Kismet

by Raynesha Pittman

  “Are you enjoying yourself, Savannah?”

  With my head on his chest, I nodded my head yes.

  “I was watching you dance with Color Purple over there, and that’s when I realized I came here with the prettiest woman in Nevada tonight.” A flower man came by and offered me a flower for Ant to buy. I turned down the offer.

  “No, ma’am, the guy at the bar just bought it for you.” I turned to face the bar, but there was no one there. Ant, the flower man, and I searched through the club trying to see who bought it for me. Finally, the flower man pointed to the door, and there was a man leaving with dreads. Was that Dre?

  Suddenly, I snapped at the flower man. “What did he look like? Did he have a tattoo on his face? Huh? Answer me! Did he have a Southern accent? Could you make out his eye color?”

  The flower man seemed scared. “I couldn’t see his face, ma’am, and he didn’t sound like he had an accent.”

  Ant stood in front of me. “What’s wrong, Savannah? Are you okay? Who do you think that was?”

  I wasn’t sure who that was or if it was Dre. After five drinks at the club and the champagne at the hotel, there was nothing I could say to Ant except, “You want to smoke?”

  And then I headed out of the club to go vomit on Las Vegas’s beautiful Strip. Happy third birthday, Sade.

  Chapter 11

  The New Intern

  After all the visions of Dre, I decided to speed up my acts of revenge. The weekend after my trip to Las Vegas with Big Ant was when Tyrone showed me he was the weakest link in his crew. It had been almost two weeks since that disappointing sexual encounter.

  I was back to work and focused. I had fucked all the “Hoes Crew’s” men—or should I say, babies’ daddies—and would let stage two of my plans hold off until I found out if my company was really going to open an office in Seattle, Washington. If they did, I would be moving there, which would be closer to Sade and far away from the drama I was about to cause in California.

  When I made it to work, Stephanie told me there was a certified letter waiting for me on my desk. Whenever I heard letter, I automatically thought it had something to do with Dre. This time it didn’t.

  The letter was from Dr. Davis reminding me to have my ovarian cysts looked at and informing me of her moving her practice to Memphis, Tennessee. I hadn’t thought about those little circles they found on my ultrasound since the doctor brought it to my attention. She said that cysts were common in African American women and didn’t really push the issue for me to have them checked out, so I didn’t. I will also put that on my things-to-do list, right next to Will’s handsome ass.

  Ever since Tyrone called himself talking shit to me after his three minutes of nothing, I’ve wanted to fuck his best friend. That would be the cherry on top of my ice cream of revenge.

  I didn’t have time to set up any appointments right now, not to see my doctor in Memphis, Tennessee, or Will. I had two interns who had started almost two weeks ago that I had never met. I decided to be the best boss of the year and treat them both to a two-hour lunch in Hollywood at Universal CityWalk’s Hard Rock Café.

  When I arrived, they were already seated at a table enjoying the live band. When I introduced myself, they both stood and the relaxed look they had on their faces while I was walking to the table seemed to evaporate. They were businesspeople. I loved it.

  * * *

  “There are two things I don’t play about and those are my business and my past. Since this lunch has nothing to do with either, you both can relax. I want to get to know you and your personalities.”

  Neither one of them sat down until I took my seat. I felt like a judge. “Well, let’s start this off with a round of drinks. I want to congratulate you both on making it this far in college. Of course, after our lunch, I will be sending you home with full credit for today. I can’t have you feeling like happy hour on the job.”

  There was something about Erika that looked familiar. I didn’t want to keep looking her way, but I really wanted to know where I had known her from. It wasn’t a negative feeling when I looked at her, but I couldn’t place a positive one there, either. She was too young to have played basketball with or against me as a teenager. Maybe it was her college look that made me feel like I knew her. I don’t know, but I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable while I tried to find out.

  Once we ate and said good-bye, I headed back to the office to start working on the new contract for our Seattle location.

