Gimme an O! (22 page)

“Bo ain’t a friend.”

“He’s not?”

“Nuh-uh. Bo Baxter’s her husband.”

Several beats passed as Anthony’s brain struggled to make sense of what he’d just heard. “What did you just say?”

“Tyrone, how many times I have to tell you you talk too much? You need to stay out of grown people’s business.”

Anthony held up a hand and the woman quieted. “Wait,” he said to Tyrone. “Are you telling me that Ginger’s married?”

“She was,” Tyrone answered, as if he hadn’t just been scolded.

“Tyrone, let me handle this,” his mother told him. Then she faced Anthony and Lecia. “Takesha was married till about eight months ago, when she got a divorce.”

“Divorce?” Anthony repeated, dumbfounded.

“Uh-huh. Though I got no clue why. Not that I know why Takesha do anything. She and Bo been together since grade school. Next thing I know, he’s on my doorstep, crying like a baby ’cause she left him.”

Anthony thought he couldn’t be hearing right. “Takesha was married?”

“Uh-huh.”

Anthony did his best to rein in his anger. “Where does this Bo guy live? He, um, might know where Takesha is.”

“A few blocks over,” Tyrone said. “Though no one ain’t seen him around in at least a few weeks.”

“He a big guy?” Anthony asked. “Bald?”

“Yeah,” Tyrone answered. “You know him?”

“I think I met him once,” Anthony lied. “Look, can you tell me how to get to his place? If he’s heard from Ginger, I really need to talk to him.”

Ginger’s mother frowned as she stared at Anthony. “You just expect me to tell you where he live?”

Anthony opened his wallet and withdrew two hundred dollars. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

The woman looked at the money, then back at him. “You wouldn’t be looking to hurt Takesha, now?”

“Oh, no.” Lecia finally spoke. “He just needs to find her.”

The woman’s gaze fell on Anthony’s wallet and the other bills inside. “I know this ain’t all you got.”

Anthony took out another three hundred. “Here. Five hundred. But tell me where I can find Bo.”

Grinning, the woman took the money, stuffed it into her bra, then gave Anthony an address and directions how to get there.

The trip to Bo’s place had been a waste of time. He wasn’t there, and neither was anyone else. However, Anthony had been able to peer through a window and see a large wedding picture of Bo and his wife. If he’d had any doubts about whether Ginger had been married before marrying him, he no longer did.

“What now?” Lecia asked when Anthony got behind the wheel.

He gritted his teeth for several seconds before answering.
“Why would she do this?” he asked. “Marry me when she was married to someone else?”

“She was divorced,” Lecia clarified.

“Barely,” Anthony pointed out. “She only got divorced eight months ago. She turned right around and married me a few months later.”

Lecia shrugged. “Maybe her marriage to this Bo guy was a mistake.”

“A mistake? They were lifelong sweethearts. That’s no mistake.”

“Maybe…maybe he was abusing her, and she had to leave him?”

“Then why didn’t she tell me about it? And why the hell doesn’t her family know I’m her husband?”

“I don’t know.” Lecia could tell Anthony was hurting, and she wished she could make things better for him. “Maybe Ginger simply wanted to put the past behind her?”

“That’s bullshit.”

“I’m grasping at straws here, Tony, same as you.”

Anthony revved the engine harder than was necessary. “I know what you’re going to say, but don’t bother.”

“Huh? I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“Yes you were. You were going to say that I barely knew the woman, yet I married her. That I must have been out of my mind.”

“I wasn’t going to say that.”

“You were thinking it.” He abruptly accelerated, throwing Lecia backward in the seat.

“Anthony, slow down.”

“My parents knew each other forever. But still, their marriage failed. I wanted to do everything exactly the opposite to the way my father did it. You have no idea what it’s like to live
with the kind of absurdity he subjected us to. The instability. To see your mother cry every night because of how much she’s hurting.”

“I…Tony, if you want to talk, pull over.”

“Well, it’s not fun.” He made a sharp right turn. “I swore I’d never be like him. That I’d get married once and stay married.”

He had already told her this. “I’m not judging you for marrying Ginger.”

“I met her at a restaurant, did I tell you that?” He laughed mirthlessly. “She served me dinner, along with a plate of crap about her life.”

