“Fine, just fine,” I grumble as I walk to the building.
Once inside I spot him immediately. I turn my back to him before he sees me and walk up to the bar where I am greeted by a real life amazon who borrowed her clothes from the motorcycle man in The Village People, except her chaps are assless and she doesn’t have a pornstash, or a fucking top on for that matter.
“What’s your kink?” she asks in an Italian accent as she pours me a shot that I haven’t even ordered.
“My kink?” I ask.
“Yes darling, what gets you hot?”
“Dick,” I say taking the shot and tossing it back. “Big dick.”
“Hmm, I would love to strap one on for you,” she licks her lips.
“If I wanted fake dick I’d have stayed home and fucked myself,” I snap and she laughs.
“Go, go venture through this room and into the play room there are real dicks of all sizes. But be careful,” she warns.
Yeah sure I will, I think as I push the shot glass forward. “I’ll take another, make it a double.”
She pours me a shot and after I toss it back she pours another.
“How much?” I ask digging into my purse.
“Sexy bitches like you, drink for free.”
“Is that so?” She nods, I shrug and now I decide I kind of like this place.
I feel my phone vibrate and I pull it out of the trench coat pocket. It’s him.
@petepiper: You look incridlby sexy in that coat. I hope you’re bare underneath.
HotBitch4U: You spelled incredibly wrong fuckhead.
I turn around and walk toward him. He stands and looks around. He knows he’s done. I snap a picture and the look he gives me is not a fucking welcoming one.
I sit down opposite him and lean back in my chair.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I have a date with some douchebag who sure as shit shouldn’t be dating anyone but the sweetest most faithful girl on the planet.”
He starts to walk around the table. “Yeah well she won’t fucking believe you.”
“She can see it with her own eyes.”
He leans in close to me; the look on his face is murderous. “She knows you’re nothing but a cock hungry little cunt who can’t get a man.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” I shake my head.
“Why do you think she hasn’t been around you or that other fucking whore?”
“You talking about me little Petie?” Macey says from behind him.
“Pete?” Stephanie looks shocked. “What are you doing here?”
“He thought he had a date with Hot Bitch For You, a girl he met on Tindered,” Macey says and shoves him back so he falls into the chair.
“She’s full of shit babe, the guys dragged me here and-”
“Where are the guys?” I ask.
“They’re on their way,” he hisses.
“And this?” I hold up my phone and he bats it away and the damn thing falls into a glass of beer.
“Oh sorry, my bad Kat,” he says and stands. “You wanna tell me what you’re doing here Stephanie. This is no place for a lady.”
“I came to meet Kat’s date.” Stephanie looks around like a deer in headlights and I hate that she is confused. I hate that we blindsided her.
“I’m getting you out of here,” he says reaching for her hand.
I pull her back. “We saw him on Tindered. We did this to show you because, well–“
“She’s full of shit Stephanie,” he says but his voice has changed and he seems to be pleading.
“Why would you do that to me? If it’s true?” she asks me. Me and not him.
“Seeing it will make it easier to believe. I promise you it will Stephanie. We can go now. We can leave and go and-”
“Fine.” Pete throws his hands in the air. “I did agree to meet someone, but you did this. Tell me you haven’t done it to me when you’re out with them? God Steph, you hurt me bad two weeks ago. So you did this.”
“I never cheated on you, never,” she cries.
“Good, thank you. God, let’s get out of here. Let’s fix this. Baby you and me okay? You and me,” he says grabbing her up and pulling her against him.
I see her head nod as it’s buried in his chest. He starts walking toward the door.
Hell no!
“Stephanie, don’t. You don’t have to go with him. Come with us,” I plead.
She looks up at me and she is shattered. “Is this because I didn’t tell you the truth about your father’s accident?”
Her words hit me like a slap in the face. “You know better than that.”
“I told you she was a bitch,” Pete says tucking her in tighter.
“Don’t,” she snaps at him and his face changes from way too comfortable, to what he actually was. A man who just got his hand caught in the cookie jar.
“Let’s go,” he whispers and she does, she fucking walks to the door with him.
“Fuck that,” I say and walk toward the door, Macey hot on my heels.
