Meet Me Halfway

by Xyla Turner

  "Seven," I reminded her. "You've had seven and I was the one that gave them to you. With my mouth, my hands, and my cock. Every single one came from me. Therefore, if you want something, you come to me."

  A smile spread across her face that made me want to cover my jewels. It was not a delightful or satisfied smile but borderline evil.

  "You want a cookie, Knox?" She stepped towards me so our noses were a split hair apart. "You think because you’re able to wrangle some orgasms from me, you own me? I can use my vibrator and get fifteen orgasms. Shit, I could have had ..."

  My lips crashed against hers because she was turning me on and I did not want to hear her say another man's name. My hands wrapped around the back of her neck and her lower back so I could press that delectable body against me. Like always, her arms curled around my shoulders and her fangs came out to play.

  When I finally released her, I asked, "You hate me, right? Then make sure you only hate me."

  I slapped Nina on the ass then grabbed her hand. Not to my surprise, the woman lazily followed me into the living room, seemingly forgetting that she was angry with me.

  "You must be Nina. Nice to meet you. I'm Pops," my father yelled across the room.

  "Nice to meet you, sir." Nina waved.

  "Well, after I wipe the floor with your friend again, we'll see if you still think that," he answered.

  "Oh, you were lucky the first time. Not sure you'll be so lucky today," Nina replied back with that beautiful smile on her face.

  "Shit, now. You got another sassy one, huh?" Pops looked at me. "Well, guess I got to shut her up too. Let's go on and get outta here."

  "Girl, you're so crazy," Tess said as she pulled Nina in for a hug but I didn't let go of her hand. "Pops is really good."

  "You're really good too," Nina responded.

  Tess looked down at our connected hands and said, "Oh, my bad. Is this a thing?"

  "No," Nina said with conviction.

  "Don't look like it to me." Tess looked at me.

  "She just needs a guide. I'm that, while she's on my turf." I nodded towards Nina.

  "Right, Knox." Tess laughed.

  The entire family was at the lanes, which felt like déjà vu, since we were watching Tess and Pops go strike for strike until Pops ended up with a spare. Nina rejoiced while everyone else watched in horror as he lost. Pops was a good sport about it, though. When it was all over, he gave Tess a hug and then told Nina that she was probably Tess' good luck charm and next time they'd play, she'd better come to root for him.

  "Not a chance," Nina laughed.

  "Well, we'll see what you say after you've had my carrot cake." Pops winked at her.

  Nina looked at me and asked, "Is it that good?"

  "Yeah," I confirmed. "That shit is addictive."

  We arrived back to the house shortly after three o'clock and thirty minutes later, we were all at the table eating.

  "So, Nina. You're from the city too?" Pops asked.

  "Yeah, Brooklyn, to be exact."

  "What's your interest in my son, here?"

  Fuck.

  "Pops," I warned but the old man was entirely too stubborn.

  "No harm in me asking. A man should know where he stands." Pops waved me off.

  "Well, your son has been my guide for the little while I've been here. Repaying me for when he was in my city and I was sort of his guide," Nina replied with a smile.

  "Ah, so nothing romantic between you too?" Pops probed, but then kept talking. "Shit, don't answer that because if you say it ain't, I'd have to tell you that's a load of horse shit."

  "Pops," both J.D. and I snapped at the old man.

  "What!" He slammed his hand down on the table.

  "I didn't bring her here for this. She's a friend of mine and Tess, okay?" I snapped. "We're not an item or dating or any shit like that. I don't bring women here and if you wondered why, now you know why."

  "Son, you don't date anyone." My father looked me in the eye. "Thought you were a monk for a while there? After that shit that went down..."

  "What about it, Pops?" I immediately cut him off. "I got to fuck everything that’s moving or commit to someone who I don't like. What? Should I be bitter like you and say fuck 'em all or just act like I don’t give a damn?"

  Pops wanted to cross that line, so I was crossing it with him.

  "Watch your tone, son!" My father growled at me with narrowed eyes.

