My Married Boyfriend Page 4

  Once she fixed all of their plates, everyone sat at the long table with the fancy orange tablecloth, about to eat off chinaware.

  Nicole happily beamed; she felt she could get used to this scenario, with her and Rashad sitting at the opposite ends of the table and with Myles seated nearby. Plus their new baby that was on the way would eventually sit in his or her high chair across from Myles. She couldn’t wait for all of them to be together, enjoying one another the way families were supposed to do.

  That’s all Nicole wanted: to be Rashad’s woman, bear his children, and spend her life with him. She wanted to prove to her family back in Alabama that she had what it took to live in holy matrimony.

  Feeling proud of herself, Nicole picked up her fork, severed a piece of meat, and took one hungry bite out of her perfectly baked chicken breast. But she got interrupted before the flavor could sink in.

  “Yuck,” Myles said at the carefully arranged food on his plate. He took one look at his vegetables and announced, “I hate cauliflower. Just hate it. It has no taste. None!”

  “Myles, baby.” Nicole laughed nervously. “It’s actually good. I seasoned it well. And there’s some cheese sauce waiting on the stove if you want to cover your veggies.”

  “I love me some cheese, but it doesn’t matter,” Myles answered in a firm voice. “I ain’t eating it.”

  Nicole hopped up from the table as best as she could. She got a spoon from the kitchen drawer, then stormed over to Myles. She carefully slid all the white vegetables off of his plate onto a napkin.

  “Nicky,” Rashad said as he watched her in action. “That ain’t necessary.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Myles is not too good to eat what you cook. He doesn’t have a choice.”

  “It’s no big deal, Rashad. I’ll just have to learn what he likes and doesn’t like. From now on, cauliflower is off the list.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “I am. The most important thing,” she said nobly, “is that you’re spending time with your precious little boy.”

  She went and flung the napkin filled with veggies into the trash compactor.

  Myles smiled to himself and figured he’d scored major leverage.

  Later on, when Nicole knew Myles was exhausted after play-wrestling with his father, she presented the boy with a two-layer chocolate cake.

  “Wow.” He jumped up and down. “My favorite. How’d you know?”

  Nicole merely giggled. She didn’t want him to know that after they finished eating dinner, she had secretly pulled Rashad to the side and asked him a series of questions:

  “What’s his favorite color?”

  “Purple.”

  She nodded. “Favorite dessert?”

  “Cake. Anything sweet.”

  “Icing?”

  “Chocolate.”

  “Got it. What’s his favorite kind of toys or other interests?”

  “Reading books. And he loves things that fly, and animals. Myles is a lion, elephant, and bird fanatic. He begged me to take him to Botswana one day. I told him a season pass at the Houston Zoo is much less expensive than an African safari camp. He actually told me the zoo animals there are clones and not the real thing. Can you believe that?”

  “Oh, really? It’s like that? Hmm! Noted.” Nicole opened a memo app in her smartphone and recorded everything he told her.

  And while Rashad played and talked with his son, Nicole whipped up the cake from scratch.

  She watched Myles bite into his first slice; a warm, cozy feeling poured over her when she saw his eyes widen. He moaned in delight. “Yummy, this is the best cake ever. Even better than my mommy’s.”

  Nicole went to bed that night feeling happy and more confident.

  On Saturday morning, Rashad and Myles were outside kicking a soccer ball when Rashad received an unexpected phone call. Rashad was informed that a raw materials delivery, which had been delayed several days previously, had just arrived in Houston. This was critical because he needed the goods for a major contracting job that his firm, Eason & Son, was about to start. He decided to go check on it and asked Nicole to watch Myles for him.

  “Instead of having little man tag along with me, I think he’d have more fun by staying here with you and bonding or something, okay?”

  “I thought you wanted to spend as much time with him as possible.”

  “I do, but this won’t take long. Plus, he needs to adjust to being around you, right? Can you do that for me, please, pretty lady?”

  “Oh, sure, babe. I’d be happy to do that.”

