Notorious

by Kiki Swinson

  I chuckled aloud. “I am truly sorry to hear that.”

  “Don’t be. I’ve got you now,” he smiled, getting a little cocky.

  “How old are you?” I cut straight to the chase. He looked very young and I swear, I hated dealing with babies. I felt like men who were under the age of thirty tended to be a little immature and I didn’t have the time to teach him the ropes on how to be the man I needed him to be.

  “How old do I look?”

  “Just answer the question, please.”

  He smiled. “I’m thirty-eight.”

  Surprised by his answer, I said, “Really. Oh, my God! I would have bet money that you were twenty-seven.”

  “I get that all the time. But I’m thirty-eight,” he replied. “So, what about you?” he continued.

  “What about me?” I asked, even though I knew he was asking me about my age. I had to play the naïve role. Men like that dumb shit. It made them feel a little more superior over women. Every so often, I’d get in the game.

  “Your age. How old are you?”

  “Let’s just say that I am in my early thirties.”

  “Fair enough. So, where is your man?”

  “I’m not involved at the moment.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because relationships are a headache and they take a lot of work on both sides, which always seems to be a problem.”

  “To me it looks like you’ve been running into the wrong cats.”

  “You might be right.”

  “So, can I get your number to call you sometime?”

  I hesitated for a moment because I wasn’t sure about whether or not I wanted to give him my number, but then something inside told me to take a chance. I was a bit lonely and needed some companionship. Shit, who knows? He probably had a ton of money and wouldn’t mind spending it on me and might even fuck me to death at the end of the day. I would love that. The thought made me jump at the opportunity, so I gave him my new number.

  He programmed my number into his BlackBerry and assured me he would call me later for dinner, if I wasn’t busy. I watched him closely as he walked away. His swagger was out of this world and the True Religion jeans he wore fit him perfectly. They weren’t too tight or too baggy. He left me imagining how his body looked underneath, not to mention how big his dick was. If all went well, I would sure as hell find out.

  Since Carmen was at work, I went back to my hotel room and packed up all my things. After I put all of my belongings into the truck, I checked out of the hotel and headed straight to Grandma Hattie’s house to see if Rachael would help me transport some of my things to my new condo. Unfortunately, her little young ass wasn’t available. Grandma Hattie told me she had just left with her boyfriend and that she would probably be back within the hour. I elected to stick around and wait for her because I really needed some help. Meanwhile, I sat around and chatted with Grandma while she was watching her soap operas. I couldn’t say much until the commercial break.

  “You know I found a place.”

  “That’s good, baby. Where?”

  “A condominium community called Newpointe.”

  “Where is that? Is that here in Norfolk?” Grandma asked.

  “No, it’s in Virginia Beach off Newtown Road.”

  “So when do you move in?”

  “I got the key, so I’m going to move in today.”

  “How much is your rent?”

  “Nine hundred dollars.”

  “Wow, that’s a bit steep, don’t cha think?”

  “I’ll be able to manage,” I said, and smiled.

  “Well, if you can’t, just know that you got a place here.”

  I started to respond to the ridiculous comment my grandmother had made, but since I knew it would hurt her feelings, I decided against it. Instead, I smiled and said, “I appreciate the offer.”

  Thank God her soap opera came back on because whether she knew it or not, she was talking out the side of her neck. I wouldn’t dare move into her place. The condition was too wretched and sordid, and roaches were everywhere. I wanted to ask her if she wanted to come live with me so she could get out of this dump once and for all, leave all the has-beens and dope-fiend-ass children behind so that they could deal with their own demons.

  After her favorite soaps went off, I convinced her to have lunch with me. We didn’t travel too far from her neighborhood; as a matter of fact, we ended up eating at a church cafeteria called the House of Prayer. They specialized in soul food and I had to admit that their food was pretty tasty. Grandma Hattie and I ate our poor selves to death and had a good time talking about how much my daddy used to love me. After our lunch date ended, I took Grandma Hattie back home. When we got there I realized that Rachael had not made it back, so I decided that I was going to have to move my things all by myself.

  “All right, Grandma, I’m gone,” I announced while I sat in the truck. She waved me off and I left.

  As I exited her neighborhood, I drove by that guy named Maceo, who always seemed to pop on the scene everywhere you turned. He was talking to a few of the young guys on the block. I figured that they must work for him and he was schooling them on some new and improved shit. I shook my head as he watched me drive by him. He must not have realized that I had a look of disgust on my face, because that moron smiled at me and threw his hands up as if to say, “What’s up?”

  I completely ignored his hand gesture and kept it moving. I was not about to entertain that clown. He was definitely below my caliber. Not to mention that he’d already fucked my cousin Carmen. I couldn’t have that idiot smiling in my face. It would not have worked, so I let his little come-on tactic run right off my shoulder.

  I was almost out of the Huntersville section of Norfolk when I drove up on Rachael and her boyfriend, Rodney, standing at the corner of Church Street and Fremont Street. From what I could tell, she was fussing his ass out. There were two other guys standing just a couple of feet away from them, laughing at all the commotion. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that they were friends of Rodney’s because they were respecting his space. I pulled over curbside to see if she was all right.

