Thicker Than Water (25 page)
Read Thicker Than Water Online
Authors: Takerra Allen
‘
Sit back ma I’m taking you for the ride of ya life’
he told her with a smile. And that he did, a two year ride that still hadn’t taken a stop. Chauncey had taken her to a small restaurant on the water where they had a table set up outside. He fed her lobster in wine sauce as he sat in his jeans amongst rich white folks who wore tailored suits and dresses.
He sped all around the city introducing her to any and every body, as onlookers watched the couple racing up and down 125th as if they were royalty. It was intoxicating to be with him. She wondered if he made Neli feel like that. A single tear dropped down her cheek as she was snapped back into reality.
“Are you alright?” Mike questioned, knowing a little about her situation. He didn’t know the complete story, but he did know that Chauncey had broken her heart, just as he had predicted. She nodded and gave him as much confirmation as she had been so far this evening, another forced smile.
Somehow after dinner, Sasha ended up back in Mike’s Maxima in another uncomfortable situation. She was in the passenger seat and he was leaning over, with his tongue down her throat. She could taste the wine on his breath, the wine that she had declined several times over dinner.
“You know I’m pregnant right?” She would continuously ask. The fact that she repeated that frequently and seemed concerned about the health of the child, pushed Mike to believe that his greatest fear was coming true, she was thinking of keeping this baby. The truth was Mike couldn’t stand Chauncey, but he felt as if he had fallen in love with Sasha, so if it took raising another man’s baby to be with her, he would do that. He just prayed that he didn’t have to.
He would answer, “Sasha, I’m a doctor. It’s perfectly okay for you to have a glass of wine.”
You’re not a fucking doctor.
Well anyway, here they were, tongue down her throat, and Sasha wondering what the hell she was doing. It was if her mind was completely detached from her body, and her body, was completely detached from her.
She imagined Chauncey watching them on some paranormal television screen in prison.
She imagined the hurt, and anger, and embarrassment he was feeling watching her, everything that she had felt when she walked in on him and Neli. Her imagination made her continue. Her imagination also led Mike up her stairwell and into her bedroom. She couldn’t even feel anything, it was if she was numb. To Mike she felt soft and warm, but to Sasha she felt ice cold.
Mike kissed her passionately and eagerly, so, so happy for this moment. He had spent so many nights imagining this to the point that he would please himself just off of Sasha’s image alone. He wanted to taste her so bad. Sasha wanted to taste revenge. As Mike laid her on the satin sheets on her round bed he kissed her on her neck and whispered in her ear.
“Can I remove your dress?”
Sasha looked up at him and slid out of her dress with no words, or emotion. He began kissing all over her breasts and mid drift feeling like he just might explode. He touched her panties lightly and went to pull them down but hesitated.
“Can I?” Sasha cut him off.
“Don’t ask me. Just do it.”
He swallowed hard, heart beating fast. He pulled her panties off gently and licked lightly along her thigh to her sweet center. Chauncey’s sweetness, a place that he was the most protective over. And here she was letting someone else taste it. As Mike licked at her, feeling like he was giving his all to please her, Sasha lifted the overturned picture of Chauncey and her in Jamaica that sat on her nightstand. She sat it up and started straight at it, and let it stare straight at her, pretending he was watching.
She smiled a sinister smile, completely void of any pleasure that Mike was trying to achieve, but her smile slowly faded. She tried not to think how bad she wished Chauncey’s head was between her thighs. She closed her eyes as another tear rolled down her cheek and tried to focus on an orgasm that would never come.
“What do you mean he’s out?”
“He’s out. He just got out yesterday.”
Ree stared coldly at E wondering how Chris walked after a shootout in broad daylight, a dead minor, and a possession charge. Plus the nigga was on probation. There was only one way that niggas walked with those charges; they were talking to the police.
“I want you to lay low for a minute, I’m gonna do the same. Two weeks though, I want the nigga in front of me, you hear me?”
E nodded slowly but then added.
“I mean boss, you gonna let two weeks go by, why not get the nigga now, send a message.”
Ree put his finger up to silence E.
“Too messy, plus I got a feeling we’re being watched. We gotta move extra careful now. Make sure we cover our tracks. I’ll talk to the little niggas and make sure they know the deal.” E nodded again.
“Respect.”
“Respect.”
And then the men got in their separate cars and drove away from the docks.
As Ree drove he contemplated everything that Chris knew about him. The only thing that could come to his mind was the night he sent Chris to the stash houses. Chris had come to his home, something that he was apprehensive about, but took Chauncey’s word on. He knew that Chris could’ve snitched on anyone to get out, but something in his gut told him to watch his step.
He thought more and more about his father’s offer, it was sounding so tempting right now. He circled his street once before he pulled in his driveway, and headed into his house. He loved coming home to Tatum. When he walked in, Chanel and Tangee were playing cards on his living room floor and their little faces lit up when he walked in.
“Ree!” They shouted in high pitch squeals.
He felt crazy staring at the kids of a man that he wanted to murder, yet he loved the little girls. He sat down on the floor with them and smiled.
“What we playing here?” He asked.
“Go fish,” Chanel answered. She was the oldest and often picked the games, Tangee usually went with it.
“Go fish, huh? Who’s winning? You winning?” He turned to Tangee, who just shyly smiled back.
“She winning.”
Tatum walked in, wearing Ree’s favorite attire, her sexy ass in sweatpants and a tank top. He looked up at her as she stood with a spoon in hand. She held one hand under the spoon careful not to spill as she brought it to him.
“Here, taste my sauce.” They both giggled at the sound of it as he leaned in to her.
