Reality Check Read Free Page B

all wound up back at my apartment, and they were polite enough while Smitty and I ran around cleaning up. We ordered out from the local pizza joint and watched a couple of pay-per-views.
    Smitty was his usual crazy self, the life of the party, doing and saying whatever popped into his head. He had us literally falling over laughing while we played cards and finished off a couple of bottles of my finest discount wine. In spite of Smitty claiming “the tall one,” things started getting a little hectic between Velina and me as the night went on. A touching of hands, followed by a kiss stolen here and there.
    Between laughs.
    Between sentences.
    At first.
    To be honest, I was a little hesitant with the whole interracial thing. I had met some beautiful Chicanas and Filipinas since moving out here, but to me, that was different. It was all brown skin, some browner than mine. Although things were changing, there tended to be a little less “fraternization” between whites and blacks back in Lake Charles.
    Old lines, formed by mistrust, failing to completely vanish.
    As the little get-together began winding down, Velina was winding up. My reservations and misgivings faded as she filled me in on other parts of the world. Places where old school Western Europeans looked down upon immigrants from the former Soviet countries as if they were “niggers.”
    Not her word, mine. The sentiment’s the same: people locking doors with fears of crime and newcomers taking their jobs. I could’ve used her in some of my classes. She was a curriculum of world history, sociology, and sex education all in one.
    Kaylen, she of the “ass for days,” had decided that Smitty wasn’t going to be getting any of that ass. She was ready to go home, so I gave Smitty my keys, trusting him not to wreck my shit. Velina stayed over, as we decided to get better acquainted.
    My supply of condoms came in handy that night as I immersed myself in Romanian. All of my impromptu cleaning was undone, as the bedroom became the scene of conflict.
    East versus West.
    Her pussy versus my dick.
    Her tongue versus my mouth.
    It was hot and passionate as we explored every delicious centimeter of one another, straining to breathe in between sessions.
    “Mind if I use your shower, sleepyhead?” Velina was standing there buck-naked, a vivid reminder of what had ended only hours ago.
    “Didn’t we use it already?” My exhausted ass was still trying to be smooth.
    “McNeese? In Lake Charles, right?” Velina asked as she pointed to the shirt she had just discarded.
    “What do you know about Lake Charles?”
    “My uncle is a professor at LSU in Baton Rouge. That is the capital city in Louisiana near Lake Charles, yes ?” Her accent thickened as her certainty diminished. Hot.
    “Yep, you got it right. Small world.”
    “It’s just L.A., Max. A town of transplants and travelers. Everybody winds up here. I guess you did too, huh?”
    “Fo’ sho.” I chuckled with mock swagger.
    “Care to join me in the shower?” She winked. “I have class today and have to run home first. So . . . I’ve got to get a move on.”
    I was dead tired, but ego was coming into play. “Be right there,” I said as I went to scrub her back.
    After our shower interlude, I walked Velina to her car, which was parked in front of my patio. We exchanged numbers and a couple of kisses before her RAV4 disappeared down Venice Boulevard toward the 405. I wondered deep down if either of us would be calling the other.

7
     
    Glover
     
    As promised, Lionel was waiting for me after work that Tuesday. I was to spend the evening with him. My Civic was still in the shop for warranty work, so I had been bumming a ride with Mona. Charmaine grinned when she saw Lionel’s Audi in the parking lot, and took off running past Mona and me.
    “She really needs to stop. Really,” Mona said, staring at the cloud of dust kicked up by Charmaine as she beat a path to Lionel’s car.
    “You know how she is,” I