Single Ladies (8 page)

Tammy wiped the tears from her eyes before putting the letter back into the envelope. She really did love Chris, and only said half of the things she said because she was mad. She didn't mean any of it pertaining to her moving on, but it seemed like Chris already had it in his mind that she was going to do just that. In his letter, it sounded like he had already given up on their relationship. She really didn't want for it to go that far.

Seven years was a long time, and she honestly didn't know if she could last that long being alone. But what she did know was that she didn't want her and Chris to end like this. She was confused. They had too much time in, and two kids invested in their relationship, so before she decided to leave him for real, she at least wanted to try to ride it out for as long as she could, and hoped that the seven years would go by fast.

The only problem with that was once Chris had his mind made up on something, it was pretty much a wrap. So, when he said that he was going to fall back and get out of Tammy's way, there was a possibility that he might have finalized the separation. If that was the case, Tammy's attempt to do the time with him was pointless. It was over.

“Get out da car, bitch,” Gena yelled, pulling at the passenger side door of Fox's truck.

Falisha looked at the prehype young lady without a care in the world. The girl had to be a few years younger than her, so Falisha was trying to be patient. She looked over at Fox, who was sitting there smiling like this was some type of game to him.

“You better get ya little girlfriend before I beat shit down her legs,” Falisha warned, trying to give Fox the opportunity to fix the situation.

This wasn't the first time Falisha had to deal with one of Fox's scallywags. He had a few young chicks he dealt with, none of whom knew how to play their part, leaving it up to Falisha to have to put them in their place. To be as cute as she was, Falisha knew how to fight and she did it well, but every now and again it seemed like somebody had to test her.

“I'll take care of it,” Fox said in frustration as he got out of the truck.

When Gena saw Fox open his door she darted around to the driver side hoping she could catch the door before it closed. Before she could get to it, Fox grabbed her by the arm and pulled her down the street away from the truck.

“Didn't I tell you to stop acting like a fuckin' kid?” Fox snapped, towering over her.

“And didn't I tell you to stop bringing dese bitches around here?” Gena shot back. “You ain't gon' be happy 'til I beat one of their asses,” she said, attempting to break for the truck.

Fox grabbed her again, stopping her from getting embarrassed. He knew Falisha was going to end up beating the shit out of her, so he was trying to save her.

“Why don't you get out the car, you dumb bitch?” NeNe, one of Gena's girlfriends, said tapping on the passenger side window. “You dirty-ass hood rat.”

Falisha sat there and looked at the young girl like she was an alien. NeNe had no idea what she was getting herself into, but she was about to find out. Falisha didn't care that this wasn't her neighborhood, nor did she care about the crowd of people standing outside of the projects looking on. There was just so much disrespect she was going to take.

“Tell ya fuckin' friend to get away from my car,” Fox yelled at Gena as he held her back. The whole time NeNe stood outside of the car yelling and talking crazy about what she was gonna do. Falisha calmly prepared for the fight.

“These li'l girls is working my fuckin' nerves,” Falisha mumbled as she began taking off her earrings. “Don't go nowhere,” she yelled through the window while pulling her hair into a ponytail.

She looked down at her brand new cream Michael Kors wedges and shook her head, only mad that she was about to mess up a pair of good shoes. That made her a little angrier in itself.

As soon as Falisha stepped out of the car, the fight was on. NeNe rushed her, but Falisha grabbed her by the head and started kneeing her in the face. She was slinging NeNe around like a rag doll by her hair. Gena snapped seeing that. She wildly broke away from Fox, who was standing there fascinated by the work Falisha was putting in.

Falisha didn't see her coming but she damn sure felt Gena sneak her from the side. Gena was a little wilder when it came to fighting. She threw what seemed like a hundred punches in ten seconds. Falisha caught the brunt of most of the punches because she wouldn't let go of NeNe. She eventually let NeNe go, then turned around and went toe to toe with Gena.

It didn't take long for Falisha to get the upper hand on Gena, and when she did, she beat the hell out of her. All you could hear was a bunch of oohs and aahs coming from the crowd of people who had tuned into the fight. Falisha had beat NeNe up so bad she didn't want any more trouble. She just lay on the ground looking up at Falisha whooping Gena's ass.

