“Why don't you just ask Candy about the video?”
“Then I run the risk of her confronting Vera and the video going public.”
“How you know Vera didn't make the damn video?”
“Vera?”
“She could've been spying on Candy, for all you know.”
“I never thought of that.”
Mimi shook her head and huffed. “I'm a keep it a hundred, Nessa.” She took a deep breath. “You need to really reevaluate where you at and where you planning on going. Because right now, you in some real soap opera shit that could fuck your whole life up.”
* * *
Vanessa walked into the shop after speaking with Mimi. She was strongly considering the possibility that Vera had made the video. She planned to question her about it the next time they hooked up. It would be the third time and Vanessa was feeling guiltier each time she thought of being intimate with Vera.
Vanessa greeted Chanel, though it hurt her to humble herself for the sake of the shop. Chanel had not said anything out of line lately and Vanessa didn’t want to say or do anything to spark any friction.
As the time passed, the shop filled with clients. A rap video flashed on one of the televisions as the music of 106 & Park blared from the speakers. Vanessa was talking to Candy, when she turned to the front door.
“Domingo.” Candy's eyes lit up.
Everyone in the shop seemed to watch the short teen as he made his presence known and turned his fitted Yankees cap backwards. He unzipped his butter-soft leather jacket.
“Mamita, what's good?” Domingo smiled.
Candy bent down and hugged him.
“You wanna feel me in your arms but no kiss, right?” Domingo shook his head. “That's some bullshit.”
Candy laughed and introduced Domingo to everybody in the shop. Domingo pointed at Leah, then turned back to Candy. “Now this is the real, Mamita. You fugazy.” Domingo turned back to Leah, finding her laughing. “What's good, Mamita? Como te llama?”
“Me llamo Leah.”
Domingo nodded. He looked Leah over with a sneaky grin.
“She's married,” Candy said. “Not to mention too old for you.”
He turned to Vanessa. “How you doing, my soul sister?” Vanessa giggled.
Chanel said, “You don't wanna mess with her, shorty. Her man run Harlem.”
Domingo shook his head. “He can have Harlem, but he better have a pass when he cross that bridge, ‘cause I rep BK to the fullest, ya heard?”
“Where you from in Brooklyn?” Chanel probed.
“I'm from Red Hook, ya heard?” He walked over to Chanel, sizing her up. “I know I seen you in my 'hood too. I don't forget faces.”
“I'm from the East.”
“That's what's up. East New York in the building,” Domingo said. “Since we got this BK thing poppin', we might as well see what else we got in common.”
Chanel grinned. “Tell you what. If you makin' six figures in six years, then you can get down with the Chanel Legacy.”
Domingo turned to Candy. “Give me some of what Chanel sniffin’. Shit, six years and six figures later, she'll be waving at me when I’m walkin' the red carpet with Zoe Saldana.”
Everyone in the shop laughed.
“He's cute,” Chanel said.
“No, baby. Puppies are cute. Domingo is the flyest motherfucka in Red Hook.”
Candy watched Domingo and Chanel go at it with a humorous war of words. She could see the women in the shop falling in love with Domingo. Even Chanel liked his style. Hours drifted by until it was almost closing time. Domingo was still hanging out. Chanel had introduced him to one her clients, a girl two years older than him.
Rich walked into the shop and greeted the women and kissed Vanessa.
“So that's ol’ boy, huh?” Domingo asked Candy.
Rich turned toward him.
“Chanel told me you run Harlem,” said Domingo.
“She say whatever come to her mind,” Rich responded. “She don't know no better.”
Domingo's eyes landed on Candy as he nodded. “Smart man. I like him already.”
“Rich, that's Domingo, my little homie from Red Hook,” Candy said.
Red Hook. The name of the neighborhood had bypassed Vanessa's ears when Domingo first said it to Chanel earlier. But now she wondered if Domingo knew Vera. But it wouldn't have meant much to Vanessa anyway. She needed the scoop on Candy.
