Mike interrupted her, pissed off.
“What is the right way? I think it’s coming clean with him and everyone else, give them time to deal with it and we can show them what we mean to each other. We’re not some dirty little secret. We’re adults who have made a decision to be together despite anything else. Either you are on board with this or you’re not.”
Mike knew his anger was showing, but he didn’t care. This secret affair was ridiculous to him and he wanted her to know. He was losing patience with the entire situation. He didn’t understand what the big deal was. She was no longer a young girl who needed her big brother’s approval when it came to dating. He could handle anything Duron brought his way. He didn’t think it was as serious as Loren was making it out to be. The more he thought about everything, his anger began boiling over. He pushed his plate away after no longer having an appetite.
“You are a grown woman. You do not need your family’s buy-in for a relationship with me or anyone else. I understand that initially Duron may have a problem with our relationship and that would be based on what he knows about my personal dating life. I also believe that he would know that I wouldn’t casually date you. I want to see where our relationship will go without any barriers. I think your brother would be angrier at the fact that we have been seeing each other for months now and we have been keeping it a secret. I can see him now believing that we’ve kept this a secret because I wanted it and not because you wanted it. We’re men, it’s how we think. I think we should just tell him and get it over with. The rest of your family wouldn’t be a problem. I respect that you want to protect me and what we have from the wrath of Duron, but for this to be what we both want and deserve without having to hide, we have to get this out in the open. Sneaking around is getting more and more complicated the more time we try to spend together. I will be moving soon and I want this out in the open for everyone to celebrate what we have together.”
Loren knew he was right. This has gone on long enough. She was being unfair to him, getting him to go along with this for so long. She was proud to be involved with him and wanted everyone to know about it.
“Okay baby, you’re right, but let me tell him okay. I want to be able to reassure him that I know what I’m doing getting involved with you and that you are not using me just for a casual fling. He needs to know that this is not casual and that I’m in love with you.”
She stopped cold at her own declaration. She didn’t realize it until the words were already out of her mouth. She knew how she felt, but she didn’t intend to blurt it out like that. She looked at Mike to try and determine if she’d caught him off guard with her confession of love and if he embraced it or showed any sign that he wanted to run from the room and never come back. The silence was scary, especially since the look on his face showed he heard her but he had yet to say anything. She wasn’t even sure he was still breathing, he was so still. There was no facial expression beyond the blank stare looking back at her. She was about to speak when he spoke first.
“I love you too. I’m in love with you, Loren and I have been for a long time. I think I fell in love with you years ago and fought that feeling, but I don’t want to anymore. I love you baby; I love you so much.”
Loren wanted to cry. Everything she ever wanted and needed was standing inches away from her. How could she have ever made the decision to keep this kind of love away from her family. She wanted to shout to the world that they were in love and she didn’t care what anyone thought about it. She watched as he closed the distance between them by coming around to her side of the counter. She smiled as he picked her up and sat her on top of the counter as he occupied the space between her legs.
This, Mike thought, is where he always wanted to be. In the arms of the woman he loved for the rest of his life and he didn’t care who had a problem with it. Their love would overcome any obstacle including family or friends who may object. Deep down, he had a feeling none of them would. No words were needed as he braced her face in his hands and kissed her, not with softness or tenderness, but with fierce abandonment and deep intensity that left no room for doubt of his feelings for her. He pulled her closer as she leaned into the kiss, wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him as close as she could to her and kissed him back with a fierceness that left little room for doubt that their love would conquer anything.
~~~
Duron pulled up to Mike’s new house and was impressed by what he saw. The house wasn’t as big as he thought it would be, but it was still pretty big for one person. He was about to ring the doorbell when the front door opened and a man in overalls greeted him as they almost bumped into each other.
“Excuse me,” the worker said.
“I’m looking for Mike, is he around?”
“Sure. My guys and I were just finishing up laying the carpet on the lower level and I think I heard Mr. Mike and his guest in the kitchen.”
