I'd Rather Be Single 2 (8 page)

He and his friend
looked at each other and laughed. “Babe, don’t listen to her. I really don’t know why she said we were together, because we were never in a relationship. I was only kicking it with her to pass the time by.”

“So why would she take it upon herself to confront me if
y’all weren’t in a relationship?” I questioned him.

His friend cut in. “Baby girl, you see who Courtney g
rabbed and scooped into the car? He took you by the hand right in front of her. If she was someone important, then he would’ve never done that.”

“Exactly
, Tyra. I told you, I found what I want and that’s you.” Courtney said.

The valet attendant knocked on the window to let me know that my car was now in front.

Courtney stopped me before I opened the door. “Look, I’m sorry that she approached you, Tyra, but I promise you that I was never in a relationship with her, and that I’m all in this thing with you.”

Hesitating before exiting the car
, I had to be stern with him because bullshit was something that I didn’t tolerate. “Courtney,  you have to understand, drama is something that I don’t do, so if you have something going on with this chick, then I prefer for you to leave me alone.”

“I promise you, that chick is no one
to me.”

His eyes
were sincere and he held a straight face. I mean, the chick did state that they
used
to date and were now off, so there was no need to continue to persecute him for a chick that was bitter and mad. But my game face would stay embedded until further notice.

“Alright Courtney, she did say that y
’all were not together, so I can’t dwell on it too much. But for homegirl to take her time out to confront me about you was a little suspect. We’ll talk about it later though, my car is here. I’ll hit you when I get home.”

I
jumped into my car and headed to the crib. I had mixed emotions about this chick confronting me. Any female confronting another chick over a man meant that she wasn’t over him, and I didn’t have time for the drama. The way I felt about it, either she wasn’t over him or they still had something going on, I had no idea what the deal was. All I had was his words to compare with hers.

Sorting through my feelings
on the way home, I grew annoyed with the situation. I parked my car in the lot, and when I hit the elevators, I saw Dalia walking in at the same time.

“Girl it is 2am, what are you doing arriving the same time as me? Don’t tell me you slept with him.”

Dalia had hearts in her eyes, and was smiling so big, I just knew she had given up the goodies.

“No
ooo, I listened to you and I didn’t sleep with him tonight. But yo Tyra, it was so perfect. He rented out a restaurant just for our date. And girl we had a three course meal. Salad first, then lobster and mashed potatoes and finally filet mignon and asparagus. Girl you know we are from the hood, bitches ain’t used to three course meals. I didn’t even know how to open the damn lobster, girl. All that shit was foreign to me, but I loved it. He made me feel so special, my dumb ass almost cried.”

I chuckled through my headache.
“You are so crazy, girl. I can’t even deal with you right now.”

“No,
I’m serious, it was perfect. We share such a special connection, Tyra, and I can tell it’s genuine. I really like him. Oh and he wants me to come over and meet his brother, his best friend, and his best friend’s fiancé tomorrow.”

“Wow, you are meeting family already? I guess that’s a good thing.
I’m glad things are working out for y’all so far, Dalia.”

“Girl, I took all your advice and that shit worked like a charm. What about you, how was your night with
fine ass Courtney?”

Just when I was about to explain how
wrong my night ended, the elevator doors opened and we saw that our apartment door was cracked open. The wood on the side of the lock was chipped and it seemed to be forced open. I surveyed the damage and then crept closer to the door.

Dalia
did the opposite; she took steps backwards holding her chest, “What the fuck? Did someone break into our spot?” she asked.

I
tiptoed toward the door, pushed it open and stepped inside. I was honestly just as scared as she was, but I put my fear aside and flicked on the light.

Immediately
, I noticed some missing items. “What the fuck! The TV is gone!” I looked over at the empty spot where my Mac laptop usually sat, and realized that it was also gone.

“How the fuck do we get robbed when we live in a monitored building? Somebody had to see something.”
I was pissed off!

I could see Dalia’
s hands shaking. She stood in front of her closed bedroom door, just staring at the knob.

“Let’s just go call the police, we don’t know if they are still in here.”
she said, turning away from her door.

We rushed downstairs to the front lobby and
ambushed the concierge desk. I asked the guard a barrage of questions and he looked confused and helpless. He said he hadn’t seen any suspicious activity and had just gotten on duty.

I
yanked my cell out of my purse, called Emma and explained what happened. She was livid. According to her, there had never been a break-in on her watch. She promised that she’d be right over. Dalia and I were pacing the lobby thinking of who we knew that was slimy enough to break into our spot.

Emma
arrived at the same time as the police. I gave the gum chewing police officer a description of everything that was missing for the police report, and after, Emma led us all to the back office where the surveillance cameras were housed. She rewound the tapes and pressed play. My heart was tripping in my chest and my palms were clammy. I nervously squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that it wouldn’t be Rosslyn’s face flashing across that screen when I opened them. I mean, she was just released from the nut house, and I knew she had a vendetta out for me.

“Look! T
his must be them. They are carrying some items out from your floor.” Emma said, pointing at the small screen.

