CHAPTER 9
Trina’s workday was somewhat typical. She fought her way through the horrendous morning rush hour traffic that plagues Chicago every day of the week. Once she’d gotten to work, she made sure to be extra polite to her supervisor as she headed to her cubicle. Up until lunch, her work had been rather mundane. She did her usual thing: processing insurance claims. However, what made today different was what had happened last night. She couldn’t help but keep Breon at the back of her mind. While she loved Breon with all of her heart, and hoped that he was indeed going to propose to her when they went to the Smokey Mountains soon, she still felt like something was off about last night.
Breon didn’t seem to be his usual self. Trina snickered under her breath when she thought about the fact that you really know somebody when you can tell what they’re thinking or feeling without them having to break it down for you. This was certainly the case with Breon. Trina knew that something wasn’t right. She didn’t feel like it was cheating, even though she did think about what her sister Tamar had said about men. Trina shrugged her sister’s negatively off. Rather, she thought more about what Breon had going on with Dante. Something was telling her, deep in her gut, that whatever had happened between Breon and this Dante guy was far deeper than he was letting on. Once she’d given a considerable amount of time to this idea, she began to wonder why Breon would be keeping this sort of thing from her. Not only did she want to know what he could be hiding, but she also wanted to know why he was hiding it.
Just as Trina’s lunchtime was approaching, there was a tap on the name plate outside of her cubicle. She snapped out of her thoughts and turned around in her office chair to see Janice. She and Janice had begun working at the insurance company around the same time, with Janice having worked in a different location up in Milwaukee. Janice, to Trina, was probably the sweetest coworker she’d ever had. Approaching thirty years old, Janice, who was white, was really a nice person and was always good to talk to. What Trina liked about her was how she didn’t run her mouth about what she heard. Her shoulder-length brown hair always looked perfectly cut, sometimes causing Trina to joke about her wearing a wig even though she knew for a fact that Janice had never worn a wig in her life.
“Hey,” Janice said. “Wassup, girl?”
“Awe girl, nothing,” Trina said. “Just about to go to lunch. Got a lot on my mind.”
“Okay,” Janice said, stepping into the cubicle. “Well, I was about to go to lunch myself. I was wondering if you wanted to go.”
“Girl, yes,” Trina said, smiling. “Yes I do. Let me just finish up with this and I’ll be ready to go.”
“Okay,” Janice said. “I’m going to get my coat and I’ll be ready.”
Trina quickly turned around and finished the claim she’d been working on for a customer, then she logged out of her computer and slid into her coat. She met Janice at her cubicle and the two headed out of the building. They were on their way to the food court, which was a few blocks down the street. The two women cringed when the cold wind whipped through the tunnel-like streets of downtown Chicago. Within ten minutes, they walked into the food court and headed to Chick Fil A.
“So, what’s been going on with you, Janice?” Trina asked. “You seem really happy today.” Trina knew that she needed to talk about Janice and her life to distract from her worries about Breon’s issue with that Dante guy. She’d been thinking about it the entire walk to the food court and she was ready to talk about something else.
“Well,” Janice said, smiling. “My ten-year anniversary is coming up. It’s in January.”
“Congratulations, Janice!” Trina said in a very positive tone. “How does that feel? I mean, being married for ten years. That’s kind of a long time, at least nowadays.”
“It feels good, I guess,” Janice said. “I mean, we’ve had our ups and downs.”
“Like any relationship,” Trina said. “Like any damn relationship.”
Janice always laughed when the urban, more street side came out of Trina. She found it so humorous that she really enjoyed simply being around Trina because of it. “Yeah, that is so right,” Janice said. “But, over all, it’s been good so far. I can’t really complain.”
Trina dreamt for a moment about the idea of being married to Breon for ten years. While ten years did indeed seem to be such a long time, she knew that it really wasn’t. “That is so good,” she said. “I really am so happy for you.”
“Yeah,” Janice said. She could see the worry in Trina’s eyes. “So, what’s wrong, Trina? I can tell that something is up with you.”
