The Reason Why (28 page)

The real estate agent walked him through the house, waving her hand around, showing off the place.

“This is the gourmet kitchen,” she told him. “It has two sinks, including a vegetable prep sink. The missus will love
that. It has two dishwashers, in case you do a lot of entertaining. It has granite countertops, Wolf stainless steel appliances, a forty-eight-inch stainless steel Sub-Zero refrigerator. Cherry cabinets with forty-two-inch uppers. A vaulted ceiling with these gorgeous pendant lights over the center island. It has a wine refrigerator and marble floors.”

Chino nodded. He liked what he saw. Especially that bigass refrigerator. He always liked those. He would see them in the giant mansions in the magazines he would flip through, and he would dream of the day when he could have one in his house. And now that day was upon him.

“This house has five bedrooms, five and a half baths, a formal living, a formal dining, an upstairs game room, an upstairs media room, a full basement. The master is on the first floor, along with one other bedroom. You can use the second first-floor bedroom as a nursery or a small child's bedroom, a guest suite, or a mother-in-law suite. The other three bedrooms are up. The master suite occupies its own wing of the house. It has two enormous walk-in closets, a luxurious master bath with a six-foot Jacuzzi tub, and a separate walk-in shower. It also has a small morning kitchen and a private entrance into the study.”

Chino nodded and continued to follow her through the house, as she explained all the home's features and appointments.

“This home is convenient to the Corazon Club and Spa,” she continued. “It is served by fantastic Dublin schools, and as you noticed when we came into the community, it is gated with a guard at the front. The streets are all tree-lined, the
driveways are all brick, as are the sidewalks. All the homes are required to have manicured hedges out front to preserve that old small-town feel. The community does have a wonderful town center with gorgeous brownstone storefronts.”

Chino walked through the house taking in the new home smell. He loved the smell of fresh carpeting and paint, and that wood smell that came with new construction. It was truly the house of his dreams. Perhaps it was in this new home that he would be able to get his new start. The stink of prison and another nigga around would be left in his old condo. He needed this house.

“Does this one have a pool?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “A rather large one. Even larger than the house I showed you up I-Seventy-one. Do you have children?”

“Not yet,” Chino told her.

“Oh, well. I was asking because I have another home, a French country design just like this one, and it's in the fantastic Olentangy school district. I also have an English Tudor design where your kids will attend Big Walnut schools.”

Chino turned and headed up the dual staircase to the upstairs balcony, where he stared down into the family room. He loved this home. He could stand upstairs and look down into the family room, or turn around and look down into the foyer to see who was coming in through the front door. It was a crib for showing off. He was definitely going to change to marble tile in the foyer. He wanted to have a giant marble C added to the tile in the entrance. This was Chino's crib, and he wanted everyone to know it when they stepped through the front
door. He could hear Rock, Infa, Corey, Ant, and Chris J right now. They would go crazy when they saw it.

Chino turned and walked into the media room. It was bare right now, but he could definitely visualize a ten-foot screen and a clean-ass projector dropping out of the ceiling. He turned and walked back into the game room, where he visualized a pool table on one side of the room and a card table on the other. There was already a wet bar in the corner. He would also buy some arcade games for the room. He thought that would be clever. Having Star Wars, Centipede, and Ms. Pac-Man video arcade games in his game room would be the shit. He would also need one of those jumbo gumball machines for his game room as well.

Chino walked to the game room window and looked out. He could see the pool and the adjoining spa. He looked forward to relaxing in a nice hot spa and sipping on some chilled Moët—or really, some Hen, or bourbon and Coke, or some gin and orange juice. He just wanted to be able to lay back in his hot tub and relax while sipping on a little something. And once he got rid of his cheating ass girl, he could have some hoes over and really have some pool parties. Some pool parties that would put Freaknik to shame.

Chino turned and headed down the rear staircase through the kitchen and into the dining room. The dining room was across the foyer from the living room. He turned and peered around both rooms. Both had wooden ceiling beams and chair rail paneling, as well as decorative crown molding. The home was built for a muthafucka with money. Everything inside and outside the house was straight on point. From the four-car garage,
to the sprinkler system, to the intercom system, to the video alarm system, everything was on hit. The house even had a safe room in the basement. It seemed as though this house had been made just for him.

“So, what do you think?” the real estate agent asked.

Chino glanced around one more time, then nodded. “I like it.”

“You want to see the house I have in the Olentangy school district?” she asked.

Chino shook his head. “No. No, this one is for me. I think I'll take it.”

“You'll take it?” she asked, surprised.

Chino nodded. Now it was his turn to smile. The entire time this white bitch had been showing him houses, she had been smiling and smirking, like she was showing him the house because it was her job and she wanted to avoid a discrimination lawsuit. She didn't expect that he would actually buy a house from her. Not one of the gigantic homes that she had shown him. In fact, she had started off showing him homes in the two- and three-hundred-thousand-dollar range, until he damn near cursed her out. Now she was speechless.

“Yes,” Chino told her. “I'll take it. Close your mouth before something flies in it.”

The real estate agent closed her mouth and frowned. “I imagine you already have your financing in order?”

“My finances are in order,” Chino told her. “There ain't gonna be no financing shit. This is going to be a cash offer.”

“Cash?”

“Cash.”

“Anything over ten thousand dollars cash requires a lot of paperwork for the IRS.” She smirked.

