Read Heights of Desire for Free Online Page B

quietly in Spanish. Back in the Heights, he parks at the top of my street away from the house and comes around to open the car door for me. He seems distracted and impatient. I figure it means he’s done with me. He mutters something about having to get the car back to his ‘boy’. I’m relieved to hear that it’s not his car. The decals and Dominican flag seat covers along with the air freshener trees had me doubting both myself and my sanity. Despite the fact the car is borrowed, I can’t fool myself into thinking that Jaylee’s car, if he had one, wouldn’t have the same aesthetic.
    Jaylee kisses me platonically on the cheek.
    “Bye, Kate.”
    “Bye, Jaylee. Thanks,” I reply. I can’t bring myself to ask if he’ll call me or when we’ll see each other next. I can’t even manage to tell him what a great time I had tonight. I turn to go but Jaylee grabs my hand and pulls me around to face him again.
    “Do me a favor, would you?”
    “What?” Anything. I’ll do it. Ask me.
    “Don’t fuck him,” he says. It sounds more like a threat than a favor asked. He grabs my chin with his thumb and forefinger. He presses the pad of his thumb into the middle of my bottom lip and trails his forefinger down the centerline of my body, passing over my neck, between my breasts and over my belly. He stops his finger just below my navel and then looks up at me, his golden eyes burning. A shudder of pleasure and anticipation runs down my spine.
    “All this that you feel. . . it’s for me. Don’t give it to him. Save it for me. That’s all.”
    He gets back into the car, guns the motor and screeches away. As his taillights disappear around the corner I realize my engagement ring and wedding band are still in the front pocket of his shirt.
     
    The porch light has been left on and I see a note taped to the glass on the inner door. It’s from Robert.
     
    Kate,
     
    Hope you had fun dancing. Stephani was asleep so I didn’t want to wake her – that plus I didn’t have any cash!
     
    Yours, Robert
     
    A sweet and sinking tenderness towards my husband floods my body. It’s true that Robert never carries cash but I suspect the real reason he left Stephani sleeping is his extreme sense of decency. He probably thought it was inappropriate for a grown man to wake a young girl. I guess Robert wins the moral high ground here; I just let a young man finger me in a parking lot in New Jersey.
    I shake Stephani’s shoulder gently and she groans a few times and swats me away. She eventually rolls over and opens her eyes.
    “Oh hey, Mrs. Champion, she says, rubbing her face.
    She tells me that the girls were well behaved and that they went to bed on time. They spent the evening playing dress up in Pearl’s closet. I cringe thinking about where the inspiration for their game came from.
    “Did you have fun with Jaylee?” Stephani asks.
    “I did,” I reply.
    I’m trying hard not to show how elated I feel. What I’d really like to do is grab her by the shoulders and make her tell me every last little thing that she knows about him. I shake it off and pull out two hundred dollar bills from my wallet and hand them to her. This is me buying your silence, Stephani. This is me buying access to information. I really am sick.
    “Thanks,” I say.
    “It’s so weird that you hang out with Jaylee,” she says ignoring the amount I’ve given her. “I’ve known him, like, forever and I didn’t even know he could dance.”
    “He’s a phenomenal dancer,” I say. I’m not giving anything away. I walk her to the door and usher her out of the house.
     
    Robert is in bed breathing evenly. He looks sweet and innocent to me. Maybe I see innocence because he allowed me to go out dancing with another man. He trusts me. If the tables were turned would I feel okay about him going out with another woman? Would I be upset if he touched another woman sexually? The thought brings me right back to my moment with Jaylee and with it the intense