“Qu, it’s me, Tierra. You know, your best friend since diapers and mashed peas. What’s going on? I’ve called you every day this week, and you haven’t returned any of my calls,” she paused, took a deep breath, and continued, “Did I do something wrong? I really need to talk to you. Please meet me in an hour at JC’s.” she paused as if she expected there to be an answer. “PICK UP, damn it! I know you’re there!” she screamed through the answering machine on Qu’s phone. She was done with being avoided by him. Whenever she stopped by he would conveniently be out at a doctor appointment. She had it and was about one phone call away from busting his door down to blast him face to face. Her therapist though, told her to give him some space, as did her mom, so she was doing her best to respect his possible frame of mind.
After she hung up the phone she showered in record time and tossed on a pair of red Capri jeans, black slip one inch heels and a black strapless flowing shirt. She was determined to get to the bottom of everything today. At this point even Malcolm wasn’t returning her phone calls. If someone didn’t say something to her soon, she was going to burst from anxiety and frustration.
She snatched her keys, and purse, off the hall table and quickly vacated her condo. She hopped into her awaiting car and told the driver to head over to JC’s. While they drove down I91-N towards Amherst, Tierra thought about what she was going to do if Qu didn’t show up. She was actually more nervous though, of what she was going to say if he did show up.
When they pulled into the parking lot at JC’s, it was packed as usual. The line was long and the music could be heard from outside. The valet opened the car door and helped Tierra out of her car and a big muscular man at the door ushered her right in.
“Good evening, Ms. Rodriquez,” he said opening the door for her.
“Hello, thank you,” she smiled at him.
A tall olive skinned woman with black hair and an inviting smile stood poised, behind a wooden hostess table. When Tierra entered the lounge she immediately pressed a button on her table notifying a waitress to come over. She then stepped from behind the table and greeted Tierra affectionately.
“Welcome back Ms. Rodriquez,” she began, extending her hand.
“Hello Chamani, it’s great to be back,” Tierra responded accepting her hand and adding a cheek-to-cheek kiss to the young woman.
The waitress arrived and escorted Tierra to her usual table and handed her a menu.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“Yes please, can you bring me a glass of water with some lemon until my guest arrives?”
“Sure thing,” the waitress replied and disappeared.
She returned a short time later with the lemon water and placed it on the table just in front of Tierra. Tierra lifted the glass and slowly sipped from it while watching the entryway like a hawk for Qu to stroll in, her patience wearing thin with every minute.
“Did you see the size of the diamond on her ring? It’s got to be like 10-carats,” a voice said from the table next to where Tierra sat.
“He looks familiar, though. Isn’t he that basketball player that got hurt his fourth year pro?” the woman’s friend replied.
Tierra inconspicuously looked around, trying to see what couple they were referring to. ‘It couldn’t be Malcolm that they were talking about.’ she thought to herself. But it’s not like there was a lot of ex-ball players living in the New England area. He wouldn’t be here not with another woman, would he? She ignored everyone who said that this guy wasn’t for her. She tried so hard to make things work, to push her feelings to be where she thought they should be. If he was here with another woman, well, JC better call 911 in a hurry.
Across the room, she could see several patrons looking back, pointing and smiling towards a particular table. She noticed a woman and a man sitting in the booth where everyone was pointing. Overwhelmed by what she thought she was witnessing she blinked her eyes profusely, praying they were deceiving her. It couldn’t be him. Was this why he wasn’t returning her calls? He moved on? But why wouldn’t he just tell her? Why do it secretively?
Before she knew it, she was up out of her seat and walking towards the couple, her movements trance like. It seemed like everyone simply moved out of her way as she glided through the crowd. Brownstone noticed Tierra in the crowd. She saw Malcolm when he entered the club earlier and prayed Tierra wouldn’t show up when she noticed the mystery woman affectionately clutching onto his arm. She swiftly, yet inconspicuously turned her head to alert Roe to the goings on before them. When he looked in the direction she motioned, his eyes grew wide with anger. Unfortunately, they were powerless, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Unable to stop playing fore it would cause a scene and with no one around to notify of the impending massacre that was about to take place. They played on. Really, neither of them knew exactly what Tierra was going to do when she reached Malcolm’s table, only what they would do if it were them. Brownstone looked around feverishly trying to make eye contact with a waitress, Jade, or anyone. Before she could grab anyone’s attention though, Tierra suddenly stopped a few feet short of the table and stood there motionless.
While she stood statuesque, the past 4 months flashed through her mind. Her eyes narrowed, as she focused in on the elated couple, smiling. They were unaware of Tierra’s presence. Not for long though.
