“What am I heating up in your microwave is more the question.” Ted had removed his coat and tie. His crisp white shirt was unbuttoned at the neck and his sleeves were rolled up to his forearms. “You look lovely,” he smiled as she entered the room.
Victoria looked down at her blue cotton sundress and bare feet. “I clean up okay,” she winked.
Just then the phone rang. She looked at the caller ID, studying it before answering. She’d been screening Parker’s calls all week. “What’s up?” she said to the person on the other end. “Yes, I’m much better. Um . . . Ted’s here.”
At the mention of his name, Ted listened carefully.
“Uh-huh . . . Noooooooo,” Victoria giggled, then lowered her voice. “We’re getting ready to eat dinner now, just drop by later.”
When she hung up the phone, Ted was looking at her with questioning eyes. “That was Tyler,” she said. “He came by earlier to go over the hotel contract for this year’s YFI Christmas fundraiser, which I can’t believe is coming up in six months. Anyway, he left it over here so I told him he could stop by and pick it up later tonight.”
They sat down to a dinner of Victoria’s favorite selections. After their meal they made their way back to the couch in the den. She put on Wynton Marsalis’ Blue Note CD, then settled into Ted’s arms. “The meal was fantastic. Thanks for this evening. It’s nice to know you care,” she said.
“V, I don’t just care about you, I love you.”
Victoria looked at the handsome man who had come into her life and made her love him despite her misgivings and hang-ups. She thought back on all the times he’d given her small signals about his true feelings and how she’d intentionally ignored them because she didn’t want to entertain the thought of a white man loving her, or beyond that, her loving a white man. The complications were too great.
She thought about her college days when she and her girlfriends stood firm against dating white men, saying they had small penises and didn’t know how to please a woman in bed. Even though none of them had any first-hand experience to either prove or disprove the myth, they talked about the subject with great authority. Now she was lying on her couch in the arms of a white man. A white man she loved. And as she snuggled next to him, feeling his erection poking into her side, she couldn’t believe how amazingly normal it felt to be in this situation, in this moment, with this man.
This was the third time Victoria had felt Ted’s erection, and just as before, she couldn’t quite determine his size. Parker was “blessed” in that regard, and had given her pleasure that was close to paradise. She wondered about Ted. But they say that size doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with it, Victoria reminded herself. Then she remembered what Gigi had said about the size theory. “It’s complete bullshit, and can’t possibly be true,” she’d scoffed. “If a woman says that size doesn’t matter it’s because she’s got a man with a little dick, and you better believe she’s got somethin’ on the side to pick up the slack.”
As she snuggled even deeper into Ted’s arms, Victoria wondered how he was in bed. How did he kiss? How did he move his pelvis in the throes of passion? Could he work it? And then she thought about her own sexual prowess. She prided herself on being a good lover. She knew how to please a man, how to make him moan until she had him calling out her name. But she wondered how Ted would receive her. Will he expect me to be an exotic fuck? To perform like a member of Cirque du Soliel?
“V,” Ted whispered, “what’s wrong? You have a strange look on your face.”
“I’m fine. Just thinking,” she smiled.
He pulled her onto his chest and brought her face closer to his. She could feel his mouth inching closer toward her own. She prepared herself for his kiss . . . their first, but the sound of the doorbell drew her away. Ted wanted to ignore it, but Victoria was already on her feet. She grabbed the hotel contract from the coffee table. “That’s Tyler; I’ll be right back. And hold that pose,” she winked.
Out of habit, Victoria looked through the peephole, and what she saw almost made her heart stop. Parker was standing on the other side of the door. Shit! What’s he doing here?
He’d been calling her several times a day leaving messages, pleading for her to pick up the phone and talk to him. He’d sent her ten dozen roses two days ago, which she promptly donated to a local nursing home. And just yesterday he’d managed to get Gayle to call, to help persuade Victoria to talk to him. She agreed to speak to him, but once they were on the phone she told him not to call her or come near her ever again.
