In Between Lies
Page 12
Instantly upset, Naomi said, “So, you are choosing the cowards way out by telling me this over the phone? What kinda shit is that? You could have told me to my face…at least give me that respect!” Her voice raised and she looked around to see if anyone noticed.
“Look, I am sorry, but we really didn’t have anything in the first place.”
Naomi heavily sighed.
“What? Sex? Naomi, you know that I like you. But to be honest with you it was nothing but the sex that kept me coming back. Now, I didn’t want to say that, but it’s true. We never talked about any future plans of staying together. We never went out anywhere together or anything. How could you possibly think that there was more? You know what? Never mind.”
“Why can’t we talk about this later this evening. Come to my place because I am out right now with some friends.”
“I’ve said what needed to be said. Stay out with your friends. There is nothing more to say about it.”
“So what you think you just gonna use me like that and end it?”
“Who is she? Who is the bitch?!”
“Now see, the old Nama is still there. I knew she would come out sooner or later. That’s why we didn’t last before. You still act the same. Can’t even have a conversation without you going off like a fool.”
“What? Whatever!”
“Yeah…whatever,” he replied.
“What about how I feel? How about taking that into consideration? Look, you be at my place in an hour…if not I am coming to yours…invited or not. This shit ain’t over.” She hung up.
Savannah had already returned to the table and was pulling her share of the money out to pay. By the time Naomi made it back to the table to have a seat, she really wanted to choke someone, namely, Savannah. She was the cause. Then she thought about the money and the commercial. Get the money first, girl, calm down, she thought.
“I need to excuse myself. Something just came up.” Naomi really wanted another drink, but decided to leave as the air in her lungs felt heavier and heavier with each breath. She’d grab a drink on her way home. “I will see you tomorrow morning, ladies. And I had a nice time,” she lied.
Jazzy watched her as her figure disappeared through the door and said, “I don’t like her.” She’d watched her while she took her phone call and could tell that something really wasn’t right about her. Even though she knew Naomi was trying to be discreet by stepping out and down the hall, she could see her flailing her arms in the air in anger.
“Why not?” Savannah asked. “She does seem a little pre-occupied at times, but you really don’t know her to say that. You don’t know that girl from Eve.”
“Now, I got it! I knew I’d seen her face before.” Jazzy wasn’t even paying attention to Savannah.
“What are you talking about?”
“Savannah…you are just so clueless sometimes…you really do need me to keep you on track, I swear.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Remember the opening night at The Blue Horizon?”
“Yeah.”
“She was there. I remember her now.”
“So what? What does that mean?”
“Never mind, girl. You ready to go?” Jazzy grabbed her purse and tossed a tip on the table. “Let’s go, I have something to do.”
“Fine, I’m ready to go anyway. I have a busy day coming up tomorrow. We need to finish this commercial.”
On the drive home, Savannah thought about Jazzy and her instant dislike of Naomi. She had to admit that she’d too felt the cold draft coming from Naomi a couple of times while sitting there eating with her. She’d brushed it off, using the excuse of not really knowing her, and she wanted to keep things on professional level anyway. The invite out to eat was just a common courtesy move on her part to make Naomi feel more comfortable, nothing more.
Savannah plopped her jacket down then herself on her bed. Now that her stomach was full, she was content and quickly drifted off, still fully dressed.
***************************
Naomi sat impatiently in her front room waiting for Kevin to arrive. An hour had passed by already with no sign of him, no call or anything. Feeling her anger rise, now at the thought of him and how he just broke from her, she bounced from her sitting position, ran to her room and pulled out an old pair of jeans to put on. Keeping her promise that if he didn’t show up at her place, she would be at his, was one she meant to keep.
Determined that he was going to hear her out, she drove to his place and saw that his car was there. He really had no intentions of talking to me, she thought. She dialed his number in her cell.
“What happened to you? I still want to talk to you,” she said with as much calmness and smoothness she could muster.
“I told you that there was nothing else to say. I said what I needed to say. Now, I need to finish getting ready for work.”
“Kevin, don’t do this to me. Do you understand that I love you?”
“What?! Where the hell did that come from? Naomi, I am sorry that you feel like I’m giving you a hard time. I do understand that you like me, and you want to pick up where we left off… but if you remember as you are clearly making me recall, the craziness that you put me through before. You have to know that this wont work.”
“No, I don’t think you remember, Kevin. All the crap that you did to me….and open your door, I am out front.”
Right then, Kevin all too clearly remembered why he’d moved away when he finally was rid of her. He knew she had problems before, and had hoped that she would have changed. Now, sorry that he’d become involved with her again, especially while he was falling for Savannah, he knew there would be problems if he didn’t try to fix this distraction.
If he’d only just walked away in the beginning, he may have saved himself and eventually, Savannah the hassle. Now knowing that he had feelings, true and genuine feelings for Savannah, Naomi needed to be dealt with now, before things really got out of hand. Savannah was the only innocent person of the three and he wanted to keep her that way. What she didn’t know won’t hurt her. She didn’t know about Naomi, and after tonight, he would not have anything else to do with her either. Determined to keep Savannah out of the situation, he opted to handle this as flawlessly and smoothly as possible.
