Chapter 12
Lisa, Falisha, Kim, and Tammy sat on Tammy’s steps watching the kids play in the street. This was more like a daily ritual after everybody got off of work. This was the time when they all talked about what was going on in their lives and tried to give each other advice. Today, everybody had some type of drama.
“Hey, bitches!” Ernie said, walking up and taking a seat on the steps. “The vibe over here is dead,” he joked.
Ernie was the gay brother who lived on the next street over, but became one of the girls after he finally came out of the closet two years ago. When he did come out of the closet, he came full steam ahead, wearing female clothes and letting his hair grow down to his shoulders. He had his ears pierced, nipples pierced, and he had a tongue ring. He was as gay as they come but he was cool as hell.
“Ernie, what da hell do you got on?” Kim asked, pointing to his orange and black striped pants.
“What, girl? Dese my tiger pants. Arggg,” he growled, jumping up and striking a pose.
He was known for his fashion sense and some of the time the girls did bite his style, but today he missed. The pants were a mess, and he had the nerve to be wearing a gold blouse with it and some black Chuck Taylors.
“Boy, if you don’t sit ya crazy ass down . . .” Kim laughed, throwing an empty potato chip bag at him. Everybody laughed at the same time.
“Ha-ha! Laugh now, but cry later when y’all asses don’t get invited to my party,” Ernie shot back with a few snaps of his neck. “Me and my tiger pants gon’ be droppin’ it like it’s hot,” he joked, jumping back up, but this time bending over and shaking his ass.
“Oh, shit. I forgot ya birthday was this weekend,” Falisha said as she cracked open her sunflower seeds.
“Yup! And I’m having my party at the Mandingo’s Den,” Ernie bragged.
“What da hell is the Mandingo’s Den?” Tammy asked.
Kim went into deep thought. She remembered hearing that name before, but couldn’t place it to save her life. It wasn’t until Ernie said something that it came back to her.
“The Mandingo’s Den is a gay strip club,” Ernie said.
“And who da hell is gonna be dancing in front of a bunch of gay men?” Falisha asked, shocked that there could be such a thing.
“Well, let me see,” Ernie said, digging into his satchel. “You have Dustin the Dangerous, Anaconda Frank, Jake da Snake, and Mr. Billy D. himself,” Ernie said, fanning himself with the flyer he just read from.
“Oh, I heard of Billy D.,” Kim chimed in, grinning from ear to ear. “Dat boy don’t just dance; he do porno, too.” She chuckled.
“How da hell do you know he do pornos?” Falisha asked.
“Shit, a bitch get lonely sometimes and my rabbit and a nice porn will always take me there.” Kim laughed. Everybody laughed at her.
“No, but seriously are y’all coming?” Ernie asked. “I got y’all a VIP table right up front. And, Tammy, I don’t wanna hear you can’t find nobody to watch the kids. I will pay Ms. D to watch the babies so you can go,” he said.
Everybody got quiet for a minute thinking about whether they had plans for this weekend. One thing that they all could agree on was that they needed to go out. It’d been a long week for everybody.
“Hell, I’ll go,” Kim said, breaking the silence.
“Yeah, I’ll go too,” Tammy agreed. “But Ms. D want her money up front.” She chuckled, giving Ernie the nod.
Everybody eventually agreed to go to Ernie’s party. Liquor, music, and naked men dancing on the stage were exactly what the girls needed. It wasn’t going to take away their problems but it sure was going to relieve a little stress, at least for that night.
* * *
Ralphy sat at his desk looking into the computer screen at the long list of shipments he had to make sure got to their destination. His newfound position at the postal office required him to supervise mail being distributed throughout Charlotte. Most of the time the job was easy but today it was busy as hell.
“Ay, John, you think you can handle this while I make a run?” Ralphy asked his assistant.
Today, Ralphy wanted to go down to the bank and transfer some of the money in his joint account with Lisa to a separate account that only he had access to. It was something he had thought about doing a long time ago but never got around to it. It was for a couple of reasons but the main one was so that he’d have some money put away in the event he and Lisa didn’t work out. Part of the prenuptial agreement he and Lisa agreed to stated that in the event of a divorce both parties would agree to split the monies within the joint account they shared, and keep what was in their own personal, separate accounts. It wasn’t until a few months ago Ralphy came to his senses and decided to open up another bank account. Now, he was glad he did because things were starting to look rocky in the marriage. There was no telling how much longer it was going to last and he needed to make sure he had some money put aside.
