Single Ladies (16 page)

“Shit,” Tammy said to herself, not noticing how loudly she had spoken.

“What? Is something else wrong?” Darious asked as he stopped at the intersection.

“Nothing, nothing, I just remembered something I needed to do today.”

* * *

Lisa and Naomi sat in her room folding up the new clothes Ralphy had bought her. As she listened to Naomi's chatter, her mind kept going back to how good Ralphy looked and smelled. He had transformed himself back into the dope boy Lisa fell in love with years ago. The new truck, clothes, and swag made Lisa want him but, even more than that, she had one question she needed answered.

“Was that Daddy's new girlfriend?” Lisa asked Naomi while they put the clothes away.

“Yup. Her name is Johanne,” Naomi answered.

“Does she live with Daddy, too?”

“Umm, sometimes. Sometimes she sleep in Daddy's room,” Naomi answered, playfully holding up a dress to her body to show Lisa how she looked.

“Does she have any kids?” Lisa asked as she placed one of the shirts on a hanger.

Naomi shook her head. “No,” she said, then ran off to her dresser to put away some clothes. Naomi's mind was on her beautiful clothes and new books her daddy had bought her. Lisa felt some shame in interrogating her child, but she had no other way to get the information she desired. If she had his cell phone number, she would ask him right out herself. Ralphy was looking damn good, and she wanted to know about the chick in the passenger seat. The only way she could get what she needed was to question her little one. Besides, she needed to know about who Ralphy had her child around, right?

“Look, I gotta get ready to go to work,” Lamar said, standing up and stretching. He had returned to the hospital the night before after running some errands. Falisha was asleep in the recliner when he had come back, and he slept in the other chair. He was tired, but his pockets were hungry. Tonight was Sunday, and he knew there would be women packing the place. He would easily walk out with two and a half to three stacks. He was not about to miss that for nobody.

“Can we go somewhere tonight? I was thinking we can go to a hotel,” Falisha said, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“I don't know. I'm tired as hell. After I get off, I'm trying to get some sleep,” he responded.

Falisha looked over at Ms. D then back over at Lamar. She was horny as hell, and had thought about fucking him all day. She pulled his head down to her, kissed him with her juicy mouth, and swiped her tongue across his bottom lip.

“You better stop playing,” Lamar warned as his hands gripped her ass.

Falisha giggled. “Come 'ere,” she said, pulling him into the bathroom.

Lamar followed her into the bathroom. Falisha wasted no time dropping to her knees and unbuckling Lamar's pants, taking his dick out, and putting it into her mouth. Lamar moaned from the wetness, and as Falisha held on to his waist for support, she shoved as much of his meat into her mouth as she could. It was three quarters in and it had already hit the back of her throat. He held on to the back of her head to guide her. It felt so wet and so soft, that at this point, Lamar wanted some pussy.

He grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling her up to him, and before Falisha knew it, Lamar had spun her around, bent her over the sink, and slammed his stiff dick inside her. Falisha grabbed a towel from the rack and bit down on it. She looked at Lamar in the mirror, watching him caress her pussy with his thick dick. She could see the lust in his eyes as he looked back at her.

“Give it to me, daddy,” Falisha whined, poking her ass out and arching her back a little, so that Lamar had a clear shot at it.

Lamar grabbed her ass, spread her ass cheeks apart, and pushed the rest of his long, hard, thick black dick within her soft, wet box. Falisha bit down again on the towel.

* * *

Sinniyyah sat in her high chair playing with the cereal Tammy gave her to snack on while she finished cleaning the kitchen. Tammy felt a little better being home with the kids and knowing that they were safe. It was always a blessing to have friends like Kim and Falisha to be there when she needed them.

“Mommy!” Anthony yelled, running into the kitchen with her cell phone in his hand. “My daddy want you,” he said with a big smile on his face as he passed her the phone.

Tammy almost regretted showing Anthony how to accept his call. Tammy took a deep breath as she put the phone to her ear. Ever since Darious had dropped her off, he had occupied her mind. There was a time she looked forward to Chris's call, but now she wanted the battery in the phone to die.

“Wassup,” Tammy said with a bit of attitude.

“What happened to my visit today?” Chris asked. He only had a couple of minutes left on the call. The phones would be turned off at nine-thirty, and it was nine twenty-seven. He knew that there was no time to start an argument with Tammy. He wouldn't get any answers from her in that short period of time.

“Look, you know I work, and I slept in today. I will bring them next weekend or whenever I get the chance.”

“Whenever you get a chance?” Chris asked with an attitude. He bit down on his lower lip before he said something else. She was talking reckless, and if he had his way, he would have reached through the phone and punched her in the mouth. He felt his blood pressure rise, he breathing became labored, and he slammed the phone down. He stared at the wall, and swore it was turning red.

