Chapter Two

“Angels and Demons”

 

Wesley finished putting documents in his briefcase, then turned to his secretary and dropped her a note. “Friday night?” she winked.

“Yes…Its time to unwind. If he calls,” Wesley pointed at the note, “tell him he can reach me at that cell number.” Wesley turned one last moment. “Have fun with your new girlfriend,” he winked at her.

“Okay Mr. Houston, I shall, and good luck,” she winked back at him. Wesley nodded and grabbed his briefcase. Downstairs, he exited the office to the underground parking, and then clicked his remote and the lights to his beamer which flashed. It was a glistening deep blue BMW 5 series convertible.

Wesley entered the car when Damon Washington approached. “Hey bro, you got a jaunt to the nightclub?”

“Aren’t you the new field hand at station number twenty-seven?”

“Part time,” Damon replied. “Just started a couple of days ago. Hey, listen,” he smiled. “I heard you are going to the nightclub. I was heading there too. Any chance I could…?”

Wesley thought on it a moment. He stared at Damon and for a moment, something said don’t take this guy, he’s a bad dude, but Wesley’s heart gave in. He put his hand out, pointing at the passenger door. “Okay,” he replied, tossing the briefcase on the backseat.

The BMW drove through town with both men aboard. “So you is a oil company executive?” Damon asked.

“Sure am,” Wesley replied checking his rear view mirror.

“Then you got a college education?”

“Sure did, just finished it up,” Wesley smiled while keeping his eyes forward as they drove down the dark road. “What about you?” he asked. “I didn’t get your name?”

“Damon Washington at your service…mister?”

“Mister Houston. You aren’t going to forget that?” Wesley turned and glanced at Damon. He broke a smile that displayed who was in charge.

 

Western Bakersfield: The disco was flowing from this nightclub with nineties disco pulsing the guests. Both men drove up to the valet as they pulled to a stop. They both got out of the car at almost the same time. Wesley tipped the carhop, and then made his way to the entrance, followed by Damon. “Thanks for the lift brotha,” Damon told him.

“I’m not your brother,” Wesley replied, turning an eye to him.

Damon put both hands up in protest. “I meant boss,” he put on a great big smile of charm.

“Later guy. I expect you at work tomorrow…on time!” Wesley left him as both men entered the nightclub with its disco tunes, smoke and lively atmosphere.

While the carhop parked Wesley’s beamer, the two ladies arrived at the disco, dressed for a night of excitement that would forever change their lives and those of the people around them. Both women drew stares in their provocative dresses as they exited their pickup truck. The experience was something new for the both of them; something that neither lady had never done before. Nevertheless, do it they were about to, and whether their boyfriends liked it or not, they would have this night on the town.

Lana’s hair flowed exquisitely against her tight red dress and lipstick. Her legs were well covered in sheer that highlighted them against the club lighting. Her renewed vigor and busty figure showed her for the beautiful blonde haired woman that she was.

Kerry’s dark brown hair accented her tight black dress and black stiletto high heels as she followed her friend through the door. It was a club, tables, smoke, disco and a bar. Both women canvassed the place as they slowly scanned the single men, and made their way directly to that bar.

Meanwhile, across the room, both Damon and Wesley had split up, with Damon heading to the bar and Wesley taking a booth by himself. He was all business, as he studied his little personal organizer with pen in hand. Damon approached a busty black woman at the bar. He kind of slid onto the stool next to her. Smoothing his fuzzy hair, he swiveled around to her, while she ignored him. “Hey baby,” he asked. It didn’t do much as she continued to ignore him, taking a sip of her drink, and then setting the glass down, while staring into the mirror atop the wall behind the bar. “How’s about a good time with me?” he continued.

It was a moment of no answers. Then he toughened his voice and asked again. “Hey baby, how’s about a good time with me?”

She lit a cigarette, took a puff, slowly turned her head and stared at him. However, there was no smile on her face. “You want a good time?” she replied.

“Yeah I do baby,” he replied. For the moment, he felt he had scored something, perhaps a piece of ass for the night.

However, it wasn’t quite what he was going to get. She scowled at him. “Honey, you can’t afford me.” She turned her head straight and ignored him.

“And what’s yo fee woman?” he asked in a sarcastic tone.

She smacked him hard against his face. “That was rude of you. How dare you call me a hooker.”

