URBAN: Chosen By A Kingpin (61 page)

Nothing could break up their friendship. There were times when they got mad at each other and did not speak for days. Eventually they would make up as if nothing ever happened and usually neither one of them could remember why they were upset with the other one. Every year they would vacation together. They took their annual trip to The Essence Festival in New Orleans. The day after Thanksgiving they would kick off the shopping season by going to New York for the weekend for Black Friday shopping and a little club hopping.

Tiffany grew up with her parents and her older sister and older brother in an affluent neighborhood in Columbia, a suburb of Baltimore. Tiffany was aggressive, outspoken, and sarcastic. She always stayed dressed in the latest trends by the hottest designers. She always spoke her mind and didn’t really care about whose feelings would get hurt. This attitude usually got her in trouble in her personal life but professionally it helped lead to her success in the corporate world. At the height of her career, president of a major marketing firm, she has decided that she wants to focus on her career. She was not looking for a relationship and she was not looking to get married. She already tried that and luckily escaped without getting pregnant. She loves her independence and has only a few uses for men in her life.

Sienna, on the other hand, was the opposite. She was raised by a single overprotective mother in a typical middle class neighborhood. Sienna’s mother worked hard as a teacher to make sure that Sienna had everything that she needed to keep up with the rest of the kids in the suburbs. She tried to teach Sienna to be independent and take care of herself. As a teenager, Sienna’s mother kept her from negative influences, as she called them, by not allowing her to go anywhere. She was only allowed to go out with Tiffany and Tiffany’s family.

When she was away from home, she had to constantly check in with her mother to reassure her mother that she was not getting into trouble and to let her mother know that she was where she said she would be. Sienna is subtle, soft spoken and an overall people pleaser. Unlike Tiffany, she rarely spoke her mind. Sometimes her soft-spoken personality would be taken for a sign of weakness. She would allow things to build up inside and once she had enough, she would explode. That was when she was most like Tiffany. She was also successful in her career as a guidance counselor at a local middle school. After her failed marriage, Sienna was heartbroken and would like nothing more than to be married again and have children this time. She wants to be that loving supportive wife that is waiting at home for her husband.

***

After an all-day meeting in downtown Baltimore, Tiffany and few of her co-workers decide to head down to a bar in Fells Point for Happy Hour. While there enjoying her second or third Blue Goose, her favorite drink, a concoction composed of pineapple juice, Grey Goose and Hypnotic, she notices a man staring at her. She rolls her eyes, looks away and continues to laugh and joke with her co-workers about memorable moments of the meeting that they could not discuss during the actual business meeting. The staring gentleman clearly wasn’t her type. Yes, he was attractive. He was tall, but most men were compared to Tiffany when she didn’t have on her six inch Michael Kors pumps. He had a nice body. He wasn’t too thin and he was muscular with a muscular jaw. He had a deep brown smooth complexion, her weakness, and he was dressed nicely in his fresh ivory colored linen outfit and his expensive tan colored Italian shoes. Tiffany peeped all of that while chatting and drinking with her co-workers. But the people he was with were the reason that Tiffany took notice of him. They were wearing baseball caps adorned with the authenticity labels on the lapel and non-designer oversized clothes with expensive sneakers. ‘Thugs!’ she thought to herself. ‘He must be the ringleader; in fact, he must be the head drug dealer and those are his corner people.’ She laughed at the scenario that she had made up for the group of young men that were clearly celebrating something. She thought, they couldn’t be half bad. After all, they did choose this upscale bar.

Jonathan, her executive assistant, had just came back from the men’s room. Jonathan, while African American and from the hood, which was a fact that he was very proud of, was very professional. He was twenty-five, a year younger than Tiffany and about a foot taller than her. He stood in front of Tiffany, grabbed both of her hands, looked into her eyes and said with his best hood accent, “Hey Tiff! That gentleman over there, the one who has been staring at you since we arrived, wants to know “Wassup witcha’ home girl over dere?” Jonathan burst out into an uncontrollable laughter. Tiffany, not amused, snatches her hands away from Jonathan while he is balled over laughing. Tiffany looks over and the gentleman is staring straight at her as if he is waiting for his answer. At that moment, Tiffany decides to just walk over there and get rid of this man for herself because she was never one to hold her tongue. She looked at Jonathan and said, “Watch this.”

