Keeping Secrets (10 page)

Lucky didn't say too much to Secret as they drove. He figured whatever information she wanted to share with him, she would. After about ten minutes of driving, Lucky pulled up into a Walmart. It was at a crazy hour, so there were quite a few available parking spaces close to the door. Lucky pulled into one and turned off the engine.

“If it was a decent time, you know Walmart wouldn't be quite the place I would have liked to have taken you to on a shopping spree,” Lucky said.

“What?” Secret's thoughts had been preoccupied with the fight she'd just had with her mother. She hadn't even paid attention to the fact that they'd even pulled into a Walmart.

Lucky repeated himself. Secret still just sat there looking at him without understanding.

“You're gonna need some stuff to get you through the night, the next couple of days, or whatever. Right?”

Secret's thoughts became clear as she looked over to the store entrance. Realizing where she was at and what Lucky had just said, she put two and two together. “Oh, yeah, but . . . I, uhhh . . .”

She had to think quickly. She didn't have any money. Her dilemma with coming up with a lie, though, was that she was already lying by omission by keeping the fact that she was pregnant from Lucky. That was enough to keep up with. If she continued to lie, she'd end up getting caught in her own trap. She didn't want to take that chance, so the truth it was.

Secret turned her body to face Lucky. “Look, Lucky, my focus has been on school, getting good grades so I could make something of myself. I don't have a job. My mom looked out for me. So you can just pull off.” She turned back to look straight ahead. There, she'd said. She was broke and now homeless. What?

Lucky didn't say a word. He just got out of the car, walked around to the passenger side, and opened the door. He stood there.

“What?” Secret said.

“Get out, that's what,” Lucky told her in just as crabby of a voice as she had used.

“I said I don't have any money.”

Lucky closed his eyes, put his head down, and swung it from left to right. “You just don't get it do you?” He lifted his head and looked at Secret. “Ma, you fuckin' with a real nigga now. Now let me be that nigga and take you up in here and get you what you gon' need.” Lucky took Secret by the hand and pulled her out of the car.

Secret slowly got out. She stood there and looked up at the Walmart sign while Lucky closed the door behind her. The timid and inexperienced side of Secret began to surface. Shawndiece hadn't told her how to act when a guy basically took her by the hand into a store and told her to run free like a kid at Toys “R” Us. Her eyes were sparkling with excitement. Then she remembered something Shawndiece had told her.

“And don't be lookin' and actin' all thirsty or else he might know something's up,” Shawndiece had said.

Secret quickly blinked away the excitement in her eyes so that Lucky wouldn't mistake it for greed. She walked side by side with Lucky into the store. After about an hour, they came out of the store, each carrying bags of everything Secret might need to hold her for a couple of days or so. Toiletries, a pack of underwear, bras, pajamas, a couple outfits, a pair of shoes, and other miscellaneous items.

“Thank you. I really appreciate this,” Secret said. “I'll pay you back.”

“Oh, yeah, how?” Lucky asked with just a light sheet of confusion covering his face.

Secret stopped in her tracks. Lucky took a few more steps before he realized that Secret was no longer beside him. He turned around to find her standing with her hands on her hips, bags dangling from each arm.

“What?” he asked.

“Pay you back, huh? Mr. I Got You, Let Me Be a Man.” Secret sucked her teeth. “Oh, you a man all right. Buy a chick a couple items and now she gotta pay you back with some sex?” She let out a harrumph. “Well, if that's what you think this is about, you can march this stuff all the way back into the store and return it.”

“Is that what you thought I meant by that?” Lucky laughed. “I mean how you gon' pay me back when you just said that you didn't have a job.”

If Secret's hands weren't full of bags, she would have been able to pick up her face off the ground. She felt real stupid. “Oh. I'm sorry.”

Lucky laughed. “You snapped off on me. I didn't know you had it in you. You sure underneath all that good-girl exterior there ain't the real you, a hood chick, waiting to jump out?” He took off walking again.

Secret chuckled. “You crazy.” She followed Lucky. “And no, there isn't. What you see is what you get.” Under her breath she added, “And a little bit more.”

