Riding Dirty on I-95 (24 page)

“You got me all wrong. I love you and I plan to be with you— bad, good, happy, or sad,” Paula pleaded.

Cleezy dropped his head down and didn't say a word. As bad as he wanted to believe Paula, he just couldn't. He had been warned
long ago, ever since he could walk, to be careful of women, and that warning had stuck with him. But except for the reputation that she had acquired years ago, Paula had never given him any reason not to trust her.

“Cleezy” she said, putting her hand on the glass. He didn't respond. “Cleezy” she called out to him again. The person in the booth beside her looked over at her, but Paula didn't care. Cleezy finally looked up at her. “Baby, what do I have to do to prove my love for you? Tell me. What? When you were home, I cooked, cleaned, and played wifey to you and never have you ever caught me doing anything other than that. Nothing changes because you are in here.” She pointed to her heart. Cleezy turned up his lips. “What is it? Oh, I get it. I understand.” Cleezy looked at her as if he was trying to figure out what it was that she understood. “I understand now; it's because of my past with other niggas that make it so you can't trust me.”

“Hold on, shorty,” he said, but she cut him off.

“I might have carried it like that with them other niggas, but never have I disrespected you or myself since we have been together,” she said, breaking into tears, but Cleezy was completely unaffected. “What I got to do, Cleezy, to show you? To prove my love? What? Just fucking tell me. Or will I ever be able to?”

“Look, just calm down. Just pull yourself together,” Cleezy said, starting to feel sorry for Paula, sitting there before him in tears. Even if her feelings were short-term, wasn't nobody else coming up there to visit him or sending him letters. Cleezy just thought it might be easier if he pushed her away now before she even got the chance to leave him hanging. But sitting there looking at her, maybe it wasn't the right thing to do. “Look, give my mother the phone and pull yo'self together.”

Lolly had been sitting about fifty feet away on the bench gossiping with another visitor. Paula put the phone down, wiped her
eyes, and walked over to Cleezy's mom. “Ms. Lolly, Cleezy want you,” she said, wiping her eyes. Lolly got up and walked over to talk to Cleezy. Paula stayed there and sat down in her seat in order to give them some privacy. After about five minutes, Lolly called Paula back over and handed her the phone as she just stood there next to Paula.

“Look, I apologize for making you feel a certain way,” Cleezy said. “You say you love me, right?” Paula nodded. “Well, I would feel better if you give up your apartment and move in with my momma.”

“Okay,” Paula said without hesitation or deliberation.

“You know you and my momma are my favorite girls. I took care of both of y all, and I want y'all to help each other and take care of one another while I'm in here.”

“Okay,” she said again easily. “I'll give notice to my landlord. My lease isn't up for three months, but I'll stay at your mom's as soon as she'll have me.”

Just like that Paula moved in with Lolly. She was home every night at a respectable time. Lolly kept close tabs on Paula, but Paula didn't mind. Anything to please her man … anything to prove her love. Hopefully it would be enough.

A
nurse assisted Mercy in adjusting the hospital bed. She'd been the first nurse to see Mercy when she had arrived at the hospital four days ago. She had taken a special interest in her, wanting to protect her from the police, the press, and the ambulance-chasing attorneys who had practically been camped outside of her room. This was the first day that Mercy had opened her eyes. Although she was completely out of it and on medication, she was well aware that Nurse Allen had been there for her and acted as a mother would even though she was only a nurse.

Mercy looked around the hospital room for a moment and then closed her eyes to rest them. The ringing of the phone startled her. As she started to stretch and answer it, she saw Nurse Allen putting down the flowers.

“I'll get it for you, sweetie,” Nurse Allen said as she picked up the phone. “Hello.” After telling the caller to hold on, she passed Mercy the phone. “It's your sister. She's been up here around the clock. She had said she was only going back to the hotel to shower and change clothes.”

“All the way up here in Jersey?” Mercy asked Nurse Allen, assuming
it was Zurri as she took the phone from her and then gave a groggy “hello” into the receiver.

