A Sticky Situation

by Kiki Swinson

“What’s the score?”

  “My boys are leading by fifteen.”

  “Oh yeah, the Steelers are finished,” I agreed and then looked down at my watch to give this nigga a hint that I was kind of pressed for time. Of course, he fed right in to it.

  “What’s up? You got somewhere you gotta be?” he blurted out.

  “Yeah, I told my girl I was going to meet her at her crib with the dough in the next thirty minutes.”

  “Where she live at?”

  “In Chesapeake.”

  Mike smiled. “Damn nigga, when did you meet her?”

  “I met her when I first came home but we only hung out a few times,” I tried to conjure up a story. “And then about a few weeks ago, she stepped to me and told me she was ready to make it official.”

  “How she look?”

  “Yo Mike, shorty is bad as hell! She’s got that baby face like Rhianna, but she’s got the body like one of them big butt video chicks.”

  Mike looked at me in amazement. “So, whatchu gon’ do about your other girl, Samantha?”

  “Shit, I’ma have her too,” I responded nonchalantly.

  “Yo dawg, you got it going on!” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of money. “Here, take your paper!”

  “How much is it?” I asked him.

  “It’s fifteen grand. That nigga only had forty-five grand in his crib, and I promised you a third, so that’s your cut.”

  “A’ight, that’s cool!” I stuck the wad in my pocket.

  The game went to a commercial, so Mike turned all the way around in his seat and shook his head in frustration. I knew he was about to put me through test mode. I put on my game face and waited for him to come at me with his first question. This would be his opportune moment, since this was his first time we stood face-to-face since the shootout. Whatever he was about to say, I knew I had to be ready for.

  “What’s wrong, son?” I coached him.

  “Man, I just can’t get my mind off losing all that dough Trina went to pick up from Jay.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think I would be able to get that shit off my mind, either.”

  Mike sat there in silence and watched my facial expressions. I was kind of wondering what was going through his mind. Instead of dwelling on it, I changed the subject. “So, what’s going on with the spot? Those niggas you got over there taking care of your business?”

  “Yeah, they’re doing their thing. But remember, it’s still your spot, so anytime you ready to go back, just let me know.”

  “That’s what’s up,” I said. Then I switched the conversation again and asked him how he had been since Trina was gone.

  “Yo man, it’s been hard as hell because I’d been fucking with her for a couple of years. I mean, she was like my right hand. She did shit for me my wife wouldn’t even do.”

  “I’m feeling you. So, have you talked to any of her peoples since that shit went down?”

  “Yeah, I talked to her moms a couple of times since then. I even went by there to drop off some money, since the family didn’t have enough dough to pay for her funeral.”

  “Did she have any kids?”

  “Nope, she sure didn’t.”

  “So, whatchu gon’ do now? I mean, are you still trying to find out who those niggas were that came through there, busting their pistols off at us and murdering her?” I asked to watch his facial expression this time, but this nigga didn’t flinch. He held his composure to a tee and played the part. I knew one thing: If Trina had not warned me about this clown-ass nigga, I would’ve been ’round there ready to kill somebody else for him. Not anymore, though, because this nigga was next on my list.

  “I got a few cats on the lookout for me. And they know a lot of people, so somebody is bound to throw some names around. Soon as they do, I’m gon’ be on them.”

  “Well, just let me know when you find out who they were because I want to get them myself. Those niggas tried to kill me along with Trina, so my beef is personal.” I stood to leave.

  Mike stood up too. “Yo, son, thanks for everything, man,” he said and hugged me.

  When the nigga patted me on my back I almost got sick to my stomach, but I stuck to the script. “You know I’ma always have your back,” I replied with assurance and stepped back. “Well, let me get out of here.” I turned to leave.

  “A’ight. Well, hit me up as soon as you hear something from your cousin.”

  “I will,” I told him and then I dipped out of there.

