Single Ladies 7 & 8: " That's What Friends Are For" (13 page)

“You need to rest,” Ms. D said, combing Lisa’s hair with her fingers.

“I know, I will after the funeral. Ralphy’s mom is gonna take Naomi for a few days, so I should be okay?”

“I know it may seem hard right now, but things will get easier,” Ms. D said patting Lisa’s hand. “One thing I know about you is that you’re strong, and I’m not talking about any kind of strong. I’m saying you’re strong up here,” Ms. D said, pointing to Lisa’s head.

“And let me be the first to tell you that the worst thing you can do right now is drown yourself in sorrow. That little girl needs you, and you need her, you understand?” Ms. D said, reaching up and turning Lisa’s face towards her.

Lisa nodded her head, wiping the tears that began to fall from her eyes. She agreed with everything Ms. D said to her, but it was something more serious weighing down on her, something that was hard to shake.

“You know this is all my fault,” Lisa said, covering her mouth to muffle her cries.

“What, what are you talking about?” Ms. D said, pulling Lisa close to her. “Don’t say that.”

The detective that was on Ralphy’s case had informants all over the streets, and once he put the whole story together, he called Lisa and asked her if she wanted to know. At first, she was unsure if she wanted to hear the gory details, but thought that one day, Naomi, might inquire about her father’s death when she got older. So for that reason alone, Lisa agreed to hear the detective’s theory about what happened.

Lisa almost threw up listening to the detective go into her personal life, explaining the whole love affair she had with Dre. He knew about Ralphy finding out about the affair then killing Dre because of it. Then he got into how Dre’s close friend, Lick, was the one who shot her and Ralphy at the Dental office, and then how Ralphy retaliated by killing Lick at the party before the bouncer shot and killed him.

After hearing that from the detective, it all made sense to Lisa. She didn’t want to explain everything to Ms. D as they sat on the couch, but the tragic events that took place would forever be embedded in her thoughts. In her eyes, all of this occurred because of her own infidelities, and had she not slept with Dre, Ralphy would still be alive this very day.

Getting easier
, as Ms. D put it, would never be the case with Lisa. This was something that will haunt her probably for the rest of her life.

__________

Tammy laid in the bed naked, hugged up under Darious who had fallen asleep after the crazy sex session they just had. Tammy didn’t know when the DEA was going to be kicking down the door to come get Darious, so until then, she was going to get as much dick a she possibly could. It was a little selfish, but this might be the last time she had sex for a while.

“Darious! Darious!” she said, nudging him out of his sleep.

“Come on, get up,” she said, dipping under the covers and going straight for his dick.

She popped it in her mouth and began sucking it until it got hard. By then, Darious was woke, getting himself ready for round two. Tammy wasted no time climbing on top of him and sitting down on his dick. She grunted, feeling all of him inside of her, and after a minute or two, she started grinding her hips back and forth while pressing her hands against his chest. Darious looked up to her, and could see the pleasure written all over her face. He grabbed her waist and began bouncing her ass up and down on his dick, sending her breast flopping all over the place.

Tammy hissed, then yelled out his name as she felt another orgasm building up in the pit of her stomach. Within a few minutes, Tammy had reached her peak, cumming all over Darious’ dick for the third time today. He too splashed off inside of her for the second time that day, and didn’t consider not one time pulling out.

He felt like Tammy was a lioness in heat and his only job for the day was to plant his seed inside of her. For the rest of the day, he did just that, and especially since she was now on Depo and couldn’t get pregnant. All she wanted to do was give them both something to remember for the darker days ahead.

__________

On Saturday morning, everyone gathered at Lisa’s house preparing to go to see Ralphy laid to rest. Lisa needed her friends now more than ever before. She had requested for them to all ride in the family car with her and Ralphy’s mother. Looking outside as the large funeral limo pulled up in front of the porch, Lisa noticed that it was a silent rain coming down. The flowers that she, Ralphy, and Naomi had planted last year had fully bloomed, but on this morning, they appeared to be frail. The morning dew had formed on top of the petals, dragging them down as if they were paying their final respect to the dead.

