Player Haters

by Carl Weber

  “But you gotta fuck her, don’t you?” He gave me a sinister smile when I didn’t answer. “And how long you gonna keep that job when her husband finds out you fucking her ass? ’Cause you know he’s gonna find out. They always do. Face it, Trent. The only job you’re good at is running women. You’re a gigolo, kid. Not a family man. And you’re about to fuck up millions trying to be something you’re not.”

  “But I love her, Mike. And money can’t buy you love.”

  Mike’s sinister smile widened.

  “Can’t it? Show me a woman who doesn’t want a rich man, and I’ll show you a lying ass bitch.” Mike stared at me long and hard. It felt like he was trying to analyze me before he continued. “Besides, you’re already in love, Trent.”

  “I am? With who?”

  “With your lifestyle. You love the life you live, the Mercedes, the house on the water, the different women fawning over you every night. You love that shit, don’t you?”

  I didn’t answer and he prodded me more.

  “Come on, Trent. You can lie to me but you can’t lie to yourself. You love the life you live. Admit it.”

  “Yeah, I love it,” I finally admitted. “But it’s not real love. If you take it away, it doesn’t hurt.”

  “Oh, yeah? Tell me it didn’t hurt when you had your car repossessed. How did you feel when you didn’t think you was gonna get it back?” I didn’t reply, I just listened to what he had to say. “I bet it didn’t hurt that much the night you left Michelle in the delivery room, did it? What’d you do when you left the hospital that night, Trent? Go out and get some ass?” I looked away from him and smirked because that’s exactly what I did. “I bet when your car got repossessed that you didn’t go look for another car, did you? You just wanted the old one back. That’s ’cause you love your car. Are you sure you love Michelle?”

  Ouch. Now that hurt. Because as much as I wanted to think I loved Michelle, I did love my car. And Mike’s words made more sense than I wanted to admit.

  “I never thought of it that way before.”

  “There’s all kinds of love, Trent. You just have to decide which one is more important.” He walked around his desk and patted my back before sitting on his desk. “Now you gotta make a decision. Either you’re gonna marry Indigo and be rich, or you’re gonna marry Michelle and pump gas at Exxon. What’s it gonna be?”

  A smile came across my face for the very first time since I walked in that office. “Why can’t I have them both?”

  “Because we have polygamy laws in this country.” He laughed. “If you could have two wives, I woulda done it a long time ago.”

  “Yeah, but who says I have to be married to both of them at the same time?”

  Mike stared at me as he puffed his cigar. He must have seen the light go on in my brain. “What are you getting at, Trent?”

  “You still got that ring your ex-wife gave you back after the divorce?”

  “Yeah.” Mike nodded. “I still got it. Why?”

  “Because I need it. It’s worth a million dollars to us.”

  “It is?”

  “It sure is. Right after I give it to Indigo.”

  “But I thought you said you’re not gonna marry them both.”

  “I said I’m gonna marry them both. I am. I just never said anything about marrying them at the same time.” A smile came across Mike’s face as he started to understand where I was coming from. “You see, right now Michelle is content just to have a ring. I can probably string an engagement out two, maybe three years.”

  Mike’s eyes lit up. “Right! I get it. You marry Indigo now, stay married to her at least a year or two. Then you’re entitled to half of everything she’s made, plus a share of her future earnings.” Mike’s smile widened. “Now you’re acting like the Trent I know. Only one problem. How you gonna keep Michelle from finding out about Indigo and vice versa?”

  “Simple. I’m gonna move Indigo to Atlanta. I’m gonna give her some bull about how all the top singers are moving there and how you can get a house cheap. Trust me, she won’t be hard to convince.”

  “What about Michelle? Is she gonna give you a hard time about being in Atlanta?”

  “Nah. Michelle’s used to me being in and out. I’ll just tell her I’m in Atlanta a lot on business. If I hit her off with some money each month and tell her it’s to go toward a down payment on a house she’ll be cool. Women always go for that security shit.”

