Player Haters (18 page)

Oh, no. This can’t be right,
I told myself as I stared down at the small white object in my hand.
This can’t be happening to me.
I walked out of the bathroom and into my bedroom. The phone started to ring but I ignored it as I sat down on my bed and stared blankly at the object I was still holding. I knew who was calling on the first ring. It was Prince. Since we’d broken up, he’d made a habit of calling at least five times a day, starting about seven o’clock in the morning. Now it was only a few minutes past seven, so I was pretty confident it was him. I contemplated answering the phone, then decided against it. Most of the time I wouldn’t even think about picking up the phone. I’d just listen to him plead on the answering machine. When I did pick up, I usually ended up hanging up on him or cursing him out because he’d start calling Desiree a liar.

Ring, ring, ring, ring, beeeep!

“Hey, Mel, it’s Prince.” He chuckled. “Like you don’t know my voice by now, right? Look, I don’t know if you left for work already or if you’re just screening your calls, but I just wanted to tell you that I love you.” There was a sigh and a pause before he said, “I miss you, Mel. I don’t know how things got to this point or why that bitch Desiree is lying on me. But what I do know is that I can’t sleep, I don’t eat, and without you, baby, I’m not complete. I love you, boo. Please give me a call.”

Damn, why couldn’t he just get it through his thick-ass skull? It wasn’t gonna happen. He’d fucked up and we were over. Even if I did miss him, too.

Knock, knock.

Desiree stuck her head in my door before I could reply.

“Was that him?” She walked in wearing her waitress uniform and carrying her journal.

“Yeah, that was him. I just let the answering machine get it.”

“Did he leave a message?” she asked. I don’t know why but it seemed like Desiree was more concerned about what Prince was doing than I was.

“Uh-huh.”

“What’d he say?”

“The usual.” I said it like I was bored by Prince’s constant attempts to win me back. “He wanted me to know how much he loved me and that he missed me. Oh, and how much of a liar
you
are.”

“Fuck that nigga,” Desiree snapped.

I wish I could,
I thought.

“Well, I’m outta here. I’ll see you tonight. You still down to go to The Shadow?”

“I guess. It depends on how I feel.” Desiree had been trying to get me to go out and meet someone else ever since Prince and I broke up. I hadn’t gone to the clubs with her yet, because no matter how mad I was at Prince, I still missed him, and I wasn’t interested in getting with anyone else. I’d been making up excuses why I couldn’t go out with her, but as I rubbed my stomach and told her I wasn’t sure about tonight, I wasn’t lying.

“You still got that stomach virus? I heard you throwing up in there this morning.”

“Worse.” I handed her what I’d been holding.

“Oh, shit! Is this what I think it is?” She glanced at me, then down at the white plastic stick she was holding. “Is this a…Oh, my God, it’s got a plus sign. You’re not? You’re not pregnant, are you?” She gave me a bug-eyed stare.

“According to that EPT you’re holding, I am. Not to mention the fact that I’m about three weeks late.”

“Damn. What you gonna do? You’re not gonna keep it, are you?” Desiree looked more scared than I was.

“I don’t know. I just found out. I haven’t given it much thought,” I lied. Of course I’d been thinking about it. That’s why I went out and bought the EPT in the first place. I also knew what I was gonna do. I just wasn’t sure if I could go through with it again.

She sat on the bed next to me. “Is it Prince’s?”

“Ain’t no one else’s it could be.”

“You gonna tell him?”

“I guess I have to at some point.”

She turned to me. “No you don’t. Melanie, you don’t need no baby and you don’t need no man pressuring you into keeping it. If I were you, I wouldn’t tell him shit. I’d just go down to the clinic and take care of my business.”

“That’s not right, Dez.”

“Neither is Prince for grabbing my ass every chance he had. But that didn’t stop him.”

“This is not a conversation I wanna have right now. The last thing I wanna hear about is what Prince was trying to do to you,” I stated.

“I’m sorry.” She gave me a quick hug. “You want me to stay home? We can do the girlfriend thing. Just sit around, eat chocolate and watch soaps.”

“Thanks, Dez, but I’ve got a lot of thinking to do. I’d prefer to do it alone, if you don’t mind.”

“Okay, but we’re gonna talk about this tonight when I get home.” She hugged me again, then got up and walked to the door. “Hit me on the cell if you need me, all right?”

