Crazy in Love 2 Page 5

  Not too long after their first meeting, Sean began dating Brandi. He found out that she was even cooler and down to earth than what he initially thought she would be. To say that Brandi was enjoyable and a pleasure to be with was an understatement. A former bad girl, she had a vibrant personality and most of all, she was a tigress in the bedroom. But unfortunately, their union was short-lived, thanks to Yadira Cruz’s jealous antics.

  Sean’s troubles began when Yadira called him one night, looking for a place to stay.

  It was not too long after getting into a physical altercation with Devin, her live-in boyfriend, and she was extremely upset about what happened. Sean hated to hear his friend cry. Yadira claimed that she had nowhere to go. So being a supportive friend, Sean insisted that Yadira and Jada, her five-year-old daughter, come to stay with him while she sorted some things out. What Sean didn’t realize is that he opened a huge can of worms.

  The first week of Yadira staying in his home was pretty much drama-free and uneventful. That is, until one moment of weakness between him and her changed the dynamics of their friendship forever.

  After returning from a delightful first date with his newfound love interest, Brandi, Sean was unaware that he was in for a big surprise when he got home. Not bothering to walk upstairs to his bedroom, Sean chose to stay downstairs in his family room. He stripped down to his underwear, turned on the big-screen television, and made himself comfortable on the couch. Just as he was about to doze off, Yadira appeared downstairs. He hadn’t expected her to still be awake because it was pretty late. But there she was, standing in front of him with a T-shirt and no panties on.

  With the help the dim light coming from the television, Sean caught a glimpse of Yadira’s D-cup breasts. Her hardened nipples protruded through the thin material of the T-shirt that she was wearing and her freshly scrubbed thick mane of hair hung down her back. Yadira’s bronze-colored sun-kissed skin was practically glistening from the coconut oil that she rubbed on all over her body.

  Out of the blue, Yadira began thanking him profusely for welcoming her and her daughter, Jada, into his home. Then she went to embrace him. If her mission was to seduce Sean, it was definitely working. He had always been physically attracted to Yadira and she knew that so Sean was immediately turned on by the gesture. He felt his manhood rising and immediately after that, their friendly hug turned into an intimate kiss.

  Yadira cut the kiss short to take Sean’s erect penis into her juicy mouth. He felt like he was in heaven as she sucked and licked on his rod like a porn star. For several minutes, Sean massaged the insides of Yadira’s mouth, as the saliva dripped down the shaft of his long dick. She sucked on his testicles and ran her tongue around the “taint,” a highly sensitive area under his testicles. Sean grabbed onto the arm of the couch and began moaning. He couldn’t take any more of the delicious foreplay. He wanted all of Yadira.

  Sean quickly pulled her up from her knees. “Bring your sexy ass up here and sit on this dick,” he whispered.

  Yadira smiled and climbed on top of his stiff erection. Sean entered her, slowly grinding inside of her tight walls. He closed his eyes, taking in the sounds of Yadira’s wet pussy making gushy noises.

  As their session got more intense, she grabbed Sean’s waist, pulling him deeper into her. In the meantime, Yadira whispered nasty nothings into his ear.

  “Fuck me harder, baby,” she said softly. “You know that you wanted this pussy for a while now, baby.”

  That much was true. Their sexual escapade had been a long time coming for the both of them.

  After a long night of unadulterated sex, the next day, Sean mistakenly thought that things were going to be back to normal. But like most women, Yadira’s whole attitude changed after they had sex. She became extremely jealous and her control issues began rearing its ugly head.

  Judging from her actions, Sean knew that they had crossed the line and their sexual interlude may have possibly cost him a ten-year friendship with Yadira. Unable to deal with Sean’s bachelor lifestyle, Yadira moved out of his house. And his casual reaction to her leaving angered the highly sensitive Yadira even more. That was when she started making Sean’s life a living hell.

  The first incident with Yadira occurred one evening while Brandi was visiting his house. On this day, Brandi and Sean had spent hours making passionate love to each other in his plush king-sized bed. Sean wanted Brandi to spend the night but that was a no-go; she had to work the next morning. Disappointed, he got dressed and walked her downstairs to the front door.

