Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 (The Saga Continues) (15 page)

It shocked me to have Devin come and take a seat next to me. It seemed like he enjoyed the cartoon more than me. We both sat there and laughed until we couldn’t laugh anymore.

In my mind, I wonder why life couldn’t be this simple and enjoyable all the time.

Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 Unique

Playing with Fire-Chapter Seventeen

Devin’s Blackberry started ringing off the hook while we were watching TV.

I thought it was reality shaking me back to the here and now. SpongeBob was my temporary escape.

For a moment, I thought it was that ghetto chick, Kim, but when Devin answered the phone and said, “What's good nigga?,” I figured it out that it wasn’t Kim. I couldn’t hear the caller but the farther Devin got into the call, I figured out what they were talking about.

“Get the fuck out of here. Nigga, say it ain’t so!” Devin said as he looked at me.

I looked back at him and hunched my shoulders as if to say, why you looking at me? He didn’t response to my gesture but he did continue on with his conversation.

“So when did this shit happen?” He paused why the other person talked. “Man, please tell me you bullshitting me!” he begged and fell silent again. “Do you know I almost went up in there last night? If Kim wouldn’t had called me last night and asked me if she could come over here, I would’ve been up in that spot last night.” He paused again so the other caller could get a word in.

“Yo’ man, I owe Kim my life. I mean, do you know I would probably be a dead motherfucker if she didn’t want to give me some pussy last night?” he said and then he stood up from the chair. I watched him leave the living room as he continued his conversation. I could tell the thought of him getting killed while he was getting a lap dance inside of Magic City wore heavy on his mind, which was why he had to get up and walk around his apartment.

But you know what? He was right. He probably would’ve been inside of the club last night when it blew up. He was known to make it rain in there with his one dollar bills. That’s where I met his no-good ass! Magic City was his spot. He loved that place like he loved pussy. For him not to be in there the night that it caught on fire spoke volumes. If he knew like I knew, he’d better be thanking the Good Lord above instead of Kim’s dumb ass.

He re-entered the living room immediately after he got off the phone. I pretended like I was engrossed in what was going on in TV land. “Yo' home boy, Neil, just told me that somebody blew up Magic City last night while people were in there.”

I acted like I was surprised. I didn’t want Devin to know I knew anything about the explosion. I didn’t want to be associated with it at all. “Nah, I didn't know that,” I replied.

I didn’t want to seem coldhearted. That would’ve been a dead giveaway. Devin would’ve either suspected I knew who did it or I was involved in it somehow. I was sure he heard rumors that I had gotten blackballed around town. After all the shit that went down with Duke, he made sure I couldn’t get a job bartending in any of the clubs in the Tidewater area. So I had to play my cards very carefully with this guy. He didn’t give a fuck about anyone but himself.

When we dated, I was just another piece of pussy he could run up in. I didn’t mean shit to him. And I knew I really didn’t mean a thing to him now, especially since he wasn’t bending me over. He wasn’t loyal to me when we were fucking, so I knew he wouldn’t be loyal to me in the streets. So whatever secrets I had I knew I would be safer if I kept everything under close watch.

He shook his head and sat down next to me. He looked as if he had just lost his best friend or something. I had to know what was on his mind, so I asked him what was he thinking about.

He sat in a daze and then said, “I can’t believe people were in that joint last night when that shit blew up. People I knew, people I had talked to, chicks who gave me lap dances.”

“What time it happened?” I asked.

“Neil said the news people said it happened around seven or eight o’clock last night. He said he heard it was packed in there. And that a few niggas he knew said that they had just left before it happened.”

“Wow! That's scary,” I commented.

Devin continued to shake his head. And then he turned around and faced me, “Do you know that one of those dead bodies could’ve been mine? I would be dead right now if Kim didn’t call me and asked me if she could come by here last night.”

“I realize that,” I replied.

He took his focus off me and picked up the remote control. I sat back and watched him surf through at least twenty channels until he got to Channel 10.

