Single Ladies

by Blake Karrington

  “They said that two men in black hoodies walked up and started shooting. I know you don’t wanna hear this, but whoever did it had some personal shit on his mind. Dre was shot seven times: once in the side and six times in his face, all at close range,” Kim continued.

  Lisa covered her mouth and shook her head slowly. Her eyes began to water at how horrible Dre’s death was. Her thoughts then shifted from Dre to Ralphy, and she began to immediately ask herself whether Ralphy was capable of doing something like this. Ralphy did have a past life, but Lisa wasn’t sure if it was as violent as the way Dre was murdered.

  “Lisa! Ms. Thompson!” the doctor said, snapping Lisa out of her daze.

  “Oh . . . oh, yes, Dr. Crosby. I’m coming right now,” she responded. “Girl, I’ll call you back after I get off,” she told Kim, and then hung up the phone.

  * * *

  A lunch date was the situation for Lamar and Falisha this afternoon. It was Falisha’s idea, but Lamar didn’t mind, especially since Kim was at work around this time. It wasn’t that he was trying to be sneaky or anything, he just didn’t want Kim to know the extent of his and Falisha’s relationship.

  “Look at you, looking all cute!” Falisha said, coming down her steps.

  Lamar was wearing something basic: a pair of cargo shorts, a white V-neck Polo shirt, and white Gucci sneakers. It was simple, but he made it look good. A fresh haircut, a nice rose gold chain around his neck, and the sweet scent of Creed emanated from his body. He was well put together.

  Falisha kept it simple too. She had on a pair of blue Citizens jeans, a white top, and a pair of SW1 pipette pumps. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which always brought out her natural beauty.

  Falisha really wasn’t in the mood to go anywhere extravagant today. She just wanted to spend some time with Lamar, so when she chose to eat at Jack in the Box, it kind of shocked Lamar, but he went with it anyway. The chicken there was banging, so there weren’t any complaints on either side.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Falisha asked while digging into her box of chicken as they sat outside at a table in front of the restaurant.

  “One day I was broke as hell. My homie Dutch pulled up on me and asked me if I wanted to make some money,” Lamar began, figuring that Falisha wanted to know how he started dancing. “He ran the whole dancing thing down to me like it was the new thing. I didn’t know how to dance until he showed me a couple of moves.” Lamar chuckled.

  Falisha sat there and listened to him talk while she continued to eat her food.

  They shared a few laughs and talked about other things, like goals for the future, kids, and marriage. They even talked about stuff they remembered happening when they were in high school.

  After lunch, they decided to catch a movie, and from there they went to the park, and from the park they did a little shopping downtown. They had dinner at the Outback Steakhouse, and headed toward home.

  By the time they pulled back up to the block it was around seven-thirty in the evening. What was only supposed to be lunch turned into a full day of them being together, and they both enjoyed every minute of it.

  * * *

  Lisa drove straight to Dre’s mom’s house after work to pay her respects. His mom was cool as hell, and she knew Lisa and treated her like she was her own daughter. She was the only girl Dre had ever brought home, and because he loved Lisa so much, so did his mom.

  “Ohhh! Hey, baby!” Ms. Alberta greeted her when she opened the door. “Get ya li’l tail in here!” she said, grabbing Lisa by the hand and pulling her inside.

  Lisa expected Ms. Alberta to be strong the way she was. She was built Ford tough, but at the same time she had a heart of gold.

  “You know my son was crazy about you.” Ms. Alberta smiled, sitting Lisa down on the couch. “I just wish y’all two would have stayed together. What y’all had was real love. I remember when y’all were teenagers, I couldn’t separate y’all with a stick!” She laughed.

  “I’m so sorry about Dre, Ms. Alberta,” Lisa said, wiping the tear that fell down her cheek.

  “Oh, baby, don’t worry about my son. He’s up there with the rest of the thugs the good Lord forgave.” Ms. Alberta chuckled.

  It was amazing to Lisa how high Dre’s mom’s spirits were, and how she kept it together. She had just lost her only son to the streets, and here she was making jokes.

