I Saw Your Profile Read online

  It was their fourth date and tonight was the night.

  On their second date, Mr. Good Body drove up to Philly. They’d planned an early evening since Akilah and Amir were home and he had to drive back to Maryland.

  Their third date was in D.C. They had dinner at B. Smith’s in Union Station. Arianna was visiting her brother there. It was on that date Mr. Good Body told Arianna he wanted her to call him by his real name.

  “Mr. Good Body is a screen name dear. It’s really quite embarrassing when you use it in public,” he had said.

  Arianna was amused that he found it annoying, but agreed to call him Chauncey.

  She’d spaced the second and third dates several weeks apart and forced herself to avoid intimacy. She was attracted to him, but she didn’t want to give in too quickly. Arianna didn’t have to be in love to get her freak on, but she didn’t want drive-by sex.

  The doorbell rang at six. Chauncey was right on time.

  “Good evening,” he said. “My, aren’t you a vision. All those hours you spend in the gym are well worth it.”

  The sleeveless, black dress that clung to Arianna’s figure swayed from side to side as she sashayed across the room.

  “Thank you. I see you decided to be comfortable tonight.”

  Too damn comfortable.

  He was wearing a Nike sweat suit and sneakers. His attire didn’t fit with the evening she had planned. He got everything else right, though. He brought flowers, a bottle of wine and the DVD he promised.

  “These are for you,” he said, handing her the flowers.

  Arianna sniffed the bouquet of roses and carnations. “They’re beautiful. Thank you.”

  “You are quite welcome. Something smells delicious.”

  “Good. I hope you like salmon.”

  “I do. What else is on the menu?”

  “Wild rice and asparagus. You can help yourself to the fruit on the table. I’m going to put these in a vase and then I’ll put the fish in the oven. I wanted to wait until you got here so it wouldn’t be dry. Have a seat and make yourself comfortable. Change the music if you want. I’ll be right back.”

  He browsed through her CD collection of jazz, neo-soul, old school, and R&B.

  “You don’t have any reggae or calypso?” he shouted above Boney’s version of “Grazing in the Grass.”

  “Nope. Sorry, never got into it,” she hollered from the kitchen. “I’m sure you can find something you like, though.”

  Chauncey settled on Luther and played “Take You Out.”

  He walked to the kitchen.

  “Now this is music. The lyrics to most of the garbage that passes for music these days leave nothing to the imagination. Luther’s my boy. He keeps it simple. Excuse me miss, what’s your name and can I take you out tonight.”

  “So you prefer the gentlemanly approach, I take it?”

  “By all means. Don’t you? I mean would you rather I asked you out or asked you to back that ass up?”

  “Hmm.” Arianna pretended she had to think about it.

  “Study long, study wrong.”

  She laughed. “Ask me out, of course.”

  “Is that your final answer?”

  “Tonight it is.”

  “Now you’ve got me wondering.”

  “Good. Women like to have an air of mystery.”

  “May I look around? Your place is lovely.”

  “Go right ahead.”

  He went upstairs to Arianna’s bedroom. Her laptop was on top of a small bookcase in a corner underneath a huge poster of Langston Hughes. The shelves were filled with novels by contemporary black authors and volumes of poetry by Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka, Maya Angelou, and Langston.

  She also had a hardcover Bible, some non-fiction spiritual books, and fitness and writing magazines.

  He turned on the laptop and checked his email.

  Arianna went upstairs to use the bathroom. She stopped and stood in the doorway when she saw him in her room.

  His cell phone rang. He answered it, speaking to the caller in a whisper, then put the ringer on vibrate.

  “Is everything okay,” Arianna said, startling him.

  “Yes, dear. Everything is fine. Just an annoying client. I hope you don’t mind, but I used your computer to check my email.”

  “That’s fine. I just came up to go to the bathroom. Finish your tour.”

  Arianna turned around and headed toward the bathroom in the hall the kids used. She didn’t want him listening to her pee from the bathroom in her bedroom.

  When she finished, she peeked back inside her room. “I’ll holler when dinner is ready.”

  “Thanks, but I’m done,” Chauncey said. “I’ll head back down with you.”

  Arianna went back to the kitchen. When she returned to the living room, Chauncey was admiring the artwork on the walls. “The Color of Beauty” by Tim Askar, “Angel Wings” by Laverne Ross, and Jacob Lawrence’s “Library.”

  “You have good taste. I’m impressed.”

  “Thanks. Dinner will be ready soon.”

  He looked at the family photos that decorated her end tables. “Are these your children?”

  “Yes.”

  “Quite good looking. When will I have the chance to meet them?”

  “I’m not sure, but it won’t be for a long time.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because I don’t introduce my children to anyone I date. Now if things become serious, then that’s different. But it hasn’t happened since my husband died.”

  “Well this time, it’s going to be different.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I can feel it.

  “People get into a lot of trouble going by how they feel, you know.”

  “Not this time. I knew it from the first time we chatted on the phone,” Chauncey said, easing onto the sofa. He motioned for Arianna to join him.

