The Glamorous Life (30 page)

“Baby, that’s one for you and your mom!”

“How? You were with me all day.”

“Just because I am not there, don’t mean I can’t make shit happen.”

At that moment the phone rang, and it was Egypt calling to deliver the news of Smooth’s death. Bambi played dumb and chatted with Egypt for a while. When she got off the phone, Lynx was asleep.

CHAPTER 30

Till Death Do Us Part

T
wo days later, Bambi sat in the car waiting as Lynx ran into the drugstore. He had been in there more than ten minutes when she called him on his cell phone. He answered, saying, “I’m paying for my stuff right now. Just hold tight, baby.”

“You know we’re going to be late to the movies.”

“I know. Boo, for real, I don’t even feel like messing with the movies. As a matter of fact, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Okay,” she said. As he walked out of the store she was struck by how good he looked. Something about the John Smedley sweater he wore made her even more attracted to him. Loving how he wore the sweater, she didn’t even notice him carrying the small white, flat bag in his hand.

He got into the car and handed her the bag, which had a card. She smiled as she read it. It was a Mahogany card, the type she used to send him when he was in prison, and it told her how much she meant to him. As she read it, tears started
forming in her eyes. He’d signed it with the question, “Will you marry me?”

She sat speechless in the front seat of his new Porsche. When she finally looked up, he was holding a ring that had so much bling she was nearly blinded. Because she was silent, Lynx felt something was wrong. “If you don’t like the ring, that’s cool. We can always take it back, and you can pick out what you want. I got it from that place that you like in Vegas, Fred Leighton. I wanted you to have something special, and I know they sell rare collectible jewels. And this is an Asscher-cut diamond. The lady who sold it to me told me that the largest cut diamonds in the world were cut by the Asscher family.”

“No, it’s not that. I don’t care about no ring. As long as it from you, I’ll accept anything.”

“Then what’s wrong?” He took her into his arms as she began to sob.

“I can’t marry you.”

“What? What you mean you can’t marry me?”

“I just, I just … can’t.”

“I don’t understand. I love you like I never loved no other, and you tell me every day you feel the same. You held me down while I was locked up and been there for me every day since. Do you not love me? Is it some other nigga you love? What?” He raised his voice, confused.

“No, I love you and I want to be with you but …”

“But what?” he demanded.

“But I can’t have any kids, and I know no man wants a woman who can’t give them a child,” she blurted out.

He was silent for a split second. “So? I don’t care about no kids. I love you. And plus, how you know you can’t have children? It’s doctors that we can go to that can get you pregnant.”

“No, I already been through all that. I know for a fact I can’t
have no kids.” She continued to sob. “I can’t marry you. I just can’t. I know you say it ain’t about kids now, but what about later? It’ll really break me down if you cheat on me with someone else and she gets pregnant.”

“You talking crazy now. I don’t fuck around, and if I did do you really think I would go up in a chick raw dog?”

“I’m just saying mistakes happen. And just my luck, she’ll turn up pregnant. If she does, would it even be fair for me to expect you to kill the only possibility of you having a child?”

“Look, baby, I am not tripping on no kids. I love you, and if you can’t give me one, then I’ll sacrifice and not have any! I mean that! Look, I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Now what’s up?”

“Lynx, I am sorry, I just can’t marry you. We can still spend the rest of our lives together, but I can’t marry you. At least if you have a baby by another girl I won’t feel too much like a fool if I am not your wife. ”

Lynx was getting frustrated with the whole conversation. “So you mean to tell me the only reason why you won’t marry me is because of a baby.”

“Yup.” She nodded her head.

“This is some motherfucking bullshit,” he said as he started the car, pulled out of the Walgreen’s parking lot, and headed in the direction of Bambi’s house instead of the movies.

He was speeding, weaving in and out of traffic and driving like a bat out of hell. Neither breathed a word to each other for the next ten minutes.

“Tell me exactly how you know that you can’t have any kids?”

She continued to cry uncontrollably.

“Lynx, after you were locked up and I never heard from you again, I …” She hesitated. “Ummm, I found out I was pregnant
with your baby. I was so confused. You were missing in action. I thought you had written me off as a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am. My mom was still hugging the bottle. I was alone and I didn’t think I could go through the pregnancy by myself. It wouldn’t have been fair to the baby. After the abortion I had all this internal bleeding, and I had to have surgery and they gave me a partial hysterectomy.”

“You mean to tell me you killed my baby?” he asked. His face was tight with anger.

She didn’t respond.

“You talk about me and my people. You ain’t no fucking better. You a fucking murderer.”

She continued to cry, unable to look at him. “Lynx, I am sorry.”

“You know what? I can’t even deal with you right now.” He pulled in front of her house and didn’t say a word. Before she could shut the door, he sped off.