“Hey, baby girl,” the voice said.

“Who is this?” Mercy asked, not recognizing the voice.

“This Tallya,” the caller said.

“Who?” Mercy asked. She heard what the caller said, but this had to be a prank.

“Your sister Natallya.”

Mercy was shocked and couldn't believe her ears. Natallya was her oldest sister, who had been estranged for many years. Mercy had not seen her since her father's funeral. When he was alive, Tallya was bitter that Nate had married Mercy's mother, Pearl, and not her own; however, she wasn't disrespectful nor did she fall out of line. Once Nate died, Tallya's mother moved on with her life and refused to stay in touch with any of Nate's other women or children. Her famous line that she would tell Tallya was, “Mother made 'em, mother fuck 'em!”

“Oh my God! I have been up there around the clock. I saw what happened to you on the news when this first happened. I heard the name Mercy Jiles on the TV, and I was, like, wait a minute, that's my sister's name. Honey, I dropped everything and drove over to that hospital like a bat out of hell.”

“Last I heard, you were living in DC with your mother,” Mercy groggily said, still confused from the medication and even more so by this call.

“Nope. I live here in the Hamptons with my man. But like I said, I couldn't believe it. I had to come up there and see for myself if it was you.”

Mercy smiled. “Thank you,” she said, but it hurt her to speak.

“I was so worried about you, especially when they said you were bleeding internally. You were in critical condition, and we didn't know if you'd make it.”

“Thanks, girl, by the grace of God, I'm okay.”

Nurse Allen brought the card from the flowers over to Mercy. As she listened to Tallya, Mercy read the card: “Always know you are truly loved, Your Big Brother Forever, Death B4 Dishonor.” She smiled at the gesture from Hyena.

“I'm up and on my way over there.”

Tallya visited Mercy at the hospital faithfully every day. When Mercy first saw Tallya, she couldn't believe how pretty she was.

They both had that walnut-brown complexion. They were about the same height, but Tallya was a lot thinner than Mercy and a lot more polished. While Mercy was laid up in the hospital bed bruised and broken, she checked out Tallya. Tallya looked like money: Her skin was flawless, and her clothes were top of the line. Her whole package made Mercy proud of her sister, including the implants that she confessed she had gotten. Whatever she had become in her life, it was clear that she had somehow come into some money. Mercy was happy for her, because she'd heard that Tallya's mother was always lying about how Nate left money to Pearl and her kids but nothing for her. If Nate had left any money, Mercy sure didn't see a dime of it.

Mercy's suitcase from the hotel had been brought to the hospital. When she was able to move around, she checked her secret compartment, but it was empty. She figured the hotel clerk and his partner must have taken the money as their consolation prize. When the police asked Mercy what had happened, she clammed up. She told them she couldn't remember a thing. But the police had found the ID of one of the guys on the floor of her hotel room, so they'd get caught eventually. Either way, that money was gone.

Once the time came for her to be discharged, Tallya drove Mercy in her SLK Mercedes-Benz to the mansion that she shared with her sugar daddy, Benjamin Arlow. Benjamin Arlow was a dirty old man hitting his sixties or possibly his seventies, although
he tried to maintain his youthfulness by staying fit and keeping a bald head to camouflage his gray hairs. A suave, debonair, jazzy man who loved women, young women especially, he was just a few notches down from being the black Hugh Hefner of the hip-hop world. He had never been married, but fathered one daughter—and a week after her birth he had a vasectomy so he would never get trapped again. He paid the mother of his child a healthy sum and kept up with child support until his daughter turned eighteen. She still came around, and when she needed something, he doled it out to her just as if she were one of “his girls.”

He had wined and dined countless women in his day. Not only did he have a way with women, but he knew his way around a boardroom table, having his hands in a few urban companies making him a mega money bank.

