Flirt, page 5
She beamed and forgot all about her suspicions. “You do?”
“Yeah.” Trey opened the passenger-side door of his white Camry for her, and she climbed inside. He got in the driver’s seat and smiled at her. “Wanna go to the movies? I don’t know if you had plans for this afternoon, but I want to see that new Tyler Perry joint.”
“Sure,” she said impatiently. “Now, where’s my surprise?”
Trey laughed and kissed her. Chloe’s enthusiasm was visible. “It’s in the backseat.”
Chloe saw a box in the backseat and reached for it before she even buckled her seat belt. She tore at the box and then quickly moved the tissue paper aside to reveal the same pale yellow sweater Trey had pointed out in the store window days ago. She tried to hide her disappointment. “Thank you!” she said, feigning excitement. “That was so nice of you!” But she was really thinking, What a fuckin loser! I don’t even like this ugly shit. Shows how much he listens.
Trey smiled. He couldn’t wait to see her wearing it. “Ready to see the movie?” he asked.
Chloe pretended she was thrilled. “Yup!” she plastered an Oscar-worthy smile on her face and tossed the wretched sweater in the backseat.
She noticed Trey’s cell phone kept vibrating, but that he never answered it. She felt another unexpected twinge of jealousy as she wondered whether another woman was calling him. Chloe was still seeing Jason on the low, so she really had no right to be upset.
Still, as the phone vibrated for the third time in twenty minutes and Trey continued to ignore it, Chloe turned and looked at him. “Who’s that you’re ignoring? Your other girlfriend?”
Trey took his eyes off the road briefly and glanced at her before returning his attention to the traffic. He was honored to see Chloe so obviously jealous. And had she just implied that he was her boyfriend? Trey liked the sound of that.
“Nah,” he said, setting his phone down. “It’s my job calling me, trying to get me to come in and do a double shift. I don’t feel like going into work early, so I’m ignoring them.” He saw a gas station and decided to stop and fill up his tank.
Chloe nodded, feeling slightly silly. As they pulled into the gas station, she admitted to herself that Trey’s explanation sounded perfectly logical. He climbed out of the car to go and pay for his gas, leaving his cell phone lying invitingly on the driver’s seat. Chloe figured she should trust what Trey had told her, since he had never given her reason to doubt him. Just to be sure—and as usual, being slow to trust a man—Chloe slyly reached for Trey’s phone and looked at the list of missed calls. Seven missed calls from MOM.
Chloe was confused. Why would he lie about his job calling him, when it was really his mother? His mother . . . Chloe had never heard him mention his mother before. She tried to recall if Trey had ever talked at length about his family. She couldn’t think of one instance when he had divulged much about his family, his friends, or anything personal. Chloe realized for the first time that she had been so caught up in what a great listener Trey was that she never noticed how little he spoke about himself. She decided to ask him about the phone calls from “Mom” when he got back in the car.
Meanwhile, Trey finished paying the Arab guy behind the counter for his gas and a bottle of water. But he was preoccupied as he did so, thinking about the phone calls he’d been ignoring for days now. Why couldn’t everyone just leave him the fuck alone?
As he stepped out and headed toward the pump where his car was parked, Trey yawned. He was exhausted after spending yet another late night sitting up, watching videotapes. As he stepped off the curb, a Nissan came to a screeching halt just inches from hitting him. His heart racing, he realized how close the woman had come to running him down. Scowling at the driver, he took a deep breath and told himself not to overreact. She hadn’t hit him, so no harm, no foul.
The woman behind the wheel couldn’t believe this idiot had the nerve to give her a dirty look. She stuck her middle finger up at him and yelled out her open window, “Move out of the fucking way before you get yourself killed!”
Trey erupted in rage. “You stupid bitch! You should watch where the fuck you’re going!” He charged over and kicked her car, then reached through the open window as if to grab the horrified woman. The entire time, he cursed her out viciously. The gas station attendant came running over and pulled Trey away from the driver, who had shrunk to the passenger side of her own car to get away from the raving black man.
