by Shontaiye
Zeke instead was going to help him get this money from Dodda. He figured that he needed someone with him that he trusted with his life, and no one else fit that criteria except Zeke.
FIFTEEN
Eve
Eve exited the Orange Line train at Girard Station subway. She was on a mission. She looked around to take in the scene. She was always amazed at how North Philly looked so much different than the Northeast section where her room was located. She walked across Broad street onto Girard and made her way a few blocks down, ultimately stopping in front of her destination; Squeaky Clean 2.
She had finally taken the time to google Noah. She tried to ask him what he did but he wouldn’t give her the information she requested, purposely changing the subject and avoiding the conversation. A simple google search of Noah resulted in his multiple laundromat locations. There weren’t that many Noah’s in Philadelphia that owned laundromat’s. She also discovered that he owned a seafood truck and donated toys and food to homeless shelters during Christmas time. Shit, I could use a damn donation, she thought.
Eve pushed her long blonde weave back behind the collar of her North Face coat. It was now November and over a month had passed since Noah had started back dealing with her. Her jealousy had begun to eat at her and she was becoming a bit desperate to get Noah to herself. She did whatever she could to sway Noah away from his girl. She had bought a rotisserie cooker and hotplate and was preparing him meals in her motel rooms when he came by. She was doing everything she could think of to bring them closer but nothing was working. He was stuck on his bitch. He was using her and she knew it. However, Eve was blinded by lust.
She was coming to grips with the fact that he would probably never leave Shaleea for her. She would always be the side hoe. That’s if she even stayed around that long. She didn’t even mind playing the side bitch, but with Noah being the side bitch came with no perks… Unless you call dick, weed, and food perks. He wasn’t spending any major cash on her. What happened to the days when the side bitch was tucked away in a condo with furs and cars? What was so special about that bitch he was with anyway?
It had been seven months since she first met Noah and she wasn’t even close to reaching her goal with him. She felt it was time to make her presence known. If he won’t leave the bitch, I’ll get the bitch to leave him.
<><><>
Eve had just finished pulling her clothes out of the small, gray steel washer when she saw the car pull up in the front. Her heart literally skipped a bit and then began to pound loudly in her chest. It was Noah.
Noah was driving the gray Camaro she had seen him in several times before. The windows were tinted but she knew it was him for sure when he stepped out the car. She wasn’t surprised when the passenger door opened and a woman stepped out. The long haired woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties, had a Hershey dark complexion and was very pretty. That’s her, Eve thought. Eve was actually surprised. She had on a tight fitting black and white dress that came just above her knees and had on an elegant black pea coat to keep her warm. She wore black stiletto heels and bore short bright orange nails that Eve could see from a mile away. What did it for Eve was that she wore a lot of jewelry. She had huge hoops, several diamond rings, and large bangle bracelets. She had sort of an 80’s style, funky and jazzy with lots of gold.
Eve felt intense anger. Here she was out walking and catching the train in the cold and this Bitch was sitting pretty and warm in new cars, draped in gold. She hated her and hadn’t even held a single conversation with her.
When Noah and his girl walked into the building they went straight into a door in the back that said “Office.” Eve made sure to turn her head and act like a normal customer when they walked by. She couldn’t help but notice Shaleea’s hips and round ass when they walked by. She was stacked herself, but this bitch was definitely competition.
The pair stayed in the back for about fifteen minutes. When they left out they were smiling and Noah’s hand was resting lightly on Shaleea’s waist as she walked. The sight made Eve sick. What was she to do? She knew there was nothing else to do, but to let the games begin.
<><><>
Eve sat on her hotel bed leaning against the headboard while staring at the small jagged strip of paper that had Shaleea’s number on it. It was 7:16 am and she was pissed at Noah from last night. Several times in the past couple of weeks he hadn’t even bothered to show up when he said he would, and last night he only stayed half an hour, leaving right after he fucked her and took a shower. Lately though, it seemed that fucking her wasn’t as much of a priority.
