A Hustler's Promise: Some Promises Won't Be Broken

by Jackie Chanel

  King soon joined Rayshawn at his lonesome table of one. King watched Dayshawn dance with a group of girls and smiled proudly. When Rayshawn came to work for him, King had practically adopted the twins. They were sixteen years old and didn’t have a man in their lives to teach them how to be men. They were good kids and King wanted to make sure that they were taken care of.

  He took them on vacations with him and his girlfriend. He threw them birthday parties, made sure they didn’t miss school, and went to their high school graduation. He threw the biggest block party on the south side in honor of their high school graduation and bought both of them Kawasaki Ninja bikes as graduation gifts.

  He was ecstatic when Dayshawn told him that he got accepted into Morehouse. Rayshawn was too proud and too willful to let King pay Dayshawn’s tuition so they compromised. Rayshawn’s hard earned money would go towards tuition and King would get Dayshawn a car and an apartment off campus as well as take care of all the expenses. Dayshawn didn’t question any of it.

  King’s eyes followed the direction that Rayshawn was staring. It saddened him to see so many cute girls at the party and Rayshawn wasn’t interested in any of them. He knew that not being with Jaicyn was killing Rayshawn. It was the first time that King had even considered that Rayshawn might lose focus on what was important.

  “Have you talked to her?”

  Rayshawn nodded. “A little bit. Nothing’s changed though. She still feels like I dissed her.” He put his head in his hands and groaned. “I don’t know what else to do.”

  “You still love her?”

  Again Rayshawn nodded. “Yeah but if she don’t want to be with me then ain’t shit I can do, right?”

  “Guess so,” King replied.

  Getting over Jaicyn was the first thing that Rayshawn needed to do and do it quickly. The girl was causing him too much aggravation. Rayshawn ran a huge part of King’s empire and word on the street was that he’d been M.I.A from Oak Park for a couple of days, chasing after Jaicyn. That kind of behavior was unacceptable and not tolerated by King. If Rayshawn continued to pay more attention to getting his ex girlfriend back than he did making money, something bad was sure to happen.

  Rayshawn stood up and straightened his clothes. He knew where the conversation was leading and he didn’t want to talk about Jaicyn with King.

  “I’ll be back.”

  Rayshawn crossed the dance floor to get to the bar. He paused for a second to watch a group of girls dancing together. One of the girls, Ciara, had been trying to get with him since Jaicyn left. She was the first girl that he’d dated since Jaicyn had ended their relationship over a month ago.

  Unfortunately for her, Ciara was the type of girl who was more impressed by what he did for a living than she was with him. She lived in Oak Park and dating a drug dealer with a nice car, who carried guns, and could buy her anything she wanted was the cool thing to do. She didn’t know that all Rayshawn wanted was some ass. He’d waited two years for Jaicyn to come home. He hadn’t slept with anyone else, but he wasn’t about to wait any longer.

  Rayshawn caught Ciara’s glance and she instantly stopped dancing and walked over to him. There was no denying that Ciara looked good in her tight black dress. She was a dark skinned beauty who knew just as much about fashion as Rayshawn knew about drugs. She looked like a young Naomi Campbell with legs Rayshawn had only seen on models. He liked imagining them wrapped around his waist.

  “Hey Rayshawn,” Ciara said breathlessly. “You look good.”

  “You do too,” he replied, opening his arms for a hug. Like a well trained puppy, Ciara stepped into his arms and wrapped hers around his neck. She closed her eyes and felt Rayshawn’s thick lips on hers. There wasn’t much to his kiss but it was a start. He hadn’t kissed her before.

  “You haven’t called me in a few days,” Ciara whispered in this ear, ruining the moment. “Why not?”

  Rayshawn stepped back and his arms fell to his side. “I’ve been busy.”

  “With your ex?” Ciara dared to ask. “I heard that you picked her up from work the other day.”

  Rayshawn rolled his eyes to the sky. These were the kinds of questions that girls called the apartment asking Dayshawn. Rayshawn was different. He didn’t answer those annoying questions.

  “That’s my business, not yours.”

  Ciara pouted. “All I’m saying Rayshawn-”

  “I don’t care what you’re saying. Stay out of my business.”

