by Brandie
“Ooh, Uncle Cha-late say bad word.”
“That Sap?” His enthusiasm changed drastically.
“Yeah, that’s her big head.”
“Who dat?” Sap asked.
“Who is that?” I corrected her, “It’s Uncle Money.”
Money spent time with her, but not enough. She thought that every time Money came around she was supposed to get gifts and presents. Love, she expected from my mom and me, but she needed to know love from him, too.
“Let me holla at her.”
“Hel-lo.”
“Big girl, I thought it was your bedtime.”
She giggled. “When you coming here?”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I’ll pick you up from school.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow, Babe. Now get some sleep. I love you.”
“Everybody loves Sap.”
“Yes, Babe. Everybody does love you.”
“Man, she getting so grown. I got to get this shit straight before she get too old. She needs to be calling me daddy.”
“You don’t even know if she yours or not.”
“Nigga, we both know the truth. Look at her. She looks just like Maynea.” Money sighed, not wanting to continue the serious conversation. “So you comin’ or what?”
“Nigga, them girls ain’t goin’ nowhere. They at Money Loane’s house. You might have to kick ’em out.”
“Tell Ma I’ma pick Sap up tomorrow.”
“Luvly will have her tomorrow,” I said, not really thinking about it.
He sighed. “Well, call her and tell ’er that I’ll pick Sap up.”
“No can do, baby daddy; that’s all on you.”
“Whatever, pretty nigga. I’ll do it myself.”
“Later.”
“Later.”
Sap was already asleep. I took her to her bed. Scooting Trinket over, I lay Sap at the opposite end and kissed them both on the cheek.
About to walk out the door I turned around and looked at them. Those little girls had everything a child could possibly need or want, but in actuality they were the poorest children because their parents were shaky and becoming more unstable by the day.
They didn’t and would never have privacy. They could never lead normal lives. Everything they did would be exploited and scrutinized by a newspaper or magazine. The only thing they would probably have was each other.
My mother walked up behind me, putting her hand on my shoulder.
“Short lady, what you doin’ sneakin’ up behind me?”
“Just remembering when me and your dad would stand at this doorway and look down on you when you were their age, worrying about your future and if we were raising you right. Seems like yesterday I could protect you from everything and anyone, but now you’re grown and you have to protect yourself. You have celebrity status now and vulnerability to the world. I just want you to know that your father and I will always provide a safe haven for you.”
Turning around to face her, I said, “Thanks, Ma. I needed that. I’m just looking at them thinking the same thing. They’re never going to be protected from everything or everyone.”
“They’ll be all right. They have a lot of loving people in their life.”
I hated involving my mother in my personal business. She was so protective of me. Sometimes she flew off the handle, without understanding the whole situation.
So I didn’t tell her about Haven. I guess that’s why Luvly didn’t like telling us about her and Diamond.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Luvly
My life had not turned out how my parents or I wanted it to. I was the first to admit that I had made too many mistakes, some of them unforgivable. The biggest mistake of all—Diamond. I don’t know why I couldn’t let his doggish ass go. The crazy thing was, it had nothing to do with love; maybe it was obligation or the pity sermons he used on me. He made me damaged goods mentally, emotionally, and physically, took me to levels worse than I’d imagined.
The only man that understood where I’d been and what I was going through was about to walk out of my life. I knew he was tired of me being wishy-washy, but I needed Money to survive.
If it weren’t for Money and Chocolate and their parents, I would have been in an insane asylum. I knew my parents were tired of the mess I went through and involved them in. And being strongly religious, they didn’t believe in having a baby without being married. With them it was “until death do you part.”
I wanted my daughter to grow up and become a strong successful, black woman with charisma, substance, and goals, something her mother did not possess.
Sure, my nail shop was doing well but I wanted to be a professional and have a sense of security. I wanted to go back to school for nursing or teaching. When I told Money about my plan, I thought maybe he would see that I was serious about us getting married and raising Sapphire as a family.
That beautiful house was a shock. I thought Money was so far up those hoes asses that he would sweep me to the side like he had done Salone for so many years.
* * *
The day that Money showed me the house, I was so depressed.
“Money, where are we going? I just wanna stay in your bed and sleep away my entire past so I can start fresh.”
“Even me and Sap?”
“No, just the bad things.”
“Well, I have a surprise for you.”
“I’m in a sweatshirt and jogging pants, with a baseball cap and the smell of sex on me! I’m not going into public!”
“You’re going to be in the privacy of your own home.”
“What?”
We pulled into a circular driveway of a pale pink house. It was gorgeous.
“Money, I don’t want to meet any famous people right now. Please take me back to your place.”
He got out of the car and opened my door. “Come on, lovely.”
I smiled because I knew he was calling me lovely and not by my name. He was so sweet sometimes, I guess when I wasn’t bullshitting him.
“Whose house is this?”
“You like it?”
“Yeah.” He opened the door and motioned me to go inside. “Boy, is you crazy? These people are going to call the police on me. Shit, you famous, they’ll just ask you for your autograph.
He leaned over and kissed me passionately. “Luvly, get yo’ ass in this house.”
