by Roy Glenn
As a result of this independence, Mike’s attitude began to change. He became very aggressive, cold, hard, and showing little emotion, if any at all. Vicious Black’s reputation grew. Everybody knew who he was and what he did. Knowing that her son was a criminal caused Emily tremendous grief and brought on ten years of silence between them.
“I’ve done a lotta things in my life that I’m not proud of. I’ve done my best to do some good around here. Make up for some of the destruction I caused,” Mike said, coming around the corner down the block from Cuisine. “Like every one, I’ve got some regrets. Things I shoulda did smarter.”
“Like what?”
“That’s a long story too, Ms. Sims,” Mike replied.
“Regina, right?” joked Shy.
But Mike didn’t answer.
He stopped in front of Shy’s car and waited quietly until Jap and Jack caught up.
“I really enjoyed the evening. I think that was the best meal I ever had, Black. You really are an excellent cook.”
Mike opened the car door. “Good night, Cassandra. I enjoyed your company.” Mike turned and walked into Cuisine with Jap following close behind. Shy watched as the door slammed shut. She turned to Jack and let out a little giggle. “Was it something I said?”
CHAPTER FOUR
Shy woke up to the sound of her phone ringing. “Hello.”
“Good morning, baby. Did I wake you?” It was her mother, Joann Sims, calling.
“No, Mommy, I needed to get up anyway. How are you?”
“I’m fine. I was just calling to make sure you were coming next Friday and whether you were going to bring somebody with you? If you are, I hope it’s not that low life you brought with you last year. I mean, he reminded me too much of your father. Old slick, shit-talking nigga. What was his name anyway, Cassandra?”
“His name is Eddie, and no I’m not going to bring him. And don’t be so hard on him, Mommy, he’s been a good friend. When we came down there last year, it was just after I went through that thing with Ricardo. I was feeling pretty low. E was there for me when I needed somebody. He helped me get through it. That’s all.”
“I still don’t like him.”
“There is someone I might like to bring with me, but I think I hurt his feelings last night. I don’t know if I’ll even hear from him again, much less invite him to our family reunion.”
“Is this somebody new? What’s his name? What’s he like? Is he good looking? Come on now, I want to hear everything,” Joann said, obviously excited that her daughter had finally shown some interest in something other than money.
“Calm down, Mommy, one question at a time. Yes, he is someone new. His name is Mike Black. And yes, he is very good looking. He’s not like most guys I’ve met. He’s intelligent, so he can hold a conversation. Mommy, guess what?”
“What, baby?”
“He can cook!” Shy shouted. “Mommy, last night he cooked me the best dinner I ever had, that is other than your cooking, of course.”
“Well thank you for showing me some respect.”
“He owns a nice little supper club and they’re closed on Sundays. So he had the house band playing just for us. He had people come in to serve, and he cooked.”
“He probably had the chef cook and he took the credit for it,” Joann said suspiciously. Her personal experience with men in general, and with Shy’s father in particular, led her to be leery of all men.
“No. I got there early and found him in the kitchen throwing down.”
“Really? I’m impressed. And I’m glad that you finally met someone respectable. Maybe he can square you up, make a respectable citizen out of you.”
“Well, Mommy, he’s not exactly …” Shy was interrupted by a loud knock at the door. “Hold on, Mommy, there’s someone at the door. Hold on, okay.” Shy got out of bed and put on her robe. She took her gun from under her pillow, took the safety off, and cocked it before moving to answer the door. She stood to the right of the door. “Who is it?”
“Flower delivery, ma’am. I have flowers for Cassandra Sims!” yelled the voice on the other side of the door.
“Hold on a second. I gotta put something on.” She walked to the window to see if there was a delivery truck parked outside. Sure enough, double-parked across the street she could see a small van, but she couldn’t make out the writing from fifteen floors up. What if it’s a set up. Shy thought. Anybody could steal a truck, or maybe she was just overreacting. But who would be sending her flowers? Then all of a sudden it hit her like a shot. “Black!” she shouted, walking quickly back to the door. In her excitement, she didn’t forget that this still might be a set up. So she unlocked the door then moved back to the right before yelling. “Come in, it’s open.” The door opened slowly and in walked a man with his arms full. The delivery driver carried in three vases. Three dozen long stem red roses.
“Somebody must really think a lot of you, which I can understand,” he said looking Shy up and down, nodding his head in approval, “Or messed up really bad. Which he should die for. Where do you want these, lady?”
“Just put them on the table here,” Shy replied, clearing a spot on the dining room table. She thanked the man for bringing up so many roses and gave him a ten-dollar tip before letting him out. Shy returned to the dining room. She smelled the roses and looked at the card, which read:
Cassandra,
I really did enjoy your company last night.
I hope that we can get together again soon.
The card was unsigned, but she knew they were from Black. She picked up a vase and returned to her bedroom to tell her mother about the flowers. Shy laid down on the bed, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She smiled and picked up the phone, “Mommy.”
“Well it’s about time. I thought that you forgot about your poor old mother on hold long distance. So who was at the door?”
