Always Unique Read online

  “It’s your dinner,” she said.

  “Packed up like that?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, while trying to snoop in the bags.

  “Get back, babe, let me get everything set up,” she said as she started pulling out a tablecloth and covered the small table in the room. She set up the candles on it.

  Took looked on, as she sat the containers of food on the table. “Where did you get food from?”

  “I cooked it,” she said with a smile.

  “You cooked?” he said, surprised.

  “Yes, I cooked for you, honey. I figured you been away from home and living out of a suitcase—eating out from restaurant to diner. I wondered when was the last time that you actually had a home-cooked meal. So, while you were out handling your business I decided that I’d prepare a real dinner for you.”

  Having a woman cook for him was nothing new. Most of the chicken heads he ran across couldn’t boil an egg and the ones who could thought that if they cooked for him it was to the way to his pockets, and did it for points. However, he felt that Tyeedah went through all of this trouble because she genuinely wanted to for him, no strings or ulterior motives, only to make his life a little more comfortable.

  Tyeedah was what he needed in his life. Time and time again, over the past few days she constantly showed it—that he needed her in his life.

  “I would’ve invited you over for dinner, but with my lil brother there there’s literally no privacy and I didn’t know how you would feel about him being in our mix so soon.”

  Took didn’t say anything because he was still digging the thought behind her unexpected gift.

  “Anyways, like I said, I know you got to be tired of eating out.”

  “Thank you baby,” he said and took her into his arms. “You make me so happy, and I want to work things out so that I can make you happy and that we could really be together—and build something. Real talk.”

  Took meant it, but knew that the odds of them really making it were slim to none. But she had him wondering how he could adjust his plan so that things could work out between the two of them. He couldn’t help but wonder if Tyeedah had any idea that he was Took and that he was there to harm her best friend. He hated that he had fallen for Tyeedah and that he was now second guessing what he came there for—to make Unique’s life a living hell. But if he went through with it, then he would most likely lose the one thing that he wanted to be his.

  “Let me finish getting this set up for you. I know you gotta be hungry.”

  “It smells good.”

  He couldn’t help but to think to himself, Why she gotta be so right? So kind? So thorough? So sexy? So sexual? So considerate? Loyal? So everything I need and want? Why? Yo GOD, you got jokes. Your sense of humor is crazy!

  While she continued to set up the spread, he made his way back across the room to move his papers off of the desk where he had been sitting. But his butterfingers caused him to drop one of the folders and papers scattered across the floor. He couldn’t get them all up quick enough, and she ran over to help him pick up the papers. Though Took tried to get them up fast, it was too late.

  Tyeedah was shocked when she saw an old school picture of Unique wearing that red leather suit and some tall riding boots. It was the same photo that Unique had had when she was in jail. He also had the wedding photo of Unique and Kennard that had run in the newspaper.

  Tyeedah wasn’t dumb by a long shot. She knew what time it was.

  She offered a silent prayer to God that her new friend, Seymour, wasn’t Unique’s old friend, Took.

  But deep down inside, Tyeedah knew that God would probably wash his hands of this one. She probably wasn’t going to be that lucky. Just when she thought that things might be finally falling in place for her with her love life, she had to be reminded that things are not always what they seem.

  She took a deep breath. “I don’t remember you saying who invited you to the party. Was it Kennard?” she asked.

  Without hesitation or detectable deception, he answered, “Neither. Keeping it one hundred with you, because I truly fucks with you, baby, I purchased my invite off the Net and invited myself.”

  He stared into her eyes, as if he knew that the questions had only begun. Questions he didn’t seem the slightest bit afraid to answer … but was she willing to ask and hear the real honest answers? Sometimes it felt better to accept a lie because the truth often hurt too much.

  “How long have you known Unique?” she asked, straight to the point. “And please, don’t lie to me.”

  He reached out for her hand; she pulled away, bracing herself for what she knew was going to most likely be some bullshit.

  “Maybe you should have a seat,” he said.

  “Maybe you should answer the damn question,” she responded, standing her ground and not wanting any of the fluff or the cow for the bull he was preparing for her.

  Holding her glare with his own gaze, he said, “I’ve known Nique a while. The first time we had sex … she was sixteen and I was eighteen.”

  At that moment Tyeedah felt like rocks were grinding up in her stomach. The already small room started to close in on her. She sucked in a breath of stale air as artificial as their so-called chance meeting. “So why the fuck am I here?” she spazzed out on him. “Unique told me about that foul-ass shit you did to her about getting her out on that appeal bond, then taking her on the get-money spree and ultimately leaving her in Mexico. That was some foul ass shit.”

  “Hold on, baby,” he said calmly.

  “Hold on, my ass,” she said. “You must think I’m crazy or some shit.” She chuckled a bit and then asked, “So you thought that by you putting your hocus-pocus on me that you would seduce me into turning on my girl somehow. Yo, playboy, you got me fucked up. Ain’t no dick that good that I would betray a friend, and especially Unique.”

