by Darrien Lee
“Ramsey Stone, I can’t believe I’m running into you. Why haven’t you called me? I thought we had something special going on,” Monica playfully reprimanded him.
Ramsey sat his beer down and slowly scanned her body before giving her a warm hug. “I was going to call, Monica. I’ve just been busy. You can understand that, right?”
She slid her hands down to his backside and pressed her breasts against his chest. Monica was a true Amazon at five foot eleven inches tall, and the dress she had on screamed physical perfection. “You’re forgiven, and if you’re a good boy, I might let you take me home tonight.”
He laughed out loud. “I’ll have to remember that. By the way, you’re wearing that dress.”
She twirled around, giving him a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of her shapely curves. “Thank you, Ramsey.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close so she could whisper in his ear. “If you give me a kiss, I’ll give you the honor of unzipping this dress.”
Ramsey smiled and happily leaned in for a kiss, but when he got within a half inch of her lips, his stomach betrayed him, causing him to quickly pull back.
“What’s wrong, Ramsey? Don’t you want to kiss me?” she asked with her hands on her hips.
He frowned. “I do, Monica. Just hold that thought, and I’ll be back in a second.”
Puzzled, Bradford looked over at him and asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
Ramsey shook his head and made his way to the men’s room. It was there his stomach gave way on him. As he held his head over the toilet, he prayed once again for mercy. This went on for a few minutes until he finally felt like he could return to his friends. Before leaving the men’s room, he threw some water on his face and popped a breath mint in his mouth. As soon as he stepped out into the hallway, Monica was anxiously waiting on him. “Are you OK?”
He smiled. “I’m fine.”
“Good, then dance with me?”
He smiled again and said, “Sure.”
But as soon as they stepped out on the dance floor, Ramsey got sick again and had to rush to the bathroom. This time Bradford followed him to see what was going on.
“Ramsey, what the hell is wrong with you? You have that fine-ass woman hanging all over you, and you’re spending the night in the bathroom.”
Ramsey flushed the toilet and opened the door to the bathroom stall. He walked over to the sink and threw more water on his face. “Bradford, something’s wrong. Every time I get close to a woman I get deathly ill.”
Bradford started laughing and said, “Get the hell out of here. So does this mean you like men now?”
“I’m serious. It happened with Andria the other night, and now with Monica. When I get away from them, I’m okay.”
Bradford thought for a moment and then asked, “When did this start?”
“I just noticed it this week,” Ramsey admitted.
“Have you eaten anything that you normally don’t eat?”
Ramsey grabbed a paper towel and wiped his hands, “No.”
Bradford continued to interrogate Ramsey as he relieved himself in the urinal. “Well, have you changed any habits or routines?”
“Not lately.”
Bradford flushed the urinal and walked over to the sink to wash his hands. “OK, I’m going to ask you something personal. Who was the last woman you slept with?”
Ramsey frowned. “Why?”
“I don’t know, bro, maybe whoever it was passed a little something on to you,” he revealed.
“That’s some bullshit. I’m very careful,” Ramsey yelled.
“OK, who was the last woman you got busy with that didn’t make you sick?”
Ramsey thought for a moment, and then it hit him. “Son of a bitch.”
“Who was it?” Bradford asked.
“It’s not important,” Ramsey said.
Bradford threw his paper towel in the trash. “It was Keilah, wasn’t it?”
Ramsey reluctantly nodded.
Bradford smiled. “You really are in love with her.”
Ramsey said, “This has to be some type of virus.”
Bradford opened the door and asked, “Call it what you want, but explain to me why you can’t touch another woman without getting sick? You have your confirmation right in front of you, bro.”
Bradford exited the bathroom, leaving Ramsey deep in thought. He let Bradford’s comments sink in before he decided to call it a night and go home.
Chapter Twenty-two
Keilah slept the entire time on her flight back to D.C. When she stepped off the plane, she headed to the closest rest room to freshen up. Her cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“Keilah, are you on the ground yet?” Ramsey asked.