He waited for a broadcast to feature the story on Magic City, but nothing appeared in the thirty minutes while we sat around and watched. I had the urge to tell him I was there and I saw everything. I even wanted to tell him that Neeko’s brother got killed while I was waiting for him inside his truck. But again, I knew it would’ve been a bad idea.

Devin wasn’t someone I could trust. I’ve known him to gossip more than a bitch. And for him to come back in the room and tell me all of what his friend, Neil, told him, I knew he’d get right back on the phone and call Neil up and tell him everything I told him. And then from there, Neil would be calling niggas he knew and before I knew it, I’d be the talk of the fucking town. And I didn’t need that type of attention. It was bad enough that I was trying to keep Duke and Chris off my ass.

So I figured I’d be in good shape if I didn’t let this big mouth ass nigga know what I knew.

Moments later, he got another call. This time it was Kim. She must’ve said something about what happened at Magic City last night, because he got up from the couch and said, “I know. I just heard about it from my boy Neil.” Then he left the room again. He didn’t go that far because I can hear every word of this conversation.

The first part of the conversation made me sick to my stomach. He kept telling her over and over again how grateful he was that she called him last night and prevented him from going to the club. As much as I wanted to believe him, I knew what he was saying was bullshit. Yeah, he was grateful today, but he’ll be calling her a bitch tomorrow. That’s just how he rolled.

After several minutes of kissing her ass, he fed her some bullshit ass lie about how he thought he was ready to settle down. He told her he also believed the only reason why God used her to prevent him from going out last night was so that he could have a chance to get his life together.

I swear, if I had a violin I would have serenaded that whack ass conversation he was having with her. With all the shit he had done in his life, it was gonna take him two lifetimes to make up for it. So the only reason why I believed God spared his life was so he could find something for recreational to do other than exploit naked ass women with those measly ass dollar bills he fed them. In other words, God gave that bastard another chance because he felt sorry for his silly ass! That’s it! End of Story.

Devin’s bullshit lies lasted approximately five minutes. But before he hung up with the dumb ass chick, he lied to her once more and told her I had left his apartment before he got up. I mean, if she believed that then she was sillier than I gave her credit for. And to add insult to injury, he even told her that he loved her. I swear, I almost laughed out loud and blew his cover.

When he came back in the living room, I smiled at him and said, “So, you're in love, huh?”

He smiled. “I might be,” he said and then he sat back down on the couch next to me. “I wonder if your girl, Diamond, was in the club when it blew up.”

I hunched my shoulders as if I couldn’t care less. I knew she wasn’t there, but I wasn’t going to let him know it. “If she was, it served her right,” I commented, then I rolled my eyes. The sound of her name made me cringe all over.

“Damn, that's kind of fucked up to say.”

“It ain’t no more fucked up than how she carried me!” I snapped. “Me and her were like two peas in the pod. We did everything fucking thing together. We were inseparable. When she didn’t have, I had it for her. So for her to double cross me like she did was foul. I swear, I would spit on that bitch’s grave if I had the opportunity.”

Devin started rubbing my back in a circular motion. I figured this was his way of telling me that everything would be all right. Whether he knew it or not, once upon of time I would’ve spit on his fucking grave too, especially with all the drama he caused me during our courtship. He better be glad he let me into this apartment last night, because I was on the verge of fucking up his car if he hadn’t.

Devin allowed me to vent a little bit more and then he flipped the script on me and asked me what did I have planned today? I had to admit that he kind of caught me off guard with that question because I really didn’t know where I was going. I thought I would’ve come up with a plan overnight but it didn’t happen, so what was I going to do? I looked at Devin in hopes that he’d help me come up with an answer. But he was just as clueless as I was.

“I was planning on calling my sister, Nita, when I think she’s off work,” I finally said. But it was an outright lie. I believed he knew it too.

“I didn’t know that you and your sister, Nita, were back speaking again,” he commented.

