I Saw Your Profile (23 page)

Chapter Thirty

Red
was the color of revenge.

They hadn’t planned it that way,
but Arianna and Brenda both wore shades of crimson the morning of Chauncey’s
undoing.

Arianna’s
strapless sundress hugged every curve and stopped just above the knee. Her red
slides had laces that crisscrossed at the ankle. Silver hoops dangled from her
ears and a Tiffany necklace sparkled in the center of her chest. A red leather
purse hung from her right shoulder.

Brenda
wore a linen pantsuit with gold accessories, black pumps, and black leather
purse. The wrong purse. The tape was still in the room inside the bag she’d
worn the day before.

They
were up with the sun and at Chauncey’s room at seven. Just as Brenda was about
to insert the key card, the door swung open. Brenda stumbled backwards,
tripping over Arianna’s feet.

“Shit!”
Arianna shouted in the lowest tone she could muster, hopping up and down on the
good foot.

“What the
hell are you doing back here?” Brenda whispered as she tried to gain her
composure.

Danielle
hurried from the room and let the door ease shut.

“Sorry.
I left something in the room last night. Came back to get it.”

“Is he
woke?” Arianna demanded.

 
“No.”

“Will
you get out of here, then. If you’re still here when we drop this bombshell,
he’s going to kick your ass.”

“He
might try to kick yours too,” Danielle laughed.

She
turned, twitched her ass down the hall and disappeared around the corner.

Once
inside the room, Arianna and Brenda stood on either side of Chauncey’s bed.

“Wake up
boy toy!” Arianna yelled.

“I think
the word is faggot!” Brenda hollered.

Chauncey
jerked up, groggy from the night before. “What the fuck all?”

Arianna
laughed. “Yes. What the fuckall were you doing fucking a man last night,
bitch?”

“That’s
B-AAATCH,” Brenda said, joining in her laughter.

 
Chauncey was perplexed. He rubbed his
baldhead and pulled the sheet to his chest, wiping his eyes to make sure his
former lovers weren’t figments of his imagination.

“What on
earth are the two of you doing here? Where’s Danielle and what the hell are you
rambling about?”

“We came
to see the show. Chauncey does Danny. It’s about to be the hottest porn show on
the Internet,” Arianna said.

“Not just
the ‘net,” Brenda said. “We can sell it anywhere. On the streets of L.A. and
New York. In porn stores.”

“We’ll
start with all the women in his address book,” Arianna said. “I’m sure they’d
be surprised to know that stud muffin here likes dick as much as we do.”

“Cut the
shit and tell me what’s going on!” Chauncey yelled. He was slowly emerging from
his drug-induced fog and fear was taking hold.

“How did
you know where I was? What is all this talk about dick and faggots? Where’s
Danielle?”

Arianna
walked to the head of the bed and bent down until her face met his.

“What’s
with the sheet, lover. You’ve never been shy about showing us your body
before.”

“That
was before you went nuts. Are you going to tell me why you’re here? How the
hell do you two even know each other?”

“You
brought us together,” Brenda said. “I’ve met lots of nice sistas thanks to you.
By the way, there is no Danielle. But there is a Daniel. And you fucked him
last night.”

“Well
he
fucked
you
last night,” Arianna laughed.

Chauncey
jumped out of bed, still holding on to the sheet.

Arianna
snatched it and moved away. “We’ve seen your dick before.”

“And now
all your online admirers are going to see it too,” said Brenda, using her
fingers to simulate intercourse. “Sliding up and down in another man’s ass.”

“Weren’t
you the one who said being a faggot was an abomination before your lord?”
Arianna carped.

“You
bitches are crazy. Danielle is as much a woman as either of you.”

“I’m
sure she would agree,” Arianna said. “But the dick between her legs make her a
male like you. Notice I didn’t say man. It takes more than a dick to make a
man.”

Chauncey
brushed past Arianna to get to the table and chair set in the corner where he’d
left his clothes and snatched his underwear. He replayed what he could remember
of the previous night in his head. He remembered being on the bottom, his penis
inside tight, warm flesh.

Beads of
sweat started to form in the creases of his forehead. His arms shook as he
pulled his boxer shorts over each leg.

“Fuck
you both. You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“We set
this shit up, asshole,” Arianna said. “The woman you thought was Danielle
online was me. The real Danielle is a man we paid to fuck you. And we got it on
tape.”

“What
tape? Where?”

