Cincinnati Red

“I was wondering when your corny-ass was going to wake up,” said the deep gravelly voice in great annoyance from above.

I was coming to out of this very groggy state. How in the fuck did I get here? How long had my ass been out of it? I was in consciousness, yet my eyes were slow to open in spite of my most urgent effort. It was almost as if they were reluctant to see what was going on. The more I tried the more my head throbbed and my body ached. Somehow, though, I came to, brought out of this dark tunnel in my mind into a dim light that awaited me on the outside. I thought I was trying to wake up, but it felt like I was going right back to sleep, feeling even sleepier than I had before.

“Wake your punk-ass up!” The voice said again delivering a swift kick to my throat.

The kick brought me out of the stupor I was in into unbridled consciousness with my eyes fully open as I gasped for air.

I was sprawled out on the floor on my stomach with my legs twisted open and feeling as stiff as cardboard. I tried working my hands under my body to hoist myself up. My hands were willing, but my arms weren’t quite there yet. Even if I was to push up just a little bit, I don’t think it would’ve done any significant good. The lower half of my body felt like lead, unmovable, except for my dick rubbing against the cold concrete floor. It was then I was made aware I was fully naked followed by this dying pain that was emerging straight out of my loosened asshole of being sore and drenched, slick and wet, bringing me back to my last memory before I eventually passed out.

I was lying in my bed with my head buried in my arm during the throws of passion with my fuck buddy Robb digging my guts out like he was drilling for oil. I came awhile earlier on the sheet beneath me, pinned to the bed, waiting for him to thrust his nutt. He must’ve because the last significant thing I remember was falling asleep with his sweat-drenched body lying on top of my back catching his breath. Some good ass, he murmured. I guess I only thought I was dreaming when I thought I woke up for a brief second to find this white rag coming over my face before drifting back to sleep.

“Get up you worthless fuck!” The man growled snapping me back into my reality.

“I can’t.” I cried, coughing for air, trying my best to look for the source of his voice other than this opaque thing hovering just above my head.

My eyes finally decided to work for me. Barely a foot down from my dizzying head was this large size fourteen boot in my face. It was a beautiful tan color with beige soles. They’ve looked to have been new and had this fresh out-of-the-box smell to confirm it.

“Roll over then.” He barked.

I tried to. I really tried to. It just seemed much more difficult than it sounded. And even though I couldn’t see his face, I felt he was enjoying himself watching me flounder around on the floor. He called himself helping me to turn over by using his large boot, but it did nothing but sling my shoulder from one side of my twisted body to another. Even being partially on my back I could not see him any better as I could the white school-tiled ceiling.

“Do you know why you’re here, Nat?” He said, sitting down.

I knew that much as I heard the chair beneath him scrape against the concrete floor as he got to his feet.

I tried shaking my head as he came more into view. He stood as an imposing figure, and still would have been as intruding and as intimidating had I been standing up fully clothed.

He was a redbone, a very light-skinned black man. He was the color of well-creamed coffee with a muffin top afro and retro-flared sideburns. He had a hard face that was practically stripped of any facial hair except for his goatee.

“Wanna guess?” He asked me with a toothpick hanging from his thick lips.

I stayed quiet, still trying my best to shake my head as I caught the sparkle of two of his diamond studs in both of his earlobes.

“Let’s just say that your big bro truly fucked up.”

Rickie, I thought.

Rickie was a year older than me, and ever since we made the “big” move to East Orange New Jersey, he had gone into overdrive trying his hand at the underground casinos on both sides of the Hudson. I had received too many fair warnings in the middle of the night from his bookies and other collectors to get caught up on his outstanding debt.

“I’m holding your ass as collateral for ransom.” He issued calmly.

Oh, shit!

Even though I had great love for Rickie, I knew he wasn’t bound to get caught up on the money without some help, and he wasn’t about to let anybody know he needed some help. And then it hit me. Rickie left Baltimore free and clear without any debts hanging over his head.

