Vera licked her lips. “I see why Candy fuckin' you.”
“Can I have that video now?”
“Not yet. You still owe me a few more sessions.” Vera laughed.
“What? You trying to blackmail me?”
“I'm trying to show you a good time. Besides, I got copies of that video everywhere. If
you really want one, I'll e-mail it to you,” Vera snapped.
I'm fucked.
Vanessa was trying to think of some strategy to solve her problem. But she
felt helpless, stuck under Vera's control. Perhaps once Vera grew tired of her, she would
free Vanessa from the shackles of the video.
“I suggest you keep this between us,” Vera said.
“Is that the only video that you have of me and Candy?”
“Yup, but I can't speak for Candy. There's no telling how many times she got you on tape.”
Vanessa wondered if there were other videos of her and Candy? Were there videos of their threesomes with Rich? She could hardly believe that Candy had actually recorded their
most intimate moments. She decided the best way to find out about Candy’s secretive actions was
through Vera.
“Why do you think she taped us?” Vanessa asked.
“She's a freak and she's slick. Take your pick.”
“What else can you tell me about Candy that I don't know?”
Hours later, Rich was lying on the couch on his balcony. He was reading the business
plan Candy had given him for her proposed hair care company. From the corner of his eye he noticed Vanessa walk onto
the balcony. “What's up, baby?”
Vanessa bent down and kissed him, then laid down on the couch beside him. She rested
her head on his chest.
“It's kind of late,” Rich asked. “How’d the book signing turn out?”
“Not too good. I went by Mimi's afterwards. How 'bout you? What are you reading?”
“Just going over Candy's business plan.” Rich tossed it on the end table.
“Exactly how long have you known Candy?” Vanessa asked.
“I think I was about fourteen when I met her, so we talking almost twenty-one years.”
“Long time.”
“Yeah. Candy was always a thinker, calculated. She had a lot of hustlers throwing
money at her over the years.”
“You love her?”
“I'm fallin'.”
“Sometimes I question how much I can take from her or you.”
“Example.”
“You cheating on me. Candy betraying me somehow. How much could you take?”
“I would give y'all a second chance. You can get over once, but twice is a wrap. Rich
was mouthing what he
felt
made sense. It was a good theory, but he didn't know how practical it
was. Certain violations could not be tolerated even once. But that was in a normal relationship. Rich had something unique going with Candy and Vanessa—a blessing that was hard to come by. There was really no telling how much he would tolerate to keep two beautiful women who cared about him under his roof.
Rich and Vanessa talked for about an hour, discussing issues of trust and love. Rich was
still finding his way through experience. Trust and love were new concepts he had never
anticipated having to deal with before he met Vanessa.
“Rich,” Vanessa said, gazing into his eyes. “You know I trust you like I trust myself, right?”
“I wanna hope so.”
“Promise me that you won't ever break that trust.”
“You got my word. But where is all this coming from?”
“My book signing. I had a conversation with a guy who bought the book.”
“Oh yeah?”
“He was moved that my book deals with issues of trust and love and stuff.”
“I got you.” Rich held Vanessa tighter, realizing how fragile she was. He would never do anything that would crush her. Vanessa and Candy were all he needed and all he wanted.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A
couple of weeks after Candy met with Domingo, she was watching him step out of a
Lexus GS400 in the same place he had exited the Acura truck on the corner of Fulton Street and
Flatbush Extension. Once again, he looked around like an awestruck tourist in Times Square. Then he walked inside the McDonald's.
“Hey, Mamita.” He leaned down to kiss Candy.
She quickly flipped up her hand between their faces as his lips almost met hers. “I see you're
horny
and
persistent.”
“You really want something that's hard to get, you gotta go harder.” He adjusted his
gold-framed Gucci specs.
Candy snickered. “I meant to ask you something last time.”
“You don't have to ask me. Of course, you can have my baby.” Domingo smiled.
“For real. Why when you get out a car, you always look around like you lost or something?”
“Same reason I never leave home without a gun and a condom.”
Candy shrugged her shoulders. “What's that supposed to mean?”
“Dudes is grimey and you can't trust hos. This ain't Harlem, Mamita. They respect the hustle up there. In Brooklyn, every ten steps you take, you gotta look over your shoulder. There's always some grimey bastard tryin’ to rob you, or some ho trying to set you up.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“It's gonna cost you an extra kiss.” Domingo grinned.
“I'm gonna do your horny little ass a favor and hook you up with one of the young girls that come in my shop.”
Domingo's eyes squinted. “Shop?”
“I own a beauty salon.”
“Say it ain't so, Mamita.”
“On Lennox. Right in the middle of Harlem.”
Domingo gasped, shaking his head. “You work in a room full of pussy all day and you
just telling me about it? Instead of sharing, you want all the chocha for yourself.”
Candy laughed. “I got you. Now let's handle this business.” She looked at her watch.
It's ten to eight. Vera should be gone from eight to nine, right?”
“Si, Mamita.”
“You ready to do this?”
“What's that? A joke? Ya boy always ready.”
Candy smiled. “That's what I want to hear.”
