Tanisha told Markus once he was revived that Michelle found the whole thing bizarre and wasn’t amused. She said, “Call her when you ain’t retarded and explain yourself.”
Nancy got a call from Markus around ten Sunday evening. He told her he had slept for more than twenty-four hours after their little date and that he had passed out once again upon sight of Michelle. Nancy asked him if he had taken any drugs or done anything out of the ordinary, and whether he was overly fatigued. He said no.
She was thinking about something Markus had said while typing away on her laptop in her apartment. He called their rendezvous a date. She wasn’t so sure about calling it that, but dating a client was a no-no. Not to mention, all the porn movies she purchased and watched. She touched herself more than she did the first time she watched them. Nancy didn’t know what to think. She had started thinking about Mr. Excitement way too much.
“If he has another one of those sleeping occurrences again,” she said talking into a small microphone while typing. “I’ll look into it more thoroughly. If he doesn’t, I won’t waste time on it.”
Realizing that the more pressing issue was his blacking out, Dr. Adler had done research and gathered information. The psychiatrist knew that somehow she had to convince him that hypnosis, placing him under a subconsciously submissive state, seemed the only way to truly find out what was going on with him. She knew that Markus was not interested in hypnosis, but Dr. Adler wanted to know what was going on inside his skull, and what Michelle meant.
She had suspicions but had not spoken to Markus as much as she needed to. Monday evening would be very challenging. She had to convince Markus to accept hypnosis. She was growing physically fond of him. As she typed her notes, Nancy felt the freaky urge to put on one of Markus’s movies. She was not able to totally concentrate on the well being of her patient. Nancy was fantasizing about Mr. Excitement sticking his dick inside of her.
Her phone rang. She knew who it was before she even picked up the phone.
“Gary thanks for returning my call. I know it’s late but I want you to come to my office tomorrow at around 8 pm… No, not for a job but for a potential one, I want you to talk to a patient of mine… About what, what do you think Gary, hypnosis, what else would it be…? No. Gary I can’t reveal the nature of my patient’s condition. That is for him to tell you but afterwards, if he agrees to the procedure I’ll certainly give you all the details... Thanks Gary, see you tomorrow.”
Monday morning Markus figured he would catch a cab. First his tires were slashed now the windows of his Lexus were smashed. The car had to be towed to the dealership for repairs. He didn’t concern himself with his car situation for to long. He was always business first, everything else second.
Sparks was downstairs in front of Markus’s building bright and early Monday morning on the hood of his car with a blunt dangling from the side of his mouth.
“Let me be your manager,” Sparks said, exposing all his teeth. “We can’t let a nigga like Cali slow us down,” he added still exposing all his teeth.
“We,” Markus uttered flabbergasted.
He hopped inside Sparks’s car and they were off. Monday morning, bright and early, Markus stepped into the offices of Smut Central as his agent instructed him. She had called him at five a.m. waking him from his pleasant slumber so that he wouldn’t be late.
Markus as usual had a very unusual weekend and was looking forward to his session with Nancy Adler. He had so much to share with her. Every time he suffered a blackout he was able to remember more of his past. All of that was in the back of his mind. Smut Central was now the important issue.
“Yo,” Sparks worded passing the blunt he was smoking. Markus came back to reality as he grabbed the blunt. “Stop day dreaming. Any of those porn bitches gonna be here today?”
“I don’t know,” Markus said.
He gave the smoking narcotic a menacing look then gave his friend the same eyes.
“Did you read all the no smoking signs on your way up? And I mean from the building’s hallway lobby, to the elevator and look over on that wall. What does that say?”
Sparks looked at the wall. They were in the waiting area. The secretary was occasionally glancing at them with disinterest since they arrived. She showed no real interest till Sparks lit his cigar wrapping filled with weed. Then she pressed a button on the intercom on her desk and mumbled something Markus couldn’t hear.
Sparks said, “Sorry nigga. They should be specific about shit. It says no smoking but it doesn’t say what you shouldn’t smoke, I just assumed since weed was illegal they were referring to cigarettes. Why tell me not to smoke something I shouldn’t be smoking anyway.”
