And yeah, I know I said just a few hours ago that I was never drinking again, but my emotions were on overload at this moment. I was surrounded by people I didn’t know, sitting next to my husband.
Oh God! My husband!
I held my glass out so that Mac could refill it, and I drained it again.
* * * * *
Gabe
I watched her drink glass after glass of liquid courage. I know I should’ve stopped her, but she was animated now. She was no longer hiding in that place where I couldn’t go. The champagne brought her back to me. She joked with Mac, but she was leaning over me to do it. Her arm was draped over my shoulder and at one point she had even laid her head on my chest. I felt like a hype feening for her touch.
I was desperate. I haven’t felt the kind of loss I felt tonight since the day my mother sold me to my father. I don’t know exactly when I developed that kind of bond with Yasmin, but I didn’t want to ever feel the loss of her again. I didn’t like when she went into herself and refused to talk to me.
Mac’s girlfriend for the night stumbled over to us. She grabbed Yasmin’s hand.
“Mac says you can’t dance with men, so come dance with me!” Yasmin held back her beautiful head and laughed. Then she turned and practically climbed up in my lap. She scrunched her face up like a bunny. Drunk Yasmin couldn’t keep her hands off me. It was almost as if she needed to touch me as much as I needed her touch.
“You’re not going to get jealous if I dance with her, are you?”
“Nah, go ahead.”
“Thank you!” She said in her sexy Texas drawl that was even more pronounced due to the fact that she was drunk. After rewarding me with her beautiful smile she leaned in and kissed me on my lips. The kiss was innocent, just a peck really. But it stirred my hunger for her. I know she needed me to go slow so that she could learn me. Learn that I would never hurt her and that I was hers just as much as she was mine.
But as I watched her climb down from my lap and run barefoot with ole’ girl down the stairs to the dance floor. I knew that I was not going to be able to give her the time she needed because my need for her was all consuming, and I didn’t have the strength to fight it.
“You let her get drunk because you couldn’t take that cold shoulder huh?” Mac said plopping down in the chair she had just exited. I exhaled.
“Man, I was about to offer to buy her a damn Lamborghini if she would just smile at me.” He shook his head chuckling.
“Bruh, you as a married man is going to prove to be interesting indeed.”
“Who you telling.”
He took his phone out his pocket. “Speaking of cold shoulder, how long you going to ignore Kenny’s text? The man has been blowing my phone up. I ain’t got the heart to tell him we celebrating your wedding.”
“Good, he needs a damn time out. He plays too damn much!”
“Come on man, you know he didn’t mean no harm!”
“Yeah I do, but if he hadn’t done that she would not have ended up in danger. The way that dude grabbed her when she came out of the restroom… had I got a hold of him—I would have broke his back. The coward was ghost before I could even cross the floor.” I was getting angry all over again just thinking about it. The fact that he would dare put his hands on my woman. And although I couldn’t hear him, I know he told her something that caused her to run from me.
“What did you find out about him?” I asked Mac. He shrugged.
“Kenny said they reviewed the security cameras. They saw him talking to her by the restroom, but did not get a clear view of his face. In fact, they were able to see him on several other cameras, but no face shots; almost as if he was intentionally trying to keep his face from the camera.” I nodded.
“Tell Kenny to stay on it, I want to know who he is, and how he knows Yasmin.” Mac nodded.
“What about the black cowboy?” I shrugged.
“Nothing new with that, he’s still saying the same thing. If I ever kill an innocent person, he’s going to kill me; and something about my strength being a gift so that I can fight in some kind of war or some sh*t.” I waved it away. I didn’t have time to think about the mysterious stranger that has always been there in the shadows watching me. Maybe one day he will kill me, maybe he won’t. But I ain’t going to lose no sleep worrying about it. Mac grunted.
“Man, maybe it’s something to what he’s saying. You should consider it.” I shook my head.
“Nah, I’m good. I fight my own battles, and ain’t in the business of taking orders!”
I stood before Mac started asking too many questions. Walking to the banister, I looked out at the dance floor. My wife’s beauty was like a magnet that called me. She was not even aware that everyone stared at her. She was so free in her drunken state and that added allure to her already jaw-dropping looks. She was jumping up and down with the other dancers, throwing her head back and forward so that her beautiful hair that was no longer straight floated around her like a black cloud in the club lighting.
Mac’s girl said something in her ear and she held back her head and laughed. Her long slender neck glistened like smooth chocolate in the strobe
