A Project Chick (8 page)

As she opened up the door, she smiled to herself as she thought,
Luck hates to lose and I refuse to be outdone
!

But he's just going to have to be a better sport. I am about to
beat him at his own game.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she was blinded by a giant stuffed Panda bear on the love seat, with a super fat herringbone laying on his neck, with a side charm that said "Tressa and Khalil", fluttered in diamonds.

A card lay in between the Panda bears legs that said, "I love you more", with a big smiley face drawn beside it.

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She called to thank Lucky and put the groceries away. She started preparing dinner, and while it was cooking, she decided to change the sheets on the bed, only to find twelve long stem roses on the bed, with a card also saying, "I love you more".

She just shook her head and said. "Damn it feels good to be loved."

She went into the bathroom to use the toilet, and when she walked in, she almost had a heart attack. There was a giant stuffed arangatan sitting on the toilet with a roll of toilet paper in his hand. She thought. "Real funny Lucky, you almost scared the shit out of me." She started screaming at the top of her lungs when she saw the three-carat diamond earrings on the arangatan's ears. She had been wanting those earrings for so long. After all the excitement died down, she said out loud, but talking to herself. "Oh, Lucky you got jokes huh?" She took the arangatan downstairs and put the silk pajamas on him that she had brought for Lucky. "He looks just like Lucky too." She joked with herself. Tressa put the negligee on she had brought for herself on the Panda bear.

She sat them both on the table.

The phone rang and she looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Lucky. "I love you baby! I think I am starting to like the love war." She said when she picked up the phone.

"Me too. I was at the gas station and went in my pocket to get my money to pay for the gas and I pulled out the little love note you wrote to me and slipped in my pocket. That was a good one."

"Nah, the earrings, now that was a good one. I was getting ready to call you to thank you for the earrings."

"Just thank me by greeting me buck naked when I get there."

She always did. Sex was a routine part of their day.

Luck and Tressa would bump and grind two, sometimes three times a day. She hoped on that dick every chance she got. She didn't want to get caught "sleeping". She silently picked this up from Wiggles, Taj's girlfriend. Wiggles always put it on Taj so he wouldn't stray. Tressa was fully aware of the lifestyle that Lucky lived, and knew as soon as he hit the streets, there were all types of women practically 48

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throwing their panties at him. Her philosophy was, if there was never a dull moment in their sex life and he was getting plenty at home, he'd be burnt out when the homewreckers and sack chasers came calling.

Tressa will never forget the day Luck took her on a surprise picnic. They sat on one of the huge rocks along the James River, and she admired the beautiful and lavish houses across the street while unpacking the picnic basket.

When everything was out, she noticed some keys that appeared to be house keys, in the bottom of the basket. He looked into her eyes, pointed across the street at a white house and said. "That's our new home." She got up and sprinted over to it. She put the key into the door and she couldn't believe what her eyes revealed to her, cathedral ceilings, sunroom, columns in the foyer and living room, fireplaces and spacious rooms. Lucky stood back gloating, pleased at his decision to purchase the house. "I got like 80

G's put up, so you can start decorating. This is our castle, you're the Queen and I am the King."

"Baby, I love it." She said still in shock.

"Can I get some love?" He pulled her close to him and tongued her down.

She hugged him long and hard. "Boo, I know this may sound ungrateful, but when I think about all that stuff at my apartment, I dread packing it."

"No baby, you don't have to pack nothing. All we have to do is move our clothes. I'm going to keep that apartment over there, so when we have out of town guests, they can just stay there instead of here with us or me spending $100 or $200 for a hotel room."

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-6-

With Every Good, Comes the Bad

Tressa and Lucky had some very good times, but there was an unbalance in the relationship. Either things were excellent or horrible between them. The thing that Tressa hated the most, but she overlooked, is that fact that Lucky smoked cigarettes. She despised the smell of cigarette smoke because her stepfather smoked. She expressed this to Lucky, but this was a habit he had since he was thirteen years old and he was now twenty-four. As bad as he wanted to, he could never stop. He accommodated her by never smoking around her or in the house, but she still could smell it all over his clothes.

Lucky also owned two rottweiler dogs, Dopeman and Killer. At first, he kept them at Ms. Betty's house when they lived in the apartment, but when they moved into the house, he had special doghouses built for them. He loved those two dogs as if they were his own children. His mother would always say. "Khalil loves dogs more than he loves anybody."

Tressa secretly was against having the dogs in their home. In the beginning, she'd say. "Luck, I was always told that those dogs would turn on you." Luck always responded. "No, not my dogs." He would have a bit of an attitude, because Tressa would say something negative about his prize possessions.

It wasn't long before Tressa accepted them and started sharing the responsibility of "Lucky's children" with 51

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him. They walked the dogs everyday together. Lucky dropped the dogs off to get groomed every week when he was on his way to get his haircut. She'd sometimes pick them up, but most of the time Lucky was responsible for them. Although he said it was charm school that he faithfully took his dogs to twice a week, he tipped the instructor extra cash to teach the dogs attack tactics.

Tressa was surprised when she went for her yearly check up and the doctor told her she was pregnant. She knew that they had sex like rabbits, and never wore any kind of protection. However, after having unprotected sex for over a year, she had dismissed the thought of being able to get pregnant.

