Kismet (Beyond the Bedroom Series) (8 page)

It was an hour before my alarm clock would go off and I refused to sit around with thoughts of Dre for another hour. I got up, got myself together for work and by the time my alarm did go off, I was 20 minutes away from walking out of the door.

I headed to Starbucks for a Frappuccino and cream cheese danish and then headed to work. Once I made it to work, I decided to order Stephanie flowers to thank her for picking up my slack for the last four days. She had completed every task I requested to be done and went beyond my request by also setting up the conference room for my meeting.

Stephanie had the PowerPoint set up on the computer, all the slides were numbered and organized, and she even supplied me with a cheat sheet which highlighted all the crucial points I needed to make. She had made my presentation easy for me. All I had to do was present the information and pray that it was enough to close the deal.

Stephanie had come to my office to thank me for the flowers. She said my apartment complex in Tennessee had left me four messages since eight o’clock this morning, which was seven Tennessee time. I wondered what they could have wanted, but I needed to eat and get familiar with my presentation.

It wasn’t like them to call me on the job. Even when they had to do maintenance work, they called my cell phone. Maybe they attempted to call my disconnected number.

I had gone five hours without thinking about Dre. The only reason he crossed my mind now was because the apartment employees kept calling me and my move was an attempt to erase him. I decided to return their call as soon as the meeting was over.

The meeting started promptly at 2 PM. If it went smoothly, it should be over by 3:30 PM at the latest. Everything was going as planned; the prospective clients seemed impressed with the layout of their financial data. It was almost 3:30 PM and I had every question answered.

I was in the middle of telling them about our firm that was located in California, which would handle their account, when the receptionist, Darlene, from the first floor walked in with two male detectives from the Atlanta Police Department. One was short and stocky, the other, an older gentleman. They were both black.

I saw Darlene nod her head in my direction and when the officers walked past her, she looked at me and shrugged her shoulder as to say she had no clue what they wanted.

“Are you Savannah James?” Asked the older of the two detectives. As he moved closer, he looked like Don Cornelius from Soul Train. It was hard not to smirk as I thought of him stopping in his tracks and saying, “Love, peace and soul.” While I was daydreaming, the detectives were still waiting on a response.

“Yes, I am, and I’m in the middle of a meeting; how may I help you two gentlemen?” I don’t know if the stockier detective was mute, but he never said a word.

“Mrs. James, we need to speak with you about an incident that occurred at you rental property in Tennessee.” I jumped to my feet quickly. There was no way I was going to let Dre fuck me out of the deal with these clients. It had to have involved him, I was sure of it.

“It’s Ms. James and, of course.” I excused myself from the meeting and left them in Stephanie’s hands. She was more than capable of handling the meeting; my concern was the future client thinking I had some criminal investigation pending.

Everyone in the office was standing on the other side of the door when I walked out with the two detectives, including Mr. Williams.

He was known to be nosey, but it never bothered me because it wasn’t my business he had his nose in until now. He stopped the detectives and introduced himself as my direct superior. Without a bit of shame in his voice, he asked what was going on.

Detective Soul Train reached to shake his hand in return and then said, “There was a break-in at her home in Tennessee and we need to get a statement from her. She is the victim, like I’m sure you had already assumed.”

Looking hot under the collar, he responded. “Of course, of course, let me know if we can be of any help to you, Ms. James.”

I was so glad that was over. Now the entire building, all 20 floors would look at me like a victim instead of the criminal I was. I hadn’t even been told what they wanted with me, but I knew I was guilty of whatever I was accused of. I lead the way to my office and offered them both a seat.

“Ms. James, we received a call from Nashville Metropolitan Police Department requesting us to search your condo looking for an Andre Burns or drug paraphernalia. Both Atlanta PD and Tennessee investigators have searched your homes from top to bottom as we were warranted to do and have uncovered nothing but a fourth of a cigar stuffed with marijuana. You can answer our questions now or at the police station in the presence of your lawyer.”

Shaking my head no, I spilled my guts before he had gotten the first question out of his mouth. I started at the gas station and ended with changing my telephone number and address. The mute detective recorded my statement and the other took notes. “So, where is he now?”

Did this motherfucker listen to anything I just said? “I don’t know, he went his way and I went mine.” He handed me his card and said they would be in touch, but he recommended I got in contact with the Nashville Police Department before they got in contact with me.

I was still in shock when Stephanie came in. “What did they want with you? Are you okay? Who broke into your house?”

I see Mr. Williams wasted no time with telling everyone what happened. I couldn’t think of anything to say back. I knew both of my homes had been destroyed. I had watched “Cops” enough to know what I would be facing when I made it home.

I wanted to cry, but that is a sign of weakness. “Stephanie, can I stay with you for the weekend?”

Without asking another question, she said, “Yes.” I told her we would be leaving now and to go grab her purse.

Since we would be together until Monday, I left my car that had also been searched in the parking garage at work and rode with her. On the ride to her house, I told her what happened as if she was the police.

“Hell naw, Savannah! We going to your condo and I’ll have a cleaning crew meet us there.” Her nickname should have been Google because when we got there, her sister, Tracey, and the cleaning crew was already there, working. I had a new front door, which meant the other must have been kicked in.

“When we got here, they was putting it up, the guy said your key still works they put the old locks on this door.” When Tracey finished, she pointed to the new door frame I had. My house was a thousand times worse than I imagined.

The police had knocked over everything, even my refrigerator. They had cut every box of cake mix and bags of flour I had. My pictures were off the wall, clothes from my bedroom in the living room and these motherfuckers had even searched my fish tank because my Oscars were swimming around in a punch bowl. I had seen enough.

