The Taste of Sin

The Taste of Sin

By

Aquila’ Mahdi

~~~

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 by AM Publishing LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.

First Edition: December 2013

Print ISBN: 978-1-60796-647-0

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Front Cover photography: Sylvia Williamson

Back Cover Photography: Brooklyn Riley Hill

Cover Design: Aquila’ Mahdi

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank everyone who supported my dream. It took a while to get here but I did it.

A special thank you goes to my heartbeat and purpose for living, Brooklyn Riley Hill. Without you I wouldn’t be where I am today. I love you with every ounce of my being.

I hope you enjoy reading my novella as much as I did writing it. Stay tuned for the sequel, "It All Falls Down."

 Aquila’ Mahdi

Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end.

~ Nelson Mandela, February 1975.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter One

So before you judgmental prudes start to form your opinions, let me break it down for you…

I had not planned to fall in love with this man. My infatuation with him started when I visited his church with my best friend. I had been living in Los Angeles for a while and was looking for a church home. My friend had a crush on a guy that attended this one. So what better way to get a woman to go than to throw a man into the mix? Of course, she dragged me along for the venture.

I had been to several churches in L.A. and none of them were like the ones I was used to in the south. I never felt comfortable in any of them. I was raised A.M.E. so visiting the Holiness churches never worked for me. Not knowing when someone was going to catch ‘The Holy Ghost’ and pass out really scared me. Then the preachers who walked through the church to find people to ‘prophesize’ to did not work for me either. I considered it to be a way to air people’s dirty laundry publicly and I preferred to keep mine safely tucked away.

In some churches the Pastors were so boring that it was unbearable. There were others who shook you down for cash as soon as you passed the threshold. I needed a part time job just to attend service. Between spending half of my money at different churches and not being seated near the front section because Beyonce’ and Jay-Z were in attendance threw me for a loop. When did the church become a celebrity red carpet event? All of these antics kept me clear of churches. I just prayed daily, attended service online and kept it moving.

Ava and I approached the church parking lot when she started to fill me in on her intended target of the moment. Ok, so this cute guy I met in the lobby of my building attends this church. He was actually on his way to church when we met. So after I batted my eyelashes a couple times and told him how much I loved the Lord, he invited me to visit, Ava said.

So in other words, you bullshitted your way into an invite? I asked sarcastically.

Exactly! She bubbled.

Ava pulled her Range Rover into the parking lot. She parked across the yellow line. The poor girl couldn’t drive for shit. She only bought the Range because that was expected in L.A. If you didn’t drive a BMW, Benz, Lexus, Range, Bentley, etc. you weren’t doin’ it. Who cares if you could actually afford it or not? Plastic was the ruler of L.A. Whether you had it injected somewhere in your body, personality or wallet, it was a part of the culture. This was hard for me to swallow being a southern transplant. I couldn’t go 5 minutes without seeing someone’s face or body part that hadn’t been turned into a flotation device from injecting so much nonsense into it or having had it carved to oblivion.

Fortunately for Ava she could afford the lifestyle. Her father was well off which gave her the ability to keep up with the costly trends in Los Angeles. She was the type of chick who thought Forever 21 was ‘cute’. We went shopping at the Beverly Center once and she just could not wrap her brain around the concept of buying designer knock offs when she could just buy the real thing. Trying to explain the economy and the fact that some people couldn’t afford those luxuries were too complex for a privileged girl such as herself. Even though she was a Saks Fifth Avenue and Rodeo Drive type of girl, I still loved her all the same.

We made it inside the church and in our seats at exactly 10:30 am. The choir was singing and swaying from side to side. All the ministers sat lined up in the pew with stern faces. Some were tapping their feet to the music. I looked around the church at people smiling. Some of them were singing. Women were in their Sunday’s best lightly fanning themselves with their paper fans. The musicians were all in tune with each other. None of them missed a note. Ava was sitting next to me straining her neck and looking for her dude all while trying her best to look inconspicuous.

Girl you’re going to pull a muscle looking so hard, I told her.

I’m just making sure I don’t miss him. I didn’t tell him I was coming. I decided to surprise him! You have to see him. He is delish, girl!

Ava got excited about every man she met. She immediately started to envision their initials monogrammed on towels and his and her Benzes in the driveway. You get my point. I asked her why she thought that way about every man she encountered. Her response was that her father told her never to date a man she couldn’t see herself marrying.

