How Did I Get Here: A Novella Read online

  “Look, I’m not telling you not to be a man, just don’t jack up your marriage over something that’s not worth it. Trust me I been there before and drama is not something you want to full around with when it comes down to it; especially when kids and money are involved. I have one seed and that was more than enough to go in and out of court about, but you my friend have two with another one on the way so just keep it simple and walk the other way. Being a player is dirty business and you have to develop a rugged heart to do so; so if you don’t want that responsibility I suggest you abort the mission. I been out of the military for a while, but I do know the lingo.”

  “Hey man, thanks for the advice, but like you said I am going to get it, because at home it is not happening and if I do anything with Delight, it’s an argument right after we get done.”

  “Black man, I’m not in your house, but all I know is that she loves you, because I get tired of hearing your name when I talk to her, so be cool and get back at me.”

  Preston figured he was getting into something with Lisa, because he hung up the phone rather abruptly, so Prestondidn’t even bother to call back. The way Longs put it, he felt like he was at a crossroads now. How do you carry on when your own boy doesn’t completely have your back? Sure Preston knew it was sticky business, but he’s been married since he was twenty-three! There was so much more he could be engaging in. What was the point of staying in a marriage that he didn’t want to be in? Well, maybe he did like his marriage, but if he would’ve met someone like Lustray, it would have been twice as better! Maybe he should have been more assertive in college or more outgoing to explore some more. This was something of unfamiliar territory, but there was no way that he was going to be denied this challenge. He really did feel something take over him and telling him that being single was the best way to go.

  XIX

  Preston finally touched down at Columbus International Airport. He made sure that he wore his Under Armour shirt to accentuate his muscles in his newly “trained” frame and wore his best smelling Versace cologne, and his Sean John shades. He looked around to see if he could rapidly identify the attire Lustray texted him while he was landing. “Okay, blue miniskirt and a spaghetti strap top,” he whispered to himself. He saw one lady with a spaghetti strap top and thank goodness it was not her, because he did not remember her being that “beasty” in the arms.

  “That girl could throw me somewhere for a few rounds”, Preston ruminated to himself. As he approached the exit, he felt someone pinch the left cheek of his butt and heard that delightful voice again.

  “Hey girl, what you doing harassing people in the airport,” Preston responded flirtatiously as he peered over his left shoulder.

  “Well if its mine for the weekend, it’s not harassment, its consensual”. She looked as good as she did in the club, and had some hips that she maneuvered very well with what she was wearing. All of the brothers in the airport kept taking double takes at her back as her and Preston marched through the corridor towards the parking lot. Preston knew this was risky business to walk with a complete stranger compatibly in public where everyone could see them in broad daylight. Not to mention that they both went to Christian churches and there were people that knew them and their families. Obviously, Lustray didn’t care, because she was on her way to divorcing her husband until she got the money to do so. But, Preston had other things to worry about; like how was he going to get out of her house and get his car from the airport without Lustray getting suspicious? Preston almost got a headache just trying to think about it, but as usual he was confident in his abilities to wiggle out of any tight situation that may come his way. After all, he was a young man that graduated from a college that was ready to kick him out! To alleviate some of the self inflicted stress on himself he decided that he would just focus on the evening and worry about all the other stuff later. He tried reminding himself that Jesus said, “don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow has its own problems”. Preston you know in your right mind that quote does not apply here and this can’t go on forever!

  Lustray parked her Acura right outside the airport and Preston was ready for a night of mischief. “So are you ready for tonight”, she hunched as she cut her eye at him and licked her teeth.

  Nervously Preston responded, “Well, I’m down for whatever, I don’t have anything to do for the next couple of days.” He wondered how far she was thinking about going. Then Preston began to have second thoughts. He began to think that maybe it could be some type of trap and he wouldn’t be able to make it back home to his wife and kids. Then again, she could be a super freak and have mad girls over there just wanting to “get down with the get down” for a wild weekend. Preston seriously denied the latter and just focused on taking his time and feeling her out, before he jumped to any conclusions.

  Finally, they made it to the car and the inside smelled like peaches and cream with some Al Green on 98.9 FM; one of his favorite radio stations in Central Ohio!

  “See girl, this is what I’m talking about some nice mellowed out music to just chill. You’re my kind of people” Preston jingled as he bopped his head to the music playing moderately in the car.

  The ride to her place was only about ten minutes and if he didn’t know any better they looked like they were headed in the direction to where he lived! Oh no this is too close, she has to get cut off at immediately! Preston looked down at his wedding finger to make sure that the tan line from his wedding band was not visible at all. He felt that he did a pretty good job not wearing it for the last couple of weeks and just bathing it in the sun so there wouldn’t be any conversation about it. Preston almost felt like he just wanted to tell her everything, but the joy and excitement on her face gave him a warm feeling as he overheard her bragging to her family and friends about him.

  As they sat in the parking lot of the apartment complex waiting for her to wrap up her phone conversation she glanced over at him, hung up the phone, and said “You know what…I am in awe of your presence. You look even sexier, than you did a few weeks ago and even a little smarter than you sound. I think it’s very attractive when a man such as yourself could be so gifted physically and possess so much intellect.”

