Moments of Clarity (15 page)

“I haven't been here long enough to worry about it. Listen, I'm not going to be able to take you home because I have a morning meeting.”

“Okay.” Sasha tugged at the hem of Sexton's shirt that she was wearing. It fell to her knees and it made her feel small and petite. “I'll change out of your shirt and then I'll get going so that I don't make you late.”

“There's no need for you to hurry, Sasha. It's not even ten o'clock yet. You can go back to bed if you want. I have something for you.” He turned around and pulled the “something” out of a kitchen drawer and held it out to her. It was a key ring with several keys attached. “These are the keys to the lobby, my front door and the Chrysler 300. I want you to be able to come and go as you please and travel more easily.”

Sasha mutely stared at the key ring, not attempting to take it from the palm of his outstretched hand.

“I don't know about the car, Sexton.” She shook her head from side to side.

“Honey, I can't have you traveling the bus or subway all times of night. It's too dangerous.”

“I've been using public transportation for years and never had a problem,” she denied.

“But now you're my woman.”

Hearing this, Sasha raised an eyebrow at him. “You know that you have never officially asked me to be your girlfriend.”

“I didn't think I had to. We sleep together, we feed each other, and now I'm trying to protect you. If that doesn't make you my girlfriend, then you need to tell me what does. I have enough to do without having to worry about your safety,” he said flatly and his tone made no room for argument. “And I've arranged for you to park it in the garage near your loft.” Sexton leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. “Now I have to go before I'm late. Make sure you lock up before you leave.”

As Sasha later navigated through the congested traffic, she tamped down the impulse to be childish and drive by A Dose of Reality in Harlem, stop the car in front of the store and beep the horn so Abdul and Pandora would look out the window.

Chapter 12

Sasha was standing in front of her closet trying to figure out what to wear to the play when the telephone rang. The I.D. said, Cellular, Long Island. Sasha cast her eyes towards the ceiling in annoyance but felt compelled to answer it.

“Hello,” she said quietly.

“Hey, Sasha. It's me.” Tiara sounded bubbly, and that gave Sasha hope that she'd want to hear what Tiara had to say.

“I know.” Sasha sounded more disgruntled than she'd intended.

“Did I catch you in a bad mood or something? What happened, did you have an argument with Sexton?”

Sasha drew in a deep breath. “Actually no, Sexton and I have been doing great. I've seen him every night this week.”

“He has the most free time that I have ever heard of for a pro ball player.”

“I beg to differ. He's busy all of the time. Even though the team didn't make the play-offs he has other interests that take up a lot of his time.”

“Girl, you're beginning to sound as if you have stars in your eyes. Has what started as a fling turned into something bigger?” Tiara teased.

“Why are you spending so much time thinking about us? I would think that you have enough to worry about.” Sasha's sounded openly caustic, and now she didn't care.

“Why are you so snippy? You didn't even want him in the beginning.”

“Well, I want him now,” Sasha retorted sharply. “Why did you tell Sexton that it appeared that I was coming on to Calvin?”

There was a long silence from the other end. “I was just kidding around, Sasha,” Tiara stuttered.

Sasha decided not to let Tiara off the hook with that lame excuse. “I don't think that you were.”

“It seems to me that your boyfriend is a bit of an instigator,” Tiara replied defensively.

“Sexton is not the instigator in this little scenario. It's you.”

“I'm surprised at you, Sasha. You never used to turn on your friends over a little dick.”

“It's not a little dick, Tiara. It's a big one,” she retorted. “The problem is that ever since you separated from Peter you've changed. I can't handle it anymore.”

“We've been friends forever. Now all of a sudden you're tired of me?” Tiara was obviously incensed by the fact that Sasha had drawn Peter's name into their fight.

“It's not all of a sudden, Tiara. I've been trying to work with you, but you've become hard to be a friend to. I know what Peter did was a blow to your ego, but you don't have to try to sabotage everyone else's relationship in order to lessen what your husband did.” Then Sasha softened her voice. “I think that you should get some counseling,” she suggested.

“I can't afford it,” Tiara whined.

“That dress you had on at the party cost at least five hundred dollars. Get your priorities straight and try working on your inside as well as the outside.”

Hearing Tiara began to sniffle, Sasha felt a pain in her heart.

“So you don't want to be my friend anymore? You think you're too good for me.”

The sympathy that had begun to form again for Tiara quickly died. “That is so ridiculous I refuse to dignify it with an answer.” Sasha paused, choosing her words carefully. “I'm just saying that I think we can use a break from our relationship. Sometimes friends need to take a hiatus to get perspective and to get back to what made them so close in the first place.”