Damon smiled as she got off the stool and turned to walk away. But he grabbed her arm for one last moment jerking her to him. “You says you had a fee.” Then he let her go as she struggled, almost stumbling to the floor. In the background, Wesley watched the scene with a scornful moment of disbelief. Was this the way his employee always acted he wondered?

Wesley glanced down at his organizer, opened an appointment book and began working again, minding his own business.

The Bartender turned to Damon, winking at him. “That woman was pissed at ya,” He put a glass on the counter and poured the bourbon and branch mixture for Damon.

Damon took a sip and put the cash on the counter, which the Bartender took. He went to the register while Damon’s eyes scanned the joint for victims. The Bartender returned with his change. “Just fishing,” he told the Bartender. “Gots ta cast the line and wait to see what happens. I think she was one O' dem gold diggers, you know the type?”

“How many?” the Bartender asked motioning to his glass.

“My next one will be a dry martini,” he replied. Damon motioned towards Wesley at the table. “See that man over there?”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“He’s my new friend and boss. Gonna need a Scotch and Soda…easy ice.”

“Okay,” the Bartender replied grasping a glass and pouring the drink.

Damon took the glass, got up off his seat and then walked carefully to the booth where Wesley was hard at work. He plunked the glass down in front of Wesley who glanced up at him. “Here’s to a new and long friendship, my brother.”

Wesley took the moment as both men stared eye to eye. He wondered why he was here. Was he doing too much work for the company and not unwinding. Perhaps Damon’s actions were greatly founded and it was time to loosen up for the night, let fun have at his soul. Wesley sighed and closed his booklet, then turned his PDA off.

He reached for the glass and lifted it as Damon slid onto the seat. “I’ll drink to that,” he replied, lifting the glass. He took a sip and let it go down as it cleared his parched throat. “So Damon, what’s your function in the company?”

“Me,” Damon stuttered. “I’m a new General-purpose man, you know the kind. A man who does everything. By the likes of you brother, I’d say you ain’t doing so bad yoself.”

“No, it’s been a struggle. I guess if it had to be any specific way, which was the best way.”

“Why’s that?” Damon asked.

“Because there is value in earning something. It means so much more to earn something through hard work. It has been a struggle, but I am finally getting my breaks at work.”

Damon sipped his drink then sat back. “There’s more to life then all work.”

“Yes there is, but the job is what gets you there.” Wesley’s words left a blunt stare upon Damon’s face as he relaxed even more. “Been working over fifty hours a week, sometimes sixty, climbing that corporate ladder.” Wesley’s eyes glanced up at the ceiling as he sipped his own drink. There was a pride in his heart and soul from all that he’d accomplished. It was a role model for anyone to see, and yet, his modest tone suggested that he really had this within him. Nothing false could be said, because Wesley Houston was the real-deal of a man, determined to build a life and do it honestly through hard efforts and grand deeds. “It’s tougher for a Black Man to succeed during these times in the wild nineteen nineties, but it’s happening.”

It was a moment of pride in Wesley’s eyes as he took another drink from the glass. Damon patted him on the shoulder. Then Damon scanned the room, always alert and looking for an opportunity. He was a sharp fellow, if for all the wrong reasons, but he didn’t disappoint as he caught a blond haired woman staring in Wesley’s direction. Her eyes caught Damon’s but her main target was Wesley. “Don’t look now Wesley, but that blond chick, she’s been watching us.” He turned to Wesley. “I think she likes you man.” Damon motioned Lana to their table as he turned to his boss. “Here she comes,” he told Wesley as Lana made her way across the room towards the booth. “I think I am gonna mingle, good luck brother.” With those words spoken, Damon got up and vacated the booth heading across the large bar room through the smoke, away from Wesley’s booth as Lana approached.

Wesley slid out from behind the booth and stood up as she approached him. He put his hand out to help her jacket off and then help her get seated in the booth. He sat down himself, across the table. Wesley slowly glanced up into her blue eyes with a nervous smile. “I’m Wesley Houston,” he told her, “and you?” he asked pleasantly.

She almost choked as she gathered the words from deep in her throat. “Lana,” she told him struggling again. “Lana Picard.” She checked her purse then set it beside her on the seat of the booth. It was a moment, a fragile moment between two people for the first time; and a moment that could disintegrate at any second. A first moment where every move, every signal, could be misread by the other.

