CheckMate (Play At Your Own Risk) (5 page)

“Damn! She would come home right now, wouldn’t she?” Monty snapped back to reality while Candy tried to pull herself together right quick. They heard the car door close.

“What y’all doing?” Mona asked as she tapped on the fogged up windows.

“Nothing,” Candy responded, playing it off as she got out of the car. “We almost fell asleep waiting on your slow ass. What you been doing?”

“I’ve been chilling out with Ross’ fine ass. I wanted to give him some so bad, but you know my period on and shit,” Mona explained, and then smacked on her gum and put one hand on her hip.

“Well, damn, sis. Let’s just act like I’m not standing here.” Monty looked disgusted from what he just heard come out of his sister’s mouth.

“Oh, hush. You know what a period is, don’t you? I’m grown and you grown, so quit acting like I’m some thirteen year old teenager.” Mona hit Monty on the arm. “Well, I’m going in the house. I’m tired and I feel like I might have a hangover in the morning. Candy, are you sure you can drive on home? If you can’t, you don’t have to. You know you can always stay here.”

“Naw, I betta not,” Candy said as she looked over at Monty. “It might be best if I take my ass on to the crib.”

“Well, be very careful. The law is out riding like they crazy,” Mona continued.

“Yeah, you betta go on home and get out the streets this time of night. Or, shall I say morning,” Monty said as he looked over at Candy, wishing she would stay but glad she decided otherwise. He would rather wait before he slept with her, at least until she turned eighteen, anyway.

“Well… you know I’ll be over here tomorrow some time. I’ll call you, though, when I get home.” Candy gave Mona a hug, and then looked over at Monty. “See you later, alligator.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you later, alright,” Monty responded. He watched Candy get in her car and leave, and then turned around to walk in the house behind Mona as he thought about the great kiss him and Candy shared. “You know, you got a nasty mouth, Mona, with your big head,” Monty teased, remembering Mona talking about her period being on. He then quickly thought about Candy again, and he was turned on because she chose not to stay even though he knew she wanted to. He knew, just as well as she did, what would’ve happened. Monty smiled to himself as he walked in the house, turned off the porch light, and locked the front door behind them.

Chapter Four

“M
ona, have you seen my car keys?” Catherine asked as she searched through the house.

“No, Mama, I haven’t. Where did you last see’um?” Mona asked. She got up off the sofa and began to look in the kitchen area.

“I’m going to be late for work, and I can’t even afford to be one minute late or they’re going to get rid of my ass.” Catherine picked up the pillows on the sofa to make sure they weren’t hiding there.

“I don’t see how you run late almost every day,” Monty chimed in while walking out of his room talking on his cell phone. “You get to sleep late because you don’t have to be at work until six in the evening. You get off at midnight, and don’t waste no time getting back into bed. But, still, you run late almost every day. Now that, I must say, is a shame.”

“Shut up, boy, and help me find my keys. This ain’t no time for your sarcastic bullshit,” Catherine demanded as she continued to look around. “I tell ya what. Don’t worry ‘bout it because I’m taking your car.” She snatched Monty’s keys off the entertainment center, grabbed her purse from the sofa, and hurried out the door to his car.

“Hey! Bring my keys back here! I got things to do tonight,” Monty yelled out as he ran out on the front porch.

“Boy, please! I ain’t got time for your shit, Monty. I gotta go.” Catherine closed the door, cranked up the car, then pulled off quickly, hauling ass down the street.

“See there. She
be with that bullshit. Ain’t that about a bitch! How she just gone leave a brotha stranded like that?” Monty walked back in the house, looking at Mona who was in tears from laughing so hard.

“She got your ass today, didn’t she?” Mona continued to laugh. “I figured she was gonna do that, too. I don’t know why,
but for some reason I did.”

“She’s always losing them damn keys of hers. I need to get another key made to her car for times like this,” Monty said as he sat down at the kitchen table.

“Mama done lost two sets of keys already. I don’t know what be up with that. But, I know what would solve it,” Mona added and smiled.

“What?” Monty looked over at Mona, who was still smiling.

“Take away her car. If she ain’t got no car, she ain’t gotta worry about losing no keys.” Mona fell out laughing.

“That shit ain’t funny. She’ll really bug the hell outta me then. I don’t know what we gone do with mama. She
be trippin’.”

“It ain’t the end of the world, ya know. She’s just going to work. You should be glad she done stayed at that job for this long because she’ll quit one in a heartbeat.” Mona walked out of the kitchen and went into the living room. She sat down on the sofa and began to flip through the channels on the television.

“What are you about to watch?” Monty asked as he entered the living room and sat down beside her.

