Don't Hate the Player

by Brandie

  * * *

  “You sure you ready to go into this club. It’s been a long time since you seen some pussy, you might bust one on the spot,” Money joked.

  “Nigga, please. Come on.”

  Me, Tae, and Money walked into Platinum Kat, being announced by the DJ, as we took our seats by the stage.

  The music was pumping, the drinks were already coming, and me and my boys were together. The atmosphere was long over due.

  Dances were swarming our table like bees to honey.

  “Girl, football players in da house!!!”

  Chapter Eighty-Five

  Brandie

  Fifty girls ran to the back, talking about putting on their baddest outfit.

  Musta been Cartel and his crew. I didn’t mess with him anymore, but he still came to see me every weekend.

  I’d been trying to recover from New Years 2000. I stayed home and toasted to the peach drop on TV this year with a few friends. I admit that Chinoe never left my mind, but neither did those pictures of him fucking Chaise. Or the letter she sent me.

  Brandie,

  I know you don’t know me, but I know your man, physically and mentally. He was once my man. We had a relationship until May 24th. You came in his life and wrecked mine. So, in return, I’m wrecking yours. When we were in New York for that three-day shoot, there was no shoot. I did tell him there was one, but when he got there he could have left, but he chose to stay and fuck me raw without a condom, licked my ass and my pussy, while you were getting yours licked by Cartel Trems.

  Me and Chinoe were on our way into bliss until you came into his life. So now, Bitch, die on the inside. Leave him. He deserves to feel what you did when you saw his dick in me, his mouth on me.

  Good RIDDANCE, BITCH

  Chaise

  That bitch had real nerve. Even though I thanked her for not letting me play the fool, I better not ever see her face as long as I live.

  “Girl, you better hurry up and get out here and catch you one.”

  As I walked out the door, I could see the house was packed. I did my usual routine, walked to the DJ booth to request my music. I was in a slow, mellow mood tonight. I wanted something sexy and sweet. The first thing I asked for was some Prince. “Hey, Mr. DJ. Can you play, IF I WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND, by Prince.”

  “If you be my girlfriend.”

  “We can arrange that.” I winked and smiled at him.

  He dropped his headset. “For real, Brandie?”

  “Yes, Cappers, for real.”

  “What else do you want to hear?”

  Looking through the albums, JUST ME AND YOU, by Toni Tony Tone. And ONE MORE CHANCE remix.

  After confirming my first date with Cappers, I went to the bar to get my regular drink. The bartender already had it waiting, “Thanks.”

  I turned to look at the crowd to see who I could see. I almost fell off my seat, and choked on my drink. There he was. Sitting by the stage, my favorite spot to dance. He was looking sexy as hell, too. Stop it, Brandie! Don’t look at him. But I couldn’t help it. My revenge was getting the best of me. I knew he probably thought that I didn’t work here anymore, but I had something for his ass.

  “Please, gentlemen, welcome to the stage, Miss Caramel Delite.”

  The crowd went wild as usual. Cappers played JUST ME AND YOU. I danced straight down to the middle, in front of Chinoe’s face. He had a dazed look on his face.

  Money and Tae were waving money in the air. Money winked at me, motioning for me to come closer, holding the money over Chinoe’s head.

  I stopped in front of Chinoe. At first he sat motionless. I made my body sing the song to him. He licked his lips, looking me up and down from head to toe. “Like it?”

  He nodded his head yes.

  Prince came on next and I moved more seductively, making my hips and pussy call his name. “You want it?” He nodded yes again, his lips shiny and wet from licking them.

  I untied one side of my bikini and shook my hip, almost touching his lips. I turned to the back and moved my ass slow and sensual, making it jiggle just a little.

  He leaned forward putting a hundred dollar bill in the crack of my butt. I turned around to the front and untied the other side. My bottoms dropped to the floor and he picked them up, taking a deep whiff of the seat. He placed them tight in his fist.

  “One More Chance” thumped through the club, and I fell in love all over again.

  “You want me.”

