Single Ladies (12 page)

“Damn, brah! Dis shit's just like old times!” Scoop said as he looked over at Ralphy in the passenger seat.

“Yeah, dis shit crazy. Dis bitch got me coming out of retirement on some bullshit,” Ralphy shot back. His mind had been made up a long time ago that he was going to kill Dre. He didn't know any other way to ease the pain that he was feeling. Not only was his heart broken, but he was mentally drained dealing with the situation. Visions of Dre fucking Lisa from the back constantly made their way to his thoughts, breaking him down even more.

“Yo, is dat da nigga right there?” Scoop asked, lifting his head up to see over the dashboard. “I think it's him.”

Ralphy looked over the dash to see a red Chevy Tahoe LS pull up and park on the corner of the block.

When Dre jumped out of the truck, he headed right for the deli where a bunch of young trap boys were standing around.

Ralphy wasn't sure if it was him, so he whipped out his phone and went straight to Instagram to see a photo of him.

Meanwhile, Dre stood outside in front of the store, kicking it with his boys.

“Yeah, dat's da nigga right there,” Ralphy said, holding the phone up so that Scoop could see the picture.

“A'ight, brah! Let's go air those muthafuckas out!” Scoop said, pulling out twin Glocks.

Ralphy looked over at Scoop like he was crazy, then remembered that he actually was a little crazy. This was part of the reason why Ralphy didn't want to bring him along in the first place. He knew that Scoop was the type who would make a mess out of things, whereas Ralphy was more of a smooth criminal. The only reason why he brought him along was because the west side of Charlotte was the most dangerous. Niggas killed over there for less than nothing.

“Hold up for one second, li'l brah,” Ralphy said, checking out his surroundings. “A'ight, let's go,” he said, exiting the car with a compact .45 automatic.

Scoop and Ralphy were about a half block away from the store. They both pulled their hoods over their heads as they walked unnoticed down the street.

Dre was coming down the front steps of the store when he noticed the two hooded men dressed in all black. Everything went into slow motion, and right before the storm came, it got real quiet.

Bullets began firing into the crowd. Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Boom! Boom! Boom! Pop! Pop! Pop!

Ralphy was more focused on his target, whom he hit with the first few rounds he fired.

Dre took the first bullet to his side, causing him to stumble down the steps onto the sidewalk.

All the little trap boys scattered, most of whom took off running down the street in the opposite direction. One of the li'l homies whipped out his gun and started firing back, but Scoop ended that relatively quickly, giving the young shooter double action.

Dre ran to his car holding his side, but he didn't even get a chance to get the door open before Ralphy ran up on him with the gun pointed at him. He grabbed Dre by his shoulder and swung him around to face him.

Dre's face was twisted up on some gangsta shit, ruthless 'til the end. “Fuck you, nigga!” he yelled right before spitting at Ralphy, but only getting the side of his hoodie.

Dre still didn't know who was behind the hood; that was, until Ralphy pulled it off. He wanted Dre to see who it was who was about to take his life. This shit was personal, and Ralphy wasn't going to waste another moment. Without saying a word, he lifted the gun up and pulled the trigger. Pow!

The bullet crashed through the center of Dre's skull and rested in his brain. He was dead before his body hit the ground.

Ralphy wasn't done yet. He stood over Dre and emptied the rest of his clip into his face, and when he ran out of bullets, he began kicking him and stomping what was left of his face into the ground. Scoop had to run over and stop him.

“Yo, he's dead!” Scoop said calmly as he grabbed hold of Ralphy's arm. “Let's get da fuck out of here,” he screamed as he pulled him away from Dre's lifeless, bloody, bullet-riddled body.

Both men took off down the street, jumped back into Scoop's car, and pulled off into the night, leaving behind two dead bodies, three wounded, and the night sky full of gun smoke.

Kim looked back at Lamar as he pounded away, stuffing his long, hard dick in and out of her from the back. She held on to the headboard with one hand, and then reached under her and began playing with her clit with the other hand.

Lamar raised his hand and smacked the top of Kim's ass as he continued to stroke deeply into her guts.

Morning sex was the best for Kim. She couldn't lie; Lamar had that golden dick, and he knew how to work it. It was starting to become addictive, but she wasn't willing just yet to allow him to dictate the rules.

“Damn, Kim!” Lamar said, looking down at his shiny, wet dick going in and out of her.

