Tell Me No Lies

by Nikki- Michelle

  “I’m not going to kiss your ass just because you helped me. I hope that’s not what you’re thinking.”

  In my mind I envisioned myself grabbing her hair and slinging her back outside on her tail, but something in me made me realize that she was like a wounded animal. She was simply lashing out at those trying to help her. Her voice was raspy as she stood there like a little girl being reprimanded, although the words she’d spoken said otherwise.

  “How did you end up homeless?”

  “I’m not homeless.”

  “You’re sleeping in your car. You’re homeless.”

  She sniffed and wiped a hand down her face. For a long while she merely looked at me. “I lost my job after Jonathan petitioned the courts for the kids. I had some money saved up, but it ran out. Haven’t been able to find a job. Shit just went downhill fast, and before I knew it, I woke up and I had no place to go.”

  “I don’t understand. Jonathan is okay with you sleeping in your car?”

  I was puzzled, confused. I didn’t want to believe that a man like Jonathan would be okay with the mother of his children being homeless. There was no way in hell. Jonathan was the type of man who would sleep outside in the cold before he allowed April to do so. Something wasn’t adding up.

  “We got into a fight. . . .”

  “What?”

  “He and I got into a fight. I went to his job because I was pissed he petitioned the courts for custody. I walked into the boardroom while he was in a meeting and tried to fight him and that damn near-white bitch he’s engaged to. Got arrested, lost my job, and he filed an eviction since the house is in his name. After the divorce he was granted the house but let me stay there because I had custody of the boys.”

  I didn’t even know what to say to that. “Wait, so you tried to fight him and his fiancée while he was at work, April? Why?”

  She nodded, then shook her head. “I was pissed the hell off, Chyanne. How dare he take my kids from me?” she huffed. “And that smug bitch came to stand up there next to him like she had a say-so in the matter, so I tried to knock her goddamned face in. Then I swung on him. Someone must have called the police, because I got arrested at his office. Then next thing I knew, after I got out of jail a few days later, the sheriff was in the driveway with Jonathan to take my damn kids away from me. A few weeks later I got handed an eviction notice.”

  “Where’s the rest of your stuff? Your furniture and whatnot?”

  She looked at me. “I didn’t really think Jonathan would go through with putting me out, Chyanne. So I just stayed in the house and laughed it off.” She shrugged. “I just didn’t think he would really have the balls to put me out of the house we built together. I left to go party with some old coworkers one night, and when I came home the next morning, people were taking my stuff because the sheriff had sat it outside. So Jonathan took my damn kids and my home.”

  I had to shake my head to take it all in. Tears were falling down her face. I wanted to feel more for her in that moment, but I couldn’t. Those boys needed to be with their father, in a home with a parent that had their best interests at heart, mentally, physically, and otherwise. I wanted to be pissed at Jonathan for evicting the mother of his children from the house they’d basically built together, but I couldn’t. They had been through a lot, had been together since April was fourteen and he was sixteen. They had Jo-Jo when April was eighteen, and the twins followed shortly after. I hated that they’d come to that point, but who was to blame? April had brought herself to where she was.

  “Look, all I wanted to do was make sure you didn’t have to sleep in the cold tonight. So you can sleep here. There’s food—”

  “I don’t need pity, Chy. If that’s why you’re doing this, then don’t. I’ll be fine. I’ll make my own way.”

  I sighed and held up my hand. “Look, April, you can stay here for the night. All I ask is that you keep it clean. No, we’re no longer friends, but I happen to still keep in contact with your sons and I know they would want me to help. That’s why I’m doing it. Were it not for your kids, you’d still be in your car.”

  I didn’t even give her time to say anything else. I grabbed my phone and my purse and headed out the door.

  Jamie

  “Shit, nothing like a good game of hoops to get a nigga blood flowing.”

