Commitment (21 page)

Chris laughed
. “I give you two months, playa.
Two months before you
trip up
.
Married, my ass.
”

He got more writing done than he expected
and spent the afternoon
listen
ing
to Mike and Darryl free-styling, watch
ing
how they moved
and
dissecting their techniqu
e.
They had an old-school flavor
about them, but unlike the old-school rappers they didn’t rhyme about their skills, they rhymed about guns and the ghetto and
bodies laid out in the street.
All the grim realities that
had
gradually crept
into
the
music and
culture,
threatening
to take
the whole damn thing
over.

He tried to stay away from most of that unless he said something very
definite to say, but the young
hotheads like G
lock liked their rhymes bloody.
And nowadays, if you left that out entirely, people started
hollering
about
how you weren’t “keepin’ it real”
. 

During
a break, Mike and Darryl
were
eager to hear his opinion
,
excited
that
he’d liked what they did.
He’d been doing this for
almost
ten
years,
so
to a couple of teenagers,
that
had to seem like
an eternity.
Shawn gave them high praise, not letti
ng on what he really thought
.
To some ears,
they
weren’t
just differ
ent from him, they were better.
Across the studio,
Chris
raised his eyebrows.
No words needed to be exchanged - they were thinking the same thing.

Shawn left the studio around
seven
-fifteen, taking a cab back to the hotel. When he opened the door to t
he suite, he saw Brendan first.
He was flipping through a magazine and laughing at something
Riley
must have said.
She
was
sitting cross-legged on the bed
.

“Alright Brendan,
pay up
,” she said
as soon as he walked in
. Then she looked at him.
“
He said once you got into the studio, there was no telling when you’d
leave
.
Bet me a hundred dollars you’d be there until at least midnight.
”

She
shoved
herself
up
and off the bed, taking
a couple of steps toward him, loo
king
hesitant
for a moment u
ntil he opened his arms to her.
She leaned into him and he held her for a few seconds before letting her go to look
her over
. She was wearing all black
–
a close-fitting Henley
,
skinny
pants, boots and a cropped
light leather jacket that fit her snugly.

Shawn gave Brendan a look over her shoulder, silently inquiring.

“I
was in the neighborhood and thought I’d see whether you wanted to
grab
something to eat,” Brendan explained.

“You knew I was in the studio,” Shawn pointed out.

Brendan shrugged.
“I figured I’d check and see whether
Riley
was here.”

“And I am,”
Riley
said oblivious
to the subtext
.
“So let’s go eat.”

“
Yeah
.
Let’s go do that,” Shawn said looking at Brendan.

They walked to a nearby Thai restaurant that
Riley
recommended and were seated – at Shawn’s request –
way
in the
back and well out of sight
.
I
f he’d had his way, Brendan wouldn’t be with them and he and
Riley
would be
in bed eating out of cartons
.
Once in the
booth,
Riley
slid in
closer
to him, lifting his arm so that it was draped over her shoulder and she wa
s leaning back onto his chest.
As s
he grabbed the menu and began poring over it,
Shawn could feel Brendan’s eyes on them,
studying
every gesture.

“So what was up at the studio?” Brendan asked.

“Same old thing.
They’re
hittin’
Sans Souci later.”

Brenda
n nodded, not really listening.
He had an agenda, but Shawn couldn’t figure out what it was just yet.

Riley
snapped the menu shut
and looked over at Brendan. “I just realized something.
Y
ou look different.”

“No goatee,” he said automatically.

“I like it,” she said.

As she spoke, she wrapped
an
arm about Shawn’s waist so that she was practically hugging him. The gesture seemed so fluid and natural for her that it was easy to forget that not so long ago
things
had
been very different. No
public displays of affection at all. He liked this; this was definitely better
.

She was describing for Brendan one of her trips to a tenement in Camden, talking about a family she found living in an apartment with no
heat, hot water or electricity.
Shawn watched Brendan
watch her, and knew that he wasn’t
listening. They gave their orders and presently, the food came out. When
Riley
excused herself to go wash her hands before eating, Shawn leaned back and a
rms folded, raised an eyebrow.
He didn’t even need to ask the question.

