Nobody Can Love You Like Them Roughnecks Do 3

by Shvonne Latrice

  Just as I sunk down into the bed, feeling nice and clean, the light came on, and I saw Nichole standing in the doorway.

  “Where the hell have you been? You only come here when you’ve been out too late to go home.”

  “I went to a little party with Blaise.”

  “With Blaise? Since when do you two hang together so much? First the strip club and now this little party?”

  “How did you know about the strip club?”

  “I— you know everything Blaise does gets on the blogs!” she snapped. I wasn’t a gossip blog watcher, so I had no idea they’d posted about her going to the strip club. “Anyway, what kind of party?” She cut the bright ass light off and then sat at the edge of the bed.

  “It was something thrown by Belly’s manager to kind of celebrate him and such.”

  “Belly was there?”

  “Uh, yeah, it was for him. Why would Blaise go to a celebration for Belly and he not come?”

  “Fuck you.”

  “I met a boy though. His name is Herman…” I looked off. “I didn’t get his last name, but he boxes, and he is so fine. He is going to make it big like Belly.”

  “Girl, please. Them boxers have about a one percent chance of making that kind of money. It takes more than some good fighting moves.”

  “Well, I believe he will be a part of that one percent.”

  “What’s his name again?”

  “Herman. Tall, chocolate, just scrumptious!” I exclaimed giddily, making Nichole laugh and roll her eyes out of disgust.

  “Girl, act like you’ve been here before, okay?” She stood up. “I’ll look into him and let you know if he’s worth your time.” She started out but then paused to look at me. “If we’re sisters, it’s not right for you to be hanging out with Blaise, someone who has basically told the world that she’s going to fuck me up on sight.”

  “But I was her friend before that happened.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m your blood, Isabella.”

  “What did you do to her?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I did to her. Because we’re siblings, you’re obligated to always have my back. That’s how this shit works. Do you want to be looked at as a trader? A disloyal ass bitch?”

  “N—”

  “You think Herman wants to date a girl who can’t even be loyal to her own damn sister? If he’s going to blow up like you believe, he’s gonna be looking for a bitch that’s bonafide, not a flip flopper.”

  “Goodnight, Nichole.” I turned over, pulling the covers above my head.

  I knew she was staring at me from the doorway, and a few moments later, the door shut.

  Two days later…

  Last night, Herman let me know he was training and that I should come. I wasn’t going to, but when Blaise said she’d be there, I felt better about it.

  I wasn’t gonna stop hanging out with Blaise just because Nichole wanted me to. I knew my sister well, and I was sure she was the reason why their friendship was broken. I didn’t know what it was exactly, and I was afraid to ask, but I knew it was Nichole’s fault. Blaise was too good of a person. Additionally, Blaise was the angry one, which made it obvious who the perpetrator was in this situation.

  “Excuse me, ma’am. There is a private session going on.” A man stopped me in the hallway of the boxing gym.

  “I’m here for Herman.”

  “I bet you are. You can’t come in unless someone brings you in that has permission to.”

  “Can’t you call—”

  “She’s fine,” a voice called out, and when I looked down the hall, I spotted Judd peeking out of the gym room.

  The man nodded for me to go, so I hurried down the hallway.

  “Thank you. He’s an asshole.”

  Chuckling, Judd replied, “He has to be. We got the champ in here, so a lot of people try to come in to get pictures. And some women come to do other things.”

  “What?” I jerked my neck back as we walked. “Other things like what?”

  “Like give head, sex, whatever he wants.”

  “Does he take it? I mean, from the women who get by security out there.”

  “Nah.” Judd laughed.

  “You’re lying, aren’t you?”

  “No. He actually fucks with Blaise. But even before her, he never fucked with random chicks, especially ones who just show up with knee pads on already.”

  We both guffawed, just as we entered the actual workout portion of the gym. I spotted Herman in the corner on his phone talking, so I separated from Judd to head his way.

