“Dayum! Who is that?” Tori nudged Angel.
“That’s her nigga. His name’s Trae.”
“Where did you park?” Trae asked her.
“I didn’t. Me and Angel rode with some friends.” She still had her arms around his neck, not wanting to turn him loose. “I miss you.”
After he thought about it, he said, “Stay right here.” He went back to the table where he had been sitting.
“Well, well, well,” Angel said. “Girlfriend, your ass is sprung!
That nigga is smooth. You went from clawing his face to freakin’ him down. These bitches in here was all up in yours. Trae is ob-viously on the most wanted list. We’re gonna have to kick some ass before the night is over.”
“No, we’re not, because we’re leaving,” Roz told her. “Leaving? You got me fucked up! We just got here! Why are we leaving?” Angel snapped.
“Trae didn’t come right out and say it, but I don’t think we want to be here,” Roz said.
“Damn! Fuckin’ dealers just gonna move the partygoers out. They need to conduct their business at home or somewhere else. You don’t have to worry about me hanging out with you anymore.”
“I don’t know why you hatin’. Your friends are the ones who picked this place. I didn’t know my nigga was going to be here,” Roz argued.
Angel was pissed off until she saw the brotha wearing the doo-rag walking behind Trae. When he stopped to talk to someone she said, “Introduce me, bitch.”
Trae came back over. “You ready?” He looked at Angel and then back at Tash. “What’s your friend’s name?”
“Angel. Angel this is Trae. Trae, Angel. She wants to meet your boy Kay.” They exchanged greetings.
“This is lawyer girl, right?” Trae asked. Tasha nodded in agree-ment.
“Yo, Kay!” he yelled. Kay came over and was already checking Angel out. He threw the keys to the Nav to Trae. “Kay this is Angel. Angel this is Kay. Come with me to take them to the car.”
When they got outside, they helped the ladies inside the Nav. Trae was standing against the door on the driver’s side talking to Tasha while Angel was watching out the side view mirror as Kay took some items out of the back and put them in the Benz parked behind them.
“Damn! That nigga is fine!” Angel said, gazing at him. “Girl, he is even bowlegged!” Tasha ignored her as she was busy talking to Trae.
Kay was now talking on his cell phone. When he started laughing, Angel practically lost it. “Oh no, this nigga don’t have dimples!” she yelled. “His appearance is too perfect. Something has to be wrong.” As soon as he closed up his cell phone, Angel stuck her head out of the window and said, “Let me holla at you, playa!”
He came up to the window smiling, “What up, beautiful?”
“Right now? You. And those dimples.”
“Oh really?”
“Mmm hmm. What does the K stand for?”
“Kaylin.”
“Kaylin,” she repeated. “I like that.”
“Your man let you hang out this time of night? Why hasn’t he clipped this Angel’s wings?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying if you was my Angel you’d be home.”
“Home?”
“Home waiting on me.”
Angel laughed. “I’m sure you really do have somebody home waiting on you.”
“Actually, I don’t.”
“Nigga, please. Fine as you are? If she’s not at your home then where is she?”
“Nah. I’m not into nothing serious right now.”
“So that means I could get me a kiss right now and a bitch won’t come running out the club screaming and wanting to kick my ass?”
Kay blushed. He was checking out her skin, hair, teeth, and nails. “Nah, ain’t nobody serious right now.”
“Well, come here let me kiss you.”
He leaned over and kissed her neck inhaling her scent at the same time. “You eat swine?”
“What? I have to be interviewed to get a kiss?” She was now kissing his neck and inhaling his scent. “And, no, I don’t eat pork. I don’t even eat chicken. Fish only.” She grabbed his head and ran her tongue over his lips and kissed him.
“Mmmm,” she moaned. “I want you to have my babies.” “Do you?” He said in between the kiss.
“Mmm. Hmm.” She was totally turned on.
“I thought I was suppose to be saying that.”
“I beat you to it, didn’t I?”
