“Okay, so I admit that trying to add a little humor backfired. Mainly, I was trying to scare you into fighting for her.”
Claude crossed his ankle over his knee and tapped his fingers on the glass tabletop.
“Claude, man, I don’t know what it’s gonna take for you to be happy. Even with all that you have going on in your life, money, homes, cars, your health, you act like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
“One day you’ll find out that those things don’t equate to happiness. More money, more problems.”
“I get what you’re saying, but I’m about to go deep on you bro. If you don’t mind me saying so, you have to forgive Owen in your heart, or else you’ll never be whole. You couldn’t save Fatima from her fate. That was God’s will.”
“Man, I know that.”
“At times, you seem so connected with Venus and Cameron. And at other times, it’s like the sight of them reminds you of Fatima.”
“At times it does. Anyway, since when does little brother whose had to deal with older brothers coming down on him suddenly give advice?”
“You know, I really can’t give you advice, big bro. My game is still being strategized as it is. But I do know that you’ve got to let that whole thing go. I, for one, can understand how you found love in Venus. I don’t knock you for that. But man, you’ve got to let the past go and hold on to your woman. A good woman.”
“What can I really do, though? I told her I want her to come home. Am I supposed to show up like Owen did and force her.”
Over their left shoulders, Claude and Torino heard a familiar female voice from the side walkway. “Or show up like me, right, Torino?”
The brothers sprang to their feet. Torino’s eyed bugged just as his heartbeat skipped. “What the hell are you doing here?” It was Colette, tiny bulging belly and all. With dark circles under her eyes, she was wearing a pair of black, baggy sweat pants, a tight T-shirt, and a bulky sweater.
With agitation spelled out on her face, she pointed to the rear house and spoke in a low tone with slurred speech. “Torino, can we go on back there and talk?”
“No. Colette, you need to get out of here.” Torino struggled to control the volume of his voice. “You’re trespassing on my brother’s property. I’m not in the mood to play this.”
“I was never trespassing before when I’d come walking down this very pathway to spend time with you.”
“Those days are over. You made your bed so you lay in it.”
She repeated her request. This time standing within six inches of his face. “Torino, I want you to follow me to your place so we can talk.”
Claude moved in and stood between them. “Hold up now, Colette.”
“No, you hold up. No one was talking to you.” She cut her eyes. “You never liked me anyway.”
Claude explained with little patience. “You disrespected my wife, and I’m not having that. And now you’re sweating my brother. You need to leave.”
She cut her eyes again and dismissed Claude with her hand. “Torino, we need to talk. Alone. Now.”
Torino spoke. “You should have considered the consequences the night you got with Kyle. It’s too late to talk now.”
Colette got louder. “The same night you were sniffing up behind Sequoia at the club?”
Torino put his forefinger to his lips. “Sshhh. You need to get out of here before I call the police.”
“Torino, I’m not playing with you.” She turned her back away from the brothers and began to walk away, toward Torino’s front door.
“Where are you going?” Torino asked.
Suddenly, Colette ran toward the back house. The dog, Kailua, started barking loudly from the side of the house. Claude immediately ran after Colette. Torino turned to make sure no one in the front house was coming outside and he, too, ran up behind his brother who was struggling to grab Colette from behind.
Claude was sounding very impatient. “What are you doing? Put your hands down,” he demanded.
Claude turned her around to find that she had a small, ivory pocket knife pointed toward herself at waist level.
She clinched her jaw as she spoke to Torino. “I will kill this baby and myself if you don’t do what I say.”
With panic in his eyes, Torino took over. “Okay, what do you want, Colette?” Kailua continued barking. Torino looked toward the dog run and back at Colette.
The pace of her breathing quickened. “I want you to make her—Sequoia—leave and I want you to spend the next couple of days with me so that we can work this out.”
“I can’t do that, Colette.”
Colette’s tightly clenched fist shook under her stomach.
