Who Do I Run To? (9 page)

Chapter
Eleven

The next morning, K.P. went downstairs to his Escalade to retrieve his garment bag. He had a toothbrush and underwear at her condo, so he only had a nice suit and pair of loafers to get from his truck. Meanwhile, Janiece walked around in a daze because she wasn’t used to him being at her place in the morning, and it seemed like it took forever for her to get dressed. She arrived at work twenty minutes late because he insisted that she let him take her to breakfast. He promised he’d pick her up for lunch again that day, and she wasn’t excited.

“Why
, after all this time we’ve been together, he decides to wanna do all the things I wanted him to do when I start liking somebody else?” she asked herself as the elevators doors shut. When she got up to her floor, there was another bouquet of fresh flowers sitting on her desk and she didn’t smile or attempt to get excited this time. She knew they were from K.P.. “Jealous bastard,” she spoke out loud, and Shawnee came in on her words.

“Who?” she asked being a nosy ass.

“Who what?”

“Who
’s jealous?” she asked almost trying to make sure Janiece wasn’t talking about her.

“Why?” Janiece asked her. Janiece was no punk
, and she spoke freely to them heifers up in her office. She learned a long time ago from her momma not to back down or show fear to anyone. “Don’t give people an invitation to run all over you” is what her momma would say.

“Well
... I ... I ... heard you say. Look, never mind,” she said stuttering. “What I came to ask you for is K.P.’s number because my brother is gonna be looking to buy a house soon, and I’m sure he could help him ... you ... know,” she tried to say with a straight face. Janiece was looking at her with the bitch, please look, but she didn’t care. If Shawnee wanted to hit on K.P., she could do what she wanted. K.P. wasn’t her man; he was Kimberly’s man. So Janiece didn’t look up or say a word. She just wrote down his office number and handed it to her. And Shawnee was a little surprised.

“Okay, that was easy,” she said giving a phony smile and looking at the number like she had to memorize the digits in
case Janiece asked for it back.

“I’ll let him know your brother will be calling him when he picks me up for lunch today,” Janiece said with a smirk.

“Huh?” she said, like she had just forgotten about the lie she told about her brother.

“I
’ll let Kerry know that your brother will be calling him,” Janiece said refreshing the lying tramp’s memory.

“Oh, oh yeah, you do that. Thanks again,” she said and turned to walk out. She flung her tacky
-ass weave and switched down the hall like she was Hottie from Flavor of Love. Janiece laughed and shook her head. Then she sat down and dove into work. Before she knew it, K.P. had called and said he was downstairs waiting to take her to lunch.

She grabbed her purse and cell phone and headed for the elevators.
But first, she glanced at her phonebook just to look at Isaiah’s name and wondered why he still was refusing to call her.

She spent the next two days with
K.P., and on Friday before she was leaving the office, her phone rang. When she saw that the number was
private
, she said, “Nope, if you gotta block yo’ number, you don’t want to talk to me.”

She got to the bottom floor and hated that she had to take the train. It felt good for
the last four days to get picked up and taken to dinner and not have to get on the metro, but she started up the street to the station. Once she got her seat, she pulled out Luck of the Draw by Anna Black and flipped through to where she had left off. She usually listened to her headphones too, but the book was so good she had to focus on just reading it.

As she got into her book her cell phone rang again
, and the number was still blocked, so she stuck it back in her bag, thinking maybe the person would leave a message, but that didn’t happen.

Once she made it home, she climbed the steps to her building and as she was going in
, Iyeshia was coming out.

“Hey
, neighbor,” Iyeshia said saying hello first for the very first time.

“Hey
, Iyeshia, how’s it going?” Janiece asked with a pleasant smile.

“It’s going,” she said as she locked her storm door. Janiece didn’t want to ask
, but she couldn’t help herself. “Hey, Iyeshia,” she yelled as she was going down the steps.

“Yes
?” she said turning back to her with a smile.

“How’s Isaiah?”

“He’s good. He’ll be back in town today, as a matter of fact. My mom and I are going to the airport. He and my dad will be home in about three hours,” she said looking at her watch.

“Oh
? He was out of town?”

“Yeah, he and my dad went to Dallas for a game
; you know, father/son stuff, no girls allowed type madness. They left last Sunday. He didn’t tell you?”

“No, he didn’t tell me. We kinda, you know
... things just ... you know,” Janiece said trying to explain.

“Well
, let me say this. My brother is very selective when it comes to women, and he doesn’t go out with just anybody, and I know you got a little something-something going on with the dude in the Escalade, but trust me, I stay outta folks’ business, so I didn’t say anything or get involved when he said he wanted to take you out. So if you do like my brother, please give him a fair chance and get to know him. He is definitely not like other guys.

“All my girlfriends been dying to get with him for a long time
, and he is picky, so if my brother likes you, there’s something great about you, but if you aren’t ready for him, don’t even play with him, because he is too good of a guy,” she said, putting Janiece in her place. Janiece was shocked to even hear her say that many words to her. They barely even spoke.

“Thanks for the heads
-up, and trust me, that Escalade is not gonna be the cause of me not getting to know your brother, okay?” she said with a smile.

“You like him
, don’t you?” Iyeshia asked Janiece, and she smiled.

“Yes, and since I met him, I can’t think of anything else.”

“Well, let me assure you, he’s waiting for you to square away whatever it is so he can genuinely get to know you. My brother doesn’t say much or tell his business, so I don’t know too much, but I know he likes you, and my advice to you is call him at 9:30 tonight. We should be leaving the airport by then,” she said and gave Janiece a wink. She smiled and told Janiece she’d holler at her later and left.

