All I Want... Is You (23 page)

Brian sat there with his mouth hanging open, which put the brakes on my jokey-joke fest, too.

I wanted to see how this was going to play out.

“All those times we danced together at the clubs, when you tried to grab my ass while you were making eyes at the other two females that wanted a turn at DJ Majesty?” Toni rhetorically asked. “I kept a mental note of all of that to see if you would, or even if you could, decide that it was time to grow up.”

Brian tried to counter, “I knew I never had a chance with you, Toni, so quit flexing like I did. Everyone knows you were always into Derrick.”

“But I still dated other dudes that had the balls to ask me out, so, what happened to yours?” Toni challenged, which made me take a step back.

This was an A & B argument, and I was going to make sure to see my way clear of any collateral damage, even if my name was all up in the mix.

Brian finally gave up after realizing that arguing with Toni was pointless. “You know what, Toni, it really ain’t that serious. On God, I knew what time it was, so there was no point in embarrassing myself.”

“And that’s why I’m with D right now.” Toni remarked, pressing her ass against my crotch. “If you had half the juice that these people in the scene think you did, you’d be in this man’s shoes right now, and you wouldn’t have to chase women that are trying to upgrade.”

“Okay, baby, that’s enough,” I kissed Toni on the cheek as I squeezed her hip. “Eventually he’s gotta learn like I did, and he’s still my boy, even though he’s all up in his feelings about some shit.”

“I’m good, playa, you ain’t gotta worry about that shit.” Brian snapped before taking his drink to the head. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some partying to do before I get all domesticated.”

“What am I gonna do with that dude?” I asked, watching him in the midst of a group of women fawning over him.

“Well, we could always neuter him,” Cori sashayed in commenting, kissing Toni before getting a kiss on my lips. She saw Brian oblivious to Tracie walking toward him and the scene that was unfolding and shook her head. “That is, if Tracie doesn’t castrate him first.”

I bypassed the scene that was about to unfold and headed toward the bar to get something to drink. As I approached, Mr. Parker intercepted me with a smile on his face that made me pause for a moment.

He almost never smiles unless he had some really good news to give.

“Just the man I wanted to see,” he slapped me on the back as we sat down at the bar. “D, we need to finish the conversation we started a few days ago.”

I watched Toni and Cori move through the crowd to socialize a bit, so it wasn’t a problem to finish things.

“What’s on your mind, Mr. Parker?”

“Well, kid, for starters, I wanted to make sure, as I promised, to compensate you for the groups that you helped sign over the past year, including your new girlfriend’s group.” Mr. Parker started. “After taking a look at the record sales, digital and physical, of the last two groups, Rich and I found a way to get you the proper compensation for helping bring in the millions in revenue that we have enjoyed thus far this year.”

He handed me an envelope that was sealed tightly. From the size of the envelope, it wasn’t hard to figure out that it was the size of a paycheck, similar to what I normally get from RP.

Upon opening the envelope and reading the contents of the check and the breakdown of the amount of the check, I fought the need to hyperventilate.

By the time I got through all of the particulars and the percentages for the finder’s fees and the commission for the album sales that had been certified, the bottom line was a seven-figure payday.

This was beyond surreal.

“Mr. Parker… I’m completely speechless… I didn’t realize… I mean, is this for real?” I fumbled through my words as I fought back tears. I never expected to see money like this in my life, ever.

“Yes, D, it’s for real; those acts made a killing for us, both here in the States and overseas.” Mr. Parker replied, grinning even wider now. “It was only fair that you were taken care of for the money that we’ve made with those groups, and I’m sure that
Cazhe
will be another hit machine also.”

“I want to yell right now, but I think I’ll wait until the party has calmed down a bit before I start dancing on the ceiling or something.” I had already begun figuring out what I was going to do with the money.

“I know how you must be feeling, youngster, but we take care of our own.” he replied, grabbing a glass of wine from the hostess that walked past us. “You’ve been like a son to me, to Rich, too, and it was a treat for both of us to do this for you.”

