Candy Shop

by Nicety

  “Irrelevant? Irrelevant? She’s your wife, Messiah. Your fucking wife! That’s about as relevant as they come don’t you think?” Red was irate. She was so glad she hadn’t slept with this fool before she found out that detail. Having a girlfriend was one thing but a wife was a long-term commitment that he had made to someone pledging his undying love. She always thought she would be that special person someday but all of that was quickly stripped away.

  “Woman, calm down. We going through some problems alright. She cheating and disrespecting me and shit. It’s crazy. Look I don’t wanna talk about her alright.” Messiah leaned back on the couch with his head facing the ceiling.

  He closed his eyes to finally feel rested and at peace. Red watched as the exhausted man lay back trying to get comfortable, fidgeting to get a groove in the couch.

  “Come on.” She said tugging on his Incredible Hulk hand.

  He got up following her to the back bedroom and landed face first unto the plush pillow set atop of her huge king size canopy bed. She removed his shoes for him then unzipped her red dress removing it right in front of him. Messiah glanced out the corner of his eye at her undressing once he heard her zipper become undone.

  “Get over here girl.” He said licking his lips like he was about to sop her up with a biscuit.

  She walked over to her all white dresser with gold trimming opening the drawer to pull out the silk blue night gown he had brought her a few weeks ago, his favorite color. When he saw it he knew he was in. Even though his body was beginning to lock up just like the doctor stated, he was going to get her ass one way or the other. She slipped on the nighty with ease then made her way over to the bed walking seductively and laid in his arms.

  “Good night.” She said as she gathered her pillows fluffing them up before plopping her head on them.

  Red moved her body like a snake to get underneath the covers then turned her back to Messiah staring out of the window. She smiled a little inside punishing him for not telling her about his wife but she hoped her little game hadn’t pushed him away entirely. Just as she was closing her eyes drifting off to sleep she felt his large body surround her like an ocean current. He leaned in and squeezed tightly kissing her forehead in the process.

  “I will get you,” he whispered, “but you can be mad tonight.” Red scooted over towards his cuff allowing him to squeeze her even tighter as the couple drifted into a deep slumber.

  The next morning, Red found herself in bed alone. She rose and went into the living room to see if he was there and turned looking at the kitchen but there was no one. He had left her alone. She could still feel the sweet caress of his touch on her body. Though she played the fool last night she desired some early morning action. Her plan was undoubtedly foiled by his disappearing act and there was no sign of a note or message. She leaned against the living room window gazing out unto the brightly sunned neighborhood remembering his words of his marriage being in trouble. She figured whether Alexis lived or died, Messiah’s heart was hers. She daydreamed of their night together and hoped she would have another shot at his love later.

  ****

  “Alright doc, I'll be up there in a few minutes." Messiah said slamming down the phone.

  He really didn't want to play the role of the loving husband but he knew he had to keep up the fake appearance. He felt that Alexis had brought the shit on herself and he shouldn't have to kiss her ass all because she was in a coma. He thought again she would end up having the last laugh. In his mind, though, she was already dead. Yeah, she was his wife but he had to call like he saw it. Messiah stood smiling for a second at the sweet smell of lavender still on his body from Red last night. He felt bad about leaving Red but he had to get his affairs in order with the insurance companies. He grabbed his keys and a big black leather notebook and walked out shutting the lights behind him.

  On the ground floor, he returned to the car where Skid was waiting to drive him to get a rental. As soon as he raised the storage door there was Zadie flapping her gums at Skid trying to get in to see him. He lowered his head not in the mood for the bullshit but knew it was going away quietly.

  “Meech, you got some nerve leaving me last night for that young tramp!” Zadie yelled walking up to his face pointing.

  “Girl, you need to go home and get your shit together. You smell like alcohol and you look like you off that junk. I’m not about to talk to you like this.” Messiah said walking around her throwing his notebook in the backseat.

  “I thought you loved me, though. So now what? You fucking the baby, now? She’s barely 18 years old. She’s not even a real woman yet.” Zadie said grabbing his jacket.

  She pushed him up against the car leaning her thickness up against him hoping to entice him. She pushed her leg up against his manhood rubbing it just the way he liked. Messiah was all but interested in her shady advances and shoved her off.

  “All you ever wanted was a free ride. Here you go.” Messiah reached in his pocket and pulled out five $1 bills. “That should get you back on the bus that’ll take you wherever you wanna go, on me.”

  He threw the money at her and opened the car door. Skid stood on the driver’s side smiling and laughing at the treatment he had just delivered to her as she stood there with her mouth opened wide enough to trap flies.

  “Messiah!” She yelled never having called him by his government the whole time they were messing around.

  Tears formed in her eyes but never really fell from them. She stumped her feet like a little child acting as immature as they come, while the men started the car and drove backward stopping in front of her.

  “By the way, we’re done and you’re fired. I don’t want to see your face around the Candy Shop or my condos again.” Messiah said in a tranquil tone as he gave the signal for Skid to move forward.

