Two Tears in a Bucket (37 page)

“
Oh, really. Then how was it?”

“
I mean…” He shrugged.

“
What?” Jordan said, curious as well.

“
I mean, I’ve had a few pen pals, and I was dating this guard for a little over a year.”

“
You were dating a guard?” Simone was shocked.

“
Yeah.” Kevin chuckled. “She proposed to me and everything.”

“
Shut the fuck up!” Simone said. Kevin raised his eyes, shocked that she would cuss in front of Jordan. “Kevin, please. I’m sure she says worse at school, don’t you?”

“
She proposed to you for real, Daddy?” Jordan asked, quickly changing the subject.

“
So we know the answer to that question,” Kevin said with his eyes glued to Simone. “But, yeah, she proposed. I still have the ring.”

“
How come you didn’t marry her?” Simone asked.

“
Because,” he said to Simone, “she wasn’t the one.”

“
So how do you know when the person is the one?” Jordan asked.

“
You should feel it, and then you shouldn’t be able to imagine your days without them. They should be your friend, your partner for life, your lover, your—”

“
Please, Kevin. You’ve been reading too many fairy-tales. I don’t think all that’s possible,” Simone interrupted.

“
Oh, yes, it is. When you’re married, you should be virtually inseparable. Absolutely nothing should be able to come in between you.”

“
Well, I’ve been married before and—”

“
That wasn’t a marriage, Simone. Not based on what you’ve told me. That was just an experience.”

“
An experience, huh?” Simone chuckled.

“
Daddy, Simone said you were mailing your songs, but we still haven’t gotten them.”

“
Can we address something real quick?” Kevin said, changing the subject.

“
What’s that, Daddy?”

“
It’s that same old thing, baby. I’m Daddy and your mother’s Simone. I can’t take it. I don’t understand how it’s not killing you.”

“
I guess I’m immune to it,” Simone replied, shrugging her shoulders. “I mean, she’s been doing it since she’s been able to talk.”

“
Jordan, we gotta do something, and we gotta do it today. You still call your grandmother Ma?”

Jordan nodded.

“
Ugh.” Kevin moaned. “I was never with your grandma, baby. C’mon, can’t you call your real mother Mommy, Ma, Momma, something. Just not Simone. That bothers me.”

“
I’m not saying Mommy.” Jordan pouted. “That’s too babyish. Kayla don’t even say that.”

“
What about Ma?” Kevin asked. “Can we try that instead of Simone?”

“
Would you even answer me if I called you Ma?”

“
I might look around the room at first, wondering who the hell you talking to,” Simone said jokingly. “No, I’m just playing,” she said, squeezing Jordan’s thigh. “Of course, I’d answer you.”

“
Then it’s Ma from this day forth?” Kevin questioned with uncertainty, waiting for Jordan’s answer.

“
I guess,” Jordan replied, somewhat hesitate. “I might slip up here and there, but…okay.”

“
That’s all I’m asking you,” he said, smiling at his daughter. “And I mailed the songs a few days ago. Y’all should have them within the next couple of days.”

“
You finally mailed them. Wow, I’m proud of you,” Simone said.

“
Yeah. It’s time to start cracking down on my goals. I’ll be home in a few months, and I need to have some things in motion. I might need help with my ultimate goal, Jordan.”

“
What kinda help, Daddy?”

“
He probably wants you to record some of his songs.”

“
No, not just that, but we’ll talk.” With a sly smirk, he winked his eye at Jordan.

● ● ●

Kevin tried calling Felicia a couple of times, but she didn’t answer.
I wonder if Ma talked to her
, he thought as he dialed Beatrice.

“
Hey, Ma. How you doing?” he said when Beatrice answered.

“
Wow! I’ve been waiting for you to call me.”

“
Why, everything okay?” he asked.

“
Have you talked to Felicia?”

“
I guess she called you, huh?”

“
Yeah, she called me. The girl was having a fit. It seems that Simone’s husband is starting some shit.”

