Cougars (24 page)

“I'm not a very religious guy, never have been. But if I were, I'd swear that you're acting as if an unclean spirit has taken over your mind.”

“No Alex. It's nothing like that. You are right about one thing, though. I suddenly feel different.”

“Do you want me to take you to the hospital?” Alex began to cautiously back away from Travis. “I just need to grab my jacket.”

“You think I've flipped out, don't you?” Travis asked.

“I don't know what's going on, but I do know this. Over the last few minutes, you've done the Nutty Professor transformation.”

“I'm fine, Alex.” Travis tried to smile, but it would not fully form. Only his left cheek rose up toward his eye.

“You don't look like it. Seems to me like you might be having a stroke or something.”

“I've never felt better, my friend. I should go now. I have a lot of things that need to get done,” Travis said as he walked toward the door. Alex grabbed his arm just above the elbow to stop him. He glanced into Travis's eyes again, but still saw something different.

“If you need anything, let me know, all right?” Alex said.

“Of course,” Travis answered and gave him a shoulder bump and a pat on the back.

“I love you, man,” he said.

“I know,” Travis answered and then left.

It was almost 4:55 p.m. and Jasmine was sitting at her desk still fuming over the way Travis had reacted to her. She couldn't comprehend why he had come out of an ugly bag on her. His behavior was completely irrational and uncharacteristic. She was flirting with the idea of disciplinary action, but she decided to give him a cooling-off period so that he could return to his senses.

As her day drew to its conclusion, she looked forward to heading home so she could relax and forget about how ugly her day had been. Jasmine shut down her computer, gathered her belongings and headed out. When she made it to the lobby, she saw Sam smiling at her. She acknowledged the guard's silent greeting.

“You're not staying with your buddy tonight?” Sam asked.

“Buddy? What are you talking about?” Jasmine eyed Sam suspiciously.

“Dr. Travis Adams,” Sam said, grinning at her innocently.

“What are you saying?” Jasmine asked as she approached his counter.

“I'm just wondering if you guys were going to be working late tonight, that's all,” Sam explained.

“No. Travis left earlier today,” Jasmine said. Before he could respond to her, Sam focused his attention on a woman who was entering the building.

“Can I help you, Miss?” Sam called out to her.

The woman approached. “No thanks, I've found the person I'm looking for.”

Jasmine turned her head in the direction of the familiar voice and saw her sister, Lauren. Lauren was still in her DEA gear, but was sporting a pair of dark sunglasses.

“I came to see you,” she said, sniffling.

“What's wrong?” Jasmine asked.

“I need to talk to you. Do you have some time for me?” Lauren asked.

“Of course I do. Come on, we can go back to my place,” Jasmine said as she began to escort her sister out.

“I'll tell Travis that you've left for the night,” Sam blurted before she walked off.

“Travis left earlier today, Sam,” Jasmine said.

“Well, he's back. He came in just before you came down. He told me that you guys would probably be working late tonight.”

Jasmine paused as creases formed in her forehead.
Why would Travis tell Sam that
?

“Just tell Travis that I'll catch up with him later,” Jasmine said before leaving with her sister, who was visibly upset.

A SHORT TIME LATER, Jasmine arrived at her house with Lauren. Lauren went to rest on the sofa in the family room while Jasmine went into the kitchen.

“Would you like something to drink?” Jasmine asked her sister.

“A bottle of Jack Daniel's, if you've got it,” Lauren said in the most depressing tone.

“No, I'm not going to let you drink a bottle of Jack Daniel's. Jack is only going to make you feel worse about whatever it is that's bothering you.” Jasmine opened her refrigerator. “I've got diet Coke, lemonade, and some sweet tea.”

“I'll take the sweet tea,” Lauren answered.

Jasmine poured their drinks and then headed to the family room. Lauren had removed her gun belt and shoes and was lying on her back.

“Here you go,” Jasmine said as she handed her the drink.

Lauren sat upright and took the glass from Jasmine.