  SETH

  It Is What It Is

  It seemed like the farther I got away from Mike’s crib, the better my stomach felt. What really fucked me up inside was how sincere that nigga acted when I questioned him about still searching for the niggas who murdered Trina. And when that nigga told me that he was, that sealed the deal for me. That nigga was as good as gone in my eyes. The quicker I could cut off his oxygen supply, the better off I’d be.

  The fifteen grand Mike gave me went straight into my stash. Right before I closed the metal box back up, I took one last look at my dough and smiled. “I’m gon’ get me and Sam a lot of expensive shit with you!” I commented before I closed the top.

  Sam called me exactly at six-thirty like she said she would, and she had a lot of shit to talk about, too.

  “I just found out that they’re gonna let me out at eight o’clock in the morning, so I want you to be outside, front and center.”

  “A’ight. So, how was your day?”

  “It was very boring. I had to see my counselor and the case manager, and we had to sit in this group meeting for three hours, so you know I wasn’t too happy about that.”

  “Well, it’s over now, so don’t even sweat it.”

  “I know. You’re right,” she agreed. “So, whatchu been doing?”

  “I had a meeting with Mike today, and then I ran a few errands for my moms, but that’s it.”

  “What was Mike talking about?”

  “Nothing much. I just went over his crib and got some dough he owed me.”

  “So when am I going to spend it?”

  “Soon, baby, soon.”

  “Well, can you take me out to lunch tomorrow after I take care of my business?”

  “Come on now, Sam. You know I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

  “Well, can we go out of the country?” she asked me and then giggled.

  “Out of the country?” Thoughts started racing through my head.

  “Yes, I would love to get the hell away from here.”

  “And go where?” I coached her along to see where she was going with this.

  “I don’t know. But I’ll tell you that anywhere beats here, especially since your P.O. is going to be breathing down both of our necks to keep us from being together.”

  “Don’t worry about her. I got that under control.”

  “Yeah, I hope so, because I’m telling you right now if that bitch ever try to run up on me, or try to get my P.O. to violate me behind some dumb shit, I am gon’ fly off the motherfucking handle and beat her ass.”

  “Calm down, ’cause you ain’t gon’ have to do none of that shit. Believe me, I’m working something out as we speak, so we are going to be a’ight.”

  “Look, I understand all of that, but I ain’t gon’ stop looking over my shoulder until we are far away from that bitch. Quiet as it’s kept, if I had enough heart, I would walk out of this halfway house right now and I would never look back.”

  “Where would you go?” I asked her again.

  “Probably somewhere where I couldn’t get extradited back into the states, like Mexico or Cuba.”

  “You’d go there?”

  “You damn right I would. To get away from all this shit around here, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Samantha replied earnestly.

  I sat back and thought about the possibility of that happening. I also thought about the chances of us getting caught, which were slim to none. I figured if we traveled to Mexico, all we had to do was cross the bor
der, and that couldn’t be hard.

  Right when the pay phone was about to disconnect our fifteen-minute call, she asked me if she could call right back. I told her yeah, so we hung up, and within seconds we were right back where we had left off. For the next five phone calls, she wanted to talk about all the things we were going to do on her first weekend pass. She sounded so excited.

  If she knew like I knew, she hadn’t experienced the type of excitement I was about to introduce her to.

  After my last call with Samantha ended, I called Maxine because she blew my phone up the entire time we were talking. She sent me a couple of text messages, basically saying that she was not stupid and that she knew I was either laid up fucking another ho or I was on the phone with that bitch Samantha, and if she found out either was true, I was going to wish that I had never met her. Another message said that I’d better have a damn good reason why I was not at her house right now and that if I didn’t call her with an explanation in the next ten minutes, she was going to have the U.S. Marshals at my door before I could blink my eyes. After I read her insane-ass messages, I got her silly ass on the phone.

  “What’s your damn problem?” I snapped.

  “Where are you?” she asked, instead of answering my question.

  “I’m at home.”

  “Well, why didn’t you answer your house phone when I just tried to call?”

  “That was because my moms was on it,” I lied.

  “I called your phone too and you didn’t answer that one either,” she screamed.