“Rickie paid off his debt.” I mumbled, remembering it was paid in full the day before last.

“Who?”

“Rickie,” I mouthed over my sore throat. “Ain’t this who’s this about?”

The light-skinned man laughed, looking down at me in disgust.

“This ain’t about that faggot.” He corrected, “this about that other son of a bitch, Cyclops.”

Cyclops was my oldest brother from another mother. He inherited Rickie and me as a favor to our paternal grandfather. Although the three of us were good and grown and could fend for ourselves, my grandfather was adamant that our oldest brother—since he threw his life away getting into the drug game—that the least he could do was give the two of us a place to stay while we started out on our legitimate paths; Rickie with work and me with college.

Cyclops and I never had the best of relationships. We just sort of tolerated each other for the sake of, just for the time being. He stayed out of my way. I stayed out of his. I can’t quite place when the tolerable hostility began. I never like him for the fact he was heartless since the day I met him. He sent our father to an early grave aggravating his bad heart with his trouble with the law. My mother soon followed because of a broken heart. Cyclops always resented me because he felt I was blessed with a father he thought he should’ve had at home with him. Rickie was the exception to his rule, the buffer for our conundrum, because in spite of us having the same parents, Rickie stupidly idolized Cyclops. And Cyclops often used that to the best of his advantage.

I wasn’t stupid like that. Regrettably, because I spent most of my life out of debt and out of favor to my big brother, I was doomed to be held captive to this unknown man.

“You don’t know who I am, do you, man?”

I shook my head.

“I know who you are. Don’t you think you should owe me the same courtesy?”

I was unsure if he was serious or sarcastic, so I kept my mouth closed and my body motion limited.

“I see you don’t believe me. I know that your name is Nathaniel Crump. I know that you’re a twenty-year-old sophomore at Essex County College. Your father died when you were seventeen, and your mother passed away shortly thereafter, causing the great move from Maryland to New Jersey. Impressed huh?”

I just looked at him. He seemed quite proud of himself and the immense amount of muscles bulging from his towering frame.

“Well, don’t be, motherfucker.” He said, rolling a toothpick out of the corner of his mouth and between his teeth. “I pay good money for the information I come across. Down to the second I knew that your boy was going to nutt up in that sweet ass of yours like you were his favorite bitch.”

I was flushed with embarrassment at that moment. I spent my life on the down low and here he was, this unknown stranger, telling me he not only knew I messed around but that I had nutt up in my butt, too.

I could not refute what he was saying because somebody snatched me up right after I got fucked, and I wasn’t sure if it was him or not. The last thing I wanted to do was dig myself in a deeper hole by lying on the off chance he used it against me.

“Don’t worry. It’ll be our little secret. Though, if I was you, I wouldn’t be holding out for a repeat with Robb. That brother-in-law of mine will be going off on a little vacation for awhile. If he knows what’s best for him, he won’t be trying to find his way back here ever again. I won’t hold that against you, though. You were just another bitch in heat. You didn’t know.” He beamed.

“Thank you,” I said, shuttering at the possible repercussions if he had.

“Don’t thank me yet, son. I have to hold Cyclops against you, seeing that he is your blood. Robb was related to me by marriage and was a good father to my nieces and nephew, which is why I spared the sorry fucker his life. I might have to off you for your blood to get the fucking point!”

“Half,” I noted.

“I know. Like I said before, my information is topnotch. I just can’t hold the part of you that is related to him and let go of the other part of you that ain’t. Now, can I?”

“Please, don’t kill me! I ain’t got shit to do with Cyclops.” I began to tear up.

“I know that too. I hope it doesn’t come to that either. The way I hear it you got a bright future ahead of you. I just need to remind your brother it ain’t good to step on a grown man’s toes.”