Kevin opened the door, fully clothed and ready for work. “Come on in, and please make it quick.”
“Why are you being so cold towards me? I haven’t done anything to you,” Naomi said as she passed through the doorway. “I just wanted to look you I the face and want you tell me that you don’t want to be with me anymore.” She turned to him, neither of them moved, then, he spoke.
“Look, Naomi, I can’t lie. I like you but I never had any intention of taking things this far or giving you the impression that it was anything more than what it is.” He ran his head over his freshly, clean shaven head. “I don’t want us to be enemies. Can we just be friends?”
“What? Friends? So what you are telling me is I was just a jumpoff?” She raised her hands in the air. “Why did you even start anything up with me if you had no intentions of it being anything else?”
“I said I was sorry. And you are right, I should not have touched you.” He looked at his watch.
A slight tear escaped from her eye. “So are you going to tell me who you are ditching me for? At least give me that.”
“If I told you, you wouldn’t know her anyway. And it doesn’t matter. Besides, it’s best if you didn’t know her,” he motioned for her to move back towards the door. “I really have to go.” He held out his hand. She hesitantly took it. “Friends?” he asked.
She looked him in the eyes for what seemed like an eternity and said, “No… I can’t be your friend.” She dropped his hand and quietly left his house. She slowly got in her car, pulled out the driveway, tears in her eyes, and left without taking one last glance back at him.
Kevin stood motionless. He thought he handled it smoothly. He’d managed to calm her dow
n, and she left quietly. What did it matter to him that she didn’t want to be his friend. He really hadn’t meant that anyway. That was just a ploy to feed her so she would leave exactly as she had. A few more minutes passed. He snatched his coat and raced out of the house. His initial thought was to head for the station, but then decided to stop by Savannah’s first. After seeing her, and knowing he’d just made the perfect decision to be rid of Naomi, his world was perfect. Now he would be able to move on as he had planned. Savannah had come into his life at the perfect time and he intended on keeping her.
She heard a soft knock at first, flipped over and ignored it. Then a barrage of knocks jerked her up to a sitting position. It was then that Savannah realized that she had fallen asleep fully clothed. She heard the knock again. Looking at the clock, now flashing 9:45pm, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and gathered her thoughts. “Coming,” she yelled.
“I’m sorry, babe.” Kevin said, coming in the door. “I didn’t know you were sleep.”
She moved to the side, decidedly happy to see him. “I didn’t know you were coming my way. Shouldn’t you be on your way to the station? You’re running late, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am, but I wanted to see you first.”
“How sweet,” she said. He smelled good enough to eat. She drew in closer to him and kissed him softly. “Why don’t you just come by when you get off?”
“I can do that, but you look like you had a rough day, so I will just meet up with you tomorrow?” he questioned.
“Oh, that would be good. I want you to meet the woman I told you about that got the part in the commercial. So, say…around lunch maybe? We could all go out if you have time.”
“We’ll see. I’m not sure about lunch. But I do want to see you,” he smiled.
He’d just broken his pattern. One that he’d sworn before that he would not ever do again. His feelings had gotten involved, this time in a major way. Savannah had no idea just how much of an effect she had on him. She is definitely wifey material. His player hand, was now turned in.
While she saw his tall, dark, figure emerge from the house, she lit a cigarette and started her car. Not one that usually smoked, she felt the urge to puff on one now. She looked at her car clock. He’d only been in the house for about ten minutes.
So this is what I get, she thought. I get to be his friend? Naomi pulled off behind Kevin and rolled behind him almost all the way to the station, trying to figure out how she could repay him for his most inconsiderate actions towards her. She turned off a few blocks before reaching the station and decided to head back home.
Flicking back and forth between channels, she finally rested on him. She listened to his voice while he lulled her to sleep. Still upset and feeling dejected, which was a feeling that she hadn’t quite managed to get a handle on, she laid down. She was used to being the one doing the letting down, not the other way around. She turned the television off to silence Kevin’s voice and flipped over to get some sleep. She had another day of shooting to complete and intended on doing it. She had bills to pay and was living from gig to gig and this one was promised at $2500 total which would cover at least two more months of rent.
Chapter 13
Savannah had slept like a log and hadn’t even remembered letting Kevin in. He lay there beside her looking content, with a slight smile on his face. Must be dreaming a nice dream, she thought. Even in his sleep he was perfect. She grabbed her robe, deciding to cook some breakfast before waking him.
Chopping some onions and green peppers in preparation of making a Western Omelette, she was startled by her phone that rang abruptly.
“Hello,” she answered.
All she heard was breathing, then the caller hung up. Savannah shrugged her shoulders and hung it up. As soon as she did, it rang again.
“Hello?”
Nothing.
“Listen, you have the wrong number. Don’t call this number again.” Savannah said and hung up again.
