Chaser (8 page)

I paused the touchy-feely session with Nasir and read Kenny’s text message. It said that he was on his way back to the house and to meet him at the door in twenty minutes with his house keys. He said he must have left them on the kitchen table.

“Oh my God,” I mumbled, replying to the text.

“What’s wrong?” Nasir asked, leaning in to kiss me on my neck and continue what we had started.

“I gotta get back home,” I said as I texted Kenny.

Where are you?
I wrote.

“What time?” Nasir asked, rubbing my thighs, unwilling to give in so easily.

“Now. Kenny is on his way back to the house, and he wants me to bring his keys to the front door,” I said.

“Tell me you jokin’,” Nasir said.

Then Kenny’s reply came through.
I’m on Upland Way, leaving Woo house. I’ll be there in 15 min.

Before I wrote back, I held my cell phone up in front of Nasir’s face so that he could read Kenny’s text to me.

“You gotta take me home,” I reiterated.

“Damn!” Nasir griped as he buttoned his pants back up. Then he put the car in drive and hauled ass to my house as if he was chasing a wreck.

Well, I’m in the tub, so drive kind of slow to give me time to get out, dry off, and meet you at the door.
I wrote back, trying to slow Kenny down.

I started to straighten my clothes, but there was no need to. I would have to take them off as soon as I got in the house anyway. If Kenny were to see me with a whole new outfit on, he would know something was up. And he was the type who wouldn’t address it right away, so you would never know if you were caught and therefore you wouldn’t be able to make up a believable excuse. No, he’d rather make people pay for their wrongs without even letting them know that he knew they’d done something wrong.

U got bubbles in there?

Yes,
I wrote, wondering what the hell he asked that for.

Bubble bath, huh? Well, now I’m goin’ speed home so I can get in there with u.

Okay,
I wrote. But I thought,
Hell no!

“Nasir, please hurry,” I said. “He is drawin’, talkin’ about he’s speedin’ home.” I told Nasir only what I wanted him to know. The bubble-bath conversation would have been TMI. I didn’t want him to go home with it on his mind that I was fucking Kenny after he had been the one to turn me on. It was bad enough that he didn’t get to release like I was sure he had every intention on doing. I didn’t want to add insult to injury.

“You think he know somethin’?” Nasir asked.

“I hope not.”

When we got close to my house, I noticed a car turn down my
street ahead of us. It was dark, so I couldn’t see what kind of car it was, but to be safe I had Nasir drive past my block, make a U-turn, and come back to see if the car had pulled up in my driveway or if it had kept going down my street. It was gone. Thank God.

Nasir pulled up in front of my neighbor’s house. I had him drop me off there so if Kenny pulled up it wouldn’t appear like there was someone at our house. After we said quick good-byes, I got out of Nasir’s truck. I jogged past my neighbor’s home and power walked through my lawn. Once in my front door, I ran upstairs and immediately ran bathwater. I took off all my clothes and put them away. I laid some pajamas out on my bed and turned on my TV to make it look like I was settled at home the whole time, as opposed to looking like I had just run in the house and jumped in the tub.

I went into the master bathroom and, before stepping into the Jacuzzi tub, looked under my sink for bubble bath. There was none, and it dawned on me that I had used the last of it two nights prior.

I heard the alarm system chirp that the garage door had opened. Shit! I nixed the bubble bath and got in the tub, turning the water off simultaneously. I laid my head against the back of the tub and closed my eyes. I tried hard to relax and get rid of the tension I felt from having to face Kenny just minutes after I’d been about to have sex with his friend.

I heard Kenny’s footsteps approaching. I braced myself for what was to come.

“Where the bubbles?” Kenny asked as soon as he walked in the bathroom.

I opened my eyes slowly, as if they had been closed for a while. I looked in the tub and said, “Oh, they must’ve dissolved.”

Kenny started undressing, leaving his clothes right where he stood, in the middle of the bathroom floor.

“Where’s ya phone at?” Kenny asked, taking his cell phone out of
its case on his belt. He placed the phone on the edge of the tub. “What, you got out the tub to text me?”

Shit. I thought I had covered all bases, but I forgot to bring my cell phone into the bathroom with me.

“It was getting wet when I was texting you back and forth, so I put it in the room. I ain’t want it to get water damage,” I said, thinking quickly.

