Married Men (28 page)

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Authors: Carl Weber

BOOK: Married Men
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“Hey, man, I just wanna apologize ...”
“Save it, okay? I don’t wanna hear it.” He turned toward Kyle to continue their conversation.
I put my hand on his shoulder. “Hey, Wil, I’m trying to apologize.”
“You better get your hands off of me, Jay.”
“What you want from me, man? You wanna hit me? Will that make you feel better?” I raised my hand, giving him the same opportunity he gave me a few months back. I honestly didn’t think he had the heart to take a swing at me until I saw Kyle grab his arm.
“Nah, big Wil, you don’t wanna do that,” Kyle told him as he handed him a drink. Kyle kinda flicked his fingers at me as if to say take a walk while he cools off. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea that Wil had attempted to take a swing at me, so I decided he might be right. So I headed over to the stage to watch the show. Not that the show made me feel any better. I mean, you seen one lesbian show, you’ve seen them all. At least that’s how I felt at the time. I was about to order another drink when my phone vibrated. I glanced at the caller ID, but it read “unknown.”
“Hello?”
“Jay?” I could barely hear whoever it was.
“Can you hold on a minute? I can barely hear you.” I walked out the front door into the cool spring air.
“Hello?” I said again.
“Jay, is that you?” a very sexy female voice asked. For a second there I thought I was hearing things ’cause I coulda sworn it sounded like Tracy.
“Yeah, this is Jay. Who’s this?”
“Tracy.”
The world stopped at that moment, and for a second I honestly didn’t know where I was. I dropped the phone, as my entire being flooded with emotion. I’d been waiting for this call for three months, and now that it was here, I didn’t know what to do.
Pick up the phone
,
that’s what you gotta do, dummy
, a little voice in my head told me. So I bent down and picked up the phone.
“Jay, are you there?” Her voice knocked me out of my fog so that I could finally answer her.
“I don’t believe this. Is this really you, Tracy?”
“Yes, it’s really me.”
“Where have you been? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for months.”
“I know,” she replied.
“Have you gotten my messages? How come you didn’t call?”
“Yes, I got your messages. I just wasn’t feelin’ you at the time.” I have to admit that hurt.
“And now you’re feelin’ me?”
“We’ll talk about that when I see you.”
“When’s that gonna be?” I asked desperately.
“Tonight.” She was telling me, not asking, and I didn’t care.
“Okay,” I replied quickly. “Where you at?”
“I’m at school. You remember how to get to my dorm, don’t you?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Okay, just call when you get here and I’ll come down. Oh, and Jay?”
“Yeah?”
“Why don’t we go back to your house?”
“Ahhhh well ... umm ... I ... ah ... 1 ... ah ... I don’t know if that’s a very good idea.”
“Why not? I mean, you do share the place with your sister, don’t you?” You know, it almost sounded like there was sarcasm in her voice.
“Yeah, I do, but my ... ah ... ah, my nephews are gonna be home and well ... ah, that’s not, uh ... the right example I wanna set for them. Yeah, that’s not the example I wanna set.”
“You know what, Jay? You’re full’a shit. And I’m not in the mood to be playing games. So just forget it.” She sounded like she was about to hang up.
“I’m not playing games with you, Tracy, I swear to God.” I couldn’t believe this was happening.
“Yeah, right. Look, I’ll call you, aw’ight?” Damn, everything was fine a minute ago. Why did she have an attitude now?
“Oh no. Come on, Tracy, don’t do this. I been waiting almost four months to see you. Don’t do this to me. Please, I gotta see you.” I knew I sounded desperate begging like that but the truth is I
was
desperate. Desperate as hell and I wanted to, no, I needed to see her more than anything in world.
“Look, Jay, I changed my mind. I’m going to bed. If you wanna see me, come pick me up Sunday morning at ten.”
“Sunday? That’s three days from now.”
“And?” she snapped. I could hear some laughter in the background.
“Tracy, why can’t I just see you now? You don’t sound that tired.”
“Jay, if you wanna see me, pick me up Sunday or just forget it, okay?” She didn’t sound tired but she sure as hell sounded like she was giving me an ultimatum.
“Okay, I’ll pick you up at ten.” I sighed. “Tracy?”
“Yes?”
“I ... ah ... I ... ah,” I wanted to say “I love you” but instead I said, “I missed you.”
“I missed you too, Jay.” After all the sarcasm she’d just spewed, she finally sounded sincere, but I was suddenly feeling so insecure.
“Really?”
“Yeah, really, Jay. I don’t know why, but I missed you.” The way she said it I could almost see her smile. “Bye, Jay.”
“Bye.”
I walked back in the club to let Kyle know I was leaving. I couldn’t stay. I needed to be alone to think about why Tracy might have had an attitude. She was probably still mad about me leaving her in the house.
When I got inside, Kyle was nowhere to be found. And for that matter, neither were Allen, Wil, or any of our other close friends. I pulled one of the owners to the side and asked where everyone went. He pointed to the VIP room.
“Knock on the door three times and they’ll let you in,” he told me.
The VIP room was a medium-size room in the club with sofas and love seats. On most nights it was used as a place the girls could take guys for a little one-on-one, but on nights like tonight it was used for special shows. As I stood outside the door, I could hear the laughter from inside and I knew whatever was happening in there musta been quite a show. I knocked three times.
“Yo, man, your boys are crazy,” one of the bouncers laughed as he opened the door to let me in.
I walked in and realized how right he was. Right there in front of twenty witnesses was Wil, sitting on a love seat, butt-ass naked with not one, but two naked dancers on either side of him rubbing their breasts up against his chest. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there was a third dancer on her knees with his johnson two inches from her mouth. I swear to God if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I would never have believed it. Now don’t get me wrong, Wil’s no angel. He likes to have a good time just as much as the rest of us, but when it comes to touching or being touched by a woman other than Diane, he ain’t havin’ it. We’d been to at least twenty bachelor parties and a ton of strip clubs over the years and he’d never gone as far as to accidentally rub up against a stripper. I walked over to Kyle and Allen, who were standing in front of him taking pictures.
“What the hell’s going on?” I asked Kyle.
“Hold on, let me get this shot and I’ll tell you.” He snapped two pictures then handed the camera to Allen, who directed the girls into another pose.
“Wil passed out,” Kyle slurred as he laughed. He was a little drunk himself.
“What?” He wasn’t making sense.
“Wil drank so much he passed out.” Kyle laughed even harder when he saw the pose Allen had moved the girls to.
I looked toward Wil. His eyes were closed and he hadn’t moved at all. Now things were starting to make sense. Kyle and Allen were having some laughs at Wil’s expense.
“So you decided to strip him down in front of all these people and take pictures of him? Yo, man, that shit is wrong.” I was about to walk over and snatch the camera from Allen when Kyle jumped in front of me, blocking my way. I didn’t care how much the two of us were fighting. There was no way I was gonna allow them to humiliate Wil like that. He might have been acting like an ass lately, but he was still my boy. Plus he would never do this type of thing to one of us.
“Come on, Jay. You have to admit this shit is funny.” Kyle pointed at one of the women squatting over Wil’s face as Allen took a picture. Wil’s mouth was open, and he had slobber running down his chin. If you didn’t know the fool had passed out, you would swear he was going down on her.
“Yeah, it is funny,” I admitted, but before I could finish, he shut me up.
“So stop bitchin’.”
“Yeah, but this shit is wrong, Kyle, and you know it. Especially the pictures.” Kyle smiled. Not his regular smile, but a devilish smile. More like something I would do.
“Pleeeeease.
If Wil didn’t want his picture taken, he shouldn’ta brought a camera.” Yep, that confirmed it. Kyle was making up excuses. He would never make excuses unless he was up to something.
“What are you up to, man?”
“Nothin’,” he insisted, but wouldn’t make eye contact.
“Aw’ight. It’s your funeral when he sees the flicks.” Kyle nodded like it was all good. “Look, I’m outta here. I gotta meet somebody,” I told him.
“A woman?”
“Yeah,” I lied.
Kyle smiled. I know what he was thinking. He was thinking I was finally over Tracy and things were back to normal. He couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
“Look, you think I can borrow a hundred? I need to get a hotel room. I’ll pay you back on pay day.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a money clip, peeling off two hundred-dollar bills. I probably shoulda told him about Tracy and that we were going to meet Sunday, but I knew he woulda given me a hard time.
“Have fun, man. I’ll see you tomorrow at the rehearsal dinner.” We grabbed hands and hugged.
“Kyle, do me a favor.”
“What’s that?”
“When you’re finished having your fun, make sure Wil gets home all right.”
“Don’t worry, man. We’re both gonna catch a cab home in a few.” He gave me a reassuring look.
22
 
