I was just happy to be able to get away- even if it was just on the other side of town.
“Hey, girl,” Roxie greeted as she approached the passenger side window. “Pop the trunk.”
As I popped the trunk, I quickly text messaged my mother to let her know that I would be an hour or two late picking up Jordan since I was helping Roxie.
Today would be the first day that Jordan and I spent the first night in our new home. I was so happy and relieved. For many reasons, I was ready to get away from my mother’s house. I was ready to live on my own, come in and out when I wanted, cut the lights on and off when I damn well felt like it, and not have to worry about one of the dudes that I have set up finding out where I lived.
I didn’t even tell Roxie, Benz, or Scoop that I was moving.
“Girl,” Roxie said with a heavy sigh after she climbed in and closed the door. “Thank you so much.”
As I pulled off, I told her, “No problem. What’s been going on with you, anyway? You weren’t in class today.”
I didn’t get a reply because Roxie wasn’t paying attention to me. She was attempting to discreetly look out of the side view mirror at something.
“What are you looking at?”
She told me quickly, “I thought I saw one of my damn kids run out of the house. What did you say?”
“Why weren’t you in class today?”
“Just tired. I am so sick of school. I…”
My attention was taken away from Roxie as I saw sirens in my rearview mirror. Cops were pulling me over in an unmarked police car as I approached a stop sign.
“What the fuck I do?”
Roxie sighed, but had no response. She simply ran her fingers through her hair.
I pulled over and immediately began searching for my purse. However, once I saw that four detectives had exited the unmarked car with guns drawn, I sat still.
“What the fuck?” I was confused and scared at the same time. Roxie sat next to me looking as nervous as I was.
They began to bark at us to exit the vehicle with our hands up. Luckily, when they realized that there were only two unarmed women in the car, they reduced their aggression.
Roxie and I got out of the car with our hands in the air.
One of the detectives ordered me to open the trunk and then to sit on the curb. One of the other detectives was walking a few feet away with Roxie, and it looked as if he were ordering her to sit as well.
The detectives immediately retrieved the bags that Roxie put in the trunk. That’s when I began to panic. I began to realize Roxie’s urgency in going to the laundry mat, her need to use my car and not hers, and her nervousness when she got in the car.
Just as it hit me, I heard the detective that walked away with Roxie yell, “She runnin’!!”
As I looked down the street, I saw Roxie running towards a main street, across it, through a gangway, and then disappear. Two of the detectives chased after her as the other two looked at me, daring me to move.
“Get up!”
I immediately stood up to show them that I wasn’t resisting.
“Get in the car!” One of the detectives grabbed me by the arm, walked towards the unmarked car, threw me inside, and closed and locked the door from the outside.
I nervously watched from the backseat as he joined the other detective in emptying out Roxie’s bags. I didn’t know how much drugs she had, but I knew that she had to have had some. It was just all too coincidental. My mind couldn’t wrap around what I was going to say or do. No matter the scams and set ups, I had never done, touched, or ran any drugs.
The drug game was just something that I didn’t want any part of.
It was four kilos of cocaine in Roxie’s bag, not at all well hidden amongst her dirty clothes.
The two detectives that chased after Roxie soon returned without her. Then another unmarked police car showed up, and I was escorted to the police station for questioning.
On the way to the station, I was asked questions about Benz and Scoop. Apparently, the detectives had been sitting on them for a few days, watching their every move as they bounced between home and Roxie’s place. I simply sat quietly during the ride, trying to figure out what I was going to say and if I was going to snitch.
Once we reached the station, I sat in the interrogation room for damn near two hours. I tried hard not to let the anxiety get to me or make me nervous. However, I desperately wanted to get the fuck out of there. I was damn near willing to say whatever the fuck I needed to if it meant that I wouldn’t be arrested.
When a detective returned to the interrogation room, my world was officially turned upside down.
“Miss Anderson, I am Detective Brown. I’m going to ask you a few questions, okay?”
I simply nodded as I stared at him blankly from across the table.
“Did you know that you were named as a suspect in the murder of Reginald King?”
I was lost. “Who?”
“Reginald Timothy King, whose street name is Tim, killed in a robbery at DeShawn White’s residence last Sunday.”
Instantly, I felt nauseous.
“A suspect?” I attempted to play surprised. “Why? Because I was there?”
“So you admit that you were there?”
“Of course I was there. DeShawn was my boyfriend.”
“So why did you run?”
I laughed sarcastically as if he was a joke. “Because I didn’t want to die.”
“So you just so happened to be DeShawn’s girlfriend, who got robbed, and you so happened to know Benz and Scoop, who are very well known for robbery.”
We looked at each other for a few seconds. He was waiting for me to crack, and I was quietly contemplating what to say.
I said the first thing that came to mind. “I want a lawyer.”
“You sure about that?”
“I’m positive.”
“Well, Miss Anderson, you’re under arrest.”
In shock, I jumped to my feet. “Under arrest for what?!”
