Hot Boyz (28 page)

“Hell, I’m ready and raring to go now,” Torino said, hopping up, heading toward the shower. “That was better than a nap.”

“We are quite a pair, aren’t we?”

“You’re damn right, woman. I just don’t know why it took us so long.”

Mercedes had planned a pool party for their wedding anniversary. She and Mason arrived back from Mexico that morning, worried because the weather was overcast. They rushed about to get things ready.

The oversized backyard looked like paradise. Like being in the country but with a formal feel. One end of the yard had twin tennis courts with a forest green blacktop and bright orange nets. Palm trees and hydrangea bushes surrounded the walkway from the courts on up the hill to the regulation-size basketball court.

A tree house and a huge rock waterfall aligned the outer edge of the Olympic-size, black-bottom swimming pool.

Guests started to arrive and began to mingle, sitting upon the champagne-colored patio furniture with purple swirled umbrellas shielding the sun. Tuxedoed waiters and waitresses served the catered food and fancy drinks. The Kenny G CD
Paradise
played over the speakers.

Cameron immediately ran back to shoot hoops with Rashaad. Torino and Sequoia came out to see if they could help. Star stayed inside, reading in her room and listening to music, waiting for her friend Asia to arrive. A few of Claude’s employees joined the group, in particular, Heidi, as well as Claude’s assistant.

Mercedes knew about their closest friends, coworkers and family coming, but one guest she was surprised to see was Dr. Green.

He greeted her. “Hey there. Good to see you.”

“Hi. I didn’t know you knew about the party.”

He explained. “I called you, or I should say I called the house last week to talk to you about your mother-in-law but your husband answered. I told him who I was and he invited me to stop by.”

“Oh, I see. That was nice of him. And you called to tell me what exactly?” Mercedes asked as if confused.

“I called to tell you about the new electronic bracelet for Alzheimer’s patients. It’s great to keep track of loved ones so they don’t get lost. I didn’t even know that Mattie had gotten lost until Mason told me.”

“Oh, so then you told Mason about the bracelet?”

“Yes I did.”

“I see.” Mercedes took in the entire vision of Dr. Green, from his curly hair to his bowlegs. He was long and lean and it was hard not to notice. “I usually don’t get my messages for some reason. I left my office number on my mother-in-law’s profile just in case you ever need to talk to me about her progress.”

“Will do.” Dr. Green grinned. He then looked around the backyard. “You have a lovely home. You know, I live right across Slauson on Holt Avenue.”

“Oh, you do. So we’re neighbors, huh?”

He replied, “Yes, we are after all.”

This time it was his turn. Mercedes watched his eyes roam downward, examining her waist area and then looking up toward her chest peeking out from her button-down linen dress.

Her words interrupted his glimpse. “I hope you enjoy yourself. If you need anything, please let us know.”

“I will do just that.” He started to walk away, just as she did. “And I just want to wish you a happy anniversary, Mrs. Wilson.”

Mercedes stopped and turned. “Thanks, Dr. Green. I must go check on the caterers. Enjoy.”

They walked away in opposite directions, but one second later Dr. Green ran smack dab into Heidi. He accidentally bumped her elbow and she spilled a bit of her red wine. They laughed it off while Heidi dabbed her arm with a napkin. She wore three-inch heels with her Burberry string bikini. Her hips were barely
shielded by a short, tiny white wrap. Dr. Green continued to talk to Heidi, no longer glancing Mercedes’s way as he was now fully distracted by a new flavor.

Cicely made her grand entrance as though Diana Ross herself had arrived. She ran to Heidi with a spectacular, dramatic, smooches-type greeting and they disappeared with Dr. Green into a corner near the wet bar. Cicely’s sheer pantsuit showed off her hot body in her hot pink one-piece underneath.

Mercedes spoke to the bartender and the waiters and made sure everyone was well taken care of. Mason approached after talking to a few women who Mercedes had never seen before.

“Who are they?” she asked as Mason approached.

“That’s Traci and Candi. They’re marketing representatives for the Sean John line.” Both scantily clad, Traci and Candi, smothered in glittery sun tan oil, decided to sit on the edge of the pool and get their feet wet, sipping on chilled bottles of Jack Daniel’s Original Hard Cola.

