Relapse: A Novel (7 page)

“It probably had something to do with all those other girls that were running behind you that you had such a problem saying no to,” Beijing teased, still blushing from his compliment.

A few deep lines materialized across his forehead as if he was thinking, then he smiled again. “Oh yeah. I somehow forgot about that.”

They both laughed as they sat down, shared a few stories, then ordered from the silk-clothed menus. He had the surf and turf and she had the crab salad while they shared a bottle of Merlot.

After dinner, Beijing got down to business. She opened the compact briefcase that was on the floor by her feet and removed a small stack of papers, paper-clipped together in a pink folder. “This is the contract from Johnny Wiz that I want you to check out.

“The contract is for a friend of mine,” Beijing continued as he browsed through the paperwork. “As you can see, it’s from the Wizard Entertainment Group. I just want to be sure everything is what it should be.” She watched his brow furrow as Dennard concentrated on one of the pages.

“That Johnny Wiz can be a sneaky bastard when he chooses to be,” Dennard replied after closing the folder and taking a sip of wine, “and from my personal experiences, that’s more times than not. He’s like the Don King of the music biz.”

She laughed at his joke and said, “That’s why I wanted you to check it out.” She leaned a little closer and lowered her voice. “My friend has so many people trying to get in his pocket, I wanted to bring this to someone I know I can trust.”

“I’ll be sure to take a good look at it,” he assured her, tapping the document with his fingertips. “Let me hold on to it for the weekend, and I’ll send it back Monday with any changes I deem pertinent. Okay?”

“Perfect.”

“Good, now how about another bottle of wine?”

“If I didn’t know better, Dennard, I might think you were trying to get me intoxicated.” Beijing chuckled softly.

“That’s what first attracted me to you, B. You almost always know better, but on those occasions when you see fit, you’re not afraid to throw caution out the window.”

“And I always thought you were just head over heels in love with my body,” she said with a smile that was brighter than the four-foot chandelier hanging above the table.

With the help of Dennard and because Beijing had Johnny by the balls, she was able to get Don an advance on his advance. They picked up the sizable check from Johnny’s Atlanta office.

“You are so damn lucky,” Beijing said as they left the office and got into her rental car.

“And now this. The day I met you, girl: that was my lucky day.”

“You got that right,” Beijing said.
I wish I could say the same
, she thought to herself.

“Sit tight, Don,” Beijing said before hopping out of the Lexus, “I’m going to go in and make sure this dude got the bread.”

“You sure you don’t need me to go with you?”

“Naw.” She shook her head. “I got this.” She reassured Don she had the situation under control and had all the backup she needed as she put her white pearl-handled .22-caliber in her bag.

“Aight, gangsta boo. If you ain’t back in ten minutes, I’m coming in.”

“You better not.” She shot him a look and reminded him, “You are the talent.”

Don watched with an admiring eye as she sashayed into the back door of the Atlanta strip club to handle their business with the owner. Beijing had earned Don’s love and his trust. In his eyes, having her in his corner made him a privileged man.

It had been a little over nine months since Beijing had come
into Don’s life, and she had been a godsend. He had no idea what he did to deserve such an angel on his side. There was no doubt, he was a lucky man. Not only was she drop-dead gorgeous, but she had turned his life around. She had skyrocketed his career, taking his fame, bank account, net worth, and heart off to un-imagined heights. It seemed that she waved a wand and damn near fixed every situation in his life—all
except
for one demon, which was beginning to spiral out of control.

What had started out as recreational weekend use of “heron” had now turned into a major habit. The truth was that habit had been in his life long before Beijing ever entered into his world. His addiction went back years, to a time when he was in his mother’s basement with Kim, his then girlfriend of three weeks.

Things were getting kind of hot and steamy and he said to Kim, “Let’s get our freak on.” Don was rubbing his hands together smiling like a thief in an empty jewelry store. “My mother ain’t going to be home until eleven.”

“Shit, you ain’t going to last no more than fifty seconds,” Kim declared. “That shit was kind of cool at first because I know my pussy be the bombastic, but you can leave that quick-draw-and-shoot shit to Billy the Kid and the rest of dem cowboys.”

That hurt Don’s feelings. He was busy picking up his ego off the floor when he noticed that Kim had pulled a ten-dollar bill from her pocketbook and carefully unfolded it.

“What the fuck is that?” Don asked trying to forget about the attack Kim had just made against his manhood.

“Magic powder.” She smiled before scooping a little of the powder off the bill with her fingernail. Kim lifted her nail to her nose to inhale. “This is exactly what you need to keep yo’ shit hard. That is … if you really want to keep fucking this good pussy?”

Ever since that day not only was Don’s nose wide open for what was between Kim’s legs, it was open for the magic powder as well. The funny part was that after a month and a half, Kim was out of
his life but the heroin wasn’t. Though he just about broke his neck to keep the drugs under wraps, since his newfound stardom, the money and the ready availability of the drug caused his use to escalate. He could never share all of the details of his drug use with Beijing. Most of the time he stayed in denial about it, but Beijing wasn’t slow. She knew what was going on with him. She constantly reminded him of the rehab programs that she had researched for him, and he knew that it would make her happy if he pulled it together. He wanted to do whatever he could to make her happy, but something about that dope had a greater hold on him.

Don saw Beijing making her way back over to the car. “So, I got the dough, and Wild-Bill said he’s only two minutes away.”