***

Janiece’s cell phone was blowing up with the private number. She tried to avoid it as long as she could, but she finally answered it. Since she knew Isaiah had gone out of town, maybe it was him, she thought. It was only ten after eight, so perhaps Isaiah was at an airport or something. She didn’t know so she just answered this time.

“Hello,” she said sounding a little sexy just in
case it was him.

“Well
, hello, Ms. Janiece,” a female voice said. Janiece didn’t recognize her voice.

“Hello, who is this?” she asked looking confused.

“Oh, bitch, wouldn’t you like to know?” the female said with much attitude.

“Look, who is this
?” Janiece asked again with a firmer tone.

“Ain’t this a bitch
? You trying to get tough, you stankin’ ho?” she spat at Janiece.

“Well
, fine,” she said and hung up, but before she could put the phone down it rang again. This time she didn’t answer. She went over to the window and looked out. Who in the hell was that crazy-ass woman calling her? She wondered.

Janiece
sat on the sofa and looked at the clock. It was almost nine, and all she wanted to do was talk to Isaiah. K.P. hadn’t called her since lunch earlier that day, and she knew if she called him, he’d have a lame excuse so she didn’t bother. She calmed herself, because whoever ‘Crazy’ was, she had stopped calling.

She went into the kitchen and poured a glass of wine
, then sat on the sofa and kept checking the time. Finally it was five after nine so she went to shower to kill some time. After she lotioned up and got fresh, she went back into the living room. She was so excited because it was a minute before nine thirty and just as she grabbed her cell phone to call Isaiah, the phone rang again. The
private
crazy bitch was calling again. She decided she wasn’t going to back down. Isaiah was coming home, and she didn’t want that bullshit happening all night.

“Hello,” she said in an aggravated tone.

“Look, bitch, don’t hang up.”

“No
, you look, bitch, I don’t know who you are or what your so-called problem is, but you need to quit calling my phone,” Janiece demanded.

“No
, bitch, you need to quit fucking my husband,” she spat out, and Janiece instantly knew who the perpetrator was.

“Kimberly?” she asked in shock.

“Yes, bitch, this is Kimberly, unless my husband isn’t the only married man you fucking.”

“How’d you get my number?”

“Duh, bitch, your number is all over my cell phone bill. Did you think I’d never contact you?” she asked as if Janiece owed her an answer. “Listen, I was okay with your ass and shit was fine ’til you got K.P. talking about leaving me and shit. Don’t you know I got two damn children? It’s bad enough you fucking him, but you trying to take him too?”

“Look
, Kimberly, I don’t want your husband. I have never tried to take him. I’m not your problem; K.P. is your problem, so that is who you need to be having this conversation with. I suggest you talk to him.”

“Look
, you home wrecker, tell K.P. it’s over and send him home to his family. If you don’t, I’m warning you, there will be hell to pay,” she threatened, and Janiece laughed in derision. She would be delighted to tell him that it’s over. That wouldn’t bother her one bit, but this crazy woman didn’t realize that all she could be doing is making matters worse. Just the fact of her making threats made Janiece feel empowered. Shit, if you gotta be begging women to stay away from your man, you got issues, and if Janiece wasn’t so crazy about Isaiah, she’d go against the grain just to fuck with Kimberly.

“Listen
, Kimberly; don’t call me with your threats and promises. I don’t have any control over K.P.. He’s a man, and trust me, sweetie, he’s gonna do what he wanna do, but I can assure you I don’t want him, so don’t call my phone ever again,” she said and hung up. Then she scrolled through her cell phone and found Isaiah’s number and dialed it from her house phone. When it started ringing she powered her cell phone off.

“Hello,” he answered on the second ring.

“Hey, how are you?” she said smiling from ear to ear. She wasn’t sure if he wanted to talk to her, but she definitely wanted to talk to him.

“Hey, can I call you back
? I’m getting my luggage right now. I’ll call you back in a few moments,” he said and hung up. She was looking at her phone for a moment, wondering if that was the brush-off.

Next, s
he dialed K.P.’s cell to let him know that ‘Crazy’ had called, but his phone went straight to voice mail. “Oh great,” she said to herself and went into the kitchen to get another glass of wine. A moment later, the phone rang, and she almost broke her ankle trying to get back over to the couch where she had left it. She looked at the ID. It was Isaiah. She took a deep breath, and then picked up.

“Hello,” she said softly.

“Hello, to you, Ms. Janiece. How goes it?” he asked, and she could tell he was excited to talk to her.

“It’s going well
. How was your trip?”

“It was cool
; got to hang out with my pops. We kicked it, and it was good.”

“Did you think about me while you were away?” she asked
, hoping he’d say yes.

“Why
? Were you thinking about me?”

“I asked you first,” she said talking like he was her boyfriend.

“Well, then, I’d have to answer yes,” he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice. “How about you? Did you think of me?”

“Yes, constantly,” she said smiling and being honest.

“Well, I’d say that’s a good thing.”

“Yes
, it is,” she replied, unable to get the smile off of her face.

“Look, I don’t know if you have plans tonight, but I’d really like it if I could see you,” he said.

“You don’t have to ask.”

“Well, let’s see, I’m with my sister now. She and my mom both drove
, so I’ll be around your way soon. I just need to shower and change; can I knock on your door tonight?”

“Yes, you can knock on my door.”

“Cool, I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay
, bye,” she said, and then called Janelle.

***

“Giiiirrrrlllll, he’s coming over,” Janiece screamed in the phone when Janelle answered.