Free For the Love of Money by Omar Tyree

continued.
    â€œYes he will, because I haven’t done anything, and I’ll just tell him, ‘Honey, these are all lies because I busted Dee Lee’s groove with our guest, Tracy Ellison Grant, and now he’s trying desperately to get back at me.’
    â€œSo, anyway we have Tracy Ellison Grant here in our Power 99 FM studios, and we’re going to come right back to her after a break, and before Dee Lee starts making up any lies to get me in trouble with my sweet, dear, and loving husband. Kiss, kiss.”
    â€œOh,
now
she’s trying to butter him up,” Dee Lee said. “We
all
know what
that
means.”
    â€œIt means what?”
    â€œIt means that you’re
guilty.
”
    â€œYeah, whatever. So, we’ll be back everyone, with Tracy Ellison Grant.”
    As soon as we were off of the air for more music, or
they
were off of the air, because I didn’t have a chance to even
breathe
in the microphone, Wendy asked me about the name thing.
    â€œOkay, now I have to ask you about this Grant name thing, because my sources in Hollywood say that you have a husband back here in Philly, and my Philadelphia sources say that you have a man back out in LA. And
I
don’t know
what
to think, so I just have to ask you that.”
    I smiled. “I just spoke to my mother about the name thing this morning, and it’s a real simple explanation to it.”
    â€œOkay, well, let’s save that for the Power 99 FM audience out there, because everyone is like, so confused about this whole name thing. I mean, some people were even saying that you had added the Grant name on to hide that you had turned into a lesbian. And I said, wait a minute. After reading about your early life in your book
Flyy Girl,
I just couldn’t see how you could go from
that,
with all of the cute guys and everything, to wanting just...
girls.
You know what I mean? That just didn’t add up to me.”
    Dee Lee looked at me and broke out laughing. “That’s Wendy,” he told me. “She
will
go there.”
    â€œWell, I’m just giving Tracy a chance to clear all of this up, you know,because that
is
what I’m hearing, and before I just jump to any conclusions.” She gave Dee Lee a mischievous smile.
    He said, “Oh, you’ve
never
done that before. That’s not even your style.”
    Wendy laughed it off and turned back to me. “Anyway, before I jump to any conclusions, I just wanted to give you the opportunity, in your hometown and all, to set the record straight.”
    â€œOr crooked, if the case may be,” Dee Lee added jokingly.
    â€œWell, I’ll straighten that all out immediately,” I told them. I was not the
least
bit amused by it. Can you
believe
that?! A
lesbian?!
Was Wendy just making that shit up for effect or did she really hear that?
    We went back on air and got right into it.
    â€œOkay, we’re back with our guest for the day, movie star, slash screen-writer, slash author, Tracy Ellison Grant, and the first thing we want to do is have her clear up the whole Grant name thing, because some people, and I’m not going to say any names, but you know who you are out there, have been saying some cruel things about the homegirl. So we, at Power 99 FM, are going to give Tracy a chance to defend herself.”
    â€œThat’s right. We got your back, Tracy,” Dee Lee added.
    â€œWell, I should have had more coffee this morning for this,” I began. “So this is how you guys have taken over Philadelphia and killed the Carter and Sanborn show?” I cracked for general purposes. I had to let them know that I was
not
a damn plaything
or
a pushover!
    â€œOh-kay,” Wendy responded.
    Frankly, I didn’t give a fuck! I said, “The Grant at the end of my name was added because once I went from sitcom writing to screenwriting and then to acting, I found there was a Tracy Ellis and also a Tracy Ells already in the books.