Who Do I Run To? (7 page)

Chapter
Nine

The next morning the ringing phone woke her. She tried to tune it out and continue sleeping, but whoever it was hung up and called again. She turned over and looked at the clock. Five after nine. This person evidently didn’t have a clue that it was a Sunday morning, and it was just plain wrong to call a person before noon, she thought to herself. She grabbed the phone and looked at the caller ID, and, of course, it was Janelle calling for last night’s juice. So Janiece hit the
talk
button before it could go to the answering machine.

“Hey
, girl,” she said yawning.

“Hey
, girly, girl, how’d it go last night?” Janelle asked, and Janiece could hear the smile in her voice.

“Funny you should call me this early for that information!”

“Oh, is he still there? My bad girl. I underestimated you. I’ll call you later,” she said getting ready to hang up.

“No, he’s not here
, Nellie. I wish he was, though. But it didn’t go that well,” she said getting up and going to the bathroom.

“Why
? What happened? He seemed like the perfect gentleman.”

“
K.P. is what happened.”

“
K.P. … What happened? What did that asshole do? Did he step to Isaiah or something? That greedy mother—” she tried to say, but Janiece stopped her.

“No, no
, nothing like that.”

“Then what happened? You didn’t run into him
, did you?”

“No
, I didn’t run into him, but I let him ruin my date, or should I say he is ruining my life,” she complained and washed her hands. Then Janiece walked into the kitchen and poured a glass of juice. She peeped through the curtains, but the Avalanche was nowhere in sight.

“Jai
, what happened?”

“Well
, the date was going fine. I was having a good time. I even ate steak, you hear me? We get to the jazz club, and K.P. started blowing up my phone, and that distracted me. I couldn’t settle back into my date, and when I saw he was trying to call me from my condo, I really freaked out, because I didn’t know what to expect when I got home, so just imagine how panicky I was.”

“Hold on
. Let’s get back to the fact that you ate steak. Now, if you ate steak, you must really like this guy.”

“It doesn’t matter
, because he’s going back to Texas soon, plus, I don’t think we’ll be going out again.”

“Going back to Texas
? I thought he was getting out of the military.”

“Yes
, in a year, but he has to finish in Texas.”

“Texas is not far, girl
. You can visit him in Texas. One year will go by before you know it, Jai,” she said trying to be encouraging. She wanted her sister to try anything—except continue to see K.P.’s sorry ass. “I know you like him, and I can tell he likes you.”

“Well
, maybe he did in the beginning, but I don’t think I’ll be hearing from him after the way I behaved last night.”

“So why don’t you call him
? It couldn’t have gone that bad, Janiece.”

“Nellie
, when I got that call from K.P., I froze. I mean, I tensed up so bad, like I was out cheating, and I couldn’t relax after that. I know Isaiah thinks I’m up to no good, and he’s not the kinda guy that I want to lead on. I have to kill things with K.P. first.”

“Jai, don’t even try it. You
’re making excuses. You’ll never be done with K.P. if you take that route. You have to allow someone else to occupy your time so you can start to get over K.P.. So don’t play me, and don’t play yourself.”

“So if I call Isaiah
, what do I say?”

“I don’t know
. Ask him out, or over for dinner. You can cook. Just make up with him, and ask him to allow you time to get to know him before he goes, and who knows.”

“You think he’d be okay with that?”

“Why wouldn’t he? You don’t have to rush into anything. Just hang out with him, keep in touch when he leaves, and if something comes out of it, you’ll see him when he comes back,” she said, and it made sense. But Janiece didn’t want to get close to him though, because she knew she would end up falling for Isaiah, and when he leaves, she’d miss him too much.

“Yea, you’re right
. I’ll call him. Because yesterday, I didn’t give any thought to K.P. when I was with Isaiah, and that felt good for a change. Then I come back, and I got roses on my coffee table,” she said and leaned in to smell them.

“Oh
, and another thing … change your locks,” Janelle advised.

“Slow down
. Let me take one step at a time,” she said, reminding her that it wasn’t going to be an automatic change.

“Well
, if you don’t change the locks, you’re going to always worry about him popping in on you or being at your place when you and that fine-ass Isaiah come in from a romantic dinner. Or when Isaiah may want to stay late to massage places that you need to be massaged ...” she teased.

“Al
l right, I get your point. I’ll get my key back.”

“No
, damn that—change your locks. Do you think he’s going to just hand over the key?”

“Yes
, I do,” she said, fooling herself. Deep down, she knew it wasn’t going to go that smooth, but it was worth a shot.

“Whatever
. As I can see, you still live in Jai-land, the land of the nutcases,” she said in jest.

“See
, there you go, minding my business.”

“I’m only suggesting. Now go, get off the phone
, call Isaiah, and invite him for dinner and make something slamming.”

“Okay, I
’ll call him, and if he refuses to talk to me?”

“Hey
, well, that’s his loss.”

“Okay, I’ll call you later.”

“Okay, babe, good luck.”

“Thanks, bye now.”

“Bye,” she said, and they hung up.

Janiece scrolled through her caller
ID to find Isaiah’s number. She called him, and it went to voice mail. She didn’t leave a message; just decided to try him a little later. She went back to bed but couldn’t fall asleep. She got up and put a movie in the DVD player to watch. After two of her favorite movies and a shower, she called Isaiah again, and still, he let her call go to voice mail. She declined on leaving him a message again and decided to order some Chinese food from her favorite spot a few blocks down the street from her place.