With Blue Goose confidence, Tiffany sauntered over towards the gentleman keeping her eyes only on him. When she got to his group of friends who were standing in a little circle around him, she pushed through them and stood in front of her admirer.

In her best hood accent, she said to him, “So wassup’ wit chu?”

She could hear her co-workers snickering at the bar and she could hear his friends complaining that this chick had just pushed them to get to their boy.

Her admirer smiled, laughed and said, “I know you saw me watching you all evening. My name is Capone. Yo you are just my type. Can I get your number so I can call you?”

Tiffany smugly smiled and in her most professional sarcastic voice said, “Well thank you Mr. Capone. My name is Tiffany but I’m not sure you are my type. I mean you are cute and everything but honestly I’m not sure if you are ready for a woman like me.”

Capone and his friends laugh, “Now Miss Tiffany,” he said, “you don’t know anything about me. If you give me an opportunity to get to know you, you can get to find out whether or not I am your type. Honestly Miss Tiffany you may not be ready for a man like me.”

Tiffany is impressed and intrigued. He was attractive and he came back at her with a taste of her own medicine. She thought, ‘What harm would it do to give him my number. Plus it would give me and Sienna something to laugh about.’ She reaches into the pocket of her dress and pulls out one of her business cards and puts it in his hand.

“Call me some time and perhaps we can do business.” She reaches out her hand to shake his. “It was nice to meet you Mr. Capone.”

Capone sticks his hand out to shake her hand but he then pulls her into him. He whispers in her ear, “It was very nice to meet you too Miss Tiffany. You are going to be mine. I’ll call you tomorrow. Look forward to my call.”

His lips touching Tiffany’s ear brought chills through her body. As she walked back to her co-workers, never looking back, she thought, ‘Damn I can’t wait until tomorrow.’

***

The next day was a Saturday. Tiffany woke up that morning, changed into some workout clothes and went into her at home gym to go for a run on her treadmill. The night before she came home and went directly to bed. She was tired. She had a long day and about four drinks. She knew it was early but she looked at her phone several times during her workout to see if she had any missed calls from numbers that she did not know, but there was nothing. So she called Sienna to tell her all about her evening.

Sienna said, “Tiff, I don’t know why you even bothered to give him your number. You said he was with a group of thuggish looking people. You must have been drunk. You know thugs dress nice too. Capone? Girl, you KNOW his momma did not name him that.”

Tiffany said, “I’m telling Sin. There is something about him that has me curious. I’m just trying to have fun right now. Let me go slumming. I bet the sex might be good. He had beautiful chocolate brown skin and nice full lips. Let me explore my options. It’s not like I’m going to marry him. He probably has like 20 kids.”

For the next hour, they talked and laughed about him, their ex-husbands and other men and boys that they had encountered over the years. They always talked for hours over the phone and they usually made a point to talk everyday whether it was in person or over the phone. They ended the conversation finalizing the plans for their trip to New Orleans and discussing their plans for the rest of the day and night. The plan was that later that night they would meet at Tiffany’s house and go out to a club in D.C. with a group of their friends. Throughout her busy day, Tiffany continued to wait for her anticipated call that did not come. ‘Just like the rest of them.’ She thought and she went on to get ready for her night out with her friends.

***

Sienna’s plan for that Saturday was to go shopping. Sienna was searching for a reasonably priced white dress to add to her wardrobe for her and Tiffany’s annual trip to Essence Jazz Fest in New Orleans. So she thought she would head to some of the shops around Lexington Market in Baltimore. She had gotten lucky a few times when she was looking for the perfect outfit for the perfect price. Sienna has always been a frugal shopper, her mother taught her that. Sienna felt that it didn’t really matter how much things cost. What mattered was how you put things together.

Sienna thought, ‘Tiffany would not be caught dead out here.’ Lexington Market was a one stop shop for clothes, accessories, prepared food, fresh vegetables, meats, seafood and any type of drug you desired. You just had to know the right people. Sienna didn’t know the right people and did not care to know them. She just wanted to find a nice little dress and get the heck out of there without getting robbed.