  He listened to everything she had to say and now it was his turn to suck in a pocket of the sour air that filled the room. His lungs seemed to rock with it a lot better than hers. When he exhaled he said, “I had no idea you and Nique were as close as you are.” With the casualness in which he referred to Unique’s name, she couldn’t believe she’d actually fucked this dude and had fallen for him. She knew there was an undeniable attraction but she still felt rotten.

  “At first,” he continued, “I thought I’d just met a pretty girl at an ex-girlfriend’s party.”

  Tyeedah wasn’t buying it, not even a little bit. “Who the hell do I look like to you? Suzy Sausagehead, huh? If you were keeping it so on the up and up then how come you didn’t bother to tell me your real name?”

  “I did tell you my real name. My mother named me Seymour. Took is my street name.”

  Tyeedah rolled her eyes. “Nigga, please. I don’t believe in coincidence,” she said, flipping. “There are no chance meetings or encounters.”

  “Well, I don’t believe in coincidences, either, but,” he added, “how come it’s impossible to buy into the fact that maybe it was in the cards for us to hook up?”

  “Easy,” said Tyeedah. “Because you either stacked the deck or dealt from the bottom. That’s why.”

  Took tossed his hands up, like the matter was hopeless.

  She continued, “You could have given Denzel a run for his money with the acting. Yo, Unique was right about you. You got all your shit down pat, boy.”

  In his eyes, he wanted to explain it all to her and to make her feel comfortable. “What is it you want me to tell you?”

  She shot back, “Try the truth, if that’s even possible. I’m not even sure if the truth is even in you.”

  The thing that hurt Tyeedah the most was that she was genuinely feeling the dude—she thought they had chemistry—only to find out that she was more like his science project. She was likely a pawn in some Machiavellian scheme. She knew she should just put on her Air Jordans and take flight out of his life, but for some reason she just couldn’t cut loose.

  Took sounded contrite when he asked,
“Where do you want me to start?”

  Tyeedah remembered how skilled of a thespian Unique had said he was. “Why were you at the party on Saturday night?” she asked. “Start there.”

  Took looked upward and to the left, as if he were searching for the answer or a lie.

  “That’s a very good question,” he finally said. “Actually I’m not completely sure why I was there.”

  “Is that all you got? You are not fucking sure?” One person could only take so much bullshit and she had maxed her limit. “I’m outta here.”

  Took pulled her back. “You asked for the truth. The truth doesn’t always make sense—it just is what it is.”

  Tyeedah slapped his hand away. “Touch me one more time without my permission and I swear to God, I will cut your fucking hands off.” It was a warning; not an empty threat.

  Subconsciously, Took’s hands, as if they had a mind of their own, sought refuge behind his back.

  “Let me try to explain.”

  “Make it quick,” she said, rolling her eyes with mixed emotions, but wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  “I heard Nique had come up. Married Kennard DuVall and living a fantasy life. Information came right out of the blue. And I didn’t know how to feel about it,” he said truthfully. “Mad. Jealous. Hate. Vindictive … or all of the above. I was like an emotion gumbo.”

  Tyeedah tried not to be moved by his sudden, so-called revelation; she stood expressionless and listened as Took continued.

  “Sure. I contemplated several different ways I could make Nique’s life a few rungs less glamorous. Unburying a couple secrets that dear hubby or the police might not know about. At the very least,” Took said, coming clean, “I knew I could draw down a pretty penny, if I stayed quiet or not … and destroy her.”

  No emotions were intertwined with his words. He spoke as if he made these types of decisions every day. No big deal was written all over his face, but what was written in his heart was a whole other story.

  “After I got here, I asked myself an honest question: Am I pissed at Nique because she found someone who made her happy? Or because I failed at doing so? Or am I just miserable and I hate that she is, despite the fact I left her to rot?”

  “So,” Tyeedah asked sarcastically, “how did you answer this philosophical question of yours?”

  “I didn’t have to,” he said. “After I met you, my real reason for coming here changed. It seems like the more I was around you, I forgot about everything else.”

  “That sounds all peachy but at the same time, how can we be together?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. This may sound a little like bullshit, but please take my words at face value.”

  “What words are those?”

  “Let me try to fix this with Unique. Let me try to make things right with her and maybe she will accept things between us.”

  “If I were you, I wouldn’t bet your backwoods ranch on that one.”

  “Trust me,” he said.

  BIG TIME

  Friday was the standing delivery day for the wine and liquor. Unique quickly learned that it didn’t matter how well the food was prepared, how fabulous the décor, or how above satisfactory the service and waitstaff was: if the alcohol wasn’t up to par—and in abundance—the restaurant wasn’t worth the weight of its brick. It was a problem she needed to concern herself with because Couture Cuisine covered all of the above—this was why she had to be on point to get this liquor delivery.

  This was the first time Unique had been inside the building alone since finding the note. She wasn’t scared, however, because in a strange way she had come to enjoy that window of time before opening. She missed the solitude she had become accustomed to each morning and found solace in its peace.

  Her thoughts were shattered by a sound from behind the bar. The noise startled her until she realized it was only the buzzer that was wired and connected to the service doorbell. The supplies were always delivered at the back door, to the basement, which opened out to the alley in back of the building.