  He dropped his arms from around her waist and walked away. He’d come back for her, but she had to be taught not to ask him questions about anything that he did. Just to make his point, Rayshawn headed in the direction of his ex.

  Both Jaicyn and Autumn were wearing black jean shorts that showed off their thick shapely legs and curves. Jaicyn had on a navy blue and silver Baby Phat halter top while Autumn sported the same top in pink and silver. Their shoes were high heeled sandals that matched their shirts. In all the years that he’d known either girl Rayshawn couldn’t remember seeing either one of them in heels like that. Jaicyn wasn’t into feet and when all the girls were wearing sandals she use to announce loudly that she “wasn’t ever showing her toes”. But here she was showing ten perfectly pedicured toes.

  “What’s up,” Rayshawn greeted his two favorite girls. “I’m glad you came.”

  He gave each girl a hug, holding Jaicyn a little closer and tighter than Autumn. He kissed her on the cheek and told her how good she looked.

  “So what are y’all doing holding up the wall?” Rayshawn joked.

  “We’re watching you with your new girlfriend,” Autumn teased. “You talkin’ to Ciara now?”

  “Ciara from Oak Park?” Jaicyn questioned. “My friend Ciara?”

  Her friend?

  “Ciara ain’t your friend,” Rayshawn answered.

  Jaicyn frowned slightly. “Yes she is. Me, Autumn, Ciara, Joy and Taylor have been hanging together since forever. You know that.”

  Jaicyn stared across the room, past Rayshawn and at her friend on the dance floor. Rayshawn knew exactly what she was thinking.

  What happened to what he said to her the other day in the car?

  What happened to his supposed love for her?

  The questions were in her eyes but Rayshawn knew she wasn’t going to ask them. She wasn’t that type of girl.

  Jaicyn looked back at Rayshawn coldly. “You’re foul,” she whispered just loud enough for him to hear and walked away.

  “Do not chase her,” Autumn warned him. “Don’t cause a scene. You go after her and she’s going to slap the shit out of you.”

  “For what? She broke up with me,” he reminded Autumn. “I’ve been trying to get her back for a month. Why is she mad?”

  “Don’t act like you don’t know,” Autumn scolded. “After all the shit you’ve been telling her, how do you think she feels, seeing you all hugged up with one of her friends?”

  “She’s blowing this all out of proportion. She’s trippin’ over nothing.”

  “That didn’t look like nothing to me. I’m going to see about my friend.” Autumn walked off, catching up with Jaicyn a few minutes later standing outside the hotel. She put her hand on Jaicyn’s shoulder.

  “You okay?”

  “No, but I will be. Go back inside. I’m going home.” She’d only come to the party for one reason and Rayshawn had messed that up.

  “Come on, don’t leave,” Autumn pleaded. “Stay and have some fun. Don’t worry about Rayshawn.”

  “I’d rather go. Dayshawn is looking for you, by the way,” she added hoping Autumn would leave. She didn’t want to talk. She just wanted to get back to her grandmother’s house. Autumn made one more attempt to get Jaicyn back inside the party but it didn’t work. She left her friend waiting on a cab and went back inside like Jaicyn wanted her to.

  “Jaicyn!”

  Jaicyn spun around when she heard her name being called. Sandy was running towards her in a pair of Christian Louboutins that were to di
e for. Jaicyn laughed and hoped that Sandy didn’t fall and break her neck. She hadn’t seen King’s girlfriend since she left. Every day she’d promised to stop by the restaurant and say hello but she never got around to it.

  “Girl,” Sandy squealed, sounding like she wasn’t double Jaicyn’s age. “Look at you! You look good!”

  “Thanks.” Jaicyn blushed. She knew her hair was different but she didn’t think that she’d changed that much. Judging by the way people were making a fuss over her when they first saw her, obviously she had.

  “Why aren’t you inside? The party is in there!”

  “I’m waiting on a cab,” Jaicyn admitted. “I’m going home.”

  “Because Rayshawn was hugged up on Ciara?” Sandy guessed.

  “You can say that,” Jaicyn answered.

