Kismet (Beyond the Bedroom Series) (20 page)

Erika had warmed up to us and started talking more; she was such a sweet girl. She reminded me a lot of myself. Her family put her older sister first and paid her no attention, so it became her goal to be the best at everything else and earn their attention.

She didn’t deal with her big sister at all unless she was in trouble and then she would run to her rescue. Erika still believed that blood was thicker than water. She wasn’t related to Memphis, that’s why. If Memphis was in trouble, he knew he couldn’t count on me and it was his fault we were like that.

During lunch, my phone went off, but it was just a text message. To my shock it was Javier. Can you please give April my phone number? I’ll travel to the south for her ass. I almost pissed on myself from laughing. Stephanie had to read this shit.

“Stephanie, why is your friend Javier texting me asking for April’s number?” She snatched my phone and fell out laughing, too.

“Maybe those symptoms aren’t hitting him yet.” Erika was looking at us both like we had lost our minds.

“Are y’all going to keep on laughing or y’all going to let me in on it?” I didn’t see any harm in telling her bits and pieces of what happened. As long as I didn’t make myself and Stephanie look bad, she could know.

“I had these guys over to my house a few months back and there were a few girls there, too. The men got drunk out of their minds and had sex with all the women at my house, except myself and Stephanie. We told them to use a condom, but they refused to and come to find out, two of the women there were HIV positive. I know it doesn’t sound like something we should be laughing at, but these men and their baby mamas tormented me as a child. That has nothing to do with their karma, though, that was all fate.”

I continued laughing and so did Stephanie. Erika had a smile on her face, but I guess she would have to hear the whole story to laugh.

“This one has to go in the planner, the day Javier begged for more punishment. I bet you Tyrone and Ant been thinking about them, too.”

I wrapped up lunch because I had to meet with a possible buyer on the time-share I was selling on Pacific Coast Highway. Stephanie also had to leave because it was her firefighter fuck day. We were leaving Erika in charge.

I was about 15 minutes away from the timeshare when I realized I didn’t know my prospective buyer’s name. It was in the planner and Stephanie was gone for the day. Maybe I could get Erika to get it out of her office for me. I called the office and had the secretary transfer me to Erika’s cubical. Instead, she transferred me to Stephanie’s office. Apparently, Stephanie had left Erika some of her work to do.

“Ericka, can you do me a favor, sweetheart? Look in Stephanie’s top sliding drawer and pull out that black planner. Look up today’s date and tell me the name of the person I am supposed to meet, please.” I didn’t hear the drawer open, yet she was flipping through pages. “Did you find it?”

Her voiced sound slightly different when she spoke, kind of ghetto, to be exact. “Yep, I found it. She left it sitting on top of her desk. You supposed to meet with a Mr. P. Johns at 3 PM,” I thanked her and told her I’d see her Monday, but she didn’t let me get off the phone.

“Savannah, can I ask you a question? And please be honest. If something evil was happening to your brother and you were the only person who could help him, would you? Or would you use that opportunity to get payback for him doing you wrong in the past?” I actually thought about what she asked me before I answered.

“Erika, fuck my brother, I would be getting my revenge.” She took a deep breath and then said, “That’s what makes us different,” and hung up the phone. Her scandalous ass sister must need her help with something. I hope she makes the right choice.

When I made it to the house, I was the only person there. Mr. Johns must have been running late. I hadn’t been in that house since the janitor service cleaned it.

In the ad I placed in the newspaper, I said the unit would be left unlocked for viewing. There was no telling who had been in and out the unit last month.

When I walked up the steps, I could smell food coming from the neighboring unit. Something about it was familiar and it smelled really good. I turned the handle on the door and finally met up with P. Johns.

Sitting on my dining room table were four extra-large boxes of Papa John’s pizza with a note taped to the lid that read, Veggie pizza, add Chicken.

I ran through each room looking for Dre while screaming his name. He wasn’t in the house or anywhere nearby; this was his way of letting me know he was out, back on the streets and in or on his way to California. The game of cat and mouse or hide and go seek was about to start and my first hiding spot would be in Washington. I would leave California no later than Tuesday.

I flew home. I hit 120mph all the way there, turning a 15 or 20 minute drive into a seven minute one. Dre had detective friends and I didn’t want to make myself look obvious. I stayed in the house for about five hours before leaving with all the jewelry and belongings that would fit in my Dolce bag.

This place was paid for until six months from now, so there was no rush to move my stuff. I would wait until I was settled to have my daddy and uncle pack up my stuff.

I was moving so fast and didn’t have anywhere to go. Stephanie was somewhere being fucked until Saturday and I couldn’t go stay at my daddy’s house due to where it was located. Then, I got my destination. Will called to see if I could be his partner for a two on two charity basketball fundraiser that was being thrown by the California Department of Sheriffs in San Francisco.

“I know it is last minute, but they are short a team from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and I was asked to save the day. I could have called another girl, but I decided I wanted to win and you became my first choice.”

To get the hell away from Dre, I would have volunteered to play basketball naked in the snow with some Timberland boots on and a cowboy hat.

“Sure, I’ll do it; it’s for charity and my company will make a large donation. Where should we meet?” He asked if I could meet him at his job to sign up and we would then take a flight out at 7 o’clock in the morning. The game wasn’t until 8 o’clock Saturday night, but he wanted us to get there early enough to get in some practice and get a feel of each other’s game.

I agreed and headed straight to the sheriff’s office, now let’s see Dre and his goons follow me in there. When I arrived, he told me that he booked us flights out of Burbank airport in the morning. I mentioned how I would have to get up at 3:30 just to make sure I’m up and at the airport by 6 AM. When he heard that, he invited me to stay at his house. Now that was real protective custody.

