Chapter Six- Buddha
I was buzzed as a mothafucka as I drove home. The street lights were a bit blurry, and I couldn’t keep the steering wheel straight, no matter how hard I tried.
Between my brother and Edwardo with this Angel situation.
Dior and my mother with this Catalina bull-shit.
It was safe to say a nigga was losing his mind.
After Edwardo left and my brother and I had our little disagreement, I went back to my office, about to pack up and call it a night.
The manager, Franklin, would handle closing up.
I hired him to keep the restaurant running smoothly because I really didn’t like being here.
While I was organizing to leave, Diamond returned to my office to check in on me. I told her I was fine and was leaving for the night, giving her my permission to assist Franklin with locking up.
“I got something to help you relax,” she said, making me stop what I was doing. Smiling at me, she told me she would be right back. When she returned, she had a rolled-up blunt and a flask with alcohol. Shit, I wasn’t much of a weed smoker, but I agreed to smoke with Diamond to take the edge off.
We made our way to the back of the restaurant, and she lit the blunt as I sipped what I believed was Hennessy from the silver flask.
We stood there just drinking and smoking.
Diamond kept quiet, allowing me to deal with the way I felt in silence.
I was lost in my thoughts as I felt Diamond’s eyes on me.
I met Diamond a while back at the strip club. She was a very determined female. She was studying hard to better her life so she could eventually leave stripping behind. Seeing how focused she was, I offered her a job as a waitress at the restaurant. Within six months, she moved up to supervisor.
Diamond and I never crossed the line, well, not at first. We never had sex, but she did suck my dick a couple of times. I knew it was a bad idea to encourage anything sexual between us and put a stop to it before it went further.
“You want me to relax you even more?” she asked, dropping the blunt to the ground and stepping on it.
I looked at her as she came closer, and she reached for the waist of my pants.
She bit into her lower lip as she began to unzip my pants.
It was only when she dropped to her knees, and I placed a hand on the top of her head, that my wedding ring gleamed in the light. I remembered I had a wife back at home.
“Na, I promised we shouldn’t do this anymore,” I told her, pushing her head away so I could zip my pants up.
“I won’t tell if you won’t,” she said, smiling at me determinedly.
“I’m a married man, plus I gotta go.”
Passing up some good head wasn’t easy for me, but I knew it was the right thing to do. Regardless of how and why Dior and I were married, I could admit that I cared about her. Dior gave me a run for my money, and I was enjoying the hell out of it.
That was up until she tricked me with wine and sex, tapped into my phone, and gave my mother Catalina’s number. I specifically told Dior not to tell my mother anything about what happened in Italy. What does she do? What she said she wouldn’t do, she told my mother.
When Catalina called me today, saying my mother had called her.
It didn’t take me long to know that Dior had something to do with it.
Looking down at my hands gripping the steering wheel, I cursed softly, seeing that my knuckles were white.
I was squeezing it so tight, I had to force myself to relax.
My eyelids began to feel heavy, and I knew for my own safety, I had to stop and maybe get a bottle of water.
There was a gas station a couple of minutes away, so I decided to go there.
Pulling in, I found a parking spot and hopped out.
I walked to the back and found the drinks chiller.
While searching through the different brands of bottled water, I got a strange feeling as if I were being watched.
Turning around, I saw someone dressed in all black standing, staring at me.
It didn’t take me long to recognize him; it was Jamieson’s brother, Jeremy.
Was he in here all this time? Or had he been following me?
Either way, I kept my expression emotionless as I turned around and picked up a bottle of Aquafina.
I hoped that this fool wasn’t going to try to start some shit in this gas station.
I really wasn’t in the mood and didn’t feel like catching a case for murder.
As I walked toward him, trying to get by, he purposely stood in front of me, blocking my path.
I stopped, took a step back, and looked at him.
His expression remained stone-faced as he stared at me.
“Are you gonna move stronzo (asshole)? Or am I gonna have to move you for myself? Either way works fine for me,” I told him, waiting to see what option he would choose.
