CHAPTER SIX
Keys
We spent the whole damn evening getting ready for our date tonight with Kane and Ant. We ended up going to another mall and the nail shop. It was a good thing we’d gone to the hair salon earlier, because things would’ve been drastic if we had to get our hair done last minute. By the time we made it home, it was almost five o’clock that evening, which left us with a little over two hours to get dressed.
“Girl, I got a good mind to call and cancel on Kane,” I said, walking through the door. The first thing I did was kick my shoes off and take off my bra. When I let my girls loose, I felt a whole lot better.
“What? Why?” Tay asked, taking a seat on the sofa.
“Because I’m tired, girl. All I wanna do is crawl in my bed and catch some z’s,” I said, yawning.
“Bitch, please. You been sleeping in for the past week. It’s time to get out and have fun. Shit, you’re finally single. It’s time to start acting like it instead of acting like an old grandma,” she said, preaching.
I sat there for a minute, thinking about what she was saying. It was true that when I was with Cash, I barely went anywhere, and when I did go, it was probably because we had gotten into it. I’d go because I wanted to make him sweat me as much as I would sweat him.
“All right, damn, I’m going. You don’t have to act like my damn mother and shit,” I said, picking up my bags from by the door and bringing them in the bedroom.
“I’m glad you see things my way,” she said, grabbing her bags, following me. “Girl, I haven’t been on a date in so long I don’t know how to feel.”
“And you want to talk about me. Bitch, please, you pro’ly don’t even know how to act around a nigga no more,” I said, clowning her.
“Girl, whatever. I’m not even about to go there with you.”
“Good. Anyways, I’m ’bout to go hop in the shower,” I said, pulling out my purple lace bra and panty set that I had just bought.
“I’m so tired of seeing your ass wear purple. Put on another damn color for a change.”
“Don’t hate because I look good wearing purple and you don’t.”
“Bitch, whatever. I’ll see you when I get out of the tub,” she said before she left the room. I was glad that my apartment had two bathrooms. Between the both of us having to take a bath and get ready, we wouldn’t be able to do it with one.
Grabbing my phone, my purple Pill speaker, and my vanilla candle, I made my way into the bathroom. I set my things on the counter before I walked over to the tub, plugged it, and started the water. I grabbed my phone off the counter and turned Pandora to its Monica station. I lit my candle before I walked over to the light switch and clicked it off. I stripped out of my clothes and got in the tub. I just prayed that I didn’t fall asleep, because if I did, I would not be going out at all.
Tay
I was really happy when my girl called me earlier and told me that she was going on a date. That meant she was actually trying her best to get over her bitch-ass baby daddy. I was skeptical about this date at first, but when she told me that she was going with the cutie from her building, I was all too glad for her to be going. To be honest, I really thought she was going to relapse and take Cash’s ass back like always, but she was surely proving me wrong. I was still a little bit concerned about her now, but since she agreed to go on a date and I didn’t have to set it up myself, I was going to give her a pass.
Even though she said that she was really over Cash, I still had the feeling that she wasn’t. Hell, they’d been together for years and years. Shit like that didn’t just go away within a week. She was trying hard to hide it, but she was really torn up behind this, and I didn’t blame her. If I had been in only one real relationship in my entire life, had been with one person for years and years, I wouldn’t know how to act when it was time for us to call it quits. Hell, I didn’t know if I would be able to call it quits at all. I would probably do the same thing she’d been doing.
That was why I was glad I didn’t have a man. People thought I couldn’t get a man, but the truth of the matter was I didn’t want one. After the death of my fiancé, Shawn, I never wanted to get close to another man. It wasn’t that I was scared to love, because I’d rather love and have love lost. I couldn’t take seeing someone I’d grown to love taken away from me too early in life again. There was a difference between loving someone and losing them to another person, and loving someone and losing them to death. Knowing that I would never get to see that person again was scary and heartbreaking, and I did not wish to go through that again. Losing Shawn had cut me deep, so deep that I had gone into a state of depression. It was so bad that my mother thought I would never come out of my funk. That was why she suggested that I move out here. That was the best thing that ever happened to me.
“Tay,” Keyon yelled, banging on the bathroom door. I was happy that she interrupted me when she did, because if I’d thought about Shawn a little while longer, I wouldn’t be going anywhere.
“What up?” I asked, dabbing at the lone tear that had fallen from my eye. Even after all this time, Shawn was still a touchy subject for me.
“Shit, I’m trying to find out now. You’ve been in that bathroom forever. I’m almost done getting dressed.”
“Me too. All I gotta do is put my shoes on, grab my clutch, and I’m finished,” I said, opening the door for her to see me. I then spun around, giving her a full view of my whole outfit. “What do you think? How do I look? Do you like it?”
“Like it? Bitch, you’re wearing the hell out of that dress. Red is really your color,” she said, looking like a proud parent who was about to send their daughter to her first prom.
“Bitch, please get your mushy ass out of my face and spin around so I can get a good look at you,” I said, motioning my finger in a circle. Slowly she turned around so I could look at her, and I had to say that I was very pleased with what I saw. I swore if I were a carpet muncher, I’d have been all over her ass.
“Soooooo,” she said with her back facing me. “How do I look?”
I kept my mouth closed on purpose. I knew what she looked like, and my best friend was drop-dead gorgeous. I could guarantee that when Kane saw her tonight he would probably be thinking about marriage, and he hadn’t even sniffed her pussy yet.
“Tay, stop playing and tell me what you think. Shit, I’m standing over here nervous as hell. The least you could do is ease my worry and tell me what you think,” she whined like a child.
“Shut up, big baby,” I said, poking my tongue out at her. “Honey, you look drop-dead gorgeous. I bet if Cash were to see you now, he’d regret the day he fucked up and gave another nigga a chance to win.”
“You really think I look good?” she asked. I didn’t know why she needed reassurance. She looked good in her nurse’s uniform, so imagine how she looked now. In fact, she needed to see what I was looking at now.
Grabbing her by her hand, I led her into her room. “Close your eyes.”
“Tay, what are you doing?”
“Just do what I say, Keke,” I said, calling her by the nickname I gave her. She rolled her eyes before she did as I said. “And don’t peek either.”
“Girl, I’m not. Just hurry up, damn.”
Just to make sure that she wasn’t looking, I covered her eyes with my hands and then guided her over to the full-length mirror hanging from her closet door. Removing my hands, I said, “Open your eyes. What do you see?”
“I see me,” she answered.
“You want me to tell you what I see?”
“Go ahead.”
“I see a woman who’s been through the storm and the rain but hasn’t given up. A woman whose heart is made of pure gold, and she stays getting fucked over but doesn’t ever lose faith. I see a winner, a star, a mother to a beautiful baby girl. I’m telling you now that you’ve got it going on in this dress, baby. Chile, the way you’re rocking this two-piece lace dress is absolutely ridiculous. It should be a crime for a person to look this damn good,” I said, smiling. She noticed a tear had fallen down her face. She wiped it before she smiled back. “Chile, when that man sees you, he won’t be able to take his eyes off of you.”
“Thank you for always being there for me. Through the good times and the bad.”
“Girl, whatever. You’re stuck with me. So either way I’m going to be here. Now come on and let’s finish getting dressed. It’s almost seven, and the guys will be here any minute now,” I said before she could let another tear fall from her eyes. I wasn’t trying to be crying up in this bitch, not when it took me a good half hour to put my face on.