When I walked in the front door it had cathedral ceilings but no furniture. A five-step bridge lead into a sunken den.
There were two bedrooms side by side connected by a huge bathroom with a Jacuzzi in the middle of the floor. There were circular steps in the middle of the foyer that led up to the kitchen and an outside balcony.
“This house is the shit! I love the way it’s designed. Matter of fact, I told you about this when I was sixteen.”
He laughed. “Would you like to live here? Raise Sap here?”
“Hell, yeah.”
“Come this way.” He led me to a circular part of the house that turned into a huge round bedroom. An oatmeal-cream canopy with thick tall spiral poles and a dresser and armoire to match decorated the bedroom.
“Money, somebody lives here!”
He just smiled and stood in the doorway with his hands on the ledge of the door. “This bedroom is for a princess, no, a queen!”
I fell back on the bed. It was so soft and fluffy.
“Look under the pillow.”
I looked at him like he was crazy. “What?”
“Girl, just look under the pillow.”
There was a pink envelope. When I opened it, it read:
This is a precious gift for the two precious women in my life. I love you, Luvly. Please accept this house as a home of love and care for you and Sapphire.
Love You
Money
I started rolling around in the beautiful bed.
When I looked up he was standing above me. “Luvly, I love
you, girl. Just promise me something.”
“Anything, Money.”
He lay down on top of me and held my face. “Diamond is not to come on this property at anytime. If he wanna see Sap, take her to him, but under no circumstances is he to be in this house.”
“You got it baby.” We sealed the deal with a kiss.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chocolate
As I looked through the glass door, I noticed Joi’s hands waving wildly, her lips moving tightly together, but still letting fierce words roll off her tongue.
“Fuck you, you bastard! I don’t want to hear that same lame-ass shit you been talking for years! I’m so tired of yo’ lyin’, triflin’ ass. You ain’t shit!”
Taeko had guilt written all over his face. While he stood looking defenseless with his hands tucked into his pockets and shook his head from side to side. “I ain’t lyin’ to—”
“Muthafucka, we gon’ see who lyin’!” She pointed her finger to the tip of his nose, her five foot three frame looking the same height as his.
“Look, don’t bother Chocolate with dis right now,” he pleaded. “He already goin’ through some thangs.”
I opened the door. “What’s up now?”
Taeko gave me some dap without looking me in the eyes. He swiftly walked past me, and down the hall to get Trinket.
Joi stood in front of me with a glazed stare. “Chocolate, tell me what I’m hearin’ in the street ain’t true.”
I couldn’t look her in the eye. I hadn’t asked Taeko about all the stuff in the tabloids, but I knew him, I knew it was true. “I don’t know, Joi. I just got back in town.”
“He told me that he spent two days in New York with you, but when I called your hotel room they said you weren’t in and that I’d just missed you.”
That could have been true. So what was she bugged about? “And?”
“I had just hung up the phone with Tae and he said that you were layed out, ’sleep.” Her eyes began to water.
Damn, Taeko! What was you doing, man?
With pleading eyes, she said, “Chocolate, I’ve never asked you anything or involved you in my home life, but I’m in a tough situation.” She wiped her eyes and clenched her teeth. “But if I find out that baby is his, I’m gone.”
“What baby?”
“Some white flight attendant is claiming to be pregnant. I’ll take his ass through the ringer! We not playin’ house no more. This is the real deal, no matter how much y’all don’t want to grow up.”
Taeko came out with Trinket over his shoulder before I could defend myself.
In an innocent voice, Taeko said, “Ba’, you ready?”
She turned toward me giving me a sharp look that said don’t discuss what we’d just talked about.
“Let me walk them to the car, and then I’ll be ready.”
Always the hyper, energetic, joking one, Taeko’s spirit seemed broke.
* * *
On the way to Money’s house, it was quiet, but I had to ask Taeko about all these accusations multiple women and too many babies. Joi only mentioned one baby, but from my reliable sources there is one baby already born and two with paternity suits waiting. “Hey, man, you screwin’ white girls?”
He looked at me then back at the road. “One or two.”
“What!” I almost lost control of the car. “All we go through as black men, with black mothers, sisters, and daughters, and you go and screw some funky, nasty, white pussy. What do you think Trinket is going to think about herself, her father choosing a white woman over her black mother? If you were already with a white woman from jump and had kids with her, then I wouldn’t be trippin’.”
“Man, don’t you think I think about that? I try to keep my affairs out of Georgia.”
“Nigga, the media is everywhere you are! I thought you were smarter than that.”
“Yeah, I thought I was, too.”
Usually I would be dapping him telling him to go for what he know, but now he had kids, a home, and a very high-profile career, not to mention he was black and always being watched for that reason alone.
“What about this baby thing?”
“Babies?”
“Nigga, what was you thinkin’ about?”
Sounding real hopeful, he said, “Renae is pregnant, but it might not be mine. This one girl I met in Philly who moved down here two months ago—she’s about three months. She swears it’s mine, but I ’on’t know. I’m just gon’ pay they ass to shut up.”
