We were dancing and acting goofy. I don’t know when the mood changed and we suddenly got serious. I had my arms around his back and my head on his chest, and he had his arms around my waist. We were listening to the beautiful sounds and lyrics of Whitney Houston and her angelic voice.
“Are you having a good time?” Christian whispered in a sexy voice.
I looked up and into his smiling, handsome face. “Yes. This past week has been so much fun. I feel so relaxed and peaceful.”
“Good. I can tell that you’re happy again.”
I thought about that comment for a minute. “What do you mean that I’m happy again?”
Christian frowned before continuing. “I’m just saying that I know you and Brice have been going through some stuff lately. I’m glad that you’re happy now, because you deserve it.”
I stared deep into his eyes at those last comments and slowly laid my head back on his chest. We continued to dance in silence as my girl crooned out that song.
“Christian, why do you spend so much time with me? You don’t have to, you know. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.” I looked up into his face to await his answer.
Christian looked down at me and said something I will never forget.
“I think deep down you know the answer to that question already. Think about it,” he whispered as the last notes of love and devotion were sang.
Once we made it back to our table, my face was flushed, and Renee looked from one of us to the other without saying a word. Christian excused himself to the restroom. Once he left, Renee kept looking at me with this . . . look . . . on her face.
“Renee, what’s the problem?”
“Nothing, Mia. I’m trying hard to figure out how you haven’t figured out that that man is in love with you. It shows in every thing he does. You must be blind or in denial.”
“Renee, you are wrong. Christian is my husband’s best friend in the world. There is no way. We are just good, good friends. That’s all. Believe me, you don’t have to feel threatened by me.”
She didn’t comment, but shrugged and turned away.
“Renee, I like you and would like for us to be friends. I personally think you are good for Christian. He needs a nice lady in his life.”
“Girlfriend, he has a lady in his life, and you don’t even know it.”
Before I knew it, it was the evening of the ball. As I literally glided down the stairs in my black, sleeveless evening gown with black pumps and matching accessories, I felt like Cinderella going to the ball. My hair was styled in a classic French knot with a few curls framing my meticulously made-up face. Thanks to Fashion Fair, my makeup was applied flawlessly. I had gone to the mall earlier that day for a makeover and to have my nails done. Yeah, I knew I had it going on. I was “da bomb.”
When I made it halfway down the stairs, Christian met me with a look of appreciation in his eyes that proved I was right. Yeah, I knew I was da bomb. You couldn’t tell me anything. We posed for pictures as Vivica snapped away, taking yet another series of photos to go in her album. I swear this lady loved her memories.
Christian was looking too fine in his black tuxedo with black cummerbund. I knew Renee was going to freak when she laid eyes on him. The last few days they had been inseparable. I was happy for Christian because it appeared that Renee liked him, and she was sweet. Christian appeared to like her as well.
Renee and I had gotten closer after I reassured her that I loved Christian . . . just like a brother. I assured her that there wasn’t any competition from me; I was the last person that she should worry about. I was happily married—most of the time. So now she was the closest thing that I had to a girlfriend.
I found myself somewhat jealous, which I thought was odd, because Christian hadn’t had a lot of time for me the last few days. In fact, I had hardly seen him at all. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that he was avoiding me. Most of his nights were spent at Renee’s. That explained why Renee was always smiling when I saw her. I had spent my last few days with Mama or shopping, which is my favorite pastime.
I had already come to the conclusion that Brice wasn’t going to make it home in time for the ball, but I didn’t care. I refused to let him put a damper on my fun this time. I knew I was going to feel like a third wheel, once again going to the party with Christian and Renee, but they insisted.
When we arrived in Midtown at the Marriott Marquis, which was hosting the evening’s event, and went upstairs to the fifteenth floor, it was already in full swing, and the suite was breathtaking. Everyone on the decorating committee had outdone themselves with the mood and atmosphere they had created. The decorations were gorgeous and quite elegant with everything in black and gold. There were tables set up all over the room with the dance floor in the center. There was a definite atmosphere of intimacy and a festive mood in the air. The lights were kept low as a live band played oldies on the elevated stage. I knew or had met a lot of the people at the party and greetings and hugs were exchanged.
We finally found our table and were seated with a good view of the band. Like I thought, Renee couldn’t keep her hands off Christian. They looked really cute together. Renee had on this sexy red dress. Christian seated himself between the two of us and was being the perfect gentleman, catering to our every whim. I had caught him staring at me a few times earlier and Renee’s comments came back to haunt me.
“If I haven’t told you already, you look beautiful tonight,” Christian stated as he held my hand and we danced to a slow oldies song that I didn’t recognize. I had tried to socialize and leave Christian and Renee alone for most of the night, but Christian wasn’t having it.
“Why, thank you, sir. You look dashing yourself,” I joked.
We danced silently with each other for a few more minutes. “Brice is a lucky man, Mia, and I love both of you like a brother and sister.” He paused to look at me as if he was unsure he should go on.
“I think you are the best thing that ever happened to Brice, whether he knows it or not,” he continued in a serious tone as he looked deep into my eyes.
“Thank you, Christian. I really appreciate that. That husband of mine can be a pain sometimes, but don’t tell him I said that. I love him so much that it’s scary.Yet sometimes I feel like I’m losing myself to him.You know Brice. Everything with him is just so intense.”
Christian and I continued to dance, and I could feel the warmth of his hand on my back, the feel of his hand in mine and the pressure of his strong chest pressing against my breasts. I felt like I belonged there.
“Hey, can a man cut in and get a dance with his gorgeous wife?”