“You’ll have to introduce me later,” Mercedes said, giving them her attention.

“Yes, baby. I will do that. What is wrong with you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I just wish Venus were here. And I want this party to be a success.”

Mason looked up at the sky. “Well, the weather is turning out to be pretty nice. See, the sun is shining through.” He checked out his woman. “And even better than that, you look as beautiful as ever, I’ll say that much. Baby, I just remembered. When I took Mom to breakfast, she had your string of pearls in her purse.”

“Mamma did? I’ve been looking for those.”

“I took them from her, so not to worry.”

“What was she doing with them?”

“Don’t ask. She had everything in that bag but the kitchen sink.”

“Where are they?”

“They’re in my briefcase.”

“Oh, you finally got your briefcase from Cicely, huh?”

“Yes, but I left it in the car. I’ll go get it while I’m thinking about it.”

“Right now?” Mercedes asked.

“I’ll just be a second.”

“No, I’ll go. I need to go in the kitchen anyway and check on things. I’ll be right back.”

“Look in my blazer pocket hanging in the backseat if you don’t see it in the case. But it should be right on top.”

“Okay,” Mercedes said, going into the house as she greeted more guests, taking the kitchen door into the garage.

She did not see a blazer hanging from the backseat hook, so she looked in the backseat then toward the front seat of his Benz. She found the case on the passenger side on the floor. Strangely, Mercedes noticed a few long, thick strands of hair along the butterscotch-colored carpet. There was one on the palomino leather passenger seat, too. She picked up a strand and ran her fingers along the length of the piece of hair. She held it up and thought it could have been thread or something, it was so thick. It was a cherry red, and it curled when she scraped it with her fingernail.

Shaking her head to shake loose some of her thoughts, she opened the briefcase. Her pearls were right on top. She took the pearls and started to close the case when she spied a stack of photos tucked in the upper sleeve to the left. She pulled out the photos and noticed they were shots from Mason’s tour in Hawaii. Mason was smiling with his caddy and a few fans. A couple of shots were taken while he was on the course. And the last two were of Mason, Cicely, and Heidi, all hugged up and smiling for the photographer. It must have been a windy day because Heidi’s long red hair was blowing from her back to her side, topped by her red baseball cap.

Mercedes tucked all of the pictures back in the slot, all except for one. She threw the case on the floor of the car and slammed the door, walking heavily back into the house. She made a beeline straight to Mason who was talking to Torino near the tennis court.

“Excuse me, Mason. I need to talk to you.”

He noticed her scowl. “What is it? Did you find the pearls?”

“I need to talk to you now” she said, looking at Torino.

“I’ll be right back,” Torino said, picking up on the urgent need for the two of them to be alone. He walked away and greeted a few of the artists from the night at the club.

“What’s going on with you and Heidi?”

“What is
what?
What brought this on?” he asked, lowering his voice.

“This,” she said, shoving the picture toward his face.

Mason snickered. “That’s just a shot of them and me when they stopped through for the tournament in Hawaii.”

“But you said they weren’t in Honolulu with you.”

“They weren’t but they stopped through either coming or going on their vacation. I don’t remember. Mercedes, what are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that this woman is in my own backyard, and her strands of hair are in my husband’s car. I’m trying to say that I’m about to go off right now unless you explain yourself quickly.” Mercedes was fast losing patience.

Mason did not want to cause a scene. He looked around at the guests to check for stares. “Mercedes calm down. Let’s go inside.”

“Good idea. Follow me,” she said abruptly, storming her way into the house and on upstairs into their bedroom. Torino kept an eye on them.

Mason closed the door behind them.

Mercedes’s look was direct. “Mason, what do you have to say for yourself?”

“The same thing I told you a minute ago. Nothing is going on with Heidi and me.”

She threw the strand of pearls down on the dresser. “I go looking for a strand of pearls and find a strand of hair. And here I was worried about Cicely all this time.”

“Baby, believe me, Cicely is the least of your worries. And so is Heidi.”

She rolled her eyes. “Screw this. Obviously you’re not going to admit to a damn thing, Mason. You’ve been busted and you’re still
playing Mr. Innocent. It makes me sick to see you so damn smug, standing here lying to me after all these years.” She paced the length of the room.

“Cedes, I’m not lying.”