There was something soothing about this church. I felt at home there. Strange because this was my first time visiting. I watched how everyone greeted each other as they made their way to their seats. People looked like family. You could feel the love throughout the room. I didn’t feel as I usually did when I entered other churches. This wasn’t a fashion show. I didn’t get the vibe that people were here just to be able to say they went to church on Sunday. It felt like this was their home and they were truly here to be uplifted and build a better relationship with God.

Everything was feeling all churchy until a sharp electric energy hit the air. All of a sudden, I no longer heard the music playing. I couldn’t hear the choir. It was as if everything was on mute. This man entered from a door tucked away behind the choir. He made his way on to the stage with the other ministers. Tall, with honey colored skin and a low tapered haircut all finished off by a light shadow of a beard. He walked with the most confident stride. As he made his way to the podium, my eyes followed him. I guess the choir and band simmered down because my hearing came back. He opened his mouth and spoke words. What exactly, I couldn’t tell you. Something about good morning saints, announcements, sick and shut in and let us stand and bow our heads to pray.

At that moment, I stood up and continued to stare at him. His voice resonated throughout the church. His teeth were so white and perfect. I was so entranced by his voice that I began to salivate. I guess my staring became so deliberate that Ava gave me a sharp elbow to my side.

What? I snapped! She completely broke my concentration.

She whispered, Dude! You are staring and drooling. Not ok!

In a muffled tone I said, Yeah. Yeah. I can’t help it. But I think I may have found my new church home.

She laughed, But you haven’t heard the sermon yet. What if it’s no good?

Well, whatever they’re preaching about, I‘m buying.

We gave a light giggle and sat back down. This amazing man took his seat at the end of the row of ministers. He picked up his bible and prepared to follow along with the scripture. The Pastor had taken the stand to deliver our soul food. As far as I was concerned, my soul had already been fed. Just looking at him fed my emptiness for the rest of the day.

As the Pastor began to speak, Mr. Amazing dropped his pen. When he reached to pick it up, our eyes met. He looked at me with bewilderment. As if he had witnessed a miracle. At least that’s what I wanted him to be thinking. Whatever it was caught his attention because he kept his eyes locked on me for the entire sermon.

Remember in high school when you would see a guy you liked and he would look at you and you would get that butterfly feeling in your stomach? Your heart would flutter. Your stomach would get nervous. Well that happened to me. I stared. He stared. Then I would fold under pressure and start rambling nervously with the church program. I was messing with my cell phone and anything to preoccupy me. I couldn’t accept the challenge of the stare down. I felt naked and vulnerable. Like everyone knew what we were doing and it felt so wrong.

Ava managed to break my concentration once again. She nudged me. My moving distracted her. Can you sit still? Do you have to pee or something?

I’m cool, I whispered from the corner of my mouth. Have you seen the eye candy at 11 o’clock? She took a moment to scan the room. I forgot to mention she is a little on the ditzy side.

Girl, look on the stage! I shrieked under my breath.

Oooohh! He’s alright.

Alright, are you blind? Do you need my Gucci’s to see clearly? He is amazing!

She just looked at him and shook her head. Yeah, he’s amazingly married. Didn’t you see the ring?

Damn! That was all I needed. After the distraction from his smile, voice, etc., I forgot to do the hand scan. Completely forgot about that detail. Something I never forget to check out. I just sat back with the look of defeat.

That little detail winded me. Something you must know about me is that I have rules. I’m married but I don’t do married men. Not knowingly of course. I know rings do come off but if I can’t come to your home then it’s a no go. Besides, where were we going to creep? It definitely couldn’t happen at my house. I don’t think my hubby or my nosey Wisteria Lane neighbors would take kindly to the idea of me parading my eye candies up in our house. That would be a little on the tacky side. Again, I know a few of you prudes are judging me but I will talk about the hubby later. Some of you may feel my pain. Others may not. I really don’t care. For once, it is all about me.

With that said, I begin to rethink my strategy. However, Mr. Amazing hadn’t given up the staring. I had to find out who he was. I grabbed my church brochure and tried to use deductive reasoning to figure out his name. This was pointless because I didn’t know anyone there. Unlike normal church programs, this one didn’t list the name of the minister reading the announcements. Ava finally spotted the reason for our visit. She was cheesing as if she was in a pageant. Ok! Don’t look over now but I see Greg. He’s on the right side, fifth row, in the brown sweater. Tell me what you think!

I looked and saw Ava’s crush. He was alright. Dark skinned brother. He was baby faced and looked like he was every bit of 19. You mean the jail bait? I mean seriously Ava that is not the guy.

Whatever. He works in legal aid and he is brilliant, actually. He graduated top of his class at Yale. Instead of hitting Wall Street, he decided to help the ones that really needed it. I’m trying to get me an Obama, girl! She giggled.

That’s the thing about her. Dating a lawyer was her first priority. She defined her worth by what her man did for a living. She dreamed of being one of those ladies who lunched. She could see herself attending the firm’s Christmas parties while greeting people with her left hand which carried the massive