Love's Ineligible Receiver

by Love Belvin

  My eyes combed over her head as she stood between me and the man who called the shots as far as Mauve went. Divine snorted, facing the screen behind the bar, even though I knew he’d been listening. I tossed my chin his way. “Mr. Azmir Divine Jacobs is conveniently right behind you.”

  “Oh, shit,” Candice sang smoothly, though I knew she had no fucking clue Divine was there.

  We were on a rooftop lounge at the annual Night of Mauve event where Trent was named the liquor line’s ambassador of the year. It was a dope ass title for marketing purposes. Mauve kept relevant by choosing the right names to carry the line, and the chosen ambassador was recognized with an established brand known in the conservative and urban markets. I could only wish to be a brand ambassador, but had to earn my stripes.

  But it was nice to know little Candice here thought so, too. It didn’t matter I knew she was gaming me. I liked it. And I could like it all I wanted. I just couldn’t bite.

  “Hello, Miss Candice.” Divine’s eyes swept from her back to the screen across from him. “Glad you were able to come out tonight, young lady.”

  “And miss a night of networking and celebrating ebony skin like this? I swore after my seventeenth birthday I would never miss one!” Candice’s words were convincing…this time.

  “Glad to hear that,” was his reply.

  “And speaking of,” Candice continued with her eyes back on me, glittering with a desire I was familiar with, but she was speaking to the man behind her. “The conference call you had last week, I facilitated it. When you said branding isn’t just limited to business, but is essential for successful family legacy-creating as well… Whew!” Her smile was inspiring and, I could tell, sincere. “That changed something in me.”

  “Oh, yeah?” I was wrong, knew it, and didn’t give a fuck. “Like what? And how deep?”

  Her face relaxed, but her eyes stayed narrowed with lust. She was feeling the kid. Then her cheeks lifted again but just slightly.

  “It reminds me that when my husband finally gets his shit together and tells me to give him babies, we have to think big.” Her little hand pushed up my leg.

  Her eyes locked onto mine. My eyes swept from her face to Divine behind her, still watching the basketball game in a tux, then down to her hand inching closer to my thickening cock.

  I like this young chick…

  If the circumstances were different, I’d fuck her hard until I reached her soul and make her question her purpose in life. As foul as that sounds, I’d done it before and could do it again. Candice was the perfect candidate: bold as shit, bad as hell, beautiful as fuck, and beasting for my dick. She had been since the first day I walked inside Love is Action, the sports agency I was signed to. The one her big brother owned.

  This girl was connected in this industry. She may not have been that comfortable with Divine, who was straight up ignoring her at the moment, but he’d known her father before he died. Divine was crazy tight with her brother—personally and professionally. All these connections made her unfuckable in my book.

  But damn… If I ever—

  “Hey!” A sharp chirp had me jump a little on my stool. Candice’s hand smoothly retracted from near my pelvis to my knee to her waist as she looked over my shoulder where I felt Emily leaning on. “Your brother doesn’t drink, but I see who in the family makes up for it. Knock it the fuck off,” she hissed.

  Divine turned our way. Candice gave her a nasty look. Hard, bold, and challenging. Suddenly, the muscles in her face relaxed into a sleek “fuck you” grin.

  See! The female Rut…

  “Have you seen him naked yet?” Candice asked Emily and I peeped Divine’s mouth fall.

  “What’s it to you?” Emily challenged.

  “Just curious, but I see you haven’t.” Candice made the tsk sound with her tongue. “I wish this wasn’t a formal affair and he didn’t have on a tux. I’d roll up his sleeve and show you the symbol tattooed on his arm so you know how short your time with him is on the clock.”

  Shit…

  “Oh, really?” Emily giggled, her hands pushing down onto my chest as she spoke over my head. “And who’s going to replace me? You?”

  “If he’s lucky. But it’ll at least be someone with real melanin in her skin.”

  My eyes closed as I watched Candice lift her cocktail glass to her face and sip with confidence.

  “Candice, Trent and Jade are about to leave here for their vacation.” My eyes opened to Candice’s much older sister-in-law’s glowering at her. “Don’t you think now is a good time to be sure they have those tour dates for when he returns?”

