Dating Games Page 10

  “It was you I really wanted to talk to,” he finally said.

  Right, Henny thought. What bullshit. He was just saying that so he could bed both me and my sister. But she wasn’t like that, even though she felt a little better after hearing this.

  “Then why—,” Henny began to ask, but stopped herself.

  The man paused, as if waiting for her to say more. But when she didn’t, the man said, “Why what?”

  “Nothing.”

  The man looked around the room, up at the ceiling, as if something there was grabbing his attention, then looked back at Hennesey. “I just came in here because I was really feeling down about something, something to do with my parents.”

  Don’t know why he’s telling me that, Henny thought to herself, but felt enough concern to ask, “They’re all right, aren’t they?”

  “Yeah, they’re fine. But I used to spend a lot of time in the library where I used to live. I would go there when I felt down, or just to get away, and that’s why I came this time. But when I saw you, thought you were … you know … beautiful. That’s why I kept staring at you. It’s not because I’m crazy or nothing. I know you was thinkin’ that, wasn’t you?” he asked.

  “Of course, not,” Henny smiled.

  “Of course, you was.” He smiled too. “Thing was, I didn’t have the nerve to approach you, and when I kept lookin’ at you, you didn’t seem like you was interested so—”

  “—so you decide to get with my sister,” Henny finished.

  “I mean, she’s cute too, but different from you.”

  “How, different?” Henny asked, really intrigued to know this man’s take.

  “Not pure like you. Not true like you.”

  Henny didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t exactly poetry, not a lyric from a Vandross song, but it had to have been the most beautiful, most sincere-sounding thing anyone had ever said to her. She couldn’t speak after that. Her breath just simply seemed to disappear.

  “So what if I tear this up?” he said, holding up what had to be the piece of paper with her sister’s cell phone number on it. “And tell your sister that I want to talk to you instead?”

  Henny wanted that, wanted to tell him that he had a deal. Call her now, hell you can use the library’s phone, just dial 9 and then the number, she thought, but said, “Don’t do that. If it was me you really wanted to talk to, you would’ve gotten up from behind that book you were hiding in and walked up here and spoken to me. That’s the man’s responsibility, isn’t it?”

  He smiled. “And that’s what I’m talking about. There’s the difference. You waiting for me to do the man thing, and your sister stepping up on me like she the man and damn near taking my phone number from me. And you know that’s what she did, right. She talked it out of me.”

  “Whatever, man. Lying to me already, and I don’t even know your name.”

  “It’s not important. Tell me this, though. What if it don’t work out with me and your sister? What then?”

  “You don’t have to worry about that,” Henny said. “I have never heard any of her men say it hasn’t worked out with her. Haven’t heard any of my men, for that matter, say that. So you should be fine.”

  “I’ll be fine when you decide to give me a play.”

  She tried to hide her smile, but she couldn’t help it, and even though she felt her cheeks warming, she hoped the blush didn’t show. “Whatever,” she said coolly, acting as though none of his words affected her.

  He stood there staring at her, watching her smile, ’til it faded from her face.

  “I’m serious, Henny,” and she looked surprised at hearing him speak her name. “Your sister told me,” he said, reading the questioning expression. “I’m supposed to go out with your sister tonight, but you say don’t, and I’ll stay at home.”

  He looked sincere, Henny thought, but it wasn’t her place to sabotage any of Ally’s business, even though the girl had done it to her a zillion times.

  “No, do your thing. You made plans with my sister. You should keep them.”

  “All right then,” he said, looking disappointed. “I hope you don’t mind if I keep coming up here, though. I like the books. And I promise I won’t stare at you like that no more.”

  “I don’t mind,” she said, and actually, she was looking forward to it.

  He turned to leave, but before he walked out the door, Henny called to him.

  “You never did tell me your name.”

  “It’s Raphiel, but everyone calls me Rafe.”

  FIFTEEN

  ALLY was excited about seeing the man she’d met in the library earlier today, but when he called her this evening, he kept asking her if she was sure she still wanted to go out.

  “Yeah, I’m sure, and why you keep askin’ me that?”

  “I don’t know. Just wanted to make sure that you did, but if you don’t, it’s okay.”

  “I do, all right? Now what do you want to do?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe we can go to the movies, get something to eat, you know.”

  Yeah, Ally knew. It was always the first thing that brothas with no money suggested, but she wasn’t going to have another Steve encounter—Burger King, then to the dollar flick. Ally wasn’t trying to make this guy her boyfriend; she was just looking for a little fun, so she said, “How about we skip all that. Give me your address, and I’ll come over there. We can watch TV and order some food. How’s that?”

  “Yeah, okay,” she heard Rafe say.

  On the train, then bus ride to his house, Ally kept wondering if he would be good or not. There wasn’t even a question whether she would have sex with him. She knew she would after they had exchanged their first few words.

  Since she’d given Steve the ax, she’d been dry, and it’d been driving her crazy. She had made a date with the bailer she called a few days ago, but that wasn’t for another couple of days, and Ally just didn’t feel like waiting that long.

