Insatiable (20 page)

Naked, Kai walked to her desk as if she were in her own bedroom. She tore off a yellow post-it and wrote down her phone number. “Call me tonight; we have to make arrangements to see each other again.”

Marquise nodded thoughtfully, adjusted his work clothes, folded the piece of paper and placed it in the pocket of his shirt.

“Don’t forget this.” Kai pushed the five twenties toward him.

“No, I’m straight.” His eyes shot to the floor in embarrassment. Kai knew he wanted to take the money.

“Take it,” she insisted. “It’s part of the gift.”

“Thanks,” he said as he stuffed the bills in his pocket. He gave Kai a quick peck on the lips. “I’ll try to give you a call tonight. Stay sweet, gorgeous.” He hurried out of the office.

Naked as a jaybird, Kai sat behind her desk, satisfied. Feeling the afterglow. A dark piece of fabric lying on the desk caught her eye. It was Marquise’s doo-rag. It must have fallen from his pocket while they were marking their territory on top of the desk.

She picked it up—sniffed it. Mmm! It smelled just like him. She inhaled again…and again, and then made herself stop before she OD’d on his scent. Folding it carefully, she put the doo-rag inside her Prada bag, happy to have a part of him until their next encounter.

Terelle ran smack into Marquise as she got off the elevator on the fourth floor.

“Keeta’s sick,” she said worriedly. Perspiration plastered loose strands of hair to sides of her face. “The day care center called; Keeta’s been throwing up all morning. I have to leave.”

“She was aiight this mornin’. You think she got the flu or somethin’?” Worry interlaced Marquise’s thick brows.

“I don’t know, Quise. It probably is the flu—you know it’s going around.” Terelle smoothed back her hair anxiously. “Where were you?” she asked as an afterthought. “Weren’t you supposed to be working on the third floor today?”

“Yeah, but Mr. Hicks told me to come up here and clean that office back there.” He nodded toward the long corridor that led to Kai’s office.

“Hmph. Where’s Spencer? Isn’t this his floor? It’s not fair for you to have to clean up his mess.” Terelle was disgusted.

“Don’t get me to lyin’; I don’t know whassup around here. But I think they moved Spencer to another floor.” Marquise’s eyes shifted down to his boots. “Look, I don’t want no trouble outta these people; I just do what they tell me to do.” He tried to sound resigned to the ill treatment of his superiors.

“I’ll be glad when they stop making you float from floor to floor. I called the secretary in your department, but that evil-ass heifer wouldn’t give up any information. When there’s an emergency like this, I shouldn’t have to run all over this building looking for you.”

Marquise stuffed his hands in his pockets uncomfortably. “You want me to go with you—in case we gotta take Keeta to the hospital?”

“No, you’re still on probation; we don’t need any static from the assholes that write our paychecks. I just wanted to let you know I was leaving. Me and Keeta should be home in about an hour.” Terelle looked at her watch. “Call home at around two o’clock. If we have to go to the hospital, I’ll call the switchboard and ask the operator to overhead page you.”

“Naw, fuck that. My baby girl’s sick; I know I ain’t gonna be able to work or even think straight.” Marquise gazed at his new watch.

“That’s not your watch. Where’d you get that?”

“Oh, this?” He looked down at it as if he were seeing it for the first time. “The watch you got me wasn’t in my locker; I don’t know how I lost it.” Marquise sucked his teeth. “But it’s cool though. I won this one and it cost a lot more than my Diesel jawn.” He proudly held the new watch up for inspection.

Terelle felt stung, but she kept an impassive expression. “You won it? How?”

“Shooting craps in the locker room.” He smirked guiltily.

“Quise, you know they got cameras all over this place. Why you gotta be doing dumb shit like that on the job?”

He shot her a look that told her to watch her tone. “Chill—aiight? Your boy ain’t stupid. I checked and there ain’t no cameras in the locker room. Can we focus on our daughter, please?” he asked, perturbed.

Terelle nodded absently; her mind, temporarily off Markeeta, was filled with concern about Marquise gambling on the job.

“Wait right here—I gotta tell Mr. Hicks I’m leaving.”

Marquise ran down the stairs before Terelle could protest. It wouldn’t have done any good anyway. Nobody could tell Marquise shit. She shook her head. He’d just said he didn’t want any trouble out of his boss and two seconds later, he was ready to abandon his job. She massaged her temple and hoped Marquise would find Mr. Hicks because she knew if he didn’t locate his supervisor, he’d punch out anyway—without permission—and face the consequences later. He’d be written up for job abandonment and possibly face a three-day suspension or even termination being that he was still on probation. Lord, that man never gave her a moment of peace.

