Single Ladies 3&4

by Blake Karrington

  “Where da hell is everybody else?” Kim asked, looking around the house.

  As soon as she said that, Tammy came walking in the door. She too looked different and she had a brand new attitude along with a nice outfit. It was rare that Tammy got dress but when she did, it was big. She had on an all white Karen Millen mesh bandage dress that hugged her petite shape and a pair of black Salvatore Ferragamo’s. In her hand was a black and white tote, and on her face was a pair of Victoria Beckham shades. She definitely dug in the closet for this look.

  “Throw it up, Throw it up. Watch it all fall down,” Tammy song, sounding just like Rhianna.

  “Yo, I’m jealous,” Falisha said, looking at Tammy and Kim. “What in da hell got into y’all bitches,” she laughed.

  They both were sitting there like two high school girls getting ready to go to a party.

  “I don’t know about Kim but I’m single and if I get drunk enough somebody’s getting some pussy,” Tammy joked but was kind of serious.

  “Girl Chris gone kill you,” Falisha smiled.

  “Chris better worry about his other baby mother I just met the other day,” Tammy responded.

  Falisha’s and Kim’s jaw dropped and their eyes shot wide open.

  “Yeah and she’s white. I saw the little girl and she look just like dat nigga,” Tammy told them.

  “Oh my God girl. Are you okay?” Kim asked knowing that it must of hurt to find that out.

  “Shit girl I’m fine. I’m not gonna let that ruin my night. We goin’ out to drink, have fun and make it rain on dem niggas at da club,” Tammy said.

  “Did anybody see Lisa. I haven’t talked to her all day,” Falisha said, getting up from the chair and walking over to the window to see if her car was out front.

  “Girl you know her and Ralphy goin’ through something right now,” Kim answered. “I doubt if she comes.”

  Falisha whipped out her phone anyway and tried to call her but she didn’t get an answer. She then texted Lisa to see if she would answer, but she didn’t. Falisha looked down at the clock on her phone and shook her head seeing that it was already 9:30. Ernie’s party started at 10:00 and it was going to take at least 45 minutes to get to the Mandingo’s Den.

  “Look, we running a little late as it is, so I’ma text Lisa with the address to the club and we’ll meet up with her later. She got her own car so she should be alright,” Falisha suggested.

  Everybody agreed. Falisha, Kim, Tammy and Annet all checked themselves one last time in the mirror before heading out the door.

  __________

  Ralphy pulled up to his old block on Washington Ave. where at one point in his life, he sold drugs there. It’s been so long since he actually been in the streets but even still the ‘hood knew who he was. Before he started dating Lisa, he was the man in his ‘hood. A lot of people feared him but most loved him. Aside from the countless shootings, the many fist fights and the unlimited amount of cocaine he sold, Ralphy showed the ‘hood love.

  “Seeing you is like seeing a ghost,” Scoop, an old friend said walking up to Ralphy.

  He gave Ralphy a thug hug, mainly because he missed him. They were like best friends when Ralphy was on the block and ever since Ralphy got married and had his daughter, Scoop only saw Ralphy every once in a while.

  “Awe playboy. Don’t do me like dat. You know ya boy still love ya,” Ralphy laughed, throwing a jab at Scoop’s arm.

  Ralphy and Scoop walked down the street, catching up as much as they could with the current events going on in the neighborhood. Scoop even managed to grab a 40oz. bottle of Old English for old time sake.

  “So what’s really going on brah. I know you ain’t stop by just to catch up on old times,” Scoop said knowing it was a reason behind this visit.

  “Damn, a nigga cant just chill with his partna,” Ralphy laughed, seeing Scoop was still sharp as a knife.

  “Come ‘on nigga. I knew you for how long…10 years my nigga,” he smiled. ”What, you tryin’ to get back in da game?” Scoop asked with a little excitement.

  “Nah playboy. I’m done with da game. But what I do need is some heat,” Ralphy said with a straight face.