“When you go for the blood test somebody is going to see your name on those papers and sell that story fo’ sho. So payin’ they ass is just what they hopin’ for.”
“Joi talkin’ ’bout leavin’ me. I thought that’s what I wanted, but now that it’s front and center, I’m about to break. I can’t lose her or my babies. They keep me sane.”
“Stay at home sometimes, and keep yo’ dick out of everything movin’.”
* * *
As we pulled into Money’s castle, Maxwell’s “Fortunate” serenaded us. We could hear the water splashing from around back. All styles of cars were sittin’ pretty, parked every which way to fit in. As I passed a Tahoe, a sexy fragrance hit my nose.
“Damn, some girl was so cheeked up she forgot to roll up the window.” I took another deep breathe of the sweet fragrance.
“Money, got this thang hot, don’t he?”
“Probably got every stripper under the Atlanta moon in here.” We both laughed.
I was glad that the mood had lightened. I put in my code, and we entered Money’s pussy playground. Girls were running around in dental floss bikinis with titties flapping, and asses bouncing.
“Hey, chic, where’s Money?” I asked a redbone with too much ass for her bathing suit.
“He’s downstairs handing it out.” She said excited. When we got to the basement, he was sitting in his big-boy lounge chair with three girls dancing on and around his face. One girl was standing on the arms of the chair, facing us, with Money’s face between her ass cheeks; the other two girls were shaking it up on the sides of the chair.
“Ooh, more football players!” A variety of women screamed.
“Naw, stupid. That’s Taeko Hill; he plays for the Hawks.” A sexy, chocolate sister with deep dimples confirmed.
“Ooh, that’s even better.” Someone from the crowd of women yelled.
One girl stopped dancing and walked up to me. “And you that model everyone is hollerin’ about.” She was high as a kite. Fine, but not my type.
Money finally came up for air. “Dah go my dawgs. What’s up, Tae? Get at it, nigga.”
The biggest grin covered his face, like a kid in a candy store. Two of Money’s teammates and two Atlanta rappers were in the backyard, under the waterfall.
“Jazzy Hoes” by Jermaine Dupree came on outside, and the girls went wild. They start stripping and shaking their asses wildly.
“Why you and Chocolate standing there like y’all scared of pussy?”
One of the girls, slim and with some big-ass titties, came in wet from the pool, smiling from ear to ear. “I need a towel or a tongue to dry me off!”
Taeko’s eyebrows raised, and Money licked his lips.
“Well,” she said, cupping her large breast and waiting for a response.
The girl with the long red ponytail that was dancing on Money, took a towel and layed it on the couch for the big-titty girl to laid down. Ponytail started licking up her leg like it was a chicken bone. Me and Taeko looked at each other then back at them. She was sucking the hell out of her thighs.
The girl laying on the couch moaned as she stuck two of her own fingers inside herself, “Ummm, taste it, baby girl.” She stuck her wet fingers into the other girl’s mouth. The girl with the red ponytail licked and sucked on the moist fingers. She must have loved the taste of the girl’s juices because she dug her face deep into the girl’s pussy. Smacking and slurping like she was eating finger food.
“Man . . . these hoes wil
d as hell!”
“Just the way I like ’em.” Taeko walked over to the girls and started rubbing on redhead’s ass.
She started shaking and gyrating, motioning for him to enter her. I walked back upstairs. All that ass, smoke, and music was giving me a headache.
I decided to go to my custom designed guestroom, which Money had built for me. Right then I wished, I was at my new home wrapped up with my mysterious woman. That was a lost cause.
I checked my messages.
Beep: Chinoe, I’ll be in Atlanta in two weeks. Do you think you can spare up some time for me? I know Atlanta’s my home, but since I’m never there it seems so unfamiliar. Give me a call on my c-phone. I had a nice time last night. This Chaise; of course you probably already know that. Call me.
She’s tryin’ so hard, but this is the wrong time in my life.
Beep: Chinoe . . . I don’t know where to start. I’m so sorry for trying. I mean I know that I’ve messed up, but tell me how I can make it up to you. She was crying and sniffing. Please call me.
She done lost her goddamn mind. Fuck her!
I layed across my old waterbed from my mother’s house and tried to clear my mind. I was engulfed in darkness. I requested no windows be built into the walls.
The music sounded like it was gettin’ louder and the girls wilder.
“Damn!” It was almost eleven thirty. I knew exactly what I wanted to be doing.
Ring . . . Ring . . . Ring.
“Hello.”
Silence.
“Hello,” I said with aggravation in my voice.
“Chinoe . . . it’s me.”
Man, this broad was not understanding that I was done wit’ this episode. “Man, da hell you want?”
“You.”
“After that shit you pulled? Hell naw.”
“Chinoe, tell me what to do.”
In the calmest voice I could render, I told her, “Kiss my ass.”
She let go of a hopeful breathe, “Chinoe, please—”
“Please what, Haven? You want me to keep walking out the front door, while he comes in the back?”
“No, no, it’s not like that at all.”
“I’m hangin’ up since you don’t want to fess up.”