“Yeah. You did.” He grinned.
She broke the kiss, gently poked in one of his dimples. “I just didn’t want you to forget me.”
“Now why would I do that?”
“Give me another kiss and maybe I’ll answer that for you.”
“Oh. It’s like that?” He leaned in still blushing and began nibbling on her lips and kissing them lightly. She placed her hand on his shoulder and pulled him closer.
“Time to go, Angel,” said Tasha.
She unlocked lips with Kay and said to him, “I want to see you again.”
He flipped open his cell phone, pushed the memory button, and gave her the phone. “Put in your number,” he said. She did and passed it back. He leaned over and kissed her again not stopping until Trae was standing next to him.
Angel and Kay continued to gaze and smile at each other as the Navigator pulled off. “Motherfuck! There oughta be a law against a nigga being that fine and that sweet.”
“You a ho!” Tasha teased.
“Say what you want. That nigga can carry my babies. He can even have my last name!” she joked. “I’ll bend a few rules for him.”
“I see,” Tasha said, with a look of surprise.
“Psych!”
“Yeah, right, ho! I think you’re serious.”
Roz dropped Angel off and cruised home in the Nav. When she got inside the house she decided to check her messages since she hadn’t done so in three days. One was from Kyra. The dry cleaners also left a message. She had been so busy she hadn’t picked up her clothes in almost three weeks. Then there was another message from Kyra. The second floor tenant also had some flimsy excuse for not paying the rent, and then there was Angel confirming Friday night’s clubbin’ plans.
The last one said, “What up, Tash? This is Case, and Trae wanted me to tell you that he misses you. And if you want to know how much, listen to this.” Then he started singing his joint I’m Missing You. Roz wanted to scream, but instead just collapsed on the bed with the phone glued to her ear. She erased all of the other messages and played it again and again. Even though it was almost 1:30 in the morning, she called Kyra, Angel and Jaz and put them on three-way. Jaz was the only one who was asleep and, of course, she cussed Roz out for interrupting.
“What is it?” Angel asked.
“Y’all gotta hear this!” She punched in her password to play the message.
“I don’t fuckin believe this!” Kyra said after it was over. “That shit is off the heezie!”
“He sounds oh so good!” Angel sang.
“That’s the shit! No, he didn’t hook you up like that,” Jaz said, sounding wide awake now.
“Oh, yes he did!” Roz smiled.
“Case can wake me up anytime,” Jaz moaned, looking over at Faheem to make sure he hadn’t heard that.
“That nigga better not call here singing shit to my wife! His ass will come up missing!” Faheem grunted. Jaz playfully hit him with the pillow.
“So I guess you’ve decided to keep him,” Kyra probed. “You might as well. From what I hear he got you wide open.”
“As I keep telling y’all, I am crazy about him. But I don’t want to get too attached then, in a heartbeat, he’s gone either to jail or he ends up in a coffin. I’m spooked by that thought ladies. I’m tired. Can I go to bed now?”
“If you give me a copy of Case live, yes, you can. You know you owe me,” Angel said.
“No, I don’t. I introduced you to Kay, remember? So we’re even.”
“Roz!” she snapped
“A’ight! A’ight! I’ll hook you up. Peace out, ladies.”
Angel woke Roz up at about 8:30 the next morning. “Why aren’t you up yet?” “Angel, it’s Saturday,” Roz said, yawning. “Can’t I sleep late? Why are you up so early?” she asked.
“The news, Roz, the news. You heard from Trae?”
Roz sat up. “No. Why?”
“There was a shootout at that same club. Four killed, nine in-jured.”
“Oh, God. Angel please tell me you’re joking.” Her voice was shaking.
“You know I wouldn’t joke about something like this.”
Roz was now standing up and pacing back and forth. “Let me try and reach Trae on his cell. I’ll call you later.”
There was no answer when she dialed Trae’s cell, so she paged him then called Angel back. “He didn’t answer his cell phone so I paged him. Did Kay give you his number?”