Seeing Noah and Shaleea together at the laundromat several days before had further fueled her flame. She was tired of being put on the backburner and decided that she would share her misery with Noah and his bitch.
She carefully dialed the number and waited for the phone to ring. It was Saturday so she really didn’t even expect her to answer the phone since it was so early in the morning. She was surprised when she did.
“Hello,” Shaleea answered the phone groggily, still half sleep.
“Where’s Noah?” Eve asked sweetly, hiding the venom in her voice.
“Who’s this?” Shaleea asked, quickly becoming fully awake. Her heart immediately started pounding in her chest. She hoped this wasn’t what she thought it was; a bitch playing on her phone.
“Where’s Noah?” Eve repeated. “He still in the bed with you. Tell him I said get up!”
“Who the fuck is this?”
“I’m the bitch that’s fuckin ya man and suckin his dick!” Eve spat, finally revealing her anger.
Shaleea took a moment before she responded. The immense anger she felt consumed her immediately. She glanced over at Noah, who was slowly waking up from her movement on the bed.
With her heart rate increasing, she took a deep breath and then replied to Eve.
“Ok bitch. So what you want a cookie. You can’t be doing too well of a job since he’s here, and has been every night for years hoe! I got a brand new car, diamonds, and a new house. My bills is paid in full. Anything I want I get! All at the expense of the nigga you fuckin and suckin. What you live in the hood somewhere? Get on my level and step ya game up before you call my phone!” Shaleea responded angrily, using every truth she could to cut deep into Eve.
“Bitch I’ll take ya man!” Eve shouted angrily into the receiver.
“Take him if you want him. The problem for you is getting him to leave. You gon have to drag his ass out of here. I promise you that. Play ya position and don’t call my fucking phone again. Bum ass bitch!”
Shaleea disconnected the call, leaving Eve fuming. Eve tried the number back several times but it was being sent to voicemail. She decided to text some insults but they too went ignored. This definitely wasn’t over. This was just the beginning. Her next task after this would be dealing with Noah.
SIXTEEN
Shaleea
Shaleea hopped out of the king-size bed she and Noah shared. By now Noah was up, but he was too stunned to move. He had heard the commotion of Shaleea arguing on the phone and knew exactly who it was on the receiving end. He silently promised himself he would fuck Eve up when he saw her. When Shaleea raced to his phone on the nightstand, he knew he was fucked.
Shaleea went through the phone searching for the number that had just called her. Noah regularly erased his calls, but she still managed to find ten incoming calls and three outgoing calls to the number. She also found texts between the two of them. One read, Why you not answering the phone. His response was, Chill my shorty with me. Some were explicit, but many of them were, What you doin? Are you coming over? Shaleea was livid. Here she was thinking that things were good between the two of them and it was a lie. He was cheating on her.
Noah got up out of the bed to take his phone from Shaleea.
“Yo give me my phone.——Whatever that bitch told you was a lie.” He motioned toward her to retrieve his phone.
Before he could reach it Shale
ea leaned back and threw it into the wall, causing an ugly dent in the paint.
“You’re a fucking liar!” she spat. “Who the fuck is that?” she asked trembling mad. She waited for Noah to respond, but he had no answer. He wanted to say he didn’t know, but knew that would further piss her off.
“Yo Leea, please. Just calm down for a second so I can talk to you.”
“Noah please don’t stand in my face and tell me no bullshit. The bitch just told me on the phone that she was fuckin you and sucking ya dick. How she get my fuckin number? Fuck is wrong with you? You that fuckin careless? My mom always told me to never take a bitch word over ya man, but ya ass is guilty! “Shaleea shouted.
Her heart pounded and she felt as if she had been sucker punched in the stomach. She walked over and grabbed her phone off the bed and proceeded to call the number back.
“Yo please don’t do this Leea,” Noah begged, walking towards her. His head was starting to pound from lack of weed and stress. This was too much. He had no idea what Eve would say when she answered the phone.