“Well, tonight, we are going to charge you for those kilos of cocaine you were riding with.”
“That wasn’t mine!”
He ignored me as he walked around to my side of the table. When I heard those handcuffs click, I damn near fainted and began to cry.
“Those weren’t my drugs!”
“You are under arrest for possession of cocaine and trafficking of cocaine. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you if you so desire…”
LYRIC
“He’s cheating on me!”
I rolled my eyes as if Tricey was talking crazy. “Every time a man acts funny or doesn’t want to have sex, it does not mean that he’s cheating!”
Tricey, Cory, and I was having dinner and drinks at El Tapatio's Mexican restaurant on the north side of the city. I basically demanded that they come to dinner with me because, once James and I returned to Chicago this morning, I needed to dish about my trip to Jamaica.
Tricey smacked her lips as she asked, “Well, why else wouldn’t Smith want to give me any?! I finally get a night when Ariana is gone and I can fuck from the living room to the den and back while being as loud as I wanna be, and he tells me no!”
“Maybe he was tired,” I suggested. “At any rate, my drama waaay surpasses your possible drama, so please let me win this pity party, okay?”
As Cory and Tricey laughed, I didn’t find a damn thing funny.
Tricey asked, “So what the hell happened? Did you all enjoy your trip?”
“We had so much fun,” I said with a smile as I relived the first few days of our trip. “The weather was beautiful. The beaches were amazing. The drinks were flowing. The parties were off the chain…”
Of course, Cory had to chime in. “Aaaaand the fucking?”
Tricey and I giggled.
“I saw a lot of s
trange things, and I finally got to play with Melanie.” I grinned sexually and my eyes playfully rolled into the back of my head. “Everything was perfect…. Until Miss Raven showed up.”
Tricey’s mouth dropped. “Wooooow.”
“Exactly,” I whined. “The trip was over for me then. And he knew she was coming because they have been talking on the phone!”
“Yea,” Tricey said with a nod. “They like each other.”
“Exactly! And that’s my problem. I have no issue letting James play with women, but not with a chick that is looking for him to be just as much as her man as he is mine. I don’t mind sharing sex. Sex is emotionless. I am not sharing my relationship, though.”
Tricey muttered, “That is backwards as hell.”
I pointed at her threateningly and told her, “Tricey, you’re judging!”
Before Tricey could rebut, Cory asked, “So what happened?”
As I took a long soothing sip from my margarita, I continued to tell the story. “So, since James has been so quiet about her, I flat out asked him did he want to play with her. When he said yes, I told him that I didn’t care, as long as I could talk to her first. I needed to know where this chick’s head was at before I invited her into my bed. So, at the pool party, I pulled her aside and chatted her up. I flat out asked her if she liked James, or if she just wanted to fuck him. She looked me dead in my face and told me that she don’t ‘just fuck’ nobody, that she likes him and is interested in him.”
Cory cackled. “Pow! Damn, she socked it to you!”
I rolled my eyes at him as Tricey asked, “What did you say?”
“I told her that I appreciated her honesty. I was trying to keep it cool. I didn’t want her to see that she had gotten to me. But I for damn sure wanted to smack the bitch for having the balls to tell me that she was interested in my man!”
“See? That’s why I have no interest in threesomes and all that. Not only am I far from bisexual, but it all just seems too messy.”
“It’s not messy as long as everyone is respectful and honest. You cut off the motherfuckers who want to lie and be disrespectful. And that is exactly what I did. I told James he couldn’t play with her.”
Cory asked, “So what’s the drama? You cut the bitch off. Good for you.”
“But bad for my relationship. Now I am that girlfriend – the one that tells him no and has all these rules. It’s like a black cloud is over me. He loves me so much because he can be himself.”
In my defense, Tricey replied, “But he can’t take advantage of you and fuck every woman he sees. Women are smarter. We see things that men don’t see. You are just trying to prevent bullshit.”
“Exactly! But I don’t think he sees that. My mood was ruined for the rest of the trip because now I’m scared. I don’t want him to associate me with being dramatic and difficult. And I definitely don’t want him going behind my back to do it anyway.”
Just talking about it made me frustrated all over again. My relationship with James had been a fantasy of love, honesty, and good sex. Now our relationship was “normal”, full of worry and anxiety.
TRICEY
“Tricey, I hired a private investigator to locate you so I can take your ass to court!” I damn near peed on myself because I was laughing that hard as I listened to Amiel’s voicemail. “You know how I feel about my kids, so I know you doin’ this shit on purpose! I just want to be a father to my child! I don’t even know if it’s a boy or a girl…”
I hung up as I cut my car off and got out. I was still laughing as I grabbed my purse and Ariana out of the backseat. Amiel’s threats didn’t faze me at all. After everything happened, Smith helped me get everything in someone else’s name, presumably a crackhead’s name. Therefore, no private investigator could find me, and, since Amiel didn’t have the guts to leave his wife for me, I was sure he hadn’t really hired a private investigator to locate the product of his infidelity.
