Through the Grapevine

Chapter 1

Sitting on the concrete steps of my apartment complex, I gazed at this cinnamon colored girl walking past the building on that post-New Year's eve morning. The air was damp and humid, and dark clouds were hiding the sun  as if to threaten us with more  snow. There was already  little puddles of melted snow surrounding the stairs  like a small  island in the Caribbean sea.

She had on a hot pink blouse and acid-washed jeans. Her thick, wide, curvy, yet athletic hips swayed back and forth like swings on a playground. Her long luxurious sable hair graciously flowed in the wind like The American flag on a cool crisp evening. She walked with a model's strut. She was like an exotic angel fallen from heaven. I knew that girl from somewhere but didn't know where. She came and took a seat next to me. The smell of Le Labo tickled my nose with its sweet fragrance.

"Hey, wats your name?" she greeted sheepishly in a high alto Puerto Rican voice.

"Jamal," I answered.

"I'm Jessica," she replied back in a sexy tone. We stared at each other. Her crystal baby blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight like stars on a starry night.  She smiled, got up and walked away.

My body was paralyzed with her beauty. I wanted her, and would do anything to have her in my arms. Still in a daze, I spotted my three months pregnant ex, Lavonné prowling the sidewalk as if some sort of detective. Anger began to boil up in my spirit; I managed to calm down. I really didn't want to talk to her because she talked bad about my little princess, Kayla. A part of me hated Lavonne, but another part of me still loved her as if she wasn't my ex-girlfriend. She leaned against the concrete stairwell and gave me the "death stare".

"What do you want Lavonne?!" I asked peeved.

"Nothing," she snapped back.

"Then why da hell are you here?"

" I don't have to tell you. Dis-sa free country. I can do whatever the hell I want!" On that note she fumed down Jamaica Avenue. I sat there on the steps studying the dull rusty row-houses that occupied the territory of East Brooklyn.

"Jamal baby!" I heard just over the horizon. I squinted my eyes to make out who it was. As she approached closer and closer to me, I finally saw who it was. The familiar person plopped down next to me, gave me a big bear hug, and kissed me on the lips.

" Hey Rica babe," I greeted back.

"Hey boo," she responded in her thick Queens accent.

"So you ready for our big date tonight?" she asked steadily rubbing her soft elegant cocoa butter scented hand down my chest.

" You know I'm ready to be wit' ma gurl," I replied getting up.   

I helped Rica up and she stood there staring at me with her luminous honey-gold amber eyes with a warm light brown undertone in her pupils.

She kissed me on the lips.

"I'll be waitin'," she whispered in my ear with a flirtatious tone then she kissed me again but this time on my cheek. She sashayed off characterizing her hips. My eyes dropped down from her hips to her butt; I watched as it bounced from side to side.  I decided to walk into my apartment and when I stepped inside the studio apartment, Kayla who was now three years old, ran towards me and hugged my legs.

"Daddy!"

"Hey how's my baby girl doin?" I greeted picking her up in my arms.

"You had fun today?"  

Kayla nodded.

"Where's Gran'ma?" I asked looking about the room.

"She's in da kitchen," the three year old  girl babbled,  pointing into the next room.