I smiled at him. “No reason. And, yeah, we’re on. Equal time.”
12
Do You Know What Today Is?
Gregory—Tuesday, July 22, 9:00 p.m.
“Where the hell have you been?” Renee was screaming like a banshee. Not a new occurrence, nor a pleasant one.
I almost stepped outside and checked the apartment number. “Mom, is that you?” I asked before walking in. One look at her made me want to turn around and go back out. She was standing in the middle of the living room in what can best be described as a paramilitary stance. She was armed with a wicked-looking spatula and a damp dishtowel. I stifled a sigh. Welcome home, baby. How was your day? Not gonna get any of that this evening, huh?
“Very funny, asshole. I asked you a damn question.” The mood was tart.
Well, damn. I took a second to close the door, lock it, and set the alarm while trying to figure what I’d done to piss her off ... this time. “What’s wrong?”
“Now, if I have to ask you again, we gonna be in trouble. I done told you and told you how I feel about this shit. If you’re playing off on me, you can just pack your shit and get to stepping.” She stormed into the kitchen and started slamming dishes around.
Best strategy, I learned, during these misunderstandings with Renee was to focus on the root of the outburst and not get carried away on one of her tangents. The issue was not where I had been or if I was playing off. I had to find out what the real issue was and address that. I walked around the corner and noticed she had set up a romantic dinner for two. “Ray, I told you I had late meetings today! Why’d you go to all this trouble?” Normally, if I work late, she orders something in.
“A late meeting that lasts till nine p.m.? You must take me for a damn fool.” She almost threw a crystal wineglass into the sink, and she was very careful with her possessions, me being one of them for now. It came from not having too much as a child, I think. This obsession with possessing and being possessed, so to speak. But back to the thing at hand.
“Ray, I told you! Rome got the bank involved in this new development, and the board assigned me to it, remember? I was with him at this planning meeting for hours.” Establishing a firm alibi never hurt, even when you had nothing to hide!
“Uh-huh, is that right? So how come I just got off the phone with Jewel and Rome is already at Jewel’s for a late dinner?” She stopped and glared at me. I felt like a trapped animal. And I was innocent!
Lord, the insecurity of this woman. You’d think since I had to come home to face her damn mercurial moods every night, just once I’d get a break. Nope. Night after night, I practically tiptoed in here, never knowing who I might find. Penthouse Pet of the Month or Doris Day or Attila the Hun or Medusa. Tonight, it was the jealousy theme again. Ever since her little friend Tammy came over here attempting to throw her stuff in my face, I have been treated to this delightful possessive side of Renee’s personality. At first, I had to admit, it kept things exciting.
That air of mystery, that fascination with figuring out all the facets of her personality. Fighting madly, then making up wildly, that kind of thing was a high for a minute or two. Now I was just about at my limit truthfully. I gave anyone, especially a woman, the right to be moody from time to time, but from hour to hour? So why was I still hanging in here?
I had a couple of reasons. Valid, well-thought-out reasons. One, the down times. Those times when she was open and sweet and just plain Renee. At those times, I felt like she understood me and I understood her better than any other two people in the world. I felt like we fit. Two, the sex. Weak, I admitted to myself. It wasn’t as if we invented it and I couldn’t get it anywhere else. Just that it was perfect. Okay, not 100 percent perfect, 100 percent of the time. But if it was 200 percent damn near 80 percent of the time, I didn’t mind if it was 75 percent the other 20 percent.
The same thing that drove me crazy about Renee out of bed was the same thing that drove me out of my mind in bed—those rapid mood changes. There was something about slipping under the covers with the good girl only to find out she was a porn star in disguise or vice versa.
And the other thing keeping me here? Me. Renee still made me feel something I had never felt before. You might notice I hesitated to call it love. That was only because I wasn’t sure I had a good concept of what that truly was supposed to be. Women have said they loved me, but I never felt loved by them. Some of my boys said they had fallen in love, but I never noticed anything loverlike in their actions. In my parents, I saw that affection and mutual respect and an overall sense of ease with each other. But I thought you’d get that with almost anyone you spent forty-two years day in and day out with, right?
