Can't Be That Other Woman (4 page)

Chapter 6

Tracy

“Mama, can my friend come over for dinner today?” I asked my mother as we sat at the table, eating the last of our breakfast.

              Today was Sunday, which meant that it was the Lord’s Day, as well as family day. Every Sunday after church, both of my brothers would come back home to our parents’ house for dinner. Since they haven’t been here two Sundays in a row, Mama made sure to let them know that they better had been here today, or else she would beat them with her broom for real this time. My mother had been up since five o’ clock this morning cooking her Sunday meal, so if they knew like me, they had better show up or else Mama is going to show out.

              Not only was my brother’s coming, but my aunts and uncles were probably coming too. Not to mention that my brother was probably bringing his girlfriend and I hated her ass. I really don’t see why he’s even with her. The bitch cheated on him and he had the nerve to take her hoe ass back. I don’t know what he was thinking, but I lost mad respect when he pulled that move. I loved my brother to death, but he was as dumb as a bird when it came to that broad. He gave the chick whatever she wanted. She didn’t even have to work and she cheated on a man like that. She knew I didn’t like her and I never tried to hide it. If it weren’t for my brother, I would’ve whooped her ass a long time ago.

              “Girl, I’m not trying to be looking into none of your little friend’s faces. Let them spend Sunday with their own parents,” she said, taking her pies out of the oven.

              “But Ma, Delaney’s my best friend. I want you to finally meet her,” I told her. “Besides, her parents don’t be around enough for them to hang out on Sundays. She takes care of her little sister and brothers. It’s because of me that she’s even going to church. Ma, please let her come, I promise to do the dishes for a whole week if you do.”

              “I don’t know, T. You’re going to have to ask your father. You know he loves having family time on Sundays,” she said. Before she could even turn around to look at me, I was halfway up the stairs. I was happy she said that, because I was practically a daddy’s girl. Whatever I wanted, my daddy made sure that I had it. I knew that when I asked, he was going to say yes, which is why I practically ran to my parents’ bedroom. I hoped my daddy was dressed, because I didn’t even bother to knock. I just busted right on in.

              “Daddy!” I yelled, once I didn’t see him in the room.

              “Good morning, princess. What are you hollering for so early this morning?” he asked, walking into the room with his face full of shaving cream, and a razor in his hand. I walked over to him and placed a kiss on his cheek, before I proceeded to walk in the bathroom.

              “Daddy, can my friend come over for dinner after church? I already asked Mama and she told me to ask you,” I said, taking a seat on the toilet. I watched as he walked back over to the sink and continued shaving his face.

              “So she sent you up here to me, huh?” he said, laughing.

              “You know she always does that, but can I? Daddy, I promise that she’s nothing like my other friends. She doesn’t get into any trouble, she’s on the honor roll, she takes care of her sister and brothers and she has a job. She doesn’t be hanging in the street, which is why she’s my best friend and she doesn’t steal. So you don’t have to worry about anything going missing from out of here.”

              “Uh huh and why are we just now getting to meet your best friend?” he asked, looking at me through the mirror.

              “Because like I said, she takes care of her siblings and she has a job. If she’s not doing that, then she has her head in her books. She doesn’t do anything else, other than those three things. Shit, we barely have time to hang out now.” I said. When I noticed his face, I realized that I had cursed. “I’m sorry, Daddy. Now what’s it going to be and before you answer, I promised to do the dishes for a week.”

              “Well, what about her parents? Where are they?” he asked. Instantly I felt bad. I knew that he would want to know about her parents, but I’m just happy that he asked me instead of asking her. I began to tell him about her parents and everything that goes on into her life. I could tell from his facial expression that he felt sorry for her, but he didn’t need to. Just looking at her, one would never know that she was going through all of that. Delaney was seventeen and as strong as ever. She was also shy and embarrassed, which is why every time I’d invite her over to the house, she would always come up with some sort of excuse. I knew it was only because she was embarrassed, but as I told her, she was my friend and she had nothing to be embarrassed about. I didn’t care about what she had or what she didn’t have. Material shit didn’t matter to me. She was my friend because of the person she was. Delaney wasn’t rich, but she would give someone the shirt off her back if she had to. Even though she’s going through her own problems, she was always trying to help others. That’s what had drawn me to her.

              “Well, since you said that, then yeah, but don’t forget about doing the dishes, or else I’m going to extend it to a full two weeks.”

“Thank you so much, Daddy,” I said, running over to hug him.

“Hey, hey, hey, you’re going to make me cut myself,” he said, pulling the razor from his face.

