Too Close for Comfort

by La Jill Hunt

  This chick is crazy, Yaya thought. What if he grabs the bag and runs with it? He’s probably a crackhead trying to find something to score with.

  “You want me to take that one for you?” he asked Yaya.

  “Naw, I got this one,” she told him.

  Taryn laughed as they exited the airport.

  “Aren’t you that girl that was on Top Model?—Tomara?”

  “No, that was Toccara,” Taryn told him. “I’m not her, but thanks for the compliment.”

  “I’m going to get the car. Are you gonna be all right?” Yaya said when they got outside the airport.

  “She’s fine. Go ahead and get the car. I’ll wait with her,” Goldtooth answered.

  Yaya looked over at Taryn to make sure.

  Her girlfriend nodded. “I’m cool.”

  Yaya rushed to the car, praying that the man wouldn’t abduct her best friend and chop her up, making her the topic of America’s Most Wanted. To her relief, Taryn and Goldtooth were still standing and talking when she pulled up.

  “Now this is a nice car.” Goldtooth whistled when she pulled up to the curb.

  “Well, I certainly appreciate your help, Dante,” Taryn told him as he put her bags in the trunk. She reached into her purse and took out a ten and handed it to him.

  “Come on now, don’t insult me like that. I can’t take your money. Now I will take your number.”

  “I don’t think my fiancé would appreciate me giving you my number now, Dante.” Taryn flashed the diamond ring on her right hand at him.

  “In that case, I will take your money.” He stretched out his hand, laughing.

  Taryn gave him the money, thanked him again, and got in the car.

  “Where the hell did you get that?” Yaya grabbed her hand and looked at the ring.

  “Girl, I bought it at some little jewelry shop. Isn’t it fierce? Only cost me twelve hundred, can you believe that?”

  “That’s it? It’s like two carats!”

  “I know. Now this is the type of ring I want when I get engaged. All I need now is a man to go with it.”

  “I can’t believe you bought yourself an engagement ring.”

  “Why not? Don’t worry, I’m sure the one you’re getting from Jason will be bigger.”

  Once again, Yaya ignored the comment about Jason, not wanting to talk about him. She was still anxious to hear from Monya, who has yet to call her back.

  “Now I know something is going on,” Taryn said. “What happened?”

  “What are you talking about?” Yaya pretended to focus on driving.

  “This is the second time I’ve said Jason’s name, and you haven’t said a word about him. What the hell did you do?”

  “What makes you think I did something, Taryn? How about, it was him that did it this time!”

  She proceeded to tell her about seeing the girl driving her car at the gas station, conveniently leaving out the fact that she trashed his home.

  “Oh no, he didn’t! I can’t believe him. I’m glad you came back early. If you hadn’t, you never would’ve known about this. I swear, I never woulda thought Jason would be cheating, though . . . and with some skeezer; that’s more like Travis.”

  Travis Thorn was Jason’s best friend and co-worker. He took womanizing to a whole nother level and often criticized Jason about his relationship with Yaya. It was one of the many reasons that she and Travis didn’t get along. He often commented about the six-year age difference between Yaya and Jason, claiming that Yaya was a young girl and didn’t know how to handle a real relationship.

  “I don’t know what the hell he was thinking,” Yaya told her.

  “Obviously, he wasn’t thinking.” Taryn sighed. “I’m sorry, Yaya. But don’t worry, girl, life goes on, and believe me, it’s about to get better for us. Have you talked to Q?”

  “He’s caught up in his own little drama, girl. I tried to call and talk to him about Jason and he brushed me off.”

  “What? Q brushed you off? Now, that’s a first. What kind of drama does he have going on?”

  “Some chick named Paige, I don’t know.” Her cell began ringing. She looked at it and saw that it was Monya. “Hey, what’s going on?”

  “Nothing, really. I took the shoes back to him. He’s really pissed, Yaya. Where are you?”

  “Picked Taryn up and now taking her home—what did he say?”

  “I’ll meet you at Taryn’s.”