So Mike was already christening every room of his house, Duron thought to himself.
“Typical Mike,” he said. “I’ll just go on in and make my presence known.”
“Okay with me,” the worker said as he exited the house. Duron entered and found his way to the kitchen. The scene before him didn’t surprise him. It appeared Mike was busy at work on a woman he had hoisted up on the island in his kitchen. They were deep in a kiss that Duron was sure was on its way to something else if he had not come in and was about to interrupt them.
“Uh, excuse me for interrupting,” Duron said as he made his way further into the kitchen.
The visitor startled Mike and Loren and when he released her lips and turned around, his heart stopped beating when he realized he was face to face with Duron. He knew the moment Duron realized who the woman was behind him. When he did, the air left the room; no one said a word.
Loren didn’t move when she realized it was her brother. Knowing she needed to get down off of the island where Mike had placed her, she slid down and stayed behind Mike.
Time seemed to stand still as Duron looked from Mike to Loren then back to Mike again. He wasn’t sure that his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. He had to be imagining that he just saw Mike and his sister caught in a lip lock with Mike in a towel and Loren scantily clad in an oversized t-shirt, hopefully with something on underneath.
“What the hell is this?” Duron said, laced with intense anger. He stepped a little closer to Mike and asked again.
“What the hell is going on here?”
Loren and Mike tried to answer at the same time, with Mike over-talking her.
“Duron, bro, just calm down,” he said with his hands up in a show of surrender.
“What the hell are you talking about calm down? Tell me that is not my sister standing behind you and I will calm down,” Duron said through clenched teeth, seething.
Duron was about to explode and that frightened Loren. Her greatest fear was about to happen unless she did something. She made her way out of Mike’s shadow and came around to his side.
“D, just wait a minute. I know what you see, but let me explain.”
Duron looked down at his sister and all he could think about was the many, many stories he and Mike had swapped over the years about all the women they had bedded and he was furious. All he could think was, no Mike was
not
screwing his sister like she was one of those playthings he was known to hook up with.
“Explain, Lo? Explain what? So you and Mike? How long has this been going on?”
“D, just calm down and listen to me okay? We’ve been seeing each other for a little while now. Actually it’s been quite a few months. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you, but we needed to be sure we really wanted this before we told anyone. This isn’t some casual affair; it’s much more than that and I hope you’ll come to accept our relationship.”
Loren was talking to Duron, but he was looking directly at Mike with a death stare.
“I don’t hear you Lo. I don’t hear my sister standing in front of me almost naked with a man I consider a brother. I don’t hear you.”
While he talked, Duron never took his eyes off of Mike. He had no doubt Mike was reading his thoughts and knew that no amount of explanations was going to alleviate the distrust that was now surrounding their friendship. He also knew having Loren in her current state of undress and he in only a towel wasn’t helping the situation. They needed to talk and they needed to do it without Loren present. His worst nightmare was coming true; he had been caught with his best friend’s sister and neither he nor Loren had warned him that it was going on. Mike saw the hurt, the disappointment and the anger that was at a boiling point.
“Duron, please say something or at least look at me. This really isn’t what you think it is,” Loren continued to explain.
“Lo, I’ve already told you I don’t hear you,” he said, again not looking at her, but keeping his burning eyes on Mike.
“Loren, why don’t you go upstairs and put on some clothes and let me talk to Duron.”
She looked from him to Duron and the looks passing between the two of them scared her beyond anything she’d ever experienced. She was afraid to leave them alone, not knowing what would happen.
“I’m not leaving until we talk this out.”
“Loren, please go upstairs and let me talk with Duron. It’s going to be fine, but you need to go and leave us alone to talk,” Mike pleaded, still not taking his eyes off of Duron who was getting angrier by the minute.
