by Kiki Swinson
“So what’s the problem, then? I know you’ve got at least an ounce of common sense left in your brain somewhere!”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Momma, you are something else!” I walked over to her and kissed her on her forehead. “But don’t worry about me. I am going to call Maxine and straighten out everything. All right?”
“I hope so, because I done already endured one of your long prison sentences and I don’t think I can go through another one.”
“Momma, I promise you that I am not going back to prison,” I tried to assure her.
“I sure hope not,” she muttered and then walked me to the front door. “You know, you wouldn’t be going through this nonsense if you would’ve listened to me when I told you not to mess with that lady in the first place. I knew it was a bad idea from the very beginning. But no, you didn’t want to listen.”
“Momma, don’t let this mess get you all bent out of shape. I told you I was going to handle it, so stop worrying.” I kissed her forehead once more.
“The day I stop worrying will be the day you start living right.”
“Give me two weeks and your prayers will be answered.” I smiled and walked away.
“Be careful,” she said and watched me as I walked toward my car.
“I will,” I told her.
The moment I got into my car, I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Maxine’s home number. She didn’t answer the phone so I dialed her cell phone number. She answered it on the second ring.
“What’s up with you?” I asked her.
“Don’t you think I need to be the one asking that question?”
“Well, go ’head,” I responded nonchalantly.
“Seth, please don’t be a smart ass! You know you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”
“About what?” I asked.
“For starters, how come you haven’t been answering my phone calls?”
“Because I wasn’t trying to get in an argument with you.”
“That’s a lame-ass excuse. Now, I know you could’ve come up with something better than that.”
Frustration began to consume me. “Look Maxine, what’s up? Whatchu gon’ do?”
“Whatchu mean, what I’m gon’ do?”
“Are you getting ready to send me back to jail, or what?”
“If I were, don’t you think I would have done it by now?”
“Well, why the fuck you keep calling my mother with that bullshit, then?”
“All I did was call her and tell her that I had been trying to contact you on your cell phone, but you hadn’t been answering my calls. I just asked her to get a message to you, and that was it.”
“My mother ain’t no young girl, so her heart can’t take all that shit you keeping throwing at her.”
“So, what you’re trying to say is that I offended your mother?” she asked sarcastically.
“Nah, I didn’t say that.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“Listen Maxine, just stop calling the house. Point blank! If you want to holler at me, call my cell phone, but if I don’t answer, then you’ll just have to talk to me later. It’s just that simple.”
“So, it’s like that, huh?” She sounded irritated.
“Look, Maxine, I don’t want no beef with you, a’ight? All I want is for shit to be easy. I just want to make this money and hit you off with the dough you need so you can open up that business you’ve been talking about.”
“You think I give a damn about the money?” she screamed. “I want you, but lately you’ve been acting like that’s a problem. And I know Samantha is the main reason why you’ve been giving me the cold shoulder. But let me tell you this: if you think you and her are going to be together when she gets out of prison, then you’ve got another thing coming.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Call it whatever you want, because I can promise you that if I see you and her together, both of y’all’s asses are going right back behind bars. You can mark my word on that one.”
“So, it’s gonna be like that?”
“You damn right, because I have done nothing but have your back from day one, and everything had been going good. Then all of a fucking sudden, when you find out that your gangsta bitch is on her way out of the system, you start flipping the script on me. Do you honestly think that I am going to sit back and just let you toy with my feelings? Hell no! I swear on everything I love that if you don’t wise up and get your priorities back in order, I am gonna let the fucking cat out the bag! And I don’t care if I get pulled in all this madness too, because at this point, my life means absolutely nothing since I can’t have you in it. So, if this whole conversation doesn’t get us to come to a compromise, then you might as well say goodbye right now and hang up the fucking phone.”
As I listened to Maxine go on and on about how I’d made her feel since we separated, I realized that this bitch had become a serious nut case. She was seriously contemplating getting all of us locked up if I didn’t come back to her. I mean, how deranged did that sound? My moms was right about this chick, and I was at a loss for words and didn’t know how to handle her ass. I wanted so badly to curse her ass out and tell her to kiss my ass and do what she had to do because I was sick of the threats. But I knew that would be a dummy move on my part, so I did the opposite and told her some shit I knew she wanted to hear.
“Ay yo, look,” I said, trying to get my thoughts together, “let’s get together later on at your place, so we can talk about this further.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. Either you’re gonna do what you’re supposed to do by me, or I am going to have to do what I got to do,” she replied sternly.
I sighed heavily and then I said, “Can you please cut me some slack? You acting like a nigga done did you grimy or something.”
“You have,” she said without hesitation.
“All right, check this out. After I finish taking care of my business, I’m gonna come by your crib so we can lay everything out on the table.”
“What time will that be?”
“I’m not sure. But it won’t be too late,” I told her.
“Do you think you’d be able to get over here before midnight?”
“Yeah, I’m sure I could do that.”
