Chapter Two
Much to my disappointment and despite my protests, Dominic headed off to work. Still, I managed to hustle another $500 out of him before he left. Feeling vindicated, I stepped into the tub and began to plan my day. Just as thoughts of Macy’s and Saks entered my mind, the cell phone rang again.
“Hello.”
“Happy birthday, Chanel. What are we doing today?” my friend Trina asked. Trina was cool, and if I had to say I had a best friend, she’d be it. I was the type of girl who hung around all boys growing up because girls had entirely too much going on. I had never chased a skirt, as my mom would have said. I always followed the money and the boys who had plenty of it. Somehow though, Trina had managed to find a place in my life.
“Girl, I don’t know. It’s my birthday, so what do you have planned for me?” I pressed the speaker button and lay back in the watermelon-scented bubbles.
“I thought we could go down to Kenwood Mall. You know, do some shopping, have dinner, and hang out.”
“Okay, call Noel and it’s a date,” I said as my line clicked. Shaking my hand dry, I tapped the screen on my phone without saying bye. “Hello.”
“Happy birthday, Chanel baby,” my mama said in a tone that let me know she was still half asleep.
“Thanks, Mama. What’s up?” I smiled, genuinely happy to hear from her.
“Ain’t nothin’ up. I was just calling to say happy birthday, and now I’m gonna roll my ass over and go back to sleep,” she said as it sounded like she was moving around in the bed.
“Are you still coming down here this weekend?” She’d been promising to visit my sister’s new home and take me out for my birthday. Just the thought of Kristian moving down to Cincinnati from Detroit had really burned my biscuits. She just couldn’t let me shine all by myself.
“Come down there? For what?” she asked flatly like she didn’t remember.
“Mama, you promised!” I started to whine but was cut off by her giggle.
“Girl, I know, and I’ll be there even though that little wench I created couldn’t care less if I showed up,” Porscha groaned.
“Well, you’re not just coming for her. You’re coming for me, and I have this fly spot we could go to get massages, a mud bath, and the whole nine,” I said, using my red loofah to lather up my body with the wonderful-smelling suds.
“Are you paying?” she asked, this time a little perkier.
“Damn, Ma, it’s my birthday!” I said, not believing her blatant disrespect of protocol.
“Well, you better call somebody and see what they got on it. I ain’t paying nothing!” she replied. “Don’t Dom have a job? He should be able to treat us, right?”
“You are a trip. I hope you know that.” I rested my head on the pink bath pillow.
“Whatever.” She smacked her lips just as my line clicked yet again.
“Let me answer this, and I’ll hit you back, ’kay?” I said and clicked over before she had a chance to reply. “Hello.” I knew it was another birthday wish, so I didn’t check the caller ID.
“Hey, little sis. Happy b-day,” Kristian said in a dry tone.
“Hey, thanks,” I replied just as dryly. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my sister, but she worked my nerves sometimes. She always went against the grain on everything and thought she was the shit because her husband was a lawyer.
Together they’d moved down here from Detroit about three months ago. Her husband had just started his own practice downtown, and she’d used her business degree to open a secondhand store. I frowned at the thought of her consignment shop. Who in the hell would pay to wear other people’s clothes?
Kristian was the total opposite of Mom and me, which irritated the crap out of me. Not to mention how she annoyed me by constantly bragging about married life and motherhood. I kept telling her that I wasn’t jealous one bit because I was married too—to the money, that was! I also told her that my future husband and I didn’t want any of them dirty little crumb snatchers running around no time soon. Honestly, I lied a bit on that one, because Dom couldn’t wait to have children, but he missed the memo that I wasn’t the one. I didn’t have time to change diapers, wipe runny noses, and clean up vomit. I was too fabulous for a diaper bag, and come hell or high water, Jesus Himself couldn’t make me trade in stilettos for flat shoes.
Kristian always called me a high-maintenance gold digger, and I always called her a low-budget hater. She was just as pretty as Mom and I were, but she hid her beauty. She wore her hair in one long French braid, hid her face behind a pair of glasses from the nineties, and wore clothes two sizes too big. I didn’t know how her husband Deon even found her attractive, but to each his own, I guessed.
“We should maybe do lunch or something today,” Kristian chimed in after a moment of awkward silence.
“Yeah, we should. You pick the place, and I’ll be there,” I said and closed my eyes to enjoy my bath.
“Let’s meet at Applebee’s at noon, my treat.”
“Make it two. I have a nail appointment.” She and boring-ass Applebee’s could wait until I was finished.
“You’re the b-day girl, so two it is,” she gave in.
“For sure. See you later!” I said and hung up, dropping the phone to the side of the tub. I lay there for a minute and ran down my plans again in my head.
Out of nowhere I became horny, so I slid my fingers down into the warm water and reached for my vagina. I was thinking about Dom as I rubbed my clit in circular motions, which caused me to twitch. My nipples were hard and erect. I could tell my vagina was getting wet, and not because I was submerged in water, if you know what I mean! Although I was home alone, I still refused to let out a moan because I was a little embarrassed to let the sound escape my mouth and flow freely into the universe. I licked my lips and thought of me and Dominic tonight as I finally had a mediocre orgasm.