Tiara's answer was silence.

“I have to go now because I'm meeting my sisters for a Broadway play.” Then she said with a solemn ring of decisiveness, “Take care, Tiara, and think about what I said.” The sound of the dial tone in her ear was the only response that Tiara gave her.

* * *

As she walked down the street, Sasha craned her neck, trying to estimate how much farther the theatre was. The traffic had been heavy even for a Saturday night in New York and she hadn't anticipated the extra thirty minutes it took her to find a parking spot. She knew that the play was being held at the Broadway Theatre and hoped that her sisters were waiting for her outside, or at least had left her ticket at the Will Call window.

The closer the time had drawn for their outing, the more she had anticipated it and she didn't want anything to mar their evening together.

She spied her sisters standing in front of the entrance looking around in every direction, obviously for her. Dominique had her hands on her hips, which spoke volumes, and Sasha knew without seeing it that she was tapping her foot impatiently. Desiree, the taller of the two, looked worried as she anxiously scanned the area. Sasha was breathless by the time she reached them and formed an apology that was shut down before it was spoken.

“You would be late, Sasha! The curtain is about to go up and we've been worried sick. Why don't you ever answer your telephone?”

“I love you too, Dominique,” Sasha responded. “I really am sorry, though. The traffic took me off guard.”

“You really should be more considerate, Sasha. When there's an event at hand it really is common sense to take an earlier train,” Desiree added in a much milder tone.

Sasha reached over and gave her an air smooch on her cheek before she rolled her eyes at Dominique's exasperated expression.

“I didn't take the subway, ladies,” Sasha drawled, “but I don't have time to explain right now.”

“I didn't see you get out of a taxi,” Desiree said, perplexed.

Sasha responded without explanation, “We're already running late, so I'll fill you in during intermission.” With a flourish, Sasha snatched one of the tickets out of Dominique's hand, and with head held high, determinedly pushed through the crowd still waiting for other members of their party to show.

Halfway through the play, there was a twenty-minute intermission and the Diamond sisters managed to secure a small round table in the bar area. As they each sipped a glass of white wine, Dominique and Desiree looked at her over the rims of their glasses. “What gives? Why are you looking so smug?” Desiree demanded.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Sasha teased.

“You're looking kind of full of yourself, Sasha. What's going on?” She added sarcastically, “Has Abdul decided to drop the I-don't-care-that-I-ain't-got-nothing facade and actually gotten a real job?”

At these words, Desiree unsuccessfully tried to stifle her laughter.

Sasha looked at both of them, completely unruffled by their teasing. “Say what you want to about him. You ladies can't hurt my feelings anymore with those remarks, not that you ever did. I got rid of that zero and got myself a hero.” She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.

Dominique and Desiree put their glasses down, both stunned by Sasha's statement.

Dominique asked. They gave each other a questioning look before returning their attention to Sasha. “Whatever are you talking about?”

At that moment, the lights blinked three times and a bell began to sound. “Intermission is over, so you cats have to wait until the end of the play to find out. It kind of serves you right,” she ended flippantly and stalked out of the bar.

* * *

At the end of the play, the Diamond sisters stood with the crowd and gave the cast a standing ovation. “I love Tyler Perry's plays,” Sasha said admiringly to her sisters. “They always have a message. He's right, black men don't go to the doctor enough. They're always trying to cure their illnesses after the fact.” She spoke directly to Dominique and said, “Make sure you tell Benjamin how great the play was and how much I appreciate him for hooking us up.”

“I will,” Dominique answered.

Desiree glanced at her wristwatch. “It's only eleven o'clock. Let's go to the coffee shop around the corner. It's not that far a walk.”

“Sounds good to me. I know that my feet are happy to hear that.” Sasha looked down at her shoes and said, “I'll be able to kick these bad boys off under the table and probably nobody will even notice.”

Minutes later, they sat at the table and Sasha deliberately took her time telling them her news. “
What's Done in the Dark
is the perfect lead in for what I'm getting ready to tell you. Abdul and I are finished.”

Neither of them spoke for a minute, and then Dominique said in a mildly sarcastic voice, “Sure you are. I thought that you had something interesting to share.”

Desiree agreed. “That isn't anything new, Sasha. You tell us at least every couple of months that you're going to get rid of him, but you don't.”

Sasha was a little disappointed that her announcement didn't have the dramatic response from her sisters that she'd hoped.

