You're the One I Want (11 page)

I don't know what I was sickened by the most: Katiesha's greasy
fingers from the hamburgers, or her talking with her mouth full. Who taught this bitch proper table manners, Slimer from
Ghostbusters?
I've seen babies with better manners.

“So what's up? You mentioned something about a business proposition.”

“So you know Bree's husband?”

“Who hasn't? I can't stand that bitch, but, damn, she's got good taste in men. The girls at the club steady be talking about how fine he is. Bree better not slip 'cause a bitch might push up on it.”

The thought of Katiesha doing anything to my Kashawn almost made me throw up in my mouth, but I had to keep my composure to get this shit done. “And how much would it take for you to
push
up on that?”

“Whatchu mean?” Katiesha dipped two fries into a container of spicy ketchup.

“What would you say if I told you I would pay you five grand to fuck Bree's man?”

“I would say stop pulling my dick.”

“Oh, I'm dead serious.”

Katiesha started laughing. She took a napkin, realizing its use, and wiped her mouth. Hell, for a minute there, I thought I would have to get this girl a bib.

“Let's go outside. I need a cigarette,” she said.

We walked outside where we leaned against my Mustang. Katiesha rested the cigarette between her lips, took out a green lighter, and lit the end until it burned orange-red. Smoke spirited from the cave of her nose, the crease of her lips.

“When are you talking about doing this?”

“Kashawn should be home now.”

“Hold up. I know you ain't talking about doing this shit tonight.”

“Tonight is the only time it can be done. I might not have another opportunity like this.”

“So what's in this shit for you?”

I wasn't about to tell home girl my business. “That's not important.”

“You trying to break their marriage up?”

“Question is will you do it?”

“That's it, isn't it? You wet for Bree's man.”

I ignored Katiesha, growing more and more annoyed with her trying to get all up in my business. “It has to be done tonight and we need to move fast.”

“Well, I've never been one to turn down good money, but make it ten G's and you got a deal.”

“Damn, ten grand?”

“Cash motherfucking money.”

I didn't want to give into her demands. “Okay, I will give you five now and another five when the job is done.”

Katiesha took a drag from her cigarette as she considered my plan. I knew good and well it was an offer she wasn't going to refuse. “That's what's up. Let's do this.”

“And this has to be kept between you and me. If I find out that you told anyone, the deal is off, no money.”

“I gotchu. I'm down for whatever.”

I knew I couldn't trust Katiesha's ass as far as I could throw her. The girl was a stripper after all, which is why I was going to see this through. I already had Deanthony fucking my shit up, and I wasn't about to have her throw a kink into my game.

“I need to clean up first, wash my pussy.”

“What?”

“My vagina. You want me to have a clean vagina, don't you?”

“Do what you gotta do.”

As Katiesha went to the bathroom to
freshen up,
I couldn't help but think what the hell I was getting myself into with this chick. I called Bree to see what was up. Deanthony should have done his part by now.

F
uck is Deanthony's problem, calling me here? I need to have my damn head examined for agreeing to have drinks with him. As I cleared off the kitchen table, my iPhone rang. I studied the tiny flat-screen. It was Tangela.

“Girl, I'm so glad you called.”

“Hey, you all right? You sound upset.”

“I just got off the phone with Deanthony.”

“He called again? What does he want this time?” Tangela asked.

“He wants to have a drink tonight, make up for calling me and scaring the hell out of me the other day.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I told him I would meet up for
one
drink, but I'm thinking about calling him back and cancelling.”

“I don't see anything wrong with talking to Deanthony. It's not like you can move to another country.”

“I have a bone to pick with him anyway. Kashawn came home last night, drunk and pissed off.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Something about Edrick not being their real daddy.”

“Damn, that's fucked up. Do they know of the whereabouts of their real daddy?”

“No, and it's been bothering Kashawn ever since he found out. He hasn't slept much and he's spending a lot of time at the hospital and drowning himself in work to take his mind off things.”

“So where is he, at the hospital?”

“He's in his study catching up on some work.”