  He’s here, she thought, making her way to accept the delivery. In the kitchen, Unique flipped on the light for the stairs and the entire sublevel below. It was 9:15 A.M. and like clockwork, the delivery was right on schedule.

  Eighteen carpeted steps led to the wine cellar. Once at the bottom, Unique made a right, passed sixteen custom racks—each built to hold five hundred 0.75-liter wine bottles—before getting to the door that led to the huge storage room. The service entrance from the Second Avenue alley was ahead, to the left.

  Buzzzzz. The deliveryman was laying on the button, the annoying sound bouncing off the concrete walls. “I pay by the bottle not by the minute. Have some patience,” she spoke out as she reached the metal door. After disengaging multiple locks, she pulled the heavy door in on its hinges. “Where’s the fire at, man?” she said as she opened the door.

  The delivery driver wore the same outfit as he always did but hid his eyes behind some sunglasses. “Good morning,” he said with a smile. Then he walloped her smack-dab on the side of the head.

  His fist felt like a sledgehammer. The vicious blow caught Unique off guard and knocked her to the floor.

  “I got yo fire, bitch!” Looking up from her backside, she was certain this wasn’t the regular delivery guy. “I’m fitting to turn the heat way up,” he said in a real Southern drawl.

  Her first thought was that the fake delivery guy was Took, but the dude was way taller and had lighter skin than him. Maybe it was someone that Took had sent because he was famous for having other folks do his dirty work. If he was the same guy who had left the note, Unique knew she was in big trouble. She’d rather have faced a mugger only wanting the money. But this guy seemed as if what motivated him was personal. Then, like a theme from a movie, it came to her. The man in the blue uniform was Big Time.

  She was outdone. The chickens had come home to roost. The past had caught up with her once again. Big Time pushed the door shut. “I betcha thought you would never lay eyes on me again.”

  Big Time was from Atlanta; he was an old cellie boyfriend. When Unique got out of prison, Big Time was one of the many vics that she and Took had paid a visit to. The last time she’d seen the dude, Took and a couple of friends had automatic weapons pointed at his head, relieving him of a shitload of drugs and money that he had stashed in his upscale downtown Atlanta condo.

  Now, Big Time yanked her by the hair. “Kitty told me to tell you that she missed that hot tongue of yours.” The comment was meant to do exactly what it did—slap Unique in the face.

  In prison, Big Time’s girlfriend, Kitty, had everything legally an inmate could have, a myriad of things that weren’t allowed inside. It didn’t take long before Unique had turned Kitty’s fish-smelling pussy lesbo. Back then, in Unique’s mind, a girl had to do what a girl had to do to survive in the joint, just like in the streets—by any means necessary. Kitty was the first and the last bitch that she had ever given head to, let touch her, or given any other sexual favors for that matter.

  A pair of handcuffs appeared from somewhere behind Big Time’s back. He clamped them hard onto her wrists, so tight they almost cut off the blood circulation.

  Not knowing what Big Time had brewing in his mind, too terrified to even think about it, Unique said, “I can pay back every penny. You don’t have to do anything that you may regret later.”

  “Shut the fuck up, bitch,” he said as he stuffed a handkerchief into her mouth and then pushed her up against the wall, face-first. “Any regrets that are to be had are going to be by you.”

  COMING CLEAN

  Tyeedah finally fixed Took his plate and they ate in total silence. For the first time in his life, he really felt bad about his actions and he decided that he should just go ahead and lay the rest of his cards on the table.

  So, he decided to break the silence. “I know some of the things I’ve done have really been fucked up, like I paid her a visit and threatened her.”r />
  “You did what?” Tyeedah raised her voice and could not believe what she was hearing.

  “I didn’t put my hands on her, but told her my intentions to make her go broke and lose everything.” Before Tyeedah could respond, he said, “That’s not what I want to do anymore. All I want now is to make peace and be with you.” He sounded sincere.

  “Is there anything else you haven’t told me?” she asked.

  “Besides me soliciting the help of one of Kennard’s boxers to throw the fight and blame it all on Kennard?”

  Tyeedah just looked at Took long and hard. She was quiet. Even with all Unique had told her, she didn’t know this guy could be so calculating. However, she seemed to respect him because he was coming clean. He had everything to lose but he still admitted to his treacherous plans.

  Tyeedah was speechless and didn’t know what to say for a few minutes.

  He took her hand. “I apologize, baby, that you are in the middle of this, I promise this isn’t how I planned or imagined that this would turn out.”

  She knew that, out of loyalty to her friend, she had to leave. But she couldn’t leave, her heart wouldn’t let her walk away as much as her mind told her to. She felt like her feet were cement blocks and emotionally she was chained to the room, to Took.

  Finally, she spoke. “You say you want to be with me.” She looked him in the eyes.

  “And I do,” he quickly countered.

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure you are willing to pay the cost, it might just be easier to walk away and know we had a few amazing days but we can’t ever be. We can chalk it up to that old saying—‘It’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.’”

  “Baby, that’s really not an option. I’ve fallen in the worst way for you—and willing to risk it all. So, share what’s the cost?” He paused for a minute. “As much as my life revolves around money, I’d give it up for you.” He tried to test the waters by kissing her on her forehead.