  She sat next to him, offering him the plate of fruit. He grabbed a strawberry and continued.

  “On our first date, we just clicked. I know you felt it too. From your patience in the car while we searched for a place to park to the way we laughed at the same things. I haven’t been so at ease with a woman like I am with you in a long time.”

  Arianna returned the plate of fruit to the table.

  “We have a lot in common and I like how we can talk about everything,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean things are definitely going to become serious between us or that we will stand the test of time. People are always on their best behavior when they first meet. Like, I’m not really that patient. You should have seen me before you got there.”

  “Why what happened?”

  “It was no big deal. I got into it with some young girl over a parking space. But my point is, you haven’t seen my ugly side and I haven’t seen yours. We all have them. And eventually the masks do come off and those sides of our personalities are revealed.”

  “Well I’m sure that I can handle whatever it is you have to dish out.”

  Arianna raised her eyebrows in doubt. “We’ll see about that when you do something to piss me off. And what about you? Can I handle your mean side?”

  “I have no doubt you can because I could never truly be mean to a flower such as you.”

  “Always the charmer. I’m going to check on the salmon.”

  They ate dinner by candlelight in the dining room. When they finished, Arianna brought the dirty dishes to the kitchen where she picked up the phone to check on the kids. The phone was beeping. She had two messages.

  Kenny wanted to know if they were still on to work out the next day. Her mother was demanding to know why Arianna hadn’t returned any of her calls.

  She erased the messages and called Akilah and Amir.

  Blanche and Kenny could wait.

  When she returned, Chauncey had brought their wine glasses into the living room and was inserting his DVD into the machine. It was a boring Western, one thing they didn’t have in common.

&n
bsp; They sat hugged up on the couch for the first thirty minutes of the movie. She pretended to be interested, but couldn’t follow the story line. She poured herself a glass of wine and decided to ride it out. After all, they had all night.

  The sandman was about to snatch her away when she felt something cold pressing against her lips. It was a strawberry. He had taken a bite and was feeding her the rest. She ate it. He turned her around and fed her another one. She took the first bite and he swallowed what she left behind.

  He dipped grapes into her glass and fed them to her.

  Then Arianna baptized her finger with wine and slowly licked it off, giving Chauncey her come-hither look.

  She submerged her finger in the glass again, this time plunging it in his mouth.

  When he finished sucking her finger, Chauncey wrapped his mouth around hers and thrust his tongue inside. She grabbed his smooth, baldhead and held on tightly as if the intensity of the kiss would send her flying off the couch.

  “I want you,” she said.

  “You can have me.”

  “How much of you can I have?”

  “As much as you want.”

  They got up from the couch and walked upstairs, holding hands. She led him to her bedroom and lit a candle. The fire flickered, illuminating the black and white lithograph of Merrill’s “Right Now” hanging above her bed.

  He stared at the image of the couple ripping off each other’s clothes.

  “Are you as passionate as the woman in the picture?”

  “I guess you’re about to find out.”

  She grabbed the remote to the CD player and pressed play. Anita Baker started crooning out “Body and Soul.”

  After satisfying each other, Chauncey and Arianna lay in her bed spooning.

  “You better be careful, Ms. Singleton.”

  “Careful about what?”

  “I’m falling in love. And when I fall, I fall hard.”

  “And quick, too, since you barely know me.”

  “I know enough. Why is it that when people meet someone they don’t like, they trust that instinct immediately? You can tell almost instantly when you can’t stand someone and that’s all right. But when you like someone right away, you question it?”

  “You have a point. But I still don’t want to rush things.”

  “Who is rushing? We’ve talked more than most couples do after dating for a year. We just haven’t spent much time together. And we’ve been fixing that. I know I won’t be disappointed. I don’t need perfect, Arianna. I just need perfect for me. And I don’t need seven great days a week. I’ll take five out of the seven. If we can give each other that, wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

  “Yes it would. But let’s just start with one day at a time.”

  Arianna slept until eleven. She woke up groggy, feeling hung over.

  “Good morning, sweetie,” Chauncey said. Her lover was waving a cup of fresh coffee and a bag of blueberry muffins under her nose.

  “Good morning,” she said, wiping the sleep from her eyes. “Where have you been?”

  “Out getting you breakfast. A continental breakfast, anyway.”

  “You sure learned your way around here fast.”

  “There’s a Dunkin’ Donuts in every city and you can always find someone who can tell you how to get to there.”

  He offered her some coffee.

  “Mmm. That smells good.”

  “How about a muffin? Low fat, of course.”

  “Thanks,” she said, taking a bite. “Did you shower yet?”

  “Yes, as a matter fact I did. I got up with the birds, but you looked so peaceful, I let you sleep.”

  Arianna sat up, snapped off the lid and sipped her coffee. “Why’d you get up so early?”

  “Just used to it I guess. On Sundays, I attend the nine o’clock service at church, so it’s rare for me to sleep late, no matter what time I go to bed the night before.”

  “I’m going to take a shower right quick and get dressed. Is there anything you’d like to do before you have to get back on the road and I have to get the kids?”