  I wanted to get a chance to talk with him, because although we’d been texting for the past two days, it wasn’t much. He frequently texted back late, or not at all, so I’d have to rev the conversation back up.

  “No, I’m not coming by twelve. I got shit to do,” Herman fussed into the phone. I paused, not wanting to seem as nosy as I was. “I already said…” he halted when he saw me, then added, “I gotta go.”

  He quickly hung up, and when we made eye contact again, I gave him a brief smile.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah, it’s straight.” He hugged me, smelling really good.

  “You can have a seat wherever, and when I get a break, I’ll—”

  “Come on, muthafuckas, I ain’t got all day.” Belly emerged from the back with Blaise and Island, shirtless. His body was nothing short of amazing.

  Chuckling, Herman finished his sentence. “I’ll get at you on break.”

  “Okay.” I felt myself blushing as he ran off toward where Belly and Judd were situated.

  As I went to sit by Blaise, I noticed Judd watching me. Ignoring him, I spoke to Blaise to spark up some conversation while playing with cutie pie Island.

  Will

  The very next day…

  I felt a kiss on my forehead, which prompted me to open my eyes and see who it was. Standing there smiling and looking as beautiful as ever, was Dionne. She had her hair down, and her body wrapped in a robe.

  “Damn, what time is it?” I questioned.

  “It’s 11 a.m., so it’s late. I just took a bubble bath in your tub. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t. You smell good.” I grabbed her hand to intertwine our fingers as I studied her. “How did we grow apart?”

  “Mainly because of you, and maybe a tiny bit of me.”

  “I know.” I dropped her hand so I could use both of mine to rub down my face. “But I’m working on correcting all of that so I can get back to being who I was when we first got together.”

  “Good.” She beamed. Tying her hair up into a bun, she added, “And I want you to know that I never loved Belly. I just liked him, and because I wasn’t getting any attention from you, I latched onto him, believing it was love. But really, I was just desperate for some type of affection.”

  I nodded, soaking up what she was telling me. It felt good as fuck to hear that she wasn’t really on Belly the way she portrayed herself to be. I loved Dionne, but I’d be damned if I was gon’ walk around with her on my arm, knowing she wanted to bust it open for the homie and a client.

  “Glad to hear it.”

  “Well.” She stood up quickly. “I made you some food, so get up and come eat. Your plate will be on the table.”

  “Aight.”

  I watched Dionne switch out of my bedroom until I couldn’t see her anymore.

  Grabbing my phone, I replied to some emails, texts, and direct messages on social media regarding work. As soon as I swiped right to get out of my inbox, the first post on my timeline was a dance video of Priscilla.

  She had two ladies behind her, but my eyes were on her as she moved her body sensually to “Hope You Do” by Chris Brown. To make matters worse, she had on these tights that showed every curve in her body.

  I’d only planned to watch for a second, but I couldn’t pull my eyes away, as she danced sexually yet gracefully right on my phone.

  It was so good that when the video restarted, I
watched again. I tried to look at the other women in the back, but they were simply decoration to have behind her.

  “Will!” Dionne shouted my name, jolting me from my position and making me drop my phone onto the floor.

  “I told you to come on.” She waltzed in, bending over to pick my phone up from the floor. Chris Brown was still singing, and when Dionne turned the phone over, Priscilla’s video was right there on the screen. “This is what has you still in bed, when I told you to come eat?”

  “Dionne—”

  “Why are you watching her, Will? You didn’t even date her that long, yet this bitch has you obsessed like some damn fan.”

  “Dionne, chill the fuck out, aight? I was looking at my damn timeline and the post was right there. I ain’t no fucking fan.” I tossed the covers off of my lap, getting up.

  “You need to unfollow her. There is no reason you should still be wanting to see her posts anyway. I don’t want you seeing her when you get on your social media apps.”