  “Maxine, will you please calm down and stop yelling?”

  “And why should I do that? It seems like when I yell and go off on your ass, you start acting like you got some damn sense!”

  “Listen, Maxine, there is no need for all this. Just so you know, I was not out in the street fucking a ho, and I wasn’t on the phone with Samantha.”

  “What were you doing then?”

  “I was ’sleep part of the time, and then when I got up, I jumped straight in the shower. I didn’t notice you called me until after I came back into my room to get dressed.”

  “That sounds like a bold-faced lie!”

  “Baby, I swear I am not lying to you. Wanna ask my moms? She’ll tell you the same thing.”

  “No, I don’t want to ask her anything because you’d probably get her to lie for your ass!”

  I laughed to myself because she was right. My moms would lie for me in a minute and especially to Maxine, because she couldn’t stand her.

  “Listen, just tell me what I can do to make it up to you.” I hoped this would calm her silly ass down.

  “Don’t play stupid with me, Seth! You know I wouldn’t be bitching at you if you were where you were supposed to be.”

  “So, whatchu telling me is that I’m supposed to be at your house?”

  “Exactly.”

  “A’ight, I’ll be over there in a few minutes. Just let me get my moms situated.”

  “Seth, what time are you leaving?”

  “Give me an hour.”

  “OK, but you better not be here a minute after that.”

  “A’ight.”

  Two seconds after I hung up with Maxine, I hopped my ass in the shower because I knew she was going to inspect me as soon as I walked through her front door. I made sure I had the Irish Spring smell on me and that it was strong, too. Of course, I fucked her real good and sent her silly ass to bed, but what she didn’t know was our little rendezvous were about to come to an end.

  SETH

  Girl Fight

  When I woke up the next morning, I saw Maxine going through the call log on my phone, so I snapped on her ass and asked her what the fuck she was doing. She got on the defensive, and instead of answering my question, she started throwing questions at me about what numbers belonged to who. Why was I on the phone with this person for this amount of time? The questions kept coming one after the other. When I got tired of listening to her ass, I immediately shut her down.

  “Wait a minute,” I shouted. “How the fuck you gon’ question me about my shit? That’s my motherfucking phone. You don’t pay that bill, I do! I told you before to keep your hands off of it, but I see you ain’t gon’ be satisfied until I go upside your fucking head!”

  “Do it, Seth! Do it!” she snapped back. Before I knew it, she was standing over me while I was sitting up in the bed.

  “You really want me to go back to jail, don’t you?” I asked her with the most agitated expression I could muster. I mean, I was angry as a motherfucker. I honestly wanted to bash her damn head in, but I knew that if I put my hands on her, I was surely going back to jail. Instead of feeding into her shit, I got out of the bed, got dressed, grabbed all my things, and left. I didn’t say anything the whole time, and she was pissed. Maxine threw so much shit around the house, I knew it was gonna take her at least a couple of days to pick up all the broken plates, vases, and the glass from the picture frames. She’d be all right, though. Ol’ dumb bitch!

  I hopped in my car and drove to the downtown part of Norfolk, since I had to pick Samantha up. It was 7:45 AM, so I stopped at IHOP and ordered her some takeout. I knew she loved herself a good cheesy omelet, so I ordered the steak and cheese omelet and told them to stick a cup of sour cream on the side. I also told them to give me a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice. Sam loved it cold, so I made sure they added a few cubes of ice as well. After everything was prepared, they packed it up in boxes and sent me on my way.

  When Samantha came outside of the halfway house, she looked like a breath of fresh air. You could tell that she was fresh out the joint with her light, clear skin and long, flowing hair. Even though she picked up a few pounds from eating Ramen noodles, it went straight to her thighs and ass. I said it on the day she came home and we met at the hotel. Boy, did we have fun. When she got in my car she gave me a slow, wet kiss on the lips. My dick got hard instantly.

  “Damn, mommie, you’re getting my dick hard as a rock.” I smiled.

