Grand Opening 2

by Carl Weber

  “It’s not the money. The cars are paid for and waiting for transport. It’s the shipping company. A bunch of good ol’ boys who keep giving me the runaround about shipping them, that’s all. I’ve been waiting damn near two weeks, and they haven’t shipped one car. They’re talking about another two or three weeks ’til they arrive.”

  “That’s some bullshit! What are they saying?” Larry snapped.

  “It’s just one excuse after another. You know how these good ol’ boys do. Everything was cool until they found out we were a black-owned company. But I’m gonna call Mr. Mahogany. He’ll get it strai—”

  “Why the fuck you gotta call him?” Larry yelled.

  “Because he has a way of getting around red tape when it comes to situations like this and—”

  “Fuck that. We’ll go get the cars ourselves.” Larry said it as if picking up forty cars and bringing them halfway across the country was as easy as going to the store and buying a loaf of bread.

  I shook my head. “You crazy as hell. We have two tow trucks, one of which is in Waycross and probably wouldn’t even make it to Atlanta if we tried to drive it that far. We don’t have a way of going to get ’em.”

  “So let’s buy a rig and trailer big enough to haul them. Isn’t that how they were gonna get them here? On one of those trailers?” he asked.

  “Yeah, but—”

  “But what? I got a CDL, so I can drive. Since when have we ever relied on a white man to do anything for us? I’ll buy one of those and go get them bitches myself. Hell, why pay them when you can pay me, Duncan Trucking? I can go pick up cars from all over the damn country.” His eyes lit up. He always got this way when he was formulating a plan that he knew could make him money. I liked seeing it because Larry was a serious dude who rarely showed excitement for anything.

  “You’re serious?” I asked.

  “Since Momma died, I’ve been looking for a purpose, LC. I think maybe I found it. I like driving trucks, and I like working with you and Lou. This might be the best of both worlds.”

  I loved the idea of my brother being around, but even if I didn’t, his mind was made up. I just prayed he didn’t go nosing around and end up causing problems between me and Mahogany and the Council.

  Donna

  12

  Seventeen whole dollars. That was my tip total so far, and I only had fifteen minutes left on my shift. I folded the crinkled bills and put them back into the front pocket of my apron, trying not to be mad. Stepping out from the restroom, I scanned the dining area. My table section was still filled with the same customers, but I noticed a familiar face sitting near the front where Izzy was assigned.

  “Girl, I need you to let me get that table.” I walked over to Izzy, who was behind the counter, and tipped my head in the direction of the table where Eddie was sitting, looking uneasy. I was relieved to see him, because he hadn’t been around in almost a week. I was determined to get the information Lou wanted so I could get paid, but I couldn’t exactly do that if the guy never came around. Lately I’d been feeling desperate enough that I considered picking up the phone to call Eddie—not exactly the best way to play hard to get.

  “Why?” Izzy asked. “He some type of big spender? ’Cause, girl, I need every tipping customer I can get. My rent’s due Friday.”

  “Come on, please. It’s personal,” I begged, raising my eyebrows suggestively a few times.

  She looked over at Eddie and turned back to me with a horrified look. I didn’t care if she believed I was interested in fucking him. In fact, I was so desperate for my payday from Lou that I reached into my apron and pulled out five precious dollars from my day’s stash.

  “Here,” I said, handing the money to her. “This should cover the tip he would have given you. Just let me have him.”

  She snatched the five out of my hand with a smirk. “Fine. But you need to get out more, ’cause your standard in men has seriously declined.”

  “Thanks.” I strategically adjusted my uniform while she stared at me like I was nuts. “What? Can’t catch fish if you don’t have bait,” I said.

  She shook her head and handed me the coffee pot. I headed over to Eddie’s table.

  “Here you go, stranger.” I gave him a broad smile as I filled the coffee cup on his table. I could almost see his transformation from skittish loner to self-imagined Casanova when he realized it was me.

  “I was starting to think you’d forgotten about us, Mr. Eddie,” I said flirtatiously.

  “I could never forget about you, Donna. I was just caught up with work.”