Wesley was certainly nervous within himself. Here he had a lady before him, like an angel, with golden hair and soft eyes. He had to take control of the situation before it headed south and he knew he had not minutes but a few seconds as he sat back. It was all about his words.

If he asked the wrong question, he would certainly blow it big time and he didn’t want that. Therefore, his line had to be simple and direct, just like in business. A soothing line that gathered her attention, that drew her into more conversation.

Of course, he could always do a come-on, but was it really necessary at this point, this first encounter? There was something here as well. Something very special and fragile indeed.

It was here before him, and it would go one of two ways. It would bud into something grand or it would fizzle, never to return. Was it chemistry or something else? The next line was all that would be needed to ferret out what it was. “What brings you to this nightclub?” he asked her.

She took a moment to scan his face, his eyes and his soul behind them. Then she took a deep breath and leaned forward upon the table depositing her cleavage in the red dress before him. She was playing both pairs, or was she? “I’m looking,” she replied before leaning back into the booth.

But Wesley’s eyes hadn’t glanced down at her cleavage. Instead they had stayed locked on her eyes, venturing nowhere, that she had anticipated they might. So he was more than an average Joe looking for sex. Okay, who was this man, she thought to herself intrigued by his cologne and dress, his manners…his gentlemanly manners?

“Looking for whom?” he asked gently leaning forward upon the table. His answer had been direct and fast. It was not the average answer she had expected, but neither was it hostile, more rather, a direct and honest question.

She ran her right hand through her hair gently caressing it before she glanced back into his eyes. There was something here, she could feel it, and it was more than a casual attraction. She almost swallowed wrong as she leaned forward, glancing deeper into his black soul of angelic light. “For a change in my life,” she replied with a gentle smile that slowly dawned upon the face of an angel. “I’ve been watching you and your friend for quite a while.”

He reclined even further taking a sip of his drink. “That so?” he asked, “and what have you seen?” It was an honest moment as the both of them were locked eye to eye. He had thrown the ball in her court and now it was winding down to something.

The moment had intensified into something that was either going to move forward or dissipate into nothing. But still, there was something here, something very rare and very special. It was an energy between them that was nowhere else. It went beyond sexual attraction, a moment that was defining itself as they both peered into each other’s souls.

She reached across the table and gently grasped his hand. Then in her reply, she smiled at him. “A man I want to meet.” She gently squeezed his hand as his heart melted. “So,” she cocked her head gently as her smile intensified, “why are you here tonight?”

“Actually,” he pointed at the room. “My acquaintance, Damon, whom you just saw leaving, followed me. He has a keen eye for a black man. He spotted you watching us, and so he walked away to leave us here. I came here to unwind from work, maybe see if I could spice up my personal life.”

“Well,” she glanced down at his book and PDA. “I can see you haven’t left work, but I think you could spice your life up.” Her grip tightened on his hand as he began to lean forward.

Damon found that same woman at the opposite end of the bar as she puffed on her cigarette. She took an inhale then puffed out a smoke ring or two. “Sorry for the mixed words before, woman,” he told her trying to buy her sympathy. He relaxed his neck as he sat promptly swiveling to glimpse her, while she continued to ignore him. “I want to buy you all a drink woman. What’ll ya all have?” he asked in a somewhat forceful tone that was rapidly changing to one of hostility. He wasn’t used to being said no to, and this woman was becoming his challenge, or so he thought.

She inhaled once more, then turned and blew a smoke ring in his face. “Honey,” she replied. “I’ll have a leave me alone.” She blew another smoke ring in his face.

“Say what?” he erupted. He stood up, hand out. “This man offers you a drink, and you, you want me to leave you alone. What’s all wrong wit you woman?” He sat back down on the stool and swiveled to his right, and there sitting on the stool to his right was a single white woman in a black dress. It was Kerry Tanner as she sipped her drink to its finale. He could see her dawn a small glimmer of a smile at his antic as she had been listening. Damon turned fully to glimpse her, then dawned a great big smile and poured on the charm. “My name’s Damon. Can I buy you another drink?”

The black woman got up on the other side of him, glancing down at the two of them at the bar, while the Bartender threw a towel on the sink and rolled his eyes in the background. “Honey, this man’s a hustler. I’d watch yo’ ass with him.” Then she turned and with a deepened scowl of displeasure mixed with contemptuous jealousy, walked away in a huff through the crowd and smoke.