“Babe?” I called for Smith as I entered my condo. I knew he was there because his Lexus truck was in the driveway. Smith and I often spent time at each other’s homes, though he is at mine a little more than usual. I wouldn’t complain, but his frequency in my home, along with his strange attitude as of late, was worrying me and getting on my nerves.
I heard the balcony door close as soon as I entered the living room. That is when I noticed Smith on the balcony talking on his phone. Once again, I was confused by his actions. Never had Smith felt the need to hide any conversation from me.
Yet, I played it cool and went into Ariana’s room to lay her down. She was asleep, and I wasn’t going to wake her up just to give her a bath. Plus, the margaritas I drank at El Tapatio's had me a bit tipsy, too tipsy to entertain a seven-month-old until two in the morning.
Just as I was getting undressed and getting my toiletries for a shower, Smith walked into the bedroom.
“Hey, babe,” he said as he walked towards me and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. “How was dinner?”
“It was cool. We were just gossiping.”
“Did Lyric have fun in Jamaica?”
I answered, “She says they did. How was your day?” I didn’t bother to divulge the details of Lyric’s drama. I didn’t feel like sharing with Smith since he was obviously hiding something from me.
“It was cool. I didn’t do much. Just been thinking.”
“You seem like you have had a lot on your mind for the past few days.”
Smith looked at me sympathetically and reached to hold my hand. As he sat on the bed, I sat beside him.
“I’m sorry.”
I asked him, “Sorry for what?”
“I know I have been distant lately.”
“What’s wrong?”
Admittedly, my heart was beating a mile a minute. Smith looked like the world was on his shoulders, and there was so much distress in his eyes.
I had never seen his mind so preoccupied.
“Been thinking about moving.”
“You just got that house.”
“No, babe. Out of Chicago, as in moving to another state.”
“Huh?!” Admittedly, I was caught off guard. Smith had never mentioned leaving Chicago before, and how dare he even think of leaving after making such an impact on my life. Though we had only been together seven months, he made such a difference in my life in a short amount of time that I wasn’t ready or expecting it to end. “How hard have you been thinking about this?”
“Hard. I am most likely going to, probably within the next few weeks.”
I shook my head in confusion. “What do you mean? Why?!”
“I just need to get away; start all over again.”
“All of a sudden you want to move?! What about me?!”
“I want you to come with me.”
I sat there quietly, looking in his eyes, waiting for him to start laughing and tell me that he was just kidding.
And, he sat, looking back at me as if he was actually waiting on a response. “I’m serious, babe.”
“I can’t just move, Smith.”
“Why not?”
“First of all, you don’t all of a sudden decide to move out of state. My entire life is here. You haven’t even given me a good enough reason why you want to move so suddenly!”
“Why does there have to be a reason?!” He was actually yelling, which made my eyes buck. He noticed how angry he had suddenly become and sighed as if to check himself and his emotions. Luckily his phone rang, interrupting what was about to be our first argument. After looking at the Caller ID of his cell phone, the distress in his eyes worsened. “I gotta go, baby. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“What you mean you gotta go? What the fuck is going on?!”
He simply leaned over and attempted to kiss me, but I backed up, continuing to look into his eyes and wait for an answer.
However, I didn’t get one. He merely told me, “I’m sorry, babe,” and got up to leave. I was so confused and pissed off that I didn’t even argue with him.
>
“I think he got somebody pregnant, the chick is stalking him, and he doesn’t want to tell me, so he is choosing to run.”
Lyric started cracking up at my analogy. I sat on the bed still annoyed and confused while drying off. Once Smith left, I quickly took a shower and then called Lyric.
“Girl, where in the hell did you get all of that from?”
“Why else would he want to just up and move out of state? You should have seen his face. He had the shit face, for real. Like he did something fucked up and now he needs to split.”
“It could be business.”
“What the hell kind of trouble can owning properties and a clothing store get him in that is so bad that he needs to move?”
“Those are the businesses that he is telling you that he has, but you don’t know what he is really doing. He was Blood’s right hand man, so there is no telling what kind of shit he’s in…”
“But he quit the drug game after Blood got killed.”
“That’s what he told you.”
I sat in silence and pondered while I put on lotion. “Why would he lie to me about selling drugs?”
“Maybe he thinks that you wouldn’t have wanted to be with him if you knew that he was still selling drugs, especially after what happened to Blood.”
“I still don’t think he would lie, especially if something so bad happened that we would need to move. He would have to tell me then. We are both pretty shell-shocked because of Blood’s murder. I honestly think he’s cheating. He is hiding phone calls and he is jumpy. That is signs of a guilty man.”
“What are you going to do if he is cheating on you?”
“Cook that bitch some chicken and invite her to dinner!” Lyric started to crack up laughing, but I was dead damn serious. “My daughter has a good father, and we are very well taken care of. I am not giving him up that easy.”
Ten
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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Good Girls Ain't No Fun Boxed Set (The SIX romance and urban fiction volumes of the LOVE, SEX, LIES series) Page 46