“Girl, I’m fine,” Trina said. “For real, don’t worry about me.”
“Okay,” Janice said. “But I can tell that something is wrong, Trina. I can tell.”
Trina looked at Janice and smiled, thinking about the very thing she’d been thinking about earlier when it comes to knowing people and being able to gauge their emotions at a certain point. “Okay, okay,” Trina said. “I think Breon is going to propose to me when we go down to Gatlinburg in a couple weeks.”
“Gatlinburg?” Janice said. “Oh my God, that is so romantic. Me and Todd went to Gatlinburg years ago and loved it. You really think he’s going to propose?”
“Yeah,” Trina said, thinking that she probably shouldn’t be telling Janice this. “I mean, my sister, you know, Monique…”
“Yeah, I remember meeting your sister,” Janice said. “She’s so much fun.”
“Ha!” Trina said. “Girl, you are so funny. Describing that girl as fun. Lord have mercy. But, anyway, Monique got a job workin’ at the mall and she said that she saw Breon going in the ring store there.”
“Uh oh,” Janice said, smiling. “Girl, I am so excited for you.”
“Yeah,” Trina said. “I am too. Kinda nervous.”
“But, Trina, that isn’t what’s really bothering you,” Janice said. “If you don’t want to tell me, then that’s fine. I understand. I’m just saying that I can tell that something is really bothering you.”
Trina looked at Janice, now feeling a little guilty that she was trying to lie to her face. On the other hand, she knew that Janice would never understand. Being white, and from a much smaller place, Janice probably wouldn’t grasp the drama that can come with being born and raised in the streets of Chicago. Beyond that, Trina also didn’t want word to get around the office about Breon. Yes, she trusted Janice with whatever they talked about. And yes, she loved Breon with all of her heart and would never deny him, not even when they got into their worst of the worse arguments. However, if any of her supervisors were to ever find out that she was dating a guy that was caught up in some street mess, she might as well say goodbye to her chance at getting a promotion. Trina already felt lucky enough to work for a major insurance company, being a black girl from the hood. She certainly didn’t want to mess her chances up.
“Well,” Trina said, knowing that she needed to come across as genuine, “I’m just wondering if Breon is being honest to me about some things.”
“Oh no,” Janice said. “You don’t think he’s cheating on you, do you? Seriously? Right before he might be proposing to you in Gatlinburg, up in the mountains?”
Trina looked away, not wanting to talk about something that might not be true. “Well,” she said, once more. “I don’t really know, but I just get this feeling that there’s something he’s not telling me and I don’t really know what it is. I mean, I don’t think he would ever do anything like that, but, then again, I don’t know why I’m feeling like he’s not telling me something.”
“Trina, listen,” Janice said. “You know how men are. All men cheat, at some point. They might not do it often. They might not do it over and over again, but stuff like that probably will happen. So, here’s what I suggest. It’s just advice. Anyway, I used to be you. I used to worry that my husband might be messing around on me with some other girl he met at some bar or somewhere like that. But, I say all that to mean that if anything really is h
appening that you’re meant to know, it will come up. You don’t have to go looking for it. If he has a woman on the side that you don’t know about or haven’t heard about yet, and if you were meant to know, it will come up. The important thing is that you don’t let it ruin your happiness. Don’t let your suspicion run you crazy, to where you think things are there that aren’t there.”
Trina smiled, liking that Janice had eaten her words. She didn’t know what she’d say if Janice continued pressing the topic. Luckily, the conversation shifted to other things, from politics to hot topics that were in the news, or on the Wendy Williams Show, which Janice watched at her desk faithfully every morning. The two finished eating their lunch and headed back to the office tower.
Trina worked the rest of her day with Breon still on her mind. Every so often, she’d look at her cell phone. She found it odd that he hadn’t sent a text message all day. Usually, they would text throughout the day, especially up until he left the apartment to go to work. Today was different. Not only had he come in the door extremely late last night after going to talk with the Dante guy, but this was the first day in a long time that she worked her entire eight hours without hearing a word from Breon. There were a couple of times she’d thought about texting him, but she decided against it. Rather, she focused on her work and waited for five o’clock to finally show up. She was so ready to get out of the office, even if it meant that she was going out into the bitter winter wonderland that was downtown Chicago during December.