They both ignored that woman as Kerry acted a bit coy and hard to get, but still smiling a bit more at the antics that had just taken place. It was all new for her to be this admired and yet Damon knew he had her on the line and it was a matter of time before he would start reeling her in. “C’mon woman, how’s about a drink on me?”

She cracked and swiveled to glance up into his dark eyes and soul. Then her smile deepened, as she became excited. “Yes…I’d like another drink—a beer.”

Damon snapped his fingers as the Bartender approached. “Yes?” he sighed.

“A beer for the lady,” Damon replied. “And not that cheap shit either, but the good stuff.” Kerry smirked at the antics that Damon propagated on her behalf. She had never been this well admired or had this much attention paid to her by a man, and here Damon was, a charming American who was paying her this homage.

Wesley reclined in the soft leather booth while Lana told him her story, the good times and the not so good times. He was analyzing her every emotion, reading her posture like a book, and studying her facial features, peering into her soft blue eyes, searching her soul. “The last time was two weeks ago,” she started to tear up. “He hit me, beat me up.”

“That’s horrible,” Wesley responded, leaning forward on the table. “No man should ever hurt a lady.”

“That’s why I’m here with my friend tonight,” she continued as they both turned to view Kerry and Damon hitting it off at the bar.

“Is that brunette girl, your friend?” Wesley asked.

“It looks like your buddy already met her, how interesting,” Lana told him, turning to gaze back into Wesley’s soft eyes. “So,” she cracked a smile, just a slight crack at first, but it brightened into a great big smile as she asked. “What do you do for a living?”

“Well,” he paused a moment, leaning forward a little more. “I’m an up and coming oil company executive at an Oildale Company. In fact, I have a business meeting in Dallas in a couple of days.”

“Something’s bothering you,” she asked softly grasping his hand across the table.

Wesley paused a moment. She was a sharp one and she could almost read him too. His cheerful expression all but disappeared into one of near depression. "It’s my mother,” he responded.

Lana’s smile also disappeared. “What about your mom?”

He took a deep breath, swallowing a sad gulp of air. “She’s not doing well,” he replied. For the moment it appeared both torturous and a relief, but one filled with great sadness.

Her grip on his hand tightened even more. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

He could read the sadness that overcame her; she genuinely cared in her heart. He was not alone in his suffering over this slow tragic loss of a family member. “She wanted me to go out and find a woman tonight. A soul mate to carry my life forward. She said that time was passing me by, and that time is short and to make the most of it.” He let go her hand and sat back, as did Lana.

“I see,” she replied. “There’s nothing they can do to save her?”

“No. I already sent her to UCLA down South. She’s on her last few weeks on this planet.” Wesley glanced up at the ceiling, his eyes welling up a bit. “I think she’s suffering a great deal, but don’t let on to me.” He again peered into Lana’s eyes. “What about your folks?”

“My mother lives in town, she‘s divorced. I have my own apartment.”

He leaned forward again and grabbed the tips of her fingers gently lifting them. “Might I smell your hands?” he asked.

“Okay,” she broke a small girlish smirk.

“Umm, umm, good.”

“You make me sound like a Campbell’s soup commercial,” she responded as she pulled her hands back from his.

“No, I just meant that you smell and look exquisite, a radiant golden glow in a dark sea.” He was now pouring on the charm, but unlike Damon’s charms, Wesley’s was genuine. He was speaking from his heart and soul as their eyes once again locked upon one another. “I think a lady as elegant and beautiful as you should have much more in life than what you have now.”

Lana was speechless; the words had taken her by surprise as she beamed at his comments. She was almost choked up for words as she cleared her throat a moment. “I’m flattered,” she got the words out, as her eyes welled up in tears. It was a sentimental moment that she had not been expecting. Was he just another black man hitting on a white woman? No, there was something very special about Wesley that went far deeper as she wiped a tear from her eye. “No man has ever talked to me like that,” she continued.

He tightened his grip on her hands in an ever so gentle manner. “One just has,” he smiled, turning his attention toward the bar and Kerry. “Does your friend have a ride home?”

“Yes…yes she does,” Lana replied. “Why do you ask?”

“Because…”

“Because why?” she became alarmed.