I closed my eyes again as Kenny joined me in the tub, his body touching mine. Unlike Nasir’s, Kenny’s touch made me cringe. Whenever he would rub his leg against mine or touch me, I would move. I completely ignored him.

“I know you mad at me,” he said, climbing on top of me. “I’m sorry.”

I tried to maneuver from underneath him, but he wouldn’t let me. Instead, he maintained his position between my legs.

Kissing me on my lips, he said, “Let’s have make-up sex.”

Ugh, I was disgusted. I didn’t want to have sex with Kenny, especially not when I was still upset with him. But I didn’t say anything. I just lay there, unresponsive. And as Kenny’s lips roamed around on my neck and breasts and his penis found its way inside of me, I closed my eyes tight, imagining that it was Nasir and not Kenny who was in that tub with me.

A
week had gone by since I had told Leah the truth about how I felt about her and we had our moment in my truck. We had been sharing an attraction ever since. We kept our flirting to a minimum, though, not wanting anybody to know or even suspect that we had something going on. We didn’t want word to get around to Kenny. Neither of us was ready for him to know that we had developed feelings for each other. Besides, as far as we were concerned, we were just testing the waters. It wasn’t like we were trying to jump into a committed relationship with each other at that time. So a secret little fling was all it was, nothing deep enough to stir up drama.

It was Valentine’s Day, and on top of the thousand-dollar Christian Louboutin shoes I bought my girl, I planned to stop chasing early, at around one, and take her to the movies to see
Welcome Home,
Roscoe Jenkins
and then downtown to the Continental to eat. But here it was goin’ on five o’clock and I was still out working. It had been hittin’ out, meaning there had been a lot of accidents being called. So I kept calling my girl and pushing our plans back because I didn’t want to miss out on a hit.

As for Leah, I didn’t have any plans with her at all. I was sure she would be tied up with Kenny. I did get her something, though. Something simple, a two-hundred-dollar gift certificate to Millennium, the spa she mentioned that she loved. I put it in a card and dropped it in her pocketbook at the shop that morning. I didn’t know if she had seen it yet, but I assumed not since I hadn’t gotten a thank-you phone call or a text.

I was sitting in the truck posted up at my spot in the gas station lot on Fifty-second and Spruce listening to the scanners. Whenever I was out working that was where you could find me, unless I had run to a hit or gone to the shop to either take a car or collect my commission.

Usually I would be in the truck by myself, but that time I was with my homie Brock and a young bull about nineteen, named Hype, who was another chaser who brought wrecks to my pop’s shop.

Brock recently became interested in chasing, and so when it wasn’t busy at the shop, he would get in the truck with me and learn the game. Hype, on the other hand, had his own truck he chased out of, but he had parked it and got inside mine to play me in a game of Madden on the PlayStation that I had installed in my truck. Hype sat in the passenger seat, his hands gripping the joystick and eyes glued to the animated football game that was displayed on the ten-inch TV screen. It was serious for us, too, because we bet money on our teams. Brock even bet money on the different plays.

The three of us were into the game, focused, until Brock squealed, “Aww, shit, look at the mothafuckin’ wheels,” a line from the movie
Menace to Society.

Hype and I both broke our concentration and looked up. Driving
up on the gas station parking lot and heading in our direction was a bad-ass yellow Lamborghini Gallardo coupe. I sat up to get a better look at the vehicle as it stopped right next to my truck on the passenger’s side.

“Oh shit, that’s ya bull Kenny drivin’ that mafucka,” Brock said when he got a glimpse of who was behind the wheel.

Just then Kenny hopped out the sports car and walked over to my truck. I rolled down my window as he approached my side.

“What’s up, Nas,” he greeted me with a handshake.

“Slow motion,” I said. “I see you got a new wheel.”

“Yeah, man, that’s what I need to talk to you about,” Kenny said.

What now,
I thought.
What does this nigga want?
I got out of my truck.

“What’s up?”

“Yo, Leah mad as shit at me, dog. She been walkin’ around the house givin’ me the silent treatment all week.”

“Why? What you do?” I pretended I didn’t know.

“I brought this joon to the crib. I tried to tell her it was my cousin’s girl, but she ain’t stupid. She wasn’t goin’ for that shit.”

“All man, that’s crazy.”

