"I don't know how you do it, Fran," Hailey said while she accepted her cup of coffee from her friend. "I'd go crazy if I were you."
"Go crazy doing what?"
Fran stirred her own cup of coffee as she led the way from the kitchen towards the living room. They sat across from each other. Fran, wearing a flowery dress, curled her feet under her legs with her cup balanced in both hands while her best friend, wearing jeans shorts and a spaghetti blouse sat forward drinking her coffee. Such was a ritual both women shared with each other: every now and then each visited the other for a cup of tea or coffee and catch up on lost times or neighbourhood chatter going about. In this case, Fran had a mental footnote of stuff she wanted to put through her friend and was happy when some minutes ago Hailey had called to say she was coming over. It was a Tuesday morning just like any other.
"You sitting at home all day," continued Hailey. "Doing nothing except waking up, falling asleep, grabbing something to eat, watch some TV, then repeat the same thing all over again till whenever Cleo gets back from work. I don't think I can stand it."
"What makes you think I enjoy it?"
"I don't know. Seeing you in here all day just makes me think so."
"Please, don't let this whole facade blind you. The truth is I'm dying here, Hailey. Sometimes it gets so hard to even think about it."
"So, why not do something about it?"
"Do you think I haven't? I'm still searching through the papers for a job. I've written to a few and I'm waiting to get some feedback."
"What does Cleo think?"
Fran waved a hand above her head dismissively. "Cleo is still Cleo. Very little has changed about him."
"He ought to come take some titbits from my Kevin," Hailey chortled.
"Ha! That's another thing I'd like to get into with you," said Fran, glad that her friend has brought up an opening for her questions. Little did she realise that Hailey was eventually going to bring the topic up regardless if she hadn't. "When are you going to tell me about that black guy I met at your kitchen the other day? I know he wasn't there to fix your air conditioner."
"As a matter of fact, that's what he did," Hailey indicated at her body, laughing while she did. "He's there to fix my pussy's air conditioner."
Her friend looked at her with amazement. "You're serious?"
"Fran, I'm telling you the truth as a friend: I haven't had this much sex in a long fucking time. I haven't been so well fucked than I've been getting since I met him. Every night is like an adventure."
"Is he around right now?"
"No, went off to work. He works as a phone technician at a Phones-R-Us shop over on Garden Street, behind the U. He should be back by noon or thereabouts. Even now I'm missing him."
"I don't believe you. Does Kevin know about him?"
"Of course Kevin knows. Whenever he's fucking me—and I do mean serious fucking—Kevin's always there to watch and later clean me up." She gushed with mirth that surprised her friend.
"My God, Hailey. You've sure hit the big time with this one. I'm in shock right now from hearing you say this."
"Like I said, it beats sitting at home all day doing what you're doing."
Fran no longer had interest in her coffee and lowered her cup on a coffee table beside her. "Where and when in God's name did you hook up with him? But first, tell me his name?"
------
"It's Tibbs," I said to Fred. "You've seen that classic Sidney Portier's 'In the Heat of the Night'? That's the same name he goes by."
Fred had never seen the movie, neither did he have an inkling who the fuck Sidney Portier was, but he thought wise not to bring it up. "Is that really his name or some sort of nickname?"
"It's a short form of his name. His real name, he told me, is Tibbins Black. But he doesn't like it. Said back when he played ball in college, a lot of people made fun of him, so he prefers Tibbs."
"And how long for you known him?"
"Going on a couple of months now," I said before taking a sip of my beer.
Fred was about throwing another question at me when a waitress appeared to take our finished meals away. I wasn't bothered by his questions in as much as I was curious about him throwing them at me.
We were in a restaurant not far from my place of work, a place I frequented. He had called me earlier in the day asking if we could meet for lunch, that there was something he wanted to speak with me about. From the way he'd mentioned the 'something', I instinctively had an idea what he was referring to. My only misgiving was why it's sort of taken him this while to come forth to ask me these. It wasn't like I was ever going to pretend not knowing what he wanted to meet me about. He'd seemed awkward at first when bringing up the subject, but I'd made it easy for him and cut through the chase, asking if he wanted to know about the black man that was partly living with me and my wife. Fred had jumped like a rabbit when I said this and right away the shifty feeling had left him and the questions started coming.
"How long has he been living with us?"
"It's not like he's living permanently with us, Fred—he's not homeless or destitute, if that's what you're thinking. He's got his own pad across town. Hailey and I just got tired driving all the way, so we proposed he come stay with us every now and then. Makes things much easier for all of us."
"You let him," Fred paused to look around before continuing: "you let him screw Hailey while you watch?"
"You'd get aroused much quicker if you were me," I sniggered.
"How big is he?"
"A lot big," I answered daringly. "Bigger than you and I."
Fred snorted almost immediately. "That's bullshit."
"As bullshit as watching you outside my window last night?" I said, catching him off-guard. I couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face. "Yeah, I thought that was you hiding behind my rosebush last night. You saw Hailey getting hammered in the living room, right?"
Fred flushed red, embarrassed. He took a sip of his beer to dispel the look from his face. "I was curious, that's all. It's not often you get to see a black face hanging around our neighbourhood. I didn't even know you were there?"
"That's 'cos I was kneeling beside the corner, but I did see you. Sometimes they go down to the park at night and get it on. Though I don't follow them."
"Wow. You and Hailey really have been having quite the fun. All this time I figured you both for Jehovah Witnesses."
"Flattery and sarcasm will get you nowhere, Fred. Admit that you're curious and stop dicking me around like you wouldn't want to know more up close and personal. Hell, you can bring Misty over later this evening and I'll introduce you both. I'm sure she too would be curious just as you."
That wiped the smile off my neighbour's face. "Don't you dare bring my wife into your madness." He took a swig of his beer then got up. "Pretend we never had this conversation."
He turned around and I remained in my seat and watched him leave.
------
"Oh, I love what you've done to this room, Fran," Hailey remarked after her friend had led her upstairs to reveal the remodelling effort she had done to their guest room which she was hoping to become their baby's dwelling place. Fran was far from being pregnant but was seriously considering motherhood as a sedative to the laxness of being a stay-at-home wife.
The room had previously bore the same cream paintwork as the rest of the house, but she had covered it up with light pink wall-paper. She couldn't decide if her future baby was going to be a boy or a girl, but preferred pink to other colours. There was a baby's crib in place of a bed and all around were various teddy bears, toys and stuff only a baby would love. Both of them approached the window facing the back of the house gazing out at the row of houses behind. The air that blew through it was warming compared to the sun's heat.