Arianna
got in his face. “Never mind where the tape is. One day you’re going to log on
to your computer to do your dirt and it’ll be there. On LoveMeBlack.com and
every other web site you’ve trolled…”

Before
Arianna could finish her sentence, Chauncey lunged for her. “Give me that
fucking tape!”

Arianna
jumped to the side. She stumbled into the nightstand by the bed, knocking over
a lamp, which landed on the floor between the bed and the table.

When
Arianna turned around, Chauncey was staring her down like an animal facing his
prey. “Give me the damn tape!” he shouted, spewing venom in her face.

Brenda
screamed. “Leave her alone! I’ve got the tape.”

She
nervously opened her purse and fumbled through it.

“Damn!”
Brenda said when she realized there was no tape. “I forgot it. It’s in my other
purse.”

Chauncey
turned back toward Arianna.

“You
have it, don’t you?”

He
snatched the red purse from her shoulder and pushed her on the bed.

He
ripped it open and went back to the corner where he dumped the contents on the
table.

Brenda
rushed to Arianna. “Are you all right?”

Arianna
was breathless.

“Yeah.
Let’s get out of here. He’s nuts,” she panted.

“You’ve
got to get your stuff,” Brenda said.

“Give me
my purse, Chauncey.” Arianna’s heart was beating out of control and her words
were filled with fear.

“The
tape’s not in there. It’s in our room.”

He threw
down the purse and turned toward them.

“Then
let’s go to your room.”

“No,”
Arianna shouted as she stood up. “We’re leaving.” She motioned for Brenda to
get up. She did.

“You
bitches don’t expect me to let you just leave here do you?” Chauncey yelled.

“You
can’t stop us,” Brenda said.

 
As they headed for the door, Chauncey
grabbed Brenda and slapped her, knocking her back on the bed.

“Who
can’t stop you?” he yelled.

Brenda
hollered in pain.

Arianna
went to slap him back, but Chauncey grabbed her hand before it connected with
his face.

“Whom
did you stupid women think you were messing with?” he hissed, pressing his
fingers into her flesh. “You can’t outsmart me.”

“We
already did. We got your stupid ass here, now let me go,” Arianna shouted.

Brenda
got up from the bed, tears burning the spot on her face where she’d been
slapped.

“You’re
a liar, a cheat and a whore Chauncey, but I never figured you for a woman
beater. Let Arianna go before somebody really gets hurt.”

Arianna
was squirming, trying to wriggle her way free of his grip.

“Get
your fucking hands off me,” she howled.

Brenda
pushed him. “Let her go.”

He
stumbled back, instinctively letting go of Arianna to break his fall.

Arianna
ran to Brenda’s side.

Anger
filled his eyes as he balled his fist.

“Somebody’s
about to get hurt for real now,” he snarled.

Chauncey
arched his back, giving his impending blow the most momentum. As he thrust his
arm toward Brenda, she ducked and Arianna lurched forward, pushing him.

 
Chauncey again stumbled backwards, this
time tripping over the lamp that lay on the floor and hitting his head on the
table.

 
The sound of his head crashing against
the wood stopped Arianna and Brenda cold.

For a
moment, they stood motionless, waiting for him to move.

He never
did.

Finally,
Arianna walked over to him, knelt down and checked his pulse. He didn’t have
one.

As she
stared down at him, she noticed blood gushing from the back of his head.

“Well?”
Brenda cried.

“He’s dead,”
Arianna said, her heart ready to jump from her chest.

“Oh my
god,” whispered Brenda. “What are we going to do?”

Just
then, there was a knock at the door. The manager had received several
complaints and wanted an explanation for the noise.

Arianna
jumped up and ran to the door, lowering her voice to sound like a man. “I’m
sorry,” she said. “Everything is fine. We just got a little too passionate if
you know what I mean.”

The
manager left after warning her to keep it down.

When she
turned around, Brenda had covered Chauncey with a blanket.

“Why’d
you do that?”

“I
thought the manager was going to come in. I didn’t want him to see the body.”

“Okay.
Lets get out of here.”

Arianna
grabbed her things from the table and threw them back in her purse, her hands trembling.

“Just
like that? We’re going to leave?” Brenda said.

“What do
you want to do?” Arianna said. “We can’t stay in here.”

“Aren’t
we going to call the police?”

By now,
Arianna was crying. She could feel her heart beating in her throat.

“And
tell them what? That we set him up because he was a dog and then he
accidentally died? Let’s just go. The police and black folks are never a good
combination.”

