Hitta's Tea Maker

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Hitta's Tea Maker Page 20

by Edwina Fort


  We were having such a good time that he got tickets to the Bulls game for me, him and Jessie because I said I’d never been, but he needed to stop by the gym for about an hour to have a quick meeting with one of his new fighters and the guy’s manager.

  I was alright with that; for the most part, I haven't been having any trouble at the gym and ever since Hitta’s PDA, Shantell hasn't so much as looked my way. Plus, Carmen was there, and I had a few things to talk to her about the Tea Shop.

  As soon as we walked through the front door, the smile that was on Shantell’s face disappeared and I thought to myself that I had spoken too soon. The look she gave Hitta was a bit disturbing. It was a look that said I can’t believe you brought her up in here. But of course, that didn’t go well with him.

  “What the f*** is your problem?” he grumbled. Mr. Grouch, never one to mince words, that he is.

  Instead of her saying anything she slammed whatever papers she had in her hand down on the counter and stormed off.

  Both Hitta and I just stood and stared after her for a minute.

  “What was that about?” I asked when his irritated gaze came to mine.

  “F*** if I know…”

  “Angel!” Carmen called from her little office upstairs, “Come up here, I want to talk to you about the new developments for the merger.”

  Hitta lifted an eyebrow… “Merger?”

  I chuckled… “Carmen’s been going on about buying the store next door and opening a bookstore, merging it with the Tea Shop. Let me go and see what she has going on, I’ll talk to you in a little while.” I went to walk away.

  “Yo…” He called after me.

  I turned back to face him… Did I tell y’all how good he looked today? Mmmmm…please allow me to amend that.

  Today he’d traded his sports appearance in for a more casual one and he was killing it in a pair of black designer jeans and a white button-up shirt that lay on his muscled frame perfectly. The first three buttons on it were unbuttoned and the top of his white tank top showed. He had replaced the big chains he normally wore with a smaller golden rope that was very casual. He had also traded his gym shoes out for a pair of tan Timberlands that looked as if he’d just taken them out of the box.

  “Where my kiss?” he asked cutting into my thoughts.

  I bit my lip trying to hide my grin. “You are not guaranteed a kiss every time I leave.”

  “The hell I’m not,” he muttered before he suddenly reached out and grabbed the front of my dress pulling me to him so close that our heads were nearly touching. And of course, my strap slid down my arm exposing the top half of my right breast.

  I reached up to grab it, but he took my hand stopping it and my dress fell a little more.

  “Hitta!” I whined looking around to see who was looking, but no one could see me past his big body.

  “You been driving me crazy all day with this dress. My word I been havin’ to stop myself from pulling you somewhere and ripping it off.”

  I opened my mouth startled. “This is my favorite dress.”

  He brought his big hand up and ran his fingers along the top of it, causing it to fall a little more. And after groaning deep in his throat, lifted my strap back on my shoulder and then my shawl until it was covering both of my shoulders completely.

  “Shawty, you can’t wear this sh*t out no more. I almost killed seventeen mutha f****s today.”

  “You did not…” I didn’t see him get upset not once…

  He reached up and tapped his head with his finger. “You didn’t know ‘cause I was killing them mutha f****s in my head.”

  I reached up and palmed his face before bringing it down so that our lips could touch.

  “Okay, I will only wear the dress in the privacy of our own home.”

  Whenever my shawl slipped, I did notice a lot of guys looking at me. Of course, they were trying to do it where Hitta couldn’t see, but they were checking me out. And most of their eyes were glued to my double D's. It had been a while since I've worn the dress…over a year. The last time I'd worn it I had not filled it out like this.

  “Thank you, Teacup. It’s gon’ kill me to watch you walk through this gym, knowing that all these nigga’s finna be looking at what’s mine,” he grumbled.

  Standing on my toes, I kissed his lips again. “There is only a handful of people here.” It was true, the gym was practically empty and some of the folks that were here were women. “And the few guys that are here are not going to look.”

