Riley turned to see a short dark-skinned woman with a quirky haircut, buzzed on the sides and back but long and flopping over her eyes in front. She was dressed in an oversized white tuxedo with boxy lines that didn’t quite conceal her femininity, though that seemed to be the intent, and white wing tips. Shawn leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.
“Riley, this is Jodi Weeks. Jodi; my wife Riley.”
“I was beginning to doubt you existed,” Jodi Weeks said extending a hand.
Riley took it and smiled, ignoring the commentary, since she didn’t understand what it meant in any event.
“You’re just as cute as everyone’s been saying,” Jodi continued.
“Jodi.” Shawn’s voice held a note of warning.
“What? I’m just saying. I heard she was cute and she is.” Then she turned to Riley. “I don’t mean to talk about you as though you’re not here. Sorry.”
Jodi Weeks regarded her for a few moments more, looking her over from head to toe. Then she abruptly turned to Shawn.
“I’ll catch up with y’all later. I’m going to go check out what else Cameron has going on in this joint,” she said.
Riley watched as she walked away and when she was safely out of earshot turned to Shawn looking at him archly.
“Yes,” he said, “The answer is yes.”
“How recently?”
“Not for years.”
“Years?” Riley asked. “And she’s still that into you.”
“She’s not still into me,” Shawn said shaking his head.
Riley rolled her eyes. “Okay. Sure.”
Shawn pulled her closer, wrapping his arms about her waist and leaning in to kiss her on the collarbone.
“Don’t try to butter me up,” she said, trying not to laugh. “You better not have brought me into a den of your ex-girlfriends.”
“Not a den of them,” Shawn said into her shoulder. “Maybe just one or two. Or three. Four tops.”
Riley’s token display of faux-jealousy seemed to lighten his mood and Shawn leaned in, pressing his forehead against hers, then kissing her. Riley responded easily, feeling herself relax. As long as he was touching her that was a language she understood. Shawn suddenly looked up, his jaw tightening.
“Riley, Cameron Cole. Cam, this is my wife.”
Riley turned to greet their host and disliked him on sight. Maybe it was because of Shawn’s non-verbal cues, but something about him immediately rubbed her the wrong way. He was tall, but not quite as tall as Shawn and looked African-American and Asian. She recognized him of course, but he looked a lot rougher around the edges than his CD jackets suggested. He wore a white fedora, jauntily cocked to one side, and a white linen suit. On his wrist was a gold watch that rivaled the house in its tastelessness, and there were gold caps on his front teeth. His eyebrows appeared to have been plucked and arched. Rapper gone metrosexual.
“Mrs. Gardner.”
He took her hand, holding it a little too long. Beside her, Shawn’s displeasure was so palpable Riley almost expected him to wrench it free.
“I saw your manager by the pool lookin’ like he done lost his puppy,” Cameron said to Shawn. “What’s up with that nigga?”
“He a’ight,” Shawn said dismissively.
“You should go find him,” Riley said. “It’s fine, I’ll wait here.”
Shawn glanced out to the pool, looking torn between going to find Brendan and staying with her. Riley smiled reassuringly. As soon as he was gone, she felt Cameron’s hand on her shoulder. When she turned to face him, he had moved significantly closer. The strong earthy scent of his cologne filled her nostrils. She took a step back.
“So I heard you didn’t even know who Smooth was when you met,” he said smirking.
“Of course, I did,” she said.
“And I know you know me.”
“Not sure I know your music, but yeah,”
Riley glanced around the room. Several of Cameron Cole’s guests were watching them curiously. In the less than three minutes she’d been standing with him, they had become a subject of conversation.
“You never heard my music?”
There was a hint of doubt in his voice. But not self-doubt. Not only was Cameron Cole notoriously egocentric, he was vociferously so.
“I’m sure I have,” she said. “Just don’t ask me to name your greatest hits or anything.”
He laughed. “As long as you know my name,” he said it as though he was being beneficent.
