The Bryson Blood Wars (7 page)

              Bray took his drink and found a secluded area in the lobby and made himself comfortable on the couch. Before he started his reading ritual he decided to call Calista.

              “Hey Doc,” Bray greeted.

              “Hi baby. I saw you doing your thing on TV and I wanted to say congratulations on your win,” Calista said.

              “Thanks baby. What you doing?” Bray asked.

              “Me, Aunt Clover, Opal, Laliyka and the kids are having movie/game night,” Calista answered. “What about you?”

              “I’m in the lobby sipping on Knob Creek about to start reading
The Jersey Wars
by The Cunning Linguist,” Bray answered.

              “I need to check that out right along with
Brown Eyes
by Paradise Taylor,” Calista said.

              “I heard about that book. Real ain’t even the word to describe it.” Bray said.

              “I know right,” Calista agreed.

              “This is relaxing reading in the lobby. Solomon said he had company so I gave him his privacy and the rest of the team went out on the town and let’s just say that Vince is in full force,” Bray volunteered.

              “I don’t know why Janice puts up with his shit,” Calista said with disgust. “It’s not like she needs the money.”

              “What do you mean?”

              “Janice is rich.”

              “She is? I thought she was a stay at home mom.” Bray assumed.

              Calista began to explain. “She is mostly, but she has money. When Janice was in college her grandmother who raised her won the lottery and gave Janice half of the winnings. After she graduated from college, Janice invested in her college roommate’s architect firm. She’s the money person behind the business.”

              “Maybe Janice is staying for the kids or clueless about the affairs,” Bray guessed.

              “Maybe, but you know the saying: love is blind,” Calista added. “Why else would she put up with all that humiliation?”

              “Humiliation? Oh do tell Doc?” Bray said in a tone of a typical gossip in a beauty salon. That’s one of the many things Bray and Calista have in common.

              Calista went on about how Janice went through three cars this year alone because they keep getting vandalized. One time Janice, Calista and a few of the wives were at the club having a good time and some chick ripped the side of Janice’s dress deliberately and, as a result, a fight broke out. Another time Janice ran into Skyla because, coincidently, Skyla and Maximus’ kids, Kalvin and Kerri attend the same private school as Vince and Janice’s two daughters. To pass the time, Janice and Skyla made small talk while waiting on the kids to be dismissed from school and another chick rolled up at the school confronting Janice about Vince being the father of her kids and she was preventing him from taking care of his responsibilities. Janice was so humiliated, because some random hoe brought this ghetto shit in her face at a private school in front of her children. Skyla’s heart went out to Janice and, of course, Vince always denied the cheating when confronted.

              “She must really love that nigga if she’s putting up with that shit,” Calista said.

              “Or just plain stupidity,” Bray added.

              “That too,” Calista agreed.

              The conversation was interrupted by a loud commotion. “What the hell was that?” Bray yelled. “Doc, I’ll call you right back!”

              “Okay Bray,” Calista said and Bray hung up.

              Bray subtly peaked around the corner and saw the chick that was rumored to be Vince’s baby momma confronting Vince and some half naked woman. Bray guessed that the baby momma caught them in the act and was furious.

              “Nigga, I’m tired of your shit!” The baby momma yelled.

              “Bitch, you know better than to come at me with this bullshit!” Vince yelled back.

              “Bitch? I’m a bitch now? You wasn’t saying that shit when we was fucking two days ago and now you acting all brand new because of some random hoe!” The baby momma yelled and pointed at the half-naked woman.

              “Hoe? Bitch, I got your hoe!” The half-naked woman yelled with anger and charged for the baby momma. The two women were wrestling all over the floor. Throwing punches, pulling weave and kicking and scratching. Bray would go over there and break it up but he remembered his Uncle Maximus a retired NFL player strongly advised him to stay out of trouble and also avoid getting pulled into other people’s shit. Following his uncle’s advice Bray decided to stay out of it, but being a spectator wouldn’t hurt so Bray finished his drink and enjoyed the show from afar. 
Those girls fight like men!
Bray chuckled to himself.

              “Solomon got to see this shit!” Bray exclaimed with excitement to himself and dashed upstairs to his room. When Bray got to his room he burst through the door like he was the police. “Solomon, you got to check this shit out! It’s going down...” Bray lost his train of thought because he walked in on Solomon and his company in a compromising position and the couple shared Bray’s look of horror when they were discovered. “Pardon me. My apologies.” That was all Bray could say before shutting the door. With his eyes still widened, Bray managed to find his way back to the hotel lobby. Bray was still in such a daze he didn’t even notice the fight between the baby momma and the half-naked woman was still going on. He forgot all about the ghetto rachetness that had his full attention earlier, but the shocking display Bray just walked in on was more than enough to forget all about it.

              Bray found his way to the bar and placed his order. “Bartender, I need two...no three...on second thought just give me the whole bottle of Knob Creek.”

              “Sure,” The bartender said. “You want me to put some ice in a glass for you?”

              “Oh no! I’m drinking this straight!” Bray answered and gave the bartender a one hundred dollar bill. “Keep the change.”

