The Glamorous Life (5 page)

“Oh, it’s not for me to be embarrassed, and I don’t care if these people know or not, but there is one person I want to know—yo damn momma!”

At that very moment, she walked up to Reggie’s mother, Dot. Dot was on the dance floor doing a combination of the old-school dances—the robot and the funky chicken—having a jolly old time with her ex-husband.

“What’s wrong, Bambi? Is everything okay?” Reggie’s dad asked.

I feel like asking him, Do everything look okay? This is even better, a father to feel the pain of his son being gay. There will be someone coming out of this more hurt than me.

“Hellll nah! No! Everything’s not okay. I just found out that your son is fucking men now. He’s gay, a fucking faggot.”

“What?” he said, more confused than angry.

Before she could explain further, Ms. Dot looked at Bambi with deep sincerity, took her into her arms, and pulled her tight to her bosom as only a mother could comfort a child. “I am sorry you had to find out like this,” Dot whispered in Bambi’s ear.

For the first time that night, Bambi let loose the tears she’d been holding back. But then she realized what Ms. Dot had said and started to get very angry. How could Ms. Dot, a woman just like she was, who had claimed to love her like the daughter she’d never had, withhold such a heart-wrenching secret from her? How long had they expected this charade to go on? Did they not think that such a skeleton would ever fall out of the closet? Hadn’t Ms. Dot heard of that saying: “What’s done in the dark will always come to the light?”

Bambi pushed away from Ms. Dot and did something she’d wanted to do from the first day she had met her, but would never have dared to do till now. She reached over and snatched off that funky-looking wig that Ms. Dot was certain made her look like Foxy Brown but which actually made her look like Foxy Clown. Bambi wanted to make her feel as humiliated as she herself felt.

As she tossed the wig on the floor and turned to go, she realized it was going to be a long time before her broken heart mended!

B
ambi lay in her hotel suite crying, mascara everywhere, still wearing her party outfit, when she heard a knock on the door. She didn’t want to answer, but whoever was knocking wasn’t going to leave her alone. Finally, Bambi got out of bed and was surprised to see Tricia with a bottle of Dom Perignon in a bucket on ice.

“Do you mind if I join you?” Tricia said. Her voice was a little slurred, but she wasn’t too far gone.

“Come on. Just don’t tell me ‘I told you so.’ Because, Ma, I can’t take it right now.”

Tricia kicked her shoes off and pulled up a chair in front of the bed. “Look, baby, I know this is not what you expected to come out of tonight, but better you know now than ten years from now.”

“I know, Mom.”

Tricia popped open the bottle and poured champagne for herself and Bambi. “Over the years I’ve seen you and your grandma look at me sideways because I’ve only been interested in a man’s possessions. Well, in all your years have you ever seen me cry over a man?”

Bambi looked at her mother and then shook her head no.

“Do you know why?”

Bambi was silent as she looked at her mother and waited to hear what she had to say.

“I was never emotionally attached to those men, just to their bank account. I loved what they had, what they could give me. And when the money ran out, there was nothing for me to like about them.” She added, “To sum it up, when the money was gone, I was gone.”

“You don’t have to tell me all of this, Ma.”

“I know, baby, but it’s important,” she said, pouring herself another drink. “I need you to make me a promise. I need you to promise that you’re never gonna give a man your heart again.”

“The way I feel right now, I could kill every man in sight.”

“No sense hurting them physically, baby. You already done enough of that tonight. Next time you hurt them, do it where it hurts … in their pockets!”

For the next few weeks, Bambi would play those words over and over in her mind, time and time again!

CHAPTER 4

He Done Messed with
the Wrong One

B
ambi didn’t let any grass grow under her feet. In a matter of days she had found herself a new place and had moved her things out of Reggie’s house. The relationship was over—there was no negotiation, compromising, or counseling. Bambi knew she had to move on.

Weeks passed without Bambi leaving her new apartment. She cut off communication with everyone as she wallowed in her misery. Her emotions ran wild, and a cold bitterness set in her veins. Although she avoided her incoming phone calls and never answered her door, there were two people that she couldn’t ignore. One was the UPS man. He came about three times a week with the catalog and Home Shopping Club purchases that she ordered while trying to convince herself that one day soon she was going to go out and face the haters.

They may be popping that trash, pointing and giggling behind my back, but you best believe they won’t be able to say that I look bad. Because when I do step out of that door, I’m going to be clean as the board of health, and hos can lay flat and bet that.

The other person was Egypt, who, no matter how rude Bambi was to her, came around to give Bambi her unconditional love and support. Every day about five in the afternoon, Egypt stopped by Bambi’s apartment. There was no need to knock because she already knew that Bambi wasn’t going to answer the door. So Egypt simply put her key into the door and waltzed into Bambi’s crib, immediately opening all the blinds and windows. Most of the time, Bambi acted as if she didn’t want to be bothered, but deep down she looked forward to those afternoon visits.

On this particular morning Bambi could feel Egypt’s presence in the doorway, yet she never turned around to acknowledge her. For the next few minutes, Egypt stood there with her arms folded.

“Go ahead and say what you got to say,” Bambi said, feeling Egypt’s stare.

“Look, B, you’ve got to snap out of this funk you’re in. I mean, look at this place. You’ve been in this apartment for five weeks straight. That’s thirty-five days, and how many baths have you taken? This house smells, and this bedroom is a pigsty. Girl, this ain’t you. It’s time you got yo shit together.”

