by Tracy Brown
For a moment Rah-lo thought he heard a twinge of jealousy. “What’s the matter, Ish? You mad you didn’t think of it first?” Rah-lo smirked, knowing that Ishmael had a crush on Celeste. He had no concrete proof, but he could tell there was something more than feelings of friendship there.
“What did you say?” Ishmael wanted to make sure he wasn’t misunderstanding his friend.
“Why you so concerned about whether or not I went to find Celeste? You sound like you really felt a kinda way about me supposedly going after her. What’s that about?”
“Rah-lo, I don’t know what you’re getting at right now, but let me make this clear. I don’t want Celeste. Never have, never will.” It was a lie, but it was a necessary one at the moment. “If you decided to leave Asia ’cuz you weren’t happy, I understand that, too. It’s your life, son. My only concern is that business could’ve suffered while you were out of the loop for three days. That’s all I care about. We already had a bad week. Isn’t that what you said?”
Rah-lo didn’t answer. But he heard Ishmael loud and clear. As Ishmael told Rah-lo half-truths, Nina came home and was visibly thrilled to see that Ishmael was there. He hadn’t been home since she’d caused a scene at Charly’s. Nina wanted to set things right. She smiled eagerly and waited for him to get off the phone.
Ishmael concluded his telephone conversation, agreeing to meet with Rah-lo to go over business later that day. When Ishmael hung up the phone, Nina walked over and hugged him tightly. He halfheartedly returned the gesture.
Sensing his reluctance to be nice to her, Nina took matters into her own hands. She stroked his dick inside of his jeans and kept going as he rose to the occasion. When he was fully hard and throbbing, she stepped out of her dress and stood before him in a black bra and a matching thong. He watched her lustfully as she unzipped his jeans. Ishmael was surprised by her silent aggression but didn’t resist as she kissed him. He was still pissed off at her for causing a scene at Charly’s salon and for confronting Robin. Ishmael enjoyed the feeling as Nina worked hard to make it up to him. Before long he was leading her to the sofa, where she stepped out of her panties as he unhooked her bra.
As she stood before him completely nude, Ishmael thought Nina was such a beautiful woman. She had so much potential, but she was so fucking insecure. If she wasn’t so needy and so desperate for commitment, he could see himself loving her for a long time. But lately she had turned into someone he no longer recognized. He didn’t want to be with a woman who demanded more of him than he was willing to give. “You’re gonna make me leave you,” he said.
Nina frowned. That wasn’t the reaction she had expected. Ishmael stood in front of her with his dick standing at attention, while she was naked and ready to get it poppin’, and here he was threatening to leave her. She was speechless.
Ishmael pulled her close to him and kissed her roughly. She matched his intensity as she kissed him back. He sucked her lower lip, while he slipped his middle finger inside of her. Nina moaned deeply and dug her nails into his back. He slipped another finger inside of her and grabbed her ass roughly with his other hand. “Stop your bullshit,” he warned her. “I’m serious.”
With Ish’s rock-hard dick pressed against her bare belly, his two fingers deep within the wetness of her pussy, and his big, strong hand palming her ass, Nina was in heaven. “Okay,” she whispered. She took the lead once more and shoved him down, straddling him. She plunged his stiffness deep within her pulsating walls and rode him in a perfect rhythm. Ishmael rubbed his hands across her body, squeezing her and kissing her all over. It wasn’t long before she climaxed, throbbing on his rigid dick and sending him into spasms of ecstasy. Nina kissed Ishmael as he came. She loved him, and hoped that his breathless recovery signaled that he had forgiven her.
She stood and looked at him. “You still mad at me?” she asked.
Ishmael smiled. “Yup.”
Nina mushed him playfully and went to the bathroom to clean herself off. Ishmael sat there on the couch and laid his head back against the cushions. Within minutes, he was asleep. Nina returned to the living room and found her man fast asleep. She smiled, grateful that he was home again. Now all she had to do was make sure that he stayed there.