“Yes, I’m on my way to the baggage claim now. I’ll see you in a second,” she replied.
“Cool,” Ramsey answered before hanging up.
Keilah threw some cold water on her face, touched up her makeup, dabbed a little perfume behind each ear and popped a breath mint in her mouth. She was exhausted, but wanted to see Michael to see if she saw anything in his eyes to convince her he was the man for her. After leaving the rest room, she made her way down the escalator to the ground floor. There she found Ramsey smiling like he hadn’t seen her in months.
“It’s about time, woman,” he teased. “Welcome home.”
Keilah gave him a hug and said, “It’s nice to be home, Ramsey.”
Ramsey looked at Keilah, and her poise and beauty overwhelmed him. He took her carry-on bag out of her hand. “How many more bags do you have?”
“Only one,” she answered as they headed over to the carousel.
Luggage was already circulating, and it didn’t take but a couple of minutes for Ramsey to grab her suitcase. As they walked out to his waiting car, Ramsey recognized the fact that hugging Keilah didn’t make him sick to his stomach. He also recognized how hard his heart was beating in his chest. Just being in close proximity with her was driving him crazy. It didn’t help matters that she was wearing a snug pair of jeans and a short-sleeved sweater that hugged her voluptuous chest.
To try and get his body under control, he thought small talk would be the best remedy. “So how was your flight?”
“I don’t have a clue, because I slept the whole way,” she answered right before yawning.
He frowned. “You need to go home and lie down for awhile. You know your body’s jet-lagged.”
“My body’s fine. I just need you to run me by Michael’s house before taking me home, if you don’t mind.”
Ramsey opened the trunk to his Lexus and piled Keilah’s luggage inside. He closed the trunk and opened the passenger-side door for her and frowned. Putting her in Michael’s arms wasn’t on his agenda for the day. “You want me to take you over there now?”
She climbed inside his car and smiled. “It’ll be a nice surprise, and besides, I have a key.”
Ramsey closed the door. “He gave you a key?”
Without making eye contact with him, she nodded.
“Let me get this right. You didn’t tell Michael you were coming home early?”
“No. He’ll be leaving for Iraq in a day or two and I need to see him before he leaves.”
“If you say so,” he replied. “But you should at least call to see if he’s at home before we drive over there.”
“If I call him, it won’t be a surprise, now will it?” she asked.
Ramsey didn’t have a response for her. Instead he climbed inside the car and pulled out of the parking lot. Looking over at her, he noticed what seemed to be tension. “Are you OK? You seem a little tense.”
She yawned again and then said, “I have a lot on my mind right now, that’s all.”
“Is it anything you want to talk about?”
“Maybe later,” she replied. “How have things been at the office since we last spoke?”
“Everything’s fine. Get that folder off the backseat. It has information in it on a
potential employee I interviewed the other day. She used to be Special Forces in the Air Force. Take a look at it and let me know what you think.”
“Hmm, a woman, huh?” she teased.
Ramsey chuckled and put on his sunglasses. “Yeah. She looks like a great candidate, too.”
Keilah listened to him as she thumbed through the paperwork on the potential employee. She closed the folder and leaned back against the headrest. “I’m sure she is. Can you set up an appointment for me to talk to her tomorrow around one?”
“I don’t know, Keilah. I don’t want to set anything up unless you’re sure you’re going to be there. You going over to Michael’s house is not a good sign.”
Keilah looked over at Ramsey and smiled. “I see you don’t have a lot of confidence in me.”
“I have more confidence in you than you can imagine, Keilah Chance,” he responded with sincerity.
“Just set it up, Stone,” she said, giggling.
He laughed. “All right, if you say so.”
It took the pair about an hour and a half to reach Michael’s house with morning traffic. Keilah and Ramsey made their way up to the door. She unlocked the door and entered quietly. “I can’t believe Michael gave you a key.”