He gave Markus a huge grin and the secretary the same.
“Don’t ruin this for me.” Markus snapped.
He snatched the blunt from Sparks, took the blunt to a window, opened it and tossed it out. Sparks winced, mumbled and sat down. Sparks picked up a copy of Smut Central’s magazine and became engrossed in it.
After a while the secretary said, “Tony Jersey will see you now, Markus Johnson.”
“Good luck,” Sparks worded with his head still in the magazine.
“Thanks,” Markus returned to the secretary while frowning at Sparks.
14
“How’s my star this morning?” Tee-Neck loudly greeted. It was seven in the morning and Markus didn’t answer. He responded with a slight grin. “Have a seat.”
Markus sat. Tee-Neck was a no-nonsense business type, but fair. He paid Smut Central employees well. Markus knew all he had to do was listen. This was the first time Tee-Neck wanted to see him without his agent present. “I’m gonna get straight to it,” he began. “We love you here at Smut Central. We got big plans for you. Daisy Lace thinks you’re the next big thing.”
“What do you think?” Markus asked.
Tee-Neck leaned in over his desk and gave him the sternest leer.
“It never matters what I think, only what the money thinks. Your movies sell.” He moved a dozen or so stapled papers across his desk. “Read this over carefully or get somebody else to.”
Tony grabbed a cigar from the box of Cuban’s on his desk. There was a Zippo lighter on the desk also, he grabbed that and lit the Cuban. After a few puffs and coughs he said, “Want one?”
“Why not,” Markus answered, eyeing the stapled sheets of paper Tee-Neck pushed over to him. “What is this?”
“A contract,” Tee-Neck coughed. “It’s you and Smut Central Entertainment, an exclusive deal. Look at those numbers, six digits for one year.” He rose from the desk with the box of cigars. Markus took one, put it in his mouth. Tee-Neck clipped the tip of the cigar and lit it for him. “Take this.” The receding hair lined owner of Smut Central handed him a pair of airline tickets. “Sign the contracts and next month you are off to the Orient for your first real movie with Smut Central.”
“Real movie… The Orient…?” Markus uttered confused. “Where…?”
“Japan, Mr. Excitement does Japan,” Tee Neck wheezed as he laughed. “That is a script for another movie,” he said, reaching for a folder on his cluttered desk and handing it to Markus.
“A fucking script…?” Markus asked incredulously.
“Yeah, it’s more than fucking over here at Smut Central,” he said, placing an arm around Markus’s shoulders. “Go over those contracts. Call me in a couple of days. This is the big league, boy. This ain’t five grand an ejaculation. This is health insurance with fucking dental.”
Tee-Neck went back to his desk. He puffed more of his cigar while Markus sat, his own cigar burning unattended. Markus didn’t puff. He stared at the boss of Smut Central who had just tossed him a six digit contract.
“That’s it boy. Get the fuck out of my office.” Markus stood and made his exit.
Markus and Sparks were about to leave when Vonchell slinked into the office. Vonchell was looking so ravishingly beautiful, Sparks totally forgot what he was about to ask Markus.
She was wearing a leather bolero jacket and a very expensive looking, white sundress. She saw the guy with Markus studying her, so she spun around and said, “Tracy Reece.”
Starting with her sandals, that had straps wrapped all the way up her exposed thighs, Sparks gave the sexy porn star all his attention.
“Hey Markus, how are you?” Vonchell sang.
“I’m great,” Markus frowned at her. “Oh, this is a friend of mine, Sparks.”
“Spark…”
“Hello Tracy Reece,” Sparks said, extending a hand while lecherously eyeing her. “The name’s Sparks.”
Vonchell laughed, “The dress is Tracy Reese. But all of this,” she said doing a twirl. “All of this is Vonchell.”
“Let’s go,” Markus told Sparks.