“A'ight, a'ight, dat's enough,” Fox yelled as he made his way through the crowd and stepped between the two girls. It took him a minute or two but Fox eventually pulled Falisha off of Gena then put her back in his truck. Fox was laughing the whole time, finding it amusing that young, beautiful women would still fight over him. He also knew how much Falisha could get down and found it entertaining when she did her thing. Her fight game was one of the many reasons why Falisha was his main chick; and, until somebody stepped up and knocked her off her throne, she was going to continue to be his main and number one chick.

* * *

A couple of nights ago Kim had called Lisa and warned her that Ralphy had come to her office and found out about Dre being home. Lisa stayed home and waited for the confrontation, but when Ralphy got home he didn't have much to say. Lisa tried to talk to him, but he insisted on not talking. Lisa, not really being in the mood either, just left it alone.

Today was a different day. Lisa had been walking around the house on eggshells long enough and the silent treatment Ralphy was giving out was killing her. As soon as Lisa came back from dropping Naomi off at day camp, she went right at Ralphy.

“Yo, we need to talk,” Lisa said in a demanding way when she walked into the bedroom where he was at.

Ralphy stood in front of the mirror fixing his tie and ignored her request. Lisa wasn't taking no for an answer. Ralphy tried to walk out of the room but Lisa ran over and slammed the door, pressing her back up against it so he couldn't leave.

“Move from in front of the door, Lisa,” Ralphy said in a calm voice, patting her on the arm.

“No! I'm not moving until we talk,” she said.

“What do you wanna talk about?” he asked, stepping back and taking a seat on the edge of their bed. “Make it fast 'cause we both gotta go to work.”

His calm and relaxed demeanor was throwing Lisa off. She expected Ralphy to have snapped out by now about what had happened, but he didn't. “Baby, I fucked up and I'm sorry,” Lisa began to plead, walking over and kneeling in between his legs.

Ralphy gave her a confused look like he didn't know what she was talking about, but in that same look, it showed that he knew exactly what she was talking about. Lisa sat there stuck for a minute. She couldn't believe he was going to make her say what she had done. He wanted to hear it from her own mouth and for Lisa it was like being tortured. She looked up at him and could see the hurt in his eyes. She just put her head down, unable to fix her mouth to say the words.

“Why you ain't tell me dis nigga was home?” Ralphy asked, breaking the silence.

“I don't know, babe. I really didn't think it was something you wanted to know. He came—”

“Did you fuck dat nigga?” he asked in an angry tone, just thinking about it. “Don't fuckin' lie to me.”

Hearing him ask the question in the manner that he did kinda scared Lisa. It wasn't the fear of him possibly putting his hands on her, but it was the fear of losing him that made her lie.

“No!” she answered quickly. “I did not have sex with that boy,” she lied flat out with a straight face.

“So why da fuck is you callin' his name out? And you did it while I'm in the middle of—”

“I know, I know, babe. I'm sorry,” Lisa cried out.

Lisa cried like a baby, but Ralphy wasn't impressed. He had a gut instinct it was deeper than what Lisa was telling him. “Look, I gotta get to work,” he said, getting up from the bed. “I need some time to—”

“No, babe, wait!” Lisa whined, getting up from her knees and following him. “Ralphy. Please!”

Ralphy stopped at the door and turned around. He never heard Lisa cry like this and, naturally, he became sympathetic toward his wife. He grabbed her and pulled her into his arms, trying his best to suppress his anger so that he could comfort her.

“I don't wanna lose you. I love you so much,” Lisa cried out as she held on to him tightly.

“Shhhh! It's cool, babe. You not gon' lose me. We'll get through this together,” he said in a soft voice.

What he said was comforting, but how he felt in his heart was uneasy. He didn't want to show it but he was hurting inside, and until he got to the bottom of the situation he was going to continue to hurt.

* * *

“Yo, you good, shawty?” Fox asked before putting his truck in park.

