It is What it is: A Hood Love Story

by B. , Ivory

  “Keem what’s wrong? Why you crying? You not happy to see me? Or you don’t want to see me right now?” “You left me. You just left me alone,” Keema cried into his chest. Jah felt guilty, yes he had left her. “Keem c’mon now you know I wasn’t leaving for good. I can’t leave you alone, like I can’t leave these streets alone. I was coming back home to you. I just needed a lil bit of time Meema. I’m here now, if you want me to be.”

  He waited for her to say something but she didn’t. She turned her head to the side and stared off as if she couldn’t stand to look him in the face. He gently touched her chin and turned her head so that she was facing him. Jah placed one last kiss on her forehead then moved his lips to hers, they kissed for what seemed an eternity and whatever ill feelings they had towards each other from that night Jah left the house was wiped away. Jah couldn’t front it still bothered him that Keema had taken the life of his unborn and kept it from him. The silence in the room solidified their unresolved issues. Jah held on to Keema tight while they both fell into silence. Keema had her face buried in his black Gucci hoodie both enveloping her senses in Jah’s scent and hiding from the fact she knew the conversation was inevitable. Jah broke the silence in the darkened room as he sat at the edge of the bed with Keema on his lap.

  “Meema when did you do that?” Keema knew what Jah was referring to. Keema knew talking about this would only bring up bad memories and feelings she tried so hard to bury in her past, truth be told she had never gotten over the situation herself. “In high school,” she answered in an almost inaudible tone. Jah said nothing for a while. At that very moment he felt a air of relief. He was still upset and hurt however, timing was everything and he was relieved Keema hadn’t had the abortion recently.”Why didn’t you tell me?” She could tell Jah was irritated by the whole situation but he was trying to contain his anger. “Jah I found out I was pregnant at the same time I found out I had Gonorrhea.” Jah lowered his head in shame because he knew he was the cause of that.

  “I went to the clinic thinking I could be pregnant. I never thought the doctor would say I was pregnant and had gonorrhea. After your reaction when I called and told you I had the clap. I was afraid to tell you about being pregnant. I was kinda scared you would deny that too. I just… thought I would be assed out taking care of our baby on my own. I knew for sure my grandmother would throw me out after she tried to kill me. I thought it was the best thing Jah. I was young and scared. I really didn’t want to do it. I regretted it the moment it was done,” Keema said through tears. Jah took a deep breath as if he was bracing himself, “I just wanna know what happened when you went.” Keema recapped what she could remember about that day to Jah. A lot of things she just couldn’t remember. She concluded that she probably blocked them out because it was too painful for her to deal with.

  That was a little too much for Jah. He could see the pain on Keema’s face and it made his heart hurt. Jah gently pushed Keema to the side so that he could get up. He walked into the master bathroom and shut the door behind him. Keema sat there with tears rolling down her face, noticing that Jah had been gone for some time she got up to look for him. She walked in the bathroom to find Jah sitting on the edge of their deep jetted bathtub with his head in his hands. Keema had rarely saw Jah shed tears. She could tell he had been crying even though she couldn’t see his face. Keema stood in front of him and he wrapped his arms around her waist, placing his head on her stomach.

  “Jah I was wrong for reacting like I did. I should’ve believed in you, gave you a chance to explain things to me. I’m sorry baby do you forgive me?” “Forgive you for what?” Jah asked astonished. “Nah it’s not your fault. I was a foul nigga to you back then Keem. I was a kid and too stupid and immature to handle the love and loyalty you was giving me. But I’ma grown man now and for all those times I made you cry I’ll make you smile three times over. I would never hurt you like I did before. I swear that’s my word Keem, I love you and I’m sorry. I just need you to believe that ma, believe in me, if you can’t how you gonna believe in us?” “I know Jah, I know. I love you too, we have to move on, we can’t live in the past. And we can’t bring that baby back. What’s done is done. It is what it is. But… we have a second chance to make things right.” Keema said placing Jah’s hand on her belly. Jah looked at his hand that was on her stomach and noticed Keema had a noticeable gut on her. He looked up at Keema “Word?” He asked. “Word.” Keema responded trying to contain a smile.

