Guardian of Eden (16 page)

“
I hope you used protection.”

“What?” I knocked over a couple of pieces on the chess board and frantically tried to return them to their correct positions.

“That’s not where my bishop was. I thought you had a photographic memory.”

“I do. You just distracted me. How do you-”

“Holly called me. You really scared her, you know?

“Yes, I know. I just don’t see…why
do you
assume…it’s none of your business.”

“The hell it’s not. I’m too young to be a grandfather.” My father smiled playfully, but I was not in a playing mood. He had no right to make such assumptions and delve into my sex-life. “Check,” he said.

“Check what?” I asked. My father raised an eyebrow and nodded to the board.

 “Oh, right.”

“Believe it or not, you weren’t an accident,” my father said at the start of the next game. “Holly thought if she got pregnant, her father would see how serious we were. She thought he would let us get married. I was young and foolish and in love. I just went along with her. Your mother can be very convincing when she wants to be.” My father smiled then nodded to the board indicating that it was my turn. Suddenly, chess was the last thing on my mind.

“Is that why you killed him? Because he wouldn’t let you get married?”

My father started breathing heavily. “Is that what she told you?” His words were low and controlled like he held back a tidal wave of anger. I have to admit, I was a little frightened.

“No, no she didn’t tell me anything, actually. All I know is that you’re in jail for the murder of her father.” I looked at the chess board and made my next move, trying to seem relaxed and unfazed by my father’s sudden mood change.

“That’s all you need to know. I don’t want her going into detail with you about it.” My father stood up from the table and said, “Memorize the board. We’ll continue this next week.”

I thought about
Maddie
the entire way home. The truth was we didn’t use a condom. It hadn’t even crossed my mind. What if she got pregnant? What would we do? What would I do? I can’t have a child. I’m only 16. Was I really destined to repeat my father’s life? I hadn’t met
Maddie’s
father, but something inside me knew he wouldn’t like me. How could he? He’s a wealthy senator. I’m a poor black kid with an incarcerated father. I've been in and out of foster homes all my life. I knew he wouldn’t think I was good enough for his daughter.

When I got home, I called
Maddie
.

“We didn’t use a condom,” I said as soon as she answered the phone.

“And hello to you too,” she said playfully.

“This is serious. What if you’re pregnant?”

“Not possible.”

“Why not?”

“A pregnancy would be devastating to my health. I wouldn’t be able to take my medication, my body might reject the heart,
I
could die –”

“
Which is exactly why we should have used protection.
What were we thinking?”

“Garrett, would you relax? I wasn’t finished. Knowing what a pregnancy might do to my body, my doctors put me on birth control as soon as I… became a woman. I have an implant. So, like I said, it’s not possible.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “We can have sex anytime we
want,
no problem. Ten times a day if you want. That’s not to say I want it ten times a day, I was just…it’s just a figure of speech. But, I mean, it’s not like I
don’t
want it. I mean if you want to…then I want to –” I loved the way she rambled when she got nervous. I could imagine her face turning red and her lips becoming dry. She probably licked them after each sentence. I loved how I still made her nervous even after how intimate we’d been. I loved everything about her. Suddenly, I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“
Maddie
, I love you,” I blurted.

 She paused, as did my heart, but it started again when she said, “I love you, too.”

***

The next day, Eden burst into my room at six in the morning, jumped on my bed and said, “How about before we go to the museum we go to breakfast, or better yet, stay there. I’ll go make you breakfast.” She hopped off the bed and dashed out the door.

“Eden, you can’t cook!” I called after her, remembering last month when she tried to make me an omelet. I tried to explain to her that omelets shouldn’t be crunchy, but she was firmly convinced that throwing out the shell was wasteful.

“
Why are we getting on the red line? Isn’t the Smithsonian on the blue?” Eden asked as I held her hand and led her through the metro station.

“Yeah it is. We’re just
gonna
make a quick detour.”

“Farragut North?” she asked noticing where we were exiting the train. “Are we going to tour an embassy?”

“Not exactly.
We’re
gonna
pick someone up.”

Eden stopped in her tracks and crossed her arms.

 
“
Maddie
.
Maddie’s
coming isn’t she? You said it was just
gonna
be us.”

“I know I did, Bug, but I really want you to get to know her. She’s really important to me.”

Eden pouted all the way to
Maddie’s
apartment.