  "Why? You insult and interrogate my guest, trying to put my business out there at the table and you want me to watch my tone?" The pain in my chest spiked like a knife.

  He knew why I wouldn't discuss it, talk about it or address it. Why he would even think about bringing it up was fucked up. My left leg was jumping because the tension and anger that coursed through my body was about to boil over.

  "Knox," J.D. called using his big brother, warning tone. Yet, I had no more fucks to give.

  "What?" I snapped at him. "Fuck that. I ain't ever getting married again. Happy Pops? So, who I fuck is nobody's business and you damn sure don't get to interrogate them."

  I stood up and left the table because I was seconds from turning that shit over. Hopping in my car, I saw Nina and J.D. coming out of the house after me but I pulled off and left. She had all her shit to go to the airport and there was no need to hash up buried shit. I’d shown her the same hospitality she’d extended to me in New York.

  We were even.

  Three months later:

  "Hey, Knox. Ready to get out of here?" Lori rubbed up against me as I was in a drunken state, barely standing.

  "Yeah." I tried to grab onto her non-existing hips.

  Fuck.

  She led me out of the bar, to the back alley where it smelled like piss, beer, and skunks.

  "You've been MIA awhile Knoxy. Want Lori to make it all better?" She dropped on her haunches and fumbled with my belt. "Let's just get this open here."

  Nothing was going on down below the belt, and it had been the same situation for the past few months. Fucking Lori was not about to change any of that. My dick did not work anymore. I was broken and why?

  I knew it was that fucking woman. All I did was return the hospitality, show her around a bit along with some orgasms and now nothing worked. This type of problem was some shit out of a fantasy book; like a curse was on me or something.

  It was her.

  I knew it.

  "Stop," I told Lori. "Ain't shit happening down there."

  "I know how..." She persisted.

  "Fuck, woman," I yelled. "Go on, now."

  "Okay, damn." She jerked up, taking a large and wobbly step back. "Just trying to help you out."

  Storming off, Lori mumbled some other versions of bastard, asshole, and bitch. It did not matter, because she couldn't help me out. My hand barely helped me out unless I was thinking of Nina. Her curves, that smile, her sass, and goddamn, her ass. It fit my hands perfectly; like it was made just for me.

  She wasn't though.

  Nina was probably on third base with another man, if I counted right. She would have moved on and no one would ever tame her.

  The next morning my head felt like a truck ran over it three times and then one more for good measure. There was some banging on my door which did not help matters any. By the time I reached the door, it was open and in it stood J.D.

  "The fuck are you doing in my house?" I hissed because any loud noise would probably make my head burst wide open.

  "You didn't answer. Wanted to make sure you were alright." J.D. assessed me.

  "Fine, now get out." I barely waved towards the door.

  "Not happening." J.D. walked past me, my junky living room, and into my messy kitchen.

  Slowly, I followed him to see what he was up to. When I crossed the double doors of the kitchen he asked, "This have anything to do with Nina or Pops?"

  My immediate reaction was to shrug it off and tell him to fuck off, but I couldn't. My facial expression must have said everything because my
brother poured some water in a glass, slid it across the island counter towards me and sat down on the island counter.

  "You came to me when I was in a bad state because of Tess. You told me to get my head out of my ass and take what was mine. You went with me to New York to get what was mine. So, how do you want to play this? Need to book a trip? Need a pep talk or do we need to kidnap her ass until she listens to sound reasoning? Need me to set up a meeting with you and Pops? What?” my older brother asked. I knew he meant every goddamn word.

  My head hurt so bad, I could barely smile and let it stay there but his words were funny. That was my brother. J.D. knew I had royally fucked up but he also knew I cared more about that woman than I'd let on before. J.D. also knew that I needed to get something going because I was being a miserable son of a bitch. I hadn't spoken to Pops in months and rarely anyone else in the family. I worked late and drank hard on the weekends.

  "Appreciate it, brother." I nodded. "Right now, I just got to get my shit together."

  J.D. nodded his head and said, "Yeah, I understand that."