At first, she was happy. Once Lucky found out Tressa was pregnant, he made her feel like it was the happiest day of his life. She fixated on the good parts of becoming a parent. She'd be able to dress the baby cute, this would be both Lucky's and her first child, and they'd live happily ever after. Having a child together would complete them as one.

She couldn't wait until visitation day rolled around so she could share the good news with her brother. Taj thought it was the worst news he'd heard since he'd gotten all that jail time.

"What you mean, you having a baby? So, what about school?"

"I am going to finish college after I have the baby."

"So, what you graduated to being barefoot and pregnant now?"

Taj's tone alone sent her into tears. He wasn't screaming at her, but he was firm when he spoke. Once he saw she was in tears, he began to settle down. His sister's tears always made him weak.

"Look, all I am saying is I need you to rethink this.

Sugar Gal, I am begging you not to have this baby. I mean you got ten, fifteen more years, at least, that you can have a baby. Get you somebody who is established in life legitimately, not a hustler. Sugar Gal, this dude ain't going to last long in this game. Matter of fact, the drug game ain't set up for no black man. The best thing for a black man, who has no other choice but the drug game, is to get in and get out as fast as he can. And I don't foresee Lucky ever 52

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getting out of that game. And what if he goes to jail or gets killed, where does that leave you and the baby?"

"He is going to get out as soon as he makes enough money to get us a business." She said, speaking up in Lucky's defense.

"Sugar listen, when Lucky first got out of jail, I set him up with a job, that if he wanted to go legit, he could have and he didn't. So, Sugar Gal, I am asking you for me to please rethink this." Taj said, practically begging his sister to reconsider.

That day, leaving the prison, became one of Tressa's saddest days. Tressa felt like she owed her brother her life for all of the sacrifices he made for her after their mother was gone. It meant everything to have her brother's blessings, but what about Lucky's blessings. Then she kept trying to tell herself that men will come and go, but this was her brother for life. Tressa wanted to continue to further her education, and Lucky convinced her she could. She was confused and didn't know what to do. With all the pressures from her brother, she decided that the timing was bad and scheduled an abortion.

While at the abortion clinic, Lucky came into the clinic and begged her not to have the abortion "Please Tressa, don't do this. I love you so much and I promise, I will never leave you to raise this baby by yourself. Please, just don't do this to me."

Lucky kept on trying to persuade her everyway he could. "This must be what God wants, because look how much we make love and this is the first time you ever got pregnant." He pulled out every convincing line he could.

"You know I'll take care of this baby, I mean look how I take care of my dogs. I go all out for them, something that I bought. Now, just imagine how I'd go all out for something I made."

She looked into his eyes to try to search for the solution. Her mind was made up, the abortion was the right thing to do, but when she saw the tears rolling down his face, she had to give in.

Throughout the whole pregnancy, Lucky was very supportive of Tressa. They did everything concerning the baby together. He went to every single doctor appointment with her. They went baby shopping together. He did 53

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everything in his power to make sure she was as comfortable as she could be. When she was five months pregnant, she found out she was having twins. Lucky considered himself luckier when he found out the twins were boys. Tressa had to admit, he did hold up his end of the bargain. He took care of her to the fullest.

It was after the birth of the twins, when she noticed a drastic change in Lucky. She first became very disappointed when he informed her. "Tressa, nobody's watching my children but their mother. So, until they go to school, you ain't going to school. You'll be at home with them."

This was the first major conflict she had with Lucky.

Most women, especially a new mother, would have loved for their man to make this demand. Tressa, without a doubt, loved her children, but she wanted to finish school. There was no win, over this situation, or no other argument.

Once Lucky had his mind made up, there was no way he was bending.

Just like a few months before on Thanksgiving Day, the first Thanksgiving in their new quarter of a million dollar house, where his mother brought over a beautifully decorated ham, with pineapples, cherries and maple on top.

Well, Lucky didn't eat pork and did not want it in his house.

His mother ignored that fact, since Lucky grew up on pork.

Just because he didn't eat it now, why should he make decisions for everybody else? Tressa didn't have it on the table, but on the kitchen counter top. Lucky saw it and went ballistic. "Get that damn swine out my fucking house!"

"Your mother brought it to eat. She had to have it." Tressa tried to keep Lucky calm and please his mother at the same time.

Lucky went into the restroom, washed his hands, and when he came back to the kitchen and saw that the ham was still on the countertop, he casually went under his shirt, pulled out his gun and shot the ham. It splattered all across the kitchen, walls, floors, everywhere. Naturally, Lucky's insane outburst ruined their ThanksGiving. This was her first warning to get out, but Tressa was too set in her comfort zone and didn't take heed.

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The ominous signs about Lucky's violence were constantly revealed to Tressa, but she never would take a stand against Lucky. She thought the last straw was when she found out who was really residing in her old apartment.

One day, she got a call from the rental office warning her that there are too many complaints coming from other tenants about her apartment. There was always fighting, almost everyday. Tressa was in shock because there shouldn't be anybody in the apartment on a daily basis.

Tressa thought the management was lying, until the day she got up early, grabbed the keys to Lucky's rental car, (he had just returned from a "business trip"), left the twins and Lucky sleeping while she went out to pick up a few things from the grocery store.