A Rich Man's Baby (16 page)

D
eCarious played in Seattle but was from Atlanta, Georgia. He didn't waste any time inviting me to come see him. His season was over and he had a few things to wrap up before he went home. I thought I was going to have to apologize for acting like a bitch in Vegas, but he never mentioned it, so neither did I. He was a little younger than I wanted, but other than that he had everything I wanted in a man. He had a four-million-dollar-per-year contract, but he had crazy bonuses. He did okay.

Seattle was cold and rainy, like forty degrees outside, but the rain made it seem much colder. Young Jeezy was playing throughout the house loudly. The smell of weed was covered with Febreeze. I guess he didn't want me to know he smoked. He had a blue and green Seahawk banner in his living room above his sixty-five-inch LCD television hanging on the wall. His apartment didn't reflect how much money he made. DeCarious had a thin mustache and a gold tee with a landing strip of hair under his bottom lip. For some reason he looked better this time. I don't know what it was. I could see he had taken a trip to the jewelry store, since the last time I had seen him. He had two medium-size square diamond earrings in his ear.

“You got to excuse the place. I haven't really been here.”

“It's okay,” I said as I moved a sweatshirt he had sitting on the sofa. He pulled out some pictures and talked a lot about his family for the first two hours I was there. His parents were still together and he was the youngest of four boys. He told me how his parents were always in his ear about remaining humble and not spending all his money crazy. His cousin Rock was his best friend and worked with him as his personal assistant. I got comfortable and he kept taking calls.

“What's up, man? Yeah, I might have to do that. Let me see if I can get a ticket…. No, I didn't win, but I came up on in Vegas. Yeah, I'm going to bring her out there so you can meet her.” He said all this when he looked over at me. He hung up the phone and said, “What's up, beautiful? You want to go home with me? My cousin just called me and said they having a party at home.”

“Right now?'

“Yeah, when you got to get back home?”

“I didn't bring that many clothes; you going to have to take me to the mall if I come.”

“Okay, let me get my stuff together.”

I wasn't sure I wanted to meet his family, but I did want to see his house and go shopping. We hadn't even fucked yet, and he was wide open on me just because he thought I was real pretty.

 

His cousin met us at the airport. He pulled up in an apple-green old-school Impala with gold shiny spoke rims. It was very flashy. He looked me up and down and said, “'Bout time you got a pretty girlfriend, DeCarious.”

“DeCarious told him to shut up and introduced us. His name was Rock. He was DeCarious's personal assistant, aka weed go-getter, aka flunky. He was cool, though, and did whatever DeCarious asked. Rock revealed some pertinent information that I needed to know. He told me how DeCarious never had a bunch of girlfriends because his parents made him concentrate on school and told him to leave the groupie girls alone, and always was in his ear about being humble.

We drove up to this gigantic house in Alpharetta, right outside of Atlanta. The next house was down the road, and there were nothing but tall trees all around the property. I'd seen nice houses before, but this was a mansion. There were eight bedrooms. It was a newly built house that sat in the middle of a long cobblestone driveway. It looked like it could be made into three little houses. It had four baths, cathedral ceilings, marble floors, an exercise room, a recreation room, and a free-form pool. Rock lit up some weed and smiled at me; he had droopy red eyes. First, he asked me if I had any friends; then he asked if I was staying. I didn't say anything to him. As he smoked, he tried to pass me weed. DeCarious slapped it out of his hand and said, “She don't smoke. She not no hood rat. She is a lady; leave her alone.” Rock apologized and then said he was about to go to the store and asked if we needed anything.

Later that night, we went to the Magic City; it was a strip club downtown. We were ten cars deep. All DeCarious's friends and people he went to school with came out to party with him and Rock. We had bottles of Hennessy and vodka on the table. Rock was all excited looking at the women. He was tossing ones on the stage telling the stripper to work for her money. She was humping the stage and clapping her ass cheeks together. I hadn't ever been to a strip club, but it was normal for women to be in the club down here. There were a bunch of naked women swinging upside down from poles and giving out lap dances. DeCarious's friends were constantly coming past our booth, giving him pounds and asking to take pictures like he was the mayor.