Kim knew that he was about to cum. She looked back at him and began throwing her ass back at him. She too was about to cum, and preferred that they did it at the same time.

“Take dis dick!” Lamar said, speeding up his strokes. He raised his hand and smacked the top of her ass again.

Kim's walls tightened up, and a river of her juices lubricated his dick. He couldn't hold off any longer. Her pussy was too wet. He started banging away until he splashed his thick white cum inside of her.

Kim could feel the warmth of his fluids filling her insides, which almost made her want to keep going. “Damn, boy!” she said, pulling away from him and releasing his dick from her suction.

Lamar flopped down on the bed, expecting her to do the same, but she didn't. Not this time. She wanted to make it very clear that she was running the show, and not him.

She got off the bed, dressed, and was headed out the door within thirty seconds of Lamar cumming inside of her. This was her way of establishing the tempo and not allowing her feelings to get involved.

What this did for Lamar was the total opposite, though.

* * *

Tammy woke up to Sinniyyah trying to eat her face. All she could feel were her wet gums and the spit running down the side of her face. It actually kind of tickled a little. “NaNa, what're you doin'!” Tammy giggled while her baby sucked on her face.

Sinniyyah was so cute. Right now she was probably the best thing Chris had ever done for her, and it was times like this when she appreciated him for that. A lot of the love she had for him came from their kids, and there wasn't a second that went by that Tammy didn't look at them and then start to think about Chris.

She looked over at her cell phone vibrating on the nightstand next to the bed. She grabbed it, looked at the screen, and saw that the number was unavailable. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that it was Chris calling. It was crazy how she was just thinking about him, and now he was calling.

She stared at the phone, not knowing whether to answer it. She hadn't spoken to him in a few weeks, so she didn't know how the conversation was going to turn out. But after a few more rings, she decided to answer it.

“You have a prepaid call. You will not be charged for this call,” the prerecorded voice announced.

Tammy pushed 5 to stop the automated system. “Hey!” she answered as she shifted Sinniyyah to the other side of the bed.

“So I see you're doin' ya thing out there, pulling up in new cars and shit like that,” Chris said.

Tammy knew that was going to get around to him eventually. His mom told him everything that was going on with Tammy and the kids. The only thing about his mother was that she blew things out of proportion sometimes. “It's not like that, Chris,” Tammy responded.

“Yeah? Well, I hope things work out between y'all two,” Chris said in a slick tone.

Tammy saw that he was trying to be smart, so she copped an attitude real fast. “Is this what you called here for, Chris?” she snapped. “How about ya kids? You haven't said one word about them!” she went on.

Chris knew that his kids were good. He had just seen them last week. He was more concerned about who Tammy was messing around with while he was locked up. At the same time, he didn't feel like arguing with her either. There was no way he could win, nor would it help the situation. “Man, I'm not tryin' to fight with you, Tam. All I'm saying is that I hope dude is making you happy.”

“Who are you talkin' about, Chris? I'm not messing with anybody. My friend let me use his car to drop the kids off to your mom. I know she said something to you. She needs to mind her own damn—”

“Watch ya fuckin' mouth, Tammy! Don't get beside yaself! That's my mom you're talkin' about!” Chris blasted, checking her before she got any further out of pocket.

“Well, she should have thought about that when she was harboring ya little secret,” Tammy responded, but not in a nasty way. She definitely still felt some type of way about the whole situation. There wasn't a day that went by that she didn't. She had always thought that Chris was different from the rest of the men out there, but as it turned out, he was just like most of them: unfaithful, untrue, and very disrespectful.

“Look, Tam. I see you got ya life in order right now, and I really don't wanna be a burden to you. I guess you can say that I'm officially letting you go. I'm not gonna call you and bother you anymore. You don't even gotta worry about dropping the kids off to my mom so she can bring them up here.”

“Hold up! Wait, Chris. You don't have to do all that,” Tammy said, hearing the sincerity in his voice. She could hear the change in the way he was speaking and in his attitude when he said that. He sounded sad and tired. She'd never heard him sound so down.

“Take care of yourself, Tammy. Good-bye,” he said, then hung up the phone before she could say anything else.

All that hardcore shit that Tammy was talking was now out the door. The shit had gotten real, and she was already feeling the effects of what just happened. Not only was Chris done with her, he was also done with the kids, and that's what hurt the most.