  The opening of a location in Washington and not Chicago was my idea, so I headed this deal. We had grossed Strax Industries more money than previously estimated. As a show of appreciation, not only did we receive bonuses, but they brought in new business. We decided to dedicate the majority of the Los Angeles location to them and work other accounts at a new facility.

  “Stephanie, when you’re done, I need you for a second.” Stephanie had become my personal partner. She had even decided to make the move to Washington with me.

  She said, “What would you do in Washington without me, Savannah? Count me in.”

  I would go crazy without her, and she knew it. “Yes, Savannah, what’s up?” All this California sunshine was doing Stephanie some good. She had started dating a Los Angeles firefighter, and I could tell he was fucking the shit out of her. She even had a new walk.

  “I have some updates I need you to make in my planner, please.” Stephanie closed the door and sat on the table. “Did you fuck Tyrone yet?” She was smiling ear to ear.

  When I told Stephanie my plan of revenge, she said, “This is some real-life Kill Bill shit.” She kept tally of everything I did, everybody I fucked, and who I was getting payback on in my planner. When I asked her why she felt the need to keep up with it, she replied, “Beatrix Kiddo kept a list.” That girl watched too many movies.

  “Yes, I fucked his sorry ass for three whole minutes, and then the bastard went to sleep on me.”

  She fell out laughing. I mean, tears formed in Stephanie’s eyes. This shit was so funny to her.

  “This shit ain’t funny, girl.”

  She tried to stop laughing. “At least you got fucked good by Big Ant, the future NBA star. He had your side hurting for days after he beat you down.”

  Big Ant had put a beating on me. My side killed me for days. As a matter of fact, it was still hurting, but BC Powder helped ease the pain. I had dicks his size before, but never did they cause as much damage as his dick. He needs a warning label on his drawers.

  “So, when can I have some pussy, or do I need to drive around putting out fires first?”

  She smiled, “Anytime you want some pussy, you know where you can get it.”

  It wasn’t that I really wanted to fuck Stephanie. I just wanted to make sure I still could. We had been in California going on three years, and I had only fucked her twice. She met her fireman six months after we arrived and had been fucking him since. It couldn’t have been too serious because he was married and could only see her once every other month, but like I predicted, her first piece of dick she would get attached to. I bet he couldn’t even fuck. If Stephanie and I weren’t so close, I would fuck his fine ass to see.

  “Can you arrange a dinner with me and Will from the sheriff’s office for his first available date? I put his number in that planner you protect so dearly.”

  She went flipping through the pages. “So, you have already contacted him? Look at you being the aggressor.”

  She would never believe it if I told her the truth, so I didn’t bother. The truth was that I pretended to have jury duty and was the lost jurywoman who couldn’t find her courtroom. I was directed to the sheriff’s office for more assistance and passed him on my way there. There was some small talk, and I threw in a “We should do lunch and catch up,” and he had agreed. He had plans to hoop with Tyrone that evening and invited me to watch, but I hadn’t fucked Tyrone yet, so I didn’t want to screw up my plans.

  “Don’t answer me then, Savannah. I’ll set it up
and let you know the time and place.” I had a conference call to update Williams and Williamson on the upcoming venture in Washington, and then headed home. Thank God it was Thursday. Just one more day of the workweek.

  Since I handled all my company’s business Thursday, I took Friday off to chill with Keisha. I wanted her to feel the exact same way I felt when she fucked Kevin. I really thought she was my friend back then, and she needed to think I was her friend now.

  “Wake your ass up, Keisha, I’m on my way.”

  There was some hesitation in her voice. “Tyrone, umm. Tyrone spent the night with us last night, and he hasn’t left yet.”

  She sounded as if I interrupted her boring-ass sex with him. “Tell Tyrone I said hi, and all he got is three minutes to finish up the job because I’m on my way and he better not fall asleep.”

  I hung up the phone before she heard my laughter. I laughed so hard both of my sides began throbbing. It felt like I was period bloated, yet there was pain with it. This was the worst the pain had gotten. I had to lie across my bed for a minute until the pain subsided. I swallowed two extra-strength Tylenol and headed out the door.

