Nineteen
NINETEEN
Orlando
T he way I kept myself balanced and positive all these years was by building my walls up enough that no one could bother my peace. But building up those walls meant happiness had a harder time reaching me, so I lived in a perpetual state of contentment. Having the twins and their mother in my life had slowly started to change that. A superhero putting his guard down for people to find out his real identity. A lonely man, realizing he was, in fact, lonely.
Trinidad, with her fiery temper and beautiful heart, kept chipping at that this weekend. My fucking face hurt from grinning like a fool all the way to the fair, and when she placed her hand in mind after I paid for our entrance, that happiness took over everything and everywhere.
The fairgrounds were located on the outskirts of Ofele, at one of their public parks near the beach. A sea of white tents, rides, and food trucks transformed the lush green space into a feast for the senses. A thrum of excitement vibrated through the crowds as revelers chatted with each other, flitting in and out of tents selling an assortment of Caribbean souvenirs, flags, handicrafts, and other services. The sun blazed, even though it was early evening, but the ocean breeze acted as the perfect foil for the heat.
Hand in hand, Trinidad and I ambled through the stands, while Trevor, Desmond, and Grace went to the rides.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go with them?”
“Do you like rides?”
“No. Why would I put myself through that type of stress—my job is a roller coaster already,” Trinidad confessed with a smirk.
“Do you like what you do?” I asked her, unable to take my eyes off her. Trinidad glowed radiantly in a short pink romper with some type of frills that enhanced her hips and ass. She’d started glistening due to the heat, especially between her cleavage, and I wanted to bend over and taste all over her salty skin. But honestly, that was just me being horny.
What captivated me was her eyes. They were full of joy, a joy I’d only seen when the twins had made her proud about something. Watching her now, understanding how the happiness filling me up could be similar to her joy, had me wanting to confess everything I felt for her. But I wasn’t about to spook her.
There was Milton, after all.
“Wow, mister, what was that?” Trinidad asked, looking down at herself. “What do I have on me?”
“Nothing but beauty,” I replied. Damn, that line was tired as fuck. My face grew hot as Trinidad guffawed at my pickup line.
“You’re too much, and I really like it.” The twinkle in her eyes, the hand trailing over the exposed skin of her breasts, her bottom lip glistening as she wetted it…yeah, this woman had me down bad.
“You’re trying to kill me, woman.” I pulled her aside, and we kept walking and chatting about everything and nothing. Trinidad explained more about her work and why she loved it.
“See, I get to be part of people’s most cherished memories. It’s so rewarding. It’s exhausting, too, though. Because people never listen, but that’s where my feisty personality comes into play,” Trinidad said as we entered a stand with easels decorating every corner of the space.
A young girl, maybe eighteen, with long locks, light brown skin, and beautiful eyes, sat on a stool. An easel in front of her, lost in her craft. Her style was photorealistic, and her paintings were in oil or acrylic.
“Hello!” Trinidad called her attention.
“Greetings! Yuh good?” The girl sounded like my grandmother.
“Are you from Jamaica?” I asked. I was fascinated by her art; many of the depictions were of anime and superheroes, all with a twist. She’d retold stories in her paintings with a Caribbean sense. One painting was of a boy getting into a Spider-Man costume, but the colors of his suit were green, yellow, and black. Another easel had a woman controlling the weather with locs flying all around her as she floated over an island.
“Yes! You too…you look like dem Sewells in St. Mary.”
“Yeah, my grandparents come from there.”
“I see dat man. That’s home six months a year. The other six months, I come to the States to sell my art.” She nodded at the piece in front of her, a little boy holding a plantain by the beach while watching two superheroes fight in the distance.
“What’s that?”
“The battle between the modern and the old,” she simply said and kept painting.
“Have you ever considered doing animation work? I mean, the art for animations?” I asked her, my excitement mounting. Trinidad wandered off to one of the corners of the tent, but I didn’t miss the grin on her face.
“Animation? How yuh mean?” the woman asked, finally placing her full attention on me.
“Anime, cartoons, that. I mean you clearly know your superheroes and comics.” I gestured around.
“Mmm.” She singsonged, lost in thought. “Nevah thought about it, but I’d be willing to explore.” She nodded finally.
“That’s fantastic!” This felt better than when I found that copy of Ultimate Fallout 4 in a store in the Bronx a few years ago.
“A’ight man, calm down.” The girl chuckled. In the corner, I heard another smothered laugh.
“Sorry, I…just you are great, you have an amazing eye, and there is a lot you could do in that arena. Here, take my information. Why don’t you call me next week, and we can set a more formal meeting?” I pulled out my phone, found my business card app, and flashed her the QR code. She frowned at the phone, then searched for her own device and faced it to mine until she captured the information.
“A’ight man. My name is Lulu. See there? That’s my IG, you can look for me there. I’ll call you, though. This sounds like something I might do,” she said, back to her easel, ready to dismiss me.
“Sorry, Lulu, how much for this one?” Trinidad asked. It was a small canvas—a little hut, and a woman standing outside with two children holding her hands, all dressed in the Bajan colors. The woman had a flowing cape behind her.
“Dat one is $350, but for yuh, I give you $250,” Lulu said.
“Oh, I wish I could get it. I didn’t budget for any big spending this weekend, but you said we could find you online, right? Maybe next month I can hit you up, will you still be in the States?”
“Nah, man, this my last event before I head back to Jamaica. The heat too much for me. I live here in Ofele when I come and travel as needed. But I can always ship from JA if you like.”
Trinidad and Lulu exchanged contact information, and we walked out of the stand hand in hand. Somehow, I needed to to buy that art for her without her realizing it. I wanted to feel her joy, for her to remember this day forever.
