Chapter 19
The morning sunlight almost blinded Lamar when he left Falisha’s house. He put his hand up to block the sun as he crossed the street to get to his residence.
Seeing Kim’s car parked down the street let him know that she was home. Still having some energy left over from last night, he figured he’d take a quick shower, and then wake Kim up with some early morning head, followed by some slow, passionate sex.
When he walked through the door, the scent of bacon and eggs smacked him in the face. He walked into the kitchen, but Kim wasn’t there, nor was the food.
“I know she didn’t just cook for herself!” he mumbled to himself while leaving the kitchen.
He shot upstairs and stood at the top of the steps, debating whether to jump into the shower first or go mess with Kim about not making him anything to eat when she cooked. He looked down the hallway toward the bathroom, and then he looked the other way toward Kim’s room. It might have been the music coming from her room that made him choose to have his talk with her.
As he walked down the hallway he thought his ears were deceiving him when he thought he heard a moan coming from beyond the music. As he got closer to the door, the moans got a little louder, and it became clear that it was Kim.
Lamar’s dick got hard quick as hell at the thought of Kim lying in her bed and pleasing herself. Fuck a shower! It was time to play. When he reached for the knob and saw that the door was open, he walked in.
“Oh, shit! Lamar, get out!” Kim shouted after opening her eyes to see him standing there.
Marell lifted his face out of Kim’s pussy to turn around to see who was standing behind him.
Lamar was still in shock, looking at another nigga eating Kim’s pussy. Kim had to yell again for him to back out of the room.
Marell watched the door close, looked back up at Kim for a split second, and then drove his face right back into her wet box. She was going to stop him, but his mouth felt too good. She laid her head back on the pillow and grabbed a hold of his head.
“Dis bitch done lost her fuckin’ mind!” Lamar mumbled as he walked into his bedroom, which was right next door. He was mad as hell. He started swinging punches in the air, working himself up for a fight he wanted to have. “She’s bringing niggas home now!” he snapped to himself while pacing back and forth across the room.
It took Lamar a few minutes of pacing and letting off some steam before he came to his senses. It had hit him like a ton of bricks, and when it did, he walked over and took a seat on the edge of his bed. “What are you doin’, Lamar?” he asked himself while rubbing his temples. “She ain’t even ya girl!” he mumbled.
The more he thought about it, the calmer he became. He had to laugh at himself and the way he was acting over some pussy that didn’t belong to him. Kim was free to fuck whoever she wanted to, and there was nothing he could do about it.
He flopped back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. Everything was cool, and from the sudden silence coming from Kim’s room, he felt like the worst of it was over; that was, until it started back up, but this time even louder. He could hear Kim yelling through the walls.
“Ohhhh! Yesss! Ohhhhh, harder! Fuck me harder! Mmmmmmmm! Give it to me!” she screamed.
The sounds of her bed squeaking, the loud moans, and her screaming out were a little too much for him to handle, so he got up, grabbed his car keys off the dresser, and rolled out.
It might have seemed petty, but he kicked Kim’s door on his way past her room. He did it just to let her know that he was upset, not that it mattered at the time, because Kim was too busy getting her back blown out. The kick was barely even heard by either her or Marell.
* * *
Tammy was awakened by a loud knock at her front door. She looked over at Sinniyyah to see if it had woken her up too, but it didn’t. She was still sound asleep.
Anthony, on the other hand, heard the knocks and was a little scared, so he darted into Tammy’s room and jumped in the bed with her.
“Anthony, don’t move,” she told him, and then slipped on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
The heavy knocking continued the entire time she made her way downstairs and to the door. Before opening it, she leaned over and peeked through the small window on her inside porch. She was actually kind of relieved to see that it was Mr. Louis. “Hey, Mr. Louis! What’s goin’ on?” she asked when she opened up the door.
He looked at her sideways with one eyebrow up. Tammy really didn’t have a clue about why he was there, but he didn’t have a problem reminding her, either. “It’s the first of the month, Tammy. This is the day I go around to all of my properties and pick up my rent money,” he said in a sarcastic way. “Please tell me you got my money,” he continued, while stepping past Tammy and entering the house.
“Mr. Louis, you know I don’t get my check until around the third. As soon as the check clears I’ll give you the rent money,” she said, following him into the house.
“Let me ask you this: why do you stay here when you clearly can’t afford it? I’ve got other properties that are a lot cheaper to maintain,” Mr. Louis said, looking around the living room at the pictures on the wall.
The answer to that was simple. Tammy didn’t want to live anywhere else. This block was all she knew. She grew up here, much like everybody else who lived on Parker Street, and she wasn’t ready to move quite yet. “Mr. Louis, I’ll have your money, and the hundred dollar late fee in a couple of days. Now, if you don’t mind, I gotta get back upstairs to my kids,” she said, walking toward the front door.
Mr. Louis knew when he had worn out his welcome, but he was also still stern about collecting his money. “I don’t wanna have to come looking for you, Tammy. I love those kids, but I love my money more,” he said before leaving the house.
Tammy knew that those words meant that he didn’t have a problem putting her and her kids out on the streets if he wasn’t paid.
