Up to No Good

The Choir Director

Torn Between Two Lovers

Big Girls Do Cry

Something on the Side

The First Lady

So You Call Yourself a Man

The Preacher’s Son

Player Haters

Lookin’ For Luv

Married Men

Baby Momma Drama

She Ain’t the One
(with Mary B. Morrison)

“So, are you going to take me back to your place, or are we going to make Benny rich by running up a ridiculous bar tab?” Crystal whispered seductively.

Her eyes traveled over my body, stopping a little below my belt as she took a sip of her drink. This was her way of letting me know that she was ready. The next move was mine, and her body language was begging me to make it. She lifted her head, her eyes meeting mine as she put her drink on the bar. I smiled, giving her my own once-over. I couldn’t help but respond with a devilish grin as I placed my hand on the small of her back, high enough to be respectable but low enough to have an effect. She shuddered slightly under my touch, even though her face failed to give anything away.

We hadn’t seen each other in almost a year, and probably wouldn’t see each other for another one, unless our son Darnel’s wife-to-be Keisha became pregnant in the next few months. Crystal had traveled back to New York from Richmond, Virginia, for Darnel’s wedding, which was tomorrow night. We’d met at
Benny’s bar, one of our old neighborhood haunts, to catch up on old times after the rehearsal dinner.

“So?” she asked again, this time with a little more desperation in her voice. She wanted me. She wanted me bad. She wanted me to do what only I could do for her—satisfy that sexual itch that nobody else seemed able to reach. I know it sounds rather arrogant, but I ’d been sleeping with this woman off and on for the better part of twenty-eight years, so I knew what she needed in the bedroom, just like she knew what I needed.

I glanced at her again. Even in a conservative pantsuit, she had a way of enticing me. Her face was a beautiful bronze color, highlighted by a beauty mark right above the left side of her lip. She’d gained a few pounds over the years, and her hair showed a hint of gray around the edges, but hell, whose didn’t? Besides, truth be told, I liked a woman with some meat on her bones and some mileage on her engine. Experience meant a lot in life, especially in the bedroom.

She turned her head slightly, exposing a small tattoo with the letters
DB
, our son’s initials, on the lower side of her neck. A memory of the way she cooed when I kissed her neck came to mind. Then I looked down at her chest, and the thought of her neck was quickly replaced with an image of her large, plump breasts and the silver-dollar nipples that rested atop them. My heart rate increased, and my breathing became heavier. It never mattered where I touched her; Crystal’s body was so sexually in tune with mine that I didn’t even have to take off my clothes to give her an orgasm. Oh, but when I did get undressed, she would return the favor like very few women I ’d ever known. Having a child together bonded us, but it was the sex that kept us hungering for each other year after year.

She licked her lips, and my manhood sprang to life.
I flicked my wrist so I could see the time on my watch. I was wondering if Crystal was planning on a quickie or one of our all-night marathons. I ’d already canceled a date to meet with her, so an all-nighter with someone of her sexual prowess was fine by me. That, of course, left only one question.

“Where’s your husband?” I asked, getting straight to the point.

Crystal looked annoyed by my question. Yes, she was married, going on five years now, and she definitely preferred that I didn’t mention her husband when we were getting ready to get busy. We both knew that her marital status really wasn’t a factor in all this anyway. We’d played this game before, Crystal and I, through countless boyfriends and two husbands. She didn’t make any excuses for the fact that she was a woman who needed a man in her life. She always said that she would prefer it if that man were me, but after a while, she stopped holding her breath and moved on.

One thing was for sure, though: It didn’t matter who she was with. If we saw each other or had the chance to talk on the phone, it was never a question of
if
we were going to get together, but rather when and where it would happen.

“He had to work third shift. He’ll be here sometime early tomorrow morning.” Crystal slid off her bar stool and folded her arms as if to say, “So, come on. We got time, but we ain’t got all night.” I knew her well, and she was not about to take no for an answer. And as good as she was looking, I wasn’t about to give her an argument.

“Okay, but only if you’re going to respect me in the morning,” I teased.

She didn’t laugh. Instead, she came back with, “Please. You my baby daddy. I ain’t got to respect you.”
Unfortunately, I knew she wasn’t joking, and her words stung like hell.

“You don’t?”

“Hell no. Everybody knows you ain’t shit, James. As much as I love our son, I should have never had a baby with you.” She’d been using this same line on me since Darnel was a baby, and now here he was, a grown man getting ready to get married and have babies of his own. Jesus, I was getting old.

“Then why do you want me to take you home? Why do you keep sleeping with me after all these years? You tryin’ to say you ain’t got no love for me?”

“Please, James. You broke my heart more times than I care to remember and in more ways than I will ever forget. I ’d be a fool if I still had love for you.”

“If you ain’t got love for me, then why are you trying to sleep with me?”

“Good dick is hard to come by,” she said, like it was a simple fact of life that everyone understood. “And you’ve got some really good dick. Now, are you going to sit here and debate it, or are you gonna take me home and remind me why I rented a car and drove seven hours up here instead of waiting for my husband so we could drive together?”

I reached in my pocket and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. I slapped it down on the bar, nodding my head.

“You know me. Last thing I want is for anyone to make a seven-hour trip in vain,” I said with a laugh. The truth of her words could have deflated my desire for her, but I knew this was not an opportunity to waste on being overly sensitive or sentimental. Besides, I ’d known this woman my entire adult life, and there wasn’t a thing she could say that I hadn’t heard at least a dozen times before. We were too far past that naïve
stage to believe we’d ever be anything more than what we were today.

Crystal leaned in and kissed my full lips, then smiled as if I had just given her a large sum of money. The way she stared at me made my manhood grow, making it clear that I was the one about to hit the jackpot. In less than twenty minutes, we’d both be in my bed, as naked as the day we were born, making love like there was no tomorrow. And as it had always been between the two of us, there would be no tomorrow—only a here and now.

Five hours later, Crystal was snoring with a purpose, her back to my chest and her round hips and ass securely resting against my groin. I ’d wake her up in about ten minutes for another round. She would have to leave after that in order to make it back to her hotel before her husband showed up. Part of me didn’t want her to leave, because I was having such a good time. I always had a good time when Crystal and I got together.

I stared at her face as I stroked her sweaty hair. We’d gone at it for the better part of an hour—twice. The way she called out my name and told me that this would always be her dick was definitely good for the ego. It also told me that after all these years, no matter what she said, she was still in love with me.

Crystal had sacrificed most of her adult years chasing after me. We’d met right after high school. I was far from being faithful, but she was as close to a steady girlfriend as I had during those days.

She looked out for me when no one else would, sometimes even when it wasn’t in her best interest.
There wasn’t anything Crystal Jackson wouldn’t do for me. I knew that better than anyone on this earth, and the thing that haunted me the most was that she wanted only one thing in return: my love. But as much as I tried, I just couldn’t give it to her the way she wanted it.