Once I was done, I went into my room. Santana was watching 106 & Park. He ignored me as I stripped out of my clothes and put on my robe to take a shower.
“How was school?” I asked him. Truthfully, it wasn’t what I wanted discuss. I wanted to vent to him about my sister. But I remembered what my sister said about me fucking up his high. I didn’t want to do that or seem petty to him. I mean, they were only minor things that had happened. She had made a mess in my living room that she cleaned up without giving me lip and she had smoked weed with my man. They both were grown. I knew it wasn’t Santana’s first time smoking in the house; I was pretty sure it wasn’t hers either. They weren’t huge deals for me to still be tripping off of. Maybe I was jealous to see them two having fun together without me.
“I didn’t go in today.”
I tied the sash on my robe. “Why not?”
“I didn’t feel like it. That’s why not.”
“Oh well, I thought maybe you weren’t feeling well or something.”
He ignored me and continued to watch Beyoncé gyrate on the screen.
I walked into the bathroom to shower. I turned on the showerhead, let it get hot, and stepped inside. I lathered myself up with my Victoria’s Secret strawberries and champagne body wash. As I did this, I wondered why he was being so short with me. I knew I had a bit of a ’tude because of my sister, but I was trying to let it go and he was still being like, whatever. We had been getting along so well, I really didn’t want any problems or tension between us. Maybe he didn’t approve of the way I was treating my sister. If that was the case, I would let up on her. Although I had definitely been more focused on what I wanted to accomplish than she had, I had to admit I made some mistakes in my earlier years. So I couldn’t act like I didn’t identify with my sister completely.
My parents always said my little sister was more of a free spirit and I was always more grounded. At the age of four, she had run away from home because my mother didn’t make her chicken fingers and fries for dinner. At seven, during a ballet recital, she switched her performance song from the music of Swan Lake to “Shake That Monkey,” by Too Short. It had mortified the hell out of my poor parents. She crashed my mother’s car when she was only fourteen. My sister had some seriously PK rebellion issues. And truthfully, I didn’t want her in my home. It didn’t mean I didn’t love her. I just didn’t want her around. She was a damn ticking time bomb.
I rinsed off, got out of the shower, and lotioned my body down with shea butter cream. I then put on my silk nightgown that was hanging on the door. I really wanted Santana to make love to me.
But when I came out of the bathroom and into our room I saw he wasn’t in bed.
When I went to go look for him, I was surprised to find him standing in the doorway of my sister’s room. I stood behind him and saw my sister had stripped down to her underwear, which was a thin-ass thong, and her big ass was in the air. She wore nothing else.
I tried to remain calm. “Baby, what are you doing?”
He turned around and looked at me. “What do you think I’m doing? Lusting on your sister huh?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes. That’s what it looks like.”
“You would think some simple shit like that. We smoked some Kush. That’s a heavy weed. I just want to make sure she not passed out. I didn’t think you thought so low of me.”
He walked off and ignored me when I called his name.
Chapter 18
I couldn’t sleep the previous night, which caused me to oversleep, so I didn’t make it to the office until twelve. Santana wouldn’t touch me and I lay in bed for hours before sleep actually took over.
When I woke up I saw Santana had left for school. My lateness caused me to miss three of the interviews Marisol had scheduled for the management position of the Compton complex. This agitated the shit out of me because I felt Marisol should have just gone on ahead and interviewed the candidates herself, instead of feeling the need to tell me she had sent three different people home.
“Oh well. I have people lined up all day to interview. That’s their loss.”
Every hour on the clock, I was looking at a different face and asking them the same damn questions. My mind stayed on Santana and our problems from the day before, which made it difficult for me to focus on what any of them were saying as they sat across from me. By three o’clock, I was drained and itching to leave the office.
I told Marisol to take charge and if she needed me, she could hit my cell.
“But you have some more interviews lined up.”
I packed up my things. “You interview them. And whoever you think is the best candidate, let me know.”
“I have no real experience with that. I’d hate to pick the wrong person.”
“You’ll be fine, Marisol,” I said curtly. “Remember you are my backup. My right-hand man. I have to go.” I walked out of my office quickly.
Trying to find a way to fix the problems we had from the night before, I went shopping for my baby. I bought him a pair of new tennis shoes, and two pairs of True Religion jeans. I also bought him a Michael Kors watch.
Day turned into evening and before I went home and surprised Santana with his goodies, I went to pay my mother a visit. I hadn’t been back to my mother’s house in a while. I knew she was still upset with me because I was still with Santana, after what had happened at church.
Mom would have to get over it. Santana wasn’t this bad guy she thought him to be. I felt my mom should be a little ashamed of herself for judging him. Only God was supposed to judge. Like I said before, every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
She answered the door with a frown, but let me inside.
“Hi, Mom.” I pecked her on her right cheek before sitting on the couch. She gave me a curt nod and walked over to the couch across from me. She had the news on and was sipping on some tea. My dad was still out of town. “So how are things?”
