by La Jill Hunt
“Why would she be mad about that? And how did you hook her sister and Jermaine up? I thought Anjelica was bad news.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that. That’s the thing. Jermaine met Anjelica at the club one night.”
“If they met at the club, I’m surprised you didn’t have anything to do with it. Heck, I’m surprised you didn’t try to hook up with her.” Nicole laughed.
“Girl, please. I keep trying to tell you that I went to the club to hang out with Toby, that’s all. I didn’t go there to meet women. For what? I have the best woman in the world right here.” He kissed her on the side of her neck and she giggled.
“Please, Terrell, save it. You are full of it. And I still don’t understand how Kayla could be mad about something as simple as that. I’m going to call her and see what the real deal is. It probably has something to do with the job and that CJ woman.”
“What?” Terrell sat up, nearly knocking Nicole off the sofa.
“Oh, sorry, boo. What are you talking about? What does this have to do with CJ?”
“She said that she couldn’t stand CJ from the jump. Then you get the promotion as CJ’s right hand man, then you don’t have any time for Kayla anymore. I’m sure she feels frustrated, especially when you’re her best friend.”
“That’s crazy. I have time for her.”
“I just told you to invite them to a barbecue and you gave another excuse. That’s okay. I’m going to invite her to my baby shower. I still love Kayla and have time for her.”
“I had no doubt in my mind that she would be coming to your shower. And I still love Kayla too.”
The phone rang, ending their debate over who loved Kayla more. Nicole reached over and grabbed the cordless. “Hello. Who’s calling? One moment please.”
“Who is it?” he asked, wondering if letting her answer his phone was a bad idea.
“Somebody named Meeko.” She shrugged.
Terrell took the phone out of her hand. “Yeah,” he said nonchalantly.
“Terry, It’s me. I didn’t think a female would be answering your phone. My bad,” Meeko told him.
“It’s all good. What’s up?” He couldn’t imagine what Meeko wanted with him, especially on a Friday night.
“I need to ask you a question, Terrell, and I need for you to be very honest with me,” she told him.
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“Did you know Jermaine got engaged?”
“Huh?” Terrell asked, confused by what she was saying and who she was saying it about.
“Jermaine. He got engaged.”
He didn’t know how to answer. There was no way that Jermaine could be engaged. Who would he even be engaged to?
“Wait a minute, Meeko. First of all, where is all of this coming from? How do you figure Jermaine’s engaged?”
“Who is that?” Nicole asked. “And why is she calling you asking about Jermaine?”
“Shhhhh!” Terrell told her, covering the mouthpiece with his hand. He knew that if Meeko heard Nicole getting loud, she would get louder.
“You remember my cousin Leslie? Well, she works at Weinstein’s,” Meeko told him.
“How the hell did she get a job at Weinstein’s?” Terrell asked, remembering Meeko’s crazy cousin. “Does she get a discount?”
“Yeah, you know if you go in there she’ll hook you up, Terry. But that’s not what we’re talking about right now. Wait a minute. Don’t tell me you’re about to get married too,” she shrieked into the phone.
“Calm down, Meeko. Who told you Jermaine was engaged?” Terrell demanded.
“Oh, well Leslie said Jermaine and this girl came in the other tonight and they were trying on rings. He was asking her which one she liked. Well, when she got to work today, she saw a receipt for two thousand-something dollars with his name on it.”
“Get the hell outta here! Yo, I’ma call you back,” Terrell told her.
“Are you saying you didn’t know anything about this, Terrell?” Meeko asked.
“I’m telling you I don’t, but I’m about to find out,” he answered. Nicole maneuvered herself off the sofa and he sat up. “I’ll call you back later.”
“Okay,” he heard Meeko say before she hung up.
“What was that all about?” Nicole asked.
Terrell didn’t answer. He was too busy dialing Jermaine’s cell number.
