Chapter Five
Kemara
When I got home from work, I threw my purse down on the plush sofa and checked my cell to see if I had a missing call. In the ten minutes it took me to drive home from work, no one had called me. I stretched and headed into the bedroom. Pulling off my dress suit and slipping into a nightgown felt great. I was so wound up. I needed to relax. I checked my phone again, noting only five minutes had passed since I last looked. What was wrong with me? I was like a girl in high school. I was far too old to be carrying on like this. If he called, he called, if he didn't, he didn't and that was the end of it.
To distract myself, I grabbed a book and curled up on the couch. I couldn't make it a sentence before my mind started to wander. He reminded me of a pro wrestler with memorable, gorgeous eyes and a strong jawline that gave way to a sexy grin. What did he do for a living? Judging from his soiled clothes, good-looking tan and the bulge of his biceps, he probably worked outside. Something with a lot of heavy lifting.
I bit my bottom lip and my legs crossed as I thought about him. What if he wasn't interested? What if he just wanted to see if he could get my number? I was a black girl, and he did hang out with some questionable white supremacy looking characters at a gas stop straight out of a 1960s movie about Alabama segregation.
I shook my head and tried to focus on my novel. Too many thoughts. I was always overthinking, and this was such a silly thing to worry about. I was several pages into the book before I realized I'd picked up a romance novel. I sighed as I read about a maiden with a heaving bosom in the hands of a pirate and tried not to picture Channing and me in those roles.
When the phone started to buzz, I leapt up off the couch. So determined to block the possibility of a call from my thoughts, I wasn't ready when it happened.
I took a deep breath and cleared my throat before answering, "Hello."
"Hey Kemara, it's me Channing." His voice was smooth and deep like liquid sex.
"Ya’ don't say."
He chuckled, and it was melodic. "So, what have you been up to tonight?"
"Not much, just reading. What about you?"
"Just thinking about you." He said it so sweet and casually, I couldn't help but blush.
"So, what were you thinking about me doing?" I regretted the question the moment it slipped past my lips. My tone didn't help either. My voice was high and flirty.
I opened the perfect seg-way into phone sex, when that wasn't what I meant to do at all. Even though the two times I’d been in his presence I wanted to lick him, I didn't want to turn our relationship sexual from the start. I wanted to give him a chance to get to know me, and I wanted to get to know him. That’s if we even took a chance at all.
"I was imagining you..." he left a long and taunting pause in the middle of his sentence, "having dinner with me this weekend."
I exhaled in relief. "Dinner? This weekend? Well, I'm busy this Sunday," I planned to go home and have dinner with my parents, "but I'm free Saturday."
"Saturday is good for me. Just text me your address."
With a date scheduled with this yummy man, I would be a wreck for the rest of the week. Not to mention, I needed to go shopping. I had no idea what I'd wear, especially since I didn't know where he was taking me. I didn't want to get too dressed up and seem high maintenance, but if I dressed down and he took me somewhere nice...see, the panic was already setting in.
"Kemara?"
Oh yeah, when people are talking to me on the phone, the sane thing to do is respond back. "Sorry, I'm still here."
"So, what area are you in? It must not be near here since I've only run into you those two times."
"Yeah, I only go to Lafayette to visit a friend from high school. We usually have lunch together a couple of times a month. I'm actually from--" The doorbell rang. "Hold on a minute, someone is at the door."
"I'll be waiting with bated breath."
What kind of idiot would be coming over this late? One of my biggest pet peeves was people showing up at my place unannounced. Whoever it was would be getting chewed out. I hit hold on my cell, so Channing wouldn't get a glimpse of my anger and think I was like that all the time.
My battle-resolve drained from me when I opened the door to find my sister on the stoop, her eyes red and puffy from crying.
I unmuted the phone. "I'm sorry Channing, I need to go. Family emergency." I didn't even hear his reply before hanging up. I rushed to my sister's side. "Tameka, are you okay? What happened?"
She sniffled. "The same thing that always happens. Rodney's dumb ass. Can I come in?"
I stepped back and let her in. "Of course. What did he do?" My voice got low. "Did that man lay his hands on you?" If he touched one hair on my baby sister's head, his life was forfeit. I didn't care if they threw me in prison, it'd be time well-served.
She shook her head wiping her nose on the back of her hand. "I told you, he'd never do that."
"So, why are you crying so hard?"
"We got into a huge fight in front of the kids. They were crying, begging to stay at the house, but he wouldn't let them. Since it's his weekend, I just had to stand there and watch him drive off with my babies as they cried. It broke my heart. Then, I was stuck in that big, empty house, feeling like crap, so I came over here."
I gestured for her to take a seat on the couch. "Do you want some tea?"
She nodded as she sat down on the couch, folding herself up into a little ball. When she divorced her husband, the custody battle was brutal. Even though the two of them couldn't agree on anything, the judge gave them joint custody, and if either of them refused to hand over the kids for any reason when it was the other parent's turn, they'd be arrested.
I never wanted to find myself in the nightmare my sister was in. It was so strange. Only six years earlier, I was at their wedding and they seemed so in love. Now, they hated each other just as deeply as they loved each other back then.
I handed her a cup of earl grey with extra sugar, just the way she liked it and took a seat on the couch next to her. "What did you two fight about?"
"I bought Kevin a baby doll. He kept stealing his sister's dolls and they were fighting over it all the time, so I got him one of his own, so he'd leave hers alone. He wanted to take it with him over to Rodney's. So, we ended up in this big fight. Rodney feels like I'm trying to make our son gay. I never encouraged him to play with dolls, but if he wants one, I don't see the issue. He's only five."
I didn't see the issue either. My nephew liked trucks and football too. Making such a big deal over one doll was probably traumatizing him. "Your ex is a damn fool."
"I know, but I just don't want to think about it anymore. Let's talk about something else. Like who is Channing?"
I swallowed. "What?"
"I heard you talking to him in that voice five octaves higher than your normal voice. Be careful, these black men act like fools nowadays."
I took another sip of my tea. "He's not black."
My sister's demeanor changed from playful to annoyed. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Please tell me, you are not fucking around with no white man."
I didn't know what to say. "You just said black men act like fools."
"Yeah, they do. But they’re our fools. When a white man dates a black woman you don’t know if it’s real or if he just wants to knock boots. You ain't got time for that. You're getting older, and you need to be looking for a serious relationship, a man that will marry you."
"You don't know anything about him other than his name. How can you say what he will and won't do?"
"Because I know men and I'm telling you, white men just use us. You’re too smart and too pretty to allow yourself to be used, Kemara. Didn’t Mama teach you anything!"
"Don’t go there with me, Tameka. What do you know about men? You're already divorced and your ex makes you miserable!"
Her neck snapped back as if I'd slapped her across the face. I would have given anything to take back my words. Her tone was low and flat, "We fight so much because we both love our kids. If that white man gives two shits about any black babies he makes with you, then count yourself damn lucky." I knew she was only spewing bitterness because of the sad state of her own marriage and divorce.
She sat her coffee cup on the table and got up off the couch.
"Where are you going?"
"Home," was all she said before walking out the front door, leaving me in unshakable doubt.
I sat there shaking my head. Tameka tended to get all dramatic when someone tried to point out her unperfect life to her, and yet she was never one to shy away from telling you like it was in your life. Like in this case with Channing. She wanted to put him down, knowing full well her own relationship, or lack of one, was in shambles. I wasn’t going to allow her the satisfaction of spoiling my mood. From what I knew, Channing was a good man and there was nothing Tameka could say to me that would leave me doubting that. I was still excited about our upcoming date.