The 'N' Word, Book 1 (45 page)

M
IA CHECKED HERSELF
in the mirror once more. The frosted champagne colored gloss paired well with the peachy glow of her complexion. It felt a bit strange to get dolled up for the man, knowing he couldn’t see her. She’d even done her hair in a lazy updo, allowed a few strands to frame her face in a sexy sort of way. Sashaying in her short black, sheer robe, she made her way into her kitchen and reached for her strawberry wine cooler. She’d never been a big drinker, but tonight it seemed rather appropriate. Taking a small sip, she made her way back into her bedroom and got comfortable beneath the sheets.

Her pussy pulsed in sweet anticipation as just the thought of his voice soon to come on the other end of the line did wonders to her spirit. She looked at the time and nodded at the clock as if it were an old friend, then reached for her phone.

“Hello, this is Melissa Weber. I have a scheduled phone call with Aaron Pike in Dr. Owens’ office.”

“Yes, hold on, please…”

She waited as the silence got to her. There were no bluesy, jazzy instrumentals or 1990s soft rock classics. And no Holman Correctional Facility announcements regarding visitation and protocol, either. No, only light static, like that of a television station gone off air or an old flip phone powered by analog. After a few moments, her damn body melted to butter…

“Hello…” came his deep, rich, dark, earthy voice. She never got tired of it… The man had a voice dipped in deep, Southern fried renaissance. It was a sure panty dropper and what made it all the more glorious was that his physical appearance harmonized with what rolled out from between his lips…

Damn. Simply majestic he was… damn near royal.

“Hi, Aaron… Hello baby.” She grinned into the phone as she turned on her side and curled her knees up towards her chest. “How are you?”

“I could be better, baby…”

“Oh?” Her brow rose and concern filled her as she sat back up, her jovial mood now hanging in suspense. “What’s wrong? Your case? The lawyer?”

“No, ain’t nothin’ to report regarding the case, nothing that I haven’t already told you. But somethin’
is
wrong. Somethin’ is definitely wrong. I think you can fill in the blanks for me and make it right. Why don’t you go on ahead and start up?”

“I… I don’t understand what you mean, Aaron.”

“Oh, you
definitely
understand. I’m waiting…for…an answer…”

She sat up, her heart beating a bit faster.

“What are you talking about? Aaron, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Cut the shit!” the man screamed into the phone. Her damn eardrum rang as all of his angst poured out into those three words. “All the shit I told you! All the things we shared… I
trusted
you! You know all about me. I gave you front row tickets to my private thoughts! How could you
do
some shit like this, huh?! Who tha fuck are you?!! Mia! Do you hear me talkin’ to you?! Mia… Mia… Mia!
Answer
me!”

Her damn blood froze within her and her brain felt like it would explode. She ran her hands through her hair, messing up her do, causing it to cascade down, spiral out of control. She shook from the inside out and the outside in; her entire core was falling to pieces.

“I don’t… I don’t know what you’re talking out.” She held onto her resolve – all she had left…

“Jeeeesus Christ! So you’re just gonna keep on lyin’, huh?! Just keep on playin’ me? You think this was a game? It was fun, right?! Aaron Pike is in prison, needs a little company… I’ll fuck wit’ his mind and I have no intentions of really bein’ wit’ the likes of him or worse yet, you knew who I was all along!”

“Aaron, that’s not true!”

“He don’t need to know the
real
me; this is just for fun, for an experiment, right? Get inside a felon’s mind…see what makes him tick. My real name is none of his business. He don’t mean nothin’! I don’t give a shit about him!”

“Aaron, stop it!”

“It all makes sense now! You had an excuse as to why you wouldn’t come visit… you had an excuse for
everything
! You never put your mailing address on the envelopes, Mia. At first I thought it was just you bein’ safe at first, and that made sense. You didn’t know me; I coulda been a lunatic or somethin’. But then you got to know me, and you
still
kept secrets while I bled the truth about myself all over the place for you. I’ve never kept anything from you,
nothin
’! Everything you wanted to know, I answered. I never asked you about your address, though I did notice you never offered. I always believed if I asked, you’d give it to me, and I was in here, so what did I need it for anyhow? I only had a P.O. Box but then I got to worryin’ about my letters bein’ read in here by staff, so Dr. Owens agreed to mail them out for me. He had all of the Pen Pal addresses. Dr. Owens was mailin’ out my letters to you for me over the last month or so, I knew he had it, so everything seemed on the up ’nd up. Besides, we were sharin’ so much more, right?!”

He cackled, an angry, fiendish, demonic laugh that broke her damn heart and dared her to hang up the phone.

“… I don’t mean shit to you, do I?” His voice was cold as ice.

“Yes you do, Aaron. Yes you do!” She popped up from the bed and swiped a tear from her eye, not knowing quite what to say or do.

“Liar! I can’t trust you! I don’t even know who you are. What else have you lied about, huh? Probably every damn thing about you is a lie! What’s fiction and what’s fact?!”

“Aaron!” she cried, her voice trembling. “I never meant for this to happen, for it to go this far! I love you! My feelings for you are
real
!”

“Goodbye, Mia.” The man’s voice shook at least as much as hers. “Don’t write me, don’t call me and don’t even bother bringin’ your ass up here now. I got enough trouble in my life. I don’t need any more.”

“Don’t push me away Aaron, please!”

