4. Carter
CARTER
The cooking instructor peered over my shoulder. “Perfect.”
I was on my second date with Alise, and we were making a pasta dish. We actually made the pasta from scratch. It was too much work to do it often, but I could see myself getting into making pasta and bread.
“Let me find out,” Alise glanced over at me.
“Find out what?” I chuckled.
“That you’re nice in the kitchen. I can do the basics. I make some mean spaghetti, great ribs, pretty good baked macaroni and cheese, but I’m not a bake cake from scratch, make gravy from scratch, girly.” Alise held her arms out and shook them. “See no jiggle. These are not Big Mama’s arms.”
“Yo,” I laughed. “That’s okay. You can do a little something. I can do a little something, and we can for damn sure eat out.”
Alise didn’t respond. I doubted it was because she was concentrating on her pasta.
“What’s good?” I asked.
“I don’t know. So, we’re getting to know one another.
I’m perfectly fine with that. Going slow, going with the flow, all that.
But is there any intention? You say the right things.
You do the right things. And every time you make me blush, it’s replaced with a sense of dread because I’m wondering how bad the secret or the lie will eventually be. ”
“I’ve been about action my entire life. I’m not the one to do a lot of talking.
I’d rather show you than tell you. I’m also not in the habit of constantly paying for what the last man or men did.
It takes time to learn a person. To know if they’re genuine.
I’ll give you that. I can have all the grace in the world but pretty soon, you gotta stop waiting for me to fuck this up.
I lost a marriage due to my bullshit. Ask my ex-wife if I was anywhere near perfect, and she’ll ask you what kind of dope you’re on.
I’m not out here on the same type of time.
I’m also not opposed to anything serious. It just has to occur naturally.”
“I can live with that answer,” Alise smirked.
“Yo’ old ass has a grandkid on the way, huh? You excited?” I asked as she hit me on the arm.
“I’m younger than you dummy,” she snickered.
“But I am. I hate that my daughter lives in Texas, but there’s no rule that says our kids have to remain close by.
Thank God I work for myself because I can see myself hopping on a flight at least once a month after she has the baby.
I lowkey wouldn’t be mad if she moved back here. But her life is hers to live.”
“I feel you on that. My son was a knucklehead, and my daughter is spoiled rotten. After the divorce, they didn’t live with me full-time anyway. But I was glad when both those niggas got their own places. Men and women are different like that.”
“There are women that are happy when their kids leave home. That just wasn’t me though. It’s hard to even remember life before my daughter. Crazy right?”
“Not really,” I shrugged.
Shorty was a grown ass woman. I loved her sexiness and her feminitiy.
She dropped just enough subtle hints to let me know that she didn’t play.
However, she kept that side of herself at bay.
When we were together, we laughed a lot, and the words flowed easily.
There was no baby daddy, ex-nigga trouble.
She didn’t have small kids, and she had a lot going for herself.
I’d taken it upon myself to watch a few of her videos on YouTube.
The latest one had only been up for four days, and she already had over 200,000 views. That was pretty dope.
Finally, we were done with the food, and we sat down to eat. After we said grace, Alise tasted her food first. “Oh my God this is so good,” she moaned with her eyes closed. I was far from a creep, but my dick bricked immediately.
I tasted mine, and I had to agree. “Okay we did a little something.”
“We really did. This was a really cool date idea.”
“You down to plan the next one?”
I could tell the question caught her off guard. I’d keep taking her out and getting to know her until we decided we wanted something different.
“Um, I could. What do you like to do?”
“You’re supposed to surprise me.”
“Surprise you? That’s a lot of pressure.”
“I have faith in you,” I winked.
It was becoming increasingly harder to refrain from having sex.
Being around Alise when she was looking and smelling good wasn’t for the weak.
I had been doing a lot during my fast. I was working out a little more, eating healthier, giving myself a social media detox, and living in the present moment.
It was actually nice getting to know Alise without sex being brought into the equation.
When we were done, Alise and I walked out to the car. She had finally let me know where she lived. After she settled into the car, I rounded it and got in on the passenger side.
“That was fun,” I admitted.
“It was. I don’t know how I’ll top that, but I’ll try.”
“Let the games begin.”
As I drove Alise home, we continued to get to know one another.
At that point she probably knew everything from my blood type to what I had in my fridge.
I was an open book with nothing to hide.
Eventually, I wanted to slide between her thighs.
Not having sex was easy when there was no one tempting me and if Alise was good at anything it was taking my joint from limp to brick in less than five seconds.
I could break my fast at any time, but then I’d be pissed with myself.
As my pops used to say a man that lacks discipline isn’t a man.
“You like being a lawyer?” she randomly asked.
“Yeah, for the most part. There are days when I second guess my decision, but it has provided a stable and comfortable life. One that I don’t have to worry about or get PTSD from living through.”
“I have a love hate relationship when it comes to lawyers. Every time I see one of them defending someone that I know for a fact, and they know too that the person is guilty it rubs me the wrong way. Like for money, you want this criminal back out on the streets.”
“That can be tricky. Not going to lie if it’s some petty shit like drugs or fraud, I really don’t give a fuck.
Most of the white people advocating to hang niggas have done worse.
But when it comes to harming a child, rape, certain shit like that, if I think a person is guilty, I won’t take the case.
Dead ass. I’m not that thirsty for bread. ”
From my peripheral, I saw Alise shaking her head. “I’m ducking a man right now that calls me constantly for sex. He gets on my last nerve but you. Here you are abstaining from sex for thirty days, and you got me counting down the days to give you some.”