I nodded and she walked out. I opened my nightstand and pulled out a yellow piece of paper, dialing the number on it.

“Choices Women’s Clinic. Nadine speaking.”

“Hi, my name is Melanie Duncan. I have an appointment tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. I just wanted to confirm.”

“Yes, Melanie, we have you for nine o’clock. Please don’t eat anything after midnight and you have to be accompanied by another adult or the doctor won’t perform the procedure.”

I hung up the phone, then picked it up again, dialing Trent’s number.

“Yeah, hello,” he grumbled. It sounded like he’d just woken up.

I started to get emotional the second I heard my brother’s voice. There was something about talking to him or Wil when I was in trouble that just made me feel like I was a little girl again. I guess it had something to do with the fact that my father died when I was young and they were the only two male role models I’d ever had.

“Trent.” I sniffled.

“Melanie? What’s d’matter? Are you all right?” Before I could answer he blurted out, “What happened? Did Michelle call you?” He sounded like he had his own problems. I was tempted to hang up.

“No,” I whined like a little girl as I burst into tears. “I’m pregnant.”

“Pregnant? Oh, shit.” I could hear him struggling to sit up in the bed. “Did you tell Prince yet?”

“No.” I shook my head like he could see me.

“Well, you need to talk to him. I know you’re supposed to be mad at him, but if you’re gonna have a baby, you and him need to talk.”

“I’m not having the baby, Trent. I made an appointment at Choices. I just need you to go with me.” There was a long silence on the line. The only thing I could hear was his breathing. “Trent? Trent, you there?”

“You sure about this, Mel? We went down this road before, and you didn’t like it.”

I didn’t reply right away because he was right. When I was seventeen, I became pregnant by this guy named Rodney. To this day, I haven’t even told my mom about that. The only person I told was Trent, and he took me down to Choices to have an abortion. Believe it or not, he didn’t try to force me to have an abortion. He let me make my own decision. A decision I’ve regretted ever since and he knows it.

“I know I didn’t like it, Trent, but I can’t have a baby. Not without a father,” I told him adamantly.

“Wait a minute. Isn’t Prince the father?”

“Yeah, and? What’s that mean? That don’t mean he’s gonna be a daddy to his baby. Look at you.”

He got quiet again. I didn’t mean for it to come out that way but Trent knew I was pissed off at him because of what he did to Michelle. She was so upset she wouldn’t let any of us see Marcus now.

“He’s not like me, Mel. He’s gonna be there for his kid. Prince is a good man. He wants to marry you.”

“Well, I don’t wanna marry him.” I ran my hand through my locks. “Look, Trent, this is hard enough as it is. Please don’t give me a hard time, okay? Now are you gonna take me or not?”

“Yeah, I’ll take you,” he answered unhappily. “What time?”

“I gotta be there at nine tomorrow morning. Why don’t you pick me up around eight?”

Halfway to the party I got a message from Diane asking me to come home right away. She didn’t give me any details but the urgency in her voice had me running stop signs and dodging pedestrians until I pulled in the driveway. I jumped out the truck and ran up the walkway as fast as I could. All the lights were out and that wasn’t a good sign. When I opened the door I prepared myself for the worst. Was something wrong with the kids? Was it her illness? I’d just read a story on the Internet about a woman bleeding to death due to fibroids.

“Di! Diane!” I hollered but didn’t get a response, so I hollered again. “Diane!”

“I’m upstairs, Wil. Stay right there. I’ll be right down.”

I walked over to the stairs and looked up. I didn’t give a damn what she said. I wasn’t about to stay downstairs after running five stop signs and nearly running over two joggers. I wanted to know what the hell was going on. But before I could climb the first step, she was gazing down at me from above.

“Hi,” she whispered in this sexy voice I hadn’t heard in quite some time.

“Hi, yourself,” I replied, swallowing hard as I watched her seemingly glide down the stairs. She was wearing a red-and-black lace bustier with red panties, a black garter and black stockings. Oh, and let’s not forget the five-inch black heels. Those heels just completed the package. Yeah, my wife was a big woman, but as far as I was concerned, her luscious curves should have been on the cover of
Playboy
magazine.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs she gently touched my face and walked around me three times, strutting like a supermodel.