Falisha flipped the sun visor down to see what her face looked like. She had a long scratch running down the side of her face, and a cut on her bottom lip that burned every time she licked it. Her hair was all over the place and her Michael Kors wedges were pretty much ruined. But her bruises were nothing compared to what Gena's and NeNe's faces looked like.

“You need to keep ya li'l hoes in check, Fox,” she said as she put her hair back into a ponytail. “This is the last time I'm fighting over you.”

Fox didn't say anything. He just looked at her and smiled. This wasn't the first time he heard this from her and he was sure this wasn't going to be the last. He wasn't worried about her going anywhere. There weren't too many niggas in the hood who could do for her financially what he could do. It was probably his only advantage and, for now, he was going to soak it up.

Lisa, Falisha, Kim, and Tammy sat on Tammy's steps watching the kids play in the street. This was more like a daily ritual after everybody got off of work. This was the time when they all talked about what was going on in their lives and tried to give each other advice. Today, everybody had some type of drama.

“Hey, bitches!” Ernie said, walking up and taking a seat on the steps. “The vibe over here is dead,” he joked.

Ernie was the gay brother who lived on the next street over, but became one of the girls after he finally came out of the closet two years ago. When he did come out of the closet, he came full steam ahead, wearing female clothes and letting his hair grow down to his shoulders. He had his ears pierced, nipples pierced, and he had a tongue ring. He was as gay as they come but he was cool as hell.

“Ernie, what da hell do you got on?” Kim asked, pointing to his orange and black striped pants.

“What, girl? Dese my tiger pants. Arggg,” he growled, jumping up and striking a pose.

He was known for his fashion sense and some of the time the girls did bite his style, but today he missed. The pants were a mess, and he had the nerve to be wearing a gold blouse with it and some black Chuck Taylors.

“Boy, if you don't sit ya crazy ass down . . .” Kim laughed, throwing an empty potato chip bag at him. Everybody laughed at the same time.

“Ha-ha! Laugh now, but cry later when y'all asses don't get invited to my party,” Ernie shot back with a few snaps of his neck. “Me and my tiger pants gon' be droppin' it like it's hot,” he joked, jumping back up, but this time bending over and shaking his ass.

“Oh, shit. I forgot ya birthday was this weekend,” Falisha said as she cracked open her sunflower seeds.

“Yup! And I'm having my party at the Mandingo's Den,” Ernie bragged.

“What da hell is the Mandingo's Den?” Tammy asked.

Kim went into deep thought. She remembered hearing that name before, but couldn't place it to save her life. It wasn't until Ernie said something that it came back to her.

“The Mandingo's Den is a gay strip club,” Ernie said.

“And who da hell is gonna be dancing in front of a bunch of gay men?” Falisha asked, shocked that there could be such a thing.

“Well, let me see,” Ernie said, digging into his satchel. “You have Dustin the Dangerous, Anaconda Frank, Jake da Snake, and Mr. Billy D. himself,” Ernie said, fanning himself with the flyer he just read from.

“Oh, I heard of Billy D.,” Kim chimed in, grinning from ear to ear. “Dat boy don't just dance; he do porno, too.” She chuckled.

“How da hell do you know he do pornos?” Falisha asked.

“Shit, a bitch get lonely sometimes and my rabbit and a nice porn will always take me there.” Kim laughed. Everybody laughed at her.

“No, but seriously are y'all coming?” Ernie asked. “I got y'all a VIP table right up front. And, Tammy, I don't wanna hear you can't find nobody to watch the kids. I will pay Ms. D to watch the babies so you can go,” he said.

Everybody got quiet for a minute thinking about whether they had plans for this weekend. One thing that they all could agree on was that they needed to go out. It'd been a long week for everybody.

“Hell, I'll go,” Kim said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, I'll go too,” Tammy agreed. “But Ms. D want her money up front.” She chuckled, giving Ernie the nod.

Everybody eventually agreed to go to Ernie's party. Liquor, music, and naked men dancing on the stage were exactly what the girls needed. It wasn't going to take away their problems but it sure was going to relieve a little stress, at least for that night.

* * *

Ralphy sat at his desk looking into the computer screen at the long list of shipments he had to make sure got to their destination. His newfound position at the postal office required him to supervise mail being distributed throughout Charlotte. Most of the time the job was easy but today it was busy as hell.

