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Authors: Tracy Brown

Twisted (8 page)

BOOK: Twisted
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“You know who's a nasty bitch?” Rah-lo was tired of hearing the woman he sincerely loved being referred to as a bitch. He smirked snidely and threw Asia's own words back at her. “Go look in the mirror.”
Asia lunged at her husband, swinging. She wanted to kill him, more for the fact that he was defending his mistress than because he had called Asia a bitch. Rah-lo caught a left hook to the side of his head, and he stumbled a little. She followed that with a barrage of slaps and punches. She scratched him on the side of his neck as he shoved her off of him. Her back hit the wall hard, and ironically, their family
pictures came crashing to the floor. The frames lay shattered, glass covering the snapshots of their smiling daughters. Rah-lo was furious. He wanted to hit Asia back but caught himself just as he swung at her.
“I think you forgot who the fuck I am,” he said, his chest heaving as he glared into her eyes. He stood over her and watched her shrink away from him defensively. Suddenly she wasn't so tough anymore. He almost wanted to laugh. “I let you raise hell around here and get drunk with your girlfriends instead of being a real fucking wife and mother. Let you talk your bullshit, put me down, and neglect your kids. But don't get it twisted. Just because I learned to tune you out over the years doesn't mean that I don't still run this fucking house. Don't ever raise your hand to me, Asia. And keep that nigga Neo away from this house.”
Asia knew he meant business. But she didn't back down, either. “Well, you can't run this house from outside of this house. So how you gonna leave me for another bitch?”
Rah-lo grabbed her face roughly. “I'm not leaving you for another ‘bitch.' I'm leaving because
you're
a bitch.”
“What about the kids?” Asia could hardly speak due to the tight grip he had on her jaw.
It hurt Rah-lo to think of having to live apart from his baby girls. That was the hardest part of this whole thing. He let go of Asia. “Let me take them with me. I
will
take them. And you know I'll take good care of them.”
“Hell no!” Asia yelled.
Rah-lo didn't argue. He had expected her to say that. “Then as long as we gotta deal with each other, you
will
respect me. I don't want them living like this anymore.” Rah-lo shook his head, full of regret. “They can't be happy if we're not happy. You don't make me happy anymore, Asia. Obviously, I don't make you happy anymore, either.” He stepped away from her slightly. He looked around at the mess they'd made. “This whole shit was a mistake.”
“Mistake?
Is that what you think your daughters are? Mistakes?” Asia looked incredibly hurt. Rah-lo could see it even though she tried to hide it.
“Not at all. And you should know that by now. But we're a mistake. You and me being together is a mistake.”
“You shoulda told me that a long time ago and let me move on with my life.” Asia couldn't help the tears now. But she quickly wiped them away.
“What life, ma? What life you wanna move on to? Hanging outside in the hood with bitches in the summertime, smoking weed and drinking beer? Playing cards and gossiping with your moms all day? What did I stop you from doing?”
“Hold the fuck up! You do all that shit, too, Rah-lo.”
“But you're a fucking female!” He couldn't believe that she saw no difference between them. “You got daughters, Asia! And they watch
you
as an example of what it is to be a lady. And you're in the street day in and day out conducting yourself like a fucking hoodrat! That's what you want to teach your daughters?”
The doorbell rang and interrupted them. Rah-lo answered it and ushered Ishmael inside. Ishmael greeted Asia and assessed the scene around him—shattered glass, Asia's tearstained face, and Rah-lo's luggage. He felt like he had just walked in on some very personal marital drama.
“Thanks for coming over here,” Rah-lo said. “Can you help me take my shit out of here? There's a bunch of bags upstairs plus this shit here.” Rah-lo gestured toward several stuffed duffel bags by the front door.
Ishmael nodded and avoided making eye contact with Asia as he grabbed some of Rah-lo's stuff and took it out to the car. When Ishmael was gone, Asia turned to her husband with tears in her eyes.
“You know what? Fuck you
and
your little fuckin'
bitch!
I can't believe you're standing here putting me down 'cuz I ain't the goody two-shoes that she is.”
“I'm not even talking about Celeste. You're the one who keeps bringing her name up.”
“'Cuz you act like I'm not as good as her. Because I drink and I get high? She don't drink? She don't get high, Rah-lo? So what, I'm not good enough for you anymore? You forgot where the fuck you came from, Rah-lo. You forgot who was with you from day one. But it's all good.” Asia shook her head in defiance.