Truth be told, the relationship was already over. There was no way in the world Ralphy could forgive Lisa for calling out her ex’s name while they were having sex. He wasn’t that type of guy. Something like that could lower a man’s self-esteem and have him wondering whether he’s sexually gifted. Every man feels like they got the best dick game in the world. They think that they are capable of sexually pleasing the whole female race. To make a man feel like he’s not the one who’s pleasing in bed, it can really ruin a relationship, and that’s exactly what Lisa did. It would take an act of God to make their relationship work after this, and neither Ralphy nor Lisa had been to church lately, so the chances of that were slim.
* * *
Falisha sat on her step getting her hair braided by Annet when Lamar pulled up and parked a couple doors down. He got out of the car looking handsome as ever, and all he had on was a Polo tank top, some True Religion shorts, and a pair of Jordans. He made the basics look good, and not the other way around.
“Hold up for a second, girl,” Falisha said, jumping up and walking down her steps. She hadn’t seen Lamar in almost two days and was wondering where he had been. In fact, that was the first question she asked.
“Where you been at?” she snapped, walking up to Lamar while he went to get his things out of the trunk.
When he turned to look at her the first thing he noticed was the scratches and bruises on her face. They were starting to heal but they were still noticeable. “What happened to your face?” he asked, looking at the scratch running down the side of her face.
Falisha shook her head. “Fighting with these ratchet-ass bitches around Fox’s way,” she responded.
Lamar chuckled, then shook his head back at her. “That’s what you get,” he said, turning back around to grab his duffle bag out of the trunk.
“I didn’t lose,” she shot back. “I whooped their ass.”
“Well, you should have lost,” Lamar said, slamming his trunk. “You like dat shit, don’t you?”
“Like what? What are you talking about, Lamar?” She could tell that Lamar had copped an attitude by the way he looked.
“You like being treated like shit, don’t you?” he answered.
“He don’t treat me like shit.”
“Oh, yeah, so what da fuck is dis?” he said, pointing to the bruises on her face.
“He didn’t do this to me. I told you—”
“Yo, you crazy as hell,” he said, cutting her off. “But, you know what? It’s not even none of my business. Do you,” he said, then turned around and walked off.
“Oh, you gonna walk away now?” she yelled as he crossed the street.
“Grow da fuck up, Falisha,” he turned around and yelled back before walking up his steps and disappearing into the house.
* * *
Tammy got to work about twenty minutes late today. Ms. D had a dialysis appointment and got back home late. Tammy thought that she was going to get an earful from her boss because she didn’t call to let him know that she was going to be late, but when she passed by him on her way to customer service, he just smiled and kept it moving.
“I see you’re back from your OBGYN appointment,” Darious said, coming out from the back.
“What?” Tammy asked, confused.
“I told Tim you called in and said that you was going to be a little late ’cause you was at a doctor’s appointment,” he said, walking over and taking a seat next to her.
“Thanks for covering for me. I know he was going to be tripping as soon as I walked through the door,” Tammy said.
“Well, you just better hope your next coworker is as nice as I am.” Darious chuckled. “You know I’m outta here soon.”
“What! I thought you didn’t graduate until next month,” Tammy said, shocked that he was leaving.
“Yeah, I do graduate next month but I already got a job. I’ll be working at the hospital in the pharmacy department,” he told Tammy.
“Wow, that’s a good look for you. Congratulations.”
“Thanks. You know I’m going to miss you, right?” Darious said in a sincere manner.
Tammy had to stop and look over at him to see if his facial expression matched the way he sounded and looked serious when he said it. “Boy, you better stop playin’. You ain’t gon’ miss nobody,” Tammy said, waving him off before turning back to the computer screen.
“I’m dead serious, Tammy,” he shot back. “Can I be honest with you about something without you taking offense?”
She didn’t know whether to answer that, but she really didn’t have time to because Darious just kept going.
“Yo, I think you’re beautiful, Tammy. I been wanting to get with you from the moment you started working here. Truth is, I be kicking myself in the ass if I didn’t tell you this before I left. I like you a lot, Tammy.”
Tammy was blown back by his confession. She always thought that he used to flirt with her, but never did she know that he liked her to this magnitude. It was flattering in a sense, enough to have her blushing like a teenage girl with her first cousin.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get this chance again so I was wondering if I could call you sometime?” Darious asked.
Tammy’s defenses went straight up. It was the same block she put up on all the other men who tried to hit on her. It was something that came automatically because of her feelings for Chris. “I can’t dooo that,” she said with the sorry face.
