A Sticky Situation (17 page)

“What’s the matter with you?” she asked.

Standing there with the other half of the torn documents in my hand, I looked at Karen with a dumb expression on my face. I knew that I had to come up with a good enough excuse of why I was acting this way, so I quickly gathered my thoughts. I said, “Karen, I am so sorry. I guess being away from work is starting to get to me.”

Karen took the torn pieces of paper out of my hands and laid them on top of the other files. “Go home, please. Take that vacation, like I told you,” she encouraged me.

“All right. Well, just let me shut down my computer,” I said.

She became adamant. “No, I will do it.”

I sighed heavily. “OK.”

Karen watched me closely as I grabbed my handbag and car keys and casually walked around to the other side of my desk. As I made my way toward my office door, she shuffled all the paperwork around in order to get it back in one neat pile. When my hand was on the doorknob, Karen said, “What’s going on with this female offender?”

“Who?” I asked, even though I knew who she was talking about.

“Samantha Mitchell.”

I turned around to face Karen and said, “Oh, I was checking on the status of her release.”

“Why would you do that, when she’s not one of your case files?” Karen asked with suspicion.

I caught a knot in my throat that instant. I knew I had to come up with something very clever because she was waiting for a convincing answer. I couldn’t come out and tell her I was checking up on Ms. Mitchell because she was gonna take my man when she came home. Karen would look at me like I was crazy. I had to come up with something more substantial. Then it came to me out of the blue. “Because she’s a co-defendant of one of my parolees, and I wanted to make sure I stayed on top of her release, since they are not supposed to have any verbal or physical contact with each other.”

Karen took a seat behind my desk so she could get a closer look at my monitor. “Well, it says that she is going to be assigned to Carolyn’s caseload. Well, that is until she takes over my position, so just get with her if you think that there’s gonna be a problem.”

“Well, I don’t want to jump the gun because she is going into the halfway house upon her release from prison.”

“Call the director and let them know that your client is on supervised probation and that it’s a condition of his probation that he is not to have any contact with Ms. Mitchell. If he goes up there, then he will automatically get violated. As a matter-of-fact…,” Karen’s voice faded as she began to sift through the stack of papers.

“What are you looking for?”

“I am looking for your client’s photo, so I can make a photocopy of it and hand it to Carolyn. She can attach it to this lady’s file when she sends it over to the halfway house.”

“Oh no, you don’t have to do all of that.” I rushed back to my desk.

“Wait, I got it.” Karen paused and pulled the picture closer to her face. You could tell by her expression that she was in really deep thought. It was obvious that she’d recognized Seth’s face from the photo back at my apartment. I believed she was beginning to think that her mind was playing tricks on her, but then again she wasn’t quite sure. If that was the case, I wanted to play along. “What’s wrong?” I asked, trying to play it cool.

“This isn’t the guy in that photo back at your apartment, is it?”

I laughed hysterically. “You must be kidding, right?”

“I know that sounded crazy, but this looks just like that guy.”

“Well, believe you me, it’s not.”

Karen took another look at Seth’s picture and then she shook her head. “I swear this guy looks just like your friend.”

“You think so?” I asked.

Karen put the photo aside. “Well, kind of,” she replied in a way that said she was unsure. Then she pressed a couple of keys and used the mouse to shut down my computer.

I stood there in amazement and wondered how I was able to persuade her to believe that Seth was not the man in my picture back at my place. That was truly a close call, and I would never put myself in that predicament again. From that point on, I was gonna have to keep all my personal shit at home and keep Karen’s ass from out of there. Simple as that!

Karen killed herself to shut down my computer and put Seth’s file back in my file cabinet. She grabbed his photo and attached a sticky note to it, to remind herself to make a copy of it and leave it on Carolyn’s desk. I wasn’t too happy about her decision to do that, but there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. If Carolyn ever got wind of what was going on between Seth and me, I knew that I was going to be in for it. I even thought about slipping into Carolyn’s office and snatching the picture off her desk before she saw it. But as thorough as Karen was, she would definitely make it her business to check back with Carolyn to make sure she got it. Now I had to come up with a plan B.