  “Sure thing, big sis.” Candice’s fiery eyes bounced between Emily and me before she swiped the tip of her tongue over the rim of her top lip.

  Damn…

  She winked then took off, and I peeped Divine snickering quietly as he scratched his brow.

  “I’m so sorry for whatever I just walked up on,” Elle, too, glanced between Emily and me. “I’m working on her…and, believe it or not, she’s gotten so much better.”

  “Ain’t nothing, Elle,” I tried to play it cool.

  Emily huffed over my ear, but I wasn’t sure it was heard.

  “I need to go find someone. I should see you before you leave.” Elle rubbed Divine’s shoulder as a means to acknowledge him then disappeared again.

  It was late. The actual event took place downstairs in the ballroom. Divine and a few of us retreated to the rooftop for stogies and the game that he had the place DVR for him to watch after the party.

  “I’m going to the ladies’ room,” Emily announced, squeezing my shoulder. “Try to stay out of trouble while I’m gone, why don’t you.”

  She used a playful tone, but I knew she was dead ass serious. The problem was, Emily had no authority over me. She wasn’t my lady. Divine’s ass snickered at that, too, but his eyes never left the television. I shook it off and went back to my cigar.

  “Rayna still down in the ballroom?” I asked Divine.

  “Yeah.” His eyes were locked to the screen. “She wanted to see the girls from her foundation off. We invited a few of them tonight.” For a while he didn’t say anything. We just watched the game. “So lil’ Candice, though?” He took a pull from his stogie and blew it out. Then he winked at me, fucking with me.

  “Yeah, you think that shit is cute till I fuck her lil’ ass.” Divine chuckled. “But I ain’t, because I keep telling you I don’t fuck everything that spreads its legs.”

  “I ‘on’t think you do.”

  “Well, how the fuck long is this gonna be with this Emily thing. Even lil’ Candice”—I mocked him, using his voice. “know I’m a god and don’t just fuck anything.”

  The first time I met Candice, she was a receptionist at the agency, and she mentioned she’d been following me since my junior year of college. That was probably how she knew I had the tattoo. It was another “thing” the coaches, scouts, and agents spoke about since I got it in college.

  Divine sat up, blowing more smoke from his nostrils. “I really don’t know about that part of it. Emily ain’t who I would’ve chosen to do this with you. That was all Elle. You should’ve asked her while she was here.”

  He shrugged with his hands over the bar, a cigar standing between his fingers as he explained. “I was on board with you linking yourself with a celebrity to help get your name, face, and businesses out there. Unfortunately, in this game, if you want to make a name for yourself amongst the negative talk you’ve gotten so far, you have to align yourself with someone with a more popular name.” He pointed past me where Emily once sat. “That definitely ain’t my choosing. I remember when StentRo hooked up with her sister for similar reasons.” He shook his head. “That clan ain’t no good for the culture.”

  “Nah. Even lil’ Candice knows we don’t mix!”

  Divine shrugged again, unusually passive on a topic I had strong feelings about. “I trust Elle. She’s at the top of her game for a reason. Talk to her.”
/>
  “Whew!” I heard behind me. Emily was sidling up next to me in her seat. “The bathroom up here is so cute. It has a cute little gold fixtures in there. I love this place!”

  “Oh, yeah?” I entertained her small talk.

  “Yeah. It reminds me of what my designer tried to do in one of my powder rooms. I can’t wait for you to see it.” Her long nails pushed through my hair to my scalp.

  It felt good. Don’t get me wrong: I would fuck Emily without thought. The problem was I wouldn’t wife her. And even though she knew what this was about between us, she demanded I played the role to a T. Playing the role meant I had to move with more stealth as far as chicks were concerned. Rut didn’t sneak or hide shit. I was an undomesticated man. I fucked and flirted with who I wanted. I didn’t like having to keep Emily in mind if I ran into a banger at the club.

  “I know you don’t have to be back in Connecticut until Tuesday,” Divine spoke out of nowhere. “You staying in L.A. all weekend?”

  My phone vibrated on the table. It was Mickey, a trainer for the Kings.