Kenny scratched his head. “I know. I was wrong. But I’m tryna make it up. So I bought her that car and I wanna surprise her for Valentine’s Day.”

A quick feeling of jealousy shot through me as I calculated how my minute Valentine’s Day gift to Leah could stand up against a fuckin’ Lamborghini.

“Oh, all right,” I said, unenthused. “That’s hot.”

“So I need you to help me set it up,” he said.

Before I could say something, I was interrupted by the sound of my truck door opening.

It was Hype. He had my phone in his hand extending it out to me. “You missed a call from somebody named Le—”

Before he could reveal in front of Kenny that Leah had called me, I cut him off. “Oh, the Chinese bull whose car I towed yesterday,” I said, making up something quickly. I took my phone, pressed the End button to clear the screen, and put it in the case on my hip. Hype gave me a suspicious look as he got back in my truck. I brushed him off and got back to Kenny, hoping he didn’t peep it.

“What was you sayin’?” I asked.

Kenny smirked and said, “I was sayin’ I need you to help me set up the surprise. I want you to somehow get Leah’s keys and move her car out of her parking spot. Drive it around the corner or some shit. Then I’m goin’ put the Lambo in her space with a big red bow around it.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, that’s crazy, ain’t it,” Kenny bragged.

“Yeah, that’s bananas,” I said. “So when you tryna do this?”

“Like now, ’cause I wanna catch her before she get off.”

“Damn, man, you know five o’clock is rush hour. I don’t be leavin’ my post during rush hour.”

Kenny put his hands up and gave me a look. “Dog, for me. Just this one time.”

“All right, nigga,” I huffed.

I got in my truck. Kenny got in the Lamborghini. He followed me to the shop. And the whole ride there I had to hear Brock’s mouth about how Leah’s panties were goin’ melt off when she seen that Kenny had bought her a Lamborghini. I couldn’t be mad at him, though, because of course he didn’t know what Leah and me had goin’ on. Like I mentioned earlier, nobody knew about Leah and me, and I wanted it to stay that way. But I wanted so bad to tell that nigga to shut the fuck up.

I walked in the shop holding my finger up to my lips to warn the workers not to say anything about the car that was outside. I knew once they saw it, there would be a bunch of loud-ass ooohs and ahhhs. I opened the door to the office, and Leah’s face lit up with a smile.

“Heeey,” she sang. “I just called you not too long ago. I wanted to thank you for my card and for treating me to the spa.” She had a big smile across her face. “It’s the best Valentine’s Day gift ever.” I didn’t know if she was just stroking my ego or what, but I was sure Leah was used to getting grander gifts than that, and it was about to show.

“What’s up,” I said with way less energy than she gave me.

Her facial expression changed instantly.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked.

“Nothin’. I need the keys to ya car.”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“I gotta move it real quick to get this car in the shop,” I lied.

Leah reached down and opened the bottom drawer on her desk. She took her keys out and handed them to me. I took them and left the office. I didn’t want to be long and give anybody reason to suspect anything.

I followed Kenny’s instructions and parked Leah’s car around the corner. I returned her keys and ran out of the shop like I had to hurry to an accident before she could start a conversation. Kenny did his part, and as the clock wound down we all waited outside the shop to see what Leah’s reaction would be to her $200,000 Valentine’s Day gift.

It was five after five when Leah came walking out of the shop. Kenny was kneeling down in the street between the Lamborghini and the car that was parked behind it. I was leaning against my truck, which I had double-parked in front of the shop. My dad, Brock, and a couple of workers were all standing near me.

“Surprise!”
Kenny shouted as he popped up from behind the gift.

Leah screamed, “Oh my God! Kenny, what are you doin’ here? And what is this? Where is my car?”

Handing her the keys to the Lamborghini, he said, “It’s right here, baby.”

Leah took the key and threw her hand over her mouth. She actu
ally had tears in her eyes as she looked at all of us in amazement. I took a hard swallow watching her practically jump in Kenny’s arms.

Then Brock didn’t make things better when he nudged me and said, “Told you. Those panties is gone, dog!”

And on top of that even my dad was impressed. “That’s a bad mothafucka right there,” he said of the car. “I don’t like the bull, but he did his thing with that. Shit, that car ’bout to make me cry out this bitch,” he joked.

Leah got in the car and started looking at all its features. Kenny got in the passenger’s side and assisted her. Then one of the workers yelled out, “Start it up. I wanna hear how it sound!”