It had been a week since I had last spoken to Seth. I had left him messages on his voicemail and sent him text messages, but he refused to respond. I even sat in my car and watched him run in and out of Melody’s apartment to service the different drug addicts. Melody came outside a couple of times herself, so I got a really good look at her. She was definitely Seth’s type, which made me wonder what they could be doing behind those closed doors. For her sake, she’d better keep her pussy to herself because if I ever got a feeling that shit wasn’t looking right between those two, I was going to go the fuck off and she was going to lose her little-ass project house. I meant that shit from the bottom of my heart.

SETH

Never Mix Business With Pleasure

Melody had been trying to get me to fuck her on an everyday basis. I kept telling that ho that it wasn’t like that between us, but she wasn’t trying to hear me. First off, her pussy was on zero and her mouth game wasn’t much better. The only thing I got pleasure from was when I was fucking her in her ass. I loved that shit! It got addicting at times, and I found myself wanting it every time my dick got hard. I believed she knew that shit too, and tried to use it to her advantage. I wasn’t stupid. I was hip to her game and I think she knew that, too. What really got me was when she tried to walk around there like we were a couple. She fucked my head up yesterday when she asked me if I could take her ass shopping. I looked at that bitch like she was crazy, handed her ass twenty dollars and told her she’d better call Mike, because I was not the one. She got mad as hell with me when I told her that shit, but that shit didn’t bother me. I had other shit to worry about, and I intended to handle it.

Everything was running smoothly; the boys were outside watching out for the Narcs and keeping the money coming steady with the dopefiends, and I was chilling in the kitchen, tearing into a plate of oxtails and white rice with a side of plantains I picked up from M.P.’s Island Café on the way there. The food was good as a motherfucker and I was into it, too. Then my cell phone rang. When I saw that it was my baby Samantha trying to get through, I answered it on the spot.

“What’s good, baby!” I said through a mouthful of food.

“Nothing much. Whatchu doing?” she asked.

“Just chilling at the spot, eating these big-ass oxtails.”

“Awwww man, I ain’t had none of them joints in years. Damn, I bet they are good!”

“They are,” I replied between chews.

“Where did you get them from?”

“From this spot off Virginia Beach Boulevard in Norfolk, called M.P.’s Island Café.”

“How long have you been at the spot?”

As I was about to answer Samantha’s question, Melody brought her silly ass in the kitchen and asked me if I was on the phone talking to Mike. Now, I knew that bitch knew I wasn’t talking to Mike. She just wanted Samantha to hear her voice in the background so I’d have to explain to Samantha who she was. See, that’s what these sideline hoes do. They had to keep unnecessary shit going so they could make your main girl feel a little insecure. It worked every single time. In fact, Samantha fed right into it. “Who the hell is that bitch?” she screamed.

“It’s my people’s girl.”

“What’s her name?”

“Her name is Melody.”

“Seth, don’t lie to me! That bitch in the background sounds just like the chick that answered your phone last week and popped all that shit to me.”

Hearing the rage in Samantha’s voice, I knew she was about to blow her top. That conversation she had with Maxine last week took her over the edge. Maxine really had Sam believing that she was pregnant and that we lived together. I broke it down to Samantha and told her who Maxine really was, and that what she told her was a lie. She had a fit when I told her that Maxine was my P.O. and that I’d fucked her. In the same sentence, I lied and told her that when I fucked her, it was a one-night stand and I ain’t fucked with her since. Unfortunately, Samantha didn’t go for it. She wanted to know why Maxine had my cell phone and why she would make up all that shit if it wasn’t true. I kicked it to her like Maxine was on some fatal attraction type of shit but I shut her down, once and for all. Samantha wasn’t too happy at all about everything I had just laid down on the table, but the damage was already done. What could she say?

“Sam, Melody is not the same chick you talked to; that was Maxine,” I tried to explain.

“Maxine, Melody. Both of those bitches’ names sound just alike.”

