by Angel Hunter
“You let another man give you money for a car?”
“He loaned me money for my down payment,” Jewell said, though the truth was he gave her money.
“How come you didn’t come to me? I’m your son’s father. I’m the one who should be taking care of these type of things.”
Jewell didn’t know what to say. She didn’t agree with him—he wasn’t her man—but standing there in the middle of the chaos, she couldn’t blame him for being upset.
While they argued back and forth, Tyson came out of his room, rubbing his eyes. “What’s going on?”
King went over to him, gave him a hug and said, “Nothing, son. Daddy’s just leaving.”
King walked out without saying another word to Jewell.
Kim listened to this story and said to Jewell, “Girl, I wouldn’t even stress over that mess. King ain’t going nowhere. He might be angry right now, but he loves his son. He’ll get over it.”
Jewell wanted so badly to believe her. She glanced at her watch and told Kim, “I’ve got to get back to work.”
“You want to go out for drinks tonight?”
“Nah, I’m going out with Evan,” Jewell answered, thankful for her babysitter.
Later that evening when the doorbell rang, she knew it was Evan. The time had finally come for her, Evan and Tyson to do something together.
“Mom, your friend is here,” Tyson yelled as he ran to the door.
“Wait. Let me answer it.”
Tyson trailed behind her. She opened the door and was shocked to see King.
Oh, shit, she thought. This was the last thing she needed.
“Listen,” she told King, “I’m getting to ready to go out.”
Looking her up and down, he said, “I can see that.”
“Why don’t you call me later?”
From the look on her face, King could sense something was up. “What? You’re not going to let a brother in to see his son?”
She opened the door. “Only for a minute or two.”
“Dad!” Tyson was glad to see him. “What’s up?”
King bent down and gave Tyson a hug. “I just needed to see you and speak to your mother real quick.” When King had spoken to his son earlier, Tyson told him that he and his mother were going out with her boyfriend. There was no way King could let this opportunity pass him by.
“Well, can’t it wait?” Jewell asked. She wasn’t ready for King to find out Evan was white.
“Maybe.”
King still cared for Jewell. When they first got together, he was young and wild. He still needed to sow his oats, as the old-timers like to say. The only problem was he kept getting caught. Finally, Jewell couldn’t take it anymore and told him it was over. That was something she had threatened him with many times, and once again he thought she was playing. She wasn’t. After spending two nights out, he came home. She was gone, along with all her belongings. She left a note telling him she was pregnant and that it was his loss. King wanted to be a father so badly. He knew he would make a great one.
Jewell had no family, at least none that she kept in contact with, so when he went to look for her, he had no idea where to start. He tried calling her friends, but they were ghetto whores and hung up on him. He went as far as to file a missing persons report, but when he told them she left a note, they told him there was nothing they could do.
One day while walking through the mall, he heard a laugh just like Jewell’s. Turning around, he saw that it was her.
“Jewell,” he said.
Recognizing his voice, she kept walking, quickening her pace.
“Please don’t walk away. If you do, I will make a scene.”
She knew that he would. She placed her hand on her belly, which was protruding now that she was six months along. “What do you want?”
Going for it, he told her, “I want to be with you and raise our child together.”
Looking at her friend, Kim, with a “can you believe him” expression, she put her hands on her hips and said, “I don’t want that, King. Why do you think I left? I can’t trust you. I can’t be with a man I don’t trust. I can’t even believe you have the audacity to stand here and talk about raising a child together. You were barely around when it was just you and I. What would make me think you’re going to be around now that a baby is in the picture?”
“Please just give me a chance. You can’t raise a baby by yourself.” He was prepared to beg.
Kim decided to put her two cents in. “Didn’t you hear her? She said no.”
King looked at her. “You need to mind your business.” The tone in his voice implied that he was serious. “Jewell, please, I’m begging you. Let’s give us another chance. It’s not just you. There’s a child involved. Had I known you were pregnant, I wouldn’t have done all the things I did.”
“That’s just it. Listen to yourself. It shouldn’t take a child to make you do right. You should do right because you love me.”
“A child needs two parents. Stop being selfish.”
He was right about that, and she knew it, but he had hurt her one too many times. Crying, she told him, “I can’t do it. I don’t trust you.”
“But you still love me, don’t you? I see it in your eyes.” He still loved her, and he was sincere about trying to do the right thing. He knew he was out of control and that he’d done his thinking with the wrong head.
“Love has nothing to do with it. I loved you before, and look what happened.” She started to walk away.
“I’ll take you to court to see the baby.” He was adamant on this topic. He grew up without a father, and he refused to see the same thing happen to a child of his.
Stopping in her tracks, Jewell asked, “What did you say?”
“I’ll take you court, and I mean it,” he said harshly.
“You would really do that to me?”
Softening up, he told her, “Jewell, you know my father was never in the picture and that caused my mother a lot of pain and resentment. I’m not going to allow that to happen to my child. I will do any and everything to assure that it won’t.”
