“What do you have some kind of bet with your friends or something? Is that what this is about?”
“Look, I just think you’re fine as hell and I’d like to get to know you. But if you’re not interested I ain’t going to beg you. A sista does have her pride. If you prefer those white girls then that’s just your loss.”
She turned on her heels and started walking back into the building.
“Danika?”
“Hmmm?”
“How about tonight?”
The date was going well. Malik was surprised by how much he and Danika had in common. Even the voices in his head were silent for once. Malik was enjoying himself. Each time Danika laughed he laughed with her. She reached out and took his hand as she told him about how her grandparents had to flee the South sixty years ago with the KKK hard at their heels because her grandmother had married a black man. She told him how much she hated being called “high yella” or “redbone” as if she were some other race than black and how she hated being called a mulatto most of all because it sounded so much like “mutt” which she’d also been called on a few occasions. Malik, kept his own stories to himself, listening instead, staring at her tiny brown hand in his and wondering what he’d ever been afraid of.
“What about your parents? Were they both Black?”
“My mom, like I said, was half black and half white and my dad was Puerto Rican.”
“So what do you consider yourself then?”
“Well, Puerto Ricans have Black blood in them too so I just call myself Black. It gets too complicated otherwise.”
She smiled and Malik smiled with her. The waiter brought their food and they ate their meal of Cornish game hens stuffed with wild rice and cranberries in small bites in between conversation, sipping zinfandel and never once breaking eye contact.
When the check came, they both agreed not to let the night end. They went to a nightclub down the street and sat at the bar drinking and talking. A Marvin Gaye song came on and they went out on the dance floor, hugging each other closely and swaying to the beat. He kissed her lightly on the lips as they danced to “Let’s Get it On” and she kissed him back deeply and passionately as the song ended.
An hour later she nestled close to him with his arm around her shoulders and her head on his chest as he hailed a cab.
“Where to?”
They looked at each other and Danika smiled again when Malik gave the taxi-driver his home address.
“So why did you act so weird around me at the office? I’ve been there a week and you never even looked at me.”
“Oh, I looked at you. I just didn’t know why you were always looking at me. It made me nervous.”
“What? Did you think I was some kind of crazy stalker or serial killer or something?”
Malik chuckled.
“Something like that.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out. I just wanted to get with you so I was trying to let you know I was interested.”
“Girls like you aren’t normally interested in brothas like me.”
“What do you mean girls like me?”
Malik paused. He knew what he meant, but knew that it would offend her if he said it.
“Sistas as pretty as you don’t normally dig me. I mean, I know a lot of white girls are into my look, but you know how they are. Once they decide they’re into brothas they ain’t too choosy.”
“Don’t tell me you’ve got self-esteem issues? You? I would have never guessed that. I mean, with a body like yours I’d think you could get any woman you want. I was worried that I didn’t look good enough for you.”
“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
He reached out and stroked his fingers through her thick, curly brown hair, staring at her staggeringly beautiful face in amazement, amazed that she was actually attracted to him.
“Is that why you spend so much time working on this magnificent body of yours? You really don’t believe you’re handsome?”
She ran her tiny brown hands over his thick muscular chest as they huddled together in the back of the taxi. She slid them up over his shoulders and up his neck, cupping his face in her palms.
“I think you’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.”
They were still kissing when they paid the taxi and stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of Malik’s house. Malik was in heaven. It almost felt as if he was falling in love, on the first date, and with a woman whose skin was the color of cinnamon pastry. The whole thing made Malik as nervous as it did happy. It had been hours since he’d heard Kelly or Jennifer’s voices in his head. As much as it was a relief it was also a source of worry. They had never gone away on their own like that, not without medication, or without Malik giving in to them and giving them what they wanted and there was no way Malik was going to do that and he hadn’t taken his medication in weeks. Still, he hadn’t heard those shrill scathing voices spilling their relentless stream of vitriol since he’d agreed to the date with Danika. Desperately he hoped that meeting her had somehow ended their hold on him, which made him panic at the thought of her leaving him now or ever.
“Come inside for a while.”
“ This is your house?”
It was a large single story with decorative stone all around the front entrance, a long driveway covered in stamped concrete that continued up the walkway to the front door. The front yard was desert landscaped with large palm trees and big shrubs of rosemary and sage. It was over two thousand square feet squatting on a lot that was about a fifth of an acre.
“I got lucky on this one. I bought it before the market went nuts. I only paid a hundred and eighty for it six years ago.”
“Wow. My house is half this size and I paid three hundred for it. I had to take an interest only loan out and pray that the thing appreciates in five years so I can refinance. You did get lucky.”
“Come on in.”
He opened the door and they stepped into the foyer. They were in each other’s arms kissing passionately before the door was closed. They undressed in a hurry, desperate for each other. Malik lifted her slim delicate body into his arms and carried her to the bedroom still kissing her passionately, their tongues dueling, lips bruising against each other. He laid her on the bed and kissed his way slowly up her thighs, pausing between them to taste her sweet musk, sending a quiver through her and stealing the breath from her lungs. He kissed his way up her stomach, kissed and sucked each nipple, flicking his tongue across them and making her moan, before returning to her lips. She was trembling all over when he finally entered her. She matched his rhythm as their flesh entwined in urgent thrusts, slowly at first and then with greater and greater urgency building to a mutual orgasm that shook them both. They collapsed into each other’s arms, catching their breath before making love once more. Their bodies complimented each other’s perfectly. They made love without inhibitions, not holding anything back, exploring every inch of each other’s bodies, getting to know all the spots that drove each other wild.
The night was half over when they lay spooned against each other breathing heavily with sweat and semen drying into the sheets.
“You still think I only like white women?”
Malik kissed the back of her neck gently.
“Oh, you definitely know how to appreciate a sista.”
He laughed.
“I’ll be right back”
Malik got up from the bed. His legs felt as if they were made of Jello. He staggered into the bathroom and closed the door behind him, grabbing onto the sink to steady himself. He was just about to turn on the lights when he heard them.
“That bitch must be crazy fucking a big black scab like you. That nasty trifling ho! If you won’t kill that bitch than we will.”
Malik knew why he hadn’t heard the voices in his head all day. Jennifer and Kelly weren’t in his head any more. They were right there in his bathroom.