“What makes me special? I’m married. You want something serious with a married woman?”
“What I want is for you to get out of your head and to enjoy the moment. Fuck that ring. You don’t give a fuck about it. You did. At one point. Me? I never gave a fuck. Not before I met you, not after.”
“Before you met me?”
“Yeah, before I met you,” I said with a deep breath. “You hungry?”
I didn’t want to talk about before I met her. I didn’t want her to know that before I met her, I took a dive through her social media. Didn’t want her to know I plotted. Yeah, I plotted. When I first laid eyes on her, I wanted her. Didn’t give a fuck about that ring then because like I said, I could see the misery on her. Could read between the lines of every anniversary and happy birthday post. It was generic. Posted because she felt obligated. There was no love behind it. Noreallove anyway. Not the type of love that put a twinkle in her eye. Not the type of love that kept her out of the arms of another man.
Had I noticed something different maybe I would have respected it. Maybe I would have played by the rules and kept it all business. Maybe… but Mahogany was alluring. She was inviting. She was intoxicating. With her body up against mine and the scent of the vanilla on her skin filling my nostrils, I thought nah. I wouldn’t have given a fuck either way. I wanted her, and when I wanted something, I went after it, regardless of obstacles. Fuck ‘em.
“What do you mean?—”
Before she could finish her sentence, her phone rang. She grunted and looked over at the kitchen island where her phone sat. “I hate that phone,” she mumbled. Turning over, she got up and sat on the side of the couch. I watched her. The way the sunlight creeping through the blinds hit her dark chocolate skin made me want to go for round two. She was glistening. Glowing. Her skin, supple.
The ringing stopped and started again, right after.
“Don’t answer it,” I told her, watching as she hesitated.
“Could be my kid's school. I need to check at least,” she said through a heavy sigh, standing up.
I watched her ass jiggle as she walked away. Dick immediately bricked. I hoped like hell it wasn’t the school. I needed to eat. And I didn’t mean food.
“Hello?” She said, answering her phone, sounding puzzled. “Yes, this is she…”
Whatever it was, was important. So, instead of lying there with my dick on brick, I sat up and grabbed my phone. I had a couple of missed calls from my pops. Brushing my hand down the back of my neck, I contemplated calling now, or later. Because he hadn’t texted, I figured it couldn’t be that important and decided to wait.
“What?” Said Mahogany. “What happened? Oh my God. Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Thank you.”
When she turned to look at me, she had this look on her face. One that mirrored confusion, sadness, and worry. Something happened. It was an emergency and I hoped it wasn’t one of her kids.
“You cool?”
“Um… yeah. I’m cool,” She hesitated to say, scratching her head. “I need to go.”
“Alright. You sure you okay?”
With furrowed brows, and tears in her eyes she said, “I don’t know for real. He was in an accident and… I don’t… I don’t know how to feel.”
“Oh.”
I didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how to feel either. I understood the look on her face. The sadness. The confusion. The worry. She might have said she didn’t care about the marriage anymore, but she did. She cared about the nigga and probably would for the rest of her life. They were together for damn near twenty years, of course she gave a fuck. If she didn’t she wouldn’t have had tears in her eyes. If something changedabout the situation for real, she wouldn’t be rushing to check on him.
I was bugging.
Getting a little jealous. Did I have the right to be though? He was her husband. Regardless of where they stood today, legally she was still his wife. As I watched her grab her things, I thought like yeah… it wasn’t just legally. She was emotionally tied to the nigga too. Of course. Of course she was nigga. I was tripping.
I brushed my hand down the top of my head and shook it. I was tripping, for real. Wasn’t the jealous type. Never had been. Never had been in a position where I had to be jealous. Never put myself in one. This shit was different and I didn’t like it.
“I’ll call you. We’ll—we’ll talk. We’ll finish today’s work,” she said after grabbing her MacBook from the office.
Before she could head for the door, I grabbed her. Wrapped my arms around her and told her to be careful. I didn’t know what else to say.
When she walked out, I stood there a minute, watching as she ran to her car, to run to her husband.
14
MAHOGANY
