by Tynessa
“Girl, get Zy to watch them. Hell, his ass been out running the streets while you’re at home unpacking and shit. Oh, and Ali is watching the girls tonight but I do have a sitter on standby in case he wants to hang out. Even if Zy has a problem with watching the kids, I’m pretty sure my sitter would look after them,” La-La let her know.
She already knew before calling Heaven that she would have all types of excuses as to why she couldn’t go out with them. La-La knew as well as Heaven that Zylen wouldn’t have a problem looking after their kids while she hung out with her.
“Oh. I didn’t even know you and ol’ girl were that close, you know, to be hanging out and shit like that,” Heaven said. La-La laughed hysterically.
“Is my boo-boo jealous? She’s not going to take your place. Trust me,” La-La assured her as she continued to laugh.
“Shut up, crazy. I’m not worried about her taking my place anyways,” Heaven said with a playful attitude.
“Nah, for real though. This is our first time hanging out together. Why don’t you come? It’ll be fun. Please boo, it’ll be like old times,” La-La begged. Heaven thought about it for a quick second. She could use the break.
“Okay, I’m in. Let me call Zy to let him know,” Heaven finally replied. La-La let her know what time they were pulling out and they ended the call. Because Heaven didn’t know Kendra well enough for her to know where her family lived, she agreed to do the driving.
********
Heaven pulled up to La-La’s house and beeped the horn twice; she came right out with Kendra following behind her.
“Damn, about time you came. I was starting to think Zy wouldn’t let you come,” La-La bitched as soon as she got in. Heaven rolled her eyes upwards.
“Nah, his ass decided he wanted some as soon as I got dressed. So I had to take another shower.” Heaven smiled, reminiscing about how her husband had laid it down before she left the house. That man never ceases to amaze her!
“Ew, too much info, sis,” La-La laughed.
“So where are we headed? And y’all look cute.” Heaven might’ve felt some type of way about Kendra but she was beautiful and she couldn’t take that away. She’d never been a hater and always gave credit when credit was due and Kendra was a beauty.
“Thanks,” they said in unison. La-La informed Heaven on the club they were attending and she headed in that direction.
Inside the club it was packed just as Heaven remembered. She saw a few familiar faces that she hadn’t seen in a long time. One face in particular she didn’t care to see and that was Felicia; her ex-fling Tre’s baby mama.
“Girl, look at that ho. That bitch has four kids now and still out here fucking everything that moves,” La-La said, nodding her head at Felicia. Heaven just shook her head and kept it moving. She could care less about Felicia or what she had going on. Fuck her and Tre’s dead ass! Heaven thought to herself.
“Girl, fuck her. Let’s hit the dance floor,” Heaven said. She hadn’t partied in so long and it felt good to be out with her main bitch.
Damn near every nigga knew and respected Zylen and Ali so they just watched from the sidelines with lustful eyes as Heaven and La-La shook their asses. A couple of guys were feeling themselves a little too much and tried to sneak a feel every now and then. Things were looking pretty good between Kendra and Fred but they weren’t committed so she used that to her advantage and danced with nigga after nigga.
“I’m so glad you talked me into coming out, La-La. I really needed this damn break,” Heaven screamed over the music as they made their way up to VIP.
“Hell yeah you did. Everybody needs a break every once in a while,” La-La replied. Heaven just nodded her head up and down in agreement before turning to Kendra.
“So you’re talking to Fred, huh?” she asked. Kendra smiled and the sparkle in her eyes told it all.
“Yes. I know I’ve just met him but that’s my baby,” she said.
“Oh, okay. That’s what’s up! Where are you from?” Kendra’s accent was thick and Heaven just had to ask.
“New York.”
“Oh okay. I’ve always wanted to go there,” Heaven said. She didn’t know why but The Big Apple was a place that she’d always wanted to visit but never gotten around to do it.
“Trust me, you not missing shit. I will never go back to that hell hole,” Kendra said with so much hatred in her voice. Heaven could tell something or maybe someone had run her away; but she didn’t care to know so she didn’t ask.