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” I said, laughing. He turned around and placed a kiss on my forehead, before ushering me out of the room so that he could finish getting ready for church.

            I ran full speed out of the bathroom before he could come up with something else. Once I made it to my room, I called up Delaney and invited her over to my house. Of course, she tried to come up with some excuse about not being about to come, because she had her siblings, but I told her she could bring them along too. I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind. It was going to be hard for me to keep up my end of the bargain, but I was going to try. I couldn’t wait for my parents to meet Delaney. Not only that, but I was happy that I was going to have someone to talk to today. I knew they were going to love her, because she was such a loving and caring person.

* * *

I was happy when church let out earlier than I expected it to. Normally, it would last for about two hours, but I guess the pastor had other thangs going on. After paying our tithes and doing the usual handshakes and hugs to the other members, we were out of there. I wasn’t surprised when my brothers didn’t show up. I just hoped that they showed up for dinner though. Since I drove my own car, I hugged my parents and told them that I would meet them back at the house.

Once I got in my car, I threw my purse in the back, hopped in and went to go and pick up Delaney and her siblings. I couldn’t wait to see her little sister Dallas. Baby girl was as cute as button and the sweetest. She was well mannered and Delaney kept her dressed nice. She was also smart as hell in school.

              Pulling out my phone, I dialed Delaney’s number. I needed to make sure that she was ready when I got there.

              “Hello,” she said, answering the phone.

              “What are you doing, heffa?” I asked her.

              “I’m over here finishing Dallas’s hair.”

              “Delaney, I hope when I pull up that y’all be ready. I can’t be late, or else my mother is going to flip,” I told her.

              “Chill out, Tracy. You’re not going to be late. We’ll be ready when you get here.”

“You better be or else I’m going to be mad with you. I already promised my father that I was going to do the dishes for a week if he let you come,” I confessed.

              “I know you didn’t,” she said, laughing. “You doing the dishes? I would love to see that.”

              “Well bitch, be late and you’ll be doing more than watching. You’re going to be right beside me helping.”

              “Uh huh…whatever. Now let me go and get dressed before you be washing dishes forever,” she said, laughing hysterically.

              “Yeah whatever, trick, bye.”

              “All right girl, bye,” she said and hung up.

              I’m praying that she’ll be ready when I get there, because I wasn’t playing. My mother would trip if I was late and my father would too.

* * *

Chapter 7

Delaney

I stood in the mirror combing my hair for the fourth time this morning. I’d changed my clothes three times already, and I was seriously thinking about changing them again. I had on a black, knee-length skirt, red and black dressy blouse and some flat black shoes. My hair was flat-ironed straight, with a part straight in the middle. I didn’t have on much makeup. I only had on some lip-gloss and a little bit of eye shadow.

“How does this look, Dally?” I asked Dallas.

“You look pretty, Laney,” she said, bouncing up and down on the bed. She had said the same thing the first three times.

“Dallas, get down before you get start to sweat and smell like a pig,” I said, walking over to the bed. She stopped jumping and got down. “Come here. Let me straighten your clothes out.”

She was dressed in a yellow and white sundress, with her white dress shoes. I had combed her hair in four plaits, with two yellow bows and two white bows. Her baby bang was laid down to perfection. She had on the jewelry I had gotten her for her sixth birthday. She was dressed the way a little girl was supposed to be dressed and I was happy.

“Come on, let me spray on a little of my perfume. Then we can take a mirror pic before Tracy pulls up,” I told her. After spraying perfume on both her and me, we headed over to my full-length mirror and took a few pictures. Of course, all of them were cute. I had the hardest time setting just one for my profile picture on Facebook.  Instead, I made a collage of all of them and then set the new profile picture.

We were heading to the living room when I heard Tracy’s car horn. I hurried back into the room to grab Dallas’s sweater and mine. Before leaving, I stopped in the room to check on my brothers. They were playing their games and didn’t want to come, so for that, I was happy.

“I’ve already cooked for you guys. All Dedrick has to do is fix the food and warm it up in the microwave. We’ll be back in a few hours,” I told them. I wasn’t surprised when they didn’t answer me, so I walked over and got in the front of the TV to be sure that I had their undivided attention. “Y’all heard what I said?”

“Yes, now move out of the way so we can finish playing our game,” Dedrick said. I gladly handed him back his remote and walked out of the room. Grabbing Dallas’s hand, we locked the door, before we headed out. When we made it to the car, I opened the door for Dallas to hop in. Once I made sure that she was buckled safely inside, I hopped in the front seat and Tracy pulled off.

“You look cute, boo,” she said, looking over at me.