One big paw reaches out and grabs me by the elbow. “Let her go Kat.”
I yank my elbow free and keep walking. Then the bastard grabs me around the waist with one arm, Macey with the other.
“Let. Her. Go,” he says.
“Listen Little John,” Macey wiggles free. “She’s pissed at Kat, not me. Back off.”
“But this was your damn idea,” I snap at her.
“No, no it wasn’t. It was his.” She points at Ricco.
“And I’m telling you, I’m right. Leave it alone,” Ricco defends himself.
“Fuck you,” Macey says and looks at me. “Let him give you a ride home, I’ll call you later.”
Before I can say a word she’s gone and Ricco’s arm is still wrapped tight around my waist.
“Let go,” I snap.
He turns me around and pulls me snug against him. “Give her time Kat. She’s gotta get it on her own.”
I don’t say shit, not one word.
I look at the ground because I know me. I know I’m going to spew shit at the one person still standing here and right now I’m in a fuck club with amazon chicks in assless chaps and my two best friends have left me here. Because two people have decided it’s my damn fault that one cheating, fucking asshole is right and I’m wrong.
He steps back and sits on a barstool pulling me by my hips, standing me in the middle of his tree trunk legs.
“Macey’s not pissed at you or me,” he says lifting my chin.
“Oh she is,” I answer back.
“She may think she is, but what she’s doing is playing middle man.”
“Must be nice,” I say pulling my face away from his hand.
“As much of a bitch as she comes off, tell me you believe she is trying to one up you and I’ll tell you you’re lying. You don’t trust easy Kat, and if you trusted her up until now, you gotta believe you can trust her still.”
Again he’s not wrong, but I won’t tell him that.
He turns around and holds up two fingers to the amazon.
“Stephanie was blindsided,” he says handing me a dark draft beer. “When she has a minute to figure it out, and she needs a damn minute, she’ll be back being your friend and my guess is a couple months from now she’ll be thanking you.”
“What makes you think that?” I ask and take a drink.
“Girl’s got love for you. Held a secret from you. Don’t know what it is, don’t need to, but women don’t hold secrets. She did it because she’s got that love for you. That kind of love has to go both ways.”
He lets go of my hip and takes my hand and places it on his knee as he pulls cash out of his pocket and puts it on the bar behind him.
He turns around and looks at my hand that is still there, right where he put it. Then he looks up. “You into this shit? Want to hang out, or you wanna get the hell out of here and go back to your place?”
I shrug and don’t answer and then I finish my beer.
“Are you into this shit?” I ask as I set my glass down.
“Never was into toys but the woman I’m fucking is, so you wanna go play we can.”
When I don’t say anything he stands, finishes his beer, sets the empty on the bar, takes my hand and walks us out the door.
He opens the door to his beast of a truck and motions for me to get in, so I do.
It roars to life when he starts it up.
“You got twenty minutes to put it out of your head. Like I told you earlier I’m staying with you tonight and I can guarantee what I have planned will take your mind off your troubles.”
“Sex is just a distraction, twenty minutes later and you still have to deal with reality,” I say as I buckle my seat belt.
He chuckles. “Twenty minutes? You must have forgotten who you’re talking to.”
Twenty minutes later he’s opening my door with a bag slung over his shoulder, and I’m getting out of his truck.
I unlock the door and he walks in behind me, drops the bag and turns me to face him.
The heat in his eyes makes me take three steps back and hold my hand up stopping him.
His head tilts to the left and he stands there looking at me. “I really need to be alone.”
He takes in a breath and his eyes narrow. “No Kat, right now you need a friend.” I shake my head no and his nods yes. “You do.”
He walks around me and on the tip of my tongue is nothing nice, but then he reaches in my cupboard and grabs a large glass and then he is opening the refrigerator grabbing out a half empty bottle of Red Cat.
He walks over to my couch and sits down. “Come here Kat.”
“I don’t need a friend.”
“Yeah I know, Babe, come over here anyway, sit down, have a drink.”
“Ricco-”
“My old man died in the desert protecting and serving our country. Man was gone more than half my life, it was his duty, would have followed in his footsteps had I not witnessed firsthand what the good old US Army did for the families of the fallen. A few months and we were out. Went from on base housing in Alabama, which was comfortable, to the ghettos in New York City, where mom’s sister lived.”
