A Good Dude (13 page)

“I’ve been looking for you,” he said as he approached. Tino wore a short-sleeved Polo with sand-colored canvas shorts. He had black sandals that showed off his toes, and Candace noticed how cute they were. Today his hair was down, like Antonio Banderas in
Zorro
.

He stopped a few feet away and stared at her with a look of genuine concern. “You okay?”

Candace sighed and opened the car door. “I’m all right. I’m in a hurry, though, Tino. I don’t have time to talk.”

He nodded. He looked her up and down, his expression registering what Candace already knew: She looked like shit.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” he said finally. Candace tossed her backpack to the passenger seat. “What are you talking about?”

“About Rilla,” he said. “I heard he got arrested yesterday.”

Candace was shocked. Her
school world
and her
real world
were two separate entities. She hated for them to collide.

“Who told you that?”

“It was in the newspaper,” Tino said.

That was even worse. Candace put a hand to her face and rubbed the tense spot between her eyes.

“It wasn’t front page news or anything,” he went on. “It was in the Metro section, tucked in towards the back: ‘Rapper Arrested on Drug Charges.’ I just wanted to tell you that I feel bad for you. I was thinking about what you said, about how he’s the only reason you’re down here. I didn’t think you’d come today, actually.”

“I’ve only got one more week till this semester’s over,” Candace said. “This is the only good thing I’ve done since I left New York. I’m not going to mess it up.”

“What about your boyfriend? What’s going to happen to him?”

“I don’t think he’s getting out,” Candace admitted. “You’re going to stay here without him?”

“I’m going to finish this semester,” she said again. “I don’t know what’s going to happen after that. I want to go home, but my dad’s mad at me.”

“You talked to him?”

“I called yesterday after Rilla got arrested.”

“They said you can’t go back?”

“No. I think they’ll let me. He was just . . . . so mad, my dad was. They’re going to make me feel like shit if I go back. They’ll never let me live this down. They think I’ve done irreconcilable damage to my future.”

“You can stay,” Tino offered. “If you get a job. The apartments I live in are real cheap. I pay for my school, all my food and clothes, and I still have enough for rent. You can do it, too, if you want to . . . .” He trailed off because Candace was shaking her head.

“Look,” she said, “you’re a good guy, Tino. But I don’t think we should talk anymore. I’ve got a lot going on right now. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“I was just—”

“I know. You only want to help. I really like you, Tino, but I’m so screwed up right now. I don’t want you involved with any of this.”

“But—”

“Seriously,” Candace said. As bad as she already felt, there was still room for heartbreak. Tino looked so pitiful. “You don’t see how bad I am, so I have to do this for you. I’m messed up, Tino. And I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” A lone tear snaked down her cheek.

Tino stepped forward, as if to console her, but something in Candace’s eyes made him change his mind. So he just stood there and watched as she got into her car and drove away. Candace checked the rearview mirror as she exited the parking lot, and Tino didn’t move the whole time he was in sight.

The next day they had Economics together. Tino didn’t look at her at all during class, and he didn’t approach her afterwards. And although this was what Candace wanted, it still made her feel very lonely.
i

Rilla called every morning, but this courtesy didn’t get Candace any closer to solving her rent problem. He promised CC would show up with two hundred before the first of the month, but days went by with no word from Cordell. After a full week, Trisha came up with a solution that seemed viable.

“Girl, you need to pawn some shit. I know you got something up there worth two hundred.”

Candace ran the idea by Rilla the very next morning. “Do you still talk to CC every day?” she asked. “Naw. Nobody answers the phone most of the time I call.”

“Does he still have some of your money or what?” Candace asked. “It’s been a week, Rilla. And he won’t call or come by. I don’t think he’s going to give me anything.”

“He will,” Rilla promised. “I just need to get in touch with him.”

“What about your lawyer money?”

“He says he got some saved, but not enough.”

“Rilla, what if he’s not doing that? You said he had a bunch of your . . . . stuff. What if he’s keeping the money for himself?”

“My nigga wouldn’t do that. I been knowing him—”

“I know, Rilla, since middle school.”

“Then why you think he’d do me dirty?”

“I don’t know. All I know is he’s not doing what you said about the rent. Today’s the twenty-fifth. I got five days to get two hundred dollars.”

“I’ll get in touch with CC today,” Rilla said.

“I think I’m going to pawn something to get the money,” Candace said.

Rilla didn’t respond for a while. “Something like what?”

“Well, we’ve got two TVs. I don’t need the one in the bedroom. If that’s not enough, I got some jewelry, too.”
“I don’t want you to pawn nothing
I
gave you.”

