If he can find it in him to forgive me I’ll never make the same stupid mistake again.
“How mad do you think he’s going to be?”
“The fuck you care? You’re his girl, it comes with the territory. And if he gives you any shit after not warning you about that psychotic bitch I’ll kick his ass.”
“If that doesn’t work I know this trick with ice and my tongue. Works on Trevor’s ass every time.” Trust her to make me laugh when I least feel like it.
She’s not what I would’ve imagined my best friend to be. Brash, out spoken and ready to fight at the drop of a hat. But I’ll take her brand of real any day.
When I think of the way the women had rallied around me I feel like crying. He’d given me a family, one that I could count on. One that accepted my brother and I no question, because of him and who they know him to be.
Why had I forgotten all of that in the blink of an eye? When I look back at how I reacted I feel sick. I’d acted like a child, leading with emotion instead of a level head. He was right, I was looking at him through the same eyes that I see my dad through. I guess I still have some issues to work through.
My phone rang and I almost broke my hand trying to get it out of my bag. “Don’t answer that.” She actually snatched my phone and threw it in the backseat.
“That was Max.”
“So? You can call him when we’re done, we’re here.” I started to have heart palpitations as we pulled into the driveway of a moderately nice home in what looked like a very quiet neighborhood.
“I’ll do the talking, you just follow my lead.” A middle age man answered the door before we rang the bell with a big welcoming smile. “Hello, are you ladies lost?”
“Uh no, is Arlene here?”
“Well sure, do you girls work with her?”
“No, because she doesn’t have a job. She got fired for trying to screw the boss.”
Oh damn, I felt like I was trapped in the middle of one of those real housewives shows. “Now bring her out here.” The poor man looked like he thought someone was going to jump out of the bushes with a camera.
“I think you might have the wrong house.”
“Didn’t I ask you for that bitch by name?”
“I think I might have to call the police.”
“You do that, and let her explain how she set her
nephew Ray up to rape my friend.”
“What? You know Ray? I don’t…what is going on?” Just then a woman who I vaguely remember seeing at the club once or twice came to the door tying a bathrobe around her.
“Alvin who’s at the…door?” She took one look at us and lost the color from her face. I was ready to turn around and leave ever since he mentioned calling the police, but Sherrie had other ideas.
I’ve never seen anyone act the way she does in real life. She reached through the open doorway and pulled the woman out by her robe. “Did you think you were gonna get away with all this shit? Who do you think you are fucking with my brother and his girl you old hag?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Alvin call the police.”
“Go ahead and call them, then we’ll tell them about you sending someone to rape her, and then they can have a nice chat with Bambi the hooker who you hired to fuck with my brother.”
“Arlene, what is she talking about, did you do these things? And what’s this about you not having a job? Where do you go everyday when you leave here?”
“Not now Alvin. Look, I don’t know who you are…”
“But I know you.” I’d finally found my voice. I guess I was having trouble putting all the pieces together because she looked like everybody’s idea of a soccer mom.
She didn’t look like the Tiffanys of the world, or my idea of what a home wrecking skank should look like. “Why did you do this?”
“Sis, this is not how this shit is done. We’re not here to bake cookies with this bitch.”
“I know, I know, but you know what. Now that I know what’s been going on she’s not that important. And she’s certainly not worth you going to jail, think of little Audrey.”
“Well damn, you coulda reminded me of that shit before we drove all the way up here. You’re one lucky bitch. You do one more thing to mess with my family and next time I’m coming alone, without my conscience here.”
She shoved Arlene who fell into the doorpost. We started to walk away and I was feeling good about the fact that we’d settled things without bloodshed or sirens.