  “Do you have any of that delicious fruit left?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “How about a picnic? It’s a glorious day.”

  “Great idea. But it’s not lunch time yet, so I’ll think of something else to do before we go to the park.”

  “How about I join you in the shower. Two heads are better than one.”

  “But you already took one.”

  “You can never be too clean, dear.”

  “Yeah, right. I’ll bring the condoms.”

  “You must be reading my mind.”

  After working up a sweat in the shower and washing it off, Arianna and Chauncey dressed for their outing. Arianna chose the African American Museum. She’d been meaning to go since she moved to Philadelphia.

  After checking out the exhibits, they stopped at a deli to buy extra food for the picnic basket already stocked with wine and fruit from the night before. They then drove to Penn’s Landing along the riverfront in downtown Philly.

  They found a spot to spread their blanket, dined on their feast and snuggled.

  Four blankets over, a gay couple kissed.

  He sighed in disapproval. “Did you see that? What a despicable display.”

  Arianna lifted her head from his chest. “See what?”

  “Those two men over there. Kissing. There are no morals in this country, anymore.”

  Arianna thought her ears were playing tricks on her. Chauncey had given her the impression during their conversations that he was liberal and open-minded.

  “Morals? Are you passing judgment on their lifestyle in general or are you just upset at their public display of affection?”

  He hissed. “Both.”

  She sat up. “A little homophobic aren’t we? You didn’t seem to mind kissing me in public on our first date.”

  “Are you saying that you condone their behavior?”

  Arianna sighed. “It’s not up to me to condone it or condemn it. It’s not my life.”

  Chauncey sat up. “A little too tolerant aren’t we?”

  “I spent a year in Northampton at Smith College. I saw lesbians kissing, touching and feeling on each other all the time. It’s no biggie to me. I say live and let live.”

  Northampton, Massachusetts was known as a haven for lesbians.

  “You only spent a year there,” Chauncey said. “Obviously you left for a reason.”

  “Not because of the lesbians. I just wanted a more diverse college experience, period. I wanted to see men on campus and another black face every now and then.”

  “I see. Well I don’t accept homosexuality. It’s an abomination before my Lord.”

  Arianna giggled. “Your Lord? The same lord who said that fornication was an abomination, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So was he okay with you fornicating with me in the shower this morning? And in my bedroom last night? And every other time you stuck your thing inside some woman who wasn’t your wife?”

  “That’s different.”

  “Why? Because it’s heterosexual sex? It’s still bad sex according to your Lord. You know what? Never mind. Let’s just agree to disagree on this subject and drop it, okay?”

  He pulled her back down to the blanket and covered her with his arms.

  “That sounds like a good idea. Besides, I want to talk about us, not those degenerates.”

  “What about us and they’re not degenerates.”

  “I want us to spend all our Sundays like this. After we attend church, of course.”

  “That’s a nice fantasy, but we don’t even live in the same state.”

  “That’s not an insurmountable obstacle, my dear, as evidenced by our presence here today.”

  “Not an obstacle to an occasional date, maybe. But, I doubt we will be seeing each other every Sunday. And I don’t do church. I’m taking a break.”

  “Well I’ll go by myself unt
il I win you over.”

  “Suit yourself. But I doubt you’ll be winning me over any time soon, especially if your church teaches intolerance.”

  She sat up again. “Anyway, I think you and I have different ideas about where we go from here so let’s talk about that.”

  Chauncey turned on his side and sat up on his elbow. “We have to make sure to see each other at least once a week. I know it will be difficult with the children, so I will try to get up here as often as I can. If I have to, I’ll just get a room until you are comfortable with me being in the house.”

  “See that’s what I mean. Slow down. Let’s take this one step at time. Seeing each other once a week is great, but it will be a long time before I’m ready to have you in the house with my kids, so you need to rethink this getting a room thing. I don’t think you’ll be able to afford to do that every week.

  “You let me worry about that, my dear.”

  “Fine.”

  The next day, Arianna was checking her personal email from her work computer when she got a message from Chauncey.

  Darling,

  I am sorry for the misunderstanding we had. I’m sure as we get to learn more about each other, there will be more, not many, but some. And I hope we can handle them just as we did yesterday, with respect. By accepting each other’s differences and remaining civil to one another, I know we will be able to overcome anything. We have a wonderful future ahead of us and I can’t wait to explore it. In the meantime, I noticed you liked poetry from the books in your house so I’ve written this poem to express how much I enjoyed making love with you. I can’t wait to hold you in my arms again. I hope you enjoy it.

  Our bodies intertwined as one an instrument of sound

  The melody was sweet, rhythmically legato, next stanza staccato

  Never missing a beat, or straying off key

  Like cool jazz on a hot summer night

  No words, just the blending of sounds

  Striking just the right chords

  Until we hit the high note

  The crescendo of passion

  The climax of love

  The resolution of a beautiful song

  He titled the poem “Making Music.” She printed it and read the words over and over, the poet in her scrutinizing each one.