  Zadie was beyond livid when the men pulled off. The look on her face would kill a cat dead in its tracks as she took her cell phone out of her bra punching the keys wildly.

  “Can you believe this fool just quit me?” She yelled into the phone walking back to the gate.

  She signaled for Bently to buzz her out as she rambled on about how Messiah played her so bogus. She walked on top of the grass dodging light poles along the way heading towards the Target parking lot behind the Shop. Just as she had reached her brand new 2012 Mazda CX-9 that she had been hiding from Messiah for the last 6 months, an unmarked car pulled up on the side of her really quickly. Out jumped to detectives flashing their shiny silver badges in her face before they spoke.

  “Zadie Atterberry?” One of the men said walking on the side of her ensuring to secure her in a box so she couldn’t flee the scene.

  Zadie looked at both of them inquisitively wondering what the hell they might have wanted with her.

  “Marie, let me call you back girl.” She said hanging up the phone and stuffing it back down in her bra. “Who wants to know?”

  “I’m Agent Crosby and this is my partner Agent Maxwell, DEA. We just have a few questions for you and we'd like you to come on down to our office and talk about it.” Agent Crosby said placing his badge back on the side of his hip.

  “Am I under arrest?” She asked placing her hands on her hip, sassy-like.

  “No, but we…” Agent Maxwell tried to say but was cut short.

  “Then this conversation is over.” Zadie said attempting to grab her car door handle but Agent Maxwell put his hand on it preventing it from opening.

  “Listen, gal. We don’t want you. We already know who you are and what you do. We want your little boyfriend, Messiah Torres. He’s in some mighty big bullshit and if you don’t help us out you’re going down with him.” Agent Maxwell smiled at her sure of himself that he had her right where he wanted her.

  “You don’t scare me. I know how you overachieving cops are. Always sending checks you can’t possibly cash without someone’s signature. If you’ll excuse me gentlemen, I have prior engagements.” Zadie said yanking the door open with Agent Maxwell’s
hand still on it.

  “Okay, okay we don’t want any problems here. So, if you change your mind and want to talk to us, don’t hesitate to give us a call.” Agent Crosby said reaching in his pocket and pulling out a business card to hand to her.

  She didn’t want to take it at first but it seemed they wouldn’t stop with their relentless antics until she did. She snatched the card out of Crosby’s hand and got in the car slamming the door behind her. They stood there watching as she started up the car and pulled off hoping to have gotten through to her. She was their only hope of infiltrating the Candy Shop and getting the play by play of what goes inside. Everyone else they had tried to get a hold of wasn’t talking or evaded their visits. The two agents got in their dark blue unmarked car a bit disappointed at the lack of results and drove off. Bently stood there looking out the window in shock that the feds were closing in on Zadie. He knew eventually she would crack cause her mouth was like a broken leaky faucet, always running. He picked up the phone immediately to run his.

  ****

  Messiah rubbed on her freshly shaved smooth legs enjoying the softness under his hand. He couldn’t think of a better place to be then right there laying with Red. She was everything he had looked for in a woman. She was caring, considerate, and classy and didn’t nag him. Messiah was most attracted to the fact that she let a man be a man. Red giggled as he laid his head on her lap tickling her with his beard. She stroked his head gently as he closed his eyes and imagined her as his wife. He thought about enjoying her on the balcony of the hotel in Barbados overlooking the ocean as the sunset illuminated their bodies instead of the bickering that went on when he took Alexis there.

  “I’m glad you came back baby.” She said enjoying his weight on her body.

  “Yeah, I like being here up under you. I wish I didn’t have to leave.”

  “So don’t.”

  Messiah cleared his throat, relieving the frog that was stuck in it. “I have to go to the hospital and check on Alexis.”

  “You know, you could’ve told me about her. It would’ve been cool. I mean after all we don’t have anything going on…right?” The words came out of her mouth uncontrollably. She wanted to know exactly what was going on between them but she didn’t want to seem pushy. She could feel the chemistry between them but for some reason she needed the reassurance that what she was feeling was real and not fantasy.

  “I know. I just didn’t want you to blow me off.”

  “You know…I’m not as innocent as you may think I am, Messiah.”

  “Who said I thought you was innocent?”

  The couple chuckled as he tickled her stomach in a rough playful motion. He pulled her legs down bringing her directly under him. He was mounted on top of her looking down into her beautiful hazel bronzed skin and her dark chocolate hair. Her eyes batted at him waiting for him to finally make his move, sparkling up at him. He felt mesmerized by beauty never wanting to take his eyes off of her. He leaned in closely touching his nose with hers and Eskimo kissing her smiling the whole time. She thought it was cute that he seduced her in an entirely different way then she was otherwise familiar with. It felt damn good. It felt almost like love but with all of the wrong in her life it was hard for her to be sure.

  “Kiss me already.” She said deflecting the attention from her nervousness of him being so close.

