Commitment (20 page)

Chris looked at Shawn. “Damn.
So she’s got her own. Good move.
So when can I meet her?”

Shawn
shook his head
. “How about never?
Does
never
work for you?”

“That’s c
old,” Chris said.
“I introduce
you to all
my
significant others.”

Shawn
laughed.
“That shi
t kind of loses impact after
I meet
number
three
and
four
in the span of a couple weeks
.”

“Okay, so keep her to yourself
,
Smooth
.
Can’t do that forever.
If you marry her, you go
n’ have to let her out sometime,
”
Chris said.

Shawn felt
a sudden rush of apprehension. Chris was right.
Riley
hadn’t told him so in as many words, but he sense
d
Brian was
completely out of the picture.
For the first time since they met, he felt like
she
was his alone – a safe
space
he’d managed against all odds to carve out
in his crazy life.

But
if she said yes – and he was
still
nowhere near sure that she would –
as
his wife, she would
be exposed to all
the craziness.
So far,
all
she really knew was
Brendan who was practically a
saint
compared to
the likes of Chris Scaife.

The dirty truth about hip-hop was that the
music
videos were a pretty accurate depiction of the lifestyle – the women, the parties, the
drugs
, the spen
ding like there was no tomorrow;
and for s
ome, the guns and drama.

The last thing in the world he wanted was for Riley
to see any parts of that mess.
His nostrils flared at the thought.

“So where you want to go, man?
I told you
,
you can stay at my crib.”

C
hris had moved on, thankfully, to o
ther subjects, probably bored now that he realized Shawn wouldn’t be goaded into talking about his almost-fiancée
.

“The Four Seasons is good,” Shawn said
. 

He glanced at the time.
It was just after four so by the time he checked in, he could go get
Riley
at
work
, or call her to come by
.

“I told you I been talking to Glock, right?”

“Yup.”

Glock was t
he two y
oung guys who’d opened for him.

Shawn hadn’t spent much
time with them on the
seven-
city tour.
Had avoided them a li
ttle bit, in fact.
They we
re hot-headed and irresponsible – magnets for
trouble
;
the
same as he’d been at their age.

He was
n’t down for all that anymore.
Just twenty-
eight
he still felt as though he’d lived five lifetimes’ worth of
running around acting a fool.

“I see big money from those two,” Brendan
predicted
.

“I’
m banking on it,” Chris nodded.
“As a matter of fact,
they’re in the city right now.
I’m about to
check them out at the studio.
You interested,
Smooth
?”

“Lemme check in at the hotel and make some calls.”

He would make sure he had a suite, get things set up so
Riley
could meet him there later, and go check out the new w
ü
nderkinds of hip-hop.
He
didn’t want
to work at all these next few days but he’d already slacked off by not paying
close
attention to Glock’s performances at his shows, so
putting in some time with
them in the studio was probably a good idea.

Chris dropped him off and he checked in, getting a Tower Suite w
ith a skyline view and terrace.
He left a key at the front desk for
Riley
and called her as soon as he was
got to
the room.

“Can I see you tonight?” he asked without greeting.

The
excited
intake of breath
on the other end was almost as good to hear as her voice
.
“You’re
here
already?”

“Just checked in at the Four Seasons.”

“Of course I’ll come tonight.
What time do you want me?”

“As soon as
possible
.”

Riley
laughed.
“Do I get to finish my work first?”

“If you have to,” he said.

“Yes, sadly I do.
But I’ll come right after.”

“So I might head to the studio then, check some t
hings out. I’ll leave you a key
downstairs in case I’m not back
by
the time you get here
.
”

“
S
hould we go out
someplace nice
for dinner
?”

“Oh,
no
we’re definitely not going out,” Shawn said.

After he’d showered and changed, he headed back to the lobby where
Chris, and Mike and Darryl a.k.a. ‘Glock’ were already waiting for him.

“I have to swing back by here
in a couple hours
,” he told Chris as
they
left
.

“We
got plans to hit
the club tonight though man.”

“
That’s what you’re doing.
But
I have
to
be
back
around
seven
.”

