This Could Be Us But You Playin' 2 (11 page)

“There go my grandson,” Franny interrupted, walking over. NiChia gave Dominique a look that told her to keep her mouth shut. She didn’t want their grandmother to know that she had been fighting yet again. “This boy be sleeping like he works a nine to five.” Franny chuckled, taking DJ out of Dominique’s arms.

“Hey, grandma, where’s Tiff?” Dominique asked. Placing her bag on the kitchen table. She dropped her keys and her phone inside before she zipped it up and proceeded to move further into the house. When she made it into the living room, she glanced around confused. “Did she already leave?”

“She’s probably in the bathroom!” Franny yelled from the kitchen.

“With her funky ass attitude,” Nichia spoke up, as she walked into the living room as well.

Dominique turned around and looked at her with wide eyes. “Really?” she asked.

“Girl yeah.” NiChia nodded her head up and down. “Came in here like somebody owe her mutha’fucking ass something. Talking to grandma all smart and shit.”

“Shut up. I know you lying.” Dominique said, thinking that her sister was probably overreacting like always.

“I swear. I was going to pop her in the fucking mouth but grandma told me to calm down. She lucky as hell too. Lil smart mouth heffa. You can tell she’s Monique’s daughter.”

“Please don’t say that.” Dominique smacked her lips. “She must still be mad.” She took a seat on the sofa and crossed her legs.

NiChia rolled her eyes, before she took a seat as well. “Mad my ass. She done made me mad.”

“Did she say anything about me?”

“Nope.” 

Just then, Tiffany emerged from the hallway. Her head was down while she shook her hands dry. When she finally looked up, she locked eyes with her sister. Dominique looked up at Tiffany in awe. She hadn’t seen her in more than five years and she looked so different, yet the same. Gone was the teenager who used to wear her hair in the big bushy ponytail with the part on the side. The juvenile had since been replaced with an adult. A grown ass woman with more hips, ass, and breasts than her sister, who was two years her senior.

Getting up from the couch, Dominique couldn’t help but to rush over to her younger sibling. When she was close enough, she wrapped her arms around Tiffany’s shoulders and pulled her close. She felt nothing but happiness as she squeezed her tightly, so much so that tears spilled from Dominique’s eyes. Not even the ridged feel of Tiffany’s body could make her feel any less joy than she felt that that moment. Dominique could tell that Tiffany must have surely felt some kind of way towards her because not once did she even attempt to hug her back. Instead, she stood there as stiff as a board. After a few moments, Dominique unwrapped her arms from her sister and took a step back to really get a good look at her.   

“Oh my God… I can’t believe it. You’ve gotten so big!” she exclaimed. “What have you been up to?”

“Nothing,” Tiffany replied in a dry tone.

“Umm, okay,” Dominique paused. If she wasn’t one hundred percent positive before, she knew then that her sister had an attitude. That was fine by her though because she wasn’t going to give up. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.  Come on and have a seat,” she said, as she grabbed Tiffany’s arm and pulled her over towards the couch. “So, tell me what’s been going on with you?”

“I already told you nothing, damn! What the hell else do you want me to say?” Tiffany snapped.

“Little girl, you better watch yo’ damn mouth in my house!” Franny yelled, as she made her way into the living room with a now woke DJ trailing behind her. He looked over at his mother with a smile as he chewed on a granola bar, before he made his way over to her.

“Whatever man…” Tiffany replied, waving her hand at her grandmother. Shocked, Dominique picked her son up and sat him on her lap. She had never heard Tiffany speak that way to their grandmother.
I guess NiChia wasn’t overreacting.

Placing her hands on her small hips, Franny tilted her head to the side. “I ain’t your damn man!”

“Alright, Jesus, would you just leave me alone! All I said was two freakin’ curse words and you’re jumping down my throat. You act like I was in here cussing like a sailor or something,” Tiffany argued with her face twisted up. When NiChia jumped up, Dominique placed her hands over DJ’s ears because she knew that there were about to some words said that he didn’t need to hear.

“Okay now, you are taking this a bit too far, don’t you think?” NiChia asked. “I don’t know what you do at home with yo’ momma, but you ain’t about to come in grandma’s house and be disrespectful.”

“Girl boo!” Tiffany looked up at her. “Wasn’t nobody even talking to you, so what you need to do—”

“You ain’t gotta be talking to me. I’m talking to you and I don’t need to do shit!”   NiChia cut her off. “I apologize for cursing grandma, but she’s being a little to disrespectful right now and I ain’t going for it,” she said, turning to face Franny.