  Monya’s truck was parked in front of Taryn’s townhouse when they arrived.

  “What’s up, T?” Monya gave Taryn a big hug. “You have a good trip?”

  “Hey, Monya, you know I did—fine dining, fine men, fat paycheck and all expenses paid—you know it don’t get any better than that!”

  They all laughed as they carried the luggage inside.

  “Home, sweet home.” Taryn flopped down on her large, plush sofa. “Yaya told me about y’all catching the girl driving her car last night. That’s wild.”

  “Wild ain’t the word,” Monya said, “I wouldn’t have believed it if I ain’t see it for myself. Ol’ girl was rolling in the Lex like it was hers.”

  “I’m proud of you, though, Yaya. A few months ago, you woulda went off on Jason, cutting tires, busting windows . . . something. You know that temper of yours is—”

  “Oh, she did some damage. Not as much as I thought she would’ve done, but she got her point across. He was pissed about his shoes. The police were still there when I got there.”

  “Damage? Shoes? Police?” Taryn sat up. “Oh, hold on, you ain’t say nothing about any of that, Qianna Westbrooke!”

  “I figured she didn’t since that wasn’t the first thing you asked when you got out the car.” Monya giggled and went on to tell the complete story.

  Yaya rolled her eyes at her as she talked.

  “Well, that explains the raggedy look you’re rocking today. Oh, my goodness, Yaya, I know you ain’t chance going to jail, when you know you had to pick me up from the airport.”

  “I know you were pissed after you had to wait over thirty minutes for her to get there,” Monya continued.

  “Yaya!” Taryn gasped.

  “Monya, your ass can’t hold water,” Yaya hissed.

  Monya was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her face.

  “T, shut up. Your flight was delayed anyway. And I wasn’t going to jail.”

  “I don’t know, Yaya, I got a feeling Jason was about to send the cops to your house if I wouldn’ta pulled up when I did.”

  “Jason better be glad I didn’t call the cops on him about my car.” Yaya folded her arms and sat on the barstool.

  “He didn’t even know the girl had your car, Yaya,” Monya told her.

  “What?” Yaya and Taryn said at the same time.

  “Yep, at least not until he got a call from Travis.”

  “‘Travis’?—What the hell did he have to do with it?” Yaya was confused.

  “I shoulda known he had something to do with it.”

  “Well, it turns out Travis had a fight party last night at his house, which means mad chickenheads were there, probably. Anyway, they were running low on beer, and he sent some chick to the store. For some reason, she thought the car was his. I guess the dumb broad ain’t read the tag, especially since it has MS on it. She tells him she’s never driven a Lexus before. He gets the keys from Jason and sends her on the beer run. The rest is history.”

  Yaya closed her eyes as she listened to Monya. Travis . . . all this because of Travis and one of his whores.

  “Oh my God,” Taryn hummed. “What are you gonna do?”

  That was the exact same question that was running through Yaya’s head. The problem was, she didn’t know the answer.

  Chapter 3

  “I know you tried to knock her out.”

  “You know I did,” Paige told her best friend, Nina. They were sitting in the living room of Paige’s mother’s house, waiting on her to return with Myla and Nina’s niece, Jade, w
ho Nina had custody of.

  “What in the world made her think she could give those girls a paternity test?”

  “Ms. Lucille, girl. She always said that Myla wasn’t Marlon’s child. You know her and Kasey probably had this planned for months. Marlon getting the girls on Sunday gave them the opportunity they were waiting for. It was probably their idea for him to get them, and he was too dumb to realize they were up to something.”

  “What did Rachel say?” Nina asked, referring to Savannah’s mother.

  “Savannah is no longer allowed over there—simple as that.”

  Nina’s phone rang. “Hello, hey there. Yes . . . uh-huh . . . that sounds good . . . let me check on something, and I’ll let you know . . . it was nice to hear your voice too.” Nina giggled. “Bye.”

  Paige looked at the wide grin on Nina’s face. “And who was that?”

  “A friend.”

  “I’ll bet—What friend?”