Lisa knew that she had to be strong, if not for her mother-in-law, for her daughter, who was still thinking that her daddy was coming home. The funeral director came into the house to let everyone know that it was time to leave. Lamar opened the passenger door for Kim, Falisha and Tammy to climb inside. Mrs D, Lisa, Naomi, and Ralphy’s mother got in on the driver’s side. Although Kim, Lamar and Falisha still had tension in their love triangle, all parties understood that today was not the day to deal with that stuff.

When they arrived at St. Luke Baptist Church, the sanctuary was filled to capacity. It was a mixture of former classmates, people from Ralphy’s old job, and street dudes. Lamar straightened his tie has they all piled out the car. All of the women were already crying, and he knew it wouldn’t take much for him to start. Ralphy was always like a big brother to him, and looking at Naomi and knowing that she would have to grow up without a father was pulling on his heartstrings. He silently made a promise to Ralphy that he would be there for his daughter, like she was his own. The Old lady playing “I Have a Home” on the piano was singing so loud that it was as if she was trying to drown out the wails and whimpering that was going on throughout the church.

When they arrived at the front row, Lisa looked over to see Ralphy laid in the custom casket she had picked out for him. The Blue Ralph Lauren suit she had purchased laid on him so perfect that he looked as if he was going on a job interview. When Ralphy’s mother cut her eyes over to the body, the realization of her son being gone was over whelming. She dropped Lisa’s and Naomi’s hand and went up and stood over her dead child.

“Lord why, please tell me why… it don’t suppose to be like this… I don’t suppose to be burying my baby, why lord, why? How that girl going to know how much her daddy loved her , who going to tell her? God, please, somebody tell me why?!” Ralphy’s mother’s plea to God had everyone with tears flowing like a never-ending water fall. Lamar went up to her, and with the help of one of the ushers, they managed to get her to her seat.

Little Naomi wasn’t sure why everyone was crying so much. She went into Lisa’s pocket book to get her grandmother some tissue. “Mommy, why are you and Grandma crying?” she asked.

“It’s just hard for us to see your daddy like this, that’s all baby.”

“My daddy where is he at?” Naomi asked, getting excited.

Lisa figured this would be her last time seeing her father, so she walked Naomi up to the casket to view the body. Once Naomi saw her father’s face, she went running, Lisa tried to grab her but was too late.

“Daddy… Daddy wake up Daddy… Mommy help me wake my daddy up, he can’t be sleep with all these people here.” Naomi was shaking the casket so hard, it was about to fall off the stand.

Lisa broke down at the sight of her daughter trying to get Ralphy up. All the guilt that she had tried to put behind her was coming back. Tammy and Kim went running to get Lisa, and Lamar and Falisha went to grab Naomi. Both were putting up a fight, and now, even the funeral director and his staff were tearing up.

The Pastor did the best thing he could do. He said a quick sermon and asked that the body be removed, and cancelled the graveside ceremony.

One week later…

Lamar walked into the room while Kim was packing their things in large blue storage bins. The lawyer in Philadelphia was eager to have Kim on his team, and needed her there immediately to start working on a big case he had. Kim was cool with the moving date being bumped up, mainly because she was ready for her and Lamar to move forward with their lives. She needed it bad.

“So the moving company should be here in about an hour. Tell me if I left anything out,” Kim said, looking around the room at all she’d packed.

Lamar entered the room and leaned against the stack of storage bins with a sad look on his face. Kim had a feeling he was going to be like this.

“Awwww!” she whined playfully, walking over to him. “Once we get there, you’ll see that it’s not that—”

“I’m not going,” Lamar said, cutting her off.

“Boy, you better cut it out,” Kim smiled, reaching up to kiss him.

Lamar turned his face so that she kissed his cheek instead of his lips. “I’m serious, Kim. I’m not going anywhere,” he said, looking down at her with conviction.

“Lamar, don’t do this right now. If it’s about the abortion, we can get through it. We can have a baby—”

“Falisha is pregnant by me,” he interrupted.

Kim looked up at him and saw that he was serious. She took a step back and looked to the sky.

“Wow,” she said, taking a seat on the bed.

Lamar stood there silent, giving Kim some time to let what he said sink in. It was a tough blow, and it took a minute, but Kim got herself together.