The attendant tried to calm Trey. “Calm down! It’s okay.”
Trey was pumped and ready for battle. His chest was heaving and his muscles bulged. “That crazy bitch almost ran me down!”
“I saw it, my friend. I saw the whole thing! She was wrong. Just go. It is not worth it!”
The woman sped off, checking her rearview to make sure that crazy nigga wasn’t following her. Trey stood in her wake, furious, his chest heaving. He walked over to his car and pumped his gas as Chloe sat petrified in the passenger seat. Once he’d pumped his gas, Trey climbed back into the car and started it.
Chloe looked over at him. He was sweating, and the vein was throbbing in his temple again. She could tell he was pissed off. “What happened?” she asked, now too distracted to even question him about the mysterious calls.
Trey didn’t answer her. Instead, he shook his head, turned up the music, and peeled out of there.
Chloe sat in her anthropology class and text-messaged Jason for the hundredth time. She hadn’t seen him in weeks, and he wasn’t returning any of her phone calls. She didn’t want to just pop up over his house, because their relationship wasn’t like that. It wasn’t like he was her man or anything. Still, Jason had never ignored her phone calls, text messages, and voice mails until now. She wondered what had made him switch up so suddenly. Then she shrugged it off. Fuck him, she thought. At least she still had Trey to keep her occupied.
Weeks had passed since the incident at the gas station, and Trey had done everything he could to show Chloe he wasn’t a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. He hated the fact that she had seen him lose his cool, and he assured her that the behavior she’d witnessed wasn’t typical of him. Chloe told him that she understood, that everyone gets angry sometimes. But just to be on the safe side, Trey lavished her with more gifts and more attention than ever before. And Chloe was loving every minute of it.
One day, as Trey drove her to the library, he looked over at her and sized up her outfit. She wore a pair of denim capris that were so tight, he wondered how she had gotten into them. And her T-shirt looked like it was sized for a preschooler. “Why don’t you ever wear the sweater I bought for you?” he asked.
“Oh,” she said, caught off guard. “It doesn’t fit. Too big. I gave it to Willow.”
She noticed that Trey gripped the wheel a little tighter. Still, he said nothing. Figuring she was coming across as an ungrateful bitch, Chloe changed the subject and talked about all the compliments she was getting from the girls at school on the Coach bag he’d bought for her. She knew she would never wear that ugly-ass sweater, no matter how it hurt Trey’s feelings. With all the other countless articles of clothing he’d bought for her, why did that damn sweater matter so much, anyway?
The following month, Rachel Webster warned her daughter again that she was letting Trey spend too much money on her. She liked Trey, but was wondering whether her daughter was in fact leading the generous young man on.
“Chloe, be careful, I’m telling you. You let a guy spend this much time with you and money on you, and they start to feel like they own you. Trey’s a nice guy and I don’t think he’s like that. But I want you to be sure that you’re not leading him on and taking advantage of his generosity. Playing with people’s emotions can be dangerous. Especially because you two have been seeing each other for only a few months.”
“Ma, I’m a grown woman. I can take care of myself.” Chloe hated when her mother acted like she was still a kid. Rachel should be saving all her lectures for Willow, who was still young, naive, and impressionable. Chloe was anything but.
“I know you can take care of yourself, Missy. I’m just making sure that you’re not getting caught up.”
“I’m not,” Chloe said simply. “But thanks for your concern.” She grabbed her new Bebe handbag and headed out for a day in the park with her two dearest friends.
Dawn and Kim were sitting in Mahoney Park on their usual bench. It was a beautiful and sunny May day, and the girls were eager to show off their new gear. School was officially out, and that meant lazy hot summer days ahead. Dawn waved at her friend as she approached. Chloe walked over to where they sat and smiled brightly as she greeted them.
“Wassup, divas?”
“Nice bag!” Kim snatched up the pricey clutch as soon as Chloe set it on the bench beside her. “Trey still ain’t tired of spending dough on you, huh? After three months of no ass, I’m surprised he hasn’t given up on you.”
