by Day, Desiree
She stumbled down the stairs where she called the police. The chaos of her house made her ill; she picked her way through the mess in the kitchen, where she grabbed a bottled water from the refrigerator. She went outside and sat on her front steps to wait for the police.
It took thirty minutes for them to come, while she was waiting for them, she called Savion.
“I know you messed up my house,” she snapped as soon as he answered his phone.
Savion chuckled. “What’s wrong Ma? You sound upset. Is there something I can do?” he drawled.
“You think you’re so smart, like you’re getting back at me. Remember this asshole, all this shit you’re doing, you’re doing it to your son too. So think about that the next time you want to play your silly games!” She angrily clicked off the phone before he could reply.
“You don’t have a security system?” Officer Ferguson asked.
Brooke shook her head. “No. I never needed one, this is a safe neighborhood. No one’s been burglarized in years.”
“You really should think about getting one, so that it won’t happen again.”
“It won’t happen again, because I know who did this,” she said angrily.
“What? You do?”
“Yeah, it was my son’s father, he did this.”
“It definitely looks personal and you’re sure nothing was taken?”
Brooke shrugged. “I think so. I can’t think straight right now.”
She absent-mindedly noticed that he was cute, he reminded her a little of Chris Paul, the basketball player.
He handed her his card. “If you think of anything or if any of your neighbors saw something, no matter how insignificant they think it might be, please call me. It’s always those small clues that add up to something big and end up cracking the case.”
“Oh, I hope so, I want to catch that asshole,” she said bitterly.
Chapter 3
Three months later, Brooke was staring at her bank account on her computer. Her funds had depleted faster than the saline bags in a bad boob job. She hadn’t found a job yet. After sending out hundreds of resumes, she had gotten a few telephone interviews and even fewer face-to-face interviews.
She had just enough funds in her account to last her a month. Her head throbbed; she had the same headache for the last two months when she realized how bad the job market really was. When she had a job, she had seen the news reports about thousands of job seekers in line for a career fair, the line had wrapped around the Georgia World Congress Center. At the time she glanced at it with the indifference of someone comfortable and confident in their own job, but not now. Her situation was getting real, very real.
It was September only three months away from Christmas. God, I hope I find something by then. The pain in her head magnified, she pushed herself off the couch and went into her powder room for some ibroprofen. She flicked the top off and dropped four pills in her hand. She popped them in her mouth and swallowed them dry. Because of the stress of her unemployment, she had been popping on average, twelve pills a week. Too much in her book, but it was the only thing that temporarily alleviated her pain.
She glanced at the clock she had some time before she had to pick Jaden up from daycare. She grimaced, her daycare bill was one that she wished she didn’t have, but she needed to keep her days free just in case she got a call for an interview. Also, she needed peace and quiet for her phone interviews. And not having Jaden home during the day allowed her to focus one hundred percent on her job search.
Her doorbell rang, and she paused, only a handful of people knew she was home during the day and those few knew better to drop by without calling first.
Brooke peeked through the peephole and saw, Ebony, her cousin. Brooke grinned; she really needed her cousin’s hard hitting advice. She opened the door and Ebony sprang in, carrying bags of takeout.
“Yo, yo, yo cuz, whassup?”
Brooke grinned, no matter where she was, Ebony always made an entrance. “Hey, Eb, come in.”
“I brought you some Chinese food. I heard you were starving my baby. Where is he?”
“Oh Eb, thanks so much. Jaden’s in daycare. Let me take these.” She grabbed the bags and took them into the kitchen. “You want to eat in the kitchen, dining or living room?”
“Don’t really care, you pick.”
“Okay we can be super casual and sit in the living room.”
“Cool.”
Brooke went into the kitchen to prepare their plates. She greedily eyed the food; she hadn’t had takeout in months. It was now a luxury she couldn’t afford. She sent up a prayer of thanks to God.
Brooke loved her cousin Ebony, even though they were complete opposites. Where she was quiet, Ebony was boisterous. Where Ebony was the color of chocolate, Brooke was the color of caramel. Where Ebony was a hustler who was always on her grind, Brooke preferred the predictability of Corporate America.
Brooke wasn’t sure what Ebony did for a living, but whatever she did, she was making bank. She drove a black tricked out Escalade, wore designer clothes, and her hair was always hooked up. She told everybody that she was a dancer.
Even though Brooke was two years older than Ebony, her cousin was by far more street smart than she, no matter how many degrees she added to her wall, she would never be smarter than her cousin.
Ebony had moved from Buffalo to Atlanta ten years ago a couple of years after Brooke did. They were roommates for a while until Brooke decided that it would be best for her to move out after seeing her cousin smoke weed and pop pills with her friends.
Ebony loved Brooke, even though she had four sisters of her own, Brooke was closer to her than her sisters. If it hadn’t been for Brooke she would have never graduated from high school. Brooke had tutored her in math after everyone had told her that she wasn’t smart enough to master it.