* * *

As Kim walked into Ms. D's room, Falisha and Lamar exited the bathroom. Lamar was zipping his pants, and Falisha was smoothing her hair. Falisha smirked at Kim, who placed the flowers in the empty vase beside Ms. D's bed. Seeing the two of them adjusting their clothes and hair, Kim knew that they had just had sex. Kim disguised her hurt and played it cool.

“Wassup, girl. How long have you been here?” Falisha asked, walking over to Ms. D's bedside.

Falisha knew exactly what she was doing when she took Lamar into the bathroom. Kim had texted her that she was downstairs just before she pulled Lamar in the bathroom. She wanted Kim to walk in and catch them in the act, but for some damn reason it took her longer to get to the room. Falisha's plan still worked, because Kim caught enough of it.

“I just walked through the door. How long has she been asleep?” Kim asked, sitting on the other side of Ms. D's bed.

“Not long!” Ms. D said, cracking her eyes open and cutting them over at Lamar and Falisha. “Y'all two are a mess,” she said, shaking her head, letting them know that she heard them in the bathroom.

Kim glared at Falisha, who smiled deviously at her, while Lamar looked down and then at Ms. D before walking toward the door. He did not want to make eye contact with Kim, but before he could reach the door, Falisha jumped in front of him. She smiled and kissed him. Lamar didn't pull away, and returned her kiss before exiting the room. Falisha smiled to herself as she watched the door close.

She turned around and smirked at Kim. “What?” Falisha said, shrugging as she walked back over to her seat.

“Sit yo' crazy ass down, girl,” Ms. D said. “And you better have cleaned up in there.”

“Yes, ma'am, I did. I made sure nothing went to waste,” Falisha responded.

Kim shook her head. “That is all you got to offer? It gets old after a while,” Kim said, putting away her compact.

“Maybe in the world you live in,” Falisha shot back. “Instead of hating on me, you should be trying to get ya weight up. You'll never keep a man at the rate you're going,” she said, rolling her eyes at Kim.

Ms. D looked back and forth between the two women. “What da hell is going on between you two?”

Neither woman spoke.

Ms. D shook her head. “I know y'all not even trying to get at each other about no nigga. You been friends for as long as I can remember. Friendship, unlike dick, should always come first. These dudes out here run through y'all girls for a minute, and then they on to the next. Then what you left with?”

Normally, Falisha and Kim would listen to Ms. D's advice, but this time it was different. They didn't want to admit it to each other, but their feelings were heavily involved. Kim had love for Lamar, but Falisha was in love with Lamar, and that was a big difference. And the crazy part about it was Lamar had love for both of them, almost equally for that matter.

One thing Ms. D knew for sure was that if Falisha and Kim continued to go down the road they were on, things would get ugly real fast.

Ever since Darious stopped working at the store, it had been super boring for Tammy at work. Her new coworker was a female who could barely speak English. The limited conversations they had were primarily about work, and nothing else. Tammy sighed as she thought of Darious. She missed his humor, which made her workday enjoyable, and passed the time. However, she knew that him moving on to his new job at Charlotte Medical Center was a good look.

“Yo, I'm bringing all this shit back,” a voice yelled from the other side of the counter, startling Tammy, whose back was turned.

When she turned around, she was relieved that it was Darious standing there with his fist over his mouth, laughing at her. “You was scared as shit.” He laughed.

“Shut up,” Tammy said, reaching over the counter and punching him in his arm. “What are you doing here anyway?” she asked.

“I got off early today, and I figured I'd take you to lunch. I already talked to ya boss, so you good,” he said and smiled.

Tammy cleaned up her workstation and let her coworker know that she was going on her lunch break. She wasted no time taking off with Darious. She only had a half hour, so they walked across the street to McDonald's.

“Yo, I need to talk to you about something,” Darious said, taking a seat in the booth with Tammy.

“Uh-oh. That don't sound good,” she said and took a bite of her burger.

Darious smiled, assuring her that it wasn't bad at all. He just had something that he needed to get off his chest before it killed him.

“I'm in love with you, Tammy,” he said, looking into her eyes.

The burger that Tammy was chewing on seemed to expand in her mouth. She grabbed her Sprite to help wash it down.

“I don't . . . Well, wow.” Tammy had a hard putting her words together.

Darious smiled and took her hand. “Every night that I get home from work and walk through the front door, I be hoping that you're there sitting on the couch waiting for me. It takes me every bit of an hour to get to sleep once I'm in the bed, because I can't stop thinking of you, and wondering if you're thinking about me. I think about all the ways I wanna make you happy and try not to do anything that would make you unhappy,” Darious said.

