No man had ever affected Vivana the way Johnny Mayfield did. Even though he had some annoying flaws, she still craved him like a drug. He was conceited, ego-driven, selfish, and not altogether honest, as was evident by the very existence of their relationship. But she couldn’t hold him to task for those foibles because she shared some of the same traits, and that’s why she knew they were meant to be together.
But sitting in her car—knowing that Johnny was across the street, in a vacant condo that only contained a bed and a table, screwing another woman whom he’d obviously arranged to meet—was making her more furious by the minute. “He won’t even be seen with me during the day, let alone in public,” she shouted, “but he has the nerve to meet that old heifer in broad open daylight, at a coffee shop. This shit is wrong on so many levels!”
Vivana couldn’t take it any longer and she refused to be wronged or cheated on ever again. She unbuckled her seatbelt, removed her chandelier earrings, which dangled at her lobes, and her bracelets from her wrist. She rummaged through her leather bag in search of a scrunchie, then gathered her long weave into a tight ponytail, making sure to tuck in any loose strands that might make it easy to latch on to.
Before she knew it, Vivana was standing inside the nicely decorated entrance of the building. She was prepared to start walking down the small hallway and knock on every door she saw, in her search for Johnny and his new side piece. But she didn’t have to take another step. She watched as the two came walking out of a door to her right. They were no longer talking and laughing as they’d done earlier at the café, but what they were doing now was much worse. Their bodies were in sync as they stood beside each other. They both sported the satisfied look of lovers who’d just experienced ecstasy.
By the time Vivana walked up to them in the middle of the hall, it was too late.
“Vivana?” Johnny said with surprise. “What the—”
He wasn’t able to get out the rest because her right hook knocked his head to the side and left his jaw slack. The attractive woman knew what was coming next so she instinctively turned and started to run. But she wasn’t quick enough to match Vivana’s speed. Vivana snatched the woman by her arm and wrestled her down to the hard cement floor.
“Urrggghhh,” the woman screamed as her body made contact with the hard floor beneath her. Vivana drew back her fist and was ready to give her a helping of what she’d just served Johnny, but the force of her would-be blow was stunted by Johnny’s large hand. He grabbed her by her wrist so hard that his grip caused a mark on her skin.
“Stop it right now!” he shouted as he restrained Vivana. “What the hell’s wrong with you!”
The woman scrambled to her feet, struggling to pull her tailored skirt down her legs. Her eyes widened with astonishment and she trembled with fear. “If you put your hands on me again I’m going to call the police!”
“Not if I kill your old ass first!” Vivana shot back as she lunged forward. She tried her best to hit the woman, but Johnny’s hold was too strong.
“This is insane. What the hell are you trying to get me involved in!” the woman yelled, glaring at Johnny as if she, too, wanted to assault him.
Vivana could see Johnny’s eyes widen at the site of his new lover’s face covered in confusion. The woman had the bad luck of not only choosing to fuck the wrong man, she’d fucked with the wrong woman’s man.
Vivana ignored the woman’s obvious distress because right now her attention was focused on Johnny. “You low-down, dirty, sneaky, deceitful, lying, no-good, son of a mutha fuckin’ bitch!” she rattled off, so mad she wanted to hit him again. “You’ve been blowing me off so you could hook up with some other bitch, and an old one at that!”
Johnny glared at her. “You better calm your ass down right now.”
“Or what?” she said boldly. “What’re you gonna do, call the police like that old bitch just threatened to do?” Vivana’s hands were on her hips, a direct indication that she was about to show out. “You know as well as I do that you don’t want them out here because a police report will only mean more trouble for you if your little wifey gets wind of it.”
“She’s not your wife?!” the attractive woman said, looking startled as her eyes shifted from Johnny to Vivana.
Vivana smirked. “No, I’m not his wife, bitch. I’m his woman!”