  Scoop looked at him and saw that he was dead serious. He knew something or somebody must of ticked Ralphy off for him to be wanting to deal with his problem by way of pistol. Scoop wasn’t going to ask any questions though. The less he knew the better. Scoop reached under his t-shirt and grabbed a black 10 shot 40. Caliber off his waist. He cocked it back slightly to make sure a bullet was in the chamber.

  “Yo, dis my bitch. You take good care of her, and I wouldn’t care who you shoot with it, bring my baby back to me. I’ll give you a more permanent gun tomorrow,” Scoop said, but not before kissing his gun, then passing it off to Ralphy. “Do you need a co-defendant?” Scoop asked, willing and ready to ride with his boy.

  Scoop was a wild boy. He reminded Ralphy of O-Dog from Menace To Society. He was young, black and just didn’t give a fuck. He would shoot anybody, and wouldn’t care if it was broad daylight with a hundred people looking on. If it was any other type of drama, Ralphy would have taken him along for the ride. But this trip was a solo trip. Ralphy only had one person in mind he wanted to kill, so it was best that he did it on his own. Shit had got real now and the only thing that could save the person he wanted to kill was God.

  __________

  “Happy Birthdaaaay!” the crowd yelled out all together.

  Bottles starting popping, the music started thumping through the speakers and everybody started dancing. Ernie had the club jumping with all of his gay friends. Surprisingly there were a lot of females there, most in which were lesbians, but it was also a nice amount of straight women there as well to support.

  One thing about the gay community they do it big. Gay men always seem to have the most beautiful female friends, so for the few straight men that was in the building, it was like heaven.

  “Happy Birthday baby girl,” Falisha walked up and said to Ernie, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek.

  Tammy, Kim, and Annet all did the same thing as they passed him their gifts they brought for him.

  “Thank y’all,” Ernie spoke, sitting up in his birthday chair. “I hope y’all brought a lot of dollars,” he laughed swaying back and forth to the music.

  On Q, the music shut off and the lights went dim. In Mandingo’s Den, the strippers had three stages to dance on so once the music cranked back up, everybody who knew better, rushed the stages.

  Mongoose, the stripper crawled out onto the center stage, seductively freaking his body to Lil’ Wayne’s “Lollypop” song. He had on a pair of 7 jeans and some construction Timberlands boots. His tank top was ripped off immediately, revealing his cut up body. The gay men who knew better had taken up the front of the center stage. They were throwing dollars like it wasn’t nothing.

  Tyson, another stripper came out on the other stage, but he danced his way to the floor level. He had on nothing but a pair of Speedos’ and a life guard t-shirt. He seductively ripped his shirt off as well, crunching his stomach to flash his six pack. A crowd of men, and a couple of women gathered around him and made it rain all over top of him.

  Elephant Trunk, Louisville Slugger, Banana’s and Foot long, all danced their way out from back stage, onto the floor. The whole club went crazy.

  “Oh shit!” Falisha yelled out as Elephant Trunk danced over to their section.

  A crowd gathered around him almost instantly, including Tammy, Kim, Falisha, and Annet. They were all yelling and screaming and throwing dollars on top of him as he humped the floor to the rhythm of the music.

  “Make it rain bitchessss!” Tammy shouted, flickering one’s from her stack onto him.

  Tammy was having a ball. Hell, everybody was having a ball. Ernie was really showing his ass though. he jumped up on the table and started shaking his ass. His gay friends was throwing dollars at him like his was one of the dancers.
<
br />   “Ernie ballin’ out yo,” Annet yelled out pointing across the room to where he was at.

  After about 30 minutes of the dancers being out on the floor, all of them as if on cue, danced their way back behind stage. Everybody clapped at their performance thinking that it was all over. Then, the lights went dim and the music shit off again. You could still hear clapping and whistling in the crowd.

  When the lights came back on, Harold, Ernie’s best friend was standing on the center stage with a microphone in his hand He motioned with his hands for the people to settle down and when they did, he spoke.

  “Thanks for coming out everybody. I wanna call my good friend Ernie up to the stage,” he said waving for Ernie to join him.

