by Edwina Fort
I slid my arms through the sleeves before tying the belt tightly around my waist while keeping a wary eye on him. I didn’t know what he was going to do next. It felt strange having him in my room.
Heck! It felt strange having him in my apartment, he didn’t fit. Even though he was a brute, it was clear he was a wealthy brute. Today, he sported a black t-shirt and a pair of designer black jeans. On his feet was a pair of black Timberlands.
I wasn’t learned in the art of spotting name brand watches, however, one didn’t need a Ph.D. to know that his watch cost more than everything in my little pulled together apartment. It was silver or maybe white gold, but the bling in it, although not done to the point of tackiness, was blinding.
In his ear was a diamond stud that also flashed startlingly in the dim lighting of my room. Now that he was a little closer, I was able to see the tattoo that went from the right side of his neck to disappear inside his shirt was some kind of fancy script, although I couldn’t see what it said.
I inhaled… even his spicy cologne smelled expensive. Delicious…but expensive. He was definitely what Tasha would call a baller.
He took my hand and pulled me toward the bed. “Come here.”
The bed! Oh God!
My heart started racing really fast…so fast that I thought I was getting ready to have a stroke. Was he getting ready to rape me now?
“Sit down for a minute.”
I sat down on the very edge of the bed, my body stiff as a board, my knees were squeezed together so hard they hurt. He squatted his powerful form down in front of me so that we were at eye level and I inhaled sharply.
What was he going to do to me? Tears filled my eyes again, but they didn’t fall.
“Look, Angel…I know that you think I’m a brute.” He muttered, his eyes falling to my feet.
Slowly the breath I’d been holding left my body. For the first time since I’ve known him, he appeared human, a human with feelings. For the first time, it crossed my mind that I may have hurt said feelings with the way that I’ve looked at him and acted around him up until this point.
“I can’t help the way that I am,” he continued. “I’m a product of my environment.”
My hands twitched in my lap. For some strange reason, I just had the impulse to rub my fingers through his beard and tell him he was perfectly fine the way that he was. I’m going to chalk that up to lack of sleep because surely, I was not developing nourishing feelings toward this man.
“Yo’ brotha stole a lot of money from me. You don’t want me to kill him… so I won’t. All I ask is that you come live with me. Be my companion.”
“You mean, like friendship?” That wasn’t that bad…
He grinned, shaking his head. “Hell naw…I don’t want to be yo’ friend. I want to be yo’ man.”
He didn’t say anything else, he just waited for me to respond to that. I lifted my hand and rubbed my temple. There was a lot of pressure behind my eyes. How in the world was I supposed to respond to that?
“We don’t even know each other. What if I move in with you and then we decide we don’t like each other?”
“If that happens, I’ll get you another place to stay. Just give it a chance.”
I thought about his words. What was his deal? Most guys like him didn’t even want a girl to leave a toothbrush over at their house, let alone move in with them. He probably thought that’s what he wanted now, but will change his mind shortly after I move in.
Guys like him weren’t used to rejection. According to Tasha, women threw themselves at him. She said he was hood royalty. The fact that I had rejected him must have triggered some kind of hunter’s instinct in him or something. He set out to prove to himself that he could get me.
By taking that money, I’d played right into his hands. And now he would be able to pat himself on the back and say, I got the girl that rejected me. And in order to assuage his pride, I was going to have to be his live-in companion…
“I don’t even know your real name.” Everybody called him Hard Hitta…but surely his parents didn’t name him that. How can I move in with a man whose name I didn’t know?
His gaze went back to my feet before he chuckled, shaking his head a bit. I could tell he didn’t want to tell me.
“You can’t laugh at me, alright?” I nodded.
With a grin on his face, he shook his head again as if he couldn’t believe he was getting ready to tell me this.
“William…William Taylor. When I was a kid, everybody called me Willie.”
Oh… wow!
Okay…did not expect him to say that.
“Willie?”
He nodded waiting on me to laugh. And I’m going to be honest, if I wasn’t facing this crisis, I probably would have chuckled. However, it was hard to laugh at anything when it felt like your world was being torn apart.
I looked around my little apartment, although… I don’t think losing this place will be such a hardship. I never took the time to make it home, because I spent all my time and energy at my shop. The few little pieces of furniture we had were Westly’s parents’ old furniture that they let us have when they got new stuff.
My bed was the same one I’d had since I moved in with them at thirteen. If I was being honest with myself, I could walk away from all this stuff with no problems. I’d fought Stan off of me more times than I could count on this couch and my bed, so I definitely won’t be shedding any tears over the loss of them.
However, if I let this place go, I needed to be ready to start over when Mr. Willie here got over his little infatuation with me. Heck…I don’t even know how long he was talking about.
My gaze fell back to him and I inhaled when I saw how intensely he studied me. I frowned, I didn’t know how I felt about that. When he looked at me like that, he made me feel like he could see inside me…Like he could see a part of me that was not open to the public.
I cleared my throat. “How long?”
