Friend-Zoned (32 page)

My head pounds from lack
of sleep.
Anxiety kept me awake all night so I decide to get up earlier than
I normally do. I shower and dress.
Uncle Jerm isn’t expecting me so I’m hoping he won’t refuse to see
me. I get into my car and drive.
Trying to be inconspicuous last night on the phone with Nik I asked
him where Uncle Jerm worked and he tried to be vague when he said
the docks. So that’s where I’m heading. Surely, someone can point
me in the right direction when I get there.
I arrive at the docks and the gates are shut and
locked.
What the
frick?
Checking the time on my phone,
it’s just past seven. I sigh and exit my car. I walk over to the
huge wire gate, press my forehead against it and breathe in the
salty fresh air.
This is
nice.
“Can I help you?” says a deep
and loud voice.
I open my eyes, jump back, and squeal for a good five seconds. The
man on the other side of the fence is large, African American and
scowling at me. The look in his eyes says some rude cuss
words.
Taking a second to compose myself, I breathe deep and put a hand to
my chest. When I’m good I step closer to the fence and ask, “How do
I get to Uncle Jerm?”
The man’s face hardens and he replies coldly, “If you don’t know
how to get to him you shouldn’t be here, shawty.”
Anxiety clogs my throat and desperation sets in. I croak, “This is
an emergency. I haven’t slept all night because of that freak
Omarr. I need to see Jermaine.” I close my eyes and beg in a
whisper, “Please. This is important.”
My eyes are still closed but I hear the large man sigh. He asks,
“What’s your name?”
I open my misty eyes and reply, “Tina. Jermaine knows me.”
The man’s eyes widen and he repeats, “Tina?” I nod and he
continues, “As in Leokov’s woman?” I nod. He lets out a long, low
whistle and says, “He said you had balls but I had no idea you’d be
stupid enough to come here. He won’t be happy about this but if I
leave you here he’ll have my ass.” He looks me up and down then
nods to the side gate and sighs, “C’mon, shawty.”
Large man walks me to the first warehouse then leads me to an
office. He says, “Uncle Jerm will be here soon. Make yourself
comfortable.”
Then he opens the door to Uncle Jerm’s office, I walk in and he
closes it behind me. I take the CD out of my purse and sit on the
sofa. I lean my head on the arm of the sofa and
sigh.
I’ll just rest my eyes for a
moment.
***

My eyes flutter open and I
see Uncle Jerm sitting behind his desk, leaning to the side with a
hand over his eyes.
The CD I brought with me is gone. I jerk and Uncle Jerm looks
up.
He doesn’t look happy. Not that I thought he would be happy about
my visit. His nephew wants him dead, for god sake!
I begin to speak but Uncle Jerm cuts me off with a firm, “Damn fool
of a woman!”
Well, that’s not quite
what I was expecting.
He continues,
“Do you realize the danger you’ve put yourself in? Nik is going to
be livid.
I
am
livid. Of all the things you could’ve done,
this
was the dumbest.”
And that’s when I burst into tears.
My body shakes with sobs and I croak, “He wants to kill you,
Jermaine. He wants Nik to hurt. I—I—I didn’t know what else to do.
I heard Nik say you needed evidence that Omarr was recruiting and
now you have it. So, do something!” I shake and whisper, “Please do
something. I can’t lose Nik.” I cover my face with my hands and
weep.
Uncle Jerm pulls my hands from my face and kneels before me. He
wipes tears from my cheeks and assures, “Omarr isn’t a concern
anymore, child.” My body slumps back with relief. He continues, “As
of ten minutes ago, Omarr has a price on his
head.”
Oh,
no!
I stammer, “B—B—But I thought you
would get him some help!” My face pales and I whisper shout. “I
didn’t want him dead, Jermaine!”
He shakes his head slowly and answers me softly, “Tina, Omarr isn’t
right. Think of it this way, it’s you and Nik or it’s him. And be
warned, he will come after you. He will find out about this, baby
girl. I know you had good intentions but it was crazy.
Straightjackets, padded rooms, out of your damn mind, crazy. You
feel me?”
If I pale any more I’ll be transparent.
What have I done?
Uncle Jerm
smirks, “But, by god, you’ve got a set of balls on you.” Then he
sobers and says, “We got to tell Nik about this.”
I nod.
That should be
fun.
***

The CD Uncle Jerm had
expressed to The White Rabbit plays on my computer. I sit at my
desk and listen.
My insides dip.
I’m not quite sure what I’m hearing.
“Sure, just so we both know what we are dealing with. I continue to
work Nik and once I’m paid, I’m yours. But you have to back off. I
can’t be distracted. You want Nik hurt and I’ll hurt him, baby. For
you, I’ll do anything.” No mistaking it. That’s my
girl.
It can’t
be.
No.
No.
Fuck no.
This can’t be happening.