Some people said that when you meet the Person, the One, you would just know. Well, when I met Renee, I knew I had to get with her, but I wasn’t thinking forever. Then we started spending time together, and I stopped thinking short-term and starting thinking long range. Like instead of days, I thought weeks. Now adjusting to months. But forever? Till death do us part? I wouldn’t swear to it.
What I did know was that whatever I felt for her was strong enough for me to stand here and take this shit. So here I stood, trying to answer her stupid question about why Rome made it to Jewel’s before I made it here. After a long day like this one, I was all out of witty comebacks. “I guess he drives faster than I do.”
She tossed the spatula in the sink. “You just full of little jokes tonight, huh?”
I tossed my briefcase in a chair and took off my jacket. “If you say so, honey. What’s for dinner?”
The look she sent me would have frozen water at twenty-five paces in August. “You didn’t eat?”
I shrugged. “They served sandwiches at four-thirty or so. I’m starved. Any calls?”
She threw her hands up and stomped back to the bathroom. I could hear her running water into the tub and muttering under her breath. I decided it was best to let her cool off. I dialed up the voice mail and listened to a message from my mother, her mother, my brother, Tammy, and Aaron. Nothing that could have set her off and nothing that had to be returned tonight. I opened the fridge to scan the leftovers. Hey, shrimp and pasta? A cheesecake from my favorite bakery and champagne? What was the occasion?
Oh shit! I went over to my briefcase and took out my BlackBerry. I flipped through the calendar to today. Damn! Three-month anniversary of our first date. Renee was hell about anniversaries like this. Anniversary of our first date, first time we slept together, day I moved in ... it was never-ending.
But see, I was actually prepared. I figured, this one was a pretty big anniversary for us, seeing as I wasn’t sure we’d make it three days. I thought the big day was tomorrow, though. If we go by day of the week, it was tomorrow. But if we counted numerical dates, like actual ninety days, damn—today.
I walked back to the bedroom. She had a navy teddy laid out on the bed. Oh yeah, I had to redeem myself. She was bringing out the big guns, and I wasn’t here to cock ’em, so to speak.
As I said, though, I was prepared. Flowers are going to be delivered tomorrow to her office, and the present was in my briefcase. Maybe if I broke out the present now ... I stood in the closet plotting, seriously. What to do, what to say? Within seconds, I had a plan.
I stripped down to my boxers before grabbing the champagne and two glasses from the kitchen. On my way back to the bathroom, I put the Best of Luther CD on repeat, took the phone off the hook, and doused the lights. I lit a big candle and stuck it in a holder. I grabbed the present—hadn’t wrapped it yet anyway—and headed to the bathroom. I reached in and clicked off the lights.
“What the—?” Renee called out from that huge tub. “Gregory?”
“Who else would it be, Ray?” I walked in, leaving the door open so that Luther could be properly appreciated. Luther never fails as a wingman. I put down the lid of the toilet and set the candle down. I placed the champagne and glasses beside the tub, tossed my boxers aside, and climbed in.
�
�Greg!” How she could sound shocked after all we had done to and with each other was beyond me. Of course, we’d never done the tub before. And it was plenty big enough for the both of us.
“Um-hmm? Man, you think you got this water hot enough? Trying to boil a brother up in here.” I eased down behind her and pulled her toward me. She was stiff and resistant, but I ignored that. When she was flush against me, I reached over and picked up her present. I put the thin platinum chain around her neck and adjusted it so that the diamond heart hung properly. I fastened it in back and kissed the side of her neck. “Happy anniversary, baby. I love you.” Damn, but I’m smooth and I’m almost sure I meant it!
She went absolutely still for a second before looking down at her chest. I gotta say, diamonds look good by candlelight on my baby. “Oh, Greggy.” She sighed and relaxed against me.
Ha! I’m Greggy again. Tell me I didn’t know women ... this woman! And here came the ultimate follow-through: “Sorry I didn’t call and tell you how late the meeting was gonna run.” Sometimes you had to man up and apologize even when you’ve done nothing wrong.
