Heartbreak Hill

"Every place I've lived ,I've had a special place...A place that I would go to when I wanted to be alone, just think...." said Cherry Johnson as we drove to Wister Woods Park in the Mt. Airy Section of Philadelphia ,early one Saturday Morning...

''Oh yeah?" I said as I rode shotgun...I had left my car at her place and we were taking hers...

"As you know, I was born and raised in Oakland, California...I'm not a Philly girl." she continued as she drove.

"Where was your special place back home?" I asked.

"Oh ,I had many....one was up in the hills near Marin County.....Another was in Daley City and I had a few spots in Oakland and San-Francisco." she said and smiled sweetly at me.

"How long have you been in Philly?" I asked.

"I came here in 2008....So I'd say about five years..." she said.

"You like it here?" I asked.

"I do...It took some getting used to...I came here after a bad marriage....My husband , as I told you is a murderer.....and he was abusive...He's doing life ,no parole at San Quentin....I came here because it was as far from the West Coast as I could get and I had no ties of any kind here...but he found me!!.....Thanks to Chris and Chess,The FBI found him and locked him up!!  I got a divorce later!" she said.

"Wowww!" I said.

"Chess was my first lover here.....He was and Is a good man....but he was involved with another woman, a woman who had given birth to his child...He was torn between us and he did the right thing...He married his baby mama.....He did right by me...He found me the nice Apartment that I presntly live in...and When he and Chris opened their shopping center, They gave my name to the Victoria's Secret people and I got hired as a manager of that store...I owe Chess a lot..." she said.

"Yeah, My apartment is one of theirs....I went to High school with him and Chris...." I said.

"You did?" she said.

"Yeah, they're a little older than me, but we all grew up on the block....Me, Kevin Morris,Sean Jackson, Chris, Chess, Fathead, Donald Smooth, Honey Brown, B-Flat, Chazz Gillison, Bone Hampton...all of us...grew up together... and Paris, Blake, Chance Howard, Cole,Bernadette, Harry Charles...We all were in school together too!" I said.

''Wow ,no wonder you guys are so tight." she said.

"We all came up in West Philly....It's amazing that we all wound up in this part of the city...." I said.

''Did you know that Fathead and I were engaged once?" she said.

"What? You and Arthur?? He wouldn't seem to be your type?" I said.

"He wasn't at all...I knew he was a gangster...I guess that kinda turned me on at first.....but he was a playboy...he ran women, and he left me at the alter." she sighed...

"I'm sorry Cherry." I said.

"Then there was both Reed Nelson and Downtown Rob Brown....Reed was a good man, Rob was a whore...Reed is married now and Rob seems to be in the longest committed relationship of his life." she laughed.

"That's cause  Delores will cut him if he screws around on her." I laughed.

''You know them too huh?"she asked.

''Went to school with Rob , Delores and Debbie too....and Rell, Chess's wife as well...He didn't know her back then though, but I did." I said.

"How bout Bridget Jones?" she asked.

I was startled by that question, but I played it cool...

"She was my crush all through out school.... I went to the prom with her....Wanted to do more, but uh you know how that is...Timing...It was never right...I didn't know you knew her." I said..

"I don't know her personally, but I know of her...I've seen her around...She seems like a nice person." said Cherry.

"Yeah!  She's good people...I ran into her a couple of weeks ago in Sam Mother's Diner..." I said.

"Oh that was nice...I guess you two hadn't seen each other in years huh?" she said.

''Seven years to be exact ...I promised to have a drink with her and catch up on old times one day, but who knows when I'll have time for that?" I said, trying to feel her out and find out how much she knew...

I wondered if Samuel Rasulala had been running his mouth to her  too,trying to get brownie points? He struck me as the type that would throw salt in another man's game to enhance his own... Playas had no honor, no code anymore.

Maybe not, because just that quick, Cherry dismissed the whole thing and pointed toward a path we were going to walk to get to her special place...Funny...I thought , by the way she was moaning and cooing in the bed just last night that I had gotten to her ,uh special place and more!

Cherry parked the car....We popped the trunk...I took out candles...a table cloth and a picnic basket....

Cherry took my hand and led me down a path and up a hill....

We found a nice spot at the top of the hill and we spread the table cloth....We lit the candles....They had a special scent to scare the insects away... We set up an ipod....It was loaded with Maxwell, Sade, Adele, Anthony Hamilton, Mary J. Blige and Charlie Wilson...Good sounds... We had Fried Chicken, Cole slaw, Potato Salad, Bread , Cheese, grapes, two bottles of Wine and some Sweet Potato Pie..

