Boss Lady (25 page)

She said, “My mother wasn't happy. Raheema's mother wasn't happy. Your mother's not happy. But you find a way to keep doing what you do and you make things work for you however you have to. You know what I mean?”

I understood her, but my approach was a lot simpler than that. I had yet to live through the relationship drama that Tracy and other women had lived through.

I said, “Well, I'm not saying that I'm not interested in guys, or that I won't be, but right now I'm busy.”

“Exactly,” my cousin agreed. “I used to be busy chasing an excitable daddy, but I don't have the time or the energy to do that anymore. I can talk to my daddy every day now and create my own excitement. And when I need a man for company, I can get one. Hot dates are a dime a dozen, just make sure you have your own car and your own money in your pocket.”

I smiled and chuckled. I always considered Tracy a player anyway. A lot of people read the book wrong, but the guys she went out with rarely chose her. She had always chosen them and made it seem like it was their choice.

I said, “What if you don't own your car or have your own money?”

“In that case, you're in the dark ages where a woman wore an apron but no shoes, and waited at the front door for her man to come home with the money.”

She said, “Now, I may have dreamed about that love, marriage, and kids thing when I was your age, but do you really think I can sit home and wait for somebody while they have a regular day at the office or whatever? I'm just not that girl, Vanessa.”

I asked her, “Has someone mentioned marriage and kids to you since you've been home?”

I imagined that someone had. That was a big part of returning home. People always wanted to know what new things were going on in your life.

“Oh, that's been every day this week,” Tracy told me. “My mother, Raheema, Kiwana, emails. Carmen and Jantel are married now. Kendra back in L.A. Even Susan is thinking about getting married on me.”

“What about Yolanda Felix and Mercedes?” I asked her. They were the two single women who were without kids, husbands, or fiancés.

Tracy looked at me and said, “Do I really want to be compared to them?”

She had a point. Mercedes and Yolanda did not seem to be content women at all. So I nodded and kept right on smiling as we reached the hotel.

W
hen we walked back into the hotel, Tracy asked me, “What do you think about what Bruce had to say tonight?”

“I thought he was just telling the truth. He could have said it nicer, but it was still the truth.”

“Yeah, his truth,” Tracy responded. “He needs to learn how to loosen up a bit and stop labeling people.”

“So, what does Kiwana think about the movie?” I asked her. I was curious myself. Bruce had pushed the issue.

Tracy said, “Of course she's supportive.”

“She told you that?” I asked my cousin. I needed her exact wording. I wanted to see what I could read from Kiwana's exact words.

“She doesn't have to say it. I know she supports it.”

That changed everything for me. I needed more proof of Kiwana's loyalty. Bruce had turned me into a skeptic.

“Are you gonna ask her like he told you to?”

Tracy eyed me with conviction. She said, “Yes, I'll call the girl and get it out of her. Okay? Is everybody happy now?”

I smiled. She was overreacting.

I said, “If you're gonna act like that, it makes it seem like Kiwana doesn't have your full confidence.”

“She does have my confidence.”

“Well, then, it shouldn't be such a big deal to you.”

“All right, let me call her right now. I know she's up with the baby and everything.”

I walked to the elevators with Tracy and waited. She then took out her cell phone and dialed Kiwana's home number while we waited for the elevators to arrive.

She waited for the phone to be answered. “Hey, how are you? I'm sorry to call this late, but is Kiwana still up with the baby . . . Oh,
okay . . . Yeah, she can call me back. It's not urgent or anything, I was just calling to make sure she made it back in . . . I'm fine. And how are you?”

When Tracy disconnected the call, she said, “I don't believe I called them at this time of night.” It was close to midnight.

I said, “Well, I'm tired. I don't think I got enough rest last night.”

“What were you up doing?” Tracy asked me.

We were still waiting for the elevators.

I answered, “Just thinking about a lot of things. I still need to take my sister Veronica out to eat. And I still haven't gone home to see my mother.”