“Mommy, you’ll never guess what I just got.” But before Joann could answer, “Three dozen roses!” Shy yelled out. Removing the roses from the vase, she threw them in the air and watched them fall down all around her on the bed. “I always wanted to do that,” she smiled.
“Child, what you doing?”
“Just being silly. Anyway, the guy I was just telling you about sent me three dozen roses. Nobody ever sent me roses before. Mommy, what do you do when somebody sends you roses? I know, I should send him some … no I’ll send him one black rose.”
“Black! What you want to send him a black rose for? He an undertaker or something?”
“It’s a long story, Mommy, but I gotta go. So I’ll see you either Friday night or Saturday morning. Bye-bye, Mommy. I love you.”
“Hold on, girl. Slow down. I got something else to ask you before you run off. Do you need me to send someone to the airport to pick you up?”
“No, I’ll rent a car and drive out, okay. Gotta go, Mommy.”
“See you when you get here. I love you, too, baby.” And with that, Joann hung up the phone. Shy flipped through the yellow pages looking for a florist. She found one and dialed the number. Shy asked if they could dye one rose black. Once the attendant got through laughing at her request, he explained how the process worked and explained the significance of her choice of color. Shy promptly told him to mind his business and gave him her credit card number. He asked where she wanted the flower delivered. It was then she realized that she had no idea where Black lived.
Shy asked the man to hold on while she thought about where to send the rose. She could send it to Cuisine. But how would it look, Vicious Black getting a rose? Well, at least it’s a black rose, she thought. Shy told the attendant where to send it and gave very specific delivery instructions. She wanted to make sure that he was there and alone, before they attempted delivery.
Shy called Tony and told him to meet her at Teamos on Gun Hill Road about noon so they could talk about what he found out the night before. Shy asked if he had heard anything from E yet. They were accustomed to E disappearing for days at
a time. With all that’s been going on lately, Shy thought it was best if all of them at the very least checked in with one another every day.
Shy returned to her room to get dressed. As she stood in front of her closet, she began thinking about the night before. How it was kinda cruel to bring up Regina. Black had already told her that this woman broke his heart. Somehow she never expected Vicious Black to be sensitive about anything. He appeared to be so strong and in control of everything around him. One thing Shy was sure of was that she liked him, sensitive or not.
Mike Black was the most interesting man she had met in a long time. On top of that, he was fine, but this was no time to get all involved with Black or anybody else for that matter. Somebody was trying to ruin her business, not to mention kill her. For the time being she would have to kick her feelings to the curb. They usually got her in trouble anyway. A lesson Ricardo had taught her. Ricardo devastated Shy, but all that seemed so far away now.
While she got dressed, as hard as she tried to focus on more important issues, her mind kept drifting back to Black.
She picked out something to wear: burgundy wool jacket, trimmed in lamb with a matching skirt. She wondered whether he would like her in it. Finally, by twelve-thirty, Shy was dressed and ready to go, but she would be late meeting Tony. Shy rushed to get herself together and out the house. She opened the door and to her surprise, E was standing in the doorway.
“What are you doing out there? You scared the shit out of me.”
“Ain’t you gonna say hello, invite me in or something?”
“No. We gotta meet Tony and we’re late. So come on, you can drive. Where you been anyway? With all that’s going on the least you could do was call and let her know what’s up. Did you get a chance to check out them leads?”
As they got into the elevator, E explained that he was following up on some business that would benefit everybody involved. He didn’t want to tell her about it until he had all the details worked out. E told Shy that if everything worked as planned, they would all have enough money to retire.
“What you talking about, E. It’s gonna take a lot of money for me to retire.”
“Don’t worry about that, girl. I got this. You just worry about stayin’ your fine ass alive.”
E opened Shy’s car door, “Okay, E, but I wanna know what’s up with this before you get too far out there. Money’s getting tight, so we can’t mess around and lose any,” Shy cautioned. She trusted E, but she knew to keep a tight rein on him.
“Trust me, Shy,” E said as he closed her door. They drove to Gun Hill Road where Shy was to meet Tony. Although they were late, there was Tony standing on the corner waiting. He got into the back seat and E drove off.
“Where you been, E?”
“Handlin’ my business. Not minding yours.”
“Y’all kill that noise!” she demanded, noticing that there was a lot of tension between Tony and E. More than usual. It was becoming more apparent to Shy that something was going on between the two of them. She would have to handle that too, but this was really not the time. Everything seemed to be crashing down around her.
“We got important matters to deal with. We can’t afford to get into this now. What happened last night in Brooklyn?”
While Tony described what happened in Brooklyn, Shy slowly drifted into another world. Thinking about Black. Wondering if he was thinking about her.
“Shy! Yo, Shy, are you listenin’?”
“I’m sorry, Tony. You know I got a lot on my mind. That’s all. What did you say?”
“I said that I went to see that guy Tim last night. He fed me some bullshit for a while, then something funny happened. The phone rang and I heard him say ‘Yeah he’s here.’ I guess who ever called was talking for awhile then he said, ‘no, she ain’t with him,’ like he was expecting you. How would he know that?”
