Disrespectfully Yours

by Raynesha Pittman

  “Look, ma’am, Mr. Manz doesn’t accept walk-in visitors who have no appointment. If you wish to speak with him, I suggest adding him on Facebook or tweeting him and seeing if he tweets you back. I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” she said, eyeing the security guard, who seemed to know the routine.

  “Oh no, this isn’t that,” Meagan said, laughing at being accused of being a dollar-sign chaser. “He’s a friend of my husband’s. He came to my party last week, and I just wanted to follow up with a conversation we had. I promise you if you tell him Mrs. Tolliver of Georgia Peach’s is here, he’ll tell you he wants to see me.”

  “I bet. Mr. Douglas, please escort Mrs. Tolliver out the door and off the premises. If the old head gives you any trouble, call the police.” With that, the receptionist went back to playing the game on her phone, as she had been doing before her concentration was broken.

  The security guard grabbed Meagan by the arm and began escorting her out the door.

  “Let me go, jerk! Don’t touch me. I’m a friend of Mr. Manz,” Meagan barked.

  “Uh-huh, sure. Everyone is a friend of Mr. Manz,” the guard said, now dragging her.

  “Let me go!” Meagan was at the double doors now and was putting up a fight in order not to be tossed out.

  “What’s going on up in here?” a voice behind her asked.

  “Another groupie, but this one looks kinda old,” the guard responded to the group of men who stood right outside the double doors. They opened the door that Meagan was not blocking and walked right by her, laughing.

  “Devin!” Meagan yelled. “Devin, please. I’m here to see you.”

  The group of men stopped in their tracks, and all eyes were on Devin.

  “You know her, man?” someone in the group asked him.

  “What the fuck you want with me, Tammy . . . I mean Meagan?”

  The men started whispering among themselves.

  “I came here to talk to you,” she said.

  “I’m not trying to listen. You fucked up your chance.”

  “I know I messed up, but I need you right now. Can you please come talk to me?”

  “You don’t need me. You got millions. I’m trying to get in this studio so I can get my paper up like you.” Devin wanted to go with her, but after Johnni D. Manz had told everybody how he had been played by the bitch who got him on, he had his pride to shield. He tapped one of the guys closest to him and urged him to keep walking. “Let’s go. I’m not trying to hear what that ho has to say,” he said before turning his back and walking away.

  “Devin, please!” Meagan called after him. “All I need is fifteen minutes. Don’t forget who got your ass out of having to stock at Walmart.” She regretted saying that as soon as the words rolled off her tongue.

  “Bitch, that’s not you on the track. That’s Young Diablo,” one of the guys yelled, and the entire group agreed.

  Devin turned around and walked back toward Meagan. “Hey, man, watch your mouth. I didn’t give you the okay to disrespect her,” he said, ready to knock the fire out of his new record-label entourage. He caught Meagan’s eye. “You have ten minutes,” he added, then walked past her through the other door and out into the parking lot.

  “Devin,” she called as she ran behind him.

  “You got nine minutes and some seconds left. What?”

  “I need you right now,” Meagan pleaded.

  “You keep saying that, but that’s all I’m hearing. If that’s all you got to say, your time is up.”

  “I’m in some shit, and I need your help.”

  “What’s going on?” The look on his face told on him. He still loved Meagan, and the thought of her being in trouble made him want to save the day. He couldn’t conceal it.

  “It’s too much to say in nine minutes, and here isn’t the place that we should be talking. Can we go get a room?”

  Devin’s look of worry transformed back into anger. “Aw, so there goes the truth. You need some dick. What’s the matter? That old-ass nigga ain’t fucking you right? Well, listen here. My dick is done with you too. Take your ass back home to your husband.” He headed back toward the double doors.

  “I don’t want sex. I need you,” she said, stopping him in his tracks as the tears came pouring from her eyes. “I haven’t eaten or slept in days. I’m going crazy, and the only person who can help me get through this is you.”

  Unbeknownst to Devin, he was the closest friend she had. All the so-called friends she had were grandfathered to her from William, and she couldn’t disclose his behavior to them without it getting back to him. Her creeping with Devin had started out with silent meetings in the beginning, but slowly, they had opened up to one another. Although the information she had fed him was mostly lies, she knew the stories he had shared with her were true. On one of their many escapades, Devin had been distraught about an issue one of his friends was going through. His mood had vibrated through their sex, and she’d decided to let him get it off his mind so he could better please her in bed. He had refused to go into the details, and the fact that he had dropped fill-in-the-blank clues had irritated her. With his frustrations rubbing off on her, she had decided to question him to get the details.

  “I really can’t say the real, beautiful. It’s not my business to be sharing.”

  “I respect that, but it’s not like I know the person, anyway. Tell me so I can help you figure it out, so we can get back to doing us,” she’d said while rubbing on his meat, hoping it would get hard again.

  “I know you don’t, but I really can’t. That’s my nigga, and he told me what was popping off in confidence. There’s loyalty there. You understand that, don’t you?”

