Chardonnay: A Novel Read online

  Konstance shook her head no and said,

  “What?”

  “Some chick in his room. I—I couldn’t see her face but I know it was a woman’s body.”

  “When was this?” Konstance said heading towards her closet.

  “The second night we were back from school.”

  She continued to go through her rack of hangers quietly as if she was in a department store hunting for new threads—her closet was that ridiculous.

  “Konnie.”

  She came back out with a cream cardigan and plaid pink and cream shorts, continuing to her white plantation shades to block out existing light we didn’t need and then turned on the radio.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  She was only this quiet about hot off the press news when she was thinking too deep on it.

  “Well, I was thinking that it was probably just his mother. Or maybe even Myra. You know how she be sneaking in his room all the time to read you his little groupie letters.”

  I laughed at the last probability. Myra was always my little spy. Just up until she hit her teens and figured why flip the bill for free when you can get something in return. I wasn’t so willing or desperate.

  “Uhnt uhn. Myra hasn’t done that for me in years. Plus I know their heights and silhouettes. And you know how I do.” I said referring to finding out who this chicken head was.

  Konstance rolled her tongue around her mouth and crossed her arms.

  She chuckled and said, “You ain’t really that tumid about this situation are you?”

  I looked at her and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She adjusted her words by saying, “I—I’m sorry. You know I would go with you on this but...girl you lettin’ him play you like a TMX Elmo on Christmas morning.”

  What could I say? Had I gone that far? The answer was yes. I was making too much out of this whole thing and giving Myron too much damn credit on my heart. He would not have me that gone. I paced over to Konstance’s window and wrapped my arms around my waist. She walked up behind me and placed her hands on my shoulders.

  “You alright cuz?”

  “Yelpers.” I stated with no enthusiasm.

  “Hey, I’m a go and have Maria press this for me for Friday night.”

  “Alright.”

  She winked her eye and left out the room. I lay in the bed that sat across from hers. Both of the beds were queen sized. Staring up at the ceiling, I thought about what Konstance had said. And even though the girl had made sense for once, I still had a nagging feeling to check Myron’s silly hoe out. I hadn’t spoken with him in a month and I wanted to readjust the distance barrier since we both were home from college. Myron was home officially until his first NFL kick off season. And then I pondered if I should just hold on to him for just that reason. But even if I did throw in the towel along with my panties, would he want me? I laughed at the thought of even giving him a second chance. I picked Konstance’s Betty Boop telephone off the hook and decided to see where my little venture would take me. The phone rung twice and then I got a hello from Myron.

  “Hey.” I said giving him time to fix his words.

  “What it do? You calling me?”

  “Yeah. I would of thought of other responses from you.”

  He chuckled and said,

  “You miss me? What about my boy?”

  “What boy...we cool? When have you ever asked about him?”

  The phone went dead for a minute. I was surprised by the long pause and when I said his name to make sure he hadn’t hung up, Myron said,

  “Chardonnay, I’m surprised to be hearing from you.”

  “And?”

  “I just been calling you forever. Didn’t think you would call—that’s all...I miss you. I lo—”

  “Look, I called to check in on things and make sure we weren’t still trippin’ on each other.”

  He sighed and tisked.

  “SO?” I yelled.

  “It’s whatever. I ain’t got to see you. But I want you to know—”

  “Look why you worried about me?”

  “I—I don’t know.”

  “Bye Myron.”

  “Bye.” he huffed into the phone and then hung up. I was on to my next move. I had called his mother’s cell...he carried that with him when he was out with some chick and other females didn’t have his number. I found that out the hard way. The boy had so many tricks up his sleeve, literally, that it didn’t make any sense. So I started my spying. I called his cellphone and then put in his code to check his messages. Twenty new messages and none saved. I laughed. I went through each one carefully not to delete. And then there were the usual groupie messages. Two in particular I was interested in most. The female sounded too young to be talking to boys, but she had that grown up scent to her. She spoke of their few time encounters and that she believed that she was in love. I grew sick...to hear some girl talk about a dude you were so used to being yours...claiming him as hers. It sounded too real. It sounded too invested. It sounded like he had been feeding this girl—whoever she was lines. But why? Myron never lied about how he got down to any of the females I’ve had one chance encounters with. I could hear Konstance coming up the stairs and I pushed the replay button and quickly took down the girl’s number the phone system said she was calling from. I just had to know.

  15

  Eyes Wide Shut

  Morning dawned and the birds were singing like Al Green in his Let’s Get It On days. Konstance was already up and down stairs blasting loud music. It was obvious she had the house to herself. Aunt Karmen and Uncle Bryant went back out of town for their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary in sunny South Beach before Pal pal could be buried in the ground. I rattled my mind to peel my body up off of the bed. I maneuvered my feet to the chill wood panels of the floor and shuffled them to the bedroom door. The sound of Fergie became daunting clearing the wax of my ears like a menstrual nightmare. I found my way to the bathroom to let go of the urine just waiting to be released like an over flowing dam. The pressure in my pelvic area was relentless. I flushed the toilet stool and turned on the faucet letting the luke warm water run over my face. I could hear Konstance laughing and talking as if she was holding a conversation on the phone. Then as quick as her laughter begin it ended. I walked on out the bath room and crept my way down the stairs leading to the foyer. My ears zoned in on her phone conversation and I could guess the exact person she was fuming with that could make her cry as quickly as they could make her laugh.

