Chardonnay: A Novel (19 page)

“Fucks you do that—”

Another smack.
Myron moved back from them, his
eyes wide.

“You wonder why I’m marrying her? ‘Cause yo’ ass is crazy.
Fucking hitting me.
Don’t love yo’ ass no mo!
Tired of your shit.
Tired of your pussy
too!”

“Aye yo, G, calm down man.” said Myron.

He wasn’t heard though.
Zasmyth
 
sucked
in her lips, ironically trying
to avoid saying something disrespectful. She gripped the frying pan handle. I
was the only one who had the view. I hoped Gehvoni would stop talking.

“Say ya’ don’t love mi now?” her Jamaican roots getting thicker in
her tone. The Crisco grease in the frying pan was getting hotter.

“Don’t you get it? Your name says it all—you’re a myth!”

Her arm came up and Myron ducked pulling Gehvoni with him. Hot
grease flew in the air and slowly came down landing on Gehvoni’s hand.

“Aaaaaggghhh!”

Zasmyth snaps back to life at the sound of his pain.
Insanity gone.

“Oh my God!
You did this!” she screamed.

I got some ice out the freezer and she got a towel. Zasmyth kissed
Gehvoni’s face as she healed him. And then I saw it in his eyes. He still loved
her crazy ass. I moved back from them. Myron slipped his arm around my waist
and kissed my neck.

“Chardonnay, may I speak to you for a moment.” said Myron.

I said yes only to give Zasmyth and Gehvoni privacy.
  

I sucked my
teeth at Myron as he walked us to a corner near the fireplace and the formal
living room which was off limits for party lounging.

“Problem?” he asked me after my second tisk.

“Yeah, you.
What do you want?” I asked not sure I should
have asked such an open question.

Myron licked his lips and looked in my eyes

“So...you really over me?”

I looked away from him.

“You must not be since your still wearing the ring I gave you in
STL.”

“Myron, I can’t have this conversation right now—”

“As good as any.
I love you Chardonnay. I can’t
change that and I know you can’t change loving me. We made a promise to each
other to spend the rest of lives together.” he said cutting me off. I then
wondered how could he seem so serious and be here with another girl. I began to
walk away when One Chance’s
So Emotional
came on. Myron pulled me to him
begging me not to go, whispering that he thought of me every time this song
came on, telling he plays it on repeat. My hips, my arms, my lips, all became
one with his slowly, moving gently into each other. As he bumped his body to
mine, I persuaded myself that his mistakes weren’t that bad as I kissed him
strong. The song slowly died out and Myron and I looked in each other’s eyes
for all of thirty seconds when I heard,

“Good night, Chardonnay,” from the left of me....Jase was walking
off.
 
I snatched from Myron trying to
chase after him. He wouldn’t let me go. I hesitated on what I should of done
and then pushed Myron away from me. By that time Jase was speaking with some
folks and blind sighted by twenty feet away from me.
 
Myron came up behind me as I watched the one
man I wanted most slip away off into his wet black Maybach with his personal
driver holding his door open for him. This time he didn’t save me from the
madness.

“You got something to tell me?” Myron asked in reference to Jase.

I threw my hand up and walked around back into the house as Myron
rushed behind me. Everyone was looking at us and getting their gossip on. Myron
pulled me down a hallway that was dark and pulled me to him.

“Listen, I didn’t mean that shit in Saint Louis. I was just
confused.”

“Confused,” I said nodding my head.

“Yeah, that’s one thing I’m not!”

He chuckled and shook his head at me.

“I know his dick ain’t that good...at least not as good as mine.”
He pressed his hands above my shoulders and ran the tip of his nose along my
neck. I swallowed hard and tried not to compare...truth was I couldn’t. They
both were putting it down. I pushed Myron back and said,

“I told you this isn’t about another dude!”

He narrowed his eyes up at me as he leaned up against the wall. As
lost as we were it didn’t take long for Myron’s side line hoe to find us.
 
Myron began to walk off, but she and I caught
light to him. We found ourselves at the French doors leading to the pool. He
pulled me to him and pressed the other girl back,

“Cristy, I need to speak with her alone!” Myron ordered,

“You go back in the house and wait on me until I handle this. You
know what’s up.” I couldn’t believe he was speaking to her like that. She must
have been looking for Myron since the moment he found me, because the patience
in her face was shear to none.

“Where you been?” she said, revealing the squeaky tone I heard
over the phone while we were in the suite in Saint Louis. However she wasn’t
the girl in Myron’s phone messages. It was as if she didn’t even notice me.
When she looked me in my eyes she went from thinking he was just talking with
some chick to realizing
who
I was...it seemed she had
excepted his infidelity in some sorts except when it came to me.

“I told you I had to handle some business.” he said turning to
her, putting his hands in his jean pockets, a clear sign that a man wasn’t in a
rush to change what he was doing at the moment.
A sign of
comfort.
Cristy looked around to me and said,

“You
must
be Chardonnay. This man always gives me his
attention, except for when he’s thinking about you.” she said pissed.

“Look, girl you can have him. He has done nothing but give me
pain. Enjoy my leftovers.” I said licking my fingers one at a time.

She raised her eyebrow and smacked her lips. Myron grabbed my arm
and said, “Chardonnay, I’m not through talking with you.”

“Umm, you may talk to Miss Cristy like that but you won’t
digress
me!”

“I’m not trying to!”

“Uht unn.
Why you all on her like she’s your salvation
or something?” squealed Cristy.

