Hakeem & Tasia : A Brick City Love Story

by K. C. Mills

  “Yo, I’m out,” I said, and started moving towards my truck. I could feel Brit watching me and then I heard her speak.

  “See ya round Keem. I’ll tell Tay you said hi.” I didn’t even bother looking back or responding.

  “Keem, hold up,” I heard Jodie yell just before I reached my truck, so I posted up against it and waited as he jogged towards me.

  “You good man,” he asked. He knew I wasn’t feeling that shit with Brit.

  “Yeah I’m straight. I’m bout to head home.”

  “So you think she’s really kicking it with someone?” Jodie looked my in the eyes to see how I was feeling about that.

  “Might be, she’s been gone for damn near six months so you know how that goes.” I could feel my pulse quickening thinking about Tay being with someone else.

  “Could be Brit just talking shit though. You know how she is. Brit is messy as hell, Keem. You know that.”

  “It doesn’t matter. If she’s good, then I’m good.”

  Jodie just stared at me, and I could tell he wanted to say something else about it, but he just let it go. He knew me and he knew that I missed Tay, but I also wasn’t about to stress myself out trying to fit into her world. She was doing her thing and that was cool, but it didn’t leave much room for us.

  “So what do you think about doing business with Rasta?”

  Rasta had a nice little set up over in Brooklyn, and had been in touch about us bringing him on. We had more connections and could provide him with protection that he couldn’t get on his own, and since we were looking to expand, it seemed like a good move but we needed to go check him out and see how he ran his operation first.

  “I was thinking about it but we need to set up a meeting first,” I said.

  “He called this morning and I told him that one of us would head that way today. You can handle that shit and I’ll stay here to make sure our shipment comes in. That way you can see what he’s working with and maybe check in on Tay.”

  Jodie looked at me with a big ass grin.

  “You’re not slick. Maybe I’ll just go check him out and bring my ass home,” I said.

  “Nah, you might as well hit her up since you’ll be in the city.”

  “Yeah and what if I catch up with her and she’s hugged up with some Tyson Beckford looking dude?”

  “You know what it is. Body his ass and keep it moving,” Jodie said, serious as hell. He was team Tay for life, and the shit was funny as hell.

  “I don’t know, I might check her out. I’ll think about it.”

  “Do those shit, bruh. You know you wanna she her vanilla wafer ass.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, he was dumb as hell.

  “Aight, well I’m out. Hit me up with the details about Rasta, and I’ll roll out in a little while.

  “Aight bet.”

  After I finished my meeting with Rasta, it was almost four so I decided to drop by Tay’s job to see what she was up too. I was really hoping that I didn’t run into her chilling with another dude, because that shit wasn’t going to go well.

  We tried to keep things going after she left, but shit just wouldn’t fall in place. She had crazy hours and mine were even crazier, so we talked all the time but never could find the time to see each other. I had been to her apartment a few times when she couldn’t make it home to see me, but after a while we both just drifted apart. The conversations faded and eventually turned into a text every once in a while, just for the sake of staying in touch. It was really fucking with me because I missed her like hell, but it just didn’t seem to be our time.

  I knew she was doing her thing though, because Lisa made a point of keeping me updated on everything that Tay was into, like the fact that she was styling artists for videos and events and even got to help out with a movie that they were shooting in the city. It seemed like her life was moving fast, and leaving me behind in the process.

  Don’t get me wrong, my shit was on point too. Business was good and I had no complaints. Jodie and I had two barbershops and three laundry mats, so we were able to keep our money clean. Both of our bank accounts were stacked, and I wasn’t hurting for anything. The messed up part about it was that all the money in the world couldn't make up for me going home to an empty bed every night.

  I had females that I kicked it with, but that shit was temporary. I usually chilled with them at hotels or at their cribs, because I wasn’t bringing any of them to my spot. They were cool and all, but they couldn’t compare to Tay and I knew that shit. I was just buying time with a quick nut when it came to anyone but Tay, but shit I had to do something because a brother had needs.

  When I walked in the building, the receptionist stuck her chest out and went to grinning at me like a damn fool. She was cute, but not my type. Too damn skinny, and she looked young as hell.

  “Can I help you?” she asked, leaning forward and placing her elbows on her desk.

  “I’m looking for Tasia Clark,” I said, looking around the room and trying not to give her any ideas.

  “Hold on.” She typed something on her laptop, and then looked at me grinning again.

  “She’s on site today. Time Square. Would you like the address?”

  “Yeah thanks.”

  She scribbled something on a note pad, folded it, and handed it to me. I thanked her again before I left. Once I was in my truck, I unfolded the paper and she had written an address. Up under the address, she made a point of also writing her name and phone number with a heart.

  Females just didn’t care anymore. She had no clue who I was or why I was looking for Tay, but she was damn sure trying to get at me. Fuck that. I tore off the part with her number written on, it tossed it out the window, and then keyed the address in my GPS.

  Fifteen minutes later, I was at what looked like a photo shoot. The streets were blocked off, with two trailers on site and cameras set up. I got out and grabbed the first person I could get my hands on, which was a tall thin white guy whose pants were too short and too tight. His hair was spiked while he wore glasses, a striped shirt, and bowtie.