Going into her purse, she pulled out a pen and asked Kim for a piece of paper.
“Are you sure?” Kim asked, pulling out the paper.
“Yes, I’m sure.” She wrote her phone number. She didn’t give him her address because she didn’t want him to know where she lived. “Call me and we’ll talk more.”
As it turned out, they didn’t get back together, but he’d been in Tyson’s life ever since.
“I’m going somewhere,” she told King again, hoping he would get the message. “Are you leaving this second? There’s something I really need to talk to you about.” “We’re not leaving yet. We’re waiting on Ma’s friend. We’re going out for pizza,” Tyson chipped in. King raised his eyebrows. “Well, how about I wait with you?” He took a step toward the couch.
“I don’t think so,” Jewell said and stood in front of him. “How about you call me later and we can talk then or I’ll call you the second I get home?”
Before King could respond, there was a knock at the door. Jewell panicked. Please let it be someone else, she said to herself. But she knew it wasn’t. Unable to move, she watched Tyson run to the door, swinging it open. There stood Evan, looking whiter than ever.
“Hi,” Tyson said, not letting him in.
“Hey, young man. Is your mother home?” Evan asked.
“Let him in, Tyson.” Jewell was busted. There was no hiding now.
Evan walked in and looked right in King’s face.
“Who is this?” King looked him up and down while pulling Tyson to him.
“I’m Evan. You must be King, Tyson’s father.” He put his hand out, but it went ignored. Evan got the hint. He looked at Jewell and asked her, “Are you two ready?”
King just stood and stared at Evan in shock. He looked at Jewell and shook his head. “I don’t believe this shit.”
“Please, King, don’t start,” Jewell
begged.
“So,” King asked, “this is your new friend?”
“Yes, he is.”
He looked at Evan and asked, “How long have you been seeing each other?”
Before Evan could get a word out, Jewell said, “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
“I think it is,” he told her, still holding onto Tyson.
“Daddy, you’re hugging me too tight,” Tyson whined.
“Tyson, go to your room and get your jacket,” Jewell said. She turned to Evan.
“Will you excuse us for a minute? I think King and I need to go talk in the kitchen.”
“We can talk right here,” King told her.
Jewell pulled him along and said, “In the kitchen.”
Once in the kitchen, she asked him, “What are you trying to pull?”
“I’m not trying to pull a damn thing. You’re the one dating a cracker.”
“King, please leave.”
“I don’t want my son around-”
“Around what? White people?” she finished for him. “Do you know how that sounds? He has white classmates, white friends, white neighbors—there’s no way.”
“You know what I’m talking about. Don’t play dumb,” King said.
“You can’t pick and choose who I date.”
“I don’t want to, but I can pick and choose who my son is going to be around.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“What I came over here to discuss with you is Tyson moving in with me.”
This caught her off guard. “I’m going to ask you once again to leave. I don’t want to turn ghetto on your ass in front of our son.” She knew that would get him.
“You know this talk is not over, and you know you should have discussed this with me.”
“You don’t discuss with me who you’re dating.”
“I wouldn’t date outside my race either. I don’t want my son to see it and duplicate it.”
“You sound like a racist, King.”
“I’m not a racist. I’m just proud of who I am and my heritage.”
“This is a new day and age.”
King just looked at her. “Make sure you call me,” he told her and left her standing in the kitchen.
This is where she stayed until she heard the front door slam shut
“Is everything okay?” Evan asked.
“Yes, everything is fine,” she lied.
Later that night, Jewell and Tyson were lying across his bed watching a movie when out of nowhere he asked, “Ma, if I liked a white girl, would you be happy?”
“I’ll like whoever you like, as long as she’s good to you,” Jewell told him. In reality, she wasn’t sure about that. She wanted her baby to date and marry a black woman. Double standard? It certainly was. Did she give a damn? No. King had touched a nerve.
LET’S GET IT ON
While Crystal was getting dressed for her date with Roger, Marvin Gaye’s song “Let’s Get It On” was playing on the radio. She knew that was what Roger wanted to do tonight, get it on. She was nervous about it, not too sure if she would go through with it. Crystal knew she needed to move past Lange, get him out of her system, but was another man the way to go about it?
Crystal decided to wear a black mini-dress with slit sleeves and a plunging neckline. Her locks were pinned up. She wore gold stiletto heels that matched her necklace, a thin gold chain with a diamond in the middle, which fell between her breasts in just the right way.
“You look beautiful,” Roger told her when he arrived to pick her up. They were going to the policemen’s ball.
“Thank you. You don’t look so bad yourself.”
He turned around and struck a pose. “GQ style, baby.”
Crystal smiled as she took him in with her eyes. He did look extremely handsome in his black tux. The jacket was one of those long ones she liked, the shirt was a cream-colored, as was the handkerchief in his pocket.
“Before we go, I need to ask you something,” Roger said, sounding serious.
“What is it?” Crystal asked.
“I just want to know if I can kiss those beautiful lips of yours.”
