A Project Chick (7 page)

"Look, baby I ain't going to do that to you anyway. I am just going to be with you."

"Please, how you going to do that?"

"Because you my girl."

"What makes you think that I even want to be your girl?"

"Look sweetheart, I can and will take care of you better than you can take care of yourself, or any other man can, for that manner."

And Luck meant every word of it too, but before he showed and proved he could, he had to put Tressa through one last test. He went to sleep and left the bag of money in the front room. He folded the brown paper bag that contained over $100,000 in a certain way. He had already counted the money and threw it back in the bag in an unorganized manner. Luck casually mentioned to her that he needed to count the money in the morning. So, if she wanted to hit him up she could have, believing that he would have never missed it. If she didn't take any out, he knew he had a winner.

Lucky had a reputation for sleeping with a bunch of women and now all that was getting boring to him. He really didn't care for any of the chicks, because they all were out for his money. Once he laid eyes on Tressa, a bright idea came across his mind.
Why don't I just get one
girl who I can just really get into and she be into me? I can
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just spend on her, instead of giving this one and that one
$1,500 here, $200 there, $400 here. I'll invest it all on one
female. When functions, shows and plays come to town, I'll
know that I got someone worthy to go with me. Instead of
having this one and that one on my shoulders, and niggas
laughing behind my back because she was just with them the
night before.
I could do this with Tressa. I'm going to take
care of her to the point I am going to make her the envy of the
town.
If I could get her to just play fair with me, I'm gonna do
big things with her. And when I ain't so "Lucky" and the feds
come, shit, she won't let the next man get next to her. There
won't be any competition.

When Tressa laid down to sleep, she tossed and turned all night. She couldn't help but think of all the things that Lucky said. But did he mean it? She had been so caught up in her own life, trying to make ends meet, that she hadn't had a man, or any financial help, for that matter. She thought about all the great things they could do together. The Virginia State Fair was coming to Richmond in a couple of months. The State Fair was a big idea to Richmonders. She thought how they could walk through the fair hand, in hand eating cotton candy and he could play the basketball games and win her big stuffed teddy bear. She had always wanted a "real" boyfriend, but due to Taj being so overprotected of her, trying to shield her from the world, a real boyfriend was something she never had. She had sneaked around with boys, but as far as anything real serious, she never had. She hoped with all her heart that everything Lucky said was true and not just talk. She had listened to her brother tell lies to women for no apparent reason, so she was fully aware of the games men played. For the rest of the night, she went back and forth with the pros and cons that came with Lucky
. Well,
he's one of Taj's friends so he may be full of it. But Taj
wouldn't have introduced us if he would have thought that
Lucky could harm me in any way. Overall, Taj plays fair and
he mostly surrounds himself with real dudes cause he is a
real dude. And birds of a feathers do flock together. And Taj
is a real good dude, so there must be some good in Lucky
then.
Butterflies just went all through her stomach as she kept trying to fall asleep, but couldn't.

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The next day, Lucky was up before Tressa. He counted the money, and with no surprise, she had not been in the bag. So, the fairy tale began.

Since the only way he really knew how to show his love was through material possessions, he began to shower her with all kinds of gifts. His first concern was her car. He took her to the car lot and bought her a low mileage, pre-owned, white M30 Infiniti convertible with a black top. He then gave her money to pay the insurance for an entire year, and money to buy new clothes to wear as she rode around in her new whip.

After she got her new car, Tressa went to pick up Dutchess. Dutchess was so happy for Tressa. "Damn girl, who's car?"

"Girl, mine." Tressa happily responded.

"Girl, stop playing. How much ya note?"

"Girl, it's paid for!"

"Dammnnn, a nigga just didn't put you in a car without a note! You know how some of these dudes come putting down the down payment, talking bout they bought you a car, and all they did was bought the daggone note.

Ole boy, Lucky Luck, bought the whole car and paid for it in full! Girl, you got a title out of him already. Just imagine what else he got in store for you. Girl, you know we gotta go strip hopping!" That is, riding around from one drug infested area where drugs, sex and anything else illegal were being sold, to the next one, and on, just to let the hoes know.

With the hot sun beaming down on them, Gucci sunglasses covering their eyes, drop top back and

"Summer, Summa, Summertime" by the Fresh Prince, playing with the volume all the way up on the Infiniti factory tape deck, Dutchess and Tressa turned onto Chimbarazo Blvd. where about twenty dudes were congregated at the corner. Tressa saw Motor about to cross the street. "Wooowwww." He screamed. "Oh, SHIT! You got it? That car is pretty as hell! Pull over." They pulled over to the curb. Motor came over to the car, but called over to the crowd. "Man-Man, come look at this car that Luck bought his girl."

"How you know Lucky paid for this?" Dutchess asked, and of course, motor-mouth Motor gave it up.

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"Man, I know he got it for her because that's all he was talking bout when he was beating me out my money at the crap game. How he gonna get his girl a new car. How you going from the bat mobile Buick, to the drop top Infiniti? So yeah, you can thank me. He damn sure took all my money last night."

"Well, thank you!"

Man-Man walked up and set the record straight.