Ishmael came back in and noticed the thick tension in the air. He pretended not to hear them arguing as he headed upstairs to retrieve the rest of Rah-lo's belongings. Ishmael
climbed the stairs, grabbed some bags, and headed back out to the car. Asia waited until he left before she turned and glared at Rah-lo once again. She hated him at that moment and her facial expression showed it. “I don't need you to make me happy, muthafucka.” She moved out of his way. “I'll be better off without you!” she hissed.
That had to be the hundredth time he had heard her say those words. “Show me, then.” Ra-lo reached for his jacket and headed for the door. He was out of there. Asia hurled obscenities at him and ranted and raved. But all of her noise was like a current that carried him straight out of their house, into his car, and on the road headed for the house he had once shared with Celeste. He vowed that he would never go back to Asia. Their marriage was over.
 
 
Ishmael couldn't believe Rah-lo and Asia had called it quits. Within an hour of Rah-lo putting his car in drive, Asia started blowing up her husband's phone, calling again and again. Rah-lo ignored her calls, shutting his phone off altogether after she speed-dialed him repeatedly. Asia eventually started calling Ishmael, knowing that he knew where Rah-lo had gone. The two were such good friends that she was sure Ishmael knew Rah-lo's plans. But Ishmael hadn't heard from Rah-lo since he moved into his second house. And Ishmael had tried to call his boy numerous times with no luck. Rah-lo's phone kept going straight to voice mail, and
when Ishmael went by the house to see him his car wasn't there and no one came to the door. Ishmael figured that Rah-lo was laying low to let his beef with Neo die down.
Unfortunately, Asia didn't believe Ishmael when he told her that he knew nothing. So she kept calling him to vent and to demand to know her husband's whereabouts. Now, after more than four days, Ishmael was checking his caller ID and ignoring Asia's phone calls, too. He marveled at how he always managed to be caught in the middle of Rah-lo's bullshit.
During one of Asia's rare breaks in speed-dialing him, Ishmael checked his full voice mailbox. All of them were from Rah-lo's wife. He deleted most of them, but one caught his attention. He heard a name he hadn't heard in a while, and he had to replay the message twice to be sure that he had heard correctly.
“Yo, Ish, this is Asia. I know you see me calling you all these times. And I just spoke to you, so you can't act like you don't know why I'm calling. This muthafucka left me here with these kids to go off and find Celeste and I'm supposed to just sit here and … what? Sit here and do
what
? I ain't got no fucking money. I ain't got no fucking job. And I'm stuck with the kids while he runs off to that
bitch
! Ishmael, you know more than what you're telling me. I don't want to kill Celeste. So please don't make me go find him. Tell me where my husband is so I can talk to him before he gets to her.”
Ishmael had never heard Asia sound so vulnerable and so desperate. After replaying the message, he frowned.
Celeste.
When did Rah-lo make that decision? Ishmael couldn't believe Rah-lo had left to look for Celeste. He hadn't mentioned Celeste during their conversation the other day. Ishmael hadn't even heard her name mentioned in his conversations with his friend in recent years. He wondered if Rah-lo had been in touch with her. Strangely, Ishmael felt an odd twinge of jealousy. The only thing that had made Celeste's move to Atlanta easier to deal with was the fact that neither of them had her. If he didn't have her, he certainly didn't want Rah-lo to have her. That would have been too much to bear.
But it sounded like that was exactly what Rah-lo had told his wife, and now he wasn't answering his phone. What had made Rah-lo go after Celeste now? It all seemed strange to Ishmael, and he found himself deep in thought. He was so distracted that he didn't notice Nina standing beside him as he stared out the kitchen window. When he realized that she was standing there (and had apparently said something to him that she was waiting for an answer to), Ishmael was at a loss for words. He had no idea what she had just said to him and was wondering how long she'd been standing there. He silently chided himself for giving so much thought to Rah-lo and his relationships. Now he had to act like he had been paying attention to Wifey.
Nina threw her hands up impatiently. “Do you like it or not?”
Ishmael looked her up and down, trying to see what was
new so that he could guess what he was supposed to judge for her. Her bangs looked a little different. As a hairstylist, she was often asking his opinion about different hairstyles. “I like your hair. It don't matter how you change it, you're still pretty.”