She looked at me and gave a bitter laugh. “How are things? Let’s see. My oldest daughter—who is breathtakingly beautiful, graduated cum laude, has the voice of an angel with the world literally at her feet—is obsessed with a man who belongs in the gutter. And no matter what I say or what he does, she just won’t leave the bastard alone.” She paused.”My baby has dropped out of school and refuses to do anything with her life. She is so passionate about amounting to nothing that she will be homeless to prove it. Then there’s my husband. Despite the fact that he says he is not having an affair, I am getting sick, pathetic phone calls from someone who likes to throw in my face the fact that she is screwing my husband. It’s to the point that I have to turn off my phone. The last time they called, they had a porno playing in the background. A woman was yelling, ‘Fuck me! Fuck me! Fuck me!’ Of all the times for this to be going on, you know we have our annual anniversary party coming up. I should invite the bitch calling me, if I knew who she was.”
I laughed at my mother’s dark humor. “Mom. Don’t think that dad’s cheating. He’s not.”
“If he is, that is at the bottom of my list. My babies are what is stressing me out the most. I can’t believe out of all I just said that is the only part you responded to.”
“Because no matter what I say about Santana, you are convinced he is a bad guy. But, Mommy, he is in school, he takes good care of me, Mom. You don’t have to worry. He even said he wants to have it to where I don’t have to work for Daddy anymore.”
She didn’t look convinced at anything I had just said. So I left that part alone.
“And as for Bria, that is what I came to talk to you about. She is staying with me.”
“What?” My mother looked surprised.
“You heard me right. I don’t want her there, Mom. I want my own privacy. She is lazy and doesn’t want to do anything.”
“I don’t want you living with that man and now my baby is there too?”
She was going to go in on Santana again and I didn’t want to hear it. “Mom! That is so past th
e point you—”
Someone started banging on the front door.
“What in the hell?” My mother stood up and walked to the door to answer it.
“It’s probably a solicitor.” I closed my eyes, irritated to the fullest.
I heard my mother unlock and open the door. “Yes?”
All I heard was, “Where she?”
I froze. I recognized that accent.
I turned around, alarmed. But it was too late; they barged into my mother’s house. It was the two Jamaican dudes. They had brought five other dudes with them.
“Who are you and what are you all doing barging in my goddamn house?” my mother demanded.
“Dun know?” Dylan was all in my mother’s face, causing her to back up. “Dun know?”
I stood and looked at them fearfully.
That’s when my mother finally realized who he was. “You’re the one who barged into our church! Talking about some dun know. Yes, I don’t know why you guys are here, so you need to leave before I call the police!”
He pulled out a gun from his back pocket and pointed it at my mother. But he looked over at me. “Me must speak to she, ’cause she da Bupps.”
“Bupps?” my mother asked. She looked from him to me.
I was confused as well as to what he was talking about, but I was afraid to speak as they encircled my mother and me.
“In me country, bupps be sugar daddy. But he not that. She be that.” He pointed at me. “Santana be sweet boy.”
His terminology had me really confused.
“What does that have to do with you barging in my goddamned house?”
“Me real live bwo ya know?”
“What?
He pulled back the safety on his gun, making my mother and me scream.
“Me real gangsta!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.
One of the men pulled the phone cord out of the wall while another snatched my purse and went through it.
Before we could do anything, they started destroying my mother’s house. They busted my parents’ sixty-inch flat-screen TV, the expensive paintings on the walls. They broke the real crystal by knocking down the clear glass case it all resided in. It came crashing down, causing the glass case to break and the pieces to fall to the floor. The pieces that were still intact were stomped on, making my mother cry. One of them even took a knife out of his pocket and stabbed my mother’s costly couches.
My mother and I crawled away and hid in a corner of the room.
As they continued destroying the living room, Dylan said, “Bumbaclot pussy clot Santana. Me know you got good shit here.”
My mother screamed and I looked on, still scared to speak. I couldn’t understand why they were doing this. Santana had paid them.
The house was a complete mess and everything in it was destroyed, down to my mother’s coffee table. They had jumped on until it collapsed into several broken pieces. Then they pulled out their dicks and peed all over the walls and on the white carpet. “You bas—”
I put my hand over my mother’s mouth so she didn’t say anything that would anger them.
Dylan spat on the floor and said. “Tell Batty boy me want all me money tomorrow. Not vex me again!” They walked out the door.
“What is this?” my mother yelled at the top of her lungs. “I know that bastard is behind this! I know it, he said his name.”
While my mother yelled I searched in the clutter for my purse. Once I found it, I ran out of the house, despite my mother yelling for me to come back. I didn’t know what Santana had done, but I assumed he didn’t give them all of their money and I was pissed! By him doing this he endangered both my parents. I raced home, enraged. I was going to get to the bottom of this.
Chapter 19
When I walked into my house, I saw my sister poke her head out of the kitchen.
“Hey, big sis! I’m making burgers and packing on the cheddar cheese.”
