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“
Grandma!” Julez’s voice was filled with deep bass and slight anger. He didn’t know why he was so upset, but Miss Augustine raised her eyebrows in astonishment. “I’m…I’m sorry,” he added, knowing she was about to go off.

“
But for real tho’ grandma, you gotta chill on that. It’s not like that at all. I love my wife. You gotta cut this out. I love Noelle.”

His grandmother didn’t reply, she only stared at him.

“
Okay? You hear me? You gotta stop.”

After a few seconds she responded, “Okay.”

“
Alright,” Julez said again. “I love my wife. Noelle is my wife, and I love her.”

“
Okay boy, I heard you!” Miss Augustine told him again. She stood up slowly and kissed Julez on the cheek and then began making her way to the couch in her long nightgown. As she walked away she mumbled, “But who you tryna convince?”

Julez wanted to reply but he acted like he didn’t even hear it. As he sat there, he wondered if he even knew the answer to the question.
Yeah, who?

***

The next two days were interesting with Deborah and Miss Augustine visiting, and before Julez knew it, it was time for them to go. He was walking them both to the car service that he had ordered for their ride to the airport since he had a meeting. And as he kissed them goodbye and they climbed inside, his grandmother brought her lips to his ear and whispered, “She picks your plate up first.”

He looked at her with a crinkled brow and she smirked before continuing.

“
I don’t think she means it,” she said in her shaky voice. “But after dinner, it never fails, she cleans the table and she picks your plate up first.” Before he could respond she shot him a wink and climbed inside the car. Throughout that whole day the words his grandmother had spoken stuck with him.

That night, as Julez lay in bed and Noelle lay beside him snoring lightly, he found himself wide awake. He couldn’t sleep no matter how hard he tried.

He gently climbed out of the bed and walked lightly to the door, out into the hallway, his perfect and sculpted frame adorned only by boxer shorts. Before he knew it, he began making his way toward Jordin’s room. He had to ask her something. He was hoping that she was alone, he hadn’t heard Slim come in and he figured it was only after midnight, still too early for him to come home. As he reached her doorway and peeked inside, he was happy to see that he was right.

The light from the television illuminated the room, and Jordin must had fallen asleep watching some movie on cable, because it was now playing an after hours soft-core porn looking film. As two people passionately kissed and undressed on the flat screen, Julez felt the bulge in his boxers growing. He approached her bed.

“
Jordin,” he whispered. Her face was halfway under the covers, revealing only part of her smooth cheek, her long eyelashes, and one perfectly arched eyebrow. “Jordin,” he called again in his baritone.

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up slowly, surprised.

“
Julez?” She asked in a raspy voice. “What, is everything okay? Is McKenzie alright…? Noelle…she alright?”

Julez just stared at her for a few seconds before answering.

“
Why do you take my plate first, Jordin?” He couldn’t believe that he had asked that. But he had to.

She scrunched up her face and shook her head, truly lost.

“
Huh? What did I take?”

Julez ran his hand over his face, feeling like there was no turning back now.

“
My dinner plate. You take mine first when you’re cleaning. Why?”

Jordin took a deep breath, slightly waking up.

“
Um… I don’t know. I…I don’t mean to. I didn’t even know I was doing it….sorry Julez.”

She was apologizing. Just like Jordin, apologizing for doing nothing wrong. And the way she said his name, he had to leave before he ripped open her pajama shirt.

Julez felt foolish, it was just a coincidence. She made no effort to take his plate from the table first; his grandmother was a mess, probably going senile. He headed for the door after mumbling an apology.

“
Julez?”

He stopped at the doorway and turned around, only to be stunned by what he saw.

“
Maybe I should tell you the truth,” she sang to him.

Jordin stood there, on the other side of the room and next to the bed, completely naked, and perfect. Her hair fell down brushing against her nipples, and her angelic face was so beautiful. Julez blinked twice.

“
I do… take your plate first, because I want to take care of you. Sometimes, I wish you were my man, and I wish I could do all of the things that a woman is supposed to do for a man like you. I want to make you happy, Julez.”

He found himself now walking toward her, almost in slow motion, and as he neared her, he could smell her fruity scent. Next, he was wrapping his arms around her and admiring her smooth skin. He traced her curves with his hands and stood breathless, in awe of Jordin. His dick grew huge as he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers and she kissed him back with a growing and fervent passion. They both moaned, feeling overcome with lust, as they grabbed at each other and tongued one another. She pulled away and looked into his eyes.

“
Do you wanna make love to me, Julez?”

He couldn’t talk. Of course he did, but the words wouldn’t come from his mouth.

“
Huh? Do you want me, Julez? Do you want to make love to me?”

The words still wouldn't come, he didn't understand.

Julez…? Julez…? Julez…?”

“
Julez!”

His eyelids shot open.

“
Hellooo, are you dreaming or something?”

Noelle. She was still there, next to him. He
had
been
dreaming, but he didn’t answer her.

