Nervous (21 page)

Walter Beasley’s
Rendez-Vous
CD continued to play as he took the thong off and climbed into the tub. He grabbed my hand and helped me to step in. He sat down and I straddled him. We began kissing again, this time more intensely. I could feel his dick between my thighs, teasing my pussy lips. I had never known so much pleasure. That was a far cry from a towel or sheet causing friction against my clit, which was all I was used to.

Mason started sucking my breasts again and turned on the jets in the tub. The water pulsating against my skin only added to the experience. I moved back off him slightly and reached down to caress his dick. It felt wonderful to the touch. Mason also reached down into the water and started fingering me gently. The volume of my moans increased and I had an orgasm just from him touching me with his hand.

He glanced up at me and asked, “Did you just do what I think you did?”

I snickered. “Um, yes, I believe I did.” I laid my head on his shoulder and hugged him with both arms, letting go of his dick. “Mason, don’t laugh at me. Remember all of this is new for me.”

He grabbed my chin and gazed at me lovingly. “I would never laugh at you, Jonquinette.”

He took a towel and a bar of soap, lathered it up and started bathing me, slowly and tenderly, never breaking eye contact. Before I knew it, I had completely lost control of my senses. I started sucking on his neck and then his chest. He pulled my head back toward his legs by my hair, squeezed the towel so that water cascaded down the center of my chest and then starting sucking my nipples. Again, I had an orgasm.

We finished bathing and Mason refused to use a bath towel. Instead, he licked me dry. Then he carried me into the bedroom and laid me down on his king-sized bed. It was covered with silk animal-print sheets and a matching down comforter. He lifted my left foot to his mouth and proceeded to suck my toes, one at a time. After he was done with my left foot, he went to work on my right one. I was speechless. I just laid there shivering and enjoying every second of it.

Mason worked his tongue up my calves and then my thighs. He took a brief hiatus when he got to my pussy. He just blew on the hairs, which tickled. I suppressed a laugh. He said, “I’m going to taste you now,” and that’s exactly what he did.

The heat of his tongue swirling on my clit and darting in and out of me made me want to scream with delight. I grabbed a pillow and smashed it over my head, muffling my moans. Mason yanked it from me. “No, I want to see you and I
definitely
want to hear you.”

He began to eat my pussy again and I grabbed the headboard, trying to handle what he was giving me. I lost count of how many times I climaxed and I was practically hallucinating by the time Mason felt he had accomplished his mission.

“Are you ready?” he asked me, positioning his dick between my legs.

“I’ve waited all my life for this,” I whispered in his ear. “But I need to say something to you first.”

“What’s that?”

I caressed his cheek. “I’m in love with you also.”

“Do you really mean that, Jonquinette?”

“Yes, I do. I really mean it. I never thought I would find love after all these years. I’d given up. You’ve made me believe that anything is possible.”

He kissed me on the lips. “Anything is possible.”

Without saying another word to each other, Mason entered me and we made love for the first time. I prayed it wouldn’t be the last.

jude

I called in sick. Fuck work! Instead, I went to the Queen Bitch’s apartment to check up on things. She and Henry seemed to be getting a little bit too close for comfort. All the damn work I did to get them to break up, hiring that whore, setting the entire Thanksgiving fiasco up, and after all these years they were speaking again. The world had truly gone to shit! Queen Bitch Meredith needed to take her ass back to whoring and golddigging and forget about Henry.

After driving over there, I got the shock of my life when Flower opened the Queen Bitch’s door.

“Jonquinette!” She flung her arms around me like she was Dorothy and she’d finally made it back home from the Emerald City. “I’m so happy to see you!”

Flower was a cutie. I can’t deny that, but what the hell was she doing in Atlanta? I decided to take the safe route and play nice with her. If I had really said what was on my mind, I would have scared the little chick.

“Hey, Flower. You’re looking beautiful today and that’s an adorable outfit,” I said, trying to think of what timid-ass Jon would say in a similar situation.

Flower twirled around like she was a runway model. “Thanks, Miss Meredith bought it for me.”

“Miss Meredith, huh?” I was getting a really bad feeling. “I should have known. It looks like something she would pick out.” The outfit did have Meredith written all over it. It was much too fancy for a young child and must have cost a grip, which meant Meredith was trying to kiss up to the little one. “Is
Miss Meredith
home?”

“Yes, she and Daddy are in the kitchen baking cookies.”

“Stop the madness!” I exclaimed, rolling my eyes to the ceiling and following Flower into the condo.

“Huh?” Flower asked. “What does stop the madness mean?”

“It’s just a saying.” As we got farther into the living room, I noticed several shopping bags from high-end stores strewn about. “Someone went on quite a shopping spree, looks like.”

“Yeah, Miss Meredith said she wanted me to have some city clothes. She thought my clothes were too old.”

Humph, no big surprise! That sounded just like the type of bullshit that would come out of Meredith’s mouth.

