Authors: Carl Weber
Married Men (34 page)
“How do you know Jay gave them to Di, Wil? Maybe it was somebody else.”
“Please, Kyle.”
“Come on, man, at least give the guy the benefit of the doubt until you speak to him.” I was grasping at straws, hopeful that by then I could straighten things out with Diane.
“Benefit of the doubt, my ass! He did it, Kyle. Who else would do something like this to me?” Wil’s eyes never left my face. “Who?”
He’d stopped crying now and his tear-streaked face hardened with anger as he waited for my answer. As much as I wanted to tell him the truth, I couldn’t. I was too afraid of how he might react. He wasn’t yelling and screaming as I woulda expected. He was simmering like a covered pot, ready to explode, and I did not want him exploding on me.
“Answer me, Kyle. Who else would do something like this?”
“I don’t know, Wil.” I shrugged my shoulders and tried my best not to look him in the face as I lied.
“All right, then, Jay did it. I know he did,” Wil replied with finality. “And when I get through with him, he won’t be able to go home either. If he wants to play the I-wanna-mess-up-your-marriage game, then so can I. Now excuse me, I got business to attend to.” Wil stood up, picked up a magazine from the coffee table, and stomped his way to the bathroom.
As soon as he closed the bathroom door, Allen was in my face whispering with attitude. “What the hell was that all about? You know sooner or latter he’s gonna find out the truth.”
“Look, what the fuck do you want from me? He caught me off guard when he showed me them damn pictures. I was trying to buy us some time. Do you want him taking his anger out on us?” I whispered back.
“You shoulda told him the truth, Kyle.”
“Hey, I didn’t see you jump up to declare your guilt in this. So get out of my face, okay?” Allen slumped down in his chair like a disciplined child. I didn’t mean to be so nasty, but he was getting on my nerves. Hell, he was just as guilty as me. “Look, Al, if we can keep Jay away from Wil, I’m sure I can talk some sense into Diane. She ain’t gonna like it, but at least she’ll know that Wil ain’t have anything to do with it.”
“I hope so, man, ’cause Wil doesn’t deserve this.”
“I know, Al. I know. I just wish I knew how the hell she got those pictures in the first place. I sure as hell never meant for this to happen.” Someone knocked on the door and Val walked out of the bedroom.
“I’ll get it.” I think she was sick of being cooped up in that room.
“No, Val, I’ll get it.” I had a feeling it was Jay anyway. “Why don’t you go check on dinner?” She was fine with that as long as I didn’t ask her to go back to the bedroom.
I looked out the peephole. It was Jay, just as I had suspected. I turned to make sure Wil was still in the john and slipped out the door. I wasn’t ready to tell him the truth, but I still didn’t want Jay walking into a fight on account of a lie I told.
“Yo, bro, we got a problem.” I stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind me.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Diane found the pictures from the bachelor party.” I studied his face to see his reaction. From his bug-eyed expression, I knew Wil was wrong about his involvement.
“Ain’t this a mothafucker. I told y’all not to do that shit.” He shook his head.
“Yeah, I know, but it’s done now. Ain’t shit we can do but deal with it.”
“Damn, I feel for that brother.” Jay shook his head. “So what happened? Did she kick him out or what?”
“I think so. At least that’s the impression I got.”
“Damn, I know he’s ready to kick your ass. And I can’t say I blame him either. Y’all mighta ruined that man’s life with this bullshit.” Jay sighed as he leaned against the hallway wall. “Boy, you couldn’t pay me to be in your shoes right now.”
I swallowed hard and took a deep breath.
“Yeah, well, I don’t know if I’d wanna be in your shoes right now, either.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He cut his eyes at me.
“Wil thinks you’re the one who took the pictures.”
“What?” He took a step closer. “How the hell did he get that impression?” I eased back a step just in case he flew off the handle. His neck muscles were popping out like he was a madman. In our twenty-plus-year friendship I’d never once felt threatened by him. Until this moment.
“I don’t know. He just assumed it,” I answered weakly.