“I don’t know. I’m just flipping. It ain’t shit on, anyway. I don’t know why we pay all that money for cable, and then there ain’t
nothing on to watch.” Mona continued to browse.

“Yeah, well, it’s the times when we don’t have cable that you’ll miss it. But, as long as we got it, a nigga like you ain’t gone appreciate it, anyway,” Monty said, clearly bothered about something.

“Please, shut up, Monty. You really are trippin’ today. What’s wrong with you?”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with me, besides having plans tonight that I’ll really hate to miss out on.”

“Can’t you ask her to take a rain check? Whoever she is, she should understand that your moms lost her keys and had to drive your car to work. Just tell her the truth. She’ll be alright.” Mona settled on
The Jeffersons.

“It ain’t even about that. Just trust me when I say that I’ma lose out big time if I don’t make it tonight.”

“Well, tell her to come pick you up,” Mona continued as if that should solve the problem.

“Hell naw! I ain’t about to do that shit there,” Monty quickly replied.

“Why? Is this one really ugly or do you not want me to see who she is?” Mona giggled.

“You see, that sounds all good and shit, but it just wouldn’t work for me because shawty don’t have a whip and I don’t fuck with ugly women. You can believe that.”

“Oh. I see. Well, too bad. Looks like you’re stuck like Chuck.”

“Where is your home girl, anyway?” Monty asked as he looked over at Mona. “I ain’t seen her since that night when we chilled out in my car waiting on you to come back from being with Ross. Hell, that’s been over a week now. Is everything alright with her?”

“Yeah, everything is good. Her mama took her car from her, though, because she lied for her daddy. But, her mama already knew he was with Mrs. Temple, so she’s just been chilling at home trying to make amends.”

“So, that’s where she’s been at?” Monty was relieved a little bit that she hadn’t pulled a disappearing act on him. “That Will Smith is a trip. I don’t know when he’ll stop cheating on Mrs. Nancy. You said he’s cheating with Mrs. Temple, huh? He better slow down, she’s not a widower for nothing. I’ve always heard that he likes them young and she’s about twenty years younger than him.
Dey say her husband had a heart attack, with his old ass, right after they had sex.” Monty said, and shook his head in disbelief.

“Yeah well, ‘Day’ always says everything. When does Night say anything?” Mona asks sarcastically.

“Oh, shut up, big head. I know that man was taking too many Viagras trying to keep up and that took him out, but dey wasn’t lying about the heart attack, though.” Monty grinned.

“I talked to Candy on the phone for a good while last night and she told me to tell you hey, but it slipped my mind. You
wouldn’t have cared, anyway.” Mona pulled out her peachy sweet gloss and rubbed some on her lips.

“You and Candy love that shit. Y’all two
be trippin’. But, I can’t even lie. I miss her loud ass mouth. I hate to hear that she’s on punishment. That sounds funny. She’s outta school and shit, and is on punishment. But, I guess her mama was real mad about her lying to her. So, the next time you talk to her tell her I said what’s up and tell her daddy to sit his old ass down somewhere.”

“I’ll tell her with your crazy self.” Mona got up and walked down the hallway. “I’m about to take a shower and lay back down for a while. It ain’t
nothing else to do since Candy is shot up in the house and Ross is outta town with his sister.

Mona went in the bathroom and turned on the shower. She then walked into her room and grabbed a bath towel as well as some underclothes. After that, she returned to the bathroom, closed the door shut, and began to sing out loud.

Monty sat on the sofa, allowing
The Jeffersons
to watch him because he was too busy trying to think of a way he could get out of the house to go meet his date for the night. She told him she had an awesome surprise for him and that he’d be very sorry if he missed out on it. He figured she maybe had about a grand for him, maybe even two, but wasn’t sure. He knew it was money because that was all his surprises ever consisted of. He began to wonder about Candy, who he’d been thinking about a little too much lately, and that was rather strange.

Candy could get it, though, if she was at least eighteen
, he thought to himself just as he heard a knock at the door.

“Who dat?”
Monty asked in a deep, sexy voice.

“Open up the door, knuckle head,” Candy yelled from the other side. Monty jumped up off the sofa as his heart dropped for the first time in his life, yet, he hesitated to open the door because he was caught off guard by his feelings for her. He stood there for a second and then continued.

“What’s up, flea,” Monty said in a cool and collective manner as he opened up the door and smiled at Candy.

“You the flea, punk,” she responded and gently hit Monty on
the arm. “Now, is that the way you talk to your future wife? I see you must have missed me, didn’t you?” She walked in the house while trying not to stare so hard at Monty, who was not wearing a shirt.

“What do you think? Does it look like I missed you?” Monty asked. He got up in Candy’s face.

