of shacking up to get you to change your mind, though.”
“How did you know I’d pick the right hand?”
He shrugged, “I didn’t.”
Acknowledgements
I made it again, y’all! *praise dance break*
Mama: Thanks for putting some respeck on my wishes & not reading the first one. You can’t read this one either. Love you to life, lady!