“You want me to taste your sauce?” They cracked up laughing. She sucked her teeth at him while he tasted the delicious sauce to her spaghetti. He nodded as approval and leaned against the staircase railing.
“You done with summer classes right?”
“Yeah thank god. But my Fall classes start in a couple of weeks so, I only got a little vacation. Why?”
He began picking dirt out of his fingernails.
“Why don’t we make the most out of your vacation?”
She looked at him confused and curious.
“Well whatever do you mean Mr. Knights?”
“I mean, Ms. Mosley, let’s go on a vacation. Let’s get away.” She stood back and smiled.
“When?”
“Um, tomorrow,” he answered, nonchalantly.
She looked at him as if he had lost his mind.
“Boy, I can’t go tomorrow! What about my nieces, who would watch them?”
“We will. They coming with us.” She paused before she could respond, thinking of an excuse but couldn’t find any. And there was nothing more than she needed than a vacation.
“Okay.” She smiled brightly. “Let me call Keisha and ask her to look me out.”
Keisha worked at the shop with Tatum and Keisha was always begging for hours but Tatum never gave them up because she needed the money, plus the shop was slow as hell so Tatum had light shifts anyway.
As she was calling Keisha, she heard Ree ask the girls where they wanted to go. She knew the answer already, and secretly it was where she wanted to go to, she had never been out of the Tri-state Area. ‘Disneyworld!’ They screamed.
Then Ree got on the phone, and whoever he spoke to and however he did it, the four of them had a suite booked at Disneyworld for a week and they were leaving tomorrow.
For some reason niggas in jail seem to hear about shit before it even happens. Well that’s the way it seemed anyway. Because it was only two days after Sasha’s date that Deets was on the horn telling Chauncey all about it.
“Yeah nigga, I saw them all hugged up at Benihana’s.” Clear exaggeration. “She had on some little ass dress and the nigga was all up on her.” Another exaggeration. Chauncey remained quiet on the other end of the phone. He was furious, but he wasn’t going to lose his cool. Not over a dinner date with a nobody.
“Then, after me and my shorty leave the joint, I see her and the nigga is his Maxima, tonguing each other down.”
“Fuck outta here,” Chauncey said, not even wanting to picture that.
“Nigga I’m dead serious. They aint even pull off for a minute. I aint even wanna bring it to you like that, but you my nigga.” Chauncey was infuriated. But what could he do? He wondered if she still was pregnant. He wondered who this nigga was.
“What color was the Maxima?”
“What?” Deets asked not seeing the purpose of the question.
“Mothafucka what color was the car?” Chauncey repeated, bass in voice and all.
“Oh, damn nigga calm down. It was green.”
Chauncey had a feeling. He ended his conversation with Deets and returned to his cell, and began doing push ups until he felt like his arms were gonna fall off.
Chapter 17 - Love
“So tell me about her?”
Blair and his wife lay in the bed in an eerie silence. He paused for a second wondering what, if anything he should tell his wife about Kim. He fessed up and confirmed what she already knew the day he read the paper announcing Kim’s death. Now she wanted to know what it was about the young urban temptress that kept her bed so cold so many nights.
“She was a free spirit.” He paused and looked at his wife, wondering if she was up to this before he proceeded. She lay looking blankly straight ahead so he continued.
“She had a lot of character. She was funny, but a lot of the time, I could see her pain too. It was a pain that I had never known, a pain that you have never known. I always wished for her to live happy one day, with no more pain.” She looked up at him.
“Was she happy with you?”
Without hesitation he answered.
“Yes.”
Before she could say anything he continued.
“She had this smile that could light up a room. And her beauty was unbelievable.”
He was talking now in a whisper, as if his wife wasn’t there anymore. She thought back to the day she saw Kim in the hotel lobby. She was a beautiful girl.
“I remember when I first saw her. She was walking from school and she had stopped in the pizza joint. Me and some coworkers were there on lunch, and I bumped into her. She called me a lame, a square. But then she smiled at me on the way out, and I don’t know.”
His wife looked up at him confused.
“She was in college when you met her?”
He was in a daze, unaware of his words, he just thought of that day when he met Kim.
“No, high school.”
She thought back to the obituary that read that Kim was only nineteen years old.
“So, how long were you guys seeing each other?” She asked, voice cracking a little.
He replied in a sleepy whisper. “Three years.”
She sat up, hurt and perplexed. She got out of bed and stood over him, face twisted up in disappointment.
“Three years? She was only sixteen. That’s how long we’ve been married. You bastard.” Still in his sleepy dazed whisper, he replied.
“I know.”
“Girl, it is beautiful down here. The weather, the sun, everything. And you know Tangee and Chanel tearing up the place, they don’t know what to do.”
Tatum was chilling on a lounge chair out by the pool in sunny Buena Vista, Florida. She had on her Christian Dior shades and was enjoying the sun beating down on her body. The sun always added a glow to her dark brown complexion.
“Girl you are so lucky. I wish my ass was down there in Florida instead of in this house with corny ass Mike.”
Mike was laid up in Sasha’s bed, knocked out sleeping and happy.
“Sasha, what is he doing there?” Tatum asked, laughing in a
‘you can’t be serious tone’
. “You don’t even
like
him.”
Sasha pouted as she flipped through channels on television.
“I know Tatum but I’m not like you. I can’t just be alone and be alright. I need a man.”
She flicked off the TV out of frustration. “Plus if he wasn’t here I would probably slit my wrists.”
“Don’t say that.”
Tatum thought about how Sasha must be feeling. She didn’t know what to do to help her. She told her that whatever decision that she decided she would be there to support her, but she couldn’t imagine being pregnant by a fiancé that’s in jail for beating up your friend, who he was sleeping with. And here Tatum was barely getting through the days without crying over Kim.