  “How do you know?”

  I chuckled because he was acting like a little boy pouting about his favorite toy.

  “Because, Hard Hitta, they’re all afraid of you.”

  He grinned before he leaned down and took my lips in a kiss that damn near melted my dress off. By the time I made it upstairs to Carmen’s little office, I had only one thing on the mind. I couldn’t wait to get home, get Jessie to bed, and have some alone time with my big grouchy man.

  After talking to Carmen for about fifteen minutes I excused myself to go to the washroom. When I opened the door and went in, I could hear someone talking, but it wasn't until I’d gone farther inside that I recognized Shantell’s voice.

  She was in one of the stalls talking on the telephone. Something told me to just turn around and leave, but she was crying and talking in a very frantic tone, and well…I’m nosy, so yeah, I listened.

  “He told me Tuesday night that he wasn’t going to bring her back here…” she paused for a minute as she listened to whoever she was talking to.

  “Yeah, I know…but why he still paying my bills then? If that’s his new woman, why he still coming to my house? Why he still f***ing me? He went to the doctor with me last week to hear our baby heartbeat for the first time. Why he still making plans with me to be a family?”

  I felt like someone had hit me in the stomach with a bat. I couldn’t listen to any more…I turned and ran out of that washroom desperately needing to get out of there and damn near crashed into Carmen.

  “I was just coming to get you because I’ve figured out a way to solve our little problem with Ms. Armstrong’s racis—” She stopped mid-sentence when she saw the look on my face.

  “What’s wrong, sis?”

  I stood there breathing heavily, trying to get control over my emotions. I felt nauseous… as if I would be sick any minute. I was breaking…

  I was breaking and I didn’t know what to do…

  She’s lying! A voice screamed loudly in my head. Like someone drowning, I desperately clung to that like air. But I had to know. My gaze went to Carmen’s.

  “Does your uncle still pay Shantell’s bills?”

  The look that came over her face gave me my answer. I went to walk around her, I needed to get out of here.

  “Wait, Angel…You don’t understand!” she called after me. But I didn’t need to understand any more.

  Shantell wasn’t lying. They had a baby on the way, why else would he be paying her bills?

  I can’t believe I was such a fool. I can’t believe I bought all that crap he was telling me!

  I had to get out!

  I hurried through the gym, now running for the entrance.

  “Wow, Angel, where you are going so fast?” Maddox asked, seeming to appear in my path out of nowhere.

  “I have to go, Maddox!” I went to walk run around him, but he stepped in my way reaching out his hands to stop me.

  “Where is the boss?”

  “I don’t care!” I screamed in his face as I once again tried to go around him.

  “Calm down, lass.”

  “No!” I yelled, now trying to shove him out of my way, but it was like trying to shove a wall. “Move!”

  “Angel!” Hitta's deep voice came from somewhere behind me, bringing my struggling to an end.

  I turned around to see him standing in the ring with his new fighter and Carmen. She was telling him something frantically moving her hands. Whatever she was telling him was making him an
grier. But I didn’t care.

  I turned back around to face Maddox.

  “Can you please move out my way!?”

  With a sad look in his eyes he shook his head… "Not going to happen, lass.”

  “Everybody out!” Hitta’s voice boomed from the ring.

  Maddox took my arm and pulled me to the side as the few people who had been working out inside the gym hurried to obey his orders including his new fighter and his new fighter’s manager. I pulled at my arm wanting to go with them. I didn’t know what was happening and I was getting a bad feeling.

  When the last person left out Wayne shut the gym door and locked it. And that’s when I started getting nervous because I knew that I was getting ready to meet the man my Greatie had warned me about.

  Shantell was now back at the front desk and she wore a little smile on her face. She was happy I was suffering. Still holding my arm, Maddox pulled me back into the gym towards the ring, I tried to pull my arm from him, but again, he was too strong. The strap on my dress had lowered, I don’t know where I’d lost my shawl, but at that point I was too angry to care.

