Even though I had heard him say it twice, I still couldn’t believe what I was hearing. "I understand," I forced out, but I didn’t. "Did he give you a reason?"
"I’m sorry, my dear, he didn’t."
"Did you ask him?"
"Yes, of course I did."
"Would you mind sharing what his reason was?"
"When I asked him why he was taking this action, he said that he had his reasons, and he would speak with you about it. That’s why I was somewhat surprised when you asked that question. I had assumed that by now he would have spoken with you. As I said, it was two weeks ago."
"No, Mr. Weinstein, I haven’t spoken with Tyrone in months."
"I’m sorry I can’t be of anymore help than that, my dear. Perhaps it would be prudent of you to speak with Tyrone."
"I guess I have no choice if I want to know what’s going on, do I?"
"I’m afraid not," Weinstein said.
"Well, thank you for getting back to me, Mr. Weinstein. I’ll give him a call," I said, and slammed down the phone in its cradle. What now? I thought as I dialed Tyrone’s cell number. "Damn!" I said out loud when I heard the message saying that the number was no longer in service.
Then I called him at his office and got no answer. I left a message on his voice mail. "Tyrone, this is Avonte. Could you give me a call at your earliest convenience, please?" I said, and then I called him at the house. "Tyrone. You need to call me and explain why you told Weinstein not to give me anymore money," I said, trying to be clam about it, but I was mad as hell. Tyrone had no reason to cut me off. We had an agreement, and he was going to live up to his part of it.
I was about to call my lawyer when the phone rang. I looked at the display; it was Tyrone calling me back from his office. I tried to clam myself down before I answered. The last thing I needed or wanted was an angry conversation with him. "Hello," I said in my nicest voice.
"Hello, Avonte. I see I missed a call from you."
"Yes, you did. I just got off the phone with Weinstein, and he said that you told him to discontinue making maintenance payments to me until you gave him instructions to the contrary."
"That’s right," he replied, like it was no big deal.
"Would you mind explaining to me why that is?"
"I really don’t have time for this right now, Avonte."
"Well make the time, Tyrone."
"Look, why don’t I give you a call later this evening. Or better yet, why don’t you meet me for dinner tonight, and we can talk about it then."
"I don’t think that’s a good idea."
"Why not?"
"I have plans for the evening," I said to him, even though I had no plans to do anything except wait for Qianna to crawl between my thighs.
"Oh, that’s right, I forgot, you’re quite the socialite these days, aren’t you, Avonte?"
"What are you talking about, Tyrone?"
"Like I said, Avonte, I really don’t have time to go into this with you now. I’ll call you later."
"Don’t hang up on me, Tyrone. Why can’t you just tell me what’s going on?"
"Why can’t you meet me tonight?"
"Because to be honest with you; I don’t want to see you, Tyrone. I don’t see any reason why you just can’t take a minute right now, and tell me why you’re doing this."
"And I don’t see any reason why, if you really wanted to know, that you can’t meet me."