As I was in thought, there was a knock at the door. I made my way to it, rocking nothing but my white Calvin Klein briefs. When I looked through the peephole, I saw a Hispanic chick standing next to a cart full of food. I hadn’t called room service, so I figured she had the wrong room. Before she knocked again, I opened the door wide.
“I didn’t call for room service,” I said.
“You didn’t, but someone else ordered the food for you. Do you mind if I bring the cart in?”
I figured the food was ordered by Jeff, so I opened the door wider and let the chick come in. She strolled the cart inside, leaving it near the couch in the living room area. When she turned around, her eyes scanned me from head to toe and then traveled back to my package that was on display like a mini mountain. A smile was on her face, and she rubbed her hands together to calm her fidgeting. Finally, her eyes shifted to mine.
“Is there anything else I can get for you?” she asked.
“Naw, but thanks.”
I wanted to tip her, but I didn’t have any money on me. She made her way to the door, but before she exited, she turned around.
“Lance Gross,” she said, snapping her fingers. “Is that who you are?”
I moved my head from side to side. “No. Roc Dawson. The one and only.”
Her brows rose and she wet her already shiny lips with her tongue. “Well, good look, Roc Dawson. Are you married?”
“No.” I spoke too quickly. “I mean, yes. Well, almost. I am engaged.”
The chick smiled at my attempt to get my shit together. I don’t know why it was hard for me to flat out say that I wasn’t interested.
“Engaged, but not married. That’s a good thing, and I may have to stop by later to check on you.”
This was my opportunity to clear things up and tell her that stopping by later would do her no good. But all I did was move my way over to the door and open it. I was ready for her to leave so I could get back to my thoughts.
With a grin on her face, the chick walked past me and left. I locked the door and went over to the cart full of food. On top was an array of fruits, pancakes, bacon, and toast. Orange juice was in one pitcher and apple juice was in another. The food didn’t look as scrumptious as the food Jada had cooked, but it was doable. I grabbed a piece of toast and returned to the bedroom. While sitting on the bed, I reached for my cell phone and returned a surprising phone call that I had gotten from Chase about three days ago. According to her, we needed to talk. Talking wasn’t what I wanted to do, but I dialed the number, regardless, to see where her head was at.
“It took you long enough to call me, but I figured you must’ve been tied up,” she said.
“Maybe so, but what is it that we need to talk about?”
“I’m not sure. I assumed you may have a few questions for me, especially since you now know that Jada and me did some really bad—terrible things to win the challenge. Let me first say that we don’t regret anything that we’ve done. I am sorry that you feel as though we somehow tricked you into all of this, but the truth of the matter is you played yourself.”
“Nobody tricked me into anything. And on a for real tip, I don’t have any questions for you at all. I suspected that you and Jada were doin’ some foul shit, but you know what, ma? It don’t matter. Y’all won, so go enjoy the money and have a dope fuckin’ life.”
I had to pretend that what they’d done hadn’t upset me. The objective was for me to remain calm and deal with this when they least expected it.
“The act that you’re putting on is not impressive, Roc. I can sense how bitter you are. I know how much it probably hurts you to be put into a position like this, and I’m sure you’re worried about your precious Desa Rae. Are the two of you still planning on getting married?”
“Absolutely. Nothin’ is goin’ to change that, and like I told Jada, y’all gon’ have to come better than this. This game is weak, and to be frank, I’m done playin’ it. Holla back, Chase. Better yet, lose my number. I don’t know how you got it anyway, but move the fuck on and be done with it before you find yourself with dirt coverin’ you.”
She laughed. “Your threats are hilarious. You would love for me to be done with it, wouldn’t you? We’ll see, Roc. In due time, we will definitely see if I can move on, or should I say, squash it. Right now, I must tell you that I’m not feeling that option. I still have certain issues that need to be resolved. Whether you accept it or not, you play a huge part in me resolving some of those issues. I’ll talk to you soon, but I want you to get all of the rest you need for the reunion show. So, goodbye, and please give my love to Desa Rae.”