  Hitta stood there looking down at me like an angry bull. “Let her go.”

  Maddox let me go and I stood looking around, surprised that the only people left in the gym was his staff or who I liked to call his crew. And they had all gathered around us.

  “Fix yo’ dress, Angel…” Hitta muttered.

  With hands that shook I lifted my strap back on my shoulder.

  “Where you going, baby?” Although he asked his question calmly, anger poured out of his eyes like a faucet.

  I held up my head, the pain I felt made me bolder. “I’m leaving.”

  “Without me?”

  I didn’t bother to answer his question.

  “What happened?”

  I still didn’t answer.

  “Shantell told her something, that’s what happened. I saw her come out of the washroom shortly after Angel with a little grin on her f***ed up face,” Carmen spat from where she stood next to her uncle.

  “Shantell!” Hitta called and we all watched as she sashayed around the corner.

  “Yes?”

  Okay, I want to pause right here in my story and point out a few things. First of all, this was some strange stuff, right? I mean, y’all see that, don’t you? It’s not just me, is it?

  Second, the way everybody was standing completely still, only speaking when asked a question, should have let me know a few things about Hitta.

  It felt like I was standing in the middle of a mob movie and Hitta was the mob boss. Even Shantell was as meek as a mouse right now.

  And I figured out why they were all like that…You see, up until that point, I had never seen Hitta in a rage, but they all had. So, they all knew what could happen if he got too angry, and they all were trying to be very still so that didn’t happen.

  The next few minutes were going to be what my Greatie had come to warn me about…but of course, I'd forgotten her warning and did not proceed with caution.

  I was soon to learn the dangers of that… Let’s continue.

  “What did you tell Angel in the washroom?”

  At that point, he was still very calm. In fact, I thought it strange that he was choosing to have this conversation in front of everybody instead of in his office somewhere.

  Tears came to Shantell eyes. “I didn’t tell her nothing, I swear. I didn’t even know she was in the washroom with me. Once again, Carmen is lying on me so that you can look at me as if I’m some kind of witch set out to destroy you.”

  “You is a witch, bitc—” Carmen began, but Hitta lifted his hand quieting her as his gaze fell on me.

  “Did she know you were in the washroom with her?”

  I shook my head, still trying to control my emotions. I did not want to talk to him. I did not want to be here in whatever the hell this was. I just wanted to pick Jessie up from school and find me another place to stay.

  He exhaled as if he was tired. “So why are you upset with me?”

  “Are you paying her bills?” I did not want to ask that. It just slipped through my lips.

  He frowned. “Why?”

  Is he serious?!

  “Why?” I asked, not believing he would even ask that.

  The muscle flexed in his jaw. “Don’t like to repeat myself?”

  “So, when were you going to tell me about the baby? Or didn’t you believe I should know?”

  His frown grew… “What f***ing baby?”

  “I told you that b**** been lying about being pregnant!” Carmen spat.

  “No, I haven’t! Both of them are lying on me. They just trying to get you to kick me out on the streets because she jealous of me, can’t you see that, baby?”

  My mouth dropped as I turned my head to look at Shantell. She said that crap so convincing that if I didn’t know better, I would have believed her. She had these big huge tears coming out of her eyes, even her bottom lip quivered. And it dawned on me that she had set this up, all of it.

  Hitta’s gaze fell on me and for a moment, I thought that he was going to believe her.

  "Did you hear her say she was pregnant by me?"

  I nodded. “I did.”

  He looked down for a minute shaking his head, a humorless laugh escaped his lips. Then he reached into his pocket and came out with a wad of money before counting out five hundred-dollar bills… that he held up between his fingers.

  Hitta had three women that were a part of his crew, four if you count Carmen. They were all boxers and they were all there in the gym working out that day. When he held up the money, all three of them stepped forward, but it was Carmen who snatched it out of his hands.

  “Please allow me,” she said before she ducked under the ropes and jumped out of the ring.