She shimmied around in the water and wrapped her arms and legs around me. “It’s okay.” She leaned forward and kissed me in one of those slow and sexy ways she had of telling me it’s about to be on. “Wait a minute,” she said when we came up for air.
“What?” Why did women always want to talk at the weirdest moments? Listen, I was in a hot bubble bath with Luther singing, candles flickering, champagne chilling, and a crazy fine woman wrapped around me, I had nothing more to say.
“I got you something too,” she whispered, backing away for a minute.
“Oh yeah?” I smiled and pulled her back.
“Yeah.”
“Well, why don’t you give me a little something right now and the other thing later, hmm?”
“Oh, Greggy.” She giggled. “I love you too. You’re so crazy.”
Crazy like a fox. Maybe I understood this love thing after all.
Times like this made you forget all the others. I knew it was going to be a while before we drank that champagne, and the candle was a goner. I’d have to heat up the pasta thing later on. Luther was singing “Here and Now” as she pulled my lips back to hers.
13
Love (or Something Like It) Is in the Air
Jewel—Saturday, July 26, 8:10 p.m.
After spending every spare minute of the last month and a half with this boy, I thought I knew him pretty well. Not intimately, but well enough to feel his vibe. Which was why I knew something was different today.
Something had been off with Roman all day. Oh, he was still Roman and all, but different. Haircut this morning—he didn’t tease the old barber like he usually did. Just sat down, got the cut, and left. During hoops at the gym, he didn’t slam dunk or sky hook, not once. No Air/Shaq/KG moves at all. Didn’t talk any trash. At lunch with the gang, he let Renee get away with all kinds of little snide comments he usually never let slide. Didn’t tease me for ordering a fried chicken salad with diet dressing and a diet drink.
Then we went to the mall and I tested him. Dragged him into the bookstore and read the backs of at least twenty romance novels before just picking one. He usually hated that! He just stood there, no comment.
And the weirdest thing, he actually offered suggestions in Victoria’s Secret! Normally he walked over to the sports store while I bought more underwear that I didn’t need. (Mom always said you can never have too much!) Anyway, he came alive and starting picking out stuff. Racy stuff too. Purple lace teddies and hot red garters and a scandalous sheer black nightgown. He actually asked me my size and bought that sheer black thing. We weren’t even sleeping together yet and he bought me this thing.
I wished he could have seen himself. This big, tall man dressed in denim from head to toe standing around in Vicki’s flipping through negligees as if his life depended on it. And before you ask why we weren’t sleeping together yet, I didn’t really know. Wasn’t like I was being prudish or saving myself. We had the new millennium talk about being protected and AIDS-free and all that, but that was it. I assumed we were waiting—for what, I didn’t know, just waiting! It was actually kind of refreshing. One less thing to worry about for now, if you asked me.
Now back to this mall scene. After we left Vicki’s with two hundred bucks’ worth of truly recreational lingerie, he lapsed back into this apathetic state he had been in all day. He had been social but quiet. Preoccupied, almost like he’d rather be somewhere else. Almost like he didn’t really care.
At first I thought it was Chase. Jaquenetta took Chase with her on vacation, so Roman had to skip this weekend with him. But I asked him and he said he was used to Jaquenetta changing the schedule on him, and he’d get three extra days with Chase over Labor Day weekend.
The last straw was the frozen yogurt stand. He hated frozen yogurt. Said you should just eat ice cream and be done with it. But when I walked him over there, he ordered a double scoop of chocolate in a waffle cone! I walked to a booth and sat down, not believing he was actually going to eat it. He dug right in like it was the finest Häagen-Dazs available.
So I just came straight out with it. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nuthin’.” He finished the cone in record time, never looking at me.
“Something’s wrong; you’ve been strange all day.”
“Oh yeah? Hmm.” He reached over and tossed the napkin in the trash.
I rolled my eyes and came to the point. “Almost like you don’t want to be here.”
He looked at me finally. “I’m cool.”