When I opened my eyes to match the face with the familiar voice, I looked right into my husband’s handsome, sexy face.
I started smiling and couldn’t stop and went into his eagerly waiting arms to finish off the dance. Christian stepped aside and disappeared back to our table to sit with Renee, who had returned from the restroom.
Brice looked and smelled so good. He was in his dress military uniform and he looked every bit the “man.” I saw several female eyes and heads turned our way. He held me tight while he whispered how much he missed me and missed having me in his arms. I giggled and blushed like a schoolgirl because he still had that effect on me. We were totally oblivious to everyone else for the remainder of the evening. We danced, talked, held hands and sneaked kisses. Brice and I sat at the same table as Christian and Renee, but they might as well have been invisible. After introductions were made, we were totally into each other. My man was back and I couldn’t wait to get home, in bed, and into his open arms.
You would have thought that he had been away forever. We came out from under our spell a few times to find Christian and Renee staring at us like we were two fools. We laughed and told them that we were happy to see each other. Brice even presented me with my Christmas present early, a beautiful sapphire and diamond tennis bracelet that I loved. Brice fastened it on my wrist, sealed it with a tender kiss and told me to always think of him whenever I wore it. It was such a sweet moment.
It was a wonderful, magical night; one that I will never forget. When we arrived home and were finally settled, I still didn’t get any sleep that night. Brice and I were up all night making love; we couldn’t get enough of each other.
Christmas came and went with the usual presents, excellent food, good cheer and laughter. At one point, I looked around and thought,
This is what Christmas is all about: sharing joy and love with your family.
We were now back home and I had decided to take the quarter off from college because I wanted to focus on our marriage for a while. It was a hard decision to make because I can taste that degree. I’m so close, I can almost touch it, yet it seems so far. Brice doesn’t give a damn if I graduate or not. He hasn’t come right out and said that, but actions speak louder than words. He was glad to have me home again, fully dedicated to his needs. Therefore, everything for the most part was going well because I pretty much catered to Brice. I was always there, ready, willing and able in all aspects of our marriage. Even my culinary skills were improving.
I must admit that Brice was being more caring and trying to understand and appreciate my feelings. He was trying, and I gave him an “A” for effort. We were not seeing as much of Christian as we would have liked, at least I wasn’t seeing him much. I guess Brice saw him on base, but he was keeping his distance from me. I guess he was busy with work and women. Hey, he had a life too.
So the months flew by, and the season changed from winter to spring. Vivica called one evening and invited us to a family reunion that they were having in Georgia, and she really, really wanted us to attend. We found ourselves back in Georgia for the weekend at her insistence.
It was predicted that it would be an unusually hot summer in Georgia that year. And I believed it because it was already hot and it was only the first of April. The day of the reunion had everyone running around trying to take care of last-minute details. The weather was beautiful and just right for a reunion in the park.
Brice had left without me to help out with setting up and I was going to ride over with my cousin Linda. I had invited Linda as my guest. Linda and I were around the same age and used to be really close, but over the years we had lost touch with each other. When I found out she was in town, we hooked up, doing the girl thing.
We caught up on our totally different lives. Linda was a flight attendant, flying all over the world, enjoying the single life. She informed me that she had run into one of my old boyfriends on a recent flight back to Atlanta. Greg was the graduate student who had whispered sweet words of love and devotion in my ear in between hot, passionate kisses that took my breath away. For a minute I had thought he was the one. Until he cheated on me. Cheated on me with a white girl. I walked in on him getting his groove on. Linda said Greg had asked about me. I informed her that I didn’t have any time for the past. You can’t change the past. She admitted that I looked happy in the married-woman role. I really wanted to talk openly to her about my marriage because I felt that I could trust her and I valued her opinion, but I just never got the chance. We were having so much fun. I realized I truly missed having a girlfriend to talk to and hang out with. Brice didn’t like me hanging out.
We had gone shopping and picked out these cute, cool outfits to wear to the reunion. It was going to be a hot, muggy day, typical in Georgia, so we picked out these halter-style blouses with support bras on the inside, these cute shorts and tight stacked sandals.
Anyway, we arrived at the reunion and I finally found Brice nursing a cold beer and playing cards with some older men, much like the day I first met him. I went over to speak and I knew immediately that I was in deep shit. The expression that crossed over his face in just a few seconds was ice cold. I tried to excuse myself before he made a scene, but Brice grabbed my arm and told me to sit down and watch the card game. His eyes and his tight grip on my arm told me that there wasn’t room for any argument. There wasn’t anywhere to sit, so I ended up sitting in his lap.
Linda came over to get me a few times, but finally gave up when Brice informed her that he wanted to spend some time with his wife. She frowned and walked off to talk with a group of women around our age. By now I was getting upset because he was treating me like a child who had to stay with her Daddy.
Finally, it was time to eat, and there was food galore. This family could throw down when it came time to cook and eat. We had stacked paper plates and were sitting at a table with one of Brice’s cousins on his mother’s side, and the man was literally gawking at me. If his eyes weren’t on my chest, they were on my bare legs. And he was constantly licking his lips like he wanted to gobble me up. It was rude, but I didn’t let it upset me. Brice, though, was mad as hell by now. He had barely spoken three sentences to me since I arrived, but he kept giving me one of those looks that told me he was not pleased. The entire day he kept an arm draped around my chair or an arm around my shoulder so that everyone knew I belonged to him, I guess.
Vivica rescued me when she came over to introduce me to somebody and took me away. I could feel Brice’s eyes on me from across the yard, and he was not pleased. Linda had made her way back over to me also.