Free Hot Girlz: Hot Boyz Sequel by Marissa Monteilh Page B

his jacket pocket and worked his way through the screen to read a
text message. “I just got a text from him. From Kyle.”
    “What?”
    They stood before the elevator and
Sequoia pressed the down button.
    “He wants to meet me at TGI Fridays in
Ladera. Tomorrow afternoon at two.”
    “Oh no.”
    “Oh no, what?”
    “I know you’re not going. You can’t
trust him.”
    “I don’t know.”
    Sequoia crossed her arms. “Uh-oh.
You’ll go.”
    “Maybe.”
    “You just make sure you listen more
than you talk.”
    Torino looked down to read another
message. “Says it’s important.” He began typing, and pressed the screen,
putting his phone back in his pocket as the elevator arrived.
    “What did you tell him?” Sequoia
stepped inside first.
    Torino followed. “I told him, yeah,
I’ll be there.”
    “I knew it. Just an accident waiting
to happen. This whole thing.”
    And the elevator went down, down, down
to the ground floor.
     
     
     
    10
     
     
    Mercedes
     
     
    “What the hell happened?”
     
    They say a home is not a house and a
house is not a home when two are far apart and one has a broken heart.
    For Mercedes Wilson to turn her house
into a home again would involve the man of the house coming back to it,
willingly.
    It was August 26 th and
Mason hadn’t spent the night at home in exactly two weeks. Mercedes had talked
to him on the phone a few times, but only briefly. Whenever she brought up any
conversation that revolved around the two of them personally, or the Vegas
incident, he would change the subject and rush off. He had been home only twice
to get more of his things, both times while Mercedes was at work.
    Mason was staying in the upper unit of
a duplex they owned in Leimert Park on Creed. It was the same place his
half-sister, Cicely James, who was also co-owner of Foreplay before Torino
bought it, lived in, rent free for so long. Cicely is the woman Mercedes swore
was Mason’s side piece, and she also swore Mason was financing Cicely, being
her sugar daddy. But it turns out the woman was not only gay, not into men
whatsoever, but she also turned out to be the love child of Jesse Wilson and
his mistress. Quiet as it was kept, Mattie knew all about it and wanted nothing
to do with Cicely so the Wilson brothers tried to hide the truth for years, but
Mason caved in and told Mercedes after her suspicions became a problem. And
eventually, Cicely sold her interest in Foreplay to Torino and moved to New
York with her woman to open a nightclub there.
    Mercedes sat at the kitchen table
flipping through a Vogue magazine, turning the pages but not really
taking in the content. Mind on her marriage, marriage on her mind.
    From the backyard she heard Nadia
barking and whining, and then just as Mercedes was about to go check on her,
Rashaad came in through the back door, spitting image of his father just a
lighter shade of brown. He wore black jeans, a black golf shirt, and a black
cap.
    Mercedes’s hand was over her heart.
“Oh. Oh my. Hey, Son. I was wondering what all that commotion was about. I
thought you were your dad.” She flashed a full smile.
    “Nope. It’s just me.”
    “Just you. Please, you look good,” she
said as he came over to give her a kiss on the cheek. She hugged him tight.
    “Thanks. Whatcha got to eat?” he
asked, breaking from their embrace and heading straight for the refrigerator.
    Mercedes told him, “I made some turkey
spaghetti earlier if you want some. Other than that there’s some fried chicken
from a couple of nights ago.”
    He looked inside. “Hmmm.”
    Mercedes said, “No. First of all, I
should be asking you, what do you want? I watched you win the U.S. Open while
you were in Georgia and talked to you after, but haven’t seen you at all this
month. So in honor of you being able to come home, you tell me what you’d like
to eat, and I’ll make it.”
    He shut the refrigerator door. “Wow. I
won’t pass that up. Maybe turkey wings and cabbage and those