When Trina walked out of the building to head to her parking garage, she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. At first, she was going to ignore it, but she then thought about how it could be Breon calling or texting her. The few days since they’d been together that he didn’t text her, he would call instead when she got off of work. To shield herself from the wind, Trina ducked into an entrance way of a vacant office building and pulled her phone out of her pocket. It was Monique calling.
“Well damn,” she said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. “What the fuck does this girl want? Hello?”
“Damn, Trina,” Monique said. “Nice to talk to you too.”
“Girl, I’m sorry,” Trina said. “You know I ain’t mean it like that. I just walked out the building and was on my way to the garage. I thought it might be Breon calling, so that’s why I answered. It’s cold as hell out here, so I’m standing in this entrance way or whatever you wanna call it of that building that caught on fire downtown last year.”
“Yeah, okay,” Monique said, moving right along. “Glad I caught you when you were coming out of the building, just getting off work. I’m downtown. That’s why I called. I’m hungry and I was about to stop and get something, but this traffic.”
“Girl, why you try’na act brand new?” Trina asked, playfully. “You was born and raised in Chicago. You know that downtown is all sorts of messed up at this time of day.”
“Girl, don’t go in on me like you own me or somethin’,” Monique said. “Anyway, where you at right now? I came downtown to see about this thing that came up at the jail, well police station, about this nigga I used to talk to that I had a restraining order against, and I was like shit, I’m hungry after waiting in lines and stuff all fuckin’ day and dealin’ with them white people up in there.”
“Monique, girl,” Trina said. “If we can hurry up and meet, then sure. I ain’t really hungry, but I’d rather sit and chill with you for a minute then go and sit in traffic and stuff. It’s so damn windy out here. Where you try’na meet at and stuff?”
The two sisters figured out where they’d meet. Trina hung up and walked the three or four blocks to meet Monique. As usual, Monique was late showing up. No sooner than Trina had ducked to the side of a building to get away from the wind, she pulled her phone out. Angrily, she called her sister. “I swear, this girl can’t be on time to shit,” she said. “She can’t be on time to shit.”
“Girl, I know you ain’t over there talkin’ shit, is you?” Monique asked, walking up on Trina without her noticing.
Trina quickly turned around and smiled at her sister, rolling her eyes. They each hugged right before Trina looked Monique up and down. “Girl, what the hell are you wearing?” she asked.
“Come on, Trina,” Monique said, shaking her head. “You act like this is somethin’ new. I’m hungry. I ain’t got time to be standin’ out here and explain to you how to look sophisticated.”
“Girl, boo,” Trina said.
Trina followed Monique to a nearby Greek restaurant. Once they sat down, Trina looked Monique up and down once more. She was dressed in sleek, purple leggings and white shirt that did little to nothing to hide the size, and roundness, of her chest. To top it all off, her coat, which looked to be name brand, was a bright purple that almost looked as if it would glow in the dark if all of the lights were out.
“So, girl, what was you doin’ down at the police station?” Trina asked, dropping her professional talk as she slid out of her coat.
Monique smacked her lips together as she was about to explain. “Girl, some mess from back in the day with some nigga that I used to talk to,” she said.
“Oh God,” Trina said, shaking her head. “What done happened now? Please, let me know. You know I’m dying to know. I’m just dying to know so I can have my life.”
Monique squinted at Trina, picking up on the sarcasm in her voice. “Girl, stop before I throw this goat cheese at you,” she said. “Anyway, this nigga I used to talk to just got out and they called me to let me know.”
“Oh God, Monique,” Trina said. “Here you go. The young, the restless, and the ghetto. So, what? Is he try’na contact you again and stuff?”