“Take off those dark sunglasses so I can see your face,” Jasmine said as she took a seat in a nearby chair.

“You really don't want to see what I look like because I feel like I've been kicked by a mule,” Lauren confessed as she combed her fingers through her hair.

“Don't make me come over there and take them off,” Jasmine said with a no-nonsense tone of voice. Lauren reluctantly removed her dark sunglasses. Jasmine took one look at her. “Okay, what happened?” Jasmine set her glass of sweet tea down and draped her arm around her sister's shoulder. Lauren turned, embraced Jasmine and began crying.

“Oh come on now. It can't be that bad,” Jasmine said as she rocked her sister to help soothe her troubled emotions. Once Lauren let out her pain, she smeared away her tears with the back of her hand. Lauren walked into the kitchen to retrieve a box of Kleenex.

“Here you go,” she said, handing her sister the box. Lauren yanked out a few sheets and blew her nose.

“I'm mad, Jasmine. LeMar pissed me the hell off,” Lauren said angrily.

“Is there something in the air because Travis snapped out on me earlier today, too,” Jasmine said, empathizing with her sister.

“I let LeMar get too close to me. I should've just kept my distance from him. Never in a million years could I have imagined that he'd hurt me like this,” Lauren said.

“What did he do?”

“What all men do? He's fucked up big time and he knows it.”

“What did he do? Don't tell me he's been shaking down drug dealers for money on the side.”

“No, he's not that damn savvy. This idiot has gone out and gotten two girls pregnant: a nineteen-year-old waitress and a twenty-year- old college student.” Lauren exposed the dagger that had pierced her heart.

“Oh no he didn't!” Jasmine couldn't believe what she was hearing.

“Yes he did,” Lauren said, trying to keep her anger under control.

“Who are they?” Jasmine asked.

“Young girls he was trying to impress and now he's messed around and got caught up.”

“How did you find out?”

“One of the girls answered his cell phone while he was in the shower. When I asked who she was, she said, ‘I'm Felicia, his baby's mama. Are you Danita, the other girl who's supposed to be pregnant by him, too?'”

“You've got to be kidding me,” Jasmine said, not wanting to believe her ears.

“I wish I was, Jasmine. The hurting thing is that when I saw him at work, he acted as if he was so in love with me. He had no clue that I'd talked to Felicia. He was acting as if everything was normal and fine. I tried so hard not to bring the shit up at work, but I couldn't hold it in. I caught him just as he was exiting the washroom and told him that I needed to speak with him. He tried to blow me off, but I insisted we talk. We ducked into a stairwell for a little privacy and he figured that I was just horny and needed to be kissed. When he craned his neck towards me, I slapped the fuck out of him. ‘What the hell did you do that for,' he said, sounding all stupid. Then I said, ‘Do you have some
thing you need to tell me?' And he says, ‘No.' So I asked again and got the same answer. So I just put the shit out there and asked him why didn't he tell me about Felicia and Danita?”

“What did he say?” Jasmine asked.

“He just looked at me all stupid like. Then he rested his back against the door, folded his arms and stared at the floor. He couldn't even look me in the eyes, Jasmine.” Lauren snatched more Kleenex from the box. Jasmine remained quiet and waited for Lauren to get herself together so she could finish telling her story.

“I'm a forty-six-year-old woman and I just can't believe I've been duped like this. And then he insulted me by saying, ‘Well, I decided that I wanted to have children. I knew you couldn't, so I did what I needed to do.' When he said that shit to me, I snapped out and drop kicked him in the nuts. Ooo, girl, I'm so mad at him and myself. I can't believe I fell in love with his lies.”

“He is so wrong for doing you like that,” Jasmine said, trying to console her sister. She stroked her hand up and down her back as Lauren began sobbing again.

“When things started getting serious between us, we talked about children and he swore up and down that he didn't want any. He told me that he wanted to build a life with me. I should've known something was up when he didn't come to your holiday party with me.”

“I was wondering about that, but I didn't want to pry. I thought perhaps he was spending time with his parents or something.”

