Chapter Forty-six
A day with someone special can make up for a week of hell.
It was Sunday and Alexis didn't have any plans. All she wanted to do was relax. Maybe finish reading
Sister Girls 2
and go to the movies. It was going to be a day just for her. The past couple of weeks had been hectic. She'd had a few dates, busted one of her students working as a stripper and had to deal with an irate student. She deserved a day of doing nothing.
After grabbing her book and cell phone off the kitchen table, Alexis went and sat on her porch, in her rocking chair. Just as she was getting comfortable, her cell phone rang.
She looked at the caller ID. It was Thomas.
“Hey there.”
“What's up beautiful?” Thomas asked.
“Nothing. Just sitting on the porch reading.”
“Are you doing anything today?”
“Nope, and I don't plan on doing anything. Today is my day for me.”
“Well, you have to eat, let me take you to lunch.”
Alexis hesitated because she really didn't intend to leave the house at all. She wondered if he sensed this.
“How about I bring you lunch instead?”
That suggestion perked Alexis right up. “Now that sounds like a good idea,” she told him.
“What would you like?”
Alexis had no idea what she wanted so she told him to surprise her.
“What's a good time to come by?”
Yes, today was supposed to be a day by herself but like Thomas said, she had to eat. Alexis looked at her watch. It was just eleven o'clock. “Come around one.” That would give her enough time to read a couple of chapters and take a shower.
After hanging up, Alexis gave herself one hour to read. That was hard to do considering her mind kept drifting to Shay. She'd made the decision to go by her apartment. The thing is she didn't want to go alone. Shay lived in “The Grove,” which was a bad neighborhood and you just never knew what could happen. The drive to get there was around thirty minutes.
I'll wait and see if she comes to school Monday and if not, I'll have Champagne or someone go with me.
A few chapters and a shower later, Thomas knocked on the screen door.
When Alexis went to let him in, she saw that he was carrying a picnic basket.
“What's this?” she asked as she led him to the kitchen. “We're having a picnic?”
“Yes, right in your kitchen,” he told her as he placed the basket on the counter.
“So what's inside?” Alexis was starving.
“Can I have a hug first?”
She gave him one and took in his scent. “You smell good,” she complimented. “What is that?”
“It's an oil I bought from some Muslim guy. It's called Blue Nile.”
“I like it.”
“I'll pick you up some.” Thomas opened the basket and pulled out a bottle of Moscato wine.
“I love that wine.”
“I know.” He knew because he called Champagne and asked her what type of food and wines Alexis liked. He then pulled out some containers.
“Can I look inside?” Alexis asked.
“Of course.”
When Alexis opened them, she saw that he'd brought a cucumber, tomato, and cheese salad, with what smelled like sun-dried tomato dressing, some sort of quiche and there were a couple of slices of cake. She took a sniff and could tell immediately that it was her favorite kind, lemon.
“Okay, you need to tell me how you knew that Moscato is my favorite wine along with lemon cake and quiche.”
“I have contacts,” he told her.
“And do those contacts include someone named Champagne and Zyair?”
Thomas threw up his hands. “You got me.”
Alexis was touched that he put this much effort into their lunch date and impressed that he did it in under two hours. She walked around the table and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
“What was that for?” Thomas asked, pleased that he'd scored some points.
“It's for being thoughtful. You sit down while I set the table.”
Thomas looked around and told her, “Your kitchen is so . . . soâ”
“So white?” Alexis finished the thought for him. It's something most people commented on when they came over. Her cabinets were white, her floor was white, her refrigerator was white and her accessories were white.
“That and clean. It's so crisp looking, I'd be afraid to cook in here.”
Alexis laughed, “Oh, believe me, I cook. Maybe not often enough but when it's just you, there's really no need to, especially when you can just pick stuff up and throw it in the microwave or go out and eat.”
“I know just what you mean, I eat out often and I have to tell you, I'd love a home-cooked-meal every now and then, by someone other than myself.”
