Got A Man

by Daaimah S. Poole

Genres: African American Women's Fiction

Synopsis

Daaimah S. Poole, bestselling author of the hot and hilarious Yo Yo Love, is back with another wildly entertaining tale of colliding hearts and hard truths about the bumpy--but never boring--road to love. . . Got A Man Twenty-six-year-old Kimberly Vanessa Brown is no ordinary single mom. Pregnant with her second child, she's got a career, a college degree--and enough common sense to know that her boyfriend, Malik, may not be ready for fatherhood. But when Malik surprises her with a marriage proposal, it seems that Kim's got her man for the long haul. Or does she? Despite his honorable intentions, Malik can't seem to stay clear of other women. When Shonda Robinson, the shapely new receptionist at the law firm where Malik works as a paralegal, comes on strong to him, his resolve finally crumbles, along with his heart--and his future plans. Shonda may not be the most moral--or discreet--person around, but she knows a good thing when she's got it. That good thing is her love for Malik, and she intends to keep it at all costs. Unfortunately, she's not the only who feels that way. What follows is an emotional roller coaster ride of changing plans, changing partners--and a surprising change of heart--as three people wrestle with what's right, what's wrong--and what's real.

Release date: August 1, 2004

Publisher: Kensington

Print pages: 304

Sample

Have you ever woke up in the middle of the night, and regretted something you did the day before? The scene keeps replaying in your head over and over again. You wish you could take back your action, and you keep telling yourself, I should have done this, or I should have said that.

You have? Yeah, me too, only it’s not the middle of the night, it’s 4:30 P.M. and I just made a complete fool of myself by showing up at my boyfriend’s wedding. I couldn’t help it, though. All I know is that I was running up the church steps past huge arrangements of red and white roses and white and gold bells. I caught my breath and walked into the church. I sat on the last row so I would go unnoticed. Then the rev asked did anyone see why this man or woman should not be joined in holy matrimony, yadda, yadda. So I stood up and said, “Malik, you can’t do this, you know this is wrong.”

Everyone turned around and stared at me like, bitch, are you crazy? Then everyone stared at each other, shook their heads, and started mumbling amongst each other. Kim ran into the pew crying. Malik just stood there with his mouth open. One of Kim’s girlfriends or cousins tried to act like they wanted to say something, but I didn’t give them a chance. I said what I had come to say and I was out. The wedding was interrupted and I ran to my getaway car that I had left running outside. I called my godsister Tae as soon as I got in the car. I shouldn’t have called her at all, since she refused to come with me. She could have been my backup, if things got ugly ya mean. But she said I was wrong and she would not be my accomplice.

I frantically dialed her number on the phone. It began to ring, then she answered and I said, “I did it.”

“You did what?” she asked.

“I stopped the wedding.”

“No, you didn’t, cause if you did I’m not speaking to you anymore. Come on, Shonda, I thought you were joking.”

“Well, don’t speak to me anymore. I told you I was serious.”

“You’re serious? Girl, you’re crazy!” Tae screamed.

“I’m not crazy!”

“Really! You know how much heart it takes to go and stop a wedding.”

“Uh, I don’t know, a lot,” I said as if I had to think about it.

“No, it takes a sick, crazy individual. CON-GRAT-U-LA-TIONS, it should have been me.” Tae finally laughed between trying to sing like Vesta, this singer from back in the day, who sang about going to her ex-boyfriend’s wedding. They used to play the video all the time on BET. Now I can’t believe I’m acting this shit out.

Well, I could have let it happen, but I didn’t. No, not after what I have been through with Malik—let alone men, period. If I told you my story, it would take a book and a half. I wouldn’t know where to begin.

It’s so cliché to say it all began when this happened. So I’ll start my story like this. My name is Shonda Nicole Robinson, I’m twenty-five, and I have a story to tell.

I was in Atlanta for six months trying to get myself together, or so I thought. My plan was to go to Atlanta and come up. A.T.L. was supposed to be the new black Mecca, right? For everybody else maybe, for Shonda, I don’t think so. My six months in A.T.L., the only thing I managed to do is meet a stalker.