  Ernie and his chair was escorted to the stage where he sat like he was a diva.

  “You know we had to save the best for last,” Harold said, smiling and clapping. “Happy Birthday Ernie,” he said, and then backed down off the stage.

  The lights got dim again, then they began flashing wildly all throughout the club. Ernie looked around trying to figure out what was going on, smiling from the excitement. Then a voice spoke through the speakers.

  “Now coming to the stage. The moment you’ve all been waiting for. Mandingo!!”

  Kelly Rowland’s song “Motivation” came through the airwaves, then from behind the curtain and onto the stage came Mandingo, the best male dancer in the club. He was such a good dancer they named the club after him.

  He glided out onto the stage with a cowboy hat down over his face, a pair of leather pants with fringes on them and some cowboy boots. He danced around Ernie’s chair seductively, making Ernie have to fan himself with the stack of dollar bills he had in his hand. First, the dancer danced out of his leather pants, and then he took off his hat to reveal his face. Ernie threw the whole stack of money in the air, and then fell back in the chair like he had passed out.

  When the dancer turned around to dance for the crowd, he beat on his buff chest and snarled. Falisha and the girls were sitting at their tables pouring shots of Patron. Annet just so happened to look up on the stage, and damn near choked on her own spit when she saw the dancer gyrating his body all over the place. She tapped Falisha who looked up at the stage. Falisha tapped Kim who looked up and actually did choke on her shot of Patron.

  They all sat there with their mouths wide open and in total shock that before their eyes, standing on the stage wearing nothing but a G-string and a pair of cowboy boots, was none other than their very own, Lamar.

  Single Ladies: Episode 4

  Previously On Single Ladies

  Falisha and Big Fox finally called it quits after being somewhat together for the past six months. It was all in the making, because Falisha was beginning to understand the feeling of someone that actually wanted to love her. Lamar had her going, and he was all that she could think about now. At this point, giving Lamar a chance to act on all of his promises was at the top of her list. Hopefully, he’d prove to be the man that he says he wants to be for her.

  Speaking of Lamar, he had some shit with him as well. In a crazy twist, he and Kim became close—very close for that matter—when they had sex for the first time. Not only did they have downright fist pumping sex, they were now under the “friends with benefits” clause, which made it a daily routine to sleep with one another. Lamar’s only problem was keeping his feelings for Falisha and Kim a secret. He didn’t want either woman to know about the other, so he now had to wear two hats and live two lives.

  Ralphy found out about Lisa’s spending habits and her “cabin fever” with Dre. Their relationship was pretty much over, but even after getting caught sleeping around, Lisa was hoping that she would be able to fix their marriage. He had other plans though. Ralphy wanted to face the man who ravaged his wife and broke up his happy home, all the while planning for his divorce. What he was going to do or say, only God knows, and hopefully you will too after you read the final installment in the first series of “Single Ladies”.

  Chapter 1

  Tammy pulled up in front of Chris’ mom’s house in an all white 2009 Chrysler 300 with tinted windows. It looked just like a dope boy’s car, equipped with chrome 20 inch rims and a touch screen TV in the dashboard. The car was nice, and it looked pretty much brand new.

  Ms. Elaine walked out onto the porch, shocked to see Tammy behind the wheel. “Whose car are you drivin’?” she asked as she came down to help Tammy unload the kids’ things out of the vehicle.

  “It’s a friend’s car,” Tammy responded. ” I’ll be back to pick them up tomorrow, and here’s a few dollars, ‘cause I know they’re going to want something out of the vending machines when y’all get to the jail.” Tammy had stuck by her word and made sure that Chris was still able to see his kids. She just wasn’t going to be the one bringing them up there to see him. That job now belonged to Chris’ family.

  “Tammy, are you alright?” Ms. Elaine asked with a curious look on her face. “I hope you’re still not mad—”

  “You know what, Ms. Elaine? I’m actually good right now,” Tammy said as she passed her the last of the overnight bags.

  “Is there anything you want me to tell Chris while I’m up there?”

