You're the One I Want (22 page)

“Where did you go on your honeymoon?” Nakia asked.

“Do you live in a big house?” Josette asked.

“Girl, I can't complain.”

“The wedding was so beautiful,” Josette, the hopeless romantic baby of the group, said. She had come on a week after I'd left.

“Girl, it was. You looked so good in your wedding dress,” Nakia said. “Like a fairy princess.”

“Trust. It's not all roses and champagne. We fuss and fight just like everyone else, y'all.”

“Well, honey, you better keep him happy 'cause there's always another bitch waiting in the wings.” Ursula walked over, tearing through the girls like she was head bitch in the bunch.

“What the hell do you mean by that, Ursula?”

Ursula stood her stride with her arms folded in front of her floppy titties. “I'm just saying. What you won't do, another bitch will.”

I came this close to splitting that ratchet bitch's jaw in half. “Trust and believe, I got my man on lock with this pussy. And all y'all up in here know that I will get a ho together if I so much as see her bat an eyelash at Kashawn.”

I looked dead at Ursula as I made my point. She was always saying shit out of the side of her neck. Much like Katiesha, she was not above trying to move in on somebody's man. Not even ten minutes had passed and I was already heated over that fucked-up shit Ursula had thrown my way.

“Down, girl,” Nakia said, wedging herself between me and Ursula. “Ursula, go back to your cage. You're on again in ten minutes.”

Not that anybody wanted to look at her wrinkled, fat ass jiggling in their faces. Ursula huffed like she wanted to pop off. This bitch just didn't know. It wouldn't be no skin off my titties to fuck her all the way up. I quickly remembered why I had come. Forget this idle chatter bullshit.

“Nakia, can I talk to you privately in the hall for a minute?” I didn't want to say anything in front of Ursula, knowing she would tip Katiesha's ass off.

“Yeah, girl, what's up?”

“Nakia, hurry up,” Latrice said, “You know how Blue get if we don't come out on queue.”

“Girl, keep your tampon on. I won't be long.”

Nakia and I stepped into the hall that was lit with this ugly, orange-red lighting that made you feel like you were standing under a heat lamp.

“Ursula is still a bitch, I see. I came this close to pimp-slapping that moose.”

Nakia burst out laughing. “Girl, you so crazy. I didn't want y'all fightin' up in there, breakin' shit. So what's up?”

“Have you seen Katiesha?”

“She's off tonight. Ursula took her shift. Why, what's up?”

I was kind of hesitant to tell Nakia about what had happened, but I knew she could keep her mouth shut when need be.

“I got a bone to pick with that bitch, namely hers.”

“What her ass did now?”

“I caught that skank fucking my man, that's all.”

“Girl, what, seriously?”

“And she damn-near killed him with some shit she had slipped him. Turns out Kashawn is allergic to some component in whatever she poured in his drink. Girl, when I came home and saw her, I saw fuckin' red. I tried to beat the black off that ho until the cops showed up.”

“Damn, somebody called po-po?”

“I guess it was one of the neighbors.”

“Did they arrest you?”

“Other than treat
me
like I was the damn criminal, hell no. They just asked Katiesha some questions about what happened when she almost killed my husband. They gon' tell me that they didn't have shit to hold her on because she refused to talk, but she's going to talk to me. I
will
find out what went down at my crib. That's why I'm trying to find her.”

“Girl, she's hardly ever here, and when she is here, she's fucked up on somethin'. Queasy says he's gon' fire her ass the next time he sees her. She comes in looking tore up, track marks bigger than dinner plates down both her arms. Javion is the one who got her turned on to heroin.”

I almost felt sorry for Katiesha. Almost. Everybody got it bad. Don't give her the right to fuck somebody else's man.

“So what are you goin' to do when you find her?”

“As much as I want to finish fucking her up, I just want to talk to her. That's it.”

“Have you gone by her crib?”

“That's my next stop.”

“You want me to go with you? Pepper Drive is nothin' nice this time of night, girl.”

“No, I got this.”

“You sure? I can get Josette to cover for me.”

“I'm sure. I grew up in a neighborhood like that. I'll be fine.”

“Well, okay, but here, let me get your number before you go.”