  Nina smiled. “Craig. I met him at the school one day when I was picking the girls up.”

  “Oh, I was thinking it was Titus.”

  “‘Titus? Don’t play with me.”

  Paige couldn’t help but laugh.

  Titus was Quincy’s best friend who had a crush on Nina for months. He was a nice-looking, hard-working gentleman who owned his own auto shop. There was only one problem—at five foot three, there was no way Nina would date him.

  “I can’t believe you would even go there with me, Paige.”

  “What? There’s nothing wrong with Titus. You know he’s a good man.”

  “That may be true, but he ain’t a tall man, and Craig is!”

  The door opened, and in rushed Myla, Jade, and Paige’s mother.

  “Hey, Mom!” Myla ran over and put her arms around Paige.

  “Hey there, baby girl,” Paige greeted her daughter. “How was your day?”

  “It was good.”

  “I’m glad,” Paige told her. “Hey, Mama.”

  “Good evening, ladies, and how are y’all doing?” Her mother hung her keys up and put her purse on the coffee table.

  “We’re good, Aunt Jackie,” Nina answered.

  “Darling, can we go play in the backyard?” Myla asked, using the nickname she had given her grandmother, when she was a toddler.

  “Go ahead, but stay in the back, you understand?”

  “Yes ma’am.” Both girls ran out the back door.

  “Myla told me you had words with Ms. Lucille again yesterday at Marlon’s.” Her mother sighed.

  “Yeah, I did. I had words with both her and Kasey.”

  “Paige, why do you let them get to you?” Her mother shook her head. “You have moved on with your life, and so has Marlon. This going back and forth with Ms. Lucille is a waste of time.”

  “Mama, you act like I wanna go back and forth with them. Can you believe they gave the girls a DNA test behind my back? You don’t think I shoulda went over there and said anything?” Paige couldn’t believe how her mother was acting. It was as if she thought Paige was in the wrong.

  “No, I don’t. Is Myla Marlon’s daughter?”

  “I know you’re not asking me that.”

  “Well then, let them give her ten DNA tests; I don’t care how many tests they give. The fact that Marlon is her father will not change.”

  “She does have a point, Paige.” Nina shrugged, looking at Paige.

  “Thanks for the support, Nina. You said yourself you woulda beat them down.”

  “I hope you didn’t go over there putting your hands on nobody.” Paige’s mother shot her a look.

  “I defended myself, Mama, that’s all. But I did tell them they have thirty days to get outta my house.”

  “Now, I don’t blame you for that . . . especially since your name is on the deed. You should kick them out.”

  “No, she shouldn’t. Didn’t you tell me that his new wife is pregnant? And you aren’t paying the mortgage, so it’s not hurting you.”

  Paige stared at her mother. She hated the fact that she was acting as if Paige was being the unreasonable one, when it was Kasey and Ms. Lucille that were disrespecting her.

  “Mama, I can’t talk to you about this. I can’t believe you’re making me out to be the bad person here.” Paige stood up to leave.

  “I’m not making you out to be anything, Paige. I’m your mother and I’m trying to tell you what’s right. I’m warning you—this thing is gonna turn ugly if you don’t back off and leave it alone. For Myla’s sake, if for no other reason.”

  “Well, guess what Ma—it already got ugly.” Paige walked through the kitchen and opened the back door. “Myla, come on, let’s go.”

  “Awww, Ma,” Myla whined from the swingset, “just five more minutes.”

  Paige could feel a headache about to come on. “No, Myla, now! I’m not calling you again!”

  “Let her play a little while longer. I’ll bring her home.” Nina walked up to Paige. “You need some alone time anyway.”

  “Can you believe her? You’d think she was on their side.” Paige sighed.

  “You know how your mom is, she just hates confrontation.”

  “Whatever.” Paige shrugged. “At least I know where her loyalty lies in this whole situation.”

  “Paige, come on now, her loyalty lies with you. It always has, and it always will. She just sees the situation differently, that’s all. She’s looking at it as Myla’s grandmother.” Nina pointed over at the two girls playing. “She doesn’t want anything to disrupt that little girl’s childhood.”