“
What you mean?”

“
He ran into Felicia somewhere and filled her head with some crazy mess. That’s why she came to see you today, but then you turned her visit away. The chile was in the parking lot going crazy, talkin’ ’bout she was waiting for Simone.”

“
WHAT?”

“
Yeah, but I calmed her down, so obviously nothing happened. What the hell is going on between you and Felicia anyway?”

“
Nothing like what she thinks. I mean, we’ve talked smack back and forth to each other over the years, but it was just fun and games. I mean, I’m not tryna sound shallow, but I’da stuck with Yolanda before I messed with Felicia. We cool, but we just friends. Every single time she started hinting at something else, I told her wasn’t nothing happening. Hell, she got a husband.”

“
Hmm, well, her feathers were truly ruffled.”

“
Yeah, I’ma call her. I can’t believe Simone’s husband. I mean, she told me some stories, but I thought she was exaggerating.”

“
Yeah, Jordan’s told me a story or two, too,” Beatrice added. “That girl’s had it rough.”

“
Yeah, I know,” Kevin said softly.

“
I’m sure Simone can handle her husband. What are you gonna do about Felicia?”

“
I guess I’ll keep trying to call her. It’s not that she can’t come up here. Just right now, all my visits belong to Jordan.”

“
Yeah, okay.” Beatrice chuckled. “I saw the way your face lit up when Simone walked in the room. I know it’s not just Jordan that you wanna see. Just make sure you talk to Felicia.”

● ● ●

Felicia’s husband, Mark, lay across the bed butterball naked, snoring loudly. His part-time bisexual lover, Jay, lay next to him with the wrinkled linen covering his now-limp private. Felicia had worked her frustrations out on both of them. Sucking one, jerking off the other, until finally they ended up tangled inside each other.

“
What you over there doing, girl?” Jay asked in his feminine, high-pitched voice. Propped up on his elbow, he lay cuddled up next to Mark, playing with the few hairs on his chest.

“
I’m thinking about buying a house.”

“
Good for you, honey,” Jay cooed through his yawn as he eased under the covers on Felicia’s side of the bed. “Just make sure I have a room.”

Look at this bitch,
Felicia thought as she stared at Simone’s image on her website. With a simple click of the mouse, she enlarged one of the photos and studied Simone’s image—her curves, her shoulder-length hair worn in loose, fluffy curls, and her smile. Never had Felicia felt threatened by any of Kevin’s prison flings. She’d waited out Yolanda and the numerous pen pals. But Simone wasn’t like any of them. She was in a league of her own. Beautiful and successful, she wasn’t looking for a prison fling, and that alone would spark Kevin’s interest. Jordan made Simone’s package sparkle even brighter.

The phone rang, just as it had done several times when Felicia was tangled in the sheets with Mark and Jay. She glanced at the caller ID, though she didn’t have to. She knew it was Kevin—very few called on that line.

I don’t wanna hear about your baby mama or your daughter, for real,
Felicia thought. Deep down inside, though, she craved the cool, subtle rasp of Kevin’s voice.

“
Hello,” she snapped.

“
What’s going on?” Kevin greeted nonchalantly, oblivious to the bite in Felicia’s tone.

“
I don’t know. You the big man, screening your visits and shit. You tell me what’s going on.”

“
I’m not screening my visits. I told the guard to let you know that I couldn’t accept your visit because my daughter was coming. So who should I have turned away, my daughter or you?”

Felicia peeped over her shoulder. Jay and Mark were both knocked out.

“
What’s this shit about you and your daughter’s momma?”

“
What’s this shit about you waiting in the parking lot for her? If she’da pulled up, then what?”

“
Then what you think! You know how I feel. I love you,” Felicia said, quickly glancing over her shoulder again.

Mark knew Kevin was Felicia’s hero for saving her and her daughter so many years ago from being killed. That justified Kevin’s pictures being scattered all over their house and the trips she took to the prison. But, Mark didn’t know that the minute Kevin was released, Felicia was sending him and his gay tendencies packing.

