Copyright©2001 by V. Anthony Rivers
All Rights Reserved
Chapter One excerpt
Christian Erickson
Collision Course
“Dreams of being unconscious, lying next to me a past whose time I try to measure.”
I wondered where it all came from and pondered the things going through my head as I sat there in bed next to someone I’d met recently. I couldn’t believe how we’d ended up there so fast, but quite honestly it seemed like a natural progression at the end of our first date. The lady was so beautiful when I saw her that first time. I’ve come to the conclusion that the grocery store is definitely a great place to meet somebody. Talk about a meat market. A brotha can find top grade-A quality there.
When I saw Tanya trying to select a head of lettuce, my heart skipped a beat. The lady was looking just as fine as she wanted to be, dressed in a sleeveless black turtleneck, form-fitting jeans, and leather boots. Her golden glimmer hair was shining under the bright lights in the produce section and that honey brown complexion of hers had me mesmerized. I was just hoping that she wouldn’t catch me staring at her, but I guess I didn’t try hard enough. She saw me drop my yams all over the floor while I struggled to find the opening of the plastic bag. I hate those things. Sometimes it takes me two minutes just to discover that I’m playing with the wrong end of the bag. After I finished looking goofy, I kind of made my way over to her as inconspicuously as I could.
“Hey! I don’t think you picked up all your yams,” she said to me.
“Huh?” I responded naively.
“Look over there. You left two on the floor.”
She pointed but I wasn’t even paying attention to what I’d dropped. I was checking her out and hoping she was doing the same of me.
“I don’t believe those are mine,” I responded.
“Well, you’re the only one walking around here dropping yams!”
She couldn’t help but smile at my plea of innocence but it was obvious that she wasn’t buying what I was selling. Maybe it was my effort that was seemingly keeping her interested or perhaps it was the I-wanna-get-to-know-you-in-the-worse-way smile on my face. Whatever the case, anything from that point on would be all good to me.
From the start, she had me smiling and feeling warm inside. I love a woman that’s not only beautiful, but also a challenge to speak to. As we stood in front of the vegetables debating about yams and how many I’d dropped, she managed to squeeze the more important questions into the conversation. You know, she cut to the chase before we lost ourselves in mindless words that revealed nothing.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“I’m Christian.”
She had a smart look on her face and laughed softly, so I kind of knew what was coming next.
“I didn’t ask for your religion. I just wanted to know your name.”
“Ha, ha! I knew you were gonna say that!”
“Christian what?”
“Christian Erickson.”
She smiled with an expression of enlightenment on her face. I think she was also checking me out, trying to keep her thoughts discreet.
“How about you?” I asked her, glancing at more than just her beautiful hazel eyes.
“How about me what?”
She continued to decide on her vegetables. She tried to pretend like her shopping was more important than the conversation we were having. I could tell she was digging me pretty good though. I stood before her dressed in a black Karl Kani turtleneck sweater, carpenter jeans, and some tan Timberland boots. I love feeling comfortable but I was a bit on edge in her presence. In fact, I was beginning to sweat.
“You’re gonna make this tough, huh?” I asked her.
She grinned and chuckled to herself as I stood there with my arms folded. I watched her relish in the fact that she had me struggling to keep the conversation going.
“Okay, what’s your name?” I asked quietly.
“Tanya Moore.”
She was leaning over the vegetables at first, but when she said her name she appeared to be teasing me a little. Maybe it was just my imagination but she stood up slowly and raised her right eyebrow before speaking her name.
Maybe she could sense that her name sounded like music to my soul. I kept saying it over and over in my mind. Sometimes there are certain ladies names that just feel good to me and hers was one of them. Of course it helped that she was as fine as she could be. Tanya started to look at me funny after a while, like she had something else to do and I was impeding her progress. I took that as a hint that she wanted to continue shopping, alone. She was looking so good that I was just trying my best to think up something new to ask her. You know, those exceptional words that would make her laugh, smile, and say, “Come help me pick something out for dinner so I can cook for you tonight.” That kind of thing. I don’t know. Sometimes life just can’t keep pace with wishful thinking, I suppose.
