A Good Dude (43 page)

“We have to go to court,” she said. “We can set up child support and a visitation schedule.”

Rilla’s smile went away. He stared at her with serious disappointment. “What I do to make you do me like this? I treated you good, Candace. I do six months, and you flipped the script on me. I heard you sleeping with other dudes and everything. You don’t want nothing to do with Rilla no more? Won’t take my calls from jail. Didn’t come see me one time.”

“We were already having problems,” Candace stalled. “We were going to break up anyway.”

“Maybe, but we didn’t break up,” Rilla said. “We went through our shit, but you was still happy as long as you had some money in your pocket.”

Candace knew there was some truth to that. “What was I supposed to do, Raul? You left me with nothing. All that money you were making, you didn’t put anything aside. I told you I was pregnant, and you still wanted to live for the day.”

“Yeah, you was happy, too.”

“
No, I wasn’t
! And when you got locked up, I lost my baby because of you! They took my baby!”

“I’m sorry about that,” Rilla said. “That’s the one thing I do regret.”

Candace was incredulous. “
One thing
? That’s it? After all you put me through, that’s the only thing you’re sorry about?”

“You got her back. You make it sound like they still got her.”

“I got her back by myself! I got a job and an apartment
by myself
!”

“Then you didn’t need me no more.”

“That’s right, Rilla. I didn’t. I asked you to do right. You had a choice. When you chose to stay in the streets, that’s when
you
broke up with me. You left me, Rilla!”

He nodded. “So, this cat you with now, what’s up with him?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, is you serious with him, or is this something you got to hold you over till I got out. I’m willing to let bygones be bygones, Candace. I still love you. You drop that mark, and we can still have a family with our baby. You know he ain’t better than me.”

Candace couldn’t respond to that without making Rilla angry. And luckily, she didn’t have to. Parker came back with their manager in tow. The young waiter slowed and let their boss take the lead when they got to Candace’s table.

Jesse stood next to Candace and folded his arms over his chest. Candace hadn’t noticed before, but her manager had big shoulders and biceps. He stared down at Rilla like a nightclub bouncer.

“Is there a problem here?”

Rilla was not impressed. He wrinkled his nose at the older man. “Who the hell is you?”

“My name is Jesse Fuentes. I’m the manager.” He looked to Candace. “Is this guy bothering you?”

“Naw, we just having us a talk,” Rilla said. “Me and Candace been knowing each other forever. This my homegirl.” Rilla smiled neighborly, but Candace was well past that level of victimization.

“Yes,” she said to Jesse. “I want him to leave.”

Rilla was floored. His face went blank, but he recovered quickly and filled his eyes with hate.

“You want it like that, Candace? That’s how you wanna play it?”

Candace hated to hear those words. The last time she heard them, they came from CC.

This how you wanna play it, ho?

A few hours later the police raided her apartment. “We don’t have anything else to talk about,” Candace said to the rapper who brought her to Texas.

“What about my baby?” he asked.

Jesse moved to Rilla’s side of the table. “Sir, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”

But Rilla didn’t move. “What about my baby, Candace?”

“You have to go to court,” she said. “And set up visi—” Rilla shot to his feet. “I wanna see my baby
today
! Where is she?”

Jesse grabbed his arm. “Sir, I need you to—”

“She’s with my boyfriend,” Candace said with a straight face.

“How you gonna leave my baby with some other nigga?”

Jesse tightened his grip. “All right, sir, if you could—”

“Man, get yo hands off me!” Rill jerked his arm away roughly.

Jesse pushed a button on the transponder hooked to his belt and spoke into the headset he always wore. “Josh, send some guys to section four.”

Rilla fixed an evil glare on the manager. “You ain’t gotta send no guys nowhere. I’ll leave!”

“That’s fine, sir.” Jesse pointed the way to the exit.

Rilla looked back to Candace. He tried to break her will with his scowl, but she glared right back at him.

“Where that fool stay at who got my baby?” Rilla asked.

“Take me to court,” Candace said. “If you want to see her, take me to court.”

Rilla fumed. “You ain’t got no right to treat me like this!”

Jesse’s
reinforcement
showed up, and Candace was glad Rilla volunteered to leave on his own. Of the four waiters that came, none were bigger than Parker, and a few of them already had defeat in their eyes.

Rilla pushed his chair in roughly and stepped away from the table. “This ain’t over, Candace. You know this shit ain’t over, don’t you?”

