Derrick was supposed to be there at 3:00, and it was now twenty-five after. I wondered if he was making me wait as a punishment for kicking his ass out the other night When I talked to him on the phone, I played it as cool as I could. I didn’t beg him to come meet me, but I also didn’t give him shit. I just told him we had a lot of things to talk about, and we should get together in a neutral place to decide how we were gonna handle our “little issues.” He was so damn cocky.
When Derrick finally walked in at 3:30, I put my drink down.
“What’s up?” he asked. “You been here long?”
My mouth was dry, and my mind was a complete blank all of a sudden.
“I hate you,” were the only words I could get out.
I wanted to slap him right about then, but I pulled myself back together and did my little act for the benefit of all the officers who were eavesdropping. Actually, there was no acting necessary here. Tears formed in my eyes as I remembered the images I saw on that video.
“I know, Jasmine. I never meant for you to see that tape.”
“You never meant for me to see it? How ’bout you never meant to do what you did with my best friend? That shit should’ve never happened.”
“C’mon, baby.” He tried to win me over with one of his puppy-dog looks. “You know I never wanted to hurt you. I made a little mistake, that’s all. Can’t we just forgive and forget?” He reached out for my hand. I pulled it away.
“Hell, no. I ain’t forgiving and I damn sure ain’t forgetting. I just wanted to know why. Why would you do this to me after everything I’ve done for you? Why would you fuck Sabrina?”
“Look, Jazz, I’m sorry about what happened with your friend, but it’s partly your fault.”
“My fault?” I shouted. The cops at the next table shifted in their seats to remind me where I was and what I was supposed to be doing.
“Yeah, your fault.” His dimples retreated into a hard frown. “Everything woulda been cool if you would’ve been a little more open in the bedroom. And you shouldn’t talk so much to your damn friend.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you should have never told Sabrina how big my johnson is. That woman was coming over every day, talking about she just wanted to see if you were lying. Finally, I just showed it to her.” My stomach lurched when I heard that. Shit, I knew Sabrina was a ho, but I thought our friendship was sacred ground.
“Oh, so when she saw it you just fucked her right then and there, huh?”
“No. I fucked her after she told me you said I was too rough. She said
she
liked it rough. After that, it was a wrap.” He got up from his chair. “Like I said before: you talk too much, Jazz. Don’t you know you never tell your friends what you’re working with in bed?”
I shuddered. There was some truth to what he was saying, but it hurt to realize it.
“Now, are you gonna let me come back home, or what? ’Cause I got shit to do. I ain’t got time to be baby-sitting you and your little tantrum.”
I thought I was so in love with this man, but it was so clear now that he’d never really cared about me. Sure, he bought me lots of things. And at one time I guess I confused that with loving me. But Derrick was never concerned about my heart. He kept me on a leash, and I was willing to do anything for him. He let his baby’s momma disrespect me more times than I wanted to count. And I was a fool. I stayed by his side, gave up my own life to wait for his ass for three years. Now here I was, scared as shit, trying to keep my own self out of jail. Well, those days were over. I was ready to live my life on my own terms. I was ready to say good-bye to Derrick. And I was doing it for me, not for any cop, not for the lawyers. Just for me.
“No. I’m not gonna let you come back home.”
It felt so good to tell him that. And I couldn’t believe his response. He didn’t fight at all. He reached into his pocket, pulled out my keys, and slid them across the table to me.
“Your loss,” was all he said as he left.
I sat alone at that table for five of the longest minutes of my life. I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there, but I had to get the word from the cops. Even the undercover couple next to me were still playing their part, pretending they didn’t know I existed. Finally, my lawyer came through the front door, and he was smiling. I felt like I could breathe at last.
“He’s gone, Jasmine. You can relax now,” Robert told me.
“Did he go to the car?” I asked.
“No.” My heart sank when he said that. But then he explained, “While he was in here with you, he had one of his friends get the drugs out of your trunk.”
“What? Does that mean he’s not gonna be arrested?” I was so nervous.
“No one’s been arrested yet. The friend was waiting outside when Derrick left. Derrick got into his car, and the undercover car is following them now. They’re hoping that at some point Derrick will take the drugs into his possession so they can get him.”
“So what do we do now?” I asked. “I thought I was gonna be done as soon as I talked to him.”
“Your part is done for now. Now we just have to wait. As soon as I know something, I’ll call you.”
“Does this mean the charges are dropped?”
“Technically, no. We have to go in front of a judge to have that done. And the Commonwealth won’t do that until they have Derrick in custody.”
“Damn.” My shoulders sagged. “How long do I have to wait?”
“Hopefully, not long. Try to relax.”
Easier said than done. There was no way I was gonna relax if I thought Derrick was still out there. What if his friend kept the drugs after all this? Then they couldn’t pick him up. Might even stop trailing him. For all I knew, he’d come looking for me if he decided he didn’t like the outcome of our little conversation today. I walked to my car feeling like I had a lead weight tied around my neck.
Stephanie sat on her couch with me for almost two hours when I got back to her place. The kids were off at the day care center, so I had her undivided attention. It didn’t matter, though. It’s not like I could even talk. I was so upset by this point, I just sat and cried until the phone finally rang.
“Jasmine? This is Robert. He took the drugs back to Wendy’s house and they got him.”
My knees gave out and I grabbed the couch before I ended up on the floor.
“Thank God.”
“With what they found in that house, they arrested him and Miss Wood.” That put a little smile on my tearstained face.
“So does that mean I’m free?”