Victoria could see that he was about to ring the bell again, so she sat Tyler’s documents on the console and quickly opened the door.
“What the hell is that mothafucker doing here?” were the first words out of Parker’s mouth as he looked back over his shoulder at Ted’s car.
Victoria spoke low, through clenched teeth. “No, the question is what the hell are you doing here? I told you to stay away from me.”
“How’re we supposed to work things out if we don’t communicate? We need to talk.”
“You should’ve thought about that before you started spreading your dick around.”
“Baby, we can work this out. I made a stupid mistake, but you can’t deny that we love each other. We have since the first night we met.”
Victoria nodded her head. “It’s interesting you bring that up. I’ve been thinking about that night, and you know what? I realized that you were an inconsiderate asshole, even back then. You had one woman on your arm while you openly gawked at another. How I ever found that charming or even remotely flattering makes me sick to my stomach. Why don’t you go back to Sheila, or better yet, go to the city pound where they keep the rest of your kind.”
“You can hurl all the insults you want. I deserve it. But I don’t want Sheila or anyone else.”
Victoria gave him a cynical smirk.
“Victoria, I’m not giving up on us.” Parker paused, looking at her with frightening sincerity. “Do you really think I’m going to just walk away from what we have? You know me better than that.”
“You walked away from what we had when you cheated on me. Just leave.”
“I’m not leaving, especially not as long as that mothafucker’s in your house. Where is he?”
Just then Victoria looked past Parker and saw Ms. Swanson and Caroline walking by. They were finishing up their regular evening stroll. “Leave,” Victoria repeated, trying to keep her voice low because she knew her nosy neighbor was watching. At the same time she saw Parker’s eyes narrow in concentration on something over her left shoulder. She didn’t have to turn around to know that Ted was coming up behind her. She backed a few steps away from the door, trying to slow his approach.
“She doesn’t want to see you or talk to you. I suggest you leave now,” Ted belted out.
“Fuck you and your suggestions!” Parker barked back. “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be going through this shit!”
Ms. Swanson heard the yelling and came to an abrupt stop on the sidewalk in front of Victoria’s house.
Ted moved away from Victoria, planting himself closer to where Parker stood. “Don’t blame me because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants!” he glared.
“Mothafucker, do you know who you’re talkin’ to? I’ll kick your ass.”
“Let’s go!” Ted growled, making a quick movement toward the door.
Parker came forward at the same time, but Victoria reacted quicker than both men by jumping in between them. “Stop it!” she yelled. She glanced over and saw Ms. Swanson frantically reaching into her fanny pack.
“Can’t you both see that you’re hurting me?” she pleaded from one man’s eyes to the other. Both Parker and Ted relaxed their stance and backed away from Victoria’s outstretched arms. She looked up again and saw Ms. Swanson rushing up through the yard. She hurried in between the two parked vehicles and up toward the portico, carrying Caroline under one arm and a small canister of pepper spray in her fre
e hand. Parker turned around quickly to face the woman coming up behind him.
“It’s okay, Ms. Swanson,” Victoria called out, stopping the old woman before she began to spray. “Everything’s fine . . . really. They were just about to leave,” she scrambled nervously, trying to convince her neighbor.
Ms. Swanson looked at the three of them. “Are you sure? I can call 911,” she said, still waving her pepper spray in the air.
“That won’t be necessary. We had a little disagreement, but everything’s fine now. You can put the pepper spray away,” Victoria coaxed.
Reluctantly, the old woman put the spray back into her fanny pack as she tried to calm Caroline. The pooch’s pink hair bows were standing on edge. “I’ll call you later to make sure everything is okay,” Ms. Swanson offered.
“Thank you,” Victoria sighed as she watched her neighbor walk away. The old lady glanced back, shaking her head, mumbling something every few feet until she was out of sight.