  Lisa felt the total opposite, though. She was hurt and a bit confused. Something inside of her felt like she was out of place being there mourning over the death of a man she cheated on her husband with. It felt disrespectful, especially considering the fact that she and Ralphy were still married.

  But another part of her felt obligated to be there because of the history she had with Dre and his family. For her not to show up seemed disrespectful, and to fake like she didn’t have love for Dre would be wrong.

  “Ms. Alberta, I wish I could stay, but I have to pick up my daughter,” Lisa lied just to have a reason to leave. “I’ll come back tomorrow if that’s okay with you.”

  “You can come back here anytime, baby. And I know I’m gonna see you at his funeral. It’s on Monday.”

  Lisa didn’t even think her answer through. She just said the first thing that came to mind. “Of course I’m gonna be there. Front and center,” she said as Ms. Alberta walked her to the door.

  Lisa didn’t know what she was thinking, agreeing to that. She knew that if Ralphy found out she attended Dre’s funeral, it would only add more fuel to the fire, a fire that Lisa was hoping she could put out before she lost her husband forever. She really hated putting herself in these situations. It was getting to be all too stressful.

  * * *

  Falisha leaned in and wrapped her arms around Lamar as they stood in front of her house. They had been sitting out there talking and laughing since they got back. Kim’s car was nowhere in sight, so Lamar didn’t mind showing Falisha public affection tonight.

  “So, now what, Lamar? Where do we go from here?” Falisha asked, looking up at him.

  Before he could answer the question, a white truck turned onto the block, grabbing their attention. It was Big Fox, and he was in his zone blasting some music.

  As Big Fox got closer to the house, Falisha turned around, and her first instinct was to walk over to the truck. But before she did, she caught herself.

  Lamar leaned his back up against the wall and thought, here we go again with da bullshit!

  Fox stopped right in front of Falisha and Lamar. The light from his stereo system shined enough light in the truck for Lamar to see him clearly. Fox looked over at Falisha and was expecting her to come over to the truck, but instead she backed up to Lamar, who was still leaning against the wall. She rested her back up against his chest, and then reached back and grabbed Lamar’s hand and wrapped his arm around her stomach. The entire time, she looked Fox in his eyes with a look that said she belonged to somebody else now.

  Fox could do nothing but respect it. He simply gave Lamar a nod to let him know that he was top dog now. After that, he just pulled off.

  “Come on. Let’s go in the house,” Falisha said, pulling Lamar up the steps by his hand. They disappeared into the house, more than likely for the rest of the night.

  * * *

  Lisa walked into the house to find Ralphy sitting at the kitchen table, reading. She could hear Naomi upstairs playing with her toys, as usual. When she walked into the kitchen, Ralphy lifted his head up and briefly looked at her before focusing his attention back to what he was reading.

  “Have a seat. I need to talk to you about something,” Ralphy said as he shifted the papers around.

  Lisa hesitated for a second, thinking about Naomi.

  “She’ll be fine,” he assured Lisa, then nodded to the chair.

  Lisa took the carry bag off of her shoulder, placed it on the table, then pulled out a chair. She was curious to know what he wanted to talk about, seeing as how he hadn’t had much to say to her as of late. “What do you w
anna talk about, Ralphy?” she asked in a submissive manner.

  Ralphy gathered all of the papers from the table and set them to the side. “You know, Lisa, I still love you. I care about you more than you’ll ever know, and I hate the fact that things happened the way they did between us,” he began.

  “Baby, I still love you too—”

  “Just listen to me, Lisa,” he cut her off. “For the past couple of weeks I’ve been thinking long and hard about everything, and I ultimately came to the conclusion that things will never go back to the way they were. A lot has happened, and I really don’t want us to waste any more time out of our lives trying to fix what’s broken. It’s just too much work.”

  “I know it’s gonna be hard work, but I love you enough to do what needs to be—”

  “Here,” Ralphy said, pushing the papers he was reading over to her.

  “What’s this?” Lisa asked, picking the papers up off of the table and reading the header. Her heart dropped, along with her bottom jaw at the sight of the divorce papers. She knew that he was angry, but to see that he actually went through with obtaining divorce papers was a tough blow.

