Free The Playa Chronicles by Roy Glenn Page B

kitchen.
    “So you believe me now?”
    “I believe that’s what happened, but that don’t end it. I just have a problem believing that some woman you met once would just show up here and think that she had to lie to me. There must be more to it than that.”
    “She’s just aggressive like that.”
    “Bullshit, try again. No, let me put it to you like this: You tell me what you did to make her just come by here, and why she had to lie to me?”
    “Okay. I did go out to lunch with her once. But today was the first time I’ve seen her since then. We have talked a few times on the phone since then. But that’s it.”
    “So, if that’s all there was to it, why did she feel like she had to lie to me?”
    “’Cause she knows who you are. I talk about you all the time.”
    “ You’re not understanding me, Rick. Even if she knew who I was, why did she lie to me? I can’t get pass that.”
    “I guess she thinks she has a chance.”
    “Now we’re getting some where . So what did you do to make her feel like she has a chance of getting with you?”
    “April, I swear, I ain’t doing nothing to encourage that girl.”
    “What are you doing to discourage her?”
    “Huh?”
    “Don’t huh me. Did you tell her that you weren’t interested in her?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “Did you tell her that it would be easier to take the cold from snow then to make you cheat on me?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “You see what I’m saying? If you’re not doing anything to discourage her, you aren’t doing anything but making her think that she can get with you.”
    I knew she was right, so I decided to say it out loud. “You’re right, April.”
    “I know, I’m right. I see what kind of person she is. She talks shit and she’s funny as hell. I’m for real. She had me crackin ’ up out there. And I know you like that about her. But, Rick, you’re a flirt. You were a flirt when I met you and that hasn’t changed the whole time we’ve been together. I accept that about you. What you have to learn, playa , is that you can’t flirt with everybody.”
    “You’re right, April. I messed up.”
    “Yeah, you did. Okay, so this time it worked out. But you see the trouble this could have caused?”
    “I sure do.”
    “Suppose Victor wasn’t home? Suppose he deleted those messages? We’d be going for it right now and nothing you could have said would have convinced me that you hadn’t just gotten through having sex with her, and y’all just got caught.”
    “And you would have been wrong.”
    “But all that wouldn’t have been necessary. ’Cause it wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t allow it. Work with me, Rick. That’s all I’m saying. I know that you’re an attractive man and women are gonna try to get with you, but don’t put yourself in these positions. Ask yourself is flirting worth risking our trying to rebuild our relationship.”
    My answer would always be no. So I said it out loud. “My answer would always be no. I love you.” But the damage was done. April told me that I wasn’t ready and went home. I stood in the driveway and watched her drive away, knowing that I’d just done more damage to relationship. Damage that maybe I couldn’t fix. This shit sucks!

Vanessa’s Sex
    Vanessa was workin’ me. There was nothing else I can say about it. The girl was insatiable. She’d call me just about every day, and at all hours of the night.
    “I’m coming over.”
    Always a statement, never a question. But I don’t care, because sex with her is incredible, and we’d go for it into the early hours of the morning. There are plenty of days when I’m surprised that I can stay focused at work, because some nights I don’t sleep. Days like this one.
    My feet began to hurt, so I sat down on the curb. If there was one thing I hated, it was waiting. I hate missing the beginning of a movie; I’d rather not see it. And it was getting dangerously close to that time. I looked at my watch; it was 8:05. The new