“That I do know.”
Riley took a sip of her champagne, wishing she hadn’t told Shawn he should go looking for Brendan. There was no telling how long it would take him.
“It’s easy to remember. None of that dumb shit them other niggas do. Just plain ol’ Cameron, the name my momma gave me.” Then he laughed. “Not that Smooth is a dumb nigga.”
Riley looked at him, expressionless.
“Aww. I pissed you off,” he said, leaning in again. “My bad. No disrespect to your man. If anyone was to approach my skills in this game, it would be him.”
She didn’t respond, so he just stood there, watching her.
“So you’re a writer.”
“Yes.”
“Come interview me sometime,” he offered. “I’ll break it down for you. Everything about how this business really works.”
“I think I’ve got that covered,” she said dryly.
“With all due respect. Smooth runs second or third to my number ones. Consistently. So maybe I can school you on a few things he can’t.”
Riley sighed and took another sip of her champagne, wondering when it would be okay to discreetly find someone else to talk to. As though he’d read her mind, Cameron put a hand firmly on her elbow.
“Lemme show you the rest of my house,” he said, in an abrupt change of subject.
She hesitated, and he seized on that, the smile falling from his face for a millisecond.
“You ain’t gon’ embarrass me are you?” he said.
“I don’t think I need the full tour,” Riley said, trying to sound casual. “But maybe the highlights?”
Just as they were about to walk away, Cameron’s hand still on her arm, Shawn was back. Brendan was not with him. Riley watched as he quickly sized up the situation – the tense line of her mouth, and Cameron’s hand on her arm. In an instant, he’d deftly stepped between them, looping an arm about her waist.
“Couldn’t find him,” he said, about Brendan.
“If I see him again, I’ll let him know you’re looking,” Cameron said. He smiled at Riley one last time and walked away.
Shawn squeezed her waist, eyes still on Cameron’s retreating back. “You okay?” he asked.
“Fine,” Riley said. “Although I can’t say I’m crazy about the great Cameron Cole.”
“Nothing great about dude,” Shawn said right away.
“So no Brendan, huh?”
“What?” Shawn looked at her. “Oh. No. I didn’t see him.”
“Well I’m starving and I swear a server walked by with sushi a couple minutes ago. Let’s go find them.”
“I’ll go. You wait right here.” He indicated one of the sofas nearby where there was a vacant seat.
“Okay. I’ll be here, soaking it all in.”
g
Shawn walked away, glancing over his shoulder at Riley before he rounded the corner and heading in the direction Cameron had taken. He hadn’t even really looked for Brendan. He’d walked around the pool, glanced around cursorily and headed right back in. Five minutes tops. But as he’d suspected, it was long enough for Cameron to make his standard bitch-ass nigga move. He could have practically any woman at the party he wanted, but he only ever wanted what someone else had.
It had taken every ounce of Shawn’s self-control not to lay him out. Groupies were fair game, but to put your hands on a man’s wife, you had to know there would be consequences. He bit down hard on his lower lip until he thought it might bleed, and only let up when
Cameron finally came into sight. He was standing with a couple of girls who had draped themselves over him like tinsel. Cameron was talking to a third person, a dude Shawn didn’t know, but he walked right up to him anyway and rested a hand on his shoulder, gripping it firmly. He leaned in so their faces were inches apart.
Cameron looked momentarily surprised and then just as quickly, his expression turned hostile.
“Don’t put your hands on my wife again,” Shawn said his voice quiet.
Cameron pulled back and shrugged Shawn’s hand off his shoulder.
“I don’t know what you talkin’ ‘bout,” Cameron said, blinking impassively.
Shawn shook his head. “Yes you do.”
“You come to my crib to show your ass, Smooth?” Cameron asked loudly.
Of course Cameron wanted a confrontation. That was his thing.
“Don’t test me man,” Shawn said calmly.
Cameron stared him down for a moment as though considering whether to escalate or defuse the situation. He chose the latter.