“Let me go home and talked to him.” I pleaded, finally finding the energy to unscramble my body and lie flat on my back. “I can talk to him and get his ass to see that. Please, just let me go back home.”

“How rude of me,” he said as I saw that his infamous toothpick had a rhinestone at the end of it. “You still don’t know who the fuck I am. Let me introduce myself. The name is Clevante Holloway. The hood simply calls me Cincinnati Red. That may not mean much in your little collegiate world, but in the streets around here that means I’m the crowned jewel and your brother is the piece of shit that wants to be me. Shit donned in jewels still smells like shit to me.” He laughed.

I would’ve gladly agreed with him under normal circumstances. Rather than do that, though, I found my sibling loyalty and wanted to fight him for talking bad about my big brother. Even if I found the energy to get up and fight for my life to get out of there, I was deathly afraid if my brother didn’t nip his rivalry in the bud that as long as I lived here in New Jersey I couldn’t really do so without looking over my shoulders in fear of some sort of retaliation.

I tried to remain calm on the floor, looking up at the ceiling more so than at him, Cincinnati Red. The more I tried not to look, the more I looked and of all the things I noticed was how irresistibly sexy he was.

“I knew that you still had love for your brother. I can see it in your face that you don’t like the motherfucker much, but you still got love for the bastard, nevertheless. That’s the same shit that is going to get him running up here like I want.”

Even his voice was sexier than a mug, I thought, deep-rooted in the cold hardened streets of north New Jersey. With the word cold in mind, I quickly began to feel the cold cement floor beneath me somehow having an adverse effect on my exposed dick desperately wanting to stir from my naked lap with no way to cover up.

I laid still on the floor, feeling his hazel eyes burn over my body as I tried my best to ignore him and anything else that was bound to excite me about him. Every neutral thought I tried to hold onto eventually turned into something lustful and vulgar, sending my dick into full salute.

“Oh, that’s what that is.” Cincinnati Red smiled, rubbing his straggly hairy chin. “I know you had some sugar in the tank by the way I found you. Robb filled that tank up to the brim and your sweet ass is still thirsty for some more sugary sweet milk. If I was a gambling man, I would bet that you’re one of those true freaks, aincha?”

I shook my head.

“I got a feeling that you are, Nat. I’m usually am. I bet you’re one of those super freaks. If not, the super freakiest thing seeing that your ass is still in college. I bet you’re the kind of freak that can’t live without some dick in your life, the kind of motherfucker that needs to down a dick every hour on the hour just to get by.”

I shook my head.

“But since your one of those quiet boys that keeps to himself nobody would ever pick up on that.”

I shook my head even harder. The best I could do.

“Don’t be shaking your head when I know you want to nod it.” He said with a sinister smile coming over his face.

“I don’t want to nod it.” I spoke.

“You wanted it from Robb’s nerdy ass. What makes me believe that you wouldn’t want it from any old dick?”

“We were just having some fun. I’m too busy with school to get boggled down in a relationship and he just wanted something different.”

“Bullshit! Two men can’t have a relationship.” He offered coldly, disgusted with the whole notion.

“I can and have.” I injected.

“Okay, then,” he said, throwing his toothpick at my face. “Where is the motherfucker then?”

“Gone,” I said sadly, moving my mouth out of the way of his plunging rhinestone toothpick. “It was over before I came to East Orange. His cousin called him out to the West Coast to go to school. He’s at UCLA.”

“Yeah, right,” Cincinnati Red barked. “You were probably hungry for him like you was for my brother-in-law. You’re sweet ass probably due for another feeding right now. You’re probably laying there hoping that before the night is over with, that I’m fucking the living daylights out of you with this big fat dick of mine.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head with sealed lips.

He was fine, but I could in no way entertain the idea of it going down like this, this way.

“Your dick is telling a whole different story, straining like it’s about to grow another inch. I don’t know why, though. I would think that your asshole would be the one that got wet. Maybe it needs the leakage from the tip to get it going.”

