by Pat Tucker
“Girl, thanks for telling me. We need to get home. I ain’t trying to make another stop, especially not to no damn after-hours spot.”
Sonya leaned over to look past me and yelled, “Kev, c’mon, dammit. I’m tired!”
That’s when Jimmy nudged Cooper, and the two of them laughed as Kevin reluctantly headed in our direction.
“Remember what I said,” Sonya told me as she and her man walked away and toward the exit.
“Say, Licia, why don’t you go on to the house? I’ma go ride with Jimmy here to this little after-party.”
I didn’t want to blow Cooper up in front of his new friend, but Jimmy looked like he was higher than the clouds. He was rail thin, and had probably smoked an entire pack of cigarettes since we’d first seen him earlier in the night. When I noticed his black fingernails, I was disgusted. There was no way Cooper was going to leave alone with someone like that.
Cooper looked at me like he couldn’t understand why I was still standing there.
“Not tonight, babe,” I said. I tried my best to sound as tired as possible.
Jimmy’s pierced eyebrow went up, as he continued to gnaw on the cigarette that dangled from the corner of his lips.
Cooper’s head snapped back a bit. He flung his jacket over his shoulder and looked at me like he didn’t understand what I’d said.
“C’mon, let’s call it a night. You were incredible up there, by the way,” I said as I tried to guide him toward the door. Cooper pulled beyond my grasp and shrugged me off. His actions were so rough and uncaring, I was embarrassed.
Jimmy lingered as if he were trying not to invade our privacy, but I noticed as he watched every move.
“I ain’t hardly tired. Actually, it’s the opposite; I’m kind of wired, so I’ma go hang for a little bit. Don’t worry; I told Jimmy we rode together, so he’s gonna drop me. You go on to the house and get some rest. I won’t hang too long.”
He must’ve thought I was crazy. I barely trusted him alone, but after all I had heard about Jimmy, there was no way in hell I was gonna sign off on that one at three in the morning. Oh, no.
“Can you give us a minute?” I turned and said to Jimmy. If he were smart, he would’ve picked up on my tone, which was intentionally harsh.
He looked at Cooper, then his eyes darted to me. “Oh, yeah, no prob. Coop, man, I’ll be outside. I’m in the red Escalade sitting on those spinners.”
What a loser! Jimmy looked every bit of sixty years old, and here he was bragging about some damn rims? No, Cooper would not be going any damn where with his ass. Now, I just needed to talk some sense into Cooper’s simple behind.
“Why you trippin’?” Cooper asked the minute the door closed behind Jimmy, and we were alone.
“Trippin’? How am I trippin’? It’s been a long night. Let’s go home, make love, and go to sleep,” I offered. My voice was calm, and my disposition was pleasant, despite the building frustration I felt.
“Last I checked, I’m a grown-ass man. If I tell you I’m going somewhere, I need you to say yes, and keep it moving. How you gon’ embarrass me in front of my boy like that?” He sucked his teeth. “Besides, why you always gotta be on some kill-my-vibe type of shit! I just wanna go burn some of this energy; you knew I’m still on ten, and going to sleep ain’t an option. And I already told my boy I was going.”
“Coop,” I began. I wanted to point out that that old rusty druggie was not his boy, but I knew not to say so.
“Coop my ass! I’m going, so this ain’t up for no damn debate.”
That’s when I caught a whiff of whatever Cooper had been drinking. Then I realized I was dealing with tipsy, crazy-ass Cooper, and that was worse than any of his other personalities. This battle would be unwinnable.
I exhaled, fully committed to throwing in the towel at any moment.
“Lemme put the cheese on the cracker for yo ass!” he suddenly snapped. Pointing at his chest, he said, “I’m the man in this marriage and in this business. When I say I’m gonna do something, I’m gonna do it. I don’t need your permission. Hell, I barely gotta tell you before I make my move.”
Silence hung between us, before I retreated.
