Chapter 23
The director yelled, “That's a wrap!” at the end of a long video shoot.
Cooley looked at Sahara standing on top of a car and couldn't help noticing how sexy she looked in the short, black boy shorts and white halter-top.
Cooley had introduced Sahara to Big Ron and the director on the first video shoot. They asked her to show them what she could do. Sahara blew them away with her moves. They weren't typical stripper motions; she added some serious dance techniques to her movements. Cooley was impressed by her skill. Big Ron and the rest of the men were impressed by her ass and flexibility. She killed them during the first shoot, and was asked to do three more.
Cooley watched as Sahara gave another artist, Killa Krisp, a hug. Cooley could tell by the look in his eyes that he was going to try Sahara. She walked up and put her arm around Sahara's lower back.
“Great video, Krisp,” Cooley said.
“Oh, so this is you, Cool?” Krisp asked. “Damn, why y'all get the finest women?”
They all laughed.
“Thanks for rescuing me. You must have known what was on his mind,” Sahara said.
“Hell, yeah, the same thing that's on every nigga's mind in here,” Cooley said as they walked to the dressing room.
“Well, I only want it to be on one person's mind.” Sahara looked into Cooley's eyes. “I'll be right back.”
Cooley couldn't help but smile. She had thought about sexing Sahara ever since she saw her on the stage at the strip club.
“Cool!” Big Ron yelled as he walked toward Cooley. His two assistants walked right behind him. “You did it again. That girl was amazing. You should see the tape.”
“I told you.” Cooley gave Ron daps. “That's my dog.”
“Well, ya dog is going to be in the Mike Mike video shooting next weekend in Mexico. You coming?”
“Man, I wish. I gotta get back to school though.”
“Oh, that's right. You 'bout to be leaving us. Hey!” Big Ron yelled on the set. “Party at my crib tonight, a farewell for Cool.”
Everyone cheered. Cooley couldn't say no now.
Sahara walked out in a tight fitting pair of Baby Phat jeans and a tight-fitting sweater.
“Hey, baby girl, got something to do next weekend?” Ron asked.
“No. Why?”
“We will see you in Mexico.”
Sahara looked at Cooley and smiled. “OK,” Sahara said as Ron walked out of the door.
“Oh my God, Cooley, thank you so much for everything.” Sahara wrapped her arms around Cooley.
Their eyes met, and Sahara planted a sensual kiss on Cooley's lips. Cooley kissed her back, holding Sahara's body close.
“Are you sure you have to leave tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” Cooley said. Misha's face entered her mind. She pulled away from Sahara. “Um, so we'll pick you up tonight around eleven to go to Ron's party.”
“Um, OK.” Sahara looked confused. She had made moves toward Cooley for weeks and gotten no response.
Cooley looked at Sahara. She knew Sahara was wondering what was going on. She gave her another hug and headed out of the building.
Cooley picked up her phone. She had attempted to contact Misha on several occasions but never got an answer. She dialed Misha's number and got her voice-mail again. “Misha, you know who this is. Get back at me.”
Cooley closed her phone. She wondered what Misha could be doing that kept her from answering her phone calls. Thoughts raced through Cooley's head. She wondered if Misha was seeing someone else during the break. She knew that they were free to do what they wanted until school started back. Maybe Misha was doing just that.
Cooley thought about Sahara. If Misha was free to mess around, she could too.
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The tears in Rhonda's eyes blurred her vision. The sound of Me'Shell Ndegeocello's “You Made a Fool of Me” drowned out all noises in the room. She had been playing it for two days straight.
Rhonda picked up her phone. She dialed Denise's number again. The voice mail came on. Rhonda screamed as she flung her phone against the wall. It broke into three pieces as it hit the painted concrete.
Rhonda panicked. She picked up the pieces of her broken phone. Now she wouldn't know if Denise called. She grabbed her purse and flew out of her room, leaving the loud music blaring.
“Rhonda, can you turn that shit down?” one of her neighbors asked.
Rhonda ignored her and continued to rush down the hall.
“Crazy bitch,” the girl said under her breath as she slammed her door.
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Rhonda picked up the first phone she saw in the store. She urged the agent to hurry with the purchase. She quickly threw her SIM card into the new phone and turned it on. She waited. No text messages, no voice mails. She screamed in frustration.
The mobile phone dealer watched, unaware of what Rhonda might do next. She stormed out of the building in a funk.
Denise will be back tomorrow. Maybe she's really busy in camp,
she thought to herself as she pulled up in the apartment complex. She looked up at Denise's window.
I should go in and check on the apartment. Good thing I made myself a key.
Rhonda quickly let herself into the apartment. She looked around Denise's room and smiled. She ran her hand across the picture collage Denise had. She noticed a picture of Denise, Cooley and Carmen. She frowned.
I gotta get rid of those bitches.
Rhonda ran into Cooley's room. Everything was completely neat. All of Cooley's hats were lined up on nails around her wall. Her clothes were in her closet by item and color. All shirts were lined up together then separated by colors. Cooley's colognes were aligned perfectly on her dresser. It disgusted Rhonda. Rhonda ran her hand across the dresser, causing all the expensive bottles to crash and break on the ground.