  Jah’s eyes lit up with joy. He jumped to his feet and lifted Keema up in his arms. “Oh shit Meema you pregnant?” he asked in amazement rubbing her stomach. “Yeah, 3 months.” “What?! Why didn’t you tell me?” “I was gonna tell you the night all that mess went down. That’s what the dinner was for, then after all that happened. I just, I… needed to know for sure that you came back for me and not the baby.” “Keem on everything I’ma take care of you and my son. I swear I’ll be a better father than mine was. I’ll always be there for the both of you.” “I know you will Jah. And just how do you know this is a boy?” “Because I know, I can tell.” Keema laughed and kissed him like it was their last kiss.

  Jah and Keema went at it for hours. Jah really wanted to blow her back out, but found himself holding back trying to be cautious because of Keema’s pregnancy. However, Keema’s hormones were raging and she was acting up “Jah fuck me harder,” Keema moaned while pushing her ass up against him trying to provoke him into grabbing her hips and deep stroking her. Jah tried to resist her demands but ended up caving in and putting it on her, after she assured him that it was perfectly fine for them to have sex the way they usually did. Although Jah didn’t want to believe the old saying pregnant pussy was the best pussy, and always thought it was a myth. He would have to admit the saying was the absolute truth.

  Keema was exhausted afterwards, the wait was definitely worth it, Jah had laid the pipe down like a plumber and she was just about to fall into a deep and heavy sleep. “Meema marry me.” Keema chuckled with her eyes closed while trying to snuggle up even closer to Jah as she lay in his arms. “Dag boy I must of really gave you a hot shot if you done forgot that you already proposed to me. We already getting married.” “Nah I mean now.” Keema’s head shot up off of Jah’s chest. “What you mean now?” Jah reached over to the nightstand and turned the lamp on. “Keem I want to make this official, all I want is you. If you wanna wait for the wedding I will, but that shit don’t mean anything to me. You being my wife having my last name that’s the only thing that matters ma.” Keema just stared at him, “Yes!” Jah kissed her at the same time reaching for his cell phone and attempting to get up out of bed. “Baby what you doing?” Keema asked. “I’m going to charter the company jet to go to Vegas” “Vegas! When now?” Keema asked incredulously. “Yeah now,” Jah said. Keema laughed “You are nuts? It’s almost 4 in the morning baby,” Keema whined. “Can I please get some sleep first? I promise first thing in the morning we out. But my stomach feeling queasy and I’m tired. I mean, damn, you just had a bitch doing the spiderman, straight crawling up walls and shit. Me and this baby need some rest, that’s the most activity we done had in a while,” Keema said through laughter. Jah looked at Keema who could barely keep her eyes open and laughed “A’ight, but first thing in the morning we dippin. I don’t want you changing your mind on me.” Keema laughed “Boy whateva I ain’t going nowhere.” “You swear,” Jah asked playfully. Keema burst into hard laughter “Yes I swear, now baby stop playing and acting like you don’t know a bitch is down like four flats. Let me and baby get some sleep.”

  The next morning both Keema and Jah were awaken by Jah’s ringing phone. It was Jah’s lawyer with test results from the DNA testing facilities. It was unanimous Jah was not Bianca’s baby daddy. Jah was hollering Yes! As if he was watching a good basketball game. Keema looked at him with alarm not knowing what was going on until Jah repeated to his lawyer that he wasn’t Taj’s father. Keema took a huge sigh of relief and thanked her lucky stars that she do
dged a bullet. Because there was going to be some drama if Jah was that child’s father, she was sure to catch a case behind Bianca’s thirsty ass. Keema reacted to the good news by screaming and throwing her arms around Jah. Before hanging up Jah’s lawyer informed him that he would have to attend one final court date to have the results read in front of the court and documented but it was officially a wrap he wasn’t Taj’s father. Jah was more than happy with the results but he felt a little conflicted. The results were bittersweet when he thought about Taj. On the other hand the thought of dealing with crazy Bianca as a permanent fixture in his life spelled nothing but trouble.