"You like?'' she asked.

''I do." I said with a smile..

"I was up all night cooking this...." she said.

She was up after we finished making love....I don't know how she found the strength...I was exhausted after that last session...She is quite the energizer bunny in the bedroom...Which explains why so many guys like Samuel Rasulala,Roscoe and to some extents, myself just can't seem to let her go ,despite whatever else we got going on on the side...

I felt like crying...Nobody had ever done anything like this for me before....This girl was too good, too good for me...Considering what Bridget and I had been doing for a couple of weeks....I felt so guilty....I couldn't keep living a lie...It was eating me up inside.

II-

"This is my special place Calvin....I came here and cried my eyes out when Chess got married, when Fathead left me at the alter, when Reed and I broke up and when Downtown Rob Brown and I parted ways... I never brought Roscoe here and never dreamed of bringing Samuel Rasulala here either.. " she says..."So consider yourself special...You're the first and only guy I've ever come up here with...." she continued...

"I'm...I'm flattered." I said.

"That's because I think a lot of you Calvin." she said.

"I think a lot of you too." I said....

I felt sick...This woman liked me soo much and while I really did care for her, I couldn't tear myself away from Bridget.....Yet, as much as I enjoyed Bridget in bed....I was coming to realize that I liked more about Cherry than just the out of this world sex she and I were having....For one, Cherry was smart!, Like me, she played chess..We played for hours and hours sometimes...She was well read..We could talk about any number of subjects, which I liked..She was creative...She could draw beautiful pictures....and she was tender....and thoughtful... She also had ambitions...She had just recently gotten her Associates Degree at Community and had her eye on entering either Temple or Penn in the fall for night school as did I...

Not that Bridget wasn't any of those things, but I didn't get to see them....I barely got to see Bridget's clothes as fast as we were tearing them off, and falling into bed...

I poured us both a flute of wine...I figured this was leading to something...Did she know about me and Bridget?  Was she going to give me a warning or worse, was she going to poison me and leave me up here rotting away, not discovered for months?? I wouldn't blame her if she did. ..I certainly deserved it.

"Come on eat, eat...I was up all night cooking." she said.

I devoured the food...I was hungry as all get up....I sensed she wanted to talk some more ,so I sat quiet...

"I usually came up here in bad times...This is the first time I've come up here in good times..." she said, smiling sweetly and feeding me grapes...

"I really like you Cal, I'm finally in a guilt free relationship and I'm finally with a guy who is all mine , who I don't have to share with anybody..." she said.

I damn near choked on my grapes when she said that....Just two nights before...Bridget and I were knocking the plaster loose on her walls in her bedroom ,having wild sweaty sex....I showered, left Bridget and then preceded to do the same thing at Cherry's apartment....It's a wonder I make it to work at all...There is such a thing as too much of a good thing...

This was too much of a good thing....It was time for me to be a man now...I couldn't keep going on like this...It was decision time...


III-

Cherry and I ate, listened to music, drank wine...and from our place on top of the hill, we sat quietly in each others arms watching the night sky line...

"You know...This is a beautiful city Cal." she said.

"I suppose it is...I've often taken it for granted...

"When one grows up somewhere ,one tends to do that....Right before I met you Cal, I was depressed...I was involved with two men, one who I know only was interested in me for sex....The other, may have been genuine, but has done things I find reprehensible...So I could never warm to him completely...but You!!You're special....You got no baggage...You're all mine!" she said...

I felt lower than an earthworm at this point! This girl was so nice....so giving....and soo sexy...all in one and she could cook too!....I might never ever stumble upon someone this good again....

Bridget?? She's a nice girl too....and if we were meant to be together...We would've been together....Maybe there was a reason the timing was always wrong for us....

I put my arms around Cherry and kissed her for a long time...

My mind was made up...I had made my choice.....

"I'm all yours kid!" I said....

"And I'm yours Cal." she said.

I couldn't believe it...a tear ran down my face....This had certainly never happened to me...

"Hey uh Cherry, don't tell anybody you saw me tear up....I uh might lose my man cards." I joked as I wiped the tear from my face.

''Awww, I won't." she laughed and kissed my cheek.

She smiled and hugged me...as below us....all the city lights shone brightly! I had to make my mind up and do something quick or I was going to be a man without a woman!

(CONCLUSION NEXT!)