For the Night (Sun)

by Rae Lyse

and pulling at it to get each other’s attention. “They subpoenaed me to be a witness in whatever bullshit you and Deeanna got going on,” she rasped. “What the fuck I’m supposed to get up on the stand and say when they ask me about your parenting, huh? What the fuck am I supposed to say?”

A mistress and an outside baby don’t fit into his image as a family man and doctor.”

“Yeah, I ain’t know I was supposed to go around shouting from the rooftops that my daughter really ain’t my fuckin’ daughter.”

“You tell Trey that I can’t kiss you,” he murmured. “Because I know he still up in your head just like DeeDee be in mine. You tell him that if I kiss you, I won’t be able to stop ... and if I keep kissing you, then I’m gonna wanna make love to you... and I won’t be able to stop that either. And then you know what?” “What?” she asked, hanging on to his every word. “Then I’m gon’ wanna put a baby in you and Lord knows we don’t need that.”

He had a love-hate relationship with angst because all of his favorite bitches made it feel so good that he lost himself inside them while running from it.

“How you gon’ correct me if you always thinking the worst of me?” “I don’t always think the worst of you,” she gritted out.

“I’m sorry,” she uttered, pulling his bottom lip into her mouth and soothing the gash.

“I’m sorry, Ant.” When she grabbed the button on his jeans, he figured she wasn’t even apologizing for DeeDee anymore.

“And I don’t think I remember telling you that you could go on a date. Come explain yourself because I ain’t Trey. I’ll die before I sign some motherfuckin’ divorce papers.”

“Babyyy...” she groaned in frustration. He’d never get used to her calling him that. It was sacred, just like “Ant” was.

Venus never had an orgasm that made her sing so loud her vocal cords tingled from overexertion, but then Anthony came along being all passionate, carefree, and so selfless that she was dizzy and maybe even a little ditzy for him.

“A mistake?” He huffed. “I don’t think you understand what the definition of a mistake is.”

mistake is something done in error... a misstep... a blunder. A mistake is unintentional.”

“Come home and talk to me,” he’d said after strapping Tori in her car seat and turning to her.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” “Come on…you can’t let it be us for another night?”

“Let me have you for one more night.” When he said it that way, she couldn’t say no. He had damn near begged and she knew that Anthony Nunez wasn’t a beggar, just like he wasn’t a ghoster.

“You must want me to keep you for more than a night,” he garbled out, closing the door.

“Did she see me?” she asked, wringing the fabric between her fingers. “She won’t remember it.” “We shouldn’t sneak around in her space. It’s not right.”

“I told you to go in my bathroom. I’ll be in there.” “It must be gold in there. We can talk in here. You know that, right?” He laughed at her foolishness. Talk? She actually thought she could avoid the inevitable.

IKTR

According to his philosophy, life was too short to worry about silly things like baseboards.

“So you saying I have to live through more of these first dates with these so-called grown men that got you texting me as soon as they over?”

“What, you can’t hear or something? I asked you a question.” The question felt as good as that nudge he gave her face in the living room. “Yes, I can hear, Ant.” She smiled. “I’m not allowed to go on dates?” He shrugged. “I ain’t say that.” “It’s allll in your tone. You’re being unreasonable.”

“I ain’t the one looking for somebody to pass the time with.” He turned on the sink’s faucet and shoved his fingers underneath. “You don’t get it.”

“Then make me get it. I don’t wanna do shit else tonight but get it.”

“I woke up one day at thirty-five and realized the life I had wasn’t mine anymore. It was gone—poof—just like that.

“You internalize too much of other people’s fucked up opinions and expectations.”

“Imagine waking up with the world in your hands and some stupid ass young nigga in your phone who don’t want nothing from you but to bathe you, make love to you, and remind you it’s okay to live. Can you imagine that shit, Venus Thibodeaux?”

Mr. Nunezzzzzzzz😍😍😍😍

Anthony wasn’t perfect. Daddy said perfect men didn’t exist.

They looked like they’d made love thousands of times in a past life—like he’d given her the babies she deserved—like he’d came home after work and told her to go to their room so he could relieve the stress that had built up throughout the day while she took care of home. They looked like perfection.

“You feel perfect,” he whispered, meeting her eyes in the mirror and tugging her hair. It was such a simple statement, yet no other man she had sex with had ever said it.

It had been so long since she made love that she felt her heart beat in her throat while some R&B song she hadn’t heard since junior high played. She closed her eyes until he got back to her.

“It’s only supposed to be me inside you like this—nobody else, Venus. Fuck Victor. He ain’t me.” “I…I know,” she huffed out.

“Show me how good you can take my dick. I’ll be patient while you get it together. I promise.”

“Ant…” she whimpered. “Did he touch you?”

“No, baby.” She shook her head with too much enthusiasm. “I didn’t…I wouldn’t. I swear.” She wouldn’t?

IKTR. You wouldn’t!

“The right thing? D’you forget you was my business?” “No…no.”

“Pretty ass arch…” he murmured, letting her wet hair go and planting a hand in the middle of the dip in her back. “Look at how beautiful you look when I’m inside you.”

She’d never made love to a man that paid so much attention to the innocuous details of her body and talked about them like he did.

“That’s why you agreed to go out with him? You was trying to forget about me…about my baby…about us.” “No, I wasn’t.” “Don’t get on your fuckin’ knees and lie to me, Venus.”

“That’s the worst place you can lie to me. You know that?”

“Don’t call me that if you not gon’ stand on it.” He ground deeper inside of her and hit a wall she didn’t even know existed. “Now, explain yourself. You really thought you could leave me?”

“I…I was scared…about my job. My boss told me to…to…stay away from you. I can get fired if he finds out about us.” “You don’t trust me to take care of you if something happened? Huh? You think I’d let you stress about money?”

This wasn’t the playful banter from inside her car. This was the side of Anthony she didn’t know. This was where all his insecurities came out—all his Kayden-like tendencies he kept under wraps until he got pushed too far.

her. Always fuckin’ lying.” “No, Ant. I…I…I’m not her. I promise, baby. I’m not.” “Then fix us.”

Show me why you the only wife I’d ever accept.”

Her promises felt too good, like DeeDee’s used to when they made love.

“You always come first. That’s the objective tonight, right, baby? To show me how stupid I was to think I could ever put another man before you. I can’t do that, Ant.”

“You really think I’m a fickle wife? If I was a fickle wife, I wouldn’t have picked you up, got judged by your damn family, held you accountable for the stupid shit you do, or…or… cared so much about your baby. I’m a ‘till death do us part’ type of wife and I think deep down you know that.” God, he did.

Their skin slapped together in an intoxicating clap that made his dick harder. She swiped her tongue against his neck and pulled the skin into her mouth, sucking on it until he trembled.

“I’ve never lied to you—ever. I’m too fuckin’ grown to do that shit, Ant.”