With irritation mounting, she demanded, “Tell me the truth, now.”

“I am,” he insisted.

She stopped in her tracks. “I don’t believe you.”

“Then why don’t you ask them for yourself?” he said casually.

“Fine, I will.”

A concerned Sequoia and Torino were waiting downstairs for the at-odds host and hostess to show their faces. Mercedes raced downstairs, right past them, leaving Mason standing in place in their bedroom. Mercedes saw Cicely and Heidi in the corner by the bar taking to Dr. Green. She approached like she was in no mood to make nice. Sequoia stood nearby as Torino went back into the house to check on Mason.

“Dr. Green, will you excuse us for a minute?” Mercedes asked abruptly.

An unsuspecting Heidi said, “I didn’t know you knew Dr. Green, Mercedes. He lives right down the street from me.”

“Oh you live in Ladera too, huh?” Mercedes asked with her toe tapping.

“Yes, right around the corner. What a small world.”

“Yes, it is,” Mercedes replied. “Dr. Green, we’ll just be a moment.”

“No problem. I’ll be right over here,” he replied, getting the obvious drift that something was up.

“Okay,” said Cicely. “Mercedes, what’s going on?”

“Did the two of you go to Hawaii with my husband on vacation?”

Cicely answered. “No, we went to Maui, but we stopped in Honolulu on our way home. We left early because the weather was so bad. Why?”

Mercedes shoved the photo toward their faces. “What’s with all of those cozy pictures of the three of you?”

“The pictures we took on the golf course? Oh yes, I gave the second set to Mason last week. I wouldn’t call those cozy. We were just
spectators while he played. We were only there for like six hours. What’s going on with you, Mercedes?” asked Cicely, trying to be nice.

“Yeah, what’s the matter?” Heidi asked.

Mercedes spoke to Heidi. “What’s the matter is that I’ve found your hair all in my husband’s car. And you have the nerve to come to my home?”

“Mercedes, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Heidi said cautiously.

“I think you do,” Mercedes said as if challenging her.

Cicely spoke again. “Mercedes, there’s something you need to know. Obviously you’re having trust issues with Mason, and I’m not one to judge a woman’s intuition. But believe me, he is not seeing Heidi.”

“What other black woman have I ever seen with long red hair, other than her?”

Cicely went on, “I don’t know what you saw, but you need to know something. And I’m surprised Mason hasn’t told you.”

“What is that?”

Cicely smoothed her surly hair behind her ear. “Heidi is not my sister, she’s my lover.”

“What?” Mercedes was dearly surprised.

“Mercedes, I’ve been with Heidi for as long as I can remember. Heidi is not into men. Trust me.”

“There’s no chance?” Mercedes asked, much more calmly.

Cicely spoke again. “Mercedes, there’s no chance that I’ve been sharing my lover with your husband. Believe me.”

Mercedes looked at the photo again. “I feel like a damn fool. Ladies, I’m so sorry.”

Heidi remarked, “Mason should have told you.”

Mercedes said, “He’s like that, trying to keep people’s business their own. I apologize.”

Heidi explained, “It’s okay. You’re not the first woman who thought I was after her man. I think because Cicely and I are feminine, we get hit on even more. It appears that we threaten wives when we’re really just kicking it with their men because we really like men, as friends.”

“Well, it doesn’t help that you two label yourself as sisters,” Mercedes told them.

“I do that more than she does. Plus we’re together so much that people would start to wonder,” Cicely said.

Mercedes advised, “One day, I think you two might want to just let it be and damn what people think about you.”

“Maybe one day we will,” Cicely said.

“Anyway, have a good time and again, excuse my paranoid, insecure ass today. It’s really not like me.”

“No problem,” they both said together.

Dr. Green walked back up with a Mack Daddy strut, eyeballing Heidi as if he wanted to sop her up with a biscuit. Heidi moved in even closer to Cicely.

“Mercedes, are you okay?” asked Sequoia. “I heard what happened. I’ve seen explosions more subtle than that, girl. That’s not like you.”

“I must have looked so damn stupid. I must be deep into PMS.”

“Never mind that. Are you all right?”

“I’m okay, Sequoia. I’ve got to go apologize to my man.”

By then, Mason was downstairs in the house shooting pool with Winton, his caddy.