Stephanie demanded that my house was finished tonight and told Tracey to stay there for the weekend just in case they came back. She paid everyone and ordered them pizza. “You ready to go?”

I felt like a zombie, but I followed her out the house. Stephanie was running the shots and I was going to follow her lead.

“Tomorrow, after breakfast, we are heading to Tennessee so you can speak with the police, and then we are calling a moving company to get your shit and follow us back here. You can put your things in my storage until you’re ready to get them. I’m headed to the Liquor Bank and I’m about to ease your mind!”

She dug into her purse and held up what looked like two ounces of weed. “You thought I was going to leave him sitting at Houston’s waiting on you? I keep telling you I got your back!”

Damn, she had met up with Marcus to pick up my weed. I had forgotten all about him with everything going on today. I was able to get out a, “Thank you,” but she talked right over it.

“I’ll stop and get some cigars while we out, you’re in good hands. Relax.” After her many stops for food, liquor, cigars and movies, we finally made it to her house. She had a nice, two-bedroom house outside of Stone Mountain. The area wasn’t all that great, but whenever I missed home, it was my comforter.

I hated to say it but after the shit I went through today, home was looking a lot better. Even though South Central was a rough place to live, niggas went down by themselves; they weren’t trying to take nobody with them. The no snitch rule was one rule everybody went by and there were consequences if you didn’t.

“Come eat something before you get on this liquor.” I joined her in the kitchen, sat on her counter and murdered my food. Stephanie knew where all the good, home-style food spots were, no matter what city and state we were in. She had ordered catfish and spaghetti from a little spot near her house and man, it was good. When I looked up, I was rubbing my sliced bread across my plate trying to get the last taste of spaghetti off it.

I rolled up a blunt while she made the drinks and then we smoked in the kitchen. Weed was really a cure-all for me because I started feeling like myself instantly. I got up and started rubbing on her booty while she hit the blunt.

“I see you feeling better.” I laughed and then put her on the counter and licked all over her neck. I thought she would stop me. Instead, she swallowed her glass of Henn and puffed on the blunt. Before she let the smoke from her lungs out, I put my mouth to hers and kissed her until the smoke entered my lungs. She placed the blunt in my mouth and took her pants off. I griped her with my free hand until she stood on her tippy toes to get back on the counter.

I continued to pet her cat as I drank my liquor while she held the glass to my lips. Handing her the blunt back, she inhaled as I slid my fingers deep into her, while twisting and turning my hand.

“Damn, you know I like that,” she moaned. So I went deeper, eventually those words got stuck in her throat and wrapped around a moan.

“Who has been petting my cat?” I knew she hadn’t been sleeping with anybody because I kept her too busy to and she was in her last year of college. She didn’t have time to meet new people; I just wanted to hear her response

“You know I don’t have time to mess with nobody; I got a demanding boss.” As soon as those words shot out of her mouth, I went deeper and she gushed all down my arm. I laid her back on the counter, making her hair rest in the sink. I licked every bit of her juices and then ate her. She was shaking so badly her knees clapped together like they were giving me a round of applause.

I stepped away from her to where I was completely out of the kitchen and told her to roll up. After the next blunt and three more major gushes, I called it quits, made her shower and she went straight to sleep.

My nightmares were worse that night. This time, I was in jail for aiding and abetting Dre. I woke up in a cold sweat. Stephanie was already awake and getting things together for our trip to Nashville. I didn’t want her to know about the dreams, so I rolled up and smoked the memories of the dream away.

Before hitting the interstate to face the three hour drive to Nashville, we went to my condo. If I wouldn’t have seen it with my own eyes I wouldn’t have known it was ever kicked in. It was just the way I left it yesterday morning except for the new door. I gave Tracey my house key just in case she had to leave then we hit the interstate.

On the ride down to Nashville, I learned more about Stephanie then I had ever known. She had never been sexual with a man. Not because she was a lesbian, she just never connected with a man long enough to sleep with him. She had dated many, but something had always prevented them from having sex. I told her it might just be her calling to have sex with women. In the back of my mind, I was thinking the first man that gives her some dick will have her sprung.

She also told me that she had dated a soft stud in Nashville for a while. They would make trips back and forth to see each other but, after a while, the sex got boring and she called it quits with the manly woman.

Stephanie told story after story and I was glad she did because the ride to Nashville was the shortest I had ever experienced, plus the fact she drove 85mph the entire time. We made it downtown and parked. I asked her to stay by my side when she suggested waiting in the car for me.

When we walked in, the officer behind the counter checked us out. “How can I help you two ladies?” He was a young white officer with some of the prettiest blue-green eyes I had ever seen. He was tall, about 6”3, and nicely built.

“I need to speak with a detective about an incident that happened at my apartment in Bellevue.” He took down my name and address and then walked toward the rear.

When he came back, he said I would be speaking with Detective Thomas and she would be with me shortly. I waited 45 minutes before the detective called me back.

She insisted that Stephanie not come back with me and we speak in private. How private are you really when you’re being videotaped with someone watching live on the other end?

She recorded my story, asked a few questions, and then made me point out Dre in a picture lineup. There was a picture of Mike, too, but I didn’t point him out. Looking at the other three pictures, I assumed they were involved in some kind of way, too.

Detective Thomas dismissed me, but I wanted to get confirmation that I wasn’t in any trouble. I didn’t want any more warranted searches or on the job pop-ups.