La-La, on the other hand, knew it was Kendra’s ex Jay that caused her to hate New York with so much passion. That was a touchy subject for Kendra and not knowing that Heaven had no further questions to ask, La-La took it upon herself to change the subject and just explain everything to Heaven later.
“Heaven, who does Kendra resembles to you?” asked La-La. Heaven cut her eyes at Kendra before looking back at La-La.
“I don’t know,” she shrugged.
“Gina!”
Heaven turned to get a better look at Kendra and that’s when she saw it. It was funny she didn’t noticed it before but now that La-La had said something, the shit was noticeable.
“Oh, I can see that. I’m about ready to go. It’s getting late,” Heaven said as she looked at the time. It was going on three in the morning.
“Yeah, me too. I didn’t even realize it was so late,” La-La responded as they began to gather their things.
Heaven dropped both La-La and Kendra off where she’d picked them up from, at La-La’s house, before heading home. All that was on her mind was getting out of those clothes and cuddling up with her husband.
Chapter 8
Zylen was out having daddy’s day with his kids. Heaven was working overtime so he’d picked them up from daycare and taken them to Toys-R-Us for unnecessary toys that they didn’t need. While shopping and letting his kids pick up whatever their little hearts desired, Zylen was bum-rushed by a little boy. He looked to be maybe eight or nine years of age.
“‘Cuse me!” the little boy said rudely before taking off running once again. Before he could disappear he bumped into a young woman and nearly knocked her on her ass. Zylen just shook his head.
“Bad fucker,” he said underneath his breath as he made his way to the checkout line.
When he got to his car he saw the same little boy a couple of cars down from him. He was throwing a damn temper tantrum. His mother or whoever was begging him to get inside the car but he wouldn’t. He even surprised Zylen when he called her a bitch. Looking over his shoulders, Zylen just had to see what was going on. He wanted badly to go snatch a knot in the little boy himself.
When he saw who the child was with he got the shock of his life. Something was telling him to mind his business but the little devil on his shoulder was encouraging him to get in theirs. Maybe minding his own would’ve been the best choice of his life. Once strapping his kids inside the car he called out to the young lady.
“Yo, Tammy, is that you?” he said, loud enough for her to hear him. When she turned around it was as if she’d seen a ghost.
Tammy was the sister of Tamar. Zylen hadn’t seen her in years; way before he and Tamar had broken up. She still looked the same and that was like the older version of Tamar. Last he heard she had moved to California to pursue her modeling career. He never thought she had the looks or body to become a model, but who was he to judge?
“Zy?” she asked as she continued to stare at him. Tammy had been back in Ohio for nearly three years and had yet to run into Zylen. It seemed she’d run into everyone from his clique but him.
“Yup, it’s me,” he replied. As she was walking closer to him, he began to wonder if she knew what went down with her sister. Zylen was beginning to regret his decision of saying something to her.
“How have you been doing? I haven’t seen you in years,” she said as she embraced him in a hug.
“I’ve been good. Just living life and shit. What about you? How’s the modeling shit going?” He just had to kno
w.
“I was almost in but I had to give it up and move back home. That’s a long story that neither one of us have time for at the moment,” she responded as she looked over her shoulder at the little boy that was still throwing a damn tantrum. Zylen was seconds away from asking her could he take his belt off and beat his little ass.
The sound of Hydeia’s voice caused Tammy to turn back around and look inside his car.
“Daddy, I’m hungry,” Hydeia said.
“Oh, you have kids?” she asked.
“Yup! Those are my two babies right there and I don’t plan on having any more any time soon.” Tammy looked at Zylen strangely before nodding her head up and down.
“Auntie Tammy, can we leave now?” The little boy had finally stopped crying and was now walking closer, yelling for his auntie to come on.
“Auntie?” Zylen said much to himself.
Now Tamar and Tammy had an older brother but Zylen’s gut feeling was telling him that, that little boy was Tamar’s kid. Hell, you didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the resemblance between the little boy and Tamar.
