Careful of the Company You Keep Read online

  The long leather coat could not hide her large, swollen stomach.

  14

  Renee

  “Why orange and chocolate?” I asked.

  Kayla reached for the container of shrimp fried rice and dumped some on her plate before answering. “Because those are the colors I’ve always wanted to have at my wedding.”

  “Whatever floats your boat,” I said with a frown, then picked up the pen and added her color selection to the list.

  “Hopefully our dresses are going to be chocolate, because I don’t look good in orange,” Danielle replied between chews.

  “Yes. There is going to be orange trim on the dresses. The flower girl and my maid of honor are going to wear orange dresses.”

  “I still can’t believe you chose Carol over me to be your maid of honor. I thought we were girls?”

  Kayla looked over at me wearing a sympathetic look. “We are, but I didn’t want to have to choose between the two of you so I decided it was safer to let my sister do it.”

  I could understand that, because if she had chosen Danielle over me I would have been highly upset.

  I wrote Carol’s name down. “Okay, how many bridesmaids, and I need all their names.”

  “Four. You, Danielle, my coworker Crystal, and Nadine.”

  “Who’s gonna walk Nadine down the aisle, Jordan?”

  Danielle slapped my arm. “Nae-Nae, shut up.”

  “What? I just asked.” Hell, her dyke ass might not want to be linked with a man.

  “I’m pairing her with my cousin Timmy.”

  Danielle’s brow rose. “Didn’t they used to mess around back in the day?”

  “Oh shoot! I forgot about that. Never mind. Renee, scratch that. One of you will have to walk with him.”

  “Uh-uh, I’m not walking with his little sawed-off ass!” Danielle cried.

  I reached for an egg roll and agreed. “Me neither.”

  Kayla pushed her plate away and sighed heavily. “Fine. He can walk with Crystal.”

  “Okay, so who’s walking down the aisle with me?”

  Kayla shrugged. “Probably one of Jermaine’s cousins.”

  “And what about me?” Danielle asked.

  “Another one of his cousins.”

  I gave her a curious look. “What do they look like? ’Cause inquiring minds wanted to know.”

  “What difference does it make?”

  “It makes a lot of difference.” I snorted rudely.

  Kayla pursed her lips and gave me a hard stare. It’s rare when my holier-than-thou friend gets mad. And right now she looked like she was seconds away from throwing both of us out of her house. “Renee, can’t you for once think about someone other than yourself? This is my wedding.”

  “Girl, I know and I’m sorry, but can you do me one favor? Whatever mothafucka you have walking me down the aisle, just make sure he doesn’t pee in the bed.”

  Danielle fell back onto the floor and started kicking her legs up in the air and I couldn’t help but laugh even though the shit would have been a lot more funny if it had happened to someone else.

  Kayla looked at Danielle, then turned to me with a puzzled look. “Pee in the bed? Oh Lord, do I even want to ask. What in the world are you talking about?”

  “Landon spent the night with Renee and peed in her bed!” Danielle shrieked.

  Kayla’s eyes grew round. “What? Who’s Landon?”

  “This stinky mothafucka I went to high school with.”

  Danielle sucked her teeth. “You didn’t think he was stinky when you saw him stroll into the club.”

  “Hell, how was I to know he peed in the bed.”

  Kayla looked mortified. “Ugh! He came to your house and peed? Oh my God! What did you do?”

  “I put his stanky ass out! That’s what I did.”

  “Kayla, he thought he was in the bathroom,” Danielle added between chuckles.

  “Yeah, he was holding his thang and had the nerve to shake it when he got done.” I used my hands to demonstrate.

  Danielle screamed and Kayla started laughing. Hell, I even gave a few chuckles before I started getting angry again. “That shit ain’t funny. I haven’t heard from his pissing ass since. I’ve gone to his job and even his house and I can never catch him.”

  “Kayla, you haven’t heard the best part. Nae-Nae, go ahead and tell her what you made me help you do.”