“Yes, Miss Johnson. It means they’re dropping the charges. First thing tomorrow, I’ll appear before a judge to finalize everything.”
I started crying—this time, tears of relief. Derrick was going away, and it was time to start my life over.
40
Dylan
“Child, where have you been? We almost finished eating.” Big Momma scolded Stephanie as she walked into my dining room and took a seat.
“I told you this morning I had to drop the kids off at Travis’s,” Stephanie replied as she looked around the table at all the food. “Lord, this stuff smells good. Who cooked it?”
“Dylan,” Big Momma answered. “Can you believe he cooked all this food? And Stephanie, you got to try them ribs. The meat just falls off the bone.”
“I don’t see no ribs.” Stephanie frowned.
“There’s some in the kitchen. I’ll go get you some. Anyone else want ribs?”
Big Momma headed to the kitchen as she offered everyone a second helping. Not one person other than Stephanie took her up on the offer. We were already beyond stuffed after tons of hamburgers, hot dogs, spare ribs, and other grilled goodies. I’d invited Jasmine and her family over for a barbecue as a way of thanking them for their kind treatment the past few months. Thank goodness I’d finished most of the cooking right before it started raining, but we had to eat in the house.
Since Jasmine had gotten out of jail, her family had done their best to thank me for getting her such a good lawyer. Both Stephanie and Big Momma had gone overboard to make me feel like one of the family. And Big Momma didn’t hide the fact that she hoped I’d be a member of the family through marriage someday. She couldn’t go five minutes without complimenting me on something or telling me what a good grandson-in-law I’d be. And from what Jasmine told me, she was getting the same pro-Dylan speech just as often.
But Jasmine and I were still taking things slow. She’d gotten rid of Derrick, and I hadn’t seen or heard from Monica since she disappeared from the hospital. I didn’t give a damn about Monica, but I spent lots of time worrying about the baby. I had Joe on the case, so I wasn’t worried. If Monica was in Petersburg, sooner or later he’d find her. In the meantime, Jasmine had become a great listener whenever I needed her. And I continued to do the same for her as she worked through her feelings about the whole situation with Derrick. There was no doubt that I had strong feelings for Jasmine, and she felt the same for me. If her family had anything to say about it, we’d be on our way down the aisle already.
But we’d both been seriously hurt by our past lovers, and neither one of us saw a reason to rush into anything until our heads and our hearts were straight. We were content to spend as much time together as possible but still let our relationship grow at its own pace. Sure, I knew that if things continued the way they were going, I would be giving her a ring in the not-so-distant future. But I didn’t share that information with Stephanie, or she and Big Momma would start picking out names for our firstborn child.
As for Stephanie, she was happy to be meddling in our relationship, since she didn’t have one of her own. Actually, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. She and her sister had developed a much closer bond than they’d ever had before. Stephanie honestly seemed to be interested in keeping her sister from making the same mistakes she had made. And in that respect, she was trying to make the best of the damage that had been done to her family after she stepped out on Travis.
Not long after she moved out of Travis’s place, her daughter’s father, Malek, left town again. He went back to D.C., this time with a girl Stephanie couldn’t stand, named LaKeisha Nixon. Stephanie seemed so relieved to have him gone, and her family had actually hoped that would be the deciding factor to getting her and Travis back together. But by that time, Travis had moved on, started a new relationship, and seemed pretty adamant about being through with Stephanie.
From the way Jasmine described her, the old Stephanie would have tried to manipulate her way back into Travis’s life. But she didn’t. She worked with him peacefully, to figure out a way that the kids could get plenty of time with both of them. He got to see the kids twice a week, and they stayed with him every other weekend. Stephanie actually seemed satisfied with the arrangement, and hadn’t tried to make any problems for Travis and his new woman. Her family was very proud of her, and they made sure to tell her as often as she could stand to hear it. Yeah, all around, things were headed in the right direction for the Johnson girls.
“Come ’ere and give me a kiss.” Jasmine wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into the hall as I walked out of the dining room. I was more than happy to do as she asked. I gave her a quick kiss and she peeked around the corner, pretending to be nervous.
“I better be careful,” she joked. “Your girlfriend Big Momma might get jealous if she knew I was doing this.” She pressed her lips against mine and we kissed passionately until we heard footsteps.
Big Momma walked into the hall and we started to laugh.
“Mmm-hmm, what y‘all up to?” she smirked. “Don’t y’all be doing all that kissing and hugging around me unless y’all getting married some time soon.” Like I said, Big Momma took every opportunity she got to put in her vote for a quick marriage.
“Big Momma, why don’t you leave those two alone?” Stephanie chimed in from the dining room. “Can’t you see they’re trying to get their groove on?”
“That’s just what I’m sayin’. If they wanna act like that, they should hurry up and get married.”
I had to laugh at her persistence, but the phone rang.
“I’ll get it,” Stephanie offered. “Y’all keep on doin’ your thing out there in the hall” She got up and headed for the kitchen. Jasmine and I went back into the dining room, but before I could sit down, Stephanie called me to the phone. I gave Jasmine another quick kiss and headed to the kitchen to take the call.
“Hello?”
“Dylan, this is Ron Burns” It was the police officer who’d helped me out the night I was picked up in the crack house.
“Hey, Ron, what’s up? Everything all right?”
“Well, I’m not sure. Joe was telling me a while ago that you’ve been trying to find your son.”
“Yeah. Do you know something?” My heart jumped. Maybe there was finally some news about the baby.
“We just picked up your ex for possession.”
“Monica? She’s there now?” I hadn’t heard any news about her in so long, I was starting to think she’d left town.