Angry now, she directed her feelings toward the day care center. There was probably nothing really wrong with Markeeta that they couldn’t handle; they were just trying to get out of doing their job. They sent kids home over dumb shit like a runny nose or the sniffles—she doubted if Markeeta was seriously ill.

Prepared to wait at least five or ten minutes, Terelle sat down on the bench in front of the elevators. Heavy heels clicking against the tiled floor caught her attention. She glanced up and looked back down instantly. That snippy half-white social worker was prancing down the hall, taking long important strides as if she owned the nursing home.

There were two offices at the end of the corridor: the Recreation Therapist’s office and the Social Worker’s office. Terelle wondered fearfully if Marquise had been cleaning the social worker’s office. She hoped not. She’d heard that the social worker had accused Spencer of sexual harassment and had almost gotten him fired. The last thing she and Marquise needed was a sexual harassment charge. She’d have to warn Marquise to steer clear of that trouble-making woman.

Curiously, Terelle peeked up and observed Kai’s attire as she swung open the door of the women’s rest room. Kai had on a short wool skirt and a pretty satin blouse—her fly-ass boots had laces and shit hanging all off the sides. Damn! Terelle had to give the woman her props—the bitch could dress.

Oh well, Terelle’s day was coming. Once she and Marquise were married she could start nursing school. After she graduated and started bringing home some real money, her wardrobe would start looking a hell of a lot better.

Marquise returned to the floor breathless. “Come on, babe. Let’s roll.” Terelle got up and walked to the elevator.

“Let’s take the stairs,” he said impatiently.

Terelle didn’t feel like taking the stairs. She responded with a headshake and grimace and pushed the down button. “Did Mr. Hicks say you could leave?”

“Yo, babe. I’m a grown man; I didn’t ask for no damn permission. I told ’em my baby girl was sick—told ’em I was out and I’d see ’em tomorrow.”

At that moment Kai came out of the bathroom surrounded by a cloud of expensive-smelling perfume. She glanced over at Marquise and Terelle and momentarily froze. She opened her mouth to say something—but apparently changed her mind. Stunned, she looked Terelle up and down, stumbled slightly, turned around and stared at them again, then resumed walking. Kai threw her head up high, moved down the corridor swinging her arms and swaying her small hips with the vigor and pomposity of a runway model.

Terelle felt offended and took it personal.

“Goddamn! I know she thinks she’s grand and all that, but damn…the way she walked away was kinda whack. Did you see the way she was grittin’ on me? Looking me up and down? That was crazy. You think she was in the bathroom getting high?”

Marquise scowled in thought and then walked over and jabbed the down button twice. “I wasn’t even paying her no mind; I don’t know whassup with Shorty. I mind my own business.”

“Sis got issues,” Terelle said. “Marquise, make sure you stay out of her way. I heard she be trying to get niggas fired left and right around here.”

The elevator arrived, but Terelle still had Kai on the brain. “Were you cleaning
her
office or the Recreation office?” Terelle asked.

“Recreation,” he responded without hesitation and stepped into the elevator.

Markeeta had a low-grade temperature. Nothing serious. Terelle had to force a spoonful of Children’s Tylenol into her mouth and down her throat. A half-hour later, Markeeta was fast asleep.

Marquise was aiming the remote when Terelle noticed the watch again. Walked over and examined it.

“That’s a nice watch; looks brand-new.”

“It is. White dude that runs the kitchen had just bought it.”

“Get out! Cliff hangs out in the locker room shooting craps with y’all?”

Grinning, Marquise dug into his pockets and pulled out two of the five twenties Kai had given him. “He lost more than his watch today.” He handed Terelle one of the bills. “Here’s some lunch money,” he said, laughing.

Smiling while shaking her head in resignation, Terelle took the twenty. “Seriously, be careful, Quise. You never know who’s a snitch on the job. If you keep winning from Cliff, the next thing you know, your black ass will be terminated.”

“Damn, Terelle. Why you always worrying about everything? Cliff’s aiight—he’s down.”

“Keep on believing that. Didn’t I tell you about the time they had this undercover dude in there acting like he was in the Housekeeping Department? He got a whole lotta people fired. He even got some people locked up.”

“You lyin!” Marquise blurted, laughing.

