Cheaters Read Free Page B

moment I get home, Dawn starts whining for attention.”
    “Women will suck the life out of you.”
    “I know that’s right. Giving a woman the attention she wants is another full-time job. But work is taking up most of my time. I’m getting ready for a hearing against Northwest out in Palm Springs. Plus I’m doing some unlawful detainers for a friend of a friend who’s trying to evict some tenants out in Rialto. The tenants haven’t paid a dime in rent in over a year.”
    “Don’t wear yourself out. Finish that book. That could be a million dollars you sitting on.”
    Darnell smiled at my encouragement, then asked, “You talked to Jake?”
    I said, “Yeah.”
    Jake is another one of our running buddies. He’s a fireman out in L.A., near my folks’ house.
    That was when I remembered and told Darnell about the ski trip. On Valentine’s Day Jake and his fiancée are hitting the local slopes and had extended an invitation for all of us to tag along. I would’ve told Darnell sooner, but I didn’t want to bring it up in front of Samantha. If I was kicking it with her this weekend, I’d have to kick it with Toyomi next weekend. But if I finally catch up with Brittany, never know what I might do.
    Darnell said they had plans for Valentine’s Day. He was taking Dawn an hour across the Pacific Ocean to experience a few golden sunsets at Catalina Island. Their romantic weekend, the glass-bottom boat ride there and back, the five-star hotel room and champagne brunch, were already hooked up.
    He asked, “Jake tell you those dreams were back?”
    I let some water run over my face, into my mouth, then spat it out. I didn’t want to get into talking about Jake’s dreams. They were too eerie, so demented it made my flesh crawl just thinking about them.
    I changed the subject, asked what him and Dawn were getting into today.
    Darnell replied, “We’re going to catch a couple of movies at the AMC on Fullerton Road. What you doing?”
    I turned my shower off, grabbed my green towel. “Trying to get rid of Samantha.”
    He laughed a bit.
    I shook my head, said, “When she comes out here, it’s hard to get her ass to go back home.”
    “That girl likes you, that’s all.”
    “I like her too.”
    “Yeah, but if you’re seeing eight or nine other women, how will you ever know if that relationship has potential? You have to focus on one. They start to cancel each other after a while.”
    I ignored his calm expression of righteousness. “I know she’s going to try and stay until Sunday night or early Monday morning, so I’ll tell her I’m going up to see my momma. That way I can just follow her home, then bounce over to see my folks before I come back out this way.”
    Darnell chuckled.
    I said, “What’s funny?”
    “You got your game laid out. You’ve got a backup plan for your backup plan. If I had your hand, I’d throw mine in.”
    I laughed. “If you got Dawn, you’ve got the best hand.”
    “Grass is always greener.”
    I said, “Not when you’re taking care of your own lawn.”
    “With all the lawns you’re tending to with that weed-wacker of yours, how would you know?”
    I laughed and finished drying off. After I got dressed I used the pay phone hidden in the locker room to make a few phone calls. Had to check a few traps. It took me twenty minutes to get Toyomi to cool off, but when I told her about the ski trip for Valentine’s Day, everything smoothed out. Pretty much. She was still filled with disappointment. She’d get over it as soon as she saw me.
    We stopped by Mimi’s restaurant in Industry for coffee and lunch. Two hours after that I was following Samantha up the 10 freeway into the heart of Los Angeles. We dropped her car off, then rode deeper into territory that owned cool breeze after cool breeze. She wore shades she’d bought in Venice Beach for five bucks, a leather backpack-style purse, sandals, no bra, a Bob Marley T-shirt over a
    short red dress, no panties. We hung out on