“Thank you for calling We Secure U security installations service. Unfortunately, we are unable to take your call right now—”
Terrell hung up without leaving a message. He dialed Jermaine’s home number and there was no answer there, either. He’s probably at Dominic’s with Toby. I’ll go up there and see what Meeko is talking about.
“I’ll be back,” he told Nicole.
“Where are you going, Terrell? I know you’re not going to the club, are you?”
“I’ll only be gone an hour at the most, baby. I promise. I just need to talk to Jermaine and see what’s going on, that’s all,” he assured her as he put his Timbs on. “It’s not even that late.”
“I don’t care how late it is, Terrell. I’m saying, what difference does it make if Jermaine got engaged? What’s wrong with that?” She stood at his bedroom door.
“It’s who he may be engaged to that’s the problem. He’s barely even known this girl more than a month. I just need to go holler at him right quick. Go ahead and get in the bed. By the time you finish watching Law & Order I’ll be right there beside you.”
“Whatever,” she said and disappeared in the room. He heard her fussing, but he left anyway. Just as he made it to the bottom of the steps, he heard the phone ringing. Thinking it could be Meeko or even someone worse, he ran back upstairs to answer it himself. He quickly unlocked the door and dove for the phone.
“Hello,” he panted.
“Damn, T. What, you running a marathon or something?” Jermaine laughed. “Imagine that, your big behind running.”
“Forget you, Negro. Yo, where you at?”
“At the crib, chilling.”
“I need to talk to you. I’m ’bout to roll over there.”
“Naw, son, don’t do that. I got company.”
“Who? Your fiancée that I heard you got now?” Terrell blurted out.
“What? You’re tripping. I ain’t saying she’s all that.”
“Oh, I ain’t all that now? You weren’t saying that a few minutes ago.” Terrell recognized Anjelica’s voice in the background. “Who are you talking to anyway?” he heard her ask.
“Terry. He was about to come over here, but I told him that was a bad idea.”
“Your coming over here is definitely out of the question, Terrell,” she yelled to him. “I’m going to see what I can find in this empty fridge to eat.”
“For real, Terry. What’s up? Something wrong?”
“Naw, I just heard that wedding bells were in your near future and I wanted to make sure you hadn’t done anything dumb like asking her to marry you without telling us. That would be like thinking with your little head instead of the big one. Know what I mean?” Terrell chuckled.
“Maybe yours is small, but that ain’t my business. But who told you some stuff like that?”
“I just heard you made a major jewelry purchase for her, man, and I was just checking, that’s all,” Terrell said, very much relieved.
“And if I did, why would I have to tell you? You think that because you hit that three or four months ago that you still got dibs on it? Be for real, man. I told you I’m feeling this girl. You said yourself that she’s good people. But what she and I do within our relationship is between us. I don’t care who she’s been with in the past; I care about her being with me now. Believe that.”
“I hear you,” he replied.
“So you can call Meeko and tell her that ain’t nobody engaged, because I know that’s who told you about the whole thing. Her girl probably couldn’t wait for us to leave out the damn jewelry store before she called and told he
r that I was in there looking at rings with some girl.”
“Okay, you got me.”
“Look what I found. Some Popsicles,” Anjelica sang in the background. “Wanna lick?”
“Gotta go. Bye!” Jermaine told him. Terry thought he heard a click in the background before the sound of the dial tone filled his ear.
He got up and looked toward the bedroom door where Nicole was, but only heard the television. She’s probably already asleep. He went into the living room and sat down, flipping through the channels. He tried to be content just being there, but temptation got the best of him. I’ll just run by the club for a minute. He prayed Nicole didn’t hear the door closing behind him as he sneaked out of the house.
The line to get into Dominic’s was wrapped around the building. Terrell parked his car and walked past the anxious patrons, straight to the front door. He was greeted by the security guard, who let him in without even doing a search. He was making his way through the crowd to the deejay booth to see Toby when he heard his name being called. He turned to find Roni heading toward him.