He motioned for Beijing to look. “There he is.”

Beijing redirected her attention to Bill. “You are late. I’m docking your pay.” She wasn’t intimidated by the big, burly dark-skinned licensed security guy. “It doesn’t make any sense, all those people in there and the people in the front of the club and I got the world’s hottest rapper out in the car, with no hired protection.”

“Sorry, I had to stop and get something to eat.”

“Nigga …” She playfully bopped him upside the head, and then said in a firm tone, “The next time you show up late and have me waiting on you, you are not going to have a job and you can take that to the bank.”

“B, I apologize.”

“Yeah, aight, but I still mean what I say.” Then she turned back to Don and said, “They got a lil dressing room for you to chill in until it’s time for you to go on. So, let’s go in.”

“Aight baby, you da boss.” Don smiled because it turned him on how Beijing handled her business with him on the front line and behind the bedroom door as well.

They entered through the back door of the club, and Beijing led them past the half-naked women running to their workstations. Before going to iron out details with the DJ, Beijing got Don
settled in the back room, which had dancers’ outfits and shoes piled in a corner. Don couldn’t really enjoy his spliff from shooing off the strippers wanting to get to know him better, get his autograph or number, or give him some head. They had swarmed around him like gravy on a biscuit.

He calmly and kindly rejected all the half-dressed women. “Baby, it ain’t that type of party. I got a girl, I’m cool,” he said in between pulling on the blunt.

“Damn, leave the nigga alone. I swear, y’all bitches got a club full of paying motherfuckers, let the man finish his blunt so he can help us all get dis paper. Plus he don’t want no stinky, drunk Ecstasy-taking broads, no way,” one girl said.

The other girls sucked their teeth at her outspoken comment while Don gave the dazzling beauty a smile and said, “Good looking.”

“I dance before you go on,” she said. She was dressed in all-blue patent leather. She had on a thong and a bra that looked like a turtleneck with a bunch of splits in it. “Since I’m the feature dancer and rake in the most money here,” she boasted, “they want me to open up for you.”

“That’s what’s up,” he said not really caring one way or the other. He was zoned out in his own world.

“This is actually my dressing room that you’re using.”

“Sorry for the inconvenience,” he said, “but I ’preciate the courtesy all the same, ya heard.” The headline stripper left to finish getting ready to do her set about five minutes before Beijing came in.

“Coming to the stage is the dazzling Dazzle,” they heard the DJ call over the speaker.

“Aight,” Beijing told Don. “Showtime after the next song.” He blew his smoke in the other direction, away from Beijing.

“Cool, baby.”

He put out the blunt, stood up, and followed Beijing. Bill was on both their heels as she led him to a spot on the side of the stage
where he could see the crowd without being spotted. He and Beijing both watched Dazzle perform. She was five foot eight with perfect skin a shade softer than a chocolate Yoohoo. Her blue contact lenses and blue eye makeup sparkled under the ideal condition of light. Proportioned at 36-26-44, her body could drive some men to commit acts they otherwise wouldn’t dream of. Some said she was a gift from a higher power, perhaps stripper heaven.

Dazzle contorted her thickness into all types of erotic poses. Her flexibility was amazing. The crowd was loving it. “Damn.” Both Beijing and Don looked at each other in amazement.

Don had a group of horny, sexy, seductive girls preparing to get naked surrounding him crammed into the small space on the side of the platform. Not only the blunt he had smoked but the bass in the song that the DJ was fading into the end of Dazzle’s song had him feeling intoxicated.

Beijing handed Don the microphone, and he took the stage. Don knew that in a strip club if a person didn’t have a fat ass on that stage, they weren’t going to get any respect. Within five seconds of touching the stage, the DJ used the instrumental of a bass heavy beat to momentarily jolt the crowd to life, forcing the attention of every single person to the stage. Don nodded a couple of times and began to spit with a flow that was a hybrid of Young Jeezy and Jay Z. Don eyed Beijing for approval. She gave him thumbs-up and a reassuring nod—and he ripped the club apart. Every table in the place was empty. All the people in the club were on their feet dancing while a small band of female strippers had surrounded the club for “the take-over,” forcing the fellas to make it rain on them with money. But by the time Don was finished with his performance, he had the club patrons making it thunderstorm with cash.

As soon as he was off the stage, he had a one-track mind. Don was trying to take a sniff of the powder he had creased in a crisp Franklin before Beijing showed up. He was greeted by Dazzle.

“You rocked dat shit,” she said, putting her paper bag full of money into her locker and securing the lock.

“You did yo’ thing too, boo,” he replied, trying to get rid of her so he could take his edge off.

“I know. Told you I was the best one around these parts. I think I’ll make a nice accessory to your stage performance,” she boldly stated. “Maybe a few videos … I can put together a fresh routine for all of your songs. What do you say?” she asked.

“You gotta talk to my baby, Beijing. She’s not only my wifey, but she’s the boss too.”

“I’m going to find your boss lady right now.”

“And shut the door on your way out.”

By the end of the night, the girls might have flocked to throw pussy at him like a feline giveaway at the ESPA, but Don wasn’t fazed by any of it. Beijing was his queen, and there was no girl on earth that could fuck with her. But there was a boy running a close second, that went by the name of Heron.

Don took a sniff of the magic powder, and fell deep into a dope fiend nod.