A Good Dude Read Online Free PDF Page A

today.”
    “You sure you gonna be all right? I want you to be happy, baby. This is good news.”
    “I’m happy,” Candace said. She painted on a crocodile smile, and he seemed to be convinced.
    “Cool. Can you let CC in for me?”
    Candace went to answer the door. CC stepped in looking a little scruffy. He was usually clean-shaven, but today he sported a scraggily goatee and had a few stray hairs on his cheeks.
    “Where my boy at?” he asked.
    “He’s in there getting dressed.”
    CC looked her up and down. “What you doing today? Nothing? I’m surprised you woke this early.”
    “I’m going to school ,” Candace said, unsure why she was explaining herself to the likes of CC.
    He nodded and grinned. “You learning something, or you still taking your basics?”
    “You been to school?” she asked.
    “Naw.”
    “You graduate high school?”
    “Naw, girl. I didn’t have to. I learned my math, though. That’s all I need to count this money.” He patted his bulging front pocket and Candace rolled her eyes.
    “Rilla’s in the bedroom.”
    “Straight,” CC said and disappeared down the hallway. Candace sat on the couch, but she could still hear their conversation through the thin walls.
    “You ready, homey? We gonna lock the city down when we get this shit.” That was CC.
    “Yeah. Hand me that shoe.”
    “Nigga, you need to get some more shoes. What you doing what all yo money?”
    “I know what I’m gonna be doing with it from now on,” Rilla said. “It’s time for me to get right, dog. I gotta get my music going for real. Candace pregnant. I’m finna have a little boy running around.”
    There was a pause. Candace’s heart shot up in her throat as she waited for CC’s response.
    “Candace pregnant?”
    “Yeah. She just told me today.”
    “You happy about that?”
    “Yeah, cuz. Why? You know I want a little boy.”
    “Yeah, but . . . .”
    “But what, Cordell?”
    “Nothing, Rilla. You happy, I’m happy.”
    “Yeah, I’m happy, man. I love Candace. You know that.”
    “Then we straight. We get a couple more big ones, and you can get yo music recorded. This yo restroom over here?”
    “Yeah,” Rilla said.
    CC appeared again in the hallway.
    Candace looked over at him, her heart thudding in her chest.
    CC gave her an evil glare and shook his head. He disappeared again, and she heard the bathroom door close.
    She exhaled a pent-up breath. Her fingers were shaking. She held her hands together in her lap. CC didn’t tell him yet, but he and Rilla were going to be together all day. Candace figured he would drop the bomb at some point. She wondered if she should do it herself.
    Rilla went to jail for a week about three months ago. He was only arrested for traffic tickets, but the judge said she was sick of seeing his face at arraignments. She made him do the time rather than allow him to pay the fine. CC came by the apartment often during that six-day stretch. His intentions were to look after his homeboy’s girl, but one night he brought a lot of weed and a bottle of hard liquor.
    Candace either passed out or fell asleep at three in the morning. When she woke up, her pants were off and CC was on top of her. He was inside her. She would have told Rilla about it, but CC wasn’t the only one who made a mistake that night: When she awakened, Candace didn’t immediately push him off of her. She eventually did make him stop, but after how much time?
    CC said she was awake for at least ten minutes. Candace thought it was more like thirty seconds. CC said she took her own pants off. He said she initiated the whole episode, as a matter of fact. Candace didn’t believe that to be the case, but how could she know for sure? If she told Rilla what happened, would he believe a girl he met at his concert five months ago or his best friend of ten years?
    All Candace knew for sure was that her pregnancy coincided with Rilla’s week in jail. Maybe she got pregnant before he went. Maybe it was