  “So...so what are you sayin’?...Oh so now I’m a little girl. What about all the times I let you in when you felt you had nowhere else to go? Or better yet when your love wasn’t good enough I refaced it for you?...Tsk! If that’s what you think, you think you got it good...you think that—...NO! Let me talk! Oh so you can talk about her like that while defending her when it’s beneficial to you? Fuck you! Hell naw—don’t come!” Konstance turned to see me standing behind her at the floor of the stairs. She clicked off the phone and walked towards me.

  “You up? I cooked.” she said trying to hold sanity in her hurt tone.

  “What were you and Denim arguing about?”

  Konstance didn’t look at me.

  “He...he.. called here calling you names.”

  “For what?”

  “Because you went showing your ass!You the talk of their crew, girl. Oh, and Myron called here too.”

  “Oh, not this shit again. I talked to him...” my words trailed off remembering that I didn’t want to look weak in front of my girl. She smirked and said,

  “You just can’t help it huh?”

  “Well, it wasn’t really that. I just, I have to know.”

  She nodded her head.

  “He says he’s worried about you. He didn’t like the idea of you stripping and frankly I don’t either.”

  “He don’t get a say so anyway! He broke up with me! I just wish he would mind his own business.”

  I sat down on the formal room sofa and hu
ffed. Why did he think he owned me? Maybe it was that brand thing we did last year. We got those tattoos after we figured we were deep in love so why not. So as of yet, although we were engaged by way of arrangement through our parents—I had been waiting on him to ask me to officially marry him until the trip to Saint Louis. It’s easy to be accustoming to a person being in your life.

  Myron said he loved me, but I didn’t know that for sure. Yeah he looked as pained as a dying man when I told him what I had done with Slim in March, but I had never once heard Myron say to me, “I wish I was a better man for you.” It was always “sorry” or “I fucked up”.

  I didn’t believe he wanted to change and I almost couldn’t blame him for his actions. All I’d ever known was him; all he ever knew was me. Our actions could have been for a number of reasons. I had not once thought about how this affected him because I had programed him as the ass hole in this relationship. His parents had drilled me into his mind, they had taken his free will as well and Myron was not excusing himself for his leave of absences in our relationships. He had always told me to get over it. And truthfully I had done that for so long. I looked past his other booty calls and one time I had even given him the phone call when a female called on my cell for him. It was just until recently I had gotten the courage to fight back and say either you’re in this or you’re not. A knocked came at the door and by looking at the glass door we could tell it was Zasmyth at the door. Zasmyth walked in the front door with a worried look on her face, sitting her Coach purse on the coffee table.

  “Hey Zas, girl why you look so sad?” Konstance asked.

  “Or scared for that matter?” I said.

  “Y’all didn’t here yet?”

  “What?” we all said.

  “It’s all over the news. Shit I been trying to call y’all all morning.” she said to Konstance.

  “Well let’s go put all your things up in my room.” said Konstance.

  Everyone went upstairs to Konstance room. As soon as we got in the bedroom Zasmyth ran over to the plasma screen on the wall in Konstance room and pressed the on button.

  “What is it?” asked Konstance.

  “Hold on.”

  Zasmyth turned it on the Fox news that came on at noon and sat down next to me on the bed. We watched the daily news and then a breaking news flash came across the television. My impatience grew and I looked over at Zasmyth and said,

  “Can you just tell us?”

  “Shh, listen!”

  “Today police found the bodies of two young black males today in Swope Park around nine this morning. At press time this morning the police didn’t have the names of the two men but now detectives know that the two young males are that of Rason Green and Jalen Kitmon,” I stepped back for a moment and turned my head sideways.

  Those were the same dudes that were hounding me at the striping party I did for Zasmyth. I looked at her and she shook her head as the news reporter continued,

  “Detectives believe the two men were among a local drug ring. They do believe that the motive was not related to drugs. The investigation is ongoing. If you have information on this case or any other related informationplease contact us at 816.555.7593.”

  Zasmyth clicked off the television and stood up. She walked around the room and swirled back around to Konstance and I.

  “You do know what this means?” she asked us.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Yo, boy had them negros killed!”

  I shook my head,

  “No, Jase isn’t that kind of guy.”

  “Well we know who’s on your mind, but I wasn’t talking about Jase. I was talking about Slim.”

  “It could be a coincidence. What’s Slim got to do with anything?” I said defending his ground.

  I wasn’t quite sure but I remembered what Slim told me about him being hired to watch over me. I looked away from Zasmyth and said, “Zas, you don’t know that for sure. And why would he kill them?”

  “Girl, wake-up! You just don’t want to believe that. I’m sure he did it because you were humiliated beyond belief.”

  “You don’t know it’s true!” said Konstance.

  “Alright. Y’all be the dumb ducks quaking around fo’ these niggas. Nay, don’t say I didn’t tell you—but Myron had Slim do that shit! They might be beefing about you—but they would do anything for you.”

