A Good Dude (35 page)

“
Tamales
?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Have you hit that yet?” Delia asked. Candace’s bedroom problems were old news.

“No,” she said. “Not yet.”

“Dang, girl! What the hell you waiting on?”

“It’s not me,” Candace said. “It’s him. He never tries to do . . . . those things.”

“Why don’t you initiate it?” Delia asked.

“I don’t want to look like a ho.”

“You not a ho just cause you want to have sex,” Trisha said.

“I don’t know how to get it started,” Candace said. “What am I supposed to do, throw him on the bed and pull his pants off?”

“That’s what I do,” Delia said. “When CC be acting all shady with the dick, I be like, ‘Fine. Go to sleep.’ Bet I be riding him when he wake up, though.”

Trisha laughed.

Candace didn’t.

Candace had a flashback; she remembered the time she woke up and CC was on top of her.

So that’s where he gets it from.

“I can’t do that with Tino,” she said. “It’s our first time. It’s supposed to be special. It should be something he wants to do.”

“Maybe he thinks you can’t have sex,” Trisha offered. “He might think you still sore from having the baby.”

“Maybe he thinks you don’t want to ‘cause you already got a baby,” Delia said.

“Maybe he’s gay,” Trisha offered.

Candace was so desperate for answers, she even considered this. Tino was unusually beautiful. But she thought about the way he stared at her, the way he touched her, and the way he kissed her; these were not the actions of a homosexual.

“He’s not gay,” she said. “I know that much for sure.”

“Do y’all be kissing?” Delia asked.

“All the time,” Candace said.

“I mean like,
really kissing
,” Delia said. “All hot and heavy, feeling all on each other.”

Candace took a moment to reflect. “We kiss a lot,” she said. “But it never goes that far. Whenever we start touching too much, he’ll stop.”

“Why?” Trisha asked.

“I don’t know why,” Candace said. “That’s the problem.”

“Maybe he’s saving hisself for marriage,” Trisha guessed.

“If he is, I wish he would tell me,” Candace said. “Maybe he don’t want to tell you,” Delia said. “Maybe he thinks you’ll leave him.”

“Would you leave him?” Trisha asked.

“No,” Candace said. “I love him, and I know he loves me. He’s the best boyfriend I ever had, except for the sex.”

“Listen,” Trisha said. “You can drive yourself crazy with this, or you can just ask him. He’s the only one who’s got the answer to your questions.”

“I know,” Candace said. “But I don’t know how to ask him.”

“Like this,” Delia said. “ ‘Nigga, why you ain’t giving me no dick?’ ”

Candace laughed.

“You know Rilla’s getting out,” Delia said. She threw that in casually, the same way she might ask for directions.

But those words changed Candace’s whole demeanor. She felt like someone kicked her in the chest. The room swam. She gripped Leila a little tighter and it stopped. She wanted to scream, but she forced herself to remain calm. Her eyes were as big as dinner plates.

“Wh-who said that?”

“CC told me,” Delia said. “He talked to Rilla yesterday.”

Candace didn’t know if she was going to pass out or vomit. Rilla had been in jail since the end of June. That was almost six months ago. She used to think it was odd that she wasn’t called to testify against him, but Candace never cared enough to look into it. When more and more time went by, she figured Detective Judkins took Raul to trial without her.

She had Rilla tucked away and forgotten in one of the far recesses of her mind. She moved on with her life and was doing fine. She was happy. Her baby was happy. Rilla couldn’t come back now.

“CC bailed him out?” she asked hoarsely.

“No. I think they’re letting him go,” Delia said. “Why?”

“I don’t know why, girl. That shit happens.”

Candace stood quickly. She felt like she was stuck in someone’s twisted dream. Her heart kicked like a mule in her chest.

“I gotta go,” she said.

“He ain’t gonna mess with you, Candace. He’ll probably just want to see his baby, is all.”

But Candace didn’t hear the second part of that sentence. She was already out the door and halfway down the first flight of stairs.

Back in her apartment, Candace rummaged through her dresser drawers for a card she stashed some four months ago. She hadn’t seen the damned thing since she moved, which should have made it that much more difficult to locate, but Candace still had someone praying for her. Detective Judkins’s card was in the second drawer she looked in. Her fingers shook so badly, it took three tries to dial the number.

The call went straight to voice mail. Candace left a desperate message.