  After watching Brandi pull off in her vehicle, an exhausted Sean turned off the lights downstairs. As he was headed back upstairs, he put his hand on the banister, and a key fell to the floor. Sean paused for a moment, trying to remember if he had put the key there. Then it hit him. That mystery key was indeed the spare that he’d given to Yadira while she was staying with him.

  Yadira must have let herself in the house, hoping to find him at home alone. It was a pretty good chance she heard all of the sex noises coming from his bedroom. So she left the key on the banister and walked back out of the house.

  Sean’s paranoia set in. He checked all of the rooms in the house. When he discovered that the coast was clear, he felt a little better. But it didn’t stop him from worrying.

  Now, Sean felt himself getting upset all over again. To that day, he was still unable to believe that Yadira took her life, leaving him to live with the guilt of it all. And he never once mentioned Yadira to his wife. He preferred to act like the suicide never happened. It was so much easier to do that.

  After Sean finished cleaning the family room, he ran upstairs to the kitchen and grabbed an ice-cold Corona from the refrigerator. It was a Friday night, Milan was out of town on business, and he didn’t have to work that weekend. With a little free time on his hands, Sean didn’t want to spend a restless night at home, watching Netflix movies; he wanted out of that house.

  Sean picked up his cell phone to call Rasheed, his partner in crime. Rasheed Gordon was one of Sean’s oldest and closest friends. They had known each other since they were babies and their now-deceased grandmothers were extremely close to each other. Even their mothers were best friends.

  Both of the men were raised in the same Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood that they presently lived in. It was a place that they never strayed too far away from. And in that same neighborhood was where the two rambunctious boys would constantly get into some mischief. Sean laughed as he recalled the numerous butt whippings that he and Rasheed received from their grandmothers and other extended family members. Those whippings and the village that they grew up in were what shaped Sean and Rasheed into the men they were.

  But unlike Rasheed, who continued down the path to become a criminal, Sean put the brakes on his roguish behavior. He chose a career as a NYC correction officer while his boy ended up on the other side of the cell. But their loyalty to each other was incomparable to most friendships. Their different lifestyles never affected their close bond with each other.

  “What’s up, my brother?” Rasheed said, as soon as he answered the phone.

  “Yo, Big Rah!” Sean said with a hint of enthusiasm in his voice. “What are you getting into tonight, man?” he asked. “A nigga’s bored to death, it’s Friday night, and Milan is out of town for the weekend. What’s up?”

  “Man, listen, if you’re ready to go, I got dough to blow! What time do you want me to pick you up?” Rasheed said excitedly.

  Sean laughed. “I know you got the dough to blow! Why do you think I’m calling you to hang out? Drinks on you, man!” he said.

  Rasheed laughed. “Fuck you, slime!” he replied, calling Sean by their nickname for each other. “Maybe you should be the one treating me tonight. Last time I heard you were making six figures and your wife works in the music industry, motherfucker! I smell money, nigga!”

  Sean nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m not gonna lie, shit is pretty good on my end. Me and wifey are do
ing our thing.”

  “Damn! I can’t believe that my boy, Sean Diggedy Dog, is really married!” Rasheed said. “Who woulda thunk it?”

  Sean took a swig of his Corona. “Yeah, man. A brother’s married. And as much as I tried to avoid this bullshit in my younger years, I’m not gonna front, I kind of dig it now. Milan is my soul mate, man. Word!”

  Rasheed brushed off Sean’s last statement. “Man, please! You said the same thing about Brandi, nigga!” he teased.

  A confused look came over Sean’s face. “I don’t remember saying nothing about Brandi being my soul mate,” he lied. “As a matter of fact, why you even had to bring her name up? Damn! Gonna have me thinking about her ass!”

  Rasheed laughed. “Well, I clearly remember you telling me that that broad was your soul mate, nigga,” he said. “Don’t make me into a liar!”

