“I saw Tina and her crew show up, and she called herself trying to holla for a minute after she saw me coming off the dance floor.”
“So how did she know I was here?” I asked, trying to get my mind to work quickly.
“The little trick took my cell phone when I wasn’t looking.” Toni said, shaking her head at it all. “By the time I realized it was gone, she claimed it fell out of my purse and she was putting it back.”
“So it wasn’t you flirting with me before I passed out at the computer.” I deducted, closing my eyes and putting my head down. “I must have really been out of it to not realize it was you.”
“Baby, relax, I’m here, and I got here before something could really go down, okay?” Toni kissed me to settle me down. “I told Cori that we would be at your house in about twenty minutes, so, you wanna go so we can take care of our baby, please?”
~Derrick~
I sat in the doctor’s office with Cori, waiting for the nurse to call me back to give my DNA sample.
The past few days have been nerve-racking to say the least.
First, there was the mess with Tina that could have gotten me into some serious trouble.
Now, I have to deal with this stupid shit.
The lawyer that I was referred to told me that she couldn’t represent me because it would be a conflict of interests on her end. The truth of the matter was that when she met with me and she saw Toni and Cori sitting with me to get the details, she saw the writing on the wall and realized there would be no real “perks” that her girlfriend told her about.
Not everyone can flow with my program, and I was fully aware of that, but it was still my program, and more importantly, my relationships, and I was more interested in getting out of the bullshit that I was in, not trying to score another piece of ass that would have willingly given it up to me anyway.
I hate simple women.
After leaving her office, Toni made a few calls and we finally hooked up with Kelli; she’s one of the ladies in the legal department at RP that had been trying to get at her for the longest time. She backed off for a little while when she found out that fish wasn’t the only thing on the menu and there was no way she was going to change Toni’s mind about that fact.
We talked about the options and the risks of those options. She was on board with the amniocentesis angle to keep from waiting the full term, but she did caution that the risks to the baby would be enough that Stacy’s lawyer might file a motion to have the procedure blocked.
The looks on all of our faces suggested that we could have cared less because we didn’t wholly believe that the baby was mine to begin with.
The conversation between Kelli and Stacy’s attorney was contentious, to put it mildly. She kept the line open and on speakerphone so we could hear the conversation and you could hear her attorney trying to come up with every possible roadblock imaginable when it came to doing the test.
The thing that kept bothering me was that I’d heard that voice before, but I couldn’t place my finger on where I knew her voice from.
They went back and forth for about ten minutes before Kelli made it clear that if the test was not done that she would go to the judge in the morning to file a motion to dismiss the suit entirely.
After a brief silence on the other end, her attorney relented, explaining that the location would be at Stacy’s doctor’s office, and that we could have witnesses to attest to the validity of the test, to avoid any “impropriety” as she explained.
So, here we were.
I tried to find ways to occupy my time, and even with Cori there with me, my anxiety level wouldn’t drop all that much.
“It’s just a formality, baby, don’t worry, okay?” Cori tried to calm me, but my fingers wouldn’t stop shaking. “After we do this, it will only be a matter of weeks and we’ll know the truth.”
Yeah, the truth.
I wasn’t sure what the truth was any more.
In my mind, I trusted my instincts that I had been careful the entire time that we’d been intimate.
Even in Antigua.
That one time the entire week that we were on vacation (well, she was on vacation; I was on a
photo shoot) was the only slip-up throughout the whole three years that we were together.
She wasn’t about to fuck me up for the hell of it.
My life was moving at a positive pace, and it was going well – extremely well – and she was not about to derail all of that because it suits her needs.
I hate selfish women… and yeah, I know what you may be thinking, but at least I’m honest about the fact that I’m greedy as hell.
I can be many things, but self-centered is damn sure not one of them.
The nurse finally made her way to the front area to call me back to give the DNA sample. “Mr. Morrow, I will take your sample now.”
I kissed Cori on the cheek and asked, “I’ll be out in a few. Will you still be here when I get back?”
She mockingly looked at her watch and smartly replied, “Unless I have an awards show to attend in the next hour or so, I doubt I’ll be gone when you are done. I’ll be here, baby… always.”
It only took a few minutes for the swab sample to be collected, but the nurse suddenly became more concerned with the commotion that the receptionist had to handle.
After quickly finishing up and rushing to the front, I could understand why she was concerned.
My current girlfriend and my ex-girlfriend were in the midst of a very heated argument. They were face to face and toe to toe, and thankfully there were no punches thrown, but that might have been due to the reality that Stacy was pregnant.
Otherwise, I believe we would have been witnessing Armageddon right then.
I pulled Cori away from Stacy as she shouted, “You wish you could still have him, you conniving ass trick!”
“You might need to be worried more about what’s gonna happen after we get out of court, bitch!” Stacy shouted back as she was being forcibly held at bay by the receptionist. “I got enough to deal with carrying this baby to worry about your insecurities!”