He grinned and for a second, I felt like Little Red to his Big Bad Wolf. “Six months.” He muttered. “If at the end of six months you don’t love me…You find wherever you want to live and I will pay for it.”
It was my turn to grin. “Love?” My voice was laced with amusement.
He nodded… “Love, shawty.” His was laced with confidence.
Ooookay…Somebody really thought a lot of themselves. I wanted to tell him he was shooting pretty high for love. I didn’t think I really liked him. I mean…yeah, he’s handsome and got the kind of body that can cause a girl to drool a little, but he was uncouth. He was brutally honest to a fault. He said what was on his mind and didn’t care what anybody thought about it.
And according to Tasha, he killed people. Not my idea of boyfriend material at all.
I wanted a guy who I could talk to about my teas, a guy that will lie in the grass with me and read. A guy that is faithful to me and kind.
I exhaled…Still, if being his girlfriend for six months will keep him from killing my stupid brother, I guess I can do that. Except--
“Are you going to want sex?”
He grinned again and I realized he had dimples.
“Hell yeah…”
I stiffened and he placed one of his big hands gently on my leg. “But I won’t force you or nothing. I ain’t no rapist. We can do it when you’re ready.”
“Really?!” I asked, beginning to feel like there was a light at the end of the tunnel. If that was the case, I’ll never be ready, surely not by the time my six months were over.
He frowned. “Damn, Teacup, did you think I was going to rape you?”
Relief flooded my body like a cool wave.
“How the heck was I supposed to know? You came bursting in my door like the freaking Incredible Hulk, scaring me half to death. What is wrong with you, William?” I admonished him, using his real name to get under his skin, now that I knew my life and my virtue was not at stake.
He chuckled. “I’m an uncivilized bastard.”
I wish I could e
xplain to you guys what it was like talking to him. I swear he had his own way of using the English language. His deep voice was confident and smooth…when he looked at me the way he was doing at that moment, he made me feel as if he knew a secret as if he knew my secret…and he was using it to control me.
Yeah…that’s what it is. It felt as if he was effortlessly controlling me somehow…
With my lips pressed tightly together, I shook my head. “You should work on that…”
“Yeah…Won’t you teach me then.”
“What? To be civilized?”
He nodded. “Why not? It’ll be fun.”
I looked down at the belt of my robe that I played with between my fingers. “It’s just that…”
“What?”
My gaze came back to his face. “I’m not a miracle worker. What you’re asking would take a doctor…or a priest.”
He stared at me for a moment before he held his head back and roared with laughter. I grinned, pleased I’d caused the brute to laugh like that. I didn’t even think he was capable of laughter.
“I see you got jokes…” he said around his mirth as he came to his feet. For the first time since he kicked in my door, he looked away from me to take in my place.
“How much of this sh*t you want to keep?”
I held up a finger. “First lesson, how about you not call the furniture of your girlfriend for the next six months sh*t?”
My words pleased him. I could see it in his eyes, before he put his hand on his chest, looking at me with mock surprise. “Was that rude?”
It was my turn to laugh. “You know doggone well that was rude.”
He shook his head. “My bad…let me try again.” He cleared his throat. “How much of this crap would you like to take with you?”
I held my head back and laughed so hard I snorted. I put my hand to my lips…Oh my goodness! It had been a long time since I laughed that hard. I’d forgotten I even had that little annoying habit.
He held out his hand for me. “Come on, Angel, let me take you home.”
My laughter died as I stared at his big hand. Slowly my eyes rose to his. His gaze was so intense it stole my breath. There was so much there. Hitta was uncouth, that much was true, but he was also a real man, a strong man.
There was so much strength in him, it poured from him like water. Something told me that if I took his hand, my life will never be the same. Hitta brought change with him. Suddenly my fear was back.
Was it change for the better…or will this change leave me broken?
I’d been through so much and I was still standing…but just barely.
Hitta, with his strength, there was no way he would break me gently. He would break me in a way that could never be fixed.
“You have to trust me, Teacup.”
See what I mean about the way he studies me? How did he know I was fighting a battle in my head?
“Why should I trust you? What makes you so special?”
“That answer is simple. You should trust me because I will protect you with my life…even from myself if need be. That’s my word, shawty.”
My Greatie’s words that she’d said to me all those years ago came to me as clear as day, as clear as if she was standing here saying them to me right now.
“Don’t worry none, child. The Ancient of Days never leaves his children defenseless. He’s going to send you a protector so fierce he will destroy all your monsters. Just wait and see…He’s going to destroy them all.”
I slowly slid my hand into his bigger one…
Chapter 4
Moving On…
Angel
"Wow, where did the moving truck come from?" I asked Hitta when I walked out of my apartment building two hours later.
To say that said two hours have been breathtaking is to say the least. Once I got dressed, Hitta put in a call and a group of guys that were mountains like him came through my door a few minutes later.
“Show them what goes and what stays,” he muttered as he headed out into the hall to take a call.