She spotted his phone sitting on a bedside table. She glanced at him once more, making sure that he was really asleep. She heard him snoring softly and she walked over to his phone, picked it up, and headed into the bathroom. Locking the door behind her, she scrolled through his phone and checked to see whom he had been calling. Her heart skipped a beat as she spotted a number she didn’t recognize. The area code made her blood pressure rise instantly. She had traveled enough in her days as a stripper to recognize the Atlanta exchange. She hit the “send” button and waited for confirmation of her worst fears.
“Hi, you’ve reached Celeste Styles. Leave me a message and I’ll return your call.” Nina heard the voice message and she felt like the roof of her head was about to blow off. She hung up without leaving a message, and tears began to stream down her face. Checking his call history, she saw that he had also called another number numerous times. She dialed that number and was stunned to hear Robin’s voice answer, “Hello?” When Nina said nothing, Robin continued saying, “Ish, stop playing. What’s wrong? You miss me?”
Nina slammed the phone shut and charged out of the bathroom. She felt like a damned fool. Storming into the living room, she threw Ishmael’s phone at him, hitting him in the chest. He woke up and looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.
“You’re fucking around on me, Ish!” she yelled. “I saw Celeste’s number in your phone and Robin’s, too. You cheating bastard!”
Ishmael knew he was caught. Nina had gone through his phone—a cardinal sin in his book. “Fuck you going through my phone for?” he demanded, standing up and towering over her.
“Don’t turn this shit around! You fucking lied to me.” Nina began to cry. “You been cheating on me and all this time you’ve been saying you’re not ready for marriage or kids … . How could you do this to me?”
Ishmael shook his head in frustration. “I told you I wasn’t ready to settle down,” he said simply. “You walk around here nagging me about it day in and day out. You forced me to cheat on you!”
“Shut the fuck up, Ish! That’s bullshit and you know it!” Nina was enraged. “Fuck you!” she spat.
Ishmael walked toward the door and Nina threw one of her shoes at him, hitting him in the head. He turned, ready to charge at her, but caught himself. Instead, he laughed at her and shook his head. “Fuck you, too! I’m outta here.” He slammed the door behind him and left her crying in his wake.
Ishmael drove to his secret lair and called Robin on his way over there. She answered the phone, sounding confused. “Ish, why’d you hang up on me before?”
He adjusted his earpiece and gripped the steering wheel. “I didn’t call you,” he said. “Nina did. She got ahold of my cell phone and went through all my numbers.”
Robin frowned. “I thought it was over between you two. How did she get your phone?”
Ishmael had to think quickly. “I went over there to get some of my stuff. While I was there I fell asleep on the couch and she came in while I was asleep.”
Robin didn’t buy it. But she wasn’t in the mood to play the role of the interrogator. “Okay,” she said. “Thanks for the heads-up. I guess I should expect some bullshit with her as a result of all this.”
He sighed. “I’m on my way to my spot. Why don’t you come and keep me company?”
Robin rolled her eyes. Ishmael was back on his player shit again. She was no dummy. She figured that his relationship with Nina wasn’t completely over yet. And since she was acting up tonight he wanted to replace her with Robin. “I can’t,” she said. “I’ve already been over there three times this week and I have to study. Finals are coming up.”
“Come on,” Ishmael coaxed. “Just for a little while. I don’t feel like being alone tonight.”
Robin shook her head. “I’m sorry, Ish. Maybe some other time.” The truth was Robin needed to put the brakes on. She was completely vulnerable as a result of the intoxicating sex they’d been having. She needed space to get her heart in check.
Ishmael hated being told no, but he relented. “Aiight. Just call me when you have some free time.” He ended the call and pulled up at a red light. Ishmael leaned back against the headrest and let out a heavy sigh. He had a long and lonely night ahead of him.
“Hello, Rah-lo?”
“Yeah,” he answered. Looking at the clock, he realized how early it was. It was just after eight o’clock in the morning. “Who’s this?”
She tried to steady her voice, which was laced with raw emotions. “It’s Nina,” she managed. “I need to talk to you about Ishmael.”
Rah-lo was all ears. He had gotten a call from Ishmael late the night before. Ish had told Rah-lo that he was going out of town for a couple of days after having a big fight with Nina. Rah-lo hadn’t questioned it, since he knew firsthand what it was like to feel the need to escape the drama at home. He figured Ishmael would explain what happened once he got back. “Okay,” Rah-lo said.
