The Glamorous Life (16 page)

“You heard right.” She smiled timidly, still embarrassed. “So you going to be at the party?”

He nodded.

“Well, I’ll see you there. I got a big night ahead of me and still have a lot to do in preparation for the gala affair.”

He smiled and walked off. She had never been so embarrassed
in her whole life. She pulled out her cell phone and called Egypt to vent. Egypt tried to convince her that it wasn’t all that bad.

“Girl, at least he told you. What if he wouldn’t have said anything and then you would have found out later?”

After talking with Egypt and feeling marginally better, Bambi continued to shop, stopping in a couple more stores before heading back to the pet store. When she approached the shop’s window, she saw that the cat was gone, and she saw a sign in the cage that said sold. That indicated to her that the Persian was waiting for her inside.

She strolled in and told the woman, “I’m going to put my other bags in the car and will be right back. I’m parked right out front.”

The clerk looked surprised to see Bambi back, as if she had been convinced that Bambi didn’t have $430 plus tax to spend on a cat and wouldn’t be back.

“Miss, you said an hour or so, and it’s been almost two hours,” the clerk informed Bambi.

“So what are you saying?” Bambi asked suspiciously.

“You’re too late. Someone just purchased the cat, and he’s gone home with his new owner,” the clerk said, with an apologetic glance at the empty cage.

Bambi went off, cussing and fussing until the woman demanded that she leave before she called the police. Bambi was convinced that her day had been jinxed. First the booger and now her cat. What else could go wrong?

Bambi walked to her car, parked as always in the “expectant/ new mother’s” designated parking space, and saw that someone had put a big box on the car and what looked like a parking ticket under the windshield wiper. The first thing she thought was,
Someone had the nerve to leave some damn trash on my car.

As she got closer, she heard meowing and the sound of scratching in the box. She opened it and found the shiny black Persian cat. She couldn’t have been happier. Her day was turning around. “Where did you come from?” Bambi cooed.

She didn’t care. She hurried and put the cat in the passenger’s seat of the car and prepared to pull off. If someone had left the cat, oh well, finders keepers, losers weepers. Once she was down the street, she realized that the parking ticket under the windshield wiper was actually a note. She pulled over and grabbed it. Opening it she read: “I’ve been checked for fleas, ticks, and boogers, and now I am ready for a good home!”

She smiled. Now she was really looking forward to the party. This time when Lynx asked her to dance, she’d have a different answer.

CHAPTER 16

The Freak of the Week

T
hat night when Bambi arrived at the Arthur Ashe Center, she was informed that flowers had been delivered for her. They were her favorite—sunflowers. The enclosed card read: “To the best party planner this town has ever seen. Use this night to shine. ”

There was no mistake about it: Tall Daddy’s party was definitely the place to be. The line to get in was wrapped around the building. Inside, the party was jumping; the music was by DJ Clue. As Bambi looked around, she happened to catch a glimpse of some light-skinned girl all up in Lynx’s face. The girl’s name was Unique, and she had many aliases—“the freak of the week,” a.k.a. “straight skeezer”, a.k.a. “the greatest hood rat of all time”—but she was best known around the town for holding the champion title for her state-of-the-art blow jobs. Bambi knew if Unique ever got her mouth on Lynx, it would be over—such was Unique’s reputation when it came to giving
head! Bambi had never felt threatened by any woman. Still, she knew Unique had one up on her: her freak game.

There was no denying Unique’s attractiveness, but it was the way she carried herself that made her ugly. Unique had a light complexion with long hair and cat eyes. Her shape was fierce, and she always dressed in form-fitting clothing. Unique’s man, Took, had spoiled her until he went to prison, leaving her with what was rumored to be a nice stash, about forty or fifty grand, which she let run through her hands like water. Once she realized that she had no money coming in, she became a straight hood rat. After Took’s arrest she went from being a hustler’s wife overnight to being a bona-fide nickel-and-dime ho.