She hung up. I sucked my teeth, trying my best to calm my anger. I suspected that this bitch was going to do something drastic, so I dialed out to call my boy, Gage.
“What’s up, Boss?” he said immediately. “I got one question for you. When in the hell are you comin’ home? Everybody been lookin’ for you, and Craig runnin’ around at the shop like he the Head Negro in Charge. Niggas ain’t down with that, so he’s been catchin’ a lot of heat. You need to get back here to stop the bleedin’. Quick, fast, and I do mean in a hurry.”
“When I left, I put Craig in charge, so y’all gotta respect that shit. See what you can do to calm things down for me. I should be there in a few days. Things gon’ get back to normal real soon. As for why I hit you up, I need you to do a huge favor for me.”
“What’s that?”
“I need for you to lay somebody down for me, for good.”
“You know that ain’t no problem. Just tell me who and it will be done.”
“Her name is Chase.” I paused because I didn’t know her last name. “I need to get more info on this trick. Give me a few minutes and I’ll hit you back.”
“Cool. Let me know what’s up.”
I ended my call with Gage, but as I started to reach out to my contact at the police station, someone else knocked at the door. I thought it was the chick from room service again, but when I pulled the door open, I was surprised to see him standing on the other side of the door.
“I hope you enjoyed breakfast,” he said. “May I come in?”
I wasn’t sure what the fuck we had to discuss, but without treating the brotha ill, I opened the door to let him come inside.
When I received a phone call from Jeff, telling me that Jada had won the challenge, I was disappointed. Then again, I was glad that Jaylin hadn’t won. Anyone but him was good news, only because he didn’t deserve anything but a hard slap across his face.
Jeff advised me that I had to return to Hell House in two days. He also asked me to bring Jada a present for winning. I wasn’t sure what to get her ghettofied self, and I had to mentally prepare myself to stand before backstabbing people who all voted me out of the house. I didn’t think that seeing everyone again would be easy. But that was minor, especially in comparison to what I was about to do. That was have dinner with my ex, Jonathan. I was surprised that he agreed to it, but there was still so much inside of me that I wanted to say to him. I decided to come clean with him. I wanted him to know exactly how I felt when we last spoke. He’d told me about his engagement, but I couldn’t handle the news that day. I was glad that he rushed off to a meeting and didn’t notice how torn I was.
But, today was a new day. I was feeling better and I wanted him to know that I was ready to move on. It was now or never.
I sat at Bar Louie in the Central West End, waiting for Jonathan to show. It was almost ten minutes after six. He was late. That irritated me, but no more than when I looked up and saw him strut into the restaurant with a woman by his side. I had gone all out for this occasion. The spaghetti-strapped, purple dress that I wore hugged my curves. My hair was slicked back, but curled on the tips. Several strands dangled along the sides of my face and my gold-hoop earrings matched my bangles and necklace. Plum lipstick moistened my lips, and right before I came here, I stopped at the MAC counter to get the hookup on my makeup and lashes. It was important for me to
look at my best, but with Jonathan bringing his woman with him, yet again, I was extremely on edge.
As they headed my way, I couldn’t help but to notice how plain she was. She had no curves whatsoever, her long, stringy hair had no bounce, and the only makeup she had on was a loud, red lip gloss that did nothing for her pale skin. Her flimsy dress wasn’t hugging a thing and it looked like it came from a clearance rack at the Goodwill. Either way, I smiled and pretended as his decision to bring her was fine with me.
“Sylviaaaa,” Jonathan said with a smile on his face. My heart slammed against my chest when I heard him say my name. I swear, I loved this man to death. Truthfully, I had no clue how to overcome my feelings. The deep gray suit he wore accented the minimal gray hairs on his head and the ones mixed in with his trimmed beard. Like always, he was clean cut, classy and sharp as ever. His business attire was always on point and his cologne infused the entire space around us. No matter where he was, he always presented himself as a professional.
I stood to greet him. “Hello, Jonathan. I’m very glad you could make it.”