“Fuck you Noah!” She waited for the phone to ring and decided to take a different approach as soon as Eve picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hello,” Eve replied nastily. She had both their asses’ right where she wanted them, and now she would talk Noah out of his home and back in her bed.
“Listen this is Shaleea. I’m not callin you on no bullshit or to argue. I just want some answers. Obviously you do too or you wouldn’t have called me. Obviously you knew about me. How long has this been going on?” Shaleea hoped she would talk to her and didn’t wanna argue. She needed answers and she needed them now.
“I’ve been fuckin with Noah since April, so about seven months. He told me about you but he made it seem like yall was gonna break up and he was leaving soon,” Eve lied. “He spends a lot of time with me, obviously lying. I told him that he needs to clean up his act. He even talked about us moving in together.”
“Do yall use protection?” Shaleea asked, ignoring the other hurtful lies. She couldn’t handle all the shit Eve was telling her.
“Never have. He don’t like condoms. And he be payin for me to come see him since I travel between here and New York.” Eve laid it on thick hoping to anger Shaleea even further.
Noah stared at Shaleea while she gave him the look of death. She’d had enough.
“Talk to ya bitch! Yall can have each other. I’m through.” She tossed the phone to Noah.
“Yo what the fuck you tell my girl?” Noah yelled into the phone. He was mad, but at the same time his heart was breaking.
“Fuck you Noah, all you give a fuck about is yaself and that bitch! I hope she leave ya dumb ass. And when she do, don’t come crying to me!”
“Yea whatever bitch. That’s exactly what you want me to do. Yeah I fucked up! I make mistakes but I never told you I was gonna leave my chick to be with ya bum ass!”
Eve grew angrier. “I wasn’t a bum when you was all up in this moaning, now was I?”
“Bitch I can get pussy from anywhere. I don’t give a fuck about you. Don’t call my phone and don’t call my fuckin chick phone either!” Noah disconnected the call and walked over to Shaleea ready to beg, plead and do whatever it took to rationalize with her.
Shaleea was packing her and Heaven’s things up in an old suitcase. She figured she had somewhere to go. Noah didn’t. She could always go to her mom’s. He didn’t have any family, unless he went and stayed with Hakim and Nikka. Even though he was dead wrong she still thought about his well-being. She couldn’t help the love she had for him.
“Fuck you Noah. I’m leavin ya ass. I done dealt with too much shit over these past years. I done had bitches tell me how they were fuckin you. One told me she had ya baby. One even told me she was going to beat my ass. I’m tired of going through this shit with you. This is the icing on the cake. The bitch sound Jamaican or something! Why give me an engagement ring if you not ready for that type of commitment? You can’t keep ya dick in ya pants?—- You never gon change and I’m tired of sitting around hoping and praying you will.” She spoke low and calm, which frightened Noah. He could tell she was hurting. Tears spilled from her eyes.
“Leea please don’t do this,” Noah begged in a low tone. Shaleea walked off to the bathroom and closed the door. After a couple of minutes she returned, and when she came back she was no longer calm.
Noah knew the look. Hate was brewing in her eyes and she was about to become very irrational. She had begun sobbing loudly and had almost a sick look. He was careful not to trigger her wrath. She was known to pick up shit and do a lot of damage when she was hurt and angry.
Noah tried to attempt to talk her into calm. “Shaleea please just listen for a minute,” he said, easing over toward her, while she stormed around packing up random shit she would need.
“I fucked up. I made a mistake, but I don’t give a fuck about her. I love you. Please don’t do this,” he begged, while trying to get her to look at him. Noah reached and tried to take the suitcase out of her hand.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” she snapped, snatching her hand and the suitcase back from Noah. She was so angry she was shaking. She wanted to punch Noah’s teeth out.
“That bitch said you fucked her raw! You was paying for her to come and see you. What the fuck is that Noah?” she asked in disbelief.
