Chardonnay: A Novel Read online

  “How do I know you truly mean that?” I said.

  I had heard it all before.

  “You know how many girls would love to be in your shoes? I chose you. And you go do dis shit to me?”

  “You know how many girls have been in my shoes? And your parents chose me, you didn’t”

  “Man, I don’t need this.”

  He hated the truth. But it was reality.

  “And I don’t either.”

  “Chardonnay, look. I wasn’t supposed to say anything, but my mother is having an engagement party for us and a rally party for the first round pick tonight. It’s all in one. I need you to be there.”

  I snapped my neck at him and a sheer look of disgust filled my face. He looked me dead on. The look in his eyes said, “You’re going to this fuckin’ engagement party.” But he never said the words. Instead I believed he saw the entrapment in my eyes for the first time.

  He bit his top lip while anguish and bitterness was becoming us. The time speed of the people we were when we fell in love and the people we were now-what a damn difference. The world even looked different. I hadn’t noticed it until now. Stopped paying attention to how blue the sky was and how green the grass grew nine years ago. I just looked straight ahead. Neither up or down, because he was my main focus. Now I’m in a whole new world that I don’t recognize.

  “Look, let’s just play this thing out until....”

  “What? We break up?” A part of me regretted saying those words two seconds before they flew out my mouth.

  “I don’t know?” he said.

  “I’m tired of you using me.”

  “I’m not, but everyone knows we’re supposed to be getting married. How crazy would that look, you not being there?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll see tonight.”

  The thought pissed him off even more as he started his ignition and made a U-turn, pulling off fast onto the lonesome trail of rocks crunching under his 22’s. As I sat there still shaking from Myron’s out of control reaction, he stared straight ahead at the road, this time gripping the steering wheel tight.

  A lump of some sort was caught in my throat. I couldn’t speak and in that moment I knew...what he and I had was through. Albeit I knew this, the hard part would be getting him to realize it. There was no way I would be showing up to the engagement party. I had to find a way out of it. Just then I remembered having to meet with a friend of mine the next day. I looked at Myron and touched his arm trying to play his defense. He stopped at a red light and slowly looked at me.

  “Baby...I—I have to meet with a friend of mine about my internship at Vogue today. I just remembered. I have to go there before this party starts and...I can’t go in these clothes.”

  I forgot Myron’s type and how smart he was. His Escalade made a left and headed towards The Country Club Plaza to one of my favorite stores. Armani Exchange. I closed my eyes and screamed inside. He pulled to the curb, fixed me up like I was a child and he was the perfect domestic mother, touching my face gently and then piercing my lips with his tongue lovingly. After doing so he handed me three crisp hundred dollar bills.

  “Go pick up something nice. What time is the meeting with your friend?”

  “In thirty minutes actually. I won’t have time to shop, Myron. Just take me by my parent house and then we can get there and to the eng—”

  “No. I want to take you to the meeting.” he said interrupting me and discombobulating my plans.

  “But Micah and I—”

  “Micah?A dude?”

  “Yes, and he’s my friend from Lincoln, remember?”

  Myron sat his head back on the head rest comfortably as if he wasn’t parked illegally in a fire zone. He knew Micah wasn’t a threat with good reasoning since he knew of him.

  “Look, Micah and I wanted it to just be us since we haven—”

  “You think I’m stupid. Chardonnay...you’re going to this party if I have to drag you in my parent’s home—a’ight?” Myron reached over and opened my door.

  “See you in fifteen.” he said looking at me with a nonchalant expression.

  I got out the SUV and left the door wide open as I tracked my scuffled heels to the glass door that read AlX on the front of it. When I looked back he had already pulled off hurriedly.

  I pulled out my cell phone and began walking towards some sky scrapping office buildings across the street. I saw that there was a Sheraton Suites and I knew I would need quick shelter in order to hide from Myron. I ran up the steep and tiled steps around the front instead of taking the back doors where Myron could easily find me. I was out of breath by the time I reached the top but I kept running. I rushed to the revolving doors and slightly bumped a well-dressed man who barely got out a,

  “Pardon me,” before I was on my way towards the check in desk. A short line that consisted of two people seemed like a ten foot long line to me. I knew by now Myron was looking for me. Like I had assumed, my phone started ringing his incoming cell number. The couple I thought was two separate acquaintances walked off thanking the front desk clerk and I thanked God for letting me be next in line.

  “Hello ma’am,” said a woman who looked my age. She looked up at me from her computer and took a double take on my face. I wasn’t sure exactly how I looked but I knew physically I was worn.

  “How may I help you today?”

  “Yes I need a room.”

  “What type?”

  “A suite with a living room.”

  “Okay,” she began typing.

  “I have a room with a king bed and a separate living room that also has a sofa bed. It’s $219.00.”

  My phone began ringing again.

  “I’ll take it.” I said without thinking of the charges. She began typing some more then asked,

  “Your name?”

  I had to think quick. I didn’t want to make it easy to be found so I said,

  “Uniquah Peppendecker.”

  The Black girl looked at me like I was crazy. I studied her back and said,

  “Look, I can show you my actual I.D. But I can also put this under whatever names I choose.” I went looking for my I.D. and couldn’t find it.