“No, he was busy fucking Danita—and to think that I was ready to sell my house so that we could buy a new one together. My love life is just fucked up right now.”

“Well, you're doing the right thing by breaking it off with him,” Jasmine said.

“That's the thing, Jasmine. As pissed off as I am, I still love
him. Now what kind of sense does that make? I know it sounds stupid to say that, but it's the ugly truth of the matter.”

“Well, what are you going to do?” Jasmine asked.

“I don't know. What do you think I should do?” Lauren asked.

“I think you need some time to get your head right. Once you've had time to think about this, you'll do what's best for you.”

“Right now I just want to shoot him and call it a crime of passion,” Lauren said.

“You don't want to kill the man because you'll end up in jail and his children will end up fatherless.”

“Oh God, why did this happen to me?” Lauren looked to the heavens for an answer.

“It happens to all of us.” Jasmine paused. “Travis went crazy on me today at work.”

“What?” Lauren asked, sitting upright and dabbing the pool of moisture that had formed under her nose.

“He got upset because one of the projects he was heavily involved with was shelved. When I told him of the decision, he lost it. I never knew that he had a temper until today. He was so upset that he walked out of my office and just left the building.”

“That's why you were surprised when the security guard told you he'd returned.” Lauren picked up her sweet tea and took a sip. “What do you think he's doing?”

“I don't know and right now, I really don't care. I'm just going to give him some space.”

“Why can't men just be honest? Why do they have to lie about everything?” Lauren asked.

“Maybe it's too hard for them to deal with the pain of the truth. I think women look at the truth and confront it head on, but men aren't like that.” Jasmine paused in thought for a moment. “I've tried so hard to not let my feelings interfere with
my relationship with Travis. It was my intent to just keep him as a cute little boy toy to play around with. But I allowed him to get under my skin to the point that I wanted him. I wanted more out of our relationship. Like you, whether I want to admit it or not, I'm still looking for love. I've lied to myself, made myself believe that I could remove my emotions and just have casual relationships. The lie worked for a while, but my heart knows what's best for me and right now, I have a man who has placed his ambitions before me and I have a problem with that. I want to be the center of his world, not some damned experiment. Am I wrong for feeling that way?”

“No, of course not.” Lauren now draped her arm around Jasmine and began rubbing her shoulders.

“Damn, girl, now you've got me crying,” Jasmine said as she yanked a few tissues out of the box. “Why do men have such a difficult time expressing their true feelings? I know that Travis is passionate about me. But he doesn't know how to communicate or convey it in a way that lets me know where I stand.”

“We're two emotional train wrecks right about now,” Lauren said. “We haven't been this confused since we were teenagers back in the eighties.”

Jasmine laughed painfully. “How is it that we're both beautiful, educated, and employed women who don't have a bunch of babies on our hip, but still can't find a decent relationship?”

“I don't know, but someone needs to write a book explaining where we went wrong,” Lauren said.

“Or better yet, Tyler Perry needs to make a movie about it,” Jasmine said, then laughed out loud with her sister.

When Travis returned to the office, he was determined to get to the bottom of why his experiments were being shelved. His plan was to confront Jasmine about it once again, but when he arrived, she had already left for the day. Instead of giving her a call, his dark intuition suggested that he enter her office and look through the files on the project. Travis went to Jasmine's office, but the door was locked. He tried to force his way inside, but it was no use.

“Shit,” he hissed. He stood outside of her office for a moment and then began to pace back and forth. “How do I get in?” he repeated to himself over and over again until the answer came to him. “Sam,” he whispered.

Travis went back down to the security desk to ask Sam if he had a master key to all of the locks.

“Oh hey, Doctor Adams. Jasmine told me to tell you that she was leaving for the evening.”

“You saw her?” Travis asked.

“Yeah, she left not too long ago. She was with another woman. I think it was her sister because she was just as shapely as Jasmine, if you know what I mean.” Sam chuckled and ribbed Travis playfully.