  Sean groaned. “I really don’t remember saying that,” he said in a low voice. He felt a pounding headache coming on.

  “By the way, man, what’s up with the broad anyway?” Rasheed asked.

  “Man, how we even start talking about Brandi? I don’t know where Brandi is nor do I give a fuck about what’s up with her.”

  Rasheed laughed. “Ah, man! Don’t take shit so serious. I’m just fucking with you.”

  Sean didn’t know whether to be frustrated with Rasheed for reminding him of Brandi or aggravated with himself for thinking about her. He was definitely into Brandi back then. But after Yadira’s suicide left him emotionally drained, Sean didn’t have the willpower to be the man she needed him to be. He ended having to let her go and had been secretly regretting it ever since.

  “Yo, Sean!” Rasheed screamed into the phone. “What’s up with you, man? Are you daydreaming or something?”

  Sean’s mind was always drifting, which was another one of his problems. He was constantly thinking about how he could have done things differently with Yadira and Brandi. If only he would have known better back then . . .

  Then again, there was no need for him to cry over spilled milk. After all, he was happily married to Milan.

  “Like I told you, man, Brandi and I haven’t spoken to each other in years,” Sean said, brushing off the notion of ever seeing or speaking to the woman again. “And besides, I wasn’t nothing but drama for that chick. She ain’t trying to see me no more.”

  “You don’t know what homegirl is thinking,” Rasheed said, who was suddenly advocating for Brandi. “You let that suicide shit fuck you up, man! I don’t understand why you never gave Brandi another chance after that.”

  “Yo, Rah,” Sean began. “What’s up with you, dude? Are you a spokesperson for Brandi now? You don’t fucking like my wife or something, man?”

  Rasheed chuckled. “Man, I’m not no spokesperson for anybody! And Milan is cool; I ain’t got nothing against her. It’s just that when you said that Milan was your soul mate, I remember you saying the same damn thing about Brandi! Just thought a nigga would remind you of what you said, that’s all.”

  Sean sighed. “Okay, so if I did say that, maybe I thought that Brandi was my soul mate back then. But it ain’t no need to bring her name up anymore, man. Brandi probably got herself a man or husband by now.”

  Rasheed wasn’t trying to leave the topic alone. “I will bet you money that Brandi don’t have a man! She’s probably still hanging around and waiting for some knight in shining armor nigga to rescue her ass. Or maybe she’s waiting on you, homie!”

  “Nah, she ain’t waiting on me, man! I have my wife. I’m good!”

  “Yeah, a’ight. But if you were to run into Brandi right now, tell me you wouldn’t try to fuck her?”

  Sean was beginning to get impatient with Rasheed. “Please, man! I ain’t thinking about no Brandi, Yadira, or any other fucking broad right now,” he said, in a defensive tone. “I’m married now and that’s it!”

  “Okay, okay, calm down, young man!” Rasheed said.

  Sean quickly moved from the Brandi topic on to something else. “Anyway, man, what’s up for tonight, yo?” he asked. “Are we hanging out or what? Milan is about to board a plane to Atlanta and I’m a free agent for the next forty-eight hours. I wanna have me some fun.”

  “Word, man, I wanna hang out too. Shit, I’m in search of a new side chick. I had to drop the last one.”

  “Damn! She had a fat old ass! What happened with her?” Sean asked.

  “The usual bullshit! The broad lied. She told me that she could handle being the side chick. Then after about six, seven months of us fucking around, this bitch started calling and texting my phone all times of night so I had to let that go! Told the broad that this shit ain’t gonna work!”

  Sean began cracking up. “Yo, take it from me, man, it was good to dead that situation before it got out of control! Them side pieces always wanna get mad at a nigga and spill the beans. That’s why I’m faithful to my woman. So what time should I be ready?”

  “Look, man, I’ll be in front of your crib at twelve-thirty a.m. on the dot. Don’t have me waiting outside all night for your bitch ass, neither! Be ready or else be ready to get left, slime ball!” Rasheed said.

  Sean sucked his teeth. “Whatever, man! You gotta wait for me; I’m your boy!”

