In episode #19, Carter found herself dealing with a father who wanted her to play matchmaker, a best friend who got asked the ultimate question–Are you in love with me, and a client who made her come to some serious realizations about her mother.
In this episode, Carter, having not found Vince, gets sexy and heads off to a girls’ night…that leads to her seeing Kenneth. After sharing a sexy dance with him, she winds up home where she gets the shock of her life.
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The wilder, the better. That was my motto for the outfit I would wear to Satisfaction. After spending hours calling Vince’s place, dropping by, calling Rico and Nate, and trying to drop by any of his hangout spots, I realized that he was avoiding me. I was pissed. By now, we know that when I’m pissed, I play the I don’t care game, and that’s what I did.
I went home and showered in chocolate body wash. By the time I stepped out the shower and oiled myself down, there wasn’t a place on my body you couldn’t lick and not taste chocolate.
I slipped into my black A.B.S. rhinestone-rope dress. I stood in front of my vanity mirror, admiring how the criss cross of the rhinestone ropes lifted my full breasts. I added my diamond earrings and a few silver accessories. I fluffed up my already big, curly ‘do, applied minimal makeup and then slid my feet into my crystal slides by you know who.
When I met up with the girls at Satisfaction, Raven hugged me and whispered in my ear, “Who do you plan to fuck tonight?”
I smiled and replied, “Who knows?”
Inside, we found a table and quickly took it.
“I’ll get the first round,” Daria said. “Caramel apple martinis for all?”
We all said yes, and Daria hurried to the bar with her black stiletto heels. The red and black pantsuit she wore was bad. It was tight enough to show off all her curves, but loose enough to make her sophisticated and not slutty. We women always had to strike the perfect balance between the two.
“So why are you looking like a movie star tonight?” Raven asked. “The hair. The dress. The bad ass shoes.”
“Girl, you know I keep myself in nice shoes.”
She nodded. “True, but this whole…” she gestured her hand from my hair to my feet, “package is definitely new.”
“Who made you mad?” Suzie asked. She wore her contacts instead of her glasses. The purple of her hair now looked black-purple. Even in the darkened room, the blue of her eyes popped. A glint of sparkle came from the gold ring in her lip that matched the gold metallic blouse she wore.
“Where would I start?” I asked as Daria arrived with our drinks. We toasted and downed half our glasses.
“Seeing that I have no idea what you guys are talking about,” Daria said, “start at the beginning.”
So I did. I told them about me almost sleeping with Kenneth. I told them about being interrupted by Vince. I told them about my interrupted conversation with Vince, my semi-breakthrough because of Vera, and then the YES Vince wrote on the notepad.
“So why are you here with us?” Raven asked. “Shouldn’t you be out looking for the man who is in love with you?”
“Well, Miss Thang, I was doing just that all damn day. I have no idea where he is, and I tried like hell to find Rico, too.”
“Rico has been working a lot lately,” Daria said. She sipped her drink. “Vince calls, and he is out with the van doing something.”
“Do you know anything about this, Suzie?” I asked. We all focused our attention on her. She drained her drink and rose.
“Anyone else need another drink?” she asked.
“Park it,” Raven said. “Now.”
Suzie sat and faced the firing squad.
“Look,” she began, “all I know are the bits and pieces I’ve overheard.”
“And they would be?” Daria asked.
“The police called Vince about a week ago and asked if he would help on a case.”
“Okay,” I said. “Vince and Rico both went through the academy. Not unusual.”
“So what case were they talking about?” Raven asked.
Suzie shrugged. “I don’t know. I think females are being dragged into having sex with couples.”
“What?” I said. “How you know that?”
“I heard Vince tell Rico that they had to stop them from getting their next victim. Sex was thrown up in another conversation. I just put two and two together…”
“…and came up with five,” Raven said. She sighed. “I wonder why they didn’t tell us about this case. We’re usually in on everything.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s not fun to be in the dark, is it?”
“Well, looky looky,” Raven said. She pointed toward the entrance. Kenneth and his friends walked in and took a seat at a table across the dance floor. “Is he stalking you, girl?”
“No,” I said, laughing. “He comes here with his friends a lot he said.”
We all watched as Kenneth spotted me. He stood and came our way.
“Remember that Vince is in love with you,” Suzie said.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Daria added.
“Please,” Raven emphasized.
“Good evening, ladies,” Kenneth said. Though he acknowledged all of us, his eyes were only on me. “May I have this dance, Carter?”
I could feel my girls’ eyes on me. “Yes,” I answered. I stood and whispered to them, “It’s just a dance, y’all.” Louder, I said, “Suzie, when you get your drink, can you get me an amaretto sour?”
Kenneth took my hand and led me to the dance floor.
“You look so sexy,” Kenneth said, “you make my body hurt.”
I smiled and licked my lips. “Man, I must really look good,” I said, giggling.
“Beyond good.” He lowered his nose to my shoulder and breathed in. “I bet you taste good, too.”
Kenneth spun me away from him then drew me in as close as I could be. We began our own variation of the cha cha. There were a few sexy dips, one ending with him raising my leg to his shoulder before I slid it off and twirled. By the end of the dance, we both were hot and sweaty—me more so out of exertion, him out of desire. I could feel him hardening against me as we danced.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t attracted to him, but with Vince’s YES, I couldn’t do anything or feel anything until I knew for sure what was going on between him and me.
