“Are you all right?” Gisella asked her softly.
“Yeah.” Anna quickly swiped at her eyes. “It’s just amazing that…there’s really a little baby in there.”
Without missing a beat, Emmadonna quipped, “Oh, lawd. Anna has forgotten how babies are made.”
“I didn’t say that.” She popped Em on her shoulder. “I know how babies are made. I just find that the whole process is this fantastic miracle.” Anna glanced up into her sister’s eyes. “And I think that you’re going to make a wonderful mother.”
Gisella’s eyes misted with tears before the sisters were hugging again.
Anna put on a smile, but she would be lying if she said that she didn’t feel something else tugging at her heart. Something that she really didn’t want to put a name to, but no matter how hard she tried to ignore it, she knew exactly what it was: envy. How was it that she, someone who had been in the dating game a few years before her baby sister, was still single with no prospects on the horizon? Gisella had been in Atlanta less than a year and had snapped up a good one and now had a baby on the way.
Then again that’s probably what she got for tossing in the dating towel.
“So what’s going on, ladies?” Gisella asked as she eased down into a vacant chair. “What man are we castrating this week?”
Anna winced. “Please. It’s not like that,” she said as a weak defense to their monthly male bashing.
“Actually,” Jade said, plopping down next to Gisella. “So far, Emmadonna’s announced her bid to become America’s Next Top Lesbian and Ivy was just about to give us the 411 on that fine Jamaican she picked up at your wedding.”
Gisella frowned.
“You know,” Jade pressed. “The one that was doing all that bumping and grinding with her on the dance floor.”
Emmadonna clapped her hands together and then started snapping her fingers and crooning, “I don’t see nothing wrong…with a little bump and grind, baby.” What made her performance hilarious was her attempt to bust out the old “Tootsie Roll” moves with her legs and hips.
“Oh. You mean Reece?”
“Oh, is that his name?” Em cracked up. “We’ve been calling him Mandingo.”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “I’ve been trying to tell them that I actually had a nice time with Reece the other night. He was a complete gentleman.”
“Oh, no. You didn’t roll up in here to spit none of that gentleman crap. We know the brother got the panties,” Em sassed. “The question on the table is whether Reece can lay the pipe like his hips promised he could?”
Despite it being a crass question, all eyes zoomed toward Ivy, anxious for her answer.
“His pipe-laying skills were…on point.”
The room erupted with squeals and laughter.
“I knew it! I knew it!” Jade jumped up and performed a dance like a running back after a touchdown. “Did he have to peel you off the ceiling? How close did you get to Jesus?”
“Mighty close,” Ivy confessed. “He was sweating. I was sweating. The silk sheets were sticking to every part of our bodies and when he busted out the strawberries and chocolate syrup, I was in hog heaven.”
“Well, alrighty then. That’s what I’m talking about.” Emmadonna held up her hands and received a series of high fives. “At least someone is getting some for the team.”
“Says the woman that just switched teams,” Anna chirped.
“What?” Gisella asked.
Anna shook her head. “Never mind. You don’t want to know. Besides you don’t have to worry about dealing with singlehood anymore. You got yourself a good man.”
“You could have yourself a good man, too, if you would just put yourself out there more. Give up CSI: Miami and Snapped nights.”
“Oooh, girl. Snapped is my show,” Jade interrupted while reaching for her coffee. “Did you see the one when homegirl superglued her man’s dick underneath his balls? That heifer wasn’t playing.”
The circle of girlfriends bobbed their heads.
“That was actually a repeat,” Anna said. “I think that is going to go down as a classic.”
Gisella shook her head. “Do you girls hear yourselves?”
“What?” Emmadonna jabbed a hand against her hips. “It’s a crime to watch television now?”
“It’s not that you watch it, it’s what you watch. It’s all these negative images and messages about men, women and relationships. It’s effecting your vibes—your auras. People can pick up on these things—men especially.”
Em waved her off. “Oh, please.”