Tammy noticed the questionable look on Zylen’s face and decided it was time for her to leave.
“Well, here’s my number Zy.” She handed him a card. “Keep in touch and it was nice seeing you again. Come on, Taylen.” She grabbed the little boy’s hand and walked off hurriedly before Zylen could even respond.
Zylen was stuck. He couldn’t move right away and there was so many questions going through his head. He would definitely be using Tammy’s number sooner rather than later because he needed answers.
*********
Fred was cruising around making his rounds and collecting money; just doing boss shit. Looking at the time he noticed he only had an hour before he was due to pick Kendra up from work. They’d been kicking it pretty heavy for a few months and he could honestly say he’d fallen in love with her. Kendra had his nose wide opened and she knew it. She was everything that Fred needed in his life. Most women only dated him because of his street creditability but not Kendra; she saw past all that and loved him for him. Seeing her name flash across his screen caused him to smile.
“What’s up? It’s not time for you to get off yet,” Fred said when he answered.
“I missed you so I had to call. What are you doing?” Kendra stated in her sweet New York accent. That shit always drove Fred crazy.
“I miss you too and I’m not doing shit. Just finished making my rounds. Now I’m about to post up before I head over that way.”
“Come now! I’m ready to see you. Maybe Boss-Lady will let me off early,” Kendra said.
“A’ight bet. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.” Fred ended the call and headed in that direction. Just like he said, ten minutes later he was walking in the store.
“Um, it’s not time for her to get off yet,” La-La announced in her ghetto voice. Kendra had already asked her if she could leave early and since they were closing in another half hour La-La didn’t see anything wrong with that. She was just in the mood to fuck with Fred.
“Damn, sis. I just came to sit with my girl. I know it’s not time for her to leave yet,” Fred replied with a smack of his lips.
“Yeah right. Y’all ain’t slick. I know you came to pick her up,” La-La continued to tease.
“Don’t you have customers to attend to?” he asked, looking around the empty store with a chuckle.
“Nope, the last one just left. Maybe I can assist you and Kendra.” She turned to look at Kendra that was gathering her things. “What type of dress do you want for your wedding?” La-La asked. Kendra smiled brightly.
“Man, you tripping, sis,” was all Fred said. He had mad love for Kendra but they’d never talked about marriage or anything. He didn’t have anything against it but he just wasn’t ready for that. La-La and Kendra both laughed. Just like Fred, Kendra wasn’t ready to be married either. How could she when she had a deranged ex-boyfriend still calling and threatening her every chance he got?!
“Well, I will see you later, Boss-Lady. You ready, baby?” asked Kendra.
Later on that night as they laid in bed, Fred noticed someone seemed persistent to get in touch with Kendra. It was like the minute the phone stopped vibrating it would start right back again. That had been going on for the past two hours. Funny thing about it was, Kendra seemed unbothered by it. She was laying in Fred’s arms watching TV as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
“Damn, someone is blowing your phone up,” Fred said.
“Just ignore it. That’s what I’m doing. Maybe I should just turn the shit off,” she replied, grabbing the phone from the nightstand and turning it off.
“Man, what’s going on, li’l mama? Yo’ shit is forever ringing off the hook when you’re over here. Is it something you not telling me?” Fred wanted answers. Last thing he need was for some crazy ass boyfriend to run up in his shit.
“No. I mean, it’s nothing that I can’t handle.”
“How are you going to handle it when you don’t even pick up your phone? What the fuck is going on, Ken?” Fred demanded answers.
“It’s just my ex-boyfriend back in New York. I moved down here to get away from him but he keeps calling threatening me,” she explained.
“What you mean threatening you?”
“Like saying he’s gonna come down and murder me and li’l shit like that. He was really abusive and that’s why I left him. I can’t go back. I know he’ll kill me if I do.” The tears that had begun to form in Kendra’s eyes were now falling rapidly. Fred pulled her into his arms.