“Okay, Cooper, but I’m coming too. Tell Jimmy we will follow him to the spot.”
Despite being the man he proclaimed to be, the minute I gave in, Cooper’s eyes lit up like a child’s. I was mad at myself for not putting up more of a fight, but I didn’t have the energy.
We walked out of the building. I climbed into the driver’s seat, and pulled out behind Jimmy’s Escalade.
Chapter Nineteen
Knock! Knock!
My heart threatened to stop as the noise pulled me to the present. I never had company, especially in the wee hours of the morning. Was it Yesterday and my mother, still? I pulled the covers over my head and ignored the knocks and them.
It took no time to jump back to the past. At a time when I should have been rolling over after climbing back into bed following a late-night piss, I was squeezing past a throng of made-up, half-naked women who all smelled like alcohol instead of perfume. The music was too loud, the room was too dark, and I was too tired to be dealing with this shit.
The minute we arrived at the after-hours spot, a building that looked like an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of downtown Houston, it felt like Cooper ditched me and vanished into the crowd. I was pissed, but I was determined to locate him and pull his ass out of there by his ear if I had to.
It was after five in the morning, and the party was still in full swing. The rooms were blanketed with dim-colored lighting, and people smoked, drank, and some dry-humped each other right out in the open.
This seemed to be an “anything goes” atmosphere where people came to let loose.
Once I made it out of the bathroom, I caught a glimpse of Jimmy hitched up in a semidark corner. He looked like he was barely hanging on. I shoved my way past a few people to get to him before I lost him too.
“Jimmy! Where’s Coop?”
Jimmy’s head seemed to dangle from side to side like one of those bobble-head dolls. There was a small trail of drool making its way down the side of his mouth, and I couldn’t tell whether his eyes were open.
“Jimmy?” I reached over and shook him gently. The moment I let go, his body leaned to the side and slouched up against the wall. He looked like a rag doll with no bones. I looked around and not a single person seemed concerned about me, Jimmy, nor anything else. The music blared and people danced or made out where they were.
Unable to communicate with Jimmy, I left him and headed toward the back of the building. My senses were in a constant state of shock; if it wasn’t the strong scent of liquor, it was the overpowering odor of weed lingering in the air. I was exhausted and ready to find Cooper, so we could go home.
Various rap songs battled each other by floating from one room to the next. Gangster rap blared through speakers in the main area.
Frustrated beyond belief, I began to open random doors and call out for Coop. “Cooper, you in here?”
“Knock, dammit!” a woman on her knees yelled.
“Sorry.” I closed that door, then walked down the hall and opened another. “Cooper?”
This time a group of people were snorting coke, and I was sorry I ever interrupted. They barely moved as I opened the door, yelled, and looked around. He wasn’t in there, either.
There was no way I could leave him there. Jimmy was in no condition to drive himself—much less someone else. And there was no telling what Cooper might get into if left alone. The more I thought about Jimmy, Sonya’s words rang out in my head as anger mounted.
I should’ve taken my chances with a fight by telling Cooper we had to go home.
When I looked up, a few feet away, I saw Cooper hovering over a short woman. He damn near had her cornered, and I knew I needed to mov
e in. I was happy and pissed at the same time. I was happy because we were finally gonna be able to leave, but pissed because from a distance, it looked like he was trying to mac on the woman. I wasn’t in the mood for any bullshit, but I needed him to know that foolishness was not cool.
I marched up and snatched Cooper by his shoulder. “I’ve been searching for you for a while now, and you over here with some chick?”
“Aaah, Licia, my bad. This is the shit, right?” Cooper’s words slurred, and he seemed unsteady as he stood.
“Who the hell is this?” I asked. The woman didn’t say anything, but Cooper did.
“Who, Darlene?” He looked at the woman like she was a family friend who should’ve been known to me.
Short, plump, and half-naked, Darlene looked uncertain as she gazed back and forth between Cooper and me.