CHAPTER 31

Can’t Beat Her, So Join Her

L
olly walked into her living room after a day of shopping and saw her son stretched out on the leather sofa that she had taken out of his house when he went to prison. She stood at the doorway observing him flipping the televison channels. Lately he seemed to always be showing up at her house at all hours for no reason at all. And he was never in a mood to be messed with. She didn’t know what was wrong with him, but she knew better than to ask.

“Hey, baby,” she greeted.

“Whad up,” he said sourly.

“You ate?”

“Nope, I ain’t hungry,” he said, never looking up.

“You know the rest of that money is due for that new HDTV, right?”

“Yeah, Ma, I know. I ain’t got nothing but a few hundred on me. I lost a few dollars at the crap house last night.”

“Damn, nigga, it seems like you been going there losing all yo li’l money the past few days.”

Lynx didn’t answer her. Lolly kept trying to make conversation with Lynx, but she had no luck so she walked into his brother’s room and asked Cleezy, “When you gonna give me that money?”

“Did Lynx give you his part yet?”

“Don’t worry ’bout Lynx. I am talking about you.”

“I got you, Ma,” he said, reaching for his jeans.

“What’s wrong with your brother anyway, looking like he just lost his best friend?”

Cleezy went into his pocket, pulled out a knot of hundreds and fifties, and said, “I guess the deer and the cat is having problems in their jungle.” He counted the money out and laid it on the bed.

When Lolly saw the bankroll, which at that moment Cleezy regretted having pulled out, she asked, “Don’t you want to treat yo momma to dinner tonight?”

He shook his head and mumbled under his breath, “Got-damn, Ma, you be killing me.” But he gave her a fifty-dollar bill.

“Now you know better,” Lolly said as she picked the fifty-dollar bill up. “When you give them skanks money to go to dinner, don’t them no-count Jezebels eat up more than fifty dollars worth of food? Well, yo momma ain’t watching her weight because I don’t care about being no video ho, so you know fifty dollars at a nice restaurant doesn’t even include dessert for yo momma.”

Cleezy cut her off, saying, “Here, Ma.” And he peeled off another fifty-dollar bill, but that still wasn’t enough for her.

“Now who you think going to go with me? You or your
brother sho ain’t going to take me. Y’all too busy running around here acting like y’all gangstas that you don’t even have time for yo momma. You know I am all you got.”

“Ma, here, damn, please just find somebody to go with you to dinner. I got stuff I’m trying to do and got to get done. I’m going out of town tonight and shit hectic.” He gave Lolly another hundred-dollar bill, put on his Timbs, and walked out of his room.

She walked back through the den, and Lynx was still sitting in the same place. She heard his pager go off and watched as he didn’t budge. She picked up his pager and handed it to him.

“Here, your pager went off.” “Yeah, I know. I hear it, Ma.”

At that point she knew something was very wrong and she had to step in and do something. This was so unlike Lynx. Lynx being lovesick was a condition she had never witnessed. If Lolly didn’t know anything, she knew firsthand that pussy was power and could cause any man strong or weak to hit rock bottom; and no Bambi, Jane, or no other chick from the jungle was going to stand in the way of her and her son’s fortune.

I see right now, I’ve got to step up to the plate. This girl is not going to make my son lose focus and get crossed up in the game. I need to find out what this girl’s intentions are.

Once Lynx had one foot on the porch and the other out of the door, Lolly called Bambi.

B
ambi looked at the caller ID and saw that Lynx was calling from his mother’s house. Happiness shot through every bone in her body.

“Hello,” Bambi answered.

“Hello, darling, it’s Lolly.”

“Hi, Ms. Lolly,” Bambi responded, disappointed. She wondered what the hell Lolly was calling her for, but was also excited that someone connected to Lynx was on the other end of the phone.

“How you doing, darling?”

“I’m okay, and you?” she asked, hoping she would quickly get to the point.

“I’m fine, so look, the reason why I’m calling is because you’ve become such a big part of Lynx’s life and I never get a chance to spend time with you. Y’all haven’t invited me over to see y’all’s place. I know it’s nice. And my girlfriend Alice was supposed to go to dinner with me, but she just canceled. So I thought, let me call my daughter-in-law.”

“Oh, okay.” Bambi paused.

“I figure that I could get the grand tour of y’all’s place when I pick you up, since I never got an invitation,” Lolly said, not being able to wait to see just the style Lynx had Bambi living in over there.

“Ms. Lolly, that’s cool, but just so you know you don’t need an invitation. You are always welcome.”

“That’s sweet.”

“So what time will you be here?”

“How about seven?”

“Seven it is.”

Bambi hung up the phone and called Ruby. Together they began roller skating around the house, making sure it was spotless from top to bottom. Not that Bambi kept a dirty house, but she knew that Lolly was Lynx’s mother and would be doing an inspection on the down low, so everything had to be in tiptop condition.