“What’s up, Ron?” He met her halfway. He hadn’t really seen her in a while, and Toby told him they were taking a break. She still had the ring on her finger, though, and she still looked fine as hell.
“Nothing much. What’s going on with you? How’s Nicole?”
“She’s good.” He nodded.
“Getting big? You know if it’s a boy or girl yet?”
“No, not yet. We’re supposed to find out next week. But I ain’t betting no money on it. Remember Kayla was supposedly having a boy when big-headed Day came popping out.” He laughed. They walked over to the VIP section and the bouncer lifted the rope, allowing both of them access.
“So, who you here wit’?” he asked, thinking maybe Kayla or Yvonne was with her. Roni rarely frequented the club by herself.
“Rolling solo tonight, believe it or not.”
“Wow. Where’s your crew?” He held the chair out for her to sit down. He caught her looking over at the booth where Toby was mixing a slamming old school combination of Doug E. Fresh and Dana Dane that had everyone who wasn’t on the dance floor nodding their heads.
“They all have lives, I guess. Tia has Theo, Kay has Geno, Von has Darrell. I am the remaining member of the Lonely Hearts Club,” she told him.
“Aw, come on. You’re not lonely, Roni. You got Toby.”
“No, I don’t. I messed up, Terrell. And no matter what, I can’t fix it. He won’t talk to me. I’ve tried and tried for the past three months, but he still won’t talk to me.” Roni sighed.
She looked so sad and Terrell felt bad for her. Toby didn’t give him the details of what went down, but he knew it had to be pretty big for his brother to act the way he had been acting lately. Toby always pulled himself into a shell when things got to him, shutting everyone out, and lately, he had been keeping to himself. Terrell couldn’t remember the last time his brother had hung out and had fun. It was killing him not to ask what happened, but he didn’t.
“I know, Roni. Just give him some more time. I’m sure he’ll come around,” he told her, though he knew that his brother could shut people out for months at a time. If it had been three months, Roni must’ve hurt him pretty badly. “Look at it this way; you still got the ring, right? That must mean something. Believe me, if he wasn’t gonna come around, he would have asked for the ring back.”
Roni looked down at the ring, which was on her right hand, and began twisting it. She looked up at Terrell and smiled. “I hope you’re right, Terrell.”
“He loves you. He just takes his time dealing with things. Uncle Jay calls him a thinker. He thinks things through before reacting to them.” He bobbed his head to “Ownlee Eue” by Kwame. He glanced over to the dance floor, wanting to be out there in the middle doing the Whop with everyone else.
“But how long does it take to think about things?” she asked.
“Did he ever tell you about the time I got a ticket and gave the cops his social security number?”
“You what?” she laughed.
“I told the policeman I was Tobias Sims and I got a ticket.”
“Now that’s just wrong, Terry.”
“No, the wrong part was that I never paid the ticket and his license got suspended. I never told him about it.”
“So, how did he find out?”
“He got pulled over on a traffic violation.”
“No.”
“And he was driving with a suspended license, so they arrested him and towed his truck,” Terrell admitted.
“I betcha he whooped your ass when he got out!”
“Naw, but he was pissed, I’ll tell you that much. He didn’t speak to me for a year, not even when he came to my college graduation. Just gave me a hug and a card and then he left.”
“So, when did he start speaking to you?”
“A year later. We had just gotten back on good terms right before that night when we all came to Dominic’s for the first time. You remember that?”
“And Kayla and Janice were about to fight.” Roni laughed.
“Man that night was crazy. We had such a good time. I miss those days.”
“Me too,” he agreed. He thought about that night and all that happened after. “How is Kayla?”
“She’s good. I guess she’s a lot like your brother. They just need time to deal with things. I heard about what you and Anjelica did.”
Terrell looked at her. “It’s not what you think. It just happened. We did it and it was nothing, really.”
