The Roof is on Fire (23 page)

She went on and on about what had been going on while I was away. I barely got in one word, and every time I opened my mouth, she cut me off. I kept rolling my eyes and sighing. But after a while, I told her the battery was low and hung up. I then called the nappy-head
li'l dude I considered my man. Kenny answered on the third ring.

“Where the fuck have you been? You must be hemmed up with another nigga somewhere. If you have been, you can stay with that muthafucka.”

Maybe I was wrong for not telling Kenny where I was going, but he didn't seem to care anyway. And then for me to call and for him to diss me was totally uncalled for. I wasn't feeling his tone.

“Calm down, fool. All you know is I could've been locked up or adducted, I mean abducted, and you over there actin' a doggone fool. Tone yo voice down, Kenny, or else this conversation will be over.”

“Bitch, I don't—”

I ended the call. I needed to rethink the folks I had in my circle. They were a hot-ass mess. It might take longer for me to disassociate myself from my troublesome girlfriends, but as for Kenny, I suspected that our relationship would soon be a wrap. With fine-ass men in the world like Jaylin and Roc, I was tripping by staying with Kenny. Then, the more I thought about it, Kenny had paid my rent for the last two months. Maybe, he was a keeper.

I had been in the bathroom for too long, so I hurried to leave. Making sure the coast was clear, I stuck my head out the door and looked from left to right. No one was there. I tiptoed back to the computer. I searched for media outlets that would be interested in buying the flash drive, hoping like hell that I had some luck.

When all was said and done, talked about and discussed over and over again, there was only one overall real winner in here. That was still me.

What Chase had done was, nonetheless, foul. But I wasn't the least bit tripping. There were doggy-dog men as well as women. She damn sure fit the bill, but many could say the same about me.

I kind of admired a woman who could be that cold. The problem with Chase was she still carried too much bitterness inside of her, resulting from the past. She was out for revenge, and whoever stood in her way to getting some kind of payback, they had to pay.

In no way did I lie to Roc when I told him Chase could be trouble. To be honest, I couldn't figure out anything that I'd said or done inside of this house that would knock anybody off their feet. I was just being me. All anybody in my circle had to do was ask me what went down in here and I would tell them the truth.

With that being said, it wasn't that easy for Roc. He seemed on edge since Chase had left, but we hadn't talked much about our time with her. I think Roc was worried about Desa Rae finding out some things. He was engaged to be married, but admitted that she hadn't set a wedding date. The whole situation seemed sticky. With Chase being out of the house, there was no telling what she was doing. Roc had some major concerns and he talked about them
as we sat in the bedroom. We had just walked inside from playing a game of tennis.

“I hate to keep bringing this up, but Chase seems like she be on some slick shit. After what she did, you know I don't trust her to keep her mouth shut.”

Worry was visible on Roc's face. He got up from the bed and paced the floor. Since he'd won the tennis game against me and Jada, he promised her that he'd have a cookie bake-off with her, if she'd stop pouting. Cooking was definitely something she thought she'd win at.

“I said this to you before, man, and must I repeat myself again. That is, if you're so worried, go home. It makes no sense for you to be that uptight and still be here.”

“And like I said before, I'm no quitter. Whatever is waitin' for me at home will be there when I get there. I wish I could call to make sure everything is all good. I don't want no surprises, if you know what I mean.”

I didn't bother to reply. Roc wasn't trying to hear what I was saying. He went into the closet, then came back out with clothes in his hands. “I need to wash some more of my clothes. They startin' to pile up on me.”

“That's what happens when you're lazy.”

He laughed, then headed toward the door. “I know what I meant to ask you,” he said. “You already know that I'm a li'l irritated about this shit with Chase, right? It's left a bad taste in my mouth, not with you, but with her. But riddle me this. Why it ain't fuckin' with you like it is me? What if yo down chick gets word of what happened here?”

“Down chick, my ass. My down chick ain't down no more, she got fed up with the dumb shit. She hasn't been down for quite some time. Chase can do no harm to me whatsoever. You, my brotha,
need to chill. If you were that worried about this getting back to Desa Rae, why you run up in another pussy?”

“I could ask myself the same question, but you know how we do it. On a for real tip, I talked myself into that shit. Smokin' all that weed contributed to my actions and the weed had me tryin' to justify my actions in my head.”

“So, let me get this straight. It was the weed's fault. If what happened here does get back to Desa Rae, you'd better think of a better excuse than that. That won't fly. I'm just being real with you.”

“I'm hopeful that it won't get back to her, but it's been on my mind more because of a silly-ass dream I had. But after today, I'mma let this go. I don't want to lose my baby over no bullshit with Chase, and I'm serious when I say I will hurt a bitch for tryin' to shake up things.”

“Let's hope you don't have to. And on a final note, make sure you clean up your mess before you get married. Things from the past can come back to haunt. I'm a man who is telling you this from experience.”

“I feel you. It's all good. The way I look at that is like this. We're not married yet, so I'm glad that this happened before I got married, not after. That will be my defense, if I have to use it. Most men have pre-weddin' day pussy, so you can't hold a nigga accountable for that.”

Roc said nothing else and left the room. I couldn't help but to think how fucked he really was. There was no doubt that he had underestimated Chase.

I changed into shorts and a polo shirt. Before going into the kitchen with Jada and Roc, I straightened my side of the closet and sprayed Lysol in it. With three people already gone, the closet wasn't that crowded anymore. It was still junky, though.

