I Choose You: Hood Love at Its Finest

by Diamond Johnson

  Tyrone and I haven’t talked in about two years. One day out of the blue he shot me a text saying he was getting married and whatever him and I had going on it was time to dead that shit because no bitch came before his wife and also to delete his number. I chose to respect the man’s wishes and walk away from our situation with at least a little pride. I’m not gonna lie, at times I would get tempted to call his ass but I knew for a fact he would come looking for my ass if I were to disrespect his relationship that way.

  So here it was two years later and I haven’t spoken to Ty since the day he told me to delete his number. I don’t know why, but for some reason that day I saw him at the mall I was expecting for him to reach out and hug me back. When he shoved me and called me a bitch I couldn’t help but to feel like shit in the process. So I told myself I was going to go to the extreme to get Tyrone’s ass back. It was Keisha’s crazy ass that came up with the idea to give his wife the fake pregnancy test. It’s funny because we planned to give the test to his girl but it just so happened that Tyrone walked in the salon during that time so I threw the shit at him.

  I have to give the bitch props though. That Ka’lani bitch is pretty as hell. I only saw her one time in a picture on Tyrone’s phone when she was calling one night wondering about our man’s whereabouts. She reminds me of Tammy from Love and Hip Hop Atlanta, just a smaller version. For her ass to be so small, the bitch got a pair of hands on her. Thank God for Ty getting her ass off of me because I thought the bitch was gonna kill my ass up in there. I don’t know who those other three bitches were that came and started jumping Keisha’s ass but they really did a number on my girl. Her face was looking like Martin on that episode when he got his ass beat in the boxing ring by Thomas Hearns. As Keisha and I finally settled into my all-black 2009 Pontiac G6, we saw Tyrone walking from out of the salon to get something out of his car. As soon as we saw him we started ducking because wasn’t no telling what he would do if he caught our asses. When we finally saw him go back inside the shop holding food in his hands, I pulled off and got the fuck outta dodge. I was gon’ leave his wife alone though. I just felt like fuckin’ with her today. Shit, that nigga had pissed me off trying to play me like some cheap ho so I was going to take it out on his bitch! That shit was too funny though. That prissy bitch acts like she can’t take a damn joke!

  Chapter 6: Ka’lani

  “Who was that bitch Lani?”

  “Was this your first time seeing this ho?”

  “That bitch got some nerve coming in there talking about ‘Where Ty at!’”

  My girls were firing question after question as we sat at the bar in Chili’s getting a drink after a long day at work. “Ladies, ladies please, if you would stop with all the damn questions I could explain myself,” I said as I took a sip from my watermelon margarita.

  “Okay then bitch hurry up,” Tisha said as she looked like she was ready for another round of the fight from earlier. I couldn’t help but laugh because these bitches were nosey as fuck.

  “Okay y’all damn, so that bitch was some ho Ty used to mess around with when me and him was going through some things about two years ago. I never seen the bitch a day in life up until a few hours ago. That night when I left is because I saw the texts in his phone between him and a girl name Ashley. I never knew who this Ashley bitch was until today when Ty called the bitch name out. I never understood why when niggas cheat, they go and find the ugliest bitch on the damn planet. Like my girl Joseline from Love and Hip Hop says, ‘Niggas will have filet mignon at home and still go out and get them a Hamburger Helper bitch.’” My girls doubled over in laughter at my crazy ass comments.

  “So what did Ty say when y’all went in the back?” Tamika asked once everybody stopped laughing.

  “He just let me know that Ashley is just a bird he used to mess with back in the day and he hasn’t talked to her ever since. He said something about they saw each other the other day at the mall and he ignored her ass when she spoke to him so the bitch must have gotten offended and called herself tryna get some pay back. And honestly y’all, I believe him because the look I saw in his eyes earlier was a look of fear, like he’s scared of losing me. So, if my husband said she just a bird then point black period, she just a bird!” I said, making sure my girls could feel me.

  “So who was that fat bitch she was with though Lani?” asked Tamika.

  “Yeah who was that ho?” chimed in Kyra.