  I guess she didn’t believe me because she reached down to my crotch and started rubbing her hand back and forth across my dick. “You sure weren’t lying,” she said.

  “I told you,” I replied, and then I put the car in gear and drove off.

  “What’s this?” Sam asked and picked the IHOP bag from the floor in front of her.

  “I picked you up a steak and cheese omelet with a side of sour cream and toast.”

  She smiled even harder. “Ahhh, you remembered how much I loved omelets.”

  “Come on now, Ma. You know I remember everything about you.”

  Still cheesing, she kissed me again and opened the Styrofoam container. While Samantha enjoyed her food, I found myself watching her every move. She acted like she was so happy and at peace. However, that feeling she had came to an abrupt end when I pulled up in the parking lot of the Social Security Building and parked my car. Out of nowhere, Maxine snatched the driver’s side door of my car open and started swinging on me.

  “You lied to me!” she screamed, throwing blow after blow. “You said you wasn’t gonna fuck with her! But you did it anyway. Then you disrespect me by having that bitch in a car I co-signed for your ass! I am sick of your shit!”

  I didn’t see Samantha hop out of the passenger seat because I had my head buried in the steering wheel, trying to stop Maxine from hitting me in my face. I recovered the instant Samantha pulled Maxine from off me.

  “Bitch, what’s wrong with you? You don’t be putting your motherfucking hands on my man!” Samantha yelled at the top of her lungs, simultaneously slamming Maxine against the back door of my car.

  Hearing the tone of Samantha’s voice made me open my eyes to see what was going on. As soon as I regained my sight, I saw both Maxine and Samantha going for what they knew. Samantha had Maxine pinned down with one hand and punched her in the face with the other. Maxine was getting a few good punches in herself, but it didn’t do enough damage to get Samantha off her. When I saw a small crowd g
ather around with a security guard in the midst, I rushed over and proceeded to break them up.

  “Let her go, Samantha. She ain’t worth it. You know she can get you locked back up for this shit!” I tried to reason with Sam, hoping she would release Maxine from her grip.

  “Fuck this bitch! She ain’t got no right running up on us like this,” Sam panted.

  “Oh, don’t try to talk to your convict bitch now! It’s too late, ’cause both of y’all’s asses are going back to jail as soon as the police get here,” Maxine yelled.

  “Shut up, bitch! I am so tired of hearing your fucking mouth!” Samantha tried to muffle Maxine’s mouth up with her fist but when Maxine bit down on Samantha’s hand, Sam went bananas. “Owww, this fucking bitch is biting me!”

  “Maxine, let her go,” I demanded.

  “If y’all don’t break this up, I’m gon’ call the police,” the young black security guard warned us.

  “This bitch is trying to bite a plug out of my fucking hand,” Samantha screamed in anguish as she continued to pound the hell out of Maxine’s face with her other hand.

  “Help me, man! Help me break them up,” I pleaded with the guy.

  “Grab her,” he said pointing to Sam. “And I’ll get her,” he said pointing to Maxine.

  It took us a while, but we finally got them separated. Samantha’s hand was pretty bruised up by Maxine’s teeth, but Maxine’s face looked a lot worse and she had scratches, along with black and blue marks, all around her mouth. Both of her eyes were black, and her hair was all over the place. Samantha had fucked her up.

  “Say goodbye to your freedom, because both of y’all convicts are going back to jail today,” she threatened while she was fixing her clothes.

  “Shut the fuck up, bitch!” Sam yelled over my shoulders. “You’re just mad because Seth doesn’t want you and I just whipped your ass!”

  “He ain’t gon’ want you either, after I get through with your ass!”

  “Don’t talk about it, bitch! Be about it!” Sam snapped, getting hyped all over again.

  “Y’all gotta break this up or else I’ma call the police,” the security guard said again.

  Maxine said, “I want you to call them. While you’re at it, tell them I am a U.S. Federal Probation Officer, this man right here is one of my parolees, and when I was trying to make an arrest, his convict girlfriend here attacked me.”