Tiffany stood up as well. “I’m not sure what you think this is, but I ain’t scared of you, Peanut, so you take that tough act elsewhere.”

NiChia laughed. “Oh, I don’t want you to be scared. I want you to be careful because you’re treading on thin ice right now, and shit can easily get real if you want it to. I don’t play tough, baby girl. You betta ask about me.”

“Oh trust me, I have and from what I’ve heard, you ain’t nothing to worry about,” Tiffany countered.

“I see you don’t know no better, so I guess I’m going to have to show yo’ hardheaded ass!”

Dominique jumped up from the couch, just as NiChia took a few steps closer in Tiffany’s direction. Franny was already on her way over with a look of worry on her face because she knew how crazy her granddaughter was. She wasn’t going to allow a fight to go down in her house, especially a fight between two sisters who were supposed to love one another. Accepting DJ from Dominique’s hands, she watched as her eldest grandchild put her arms out between her two sisters. While NiChia had a look of anger on her face, Tiffany, on the other hand, wore a smirk. She had successfully gotten under everyone’s skin, just like had she planned.

“Okay, now y’all better stop!” Dominique yelled. “If you both think I’m going to let the two of y’all fight, y’all must be out y’all’s minds!”

“She started it. I wasn’t even talking—” Tiffany started, but before she could finish her statement, Dominique cut in.

“I don’t care! You shouldn’t have been in here being disrespectful because you know better. I know you have an attitude with me… with us, for leaving you behind, but coming in here acting like a freakin’ brat isn’t going to cut it.”

“Tell her again,” NiChia added.

“Hush Peanut, because you ain’t making it no better,” Dominique retorted, as she turned towards her. “Grandma can’t handle things without you getting involved. She’s done it all these years and kept us in line, so let her continue to do it.”

The sound of Dominique’s phone ringing from the kitchen got her attention. She glanced between the two of her sisters with a stern look. This look let them both know, without any words, that since she was the oldest, they had better obey. NiChia took a few steps back and sat back down. While she was a firecracker who would fight anyone, she respected Dominique and it wasn’t just because she was her oldest sister. No, she respected Dominique and valued the bond they shared too much to ruin it behind their stubborn ass younger sister. Tiffany, on the other hand, rolled her eyes and returned to her seat as well. She didn’t care what Dominique said; if NiChia had gotten any closer in her face, she was going to try her best to knock the shit out of her.
She ain’t my real sister any fucking way
, she rationalized, believing everything her mother had said about her father’s other child.

With both of her sisters now seated, Dominique rushed into the kitchen to get her phone. It had already rung three of four times, and she knew that any second, it would roll over to her voicemail. She figured that whomever it was that was on the other line had chosen the worst possible time to call her. Dominique didn’t know if it was Deondre or Kaleb, but whichever one it was would have to call her back because she had a family crisis. By the time she finished unzipping her bag, the phone had stopped ringing. When she saw the missed call had come from her father, she shook her head.
Those crazy heffas made me forget all about my daddy calling. I hope he calls back because if not, I’m going to be even more upset that I already am.
As soon as she finished her thought, her phone started to ring once again. When she saw that it was her father, she smiled and picked up the phone. Dominique listened to the automated system before she mashed in the number one key on her phone.

“Hey daddy,” she said.

“Hey Pumpkin, have you made it to your grandmother’s house yet?” Jessie asked.

“Yeah, I’m here. I got here not too long ago.”

“Oh yeah? Y’all must be chatting it up because when I called, the line was busy.”

Really?” Dominique looked towards the base where the cordless phone usually was. When she didn’t see it, she glanced around the kitchen until her eyes landed on it. It was face down on the table. Picking it up, she saw that the ‘talk’ button was still lit up. “Sorry, daddy. Peanut must have forgotten to hang it up after I spoke to her earlier.”

“That’s okay, Pumpkin. Where’s your sister?

“She’s in the living room with grandma and Peanut,” she said in a dry tone.

“What’s wrong? Haven’t you guys been catching up?”

“She hasn’t given me a chance to. Apparently, she’s still at me and grandma for leaving her,” Dominique told him, trying to keep her voice down. She didn’t want anything else to pop off. “She even got smart with grandma and because of it, she and Peanut were about to fight.”

“What?” her father asked, feeling himself getting upset.

Peeping around the walkway to the kitchen, Dominique saw that Franny had taken a seat between both Tiffany and NiChia. “Yeah, she was in here getting smart and flipping out on grandma, who only told her that she needed to watch her mouth after she cursed.”

“So, she was in there showing her ass, huh? Cussing and shit in front of my mother?”

