“Uh—uh—uh—” Tempest stuttered, struggling for a response that wouldn’t come.
“You’re up to something,” Geren proclaimed, wondering why Tempest would go through the trouble of buying him a present and then deny she even had one.
“Who, me?” Tempest asked, still holding out hope that the nightmare would go away.
“Yes, you.” Geren snickered at her. “I can always tell.”
He walked over to Tempest’s walk-in closet, swung the door open, and moved her clothes hamper in the rear of her closet to the side, exposing the gift-wrapped box they both knew was there.
“See, here it is,” he said, carrying it back out of the closet and setting it on the bed.
“So it seems.” Tempest started biting her nails profusely.
Geren waited for Tempest to tell him to open it, but she never did, so he asked, “Mind if I open it? It does say ‘For Geren’ on it, after all.”
“What if I say, Hell no, you can’t open it?” Tempest blurted out.
Geren ignored her, ripped the paper off and opened the box. It was an expensive black leather jacket.
“Aw, thank you, baby!” he said with glee, pulling it out of the box and trying it on. “I guess we’ll both be warm this winter. I still want us to wear our twin jackets out somewhere though.”
Tempest’s eyes fell on the card in the box. She debated about trying to snatch it out and hide it before Geren could see it but knew it was useless. He would see her.
“Geren, there’s something I have to tell you.”
“What’s that, sweetheart?” Before she could answer, Geren spotted the card and picked it up. “Let me read your card. How sweet of you. I must admit I forgot your card, but I’ll get you a special one tomorrow.”
“Geren, please don’t read that!” Tempest pleaded to no avail.
Geren opened the card and read the handwritten inscription out loud. “Baby, here’s a REAL JACKET to replace that ugly-ass, ’flicted-looking one you had on when we were shopping. Please burn that damn thing. Love, Your Boo.”
At first Geren had an expression of hurt on his face. Less than three seconds later, he fell out laughing. Tempest was relieved. In fact, she was so relieved that she laughed, too.
“Come here, you fool!” Geren shouted, pulling her to him and taking off the jacket he’d given to her so she was naked again. “Take off that ugly-ass, ’flicted jacket, as you put it.”
“You’re not mad?”
“A little, but you can make it up to me,” he replied.
“Name it and I’ll do it.” Tempest pushed the leather jacket off him and noticed his dick was hard. She rubbed her belly button up against it and licked a trail from his chest up to his chin. “So how can I make it up to you?”
Geren moaned with delight. He pushed her backward on the bed, tossing the boxes and wrapping paper on the bedroom floor. “I’m sure I’ll think of something.”
• • •
“Where were you last night?” Janessa screamed into the receiver.
“Excuse me?” Dvontè screamed back at her from the other end of the phone line.
“You heard me, Dvontè!” Janessa put down the bottle of nail polish she was using to do her toes and put her feet on the floor, taking them off her bed. “Where were you last night?”
Dvontè blew hard into the phone, trying to keep his cool in front of his guest, who was lying on the bed beside him. “Look, Janessa, don’t even start this shit with me!”
“What shit?”
“Callin’ my place, trying to interrogate me!”
“You were supposed to come to the center last night for the Christmas party. What happened?”