“Hello, Mr. Judkins, this is Candace, Candace Hendricks. You arrested me back in June when I lived with my boyfriend, Raul Canales. I was supposed to testify against him, but no one ever called me about it. And someone just told me Rilla’s getting out of jail. Could you please call me and tell me if that’s true?”

Candace gave her cell phone number and called Tino next.

“Hello?”

“Tino, you work tonight?”

“Yeah, baby. What’s up?”

“I don’t know.” Candace chewed on her thumbnail. “I’m scared. I wanted you to come over.”

“What’s going on?”

“I think Rilla’s getting out,” she said.

“
Rilla’s getting out
?” Tino sounded more spooked than her.

“I don’t know. Someone told me he was. I called the police to find out for sure, but I had to leave a message. Rilla might be out right now, for all I know.”

“Oh, shit,” Tino said. “You think he’s coming over there?”

“If he gets out, I know he’ll try to find me,” Candace said.

“I’m here if you need me. Just tell me what you want to do.”

Go back to New York.

“I don’t know, Tino. I need to find out for sure if he’s out before I do anything.”

Candace’s phone vibrated, indicating she had another call.

“Tino, let me call you back.”

“All right. Do you want me to call in?” he asked. “No. Go ahead and go to work. If I need to go your place, I can still go while you’re at work, can’t I?”

“Yeah,” he said. “You have to stop by my job to pick up the key.”

“All right,” Candace said. “If I have to go, we’ll do it like that. I gotta go, Tino. I’ll call you back.”

She disconnected with him and picked up the line her mother was on. She tried her best to sound normal. “Hey, Mama.”

“Hello, Candace. How’s it going?”

Candace forced a smile. “I’m okay. Is Dad still mad at me?”

“He’s scared, baby. He thinks it’s going to end up like it did with that other boy.”

“It’s not, Mama.”

“I know, sweetie. He just loves you, is all.”

“You’re all right with me staying here for Christmas?”

“It’s your choice, Candace. I’ve been there. Trust me. I know how it is. You should have seen the way I was running after Bernard.” Katherine rarely spoke of Candace’s biological father. Candace was eager to hear about him, but the story would have to wait. She had another incoming call, this time it was a number she didn’t recognize.

“Mama, I have to call you back.”

“Miss Busybody.”

“I’m sorry, Mom. I’ll call you right back. I promise.”

“All right, baby.”

Candace accepted the other call. It was Detective Judkins this time.

“Hello?”

“Hello. Candace?”

“Yes, sir. It’s me.”

“What can I do for you?”

Candace took a deep breath and a moment to get her thoughts together. “Um, I was calling to ask about that case. I was supposed to testify against my boyfriend, Rilla, remember?”

“Yes, Candace. I’ve got Raul’s file on my desk now.”

“Well, I, um, I never got called to go to court or any
-
thing. I was wondering if you still need me to do that.”

“Why?” he asked. “You planning on leaving town?”

“No, but someone told me Rilla’s getting out of jail.” There was a short pause.

“What’s it to you?” he asked. His words made the hairs stand on the back of Candace’s neck.

“I want to go back to New York,” she bluffed. “If he’s getting out, then I want to go home.”

“Then go,” the detective said.

Candace’s heart knocked. “You don’t need me to testify anymore?”

“No. We’ll be fine without you. If you want to go home, then by all means, please do so.”

“So he’s out?”

There was another pause.

“No, Candace. Raul is still in jail.”

Relief rushed over her like a cold shower. “Are you going to let him out?”

The detective sighed. “No, Candace. I’m not planning on letting him out. But if you’re that afraid of him, you need to go home.”

“Okay,” she said. “Can I . . . . can I ask one more question?”

“What is it?” She could tell he was getting irritated. “Do you think you could call me if you let him out?” The policeman chuckled. “You’re some piece of work, you know that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Candace, I don’t know what part of this you don’t understand, but you got caught with a duffle bag full of dope. You’re in no position to request anything from my department.”

“It wasn’t mine.”

“Yes, you said that. But you were home alone with it, and you knew it was there.”

Candace didn’t say anything.

“But you know what, hey, it’s almost Christmas. Here’s my good deed for the day: I will call you if Rilla gets out. Okay? I will take time out of my busy day to give you a heads-up.”

Candace didn’t like his tone, but she liked what he was saying, and she believed him.

“Okay,” she said. “Thank you, sir. I really appreciate it.”

“Goodbye, Candace,” the detective said and hung up.