"Friends & Lovers" (Part V)

Robert wasn't normally home during the day but today he again had the luxury of working from home but spent most of the time at home on blackberry or near a computer, with the television set to CNN. It came to him as a surprise that the doorbell rang. People sorta knew Marlon & Robert and knew that they were never home during the day however this person decided to take a change. Robert walked from his office to the door, opened the door and saw that it was Carl. This shocked Robert to the fullest because he didn't Carl back in town.

"Carl, come in...what are you doing here?"
"It's over Robert. I lost him"
"What are you..."
"Dion and I are over...I caught him in bed with some dude"

Carl walked into Roberts moderate sized living room and took a seat on the plush cream couch. It failed to click in Carl's mind that Robert is not the person you go to for relationship advice.

"Well Carl, you been away for a long time, in and out spending less than a week at home and more than several weeks at a time away. While I don't condone cheating, you can't really cheat on something that's never there, that wasn't there"
"I tried to make him happy, I tried to let him know I love him, Robert. He knows I love him" Carl said with a disbelief still in his voice
"When was the last time you and Dion had sex?"
"2 months ago"
"2 months ago?...2 months ago?...hell, 2 months and I ..." Robert interrupted himself to not say something he knew he'd regretting letting anyone hear him say out loud
"We were both busy, he was busy flipping homes all over Georgia and I was busy...looking for a job"
"You still haven't told him you lost your job, did you"
"No..."
"What are you afraid of? Why wouldn't you tell him?"
"Because I didn't want him to leave me..."
"It seems like he already did that but if it's over...he needs to know. I mean it's only right, since you're not going to fight to keep the relationship alive..."
"Who said I wasn't going to?"
"Well I don't know...are you?"

There was a bit of silence between the two men. Robert finally sat down on the love seat across from Carl.

"Whatever you do though, it's his decision. He needs to know what's really been going on because for all he knows, he thinks the man that he was once inseparable from skips out on town and doesn't think about him. I mean he's a man too and if you ask most women, they won't be able to go 2 months without sex either and by the way it's not just about the sex, it's about the intimacy, I bet you talk to him, this person you saw him doing it with may just someone that just simple makes him feel good"
"You're right" Carl said nodding his head
"So he doesn't know that you lost your job, so that also says he doesn't know your place is in foreclosure either am I correct?"

Carl nodded quietly agreeing. Robert didn't have any easy solutions to helping Carl but helped him understand that lying to hide his broken ego didn't help his relationship nor did running away from help him either.

"You think he'll forgive me?"
"I don't know Carl, but you won't know unless you ask him yourself"

On the other side of town, Dre and Dion took I-75 to Dre's neighbourhood of College Park. Surprisingly enough there was little traffic going south. Dion had his hands interlocked with Dre. The two were listening to listening to V103 on a lower volume. Every now and then Dion would get catch a glimpse of Dre who was one of those focused drivers. Dre caught Dion catching these glimpses. "What?" he said with a chuckle and a slight smile. "Nothing, how did we get to where we are at?" Dion asked "Do you mean are we moving way too fast?" "Y - Yeah?" Dion said "Maybe but we're both enjoying each other right?" Dre said looking over to Dion "Yeah"

"We do have something in common. We're both two young, attractive, working black men in a city of ineligible bachelors and eligible whores..."

This description made Dion laugh

"We both have things about us that we are not proud of that affects us, but that's the beauty of love and karma. They brought us together to help fix each other and build each other"

This made Dion melt in the passenger seat of his car. How could somebody so young be so romantic and so available towards him? he thought as they continued their drive to the south side.

"Now I have a roommate. His name is Treymon, he's a bit messy so you might have to excuse the apartment, it might look like Katrina blew through that motherfucker" Dre said
"Damn"
"Yeah my roommate is from New Orleans and came here right before Katrina hit and I guess decided to stay here but he's on some crazy shit."
"hmm"
"I wouldn't be surprised if his piece is there. That motherfucker bothers me, he's always there. He lost his job which I can understand that but now Trey asks me can dude stay with us for a little bit longer until he gets on his feet because dude just lost his house but I'm like dude he gots to go soon"
"Aww man I'm sorry to hear that. I'm lucky I don't have that roommate situation"
"Yeah for a large house, I'm surprised you don't share it anyone"
"I shared it at one point, they're just never there" Dion said looking over out his window
"Gotcha" Dion said

Later that early afternoon, Dion and Dre had just gotten back from College Park and arrived at Lenox Mall. Dre changed into a simple black shirt that read in white letters 'You See Me' a pair of dark denim jeans and a pair of red and black leather chucks. Dre parked his Nissan in the extra parking lot and the two arrived inside the mall. The two decided to do a bit of window shopping and the sight of the two of them drew stares from the store owners, employees, janitors, girls, boys, men and women. The two were oblivious to all this attention, they were just having a good time in each others company. What everyone was looking at was an amazing looking couple that even though they didn't publicly show it, you felt their bond and their love for each other. Dion felt a sense of security in being around Dre and Dre felt a sense of trust he had never allowed himself to experience. The only public display of affection the two shared was very discreet moments when Dion would get on the escalators in front of Dre, Dre would grab on to Dion's waist and give a slight squeeze, something about this made Dion smile on this inside while he didn't visibly show it.