  “All I can say is that it is God given and I do what I can, there is no one but God that has control over any of this stuff I have been blessed with.” Oops! Preston began to chastise himself for sounding too preachy, but he thought he could work on it.

  “We’re herrrrre,” she sang as she got out of the car and walked up to the house to open the door with her key. “I had the girls play at the park all day today and tired them out so there will be no interruptions while you are sleeping. If you need to take a shower the towels are upstairs and dinner is already on the table with some wine. I already had a little bit so you better watch out! I am going to change so I will be out in a minute.”

  Preston was in awe himself the way things were laid out for him. “This girl is well organized and really can ruin my life,” he gasped to himself as he saw all of the asparagus and lemon pepper chicken neatly placed on his reserved plate with a candle burning in the middle of the table. He was really tired after the long flight so he figured he would just go to sleep right after he ate and took a shower. That was until he saw what would freeze his eyes in their sockets a few minutes later. The next thing he knew he saw Lustray come down in a fishnet outfit with some black stiletto boots that just made his manhood rise up like the Chief of Iron Fist Indian Tribe! Suddenly, Preston could not concentrate on his food and could not believe that he was getting ready to be someone’s sex slave for a whole weekend. Preston never received this kind of treatment at home and all he could think about was using the nicely cooked dinner as an aid for the late night festivities.

  Preston stopped eating abruptly, looked at Lustray, looked at the plate of food and asked, “Do you mind if we kill two birds with one stone and shall we say have dinner and make magic at the same time?”

  Without any hesitation Lustray
blurted out, “I’ll take the cranberry sauce and wine”, and ran upstairs as fast as she could with Preston following as he took all of his bags upstairs so her daughters would not ask any questions in the morning.

  The mission for Preston this weekend would be “Incognegro”!

  XX

  Preston awoke the next morning to some oral activity on his lower anatomy and looked at his watch as if he really needed to know what time it was. He could not believe he was actually in the same town as his wife and kids and them not knowing that he was there. If Delight found out any of this she would have undoubtedly have hindered all of his natural abilities. But, Preston could not think about that right now, he had to work on the mission at hand so that he could neutralize the target and make it back to home base safely.

  After he recuperated from his morning glory, he was greeted royally with a big plate of French toast, some scrambled eggs mixed with ham bits, and just the right amount of orange juice. “This girl can burn”, Preston whispered to himself as he ate splendidly. All he could think about was that he needed to leave this girl alone or he would mess around getting fat trying to eat three meals a day from two women.

  Later the same day, Lustray dropped off her kids to Brandon’s house so that she and Preston could go out to eat and catch a movie. This finally gave Preston a chance to finally turn on his phone, check to see who called and maybe even sneak in some time to go ahead and have a quick conversation with Delight. He peeked out the window so that he could see Lustray and the kids get into the car. Then he knew that it was safe to take a quick shower and do what needed to be done to stay on task. Preston hated the pressure, but loved his newly found adrenaline rush. He grabbed some towels, jumped into the shower, finally used the bathroom and dug out his cell phone from under his bags like he was an 1849 gold digger!

  He checked the phone and was thankful no one called him at all. He was grateful that his wife listened to him anytime that he spoke of anything militarily; Delight had a great respect for the profession he chose and even more aptitude for his ministerial calling.

  He called Delight anyway and was happy her phone came up to voicemail after about three rings. “That’s right, she said she had the day planned with Vashti today so that’s cool, but I better leave a message anyway so that she doesn’t call me back while I’m out.” But, instead he decided to text her: EVERYTHING IS FINE AND I WILL BE BACK HOME TOMORROW SO I WILL TEXT WHEN I GET READY TO GET ON THE PLANE AND CALL YOU WHEN I TOUCH DOWN. LUV U.

  “Excellent,” Preston thought. “The home front is taken care of and all I need to do is figure out where to go for dinner and a movie where no one would recognize us; even though I don’t have that many friends in Columbus. I got it, we’ll go out to Dave and Buster’s way out on the Northwest Side and no one will ever recognize me there and I know a movie theatre right around the corner from there. That way we’ll do everything in one spot and all we have to do is get on up out of there while it is still dark. There is no way I could have pulled something like this off in New Jersey. There was only one street in the whole town so I am sure somebody would have known my mom or dad back at home, hell it would probably have been on the front page of the Daily Journal!”

  Lustray pulled back into the apartment driveway and hit the alarm on her car to go inside and greet Preston. All he could do was think about how fly she looked getting out of the car with her Burberry sunglasses on. Preston was dressed to impress and smelled like a million bucks. He was even impressed by his new self as he reaped the benefits of a strict diet with minimal effort of physical activity. He knew he could have done better, but it was better than what it was when he left. “It’s time to get this show on the road,” he preached to himself. Preston was off again!

  XXI

  Delight and Vashti had such a good time at Cosi with the kids. All they could do was laugh at the boys as their eyes lit up inside the huge movie theater. Tony was intrigued by the way that the 3D theater looked so real and the boys were awestruck by the whole thing.