  When she finally got to Rafe’s house, she thought she had made a mistake about him being poor, judging by the huge house she was looking up at and the nice neighborhood it was located in. She went around to the side door as Rafe had told her to and rang one of the three doorbells—the one with a piece of tape over it, with his name written on it. Then she realized that her first impression was right. He lived in a boarding house.

  Rafe answered the door and immediately scanned her up and down.

  He likes what he sees, Ally said to herself, allowing him to rest his eyes on each sensual part of her body he desired.

  She wasn’t sure, but it felt like it had only been fifteen minutes that she had been up in Rafe’s room before they were rolling around on the floor, their lips pressed together, Ally reaching down his pants, him reaching up her shirt. It took some maneuvering on her part, though.

  Rafe didn’t really seem into it when she’d first gotten there. He seemed standoffish, like he really didn’t want her there. But Ally knew that wasn’t the case, or he wouldn’t have agreed to her coming over. He was just shy, she told herself, and she just had to loosen him up some. So while they were watching TV, Ally scooted very close to him. He moved away from her a little, but he was pressed up against the wall behind his bed, and there was no place to go. She placed her hand on his knee, then slowly slid it up to in between his legs. She felt that his body was tense.

  “Just relax,’ she whispered in his ear and kissed him there. That didn’t help, but the more she rubbed him, the more he seemed to loosen, and when she raised her face to kiss him, she didn’t have to initiate, for he threw his lips onto hers as if he couldn’t control his actions. After a short while of kissing, Ally rolled on top of him, straddled him, and kissed him some more. She grabbed the bottom of his T-shirt, pulled it off him, and tossed it across the room.

  The muscles in his shoulders and chest rippled with his movement, and Ally placed a palm on his abs as he tried to reach up to undo her bra, felt how tight and hard they were. Tattoos were painted all
across his arms and torso. She would ask him about those after they were done, she told herself, but at that moment, she wanted him to see her, see what he was getting.

  She reached around herself and undid her bra. She let the straps hang open for a moment, then reached up under the cups of her bra and covered her breasts with her hands, wiggled ’til the bra fell away. She was teasing him, and he looked up at her with lustful eyes. It was working. He was becoming more excited, and if she wasn’t certain by the ever increasing hunger in his eyes, there was no denying the hardening that was taking place between his legs.

  She gyrated a bit on top of him, causing him to close his eyes momentarily and let out a moan. Then he looked up, wrapped his hands around her wrists, and pulled her hands away to reveal her breasts.

  When he saw them, he let out a gasp, and Ally lowered herself some, ’til they hung in his face. She felt him wrap his mouth around one of them, his hand around the other, and squeeze and suck her at the same time.

  This excited her more than she anticipated. She felt herself getting wet, and when he reached around with his free hand and started massaging that place just between her legs, she felt that she would topple over, her head was feeling so light.

  Ally quickly raised herself up, her breast coming out of Rafe’s mouth, and she frantically went at the snaps of her jeans. She pushed them down as far as she could while still straddling Rafe, then rolled over onto her back, kicked her legs in the air, and slid the jeans and panties off, leaving herself totally naked.

  When she rolled back onto her knees, she noticed that Rafe wasn’t moving fast enough. He still had his pants on, was slowly fidgeting with the buttons as though he was wondering if he could screw through his jeans. So she helped him. She undid the buttons, the zipper, and yanked the things off of him, exposing the part of him that was obviously very happy to see her.

  “You got something?” Ally said, her breath coming fast.

  “What?”

  “Never mind. I do.” She reached up to the bed, grabbing her purse, sinking her hand into it, and grabbing a rubber. It was a Magnum, and she was happy, because he definitely seemed large enough to fill it. She stuck it into his hand.

  He held it for a moment, as if he had no clue as to what to do with it.

  “You gonna put it on?”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He sounded more hesitant than Ally thought he should’ve.

  When he finally got the thing on and slid all the way down, Ally crawled over to him, placed herself back on top of him, grabbed him, and was readying to slip him into her when she heard Rafe say, “Hold it.”

  “I am holding it,” Ally said, anticipating feeling him inside her. “And I’m about to ride it.”

  “No. I want you to stop,” Ally heard Rafe say.

  “What did you say?”

  “I said I want you to stop. Maybe we shouldn’t do this.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about? What do you mean, maybe we shouldn’t do this?”

  “It’s not a good idea,” Rafe said, trying to squirm his way from under Ally, but she wouldn’t let him go.

  “And why not?”

  “Because I shouldn’t be with you.”

  “Hold it, hold it,” Ally said, shaking her head in disbelief. “You weren’t saying that when I walked up to you, when you were looking all down my shirt, undressing me with your eyes.”

  “Look. I’m sorry, but …”

  “But, what! You all of a sudden gay now or something?”

  “No, I’m not gay now,” Rafe said, taking offense to the comment. “I like your sister. I should’ve said something to her, but I didn’t.”

  Ally couldn’t believe her ears. Here she was, butt-ass naked, straddling some nigga, his dick in her hand, about to slide down it, and he says to stop.

  “So you trying to tell me you don’t want this?”