“I’m serious,” Gisella insisted. “You get what you put out there. Now I’m not saying that you won’t run into a couple of dogs out there, but if you step out there expecting them all to be dogs, then it’s like blowing a dog whistle.” Gisella turned toward her sister. “You know what? I’m going to find you a man.” She slapped her sister on the knee.
“What?”
“You heard me. Just leave it all up to me.”
“What about the rest of us?” Jade said.
Gisella laughed. “I love you girls, but only God performs miracles.”
Chapter 7
Two months later…
“Yo, Taariq!” the entire crowd in Herman’s Barbershop greeted him the moment he walked through the door.
“Mornin’.” He gave everyone a short salute.
“You’re late,” said Herman Keillor, peeking over his wire-rimmed glasses.
Taariq glanced at his watch and saw that he was indeed five minutes late. “Sorry about that, old man. I’ll do better next time.” He winked.
“Make sure that you do. You know I don’t like any of that CP-time nonsense. Come on over,” Herman directed. “I got your seat all warmed and ready.”
Taariq strolled over and plopped into the leather chair.
“So what’s been happening?” Herman asked, smiling and draping a black cape around his neck.
“Just been chillin’, I guess.”
“Well, that’s good. Don’t want to overdo it.”
J.T. pimp walked his way in the door and made a beeline over to Taariq. “T, my main man. You know I got you today, baby.”
“Oh, really? What you got?”
“Looky here. I know you’re a ladies’ man, so I got you the latest Beyonce and Alicia Keys.” He reached into his magic jacket and produced two CDs. “Bam! Whatcha think about those?”
Taariq shook his head. “Nah, these two ladies are a bit too young for me.”
“Too young? Man, you trippin’.” J.T. stuffed the CDs back into his pocket.
“Nah.” He glanced around. “Ayo, where’s Bobby?”
“Lord knows,” Herman said, shaking his head. “His ass is late, too.”
“Hey, didn’t school just start? Maybe you should cut the college kid a break.”
“I’m cutting him a check for that damn tuition. The least he could do is show up for work on time.”
Sensing he’d wandered into sensitive territory with Herman’s grandson, Taariq tossed up his hands. “Sorry ’bout that. I didn’t mean no harm. I was just trying to stick up for a fellow Kappa man. You understand.”
“Uh-huh.” Herman clicked on his clippers.
The shop’s bell jiggled again, but this time it was Derrick and Charlie strolling through like regular rock stars. They were greeted with a round of the perfunctory, “Yo, whassup?”
“Hey, what’s happening, captain?” Taariq asked, grinning.
“You got it,” Charlie said.
His boys made it over to his chair and exchanged a couple of fist bumps.
J.T. popped his head back up. “What about some DVDs?”
“Will you get out of here with that,” Charlie said, laughing. “You know we never buy none of that bootleg crap. Why do you keep asking?”
“Closed mouth don’t get fed,” J.T reasoned.
Derrick shrugged. “The man makes sense.”
The door jiggled again and a smiling Stanley
strolled inside. “Yo, everybody, whassup?” he said in his best Vanilla Ice impersonation. Everyone was used to the white man who thought he was black and just hollered back at him.
“Looks like we’re all here,” Taariq said.
Derrick frowned. “You mean Hylan is still not back yet?”
The Kappas shook their head.
“Hell, has he even bothered to check in?” he asked. “It’s not like him to be gone this long.”
“He left me a message a couple of days ago,” Taariq remembered and pulled out his cell phone. “I haven’t had a chance to call him back.”
“Get that man on the phone,” Charlie said. “At least so that we know his ass is still breathing.”
Taariq held up a hand. “Herman, could you hold on a second?”
Herman cut off his clippers. “Sure. I live to wait on you guys,” he joked.
Taariq found Hylan’s home number in his cell’s contacts and hit the call button. A second later the line was ringing. Then a woman answered the phone. “Hello, is Hylan there?”
“No. I’m sorry he’s not. This is his sister-in-law, Barbara. Can I take a message?”
Taariq pulled the phone away from his ear for a moment and stared at it.
“What’s wrong?” the Kappa boys asked in unison.