Markus wasn’t feeling Vonchell. She left directly after he blacked out in the restaurant. Tanisha and Entice told him that Vonchell wasn’t remotely concerned about his health. All she wanted to do was leave.
“What’s that in your hand?” Vonchell asked.
“My future, bitch,” Markus barked.
“Oh, is that what it is. Hold on tight, Mr. Excitement. You have lost your past. You do not want to lose your future. If you do then all you’ll have is the present,” Vonchell laughed, walking into Tee-Neck’s office.
Vonchell did not even glance at the receptionist. Sparks’s eyes followed her all the way inside. His body would have followed her too, but Markus grabbed him by an arm, and dragged him down the hallway to the elevator.
At the elevator, Markus was pressing the button vigorously. He didn’t give a damn about Vonchell. She was only a woman he fucked in a movie. Markus’s thoughts were on the contract in his hand. Sparks grabbed the contract while they were in the elevator and flipped through it.
“Sign this,” Sparks said in his best business tone. “Of course we gotta change a few things. My ten percent, it isn’t anywhere in here. We gotta whip up a contract for our agreement.”
“What?” Markus blurted, “Ten percent... Our agreement…?”
“Yeah, I ain’t asking for much, some managers get, say fifteen or twenty,” Sparks laughed. “Relax nigga. I trust that you’ll pay my black ass accordingly.”
Markus looked at him with a blank face. He couldn’t tell if Sparks was joking. Sparks knew about his situation. They spoke a great deal since the tire slashing incident. Sparks said, “I see nothing about your agent in this contract.”
Very observant, Markus thought, eyeing Sparks. Maybe he would make a good manager.
“I don’t know what that means. Audra introduced me to Tee-Neck, and the whole Smut Central situation. Now it seems like she isn’t even in the picture.”
“Not so,” he interjected. “She called you and informed you about this meeting, right?”
“True,” he agreed. “Tee-Neck didn’t mention Audra, and she didn’t come to the meeting. I guess there’s a first time for everything. If you get my meaning…?”
“Perhaps,” Sparks replied. “What now, nigga?”
When the elevator hit ground floor, Markus bumped into Entice. Another pretty girl caused Sparks to stop whatever he was saying. He stared lustfully at Entice. She was better looking than all his babies’ mothers combined, and all the other dames he knew. She was on Tanisha’s level but no where near the beauty of Vonchell. Still, she had a fat ass and was good looking enough to harass.
“And you are?” He asked Entice.
She ignored Sparks, “Hi Markus,” she sang. “They called you in today?”
“Yeah, how you been Entice?”
Entice stayed the whole time during his black out incident at the restaurant. She rode in the ambulance with him. She even accompanied Tanisha and Markus home to make sure he was alright afterwards.
“I’ve been good. Tee-Neck called me the other day and told me to drop by the office. So early, I wasn’t sure what he wanted.”
She had to press the elevator button because as they began talking the door closed. The elevator was going up without her.
“You got a manager.” Sparks asked her.
“Who is this dude?” She asked, finally acknowledging Sparks’s existence.
“I’m his manager,” Sparks said before Markus could respond. “Holla at me, don’t sign those contracts until I thoroughly peruse them.”
Entice didn’t know what he was talking about. She said, “Wait for me,” to Markus. The elevator came back down and opened. She hopped in.
“I think I’m in love,” Sparks smiled, taking an excessively long look at Entice’s body before the elevator door closed.
Markus didn’t want to wait for Entice, but Sparks insisted they did. It was his ride so Markus did not have much choice in the matter. Luckily the wait was over in twenty minutes. Her meeting with Tee-Neck lasted as short as Markus’s.
Vonchell stepped out the building with Entice. They shared a few words and Vonchell walked away. Entice saw Markus and Sparks inside the car. They were in front of the building. She walked over and hopped in the backseat.
“I’m starving,” she announced.
“Yeah, well maybe we can all get a bite to eat,” Markus suggested.
“We gotta get your car. They should have towed it already. Call and find out when you can go get it. I got business to take care of,” Sparks said.