“Well, she only said damn and hell,” Dominique said, trying to downplay the situation. She knew how her father could get and didn’t want to see Tiffany in too much trouble.

It was one thing Jessie didn’t play about other than his children and that was his mother. He knew Franny was a sweetheart who went above and beyond for everyone around her. She had always made sure he was alright, even in his adult years. When all of their other family had turned their backs on him once he was arrested, she and his father stepped up and made sure that he had everything he needed and more. Even after his father passed away, she held it down on her own, never once complaining about anything. Jessie knew guys in prison who complained all of the time about their mother, wives, and family leaving them out in the cold, and knew Franny could have done the same if she really wanted to, but she didn’t. Instead, she rode with him for the last nine and a half years, even promising to help him as much as she could once he released. So, to hear about his daughter, her grandchild, disrespecting her, had him hot. 

Jessie knew where Tiffany’s anger stemmed from. She was upset because she felt like they all had basically forgotten about her, which wasn’t true. She had no clue that her mother was to blame. They weren’t shutting her out; Monique was keeping her away, but of course, she wouldn’t tell their daughter that. No, instead, she’d lie and make them all look like the bad guys because that was what she did. Jessie knew that Monique hated him for everything that had gone down between the two of them, and that was okay. She had a right to feel the way she did about him. He wouldn’t try to change it because he honestly could care less.

What he didn’t understand was why she couldn’t stand Dominique. Yeah, she moved out years prior, leaving her to take care of her children by herself, but they were just that, her children. How could she get mad because her daughter got tired of being the one responsible for them? If it were up to Monique, Dominique would have never left, and even still, she would be dealing with the children on a day to day basis. The fact that his mother had allowed her to move in with her was a slap in Monique’s face. She couldn’t stand the fact that Franny had taken her daughter away from her; even if the daughter was one that she never really loved to begin with. To Monique, Franny was the enemy and that is why she kept all of the kids away from her.

“Put her grown ass on the phone,” Jessie said. Dominique sighed and headed into the living room to do as she was told.

Chapter 9

“I want my toes to match the polish she put on my nails,” Shanice told the nail tech after she finished rubbing the sea salt into her calves and feet. “My two big toes should look like this,” she said, holding out her hands and showing off both of her ring fingers on each of her hands.

“Okay. I see.” The Asian woman nodded. She stood up and headed over to the table to get the polish, before she returned to the stool and sat down. “This? Is this the kind you want?”

“Yeah, that’s it.” Leaning her head back, she closed her eyes and allowed the massage chair to relax her back muscles.

Shanice was tired and ready to go home and take a nap. Now almost five months pregnant, she could barely keep her eyes open. This was something new for her because her pregnancy with London was very different. She had energy all the way up until she gave birth. Not only that, but she ate everything in sight back then, which was probably why she had gotten so big so quick when she was pregnant with her daughter. Opening her eyes, Shanice looked down at her small bump and grinned. She still couldn’t believe that she was actually having a boy this time. When she found out last week when she and Paris went to her doctor’s appointment, she thought the tech was playing a trick on her. That was until she saw what was dangling between her baby’s legs. Shanice was ecstatic to know that London was going to be a big sister to a baby brother and she was glad that she had gotten her wish for a son.

The chime of the door made Shanice look up to see who was entering the shop. When she did, she saw a white couple walk inside hand and hand. They were both a bit older than she was, and if she had to guess their ages, she would say that they were between thirty and thirty-five. The female was pregnant and looked as if she was just about ready to pop. She was slim, but her stomach stuck out like a torpedo and stretched the dress she was wearing to capacity. Shanice cringed as she thought about just how uncomfortable it had to have been for her day in and day out with a belly that size.
It’s got to be hard as hell for her to sleep
. When she walked up to the counter to sign her name, the guy stood behind. He was slim as well, and extremely handsome. This was funny to Shanice because she usually wasn’t into white guys, but that one had definitely caught her eye. Apparently, he felt her staring at him because he looked up and flashed her a quick smile before he looked away.

Goddamn, that man is fine!
He kind of reminded Shanice of Channing Tatum when he played in Magic Mike. He was tall with the same box face and his square jaw line was clean of any visible hair. Even through the white t-shirt he wore, Shanice could tell that he was cut-up. The thin fabric clung closely to his body and showed the outline to his muscular shoulders.
How in the hell did she snag something like that?
Shanice thought, referring to the female he had come in with. She was more of a Plain Jane looking woman. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and the checkered dress she wore looked like it should have been lying on top of a picnic table. Shanice continued to watch the Channing look-a-like as he waited for his woman to finish filling out the paper, and once she was finished, he took her arm and assisted her in sitting down in one of the chairs by the door. They began to talk to one another, and everyone around them could tell that they were in love.