“Can I walk along with you, Tanya, or is your shopping a private affair?”
“You’re funny. I like that!” She giggled. “You know how to pick squash?”
I directed my index finger to the nearest bin. “What? This right here?”
“Are you serious? You know you’re pointing to a lemon, don’t you?”
Well, at least I got her to laugh. She shook her head in a way that let me know she enjoyed the surprise meeting between the two of us.
“Listen, I need to do this faster so I’ll just give you my number, okay?” she said.
“Are you in a hurry, Tanya?”
“Yeah, I need to pick up someone. My sister’s baby. Plus, I have a lot of other errands to run.”
I was almost seeing warning signs when she was talking about picking someone up. For a second, I thought she’d say that she had to pick up her baby. Not that I have anything against women with kids. I’ve just always hoped to find one without any. I’m speaking from past experience, but I’m always first to recognize that when love calls, you better answer regardless of who it is and what package they bring to the table with them.
“Thanks, Tanya,” I said after she handed me a piece of scrap paper with her number scribbled on it. “How soon can I call you?”
“Actually, tonight would be good. I’ve really enjoyed talking with you. Your sense of humor is interesting.”
“Hmm, only interesting huh?” I said in my sexiest tone.
Tanya touched me on the arm and sent a surge of electricity through my body before walking toward the registers, pushing her cart. “Yes, call me tonight.”
Naturally, I watched her walk away and what an interesting sight it was.
That day was really cool. Such a beautiful moment in my life as a single man. As I focused in on the fact that I was sitting next to Tanya in bed a week later, I couldn’t help but wonder where it was all gonna lead. I believed in love, but I wanted to make sure Tanya and I had a great friendship as well. We’d just had some incredible sex and I felt as though I should ask her if it was all right. I didn’t want to jeopardize something potentially very special. Plus, I was wondering if I needed to get out of bed and make the woman some breakfast. I didn’t want to risk scaring her away so I decided to wait and cook for her next time. She really looked good lying there with her gorgeous body half-buried underneath my cream-colored bed sheets and brown comforter. I couldn’t help but quickly reminisce about the softness of her skin against mine. I could see her breasts peeking out from under the covers a little bit. She was moving around slightly, a bit restless, so it wouldn’t be long before she woke up. I could barely wait to see that beautiful spirit shine once more.
Tanya Moore was definitely fine. She inspired me to reminisce practically all the time about the smallest things. I remember calling her the night after we’d met in the store. Tanya was running around her house like crazy. She informed me that she had a client coming over to check out some of her interior design ideas.
“How can you show somebody how to make their house beautiful if your house is a mess, girl?” I teased.
“Be quiet!” she responded.
I could hear her laughter in the background as she took the phone away from her mouth. I imagined her moving things out of the way so she could find a spot to sit down while she talked to me.
I must have been right because she said, “Let me sit down for a moment. Just for you, Christian.”
“Thank you, Tanya.”
“You’re too much, but I like a man that keeps me on my toes.”
“What are you doing after you take care of business?” I asked her.
“I’m just gonna curl up with a good, sexy romance novel or maybe this erotica anthology book that I picked up the other day since I’m not getting any.”
She punctuated her voice to make sure I understood clearly what she was saying. Shoot, I had been going through a drought recently myself so she wasn’t alone with what she was thinking.
“How about we go out this weekend, Christian, if you’re not too busy?”
“Sounds cool to me. You plan on getting something?” I asked her to see how she’d respond.
“You got something to give?”
Her response didn’t really surprise me. In fact, it was funny because we always seemed like we were challenging each other. Tanya always matched me line for line, word for word. I was curious to find out when I would hit a soft spot in her. I wondered constantly if her challenging spirit was a front for any kind of hurtful past. If it was, I couldn’t see it at that point. Tanya seemed like a natural when it came to being happy and a smart-ass at the same time.