“Ms. Kent, please control yourself.” the nurse cautioned her as she helped to restrain her. “This is not good for the baby for you to get riled up like this.”
“Yes, Ms. Kent, calm your fucking nerves.” Cori seethed through her words, still trying to break free from me. “You didn’t need to be here for this anyway, but you just had to find whatever excuse to be here to see my man, didn’t you?”
“Alright, calm down, baby.” I told Cori as I pinned her against the wall to get her to focus. “She’s not worth the trouble. She’s doing this to get in your head, and you’re bigger than that.”
“Yeah, I’ll say she’s bigger than me alright, and I’m pregnant.” Stacy smirked as she popped off her insult. “I didn’t know you liked them that thick, Derrick; had I known, I would have worked out a little more to put the curves on for you.”
“I think you’ve caused enough trouble just by being here, Stacy.” I quickly swung to face her, catching her and the other women off-guard. “I think you need to leave… or better yet, we’re already done here, so we’ll get out of here before I do or say something I won’t regret.”
I took Cori by the hand and began to head out of the office, ignoring the insults that Stacy hurled at me.
We got to the truck, and it was obvious that she was emotionally worn out from dealing with Stacy like that. “Baby, I’m sorry about all that, I didn’t know she would just pop up like that. I understand if you need some time to relax from all that bullshit.”
Cori sarcastically laughed at me as if she was expecting me to say something like that to her. “I
don’t know what weak females you’ve been dealing with in the past, D, but I’m not about to let some toothpick of a female think that she can run me away from something that I know is a good thing.”
She kissed me softly across my lips, feeling my heart beating against her hand.
She grinned after she broke from the kiss, whispering in my ear, “Even though I’m sharing this with someone that I’m falling for, I know who this heart beats for, and that’s all I need to know. Now, if you make this up to me by giving me a massage when we get home, I’ll forgive you anything.”
A few weeks later…
~Cori~
It was the night of the release party at the Parker estate.
To say that I was nervous was saying a lot.
A lot of Mr. Parker and Mr. Richton’s high-powered friends and associates in the music industry would be there.
All to see the group.
Talk about pressure?
The showcases were nothing in comparison to what we were about to go through.
Tonight was all about us.
We were definitely ready for the spotlight. We worked too hard to not be ready, too many years as a group.
There was nowhere to go but up.
But first, I had some things to take care of.
Even though Toni and Derrick told me about the situation with Tina and how it got handled, I still felt the need to put a scare into the little twit to make sure that she stayed out of grown folks business. So, I took the video that Toni had of Tina and threatened her with it.
And not just any threat, but something that could have gone viral.
The look in her eyes was priceless; she had no idea that I would go so far, but the pampered princess clearly thought that good girls always played fair.
Like my keychain has written on it: 51% Angel, 49% Bitch.
She got the message loud and clear after watching her performance.
The next thing I needed to do was to have a come to Jesus meeting with Tracie, because it was obvious that she didn’t learn her lesson the first time around. The fucked up part of that was we wouldn’t be able to have that issue resolved until we got to the release party.
One way or another, something had to give, and I wasn’t about to be the one to do the giving. For the good of the group, there was no other choice in the matter.
That left one last person to deal with.
Troy.
He really didn’t give up, even after the issue at the Velvet Room that night when Derrick whooped his ass. He kept leaving messages, on my cell phone, at home on my machine, it was crazy.
So I did the one thing that I didn’t think I would need to do until we started hitting the circuit or on tour.
I went to the DeKalb County PD and filed for a restraining order.
I had the saved messages, and the behavior at the club was caught on a cell phone and sent to me (Candace is the bomb, I swear). By the time I was done with the chat with the police detectives, including one that had been following the group since we were doing the underground parties, Troy wouldn’t be able to come within 50 feet or be in the same venue as where I was going to be without violating the restraining order.
It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but when he threatened to hit me when I walked away from him at the club, there was no other alternative.
I wasn’t about to become that chick that couldn’t make up her mind that she wanted an ex-boyfriend out of her life and range of sight or not.
I wanted Troy gone from my world, without the possibility of return.
I was a little worried that the entertainment blogs would get wind of this and try to make this more than what it should be, but my safety was more important.
I had to start thinking like a star.
Dealing with Tracie would be something entirely different, and a little harder to handle because we were supposed to be closer than the way things turned out.
She’s been standing in my backyard way too long, throwing stones when she’s been living in her own glass house.
She needed to be aware that – for the good of the group – it had to come to an end… and ASAP is not soon enough.
I’d been to release parties before.
But not like this.
Mr. Parker’s estate was situated up in Buford, which was about an hour north of Atlanta.
And I thought Mr. Richton liked living lavishly?
Mr. Parker was even bigger about his palace.
The place was set on at least ten acres, and most of it was flattened out with cabanas and gazebos all over the place. The house itself looked like something out of an architecture magazine, complete with a bay window and balcony over the front door.