  “Don’t try to act like I made you. You were more than happy to help.” Danielle always tries to make it seem like I’m the only one that does all the crazy shit.

  She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, ho, just tell the story.”

  I leaned forward against the coffee table. “Landon told me he would buy me a new mattress two weeks ago when he got paid. I waited all day for him to call me and then I started calling his ass but he refused to pick up. I called his cell phone, house phone, and even rode by his mama’s house looking for him. Anyway, I waited until Wednesday and blocked my number before I called and he answered. I asked him where the hell was my money and that mothafucka had the nerve to hang up on me. So you know a black bitch like me got mad!”

  Kayla rolled her eyes as she reached for her orange soda. “Oh Lord, what did you do?”

  Danielle jumped in. “Nae-Nae, let me finish telling it.” How could I say no when she looked like she was about to pee her damn self?

  “Go ahead.”

  Danielle crossed her legs and sat up straight on the floor. “Okay, this crazy girl gonna call me and tell me she’s on her way over to pick me up. So I go outside and she pulled up in her uncle’s raggedy-ass truck and told me to get in. I climb in and we go back to her house and pick up those mattresses she had lying in the garage. They reeked with pee.” She turned up her nose.

  Kayla interrupted with a heavy sigh. “What did y’all do?”

  I sucked my teeth. “We took those mattresses to his apartment complex and left them in his front yard.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Kayla said, for some reason finding it hard to believe. I don’t know why. She knows how I do.

  “Uhhh, yes, we did.”

  Danielle nodded in confirmation.

  Kayla shook her head and tried to act like she was disappointed, but I could see she was trying not to smile. “You are stupid.”

  “No, I’m not. Landon’s the one who’s stupid to think that I would just let that shit go.” I exhaled, showing my frustration. “His pissy ass owes me eight hundred dollars.”

  “Kayla, girl, Nae-Nae wrote in big letters on the mattress, ‘he who lives here, pees here’!”

  “What!” Her eyes grew wide.

  “Yep, we leaned them mattresses against the big tree in his yard for the whole damn neighborhood to see.”

  Kayla laughed out loud. “You are too stupid. Renee, what did he say?”

  “He called me and had the nerve to be pissed. Saying he had run into some financial problems and he’d get me next payday.”

  Danielle snorted rudely. “Payday’s tomorrow, and I bet you don’t hear from his ass.”

  I rolled my eyes. “And I’m not going to let it go, either.”

  “We know,” Kayla and Danielle answered at the same time.

  I gave a dismissive wave. “Whatever. Let someone come over and pee in your bed and see how you feel.”

  “Asia used to pee in my bed all the time,” Kayla said with a shrug.

  “That’s different. Hell, Quinton peed on himself until he was six, but that’s my kid. If his grown ass was still peeing in the bed, then we’d have a problem.”

  “I think you should just leave it alone and let the Lord deal with him.”

  “Kayla, puh-leeze. That man owes me and he’s gonna do right by me.”

  Danielle frowned. “You better leave him alone before he pees on you again.”

  Kayla cracked up laughing.

  I rolled my eyes at both of them. “Enough about Landon’s stinky ass. We’ve got a wedding to plan.”

  15

 
; Danielle

  On the way into work on Friday, I spotted Ron driving a brand-new Honda Accord. He pulled up beside me at the red light, looked my way, bobbed his head in acknowledgment, and before I managed to roll the window down, he pulled off. I couldn’t believe that shit. Not a hello. Nothing. Why was he ignoring me? Two weeks. It had been two weeks since he had come to my house and fucked me, and not one phone call.

  I climbed off the elevator and moved down the hall to Labor and Delivery mad and frustrated because it wasn’t until I watched him peel away from the light and leave my ass in the dusk that realization hit me. Ron didn’t love me. He couldn’t, because he had done nothing short of using me. And it was time to face the honest truth: what Ron and I had ended long before I showed up on his doorstep begging him to come home.

