AMANDA WAS AWARE of what was going on with China, but she didn’t know how to really feel about her other than envious. She hated China with a passion, but she would never tell Smooth even if he asked. China was an obstacle in her way and someone who had the heart of the man she loved and wanted in her life.
It was 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, and Smooth hadn’t called her yet.
He usually calls around this time, Amanda thought.
She wasn’t sure if Smooth heard on the news about China or not. But she was ready to give his ass the third degree for not informing her about China’s pregnancy.
“I can’t believe he tried hiding that shit from me!” she said as she poured herself a glass of 100 percent orange juice.
She was up early, and cooked herself a small breakfast of scrambled eggs, cheesy grits, bacon, and ham. It was a single serving, and she was having trouble eating with a peaceful mind. Every time she thought about Smooth hiding China’s pregnancy from her, she became disgusted. She hated liars with a passion, yet the man she loved had lied to her, even though he belonged to another woman.
Since he wanted to lie, I will make him pay for it, Amanda considered.
All she could think about was how Smooth had been about to leave her to be with his family. Now that was shut down, since China had lost the baby.
“I can’t let him!” Amanda stopped short of speaking directly from her heart when her iPhone chimed on the table.
When she picked up the phone and checked the caller ID, she saw that it was Smooth. She answered and then listened to the automated prompts.
“This is a collect call from the Martin County Jail from an inmate named Smooth. To accept this call, please press zero. To refuse this call, please press the pound symbol,” said the automated voice.
Amanda quickly pressed the pound button and then hung up the phone.
As badly as she wanted to hear his voice first thing in the morning, she just couldn’t bring herself to listen to his lies and excuses. She wanted to make him sweat, and now was the best time to start it.
“I will make sure you will think twice before you try to lie to me again,” Amanda said as she finished trying to eat her breakfast.
It was hard for her to keep Smooth off her mind, but she promised herself that she would try her best. Smooth called back twice, and neither time did she bother to answer the phone.
She finished her breakfast and then took a shower to get ready for her doctor’s appointment. She had a yearly checkup at 10:30 a.m. She loved her doctor and wished that she could have her for a mother. Dr. Rosa Mendoza was a sweet and one-of-a-kind fifty-six-year-old Puerto Rican who looked nothing like her age. Looking at Dr. Rosa, most would guess she was in her mid-thirties.
Eating good and having the right man in bed was what Dr. Rosa always told Amanda was the secret to health.
Amanda was impressed with how well Dr. Rosa knew her patients’ appointments in advance. Just last weekend, Amanda had bumped into her inside a Walmart and was reminded by the doctor to report for her appointment on time.
“That lady is like a god. She knows her children—all of them!” Amanda said as she took off her pajamas and looked at herself in the mirror. “Damn!” she said, realizing how much weight she had lost.
But how? When I eat and don’t do shit. Lord! I’m stressing, she thought. I can’t let this man stress me out like this, especially when he’s planning to leave me by myself in the future, Amanda realized as she stepped into the steaming hot shower. Damn it! I love him! And I fucking miss his ass!
* * *
Smooth didn’t know what to expect after hearing Amanda refuse his calls. His mind instantly went to the negative and the prospect of her sleeping with another man.
Is she sleeping with another nigga already? Smooth asked himself as he lay in his top bunk with a Silk White novel resting on his stomach. If she is fucking with another cat, how could I be made?
He was about to be a father and have his own family. Smooth loved China and couldn’t see himself leaving her for anyone, not even Amanda, with whom he had grown closer over the years. Smooth was thinking of him and China and how things would be in life for them as a family.
He was a man of his word and would leave the game alone when he came out of his situation. He was writing down successful business plans to seek when he was a free man again. Miranda would waste no time helping him learn the ropes as a real estate agent. He still had property and would invest in more when he came home. Being incarcerated, Smooth was able to think clearly.
Despite hating his incarceration, he was grateful for a time-out. He wanted to leave there as a devoted family man, and in order to be successful, he had to discard the things that would hinder him from giving his best. The streets, money, power, and infidelity in his relationship with China had to go.
Sleeping with Amanda or any other woman has to stop! Smooth realized as his mind instantly went to moments he had with Jane. The world is grimy, just like her.
She was China’s friend who she had helped get on her feet fresh out of prison. And she had slept with China’s man without any guilty conscience.
That’s a cold bitch with some good-ass pussy! Smooth thought as his cock began to rise when images of him fucking her came to his mind.
In his mind, he went back to the first day he had sex with Jane. She said she had plumbing problems, and I plunged her toilet until all the water was gone, Smooth thought as he caressed his erection.
His cellmate was out to court, so he had the cell to himself for most of the morning. His thoughts of being faithful to China went out the window when he saw the sex face of Jane flash in his mind.
Fuck! Smooth thought in sexual frustration as he jumped down from his top bunk.
He snatched the sheets off his bunk and put up some privacy. He then sat naked on the chrome toilet and stroked his erect cock while thinking of Jane, whose pussy was one-of-a-kind and as much as he hated to admit it, better than China’s.