“I'll take that into consideration,” Alexis teased. “Sit down,” she told him again.
Thomas did just that. He sat and watched as Alexis set the table and made their plates. They made small talk while eating but Thomas could tell something was on Alexis' mind.
“So, what's going on?” Thomas asked.
“Nothing.”
“Are you sure?” Thomas wasn't easily fooled.
“Well, actually there is something going on but not with me. It's with two of my students.”
“You care to share?”
“Well, one of my students came into my office and asked me to talk to her mom because she believes she's suicidal over a man and the other I found out is a stripper.”
“Wow. How did you find out about the one that's a stripper.”
Did Alexis really want to tell him about her going with Shamel? She didn't think so. “It doesn't matter, what does matter is that she is and when I confronted her, she walked out on me and hasn't been to school since. I'm concerned. I'm almost thinking about going to her house to see what's up.”
“You don't think that's a bit much? The way these teenagers are today, you can't tell them shit, they know more than us.”
“I know, but I still feel like I need to do something. The only thing is where she lives is not a welcoming area. It's the hood of all hoods.”
“Where does she live?”
“In The Grove.”
“Oh, hell no, you will not be going into that neighborhood by yourself. Should you decide to go, I'm going with you.”
That was all Alexis needed to hear. “All right, then let's go.”
“Today?”
“Why not?” Although the plan was to do nothing, she might as well do something productive and meaningful.
Before Thomas could respond, his cell phone went off. “Excuse me,” he told her as he unhooked it from his belt.
“I'll be right back,” Alexis told him and walked out of the kitchen to go to the bathroom.
When she was reentering the kitchen, she heard Thomas saying, “I asked you not to call me anymore and I mean that shit,” then he hung up.
“Someone stalking you?” Alexis asked.
“It's this female I used to see. She'll call, then she'll stop calling for a while and then it starts up all over again.”
“Block her number from your phone,” Alexis told him.
Thomas looked at her and frowned.
“What?”
“I don't know why I didn't think of that shit.”
“That's what we women are for, to give you men the answers.”
Thomas stepped toward Alexis and pulled her into him. “I can't believe I'm finally spending time with you.”
“Well, believe it,” she told him.
“Can I kiss you?”
“Yes, you can do more than that if you want to.”
Thomas stepped back and looked at her.
“Just not today,” she teased.
“Girl, don't play with me like that. Shit, I was ready.”
“I bet you were. Let me go get my bag and put some shoes on so we can go.”
“Go where?”
“The Grove.”
Thomas looked at his watch. He didn't think she really meant doing it today. He'd made plans with his boys to play basketball around four
“What? You have other plans?” Alexis asked.
“I did, but I can postpone for you.”
“You don't have to do that.”
“I want to.”
“Damn, you're racking up the points today.”
Thomas hoped so. He was trying his damnest to be sensitive, caring, and attentive. This was a new experience for him but hell, he'd do whatever it took to win Alexis over.
Thomas called Zyair and told him to let the others know that either he'd be late getting to the gym or he wasn't going to make it.
“It's going that good?” Zyair asked him. They'd spoken earlier that day when Thomas called to find out what types of food Alexis liked.
“I'm going to run an errand with her.”
Zyair thought this was the funniest thing he'd heard in a long time. He could not stop laughing.
“What's so funny?”
“You man, being all domestic and shit.”
“Whatever,” Thomas told him, and hung up.
A half an hour later they parked in front of the building Alexis had on record for Shay. The appearance of the outside had not changed much. It still looked dingy and worn. The graffiti or tags as some called it were still everywhere.
“You sure you want to get this involved?” Thomas asked.
Alexis' answer was to start walking toward the building. Thomas followed behind her while making sure he was aware of all that was around him. What that consisted of was young wannabe thugs hanging on the corners and on the bench that was in front of the building. It was obvious some of them were drug dealers.