RICH
About an hour later, Rich was inside of his penthouse office. He ran his hand over his cornrows, sitting in the swivel chair behind his desk. He was facing the screen of his computer. Rich had been downloading some new Beanie Sigel tracks from iTunes, when he decided to browse internet. “Author Vanessa Denay Gets Freaky,” he read the title of a video after clicking on a link. His heart sunk into his chest. He slammed his hand on his desk and sighed. “Vanessa, Candy, come here!” he yelled.
“What's up, baby?” Vanessa asked, as Candy trailed her inside of Rich's office.
“Y'all come check this out.” He pointed at the computer screen.
Vanessa and Candy stepped behind the desk. There was silence, both of their eyes glued to the screen.
Rich turned around, watching the women staring in awe. “We can't all talk together, but somebody lips gotta start moving. Matter of fact, it's plenty of room on this desk for both of y'all.”
Candy and Vanessa sat on the desk and faced Rich. They turned to each other. Tears trickled from Vanessa's eyes.
“Why, Candy?” Vanessa cried. “Why did you do this? You videotaped the first time we had sex and you never told me. Then you had the nerve to give it to Vera? Why?”
“She stole the video,” Candy pled.
“I trusted you. Why?”
“You really wanna know the truth?” Candy replied.
“I'm not sure anymore if you're even capable of telling the truth.”
“First, you tell me why you sleeping with Vera.”
“Sleeping with Vera?” Vanessa's flood gates opened and tears flowed down her face.
“Yeah, I know you and Vera gettin' y'all freak on.”
“Hold on, hold, hold on,” Rich said. “We got a whole lot of talking going on, but nobody ain't saying nothing. Candy, why the fuck you tape Vanessa? And how this shit get on the Internet?”
“I wanted . . . her . . . soooo bad,” Candy said, pausing between her words. She explained how the scheme developed. She admitted that Vera had discovered the video and stolen it. She also explained how she ransacked Vera's apartment in search of the video. She mentioned finding the video on Vera's hard drive, but that Vera must have had other copies. Candy was sure that trashing Vera's apartment caused her to post the video on the internet. “So I was in her crib, trying to fix what I fucked up. That's how I know you were in there too. You left your beads and you signed one of your books and gave it to her.”
Vanessa sniffled, trying to wipe away her tears, but the emotional flow continued. “She forced me. She said if I didn't have sex with her, she would put the video on the Internet. I only slept with her three times.” She paused. “I'm sorry.”
Rich noticed that Candy had begun sobbing too. He got up and embraced her and Vanessa in a group hug. The room fell silent, except for the sniffling.
Rich felt that their relationship would never be the same. Trust had been broken and the fears they had about their personal lives becoming public would soon be a reality. As he hugged Vanessa and Candy, he knew the three of them would need to be stronger than they had ever been to withstand the drama set to unfold because of the video.
Vanessa stepped back.
You all right, baby?” Rich asked.
Vanessa pointed at Candy. “This is your fucking fault! You shouldn't have made that damn tape.” She bolted from the room.
Rich turned to Candy. Her face was covered in tears.
“I didn't mean for this to happen,” Candy mumbled.
“I know you didn't, but it did. Now we go
t a whole lot of bullshit to deal with.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CANDY
Things had changed drastically for Candy since weeks earlier when the video was posted online. Vanessa had been living in her own apartment for a week. Guilt overwhelmed Candy each time she remembered Vanessa telling Rich, “I'm not setting foot in this penthouse if Candy is here!” Candy pled with Vanessa to come back, but she gave up after Rich insisted that Vanessa needed some time and space. Candy had been sleeping with Rich in his penthouse on some days, while Rich often spent other nights with Vanessa at her apartment. Candy thanked Rich for forgiving her and trying to bridge the gap she had created between her and Vanessa. Rich had been a go-between, relaying the thoughts of each woman to the other.
Vanessa was adamant that she loved Candy, but she was too hurt to function in a relationship with her. She felt that Candy had taken advantage of her.