I stayed with my Aunt Jackie in College Park, right outside of Atlanta. I went down there because me and my daughter’s father Brian had broken up after seven years of being together. I didn’t feel like being bothered with him or his family. He was so upset that I left, he married somebody else three months later. Atlanta wasn’t really for me though, there were too many damn yellow waffle houses; and forget about trying to learn the confusing ass highways, they didn’t make any sense. Plus, I didn’t have the help with Bree like I had in Philly. I could barely go to the store without having to drag her along, because my aunt rarely baby-sat. She was one of those women in her late forties trying to date young men and go to the club herself. It really was not like home.

I lived in Philly all my life, with my dad and my grandmother, who I call Gram. My mother Angela is a deadbeat mom. Not typical of a mother, but true, but I’ll get on her later. Let me finish telling you about my ex.

My stalker’s name was Mike. I met Mike at my job at the Holiday Inn Airport hotel. I was a front desk agent. He had stopped in and asked for directions because he was lost. I gave them to him. Then he came back almost an hour later to thank me for the directions I had given him. He then asked me what was I doing when I got off. I told him going home and going to sleep. He asked me if I would like to go out with him to breakfast when I woke up.

I took him up on his offer. We got together and it was like we knew everything about one another in a few short days. Mike showed me all around Atlanta. On our first date he took me to Justin’s, on Peachtree Street. It was really nice and we really enjoyed ourselves talking, joking, and taking in the scenes. After our first date, we went out almost every night. Dinner, movies, even a Braves’ baseball game. I even allowed my daughter, Brianna, to meet him. That was a major no-no. Bree had never been around any men besides her dad and my father. I was really starting to be into Mike until, well, until he became an outright crazed maniac. I mean, I’ll agree all men are a little jealous, but there is a line. It shouldn’t have taken me months to realize that Mike was crazy as hell. My first signs should have been when he began checking my messages on my cell phone. People would tell me they called and I would be like, no you didn’t. But I never got the message because he was erasing the messages. I don’t know how long he was doing that. The only reason I found out he was listening to my messages is because he confronted me about a message Brian left about Brianna. I asked how did he know her dad wanted her to come up and he confessed that he had dialed my voice mail by accident. How do you accidentally get my voice mail password? When he wasn’t busy checking my messages, he was asking me had I met anybody else. I paid him no attention.

Anyway, Mike showed his true Gemini colors the night a coworker asked me to accompany her to a party after work at Vegas Nights. I called my Aunt Jackie to see if she would watch Bree. She said yes, so then I called Mike and told him I was going out.

“Hey, babe. I’m going to stop past Vegas Nights with Lori from the job, okay?”

“You’re going where?”

“Vegas Nights.”

He yelled in the phone, “So you going to start going out, huh? What, I’m not enough man for you? You got to take your little hot ass out?” Mike was going ballistic. I totally ignored his comments. I thought he must have been pissed about something else and was taking it out on me.

“Listen, baby, I’m going out. I’ll talk to you later,” I said and I went out with Lori to the party.

I got to Vegas Nights about 11:30 P.M. Already the club was almost jammed to capacity. Lori and me had to say excuse me every other two seconds, trying to maneuver our way to the dance floor. As soon as we reached the dance floor a guy approached me to dance. He stood about six feet even, with chocolate-colored skin, dark mystic eyes, and seductive lips. “What’s up, you want to dance?” the stranger asked.

“Sure,” I responded. The stranger grabbed my hand and we danced on the crowded dance floor. The stranger’s friend invited Lori to the dance floor. They danced beside us until the next song came on and I saw Mike. How Mike found me in a club full of thousands of people, I will never know. But what I do know is he came up to me looking deranged. His eyes crossed. He asked me could he have a word with me.

“No, leave me alone!” I said, annoyed.

“Let me talk to you, Shonda,” he said as he grabbed my arm.

“No,” I said as I jerked my arm out of his grip.

“Please.”

“Okay. Okay,” I said, and I told Lori I would be right back. The guys we were dancing with looked at Mike suspiciously, then they turned their heads—I guess deciding it was better to mind their own business. I walked with him to the front of the club. Mike said he couldn’t hear and asked could we go outside. I went outside with Mike and sat in his car and we talked.

“Look, Mike, you tripping, it’s only a party. Okay? I’ll call you later.” I went to exit the vehicle when Mike locked the doors, put the key in the ignition, and started the car.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I tried to get out of the car. Mike pulled off.

