TYCE 3 (27 page)

My drunk ass barber was stumbling toward me making a scene.

“Wasup Malik. My fault man I spaced that shit out, I’ve been a lil’ busy these past few days, but yo', I’ll swing by sometime this week to get my head right.” I tried to diffuse the situation.

Malik continued. “Alright my nigga, heeey, who’s the bes’ muthafuckin’ barber in Californyaaa!? Huh? Who cuts so muthafuckin’ quick it makes the clippers quit, huh, huh?”

I looked around uneasily, “You man. You the best barber in town.”

“You muthafuckin’ correct! I’m the nigga that cut Kobe hair, Jamie Foxx hair, I cut Bernie Mack’s hair back in the day. Shit everybody knows about meeee! Shit, I’ll have ya' hair so right you don’t wanna go to sleep at night!” He looked down at me as he teetered back and forth.

This nigga was tripping. Don’t get me wrong, Malik is my dude but this nigga was really fucking up my covert shit!

“Ay look man, I’m on some other shit right now but it’s good to see you out relaxin’ a bit instead of always workin’. But I’ma check ya’ later in the week for that cut…cuz everybody know, you the bes’ muthafuckin’ barber in Californyaaa!” I gave him a pound and pushed his drunk ass away from me.

“You already know Tyce. Ay you know where to find me baby!” He pointed at his chest.

“I know man, I’ma check on ya’ later.” I waived bye.

“Ay nigga, my chair is always open for yoooou baby!” He pointed a wobbly finger at me.

“Alright man I appreciate that.”

After the unexpected interruption I turned my attention back to the bar and seen Mr. Seals still sitting at the bar…alone. I didn’t know if I missed her or what-fucking loud ass Malik.

Raine

 
 
 
 
 
As I walked in, I made direct eye contact with the D.A. I stared at him and he stared at me. We slowly nodded to each other as he waived me over to join him. He’d reserved a chair for me right next to him and that was my destination until I heard someone call out Tyce’s name. When my ears heard that I immediately stopped in my tracks and turned around in the opposite direction. My fishy radar was going off in my head and I was not one to ignore that. Something was off about this meeting. It was to coincidental that Tyce would be there in the same place I was meeting the District Attorney about
his
baby mama. As I turned to leave I bumped smack dab into another woman almost knocking her over. She gave me an evil glare peppered with a stank ass attitude which I didn’t have time to address so I let her clumsy ass slide and muttered a barely audible excuse me as I side stepped the bitch.

 
 
 
 
 
Once I was safely in my car, I replayed the scene over again in my head just to see if there was anyway Tyce could have spotted me. I went over all the angles, all the faces, and decided I was in the clear. As I pulled off I decided to just leave the situation alone. I couldn’t be certain if I was being set up or not but my gut was telling me to cut my losses and move on. I’d gotten away from a sticky situation tonight but I didn’t wanna press my luck. Raine was officially retired and it was time for Dallas to shine.

Tyce

 
 
 
 
 
Damn! It was two hours later and no one showed up to meet Seals. I had a feeling that whoever it was peeped me at the bar and bounced before I could see them. It didn’t take a genius to figure that the mystery woman that set up Angelique also knew about me. Most likely she knew what I looked like and everything. I really dropped the ball on this one.

 
 
 
 
 
I nodded to the D.A. as I left and he returned the gesture with a bobble head nod of his own. He seemed relieved that she hadn’t shown up. Sway questioned him about the person that caught his attention and he couldn’t confirm that it was Raine or not because he never met the woman. All he said was that a black woman started to approach him but turned around and disappeared in the crowd. The fact that he was probably drunk didn’t help his indentifying skills one bit.

 
 
 
 
 
I had one more trap to check as Sway and I left the bar. As a backup plan I had Tasha stationed outside the bar among the beach patrons just in case something like this happened. She found me along the walkway a few feet from the bar exit. She was all too happy to help me when I asked her. I knew she was crushing on me so I used that to my advantage. Plus she was broke and right now she needed the 5,000 dollars I offered her to handle this mini stake out situation.

“Did you see anybody that looked suspicious?” I walked up to her.

She sucked her teeth. “This whole fuckin’ place is crawling with suspicious ass lookin’ people. But one stood out, she came in and then left in a hurry. The rude bitch almost knocked me down!”

My eye brows rose up, “What did she look like?”

“Ummm she was short, kinda cute, brown skin. I noticed her leaning against the wall by the entrance for a minute before she went in. Then she just left.”

Sway chimed in. “I bet you that was her.”

“Yeah you’re probably right, did you get a picture or follow her? Where did she go?” I looked around the dark beach.

Tasha smiled with her eyes. “I earn my money baby. I followed her to her car, I even wrote down the license plate number.”