  I was moving down the hall ready to plow anyone in my way when I looked down at the end of the hall. I almost tripped when I spotted a brotha who was so fine he made you want to slap yo mama. I tried not to stare. He was wearing a white hospital coat, which meant he worked here. Damn, he could be a medical student or even a new resident. I knew fine when I saw it, and it was definitely him. The closer I got, the more I couldn’t keep my eyes off him. He looked up from the woman he was talking to and our eyes met long enough for me to gasp. It was the guy I had met at Athena’s. Chance. I looked into his big hazel eyes. He smiled, then licked his thick lips and I was sure I came in my panties. Bitch, snap out of it! He’s had your number for the last two weeks and ain’t called you once. He was definitely the last thing I needed, regardless of how wet he made my panties. I dropped my head and moved down the hall to the unit, clocked in, and went to listen to the morning report.

  It wasn’t until noon that I had an opportunity to sit down at the nurses’ station and check my e-mails. While I waited for the computer to boot up, I checked my cell phone. I frowned. Four missed calls, and they were all from Mama. She had been blowing my phone up all morning, and the last thing I needed was to talk to her about Portia.

  I logged in and noticed a message from someone I didn’t know. I clicked on it and opened the e-mail.

  Sexy, I saw you looking at me. Tell me a little more about yourself.

  Heart pounding heavily with anticipation, I looked both ways before I raised my hands to the keys and typed a short paragraph, and hit Send. I couldn’t believe it. He was feeling me. I was tempted to ask him why he hadn’t called me, but maybe he didn’t remember me from the other night.

  My phone in my pocket vibrated. I looked down and felt a stir of guilt. It was Calvin.

  “Hey.”

  “Whassup, baby? How’s your day?”

  “Could be better. I didn’t get much sleep last night.” Last night I camped out near Nita’s house hoping to catch Ron coming or going but never did. Around midnight I finally gave up and headed home. Maybe he moved in with that girl. What do you care? He doesn’t love you anymore, remember?

  “Do you feel up to a movie tonight?”

  Might as well. Ron was no longer a part of my life. Besides, it’s Friday night. “Sure, baby. What time?”

  “How about I pick you up at seven? That should give us plenty of time to eat and catch the nine-thirty show.”

  I hung up and started to feel excited about my evening with Calvin. Why in the world did I even think I wanted Ron when Calvin was everything I need in a man? Stable, financially secure. He’s been with the university police department for the last fifteen years. Has a big house. A nice ride. And money in the bank. Calvin had more than Ron and the dozens of Rons before him. So why is it that I crave excitement and drama?

  The phone at the desk rang and I picked it up.

  “Hey, whassup?”

  I almost dropped the phone. Without him even giving his name, I already knew it was Chance. “I’m fine. How about you?”

  “I’m good. I saw you looking at me.”

  “You did?” Damn, I knew I had made it too obvious.

  “Yep, ’cause I was looking at you, too.”

  Well, at least I wasn’t the only one.

  “How long you been working here?” he asked.

  “Too long.” I suddenly remembered something and asked with straight attitude, “How come you never called me?”

  “I lost my phone.”

  “Yeah, right,” I replied and snorted rudely.

  “Serious. I wouldn’t do you like that.”

  “Uh-huh.” I wasn’t totally convinced, but I’d let him slide for now.

  “So what is it you like about me?”

  Talk about stuck on himself. “Who said I liked anything about you?”

  “I could tell,” he replied with confidence. “So tell me.”

  I was cheesing so hard I’m sure it was obvious in my voice. “I think you’re kinda cute.”

  “Kinda?” he asked, sounding offended.

  “Yeah, kinda.” He had to laugh and I joined in.

  “You married?”

  “Nope.”

  “Kids?”

  I was tempted to say no. “Yep. One who lives wit her grandmother.”

  “I don’t have any kids.”

  “You married?” It was my turn to interrogate.