  Tears immediately formed in her eyes, and when she looked up at Ralphy, he too had tears in his eyes. This process wasn’t any easier for him. He loved Lisa with just about everything he had. To end it now, and to end it this way, was devastating to him.

  “Ralphy, why can’t we try?” she pleaded, and got up off the chair and onto her knees in front of him.

  “Come on, Lisa,” he said, shaking his head. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. It’s over.”

  Lisa jumped up, grabbed the papers off the table, and began ripping them up. Ralphy tried to stop her, but she had ripped a nice amount of the papers before he got to her. “No, no, no!” she said as they wrestled for the rest of the documents.

  After a while, Ralphy just gave up and let her finish what she had started. He watched as she stuffed the papers into the garbage disposal, turned the water on, and hit the switch. He just looked at her and shook his head before walking out of the kitchen.

  Instead of chasing after him, Lisa fell to the floor in tears. She still couldn’t believe it was all happening this way. She cried out like a baby at the thought of losing Ralphy, and she knew by the divorce papers that it was pretty much official. All she had done was prolong the process a little, because the fact still remained that Ralphy was done with her.

  Chapter 19

  The morning sunlight almost blinded Lamar when he left Falisha’s house. He put his hand up to block the sun as he crossed the street to get to his residence.

  Seeing Kim’s car parked down the street let him know that she was home. Still having some energy left over from last night, he figured he’d take a quick shower, and then wake Kim up with some early morning head, followed by some slow, passionate sex.

  When he walked through the door, the scent of bacon and eggs smacked him in the face. He walked into the kitchen, but Kim wasn’t there, nor was the food.

  “I know she didn’t just cook for herself!” he mumbled to himself while leaving the kitchen.

  He shot upstairs and stood at the top of the steps, debating whether to jump into the shower first or go mess with Kim about not making him anything to eat when she cooked. He looked down the hallway toward the bathroom, and then he looked the other way toward Kim’s room. It might have been the music coming from her room that made him choose to have his talk with her.

  As he walked down the hallway he thought his ears were deceiving him when he thought he heard a moan coming from beyond the music. As he got closer to the door, the moans got a little louder, and it became clear that it was Kim.

  Lamar’s dick got hard quick as hell at the thought of Kim lying in her bed and pleasing herself. Fuck a shower! It was time to play. When he reached for the knob and saw that the door was open, he walked in.

  “Oh, shit! Lamar, get out!” Kim shouted after opening her eyes to see him standing there.

  Marell lifted his face out of Kim’s pussy to turn around to see who was standing behind him.

  Lamar was still in shock, looking at another nigga eating Kim’s pussy. Kim had to yell again for him to back out of the room.

  Marell watched the door close, looked back up at Kim for a split second, and then drove his face right back into her wet box. She was going to stop him, but his mouth felt too good. She laid her head back on the pillow and grabbed a hold of his head.

  “Dis bitch done lost her fuckin’ mind!” Lamar mumbled as he walked into his bedroom, which was right next door. He was mad as hell. He started swinging punches in the air, working himself up for a fight he wanted to have. “She’s bringing niggas home now!” he snapped to himself while pacing back and forth across the room.

  It took Lamar a few minutes of pacing and letting off some steam before he came to his senses. It had hit him like a ton of bricks, and when it did, he walked over and took a seat on the edge of his bed. “What are you doin’, Lamar?” he asked himself while rubbing his temples. “She ain’t even ya girl!” he mumbled.

  The more he thought about it, the calmer he became. He had to laugh at himself and the way he was acting over some pussy that didn’t belong to him. Kim was free to fuck whoever she wanted to, and there was nothing he could do about it.

  He flopped back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. Everything was cool, and from the sudden silence coming from Kim’s room, he felt like the worst of it was over; that was, until it started back up, but this time even louder. He could hear Kim yelling through the walls.

  “Ohhhh! Yesss! Ohhhhh, harder! Fuck me harder! Mmmmmmmm! Give it to me!” she screamed.