“What is wrong with you?” I yelled as the car began moving. I couldn’t believe he would just take off like that. Mike said nothing. As soon as the light turned red at the intersection, I unlocked the door and jumped out of the car. I ran in the opposite direction of traffic. I thought Mike would keep going but he didn’t. He backed the car all the way up the street making a loud shrieking noise and drove onto the pavement, blocking my path from running.

“Get in the car, Shonda.”

“No, leave me alone!”

“Get in the fucking car, Shonda,” Mike said as he grabbed me by my belt buckle and started dragging me toward the car saying, “Sometimes life isn’t worth living when you give a person everything and they don’t give back.”

People were passing by but he didn’t care. I knew someone would call 911 because it looked like I was getting kidnapped. He opened the driver-side back door and threw me in. Then he slammed the door, crushing my feet against the window. I tried to sit up and gain my balance, but I couldn’t because he sped off so quickly. Mike ran red lights and was scaring the shit out of me.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked, as tears streamed down my face.

“Home, where you need to be. All I want to be is happy. But you don’t want to be happy. You want to go out and party. I can’t take having my woman in the club.”

Mike pulled up to my house, dropped me off, and left. By this time I didn’t even care about going out. I just wanted to go in the house. I wiped the tears off my face so Bree and Aunt Jackie wouldn’t see them. Aunt Jackie was lying on the sofa with her powder blue robe on and curlers in her hair, watching ER.

“You’re back early,” she said.

“Yeah, it was too crowded, so I just came home. Bree ’sleep?”

“I just sent her to bed.”

I went to the bathroom and glanced in the mirror and saw my puffy red eyes. I looked like a bee had stung me, they were so puffy and red. My eyes and face swelled every time I cried. Crying made my golden honey skin look pale. My black hair weave was out of place. I didn’t even feel like calling Lori to tell her why I left. I just wrapped my hair around, and put on my scarf and went to bed.

I turned on the television and fell asleep watching Jay Leno. The phone rang.

“Hello.”

“Yeah, you ain’t even call me to see if I was all right. You know what, Shonda, you ain’t shit.”

“I’m not shit, you pulled me out of a party and I’m not shit. Please,” I said as I banged on Mike.

He called back and said the same thing. “Shonda, you ain’t shit. You ain’t nothing but a Philly whore.”

“What? Mike, cut it out. Look, I’m going to sleep. I’ll holla at you tomorrow.”

The third time Mike called back I don’t even know why I answered the phone.

“Hello,” I said with much attitude.

“Shonda, you know it’s real fucked up how you treating a nigga, but it’s cool. You ain’t shit. Nothing, you hear me?”

Okay, by now I was tired of hearing that I wasn’t shit. I hung the phone up and turned my ringer off. Minutes later my Aunt Jackie came in the room handing me her phone.

“It’s Mike,” she said.

“Look, it’s over!” I screamed into the phone.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

“I’m sorry too... and tired, so do me a favor and don’t call me back tonight.” I hung up the phone. I turned off my light and went to sleep.

A strange feeling awakened me. I felt a presence coming toward me. I opened my eyes and saw Mike standing over me. I jumped up and screamed, “What are you doing here?”

“You don’t want to call nobody back, huh?”

“Look, Mike, leave.” He leaped on top of me like a football player.

“Aunt Jackie! Aunt Jackie! Help, call the police,” I screamed. Mike then placed his hands over my mouth and throat. I couldn’t breathe. I still tried to scream, but it was muffled. I continued to kick and scream.

“You don’t want to answer the phone, huh, Shonda?” Mike demanded as he began to shake and choke me. He took his hands off my mouth, but I was too shaken to do anything. I just lay still as he hovered over me trying to figure out what his next move was going to be.

What was Mike doing in the house? Who let him in? Was he going to hurt Bree, Aunt Jackie, or me? I nearly passed out before he lifted his hands from over my throat. I coughed and gasped for air, as I took long breaths. Mike then let me go. I stared at Mike and tried to figure out what his next move was going to be. He surprised me by saying, “I just want to be happy. I love you, Shonda,” he said, crying, as he began to hug me.

“I love you too, Mike,” I said as I tried to pacify him. Suddenly my aunt appeared in my doorway; she flicked on my bedroom light.

“Y’all all right?”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” I said as tried to conceal my face.

“Mike, I didn’t know you were here. Shonda, let me talk to you,” my aunt said as she glanced at my face and turned toward Mike. “Mike, what’s going on?” she asked.

