Player Haters (21 page)

It was Saturday afternoon. I was drinking a cup of tea as I watched my niece, Katie, playing with her dolls on my living room floor. Her brother, Teddy, was having a ball, pushing his trucks and cars as fast as he could up and down the tile floor of my hallway, then in and out of the bedrooms. After everything that had happened with Wil and Diane I’d offered to watch the kids for them so that they could get away for the weekend. I couldn’t even imagine what they’d gone through last week with that crazy-ass secretary of his, but I had to give them credit, they seemed to be taking it all in stride.

I’d always loved watching Teddy and Katie, but especially now, because they made me realize just how precious the child growing inside me was. I still hadn’t told Prince that I was keeping the baby, and it had been a struggle to get Trent to keep his mouth shut the past few weeks. I was going to have to tell him soon, though, because Trent had given me an ultimatum. He said if I didn’t tell Prince I was keeping the baby before his wedding in two weeks, he’d make it his business to tell Prince during the reception. I’d picked up the phone to call Prince on more than one occasion, but each time I’d think about him trying to get with Desiree and hang up. I knew I was gonna have to get past that shit and at least be friends with him for the baby’s sake, but I’d never had a man hurt me like that before. I guess part of me was waiting for him to call me, but true to his word he hadn’t called once since leaving Trent and me in front of the clinic that day. I guess he was just as angry at me as I was at him. We had a true love-hate relationship.

“Auntie Mel, can you read this book to me?” Teddy came running down the hall carrying one of Desiree’s journals.

“Teddy, gimme that. Where’d you get that from?”

“From Auntie Dez-ray’s room.” He handed it to me and it fell on the floor with its pages open. Desiree was always writing in these journals, and I’d never disrespected her privacy by trying to read them. They stayed in her room, and I’d never once gone to peek while Desiree was out. Hadn’t even really been interested in what she was writing as long as she wasn’t writing about me. Besides, Desiree was my girl, and she pretty much told me everything, anyway. But now that Teddy had brought one to me, I couldn’t resist a glance at the open pages that were on the floor before me. And when I happened to see my name on the page, you know I had to pick up that book and see what she had to say.

I sat back in my chair. Embarrassed? If I remembered correctly, she got mad because all the cute guys were buying me drinks and she was stuck with some over-the-hill, foreign taxi driver with a receding hairline. Damn, why she gotta hate? Now I had to know more, so I flipped through a few more pages, stopping when I saw Prince’s name in bold print.

Damn, girlfriend, it’s like that, huh? Why didn’t she tell me this shit to my face? What else did my so-called best friend have to say about me and my man in her book? A few pages later, I found another entry about Prince.

I knew she was jealous of what Prince and I had, but I had no idea how deep her feelings ran. I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for her that she was so lonely or sorry for myself. I know it hurt reading that shit, but I had to read on.

“Ahhh, now that’s disgusting,” I said out loud.

“What’s disgusting?” Teddy asked.

“Nothing, sweetie.” I smiled at my nephew. “Why don’t you go back in the hall and play with your cars? When I’m finished reading I’m gonna take you guys to McDonald’s.”

“All right,” Teddy shouted as he walked back toward the hall. I flipped through a few more pages.

She was pissed off that I came home to
my
man? This was even more serious than I’d thought. I felt a little knot forming in my stomach, because the next entry was no better.

If she was my friend she wouldn’t have been rubbing her ass against my man in the first place! And she had the nerve to tell me that night that if I was taking him home I didn’t have anything to worry about. What I failed to realize was that she was going home with us too. And from what I was reading, I don’t think Desiree would have minded one bit if somehow I ended up out of the picture that night. I was just about ready to throw this damn book against a wall.

That fucking bitch! Now I was seeing red as I flipped to the next page.

The more I read, the madder I got, and the clearer the picture was becoming. I was starting to get a sick feeling that Prince had been telling the truth all along. Maybe he wasn’t the one who’d made a pass after all. But I was still so damn confused. Maybe he did finally give in to her advances. Shit, you almost couldn’t blame the man with the way Desiree was throwing her ass at him. But one thing didn’t make sense. If he had given in and made a pass, it was clear now that Desiree would not have turned him down like she claimed she had. That bitch wanted my man bad. I had to read further, because I had to know whose version of the story was true. I was becoming convinced that I’d made a very big mistake believing Desiree.

By now I felt like I was about to hyperventilate. How the fuck did I let her get away with this? I flipped to the next page to find out what else she had been up to.