“Have you been working out?” She grabbed a handful of my ass, startling me. I must’ve jumped about a foot in the air.

“What’s got into you?” I glanced around for the kids. “And where are the kids?”

“The kids are at your sister’s. Now stop talking and kiss me.” She pulled me in close and we kissed like I can’t remember us kissing in years. My hands instinctively began to roam her body, which was as soft and warm as I could ever remember. My manhood sprang to attention and I’m sure she could feel it rubbing up against her.

“I got some good news and some bad news today. Which do you wanna hear first?”

I hadn’t stopped rubbing my stuff against her. “Tell me the bad news first, then the good news. Maybe the good news will cheer me up.”

“Linda and Ralph are getting divorced.” Linda was Diane’s older sister by seven years. She and her husband, Ralph, had been married for way over twenty years, but I can’t say that the divorce surprised me. Ralph had been complaining about their sex life the entire ten years Diane and I had been married. I always thought that his complaining was just his way of trying to make Linda step up in the bedroom. I guess he finally decided it was time for him to step out.

“Oh, damn. I’m sorry to hear that.”

“So am I. He moved in with some twenty-five-year-old bitch. Can you believe that? They were married before that home wrecker was even born.” She kissed me again, this time lightly. “I don’t want us to be like them, Wil.”

“Neither do I, Di.” I kissed her back and then remembered she had more news. “So what’s the good news?”

“Well, there’s a little bit more bad news.” She frowned.

“Oh, God, more? What is it?”

She looked up at me. “I know you’ve been patient but I’m still in too much pain to have sex.”

I tried not to look disappointed, but I was upset that she teased me with her outfit. You couldn’t have paid me to think I wasn’t getting some a few minutes ago. Oh, well, that’s what I get for assuming things. Another day, another cold shower.

I exhaled. “What’s the good news?”

“I spoke to the specialist we went to see last week.”

“Yeah, what’d he say?”

“He said the tumor isn’t quite as big as he originally thought and that I’d be a perfect candidate for fibroid embolization. Wil, he’s gonna shrink the tumor. I’m not gonna have to have a hysterectomy.”

I closed my eyes and thanked God. Now that was good news. “When’s he gonna do it?”

“Next week at L.I.J. Hospital. He said it’d be a little painful but I could come home the same day.”

“Now that’s what I call good news.” I squeezed her tight.

“And I’ve got some more good news.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, I do.” Her voice got sexy again. “I meant what I said about not ending up like my sister. She forgot what got her Ralph in the first place.”

“What do you mean?”

“She forgot about meeting her husband’s needs.” She started to kiss my neck while her hand fiddled with my zipper. “I might not be able to have sex, but I can still…”

“Ohhhhh, shittttt,” I moaned. Her warm hands had taken hold of me and she could have led me to hell and back with the way she was making me feel.

“Like I was saying, I can still take care of my baby.”

She slid to her knees and I gently cradled her head as she went to work using her tongue and mouth, making me moan and groan loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear. When she finished, she stood up and smiled. “Happy now?”

I couldn’t talk. All I could do was nod my head and smile at the woman I loved. I felt like I was a virgin and I’d just been deflowered by an expert.

She winked. “Good. Now whenever you want some more, just ask. There’s plenty more where that came from.” Again I didn’t speak. I just nodded. “Now don’t we have a party to go to?”

“We?”

“Yeah, I wanna go. I haven’t missed an end-of-the-season party since we started dating.” She walked over to the foyer closet and took out a red dress that had obviously been put there earlier for this exact moment. She took the dress off the hanger and slid into it. “I’m gonna change my shoes, but I want you to remember what’s underneath this dress for when we get home.”

“I don’t think that’s something I’ll forget.”

“I hope not.” She turned around so that her back was to me. “Will you zip me up, please?”

“You sure you wanna go to this party?” I asked as I zipped her dress. “You know Maxine is gonna be there?”

“So?” She walked over to the foyer mirror to fix her hair. “I don’t have anything to worry about, do I? There’s nothing going on between you two that I don’t know, is there?”

“No. Not a damn thing.”

“All right, then. I’m just going to have a good time with my friends and
my husband.
” She turned around, smiling wickedly. “How do I look?”

I took one look at my wife in that dress and said, “Good enough to eat.”

“The way I’m feeling right now, I might take you up on that later.”