  “I’m sure the damn video has gon’ viral, so whether I follow her or not, I would’ve still seen it.” I went to one of them gossip blogs, the biggest one on Instagram, then turned my phone to show Dionne that they’d posted Priscilla’s video.

  “I don’t care! It’s not like you check those gossip pages anyway! Unfollow her, Will, or we can’t move forward. You think I’m gonna feel comfortable knowing you see her posts when you’ve already gon’ behind my back and fucked her? I thought she was my friend! I was venting to her about my relationship, not knowing y’all were messing around! Do you know how that makes me feel?”

  “Baby—”

  “And I’ve unfollowed and blocked Belly on everything like you wanted, but it’s a problem for you to do the same?”

  Exhaling heavily, I nodded to let her know I agreed. I shouldn’t have wanted to follow Priscilla’s ass anyway.

  “Aight, it’s done. I don’t follow her no more.” I showed Dionne my phone screen.

  Not saying anything else, she left the bedroom, so I slipped some sweats on over my boxers to go eat.

  We sat at the table in silence for a little bit, but I decided to make some conversation. She was only giving out one-word answers at first, but eventually, she loosened up, talking a lot like her usual self, which I was happy about.

  “Sorry about the video.” I leaned back in my chair as she scraped our plates into the trash.

  “It’s fine.”

  I got up and hugged her from behind just as she set the dishes in the sink.

  “Thank you for choosing to work with me. I’ll make it worth your while. No one else is for me but you.” I kissed her neck, and she reached around to caress my curls.

  As I rubbed on her body, I heard my doorbell sound off, so I popped my head up to look in its direction as if that would tell me who was there.

  “Who is that?”

  “I don’t know. Stay right here.” I patted Dionne’s butt.

  She shook her head to say ‘okay’, then turned on some water to wash the dishes as I headed to the living room.

  Peering through the peephole, I spotted some white dude who looked normal. For a moment, I just stared, trying to recall if I knew him or if I’d scheduled some shit for my crib. Nothing came up, so I unlocked the door with a frown, staring down at him.

  “Yes?” I gripped my doorknob tightly as I sized him up.

  “Are you Mr. Willem Dade? Or does a Mr. Willem Dade live here?”

  “I’m Willem. Who the fuck are you?”

  “Mr. Dade, this is the third and final attempt.” The white man reached into his brown saddlebag, revealing a packet. “You’ve been served. Good day.” He placed the envelope in my hand and immediately turned around to walk off.

  I stood there in the doorway after retrieving the papers from the envelope, sifting through them, confused as fuck.

  I’d just handled the solicitation charges, so this couldn’t be related to that. Thankfully, my lawyer was right with his assumptions, so the judge on my case decided to let me off with a fine and community service since I had no previous record. He also made me snitch, giving up Geena’s location, which I happily did since she exposed me. She tried to keep herself protected while doing so, but I fixed that.

  “What is that?” Dionne appeared behind me as I read.

  “You fucking serious?” I backed up, slamming my door just as Dionne moved out of the way.

  “What, Will?” She trailed me to the bedroom.

  “Fucking Nichole got a restraining order against me; well, a temporary one. I have to show up for court.” I plopped down onto the bed, pondering. My personal life had plummeted severely.

  “Why would she do that? Have you been bothering her?”

  “What? Fuck no! Her ass is mad because I threatened to tell her little fiancé that her baby could be mine. She’s swearing it ain’t now, even though she claimed it was before.”

  “Well maybe you should let her have that. If she doesn’t want you to be the father, then leave her alone and let Ian raise the baby. Do you honestly want to have to deal with Nichole for the rest of your life?”

  “This ain’t about her, Dionne! I don’t give a fuck what she wants. If that’s my kid, I’m gon’ raise it, not another nigga. Me not wanting to deal with Nichole ain’t got shit to do with me being a father to my kid!”

  “Don’t yell at me. I was just trying to help!”

  “I—” I calmed myself down some, closing my eyes for a second. “I get that, Dionne, but telling me to abandon my child is not helping, aight? Fuck!” I threw the papers.