  “Honestly y’all, I don’t know who that bitch was but y’all beat that girl ass and Kyra yo li’l ass was putting in work too,” I said, laughing at Kyra.

  “Bitch, li’l? Yo ass ain’t no bigger than me!” Kyra said, getting offended.

  “Girl I was just playing with yo ass. Calm down,” I said to Kyra as I leaned over to give her a hug and she pushed me away.

  I choose you, and if it ain’t you then it’s just not worth it. Keyshia Cole’s “I Choose You” started playing from my iPhone, indicating that I had an incoming text message.

  My man: Bae where you at?

  Me: Out with the girls. Why?

  My man: Because I came home and my wife wasn’t here with dinner cooked, that’s why! Tell your girls you’ll see them tomorrow. Bring ya ass home and don’t let me have to come get you either. Since you didn’t cook just bring me something back from wherever you at, even though I’m pretty sure y’all at Chili’s anyways getting drinks.

  I laughed as I showed the text message to my girls. “It’s like who the hell do this nigga think he is?” I said as I put my phone back inside my purse.

  “Bitch you talking all this shit but you know damn well yo ass bout to flag down this waiter to get Ty some food to go so you can get the hell up out of here,” Tisha said as her and my girls cracked up laughing. Fifteen minutes later, the waiter came back to the table with the honey-chipotle chicken crispers take-out that I ordered for my man.

  “Alright hos, I’ll text y’all when I get home,” I said as my girls and I got in the parking lot of Chili’s. After we exchanged hugs and goodbyes we all headed in our different directions.

  Thirty minutes later I was pulling into the garage of my home. I was so tired and sore after beating that bitch ass earlier in the shop. I hadn’t fought like that since my teenage years. I used to stay fighting all of Ty’s hos back in the day. As I walked inside the house I saw my handsome husband sitting on the couch in the den playing that dumb ass game on the PlayStation.

  “I see you decided to bring your ass home,” Ty said smartly as he slapped me on the ass when I bent down to put the food on the table for him.

  “Watch your hands!” I said as I moved his hands from off of me so that I could go upstairs to take a nice hot bath.

  Ty roughly grabbed me from behind and planted me firmly on his lap and said, “Where you think you going?”

  “I’m bout to take a shower. Now move,” I whined as I tried wiggling myself up from his grasp.

  “Give me a kiss first.”

  I kissed my husband on the lips then dashed up the stairs before he asked me to do anything else.

  Chapter 7: Tyrone

  As I sat there on the couch eating my food that my wife had just brought home to me, I couldn’t help but think about the bullshit that took place today. I couldn’t believe Ashley bought her ratchet ass down to the salon and lied talking about being pregnant by me. Walking into the salon, never in a million years did I think I would see my wife on top of one of my old hos beating the dog shit outta her.

  I met Ashley’s bird ass a few years back one night out with my niggas at K.O.D. I mean yeah, she was okay looking but she was thick as fuck. Only reason why I started messing with her ass was because Lani had my ass in the doghouse and wasn’t given a nigga any. So I pretty much used her ass to help benefit my needs. I never had any type of feelings for Ashley at all. Like I told Lani earlier, she was just a bird. I saw her stupid ass the other day at the mall and that ho had the nerve to reach out and try to hug me. I shoved that bitch so hard she al
most fell on that damn ground. That’s the only thing I could think of that would make her come to my wife’s job talking about she’s pregnant by me. I ’ma make sure I go pay that ho a visit sooner than later to check her ass right quick.

  I really hoped Lani’s mean ass believed me when I told her I haven’t touched that girl since two years ago. I don’t want nothing or no one to come into the middle of what I’m trying to build here with Lani. I love this girl to death. I want her to be the one to have my first daughter. Just thinking about the fact that I almost lost the girl of my dreams two years ago makes me want to give Lani my all.