  I chuckled and tossed my gym bag into the backseat of my truck. Jamaal, a good friend of mine, and I had been at the LA Fitness that sat behind the AMC 24 movie theater off of Mt. Zion in Morrow. It was a pretty busy area, with the Barnes & Noble sitting to the right of us. Joe’s Crab Shack, Publix, Atlanta Bread Company, and other shops were also in the surrounding area. I’d come to work out, and he’d talked me into a game of basketball with a couple of the other guys at the gym.

  It had been a good game. As always, the funniest part about the whole thing was the fact that he always caught our opponents off guard. They thought that because he was a big boy, he couldn’t hoop, and that was the furthest thing from the truth. People had always told Jamaal he looked like Cedric the Entertainer, and he did. He could be his younger, taller brother. Jamaal was a big guy and always kept himself well groomed. A parole officer by day and a bouncer by night, he kept himself in pretty good shape as well. We’d been boys since college.

  “No doubt. I shouldn’t have let you talk me into that game, though. I’m already late going to drop this money off to Jessica,” I said to him, closing the door, then leaning against my truck.

  “Damn, every time I look around, you giving her money for something or other.”

  “Hey, when my son needs something and she calls me, I make it happen.”

  He frowned and shook his head. “Then what the hell you paying child support for if she just gone call you, anyway, every time he needs something? Shit, y’all nigga’s crazy to let these women put you in the system and shit like that.”

  I had to chuckle as I watched him wipe the sweat from his forehead with his T-shirt. Jamaal had a real problem with women and child support. He’d absolutely refused to be put on child support, and he’d even gone to court and fought for sole custody of his children. Surprisingly, he won the case. He and his ex-wife had had a tumultuous marriage, anyway, and when it was over, it got real ugly between the two of them. He felt that the child support system was a black man’s downfall, and it was another way for women to control men through the system. My take on it was this: if you did what you were supposed to do as a man and a father, then you wouldn’t have any problems.

  “I don’t have any issues with it, man. I go above and beyond to do what I need to do for my son. If she tries any shady shit, it will be her loss, because I’ll take my son.”

  He checked his ringing phone and looked up at me. “That’s bullshit, my man. You should have gotten custody of him, anyway. That’s just my take on the shit. Women have way too much power when it comes to the court system, child support, and child custody.”

  We’d had that conversation before, so there was no need for me to go there with him again. Jessica was a good mother to my son, so there had been no need for me to try to take him from her.

  “Jessie may be on some other stuff sometimes when it comes to me and her, but she takes good care of my son. She doesn’t try to use him against me in any way. So I’m good on that.”

  “Yeah, I know your stance on that shit. A nigga just saying, is all,” he said, tucking his phone back into his pocket and taking a swallow of the water from the bottle he had in his hand. “How you and Chyanne doing, though? Can’t believe you finally getting all that shit to yourself. She finer than a motherfucker. Thick as fuck.”

  I smiled and watched the cars moving in and out of the parking lot. “We’re good. No complaints in that department over here.”

  “Word, I remember you telling me that she was still all into that other nigga that you said was whupping her ass.”

  I shook my head and propped a hand under my chin. “Don’t have to worry about that anymore. We�
�re good now.”

  “She still friends with ole girl?”

  I knew he was referencing April. When I first met Chyanne, it was because Jamaal had spotted April while we were in the club and had wanted to talk to her. But it was when I laid eyes on Chyanne that I decided to walk across the room with him. Looking at her sitting at the bar had me enamored.

  “Nah, they haven’t spoken in a while,” I told him. “We’ve really just been focused on us, and it’s a good feeling.”

  He gave me a lopsided grin and looked at me. “I can tell when your black ass is in love and shit. You won’t even give a nigga details about nothing. So she got you, huh?”

  “She got me,” I agreed with him, then laughed.

  “Must be nice. I don’t even believe I know what the fuck love is anymore.”

  “It is nice. It’s a very good feeling.”

  “So, you thinking she’s the one?”

  “I know she is,” I told him just as my phone began to vibrate.