“I caught his cousin giving him a blow job,” she said dramatically.

Both of her sisters' jaws dropped and Sasha said smugly, “Now you're getting it.”

“His cousin? Yuck! Someone should call the law!” Dominique said in disgust.

“Well, it turns out that Pandora's not really his blood cousin. They just always call each other that. In fact she's his ‘play' cousin. But all the same this has been going on behind my back for who knows how long. I probably would never have known had I not gone to his shop and caught them. Talk about what's done in the dark.”

“Are you okay?” Desiree searched Sasha's face. “I mean, you've been seeing him for more than a minute. How are you taking the breakup?”

“Quite well, actually. When I realized that the person that I cared about didn't really exist, it didn't feel so much like the end to a relationship. It was more like ripping a Band-Aid from a wound that wasn't all that serious in the first place.”

Dominique breathed a sigh of relief. “The Lord rains blessings from above. I've been on pins and needles for years, afraid that you were going to marry that nut and end up living on Loserville Boulevard.”

“Talk about getting caught with your pants down,” Desiree said with distaste.

Dominique snickered and pointed at Desiree across the table. “That's a good one,” she said.

As they snickered, Sasha tried to shush them by saying, “I'm not through with my news.”

“You mean there's more drama? I think that last bit will be hard to top.”

Sasha looked Dominique straight in the eye. “I think you more than anyone else in the family will find this interesting. I have another man.” She paused for an added effect. “He's black and rich.”

Dominique's mouth fell open in surprise.

Sasha grinned, “I knew you'd like that.”

Desiree looked doubtful. “Don't you think this is pretty sudden, Sasha? It's not like you to go straight from one relationship to another.”

“I know.” She didn't realize it, but she had a faraway look on her face as if she were somewhere else with someone else and not sitting in a coffee shop with her sisters. “But I really like him. This has caught me completely by surprise. It's not every day you meet single, rich, famous, good-looking black men in New York. But it's not that. He's different. There's just something about him that has already cemented him in my heart.” Sasha decided to make that comment the last when it came to discussing how much love she already had for Sexton because she didn't want to ruin their evening by giving either one of them a heart attack.

Now she deliberately raised one eyebrow at Desiree in their typical Diamond family mannerism. “And this is your little surprise, Desiree. You have already met him. It's Sexton Johnson.”

Desiree's mouth gaped open. “The basketball player?” Desiree demanded.

“That's him,” she ended, relishing the fact that she had managed to stun both of her sisters in one evening.

Sasha leaned back in her chair and continued to enjoy the look of astonishment on both her sisters' faces she leaned towards them and whispered, “And believe me, ladies, he does have one sexy Johnson.” Then she reenacted Meg Ryan's scene in the movie,
When Harry Met Sally
.

Desiree shook her head in admonishment at Sasha's antics when she realized that couples at the tables surrounding them were eavesdropping.

Dominique scoffed, “You can't build a relationship on that! After a time, sex can wane even between couples who love each other dearly. You better make sure you have more in common than what's between the sheets so that you have reasons to stay together.”

“What do you like about this guy?” Desiree asked.

“I don't have to tell him what makes me happy. I like the way he treats me in and out of bed.” Sasha's answer was frank and without deception. It came out automatically.

Dominique replied in a voice which was tinged with awe, “I'm impressed, Sasha. I didn't think you had it in you,” she quipped.

“Those are very important ingredients to a happy relationship,” Desiree acknowledged. “Obviously, I don't care for Abdul. He came to my wedding and tried to snoot his nose up about the fact that I was marrying a white man. If he felt that strongly about it he should have stayed home.”

Dominique couldn't resist taking another snipe at Abdul's expense. “And miss a free meal? Surely you jest.”

Desiree ignored that, not wanting to be distracted from making her point. “But the main problem that I had with Abdul was that he also seemed to take some of your spontaneity from you. I have always admired how vivacious you are, but the longer you were with him the less happy you appeared to be. Sometimes you were downright morose.” She advised, “Have fun with Sexton. Be the Sasha that I have always known you to be. Be a friend and lover to him and if he is the one, everything else will fall into place. That's how I ended up falling in love with Tyler,” Desiree ended with satisfaction.

“Abdul was too serious,” Dominique affirmed. “He walked around brooding all the time. I don't find that sexy at all.”

Sasha laughed. “Well, Sexton isn't like that.” Her tone changed to one of a more serious nature. “We have so many of the same likes and dislikes it's scary.”