We came back from the strip club drunk and full of erotic energy. DeCarious made love to me like a real man. His young ass didn't have the biggest package, but he made up for that with his stroke; he positioned my body all over his body the entire evening. And as he did it he said he just wanted to take care of me. “I promise you I won't cheat on you. I'm going to be real good to you.” He stared into my eyes. I turned away. I was fearful of believing what he was saying was true. Even through the liquor he seemed sincere.

 

The next day, a knock on the door awakened us and a southern-sweet voice was saying, “DeCarious, good morning, baby.” I was naked at the opposite end of the bed and trying to find something to cover my body with.

“One minute, Mama, I be down,” DeCarious said, rubbing his eyes.

“Who is that?” I asked.

“My mother. We have to go down and eat breakfast.”

I slipped on some jeans and a T-shirt, and followed DeCarious downstairs. I didn't want to meet his mother, but I didn't have a choice. We came downstairs and she had everything stretched out on the table like a buffet. There was bacon, pancakes, home fries, scrambled eggs, and toast.
Who eats all this food?
I thought. She made DeCarious a gigantic plate filled with everything.

“Ma, this is my friend Adrienne from Philly.”

She was dressed in a white suit and wearing opaque stockings and white nurse-looking shoes. I said hello and she told me to help myself to the food. I grabbed a piece of toast and a few pieces of bacon. She looked at my plate and politely told me to put more food on my plate. She then began wiping down the counter and did the dishes and put her coat on to leave.

“Where you going, Ma?” DeCarious asked, taking a break from his plate.

“To church, where you should go sometime. I'll be by later on with your dad and bring dinner.” She smiled at me and said that it was nice to meet me and left.

K
evin told me he was thinking about coming back to the States on one of his breaks. And I didn't even think he was serious. I was at work when I saw his number come on my phone.

“Tanisha, I'm in Richmond, Virginia.” I almost jumped out of my seat. I walked out of the office to the corridor so I could hear him talking.

“I'll be in your city like six. Can you come and meet me? My friend Rick is going to bring me out there.”

“Where are you going to stay?” I asked.

“With you. I'll call you when I leave here.”

“Okay.” I wanted to see him so bad, but he couldn't stay with me. I didn't want him to see my house. It just wasn't what he was used to, and he didn't know about the children. I couldn't even pick him up in my piece of a car. I called Adrienne to ask what I should do.

“Rent a car; tell him your car's in the shop.”

“I can't bring him home either.”

“Just take him to a hotel. Tell him you don't bring guys home to your house. Tell him you just didn't think it was appropriate yet.” Adrienne had all the answers. She told me to come and get her so she could drive me there when I left work. I called Budget rental car and reserved a sedan. I made a reservation at the Loews. She told me to rent a Ford Explorer instead of the sedan, but it was like fifty dollars more a day. I reserved the room. I called my manager, Patrick, and left him a message saying I had to pick up Kierra early from school; she was sick and I had to leave early.

I pulled up to the train station; it was six and he wasn't there. I walked around and called him. But his voice mail kept coming on saying that I couldn't leave a message because it was full.

I built myself up for a whole day and I wanted to see him so bad. By ten, I thought he had stood me up. So I went home, but just in case he called, I slept with the phone next to me hoping that the ringing phone would wake me up and I would hear his voice at the other end. I wanted to cry I was so disappointed. All I wanted him to do is call, that's all. I mean if he called right now this moment this second, it would make up for waiting for all these hours. I just started staring at the phone, hoping that would make it ring.
Ring, phone, please ring,
I thought. I wanted so bad to see Kevin. I missed him; I needed to see him. Maybe he was tied up. I know my heart was. Damn it, I should have known better. But why would he call me and then stand me up? It didn't make sense.

At eleven-fifteen, the phone rang and Kevin was on the line apologizing for being late. His friend had something to do and they got caught up running around. His phone battery had died and he needed to charge it. I told him it wasn't too late, and I stood up and brushed the wrinkles out of my clothes. He told me to meet him at the train station; he would be arriving in the next half hour. I walked into the bathroom and splashed water on my face.