“I didn’t push you away, Mia, and I’m not doin’ it now.
You
got rid of your own damn self.
You
did this!”

And then, she heard the dial tone.

She stared at the phone in horror; her cell phone blinked the longevity of the call: exactly 7 minutes.

“No!” she screamed out, her eyes stinging with fresh tears. She fell back on the bed, grabbing at her robe as her chest ached with pure agony.
Aaron, I love you! I fell hard for you… and I’m helpless…
And the pain she felt drove that truth home. She could handle him being out of her life, but she couldn’t handle him hating her, thinking she never cared for him, never wanted him – and that her words were false, made up tales to lure him into some sadistic game built on the grounds of loneliness and deception.

“Oh, noooo!” she wailed into the sheets, gripping fistfuls of cotton as her uncontrollable sobbing tormented her soul. The pain was so intense, it took her breath away. Her ribs ached as her body moved about in unnatural ways and the few remaining tendrils of her hair still up fell loose and cascaded all over her arms and back like a dark cloud offering a warm hug and kiss of sweet, broken hearted surrender.

For several hours, that was where she remained…

In bed, wrapped in the sheets, eyes becoming puffy from the unrelenting tears. And then, at last, she sat up…

Sniffing, she looked about her bedroom and slowly got to her feet. She grabbed her cell phone, cleared her throat, and made a call, trying desperately to sound as normal as possible—to keep her tone devoid of evidence of the breakdown she’d just suffered.

“Yes, uh…” She closed her eyes then pressed her fingers harshly against her lips, gathering her composure once more. “I need to speak to Dr. Owens, please. This is Mia… Mia Armstrong…”

Chapter Twenty-One

T
ROUBLE WAS A
woman’s name…

Machiavellian in spirit, her feminine airs wooed many a man…

Dr. Owens was no different, and despite a few of his patients’ insistence, he was rather partial to the female gender, even swayed by it and made into a fool a time or two in his not so distant past…

Simply put, he was a bit of a relational recluse, unable to fit his square behind into the circular shaped peg. His voicemail was filled with another ill-fit sort, causing his vacation to be cut shorter than change from a sly shop owner.

“Jesus…” he sighed as he waited in his car for the light to change and go onto the onramp of the expressway, back to work. His head filled with various reports and declarations from the administration. One unfortunate announcement was that Mr. Aaron Pike had gotten into a dreadful fight that morning with another inmate.

He’s been on his best behavior and as soon as I’m gone, he loses complete control! Damn it! I swear sometimes he is like a child set out for complete self-destruction!

Added to his misery were the one too many rather frantic voicemails from Ms. Mia Armstrong – the one whose perfume lingered behind her, but not in an annoying sort of way. Rather, in a seductive, charming, mistress-of-beauty way…

He could only decipher her words here and there on the messages – she was speaking far too quickly and far too frantically – but he got the gist of her declarations. He was certain of many things, but he was no longer clear on
whom
he was dealing with… She’d become an Emma Frost or Mystique. Perhaps she always was, and of that possibility, he wasn’t terribly surprised as he wove together a new understanding. He had
not
forgotten her; how could he? She was lovely, from the top of her dark, wavy hair, down to her feet.

Polite, well put together, seemingly intelligent… She had definite poise, smelled like cinnamon and vanilla candy in the flesh, and her smile was slightly seductive yet curiously sweet. He hadn’t missed the intermittent twinkle in the woman’s honey-colored eyes upon their initial meeting and though not taking himself for the empathic sort, he knew the type. Ms. Armstrong wasn’t stuck on herself; that was part of overall appeal, he was certain.

A woman as beautiful such as she, yet seemingly unaware of her unbelievable presence, was like a magical elixir, undoubtedly attracting a host of admirers. She was confident, yet appeared slightly vulnerable. Open, yet a bit closed and reserved. She walked the line of dichotomy and hypocrisy, an invisible craziness ran through her veins, just below her surface, making her all the more exciting. Yet, she kept this trait hidden, in check, concealed by a love of reading, intellect, a dash of humor, and the love of the Lord. Yes, he could see
all
of this in her…

With a beautiful gold crucifix hanging from her neck and a gold bracelet with two halves of a heart as charms – jagged, spaced out, and broken – she’d stood in his office, looking stunning. He remembered every detail. She’d donned a bold thumb ring and her lips were painted in a matte, muted pink shade… not too flashy, not too drab. Despite her appearance and appeal, the woman was humble, but she was far from meek. No, Mia played a role…

He wasn’t certain if she herself realized that she did; it wasn’t unheard of for one to be unaware of one’s true nature. Authenticity was in the eye of the beholder, and he believed most human beings did not truly know themselves or what they were capable of; therefore, reality was debatable, as well as self-awareness. Regardless, her confusion was almost palpable. Her beauty and even-tempered voice were an act, too. Mrs. Armstrong shielded her pain with artifacts and niceties, a good deed or two urged by the golden rule, morals, and societal laws. This was the training… this was the civilization administered medical cure to a lady’s broken spirit.

As with many women that roamed the world, being given a title and living up to another’s ideal of perfection proved a constant juggling act, an unreachable task. Mia was no different in this case; only
this
woman, based on that twinkle in her eye, perhaps, had a taste for more devious acts, behaviors, and dare he say it, people. She was the type of woman he surmised would be attracted to the dark side of human nature – the person holding the guns, the power, and the badness of a million Buffalo Soldiers…