“You were in a fraternity?”
“Yeah, I’m an Omega, a Q-dog, as we like to call ourselves.”
He proudly displayed the horseshoe on his right arm. Denise stared at the symbol. Whatever it was, she thought it marred his otherwise perfect body. She reached out to touch it.
“What is that, a tattoo?”
“No, it’s a brand.”
“A brand! What the hell do you have a brand for? You take this fraternity shit pretty seriously, don’t you?” She jerked her hand away.
“Well, yeah, I do take it pretty seriously. You would be serious about it, too, if you pledged for six weeks.”
“Six weeks! I thought white frats were stupid pledging two weeks. Why the hell would you let someone do that to you?”
“I don’t know how to explain it, except that when you’re pledging, they break you down to build you up.”
“Come on, Kevin, that’s ridiculous. Are you trying to tell me that getting the shit beat out of you made you a better person?”
“Look, Denise, I’m not asking you to believe me or understand me. All I can tell you is I started freshman year a very insecure young man. But after I pledged Omega, I was confident and ready to take on the world.”
“If you’re so confident, why haven’t you had sex since college?” she asked, not wanting him to go on a nostalgia trip back to his college days. “Are you some kind of born-again Christian who’s saving himself till marriage?”
“Trust me, I believe in God, but he’s not stopping me from getting some.” He shifted Denise so she wouldn’t notice his growing manhood. “I’m probably the horniest guy you’ve ever met. But after I was cut by the Hornets, I went into a depression and didn’t want sex.”
“I didn’t think it was possible for a man to not want sex.”
“Oh, it’s possible all right. I had no interest in women until Alicia and I got together.” Kevin was enjoying the way she was squirming on his lap.
“So why didn’t you have sex with her?”
“Alicia had just gone through a rough time with her child’s father before we met. So she wanted to get to know me better before we made love.”
“Wow, that must have been pretty frustrating.” She wiggled her buttocks against his manhood.
“Oh, yeah! Every time we kissed I had to go home and take a cold shower.”
“I don’t get it, Kevin. Why didn’t you find yourself an F.B.?”
“EB.? What in the world is an EB.?”
“An F.B. is a fuck buddy. Somebody who expects no emotional ties but gives you great sex. You know, someone you can call anytime you’re horny, but they don’t get offended when you don’t call for a while. Or maybe even someone who’s married and lives out of town, but when you see each other, you can’t resist sneaking off for a quickie.” As she spoke, Denise squirmed some more on Kevin’s lap to make sure he kept his erection.
“So that’s what you call it! Yeah, I used to have a... what do you call it? An F.B., when I was in Virginia. Crystal was one hell of a woman. She would do anything if she thought it would get me off.”
“So what happened to her? She’s not still around, is she?”
“She dropped out of school with some light-skinned guy with a receding hairline. I haven’t seen her in over a year.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. A man like you should have a way of releasing all that pent-up anxiety and tension.” She leaned forward so that both of her large breasts jiggled in his face. “You know, Kevin, it’s too bad you’re not attracted to white women, ’cause I would make one hell of an FB.”
He stared at her and smirked. In his alcoholic haze he had finally realized where the conversation was headed.
“Listen, Denise, stop beating around the bush. What are you trying to say?”
Denise sighed.
Do I really need to spell it out for him?
“I would love to be your F.B. You wouldn’t have to worry about taking me out, so technically you wouldn’t be in an interracial relationship. And I’d make myself available to you at all hours of the night except when I’m on an important case.”
“I don’t know, Denise...”
“Look. Just try it until the end of our vacation.” She bent over and kissed him.
“I’d just be using you for sex. That’s not right.”
He couldn’t help but think about how nice it would be to be intimate with her right there on the balcony with the setting sun behind them. He had always heard that white women were willing to do anything to please their men, and just then his defenses were so weak that he was tempted to test the theory. The buildup of a week of temptation and the piña coladas were clouding his better judgment.
Denise sensed him weakening. She leaned in closer to him, pressing her breasts against his chest as she whispered in his ear.
“We would be using each other, Kevin. The truth is, you’re not half as horny as I am.”
She lowered her head and rested it on his warm chest. Kevin had to admit it felt good holding Denise close, and it had been so long since he’d been with a woman physically. The only thing really holding him back was his love for Alicia and the thought that somehow they might reconcile.
I can’t live like this, he rationalized to himself, maybe sleeping with Denise is the only way my feelings for Alicia are gonna go away.
“Well, what do you think? Are we going to let this night go to waste, or are you going to carry me into the bedroom and show me how you make love?”
He didn’t waste a second lifting her into his arms and carrying her to the bedroom.
Two hours later Kevin sat at the end of the bed. Perspiration slid down his shaved head onto his broad shoulders as he watched Denise fan herself, gasping for air. No longer drunk, he was fully aware that she had manipulated him into having sex with her. But he wasn’t upset with her. He was grateful. She had reminded him how wonderful sex was, and as a reward he sent multiple waves of pleasure throughout her whole body.
“You okay?” He grinned.
“Yeah, I just need a little air. Can you open that window?” She watched him stand up and put on his shorts before opening the window. “Are you going somewhere?”
“I was thinking about going for a run before dinner.”
Denise looked at him in amazement, and between breaths she asked, “Are you serious? You mean to tell me that wasn’t enough exercise for you?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you. Did you want some more?” He jumped playfully on the bed beside her.
“No! No! Not right now, Kevin. Don’t you ever get tired? We just made love for almost an hour and a half” She backed away, putting both her hands up to keep him away. “Besides, we don’t have any more condoms. Why don’t we wait till after dinner?”