  Jah and Keema were married that very afternoon in Vegas. Keema was able to slip into her Vera Wang wedding dress, although she didn’t have time for an alteration at the last minute. The dress hugged her midsection showing her visible baby bump. Jah was casket sharp in a tailored Armani suit. The closest thing to a father that Jah had was his big cousin, who he looked up to, admired and respected. So he asked Los to walk Keema down the aisle, since Keema’s father was a who knows situation. His best men were Real and Nice. Lucky and Ty stood as Keema’s maid of honors. The ceremony was short sweet and really quick; right after the whole gang got back on a private jet to go back home minus the newlyweds who stayed in Vegas for a week.

  Can’t Believe It

  Ty stared at the monitor in astounded shock. She would second guess herself and run the numbers all over again. However, she had done that two times already. Her boss had just informed her of an upcoming audit and wanted Ty to do some number crunching on some of the business accounts that they held at the firm. The firm wanted to be prepared for the audit to make sure everything was within compliance of the SEC and on the up and up. As Ty started to thumb through the accounts one by one she noticed little inconsistencies with the values of the accounts and thought nothing of it at first. On second look she noticed that there was a pattern that emerged in the way the funds were somehow disappearing.

  The accounts were 6 and 7 figure accounts. They were 401k and Pension accounts for businesses that had multiple employees invested in the plan. Each company or employer would send in checks to start a retirement plan for the employee’s in their company. When the initial contribution from the employer came in the monies were set in a suspense account that’s equivalent to a dummy account until all the employee’s separate accounts were set up.

  It was within this time frame that something fishy seemed to be going on with the accounts. Ty ran the numbers again on the account she had just reviewed. Okay 2k3 Oak Enterprises sent in 3.5 Million. We put that in a suspense account for a week to set up the employees at the companies individual retirement accounts. Within a week 663 individual retirement accounts were set up. This is when the numbers became skewed. Once the individual accounts were funded only 3.4 million went into the individual employee accounts. This was the case on nearly 20 401k plans and counting. Although the amount of the contributions changed and the number of the employees changed, one thing still remained the same; the money was disappearing out of the suspense accounts. The one common factor that all these accounts had aside from missing money was the chief financial advisor Douglas Whitfield the IV.

  “That muthafucka,” Ty whispered aloud while staring at the computer monitor. He had embezzled over a million dollars easy that she could account for and she wasn’t even done with the audit yet. The first thing that came to Ty’s mind was jail and how she didn’t want to be a part of any of this madness. She refused to do a bid over some shit she didn’t even benefit from. All she could think of was Bernie Maddoff and that 150 years they gave his ass for ripping people off. Ty knew she definitely couldn’t do FED time, guilty by association was the second thing that came to mind. When this shit hit the fan would people assume she was in Cahoots with Douglas and was a part of his ponzi scheme. This could ruin her entire life. Everything she worked so hard for would go down the drain, all the hard work she put into this financial firm would be meaningless. Her career, reputation and freedom was at stake. What’s an MBA and work experience if no one will hire you because you had your name mixed up in some embezzlement case? All because of the man you dated. She asked herself. Ty had to give it to him though the plan was pretty damn genius. Most people set up retirement accounts with their employers not even being fully knowledgeable about what they had or how much money was being put into the account by their employer. If the individuals never knew what they had how would they miss anything? Ty’s mouth was completely dry; the feeling of sickness hit her like a brick. She jumped from the sound of her ringing office phone. Looking over at the caller ID she noticed it was coming from Douglas’s office. She chose not to answer. She needed to get her thoughts right and think of a plan to get as far away from him as possible. There was only a matter of time before his boat was hit by an iceberg and she was damned if she sank with him.

