DUBIOUS (35 page)

“
Wow, you have it all mapped out.” I studied him with hopeful eyes.

He pulled me closer into his space. “Didn’t I tell you to trust me?”

“
Uh … can I buy it?” Sam asked.

Sherman and I turned to Sam in shock. I’d forgotten he was even in the room. Needless to say, I was shocked at his offer. I turned to Sherman with a question in my eyes. Our relationship shifted at this moment.

“
Look, man,” Sherman said, “just ’cause we want this handled quickly doesn’t mean you can steal it. If you’re serious about your offer, you’re going to have to pay up just like the next guy.”

“
I understand.” Sam smiled. “I ain’t trying to get over on Felicia. She has been good to me. I’ve wanted to own my own business for some time, but the timing was never right. This feels right to me.” He motioned to our surroundings.

“
What about their training? Will that continue?” I said.

Sam turned two shades darker. “Hell no! I ain’t no fucking freak!”

This was the first time I’d ever heard Sam cuss. We all burst out laughing. He was human after all.

Sherman put his arm around my waist. “All right then. Felicia will draw up the paperwork in the morning. If you could give me your offer sometime tomorrow, I’ll have my folks check to see if the price is acceptable. If you need help with the financing, I’m sure we can work something out.”

“
Thank you. I’ll have the offer to you tomorrow. I’m sure you will find it fair,” Sam said.

“
Fine.” Sherman pulled me to the door.

He was taking matters in his own hands and I liked it. This was so different than in my marriage. Randy was clueless when to step in and when to shut the fuck up. I was waging an inner battle with myself, and it wasn’t easy to let go. I’d been in control for so long, so actually sharing control was uncharted waters for me.

* * *

Sherman opened the car door for me like a perfect gentleman. “I’ll take you to get your car, that way you don’t have to worry about getting a ride in the morning.”

“
Thank you.” I watched him as he walked around the car and climbed in the other side.

“
Do you want me to come back to your house?” he said when he plopped down in the driver’s seat.

“
No, it’s late. I know you have things to do.”

“
Felicia, don’t shut me out again. I told you I was in for the long haul.”

“
But don’t you understand, he was allowing those dogs to fuck him.” Tears flowed from my eyes. All the hurt and pain that I had been dealing with came crashing down.

Sherman reached over and pulled me against his chest. “Baby, don’t cry. I can’t do shit about the past, but I can damn sure fix the future. Shit, I’m glad the nigga fucked up.”

That remark caught me off guard. First I had wanted to get mad; but, come to think about it, if Randy hadn’t made me choose, I would still be stuck in that dead-ass relationship. Sherman was right.

* * *

By the time I got back to my car, I had a change of heart. Before I climbed out of his car, I reached over and nibbled on his bottom lip while rubbing the bulge of his dick. “How ’bout we start working on the future right now?”

His answering smile was all I needed. A tremendous weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Tonight, I would give Sherman my heart to hold; tomorrow, Frick and Frack would get my ass to kiss.

CHAPTER 40

I was sitting on Kelvin’s sofa nursing a serious hangover when the phone rang. Its tone threatened to rip my brain straight out of my head. I snatched up the phone as quick as I could. The ringing had to stop. “Hello.”

“
Have you been watching the news?”

“
Felicia?” I thought the voice belonged to my ex-wife but the pitch was too shrill. I fought the urge to hang up.

“
You’re expecting someone else?”

Damn, why did she have to go there? I wasn’t in the mood to have another bitch session. Instead of firing back a snapping retort, I lowered my voice to almost a whisper. This served to help the pounding in my head, but she wasn’t having it. Something had her riled the hell up. “No, I wasn’t. You just don’t sound like yourself.”

“
Whatever,” she responded, flipping me off as if my response wasn’t worthy of comment.

“
Have you been watching TV?”

I didn’t care for the way she was talking to me. It was a serious struggle for me not to tell her it was none of her fucking business what I was doing, but I bit my tongue.

“
It’s on, but I haven’t been paying any attention to it.”

“
Figures.”

“
Why, what’s up?” I chose to ignore her flippant remark. I knew from past experience that arguing with Felicia was fruitless. She was a lawyer by trade and arguing was her specialty.

“
Turn on the news.”

That was not a request. It was a demand. The painful throbbing I felt beating inside my head pulsed a little harder. Ever since our divorce, civil conversations with Felicia were next to impossible. She was constantly trying to provoke me into a fight with her brash tongue and sarcasm. She was either yelling at me—telling me what I should or shouldn’t do with my life—or crying about the mess I’d made of her life. She forgot that it was my life too.

“
Randy . . . Randy, did you hear what I said?”

“
Huh?” I said, slowly coming back from my unpleasant memories.

“
Turn it to the news channel, now.”

I sat up on the sofa, cursing under my breath. I did not feel like going through this shit with her today. I pushed the button on the remote, changing the channel and turning up the sound.

“
Well?” she snapped at me again, dragging me from my thoughts.

“
What?” My blood was beginning to boil. Felicia was pushing the right combination of buttons to cause me to end this conversation.

“
Did you turn it to the news?”

Since I had no idea what time it was, I didn’t know what channel I was supposed to be on. “What channel?”

“
It’s on all of them. They just said it again. What are you doing?” Again she started with the questions as if she were entitled to an answer.

“
I’m not doing a damn thing! Stop yelling at me.”

“
I wouldn’t have to yell at you if you were paying attention.”