They loaded the bags into the car. Once they were both settled back into the SUV, Lucky drove for about another twenty minutes before they pulled up to a hotel. Secret noticed on the sign that they offered weekly rates.

“You can wait in here while I go make sure they have a room available. Then we can lug all this stuff in.” He got out of the car and disappeared into the hotel building. After about ten minutes he returned and got back in the car. “Your room is around the other side.” He started the truck and drove to the side of the building. They got all the bags from the car and Lucky guided them to a side door where he had to swipe his hotel-issued key card for them to enter.

Once inside they took the elevator to the fourth floor and went to room 416. “Here we go.” Lucky slid the key card down the strip, opened the door, and let Secret enter.

“Hold up right there,” Secret said, dropping her bags and walking past Lucky as he stood at the door, holding it open for her. She walked inside and went straight to the bathroom. She pulled the shower curtain open and looked behind it. She then went and looked in the closet, under the beds, and anywhere else she thought could hold a warm-blooded body. She felt that it was safe to say that there was no one else in the room besides her and Lucky. “Okay; we good.” She picked up her bags and carried them into her king suite with a kitchenette.

“What the hell was all that about?” Lucky snickered.

“I had to make sure nobody was up in here who isn't supposed to be.”

“See, I knew I was right about you. You are different. You sweet, innocent, and smart and all, but you got some street smarts about you, too,” Lucky said. “Something tells me you done dealt with enough knuckleheads to know what's up.”

Secret wasn't sure how she felt about that last comment of Lucky's. She cringed at the thought that he even thought she had experience with lots of other guys. That wasn't the case at all, so it was time to set him straight.

“Well, you have Shawndiece to thank for that,” Secret admitted, plopping down on the bed. “In all honesty. I don't date. I don't really deal with dudes at all. I live vicariously through my best friend.”

Lucky set down the bags he was carrying and went and sat down next to Secret. “You serious or are you just trying to make me think you ain't fast?”

“I'm serious.”

“So you mean if I have a gang load of friends, I don't have to worry about you having had smashed the homies?”

Secret pulled her head back. “What are you talking about?”

Lucky just sat there and stared at Secret like he'd never seen anything like her in his life. Truth be told, he hadn't. Girls like Kat and Tanesha: a dime a dozen. Girls like Secret: priceless. If the fellas ever caught wind of this ripe princess, they'd make it their business to try to get at her. That's why he knew now more than ever that Secret would be just that: his little Secret.

The sun was bound and determined to get Secret's attention by forcing its way through the small slither of a crack in the hotel room curtains. Secret had to admit, though, that being kissed by the morning sun was a great thing to wake up to.

She sat up and realized she was on the king-sized bed. She was under the cover but fully clothed. She sat and thought for a minute, trying to replay the final moments of the wee morning hours before she'd fallen off to sleep. A smile crept across her lips the same way the sun's ray had crept into her room.

“Lucky.” The word slipped through her lips like chocolate sliding down a chocoholic's throat. She lay back down as a smile took over her very being.

She remembered Lucky helping her get her things from Walmart situated and giving her the security of knowing he'd booked the king room for an entire week. “Hopefully you and your moms will get stuff straightened out by then, but if not, just know I got you.”

Secret had never met anyone so kind, caring, and giving toward her in her life; not since her grandmother. Not that she'd ever really made it a point to get out there and mingle and get to know folks like Shawndiece did.

“Shawndiece.” Both that word and Secret shot up like a rocket. Secret excitedly looked to her left and then to her right in search of a phone. She went to pick it up but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Secret got up out of the bed with a peculiar look on her face. Who could be at the door? Nobody knew she was there except for, “Lucky,” her lips formed to say as she picked up her pace and raced to the door. “Who is it?” she decided to ask for GP as well as look through the peephole.

“Room service,” the Mexican woman she was staring at through the peephole replied.

Secret opened the door to find the woman standing behind a cart full of food.

“Just like the mister requested. Breakfast served at eleven,” the woman said to Secret as she positioned the cart to enter the hotel room.