  This same loyalty Devin had displayed for his friend was what she wanted now. She hadn’t come to him to find a solution for her problems. She just wanted to talk to someone other than Angelo about what was going on with her, and if she had to get low, she didn’t want to be alone. She knew he loved her by the song lyrics he had written, and although she didn’t feel those exact feelings in return, she would be lying if she didn’t admit that he had a small piece of her heart.

  “But you haven’t said shit yet,” Devin snapped.

  “I told you we can’t talk here.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not what I’m talking about. You haven’t said it.”

  “Said what? That I need you?”

  He shook his head again, and disappointment flashed across his face. “Look, I’m going back inside. When you are ready to say what you need to say to me, I’ll come running. My number is still the same.”

  He left her standing there, drowning in her own tears. She didn’t know what he had expected of her. She dialed his number when she pulled herself together, but he wouldn’t answer. A call came in before she could crank up her car. It was William.

  “Hey, baby.” He sounded exhausted.

  “Don’t ‘Hey, baby’ me. What the hell is going on? Why haven’t I heard from you? Where are you?”

  “I’m sorry, baby. The restaurant in Florida got shut down temporarily due to an outbreak of food poisoning, and I had to rush down here.” He didn’t sound believable at all.

  “Uh-huh . . .”

  “Why don’t you ever believe me? Look the shit up. It’s public information and has been in the news. When have you known me to just disappear on you without a reason? You said you forgave me, but I’m still being punished for the past. Damn, Meagan. Let the shit go. I’m not cheating on you.”

  She literally had to put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from blurting out the little information she had received from Angelo.

  He went on. “I’ll be here for about week, and then I’ll be back to loving on you. I gotta go, but I just wanted to check in and make sure that you were okay.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be okay?” she countered.

  “Because Daddy isn’t there to protect you. I know you can handle yourself, but it’s the other people I’m worried about.”<
br />
  “Like who?”

  “Like . . . Wait, what’s up with all the questions? You sound guilty. I hope you’re not in Atlanta, doing shit you’re not supposed to. I’d hate to come home and have to punish you.”

  “So you’re not going to apologize for shitting on me?” Devin asked. He was standing in front of her rolled-up driver’s-side window, with his arms crossed thug style.

  “Of course I’m not guilty,” she said to William, holding her finger up at the agitated man in front of her. “I’ll see you when you get back. Be safe.” She ended the call with her husband and got out of the car to speak to Devin. “I’m sorry I lied and played games with you. I didn’t think we’d last this long, and when we did, I couldn’t build up the courage to tell you the truth. I didn’t want you to—”

  Her words were stolen from her when Devin’s tongue took their place in her mouth. They had never displayed public affection, and now wasn’t the time for her to protest about it. She needed him, his company, and his show of affection right now. Not even the immature grip he had on her butt would make her stop him. His touch had actually turned her on and made her feel safe. She’d apologize another hundred times if she could keep permanently the feelings he was causing her to have. If it wasn’t real, it sure felt like it was.

  “Real talk, though. I have to get in this studio for a couple of hours before we can talk. But if you’re not doing shit, come up here and watch me lay this track. I’m going to be featured on another artist’s album he’s getting ready to release before he puts me out solo.”

  “No, you’re at work. Just call me when you’re done.” She pulled out her phone and texted him, revealing her number for the first time in months. “Call me and I’ll give you directions to my house.”

  “To your house?”

  “Yes, I’m inviting you to my house.” With her husband having contacted her, she no longer needed to hide out. And the fact that he was out of town gave Meagan the opportunity to relax with Devin in the comfort of her home.

  “Invitation accepted, baby.” He kissed her again, repeated the ass grab, and then walked back in the direction from which he had come.

  Something was definitely going on with William, but she wouldn’t look upon Angelo’s words as a prayer book, either. All she could do was sit back and wait for the future to unfold.

  * * *

  “That’s it right there,” Johnni D. Manz said into the intercom. “You killed that verse, Young Diablo. You’re done for the day.”

  “Cool,” Devin replied. He had the headset off in a flash and almost ran out of the booth to ask his boy for a ride over to Meagan’s house before he called it a night.

  “To whose house? I know you didn’t say that bitch Tammy. Isn’t she married?” J. Seed said, and his words snatched Johnni D. Manz’s full attention. Devin kept his eyes on his boss, because he wasn’t sure how close the man was to Meagan and her husband, given that he had been invited to her fortieth birthday party.

  Manz must have felt Devin’s eyes on him and read his mind. “You don’t have to worry about me going back and saying shit. The nigga ain’t my friend, and I know him only because of the black business owner organization I’m in. You know, the rich meet up with the rich and talk about how to stay rich and get richer. Truthfully, I don’t even like the nigga. And if he keeps putting his hand on his wife, I’d take her from him, but you look like you got that on lock, Diablo.”

  “I’m trying to, but the bitch plays a lot of games and got secrets. I didn’t know that she was married or that she was getting her ass beat. Everything that I’ve learned about her that’s real, I got from you,” Devin confessed.

  Manz was shaking his head in disagreement before Devin even finished talking. “She has to. Her husband is rich and powerful. And until yo’ music is playing all over the world, you don’t compete with what she already has. Play the game with her if she’s worth it, but don’t get your feelings all tied up in it until you know what’s really going.”