  Mickey: I’m here throwing a few back at the bar with your bff.

  I hated for a man to use the term BFF. What grown as man did that? Mickey with his white ass.

  Me: The fuck?

  I included the Obama shrug at the podium to emphasize how stupid his damn text was. Before it could go off, an incoming one popped on my screen.

  Mickey: Dumb ass Grant is here showing us texts of him asking the girl parker out. She said yes and now he thinks his dick has grown another inch.

  It took me a minute to realize he typed Parker and didn’t have a typo about the park. Why would Parker be going out with that whack ass nigga? He was probably laying it on thick with her now that he knew I’d had her. I was no angel, but Grant was corny as fuck with whack ass game. Plus, it seemed by now everybody had heard about us leaving Eli’s party together last weekend. Even Divine finally blasted my ass when it got back to him I’d fucked her.

  She would get a bad name if she fucked him. And she claimed to not be that girl. Shit. She had me convinced she wasn’t that girl, especially after our talk last night when she told me more about her situation with Wright. I didn’t believe Parker was an angel. No female’s an angel… But a small part of me did believe she was good peoples and didn’t deserved to be thought of as a groupie.

  And I couldn’t believe I was copping to the emotion, but…

  To be real…

  Like… Really, really real…

  Keeping it a buck…

  I’d missed Parker. It was stupid as fuck. I didn’t know the girl, but it seemed like since I stepped on the plane late last night to fly out here to Cali, she popped in my thoughts more than I was used to females doing. Before nodding off during the flight, a few things…nice gestures to make her smile came to mind. Of course, I dismissed them because I wasn’t in the game to do romantic shit for a girl, but I couldn’t shake my minutes of inclination to do them.

  “Yurp!” snapped me out of my head. I looked over to Divine. His brows shot up and chin dipped letting me know he’d been waiting on a response from me. “Dasu’ll go bananas if you pulled up on him. You staying the weekend?”

  That’s when I remembered the original question. I blinked hard. There were like twenty different thoughts running through my head, most of them with the same subject. Parker.

  “Na—Nah. Nah.” I cleared my throat. “It’s gonna be a quick turnaround for me. I’m on the next redeye.” When I brushed my hand down my head, my hand bumped against Emily’s. I didn’t realize her hand was still there.

  “Shit, Rut!” she cried softly.

  “My bad, sweetheart.” I crowded her in my arms and pulled her into me because I knew what was coming.

  “I thought you’d finally be spending time with me. You said the weekend,” her baby voice was back. Were her feelings really hurt? “I had plans for us to spend the day in Santa Barbara. A friend of mine owns a winery out there.” Emily pouted.

  “I know, baby.” I squeezed her, going hard because I did just spring this on her. Shit. That text sprung it on me. I hit her with my killer smile, bodying her with it. “But I promise to give you my best for these next few hours.”

  “This commercial shit only works on these odd-hour flights,” I grumbled to Fats next to me.

  I hated being up so early and being asked for a picture or autograph by airport staff. At the same time, I knew my stacks wasn’t up for private flights. At times like this, while strapping in a commercial flight, I remembered my promise to myself to cop a jet like Divine. Expensive, I knew, but worth it. I didn’t want to complain. Sitting back and taking a deep breath, I just hoped I could catch, at least, three hours of sleep.

  My eyes closed and I hummed, thinking of the first thing I’d do when I landed. Jeremy wanted me to call him to prepare for a meeting we had with a vendor. Just as the attendant announced to turn off all devices, my damn phone rang. Recognizing the 609 area code, I answered without hesitation.

  “Taking off. What?”

  “Yo, Rut, man!” I heard the panic in his voice.

  That cry.

  My eyes shot the hell open. “The fuck?”

  “B-Rocka, man!” C-god literally cried. “Rut! They got B-Rocka!”

  My heart shot from my chest. B-Rocka was my first cousin. His pops and mine were brothers.

  “Who?” I asked through hard, balled lips.

  “Them Dolly Homes niggas. I told him to stop fuckin’ wit’ em!”

  “Sir,” a smaller voice called out not too far from me, but I couldn’t focus on that.

