28/Renee
I went home, logged onto my computer, and clicked onto the search website.
It took me a while to find Chance Garrett’s name.
Something with the way his name was loaded.
So, I scrolled through all of the Garretts until I came across Chance.
There was only one. He lived right smack in the hood.
Aggravated assault. Protection order. Child support payments.
“What the hell?”
I reached for the phone and called Danielle’s cell phone, but she didn’t answer. I’d try again in the morning. For the time being I sent her a text message.
LEAVE THAT CRAZY MOTHAFUCKA ALONE.
My cell phone rang. I reached over and grabbed it, thinking it was Danielle.
“Hello?”
Silence.
“Hello?” I said with a little more attitude.
“Bitch!”
I took the phone away from my ear, looked at it before bringing it against my mouth again. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me, Bitch,” she sneered.
“I got your—” Oh no, she didn’t hang up on me.
I quickly checked the Caller ID. Dammit.
The call had been private. I was so angry I punched my desk.
Who the hell was calling me? I could think of dozens of people who couldn’t stand me for various reasons, but no one recently I had pissed off besides Landon.
Speaking of piss... I reached for the phone and dialed his number and wasn’t at all surprised that he didn’t answer.
“Listen, you pissy-ass mothafucka, you better call me this evening, otherwise I’m coming to your job tomorrow! ” Once again I ended the call.
After a while I decided to push my anger aside and get to work. I had a book due and a new scene to write. I turned on some classic R&B,” and started outlining the next chapter. An hour into my work, I heard a knock on my office door.
“Mama, there’s some man at the door to see you!”
A man. I sprang from my chair and moved out of my office and down the hall to the front door to find Calvin waiting on the porch. “I got it.”
Tamara hurried back to her room. I opened the door. “Come on in out of the cold.”
“Thanks.” He moved inside. His hands were deep in his pockets and he looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. The bags underneath his eyes meant he hadn’t been sleeping much.
“Please, have a seat.” I moved over to the couch and waited for him to take the wingback chair across from me. “Whassup?”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I want to know what happened that evening.”
I gave him a silly smirk. “You need me to spell it out for you?”
Calvin shook his head and gave me a look that said, quit playing games. “I want to know why you made a pass at me.”
“I... I was feeling vulnerable and needed a man to make me feel good.” Damn, I hated lying to this man.
He pursed his lips. “I think you did that on purpose to break us up. The question is why?”
“You are a grown-ass man. I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do,” I said with straight attitude. No way was he going to put all the blame on me.
Calvin dragged a hand across his face and blew out a heavy breath. “I know, and I’m beating myself up. Hell, I’m a man and we are known to be weak.”
“That’s for sure,” I teased.
“Listen, I know this might be hard for you to believe after everything that happened between us, but I love Danielle.”
I could tell he was sincere, which only made me feel worse about what happened between us. “I’m sorry, Calvin. Really I am.”
“If you’re sorry then you’ll help me get her back.”
Oh no! The last time I got involved, she and I stopped talking. I wasn’t about to go through that shit again. “I’d rather not. She just started talking to me again.”
He blew air between his teeth. “I think she’s seeing someone else, and what happened the other day just gave her the excuse she needed.”
Damn, he was smarter than I thought.
“What do you want me to do?” Part of me felt that I owed Calvin. It wasn’t his fault that he was a weak man and couldn’t resist tasting this caramel kitty over here.
“Can you please talk to her? I’ve been to her job. I’ve called all of her numbers, but she refused to speak to me.” He was pleading with those sexy brown eyes of his for me to help bring them back together.
“Damn, for a minute there I thought you had dropped by to see if we could finish where we left off the other evening,” I teased.
“Renee...” he warned.
I tossed my hands up. “I’m just playing. Damn, can’t you take a joke?”
Calvin reached inside his pocket, pulled out a small black box, and opened it. “Does this look like I’m joking?”
My mouth flew open. That sucker was huge. The carats had carats. “Oh. My. God! You bought that for Danielle’s crazy ass?” I slid off the couch and moved in for a closer look.
“Yes. I was waiting for the right time to propose to her.”
I took the ring from the box and slipped it on my finger. It was a little too small for my finger, but nothing a jeweler couldn’t fix. “Damn, I didn’t know y’all were that serious.”
“I love her, Renee.”
My eyes narrowed. “Then answer this question. Why was you eating my damn pussy? ’Cause inquiring minds want to know.”
He had to think about that one a minute before answering. “I really don’t know.”
“Probably because this bitch is too pretty to resist,” I mumbled.
Calvin shook his head, then started laughing. “Renee, you are too much.”
