Twenty-One
When he went to get another beer, I had to do a panty check because the image of him spanking me? Yeah, that got me wet. We’d been practically living together the last few weeks and while I loved it, I needed to know where this was going. Playing house was okay for a while, but if he didn’t see a future, I had to prepare myself because I was falling deeper in love every day we spent together.
I knew from seeing him with Sonya that he’s fucked half the club girls here. But he said that since I came, there hadn’t been any other girls in his bed. He might not be looking but those bitches were definitely checking him out. None of them would confront me directly. I liked a couple of them a lot. We could talk music and fashion, they gave me makeup tips and I showed them the latest braid styles. But that one in particular, Sonya…
Bitch didn’t even crack the surface of what she was. She tried to insinuate that something was going on with her and Fighter. She wasn’t going to get in my head and screw with my peace of mind. He wasn’t a liar, so I believed him when he said they hadn’t hooked up since I came to the club. The other girls told me to ignore her; she was just jealous and she liked to stir the pot.
I saw him lounging against the bar. His muscular arms flexed when he lifted the beer to his lips, and when he leaned in to listen to what Breech was saying, his jeans pulled taut across his tight ass. Putting my chin in my hands, I sighed; his hair needed a trim and the stubble on his face only added to his masculinity. He was a guy’s guy but he I loved the way he treated me as his woman, like something rare and special… He didn’t sugarcoat anything, he was blunt but fair.
I made my way over to him. He casually dropped an arm across my shoulders but kept his focus on Breech. Patting his stomach, I slipped out from under his arm and walked over to the pool table where Danko and Jiji were arguing.
“Hey, Jiji, what are you bitching about now?”
“Danko says I’m holding the stick wrong but I don’t feel comfortable the way he’s showing me. I can’t seem to get any power behind it that way.”
“Show me.”
She demonstrated, showing me how her fingers were wrapped over the stick like she was holding a cigarette.
Danko said, “How ‘bout you try a V-bridge by resting your thumb against your index finger, then put the heel of your hand on the table.”
He got behind Jiji and bent over her back to show her how to hold the cue and position her hand on the table.
From behind Danko, I heard, “What the ever-loving fuck?” Then, Breech reached over and ripped him away from Jiji.
Danko stumbled back but came up swearing. “What the fuck, Breech?” Danko yelled, getting in his face. “I was just showing her a different way to hold the cue, man, that’s all.”
“Riding her ass while doing it too, Danko,” Breech growled, going nose-to-nose with him.
Jiji looked stricken, like she was going to cry.
Danko’s face turned dark. “Fuck you, man, you’re not her father.” Breech’s fist would have hit Danko’s face if Fighter hadn’t caught his arm before he could connect.
“God fucking damn it, you gonna fight, then take this shit outside,” Fighter shouted. “We got women in here! Chill out, man.” It looked like Breech relaxed, and Fighter released him.
Breech pulled a pack of smokes from his cut and lit one up. “Sorry, Danko, That wasn’t cool,” he said, holding out his hand.
Danko took it and they did that man hug thing, slapping each other on the back. Breech glanced at Jiji, shook his head, then walked out of the clubhouse.
Jiji looked at Jameson, who was scowling at her. “I warned you, Jiji,” he said.
“I didn’t do anything! I wasn’t teasing either of them, I just wanted to learn how to play pool,” she yelled, defending herself.
“Jameson, it really was a PG-rated encounter. I was standing right here,” I said. “Something is stuck in Breech’s craw, and it’s not from anything Jiji did. But if I’d walked up on them, it could have looked like Danko was making a play.”
“Fuck, I’ll go talk to him,” Jameson said.
Dukes spoke up from the bar. “Leave it, man, I got this,” he said. Kissing Lani, he pushed away from the bar, following Breech’s path out the door.
Jiji ran down the hallway, brushing tears off her face.
“Shit.” I followed her into the ladies’ room.
She was splashing water on her face when I got there. “I wasn’t teasing him, Tish.”
“I know, Jiji, this isn’t on you. Breech has gotta man up or get over it.”
“Ya think?” she deadpanned.
“Holy shit, but that was hot, girl,” I said, fanning my face and grinning.
“No, it wasn’t, it was embarrassing!” she shrieked.
“Oh, stop, since when don’t you like two guys going at it over you?” I asked.
“Since Jameson was pissed and blamed me,” she said.
“Yeah, well, that sucked, and I told him it wasn’t your fault.”
“We’ve had this discussion before, Tish; he’s always going to see me as his baby sister, not a woman. I’ll be 80, stooped over with a walker, and he’ll still think I’m a virgin,” she blurted out.
“Oh my God, that’s too funny!” I started laughing, holding my side when I couldn’t stop.
She reluctantly smiled. “Cut that shit out, it’s not funny,” she said.
“If Jameson only knew about Livell James, he’d have cut that guy’s dick off and shoved it down his throat.”
“Tish, don’t you fuckin’ dare tell him about Livell.”
“Aww, come on, Jiji, he knows you’re not a virgin.”
“No he doesn’t, Tish, he can’t look at me as a sexual being; he isn’t wired that way. Honestly, he thinks I don’t know what a dick is. Or shouldn’t know. Meanwhile, he’s been fucking since he was 15 and got caught in his bedroom with Christine Radford. Shit, I can still hear Mom screaming at him. Don’t you dare bring that girl into my house! You wanna have sex, go rent a room! And don’t forget a goddamn condom, Jameson.
“God, he was mortified, couldn’t get out of the house fast enough, stuffing Christine into her clothes as they were running out the door.” She smiled at the memory, then her face fell, remembering her mom was gone.
I rubbed her back. “It’s good to remember her, Jiji. She loved you both so much. Jameson will come around; he just needs some time.”
She threw her arms around my neck. “I love you, Tish! Thanks for always having my back.”
“I love you too, Jiji,” I said, squeezing her back.
“SHIT,” she said, extending the word on a wail. “Look at my face. I hate crying, it makes me red and that’s not a good color on me,” she joked. She splashed some water on her face, then lifted her dripping wet head and looked in the mirror. “Thank God I wore waterproof mascara; otherwise I’d look like a raccoon.”
“Suck it up, buttercup; I wanna go be with my man!”
She wrinkled her nose. “What did I tell you about TMI with my bro, Tish!”
Laughing, I left her in the bathroom and went in search of Jameson.