It's Only Love (The Matthews Family)

“Good. What do you want to know about him?”

“He’s not fatal or anything?”

“Victor? No. He’s not like that.”

“Does he have a girlfriend?”

“Not anymore.”

“What happened?”

“You should be asking Victor this stuff. Or are you trying to verify his story?”

“Believe it or not, it never came up.”

“His ex-girlfriend, Chantel,” Vanessa paused. “She started getting on his nerves.”

“Really? Why?”

“Honestly, the bitch was crazy. So he dismissed her.”

“He dismissed her?” I asked with a bit of an attitude. “So he thinks he’s all that, huh?”

“No, girl, Victor’s not like that. But he does have them screaming. One night me and Paul had too much to drink, and Victor insisted that we stay and sleep in his bed. Okay, cool, so some time during the night somebody came by and he had her screaming so loud it woke us up.” Vanessa paused a moment. “I shouldn’t have told you that.”

“Why not? That’s exactly the type of thing I need to know.”

The next day when I woke up in bed with Lloyd, on Saturday morning, after going out with Victor again, his last words are the first words I think of.

Maybe you’ll think about tonight and it will make you smile tomorrow.

It did.

I laid there smiling for a while, thinking about the night before. Then I looked over at Lloyd, and that was it for the smile. I was just about to get out of bed when Lloyd woke up. After our usual good-morning chitchat, I started to get up, but Lloyd wanted to have sex.

“You’ve been acting real funny lately, Natasha.” He said moving closer to me. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. What are you talking about?”

But I knew exactly what he was talking about. Because of the way things are between us, I haven’t exactly been making myself available to have sex with him.

“We haven’t done it all week.” Lloyd said rubbing my thigh. “It’s like you’re avoiding me.”

“What makes you say that?” I said, starting to cringe at his touch.

“You’re always asleep or too tired every night.”

“Well, you could try coming to bed sometimes. That might help.”

“No. You being awake when I come to bed is what would help.”

No he did not actually say that to me. It made me feel like sex was the only real purpose I served for him. Like I was some high-priced hooker and he was my client.

“Okay.” I sat up in bed and took off my gown.

And if that’s all I meant to him, then that’s how I’ll treat him.

“Come on.”