Single Ladies Read online

  Single Ladies

  Blake Karrington

  www.urbanbooks.net

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Single Ladies

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42 - One Week Later

  Copyright Page

  Single Ladies

  Blake Karrington

  Chapter 1

  Ducking the landlord had become a skill for Tammy around this time of the month. She watched as Mr. Louis pulled up; but he didn’t get out of his car right away. That gave her just enough time to creep away from the living room window, grab her five-month-old baby girl, Sinniyyah, and head upstairs to her bedroom.

  “Come on, NaNa. Don’t start ya stuff,” she whispered to her daughter, seeing that she was becoming a little fussy. It was a good thing that her son, Anthony, was in daycare, because he always played loudly in the house.

  It was the first of the month and rent was due, and Mr. Louis didn’t play any games about his money. He wanted it on the first, or no later than the fifth, and if you didn’t have it by then, a late fee of one hundred dollars would be added to the rent. He didn’t care what the situation was.

  Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! Mr. Louis banged on the door.

  Tammy kept Sinniyyah as quiet as she could while hoping he would leave, but he didn’t. Instead, he whipped out his cell phone and dialed Tammy’s number.

  The loud ringing sound of her phone going off downstairs startled her and Sinniyyah. Damn! She knew she had forgotten something. She had meant to turn her ringer off. She knew now that there was no way Mr. Louis would leave because if her cell phone was inside, there was a 100 percent chance that she was also.

  Realizing that her cover had been blown, Tammy decided to go downstairs and face him. Hopefully he would understand her situation and give her more time to come up with the rent money.

  As she began to turn the knob with Sinniyyah in her arms, she put on her game face before fully opening the door. “Hey, Mr. Louis. I thought I heard somebody at the door, but I was upstairs about to put my baby down for a nap,” she quickly lied.

  The expression on Mr. Louis’s face said that he wasn’t buying it, or didn’t care. “Look, Tammy. I’m tired of having to come by here and hassle you for my money every month. Now either you can pay your rent on time, or you need to find another place to stay. I’m not running no charity house for women here.”

  Tammy knew that Mr. Louis was somewhat right, and you could tell this by the shame she had on her face. She hated not being able to pay her rent or other bills on time. It seemed lately that this was the same struggle every month. The math just didn’t add up. With only currently having a part-time job, she pretty much lived off of welfare, which only gave her $650 cash assistance every month for two kids, including daycare, and $300 in food stamps. The rent for the three-bedroom house was $500 a month by itself, and that included only water. All the other bills were her responsibility alone, and by the time she did get paid from her part-time job at Walmart, the bills had soaked up every dime that she made.

  “And where is that nigga of yours? He can’t give you the money?” Mr. Louis asked.

  Breaking Tammy from her thoughts, the image of Chris momentarily shot through her mind. But as of right now he couldn’t help her, so she quickly brushed that thought away. “He’s not around right now, Mr. Louis, which is why it’s been so difficult for me. I’m trying to do all this on my own and it’s tough,” she said with a sad face, hoping that it would draw some sympathy from her landlord.

  But Mr. Louis’s eyes were feasting on Tammy’s breasts, more specifically her nipples that were protruding through the thin T-shirt she had on. She didn’t have on a bra, so he could clearly see the darkness of her nipples. “Well, you’re a pretty enough girl, and I think I could help you out and give you some more time to come up with the rent.”

  “Thank you so much, Mr. Louis! If you could just give me until next week I’m sure—”

  “Wait a minute, young lady! Mr. Louis just offered to help you and you don’t offer anything in return? Now don’t tell me you’re a taker and not a giver. You know it don’t work like that,” Mr. Louis spoke, cutting Tammy off midsentence.

  Tammy knew that it sounded too good to be true, and now she understood what Mr. Louis was getting at. “Mr. Louis, I know you don’t think I’m having sex with you just to get some more time on my rent!” she said, already knowing the answer.

  “What kind of man do you think I am? It wouldn’t just be for your rent. I would throw in a couple dollars so you could have some money in your pockets. Besides, I would hate to see you and them babies sitting out front with all your furniture. So, you just give my offer some thought, or get my money to me by the end of this week.” He turned and walked out.

  Tammy was about to cuss him out, when she heard her phone ringing again. It was around 2:00 p.m., so she was hoping it was the call she had been waiting for all day. She looked at the screen and the number was blocked, so that meant only two things to her. One: it was a bill collector; or two: it was Chris, her kids’ father calling from jail. Praying that it was the latter, she answered it, but didn’t say hello right away just in case she had to hang up.

  “You have a prepaid call . . .” the operator announced into the phone.

  Tammy quickly pushed 5 to accept it. This phone call was right on time, because she really needed to talk to him.

  Chris was like everything to Tammy. They had been together since they were teenagers, and the love that they had for one another was unbreakable. They’d been together for a little more than seven years, and day for day, Chris took care of her in every way imaginable, all the way up until he got locked up five months ago.

