TYCE 3

by Shareef Jaudon

  “What did he say?” I flicked ashes out into the grass.

  She paused briefly. “Ummm the license plate numbers belong to Dallas. She recently purchased the car and it’s registered to her. She’s Raine Tyce.”

  I started to call the holice department back and report my tongue missing because I was at a loss for words. I processed the information Pamela just laid on me slowly in my head. As I mentally put the pieces together it all started to make perfect sense. The late night visit, the fake concern for Angelique, the sudden push for my attention; it was all part of her master plan.

  “You’re sure it’s her?”

  “Yes it’s her, Dallas Nicole Mitchell. What are you going to do?” Pamela looked up at me.

  I rubbed the light facial hair on my cheeks as I weighed the heavy question she just asked me.

  “What would you do?” I asked back.

  Deep Shit

  I don’t know why shit always seemed to jump off at night in my world. Lucky for me I’d always been a night owl so it really didn’t make a difference. The midnight drama was routine in my camp. I’d just left Pamela’s quiet home and walked into Sabrina’s lively beach house. Her and Angelique sat at the kitchen table sipping wine and talking while somebody’s voice flowed softly from the stereo providing the mood music.

  My sister rolled her head in my direction. “Hey bro, you jus’ in time. Sit down and have a glass of wine with us.”

  “Ya’ll drunk?” I sat down across from Angelique.

  “I’m ‘bout seven sips from being extra tipsy but I still know how to handle my shit. But enough about me and my intoxication level. I wanna talk about you two.”

  I shot her a curious look. “Us?”

  “Did I stutter negro? Angelique filled me in on what happened with ya’ll. Before you get all amped up thinkin’ she jus’ gave her selfish version of things let me clarify and say she was very unbiased and did her best to explain both sides of the situation.”

  Angelique refilled her glass and poured me my first giving me a seriously sincere expression in the process. The short time I’d been there shehadn’t said a word; Sabrina was doing all the talking for the wine tasting duo.

  “She gave both sides huh?” I looked at Angelique as I took a sip of wine.

  “Yes. And I can clearly see how shit got twisted up like a French braid.”

  Sabrina clasped her hands together intertwining her fingers.

  She continued, “I aint nobody’s mama, but I am somebody’s auntie and before this shit goes any further you two owe it to Khari and yourselves to see if things can be ironed out. Every relationship has its ups and downs, you jus’ gotta ride the waves baby, but if the ride is makin’ you sick to your stomach and you jus’ wanna throw up every time you look at each other-then hell ya’ll should jus’ end it. Do you jus’ feel like throwing up when you look at Angelique?”

  My sister pointed her finger to the right in my direction.

  “No I don’t.” I answered honestly.

  “Good! What about you Angelique? When you see Tyce does he make you sick to your stomach?”

  “Not at all.” Angelique said quietly.

  “See that’s a good thing so you guys have somethin’ to build on. I know there’s more to it than that but at least you still love each other.”

  I jumped in, “Of course I still love Angelique, but love and trust are two different things. I may have done some questionable things while she was away but if you ask me if my dick was in another woman the answer would be no. I never lie about the pussy I get or the pussy I don’t get. I’m a man that will take whatever consequence come from my actions…period. I believe what I see and not what I hear and I give the people I love the benefit of the doubt until they prove to me that they don’t deserve it. I never fucked Dallas. Now if I wasn’t with you would I have fucked her? Hell yeah. But I’m with you and that’s why I didn’t. So if you still don’t believe me then that’s on you. I’ll do me and you can do your thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather it be the three of us ballin’ outta control behind a white picket fence but I don’t have to be with you to be a father to Khari especially if you’re gonna be lookin’ at me sideways every time I leave the house cuz you don’t trust me.”

  Angelique reached across the glass table top and grabbed my hands. Her eyes locked on mine as she spoke directly from her heart.

  “Tyce baby, I trust you. I’ve been through a lot recently and my mind was all scrambled. I forgot who truly had my back and I apologize if I made you feel unappreciated or took your love for granted. I should of never listened to Dallas and dismissed that trifling bitch from the gate. All I wanna do is get back to us. I pride myself on being a real ass woman, which also means recognizing a real ass man when I see one. You’re the realest man I’ve ever known and I don’t wanna walk away from you and I don’t want you to walk away from me. It’s cold out her without you.”

  Her beautiful eyes began to mist over. Her breath was shaky as she waited for my response to her sincere statement of love.

  I offered her my sexy grin. “Girl we’re the gangsta version of Mr. and Mrs. Huxtable and I don’t want it to end either…we jus’ gettin’ started.”

  All three of us laughed at my comment with Sabrina slapping the glass with her palm.

  “That’s what I’m talkin’ bout, my two favorite people lovin’ it up. Shit I wish I had that kinda love when I was married.”

  We both looked at her astonished.