She knew he was right. For starters she couldn’t remain standing in front of her brother almost naked and clearly the conversation needed to be between the two of them. She could talk to Duron later. This situation was her fault, making the decision to keep her relationship with Mike a secret and now it was blowing up in her face. The two people she loved the most were at odds and only the two of them could fix it. She didn’t say another word as she walked around her brother, who never turned to look at her, and she walked off in the direction of the stairs.
When Loren was out of range, Duron started first. His plan was to keep his voice down, but what came could have shattered the windows of the house.
“Mike, my sister man? Really? There weren’t enough women in Atlanta that you had to move on to my sister?”
Mike didn’t come back at him with anger, knowing Duron had every right to be upset. I wanted to diffuse the situation and he couldn’t do that if they both shouted in rage.
“It’s not like that.”
“It’s not like what, Mike? It’s not like you haven’t been leaving a trail of broken hearts all over Atlanta? It’s not like I don’t know how you go from woman to woman, using them for the pleasure of it? Or is it that I don’t know how you get what you want from women then move on to the next one?”
“Duron, first calm down man. I am not using your sister. I’m in love with her and I have been for some time now. This is not just some casual, sexual affair that you are used to knowing me to have. I love Loren with every fiber of my being.”
“Mike, man do not talk about sex and my sister in the same sentence. This is my sister!”
Mike could see the veins in Duron’s forehead look as if they’re about to pop. He had never seen him this angry before. He knew he had every right to be, he just hoped he could convince him this wasn’t casual.
“D, you know me. I know you know my history with women and yes you have first-hand knowledge of my sexual prowess over the years, but like I said, that’s not what’s going on here. Did you hear me? I said I’m in love with her. You know I’ve never made that declaration before, not even in my younger years to get a woman in bed. I’ve never said it before, but I’m telling you right now I love your sister.”
“Right, you mentioned love. Love? You love my sister? You don’t know anything about loving a woman. You go through so many women that I don’t even think you even remember their names. This is sick and disappointing, especially coming from you. You don’t love my sister. You don’t know the meaning of the word. What I do know is it looks like you screwed my sister, have been doing so for a while now and I walked in on you about to do it again on a kitchen counter. Are you crazy? My sister isn’t one of your sex kittens. What the hell are you thinking?”
Mike understood Duron’s anger. He knew that his anger was not about the fact that he and Loren were together, it was about the fact that all Duron ever saw Mike do was bed one woman after the other without feeling. He needed Duron to know that was not the case here.
“I’m not using your sister Duron. I meant it when I said I’m in love with her.”
Mike watched as Duron turned his anger into pacing back and forth.
“Love? You love her enough to sneak around with her? Is there some reason why you felt the need to keep this a secret? The only reason I can think of is that you wanted to get what you wanted until you were through then walk off like you often do with women.”
Mike tried to explain the rationale behind not telling anyone without putting the blame on Loren since she was the one who wanted to keep things a secret. He couldn’t seem to get a word in as Duron spouted off with anger.
“You know what? My sister is a grown woman and she can be involved with whomever she wants. You on the other hand, Mike, work with me every day. We’ve been best friends for years and I am closer to you than I am to my own brothers. You could have told me; you should have told me!” he shouted.
“Duron I know.”
He didn’t get a chance to continue.
“I would have expected you to respect my sister more than to keep her a secret and have her sneaking around as if being with her was not worthy of being a public affair.”
Mike started to explain himself and the situation, but Duron stopped him before he could say a word.
“Save it Mike. Whatever it is you were about to say you may as well save it for someone who gives a damn. Seeing you here with my sister like this is disturbing. I can’t tell Loren who to or not to see or be with. I just wish she had not chosen you. Don’t forget I know you. I know you just as well as you know yourself. Before I met and fell in love with Taija, you know who I was also. If you had a sister, would you want your sister hooking up with the Duron you knew back then? No you wouldn’t because I was all about how many women I could bed, the pleasure in it without commitment of any kind and so are you.”