“
I’m trying to sleep. I got an early class tomorrow, and you like mumbling baby, damn.” She turned back over with a huff and within thirty seconds was sound asleep again. Julez recounted everything that had occurred that day to make sure of what was real and what was fantasy.

His grandmother
had
made the comment about the plate. He remembered walking them to the car and her winking about it. It
had
been on his mind all day, he remembered zoning out at his meeting trying to recall the times Jordin cleared the table at dinner. But the last part, the best part, was all fantasy. He had not gone to her room, he had not seen her naked, they had not kissed, and she had not asked him to make love to her.

He was relieved; because that was definitely something that he knew was not going to happen. But he did wonder why the hell Noelle had to wake him up before he got to fantasize what it would’ve been like.

It’s ‘cause you’re not supposed to know, nigga
. He told himself with a chuckle.
What it’s like to run up in your wife’s best friend, nah…you not supposed to know.
And then he tried to go back to sleep, and despite his lecture to himself, he tried to go back to that moment. But he could not.

***

“
It’s just some things I get sick of, you know? Like, just because he makes the money and it’s his house, he doesn’t even talk to me about things. He didn’t even tell me he was going to the airport to bring them to our house, what kinda shit is that?”

Noelle was laying inside of the crisp white sheets of the Marriott in Bridgewater, NJ. Slim was posted at the edge of the bed, counting the last of the money he had just picked up from a new customer as he puffed on a blunt.

“
So what, you don’t like his moms and ‘em?”

“
It’s not that Slim,” she said, sitting up and holding the sheet over her bare breasts. “It’s just that… I’m not even included in any decisions. Like I’m supposed to just live by Julez’s law. I’m not the ‘sit there and shut up’ kinda chick, if that’s what he wanted, he shouldn’t have married me. You feel me?”

Slim turned to her and looked her in the eyes sexily, nodding his head sincerely.

“
I hear you, mami. I hear you.”

He was so laid-back yet attentive. And whatever it was about him, Noelle loved it. She figured a big part of it was that she knew he was so hood, but he was crazy about her.

She scooted closer to him as he wrapped another stack in rubber bands. She began tracing his tattoos with her fingertips as she rested her chin on his shoulder.

“
When you gonna get one with my name?” She asked in a sexy voice. Slim laughed smoothly and took another long pull of his weed.

“
Get mine and I got you,” he quipped. Noelle came to the one on his forearm and her stomach turned a bit as she ran her manicured hand across it.

“
You have Jordin here; all big and pretty…you can’t get me? You can probably get it and no one would even notice, it’d just blend it with all the other ones.”

Slim rubbed his chin before running through another stack.

“
C’mon now. I been with Jordin since I was like 18.”

There was a long pause and Noelle could hear her phone vibrating in her purse. She knew it was probably Freddy calling because he had been borderline stalking, trying to see McKenzie. She broke her thoughts of that with a question to Slim.

“
Do you love me?”

He answered with no hesitation, still counting.

“
You know I do.” She was quiet for a while and then she added.

“
Would you do anything for me?”

“
Anything.” He was stern with his responses, so honest. Noelle kissed his shoulder and asked.

“
You ever think about just saying fuck it…just running away together and leaving it all behind.”

Slim threw a rubber band around the last stack of bills and then turned and focused on Noelle. She was so gorgeous and so sexy, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stay away from her. He grabbed her and laid her on her back, resting on top of her.

“
That’s what you want?”

Noelle brushed her hand across Slim’s dark and smooth cheek and nodded.

“
Sometimes I do… I love you, Slim. I don’t want this to ever end.”

He kissed her softly on the forehead and stared at her lovingly as he brushed her light brown hair away from her face.

“
It won’t.”

***

Julez took smooth strides as he made his way from his spacious driveway toward his front door. It had been another long day at work, and with the awkward energy Kira had been giving off, it had been even more stressful.

He approached his home, which seemed pretty peaceful from the outside, and he used the free moments to think quickly.

I gotta get this shit straight with Kira. We can’t work like this. I can’t believe I let that shit go there, fuck was I thinking?

As Julez began to jog up the steps, keys in hand, he noticed a car nearby in his peripheral vision and turned his head. It was parked on the other side of the street, but Julez recognized it. It was Freckles.

Fuck is this nigga doing parked outside my house?

Just then, his phone rang and Julez dug anxiously in his pocket to answer it, he was expecting an important business call. When he pulled his phone out and noticed that it was only his grandmother, he silenced it, reminding himself to call her back later. He had something to handle.

Sliding the phone back in his pocket, Julez headed back down the stairs preparing to go and have a long talk with Freckles. He would put an end to all bullshit, now. However, when he looked up, just in that quickness, Freckles had vanished. The car and all signs of him were gone.

What the fuck?

Julez turned around puzzled, now heading back up the stairs, wondering what type of shit Freddy was on. It didn’t take long for him to figure it out.