  When I pulled up to Keisha’s house, Tyrone was getting in his car to leave. I decided to talk shit to him.

  “Why are you leaving so quickly, speedy? Do you ever slow down or do you just like finishing fast? I know you got three minutes for me like usual, don’t you, Tyrone? What’s wrong? My cat got your tongue? No, that couldn’t be right because your tongue was just as sorry as your dick. I should go in here and tell Keisha about the sorry-ass performance you gave me, but that would break her heart, wouldn’t it? The love of her life, Tyrone, fucked her new best friend from her past.”

  He closed his car door, walked up to me, and grabbed me by my neck, shaking me. “Bitch, if you ever tell her about us, I will beat your ass myself, do you hear me? You a ho anyways. You better hope Christina don’t find out you fucked Javier and about him paying your cell phone bill or she might just introduce you to her box cutter. I don’t know what you trying to pull by fucking your homegirls’ baby daddies, but you barking up the wrong tree. You’re going to get what you asking for, Savannah. Keep playing with people’s lives and you’re going to lose yours.” He let me go and spit on my windshield. “Fuck your karma, Savannah. Prepare for your fate.” He pushed me out of his way, told me to get my car out of the fucking way, and then drove off.

  He was so caught up with fate that he didn’t realize that karma helped determined your fate. I was giving those hoes back what they gave me. He was wrong to say karma and fate didn’t work together. Karma was the beginning, and fate was the ending.

  Why in the fuck did Javier tell Tyrone about us, anyway? I could kill Javier for telling him. I wanted all six of them to know, but not until I had finished my exit plan from California. I had at least four months left here, and I didn’t want to have to deal with drama in them.

  When I made it to the door, I made Keisha call Christina and Melinda and invite them with us. I picked them up, and we headed to the spa. During our massages, I got an earful of girl talk. It was like a movie script.

  Christina: “Did you find out who Ant went to Vegas with yet, girl?”

  Melinda: “Naw, he sticking to his story. He supposedly went with an ex-teammate from high school. I don’t believe his lying ass.”

  Keisha: “I told you not to worry about that shit. I’ll get it out of Tyrone. You know y’all’s baby daddies tell him everything. Soon as I find out, you know I’m going to tell you. Savannah, aren’t you glad you ain’t got to go through this stupid shit with niggas?”

  I stayed silent and hummed an, “uh-huh,” just to give some kind of response.

  Melinda: “Well, if I find out it was with a bitch, I’m going back to jail. Y’all remember what happened the last time he called himself fucking another bitch.”

  Christina: “Yeah, I do, I’m still on probation for the shit, bitch.”

  Keisha: “We did beat her ass kind of bad. That bitch had blood everywhere.”

  There was a roar of laughter. When did these bitches get bite behind their bark? I remember when they had a no-fight rule because they refused to mess up their faces. Was Tyrone’s threat about Christina and a box cutter valid? I tried not to think about it, but the longer I stayed around all three of them, the more I found out that these bitches were crazy.

  Keisha had been arrested while pregnant with TJ for hitting a girl over her head with a chair at the food stamp office because she found out Tyrone had gotten some head from her. What had I set myself up for? “I thought y’all said that y’all weren’t with your baby daddies anymore.” It flew out of my mouth. I hoped they couldn’t detect the nervousness in my tone.

  Christina was more than happy to answer. “We not, but they will always be our men. They report to us like we report to them. Javier has started shit with every nigga I have tried to fuck with after breaking up with him.”

  Melinda finished it up for her. “Ant and Tyrone have too. We can’t be with each other, but we be damned before we sit back and allow each other to fuck with somebody else too.”

  Smiling, I said, “Y’all crazy for that one.” All the while, I was thinking I needed to destroy the tapes and as a precaution, I would stay away from them until I was out of California. My plan of getting revenge was over. I had to live with the satisfaction of knowing I got my payback without sharing it with them. If they ever found out, they wouldn’t be devastated—they would join up and whip my ass, and then sit around the jailhouse laughing about it.