* * *
“So, you really love that job, huh?” Trinidad asked as we exited the ice cream truck line, both with Grape-Nuts waffle cones in our hands. The cold creamy concoction melted in my mouth, alleviating some of the heat of the night.
“It’s my dream come true.” I looked down at her with a big grin, and her eyes softened at the sight.
“So why law school, Orlando? You can do this instead. You are so good at it! Even during vacation, your eyes don’t rest. Lulu is amazing, and this will be a great opportunity for her!”
“I hear you, but…see, this is a great-paying job if it was only me. I can grow in the company, but what I could make in three years after law school would take me at least five or six years in my career. Then, there are the health benefits a law firm could provide me. And this was my parents’ dream for me, at least that’s what Ma has told me in her good moments. My father always said I was always argumentative when young and I’d make a great lawyer.”
“Argumentative? Wow, I guess I don’t see it.” Trinidad took a slow lick of her ice cream that had me going from soft to chubby. I was lost for her.
“Yeah, I have it in me; I just choose peace now.”
“Oh, maybe you choose peace too often? I mean, I see how hard you do for your siblings and your mother, which, by the way, how are they?”
The topic got me from chubby to soft real quick.
This morning, I’d woken up to frantic calls from my brothers asking me what to do because my mother was again fighting them about the medication. There was not much I could do about it from afar, and the calls continued through the day, my brothers’ attitudes and tones escalating. Both of them clearly felt put upon for having to deal with our mother in one of her hard days, but this was a regular day for me.
The fact that they couldn’t take one for the team and deal without calling and texting me had pissed me off, and after Trinidad showed up for me, I decided to put them both on Do Not Disturb. I’d deal with the repercussions later, but for now, I wanted to be present. As present as I asked her to be. I explained all of this to her and she gifted me with a brilliant smile.
“I know that’s right!” She bumped against me in congratulations, her soft body making me harden again. Fuck. She was right. We didn’t need a roller coaster. This was a thrill ride, and I didn’t want to get down.
“I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but that sounds like you, an old lady.”
“Boy!” She kissed her lips, some of the ice cream smeared over, and I couldn’t help it; I bent down and tasted her. The cold ice cream warmed between our lips, and our tongues entangled, wet, and desperate. I hadn’t kissed her the whole day, and that shit hadn’t felt right. Finally, my hand could grab her waist and slide down her lush hip to her plump ass, which I squeezed, making her giggle against my mouth. That sound made me even harder. Trinidad noticed my rock-hard dick and pressed against it, making it ten times a problem or a blessing, depending on perspective.
“Ms. V, you playing games when I can’t do much about it,” I growled.
“Who said we couldn’t do anything about it?” she taunted.
“You don’t play fair,” I said, then chased her mouth, the taste of sweet Trinidad intoxicating.
“Oh, I never do; I play to win.” She held my hand, and we navigated the crowd, getting closer to the edge of the fair.
“Where are we going?” I asked her, not really caring because wherever I was going with her, it would be good.
“You’ll see,” she said.
We turned the corner to find a trailer attached to a fun house. They’d painted it with colors of the different Caribbean flags. Most of the revelers were around the other rides and tents, the fun house not being top of mind to most of the crowd.
We paid our entrance and walked in together, loud soca played inside as we navigated the different sections and tunnels. The mirrored tunnel was my favorite, each mirror distorting our images. Trinidad made funny faces, her boisterous laughter floating above the music and carrying me away to a high I hadn’t felt in a long time.
This was happiness.
This was it.
One of the last sections was a labyrinth with neon lighting and rotating walls.
“You want to play?” Trinidad asked mischievously, her body heat so close, I took advantage of her proximity, holding on to her soft hips and pressing her against me. She ground against me, her low moan letting me know I wasn’t alone in this. Trinidad was affected too.
“With you, I want everything,” I confessed, hoping that the music and the playfulness would mask how true the statement was.
Trinidad slid her body against mine, awakening my skin with every touch. Again, her hand held mine, and she found us a dead end, darker than the rest of the tunnel due to the minimal neon lighting.
“This is a false turn…are you comfortable with public sex?” Trinidad asked. Before I could open my mouth, her head bowed, and she gracefully dropped to her knees.
Air, I fucking needed air and a bag to breathe in. Shit, this woman was going to obliterate me.
Unable to talk, the sound of my zipper opening over the soca answered instead. Sweet relief coursed through my veins as I released the pressure of my hardness. The humid summer evening air caressed my weighty balls. Big brown eyes with pretty eyelashes blinked up at me as I pulled my dick out, the heaviness telling me this one would go quickly. Shit, I wasn’t ashamed.
Nothing had prepared me for the sweltering suction of Trinidad’s mouth. The tremors started in my feet, running over my legs until I felt faint. The pink tongue of hers shined brightly under the neon lights as she dexterously licked and sucked until my entire dick was engulfed, and she took all of me until the head of my dick received the warmest of hugs.
Then she swallowed.
And that is all I could take.
Not even five minutes. Probably not even three.
Who am I kidding? It was less than two, and everything tightened: my back, my legs, my chest. I saw stars. I stopped breathing for a minute. I…fuck.
Having Trinidad Velasquez’s wet, hot mouth on my dick meant everything. I’d leveled up to the highest degree. This wasn’t her accepting my “eager” infatuation and horniness; this was her giving me pleasure. Wanting me to come for her. Wanting my pleasure dripping down the corners of her mouth as a proof of the force of my affection and regard.
Whatever she needed I would give to her, and I would figure out a way to show her that we belonged together.
I just needed these days in Ofele to make it happen.