I slipped on a simple white tank top and some jeans, nothing special, to meet with Deanthony. My hands were already starting to sweat at the thought of meeting up with D, but I knew Tangela was right. There was no running away from the man, no matter how much I wanted to avoid him. I grabbed my keys to the Mustang and hauled ass out the door.

“So what is Kashawn going to do?” Tangela asked.

“If I know him, he's going to track his real daddy down.”

“That's good, though, right?”

“Yes, but I don't want him to set himself up for disappointment.”

“If he does, then you will be there to pick up the pieces,” Tangela said.

•  •  •

“Tange, I wish you were going with me.”

“You want me to meet you at The Mockingbird, lie back in case he tries something sneaky?”

“I would love that, but I want to find out why he came back here.”

I remembered the Marlboros I had stashed under the driver's side seat. I struggled to quit for Kashawn, who hated that I smoked. I reached under and pulled the pack from under the seat. As soon as I hit a stoplight, I fished a cancer stick out of the pack and rested it between my lips. With a cheap lighter I'd purchased from CVS, I lit the end and took a drag.

“Well, let me go so I can get this over with.”

“Call me after. Let me know how everything goes,” Tangela said.

“You know I will.”

I pressed the red
END CALL
button on my cell and dropped it in my black leather clutch. The cigarette was what I needed to calm my ass down. I hadn't set eyes on Deanthony since the birthday party
at Mama Liz's. I took a drag off my cigarette and then exhaled, blowing a body of smoke out into the warm spring air.

I was nervous as hell when I pulled into the lot of The Mockingbird. My heart was beating crazy. When I walked in, he was sitting at the bar, nursing on a Bud.

“All right, girl, let's do this,” I said to myself. I went over and tagged Deanthony on the shoulder. “Hey.”

“Hey, what's up, you made it.”

“Sorry I'm late. I know you said seven o'clock.”

“It's all good. I just got here anyway.”

A cute, brown-skinned bartender walked over to where we were sitting.

“You want something to drink?” Deanthony asked. “Vodka Cranberry, right?”

“You remembered.”

“I never forgot.”

“A Vodka Cranberry for her and let me get another beer,” Deanthony told the young bartender. “So how you been?”

“Honestly. Not that good.” The bartender returned with my drink. I swirled the straw around in it. “Kashawn told me what happened at Mama Liz's that night of y'all's birthday party.”

“It was in the heat of the moment. He kept riding my ass about why I left Tallahassee and why I came back.”

“So why did you?”

“I think you know the answer to that, Bree,” Deanthony said. “Everybody seems to care more about why I left than why I came back, like it matters.” A look of annoyance ran across Deanthony's mug.

“So when did Mama Liz tell y'all you were adopted?”

“We were about eight at the time. Ma sat me down after dinner one night and told me that Edrick wasn't our real pops, and that he loved us like we were his own. Our dad died in a car accident when
we were real young. She made me swear to never tell Kashawn.” Deanthony took a sip from his drink.

“You should have said something years ago if you knew that Mama Liz had no intention of telling him. How could you hold on to a secret like that for this long?”

“I figured he would have found out somehow by now, or Ma would have told him.”

“You're his brother, for Christ's sake, adopted or not.” I was so pissed. I felt a headache coming on.

“I guess she didn't want to face the possibility of losing me and Kashawn if she told when we were adults.”

“He's been walking around here for thirty years, carrying the last name of a man who isn't his father.”

“Ma said that the guy was some crackhead.”

I looked at Deanthony like he'd just said the dumbest thing anyone could say. “D, we're going to get married. If his identity is a lie, so is mine because I've taken Kashawn's last name. And what if we decide to have children? He's got the name
Parker
on his birth certificate, on his driver's license, social security card, everything, and you're going to sit here and fix your lips to say that it don't matter? It should matter to you because it affects you as much as it affects him. Kashawn hasn't been right since you told him.”

“Why, what's up?”