Secret stepped aside and allowed the woman to wheel the cart in. She eyeballed fresh fruit, a glass of orange juice, apple juice, and what was either pineapple juice or grapefruit juice. There were waffles, pancakes, crepes, and French toast. There were scrambled eggs, an omelet, and quiche. Secret's mouth watered at the country potatoes smothered in onion with hunks of polish sausage. The biscuits covered in sausage and gravy looked tasty, too. There were a couple choices of cold cereals and a small pitcher of milk, as well as a mini coffee pot and a miniature-size kettle with hot water and a variety of teas.

“When you are finished, you can just place the cart in the hall and someone will get it. I do hope you enjoy.” The woman went to walk away.

“Uh, ma'am, this all does look delicious, but I, uh, didn't order it.” Secret felt embarrassed. “And I kind of don't have the money to pay for it either.”

“Like I said, the mister ordered. It's been charged to the credit card on file at the front desk. Gratuity has already been added as well.” The woman nodded and left the room, the door closing and locking automatically behind her.

Secret stared at the delicacies for a moment before pinching herself and then laughing at her own lame gesture. “What, oatmeal too?” she noticed. “That boy is too much. Or should I say man; real man,” she said almost mocking Lucky.

Secret picked up a waffle that was smothered in melting butter and took a bite as if she were eating a slice of pizza. She's planned to sit down and indulge but had to go to the restroom first.

After using the bathroom, she couldn't wash her hands fast enough and get back out there to all the food that awaited her. Just as she was halfway into the sitting area, the hotel room phone rang. Her smile lit up the room. She knew it was Lucky because he was the only one who knew where she was. “Right on time,” she said, figuring she needed to thank him for the room service. “You're right. I've never been with a real man before, not like you,” Secret said, falling back on the bed and twisting the phone cord like she was in la-la land while talking to her high school sweetheart.

“Bitch, how you gon' be sounding all like you in heaven and shit and I'm over here worried sick, 'bout to sic Rashad and his boys on Lucky?”

“Shawndiece?” Secret's sweet, lovey-dovey mood was instantly shattered.

“Uh, yes? What? You wasn't gon' call a bitch and let her know where you was at? I called your house after I got in and my mom told me you'd been by the house looking for me. Your mom was cussing and fussing talking about she put that ho out. Blah blah blah. I didn't know what to think. I kept calling your house, pissing your mom off. Me and her ended up having words. I was worried sick about your ass. Ain't slept all fuckin' night. Then I gets to thinking how you called Lucky from my phone. I gotta go through my call log and shit. That nigga answered the phone; I'm so on edge that a bitch just go in on his ass. I'm telling that nigga I'ma fuck his shit up and his mama gon' report his ass missin' if my girl don't turn up in an hour. Then this nigga tell me you chillin' out in a hotel somewhere like you's fuckin' Paris Hilton or some shit and ain't bothered to call me, knowing I was gon' be worried sick about you.”

There was a few seconds of silence. “Hello to you too,” Secret finally spoke, realizing Shawndiece had finally decided to take a break from cursing her out.

“Bitch, don't play with me.” Shawndiece sounded genuinely upset.

“Aww, boo-boo, you was really worried about me like that?” Secret teased, while at the same time her heart was touched. She'd bet her firstborn her mama went into work like normal and didn't think twice about her.

“Ain't nobody playing with yo' ass, Secret.” Shawndiece was much too hard to allow her sensitive side to show, but Secret could hear in her voice Shawndiece really had been scared for her.

“Look, I'm sorry. I really am. My mom went off on me; I mean literally tried to kill me, Shawndiece,” Secret began to explain. “You know you all I got, so I came straight to your house. But you weren't there. I even tried to call you after that.”

“I made a couple stops since I had my mom's car,” Shawndiece said in an apologetic tone. She'd calmed down some.

“I figured that,” Secret said. “I didn't have anybody else to call but Lucky.”

“I'm just glad he came through for you,” Shawndiece said, exhaling for the first time, sounding like she was ready to have a normal conversation with her best friend.