“What you mean he assumed it? Why didn’t you straighten him out, Kyle?”
“I was going to but—” He cut me off.
“But what? You were trying to save your own ass. I’m not taking the fall for this, Kyle. I’m not the one who fucked up this—” He never finished his sentence ’cause the door opened behind me.
“I thought I heard your fuckin’ voice!” Wil pushed his way past me. “Why’d you do it, Jay?”
“I ain’t do nothin’, Wil. Ask Kyle.” Jay glared in my direction.
“Wil, chill, man.” I tried to grab him but he threw me to the floor like I was a rag doll. By the time I realized what was up, he had Jay pinned up against the wall with his forearm pressed against his throat.
“Wil, I didn’t ... have anything ... to do with it... I swear.” Jay insisted between gasps. Both his hands were locked around Wil’s forearm trying to loosen the big man’s grip.
“You fucking liar. You think those pictures were funny, don’t you?” Wil’s voice sounded demonic as he applied more pressure and weight to his forearm. “Why’d you do it, Jay? Why’d you do it?”
“I didn’t do it ... I swear.” Jay gasped. It was obviously getting harder and harder for him to breath. “Kyle ... help me, man!” His eyes were pleading with me.
“What the hell is going on out here?” Allen burst out of the apartment. “Aww, shit!” He dashed behind Wil in an attempt to stop him but Wil had too much adrenaline flowing by now. He threw Allen to the floor with his free hand. I finally managed to struggle to my feet and grab hold of the arm Wil was using to choke Jay.
“Let go of him, Wil! You’re gonna kill him!” I pleaded frantically as I fought to pry his arm from Jay’s neck. “You’re gonna kill him!” At this point I was scared to death that he really might kill him.
“Good, he needs to die!” Wil yelled as sweat rolled down his bald head. He was so out of control I could feel his anger.
“Wil, dammit! Let him go! He didn’t do it!” My frantic tone made him turn his head. As our eyes met, I pleaded with him. “Let him go, Wil. Please let him go. He didn’t do it. He didn’t do it.” I hesitated for a second. “I did.” I lowered my head in shame.
“What did you say?” Wil immediately let go of Jay, who fell against the wall gasping for air. “I hope you said that just to save his sorry ass.” Wil turned to face me.
“I wish I had.” I couldn’t look him in the face. I expected him to grab me, to hit me at least, but he didn’t. He just stared at me for a few seconds before speaking in a wounded voice.
“Of all my friends, you were the one I thought I could always trust, Kyle. Why would you ruin my marriage?” Wil didn’t have that look of uncontrollable anger like he had just a few seconds before with Jay. Nah, he was still angry, but now he had a look of despair. Like I’d ripped his heart out. He’d expected this type of thing from Jay, I suppose. And to be honest, I believe he wanted Jay to be guilty so he could get even with him for that punch in the eye a few months back. But I could tell he never expected something like this out of me.
“I didn’t mean for all this to happen when I took those pictures, Wil. Things just got out of hand,” I told him meekly. He took a step forward and I took two steps back.
“You damn right things got out of hand. My marriage is over, Kyle, and it’s all your fault.” He took another step forward, and this time I took three steps back. “My wife’s kicked me out the house and I might lose my kids, and it’s all your fault.”
“It’s not all his fault.” Allen came to stand next to me. He was scared. I could tell by the way he kept rocking back and forth, but he was being a man about it. “I took a lot of those pictures too, Wil. I’m sorry. It was supposed to be a joke.”
“A joke?” Wil shouted as his eyes got wide. “I don’t see a damn thing funny.” Wil took another step forward and Allen and I eased back a step.
“Neither do we,” I pleaded, praying that he would listen. “Wil, man, I promise I’ll fix this. I’ll go talk to Diane right now and get this straight.”
“You’d better,” he threatened. “I still don’t understand why you would give her pictures of me like that.” He looked as confused as we were about how she managed to get her hands on pictures she was never supposed to see.
“We didn’t, Wil. She must have found the film in your camera.”