“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

It was the closest thing I could think of to say without digging myself into a deeper hole.

“You just told me that you fucked with Robb and some dude down in Maryland. I say that’s two dudes that popped that sweet ass. And figure in the fact that you claimed you had a man and you were just fucking the other, I would say that in order to make that transition that you must be a professional-grade fudge packer that can’t get enough of his shit getting pushed back in.”

“Screw you!” I said finally sitting upright and drawing my knees up, trying my best to shake off whatever it was that was dragging me down.

“You’re sweet ass wish. I don’t get down with sloppy seconds. I need a ho that can keep nice and proper.”

“You couldn’t get it without taking it no way, dumb-ass.” I mouthed under my breath.

“What you say, ho?”

“I ain’t no ho, ho!” I spat.

I thought he was going to slap me upside the head, but he didn’t. He just said, “The ho got some spirit. I guess he got to have some of that riding as much dick as he does.”

“Why you so worried about what I do?” I finally asked. “I thought this was about Cyclops.”

“Get your ass over here!” He said, unfazed by my last comment.

I was still paralyzed to a large degree. I could move, but then again I couldn’t. Even if I could I wasn’t going anywhere near him without a fight, fearing how it might play out.

“No.”

“What?”

“I said no.”

“No?”

“No!”

“Boy, get your ass over here!”

“Ask me nicely.” I said with a tranquil smirk, coming to the instant conclusion that even if he wanted to do anything I was too tired and too defenseless to do anything about it. Also, I knew from my brother if Cincinnati Red had to repeat himself it meant he looked harder than he was and that his bark was much louder than his bite.

“If I was over here pulling my dick out you’re faggot-ass would be over here giving me that fire head on the drop down.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Faggots and hoes give the best head in the world, hands down. That’s 101. I figure that you’re the best of both worlds: a faggot-ass ho.”

“I’m not a faggot and I’m not a ho.” I said calmly at the cinderblock wall.

“You’re not one of those typical sissies, I’ll give you that. You’re trying to pass yourself off as a real man when in fact you love to take dick like a bitch.”

“Fuck you.”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Here your ass is telling me what you ain’t and the first thing that comes out of your mouth is fucking. Since we already know that you’re gamed to get fucked, I assume that you want me to fuck you like you got fucked by the rest of them.”

“I hate you.”

“I know. So I’m going to say this one last time. Get your ass over here.”

“No,” I said shaking my head defiantly.

“No?”

“Hell, no,” I said. “You can do with me what you want. Whatever you did to me got me too weak to do anything else. And besides you’re going to do it anyway. So, if the only thing I got is telling you exactly what I’m not, so be it. I’m not a faggot and I’m not a ho.”

“Okay, then, Nat,” he said, walking ever so slow and meticulously in front of me.

Cincinnati Red stood directly in front of me, this time shirtless displaying a cloak of nearly flawless skin. He had the broadest chest and these incredible massive arms and a neck that could make a bodybuilder jealous with those abs of steel that simply demanded attention. I was repulsed by the fact I was turned on by him physically in the shape I was in and the unknown destiny that awaited me. “Be that way.”

Cincinnati Red stood there in front of me for a very long time. I was sure he was looking down at me even though I wasn’t looking up at him. I was looking between his legs at the wall behind him. When I saw he wasn’t doing anything after some time, I made the mistake of looking up at him. Like I suspected, he was looking down at me waiting on me to look up at him. He was upset and slowly began to undo his pants in front of me, pulling out this long and thick two-toned dick.

I was hypnotized for a second at the clipped monster, and then had the sense enough to scurry back on the cold cement floor away from it fearing he was going to use it on me.

“I don’t know why your ass is running from it.” Cincinnati Red said with his proud dick hanging through his undone pants stomping ever so slowly towards me. “I’m willing to cut a deal that can be sweet for both of us.”