“Thank you,” I replied, with a nervous chuckle. “I changed so many times, I was about to cancel on you.”

“And I would’ve dragged your ass out of that house.” She looked back at Dallas. “Hey Deedy, you’re looking as cute as always.”

“Thank you Tee Tracy,” she said, laughing a girlish giggle.

              “Girl, I can’t wait for you to meet my parents. They’re going to love you and you’re going to love them too,” she said. I didn’t reply, hell I was too nervous to say anything. I’ve never met Tracy’s parents, but she did tell me a lot about them already. I knew they were wealthy people from the way they kept her. That’s why I always made up excuses when she would invite me over to her house. I knew I wasn’t in her league, which is why I never got why she still wanted to be friends with me.

              I’ll admit though, my assumptions of her were all wrong. She wasn’t like most of the rich girls that went to our school. She was cool and down to earth. She never judged me, even after I told her about my parents and everything that I was going through. She vowed that she was going to be there for me and so far, she’s kept that promise. I was grateful for her. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know what I’d do or how I would be able to make it.

              “We’re here,” she said, interrupting my thoughts. I looked up and almost fainted. The house she pulled up to must have belonged to a famous person.

              “Oh my God, Trace. Girl, y’all house is beautiful,” I gasped as I admired the view. Immediately, I began fidgeting with my clothes, trying to make sure that they were straight.
              “Calm down, Delaney. I already told you that you looked wonderful. So don’t go acting that way. My family is not like that, we’re still black. We don’t put people down, because they don’t have anything, instead, we help them. We don’t see dollar signs and we’re not bougie either. Now come on, because you look like you’re getting ready to run on down the street,” she said, laughing as we made our way towards the house. “Oh good, my brother’s here. Hopefully my other brother will come, so you’ll get to meet my whole family today.”

              I didn’t reply. I just grabbed Dallas’s hand as we followed behind her. The minute she opened the door, I was taken aback. Of course, there was no butler or anything like that, but the inside of the house was as beautiful as the outside. The carpet was so clean; I was afraid to walk on it in fear of getting it dirty.

              “Come on, let’s head to my room. I need to change first,” she said as she directed me towards some stairs. We followed her up the stairs and into her room, which was bigger than our entire apartment. Just like when we first walked in, I was scared to move or sit down, in fear that I would mess something up.

              “Oh Laney, look,” Dallas said, running towards Tracy’s bed, where there was a whole bunch of stuffed animals sitting on it. When she got up on it, I almost caught a heart attack.

              “Dallas Ranae McGuff, get your tail from off that bed. You know better than that,” I said, giving her the mad face. She looked at me and got down, before she walked over to Tracy.

              “Delaney, I told you to chill. That girl wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Tracy said, walking over to me. She gave me a look of her own, before she and Dallas disappeared into her huge walk in closet. Moments later they came out, with Tracy now dressed in a floor-length sundress with silver sandals.

              “Lay-Lay, can you put my hair in a messy bun like you always do?” she asked, handing me her comb and brush.

              “Girl, come on,” I said, walking over to the vanity she had in the corner of her room.

Within no time, we got straight to it. Thirty minutes and many re-dos later, she was finally satisfied with the way her hair looked. She even let me cut a bang in the front of her head. Yeah, I knew how to do hair, but that didn’t mean that I liked doing it. I only used my skill on Dallas, Tracy, and my own hair. I didn’t have time to be doing anyone else’s hair. Shit, I had enough on my plate as it already was.

              “Come on, before my mother come up here and embarrasses us,” she said, quickly straightening out her room. I decided to help her since my nerves were once again on the edge. I couldn’t believe that I was finally about to meet her parents. I really hope that they don’t look at me as if I was beneath them. I mean just because Tracy took to me, didn’t mean that they were going to do the same. I don’t care how much she said they were nice, I still felt shy and embarrassed. Hell, I hope they weren’t going to watch me all night, because I know that my clumsy ass would be bound to mess up or something.

              “Come on scary,” she said, dragging me by the arms.

              We left out of her room and made our way down the stairs. The whole way there, my heart was beating like a drum. The minute we reached the last step and I heard voices, I thought for sure that I was going to pass out. We’d reached the kitchen door, when we suddenly stopped.

              “I was just about to come upstairs and get you all,” An older version of Tracy said, walking over to us. She hugged Tracy, before she noticed Dallas and me. “Hello sweetheart, my name is Lillian. I’m Tracy’s mother.”

              “Um, I’m Delaney,” I managed to get out my suddenly dry mouth. I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat, before placing a smile on my face. “It’s nice to meet you, ma’am.”             