  “I ain’t gotta do shit but stay black and die, slime!”

  They both laughed at the joke and disconnected the call.

  After hanging up with Rasheed, the bored Sean looked at the clock on his living room wall. It was still early. Then his phone rang again. This time, it was his wife.

  “Hey, babe,” Milan said. “Just wanted to let you that I’m about to board this flight.”

  Sean began walking upstairs to his bedroom. “That’s good, babe! You have a safe flight and call me after you get settled in tonight.”

  “Okay, my love,” she replied. “Love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  Sean smiled and put the phone on the nightstand next to his bed. Now that he’d heard from his wife, he could relax before hanging out with Rasheed for the night. Within minutes, he was sound asleep.

  Chapter 3

  Almost an hour after her excursion to Halsey Street, Brandi finally arrived home from work. She walked into her large two-bedroom apartment, half expecting for her three-year-old grandson, Little Shamari, to greet her at the door with a hug. He always made her feel so much better. But he didn’t live there anymore.

  And she missed her son, too. Brandi’s son and the father of her grandson, twenty-three-year-old Shamari, had recently moved into another two-bedroom apartment. After he moved out, Brandi had a hard time dealing with the empty nest syndrome. But she was proud of the way her son had stepped up his duties as a single father and a man, since the mother of his son, Amber Johnson, passed away during childbirth. Amber was only eighteen years old then and Shamari was still an inmate on Rikers Island at the time of her death.

  Amber’s untimely death shed new light on the wayward Shamari’s life, forcing him to rethink some things. So after doing eighteen months in jail for armed robbery, he was released in September of 2010. That following year, in March of 2011, Shamari was called for a job with the Department of Sanitation. Because of Shamari’s demanding schedule with the job, Brandi, along with Amber’s mother, was more than happy to step up to the plate and help him out with the baby. Everything definitely worked out for the best.

  Brandi walked into her bedroom. She quickly stripped down to her bra and panties, catching a quick glimpse of herself in the mirror.

  “Not looking too bad for a forty-year-old grandmother,” she said aloud, admiring her shapely frame from front to back.

  Brandi wasn’t only happy about her appearance. With all of the things that had occurred during her life, she was lucky to still be alive.

  Brandi, along with her three older brothers, was raised in a single-parent home with a mother who never volunteered much information about their biological father. Nevertheless, Mama Wallace was a hardworking woman, who worked two jobs in order to
support her brood. Because of this, Brandi, the youngest and the only girl, spent lots of time with no parental supervision. Between her mother’s demanding work schedule and her fascination with the fast life, the teenage Brandi was well on her way to becoming a handful of trouble.

  Like most children who lacked discipline and structure in the home, all four of the Wallace siblings took to the streets. As anyone would expect, serious trouble found the inquisitive Brandi and her brothers.

  The boys formed alliances with some of the neighborhood’s shadiest characters and embraced a lifestyle that exposed them to lots of street beef and lengthy jail sentences, as well. As for their little sister, her problems began when she turned twelve years old. Because she was so advanced for her age, Brandi ran with a pack of girls who were much older than her. They taught her how to roll and smoke weed-filled blunts. Then they showed her how to boost high-end designer clothing from stores like Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom.

  Driven by her newfound popularity, Brandi spent the rest of her teenage years wreaking havoc on unsuspecting females, and guys, too, just for the heck of it. It was no secret that everyone considered her to be a tough cookie and she was, especially after having to look out for herself for so long.

  Then one day, not too long before her sixteenth birthday, Brandi met a man who would rewrite the story of her life. His name was Maleek Mitchell.

  Maleek was a local drug dealer, who had discovered early on that crack-cocaine was a lucrative way to make him some serious dollars. Brandi used to see Maleek around the hood from time to time and when she did, he always seemed to be driving some hot car and flashing money, too. The pubescent Brandi knew that she was not in Maleek’s league; she was nothing but a kid to him. But she didn’t care about that. She promised herself that if she ever got the opportunity, she was going to approach him. She was determined to convince Maleek that she could hold her own.