“Yeah! If you ask me,” Candy said, breathing hard while trying to resist Monty’s sexiness.

“Maybe I did, or maybe I didn’t.” Monty slowly walked off from her and sat back down on the sofa. “Your homey is in the shower. She just got in there good, but you know she’ll be out in a minute because she
be half washing just like you do. You know what dey say,
birds of a feather, flock together
.”

“Whatever!” Candy said as she slapped Monty on his arm, and then sat down beside him. “I’ll just wait for her to come out.”

“Candy, all jokes aside. What have your pops been up to? Mona was just telling me about him. I didn’t know he was messing around with Mrs. Temple, the black widow,” Monty said.

“I don’t know what he’s thinking about. That lady lives in the same neighborhood we live in. He’s just on one of his sprees again. My mama ain’t happy about that. You know Mrs. Temple, or shall I say Ebony, is too young for him. She’s gonna kill my daddy if he don’t leave her alone. I hope he ain’t taking those
Viagras, either. She better be glad my mama ain’t the woman she used to be or she’d been done took her down through there. She was real mad at me, though, because I lied for him, but she’s getting over it. She knows that I was just trying to keep the peace between the two of them.”

“So, have you missed me?” Monty grinned as Candy playfully rolled her eyes as if to say, yeah right. She then looked down by her shoe where Catherine’s keys were located. She picked them up and handed them to Monty.

“I see Mrs. Cat lost her keys again, huh? I figured that when you came to the door but your car was gone.”

“Yeah, you know her just as well as we do,” Monty said. He
happily took the keys and stood up. “I have to go get dressed because I have a very important place to be in an hour. Thanks for finding my mama’s keys for me,” Monty stated just as Mona came out of the bathroom.

“Is that Candy’s voice I hear in there?”

“Yep, that’s her stank ass,” Monty said just as he passed Mona in the hall before she walked in the living room and gave Candy a hug.

“What’s up, gurl?” Mona asked as she sat down beside her.

“Nothing much, ya know. I was missing your company, so I got my dad’s car and came over. My mom will let up eventually,” said Candy as she smiled.

“Yeah, well, I’m glad to see you. I wanted to drop by your crib, but I know it’s a lot of tension going on over there right about now.” Mona said.

“Glad you didn’t stop by because my mom has been real upset with daddy lately. He’s been acting like he’s sprung and shit. He stays out most of the night and comes in with a weird looking smile on his face. I don’t believe we’ve ever seen him like this before. He acts like a kid in a candy store. My mom is feeling threatened for her marriage for the first time in her life, and it’s starting to show. She thinks that daddy might just leave her this time, but I know better. He’s just going through the motions and he’ll snap back soon enough. Dey say young pussy will do that to an old coon.” Candy said, and laughed as if she was unfazed by her father’s actions.

“He’ll be alright. You’re right. He’ll come around soon enough.” Mona changed the subject. “I need some fresh air. Come on, let’s step outside. Somebody got a birthday coming up,” Mona sang as she played in Candy’s face.

“Yep! It’s me and we’re definitely going out,” said Candy. She gave Mona high five, then they walked out the door and continued to gossip. Candy playfully hit Mona just as Monty stepped out on the front porch with Sean John gear on from head to toe.

“Alright ladies, I’m out.” He gave Mona dap and stepped
over by Candy, smoothly tapping her on the ass while Mona was not looking.

“Damn, Monty, you smelling good and shit. What’s that cologne you’re wearing?” Mona asked just as he got to Catherine’s car.

“It’s that Unforgivable by none other than my man Diddy. What did you think?” Monty responded as if he was appalled she didn’t know that, considering he was her brother and she should be familiar with those things about him.

“Oh shut up, Monty. What? Are you supposed to be the only one that wears Sean John from head to toe? You ain’t shit,” Candy said, giggling.

“Only a hater would say that.” Monty opened up the car door and looked back at Candy.

“Well, tell that trick that I said hey. I would hope she knows she sho’ ain’t got herself shit, fucking around with your whorish ass, anyway.” Candy put both hands on her hip.

“I’ll tell her that you said hey, even though she ain’t gonna give a damn. But, she wouldn’t be able to speak back, anyway, with this dick in her mouth.” Monty laughed as he got in the car and bumped Rocko’s
Umma Do Me
.

“Kiss my ass!” Candy yelled out as she stuck out the birdie finger.

“Y’all two be trippin’ out,” Mona commented while laughing.

“Yeah, well, I can’t stand his ass sometimes. But, I still
love’um though,” Candy said as she played around with Mona because deep down inside, what she felt for him was love. “I guess I’ma get on outta here myself. I gotta get back and check on my mama because she’s been real pitiful looking lately since daddy been acting like a strung out dog in heat.”