              Bray found his seat on the couch and saw that his kindle and phone was still there. Even if Bray’s possessions ended up stolen it didn’t matter to him. Bray poured himself a glass of Knob Creek and gulped it down like it was a shot. He usually doesn’t drink brown liquor like that but he needed something strong enough to hit the spot to get over walking in on Solomon getting his dick sucked.....by Richard. Little does Bray know, he just got sucked into somebody’s shit.

After a long day of work Opal went home and made herself comfortable on the couch. “Age forty-four ain’t no joke!” Opal sighed out. She was drained physically, mentally and emotionally and this impending job closing wasn’t helping the matter.

             
Maybe I should accept Clover’s offer.
Opal pondered to herself before her smartphone started to ring. She took the phone out of her purse and saw that the caller was her dear friend, Dennis Xames. Opal could always count on him and trust him completely. “Hey BFF,” Opal greeted.

              “Hey right back at you,” Dennis greeted back with his sweet sexy voice. He had a thick muscular sexy body and a handsome face to match with brown skin and dark hazel eyes. Dennis is a pretty laid back, funny guy with a level head. His major flaw is that sometimes he lets his five-foot-four height get in the way of his confidence. That’s the main reason Dennis has never declared his love to his best friend. Opal is about five-foot-eight without heals and Dennis didn’t think he had a chance with her. Don’t let the fact that he’s on the short side fool you. If pushed he will lay some motherfuckers out regardless of height.

              “How are you handling this impending job closing?” Opal asked.

              “I’ll admit at first I was worried, but now things are starting to look up for me if all goes well,” Dennis answered.

              “What do you mean?”

              “I might be moving to Atlanta where you are pretty soon.”

              “For real?” Opal cheered. “What’s in Atlanta?”

             
You.
Dennis wanted to say but kept it to himself. “You remember my frat brother from my alma mater, the University of Miami, who lost the battle to cancer a little bit after you moved down here, Dr. Lance Parks?”

              “Yes I remember.” Opal said.

              “His son reached out to me two weeks ago. He owns a factory in Atlanta. He found out his business partner was stealing and you know how that ended.” Dennis explained.

              “Right. Right.” Opal agreed with a nod.

              “Any who he wants me to be his new business partner,” Dennis added.

              “Sounds like a great opportunity,” Opal said. “Are you going to take the deal?”

              “I told him I would after the closure down here is complete,” Dennis answered. “I can’t wait!” Dennis really wanted to take the position so he could be close to Opal. She was a sweet and beautiful woman with brown skin, dark brown eyes, a sexy smile, adorable face and the perfect curvy proportionate body. Dennis is fully aware of Opal’s insecurities about her body. For years he tried to show Opal her true beauty but Kayson has really tore her down to almost literally nothing. Opal doesn’t think of Dennis as a love interest, but she trusts him enough as a confidant and friend. Of course Dennis wishes it could be more, but it’s a start as far as he was concerned.

              “Speaking of new starts, Clover offered me a job at her bakery as her new office manager,” Opal volunteered.

              “That’s great! You should go for it!” Dennis encouraged. Another achievement Dennis managed to accomplish was helping Opal see the light about Clover’s rape. It wasn’t easy, but he managed to convince Opal to patch things up with Clover. “I would like to meet Clover and the family one day. You talk about them so much I feel like we’re old friends.”

              “Don’t worry you will,” Opal paused to let herself get lost in deep thought before she continued. “Dennis, if I haven’t said this enough recently, thank you for being my friend and helping me when I desperately needed it the most.”

              “No problem,” Dennis said.
That’s because I love you and you deserve the world.
“You’re a special and beautiful lady who deserves happiness and the best.”

              “You’re too sweet,” Opal said as she began to tear up because deep down she wanted to believe Dennis’ compliments but she didn’t feel like she deserved them. “I need to start dinner but we’ll chat later, okay?”

              “Good! What we eating?” Opal and Dennis laughed at his half joke. He was a huge fan of her cooking.

              “I’m cooking fried rice and lamb chops,” Opal answered.

              “Oh girl, hook it up! Hook it up!” Dennis cheered. “One of my favorite meals. I need to hurry up and make this move. Make sure you save me a plate now.”

              “Boy, stop!” Opal laughed. “Bye now.”

              “Bye.”

              After Opal hung up the phone she got lost in deep thought about how she meet her best friend Dennis Xames and how he rescued her from one of the most horrible and humiliating moments of her life.

*****

              “I can’t take this shit no more!” Opal screamed to herself when she rushed in the house after another horrible day. She felt like her whole life was falling apart. Kayson was locked up. Clover was sticking to her made up rape story and her parents believed every word of it. Now Alex is in rare form in making Opal’s life even more miserable than it had to be. Today was the last straw. Alex’s latest stunt almost cost Opal not only job but her freedom.

              Alex blamed Opal and Clover for Kayson’s incarceration. She accused both sisters of teaming up to plot to take Kayson away from Alex and Jacori. After Alex’s ranting she spit in Opal’s face. Before Opal could get to Alex’s throat, a nearby janitor held her back and pulled her away.

              Opal had enough. Before she left from work she found the HR department’s contact information that was located at the main headquarters in Miami. Opal pulled out the business card and dialed the number.

              “HR department, this is Annie speaking, how may I help you?” The receptionist pleasantly greeted.