  “You gonna have the usual grits and cheese, or you want something else?”

  “Come on, now. You already know what I want,” he said boldly, giving me a not-so-innocent look.

  I shook my head. “You’re cute, but that’s not on the menu.”

  “That’s too bad, because I’d pay whatever it took to have a taste of that.” He laughed, and I forced myself to chuckle as he grabbed at my waist. I didn’t pull away. Not at first, anyway.

  “Let me take you out and show you a good time,” he said.

  The thought of being with him was about as inviting as kissing Old Fred, the fifteen-foot alligator they advertised over at Gator World, but I had to do this in order to get what Lou needed. If Lou got what he needed, then I would get what I wanted.

  “Mr. Eddie, you need to stop playing so much,” I said, trying to sound playful as I pulled out of his grasp.

  “Call me Eddie. And I’m not playing, Donna.” He reached for me again.

  “Seriously, Mr. Eddie, you’re gonna get me fired. They don’t like us fraternizing with customers. That’s a no-no. I need this job. I can’t afford to get fired.” I slapped his hand.

  “Fuck this job. You need money? I got enough money to take care of you.” He gave a very confident smile. “Let me prove it to you.”

  I shook my head and lost the playful tone from my voice. “Don’t let the uniform fool you. I may work as a waitress, but I’m not a cheap date. I’m very high maintenance.”

  “Oh, I know.” He sat back in his chair with an amazing aura of confidence I’d never seen before. “I know all about you, Donna Williams. I know about your rich doctor daddy who’s on the run. I know about how you were left at the altar by LC Duncan.” There was cruelty behind his words, but a hint of joy in his eyes. He was clearly enjoying this as he went for my most vulnerable spots. The guy was a fucking sadist. As I unraveled inside, he remained calm, continuing with, “I know about that little one-bedroom apartment you and your momma owe two months’ back rent on. I even know about your stay down in Jacksonville and up in New York.”

  I took a step back. To say I was surprised and creeped out would be an understatement. “How do you know about all that?”

  “It’s what I do. It’s my business to know shit.” Eddie pulled out a wad of cash and flashed it at me. My eyes got big. It looked like it was all brand-new hundreds. “Now, are you high maintenance enough to help me spend some of this?”

  “Where the hell did you get all that money?” I glanced around to make sure no one was looking.

  “You didn’t answer my question.” He fanned himself with the money. I wasn’t quite sure what the question was anymore, but I gave him an answer.

  “Yes.” I sighed. “I’ll go on one date with you. Now, put that money away before someone sees it and you get robbed.”

  “That’s all I need.” Eddie grinned as he tucked the money back in his pocket. “Ain’t you ’bout to get off? Come on. We can go right now.”

  I shook my head. “No, fool! We can’t go right now.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I just told you my boss don’t like us dating customers. And you need to plan this thing out right. It’s one thing to talk about taking care of a woman properly; it’s another thing to do it. You will only get one chance to make a first impression. You want a second date, don’t screw up the first one.” I took out my notepad and wrote my number on i
t. “Here’s my number. Call me later on tonight and we can make plans. I’ve got a few nice ideas. And you might want to leave a nice tip. A girl’s gonna need to get a proper dress if a man’s gonna spoil her.”

  Eddie took the slip of paper from me and slid it into his front pocket then stood up. “I’ll call you later, sexy.”

  “Wait. Where are you going? You didn’t even order any food.”

  Eddie took out a hundred-dollar bill and placed it into my hand. “Like I said, what I wanted ain’t even on the menu. But I got it anyway.”

  He walked away, leaving me feeling slightly dirty as I stuffed the hundred in my pocket and wondered how the hell I had let that get so out of control. So much for playing hard to get. I would have to be better prepared when we went out on our date.

  Nee Nee

  13

  “Momma!”

  Larry and Curtis were sitting on the front porch playing when I pulled into the driveway after helping LC and Chippy pack for their move to Atlanta. Curtis came running and jumped into my arms the second I stepped out of the car. I gave him a big kiss and carried him toward the porch, where Larry met me with a wet, passionate kiss of his own.