“But I told you, we gotta be careful. Vera crazy-ass brothers be ridin’ around the PJs in
this old Taurus. I don't wanna have to gun nobody down 'cause you got us spotted.”
“Just come on,” Candy said, grabbing Domingo's hand and standing. They exited McDonald's and hopped into Candy's BMW. Domingo couldn't take his eye off the car since he first got a glance of it. “I see you like this M-Three,” Candy said.
“The first time I saw you in it in front of my PJs, I was gonna jack you.”
“Oh yeah?” Candy sucked her teeth. “What stopped you?”
“You stepped out in those high heels with them tig old bitties with that big old ass. I been in love ever since.”
Candy shook her head, grinning. “You got a smart mouth.”
“Better that than a stupid one, right?”
Candy laughed to herself. She enjoyed Domingo's charisma. She parked at the end of his
block and he told her to stay put. He was going to make sure Vera was not home. If she wasn't, he would break in, then call Candy. She nodded as he spoke. The plan sounded logical.
“I'm a have a hot bath and some scented candles waiting for you with a little R. Kelly in the background, okay?” Domingo licked his lips and smiled.
“Get your horny ass out my car.” Candy watched Domingo bop up the block and go
inside Vera's building. Five minutes later, he called her and told her it was safe to come.
Minutes later, she was lugging her Louis Vuitton knapsack into Vera's apartment as Domingo opened the door.
“Welcome to the Plaza Hotel.” He waved his arm with a smile, like a proud doorman.
Domingo closed the door when Candy stepped past him. “Don't touch shit,” he barked.
Candy froze. “What?”
“I don't know if a pretty thing like you can last behind bars.” He tossed her some rubber
gloves. “Plus, you can't have my baby if you playing Spades in a cell on Rikers Island. You might like pussy, but them butches in them cellblocks is vicious.”
“Thanks.” Candy realized how her eagerness had almost jeopardized her freedom.
“What we looking for?”
“Anything that can play a video. Computer, disks, flash drive, phone, iPod, whatever,” Candy said.”
They began invading every crevice of the apartment. Candy started with the living room.
Domingo searched the bedroom. Candy picked up a stack of DVDs and dumped them into her
knapsack. They all had movie labels, but she wanted to make sure she didn’t leave behind the video because it was disguised.
Domingo stepped back into the living room and handed Candy a laptop and some flash
drives. “Hold on.” He raced back into the bedroom and returned with a hard drive and some CD ROMs. He stuffed them into the knapsack.
Candy went into the bedroom to make sure Domingo didn’t leave anything behind. She
trekked through piles of strewn clothes and scattered papers. Domingo had hit the room like a tornado. She scanned the area for a few seconds.
What the hell?
She picked up a copy of Vanessa's book. “To Vera, From Vanessa Denay” was signed on the first page. Next to the book was one of Venessa's beaded bracelets.
Candy was convinced that Vanessa was having an affair with Vera.
Why else would
she autograph a book and leave her bracelets here? She only takes her bracelets off before
we make love.
Candy rationalized that they probably had been involved since shortly after Vera
saw the video then broke up with her. She recalled the time that Vanessa had asked about Vera's sexual performance.
She
probably wanted both me and Vera from the day she saw us together.
Candy finished searching the bedroom, then she ransacked the bathroom and kitchen. The
thought of Vanessa and Vera having sex pushed Candy to focus more on destroying the
apartment than finding videos.
Candy was huffing and puffing when she walked back into the living room with Domingo. She pulled out ten crisp $100 bills from her pocket and handed them to him.
“I like your style, Mamita.” Domingo nodded. “We can do business anytime.”
Candy hurled the knapsack over her shoulder. Then she handed Domingo a card. “Come by my shop so I can hook you up with a PYT like I promised.”
“She gotta look like you or this ain't gonna work, Mamita.” Domingo grabbed his dick
through his True Religion jeans. “I'm a tits and ass man.”
Candy blushed. “I like your little horny ass.”
Vanessa and Mimi were sitting on a bench in Central Park after eating lunch at
Tavern on the Green. For nearly the entire lunch break, Vanessa had been explaining
everything that happened between her and Vera. She mentioned that Vera said she broke up with
Candy because of her infidelity and she was physically abusive. Vera swore that Candy had manipulated her into becoming a lesbian after she became Candy's client. Vera claimed to have been young and naive.
Vanessa told Mimi that she was careful not to show any signs to Candy that she was
aware of the video. She mentioned probing Rich indirectly about Candy's background, but not
finding anything. But, she thought it was interesting that Rich said Candy had always been a
“calculated” person. That word seemed to fit with Vera's depiction of Candy being a predator
that used her shop to hunt new prey. It also explained how she made sure that she had a camera set up during the first time they had sex.
“You wanna know what I think?” Mimi asked.
“Of course.”
“You're caught up. Out of your league.”
“What? You don't understand.”
“And you do?” Mimi chuckled.
“You
came to
me
with this.”
“I know, but—”
Mimi cut her off in mid-sentence. “You're in a relationship with a guy who had half of
Harlem on lock and a chick who turned you out on tape. Now you gettin' blackmailed into eating pussy by some other chick who fell victim.”