“Roman, you hate yogurt,” I persisted.
“So?” He picked up a section of newspaper someone had left at the table.
“So. You just wolfed down a jumbo cone of it.”
He looked surprised. “Ah, well, it was all right, I guess.”
“Roman, you can bullshit anyone else you want, but come straight with me. If something’s up, just let me know.”
“Jewel, ya know you’re the woman. Quit trippin’.” He flipped a page.
“What’s that mean?” Sometimes, I swear, we had a whole conversation where he meant one thing and I thought another.
“Ya know, you’re definitely the woman. Like implying, ya all right with me. We cool and all.” He folded the paper in half and kept reading.
That sweet way he had of laying things out clearly just warmed me right up inside. So warm I wanted to snatch that paper out of his hands and smack him right across that chiseled jaw. “Roman LaChayse.” I learned that tone from Mom. That no-nonsense, I’ve-had-quite-enough-of-this tone.
Now he rolled his eyes. “Just got something on my mind. Let it go.” He put the paper down.
Well, now I was insulted. If I had a bad day, he would wheedle and cajole and nag until I shared every tiny detail of it with him. Now I was supposed to just let it go? Uh-huh. That was how we gonna work this relationship now? Okay, then, maturity gone. I could play this just as cool as the next person. “Fine. Ready to go?”
He frowned at me. “Now what’s wrong with you?”
I smiled at him. “Nothing, you ready?”
Still frowning, he shrugged and stood up. “Sure. Did you get everything you came for?”
“Most definitely,” I lied, but I wasn’t staying there another minute. I stood up and took off walking.
He caught up to me and grabbed my arm. “Thought you said you needed a new outfit to wear somewhere?”
I tugged my arm away. “Did I? I really have enough clothes. Let’s go.” I kept walking. When we got outside, I stopped to shove on my sunglasses even though the sun had set. Mid-July and it was hot as hell. I hated to see what August and September were going to be like this year. Roman stood silently beside me, watching me. “Where’d we park?” I asked without looking at him.
He sighed deeply, as if pained, and started forward without a word.
I didn’t care. I was still peeved at this double-standard bu
llshit. If I have a problem, it was, “Talk to me, Jewellen. Share with me, Jewel. What’s on your mind, Miss Jewel? We in a relationship; we should be able to talk to one another.” The lecture was on in full effect.
Today, he had an obvious case of the ass, and all I got was, “Let it go.” What happened to the “equal time” he was always going on and on about? As if it wasn’t hot enough out here, now my temper was boiling too.
We got into the car and he drove the five minutes back to my place. I got out quick, not really expecting him to come in. So, of course, he did. I went upstairs to put my stuff away and, of course, he followed. I opened one of my drawers to put away the socks I just bought when he tossed the Victoria’s Secret bag at me.
“Wanna put that somewhere?” He stood there with some sort of amused look on his face.
I could think of a place I’d like to shove it, I thought. Instead, I opened the bottom drawer and dropped the whole thing in, bag and all, before kicking it shut. I stood by the dresser tapping my nails on the surface. Ever just want someone to be gone from you? Just away. Not in your space right at that minute.
“Gotta problem?”
Brilliant deduction, player. “I’m cool.” I smirked at being able to throw his words back at him.
He came over and yanked off my sunglasses and tossed them on the dresser. “I can’t read your expressions with these things on.”
“I can’t read yours either!” I yanked off his and tossed them right alongside mine.
He looked at me for a second and smiled. “I’m going to the video store.” He turned away and headed for the stairs.
“So you’re coming back?” I asked him.
“Where else would I go, Miss Jewel?” he answered on his way down the stairs.
Home, I thought evilly. Take your sometimey attitude and roll on back to where you came from.
“Want me to pick up something to eat for later?” he called from the hallway.
I looked at the clock on my dresser. It was already close to nine o’clock—how late did he plan to hang around in this present mood? “I’ll probably just snack, but you can pick up something for yourself,”—paused—“if you’re going to be here that long.”
Heard It All Before Page 13