Chloe laughed. “First of all, my mom bought me that bag.”
“But I bet Trey bought the matching shoes,” Dawn said, smirking.
Chloe cut her eyes at her friend, but then chose to ignore her. She sighed. “Second of all, I think I’m finally going to give him some pussy.”
Dawn gasped and clapped her hands. “Finally!”
“Oh my God!” Kim’s mouth hung open in shock. “What brought about the change of heart?”
Chloe shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “I really like him. He pays attention to me, he spoils me, and he’s very thoughtful and romantic. Plus he’s fine.”
Kim nodded. “He is fine!”
Chloe laughed. “I think he might have potential. I like spending time with him, talking on the phone with him, and he was a big hit with my mother. She loves him.”
Chloe knew that was a lie. Both her mother and her sister had reservations about the man in her life. But Chloe liked him. In fact, Rachel and Willow’s hesitation to embrace Trey only made Chloe like him more.
Dawn nodded. “That’s major. When the parents like a guy, it’s a good sign. Usually no guy is good enough for their daughter. So if Miss Rachel likes him, he must be a keeper.”
Chloe smiled. She wished what she’d said was true. It used to matter to her a lot more what her friends and family thought. So far, Trey was scoring high marks with everyone. Well, yes, except for her mother, who Chloe felt was just hating. And Willow, too, was still very suspicious of her sister’s boyfriend. But Chloe told herself she didn’t care what they thought. She liked Trey, and that was all that mattered. Plus, it had been weeks since she last heard from Jason, so she figured Trey had won by default.
Kim took a sip of her wine cooler, which was wrapped in a brown paper bag in case the police passed through. “I’m glad you’re gonna give the man some ass. He earned it. Trey seems like a good dude. Even though I’m all for taking advantage of niggas, I would hate to see a good dude get his heart broken.”
Chloe frowned slightly. “I wasn’t taking advantage of Trey.”
Her friends gave her looks that said, Give me a break!
Chloe laughed. “Well, not intentionally, anyway. I’m just not gonna be pressured into giving up my goodies too soon. No amount of clothes, dinners, or material things can make me see my sex as any less precious than it is. That’s all. It’s just as important for me to get what I want as it is for him to get what he wants. So I got most of the things I want—now he can finally get what he wants.”
Kim nodded. “He’ll be as happy as a faggot in Boystown when he hears that he’s finally gonna get his dick wet.” They laughed. “Damn,” Kim said. “I really wish I could find a good guy like that.”
Chloe sympathized with her friend because she knew Kim attracted the biggest losers. “I know,” she said. “I wish he had a brother we could hook you up with.”
Kim thought about that. “Does he have any cute friends?”
“I haven’t met any of his friends,” Chloe admitted, realizing once again just how little of Trey’s world she’d explored.
Dawn looked at her. “What? All this time you two have been spending together, and you haven’t met a single friend?”
Chloe shook her head.
“Well, who does he hang out with when he’s not with you?” Dawn asked.
Chloe smiled. “He’s always with me,” she said. “When he’s not at work or doing schoolwork, he’s with me. He seems to like it that way.”
Dawn shook her head. “Maybe he just doesn’t trust you.”
“That’s not true. He trusts me. He just likes spending time with me.”
“Well, he met your mom and Willow. Have you met his family?” Kim asked.
“No. Not yet.” Chloe thought back to the incident at the gas station and the way he’d ignored the phone calls coming from his mother. After Trey’s battle with the woman in the Nissan, Chloe had forgotten to ask him about those calls. But now she wondered what the story was with Trey’s family. He never spoke about them, aside from telling Chloe’s mom that his father still lived in the Bronx. And he’d mentioned that he didn’t have any siblings. But as she sat in the park with her friends, she realized there was still so much she didn’t know about her man.
“So then how do you know if he’s even serious about you?” Kim asked. “You haven’t met his family or his friends, and it sounds like you don’t know much about him at all. This could just be a fling to him. Who knows?”
