I'm Doin' Me (9 page)

The next couple of weeks flew by and recordings went great. Finally, it was the day that Julia Valentine was to be on set. Everyone and their momma showed up just to hear her sing. Her voice was like no other, and when it was time for her scene, the entire set lapsed into silence. This was the episode where Claire's father died and she sang at his funeral. Timothy Warren, in the role of Claire's father, had found a new home and would be leaving the show whether or not the contract was renewed. He tragically died in an accident at his construction site, and although this was make-believe, there were no dry eyes when Julia finished her song.

When the day was done, Tiffany rushed over to thank the singer for participating and being a part of her show. “Julia, oh my God, you were phenomenal. I thank you so much for doing this. This episode should have been the show's finale.”

Julia smiled. “You are so very welcome. Anything for Keith. You know he helped to save my family's lives?”

Tiffany didn't know the entire story. “Somewhat, yes, only what I read.”

“Well, he came through for me and I will always come through for him . . . and Kory.” She gave her a look, but she ignored it.

“Well, thanks again, Julia,” Tiffany said, hoping she'd drop the conversation about Kory.

“You're welcome. And, I will add that he is marrying the wrong one. I'm not an expert, but I have ears, and when the fellas are together, you're Kory's number one topic, not Tressa.” She winked. “By the way, we are having a birthday party at my house for my li'l Juliana and I would love for you to come. You know, rub elbows with some people. This show is a great show, and I know a few people who you may want to meet. Their children are on the guest list. I will definitely promote the show and tell all of my fans to tune in.”

Tiffany accepted the invite and when Julia left, Tiffany called Asia to invite her, but she said she was going to be out of town meeting Edward's folks.

She put her phone in her pocket, disappointed, and then she spotted Darryl. He was gay, yes, but also a social butterfly and an elbow-rubber. She walked over and told him about the party. When she said at Julia's house, he practically leaped into her arms

A few days later, they arrived and waited for the valet to park their car.

“Look at this, Tiffany, this is how I want to live,” Darryl said, looking at the enormous lot that Julia's mansion sat on.

“You and me both,” Tiffany said. “If I can just sell one of my manuscripts, it would be on from then on.”

Darryl turned to her with his eyebrows raised. “You have manuscripts, buttercup?”

“Yes, I am a writer, Dee, that's what I do. I have more than sitcom goals, you know.” The valet opened her door for her to get out.

“Hey, I ain't hatin',” he said and got out.

They entered the party and mingled. There were several celebrities they had never met, and Tiffany had to hold Darryl back at times and remind him not to act like a groupie.

After a while, she saw them. Kory and Tressa walked out to the party tent hand-in-hand and her heart dropped. She knew he'd probably be there, but she thought she'd be able to handle seeing the two of them. She kept her distance, but before long, Kory spotted her and made his way over. When Darryl saw him approaching, he went MIA.

“Tiff, how nice to see you,” he said.

She smiled. “Hi, Kory, nice to see you too.” Her heart thumped. She really was happy to see him.

“How are things? I heard your show is going to be a series to remember and Julia tore the house down the other day.” He took a sip of the drink he held.

“Yes, I think we are going to do very well. I mean, my team is awesome. The cast is at the top of their game. From makeup to wardrobe, this is the best season thus far.”

“That's great, and I am so sorry you didn't get the contract at TiMax. I thought for sure it was yours.”

“No worries, it is what it is right?” she said. She saw Tressa approaching.

“Kory, darling, I need you. I have someone I want you to meet.” She pulled his arm, urging him away. “Oh, hi,” she said as if she'd just seen Tiffany. She gave him another tug. “Come on, babe, I need to introduce you to someone.”

Tiffany watched as Kory allowed himself to be dragged off, his eyes on her the entire time his fiancée pulled him with her. When he made it over to another couple, he turned his attention to the introduction, but she saw him watching her. She moved around and mingled and tried to get his gorgeous face out of her mind, but it was too late. Seeing him made it harder. She found Darryl and he caught her up on the new celeb connections he made, saying he knew he wouldn't be out of work for long.

The party transitioned from a kid's party to an evening adult soiree and Tiffany was glad she and Darryl stuck around. The clown was gone and the child festivities were taken away. The bars went up and the buffet tables were loaded with adult food. Tiffany was impressed. She and Darryl sat in a set of lawn chair recliners and gossiped about outfits and who was with whom. Tiffany spotted Stephen, and in a matter of seconds, Tressa was stuck to him like glue. She saw them whisper back and forth and then they eased away together. Tiffany knew there was something going on now, but what? She decided to ask her only source.