“My camera?” Wil looked even more confused.
“Yeah, why don’t we go inside so I can explain what I think went down.” A few of my neighbors had peeked out their doors, but luckily no one seemed to have called the cops.
“No, you’re going to talk to my wife. Now! I want my family back, Kyle. And I don’t feel like talking no more.” He pointed toward the elevator.
“We’re going. But first I’ve got to get something off my chest. ’Cause you got some blame in this too, ya know.” I wasn’t trying to weasel out of doing what’s right, but he needed to know how I felt.
“I ain’t got shit to do with this,” Wil hissed.
“Yes, you do, Wil,” Jay said in a raspy voice from the floor. He was rubbing his throat. “If you had minded your own business and stayed outta Kyle’s marriage, this woulda never happened in the first place. Shit, if it wasn’t for you, we’d probably be over at Kyle’s place right now eating steaks and getting ready to take a dip in the pool.”
“Oh, so this is my fault?” Wil turned to Jay. “How the hell did I become the villain?”
“Shoot, you act like you don’t remember. If you hadn’t lied to him about Lisa, he woulda never taken those pictures. You seem to forget you ruined his marriage, too. At least he was only trying to play a joke. You knew what you was doin’.” Wil glanced over at me and lowered his head.
“That why you took those pictures?” His eyes were sad when he looked at me.
“Yeah, man,” I nodded. “You pissed me off. But I never meant for Diane to see them. I figured you’d get them developed and be embarrassed. Something we could joke on you about. I swear I never wanted Diane to see them.”
“How the hell did you take them, anyway?”
“When you passed out at the bachelor party. We took you in the VIP room.”
“Damn, it all makes sense now. The pictures, my camera, and Diane flipping out. She must’ve gotten the film developed. Dammit! Why didn’t I take my lazy ass down to the CVS myself and get that film developed?”
“Hey, you mind telling us what you talkin’ about?” a confused Jay asked.
“Diane had been on my ass for over a month about getting Allen’s wedding pictures developed. I’d taken some really nice shots of Teddy in his ring bearer’s tux and she wanted to see ’em bad. I musta been down to CVS a dozen times and kept forgetting to take the film. She probably got impatient and went down there herself.”
“It’s about time someone made some sense out of this,” Jay said sarcastically, still rubbing his throat. “Just wish y’all coulda done it before I showed up.”
“For someone who says he had nothing to do with this, you sure are knee deep in it, aren’t you?” Wil turned to Jay.
“That’s ’cause I was the only one in the room tryin’ to stop them from making a fool out of you. If it wasn’t for me, it coulda been a lot worse.”
“That true?” Wil turned to me.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “He did try to talk us out of it. I just wasn’t hearing it at the time.”
Wil bent down and grabbed Jay’s hand, pulling him up. “Thanks.”
“What‘ya thankin’ me for?” Jay gave him a suspicious look.
“For being my boy even though I treated you like shit.”
“Yo, it’s all good dawg. I’m sorry about that eye jammy I gave you. Come on, y’all. We need to go talk to Diane and get this man’s life back in order.”
“Hold up, Jay. I think maybe you and Wil should stay here while Allen and I go talk to Di.”
“Why can’t we come?” Jay whined.
“First of all, Diane can’t stand you, Jay,” I told him.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right about that.”
“That’s fine for him, but why can’t I go? It’s my marriage we’re trying to fix.” Wil waited for an answer with his arms across his chest.
“Look, man. She might not talk to us if you’re around. Why don’t you stay here and eat? Val just made some slammin’ pasta. By the time you finish eating, Al and I should have your shit back in order. With an apology from your wife, okay?”
“Don’t worry, dawg. If they can’t get her to take you back, I got a plan that can’t fail.” Jay wrapped his arm around Wil’s shoulder with a devilish grin on his face. Wil glanced at me, then at Jay, then back to me. I could see the uneasiness in his eyes.
“Kyle, don’t fuck this up. Please, don’t fuck this up.”
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