Rich had reminded Vanessa that although Candy had violated her, it took place long before the two of them had fallen in love. Vanessa understood that, but she was still left with a wound that had not healed.
Candy was pleased that there had been no backlash from the video yet. She contacted the porn site to file a formal complaint and had the video removed from the website. But another site posted the video and refused to take it down at Candy's request. Interestingly, no one in the shop had hinted about hearing of the video or seeing it. The shop was business as usual, except for the tension that lingered between Candy and Vanessa. But it was undetectable to the other women in the shop. Yet Candy knew that it was only a matter of time before the gossip began. Her hope was that it didn't destroy the delicate thread that was holding together her relationship.
Candy was curled in the fetal position in her bed with Rich clutching her from behind. They had been discussing their relationship for over an hour.
“How would you feel if you was in Vanessa's shoes?” Rich asked.
“Fucked up.”
“Exactly. She still loves you, though. I can see it in her eyes when I talk to her about you.”
“Feels like she's ready to kill me when we're down at the shop.”
“She's hurtin'.”
“It's hard to fix what I fucked up.”
“Tell me about it.”
“But it really don't matter if it's hard. Let's just hope it can be fixed.
* * *
The following night, Candy sat in a BMW X6 with Rich behind the wheel. They were parked in front of Vanessa's apartment. Rich had convinced Candy to come with him to see her and allow him to mediate a resolution to their problem. Candy was nervous because it would be the first time she saw Vanessa outside the shop since she left the penthouse. Candy was uncertain if Vanessa would hold her tongue like she had been doing at work. But Candy was willing to accept the repercussions of her actions. She was prepared to do whatever was necessary to restore the life she had come to love.
Candy held Rich's hand. She took a deep breath and exhaled. “I'm ready.”
They stepped out of the car and walked up to the building. Rich inserted his key into the door, and then led Candy through a narrow hallway. He stopped in front of Vanessa's door. “Hold on.” Candy closed her eyes and gripped Rich's hand firmly.
“Everything's gonna be all right,” Rich said, then inserted his key into the door and stepped inside.
“Oh my God!” Candy whispered as they entered the living room. She stared at Vanessa sitting Indian style on the couch with a box of Kleenex tissues in her lap. Her watery eyes were puffy and red. Candy rushed over and hugged her.
“Get the fuck off me!” Vanessa barked. “These tears are your fault.”
“No, no, I love you.”
Vanessa screamed again before struggling free. She backed away from Candy. Her eyes glared at Candy. “Rich, get her out of here, now!”
Candy began crying as Rich stepped over to Vanessa. “Baby, we can't keep going through this and you know it,” Rich said. “I go home to her, she's crying. I come over here, you're crying. I'm just trying to wash away the tears.”
Vanessa turned to Rich, then slowly to Candy.
Candy looked square into Vanessa's eyes for the first time that night. She could see the pain—a pain that she had never seen before. Candy wanted to speak. She wanted to say so much, but she didn't know how. She didn't know what to say. What words were capable of erasing the pain? For over a minute, their eyes were steady. Candy mustered the heart to say what she thought was the most important thing. “I love you, Vanessa. I love you.”
Vanessa fidgeted, sniffling while her eyes teared. She seemed to be stuck in a zone. She slowly stepped toward Candy, walked past her and opened the door.
More tears ran from Candy's face. She turned to Rich. “I tried,” she mumbled, then walked out of Vanessa's apartment.
* * *
Candy had cried herself to sleep the night she left Vanessa's apartment. She had never known that Vanessa was capable of being so cold. But Candy understood the root of Vanessa's actions. She realized the severity of her situation, how deep the wound that she caused Vanessa was. She saw it in Vanessa's stillness, the extended period in which they gazed into each other’s souls. A mere glance would have signaled that Candy was not worth her time. But Vanessa's drawn out stare meant she saw something within Candy worth holding onto. At least that was Candy's interpretation of their face-off.
It was almost time to open the shop, as Candy sat inside of her office. She was gazing at the wall that Vanessa's back was pinned against during their introduction to each other's bodies. It was the wall now serving as the videotaped backdrop to Candy’s downfall.