“
Look, Felicia,” Kevin huffed into the phone. “From day one, I told you that me and you ain’t never ever gon’ be like that. Yeah, we write letters, talk shit, and toss sexual innuendos back and forth, but ain’t nothin’ up with us. I can’t even offer you nothing. So what is it that you want? What, you wanna fuck when I get out? Is that what you want, some dick?”

“
For starters.”

Kevin sighed. “Listen, Felicia. We cool, and as far as I’m concerned, we gon’ always be cool. But right now—”

“
Cool?” Felicia interrupted. “I don’t want us just to be cool, Kevin. I want
—”

“
Felicia!” Kevin shouted, cutting her off. His sudden outburst caught the guard’s attention. He had to regain his composure or his phone privileges would be over for the night.

“
Look,” he whispered into the phone. “For once in your life, will you shut the fuck up and listen for a change?” Felicia said nothing. “You of all people know how long I’ve been looking for my daughter.
My
daughter
, Felicia. She’s fifteen-years-old, and I never got to hold her, talk to her, or even fucking see her because I been stuck in here. I had no way to call her. No way to write to her. I missed out on her entire life, but now that I have her, I don’t plan to miss out on nothing else. All I can offer her right now is my undivided attention, which means all my visits, calls, letters, everything belongs to her.”

“
I understand, Kevin, but hell, you act like I can’t bring her to see you. Shit, it was cool for me to bring her up there the first time, so why can’t I do it again? Besides, her and Mercedes need to get to know one another anyway. That could be their lil’ bonding time,” Felicia suggested, referring to her sixteen-year-old daughter.

“
Felicia, thank you but no thank you. I don’t want her traveling in your circles. Shit, you mess around and have her strippin’ some damn where.” Kevin chuckled, entertained by his comment.

“
Fuck you, Kevin. And shit, her lil’ ass got the curves to do it, too.” It was Felicia’s turn to he-he.

“
Now, that shit wasn’t funny. Deep down inside, your ass probably for real,” Kevin said.

“
Whatever, man.” Felicia sucked her teeth. “You know I was playing.”

“
Seriously, though, you know I’ve been waiting for this moment just as much as my release. So, don’t fuck it up. I’ll still write and call when I can, but chill on the visits and on the threats. Jordan’s mother ain’t don’ nothing to you or anybody else. The last thing I need is for you to start some shit and fuck everything up. If you scare them away, then I’ll be back at square one. You feel me?”

“
Naw,” Felicia whispered seductively into the phone. She’d talked dirty to Kevin on many occasions, arousing him over the phone. She even welcomed him into her private sessions with her vibrator. “But I’ma feel your ass when you get out, though. I remember that muthafucka, too. The way he taste and everything. You remember when I sucked him, don’t you? I can’t wait to taste him again. Mmm…” She moaned into the phone.

“
Yeah, look. The guard been jive watching me since we started talking. You have me all worked up.”

“
Oh no, baby. I haven’t worked your ass yet. You can’t come for me real quick?”

“
Naw, he looking right at me. I’ll try and call you later.”

Hanging up the phone, Felicia felt horny, but Mark and Jay were knocked out.
Shit, where them videos we saved on the computer?
She shook her mouse, bringing the computer back to life with Simone’s image, killing her sexual urge.

Simone Woodard-Perkins, the big-shot real estate agent.

“
Don’t get it twisted,” Felicia said. “You not getting my Kevin, baby. Fuck that shit.”

In the search bar, she typed the words ‘plastic surgeons.’

Yeah. I got two years to get myself together and be ready for you, Kevin. Mmm. Maybe I really should buy a house. But your baby momma won’t get my business, that’s for fuckin’ sure.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Jordan stepped from the school bus with a huge grin on her face, clutching the flyer she’d gotten at school like the Olympic torch. She couldn’t wait to show her mother as she rushed down the street.

“
So you’re really going to audition?” one of Jordan’s friends asked.