  “Myron? Now you’ve really lost it!”

  “Yeah...like he lost it with you.” she said glaring at me.

  I didn’t have a comeback for that one, in fact I wanted to know if it was true or not.

  “Even if he did, he saved y’all from God knows what.” said Konstance.

  “Whatever. At least I got they mon-nay!” she boosted. Zasmyth licked her fingers and counted out some money.

  “Where all that money come from?” Konstance asked walking over to Zasmyth.

  “Are we going to still have this party?” Zasmyth asked ignoring Konstance.

  “Well, everybody knows we were having it. I say we keep the party going.” said Konstance. Zasmyth threw the money at me and pulled out some more bills and spread them out with her two hands as she hissed a laugh through her teeth.

  “What did you do exactly to get this money?” said Konstance.

  “Girl don’t start. You know how I make a living!”

  “Thanks anyway Zas.” I said in a melancholy drag. Konstance shook her head at me.

  “Sad. You are sad Zas!” Konstance began.

  “I can’t believe you, Nay. You ain’t nothing but a sank hoe!”

  “Hold up bitch! Who you calling a stank hoe!” said Zasmyth.

  “I’m talking to Nay about you. Denim was wrong about you, but he was sho right about Zasmyth nasty ass. “

  “Hold on y’all. Stop, we girls! Y’all seen what happen to Destiny’s Child. They went from being D3 to just plain and simple Beyonce.” I said seriocomically. My effort to calm things down was useless, they were already in battle.

  “Naw, she needs to stop tainting your head. A real friend wouldn’t drag their girl in the mud.” said Konstance.

  Zasmyth kicked off her shoes and took her ear rings off.

  “So, I’m the only hoe in this room now?!” said Zasmyth with a crept keeper laugh.

  Konstance rolled her eyes and said,

  “Only hoe I see at the moment.”

  “Alright bitch, I done had er’nough of you! You acting all high and migh’ti now like yaur shit don’t stink. Now, mi only trying to help Nay. I don’t see ya doing a damn thing to help her situ-way-shun. A real friend wouldn’t look from the side line and add more gasoline ta da fire.” I sat listening, as words flew over my head. There was so much confusion that I didn’t bother to ask.

  “Look we can argue about this all day, but the fact is I would rather have a banging party. Let’s not forget I’m grown and I have chosen my own path.” I said.

  “Whatever.” Konstance said as she walked out the room.

  “Look, I’m sorry. Mi just want to help you.” said Zasmyth walking over to me.

  “Forget about it. Let’s just plan this party.” Even though Konstance was upset, she still managed to help with the cooking.

  I handled decorations, called for a disk jockey, and security. Zasmyth handled the RSVP’s. Little did we know, we were soon on our way the having the biggest talked about party of the year.

  * * * *

  In my frame of mind, three in the morning was meant to be an hour of sleep. Especially after all the hard work that was put into putting a party together that somehow ended up looking like a wedding reception made for a king and queen. We stepped back and looked at the transformation Konstance had a local designing team do on Denim’s mother’s formal dance hall in her home. Mrs. Denise Byer’s estate was one to be envied. With fifteen acres of nothing but lush land, a pool house with a Montego Bay inspired thousand feet long pool that had lights to light up at night inside it’s midnight blue waters, a volley ball net with sand import
ed from Fiji island, and a house so big Shaq would feel at home. Our party was definitely going to be jumping.

  But for me, three in the morning didn’t give much room for sleep after hard work. I reached over for my cell phone that sat in my small clutch bag and didn’t think to look at the number until after I said,

  “Hello?”

  “Good morning Chardonnay.” Jase let out with a refreshed sigh.

  “Um, it’s still night in many other countries, as well as my body.”

  He chuckled so sexy, which told me that my hormones weren’t ever asleep,

  “Well, sorry to wake you. I was uh, going over your resume...you’re a damn good student.” he said with impression in his vocals.

  “Thank you,” I sat up to hear more of what he had to say.

  “Any one with your grades and credentials deserves a shot, and I wouldn’t want to miss out on a talent like you. How about we meet at my office tomorrow morning at six o’ clock?”

  I laughed.

  “You mean, today at six o’ clock since your offices are closed on a Saturday?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  A long pause.

  “I miss you.” he let out going from business to personal.

  I twisted my neck to get out a knot in it and looked up at the ceiling.

  “Jase, why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I would rather tell you the reason tomorrow, please. I’ve been up all night looking over assistant and intern resumes, model comp cards...please let me explain myself to you when I have a clear mind.”

  I nodded my head,

  “Coo, but I will be at your office at eight-not six. I’ve been up putting together a party all night.”

  “Oh and yeah—thanks for the invite.”

  “What?”

  “I got it through my Blackberry, maybe we can show up together?”

  I couldn’t believe Konstance had done that. But then again I knew she was inviting all of elite crowd in Kansas City. I prayed Myron wouldn’t show.

  “Um I don’t know about that.”

  “Hump....well, might just stop by for a few seconds and then roll out.”

  I rolled my eyes.