These men were on a mission. It was like a whirlwind, they moved with precision and determination. A few packed things into boxes while others took those things downstairs, the rest were on trash duty. Everything that I said that I didn't want, they took to the trash…
Speaking of which, all of my brother’s things were now amongst the number of things that got trashed.
Hitta came back in while I was instructing his guys to pack West’s items, I was going to see if he wouldn’t mind taking me to my shop so that I could store them there.
“Why y’all packing this sh*t?” he grumbled.
I turned around startled because I didn’t hear him come up behind me, for a big fella, he moved silently.
“Oh, these are Westly’s things. I was going to see if it’s a way we can drop this stuff off at my shop and I can just keep it there till he gets back.”
He frowned down at me… “Hell naw!” His gaze rose to his men. “Trash this sh*t.”
“Wait! You can’t throw my brother’s stuff in the garbage. He’ll be back for it, it’s bad enough he’s going to have to find someplace else to stay.”
“What are you? His mama? F*** him!”
I opened my mouth to dispute him, but he continued talking right over me.
“Is this the same nigga that stole money and got you framed for it, then left you to take the heat by yourself? He don’t know sh*t about me…You could be floating at the bottom of the river right now for all the f*** he cares…” He looked up at his men.
“Trash this sh*t!” And then he turned and walked back out of the room when his phone rang again.
The conversation was closed because at that point, it didn’t matter what I had to say, his men carried out his orders with no questions. I stood for a minute dumbfounded as they did…
I think it was at that point that the change Hitta was bringing in my life settled in. It was at that point that it became clear that he was taking over things with a mighty arm and I didn’t know how I felt about that.
In a way, I agreed that it was lowdown what Westly did to me, but I also knew my brother, he was trying to help. He knew how much my shop meant to me and he came through with the money to save it. Yeah, he’d stolen from the king to do that, but he didn’t believe it would fall back on me, he probably thought the heat would be on him, which is why he left town.
At least that’s what I prayed he’d thought…
Either way, I felt horrible that all of his stuff had gotten thrown away. I'd already been trying to figure out a place for him to stay when he gets back. He wasn’t going to like it, but maybe he could sleep at the shop for a little while. I knew he was trying to help by stealing the money from Hitta, but that didn’t change the fact that there were repercussions for our actions. I wasn’t going to be the only one paying for it.
Hitta asked if I was my brother’s mom…
The truth is, even though West was older than me by ten years, I still felt responsible for him for several reasons, one being like I’d said earlier, he’d kept Stan from hurting me to the point of no return. Although my foster dad did some pretty messed up things to me when I was a little girl, I still had my virginity because of Westly.
He’d threatened to kill Stan several times. They’d even gotten into a brawl a time or two because of me. Of course, Diana, Westly’s mom blamed me for the divide that happened in her home, because she simply refused to believe that her fancy doctor husband was touching me inappropriately.
I was under a lot of pressure and didn’t tell Westly every time Stan touched me because I too didn’t want to see them fighting. Because of this, Stan had learned to skate the thin line. He never went overboard with his assaults, a stolen kiss, a breast grab, a grope to my butt…
One night, I woke up and he had his finger inside of me, hurting me…That night we thought Westly was going to kill him. Diana had gotten so upset she kicked both Westly and me out for almost two days.
After that, Stan never went so far again. However, his searching fingers never stopped. Even to this day, I hated going around them, but because they were Westly’s parents, our paths crossed whether I liked it or not.
Just the other day, Stan had come by my shop looking for West. He said my brother had stolen forty dollars out of Diana’s purse. I told him I hadn’t seen him, but of course, he didn't leave right away…
“I dreamt about you last night,” he’d said as he began to walk around the counter.
“Don’t start, Stan, this is my place of work. You have to go!” I told him, recognizing the look in his eyes.
Unfortunately, at the time, the shop was empty, which left me at his complete mercy. However, I wasn’t a little girl anymore and was prepared to do whatever I had to do if he put his nasty hands on me. I took a few steps back and grabbed a kettle of hot water.
“What are you going to do with that? Why are you so mean to me anyway? If not for me, you wouldn’t have been able to get the loan so that you could fix this place up. Don’t you know by now that I love you?”
I rolled my eyes. He was always spewing this nonsense and he never let me forget that it was because he’s Dr. Stanly Baker that I was able to get this place. I didn’t even want to ask for his help, it was Westly who went to him and asked him to help me get the loan.
“Get out!”
My voice quivered in a mixture of fear and rage…Because of him, I was broken. I just wished he would leave me alone.
“You’ll never be rid of me, sweetheart. You and I are meant to be.”
“You and Diana are meant to be…that is your wife!” I snapped, trying to hold on to the scream of rage that was always inside of me when he was around.
Everything about him disgusted me… The way he looked in his expensive suits and loafers, the way he always smelled like hospital soap, even when he wasn’t at work, and the way his eyes roamed over my body, leaving my skin crawling in their wake.
At the hospital, he was a catch. Many flirting nurses have given Diana the blues over the years. However, to me, he looked like an evil troll and I hated everything about him!