  “I’m sorry this is so last minute. But get used to me having to run and take care of business,” Rashad told her. “As a warning, it comes with the territory.”

  “No problem. Do your thing. I’ll hold it down for you here at the crib.”

  He told her thanks. Then he asked Myles, “You know my phone number, right?”

  “Yes, Mommy put it in my cell phone and showed me where my address book is.”

  “Good. Get your phone and call me right now so I will have your number, too.” Kiara had bought Myles his own cell phone that morning, but Rashad was just now asking for the number.

  “Okay, Daddy. I will call you. Don’t leave yet. Make sure I do it right.”

  After Myles did exactly as he was instructed, Rashad felt his son was in good hands. He gave him a loving pat on the head, told him to be good, and left to go to check on his delivery.

  Myles immediately kicked off his gym shoes. They made a loud whack when they hit the wall.

  “Ahem.” Nicole cleared her throat and slowly walked with her hands clasped behind her back.

  “You, young man, should probably to learn to take off your shoes . . . more quietly.”

  “Okay, I’m a have to get my daddy to show me how to do that,” Myles said and burst out laughing. He was a charming and handsome little boy whose mischievous ways reminded Nicole of Rashad.

  Myles settled on the living room floor. His complete attention was on the television. He inserted the Tarzan: The Legend Lives DVD that his dad previously arranged for him to watch.

  Nicole sighed but went to pick up the boy’s shoes and place them neatly on a rug near the wall. She turned her attention back to her future stepson. She sat down and watched him concentrate on the animated flick.

  “Hey, Myles, come over here and sit next to me on the couch.”

  Nicole rubbed her hands together and thought about what she wanted to say; she didn’t know if Kiara had told him a bunch of nasty things about her.

  He perched on the edge of his seat and stared at her.

  “Hello. Um.” She took a deep breath. “Do you know who I am?”

  Myles appeared baffled for a second. “Aren’t you Ms. Nicole?”

  “That makes me sound old, but yeah. You may call me that. Or if you want to, you may call me Mom. That’s only if you want to.”

  “Mom? Like you’re my mother?”

  “Um, well, yeah. Because, you know, one day it’ll be official, but right now you can just call me Ms. Nicole.”

  “I already have a mom.”

  “Look, Myles. You’re a smart boy. I can tell. I’m sure you know what’s going on between your parents.”

  “I know they fight a lot. A whole lot.”

  Nicole hungrily licked her lips and leaned in closer.

  “You say they fight? Like he actually punches your mom? With his fists? Like in her jaw?”

  “Nooo. He just yells and curses. Like a grumpy old person.”

  “Oh, okay. My goodness. I wonder what that’s all about.” She smiled like she wished she had a front row seat at their fights. “Anyway, I think that is one of the main reasons why your dad now sleeps over here. So he won’t have to fight with your mom all the time—at that other house. So now that he’s living here, I’m sure you’ll be visiting us a lot. This will be your second home. And I think it’s perfectly cool if you wanna call me Ms. Nicole for now, even though I’m not that old
. But ‘Mom’ will come later on for sure.”

  “You look kind of old, but exactly how old are you?”

  “Take a wild guess.”

  “Umm, forty?”

  “You gotta be joking.” Nicole nearly punched him. “On second thought, you don’t need to know my age. It really doesn’t matter. I’m a grown woman old enough to be your mama. Put it that way.”

  “Oh, all right.” Myles shrugged with an unbothered look. He suddenly yelled like Tarzan. Nicole raised her eyebrows. The boy attempted to continue watching the movie but she gently took the remote from him and reduced the TV volume.

  “Myles, I’d just like to say that I’d like nothing more than for you to feel completely comfortable over here. I want you to treat this house just like your own.”

  “You mean I can leave my room real messy, and eat Cheetos in bed, and not make my bed in the morning?”

  She laughed along with him, even though she wanted to frown and shudder and spit. “Well, I just think you’d want you to be neat as possible, right?”