I ignored her and went into my bedroom. Santana sat at the computer.
In that moment, I didn’t care about making him mad. I raised my voice and snapped, “What did you do? Why didn’t you give them all the money?”
He turned around and looked at me like, damn, I’m caught.
“Do you have any idea what they just did to my parents’ house?”
“Sit down, baby.” He had his head in both his palms.
“No!” I had tears in my eyes. “You have no idea what I had to do to get all that money. I did it to help you and you shitted on me, Santana. I can’t blame my mother for hating you now and when my dad finds out, he will too! Why would you do that? What did you do with the money and how much did you short them?”
“No, baby. It’s not what you think. Yes, I shorted them by half of it. I gave half real money, the other half counterfeit bills.”
I gasped. “Why?”
“Because! Look, I was stressed out by the fact that as a man I wasn’t bringing any money into this household. And remember when I said I was working on holding you down?”
I nodded, remembering it, but separating the sweet feelings it had brought that day in that moment because I was furious with Santana.
“Okay, well, I got an e-mail from a man in Africa.”
“Why do I already not like how this sounds?”
“Just listen, baby. He said the government out there was crooked and was trying to persecute him by taking his inheritance. He needed someone to put the money from his inheritance into their bank account and he would give me one hundred thousand dollars if I did it. All I needed was to send him ten thousand dollars for the fund’s conversion.”
“Santana! That’s a scam. Everyone gets those emails. Why didn’t you ask me? I would have easily told you that before you threw away ten thousand dollars.”
“Why would a nigga from another country do some shit like that?” he asked naïvely.
“To scam people out of their money, and that is what he did to you.”
“Shit,” he mumbled. “And all this time I been waiting to get the e-mail saying they have sent the funds over. Damn!”
I didn’t say anything. I was set back even more now. I still owed my dad and I hadn’t put it back yet. Now I would have to come up with another $10,000? If I didn’t they weren’t going to leave the situation alone.
I looked away.
“I’m so sorry, babe. I fucked up. But I was only trying to make our situation better.” He slapped his hands together angrily. “Man!”
“Just stop. I will figure this out in the morning. Let me sleep please.”
I pulled off my shoes and clothes and lay down in the bed. Santana got behind me and we spooned. I didn’t say much to him as he rubbed my back because I was pissed at him for what he did. I knew he was doing it because he wanted to make our situation better. But the reality of the situation was that what he did was dumb and put us in a rut. The last thing I wanted to do was take money from my father again.
A few minutes later, I heard my sister yell that the burgers were done.
When Santana asked me if I wanted him to bring me one, I told him no. He got up out of the bed and went into the kitchen.
I got up, went into the bathroom, popped an Ambien, and went back to lie down. With all my racing thoughts about this mess I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep without one.
The next morning, I got up and threw on what I wore the day before because it was on the floor near the bed and just easier to grab.
I went into the office and swept right past Marisol, ignoring her when she said, “Good morning!”
Without even bothering to sit down, I unlocked the safety box on my desk that had petty cash, blank checks, and an ATM card. Since I was my father’s accountant, my name was on the card. I threw in into my purse, planning to get the money off of the card. I didn’t have time to pull from separate accounts to cover up the big withdrawal; I would do it later.
As I prepared to walk out of the office and go to the bank, Marisol yelled, “Wait, Alexis.”
I huffed out an impatient breath, turned, and looked at her.
“As you know, Larry’s last day was yesterday. I have narrowed it down to two different people for the complex in Compton. I am still waiting for a background check on both of them.”
“You mean to tell me that we have no one presiding over that fucking property yet?” I demanded.
Her eyes were wide at my cursing at her. “Well, I did all the interviews yesterday. I wanted you to make the final decision on who you want.”
“We need that manager’s spot filled. Just pick someone. You should be able to differentiate between a decent and bad person without the damn background check that we have no time to wait for. It’s a matter of common sense. You’re old enough to make a sound decision aren’t you? You are far from a baby.” I yanked the office door open. “Far! Make a decision, fill the spot, or that’s your job,” I threatened. I was sick of her weak, indecisive old ass. I had other shit to worry about.
I went to the bank got the money. I then texted Santana and told him to meet me at the house. To ensure that he dropped all of it off this time I planned on going with him.
Although he didn’t want me to, I insisted.
I rode alongside Santana as he traveled to the jungles, scared for my life. I didn’t even want to get out of my car. But to be assured this was done and over with, I followed him into the home of Dylan.
When we entered, there were so many people smoking weed it was making my head hurt. They were blasting music and partying like it was a Friday night. One of the guys even tried to push up on me as if he forgot he was one of the ones who ruined my mother’s beautiful living room. I brushed him off and stood by the door as Santana passed the money off to Dylan. Once it was counted and determined to be the total ten grand, we were allowed to leave.
I was relieved as we drove back home that the shit was over. Dylan now had what he wanted so he had no other reason to bother us ever again.
The Demise of Alexis Vancamp Page 11