I gotta reach out to Jane and tell her to send me some bikini pictures of that phat ass and pussy print, Smooth thought as he masturbated while thinking of her sweet, tight yet deadly pussy.
The last thing on his mind was why China hadn’t stopped by the day before.
* * *
When China got wheeled through Jackson Memorial Hospital’s doors, she was happy to see her hero standing there waiting on her with his passenger door open.
“Good morning, Spencer!” China said as the nurse halted the wheelchair in front of him.
“How are you, China?” he asked.
“I’d be better if I had me some breakfast.”
“I picked you up some breakfast at your sister’s restaurant. She fixed your favorite when I told her that it was for you,” Spencer informed China as he helped her stand up from the wheelchair.
Damn! He smells good! China thought, smelling Spencer’s Davidoff Cool Water cologne.
“You make me feel like an old lady, Spencer,” China said, trying to downplay his affectionate affinities.
“Sorry!” he said as he closed her door.
China watched him utter a couple words to the nurse and then walk around and get inside the car. The luxury of Spencer’s Camaro made her feel like she was home, a place she needed to get to so she could take a nice shower.
“So, where to first? Your car or home? I’m guessing home, huh?”
“How did you know?” China replied, with a smile on her face.
“Who wouldn’t want to get home first,” Spencer began as he reached into the backseat and grabbed China’s breakfast
and placed it on her lap, “to get a fresh shower and regroup.”
“Thanks, Spencer.”
“You’re welcome, and you don’t owe me anything.”
“Thanks again then,” China added while still smiling.
Damn! She’s beautiful! Smooth, you lucky son of a bitch! Spencer thought as he pulled out and turned up the volume to his heavy metal by Seven Dust.
What the fuck is wrong with this crazy-ass white boy? China thought as she reached for the radio and turned the volume down to zero.
“Listen, crazy-ass white boy! This devilish-ass music isn’t gonna cut it. How can you listen to that shit?” China asked Spencer, who was cracking up to the point of tears flooding his eyes. “That’s not funny, Spencer!” China said, laughing herself.
Damn! He has a sexy-ass laugh too, she thought, instantly feeling guilty for adoring another man.
To hide her attraction, China bit into her ham and cheese breakfast sandwich.
“Sorry, China. But you’re too damn funny!” Spencer said while drying his eyes.
When he looked in his rearview mirror, his entire demeanor changed from joy to being serious. China immediately sensed something was amiss.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him, as a frown now appeared on his face while he still looked at his rearview mirror.
“We have some company. How about putting on your seatbelt,” Spencer said calmly.
Without any hesitation, China did as she was advised.
“Two cars back is a Mexican who’s been on my trail since I picked up my car. I thought I was tripping and that he was just another random guy, but evidently not,” Spencer said as he slammed on his gas pedal while changing lanes.
The kickback from his powerful Camaro caused China’s neck to jerk back.
“Damn! How about warning me next time, Spencer!” China shouted as he accelerated through traffic like a mad man.
When she looked in her side-view mirror, she saw the black Suburban trying to keep up with them. But the Camaro was too fast for the Suburban, and it was like a dog chasing a cat up a tree.
“What’s your address?” Spencer asked.
“You’re going the wrong way. We need to go east, Spencer.”
“Before she knew it, Spencer artistically U-turned the Camaro and headed east, hopping onto I-95 and heading northeast. The Suburban was completely lost and didn’t have enough horsepower to keep up. Spencer had lost them in less than two minutes.
“Where to now?” Spencer asked an impressed China.
“You’ve been watching too much 2 Fast 2 Furious, Spencer,” China joked before she gave him directions to her and Smooth’s $2.3 million mansion, where no man other than Smooth had been with her.
After seeing how badly the Mexicans wanted her, China was ready to go door-to-door looking for Mario. “I gotta find this Mario!”
“No, we have to find Mario! Let’s remember he just sent someone to kill me too,” Spencer said. “And I don’t know about you, but I don’t take death threats lightly.”
Spencer turned off an exit that would lead him to China’s neighborhood.
“I can agree with you on that,” China said as she took another bite of her sandwich with gusto.
As she was lost in her delicious sandwich, China realized that she didn’t have her iPhone or her purse.
Damn! How the hell did I not notice it? she thought.
“Spencer, have you seen my purse—”
“And phone? They’re in the backseat,” Spencer cut her off.
When Spencer looked over at China, he saw her with another beautiful smile. Despite her swollen face, her beauty still shone through her injuries.
Damn it, Smooth! You’re a lucky son of a bitch! he thought again as he pulled into China’s enormous driveway.
Spencer reached into the backseat and grabbed China’s Prada purse and passed it over to her. When China looked inside, she saw that her Glock .45 was still where she had last seen it. She was only a firm grip away from saving her own life. Then she remembered the Mexican man pulling her down by her hair, and losing her grip on her Glock.
“Don’t worry, China. They’ll never get that lucky again,” Spencer said, after reading her mind from the discontented look on her face.
China looked up at Spencer and stared into his blue eyes.
“Thank you,” China said, bridling her emotion. “Do you mind coming in? You can help yourself to whatever is in the kitchen.”
“Sure,” Spencer said as he exited the Camaro at the same time as China stepped out.