  “I gotta tell you, Trent. I was worried about you there for a minute. I thought you were getting soft on me. But this plan, this plan is brilliant.”

  23

  Wil

  The second I pulled in the driveway Diane jumped out the car and ran in the house, leaving me to carry my son, Teddy, upstairs and put him to bed. We’d spent about five hours in the emergency room and barely said anything to each other that didn’t pertain to Teddy. I guess Diane’s conscience was still bothering her. And now after what happened at Mimi’s last night, mine was bothering me, too. Although I must admit part of me just wanted to think up an excuse to get out the house so I could go see Mimi. The last thing I wanted to do was be in the same house alone with Diane.

  I kissed my son good night, then said a quick prayer of thanks. Teddy had come out of this with just a nasty black eye and a fractured wrist. I was really scared there for a while. Originally the doctors were trying to get us to let him spend the night because they thought he had a concussion.

  I left my son’s room, then stepped into my daughter’s room. She was already asleep so I assumed my sister, Melanie, must have put her to bed hours ago. Thank the Lord for Mel. It was times like this that you really needed family, and she always came through. She’d left work early and had gone to my neighbor’s house to get Katie right after Diane called her and told her what happened.

  I kissed my daughter, then went downstairs to offer my sister a lift so I could get out the house. Just as I walked past the bathroom, Diane came out. The two of us stared at each other without a word until she broke our silence.

  “Is he ’sleep?” She walked over and, surprisingly, wrapping her arms around my waist, sighed deeply. It felt so good to be held by her. I wanted to hold her and stroke her hair but I couldn’t. She may have forgotten what happened last night but I sure as hell didn’t.

  “Yeah, he’s ’sleep. So is Katie.”

  “Good,” she whispered, then pressed her head against my chest as she held on to me tighter. This time I gave in and wrapped my arms around her.

  “Wil,” she whispered, “I’m not fooling around with the mailman.”

  “I know that, Di,” I answered back.

  She lifted her head and looked up at me with surprise. “You do?”

  “Yeah, me and the mailman had a little talk this morning.”

  “You did?” Her eyes widened.

  “Uh-huh. But what I wanna know is, if he didn’t send those flowers, who did?”

  She reached for my hand and gently caressed it as she stared in my eyes. “I honestly don’t know.”

  I pulled away from her with a scowl on my face. “Come on, Diane. Do you really expect me to believe that? Now I wanna know who you’re having an affair with. And I wanna know now.”

  “Wil, I’m telling you the truth. I’m not having an affair.”

  “Yeah, right. What you’re telling me is a bunch of bull!” I rolled my eyes. “I thought you said you had a guilty conscience.”

  “I do have a guilty conscience,” she said quietly. “I’ve had one for quite a while now. But it’s not about cheating. It’s about…” She stopped herself in mid sentence. “It’s just hard. It’s just hard to admit.”

  “Admit what, Di? That you’re fooling around? I already know that, I just wanna know who it is.”

  She looked up at me with these sad eyes, filling up with tears just as my sister turned the corner.

  “Hey, guys, do you need me to do anything for you before I go home?” Melanie stopped in her tracks when she saw the t
wo of us standing there. She glanced back and forth between me and Di. “What’s going on? Diane, why you crying? I thought the doctors said Teddy was going to be all right.”

  “This isn’t about Teddy, Mel. This is something personal between me and my wife,” I explained.

  “Well,” said Mel, “I know you two must be going through a rough time right now. Is there anything I can do to help? I can take the kids for a while so you all can spend some time alone. As long as you don’t mind if Prince stops by.”

  “There’s nothing you can do, Mel, unless you can tell me who my wife’s been cheating with.” I couldn’t hide the disgust in my voice when I thought about my wife’s betrayal.

  “Cheating?” Melanie shouted at me. “Have you lost your mind?” Then she looked over at Diane who hadn’t said a word since Melanie approached us.

  “Oh, my God. You haven’t told him yet, have you?” she asked Diane.