And tragically, she did know that.

“This way, sir.”

“This shit ain’t over!” Rilla called over the manager’s shoulder.

Candace’s eyes welled with tears. Again she wished she was on that damned plane.

Jesse took Candace to his office and attempted to get an explanation for the disruption her last customer caused. She tried to explain everything to him, but after three minutes he still had questions; especially about why she had to leave and why she might not be in tomorrow. Candace finally stood and unfastened her apron. A million things ran through her mind, and she couldn’t find out about anything from Pappadeaux.

“Jesse, I’m sorry, but I have to go.” Candace was near tears. Her hands were shaking. She willed herself to stay strong, just for a little while longer. She went through so much in the last year. There was no way she couldn’t get through this, too.

“Candace, I can call the police for you. If that guy’s bothering you, I guarantee he won’t get back in.”

“I have to get my baby,” Candace cried. “I’m sorry, Jesse, but I have to go.
Right now
.”

Her manager stood in front of the office’s only door, but Candace squeezed by him easily. She rushed through the restaurant at a frantic pace.

“Candace, I can help you!” he called after her.

She stopped and turned. Her face was so different from the first time Jesse saw her. This wasn’t the bubbly kid with braces who wowed him with her memorization skills. This was the face of a woman in pain, more pain than he could ever know.

“Walk me to my car,” Candace said. “If you want to help, come with me in case he’s still out there.”

“Sure, Candace. Anything.”

He walked her outside, but there was no sign of Rilla by then. Even in the darkness, Candace knew he was nowhere around; he was probably miles away.

She thanked her first boss for everything and told him she’d call when she got things situated.

“I’ll see you later,” she said as she ducked into her Nissan, knowing full well she would never see the man again.

* * *

Candace flew down the highway doing eighty-five in a sixty. She maneuvered past the other motorists recklessly, bouncing from lane to lane without her blinkers. She ignored the many horns blaring at her.

Candace drove without a seatbelt. She gripped the steering wheel at ten and two with sweaty hands. She sat up in her seat like a woman four times her age, her nose just inches from the steering wheel. She stared at the highway and
willed
the road to come to her faster. But no matter how quickly she ate it up, there were still so many streets between her and Leila.

Candace knew everything was all right. She forced herself to believe this, but every time she blinked, she saw terrible things behind her eyelids.
Bloody things
. Trisha said they’d have to take Leila
over her dead body
, and maybe it had come to just that.

But Rilla wasn’t crazy, was he? Candace lived with him for over a year. She would have known if he had those kind of tendencies, wouldn’t she? Or maybe predicaments like this bring out the worst in anyone.

Candace took her eyes off the road for half a second to dig her cell phone from her purse. There was only one person who might be able to help her, but after five rings Tino didn’t answer. Candace left him a desperate message:

“Tino, this is Candace.
Why aren’t you answering your phone?
I need you
bad
. Rilla’s out. He came up to my job. He just left, and I don’t know where he went. I’m scared, Tino. I don’t have anyone else. I’m on my way to pick up Leila, and I’m afraid he might be there. Please call me back, Tino.
I need you
.
I love you
.”

She kept the cellular in her lap in case he called back. Five minutes down the road, the phone vibrated against her bladder. Candace grabbed it anxiously, but it was not a number she recognized. She answered it, fearing Trisha was calling from a neighbor’s house.

“Huh-hello?”

“Hello, Candace?”

“Yes. Who’s this?”

“As many times as you called, I figured you’d know who I am.”

The phone vibrated in her hand, indicating she had another incoming call.

“Detective Judkins?”

“Yes, ma’am. I got your messages, and I’m calling to let you know Rilla
is
getting out of jail.”

As frazzled as she was, Candace still found room to get upset.

“Thanks a lot, but he’s already out. He just left my job.”

“Oh, well, I guess I didn’t need to call you after all.”

“
Why’d you do that
?” she bawled.

“Excuse me?”

“
Why’d you let him out
? You said you’d call me if you let him out and you didn’t call!”

“Jeez, are you . . . . are you serious?”

“You arrested me for nothing!” Candace cried. “You knew I didn’t do it, but you arrested me anyway. For
two weeks
I stayed in jail till you finally decided to let me go. They took my baby because of you! All I asked is for you to call me when Rilla got out. You said you would, but you lied!
You’re a liar!
”