“No, I gave him mine.”
“Oh Shit. Shit. Shit!”
By 1:00 that afternoon Roz still hadn’t heard anything. She called hospitals and several police stations and still found out nothing. Agitated and restless, she again called Angel. “Come pick me up. I gotta get out of this house. How soon can you get here?”
“I’m on my way,” said Angel, who then hung up the phone.
They ended up in Kyra’s living room. Angel and Kyra got comfortable while Roz, pacing back and forth, vented:
“I can’t believe this! See what I mean ... the stress that comes with fuckin’ with somebody like Trae? It’s Nikayah all over again. I’ve called everywhere. I missed my hair appointment, and I’m supposed to be studying for Monday’s exam. My whole day is shot. I can’t even think straight. I can’t do this shit no more! I knew I should have stuck with my plan of not even fuckin’ with this nigga.” She started crying. Angel got up to get her some tissues.
“Thanks,” she said. Suddenly she burst out laughing, “I can’t believe I allowed myself to get caught up like this, crying like some weak ho. This is what the fuck I get!”
“You could be jumping to conclusions,” said Kyra.
“The nigga could be fine. Just got the pager and cell phone turned off. You know how they do.”
“If he is fine,” she said, sniffling, “I’ma tell his ass to step. It’s over!”
“Yeah, right!” Angel said. “Look at you. All cryin’ and shit. I peeped how into each other y’all are. You can’t just walk away from shit like that.”
“Watch me.”
“Your emotions are talkin’ right now, not you.” Kyra said. “Watch me.”
Kyra fried some fresh whiting, baked some potatoes, and pre-pared a tossed salad. They didn’t get the kitchen cleaned up until about 7:00. Just then Roz’s cell phone rang. It was Trae.
“What up Tash? I just saw your page. I called the house first. Where are you? You a’ight?”
She got up off the sofa and went into the dining room to talk in private. “No, I’m not alright Trae,” she cried.
“Why you cryin’, ma?”
“Nigga, you could have called me. I know you know what happened at the club. I called hospitals, the police, paged you and you wouldn’t even pick up your damn phone. You could have called me to let me know you was okay. It would have taken you one minute, one fuckin’ minute Trae. I can’t do this, not again. Bring me my house keys and pick up your car keys. Nigga it’s over!” Tasha fumed.
She hung up the phone and went back into the living room with Kyra and Angel.
“So, I take it that was Trae?” Angel inquired.
“Yeah, I told him to bounce.”
“You don’t mean that shit,” Angel said.
“Can you take me home now?” Roz asked, coolly turning off her cell phone.
It was about 11:45 that night when Trae stuck his key into the door. He was carrying a duffel bag, two dozen roses in every color you could imagine, and a teddy bear wearing an I Luv U shirt. Tasha was stretched out on the living room sofa studying. She didn’t look up to acknowledge his presence but could still smell the fresh roses.
“Trae your keys are sitting on top of the TV. Get your keys. Leave mine and please leave,” she said, her face buried in her book.
He sat the roses on the coffee table and the duffel bag down next to the couch.
“Trae I asked you to leave.”
He then took the book and papers out of her lap, lifted her up off the couch, and sat back down with her in his lap. She tried to get up, but his arms gripped her around the waist, and he placed the teddy bear on her lap.
“Ma, I apologize. I’m sorry. Sorry for causin’ you to worry about me and for not calling you,” he said.
“No more drug dealers for me. It’s too much stress worrying
about y’all and putting up with ya’ll’s bullshit,” she complained. “Tash don’t compare me with nobody and don’t make me pay for the shit Nikayah took you through. I’ma be a’ight.”
“Trae you are not fuckin’ invincible,” she said, tensing up.
“You are not bulletproof and you’re definitely not exempt from catching a fucking conspiracy or drug charge. Neither am I if you want to get technical about it. I’m so fuckin’ vexed that I even allowed myself to start feelin’ you.” She shook her head, “It’s over Trae. Let me up.” She tried placing the teddy bear on the coffee table to break free from his hold.