“I wasn’t expecting that one,” I laughed. If only Alise knew I wanted to have sex with her bad as hell. It was nice to know the feeling was mutual. “In due time.” I looked over and gave her a wink.
“I came up with something for our next date, but I don’t know if you’ll be with it.”
“Oh yeah, what’s that?”
“It’s couple’s yoga. Even though we aren’t a couple. It’s basically yoga for grown and sexy people. Now we’re going to end up in some compromising positions, so if you don’t want to do it, I understand.”
“You’re a bad influence for sure.”
Alise held her hands up in surrender. “If you want to wait we can. I totally understand.”
“Nah, let’s go. I like a challenge. When we doing it?”
“I can register us for the Friday class. It’s from 6-6:45.”
I gave a slight nod. “Forty-five minutes with an erection. Cool.”
Alisa laughed as I pulled in front of her house. I opened her door and followed her to her front door. “Tonight was nice,” I stared at her pretty face wondering if her pussy tasted as good as she always smelled.
“It was. Thank you,” she smiled.
Once she was safely inside, I jogged down the steps and walked to the car shaking my head. I needed to go home and take a cold shower for sure.
The next morning, I was sitting at my kitchen table eating breakfast when I did a double take.
Shani had both hands firmly gripping a walker, and she was sliding it and taking small steps across the floor.
It was the first time she had walked out of the room on her own since being at my house.
She had been doing physical therapy and obviously, it was working.
“Look at you.” I smiled. “Damn, I’m proud of you. You should have asked me to come in the room and help you. You don’t want to fall.”
“I-I-I’m tired of having a baby-s-s-sitter,” she spoke slowly. “Want to do something on my o-o-own.”
I nodded. Before her stroke, Shani lived alone.
She worked at the post office, and she was living her best life.
According to my kids, she had been depressed for a while when her dude went to the Feds but before she had the stroke, she was dating and traveling a lot.
No one would enjoy recovering from a stroke, but Shani was still young.
She wasn’t even fifty. The stroke came out of nowhere and changed her life in the blink of an eye.
Of course, the people that loved her were just glad she was alive, but it wasn’t shocking that she was having a hard time accepting where she was.
No one wanted their independence stripped away.
I stood up and pulled out a chair for Shani. “You want something to eat?”
“I’ll wait on m-ma. My h-h-hands shake too bad.” Her forehead wrinkled, and she appeared annoyed.
I popped the rest of my bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich into my mouth. “What you want? I’ll feed you.” Glancing at my watch I saw that I didn’t have to be at the office for another hour.
Shani eyed me like she wasn’t sure.
“What?” I laughed. “You don’t trust me?”
“I do,” she answered softly, “Thank you for l-l-l-l,” Shani closed her eyes and pushed out a hard breath. “Letting me stay here.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I did it for you, and I did it for our kids. I know you hated me for a long time, and maybe I deserved it. Just trying to right some of my wrongs by being a good person.”
“Cereal.” She didn’t respond to my statement.
Standing up, I went to the pantry and got the cereal that my daughter brought specifically for her mom.
I grabbed the milk from the fridge and a bowl from the cabinet.
Once the bowl was placed in front of her, I went into the bedroom to get her bib.
Shani looked down as I approached her with it.
I knew she couldn’t wait to get back to normal.
Even though I wasn’t the most religious person, I prayed numerous times that she would make a full recovery.
Sitting down, I scooted my chair closer to her and started feeding her the cereal.
I noticed dried saliva on her cheek and made a mental note to wash her face and brush her teeth when she was done eating.
The entire time I fed Shani, we sat in silence.
Memories ran through my head like a movie playing on a television screen.
I remembered the good and the bad. Each time she went into labor.
The time she was mad at me and got an abortion behind my back.
When I went and got a Benz, and she flattened my tires an hour later. That one made me laugh.
“You used to be mean as hell. You remember I came home with that new Benz, and you slashed the tires? I hadn’t even had the car for two hours man.”
The corner of her mouth lifted into a slight grin. “You won’t about to r-r-r-ride your hoes around.”
“You know I was young and dumb back then, right?”
“H-h-heavy on the dumb.”
The way I laughed was crazy. It was taking some fight, but Shani was coming back. The doorbell rang, and I knew it was her mother. I got up to let her in.
“Hey, Carter,” her mother spoke in a low tone. “She in a good mood today, or have you seen her?”
“She walked into the kitchen all by herself. I’m helping her eat some cereal now.”
“Oh.” I could hear the shock in her tone. As we made our way into the kitchen, she started apologizing. “I’m sorry I’m late. Tanya’s car wouldn’t start this morning, and I had to wait on Earl to come get me.”
I cleaned the kitchen and left for work.
It was a rare day that I didn’t have court.
I had transitioned into taking high profile cases.
Not because I wanted the attention but because after all the work I’d put in, I had earned the right to charge prices that some might view as astronomical.
There weren’t many that could afford my services.
And that allowed me to take on fewer clients and still live well.
I was past the days of working from sunup until sundown. I was giving law three more years, and then I was going to retire. I had some investments, a 401k, Roth IRA, and two savings accounts. By the time I retired my home would be paid off. I had been doubling up on payments for the past two years.
In the car, I thought about Alise. I was human.
There would definitely be times that I pissed her off or possibly even hurt her feelings, but I had no intention of doing her dirty.
Only time would tell where we ended up but one thing was for certain, and that was that I was going to prove to her that I was nothing like the fuck niggas that she had dated in the past.