  The sounds of her bed squeaking, the loud moans, and her screaming out were a little too much for him to handle, so he got up, grabbed his car keys off the dresser, and rolled out.

  It might have seemed petty, but he kicked Kim’s door on his way past her room. He did it just to let her know that he was upset, not that it mattered at the time, because Kim was too busy getting her back blown out. The kick was barely even heard by either her or Marell.

  * * *

  Tammy was awakened by a loud knock at her front door. She looked over at Sinniyyah to see if it had woken her up too, but it didn’t. She was still sound asleep.

  Anthony, on the other hand, heard the knocks and was a little scared, so he darted into Tammy’s room and jumped in the bed with her.

  “Anthony, don’t move,” she told him, and then slipped on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.

  The heavy knocking continued the entire time she made her way downstairs and to the door. Before opening it, she leaned over and peeked through the small window on her inside porch. She was actually kind of relieved to see that it was Mr. Louis. “Hey, Mr. Louis! What’s goin’ on?” she asked when she opened up the door.

  He looked at her sideways with one eyebrow up. Tammy really didn’t have a clue about why he was there, but he didn’t have a problem reminding her, either. “It’s the first of the month, Tammy. This is the day I go around to all of my properties and pick up my rent money,” he said in a sarcastic way. “Please tell me you got my money,” he continued, while stepping past Tammy and entering the house.

  “Mr. Louis, you know I don’t get my check until around the third. As soon as the check clears I’ll give you the rent money,” she said, following him into the house.

  “Let me ask you this: why do you stay here when you clearly can’t afford it? I’ve got other properties that are a lot cheaper to maintain,” Mr. Louis said, looking around the living room at the pictures on the wall.

  The answer to that was simple. Tammy didn’t want to live anywhere else. This block was all she knew. She grew up here, much like everybody else who lived on Parker Street, and she wasn’t ready to move quite yet. “Mr. Louis, I’ll have your money, and the hundred dollar late fee in a couple of days. Now, if you don’t mind, I gotta get back upstairs to my kids,” she said, walking toward the fr
ont door.

  Mr. Louis knew when he had worn out his welcome, but he was also still stern about collecting his money. “I don’t wanna have to come looking for you, Tammy. I love those kids, but I love my money more,” he said before leaving the house.

  Tammy knew that those words meant that he didn’t have a problem putting her and her kids out on the streets if he wasn’t paid.

  What made things even worse was that her money was funny yet again this month. The electric, the gas, and the phone bills were sitting on the living room table, and she didn’t have a clue how she was going to pay them, the rent, and get Anthony’s school clothes. It wasn’t going to happen on the $650-a-month welfare check, and a $380-a-week check from her part-time job.

  Tammy really needed help, and as she walked back upstairs to get back into bed, she began considering what Mr. Louis said about moving into one of his cheaper properties.

  * * *

  By the time Lamar took his car to the car wash, got it detailed, and went to the store to get something to eat, Marell had finished his business and left the house.

  Lamar came through the door to see Kim standing in the kitchen, doing the dishes in her nightgown. She had a towel wrapped around her head, so he knew that she either had just taken a shower, or she was about to take one. “Damn! I see you’ve been busy early this morning,” he said, entering the kitchen and putting his bag on the table.

  “Yeah, well, you better learn how to knock.” Kim chuckled as she dried off a cup and set it to the side.

  “Oh, so that’s where we’re at now? You found some new dick so you toss me to the side?”

  Kim turned around from the sink to face him. She could see a bit of jealousy in his eyes, and maybe even a hint of hurt. “I know you ain’t getting soft on me, Lamar. I told you from the beginning that it was just sex between us. Now, if you can’t handle that, then maybe we should stop,” she said, crossing her arms and leaning up against the refrigerator.

  Kim had all the sense. Lamar didn’t know it, but Kim had purposely left her door open so that he would walk in on her. She wanted to let him know a few things of importance, one being that she was the only person who would dictate who would be tasting her goodies, and when. The second thing she wanted to establish was that his ass could easily be replaced by the next man. Thirdly, she just wanted to reestablish the boundaries that friends with benefits had.