  “Damn. Just like that, huh?”

  “What you mean, just like that?” I asked as I read Chy’s text asking if I was on my way home. I glanced back up at Jamaal. “It’s been almost two years. She’s my baby, my heart. I love her and want to be with her for the rest of my life.”

  “Okay, I feel you. Maybe one day I’ll get there,” he responded as he looked over his shoulder at the two light-skinned sisters leaving the gym. “Goddamn,” he mumbled.

  They both had a beautiful face and a nice stature. They had bodies that you could see on every hip-hop video. That would always be Jamaal’s downfall. Every woman he dated looked the same. They were always light, bright, and damn near white, and most times very materialistic. All his relationships always ended the same way. He was usually the one left heartbroken and angry. According to him, all black women were gold diggers, but like I’d told him before, those were the only ones he dated. You couldn’t keep doing the exact same thing, the exact same way, and expect different results. That was just crazy.

  I chuckled. “That’s your problem right there. Always looking for a light-skinned, big butt and a smile.”

  “Shit, I know you saw that. You may be in love, but, nigga, yo’ ass ain’t blind,” he joked.

  He was right; I did see that. The sisters had nice bodies. “I saw it, and I’m not interested.”

  “Nigga, you be bullshitting,” he said, his eyes still trained on the women. “Damn, that bitch bad. Whew, boy,” he commented further.

  I shook my head, because he was a lost cause. I responded to Chyanne’s text, letting her know I’d be home soon. Jamaal and I talked a little more, but not about much, since he’d finally caught the eye of the chick who he was trying to get with. When the sisters walked over and her friend tried to talk to me, I politely excused myself and left. I had to get to Jessica’s and then home. I missed my woman. That was the thing with Chyanne. She gave me a feeling that no other woman could or had ever done. So, yeah, you could say I was open.

  Once I got home, Chyanne wasn’t there. She’d left a note saying she had run out for a second and that she would be home as soon as she was done.

  Later on that night, when Chyanne crawled into bed next to me, my first reaction was to turn over and ask just where the hell she’d been, since her arrival was later than normal. She hadn’t called or texted, which was unusual for her. I was just about to do that when I turned and saw the red in her eyes. My arms reached out and pulled her closer to me.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I asked after kissing her lips.

  She hadn’t showered, so I could still smell remnants of her perfume from that day. The small light on the nightstand on my side of the bed gave the room a dim glow.

  “I saw April tonight,” she said, looking at me.

  I knew about all the things that had happened between her and April. She’d told me around the time we first started to see one another romantically. I knew all the details, down to her sleeping with Aric.

  “What was that about?”

  I searched her eyes as she spoke. “She was sleeping in her car.”

  “What? Why was she sleeping in her car?”

  She gave a hard sigh and started to fill me in on everything from the phone call she initially received to how she was allowing April to sleep in her old house that night. All I could do was shake my head. I couldn’t say that I would have done the same thing. I told her as much.

  “I know,” she said to me and moved over to lay her head on my chest once I’d turned over on my back.

  Out of instinct my arm came around to hold her. “But you did what you felt was right, so I got your back on whatever you decide to do. Just be careful. Once a snake always a snake.”

  She nodded and yawned. We talked a little while longer. She told me all about what she and April had discussed. I told her how much Ashton and I had enjoyed the movie we’d seen. After I dropped the money off with Jessica, I had decided to spend an hour or two with my son since he asked.

  Life had been good to me. I’d finally gotten the woman I loved to love me back. I had to admit in the back of my mind, there was always this voice telling me to be careful. I’d known Aric had put a move on her heart that would be hard for me to counter. Surprisingly, though, she’d proven me wrong, and I loved the way she loved me. There was nothing that I wouldn’t do for her, and I knew the same was true on her end. The court case had taken a toll on her. All that was left was for us to wait for the verdict. I’d always thought that whole ordeal would end badly for her, but I didn’t know that it would end up almost costing Chyanne her life and AJ’s life.