Little did either of them know that right across the street was one of Shamel's boys. He recognized Alexis from when she came to Dreams. Alexis and Thomas were now in the building, looking for apartment 3B. When they found it, Thomas stood close behind her as she knocked on the door.
“Who the fuck is it?” someone on the other side of the door yelled.
Alexis looked at Thomas, who said to her, “What's the girl's name?”
“Shay.”
“I said who the fuck is it?” the person yelled again.
“We're looking for Shay,” Thomas yelled back.
The door swung open and standing before them was a woman that was drunk as hell. You could smell the liquor coming out of her pores.
“Don't no Shay live here.”
“Are you sure?” Alexis asked.
“What the fuck? You think I don't know who lives in my damn house.”
“This is the address I have for her miss.”
“Well, it's the wrong fucking address,” she told them and slammed the door in their faces.
Alexis looked up at Thomas who took her hand. “Come on. Let's get the hell out of here.”
When they were walking out of the building, Shamel's boy watched their every movement and he made sure to snap a picture with his cell phone.
When they pulled off, he called Shamel and all he got was a voice mail. He left a message telling him the honey he was with at the strip club was in The Grove with some other dude.
Chapter Forty-seven
People are not who they seem all the time, but they are always who they tell and show you they are.
Shamel was sitting a few houses down from Alexis'. It didn't take much to find out where she lived. He had Michael, the guy who set up the computers in his establishment search her name on the Internet. Not only did Michael found out where she lived but he found out her credit score, her history, who her parents were, and a whole bunch of other shit.
This was not Shamel's style, to be stalking a female. To him, he wasn't stalking her. To stalk a woman was to scare her, to leave her notes, to threaten her. He wasn't doing any of that, he was just staking his claim and trying to find out as much about her as he could.
Was he becoming obsessed with her?
he wondered. Maybe but he had set it in his mind to make her his and for her to be the mother of his children. He'd even dreamed it and as a believer that dreams often had a meaning, he'd decided to put it into action.
A couple of days ago, his boy called him and told him that he saw Alexis in The Grove. Later he showed him a picture that he snapped. When he saw the picture of the dude she was with, he recognized him as that Thomas character.
This motherfucker was getting on his last nerve popping up everywhere. Not only that but Shamel wanted to know what the hell was she doing at The Grove. That used to be his old stomping ground when everything he did was illegal, but since he was now on the up and up, it was his boys' spot.
Shamel also found out some information on Thomas; found out he was a well-known sports agent and not a fuck-up like he was hoping. He was going to have to come up with some sort of plan to get him out of the picture. Shamel wanted Alexis to himself. He was not one to share.
Because he'd been watching her for a few days he learned her schedule and knew that she would be home shortly. He had one of his boys farther down the block waiting for her car to turn the corner and when she was close by, the plan was for him to go set flowers, candy, and a teddy bear on the porch. He would be walking away when she pulled up.
His cell phone beeped, there was a text message from his boy, Now, now, go now. Shamel got out of his car with gifts in hand and placed them on the stairs. He could hear her car pull up into the driveway. He wondered what she was thinking when he turned around and they were looking at one another through the windshield.
What she was thinking was,
What the hell?
Alexis didn't recall telling him where she lived, but just because she didn't recall it doesn't mean she didn't do it.
The thing is she didn't like him showing up uninvited. Something about that didn't sit right with her. Her inner alarm was going off especially since she sensed someone following her.
Should I call the police?
she wondered. But what would they do, she had no evidence that it was Shamel, Thomas or anyone else. All she had was her intuition. Alexis looked at Shamel and noticed he was smiling. He didn't look threatening or like he'd come to do her harm. So she made the decision to trust him and turned off the engine, grabbed her purse off the floor, and climbed out of the car.
Shamel noticed that she did not look happy to see him.
“What are you doing here?” she asked him.
“I thought I'd bring you a gift.” He moved to the right and she noticed the flowers, candy, and teddy bear on the porch.
Alexis would not have taken Shamel to do something so sweet and she almost swooned, but first she needed to let him know that she didn't like pop-up visits.