I dug in my purse for a pen and something to write on. “Here, give me your hand.” I jotted my cell number down in Nakia's palm. “Call me, girl. We'll go do lunch at The Silver Slipper or something.”

“I heard about that place. I hear they got good food.”

“It is. The escargot will make you want to slap your mama.”

“Escargot?”

“Yeah, snails.”

“Uh-uh, you can have that. I'll get me some spaghetti and meatballs or something, girl. I can't mess with nothin' like that.”

“You so silly. All right,” I said, giving Nakia a hug. “And that about Katiesha is between me and you, cool?”

“B, come on, you know you can trust me.”

“Thank you, baby.”

“Be careful. Let me know what happens and don't be a stranger.”

“I promise.”

I went back to the dressing room and said bye to the girls. “All right, y'all, I'm out. I gave Nakia my number, so maybe all of us could hang out.” Everybody except for Miss Saggy Titties hugged me bye.

“Bye, Wifey,” Latrice said.

“Don't shake it too hard, bitches.”

I got out of there before I started crying and made my way at breakneck speed toward the exit before Blue saw me. I was almost home free until I felt someone pull at my arm.

“Where you rushin' off to, Hot Pink?” Blue asked. I hadn't been called that in five years. “You here to beg for your job back?”

“Nigga, you wish,” I said, snatching my arm out of his kung fu grip. Blue had let himself go. A beer belly had taken the place of his washboard stomach. His arms were now fat and flabby and, judging from the crow's feet around his eyes, the years had not been kind to him. Blue smelled sickly-sweet of cheap K-mart cologne. I figured Marisol must have tipped him off. “I just came by to say hey to the girls, Blue.”

“Heard you got hitched. How come I didn't get an invitation?”

“I don't know,” I said, giving him a fake, inquisitive look. “It must have gotten lost in the mail.”

Blue grinned. “You still got that mouth on you, Hot-Pink.”

“Don't call me that.”

“Remember how you got that name?”

“I've chosen to forget a lot when it comes down to you and this shit hole.”

“Ouch. That hurts my feelings, Hot-Pink.”

“Shit. You gotta have a heart to have feelings.”

“You sure you don't want to come back?” Blue asked, scanning my body from my head to my French pedicure. “You made me a shit-load of money, girl.”

I slapped his hand away when he grabbed my ass. “Fuck off of me.”

“Damn, still got that juicy booty, too.” Blue leaned into my left ear and whispered, “Why don'tchu come in back, give me one of them primo blow jobs for old time's sake?”

I pushed him back against a table, sending a half-glass of beer crashing to the floor. He gave a sinister laugh that sounded like it had come up from the recesses of his beer gut, past his raspy throat. The two packs of 305s a day had caught up with his Jabba the Hut-ass. I darted out of there like I was on fire.

“Take it easy, Bree,” Blue said.

I ignored him as I hot-footed it out into the rainstorm and back to my SUV. I wanted to go home and scrub my skin raw after coming up out of Risqué. I hauled ass, hoping that I would never have to step a toenail in that open sore again.

“K
atiesha, you need to get out of here. Take the money, leave town, and go wherever you want. Atlanta, New York, L.A., hell, Hawaii if you want to.”

Katiesha took another long drag from the crack pipe, letting the smoke fill her lungs. “You ain't
telling
me to do nothing, number one, and, number two, I don't have to do a damn thing but stay black and be drop-dead fucking gorgeous.”

Was this bitch serious? Katiesha pushed a body of the toxic smoke into the already pungent living room that looked as if Hurricane Katrina's cousin had blown through this bitch.

“What you need to do is pay me what you owe me and get the hell out my house.”

“I told you when we made the deal that I didn't want no drugs involved. And what do you do, shoot him up with that shit you put up your arms.”

“How was I going to put a big nigga like him down without using a lil' some-some? You told me to go over to B's crib and get him into bed, so that's what the fuck I did. I did the job you hired me to do, shit.” Katiesha's eyes were sleepy-looking. Her words came out jagged and slurred. “When you told me it was Bree's man, I was all about it. Bitch was always walking around with her nose in the air. Think because she married, she better than a bitch. She stoops over and boo-boos like the rest of us.”