Boom, boom! I heard, snapping me out of my zone. I jumped up from the tub and wrapped the pink bath towel I had sitting on the side of the tub around me. I walked to the door with attitude in every step.
“Who is it?” I yelled before I got all the way to the door. At first, I thought it was Dom coming back to surprise me again but thought against it when he didn’t use his key.
“It’s me, Tone,” I heard as I snatched the door open to see Dominic’s frat brother and our next-door neighbor Antonio standing on the porch.
Antonio had lived next door to us ever since we moved in two years ago. He had been bugging me since our college days. He used to have a big crush on me and never stopped trying to be with me until Dom snatched me up and shut it down. Even now Tone flirted jokingly, but from time to time I thought he was a little jealous. Dominic laughed it off because he knew his boy wasn’t my type. For one, his ass was a cop. Second, he was broke. Third, he was broke, and finally, he wasn’t all that attractive. Although he was a pain in the ass, he was also a good friend to have.
“Damn, girl, I ain’t know you was gon’ come to the door naked and shit,” he said, grabbing his dick, and I gagged. Tone was a five-foot, eight-inch tall dark-skinned man with pink lips. He could’ve made himself look a little better if he put more thought into his appearance. Yet here he stood in a cutoff gym shirt, faded basketball shorts, dingy socks, and some old-ass Reeboks.
“Gross!” I turned to walk back into the foyer, letting the door smack him as he entered.
“You are mean!” he said after locking my door.
“Well, your ass is annoying, so we even!” I said, tiptoeing across the cold wood floor back into the bathroom. The house was a ranch-style home, so everything was on the same level.
“Where D at? I thought I saw his car in the driveway,” Antonio called out. He was probably in my custom kitchen, his favorite room in the house, looking for something to eat.
“He was here, but they called him into work.” I stepped into the third bedroom, which had been converted into a walk-in closet/dressing room for me.
Moments later, I returned wearing a white halter top that was trimmed in gold and the matching capris. I was fresh to death with my gold red-bottom sandals, gold charm bracelet, gold necklace with my name, Chanel, trimmed in diamonds, and my Chanel earrings with the C’s on them. I walked into the bathroom and sprayed Chanel No. 5 perfume on my clothes. After putting on my MAC lip gloss and sweeping my fingers through my long curls, I was the shit. After blowing myself a kiss, I turned off the bathroom light and headed back into the kitchen with Tone.
I loved the way I looked, and I wasn’t ashamed of it. Like Trina said in her song: number ten in the face, slim in the waist, fat in the ass.
I kept my shit tight, bottom line. I stayed in the gym and nail and hair salons, and of course I did it on someone else’s dime. Sometimes it was Dominic’s bill, and other times it was one of the many men who flirted with me daily. Engaged or not, I didn’t mind using what I had to get what I wanted. As long as Dom didn’t find out my secrets, I would continue to let my beauty pave the way to a fabulous future. Whoever said looks don’t pay the bills was obviously ugly.
“What up, Tone?” I asked as I joined him at my kitchen nook while he ate a bowl of cereal.
“Nothing much. What’s up with you, birthday girl?” He was stuffing his face with a big spoon of Cap’n Crunch.
“I’m about to head out with the girls for some retail therapy.” I grabbed a banana and peeled it back. I knew the shape of the fruit against my plump lips would turn him on, but I was hungry.
“Damn! Dom is one lucky man.” Tone stared at me intently. “What a nigga got to do to get service like that?”
“Boy, stop! You couldn’t afford these lips.” I punched his shoulder. “Anyway, let yourself out. I have to go, and I hope you leaving some money for all the food of mine you be eating.” I raised an eyebrow.
“Go on with that shit. As a matter of fact, I put more groceries in this motherfucker than you!”
He was telling the truth, but I couldn’t resist asking for some money. It was something that just came naturally. “Let me hold something.” I put my hand out.
“Do I look like your man?”
“You look like my dear friend from next door who wants me to have a good birthday.” I smiled and he shook his head.
“All I got is a fifty-dollar bill. That’s way less than what you need to do what you’re trying to do.” He pulled out the money and put his empty cereal bowl into the stainless-steel sink.
“You’re right, fifty dollars is chump change.” I frowned, and he smiled because he thought he had me. “However, fifty dollars is just enough to fill my gas tank and get a car wash.” I cracked up laughing and snatched the money from his tight clutches.
“You are the most money-hungry person I’ve ever come in contact with.” Shaking his square head, he walked toward the door
“I should teach you a lesson or two! Money makes the world go ’round. Without it, you’re nothing! That’s the top and bottom line.”
“Money is also the root of all evil! Don’t you know that?” He stood on the large wraparound country porch, and I pulled the door closed behind me to lock it.
“Evil or not, money is necessary! Maybe if your broke ass had some, you’d have better luck with women.” I laughed. Tone waved me off and left without another word. I was glad, because I was ready to get my birthday started right.