Vanessa wanted to admit that she was in love, but Mimi wouldn’t understand. She would need to have experienced the harmony that existed within Vanessa's household. She
needed to know that Rich cried on her shoulder and chose Vanessa as the person to confess that
he was repeatedly molested as a child. She needed to see the light that resonated from Candy's eyes when they gazed at each other before kissing. Vanessa knew that Mimi could not comprehend the language that vibrated from three hearts so in-tune that their beats were synchronized. It was all
of these things that kept Vanessa focused on making her relationship work, in spite of the video.
But she needed to understand the circumstances that preceded the video.
“Why don't you just ask Candy about the video?”
“Then I run the risk of her confronting Vera and the video going public.”
“How you know Vera didn't make the damn video?”
“Vera?”
“She could've been spying on Candy, for all you know.”
“I never thought of that.”
Mimi shook her head and huffed. “I'm a keep it a hundred, Nessa.” She took a deep
breath. “You need to really reevaluate where you at and where you planning on going. Because right now, you in some real soap opera shit that could fuck your whole life up.”
* * *
Vanessa walked into the shop after speaking with Mimi. She was strongly considering the
possibility that Vera had made the video. She planned to question her about it the next time they hooked up. It would be the third time and Vanessa was feeling guiltier each time she thought of being intimate with Vera.
Vanessa greeted Chanel, though it hurt her to humble herself for the sake of the shop.
Chanel had not said anything out of line lately and Vanessa didn’t want to say or do anything to spark any friction.
As the time passed, the shop filled with clients. A rap video flashed on one of the
televisions as the music of 106 & Park blared from the speakers. Vanessa was talking to Candy, when she turned to the front door.
“Domingo.” Candy's eyes lit up.
Everyone in the shop seemed to watch the short teen as he made his presence known and turned his fitted
Yankees cap backwards. He unzipped his butter-soft leather jacket.
“Mamita, what's good?” Domingo smiled.
Candy bent down and hugged him.
“You wanna feel me in your arms but no kiss, right?” Domingo shook his head. “That's
some bullshit.”
Candy laughed and introduced Domingo to everybody in the shop.
Domingo pointed at Leah, then turned back to Candy. “Now this is the real, Mamita. You
fugazy.” Domingo turned back to Leah, finding her laughing. “What's good, Mamita? Como te llama?”
“Me llamo Leah.”
Domingo nodded. He looked Leah over with a sneaky grin.
“She's married,” Candy said. “Not to mention too old for you.”
He turned to Vanessa. “How you doing, my soul sister?” Vanessa giggled.
Chanel said, “You don't wanna mess with her, shorty. Her man run Harlem.”
Domingo shook his head. “He can have Harlem, but he better have a pass when he cross
that bridge, ‘cause I rep BK to the fullest, ya heard?”
“Where you from in Brooklyn?” Chanel probed.
“I'm from Red Hook, ya heard?” He walked over to Chanel, sizing her up. “I know I seen
you in my 'hood too. I don't forget faces.”
“I'm from the East.”
“That's what's up. East New York in the building,” Domingo said. “Since we got this BK thing poppin', we might as well see what else we got in common.”
Chanel grinned. “Tell you what. If you makin' six figures in six years, then you can get down with the Chanel Legacy.”
Domingo turned to Candy. “Give me some of what Chanel sniffin’. Shit, six years and six
figures later, she'll be waving at me when I’m walkin' the red carpet with Zoe Saldana.”
Everyone in the shop laughed.
“He's cute,” Chanel said.
“No, baby. Puppies are cute. Domingo is the flyest motherfucka in Red Hook.”
Candy watched Domingo and Chanel go at it with a humorous war of words. She could see the women in the shop falling in love with Domingo. Even Chanel liked his style. Hours drifted by until it was almost closing time. Domingo was still hanging out. Chanel
had introduced him to one her clients, a girl two years older than him.
Rich walked into the shop and greeted the women and kissed Vanessa.
“So that's ol’ boy, huh?” Domingo asked Candy.
Rich turned toward him.
“Chanel told me you run Harlem,” said Domingo.
“She say whatever come to her mind,” Rich responded. “She don't know no better.”
Domingo's eyes landed on Candy as he nodded. “Smart man. I like him already.”
“Rich, that's Domingo, my little homie from Red Hook,” Candy said.
Red Hook.
The name of the neighborhood had bypassed Vanessa's ears when Domingo first said it to Chanel earlier. But now she wondered if Domingo knew Vera. But it wouldn't have meant much to Vanessa anyway. She needed the scoop on Candy.
About an hour later, Rich was inside of his penthouse office. He ran his hand over his cornrows, sitting in the swivel chair behind his desk. He was facing the screen of his computer. Rich had been downloading some new Beanie Sigel tracks from iTunes, when he decided to
browse internet. “Author Vanessa Denay Gets Freaky,” he read the title of a video after
clicking on a link. His heart sunk into his chest. He slammed his hand on his desk and sighed.
“Vanessa, Candy, come here!” he yelled.