8. Southern Hospitality #2
When I entered Cairo’s basement workout facility, I gasped.
The fresh-smelling space was five times the size of my guest bedroom.
Cardio and strength machines were scattered across the floor.
Mirrors and high-end weights covered the far wall.
The noise of sportscasters’ voices filled the room and echoed off the walls as they argued about a game on a large mounted TV near the entrance to the gym.
Cairo perched downward on his arms, positioning his long body in a V.
He wore a white, ribbed, sleeveless tank that showcased his firm muscles.
When he stood, my eyes gravitated to his thick thighs and the beads of sweat that popped off his body like raindrops.
Clementine orange basketball shorts hung low on his hips.
I stood at the door like a statue, taking in Cairo’s manly physique. As if sensing me, he lifted his head suddenly. I tried to play off my gawking but failed.
“Good morning, Doc. Are you here to stare at me or work out?”
I blushed.
“Good morning. I don’t want to disturb you.”
He rose to his full height and shook each of his legs before doing the same with his long arms.
“I’m wrapping up my morning workout. Help yourself to the space.” He toweled himself off and gave me a dashing smile that had my heart fluttering.
“I’m going to stretch before breakfast.” I shyly walked to a yoga mat perched on a shelf and picked it up.
Cairo picked up the remote near him and turned down the volume on the TV then came to me and took the mat from my hands.
“I’ll help you.”
“Uh…you don’t have to do that.” I turned my head to escape his heady scent.
Even dripping with sweat, he smelled divine. He stepped closer to me, freezing me in my tracks. When his broad chest was a couple of inches from my chest, he lowered his eyes to mine. He tilted my chin upward with his long fingers until my eyes met his.
Oh my.
“I want to help you. It’s the least I can do as your host.”
“Thank you.” I kept my voice low because Cairo’s attention to my needs once again made me self-conscious.
He laid my mat on the floor and got on his knees next to it. I lowered myself to the mat until my bottom was flat, and my legs stretched before me.
“Lie back.” Cairo slowly pushed back my shoulders as he positioned his body in front of my legs.
“Put your feet together,” he said.
I placed the soles of my Nikes together as Cairo opened my knees. Although the initial pull hurt, as Cairo gently pressed my knees toward the mat, my body relaxed.
“That’s it. Loosen up. And breathe.”
I closed my eyes and breathed in and out, allowing the heat of Cairo’s hands to still me.
Several seconds later, he closed my legs, bringing my knees together.
He tilted them to my left and gently pressed them down with his body, stilling me as I continued breathing slowly.
When I finally opened my eyes, the intensity of Cairo’s gaze as he leaned over me almost took my breath away.
His hair hung around his face as his eyes rested on my mouth.
I parted my lips and licked them nervously.
When he bit his lips, I sucked in my breath and held it until his mouth touched mine.
As our lips locked, he released my legs and slid to my side.
He then grabbed my waist to draw my body into his.
I steadied myself by holding his shoulders.
As he deepened the kiss, I lowered my hand to his side and then his waist. He groaned when I reached behind him and grabbed his butt to pull him closer to me.
He placed his hand behind my head and held it still.
When our lips parted, he whispered into them, “I’ve been wanting to do that since yesterday. You taste as good as I thought you would.”
I smiled, my heart leaping at finally fulfilling a fantasy of my own. I massaged his cheek with my thumb.
“Thank you. I thought you were going to kiss me last night, with all that flirting you did.”
“Believe me, I wanted to.”
I raised my body on my elbow and waved around the room.
“I’m supposed to be exercising.”
“We are.”
I plopped on my back and held my stomach, sighing before turning my head his way.
“I’ve gained twenty pounds as president. You are one the best athletes in the world. It’s not a good look for me to be out of shape like this.”
I hoped Cairo caught my meaning and let me know what his physical expectations of a woman were.
He rested his hand on my fupa and tapped it playfully with his fingers. Instead of being offended, I searched his eyes, trying to read what was behind them.
“I’m not shallow, Zora. If I assessed my wellness by my body mass index, I’d be overweight. I’m six feet six and two hundred sixty pounds. I promise you I’m as healthy as a stallion.” He whispered the last sentence in my ear.
“Hmm. I’m plus size though. How many guys like you step to bigger women? I like who I am, but you’re literally in a different league.”
“Come here.” Cairo reached for my hands and pulled me to a sitting position.
He lifted his body and sat behind me, nestling me in his lap. When he wrapped his arms around me, I enveloped his in mine too.
“When you have a wife who loses her hair from cancer and weighs seventy pounds wet, you learn what matters. Our earthly shells are temporary, but what is in here…” he placed his hand over my heart, “is what matters. This is the second time I’ve told you that.
I want to know who you are inside. Trust me. ”
“You make me happy,” I confessed, closing my eyes and resting in Cairo’s embrace, inhaling his warmth and freshness and enjoying the now familiar sense of peace that found me in every area in his home.