I noticed that the Disney Channel was on. “Flower, why don’t you finish watching television while I go into the kitchen and see what Mommy and Daddy are doing?” I cringed when I called them Mommy and Daddy, but I really didn’t have a choice. I was on a fishing expedition and I was just now baiting my hook. After Flower sat down, I said, “Be right back.”

“Okay, Sis,” she said.

That stunned me. She was referring to Jon as her sister already, like they’d known each other for years.

I got to the doorway of the kitchen and almost lost it when I saw the
Leave It to Beaver
action going on. They both had on aprons. Henry was taking a batch of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven while Meredith was stirring a pitcher of iced tea. Give me a break!

Part of me wanted to turn around and storm out the door but I had to get the real deal. I cleared my throat to get their attention.

“Jonquinette, Precious, we didn’t hear you come in!” Meredith exclaimed.

Precious?
She was really tripping.

“Flower let me in,” I said. “Imagine my surprise when she answered the door.”

That’s when Henry chimed in, grinning from ear to ear. “We were just about to call you and invite you over. I went to pick up Flower yesterday and drove her right back.”

“What about school?” I asked.

“Aw, she can miss a couple of days,” Meredith replied. “Henry thought it was important for her to go ahead and meet me.”

I shifted from one leg to another. I was getting more pissed off by the second. “And why is that important? For Flower to meet you, I mean.”

They both eyed each other uneasily. Then Henry said, “Jonquinette, we have so much to tell you.” He held up a cookie. “Have a cookie, straight out the oven. Your momma made them from scratch.”

I didn’t take the cookie. I looked at Meredith instead. “Since when did you start making cookies from scratch?”

“Oh, Jonquinette, please! You remember when I used to bake you fresh sweets all the time when you were a child,” she lied without missing a beat. She never baked shit when Jon was a child.

“Oh yeah,” I said. “And they were delicious.” If she was going to stand there and tell bold-faced lies, I might as well join the party. “So, what is it that you have to tell me?”

First Henry sat down at the kitchen table and then Meredith. I thought I was seeing things when they started holding hands.

“This can’t be!” I said loudly. Then I caught myself. “Okay, I take it that the holding of hands means something momentous.”

Meredith sighed. “Um, yes, it does. Henry and I have been doing a lot of talking these past several days. Making up for lost time, so to speak. This has been a complicated time for all of us but something good has come out of it.”

Henry interrupted her. “What your momma is trying to say is that we’ve decided to make another go at it.”

“You’re kidding!” I exclaimed. “You can’t be serious!”

Henry said, “We’ve never been more serious in our entire lives.” He leaned over and kissed Meredith on the cheek. “In fact, we’re going to get remarried sometime in the spring, after we make sure that your therapy is going well and things have settled back down some.” He held on tighter to her hand. “Besides, none of this should have ever happened. We want you to know that we don’t blame you. It was that other person, that Jude wench, that caused all of this trouble and we’re going to make sure we put a stop to that.”

If it was actually physically possible for smoke to come out of someone’s ears, it would have been coming out of mine right that second. No! That motherfucker didn’t call me a wench! I took a few deep breaths before I went off on both of them.

“Does that mean you’ll be moving here to Atlanta?” I finally asked. The thought of him moving closer to Jon was revolting but I had to pose the question.

Meredith replied, “No, I’m planning on relocating to North Carolina.”

I had to refrain from break dancing, I was so damn happy all of a sudden. While I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of the two of them getting back together, not having to worry about the Queen Bitch stopping by Jon’s place unannounced or worrying the hell out of her did have its appeal. “Really? Cool!”

Meredith seemed staggered. “Wow, we weren’t expecting that reaction. We assumed you would be upset.”

“Upset about what?” I went closer to them with my arms wide open and they both stood so I could hug them. “I’m thrilled for the two of you. After all, what’s meant to be is meant to be.”

“But we feel kind of guilty about leaving you here in Atlanta alone,” Meredith continued. “We were hoping you might consider moving also.”

She had lost her fucking mind!

“That’s impossible, Momma. I have a good job here, my place, and most importantly, Dr. Spencer.” I couldn’t believe those words had just left my mouth but I had to make it sound legitimate. “I’m also kind of seeing someone now and I want to find out where that can go.”

Meredith and Henry both yelled out in unison, “Seeing someone?”

Okay, Jude,
I told myself.
Make it look good!

“Yes, his name is Mason and he’s one of my neighbors.”

“I don’t believe I’ve ever met him,” Meredith said.

“You’ve never met any of my neighbors, have you?” I asked, thinking back and trying to recall whether or not Jon had ever introduced her to any. “Besides, he hasn’t been living there that long.”

“Is he a nice man?” Henry asked. “I don’t want you mixed up with some rascal.”

“He’s not a rascal, Daddy. He’s extremely nice and really has it going on.”