  “What’s up, babe?” Chris asked, putting his back up against the wall.

  “Ducking and dodging Mr. Louis,” she responded with a little humor while looking out the window to make sure he was gone. She knew she could never tell Chris what Mr. Louis had proposed to her. If she did, he would be going right back to jail, for murder this time. Tammy knew how much he loved her, and he would never tolerate that type of disrespect to her from anybody.

  Chris sighed loudly into the phone. “It won’t be much longer. I’ll be home soon,” he said, trying to make Tammy feel a little better. “How’re my babies?”

  Tammy gave him a rundown, but it probably wasn’t what he wanted to hear. They needed stuff too, things that she couldn’t provide at the moment. The everyday struggle was hard, and the only thing that she could do about it was roll with the punches until something better came along.

  “Look, I’ll holla at
my folks when I get off of the phone with you. You’ll have some money by the end of the week,” Chris told her. Beyond all the jokes and all the seriousness behind Tammy’s voice, he could hear the pain inside of her. It kind of made him feel less of a man, hearing his woman and his children in distress and not being able to do anything about it. Yeah, his family had mad love for Tammy and the kids. And they were doing as much as they could for her, but it was nothing like having Chris around. With him, she didn’t have any stress or worries, at least financially.

  * * *

  Falisha jumped into Kim’s car with an excited look on her face. Kim looked back at her best friend with a curious gaze, knowing she was up to something. “What are you thinking?” she asked, hesitating before pulling off.

  “You know how Lamar is always talking about how he has a job? I think we should follow his ass today to see if he really does,” Falisha joked, but Kim knew she was dead serious.

  Lamar, Kim, Falisha, Tammy, Lisa, and Ralphy were the best of friends. They’d all known one another since preschool, and they all had lived on Parker Street for most of their lives. Lamar was like Tommy from the TV show Martin. He always said he had a job, but nobody ever believed him because he never revealed where the job was or who he worked for. That and he was always available to do lunch or dinner at the drop of a dime.

  Falisha, who never could control her desires to mind other people’s business, was so curious to know where Lamar worked that she would stop at nothing to find out the truth.

  “Girl, you’re crazy as hell! I’m not following that nigga around all day.” Kim chuckled.

  “Come on, please!” Falisha begged. “If you do this for me, I promise I’ll do the double date thing with you and that guy you met on Instagram,” she bargained.

  Kim had to think about that offer. She did need somebody to go with her to meet up with Ron. He was cute, and his Instagram was popular, and out of the hundreds of people who followed him, he claimed that he only wanted to go out with her. She was going to go out with him just as long as she could bring a friend to help whoop his ass if he turned out to be crazy. Kim thought about it for a minute before responding. “All right, it’s a deal. But ya ass better be ready to go with me tomorrow night!” she jokingly threatened.

  Deep down inside Kim had to admit that she too was curious as to where Lamar worked. She had pictured him in all kinds of uniforms: UPS, a security guard, a fast food joint. Because of his muscular build, she even thought that he could be a bouncer at a club. The thing was, she or Falisha wouldn’t know for sure until they followed him, and that was now the mission they were on.

  * * *

  Tammy didn’t even open the bills that fell through the mail slot of her front door. She didn’t have any way to pay them right now anyway. Her welfare check didn’t come until the third of the month, which was two long days away, and her Walmart check didn’t come until Friday.

  The mail she did open up was the mail from the welfare office. She wished she hadn’t, though. It was her case manager writing to tell her that her cash assistance had been discontinued, and that she needed to come down to the office and file child support papers in order to keep getting any assistance. “It’s always some shit!” she said, tossing the letter onto the table and grabbing her cell phone.

  Now definitely wasn’t the time to be playing around with that money, especially with Mr. Louis being on her mind with the rent due. It was times like this when she wished that Chris was home. Financially, he stayed on top of his game. He wasn’t rich, but he was doing well for himself to the point where every bill in the house, including the rent, was like pocket money to him. It was easy for him, and Tammy was too used to being spoiled. That’s why stepping up to this type of responsibility was hard.

  Chapter 2

  Lisa slid her hand under the pillow so she wouldn’t have to look at her wedding ring while Dre slammed his dick in and out of her from the back. She knew she was wrong, but it felt so good to have her ex doing things to her that her current husband, Ralph, who went by Ralphy, couldn’t do. She looked back at her phat ass slamming against Dre’s stomach as he continued to pound away. She threw her pussy back at him, holding on to the headboard for support while he continued to go deeper and deeper inside of her.

  Her box was so wet and tight that Dre had to pull out for a second to get himself together, before he busted off too early. “You miss daddy’s dick, don’t you?” he asked, slapping his dick against her ass cheek before pushing it back inside of her.

  “Sssss! Boy, stop playin!” Lisa moaned, slowly pushing her ass back up against him. She could feel another orgasm coming on.