* * *

Ralphy thought that killing Dre would make him feel better, and it did a little, but it still didn't take away the fact that Lisa had cheated on him. The pain from that remained in his heart.

“Ralphy, what's good, homie?” Lamar yelled before Ralphy got up the steps.

“What it do, Mar?” he shot back after turning around.

“Yo, I need to holla at you about something,” Lamar said, walking across the street. “Ay yo, I'm in a li'l dilemma right now,” he said, looking from left to right to make sure that it was just them out there.

Ralphy looked around too with one eyebrow up.

“Yo, I need you to keep this between me and you, brah,” Lamar said. “You know I'm fuckin' Kim right now,” he said with a big-ass smile on his face.

“Oh, yeah? I thought y'all was just roommates,” Ralphy inquired.

“Yeah, we were. But guess what?” he said, looking around again. “Yo, I'm fuckin' Falisha, too, homie!” Lamar told him, sticking his hand out for some dap.

“Damn! You fucked Falisha
and
Kim? What in da hell can ya dilemma possibly be?” Ralphy asked.

Kim was a nice-looking chick with a sexy body. She had a good job, and there weren't too many niggas who could say that they hit it. She was more of a conservative chick, and was very careful of who she dealt with. A lot of niggas tried, but most of them failed.

Falisha, on the other hand, was bad in every sense of the word. Her body was crazy thick, and she was cute in the face. She didn't have a job, nor could she cook that well, but she was young enough to mold, and she had the potential to be loyal.

“Homie, I think I'm in love with both of those bitches, ya feel me?” Lamar said, rubbing his hands together.

Ralphy scratched his head. He was having trouble staying in love with one girl, and here Lamar was, trying to love two women.

“I know eventually I'ma have to pick one of 'em. I just don't know who,” Lamar said with a confused look on his face.

Ralphy shook his head and chuckled. He really didn't know what to tell Lamar. Females and love were the last things on his mind right now. But he had to tell Lamar something. He came to him for some advice, and that's what he was going to get.

Ralphy dug deep down and put as much of his own situation to the side, and then found some good words to say. “Whoever you feel can complete you, that's who you should be with,” he said, sticking his hand out for a dap, which Lamar gave him in agreement.

On that note, Ralphy went into his house, and Lamar walked back across the street thinking about what Ralphy had just said. “The one who can complete me,” Lamar mumbled to himself as he took a seat on the steps.

Just as he sat down, Kim came out of the house, on her way to work. She had on a black Balenciaga leather pencil skirt, a white blouse, and a pair of Yves Saint Laurent peep-toe pumps.

She looked a little overdressed for work, which made Lamar raise an eyebrow. “You goin' to work like that?” he asked, standing up to get a better look at her, and also to help her down the steps in her heels.

“Boy, you ain't my man. Don't worry about how I'm dressed,” she playfully snapped back at him as she walked toward her car. “And don't wait up, 'cause I got a date tonight.” She smiled right before she got into her car.

Lamar just sat there. He didn't know how to respond to that. All he knew was that he didn't like the sound of her going out on a date.

Lisa sat at work thinking about Ralphy, as she did every day. Today she even thought about Dre, wondering why he hadn't called in a couple of days. When she tried to call his phone it went straight to voicemail every time.

“Lisa, I need you to certify Ms. Thompson's insurance for an extraction,” Dr. Crosby said, coming out of the operatory.

“Sure, Dr. Crosby,” she said. As soon as she got up from her desk, her cell phone started to ring. Her instincts made her reach for it. When she looked on the screen, it was Kim calling. She answered it only to tell her to call back. “Hey, girl. Can you call me back in like twenty—”

“Did you hear what happened?” Kim said, cutting her off.

It sounded too juicy, and Lisa couldn't resist. “What happened?” she asked, looking over at Ms. Thompson sitting in the waiting chair.

“Oh, shit, girl! You really don't know! Dre was murdered two nights ago in his neighborhood. My boss just told me five minutes ago,” Kim told her.

The news was such a shock that Lisa had to sit back down in her chair. She was sick.

“They said that two men in black hoodies walked up and started shooting. I know you don't wanna hear this, but whoever did it had some personal shit on his mind. Dre was shot seven times: once in the side and six times in his face, all at close range,” Kim continued.