“All right. Well, can you do something else for me?”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“Can you keep your dick in your pants?”
I was at a loss for words again and did not know how to respond when Maxine threw that request out like that. My curiosity got the best of me because I wanted so badly to ask her where the hell that came from. I mean, for her to come out of the blue and tell me to keep my dick in my pants only meant that she knew something. But then again, she could just be playing me to see if I’d volunteer some information. And I wasn’t gon’ do that. Shit, I’m the type of cat you’d have to catch in the act before I’d confess, and since it wasn’t that type of party, I was gonna play dumb and act like I didn’t know what she was talking about.
“Whatchu mean by that?”
“Come on now, Seth. You know what I’m talking about.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t. So tell me.”
“Seth, just cut it out! I know you’ve been fucking one of them project chicks out there where you be hustling. But, I’m telling you now that it better stop.”
“Where the hell is this shit coming from?” I wanted to make a statement, but I knew that would be the wrong thing to do, especially since Maxine seemed like she knew what she was talking about. I refused to get myself caught up in a lie.
“Don’t worry about all of that! Just tell me you aren’t going to fuck that ho anymore!”
Damn! She definitely put me between a rock and a hard place with that one. How was I going to answer that? Because if I told her yes, then she was going to know that I had been fucking someone other than her. But if I continued to act like I did
n’t know what she was talking about, she’d probably blow off the handle and do something really crazy. But hey, I guess I was gonna have to take my chances.
“Hey look Maxine, can we talk about this some other time? I just pulled up at the spot and niggas are standing outside my car waiting for me,” I said.
“Do you think I give a fuck about those motherfucker’s out there?” she screamed. “Right now, my main concern is getting our business in order. All that other shit you’re talking about is irrelevant. So you tell them niggas to wait.”
“You’re right! You’re right!” I said, trying to avoid an argument.
“OK. Well, answer my question then, Seth.”
I sighed again because the pressure was mounting. It had become obvious that she wasn’t gonna let up off this subject, so I knew I had to either come clean or deny this thing to the bitter end. And guess what? I did the latter. “A’ight, listen, because I’m about be honest with you,” I said, trying to choose my words carefully. “There was a chick out the way that was trying to holler at me, but I shut the whole shit down.”
“So, you’re saying y’all never fucked?”
“Nah, we didn’t. But I did kiss her once.”
“Why are you lying, Seth?”
“What am I lying about?”
“You know what? You’ve got to be one of the stupidest niggas I know. Don’t you know that when women ask their man if they’d been cheating, they already know the answer? We just want to see if y’all niggas would come clean with us. Now as far as this chickenhead is concerned, I already know it’s more than what you’re telling me. As a matter-of-fact, I know how she looks and I know y’all been fucking.”
“Well, tell me how she looks then.” I hoped this would put her on the spot and then she would shut the fuck up.
“I can do more than that,” she chuckled, “because not only do I know how the bitch looks, I can tell you her name.”
“Go ahead then.” I encouraged her because I knew she was pulling my leg. She was stalling too much. I leaned my head back against the headrest of the driver seat and waited patiently for Maxine to give it up and stop wasting my time. As soon as I began to get too relaxed, she threw a bomb at me when she uttered Melody’s name. My mouth fell wide open and my heart fell in the pit of my stomach. All I could think was, How the hell did she know about her?
“Don’t get quiet now, nigga! I know you hear me.”
“Yeah, I hear you,” I said and took a deep breath.
“Well, I want you to hear this too, because I am going to only say it once.”
“Go ahead, I’m listening.”
“Well for starters, I know about her little Puerto Rican ass! And I know y’all be fucking on a regular, too. That’s why I ain’t been able to get me some dick. But when I say the motherfucking buck stops here, it stops here! And not only that, you’ve got until the end of this month to make all the money you can because I am shutting your operation down. There will not be any more of the hustling thing going on after that point. You need to get it out of your system now and get in the mode of opening and operating the business we are going to build together. And as far as your hood friends are concerned, you are going to cut them off too. There will be no room for them when you and I start over and build our new life. Now, I know I am throwing a lot on you at once, but I know what’s best for you, so this is the way it has to be.”
“So, you mean to tell me that there’s no room for compromise?”
“Nope. I gave you enough freedom, now it’s time to come on home.”
“So, it’s just like that?”
“Yep,” she replied point blank.
“A’ight then. I guess I’ll see you later.”
“So that’s it?”
“What do you want me to say? I mean, you pretty much laid everything down on the line.”
“So, you’re not gonna give me any feedback?”
“What do you want me to say, Maxine?”
“I want you to tell me that I’m right and that things are going to roll just like I just laid them out.”
“I ain’t gotta tell you all that. Because at the end of the day, my actions are what counts, right?”
“Yes, but it wouldn’t hurt to acknowledge the fact that I’m only doing this because I love you.”
“Maxine, it’s not a secret. I know you love me. That’s why I am going to repay you for everything you’ve done for me.”