“I don’t want to get evicted, Rilla. I’m telling you, CC’s not doing what you said. I have to do this by myself.”

“I’ll talk to him today,” Rilla promised.

“Baby, do you really trust CC?” Candace asked. “Don’t ask me no stupid shit like that.”

“I’m sorry, Rilla. I’m just saying, you’re putting a lot of responsibilities on him. He’s supposed to help me with the bills. He’s supposed to get you a lawyer. If he doesn’t do all of that, both of us are screwed. This is two lives he’s responsible for. Three, really.”

“He’s going to take care of business.”

“But he hasn’t yet. The rent’s due, and he’s not doing anything.”

“You need to quit whining,” Rilla said.

Candace hung up on him and left the apartment when he tried to call back.

She didn’t have anywhere to go, so she sat in her car and listened to the radio. She thought about how Tino said she could stay if she wanted. All she had to do was get a job and pay the bills like a regular person. She thought about when her caseworker said she wasn’t as helpless as she was making herself out to be.

Candace made a decision right then to only depend on herself from then on. If CC came by, that would be cool. But if he didn’t, then so be it. She wouldn’t expect or request anything from him anymore. If Rilla wanted to put his fate in the hands of that lowlife, that was his business.

* * *

On the thirtieth, Candace took her last final and left the community college in a chipper mood. She’d just completed her first semester of college and was confident she made all A’s. She was also seven and a half months pregnant with a stack of bills and no income, but that didn’t spoil her day.

When she got home, Candace begged Trisha to carry her television to the car for her. In addition to the television, Candace took her biggest herringbone necklace, a pair of diamond earrings, and Rilla’s DVD player to the pawn shop. She was glad for the excess. All together, she got only two hundred and fifty dollars, but that was fifty more than she needed. She got a money order and paid the rent one day early.

* * *

When CC showed up later that evening, Candace was poised to tell him his ill-gotten gains were not needed, but CC wanted to get a few things off his chest as well.

“Why the hell you tell Rilla I’m trying to take his money?”

He stood in her doorway wearing a black shirt with camouflage pants. His Afro was freshly braided down to his scalp. He’d grown out a full goatee by now. His face was a mask of unbridled animosity.

Candace took a cautionary step back into her apartment. “I didn’t tell Rilla that.”

“Bitch, quit lying.” CC took a step towards her, but Candace held her ground. If he wanted in, he would have to go through her.

“You gonna let me in?” he asked.

“What do you want?” Candace wore jeans and a Fruit of the Loom sweater, but she still had the chills.

“You talking about you need some money,” CC said. He reached into his pocket and produced a wad of twenties. “Here’s the two hundred. Go get that duffle bag.”

But Candace still didn’t move. “I already paid the rent,” she said defiantly. “I don’t need your money.”

A slight smile tweaked the corner of CC’s mouth. The smile never reached his eyes. The two hundred disappeared back into his pocket. “Cool,” he said. “Then go get that bag.”

“Rilla said that bag was worth a thousand dollars.”

“I’ma get it for him.”

“Why don’t you give me the money now?” Candace suggested. “Then you can keep whatever you make when you sell it.”

CC’s smile went away as quickly as it came. “Ho, I’m not finna give you no thousand dollars.”

“Then I’m keeping the bag,” Candace said. Her heart punched through her chest. She knew she was on the verge of tears again, but she also knew she had to take a stand. Sometime,
somehow,
she had take control of her life.

“What you gon’ do with it?” CC asked. His face was set in a threatening scowl.

“I’m going to give it to Rilla.”

“Didn’t he tell you to give it to me?”

“Yeah, but he said you were going to give me some money, too. I waited a whole week and you never came. I took care of it myself.”

“What you do? Sell some ass?”

Candace was the one with the scowl now. “I’m finna go lay down.” She put her hand on the doorknob, but CC didn’t step back to let her close it.

“Gimme that bag,” he said. He looked like he was willing to do anything to get it, but Candace didn’t think he’d go as far as attacking a pregnant woman.

“I’m gonna hold it for Rilla,” she said. She gave him the sternest look she could muster, but she also felt her eyes watering up. CC must have seen it, too. His face softened. He smiled and nodded.

“You a stupid-ass bitch. He need that money to get out, so it’s yo fault if he stay in there, you dumb ho.”

Candace lost it. He face screwed up and the tears flowed anew.

Dammit! Am I ever going to stop crying?

“Why are you doing this?”
she bawled.
“Why are you talking to me like this?”

“ ’Cause I can’t stand you,” CC said matter-of-factly. “You a ho. I hate that my nigga so sprung on yo ass.”

“
I’m not
,” Candace said.

“Yeah, you is. You think I forgot about that shit that happened?”