“When our parents died in a car accident, I promised Jamieson that I would always protect him. He started making some really questionable life choices that I couldn’t stop him from doing.
He got caught up with the likes of your criminal family, and I warned him over and over.
Now, he’s missing, and I know you all had something to do with it.
I feel like a horrible brother because I wasn’t there to protect him.
I know you all did something to him, and all I want is to know what happened to my little brother.
” Jeremy’s speech would have been touching for anybody but not for a man like me.
I replayed about two different versions of how this could go down in my head.
One, I could place Jeremy in my famous signature move, the choke hold.
I could keep him like that until he passed out.
Two, I could connect this water bottle to the middle of his forehead, which I knew would split his forehead because I was about to use a lot of force.
I didn’t have my gun on me; it was in my glove compartment, so there was no option three.
“I had a really bad day. Now, please get the fuck out of my way,” I said calmly, taking two steps back away from him. I was ready to do some damage; I really didn’t want to, but I was ready.
“I’m not getting out of your way until you tell me whe—” I didn’t let Jeremy complete his sentence. Instead, I lifted my hand that held the bottled water and, like the baseball pitcher, I didn’t know I was. I tossed the bottle right at him, striking him smack in the middle of his forehead.
Jeremy fell to a crumpled heap on the floor, holding his head as he curled up in a fetal position, groaning in pain.
“That’s what you get. I done told your goofy ass I had a bad fucking day,” I said, walking by him, looking at the way his forehead already began to swell.
“Hey, I’m about to call the police. You can’t do that!” The cashier yelled, pointing at me with one hand while he picked up his cell phone with the other hand. I waved him off as I walked out the door. I would just drink water at home. I was now surprisingly sober.
*****
I held the keys to the front door as I was about to unlock my home. I could hear Lotus whining, waiting for me, so she could pounce and show how much she missed me. I wasn’t expecting Dior to be here because I told her ass she needed to stay at the main house for that dumb stunt she pulled.
Walking into the house, I bent and rubbed Lotus’ ear.
The house was quiet, and I felt a kind of way since I’d gotten used to seeing Dior after a long day.
I began unbuttoning my shirt as I walked to my bedroom door.
I was gonna take a shower and hop my ass in bed.
Tomorrow I will go to the main house and deal with my defiant wife, who didn’t know how to fucking listen.
As I opened the door and stepped inside, I stopped immediately at the sight of Dior lying on her stomach on the bed like nobody’s business. She was doing one of those word search puzzle books. My shirt was now completely unbuttoned, so I took it off and tossed it at her head,
“What the hell,” she muttered, yanking it off and looking back at me.
“The fuck are you doing here? Didn’t I tell your ass over the phone earlier that you needed to stay at the main house?” I wagged my index finger at her as I walked closer to the bed.
“Excuse me, but I live here,” she answered, tossing the shirt back to me. She turned right back to the puzzle as though she couldn’t be bothered.
“You'd better get your shit and go spend the night under Victoria’s roof since you like listening to her so fucking much.” I took my shoes off before I began unbuttoning my pants.
“You're just mad I played the game so well; you had no clue you were being played,” Dior said and then giggled.
That shit pissed me off so fucking bad, I walked up to her and grabbed her by her ankle and dragged her ass until she almost fell right off the bed.
She kicked her leg out at me and spun around to face me.
“I really wish you had made me fall out of this bed, Buddha,” she said as though I was supposed to be afraid of her.
“I’m not about to tell you again. Get your shit, and walk your ass to the main house,” I glared at her. Hopping off the bed because all Dior knew was how to be stubborn. She marched up to me, her hand on her hip, staring as though she could beat my ass.
“I’m not going anywhere. You wanted a wife, well, you have one.
Look at you so fucking angry over that bitch Catalina, you haven’t seen in years.
You must really love that hoe,” she turned her nose up at me in disgust. I sucked my teeth at her because she kept wanting me to have these imaginary feelings for Catalina.
“You sound fucking stupid,” I said, turning to go have a shower. I wasn’t about to have this useless conversation after the day I had. Dior’s footsteps kept up the pace with mine as I headed to the bathroom.