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In her darkened parked car, Nina clenched her steering wheel. The street lamp cast an eerie glow onto the pavement. She’d been getting ready for bed when she had received a text from Deja. It had been sent to both her and Rodney and simply stated, “Call me about you coming over tonight.” At first, it didn’t make sense. She certainly did not have plans with Deja. But Rodney had walked out earlier, saying he needed space. Coupled with the kitchen scene and their dancing, Nina figured out that Deja must have accidentally texted the same group conversation she’d started earlier that morning.
Conflicted about the best way to handle the matter, Nina eventually called Candace and asked if she could babysit for a couple hours, telling her it was an emergency, and she’d pay her double.
Now, in the visitor parking at Deja’s apartment complex, she had to decide what to do next. Sure, Rodney wasn’t the love of Nina’s life. But he’d taken vows to be faithful to her, and she’d expected him to do just that because he did little else for her. And though she’d only been friends with Deja for a few months, Nina felt convinced Deja’s intention had been to get close to Rodney the whole time.
Deja’s car occupied her spot, but there were way too many cars parked in the lots and lining the streets nearby to confirm Rodney’s was there. Everything pointed to the fact that he must be, though, and that left only one way to find out. It came down to a flip of the coin at this point. That was how Isaiah and Damien used to handle arguments. They rarely got in them, but if a dispute arose, they’d give a coin to Nina, tell her to flip it, and let fate decide who was right.
She’d done it the night Rodney had proposed. It had been a Saturday evening three months after they had met. They’d had dinner at a fancy Brazilian steak house. A tiny candle flickered in its crystal holder in the middle of the table covered with a white cloth. After the waiter had cleared the dinner plates, he’d asked if they wanted dessert. Rodney whispered into the waiter’s ear, and the waiter grinned at Nina before hurrying off. Nina’d had no idea what that was about, but at the same time, she didn’t really care. Her time with Rodney was bland and boring, so she hadn’t expected what would come next.
The waiter returned minutes later with a plate that had a metal cover over it. Rodney reached his hand across the table to hold Nina’s left hand in his. With his other hand, he lifted the lid to reveal a little black box.
“What’s this?” Nina asked, expecting a friendship pendant or possibly earrings. Though they saw each other every weekend and spoke on the phone daily, Nina was unattached to Rodney, and she’d assumed he’d felt the same. They were friends at best, but really just grief partners, sharing similar feelings about the ones they loved and missed, not each other.
Rodney let go of her hand then opened the box to reveal a sparkling diamond ring. “Rodney? What’s this?”
“It’s a ring. I’d like for you to be my wife.”
“Rod—” Nina started to protest, but Rodney slid the diamond onto her ring finger.
“It’s perfect on you. I think you’re perfect for me, and I love you.”
“You do?” They’d never professed love to each other before, and it all overwhelmed her.
“I do.”
Nina’s head spun. She must have been dreaming. She pushed back her chair and stood up, suddenly needing space.
“Where are you going?” Rodney laughed nervously. “Don’t run off with that ring and never return.”
“I’m just going to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
She rushed through the packed restaurant to the ladies’ room and into a stall. Pressing her back against the door, she tried to steady her pounding heart. She held up her left hand, inspecting the ring: a shiny princess-cut diamond at least two carats large. She’d never dreamed she’d be in this situation again. And though the proposal was the opposite of how wonderful Damien’s had been, she still had a decision to make.
Nina took out a quarter. “Heads you go out there, give Rodney the ring back, and forget this ever happened. Tails you marry him and actually try to live your life without Isaiah.”
She flipped the coin and caught it in her hand: tails. Maybe it was life’s way of saying she needed to make another person’s life happy after what she’d done to her brother.
Now, seven years later, a coin would determine Nina’s fate again. Heads, she went to Deja’s place and confronted those bastards. Tails she headed home, packed up the girls and her belongings, and stayed at her dad’s until she could figure out something more permanent. It was that simple. She dug out a quarter from her purse and gave it a light toss. Her fingers quivered bringing it to her eyes. Heads.
She left the car, and her hands trembled, causing her keys to jingle in her hand. She found the spare key to Deja’s and slid it into the lock. But she didn’t turn the key. She couldn’t explain barging into Deja’s place if she were wrong. And she didn’t know what she’d do with her life if she were right. Something of this magnitude might push her over the edge. But she had to do it.