  “No.” Diane sounded so sad.

  “Tell me what?” I demanded.

  “Jesus, Diane!” Melanie said. “No wonder the man is acting all funny. Wil, your wife is sick.”

  I looked at Diane. “What is she talking about, Di? What’s wrong with you?”

  Diane’s voice was so weak when she finally answered me. She couldn’t even look me in the eye. “I’ve been to see the gynecologist a few times already.” She started to cry. “Wil, I have to have a hysterectomy.”

  “Hysterectomy? Oh, my God. Baby, what’s wrong?” I pulled Diane toward me and wrapped her in my arms. My anger was now concern.

  Diane was so upset she couldn’t even answer me, so Melanie told me, “She has severe fibroids.”

  “Fibroids? What does that mean?” I was confused and starting to get scared.

  “Fibroids are tumors,” Diane answered between tears. “I’ve got one the size of a grapefruit in my uterus. That’s why I haven’t been having sex with you, Wil. It’s just too damn painful and I’m always bleeding.”

  I closed my eyes briefly. Silently scolding myself. It was all starting to make sense. My poor wife had been suffering this whole time and I’d only been making matters worse. “Is it cancerous?”

  “No. It’s benign.”

  “How long have you known?”

  “I’ve known something’s been wrong for about three months. I found out about the fibroids about a month ago.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me, Di? You know I would have stuck by you.”

  “I tried, Wil. I must have tried a dozen times but each time I’d stop myself because I was afraid you’d look at me as less than a woman.”

  “Diane, I love you. I could never look at you as anything other than my woman.” I held her tight. “Come on. I need you two to explain everything you know about these fibroids.”

  It was after three in the morning when I finally went to bed. I’d dropped my sister off at her new boyfriend’s and came home. Diane was ’sleep so I got on the Internet and started to research fibroids. It was a real eye-opener because I had no idea so many black women were affected by them. Hell, I didn’t even know what they were until tonight. I wanted, no, I needed more information. I even ordered a book called It’s a Sistah Thing by a woman named Monique R. Brown, to learn more about my wife’s condition. I wasn’t about to let Di have a hysterectomy if she didn’t have to.

  When I finished my search on the computer I went upstairs and got in bed.

  “Wil,” Diane whispered. I was surprised she was up.

  “Yeah, Di?”

  “Come here. I want you to hold me.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me up close to her. I wrapped my arms around my wife and snuggled up close, stroking her hair. “Wil, I have no idea who sent those flowers.”

  “Neither do I, Di. But those flowers were no worse than the pictures so let’s forget about them.”

  “I love you, Wil Duncan.”

  “I love you too, Di. And I’m gonna stick by you no matter what. We can do this, we’ve been through rougher times before. We just have to stick together.”

  “I know that now, Wil, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you all this before.”

  “You don’t have to apologize anymore, Di. It’s all right, but no more secrets. Okay? We’re a team and there’s no I in the word team.”

  “You’re right,” she replied as we snuggled up closer. “Wil?” she whispered.

  “Yeah, babe?”

  “Did you sleep with her?”

  “Who?”

  “Your secretary. Did you sleep with her last night? Or any other night? You can tell me. I’m not gonna get mad.”

  “No. I didn’t sleep with her.” I could feel her let out a long sigh of relief. “But…but I’m not gonna lie to you, Di. I did kiss her.”

  There was a silence between us. “Do you wanna be with her, Wil? If you do I’ll let you go.”

  “No, Di. The only woman I wanna be with is you.”

  “Then you know she’s gotta go. If we’re gonna survive, she has got to go. You understand that, don’t you?”

  I kissed her neck. “Yeah, Di, I understand.”

  But the question is, will Mimi understand?