She handed me a folded up piece of paper with a red imprint of lips on the front.

Tasha continued, “The phone number at the bottom is mine just in case you need anything else from me.”

I looked down at her and winked. Although she had absolutely no chance in hell to be my woman, there was no sense in being rude about it. I passed her a small stack of money hugged tight by a thick rubber band and gently pinched her exposed stomach.

“Thank you babe. You can never have too many friends in this world. I’ma hold onto this just in case.”

“You better. I got respect for Angelique but she aint yo' wife
yet
-I’m jus’ sayin’.”

I chuckled. “I can’t argue with the truth, I aint married yet. You take care of yourself.”

“I will Tyce and thanks for this, you could have gotten anybody to do this, but I’m glad you chose me. I really really needed the money. Now I gotta go find Ace’s ass, that trifling ass nigga think I’m still locked up. I’ma surprise the fuck outta that nigga and get my money back!”

Although Tasha was shady, at least she wasn’t a snitch. I could admire a woman that wouldn’t let anyone including a man fuck her over.

“Good luck lil mama, I’m pullin’ for ya’.”

“Alright Tyce. You know ummm.” She looked at me and Sway mischievously. “I got some time before I go see Ace. All three of us could ahhhh get a room, close the door, and rape each other-I’m jus’ sayin’.”

“Damn you bold.” Sway looked her up and down.

“And beautiful baby, don’t forget that. I haven’t had dick in months and right now you two fine ass niggas look like lunch and dinner to me and I’m starvin’!”

Tasha was a trip. Too bad my own woman wasn’t as enthusiastic about fucking me as the sexy woman standing in front of me was. Sway was still staring at her long voluptuous body taking in every square inch of her. She wore tight fitting jeans and a black and white polka dot bikini top that barely contained her full C cups.

“As tempting as you are in your beach get up, I’ma hafta pass sweet heart.” I nudged Sway who was still staring a hole into her breast. “He’s gonna pass too.” I laughed a little.

Sway cleared his throat, “Ummm yeah baby, I’m married, happily married.” He corrected.

Tasha turned and walked away after she informed us on what we were missing out on. Her hips shifted from left to right down the Venice boardwalk until her inviting backside was finally covered up by the crowd.

“Tyce, I was gonna turn her down, you know that right?” Sway looked at me waiting for my answer.

“Ha ha ha, what was takin’ you so long then nigga? You know Ranae will jump in your back like rabid spider monkey if you fucked Tasha.”

“Hell yeah I know that, aint nothin’ wrong with lookin’ tho…I can do that right?”

“Yeah lookin’ is allowed but you had me worried for a second. I thought you were gonna get it in right here on the sidewalk.” I laughed real hard.

Sway sucked his teeth. “I was jus’ givin’ her a long no instead of quick yes.”

“Yo' wife is gonna give you a long ass whoopin’ and a quick ride to the emergency room.”

We both cracked up at that comment cuz we both knew how Ranae got down. She was from Detroit and most of the women out there didn’t know scared started with an S. I was in a lighter mood cuz I was one step closer to finding out who Raine was. All I had to do was have Pamela run this license plate number and I would finally have all the information I needed to check her ass!

Contemplation

 
 
 
 
 
While some things were getting closer to being tied up other things were still left flapping in the wind. When I heard men and women confess that they were in love with two people, I used to think how could that be possible. How could you be equally in love with two people at the exact same time? Now, I understood how that could happen cuz I was in love with two women and doing the crip walk on a dangerous tight rope. The days of being with both of them were over and I had to make a choice. I thought I already made that decision several months ago when I kicked Dallas out my house. But ever since Angelique started tripping on me, I was having doubts about us. Don’t get me wrong. I still wanted to be with her, it was just that I didn’t know if it would work out or not. I’m a firm believer that once the trust is gone the relationship is doomed. The two people involved may not know it, or even see it, but they’re just treading water and not making any forward progress.

 
 
 
 
 
Was it easier to start over with someone that trusts you completely, or try and patch up the relationship you’re already in? I asked myself these questions along with many others as I pulled up in front of Pamela’s house. I hadn’t heard from Angelique all night. My guess was she was still mad at me or whatever her problem was.

Honestly, I was starting to not care if she called me or not. My mind was on Dallas and the way she related to me. I felt so carefree around her. Maybe that was because I knew she took me at my word. I couldn’t say the same for the mother of my child; she thought I was a liar and a cheater.

 
 
 
 
 
I never thought I would be contemplating or even entertaining breaking up with Angelique to get involved with Dallas again. But what was I supposed to do with a woman that didn’t trust me? I was at a loss. For the first time in my life, I didn’t know what my next move was and that was new territory for me.