“Ay, John, you think you can handle this while I make a run?” Ralphy asked his assistant.

Today, Ralphy wanted to go down to the bank and transfer some of the money in his joint account with Lisa to a separate account that only he had access to. It was something he had thought about doing a long time ago but never got around to it. It was for a couple of reasons but the main one was so that he'd have some money put away in the event he and Lisa didn't work out. Part of the prenuptial agreement he and Lisa agreed to stated that in the event of a divorce both parties would agree to split the monies within the joint account they shared, and keep what was in their own personal, separate accounts. It wasn't until a few months ago Ralphy came to his senses and decided to open up another bank account. Now, he was glad he did because things were starting to look rocky in the marriage. There was no telling how much longer it was going to last and he needed to make sure he had some money put aside.

Truth be told, the relationship was already over. There was no way in the world Ralphy could forgive Lisa for calling out her ex's name while they were having sex. He wasn't that type of guy. Something like that could lower a man's self-esteem and have him wondering whether he's sexually gifted. Every man feels like they got the best dick game in the world. They think that they are capable of sexually pleasing the whole female race. To make a man feel like he's not the one who's pleasing in bed, it can really ruin a relationship, and that's exactly what Lisa did. It would take an act of God to make their relationship work after this, and neither Ralphy nor Lisa had been to church lately, so the chances of that were slim.

* * *

Falisha sat on her step getting her hair braided by Annet when Lamar pulled up and parked a couple doors down. He got out of the car looking handsome as ever, and all he had on was a Polo tank top, some True Religion shorts, and a pair of Jordans. He made the basics look good, and not the other way around.

“Hold up for a second, girl,” Falisha said, jumping up and walking down her steps. She hadn't seen Lamar in almost two days and was wondering where he had been. In fact, that was the first question she asked.

“Where you been at?” she snapped, walking up to Lamar while he went to get his things out of the trunk.

When he turned to look at her the first thing he noticed was the scratches and bruises on her face. They were starting to heal but they were still noticeable. “What happened to your face?” he asked, looking at the scratch running down the side of her face.

Falisha shook her head. “Fighting with these ratchet-ass bitches around Fox's way,” she responded.

Lamar chuckled, then shook his head back at her. “That's what you get,” he said, turning back around to grab his duffle bag out of the trunk.

“I didn't lose,” she shot back. “I whooped their ass.”

“Well, you should have lost,” Lamar said, slamming his trunk. “You like dat shit, don't you?”

“Like what? What are you talking about, Lamar?” She could tell that Lamar had copped an attitude by the way he looked.

“You like being treated like shit, don't you?” he answered.

“He don't treat me like shit.”

“Oh, yeah, so what da fuck is dis?” he said, pointing to the bruises on her face.

“He didn't do this to me. I told you—”

“Yo, you crazy as hell,” he said, cutting her off. “But, you know what? It's not even none of my business. Do you,” he said, then turned around and walked off.

“Oh, you gonna walk away now?” she yelled as he crossed the street.

“Grow da fuck up, Falisha,” he turned around and yelled back before walking up his steps and disappearing into the house.

* * *

Tammy got to work about twenty minutes late today. Ms. D had a dialysis appointment and got back home late. Tammy thought that she was going to get an earful from her boss because she didn't call to let him know that she was going to be late, but when she passed by him on her way to customer service, he just smiled and kept it moving.

“I see you're back from your OBGYN appointment,” Darious said, coming out from the back.

“What?” Tammy asked, confused.

“I told Tim you called in and said that you was going to be a little late 'cause you was at a doctor's appointment,” he said, walking over and taking a seat next to her.

“Thanks for covering for me. I know he was going to be tripping as soon as I walked through the door,” Tammy said.

“Well, you just better hope your next coworker is as nice as I am.” Darious chuckled. “You know I'm outta here soon.”

“What! I thought you didn't graduate until next month,” Tammy said, shocked that he was leaving.

“Yeah, I do graduate next month but I already got a job. I'll be working at the hospital in the pharmacy department,” he told Tammy.

