Lynnia (28 page)

Lynnia

“Are you seriously trying to act as if you aren’t affected by the fact that, as you say, he’s ‘really serious about this bitch’? You threw the man out of your apartment at six o’clock in the morning. What was the reason for that again, L.?” Chyra sat her jacket down over her lap.

Most of her sister’s lap was taken over by her burgeoning belly. Her soon-to-greet-the-world niece was making her presence known in a different way today. Chyra’s belly moved and her sister didn’t even acknowledge it. When did that begin for an expectant mom? When the first moves are made the parents are ecstatic and rush to share it. Like everything else, she guessed it got “old” and one just got used to things being the way they always were.

That’s what got to her. She sat there, staring at the man that she’d loved since he was a boy, something he might always be, and she saw herself through his eyes. She’d always been that girl for him. She’d been the one that had his back, been the one to pick up the pieces of whatever mess was left of her “Devastated Dario”. That’s what she called him when he came to her trying to figure out what he’d done wrong with a female, his adopted parents, his birth mother, etc. It was always her that he came to.

It was natural thing for him to come to her to hash out whatever problem there was in his life. He wasn’t looking for guidance or anything. Most of the time, she was there to nod or negate an issue; someone to help him navigate the waters of his brain. He’d only had a few women because he was the stand up kind of guy that gave a person all of who he was when he was with them. He didn’t do “playing the field”. He was a one woman kind of guy. For him, there’d been Vanessa, Miranda, Tracy and Calista. Each of them had good qualities, but all had one glaringly wrong thing counted against them. They were not her.

Her sister’s voice brought her out of her head.

“Oh yeah, you’re unaffected. You’re so unaffected that you can’t sit here and have a conversation with me without getting lost in thought over the man you’ve been in love with since well before you gave your virginity to him. He’s been your off again on again ‘fuck buddy’ for how long now? Wait, tell me you did NOT fuck him the night before you threw him out? Wasn’t he rebounding or something? I can’t remember. Mommy brain is real, let me tell you that. Isn’t he with that waitress at
Parker’s
? Lindsay, that’s her name, isn’t it?”

There were moments that she really wished she didn’t have such a close knit relationship with her sisters. Maybe that wasn’t the issue. Maybe the fact that her sisters were so loveable, accepting and welcoming was her issue. They loved Dario. They always have and always will. What was there not to love about a man that spoke three languages fluidly, tended to have a heart of gold, stood just under six feet, had dimples that made you cream yourself just looking at him and had a body that screamed “touch me bitch and you’ll orgasm. Wanna see.” Yeah, that kind of guy was enough all alone, but the beautiful man inside made it even worse for her. She couldn’t get the damn man out of her head.

Kind, giving, always willing to help and beyond ready to drop anything for family were all qualities that literally made her swoon.

Lynnia initially didn’t say a word as she refocused her thoughts on her sister. She sat in the recliner across from Chyra as she lost the battle with focusing herself on the memories of being with a certain Latin male that night. She’d been sitting in the dining area, having left her dinner on the kitchen island because she’d been distraught over seeing Dario at a jewelry store well known for the quality of their engagement rings. She’d known that Dario had been dating a woman, but hadn’t thought it was that serious. It was another knock upside her head that said she wasn’t going to ever get the happy ending she wanted.

The chicken kiev with stuffed mushrooms and squash on the side had been sitting plated on her kitchen counter since she finished cooking about twenty minutes prior. It was still edible and possibly just the right temperature. It wasn’t until the moment that her plate, another plate, and a bottle of wine were being placed in front of and next to her that she realized he was there with her. She smiled and tried to hide the pain that she’d felt knowing what she knew about him. He was with someone else. That someone wasn’t her. That was too much, too painful. Instead, she tried to think about the fact that he was there with her and not that other woman.

“Hey Lynnie. What’s with the false happiness, sexy lady?” his accent was always present even though he was born and raised in Tempa. He still had that slight hint of his Cuban roots. “How was that? Did I sound enough like you with the ‘false happiness’ statement?”