  24

  Melanie

  “What’s up, baby? You wanna dance?” I looked up at the tall, handsome brother who’d tapped me on the shoulder and smiled politely. He was probably the best-looking of the five men who’d asked me to dance. But I’d promised myself I wouldn’t dance with anyone until I had a chance to dance with Prince first. Only problem was Desiree. She’d dragged Prince on the dance floor before we could even get our seats warmed up. I was starting to wish I’d never suggested we bring her with us. Desiree had been acting like a real ass almost the entire three weeks Prince and I had been going out. She always had a smart comment or sarcastic look whenever Prince did something romantic or sweet. She would even bang on the walls when we were having sex, telling us to keep it down. This was something I could have done to her a thousand times before, but instead I would always turn up my radio or TV to block out the noise. I knew it was just a jealous phase she was going through after what happened with her and Tim, but Prince was starting to get sick of it. And I didn’t wanna lose him because of her. So I figured if we took her out with us instead of leaving her in the house to sulk, she wouldn’t be so evil when we got home. The club we were at was always full of plenty of handsome men to shower her with attention. So why did it look like she was trying to spend all her time with my man?

  “So what’s up? You wanna dance or what?” Mr. Tall and Handsome asked again.

  “No, thanks. Maybe later.”

  “What about a drink? Can I get you a drink?” He pulled out a chair like he was about to sit down. I lifted my recently refilled apple martini glass.

  “I already have a drink, thanks. And if you don’t mind, please don’t sit there. I’m here with my boyfriend. I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate finding you in his chair when he gets back.”

  “Boyfriend?” He leaned over, getting up in my face with an attitude. “Where the fuck he go to? Siberia? Baby, I been watching. You been sitting here alone for almost forty-five minutes.”

  Forty-five minutes? Damn, had it been that long? I glanced on the dance floor where Prince was trying to dance conservatively. I say “trying” because Desiree looked like she was auditioning for the lead in Dirty Dancing II. She was all over him. If she had been anyone else I would have dragged his ass off the dance floor a long time ago.

  “You know what? You bitches ain’t shit. If you don’t wanna dance, why the fuck you come to the club?” I was about give him a piece of my mind when someone else beat me to it.

  “Yo, player, if I was you, I’d get the fuck outta her face unless you wanna be wearing this bottle.” I looked up and there was Trent brandishing a Corona bottle like it was a deadly weapon.

  “Aw’ight, man. I was just asking the sister to dance.” He pushed in the chair and walked away with an attitude.

  Trent pulled the chair out and plopped down next to
me.

  “I could have handled that, Trent.”

  “I hear you, Mel,” he said sarcastically. “Where the hell is Prince anyway? I shouldn’t have to do his job.”

  “He’s over there dancing with Desiree.” I pointed to the dance floor.

  “Dancing? Don’t look like they dancing to me. Looks like your girl’s trying to fuck him.” Trent shook his head. “I told you about that chick.”

  “Don’t start, Trent. That’s just Desiree,” I told him, glancing toward the dance floor with a little more concern.

  “Aw’ight, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “So what’s up with you?” I decided to change the subject. “You don’t look like your regular self. Something bothering you?”

  “No, nothin’s bothering me.” His nothing was definitely something. I could always tell when something was bothering either of my brothers.

  “Don’t lie, Trent.”

  “Look, Mel, it’s nothing. I’m just mad at myself.”

  “Mad about what? What you got to be mad about?”

  “I got engaged last week.” He made it sound like it was the worst thing in the world. I wasn’t sure if I should congratulate him or feel sorry for him. I did tell him not to ask that girl Indigo to marry him.

  “So I guess you’re having some reservations now, huh?”

  “Nah, I really love Michelle and the baby…”

  I cut him off. “You asked Michelle to marry you?” I couldn’t believe it. He might not have been happy, but I was elated. Michelle was my girl, and I loved my nephew Marcus to death.

  “Uh-huh. I asked her.” He shook his head. “But—” I cut him off again.

  “Then why you mad at yourself? Trent, that’s great news. I love Michelle. And so do Momma and Wil.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “And I know she loves you.”

  “That’s the problem. I love her, too. I mean I really love her, Mel.” It was good to hear him say that because it meant he was finally growing up.