Within a matter of moments, Shanice had lost her happy feelings just that quick. She had gone from smiling and being grateful to having a son to feeling down. As she watched the couple interact with one another, she felt like crap. Shanice wasn’t sure if it was her hormones that had her feeling the way she was, but at the moment, all she wanted to do was cry. Her situation weighted heavily on her mind. It wasn’t terrible, but she wouldn’t call it good either. It had been a month since Shanice had last spoken to Deondre. She had kept the promise she had made to herself to leave him alone, but that didn’t change the fact that she sometimes got lonely. Pregnancy had a way of bringing out emotions at the worst times, and quite often, she almost picked up her phone and called him to come over. Of course, she stopped herself before it got that far, but every day was a struggle for Shanice because she still loved Deondre so much and knew that that wasn’t something that would change any time soon, no matter how much she wanted those feelings to disappear. Even a full month later, she was still missing him like crazy.

The first week Shanice didn’t hear anything from Deondre at all after the day she hung up on him. She figured that he thought she was bullshitting about not dealing with him anymore and was giving her a chance to calm down. After that week, he must have noticed that she hadn’t reached out to him like she normally does, and that is when he started to call her phone. Still upset with what he did, Shanice ignored his calls for the next few days. With her ignoring him, she wasn’t surprised at all when Deondre popped up at her house. She knew he couldn’t take her being the one to treat him like she usually treated her. The joke was on him that day because when he tried to enter with his key, he quickly found out that she had gotten the locks changed.

That was something that Paris had advised her to do the night they sat in her living room and cried. She told Shanice, ‘As long as he can come and go as he pleases, that’s exactly what he’s going to do, so you have to put a stop to it.’ and that’s exactly what Shanice did. She changed the locks and laughed to herself as she watched Deondre trying to work his key repeatedly before he finally gave up. Once he came to conclusion that the locks had been changed, he walked over to his car and called her phone back to back. Shanice was glad that she had parked her car in the garage or else he would have known she was home. After a few more minutes of looking through her open blinds, and banging on her door, he drove away.

By the third week, Deondre was calling her phone a few times a day. He had gotten so upset with her not answering; he even started to leave voicemails, which was something that he had never done before. At first, his messages were all angry. He called her names and threatened to come and kick her door down if she didn’t call him back. When he saw that Shanice still wasn’t paying him any mind, he changed his tone a little bit. His next batch of voicemails consisted of him asking to see his daughter. Shanice knew it was wrong for her to keep London away from her dad, but at that moment, she had to do what was best for her, and staying away from Deondre was it. Within a few days, even those messages switched up. It was then that he started to lay it on thick.

Deondre left message and message of him confessing his love for her. He apologized over and over again and promised to try harder to be the man she needed him to be; all she had to do was talk to him. There were times when Shanice wanted nothing more than to pick up the phone and hear him out, but she knew better. She knew that Deondre was a manipulative person, and all it took was one time for him to think that he had her, before he started to act like an ass again. No, this time she was going to show him that she was not going to be his doormat any longer. Shanice wasn’t sure if they would end up together or not, but if they did, he would know next time not to fuck with her. As the nail tech applied the final coat to her toes, Shanice wondered if Deondre had given up on calling her, or planning something else, because she hadn’t heard from him in the last few days.

“All done,” the tech said, standing up.

She moved around the soak bowl and bent down to pick up Shanice’s flip flips. Slowly, she lifted her leg and slid her left foot inside, careful not to smudge her freshly painted toes. When she was finished, she did the same to the right foot, before she grabbed her purse and helped her to stand up. Shanice followed behind her to the front of the salon, where she took a seat not far from the couple who were still sitting by the door. As she placed her feet under the neon lights, she glanced over at the couple in envy. What she wouldn’t give to have a man stare at her so lovely. Hell, she would be happy to have a man to call her own, instead of having to share one. Shanice played the role, but all she really wanted was what her mother and father had. She wanted someone to love her unconditionally and stick with her through thick and thin.
Apparently, that’s just too much to ask for these days,
she considered
. 

“Thank you, come again,” the tech said, placing Shanice’s bag in the chair beside her. Shanice gave her a weak smile, before she turned and walked away to help the next customer.