“So, you’re not mad because I gave you an ultimatum?”
“Nah, I’m cool.” I lied because truth be told, if I was in front of her silly ass right now, I probably would have smacked her in her fucking face. How dare she continue to threaten me like she did? Then to say that if it meant bringing herself down she’d do that, too. I mean, how stupid was that? Man, this chick had serious self-esteem issues, and I saw that I was going to have to find a way to get as far as I could from her ass! I didn’t care if I had to dip on her and leave the state. Whatever it took, was what I was going to do. In the meantime, I was going to have to play her game.
After I reassured Maxine at least two more times that I was all right with the chokehold she was about to put on me, I blew a couple of kisses at her through the phone and told her I would get with her later.
When I arrived at Melody’s crib she was standing outside on her porch, dressed in a red, tight-fitting sundress with spaghetti straps. She had her hair combed back into a ponytail. I can’t lie, she was looking sexy as hell. Then reality snapped back into play when she opened up her mouth.
“Hakeem, could you run to the corner store and get me a pack of cigarettes and a box of tampons?”
“I’ll get you a pack of cigarettes but I ain’t picking up a box of tampons,” Hakeem protested.
“Boy, stop acting like a pussy! You know you can get my tampons. Now, take this money and carry your ass on down the street before I start bleeding all over the place.”
Listening to this chick degrade herself in public sent a clear message to me that she was, and would always be, gutter trash. After Hakeem took the money from her, I shook my head and got out of my car.
As soon as Melody saw me, she smiled and said, “Hey baby!”
Instead of greeting her back, I told her we needed to talk. I grabbed her arm and pulled her into the house.
“What did I do now?” she whined.
“Who the fuck you been talking to about us?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Stop acting stupid! You know what the fuck I’m talking about.”
“No, I don’t,” she said, puzzled.
“Come on now, Melody, you’ve been talking to somebody because I just off the phone with my peoples and they told me that you’ve been running your mouth, telling people we fucking around. Now that shit ain’t cool, especially when I’ve got a lot invested right now.”
“Who was I supposed to have been talking to?”
“So you’re telling me you don’t remember?”
Melody stood there in silence and thought to herself for a moment. Then she said, “The only two people I remember talking to about you are my homegirl and some lady that walked up to me yesterday after she saw you smack me and leave.”
“What did she look like?”
“She was a brown-skinned lady, about my height, maybe an inch or two taller. She reminded me of Nia Long because of her facial features and the way she wore her hair. But her style in clothing was different.”
“What did she have on?” My heart raced.
“I think she had on a sweatsuit.”
“And what did she say? I mean, how did she approach you?”
“Well, wherever she was standing, she had to see you hit me because as soon as you pulled off, she walked right up to me and asked if I was all right. When I told her yeah, she started preaching to me about how I shouldn’t tolerate a man putting his hands on me and then after that she asked if you were my man.”
“And what did you tell her?”
“Why the fuck you tell her all that?”
“I don’t know,” Melody replied, knowing she had talked too much and to the wrong person.
I let her have it. “What the hell you mean, you don’t know?” I yelled. “You got to be the stupidest chick I know because I don’t know nobody else who would tell a complete stranger all of their damn business, and especially the part about us fucking.”
“But I didn’t say we were fucking,” she stated, attempting to correct me.
“You didn’t have to; she ain’t stupid! Trust me, she read between the lines.”
“Well, since you’re so bent out of shape behind this, who was she?”
“Don’t worry about who she was!” I snapped. “From now on, keep your business to your motherfucking self.”
After I scolded Melody for running her mouth to Maxine, I told her that we were done. No more of that sneaking around and fucking. That chapter was closed. I also told her that shit would be run differently around there, too. She was going to stay far away from the dope and I didn’t need her collecting the money anymore, either. After I laid down the new laws, I left her ass standing in the living room looking stupid. I couldn’t stomach her ass anymore. She was a fucking waste, if you asked me. Now I saw why Mike wasn’t thinking about her dumb ass! I wasn’t gonna be thinking about her ass either. After I left this spot for good, trust me, I wasn’t gonna look back.
SAMANTHA
Playing With Fire
Mendez and his partner in crime C.O. Clayton walked around all the units and did the four o’clock head count. When they were done he came strolling back by my room and signaled me to come meet him at our usual spot, which was the supply room near our visiting room. I was dreading to go because I knew he was going to stress me out about why I’d been avoiding him. The truth of the matter was I wasn’t trying to give him any more of my pussy. I was tired of that nigga jumping up and down on me like I was his girl or something. It wasn’t like he was taking care of me for real. The lingerie and the food he snuck up in there wasn’t enough for me to be fucking him on a regular basis. OK, granted he put a couple hundred dollars on my account every month for the last six months, but if you looked at it, that wasn’t nothing but $1,200, and my pussy was worth more than that. As far as I could see it, his coochie coupon had expired, and I had to tell him.