I just sat there; stunned. It was the one night Raina decided not to work late. A minute hadn’t passed before the shouting began. “I’m tired of you accusing me of shit I haven’t done!”
I got dressed, went into the kitchen and tried to wash the scent of Jelisa from my face. Instead of hiding, I decided to stroll into the living room as innocently as possible. Of course, I picked the worst fucking possible moment. Jelisa was crying again and waving her arms frantically. “You spent the entire afternoon with her.”
Raina’s voice had returned to normal, but the way her jaw was clenched you knew she could fly off again any second. “I told you I needed to stop by her house to drop off some paperwork. I got there around four and didn’t stay for more than five minutes.”
“You left her house at five-thirty! Somebody saw you.”
“Who?”
“It doesn’t make a difference who. You are busted!”
That’s when my size nines walked into the living room and they both turned to look at me. Jelisa was still screaming, but my eyes were locked with Raina’s. “You’re my girl and everything,” I said, “but wrong is wrong. I saw you kissing Trina and I didn’t think Jelisa should be kept in the dark.”
Raina didn’t even blink. “You had to tell her in person, so that you could be here to comfort her?”
Jelisa didn’t appreciate being ignored and stepped right up in Raina’s face. “If you had been where you were supposed to be, none of this would have happened.”
“Okay, fine.” Raina pulled out her cell phone and stepped out on the porch.
I walked over to Jelisa, but she wouldn’t even look at me. “You have soap on your chin,” she said.
When Raina came back inside, she put a key on the bookcase. “I don’t need this any more.” Jelisa started to say something, but Raina wasn’t having it. “You could have at least waited to ask me about it first, but you’ve been looking for any excuse to fuck my so-called friend, right?”
The tissue Jelisa had been using had disintegrated and she was wiping her running makeup with the back of her hand. “Why are you always blaming other people for your mistakes?”
“Let’s go for a ride.” A smirk slowly spread across Raina’s face and she issued a challenge to me. “Come on, Narcia. Why don’t you show us exactly what you saw?”
Before I could say anything, Jelisa was back to yelling. “I don’t want to talk to Trina. That bitch would say anything for you.”
Raina never took her eyes off of me. “No, she wouldn’t. Besides, I’m not about to drag her into this mess. I just want to show you that Narcia couldn’t possibly have seen what she told you.”
This seemed too good to be true. Raina wasn’t even fighting to keep her girl, but I didn’t appreciate her trying to throw the spotlight back on me. I figured she was bluffing, so I decided to take her up on it. “Jelisa, I know what I saw. Your ex-girl is just trying to save face.” Then, I nodded to Raina. “Let’s go.”
I thought Raina was going to punk out at the last minute, but we were zooming down I-83 before I could button my jacket. She made both of us sit in the back. There were no more tears, but Jelisa alternated between staring at the back of Raina’s head and glaring at me.
At night, the Franklin Square area was deserted. We parked on the street and walked to the same corner I had seen them from. I pointed out Trina’s townhouse. “See, I have a perfect view. You can see the whole courtyard from this spot.”
The fire came back into Jelisa’s eyes. “This ain’t nothing but some bullshit. Don’t waste my time. All the crap you have left at my house will be sitting outside in the morning. It’s trash day, so you better get it early.”
Raina smiled at me and then turned to Jelisa. “Why don’t you ask your new girl what time it is?”
Jelisa was confused. “What? It’s seven-thirty. What does that have to do with anything?”
I looked up at the clock tower. It was still five-thirty. I made this gargling sound; words were caught in my throat. That’s when Jelisa started screaming at me. She had seen it, too.
Raina started laughing. “That clock hasn’t worked in months, so it’s always five-thirty in Franklin Square.”
Jelisa was bawling her eyes out and punching me in the chest. Then, Stephanie’s car pulled up. It clicked—that’s who Raina had called.
As my best friend drove away, I could feel the gates of hell closing in on me.
Tawanna Sullivan is the webmaster for Kuma (www.kuma2.net), a website which encourages black lesbians to write and share erotica. Her work has appeared in Longing, Lust, and Love: Black Lesbian Stories, Iridescence: Sensuous Shades of Lesbian Erotica, and Spirited: Affirming The Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity. She lives in New Jersey with her civil union partner, Martina.
Pleasures
Elissa Gabrielle
H ere she comes again, hips swaying to the beat of an African drummer, full and satisfying, as her tits bounce in beat to the drums; look at her, pure perfection. I see her crossing the street, working her way toward my day spa, Pleasures, with the strut of a goddess. She’s been coming in here for two weeks now, invading my mental for most nights since her inception. My eyes follow Toni’s every move as she approaches me, which seems to be in slow motion, unless of course, she is so fly that viewing her in real time may be just too much for a sistah. The confidence in her stride, coupled with golden brown skin, on a five-foot-nine-inch voluptuous frame, laced with sweet, full honey-coated lips, light brown eyes, and soft jet black ringlet curls cascading down her neck, and off her shoulders, sends a chill through my spine that works its way through my entire being, finally landing on my clitoris, which bulges, throbs, pulsates in anticipation of her.