Lisa covered her mouth and shook her head slowly. Her eyes began to water at how horrible Dre's death was. Her thoughts then shifted from Dre to Ralphy, and she began to immediately ask herself whether Ralphy was capable of doing something like this. Ralphy did have a past life, but Lisa wasn't sure if it was as violent as the way Dre was murdered.

“Lisa! Ms. Thompson!” the doctor said, snapping Lisa out of her daze.

“Oh . . . oh, yes, Dr. Crosby. I'm coming right now,” she responded. “Girl, I'll call you back after I get off,” she told Kim, and then hung up the phone.

* * *

A lunch date was the situation for Lamar and Falisha this afternoon. It was Falisha's idea, but Lamar didn't mind, especially since Kim was at work around this time. It wasn't that he was trying to be sneaky or anything, he just didn't want Kim to know the extent of his and Falisha's relationship.

“Look at you, looking all cute!” Falisha said, coming down her steps.

Lamar was wearing something basic: a pair of cargo shorts, a white V-neck Polo shirt, and white Gucci sneakers. It was simple, but he made it look good. A fresh haircut, a nice rose gold chain around his neck, and the sweet scent of Creed emanated from his body. He was well put together.

Falisha kept it simple too. She had on a pair of blue Citizens jeans, a white top, and a pair of SW1 pipette pumps. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which always brought out her natural beauty.

Falisha really wasn't in the mood to go anywhere extravagant today. She just wanted to spend some time with Lamar, so when she chose to eat at Jack in the Box, it kind of shocked Lamar, but he went with it anyway. The chicken there was banging, so there weren't any complaints on either side.

“Can I ask you a question?” Falisha asked while digging into her box of chicken as they sat outside at a table in front of the restaurant.

“One day I was broke as hell. My homie Dutch pulled up on me and asked me if I wanted to make some money,” Lamar began, figuring that Falisha wanted to know how he started dancing. “He ran the whole dancing thing down to me like it was the new thing. I didn't know how to dance until he showed me a couple of moves.” Lamar chuckled.

Falisha sat there and listened to him talk while she continued to eat her food.

They shared a few laughs and talked about other things, like goals for the future, kids, and marriage. They even talked about stuff they remembered happening when they were in high school.

After lunch, they decided to catch a movie, and from there they went to the park, and from the park they did a little shopping downtown. They had dinner at the Outback Steakhouse, and headed toward home.

By the time they pulled back up to the block it was around seven-thirty in the evening. What was only supposed to be lunch turned into a full day of them being together, and they both enjoyed every minute of it.

* * *

Lisa drove straight to Dre's mom's house after work to pay her respects. His mom was cool as hell, and she knew Lisa and treated her like she was her own daughter. She was the only girl Dre had ever brought home, and because he loved Lisa so much, so did his mom.

“Ohhh! Hey, baby!” Ms. Alberta greeted her when she opened the door. “Get ya li'l tail in here!” she said, grabbing Lisa by the hand and pulling her inside.

Lisa expected Ms. Alberta to be strong the way she was. She was built Ford tough, but at the same time she had a heart of gold.

“You know my son was crazy about you.” Ms. Alberta smiled, sitting Lisa down on the couch. “I just wish y'all two would have stayed together. What y'all had was real love. I remember when y'all were teenagers, I couldn't separate y'all with a stick!” She laughed.

“I'm so sorry about Dre, Ms. Alberta,” Lisa said, wiping the tear that fell down her cheek.

“Oh, baby, don't worry about my son. He's up there with the rest of the thugs the good Lord forgave.” Ms. Alberta chuckled.

It was amazing to Lisa how high Dre's mom's spirits were, and how she kept it together. She had just lost her only son to the streets, and here she was making jokes.

Lisa felt the total opposite, though. She was hurt and a bit confused. Something inside of her felt like she was out of place being there mourning over the death of a man she cheated on her husband with. It felt disrespectful, especially considering the fact that she and Ralphy were still married.

But another part of her felt obligated to be there because of the history she had with Dre and his family. For her not to show up seemed disrespectful, and to fake like she didn't have love for Dre would be wrong.

“Ms. Alberta, I wish I could stay, but I have to pick up my daughter,” Lisa lied just to have a reason to leave. “I'll come back tomorrow if that's okay with you.”

“You can come back here anytime, baby. And I know I'm gonna see you at his funeral. It's on Monday.”

Lisa didn't even think her answer through. She just said the first thing that came to mind. “Of course I'm gonna be there. Front and center,” she said as Ms. Alberta walked her to the door.