“Because this place isn’t my style. It’s too overcrowded here. What about you?” It was a moment of truth, a moment of pause and a moment of change, big change that was about to take place perhaps in two lives. Things would either go one way or another, but never both ways and for both people. The moment passed ever so slowly as he looked into her soul, searching through those baby blue eyes and golden hair.

Steve swung a roundhouse punch that sent her to the ground as blood seeped from her swollen lip. Her right eye was a shiner. “You fucking bitch, you live to please me,” he yelled at her, while she lay on the ground. It was a thought in Lana’s head, a horrible thought compared to what she had before her. The difference between a life and a hell hole relationship that could end in the relinquishment of her very existence.

Then the answer came. She displayed a great big bright smile of compassion upon her face and that signaled the words he was about to hear. “I had the same feeling myself. Where did you want to go?”

“My place,” he smiled. “I’ll leave a copy of the address with your friend. Are you comfortable with that? We can talk together there.”

She paused a moment. There was a moment of hesitation in her eyes, her mind, as she thought back while lying on the ground. She rolled over and there was Steve standing above her. “I own you bitch, do ya hear me? I own you and you’ll never be with anyone.”

“I’m sorry,” Wesley told her in a polite tone of voice. “I’m making you uncomfortable.” He started to get up from the booth when she held his hands in place.

“No —you’re not,” she told him. “I’d like to talk with you more. Is it far from here?”

“The other side of town.”

“Okay, let’s go.” She turned to view Kerry and Damon who by now were engaged in another conversation that had blossomed. “I think we should introduce our friends to each other.”

“Yes,” he smiled as he helped her from the booth. “Yes, that would be a good step I suppose.” He helped her up from her seat and escorted her across the room to the bar where Damon was the life of the place, happy, loud, boisterous and somewhat drunk. He was a big guy, and he had drawn the attention of others, as he rambled on and on with Kerry who was herself becoming drunk.

“And that’s when I looked in yo eyes,” Damon blurted out as she patted him on the side. He took another sip and continued, oblivious to the others approaching them, and said “–baby, you was born to be with a black man, have the black experience. Know what I mean?”

She set her drink down on the bar, laughing at him as he placed his hand on her knee, stroking it gently. “I don’t know about this.” She took another sip and set it down. “It’s all so new to me.”

“Do you know what I have down below?” Damon asked.

“No, what do you have, a million dollars?” she asked.

“I got nine inches of the biggest equipment you ever laid eyes on,” he replied.

Her jaw practically dropped, as she was absolutely flabbergasted at the comments. She stood up, almost half-falling to the floor as he helped her stand. Then she was about to leave him when Lana and Wesley approached. Lana tossed her the keys to their ride. “I’m taking off. I’ll get the truck tomorrow.”

Damon turned to Lana. “You Goldilocks?”

Wesley could see he was buzzed. “There is Damon,” he told her rolling his eyes.

“This is my friend Kerry;” she introduced Wesley, who smiled kindly at her. She handed a napkin to Kerry. “I’ll be at this address and number if you need me. Call me here later on.”

Kerry sipped more beer, and then turned to Lana. “Okay I will,” she replied placing the napkin in her purse. “I guess we all know each other,” she shrugged.

Wesley was trying to assess their situation in his analytical mind as he studied both Damon and Kerry. Something inside him told him to stop these two from going together, and he was searching for the words when Lana elbowed him. “They make a cute couple.” It distracted him from his trend of thought and he smiled at the two of them politely.

Wesley turned to Damon. “Damon, take good care of her. We’ll catch you both later.” Wesley slapped hands with Damon, then waived to Kerry and turned with Lana to exit the nightclub and bar.

 

Fred sat at the table, mumbling to himself as the moments lagged on and on and on. It seemed forever to drag on as he sat by himself thinking of Kerry in the back of his mind, wondering where she was, what she was doing, what was happening with her. It was eating him up inside, prodding a broken heart full of pain and worry, and worst of all is that it happened over a trivial issue that got nasty for the dumbest of reasons.

“Why Kerry, why,” he beat on himself aloud, sinking further into that chair as it ate away at him. He glanced up at the window. “We could have worked things out.” His eyes welled up with tears. “Don’t you know how much I love you?” Then his broken heart became angry as he slammed his fist down. “Dammed, this isn’t right.” He turned and stood up.