  She waved her hand at me and said,

  “Your total is $254.16.”

  “What? I thought it—”

  “Tax honey.”

  “Oh,” I pulled out the crumpled three hundred dollar bills Myron had given me and threw the three balls on the counter. She gave me my room number, access card, and receipt. I walked quickly to the elevators and damn if I wasn’t on time. Once I reached them I sighed and turned to see Myron walking through the revolving doors on a rampage looking in all directions. I prayed the damned elevator would come in time before he saw me in the cubical hall of the four elevators. When it clicked I waited for it to open. As soon as it did I jumped on. A few seconds later I heard a man’s voice hollering for me to hold the elevator and I knew it was him. I pushed the close door button nearly a million times in sheer panic, but I was too late. A hand caught the door and pulled it back open.

  I recognized the shoes and trench coat he had on...it was the well-dressed man I bumped into coming in the hotel. I pushed him out the way and beat the close door button as I broke down crying. For a moment he stared at me like I was insane. Then he looked at me as if I was a marveled ghost. When the door finally shut and the only sound was my heaving and his breathing, he asked,

  “Are you okay? I mean I know I stopped you from getting to your room faster but,”

  I laughed incredulously and looked at him...I couldn’t believe it. Forget sexy. Close up he was gorgeous. Eyes of gray with an emerald ring around it’s iris that couldn’t of been contacts, beautifully twisted locks, with a thick, body building, five foot eleven frame. As wrong as the timing was he was staring me down hard and I couldn’t help but look back and feel a familiarity. A sense of warmth and security.

  “Um, no, no.I just...nothing.” I said moving the fallen hairs out my face.

>   “And you dropped this.” he said handing me my I.D.

  “Thank you.” I said taking it.

  He chuckled,

  “Uniquah, huh? Although you do have a very unique and different name—you look nothing like a Uniquah, if you don’t mind me saying, Ms. Houston.”

  The elevator stopped on my floor and I didn’t respond to him, just smirked and got off. He stepped in the threshold of the elevator and watched me to my door never speaking one word as I tried to put the access key in the door. My nerves got the best of me as he watched. After giving up I put my hands to my face and broke down again. He got off completely and said, “You need help?”

  I nodded my head and handed it to him. He got it on the first try. I didn’t bother getting it back from him and walked on in my room. I was clustered around luxury and none of it meant anything to me. He stood at the door not sure what do. I leaned on the dining room table and heard him say,

  “You were running from that flashy jock, weren’t you?”

  I looked at him and said,

  “Flashy jock?”

  He smirked and said,

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  I nodded my head up and down.

  My cell phone began to ring. It was Myron. I looked over at the stranger standing in my room and said,

  “Thank you for helping me...um,” I wavered my hand in suggestion to the fact I didn’t know his name. He dropped his head then looked up out the corner of his sorrowful eyes whispering,

  “Jase.”

  I nodded my head and smiled,

  “Well, Jase, thank you.”

  He stared at me for a second, opened his mouth in an attempt to say something only to bite down on his lip. I looked at the door and he did as well.

  “Well it was my pleasure. I have to be going...prior arrangements.” he said.

  I nodded my head as he tilted his head back, slowly stepping back wards toward the door. I walked to the separate guest room to take the battery off my phone. I only looked back when I heard my door close. He was gone.

  5

  In Too Deep

  Steam rose from the whirlpool garden tub as I undressed out my ruined clothing. My cell had been ringing constantly. I slowly sunk into the luke warm water careful not to bother the irritation between my legs, to no avail. I sat my head back and closed my eyes as tears fell down the corners of them, melting the bubbles on my chest. The tears weren’t of tears that had been caused by Myron, but of the way this would outcast me. I would be the blame for our failed engagement—not him, and that infuriated me. I picked up my pink rhinestone encrusted Channel covered cell phone and called my voice mail. I had fifty new messages from various people, all who of which, were either invited to the engagement party or still standing in the formal dining room of Myron’s parents’ home waiting on me to show up. One of the few messages I took time to listen to was from Myron’s mother. She was the number one person I hated to disappoint.

  “Chardonnay, baby, I know you might be scared and this is happening too fast for you...call me and let me know you’re okay, I’m worried about you, honey.” the strain in her voice told me she was truly concerned. I listened to Myron’s twenty calls, all of them the same, him threatening me or either begging me into coming to the party. In one of the calls he was telling me he was back at his parent’s house and getting dressed as he was leaving the message. I clipped the phone down after I heard my mother’s irate voice come in on the next message, yet I did hear, “You little bit—” before I did so. Manifestly, Myron had gotten her sympathy.

  That night I went to bed alone and with my sorrows, that it seemed, no else understood. And then I thought, here I am and here is where I will now stand on my own two feet. No one else would carry me.I rolled out the caress of the prima cotton sheets and slid my feet across the floor to the hotel phone to dial a number I was dreading to do so. Although I didn’t want to speak with them, I felt I owed my parents the decency of knowing I was in town from college and oh...that I wasn’t marrying Myron. On the first half of a ring, my mother picked up saying,

  “Chardonnay?! Is this you?”