“Um, yeah,” Taariq said, putting the phone back to his ear. “Just tell him that Taariq called.”
“Oh, would you like to talk to his wife?”
“Uh, no. That, um, won’t be necessary. I’ll just get in touch with him later.” He disconnected the call.
“What was that all about?” Stanley asked.
Taariq looked up. “Guys, how do y’all feel about making a trip out to the Caribbean to meet Hylan’s wife?”
Saint Lucia
On the beautiful island of Saint Lucia, Taariq stood fiddling with his tie while Hylan gave him and the other Kappa brothers the 411 on how he met his wife—well, his soon-to-be wife—Nicole Jamison. Every other sentence was cut off by him or one of the other Kappa brothers asking Hylan to run something by them again. Unbelievably, this Nicole had moved into Hylan’s vacation home nearly two years ago and told everyone in the Soufriére quarter that she was Hylan’s wife, which wasn’t true. Everyone bought her act because Hylan rarely came to the island. Not only that, somehow, someway she managed to get everyone to fall in love with her. It was a pretty good scheme, of course, until Hylan actually showed up.
What Taariq couldn’t wrap his brain around was why Hylan didn’t just put her on blast and call the cops. Sure, he supposed that Nikki was a good-looking woman. She even seemed nice, too. But she had to have made one hell of a batch of Kool-Aid to pull off a stunt like this. Given the beaming smile on Hylan’s face, he must’ve drank a few gallons of it, too.
“You mean to tell me that she was up here frontin’?” Taariq said after finally picking his jaw up off the floor. “Who the hell does that?”
Hylan’s smile stretched wider. “I know it all sounds a little odd. But—”
“A little odd?” he thundered. “Try crazy as hell.”
Another one of his fraternity brothers, Derrick Knight, drew a deep breath and settled a hand on Taariq’s shoulder. “Calm down.”
“Calm down? Are you for real?” Taariq said. “Our man has either got caught slippin’ or has lost his mind. Either way, it ain’t good.”
Charlie, Derrick’s best friend, shook his head. “I don’t know. He looks pretty sane to me. He’s just in love.”
“Figures. Your mind ain’t been right since you met Gisella.” Taariq huffed out a long breath and rolled his eyes.
Derrick opened his mouth.
“And don’t you say nothing because you’re the one that set off this whole domino effect.” Taariq started to look misty-eyed. “How could you guys do this to a brother?” He shook his head and started pounding his chest. “I thought we were boys. We were supposed to ride this bachelorhood thang until the wheels came off. Playas for life. Remember that? Now look at y’all. Make me the last brother standing and everything.”
Stanley stepped forward. “Hey, man. You’re not alone out here. You know you always got me.”
Taariq pursed his lips together and gave the other brothers a look that said, “See what y’all done left me with?”
Hylan laughed. “Look, man, I know what you’re saying. I was talking that same crap just a few months ago.”
“Ah, yeah.” Charlie bobbed his head. “Guess you waved that white flag of surrender, too, Mr. It’s-Never-Gonna-Happen.”
Hylan tossed up his hands. “All right. All right. I deserved that one.” He chuckled at all that mess he was talkin’ at Charlie’s wedding. “Just charge it all to the game, I guess, because I’m marrying Nikki today.”
Taariq shook his head and mumbled, “It just ain’t right.”
Derrick glanced over at Charlie. “You know Isabella and Gisella are going to be mad that they missed out on a Caribbean wedding.”
Charlie shook his head. “True. But Gisella is too far along in her pregnancy to fly anyway. At least that’s the excuse I’m gonna lay on her.”
“Humph. Well, I’m going to direct all Isabella’s complaints straight to the man who’s responsible for this sudden rush,” Derrick said.
“Send her my way,” Hylan said. “I got this.”
Knock. Knock.
“Come in,” Hylan yelled.
Momma Mahina, Hylan’s estate caretaker pushed open the door and stuck her head inside. “The reverend is here. Think you guys can be ready in five minutes?”
