Your Love Is King

  Your Love Is King

  A Novel By

  Adrienne Thompson

  Pink Cashmere Publishing

  Cover Design by Adrienne Thompson

  Cover Art from dreamstime.com

  All rights reserved.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing 2013

  Copyright © 2013 Adrienne Thompson

  Also by Adrienne Thompson

  This is book number ten!! All I can say is PRAISE GOD!! I am so grateful for the blessings He’s showered upon me!

  God, You are so good to me and for that I humbly say, THANK YOU!

  A special thank you to Author Teresa D. Patterson, Author Cathy Jo G, Author Janice Ross, Author TM Brown, Author Julia Press Simmons, Author Tamika Christy, Author Tremayne Moore, Author Selena Haskins, Author Sandra Hall, Author Barbara Joe Williams, Author Karen E. Quinones Miller, Author Deidra DS Green, Author Nicole Dunlap, Author Stacy Campbell, Author Kim Beverly, Author Phoenix Brown, Author Nakia Laushaul, and Author Kimberly Matthews for your support and for sharing your unique talents with me and the rest of the world.

  A special shout out to the following readers:

  Debi Gonsalves, Sophie Sealy, Mia Danielle, Dale Fields-Glivings, Leslie Hudson, Saundra Harden, Peace Still, Jamie Young, Standifur-Curry Cynthia, Sharon Evans, Lareeta Robinson, Monica Meadors, Alicia Smith-Perdue, Tracy Bell, Nikkie Frazier Johnson, Delice Currie, La'ChaCha Crawford, Marsha Brown, Las Gray, Michelle Burns, Stephanie Shelton, Channon Cook-Horne, Tonja Tate, Toshona Carter, Yola Yen, Juanesia Walker, E Bidd, LaSonya Artis Woodom, Lady K, Singlefabulous Andlovingit, Karen McCollum Rodgers, Book Referees, Orsayor Simmons, the Sistahs of Color Reading Group, and the In the Company of My Sisters Book Club. I KNOW I’ve forgotten someone. Please, please charge it to my head and not my heart for I thank God for each and every one of you!

  There are three things that amaze me— no, four things that I don’t understand:

  how an eagle glides through the sky,

  how a snake slithers on a rock,

  how a ship navigates the ocean,

  how a man loves a woman.

  Proverbs 30:18-19 NLT

  Soundtrack provided by Sade:

  “You’re Not the Man”

  “Be That Easy”

  “Fear”

  “Give It Up”

  “Immigrant”

  “Diamond Life”

  “Smooth Operator”

  “Flow”

  “Skin”

  “I Never Thought I’d See the Day”

  “Every Word”

  “Kiss of Life”

  “Lovers Rock”

  “The Sweetest Taboo”

  “No Ordinary Love”

  “Nothing Can Come Between Us”

  “By Your Side”

  “Is It a Crime?”

  “It’s Only Love That Gets You Through”

  “The Moon and the Sky”

  “Hang On To Your Love”

  “Turn My Back On You”

  “In Another Time”

  “Somebody Already Broke My Heart”

  “Soldier of Love”

  “Paradise”

  One

  “You’re Not the Man”

  I rolled over in the bed after a short nap, opened my eyes, and nearly jumped out of my skin. For a brief moment, I’d forgotten that Darius was lying next to me. The sight of him lying there asleep with his mouth wide open startled me.

  I eyed him with disgust as I tried to ease out of bed undetected. I slid and slid until my feet finally reached the floor, then I tiptoed through the cluttered efficiency apartment into the bathroom. I peered into the smudged mirror and wondered to myself, What are you doing, Marli Meadows? Why are you here with him? I shook my head as if the mere action could erase my relationship with Darius Cotton right out of my life.

  I squatted over the toilet and relieved myself, afraid to sit on the seat. Knowing Darius, there was no telling how many other butts had been on that seat. I turned the water in the faucet on to a slow trickle, still not wanting to awaken Darius, and washed my hands. I dried them with some toilet paper and then quickly pulled my underwear and work uniform back on and slowly opened the creaky bathroom door.

  I exited the bathroom and found Darius sitting on the side of the bed, lighting up a blunt. Dang! I thought, if I don’t get out of here quick, I’ll be smelling just like that stuff and probably get a contact high. It’d be my luck for them to pop up with a random drug test at work and that crap’ll show up.

  “You leaving, baby?” he grunted between drags. He rubbed his hand across his bare chest and stretched. I eyed his nakedness as I walked back into the room.

  “Yeah, it’s already eleven. I gotta go home and get some rest for work tonight,” I answered as I gathered up my purse and slipped on my shoes.

  With a lopsided grin on his face, he revealed two rows of shiny gold teeth and said, “Yeah, cause you know if you stay here you gon’ have to put in some more work, huh?”