“Man, don’t cry, bae. It’ll be okay. Do he know where you are?”
“He say he does but I doubt it being that he hasn’t come down yet. I’m going to handle everything. Even if I have to go back, I will.”
Fred pulled back and just stared at Kendra with a frown. How she going to say some shit like that? There was no way in hell he was letting her go back and she’d just said the nigga would kill her. If her ex wanted her then he would have to come get her but it wasn’t a guarantee that Kendra would be going back with him.
“Nah, you good. If that’s not what you wanna do then fuck him. That pussy just gonna have to make a trip here,” Fred assured her. Kendra shook her head.
“No Fred, I don’t need you getting into trouble over my mess. Just let me handle it,” she tried to be reasonable with him.
“We’ll see what happens. Until then you’re safe here with me.” Fred kissed her passionately on the lips.
He just hoped she would take care of everything. If she couldn’t then he had no other choice but to take matters into his own hands and he had no problem with that.
Chapter 9
Heaven noticed Zylen had been awfully quiet and kind of distant from her for the past two weeks. She knew something was up but when she would ask he would always assure her that everything was fine. Being that she knew her husband like the back of her hand, she knew he was lying. Not to mention she’d found Tammy’s number in his phone. She hoped it wasn’t the same Tammy that she thought it was. In his call log there was only one call that was made and they weren’t on the phone for longer than five minutes top.
What did he possibly have to talk to Tamar’s sister about? Heaven wondered.
“So what do you think is going on?” La-La asked as she sat across from Heaven. Heaven needed to clear her head so she treated her best friend to Olive Garden for lunch.
“I really don’t know, La. I know something is going on but it’s like he’s shutting me out. I mean really, what could he and that bitch’s sister have to talk about?” Heaven asked. She wasn’t feeling the sneaky shit Zylen was on. Last time he was being sneaky he was on the verge of sleeping with Tamar. Heaven felt the tears forming in her eyes but she refused to let them fall.
“Heaven, maybe it’s nothing. Just let him know you saw the number or whatever. There has to be a reason for him to even be associating with her.”
“Ma
n, I don’t know but I’m going to get to the bottom of that shit tonight. Ugh. This nigga is really going to stress me the fuck out. I swear, I’m not about to go through this shit with him again. I didn’t move back down here for him to be on some fuck shit. We haven’t even been down here a good three months and he’s already acting up,” Heaven fussed.
La-La smacked her lips. “Girl, you know damn well Zylen isn’t about to cheat on you, so you can push that shit out your mind now.”
“But look at that shit that went down with Ta—,” Heaven started but was cut off by La-La waving her off.
“Bitch, that was just a phase he was going through. That shit is old and you should let it go. I honestly believe he has learned from that one mistake. Let me ask you this. Has him cheating on you ever crossed your mind since y’all got married?” La-La asked as she stared at Heaven and Heaven looked down at her plate full of food. Just the thought of Zylen communicating with Tamar’s sister caused her to lose her appetite. After the shit went down with Tamar, what on earth did they have to talk about?
“Do you trust him?” La-La then asked. Heaven looked up and stared her best friend in the eyes as she slowly nodded her head up and down.
“I do,” she finally answered honestly.
“Okay, well just sit him down when you get home and demand that he let you know what the fuck he’s doing with that bitch’s number. Let his ass know he better tell you something! Shit, knock his ass upside the head if you have to,” La-La laughed.
“While you’re laughing I might have to do that for real,” Heaven joined La-La in laughter.
“Well I have two spare bedrooms for you and the kids if you need—,” La-La was cut off by a familiar face.
Heaven noticed the sudden pause and the look on La-La’s face caused her to look over her shoulder to see what held her friend’s attention. Turning around she got the shock of her life. Tammy was walking in their direction with Zylen a few feet behind her. He was so captivated by his phone that he walked right past them and didn’t notice either one as they sat in the booth. It took everything Heaven had in her to not stick her foot from under the table and trip both their asses up.