Cat excused herself from the person she was talking to and came to see what Freeze wanted. “What’s up, Freeze?”
“Cat, I want you to meet somebody. This is-”
“Bobby Ray,” Cat said as she stepped closer to Bobby. “I’ve been wantin’ to meet you for a long time.”
“Really? And why is that?” Bobby asked.
“Because powerful men turn me on,” Cat said and grabbed his hand. Freeze laughed as he watched Cat lead Bobby upstairs to the private rooms.
That’s how it began and it went on until Cat started monopolizing more of Bobby’s time and began calling Pam to boast about it. Another woman calling the house talkin’ shit to her about her husband was absolutely unacceptable to Pam, and she was forced to take steps to put an end to the affair. Ultimately, her solution caused Pam to have a nervous breakdown.
Bobby got help for her and checked her into a private clinic and then moved his children to a house close to the clinic so Pam could see their children everyday while she recovered. When Pam came home she was feeling like herself again, but she refused to have sex with Bobby.
“I thought that since she was feeling better, and since the two of you seemed to have moved past all that stuff, that you and her were-” Wanda said.
“I thought she would too, but she said she can’t. She said that she understands that I’m a man and I have
“Well, if you don’t mind, put me on that list of people you keep it away from.”
Bobby turned to Nick. “Where’s Mike?”
“I thought he was coming with you?”
“Ain’t no tellin’ what time he’s gonna get here then,” Wanda added. “Why he has somebody driving for him that don’t know where anything is, is still a mystery to me.”
“We’re on 42-nd Street. How hard could this place be to find?” Nick asked.
“Kevon used to drive him around in the Bahamas and Mike trusts him. That’s good enough for me,” Bobby said.
“It oughta be, since it was your bright idea for him to have a driver,” Wanda said.
“Only question is, how long we gonna wait for him?” Nick asked. “I’m hungry.”
“You're always hungry,” Bobby said as their waiter arrived at the table.
“Are you ready to order?”
“We’re still waiting on one more person,” Wanda informed the waiter.
“Bring me a Remy Martin on the rocks,” Bobby ordered.
“I’ll have another Johnny Black,” Nick added. “I think we should go on and order.”
“Go ahead. I’ll order something for Mike,” Wanda said.
Bobby put down his menu. “What do you recommend?”
“I highly recommend the saffron-spiked lobster ravioli. The signature black truffle mac and cheese was served on season one of Bravo’s ‘Top Chef.’ It’s a tasty blend of black truffles; brandy and fontina slow-cooked with fresh thyme and oregano. The oversized scallops are doused in a buttery pool of vanilla bean cream. And our roasted salmon is served with a sweet sherry brandy glaze. All of those are excellent.”
The trio gave the waiter their orders and he left them. They talked about the business at hand while they waited for Black to get there. He arrived at the table just as the food was being served.
“Sorry I’m late. We had a run to make, and on the way here Kevon went the wrong way on the Major Deegan and then we got stuck in traffic on the Cross Bronx,” Black said and sat down. “Did you order me something?”
“I got you the smokey-rubbed filet mignon,” Wanda replied as the server placed a plate of veggie pasta in front of her. Nick had the Chilean sea bass, while Bobby opted for the hoisin amp; cider pork tenderloin.
“What's that you havin’?” Black asked Wanda.
“Veggie pasta.”
“You shoulda got me that, but this is cool.”
While they enjoyed their meal, Wanda went over the state of their business. First she went over the legitimate business, telling her partners how strong profits were and gave a very optimistic outlook for the future. However, when she went into the state of their gambling operations, the report was not as good.
“So what you’re sayin’ is money is down across the board?” Bobby asked.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Wanda said and took a sip of her drink.
“What are you really sayin’, Wanda?” Black asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Stop it, Wanda,” Bobby said. “You know exactly what he’s askin’ you. If you been in his ear, like you been in mine, all I can say is I feel sorry for you, Nick.”
Wanda looked around the table, and slowly the corners of her lips curled into a smile. “What?” her smile turned to laughter.
“Go ahead and say it, Wanda. You think we need to get out,” Black said without looking at her while he cut his filet. “I mean, that is why you got us all together to tell us the same shit you’ve been tellin’ all of us individually for months. Or did you just want to go out to dinner?”
“He’s right.” Nick turned to Wanda. “You have been beatin’ us all over the head with that club.”
“Traitor. I’ll deal with you later,” Wanda whispered to Nick. “Yes, I think we should consider it seriously. Or at least we all could discuss it.”
“Okay, counselor.” Black put down his fork and knife. “Since you already made the point that we’re making more money on the legit side of the house, go ahead and make your case.”
“For one thing, we used to need a bigger table to have these meetings.”
No one said a word.
No one had to.
Since she had everyone’s attention, Wanda continued to drive her point. She reached out and held Black’s hand. “It seems like we’re moving backwards instead of forward. I mean look at the two of you. Mike, you had left all this behind you. You and Cassandra made a life for yourselves in the Bahamas. You were out. Then you let her talk you into staying here. You lost your wife and Michelle lost her mother. Which one of you is gonna be next? I’ll be honest; I don’t want to go to anymore funerals for a long time. I don’t want to lose anymore friends. And the fact is we don’t have to live like that anymore.
“And Bobby, while Mike was gone, you were so busy being a faithful husband and a father to your children that I had to practically drag you out of the house.”
“True that,” Bobby had to admit.
“And look what happened when you did,” Wanda added.
“You had to go and throw that in.”
“Well, it’s the truth. And now Freeze is dead. Hasn’t this life cost us enough?”
Black looked at Wanda for awhile without speaking. She was right, as usual. Actually, he had been thinking the same thing lately. It was as if life had come full circle for him. He was back in New York, back running Cuisine. He was seeing a stripper or former stripper at this point, along with a few others. Everything was like it was before he met Cassandra.
He thought about Michelle.
“All right, now that you’ve killed my appetite, I have two questions,” Black said.
“What’s that?” Wanda asked.
“Since we are still making money on gambling and our other businesses, if you do get out, how do you plan on replacing that income?”
Now it was Wanda who was looking at Black without speaking. She hadn’t expected him to ask that, so she didn’t have an answer ready. “I haven’t given that any thought,” she was forced to admit.
“What’s the second question?” Nick asked.
“How do we get out? I mean what do we do, just walk away from it all? Do we make everybody buy us out?”
“I hadn’t thought of that either,” Wanda admitted quickly. Now her appetite was gone.
“When you have an answer to both of those questions, we’ll talk about this again.”