“You and me both,” Tracy stated. “But I'm surprised I haven't seen Jason hanging around here this week. Has he tried to call Sasha and Jasmine?”

“They haven't talked about it,” I told her.

As far as Jason was concerned, my plan was to give my cousin short answers and nothing more.

She said, “I told him to stay away during the beginning of the week, but I didn't think he'd actually listen to me.”

I had no comment. I didn't want to talk about Jason. He was out of my hands.

But as soon as the elevator doors opened and guests walked off for us to walk on, Jason and his boy rounded the corner of the lobby with Maddy and Alexandria. They were on their way to the elevators as well.

Tracy looked and said, “Speak of the devil.”

“And the devil appears,” I added nervously.

The charade was all over with. They would tell on me as quickly as they could, and I would finally be able to wipe my hands of the whole mess. It wasn't of my doing anyway. All I did was introduce them.

Jason and Alexandria looked hesitant for just a second, before they loosened up to speak. They couldn't run away now. They were busted.

Tracy asked, “And where are you all going at this hour?”

Jason thought fast. “We're just walking them back to the elevators,” he answered.

“From where?”

“From just hanging out.”

“And where are Sasha and Jasmine?”

Jason shrugged his shoulders. “Doing their own thing, I guess.”

It was only a matter of time before they brought me into it. I was only counting the seconds as to when.

“Well, how do you know Alexandria and Madison?” Tracy asked her brother.

“We met them through Sasha and Jasmine.” Jason lied.

Damn he was quick with his tongue. And I guess he was leaving me out of it, or trying to.

Tracy said, “Oh, so you just dropped one set of girls and moved on to the next, hunh? Why, nothing was poppin'? Or has it already popped and now you're moving on to the next party?”

Jason answered, “We're all just hangin' out, Tracy. It's not even that deep.”

He was the only one doing the talking.

Tracy looked them all over and sized them up.

She said, “I thought you were sick, Alexandria.”

Alexandria said, “Yeah, but that was yesterday.”

“Oh, so you're all better now.”

“Yeah, I'm okay.”

“And are you kicking it with my brother now?” Tracy asked her bluntly.

Oh my God!
I panicked. My cousin was that
raw
when she wanted to be.

Alexandria looked at me for a hot second, and that was all that Tracy needed to put two and two together.

“Oh, so Vanessa introduced you to him?”

Alexandria was answering by not answering. She wasn't quick on the tongue like Jason was.

Jason said, “She's not kicking it with me, and what difference does it make who introduced us. We're all just hanging out, Tracy.”

“And where were you about to go? Were you just walking them to the elevator?” Tracy asked her brother.

He said, “Yeah, most people walk a girl to the door.”

The elevator door was still open. Maddy tried to walk right on and leave us.

Tracy said, “Get off that elevator, girl. We're not finished talking yet.”

Maddy said, “I thought you told us you were gonna be cool about things.”

Jason said, “I know, man. What's up with this third-degree shit?”

His pretty-boy friend was standing there smiling with not a word.

Tracy stopped cold in her tracks. She nodded her head and said, “Okay, okay, I get it. So go on back to what you were doing. Go on up to the girls' rooms in the elevator, and I'll act like I never saw you.”

Jason insisted, “We weren't going up to their rooms.”

“Well, why walk into the hotel at all then? These girls are safe as soon as they walk into the building. You can't get in at this hour without a key.”

“We didn't have no key to get in,” Jason's friend spoke up.

“Did I ask you?” Tracy snapped at him.

“Naw, but . . .”

“Okay, then,” she cut him off.

He smiled, looked away, and shook his head.

Jason said, “What's the big deal anyway? Nobody's kids out here.”

“That's what I'm saying,” Maddy agreed.

Tracy said, “Well, get back on the elevator and do what you were doing then.”

Jason stuck to his story. “We weren't doing anything.”

