Cold (12 page)

I still wasn’t done searching through Michael’s things so I waited until things calmed down, and when I thought he was asleep and tiptoed up the stairs barefoot trying to stay as quiet as possible. When I got to the room door, I slowly opened it and crept in like a thief. He was facing the door so if he saw me grabbing his keys from the dresser, I would be fucked. My heart was beating fast and a part of me wanted to say fuck it and leave the situation alone, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing that my husband could possibly be hiding something from me so I slowly reached over and grabbed the keys and suddenly Michael opened his eyes and stared dead at me. I wanted to run out of the room and jump off the stair rail. I knew I had to act quickly so I leaned over and kissed him and said, “Sorry about earlier, I was upset.”

He stayed silent for a minute and nodded his head and rolled over. I hurried and grabbed the keys and walked out of the room. The suspense was killing me. I felt like a teenaged girl who was sneaking out of her parent’s house.
I sat on the couch and tried to brace myself. I needed to collect my thoughts before I got back up. I put my phone on silent and walked to the garage. I walked up to the car and closed my eyes as I squeezed the key alarm to unlock the car. The last thing I needed to do was set the alarm off. When I finally got in the car, I took a deep breath and opened the glove compartment and a whole stack of letters fell out. I quickly scattered through them and there wasn’t much there except for court papers and receipts. I stuck my hand further in the glove compartment and felt something heavy. I pulled it out and realized that it was a watch and suddenly, it hit me like a ton of bricks. The gold Michael Kors watch I was holding was Melanie’s. I knew it was hers because she wore it every day for work.

Suddenly, I heard a noise.
‘Oh my God,’
I thought to myself as I tried to stuff all of the letters back in the glove compartment. I grabbed the watch and slid out of the car and crawled over to mine and hid on the side of it. The car light was taking forever to cut off. The whole time I was slumped over on the side of the car, I just kept praying that I wouldn’t be caught. I wasn’t afraid of my husband, but at the same time I didn’t want him to catch me doing something like this. I didn’t want him to know that I didn’t trust him. The car shut off at a perfect time because moments later, I heard the door open and I could see Michael’s feet as I looked under the car. I thought I was going to shit on myself. He stood there for a minute and walked back in the house locking the door. I smiled and said thank God. I waited a few minutes before crawling back over to his car. I was too scared to do anymore searching, so I opened the glove compartment and adjusted the papers in it as neatly as I possibly could. When I went to the door, I stood there with my mouth wide open. It had dawned on me that I left my keys in the house.

“
You gotta be fucking kidding me,” I said to myself as I jiggled the door.

I couldn’t believe that I was locked outside my own house. Luckily, we both kept a garage keypad in our cars. I unlocked Michael’s car and grabbed the keypad. I didn’t know if it was just me but the garage doors sounded extremely loud as they opened. My nerves were so bad. I slid under the garage door and looked around making sure nobody seen me. I walked to the front door and tried to figure out how I was going to get in. I walked to the backyard and tried to find a window that was open. I walked over to the patio door and slid it and to my surprise it was open. Stepping in the house was like coming up from a pool of deep water. I gasped and held my chest. I closed the patio door and walked to the garage. This time I made sure I left the doors open. I closed the garage and put Michael’s keypad back in his car.

When I made it back to my room in one piece, I saw Michael rolled over snoring. I quietly put his keys ba
ck on the dresser and got in the bed. I was so thankful to be back in the house. I’ve seen a lot of scary shit, especially in my career but nothing beats what I had to go through tonight. An hour had passed and I was still a little shaken up. I couldn’t sleep, especially after discovering Melanie’s watch in Michael’s car. He was either sleeping with her or knew more about her death than what he was telling me. Although his behavior was suspicious and I knew he was hiding something, I still wasn’t convinced that he was the one that actually killed her. He just wasn’t that person. I refused to believe that I was lying in the bed with a killer.

As I was getting sleepy and about to doze off, Michael’s phone rang and scared the hell out of me. He raised his head up and reached on the dresser for his phone. He took one look at it and then turned to look at me. I pretended to be sleep. He got up and walked to the bathroom. It sounded like he was brushing his teeth. It was still dark
, so I knew that he wasn’t getting ready for work. Minutes later, he returned and put on his clothes, grabbed his keys and left the room. As soon as I heard the front door close, I walked over to the window and saw Michael driving away from the house. Where the fuck was he going, I wondered to myself. I looked at the time on my phone and it was 4:07 in the morning.

Any chance of sleep now was impossible.
I sat up in bed all morning waiting for Michael to return he still hadn’t showed up. He didn’t even call me. It made me wonder if he’s done this before. There are times when I sleep so deep that when I finally wake up, he’s gone. I decided to call him but he didn’t answer. I reached under my pillow and grabbed Melanie’s watch. I held it up to my heart and tears started pouring from my eyes. I didn’t know if I was crying because of Melanie or if I was crying because I was hurt by Michael. I cried until my eyes were puffy and there were no more tears to cry.