  “Girl, don’t let that bother you. Ciara ain’t nothing to him.” Why’d you and him break up anyway?” Sandy asked.

  Jaicyn figured that Autumn was inside bumping and grinding with Dayshawn and having a good time, but her night was already ruined. One more painful conversation with Sandy wasn’t going to kill her.

  “It’s complicated,” Jaicyn replied. “I left and he moved on. I was dumb to think that he wouldn’t. Two years is a long time.”

  Sandy lit her cigarette and snickered.

  “Moved on? Girl, look around. Washington Heights is still the same. Nothing’s changed and nothing has moved on, especially Rayshawn. He might be making more money now but that boy is still head over heels in love with you.”

  “It doesn’t look like that to me,” Jaicyn remarked. “Not by the way he was hugged up with Ciara.”

  “Jaicyn, I thought I taught you better than that. Rayshawn is just trying to make you think that he’s moved on. He’s just trying to get your attention.”

  “Did you ever go through this with King?”

  Sandy nodded her head. “Girl, I’ve been through just about everything with that man. Whatever Rayshawn did isn’t even that important because you still love him. If you didn’t, then you wouldn’t give a damn about seeing him with another girl. Am I right?”

  “I guess so,” Jaicyn finally agreed.

  Of course Sandy was right. She still loved Rayshawn. She was just mad. That’s why she always answered the phone when he called.

  “Come on girl,” Sandy held onto Jaicyn’s arm. “Let’s go back inside. Don’t let that boy see you upset.”

  As she and Sandy walked through the lobby towards the party Jaicyn spotted Rayshawn coming out of the bathroom. She walked over to him and tapped him on his shoulder.

  “Hey,” she said, feeling very awkward. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  “About what?” Rayshawn asked, suspicious of the sudden change in Jaicyn’s demeanor.

  “It’s kind of important Rayshawn. Is there somewhere private we can go?”

  The only place that Rayshawn was sure that no one would bother them was the suite that he’d reserved for the night. He took Jaicyn up there. When he unlocked the door and turned on the lights Jaicyn looked around the suite in awe.

  “Damn Rayshawn, you doing it big, huh?”

  “Something like that.” Rayshawn kicked off his shoes and sat on the couch.

  “What you want to talk about?” he asked.

  “Can I sit down?” Jaicyn asked, stalling. “My feet are killing me.”

  When Rayshawn nodded Jaicyn collapsed on the couch. Rayshawn took one foot in his hand and unfastened her shoe. He unfastened the other one and slid it off too. Before Jaicyn could utter a word of protest he began massaging her feet like it was the most natural thing in the world.

  “You didn’t come up here for a foot massage,” Rayshawn stated. “Talk.”

  “I really don’t know what I want to say, Rayshawn. I guess I want to know how serious you are about Ciara.”

  “I’m not serious about her or anybody else,” Rayshawn answered. “I’m just a single guy testing the waters. That’s what you wanted right?”

  “No,” Jaicyn admitted. “I didn’t want to break up. I don’t want you screwing other girls. I was just hurt that you stopped talking to me and then acted like you didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “We’ve already had this conversation, Jay-Jay. I don’t think we need to go through this again.”

  “Neither do I because we’ll never see it the same way. But damn Rayshawn, even if you didn’t want to be with me, you could have at least apologized. That hurt me more than anything.”

  Rayshawn stopped massaging her feet and looked at Jaicyn.

  “You should know that I never wanted to hurt you and I’m sorry if I did. But you fucked me up too.”

  Jaicyn sat up straight and looked at Rayshawn. “How did I hurt you?”

  “By leaving,” Rayshawn mumbled. “You didn’t have to go.”

  “What are you talking about? I did have to go.”

  “No you didn’t,” Rayshawn repeated. “You had options. You chose to leave. You could have stayed right here in Washington Heights but you chose not to.”

  “And what pissed me off the most was that you didn’t give me a chance to help the situation,” Rayshawn continued. “You didn’t think there was anything that I could do so you didn’t even give me a chance. That was worse than you leaving because it showed me that you didn’t trust me, that you couldn’t depend on me.”