“I’m ready now.” Hylan puffed out his chest.
His boys laughed at his eagerness.
“Damn, man.” Taariq slapped a hand against Hylan’s back. “My bad. You really are sprung.” He struggled to wrap his brain around that.
Smiling, Hylan shrugged his friend’s hand off his back. “All right. Keep poppin’ that B.S. That just tells me that your ass is gonna be next.”
Taariq’s hands shot up in the air. “Now don’t try puttin’ no hexes on a brotha. I ain’t puffing on whatever it is y’all puffing on.”
“Then I’ll be next,” Stanley declared.
All eyes turned toward him.
“Are you even seeing anybody?” Derrick asked.
“Bump that. When was the last time you had a date?” Charlie razzed.
Stanley puffed out his thin chest and waved his brothers off. “C’mon now. Y’all know I gets the ladies.”
They all gave him the “get real” stare.
“A’ight. A’ight,” Stanley said, determined not to pay them no mind. “Watch, I’m gonna find me a honey so fly, y’all gonna be trippin’ over your tongues.”
Derrick winced. “Honey?”
“Fly?” Charlie asked.
“See, that’s your problem right there,” Taariq said. “You’re still stuck in the ’90s. Just be happy that Tawanda over at the Waffle House takes pity on you and breaks you off a piece every once in a while.” Stick with her and leave Anna alone.
The brothers cracked up laughing.
“All right. We better get ready to do this.” Hylan said and then remembered something. “By the way, I got this business venture I want y’all to all to take a look at soon.”
They all looked at him with the seemingly sudden change of topic.
“My baby girl wrote this cool play and I want you guys to consider investing in it.”
Once again, the men exchanged looks. “All right, man,” Derrick said, holding up his fist and giving his man dabs. “You got it.”
Hylan beamed as each one cosigned on the deal.
Two minutes later, Hylan and the Kappa Psi Kappa brothers pushed and squeezed their way through the two-story palatial villa. The moment the people realized the groom was coming through, a sudden cheer went up and people finally started moving out of the way.
“Damn. Is everybody in the Caribbean in here?” Taariq grumbled. It was strange to see such a herd of people c
rammed into the house. One would think that they were attending some celebrity wedding.
“Trust me. They’re here for my wife.” Hylan chuckled. “They’re crazy about her.”
And it was true because the little whoop that Hylan had created was nothing compared to the full-out cheer that went up when Nikki and her small entourage made their way down before the smiling reverend.
“I guess you weren’t kidding,” Taariq whispered. Again, he noted that the bride to be was indeed a beautiful woman, but he couldn’t help the knot of distrust hardening in his stomach. Could it be that his buddy Hylan got snared by a gold digger? He wouldn’t be the first brother to fall victim. He had to hand it to this Nikki chick, she was creative.
Taariq glanced back over at Hylan. The brother was so far gone, it was sad to watch. Big moon-eyes, goofy-ass smile, Taariq suspected that all this Nikki chick had to do was say jump and Hylan wouldn’t even ask how high. He would just start bouncing his butt all up and down Saint Lucia like a wild rabbit. Restraining from shaking his head, he somehow managed to carve on a fake smile and stand in as the best man while hating every minute of it.
When Nikki finally stopped to stand by Hylan’s side and Reverend Oxford launched into his ceremony, Taariq started to mourn the carefree playa lifestyle that he and his Kappa brothers used to enjoy together. One by one, their small dog pack was collapsing. No more competing for the finest women at the club. No more bragging about who lassoed the wildest freak. Hell, for that matter, no more late nights of any kind. Any day now, Charlie’s wife was about to push out their first rug rat and Derrick and Isabella were actively trying to get pregnant.
How in the hell did all of this happen so fast?
Taariq’s gaze roamed to his left toward a grinning Stanley. A chuckle bubbled up in his chest. He loved Stanley like a blood brother, but Doogie Howser had more game than the over-eager redhead. If he was reduced to having Stanley as his sole wingman, he was going to have to take the brother under his wing and upgrade his playa status.
My Only Desire Page 7