Noticing a pair of Jada's jeans dropped over her shoes, I picked them up to fold them. I hated for people not to take care of their
clothes. If hangers were in the closet, why not use them? Inside of her jeans was a pair of silk, light purple panties. I frowned as soon as I noticed pussy juice stains in the middle of the crotch. Something definitely had her hot and bothered. I shook the panties from her jeans and they fell on the floor. So did a flash drive that I picked up and held in my hand. I kicked the panties aside, and then placed her jeans on a hanger. Afterward, I put the flash drive in my pocket to see what was on it later.

Roc and Jada had the kitchen in one big mess. Bowls, flour, cracked eggs, milk, butter, sugar—you name it, it was there.

“What took you so long?” Roc asked. “I need some help with this. You know anything about makin' cookies?”

“No doubt. I have one of the best cooks in the world living with me. We call her Nanny B, and she taught me everything that
you
need to know about cooking.”

Jada already had her lips pursed. “Just so you know, we ain't interested in fat-free cookies. If you're goin' to help, be sure to add sugar, butter, and cookin' oil to the mix. After that, you can experiment with whatever you'd like to and go from there.”

“It doesn't take all of that to make cookies. Where are the big bowls at? I need to show you something and then maybe you'll shut your mouth.”

“FYI,” Roc said. “Find your own bowl, because I like my cookies sweet. Real sweet and smoky.”

Roc reached for his bag of weed and had the nerve to sprinkle his cookie dough with marijuana.

“Yeah, buddy.” Jada happily slapped his back. “Add a li'l bit more of that, baby. It seems like you know what'cha doin'.”

Roc added more. I just shook my head. They couldn't have been serious about this cookie cook-off. If so, I reminded myself not to sample any of Roc's cookies.

I put my game face on and gathered a few bananas, some oatmeal, dates and raisins, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. No sugar, no butter. I reached for a bowl and some measuring cups, then took my items over to the kitchen table. As I started to measure my ingredients, Jada came over to mess with me.

“Why you over here tryin' to look like you know what you doin'?” she asked.

“Because I do know what I'm doing. Now, back up, you're in my space. You're too close and you're breath is hot.”

Jada bumped her hip with mine, almost knocking me aside. “All I gotta say is those cookies better be good or else I'm gon' drive you nonstop. You need to add some sugar and butter to your batch, because things are already lookin' mighty dry.”

I ignored Jada, but she kept coming back over to the table, hovering over me and my batter. She couldn't deny that things were looking up for me, especially when I put the dough on a cookie sheet and got ready to pop them in the oven.

“They do look a lot better than Roc's cookies do.” She tried to whisper, but he heard her.

“Looks can be deceivin,' as we all now know. Wait until my cookies are done until you pass any kind of judgment on them.”

Into the oven his cookies went. Jada followed with her third tray of cookies. She thought she was so good that she had to make three different kinds.

We stood around in the kitchen, talking and waiting patiently for the cookies to get done.

“Please tell me why men are so competitive,” Jada said. “I blew the tennis game earlier because I'm so tired of y'all tryin' to compete against each other. What's with that?”

I responded before Roc had a chance to. “No, you blew the game earlier because you don't know how to play. As for men, we have
a competitive nature. It is what it will always be and nothing will ever change. We strive to win and don't like it when we lose.”

“Nope, losin' ain't a good feelin',” Roc said. “But, hey, somebody always has to lose. It won't be me on this cookie challenge, and no offense, but y'all time here will be cut short.”

Jada rolled her neck around. “I disagree, but keep yo unrealistic hopes alive. Ain't nothin' wrong with competin' with each other, but, uh, do y'all like to compete for women? Mainly, what about this whole thing with Chase? I'm not bein' nosy, but were y'all competin' for her?”

I started not to touch this, only because my words would offend Roc. The way I saw it, when it came to women, there was no comparison between us. Therefore, there was no need to compete with a man who wasn't on my level. I was glad when Roc opened his mouth first.

“Ma, there wasn't no competition between Jaylin and me. And competin' with any man over a woman is not somethin' that I do. Chase had a motive and she followed her agenda. Her desire was to get some dick and she got it. She had been sweatin' a nigga from day one. The money was never her priority.”

Jada rubbed her chin. “So, you believe that all Chase wanted out of this was dick? I guess that could've been the case, but how do you feel that she not only got yo dick, but Jaylin's dick too? In the same day, and only hours apart. That has to sting, doesn't it?”

“First of all,” I said. “If y'all believe the only motive Chase had was dick, you're fooling yourselves. I can't put my finger on her motive yet, but believe me when I say there was more to it. Secondly, who gives a damn how much dick she got? It ain't like me or Roc running around here, trying to take that shit back. No matter how you look at it, I had a good time. My dick was satisfied and she left here with an elated pussy.”

Roc gave me dap, but Jada continued to push.

“But in a sense, you did get Roc's leftovers. And then he's left feelin' like all he did wasn't enough to satisfy her. That must be fuckin' with y'all heads, ain't it?”

“No,” we said in unison. Roc added more. It was obvious that we both felt frustrated by Jada's view of things. “You talkin' about leftovers. Really? Truth is, we all bein' served leftovers. When you go behind the next muthafucka, that's just how it is. All I'm gon' say to you is I did my part—well. If Chase was still horny after how I put it out there, that's on her, not me.”

“I know, 'cause you did go over and above the call of duty.”

I had to ask Jada a question. “How do you know what that man did? Were you watching?”

“No, I wasn't watchin'. Chase told me some things before she left. Things that neither of you will ever know. It's our secret.”

See, she was fucking with us, but I wasn't biting. Neither was Roc. He went over to the stove and removed our cookies from the oven.