“He cheated again, didn’t he? That’s why the party was canceled, and he was up here with flowers and shit that day. I know an ain’t shit nigga when I see one and Duke has been reeking of it since I met you. I pray to God you fucked Mr. Carter. I hope you fucked him really good! You know how many times I had to come in here, see you sad and not ask about shit? You know how much I picked up on? Every time I walked out of this office after one of them days, I said I hope she cheat back. I said... please Mahogany... fuck one of them rapper ass niggas. Cheat! I was hoping to walk in on you and Sada that time but...” she sucked her teeth and waved me off. “Whatever. Anyway... when I peeped how much Mr. Carter was on your ass and how you just seemed to eat it up... I said... yes! This is the muthafucking one!”
What was it about the people outside of my family noticing things? Did I just drop the mask in front of strangers? Because my family... they didn't know a damn thing. I did a good ass job keeping things intact in front of them though. Maybe being around strangers made me just... release. Not pretend so much.Because she was spot on. How spot on she was, was crazy. I’d been carrying on for years, pretending Duke and I were perfect, and she could see right through it. I shook my head, thinking about the many times she complimented us. She was fronting too.
By the time she stopped talking, I was smiling with my mouth open, and my eyebrows furrowed. This bitch. I laughed.
“Tamiiiia,” I said. “Sada?”
“Any one of them rap niggas for real. But I just felt like Sada would’ve handled your ass the way you needed to be handled. You had been so uptight and... I don’t know... around that time. I was like my friend need to be fucked good. You needed somebody to take you through there. And a hood ass nigga would have done the job. You know who I didn’t want you to fuck? Mr. Reynolds. You remember how flirtatious he used to be? He made my skin crawl.” She shivered and just kept going. “So... How was it? Did you fuck him? Please tell me you fucked him.”
I cut my eyes at her with a smile. I didn’t want to tell her anything. I didn’t want to share details or brag about it like it was a good thing. At the end of the day, Crescent was my client and I shouldn’t have fucked him. It was bad for business. If she saw everything else, she had to see that too.
“Mmhmm. I knew it. I fucking knew it. That’s why he wanted to work so close with you. Talking about Shar was incompetent. Shar was fine. He just wanted to get back close to you. Niggas. You must’ve fucked him real good, girl.”
“I am not having this conversation with you,” I said, back to tapping away at my computer.
“You don’t have to.” Tami nodded. “He must’ve fucked youreal goodtoo because you do not have on your wedding rings.”
I looked down at my bare hand and back up at her with a sigh. “You so damn nosey.”
I didn’t purposely not wear my rings to work. I intended to. It was just that I hadn’t been wearing them around the house, or to run errands or anything for days now. I just forgot to put them on this morning.
“Nope,” she paused. “Just always around so... I notice things. Like how you moved that picture to that wall over there. You would only do something like that if you were hiding something. You didn’t put pictures on that wall because the stencil made a statement. You purposely left it bare. Now there’s a picture there. I went to look behind it the other day, but you used command strips and?—
“Okay, Tami. Okay,” I said, cutting her off. With a sigh, I closed the program I was using and stared across the desk at her.
Shrugging, I said, “Things are... things are bad right now. Duke punched a hole in the wall.”
“He found out about Mr. Carter?”
“Not just that... he walked in on us.”
Her jaw dropped and I went on to tell her everything. It was weird... me telling her everything. But a relief at the same time. I figured, why the fuck not? There was nothing left to hide. I had hidden from the people I loved long enough.
Hours later,I was parking at The House of Nova Ray. He was already here. I noticed his car when I pulled in. And as expected, butterflies filled the pit of my stomach. It had been a minute since I seen him in person. Yes, we had virtual meetings, but nothing compared to the real thing. Nothing compared to feeling those tingles.
With a sigh, I flipped my sun visor down to check my hair and makeup. There wasn’t a hair out of place, and my lip comboseemed to be holding up pretty nice. Still, I reached for my Birkin to apply another coat of brown gloss. After I made sure my lips were good, I grabbed my things and got out.
My heels beat against the gravelly sidewalk as I headed up to the building, the sound of heavy construction tools growing louder with each step. Before I could get to the entrance, I noticed him standing in it, looking out at me. I wondered if he had been waiting for me. He knew I would be coming at this time. Then, I shook it off. Him standing there was purely coincidental.
Crescent didn’t fuck with me like that anymore. The last time I saw him in person and ended things, he was so… different. Cold, calloused and over it. He wasn’t rude or anything, but I could see just how much he didn’t fuck with me when we had our Zoom meetings. He didn’t ask how I was doing, didn’t create any small talk, and actually went over the files I sent him for us to review. So no, he wasn’t standing in the doorway because he couldn’t wait for me to arrive. He’d probably just walked in himself.
“Good afternoon,” Spoke Crescent, holding the door open for me. “Came alone huh?”
I squinted at him, studying him. He had a little attitude. I didn’t give a damn.
“Hey,” I said with a soft smile. Pulling my lips into my mouth I nodded. “Yep. I didn’t have anyone available to accompany me.”
I was pissed when Tamia said Addison had a meeting scheduled for the same time as me and Crescents. I was tempted to pull her out of it but decided that would be unprofessional and unfair to the other client, so I said fuck it and came alone.
“Damn, straight? You good?” He asked, trying to be funny.
I nodded. “Yes, I'm good, Cresent.” I paused and sized him up, noticing how he was staring directly at me with this look in his eye. “Areyougood?"
“Very.”
“Good,” I said, hiking the strap of my purse over my shoulder. “Things seem to be moving swiftly,” I mentioned, taking notice of the progress since the last time I was here.
He nodded. “Hell yeah. Shit moving along. The area you need to inspect is practically done and ready for flooring. Watch your step.” His hand landed on the small of my back as I stepped over a piece of wood.
