Authors: Tremayne Johnson
“How’s school?”
“School is good,” he said.
“Good like what? What are your grades like?”
He shrugged his shoulders again. “They descent,”
“What’s descent,” I asked. “My descent is A’s and B’s.”
He sucked his teeth. “C’mon sis, that ain’t descent, that’s great. My descent is like… C’s and D’s…”
“C’s and D’s? Dorian, you better be lying to me.”
“I’m trying, sis.”
“You’re not trying hard enough, Dorian. But you want me to take you to the True Religion store and spend thousands? We gotta meet somewhere, where’s your report card?”
“We didn’t get it yet,” he said.
“The last one you got, Dorian.”
“I don’t know where it is, sis,” he shrugged his shoulders.
“I hope you’re not lying to me, Dorian…”
“I’m not, sis… for real.”
“For real nothing… here,” I tossed him my cars keys. “You know, you’re seventeen years old now, Dorian… it’s time to man up and take care of your responsibility, and right now your responsibility is to get in those books, you hear me?”
“I hear you, sis.”
“Alright… go start the car,” I told him.
I know Dorian didn’t like when I asked him a bunch of questions, but I didn’t care. I needed to know what he was into. Even though he hadn’t told me much, he knew I would be on his ass.
We hit the highway and headed north to the Palisade’s Mall for a fun filled day of shopping. The first store we went in was Armani. I dropped fourteen hundred on a calf skin handbag with crocodile print and another four thousand on three pairs of shoes. I was a shoe fanatic. I loved shoes. I had over five hundred pair and counting. The next store we went to was Sephora. I spent fifteen hundred on my girly needs. As women we know we can never have enough of that. I looked at Dorian and he had the long, sad face.
“Dorian, what’s wrong?”
“I thought you were takin’ me shopping. The only shopping you doin’ is for yourself.”
I smiled.
“It ain’t funny, Cherish… got me carryin’ all your bags,” he laughed.
After two more stops I took Dorian to the True Religion store and he went ape shit. I spent five thousand and he had a brand new spring wardrobe. He even gassed me to upgrade his IPhone. I admit; I’m a sucker for my little brother.
As we were pulling out the parking lot, a white Bentley cut in front of me. Luckily I had sharp brakes.
“Yo! What the fuck is he doin’!” Dorian yelled at the driver.
The driver stepped out the car and I smiled. It was Simeon. I rolled my window down.
“Nice car,” he said.
“Yours too,” I eyed the shiny, white Bentley Coupe.
“You’re a difficult person to catch up with. I saw your girl, Raq… did she tell you I said wassup?”
“Yeah, she told me,” I blushed.
“Did she give you the number?”
I smiled. “Yes, she gave me your number.”
“You gon’ use it?”
I put the car in drive. “I’ll call you,” I said and pulled off.
“Who was that?” Dorian asked.
“A friend,”
“What’s his name?”
“Stop being so nosy, Dorian, don’t worry about it,” I told him.
“That was a dope ass car he was driving. Hey sis, you gon’ cop me a whip for my eighteenth birthday?”
“
Buy you a car?
Boy you better get a job,” I laughed.
When I pulled up to my grandmother’s house it was seven thirty pm. I had spent the entire day with my little brother. We shopped, ate, laughed and talked about everything you could think of. He told me he had a little girlfriend too.
“And don’t forget, I wanna meet this girl you’re dating,” I said.
“We’re not dating, Cherish… we’re just talking.”
“It doesn’t matter. If she’s good to you, you better be good to her. How much do you like her?
He shrugged his shoulders. “She’s cool,” he said.
“That’s it, cool?”
“C’mon, Cherish…”
“Alright, alright…” I could see I was making him uncomfortable. “Tell grandma I love her and I’ll be by to see her in a few days.”
“Sis, can I get some money?”
I couldn’t believe this kid. “Dorian, I just spent five thousand dollars on your clothes,” I told him.
“I know, but I don’t have any money though.”
I shook my head, but how could I say no to my little brother. “Here,” I peeled off ten one hundred dollar bills and passed him the stack, “Start being smart about how you spend your money, love you.”
“Love you too, sis… thanks.”
I watched him walk in the house and I pulled off.
6
The next day I woke up in a great mood. I don’t know what it was, and I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I felt good. It was the best I felt in a long time. I was single, I had money, no kids and I could go wherever the fuck I wanted, whenever the fuck I wanted. Life was good. No, let me fix that, life was great.
I jumped out the bed, brushed my teeth, washed my face and started cleaning my apartment. I put Mary J. Blige on and got to work. I was done in two hours. I’m not gonna front, Simeon was on my mind heavy. He was so handsome and collected. His vibe was good and I wanted to get to know him a little more, so I picked up my IPhone and dialed his number.
“Hello?” his voice was so sexy.
“Hey, Simeon,”
“Who’s this?”
“Cherish. Are you busy?”
“Cherish? Oh, nah, I’m not busy… definitely not, wassup?
“Do you have any plans for later? I thought we could meet up,” I said.
“No plans for me. Yeah, we can meet up; where at and what time?”
“Whatever time is good for you.”
“Eight o clock cool?”
“Eight is good. I’ll call you and let you know where I am.”
