I was ready to go. Sandra was starting to depress me. But I felt like I had to hear her out. I considered Sandra a friend, and she was baring her soul to me. The last thing she needed was for me to seem disinterested, or that I didn’t care because I was getting mine. I looked over at Sandra. She looked so sad sitting there straining to rub her neck. I got up and walked behind her chair. I moved her hands out of the way and began to massage her neck. "Damn, girl. You really are tense."
"That’s what I been trying to tell you. I’m surprised that I don’t have big bumps all over my face."
"Maybe you should buy some toys or something, make it fun."
"I thought about that, don’t think I didn’t. But I’m just too ashamed to go up in one of those places."
"Why? Everybody in there is there for the same reason: trying to find just the right thing to make it more interesting."
"You ever been to one?"
"Me and Taye go sometimes." At least we used to. "Some of the stuff they got is pretty wild."
"But you do it together. That’s what’s important. Y’all do it together. Right there, Devin. Yeah, that feels good." She was rocking her head from side to side.
"Maybe you should take him with you. I mean, that will serve two purposes. You’d be doing something together, and then you get to go home and have some fun doing something together."
"A little lower. Between my shoulder blades." Sandra unbuttoned a few buttons on her blouse and pushed it off her shoulders. Under that blouse she was wearing a spaghetti strapped black lace teddy. "Thought I was kidding about the lace, huh? I like the way it feels against my skin. Makes me feel sexy."
I stopped.
"Don’t stop. You were just gettin’ there."
"Chill out. Who’s doing this? You just sit there and relax. Leave the hard work to me. Cool?"
"Cool. Just don’t stop. Cool?"
"Cool."
"Cool."
Neither of us said anything for a while. I marveled at how many similarities there were between the way Ike used to treat Sandra, and the way me and Taye were.
"Anyway, Devin, I’ve tried everything. I just don’t know what else to do," Sandra said, as she hunched her shoulders. "It wasn’t always like this. When we were in Texas, my God, he was all over me—all the time. In the bed, on the stairs, anywhere. There wasn’t a piece of furniture that we hadn’t done it on. Surprised me for lunch, and sometimes we’d just go to the motel and get busy for lunch." She laughed. "I remember one night we had planned to go to dinner, and he was supposed to pick me up when I got off work, right? I didn’t see him, so I started to get in my car and drive home. I opened the door, and there were a dozen roses on the front seat, and he was hiding in the backseat. He was so attentive. He’d call me four, five times a day. You know what I’m talking ’bout, like you call Taye. Now, hmmph, when the phone rings, I know it’s not him."
"Doesn’t even sound like the same guy. What happened?"
"I have no clue. After we moved here, things just changed."
"Why’d y’all move here anyway?"
"Opportunity. I wasn’t getting anywhere in San Antonio."
"What about Ike?"
"Huh?"
"I didn’t stutter. What about Ike?"
"What do you mean, ‘what about Ike’?"
"I mean, how did he feel about it? How was he doing in San Antonio? I mean, was he all for the move?"
"He wasn’t with it at all at first, but he came around."
"How did you convince him?"
"I just told him I was going with or without him." Then she smiled a very satisfied smiled.