Ten minutes later, after her toes were dry, Shanice got up from the seat. Carefully, she reached into her purse and grabbed her car keys. Even though she knew her nails were dry, it was something about having them freshly painted that had her afraid of smudging them. With her keys now in her hand, she headed for the door. As she passed the Channing look-a-like, she noticed that the woman he was with was no longer sitting there. When he noticed her looking, he gave her another smile, and just getting a closer look at his perfectly white teeth had her panties wet.

Damn, this white boy if fine. If I weren’t pregnant, I’d sneak his sexy ass my number, and not give a fuck if his girl was around.
After glancing around the shop, she spotted her on the other side of the room sitting in the exact same massage chair that she had just got up from. Glancing back at the guy, Shanice thought about talking to him anyway.
Girl stop,
she mentally scolded herself,
this is why you’re in the situation you’re in right now. Leave that damn man alone, and let his woman have him. Find someone of your own!
Instead of going against herself, Shanice simply nodded her head in his direction and walked out of the door proud that she had done the right thing. Outside, she made her way to her car. After climbing into the driver’s seat, she started the ignition and immediately put the car into gear. Shanice was so lost in her own thoughts that she wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around her. Hitting the gas, she slowly pulled back out of her parking space.

“Oh my God!” she screamed when she felt her car bump into something. “Shit… shit… shit!” she said to herself as she jumped out and rushed around to the back of her vehicle. “I am so sorry. Are you okay?”

“It’s cool, I’m good,” the guy said, bending down to pick up his AT&T bag from the ground.

“Are you sure? Do we need to call an ambulance?” she asked, scanning his body for any injuries. She was glad that she wasn’t going fast, or else she would have really hurt him.

“Nah, I’m good, pretty lady.” The guy looked up at her and smiled. “You didn’t hit me hard. I think the shock of being hit did more damage than the actual car.” He laughed.

Shanice dropped her head into her hands. “Oh my God, I am so stupid! I could have killed you.”

“Not going that slow.” He laughed again. “For real though, I’m good. Don’t beat yourself up about it. It was an accident.”

“Yeah it was. An accident happened all because I wasn’t paying attention. What if you would have been a little kid?”

“Calm down.” He took a step towards her and placed his hand on her arm. “You’re getting yourself all worked up on what ifs. I’m not hurt, and it wasn’t a little kid. You good. All you can do is pay more attention next time.”

“Okay, I guess you’re right,” Shanice admitted, finally calming down a bit. She couldn’t believe that she had hit someone. 

“Anyways, I’m Marcus, but my friends call me Mark. What’s your name, beautiful?” he asked with his arm extended in her direction. He didn’t know it, but he had caught her off guard.

Shanice was stuck for a moment. She really didn’t know what to say. There they were in the middle of the parking lot, after she had almost mowed him down, and he was flirting. Still not able to say anything, she couldn’t do nothing but blush as she stared at him. It was then that Shanice was finally able to get a good look at the stranger standing not far from her. He was a little taller than she was and had smooth dark skin. With dark brown eyes, a pointed nose, and full lips, he was very handsome. His baby face was clean, except for the small mustache that rested above his top lip. If Shanice had to guess, she would say that he was younger than she was.

Reaching her arm out, Shanice put her small hand into his much bigger one. “Hello Mark, I’m Shanice, but you can call me Nicy.”

“Shanice,” he said out loud. “I like that.”

Taking a step back, Marcus placed his hands into the pockets of the khaki shorts he was wearing. The baby blue t-shirt he wore was tucked and fit his muscular upper body. The brown belt that was visible matched with the boat shoes that he wore with no socks. Marcus looked sexy and well put together, without doing too much. He was definitely Shanice’s type and by the way he looked at her, she could tell that she was his too.

“Thank you.” She blushed. Shanice was trying to push the nasty thoughts that she was thinking out of her mind. Him standing across from her looking all good had her ready to pounce on him, even though she knew she couldn’t. She had just hit him with her car after all.

“Always welcome. So, now that you see I’m good, would it be too much for me to ask you for your number?”

Shanice thought for a moment. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think that would be a good idea,” she told him regretfully.

“Dang, you just hurt my heart.” Mark stumbled back and grabbed his chest. “You hurt my soul, pretty lady. I ain’t trying to get on your nerves, but can I ask you why?”

“I kind of have a situation,” she finally spoke.

When he licked his lips, Shanice had to clamp her legs together trying to stop the throbbing going on with her kitty. It was so bad that she had to take a second to compose herself. While Shanice stood there looking crazy, Marcus continued to stare at her. He was trying to read the beautiful woman in front of him. He wondered what kind of situation she was referring to and contemplated on if trying to talk to her would be a waste of time for him. A few seconds later, Shanice was ready to answer his question.