Their New Public Image

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting at a table with two associates of mine... (I'll call them) L. and T. We hadn't talked since December when both of these guys got married (one for the first time and the other for the second time). I ordered a New York Strip steak, a baked potato, and a Coke. My two buddies ordered Salmon Steaks and a round of Mojitos for all three of us. T., who is the father of a 23 year old daughter and a 27 year old son by two different women, had never married until last December. L. was the father of a 16 year old son from his first marriage and was now getting married for the second time.

Both of these guys were stone cold players. Over the years, I had watched them juggle a revolving door of women with ease. They rarely, if ever, got caught and all the while, they maintained long-standing relationships with one main lady. They finally married those "main ladies".

Both of their women were long-suffering girlfriends. They each knew or at least suspected what their men were doing but, kept silent and looked the other way. I can't imagine the embarrassment they must've felt over the years hearing people whisper behind their backs about their men being with this one or that one. Through it all though, they were stoic women who hung in there and from appearances, their stoicism paid off... they got their men.

While I cut my steak and began to chew, T. said to me, "Keith, looks like you were on to something all these years... being married and all. I'm so glad I got married." I looked at him and halfway jokingly said, "Oh, you are?" He kept talking while he was eating and said, "Yeah, man... I could no longer afford to be wining and dining all of these women. It's much easier being married. We can go dutch when we go out or we don't have to go out at all, you know?" L. joined in and said, "Man, you ain't never lied. I remember taking at least three girls out a week and you know my taste, man... I was dropping some heavy cash in a lot of the top spots downtown and that was taking a toll on my bank account. Now that I'm married, we go to Chilis or Friday's and call it a day."

I looked at both of them and then said, "So, y'all got married so you could eat at Chili's or Fridays and go Dutch, right?" They both looked at me, pointed, and started cracking up. T. said to L. "Man, I told you this guy missed his calling. He could be out there with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence." They both laughed so, I dropped this on them... "So, you're saying that you spent more money on your jump offs than you do your wives? That's what you're both saying, right?" The mood at the table changed and then, T. looked at me and said, "Naw man, I'm just talking about a lifestyle change brother, that's all." I retorted, "It seems as though you should treat your wife as good, if not better, than a jump off... that's all I'm saying."

T. looked at his watch and remembered that he had someone to meet. He asked for the check and just then, a beautiful young black woman with a Jamaican accent came in the restaurant. She came over to him and he whispered something in her ear. She smiled and walked outside. He left his money on the table, pointed at me, and said, "I gotta see a man about a horse brothers... we'll table this conversation for now." and he was out the door. The woman with the Jamaican accent was not his wife. I looked at L and said, "And, you have to be somewhere too, no doubt?" He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Yeah, I'm supposed to meet some of my lodge brothers at this club over in Jersey." Within minutes, he was also gone.

I sat, finished my steak, and thought about both of these guys. They called themselves reformed players but, that was just for their new public image. Not a thing had changed about either of them. I wondered as I sat there if at my worst, I had ever been them. I hadn't... I had never been as smooth and adept at lying as I know they had to be to have been so "successful". Maybe I was hatin' because I couldn't be like them so, I pondered that thought too. Then, I said... "Nah. One thing I ain't and that's cheap." By the way, neither one of them left a tip.