“Yeah, I’m Darlene, but all my friends just call me Dee.” I wanted to tell Dee where she could go with her damn crusty lips, but going off on her wouldn’t fix Cooper, so I didn’t. There was no point in getting mad at Dee since it was obviously my husband who was all up in her face.
“Dee, I’m his wife, and we’re about to go,” I said.
She nodded, never reacted to the fact that Cooper was married, but said, “Okay then. It was good meeting you, Coop. Thanks for the drinks.”
My blood boiled. Cooper had money to buy drinks for strangers but none for gas earlier, and hadn’t thought about me since we’d arrived.
“Let’s go!” I snapped. As he moved, I gave him a little shove the minute he stepped in front of me. I wanted to give him a quick kick to the ass, but there wasn’t enough space to do so seamlessly.
Outside at the car, Cooper struggled to stand; he stumbled a bit, then caught himself.
“Don’t worry; I ain’t gonna drive,” he said.
There was no point in responding, so I unlocked the doors, guided him to the passenger side, and shoved him inside once the doors were open.
Cooper was so drunk that once I buckled his seatbelt, he slumped over to the side, and I left him there. I felt like a misfit child who had broken curfew. There was no reason we needed to go to that after-hours spot.
Once I buckled my own seatbelt and took off, I was grateful that nothing had happened. I knew by the next afternoon when Cooper woke, he wouldn’t remember any of this.
I made my way to I-10 when all of a sudden, bright strobe lights flooded the inside of the car. It wasn’t safe for me to pull over right away, but the cruiser stayed close enough, so that I couldn’t deny I was the target.
“Cooper!” I screamed. He didn’t respond at first. I used my right elbow to jab him as hard as I could. The jab was extra hard for having us out late and for falling into a drunken stupor while I had to fight sleep to get us home safely.
He popped upright in his seat and quickly used his arm to block his eyes. “What the fuck is going on?”
“We’re being pulled over.”
“Oh shit! What’d you do? Damn, Licia,” he growled at me, and looked over his shoulder. “Damn, you ain’t drunk, are you?”
“Pull over now!” a loud voice from a bullhorn sounded.
“Shit! What you doin’? Pull this damn car over before they think we trying to run, and shoot us dead.” Cooper was wide awake and suddenly sober.
I eased the car to the shoulder and brought it to a stop. We sat there for what felt like it was close to forever. Cooper looked over his shoulder. “Licia. I know you’re gonna be mad, but I gotta tell you something before the cop gets here.”
My eyes were glued to the rearview mirror. I didn’t need any problems. We were almost home.
“Look, Jimmy gave me some weed, and we didn’t get to smoke it all, but I still got it,” he said.
My nostrils flared as I released a heavy breath. What the hell was he thinking? He had random drug tests at work, and he was smoking with some druggie he’d just met?
“I think we should put it in your purse,” Cooper quickly added.
“What! Why?”
“Licia, think about this; if they find it on me, a black man, I’m going to jail, no questions asked. You know that’s not a good look for my career. But if they find it in your purse, they’ll probably just give you a warning.”
I had to think fast. What he’d said made sense. We didn’t need him being arrested. He had to go to work Monday, but I also didn’t want to go to jail, especially for something I didn’t do. But I didn’t have much time to decide. Reluctantly, I’d agreed, I’d say the weed was mine.
“C’mon, Licia. Here, let me get it before he comes.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out the two marijuana cigarettes. “Where’s your purse?”
Frantic and nervous, I looked around and tried to find my purse. I must’ve left it in the trunk. Damn!
“Here, dammit,” Cooper said as he shoved the joints into my hand. I closed my hand and held my breath. By the time I looked to my left, the officer’s face was inches from mine. I was sure he had seen everything. My heart threatened to stop.
“Ma’am, I need your license and your proof of insurance.”
Instead of helping to find the insurance papers, Cooper leaned down, looked over me at the officer, and asked, “What did she do, officer?”