“I have a beauty shop that has done quite well. You may have seen it on the news. It's called L O Quent. Stop by and get your hair done. Tell 'em Chino sent you, and that I said it's on the house.”

Her mouth fell open again.

C
hino felt that he needed a change, but still, he was willing to give Pooh a chance. They had been through too much together for him to not give her another chance. He felt weird around her now. He had made all kinds of excuses not to touch her after his boys dropped a dime on her, from being tired, to having a headache, to having a stomachache, to being busy. She was dirty to him now. She wasn't really his anymore, because she had been soiled by the touch of another man.

She had been dipping with that clown Erik, and ever since he had been home, she had been in his face like nothing ever happened. She was a snake in the third degree. The fact that she could grin up in his grille like she was all sweet and innocent, while the entire time he was down she had been dipping with dude, meant that she knew a level of deception that he hadn't known she was capable of. He hadn't mentioned it to her, because of the Young Mike situation. He wanted to get her through Young Mike's death before confronting her with what he knew. They had buried Young Mike two days ago, yet
he still didn't know if he was going to mention anything to her. He was confused by the whole situation.

Chino felt like he didn't want Pam anymore, but he wasn't sure if he could let her go. After all, something had happened between them. Chino had shared everything with Pam—his deepest thoughts and secrets, the ins and outs of the drug trade. She knew who his boys were and what their roles were on the streets. If she ever used that knowledge against him, she could destroy him. He had nightmares about it.

The thought of her sleeping in the arms of another man each night killed him.

“We haven't been here since you proposed to me!” Pam told him. She was all smiles today. She and Chino were at her favorite restaurant, Red Lobster. It was like old times again.

“Was this the one I proposed to you at?” Chino asked, looking around.

“Yep!” Pam pointed. “Right over there!” Remembering the proposal, she smiled as she looked at the table they had sat in.

Chino nodded. “Yeah, I remember.”
I remember that I was going to marry your funky two-timing ass,
he thought to himself. What he did know is that he would have killed her if he had put a ring on her finger and she had cheated on him. He would have cut her damn head smooth off and pleaded temporary insanity.

Pam held her left hand in the air and watched her engagement ring shine in the light. “We still haven't set a date yet, and you know we're not getting any younger!” Pam laughed to herself.

“No, we haven't.”

“How may I help you?” the waiter asked.

“I'll have the shrimp platter, and my husband will have the steak and lobster.” Pam peered at Chino and smiled. “Did I get that right, boo?”

Chino nodded.

“Baked potato, mashed, fries, broccoli?”

“Baked potato for both,” Pam confirmed.

“Dressing for your salads?”

“Caesar.” She looked at Chino. “Baby, you want some wine?”

“We're not celebrating anything,” Chino said dryly. “We're just here for lunch.”

Pam closed the drink menu and stuck it back in the corner of the table.

“Are you done with these?” the waiter asked, holding up the lunch menus.

Pam nodded. “Yeah, we're done.”

The waiter nodded and disappeared.

“What's the matter, baby?” Pam asked. “You seem a little distracted.”

Chino shook his head. “I'm focused like a laser beam.”

“You're not in a real talkative mood.”

“I'm just thinking.”

“About what?”

“About a lot of things. About us, mainly.”

“What about us?”

“About how three's a crowd.”

“Chino, what are you talking about?”

“I'm talking about your little boyfriend, Erik.”

“Not this again, Chino!” Pam said, sitting back in the booth. “Erik is not my boyfriend.”

“I can't tell. You two muthafuckas look mighty cozy on campus together.”

“On campus?”

“Yeah, Pooh! You lied to me! You told me that you cut this nigga loose! The only thing you did was start creeping with this fool on campus, thinking that the people I fuck with are too ghetto to be on campus and see you.” Chino knew he was lying through his teeth, but his paranoia was in control.

“Chino, your fucking little spies don't know what they're talking about! I haven't been all cozy with Erik!”

“So, you was still grinning up in this nigga's face, while I was up in prison fighting for my life.”

“No, I wasn't grinning up in anybody's face!”

“You sorry, Pooh!”

“No, you're sorry, Chino! You keep making me apologize and feel guilty over nothing! Nothing is going on between me and Erik!”

“What, is this nigga a punk or something? That's the only time a nigga is around a female and ain't trying to holla. Is that what you're telling me, Pooh? Are you saying he's a punk?”

“No, he's not gay. Yeah, he tried to holla at me. I put him in his place and told him that I had a man.”

“So, he's just been laying in the cut, waiting for me to go to jail so that he could push up on you?”

“He ain't been laying in anything!”

“Now I know why you ain't need no money while I was gone! You had a dope-dealing nigga to pay for everything!”

“L O Quent paid all of my expenses!”

“Bullshit!” Chino shouted. “Damn, you're scandalous!
You can't even admit it. I've had all kinds of muthafuckas telling me that they seen you kicking it with this cat!”

“Chino, he's just my friend. So he might have walked with me to a class, or walked with me to the library, or been in a study group that the professor put together! Chino, that doesn't mean that I'm going to fuck him! How many times do we have to go through this?”

“We don't have to go through this at all,” Chino told her. “We can end this bullshit right now.”

“Chino, you are a trip, you know that? I've been nothing but loyal to you! It's been almost three goddamned years! I visited you every weekend, I took care of the beauty shop, I handled your business for you, I found you another lawyer, I did everything that you asked me to do.”