Chapter Twenty-Six
The great misunderstanding of
2013

Uncle Jerm wouldn’t let me
leave the warehouse he calls the factory until I had some coffee
and breakfast with him. I’m glad he persuaded me. I probably
would’ve passed out half way to The White Rabbit from
exhaustion.
Upon departing, Uncle Jerm pulled me into a warm hug and told me,
“You saved my life, Tina, which means I owe you. Big. If you need
anything from this old man, just call.” He gives me his business
card and I slip it into my purse.
Which brings us to now. I stand out front of The White
Rabbit.
My heart races and my stomach knots.
I’m going to have to tell Nik everything. And he is
not
going to like it. My
previous experiences tell me I should be honest with Nik but I am
petrified of what his reaction might be. I close my eyes and
breathe deep.
Nik will understand. He has to.
I compose myself as much as I can and make my way to Nik’s office.
Just before I get there I’m greeted by a mad looking Max. He puts
his hand up and says, “Don’t go in there, Tina.”
My feet stomp past him and I respond urgently, “Don’t try to stop
me this time, Max. I have to see Nik right now. I don’t care if
he’s busy and hiding out. This is priority. It’s important.” And I
barge into Nik’s office.
Nik sits behind his desk staring into nothing. I approach and he
stands up. Half way there I smile and say, “Hey, honey.”
His eyes turn cold and he says, “Nik loves me, O. He’ll give me
anything and everything I want. I just have to hook him a little
more.”
My face pales and my heart clenches.
He’s already heard the CD. Which means Uncle Jerm sent it
over.
I begin, “I…”
But Nik cuts me off with a quiet, “Stop.” He looks hurt. I never
wanted to hurt him. I thought he’d understand why I thought I had
to do this.
He continues just as quietly, “Never thought I’d be one of those
schmuks. I thought I did a good job of protecting myself from women
like you.” There is a fist around my heart and it squeezes tight.
He goes on, “But you…You really got in there. With my family and
friends, too. You went the whole nine yards.” He laughs acidly.
“Who the fuck sends candy to a guy?!”
I do.
My heart is breaking. Nik
thinks I played him.
I try to explain, “Please, Nik. Let me exp…”
He cuts me off with a hard, “No.”
My face bunches and I start crying. I hyperventilate, cover my
cheeks with my hands and yell, “Let me explain!”
He shakes his head and I croak a desperate, “It’s just a
misunderstanding, baby.”
Nik’s face steels and he whispers viciously, “Don’t say another
fucking word.” He looks down and says, “You were my world. My
everything. You really had me fooled. It was all just a game to
you. A job. Never thought I’d end up with a woman like you. I loved
you. Never believed I deserved you. But now that I know the real
you, I don’t want you. So this works out okay. Another lesson
learned.”
Sobbing, I walk up to him and choke, “I love you, Nik.”
He doesn’t look at me when he replies coldly, “Yeah, well, I don’t
love you.”
My heart shatters. I feel extremely light
headed.
What have I
done?
Nik moves passed me and nudges
my body with his passing shoulder. In my weak state, the nudge
feels more like a push. I stumble back and my heel catches. I fall.
My back, shoulder and head hit the corner of his desk. Hard.
I sit on the floor a moment and mouth, “Ow.”
Before I know what’s happening Max walks in. He takes in my weak
form on the floor then Nik’s hard face. He storms up to Nik and
gets right in his face and yells, “What the fuck is wrong with you?
Get it under control, Nik.”
I take this as my cue to get the hell out of there. Max continues
to yell into Nik’s face.
I crawl forward a few steps, stand unsteadily, and catch my
breath.
Then I’m gone.
***