“Tonight, it seems we have a special treat everyone!” she finally began, in a loud commanding tone. “It seems we are all blessed with the presence of the elite,” she sarcastically said taking the last three steps toward Malcolm’s table.
Malcolm’s looked up and his jaw hit the table. His guest was sitting so close to him, she might as well be on his lap. Her arm wrapped around his elbow, smiling ear to ear.
“Who us?’ she began, popping the gum in her mouth while she talked. “We just got engaged tonight,” she announced, looking up towards Tierra, proudly lifting her hand, dangling her index finger to show off her ring. It was an exact duplicate of the one on Tierra’s left hand.
Malcolm stood up and opened his mouth to speak, but the great Malcolm Turner for once… was speechless.
“Aren’t you two a lovely couple?” Tierra lied, before his voice came back to him. “You just look so happy together. How long have you been together?” she inquired, wanting to know how long she had been deceived.
“Just a few weeks. But, my momma said when a man like my Malcolm here asks you to marry him, well, you don’t think about it, you just do it.” she said looking up at him.
Malcolm tried to regain control of the situation. He smiled at Tierra, who cut her eyes at him. He was nervous and it was showing. By now even his new fiancée was taking notice of the unspoken interaction between the two of them.
“What’s your name, Honey?” Tierra asked the young.
“Um, Trina, Trina Little,” she replied hesitantly.
“Ti, Ti listen, can we go outside and talk?” Malcolm started in a low tone.
Just then, Qu arrived and was making his way into JC’s. The hostess escorted him to where she was seated Tierra earlier, but she wasn’t there. Sean just happened to be with Qu, when he received the call from Tierra. It was at his insistence that Qu went to JC’s to meet her. Jade made her way out from the kitchen, and on her way to say hello to Qu and Sean, when she noticed Brownstone trying desperately to get her attention. She turned to see what Brownstone was looking at and nudged the guys when she saw what the commotion was all about.
“OH!”
“MY!”
“What the Hell?” Qu finished everyone’s thought. “Please tell me that is not Malcolm?”
“Ti, this isn’t what it looks like,” Malcolm finally tried to explain.
Trina looked up at him, confused, “What’s going on, Malcolm?”
“Shut Up!” he demanded, silencing her. She immediately lowered her head.
“He can explain everyone…” Tierra again broadcasted to everyone. “Can’t you Malcolm? Can you explain why you are sitting here with this chi
ck, and why she’s saying you just asked her to marry you? Can you explain that? I don’t think so!” she paused, took a deep breath, cutting Malcolm off as he tried to speak again. “Can you explain why you told me to take my time, to make up my mind, why you told me that you loved me? I was taking care of my best friend you said you understood how important he was to me, Malcolm!”
“Hey, you were taking too long,” he finally interjected.
“Too long?! How long did you wait Malcolm? I’ve called you, is it supposed to be my fault you haven’t returned any of my calls. While I’m trying to figure things out, you, well, I can see what you’ve been doing… everything you promised you wouldn’t.”
“Ti, listen, you need to calm your lil ass, down!” he whispered in an even lower, yet aggressive tone.
“You know what? Everyone warned me that you were not the man for me, but I thought maybe if I just gave myself time, maybe I would learn to trust you. I wanted so much to tell you things that were going on inside of me. I wanted to tell you about my being raped, about how much I was hurting inside. I wanted you to know that falling in love was the scariest to me. But now, now I know why I couldn’t tell you,” she breathed deep and fought back the tears that were demanding attention. There was no way she was going to give him the satisfaction of seeing even one tear fall from her eyes.
“Here, take this back!” she struggled ripping the sparkling diamond solitaire off her finger. When she had it in hand, she flung it across the table. It bounced twice before it slid and landed in front of Trina, who picked it up. She immediately recognized that it looked exactly like the ring Malcolm had placed on her finger only moments ago. “Now your ring has a twin,” Tierra said to Trina, who looked more confused than anything else comparing the two rings. “Ms. Trina Dear, you can have him! And have fun, because God didn’t make any fool’s here. You may fool me once, but brother, you won’t fool me twice. Trust I won’t shed one tear from these cinnamon eyes over your whack ass!”
Sean, Jade, and Qu all stood there mouth gaped open at the sound of Tierra’s confession. Raped… by who… when and why didn’t she tell anyone? No wonder she was so closed off, reserved. No wonder she didn’t open up to new people easily. The wheels began to turn as they watched, and suddenly everything about Tierra, made sense. They decided they needed to get Tierra before she unwittingly revealed anymore of her personal secrets in the midst of the crowd. Especially since many of them had their cell phones out recording their YouTube video upload.