Leah started the engine, and it roared. Then the same worker said, “Let me hear how it sound when you hit the gas!”

Leah put her foot on the gas pedal and drove out of the parking space. Niggas had goo-goo eyes watching her drive past us waving like she was Miss America. Not me, though. I was sick to my stomach, and I realized that no matter how close I got to Leah, she didn’t belong to me. She was Kenny’s, and despite the fact that she always complained to me about wanting to leave him, the truth of the matter was she wasn’t goin’ anywhere. I had to accept that. And I needed not to let her get in the way of what I had goin’ on with my girl, whom I was with before Leah came into the picture. I still needed to keep my options open. It would had been stupid of me to put all my eggs in one basket, especially when that basket already had another nigga’s eggs in it.

I called my girl. “Yo, babe,” I said at the sound of Tara’s voice.

“Don’t ‘yo, babe’ me,” she said, her attitude catching me off guard.

“Damn, what’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? I took a half day at work today because you said you had plans for us, and then every hour on the hour I get a phone call pushing those plans back. Now here it is after five o’clock, and I still have yet to get time with you,” she expressed. “I could’ve stayed at work for all this.”

“I know. I’m sorry. It’s just that it’s been hittin’ like crazy out here, and I been tryna get at this money.”

“Is that really what it’s been? Be truthful. Because I must admit I’m starting to think it’s more you not making time for me anymore than chasing. I mean, you’ve been a workaholic since I met you, but you still made time for me. And lately, Nasir, that’s been changing. It really seems like you are distancing yourself from me. And I have to say my instincts are tellin’ me that you have someone else.” Tara called me out on my recent change of behavior.

Damn, she hit the nail on the head,
I thought. I didn’t know what to say to her. I felt like lying to her would be no use, because she would know that I was doing just that. However, I didn’t know how she would handle the truth, and if I told her, I would run the risk of losing her. And, of course, by my cheating with Leah, I was already running that risk, but I told myself that that could change. I could stop messin’ around with Leah and keep the stable relationship I’d had with Tara before Leah came into the picture.

“So, what is it, Nasir? What’s pulling you away from me?” Tara must have got tired of waiting for my response.

“It’s not another girl, that’s for sure,” I said, deciding against telling Tara the truth. “But it is something,” I added, wanting to give Tara some sort of justification for my behavior that would act as a diversion to her suspicions.

“What?” she asked.

“To be honest with you, I’ve been feeling under pressure about us gettin’ a house together. It seem like every time we’re together, that’s all you talk about, and I don’t know if I’m ready for all that now.”

Tara exhaled, “Oh my God, boy. Is that it? That’s what got you trippin’? Well, if that’s the case, then hell, I won’t bring up the house thing again until you’re ready. I don’t want to force you into anything, and I think our relationship is good as is.”

“That was easy,” I told Tara.

“It’s always easy when you take time out to communicate,” she said.

“Well, that’s what I’m goin’ do from now on. I’m goin’ to communicate. And I’ma start by saying I’m sorry. I never meant to make you feel like I was distancing myself from you, and I damn sure never intended for you to feel like I had somebody else. I know that would hurt you, and that’s the last thing I wanna do.”

“Cool,” Tara said simply.

“I’m on my way to get you so we can spend this evening the right way.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” she said.

“All right. I’ll see you in a minute.”

“Okay.”

“’Bye.”

“’Bye.”

Driving from the shop to Tara’s apartment at the Executive House on City Avenue, I did a lot of thinking, and I started to feel bad. Tara was a good girl, and I was messin’ up on her. She didn’t deserve what I was doing. I thought about how miserable Kenny’s cheating made Leah, and I realized I was no better than that nigga. I told myself that I would stop dealing with Leah on a romantic level. We could remain friends, but that had to be it. I planned to reinvest my time and energy into somebody who was exclusive with me rather than gettin’ caught up in Leah’s hype. And despite the voice I heard in the back of my head telling me that it was going to be impossible for me to detach myself from Leah, I was determined to do that. But goddamn it. How? I wondered. Leah was magnetic. I was drawn to her and had been before I even met Tara. I was fighting with myself about what to do. But at the end of the day I knew it would come down to love verses lust. Reality verses fantasy. Which one would win, I had yet to find out.