What made things even worse was that her money was funny yet again this month. The electric, the gas, and the phone bills were sitting on the living room table, and she didn’t have a clue how she was going to pay them, the rent, and get Anthony’s school clothes. It wasn’t going to happen on the $650-a-month welfare check, and a $380-a-week check from her part-time job.
Tammy really needed help, and as she walked back upstairs to get back into bed, she began considering what Mr. Louis said about moving into one of his cheaper properties.
* * *
By the time Lamar took his car to the car wash, got it detailed, and went to the store to get something to eat, Marell had finished his business and left the house.
Lamar came through the door to see Kim standing in the kitchen, doing the dishes in her nightgown. She had a towel wrapped around her head, so he knew that she either had just taken a shower, or she was about to take one. “Damn! I see you’ve been busy early this morning,” he said, entering the kitchen and putting his bag on the table.
“Yeah, well, you better learn how to knock.” Kim chuckled as she dried off a cup and set it to the side.
“Oh, so that’s where we’re at now? You found some new dick so you toss me to the side?”
Kim turned around from the sink to face him. She could see a bit of jealousy in his eyes, and maybe even a hint of hurt. “I know you ain’t getting soft on me, Lamar. I told you from the beginning that it was just sex between us. Now, if you can’t handle that, then maybe we should stop,” she said, crossing her arms and leaning up against the refrigerator.
Kim had all the sense. Lamar didn’t know it, but Kim had purposely left her door open so that he would walk in on her. She wanted to let him know a few things of importance, one being that she was the only person who would dictate who would be tasting her goodies, and when. The second thing she wanted to establish was that his ass could easily be replaced by the next man. Thirdly, she just wanted to reestablish the boundaries that friends with benefits had.
The only thing she didn’t expect when she did what she did was to hurt Lamar. And from the way he looked at her when he came through the door and saw her getting her pussy eaten, she knew that it hit a nerve.
“Of course I can handle it,” Lamar responded, trying to play it off and be cool about it.
Kim smiled, and then turned back around to finish doing the dishes.
Lamar bit down on his bottom lip in total frustration. The truth was, he couldn’t handle letting another man fuck Kim, let alone do it under the same roof where he rested his head. At this point, he had to be honest. “But what if I wanted more?” he said, walking over and leaning up against the sink next to her.
“Boy, what are you talkin’ about?” She chuckled, not taking her eyes off the dishes.
“What if I wanted more than just sex? What if I wanted to be ya man?” Lamar asked with a serious look on his face.
Kim put the plate she was cleaning back into the soapy water and turned to face him. At first she thought he was joking, but then she saw the look he had in his eyes. “You’re serious, aren’t you?” she asked with a curious look on her face. “You catchin’ feelings, Lamar?”
Lamar didn’t even know he felt this deeply about her until today. His jealousy of Marell made him realize that there was more to him and Kim than just sex. Not only did he hate the fact that somebody else was pleasing her sexually, Lamar felt like he was losing a very good friend. “I’m sayin’ . . . I really don’t know what I’m sayin’ right now. What I do know is that I care about you a lot. I know more about you than I do of any woman.”
“Boy, what do you know about me?” Kim smiled, curious to know what was going on in his brain right now.
Lamar moved in a little closer to her. “I know that despite what you portray on the outside, on the inside you got a heart of gold. You care about others, and you find joy in helping people. That’s why you work so hard at the law firm. I know ya favorite food is shrimp, and ya favorite color is yellow. I know that you’re allergic to peanuts.”
Kim stood there amazed at how much he really knew about her.
“I know you got this scar right here from falling on a glass table,” he said, reaching down and touching the scar on her lower back. “I know ya period comes anywhere between the third and the fifth of every month. I also know ya favorite spot to be touched is ya waist,” he said, grabbing a hold of hers.
Kim was intoxicated and captivated by his words and his touch. She felt herself about to melt in his arms, but she quickly got hold of herself. “Boy, you don’t know me!” she said, and playfully smacked his hands off of her waist.
“Com ’ere, yo,” he said, grabbing her waist again and pulling her close to him. “I know you wanna be in love, but you’re scared to get hurt, and you think all men have the potential to break ya heart. I know that when you love, you love hard, and you hate the same way.”
“You swear you know somebody!” She smiled and lowered her head in a submissive manner.
“I know that guy you just had up in ya room didn’t mean a damn thing to you, and I’m willing to bet anything you didn’t even kiss him. You fucked him to make me jealous, and to let me know that you were in control. Shit, that’s the only reason why the nigga left here with all his teeth!” Lamar chuckled.
Everything he said was accurate to a T. Kim was more than impressed with how much he paid attention to her, and how well he knew her so intimately. “What do you want, Lamar?” she looked up and asked him in a humble and soft tone.
Lamar reached up and unraveled the towel around her head. Her hair dropped down to her shoulders, still a little wet from the shower she just took. She was beautiful and sexy: a nice combination. He leaned down and softly pressed his lips up against hers.
This time Kim did melt in his arms. She was looking at him in a whole new light now, and found herself wondering how it would be if she gave him a chance to be the man she desperately needed in her life.
“Let’s just see what happens,” Lamar said, lifting her chin up so she could look him in his eyes.
Kim nodded her head, and then rested her head against his chest. She didn’t know where this train was headed, but she definitely was going along for the ride to see where it ended up.