“No disrespect, Smooth. To you or your wife.”
Cameron extended a hand, but it was an empty gesture and they both knew it. He would get Riley some food, and when she was done eating, suggest that he was too tired to stay much longer. If he stayed, he was going to have to fuck Cameron up; it was as simple as that.
He found a buffet table and put together a plate with samples of everything and made his way back to the living room where he’d left Riley. Sitting next to her on the sofa, in animated conversation, was Jodi. He sighed and went toward them. Then Chris showed up out of nowhere, and headed in Riley’s direction as well.
Shawn watched his progress, remembering the last email he got from Chris. It had to have been sent just minutes after Riley finished the interview and left his office. Shawn had been getting his hair cut when he heard the chime from his phone. Thinking it was probably a text from Riley telling him how the interview had gone, he’d looked at it right away. It was not from his wife, but from Chris. One line.
You lucky motherfucker.
Now, watching Chris walk toward Riley, he had to marshal all of his resources to suppress the irrational part of himself that was enraged just because Chris happened to notice what he already knew, that his wife was special.
“How are you?” Riley was smiling at Chris in a way she never had before, with real warmth. She even turned her cheek and allowed him to kiss her. Shawn handed her the plate of food.
“Excuse me,” she said to Chris and Jodi. “I am so hungry.”
Chris acknowledged Shawn with a nod and turned back to Riley. Jodi turned to look at Shawn, amusement dancing in her eyes.
“So,” she said. “I was telling Riley about when you just got to New York. When you were all attitude.”
“Nobody wants to hear about that old shit,” Shawn said impatiently.
His annoyance only seemed to amuse Jodi all the more. He turned away. He didn’t want to watch Chris and Jodi pulling Riley into the fold. The little episode with Cameron had reminded him of why he wanted her far away from all of this. He didn’t know what he’d been thinking bringing her here. There was nothing true or genuine about all this crap – it was all gamesmanship. It was all about who had the baddest rhymes, ride, crib, women. Everybody was keeping score and at times like this he just wanted out of the game.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw that Chris had perched on the arm of the sofa closest to Riley and was leaning in to say something to her. Then Shawn spotted Brendan, and grateful for someplace else to be, he pushed past a nearby couple and crossed the room to get to him.
“Thought you wouldn’t make it,” Shawn said, giving him some pound.
“Nothing else to do,” Brendan said. “Might as well take a ride.” He looked over Shawn’s shoulder.
“She’s with Chris and Jodi,” Shawn answered the question he hadn’t yet asked.
“Chris and Jodi,” Brendan said. He gave a short laugh. “And you left her there?”
“She a’ight,” Shawn said with more confidence than he felt. “Even though Cameron was tryin’ to act stupid awhile ago.”
“Act stupid how?”
“I walked away for a minute and when I come back, he was all up in Riley’s grill, hands all over her . . .”
“Then why you still here, Shawn?”
“We squashed it,” Shawn said.
“I know Cam, and I know you.”
Brendan didn’t sound convinced.
“And what does that mean?”
“That it ain’t squashed.”
Shawn laughed. “Where’s the bar around here? Let’s get a real drink.”
For the next hour, he purposely avoided going back in and checking on Riley. Instead, he did what he originally came to do – chit-chatted with some industry folks and kept his ears open for the buzz on Glock. Having them on the trip with him in California had confirmed that they were already hot, and getting hotter. Some of their tracks had been leaked on the internet, so they already had a small following that was growing larger every day. Since it looked like he would be spending a lot more time with them, Shawn was relieved that they hadn’t been invited tonight – he needed a break from the unrelenting drama. There was no question though that their one-year development deal with Chris was going to turn into something a lot more concrete. And when it did, he would have to consider whether and how to reposition himself.
Brendan thought the best strategy was for him to give them nothing but praise and cast himself as being wholly unconcerned about his own position. And there was something to that; to challenge or criticize them would only make him look scared.