  He planted his lips on hers kissing her passionately, rolling his tongue around with hers. She moaned softly as they became more engaged in each other. He stroked her hair pulling it loving the fact that it was all real, no tracks. She rubbed on his broad shoulders loving his bulge and reaching under his white t-shirt to get a better feel. He moved his hand downward to her soft breasts rubbing gently loving her velvety plumpness. Red’s pussy throbbed with moisture as he placed his manhood against her loveliness raising her legs in the air. Their clothes felt constricting as their bodies danced together on the bed.

  At the same damn time, at the same damn time…

  Messiah’s phone rang interrupting the flow but he was ignoring it unconcerned with its presence. He continued his lustful acts moving down to her neck sucking and nibbling but careful not to suck to hard to leave any unwanted marks. Red tried to ignore it as well since she wanted this so badly but it was hard to concentrate with the phone ringing back to back.

  “Just answer it babe.” She finally gritted her teeth to say.

  Grunting irritably, Messiah yanked the phone from his jeans and answered it.

  “Hello?”

  “Yes, Mr. Torres. I was just calling to let you know there is no change in your wife’s brain activity so that part is fine but she is still in a coma. However, she appears to be in a considerable amount of pain. So I’m calling to find out if it is okay to up her pain meds.” The doctor said.

  “Oh, uh, yeah. It’s okay.”

  “Yeah, the rules have changed now and so we need the permission of the family in order to do so. That’s all.”

  Messiah wasn’t the least bit interested in what the doctor was talking about. It seemed he was looking to have casual small talk but as the phone grew silent he finally gave up and ended the call. Red continued to kiss him without any questions. She didn’t care about the business he had to handle she was just finally ready to feel him inside of her. She felt him resisting the need to feel her, touch her, or hold her. She immediately stopped her lusting. She didn’t want it if his heart wasn’t in it.

  “What’s wrong?” She asked.

  “Nothing…I just feel bad.” Messiah replied looking deep into her eyes feeling her empathy for his problems.

  “I’m listening.”

  “Nothing, nothing. Hey, can you come somewhere with me?” He said rising to straighten the now limp Johnson in his pants.

  “Anywhere.”

  “I need to eat some Italian food. It always makes me feel better.”

  Red thought it was the weirdest thing for him to say since her opening was humming like a hummingbird. "Uh, yeah. Let's grab some grub!" She said lively trying to pep him up.

  He had to admit, she made him smile.

  Served Cold

  Danger slowed the car down pulling up in front of Lake Michigan in the parking lot of Rainbow Beach. He took the joint from the ashtray and lit taking a few puffs then passing it to Zadie. She took a few long drags when Danger slapped her hand damn near knocking it out. She gave him the look of death as she slowly handed it back to him.

  “So that dude dropped you like a bad habit last week, huh?” Danger asked.

  “Shut up. He did not drop me…I ended it.”

  “Yeah, whatever you need to tell yourself. So anyway, what do you want from me?”

  “Since I’m fired, I can’t even get past the gate anymore. But you can. All I need you to do is lure that little bitch from the Shop Thursday night and drop her off on 119th at that old warehouse. I’ll take care of the rest.” Zadie said turning to look Danger dead in the face letting him know she wasn’t playing.

  “What? Girl you crazy. From what I hear Skid drives her everywhere so how am I gonna pull that off?”

  “I don’t give a fuck how you pull it off just do it. I promise you will be rewarded handsomely.”

  “Zadie, even if I was to pull the shit off, what’s in it for me?”

  “You’ve always wanted to get out of your brother’s shadow and be in the limelight, right? So this is your chance. We’ll frame him for her murder and you can have all the access to the merch and his money.”

  The sound of him finally being the top dog in the operation sounded really good to Danger. Ever since he started sleeping with Alexis he found himself at the office less and less unable to face his brother knowing he had just had his wife. But Messiah would never give him any real responsibility anyway, which pissed him off to the fullest and made him too lazy to even want to go into the office.

  “Besides, I have proof that the feds are closing in on him. So once he goes down for this murder he’ll go down for the X as wel
l.” Zadie laughed.

  “Murder? Why are you doing this? I thought you loved that fool?” Danger asked flicking the duct out the window at some pigeons.

  Zadie sensed some hesitation on Danger’s part. She knew he needed more persuasion but she wasn’t trying to sleep with her man’s brother just to do it. She wasn’t concerned about him telling his brother about her plan due to the bad blood between them so in that instance she decided to choose a different subtler route. As the car grew silent, Zadie took out her phone and began texting someone she knew was down for her offering him the same deal.

  “I do love him but he needs to pay for what he’s done to me.”

  ****

  Messiah sat in the chair of the hospital room watching Alexis lay perfectly still in the bed. She was wrapped neatly in the sheets and had tubes galore coming from her mouth and arms. He folded his hands and rested his chin upon them as he stared at her. His heart was heavy knowing he had put her there and there was nothing he could do to change it. He only wondered what might be going on if she wasn’t in this predicament and then he remembered she hated his guts. He never knew what he did to deserve such hatred and even if she were conscious she would never tell him. Still she was his wife and he couldn’t get past his love for her. He was truly torn between a love he knew was real and the woman who once was about to bear his child.