“Shaleea. She is fucking lying! You gotta understand that. That bitch lives a fast life and will try to talk circles around you. She knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s been begging me to leave you for her. She wants you out of the picture. She was just a fuck. I fucked up. Please yo! She’s jealous of you Leea, so don’t believe shit that bitch says!” he whined.
Noah knew the game all too well. He knew how bitches played. He was just surprised that Shaleea hadn’t caught on. While Shaleea was thorough and book smart, she wasn’t as street smart as Eve. No bitch had ever really gotten the opportunity to get under her skin the way Eve just did. He cursed himself and promised himself he would fix it.
“Please Leea. I’ll do whatever it takes. Let me fix it. Give me a chance to fix it,” Noah pleaded.
“Fuck you Noah.”
Shaleea grabbed her keys and tried to drag her suitcase to the car. Before she could get to the door, Noah beat her to it and blocked it with his body. He was growing desperate. He wasn’t going to let her leave that house.
“Yo, you not fuckin going nowhere.” He tried to pry the keys out of her hand which caused them to tussle over them. It wasn’t the right thing to do, but at the moment it was his only option. He would hold her ass hostage in there if he had to, but she wasn’t leaving.
“Get the fuck off me Noah! Give me my fucking keys!” she screamed. “Let me fucking go!” He had her by the waist, and was pulling the keys out of her hand.
“Fuck no,” he growled. He was scared that if he let her leave she wouldn’t return. As much fucked up shit that Noah had done, Shaleea was his weakness and he refused to let her leave over a bitch that meant nothing.
“Shaleea please!” Noah begged. She was now fighting. She had bit him and was grabbing his shirt to remain in possession of her keys.
Through all of the commotion they hadn’t heard Mann walk in. He had been knocking on the door and calling Noah’s phone when he heard the commotion. The door was unlocked and he let himself in. He wasn’t prepared for the drama he had stumbled upon.
“Mann! Thank god. Help me please. This stupid, cheating ass nigga won’t let me leave,” Shaleea cried.
Mann cringed. He knew this was going to happen. He knew about the bitch Eve and had heard her on the phone before with her drama. It had been a long time coming.
Noah released his grip when Mann came in. He was slightly embarrassed. He didn’t want to look weak over a female so he figured he would have to fall back for now. As he let go, Shaleea raced out the door alone. Thankfully it was the weekend and Heaven was at her mother’s house. Shaleea was glad she d
idn’t have to subject her daughter to the bullshit.
As Shaleea drove off Noah stared out the door feeling sick to his stomach. He felt as if his world was caving in around him. His heart broke that very moment. He knew she was hurting because he was hurting. It was something he hated feeling. He never understood why he inflicted it upon others when he couldn’t handle that emotion himself. He loved Shaleea with every fiber in his body and didn’t want to be without her. He sat down onto the chocolate brown leather sofa and exhaled deeply, feeling defeated.
“FUCK!” he yelled.
“Yo, what the fuck happened my nigga?” Mann asked, not really wanting to pry but figured it would be better than just standing there silent. He took a seat in the recliner adjacent to the couch.
“Dumb bitch Eve called Shaleea lying and shit. God—I’m gon fuck that bitch up. You got some green?” he asked. “I need to smoke.”
Noah sat with his head resting in his hands unsure of what he would do next. He figured he would give Shaleea a few hours and then call her. He definitely was going to pay Eve’s ass a visit and find out what the fuck type of shit she was on.
Mann didn’t really feel sorry for Noah. He knew females and what came along with it. He should’ve been cut the bitch off. Had it been him, he would’ve never let that bitch get outta pocket. Lose Shaleea over a stinking stripper bitch?! Never in a million years. She had everything a nigga could want; drive, looks, body, brains. Noah was tripping.
“If there’s anything I can do to help, hit me up. Shorty a good girl. You gotta stop the bullshit. I put that bread on the kitchen table. That’s ya cut from the last order. I’m pickin up the next order later today so I’ll be MIA for a few hours.” He tossed Noah a bag of weed.