Married Men (6 page)
Authors: Carl Weber
“Let’s get somethin’ straight, Wil Duncan. I don’t like this little game you and Jay are playing with Kenya. I don’t like it at all. If he doesn’t wanna be married, tell him to get a divorce.”
“Come on, you gonna tell me you never covered for your girls?”
“Hell, no! My girls would never ask me to do shit like this. Now where is Jay anyway?” she demanded, folding her arms.
“I left him in the bar with some woman named Jackie.” I lowered my head. “That’s between you and me.”
“Who’m I gonna tell?”
“Kenya!”
“You don’t have to worry about that. I’m not losing my marriage to save someone else’s. But I will tell you this, Wil Duncan. Don’t make me have to call someone looking for you. ’Cause I don’t trust your friends as far as I can throw ’em.”
“ever, baby.” I meant it. I would never cheat on Diane. But apparently she didn’t believe me.
“I’m gonna check on Teddy.” She rolled her eyes at me and got off the bed.
“What about ... you know?” I raised my eyebrows a couple of times.
“We’ll talk about that when I come back.” She frowned. When she left the room, I dialed Jay’s cell phone again. I never get in trouble for somethin’ I do. It’s always something they do. All I could do at that point was hope Diane would still be in the mood when she came back. I doubted it.
“What up, Wil?” Jay said, answering on the first ring.
“How’d you know it was me?” I asked.
“I got caller I.D. on this cell phone. Just in case Kenya finds the number.”
“What good’s that gonna do if you’re busted?” I laughed at him.
“I can act like I’m answerin’ the phone for business.” Jay must have given this plenty of thought.
“Damn, you think of everything, don’t ya?”
“Life of a playa, my man. I gotta stay two steps ahead of Kenya or my ass is grass.”
“Speaking of Kenya. She just called here lookin’ for you.”
“Shit! What’d you tell her?”
“That you was showin’ your bike to some brother.”
“Okay, cool. She wants me to sell that bike anyway.”
“Yeah, that’s what she told me. Look, Jay, I know it’s none of my business, but don’t you think you should head on home?” I hoped he would take my advice. I loved him like a brother, but I was getting tired of being in the middle of this.
Jay laughed, “You’ve seen Jackie. The woman has 44D titties and an ass like Jennifer Lopez. Do you really want me to go home? I don’t think so, Wil. Besides Kenya’s not home, she’s at her mother’s. She’s just tryin’a make sure I’m not fuckin around.”
“I wonder why. Look, man, call your wife and tell her you’re gonna stay at your mom’s or somethin’. The woman’s worried.”
“Okay, Wil, I’ll call her.”
“Good.” I wondered if he was sincere. “You and me gotta talk.”
“Talk about what?”
“I can’t keep covering for you, Jay.”
“Why you trippin’, Wil? You used to cover for Kyle all the time.”
“Key word, used to. Kyle don’t do that shit since he’s been married” I reminded him.
“Yeah, right. You really believe that shit, Wil?”
“All I know is, I don’t get calls from Lisa every Friday and Saturday night.”
“So you gonna sell a brotha out?” Jay asked.
“No, I just said we need to talk. And we’re gonna, as soon as Kyle gets outta jail. Now don’t forget to call your wife.” I hung up the phone without saying goodbye. I wanted him to know I was serious.
4
Jay
I hung the phone up and tried to enjoy the oral pleasure that Jackie was giving me, but as good as it was, it didn’t matter. My mind was still preoccupied with my conversation with Wil. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t sell me out to Kenya, but he was definitely startin’ to get a little pissed off covering for me. I just wish I could find the words to explain to him that what Kenya and I had just wasn’t the same as what he and Diane had. I cared about Kenya, but the fact that she didn’t wanna have sex anymore had ruined our relationship. God, I shoulda never married her in the first place. I felt so trapped.