I had just hit the other wall on the other side of the room which I quickly discovered was really some kind of spacious mechanical warehouse or auto shop.

“No deal.” I shouted.

“Don’t you want to go home? Sleep in your own bed?”

“Yeah, but I ain’t doing that to so.”

“I ain’t told you what I want you to do yet. You’re just jumping to conclusions. Maybe I like to do my best negotiating with my dick hanging out of my pants.”

“Why don’t you just let me go?”

“Why don’t you just bring your ass over here so we can talk?” He said approaching me.

My body was so out of it I didn’t think to stand or walk or run. Every movement that was not driven by pure adrenaline was felt. I stayed there on the floor flanked by several engines propped up on these metal bars basically waiting on him to crowd me in.

He came over there in the time that had I been of better mind and body that I could have found away to get out of his way.

“Please, just let me be, man. I don’t have anything to do with your business with my brother. Just take him head-up. I promise I won’t retaliate. Please don’t hurt me.” I said shaking, not because I was scared as much as I was cold.

“Come over here and take care of this dick for me. You give up the throat and I’ll let you go.” He said matter-of-factly.

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“I just can’t.” I quivered.

“Don’t tell me that your sweet ass never put your lips together and blow? We’ve already established that that booty has been popped a time or two. What’s the fucking problem?”

“I don’t just do that with just anybody.”

“What you’re trying to say? You can’t get down with me?”

“Yeah, not like this, man.”

“You can’t get down with a man that can determine whether you live or die? Most folks would jump at the opportunity to get off scot-free with a little sucky-suck. Don’t tell me that you all of a sudden became one of those dignified fags?”

“I’m not a fag.”

“I got that. You’re not a fag. You’re not a ho. Next, you’re going to tell me that you’ve never told a lie and that you never had sex with that woman. Let me guess you’re just a misunderstood college student that tripped and fell on some married dick?”

“I didn’t know he was married.” I said, trying to think of a better way to put my words together. “I mean I knew he was married, but the way we happened was natural.”

“I would think that putting my dick down your throat would come as natural to as blood running through your veins.”

“It can.” I mistakenly said. “We just had something that built up to that, not holding me for ransom to get back at my brother wasn’t one of them.”

“You’re saying if I tried hollering at you in the streets I might’ve been where Robb was saddling?”

“Yeah,” I said nervously.

“How come?”

“Aside from being an asshole, you’re a very good-looking man. I would be lying if I took that away from you but calling me out my name along with drugging and kidnapping me just don’t do it for me.”

“You got a point. So, if I said scratch this shit, apologize for it, would you consider giving me a repeat?”

“Are you going to let me go home?”

“Yeah, after I get you to smoke on this pipe.”

“Yeah,” I conceded, knowing he might renege on his word. But still. I could top off my fucked-up escapade sucking off this phyne man.

“Then I apologize. Scratch everything that happened before now. Come on over here and take care of Big Daddy. Pretend I’m just one of those bad boys that simply turned you on ready to turn you out.”

“Bad boys don’t do it for me.”

“Yeah, right,” Cincinnati Red smirked. “I knew I could’ve popped it the second you saw my fly boots. Come on over here.”

I moved towards him, thing that even though I was strongly attracted to him that this wasn’t something I really wanted to do. This was forced. Not my style but could be my ticket home. As I moved ever so closer to him, smelling his musty manhood the more I changed my mind about wanting to do it. I was about a good six inches away from the two-toned dick when it erupted with a hard stream of piss directed at my face.

I tried blocking the raining shower with my hands as Cincinnati Red laughed at me and my futile efforts.

“What the fuck?” I asked after the arc dissipated.

“Your ass was too eager to flip the script. Run away from the dick like you scared of it just to crawl to it like it’s your lifeline. Besides, waiting on your ass to wake up and fucking with you like I had I needed to find a way to drain the pipes without letting you out of my sight.”