“Yeah, you’re right, but that’s not her.”

“Well, why is Melody all in your face?” she asked me, still heated.

“Mommie, she just walked in the spot and asked me if I was talking to her man on the phone.”

“Well, tell her ass nah, so she can keep it moving.”

“I just did,” I lied.

“Well, did she carry her ass?”

“Yes, she did,” I said, simultaneously waving Melody out of the kitchen so I could have some privacy. When she left, I was able to calm Samantha a little more. After I told her that I loved her about five consecutive times, she felt a lot better. If you want to know my honest opinion, telling your girl you loved her over the phone while you were in the company of another woman was some powerful shit. Chicks fed off stuff like that. It made them feel superior because they figured that if you came out your mouth and expressed your feelings to them while you were standing next to another chick, then that chick didn’t mean shit to you. In this case, Samantha happened to be right.

“Can I ask you a question?” she asked. “Why is that chick hanging out with you while her man is somewhere else?”

“She’s not hanging out with me. This is her crib and I make moves for her man.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Samantha said. “What kind of man would let another nigga come up in his girl’s spot to work?”

“Samantha, trust me. It ain’t even that type of party.”

“Whatchu mean by that?”

“Believe me, that nigga don’t give a fuck about this shit around here. He’s got a wife and a baby on the way, so this is only a temporary arrangement.”

“So, what you are saying is that he’s basically using her?”

“Exactly,” I agreed.

Sam laughed. “Yo, y’all niggas got plenty of shit with y’all!”

“Not me,” I denied.

“Oh yes, you do.” She started laughing again. “’Cause if you didn’t, you would not have fucked your probation officer and led her on believing that y’all were going to be together.”

“Come on, Sam, I already told you that it wasn’t like that.”

“I know what you told me, but what would possess you to fuck your P.O? I mean, what were you thinking about?”

“Do we have to go through this again?”

“You damn right! Because you got out of answering me the last time.”

I sighed heavily. “Look, Sam, it was a bad judgment call and it won’t happen again.”

“I know that much,” she said, cutting me off. “I want to know why you did it? Because there has to be a reason.”

“I don’t know why I did it. It just happened.”

“Now I know it didn’t just happen. You probably got it in your head that if you gave her some dick, she’d go easy on you with your time on paper. But let me tell you something right now; she knows that I’m about to come home, so I know some shit is going to go down. Now, I don’t know how you are going to do it, but you better step to her and tell her that I ain’t for no drama, so she better stay away from me.”

“I gotcha! Trust me, she ain’t gonna fuck with you.”

“Come on now, Seth. Who do you think you’re talking to? That bitch has it out for me already. I know she’s gonna want to get me violated.”

“She could only do it if she was your P.O., and I know that ain’t gonna happen because she’s already mine and that would be a conflict of interest.”

“Not being my P.O. isn’t gonna stop her. I am quite sure she has friends who work with her that could do as much damage as she would.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right, but why are you racking your brain behind this shit? She isn’t gonna do shit to you. I told you I was going to take care of it.”

“You better, because if I get any flack behind your wandering dick, I am gonna cut the shit off myself. You understand?”

I laughed, even though I knew Samantha was serious. “Mommie, don’t act like that,” I said in a subtle tone. “You know I am going to take care of you, right?”

“You better, because remember—I’m doing this bid for your ass!”

“I know, Ma. That’s why you ain’t gonna have to worry about shit when you come home,” I assured her.

Our conversation lasted for another three or four minutes and then we were cut off. Before we got disconnected, I reassured Samantha that everything would be taken care of and she would not have any problems. I sealed my promise with a kiss, and from where I was sitting, I think she bought it.

After I hung up with Samantha, I called Melody back into the kitchen and cursed her ass out behind that stunt she had just pulled. She acted as if it was just a misunderstanding, but I knew how cunning bitches could be, so I wasn’t trying to hear that bullshit.

“Look, Melody, don’t run up on me like that anymore. When you see me on the phone, I want you to turn around and leave so I can have some privacy. You understand?”