I married Kenya four years ago after I found out she was pregnant. She was one fine, brown-skinned honey. We’d been dating off and on for about two years, and she was the first woman I’d ever been able to have a real relationship with. I’d been such a dog before I met her, I honestly didn’t know what it was like to have someone to care about me. Would you believe she was actually the only woman I ever felt guilty about cheating on? After a while I even stopped cheating. Things were going so well between us that I felt empty when she wasn’t around. That is until about a year and a half into our relationship when she started bringing up the “M” word. Now I cared about Kenya. I cared about her a lot, but marriage was definitely out of the question. Just the thought of it made me revert back to my old, insecure ways of womanizing.
When I made it clear that wedding bells were not in the equation for us, Kenya ended things, only to come back begging six months later. I’m not really sure if I felt sorry for her or just missed the stability she brought into my life, but I took her back. In retrospect, that was a bad move on my part. Six months after we got back together she told me she was pregnant. At first I didn’t think it was that big a deal. Three hundred dollars for an abortion and life was back to normal. But when I took her down to the clinic, the doctors said she was too far along. I’d never admit it to my boys, but I’m sure she played me.
I avoided Kenya for almost a month, contemplating my next move. The last thing I wanted was to be a father. I was only thirty at the time, and to be honest, I just wasn’t in love with her. But she kept insisting that she didn’t care if I loved her, that I’d learn to love her in time. Finally, after talking to my mom, I decided to do the morally right thing. I asked Kenya to marry me. My pops never married my mom, and till this day I love him but I don’t have any respect for him. I didn’t want that for my child. I decided to try and be the best husband and father I could. Besides, both Wil and Kyle were happily married. How hard could it really be?
At first marriage was fun. Kenya and I did a lot of family things with Wil and Kyle and their wives. I have to admit it took time, but I honestly think I love her. The only problem was that women were still hitting on me even though they knew I was married. The things they were suggesting were hard to turn down. On top of that, Kenya wasn’t as sexual as she used to be once the baby was born. At first she really tried to keep up with my sexual appetite, but soon she began using the excuse that she was too tired from taking care of the baby. That got old fast when I took Tiffany to my mom’s for the weekend and we still didn’t have sex. After two years of being faithful and horny, I couldn’t take it anymore. I hooked up with my old stripper girlfriend Keyshawn. I’m sorry, but if I had wanted to be celibate, I would’ve become a priest instead of a husband.
The only real reason I hadn’t asked Kenya for a divorce and moved out was that I loved our daughter more than life itself. I’d decided to stick it out for twelve more years until my daughter was at least sixteen. That way she could have a normal childhood. I’m an honest believer in the theory that children need a complete family. Then out of nowhere Kenya was pregnant again with our second child, which meant another sixteen years shackled to her. I didn’t like it, but I had to deal with it. I was just gonna have to lead a double life, one side husband and father and the other side a cheat. I wasn’t proud of the fact that I was being unfaithful, but with the sex life I had at home, I didn’t feel I had a choice.
I looked down at Jackie, who looked like she could use some encouragement. So I moaned loudly, pretending to be excited. Immediately she started to work harder.
“You like that, Jay?” Jackie asked, lifting her head.
I moaned again. “You know I do.”
She smiled and returned to her work.
“Keep doin’ what you doin’, baby, I just gotta call my old lady.”
Reaching for my cell phone, I hit the speed-dial button to my mother-in-law’s house.
“Hello?” I recognized my wife’s voice right away.
“Hey, baby, I thought you’d be ’sleep. I was gonna leave a message that I’m on my way down there.” Kenya was spending the weekend with her parents in Baltimore.
“You’re coming down here?” She sounded excited.
“Yeah, I miss you. Plus I was thinking about going fishing with your pops.”
“Really?” I could hear the excitement in her voice.
“Yeah, I’ll see you in a few hours. Get some sleep, okay?”
“Okay, Jay, I love you.”
“Yeah, me too.” I hung up the phone certain that any suspicions she had were gone.