Finally, Alexandria shook her head and said, “I'm going up to bed.”

“Good answer,” my cousin told her. “And that's where you and your friend need to be going,” she told her brother.

Jason shook his head at her.

He said, “You trippin', man. You playing yourself.”

“No, you're playing yourself. Out here creeping. You didn't show up at one of the castings this week, but then you pop up at the hotel. What is that?”

“You told me not to come to the castings until Wednesday. You said I would be a distraction.”

“You would.”

“Well, that's why I didn't come.”

Alexandria and Maddy stepped inside the elevator to ride it up to their room.

Tracy said, “Go on up. You, too, Vanessa.”

I jumped on the elevator with my girls. Tracy remained in the lobby with her brother and his friend to discuss whatever. And when the doors closed, we rode the elevator up to our floor.

Alexandria asked me, “What is wrong with her?”

I played the innocent role. “What? What is wrong with who?”

“With Tracy?” Maddy answered.

I asked them, “Were they about to come up with you guys?”

“Of course they were,” Maddy answered.

“So why didn't you say that?”

“Because we can see that your cousin's not having it,” Maddy answered again.

“I thought she said she was going to be cool with us,” Alexandria brought up.

“Well, I don't know if that extended to hanging out with Jason,” I commented.

“Why not? Doesn't she trust her brother? I mean, what is he gonna do to us? And you're the one who introduced me to him.”

Alexandria had a valid point.

I said, “I know, but that doesn't make it right.”

“Well, what's wrong about it?” Maddy questioned. “Boys meet girls every day. And we're not even boys and girls anymore. We're young adults.”

“Yeah, but we're still under my cousin's supervision while we're out here. And we all have to respect that,” I told my girls.

That was all that needed to be said.

We arrived at our floor and walked to our separate rooms. Before I walked away from them, Maddy asked me, “Vanessa, do you like guys at all? I never see you with one. You don't even talk about guys. You're not gay, are you?”

Alexandria looked and started laughing.

I answered, “What do I have to do, sleep with a guy to prove to you that I'm not gay. I'm just doing me right now. Can't a girl do that without worrying about a guy twenty-four/seven?”

Maddy said, “That's all well and good, but you never even seem to talk about guys. I mean, that's just abnormal for a straight girl.”

“Well, maybe I'm just different then.”

“Whatever,” Alexandria mumbled under her breath. I guess Tracy and I had busted her back-to-back groove with Jason. Then again, maybe they had gotten busy before, and I had only caught them on one of the occasions.

Maddy seemed ready to get her grove on as well. I had already busted her up with Shamor, so she had moved on to the next guy, Jason's friend. And they were both right about me, I wasn't even thinking about boys. I was thinking about shooting a very important film, and there would be plenty of guys to build a relationship with in the process of making the movie. Besides, I wanted a guy who understood my life goals and passion.

I walked into my room, thinking about my own other half, and Mark Fletcher from Washington, D.C., who was up for the role of “Victor,” popped into my head. I wondered what he would be like in real life. But I didn't know much about Washington, D.C. All I knew was that they partied to go-go music. Then I started thinking about the real-life Bruce, and I couldn't get him off my mind. I wondered what he would think about my interest in another Victor type? It all seemed hypocritical. Were most girls hypocrites, asking for good guys while choosing the bad ones?

Before I could answer that question, there was an urgent knock on my door. I walked over to answer it and found my cousin Tracy at the door. I figured she would want to talk to me again that night, but I assumed she would call me up to her suite to do it. I didn't imagine her knocking on my door.

I invited her inside and prepared myself for whatever she had to throw at me.

“So, how heavily are they involved?” she asked.

I figured there was no sense in beating around the bush about it. I wanted to wipe my hands from the situation and let my cousin deal with Alexandria and her brother on her own, if that's what she wanted to do.

I said, “Ask Alexandria, because I don't want to be a part of this.”

“Well, you did introduce them, right?”