It rang again. Savannah let it ring at least five times before answering it. It was obvious that the caller was not going to hang up. She picked it up again.
“ If you-“
The caller interrupted her, “He’s mine bitch! Get your own man!” then slammed the phone down.
Savannah stood and looked at the receiver in disbelief. “What the hell?” she said aloud. Looking at the caller id, she realized it was a private caller.
She heard the faint sound of her cell phone ringing. Not in a rush to answer it, or stop what she was doing so that she could answer it, she let it ring.
Kevin had already gotten up and was halfway dressed by the time she returned to her bedroom with the breakfast in hand.
“Good morning, sleepy head,” he said. He pulled a toothbrush from his night bag that he just conveniently had left over there. “You were really tired yesterday, huh?” He tapped her on her behind as he passed by.
“Yes, I was. Remember, yesterday was the first day of the shoot. There was a lot of preparation that had to be done before we started. I had to forsee this and that and make sure everything was done to my liking, and correctly”
“Slave driver,” he joked.
“I really want you to be happy with this. I want you to come to the set today…think you can make it?”
“I don’t see why not?” Kevin grabbed his plate and took a huge bite. “Wow, and you can cook too? I hit the jackpot.”
“Gee thanks,” Savannah responded. “I want to make sure you are fed well. You know they say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach…so is that true?”
Kevin stopped mid bite. “Baby, you had my heart a while ago…before I ate these eggs.”
She smiled. “Ok, I better get dressed,” she said nervously. She felt a warm flush race through her at his comment. Under the usual circumstances that was just what a woman would want to hear. And she did love to hear it coming from his lips, but right at that moment, she thought of the phone call, Dre, Lenora, cheating, and trust all within the same moment.
Kevin saw the concern written across her face. “You okay?” he asked.
“Well, I was just thinking… I got this crazy phone call a little bit ago.”
“And who was it? What did they say?”
“Some woman that sounded very upset…I know she had the wrong number, but she made a comment about a man being hers and to get my own man.”
Kevin froze. It took him only a quick moment to respond. “Wrong number, don’t worry about it.”
“Funny thing is, is that I haven’t gotten a prank call, wrong number or a threatening call since Dre’s mess, and…”
“Wrong number, Savannah. Don’t worry about it.” He cut her off, continuing to eat his breakfast then told her would see her later at the shoot today.
Jazzy finished collecting some files that she’d left on Savannah’s desk the previous morning and waited for Lydia to leave the office. Fumbling through the stack of portfolios that had been haphazardly placed on Savannah’s desk, she came across Naomi’s file. Jazzy stopped, now curious to see it. She took a seat in one of the comfortable reclining chairs and searched through the photos and other information that it contained. There she found pictures, a bio, contact phone numbers, any representation she has currently, as well as any past agents, and past jobs.
“Good morning, girl. I think we should be ready to meet for the shoot in the production area in about ten minutes,” Savannah said as she placed a cup of ice coffee on her desk. “What are you doing?” she asked.
Jazzy flipped the folder closed. “I was just looking over Naomi’s file.”
“Jazzy.” Savannah gave her the concerned mother look. “What were you looking for? Anything in particular?”
“Anything. I told you that there is something about her that I just don’t like and I cant believe that you are not picking up on it.” Jazzy walked to close the door so they could speak in privacy. “Why didn’t you say anything about Richard taking her photos?”
“Well, just for the record, I think the trick is up to something. And let me ask you this….did you catch the way she was watching you last night?”
“Well, now that you mention it, I did see a couple of glimpses that made me feel a little uneasy. But I thought that was because she may have had something on her mind. It’s not my business to be asking.”
“You should have… we could have used that time to get to really know her.”
“I don’t want to know her like that. I just want to get this commercial done. What is your problem, Jazzy? Do you have other things bothering you?”
“Nope. Like I said earlier, I just get a strange vibe from that chick. If I was on the deciding panel, she would have never gotten that part.”
“Good thing you weren’t on the panel then. I think she fits the part very well.”
“That’s cuz you don’t know a hoodrat when you see one. Been all up here in bougie land too long,” Jazzy laughed and pat Savannah on the back. “Let’s just get this over with and her outta here.”
“Okay, well keep what other thoughts of me being bougie, to yourself,” Savannah said, “because we need to get going right now. Everyone is probably already at the set and waiting on us…as usual.”
“I will leave it alone for now. Business is business.”
They walked towards the shoot area. “Besides, Jazzy, I think may be able to wrap it all up today and still make the original projected air date. Remember we had to push the actual air date out about a week and a half because we didn’t think we could find a replacement so quickly. Now, it may still be able to air this week.
“Good morning everyone.” Savannah announced as they both entered. “I think we will have a good day today and perhaps be able to wrap things up as well.” The team happily clapped their hands in appreciation and in possible anticipation of getting it completed today. Shooting was just one piece of the puzzle that was time consuming. Editing and cutting scenes came in a close second. “So let’s get started.”