Excerpt from The Cousin
Featured in Love Won’t Let Me Wait




Chapter 1


“Bro, I think she’s cheating,” Cray said.

 
Devon shook his head. “Nah, I can’t see it. It’s like Sheila is just turned off to sex now for some reason, like she doesn’t even want to be bothered with it – not from me or anybody else. She just lost interest.”

 

Cray leaned forward on his desk. “Listen to me, Devon. Women don’t just get turned off to sex for no reason. They want it as bad as we do. Hell, I think they want it more than we do. Now, if you say nothing’s happened between you two to make her change, then that means that something happened outside your marriage to change her. Sheila isn’t just walking around for - how long has it been now?”

“Almost three months.”

 

Cray shook his head. “Damn Bro, I feel for you. But unless there’s something wrong with her, a healthy woman isn’t gonna go without getting some on the regular. She been feeling okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine. She’d tell me if she wasn’t. And by the way, she hadn’t gotten laid for almost two years before we got together, so I don’t buy your theory that she’s gotta be getting it somewhere else. Whatever’s going on with her, it’s something we need to work out in our own house.”

“And in the meantime, you’re walking around with your dick is as hard as Chinese arithmetic. Or are you getting some on the side yourself?”

“No man, I’m straight,” Devon said. “I was serious when I said my vows. I don’t fuck around on my wife.” He stood up. “I’d better get back to my desk and do some work.”

“Hold up, I’ll walk you out,” Cray said. I need a smoke break anyway.” He pushed his chair back and stood up. As he came around his desk he said, “Damn Bro, so you really ain’t had no pussy in almost three months?”

“You don’t need to remind me.”

Cray and Devon were civilians, working at base headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa Florida. As they walked down the corridor, civilian and military females passed them. Cray made it a point to smile and speak to every one of them.

 
Devon wanted to laugh at Cray trying to mack these government babes. Cray was pimped out as usual. Today he wore a mustard colored suit over a brown silk shirt. His tie and shoes matched the color of his suit. He looked about as far as you could get from a Federal employee. Devon couldn’t imagine that any one of these women took him seriously.

 

“So with all the fine trim walking around in this building alone, you’re not even tempted?” Cray asked.

“I told you -”

 

“Yeah, yeah I know – your vows and shit.”

“Exactly.”

 

As they reached Devon’s office Cray clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re a better man than me Bro,” he said. “Way better.”


Chapter 2


They ate dinner in the family room so they could watch some show with celebrities trying to dance with professional dancers. Devon wasn’t into ballroom dancing, but Sheila liked the program so he watched it with her. One thing about the show though, those female dancers in those tight, low-cut dresses looked hot as hell. Or maybe it was just the fact that he hadn’t touched or been touched by Sheila in months that had him thinking that anything that didn’t have a penis was sexy.

During a commercial Sheila turned to him and said, “I need to ask you something.”

 

Okay, here it comes. She’s ready to talk about what’s going on with her, about why she’s not interested in intimacy anymore. Devon put the television on mute. “What babe?”

“You remember me mentioning my cousin Ellie, my Uncle Earl’s daughter?”

 

Okay, this wasn’t about them having sex. He swallowed his disappointment. “Is she the one in college somewhere?”

“Yes, she was at Howard in DC.”

 

“What about her?”

“She graduated this summer,” Sheila said. “She has her Bachelor’s now, and she wants to move down here to Florida to look for a job and a place to stay.”

Devon didn’t like where this was going. “Okay, and?”

“Would it be okay with you if she stayed with us until she got situated?”

Damn. It wasn’t like he could just say no. But this was really bad timing. He wanted to get close to his wife again. It was tough enough with them living alone. It would be even harder to do with somebody else under their roof.

“She’s already been sending resumes,” Sheila added, “And she has a couple of good prospects here. I don’t think she’d be here too long.”

Devon hoped that was true. “So when does she want to come?”

 

“This weekend, if that’s okay with you.”

Devon was thinking that if he didn’t get some from his wife in the next couple of days, it might be a long time before he had another chance.