Page 11 of Phase Two

“That was fun,” I admitted.

“It was. I don’t know how I’ll top that, but I’ll try.”

“Let the games begin.”

As I drove Alise home, we continued to get to know one another. At that point she probably knew everything from my blood type to what I had in my fridge. I was an open book with nothing to hide. Eventually, I wanted to slide between her thighs. Not having sex was easy when there was no one tempting me and if Alise was good at anything it was taking my joint from limp to brick in less than five seconds. I could break my fast at any time, but then I’d be pissed with myself. As my pops used to say a man that lacks discipline isn’t a man.

“You like being a lawyer?” she randomly asked.

“Yeah, for the most part. There are days when I second guess my decision, but it has provided a stable and comfortable life. One that I don’t have to worry about or get PTSD from living through.”

“I have a love hate relationship when it comes to lawyers. Every time I see one of them defending someone that I know for a fact, and they know too that the person is guilty it rubs me the wrong way. Like for money, you want this criminal back out on the streets.”

“That can be tricky. Not going to lie if it’s some petty shit like drugs or fraud, I really don’t give a fuck. Most of the white people advocating to hang niggas have done worse. But when it comes to harming a child, rape, certain shit like that, if I think a person is guilty, I won’t take the case. Dead ass. I’m not that thirsty for bread.”

From my peripheral, I saw Alise shaking her head. “I’m ducking a man right now that calls me constantly for sex. He gets on my last nerve but you. Here you are abstaining from sex for thirty days, and you got me counting down the days to give you some.”

“I wasn’t expecting that one,” I laughed. If only Alise knew I wanted to have sex with her bad as hell. It was nice to know the feeling was mutual. “In due time.” I looked over and gave her a wink.

“I came up with something for our next date, but I don’t know if you’ll be with it.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?”

“It’s couple’s yoga. Even though we aren’t a couple. It’s basically yoga for grown and sexy people. Now we’re going to end up in some compromising positions, so if you don’t want to do it, I understand.”

“You’re a bad influence for sure.”

Alise held her hands up in surrender. “If you want to wait we can. I totally understand.”

“Nah, let’s go. I like a challenge. When we doing it?”

“I can register us for the Friday class. It’s from 6-6:45.”

I gave a slight nod. “Forty-five minutes with an erection. Cool.”

Alisa laughed as I pulled in front of her house. I opened her door and followed her to her front door. “Tonight was nice,” I stared at her pretty face wondering if her pussy tasted as good as she always smelled.

“It was. Thank you,” she smiled.

Once she was safely inside, I jogged down the steps and walked to the car shaking my head. I needed to go home and take a cold shower for sure.

The next morning, I was sitting at my kitchen table eating breakfast when I did a double take. Shani had both hands firmly gripping a walker, and she was sliding it and taking small steps across the floor. It was the first time she had walked out of the room on her own since being at my house. She had been doing physical therapy and obviously, it was working.

“Look at you.” I smiled. “Damn, I’m proud of you. You should have asked me to come in the room and help you. You don’t want to fall.”

“I-I-I’m tired of having a baby-s-s-sitter,” she spoke slowly. “Want to do something on my o-o-own.”

I nodded. Before her stroke, Shani lived alone. She worked at the post office, and she was living her best life. According to my kids, she had been depressed for a while when her dude went to the Feds but before she had the stroke, she was dating and traveling a lot. No one would enjoy recovering from a stroke, but Shani was still young. She wasn’t even fifty. The stroke came out of nowhere and changed her life in the blink of an eye. Of course, the people that loved her were just glad she was alive, but it wasn’t shocking that she was having a hard time accepting where she was. No one wanted their independence stripped away.

I stood up and pulled out a chair for Shani. “You want something to eat?”

“I’ll wait on m-ma. My h-h-hands shake too bad.” Her forehead wrinkled, and she appeared annoyed.

I popped the rest of my bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich into my mouth. “What you want? I’ll feed you.” Glancing at my watch I saw that I didn’t have to be at the office for another hour.

Shani eyed me like she wasn’t sure.

“What?” I laughed. “You don’t trust me?”