After the dance, a few people clapped for us. I blushed and gave a little bow.
Kenneth pulled me close and asked, “So how’s your mother?”
“As well as can be expected,” I said, not missing a beat. “She brought it all on herself, so I can’t find too much sympathy for her.”
Kenneth gripped my hand tighter as Billy Ocean’s “Caribbean Queen” began.
“Can I see you tonight?” he whispered in my ear.
Slowly, I danced my way out of Kenneth’s arms. He still held onto my right hand.
I offered him my sweetest smile, and said, “I’m with the girls tonight. It would be rude for me to leave them, you know? We only get together once a week, and…”
He placed a hand to my lips. “Don’t explain,” he said. “The last thing I want is for your friends to hate me.”
I looked over at them, and wouldn’t you know it, they were staring our way.
“I definitely don’t think you’d want that to happen,” I said.
We both laughed.
“Call me tomorrow,” I said. “Maybe we can get together then.”
He bent down and lightly kissed my lips. “Don’t be surprised if I call you exactly at 12:01 in the morning.”
I grinned. “Have a good night,” I said.
“You, too,” he said as he finally released my hand.
I sashayed over to the table and took my seat. The girls glared as I crossed my legs and took a sip from my drink. Kenneth watched me from his table. I lifted my glass to him and took another sip.
“Damn,” Raven said, “that was hot, girl.”
“I didn’t know you had that in you, chica,” Daria added, stretching out the i.
“I’m known to surprise,” I said.
Suzie looked at Kenneth, then turned and faced me. “Man,” she said, “I hope it’s worth it.”
“What?” I asked.
“I can only guess that he asked to be with you tonight.”
I blushed. “He did.”
“I hope waiting on Vince is worth turning down that.”
We all turned to give Kenneth one more glance. I drained my second drink as I hoped along with Suzie.
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As soon as I stepped through my front door a little after midnight, I went to the phone and dialed my voice mail service. No new messages. I called Vince. He didn’t answer.
“Well screw him,” I muttered before stepping out of my shoes and walking to my bedroom.
“Here I am trying to be a good girl,” I said. I could have easily had Kenneth with me here, but no, I wanted to see what was what with Vince. And now it was midnight, and I was far from sleepy. I unzipped and slipped my dress from me and padded to the closet to hang it back up.
I opened the door and screamed. Cynthia stood in my closet, smiling at me.
“Surprised, aren’t you?” she said.
I kicked her in the chest and sent her sailing against the closet’s back wall. I shut the closet door and jumped over my bed to go for my dagger on the nightstand.
“Looking for this?” Cynthia asked. In her left hand, she held my dagger. “How about this?” In her right hand, she dangled my Ruger SP 101, which I kept in the drawer of my nightstand. “Come over here. Now!”
Inside I was scared, but I don’t think Cynthia ever saw the fear. I walked to her—a good feet or two between us.
“Why are you here, Cynthia?” I asked calmly. “You cheated on your husband, and he left you. If you’re mad at someone, deal with him, not me.”
Cynthia reared her head back and laughed.
I looked at her right hand. She held the gun by the barrel. The dagger was still in its sheath.
I leapt toward her, and we both went to the floor. I punched her in the face then kicked her in the side before she grabbed my left leg and twisted me onto my back. She grabbed my gun that had fallen from her hand and slapped me across the face with it. For a split second, I didn’t remember anything. I saw dark, then I saw her hovering above me, her face calm, her smile soft. I felt like I was in a bad Twilight Zone episode. Here I was, in my panties and strapless bra, with this maniacal bitch standing over me, looking at me like some sweet angel.
I went to grab her leg, but she pointed the gun in my face.
“Now, I don’t want to use this,” she said softly. “You be good, and no one has to get hurt, okay?”
“Are you fucking crazy?” I asked. My voice sounded thick. My mouth tasted like rust. I wiped my lips and found blood on my fingers. “Why are you doing this?”
Cynthia dropped to her knees. She straddled my chest. It was the first time that I even looked at what Cynthia had on. She was wearing the empire-waist dress I wore the night I first met Kenneth. Cynthia kept the gun on me as she dug into her purse and pulled out a white cloth.
“What are you doing, Cynthia?” I asked, panic beginning to rise in me. “We can forget all about this if you leave now.”
Cynthia smiled. She bent down and dropped a kiss on my mouth. With blood on her lips, she said, “Not when the fun is just about to start.”
She placed the cloth over my mouth, and I struggled to get her hand off me. The cloth was wet and whatever was on it tasted sweet on my lips. I tried to go through my mental catalog of drugs to figure what was on the cloth, but I began to feel like I was floating. My hits at Cynthia became wider until my arms were too heavy to lift. I blinked a few times, closed my eyes, and snapped them back open.
“Go to sleep, little baby,” Cynthia crooned.
She stood. I tried to stare up at her, but my head got heavy and it fell to the floor. When my eyes fluttered opened, I noticed that Cynthia was wearing my sexy Blahniks—the Isabel’s. My mind screamed and told me to get up and kick her ass, but all I could do was whisper a “You bitch” before passing out.
ISO Shon Charisma 