“Shawn.”
Brendan was nodding in the direction of the pool house, so he turned to see what was up. His eyes widened in disbelief for a second.
“Oh hell no.”
Brendan laughed. “Talk about your past coming back to haunt you.”
It was Stephanie and she was headed his way. But he had to keep some perspective. He’d been neither married nor engaged to Riley when he and Stephanie had their night together in Pittsburgh. This was a big nothing, and that was how he would treat it. But then Stephanie was in front of him, and wrapping her arms about his neck, kissing him square on the lips. Shawn stepped back and holding her by the wrists, pried her arms loose.
“Now that hurt my feelings,” she said, pouting prettily.
“Stephanie,” Shawn said shaking his head. “My wife is here.”
“Tell her I’m an old friend,” she said. She sounded just past tipsy. “I am an old friend. Aren’t I?”
“Stephanie, do I need to be worried about you?” Shawn asked slowly.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said breezily.
“Do I have to worry that if I tell you that you need to back off, you won’t listen?”
Stephanie laughed shrilly. “You mean like, am I a stalker?”
“Why are you in New York, Stephanie?”
“I come here maybe once a month now. I’m in the music business, remember? Just like you.”
“Okay. Well, good to see you.”
“Good to see you too. And please get over yourself,” she said before she walked off, just the tiniest bit unsteady on her feet.
Shawn exchanged a look with Brendan and they both laughed. He looked up from his laughter to see Riley, just across the pool standing next to Jodi. Chris was gone but now they’d been joined by the host.
The smile dissolved from Shawn’s face and he watched as Cameron raised a hand – it almost seemed to be moving in slow motion – and finally, almost too casually placed it low on Riley’s hip, his fingers pressing into the bare skin exposed just above the waistband of her pants. For a nanosecond, Shawn was vaguely aware of Brendan’s hand on his shoulder in a fruitless gesture urging restraint. The rest was like an out-of-body experience. He actually saw red. Not figuratively; everything literally seemed to turn red. And then all hell broke loose.
g
Revelers at the most popular event in the Hamptons season report that it all started when rapper K Smooth showed up with his fetching new bride, New York writer, Riley Gardner. Apparently, no one told the host – the pugnacious Cameron Cole – that she was spoken for. Or perhaps he didn’t care. In any event, there was reportedly some unwelcome and inappropriate touching, a brief verbal altercation and ensuing mêlée. What? Fighting at a party hosted by a gangsta rapper?! Yes, we know this is hardly newsworthy, but nonetheless, we couldn’t help ourselves – the absence of gun-play makes this an amusing New York vignette. After all, can you imagine all of those well-heeled Manhattan socialites stampeding for the exit? Serves them right. Most have likely never heard Cameron Cole’s music, and would almost certainly object to their children listening to much of it!
“I hope you’re happy,” Riley said. She balled the paper up, tossing it across the room where it came to rest at Shawn’s feet.
He was sitting on the bed, throwing the last few things into his bag before heading to the airport for his flight to Houston. It had taken Page Six a couple days to get wind of what happened at Cameron’s but now that they had, Riley’s anger had flared once again. For the entire day following the party, she’d given him the silent treatment, and for another 24 hours after that, she was decidedly distant. It was only last night that she’d finally thawed.
Good thing too, since the idea of leaving home again without getting any first was more than a little unsettling. And then this morning when he thought it had blown over, she’d picked up the paper to find that she had become notorious.
“I bet he won’t try that shit again.”
“You don’t think you overreacted just a little? He had to get stitches.”
“So did I,” Shawn reminded her.
He held up his right hand, still wrapped in gauze. It would be tough to get a solid grip on the mike without taking it off when he performed.
“Well you hit a man in the mouth. I think you assume that risk voluntarily,” she snapped.
“You don’t know Cameron like I do, Riley.”
“I don’t care! I’ve never been so humiliated in my entire life.”
Commitment Page 28
