Page 15 of Smoke N' Stroke

“There’s nothing to say. Just know I chose you.” I took a sip of the pinot and placed the goblet on the glass coffee table where we were sitting in front of on the floor.

“You want some more pussy,” she correctly assessed and I didn’t have it in me to pretend I had more noble intentions. We were way past that.

“Of course I do. Will you grant my wish, Dr. Jackson?”

“Hmmmm, let me see. What do I get for granting your wish.”

“What would you like?

Her eyes traveled the length of my body before settling on my lap.

“I’m hungry. You’ll have to feed me before you can get what you want.”

I had never met someone who enjoyed using their mouth during sex as much as I did before Nala but the way she gagged on my dick until her eyes were filled with tears and allowed cum to fill her throat and dribble down onto her pretty tits, let me know I had found a woman worth loving. Marrying. Staying with. As my dick turned flaccid against mystomach, as she got up to shower and rinse her mouth, I had to remind myself to slow down. We still needed to learn more about each other, but a voice, my innermost and true voice said,You know you have to have her for all time. Don’t play about it.I wouldn’t.

On Monday we pretended not to have spent the weekend sucking each other’s private parts and fucking each other between great meals. She left before bedtime and went home last night and only sent me a text telling me she made it in safely. After that, there was a silence between us that felt weird given we were wrapped around each other for forty-eight hours straight. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it even though we agreed to keep things simple between us when she left me. Whatever that meant. All I knew simple wasn’t a word I’d use to describe what I was feeling for Nala.

11

ZAIRE

Before either of us could see to our patients, we had to give Dr. Patton a more in-depth report of the incident with Nala’s patient, provide a written statement that would be filed away in case there was any litigation or complications later, and then a promise for Nala to review safety protocol with Raheem. Then we started our day with a long gaze before separating to see our patients.

We were tasked with keeping it all together and were still required to attend the conference in Denver at Dr. Patton’s insistence.

The days after the assault made most of the clinicians feel on edge at the clinic which was expressed in shifting eyes and the cancelling of eveningappointments. Sheila’s husband even began picking her up from work instead of allowing her to walk to the busway to catch the P1 Bus to get to her car at the Park N’ ride in Wilkinsburg. Behaviors shifted out of fear and while I understood it, I didn’t like it at all because you could see the fear and suspicion rising in the clinicians at their patients as if they were our enemies instead of the people we served. Sure, we all know the possibility of our patients assaulting us was present, but the incidence of that was rarer than the general public might think. People who suffer from mental instabilities were more often the victim of crime, than the perpetrators. But this time, this was not the case and that was enough to instill fear.

We had refresher courses on safety, most especially entering and exiting the building, which Raheem was around for. The entire time he looked at me with disgust because I guess I had made his life harder by not following advised protocol which meant his lazy ass had to do something. I was apologetic for sure but him needing to provide safety tips and updating our training module was something he should have been doing anyway. Hello!

Besides, if I was Raheem, I would tread lightly. This morning, the woman with her bodyguardcame by the center. Both Zaire and I were pretending we hadn’t been just fondling each other and kissing in his car when we crossed paths with her and her bodyguard. I moved aside to let her and the big man walk by but before I could look to Zaire to say, “See I told you she had a bodyguard,” I heard a voice.

“You the doctor he came after?”

I didn’t bother acting confused. Her large brown eyes and light cocoa-brown skin made her mesmerizing. Who could lie to this woman?

“Yeah, I mean yes,” I croaked out.Woman up, Nala!

“I’m happy you weren’t hurt.”

She looked to Zaire who stood watching the bodyguard who hadn’t spoken a word but looked ready to handle us both if we so much as flinched.

“You saved her.”

Zaire lifted his head like he was a soldier receiving commendations from a general. “Yeah.”

“Good shit.”

She started walking toward Dr. Patton’s office before stopping and turning to look at us.

“That shit won’t happen again. I can promise you that.”

We were left standing there frozen in place untilthey disappeared around the corner. Then Zaire pulled me into his office to gossip.

Days later, Raheem was doing more rounds around the building and standing up straighter than before. Not only that, he looked in on me multiple times a day between patients. I don’t know what the woman said to Raheem, but it worked. In addition, there was a black car with black tinted windows parked in the garage at all times. You could never make out who was in the car but their presence was undeniable.

“Are you two ready for the conference?”

Dr. Patton had asked both Zaire and me to stop by at five that evening. We were leaving on the same flight the next morning at her insistence.Insistingwas what she had been doing a lot of lately, I noted, but as my employer, it was her right up to the point of crossing any lines, which she had yet to do.

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