Claude took a shot at trying to reason with her as she stared Torino down, forcing breaths through her nose. “Colette, try to take a deep breath and calm down now. Listen to me. You should know what can happen when people want something they can’t have so badly, that they try to force fate and threaten their way into what they want. It only ruins lives and makes things worse.”
She looked up at Claude’s face. “You’re referring to your little Fatima?”
He noticed her sarcasm. “Yes. You wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t want you, would you?”
“Torino wants me. He’s just mad because I got with Kyle.” Her sights returned to Torino. “You and Kyle were very close, huh, Torino? Is that the real problem? That you’re mad at me for taking your friend away?”
Torino became defensive. “Kyle played you because he was mad at me, and you played him for the same reason. So, at this point, talking it out with me is not gonna get you what you want. You need to grow up.”
Colette shook her head downward, looking at her feet. She still held on tight to the knife and did not budge from Claude’s hold on her forearms.
Torino added with a snarl, “You need help.”
Claude asked Torino to calm down and then spoke to Colette. “Do yourself a favor and listen to me. This is no way to solve this type of situation. You’re going to do harm to your unborn child and yourself over a man. It’s not worth it. Fight for your baby, but not this way. It’s obvious you decided to keep this baby and that’s a great thing. So I know you won’t hurt that baby. Why ruin everything now?”
Colette again gave Torino focused eye contact. “Because I loved him like I’ve never loved anyone else. All I ever wanted was to have Torino to myself. He had more women coming into that club than he could even juggle. I put up with that for so long, just begging him to ignore all of those woman. Why wasn’t I enough, Torino?”
Claude responded for his brother. “Then why would you want someone who treated you like that? Colette, sometimes it’s not about being enough. We all have temptations in life. It doesn’t mean we don’t love someone. We’re all human.”
Again, Torino turned toward the house, almost expecting someone to come out to check up on Kailua, who continued to bark.
Colette continued, “But a man doesn’t just turn off his feelings like a lightswitch. How can he just suddenly fall out of love with me? It’s like he never loved me to begin with.”
“Oh, he loved you all right. I know that for a fact, just by the way he’d stick up for you and he’d include you in as a part of the family. He was thinking about taking it one step further and you know it. But Colette, you ran straight to his best friend. That’s a cardinal sin for a man.”
Suddenly, Colette’s vision was redirected to Claude. “And look at you. You’re one to talk. You ran straight to Fatima’s best friend. If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black? I might as well be dead like she is. Maybe then it would be okay to marry whoever’s left behind to grieve. Does death make it okay, Claude? You ask yourself that.”
Claude reflected in his own head. Pausing to think back. And then he continued. “No, it doesn’t. But love is love. And I fell in love with Venus. It just happened. I hear what you’re saying, and I deserve that. But I’m begging you, think about those who you’d
leave behind. Be here so that you can raise that child. Don’t do this to yourself, Colette. I’m begging you, please don’t hurt yourself. That baby needs its mother.”
Claude’s eyes started to well up with tears. At the very moment that he removed his hand to wipe his eyes, Colette unexpectedly grabbed him. She burst into tears. Claude hugged her, patting her on the back as she dropped the knife, bawling in his arms. Torino, looking stunned and shocked, bent down to pick up the knife. He tucked it into his pants pocket.
Claude’s eyes were red. He separated himself from Colette and looked her dead in the eyes. She continued to cry. “You’re already dying inside, just like me. I have to let go, and so do you. If you don’t, you’ll die inside anyway. Colette, I know you don’t want to die. Like me, you just want the pain to stop.”
Colette nodded in agreement as she sniffled. She touched Claude’s arm and backed away, using her long sweater sleeve to wipe her face with her wrist. She wiped her eyes. She wiped her cheeks. She wiped her eyes again.
Claude told her, “And it will stop, eventually. I promise.”
Colette shifted her vision to Torino and shook her head at him. “Good-bye, Torino. Enjoy your new life.”