Mercy had heard of Benjamin Arlow but didn't know much about him until Tallya showed her all of the articles he was mentioned or featured in. Mercy read up on him while she recuperated, and she stumbled upon this one tabloid talking about him and Tallya.
Is she another Anna Nicole Smith? Mercy
thought as she read the article. According to the gossip rag, Benjamin had really fallen for Tallya, because she was the first woman he ever took in to reside with him in his twelve-million-dollar house along with his butler, maid, cook, and chauffeur. Benjamin was nice to Mercy and treated her like royalty while she visited. He persuaded Mercy to work out with his trainer, utilize the pool and tennis courts. Just like any good houseguest, she did, but she didn't want Tallya to think that she was getting too comfortable.

She was well on her feet before she decided to go home. She and Tallya had been enjoying each other's company so well that she didn't mind hanging out. Although she and Tallya were cool, she didn't want to wear out her welcome. About a week before
Mercy was planning to go back home, she and Tallya were out having lunch poolside.

“Girl, thank you so much for taking care of me,” Mercy said as she ate a forkful of the albacore tuna salad that the cook had prepared.

“That's what family for,” Tallya replied. “Especially big sisters. It gave me a chance to be the sister to you I never thought I would be.”

“Well, you're surely making up for it now,” Mercy said. “Thanks for never leaving my side and then having me into your home with your man. Not to mention buying me clothes and whatever else I needed. I truly appreciate it. I never had a sister to really hold me down. I mean, I see Zurri, but only when she needs a few dollars or for me to babysit. So I truly appreciate this.” Mercy gave her a hug.

“Look,” Tallya said, wiping her eyes, “you're going to make me get all teary-eyed.” She then changed the subject. “When I was in the hospital and you were all drugged up, they gave me your stuff from the hotel and I saw your screenplay. I don't want you to think I was being nosy all in your stuff, but I read it.”

“No, no problem, you're my sister.”

“Girl, I read it and—”

Mercy cut her off and asked, “And … ?” like any artist would when they were about to hear someone address their work.

“It was sooo good!”

“For real?”

“Yup,” Tallya said, nodding. Tallya's smile then faded away. Something was troubling her. “Once I brought you home from the hospital, I noticed Benjamin's been keeping late hours, which probably means he's fucking some bitch behind my back and think I don't know. Like I was so busy caught up into you that I wouldn't pay it any mind.”

“You think so?” Mercy said, genuinely concerned.

“It's all good, because it ain't nothing I ain't know would happen eventually.”

Mercy grabbed her hand. “Girl, I'm so sorry you gotta deal with this.”

“Oh, I got a plan, don't worry.”

“Do you need any help? You know I got you. You want to beat that bitch. What?”

“I got something else in mind for his old ass. But I do need you for real. We need each other. Fuck all dem niggas. It's about us. I know we were separated, but we can never lose each other again. We've got to be there for each other no matter what. We got to make sure we okay, because when the dust settles, we gotta be the last two standing. You know that's how Daddy would have wanted it.”

“I feel you. Now let a sister in on the plan. But can I ask you something first?” Mercy said with a puzzled look on her face.

“Go 'head.”

“What does any of this have to do with my script?”

“Look, your script is hot. Let's take that shit straight to DVD. You don't even need to waste your time with no big distributors like Miramax, Sony, and shit. Shit gets bootlegged to DVD anyway before it even hits its second week at the box office. I'm going to get the money from Benjamin, start my own straight-to-DVD production company, and we gonna Thelma and Louise this shit. Get us some real money so if Benjamin or any other nigga want to fuck around, we can roll out!”

Mercy was starting to get high off of the excitement and determination in Tallya's voice. “Let's do this shit, then,” Mercy said as she reached out to shake Tallya's hand.

Over the next few days, Tallya incorporated her company, Bermuda Triangle Entertainment. She had a contract drafted to
purchase Mercy's script, and before Mercy got on her plane to go home she had in her hand a check for fifteen thousand dollars of the thirty-five-thousand-dollar advance. Mercy felt good knowing that she had money in her pocket and had found someone who believed in her work enough to buy it from her. She thought she would never come down off the cloud she was on. Her dream was finally turning into a reality; her script was going to be produced.