The muggy Atlanta heat loomed like Victoria’s anger. She could feel the sweat beading up between her breasts, trickling down to her stomach, which felt like it was in knots. “I can’t believe you two,” she raged through clenched teeth. “Look at you; an internationally respected surgeon and the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, standing in my front door acting like schoolyard bullies. You should both be ashamed of yourselves.”
“He needs to stay the fuck away from you,” Parker said. “He shouldn’t be here in the first place.” He stared with anger in Ted’s direction. “You couldn’t wait, could you? You wanted her all along. I saw through your bullshit from the start.”
Ted clenched his fists at his side. “You better leave now, while you still can.”
“Are you threatening me?” Parker’s tone turned eerily calm, sending panic through Victoria’s body. “I’m not one of those punks at ViaTech that you can order around. You don’t know who the fuck you’re dealin’ with.”
Ted glared back at him. “You sonofabitch, I know exactly who you are. Now get the fuck outta here or there’s gonna be trouble. I’m not asking you again,” he threatened.
Victoria stomped her foot. “Damnit. Shut the hell up! Both of you!” she nearly screamed, pushing Parker farther out the door. “You’ve got to go. I told you not to come here.”
Parker was incredulous. “You’re putting me out? And letting him stay?”
“You’re lucky you weren’t doused with pepper spray, or worse. Ms. Swanson could’ve called the police, and you could’ve been arrested. Parker, you know better than this.”
“Baby . . . please . . . ”
“Leave now, or I’ll call the police myself.” She pushed him back one step farther, then slammed the door in his face. She rested her head against the door, trying to recalibrate.
Ted came up from behind and rubbed her shoulders. “It’s over now,” he said softly.
Victoria spun around to face him. “And you! What the hell were you thinking, challenging Parker to a fight? Are you crazy? Why didn’t you just stay in the den? I could’ve handled him by myself. You made matters worse.”
Ted was stunned. “V, I was trying to protect you. Parker was angry.”
“Yeah, but he would never physically hurt me. He was in more danger of me than I was of him.”
“I’m sorry. I was only trying to help. But he asked for it, and I’d do it again if I thought you were in any danger, physical or otherwise.”
Victoria raised her hands to her throbbing head. “I know you meant well, but after what just happened I need to be alone, please understand.” She took him by the hand and led him to the den. They gathered his things, then walked back to the front door. When she opened it, she jumped when she saw Parker still sitting in his truck, parked in her driveway.
“I can’t believe that sonofabitch,” Ted spat out, ready to go to blows.
“Don’t make another scene. Just get in your car and drive away . . . please.”
When Victoria saw the last pair of taillights drive off in the distance, she resumed her breathing, inhaling the thick, sticky air engulfing her lungs. Just then, Tyler’s Jeep pulled up.
“Was that Parker and Ted I just passed?” Tyler asked.
“Yep.”
“What was Parker doing here? . . . Oh no . . . don’t tell me . . . I know some shit just went down.”
“Come on in, you’re not gonna believe this.”
The Real Question...
It was the last day of the SuperNet convention, and from the minute Victoria stepped off the plane almost a week ago, she’d been working hard, trying to put her recent drama out of her mind. Thankfully, the convention had been the welcome reprieve she needed. She and Ted had arrived in Washington, D.C., on separate flights, but once she checked into the Mayflower Hotel, she discovered that they had adjoining rooms. “Is this why Jen offered to make my reservations?” she’d asked Ted. His answer had been a simple smile.
As Victoria looked around the large meeting room on the second floor of the DC Convention Center, she breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t run into Steven the entire week. He lived and worked here, and she’d heard through colleagues that he was there. But he’d used good judgment and stayed as far away as possible. Things had turned out better than she’d expected. ViaTech had been the talk of the show. People raved about the sleek booth design, golf outings, capitol tours, private dinners at the city’s hottest restaurants, and other activities she’d planned for prospective clients. Victoria had made sure that everyone was catered to.