Bambi knew that Unique was on the prowl, and she wasn’t having none of it now that she’d set her sights on Lynx.
Oh I know that ho Unique is not going to get her claws into Lynx, and she needs to know it. I got something for her, if I have to take this dude home tonight myself. I know one thing for sure, two things for certain…. Ms. Unique won’t be putting her slobbing lips on that, not tonight anyway. Where the hell is Disco? I know his ass is around here somewhere trying to scope out his competition. Shit, I’ll give Disco a hundred dollars to pay that ho to fuck him. I know that nickel-and-dime two-bit ho will definitely go for that.

Just then Tall Daddy rolled up in his wheelchair, smiling. “You did it up, baby. You dat bitch fo real!”

Strobe lights pulsed over the room, and the best East Coast rappers were on the stage tearing it up in a freestyle battle. Bambi looked around and didn’t see Lynx or Unique anywhere. The party was in full throttle, with aproximately two thousand people dancing and going wild. The crowd pressed against her, but she kept searching for Lynx.

Finally, she thought she saw Lynx’s man Cook’em-up. But
as she started over toward him, the fire marshal came in and shut the whole party down. Just like that, lights were out and the party was over. Bambi was upset until Egypt told her, “Girl, you daaaa shiiiiit when the fire marshal comes and shut yo shit down.”

“You really think so?”

“Yup, girl. I am telling you, if the fire marshal say it’s too many ma’fuckas in a place, and the place is as big as the Ashe Center, girl, you’s a bad bitch if you can sell out this place. Mark my words, I betcha a whole bunch of other folks be calling you to do their parties now,” Egypt assured her friend.

“I hope so. You are such a good friend. Thank you so much!” She hugged her and then changed the subject. “I thought you would have been long gone. Aren’t you going to the joint in the morning?” Bambi asked her friend. “Or did you change your mind or something?”

“Don’t be funny! You know I’m going.”

Bambi knew that was right. Even if her friend stayed out and partied all night, it wouldn’t stop her from getting to her destination in the morning. After Egypt’s run-in with Smooth, she had decided she wasn’t going to pick up any more men in the clubs. Egypt had promised herself that before she’d even go out with a guy she’d get to know him inside out. She wanted to talk to guys for months to scope out their game. Most of the guys she ran into on the streets were not having that telephone love. After a few times on the phone, they wanted action, and when the action wasn’t jumping off, they lost interest.

But one day Egypt had answered her telephone: It was a wrong number, a collect call from a federal prison. Thinking that it was someone she knew calling, she accepted the call. Once she found out it wasn’t,
I ain’t really got nothing else to do, so let me see what this dude is talking about,
she’d thought. After carrying on a conversation for a few minutes, at that moment her whole grind changed from gold digging drug dealers to hustling the major players in the penitentiary. Her whole existence revolved around finding love on lockdown.

Bambi had gotten a whiff of this one day when she called her friend to chat.

“Hey girl, what’s up?” she’d asked.

“Is it something important?” Egypt had said. “If not, I gotta call you back.”

“Damn, what you doing?”

“I am online trying to do some research.”

“Research on what?”

“This dude I’m about to holla at.”

“What dude? Where did you meet him?” Bambi had wanted to know exactly why her friend hadn’t told her about the mystery man before.

“I haven’t met him yet, but I’m ’bout to,” Egypt had said.

“What you mean? Give it up, you know I can’t take it. I want the whole four-one-one.”

“Girl, I’m almost ashamed to say.”

“I’m your best friend. If you can sit and tell me how you bleeding like the damn blood bank and every other thing, telling me about some dude shouldn’t be no big deal. Now come on, give it up,” Bambi had demanded.

“Girl, the dude is in jail.”

“What? Jail?” Bambi had said.

“Yup, girl, but hold on before you start trying to give me a damn speech. A speech that I don’t need or want to hear either.”

“I’m listening,” Bambi had said, smiling at how her friend
knew her so well, because the truth of the matter was that she had been about to give her a sermon as sure as her name was Bambi.