“Nooo, you’re crazy!” the woman said, adjusting her skirt again. She reached down, grabbed her expensive handbag, which had been thrown to the floor, and gave Johnny an angry stare that could have sliced him in half. “I feel sorry for your wife,” she said with venom, before glancing over at Vivana with a look of pity on her face, “and I feel sorry for you, too, you poor, stupid woman.” She turned and hurried as fast as her legs would carry her out the front door of the building.
Vivana and Johnny looked on as the woman disappeared from sight. Vivana was madder than ever, and she wasn’t going to hold back. “That bitch did have a point,” she growled. “You screwed Geneva over, and now you’re screwing me over.”
“Leave my wife out of this!” Johnny spat out, looking as though he could hurt her.
Vivana walked up to his face. “You better not even think about hitting me. Don’t you know I could have you up on charges?! You should be very afraid.”
“Me?” Johnny balked. “I’m not afraid of shit. I haven’t put my hands on anybody. But you have, and you better be glad that this is a quiet neighborhood, and that it’s during business hours and people are at work, otherwise one of these tenants would’ve called the cops already.” Johnny shook his head as he delivered his next words in a slow hiss. “You’d be the one they’d lock up for assault!”
“I don’t give a shit about what any of these people might try to do, or the police, for that matter,” Vivana said. “They haven’t walked in my shoes and none of them know the kind of hell you’ve put me through over the last few days.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“You’ve been avoiding me!” she shouted. “I thought you might be trying to get back with your wife. But noooo, your cheating ass is trying to get you some more pussy on the side. You’re a bitch-ass mutha fucka.”
Johnny took a deep breath. “You need to calm the fuck down ’cause if you say one more word, I swear to you . . .”
“What?” Vivana yelled, standing so close to his face she was breathing on him. “What’re you gonna do except threaten me?”
“I’m walking away from this bullshit.” Johnny adjusted his tie and tried to straighten out his clothes. “Now I know without a doubt that I’m making the right decision. Your ass is crazy, and I don’t need this bullshit and drama in my life. You and I . . . we’re done.” He turned to walk away.
His words made Vivana’s heart race faster than it already was. He was breaking up with her, and although she was mad enough to kill him, she also didn’t want to be without him. “Why did you do this to me, Johnny?” she asked.
Johnny began to walk away as if he hadn’t heard a word she’d said, and that only made Vivana feel even more desperate. “I always gave you exactly what you wanted and needed. I pleased you in every way I could. And I made sure that whenever we were together I gave you my undivided attention. You had it all, so why did you have to go out and screw another woman?”
Johnny turned around and faced her. “I wasn’t screwing that woman. She was a client. We were here conducting business.”
“Business my ass! You two were in there fucking.”
Johnny paused for a minute and scratched his head. “How did you get here anyway? Have you been following me?”
Vivana avoided his question. “How could you do this to me?”
“How could you fuckin’ do this to me!” Johnny spat back. “I came here to show a client a potential rental unit, and here you come from out of nowhere, acting like a damn crazy woman. Man, this shit is for the birds. I’m out.”
Johnny walked out the door with Vivana fast behind him. Once they reached outside, sh
e noticed him surveying the surroundings, probably checking to see if the woman he’d said was his client was anywhere in sight. There was no sign of her, and he looked relieved, but Vivana didn’t care.
“I don’t ever want to see you again,” Johnny said as he walked toward his truck. He stopped and faced her. “Forget that you know my name and lose my number.”
Vivana felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her, and even though they were standing outside in the open, she felt closed in as she fought for air to breathe. “I can’t lose you,” she sobbed. “I can’t.”
Johnny didn’t say a word. He continued to walk until he reached his driver’s side door.
“Johnny, please!” Vivana moaned as if she’d been struck by a sharp object.
“Calm down,” he hissed in a low voice, looking from his left to his right. “You’re gonna cause a scene.”
“Just listen to me, please.”
“Stop it. It’s over.”
