“You did or you thought you did?” Leroy queried as he turned toward her, because now there were no secrets being kept, no reason to walk away. Cypress was going to be honest, he hoped. He would have prayed she’d be honest, but he didn’t want to give her any help. She had to do it on her own.

“Well, you loved the woman or you didn’t, which was it?”

Cypress didn’t like being put on the spot. She didn’t like having to answer for her own time, her own feelings, her choices.

“Is it your business what I was doing before I met you?”

“No, but it’s my business what you’re doing now.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Boy, you think the world’s got the memory of a fool. Don’t you think I know why you were drinking yourself silly in bar after bar for weeks when Laura came back? Don’t you think I know why you haven’t mentioned your great admiration for Idrina before?”

“No, why don’t you tell me.”

“Oh, Cypress. I’m not attacking you. I just wanna talk to you; I wanna know you’re here ’cause you want ta be, not ’cause you’re runnin’ away from somebody. Is that so hard to understand?” Leroy moved over to where Cypress was idly undoing her peculiar array. “Listen, I want you. I don’t care what you did before, I’m just not sure you’ve finished with her, that’s all.” He slipped his arms over her shoulders, and pulled her up to him. “I think it’s wonderful for two women to be lovers, there’s a sanctity to it that I respect. And I’m glad for you to have known all that is, but, Cypress, you can’t dress it up, or cheapen it down, by saying you ‘thought’ you loved her, see what I mean?”

Cypress relaxed in Leroy’s grasp, fell closer to his body, smelled that smell of his that reminded her of coffee and the sea. She opened her mouth, let her tongue glide over his collarbone, whispering, “I did love her. I still love her, Leroy, like one of my sisters.” Leroy took a deep breath, inhaled all the air he could and poked Cypress repeatedly with his inflated stomach, like an Americanized Yanvallou. It was only seconds before she realized he’d chased her back to their bed; only a few more seconds before they were no more than shout and sweat, and released. Cypress was gone; absolutely dead to the world. Leroy caught himself whispering, “I know it’s terrible. I shouldn’t have done it. You can’t fuck somebody into loving you, but I had to, I had to. She can’t leave me for that bitch, she can’t. I won’t allow it.”