  Thirty minutes later Lani finally decided to bring her ass from out the damn tub. Upstairs in our master bedroom we had a Venice luxury whirlpool tub with jets that she loved to stay in for hours. A few times I had to literally drag her ass from out of there. My wife came downstairs in her pink Victoria’s Secret shorts with a pink undershirt to match with some pink fuzzy booties on her feet. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun. I loved when she did her hair like that because I got to see her natural beauty. I could just throw the towel in, point blank period. My wife was the baddest human being walking this planet Earth.

  “Did you save me a chicken tender bae?” Lani asked as she sat on my lap sticking her hand in my food. She smelled so good. She had on that new Oahu Coconut Sunset from Bath and Body Works that she bought a few weeks ago.

  “No I didn’t save you shit. Now move,” I teased as I flicked her hand away.

  “Stop playing bae. Give me one,” she said as she tried to take the box from out of my hand.

  “Here with yo greedy self,” I said as I gave her the box so that she could get the one she wanted.

  “I bet you didn’t eat all that food from earlier that I brought you,” I said, shaking my head.

  When she didn’t reply I just took my head. It never failed. Whenever I buy my wife food, she never finishes it, but whenever I have food of my own, she wanna be all under me and help eat my shit. I love this girl, I thought as I watched her tear my food up.

  “Ooooh bae, let’s watch Love and Basketball,” Lani said as she climbed off my lap to look in the sliding door on the entertainment center and find the movie.

  “For what when yo ass gon’ fall asleep within the first thirty minutes of the movie? Baby it’s almost midnight now. I know for a fact yo ass not gon’ stay up to watch this whole movie. This shit about two hours long,” I chuckled as I watched my wife put the disc inside the DVD player.

  “We’ll see,” she said as she snuggled up under me.

  And just like I knew she would, within the first thirty minutes my wife was knocked out cold on the couch. I just looked down at her and shook my head at her. “Lani, Lani,” I said, laughing at her ass.

  She jumped and moved my hand and said, “Ty stop. I’m tryna watch the movie.”

  “Girl you was knocked out. Come on, let’s go upstairs,” I said, pulling her up.

  “No I’m watching TV,” she said, looking dead serious. I just laid back down and five minutes later she was knocked out again. I just sat there laughing at her funny ass. I stood up to turn the TV off and picked Lani off the couch and headed upstairs to get some sleep.

  The next Sunday morning I woke up around 10:45 a.m. Sundays were really my chill days but I got a text from my boy Otis letting me know to meet him at the club we owned out on South Beach called Club Luxury. Around three years ago, Lani and I were constantly beefing about me leaving the game alone until one day, she left my ass with an ultimatum. I was forced to choose between the game and my wife. I know some of y’all might say, “You shouldn’t even have to think about that!” But man, that had to be one of the hardest decisions that I ever made in my life. Was the police constantly watching my every move worth it? Was watching my back every two seconds so I didn’t get my head blown off worth it? And most importantly, was it worth losing my wife from the constant late nights and having her wait up for me?

  So, I did what any other real man would do in this sort of situation. I chose my wife! Lani gave my ass six months to finish up what I had to do out in the streets. And in those six months I worked my ass off. I had enough money to last us a lifetime and never have to work a day in our lives again. Once I was completely finished with the game I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I couldn’t just sit around the house and do nothing. I started asking myself questions like “what the fuck am I good at?” One thing I knew for sure I wasn’t working a nine to five when I’m already damn near a millionaire.

  One night me and my boy Otis were out at nightclub when it finally hit me that I wanted to open up my own joint. Otis was still in the game around this time. I told him with the amount of money we could make from having our own club, he could leave that dope boy shit to somebody else. So my boy and I teamed up and worked our asses off to finally have our very own spot out on South Beach.

  Some of the most known celebrities come to our spot, from Trina to Nicki Minaj and even my niggas Migos. Our club is decked out real nice, thanks to the help of my wife, her girls, and my mom who, helped pick out the decorations. Downstairs is where we have a big ass dance floor that can hold at least 12,000 people. We also have couches and booths down there as well. There are two bars in the club, one downstairs and one upstairs. We have strippers too but they are only upstairs. The upstairs of our club is for what we like to call the “ballers only section.” To get upstairs, you had to have money, point blank period. You could spend roughly up to $3,000 in one night fucking with Club Luxury. It costs $500 a night for upstairs because that’s the V.I.P. of the club. We had some of the baddest strippers there too. I’m talking fine quality like Lisa Raye when she played Diamond on The Players Club.