“He was
attacking us, we fought back. It was self-defense,” Brenda said.

“The man
is dead. Getting the police involved is not going to bring him back.”

Chapter Thirty-One

“You
killed him?”

Kenny wouldn’t be the only
person to make that assumption.

 
Arianna told him the news as they left
the Philadelphia airport and headed for the interstate.

“I said
he was dead. I didn’t say I killed him.”

 
Kenny pulled off exit thirteen and drove
to the strip mall on Route 291 near Lindbergh Boulevard and parked the car.

“What
the hell happened?”

Kenny
listened intently as she told him how Chauncey met his demise. By the time she
was finished, she was shaking and sobbing. The reality that a man was dead and
she had played a part in his death had just begun to settle in.

“I swear
I didn’t mean for him to die,” she cried.

Kenny
pulled Arianna toward him and wrapped his arms around her. “It’s gonna be
okay.”

 
He cradled her wet face under his chin.
She settled into his embrace. Her quivering stopped as she gave her fears and
anxiety to his chest.

 
“It was an accident. We didn’t want this
to happen. But if anyone finds out what me and Brenda did – setting him
up and making that tape – they might think we meant to kill him.”

“Who
else knows about the setup?”

“Nicole
and Janelle.”

“Are you
going to tell them what happened?”

“I have
to. They know I went to California. Eventually, they’ll find out he’s dead.
They might as well hear it from me.”

“Do you
think they’ll tell anybody else about you and Brenda?”

“I’m not
sure. I haven’t known either one of them that long, but I don’t see why they
would if I ask them not to.”

“I told
you I had a bad feeling about this,” Kenny said as he stroked her hair. “You
should’ve just let it go. Revenge is never as sweet as people think it is.”

“What
scares me is even though I didn’t want him to die, I’m not sorry he’s dead. I
never thought of myself has cold-blooded.”

“You’re
not. He was an asshole who took advantage of people. It’s hard to feel for a
person like that.”

Arianna
lifted her head and wiped her face with her hands. “Can you take me home now?”

Kenny
pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the Schuylkill Expressway.

Arianna
played Chauncey’s death over and over in her mind as she stared at the road.
She wondered how Nicole and Janelle would take the news.

“Do you
want me to come in with you, or would you rather be alone?” Kenny asked as he
parked in front of her house.

“Come
in, please.”

He made
her a cup of herbal tea and put on a Miles Davis CD. He sat behind her on the
couch and massaged her neck. Arianna sank into his hands as she sipped her tea,
inhaling the aroma.

“Thank
you, Kenny.”

“For
what?”

“For
being here.”

Kenny
stood up and reached for her. Arianna gave him her hand. They climbed the
stairs to her bedroom in silence.

As she
lay on the bed, he ran her a bath. He undressed her. First, the red dress.
Arianna didn’t protest when he balled it up and threw it in the wastebasket
next to her nightstand.

“It will
only bring you bad memories,” he said.

Then her
underwear and jewelry. Last, her shoes.

He
carried her to the bathroom and gently placed her in the tub where he bathed
her and washed her hair.

He
helped her from the tub. As he dried her face, he kissed her forehead. He
worked his way down, kissing and drying every inch of her.

His
kisses were a balm, healing wounds that had been open for years. Her passion rose
and her defenses dropped with each one.

She
begged him to make love to her.

He
spread her legs and moved his head between them. She grabbed the sink and held
on for dear life as he gently stroked her clitoris with his tongue.

Her body
shuddered with her climax. She pushed his head away, but he wouldn’t move. He
drank every drop of liquid that poured from her body and started licking her
all over again.

Arianna’s
head rolled back as she screamed her next orgasm.

When her
sounds had been reduced to moans, Kenny scooped her up and brought her back to
the bedroom. He laid her on the bed and took off his clothes.

It
wasn’t until he was inside her that Arianna realized they hadn’t taken any
precautions, but by then she didn’t care.

 
She arched her back to take him in all
the way. To that place where it hurt, but felt good at the same time.

She
wanted all of him and gave as much in return. She wrapped her legs and arms
around his back, pressing his flesh with her fingers.

Her
screams and moans made his strokes faster and deeper.

Kenny
held her face and looked in her eyes. She closed them.

“I love
you,” he panted.

She
didn’t respond. She didn’t have to. The tears that flooded down her cheeks as
they reached a mutual climax said what she couldn’t.