“So, I guess this is it, right?” she asked, looking over at Lamar. “This is how we end, huh?”

Lamar walked over and took a seat next to her on the bed. This wasn’t easy for him by far, and in the past week, he had considered every possible outcome.

The one thing that tipped the scale was the abortion, and no matter what Kim did to make up for that, Lamar didn’t think that he could ever forgive her for it. She aborted his first child, without even discussing it with him. Some men in this world wouldn’t have cared much, but Lamar was different. He didn’t have a family and the moment when he was about to create one of his own, Kim took that away from him.

On the other hand, Falisha was giving him back what Kim stole from him, and for that, Lamar planned to be there for her and the baby. And possibly salvaging any chance of giving their prior relationship another chance. Sometimes a baby could do one or two things, it could either tear people apart or bring them together, and both Falisha and Lamar were hoping it would do the latter

“I’m sorry, shawty,” Lamar said, then got up and walked out of the room.

__________

Darious sat outside on the backyard deck drinking a Corona, watching Anthony and his friends play in the swimming pool. Tammy came out with Sinniyyah on her hip, yelling at Anthony to be careful before joining Darious under the canopy. After going to the Grand Jury on Wednesday, the DEA would be coming to arrest Darious any day now, and serve him with an indictment. Although she was backed into a corner and pretty much forced to do what she did, guilt still hit her like a ton of bricks. Not only did she feel guilty, she also felt disloyal and untrustworthy, among other things. All the good that happened in her life over the past few months, was on the account of Darious being her man. New car, new house, new clothes, and a higher level of maturity, was all because of him. She couldn’t deny it, he made her a better person, and despite what Agent Grant said about him not loving her, Tammy was convinced that he did.

“I need to talk to you,” Tammy said to Darious as she put Sinniyyah in her swing.

“If it’s about the DEA, you don’t have to say anything,” Darious responded, not taking his focus off the kids in the pool.

Tammy looked over at Darious in shock. “Wait, wait, how do you know about the DEA?” she asked.

Darious explained to her that one night while she was asleep, he went to get her phone out of her Gucci bag, so that he could get one of his client’s number. He had found the recording device and the camera attached to the inside of her bag. He figured that the Feds had gotten to her, probably during one of the drop-offs, and had her working since then.

“Then last week I followed you when you told me that you were going to get ya nails done. You just had gotten them done a few days earlier, so I knew that was a lie. When I saw you get into the back seat of the unmarked car, I almost ran for the hills,” Darious said, taking a swig of his beer.

“So why didn’t you run? Why are you waiting around to go to jail?” Tammy asked.

Darious finally took his eyes off the pool, taking off his sunglasses and putting them and his Corona on the table.

“Come ’ere,” he said, motioning with his head for Tammy to come and sit on his lap.

She got up from her seat and sat down between his legs on the beach chair. He wrapped his arms around her and laid her head on his chest, then kissed her forehead.

“I chose to stay because of you. Whether you believe me or not, I really do love you, Tammy, and I can’t imagine me living life without you.”

“So you’d rather go to jail?”

Darious laughed. “I’m not goin’ to jail, or if I do, it shouldn’t be for long,” he replied.

“I don’t understand. What are you saying?” Tammy asked, sitting up and giving Darious a confused look.

“After I found out that you were working with the feds, I turned myself in and cut a deal. I’m not as high up on the totem pole as they thought I was. They want the doctor and the rest of the hospital staff he has working for him. I told the DEA that if they left you out of it, I’ll help them. That means no charges will be brought against you, and you don’t have to do anything for them anymore.

“Damn, babe, dis shit is deeper than what I thought,” Tammy said, lying back down on his chest.

“Yeah, well, the doctor don’t pay me enough, so I work for the feds now,” Darious said, reaching over and grabbing his Corona off the table.

Through it all, Tammy still couldn’t figure out for the love of God why Darious would want to be with her after everything she had done. As she sat there laid up on his chest, the only thing that she could think of, which made no sense at all, was the fact that Darious must have loved her as much as he said he did. From that day forth, Tammy would no longer question the love Darious had for her, and never, will he ever have to prove it again.