She turned and smiled. “He gave it to me so I can check on his house while he’s in Iraq.” He grabbed her arm and said, “Well, you’re using it the wrong way. I think we should leave.”
“No, Ramsey, I told you I want to surprise him.”
As soon as she stepped inside the foyer, she froze.
“What is it?” he asked.
Thrown around the foyer were several articles of clothing and shoes, leading upstairs. “What the hell? Give me your gun, Ramsey,” she calmly whispered. Ramsey sat her luggage down and whispered, “Hell no. I think we should get out of here.” Keilah sat her purse down on the hall table and said, “Hell to the no. Now give me your goddamn gun.”
He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes. “Have you lost your mind? I’m not going to give you my gun. Let’s go.”
Keilah pulled her camera phone out of her purse and walked into the family room. There she found several bottles of wine on the table, two wineglasses and two empty containers of take-out food. She quietly snapped pictures of the evidence and cursed Michael under her breath. She returned to the foyer and took pictures of the pile of clothing pitched across the floor. Ramsey ran his hand over his head in frustration as he watched Keilah snap pictures like she was investigating a crime scene. “Keilah, what are you doing?”
She walked over to Ramsey and pulled his gun out of his holster. “I don’t know what went on here last night, but to say this doesn’t look good for Michael is an understatement.”
With the gun in her hand, she quietly headed up the stairs, but not before Ramsey grabbed her by the arm, stopping her. “I’m not going to tell you again, let’s get the hell out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I find out what’s going on,” Keilah replied as she broke from him and headed up the stairs.
He realized Keilah was about to go off on Michael, but he couldn’t allow her to do anything that could ruin her life. He decided to follow her up the stairs to Michael’s bedroom and be ready to intervene if necessary, but Keilah had a quick temper and could do anything.
In the hallway upstairs, Keilah and Ramsey stepped inside Michael’s bedroom and found two bodies cuddled up together. The first thing she did was snap a couple of pictures of the bodies as they lay arm in arm. The next thing she did was something not even Ramsey expected. She aimed the gun at the ceiling and shot off a round, making a deafening sound. Michael immediately sat up in bed and so did his male companion. Keilah’s eyes widened, and so did Ramsey’s. She immediately aimed the gun at the both of them. “You bastard.”
Michael was in complete shock and didn’t know what to say. The man in Michael’s bed raised his hand and yelled, “Please, don’t shoot!”
“You’d better shut your bitch up, Michael,” Keilah yelled as her hand steadied the gun right between his eyes.
Michael put his hands up in defense and pleaded with her. “Baby, don’t shoot.”
“You don’t have the right to call me baby, you son of a bitch.”
Michael was trembling now. He looked over at Ramsey and pleaded with him. “Ramsey, do something.”
Ramsey shoved his hands inside his pockets. “And just want do you want me to do, Michael?”
Michael looked up at Keilah and shook his head. “Keilah, please, I can explain.”
“Explain what, Michael? That you’re on the down-low, and you’ve been sleeping with me?” she screamed.
“No, sweetheart, I ...”
Keilah shot another round off into the ceiling, causing them to shiver even more. Keilah gritted her teeth and said, “Don’t you dare ‘sweetheart’ me, you son of a bitch. I should kill you where you sit.”
Ramsey noticed Keilah’s body trembling, but her hand was steady as she held the gun. He decided to move a little closer to her just in case. “Partner, he’s not worth it. Come on, Keilah. Let me take you home.”
The other man pulled the sheet up over his chest and started pleading with Keilah. “Please, I just want to get out of here. I see you two have some things to work out.”
Keilah stared at the man. “You’re not going anywhere. How long has this been going on?”
Michael tried to answer the question, but she stopped him by yelling, “Shut the hell up, Michael. I’m not talking to you.”
The man swallowed hard and said, “We been seeing each other off and on for about three years.”