“Makes sense. Ain’t too many people that don’t know what’s going on,” E said. “It might have been a set up for Shy. It’s a good thing you sent Tony alone, Shy.” But Shy was back in her zone and said nothing about the set up.
“E, swing by Jack’s,” Shy said.
“How was the date last night, Shy?” E asked.
“That’s why she ain’t listening,” Tony said smiling at her. “She got them I’m in love with a killer blues.”
Shy looked back at Tony.
“You just want me to have something to say, don’t you? I mean, I try to be nice, but you’re not happy unless I’m going off on you. Is that what it is? I heard what you said. Nobody is more aware of the fact that somebody tried to kill me than I am. Anyway, as far as Black is concerned, I can’t be so bothered right now,” she said in denial. “So can we get back to business now?” She knew Tony was right. She was finding it hard to concentrate. It was like being at the crossroads and all the roads led her back to the same spot.
E turned on to Jack’s block and found him standing by his car talking on his cell phone to Trevor, one of the associates that worked for Jack. E parked the car and called to Jack to come over to the car.
“Hold up! You rude mutha fucka,” Jack shouted as he walked across the street. “Okay, I’ll tell her. What’s up, y’all. Shy, that was Trevor. He just got home and found his girl Janet dead and the dope gone.”
“Damn, they killed his girl. Take me over there, E.”
“No. Trev said the cops are there,” Jack said.
“You just meet us there, Jack,” Shy commanded.
“How did it happen?” Tony asked.
“Trev said that Janet usually gets home about seven in the morning. Said when he got there he found her by the door. They shot her in the back.”
“Sounds like she walked in on something,” E said.
When they arrived at Trevor’s apartment, the police were all over the place. Shy wanted to go in and tell Trevor how sorry she was about Janet. She felt like it was her fault that Janet got killed. The cops wouldn’t let Shy in the apartment, so she sat quietly in the hallway until the cops left.
“Trevor, I am so sorry this had to happen,” Shy said with tears in her eyes. “I never wanted anything like this to happen. It’s all my fault. Trevor, I’m sorry.”
Trevor and everyone else told Shy that this wasn’t her fault, that it was just one of those things that happen in this game. Shy would not accept that as an answer. It would strengthen her resolve to find the people responsible. Jack stayed with Trevor, while Tony, E and Shy left. Before they left Trevor stopped Shy in the hall.
“Shy, I don’t want you to carry this around with you. I mean it. This wasn’t your fault. Shit happens sometimes. We got no control over it,” pleaded Trevor.
Shy wasn’t hearing any of that. “No. If it was you that died, yeah, okay, that’s just business. But Janet didn’t have no part in this. She didn’t have to die. She died for me.” Shy turned and got in the elevator.
CHAPTER FIVE
The delivery driver arrived at Cuisine about three o’clock that afternoon. The restaurant was in transition from lunch to dinner. The staff had finished cleaning their stations. Those who remained were sitting around talking. Mike was there working in his office with Bobby. Michelle came into his office to tell him that there was someone to see him. She did leave out the part about the rose. Michelle wanted to see the look on his face when he got it. Luckily, Mike told her to send whoever it was in without asking who it was. When the delivery driver came in, half the wait staff came in with him. Which was exactly what Shy wished to avoid. Mike read the card:
Thank you for the roses.
I enjoyed my evening with you too.
See you very soon.
C
The wait staff clapped while he read the card. Then Mike kicked them out of his office. Mike tried to call Shy to thank her for the rose and to see if she wanted to have dinner or do something later that evening, but there was no answer. Bobby, who had been sitting quietly through it all said, “Well isn’t that just the sweetest thing you ever did se
e? Old Vicious Black getting flowers. Times, they sure are a changing.”
“You’re working me, Bobby,” Mike said, still staring at the card.
“I guess I don’t have to ask you how the little meal went last night. She must have been impressed. She sent you a rose,” Bobby said sarcastically.
Mike thought for a second or two. “Dinner went all right. She’s —she’s fine. That’s what she is. Damn, Bobby, I caught myself a couple of times sitting there staring at her. Looking at her eyes, you know. On top of that, she has a brain. She’s got a dual degree in management and marketing.”
“Impressive —but can she fuck?” Bobby asked, waiting for more details.
Mike leaned back in his chair. “Didn’t even crack.”
Bobby picked up the phone and started dialing.
“Who you calling?”
“I’m calling Perry, man. You need a doctor,” Bobby said laughing while he hung up the phone. “You didn’t talk up on it, something ain’t right. You ain’t in love?” Bobby asked. Then he stopped laughing. “Are you?”
“I don’t know, Bobby. The way she runs her business fascinates me. There are some things we can draw from her. But other than that, I do know that she’s all that. And a bottle of Remy.”
“I’ll drink to that, but I’ll drink to anything. But just a short one. I’m going to take Pam to dinner,” Bobby said while pouring the drinks. “Kinda make up for the last couple of weeks hanging out with you and Freeze.”