Now I could relax and enjoy what Jackie was doing. Looking around to make sure no one was walking around the parking lot, I reached to my side and let my seat recline. I settled back comfortably and closed my eyes. It didn’t take long for Jackie to finish what she had started once I was concentrating on her skillful loving.
Jackie sat up and checked herself in the rearview mirror, straightening out her hair. As she put on her lipstick, she glanced in my direction. I knew right away what she was gonna ask.
“Why don’t you come on up so we can finish what we started?”
“Sorry, baby, I gotta head outta town. But I’ll take care of you Monday, aw’ight?” I lifted my butt and pulled up my pants, buttoning the fly in a hurry.
“Okay,” Jackie replied. She looked disappointed, but she’d get over it. She always did. As she opened the car door, Jackie leaned over to me for a kiss. I turned my head and offered her my cheek. No way was I kissing her after what she just did.
Monday morning I walked into the Queens courthouse and paused at the doorway to get myself together. Kyle being in jail had really hit me hard. The bond I shared with him was different than the one I shared with Wil and Allen. Mainly because we’d both played sports and chased women together all our lives. Man, did we have some kind of rep with the ladies back in the days. Kyle was one of the smoothest talkers I’ve ever met. He could look at a woman, evaluate her, and tell her exactly what she wanted to hear within seconds. And the ones he couldn’t charm the drawers off would be mesmerized by my dimples. We were one hell of a team back then, until Lisa came into the picture and fucked it all up.
After he met her, he became a different guy. He didn’t go anywhere without her, and fooling around was out of the question. Things just got even worse after they got married. The damn guy started acting like he was Bill Cosby. I wanted the old Kyle back so bad I tried to set him up one time by leaving some old panties and a used condom in his car. I don’t know what I was thinkin’ about. I guess I just wanted them to break up so Kyle and I could go back to doing our thing like we did in the old days. But I made one major mistake and got myself busted.
I knew Lisa used Kyle’s car on Saturdays, so I purposely made him drive one Friday night when we were hanging out. I stashed the condom and panties in the back seat without his knowledge. The next morning, Lisa found the condom and the panties just like I had planned, but she didn’t get mad at Kyle at all. She got mad at me. You see, Kyle didn’t use latex condoms. He was allergic to the latex. Well, it didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out who left the condom behind. I thought I had ruined my friendship with him for good. It took him almost five months to forgive me for my stupidity, and Lisa still holds a grudge.
When I saw Wil, Diane, Allen, and Lisa standing by a courtroom entrance, I froze. I was afraid that Wil might be mad about covering for me the other night. Not to mention the fact that both Diane and Lisa didn’t care for me at all. Lisa I understood. She would probably never get over the fact that I tried to break up her marriage. Diane ... well that was all Wil’s doing. Wil had this theory that once a man and woman were married, they should have no secrets between them. So I was sure he’d told Diane all about my marital infidelities. That’s why the only person I was really confiding in these days was Kyle.
Wil spotted me and waved me over. I felt a hell of a lot better when I saw him smile. I really didn’t feel like dealing with his shit on the day Kyle was going to be arraigned for attempted murder. I walked over and Allen greeted me with a brotherly hug. Wil came over to greet me the same way. I kissed Diane on the cheek, and for some reason I got a chill. But I couldn’t worry about that then. I walked over to Lisa, who’d obviously been crying.
She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a tight hug. I felt her tears fall on my neck, and her sobs had me choked up. We both loved Kyle in our own ways. I just wish I could have thought of a way to tell her I was sorry for all the heartache I had caused in the past.
“Any word’?” I asked sadly.
“Kyle’s lawyer said he was gonna see him in a few,” Wil answered.
I loosened my embrace with Lisa but still rubbed her shoulder as Wil gave me the details.
“Well, what’d he say’? Did he tell ya how much bail was gonna be?” I asked. I’d brought the deed to my house just in case they decided to give Kyle a high bail. I didn’t wanna take any chances.
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