  Minutes after her phone stopped ringing she noticed the red message light blinking on her phone. Ty pressed the voicemail button to listen to the message. “Ahem,” she heard Douglas clear his throat as if he was giving a PSA announcement instead of just leaving a casual message on an answering machine. “Hello Tyeena, you already know whom this is. I assume that you’re hard at work. Well I’m calling to remind you of the company’s party next week. Being that we have this upcoming engagement I want to be proactive in picking you out something appropriate to wear since you are a representation of me, and many of my colleagues will be in attendance, in addition to many corporate bigwigs. I’ve also noticed that you have undoubtedly put on some pounds. I want to make sure whatever you do wear isn’t too clingy. We have had this talk numerous times before with your body shape some things tend to look more…How shall I say this risqué, rather than classy. In addition,” just as he said addition the voicemail cut him right off. He had used up all his messaging time without finishing what he had to say, trying to sound so damn important. The nerve of that bastard. You better be the one worrying about not looking too risqué in them prison stripes buddy. You wouldn’t want Bubba to get too excited. I have to think of a way to get rid of this man once and for all.

  Tyeena couldn’t believe that a week had flown by that fast. She was still hard at work on the audits for the company; her boss wasn’t expecting them to be done for another week or two. As each passing day went by she was discovering more and more shit to bury Douglas with. He thought he was really slick even trying to fund some accounts that he had taken too much from with funds from other companies suspense accounts. Tyeena was scared shitless. All of this had been going on without her knowledge. Douglas had always been a tight wad with cash, yes she knew that. However, in the last months he had been splurging money. He claimed he and his parents had reconciled, they were happy that he had finally found a job and stuck with it. Since he had proven that he could take care of himself financially they put the silver spoon back in his mouth. He’d moved out of his old apartment into a penthouse fully furnished with some of the most expensive and exquisite furniture and art pieces. He also purchased a small boat and bought a brand new Mercedes Benz that he’d been begging Ty to register and insure for him since his license was still suspended for multiple DUI’s.Ty never really thought the story of his parents purchasing him things was farfetched because she knew he came from old money and his parents had plenty of it, along with other irresponsible children that they took care of. So Douglas’s claims of his parents supporting him financially didn’t sound at all odd.

  To make matters worse Douglas knew full in well she was working on the audit and didn’t seem to be worried at all that his fraud would be detected. In his mind he thought that Tyeena wasn’t bright enough to catch on to his scheme. He didn’t put anything past her and he knew that she was college educated with a Master's in International business and finance. But she was born into meager means, with a public school education. So even though she was a bright girl he thought he would always be a couple steps ahead of her, being that he was educ
ated at some of the most affluent prep schools money could buy and IV league college educated.

  Hit With Reality

  After leaving the company party a couple of attendees decided to go bar hopping in Old City Philadelphia to party some more. Douglas had gotten on Tyeena’s last nerve at the party aside from him being his normal rude and sarcastic self. He had openly flirted with Rebecca the office jumpoff slash secretary. There was no secret that Rebecca had been passed around in that company from the CFO, CEO, District financial consultants to the mail room workers she was just nasty like that. It was even less of a secret that Douglas had carried a long affair with the ditzy blonde for months now.

  Ty had enough of Douglas and his snobbish drunk friends for one night she was ready to go. Ty walked over to him as he was standing at the bar laughing and carrying on. “Look Douglas I’m tired, I’m about to leave. If you need a ride home since you drove with me then you better come now or find a ride home.” Ty said what she had to then started to walk to the exit to leave. Douglas had seemed agitated when she said she would leave without him. He said his goodbye’s and headed out with Ty. On the way to the car Douglas snatched the keys away from Ty and walked to the car. “Give me my keys Douglas, Douglas give me my damn keys.” He ignored her hopped in the car and started the engine. “Look Douglas you’ve been drinking, and you don’t have a valid driver’s license so your not driving my car.” “Drinking? Look I had a couple of beers I’m fine, I’m not drunk.” Ty begged the differ, He was tipsy and she didn’t want him to crash her car or crash into either someone or a parked car. “Douglas just give me the keys!” Ty said now agitated that she had to repeat herself. Douglas revved the engine and without thinking Ty hopped in the car. He stepped on the gas and Ty’s first instance was to grab a hold of her seat belt and fasten it. With the weather being like it was, she was terrified that he could possibly hit black ice and have the car spin out from the speed he was traveling. Philly had just had one of the worst snow storms of the winter season days before. The snow was still piled up on embankments on the side of the road along with slush and ice on the roads.