She found a cute little black dress for about $15. She also found some nice earrings and necklaces but she still didn’t find a white one. She knew she would have to continue her search. The food smells in Lexington Market were irresistible. She just had to get something to eat to take with her. On her way out of Lexington Market, she bought a slice of pound cake from the bakery and a roast beef sandwich with a large half and half from the deli. As she was walking out, she was trying to find her keys in her purse. She was digging and digging but she could not find them. She knew they were in there because she just had them. She was standing in the middle of the parking lot trying to figure out where she saw them. She was always misplacing her keys in that big heavy purse of hers. All of a sudden this man walked up behind her.

He said gently, “Excuse me Ma’am, didn’t you hear me trying to flag you down?”

Shocked because of the break in her train of thought, she jumps and says, “No sir, I’m sorry. I did not hear you. Can I help you with something?”

The tall handsome stranger said, “No but I can help you with something. I can help you get home. I have your car keys that you left on the counter at the deli. I was trying to catch up with you but you were walking so fast through the crowd.”

Sienna laughed and said, “Oh my goodness.” I was standing here trying to figure out why they were not in my purse. I thought someone in there had pick pocketed me. Thank you so much! Let me give you a reward.”

As she tries to retrieve $10 from her wallet, he stops her by placing his phone in her face. She looks up.

He smiles and says, “You can reward me by putting your name and phone number in my phone. By the way, my name is Derrick. Just so you know who will be calling you.”

Sienna smiles back. She really doesn’t want to give him her number but one, she is by herself, and two she is in the hood. So she puts her correct name and number in his phone.

He looks down at the phone and says, “Ok Sienna. I am preparing to go on a business trip tomorrow but I will definitely call you on Tuesday. Enjoy the rest of your day and be careful where you lay your keys.” He turns and walks away.

Sienna waves good bye, thanks him, and watches as he struts across the parking lot. The first thing she notices is his confidence and that he is dressed very nice for a Saturday. He is wearing a pair of Levis and a black button down shirt with a pair of black loafers. ‘What type of man dresses like that on a Saturday unless they are working?’ She thought. Sienna was curious about this man but didn’t get him much thought. Her mission was to find that white dress. Four stores later she found the perfect white dress for her trip.

***

That night the four ladies met at Tiffany’s house prepared to paint the town of D.C. First they would go to dinner at a restaurant on K Street and then finish out the evening at one of the clubs that was in the area. The group of ladies who were known to hang out consisted of Tiffany, Sienna, Amber and Portia.

Amber, who met Sienna through work, was the level headed one of the bunch. She was the friend that stopped the rest of them from doing something crazy and something that they might live to regret. Her method was to rationalize their plan and help them weigh the consequences of their actions. The ladies had a running joke about Amber. They said that Amber would be the friend that came with them to rob a bank but would call the police and then say, “I told them not to do it officer.” Amber was frugal like Sienna but she was because she had to be. She made less money than Sienna and she liked to keep up the appearance that she had money. She was a county social worker who always complained about how stressful her job was and how she was going to quit but she was still there three years later. Amber was shorter than the average woman but she was a little on the thick side. Men usually gravitated to her based on her long dark hair, her exotic appearance and her full breast and big butt. However, Amber wasn’t interested. She was in love with her boyfriend of two years, Joey. She was keeping the faith that he would propose soon. She was out that night with the ladies only because he was out with his boys but she was prepared to have a good time with her friends.

Portia was the wild one of the bunch. She had been friends with Tiffany since college. She had a tendency to be a little promiscuous. She was a big flirt and she would always get the ladies into situations that were hard to get out of. They stopped letting her make plans because one time they ended up in a night club about to get in a fight with a group of women because she got so drunk that she walked up to this guy and started kissing and groping him. He didn’t seem to mind but his girlfriend, who was also at the club with her girls, did mind. The girlfriend and her group of “hood rat” friends tried to fight Portia and her group of ladies but the ladies were not willing to stoop down to that level to fight. The guy actually stopped his girlfriend and her friends. Yet during the process of stopping the fight, he managed to slip his phone number into Portia’s bra. Portia and the guy messed around for about a year. Portia said she screwed him on the principle that his girlfriend should not have tried to fight her girls. No one ever would have guessed that Portia was a licensed therapist that specialized in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and victims of sexual abuse.