Hot Girlz: Hot Boyz Sequel (6 page)

“Not Candy.”

“Yes.”

She took the almond milk and shrimp
from the refrigerator. “Actually, I guess I’m not surprised. Damn, those two.
First they got in trouble for joyriding in someone’s car. Then, she pawned
stolen merchandise to buy him an iPhone for his birthday. And now this. She’s a
mess.”

“He needs to cut her loose. She’s
crooked as a question mark and messy as a soup sandwich, if you ask me. She’s
gotta go.”

“I agree.”

“Hey, Pops,” Cameron said, coming in
through the kitchen door. He wasn’t alone.

“Hey, Cameron.” Claude turned around
looking very reserved.

“Hi, Mom.”

Venus said, “Hi, Cam.” Then she saw
his girl behind him, closing the door. “Hello, Candy.” Cameron dwarfed her
petite frame, even with her trendy high heels.

“Hi there, Mrs. Wilson. Love your
shoes. And your ring is beautiful.”

“Thanks.” Venus examined Candy’s
mature figure. She had the porcelain face of a twenty year-old and the sexy
body of an Atlanta stripper.

“Hello, Mr. Wilson.”

Claude leaned forward and placed the
laptop on the table. He turned toward the kitchen. He tried not to look at
Candy. “Son, come here for a minute.”

Cameron, tall and thin, walked into
the family room. “Yes.”

“Looks like you’ve got some mess going
on.”

“Yeah.”

“This could mean you don’t return to
Berkley. You know that?”

Candy stood next to Cameron. “If he
doesn’t go back, I won’t either.”

In his mind Claude shook his head. He
cut his eyes to her. “Candy, does your dad know what happened?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“And. What did he say?”

“He knows I found the information
online. I didn’t copy it word for word though.”

“But the school’s Honor Council found
that three distinct paragraphs of Cameron’s research paper were plagiarized
from a Wikipedia article. Basically a copy and paste. They found him guilty.
But did you get kicked out, too?”

“No.”

“And why not?”

Cameron said, “Dad, it wasn’t her
homework. It was my responsibility.”

Claude looked at his son with
impatience. “See, this crap has taken valuable time out of my days. This thing
is costing me money.”

“Then don’t put any more time into it.
I’m cool. Even if I have to go somewhere else.”

“Then you can pay for that ‘somewhere
else.’ And tell me, what will you do if you find that the majority of your
classes aren’t even transferable?”

“Why wouldn’t they be?”

“That’s just how it goes.” He looked
at Candy but spoke to Cameron. “Why don’t you have her check the Internet to
find out? But I’m not paying for your last year of school. That’s on you.”

“School can wait a little while. I’m
ready to work full-time anyway.”

“Waiting is guaranteed to mean you’ll
never finish.”

Candy said, “Mr. Wilson, I’m sorry.”
Her eyes were downcast like a sad puppy.

Claude stood and then walked to the
front door, opening it, “Candy, would you mind? We need some family time before
I go get my daughter.”

“Dad, she was coming up to my room.”

Venus just watched from the kitchen,
pulling rotisserie chicken from the bone.

Claude shook his head, holding on to
the nickel doorknob. “No. Not right now.”

Candy said, “It’s okay.” She gave
Cameron a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll talk to you later.” She walked to the door,
switching in her four inch gladiator heels.

“I’ll be by,” Cameron said back to
her.

She exited.

Claude closed the door. “No you won’t.
What you’re gonna do is put some work into this. The work you didn’t put into
that research paper. I’m done. And if you stay here I want rent.” He cut his
eyes and walked in the kitchen. “Actually, Venus, we need to make a decision on
moving to Laguna. My new office will be open soon.”

“New office?” asked Cameron.

She said, “Your dad is opening a
second real estate office. It’s in Laguna Hills.”

Claude looked serious. “I’m ready to
move up and move on before our past catches up with us.”

“What past?” Venus asked.

“Venus, we need a change and you know
it.”

She said, “Honey, I’m fine with that,
but for me, my only concern would be my commute to work.”

He interjected as though certain, “Not
if you quit. And as far as schools for Skyy, Parent Elementary out here is
cool, but there’s an elementary school called Valencia I hear is excellent. I
sent you a link to the school site.”

“I know. I opened it at work but
didn’t get a chance to check it out like I wanted to. I do think we need to do
some serious research and go out there, too.”

“I agree. But overall I think the
schools out there are better. Less crowded. Plus, Cameron, you can go to school
and work out there.” He looked at Cameron. “Get you away from that fast-ass
girl.”

Cameron looked at his dad like he
wanted to say something but he didn’t. He just stood in place.

“The new office will be open next
month. I already have a list of houses lined up for us. Plus, I feel some mess
is about to blow up. I just know it.” Claude walked away and took his cell as
it vibrated from his pocket, holding it to his ear. “Hello?” He headed toward
the back of the house.

Cameron walked over to Venus in the
kitchen. “What’s his problem? I swear Dad is going through
man-o-pause
.”

She fought off a laugh and turned on
the water to wash her hands. “Sheesh. You know how he is. But you must admit
you messed up. You violated the school contract. He’s disappointed.”

“That contract applies to situations I
knew about. I didn’t know it was plagiarized. They didn’t even give me a fair
chance. They could have suspended me but they expelled me. That’s not fair,
especially since it’s my first offense.”

She dried off her hands with a paper
towel. “Bottom line, Cam, you knew you turned in work you didn’t write.”

He shook his head. “Okay, I did.” He
looked frustrated. “Anyway, Mom, please tell me you’re not gonna quit your
job.”

“I don’t know.”

“Dad’s trippin, if you ask me.”

“He’s not. He just tired of B.S.”
Venus walked out of the kitchen and toward the front door, turning her head to
talk loudly toward the back of the house. “Claude, I’m gonna go ahead and get
Skyy.”