“We just started back talking before I got out,” I continued to lie. I did this because if I let on that I had no one in my corner, then he’d use that shit against me. He’d love to know that I needed him. He’d eat that shit up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Especially after all the times I dissed him at the club. He’d relish in the moment if he knew I had nowhere to go. And he’d try to milk it for what it’s worth.

“How your mama doing?” he surprised me again. But I knew what he was doing. Devin and I dated for over a year, so he knew I didn’t fuck with none of my family. That included my mama’s money hungry ass too. So he either asked me that question to be nosey or he just wanted to make idle conversation.

When Devin was about to ask me another one of his dumb ass questions, his doorbell rang. He looked at me very strange. “I wonder who that is?” he said aloud as he got up from the sofa.

I got up from the sofa as well, but I headed into the bathroom, because I needed to empty my bladder. Right after I closed the door to the bathroom and locked it, I heard Devin yell out, “Who is it?”

I didn’t hear anything else because the sound of me peeing overpowered what was being said in the other room. So I handled my business and allowed Devin to handle his.

And I wondered if kings of old ever made any big decisions while they sat on the toilet.

Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 Unique

Unexpected Guest-Chapter Eighteen

Even fortunes of the stupid have to change sometimes.

I flushed the toilet, washed my hands and exited the bathroom. But as soon as I re-entered the living room, Devin wasn’t anywhere to be found. I called his name out twice, but I still got no answer. So I walked to the front door and noticed it was cracked, so I grabbed a hold of the doorknob and pulled it open. I looked outside but he was still nowhere in sight. It really seemed weird that he’d leave his fucking front door cracked and then he disappeared. I mean, who in the hell does that?

I didn’t know whether to close the door and lock it or go outside to see where the hell he went. But then it dawned on me that maybe Duke and Chris found out where I was and grabbed Devin up so he wouldn’t be in the way when they killed me. The thought of them being able to move on me like that gave me an eerie feeling. I wasted no time locking the door, and then I rushed into the kitchen to grab the sharpest knife Devin had. It seemed like everything I picked up was dull or rusty so I left them where they were.

Then I remembered Devin had a .45 caliber handgun he used to tuck away underneath his white tees in the bottom left drawer, so I rushed into his bedroom to see if it was still there. With my heart beating a mile a second, I ransacked his tee-shirt drawer and found it. After I picked up that heavy piece of metal I let out a long sigh of relief, because I knew if what I believed was true, then I would be able to fight those bastards off me with no problems.

Once I put it in my head which angle I was going to go at those niggas, I laid the gun down on the floor next to me and proceeded to place all of Devin’s t-shirts back where they were. I knew Devin didn’t check his tee-shirt drawer every day.

After that was done, I got up from the floor with Devin’s gun in my right hand and I headed back down the hallway towards the living room. I honestly didn’t know whether to sit back down on the sofa or hide in a fucking closet somewhere. I really didn’t know what to do, so I decided to stand next to the front door and occasionally look through the peep hole.

Five minutes went by and I heard nothing and no one came to the door. Then all of a sudden, I heard footsteps and just as fast as I heard them, they stopped. My heart seemed like it stopped too. I held my breath to prevent anyone from hearing me. I wanted to look through the peephole but I got cold feet. Although the person on the outside couldn’t see me, my eye against the peephole would prevent the reflected light from the inside of the house from appearing through the peephole, and whoever was on the other side of the door would know someone was inside.

Seconds later, someone turned the doorknob and tried to push on the door. “Lynise, open the door,” I heard a guy yell. But it wasn’t Devin. So my heart sunk into the pit of my stomach. I didn’t know what the fuck to do. I knew I had Devin’s pistol, so if this man on the other side tried to break down the fucking door, then I’d have some hot lead for his ass.

Whoever it was knocked a couple more times. “Lynise, are you in there?” the guy yelled through the door. But I didn’t budge. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out who the fuck this man was standing outside Devin’s front door. It didn’t sound like Duke or Chris, so who in the hell was it? This shit wasn’t cool. I didn’t like this feeling.