“You were avoiding me, baby, and I didn’t know what was going on. I went to the Whole Bean Café to get some coffee, and when I saw you come out with that woman, I lost it.”
Johnny shook his head. “Did it ever occur to you that she was a client? That I was conducting business with her?”
Vivana searched his eyes, and felt lost in the hypnotizing seduction of their brownness. He sounded so sincere, as if he was wounded by her accusations. Her mind raced trying to determine what was real and what wasn’t. Maybe it was only business like he’d said. “You two were coming out of that vacant unit, Johnny. There’s only a bed and a table in there,” she said. “It’s where we first hooked up, so why would you take her there?”
“Operative word is vacant, Vivana. Vacant! That unit has been sitting empty for months and I’ve been trying to rent it for my client. I got the opportunity to show the place and I took it. This is business.”
“Why were you two in there for so long?” she asked.
Johnny drew in a deep breath. “At this point I don’t owe you an explanation, but because I’m a good brother, and because I have nothing to hide, I’ll tell you.” He paused, pulled out a folded wad of documents from the inside pocket of his jacket, and looked directly into her eyes as he held it in front of her. “This is the agreement she signed for me to represent her as her real estate agent.” He opened the documents and quickly flashed them in her face. “She’s a professional and meticulous woman and she had a shitload of questions that she wanted to ask me about everything under the sun. I wasn’t going to rush her because I believe in providing quality service, so it took us a while.”
Vivana listened carefully to everything he’d said. She had to admit it was all very plausible, if not actually believable. But she also knew what she’d seen at the coffee shop. The way they’d been acting appeared way too friendly for a business meeting.
Johnny shook his head. “Vivana, this is really fucked up. I’ve been so busy trying to juggle work, you, and home; how in the hell would I have time for anything or anyone else?”
“Men find time to do whatever it is that they want to.”
“Yes, most men do, and we’ve had this discussion before.”
“Only because you’ve given me reason to bring it up.”
Johnny rubbed the hairs on his chin. “Do you honestly think I’d be stupid enough to cheat on the woman I’m cheating with? What kind of man do you think I am?”
Vivana was silent.
“Vivana, I’m trying to conduct business, not screw around. And in case you didn’t notice, that woman’s a little too old for my taste.” He hesitated, and then zeroed in on her breasts as he spoke. “I like my women like I like my fruit, fresh and ripe.”
Vivana’s eyes softened as she looked at him. “Baby, do you promise nothing was going on between you and that old heifer?”
“I already told you the deal, Vivana. Like I said, I have absolutely nothing to hide. If I was only here to screw that woman, why would I have a signed contract in my hand?” he asked, holding up the documents again. “And why would I bring her to the place where we first got together?”
“Men screw around all the time.”
“But I don’t. I told you, you and me . . . this is a first-time thing. I’d never cheated on my wife until you came along.”
Vivana looked into Johnny’s eyes again and noticed the slight shift that could only mean he felt as hurt as he sounded. A placid look framed his lips, which told her that he was sincere. In that moment she forgave him, and she felt terrible for what she’d done. “I’m sorry,” she eked out.
Johnny looked away and lowered his head. “I can’t do this anymore, Vivana. After what happened here today . . .”
“Please don’t, Johnny. I’ll make it up to you, and this will never happen again.”
“I know it won’t because we’re through. You showed me a side of yourself that I didn’t know was there. I can’t have that kind of drama in my life.”
“I only did it because I was so hurt, and upset, and the thought of you being with anyone else made me lose it.” Vivana knew she needed to play on Johnny’s sympathy and convince him of how hurt she was, so even though she hadn’t cried over anything since she was a teenager, she dug deep down into her emotions and willed a tear to fall from her eyes. “I love you, Johnny.”
After appealing to him a few more times, rubbing her body against his, Johnny agreed to meet her tonight at the Courtyard where they’d rendezvoused last week. Vivana knew she’d just dodged a bullet, and now she was going to do everything in her power to make sure nothing like this ever happened again.