“Listen!” Malcolm demanded, grabbing Tierra’s left arm, just as tight as the right. He grabbed her with such force that her whole body jerked forward.
Qu, who up until this moment, didn’t realize Malcolm had his hands on Tierra, saw her body jerk forward, and knew at once there was more going on than what he could see. His pace quickened at that point.
“Stop making a scene! Raped? Is that the best lie you could come up with? More likely you pulled one of your little stunts like you tried with me. Hell, you’re lucky I didn’t take it from you… you freakin’ tease! Why don’t you take your ass home, and I’ll call you later. ” Malcolm responded irate grabbing her by the arm.
“Hey wait? What’s going on here?” Trina asked, standing up pointing at the two of them.
“Sit down and shut-up I told you!” he said pushing Trina back into the booth.
“That’s it!” Qu fumed forcing his way through the crowd.
“Malcolm let go of me! You’re hurting me!” Tierra pleaded, trying to pull herself out of his grasp. “I don’t want to talk to you later. I’m done! I’ve overcome far worse than the loss of a two timing ex -baller,” she mocked him.
“Ex-Baller? Bitch, I’m Malcolm Fucking Turner! Who in the hell are you?” he raised his hand to strike her.
“Brotha, you might want to rethink yourself,” Qu warned, catching Malcolm’s’ wrist midair and tossing it out of Tierra’s strike zone. “Now I know you heard the lady ask you to let her go. You need to do as she asked,” he finished eyes locked on Malcolm.
“Nigga, why don’t you mind your own damn business.”
Sean and Jade stood behind Qu staring towards Malcolm. Malcolm looked around and noticed half the restaurant was also motionless, fixated on him. The other half had their cell phone out recording the whole scene.
He smiled. He looked at Qu and shook his head changing his tone. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the walking dead? I guess someone up above is actually looking out for your ass after all,” Malcolm hissed. “The way I heard it, you shoulda been dead the way that car splashed you across Main Street.”
“What the F…” Qu began balling his fist up by his side. Sean quickly stepped next to him and pulled on his arm, to calm him down, before things got physical.
“Yeah, fall back boy!”
“BOY?!”
“Dude seriously, you need to let go of Tierra’s arm,” Sean added, stepping in between Qu and Malcolm.
“Let her go baby,” Trina pleaded, tugging on the bottom of his shirt.
“Listen to your fiancée, Malcolm. Let me go. You got your ring back, and you got someone quick to say yes to you, now let me go.”
“Whatever yo! You ain’t even worth the hassle. You ain’t nothing but a damn tease anyway,” he said, flinging Tierra’s arm out of his grip. “Let’s go, Trina!” he hollered yanking her out of the booth.
Tierra took a deep breath, and looked down at the floor. She avoided making eye contact with anyone. Feeling more than a little embarrassed, she rubbed her wrist, desperately desiring to escape the questions she knew were soon to come.
“You’re not going to get away that easy, lil missy,” Qu said stepping in her path.
Tierra could no longer hold back the tears that were building behind her eyes, yearning to stream down her face. They broke free and flowed down like a burst floodgate. How could she have been so blind? She hurt worse than she could have imagined she would. Thank God Qu showed up, she thought before realizing, ‘Qu is STANDING next to me !?’
“Qu, you’re… you’re walking?” she said wiping her face.
“Yeah, this wasn’t how I imagined strolling in here, but…”
“I’m sorry. Maybe I should have just ignored them, and waited for you. But, I couldn’t.”
“I get it. I’m not mad at ya.”
“Yeah, Tierra no one is mad at you girl,” Jade said softly.
“That BASTARD was going to hit me! I mean how pathetic am I? I chose him.”
“Tierra, it’s not your fault. He’s the jerk,” Sean tried to add.
“Whatever. Listen, I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
Qu tried to stop her again. He looked into the eyes of the woman he loved and longed to hold her in his arms and tell her it was going to be ok. He yearned to erase any memory of Malcolm from her mind. Most importantly he wanted to know who was responsible for raping her and when.
“Please, let me go Qu,” he whispered looking down at his hand in hers. When he finally relinquished his hold on her hand, she picked up her head, wiped her face and quickly walked out.
“What just happened?” Qu asked, looking more stunned than anything else.
“Give her some time, baby,” Jade said to Qu.
“Time, sure. I’ve got nothing but that now!”
“She’s hurt. She’s embarrassed. I’m sure she is even confused. It’s going to take a little while.”
“Yeah Man, come on. Let’s have a drink and calm ourselves down.” Sean suggested pushing Qu into the booth Malcolm just dragged Trina out of.
“Drinks are on the house!” Jade yelled to the still silent crowd. “Come on every one let’s get back to the party.”
Just Me and My Whine