“How long did you know her before—”

“Ah, there we go! I knew you’d have to put your two cents in.”

“Tony, listen. Did you meet Ginger before she divorced Bo?”

That got Anthony’s attention. Thankfully, he finally slowed down. “I don’t know. I guess I met her about a year ago.”

“Before she divorced Bo.”

“I guess so.”

“Was she separated?”

“I didn’t even know she was married, remember?”

“Right.” Lecia shrugged. “Well, maybe she was. I mean, I’m sure she was. She was separated and didn’t want to tell you about the husband because you might not have wanted to date her. And once things got hot and heavy—”

“They didn’t get hot and heavy.”

“What?”

“Not until after we got married.”

“You weren’t intimate before you got married?”

“That was one of the things I liked about her. She said she didn’t want to have sex until we got married because she thought sex clouded the issue. She also didn’t believe in long engagements.”

“But you said she screwed like—that she seemed very experienced in bed.”

“I know, I was stupid. What can I say? I was living in la la land.”

“Tony, stop the car.”

He glanced at her. “What? Oh, you want to abandon me, too?”

“Just stop the car.”

“Fine.” Anthony’s voice said he was resigned to her betrayal. “Whatever you want.”

He slowed down, then turned into a gas station. “The least I could do is drop you at the airport.”

“Shut up,” Lecia said. Then she grabbed him by the T-shirt, drew him close, and kissed him.

Lecia thought she was dreaming when she heard, “I never slept with her without a condom.”

She didn’t answer, and Anthony asked, “Are you awake?”

“What did you say?” Lecia sat up, rubbing sleep from eyes, remembering that she was in a motel.

“I said, I never slept with her without a condom.”

“Who?”

“Who else? My wife.”

Lecia glanced at the clock. It was minutes to eleven
P.M
. She had drifted off after making love with Anthony. “I’m not exactly sure what you’re trying to tell me.”

“We were tested for every disease before we got married,” Anthony went on. “The condoms were her idea, not mine. Now that I think about it, it seems a bit strange.”

“I thought you said she didn’t want children.”

“She was on the pill.”

Lecia shrugged. “I don’t know. You think she had a problem with intimacy?”

“I don’t know what to think. That’s the problem.”

“So now you want to talk?”

“No.”

“Good. Because I’m tired.” Lecia plopped her head back.

“I called my lawyer. Left a message for him to see what he can find out about Ginger Baxter. I told him to call me back as soon as possible, no matter the hour.”

“That was smart. Are you coming back to bed?” Lecia snuggled against her pillow. Seconds later she heard the television come on. As Anthony went through channel after channel, Lecia turned onto her side. Every guy she’d ever known hadn’t been able to stop and focus on one channel for longer than a few seconds.

“Whoa,” Anthony said.

Lecia had drifted off again, but Anthony’s voice woke her. And his tone worried her. “What is it?”

Anthony held up a hand to shush her as he turned up the volume on the television.

“…Ginger Beals. The tape surfaced earlier today, and due to its graphic nature, we can only show you portions of it.”

Ginger’s face filled the screen. Her head hanging backward over a bed, she was moaning loudly. Then a white man’s face entered the frame, and he and Ginger began to kiss. Their rapturous sounds of lovemaking grew louder until the picture snapped off the screen.

“Ginger hasn’t been seen in four days, and now her estranged husband is also nowhere to be found. We’ll keep you up to date on this very bizarre case.”

“Aw, hell no.” Anthony slowly rose, shaking his head in disbelief. “Tell me I didn’t just see that.”

Lecia was too stunned to speak.

“Who the fuck did I marry?”

“Tony…”

“Some—Some whore?”

“Tony.”

Anthony whirled around and stared at the television. The remote still in his hand, he pressed it with the conviction of a man squeezing off round after round.

“Tony, don’t.”

He didn’t stop channel surfing, and Lecia crawled out of bed and took the remote from his fingers. She turned the television off.

Anthony drew in an angry breath, then began to pace.

“Tony, that was the guy I saw Ginger with that day. I can’t be a hundred percent sure, but the hair color’s the same, the sharp nose….”

Anthony stared at her as if she had grown another head. “What?”

“The guy at the restaurant. She was there with the bald guy, who probably was Bo, as well as a white guy.”