“Me too. My fiancée was on her way out with some friends, so I asked her to stop by to meet you. Lesa, this is Sylvia.”
She extended her hand to mine. “Nice to meet you, Sylvia. I’ve heard so much about you. This is such a pleasure.”
Only Lord knows what Jonathan had told her about me, but it didn’t really matter. “Same here, Lesa. I haven’t heard much about you, but I suspect that it’s all good, especially if you’re going to be Jonathan’s wife.”
“I am,” she hurried to say. “And I’m looking forward to being the new Mrs. Taylor.”
I cringed, hoping that she didn’t notice a change in my demeanor. Lesa turned to Jonathan. She gave him a peck on the lips and then told him she would see him later tonight. If I could prevent that from happening, I surely would. After all, I didn’t get all dressed up like this for nothing.
“Well, well, well,” Jonathan said as he pulled back the chair to take a seat. A smile was locked on his face. I could tell he was as happy to see me as I was to see him. “I must say, Sylvia, that you look spectacular.”
“Thank you. So do you, but I would never expect anything less.”
He searched into my eyes and rubbed his hands together. It appeared that he had something on his mind, but whatever it was, he switched his attention to the menu on the table. “Let’s see,” he said. “What shall I order?”
“If my memory serves me correctly, I’ll say you’ll be ordering the stuffed chicken with broccoli and a garden salad with an extra piece of bread. You’ll wash it all down with white wine, and for dessert, you’ll consider the chocolate cake. But what you can really have is not on the menu. Personally, I think what is not on the menu may be much more fulfilling.”
He laid the menu down and swallowed. I guess he was surprised by my bluntness, but he shouldn’t have been.
“That sounds exactly like what I would order, but in reference to what’s not on the menu, I’m not interested in that anymore, especially since I recently heard some things about you that concern me.”
My brows shot up. “What exactly have you heard about me that concerns you? If your ex wife, Dana, has shared some things with you about me, that shouldn’t concern you because you already know how she feels about me. I don’t know who else could’ve said anything to you about me, because we do not share the same friends.”
He tapped his fingertips on the table and stared at me. “Interesting. I believe that if you think real hard, you may come up with a name. I’m not going to tell you his name, and you’re right. He’s my friend, not yours. And just so you know, I was highly disappointed to hear about your actions.”
Okay. Now I knew where he was going with this. Jonathan had to be talking about Jaylin. I couldn’t believe he had already been in contact with Jonathan to tell him what had transpired between us. I bet he couldn’t wait to call and make me look bad, and I bet he didn’t tell Jonathan how aggressive he’d been with me.
“Jaylin Rogers, right?” I said. “I’m not surprised that he contacted you, but why does anything he said about me concern you?”
I could sense Jonathan’s anger building, from looking at his eye twitch. “It does concern me. I didn’t think you were the kind of woman to put yourself out there like that and open your legs up to anyone. Particularly, a good friend of mine who has had numerous sexual partners. Not that it matters, but he didn’t call me. I reached out to him about a case I was working on. Your name happened to come up. I was shocked by what he’d told me, and was it necessary for you to go down on him?”
I almost choked on the water I was drinking, but I didn’t. If anything, I wanted to get up and run. I couldn’t believe Jaylin gave Jonathan specific details. This is not where I wanted our conversation to go. “To be honest, Jonathan, I don’t care what Jaylin told you. I didn’t come here to talk about him. I’m here to talk about us.”
He was blunt. “There is no us anymore, and even though you didn’t come here to talk about Jaylin, I can’t help but to wonder how many items you served him from your menu. I’m not happy about you having sex with him, Sylvia, and quite frankly, I think you did it out of spite.”
How dare he question me about this, especially when he was the one who had hurt me in the past. Not to mention that he was getting married. I crossed my legs and let him have it too. “No, Jonathan, I did it because I needed a good lay. I suspected that Jaylin would deliver, and bravo, he did. Now, I’ll repeat myself again. I’m not here to talk about Jaylin. And while there is no more us anymore, you seem jealous. Is that why you brought your fiancée here tonight? To make me jealous?”