“A’ight,
so
I thought I’d check her out
.”

“Check her out, how?” Shawn demanded.

“You know what I mean.
She seems cool, but you never know, right?”

“
This is
all
Chris
’ idea
, right
?”

Brendan shrugged and helped himself to some ri
ce.

“He m
ade me think about some things.
Asked me some questions I didn’t have the answer to, that’s all.”

“Like what?”

Brendan shrugged again.
“Doesn’t matter
right now.
”

“Y’know what,”
Shawn said in an angry whisper.
“Y’all need to back the fuck
up
.
”

Brendan shook his head and gave a short laugh.

“What?” Shawn demanded.

“How much are you worth, Shawn?”

“What
. . .
this is about the
. . .”

“
Yeah. The money.
D
o you even know?” Brendan asked
,
his voice quiet.
“Do you even know how much you’re worth?”

Shawn looked at him evenly.

“Well I can tell you.
As of January
15
th
, you were worth
sixty-eight
million.
This year alone, you’ll net another
ten
.
That’s a lot of cake.
”
Brendan scooped some shrimp and vegetabl
es onto his plate as he spoke.
“You don’t have any kids. The
house
in DC is paid for
.
You don’t buy
cars, do hard drugs and you don’t gamble.”

“What’s your fucking p
oint?” Shawn asked impatiently.
But he already knew.

“Th
e point is that
some women might be excited at being asked to marry someone in your situation.”

“
I was there. Believe me, she wasn’t
excited
,” Shawn said leaning across the table, lowering his voice to avoid raising it.
“
A
nd
a
few weeks ago, you were thi
nking I might be
not be good enough
for her.
Now,
all of a sudden it’s the opposite?
”

Brendan raised his hands as though Shawn was pointing a gun at him.

“No one ever said anything about her not being good enough. It’s obvious you’re not in
her
league.
But we’re not talking about that right now.
We’re talking about the money.
Like I said.
I never thought about it till Chris
. . .
”

“Yeah,
we should listen to Chris,” Shawn scoffed.

“
He’s been there man
.
”

“Yeah, with s
kanky-ass video ‘hos that he
gets
knocked up
just about every year
.
You pluck a bitch straight outta the projects and then act surprised when she start asking for shit?
”

“Okay, so not the same kinds of women as
Riley
.
But when he says you need a
pre
-
nup, he has a point.”

Shawn leaned back. “A pre
-
nup.”

Just then
Riley
returned
, so the subject was dropped.

While they ate, she did most of the talking, and didn’t seem to not
ice the subtle change in mood.
A pre
-
nup
.
Sha
wn hadn’t even considered one.
If the situation were reversed, he thought, looking at Brendan, he would
most definitely
be do
ing and saying the same things.
So why did it still feel like it didn’t apply to this – to him and
Riley
?

After dinner they walked back to the hotel where Brendan said his goodbyes, giving Shawn a silently imploring look as he left
.
But it had only taken as long as dinner for Shawn to make up his mind.
If Brendan thought he was going to mention a pre
-
nup to
Riley
, he was crazy. She was already skittish abou
t the marriage thing as it was.
He
didn’t need to give her any reasons to say ‘no’ when he was pretty sure Tracy was already supplying those by the dozen
.

“So how long do I have you for?”
Riley
asked as they entered the suite.

“You have me for as long as you want me,” Shawn said pulling her to him.

“You know what I mean,” she said against his lips as he kissed her.

“Okay.
Seriously.” He
sat on the
bed
and
pulled her
onto his lap.
“I don’t have anything solid till J
anuary
, so
I
have almost three weeks off
. But
I
have
to go to
Maryland
next week
t
o
list
my townhouse
.
Other than that, I’m here.”

“You’re putting your house on the market?”

Shawn nodded.
“I’ll get something
here in
New York
.”

Riley
chewed on a nail
, and Shawn tried without success to read her expression
.

“It could be a rental
,” he continued. “
Or it cou
ld be something more permanent.
So
I’ll be around for a minute
.”