The Fire in A Woman's Heart: A Short Story

She sees him walking all around every day looking so good in his shoes, fitted hat and fresh white tee or crisp polo. 6’3, 19, a rich heresy chocolate complexion, dark deep brown eyes that a girl could lose herself in if she wasn’t careful. Not knowing what she is going to get herself into. He sees her the same way. Desiree looks good, the way she struts around like she is the shit and she knows it. 5’10, 21, a light golden honey complexion, yeah she was sweet and looked good enough to eat, heels, long flowing hair that never seemed to end, the face of a model but the body of a southern girl. Jeans, hugging every part of her body like nature intended it to with a form fitting top. He had seen her around a lot. Always looking nice and wondering when he was going to be able to try to talk to her. It was the end of freshmen year and he had his eye on her from the beginning.

See, she was not the average girl because she not only had the looks and the body but she had the brains as well. She was about to be a senior at Southern University. Tim, being a freshmen, knew that this would put him on the map if he could get Desiree in the sheets. He was a little scared about their age difference but he figured with all of the girls he got in High School, College girls could not be that much different. She was one of the most popular girls on campus and she was bad. He decided to go for it even though he was still a little nervous. He came toward her like she was a wounded gazelle in the desert and he was a lion coming to feast on his prey.

“What’s good shorty”, He says. “Nothing much what’s up with you, boy” she replies.

With a simple hello to one another, the tension started to bounce off of their bodies erupting like fireworks in the sky. He wants to get her into his bed but she is no ordinary female and Tim knows he will have to treat her right in order to get what he wants. So he decides to take it slow with her and treat her with respect because this is the way she carries herself. It’s a shame that all he wants to do is add her to his checklist of girls that he has been with dating back to High School. He does not want to know about how she is scared of thunder and likes to be held in order to feel safe or how she is obsessed with Tori Amos and Aaliyah.

No, no, no, Tim has no interest in that, just in getting her to open up the cookie jar. He wants to sample her cookies and try to figure out how good they taste in contrast to all the other flavors he has sampled in the past. Tim is no ordinary male either, he plays the part of the caring, sweet, considerate boyfriend for three months in order to get close enough to her so he can get inside of her house to taste the cookies. Tim waits and waits until one day she decided to open the door and give him a grand tour.

“Tonight”, Desiree says. “Are you sure you want to do this babe?”, Tim replies. “Yes, because I feel like we are becoming one emotionally, do you feel the same Tim?”

Tim thought for a minute to himself and he realized that this was the moment where he could seal the deal, all of this time having no interest in this girl what-so-ever, he cannot believe that she cracked and gave him the perfect excuse to lay in bed with her. “Yes, baby I feel the same” he said.
After that familiar beacon of light went down and the birds took their leave for the day, Tim came over to see her and he was ready to taste these cookies. They would probably be the sweetest yet.

Tim was truly a sneaky, devilish, boy that had no remorse for the countless number of females he took advantage of over the course of his life. Desiree would be no different to him, just the first college name to check off of his list.
He looked into her eyes and peaked down into her soul where she was her most vulnerable. Her eyes read “take me”, or so he thought. He grabbed her and while he gazed into her eyes that were leaning back into her head he saw her for the first time. His body overtook hers as a dominate force and they breathed as one. He thrust and he had found the cookie jar. Hers were unlike any other he had sampled before. He could not understand or figure out why, but there was something about hers that set her apart from the rest. “It was extra warm and more experienced!”, Tim concluded.

She grabbed him and was holding on as if she were hanging off of a building, grasping for life, she screamed “I Love You” and while she was screaming he was dying. This was something that Tim was not aware of. Tim was always a harsh person but he never cared about anyone, but on this day he finally found his match.
Among the countless number of girls there was one he messed with named Stacie Washington. Tim and Stacie were both seventeen at the time of their sexual encounter. She was a sweet girl who never did anything to anyone and just wanted to have a steady boyfriend that loved her. She unfortunately ran into Tim. He did the same thing to her and her entire world changed for the worst. Again, he did the same thing to her as he had just finished doing to Desiree and Stacie was heartbroken. She transformed from the sweet little girl that never hurt anyone, to a ferocious mean-spirited girl who was out for revenge. That same week she received a call from her older sister with tragic news. Her sister told her that she had just discovered that she was H.I.V. positive. Stacie felt so sorry for her sister but she also was still upset about what had happened to her.

Tim soon realized the difference in Desiree’s cookies; they were made out of infected dough. By the time Tim was a junior in college, he knew about his condition. His T-cells had dropped so low that his skin started to change colors. He caught what started as a bad cough and turned into the flu. As he lay in the hospital bed dying, he tried to remember all of the girls that he had loved and left to try and figure out who had given him this deadly virus. Carmen, Tiffany, Karen, Stacie, Sabrina, Dawn, Dominique.

“This just doesn’t make sense.” Tim thought.

That night he closed his eyes for the last time and he would never know what had happened to him in this life. The virus had overtaken his system so much that by the time he knew his status it was too late.

What Tim never found out were the last names of the girls that he had intercourse with. There was Carmen Adams, Tiffany Weatherspoon, Dominique Johnson, Karen O’Day, Sabrina Mitchell, Dawn Hill, Stacie Washington, and Desiree Washington. Maybe if Tim would have cared just a little bit more about who he laid in bed with, he would have realized that Stacie and Desiree were sisters.

The day Stacie found out that her sister was H.I.V. positive, she also told her sister about Tim and how he treated her. Desiree, hearing the story of her sister’s experience, became emotional over the phone and told her younger sister not to worry because she would take care of everything. Desiree had experienced guys like Tim before and she decided to put a stop to his madness once and for all. She decided to punish Tim for his years of heartbreak and disloyalty to women. She decided to do it without her younger sister knowing.

When she first saw Tim she felt bad knowing that she was about to kill another human being but after remembering the sounds of her beloved sister’s cries on the phone a fire raged in her and she knew what she wanted to do. Everyday for the first week of school she attended every function Tim attended and made sure she was gorgeous at all times. She knew that she would eventually get his attention, but what she did not know was how long to wait before infecting him. She didn’t know how smart he was so she played the respected, don’t take no mess, sister because she knew that if she tried to strike too soon that he might become suspicious. She will never forget the day that she infected him. She was so pleased with herself knowing that she honored her promise to her sister and that Tim’s days were numbered because he had not the slightest clue. Which leads to the point of the story, don’t mess with a woman’s heart because once it is lit ablaze the flames will be unstoppable. And you might get burned.