  “How’d it go?”

  “Well, the truck is all packed and loaded for you and Remy to drive up in the morning. LC has some big meeting with Mr. Mahogany, so he’s already on his way back to Atlanta. Chippy and I are going to follow y’all in her car with the boys.” I let Curtis down, and Larry and I took seats in the two porch rockers. “I still can’t believe they’re moving.”

  “Well, if shit goes as planned, we’re not gonna be far behind them. I want you to start looking at houses while you’re up there helping Chippy.”

  “Larry . . .”

  “Yeah?”

  I took a nervous breath. “What if I don’t want to move to Atlanta?”

  Larry stopped rocking. “What the hell are you saying, Nee? We been talking about moving up to Atlanta for almost a month now.”

  “No, you been talking about it. All I been doing is listening. Not once did you ever ask me what I wanted to do. Shit, Larry, you didn’t even ask me if I wanted to go.”

  “Curtis, go play in the yard,” Larry snapped.

  “Can I get my ball?” Curtis asked.

  Larry nodded. When our son ran off, he turned his attention back to me. “What’s the problem, Nee? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. I mean, I’m just trying to understand, that’s all. Why exactly are we moving to Atlanta? LC’s the one who has the problem with Waycross. Not you or me.”

  “Because he’s my brother and we’re family.” He said it like that should be the end of the discussion, but I wasn’t finished speaking my mind.

  “And if we stay here, you’ll still be brothers,” I said, shifting from one foot to the other. When he didn’t answer right away, I started getting a little nervous. Larry could have a short fuse sometimes, and I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of his temper at the moment. I eased past him, opened the front door, and walked into the living room. By the time I sat on the sofa and took off my shoes, Larry was standing in front of me. He didn’t have that telltale vein in his forehead that usually popped out when he was really upset, so I figured it was safe to keep talking.

  “Shirley and I are talking about opening a restaurant together,” I said.

  “It figures Shirley planted all this in your head.” He sat down next to me. “Nee, if you wanted to do all this, your ass shoulda said something before now. We done made all these plans—”

  “You’ve made plans, Larry. And don’t act like I didn’t mention opening my own restaurant to you. We talked about it.”

  “So, you wanna stay here.” It sounded more like a statement than a question.

  The truth was, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. On one hand, the thought of moving to Atlanta and living in a new house in the big city excited me. But, I was born and raised in Waycross. It was all I knew. My family was here, and if I stayed, I would be my own boss, doing something I loved to do. For the past month, I had gone back and forth in my mind, oftentimes tossing and turning in bed while trying to decide. I hadn’t spoken up whenever Larry mentioned it because he was so excited about this new trucking company, and seeing him smile was something I rarely saw, especially since Miss Bettie was gone.

  “I’m saying I want us to talk about it. Together.” I reached for his hand, but he pulled away a little.

  “Fine, talk,” he said.

  I could see that Larry had an attitude, but now that I’d spoken up, I was determined not to be intimidated. We had been together long enough for me to know the real Larry. He was used to people jumping when he said jump, and he could fly off the handle every once in a while, but deep down, he was a teddy bear. I just hoped he’d be willing to listen to my side, because I guess I was kind of asking him to choose between me and his brother.

  “I know why LC wants to go to Atlanta, but why do you want to? What am I gonna do when we get there?” I began cautiously. “At least here in Waycross we have the service station and the other businesses, and then, hopefully, my own restaurant. We have to look at the big picture. We have a son. This is our home.”

  “Do you think I would take you anywhere and not make sure you’re taken care of?” Larry asked me.

  “It’s not about that, Larry. I know we’ll be taken care of whether we leave or stay. I’m just saying . . . I want something to say about it. I’m not your puppet.”

  “No, you’re my woman.” It felt good to hear the words, but there wasn’t really any passion behind the words.

  “Yes,” I said sadly, “I’m your woman, but being your woman doesn’t give me the privileges of being your wife.”