That was it. I couldn’t read one more word. If I had, I would probably be going to jail for murder, and I had a baby to think about now. Desiree had cost me not only the best man I had ever been with, but the father of my child. Now, I wasn’t about to fight that bitch in my condition, but she was getting the fuck out my house. I picked up the phone and dialed Trent’s number.

“Hello.”

“Trent, I need you to come over and pick up Teddy and Katie for a few hours. I got something important I have to take care of.”

“Like what? Everything all right?”

“No, but I’ll explain it to you when you get here.”

“Aw’ight. I’m on my way.”

A couple hours later, I was sitting on the couch with Prince, feeling emotionally drained. Trent had come by like I’d asked. I gave him the short version of everything I’d learned in Desiree’s journal, then he went out to the hardware store and bought a new lock for my door. After he changed the lock for me, he took the kids and wished me luck. As soon as Trent was gone I’d called Prince and told him we really needed to talk. At first he was a little hesitant. I wasn’t sure he would even agree to see me after how I’d pushed him away in front of the clinic. But when I told him that I hadn’t gone through with the abortion, his attitude seemed to relax. I think he might have even been smiling on the other end of the phone, but he was doing his best to mask any feelings. I didn’t blame him, though. We’d both been really hurt by this whole mess. That was why I wanted him to come over to see if we could mend any of the damage that had been done. If there was any hope, I wanted us to be together not just for the sake of the child I was carrying but because of the love I have for him.

We’d talked through the whole thing about Desiree. Prince was relieved that I’d found the journal and I knew the truth, but he was still really hurt that I had believed Desiree in the first place. He understood the whole thing about her being my girl, but that wasn’t good enough. If there was any hope that Prince and I could get back together now, we had some serious trust issues to work out. I needed to believe that he was going to be faithful to me. But then again, now that the truth was out, he’d never really given me a reason to believe otherwise. So it was more important at this point that Prince could trust me. He needed to trust that I would have his back if an issue like this ever came up again. And the first step in proving that to him was to end my friendship with Desiree. That was gonna be no problem after what she’d done. In fact, I was looking forward to it. We waited for quite a while in silence until I heard her fumbling with the lock. When she couldn’t get in, she finally knocked.

I took my time getting up from the sofa to answer the door. “Who?”

“What you mean, who? It’s me. Let me in. Something’s wrong with the lock. My key won’t work.”

I opened the door and gave her a cross-eyed smirk as she entered.

“What’s wrong with the lock? And why are all those garbage bags out in the hallway?”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with the lock,” I snarled at her. “I just felt like changing it.”

She looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “For what?”

“To keep out unwanted visitors.”

“What? Prince still harassing you?” she asked nonchalantly.

It took everything I had not to smack her ass as she walked into the kitchen. She was lucky I was pregnant and had to worry about my child or I would have whooped her ass.

“No, Prince is right there in the living room.” I pointed at the sofa and Desiree’s jaw almost hit the ground as she did a triple take.

“What’s he doing here?” she asked defensively. She was too worried about herself to notice my attitude.

“He’s my baby’s father. He’s welcome here anytime he wants. Too bad I can’t say the same thing for you.”

Desiree took a step back. If she didn’t sense there was a problem before, she sure sensed it now. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I shook my head from side to side. I might not be able to fight right now, but I sure could get ghetto when I wanted to. “It means get the fuck out my apartment. That’s what it means.”

“Your apartment?” She sucked her teeth. “Please. I pay rent here, too.”

“Well you should have put your name on the lease when I asked you to, because now you don’t live here no more. Oh, and that pile of garbage bags you asked about? That’s your shit. Every last funky bit of it.”

She was speechless for a few seconds as she looked with wet eyes from me to Prince and back to me. “What I do? Why you doing me like this for some nigga?”

“Why you calling him a nigga if you wanted him so bad?”

A look of fear flashed across her face for a second, but she recovered pretty quickly with her attitude. “Him? I don’t want him.” She gave Prince a look like something in the room smelled bad.

“Please, Desiree. I read your journal. And I know what you did.”

“You read my journal?” She looked pissed off, then realized she was the one in the wrong. “I was just—”

I cut her off. “Don’t lie, bitch, ’cause it ain’t working, okay?”

“I can’t fuckin’ believe you read my journal! That’s my private shit, Melanie!” She looked like she was about to step to me, but Prince got off the couch and headed toward us. Desiree stopped herself and offered one more threat.

“This shit ain’t over, Melanie.”