Marie Lowell Jenkins stood in front of the mirror and looked at herself. At the age of forty, she stood five feet ten inches tall, a bit chubby but still attractive. Her hair was short and black, and her skin was light brown. She was still a good-looking African-American woman. Times had been tough on her lately but she was a survivor. She looked at the pictures on her nightstand, and sighed. They were pictures of her husband James, back when he'd been a good-looking black athlete, during their college days.
Marie worked as a police officer in the city of Boston. Tonight, her husband James Jenkins was out with his boyfriend, a twenty-something guy named Anthony Blake. They had a certain arrangement. Marie knew what she was getting into when she married James. They met in college. Back then, he was a tall, good-looking black man. He was also openly bisexual and publicly dated both men and women. James was unlike any other man that she knew. He was bold, and didn't take crap from anyone, man or woman. He stood up for his rights as a same-gender-loving African American male.
In college, Marie had been a bit of an activist. They met while campaigning. James had been a loyal supporter of Michael Landis, an openly gay ex-congressman who was running for mayor of Boston. He had lost, even though Boston was one of the most liberal towns in America. The gay community had been incensed. James had been so disappointed. Marie comforted him. They became friends afterwards. Of course, a relationship with James was a whirlwind. He was sleeping with men and women left and right while they were friends and he had no intention of stopping.
The two of them crossed the line between friends and lovers one night when James was drunk and had gotten kicked out of the dorms at Amherst. A month later, he would drop out of college altogether. He had nowhere to go. Marie offered him a place under her modest roof. He accepted. James had gotten in a fight with some homophobic athletes who didn't like the fact that he kept bringing his boyfriends to spend the night at the dorm. The building's resident assistant, a slim older woman who had also once slept with James, had no qualms about kicking out the hunky black stud. The world didn't like switch-hitters, especially scrappy ones.
Yes, that night, they made love. Even though it was twenty years ago, Marie still remembered. James hadn't known what to do when he got kicked out. James had a habit of getting kicked out of places for indiscretions. He got kicked off his high school football team because he was caught doing it with another guy. His boss fired him for doing it with one of the kitchen girls...in the bathroom. James fucked a female faculty member out of a deal to improve his grades once. The guy was a stud and his sexual power made him the envy of the world. In those days, he could get away with everything. He was something else.
Marie had welcomed James into her humble abode, and into her heart that rainy Friday night. Her apartment was small and she had no roommate. James had insisted on taking the bed and she had taken the couch. That's just the kind of man he was. At the time, she found his tactlessness and absolute confidence to be quite appealing. He was such a sexy bastard. Still, she wasn't about to let herself be bossed around in the apartment that she paid for by an arrogant man. She went into the room. Oh, hell. That was just asking for trouble but she stood her ground.