“You won't get any argument from me, but you need to lie low for a while until I can get Bree off your scent.”

“Fuck her. I'm not scared of that bitch. Let her come for me. I got something for her.”

Katiesha could barely stand, talking about what she was ready for, looking a straight-up crack ho mess. Judging from her dirty muscle T-shirt and the dirty, denim cut-offs she sported, she was in no shape to go another toe to toe with Bree. Her apartment was a pigsty and she literally smelled like a used tampon. I held the back of my hand up to my nose as I dry-heaved.

“You don't give a fuck about me. You're just here to make sure I don't say nothin' to that snooty bitch. I don't give a shit about her or your fat ass. Maybe I'll tell Bree anyway. I wonder what she would do if she found out her
BFF
tried to break her and her man up.”

The more Katiesha ran her mouth, the angrier I got. I was sick of her, and had put up with more than enough of her mess. “You really think she would believe you? You're nothing but a fucking crack whore. Your credibility is shit.”

She gripped the glass crack pipe like it was the key to the city. “Maybe so. Maybe not.”

I fished a thick white envelope stuffed with five thousand dollars out of one of the pockets of my trench coat and handed it to Katiesha. “Here, bitch, take the money before I change my mind.”

Wobbling on those sore-riddled po-go sticks she called legs, Katiesha snatched the envelope out of my hand, sending it crashing to the coffee table of dirty plates and Absolut liquor bottles. “Fuck that. You want me to keep my mouth shut about what you did to Bree? You want me to hit the bricks? Well, it's gonna cost you.”

“It's five stacks in that envelope. You better take it.”

“I want another ten grand.”

“What?”

“Bitch, did I stutter? You heard me. You can't wipe their ass with
five G's these days. Ten thousand, or I tell that bitch everything.”

“Where the hell am I going to get that kind of money?”

“That's not my problem. That's my price if you want me to keep these lips on lock.”

This dizzy bitch had balls to blackmail me for more cake. All she was going to do was put it in her bony-ass arms anyway.

“Fuck you. I'm not giving your ass another dime.”

“You sure you wanna do that?” she asked before she lit the end of the pipe and took another hit.

“I'm done putting up with you. I've given you money; I've even taken your ass to the dope man to buy crack. I'm not giving you another cent.”

“That's your choice, baby girl.” Katiesha grabbed her cell off a dirty pie plate and started to dial.

“Who are you calling?”

“I looked Bree up, got her digits right here in my phone.”

“Put the phone down, bitch.”

“It's ringing.”

“Hang the fucking phone up.”

Katiesha smiled, exposing teeth that were as yellow as corn-bread mix. I scavenged my purse for my gun, realizing that I had left it in the glove box in my car. So I picked up one of the vodka bottles by the neck.

“Ho, I'm not going to tell you again.”

“Fuck you.”

Without a care in the world, I lifted the heavy bottle up and cracked Katiesha over the head with the blunt end. I thought it would break like they do in the movies, but no. Katiesha dropped the phone and held her right hand up against the right corner of her head. Blood poured from the gaping wound, down her face, dripping from her chin, staining her cutoffs.

“Bitch, you done lost your—”

I hit her again before she could say another word. This time it was across her face. I heard her jaw break. Katiesha spurted blood from her mouth.

“Why the fuck couldn't you just take the money?”

I stood over her and kept hitting until her head was a mash of blood, bone, and flesh. Katiesha wasn't moving. She was dead. The vodka bottle made a thud when I dropped it to the floor. There was blood all over the sofa, floor, and coffee table, as well as on me. Her phone was covered in blood at the foot of the sofa.

“Fuck! Fuck!” I shouted as I smashed her phone under my platform heel. “You should have taken the fucking money!”

I looked in the large mirror that hung on the wall behind Katiesha. Blood spattered my face and hair. I rushed to the bathroom and wiped my face with a towel that hung from a towel rack next to the sink. I stared at myself in the mirror in a daze of shock and disbelief. I frantically started to clean the sink and floor with the towel. I took my trench coat and the blood-stained towel, and stuffed them in the small trash can next to the toilet. I took the bag and dropped the vodka bottle in with my coat and the towel. I wiped whatever I had touched, which wasn't much in that filthy place, and hauled my ass out of there.