Even though the week had been a good distraction and a huge success, and Victoria was sure to get many new corporate clients from the event, she was ready to go home. She was tired from all the work and the stressful scene last week between Parker and Ted. The day after, Denise had come by to offer her a shoulder to lean on.
“Umph, umph, umph, girlfriend! That’s just ridiculous. I can’t believe they were acting like common street thugs, right in your front door!” Denise had said.
Victoria rubbed her throbbing temples. “You should’ve seen them; it was awful. And when poor Ms. Swanson tried to pepper spray Parker, I almost fainted.”
“That’s the stuff reality shows are made of.”
“Tell me about it. Intelligent, civilized people don’t behave this way. I can’t believe this is my life.”
“Well, what I can’t believe is that Ted was over here acting like a hoodlum. And Parker . . . the great almighty surgeon himself, was carrying on the way he did. I’m sorry, but that was some straight-up trailer park drama if I’ve ever heard some.”
“I know.” Victoria flinched. “How do I get myself into these kind of situations? I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.”
“I can’t say that I blame you,” Denise agreed.
“And I’ll never hear the end of it from Tyler.”
As it was, Parker was already on Tyler’s shit list, and once Victoria cried on his shoulder after telling him how she’d walked in on him and Sheila, Tyler was through. When he came over to her house to pick up the YFI contract he’d left and she told him about the scene that Parker had caused right before he drove up, Tyler hit the roof. “He’s lost his damn mind, showin’ up like that! I should drive down to that fancy condo of his and beat the shit outta him,” Tyler yelled.
But Victoria pleaded with him, finally making the case that physical violence wasn’t the answer. She made him promise that he wouldn’t go near her exboyfriend.
Tyler didn’t confront Parker physically, but he came close. That night, he called Parker and threatened him. “Stay your punk ass away from Victoria, ’cause if you ever attempt some weak bullshit like you pulled tonight, you’ll end up in the fuckin’ emergency room where you work,” Tyler said, then slammed down the phone.
Denise looked at her friend and shook her head. “I can’t believe Parker had the nerve to come over here after what he did to you. Who does he think he is?”
“He’s used to getting what he wants, but this
is where it ends,” Victoria vowed, then paused. “But the real question now is what am I going to do about Ted?” She was looking to her friend for answers.
Denise raised her brow. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Girlfriend, you better take care of that serious drought you’ve got goin’ on in your pants ’cause I know you’re about tired of your little toys by now.”
“I tell too much of my business,” Victoria said, joining Denise in a much needed laugh. “But seriously, like I told Debbie, it’s complicated.”
“Show me a relationship that isn’t.”
“And he’s white.”
“Really?” Denise feigned shock. “And? . . . ”
Victoria let out a deep breath. “I’ve never been with a white man, never even considered it until now. What if Ted’s just infatuated and wants to fulfill some kind of taboo fantasy? You know, jungle fever, wild sex with a black woman. That would just devastate me,” Victoria groaned, falling back into the couch.
“Girlfriend, you’ve got to stop being so damn dramatic,” Denise scolded, rolling her eyes. “If the man wanted to fulfill a fantasy he could do that at anytime, with anyone he wants to. But he wants you.”
“You have all the answers, don’t you?”
“Most of them,” Denise winked. “Now go ahead and get you some vanilla lovin’,” she laughed.
“So you’re encouraging me to be a ho, and just give my stuff away?”
“Absolutely, and I want all the juicy details when you get back,” Denise said, making them break into laughter again. Then she became serious. “If you love him, open up your heart to him and forget about all this black and white shit. You’ve loved black, now you have to learn to love without restrictions.”
As Victoria prepared to wrap things up at the convention center and head back to the hotel, she thought about Denise’s advice and what the evening ahead might bring. After the team dinner, she and Ted had plans to spend some “alone time” together. Her mind told her to take it slow, after all, she’d just broken up with her boyfriend. But her heart and her body were telling her something entirely different.
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