Hearing the sincerity in his voice, Tammy felt warm all over. She was feeling something for him too, but she wasn't sure it was love just yet. He made her feel incredible. It had been so long since she'd felt adored, and protected. He had given her the resources to provide for her kids, made sure everything was straight, and had the bedroom game beyond incredible. Everything he had just expressed mirrored what she felt about him as well. She checked her watch; thirty minutes seemed like only five at the moment.

“Can we talk about this later?” Tammy said, touching Darious's face. “I gotta get back to work, but I definitely want to talk about this.”

“Yeah, yeah. I will call you later,” Darious said, taking a sip of his soda.

“We can talk at my house. Come by tonight around nine o'clock,” Tammy told him. Inviting Darious to her home was a huge step. She had never allowed any man to walk across the threshold other than Chris.

She took a few more bites of her burger, and placed the rest on the tray. “I guess I need to get back over there.”

Darious took the tray to the trashcan and extended his arm to Tammy. “Yeah, I guess so. You sure about me coming over?”

Tammy shook her head and kissed his cheek. “I'm sure,” Tammy said, and then kissed his lips.

* * *

Ralphy pulled up to the block, jumped out of the Range Rover, and dapped all his homies who were standing out there. Being back in the hood had never felt better, and now that he was back on dope boy status, the hood was loving him once again.

Killing Dre had made the decision to get back in the game easy. Catching that body brought back memories of the power he had held back in the day in the streets. Scoop had looked out for him by giving him a couple of ounces of heroin on the strength of his game. Like a chick seeing her man after his bid, the streets had welcomed him back. Once he got the taste of what it felt like to pull down them stacks, Ralphy had not looked back.

“Damn, big homie, what it do?” Scoop said as he walked out of the store to meet Ralphy.

“Ain't shit, li'l nigga. Business as usual,” Ralphy responded, letting Scoop know that he was there to pick up his money.

“Damn, playboy, I hate when you talk to me like that. I'm starting to feel like you treatin' me like the rest of these niggas out here. Don't forget who got you back in the game, homeboy,” Scoop said, walking over to his car and grabbing the small backpack from his back seat.

Scoop might have said it in a joking way, but he was serious about what he said. When Ralphy got back in the game, he stepped on the gas and rose over his peers in a very short period of time. Ralphy's street hustle was that of a Princeton scholar, which pushed him above the rest.

Ringo Street used to be Scoop's, but now it was Ralphy who was supplying the block. He had also picked up Thomas Road, Belmont Avenue, and the Academy Projects. Scoop knew firsthand how Ralphy could kill and destroy people who stood in his way. So for now he could only stand down, and submit to his takeover. Ralphy grabbed the back pack and headed back to his SUV.

“Yo, what up wit' homeboy?” one of Scoop's homies asked as he watched Ralphy pull out of the parking lot. He stared at the truck; he had heard the way the dude had spoken to Scoop, and found his tone to be arrogant. “That nigga think his shit don't stank,” the young'un said, taking a pull off his Black.

“Yeah, well, the rise of some folks can make them think they can't ever fall,” Scoop said before walking back inside his store.

* * *

Chris waited in line in front of his counselor's office to get inside, so that he could make a social phone call unmonitored. What he had to say couldn't be said over the regular inmate phones, because someone was always listening. Here in the counselor's office, anybody could say whatever they want freely without worrying about it coming back and biting them in the ass. Talking reckless on a fed phone can get a nigga a whole new indictment.

When Chris finally got into the office and was approved for the call, the only person he wanted to call was his little brother, Outlaw. When it came down to Chris, Outlaw would do just about anything for his big brother. Outlaw wasn't sweet by a long shot; at the young age of nineteen, he had half the neighborhood scared of him, and the other half respected his G.

“Wassup, li'l bro,” Chris said into the phone when Outlaw picked up. “My counselor gave me a phone call,” he told him, letting Outlaw know that the line was secure. “Yo, I need you to take care of something for me,” Chris said, lowering his voice some so the counselor wouldn't hear him.

“Yeah, whatever you need, big bro. Just let me know.”

“Yo, I think my baby mom got a nigga around my kids. I need you to swing through the block and see what it do,” Chris instructed.

“Say no more. I'm on top of it like yesterday. You good, bro? I'ma put some money on ya books when I get off the phone wit' ya,” Outlaw said.

“Nah, bro, I'm good. I just need you to take care of that situation for me,” Chris said, looking back at the counselor.

He hung up and nodded to his counselor. Just like that, he had taken care of whoever was trying to be in Tammy's bed and around his kids. Outlaw would take care of it quickly, and without questions.