  “Yo, do you know where Tasia Clark is?” He checked me out from head to toe before a smile spread across his face.

  “And who are you handsome” he asked with a grin.

  “Just a friend,” I said, mugging him hard as hell.

  “Mmmm, okay sexy. She’s in trailer two. Over there. You can just go on in. It should be open,” he said before he winked at me and strutted off. I just shook my head. That shit was too much.

  I walked over to the trailer and took a deep breath before I pulled the door open. It had been a minute since I had seen or talked to Tay, and I wasn’t sure how she was going to react, especially if Brit was telling the truth and she was cozy with anther dude. Lisa never mentioned anything about Tay moving on, but Lisa also wasn’t messy so she wouldn’t have told me anyway.

  I pulled the door open and stepped inside, and immediately regretted my decision. I felt fire flow through my veins when I walked in to see Tay laughing, standing in front of a dude that was butt ass naked.

  “The fuck is going on in here!” I yelled with so much bass in my voice that they both turned to face me.

  “Keem, what are you doing here?” The look of confusion filled her face as she glanced at dude, and then back at me.

  “You know what, don’t worry about it. You’re obviously busy.” I turned to walk away, but she rushed me and grabbed my arm.

  “Yeah, I am busy. I’m at work. This is work,” she said, waving her hand behind her at dude, who was still naked and now watching me.

  “So you being in here with this muthafucker’s dick swinging is work. That seems like a little more than work to me, Tay,” I said as my eyes narrowed and locked on hers.

  “Yes Hakeem, this is work. It’s what I do. I was helping Donavan pick his outfit for the next shoot before you walked up in here yelling like a damn fool.”

  She turned to dude. “Donavan, grab those right there and give me a
minute. I’ll be outside.”

  He nodded with a smirk on his face that made me want to lay hands on him but that wasn’t happening because for one he wasn’t dressed and two, because Tay pushed past me, grabbing my arm and pulling me outside with her. She was mad as hell because the second we were outside, she shoved me in my chest as hard as she could, and then stared going in on me.

  “What the hell is your problem? I haven’t seen or talked to you in literally two months, and then you show up at my job acting like you don’t have any damn sense.”

  “Yo, chill with all that. I missed you and I was in town, so I decided to come check you out but I guess I should have called first, that way I wouldn’t have interrupted your little orgy with your little boyfriend in there.”

  “You know what? You're an asshole, and he’s not my boyfriend, he’s one of the models I’m working with, which means that yeah sometimes they’re naked around me, but trust me it’s strictly business, and fuck you Keem for making it seem like it would ever be more than that.”

  The hurt that filled her eyes had me feeling like shit, so when she turned to walk away I grabbed her and pulled her into a hug.

  “Tay wait.” She tried to get away from me, but she couldn't break free.

  “Calm down, just relax for minute. I’m sorry.”

  When she finally stopped fighting me, I kissed her on the top of her head and let her go so that I could see her face.

  “That shit just hit me wrong. You know I didn’t mean anything by it.”

  She just looked at me, and I waited or her to respond.

  “Why are you here, Keem?”

  I knew why I was there. I missed having her in my life, and hearing that she was actually moving on was like a wakeup call. I wasn’t about to let that shit happen.

  “We need to talk,” was all I said.

  “About what, Keem? We tried, it didn’t work. So what do we need to talk about?”

  “So it’s just that easy for you? It’s fuck Hakeem. That dude must be doing something for you if you don’t even want to have a conversation with me, Tay.”

  The expression on her face dropped and she looked confused. “What are you talking about?”

  “Brit told me about your new situation,” I said, trying not to sound as jealous as I was feeling.

  I could tell that it clicked before she finally opened her mouth to speak. “Brit needs to mind her business and stop worrying about mine.”

  “So who is he?” I asked.

  She looked at me and laughed. “So that’s why you’re here? You find out there’s somebody else and you finally decide to show up. As long as I was alone you were fine, but the second you find out that there’s a possibility that someone else might be what you couldn’t figure out how to be, you wanna show up making demands.”

  “You know what, fuck it. Do your thing Tay. This was a mistake,” I said, and then turned to walk away.

  “That’s just like you, Keem. You don’t like what you hear and you walk away. When are you gonna fight for me? Am I not worth fighting for?”

  I stopped dead in my tracks.

  “You want me to fight for you, Tay? I’ll body the whole fucking city if it means that I can have you, but you’ve gotta be willing to do the same. Don’t try to put all this shit on me. You didn’t fight for me either.”

  She just looked at me before she sat down on the steps of the trailer.

  “I’ve got another few hours here and then I’ll be done. Will you wait?” She looked up at me in a way that I couldn’t resist. I loved this damn woman and she knew it.

  “You can come watch, or you can wait in here.”

  “Hell no. I’m not going back in that shit. I’ll wait out here,” I said. “And make sure you tell him to buy some damn draws–business or not, that shit isn’t right and you know it.”

  Tay just looked at me and laughed. “I missed you Keem.”

  She stood up and wrapped her arms around me. I didn’t know how, but we were about to make this shit work.