He walked over to the phone and dialed her phone number. However it wasn’t meant to be as the phone rang, and rang, and rang and…. After several moments he realized she wasn’t home, and he hung up the phone.

He turned to his bedroom and pranced in there in a mad dash to grab the car keys. His mind was thinking and now he was on the move. He realized he had to get her back; because without her, life just wasn’t the same. He took the keys and ran to the front door, pausing one last moment to think aloud.

“The party…where’s that party at?” He broke a big grin realizing where it was being held, he remembered.

 

Meanwhile at Wesley’s home, his BMW pulled up in the driveway, as he clicked the automatic garage door opener on his three-door garage at his estate. He drove in and parked the car. He quickly exited the car and ran around the back of the car, opening her door like a gentleman. It was a warm night outside and the two of them walked out of the garage into the darkness under starlit skies, while crickets chirped in the background under a warm, gentle breeze.

They were face to face and a shooting star darted overhead, as if nodding its approval of them as a couple.

She glanced into his brown eyes with her baby blues as the two of them peered through each other’s souls, a passionate moment that kept building and building as though a lifetime had meant them to be together. It was just right —the chemistry, the atmosphere, the time, the two of them.

There was a lot more then just the casual passing between two people. It was meant to be a strong passion between two people that had been there from the very start and now they had found each other, as each one forced themselves closer to the other in a moment that embraced a deep passionate kiss.

Their arms held each other tight as their lips embraced and their tongues intertwined their exchange of hot juices from one to another. It was a moment that had been destined to become an eternity of love and romance and now it had arrived, and neither wanted it to end.

For the very first time, Lana had found someone with a great heart, someone with a gentle soul who really had feelings for her.

The chemistry was here, the romance was theirs and the moment was something that marked an eternity of grand love, the likes of which the world had not witnessed for many years. For the world was theirs, the moment of ecstasy like no other that either of them had ever suspected would be there, and yet it was. Their kiss slowly dissolved as both were eye to eye.

Lana took a step back glancing over his shoulder at the large estate in Bakersfield. She was amazed at the size of the home and the expanse of land Wesley owned.

Her eyes rolled over the large home from one end to the other, and then she turned to his brown eyes. “You have such a large home for a single man. It almost seems empty.”

He took her hand and turned to stare at the estate. Clicking his remote button, the garage door came down as he walked her to the front door under the starlit evening. “Come, I’ll show you the inside. It has been an empty place for a very long time.” The two of them like little kids, hand in hand, made their way to the front door and he grasped a key, opening it for her.

She paused him a moment again gazing into his deep brown eyes. “Was there a misses in your life?” she wondered.

He stopped and took a deep breath; however Wesley was never one to lie. Everything was above board with him, honest and with the utmost integrity one could want in a person. “Yes,” he replied in a moment that caused her eyes to drop for a second. “We had a falling out sometime ago. She had not been ready for a relationship and then I had found out she wasn’t after a man. She wanted a wife, so she moved to Los Angeles with a woman, and got a job there. It had been just a friendship, nothing more. My secretary is somewhat like her, she is looking for a woman too.”

Lana grew an embarrassed womanly smile, “I see. So your secretary is a lesbian,” she smiled for a moment and a subtle smile.

“Yes,” Wesley grinned “and a sweet lady at that!”

He opened the door as they both entered the premises and he turned the lights on inside the home. She cautiously walked into the elegant estate, entering through the foyer under a magnificent chandelier. Its brilliance bespoke of a wealth of beauty as she approached a staircase and banister made of the best American woods any home could ever have been built with. It glimmered of a fine oak finish that would make any American bent on varnish, proud of their surroundings.

Wesley passed her, pointing to the left. “The wet bar and den are over there.” Then he turned and pointed to the right. “Living room and bathrooms are over that way, and finally he turned past the staircase and pointed at an open area. The Pantry and Dining rooms are back down that large corridor.”

“I’m impressed,” she replied as he went and helped her get her jacket off, exposing her gorgeous figure for such a beautiful woman as she was.

He took her jacket and opened a door beneath the stairs and there was a large walk-in closet with a lot of open space. He took a wooden hanger and put her jacket on it, taking meticulous care to hang it neatly in the closet. Then he came out and took her hand. He led her to the den, where she stood a moment, glancing at a large projection screen television and full stereo system.