N
ormally she drove down, but since it was a nice day, she decided to walk. She was looking radiant again in case she ran into Isaiah. She walked back slowly, ignoring all the honks and guys trying to holla’ at her on the street. She had only one man on her mind, and she was disappointed to still not see his truck outside of their building when she got back.

Janiece
went inside and put her food on the counter, then decided she’d go over to his sister’s place. She went in the bathroom to comb her hair and reapply her lip gloss.

She was
a little mad that Isaiah didn’t bother to call or say anything else to her. She knew the night before had gone badly, but she thought he liked her. When she got to the door to go across the hall her phone rang. She was relieved and thought finally he called her back, but it was K.P.. That was odd and shocking for a Sunday afternoon, because that was his so-called family day.

She hesitated for a moment, because she wasn’t thrilled like she usually was to talk to him. He was not occupying her thoughts, at least not the past couple of days. She wasn’t missing him in the worst way like before. He wasn’t the HNIC anymore, and one date made her realize she was beautiful and important. That was one of the reasons she didn’t want to answer the phone, but she did anyway.

“Hello,” she said in a monotone voice.

“Damn
, baby, what took you so long to answer the phone?” he asked sounding cheerful, like she was the love of his life.

“Nothing, I couldn’t find the cordless,” she lied quickly.

“So, what’s up with you? I haven’t heard from you since—” he tried to say, but she cut him off.

“Since you left my house mad at me for taking too long at dinner with my sister and leaving me that funky
-ass note,” she said expressing to him how much she didn’t appreciate what he had done.

“Well
, I was pretty pissed off, but now, I realize that I should not have acted that way. Did you get my note and the roses?”

“Yes
, I got your roses and sorry-ass apology card,” she barked. She hated when he just acted like a simple sorry was going to make it all better.

“What’s wrong
, Jai? I tried to call you last night, but you didn’t pick up. I figured you were out with Janelle, so I came to apologize to you in person. I waited for you, and I got there about seven. After eleven you know I got pissed when you didn’t answer the phone and I called you a million times. So where were you, Jai?”

“That
’s none of your business,” she said before she could stop herself.

“None of my business
? What do you mean none of my business? I’ma be there in a minute,” he said and hung up. She tried to call him right back to tell him she was on her way out, but he was already pulling into the parking lot. Damn, damn, damn is what she thought to herself when she saw his truck pull into the parking stall.

She opened the door just in
case Isaiah came up; she didn’t want him to see K.P. using a key. She stood in the kitchen waiting for him. He was taking an awfully long time, so she looked out the window. He was on the phone. Probably lying to his wife again, she thought.

He finally got out of the truck and as soon as he started up the steps
, her phone rang. It was Isaiah. She wanted to pick up so bad, but K.P. was walking in the door. She quickly walked over to her answering machine and turned the volume completely down in case he left her a message. She was disappointed that she couldn’t talk to Isaiah, because that was who she had been impatiently waiting on to call her.

“Where were you?”
K.P. asked first. She didn’t answer. She just looked at him, rolled her eyes, and walked away. He followed behind her into the living room. “Who were you with last night, Jai?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked trying to play the role.

“Don’t play games with me, Janiece. Who were you with that you couldn’t answer your damn cell phone!” he snapped. “Now tell me what’s going on with you. Where were you last night!” he yelled.

“I was out,” she snapped back.

“With whom … your hair’s all fixed and you looking like a superstar for some new cat, but when I’m around, you act like you need me to give you money to fix your hair and nails. What? Some other dude got your hair fixed and got you looking and smelling all good?” he asked, and he was angry as hell.

“No
, I don’t have a man doing nothing for me. Why are you so worried about how I got my hair and nails done? You didn’t care on Tuesday when you were too busy being an asshole to get it done for me. You were so mad at me for nothing, K.P., and you disregarded the fact that you promised to give me money to get my stuff taken care of. I called you a million times last week, and you just ignored me, and now you wanna come up in here and question me about whom, what, and where? Man, please …, gon’ with that,” Janiece said with attitude. She was tired of him treating her like she was a doormat. It was bad enough she played second fiddle to his wife and kids.

“Jai
, you betta not be fucking around on me. I swear to God if—” he said, but she abruptly cut him off again.

“You swear to God what? And don’t be swearing to God in my house,”
Janiece said, getting up off of the couch. She wanted to get in his face. She wanted things to get ugly so she could get her key back and send him on his way.

“Jai,” he said
, calming himself. “Look, I know I didn’t have to go to the extreme with you last week, and I’m sorry, but please don’t go throwing away what we have. Come on, babe, we can work this out,” he said moving closer to her and that was definitely a bad idea. She was mad but not over him, and he had a way with her.

“Stop it
K.P.! It’s not gonna be that easy this time,” she said putting up her guard. She had to fight him with force, because he was slick, smooth, fine, and the man she was still in love with. She wanted to get to know Isaiah, but her feelings for K.P. were not yet gone. She was just angry and tired of the way things were between them.

“So what are you saying
, Jai? Come on, babe, I’m sorry. Don’t make this bigger than what it is. I missed you,” he said touching her arms. His touch was gentle, and she missed him too.

“Look
, K.P., I know you said you were sorry, and I do accept your apology, but I’m tired of going through the motions with you. You have so much control and power over this relationship. Not to mention you abuse your power, and I’m tired of it.”