  Tammy just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. She didn’t have anything else to say to him. She was at the stage where she was trying to move on with her life. She didn’t want to continue to dwell on the past. She forgave Chris for having another baby on her, but she will never forget it. How could she forget? The little girl was going to be around for a very long time, and that was a reminder for Tammy in itself.

  __________

  Lamar focused his eyes over at Kim, who was lying next to him with a big smile on her face. They had been having sex every day for the past week, sometimes two times a day.

  Kim was really taking advantage of the “friends with benefits” deal. She hadn’t had this much dick in her life, or at least since she was a teenager. It was starting to become addictive, just like her rabbit or the bullet she couldn’t stop using. In fact, ever since Lamar had been handling his business in the bedroom, she hadn’t even been using her toys, except for the one time she brought the bullet to a sex session.

  “What’re you lookin’ at, Kim?” Lamar asked, turning onto his side to face her.

  “I still can’t believe that you’re a male dancer. I mean, I never pictured you being a stripper,” she laughed.

  Lamar smiled. “Yeah well, I never thought yo ass would be a paralegal either. I always thought you would be a doctor, or maybe even working for NASA or some shit. But here you are, wasting ya time looking up case law all day.”

  “Shut up, boy! I like my job,” Kim shot back, along with a jab to his arm. “I was thinking about taking the bar exam, maybe becoming a lawyer at my firm.”

  “A lawyer? Yeah, I can see that, ‘cause you sure know how to lie ya ass off!” he joked.

  Kim reached behind her and grabbed one of the pillows, and then hit Lamar in the head with it. He playfully retaliated, jumping up and hitting her back with the pillow that he was laying on. The both laughed and giggled.

  Kim tried to wrestle with him, but Lamar was too strong. He pinned her down to the bed, then climbed on top of her. She struggled for a minute, then stopped once he leaned down and softly kissed her lips. He pulled back, looked down at her as she looked back up at him. He leaned in and kissed her again, this time adding a little tongue to it. Although she was enjoying it, she caught on to what was going on. She pulled back and turned her head to stop him.

  Lamar immediately saw that something was wrong. “What’s the matter?” he asked, releasing her hand that was still pressed to the bed.

  “Nothing. I’m cool,” Kim answered, rolling from up under him then grabbing her shorts and tank-top off the floor. “I gotta go.”

  Lamar didn’t dig it at first, but after watching her get dressed and storm out of the room, it hit him and became clear what was g
oing on. The boundaries that were put in place in the beginning of this sexacapade were starting to get crossed.

  Kim didn’t want her feelings getting involved, and the way Lamar was treating her was starting to trigger something. It was like they were already in a full-fledged relationship; something that she was trying to avoid. Before it had could go any further, she was going to put an end to it, or at least slow things down a bit.

  __________

  “I hope you put some gas in my car,” Darious joked when he saw Tammy enter the customer service area.

  “Boy, shut up!” she smiled and passed him his keys.

  Over the past couple of weeks, Darious and Tammy had gotten cool. They talked on the phone just about every night, mainly about life and the goals they wanted to accomplish in the near future.

  Darious had become somewhat of a friend; somebody Tammy could go to for advice, and even on one occasion, a loan.

  “Oh, did you think about what I asked you the other day? You know the weekend is right around the corner and I kinda wanna get an idea if you wanna go with me,” he said.

  “I don’t know… I’m not sure if that’s a—”

  “Look, no strings attached,” Darious said, throwing both of his hands in the air. “It’s only two friends going out to the casino to do a little gambling,” he continued.

  One thing Tammy didn’t have to worry about was Darious having any ulterior motives behind taking her out. He wasn’t like most guys who always looked for something in return after they had took a girl somewhere or bought her something. He was a gentleman, which was something that was rare in Charlotte. If he said they were going out as friends, then that’s what it would be. “I’m not spending the night out there,” Tammy said with a big smile on her face.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll have you home by one, maybe 2:00. Now, if I get on a hot streak, that’s another story!” he chuckled.

  They both shared a few laughs before having to get back to work.