  “When?” I breathed into the phone, my body curled over.

  “Like twenty minutes ago. Dinero and ‘em just beat the cops from over there.”

  I could hear wailing in the background, making my stomach turn.

  “Sir!”

  “FUCKIN’ WAIT!” I shouted at the lady in the shirt, blouse, and tie.

  She jumped back.

  “Easy,” Fats raised his hand toward me then went back to the lady. “Sorry, ma’am. He’s getting off now.”

  I felt winded, my eyes closed, and I swallowed hard. In the background of my left ear, I could hear the chatter of people going against Fats. In my right, I heard the painful cries of my peoples back home. A reel of images of B-Rocka and me began flashing in the back of my lids. When we were five, playing in the inflatable pool together. When we were twelve, in the alley, watching two crackheads fuck. When we were in the hospital at fifteen, being told his leg was broken after a football game, and he’d never play again. Then in my dorm room one weekend he pulled up, when the Spanish grad chick peed while fucking him. And draft night when my name wasn’t being called after a while.

  “Brodie, these mufuckas gon’ regret the day they passed ya name up,” he whispered to me when my head was down and I prayed to “God” for the first time in my life.

  My final memory was when he was up in Connecticut with me a couple of weeks ago, when I brought Chestnut Cherries and Brandee back to the crib. The next morning he woke up smiling from ear to ear, saying he’d had his ass eaten for the first time and was now addicted to it. It was crazy coming from two kids from the Five-Percent Nation. If our pops heard that shit, we’d be skinned. But it wouldn’t have mattered as long as we were together when it happened. We’d always been together. Until now.

  “I’ll be there in a few hours. Easy on ‘em.” I powered down my phone.

  Just a few more hours…

  I rubbed the lids of my eyes, careful not to disturb the eyeliner and mascara I put on this morning. I was too tired to apply much more than that. Tamping down another yawn, I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. I was able to focus them on my desktop and closed out of the spreadsheet I’d been cleaning all morning. Then I clicked on my Kings email tab to clear those out. There weren’t as many waiting as I thought.

  Hmmmmm…

  However, there was one from Eat Clean. The subject line read:
Parker, Redeem Your Gift Certificate. I clicked on it and found a gift card with a five-hundred-dollar value from a Rutledge Amare. What was this? I’d never heard of Eat Clean. I clicked again to go to their site and after some reading learned they were a new, black-owned, virtual grocer. They contracted with local farmers and delivered fresh, organic, and GMO-free foods.

  Hmmmmm…

  This was thoughtful…unexpected, too. But it was also a sweet gesture coming from Emily Erceg’s boyfriend. Weird, but a fact.

  What should I do?

  I could have said thanks but didn’t have his phone number. I was sure if I snooped around I could get it, but that didn’t feel right. It was enough that so many in the company correctly presumed we’d slept together. Using the office to get any information wasn’t the best approach.

  Then how will I contact—

  “Hey, Parker?”

  I turned to find the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Marshall Johnson, beaming down on me.

  “Hi, Marshall.” I tried with conspicuous efforts to close out of the email. “What can I help you with?”

  “You’re sitting in on the meeting this afternoon, am I correct?”

  I blinked, waking my fuzzy brain. “Ye—yes. It’s on my schedule.” Today I’d been filling in for two admins. It had been a fast-paced but heavily labored day. “Two o’clock. Right?” I tried for a smile.

  “Yes.” She placed her hand on my shoulder. “As odd as it sounds, I’m so glad you’re covering for my assistant. You’re so thorough with your notes, and you think while relaying.” That’s when I realized she was excited…bubbly over this. “Should you change your mind and need permanent placement—” She winked. —“let me know.”

  I tried relaxing the muscles in my face. Her words and presence had taken me by surprise. “Uh—okay.”

  “Anyway. You have a minute to go over the report with me? I’d like to be prepared for them before they’re presented to Eli this morning.”

  And there was that. Eli Richardson was in the office today, meeting with the larger departments. They were all updating him with numbers and reports, so mostly everyone was on pins and needles. I had to be a good sport about it.