  “Hey girl, thanks for letting us use your military discount to get in here. Because I am more than sure that we would have not chosen to come in here with the type of funds we are working with and it looks like Tony had a lot of fun with the boys,” Vashti said gratefully.

  “Oh, you know it’s no problem for me to attract a little bit of company when my hubby is gone. All I need to do now is go home and get me some more sleep and finally get a break from the boys when Preston gets back in town. I don’t care if he was out there grunting it out with his soldiers he’s going to get his butt back into Daddy mode and handle his business.”

  “Alright then girl, let me get out here and pay this parking fee so that I can get Tony over to his Dad’s. Brandon loves it when all of his kids get together and he was nice enough to give me part of the day for the holiday weekend. Brandon and his girlfriend are supposed to have his friend, Lustray’s kids come over while she finally goes out after that horrible breakup between her and her husband. I don’t think I ever told you about that, but remind me to fill you in about that later.”

  “Wow, I don’t think you ever told me about that, but I feel her I know what it’s like to have a man away for awhile and have to take care of the kids all by yourself. It’s good that she is finally getting a chance to get out and enjoy a piece of life. So that’s his friend and not his girlfriend’s friend? I don’t know, that sounds kind of funny to me, but hey it’s not my man and not everyone is me, so in the meantime Preston will not have any girlfriends coming into my house.”

  “Amen to that, I don’t know what the deal is, but they been cool for awhile and nothing ever sprang up so I am sure that they have it all figured out. As long as they ain’t trying to turn my son out, I’m okay with it”, Vashti snapped. “Tell Preston, I said welcome home!”

  “Okay,” Delight winced. As Delight loaded the boys in the car and wobbled herself into the front seat, she took her phone out of her purse and saw that Preston had texted her while they were in the movie. “Thank goodness everything is alright over there and he can hurry up and get back,” Delight exhaled. “Hey boys, Daddy will be back tomorrow and you all can drive him crazy why mommy takes a rest. Yay!”

  She didn’t want to bother him with whatever he had going on so she just texted him back: GOOD TO HEAR AND SEE YOU WHEN YOU GET HOME. LUV U 2.

  Delight still had a little bit of a funny feeling about him getting home a couple days later and him texting I love you. “That’s just something he doesn’t do on the regular. But, maybe he’s finally starting to learn and this deployment is going to be a new start for him.”

  XXII

  Preston was proud of himself the way he made it through the evening half paranoid of everyone that walked through the door during dinner and at the movie theatre. He was relieved to be back at Lustray’s and having everything already packed up and ready for him to go early the next morning. The cab was reserved and he didn’t give Delight a definite time so he was in the clear to make up the perfect excuse that he wanted to surprise her.

  “You know, I really don’t want you to leave, but I know that you have to. I really just want you to know that I really appreciated the time that we spent together and that I look forward to doing this again sometime very soon,” Lustray purred.

  Preston’s heart fell through his stomach and once again he was scouring for the right words to say while she continued to praise him. “My pleasure, I just like it when people enjoy themselves and that makes it all the more memorable. I mean, there’s so much that goes on in the world that tells us this place is evil; so I figured why not grab the small victories while they’re there,” Preston shrugged confidently.

  “You are such a philosopher! Where do you come up with such intellect and linguistic art?” She continued to look at him as if he were some sort of statue in the Smithsonian Museum.

  That reaction deeply concerned Preston, because he felt that she was getting too attached a little too early and
that spoke, “too many emotional issues” to him. The good thing was that he was going to be on his way home and sooner or later she would get the point. Nevertheless, he was fascinated by her choice of words and her appreciative spirit. Not to mention, that the food he ate sat inside his stomach all day, which was a meal that he could never turn down.

  As they approached the house, he checked his phone to see that he did receive a text from Delight and that was good enough for the time being. “Oh, so you actually do have a phone,” Lustray blurted out sarcastically. “I never heard it ring or anything, I was nervous for a minute and thought that you might have been one of those single husbands that I use to read about.”

  Now Preston was scared and perturbed! He just could not fathom that he could actually keep going on the way he was, because this girl was too smart. He could tell that she valued honesty and he could not fall into the trap of what he preaches against almost everyday. All he could think about was what his mom would think if she were to look at him right now.

  Again, the sex was immaculate and intense. As Preston put her to sleep after such a long dual of physical activity he tried to sneak out of the bed, but every time he moved she squeezed onto him a little tighter. Preston made a mental note not to ever sleep over there again, because it was just too much of an exercise just to get away. He whispered to her that he was going to the bathroom so she gently let him go and whispered back, “You are the best lover in the world and your stamina is intimidating.”

  Preston would have loved to have stuck around and enjoy his ego boosting, but time was of the essence and it would be better to sneak out instead of explaining things later in the day when she would be fully functioning. So, as he used the bathroom, he redialed the cab that he had programmed in his phone to come and pick him up at a specific location down the street from her house so the lights from the vehicle would not wake her.