An hour after she left Johnny, she drove to B&B Electronics, where she purchased an array of digital equipment she was going to need for her next project. Vivana prided herself on the fact that she was more than just a mere contract IT specialist, she was a seasoned hacker, programmer, and Internet sleuth, and now she was going to put her training and knowhow to good use. She smiled as she thought about how she was going to ensure that Johnny Mayfield would be hers, and she knew the only way to make that happen was to keep a closer eye on him.
Chapter 12
JOHNNY
Johnny sat at his desk, tilted his head back, and took a long swallow of the Hennessey he’d poured into his glass. He let the smooth taste of the brown elixir roll over his tongue and slide down his throat as he enjoyed the warm feeling it sent through his body. He reached for the ice wrapped in a towel that he’d set on his desk, and firmly pressed it against the knot that had formed on his jaw. “This is fucked up,” he said as he thought about what Vivana had done.
He’d known last week that he needed to end things with his increasingly erratic-acting mistress, and after this morning’s incident, there was no doubt in his mind that he had to find a way to break off their affair as quickly, and in as pain-free and drama-free a way as possible. But in order to do that, he had to develop a plan, and in order to develop a plan, he needed help. He took another long swallow of his drink, followed by a deep breath of frustration that caused him to shake his head. “Thank God she didn’t recognize Charlene,” Johnny whispered aloud. This was one time that he was glad she worked from home and never immersed herself into the community. “I need help.” He picked up his phone and called Bernard.
“What’s up?” Bernard said in an unusually upbeat voice.
“You sound like you just hit the lotto,” Johnny joked.
“Nah, man. What I got goin’ on is better than hittin’ the lotto.”
“What’s better than money?”
“Two things. First off, I got a promotion at work. You’re talking to the new director of security at Crane Technical Community College.”
Johnny’s lips formed a smile. “Congratulations. I’m happy for you, brother!”
“Thanks, man.”
“You deserve it. You’re a hard-working man and you’ve made big changes on that campus.”
“I appreciate you saying that, and it’s good to be acknowledged.”
“No doubt,” Johnny said, and then paused. The sound in Bernard’s voice was one that Johnny had never heard, and if he didn’t know better he would say that his friend sounded almost giddy, which made him wonder about the second part of Bernard’s good news. “Okay, so, the promotion is good and everything, but it ain’t better than the lotto,” he said with a chuckle. “If your ticket hit, you wouldn’t even need that job. So what’s your other news?”
“The love of a good woman.”
Johnny paused again. “What the hell? . . .”
“Don’t start,” Bernard said, “’cause there’s nothing you can say that’s gonna bring me off this natural high I got goin’ on. Last night Candace and I reached a new level in our relationship. I popped the question, man. I asked her to marry me, and she said yes.”
Johnny raised his glass to his lips and finished the rest of his drink in one long gulp. He knew that Bernard was whipped, but he had no idea that his friend was crazy, too. He was at a loss for words so he sat on the phone in silence.
“Another round of congratulations would be nice,” Bernard finally said.
Johnny shook his head. “Honestly, I’m just stunned. I mean, you’ve only known Candace for what . . . six months?”
“At this stage in my life, and after all the shit I’ve been through in relationships, I know what I want and I definitely know what I need. Candace has improved my life in more ways than I can tell you, and she’s made me a better man,” Bernard said with conviction. “She’s given me balance and a sense of peace that I’ve never had. She supports me and believes in me. She encouraged me to go to the VP of my department and demand the promotion I just got. She’s the reason I’m in this position. She makes me feel like I can do anything, and with her by my side, I know that I can.”
“Just because she encouraged you to ask for a promotion, that doesn’t mean you have to marry her,” Johnny urged. “I respect what you’re saying, but as you know, marriage is a big step.”
Secret Indiscretions Page 11