“Can’t do that Tash. I already told you that I’m never lettin’ you go.”
“Well, I’m letting you go,” she said, still trying to break free. “You know you don’t mean that,” he said, holding her tighter. “Why me Trae? Why don’t you go find somebody else to
stress the fuck out?”
“There’s nobody else I want. I want you and I ain’t goin’ no-where. This hustlin’ shit is almost over.”
She turned around and grabbed his face. The tears were streaming down her cheeks. “Trae will you listen to me?”
“I’m listening.”
“I got some issues I need to handle. Me and you, this is too soon. I come with a lot of baggage. Let’s stop this before it’s too late. You fucked your boy’s woman. Now move on. You won. You conquered. Or whatever the fuck ya’ll call it.”
“Who you been talkin’ to? Are you PMSing?” he asked as Tasha tried to get off his lap. “Now, you gonna listen to me. I al-ready told you that you ain’t just a fuck or a conquest to me. I caught feelings for you Tasha, and we all come with baggage. And you said, ‘stop before it’s too late.’ We done fucked so it’s already too late. I would never let you get caught up in what I do. I put my life on that. Me not callin’ you is not a good enough reason for you to give me my walking papers.”
“You aren’t listening to me,” she said, shaking her head and wiping away the tears with the back of her hands.
“I hear what you’re saying, but it’s all bullshit. No disrespect. You’re gonna have to come better than that!”
She started laughing and shaking her head with a look of disgust on her face.
“You just refuse to hear what I’m saying.” The tears were steadily streaming down her face. “I told you I’m scared. You scare me. Listen to the argument we are having right now. Trae,” she pleaded.
“Don’t take me through this. Okay? Please? What do you want from me Trae?”
“Damn, girl! I want you to give us a chance,” he said, getting agitated.
“A nigga wants you to let him love you, protect you, and provide for you. Are you gonna let me do that, or what?”
“Why should I Trae?”
He rested his head back and closed his eyes. The room was quiet for a good five minutes, except for Tasha’s sniveling.
“Because, like my boy Ja Rule says...” Then he started singing, “What would I be without you? I only think about you. I know you tired of being lonely, but you complete me. And I would die if you ain’t wit me. Every thug needs a lady.... I’m crazy about you, girl.”
That got her to crack a smile. “You think you are so smooth.”
He kissed her. “You got a nigga beggin’ and pleadin’. We just can’t let our thang go without trying to first work it out, we just gettin’ started. Plus, no bitch ever got me to consider turnin’ in my playa’s card.”
“Nigga, ain’t no bitches in here.”
He slapped her on the butt. “I know that. You know what I mean. It was just a bad figure of speech. You are a queen, and that’s how I intend to treat you.”
“You just sat here and told me you don’t wanna be a playa no more. That’s bullshit, playa. You ain’t turn in your playa’s card. I know that card is very much valid and getting stamped all in between, Trae. I see you every two to four days. Let’s talk, one playa to another.”
Trae started laughing, “Oh, so this is what this temper tantrum is really all about? You don’t see me every day so you assume I’m fuckin’ around in between visits, right? Well, you’re wrong. I’m workin’, Tasha. Trust and believe that. I’m workin’.”
“That’s not the reason for what you call my ‘temper tantrum.’
But let me find out. I’ma take your word and trust you, but if I ever find out you fuckin’ around, I’m out and I don’t want to hear no excuses. You only got one time.”
“A’ight, then, one playa to another, how can a nigga keep his dick hard long enough for you to come three, four times? That shit ain’t easy, Tash. You think I can be out there fuckin’ bitches and gettin’ sucked on day and night and then come home to you and you hollerin’, ‘Trae make me come again! Make me come real hard!’ That shit ain’t even happenin’. When I start giving some weak shit then you need to start getting suspicious. That’s rule #9 in the playa’s handbook: I’m not ’sposed to be sharin’ this dick with nobody else. I be puttin’ it down for you, ma.” He grabbed her by her neck, slobbing her down. “Plus you ain’t been burnin’ or itchin’: rule #7.”