  Tasia

  “Great job today, Tay. You killed it as always.” Jacob wrapped his long thin arms around me and kissed me on the cheek.

  “Thanks Jacob. I hope the photos come out okay,” I said as I moved around set, filling my bag with all my things.

  “Sooooo, who is tall dark, handsome, and edible?” Jacob asked, looking back at Hakeem and then me

  “Just and old friend,” I said.

  “Spill Tay. You know Donovan already filled me in on the meltdown your mystery guy had when he walked in on Donovan in his birthday suit.”

  “Donovan has a big mouth,” I said, and rolled my eyes at Jacob.

  “Donovan has a lot of big things, but we’re not talking about Donavan. We’re talking about sexy over there.

  “You are too much, Jacob. We’ll talk about it tomorrow, but I need to go right now so I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Okay love, but be prepared to tell it all, and I do me ALL.” Jacob hugged me one last time and walked away with a grin.

  I made my way over to Hakeem, who had his eyes on me the entire time, and I couldn’t help but smile as I approached him. I couldn’t deny that I missed him.

  “You ready to go?” I asked

  “Yeah, where we going?” he asked.

  “Do you wanna go eat?”

  “Yeah we can do that?”

  We made our way to Hakeem’s truck. He opened my door, waited for me to get in, and then shut my door.

  Once he was inside, he just sat there and looked at me.

  “What?”

  “Nothing, you just seem different,” he said, and then started his truck.

  “Is that good or bad?”

  He chucked a little and then pulled out into traffic. “Definitely good. So where we going?”

  “Um, there’s a cool spot around the corner from my place. We can go there and then I can change. I have to make an appearance later at a party.” I turned to face Hakeem to see his reaction, but he just nodded.

  “Will you go with me?”

  He glanced at me, and then focused on the road again. I knew Hakeem well enough to know that his silence was basically his answer.

  After we reached the restaurant and were seated, we both just sat there for a while awkwardly staring at our menus. Neither of us wanted to start the conversation that we needed to have, but the silence was killing me.

  “So you wanna tell me about this guy?” Hakeem said randomly.

  “So you wanna tell me about that girl?” I said.

  “Don’t be cute Tay, I’m serious.”

  “So am I,” I said.

  He exhaled and gave me the most irritated look. “I’m kicking it with a few females, it’s purely sex, I never kiss them or show them any type of affection, and they know their place.”

  My mouth fell open, but I had no words for what I just heard.

  “You asked,” he said with the most serious expression, “Your turn.”

  “Well obviously you’ve been a lot busier than I’ve been.”

  “You left. What did you expect me to do?” he said in a way that was cold and heartless.

  “I’m not going to feel bad about having a life, Hakeem.”

  “I don’t expect you to, but I also don’t expect you to be mad about me living mine.”

  “So you’re mad at me because I left?”

  “No Tay, I’m proud of you. What I’m mad about is that you just walked away and was like fuck you Keem.”

  “How can you even say something like that?”

  “Tell me who the guy is then?”

  “It’s nothing serious, we’ve just been hanging out lately and that’s it. It’s not like we’re shopping for wedding rings or anything,” I snapped. This fool just told me that he had several female that he was sleeping with, and then had the nerve to grill me.

  “Did you have sex with him?” Hakeem asked.

  I didn’t answer; I just looked away.

  “Exactly.
Fuck you Keem.” He pushed his chair back, reached in his pocket, and pulled out a fold of money. He left a hundred dollar bill on the table for what was easily on a forty-dollar meal and then looked at me.

  “Let’s go.”

  He stood there looking like he was ready to murder the world, and it got worse when I didn’t move.

  “Tay, Let’s go.”

  I pushed my chair back and stared at him for a few seconds before I stormed towards the door. The second we were outside and he unlocked his door, I opened the passenger door, got my bag and purse out, but shut the door and moved towards the curb.

  “Where the fuck are you going?” Hakeem asked.

  “Home. It’s only one block, I can walk.”

  “I know where the fuck you live, Tay. Stop acting like a damn child and get in the truck.”

  “You are such an asshole. You just sat there and told me that you’re sleeping with a few females, and I’m supposed to be okay with that but then you get pissed with me because I’m having sex with someone that I’m in a relationship with.”

  Hakeem’s crazy ass just looked at me for brief moment, and then laughed arrogantly. “Oh, so it’s a relationship now. You’re full of shit, Tay. What happened to its nothing serious, we're just hanging out?”

  “Why is that any different than what you’re doing?” I asked.

  “Because if you’re calling it a relationship, then you’re emotionally invested. It’s fucking with me that you’re having sex with him, but I can get over that shit. What I can’t get over is that you’re giving your heart to another dude. That shit was supposed to be mine, Tay. So that’s how it’s different, very different. I don’t give a fuck about any of those females and they know it, but you care about that him, I can see it all over your face.”

  I didn’t say a word, because I didn’t know what to say. I hated to admit that he was right, but he was. I had been with Jace for the past three months, and I cared about him. It was nothing compared to the way I felt about Hakeem, not even close, but I did have feelings for Jace.