“That was him?”

“I think so. The only reason I paid attention to him is because he was sitting at this table alone, reading a book, while everyone else was yakking away.”

“You just said he was there with Ginger and…Bo.”

“He was alone when I got there. And he made a point of smiling at me. I thought he recognized me, but maybe he’s just got a thing for black women?”

Anthony frowned, then started to pace again. “So Ginger, Bo, and this white guy—they all know each other?”

“As far as I could tell.”

Anthony was silent as he digested this information. “This is important, don’t you think? I mean, it’s not a coincidence that you saw them all together and it turns out that Ginger’s been sexually involved with them both. Do you think…?”

“Think what?”

“Think that one of them hurt her, maybe the white guy, and he’s throwing suspicion to me?”

“That could be it. Or not. Assuming Bo is still in love with Ginger, why go on the news and tell everyone that Ginger had been heading to meet you, and not this other guy? That’s the lie that doesn’t make sense.”

“I have to stop thinking about it. It’s gonna drive me nuts. All I know is, my wife is not just a liar, she’s a whore, and thank God I wore condoms with her every damn time.”

“I think we should—” Lecia stopped as Anthony stormed across the room to the chair where they’d both dumped their clothes. “What are you doing?”

“I’ve gotta get out of here.” He slipped into his jeans.

“You—you’re leaving?” Lecia asked, panic rising within her.

“You heard me.”

She made her way toward him. “Tony, don’t walk away from me. Don’t shut me out.”

“Why?” Rage clouded his face as he closed the snap on his jeans. “Because I need to
talk
about this? Talking hasn’t done a damn thing for me. Talking isn’t going to make this go away. I didn’t know my own wife. Hell, she’s not my wife. She’s every man’s whore. Didn’t I tell you she screwed like a porn star?” Anthony chuckled, a low, hollow sound. “God, I’ve been such a moron!”

Lecia wanted to reach out and soothe him, but she didn’t.

“Do you know how embarrassing this is?” he went on after a moment. “National news? I won’t be able to show my face when I get back to L.A.” He snatched up his T-shirt. “This is a nightmare.”

“Leaving me isn’t going to change anything.”

“You can’t help me now.”

“Maybe not, but I can listen.”

“What do you want me to say? That I can’t wait to find Ginger so I can wrap my hands around her neck?”

“If that’s what you need to say.”

“I married Ginger—
Takesha
—because I wanted someone who was safe, someone who shared my values. And now I learn that I married a whore. How is talking gonna make any of that better?”

Lecia finally touched him. It was the only thing she knew to do. Telling him she understood would be a lie. She didn’t. Allen’s betrayal had been devastating, but it had been nothing like this.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Touching you.” She slipped her arms around his waist. “Holding you.”

He pulled away from her. “Don’t.”

Lecia wrapped her arms around her torso, feeling suddenly cold. “Your wife turns her back on you, then railroads you in the media, yet you barely backed down from trying to save your marriage. I, on the other hand, stick by you through all this crap over the past few days, and you don’t even give me the same respect you give Ginger, or Takesha, or whatever her name is?”

“This isn’t about you.”

“Of course it’s not. I’m just the woman you’re screwing at the moment. A dime a dozen, right?”

Anthony’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Do I even matter one iota to you?” Lecia asked between labored breaths.

“Since when is that the issue?”

“Since now.” Suddenly, it mattered. It mattered that she not simply be a roll in the hay for star athlete Anthony Beals. “Answer the damn question.”

“Of course you’re not a dime a dozen. And I’m not just
screwing
you.”

“Then what are we doing?”

Lecia stared at Anthony for what seemed an eternity before he answered the question. Her heart practically stopped; it mattered that much what he would say.

“We’re…we’re…I dunno. Enjoying each other.”

Disappointment swelled in her chest. Anthony’s words, though true, hurt her. But why should they? In reality, they hardly knew each other. So what if they’d talked more in a few days than she and Allen had ever talked in over five years? She was being immature, getting caught up in emotions simply because she and Anthony had been doing what men and women had been doing together since the beginning of time.

Still, she couldn’t stand the sight of him right now. She turned away. “I’m sorry. I’m not exactly sure what’s come over me, except I’m tired, and as frustrated by all of this as you are.”