Candy snapped out of her daze. She stood and walked toward the door of her office. As she opened it, she heard Chanel's voice.
“You motherfuckin' fuck tape freak,” Chanel barked. In a blur
she was stomping toward Vanessa. Candy charged out of her office, grabbing Chanel by the throat and ramming her head into a locker. “Don't you ever fuckin’ disrespect her!”
Candy squeezed her throat tighter. “You'll end up in a casket and I'll be in a cell.” She slammed the back of Chanel's head against the locker a second time then let her go.
Chanel grabbed her throat and gasped for air as Candy stepped off. Leah and Meisha had just run to the scene. They stood silently as Chanel leaned against the locker. She was clearly embarrassed and scared. Her short thick frame possessed merely half the physical power of Candy's towering body.
Candy's heart jumped when she spotted Vanessa crying. She wiped her tears away and hugged her. She turned to Chanel and the other women, one of her arms still embracing Vanessa. “Y'all knew me for a long time. Y'all supported me through mad drama. Y'all know I'm open with my sexuality. We joke about it all the time in the shop. How me and Vanessa fell in love and how that video ended up on the Internet is a long story. It's a longer story when you add that we share the same bed with Rich.”
“You jokin', right?” Meisha asked.
“She's not,” Vanessa said. She looked at Candy, then back at their audience. “It's not a normal relationship, but it's a loving relationship. I just ask that it not be disrespected.”
VANESSA
Vanessa was still coming to terms with the reality that she had just expressed the truth about her relationship to the women in the shop. Surprisingly, she felt liberated. There was a satisfying power that resulted from releasing knowledge of the thing that had brought her so much joy, but that she kept bottled up out of fear that it would cause her pain.
“Listen, girl,” Meisha said. “Like I told Candy a million times, 'You can lick who you want, as long as it ain't me.'”
Vanessa laughed.
“And Candy, I need to get this straight, no pun intended,” Meisha giggled. “You telling me you go both ways?”
“Like the FDR Drive,” said Candy.
Meisha shook her head. “Vanessa transformed Rich from a hustlin' ho, and Rich done got Candy messing with men again. Y'
all some bad motherfuckers.”
“Only in Candy's Shop is this possible,” Leah said with a smile.
Vanessa was pleased that things were turning out better than she thought. She was comfortable with the jokes. She had no problem with comedy because it was the nature of the shop. But when the thin line that separated jokes from disrespect was crossed, that’s when she had a problem.
As everyone went to the front of the shop, Vanessa noticed Chanel was still quiet until Leah walked over to her. The pair were having a conversation built on whispers and their eyes shifted to Vanessa and Candy.
Vanessa didn’t trust Chanel and she was beginning to wonder about Leah. Vanessa hoped that Candy physically chastising Chanel was enough to end the string of stunts Chanel had been pulling. It was a lesson that Vanessa also hoped would serve as a warning to the rest of the women in the shop that there were boundaries that should never be crossed.
Candy put her hand on Vanessa's shoulder. “We okay, now?”
“Of course not. But we'll talk later,” said Vanessa. Although she finally felt free, there was still a slight uneasiness about her relationship being made public. It was not what would surface in the shop that troubled her any longer. It was the potential for gossip outside the shop and potential negative results that worried her. And she seriously wondered whether Leah and Meisha truly respected her or her relationship? Did they simply say what was necessary to please the woman who was responsible for how they lined their pockets? Vanessa had always sensed that Leah was genuine and Meisha was a straight talker. But then again her perceptions had been wrong before.
Vanessa watched Candy busily organizing tracks of weave hair by color. She had no doubt that Candy loved her. It was evident in her action that left Chanel's world shattered. It was the type of instinctive response intended to protect loved ones. The rage on Candy's face and the force that slammed Chanel's head was as powerful as her death threat. Vanessa was beginning the process of forgiving Candy, but there was stubbornness within her and a pain that still existed.
Lickin' License Page 18