“I’m just keeping it real.” I put the ring in the box and he slipped it back into his coat pocket. “I’ll try to talk to her but I can’t make any promises.”
He nodded and looked at least hopeful that I was willing to help. “I appreciate that. Just don’t mention the ring. I want that to be a surprise. That’s if she’ll still have me.”
I doubted that, the way this Chance guy had her nose all wide open. However, she did say that she hadn’t realized how much she really cared about Calvin until she saw him with me. So maybe there was hope after all, but then again… Danielle ain’t the brightest Skittle at the end of the rainbow.
“Thanks, I’ll call you in a couple of days.”
“All right.”
I walked him to the door then watched him leave. Hopefully after I tell Danielle what I saw online, she’ll leave that fool alone.
I was about to close the door when I noticed a black SUV pull away from in front of my house.
It wasn’t until I was heading back down to my office that I remembered it was the same vehicle that had pulled up beside me at Danielle’s.
I hurried back to the door to see if the vehicle had returned.
It hadn’t. I went to my office but spent the rest of the evening wondering who had been sitting behind the wheel.
* * *
The following day, I was on my way home from my part-time job when I realized I still hadn’t heard from Danielle’s crazy ass. She should be eating lunch, so I hit her on her cell phone.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“You. I was wondering if you were still alive.”
Danielle got all serious and shit. “What do you mean?”
“Did you get my text message last night?”
“What text?”
“I told you to leave that crazy fool alone. I looked Chance up on the website and he has assault charges and some chick put a protection order on him.”
“What!”
I chuckled. “Yep. That mothafucka is cray-cray!”
“Maybe it was all a misunderstanding.”
“Understanding my ass. Danny, he’s even been sued for back child support payments.”
“Child support? Now I know you’re lying ’cause Chance don’t have no kids.”
“Well, I guess you better tell the mother of his child that, because he was sued and she was granted back child support in the amount of six thousand dollars. That wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t true.”
She was quiet. Too quiet.
“You still there?”
“Uh-uh. Girl, I’m finna call him now.”
I knew that was her way of getting off the phone.
I hung up and rode home, waiting for her to call me back.
Hopefully she kicked his ass to the curb or threatened to get her brother to beat his ass.
Kee ain’t no joke. When Portia was running around crying wolf and claiming that Ron was the father of her baby, oh, you better believe Kee whupped that ass!
I thought the shit was funny because Ron might be fine as hell, but messing with a teenager is nothing to be playing with.
But once we found out Portia’s ass was lying, I couldn’t blame Danielle for putting my godchild out.
I made a left and headed to the Columbia Daily Tribune.
“May I help you?” asked an attractive woman sitting behind the reception desk.
“Yes, is Landon Lawson in today?”
“Yes, he’s in the workroom.” She pointed to the door at my far left.
I strolled down the hallway carrying my purse and a brown paper bag and pushed through the door. There were probably a dozen other workers in there as well, eating their lunch. As soon as Landon spotted me, he froze and the sandwich dropped from his hand.
“Renee.”
“Well, hello, Landon, sweetheart. How are you this morning?”
“Fine,” he mumbled.
I dropped my bag on the table. “Sweetie, you were in such a rush this morning…, you forgot these,” I replied in a sweet potato pie voice.
I then reached into a bag, removed a box of Depends and sat it on the table.
Landon jumped back like it was a dead rat. “What do I need those for?”
A couple of his coworkers started laughing.
“You know you have a bladder problem.” I glanced over at the women in front of the copy machine. “Just last month, he peed in my bed. Ain’t that right, boo? Don’t be ashamed.” I patted him lightly on the back.
“She’s lying,” he insisted and looked around the room for someone who believed he was innocent.
“Man, you do run to the bathroom quite a bit,” one guy in the corner teased.
“I know that’s right.” Another cackled, and then the others joined in.
Landon turned red and glared in my direction.
“I’ll see you later.” I smiled, turned on the heels of my designer shoes, and left the building.
I had barely made it out to the parking lot when my phone rang. Would you believe it was Landon? Now what made him decide to call me? I chuckled as I answered the call.
“Yes, pissy? What can I do for you?”
“That’s fucked up! How you gonna come to my job and embarrass me like that?”
“It wasn’t like I didn’t warn you,” I replied calmly.
“But you didn’t have to do that. I told you I would buy you a new mattress.”
“When? When it’s convenient for you? I don’t think so. I’ll see your ass in court.”
I hung up on him before he had a chance to say anything else and headed straight to the courthouse.
Landon pissed on the wrong woman.