Moments later, Darius called me. My nose was stuffy from all of the crying that I could barely talk.

“What’s wrong sweetheart?” he asked in a low concerned tone.

“Nothing
I’m fine,” I lied.

Darius sighed and replied
, “Tiffany, I’m not going to hurt you. You don’t have to lie to me. I’m here for you and right now, I don’t like the way you sound.”

I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh.

“Darius I’m just going through a lot.”

He paused and replied,
“I tell you what, let me take you to the beach. We can just talk, drink and relax. I know you’re a good woman and I wouldn’t dare take advantage of that. I just want to take you away from your problems for a couple of hours.”

Wit
hout giving it a second thought I said, “Okay.”

When we got off the phone, he texted me his home address. I got myself together and left the house. When I finally
arrived to Darius’ house, I was amazed. I got out of the car and heard a voice yelling from the sky.

“Up here!” Darius yelled.

He was standing on the balcony of his three story home. On the outside, his house looked like a castle. He disappeared and minutes later, met me at the front door.

“Nice house
,” I said as I walked behind him.

“I try
,” he replied as he winked at me.

There were beautiful frames hanging on the wall. There was a chandelier hanging from each room and the house was all white. I felt like I was in heaven. When we got to the kitchen, I noticed that he had a pool with a Jacuzzi outside. My two story house had absolutely nothing on Darius’ house. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of his house. This
man was the total package.

“I noticed that you were drinking Patron the night we met so I thought you might like this
.”

I laughed and just shook my head.

“Thanks.”

Darius grabbed a big black suede blanket and we headed out the door in his Porsche.                                                                                                                               

We finally arrived in Galveston. Before I could get out of the car, Darius walked around to my side and opened the door and reached for my hand. I guess he could tell I was nervous because he smiled at me and said, “It’s alright.”

I stretched my arm out and grabbed his hand. His hands were so warm and I felt special being on his arm. We walked around until we found the perfect rock to sit on. Darius climbed the rock first and sat the ice chest and drinks down then reached
for my arm and pulled me up. When I got comfortable, he poured me a glass of Patron mixed with cranberry juice and sprite. He kept it simple and popped open a cold beer.

After my first glass
I was a little buzzed, so I decided to wait before I went for round two. I don’t know why but out of nowhere, I started laughing. I don’t even think Darius knew what I was laughing at, but he started laughing as well.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

I just nodded my head and scooted closer to him. He put his arm around me and the next thing I knew, I was sitting between his legs. I instantly felt my body getting warm. He rubbed my shoulders and caressed my back. His hands felt like butter.
‘Why did he have to be so fine?’
I thought to myself.

Galveston wasn’t quite
the island, but it was close enough. I wasn’t sure if having another drink was a good idea. He began rubbing my neck and moved down to my lower back and started rubbing my waist. I wanted to pull my dress up and hop on his dick and ride it hard. I felt this gush and that’s when I realized that my pussy was starting to leak. I tried tightening it up to keep myself from getting his white linen pants wet. He leaned forward and whispered in my ear, “Are you okay?”

His whisper sent chills down my spine.

“Yes,” I mumbled.

Without warning, Darius turned me around and wrapped my legs around him. He was so damn sexy, I could look at him all day. He began caressing my thighs and when he tried to go higher, I grabbed
his hand. He gained his composure and resisted the temptation, but a second later my tongue was down his throat. We kissed long and passionately. His dick was so hard that if it grew another inch, he would’ve busted the zipper on his pants. He rubbed my ass and rotated it in a circular motion making my pussy lips squeeze together tight. In that moment, something in me told me to stop. Michael came to my mind and I stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Darius asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“I’m so sorry but I can’t do this. It’s wrong.”

He sighed and replied
, “I understand.”

I turned my back towards him and buried my face into my palms. Darius wrapped the suede blanket over me and just held me. We didn’t speak for the remainder of the time we spent at the beach.

When arrived back at Darius house, it was almost dark. He got out of the car and walked over to my side and let me out. I decided not to go in his house because I knew it would probably lead to sex because I was horny as hell and I think he felt the same. He walked me to my car and opened the door.

“Call me when you make it home.”

I nodded and slowly pulled out of his driveway feeling defeated. When I made it home, it was dark outside. I walked in the house and saw Michael sitting in the living room.

“Where were you Tiff?” he asked with his arms folded.

“Maybe I should ask you the same thing Michael,” I replied with an attitude.

“What does that mean?”

I rolled my eyes and asked, “What do you think it mean?”

He rolled his eyes and kept pressing me for an answer.