              “Honey, you can cut it out with that ma’am stuff. You can just call me Lilly,” she said, hugging me. Surprisingly, I wasn’t shy or embarrassed anymore, so I hugged her back. “And who may this little cutie be?”

              “My name is Dallas. It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Lilly,” she says happily. She took us all by surprise when she ran over to Ms. Lillian and hugged her as if she knew her.

              “Aww, it’s nice to meet you too, sugar,” she said, picking her up. I was about to protest when Tracy gave me the eye and shook her head. “Come on, let’s go ahead and get you fed, baby. They can go ahead and starve if they want, but you won’t.”

              Without another word to Tracy or me, Ms. Lillian took off with Dallas on her hips. I wanted to tell her that Dallas was six and perfectly capable of walking, but instead, I kept my mouth closed. By the way her eye lit up when she saw Dallas, I could tell that she loved kids.

              “Don’t tell her nothing about Dallas.  In fact, don’t even try to chastise or whoop Dallas in her presence, because she will not like it. Yes, I know that’s cheeky of her, but my mother loves kids and it looks like she has a soft spot for Dallas” Tracy whispered to me as we began walking into the kitchen. I didn’t have a problem with Ms. Lillian being attached to Dallas. My baby sister had that kind of effect on people. She would walk into a room and make everyone fall in love with her. She did that with Tracy and it looks like she was about to do the same thing with her mother.

              After meeting both of Tracy’s parents and her oldest brother, we took a seat at the table in the dining room.  Soon, everyone began engaging in a conversation. Mrs. Lillian was waiting for her other son to come, so that we could begin eating. I could see what Tracy was saying about her mother, because ever since we’ve been here, she’s had Dallas glued to her hip and she let her do whatever she wanted.

We sat there waiting on her son for a few more minutes, until she got the phone and called him. After calling and cursing him out two times, he finally said that he was outside. She then asked both Tracy and me to come help her with the dishes. We had to make two trips, because of all of the food that she had cooked. We were almost in the kitchen, when I heard a voice I thought I recognized. Shaking my head, I thought I had to be tripping, because I knew the world wasn’t that small, or that’s what I thought.

Walking into the kitchen, I spotted this cute little red chick sitting at the table. I could tell that she was stuck up and uptight, from the way she was looking at me, but I decided not to let that deter me. Instead, I spoke to her and kept it pushing. I wasn’t surprised when she didn’t speak back. She looked like one of those people who thought the sun rises and sets on her ass. What bothered me the most though, was the way she kept staring at me. I was two seconds away from asking her what the hell she was looking at, when Tracy tapped me on my leg.

“I see you over here ready to go off and shit,” she whispered trying to stifle a laugh. “Don’t let that bitch get to you. Trust me, when I tell you that she’s all bark and no bite.”

“I’m not worrying about her, but what I do want to know is why she clocking me so fucking hard,” I said, still looking at ol’ girl, who was still looking at me.

“She’s probably intimidated, that’s all. She does that every time someone new comes around. What she needs to be concerned with is herself. I don’t know why my brother is still with her cheating ass anyway.”

“So she cheated and around here acting like she was the one who was cheated on?” I asked, not believing the shit.

“Yup and my dumb ass brother took her hoe ass back. Now her hoe ass be on that stalking shit. If she knows like I do, she wouldn’t jump stupid. It’s only because of my brother that I haven’t whooped her ass, but she better not fuck around, or else I’m going to show her stupid ass,” She said, just as her mother called everyone’s attention. They began fixing everyone’s plate, before they prayed over the food. When I opened my eyes after staying amen, I got the shock of a lifetime.

“Do you want something to drink, Delaney?” Tracy had asked me. I heard her, but I didn’t. I was too busy trying to figure out why the dude I met in the mall was sitting across from me at Ms. Lillian’s dinner table. “Delaney, you okay?”

“Umm, I’m fine, boo,” I said, finally tearing my eyes away from him. I turned to Tracy, who was staring at me. I leaned in closer to her, because I didn’t want anyone to hear me. “Umm Trace, who that dude sitting across from us, next to the chick who was staring at me earlier.”

“Oh girl, that’s my other brother, Onijae,” she said, nonchalantly shrugging.

“Oh okay,” I said, trying to play the shit off. On the inside, I was screaming though. I couldn’t believe the dude I had a crush on and thought I’d never see again, was my best friend’s brother.

I Never in a million years, would I think that I’d be seeing him again, especially not sitting across from me at my friend’s dinner table. When I looked back across the table, he was staring at me again. I immediately put my head down, grabbed my fork and began eating. I could already tell that this dinner was going to be eventful.

* * *