“Please do.” I smiled. She took my arm and we headed out the door.

When Di and I arrived, I was not only surprised at the number of people who showed up at the party but at how many of them were actually dancing. Here I was thinking that I was working with a bunch of nerds the past few months, but these white folks were partying their asses off. I don’t think I saw one person without a drink in his or her hand. So when a few of Diane’s former coworkers accosted her at the door, I decided to head to the bar and grab a drink myself.

“Let me have a rum and Coke,” I told the bartender.

“Hey, handsome. Buy a girl a drink?” Mimi slid onto the bar stool next to me just as the bartender brought me my drink. I glanced in Diane’s direction. She was still gossiping with her friends, but if she headed in our direction I was planning on making a hasty retreat.

“Sure.”

“I’ll have an apricot sour,” she told the bartender.

“So did you get everything straight with human resources?”

“Yeah I’d say everything I was concerned about is pretty much a dead issue up there.” She took her drink from the bartender. “All I have is one more thorn in my side to take care of.”

“Well, I hope you take care of it soon, because there’s no one I can think of who deserves to be happy more than you.”

“Thanks, Wil. That’s sweet. I feel the same way about you.”

I glanced over at Diane again. Her old boss, Juan Sanchez, had just dragged her on the dance floor. That was good, because I needed to tell Mimi that Di was here and that the slow dance she asked for was not gonna happen.

“You keep looking over there on the dance floor. Would you like to dance?”

“Nah, maybe later.”

“Come on, Wil. You promised me a dance.”

“I know, but…”

“But what? You don’t know how to dance or something? Come on. I love Fabolous.”

“Mimi, I have to tell you something.”

“Tell me after we dance. Come on.” She tugged at my sleeve.

Ah, what the hell,
I thought.
Just one dance can’t hurt. Besides, it will give me the excuse not to slow dance with her later.

I let out a sigh. “All right. Come on.”

We headed out to the dance floor.

Mimi and I were dancing for about five minutes and everything was cool except that I felt paranoid about Diane watching us. My fear was pretty much unwarranted, though, because Diane was on the other side of the dance floor minding her business, dancing with Juan. She didn’t even seem to miss me at all. So I started to calm down and let my guard down. Big mistake. Diane wasn’t the problem. The problem was dancing in front of me, as I discovered as soon as the DJ put on a Busta Rhymes record. That’s when Mimi turned around and started to back that ass on up. The more she backed it up, the more I backed away. I backed away so much I backed my ass right into someone who grabbed my waist so I couldn’t back up anymore. That someone was Diane, and believe it or not, she was starting to dance just as freaky as Mimi was. Those two had me in the middle of a size sixteen sandwich, with both Diane and Mimi trying to outdo each other on the dance floor. I had Diane grinding everything she had up against me from the back and Mimi bouncing her phat ass all over me in the front. And the funny thing is, they both seemed to be having a good time. They were both laughing and smiling, like we were all old friends. And that in itself scared the hell outta me. To make matters worse we’d attracted a crowd around us that was spurring Diane and Mimi’s competition even more by chanting, “Go Wil! Go Wil! Go Wil!” At least they were until that stupid ass DJ put on a slow song and snapped the three of us back into reality.

That’s when the axe came down on my head because Mimi grabbed one hand and Diane grabbed the other, then they both said, “Let’s dance, Wil,” in unison.

“Who the fuck are you?” Mimi asked, taking a step toward Diane so that they were eye to eye.

“That’s none of your business. Who the fuck are you?” Diane replied with attitude, shoving Mimi out of her face.

“Diane,” I scolded, stepping in between them. I was facing Mimi, hoping I could stop her from retaliating. “Mimi, this is my wife, Diane. Diane, this is Mimi.” Neither of them said a word; they just glared at each other.

“Wil, are you gonna dance with me or not?” Diane demanded.

“Yeah, Di, I’m gonna dance with you. I’ll see you later, all right, Mimi?” Mimi didn’t budge and it was pretty obvious she was about to explode at any second, so I thanked God when Henry Wickens, the vice president of sales, interrupted the song. Well, at least until I heard what he had to say.

“Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen. I’m sorry to interrupt the party but I have a little bad news. Jeanie Brown, the assistant director of human resources, was found dead in her office. They haven’t confirmed it but the police told us it looks like she had some type of allergic reaction.”