“So, Dee, don't think this question is provoked by jealousy, because that's not the case. A couple weeks ago, when we started taping, I came out and saw Tressa going to Stephen's trailer. Now I'm sitting here watching them whisper back and forth into each other's ear. Am I overreacting, or do you detect affair?”

“Okay, honeydew, you are not overreacting, and affair, boop, ummm, no!”

“Well, what could it be? People don't be up on each other like that unless there is something going on.”

“And I think you're right, honey bun. Affair, no, but coke, maybe.”

She was shocked. “Drugs, no way. She is supposed to be clean. Kory would never marry a coke head.”

“Well, that is the only thing I can think of. Stephen likes to swing on poles, FYI, and I know he ain't tapping that. Everybody in the gay community knows that Stephen don't like cat.”

“But, he is, like, the sexiest motherfucker on television now,” she said in disbelief. “Women are all over him.”

“And that is for image only. Trust, pee-wee is gay,” Darryl said, holding up his pinky finger.

“Nooooo. You hooked up with him?”

“Good girls don't tell,” he said and she burst into laughter.

“Bitch, please, you're as bad as they come,” she said playfully.

“Yeah, you're right,” he confirmed. “Just trust me. Stephen is a powdered-nose whore, and if she is tight with him, she is powdering hers too.”

Tiffany wanted to run to Kory and tell him. She wanted to give him the heads-up. Darryl seemed to know what she was thinking.

“No, no, no, watermelon,” he said. “You will not be the morning news. You will stay out of it. If you run blabbing your mouth, she is going to deny it and act like you are trying to move in. You don't want Kory to think you're trying to abolish his relationship with accusations that his fiancée is a coke head.”

“I don't see it as blabbing, Dee,” she protested. “Kory is my friend, and he should know who he is marrying.”

“Well, let the coke heads stand up, because that addiction is not going to stay a secret for long, trust me. Just stay out of it, Tiff, and if and when he does find out, he will be all yours.”

Tiffany disagreed, but she didn't dispute his advice. She didn't want to make waves, so she promised Darryl she wouldn't say anything to Kory. But he didn't say anything about talking to Keith.

She hung around a little while longer and as she was about to make her exit, Kory called out her name.

“Yes,” she said turning to face him.

“You're leaving?”

“Yeah, it's late and I'm tired.”

“Can I walk you out?” he offered.

“Yeah, sure,” she said and smiled. They walked toward the door.

“Listen, Tiff, I have tried to respect your wishes and give you your space, but I think about you constantly and I miss you,” he said and she was touched. Darryl bumped her arm and gave her a look before walking ahead.

“I miss you too, Kory, but this is for the best,” she said.

“The best for who? I thought I meant something to you.”

“You do, Kory, and that's the problem.” She looked away.

He turned her to face him. “Why can't we just be friends like we were back in school?”

“Because back then, I was able to hide my feelings and not act on them. Now, I am a grown woman with needs, Kory. I can't play around with you and crack jokes like we used to do when we were teens. If you are in my life, I want you to be my man and not just my friend.”

Her car pulled up and she went to get into the driver's seat. He stood there and watched her. As she pulled off, she heard Tressa yelling for him. She sounded drunk.

When Tiffany dropped Darryl off, she promised him again that she wouldn't put Tressa and her drug habit into Kory's ear. She would keep that vow, but she knew she was going to put the information into his cousin's ear.

Kory sat and watched the MMA fight, trying to process the information Keith put on him about Tressa using drugs. Since she and he had decided to live apart until the wedding, he didn't see her as much as he wanted to anymore. She always had wedding stuff going on or plans with her friends. He had noticed a change in her behavior, but he thought it was because of the stress of the wedding planning. It was like she had a split personality at times. One minute she was super nice and mellow, the next she was acting erratic. He tried to give her space because he had no idea what wedding planning was like, but for her to be using drugs didn't sit right with him. He prayed it wasn't true. Yes, she was beginning to drink a little more than she normally did, but she had promised him she'd never touch drugs again.

“How do I confront her?” he had asked Keith during their phone conversation.

“I'm not sure, cuz. I suggest you just pay attention to her and the company she keeps. I heard the person you need to worry about is that Stephen guy.”

Kory wondered where he got his info. “Where did you hear this? I thought you said you weren't up on celeb gossip.”

“Well, let's just say a friend of mine heard some things and thought you should know.”

He knew it could only be one person. “Tiffany?” he asked.

“No, not Tiffany,” Keith said.

