Yatta sipped her martini. “How’s that going with him and Brian?”

“It’s going pretty good since we moved back here. Brian’s been coming to get him almost every day.” Kennedy felt her purse vibrating. She reached in and retrieved her ringing cell phone. She smiled wide when she saw, HUSBAND displayed on the screen. “Hey, baby,” she answered.

“What you doing?” Chaz asked.

“Sitting here talking to Yatta.”

“Where y’all at?”

“I’m at Yatta’s.”

“You close—swing by the studio and pick me up. Let’s go get some dinner. I know you hungry.” He laughed.

“Oh, so you got jokes?” Kennedy could hear Strick in the background. “What did Strick say?”

“He said you need to come in here and lay down some tracks before you get all fat and can’t fit inside the booth.”

“Tell him I said shut up before I put my sister on him.”

“He said bring your sister—she don’t run nothin’!”

“I sure will.” Kennedy pressed end. “Yatta, put on some clothes. Your husband poppin’ big shit.”

“Call up there again, you fuckin’ flashlight cop,” Ria barked at the security guard who sat behind the tall wooden and gold-trimmed desk in the lobby of the building that housed Strick’s recording studio.

“Miss, I’m sorry,” the young Puerto Rican guard said, “but he said that he will call you later.”

“I don’t give two shits what he said. You pick that damn phone back up, tell him I said it’s very important and that I’m not leaving until he comes down.” Ria was sick of Chaz avoiding her. Ever since she confessed that she’d gotten pregnant from when they’d had sex before his wedding, Chaz would barely take her phone calls or speak to her when he picked up their daughters.

The guard picked up the phone to call upstairs once more and told the receptionist, “Could you tell Chaz that his visitor is still here and she refuses to leave until he comes down?”

Once the receptionist relayed the message, Chaz got on the phone. “Son, listen, I don’t mean to be rude, but do your job, yo. You security. If she won’t leave, put her ass out.” He wanted Ria gone before Kennedy arrived, in order to avoid a major confrontation. Chaz knew that Ria was primed for the event. He was surprised that Ria hadn’t called Kennedy to tell her about the night that they’d slept together, which she had been threatening to do. Ria had him stressed. The situation was wearing on his nerves daily.

The guard placed the phone back on the hook. He inhaled deeply because he knew what he had to say was not going to go over well. “Miss, he’s not coming down. You need to leave now, or I will have to escort you from the premises.”

“Escort me from the premises! Muthafucka, I wish you would bring ya faggot ass from around that desk,” Ria barked in her nasally voice and heavy Brooklyn accent.

While Ria continued to loudly belittle the young guard, Kennedy and Yatta entered through the automatic revolving door. They were talking and laughing. However, as soon as Kennedy heard Ria’s voice, her stomach turned, “This bitch,” Kennedy sighed.