Max is in my face yelling
at me but I can’t make out any of the words he’s saying.
Blood roars in my ears. Anger, pain, and heart-break have left me
drained.
I didn’t mean for Tina to fall. It was my fault, regardless, but I
wished it hadn’t happened.
My office phone rings and I cut Max’s rant off by answering it,
“Hello?”
Uncle Jerm asks, “You get the disc, son?”
I reply, “Yeah, Jerm. Thanks for the heads up.”
Uncle Jerm tuts. “That girl of yours either has a death wish or
loves you too damn much. Didn’t even flinch at going up against
Omarr.”
Wait,
what?
Confusion settles over me and I
ask, “Sorry, what?”
Uncle Jerm hesitates, “You see your girl this morning?”
I reply coldly, “Yeah.”
He doesn’t say anything for a moment then sighs, “Please tell me
you listened to the child.”
I didn’t listen.
I retort, “What was there to listen to, Jerm? She played me. End of
story.”
Uncle Jerm loses his cool composure and shoots back, “Well, your
girl came to see me this morning with evidence that my nephew is
planning a mutiny. She played Omarr and just put herself on the
hit-list of a psychopath for the man she loves and to save the life
of a drug dealing old man she barely knows. So I’d say there was a
lot to listen to, son.”
Fear makes my stomach dip.
No. That can’t be right.
I bark, “Explain.”
Uncle Jerm replies quietly, “Just did.” Then hangs up.
Anxiety eats at me.
My experiences with money hungry women have been ridiculously high.
Always a women looking for a sugar daddy. Not once had Tina asked
for anything from me. I never gave her a choice when giving her
gifts or doing things for her. Not her fault. I wanted to do that
as her boyfriend and protector. I never got that gold digger vibe
from Tina. I should have listened to my gut.
I’ve made a terrible mistake. I need to find Tina. I knew in my
heart something wasn’t right.
You
told her you didn’t love her.
I put my hand on the desk to hold myself up and feel something wet.
I look down and there is small pool of blood on the corner of my
desk mixed with a small amount of hair. Tina’s hair. The blood
blends in with the mahogany, you can barely notice it.
FUCK!
Oh, God. She has hemophilia. Her blood doesn’t clot well. She could
be losing too much blood. Maybe she doesn’t even know she’s
bleeding. I feel sick to the stomach.
What have I done?
I snatch my phone up off my desk and call Tina. Her phone goes
straight to voicemail. I don’t leave a message. Instead, I run out
of the office and straight to Safira.
Nat is at the counter and greets me with a smile. She obviously
doesn’t know about the misunderstanding with Tina otherwise she’d
already have ripped my balls clean off.
She says, “Hey Nik, you just missed her. She knocked her head on
the car door and has a cut on her noggin so I sent her home.” She
looks left then right, comes closer and whispers, “How awesome was
she with Omarr?! I didn’t think she had it in her. And please!
She’s having hard times with money! Ha! Tina’s a freaking
millionaire!”
I blanch and whisper loudly, “What?”
Nat’s face straightens and she asks, “She didn’t tell you yet?” She
sighs, “Her mom’s life insurance policy was huge. Mia had a policy,
too, but it all went to opening Safira. Tina put all her mom’s life
insurance money into an interest account. Over five years, she has
well over three million now. It’s a little hard to access but with
my signature as well as her dad’s, she can take it all out today if
she wanted to.”
Great. Just great.
I accuse my girlfriend of being a gold digger and she has more
money than I do!
Remembering my reason for being here, I ask, “You said she was
hurt. How bad is it?”
She waves her hands, rolls her eyes, and says, “Don’t get all
protective on me! It was just a cut. But Tina’s a bleeder so it
always looks worse than it is. I cleaned it. It’s fine and no
longer bleeding.”
Thank god. Now to go over to the apartment and beg on my knees for
forgiveness.
I ask Nat, “Is there any candy Tina likes?”
Nat looks at me like Well, Duh. And I understand it. This is Tina.
She loves candy.
I roll my eyes and ask, “What’s Tina’s favorite candy?”
She writes down four different names and I head down the street to
the candy store.
I hope this works.
***

I drag my sorry ass out of
my car with a bag full of candy.
As I approach Tina’s apartment I think about my entrance. Should I
knock? Or use my key?
I think using my key is the better option. If I know she can
pretend not to be home. But I see her car isn’t here.
Using my spare key, I enter the apartment and the first thing I
notice is a handwritten note on the dining table. I walk closer.
It’s addressed to Nat. I sit and read.
Hey hon, sorry I didn’t talk to you
about this before but I’m feeling a little raw. I don’t think I
could’ve spoken about it without crying a river.
Nik and I broke up.
The Omarr thing worked but everything is screwed up. There was a
big misunderstanding and I need some space. I’m going away a few
days for some R&R. I’ll have my phone but it’ll be off so leave
a message if you need me. I wouldn’t entrust the store to anyone
but you. You know me, I’ll be fine. Just needing some time alone.
Talk about it when I get home.
I love you. You’re the best sister ever.
My heart sinks.
I’ve driven the only woman I’ve wanted to protect from hurt and
pain to this. I feel like the world’s biggest asshole. Actually,
I
am
the world’s
biggest asshole.
When the Sissy office ordeal happened, Tina listened to me (with
the help of Nat) and believed me. I didn’t even let her speak a
word. I knew something wasn’t right but I let my pride get in the
way.
A sudden idea pops into my head. I flip open my cell and dial my
guy. He picks up and I state, “I need someone found. Like,
yesterday.”
He responds with, “I need a cell number.”
I give it to him and tell him her cell will be off most of the time
so he’ll need to check regularly. I quickly add he’ll be well paid
for the time he spends on this assignment. He accepts the terms and
says he’ll call as soon as he gets a hit. I end the call and pray
to god that Tina is safe and well.
If something happened to her I wouldn’t be able to forgive
myself.
***