“Girl, yes, he is,” Monique said. “He hit me up last night talkin’ about when we gon’ hook up and stuff, and catch up. You know how some niggas be and shit, always try’na get together to catch up when really they just try’na get some with an old flame or some shit.”
“Yep,” Trina said. She shook her head and thought back to the guys she’d talked to before Breon. Some things just did not change, no matter who you were with or how old you were at the time.
“Yeah, so,” Monique said. “I told him to not hit me up or no shit like that cause that was in the past. I think he musta been drunk or some shit because he started flippin’ out, callin’ me the ghetto queen and a whole bunch of reckless shit. I didn’t even respond. I just went to the police. See, what had happened was I had to get a restraining order against this nigga ‘cause he was actin’ all crazy back when. Next thing I know, I hear he got caught up in some shit and got locked up. So, I was like good deal, I didn’t need that bullshit anyway. So, once he hit me up last night, when I was hangin’ out with the nigga I met over in Gary that I was tellin’ y’all about over at Mama’s house, I knew I needed to put a stop to that shit before it even start.”
“Hold up, Monique,” Trina said. “How would that dude even have your phone number?”
“Trina, girl,” Monique said. “You know I done had the same phone number since, basically, we was in high school and stuff.”
“This is true,” Trina said, now that she thought about it. “So what did you do? You went and put another restraining order on him?”
“That’s the thing,” Monique said. “They said since he ain’t really done nothin’ to me, I can’t fill out no restraining order. Long story short, I wound up havin’ to get a little loud in the police station.” She rolled her eyes. “I hate when they make me act ghetto.”
“Oh, is that how you see it?” Trina asked. “You hate when they make you act ghetto? Ain’t that somethin’.”
Once again, Monique looked at Trina and squinted. “I’mma give you one more chance to say somethin’ crazy, Trina and we gon’ fight out on that sidewalk right there,” Monique said, pointing at the large window of the restaurant. The window faced the street – a street that was a wall of people walking down the sidewalk and a parking lot full of cars.
“Girl, you know I
would whoop that ass,” Trina said and laughed. “Remember when we got into it when we was kids. I had that ass cryin’ so hard for Mama to come and save you.”
“Hmm, hmm,” Monique said. “Anyway, I just want this Dante nigga to go on somewhere and leave me the fuck alone. I already know that he gon’ try to hit me up again. He is so fuckin’ persistent that it is almost stalkerish I remember. That’s why I was happy when they finally locked that nigga up so I wouldn’t have to be bothered with his lame ass.”
Instantly, Trina felt her heart skip a beat. She hated how the small the world could be, even when you lived in a city as large as Chicago. Of course, the name Dante rang a bell when it came to what was going on with Breon. She tried to reason with herself that maybe it wasn’t the same Dante, but she knew deep down in her soul that it probably was. On top of that, just as Monique had said about this Dante just having gotten out of prison, the Dante that Breon knew was in the same boat.
“Dante?” Trina asked, trying to make sure she’d heard the right thing. “That was the nigga’s name. I don’t remember you talking to a Dante guy.”
“Girl, I know you don’t,” Monique said, waving her hands in a dismissive way. “I ain’t even tell y’all about the nigga. We messed around a couple times, as went to a couple parties and stuff down on the south side and stuff, but we was never a thing. Well, at least I ain’t think that we was a thing. But you know how some niggas are. They think that you supposed to be together when you really not and stuff. You know how that go.”
“Yeah,” Trina said, zoning out a bit. “Yeah, I know. So what was this dude like? I mean, was he like the killer type or somethin’?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Monique answered. “That’s why I ain’t want nothin’ to do with him ‘cause the nigga take shit too far. He will sit outside your house and stuff, and call your phone twenty million times and stuff.”
“Interesting,” Trina said. “Well, just be careful and stuff. Watch your back. You probably won’t run into him or nothin’. I mean, Chicago is a pretty big city. What are the chances?”
Wrath of a Side Chick 3: A Chicago Hood Drama (Side Chick's Wrath) Page 13