  “Not anymore. I was in the National Guard. While I was deployed in Iraq for eighteen months, my wife cheated on me.”

  “What?”

  “Yep. And when I got back I moved into my own place.”

  “So what do you do?”

  “I’m a veni-puncture technician. I draw blood.”

  “I know what a veni-puncture tech is. How long you been drawing blood?”

  “For a while. I was a medic in the military and just retired last summer.”

  “That’s whassup.” Hallelujah, a man with a career. “What brought you back to this little town?”

  “I got sick of St. Louis and wanted something slower paced.”

  Nothing wrong with that.

  “Can I tell you something?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “You’ve got a fat ass.”

  I should have been offended but I wasn’t. “You go from sounding educated to sounding all ghetto and shit.”

  “Yo, baby girl, I got to play the part at work. I have a degree in biology so I do have an edjumication.”

  I had to laugh at that.

  “Yeah, but like I was saying, you do have a fat booty.”

  I was still laughing. “Oh, so you noticed?”

  “Yep, and I liked everything I saw. You’re sexy as hell.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’d really like to take some time to get to know you. How about dinner tonight?”

  “That would be—” I stopped short and groaned inwardly. I had already made plans with Calvin for the evening.

  “Come on. I know you want to say yes.”

  “What gives you that idea?”

  “Because you’re feeling me and I’m feeling you.”

  He was right. I did want to say hell yes. Talking to him had brightened what had started out as a miserable day. And before I knew it, I heard myself saying, “Okay.”

  “Good. How about you give me your number again and I’ll call you this evening. You’re not going to stand me up, right?”

  “No. I’m not. Just don’t lose your phone this time.” I gave him my number and hung up with a big smile on my face. Damn, now I have to find a way to cancel my evening with Calvin.

  16

  Renee

  I was so proud of my daughter. We had driven through the neighborhood and not once did I have to yell at her to stop the car. About damn time. I have been working with Tamara for almost four months and was starting to think that we were never going to get to this point. Now I could see that my work here was almost done.

  She pulled into the driveway and that feeling of uneasiness returned until she put the car in park.

  “Don’t worry, Mama, I’m not going to run into the garage again.”

  “Uh,” I mumbled as I looked out at my new
garage door. I think she must have fallen asleep at the wheel that day. By the time I’d realized she wasn’t going to put her foot on the brake, she had already slammed into the garage door.

  We went inside and I moved into the kitchen to make dinner while she went to her room to do her homework. Every day I picked her up from school and every day she drove us home. The hours worked perfectly for me and Tamara. Quinton had his own car—a big-ass Bonneville.

  I reached inside the refrigerator for the ground beef because I was in the mood for spaghetti. While I was browning the meat, Danielle called.

  “Remember that fine guy I met at the club?” She sounded too damn happy.

  I had to dig through my memory bank for a second. “The dark-skinned one with a mouthful of gold teeth?”

  “Yep, Chance.”

  “What about him?”

  “I just found out today he works at the hospital.”

  “Where at?” Probably housekeeping. My girl has a thing for thugs and blue-collar workers.

  “No, he doesn’t work in housekeeping or food service. He draws blood.”

  “Really.” That was definitely an improvement.

  “I ran into him in the hallway and he called me at the nurses’ station and asked me out to dinner tonight.”

  “Hell nah. And he’s paying?” Hey, I gotta ask because she’s usually the one who does.

  “Yeah, he’s taking me to Red Lobster.”

  “Go ’head, girl!”

  “I know. I can’t wait.” I could hear the excitement in her voice.

  “You know Calvin’s gonna kick yo ass.”

  Danielle sighed heavily in the phone. “I’m ready to kick him to the curb.”

  “I thought you were feeling him.” For the last several months, all Danielle talked about was Calvin and how good he was at sucking her toes and shit.

  “I like him a lot, but he’s boring. I wished he had a little thug in him.”

  Why am I not surprised? “Don’t you think it’s time your old ass started looking for something in your life besides drama?”