“
Oh I got you,” Chris said.
“
Riley
Terry
.”

He
’d
remembered the name.
If he was right about the way Chris operated, he’d probably already asked someone in his office to look into
Riley
’s background.
By tomorrow he would know more about her than Shawn did.

Chris shrugged.
“
She wouldn’t
like it at the club
anyway
.
Fem
ales pushing up on you,
all that mess.”

Shawn sucked his teeth.
“Fuck them
‘hos
.”

Darryl laughed.
“You can always
hand
them off to me,
Smooth
.”

“So you out the game, man?” Mike asked.

Shawn thought about it.
Slowly, and almost to himself, he nodded.

As usual, the studio was
overrun
with people who
didn’t have any business there.
Apart from him and Chris, a couple technicians and Mike and Darryl, it should have been empty, but a parade of girlfriends, and friends of friends were hanging around trying to turn a recording session into a social occasion, making it almost impossible for him to think abo
ut the what he was there to do.
He needed quiet when he worked but some
dudes
thrived on constant chaos.
It wasn’t enough they wrote
about it – they
had to live it too.

Shawn
always
tried to keep his head down, hoping to discourage visitors to the studio from approa
ching him, but it never worked.
Now, despite the fact that he was sitting by himself
, head down
and writing in his book, he could see the legs of the person standing directly in front of him, even before she spoke. Tigh
t jeans and
pink
high-heeled boots.
Pink boots.
He had to look
up.

“
What’s up,
Smooth
?”

She had her arms folded across her chest and her head cocked to one side, looking like she had mustered up all her courage just to
approach
him. She had a
cute smile and one dimple in her left cheek
.
Long, dark brown
hair
with auburn highlights
was piled atop her head in a ponytail that cascaded out of a
rubb
er band in glossy waves.

Shawn smiled back at her.

“
Nothin’.
What up with you
?
”

“
I just wanted to say that
your last
CD
was nothin’ but the truth
.”

“Thank you.”

He waited for her to say more, but she just stood there, smiling that
single-dimpled
smi
le.

In the beginning, when he was just starting to get a taste of what fame was like, he would look at girls as fine as this and not believe that they were offering themselves to him.
Then
after awhile, not only did he believe it
,
he started to think he w
as entitled to their attention.
Now he’d reached the stage where he almost didn’t notice the
m at all.
They were part of the scenery unless and until they stepped to him like this
one had
.

“What’s your name?” he asked her.

“Keisha.
I’m
Mike’s cousin.”

H
e held out a hand and she took it, holding it a little longer than was necessary, letting go
one finger at a time
.

“So I heard you was filmin
g a video next week,” she said.
“In the Bronx?”

So that
’s what this was about.
“Yeah.
You a dancer?”

“Trying to be.
”
S
he looked suddenly shy again.
“You think maybe I could get a part or something?”

Shawn shrugged.
“I don’t do casting fo
r the videos
.”

“C’mon now,”
she said, sitting next to him.
“You know you could put me in the video if you wanted to.”

“Yeah but I don’t even know if you can dance,” he pointed out.

“You’ll be at Sans Souci tonight with Mike and them, right?”

He
said nothing
.

“So l
ook for me on the dance floor.
If you like what I can do, can I be in the video?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“What else could I do for you to put me in the video?” Keisha asked
, looking him right in the eye.
She held his gaze for a moment until Shawn smiled and shook his head.

“If you can dance, I’ll put in a word for you,”
he said, ignoring her question.

It was funny how she had that shy, innocent act down pat and then the next minute she was issuing invitations for him get into her drawers. The rap game could show you some crazy shit.

“So
maybe
I’ll see you tonight.
”

The
twitch in her hips
as she walked away made
it clear she knew he was watching.

“You like that?”

S
hawn glanced over his shoulder.
It was Chris, grinning at him.

“
N
othing wrong with looking,” Shawn said.

“Yeah, but how you can look at a piece like that and not touch is what fucks me up.”

“You need to
clear
the studio so we can do some work and stop worrying about my dick,” Shawn said.