  “And I do?—That’s why I’m trying to protect her from Ms. Lucille and Kasey—I’ve got a headache. I’ll see you when you get to the house.”

  “You’re leaving?” Her mother walked back into the den. “I was about to cook.”

  “Yeah, my head is hurting. Nina says she’ll drop her off. See you later.” Paige opened the door and almost walked smack into her Aunt Gayle.

  The two of them stared at each other, neither one saying a word. Moments passed and Paige’s temple began to throb. “Excuse me,” she said and went to step out the doorway.

  The sight of her aunt’s car door opening caused her to stop in her tracks. Her cousin Celeste got out. The tension became even thicker.

  Celeste couldn’t even look Paige in the eye as she walked by. Her cousin had caused more trouble than a little bit and had reason to feel ashamed. For some reason, Celeste had been lying to her mother and the family about dating Quincy, when, in fact, she had been dating him. Things came to a head though, when Paige called her on her lies in front of their other cousin, Meeko.

  Aunt Gayle still didn’t have much to say to Paige, even though it was Celeste who lied and everyone knew it. It was as if her aunt held her personally responsible for Celeste’s lackluster attitude and her lack of achievement in life, and she went out of her way to try and make Paige feel bad.

  Paige thought, I got too much other stuff to be bothered with this mess.

  As soon as she got home, Paige called Quincy. She hadn’t talked to him all day, with the exception of a brief conversation at lunch.

  “Hey, baby. How was your day?”

  The sound of his voice made her feel better instantly. “It was long. How was yours?”

  “Better . . . now that I’m talking to you.”

  “How is the other shop coming along?” Paige asked.

  Quincy was in the process of opening a new barbershop, his fourth location. He was the most ambitious man she had ever known; it was one of the many characteristics she loved about him. After leaving Marlon and their seven-year relationship, she never imagined she could feel this way about any one.

  “It’s going good. I think being downtown in the business district is gonna be good. Businessmen can come in on their lunch breaks and right after work to get a cut.”

  “It’s also good because you’re opening the door for more minority businesses in the district.”

  “I’ll also be close to my baby who works
at the library downtown.”

  “Oh, really.” She laughed. “I work down there. What’s her name?”

  “Paige Michaels. She’s a real cute girl—short hair, nice shape.”

  “Nice shape?” She giggled, all of a sudden getting turned on. “What’s nice about it?”

  “Her legs are thick, and her behind is perfect. And don’t get me started on her breasts . . . umph . . .”

  Paige blushed. She rolled over on her stomach and crossed her legs. She was getting hot and wanted him. “Wow, sounds like you are really feeling your girl.”

  “Yeah, I am.”

  “You should go over to her house and show her how you feel,” she suggested. She smiled, thankful that she’d left Myla at her mother’s. She thought about the brand-new nightie she had recently purchased at Victoria’s Secret she would be changing into before he got there.

  “You’re right, I should.” He laughed. “But I can’t.”

  “What?” Paige squealed, her smile instantly disappearing. “Why not?”

  “I have a dinner meeting with my sister and her best friend. You know they are scheming about some business venture, and I promised to hear them out.”

  “Oh, you did tell me you were having dinner with your sister,” she said, disappointed.

  “Somebody sounds like they were a little bit pressed,” he teased.

  “I don’t think so—never that.”

  “Knowing my sister, this meeting won’t be that long. I love her to death, but she’s about as focused as a four-year-old.”

  “Don’t say that. What if they had the same attitude about you when you said you wanted to start your business?”

  “I was a little more levelheaded than Yaya is, believe that. But I will remember that while she’s talking tonight.”

  “And keep an open mind.”

  “‘And keep an open mind,’” he repeated.

  “You’re the one who said you wished she would settle down a bit. Maybe this is her attempt to do that.” Paige got up and reached into her drawer, pulling out a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, rather than the lingerie she thought she would be taking out.

  “Yeah, you’re right. How about I come over after dinner?”