  “What’s going on, Rachael? Are you okay?” I asked her.

  She turned around and said, “Yeah, I’m fine. This nigga right here is trying to play games with me,” she complained.

  “Ain’t nobody playing games with her, ma’am. She just wants to fuss all the time about these fucking chicken heads ’round here,” he tried to explain.

  “Never mind all of that,” I interjected. “Why are you out here in this cold weather when you just got out of the hospital for a gunshot wound?”

  “That bullet didn’t penetrate nothing. It went straight through me, so the doctors bandaged me up and sent me home that same night.”

  My questions continued. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m good. But I’ll be better if she gets out of my face with that dumb-ass shit!”

  Before I uttered another word, I took a good look at this guy Rodney. He was definitely a thug at heart. He was about five-foot-nine, with a medium build. He wasn’t cute at all, so I was trying to figure out what was it that Rachael saw in him. His clothes were baggy as hell and his hair was locked up in some very unkept looking dreads. I shook my head in disbelief as she approached me.

  Rachael walked up to the driver side door. “Yoshi, I am so sick of him; I don’t know what to do. This nigga is always trying to play games with me and lying about these bitches around here. I ain’t stupid, I know he was with that bitch Trina last night because my girl Pamela told me she saw him in her face at the club.”

  “I understand you’re mad because you think he’s cheating on you and all, but you are not supposed to let a man take you out of your square. Look at his friends over there, laughing at you.”

  “Fuck them! I don’t care. They can get cursed out too, the way I feel right now,” she replied, frustrated.

  “Sweetie, it’s not worth it. Don’t let
him make a spectacle out of you. People are riding by looking at you and shaking their heads. Don’t give them anything to talk about.”

  “I don’t care about these people ’round here. They can kiss my ass!”

  I got out of the truck and grabbed Rachael by the hand and pulled her close to me. “I know you’re upset. But you’ve got to get a grip. How do you think a man is going to respect you if you’re out here in public arguing with him?”

  She sucked her teeth. “This ain’t nothing. We do this all the time. But I do know that he better get his fucking shit together before I go off out here.”

  “But that’s not good, honey. You are a lady. And if you want to be treated as such, you are going to have to act the part.”

  While I was putting some words of wisdom in Rachael’s ears, I didn’t see an undercover detective car pull up behind my truck. They flashed their lights and hopped out of their vehicle. My heart did a summersault. One of the detectives, dressed in plain clothes, approached me and Rachael, while the other detective walked toward Rodney and his homeboys. When the group saw this, they took off running. All three of them scattered in different directions like roaches. When the detective who was about to approach us saw them run off, he immediately forgot us and switched gears. He took off running directly behind Rodney. Rachael saw this and got upset.

  “DT is on your ass, baby. Run!” Rachael yelled as she broke away from my hand. She literally ran behind the officer, who was running behind her boyfriend.

  Now how crazy was that? She was just cursing this guy out, now she’s helping him get away. If she knew like I knew, she’d better turn her dumb ass around and let that detective do his job before he stopped in his track and arrested her silly ass for interfering with an arrest. I shook my head and hopped back into my truck. I had seen enough and knew that it was time for me to get my ass out of there. I couldn’t tell you what the detective was going to say to me, but I am glad he never got the chance to do it.

  Before I made my turn on Church Street, I looked in the direction in which everyone ran, and no one was in sight. I guess Rachael wasn’t going to let her man go down without a fight. But if it were up to me, I would’ve let them get him and I would not have said or done shit to stop it. It was evident that Rodney was a piece of shit. He was a block hustler who looked like he needed a makeover and a grown man to show him how to treat a woman. Too bad Rachael had no clue what it was like to be with a man who knew how to love and treat her, because if she did, she wouldn’t be subjecting herself to the shit she was going through right now.

  Playing a Dangerous Game

  It took me at least ten trips back and forth to my truck to get everything into my new place. I had shit piled up all over top of each other until I figured out where everything was going. Tired from all the hustle and bustle, I jumped in the bathtub and took me a hot bubble bath. I sat in that tub for at least an hour, until I noticed that the tips of my fingers had gotten wrinkled. I knew then it was time for me to wash up and get out of there. So I did just that and when I had completely dried myself off with my bath towel, my cellular phone rang. I wrapped the towel around me as tight as I could and raced into the kitchen area of my apartment, where I had my phone charging up.

  “Hello,” I said immediately after I snatched it up from the countertop and pressed the send button.

  “Are you busy?” the familiar voice asked me.

  Hearing Mario’s voice sent chills down my spine. That man had a sexy voice and I knew if I wanted the dialogue to continue, I had to answer his question.

  “I actually just got out the shower.”

  “So are we on for dinner?” he asked.

  “Sure. Where would you like to go?”

  “There’s a sushi spot off Laskin Road I would love to take you to, if that’s okay with you.”

  “I love sushi. But I’m shocked to hear that you eat it.”

  “I’m a food connoisseur, so I eat everything.”

  “Well, what time is dinner?”

  “I’m ready now if you are.”

  “I told you I just got out of the shower so you’re gonna have to give me some time to get dressed.”