He was quite sure Sparks had drug dealing business to handle. Markus figured Sparks hadn’t been away from the hood this much in his whole drug dealing existence. It was only a matter of time before the streets started calling him. And hot looking women or not, he had to respond.
Entice and Markus spoke about their new contracts as they drove looking for somewhere to get breakfast. Entice was offered an exclusive deal with Smut Central though her deal wasn’t as high powered as Mr. Excitement’s. That didn’t matter much to her. She knew her worth and figured she was worth exactly what they would pay her if she signed exclusively to Smut Central Entertainment. Entice wasn’t sure if she wanted to do that.
She never expected to spend much time fucking on film. Her first sex scene was with Markus and that was a week ago. She just needed some quick money and did not intend to make it a career.
Markus Johnson’s situation was entirely different. He had nothing going in life but the porn industry. He didn’t even have a real birth certificate, hadn’t a confirmed identity. He did have a big dick. He was going to sign the contract. Entice didn’t know what she was going to do.
15
After breakfast at a diner in midtown, Sparks dropped Markus off at the car dealership. His car was back to normal, looking the way it did before it was vandalized. Entice wanted to accompany Markus but Markus told her he had a few things to take care of. Sparks told Entice he would drop her wherever she wanted to go, or they could do something else. His eyes were gleaming with designs on getting better acquainted with her anatomy. She reluctantly agreed to do something else with him.
Markus’s first line of business was to go see Tanisha. He hadn’t spoken to her since he blacked out at the lounge Saturday night. At first Markus was angry at her for bringing him to the lounge and surprising him with Michelle. He didn’t want to blackout the first time he was formally introduced to the woman. He did. Michelle was some sort of key to his past. He wouldn’t be able to question her if he couldn’t stay conscious around her.
Markus drove to Tanisha’s. He figured he would have a much needed talk with her, visit with his daughter, then see Nancy Adler. Gwyneth was another issue entirely. It was always an issue he avoided. The last time he was around Gwyneth it was disastrous. She propositioned him for sex, he refused, and she thoroughly trashed her living room while he watched. Emily was very frightened, but not nearly as frightened as she was when he fainted.
He parked across the street from Tanisha’s, hopped out the Lexus and saw a familiar vehicle parked in front of the building. It was Cali’s car. “What the fuck is he doing here?” Markus mumbled.
The sight of Cali’s car parked i
n front of Tanisha’s angered him. Sparks mentioned that Tanisha and Cali had some connection. Tanisha never mention Cali in a conversation before and Cali never spoke of her. He didn’t understand what was going on. But Markus knew exactly how much it cost to replace his tires and car windows. It was obvious that something fishy was going on. He hopped back inside the Lexus.
He sat in his vehicle thinking about what he was going to do next. Markus wanted to go upstairs and confront them. But where would that lead? He thought. Sparks had talked about Tanisha’s activities inside the VIP room and that meant she was possibly still playing the role of a prostitute.
Markus was angrier at Tanisha than he was at Cali. All he wanted was for her to be the very best she could. He knew she was way better than sucking dicks. And Cali was nothing but trouble. “Who am I to judge anyone?” He said aloud. “I’m a damn porn star.”
He decided to go upstairs. If anything, he would question Cali about the slashed tires. Sparks told him he didn’t give a fuck about Cali and if he had beef with him he was prepared to ride. Cali was a drug dealer and the word out on the street told he wasn’t beyond shooting someone. Markus had enough problems simply being him, a person without a past. He was about to step out his vehicle and walk upstairs to Tanisha’s but his cell phone beeped.
“Audra…”
“How did the meeting go?” His agent asked.
“I don’t know. Tee-Neck gave me a contract. Did you know he was gonna do that?” Markus asked.
“Of course not,” she snapped with a touch of confusion. “Did you sign anything?”
“No. Do you wanna look over the contract?” He asked.
“I sure do. We don’t have an escrow agreement Markus Johnson, but we do have a verbal one. Verbal agreements are binding and the courts recognize them…”
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