“Wow, that's a good look for you. Congratulations.”

“Thanks. You know I'm going to miss you, right?” Darious said in a sincere manner.

Tammy had to stop and look over at him to see if his facial expression matched the way he sounded and looked serious when he said it. “Boy, you better stop playin'. You ain't gon' miss nobody,” Tammy said, waving him off before turning back to the computer screen.

“I'm dead serious, Tammy,” he shot back. “Can I be honest with you about something without you taking offense?”

She didn't know whether to answer that, but she really didn't have time to because Darious just kept going.

“Yo, I think you're beautiful, Tammy. I been wanting to get with you from the moment you started working here. Truth is, I be kicking myself in the ass if I didn't tell you this before I left. I like you a lot, Tammy.”

Tammy was blown back by his confession. She always thought that he used to flirt with her, but never did she know that he liked her to this magnitude. It was flattering in a sense, enough to have her blushing like a teenage girl with her first cousin.

“I don't know if I'll ever get this chance again so I was wondering if I could call you sometime?” Darious asked.

Tammy's defenses went straight up. It was the same block she put up on all the other men who tried to hit on her. It was something that came automatically because of her feelings for Chris. “I can't dooo that,” she said with the sorry face.

“Tammy, I just wanna be ya friend. I wanna be the person you can call on when you need to talk,” he said, turning his chair around to face her. Darious wasn't giving up that easy. He was trying his best to break down that wall Tammy had put up and, from what he had said, it looked like it was starting to work.

Tammy sat there in silence thinking about it. The thing was, she couldn't deny the fact that she could use a friend right now in her life. Times were hard and just to have someone to talk to about life's struggles was exactly what she needed. The fifteen-minute phone calls with Chris weren't enough, nor could he call all the time.

There's no harm in just talking,
she thought, looking over at Darious. “I guess you can call me,” Tammy said, writing her number down on a sticky pad and passing it to him.

Darious whipped out his phone immediately and put the number into his phone book. This wasn't just a big step for Tammy; it was also one for Darious. He waited patiently for months to get to this point. Now that he was here, there was only one more thing for him to do, and that was to keep pushing forward.

* * *

“Good afternoon, Mr. Windsor,” the bank manager, Larry, greeted Ralphy when he entered the office.

Ralphy greeted him back then took a seat in the chair in front of his desk. He looked around the office at all the plaques hanging up and pictures of Larry standing next to a couple of celebrities, such as Usher, Bow Wow, and Kelly Rowland.

Damn, he sure know a lot of black artists.
“I had opened up an account here a couple of months ago and I just wanted to transfer some money into it from a joint account I have with my wife, also at this bank,” Ralphy explained.

“That shouldn't be a problem; just let me see your ID,” Larry said, adjusting his computer screen.

Ralphy gave him his ID then watched as Larry began pulling up his file. Now that he was actually sitting in the bank, Ralphy starting to question whether he should go this far. Saying it and doing it were two totally different things. He wasn't even sure if Lisa had slept with Dre, nor did he even attempt to rectify the situation. He didn't even give Lisa a chance to fix what she had done. After all, she was his wife and most of the time when married couples have serious issues in their relationships, and they love each other deeply, they try to work things out, either with a marriage counselor or by themselves. Ralphy didn't attempt to do either one and it was starting to weigh on his conscience.

“Okay, Mr. Windsor, here's a look at what's in the joint account with your wife, and here's what you have in your separate account,” Larry said, passing Ralphy the paper from the printing station.

Ralphy held up both papers in each hand, scanning over them carefully. The numbers on the paper with his and Lisa's joint account caught his attention immediately. He put his separate account paper down and focused in on the other.

“Is this what's left in this account?” Ralphy asked, pointing to the bottom of the page.

“Yup, you have $8,422 in this account,” Larry confirmed. “Is something wrong?”

Damn right something was wrong. There should have been at least $13,000 in their account. Ralphy wasn't spending any money, so if it was missing it was because of Lisa. Ralphy normally kept tabs on the account transactions, mainly for budgeting purposes; but, as of late, he had been slacking in keeping up with it, but it was obvious Lisa wasn't.