Nina frowned. “I asked you about the new pillows I bought for the couch.” She shook her head and walked away. “It's nice to know that you still listen to me.”
Ishmael could see that she was gearing up for some bullshit. She was going into her zone of feeling “unappreciated and unexciting.” He didn't feel like hearing that shit all night. He waited until Nina went in the bedroom and turned on
The Quiet Storm
and then he grabbed his jacket and made his way out the front door.
He went to his quiet place. Ishmael kept a small two-bedroom apartment on Hall Street in Fort Greene. Nina knew nothing about this spot. Few people did. He came here whenever he needed to escape his surroundings and be left alone. This was one of those times. He thought about what Asia had said on his voice mail. Celeste. Had Rah-lo really gone after her? On a whim, Ishmael turned on his computer and logged onto the Internet. He figured he'd check out MySpace and see if he had any messages. He'd had a page on the Web site for about a month, and he was amazed at all the broads who had never met him and still sent him explicit pictures and comments. His and Rah-lo's connect—Cito—had put Ishmael on to the site. Papicito was a ladies' man with a
handful of kids with different baby mamas. Once Ishmael had asked Cito where he found some of the bad bitches he fucked with state to state. He told Ishmael to set up a Web page and the rest was history.
Tonight he checked his usual friend requests, messages, and comments. Then he decided to search for Celeste's name. He was new to the Internet and the wonders of cyberspace. And for that reason, he had never thought of searching for Celeste this way. But ever since he'd heard Asia mention Celeste's name in her message earlier, he couldn't get her off his mind. The computer scanned the records for a few brief moments before Ishmael found what he was looking for. He clicked the link and sat back and smiled. Celeste Styles's smiling face stared back at him. Clad in a tiny bikini in some tropical setting, she looked as lovely as the last time he'd seen her. He checked her stats—single, no children, hometown: Atlanta, Georgia. He looked through her pictures and found several shots of her out with friends, traveling to different exotic locations, and looking better than ever. She had lost weight and cut her hair. But she was the same as he remembered her—better even.
Celeste had been special to Ishmael for a very long time. When Celeste was with Rah-lo, Ishmael's relationship with her had been strictly platonic. They were friends who shared private jokes and great conversations. In fact, they bonded not just because Ishmael had saved Celeste from an attempted rape but because the two of them were often taken
for granted by Rah-lo. As his mistress, Celeste was relegated to playing second fiddle. Rah-lo didn't intend for her to feel that way, but with Asia being his wife Celeste had little choice but to play runner-up. Ishmael was also often overlooked. He had been Rah-lo's sidekick for so long that Rah-lo grew to depend on Ish without fail, especially when the rest of their crew fell apart. It got to the point where Ishmael was the one Rah-lo called for business reasons and personal ones. When Rah-lo was locked up, it was Ishmael's job to take care of both Asia and Celeste. It was then that he really got to know his friend's mistress. And it was then that Ishmael began to feel that she deserved so much more.
On their way upstate to visit Rah-lo, Celeste and Ishmael had shared many heart-to-heart conversations. He had always liked her as a person. He thought she was very pretty, witty, and seemed to have a good head on her shoulders. But during their trips up north, he discovered something even more endearing about Celeste. She was a go-getter. She didn't want a handout. Instead, she was willing to work hard for what she wanted out of life. She insisted on paying Rah-lo back for what he had invested in Dime Piece, and that impressed Ishmael. Unlike his sister, Tangela, or his aunt Mary, Celeste wanted success and she wanted it on her own terms. She didn't nag Rah-lo or beg to have more of his time the way that Nina did to Ishmael. Instead, Celeste waited patiently, allowing Rah-lo space to breathe, and she was available to him when he wanted her. While most women would
have been content to be a baller's bitch—running their own business and enjoying all the fruits of Rah-lo's labor—Celeste wanted nothing more than to have Rah-lo's time. She was unlike any other woman Ishmael had ever known—beautiful, intelligent, patient, faithful to Rah-lo, and hopeful that he would be hers alone someday. Ishmael never meant to fall for her. But he did, and he fell hard. Soon, he was not only impressed by her character and her determination to succeed. He also wanted to help her succeed, wanted to give her the key to his heart. But Rah-lo had met her first. And for that reason she was off-limits. But Ishmael still pined for her. Even after all this time.
BOOK: Twisted
7.66Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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