  There, Rayshawn had finally said what he’d been feeling for the last two years and it shocked Jaicyn. She hadn’t known, didn’t have a clue that was what bothered him. She scooted closer and Rayshawn and looked him in the eyes.

  “Oh Papi,” she said, “That’s not how it was at all. I really didn’t have a choice. I thought I did and I decided to go live in that group home over on the north side until I turned eighteen, but everything changed when we went to court. The judge made me go to Job Corps because that bitch from DFCS recommended it.”

  “Are you serious?” Rayshawn asked. “You’re not lying, are you?”

  “Hell yeah, I’m serious. I didn’t lose faith in you, Rayshawn. I knew that if I was here then we’d work something out. I never stopped trusting you.”

  Hearing Jaicyn tell him that she trusted him and still had faith that he would get them out of Washington Heights made Rayshawn feel better. All this time he’d been assuming the wrong thing. For the first time in his life, being wrong felt good. He wrapped his arms around Jaicyn and pulled her against his chest.

  “Do you still love me?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Jaicyn answered. “I never stopped.”

  “So what do we do now?” Rayshawn wondered, unable to believe that the conversation had taken such a good turn.”

  “I don’t know, Rayshawn. Do you still love me?”

  “Hell yeah. I’ve been telling you that.”

  “Then you better kiss me,” Jaicyn giggled up against his strong chest.

  Rayshawn lifted her face towards his and gently touched his lips to hers. Her lips were so warm and soft against his that he couldn’t help but press harder. Her arms wound around his neck as he moved his tongue inside of her tantalizing mouth. She felt so good and so perfect with him and Rayshawn never wanted to let her go.

  “Damn Rayshawn,” Jaicyn said breathlessly when they broke apart.

  “I know right. But I’m not finished with you.”

  Jaicyn yelped as Rayshawn scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom. When he laid her down on the bed Jaicyn pulled him down with her. They began kissing again and as Rayshawn moved his hands over Jaicyn’s tight and curvy body he had the same thought he had three years ago. With Jaicyn by his side there wasn’t anything that he couldn’t do and in his arms was where she was supposed to be.

  Chapter 19

  “Why can’t you tell me the address?” Jaicyn yelled into her cell phone.

  It was lunchtime at Ragman & Associates and Jaicyn was trying to enjoy her simple lunch of chicken fajitas and handle some business but the bitch on the other line wasn’
t cooperating.

  “I need to talk to Kim Hill. Transfer me to her,” Jaicyn ordered.

  When the DFCS employee refused to transfer her, Jaicyn hung up the phone. She didn’t want any of her co-workers to hear her yelling into her cell phone. She was tired of the Department of Family Services and their bullshit. All she wanted was to know where her sisters were living. It wasn’t like she going to go to the foster parents’ house and kidnap the girls. She just wanted to see them. She needed to see them.

  DFCS wasn’t the only drama she was dealing with on the hot summer day. Her grandmother was upset that Jaicyn was moving back in with Rayshawn. Juanita wanted Jaicyn to come to Puerto Rico with her but Jaicyn refused. Puerto Rico was fun and she could have used a vacation but Juanita was going to care for her ailing mother. Neither knew when they’d come home. Jaicyn couldn’t take the chance of getting stuck in Puerto Rico for months. Plus she was right where she needed to be. All that really mattered was finding Rickie and Bobbie. If DFCS wouldn’t help her then Jaicyn was determined to do it her own way. By the time she left the office for the day, she had a plan.

  Jaicyn waited outside for the bus and watched her two co-workers giggle their way to their cars. Jennifer was one of the real estate agents who worked in the office and Jessica was her assistant. Jenny wasn’t that bad. She didn’t turn into a royal pain in the ass until she got around Jessica.

  Early on, Jessica had decided that Jaicyn was her competition and Jaicyn had decided that Jessica was a complete racist. Since Jaicyn worked for the president and Jessica worked for the agents, their paths shouldn’t have crossed too often but Jessica made sure that they did. Between Jessica and the Type A personality of her boss, Darius Ragman, working there could be pure hell. Sometimes Jaicyn hated her job.

  “Hey Jaicyn,” Jennifer called. “Do you need a ride?”