“I told you I was a horny guy. But if it’ll make you feel any better, I’m gonna go sit by the pool and listen to the band until you’re ready for dinner. While I’m down there I’ll pick up some more condoms.”
She watched him finish dressing. After he left, she rolled over, picked up the phone, and dialed her secretary’s home number.
“Hello, Ruth? This is Denise. I have something I need you to do before I get back. Get a hold of the private investigator the firm has on retainer. Tell him I want to know everything there is to know about an Alicia Meyers. She works for a criminal law firm near the Brooklyn courthouse. Oh, and, Ruth, I don’t want this getting back to Daddy.”
She hung up the phone and dialed her best friend’s number.
“Hey, Liz,” she shouted, hearing the answering machine. “This is Denise. He finally gave in and it was great. Now it’s time to get rid of the competition.”
“Yo, hold on a minute, Denise.” Liz turned off her answering machine.
Liz Trendle had been Denise’s best friend ever since their second year of high school. They were both raised in Port Washington, Long Island, a small community close enough to Manhattan that it attracted many of the city’s high-powered professionals who sought suburban surroundings for their families. Denise, who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, had teased Liz in school, an overweight white girl who lived in the small, subsidized housing project located on the border of the town’s richest neighborhood.
As the girls reached adolescence, a time when boys became important to them, Denise realized she and Liz actually had something in common. Since Liz lived in “the projects,” most of her neighbors were black, and many of those neighbors were her friends. As Denise began to recognize her own attraction to black men, she knew that an acquaintance with Liz could gain her acceptance among those black boys she wanted to date. Over the years the time she spent with Liz yielded many dates for Denise. Most of her dates, of course, had to be kept a secret from her family and her upper-middle-class racist friends. Denise soon learned that Liz was one of the few friends who understood and supported that side of her, and the two cemented a friendship that lasted beyond their high school years.
“What up, girl? So you finally got you a little sum’in, sum’in?” Liz asked, excited.
“Oh, did I! Liz, the man is so skilled.”
“Damn, I must need to dye my hair blond or something. ’Cause as much as I love the brothers, I can’t find me a nigger to do me right if my life depended on it.”
“Liz, you know I can’t stand it when you use that word!” Denise’s voice was serious.
“Damn, girl, will you relax? Black people call each other nigger all the time.”
“Contrary to popular belief, Liz, you’re not black,” Denise reminded her.
“Well, I ought to be.” She and Denise always had arguments about Liz’s wanna-be behavior. “So what’s this about getting rid of the competition? You want me to kick some bitch’s ass?”
Denise had to chuckle when she heard Liz’s words. She was twenty-six years old, but Liz still loved to fight and was good at it. She had saved herself and Denise from quite a few beatings by jealous black women over the years.
“No, I don’t think a beating will work. He’s still in love with her. I can tell. Would you believe he screamed out her name when he climaxed?”
“Get the fuck outta here! I know you was pissed.”
“Yeah, but to be honest, I was just happy to get some.” She sighed. “Besides, the sex is so good, I don’t want to confront him and blow it. I finally got him where I want him.”
“Well, you can always get pregnant, girl. If he’s the kind of guy you think he is, he’d never leave his baby’s mom. Plus that other chick won’t want anything to do with him if he gets a white girl pregnant.”
“Hmm, that’s a good idea, but let’s use that as a last resort. I’ve got a private detective looking into his ex’s past. And like Daddy always says, everyone’s got skeletons. You just have to find out what closet they’re in.”
“I hear you, girl, just let me know if you want me to kick that bitch’s ass.”
“Okay.” Denise laughed. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay, girlfriend. You get some for me, you hear?”
23
ANTOINE AND SHAWNA
Kevin parked his car in the jam-packed parking lot of the Men’s Club. He had driven there with Antoine, Tyrone, and Tyrone’s uncle Billy in his Honda. Stepping out of his car, he was unimpressed by the looks of the large Victorian house that had been converted into a strip club. The illuminated sign was about to fall off the building, which was in bad need of a paint job.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” Tyrone’s uncle Billy told them.
Billy reached into his pocket to check his thick wad of one-dollar bills as they walked to the entrance. There were already enough bulges on Billy’s three-hundred-pound frame, and the wallet protruded obviously in his back pocket.
“I don’t care what you say. This place looks like a dump to me,” Kevin told Billy, frowning when Antoine pointed out a used condom on the sidewalk.
“I cannot believe Shawna works in a place like this.” Antoine shivered at the thought. He had just proposed to Shawna two days before, and they were still fighting over her night job. So with a little encouragement from Tyrone, he decided to pay Shawna and the Men’s Club a surprise visit to know for sure what she did there.
“What’s up, Tirry?” Billy laughed at the six-foot-seven security guard who frisked him.
“Nothing much, Billy. It’s your world I’m just trying to live in it.”
“It’s not my world, Tiny. All I’m trying to do is get a nut.” Billy laughed.
“Well, you came to the right place.” The man laughed, letting Billy pass so that he could frisk Tyrone. “You touch, you pay,” he announced to the group.
“Yeah, no problem.” Tyrone walked past the man.
After being frisked and paying the ten-dollar admission fee, Antoine and Kevin entered the club. They were surprised by the sharp contrast between the outside and the inside. The club was clean and well kept, and Kevin at least looked forward to his first experience in a strip club. Following Billy and Tyrone, he could not help but laugh as he watched Antoine’s head follow the totally naked women’s breasts as they passed.