Boom! Boom! I heard someone banging on the door. My aunt went to answer it and I jumped off the bed to find out who the hell was knocking on the door this late. Mike stayed in my bedroom. When I reached the living room, I saw red and blue lights flashing. I opened the door and it was about five cops standing in front of the door. Who called the cops? I thought. My aunt walked in front of me and said, “Yes, may I help you?”

“Miss, we had a report that a man was climbing through the window. Is that true?”

“No, that’s not true,” I blurted out.

“Are you okay?” the other cop asked.

“Yes,” I answered without thinking. My aunt must have been as confused as I was, because she just stood there.

“Well, why are you crying and why are your neck and arms red if you’re okay?” a white, short, brown-haired cop asked as he flashed his flashlight in my face, almost blinding me.

“Is anyone else here with you?” another cop asked.

“Yes, my daughter and boyfriend.”

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

“In the back room.”

“Can you call him out here?”

“Mike, come out here, the cops want to talk to you.”

Mike walked into the living room.

“Is there a problem, son?” one cop asked.

“No, sir.”

“Why is your girlfriend crying?”

“I don’t know.”

“Come with me, son. Let’s talk.”

As the cop escorted Mike out the house, the lone female cop pulled me to the side. She took off her hat and took out a small note pad. She then asked me what was going on. I told her I didn’t know. I really didn’t know.

“Did you let him in?”

“No.”

“So how did he get in here?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I answered.

“You know you don’t have to put up with an abuser, we can take him to jail. Just say the word. All you have to do is file for a protection order,” she said as she stared me directly in the eye. What the police officer was saying made sense. But I needed to think. I didn’t want to get Mike in trouble, but he was acting crazy. I mean, he never acted like this before. He had me really scared.

The lady cop asked me again, “Do you want us to lock him up?”

“Can you just make him leave? I need to think, and he wants to talk.”

“You just want us to make him leave?”

“Yes, just make him go home.” I didn’t really want to see Mike go to jail.

The lady cop went outside. Then she came back and said, “He’s gone. Have a good night.”

The cops left and I went back into my room. My aunt shut the window that Mike had entered through. We made sure everything was secured. I got back in the bed and wondered what the fuck Mike was thinking about when he climbed through the window. I lay back in the bed ready to fall back to sleep when I heard Mike outside again banging on the door.

“Shonda, I want to talk to you. Shonda, I love you, I need to talk to you now!” I heard Mike scream as he banged on the door. “Shonda, open this damn door.”

He woke my daughter up. Bree screamed, “I’m scared, somebody’s at the door!” and ran into my room.

My aunt came back into the room and said, “Look, I’m going to call the cops.”

“No, I’ll talk to him,” I said as I went to the window.

“Mike, go home. I’ll call you tomorrow. You’re disrespecting my aunt and my daughter. I promise I will talk to you tomorrow.”

“Okay, what time you want me to call you?” he asked.

“Like twelve. We can go to breakfast, okay?”

Mike said fine and I went back in my room, assured this time he would leave. That would be too much like right. I heard more banging against the door.

“Shonda, I need to talk to you right now. Come out or I’m going to—” and with that I heard my aunt’s door get kicked in. I called the cops back. The operator answered.

“Yes. Um, my boyfriend just kicked in my front door, hurry, please!”

“What’s your address?”

“121 Hollydale Road.”

“We’ll send someone right away. Is he in the house?”

“I think he is.” I ran into Bree’s room and picked her up and ran into my aunt’s room. I locked her door, and we sat on the floor near the closet until the cops arrived for the second time. When I saw the blue and red flashing lights I felt safe to open the door. I peeked out the door and saw the police locking Mike up.

“Miss, this is our second visit. We’re going to take him in. Did he do this to the door?”

“Yes.”

“Well, this all could have been avoided if you would’ve talked to us the first time. I mean, if you want to let a man beat on you that’s your business.”

“I didn’t get beat,” I said.

“Well, again, that’s your business.”

This time I got Mike arrested. I got a restraining order, but that still didn’t stop him from harassing me. He started calling my job, sending me flowers, fruit baskets, and sing-o-grams.

I was so sick of him and distraught that I tore up all the pictures of him and me together. He must have been digging in the trash, because he mailed them back to me taped up with a note asking me why did I throw the pictures of us in the trash, be. . .