“
I was paying attention, shit!” I edged closer to the edge of my seat. My head felt like it was about to pop right off my neck. All I really wanted to do was lay down for a while and forget about Felicia, my life, and this damn hangover. On the screen, flashing images of Michael Vick’s career
were being exploited. So-called friends of his were testifying and haters who had never thrown a ball in their entire life suddenly had an opinion on where he went wrong. Personally, I was sick to death of hearing the many stories about the rise and fall of a black quarterback.

The man had fucked up, plain and simple. It didn’t warrant the persecution he’d been getting from the media. I was surprised Felicia even knew who Michael Vick was and even more surprised that she would care about what was happening to him. “Don’t tell me you’re caught up in this Vick shit, too.”

“
Negro, please. I don’t give a rat’s ass about that shit. I’m talking about the four-year-old kid that was molested by his dog!”

The room began to spin.

The pounding in my head got worse. The phone slipped from my hand as I gripped the sofa cushion, trying to grasp the pieces of my life that were spinning before my eyes. Before it hit the floor, I could hear Felicia screaming through the phone but I could not reach it if I wanted to. The darkness swirled around me and sucked me into an abyss.

CHAPTER 41

I paced my living room while talking on the phone. “Talisa, sorry to call so late, but can you come into the office earlier tomorrow?”

“
Sure, what time?”

“
Say … seven?”

“
Yeah, what’s up?” she said.

“
I’ve had my fill of F&F; it’s time for some fucking payback.”

“
Alright then. It’s about damn time.”

Sherman was smiling when I hung up the phone. I was waiting for him to fire off a bunch of questions about Randy, but he didn’t.

“
Why are you smiling?” I asked while shutting the news off, totally disgusted with Randy.

“’
Cause you look so sexy.”

“
Hey, stop that. We are supposed to be planning revenge.”

“
Oh, I’m planning alright.” He grinned again.

I could have easily gotten caught up in his smile, which would lead to us being naked, but other pressing matters needed to be handled. Sensing my mood, his smile disappeared and he put on his game face.

He said, “Tell me what you know about your coworkers.”

“
Anita was at the firm when I started. From what I heard, she had been with them for several years and couldn’t pass the Bar. We were both law clerks, although, I was waiting for the results of my test. I was promoted to associate one month later. She would smile and laugh to my face, I could tell she resented me.”

“
I know that type well,” he said as if he’d had a personal experience.

“
When I was going through the divorce, I took some time off work to get myself together. She would call asking if I needed her to come over and cook for me and shit. I guess she thought I was stupid or something, but I played her little game and smiled right back at her. There was no way in hell I would’ve allowed that bitch in my house. Hell, I don’t even know how she got my number since it’s unlisted.”

“
Sneaky bitches will find a way.”

“
You got that right. Anyway … when I got back to work, she’d made associate and tried to rub my nose in the shit. You should have seen her ass when the announcement was made that I had become partner. She thought they were going to let my ass go during my absence, and she did everything she could to sabotage me. But the shit backfired on her.”

“
How so?”

“
She chose the wrong person to confide in. The lady she had spoken to was the same person who encouraged me to apply for the job in the first place.”

“
So why is she still there?” He kicked his shoes off and got comfortable on the sofa.

“
She wasn’t a threat to me. I had bigger fish to fry. Plus, my mother always told me it’s better to have your enemies close.”

“
Your mother sounds like a wise woman.”

“
Yes, she was.”

“
I’m sorry.”

“
It’s okay. I’m at peace with it.” I looked into the distance and pictured my mother’s smile.

“
What about the other lady?”

“
I don’t know much about Desiree other than she was hired from a temporary agency. She was assigned to Anita and has been kissing her ass ever since. If she wasn’t so stupid, she would see that Anita is using her.”

He stroked his chin like a deep thinker. “It sounds like we need to do some investigating ourselves. I have a private investigator that I’m going to call in the morning and have him check into both their backgrounds. People who like to sling dirt usually are hiding some of their own.”

“
Yeah, this Ms. Nice Guy shit is played out. If we find something, I want them both gone.”

“
We’ll find something, on that you can depend,” he said.

“
What type of information should we be looking for?”

“
You’ll know it when you see it. My man is so thorough, he’ll tell me the last time either one of them nasty bastards farted.”

“
That is entirely too much information,” I said, laughing. I yawned, stretching my arms over my head. It had been a long day. I was still angry by the news report of a child being molested by a dog. It was people like Randy who were to blame for that shit.

“
Do you want me to leave?” he said after misreading my body language.

“
No. I’d really like for you to stay.”

I turned out the lights and he followed me upstairs. His hands were on my hips. I should have turned on the lights, but I knew the way by heart. My swaying hips guided him through my bedroom into the bathroom. I turned on the lights and began taking off my clothes.

I said, “My bathroom feels like a closet compared to yours.”

“
I like it. It gives me an excuse to get close to you.” He ran a finger along my bare skin.

“
And you think you need an excuse?”

“
I’m just messing with you.”

I turned on the water and pulled out fresh towels for us. My reflection grabbed my attention. “Why didn’t you tell me my hair looked this bad?”

“
You look perfect to me.”

“
Good answer, but I’m making an appointment tomorrow.” I quickly wrapped my hair, covering it with a shower cap.

Sherman got in the shower first, and I came in behind him. We didn’t have much room to maneuver, but it was okay. I washed his back and when I turned around, he washed mine. We bathed away the stress of the day, climbed into my bed, and cuddled. I kissed him goodnight, and we fell asleep in each others arms.