In Between Lies (13 page)

             
Once in the kitchen, she grabbed her phone and redialed the number, only to get the same result…voicemail after several rings. The fact that the phone rang so many times let her know that the phone was indeed on and charged and either he was ignoring it or it was quite possibly on vibrate and he just didn’t hear or feel it. Either way, she was not getting through to him. Kevin had not showed up last night as he’d promised. She could only guess why he didn’t show. He was still the same player, she thought. He was just older and a little more tactful with it this time around.

Never one to just sit around alone
since he didn’t call or come over, she decided to give Richard a call instead. He was great company to her and she found that she did like him. Besides, she didn’t want to be alone and they had forged a symbiotic relationship. He filled the voids that Kevin left when he wasn’t there and made her look and feel beautiful in her photos and in person as well as treating her like a respectable woman. In turn she gave him what he wanted. He wanted what all men wanted from her…sex. He was a temporary fix until the real thing showed up. Kevin did not show up. That old cliché rang through her mind…what one won’t do, another one will. 

             
She dialed the number once more while she poured herself a cup of flavored coffee. This time she decided to leave a voicemail. “Hey, I just wanted to make sure you are alright. You didn’t stop in last night like I thought you said you would. Hope things are ok. So just give me a call as soon as you get the chance. I am going to a casting call this afternoon and will be free after that.”

             
She headed back to her bedroom and found Richard awake and waiting for her. “Did I hear you talking in there? Is someone here?” he asked.

             
“No, I was just leaving a voice mail message for a friend of mine. That’s all.” She bounced back on the bed and kissed him on the forehead. “Last night was great,” she whispered. “But I need to get myself together for the casting call.”

             
“So what are you saying? You want me to leave? What, no breakfast or anything?” he questioned.

             
“No, I’m sorry, but I really don’t eat breakfast, and I don’t have any breakfast food in the frig, unless you would consider last nights leftovers a suitable breakfast.”

             
“Ok, I get the picture. So what do we do next?”
             

             
“What do you mean?”

             
“I mean, we have been seeing each other for a good minute now and I have been trying to get into your head. You won’t let me.” Richard stood and pulled his pants on. “I mean, what is up with you? We have a good time together and seem to vibe, but there is a side to you that you won’t let me see. I know
there
is
.
I can feel it.”

             
“I’m sorry you feel that way, Richard. But I don’t know how to respond to that. Yes, we do have a good time and I appreciate your company and how you make me feel. But-“

             
“But what?” he interrupted. “You don’t want to see where this could lead?”

             
“No, I’m not saying that. I am just saying that I want to take my time, that’s all. I am trying to pursue my career and I don’t want to ruin a good thing with you by complicating things.”

             
“Complicated? What is making it complicated? I like you, you like me… what are you talking about?” he threw his hands up in the air.  Disturbed, he was having a hard time zipping up his pants, then he just gave up.

“I thought that we were just fine like this.” She smiled and stood behind him, circling her arms around him. “I will see you later, okay?”

             
“Yeah, whatever.” He walked off. “I will see myself out.”

             
After a few minutes, Naomi walked to the door, looked out and locked it. She did have to admit that she liked Richard and didn’t really want to hurt his feelings, but she wanted Kevin back…and that was what she was here to accomplish. Nothing more, and nothing less. She was determined to win his heart no matter what it took. After she thought about it, she was never sure if she had his heart to begin with. Actually, she remembered how hesitant he was to even get re involved with her in the first place and how she’d enticed him. Now that she’d gotten him back in her realm, she wanted to make sure she kept him there.

             
Naomi slid into her sleek black Lexus and headed for the casting call. Along the way, she’d concentrated most of her thoughts on Kevin and the obvious way he’d been dodging her calls lately. Now that she’d wormed her way into his bed, she’d have to find a similar way into his head. She figured she’d studied him before and got him so she’d study him again.

             
Just as she was pulling into the drive way of the studio, her phone rang.

             
“Hey, it’s me. Sorry about last night. Something came up,” Kevin said. He’d just slid into his own car and was leaving
Savannah
’s house.

             
Naomi smiled. At least he was thinking enough of her to call now. Never mind that he didn’t return or respond to her call the night before. She decided to take it for what it was worth.

After his apologies to
Savannah
last night for being late, he’d planned on just spending a little time with her and not the rest of the night. She looked so good and he couldn’t resist staying and tasting her. Although Naomi was much more his speed, he had gradually felt a little something for
Savannah
and really did want to see where it would lead. But he also wanted Naomi as well. She had what it took to tame his lustful desires and quenched his thirst in every way imaginable.

“Who is she?” Naomi asked. She couldn’t resist asking.

“Excuse me? What are you talking about?” Kevin cleared his throat, obviously caught off guard with her to the point question.

“C’mon Kevin, baby, I know you…remember?”

“I told you something came up, not someone,” he countered.

“Ok, whatever. If that is what you say, that is what you say,” Naomi said, not wanting to stir him up or agitate him anymore than she knew she did already. “So what are your plans for today?” she asked to change the subject.

“I want to see you later, if that is alright?” he asked.