  “Ms. Nicole, I hate making my bed. It’s stupid. All I’m gonna do is get right back in it later that night. What a waste of time and energy.”

  “Being neat is a waste of time?”

  “And energy,” Myles reminded her.

  Nicole was momentarily stunned and wondered what the hell she’d gotten herself into.

  It comes with the territory.

  “Anyway, like I said, this place right here is going to be your home away from home.”

  Myles observed his surroundings. “It’s smaller than my real house. My other house has two floors and a lot of rooms. And the backyard is huge. You should see it.”

  She gritted her teeth. “Um, yes, my house is smaller. But that doesn’t mean you still can’t have fun, right?”

  “I thought bigger was better.”

  “I cannot believe this,” she muttered under her breath. “Bigger isn’t always better, Myles. You have to use your imagination. I’m sure you are good at that. And you can pretend like this sweet little house that your dad and I live in is as big as a castle.”

  “Mmm hmmm.”

  “And in this castle you have been privileged to have your very own room. It will be the room you slept in last night.”

  “Oh, yeah? I was scared, though. I thought a cockroach was going to crawl on me. I love animals but I hate insects.”

  “Um, excuse me. We do not have roaches.”

  “Then what was that long, brown creepy looking bug that was crawling on the floor and across the wall making that chi chi chi chi noise? It sounded so scary. I pulled the blanket over my head and tried to fall asleep, but the lights being on didn’t help.”

  “Y-you left the lights on all night?”

  “Yeah. I told you I was scared to death.”

  “Oh! You love lions but you’re scared of a little bug?”

  “African elephants are afraid of mice, ducks, and honey bees, Ms. Nicole. Google it.”

  “Coming with the territory, my ass.” she whispered.

  Nicole had had enough of this kid. She stood up and placed her hand on her hip.

  “Never mind all of that, smart guy. You do realize that running electricity all night costs a lot of money, right?”

  “I ain’t got no worries. My dad has plenty of money. He can pay the bills, Ms. Nicole.”

  She stared curiously at Myles. “How much money is plenty of money? Is he . . . is he like, a millionaire?”

  “Yep. My dad is rolling like Dr. Dre.”

  “Dr. Dre is a billionaire, though,” she said, proud that she knew something that Myles didn’t. Even though she doubted the boy knew exactly what he was talking about when it came to Rashad’s finances, she handed him the remote control. She told him, “Excuse me.” She ran to her bedroom and closed and locked the door. Nicole powered up her laptop and did a Google search on Eason & Son Contractors. She found out Rashad was listed as a HUB, a historically underutilized business for small, minority, and women-owned businesses. He also was a member of the National Association of Minority Contractors. She learned that the firm had been in business for well over thirty years and had been founded by his father, the late Derek Q. Eason. It wasn’t the biggest company in the city, but Rashad had been awarded several lucrative contracts. Apparently, he’d garnered some reputable clients, including a few government contracts, and his staff was growing. Nicole then realized that when he oversaw the renovation work at her house last summer, it was because he wanted to be there and personally handle the job. She knew he could have sent his staff, but he didn’t.

  Nicole continued to research a list of Rashad’s completed projects. He even had an impressive website with video clips of him participating in ground-breaking ceremonies and grand openings. She licked her lips and mentally calculated some numbers.

  With the way things were going, she assumed that he and Kiara would split up and that the woman would probably demand fifty percent of all his assets. They had just made ten years of marriage, which bettered Kiara’s chances for a nice settlement and a share of his pension.

  “At least she was conniving enough to wait ten years,” Nicole said to herself. “She’s about to get paid. But I can’t allow that. Those are my coins now. She doesn’t deserve half. She slept with her coworker, which makes her an adulterer. And a female adulterer is way more scandalous than a male one. She had to be in love with that redbone man to sleep with him.”

  Nicole began compiling information about both Kiara and Eddison. By the time she was done, she was ready to help Rashad win his case in any way she could.