“There was somewhere, anywhere except on me!” I said steadily wiping away any piss that that streamed down the rest of my body.

“True,” he smirked. “I thought that with the shit that was coming out of your mouth that you made for a good toilet, my bad.”

I grunted and groaned in disgust, slowly finding my way to my feet effortlessly.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I grumbled madly.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? You weren’t dumb enough to believe that I was going to let you be about your way by doing something you want to do anyway? If that’s the case, then your brother and I need to enroll your ass into Hard Knocks University ASAP.”

Any sort of attraction I had towards him before instantly vanished. I was fuming with a million and one ways to make him pay for what he did, either now or later. But I couldn’t then. He was bigger than I was. He most likely knew the place he was holding me captive in better than I did. And to add more salt to the wound I was butt-naked and freezing colder by the second.

“I got no choice but to believe what you say.” I said defeated.

“You got that right. Don’t let your sweet ass forget that.” He waved his finger.

I was growing tired of every other word coming out of his mouth referring to my ass. I knew if I brought this to his attention, he was either going to up the ante or find a new choice word.

“I thought you were a street soldier.”

“I am, son.”

“Then, don’t your words suppose to be bond?”

“It is. Pay attention to what I said. I said I would let you go if you gave up the throat. You hadn’t given up the throat.”

“You pissed on me you bastard!”

“Bastard,” he smirked. “I’m not old but I’m definitely dirty. It looks like you got a bit of my dirty on you, too.”

“Fuck you!” I ranted.

Cincinnati Red grabbed me by the back of my neck and flung me back over to the other side of the room. “Get your ass over there. You got me running around this garage after your faggot ass.”

I heard his words as clear as day as I stumbled back over to that side of the garage. I was trying my best not to fall while at the same time absorbing the cold shock my feet received every time they newly touched the cold cement floor. The more inclined I was about to stop from his catapulting force the more likely it became I was about to hit the floor, nearly in the same position I woke up.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, using my arms to raise me off the cold floor.

“This ain’t got nothing to do with you. This is between me and your brother.” He said from the other side of the garage.

“Then settle it with him!”

“I am.”

“By way of me?”

“You were easier to get too than him. Like I said, he got word about where you are. He just needs to bring his ass here and talk to me man to man, so we can straighten this shit out.”

“Are you going to kill him?” I asked, nearing tears because of the cold surrounding me.

“Why do you want to go and ask that? Killing is so messy and time-consuming to clean up after the fact. If I can avoid it I will, if I can’t then oh well.”

I sat on those words with my ass up struggling once again to get off the floor, hoping my brother would show up but knowing deep inside he wasn’t likely to, as he had been boasting around the house that his reputation in the streets came above anything else.

I played it out several ways in my mind. Cyclops could do the right thing and come and get me, either alone or with a crew. Cyclops and Cincinnati Red could have a shootout. If Cyclops killed Cincinnati Red, Cyclops would have to go to war over some if not all the drug territory Cincinnati Red owned. If Cincinnati Red killed Cyclops, he was probably bound to kill me too. On the off-chance, Cyclops backed down and the both of us were able to walk away peacefully, more than likely we would have to go into hiding to protect ourselves from the looming retaliation the street life was destined to have in store. Even given that situation, Cyclops was most likely to run over to New York and attach himself with a much larger crew and storm back over here to take out Cincinnati Red. Regardless of how I spelled it out in my mind, it didn’t look good either way, especially for me.

I looked back to find he was standing behind me, and there was a bulge where his penis was in full bloom. His mind was focused on me and the situation at hand. However, what was going on in his pants was focused on my ass.

“Can I have a blanket or something?” I asked. “I’m cold as fuck.”

“Catch pneumonia for all I care.”

“Man, come on.”

“I like looking at a freezing rump roast.”

“Are you going to warm it up?” I thought I would toss the line out there, wondering.

“I might. I figure that we might do some things while we wait.” He laughed.

“I’ll rather freeze.”