  It was for that very reason that I still found it hard at times to respect Aric. He was the cause of it all. All he’d had to do was be honest from the start, and most of this could have been avoided. It took a real selfish son of a bitch to play with the heart and mind of a woman the way he had with Chyanne. But I had to respect him as the father of her son. As for April, she was lucky that it was Chyanne that was her friend. If it were me, she would still be sleeping in her car. Loyalty had always been a major issue for me. If even once you showed disloyalty, I was done with you.

  Chyanne fell asleep before I did, and that gave me time to lie in bed and think. The time of year was rolling around when I normally went to visit my hometown of Lexington, Mississippi. I didn’t care for most of my family. If I had the choice, I would disown them, but because my grandmother lived to see all of us come together every so many years, I still had to endure the pain of the past. The closer the time came for me to take the trip to Mississippi, the more I dreaded it. There were so many things about myself that I had yet to disclose to Chyanne. I tried to mellow my moods out by taking the pills prescribed to me, but most days they made me sluggish and spaced out. I didn’t like to feel that way. I didn’t like to feel that my days were passing me by, which was why most times I took only the anti-anxiety medications. Some days I didn’t even take those. I needed help. I knew that. I needed to see my doctor, but I kept putting it off because I didn’t want Chyanne to find out yet.

  Only a few more weeks . . . only a few more weeks and I’d have to come face-to-face with my past. I looked down at Chyanne as she slept peacefully, and wondered just when I was going to tell her what was going on with me. I didn’t think anyone could understand how I felt as a man to be diagnosed with a mental disorder that required medication to help with the problem. I’d hidden that shit from people all my adult life. I hadn’t had that many serious relationships to begin with. Jessica, Ashton’s mother, was the first and the last. All the other relationships I’d had were mostly about the relations part. I’d had sex with more women than I could count.

  Anytime I’d try to be involved in something more serious, it never worked out. That was partially my fault. I didn’t like to get too close to anybody. Chyanne had changed that the night I met her. She was the only woman I’d ever wanted to get to know beyond the physical. Most times it was just about the sex for me. I wasn’t a bad g
uy, and I didn’t dog any woman. I just didn’t want to have anybody that close to me. That was how I’d known Chyanne was different. No one had made me want to open up about my past. I was debating whether or not I should’ve invited Chyanne back home with me that time around. Hell, I was debating whether I should even go. I loved Chyanne, I was very much in love with her, but did I want her to come face-to-face with things that even I hadn’t fully dealt with yet? Those were the thoughts that bombarded my mind before I finally closed my eyes and gave in to sleep.

  Waking up the next morning, I was lethargic. Chyanne and I had decided to sleep in and make it a lazy Saturday. We would have held fast to that plan, but the phone rang, forcing me to remove my fingers from inside of her and to remove my mouth from her breast. I looked at the phone and handed it to her. She giggled and rolled over, swatting at my hand when I tried to pull her back. While the love we had for one another kept us grounded in our relationship, the sex was an anchor too. We could have sex every day and not tire of it. We’d had sex in all five of my stores, in her office at work, and in every part of the house, including the kitchen and garage. We’d made love in the pool, by the pool, outside under the trees, on the hood of the car. Point being, I loved her body. I loved her brain, her smarts, and her wit. I loved being inside of her, and I loved being near her. It was all a turn-on for me.

  “Stop it, Jamie. Let me see who this is,” she said.

  As soon as she put the phone to her ear, I snatched her by her ankles, flipping her onto her back, and then I crawled in between her thick chocolate thighs. She squealed but caught herself by slapping a hand over her mouth.

  “Shhhhh,” I whispered to her.

  “Who is it?” she asked.

  My locks swept across her breasts like the stroke of a paintbrush as I eased inch by inch slowly inside of her. She let out a soft moan, and her back arched, throwing her pussy back up against me. I bit down on my bottom lip and nodded toward the house phone, still in her hand.