  “I feel you. Good looking out.”

  “I haven’t looked out on shit, and I haven’t told you shit. Keep me and my business out of your business with her. Make sure she doesn’t come back up here, looking for you, like she did today too. She doesn’t let you walk into that restaurant or her modeling agency, so don’t let her come up in here. If I had known you were fucking her when I heard your track play at the party, I would have passed you by. It ain’t her you have to worry about. It’s her husband. He has a lot of underhanded shit going on, which he brags about his wife not being a part of. I don’t trust him.” Manz walked off like he had never been involved in the conversation.

  “Did you hear him, Diablo?” J. Seed said. “That means you don’t need to go to that bitch’s house. Make her meet you at a room or something, like y’all always do.”

  “I heard him, and I feel both of y’all, but this is my shit, and I’m going to deal with it accordingly. I haven’t even decided if I’m keeping her around or going back with my ex when I get this money. I need to see if this bitch can be real with me. Can you please drop me off?”

  J. Seed looked into his boy’s eyes and saw in them the love he had for the bitch. He was crazy about the older woman he had been creeping with for months. J. Seed didn’t know what she had done to his boy, but he knew Devin was too in love with her to think clearly when it came to anything involving her.

  “I can do you one better, since you like to learn everything the hard way,” was all he said.

  * * *

  Meagan instantly regretted inviting Devin to her house when she opened the door at one in the morning and saw he had his entourage with him.

  “So this is where you lay your head?” he asked, looking past the foyer into the enormous living room. From the outside, the house looked like the ones he had seen on MTV Cribs, but the inside screamed black history museum. Where he’d expect a television to sit, there was a life-size elephant, tusks up, surrounded by smaller animal statues, potted safari-looking plants, and oil paintings of black matriarchs. There was an ivory sectional in the African-atmosphere room, but it looked as if it had never been sat on.

  Devin had been in this subdivision once to see his cousin off for prom. He had dreamed of living here, but the fact that he had been raised in College Park had made his dream feel more unrealistic than his mind would let on.

  “Yes, this is my home. Can I speak to you in private for a second?”

  “Anything you have to say to him, you can say in front of us,” said the tallest guy in the group. He was clearly unmoved by her success.

  “This is my right-hand man, J. Seed,” Devin said, introducing the young man. He actually looked older than the rest, but it wasn’t uncommon to see a grown-ass man hanging with those that needed direction.

  “Hello, J. Seed. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She held her robe closed to conceal the nighty she had put on for Devin. When she extended her hand to shake, he didn’t take it. He gave her a nod and continued eyeing his surroundings, like he was expecting an ambush.

  “I just thought you’d be alone. I didn’t expect to have a house full of guests at this hour,” she told Devin.

  Devin shook his head. “Shit, you’re married. I wasn’t going to come way out here by myself. If it’s a problem, we can bounce.”

  “Let’s bounce, Diablo. This shit don’t feel kosher,” J. Seed said, revealing the gun in his waistband.

  “No, it’s not a problem,” she lied. “Come on in.”

  She led the six men to her entertainment room and handed J. Seed the television remote. He turned the television on, sat on the couch, and crossed his ankles on the coffee table.

  “Where’s your husband?” he asked, eyes locked on the big screen.

  “He’s in Florida for a week,” she answered.

  “Damn, you ain’t shit. So when your man is away, your ass gets ready to play, huh? Hey, real talk, my nigga ain’t no toy. If you’re not going to be straight up with him, leave
him the fuck alone.”

  “I got this, J. Seed. Y’all just chill in here, and I’m going to see what shorty is talking about,” Devin said, finally speaking up in her defense.

  “We good. Go do you,” J. Seed told him.

  Once he received the okay from his boy, Devin followed Meagan upstairs to her bedroom.

  “Let me see what you got up under that robe, Tammy,” he said once they were behind closed doors.

  “Meagan, my name is Meagan Tolliver. I am an ex-fashion model turned modeling agent with my own million-dollar agency. He’s a multimillionaire, but I have my own,” she said, addressing the concerns he had voiced during his call.

  “Oh yeah. Well, Meagan, show me what you working with, Miss Independent.”

  She untied her robe and let it fall off her shoulders, and lust filled the room. Without saying another word, she fell on her knees and crawled to him. When she made it to him, she reached up and unbuttoned his jeans.

  “You know what you’re doing down there?” he said in a low voice.

  She didn’t answer as she pulled his boxers down and gripped his semihard meat. She’d wanted to pleasure him with her mouth for months, but that was a pleasure she had reserved for William alone. Now that she had him in her mouth, with her tongue sliding along his shaft, she could kick her own ass for putting it off for so long.

  “Oh shit, baby. That mouth is atrocious,” he said, curling his hand around the back of her head. She quickly removed his hand, then pulled her head back, causing him to come out of her mouth. Her lips closed back together with a smack.

  “I don’t need your help. I got this,” she told him.

  “I didn’t know. Tammy didn’t suck dick.”

  “That’s why I’m introducing you to Meagan.”

  She held his meat up diagonally and began licking his sack before humming and sucking on it at the same time.