Brooke never abandoned her, like her so-called friends and even her family did, after the football team had gang raped her one night during a party. Everyone had said that she had deserved it, that she had even begged for it because she was drunk and was dressed provocatively. Because she didn’t report it until a month later, the football players were never arrested or charged for their crime. According to the police, it was too late and any damning DNA evidence was long since gone. That had happened while she was in the eleventh grade, making her senior year hell.
After that incident Brooke and her mom, her auntie Lucy and Uncle Martin, let her live with them until she graduated from high school. They had provided a safe haven filled with love, respect and understanding, something that she didn’t get from her own family.
Brooke returned to the living room carrying their plates of food. “Are you sure this is okay?”
“It’s cool.”
“Okay. Here you go.” She handed her cousin her plate before they both settled down on the couch. They were quiet while they ate their food. Ebony picked at hers, but Brooke devoured hers. “So what made you drive out my way?” she asked, knowing how much her cousin hated coming to her side of town, according to her it was too much of a drive.
“I’m just checking on you. Haven’t heard from you in a minute.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’ve been looking for a job. It’s a bitch, nobody’s hiring, and if they are they want to pay you crap. If I do accept a job, I’ll be making half of what I used to make. These employers are just taking advantage of the shitty job market.”
“You’re smart. You’ll find something,” she offered, then, “Auntie told me what happened. Savion is an ass.”
Brooke snorted. “And that’s being kind.”
Ebony glanced around. “It looks like you got everything under control.”
“Yeah, my insurance company paid really fast. It helped that I had pictures and the police report. My house doesn’t feel the same, I just feel so violated. I don’t have everything that I want, but I got my kitchen professionally cleaned and repainted.” She gestured to the floor. “I got this repaired. A
nd I got a whole new mattress set.” She shuddered with revulsion at the image of what Savion had left on her bed. “And this is not the furniture set that I wanted, but it’ll do.”
“I can imagine girl. At least you got a security system installed.”
“Yeah, at least if Savion comes back, he won’t get far.”
“I don’t think he’ll be that stupid, but you never know. You should think about getting a dog. I have a friend that breeds Rottweilers; I can get you the hookup.”
“Eb, how the hell am I gonna buy food for a dog, when I can barely buy food for me and Jaden.”
Ebony set down her chopsticks. “Okay this is the second time you mentioned your job situation, how serious is it? And you’d better tell me the truth,” she ordered.
“I don’t know what to do,” Brooke admitted. “Things are getting so hard.”
“You can always move back home, you know your mom would love to have you and Jaden back home.”
“Move back to Buffalo?” she asked incredulously. “Why the hell would I want to do that?”
Ebony shrugged. “It’s an option girl. Just thinking out loud. If it was me, I wouldn’t move back to Buffalo either, those winters are a bitch, but that’s just me. But sometimes we have to do things that we don’t want to do. I’d hate to see you out in the street.”
“Jaden and I can always move in with you,” she said half-jokingly. She loved her cousin’s condo in downtown Atlanta. It had an awesome view of the city, close proximity to shopping and trendy restaurants, and most importantly, it had three bedrooms.
“You know you and my baby are more than welcome, but I don’t think you’ll last long. I have a little get together every couple of weeks.”
Brooke rolled her eyes. Ebony had told her about her soirees and it sounded like they were even crazier than the get togethers she had while they were roommates. She entertained many up-and-coming celebrities, athletes and rappers, where drugs, alcohol, and sex were all freely exchanged.
“You’re right, but if I don’t find something soon, I might lose my house and I can’t let that happen. I worked too hard for all this,” she said, her voice cracking a little.
“I do have some options for you,” Ebony tentatively offered.
“Anything, I’m open to anything.”
“I don’t know if you’re gonna like them, and I wouldn’t even be considering them, but you seem desperate.”
“It’s not selling drugs is it?”
“Hell naw girl, why would you think I would even suggest something like that to you? No, I was thinking about maybe stripping.”
Brooke’s eyes widened, she shook her head. “What? No! What? Why would you even ask me that?” Brooke stuttered, shaken by her cousin’s suggestion.
“Look, you’re gorgeous, you definitely have the body for it and I know you can dance. Back in the day, you were the one who taught me the latest dance moves.”
“All that might be true; but there’s no way in hell that I’ll become a stripper. What’s your next idea?”
“Well, we’ll just shelve that idea for now,” she said and Brooke rolled her eyes. “Okay, my other idea is that you need a Sugar Daddy.”
“What?” Brooke shrieked. “That’s even worse than being a stripper, instead of just letting them see all my goodies, now somebody will be touching me.” She shuddered with revulsion.
“It’s not that bad. I always have one or even two at the same time,” Ebony said proudly.
“I’ll be a prostitute.”
“No you won’t. It’s a mutually beneficial agreement. He gets a beautiful lady, some good convo and sex whenever he wants. And you get money and gifts. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
“How can you be so cavalier about this?”
“I’m not. It’s a lifestyle that a lot of people turn their noses up at. But the fact is it provides me with a lifestyle that I like. I’m stacking paper, my bank account is overflowing.”
“Why don’t you stop?”
For the first time Brooke saw fear and uncertainty flash across her cousin’s face. “I don’t know how to do anything else,” she answered sheepishly.