“Aight, later…”
“Kay, bye…” I hung up and the sides of my mouth were touching my ears. I was excited like it was my first date. Like it was the first time I was going out with a guy. Two minutes later my phone was ringing. I looked at the screen and saw it was Raquel.
“Hey Raq,”
“Cherish, are you home?”
“Yes,” I said.
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. I gotta tell you something.”
“You can’t tell me over the phone?”
“No, I need to tell you face to face,” she said.
“Alright, I’m here.”
I hung the phone up and sat on my couch.
What was so important that Raquel had to talk to me face to face?
It had to be something good because she never did shit like that. I hope it wasn’t any bad news. I was not in the mood for any bad news. So far my day had been excellent. The last thing I wanted was some bad news to ruin it.
I got dressed and twenty minutes later Raquel was ringing my doorbell. When I pulled the door open she rushed in. At first glance I could see that her make-up was smeared, like she was crying.
“Raq, what’s wrong?”
“Oh my God, Cherish, I can’t believe this shit,” she walked directly to the kitchen and went for the champagne rack.
“What happened, Raquel?”
She poured herself a glass, downed it and poured another one. “They came and got William,” she said.
“What? Who came to get him?”
“The feds, Cherish, they locked him up this morning,” she tossed back the second drink and refilled again.
“Okay, slow down,” I took the glass from her and placed it on the counter. “What the hell happened?”
“I don’t know,” the tears ran down her face. “He sent me this text at six this morning,” she passed me her phone.
The text read:
The feds got me. Call this number 555-299-9999
“Did you call the number?” I asked her.
She grabbed the glass of champagne and drank it. “No, I’m scared, Cherish. That’s why I came here, can you call for me?”
Raquel was my girl, without question. We had been friends since kids. We went to the same schools. We were in the same classes and once we even dated the same guy. We weren’t aware of it, but it happened. William was Raquel’s husband and the father of her daughter. I knew him, but I didn’t KNOW him. William always kept to himself. He was a loner, but he always made sure my girl was happy. He wasn’t beating on her, he hadn’t cheated on her—that I know of—and he was a very respectful person from what I saw. But one thing I never did was get involved in other people’s personal affairs. I had business of my own; my own problems. I had shit to worry about too. I didn’t have time to be up in nobody else’s shit, but Raquel was my bitch, and I could see how this situation was affecting her. She was hurting and I couldn’t sit there and do nothing while my friend hurt, that just wasn’t in my nature.
“Yes, Raq, I’ll call for you.”
I called the number in the text message and the person that answered told me his name was David Graham and he was criminal attorney in New York City. I told him about the text and everything Raquel said and he told me that he would call her back once he found out what was going on.
“What do you think is gonna happen, Cherish?” Raquel asked, pouring her forth drink.
“I think you’re about to be drunk,” I laughed.
“C’mon, Cherish, this is serious,” she said trying to hold back her smile.
“I know. I’m sorry. Well, we can’t do anything until we know what’s going on. We don’t even know what he’s been charged with.”
Raquel dropped her head. She looked defeated. I was feeling bad for my girl.
“I can’t believe this happening to me, Cherish. What am I gonna tell my daughter?” her tears started flowing again.
I didn’t know what to tell her. “Don’t worry, Raq… everything will be alright,” I said.
________
I sat at my table and gazed out at the city’s building structures. It was a beautiful afternoon. Despite the little bit of drama with Raquel and her husband this morning, the day seemed to be moving along pretty well. The sun was shining. It was a gorgeous spring Saturday and the New York City streets were glooming with nonstop activity. I waited patiently for my phone to ring, and just as the thought crossed my mind, it rang.
“Hello?” I answered. I already knew who it was.
“Where are you?”
“I’m at One Forty Fifth East Thirty Ninth Street at the Pod Thirty Nine Hotel Rooftop.”
“Cool. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
Ten minutes later I saw Simeon walking towards me. I couldn’t even hold back my smile. He gave me a hug and then kissed my cheek. He smelled so good. I wanted to hold him and never let him go.
“This is a nice spot,” he said.
“Yeah, it is. This is my second time coming here. Raquel told me about this spot a while ago.”
“You look good too,” he said, undressing me with his eyes.
I blushed, “Thank you.
Our waiter approached and asked if we were ready to order and I told him we needed a minute to look over the menu.
“So, how was your day?” he asked.
I didn’t like people in my business, so I kept it brief, “My day was cool, yours?”
“Nothing spectacular, regular business…”
“And what business is that?”
“I have three recording studios down here; all the top artist in the industry come to my studios to master their songs.”
“Oh, so, you’re in the entertainment business?”
“Something like that.” he said.
“Either you are, or you aren’t, there is no in between,” I told him.
He laughed. “What line of work are you in?”
“Stock and bonds,”
“You’re a stock broker?”
“Something like that,” I said.
He laughed again. His smile was driving me crazy. I just wanted to kiss him.
“Excuse me,” my phone rang, “Hello?”
“Cherish, where are you?” It was my grandmother and she didn’t sound like her normal self.
“What’s wrong?”
“You need to come to the hospital,” she said.
“Grandma, what happened?” my heart rate increased.