“I’ll go with you,” Cameron said right
away.

Claude yelled back, “Yeah, you do
that. And check the mail while you’re at it. Might be some more mail in there
for you. And Cameron, don’t you bring Candy back up in here. Candy ain’t always
sweet, you hear me?”

Venus looked forward and opened the
door.

“Yes, Sir.” He rolled his eyes,
sighed, and then said to Venus as he followed her out of the door, “I’ll check
the mail.
Adios Mio
,” he said, insinuating
Good Lord
, in Spanish
for only Venus to hear. The Spanish she had taught him through the years.

“
No, lo conseguiré
,” she
replied, letting him know she would get it herself.

He closed the door behind them.

Both of them had a moment of much
needed fresh air all to themselves.

6

Sequoia

“That would be a hot mess.”

The house in Baldwin Hills on Coliseum
Street where Sequoia grew up was a remodeled, tri-level monster, with rust
stucco and green shutters. It had many large rooms and floor-to-ceiling
windows. Sequoia’s mother, Ruby Smith, had since passed on, but years earlier
she had lost the property to foreclosure. Sequoia moved her mother in with her
in Culver City before she got married to Torino. But recently, Sequoia was
proud that she had the means to buy the house for nostalgic reasons when it
came on the market. She turned it into her own catering location.

She had transformed the kitchen into a
restaurant-style chef’s dream, complete with commercial appliances and a
ten-by-ten island with copper cookware hanging from stainless steel pot racks.
Having learned how to cook from her grandmother, Sequoia and two of her
employees, her cook and her young assistant, were hard at work that Thursday,
getting ready for a weekend event at a businesswoman’s home in Brentwood.

Sequoia sat on the upholstered chair
in the formal dining room across from her sister-in-law, Mercedes. The sound of
pots clanging and a low volume hip-hip radio station played. The smell of
something hearty was coming from the kitchen.

“So, Mason’s serious. I mean, about
running for city council?”

“He seems to be.” Mercedes looked
relaxed, sipping from her glass of ice-water.

Sequoia looked over some invoices and
asked, “What would he have to do in order to run?”

“From what he tells me, since there’s
a vacancy and it’s not actually election time, he wouldn’t run. He’d need to
get appointed to the post by the council members. Looks like the council is
about to interview candidates. Not sure if he officially applied, though. I
think it’d be temporary until the election in a couple of years. It would take
a while to find out.”

“Interesting. But he met with someone
already?”

“He met with Eric Garcetti. And
someone else.” Mercedes picked up her phone from the table as it rang, reading
the name on the screen. “Oh Lord,” she said to Sequoia, “Excuse me.” She
greeted the caller. “Hello? Hi, Colette.” She raised her brows, mouthing to Sequoia,
“What the hell?”

Sequoia’s mouth flopped open. Her eyes
were stuck on Mercedes.

Mercedes continued, “Yes, it has been
a long time . . . Everyone’s okay, thanks. How’ve you been? . . . Uh-huh . . .
He’s that old already? . . . You did? I’ll bet he is . . . So you waited all
this time to try and get child support? . . . No. I know you tried to tell him.
Well, why don’t you wait until the lab results come in and go from there? . . .
True. Listen, it’s good hearing from you.” She looked at Sequoia like she would
rather slit her wrists than talk. “Keep the faith. It’ll all work out for
everyone . . . Excuse me . . . Huh? Oh, I’m sorry, Colette, but I can’t get you
any work. I have very few shows coming up and too many models. Not a lot of
requests to book outside of my Simpson Models productions, either. You
understand . . . Okay. Well . . . I’m sorry about that. Listen, you take care.
Bye.” She hung up and put the phone back on the table, looking relieved to be
done.

Sequoia finally closed her mouth. “Oh,
no she didn’t.”

“Yes, she did. I dang near hung up on
her. Almost didn’t answer, but I wanted to know what the hell she was up to.”

“She’s talking to you about her filing
for child support from Torino?”

“Yep.”

Sequoia looked through her papers
again, shaking her head. “That woman. Why is she so desperate after all this
time? It’s like she has a motive that just popped up out of the blue.”

“I agree. When it comes to her, who
knows?” Mercedes sipped more of her water.

“And she actually had the nerve to ask
you for work?”

“She did. She does sound desperate,
you’re right.”

“Oh well. I don’t know what’s up with
Kyle’s income, but you can’t depend on some back-child support scheme to live
off of.” Goosebumps formed on Sequoia’s skin and she shivered. “Umph. Her name
makes my skin crawl. If Torino is the dad, that chick will be in my life for
the rest of my life. That would be one hot mess.”

Mercedes said, “The most important
thing is that Kyle Jr. knows who his birth father is. Nothing else.”

“Well, when we saw that boy years ago
at the restaurant, I think he was barely two, we asked ourselves then why he
didn’t get his parents’ eyes.”

“Yeah, but you know, brown eyes are
dominate, even if both parents have light eyes.”

“That boy looked like Torino, light
eyes, brown eyes, purple eyes,” Sequoia said, as though sure. “Actually, Torino
Jr. looked like that when he was younger. I’ve thought about that all this
time.”

“I guess we’ll know soon enough, won’t
we? Maybe it’s good we’re finally getting everything straightened out.”

“I guess so. Torino got served.
There’ll be a hearing for the paternity and child support.”

“How’s Torino handling it?”

“One minute he says the boy might be
his. Then he says he couldn’t be. But then, and this is what I wanted to tell
you . . .” Sequoia leaned toward her friend and spoke lower, “when Colette came
into the club the other night, she told Torino she used sperm from a condom
he’d tossed.” She nodded for emphasis. “Yes she did.”