And that was just the outside of the house.
Kyra was just as awestruck as the rest of us, after she finished viewing the pictures of the house. “Okay, we need to get the stars out of our eyes and act like this is just another gig.
That was kinda hard when he sent for all of us in the stretch Cadillac Escalade limousine to ride up to the place.
On at least three different radio stations (believe me, Tracie and I checked), the deejays made mention of our album release party happening, even though it would be invitation only. But what we didn’t know was that Mr. Parker had released some rare invitations to be given out to people who called into the radio station to be a part of the event.
The stations loved the hit single that we put out in advance of the album release, “Do You Wanna?”, and the public kept requesting it on the request countdowns.
Despite all the highs that we were going through, and that was all happening before we even got to the party, I still had to get the last of my to-do list taken care of.
While Kyra and Candace were up front flirting with the driver, who I do admit was a cutie, Tracie and I sat down in the back of the limo.
I broke the silence between us first. “Talk to me, T, you seriously bugged out back in Malibu. Is there something that I should know about? Do you dislike my choices that much that you have to be so damn vocal about it?”
Tracie exhaled and closed her eyes before she shifted her body to face me. “Fine, you want me to say it, then, I’ll say it, Cori. Springing that situation, or relationship or whatever, on us out of the blue was crazy as hell, Cori.”
“But it’s not causing you strife in your life, and I’m pretty damn happy in mine. So, why are you stressing so much about it?” I asked, shifting my body to close off the distance between us.
“Because I’m supposed to be the freak of the bunch, not you.” she flatly stated, which caught me off guard. “Those nights you spent with Derrick and Toni… I’m the one that’s supposed to have those experiences. I’m the bad girl of the group, not you.”
“So, you mean to tell me that your temper tantrums are coming out because you think I’m stealing your persona or something?” I was in complete shock over that revelation.
“You’re not stealing anything, Cori, I’m a little pissed at myself right now, okay?” Tracie said with tears in her eyes. “This thing with Brian, it’s not working out, he’s too fucking clingy. He doesn’t want ‘his woman’ doing all the things that them freaks he was fucking with before we got together were doing. It was fine when it was just a fuck buddy thing, but now this nigga’s talking about getting serious and shit. I ain’t ask for all that, Cori.”
Hearing her talk like this took me back damn near two years, when I was having this same conversation with Kyra when I had the switch-a-roo happen to me with Troy’s crazy ass.
“T, I know you didn’t, but was that a reason for you to blast my relationship like it was nothing?”
“Cori, I’ve been trying to find a good time to say that I was sorry for that outburst, but there’d been so much tension between us, I didn’t know if I would ever have a chance to.” Tracie admitted. “I promise, I’m happy if you’re happy, but I’m not happy with mine right now, and I understand why you weren’t though what you went through when you left Troy back then. Can you forgive me?”
“Forgiven and forgotten.” I said, now that I knew the root cause of all the craziness that was going on.
Candace and Kyra watched on while we thought they weren’t looking, and the grins were silly, to say the least
.
“So, have you two finally buried the hatchet?” Candace asked earnestly. “I’m not gonna lie, you two wear a sistah out.”
“Yeah, we’re good, once and for all. I just need help trying to figure out how to get rid of some high-profile dead weight.” Tracie answered, wiping the last of the tears away.
“Good, because we’re here.” Kyra noticed as she looked out of the window. “It’s showtime, ladies. Let’s do this.”
~Derrick~
“Damn, look at the potential out here.”
I’m looking at Brian like he’d lost his mind.
“Earth to DJ Majesty, come in, please.” I tried to joke to call of the dogs. “Your girlfriend will be here in t-minus ten minutes and counting, could you put your dick back in your pants before you get caught up in some serious bullshit.”
“You the wrong nigga to be coming at me about being faithful, bruh.” Brian tried to cut me by replying. “On the real, I don’t know how you pulled that shit off with Toni and Cori like that, but I want some of the shit that you drugged them with, and I want your supplier, too.”
I should have known that my relationship would come into play sooner or later.
He’d been snippy as fuck for the past couple of weeks, trying to avoid my calls, even going so far as to purposely avoid wherever I was going to be, even if he was obligated to appear.
Jealousy can be a bitch, but damn. This nigga’s acting like I took his girl from him or something?
“You make it sound like I convinced them to be a part of things, bruh? On the real, I had nothing to do with it. Toni flew in to L.A. that night, rode up to the beach house and surprised me by being there. Cori already knew because she set the whole thing up.” I retorted.
“Oh, so you’re there by accident now? Ain’t that about a bitch?” Brian’s heat toward me was amped up. “I’m starting to understand Omar a little more now, post mortem.”
Low blow… and he knew it.
“Oh, it’s like that, now, B?” I raised my eyebrow, wondering if he actually cared that he touched a nerve with his last statement. “So, what are you saying? You think you’re a sidekick now, is that the company line?”
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