The Other Side of the Pillow

“Tevin, I get it. Then again, I don’t. You dealt with the loss the best way that you could and you were there for her. She shut you out. I remember. I was there. I was the one you talked to because she wouldn’t even discuss it. Sure, it was probably harder on her. It wasn’t that you couldn’t get her pregnant. It was because she couldn’t carry to term.

“We’re both doctors so you and I both know that everyone’s body is not the same. It never weakened your love for her. It simply got to the point where the pain of looking at each other was too much. You’d work overtime and sleep in your office at the hospital to avoid going home. That was no way to live. Let that go.”

“I have let it go. We’ve been divorced for years. She told me she’s engaged and thinking about adoption.”

Floyd stared at me. “And how do you feel about that?”

“I’m happy for her.” He eyed me suspiciously. “I am. I did love Estella, but if I’m being honest with myself, I never loved her as much as I love Jemistry.”

“Wow! I have got to meet this chick who has you all sappy and shit.”

I chuckled. “She’s a remarkable woman.”

“Well, we can’t do dinner next weekend but what about Wednesday night?”

“I’m cool for that day and I’ll check with her.”

“Let me guess. You brought up what happened with Estella because you’re ready to propose to Jemistry?”

“Something like that, but I’m afraid it might run her away. Jemistry’s not that trusting.”

“So why be with a chick who doesn’t trust you?”

“I never said she didn’t trust me. It’s only that she trusted the men in her past who hurt and abused her. She doesn’t know whether I’m a lunatic or not. You know that’s not the case, but she doesn’t.”

“I feel you. That’s what happens when a lot of the men out there do trifling shit and then make women bitter for the next man.”

I could not believe Floyd had the nerve to say that when he was cheating on Courtney on the regular, like it was his part-time career. I decided not to bring it up again. If he wanted to believe that he was dropping nuggets of wisdom, so be it.

I settled in, opened another beer, and started watching ESPN. Even though I believed that Jemistry loved me, and it showed in her actions, she still had yet to admit it. Part of me had to wonder if I was imagining that she felt the same way for me as I felt for her.

Chapter Fifteen

“Immature love says ‘I love you because I need you.’ Mature love says ‘I need you because I love you.’?”

—Erich Fromm

It was Memorial Day Weekend and Jemistry was floating on cloud nine since school was about to let out. She was also a bit overwhelmed with trying to get everything done. Medgar Evers had had their graduation the weekend before. More than six hundred graduates. It was a big-ass school. Jemistry had to stand onstage for all that time. Her principal’s speech was astounding and motivational. She told everyone that it was crucial not to allow dream stealers and reality stealers to prevent them from going after their goals. She spoke nothing but the truth.

She also told them that it was important for them to determine whether they wanted a steady paycheck from working forty hours a week, fifty weeks a year, or whether they wanted to be an entrepreneur and get paid based on their own efforts. She explained that neither one of those choices was any better than the other. It was whatever each person felt comfortable with. Her main concern was that they do something after making it through high school. Work, college, the military, something other than simply giving up like so many do.

After the graduation, I had gone out with her to celebrate with a few of the kids and their families. One of the parents had rented out the ballroom at the Renaissance Hotel on K Street. We had a great time chilling with them all. The food was good, the music was on point, but I must admit that the way the teenagers were dancing—in front of their parents no less—threw me for a loop.

They were doing something called the Red Nose, where girls spread their legs apart, and then shake their asses up on the boys like red nose pit bulls, and some other freaky shit that I had never seen. The parents joined in when they started doing the Wobble, a line dance. Jemistry even got out on the floor on that one. She couldn’t act too loose around the students or parents. She told me once that with everything going viral, it was important not to get caught up in some foolishness. Not as a principal. I didn’t need that as a highly respected surgeon either.

Earlier in the week, we had had dinner with Floyd and Courtney at Art and Soul on Capitol Hill. The two women hit it off well and exchanged numbers, making plans to do a spa day together in the near future.

Floyd pulled me aside when we were waiting for the valets to retrieve our cars after dinner and said, “None of my business during pillow talk, man. Looks like our women are about to become chummy and I don’t need any drama.”

I whispered to him, “Maybe you should tame it down like you said you would. I’m still hearing about your dirt, Water Cooler Dick. Something about a threesome in a maintenance supply closet last week?”

Floyd smirked. “I couldn’t turn that one down. Two hyperactive nursing assistants at once? It was out of this world.”

I shook my head as they pulled up with my Benz. Jemistry was hugging Courtney a few yards away. “Okay, I keep warning you, but you’re going to have to learn the hard way. You can come stay with me when your wife kicks you out.”

Floyd chuckled. “Not going to happen.”

“Famous last words.”