  “It ain’t right,” Rafe said.

  “I just want to be totally fucking clear on this. You sayin’ that you don’t want to fuck. I got your hard-ass dick in my hand, but you sayin’ you don’t want to do no thin’ with it.”

  Rafe didn’t say anything this time, just sadly shook his head.

  “I drag my ass all the way down here on the bus and the train, and now you flakin’ like some little tease.”

  “I told you, I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, you damn right you sorry,” Ally said, raising up off Rafe’s hips. “You had the chance to get all this,” Ally said, cupping both her breasts, then sliding her hands down the length of her curvaceous body, letting them rest on her hips. “And then you say that you can’t. You sorry as hell or stupid as hell? Saying you don’t want this, because you like my fucking sister? Nobody likes my sister. Everybody likes me,” Ally said, picking her clothes from the floor.

  “I do,” Rafe said, slipping into his jeans.

  “Well, then your sorry ass can have her sorry ass. I don’t give a fuck.” Ally pulled her top over her head. “But when you see that you made a mistake and realize how much you want me, don’t come dragging your stupid ass over here, sayin’ that you want another chance at it. You get only one chance at this pussy. You fuck it up, you done,” Ally said, opening the door to his room.

  “Well, I’ll remember that,” Rafe said, not seeming to care that he was passing up the opportunity of a lifetime.

  He’s a fool, Ally thought to herself, as she took the long bus ride back home. She felt herself tingling from the anticipation of having that man, felt her legs trembling just a little still and she commanded them to stop, slapping both her palms down hard on her knees.

  “I like your sister,” Ally remembered him saying, and she would’ve laughed out loud remembering that if it hadn’t been so damn sad. How in the hell could he have liked Henny over her? The girl had nothing going for herself. She didn’t know how to dress, didn’t worry about getting her nails done, did her own hair at home, and all that consisted of was brushing that mop back into a ponytail and wrapping a rubber band around it.

  Ally, on the other hand, paid meticulous attention to what she wore each day, making sure that her clothes fit her body just right, showed just the right amount of cleavage or midriff, depending on how daring she felt that day. Her hands and feet were done at least once every two weeks, and her hair was never out of place. Everything that she did, every minor detail she looked after in order to make herself irresistible to men, and this Rafe says he wants Henny instead. It wasn’t fair, it just wasn’t fair, Ally thought.

  Henny had enough going for her, with all her good grades, and her scholarships, all the people who loved her so much, in comparison to the people who thought Alize was evil. She didn’t need anything else. It was the reason that Ally took all of Henny’s boyfriends. There was just no other way she could compare to her sister. There was no other way she could prove to herself that she was valued just as much as Hennesey was other than to take what her sister had, and she was always able to do that. Until now.

  Ally looked out onto the dark streets that passed her by, almost wanting to cry, wondering to herself if everything that people said about her was true. Maybe she wasn’t worth a damn. Maybe she really was just a slut, and if she didn’t have her good looks, she wouldn’t have a damn thing. It’s what her own mother had come close to saying so many times, so how could it be false? But no, Ally thought, catching her reflection in the bus window. She was more than that, and just because this man didn’t want her didn’t mean she was worthless. There were always other men, and always other opportunities to prove that she was just as good as her sister. All she had to do was find them.

  SIXTEEN

  TONIGHT LIVVY would be going on a date with the man she had met two nights ago in the parking lot of the New Raven Lounge. She was really looking forward to it, so all during work, Livvy told herself she would have a smooth day. No mishaps, no arguments with the nurses, and she would get out on schedule so she would have plenty of time to prepare for her date with Wade. The day didn’t go t
hat way. Livvy made three mistakes that she got reprimanded for. She got her head bitten off twice by two different nurses because she wasn’t paying close enough attention to what she was doing, and then was late getting off by forty-five minutes because the nurse’s assistant who was supposed to relieve her came in late.

  It was the day from hell, and Livvy told herself that there was just no way that she could continue going through this for too much longer. She thought about the essay she was going to write, and it lightened her mood. But it also bothered her, because she knew she hadn’t written more than a grocery list in almost fifteen years. She wouldn’t let that worry her now, though, she thought. She had a date to get ready for, and she wouldn’t allow the day’s events to stop her from having a good time tonight.

  After Livvy had gotten dressed, she stood in the mirror, applied her lipstick, then looked herself over. She had done her hair differently, in a kind of straight style that hung down around her face. It made her look slightly seductive. She looked over the dress she had just bought. It was red with white flowers, and it made her look thinner. At least she hoped it did.

  Livvy didn’t know why she was concentrating so much on this date. She hardly knew this man and had spoken to him only a few times on the phone, yet the butterflies were flapping around frantically in her stomach at the thought of how the night would go.

  She wasn’t actually expecting this date to turn into a marriage. All she was hoping for was a man who truly cared about her. A man who thought about her needs, cared about her feelings, about what she liked, and expressed his feelings back to her.

  She missed having that so much so that she dealt with what little Carlos was willing to throw her way. She still loved Carlos, but she needed to free herself from him, and Livvy was hoping that this man, Wade, would give her that strength.