“He came home drunk and pissed off, going on about the fight y'all had, saying that he wasn't who he thought he was. ‘My whole life is a lie,' he kept yelling.”

“He didn't do anything to you, did he?” Deanthony asked.

“Of course not. Kashawn isn't like that. I was able to calm him down, but I can tell that it's bothering him.”

Cubes of ice kissed Deanthony's lips as he took another drink. The bartender noticed that my glass was empty and asked if I wanted another Vodka Cranberry.

“No, I need to go. Kashawn is home waiting. He thinks I'm out with Tangela.”

Deanthony kept glancing at his watch. “Come on, stay. Have another drink. I will talk to my brother and straighten everything out.”

“You are the last thing he needs right now.”

“Bree, look, we're brothers and brothers fight. Kashawn'll be all right.”

“You don't get it, do you?” I asked, raising my voice. “This shit wasn't like some fight on the playground where he got sand kicked in his face. He found out that the man he admired and respected isn't his biological father, but that he's the son of a man he's never seen or met, a man who probably doesn't even know that you all exist because you and Mama Liz kept him in the dark all these years.”

“Look, I admit that Kashawn never should have found out like that, and you know that I never meant to hurt him, to have him find out the way he did.”

“If I know Kashawn, he's got a lot of questions about who his real father is, and I don't want him to get hurt if he decides to go looking for answers.”

“I don't think that it will come to that.”

“Deanthony, you know once he sinks his teeth into something, it's hard to pull him loose. I just don't want him to set himself up for devastation, whatever he finds.”

“I'll talk to him. Everything will be fine,” Deanthony said.

“Whatever he decides, I'm going to stick by him.”

Deanthony's phone rang. He answered the call. Suddenly, a stoic expression came over his face. “What? Who is this?” He directed his attention to me. “What about my brother?”

“What's going on? Did something happen to Kashawn?”

“We need to go. Something's going on back at your house.”

“What is it? What happened?”

Deanthony hauled ass out of the bar, frantic.

W
e pulled a couple of blocks away from Kashawn and Bree's crib, somewhere we couldn't be seen. Ten minutes later, Kashawn pulled into the driveway.

“Damn, he just as fine in person,” Katiesha said.

“Focus, girl, focus,” I told her. “Now run our plan by me one more time. What did we discuss?”

“Tangela, I'm not fucking stupid. I know what to do.”

“I know, but I just want to make sure we're on the same page, that's all.”

Katiesha sighed as if I had been prepping her for some kind of national spelling bee. “I go to the house, ring the doorbell, tell Kashawn that my car broke down, and ask if I could use his phone to call a tow truck.”

“Yes, good. And once you're in, the rest is up to you.”

“Don't trip. No man can resist these bountiful titties of mine.” Katiesha adjusted her breasts in the black genuine leather corset.

“And more importantly, make sure that Bree sees you.”

“Oh, trust, I will give that bitch a show she will never forget.”

“If shit pops off, get out of there.”

“I'm not worried about nothin' poppin' off. That bitch can't beat this ass.”

Katiesha got out of the car and started toward Kashawn and Bree's, one of the biggest houses on the block. I would have given anything
to be a fly on the wall when Bree walked in to find Kashawn and her worst enemy in bed, fucking. I grinned, knowing that it was a given that Katiesha was going to get that ass whipped by Bree. Hell, I was counting on it.

A
in't this a bitch! I never thought that I would run into someone who hated Bree's ass as much as me. It goes to show that there is all kinds of cray-cray out here, some real straitjacket kinda bitches. My little low-income, one-bedroom crib didn't have shit on Kashawn and Bree's mansion. That bitch had done well for herself. I could have married into money. This white sugar daddy that had a sweet tooth for young chocolate would always come into Risqué, slapping down major cake just to see me dance. The geezer was like ninety-somethin' years old. He had a nurse who would wheel him into the club. She would sit there and pretend to read a magazine while he waved one hundred-dollar bills in my face. He told me that if I married him, I wouldn't want for anything. I was going to take him up on it until the man up and died on a bitch, so there went my meal ticket.