"Please, nigga. That lil $35,000 Luck won from you last night wasn't nothing. That ain't going to make or break Lucky man."

"Shoot, that $35,000 was re-up money and now I gotta stand out here and nickel and dime it to get back on." Motor said to Man-Man.

Dutchess heard that and sunk it all in. After they pulled off, she begged Tressa to fix her up with one of Lucky's homeboys. Dutchess wanted a piece of the pie too.

Dutchess and Tressa had been friends for years, since they were in sixth grade. Dutchess was very pretty, but her selfish ways made her ugly. Her sandy red hair went well with her light bright sandy red complexion. She was so pale that she had pink lips and didn't really need to wear any lipstick. She was petite, but was very shapely.

She always seemed all right to Tressa, but never played fair concerning the guys in her life. Dutchess's mentality was since she was pretty, there was no need for her to struggle for anything.

Once Dutchess met Lucky, she was immediately drawn to him. She called herself his fake sister.

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-5-

The Love Games

Over the course of the next fourteen months, Tressa and Lucky became best friends, as well as boyfriend and girlfriend. They communicated so much and sometimes would just sit on the sofa and talk for hours, getting to know the ins and outs of each other's past life and childhood. Lucky shared with Tressa that his government name, Khalil, meant "beautiful and good friend" and he wanted to always be her best friend. He also revealed to her his history with his mother, something he never discusses with anybody. To be truthful, he's glad he shared it with her, because it has had such a great effect on him. He was forced to recall those painful childhood memories when he almost lost Tressa one day, because he snapped and lost his temper.

One night, Tressa got up in the middle of the night and pulled the bedroom door in because a draft was coming in, but still left it slightly ajar. Lucky woke up and felt the door was closed and just about lost his mind. This was the first time Tressa had ever witnessed this type of behavior coming from Lucky. She was scared to death of him and started to cry. After Lucky calmed down, he told her that his mother, Betty, used to make him sleep in the closet when he was a toddler. She would put him in the closet because she only had a one-bedroom apartment at the time.

She didn't want her male friends to see Lucky, because 45

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then Lucky would "cock block". The more Lucky would cry, the longer she would leave him there, even after her friends were gone. So, he learned to just be quiet and take it, but as an adult, he hates to be in tight, closed-in spaces and behind closed doors. She hugged him and comforted him as tears rolled down his eyes. She also shared with him about the traumatic situation with her mother too. What started out very ugly, ended up being a beautiful moment that pulled Lucky and Tressa closer together. Lucky spoiled Tressa with everything a woman could want. There was nothing she didn't have, and their relationship was the envy and desire of all the chicks in Richmond.

Tressa also spoiled Lucky back. Although her money wasn't as long as his, her love for him was genuine and she showered it upon him. There was no secret about it, she made it known to him that he was her king. One day, as Tressa laid in the bed beside him with her head resting on his chest announced, "Let's play a game."

"You wanna play strip poker?" He asked with a naughty smile, as he put his arm around her.

"No. I want to play the 'I love you more' game."

"What? What's that?" Lucky was intrigued and had never heard of that game. "How you play that, Sweet Cakes?"

"It's real simple, you try to love your partner more than they are loving you. Then the only thing that can go on is a lot of loving!"

"A'ight Sweet Cakes, let the games begin." And they did.

When Lucky fell off to sleep, she softly kissed all over his face while wearing red lipstick. She wrote him a note, so when he woke up, he could have love waiting on him. If he was sleep at the time, she knew Lucky couldn't out love her this time. So, basically, she'd won the game.

Lucky woke up and smiled as he read the note written in red ink and sealed with her red lipstick prints on the paper. He looked over at her and she looked so beautiful, like a black Sleeping Beauty as she slept. He got up and washed his hands, brushed his teeth, and when he looked in the mirror, he saw the lipstick prints of the soft kisses she placed all over his face. He grinned, as he thought to himself, that he may have bit more off then he 46

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can chew with the "love you more game", for Tressa there wasn't any limits. He sat and contemplated on how he could beat her at her own game.

He held her hand while she slept and just stared at her, fascinated that this was "his woman". When she awoke, it really touched her heart that he held her hand while she slept. She got up and used the bathroom, brushed her teeth and washed her face. When she returned, there was a shrimp and fish plate on his night table.
Oh, I know he didn't order some food and not order me
something or even ask me if I wanted anything.

But before she could even utter a word to him, Lucky placed a napkin over her lap.

"I ordered you a snack Sweet Cakes." He said and fed her a shrimp. He cut up her fish while she was chewing on the shrimp and then continued to feed her. As she took the last bite, he looked into her eyes and said. "I love you more." As he kissed her on her forehead." She laughed, "Oh, this is how you wanna play? All I can say is play, baby!" She said as she smiled.

They both kept playing the "love game" to the T.

Tressa went to the mall and picked up a few things she wanted. While in the lingerie store buying some sexy negligees, she thought about Lucky when she saw some paisley print silk men's pajamas that looked so rich that only a king would wear them. Although the pajamas never stayed on long, she had to buy them for her king. She took to this new love game, but either way, she knew she couldn't lose. She had more time on her hands than he did, so when he gave her money, she spent it on both of them, not just herself.