"Okay, call yo' bitch. Two."
"I did, she ain't answering the phone. Yo, I don't know what's up. She know I'm locked up."
"I thought you said she wasn't answering the phone?"
"She ain't. When the shit went down I had one of my pot' nahs call her to tell her what's up."
"Well I don't know what you expect me to do," Mo quipped with an attitude.
"Shorty, my bail is forty g's. All I need is for you to go to the crib, hit up the safe and come get me."
"I'm not coming to get you. That's what ya ass get."
"C'mon Mo, don't play me like that," he begged.
"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. Remember, I don't have keys to your house anymore."
"Damn!" Quan balled up his fist. "Look, I know you got it.
You know I'm good for it."
"Nigga please, I wish I would spend my hard earned money on gettin' you out of jail. I told you about that bullshit a long time ago so suck it up, be a man and don't drop the soap."
"Mo ... this is me. I wouldn't even be callin' if I ain't really need you. Look, I know you got your life but just don't throw a nigga out in the cold like that," he guilt tripped her.
"Huh. Alright." She caved in. "But I want my money back tonight." She hung up, not waiting for a reply.
Already feeling guilty, Mo reentered her bedroom nervously. Boss would most definitely stop fucking with her if he knew what she was about to do. She just prayed he'd never find out.
"Who was that?" he asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
"Umm ... it was an emergency. I gotta go take care of something right quick." Mo told half the truth, grabbing a T-shirt, jeans and her Marc Jacobs sneakers.
"Hold up, I'll go wit you." He pulled the covers from over him.
"No! Lay back down. I can take care of this myself. I promise I won't be gone that long."
"You sure?" Boss looked at her funny.
"Yeah," she assured, giving him a half-hearted smile.
Suspicious of her weird behavior, Boss lay back on his elbows and wondered,
What the fuck is going on?
Inside her walk-in closet, Mo made sure he wasn't looking and grabbed two stacks of cash from her miniature safe. Her stomach was in knots as she stuffed the money deep inside her purse. Ready to go, she walked over to the bed, picked up her Sidekick and placed a loving kiss on Boss' lips.
"I'll be right back," she reassured.
"You sure you don't want me to go? It's too late for you to be out this time of the morning by yourself."
"I'm a big girl, remember. I'll be alright, ok?"
"A'ight man, call me if you need me."
"I will." She turned to leave.
"Be safe, ma. I love you."
Caught off guard by his goodbye, Mo stopped dead in her tracks.
Did he really just say I love you?
she wondered. She turned her head to make sure and looked Boss dead in the eye.
"I love you," he repeated again.
Mo's mouth wanted to say the same, but the words just wouldn't come out. She was speechless. She'd thought for weeks that he did but wasn't sure.
"I'll ... I'll see you in a minute," she spoke softly, unable to say it back.
With his hands clasped under his head, Boss lay on his back gazing at the ceiling. He hadn't planned on telling Mo he loved her but the words slipped though his lips so naturally. It crushed him that she didn't responded with an "I love you" as well. He could tell she shared in his feelings. Every time she looked at him, he saw love in her eyes.
Something just kept pulling her back. Boss figured she was still hung up on her ex. Mo constantly compared him to Quan. Just because he cheated on her, she expected Boss to do the same. Whenever he came in contact with another female, Mo spazzed out.
If Boss missed her call, he was cheating. If he spoke to a chick, he had to be fucking her. Boss couldn't even joke with her the way he used to anymore. Anything he said, she took personally. The shit was getting on his fucking nerves. With each day that passed, he grew more and more tired of Mo's insecure ways.
Boss was sick of her blaming him for everything Quan had done in the past. For some reason, she just couldn't tell them apart. He didn't cheat. He wasn't the one who had filled her heart only to puncture it with lies. His hand would never rise to strike her face. And plus, he was tired of her acting as if her feelings were less than what they were.
Mo wouldn't even admit that they were a couple. This wasn't what Boss had signed up for. He'd hate to walk away and pretend as if their relationship never existed, but if Mo didn't get it together, he was sure to. While Boss lay there contemplating their fate, the telephone rang, interrupting his thoughts. Normally he wouldn't answer her phone, but it might've been whoever Mo had to rush out and help calling back.
"Hello?" he answered on the second ring.
"You have a collect call from ...
QUAN!
"
Mo stood impatiently, tapping her foot inside the St. Louis City Jail with her arms akimbo, waiting on Quan. He had already been processed and released but still hadn't come out.
The longer she waited, the more Mo realized this was a mistake. She should have been home with Boss, snuggled up, not in the city jail bailing out her no-good ex-boyfriend. Just as Mo was about to leave and let Quan catch a cab home, he came strolling out the back.
"Took yo' ass long enough," she snapped, switching hard to her truck, leaving him trailing slowly behind.
"Yo, Mo, don't start. I don't feel like hearing that bullshit right now," he replied as they both got into her truck.
"Oh muthafucka, you gon' hear me bitch today. It's damn near five o'clock in the morning and I'm up out of my bed gettin' yo' retarded lookin' ass out of jail. I told you! I told you I don't know how many times to leave that dope shit alone! But nooooo, Quan didn't wanna listen! I got the streets on lock ain't nothing bad gon' happen to me!" Mo snapped, placing her key into the ignition and pulling off.
"Man please, whateva. You ain't no angel either, Mo." Quan tried his best to ignore her and gazed out the window.
"And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" She rolled her neck.
"Don't trip. Don't even worry about it," he replied, frustrated.