“Fuck you Trae!”
“Mmmm, I’m looking forward to you doin’ just that.” “You really think you the shit, don’t you?”
“Tash baby, you think that you can just run your fine ass to a club or somewhere tonight, meet some nigga crazy as fuck about you, the nigga will be paid, he’ll want to provide for you, and he’ll be able to make you come over and over? Shit ain’t happening like that. You lucked up and got the whole package. Trae is the whole motherfuckin’ package, Tash. You better recognize and stop tryin’a tell a nigga to bounce.”
“Oh, hail King Trae,” Tash said laughing. “I can’t believe how much shit you talk.”
“Trae talks nothing but the truth. You know I ain’t lyin’. If the
pussy wasn’t so good I would have told your ass to bounce.”
“I can talk shit too Trae. You ain’t the real playa up in here.”
“Shit! You ain’t no playa!” Trae said smiling.
“First of all, I got my own money but I spend yours rule #4. This is my house, but you and Nikayah been paying the note rule #6. That 2000 Beamer parked out front, I got the title; it’s in my name, but I didn’t pay for it. And what year is this? 2000 nigga. Rule #9. I got a good job and cash stashed; I don’t have to depend on y’all niggas for shit rule #3. You know that I got your back and won’t fuck around on you. That makes hittin’ the pussy even more stupendous.
“You sprung because you can make me come over and over again. You like that shit. It’s a male ego thang. Most bitches you been with can’t even come or will come maybe once. But Tasha can send those electric currents all through your body over and over as long as your dick stays hard. And last but not least, playa, you dropped a good seven or eight grand on me in one day and hadn’t even hit it. I could have been a man for all you knew. And”
“Nah, ma,” Trae interrupted, “I felt it and played all in it so don’t even go there. And the droppin’ the seven or eight grand don’t count cause the money ain’t no thang. I just had to make you mine rule #2.”
“Let me finish, playa. I haven’t even used my tongue ring on you yet and you already talking ’bout me having your babies. Now who’s the true playa, playa? Tasha is the whole mother fuckin’ package.” They both burst out laughing.
“Aw, shit, playa playa! It’s like that, huh?”
“You ain’t know? I’m the playa club’s president,” she said, grabbing her roses and burying her face in them. “These smell so good and fresh.” She inhaled and sat them back down. “Thanks for the roses and the Case hookup. Now that was the ultimate playa’s move.” She picked up the teddy bear and cud¬dled it.
“A’ight, playa, you ready to get in the shower with me?” Trae asked, running his tongue ring between her lips.
“Can I soap you up?”
“You sure can. Hold on.” He stood up, motioned for her to wrap her legs around his back, and carried her off to the shower.
“Okay, time to get out. I know it’s at least 2:00. I have to leave at 7:00,” Tasha said.
“To go where?”
“To take my exam and then to work.”
“I want you to stay here with me.”
“I can’t. You know I gotta take that state exam.”
“You ain’t gotta go to work.”
“No, I don’t have to go to work.”
“Good. Take some cash out of my pockets and after your exam stop and pick me up something to wear down to the socks. I don’t have shit over here to put on.” He turned her loose and turned off the water. He stepped out the shower, wrapped a towel around his waist, before helping Tash out. He then wrapped a towel around her, kissed her and asked, “You a’ight?”
“I’m fine,” she grinned. “How about you?”
He whispered in her ear that he was crazy about her while walking her towards the bedroom. Before long they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
The alarm buzzed at 5:00, and Tasha reached over and turned it off. When she tried to get up, Trae tightened his arm around her waist, pulling her close. She lay there enjoying his body heat until she felt his grip loosen. She then slid out from under him and showered quickly. As soon as she got dressed she set her roses in some water, took some cash, grabbed the keys to the Navigator and ran out the door.