CHAPTER

Fifty-one

Three days later, Mildred dialed Tony's number.

“Hi, Tony this is Mil—I mean, Karma.”

Tony was in bed. He turned over onto his side and raised himself up on one elbow.

Tony grinned. He knew she'd call, even if it did take three days. They always called.

“Hey, how are you?”

“I'm well, and yourself?”

“Couldn't be better.”

Tony was good at the small talk. He knew how to make women feel comfortable, how to make them feel safe.

After a few minutes of this it was Mildred who lunged forward and said, “I'd really like to see you again.”

Tony wasn't surprised. They all wanted to see him . . . again.

“Sure. How does tomorrow evening sound?”

“Tomorrow will be fine.”

“I'll pick you up—”

“No, that's okay. I'll meet you. Just tell me where.”

Tony's mind raced for a minute. Tomorrow was Sunday night. He knew the perfect place.

“Okay, meet me at Tam's Wok on First Street in Holetown.”

“Will do,” Mildred said.

Tony flipped his phone closed and then turned to look at the beauty that was currently splayed out naked beside him.

“Who was that?” the woman asked, flipping her blond hair away from her eyes.

“My mother.” Tony's response was nonchalant as he reached over and pulled her on top of him.

“Didn't sound like any conversation I've ever heard a man have with his mother,” she remarked in her British tongue.

Tony grunted, slapped her on the ass, and said, “Are we here to dissect my conversations, or are we here to fuck?”

The woman, Tony couldn't quite remember her name. He thought it was Ginger or Ginseng . . . something like that. But it didn't matter—she was flying out that evening and he was sure he would never see her again.

“I like it from behind,” she purred into his ear.

Fine by him! Tony hastily flipped her onto her belly and mounted her from behind.

“I like it rough,” she called to him over her shoulder.

“As you wish!” Tony laughed as he gripped her hips and jerked her roughly up onto her knees.

He rolled the condom onto his penis and was about to enter her when she pulled away.

“What?”

“I like it in my ass,” she said coyly as she batted her fake eyelashes at him.

Tony grinned; he liked it there too.

He stuck four fingers of his left hand into his mouth, then pulled them out and ran them down the center of Ginger's crack, moistening her exit way. Ginger moaned and flung her long blond hair over her shoulder. “Grab my hair,” she said, and Tony did. Took hold of it the way a cowboy would take hold of his mare's reins.

He slowly glided the tip of his dick into her anus. It was tight, and the pleasure was immediate. Before he knew it he was completely in, stroking as easily as if he'd entered her missionary-style.

Ginger screamed, “Deeper, harder, faster!”

And Tony wrapped his hands tighter around her mane of hair and began to oblige.

Sunday night was karaoke night on First Street, and the street came alive with partygoers, like a scaled-down version of the famous Memphis Beale Street.

Tam's Wok, a Chinese Thai restaurant, was located directly across from the karaoke tent. When Tony made the dinner reservations, he specifically requested that he and his date be seated on the outside terrace, which overlooked the bustling sidewalk.

Mildred had piled her twists high on her head and clasped her hair with an ornately decorated mocha-colored band. She'd chosen a long pale blue linen tube dress that hugged her curvaceous figure like a second skin. When she climbed into the backseat of the taxi, the driver gave her an approving glance in the rearview mirror and said, “What a lucky man.”

Mildred had been lost in her thoughts. “ 'Scuse me?”

“I said, what a lucky man.”

Mildred was confused. “Who?”

“Why, your husband, of course!”

“No, I'm not married.”

“Well, then, your boyfriend?”

Mildred shook her head.

The man smiled so broadly that his white teeth filled the rearview mirror.

“Well, I'm free and single myself . . .”

Mildred half listened as the man droned on and on about how he could make her happy and how he would love her like no other.

Ever since she'd lost the weight and had the boob job done, it'd been one man after the other making passes at her. At first she had to admit that she was flattered, but after a few weeks she began to become tired of the attention and then annoyed.

“I'm gay,” Mildred announced drily.

The driver gave her one last pitiful look and then said no more.

It took less than twenty minutes to get to Holetown. Earlier that day she'd felt nervous about the date, snatching up the phone on more than one occasion to call Tony and cancel. But then she'd think back on all of the pain, suffering, and humiliation he'd caused her and find strength again.