Crystal leaned forward in response.
He brushed his lips across hers lightly and wrapped his hands around her waist. He pulled away and asked, “How do you want it? Passionately or playfully?”
“However you want to give it to me,” she said.
He kissed her passionately.
When he pulled away, Crystal still had her eyes closed. “That was nice,” she told him.
Taking her hand, they walked out the door.
It was after midnight when they returned. They were sitting in the car and Crystal could feel the beat of her heart. She’d decided to invite Roger in, and she knew he wouldn’t be leaving until the next morning.
“I had a good time,” she told him and meant it.
“I did too.” This was the moment he had been waiting on for a long time. He wanted to make love to her when they were younger, and again the moment he saw her when he pulled her over. From the way she let him hold her, the looks that passed between them at the dance and the way she touched him when they talked, he had every reason to believe tonight was the night.
Roger didn’t want to beat around the bush. He asked Crystal, “Am I coming in?”
“Yes,” she told him, knowing what he really wanted to ask.
They got out of the car, walked up to her porch and into the house. Crystal flicked on the lights. Billie was waiting on the steps. When he saw Roger, he started to whimper.
Crystal laughed and headed in the direction of the bedroom with Roger behind her. “I think he knows. Do you want something to drink?”
“No,” he told her. “All I want is you.”
Once in the room, she said “Make yourself comfortable. I want to freshen up.”
When she entered the bathroom, Crystal decided to take a shower. She stuck her head out the door and told Roger, “I’m going to jump in the shower. You can take one after me.” She didn’t wait to see if he’d ask her if they could take one together.
When Crystal was done, she dried off and threw on her plush pink robe. She walked into the bedroom and saw that Roger had undressed down to his underwear. “Your turn,” she told him.
As Roger stood up, Crystal looked him up and down. She was a little disappointed to notice a slight budge around his mid-section. Thank God it wasn’t too much.
“I left a washcloth and towel out for you,” she told him.
After he closed the bathroom door, Crystal pulled out a thong and slipped it on under her robe. She lay across the bed and waited.
Less than ten minutes later, Roger returned. The towel was wrapped around his waist. He sat on the bed next to her and said, “I’ve waited for this a long time.”
“Do you have any massage oil?” Roger asked.
Crystal started to get up, but he told her, “Don’t move. Just tell me where it is.”
“In my bathroom, under the sink.”
He went to retrieve it. When he returned, he told her, “How would you like a massage?”
“I’d like that.”
“Take off your robe.”
Crystal did as requested and turned over on her stomach. Roger poured just a drop of oil on her back and thighs, then massaged some in his hands. The house was quiet. There was no sound other than their breathing.
He started at her shoulders, moved down her arms, then up and down her back in slow circular motions. When he arrived at the arch of her back, he slowly pulled her panties off, bent over to kiss her buttocks, opened her thighs slightly and touched her gently.
“Mmmmm.”
He continued to tease her as he ran his hands down her thighs to her feet, gently massaging each toe and then back up again. He concentrated on her buttocks.
“You have such a nice ass,” he told her as he bit down gently. “Turn over.”
She did and looked him in the eyes.
He kissed her on the mouth as she glided his hands between her legs and let his fingers enter her. She started to move against his hands, the feeling becoming more intense. Roger put his mouth on her breasts, his hands still inside her, and started to bite down on her nipples. Crystal was on the verge of an orgasm. His fingers were working wonders. As soon as she felt like she was getting to her peak, he pulled his fingers out. “What, what are you doing?” she asked.
“Shhh.” He replaced his fingers with his tongue.
“Oh,” she said and lay back to enjoy the pleasure. Next thing she knew, her body started to quiver. She began to move her hips and placed her hands on either side of his head. “Right there, right there,” she said as she arched her back. “Yes, Yes, Yes!” Crystal yelled. When she was done, she looked up at him and said, “Let me get on top.”
At this point, Roger was willing to let her do anything she wanted.
The next morning, Crystal kept catching Roger staring at her while she made breakfast.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” She was ready for him to go. Her mother was coming soon and she had to get the house prepared.
“I’m just wondering what this means,” he answered.
“What does what mean?”
“Your allowing me to make love to you,” Roger said.
She hoped he wasn’t making more out of this than she was. To her, it was a night of lovemaking. A relationship it did not make.
Before she could reply, the doorbell rang. “Excuse me,” she told Roger and went to take a peek out the living room window. She was surprised to see Lange standing at the door. “Fuck,” she said in a low tone. Crystal looked down at herself and frowned. All she had on was a sweatshirt.
She went to the door, opened it and stepped outside. “Lange, what are you doing here?”
He noticed that she was almost naked and apologized for popping up unannounced. “I just needed someone to talk to.”
“This isn’t the time,” she said and glanced behind her. Damn it, why didn’t she throw Roger out when they first woke up?
“I’m sorry, it’s just that—” Lange saw a shadow move behind the curtain. “You have company?” he stated, looking at her car and another car in the driveway.