“I am. And oh, thought I’d let you know, he’s using you. See I was
actually fucking your brother Slim. And Mr. Kent thought he would get us back
if he got with
you
,” I let jealously take over and laughed at her and
finished,

“You’re a game!”

People were crowding outside by now. They caught on that there was
a full-fledged drama performance for free outside.

“Oh, so that’s why your ugly sex face had so much guilt in it when
you busted your nut last night?!” said Cristy throwing her pocketbook at Myron.
He stood there with his lips in his mouth, being ridiculed.

Myron gave me eyes of
I’m
-sorry-once-again.
Heck, if he was a dog when he had me, I knew he would be a dog when he didn’t
have me.

Anger and frustration rising inside him from Cristy blowing up his
spot, he said, “Bitch! Can you leave so we can finish?
You
making
a scene.”

“Bitch?!
Oh you ain’t seen
nothing
yet.” Cristy said about to smack Myron.

“CRISTY!” yelled a male voice.

Myron looked past me and locked his eyes on the object he was staring
at. I turned and Slim was standing in the doorway of the pool house.

“Myron I think you need to leave.” I said
,
a bit scared at what could come.

“Naw, for what?
I’m tired of this punk.”

“Punk?
Man you too easy to get.” Slim said as he
walked closer.

“Then come get me pussy!” Myron said.

“Yeeah, kick his ass Slim!” said Cristy’s ghetto ass, egging her
brother on.

Suddenly we all heard gun fire going off around front. People
began hollering and screaming, running in all directions. Denim came running from
out the house yelling,

“Aye—My, Miscogey’s dudes are here!”

Both Myron and Slim flashed a look at me and damn near dragged me
to the guest house. Cristy chased after us and Slim literally picked her up
and
 
put
her over his
shoulder as she still bitched about me. They threw us in the house ordering us
not to come out until they came back for us.

“What the hell is going on?!”
I demanded.

Myron stared at me and before he could answer three dudes came
running from around the side of the house shooting. Slim pushed us all in
including Myron. Myron tried to get the door unlocked but after a shot came
through the door he gave up and hit the floor. Cristy’s screams made me
literally loose it. I crawled over in a corner and prayed to God to get me out
of this. Suddenly the gun shoots stopped and silence rang. Myron’s hard breaths
told me everything was not kosher and in a world of absolute freedom of choice
not everything was real. I ran to the door and Myron caught my foot.

 
“Get down!”

As I fought and pressed my hand up the side of his face to push
him away he let out,

“I need you to stay here. Stay put.”

I looked at him and wearily asked,

“But why?”

Myron couldn’t look at me as he paced the floor. Suddenly I heard
screams and gun shots going off-again! I froze and Myron looked over at me as
if he was a lost boy being swallowed by a big world. I moved from the door and
his cell rung. When he answered it he said,

“You handle it?”

“What’s going on?” I asked in fear.

Cristy was now huddled in a closet and whimpering.

Myron clicked off his cell and walked over to me.

“I can’t tell you now. We need to get you out of here. I’ll be
back, alright.”

He swiftly left out and I was alone scared for his life. After
fifteen minutes I slowly walked to the door. I peered out the window and only
saw the glistening pool. There was no presence of sound or people. I slowly
unlocked the door and stepped lightly. The music was gone, the people were
gone. What the hell was going on? I rounded around to the front of the house
and hid in some bushes. When I looked in the front yard I saw Myron speaking
with Denim and Gehvoni, who was both holding a young boy by the arms and neck.
Myron was smoking a blunt...something I’ve never seen him do. When I peered
more around the corner I gasped. I saw a man dead in
his own
blood. Then I realized who it was...Slim.

My scream could not be sounded. I tried to say his name but I
couldn’t do a damn thing. So I just stood there and a low scream came out my
mouth. When I finally got my feet to move, I tried to run to Slim. Jaydee who
was sitting on the stoup pulled me back and held me as I broke down crying.

I looked at Myron a yelled, “WHY?”

 
I stepped back over out of
the shadows that it appeared I had been in most of my life to discover what and
who Myron truly was. Although I was looking at him with a gun to a man’s head
it never once occurred to me to run.
 
The
glassed look in his eyes told me in this moment he wasn’t just Myron the all
American kid that had dreams of going to the NFL, who was a wholesome graduate.
I didn’t know this man that stood before me.

“G, Denim, y’all handle this for me.”

“Myron
answer
me!” I demanded.

He took me by my arm around the corner and said,

“You never saw any of this.”

“Why did you shoot Slim?!”

“I didn’t shoot him—that little nigga there did.”

I shook my head as Myron signaled Jaydee to let me go and said, “We
need to get him help!”

“They’re coming. But when they do I need you to tell them this was
self-defense.”

“What is this all about?! Who—who are you?”

I heard the kid screaming, suddenly being silenced by a one round
shot.

Myron looked back and then simply answered,

“A Kent.”

Slim was gasping for air and there was a gash so deep in his chest
I was sure a lung was tore. I pushed Jaydee back from him overlooking the
kid, that
was alive only ten seconds ago, brains and slain
body on the lawn and scooped Slim up in my arms while sobbing.

 
“Slim! Can you hear me?!
Someone call the ambulance!”

“They are on their way!” yelled Zasmyth as she ran from across the
street. She got up close to us and once she saw Slim she backed away crying,

“Oh my Lawd.”

Gehvoni was silently crying and shaking looking at Slim.