  “Are we back to this marriage shit again?” His entire demeanor changed. He stood up and put some distance between us. “Stay here then, Nee Nee, if that’s what you want to do. But I’m asking you to come with us.”

  “You’re asking me to walk away from a lot. Do you even see that?” My eyes were starting to fill with tears, but that didn’t earn me any sympathy from him. Matter of fact, he seemed to become even more annoyed.

  “What’s the problem? Fuck, I coulda easily went without asking you to go with me, but here I am trying to do the right thing, and this is what I get.”

  I felt anger rising from within, and I snapped at him. “You’re damn right. And going without us is still an option. Don’t you see that’s part of the problem, Larry?”

  He exhaled loudly. “This is some bullshit.”

  “You always talking about family and being together, but is that really what you want? Be honest.”

  “Of course it’s what I want. Do you think I would even be here talking about this if it wasn’t what I wanted?”

  “What about Curtis and me?”

  “What about y’all? Y’all are my family. I love you, Nee Nee.” His tone softened a little when he said he loved me, but there was still plenty of tension in the air.

  “And I love you too, Larry, but this ain’t about that. I need more than love.”

  Larry gave me a frustrated look and then shook his head. “Here we go with that bullshit again.”

  “It’s not bullshit.”

  “Nee Nee, you already know how I feel about this whole marriage thing. There is nothing a piece of paper can do to make me love you any more than I do now or ever will. And if you can’t see that, then maybe you don’t need to move to Atlanta.”

  There it was. He was giving me an ultimatum, threatening that if I didn’t see things his way, I might as well not be with him. Well, I was going to call his bluff this time. I stood up and faced him. “You know what, Larry? You’re absolutely right. I don’t need to move. Anyway, I would be a damn fool to go running off to Atlanta behind a man who claims to be all about family but refuses to make the mother of his son an honest woman. Ain’t no telling what’ll happen when you get there.”

  “Ain’t no telling what’ll happen when yo
u stay here!” he yelled back at me.

  “You better hope I don’t meet a man who wants to be a husband and a father to your son.”

  Before I knew what happened, Larry had yanked me toward him, squeezing my arms so tight that I couldn’t move. What I said had been hurtful—I’d meant for them to be—but I didn’t expect him to react so violently.

  “Don’t you ever fucking say that again. And if I hear about my son being around another man, I will kill you. Both of you.”

  Tears spilled out of my eyes, and he finally loosened his grip. Larry had never put his hands on me. We stared at one another, both breathing heavily and neither one moving. The tension in the air felt like it could smother me.

  “Momma, can I have some ice cream?” Curtis yelled as he burst through the front door.

  Grateful for the interruption, I shook myself away from Larry and looked down at my son. “Of course you can. Come on, let’s go and get both of us some.”

  He turned and asked Larry, “You want some ice cream, Daddy?”

  Larry glanced at me and said, “Naw, son. Daddy ain’t in the mood for nothing sweet right now.”

  As I turned to go into the kitchen, I felt Larry’s hand on my shoulder. I twisted my torso to look at him. I could see the apology in his eyes without his saying a word, but I resisted the urge to touch his face, for fear that it would give him the impression that he had won and I was giving in. We rarely, if ever, argued, and this wasn’t one that I had planned on having, but now that it was all in the open, I realized that this move to Atlanta wasn’t the only decision I had to make in my life.

  LC

  14

  True to his word, Larry had bought two Mack trucks and rented two car-carrying trailers to transport my vehicles from Detroit to Atlanta. They weren’t the best-looking trucks I’d ever seen, but they did the job. He’d already made his first pickup and dropped off fourteen cars this morning and then was back on the road to Detroit about ten hours later.

  I appreciated what he was doing, but I was glad he was gone, because right after he left, Mr. Mahogany called and said he was coming to pick me up in ten minutes. One thing I could say about this brother was that he had no idea what CP time was, because he was in front of my place exactly ten minutes later. I jumped in his car, and we went for a long drive out to the country. There was a strange tension in the air, and neither of us spoke a word, which was unusual because both of us were pretty chatty individuals.