“But why her, Terrell? Of all people.”
“Kayla and Anjelica are alike in more ways than just looks. They are both loving, intelligent women with magnetic personalities. And they are both headstrong about making people believe what they want them to.”
“So, are you saying that Anjelica is misunderstood because of Kayla?”
“Could be,” he shrugged. “But let her know I asked about her and give Day a big kiss for me. I’m gonna go holler at Toby and then go home to curl up beside my baby.”
“That is so sweet, Terrell. I’ll deliver your message. Take care.” Roni stood up and gave him a big hug.
He walked over to the booth and joined his brother, who was flipping through albums. He had the headphones wrapped around his neck and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
“What’s up, Tobe? You a’ight?” he asked and gave him a grip.
“Yeah, man. This place is jumping tonight, huh?”
“You putting it down, man. That’s for sure. You are in rare form tonight, kid. Does that have something to do with your girl being here?” He gestured over to Roni, who was still sitting in the VIP section, rocking to the music.
Toby looked over at her and shook his head at Terrell. “Nope, not at all.” He pushed Terrell aside and put the headphones back over his ears.
“So, are you even gonna talk to her?” He tapped Toby on the shoulder. His brother paused long enough to look at him then went back to spinning music. Terrell took this as his cue to leave. “I’ll check you out later.”
Toby nodded. “I’ll hit you up over the weekend, Terry.”
“Cool,” he replied. He waved at Roni, who was now holding a drink. He hoped that everything would be cool between them, because she was a good woman and he knew how much his brother loved her.
Terrell stopped at 7-Eleven on the way home and picked up a Slurpee for Nicole. He figured he was saving himself a trip because she was sure to send him out at 3:00 in the morning because she was craving one. He wasn’t mad, though. He liked doing things for her and his unborn child, and he was looking forward to them being a family in the near future. In a few months, he would be a father, a dad, a pop. He didn’t have a relationship with his father. He died when Terrell was only two years old and Toby was three. Now, he would have the chance to do all the things with his child that he and his dad never had the opportunity to experience, and he was excited.
Being extra qu
iet as he unlocked his door, he walked into his pitch black bedroom. He leaned across the bed, reached out for his sleeping girlfriend and whispered, “Baby, I brought you a Slurpee. Cherry, of course.”
There was no answer and to his surprise, no sleeping Nicole. He checked the bathroom to see if she was there, but she wasn’t. She wasn’t anywhere in the apartment. He walked out to the parking lot to see if her car was there, but it was gone. He hadn’t noticed it before when he first got home. He rushed back inside and dialed her home number, but she didn’t answer. She didn’t answer her cell number either. He called the hospital to make sure that she wasn’t admitted, and was relieved when they told him she wasn’t. He waited another thirty minutes before jumping in his car and searching for her. He drove around trying to think of places she could be, but eventually wound up back at home.
Something was wrong and he knew it. Nicole would never just leave without calling his cell and telling him something or at least leaving a note saying good-bye. He checked the caller ID to make sure she hadn’t called. The last call had come in at 11:34, while he was still at the club. The number belonged to an A. Moore, but he didn’t recognize it. Not caring that it was after 1:00 in the morning, he called the number.
“Hi, this is Arianna. I’m sorry I can’t take your call, but leave me a message and I’ll call you back. If this is an emergency, feel free to call 911. Peace.”
Arianna. What does she want and why is she calling my house? He leaned back on the couch and rubbed his tired eyes. He sat up quickly when he answered his own question. She must’ve talked to Nicole. He tried to convince himself that maybe Gary used Arianna’s phone or something and he was panicking for no reason.
He tried calling Nicole once again and still got no answer. Hours later, he didn’t even realize he had fallen asleep until he woke up to the sun shining through his window. After still not being able to reach Nicole at home or on her cell, he called Arianna’s number again.
“Hello,” she answered. There was still a hint of sleep in her voice.