Unfaithful

Part 1 - Talia

"I'm going to the gym with Yasmine," I leaned over to kiss my boyfriend Joel on the lips and he turned his head slightly, offering me his cheek. I paused momentarily before brushing my lips against his cheek. "We should be back in an hour." I tried to hide the disappointment in my voice.

Joel didn't take his eyes off the TV screen as he continued playing his XBox. "Have fun."

I picked up my gym towel and walked out the front door. Yasmine, my single fun loving cocoa-complexioned best friend, was sitting behind the wheel of her 1996 Nissan Altima. She was dressed in an all black gym outfit – black yoga pants that covered her black workout sneakers and a black tank top that showed off her voluptuous figure. Yasmine loved her body, she was proud of every single curve on it, and had absolutely no problem showing them off to the world. Her short dark brown hair, which when she wore it down just barely reached the bottom of her ears, was slicked back and pinned. I hurried over to her car and plopped in the front seat, closing the door behind me.

Yasmine and I had been best friends ever since college. We just seemed to click upon first meeting each other. She used to say that I was the yin to her yang and that's why we fit. Where she was the loud, outgoing, always down for something, I was the quiet, shy; rather stay at home with my man type woman. But we balanced each other and the friendship worked. Joel used said that we were the angels on each other's shoulders, encouraging each other when it was needed the most.

"Hey," I sighed as I leaned back against her tan cloth seats.

"What's up?" Yasmine backed out of the driveway and headed down the street. "How was your day today? You look stressed."

I shook my head. "Not even worth mentioning. I am so ready to jump on that elliptical machine and just walk my cares away...it addition to other things."

Yasmine looked at me with an eye raised. "Still not getting any?"

"It's gotten so bad that I've already run through an entire pack of batteries," I laughed a little as I leaned my right elbow against the window and placed my head in my hand. "I went to Target, Wal-Mart and Walmart to stock up on batteries in one week. I was too embarrassed to keep going to the same store because then they'll know why I'm always getting batteries."

Yasmine burst into laughter as she shot me a look.

"I've never loved Blue Pearl as much as I have in the past few weeks," I chuckled. I had to laugh at myself – otherwise I'd cry. Blue Pearl was the name of my vibrator. I had bought it a month before Joel and I had gotten together and I may have used it once or twice since then. I remember Yasmine had urged me to buy it, saying that no woman should be without a vibrator. It was a rite of passage, she'd say. But in the past few weeks, I had become quite familiar with the blue, seven inch plastic toy. I had even moved it from its hiding place in the top of my closet to the bottom drawer of my nightstand.

The first time that Joel saw it was about a week ago. He was looking for my nail clippers and opened the drawer. He shifted through it and when he pulled Blue Pearl out, he looked disgusted and dropped it in the drawer and frowned as he practically ran to the bathroom and washed his hands. He muttered something about it being "out in the open," and then shook his head as he shot me a look. Ever since then, he barely came on my side of the bed, yet alone touched my nightstand.

"Well, I think that maybe we should have a women's night and you can buy Blue Pearl some friends so he doesn't have to work so hard," Yasmine chuckled. "You probably have the poor thing cowered in the corner somewhere praying you aren't looking for him every time the drawer opens."

I laughed along with her and Yasmine drove to the gym. Once we were inside, Yasmine went straight to the pool to do some laps. I went to the cardio area and jumped on the first available elliptical that I saw. I turned on my MP3 player and started my workout. A Tribe Called Quest's 'Scenario' was blasting in my ears and I was walking away all the stress – among other things – that had built up inside of me. I looked at the mirrored wall that was in front of the cardio machines and frowned as I looked at myself. My skin had a slight glow, but not the kind that I usually liked. I was frowning at myself when I saw a man walk into the gym. He had to be about six feet tall and his athletic body was incredible. He had a mustache and goatee – a feature that I always thought was very sexy on a man. I looked over my right shoulder to get a better look at him. He was beautiful.