  He nodded yes and dropped the panties to the floor, smiling and licking his lips. He stood up, so that we were face to face, my breath exchanging for his.

  Money and Tae started hollering, “Get that thang, Chocolate. Take ’er back home wit’ chu, nigga.”

  We didn’t break the stare down. Our breath was intertwined. I was searching his soul and he was searching mine.

  I wanted to see if he suffered from my absence. I needed to feel his pain, and know if he was sorry for what he had done.

  “I love you, Brandie.”

  I continue to look deep inside him for the answer.

  “I want you in my life, Brandie, I’m miserable without you. Please come home, baby.”

  Looking at him stand at my mercy, made me want to take him back. He was sorry for what he’d done, wasn’t he? My love for him could over take what he’d done, couldn’t it?

  The music was thumping so hard, and everything was moving so fast that my concentration was off. How could I take him back, welcome him back into my heart? He slept with Chaise and I’d given myself to Cartel.

  As our lips were about to touch, I pushed him back. “We can’t do this.”

  “Why not? I love you, Brandie. You are the only one for me.”

  “Too much hurt has pinched my heart. I don’t want this again.”

  I stood fragile in front of him, fumbling with my hands, trying to decide if I should stay or walk away.

  Money, Taeko, and the entire club were staring at us like we were on a movie screen.

  If I stayed, problems would always follow us. I could still see those damn pictures of him and Chaise in the front of my mind. I could see him eating her pussy, licking her ass and raw-dicking her.

  How could I forgive him? And most of all, how could I forgive myself? I was just as wrong as Chinoe. I slept with Cartel because I felt smothered. Who’s to say that Chinoe wouldn’t smoother me even more if we got back together?

  “I can’t do this to me or you. We both have done too much to save it.” I walked away not looking back.

  I didn’t want to see him anymore. Did I really mean that? Or was it that I wanted him so bad that I couldn’t handle it?

  I knew he wouldn’t follow. He still had pride. His boys weren’t going to let him fall prey to me again.

  I walked straight to the dressing room and grabbed all my stuff. I was walking away from Chinoe, the club, and the lifestyle. I was finished!

  As I was about to walk out the back door, “Brandie, please talk to me. I know that we both did some low-down shit, but baby, time has healed all that. We’ve been through so much to just let go.”

  “Look, Chinoe, we don’t need to repeat the past. We need to learn from it.”

  I tried to walk around him, but he grabbed my arm and made me think of the night at Red Lobster, when he choked me.

  “Chinoe, please take your hand off my arm.”

  “I just want to make you understand that I love you.” She stared at me like I was foreign to her. Why did I have to meet her in the first place? Why couldn’t she have just stayed a fantasy and a one-night stand?

  “What do you want from me, Chinoe? Love? Companionship? To be your trifling whore?”

  “All of you.”

  Wanting to say yes, I swallowed the lump in my throat. “We tried that once already.” I shifted my bag to the other shoulder. Heat was rushing through my body.

  “Look, just give me your number. Mine is still the same. Please, Brandie, let’s just start over; set a date to talk about ever
ything.” I promised myself that I wouldn’t wimp out if I seen her again. But seeing her has made my heart tell my mind that everything could be possible again.

  Chapter Eighty-Six

  Chocolate

  It’s been one month, three weeks and two days since she stood cold and heartless in front of my face and told me she didn’t want me. Maybe, she had moved on with her life.

  I saw a picture of her and some busta, who was said to have the hottest club in Atlanta, in Ebony. She looked like his princess that belonged on my throne.

  “Chinoe, why are you sitting out here?”

  Why was this bitch bothering me while I smoked my problems away? “I’m just smoking one. I’ll be back inside in a minute.”

  “It’s cool out here, and all you have on is a tank top and boxers.”

  “Damn! Are you my mother now!” I pushed her hand away from my chest. “I don’t need a piece of pussy trying to be my care taker.”

  Shit, I needed Brandie . . .

  Urban Books

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  Wyandanch, NY 11978

  Copyright © 2006 Brandie

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews

  ISBN: 978-1-6016-2045-3

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living, or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

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