“It’s not,” Chloe said, waving her hand as if to dismiss the absurdity of her friend’s remark.
Kim shrugged. “All I’m saying is that Trey is older than you, and he’s probably been in more than a few relationships and maybe this just isn’t as serious to him as you think it is.”
Chloe was pissed now. “What, are you jealous, Kim?”
“What? Jealous of who? You?” Kim looked offended.
“Yeah. I mean, what’s with all the twenty questions?” Chloe sat back and folded her arms across her chest.
“You’re crazy,” Kim said, though she was slightly envious. She laughed weakly. “I’m happy you found a good guy. You deserve it. Shit, we all do. I’m just asking things that I would want to know if it was me getting ready to have sex with someone.”
Chloe waved her hand at her friend. “Well, it’s not you. It’s me. And everything is fine. I have forever to find out the things I don’t know yet. I’m not gonna interrogate the guy.”
Kim could see her friend getting emotional about this, and that’s not what she wanted. She figured that if the lack of information was all right with Chloe, it would be all right with her, too. “Here comes your sister,” Kim said, nodding in Willow’s direction as she made her way over to their bench.
Willow sat with the girls. They all greeted her and then listened as she filled them in on some “he say, she say” drama she was dealing with at school.
Chloe and her pals offered advice, and Chloe was grateful for the change in topic. But the rest of the afternoon, in the back of her mind she was thinking about Trey and all the mystery surrounding him. Soon, she shrugged it off, figuring that her envious friend was simply planting seeds of doubt in her mind. She wasn’t going to let Kim, Willow, or her mother cast a shadow on her good thing, no matter how hard they tried.
BREAKING NEWS
Chloe couldn’t stop crying. Willow wrapped her arms around her sister and tried to comfort her as best she could.
“It’s okay,” she said, rocking her in her arms. “It’s okay, Chloe.”
“I don’t understand!” Chloe wailed, tears and snot running down her face. Rachel rushed into the room with a glass of water and some tissues and sat down at her daughter’s side.
“Chloe, calm down. You’re gonna have a heart attack if you don’t relax. You can’t keep getting all worked up like this. I know it’s messed up what happened to Jason, but falling apart isn’t gonna bring him back.”
Chloe couldn’t calm down, no matter how hard she tried. Jason’s body had been found in a wooded area of his Grymes Hill neighborhood. He’d been gunned down with three bullets in his back. The Staten Island Advance had reported that Jason was shot in broad daylight by an unknown assailant, and yet there were no suspects in the crime. “Who would want to kill him?” she asked her mother. “He never bothered nobody. He didn’t do shit to deserve that, Ma.” Chloe cried, hating herself for being mad that Jason hadn’t returned her phone calls, when all the while he’d been rotting away in a swamp!
As Willow cradled her sister in her arms, Rachel read the newspaper article again.
Todt Hills resident Jason Meadows, 20, was found dead last night as a result of multiple gunshot wounds he received the week of May 11. His decomposing body was found in a wooded area off Wescott Avenue in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island. No witnesses have been identified, and there are no suspects at this time. Law enforcement officials have appealed to the public for any information relevant to the case. The investigation is ongoing.
The Meadows family had become increasingly worried about the youth after not hearing from him for close to three weeks. “It just wasn’t like him to up and disappear like that,” explained Linda Meadows, 52, the young man’s mother.
Meadows was a former local basketball star who graduated from Curtis High School in 2006. At the time of his death, he was pursuing a degree in education at the College of Staten Island.
Rachel shook her head. “I don’t understand it either, Chloe.” Chloe and Jason had gone to school together since elementary school, so he had practically grown up alongside the Webster girls. Rachel had never known him to be the kind of kid who got in any trouble or made any enemies. His murder seemed like a senseless tragedy. “You have to be strong,” she told her daughter gently. “You can’t fall apart, baby.”
Chloe’s cell phone rang, and Rachel reached for it. She glanced at the caller ID and then looked at her daughter. “It’s Trey,” she said. “You want me to answer it?”