Kyle
 
“Excuse me, miss, can we get another round over here, please?”
The cocktail waitress nodded as I finished up what was left of my iced tea. We’d all decided that we’d been drinking way too much lately and that we probably should hold off on the alcohol until tomorrow afternoon during the wedding reception. I glanced across the table at Wil, who still looked hung over from the night before. Man, was he wasted last night. I’d never seen him that drunk. I checked my watch for the time and was surprised it was almost midnight. I’d only gotten about two hours of sleep after the bachelor party last night, so it was a good thing Allen and Rose had suggested we stay at the Manhattan Marriott where their wedding reception was being held. Truth is, after the rehearsal dinner none of us felt like driving back to Queens.
“Hey, could you bring us some Buffalo wings and some nachos with that?” Wil asked the waitress. “Matter of fact, make that a double order of Buffalo wings.” The waitress scribbled down his order and disappeared.
“Damn, Wil, you hungry or what? We just ate an hour ago,” Allen laughed.
“No offense, Allen. I know you didn’t pick out the restaurant, but I didn’t eat any of that sushi they were serving. That shit is nasty.”
“Yo dawg, heads up,” Jay whispered, tapping my knee. I glanced toward the door to see Diane, Kenya, and Lisa walking in. Lisa was holding the hand of a tall, handsome Hispanic brother. I tried to hide it, but a wave of jealousy tensed every muscle in my body.
“Damn, dawg, she don’t give a
fuck
. She just walked up in here with her new man like you ain’t shit.” Jay shook his head.
Jay was right. She didn’t give a fuck. How the hell could Lisa embarrass me like this, showing up the night before my boy’s wedding with some Ricky Martin look-alike? I would never do something like that to her. And on top of all that, she was wearing my favorite dress.
“I’m sorry, Kyle. I didn’t know she was gonna bring a date.” Poor Allen looked as miserable as I felt.
“It’s not your fault, Al. You had to invite her if the girls were gonna be in the wedding.” I patted him on the back.
“She probably thought you were gonna bring Val,” Wil said nonchalantly. It was obvious he was more interested in the plate of nachos the waitress was handing him than in my little problem.
“Shit, I wish I had brought Val now. She cursed my ass out this morning when I told her it would be disrespectful to bring her to the wedding. I should call her up right now and tell her to catch a cab on over here.” I picked up my iced tea and took a sip as I watched my soon-to-be ex-wife sit down with her new man on the other side of the room.
“Wait a minute.” I turned to Wil angrily. “How the fuck does Lisa know about Val anyway?”
Wil almost choked on a nacho as he looked up from his plate. “Uh, I mighta slipped and told Diane that you was talkin’ to Val.” I could tell by his expression that there was no “mighta” about it.

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