After turning the knob, she entered the living room, and a little bell on the knob rang. Shit. She’d never seen the bell before. Her body froze, waiting for Deja to storm into the room and demand to know why Nina was there. But she didn’t come. A standing lamp in the corner of the small living room set to dim gave the room a brown glow like a sepia picture. Everything appeared normal: the black faux-leather couch, black coffee table, and tiny TV on the old-school entertainment stand. But a champagne bucket sat in a puddle of water on the coffee table. Two flutes rested next to it. A moan emanated from Deja’s bedroom.
Oh, hell no!
So Nina wasn’t crazy after all. How could they! Her heart pounded like a drum beat. She picked up her pace to the bedroom. As she neared it, a bump-and-grind R&B song flowed from the speakers, mixing in with the groans. She stood next to the door.
Something told her not to open the door, that nothing would be the same if she did. She ignored that voice and pushed it open.
Nina paused as the sight of Deja’s silhouette, her back arched as she rocked back and forth. That bitch. She flipped on the light switch.
Deja gasped and turned to the door, covering her bare breasts with a purple sheet. “What the hell, Nina?”
“What’s going on?” a deep voice asked.
Nina caught her breath. That didn’t sound like Rodney. She glimpsed at the man, who was not her husband. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry.” Nina started toward the door.
“What are you doing here?” Deja asked.
“Who the hell is that?” the man said simultaneously.
Nina had never seen the man lying in Deja’s bed before. Huge tattoos covered his arms and chest. She attempted to speak but couldn’t. Her face burned.
“Nina, say something.” Deja climbed out of the bed, clutching the sheet draping her body, her eyes searching Nina’s for an explanation. She tapped her phone, and the music stopped.
“I thought that...” Nina couldn’t verbalize it without losing her friend. After all, accusing a friend of having an affair with your husband was about as serious as it could get. “You sent that text to me and Rodney...”
Deja’s hand went to her cheek. “That text was for Kevin. But you really believed I was sleeping with Rodney?”
Kevin perched himself on the side of the bed. “Who’s Rodney? You’d better not have Miles around some other dude.”
Oh God. It must be Miles’s dad.
“No, Kevin.” Deja let out a nervous laugh.
“Oh, you laughing at me now too,” Kevin said.
“No, of course not.” Deja’s face grew stern.
Kevin rose from the bed, completely naked. “What’s going on, then?”
Nina looked away as he climbed into a pair of boxers.
“Nothing’s going on. I’m sorry.” Deja backed away.
“What’d you do for her to think her husband would be here?” Kevin yelled at Deja.
Deja reached her arm toward him. “I have no idea.”
Kevin pushed her arm away. “I don’t even know why I waste my time with you.”
His physicality concerned Nina. Things were getting worse and worse, and she deserved the blame. “No, it’s not her fault. I’m not thinking clearly.”
“Waste your time with me? Hell, no. I’m the one wasting my time with you.” Deja pointed her finger at Kevin’s face. “Just get the hell out of here, actually. I don’t want to see your sorry ass anymore.”
“Oh, so I’m sorry now?” Kevin stomped a menacing step toward Deja.
Nina wanted to leave, but the way Kevin stared at Deja, with pure hatred in his eyes, scared her into staying. Calling the police would probably be overreacting, but Nina wasn’t sure. She stepped toward them.
Deja stared him down. “Yeah, a sorry mother—”
Then Kevin lunged toward Deja, knocking her back onto the bed. He wrapped his hands around her neck and squeezed.
Nina froze.
“Help!” Deja beat her fists against Kevin.
Nina ran to the bed. “Hey, stop!” She struggled to yank Kevin off Deja, but he was pure muscle and undeterred by her.
“Nina.” Deja barely got the words out. Color drained from her face. Deja pointed past Nina.
An opened champagne bottle rested on the nightstand. Nina picked it up, surprised to find it empty and light in her hand. She strode to Kevin. Closing her eyes, she sucked in a breath then swung. The bottle hit the back of Kevin’s head with a small thump. She dropped the bottle, and Kevin’s limp body lay on top of Deja.
Deja coughed and gasped as she pushed him off. She picked up the champagne bottle and held it with both hands above her head. “You bastard!”
“Deja, don’t!” Nina yelled.