  Nicole glanced at her watch and realized Rashad had been gone for hours. The length of time made her feel uneasy, but at least he had given her a heads-up about where he was going and what he was doing. When Rashad returned from his errand, Nicole gave him a questioning look.

  “Hey, cutie. Don’t be mad. This task took longer than I thought.”

  She let go of her annoyance at how long he’d been gone and told him she’d be right back. She drove over to Kroger and bought a triple pack of ant and roach spray that she tried to sneak into the house. But Rashad saw her when she returned.

  “What’s in the bag? More food?”

  “Oh, it’s just a few items I thought we could use to make your son’s stay as comfortable as possible.”

  He simply grinned in amazement at her and felt grateful that she was going out of her way to be the perfect host.

  Later, when Rashad was showering, and Myles was in the living room watching television and eating snacks, Nicole retrieved one of the cans and made sure to lightly spray the boy’s room.

  And hours later, after he went to bed, Nicole went and got Rashad, who insisted on sleeping on the couch so as not to let Myles know that he and Nicole were lovers.

  “Come to bed, babe.” Nicole turned off the TV and dragged Rashad by the hand into their bedroom. They crawled in the bed and Nicole immediately started peppering his neck with lustful kisses.

  “You sure are horny tonight.”

  “Tonight?” She mounted him and pulled his wife-beater over his head. “Baby, I want you every night.”

  “I see.” He laughed as Nicole gently pushed him until his back was pressed against the headboard. She leaned forward and began sucking on his nipples. “Um,” he moaned. “You are a good woman.”

  “And don’t you forget it.”

  “How can I forget? You do just about everything I like.”

  Nicole melted inside. All she wanted to hear was that as a woman, she was among the best.

  “ ‘Just about’ is cool, but that means I could do better,” she said and moved from his nipples to his dick. “Babe, what is something that I don’t do that you wish I did?”

  Before he could get any words out his mouth, Nicole pulled on his penis and started sucking and licking the tip until finally Rashad came all over.

  She laughed and made sure to ooh and ahh so Rashad would see that she w
as having a good time. They entangled their legs around each other as Rashad slapped her from behind. She gritted her teeth and enjoyed how good he felt inside of her. She moaned and shuddered as her orgasm took over her entire body. She was sticky and sweaty, but she didn’t care.

  This is it, she thought to herself. There is no other man on earth that can give me exactly what I want except Rashad Eason.

  After they both were worn out from making love, Nicole gave Rashad five minutes of rest before she started in on him.

  She placed her head on his chest and sighed with contentment.

  “Hey, babe, you were great,” she said.

  “Thanks, you were—”

  “May I ask you something?”

  “Yeah, Nicole. What’s up?”

  “How is the divorce coming along?”

  “It’s in process.”

  “When do you think it’ll all be over, Rashad?”

  “I don’t know. These things can take time. It depends on if we can come to some agreement. If Kiara gives me a hard time about splitting assets and wants to contest anything, that’ll delay the process. But from what I’ve been told, once everything is agreed upon, it’ll take sixty days for the divorce to be granted.”

  “Hmm, sixty days. All right.” Nicole mentally calculated whether she could get him to marry her before the end of next year; preferably a late summer wedding. Or maybe they could wed soon after she gave birth and once she lost all her baby weight. Her baby was due on June eighth. It was important for her to look sexy and fit and trim for her man if she wanted to keep a permanent hold on him.

  Nicole paused, then kissed Rashad on his bare chest. “Question! How much is your McMansion in Fresno worth?”

  He moaned with pleasure when she flicked his nipple with her tongue.

  “How much?” she demanded again.

  “Shit. In this current market, if I am lucky and get the right buyer, it could sell for a good half a million.”

  Nicole already knew the house’s market value, because she had gone on the appraisal website to see how many properties he owned. In addition to the house, she discovered that he’d purchased four small parcels of undeveloped land. She loved that her baby was doing more with his money than buying Escalades and Rolexes.