While walking down the halls of the mall, the two ran into Marlon and his friend Leon who would sometimes dress up as Leona and today he was Leona with a Leon twist. Marlon and Leon were having a blast shopping each had several bags in their hand. Leon had on a pair of of skin tight jeans, a pair of black lace strapped open toe shoes and a somewhat snug girl shirt on, dark skinned with Prada classes a slick short hairstyle reminiscent of Fantasia but the kicker was is that she had gold fronts. Marlon was wearing a white shirt under an Aeropostale grey and white striped cardigan, light blue True Religion jeans and men's Ugg boots. Dion did a double take and realized that Marlon was out but was caught by who he was with

"Oh my god Marlon? I didn't expect to see you here" Dion said in shock
"Oh so finally you decide to come out" Marlon said clenching his cheekbones
"Leona?" Dre said in a complete surprise
"You know this bangy cunt over here" Marlon said jokingly
"Bangy? bitch I give you realness 24/7 you hear you me Housewife of Atlanta?" Leona replied taking over her glasses to expose her long extension lashes and pointed out her open toe lace strap shoes.

Everyone laughed at the running into each other.

"So Dion this is my friend Leon he works as a hair and wig stylist" Marlon said. Dre interjected and introduced Leon "But on the weekends at a club near you she goes by the name Leona Perry as Leon/Leona decided to give face and strike a pose "Yes Diva" Marlon egged him on. This caused a bug eyed response by Dion, he was taking in Leon/Leona's outright openness, clearly it's been a while since he's been out actually living. "Well Marlon this is Dre" Dre and Marlon shook hands "so pleased to meet you" Marlon replied cordially. "Listen we need to get all this stuff to the car but Dion, we'll catch up" Marlon said looking at both Dion and Dre with high brows. Leona/Leon said his salutations to Dion as well

"Are they a couple?" Leon/Leona inquired
"They might as well be" Marlon replied
"How you doin'"
"Awlright"

Marlons phone started ringing in his pocket. He stopped and rested his bags on the floor to answer it, it was Robert. Marlon put his iPhone to his ear to find out what Robert wanted.

"Hey babe whats up"
"Marlon, did you know Dion had started seeing someone else"

Marlon paused for a second, looked back at Dion and looked around

"No, why?"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure, whats up?"
"Carls back in town...he went to the house to see Dion but found him in bed fucking some dude, he came over here shortly after clearly upset. I think he's headed back over to the house. So if you see him or talk to him, tell him. He's headed back over there now to try and work things out"

This caused a look of shock on Marlons face, by now he had lost sight of both Dion and Dre.

"Ok...yeah I will"
"Thanks sweety see you tonight"
"Babe, maybe you should go over there just to make sure everything remains cool"
"That's their relationship to fix and though I thought about it, this is Carls mess to fix. He created it with his consistent absence, in a way he's at fault. There's not much I can do"
"But damn catching your man in bed with someone else will make you do some fucked up shit Robbie" recalling the time they got caught by Robbie's wife years ago
"He won't do anything stupid, he's hurting yes but will do what it takes to get his shawty back"
"Ok listen I gotta go real quick, I got all these bags..."
"Aight see you when you get here"

The two hung up and immediately Marlon switched to his text screen to text Dion "If you haven't already now would be the time to tell Dre about you having a man, Carl is in town and is headed to the house" unsure of whether or not Dion would get it.

Dre and Dion sat in the food court where it was relatively empty still. In a semi awkward moment the two just sat there and looked at each other. Dion felt his phone vibrate and it was a call from his house, this made his heart thump as no one should be at the house. He let the phonecall go ignored but then saw the text from Marlon. This drew a frown on Dions face as he is confronted with possibly ending his fantasy relationship with Dre. "What" Dre said noticing the change in Dions body language.

"I have a boyfriend or at least I thought I did" Dion said slumped in his chair
"What" Dre said in a bit of anger
"My boyfriends been away for a little over a month and through the time we've been together I would see him maybe a week at a time"
"When were you going to tell me"
"We've only been seeing each other a couple of days, I didn't expect this and don't lie to yourself and say you did...Come on now, you arrive at my doorstep, suckin my dick, I didn't even know your name until after I shot all over your face and next thing you know we go days fuckin each other. I don't think that constitutes a relationship"
"So I was your sweet escape huh?" Dre said with a voice of dissapointment

Dion didn't know how to answer that because part of it was true and part of him began to fall for Dre.

"I do this all the time, I fall too hard" Dre said "...and why, I shouldn't never came to your place that night after we messed around"
"You shouldn't have but you did...why"
"I don't know I decided to take a chance"
"So did I"
"By stepping out on your boy? You call cheatin on ole dude taking a chance?"
"You're not being fair"

Dion felt bad enough already and hurting Dre started to make him choke up as we was prepared to lose not one but two men in his life. Dre drew back a little, realizing he may have hurt Dion's feelings.

"C'mon let's go" Dre said in low tone. The two got up and walked around the mall a bit more to cool off. Dre noticed a photo booth and figured this was a good way to break the mood. He took Dion by the hand and led him to the booth. "Get in" Dre said to Dion, he put money in the machine and joined Dion inside. Dion wasn't in the mood for pictures. The two were cramped in the tiny booth and after the slight argument it was a bit tense inside. Dre decided to get up and sit Dions lap and put his arm around him. The two locked eyes drew near each other and softly kissed each other on the lips the picture snapped them kissing catching the two by surprise, they broke apart realizing they were photographed kissing, the two looked at the camera as much as to say "wait" but instead the photobooth took another picture of them in a spontaneous smile shot. The photobooth took several shots of them being goofy. The final photo was another random shot of the two looking into each others eyes

"You're still mad at me?" Dion said in a soft voice
"Mmmm I'm pissed but I can get over it, I like you alot" Dre said

The two kissed again

"I'm a fix this, I promise" Dion said
"There's nothing to fix, It ain't broken" Dre said smiling in mid kiss.