She smiled to herself before looking up at him. Some people had the uncanny ability to say much of nothing and make a person feel one hundred times better. “Sexy lady” was the first nickname she ever had outside of the ones that she’d had been given growing up. The nickname had evolved from “sexy girl” to “sexy lady” as they’d grown. The fact that she never truly believed him when he spoke the words to her did as well.

The way he looked at her … calling her that name … It was also the first time someone looked at her and said that she was sexy. Having five seemingly flawless and gorgeous older sisters didn’t really boost one’s confidence and self esteem. Being a tomboy, geek and horrendously shy didn’t help get the boys’ attention during junior high or the beginning of high school. Dario was the first boy to tell her how beautiful she was and that he truly found her sexy. She had been so scared and shy then that she didn’t act on it. Lynnia attempted it once then freaked afterwards. After a while, it was all about being the best
friend
she could be to him.

The loss of virginity to one another had been her idea. She still couldn’t believe she’d been bold enough to suggest it.

“D., you’re still … you’re still … you haven’t … been with a girl, right?”

She remembered nervously asking him that day just as vividly as if she were in that moment once again. Lynnia had secretly hoped that he wouldn’t crush her and tell her that he’d been with someone else, but was torn because she wanted one of them to have some kind of experience.

“Lynnie, you know I haven’t … been with another girl. I’ve wanted to, ya know. I just … yeah, I haven’t been given the chance,” he sounded so sad and disappointed that she quickly spit out the first words that popped into her head.

Filter be damned in that moment in time. She was presented with an opportunity and she didn’t want to throw it away.

“Want it?” she practically shouted as she waited for him to either laugh or quickly reject her proposal.

At first, he appeared to be shocked then he kind of studied her features. He stood up from the desk that he’d been sitting at and moved to kneel in front of her. He didn’t say a word just rose up and kissed her on her lips. He kissed her twice more, then lingered before she felt his tongue slide over her lips. She’d been kissed before by him, but there was something about this kiss that was shared between her sixteen-year-old best friend and her fifteen-year-old self. It was something more.

“Lynnie, you have to be …,” she silenced him by sliding her hand into his pants.

She had no clue what made her courageous enough to do that. All she knew was she’d been curious to know what he felt like, what any boy felt like there, but mostly what Dario, the boy she loved, felt like. He looked as if he was questioning her commitment to what she wanted. She needed him to know that she really did want to share that with him. His hands had been absentmindedly stroking the sides of her then somewhat small breasts. They moved to cup them before he moved to remove her tank top.

His mother and brother had gone to the store for groceries for dinner. They always took forever to return because they stopped at a local pet store to pet the animals before and a candy shop after. His father always worked late and wouldn’t arrive until it was time for dinner to be served. His mother regularly joked that the man’s stomach always brought him back to her. They had the house to themselves for at least an hour.

That time had been about the two of them exploring each other’s bodies. They got to know the texture and feel of certain areas as they discovered what each enjoyed, what tickled and what had their eyes rolling back in the back of their heads. When they finally got to the actual act of having sex, fitting all of who he was within her hurt like a mother. She cried and he kissed those tears away as she prevented him from moving away from her. She overheard talk of how it would hurt the first time. The sudden pain had just been unexpected.

When the throbbing was bearable she tentatively moved which caused him to respond. That was indicative of how their relationship was. She moved and he responded accordingly. It was what she felt like a real relationship should be, except they never had what could be considered a relationship. They shared that moment, spent the rest of the hour or so they had cuddled together under his sheet kissing then quickly dressed before his family got home.

They got together again a week later. That time was so much better than the first. Each time after was just better and better as they tried different things that they heard about. The exploration and exhilaration of knowing they were free to enjoy one another was wonderful.

They were together so often that people started to ask questions about the two of them. She didn’t know what to say. Her thought was to ask him about it. That was the day Margo Sanchez entered their world.

“Dario Anderson is amazing in more ways than you can possibly imagine. I can’t tell you just how
talented
he is. He could teach some of these young boys a thing or two about being a man. He sure made me feel like a woman the other day.”