“I will have to make sure to thank Mr. Richton the first moment that I see him before the night is out.” I stated, still trying to figure out my emotions of what had just transpired.

“I don’t think you’ll have to wait that long, my boy,” Mr. Richton walked up after seeing us at the bar. “I take it Parker has given you the check? I believe that it might take care of a few things you’ve been putting off for a while.”

“Okay, now you’re just playing with me, gentlemen,” I joked, but I couldn’t hide the grin on my face. “What did you mean by that?”

“Well, kid, Toni confided in us about a year ago that you wanted to own your own studio.” Mr. Richton explained. “We knew that your pride wouldn’t allow you to accept seed money, so we had to come up with a way that you would feel like you’d earned it.”

Damn, they had me pegged dead to rights, and I knew it. I would have balked at the first mention of the word “investment,” and they knew it.

“Okay, okay, I understand, and I will still say thank you, gentlemen, for helping to make a few dreams come true in the interests of playing tricks on my mind so that I wouldn’t give you too much grief.” I finally smiled wide for the first time.

Mr. Parker and Mr. Richton left me to my private celebration to continue mingling with the guests.

I ordered a bottle of Cristal and looked up into the night sky for a moment as I pondered what the past few months have been for me personally.

I had gone through highs and lows, getting through some things in one piece, while other things I knew would haunt me forever.

But for now, I was going to enjoy the hell out of this high, and I didn’t want to come down from for a good week or two at least. I didn’t think anything would be able to bring me down.

Until I turned around and saw Tracie making her way in my direction.

“
D, can we talk? We need to clear the air.”

Now this was a surprise coming from Tracie. I honestly thought that she could have had a better use for me. But the minute that they came off stage after performing their hit single, she and Cori had a brief exchange of words, and then she headed right for me as if she were on a mission.

I didn’t know if that made me nervous or not.

I guess there was only one way to find out.

“Sure, Tracie, we can talk. What’s on your mind?”

“I would rather we spoke in private, D, I don’t want any ears trying to leak anything out to the press.”

I could sympathize with where she was coming from with that. The media can be a bear sometimes when they think there’s a story to be had, and tonight was no different with all the big names in the industry socializing at the house.

I found a gazebo not far from the house out front, since everyone would be out back doing their thing. We sat down, and Tracie faced me, looking as defenseless and unguarded as I’d ever seen her.

It actually made her look damn good.

“D, I know I’ve been hard on you ever since you and Cori got serious, and I want to apologize to you for that,” she started, forcing herself to look at me as she said it. She twirled her hair, which tipped me off that she was nervous about something.

“It’s alright, Tracie, I’ve been treated worse by overprotective friends before, so, I’m used to it.” I chuckled to help loosen her up, and it worked as I saw a slight smile spread across her face.

“Thanks, D, you didn’t have to make all this so easy, I appreciate it,” she replied, straightening up her back and leaning against the bench. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but things aren’t as hot between your boy and me right now.”

I was a little disturbed by her admission. But the scene that she would have made under normal circumstances after she saw Brian acting like he wasn’t in a serious relationship spoke volumes about where she was in her head right now.

When a woman’s fed up… there ain’t nothing you can do about it.

“To be honest, Brian doesn’t talk to me about jack these days,” I confessed, which caused Tracie to shake her head. “I don’t know what the deal is with him, and we’ve been boys for a long time.”

“Well, it was fun for a minute, but it’s time to move on.” Tracie finally put it out in the air to see how it sounded. “Damn, I guess I needed to say it out loud. I just hope he understands that I don’t do well with being put in a box.”

“The way he’s been rocking the field tonight, there’s no telling if he will even care all that much.” I wondered. I checked my watch and realized that we’d been gone for about twenty minutes. “We’d better get back to the party. The last thing we need is someone trying to figure out where we’ve been and what we’re doing.”