A devious smile flashed across her face as she envisioned herself smiling sweetly across the table at him before yelling out her real name and then plunging the butter knife into his chest.

“Fifteen dollars,” the driver said without looking at her.

Mildred handed him a twenty, adjusted her dress, and started toward the restaurant.

Heads turned as she snaked slowly through the crowd. Women threw her nasty looks while the men slowly undressed her in their minds.

She ignored the few who had the nerve to approach her.

“Karma,” Tony sang, his face bright with approval. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you.” Karma smiled back. “And you look very handsome.”

Tony had donned a white pair of chinos and a black silk T-shirt.

He thanked her and pulled the door open.

Seated at their table, the conversation was bumpy at first, because Mildred still couldn't believe that he didn't recognize her. Finally she fell into a familiar groove and began to engage him the way she had when she thought he really loved her. After that, the conversation flowed as smooth as cream.

Mildred hadn't even thought of a backstory, but the fantastical lie spilled out of her as if it'd been rehearsed a million times:

Karma Jackson was the daughter of wealthy parents who didn't understand her. A Barnard graduate. Five years with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then off to Princeton for her master's.

After that, a year abroad.

Where?

Why, Europe, of course!

Did she have a boyfriend?

Well, no, she didn't. In fact, she'd had only one boyfriend in her entire life—a man she thought she would marry, but he'd broken her heart.

Tony took her hand; he was sorry. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. But that man's irresponsibility was his good luck, because she was there with him now.

What are your aspirations?

Marriage. Family. Happiness.

Me too.

In between the getting-to-know-you stuff, Karma laughed until tears spilled from her eyes at the horrible karaoke contestants.

Tony liked her laugh.

They got up from the table when the island's most popular karaoke singer jumped up onto the stage: Gabriele, a long, lanky, damn near toothless Rastafarian.

The audience erupted in applause, not because he could sing but because he was horrible. Horrible to the point that people pressed their hands to their ears and scrunched their faces in pain. Even so, they begged for more, because Gabriele had heart and he had character and was apparently oblivious to the fact that he couldn't sing.

Mildred laughed until a realization smacked her squarely in the face, and then she was suddenly serious.

She and Gabriele were very much alike.

“What's wrong?”

Mildred snapped back. “Oh, nothing—just zoned out for a minute.”

They went down to the street and moved close to the stage to watch a white man belt out Gloria Gaynor's “I Will Survive.”

“Why don't you go on up there? You look like you have a pretty good set of lungs on you.”

Tony's eyes slid over Mildred's perky breasts before climbing her neck and resting on her face.

“Nah.” She waved her hand. “I can't sing.”

Tony pointed at the person who was currently bouncing across the stage singing the Stevie Wonder classic “Do I Do.” “And he can?”

Mildred laughed. Yeah, this guy was even worse than Gabriele.

“C'mon, go ahead.” Tony nudged her gently.

“Why don't you?”

Tony raised his hands. “Are you crazy? I live here. You, on the other hand, are just here on vacation.”

Mildred nodded.

Why the hell not?

“Okay, I'll do it.”

Together they walked to the side of the stage and flipped through the massive leather-bound songbooks.

“Oh, I see one,” Mildred chirped, snapping the book shut before Tony could see it.

She signed her name to the list and found that she could barely contain herself as she waited through the two people ahead of her.

“So here now we got Karma Jackson coming up to the mike to sing that famous Rick James and Tina Marie love song, ‘Fire and Desire'!”

Mildred walked nervously to the microphone, tapped it twice, and then nodded her head that she was ready to begin. When the musical introduction began, Mildred realized to her horror that she'd have to sing both parts—male and female.

Just as Rick James began his monologue, Gabriele appeared and slid across the stage on his knees, coming to dramatic stop at Mildred's feet.

The crowd exploded as he croaked through the Rick James portion of the song.

Mildred didn't consider herself a singer, but she could hold a note with the best of them, and when the Tina Marie part came up, Mildred threw her hands into the air and gave it all she had.

Tony, who'd been leaning up against a light pole talking to a friend of his, was stunned, and he began to applaud loudly.

Mildred belted out passionate line after passionate line, and at some point she would swear she felt her body and soul separate, and when they joined together again, she felt less like Mildred Johnson and more like Karma Jackson.

Toward the end of the song, she found Tony's face in the crowd, and he was looking at her in a way he never had when she was Mildred Johnson.