Wesley left her by the sofa made of plush, soft leather and she sat down while he grabbed a remote at a counter and activated the fireplace. The flames grew to a nice size behind the screen and the mood became even more romantic.

He went to the bar and poured her a drink and himself one as well, into two sparkling crystal glasses he took from a wall rack. They were very expensive and of the highest American quality one could produce.

She laid back into the leather as it hugged her, and she closed her eyes, listening to the crackling flames while the leather enveloped her in a life of luxury she could only dream of.

Wesley, being a great gentleman, brought her the drink as he handed it to her, waking her from her moment of ecstasy. Then he took his drink and set it upon a side table that was next to her.

“Comfortable?” he smiled in a soft grin. He grasped a remote and upped the flames in the fireplace. The moment was turning more romantic with each passing moment.

“Very,” she smiled as she drew closer to him. “Say,” she added, gently pushing him away in an ever so slight fashion, almost teasing his will. “You’re not intending to jump my bones?”

Wesley sat back a little more, and then put both hands up in the air as if he had been caught. “No, ma’am, I’m a gentleman,” he replied. “But I do give a very good foot massage and back rub.” He had a persistent and kind smile that melted her slowly as that smile deepened.

There was a serious moment of chemistry that was building between the two of them, as though the rest of the world be damned, that they had found each other, even though circumstances had stacked the deck against their becoming something more. Yet in all of its spite, they had found each other and were shunning the evil powers that be.

She drew closer to him as he reclined back in the sofa. Then she got right in his face, her moist lips almost within range of his. “I like that,” she told him in a sensuous voice. She drew another inch closer to his face. “It’s been a hard couple of months for me.”

“This Steve guy, you haven’t broken it off?” he asked, spoiling the moment as she backed away from Wesley; leaving him some breathing room.

“Yes I have.”

A moment passed as the two of them just stared at each other. “Has he broken it off with you?”

“When he beat me, I took that as a yes,” she told him, her smile all but disappearing at the memories.

 

She thought back, as Steve took a swing at her face, sending her to the ground with a shiner. “Bitch,” Steve roared as he helped her up, only to smack her down again, where she lie on the ground at his feet; a shiner brooding upon her left eye and a flood of tears and pain all mixed together, in helpless moments of innocence and horror at her plight.

 

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Lana continued telling Wesley. “I don’t want him in my life. I want a man who is a gentleman.” He could see the sadness within her heavy heart as she gazed up into his eyes. “It’s time for a change in my life. You can respect that, can’t you?”

He stared into her baby blue eyes, feeling every moment she had shared. Then he drew a bit closer to her. “Not only can I, but I will,” he replied.

 

Fred was in the nightclub searching for Kerry. He walked among fellow patrons through the smoke filled place and glanced around until his eye caught somebody. He was a big muscular black man and he was seated with Kerry in the far corner of the room.

Fred took a deep breath, got his nerve up, and then walked over toward the booth where they were seated.

A bar girl suddenly got in front of him and turned to him. She was obviously very intoxicated and all giggles in her red hair and dress that exposed heavy white cleavage. “Care to buy me a drink?” she asked him.

“No,” he replied, “get out of my way.” He rudely pushed her aside and continued his trek to the table and booth. He got to the booth and leaned over the table with both hands staring her eye to eye. He could see her astonishment, as she had not been expecting this. “Kerry, how could you?” he asked.

His eyes shifted to Damon, who was locked right on Fred and not smiling at all. The tension was building to a boil-over, and if any moment and place in time had been ripe for it, this was the entire shebang.

Damon kept his stare right on Fred. “Hey honey, you know this cat?”

“She’s my girl,” Fred interjected in anger. His tone and his posturing all showed a physical confrontation was building between both men.

“I’m not your girl,” she taunted in a harsh reply as she scooted closer to Damon. “I never was your girl, but rather, a free woman. Free to make the decisions in my life that affects me.”

Fred’s expression broke down to one of deep despair as her words had struck at his heart and the very core of his injured soul and pride. “But I love you,” he begged of her affection, which wasn’t there for him anymore.

Things had changed greatly in a short time and now he began to realize that this wasn’t what he had expected. Here it was before him and now there was a third party who stood from the booth and placed his hands across the table staring Fred in the eyes, with a dark hatred that emanated throughout the room of people.