The moment I reached for the papers, one of the joints slipped from my hand. Unfortunately, I looked up and the officer’s eyes were glued to me. There was no doubt he had seen the joint that had slipped from my hand. The officer stepped back, put his hand on his taser and said, “Ma’am, Sir, I need you both to step out of the vehicle.”
“Oh, shit!” Cooper said.
Chapter Twenty
Hours later, I was booked into the city jail for possession of marijuana. What bothered me most was not that my husband drove my mother’s car back home after I’d taken the rap for something he had done and probably explained to her, but it was the fact that he’d allowed it to go down the way it did. We’d agreed to do it, but that was when we thought I’d get off with a warning, not jail.
As the officer clasped the cold, hard handcuffs around my wrists, I noticed that Cooper didn’t even wait for them to put me in the back of the cruiser.
He had already taken off. More often than not, Cooper showed me exactly who he really was, but there was something in me that refused to see what he showed.
I was slapped with probation for the weed, and given drug classes. But it was the ride home when my mother came to pick me up that was most painful.
“Now, I have done quite a bit in my younger days, but I ain’t never dabbled in no drugs. When your husband told me what happened, I gotta admit, if he would’ve left, I wouldn’t be surprised. Everybody knows, weed ain’t nothing but a gateway to heavier drugs, and you know, I raised you and your sister better than that.”
She was going in on me and didn’t know half the facts.
“I’m just glad the folks at church don’t know. We are living in trying times for sure,” she said.
All I thought about was why my husband hadn’t come to pick me up. My mother might not have known exactly what had gone down and how it had gone down, but he did. It was clear that he simply threw me under a really low bus, and didn’t even care.
“I don’t know where I failed you. I pray for you each and every night and every morning; I don’t know what else to do. I’m just glad you got yourself a good man who is sticking by your side.”
If I’d had the energy, I would have told her about that so-called good man.
“Can you just get up off Cooper’s tip for a few seconds?”
My mother pulled her eyes off the road to look at me.
“What did you just say to me?” She sounded so incredibly outdone.
“I don’t know what he told you, but the weed wasn’t even mine! Cooper’s stupid behind met up with some druggie and accepted some weed; the two idi
ots didn’t smoke it all, and that fool husband of mine decided to hang on to it. When the police came, he decided going to jail would be too much of a stain on his career, so I did what I always do: I took care of it.”
The silence in the car seemed everlasting. My mother had no visible reaction to the news I’d just dropped, and she didn’t say another word about the results of her parenting.
“I just want to put this entire incident behind me as soon as possible. Oh, but wait, I can’t, because I now have to take some stupid drug classes, over some damn weed that wasn’t even mine! I don’t smoke, and I barely drink!”
Her head remained straight and she stayed focused on the road ahead. I was glad because I didn’t want nor need to hear any more of her praises about my so-called good man. As she drove the rest of the way home, I made mental notes about things I needed to get done to make sure Coop’s career was on the right track.
Later that night, as I walked into the bedroom, Cooper lay on top of the comforter, with his pajama bottoms on and his Beats headphones cupped over his ear.
He was grooving to some music with his eyes closed, and he barely noticed my entrance. When he did, he jumped up and snatched off the headphones.
“Hey, you’re home,” he said. Although he talked to me, his eyes kept dancing between me and his cell phone. There was no “thank you, baby, for what you did for me” or no “I appreciate you.”
“Yeah, I’m home,” I said. I was exhausted, both physically and mentally.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t tell Trey what happened.”
My face fell, and I gave Cooper a blank stare.
Suddenly, thoughts of other things he had done, other things he had shared inappropriately with my mother, flooded my mind. I shook the thoughts off and continued into the bathroom. I wanted a long, hot bath and a new husband and client. But I knew at that time, the only thing I could control was the bath.
He followed me to the bathroom and lingered at the door.