  “You were married?” We asked at the same time.

  “Yeah I was married. I was the wife of a serial cheater. Now that was a muthafucka that couldn’t keep his dick in his pants plus he started to not shave his balls and that shit was nasty! How you gonna have a big ass ball of hair under ya’ dick and expect me to kiss and lick that shit? I aint no damn cat! You aint gonna have me coughing up hair balls in the shower! It would take a whole keg of wine to tell you about Ricky. That nigga was five kinds of wrong!”

  Sabrina gulped down the last of her wine then refilled her glass as she laughed to herself remembering her ex husband.

  After another hour of conversation at the table, Sabrina went to her room to sleep off the alcohol while Angelique and I took a moonlit stroll on the beach. We held hands and casually kicked sand as we walked carelessly enjoying the feeling of a happy reunion. It was then that I decided to tell her about Dallas aka Raine.

  “I don’t mean to pour water on our new fire but I have something to tell you.”

  She stopped walking and turned to me.

  “What is it?”

  “You remember when I told you I was workin’ on something’s about your case?”

  “Yeah, that’s why you wanted me to lay low so you could figure some shit out right?”

  “Yeah, I figured some shit out alright. I found out that Dallas is the one that set you up. She thought she was slick and used an alias. She called herself Raine. She was workin’ with the D.A. on your case. She paid him to set you up too.”

  Angelique smiled at me. That wasn’t exactly the response I was expecting from her.

  “Oh. I already knew that shit. I’m surprised the great Tyce Adkins is jus’ now gettin’ hip.”

  She punched my chest lightly making her voice exaggerated to emphasis her point.

  “Now, I have somethin’ I need to tell you.”

  She countered with a mischievous look on her face.

  Together Again

  We rode together to go pick up Khari from Gloria in my Benz. It felt good to be certain of my relationship and be on solid ground in my family situation. I never wanted to be a baby daddy or have a baby mama. I wanted to raise children with the woman I impregnated and cut out all the other bull shit that comes along with separation. I couldn’t stand the thought of another nigga being around my daughter. I knew in my mind that no matter what the status of my relationship with Angelique was, I could be a father to Khari. I would do anything in my power to make this relationship work cuz lord
knows I will kill a nigga quick if he violated either one of them.

  I finally saw that Dallas was a real piece of work. A part of me was surprised she would stoop so low as to wrongfully imprison somebody for a crime they didn’t commit, but another part of me wasn’t shocked at all. Love makes you do some crazy shit sometimes. I had no doubt that Dallas loved me; she just had two teaspoons of crazy in her. She actually believed Angelique was going to hurt me and that she was a better woman than her. In some aspects she was however overall Angelique had her beat. Last night I was stuck in the middle on which one I wanted to be with, but today my mind was made up. I was riding with Angelique until the wheels fell off, me, her, and Khari.

  Angelique reached over and squeezed my hand, “I can’t wait to see her! I missed my little pound cake sooooo much!”

  “I miss her too. You know it wasn’t that I didn’t want to take care of her. I jus’ thought she would be safer with my mom while I worked on gettin’ you out of jail. I had a lot of shit to do and I couldn’t plan it all out and take care of an infant at the same time.” I looked over at her sitting in the passenger seat.

  Angelique smiled. “I know babe, it was the right decision. I woulda done the same thing if I was you. You did a good job daddy.”

  About 20 minutes later we were sitting in the quaint living room of Gloria’s cozy three bedroom house. All three of us watching our little angel sleep in her favorite spot. The swing rocked gently from side to side as she slept quietly looking as beautiful as ever. Her grandmother smiled down at her then she turned to us.

  “Welcome home Angelique. My heart just ached when Tyce told me what happened. Not for one second did I think any of the charges were true. I prayed God would find a way to set you free and bring you home to your family. He used all of us to right a terrible wrong and now you’re back with us and back with your daughter.” She embraced Angelique tightly.

  “Thank you Gloria, I have to admit my faith was tested in there. For a minute I thought God was takin’ a break but I kept believing everything would be ok.”

  “Child God don’t take breaks. He’s always working. He don’t get tired. He uses people in whatever fashion He wants to make things happen. I don’t claim to know His every plan but trust and believe He was watching you when you got arrested and He knew who to send to get you out.” Gloria grabbed Angelique’s hand.

  “I’m so thankful to be out of jail and I’m thankful that I have family, friends, and a strong man that refused to sit by and watch me go down in flames.”

  Gloria got a serious look on her kind face.

  “I may sound all preachy but I’m a realist when it comes to the world we live in honey. Like I said God knew who was capable of getting you out. My son aint no punk. He may be handsome but he can get real ugly when he needs to be. And truth be told honey, you’re pretty dangerous yourself.” Gloria winked at Angelique.

  I jumped in the conversation, “I’m only handsome because I have a beautiful mother and thank you for lookin’ after Khari.”