  “You think I’m a joke, Shantell?” Hitta asked her as Carmen walked towards her.

  I frowned, completely lost as to what was going on. Shantell began to step back.

  “Carmen, don’t even try to come at me with no bullsh*t! I will knock yo’ little short a** out!”

  Hitta laughed…When he did, his crew did as well.

  “I don’t know fellas, before Carmen went away to school, she was a beast. She done got all book-smart and I think she may have lost her hunger.”

  A few of the men nodded agreeing with him. Wayne shook his head as he reached into his pocket and came out with a hundred-dollar bill…

  “I got a bill that say she still got it.” Most of Hitta’s crew came out their pockets with money to match his bet. Even Maddox got in on it, like this was something that they did…often.

  Hitta still stood inside the ring with his hands on the robe…He was king here.

  And I felt like a fool because I didn’t know what the hell was going on. When Carmen finally reached Shantell, she held up her hand.

  “Double, I knock this b**** out on the first shot!” she called.

  “I’ll take that bet…” Wayne said pulling another bill out of his pocket, the others soon followed.

  Oh my God!

  What was happening? My stunned gaze turned to Hitta’s. He was looking at me with a grin on his face, but there was rage in his eyes. He was angry that I tried to leave him. I felt like him making this a spectacle was his way of punishing me or something.

  “Carmen, I ain’t playing, I will knock yo’ little a** out!” Shantell told her again as she took a few more steps back, preparing to fight the younger woman…

  And I don’t know what happened after that.

  One minute they were standing there facing each other, Shantell only let Carmen get but so close before she began to swing at her…

  Carmen dipped left, displaying the fact that, yes, she was a trained fighter. Shantell swung at her again and she dipped right, but when she did, she followed with a right hook that caught the taller women square in the jaw. Carmen jerked back her hand waving it in pain as Shantell’s eyes rolled to the back of her head.

&nb
sp; The gym erupted in amazed hoots and hollers before the woman’s body hit the ground.

  “Oh! Sh*t! She did it!” Hitta laughed putting his fist to his mouth.

  Reminding me of Jessie, Carmen ran back toward the ring and slid under the ropes jumping up in her uncle’s arms as they celebrated as if she’d just won a heavyweight fight.

  What-The- Hell!!!!

  I felt like I was having an out of body experience. What the hell was wrong with these people?

  Shantell was knocked out cold!

  This savage behavior was too much for me…

  “What the hell is wrong with you people?!” I yelled getting everybody’s attention.

  “She had that sh*t coming,” Hitta muttered as he turned to face me.

  And I don’t know what happened with me, but something snapped inside of me.

  “No, somebody should have knocked you the hell out!” I yelled. And when I tell you that you could hear a pin drop after that…I’m not lying. Even Carmen was looking at me with wide eyes as if she could not believe I was talking to her uncle that way.

  But I was on a roll… “How about you stop being a big a** hypocrite?!”

  “What the f*** you talkin’ about?” he grumbled and I could see him getting angrier, but I didn’t care.

  “You are paying her bills…What the hell is she supposed to think is going on?” I pointed at Carmen. “A man is paying your bills, what would you think?”

  Although she didn’t say anything, she gave me the look that said…yeah, she would think the same thing.

  I pointed to the fighter they called Cherry-Bomb; I didn’t know her real name. “A man is paying your bills…What would you think?” She looked at her boss and although it looked as if it pained her, she nodded.

  Hitta's nostrils flared…but as I said before, I didn't care! The only thing I could see was him looking at me as if I irritated him asking me why, when I’d asked him earlier if he paid her bills.

  “You want to walk around here like Mr. Big Shot, taking care of all your women and buying them houses and cars…” Just saying that pissed me off, especially knowing that he bought me a house.

  I DIDN’T NEED HIM TO BUY ME A DAMNED HOUSE! I yelled to myself…I felt cheap and for some reason, that brought out the ghetto in me.

 

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