“You can see me anytime you’d like, but on one condition…” she added.

“And that is?”

“That I get you for the whole weekend…starting tonight.”

“Umm, that sounds nice. Look, right now I am headed to work, so I will catch up with you later, baby. Ok?”

“How much later?” she insistently asked.

             
“I will call you as soon as I leave the station.”

             
He made no promises, but that was enough to hold her for the moment.

             
“Ok,” Naomi hung the phone up with the nagging feeling that she wouldn’t hear from him. Not only for the day, but the entire weekend. The station, she thought. That would be a good place to start.

******************************

             
“What time is dinner?” Jazzy asked. “And do I need to bring anything besides my appetite?” Jazzy rubbed her stomach. “Girl, I deliberately didn’t eat this afternoon because I knew Big Momma has done some big things in the kitchen…especially with the ribs and greens.”

             
Savannah
closed her laptop while Jazzy continued to jabber her mouth about food. Her mind was mainly on the month end closing numbers. She was just a couple of accounts under her given quota and knew the exact reason why she hadn’t hit her mark. Actually
,
the team she wa
s over was right on
pace. It was just her that missed it. Kevin had monopolized her very being and she knew that was the cause. In light of that, she’d reasoned that her time was well spent with him. She’d regained a new and fresh outlook on life and was happy now that she was with him.

             
“I just have to make some last minute calls to a couple of clients. Then I will be ready to head out. You riding with me or following me?” 

             
“I can roll with you if you just wait for me to swing by your house. We can both change there.”

             
“That’s fine. Of course, you know I will be waiting for Kevin.”

             
“Good, because I will be waiting on Gio. I can tell him to meet me at your house. Now that I think about it, I will go home and just meet you at Big Mommas’ house.  Who knows, you might want to get you a little piece before you get there,” Jazzy smiled. “Nothin like a quickie.”

             
“You are too much,”
Savannah
laughed, thinking that wasn’t a bad idea at all. She’d love to have another q
uick sample of Kevin
…anytime, she thought.

             
“See you later on then.”

             
The ride home was uneventful, though
Savannah
’s thoughts danced in and out about what she would wear, but mostly how she was going to introduce Kevin to the family. He was just a friend, she thought….a very good friend. A friend with benefits? A boyfrien
d? What
exactly was he? Now that they had been intimate on a regular basis, didn’t that make them a couple? Unspoken, but known maybe? “Hmm, that’s a good question,” she whispered aloud. “One that I guess I need to ask him.”

             
Naomi sat outside across the street from the station in an empty parking lot waiting for Kevin to emerge. Mentally, she was reliving the last time they were together.  How he made love to her…so demanding and rough, just the way she liked it and the way she knew he liked it. So it was a puzzle to her as to why he was playing her so hard when she knew he wanted her. Or else he wouldn’t have come through to her on a regular basis to satisfy his needs and hers for that matter. She knew there was something more there other than just fulfilling his needs... she just needed him to know it as well as she did.

             
In mid-
thought her cell phone rang.. “Hey, are you still upset with me?” he asked.

             
“Richard, I was never upset with you, it was the other way around.”

             
“What are you doing? Can I come over there and talk to you? We need to talk and clarify some things.”

             
“What things, Richard? I told you things are fine just the way they are.”

             
Just then, she saw Kevin come out. His profile was strong as was his swagger. “Look, I will call you when I get home. Gotta go.”

             
“But what about?” She’d cut him off and hung up before he could finish.

             
Naomi drove back a few cars behind Kevin as he made his way through the traffic. In the meantime, her cell continued to ring, but she refused to answer for fear of taking her eyes off the road and his car and losing it. Her hands trembled as she followed, in anticipation of where he was going. He’d stopped at a convenient store
,
then a flower shop and purchased a huge bouquet of white and yellow roses which she no doubt knew were for the other woman that she was sure he was preoccupied with when he wasn’t with her. She planned on changing that soon.

His last stop was his home. Naomi stopped about a half a block from him and yet again waited, then decided to call him. She got voicemail. He didn’t bother to answer the phone. Upset, she slammed the cell down, clasped the wheel and put her head against it. Taking deep breaths, she calmed her nerves and waited a little longer for him to come out. He did.

Her doorbell rang loudly as she stepped from the shower.
Savannah
quickly emerged, soaking wet. Draping a towel around her wet hair, she grabbed the robe hanging on her bathroom door.

“Hi!” She moved to the side and allowed Kevin to enter. “Those for me? They are beautiful!”  Grabbing him by the waist, she kissed him lightly on the cheek.

“Uh, no, I have something for you later. This is for your mother. You think she will like them?”

“She will love them! Let me grab a vase out of the kitchen for you to put them in. She is going to love you. You always have the right thing at the right time. I will be ready in a minute. I just got out of the shower, obviously,” she laughed and pointed to her towel wrapped head and dripping body.

“And you look like it,” he answered. But you look good enough to eat. Maybe we can skip dinner and go straight for dessert. I was thinking pecan pie.” He pinched her behind as she walked away.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish.”

“Oh, baby, I can finish.”