“Well, if he can afford an apartment in your building, he must be halfway decent,” Meredith commented.

“He’s more than halfway decent,” I said. “He’s an incredible man.”

Henry cleared his throat. “Does he know about, umm, does he know…”

“About my situation?” I asked.

“Yes. Your situation.”

I really didn’t want to respond to that. I was still trying to deal with the conversation Jon had with Mason in his car and him coming up to her place afterward. Not to mention all the other shit they had been doing together.

“Well, does he know, Jonquinette?” Meredith inquired. “It’s okay, Precious, you can talk to us.”

There she went with that damn Precious again!

“Mason knows everything. He’s accepted it and plans to help me through this. So, you see, while it would be nice to have the two of you around, I can manage. I’m a grown woman, even though I act childish at times, and I have to start living my own life. I’ve got Mason now, and I can understand your logic behind moving to North Carolina. Flower needs both of her parents nearby during her upbringing and I’m sure her mother has no intention of moving to Atlanta.”

Meredith seemed uncomfortable when I mentioned Flower’s mother. That was her stupidity because she knew that she didn’t birth her. Thank goodness because the poor child would have been doomed if she had.

I knew what both of them were thinking, even though they weren’t talking about it. Jon had never had a boyfriend, not ever, and now all of a sudden she had one in her mid-twenties. Not to mention during such a tumultuous period in her life.

I decided to elaborate. “It’s weird, finding a man that I mesh with after all these years. He took me completely by surprise. I met him in the hallway one day, the next week he stopped by with a pie, and it’s been a whirlwind romance ever since.” Meredith didn’t seem like she was quite buying it so I added, “Momma, that’s one reason why you haven’t heard from me too much lately. I’ve been seeing a lot of him. We even attended a wedding together.”

That was a flat-out lie and if it were drama day for me instead of fishing expedition day, I would have really said, “He and I ended up at the same wedding and to make sure I had some ammunition to use later on, I fucked the best man.”

I chuckled as they both stared at me. I wondered what their reaction would have been if I had really blurted that out.

Flower came into the kitchen. “Are the cookies ready yet, Miss Meredith?”

Meredith ran over to the stove like she was Flower’s nanny or some shit like that. “Yes, they are, sweetie. Why don’t you go wash your hands in the little girls’ room while I make you a plate of cookies and a glass of milk?”

Flower pouted. “I want some of the tea Daddy made.”

“Okay,” Meredith conceded. “But just one glass of tea. We wouldn’t want you to consume too much sugar. You’re a growing girl.”

Flower looked at me and asked, “What does consume mean, Sis?”

“It means eat, drink, take in,” I replied, irritated.

Just when I was about to make a speedy exit, Meredith dropped a bombshell.

“Um, Jonquinette, we were going to call you earlier to ask you for a favor.”

“What favor?” I asked, hoping the Queen Bitch wasn’t going to ask me to do something ridiculous.

“Henry and I have tickets for a play this afternoon at the Neighborhood Playhouse and we were wondering if you could watch Flower for us.”

I glimpsed down at Flower, who grabbed my arm excitedly. “Yeah, Sis, can I hang out with you?”

Henry said, “We’d really appreciate it, Jonquinette.”

It became painfully clear that Meredith and Henry were caught up in their own little world and not thinking clearly. If Jonquinette were really Jonquinette at the moment, which she wasn’t, and agreed to watch Flower, what did they think would happen if Jude showed up and took over, which I already had. After all the negative things that had been said about me, why would they risk the possibility of me ending up baby-sitting Flower? Stupid asses!

All three of them anxiously awaited my answer. I had planned to go find some dick action that afternoon to relieve some stress. Baby-sitting would definitely put a damper on my plans, but Jon would never think of telling them no so I had to suck it up and say, “Sure! I’d love to spend the afternoon with Flower!”

Within thirty minutes, Meredith and Henry were glowing as they pranced out the apartment arm in arm. Jon still had a key to Meredith’s place and there was no way I was going to sit there and watch kiddie television all day.

I took Flower to the park and hated every minute of it. A bunch of brats running around, full of hopes and dreams that their lives would be wonderful when they became adults. If they only knew the real deal. I wondered how many of them were the opposite and tried to pick out the ones that looked sad—the ones who looked like they were mistreated, abused, or just had issues to deal with period. Since it was too early for school to let out, most of them were five and under. I saw one little boy off by himself. He was sitting up underneath a slide as other kids took turns plummeting down it above his head. For the entire time we were there, he didn’t talk to another child or play with another child.

His mother was sitting on a bench with a baby in a stroller. She barely paid him any attention. She would shove the pacifier back into the infant girl’s mouth whenever she cried and glimpse at the boy every ten minutes or so. The rest of the time she had her head buried in a novel. Someone could have snatched him easily and she wouldn’t have noticed until they were in a car five or six miles away. Damn shame.