Kory knew he was lying. “Then who? Who? Who do you know that would be concerned about me and my fiancée?”

“Look, someone we know knows she is hanging with Stephen a lot, and they know he is a coke head. So since you are the only one who didn't know, I'm telling you to check up on your lady. We both know that Tressa has a past with drugs, Kory. She's been in and out of rehab over the years and she may be using again.”

“I know she has a past, cuz, but she has changed. So fucking what if Stephen is a coke head? That . . . that doesn't mean Reesy is using. She promised me, man, and I believe her.”

“Okay, I'll leave it alone. But as your cousin and best friend, I had to say something.”

“Well, thank you, but I got this,” Kory said and hung up.

He told himself that that wasn't true about Tressa. He knew she changed and he also knew she was on the road to happy. She promised him that she was done with that lifestyle and he believed her. He decided to ignore Keith's accusations and not even entertain his theory. He knew Tressa had a past, but he felt that everyone deserved a second, third, even fourth chance.

He knew it was Tiffany who said that horrible shit about Tressa and he wondered how she could stoop that low, to call his fiancée a coke head. He dialed Tressa's number, wondering how Tiffany could be so jealous that she would say such a horrible thing.

“Hello,” she answered.

“Hey, babe, what are you up to?”

“About to hit the strip. I'm ready to party,” she screamed.

Kory didn't want to hear that. He wanted to see her. “Why don't you come over and let me run you a bath, pour you a glass of champagne, and make love to you. I've been trying to see you all week long. Your man is missing you.”

“Awww, come on, Kory, don't call and fuckin' sour my mood. I am feeling good, and right now, I want to hit L.A. and party, not lay up and cuddle.”

“Reesy, I haven't seen you all week. It's always the wedding this, Stephen this, or ‘I got plans.' When are you gonna fit me into your plans, babe? I miss you; don't you miss me?”

He heard her blow out a breath of air. “Yes, Kory,” she said. “I do, but I already made plans with my girls. I'll tell you what, I'll go out for a couple hours and come back to your place and let you have your way with me.”

He smiled. “Okay, that's a bet. Just please, Reesy, be a woman of your word. The last couple times, you were a no-show. Your man is horny. My dick is harder than a slow kid trying to learn algebra.” She burst into laughter, but he was serious. He couldn't go another night without sex.

“Okay, nasty boy, by one a.m., I'm there.”

He let her go on her word, happy that he was going to be able to bust one. He was never the one to masturbate, so he was looking forward to her visit.

He lay down to wait for her. When he woke up, it was eight a.m. He realized he had fallen asleep waiting for Reesy to show up. He still had his phone in his hand from the night before. After a few drinks of Scotch and Coke, he had begun to text her back to back. He looked at some of the text messages he sent, the last one at three-thirty asking her why. He wanted to know why she was doing him the way she was, when she claimed to love him so much. He scrolled through his phone and saw that she had finally texted him back after four saying she wasn't going to make it. He tossed his phone, went to the bathroom, and then went downstairs and got the Sunday paper. He was surprised to see Tiffany on the front page.

The headline read
B
OY
C
RAZY
's F
INAL
S
EASON
. He sat and read the story of how Tiffany Richardson, born and raised on the south side of Chicago, came to L.A. with dreams of becoming an anchor woman or radio personality, but had walked into the wrong room and landed a job as a writer for the show
Boy Crazy.
He read on to learn that she took the lead by pulling the show from the number six slot to number one in just one season and found herself being promoted to executive producer and head writer for the show in less than two years. The paper expressed how sorry they were to see the show come to an end. They had a Q&A with Tiffany being positive and saying she was confident it wasn't the end.

Kory smiled. He was proud of her and wished she was his fiancée. He knew she would have shown up the night before if she said she would, not like Tressa's busy, lying ass. He knew Tiffany would have put his needs first, before her friends and the night life. Tressa was addicted to the life. She was a rich, spoiled brat, and she loved the fact that L.A. loved her.

When she and Kory were out together, they never paid for anything. Everything was always on the house wherever they went. L.A. loved Tressa and Tressa loved L.A. Sometimes, he felt that she loved L.A. more than she loved him, and he now wondered why she was marrying him. He decided he'd call the person who was closest to her. He wanted someone to tell him the truth. Was she using him or did she love him? He knew Amber was the only one who was sincere enough to tell him the truth.

He called and left her a message and then he called Langley Green. It was a long shot, since Tressa had already asked, but he had to try asking him again. He'd beg if had to, because Tiffany deserved a chance.