  “Just go to court and show them there is no need for the permanent restraining order.”

  “We’ll see how well that goes. I already have solicitation charges on my record, so my credibility is not up to par.”

  “Will, I…” Dionne just got up and left the bedroom. I didn’t have the energy to chase behind her or see what was wrong.

  I got up to gather the papers I’d thrown to double check the court date before putting it into my phone.

  I wanted to show up over Nichole’s house and tell her ass about herself, but that would only land me in jail, which was the last thing I needed at this point.

  Picking out my clothes, I laid everything out on my bed and then went to shower before brushing, flossing, and rinsing with mouthwash. After styling my curls to perfection and putting on some boxer briefs, I went to slip into the jeans and t-shirt I had out.

  “I’ll be back around 7 p.m. I’m just filming this shit by the boardwalk on the beach.”

  “What is it?” Dionne looked from the TV at me.

  “This choreographer is paying me to film her and some girls for this thing coming up.”

  “Did you recommend that I be in it when she contacted you? You know, ever since the shows with Reddi ended, I haven’t found anything.”

  “No, I didn’t. But I’ll look into some shit and make sure you get booked on something big, aight?”

  “Okay.” Dionne nodded with a half-smile. Leaning down, I kissed her lips then gazed into her eyes for a little bit before leaving. I swear her ass was bipolar, but I’d be a fool to say the shit.

  I hopped into my Benz, cut on some music, and then sped off toward Manhattan Beach.

  Ever since I’d filmed and chopped up videos for Priscilla and her choreographer, I’d been getting a lot of requests from other dancers. At first, I was turning them down, because I mainly did still pictures and not moving ones, but when I saw how much some were willing to pay, I changed my mind.

  I hated editing video, but I could charge a boatload for it, separately from the actual filming, so it was cool. Not to mention, I kind of wanted to be known solely as Belly’s photographer, so cutting down on shooting still photos for others would do that.

  After circling for what seemed like hours, I found a park in the crowded shopping area of Manhattan Beach, right near the actual beach area. As I got out of my car, I admired the big ass houses, thinking about
how I wanted one for myself. I was just too damn cheap and figured I should wait until I had a family or some shit for all that.

  “Hey!” I heard a voice and spotted the White female, Katie, who confused me. I had to remind myself that she wasn’t Black. She looked like a White woman, somewhat, but her demeanor and the way she spoke made me feel as if she were mixed. Not to mention, her shapely body and full lips gave me Black girl vibes.

  “Sup. Where exactly are we gonna be?”

  “Right over there.” She pointed to the wooden walk area. “Right under the lights. You ready, bro?” She folded her arms, making me squint my eyes down at her.

  “Yeah. I’m ready. Lead the way.”

  “Dope.”

  I shook my head at her lingo but followed behind her, watching her plump ass.

  As soon as we got to the group of five ladies, she began to introduce me, and I could already tell from their faces that they knew me as the nigga who got caught fucking hoes. I ain’t care though.

  “So I’m gonna do my thing. Don’t mind… me.” I got distracted when Priscilla joined the group.

  She peered up into my face for a second but then looked off.

  For the next hour and a half, I filmed the dance sequence then let Katie view it to make sure she liked it. They did it a few more times for good measure, then I was free to go.

  I went to my car then sat in it, watching the women talk amongst themselves for a while. When they split up, I hopped out, catching Priscilla on the way to her car.

  “How are you?” I questioned, walking alongside her.

  “I’m fine, Will. Why?”

  “I’m just wondering. I’m doing okay in case you gave a fuck. You know, truthfully, I’m supposed to be mad at yo’ ass, not the other way around.”

  Tossing her bag into her trunk, she closed it then sighed.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I’m just not in a happy mood.”

  “You want some ice cream? Ice cream usually puts people in a happy mood.” I pointed to the creamery nearby.