“Eb you’re young enough to go back to school.”
“For what? My Master’s in Computer Science?” she scoffed. “It didn’t help you.”
Brooke ignored the jab, she knew that Ebony wasn’t intentionally being mean, just stating a fact. “It doesn’t have to be computer science, you can go back for nursing,” she suggested.
“I ain’t cleaning up anybody’s shit!”
“All nurses don’t do that. And if you don’t want to consider nursing there are hundreds of programs for you to think about,” she said angrily.
Ebony chuckled at her cousin, it was funny to see her mad, it was uncharacteristic of her, she was the sweetest person she knew. “Thanks Brooke. I appreciate your concern, but I’m happy with my life. Come at me in another ten years and my response might be different then. But right now, I’m cool. Do you want to move back to Buffalo?” Ebony abruptly asked.
“You know I don’t,” Brooke replied sullenly.
“Think about what I said.” She grabbed her cousin’s hand. “It really isn’t that bad,” she said softly.
After catching up on family gossip, Ebony blew out of the house just as quickly as she had come in, leaving Brooke with a lot of leftover Chinese food and things to think about.
Later that night after she had bathed Jaden, read him a story and tucked him into bed, she got some wine and went out to her deck. The two-level masterpiece is what sold her on the house. She had spent many summer days throwing barbeques for her friends and many nights, after Jaden went to bed, sitting outside enjoying the smells of summer. Fortunately, her neighbors were far away enough so that she had complete privacy and was able to sit in her lingerie if she wanted.
She sipped her wine and contemplated her options, losing wasn’t one. Going to Savion wasn’t either. And the thought that his blood was in her son made her sick. “Hopefully, Jaden won’t turn out like his vengeful, immature father.” She fumed at Savion and what he had done to her home.
There was only one clear option, and before she changed her mind, she picked up her phone.
“Hey Eb, I think, that, I um, I think that I’ll take you up on your offer.”
Chapter 4
Brooke nervously looked around the restaurant. “Why here?” She and Ebony were sitting at the bar of a popular chain restaurant. It was eleven thirty on Monday afternoon and the employees from neighboring companies were just beginning to fill the place.
“This is the perfect place to get you your man.”
“I don’t know if I want to do this,” Brooke announced. “I want to go.”
Ebony shrugged. “Sure, leave and I’ll hire some movers to help you get back to Buffalo.”
Brooke sighed and dropped her head in her arms. “I can’t do this.” She had spent the night thinking about her new profession as a prostitute, because that’s what it was. But then she changed her mind and rationalized that it wasn’t any different from dating, when occasionally, she went out to dinner and had sex afterwards, it couldn’t be any worse than that.
“Sit up,” Ebony hissed to her cousin. “You’re not going to catch anybody looking like you just finished off a bottle of vodka.”
Brooke obeyed her cousin, and smoothed her skirt. She had spent the morning ransacking her closet looking for the right outfit, she didn’t want anything that screamed ten dollar prostitute nor desperate single mom, but a sophisticated lady in need of help.
She had decided on a gray mid-thigh skirt, with a lace overlay and paired it with a cleavage baring blouse along with a pair of five-inch pumps. The final effect was sexy not sleazy.
Brooke glanced around the restaurant. She was glad that Ebony had come with her because she wouldn’t know what to do. On the rare occasions that she had picked up men, she was nervous.
“Are you ready?”
“No,” B
rooke said honestly, but she knew that she had to do something until a job came up. The unemployment compensation she was getting barely made a dent in her bills.
“Pull out your book.”
Brooke grumbled, but she pulled out the book as requested. “Why do I have this?”
“First of all, it’ll give you something to do until your Sugar Daddy shows up, and when he does show up, it’ll give you two something to talk about. And I want you to look like you’re really here to have lunch, not trying to get picked up.” Ebony nodded at a lady sitting a few bar stools down from them. “Like her.”
The attractive brunette was sipping her drink while gazing hungrily at the men in the restaurant. She looked a little overdressed to Brooke, but other than that she looked okay. For good measure, she squinted at her a little harder to see what Ebony was talking about. “What’s wrong with her?” she finally asked.
“She looks desperate as hell. It’s obvious that she’s scanning the crowd for her next sponsor and her little black dress is saying ‘I’m only fifty dollars an hour, come buy me’.”
“Wow! You can tell all that by looking at her?”
“Yeah, and somebody will pick her up, but she’ll be right back here tomorrow, wearing the same dress and the same desperate expression. While you will have found someone to take care of you for a little while. So keep the book.”
“Okay.”
“And speaking about lunch, always order a salad, and never ever order alcohol, club soda is fine and don’t go to any hotel rooms on the first date. You’re cultivating a relationship, not a one night stand.”
Brooke simply nodded while her cousin rattled off her rules.
Ebony continued, “This place is perfect. A lot of executives and business owners eat here. The occasional celebrity or athlete might pop in. I won’t tell you not to consider them if one of them approach you, you use your own judgment. But in my experience they’re a pain in the ass.”