Deja turned to Nina, rage consuming her eyes. “He tried to kill me.” She focused on Kevin.
Nina grabbed the bottle then wrestled it out of Deja’s hand.
Deja shook Kevin. “Get up, Kevin. Get up.”
Nina felt out of her body, like she floated above the scene.
Deja’s shoulders slumped. She stood still for a minute, staring at Kevin, then leaned her ear to his mouth. “He’s not breathing.”
“Oh God. No!” A scream pierced the room and didn’t stop until Deja jumped up and wrapped her hands around Nina’s mouth.
“Someone’s going to hear you,” Deja warned.
Nina’s whole body trembled. “Is he dead? Did I kill him?”
Deja placed two fingers on his neck then wrist. “No heartbeat.”
Nina screamed again.
“Stop it, I said.” Deja grabbed Nina’s arm, forcing her to the living room. She forced her onto the couch. “Breathe, okay, breathe.”
Nina gasped. No air. “We need...” Nina panted. “To call... 9-1-1.”
“And say what?” Deja asked. “That you just killed a man? You want to be locked up for the rest of your life? Just stay here. Nina, why would I be with Rodney? Why would you think that about me or him?”
Nina had been a complete idiot jumping to conclusions when Deja had simply sent the text to the wrong people. “I’m sorry.”
“Never mind. I’ll check on Kevin. Maybe you just knocked him out.” Deja jogged down the hall and into her bedroom.
Thoughts raced through Nina’s mind. She tried to recall exactly where she’d seriously hurt him. Nina grabbed her phone from her pocket to dial 9-1-1. But then she heard Deja’s voice. She ran to the room to see if Kevin had woken up. “Were you talking?”
Kneeling on the floor, Deja duct taped a rolled-up comforter shut. Red lines marked her neck where Kevin had choked her. “To myself. Nina, he’s gone.” Deja stood and pointed at the comforter. “We need to move the body.”
Nina shut her eyes. With all her might, she willed to wake up from this nightmare. This couldn’t be happening. Her mind had lost it again. She’d gone crazy. Fine! She’d be crazy as long as she wasn’t a murderer.
“Nina, did you hear me?”
Nina opened her eyes.
Deja stared at her. “He’s dead.”
It wasn’t a nightmare. Nina’s body trembled violently, as if she were in an ice cooler. “I’m calling the police!”
Deja cupped her hand on Nina’s mouth. “You’re not calling the police. You have a history of mental illness, and you barged over to my house, paranoid I’m having an affair with your husband. They’ll lock you up, Nina. You don’t want that. You’re my best friend, and you saved my life. Let me save yours. Give me your phone.”
Nina retrieved her phone from her purse and handed it to Deja.
“Let’s go back into the living room,” Deja said. “I have to get something out of my car.”
Nina felt like a zombie walking to the living room, each step taking all the energy she could muster. She’d only been sitting for a couple minutes when Deja hurried back into the apartment with a dolly. She wheeled it down the hall then reappeared with the comforter placed on it. “We have to go.”
Nina couldn’t move.
Deja knelt down in front of her. She put her hands to Nina’s cheeks, which were wet with tears. “Look at me.”
Nina’s eyes locked with hers.
“We need to get this into the trunk and out of here. Now.”
Nina’s gaze fell on the flat dolly covered with the blanket. “This? This!” Nina yelled. “Deja, it’s a dead—”
Deja clasped her hand around Nina’s mouth. “Please. Get up. We have to go. We have to move it while it’s dark.”
Nina rose to her feet and followed Deja, who wheeled the dolly out to her car. “Now, help me lift it in.”
Nina stumbled backward. “I can’t.”
“You can, and you will,” Deja said. “On three. One, two, three.”
Nina helped Deja lift the comforter into the trunk, and when it landed with a thud, she dry-heaved.
“The bushes,” Deja said.
Nina hurried to the bushes against the wall and threw up. She wiped her mouth then climbed into Deja’s car. “Where are we going?”
“We need to hide the body. There’s a huge park in south San Jose that no one goes to. We’ll leave it there tonight, and I’ll figure out something more permanent later.” Deja started the car and backed out.
Nina leaned her head against the seat and closed her eyes, not sure how she could make it through the night, let alone the rest of her life. She was a cold-blooded murderer, and Deja had become her accomplice.