After sitting there watching Tanya sleeping for what felt like an hour, I noticed her finally waking up.
“Hey, sleepy head!” I said to her as she stretched her lovely body.
The sound she made was analogous to the sounds she made when we’d gotten busy the night before. Those sounds are what brought me out of my daydreams about our recent past and into appreciating once more her lying in my bed with her fine self.
“Hey! What you smiling at, boy?”
After examining every inch of her, I finally made eye contact with her. “Nothing. Just happy to see you again.”
“You’ve probably been watching me sleep, huh? Is that why my breasts are exposed?”
She was trying to cover up but it was too late for that. I began to lick my lips in an effort to tease her and make her think I’d been doing more than just watching her sleep.
“Ooh, Chris, you are no good!”
Soon after we’d enjoyed another moment of joking around with each other, I laid back down with her. I was hoping we could get up and maybe go do something, but I didn’t mind enjoying some more cuddling.
“We gonna do something today, Tanya?”
“No, I need to get started on this project I have going, but I’d love to see you next weekend.”
“Okay, maybe we’ll go somewhere then.”
“Maybe, but for now I do have an hour to kill.”
“Is that right?”
Tanya moved nearer to me and began kissing my chest very softly. She had this seductive gaze on her face that let me know she wanted to have power over me. I could feel the smoothness of her thigh sandwiched between my legs. I took a peek toward the foot of the bed and noticed her moving like a beautiful wave. Her body slowly unveiled as she removed the sheets from our bodies. Her skin was silky on all parts and her behind was faultless as I placed my hands on it to facilitate her continuous grinding against my thigh. It wasn’t long before she began to moan passionately from the intense motions that our bodies were making. That was just the beginning for her because she immediately climbed on top of me. I could feel myself cross her threshold. Tanya whispered to me about her wetness as her warmth enveloped me. She rode me solid and rapid and didn’t stop until she reached that incredible peak.
“Damn,” I whispered.
Tanya was moving so smoothly and with incredible rhythm. When we kissed deeply once again, we found ourselves exploding very passionately. I don’t know who screamed the loudest, though it was in all probability me. Afterwards we shared deep, concentrated kisses. Tanya continued to lay on top of me with her forehead pressed against mine and that’s how we remained for the next hour.
After that hour elapsed, Tanya got up to get dressed and I watched her every move. She was pretty swift at getting her clothes on. She threw her hair up in a ponytail and squeezed inside her tight jeans. She also borrowed one of my shirts, which at first felt a little outlandish to me; especially with it being one of my favorite Fubu jerseys that I liked to wear on the weekends.
“Hey! What are you doing with my shirt?”
Tanya giggled. “I saw you wearing it and I couldn’t wait to put it on. I love the material.”
“Okay. Just let it be known that you’re borrowing it.”
I tried to let her know I wasn’t kidding by emphasizing the word borrowing and I didn’t stutter when I said it either.
“I know, sweetie pie. Thank you.”
After getting dressed, Tanya sat down on the bed so we could talk a moment longer. She continued to fix her hair the best she could without a comb while I worried that I might not see my jersey again.
“You know what? I really enjoyed last night and I can’t wait to see you again,” she told me.
“Thanks, but I have to say you’re really something, Tanya. One day I guess I’ll learn more about you instead of sharing these lovely moments where we hardly talk to each other about anything deep. Maybe you’ll even let me ask some slightly probing questions instead of the usual news, weather, and sports stuff.”
“Well, don’t probe too much, sweetie,” she said just before leaning over to give me one last kiss.
I wondered what she meant by that, but I wasn’t gonna try to ask her at that point. She might’ve tried to run away from any hint of serious discussion that soon so I just sat with my hands on my head and watched her walk out the bedroom. I found myself smiling, even as I heard the front door close. I couldn’t wait to see her again and that was a new kind of feeling for me.
Email V. Anthony at RomeoDream@aol.com
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