Rhonda felt a great rush. She continued her path of destruction.
“You are what's keeping Denise from me!” she yelled as she threw Cooley's shoes all over her room.
She headed into the kitchen and grabbed the bottle of bleach. She began to sling bleach all over Cooley's wardrobe. She noticed Cooley's Billionaire's Boys Club Shirt. She took a pair of scissors and feverishly sliced it into pieces.
Rhonda looked around at the destruction. She was pleased.
She grabbed a pair of Cooley's shades and put them on. “They look better on me anyway,” she said out loud.
She looked back at her destruction one last time before walking out. She locked the door and headed back to her dorm. She felt better already.
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Lena was becoming frustrated as she went through her gift list. She realized she should have taken her mother's advice and gotten professional help. Her last pen stopped working. She looked through her bag to find another pen but couldn't.
“Dammit!” she yelled in agony. She got up and headed to Brandon's office. She turned on the light to his little shrine. There were cases of trophies on one wall and framed newspaper articles and plaques taking up the majority of the rest of the walls.
Lena shook her head as she walked to his desk. “Ain't this about a bitch?” she said to herself looking at the drawer full of Grizzly pens. She grabbed a handful.
Something caught her attention. She moved more pens to find a picture of a baby. Clipped to it was a receipt from Babies “R” Us.
“What are you doing?” Lena jumped when Brandon walked in the room.
“Shit, you scared me. I needed some pens, and I see that you have them all in here.” Lena held the picture up. “Brandon, whose baby is this?”
Brandon paused. He walked up to Lena and took the picture. “Yeah, I forgot about this. It was a fan from New Orleans I helped out. I had a bunch of stuff sent to her from Babies “R” Us. When Liz brought the receipt, the girl had also given her this pic. I thought the boy was cute. Hopefully our kids will be as cute.” Brandon put the picture back in his drawer and closed it.
“Oh, that was sweet of you. Well, of course our kids will be cute. That's why I married you.” Lena kissed Brandon.
Brandon wrapped his arms around Lena. “Why don't you show me why you married me?” He bit his lip.
Lena smiled. Whenever he bit his lip, he wanted to sex her.
She soon felt his manhood rising. Lena pulled her pants down and sat on his desk.
Brandon wasted no time penetrating her walls with his manhood. Lena moaned with pleasure at the roughness of the act. She loved it when they were spontaneous.
Brandon and Lena hit four different positions on the desk before ending back in the position they'd started with. She held on tight as he exploded inside her.
Lena wiped the sweat off the top of his head as she passionately kissed him.
“Oh, I just got you pregnant that time, baby.” Brandon laughed as he kissed her on her neck.
“Whatever, fool. Move. I have work to do.” Lena pulled her pants back up. She thought about his comment and grabbed her stomach. She realized they had been raw-dogging it for a while. She knew she needed to start taking birth control. A baby was the last thing she wanted in her life then.
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Cooley and Sahara were the most attractive couple at the party. Cooley smiled as they soaked up the glamorous life. Cooley loved Ron's house. It was everything she hoped to own one day.
The party was planned in less than six hours, but was fabulous. Beautiful ice sculptures and flowers adorned the long, lavish buffet. The unexpected snowfall created a winter wonderland outside. The biggest names in Atlanta mixed and mingled. People were dressed from casual to semi-formal.
Cooley learned early that the real ballers didn't have to wear huge chains and flashy clothes. Most of the richest men and women didn't dress flashy, but they had a presence about them that screamed “big time.” Cooley couldn't believe it was all for her. There was a large cake that said “Farewell Cool Cat” on a table by itself.
“Are you all right?” Sahara asked.
“I just can't believe the life that I have right now. Tomorrow I'm going home to a small two-bedroom apartment that I share with my best friend.” They both laughed.
“Well, it won't be for long. You are about to blow up, Cool. This is where you belong.” Sahara kissed Cooley.
Cooley felt herself getting heated. “You want to get out of here?” Cooley knew what the answer was going to be.
“Ron, I think I'm going to head back to Sonic's. My flight is early 'cause I wanted to meet my best friend at the airport.” Cooley gave Ron daps.
“All right, take care of yourself. See you this summer.” Ron gave Cooley a hug. “I'm proud of you, Cool. You're going to do big things.”
“Thanks, man.” Cooley smiled. She looked up to Ron like she used to look up to her father before he passed away.
Sahara and Cooley walked into her large room at Sonic's house.
Cooley walked over to her iPod stereo and programmed it to play her sex folder. “Just get comfortable.”
“I already am.”
Cooley turned around to find Sahara lying on the bed in a pink lace bra and panty set. Cooley slowly crawled on top of Sahara and began to kiss her. Her hands began to roam all over Sahara's toned body. The smell of Sahara's Victoria's Secret lotion enticed Cooley's senses.
Avant's “Don't Say No” Began to play. Cooley looked down at Sahara. Before her eyes, Sahara's face turned into Misha's face.
“Fuck.” Cooley jumped.
“What's wrong?” Sahara looked at Cooley. Cooley's face looked flushed.