“Eden, please be nice. I want her to see how great you are,” I said as we rode the elevator to
Maddie’s
floor. “I thought you said you’d love her because I love her? What happened to that?” Eden shrugged and rolled her eyes.

Maddie
opened the door looking absolutely radiant. She had straightened her hair and let it elegantly cascade to the middle of her back. She wore a tight deep blue top that accentuated her breasts and her tiny waist. The fact that I hadn’t seen her in two days made me want her so badly that I forgot my sister’s presence, swept
Maddie
up into my arms and kissed her without even a hello.

“Gross,” Eden said as she walked past us into the apartment. “Why is your furniture so old? I thought you were rich. Why don’t you buy some new stuff?”

I let go of
Maddie
and glared at Eden mortified that she would say something so impolite.
Maddie
walked over to the couch and put her hand on it. I thought sure her feelings would be hurt, but she took Eden’s comment in stride saying, “I agree. It feels like I’m living in a museum sometimes.”
Maddie
smiled then added, “Matter of fact, we can skip the Smithsonian today and I could just explain all my family heirlooms to you. There’s probably just as much history in this room than in all the
Smithsonians
combined.” I stepped up behind her, put my hands on her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. I loved how she tried to make light of Eden’s blatant hostility. I laughed thinking that Eden would soon join in the levity, but I was wrong.

“Whatever,” Eden said taking off her coat and tossing it over the couch.
“Bathroom?”

“Third door on your left.”

As soon as Eden was out of sight, I picked up
Maddie
and tossed her onto the couch. She giggled as I climbed on top of her and started kissing her passionately.

“Garrett, stop. She’ll be back any minute.”

“All I need is a minute,” I teased as I kissed her neck and inched my hands up under her shirt. She felt so soft and warm. I knew I needed to stop, but I couldn’t.

“Garrett, Eden already seems pissed at me.”
Maddie
sat up and pushed me away. “I want to make a good impression on her. If she catches us like this, there’s no chance of that.” I ran my fingers through my hair and tried to calm my desire. Sensing my frustration, she said, “Look, how about tonight I introduce you to the hot tub. And don’t bring swim trunks.” A sly sensuous smile formed on her lips.

“If you’re trying not to arouse me right now, you’re failing miserably.” I kissed her so firmly she let out a soft moan. Then we heard the bathroom door open.
Maddie
hopped off the couch and started pulling down her top and flattening her hair.

“You ready to go, kiddo?” she said cheerfully when Eden entered the living room.

 Eden looked back and forth from
Maddie
to me a couple of times before settling on me and saying, “You’re wearing her lipstick.” Then she grabbed her coat and headed to the door.

***

“But I thought you wanted to go to a museum?” I asked as we walked rapidly toward the metro station.

“No,
you
wanted to go to a museum. You always want to go to a museum. I want to go to the mall.”

 I grabbed her arm and made her stop walking for a moment to let
Maddie
catch up. She was so little she had a hard time keeping up with Eden’s fast pace.

 “But there’s this really interesting exhibit on oceans at the museum of Natural History that I thought you’d-”

“I said I want to go to the mall.”

“The mall?”
Maddie
panted when she caught up. “You’re my
kinda
girl. Which mall do you want to go to?” Eden shrugged and looked off to the side.

“Eden,
Maddie
asked you a question.”

“That’s okay, Garrett. Why don’t we just go to Pentagon City? Would you like that, Eden?”

Eden just shrugged.

***

“So, I was thinking about what we can do for your birthday,”
Maddie
said while feeding me a
french
fry as we ate lunch. After twenty minutes of Eden rejecting our suggestions of where to eat, we ended up in the mall food court.
Maddie
thought a nice greasy hamburger sounded great since she hadn’t had one in almost a year.

“My birthday?”
I said almost choking on the
french
fry. I was surprised she even knew my birthday was coming up let alone that she had planned something for it. It apparently shocked Eden as well since she looked up from her plate for the first time in ten minutes.
Maddie
and I decided to stop trying to appease her and to ignore her sulking. We were going to make the best of our time together.

“Yeah, your 17
^th
birthday is like three weeks away. We have to start planning.”

“I already have his birthday planned. I don’t need your help,” Eden said viciously.
Maddie’s
smile faded. She picked up a
french
fry and carefully applied ketchup down the center of it. I thought it was adorable the way she had to put ketchup on each fry individually. I’d never seen anyone else do that.