5/Renee
Tonight was not at all how I had planned.
Kayla didn’t want to go out because she was spending the evening with her fiancé, and Nadine and Jordan were too busy making baby plans.
What the fuck? Couldn’t either of them put their love lives aside for just one night so the four of us could hang out for old times’ sake?
But nooo. I had to go out with Danielle by my damn self.
I knew the minute I told her the other two weren’t coming what club she was going to pick.
Athena’s.
I can’t stand that place, but without my cheering team to back me up, it was either go with her or go out by myself.
It was after eleven when I stepped through the doors, and immediately I felt like I had just walked into Chuck E.
Cheese’s. Nothing but a bunch of goddamn kids.
What the fuck? That’s what happens when you live in a college town.
Students were back after a three-day weekend, and everyone was out trying to get their drink on.
I walked in, late, of course. Danielle had texted me an hour earlier to say she was heading over so she could grab a table. So, she was in here somewhere.
I sauntered in wearing a long-sleeved blue-jean jumpsuit and four-inch gold platform shoes.
I’ll admit, the music was jumping and people were everywhere.
I could barely get through the door. As I moved around the room looking for Danielle, I caught a few cuties checking me out and even smiled at one, until I noticed his sweatshirt said Mizzou Tigers.
What the hell? He was nothing but a college student.
I pushed through the crowd looking for Danielle. I don’t know why her ass couldn’t have waited until I was ready so we could’ve come together. It’s bad enough I even have to be in this mothafucka.
As I made my way around the room, I passed a group of girls who barely looked sixteen.
The shit they were wearing was downright nasty, skirts so short that if they bent over, everything was on display, and bras they were trying to pass off as shirts.
One girl had rolls around her stomach and was running around in a bra at least two sizes too small.
If that had been Tamara, I would’ve snatched her ass off that dance floor and taken her straight home.
I slowly made my way around the building. All anyone did in this place was walk in a damn circle and try to be seen. I just wasn’t in the mood.
I headed over to the bar and slid onto a stool.
While I waited for the bartender, I rocked my hips to the beat.
Chris Brown was killing it with his new single.
I loved that song, and from the looks of it, so did everyone else.
A tall, skinny bartender took my order and returned with my apple martini.
I took a sip. Delicious. I tossed another dollar on the counter.
Glancing across the bar, I caught a dark-skinned brotha trying to get my attention. What the fuck ever. He was too damn old to be in a place like this. He looked like somebody’s grandpa. I rolled my eyes to make sure he got it loud and clear that I wasn’t the least bit interested.
I was mid-sip when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I glanced over, and my mouth dropped.
“Oh my God, Landon!” I swung around and hugged him. “When did you move back?”
He smiled, clearly pleased that I noticed he’d been gone. In a town this small, who wouldn’t?
“I’ve been back from Germany almost five months.”
“You still in the military?”
He shook his head proudly. “Retired Army.”
I nodded and took him in. And there was a whole helluva lot to take in.
Landon had been one of those misfit kids in school who always hung with the girls.
He didn’t act gay, just one of the girls.
Senior year, he started dating Tonja, and she had his nose so wide open he followed her around like a lost puppy.
A week before graduation, she dumped him, and right after that he joined the military.
Over the years, I’d seen him here and there, but this was the first time in two decades we’d actually talked.
And I’m glad I came out because Landon was finer than a mothafucka.
He wore a clean military cut—hair slightly higher on top than on the sides, but low overall. A navy-blue turtleneck hugged every muscle in his chest and arms. His jeans were loose but not enough to hide his massive thighs. White sneakers completed the look.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “Trying to catch a case with the jailbait?”
He frowned. “Nah, Hodges dragged me in.”
I followed his gaze to his boy at the other end of the bar trying to holler at one of those young-looking girls. Hodges was one of those men who refused to admit he was pushing forty.
Landon grinned. “I should be asking what you’re doing here.”
“I’m meeting Danny.”
He chuckled, and I joined in. He knew Danielle’s taste for young thugs almost as well as I did.
“Have you seen her?”
He pointed toward the back. “She’s sitting over there.”
We stood there staring at each other like two fools. I could’ve stayed longer, but the last thing I wanted was for him to see just how attracted I was. I don’t run after men. I like to be chased. “Thanks. I’ll holla at you later.”
“You do that. Save me a dance.”
