Page 10 of Without You
He looked down at his hand and saw that he’d crushed the brochure. He hadn’t realized he’d done that and tucked it into his back pocket.
They came to a stop at the admissions building and the guide said, “This is the end of the line for me. I hope you enjoyed your tour. Do you have any more questions?”
“I’m good. Mom, Pops?”
“I don’t have any questions,” Charisse said.
Terrence shook his head, indicating he didn’t have any, either.
“All right then. I’ll walk you into the office, and the admissions counselor will then have a few words with you. I hope you do decide to attend Morehouse. I think you’ll love it.”
The young man led them inside to a hallway and then a couple doors down to one of the offices. They were greeted by an older woman wearing glasses.
“Welcome back!” she said in a booming but friendly voice. “I’m sure Stephen did a great job with the tour, but I’m here to answer any additional questions that you may have. Thank you, dear.” Stephen nodded and left them alone. “Let me know your concerns, but by no means is this the last chance you have to talk to us. We want to keep in touch with you after today so that if you have additional questions, we can answer them. We also want to share information with you about activities taking place on campus that Ennis might be interested in attending.” She punctuated her little speech with a smile.
“Stephen mentioned there was additional literature I could take a look at,” Ennis said.
“Absolutely! And I’ll have you fill out a sign-up sheet so we can add you to our activities mailing list.”
“Sounds good.” Ennis glanced at both of his parents for permission.
“You go ahead and we’ll wait out here,” Charisse said.
“All right, we’ll only take a few minutes and we’ll be right back.” With a hand at his back, the woman guided Ennis into a back office. Terrence and Charisse sat down in the empty chairs, leaving one empty chair between them.
She crossed her legs away from him and perused one of the brochures. A young man, who didn’t look much older than Ennis, stood at the counter leafing through a magazine. In the back, the muted sounds of other staff having conversations could be heard.
“How was your date last night?” Terrence asked.
She didn’t look at him. “It went well. How was yours?”
“Good.” Liar.
He didn’t sleep a wink and his penis turned into a wet noodle, unable to stand erect so he could have sex with Kim. All because his imagination tortured him with thoughts of Charisse screwing another man. She looked so sexy with red lips, sultry eyes, and that blue dress hugging her shapely body. He’d wanted her so badly he almost upended the restaurant table and dragged her back to his place to fuck her good and long and remind her who she used to belong to.
Today, those tight jeans made his imagination run wild all over again. He used to have the right to touch her. Now he practically sat on his hands like a good little boy while his penis grew hard in the admissions office of Morehouse College.
He glanced over at her. “You haven’t said much today.”
“Neither have you.” She looked up at him.
“Been seeing that guy long?”
She shrugged. “Not long.”
“How long is not long?”
She sighed. “About a month, Terrence.”
“You screwing him?”
Her eyes opened wide. “What?”
“It’s okay if you are,” he said, his body growing tense.
“I know it is, but I don’t think it’s any of your business who I’m screwing.”
“So youarescrewing him?” He felt as if someone dropped a cinder block on his chest.