Keilah looked over at Ramsey, and then closed her eyes briefly before whispering, “Why, Michael? Do you have a death wish or something?”
He put his hands over his face. “I can’t help it, Keilah. I do love you, but I love spending time with Kevin.” He sighed and said, “Keilah, I don’t know anything right now. Just let Kevin leave, because this is between you and me.”
“Why did you ask me to marry you?” Keilah asked.
This caught Ramsey off guard. Keilah had forgotten to mention that bit of information to him while she was in California.
“I can’t answer that while you’re pointing a gun at me,” Michael replied.
Keilah looked at the man Michael called Kevin and said, “Get the hell out of here.”
Kevin jumped out of the bed completely naked and hurried out of the room. Keilah felt nauseated and put her hand over her mouth to stifle the sensation. She looked at Ramsey and calmly said, “Follow him and make sure he leaves.”
“Are you cool?” he asked before leaving the room.
She smiled mischievously. “Of course I am, partner. You know me.”
“I know. That’s why I asked,” Ramsey stated. “Are you cool?”
“I’m fine, Ramsey, honestly,” she assured him.
“OK, but don’t do anything stupid. He’s not worth it. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
Michael looked at Ramsey. “You’re not going to leave me alone with her, are you?”
Ramsey walked toward the door. “I’m sorry, bro, but I can’t help you with this one. You got yourself jammed up on this one and the evidence speaks for itself.”
After Ramsey left the pair alone, she paced the floor anxiously. “Don’t worry, baby. You and I are just going to have a little chat.”
Once Keilah was alone with Michael, she walked over to his closet and pulled out a pair of jeans and threw them at him. She sat down in a nearby chair and laid the gun on the table. A sigh of relief briefly swept over Michael’s body. Keilah folded her arms across her chest and watched as Michael slid into his jeans.
“Michael, I don’t think you realize how bad I want to hurt you right now.”
He pulled a T-shirt out of drawer and pulled it over his head. He sat back down on the side of the bed. “Keilah, I didn’t want you to find out like this. I never meant to hurt you.”
“Well you did, Michael,” Keilah yelled back.
Michael sat there clueless on what to say or do next. Keilah shook her head. “Have you ever had unprotected sex with this man or any man since you’ve been seeing me?”
Michael lowered his head. “I wouldn’t do that, Keilah.”
“Are you sure?”
“I said no, Keilah. I’m not an idiot. I’ve never had unprotected sex with any man.”
Keilah felt like the room was spinning. She had a million thoughts running through her head. One thought was how happy she was that she had the sense God gave her not to have unprotected sex with him. “Then why did you try to do it with me? Why all that talk about having a family with me?”
Michael’s eyes filled with tears.
“Tell me the truth, Michael,” she begged. “Explain to me how you can proclaim you love me and want to marry me and have a life with me only for me to come back to D.C. and find you in bed with a man.”
Michael ran his hands over his face and stared at the floor. “Keilah, when I laid eyes on you, I fell in love. I may have lied about a lot of things, but I never lied about that.”
Keilah sat there frozen in her seat, still stunned by what she’d walked in on. She glared at Michael. “Why did you ask me to marry you?”
Michael looked up at Keilah and said, “My plan was to have a child with you, then eventually get a divorce so Kevin and I could be together.”
She looked at him in disbelief. “Let me get this straight. You wanted to marry me to give you a child so you and your boyfriend could live happily ever after?”
Michael didn’t respond. Keilah picked up the gun and started laughing. “I’m so glad God brought what you were doing in the dark to the light.”
Keilah had become unexpectedly composed considering how she’d been minutes before. Michael was severely hung over and the room was spinning. At the time, he didn’t know what to think of Keilah’s demeanor. She had become calm—too calm.
Without saying another word, she took a couple of steps toward the door with the gun at her side. Michael’s voice made her stop in her tracks. “Keilah, I’m so sorry. Where do we go from here, Keilah?”