Nina took a deep breath. “Ishmael’s a fucking liar. You can’t trust him. None of us can.” Her voice shook as she spoke.
Rah-lo frowned, wondering what the fuck was going on. “What are you talking about?” he asked. “Calm down and tell me what happened.”
“Ishmael told me that you left Asia and that you went to find Celeste.”
Rah-lo sighed. “I did leave Asia, but I never said I was going to find Celeste. It was a misunderstanding. Asia got that shit in her head all by herself. Nobody told her that.” He wondered if that was what had Nina so upset. He rolled his eyes, hating how women often overreacted. He had no time for Nina’s drama right now. He was tired. “Ishmael didn’t do nothing wrong. Asia’s bugging out. Relax.”
Nina couldn’t stop her tears from falling. She felt a toxic mixture of hurt, rage, and vengeance. Ishmael was going to pay for breaking her heart. “It was no fucking misunderstanding. He told me that so that I would think he was talking to Robin to try to help you find Celeste. But he was really fucking Robin. And Celeste, too.”
Rah-lo’s jaw clenched immediately. “What are you talking about?”
“Ishmael is a liar! I found Celeste’s number in his phone and he’s been talking to her all this time. All this time he was pretending to be your friend and pretending to be my man and he was playing both of us.”
Rah-lo seethed but said nothing.
Nina continued, “I went through his phone and found her number. And when I checked the call history, he had talked to her on the phone the other night for over an hour. Did you know that?”
Rah-lo thought back on his earlier conversation with Ishmael. Not once had he mentioned speaking to Celeste. “Nah,” Rah-lo said calmly. “I didn’t know that at all.”
Nina was satisfied. Misery loves company. “I figured you should know what kind of friend he really is.”
Rah-lo’s mind was reeling. He couldn’t believe that Ishmael would betray him like that. “How long has he been in touch with Celeste?” Rah-lo asked.
“I don’t know. For all I know he could’ve been in touch with her all along, since the day she left.”
Nina sounded terribly hurt and Rah-lo wanted to believe that that was why she had made this all up. “Let me get the number he dialed. How do you know it was Celeste?” Rah-lo asked, still giving Ish the benefit of the doubt.
“Call for yourself. If she doesn’t pick up, you’ll hear her say her whole name on the voice mail. Four-oh-four …” Nina recited the number, which she’d memorized.
Rah-lo didn’t need to write it down. He committed it to memory easily and said, “Aiight, Nina. Try to calm down and I’ll call you back.”
When he hung up the phone, he dialed the number and waited for the answering machine to come on. Instead, a sultry female voice answered, “Hello?”
Rah-lo’s voice got caught in his throat. He would recognize that melodic voice anywhere.
“Hello?” Celeste repeated.
“Celeste,” he said, his worst fears confirmed. “It’s Rah-lo.”
Celeste felt her knees go weak and wondered what the hell was going on. Had Ishmael given Rah-lo her number? Damn! “Rah-lo? How did you get my number?”
Rah-lo felt his heart racing in his chest. “Did you ask Ishmael the same question when he called you?”
Celeste didn’t know what to say. She held the phone in silence.
Rah-lo didn’t know where to begin, so he struggled to find the words. “I’m not with Asia anymore, Celeste. I left her.” He hoped that would be music to Celeste’s ears.
“Ishmael already told me that. Congratulations,” Celeste said flatly. She figured her conversation with Ishmael had been nothing more than a cleverly disguised precursor to this conversation. “What? Are you on your way down here with Ishmael? Y’all planned this whole thing?”
Rah-lo gripped the phone so tightly that he thought it might snap in half. “He’s on his way down there?”
Celeste was confused. She had assumed when he called that he had gotten her number from Ishmael, that Rah-lo and Ishmael had planned the whole thing. “How did you get my number if you didn’t get it from Ishmael?” she asked.
“Nina gave it to me. She found it in his phone. So I’m curious about how he got your number. How long have you been talking to him? You’re telling me he’s on his way down there to see you?”
Celeste could hear the irritation in Rah-lo’s voice and she knew him well enough to know that he was heated. She still couldn’t believe that she was speaking to him after four long years. “I just spoke to him for the first time the other day,” she said. Celeste could sense drama on the horizon.
