“I never promised you I was coming!”
“Geren was there,” Janessa stated with disdain, trying to make Dvontè feel bad. “He even played Santa Claus and baked homemade cookies!”
“Well, whoop-de-do! Good for him!” Dvontè said sarcastically. “When I’m ready to be domesticated, I will let you know, but don’t hold your breath.”
Janessa decided the bitch-mode attitude wasn’t working well, so she lowered her voice. “There’s no need to be nasty.”
“Then don’t come at me like that, dammit!”
Janessa just wanted some sort of explanation, even though she figured it would more than likely be a straight-up lie. She needed to believe in him. “Just please tell me why you didn’t come.”
“I had something come up,” Dvontè glanced over at the nude figure on the bed. “It’s as simple as that.”
Janessa didn’t respond. She wanted to drill him with twenty questions but figured all she would get was a bang in her ear when he slammed the phone down. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d hung up on her. It was becoming a common occurrence, one she hoped Tempest didn’t find out about. Sometimes Dvontè’s behavior was downright confusing.
Dvontè quickly grew tired of listening to Janessa breathe over the phone. “Look, I have to go, Janessa. I’ll call you later.”
“Can I see you today?” Janessa blurted out.
“I don’t think so. I have other plans.”
“I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
The woman beside him started tugging on his arm, making no bones about the fact that she didn’t appreciate him talking to another woman while she was there. “No problem, but let me holla at you later.”
“Okay,” Janessa reluctantly agreed. “Dvontè?”
“Yes?”
“What about New Year’s? We’re going to spend it together, right?”
Dvontè’s first thought was to say, Hell no. He never wanted to be put on a leash, but he felt one tightening around his neck just the same. He cared for Janessa, and it was scaring the shit out of him. “Yeah, we’ll spend New Year’s together, aiight?”
“Great!” Janessa exclaimed. “Tempest said Geren was taking her to a club down on the waterfront for New Year’s Eve. Can we hang out with them?”
“Whatever you like, okay?” he said in a monotone. “Just set it up with them, and I’m down.”
“Okay, call me later.”
“Okay, later.”
Janessa hung up the phone and lay back on her bed, kicking and giggling; Dvontè had said he would spend New Year’s with her. She convinced herself that Dvontè must’ve really had something important to do the night before. She had wanted to spend Christmas with him, but she would settle for New Year’s.
• • •
“Who in the hell was that?” Melinda or whatever the hell her name was yelled at Dvontè.
“Don’t you start with me!” Dvontè couldn’t believe the nerve of the heifer. She was nothing but a piece of ass, and they both knew it. “I told you last night when I met you that I just wanted to fuck. Don’t trip, or you can get the fuck out!”
She got up off the bed and stomped into the bathroom naked, leaving the door open while she peed. Dvontè thought that was so disgusting. Looking at her now, with the mismatched fake braids and cellulite-infested thighs, he wondered why the hell he’d even brought her home.
“You men are nothing but dogs,” she said, continuing her rampage as she came back out.
“Then what does that make you?” Dvontè asked nastily. “You’re the one who came on to me at the club. You wanted some dick just like I wanted some pussy.”
“Yeah, and it was good dick, too,” she professed.
Dvontè grinned at the comment. She may have been a hoochie, but she knew good dick when she got some. “Glad you liked it.”