“I ain’t lyin’. Ask anybody on the job about it. A couple of the young adult residents and about three or four staff members was led off the premises in handcuffs.”

Marquise let out a loud guffaw of disbelief.

“I’m serious—they did a drug bust right there on the job. Took the two employees out in handcuffs and I swear—my hand to God—the cops took the young adult residents outta there handcuffed to their wheelchairs. I don’t know how they kept that shit out of the news. That should have been the top story of the day…”

“You got jokes,” he said, laughing hard.

“I ain’t lyin’, Quise. You were locked up at the time and I didn’t tell you ’cause I probably didn’t wanna waste our precious minutes talking about my damn job. But seriously, that shit really happened. The undercover dude used to hang out in the locker room chillin’ with everybody. That’s how he found out who was selling weed and cain and shit.”

“Selling weed and cain to who?”

“Niggas on the job be sellin’ to the residents and to each other.” Terelle was thoughtful for a moment. “Check this out! We usta have this old-ass resident who could make wine out of the juice that comes up on the trays.”

“How?” Marquise sucked his teeth.

“He used juice and pieces of bread and some other shit to make wine. He’d wheel around snatching juice off of other residents’ trays and then he’d hoard the shit in his room in a big old nasty container. I think he used to mix it up in his urinal.”

Looking sickened, Marquise asked, “Urinal? What’s that? You talkin’ ’bout them nasty-lookin’ plastic piss jars wit the hook?”

“Yup.”

“Aiight, Terelle that’s enough—you making my stomach hurt. Let’s change the subject ’cause I ain’t feelin’ none of this shit you talkin’. Them old dudes and even some of the young ones be turnin’ my stomach the way they ride around in their wheelchairs wit their piss jar strapped to the side of the chair. Ain’t no shame in their game—they be ridin’ around actin’ like carryin’ a piss jar is as normal as carryin’ a forty-ounce bottle of Hurricane.”

“Hold up—hold up,” Terelle said through her laughter. “Dude had one of them electric wheelchairs and he’d get so drunk, he’d be wheelin’ around the facility real fast, runnin’ over the old people’s feet…”

Marquise let out a loud guffaw. “Stop playin’. How come I ain’t seen no drunk old people?”

“Give it time. You will. You haven’t been there long enough to peep all the behind-the-scenes shit that goes on. I’m just trying to let you know that we don’t work at no innocent rest home. A lot of our residents are old ass ex-cons, too sick to be kept in prison, so they ship ’em to the County Nursing Home to spend their last days. And most of the younger residents got messed up from either doing or selling drugs. Some of ’em caught AIDS from contagious needles…”

“They got people with AIDS up in there?”

“Uh-huh. There’s an HIV wing on the third floor.”

“Damn, that’s the floor I was working on.” Marquise looked troubled.

“You can’t catch nothing from cleaning the floors.”

Still looking troubled, Marquise asked, “Do you be cleaning those AIDS people?”

“Uh-huh. Sometimes…when I’m pulled to that floor.”

“Babe, that don’t seem safe.”

“It’s cool. I’m careful when I have to give them care. Besides, I’m not having sex with any of ’em. The people you gotta look out for are the people like
Danita!
Tramps like her be carrying diseases but don’t nobody know about it.”

“Aw, shit. Here we go again. I ain’t fucking Danita or nobody else.”

“Anyway,” Terelle continued, “like I was saying…some of them young residents had strokes from hitting the pipe—or they got shot in the back—or hit upside the head with metal pipes for fucking up somebody’s money while they was out there hustlin’. In other words, we take care of drug addicts, criminals, ex-playas…the same types you were locked up with and that’s why the administration be having undercover cops all up in the joint. So be careful with that gambling, Quise. Please!”

“Aiight…I feel you.” Marquise pulled Terelle onto his lap. “You so cute when you be making up shit—trying to scare me straight, huh?”

“I’m serious, Quise. Ask Spencer. He knows about the drug bust. Shit…everybody knows about it.”

Marquise kissed the back of her neck. “Check this, babe…why don’t you take off that nursing uniform and let me hollah at you real quick.”

“Oh, you tryin’ to hollah?” Terelle asked sexily.

Nodding, Marquise grazed his lower lip and started pulling up Terelle’s top.

“Wait. I’m all sweaty…and you ain’t smelling too sweet yourself. Let’s take a shower together—then you can scream at me all night long if you’re up to it.”

Holding Marquise’s hand, Terelle led him into the shower.