I don’t know why he’s telling me this, but I don’t say anything to stop him.
“Life sure as fuck would have been different had that not happened, but it did.”
I sigh and walk over to the cushion he is patting next to him and sit.
“That kind of change sucks, losing someone sucks, but it happens. You and me, we both know that. I’m assuming Stephanie doesn’t. Probably hasn’t lost shit in her life and this is gonna fuck with her, but like you and I, she’ll deal, adjust, and become stronger because of it.”
I lean forward, take the glass he’s offering and then I pull my legs up underneath me and take a drink.
For a moment he looks like he is a little uncomfortable but something pushes him to continue on this path he’s on leading to some place he’s leading it to.
“Base housing, compared to the Macy projects in Brooklyn, was like comparing apples to oranges. I was fifteen years old, six foot already, and due to the fact that I was big, intimidating, and confident, everyone thought I was older, and I sure as fuck didn’t tell them any different.
“First day there I was wearing a green bandana, apparently they mistook me for a Trinitario, the prominent Dominican gang in Macy. I went to a party that night, Ma was busy with her sisters, and she was cool with me going out. Fucking place was off the hook.
“Met Louisa there that night, fucked her,” he pauses and scratches his head. “Well she fucked me and ten minutes after I pulled my jeans on, I’m jumped by three bangers. You met them at the service.”
“They jumped you and then show up at-”
“Guys fight it out. A man wins a three on one and well,” he smirks, “men don’t talk about that shit. I wasn’t looking for leadership and I sure as fuck didn’t want to keep the girl, so there was no problem. Men don’t hold grudges.”
“You fucked that bitch then got her sister knocked up?” I ask.
“Years later, yes. Lorna, Natalia’s mom, and Louisa are three years apart in age, but two people couldn’t be any fucking different. Didn’t know when I met her at school the fall proceeding that summer, that she was Louisa’s sister. Didn’t know until after I couldn’t stop it from happening.”
“Stop what?” I ask.
“Falling for a good girl,” he shrugs.
“I don’t understand.”
“Never saw her outside of school, didn’t connect the two, never would have. She was my girl from that day. She didn’t hang out with Trinitario, hell their mom didn’t know Lou was Trinitario. Thought she babysat a lot. She had the money to back her story.”
“How long did you date her before,” I pause and shake my head, “none of my business.”
He raises his eyebrow as if to tell me, he wants me to know and he continues. “Two years. Lou kept it on lockdown. I suspect she knew all along. I mean, Lorna and I were together but school and grades were her thing. I took it seriously. She wanted out of the hood, I wanted the same for her, and for me. Came face to face at her graduation, she went away to college. I didn’t. I’m guessing Lou was jealous since she was still living with her mom and ‘babysitting’. She let shit slip to Lorna, shit went bad. Real bad, she was pissed I kept it from her. I didn’t feel she needed to know.”
“That was stupid.” I shake my head at him.
“I know this now. Loved her, lost her, got her back.” He leans back into the couch. “She completely changed, I still held on wanting to get her out, me out, hell I wanted to take our moms out too. Then she got wrapped up so tight in her sister’s shit I left her, kept fucking her though. She got pregnant, found out Nat was mine after she was born in prison. Shit changed. I changed. I’ve learned a lot about life in the past ten years. Know damn well what I want now, busting my ass to get it. Will keep doing it to keep it.”
RICCO
I was giving her all of this information for a few reasons.
I sit forward and take her empty glass of wine and set it down on her coffee table.
“Stephanie will leave his ass in her time. She’s your friend so she knows all the parts of you you’ve hidden from all of us.”
“What parts are you talking about?” She rolls her eyes.
“You’re a good girl Kat. Sweet even.”
“Pfft.”
“You have secrets and scars just the same as any of us. Share them with people who give a fuck.”
She doesn’t say shit.
“And for fuck’s sake at the shop you say whatever is on the tip of your tongue, outside of that it’s all muted. Sometimes it frustrates the fuck out of me, other times it makes me,” I pause because normally I do have a filter but right now when she’s looking all Kat-at-home, I wanna fuck her.