  “Awww you’re welcome son, it was my pleasure. Now I promised to take her to the zoo next Saturday and she said she can’t wait to go, so I’ll pick her up at noon and drop her back off around three…is that ok?”

  We both chuckled. “Yes that’s fine Gloria, no problem.”

  “Good. Now you two take this precious package home with you cuz Pamela and I have a date night with Denzel. We’re watching Training Day tonight!” She clapped her hands together excitedly.

  “Oh Lord, you got my mom hooked on Denzel too?” I cocked my head to the side.

  “Honey she can’t get enough of him! Her little foot get to bouncing every time he comes on the screen. You should have seen her grinning when we watched Ricochet. Her eyes got three times bigger when he undressed down to his boxers and shot that man in the knee cap.”

  “Ya’ll two somethin’ else.” I laughed.

  “And then some.” Gloria rolled her head slightly.

  Loose Ends

  Coming home felt so good, especially returning home with Angelique and Khari. To be truthful I was still a little apprehensive about Angelique being here with all that happened recently. The escape was still fresh even though the charges had been dismissed I was sure some faction of the authorities was still looking for her. In every department you always had the John Wayne type nigga who just couldn’t rest until he locked up all the so-called bad guys or girls. Not that I was fearful or anything like that, I was just aware of the possible problems that could creep up unexpectedly.

  Being home was comfortable on one hand but on the other hand I couldn’t stop thinking about what Angelique told me the other night on the beach. She’d been so candid about it, so cool and poised. Now it was up to me or should I say us to decide what route to take in this new situation. On the way home we came to a decision in the car and tonight I had the responsibility of making that happen. I couldn’t involve Sway, Sabrina, Pamela, Gloria, or Bree in this shit…it had to be me.

  Later on that evening when the house settled down and we ate shrimp pasta prepared expertly by Carmela, I prepared to leave the house to tie up loose ends. Angelique knew where I was going and she whole heartedly approved. So an hour after dinner she kissed my lips passionately before I left the house to handle my business.

  My first stop was to one of her semi trucks. No one was there when I drove up. That was good cuz I would need all the seclusion in the world to complete the activity. After about a half an hour I was back in my truck headed to Dallas’s house. I’d called her right in front of Angelique at the dinner table. I purposely did that to avoid any suspicion or raised eyebrows directed toward me. She was expecting me around ten but I was a full hour early. Again, I would need all that time to complete my activity, some shit you just couldn’t rush through.

  Right at ten on the dot my all white Air Max’s stepped on her porch. I smoothed my hands over my gray jeans, adjusted my T-shirt, and pulled my Clippers hat down low on my head. Seconds later she opened the door with a smile to greet my shadow covered eyes.

  “Look at you Mr. Punctual. Come on in.”

  Dallas stepped aside so I could pass through her doorway. The strong smell of fried fish slapped me in the face as I went deeper into her living room.

  “You hungry baby?” She closed the door behind me.

  “Naw, no thanks, I jus’ ate a little while ago. It smells good though. You frying cat fish?”

  “No, jus’ some perch and hush puppies with some homemade coleslaw.”

  “Girl I didn’t think you owned a frying pan

  or knew how to work a stove.” I chuckled poking fun at her.

  She walked passed me toward the kitchen. “I admit I’m not the best cook in the world but I know how to make a few dishes and trust me I’ve perfected about seven of ‘em. You have to try a piece. I even made homemade tartar sauce.”

  “Alright you convinced me. You have any hot sauce?” I sat down at the kitchen table.

  She gave me a crazy look like I asked a dumb question.

  “Do black folks need lotion? Of course I have hot sauce.”

  I was eating dinner for the second time tonight with another beautiful woman. But this dinner conversation wasn’t going to be as smooth. I watched Dallas cut into her flaky fish with her fancy silver fork and pop a piping hot piece of perch in her succulent mouth. I watched her jaws move slowly as she chewed, then her moist tongue flicked out catching the golden crumbs hiding in the corners of her mouth.

  “So, should I thank you or Raine for this delicious meal?”

  Dallas almost choked on her food. She had to take a sip of her Pepsi to bury the cough rising up in her throat.

  “Ummm excuse me ahhhh who?”

  “You heard me?” I stared at her across the table.

  “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about Tyce. Who’s Raine?”

  “You don’t know what I’m talkin’ about?

  You really ‘bout to play me like a game show
?”

  “Tyce really. I have no clue why you’re askin’ me this or who this Raine chick is. My parents named me Dallas.”

  “So I guess you have no clue what happened to the District Attorney huh?”

  “No I don’t. What happened to him?”

  “Somebody killed him. He was shot in the head.”

  Dallas shoved a hush puppie in her mouth to block her lies.

  “Wow he musta pissed somebody off.” She said with a mouthful of food.