  Dre could tell that she was about to cum, too, so he pushed his manhood as deep as he could inside of her, and gripped both of her ass cheeks like a set of handlebars. Her pussy tightened up around the whole of his thick member, and then came a burst of warm, slippery fluid that made his dick feel like it was drowning.

  “Dre! Dre!” Lisa yelled out in pleasure. “I miss dis dick!” she admitted.

  Dre began to cum as well, but instead of cummin’ inside of her vagina, he took his dick out and slammed it in her asshole.

  Lisa bit down on the pillow in pain. It hurt like hell, but at the same time it felt kind of good. “Come from back there!” she moaned and flopped onto her stomach from exhaustion. She was done, out for the count, and the only reason why she didn’t consider falling asleep was the fact that Ralphy would be waiting to pick her up from her job.

  Dre wasn’t making things any easier by rolling her over on her back and stuffing his warm, wet tongue into her tunnel. She just looked down at him, and then over at the clock on the nightstand. Choices, choices, she thought as she began to get aroused again.

  * * *

  Since Kim and Lamar were roommates, it wasn’t that hard for her and Falisha to find him. They sat in Kim’s car two streets over waiting for him to leave the house, and that was after Kim had called him to see if he was going to work today, and at what time. This was a full-fledged stakeout, equipped with sunflower seeds and soda, and a blunt that Falisha had from earlier.

  “Girl, roll that window down. Gas ain’t free,” Kim said, and turning the car off altogether. “And pluck those ashes outside.”

  “I bet you dis nigga is a stripper or some shit,” Falisha said, taking a pull of the weed.

  “Naw, I don’t think so. I saw his dick before. He don’t have a stripper’s dick.” Kim chuckled.

  Falisha looked at Kim with a curious look. That was a piece of information Kim never shared before. She was so strict on her “not dating a roommate or friend” policy that it was a surprise to hear her say that. “You gave dat nigga some pussy?” Falisha asked, sitting up in her seat to focus on some juicy details.

  “Hell no, I didn’t give him no pussy! But I did see him naked in the shower one morning when I was rushing to get to work,” Kim responded. “I only saw—”

  “Oh shit, girl! There he goes!” Falisha yelled, cutting Kim off.

  Kim fumbled around trying to get the car started. She watched as Lamar put his duffel bag into the trunk of his car and then got in and pulled off. Kim pulled off right behind him, tailing him at a good distance. He rode down North Tryon Street, then up Harris Boulevard until he jumped on the highway. Kim looked at Falisha with somewhat of a confused look. “I’m not gonna be following this nigga out to the boondocks,” she said, looking at the signs on the highway.

  Lamar made it a little too difficult for Kim to keep up anyway. He dipped in and out of traffic as though he knew somebody was following him.

  Kim almost sideswiped a car trying to stay with him. “He’s drivin’ like a maniac,” she said.

  “I know, girl. Stay with him, though,” Falisha playfully encouraged.

  It didn’t take but a few more minutes for Lamar to disappear into traffic, leaving Kim and Falisha scratching their heads trying to figure out where he was. The covert mission was over before it had yielded any fruit.
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  Kim found herself getting off on the next exit, but there was something about Lamar eluding her that made her even more curious to know where he worked. It was like a silent pact had been made when she looked over and saw the look on Falisha’s face. It was a look of determination and disappointment rolled up in one.

  “We’re gonna find out where dat nigga works!” Kim said with a devious look on her face. She stuck her fist out for a little fist bump with Falisha, letting her know that it was game on.

  * * *

  Dre had put his dick so far in Lisa’s back that she had a whole different walk. She hadn’t been fucked like that in weeks. It wasn’t an everyday thing for her to cheat on Ralphy, and there were times when she hated herself for doing it.

  Ralphy was a good man. He was sensitive, giving, and caring, and probably one of the most honest men in Charlotte. He worked a good nine-to-five job at Ford Motor, complete with medical benefits and a 401(k) plan. The only things he lived for were Lisa and their four-year-old daughter, Naomi.

  “What happened to you?” Ralphy asked, getting out of the car to meet Lisa, who was coming down the walkway.

  She looked somewhat injured, but the only things that were hurting were her ass and her conscience. She could still feel Dre’s dick back there. Visions of him pounding away at it made it hurt just a little bit more. “I fell coming down the steps,” she lied, while getting into the car.

  Ralphy didn’t think anything of it. In fact, it made him want to cater to her even more. “Other than you busting ya ass, how was work?” he asked before leaning in to give her a kiss.

  “Busy. It seemed like everybody and their mother wanted to get their teeth cleaned or pulled,” Lisa complained. Being a dental secretary wasn’t a bad job, especially when Dr. Crosby allowed Lisa to do just about whatever she wanted to do. Today wasn’t that busy at all. That’s why he had allowed her to take off for the day, and that’s how she found her way over to Dre’s house.

  “Well, look, my mom said that she was gonna watch Naomi this weekend, so I planned a nice little getaway for us,” Ralphy said, placing his hand on her lap.