  “How much time do you need?”

  “Can you give me an hour?”

  “Sure I can. Where are we going to meet?”

  “I can meet you where I met you earlier today.”

  “Sounds good. So I guess I’ll see you in one hour.”

  “Okay, see you then,” I told him, and then we both hung up.

  After I ended our call I raced back into my bedroom and combed through my suitcases looking for something sexy to wear. It was fifty-five degrees outside so I couldn’t wear a provocative dress. I settled with another pair of Chip & Pepper jeans and a cute little cashmere sweater. I topped my attire off with a pair of black leather Gucci boots that came up to my knees. I didn’t have the black Gucci bag to match so I carried my D&G black leather bag instead. I looked at the time and noticed it was a quarter till seven so I had fifteen minutes left to throw on my coat, grab my keys, and get out the door. I didn’t want to give him the impression that I was pressed to see him, so I wasted the entire fifteen minutes sitting in my truck listening to a Keyshia Cole CD. The song “You Complete Me” had my mind going. The words were so deep and to know you have that type of man in your life is a beautiful thing. Who knows, maybe my new friend Mario would be that guy.

  Five minutes after seven I decided to leave the parking lot of my building, so it only took me approximately three minutes to get to my destination. When I pulled up I noticed he was parked in the same spot he was in earlier. His windows were slightly tinted so I couldn’t see the expression on his face. I knew he was smiling though, because I was cheesing from ear to ear. When I parked my truck directly beside his, he rolled down his window and asked me if I was going to ride with him or follow him.

  “I prefer to ride with you if you don’t mind.”

  “Well, come on and get in,” he insisted.

  Hearing him give me the cue to get into the car with him prompted me to do just that. And when I got into his car, the scent of his Black Ice air freshener hit me like a ton of bricks. He had about eight air fresheners dangling from his rearview mirror and the shit smelled good.

  “So, where is this place again?” I asked even though I wouldn’t know if he told me. I just wanted to make conversation.

  “It’s on Laskin Road near the oceanfront.”

  “What’s the name of it?”

  “Otani. They got the best sushi and hibachi in town.”

  “Sounds like you’ve been there quite a few times.”

  “I’ve had my share of visits,” he replied as he merged onto the highway.

  “I hope we don’t run into one of your old girlfriends there.”

  He laughed and said, “I promise you we won’t.”

  During our entire drive we talked about his last relationship as well as mine, even though I didn’t tell the whole truth. My situation with Lance and all the DAs and judges was irrelevant. I didn’t want to appear to him as being a ho or a gold digger, so I continued to play the innocent girl role and he accepted just that. When the part of the conversation came up about my occupation, I told a little white lie about how I used to work for a brokerage firm in New York. But since the economy was bad, they had to let me go, which is why I ended up coming to this state. Reluctantly I told him about my family who lived here. I told him that they were kind folk from my father’s side and that we weren’t really close, but since I was in town I decided to connect with them.

  “I would love to meet them,” he said anxiously.

  “No, you wouldn’t. My family is ghetto as hell! They would see you and try to suck all the energy out of you.”

  Mario laughed. “They can’t be that bad.”

  “Oh yes, they are. Sometimes I wonder why I bothered to reconnect to them after all these years. I mean, it’s not like we have a lot in common.”

  “Where do th
ey live?”

  “Some place in Norfolk called Huntersville.”

  “Oh man! They live in the hood! That place is wild.”

  “Don’t you think I’ve already witnessed that?” I replied sarcastically, and then I chuckled.

  Mario shook his head. “Sweetie, I am going to need you to be careful when you go out there. Cats be getting murdered out there on a regular basis and I would hate for you to get caught up in the cross fire.”

  “Trust me, when I go out there it’s always in the daytime. And I leave right when it’s about to get dark.”

  “Make sure you keep it like that. I would hate to kill somebody behind you,” he said, cracking a smile.

  “Yeah, right! You wouldn’t bust a grape behind me. You would probably forget all about me if something happened to me.”

  “Well, let something happen to you and you’ll see.”

  I stared at Mario for a good twenty seconds. I looked directly into his eyes to see if I could see the sincerity behind his words. He seemed like he was telling me the truth, but on the other hand, I figured why would he go to the lengths of retaliating if something happened to me? He and I had just met, so what would he gain from doing it? I couldn’t figure out what his motive was, so I left it alone and rolled with the program.

  When we arrived at the Japanese restaurant, Otani, we were seated at one of the hibachi grills with two other couples. After the waitress took everyone’s dinner and drink orders, Mario and I got a little more acquainted. While we engaged in our conversation, I watched his body language. I noticed how he sat straight up in his chair. He wouldn’t allow his body to slump over one bit. And the way he held his chopsticks when he ate his food really shocked me. This guy must’ve been to somebody’s etiquette school because he was on point with the way he sipped his hot tea and the whole thing. I wanted to make a comment, but I decided against it.

  “So, how far do you live from where you met me?” I asked.

  “Are you familiar with the Green Run area?”

  “No.”

  “Well, it’s not too far from here. As a matter of fact, it’s about a ten-minute drive from where I met you.”