“Do you need to go home and pack?” I put a big smile on my face.

“No, I have everything I need on me. I plan to go pick up something on the way to your house.” He wrote his address down and gave me his spare key.

“I don’t get off for another hour or so. Make yourself at home. It’s nothing in the fridge, but we will go out to dinner later on tonight.”

The address he gave me was near the post office my PO Box was setup at. I hadn’t checked it in almost four months. It was packed with a large envelope that had a DVD and birthday party pictures. Dre’s genes were strong because my daughter was his female twin. She looked exactly like her father with dimples. No one in my family has dimples, so they must have come from Dre’s side of the gene pool.

In the pictures, there must have been 50 or more guests and a mountain of gifts for Sade. The letter said they opened a banking account for her with the $3,000 I sent her for her birthday. I was glad about the decision I made to give her up. I would have never been able to get a house full of people to gather like that for her third birthday. Knowing me, we would have gone to Hawaii or somewhere to celebrate it alone or with her nanny.

The DVD must be a recording of her party because they sent one on her first and second birthday, too. I hope Will has a DVD player; I couldn’t wait to hear her talk and see her in action.

When I made it to Will’s house, I was shocked at how beautiful it was. The color threw me for a loop. Everything was a soft lilac purple. You never see men take the time to fully decorate and it was a work of art. He had hand woven drapes with expensive scarves over all his windows, beautiful black empowerment art work everywhere and his bathroom was covered in beautiful purple lilies.

He must have had a women living with him previously because I snooped around and there was nothing in the house that could be owned by a women.

I made myself comfortable on the couch and popped in the DVD. Sade was walking and talking like a big girl now. The Jeffersons had her blowing me kisses and telling me that she loved me. It was the cutest thing. Sade grabbed the video camera and kissed it. When they tried to take it from her, she started screaming, “Mama, mama help.”

At end of the video, they asked if I would send a picture for Sade’s purposes. It was Mr. Jefferson’s request. “I know you don’t want nobody to know who you are and all that good stuff, but little Sade knows she has a mother out there and it would be a beautiful thing if she knew what her mother looked like. That’s just my suggestion.”

I wouldn’t kick the thought out completely, but with Dre playing detective, now wasn’t the best time. As I was replaying the part when Sade started screaming mama, the owner of the house caught me red handed. “Whose baby girl is that?” Will asked and then waited on my answer.

“My little goddaughter, isn’t she the prettiest little thing?” He agreed while I rushed to take it out the DVD player and placed it back in its envelope to go stash in my car.

“Well, Ms. Savannah, are you ready to go eat?” I snatched my purse and package up and said, “sure.”

We decided to go Cheesecake Factory so we could walk out with a three layered strawberry cheesecake which was my request. While we waited for our food to be served, I sparked up conversation.

“Who decorated your place? It’s beautiful. I had thought about hiring an interior decorator, but decided to wait until I was permanently parked somewhere. I move too much and leave too much behind when I do move to waste money like that.”

He smiled shyly, “Thank you; I did hire an interior decorator or I should say, I am dating one. My baby said my place looked too masculine and gave off the wrong vibe about me. So, I agreed to the update.” I knew it. That house had been touched by a woman, the only way he would have convinced me that he did all that himself was if he were gay and Will was far from gay.

“Keep dating her ‘cause I may need her. I’m moving away from California next week and this might be my last move.”

With Sade being so close and me being a partner at the firm and the head over our west coast operations, Washington wasn’t looking so bad after all.

I needed to arrange for Stephanie to follow me in her car as I sold both of my vehicles on Monday. I might have changed the plates, but the VIN numbers stayed the same. That might be how Dre tracked me down. I’ll get something new when I make it to Washington.

Once we were full, we headed back to Will’s to get some rest before the flight. I really wanted him to fuck me, but was thankful he hadn’t tried. There was no way I could be a good sex partner with Dre on my mind.

The flight to San Francisco was beautiful. I hadn’t flown since I moved from Atlanta. We found a NIKE shop and I got all my game supplies. Basketball, tennis shoes, shorts, sports bra, wristbands and all.

After an hour of practice, I knew I still had it and this tournament would be ours and it was. We took first place without breaking a sweat. We left with the first place trophy and ribbons, which would be placed at the Los Angeles Sheriff Department’s main hub, but that was nice of them to let him leave with it.

A few of his co-workers invited us out to a strip club to celebrate, but he turned them down saying, “I’ve never hung with them fake ass niggas; they just want to be nosey and find out who you are.”

If I wasn’t trying to get some of Will’s dick, I wouldn’t have minded getting to know any of them; they all were sexy.

“Well, let’s have our own celebration, let’s kill the liquor store and head back to the hotel and chill all night. Our flight doesn’t leave ‘til tomorrow night and if we are hung over in the morning, we got a few hours before the trip home to recover.”

Will was with it. We bought a big bottle of tequila and went to work on it. We both were drunk because we started being open about everything and eventually crossed the privacy lines.

“Savannah, I miss my boo. This is the longest we have been apart in nine months and it’s killing me. I keep having ‘what if it’s some cheating going on’ thoughts, which ain’t cool. I know my baby loves me, but damn, it’s hard. I feel so safe and protected when my baby is around and I got a gun at my waist and the other on my ankle all day and I don’t feel as protected as I do when my boo boo’s here. It’s like nothing even matters. Now that we are apart, I keep checking my phone for texts or missed calls, this feels like high school again.” Blame it on the alcohol, but I couldn’t bite my tongue.