  Then he said, "I'm moving to New York."

  "What?" I exclaimed and reached for my head at the same time. "She wouldn't come here?"

  "No, actually Tess said she would but I decided I needed to take Can-It to the next level and that is the New York level.” J.D. shared.

  “That makes sense,” I mused. “What if she said she wasn't coming and this wasn't a business decision?”

  “I would have still moved, man.” J.D. looked at me. “That woman...” My brother paused. “She's everything to me. Tess is my life partner and that is why we both decided the same thing because that's how much it matters.”

  Oddly enough, I only understood it on an elementary level. The full concept was foreign to me and I often felt like I was emotionally stunted because of my past encounters with women. Especially the one that wasn’t allowed to be mentioned.

  “When's the move?” I asked.

  “Probably within the next six months. Business wise, I have some decisions to make but there's no point in delaying it all.”

  My head nodded.

  “Well, God speed brother,” I said with an affirmative nod. “God speed.”

  “Yeah.” J.D. nodded back. “What speed are you riding on?” He laughed.

  “Fuck if I know.” I wiped the crusted sleep from my eyes. “Autopilot?”

  “Well that ain't shit but a can of worms.” J.D. laughed louder. “Useless. You got to pick it up, Knox, and soon.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I pulled my too long hair back through my fingers. “Just got to sort some shit in my head.”

  He nodded like he understood and that was the end of our conversation.

  Chapter Five

  Nina:

  The past three months had been okay in regard to work. My dream of being a Financial Planning Analyst seemed to be working well with LIT. Which made it all good in my world.

  I wasn't dating, and I was okay with that odd fact for now. Tess thought it'd be wise to get in touch with my inner Nina. Her and J.D. were doing this new yoga thing that only a fool in love would actually agree to. She said he wouldn't wear the tights but again, he was in love with my best friend. Tess had told me that he decided to move to New York. The man was all about Iowa; born and raised there, starting his company from disfigured vegetables and fruit. He planned to start a division of his company in New York and run that office while someone else ran his branch in Iowa.

  Probably one of his brothers.

  Like I figured, the man was over the moon, in love.

  During one of my yoga sessions, I received a call from my Uncle Nick. He lived in Kentucky with the rest of that side of my mom’s family who had not migrated to the north during the sixties. They called maybe twice a year and that was usually around the holidays or my birthday. This was neither, so it was with urgency that I answered.

  "Hello? Is everything alright?" I answered, without a proper greeting.

  "Nina Beana. Girl, it's you," Uncle Nick said with a smile I could almost feel.

  "Yeah, it's me, Uncle. You alright down there?" I wanted to find out what was wrong.

  "Well, things are a bit hectic at the moment. We were just wondering if you were wondering if you were gonna make it down to visit us. Your auntie has been sick. They say it’s that sugar but they just want to up my co-payments. Uh...," he trailed off. " Ya thinking of coming anytime soon??"

  I stamped down my urge to correct him since he always referred to diabetes as sugar. If his wife, my Aunt Linda, was not doing well, that was probably impacting him more than he was letting on. My uncle never asked if I was coming to Kentucky because I rarely went. The last time was for a family reunion and that was five years ago.

  "Uh, yeah, Uncle Nick. I can get a flight down there. Is this weekend too late?" I asked. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"

  His voice lowered when he whispered, "Beana, they trying to take the house. Ours and ya cousin, Fini. Something about construction zoning, railroads, and condos."

  He sighed.

  "We've had these homes all our lives. We bought them fair and square and now they say we gotta give 'em up," he continued. "It's not right and we, uh, tried to get a lawyer but they want a boat load of money we ain't got. Just need your help. We want to see ya too, but we also need help."

  Holy shit.

  "Okay, okay. I'll be down there this weekend and see what's happening." I started calculating everything in my head. "Of course, I'll help. Anyway, I can."

  "I knew we could count on you, Beana." His voice was normal again. "I knew it."