Before she could say a word Shamel told her, “Listen, I apologize for showing up unannounced. I just wanted to surprise you. When we talked the other day you sounded stressed.”
Well, he wasn't lying about that, she was stressed. Shay still hadn't come to school. Alexis was starting to feel like she was missing and that concerned her. Victoria also came by her office again asking for her help.
“I have been,” she told him as she walked around him to pick up the flowers. Like almost every woman on the face of this earth, she loved receiving flowers. She placed them up to her face and took a sniff. “Although I don't like when people just pop up, because you came bearing gifts, I'm going to allow you to come in.”
“Let me.” Shamel took the flowers out of her hand, picked up the candy, and the bear while she opened the door and followed her inside.
“How did you find my house? I don't remember telling you.”
“You did during one of our conversations,” Shamel lied.
Alexis accepted it as the truth because she just might have.
“Have a seat. I'm going to go throw on something more comfortable.”
Shamel sat down in the living room and waited for her to return while looking around. He noticed that she liked neutral colors and didn't like clutter. On the coffee table were numerous books that appeared unread. One in particular caught his eye. The title was
The Art of Seduction
. He glanced through it and before he knew it Alexis had returned wearing leggings and a T-shirt.
“You have a nice place here,” he told her.
“Thanks. Do you want anything to drink?”
“Like what?”
“Well, I have some wine and cognac.”
“Cognac? What are you doing with cognac?” Shamel wondered if it belonged to that Thomas fellow, if he was the one she originally bought it for.
“It's my dad's.”
He was glad to hear that, although he hoped it wasn't a lie. “I'll take some cognac.”
“I'll be right back,” she told him and returned shortly with a glass of wine for her and cognac on ice for him.
She sat next to him.
Shamel picked up
The Art of Seduction
. “Interesting read,” he acknowledged.
“I just bought it, I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Actually, I just bought all those books.” She handed him his drink.
“So you like to read?”
“I just joined a book club. I'm trying to catch up with them.”
Shamel took a sip of his drink, draped his arm around her, and turned to face her. “So, tell me what has you so stressed?”
“Shay.”
“Diamond?”
“The one and only. Since that night I busted her at your club, she hasn't been to school.”
“I'm still bugging over that fact that she's in high school,” Shamel said.
“I even went to her house to talk to her.”
“You did? Where does she live?”
“In The Grove.”
So that explains why she was there. “Did you go alone?”
“No, a good friend went with me.”
He already knew who that good friend was but knew not to push.
“Have you seen her? Has she come back to the club?” Alexis asked.
Actually, she came back the next day and pleaded with him to give her another chance. There was no way in hell he could do that, especially now with Alexis being in his life. “No, I haven't seen her since that night either.” Shamel had other uses for Shay. Alexis didn't need to know that. The only person that needed to know was Shay and he let her know that prior to her leaving the club the night after the confrontation.
“I'm really thinking about calling the police and reporting her missing. The apartment I went to, 3B, the drunk-ass woman who answered the door all but cursed me out and said she doesn't live there. I don't know if I believe her.”
He was going to remember that number, “3B” and have someone check it out.
Alexis was surprised to see that she had drunk her whole glass of wine.
Damn, did I gulp it?
“I'm going to get another glass of wine. As a matter-of-fact I'll bring the bottle in here.”
She wasn't acting like she wanted him to leave and that pleased him. When she came back in the room she was carrying the wine and the cognac. To him, this meant make yourself comfortable.
After she put the bottles down, she picked up the remote control and sat down, while turning the television on.
“So Mr. Shamel, tell me about yourself.”
“Haven't I done that already?” After all, they have spoken on the phone numerous times.
“You told me surface stuff. I want to go deeper.”
“Let's do this, you ask me a question and I'll ask you one.” Shamel wasn't one to tell all his business.
“So, you're into games?” Alexis teased.
With seduction in his voice, he told her, “It depends on what kind of game you're talking about.”