“Why are you just now getting home?”

I looked him dead in the eyes and with a straight face I said
, “Draya and I went to the beach.”

He looked convinced so he didn’t ask me anything else. I then turned and went upstairs to take a cold shower.
The cold water made my nipples erect. That moment at the beach with Darius kept playing over and over in my head like a movie. His dick felt big and strong. I closed my eyes and started touching my body. I pretended that Darius was behind caressing my wet body while slapping my booty with his big black dick. I slid two fingers inside of my pussy and imagined that it was Darius’ dick penetrating me. I leaned against the shower door and began fingering myself fast while squeezing my titties with the other hand. The closer I was getting to an orgasm, the faster I moved my fingers. Minutes later, I exploded all over my fingers. I washed cum off of my knuckles and finished my shower.

After I washed all of the sand out of my hair, I put on my robe and walked into the room. Michael was already in bed asleep.
Before I laid down, I text Darius “goodnight.” He text back and said goodnight and he enjoyed me. I smiled and put my phone under my pillow. I cut the lights off and got in bed and instantly passed out. The bright light and buzzing from Michael’s phone broke my sleep. It wouldn’t stop buzzing and for a minute, I thought it was the stalker calling my phone.  Michael wiped his eyes and grabbed his phone off of the dresser. He looked at it and got out of bed.
‘Wow,’
I thought to myself. It was like Déjà vu because he literally did the same exact thing yesterday. I wasn’t looking for an argument because I did some shit at the beach with Darius that I’m sure Michael wouldn’t approve of, but at least I pulled back and controlled myself before things went even further. Michael was disrespecting me right in my face.

I pretended to be asleep again. Michael went to the restroom and made a phone call. I guess he called himself trying to whisper but he wasn’t doing a good job because I heard him say, “Hey, I’m on my way.”

Minutes later, he walked back into the room and walked in the closet. I wanted to jump up and scream
, but instead I kept my composure. He walked over to my side of the bed and just stood over me. I kept my eyes close and still as much as I could. He then turned and walked out the door. Moments later, I heard his car speed off. I lay in bed and kept my eyes closed praying that this was just a joke. I opened my eyes and reality hit me like a ton of bricks. If I didn’t think my husband was cheating before, I knew now that my husband was creeping on me with another woman and it was nothing I could do about it. I reached in my purse and took Melanie’s watch out. It was so shiny and pretty. The time still ticked on it and to my surprise it was the right time too. The watch was in perfect condition and there wasn’t one scratch on it and that’s what made me believe that Michael had nothing to do with her death. If he snatched it off after she was murder, I would assume that there would be dried up blood in the creases of the watch especially with the way Darius say she was bleeding.

I didn’t eat or even get up for a drink. I stayed in be the remainder of the day analyzing everything that’s happened in this past month. I started thinking about how sneaky Michael was and that maybe the woman he was having an affair with was the stalker that calls my phone
private keyed my car and broke into it. I wanted to go the police, but I didn’t have any concrete evidence. All of it was based on my assumptions. Each day, the mysteries in my life were starting to unfold. All of this mess was based around my husband. It was all starting to make perfect sense to me. The more I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that Melanie was probably killed because she was sleeping with my husband and Michael’s mistress killed her in a rage. Usually, I would call Carl or Draya about something like this, but I needed to talk to someone who could give me their honest opinion, without getting their emotions involved so I called Darius.

“Hey Darius
,” I said as soon as he answered.

“Hey how are you
sweetheart?” I sighed and got straight to the point.

“I found Melanie’s Scott watch in my husband’s glove compartment.”

He was so quiet that I had to pull the phone away from my ear and look at it to make sure he was still on the other end.

“I felt like he was hiding something
, so I went through his things while he was asleep. I normally wouldn’t do that but I have this feeling that something is wrong.”

I left out the part about him getting up and four in the morning and how I thought that he had a woman on the side that could possibly trying to ruin my life.

“Tiffany,
maybe you need to go to the police and tell them about it. You’re already being looked at as a possible suspect. What if they get a search warrant and find the watch?”

I shook my head and replied
, “Yeah, I know but I don’t want to put Michael in serious trouble.”

Darius then cleared his throat and said
, “Tiffany, this isn’t about trying to protect your husband. You need to protect yourself. If your husband killed that woman, then you could be next.”

I made this face like I had a sour taste in my mouth. Darius was being extreme right now. I could tell that he was taking this whole thing personal.

“Darius, my husband didn’t do this. I know he didn’t and I know he wouldn’t hurt me.”

I kept trying to defend the situation because deep down inside, I was terrified.

“Okay sweetheart, if that’s how you feel fine. I don’t know your man, you do. You just need to be careful. I have to go take care of some business. I will call you when I’m free.” Darius ended the conversation just like that.