  After jumping out the shower I chose to throw on my black Nike shorts, a wife beater, and my Nike slides. When I got in the kitchen Lani was standing by the oven making pancakes.

  “Good morning baby,” she cooed as she flipped the pancakes onto the other side.

  “Good morning bae,” I said as I went into the refrigerator to pour me a cup of orange juice.

  “What you getting into today?”

  “Nothing. I’m about to go head over to the club to meet with O for a minute,” I said, watching her every move.

  “Oh alright. When I finish eating I’ma go take a shower and go to the gym.”

  “Alright baby,” I said, walking over to her and taking the fork out of her hand so I could get a piece of one of the pancakes.

  “Move Ty, now damn,” she said as she tried to get the fork from me.

  Laughing I stood up to leave. “Alright bae, I’ll see you when I get back, I love you,” I said, kissing her on the lips.

  “I love you too,” she said with a mouth full of food.

  “What’s good nigga?” I said to O once we reached the main floor inside of the club.

  “Nigga it’s going down Friday night. I just got a call from my man Stevie J. letting me know that he wanna have his girl Joseline’s birthday bash here,” he started. “We gotta make sure we get flyers everywhere and have only the top five baddest strippers to work that night too. We’ll do a promotion that night and let the females in free before midnight.” My boy was too hyped as he continued going on and on about our upcoming event.

  “Alright then nigga, it’s on,” I said as I reached out to dap my boy up. “I’ma run upstairs to my office because I think I left my iPod up there,” I said, pressing the button to let me go to the second floor. O decided to ride the elevator up there with me.

  “Aye man, what’s up with your wife’s girl?” he asked, trying to cover that big ass smile.

  “Who nigga?”

  “Man Tisha fine ass, that’s who. I been wanted her pretty ass but every time I approach her she treat me like I’m some lame out here in these streets. Tell Lani to give me her number so I could call her ass,” he said ,looking serious as a heart attack.

  “Alright man but if you get her, don’t fuck around on her because my wife
wouldn’t let me here the end of that shit man,” I told him, dead ass serious.

  “Man I got her,” he let me know.

  When we got inside my office I went to my desk where I saw my iPod laying from the other night. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to give Lani a call.

  “What’s up bae?” she answered.

  “Nothing much. Baby let me get Tisha number for my boy O,” I said grinning and looking over at O sitting in the chair looking happy as fuck.

  “What he want her number for? He like her or something? And what’s so funny? Just pass him the phone,” she said after asking me a million damn questions.

  I passed the phone over to Otis and watched him get interrogated by my wife. I don’t know what the hell she was saying to him but his ass was damn sure listening. Then I watched him go in his pocket and he typed something in. Five minutes later he passed me back my phone.

  “So she gave you the number?” I asked, laughing at the look on his face.

  “Yeah man she gave it to me. Let’s get the hell up outta here,” he responded, getting up so we could lock down the club.

  Chapter 8: Ka’lani

  I was in my car on the way to the gym when I got a call from my husband. I just assumed he was calling to know about my whereabouts but I was shocked when he told me that his boy Otis wanted my girl Tisha’s number. Now don’t get me wrong, Otis is fine as hell. He kinda reminds me of the rapper Nelly. He’s built like him, he has the tattoos, and his waves in his hair stay on swim. I went ahead and gave him Tisha’s number because I know my girl doesn’t have a man and I could see her and O hooking up. They would be so cute together. Before I gave the number up though, I gave his ass a whole bunch of instructions. I told him if he wants her, he needs to respect her and be faithful to her. Once I finished, I went ahead and gave him my girl’s number. I knew Tisha was probably gonna curse my ass out for giving away her number without her permission but shit, I didn’t care. She better tie that nigga down before the next bitch does.