  “Yeah, ma. I’m oka—”

  “Where in the world have you been? And what do you call yourself standing that man up like that for? He is so worried about you and thought that someone may have kidnapped you and done God knows what.”

  What my mother failed to realize was that it didn’t take a complete stranger to do God knows what to you like Myron had done to me. I tried to permit my ear to continue listening to her ostracized tone.

  “Well, I’m okay, thanks for asking.” I offered sarcastically.

  “The police are out looking for you; you need to get home now. Where are you, I’ll have a driver out to pick you up.”

  I waved the thought away of being chauffeured around, I had been given that treatment my whole life.

  “No ma. I won’t be coming by the house today, I have to meet with a frie—”

  “To hell with your little slut of friends! This is a family issue and we will deal with it now! Or you will be sorry!” she said and left a dead tone at the other end. I placed the phone back on its hook. This morning I couldn’t even be down, I was already low. I called Zasmyth and told her where I was and that I wanted to meet with Micah. After getting off the phone with her I made another call to Slim. When he picked up the phone I could hear white noise in the back ground.

  “Where you been at? Folks lookin’ for you.” he said through brisk breaths.

  “Slim, I know that. Where are you...I need you—”

  “The gym. You told my best friend I fucked you...why?”

  “Oh so now It’s me against you and him. I thought this is what you wanted?”

  He took long drought breaths then chuckled,

  “Too late don’t you think? Chardonnay—I got business and when you interfere with how I do things you mess up things—a’ight. Now you know I’m there for you no matter what...but.”

  “But what—now you playing mind games.”

  “I ain’t the one puttin’ things on as they ain’t— good girl.”

  I huffed and looked at my cell.

  “What’s up with you? Why you actin’ like this?”

  “I’m actin’ like this because when your dude ain’t around, you act like you lovin’ a nigga...tell me this Chardonnay, how come when I told you I loved you, you didn’t say it back. That’s messed up with you being the first girl I’ve ever loved.”

  “Slim...please not now. I just need you, please. He raped me.” I whimpered out.

  I could hear quick movement in the background after saying those words and then I heard something click back. For a second I forgot who I was talking to. Slim ran the streets and I knew that. What I didn’t know was how hard he was running them.

  “I’m on my way. Where you at?”

  “Slim don’t do anything, alright.”

  “Just tell me where you are. If I know Myron like I think I know him and he done went that fuckin far already—he’ll try some other shit.”

  “I’m at the Sheraton Suites on the Country Club Plaza.”

  “Where’s that?”

  I sighed and forgot most urban guys said The Plaza.

  “The Plaza.Under the alias Uniquah Peppendecker.”

  “What the fuc—”

  “Don’t ask.”

  “A’ight. Stay put.”

  When he got there I only had on a plain white—T that I had room service bring up. Slim sat me down on the bed rubbing my thigh as I shook and said,

  “I hate him.”

  Slim looked at me as if he understood.

  “I know you do. But why try to get him back like this?”

  “I’m just telling him the truth.”

  “No...the truth is you and I never had sex.”

  I looked at him.

  “What?”

  “Well, we tried but...we didn’t get far.”

  “Slim this is crazy! How come I rem
ember having sex with you and...”

  “The room of guys?” he said as he smirked finishing his sentence.

  “So I wasn’t tripping.” I said as I covered my face.

  “Look, we all just...had a little too much fun.” He said looking from me.

  “We...how did this all happen?”

  “We got drunk,” he chuckled.

  “How else does some shit go down like that. It obviously wasn’t planned. Look, what you experienced was real but you just stripped, baby...that’s all.”

  “STRIPPED?!”

  I jumped up and looked at Slim in awe. He stood up and held his arms out.

  “I protected you, don’t worry. But when you came to me about your financial situation...”

  And then I knew he was telling the truth. I held my arms around my shoulders and cried out,

  “Oh my god...I told him we messed around and it didn’t even happen.”

  “He don’t have to know everything, Chardonnay.” Slim said wrapping his arms around me.

  I pushed him away from me sobbing to the floor. Slim pulled me up and rocked me in his arms, “It’s gonna be koo, shawty...shush all that noise. You a’ight. Do you think you need to go to the hospital?”

  “I don’t want to go near a hospital. I’m going to just check out here and go over to P.F. Chang’s to meet Micah.”

  He nodded his head as if he understood.

  When we arrived there, not even three minutes away from the Sheraton Suites, Micah was already settled at a table, iPod glued to ear, rambling on to someone on his cell on the other about his dry cleaning and how they pressed his suit the wrong way. The second he saw me with Slim in tow he clipped his phone down and stood to his feet.

  “Chardonnay, darling!”

  I gave a weak smile and Micah’s face turned concerned.

  “Hey Micah.”

  He was my boy gal, as I called him, Micah Waterford. Even though he was in his junior year of college, the man had his own management company and was helping me get an internship since he knew a few who’s who’s in the media communications and literary industry. As fine as he was, with his caramel golden skin, light brown, almond shaped eyes, perfectly cut close Ludacris fade, and dimples so deep you could lose your train of thought in them, he was so gay.