“Be my guest in the matter.”

Cincinnati Red reached into his pocket and pulled out a long gold-plated cigar case with a lighter and started smoking.

“I’m not the one who’s freezing.” He added as he sat down in the chair. “I’m downright comfortable.”

“That’s because you’re a cold-blooded motherfucker.”

“True, but that’s beside the point.” He inhaled long and slow.

I rolled up off the floor, coming to the conclusion I had a better chance to be less cold on my feet moving about than to expose my entire body to the cold floor.

“If you had the view that I had, you wouldn’t be so cold.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t play naïve now, son.”

“I am not playing.” I said playing.

“I think you’re fine as fuck. It got my dick on sprung.”

“I couldn’t tell with the spray of piss with my face.”

He laughed. “I was wrong for that. It just sort of came out.”

“Piss doesn’t just come out in someone’s face like that unless you’re R. Kelly…allegedly.”

“Shit, for me it does.” Cincinnati Red said. “The game been pissing on me since time memorial and your shit of a brother is trying to do the same to me. Unlike you, Nat, I can’t have that.”

The way he said it, it was almost as he was telling me the truth. Not literally as he was talking figuratively.

“I had no choice in the matter.”

“But I do. That’s the difference. When I got shit trying to piss on me then I got to take some action.”

“By taking an innocent bystander out of his comfortable bed,” I injected.

“Nobody is innocent in this world, Nat.”

“I know. But I also know I hadn’t done anything to deserve this.”

“I would think fucking a married man would come awfully close.”

“Give it up. Even so, I deserve a blanket to cover up from the cold.”

“And block my view?”

“Look, if I don’t get warm soon there won’t be much of a view to look at.”

“You mean you won’t be conscious. It’s not like I haven’t seen you unconscious before. You look more peaceful that way than you do running your mouth.”

“Please!” I insisted.

“No,” he said firmly. “Think of it as the cost of having a drug dealer for a brother.”

“I take it that your brother is paying the price for it too?”

“I don’t have a brother.”

“A sister then,” I asked.

“Leave her out of your mouth.”

“Touchy subject,” I said. “Want to talk about it?”

“Not to the brother of shit.”

“Try me.” I said, facing a long pause from him. “Fine, then. It is not like you don’t know the world about me and where I live. Even if it is bad and you told it isn’t like I got anything on you. You just peed in my face. I’m just saying if you wanted to talk about it somebody, it isn’t like you’re going to let me go.”

“There’s the door behind you.” Cincinnati Red pointed across from him.

I turned to look over at it and noticed it was one. It was a large solid gray door against a brick wall. I was tempted to walk over there and try my hand at an escape.

“Yeah, it is, and I bet it is locked.” I spoke.

“Nope,” he said content with his cigar in his mouth. “If you look closer the knob doesn’t have a keyhole and the hinge is on this side so it’s just a matter of pulling the door back this way, which means it’ll let you out without ease.”

“Let me guess. It has another door on the other side of that one that will let me out but is locked, and you have the key to it.”

“Damn, I can’t fool you…not twice, at least.”

I watched him enjoy his cigar in front of me. He was calm and relax and not anywhere near cold shirtless as I was naked. I began to do anything I could to get warm, starting with moving around, dancing about. Then, I began to rub my hands over my arms and legs and everywhere else. It wasn’t enough, and it soon showed it as I began to sink and my knees collapsed to the hard floor beneath me.

Cincinnati Red dropped his cigar and caught me before the rest of me hit the ground. He still had smoke in his mouth that rolled off my face bringing me to for a second next to his body pressed against mine offering its brand of heat. As I looked into his eyes thinking this was my end, the way I was shaking uncontrollably, he looked into mine and kissed me.

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Author’s Note: This story was based off a drawing by Belasco a part of his “City of Men” series (second drawing, fair-skinned character (hence “Red”)(posted on Sun. March 2 2008.