Tracie smirked a little before kissing me on the cheek. “It’s not like I would mind all that much, but I know a couple of women in your life that might not be too keen on that.”

We headed back to the backyard to rejoin the party, and I found Cori and Toni at the bar by the pool, and we started in that direction. Cori turned and saw us heading toward them and smiled as we got closer. Her facial expression quickly changed as she frantically got Toni’s attention before she started rushing toward me.

I stood confused for a brief second, and I guess in hindsight I should have kept my head on a swivel and been aware of my surroundings, but even Tracie trying to pull on me didn’t tip me off to the force that headed toward me with a fury that I didn’t expect in a million years.

The first thing I felt was a fist across my jaw that put me on the ground quick.

The last thing I saw and heard before I blacked out was a size twelve boot and the Timberland tree insignia connecting against the side of my cheek and Tracie screaming for Brian to stop kicking me.

I guess he cared a little more than he let on.

~Cori~

“
I feel like I got hit by a hammer.”

I was so glad to hear Derrick’s voice once he came around that I completely ignored the black eye and bruised left side of his face.

Toni, Tracie and the rest of the girls in the group were busy trying to replace the ice packs on his face and his ribcage while we were up in one of the main level guest rooms after Brian completely lost his mind seeing Tracie and Derrick coming from the front side of the house.

I tried yelling for security first. Then I shook Toni to get her to realize what was going on. We tried to get to Derrick, but it was too late.

He was already on the ground and Brian was stomping on him before we could get enough security personnel to break things up.

Tracie even tried to pull him off, but Brian shoved her so hard that she went flying into a group of partygoers. In all, it took three men to get Brian off of Derrick, and when he didn’t move, Toni and I both panicked.

Mr. Parker immediately had the rest of the security team shield Derrick as three other men helped carry him to the bedroom while the paramedics that were on station at the party were summoned to assess his injuries.

Brian was secured on the ground, face-down with his arms held behind his back until Gwinnett County police could get to the house to take him into custody for aggravated assault. The ultimate added insult to injury was when he looked at Tracie for help to explain the situation, only for Tracie to look at him like he was a complete stranger and walk off in the other direction.

Mr. Richton was in the room with us, checking on Derrick’s status also, which gave Toni the opportunity to explain to him the nature of the relationship that she was in. After a moment of shock and confusion, he hugged his daughter and said that they would talk later once Derrick was up and around.

The paramedics worked over Derrick, using smelling salts to bring him back around and checking his abdomen to make sure there were no other surprises other than the bruised ribs that they felt.

“Ma’am, it looks like your boyfriend will be okay, we still need to take him to the hospital just for observation.” the paramedic told me. Toni slipped in beside me to hear the tail end of the statement.

“That won’t be happening.” Derrick protested. “Nothing’s broken; I’m not going to the hospital.”

“You are not about to sit here and pull the pride card, youngster,” Mr. Richton said, leaning over to grab Derrick’s shoulder. “You’re going to get checked out, and if they say you can go, you can go, understood?”

“Damn it… alright, sir, understood.” Derrick relented, knowing the boss was not about to be disputed. After he left, Derrick asked, “What the hell got into Brian? He acted like I’d just stolen his car or something.”

Tracie shook her head in disgust. “He was pissed because he saw me with you. He has a temper when he sees me talking with or in the company of any man, regardless of who it is. I never thought he would hit you, much less try to beat you into oblivion.”

“Yeah, he even threw Tracie into a crowd of folks when she tried to get him to lay off you.” Toni recounted, watching the paramedics help Derrick to his feet to walk toward the ambulance. “I guess there’s really no honor amongst players when pussy’s involved, huh,

baby?”

I tried to laugh with the attempt to make Derrick feel better, but the look in his eyes told me that losing another friend was not something that he expected to happen so soon after losing Omar.

“We can meet you at Gwinnett Medical so we can take you home after the doctors look you over,” I caressed his face as he silently nodded. “Right now, we have to talk to the officers and give our statements.”