  Ugh, I thought. “Yeah, well, I’ll talk to you later, Darius.”

  “A’ight, come give me a kiss, boo.”

  I swallowed hard. I know this sounds strange considering the fact that I’d just had sex with him, but the thought of kissing him really didn’t appeal to me. It took all I had in me to walk over to him, bend over, and plant a kiss on his dark lips.

  He swatted my butt. “A’ight girl, I’ll holla at you later. Don’t work too hard tonight.”

  I nodded. “I won’t. Bye, Darius.”

  “Bye, Mar-lay.”

  I shook my head as I closed the door behind me. We’d been “seeing” each other for nearly two years, and he still mispronounced my name. Well, it was either that or he was just so country that it sounded like he was mispronouncing it. Whichever was the case, it was irritating.

  I walked down the steep stairs from Darius’s apartment out onto the parking lot. I unlocked and then climbed into my Toyota Camry which was parked right next to Darius’s souped-up Chevy Caprice. I rolled my eyes at the repeated Louis Vuitton logos covering his car. I backed out of my space and glanced at his license plate which read, SMOKONE. I sighed as I pulled off the lot.

  One might wonder what a thirty-three-year-old registered nurse was doing with a twenty-seven-year-old drug dealer, and the only answer I can provide is, I don’t know. Okay, well, that’s a lie. I actually do know. See, the thing is, Darius was basically a sex machine. He was actually probably the best I’d ever had up to that point, and believe me, after my divorce, I had plenty of guys.

  Too many to name.

  The biggest problem with Darius was that he shared his talents with most of the plus-sized female population of our little city, though he claimed I was his only girl. Well, that and that little fact about him smoking and selling dope.

  I pulled into the driveway of my modest home, stumbled through the front door, and collapsed onto the couch without bathing or changing my clothes. I’d worked twelve hours at the hospital on the previous night and had another twelve hours of work ahead of me. So I decided to get a little shut-eye before my 18-year-old daughter, Tiffany, made it home from school.

  I glanced at the clock on the wall and squeezed my eyes shut. After about ten minutes, I finally drifted off
to sleep, only to be awakened by the ringing of my cell phone.

  Dang it! I peered at the screen through one open eye and let it roll to voice mail. It was my best friend, Carla. I’ll call her back later.

  I sniffed at the collar of my scrub top and inhaled a scent that was a combination of Darius’s cheap cologne and his cheap marijuana. I shut my eyes and drifted back off to sleep.

  ~*~

  I sat across from Gail, the nurse I was relieving, and listened as she gave me report on the six patients I’d be caring for over the next twelve hours. I nodded and smiled and jotted down notes, but honestly, I was still tired from the previous night and really wished I didn’t have to work. When report was finally over, I grabbed my stethoscope and headed down the hall to check on my patients. Finding everyone breathing and in no distress, I returned to the nurses’ station and checked for any new doctor’s orders before I began to write my assessments.

  Every night it was the same routine, and although I enjoyed caring for the patients, it was all becoming really mundane. I’d been a nurse for six years, and it was time for a break or a change or something. I just needed something new in my life. For me it was work, work, sleep, sleep, and occasionally church. I had no real social life because I was simply too tired. I did try my best to make Tiffany’s school events, but working twelve hours three to four nights every week usually prohibited my attendance.

  The night was pretty uneventful, and somehow I managed to stay alert and awake. Well, that might’ve had something to do with me calling Carla whenever I felt a little sleepy. She worked at the same hospital and on the same shift as me, but as a respiratory therapist. We talked off and on for most of the night about everything and nothing in particular, and when the end of my shift finally arrived, I was more than relieved and ready to leave.

  I was so exhausted; I nearly had to drag myself out of the hospital and onto the parking deck. Once inside my car, I uttered a quick prayer for a safe drive home. I couldn’t wait to climb into my bed.

  I shook my head as I thought about the fact that this cycle would start all over again in twelve hours—another grueling shift and another exhausted ride home. I would’ve given anything to break up the monotony of my life.

  Anything.

  Two

  “Be That Easy”

  “I missed you,” Darius said through a puff of smoke.

  I turned over in the bed and faced him. Darius was an oddly handsome man. His black-brown eyes were huge and round, his nose was wide, and his lips were ridiculously full. Something about those oversized features appealed to me. He was medium brown-skinned and he wore his coarse hair in neat cornrows. He was about 5’6” tall with a stocky build.

  “You just saw me a coupla days ago,” I replied.

  “Yeah, but I really be missing you when you ain’t here. I like having you around.”

  I was a little puzzled because in the two years Darius and I had been in this “relationship,” we’d never done much talking, and here he was, actually expressing his feelings. “Well, I enjoy our time together, too,” I said.