“Hey chump,” Damon told Fred who stared from side to side as if he wasn’t sure it was him. “Hey you white mutha fucka. Get yo white ass outta here, she’s my woman now.”

Fred stared back in his eyes and pushed himself closer to Damon across the table. “No,” he replied aloud in a tense moment of passion. “She’s my woman.” Fred then moved around the booth and grabbed her arm.

Kerry pulled away from him as he tried again. “Damon, stop him,” she screamed and Damon slid by his end of the booth and around towards Fred as a big black man who was a bouncer grabbed Fred’s shoulders pulling him back from what could have gotten a lot worse.

“You is the bouncer?” Damon asked, “–bounce his white ass right outta here.”

The Bouncer turned an eye to Fred. “You’re causing problems here; I would suggest you leave on your own.”

“Not without her," he replied, trying to sidestep the bouncer. However, the bouncer stepped between the two of them while Damon took a step out of everyone’s way.

“Get him away from me,” Kerry shouted grabbing onto Damon for safety. The sight of the two of them and the whole situation with her words caused Fred’s jaw to drop for a moment of disbelief.

For that very second of the undeniable truth that he had lost someone that had been the love of his life, and everything leading up to the moment.

His sudden disbelief turned to rage as he took a hard right swing at the Bouncer’s face, which was intercepted by the Bouncer’s hand.

The Bouncer squeezed his fist hard. “That was a big mistake,” he grinned, as he returned the punch to Fred’s nose, causing blood to spurt from it while the crowd watched the scene unraveling.

Kerry smiled as Fred hit the floor and she clapped with a grin. Fred struggled to pick himself up off the floor. Damon and Kerry’s laughing and ridicule of his plight only hastened his defeat as a second bouncer, a big white muscle man joined the first bouncer grabbing Fred by each arm as he kicked and struggled.

“Get the fuck off me,” he kicked. “Take your hands off me, leave me the fuck alone,” he hollered as they dragged him by the arms and one leg to the doors of the club and threw him out onto the red entry carpet, in front of several other patrons.

“Don’t come back here,” the Black Bouncer warned him.

“Fucken assholes…doesn’t she know the mistake she’s making?” he questioned as he started picking himself up off the red carpet.

His nose indeed was bleeding even more from the bruise and his left cheek had a burgeoning shiner developing upon it, which foretold of the moment that he helped create for himself.

“That’s not your concern anymore,” the Bouncer told Fred. “Leave this place,” he warned with his waiving finger, as Fred stood to face him. “Scat” the bouncer stomped his foot and Fred took a step back, wiping the blood from his nose.

“One day I’ll be back for your big ass,” Fred threatened as he retreated towards his car in the lot.

Inside the club, the crowd had gotten back to their routines without any further thought of the night action they had all witnessed. The smoke filled the atmosphere, music was playing and delightful conversations were developing throughout the entire room.

Damon and Kerry were seated back in their booth as he chuckled at the whole event. Kerry turned to him and hugged him tight. She ran her right hand over Damon’s hair then said, “I hope I never see that creep again.”

“Don’t worry baby. You is about to receive the black experience. I plan to give you far more than that piece of garbage. Ever have sex with a black man before?” Damon and Kerry both smiled at each other.

“No I haven’t,” she replied.

“I can give you more pleasure then you ever imagined. Once you go black, you never go back.”

“Do you currently have someone else in your life?” she asked as she stroked his head of hair once more.

“Don’t be a fool woman,” he replied. “You is my only woman. C’mon, let me get you outta here before that white ass mutha fucka returns.” He slid out of the booth, taking her hand.

Fred was driving home in his car, his nose swollen and his depression and anger mixed with a hopeless loss. He was a very confused man, filled with a growing depression of rage within his very soul.

“I give her everything and she goes and hooks up with another man. She just couldn’t wait, to talk things out,” he hammered the top of the steering wheel with his right fist. “What did I ever do to deserve this kind of humility, God?” he asked as tears began to run down his cheeks. “What…will you tell me God, what I did?”

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel of the car. “Okay, she’s with another man. How do I get her back? Should I play hard to get?” He took a moment to ponder the thought. “No, she already dumped me. Should I catch him alone and kick his ass? No, he probably has a gun and or friends, maybe gang-bangers. Okay Fred, you have to back off now, get your head clear,” he told himself aloud as his car continued down the road.