Quan was in no mood to argue. His life couldn't have been more fucked up. He was facing felony drug charges. His baby mama, the one person he thought would always be by his side, had possibly played him. Quan didn't know where Sherry could be. This was the wrong time for her to be on some bullshit, and then there was Mo.
The woman he'd cried for, hell, even lain down and died for, had stone-cold stabbed him in the heart. He knew she had moved on, but damn, did another nigga have to answer her phone? Something told him not to call her back, but after Sherry played him and didn't come through, he had to make sure Mo was on her way. The conversation he'd had with the dude wasn't even that long, but enough was said to make him want to curl up like a child and die. But Quan would have to deal with that later. Right now his mind was focused on Sherry and the kids.
Where the fuck could they be?
he thought.
"But you know what tickles me the most," Mo continued to go off, "is that the same bitch you cheated on me with is the same bitch that played you when you needed her the most. I mean, look at you. You just look sad. You ought to be embarrassed! 'Cause see ... if you would've got wit a bitch that was at least a lit' bit on my level, you wouldn't be having this problem right now. I mean, c'mon on Quan, the bitch still wear Baby Phat!"
"What?" He turned and looked at her.
"Like for real, you couldn't fuck wit a bitch on my level?"
"On yo' level? Mo, you ain't even got no level! I'm the one who raised you! This whip you pushing, I bought it! Them diamonds gleaming from your ear, I copped 'em from Jacobs, so to be honest wit you ma, you and Sherry more alike then you think! But fuck all that! That ain't even important right now!"
"Those police officers that pulled you over must have Rodney Kinged yo' ass if you honestly believe the nonsense that just came out yo' mouth. Sherry and I are nothing alike and for you to even put us in the same class shows just how stupid you are. You got wit Sherry 'cause she was a hoodrat freak that was down for whateva. " "You damn right, at least she gave me head."
"Yeah, she was giving you head and giving you herpes at the same time!" Mo joked.
"Whateva, don't you think a nigga get tired of hearing,
I
can't cum, I don't like suckin' dick
!
It taste funny
!" He mocked her.
"Oh honey ... please believe me when I say I enjoy it now.
Maybe if you did it right I could've cum. The dick wasn't that good! Half the time I was fakin' it!"
"A'ight, so now you was fakin' orgasms for damn near ten years, picture that," Quan barked, heated, picturing her sucking another man's dick.
"Quan! I faked cumming so many times I can't even count on my hand, and second of all, just to let know, I didn't like suckin' your average size dick 'cause I didn't know where that muthafucka had been!"
"I know how to fuck. You the only one complaining."
"Yeah right, that's what you think," Mo smirked as they pulled up into the driveway.
"Yo, why am I even arguing with you?" He hopped out wondering where the fuck Sherry's car was.
"Exactly, so just give me my money so I can burn the fuck out." Mo hopped out as well.
Quan immediately knew something was up when he put his key into the lock. All the lights inside were out. Sherry always kept the lights on at night.
"SHERRY!" He called out only for his voice to echo around him. With his forehead scrunched up, Quan went to drop his keys on the table by the door but was met with the sound of them clanking to the floor. "What the fuck?" he whispered, turning on the light in the foyer.
What Quan saw next not only shocked him, but Mo as well.
The entire house was stripped naked. All of the expensive cus- tom-designed furniture and one-of-a-kind art had been con-fiscated. Quan quickly ran up the steps and searched each room one by one. Every one had been cleared out.
Mo's hand covered her mouth in shock. She was speechless. She couldn't believe her eyes. The house looked like it did when they first moved in. The only thing Sherry left was the paint on the wall. "This bitch wasn't playin'," Mo spoke out loud, gazing around the living room.
Sherry was gone and she was never coming back. She, the kids and West were about to start a new life somewhere far away from St. Louis. She wouldn't even have to worry about furniture because she had all of Quan's. The $10,000 Persian carpet had been stripped from the floor. The blinds were gone.
Mo looked up and noticed that the Swarovski crystal chandeliers were even taken.
How the fuck they get up there?
she thought. Sherry even took the ceiling fans. The girl didn't even leave wood in the fireplace. Only a single roll of toilet paper and a note was in the center of the floor. It read:
You shoulda changed yo' hoeish ways, but you didn't, so suffer the consequences and CHARGE IT TO
THE GAME!!!
P.S. Don't worry about me and the kids or the baby
in my stomach. It ain't yours anyway. It's West's,
BITCH!!!!!!!
"Oooooooh, Quan! Yo' baby mama left you a note!" Mo exclaimed, out done.
She wanted to feel sorry for him but she honestly couldn't. Quan had brought all this drama onto himself. It was just a matter of time before karma came back around and kicked him in the ass. Quan immediately came dashing down the steps. He was past pissed, the man was boiling with anger.
Sherry had done some sheisty shit in the past but nothing like this.
"Umm, looks like your precious Sherry was an angel in disguise after all." Mo handed him the note. "If I remember correctly,
Sherry would never do no ignorant bullshit. She
had to fight and struggle for everything she's got!
Yeah, she had to fight and struggle alright. She fought and struggled yo' ass outta everything you got!"
"I'ma murder both them bitches! I swear!" Quan balled up the note and threw it across the room.
"That bitch took all the money I had stashed in the safe."
"Excuse me?" Mo folded her ear forward to make sure she'd heard right.
"Man, that's a half a mil I just gave away!"
"Well you better hit the block nigga, 'cause I
wants my
money
!"
"Mo, I'ma give you yo' goddamn money!" Quan snapped, slumping down to the floor. It was taking everything in him not to cry.
"Ahhhhhhh look at the baby. His feelings hurt," Mo joked, amused by the whole fiasco. "On the real what did you expect?