For Shaun

· Kofi Siriboe

· Black

· NOLA

I walked out of the bathroom into our hotel room to see my husband dressed in all black from head to toe, looking better than he had any right to. It felt strange, those two words in succession coming out of my mouth. However, a quick glance at the wedding ring that glistened on the third finger of my left hand quickly quelled any unease I had. Just under a year into forever with a man I certainly never saw coming, that’s for damn sure.

It was his idea, for us to take a pre-anniversary trip down to New Orleans. Despite my fascination with the city, this was my first visit. Much to Karim’s chagrin, I wanted to do all of the touristy things—have a drink at that carousel bar, beignets at Café du Monde, take one of those Groupon gator boat rides that Tiffany had taken Will and Jada on…all of it. Karim put his foot down at doing any of the ghost tours, though. The most I’d gotten out of him was visiting the house where they’d filmed the American Horror Story: Coven season. Since we’d touched down, I’d had him running and though he went along with my every whim, I could tell it was wearing on him. He was being a good sport though, so I gave over the reins to him for the rest of our trip

Tonight was all about him and his plans. Karim and his boys had come down to NOLA to get into antics plenty of times and he had grown rather fond of the city. Whenever he came down here, he sought out new restaurants and tried to stay as far away from Bourbon Street as possible. The plan was to do dinner and then catch some live music and burn off some of what we consumed at dinner. When I asked him how to dress he simply replied, “Like you’re tryna get fucked tonight.”

So here I was in a newly purchased black lace body con dress that stopped mid-thigh, showing off a perfectly toned pair of thighs that were evidence of my recent online training sessions with my trainer Donte and his Hybrid Lifestyle program. On my feet was a pair of shoes that definitely indicated that I expected to be seeing them held aloft by the end of the night—black with a four-inch gold heel and gold cuffs that clasped around my ankle. I straightened my hair, a rare occurrence, and it brushed my shoulders in loose waves. My jewelry was minimal—my wedding ring and my favorite one-carat black diamond studs.

Karim finally noticed my presence in the room and immediately made his way over to me to wrap his arms around my waist, nuzzling my neck with soft nibbles.

“Shit, I didn’t think you’d really take my instructions to heart. Fuck them reservations,” he growled, hands moving from where they were grasping my waist down to grip my ass.

“Ah-ah!” I teased, “You promised me dinner. And dancing.”

“And, I definitely plan to make you my dinner which will have you dancing so I’m not quite sure of the problem here?” Karim replied smoothly.

“Nope,” I smirked, “Not good enough.”

“Tease!”

“Brute!”

“I’ll be that whenever you’re concerned, wife. But fine…have it your way,” Karim said, flicking his wrist up to view the black on black Movado watch I’d gifted him with before we left town.

&&&

I was barely keeping my cool and Celena knew it, the little tease. We’d eaten dinner at Commanders Palace and were currently finishing up dessert. Well, more like Celena was trying to get me to bend her over at this table as she turned eating bread pudding into a more sensual act than was sensible. With each bite, she pushed me closer and closer to the edge, letting her tongue linger on her spoon a little too long under the guise of savoring every bite.

“Sure you don’t want some, baby? It’s really good,” Celena moaned.

I signaled to the waiter for our check to put an end to this torture. We needed to get out of here and over to Frenchmen street. My guy Felipe’s jazz trio was in town and had a gig at Snug Harbor, so I wanted to head over there and show him a little love before we ended the night at Café Negril, a spot I knew Celena would love because of her infatuation with all things Marley.

The Lyft ride over to Snug Harbor was an exercise in restraint as Cel plastered herself against me, damn near in my lap. I indulged her in a few kisses, but nothing too intimate since we did have a strange as witness. Twenty minutes later we were pulling up to Snug Harbor at the same time that Felipe and his guys were arriving.

“Flip!” I called out.

“Reem, what’s good joe?”

“Shit, I can’t call it,” I replied.

Felipe’s eyes skittered over Celena before he replied, “Shiiiiid, I know you lyin. Look like you know all that’s good.” He extended a hand in her direction,” My name’s Felipe and yours sweetheart?”

“Cool all that mack shit out with my wife, Flip!”

Celena giggled at our back and forth, then introduced herself to Felipe, “Since my husband is being rude, Celena. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“No need for formalities if you’re Reem’s wife, you’re family,” Felipe replied, decidedly less in mack mode.

He and I hadn’t seen each other in a few years, so he was unaware of recent developments in my life like settling into owning an auto body shop and managing to get married within an eighteen month time period.

“Brother, let me set y’all up at my table, everything is on me tonight. Since I missed the nuptials and all,” Felipe said suddenly, urging us to follow him into the club.

He talked to a couple folks before we were led to a table tucked off to the left of the stage. Soon a bottle of Dom Perignon appeared unbidden. I poured Celena and I a serving and we toasted to a great vacation so far and an even better tonight. Flip’s trio put on a great show, but pretty soon we were inching to get up and get our groove on and the mood in Snug Harbor was decidedly mellower than what we needed, so I suggested we take off and head down to Café Negril.

We could hear the sound of the reggae band that was going in at Negril the closer we got to it and Cel was definitely feeling her drinks if the way she was wining back on me as the bouncer checked our IDs was any indication. I led her to the dancefloor immediately, keeping her back pressed against my front as we moved in syncopation to the rhythmic tunes the band played. We danced nonstop, to songs fast and slow, familiar and un, never once separating the lower parts of our bodies as our hips wound in unison.

For the first time all evening, when the band announced a five minute break, Celena turned toward me with a lusty look in her eye, biting her lower lip.

“You ready to get outta here?” I asked, knowing the answer.

“Been,” she replied hurriedly.

“After you,” I said, following the sway of her hips as she led me from the club.

Just as we were getting ready to step out, a hand on my bicep halted our forward progress.

“Excuse me, I know you’re out with your girl, but would you mind taking a picture with my girl, bruh?”

I turned around to see some poindexter looking dude and his equally nerdy looking chick looking at me expectantly.

“Uhhh…?” I replied, “I’m not sure who you think I am but…”

“Baby,” Celena said, interrupting me, “Don’t do these nice people like this. They asked so politely. If we take it quickly and they are discreet, I’m sure no one else will bother us.”

I looked over at her like she’d lost her mind as she continued.

“I can take it for you guys, if you both want to get in the picture,” she gushed.

“That would be great!” the guy in the couple responded, “Wow! Thank you for being so gracious. It’s not every day that we see celebrities, you know. And Coletha, she just loves her some RA, so I had to make my lady’s night and approach you, Kofi.”

The couple gathered on either side of me, the woman’s hand resting dangerously low on my stomach, damn near at my dick, as Celena snapped a couple shots. They thanked us again before letting us continue on our way.

“What the hell was that, babe?”

“I told you!” Celena crowed.

“You told me what?”

“I told you that you looked like Kofi Siriba…Siriboe. I told you! You watched the show and everything, but still didn’t see the resemblance.”

“Because I don’t look like that lil nigga.”

“You say it like it’s an insult.”

“I’m a grown ass man. How old is he like twelve?”

“Wooooow, you’re buggin baby! But, that doesn’t matter because I have proof now! Wait til I tell the girls! We’re gonna have a good ki over this one.”

“Yeah yeah yeah,” I said, advancing on her, pulling her ass back toward me once again, proof of where we were headed before being interrupted pressing into her urgently, “Is you done or is you finished?”

“Feels like the night is just getting started,” she replied, leaning back into my embrace.