“Well, if you don’t like how it smells, you don’t have to come over here. You can leave the key on the table and carry your ass on,” Bambi said defensively as she rolled her eyes.

But Egypt wasn’t budging. “Look, Bambi, I’m not trying to dis you. Hell, I am your girl, and all I’m saying is you are losing touch, B. This ain’t you. Why you tripping on me? Today is November twenty-first, and you have no clue.”

When that date rolled off of Egypt’s tongue, Bambi’s whole
disposition changed. She jumped up, ran over to Egypt, and hugged her.

“Oh, my God, how could I? I am so sorry. I forgot my best friend in the whole world’s birthday. Your twenty-first birthday, at that! I am soooo sorry, and you came over here yesterday, and didn’t even say anything to me. If I was you, I wouldn’t even be talking to me.”

“It’s cool, because now you owe me.”

“Oh, my God! Egypt, anything. I am telling you, anything! I’ll make it up to you. Please forgive me.”

“Anything?” Egypt said with a smirk on her face.

“Anything!”

“Well, since last night I couldn’t go out and use my ID to get into a club, why don’t you take me out tonight?”

Bambi agreed, although she didn’t feel like going out in public yet, but there was no turning back. Egypt was her girl, and she had to make it up to her.

“Well, you better get it together, because I am coming back over here to get dressed and make sure that you don’t stand me up. And don’t try to say you don’t have nothing to wear, because all these boxes and packages tell another story,” Egypt said, pointing to a stack of boxes in the corner that Bambi had not even opened yet.

“In that case then I guess I better finally get up and wash my funky butt and go get my nails done and call and see if I can get something done to my hair.”

Bambi didn’t have a lot of time to play with, and she couldn’t let her best friend down. Egypt had been her friend through thick and thin, the meaningless drama as well as the good, bad, happy, and sad. It was always Egypt who lent her ear when Bambi needed someone to listen, and it was on her
shoulder Bambi cried. At the very least, Bambi felt she had no choice but to summon the strength from deep within and pull herself together, if not for herself, then for her friend. It took everything in Bambi to swallow her pride and get her act together, because she knew she would have to paint a picture for the haters and gossipers and to give them all the impression that she was fine, that life without Reggie was grand and could not have been better.

With the help of her cell phone, Bambi worked wonders within a few hours. In addition to inviting their friends, she arranged to have the VIP area at the Spade Club decorated with balloons and streamers and ordered a scrumptious-looking penis-shaped chocolate cake with white icing to be delivered to the club. When the invitees arrived that night, they were in awe that Bambi had thrown together this blowout in such a short period of time.

Bambi herself was a showstopper. Although she had put on about twenty pounds, the weight didn’t look bad. She was dressed to kill, turning heads of both male and female party-goers, as she made her rounds and played the perfect role of hostess. Under her full-length white Russian mink coat, she wore a snow white leather halter dress that hugged every voluptuous curve in her perfect hourglass figure. Her dark chocolate skin and long jet black hair resting on her back, accentuated the whole ensemble and showed her off as the queen of style. She thought about what her mother had once said: “You know you’s a fearless bitch when you can pull off wearing white in the wintertime. And I am not talking about cream or off-white color. I am talking about snow white.” And if nothing else was certain and no other facts could be documented for the night, let it be known she was wearing white like no other woman could.

Lots of folks stopped by to give their condolences to Bambi as if a loved one had died instead of her being kicked to the curb by her man for another man. She simply smiled at them, not revealing her true emotions. She wanted to break down, but it wasn’t an option, not here, not now anyway. The party went well, and Egypt was having a ball. Bambi stayed glued to the VIP area, acting as if she was keeping everything intact, but truth be told, she couldn’t bear the thought of being around too many people. She was happy Egypt was mingling with the crowd among the rest of the club, collecting her gifts, mostly monetary, from a lot of the clubgoers instead of trying to comfort her. Before the party, Bambi had tipped the DJ fifty dollars to announce “Happy Birthday to Egypt” and to give her shout-outs on the mic every ten minutes. Egypt was being shown much love by the folks she did know and even some she didn’t. It was Egypt’s night, and Bambi wanted her to make the most of it.

Egypt would come back to the VIP area every so often to give Bambi an update on who she had seen, who was wearing what, and who was with whom. Bambi knew it was more to check on her and to see how she was holding up.

“Girl, I just met this fiiiinnneee dude named Smooth.”

“For real?”

“Yup, girl, he is fine, and he look like he got plenty bank. Girlllll, I can just tell. And he is at me hard!”

“That’s right, Boo. Go, E. It’s yo birthday!” As Bambi started to sing, she held up a glass, and they toasted.

Someone came up and tapped Egypt on the shoulder, and she was off again. This time she was gone for about an hour. Normally, Bambi would have left the VIP area to search the club for her friend, but she was too busy keeping her own emotions in check. While she looked happy, what she really wanted to do was run off to the bathroom to break down and cry.

“Hey, girl, you all right?” Egypt asked, coming back to Bambi.

“Yup, girl, I’m good. Where you been?” “

Girl, I was in the lobby talking to Smooth. I am really feeling Smooth. He wants to take us out for breakfast. I’ll understand this one time if you don’t want to go. I am just grateful you came out tonight wit me and did all this for me.”