“Tammy, I just wanna be ya friend. I wanna be the person you can call on when you need to talk,” he said, turning his chair around to face her. Darious wasn’t giving up that easy. He was trying his best to break down that wall Tammy had put up and, from what he had said, it looked like it was starting to work.
Tammy sat there in silence thinking about it. The thing was, she couldn’t deny the fact that she could use a friend right now in her life. Times were hard and just to have someone to talk to about life’s struggles was exactly what she needed. The fifteen-minute phone calls with Chris weren’t enough, nor could he call all the time.
There’s no harm in just talking, she thought, looking over at Darious. “I guess you can call me,” Tammy said, writing her number down on a sticky pad and passing it to him.
Darious whipped out his phone immediately and put the number into his phone book. This wasn’t just a big step for Tammy; it was also one for Darious. He waited patiently for months to get to this point. Now that he was here, there was only one more thing for him to do, and that was to keep pushing forward.
* * *
“Good afternoon, Mr. Windsor,” the bank manager, Larry, greeted Ralphy when he entered the office.
Ralphy greeted him back then took a seat in the chair in front of his desk. He looked around the office at all the plaques hanging up and pictures of Larry standing next to a couple of celebrities, such as Usher, Bow Wow, and Kelly Rowland.
Damn, he sure know a lot of black artists. “I had opened up an account here a couple of months ago and I just wanted to transfer some money into it from a joint account I have with my wife, also at this bank,” Ralphy explained.
“That shouldn’t be a problem; just let me see your ID,” Larry said, adjusting his computer screen.
Ralphy gave him his ID then watched as Larry began pulling up his file. Now that he was actually sitting in the bank, Ralphy starting to question whether he should go this far. Saying it and doing it were two totally different things. He wasn’t even sure if Lisa had slept with Dre, nor did he even attempt to rectify the situation. He didn’t even give Lisa a chance to fix what she had done. After all, she was his wife and most of the time when married couples have serious issues in their relationships, and they love each other deeply, they try to work things out, either with a marriage counselor or by themselves. Ralphy didn’t attempt to do either one and it was starting to weigh on his conscience.
“Okay, Mr. Windsor, here’s a look at what’s in the joint account with your wife, and here’s what you have in your separate account,” Larry said, passing Ralphy the paper from the printing station.
Ralphy held up both papers in each hand, scanning over them carefully. The numbers on the paper with his and Lisa’s joint account caught his attention immediately. He put his separate account paper down and focused in on the other.
“Is this what’s left in this account?” Ralphy asked, pointing to the bottom of the page.
“Yup, you have $8,422 in this account,” Larry confirmed. “Is something wrong?”
Damn right something was wrong. There should have been at least $13,000 in their account. Ralphy wasn’t spending any money, so if it was missing it was because of Lisa. Ralphy normally kept tabs on the account transactions, mainly for budgeting purposes; but, as of late, he had been slacking in keeping up with it, but it was obvious Lisa wasn’t.
“Is it possible I can see the last transactions within the last couple of months?” Ralphy asked with a suspicious look on his face.
“Yeah, sure. I can do that,” Larry said, tapping away at the keys. “Here you go.”
He passed Ralphy the two pieces of paper as soon as they came out of the printer. Larry was well experienced in the field of banking and knew that Ralphy may have had some marital problems. It was pretty much confirmed by the way Ralphy looked strongly at the two pieces of paper.
“Look, Mr. Windsor. I know this isn’t any of my business but you seem like a nice guy,” Larry said, sympathizing with Ralphy. “I know it’s not professional for me to do this but we men gotta stick together,” he said, looking back on the computer. “I don’t know if you know this, but your wife also has an open separate account at this bank.”
“Oh, is that right?” Ralphy said, raising one eyebrow.
He had no idea Lisa had another account open and, from what Larry was telling him, she had it open for about a year now. Larry even told him how much she had in the account, which was double what they had in their joint account.
Ralphy was hot as hell. The extra money she had in her separate account was one thing but the list of transactions made in the past two months was a whole other situation in itself. The credit card transactions showed purchases from Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Footlocker, and several other clothing stores, none of which Ralphy was at in the past six months. A million and one thoughts ran through his head at once, so much so he didn’t even hear Larry talking to him.
“How much would you like to put into your account, Mr. Windsor?” Larry asked again, this time snapping his fingers to bring him out of his daze.
Words couldn’t explain how Ralphy felt at that moment. All he wanted to do was leave; but, before he did, he answered Larry’s question.
“All of it,” he said, grabbed his ID, and walked out of the office.