“Girl, he came through like you wouldn't believe.” Secret began telling Shawndiece about how Lucky stopped her off at Walmart, to him getting her the hotel room for a week, right down to the buffet of breakfast foods that awaited her in the next room.

“Well, did you give him some pussy for all that?” Shawndiece spat out.

“Girl, no. He didn't even try to go there with me.”

“Well, trust and believe that nigga will be back through to collect. So get yo' ass off the phone with me, go eat up some of that food, then get your ass in the shower and go put on them Tweety Bird pajamas you got from Wally World.”

Secret laughed. “Girl, they ain't no Tweety Bird pajamas.”

“Well, whatever they are, make 'em sexy. Have your ass smelling good and spread out like his smorgasbord. Bam! Next thing you know, you calling that nigga in a couple weeks talkin' 'bout ‘you are the father.'”

“Girl, bye,” Secret said, planning to take heed of Shawndiece's instructions no matter how undiplomatic she was in relaying them.

“Bye. Call me after you do him.”

“Girl, bye!” Secret hung up the phone and took another bite of her waffle. She sat there for a minute just smiling and thinking about her bestie. She was so touched that Shawndiece had cared so much about her that she'd called around looking for her. Secret knew one thing for certain: she and Shawndiece would be friends for life . . . no matter what.

For the next hour, Secret watched television while sampling almost every food and beverage room service had brought to her. Afterward, she took a shower and got herself smelling good with some of the products she'd bought from the store last night.

She was going to call Lucky but decided she would just wait for him to check in on her. She didn't want to seem all clingy. A couple hours went by and she hadn't heard from him. That was a little disappointing to Secret because he seemed like the type who would have checked in on her by now. This was a sign that Secret was falling for this guy and his chivalry from the night before really cemented that. But now that he hadn't called, she was getting nervous that he didn't feel the same way about her. As she began to question whether perhaps she was more into him than he was into her, she had to remind herself of what really mattered: him ultimately being into the child growing inside her stomach.

He could be busy at work for all I know,
Secret told herself to appease her anxiety of not having heard from him. But when another couple of hours went by, she was feeling almost abandoned.

Was this guy a joke, just putting on a show, saying what he thought she wanted him to say and doing what he thought she wanted him to do? For all she knew, he could be another Rolland from back in the day and have a family he was taking care of somewhere. Her stomach turned at the thought that she really would, in fact, be living her mother's life. At six o'clock, there was another knock on the door.

Butterflies fluttered all through Secret's stomach as she jumped up off the couch. She knew this had to be Lucky. If she would just be real with herself, baby or no baby, she was excited about just simply being in Lucky's presence.

“Finally,” she said under her breath as she padded in bare feet to the door. Before opening it, she patted down the Jersey-like short nightgown that had the number twelve in hot pink written across the front. She'd put her hair back in a slick ponytail, but patted it down as well to make sure not a hair was out of place. “About time,” she said in a teasing voice as she flung open the hotel room door.

“Sorry, ma'am. The ticket said six o'clock. It's six o'clock.”

This time it was a white man standing behind a cart full of various types of food.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” Secret apologized, feeling stupid and slighted by her so-called Prince Charming. She stepped to the side and opened the door for the man to bring the cart in.

He pushed the cart in, giving her the same instruction with this cart as the Mexican woman had given her with the cart that held the breakfast foods.

“Yes, I'll be sure to put it out in the hallway,” Secret assured him as she followed him to the door and closed it behind him.

She didn't even race over to the cart to see what edible delights it held. She didn't have an appetite. She was almost starting to feel like she was in prison, cut off from the rest of the world, being fed three meals a day. Of course they didn't get served food like this in prison. Still, Secret felt as if her fairytale was already ending. No, she wasn't being held hostage or anything. Surely she could leave the walls of the hotel room, but then she'd risk missing Lucky. She had it bad.

Before she could flop down in a pout on the couch, there was a knock at the door again. Secret sighed and stomped her feet back to the door. She figured room service must have forgotten to leave something. “Yes,” Secret said, yanking open the door.

Secret had to fight back tears as she saw Lucky standing there with three dozen red roses.

“You didn't think I was going to let you eat dinner alone, did you?”