“I brought her here because I wanted you to meet her. I’m not jealous about what happened between you and Jaylin. Again, I’m just disappointed, as well as disgusted.”
“So disappointed and disgusted that you prefer we sit here all night to discuss it. If that’s the case, maybe we should go. I’m sure you have other things to do with your time, and I must say that I do too.”
He was never the kind of man to keep up a bunch of nonsense, so I wasn’t caught off-guard when he stood and dropped twenty dollars on the table. “You’re right. I do have better things to do with my time tonight. I don’t know why I came here, after knowing what you did with my friend. That was low, Sylvia. I never would have done anything like that to you, but I forgot about the kind of woman you really are.”
He walked away. I followed, only because I didn’t appreciate his attitude about this thing with Jaylin. His words stung a bit too.
“It puzzles me that you still care about who I spend my time with,” I said while trailing behind him. He walked so fast that I could barely keep up. I was almost out of breath. “Our relationship has been over with for a while. I’m not the one getting married. You are, right?”
He swung around to face me. “Yeah, I am. And thank God the woman that I’m marrying is nothing like you.”
I almost tripped as I rushed out of the restaurant and tried to catch him. He was straight up tripping. How dare he try to throw his hideous-looking fiancée in my face and continue to diss me?
“By looking at your woman, I can tell she’s nothing like me. What a shame that is, because I know what kind of woman excites you. I know what a woman must bring to the table to keep you happy. You have no one to blame if you’re settling for someone who has nothing in common with me.”
He stopped next to his black BMW and placed his hand on the door handle. He remained calm as ever. “I don’t do this anymore, Sylvia. Enough is enough. There’s no need for us to have these kinds of confrontations, so do me a favor. Don’t reach out to me again, okay? You have my word that I’m going to leave this conversation right here. I’ve said my piece and you’ve said yours.”
“Great. I have no problem not reaching out to you again, so goodbye and good luck.”
Taking the high road, Jonathan got in his car and sped off. My car was nearby, so I
walked to it with disgust written all over my face. I visualized us having a decent dinner, laughing and talking about old times and then sealing our date with a kiss. Boy, was I wrong. It was odd to me that Jonathan and Jaylin had all of a sudden spoken to each other. I bet any amount of money that Jaylin had reached out to him. This was another thing that I added to my list of reasons why I despised Jaylin so much. He was the devil in disguise.
My high-rise apartment was only a few blocks away. I parked my car in the parking garage, and since my feet were killing me, I removed my high heels and carried them in my hand. With a frown on my face, I waited for the elevator to open. When it did, I got inside. My head hung low, but the moment I lifted it, I saw a man’s hand grab the elevator door, as it began to close. Within a second, Jonathan appeared. A blank expression covered his face and he stepped forward. The elevator closed behind him and started to go up.
“I was wrong,” he said in a whisper. “So were you, Sylvia. Regardless, I didn’t meet with you tonight to argue. I wanted to meet with you so I could look you in the eyes and do this.”
He inched forward and reached out to hold my face. His thumbs rubbed my cheeks, as our eyes locked together. Mine were filled with tears. The moment his lips touched mine, a slow tear rolled down my face. I sucked in a deep breath, causing my breasts to rise against his chest. There were no words to describe how I felt as our tongues danced together. There were no words to utter as I felt my pussy throbbing. I couldn’t say one word as his hands roamed my body and squeezed me in all the right places. But the one thing that I could say was Jonathan’s marriage would never happen if things were left up to me. This night belonged to us, and I was ready to make every single moment count.
The day that I’d gotten a call from Jeff about Jada winning Hell House, I was in the middle of something and had to call him back. I slammed the phone down to see what the fuck was going on.
“Everybody, on the floor. Now!” the man shouted as I peeked at him through the door in my tiny, corner office. This made the third time within two weeks that some fool done came up in my laundromat robbing my customers. Business had already been suffering because of it. It pissed me off that every time somebody black in the hood tried to run a business, the niggas around here would do their best to shut it down with bullshit like this.
The Reunion Show Page 9