  He took another drag and sucked in a breath. “Yeah, I mean, sometimes I think about you being a nurse and everything and I wonder why you with me. You know? I mean, I know I ain’t educated like you, but I like what we got together,” he grunted as he exhaled a cloud of marijuana smoke.

  “Yeah, it’s a good arrangement,” I agreed, trying to hold my breath.

  “Uh, Marlay, you think maybe we could like take things to the next level?”

  Dang, we’re having sex on the regular. How much farther could we go? “What do you mean?” I asked, trying not to sound annoyed. But all of this talking was beginning to get on my nerves.

  He sat up in the bed and set his joint in an astray on the cluttered nightstand. “Well, you know. Maybe we could move in together. I could pay most of the bills. Business is pretty good right now. Or I could get a real job and go legit if you want.”

  “Um, Darius, that’s not even my house. It’s my family’s, and they’d go through the roof if you moved in. Plus, you know I have a daughter. I can’t be shacking up over her.”

  “Ain’t that girl ‘bout to graduate? Hell, she grown. And we can get another place together.”

  “Are you serious? You ready to hang your player hat up for me?” I asked skeptically. That would be hard to believe.

  “Look, baby… I been thinking a lot lately. I’m ready to settle down, maybe even get a real job, like I said. Maybe it’s time for me to get my life straight. You the only one I can do that with. You the smartest woman I know and you got a lot going for you.”

  Translation: I have the best job of the women you’ve been sleeping with. “I see. Well, I just don’t know, Darius. I’ll have to think about it.”

  “A’ight, I got you. But I’m being for real, Marlay. I’m ready for us to really be together.”

  I nodded.

  I lay there for a few moments and then reached over and rubbed his bare chest. He smiled, and before long, we were on our third round. A couple of hours later, I left his place, satisfied but confused. His words had made me see him in a different light—that is, if he really meant what he was saying. I was surprised by his offer, and although I’d only ever thought of him as a booty call and I wasn’t in love with him or anything, I was actually considering it. I guess I was looking for most anything to shake up my world. Living with Darius would be nothing if not interesting.

  ~*~

  On Saturday, a little over a week before Tiffany’s graduation, my dad invited us to his house for dinner. He lived in a huge house a few miles outside of town with his wife and daughter, and I was pretty sure he had a gift for Tiffany. I looked out the window of Tiffany’s yellow VW Bug and sighed as she drove down the rural road. I was definitely not looking forward to this visit.

  Sensing my tension, Tiffany glanced at me with almond-shaped eyes that were duplicates of mine and asked, “You all right, Mama?”

  I looked over at her and smiled. “I’m okay, just not too excited about this little trip.”

  “Mama, you’ve gotta stop letting gramps get to you. I mean, just ignore him or tell him off, but stop stressing. You’re gonna make yourself sick.”

  She was right but I really didn’t want to discuss it. I shook my head. “It’s not that simple, Tiff. You wouldn’t understand.”

  “I understand that you’re a grown woman, and you don’t have to answer to anyone. You can’t let your parents control you forever.”

  I looked over at her and frowned. “They don’t control me, Tiffany. Anyway, watch what you say to me. I am still your mother.”

  “I’m sorry. I just hate to see you like this. You look like you’re about to have a panic attack over seeing your own father. It shouldn’t be like that.”

  I dropped my eyes and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. It shouldn’t.”

  The rest of the ride was spent listening to the radio. When Tiffany finally pulled into my father’s driveway, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Here we go.

  We walked up to the front door and as Tiffany rang the doorbell, she offered me an encouraging smile. I returned hers with a weak smile of my own and then pasted on a fake one for my stepmother, Carmen, as she opened the front door.

  “Hello, girls,” she said in her usual, haughty tone.

  Clad in an expensive-looking, black, wrap-style dress and killer gold heels, the statuesque Carmen led us through the house and into the dark den, her expensive perfume leaving a trail behind her.

  “Sugar, your girls are here,” she announced in an exaggerated “Southern belle” accent that she reserved for my father.

  My father stood up and, with a smile on his face, pulled Tiffany into a hug so tight, I was afraid he would crush her thin frame. Then he turned to me and hugged me, too. Things always began like this with us—nice and cordial. But before the visit was over, things always, always went south.

  “Hey, Dad,” I said softly.

&n
bsp; “Marli,” he said, acknowledging my greeting. He turned his attention to Tiffany. “Tiff-Tiff! How’s grandpa’s girl?”

  Tiffany flashed him her best smile. “I’m well, how are you?”

  He laughed heartily. “That’s my girl! Manners of a queen. I’m good, baby. Real good. Come, let me show you what I’m looking at here.”