We watc
hed two individuals carrying out our belongings from our apartment to the elevators, pretending to be movers. They had some sort of moving company logo on their sweatshirts, but their faces weren’t covered. Immediately, I recognized the cornrows on one of the individuals and I saw Dalia tuck in her lips and look away.

“Well ladies, looks like we
found the suspects. They obviously were posing as movers to get into the building, with the intention of breaking into one of the apartments. Usually when this happens, the suspects know the victim or know what kind of items the victim has in their home.

Do you recognize any of these two men?” the officer asked us.

“Um, no sir. It’s hard to see their faces with the way that the cameras are angled.”

Then he looked at Dalia.

“No.” she muttered without looking at the officer.

Emma really felt bad for what happened. She
did everything in her power to make sure that we felt comfortable in our apartment again. She called the maintenance team to come by as an emergency to fix our locks. The annoying police officer popped two more pieces of gum in his mouth, gave me a copy of the police report, and told me to submit a copy to my renters insurance so that I could be reimbursed for the missing items. We thanked everyone, and once our locks were fixed, we felt somewhat safe inside the apartment that night. But Dalia and I had some things to discuss.

“So your bum ass boyfriend came over here and robbed us
, huh?”

Dalia sat at the kitchen table
, seeming stressed and sympathetic. “I’m so sorry, Tyra, that was Stax and his cousin on those surveillance tapes. His cousin is known for robbing niggas. Man, I wish I never showed that nigga where I lived. I’m so mad I even wasted time with his bum ass in the first place.”

I pushed my hair out of my face
and sighed. “Yeah, I recognized Stax from his cornrows, but a snitch is not something that I am, so I wasn’t about to tell the police that I knew who did this. But he needs to be dealt with.”

“I know
, and I’m gonna handle it. This is so fucked up, because I had such a great night and this bullshit just knocked me off my high.”

“
Well Dalia, I don’t even feel like getting into how my night went.” I recapped what happened with Courtney and I drew a headache. “And this shit just threw me way off. All I know is that ol’ boy needs to be handled.”

“Yo, it’s just like him to do some dumb shit like this.
This shit is foul, Tyra!” Dalia seemed hurt that Stax would go against her and disrespect our home. “Three months ago, we were fuckin’ in his living room because his mom was at Bingo, when someone came through trying to knock the door down. Girl, guess who it was?”

“Who?” I asked.

“Girl it was Rent-A-Center coming through to get their furniture back. The furniture we just finished fuckin’ on.”

We both
laughed, a laugh we both needed after our stressful night.

“Are you serious right now? That shit is bananas.”

“I’m dead serious. So it’s no wonder he came to take our shit, because he hardly has anything at home.”

“
Dalia, I honestly don’t think he came here to steal our shit so that he can come up. I think he came here to get back at you for not taking him back. So I’m serious, call your father, have him instill some fear in this nigga’s heart or something.”

Dalia drowned her head into the carpet. “
You’re right, he never thought I’d leave him because I had always taken him back when we broke up. But he is not ruining what I have with Seary. I’m gonna call my dad first thing in the morning.”

“Cool. Let’s go get some sleep before our asses get fired tomorrow.”

“Alright.”

I tossed and turned the whole night. I kept thinking about the plain jane looking bitch that came up to question me about
Courtney. It wasn’t settling well with me. I hoped that Courtney was as genuine as he came off, because I didn’t purposely stay single this long to be wrapped in any new bullshit.

Bright and early in the morning
, both Dalia and I had to drag ourselves out of bed. I felt like the ride to the office was the perfect time to explain to Dalia what happened at the club. I should’ve known she would take his side.

“Ok listen, he told YOU to come to the club with HIM
, not her. If he wanted her to be in VIP with him, then he woulda called her ass to come out with him. But no, he was there with your pretty ass and that plain bitch was probably watching from afar, hating like shit.”

“But at the same time, why would she feel like she had the right to confront me?
Girls don’t confront other girls unless they still have some type of situation still going on with the nigga.”

“It don’t matter
, Tyra. She’s just bitter because he don’t want her no more. Not to mention, he reached for your hand and pulled you away right in front of her face. That’s like letting her know, ‘bitch you DON’T matter’.”

Dalia had me cracking up
. She made good points, but at the same time, I was no fool. I had to keep my eyes open and assess the situation for myself.

“Damn, speaking of Court, read these text messages.” I tossed my phone
into Dalia’s lap and she smiled.

She
batted her eyes at me like she was cupid about to shoot my ass with an arrow. “Awwww, girl, he sent you six straight text messages apologizing and explaining that he’s not the type of man to play with your heart. I say, don’t hold this against him, accept his apology and move forward.”

I rolled my eyes at Dalia
and then heard my phone vibrate in her hands. “He said he’s hosting another spot tonight, and wants y’all to go together. Mmm, looks like he wants to floss his boo around the city.”

I was blushing
my ass off. He was really going hard, trying to keep me in his corner. It was a struggle to fight through my trust issues, but I decided, fuck it. For now, I’d put it behind me. I texted him, and agreed to step out with him later. I was giving this thing another try.