When Nick stepped into his apartment, he switched on the light and was surprised to see Wanda sitting there.
"Hi," Wanda said.
"Hi yourself. What are you doing sitting in the dark?"
"Waiting for you."
Nick walked over and sat down in the chair across from Wanda, and was glad that he’d taken a shower before he left Rain’s apartment. Still he thought it was a good idea to keep his distance just in case Rain’s scent lingered. "Why didn’t you make yourself comfortable?"
"I wanted to talk to you."
"You can’t be comfortable and talk?"
"I could have, but I didn’t want to."
Nick laughed a nervous laugh. "I don’t like how this is going already."
"Where were you all night?"
"I had some thing’s I needed to do."
"Nobody’s seen you all night or last night for that matter."
"You been checkin’ up on me?"
"Don’t try to turn this around, Nick. If it makes you happy to hear it, yes, Nick, yes I have been checking up on you. I want you to tell me where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing?"
"I told you, I had some business I needed to take care of," Nick said louder than he needed to.
To Wanda, it just made him sound and look guiltier than he already did. "What business, Nick? It’s five-thirty in the morning. I know this business. I run the money for this business. I used to run this business!" Wanda said angrily. "So what business kept you busy until five-thirty in the morning?"
"You don’t know everything that’s goin’ on, not any more."
"If its business I should, so why can’t you just tell me what business you had that kept you busy until five-thirty in the morning?"
"Kenny got shot last night. I’ve been tryin’ to find out who killed him."
Wanda’s facial expression softened. "Kenny’s dead?"
"Yes, Wanda, he was ambushed last night."
"Nobody told me about it," Wanda said.
"You know Black wants you to stay out of this part of the business."
"Still, I’ve known Kenny for years. Somebody should have said something to me."
"Now you know," Nick said, thinking that he had gotten out of this one.
"Okay, so you were out lookin’ for Kenny’s killers."
"Yes, Wanda."
"If that’s all it was, why couldn’t you answer your phone, or at least return my calls?"
"I told you I was busy," Nick said frustrated, knowing that Wanda was just getting started.
"Busy doin’ what? If you were just ridin’ around looking for whoever killed Kenny, that doesn’t explain why you couldn’t answer your phone or at least call me back."
Nick looked at Wanda for what seemed like a long time and thought about what to say. He thought about telling her the truth. That Rain had been dealing. That she had been robbed and several of her people had been killed, and they had been out all night looking for the shooters.
Two things prevented that: One, she wouldn’t believe that’s all there was to it. Mainly because it wasn’t, he had just gotten finished fuckin’ the shit outta Rain for the second time that night. Two, even if she did believe that was all there was to it, and he knew she wouldn’t, Wanda would tell Black that Rain was dealing and that was the last thing he needed or wanted.
Nick had given Black his word that he would keep their operation drug free because of the arrangement Black had with Angelo Collette and Stark. Nick thought back to that night and how he and Black ran through hypothetical situations. At the end, they both agreed that each hypothetical always ended the same way-in jail or dead.
"I ain’t goin’ to jail, Nick. We already got enough problems with the DEA without this. Last thing we need right now is them crawling all over us again," Black told Nick that night.
"So what are you gonna tell Angelo?"
"I been thinking about that. How I can give Angee what he wants and without actually doin’ shit."
"How you plan on doin’ that?" Nick asked.
"I’m gonna get him and Stark together and then I’m gonna tell him that I would offer advise and council to Stark as a personal favor to him. But for reasons that I know he understands, I can’t go any further than that."
"You think that will satisfy him?"
"As long as I can get Stark to do business and as long as I can control him. But for that to work, you gotta be my guarantee. You gotta make sure that nothing we do touches that. We can’t have our hands dirty in none of that."
"I’ll stay on top of it," Nick promised.
"I haven’t said anything about this to Wanda. But she was there when Angelo came to Cuisine, so she knows something’s up. She wasn’t happy with the answer I gave her, so she’ll be coming at you. But she doesn’t need to know anything about this."
"Understood."
Nick knew that he couldn’t tell Wanda anything about Rain or why he had to handle it, because it would lead back to the arrangement Black made with Angelo, and that wasn’t what Black wanted. He had a choice to make. Remain silent and run the risk of losing Wanda. Or betray Black’s confidence.
The choice was easy.
"Did whatever you were doing all night involve Rain Robinson?"
"No," Nick lied.
"Don’t lie to me, Nick, please don’t lie to me. Have you been with her all night?"
"No," Nick calmly lied again.
"Then tell me where you’ve been?"
Nick got up and walked toward Wanda.
"You can’t tell me, can you? You can’t tell me because you were with her, weren’t you!" Wanda yelled.
"No!" Nick yelled back.
"Are you fucking her?" Wanda screamed.
"No!"
Wanda took a deep breath. "I don’t believe you. I know you’re fucking that bitch. Why can’t you just be a man and tell me the truth about it."
"Why we gotta go there?" Nick said and shook his head. He never understood why Wanda thought that questioning his manhood would make him confess all of his sins.
"Because I think I deserve that much. We’ve known each other too long for you to think that you have to lie to me like this."
Wanda looked at Nick and waited for him to say something. When it became obvious that he wasn’t, Wanda stood up and started walking toward the door.
"Where are you goin’?"
Wanda turned around. "I’m leaving, Nick, unless you give me a reason to stay."
"Stay."
"Are you fucking her?"
"No," Nick said flatly.
"Whether you are or not, and I have to be honest with you, I think you are, I don’t think we need to see each other on this level anymore. Before we lose our friendship and I lose all respect for you, I should go."
Nick tried to put his arms around her.
"Don’t, Nick. Don’t do that. I can smell her on you," Wanda said and Nick backed away.
Wanda opened the door and turned to face Nick.
"Goodbye, Nick."
"Goodbye, Wanda."
"I really did love you, Nick, even though I never said it before now. I really did love you."
Wanda closed the door.