As we ascended the staircase after my light cardio workout, I pondered what was happening between Cairo and me.
The smell of freshly baked bread and roasted coffee filled my nostrils. I wasn’t sure how Cairo pulled off making his enormous home feel like a quaint bed and breakfast, but I appreciated it.
Maybe it had been anointed with oil. I knew about such practices because of those summers in Alabama when I joined my grandparents in their Pentecostal church.
People laid hands on folks for healing. More than once, I rode with my grandmother, who was an evangelist, as she entered people’s homes and anointed the doors with oil, praying a blessing over the dwelling. Was Cece a spiritual person?
“There he is.” Cairo dabbed up his chef, who’d prepared a small feast of croissants, fruit, and other assorted pastries. “Chef Yosef, meet Dr. Zora Langston.”
We exchanged pleasantries.
“If you’d like oatmeal or something lighter, please let me know. It’s my pleasure to serve you.” The chef bowed low.
“A buttered croissant and a cup of hot coffee sounds great.”
Cairo picked up a plate and offered it to me.
I used tongs to select my croissant, which was bigger than any I’d ever seen.
After filling my coffee with hazelnut almond creamer and stirring it, I joined Cairo at the table.
He had a spread of scrambled eggs, oatmeal, a slice of sourdough toast, and a cup of green juice in a large, frosted glass.
“That’s a big breakfast.”
“I fuel my body all day for energy and muscle support. Chef has prepared foods with healthy fats so I’ll stay full. Of course, I’ll hydrate throughout the day in preparation for the sweat and movement that’s part of intense games.”
“Your body is a beautiful machine, so I get it.” I raised a glass of water in salute then bowed my head to bless my food.
As I bit into a croissant, an explosion of buttery flavors filled my mouth. I eyed the crusty pastry and groaned. Both the chef and Cairo turned toward me.
“Chef, this is the flakiest croissant I’ve ever put in my mouth. Do you cater?”
The medium-framed man with laughing eyes smiled.
“No, Dr. Langston. I’m not local. Cairo is a family friend who flew me in from New Jersey. But I’m happy to give you the recipe so you can enjoy them anytime.”
When I learned that Chef Yosef was to serve our needs the entire weekend, I became impressed with Cairo even more.
“I’ll ask Chef to box all leftovers up and send them with you. It will be something for you to remember me by.” Cairo’s sweet gesture warmed my heart.
“I would like that very much.”
Chef excused himself, leaving Cairo and me alone.
“My sister will be here around four o’clock if that’s okay. I’m warning you now that we are opposites.”
“Is she an ugly, dumb troll?”
My eyes widened at Cairo’s joke.
“No, she is free-spirited and very open with her opinions and ways of moving in the world.”
“Have you always been so different?”
“Honestly, no.”
“What changed?”
“Being a professor and higher education administrator. I didn’t realize that when I chose my academic path, I have to be ‘on’ at all times. To be honest, I think I’ve lost a piece of my soul in this job, and it has been less than six months.” My voice cracked before I cleared it and forced a smile.
Cairo gave me a pitiful look, one that matched the sadness and frustration I’d been feeling inside.
“Do you want to continue in this job? Or be a president at another school?”
“I don’t know. I’m called to do it, but it doesn’t fulfill me like I thought it would. The students are amazing, but deep inside, I want more.”
“More what?”
Cairo’s question threw me off. If Lena asked the question, I would tell her I wanted love from a caring companion, but Cairo wasn’t Lena. No man as fine and single as Cairo needed to know how much I craved the company of an attentive man in my life.
“Maybe I will find what I’m looking for one day.
It’s probably just a mid-life crisis. Enough about me though.
Basketball players don’t play ball forever.
What’s your plan when you retire?” I waved my hand above the table and peered beyond me to the post space that was Cairo’s home.
“To sit around this perfect, enviable sanctuary?”
Cairo perused the space as if he noticed it for the first time.
“Yes. It has served me well. But I might downsize. Almost twenty thousand square feet is too much home for one person. When I bought it, Cece and I had plans to start a family and possibly move in a nanny and her parents to help with our kids, but as you can see, that plan went to hell.”
For the first time since I arrived, Cairo’s eyes became sad as heaviness covered him. I regretted being the source of his sullen demeanor.
“You did right by your wife. She would be so proud of who you are and how you are helping others with the fruit of your labor.”
“I guess.” He gave me a brief smile, then drank his green juice. “I don’t like being without companionship. I’m not the best at seeking it out though,” he said.
What did that mean?
“I’m sure there’s someone out there for you.”
He lowered his head and connected with my eyes.
“I believe that.”
Here we go.
Cairo’s flirtatiousness was off the charts. We’d just sucked each other’s faces off and were back to acting innocent. I wanted to giggle like a kid but held my giddiness in. To get us back on track, I deflected as I always did when I wanted to avoid difficult conversations.
“Tell me about the Stallions and what the Torch’s plan is to win tonight’s game.”