Rah-lo said, “I don’t understand. All of a sudden I got my boy’s wifey calling me accusing him of betraying me … and betraying her, too. And now you’re telling me that he just called you out of the blue and now he’s coming all the way to Atlanta to see you? What’s up with that?”
Celeste was confused herself. She wondered what the hell had happened between Rah-lo and Ishmael to cause them to keep such secrets from each other. And how the hell had Nina gotten involved? “Rah-lo, I don’t know what’s going on,” Celeste said. “All I know is that it’s early in the morning on my day off and I’m sleepy. I’m not a morning person.”
He smiled. She never had been a morning person. He couldn’t believe that she was right there on the other end of the phone. He sighed and closed his eyes. “Damn, baby girl,” he said. “It’s good to hear your voice.” Celeste said nothing in response. Rah-lo forged ahead. “I miss you. I never stopped missing you since the day you left.”
Celeste hated herself for being so glad to hear those words. She shook her head as if to shake the feeling off. “I-I can’t talk right now,” she stammered, and hung up the phone abruptly. “Shit!” she hissed to herself. She couldn’t believe he had her number! Rah-lo’s voice echoed in her ear, causing her to feel elated and mortified at the same time. She missed him, too—in her heart she did. Her mind was telling her to change her number and forget all about him. It was too late and she had come too far. She grabbed her iPod and her car keys and decided to head to the gym to blow off some steam. She needed to clear her head. Too much was happening all at once.
Meanwhile, Rah-lo headed out to find the man whom he had once considered his friend. Ishmael was a dead man. Rah-lo got behind the wheel of his car and dialed Ishmael’s number. He had to find out where Ishmael was.
“Whattup, son?” Ishmael answered.
Rah-lo’s face was twisted into a menacing grimace. “What’s with this ‘son’ shit all of a sudden, Ish? You been sounding kinda sure of yourself lately.”
Ishmael frowned. “What are you talking about?” He sensed hostility coming from his friend and wondered if he had found out about the side deal Ishmael had cut with Cito
. “What’s the problem?”
“Where you at, Ish? I need to meet with you right now.”
Ishmael was in his secret apartment, but he wasn’t about to divulge his whereabouts to Rah-lo until he could figure out why he sounded so upset. “I’ll come meet you on Staten Island,” Ishmael said. “Where you at?”
Rah-lo was furious. “Meet me at my house on Howard Avenue. Don’t keep me waiting, son.” Ishmael could hear the sarcasm in Rah-lo’s voice. The next thing Ishmael heard was a dial tone, signaling that Rah-lo had hung up on him.
Ishmael threw some clothes on and headed out to Staten Island. The twenty-minute drive felt like it took days, as Ish wondered what the hell Rah-lo’s problem was. Ishmael finally arrived at Rah-lo’s sprawling second home and parked his car. He pulled his gun out of the glove compartment and put it in his waistband, just in case Rah-lo got crazy. Ishmael had to admit to himself that he felt nervous as he approached the doorway. He rang the bell and waited.
Rah-lo answered within moments. He opened the door and ushered Ishmael inside without a word. He stood in Rah-lo’s foyer waiting for him to tell him what this was all about. Rah-lo got right to the point as he stood and faced Ishmael with only feet separating the two friends.
“You betrayed me, Ishmael. After all these years of me thinking that you were like a brother to me, you fucking played me.”
Ishmael frowned, confused. Rah-lo obviously knew something and Ishmael decided to address the issue head-on. “What, nigga, you mad about Cito?”
Now Rah-lo was the one who frowned. “Cito? What the fuck happened with Cito?”
Ishmael cursed himself for making an incorrect assumption. Thinking Rah-lo had found him out, Ishmael had spoken too soon. But it was too late to turn back now. “Aiight, listen,” he said. “The last time you picked up the money from the workers, it was short. And you know it was short. I don’t know if you shorted me or if the workers shorted both of us. And, honestly, with all the bullshit you’re dealing with from Asia right now, I didn’t feel like bothering you with my problems. But I got bills to pay, son. I got moves I gotta make and I can’t afford to have a slow week. So I went to Cito and got some work of my own.”