“Have you ever been in love?” was her first question.
The only time Shamel could remember being in love was when he was around seventeen. The girl's name was Melena. They broke up when she got pregnant and went against his wishes and aborted the baby. For the first few weeks before she'd made the decision to abort, Shamel thought he was being attentive, but she told him he was smothering her. Smothering her? He asked her how could she say such a thing, after all, he just wanted her to take care of her and the baby. That's not what Melena felt he was doing; she felt that he was crowding her; that he was being controlling. When she woke up, he wanted her to call him. If she didn't by nine o'clock, he'd call her, and then proceed to call her every three to four hours. If he didn't reach her, he'd just pop up. Her parents started to become concerned about him and questioned her. When she revealed that she was pregnant, it was her father who pointed out that if he was acting like he owned her now, how did she think he would act once she had the baby?
When Melena tried to talk to Shamel about it, he lost control and grabbed her and yoked her up. It's when she felt that he could become violent that she decided she could not have the baby. Of course, she didn't tell him of her decision. It's when her mother took her to the clinic that he found out. Little did she know, one of his homeboys was following her. When he figured out where she was going, he called Shamel who barged into the clinic and caused a scene that was so frightening to the other young women that were there, they called the police. Afraid of what he would do to her, Melena's parents placed a restraining order on him and she tried to stay as far away from him as possible.
There was also one other time a few years ago when he was in deep like and lust and what he thought was love with this chick named Lavonne. Now years later he knew that it was the sex that had him bugging out. She put it on him and did things with and to him that no other girl had done up to that point. She licked his ass, swallowed his cum like it was water, and even let him have her anally whenever he wanted to. He was strung out and thought she was too because she was so open to him sexually. It wasn't until she told him that she wanted to see other people that he lost his mind. He beat her so bad that she ended up in the hospital. Because by then, he'd been in trouble with the law and was not about to go to jail, he told her if she told anyone it was him who put her there, he would ruin not only her life, but her brother's, who was a drug runner for him. Of course she didn't tell and after she got out of the hospital she moved and convinced her brother to move with her.
That was an incident he put out of his mind and it was also one he was not going to share.
“Yes,” he answered, “I was in love once when I was a teenager.”
“What happened?”
“We were young. She got pregnant and had an abortion when I begged her not to.”
“So you broke up with her because of that.”
“That and other reasons.” This was not something Shamel felt comfortable talking about, so he asked her, “What about you, have you ever been in love?”
Alexis was on her third glass of wine. She knew she needed to slow down, but she was not only stressed the hell out but tense as well. She rolled her shoulders and placed her hand on her neck and started to rub.
“Let me do that for you,” Shamel volunteered.
Not one to turn down a massage, she did just that.
Shamel stood up, went behind the couch and started rubbing on her shoulders. “So have you?”
For a second there Alexis forgot the question. She really didn't want to go into the whole Khalil thing, but because Shamel was working magic with his hands, she found herself telling him about how they were engaged and she found out he was already married. “Remember the night we first met?” she asked him.
“How could I forget?”
“Well, he was in the club that night.”
“Not that Thomas character?”
“No, the other guy.”
Shamel recalled all that had happened that night and knew who she was talking about because he'd seen him in his club after that incident.
The longer he massaged her neck and shoulders and the more wine she drank, the more Alexis found herself getting relaxed.
“How come you don't have any kids now?” She'd asked him that question during one of their phone conversations. She was surprised to hear him say no.
“I don't know. After my high school sweetheart got pregnant, it just never happened again.” There was an alleged pregnancy but once the baby was born, he had a blood test done only to find out that it wasn't his.
“Let's talk about something else,” he told her as he moved his hands down her back.
Alexis closed her eyes, “Well, what do you want to talk about?”
“Let's talk about how you like to be made love to.”
She kept her eyes closed and asked him, “Why should I tell you?”
“I'd think you'd want me to know.”
“Why is that?”