  I wasn’t prepared to fight anybody. That’s why I had bought a gun, which did me no good because I left it in my nightstand for safety. Maybe it was time to start carrying it around.

  It was 10:00 p.m. when I dropped them all off at Keisha’s house. Tyrone, Javier, Ant, and a few other dudes were sitting on their cars rapping when we pulled up.

  “Ay, Savannah, I got a boy in Nevada who got the hookup on T-Mobile phones. You want his number? He said he can even get your bill paid for a small fee.” Tyrone must have found out about Ant and me too, because Ant turned his head when Tyrone was done.

  * * *

  Niggas talked like bitches. When was it ever cool to be a bitch nigga? Was it the new style or fad? Men were supposed to act like men and leave the gossiping to the women. I was not going to sit here and let them make me feel like a ho. I fucked them, whether they saw it that way or not.

  “Is this the same nigga we were talking about earlier? The real fast guy? If it is, tell him I’m good. I know somebody who fucked him and his whole crew. Made them feel like bitches, then sent them away. Plus, I heard him and his boys were bisexual. I heard they sit around like bitches talking about whom they fucked and what bills they paid to fuck. You should be careful of who you pick to be cool with.”

  Keisha had no idea what we were talking about, but she joined in. “I hate when niggas brag on their dicks. You right about that, Savannah. That is some bitch shit. I couldn’t see a group of niggas huddled up giving each other pointers like women do. That just sounds gay.”

  That was all the confirmation I needed to leave my past alone. I felt like I had won a little bit when it came to the word war with Tyrone, but I needed to win when it came to getting revenge too. This time, it wasn’t going to be over until I wanted it to be. I would sleep on it over the weekend and come up with a new plan. There was no way I was going to let my newfound fear of the “Hoes Crew” stop me, nor was the gossiping little bitches that called themselves niggas going to get away with it.

  I called Stephanie to get an update on Will. “He said he wouldn’t be free for a while, but he would call you at the office when he became available. Sorry, Savannah.”

  I told her good night and hung up the phone. When I pulled into my driveway, I got a call from Javier.

  “Damn, Savannah, if you wanted to fuck me and my boys, why didn’t you just tell me? We could have set up a group activity.”

  Speechless
, I hung up the phone. I had gone from being the laughingstock of the girls as a teenager to the new ho joke between the men. I was so pissed off I didn’t even get out of my car. I sat there going over every possible evil thought I could muster, and then I thought about Hollywood Boulevard—not for partying purposes, but prostitution. The one thing all seven of us had in common was we all liked sex with different people we hadn’t had sex with before.

  It was time to meet some new friends, preferably the scandalous type, which would do whatever I wanted them to do as long as I paid them.

  I sent a text to Tyrone, Ant, and Javier asking them if they were down for a wild night with me and my real friends. I apologized to each of them and explained Georgia had turned me into a little freak, and I had some of my freaky friends from college coming in town who I’d love for them to meet.

  I told them that I had honestly thought about fucking all three of them together, at the same time, and then decided against it and planned my individual time with them. I asked if they could keep my freaky ways from their babies’ mamas and come live a day in my life Saturday night. They each agreed, even Tyrone, who tried to explain those pathetic three minutes he gave me was an accident. I told them all to meet me at my time-share property tomorrow at 8:00 p.m.

  I had to move fast. It was already 11:00 p.m. Friday night, and I had a lot of planning to do. I knew I would need Stephanie in on this one, but I couldn’t give her all the details or she would back out. I told her just enough to get her to agree.

  This was going to be the craziest and deadliest shit I had ever done, but it was worth a try, and if I had my way, I would get all six of them at once. I drove down Sunset Boulevard and rounded up four of the nastiest-looking women I could find walking the street with pussy for sale and offered them each $1,000 to be active participants in my plan. All four agreed and said they would have done it for less.

  I dropped them off at my rental property and told them they wouldn’t be paid until the deed was done and I would be back in the morning to take them to the salon and shopping. My plan was to turn these pennies into silver dollars, even if it was for one night. I needed them to look their best, and I would pay whatever price to get it done.