Alexis looked at me and said, “Look at you, Mom. Where are you going this time of night?”

“Out, I need you to take Kierra to school.”

“You not coming back tonight?”

“I don't know; lock the door and no company,” I said as I walked out the door to go pick up Kevin.

 

Kevin was sitting on the side with one army-green suitcase. He had a black leather jacket and black hat on with blue jeans. He looked even better than I remembered. I beeped the horn. He looked over at me; he had this huge smile and picked up his luggage and walked over to the car. I was so excited to see him in the flesh. I didn't want to be all excited, but I couldn't contain it. I got out of the car and gave him the biggest hug. The cold was no match for his warm hug in his long arms. He kissed the space between my nose and mouth. “Where's your little girl Kierra?”

“She is with my brother; it was too late to bring her.”

“I brought her this,” he said as he pulled out a big brown teddy bear. He got in the car and pulled his seat back.

“This is a nice little car.”

“Thank you, but this is a rental. My car is in the shop.” He grabbed my hands as I drove. “Where do you want to go?” I asked as I turned out of the train station.

“Doesn't matter. I just wanted to come and be with you. You know what, I want to stop and get one of them steak and cheeses.”

“A cheesesteak,” I said, correcting him.

“You know what I meant,” he said. Smiling, he pulled me into him and shook me a little. I took him to get a cheesesteak at Geno's, a place that was a tourist attraction.

“You going to eat it here?” I asked after he had his food.

“No, I'll eat it at your house.”

“We are not going to my house,” I said, scratching my head. “We're going to stay downtown at the Loews. I know you had to be back on the train early, so I said we could just stay downtown so we wouldn't have to fight with traffic and we can go to breakfast.”

“Okay, doesn't matter as long as I get to spend time with you.”

 

The Loews Hotel had a modern lobby with marble floors. The front desk agent asked if we were ready to check in. I told him yes and gave him my credit card. Kevin reached in his wallet, pulled out his credit card, and passed me mine back. I told him I had it; then he gave me a look, so I just let him pay for it. The clerk gave us our room key and we entered the elevator; Kevin gave me a little soft hug in the elevator. It didn't seem real at all. I wanted to see him so bad and now he was here. The elevator door opened and he held the door open for me. I slid the key card in the door and we walked into the bright hotel room. When the door shut behind us all my pent-up energy burst. Kevin didn't know how I had waited all day to see him and I had been anticipating this moment since we made plans to be together. He pulled me into him and we just hugged for a few minutes, not speaking. All those miles that separated us were gone; he was here in front of me and we took full advantage of it. He felt so good, his body was so muscular. We fell back on the bed. He turned off the lamp and we held each other and kissed, our tongues wagging in and out of each other's mouth. He brought my breasts together and slobbered all over them; he pulled his shirt off over his head. His body was ripped. He pulled down my pants and panties. I opened my legs and let him kiss my moist insides. They had been neglected for so long. I needed attention and he spoiled me as he swirled his face out of control between my legs. His lips and tongue were submerged in my hips; all I could see was the bridge of his nose. His technique was driving me crazy; I inched back on the bed until I couldn't move anymore. My legs were all the way back touching the wall. After putting a condom on, he placed himself inside me. It was slow and sweet. It was beautiful—the whole experience. I needed this feeling he was giving me. Every woman needs this. Damn it, it was worth all the hours of waiting. We didn't even go to sleep; we didn't have enough time. We sat up and talked, and I just rubbed his head as he lay on my stomach. He looked up at me and asked, “What time do you have to be to work in the morning?”

“I don't.”

“Good, because I want to meet your daughter; we can pick her up from school tomorrow.”

“You will. It was just late tonight and her dad is already picking her up tomorrow from school.”

“Well, next time, because I'm going to be in your life, so I need to be in hers, right?”

“You right,” I said, shaking my head agreeing with him. I wanted him to meet Kierra and Jamil and Alexis. But I couldn't introduce him to Kierra because I knew for sure she would talk too much. She would talk about her daddy and sister and brother and everything else. I didn't want to even think about his reaction if he found out the truth. I closed my eyes and wished for a miracle.