“Girl, he just ain’t your average dude doing time, needing me to send him some commissary money. He’s a paid-ass nigga with an asshole full of money and a stash, too.”

“For real? And how you know all of this?”

“Girl, please if the feds took a reported four hundred thousand from him at the pickup, then trust me it’s more where that came from,” Egypt had informed her friend.

“Oh, okay. But how you know that wasn’t all he had?”

“Because dude been in the game for a while. He ain’t new to this, and just from reading up on him, I know he got a stash.”

“And if he do?”

“Then if I play my cards right, I know I’ll have a stash, too.”

“And what if he doesn’t have a stash?” Bambi had asked.

“After reading up on him, if he don’t have one, I’m sure he know plenty of dudes who do, and you know what? It’s only one way to find out.”

“Oh, okay, but how you going to meet him? You still haven’t told me that yet.”

“Don’t worry. I’m going to get his address and send him a letter. Tell me what dude in jail don’t want somebody to show him love? Every dude in jail want a letter, a card, a picture. Shoot, that’s the highlight of the day in jail: mail.”

“Shit, you ain’t lying. I remember when bitch-ass Reggie had that little bid to do. He would stress me out for mail every single day. And if he didn’t get anything on mail call, trust me girl, all hell broke loose! Then on top of everything, girl, he used to talk to me every day on the phone. So yup, I agree, dudes do want all the pen pals they can get.”

Since then, men in jails all across the country had become a
major part of Egypt’s bread and butter. Whether the money came directly off of their inmate account or they had their homeboys sending her money, the money came and it came faithfully and regularly.

As people left the Arthur Ashe Center, Bambi gave Egypt a hug, and Egypt promised to call Bambi when she got on the road the next morning to go visit her convict friend.

After Tall Daddy rolled out of the party with his boys, he promised her that not only would he be having her plan all of his future parties, but his boys would too. Bambi got all her paperwork for the caterer and the decorator and everything else in order and headed to her car. As she approached her car, she saw Lynx standing next to it talking with Cook’em-up. They were drinking Heineken beers.

“May I help you with something? Do you need a ride or something?” She tried to be sarcastic, but her grin betrayed her true feelings. And she was especially happy that Lynx wasn’t somewhere laid up with Unique.

Cook’em-up looked at her up and down, and instead of acknowledging her, turned to Lynx and asked, “Man, you a’ight?”

“I’m a’ight now that my baby is here.” Lynx gave Cook’emup a pound and sent him on his way.

“I was just waiting for you so I could make sure you got to your car okay. I heard the dudes up Broad Street got to shooting up the Seven-Eleven. I knew you’d be coming out late, so I wanted to make sure nobody snatched you or nothing.”

“Oooh, you’re so sweet. Thank you! And thanks so much for the cat. I love it,” she said, but the whole time she was looking at his manhood bulging out a little bit through his tailor-made Armani linen suit.

“Yeah? I hope in the same way you’ll grow to love this cat.” He smiled, pointing at his chest. Then his cell phone rang. Instead
of answering it, he reached into his pocket, cut the phone off, and threw it on the seat of his truck. For Lynx to shut his phone down meant that only she had his attention, and Bambi liked that. He finished his Heineken and tossed the empty bottle into a trash can.

“Look, all I am asking is that you give me one more chance,” he said.

“And if I do and your chance falls through the floor, then what?” she asked, jingling her keys, trying not to seem nervous.

“Then I’ll pick up the pieces of my heart and ego, and I’ll bounce. Now is it a deal?” He extended his hand for a handshake.

She shook his hand. He was looking at her, admiration in his eyes.

“Now can I ask why you are looking at me like that? Do I have another booger on my nose?” she asked.

“Naw, you just soft on the eyes, that’s all,” he told her as he reached into the cooler in the back of his truck and pulled out two beers, offering her one although he knew she would refuse it. He opened it and took a sip.