Lisa didn't know what she was thinking, agreeing to that. She knew that if Ralphy found out she attended Dre's funeral, it would only add more fuel to the fire, a fire that Lisa was hoping she could put out before she lost her husband forever. She really hated putting herself in these situations. It was getting to be all too stressful.

* * *

Falisha leaned in and wrapped her arms around Lamar as they stood in front of her house. They had been sitting out there talking and laughing since they got back. Kim's car was nowhere in sight, so Lamar didn't mind showing Falisha public affection tonight.

“So, now what, Lamar? Where do we go from here?” Falisha asked, looking up at him.

Before he could answer the question, a white truck turned onto the block, grabbing their attention. It was Big Fox, and he was in his zone blasting some music.

As Big Fox got closer to the house, Falisha turned around, and her first instinct was to walk over to the truck. But before she did, she caught herself.

Lamar leaned his back up against the wall and thought,
here we go again with da bullshit!

Fox stopped right in front of Falisha and Lamar. The light from his stereo system shined enough light in the truck for Lamar to see him clearly. Fox looked over at Falisha and was expecting her to come over to the truck, but instead she backed up to Lamar, who was still leaning against the wall. She rested her back up against his chest, and then reached back and grabbed Lamar's hand and wrapped his arm around her stomach. The entire time, she looked Fox in his eyes with a look that said she belonged to somebody else now.

Fox could do nothing but respect it. He simply gave Lamar a nod to let him know that he was top dog now. After that, he just pulled off.

“Come on. Let's go in the house,” Falisha said, pulling Lamar up the steps by his hand. They disappeared into the house, more than likely for the rest of the night.

* * *

Lisa walked into the house to find Ralphy sitting at the kitchen table, reading. She could hear Naomi upstairs playing with her toys, as usual. When she walked into the kitchen, Ralphy lifted his head up and briefly looked at her before focusing his attention back to what he was reading.

“Have a seat. I need to talk to you about something,” Ralphy said as he shifted the papers around.

Lisa hesitated for a second, thinking about Naomi.

“She'll be fine,” he assured Lisa, then nodded to the chair.

Lisa took the carry bag off of her shoulder, placed it on the table, then pulled out a chair. She was curious to know what he wanted to talk about, seeing as how he hadn't had much to say to her as of late. “What do you wanna talk about, Ralphy?” she asked in a submissive manner.

Ralphy gathered all of the papers from the table and set them to the side. “You know, Lisa, I still love you. I care about you more than you'll ever know, and I hate the fact that things happened the way they did between us,” he began.

“Baby, I still love you too—”

“Just listen to me, Lisa,” he cut her off. “For the past couple of weeks I've been thinking long and hard about everything, and I ultimately came to the conclusion that things will never go back to the way they were. A lot has happened, and I really don't want us to waste any more time out of our lives trying to fix what's broken. It's just too much work.”

“I know it's gonna be hard work, but I love you enough to do what needs to be—”

“Here,” Ralphy said, pushing the papers he was reading over to her.

“What's this?” Lisa asked, picking the papers up off of the table and reading the header. Her heart dropped, along with her bottom jaw at the sight of the divorce papers. She knew that he was angry, but to see that he actually went through with obtaining divorce papers was a tough blow.

Tears immediately formed in her eyes, and when she looked up at Ralphy, he too had tears in his eyes. This process wasn't any easier for him. He loved Lisa with just about everything he had. To end it now, and to end it this way, was devastating to him.

“Ralphy, why can't we try?” she pleaded, and got up off the chair and onto her knees in front of him.

“Come on, Lisa,” he said, shaking his head. “Don't make this harder than it needs to be. It's over.”

Lisa jumped up, grabbed the papers off the table, and began ripping them up. Ralphy tried to stop her, but she had ripped a nice amount of the papers before he got to her. “No, no, no!” she said as they wrestled for the rest of the documents.

After a while, Ralphy just gave up and let her finish what she had started. He watched as she stuffed the papers into the garbage disposal, turned the water on, and hit the switch. He just looked at her and shook his head before walking out of the kitchen.

Instead of chasing after him, Lisa fell to the floor in tears. She still couldn't believe it was all happening this way. She cried out like a baby at the thought of losing Ralphy, and she knew by the divorce papers that it was pretty much official. All she had done was prolong the process a little, because the fact still remained that Ralphy was done with her.