  I laughed and said, "Okay, Uncle Nick. I'll see you soon. Want me to bring anything from New York?"

  "Aww, hell no," he hissed. "Wait, I would say bring me some pizza but it won't make it. But if you stop in Philadelphia, get me a cheese steak."

  "I doubt I'll stop in Philly." I laughed.

  "Well, just bring you. See you soon and be safe. Ya hear."

  The phone went dead.

  He always had a way of getting off the phone.

  My immediate thoughts were to contact the lawyers and real estate agents that I knew and see if anyone was familiar with the laws and ordinances in Kentucky. Each state was different and in some states, specifically the District of Columbia, the residents did not own their land. It was considered borrowed even though they had mortgages; paid off or not. Some of these systems were not good and if people did not have the knowledge or right representation, they would be taken advantage of. It's happened so many times.

  I called Michael, my boss and President of LIT, to let him know that I would be using some of my vacation time to take care of family business out of state. Then I called Tess to ask if she could offer some advice and get me a short list of people that I should contact about the situation.

  I prepped all week so that the loose ends at LIT would be tied together when I left. I assumed it would take two weeks to get everything in order but in actuality, it could have taken longer.

  Just before I decided to get in bed, Tess texted me to say,

  Just a thought. Knox is in construction and deals with a lot of contracts. I'm not sure if you want to involve him or not, but he could have valuable information.

  I did not bother to text her back because there was no way in hell I would contact Mr. Wishy Washy. Hell would freeze over before my fingers dialed his number. I kept the number just in case he called me and instead of his name, it read, 'Don't Answer This Fool’. In the rare moment, I even thought to have a lapse in judgement.

  On Friday afternoon, I flew to Kentucky on a rather loud flight. Not only was a baby crying a few rows back but the guy in front of me was snoring loud enough to hear him over the plane’s engine.

  My cousins lived in a small county located in mid-Kentucky called Evans near the cities of Elizabeth and Louisville. They had resided there all their lives and everyone knew everyone. Having been on my own since college and enjoying my solitude
, I elected to stay at a hotel in town. I did not want to impose on anyone but I also wanted my space. The next day, I arrived at Uncle Nick and Aunt Linda’s house. They nearly lost their minds when they realized I was not staying with them.

  "That's just malarkey," Uncle Nick barked after I told him and he checked to make sure I had no bags outside.

  "No, seriously. It's fine, Uncle." I patted his back as he hugged me tight. "Really."

  The man was not taking no for an answer but I preferred it that way. My Aunt Linda was on the same page as her husband but she was the first to concede and let the issue go.

  It was early Saturday morning and my aunt was in the kitchen cooking breakfast while Uncle was catching me up on everything. By noon, most of the immediate family was in the house which felt like a mini-family reunion.

  "Girl, ya still thick. Last I've seen ya, you were a chunky monkey." Cousin Prius laughed.

  "That was five years ago," I attempted to make a sarcastic point of shut the hell up.

  There was nobody like family. Hugs, hugs and more hugs. Thumps on the back, followed by comments about my appearance. That was the thing about family, they could talk about you but nobody else could.

  "Well, since we're all here, let's get down to business." Uncle Nick called everyone to order after they consumed almost every snack Aunt Linda had put out in the medium-sized living room. "If you're here, then you've been affected by this invasion and I called our cousin Nina to come down here to help us through this. She’s a finance person up in New York and knows tons of shit. So, let me turn it over to her so we can get this started."

  "Thanks, Uncle Nick." I addressed my family. "So, I want to say I'm not a miracle worker but I will work my damnedest to get these things resolved for everybody. I've called some friends, co-workers, and lawyers and I'll be working diligently with them. However, in the meantime, what I need is everything you have. Mortgages, liens, pay-off notifications, insurance bills, letters from the city, state, and federal government, notices, evictions, etc. I need this from every house that will or has been affected by this takeover. If you don't have these, we can sit and order them but we need everything in our arsenal to make sure we know our legal rights. I cannot stress this enough. I make no guarantees but know this; we will not go down without a fight."