I reached for my drink, then turned and walked away. At least something good was coming out of this night. I moved to where Danielle was sitting. She was wearing this cute designer jean outfit she bought while we were in St. Louis shopping last week.
There were only two chairs at her table, and neither was empty.
“Hey, whassup?” I asked with my eyebrow raised as I looked down at Mavis’s crack headed ass sitting across from her.
““Whassup, Renee?” she asked, already standing. “You got five dollars?”
I backed up and raised a finger to my nose because I could smell her breath from where I stood. “Yeah, here.” I slipped her a five. Anything to get her away from me. She didn’t even say bye before disappearing into the crowd. “Ugh. Why were you talking to her?”
“Nae-Nae, you know her ass is a booster. She’s going to come by my house tomorrow with some new sneakers that just came out.”
“Oh, well, if she’s got anything good, hook me up.”
Danielle nodded, reached for her drink, and took a sip.
“Guess who I saw coming in?”
“Who?” she asked.
“Landon.”
Danielle’s eyes widened. “Landon Lawson? Hell nah! I heard he was back.”
“Yep, and he looked good as hell.”
She gave me that look that said I know something you don’t. “Girl, you know he’s been messing with Leslie’s wide ass since he’s got back.”
She had my attention. “Leslie who?”
She smirked and reached for her drink. “Leslie Harris.
My eyes grew large. “Hell nah.”
She sucked her teeth. “Yep, but I heard she started stalking his ass, so he quit fooling wit her.”
Leslie came out of high school a year ahead of us and was one of those that I never cared much for. She spent too much time in the club getting drunk instead of home taking care of her three kids. I heard she didn’t like me. Why? I don’t know and really couldn’t care less.
“I saw her in here earlier, so don’t let her see you talking to her man.”
“Fuck Leslie.”
“All right don’t say I didn’t warn you,” she teased.
I pursed my lips and swung around in my chair. Danielle knew I wasn’t scared of that ho. One thing I don’t do is back down.
While sipping my drink, I waved at people I knew as they moved around the building.
Like I said, the place is one big circle, so at some point everyone came around at least once.
Sure enough, I saw Landon, and not long after, Leslie trailing behind him.
I shook my head. One thing Renee doesn’t do is chase after a man.
If it’s over, it’s over. If we hook up after that, it’s mutual.
But I’ll be damned if I ever stalk a mothafucka who doesn’t want me.
“Danielle, look.”
I pointed to the bottom of Leslie’s boot. She was dragging a long piece of toilet paper. We both fell out laughing.
I sat there for the longest time watching Leslie watch Landon. What Leslie needed to do was go home and change her damn clothes. I don’t know why out of shape women always feel they have to throw on a miniskirt, especially when their thigh is wider than their waist.
Danielle lightly kicked my leg underneath the table. “Nae-Nae, here comes David.”
David Lavell. Short, chocolate mothafucka and one of Columbia Police Department’s finest. He looked fabulous in dark slacks and a white polo shirt and white sneakers.
But then he looked good in anything he wore.
He had a body made for clothes. I tried to give him some last year, but his crazy-ass wife came banging on the door of our hotel room.
If I had gotten some before she had interrupted maybe I wouldn’t still be angry.
“Whassup, Renee?” He gave me his devilish smile and held out a hand. “Come dance with me.”
I shook my head. “Hell nah! So, your wife can come over and start trippin’? I don’t think so.”
“She’s not here and if she was, she wouldn’t trip about me dancing with a friend.”
Before I could object further, he took my drink out of my hand, placed it on the table, and led me out onto the dance floor. The music had slowed down to Tank’s new cut. I allowed David to pull me in his arms. I ain’t gonna lie, the married mothafucka smelled good as hell.
He brushed his lips against my ear. “You know I regret what went down with us.”
“No, you don’t, because if you did, you wouldn’t have gotten me caught up in that bullshit in first place.” I leaned back so he could see my eyes as I spoke. “How could you set my ass up like that?”
“I didn’t mean to. Really,” he pleaded.
“Yeah, you just forgot you and her were together,” I replied sarcastically.
“Nah, I just was pissed at her.”
“And you used me to get back at her?”
He offered me an apologetic smile. “Something like that.”
Laughing, I shook my head, then rested it on his shoulder again. That was something I would have done, so I guess I couldn’t be too mad as long as that shit never happened again.