“Good-bye Colette,” he responded without missing a beat.
She took a couple of steps and then stopped again. “I just need to know one thing from you. Did you love me?”
“Yes. And I always will. And I am sorry that you’re hurting.” Torino spoke with an exhausted tone to his words. He took a step toward her and reached out his arms.
Colette backed away. “Sure you are.” She glared at Claude and then back at her ex. “You need to be more like your brothers. Because one thing is for sure… you played on me and you’ll play on her too, Tito.” Colette looked right through him and then turned to walk away. She headed for the side gate, head hung low, and left. Claude and Torino stood at Torino’s front door as the gate closed, amazed.
Claude spoke first. “Bro, that was a trip. I would never have predicted that.”
Torino exhaled. He went over to the dog run and reached over the fence to pet Kailua. “Calm down, boy.” The dog jumped up, wagging his tail and licking Torino’s arm. “I guess your little brother could have handled that a little bit better, huh, Claude?”
“Man, she’s just crying out for attention.”
“Well, she got that.”
“There’s nothing like the look of the fear of losing in someone’s eyes.”
Torino still looked nervously toward the house. “I say we go on inside.”
“I’m right behind you.” Claude turned to look back toward Torino’s porch and then looked up toward the sky. Thank you Lord, he said to himself while pursing his lips. He headed back toward the front house and stepped inside after Torino. Before he closed the door shut, he wiped his eye again and then looked around the corner just to make sure that the desperate woman who had confronted his brother was not coming back. He locked the door securely and returned to his family.
Rashaad stopped Torino as he walked into the kitchen. “What were you two doing to Kailua? Teasing him with the ball?”
“Something like that,” Torino replied, turning off the oven as he opened it.
Rashaad looked serious. He spoke quietly. “Colette is pretty hurt, huh?” he asked toward his uncle’s back.
Torino turned immediately. His shock was evident. “Ahh, yes, she is. You checked on Kailua, huh?”
“I did.”
Torino hesitated, searching for words. “Thanks, Rashaad. I appreciate that. You’re quite a young man.”
They resumed their chef duties, taking the baking dishes from the oven and preparing to serve the family dinner.
Chapter 23
Mercedes, Sequoia, Star, and Mattie sat at the dining room table in every other chair, making room for the men. They looked toward the closed kitchen door.
“Where’s Fatima?” Mattie asked out of the blue.
“She’s not here, Mamma,” Mercedes replied, then leaning in toward Sequoia. “It’s a good thing Claude and Cameron didn’t hear that.”
“For sure,” said Sequoia, blowing air though her lips.
“You made that cake?” Mercedes asked Sequoia, changing the subject. “That looks good. Coming up in here making what white girls make.”
“That’s not a white girl dish. You’re trippin’. There’s so much soul up in that cake it’s not even funny.”
Mercedes teased her. “I’ll bet Torino made it.”
“No, but he bakes my cake,” Sequoia whispered, leaning into Mercedes.
“Uh, huh, I know he does.” Mercedes raised her eyebrows.
Sequoia continued to whisper. “And just for the record, I’m glad you and Mason were able to work things out.”
Mercedes replied, “Thanks.” She then looked toward the kitchen yelling, “Come on, my brothers. Where’s the grub?” She hit the table with her flat hand.
One by one, with Mason leading, the men walked into the dining room, each holding a platter in each hand. Torino followed Mason and Cameron was followed by Torino. Claude, bringing in the other desserts, followed Rashaad.
Mercedes basked in the sight, smell, and variety of the spread. “Now this is what I’m talking about. Real women being served by their men. I’m in heaven.” She rubbed her hands together.
“We’re not gonna feed your greedy butts. We just cooked the food,” Torino vexed.
“It smells delicious,” Sequoia said, inhaling the soulful aroma of the garlic string beans.
Surrounding the twenty-two-pound smoked turkey were plates of beef ribs, fried chicken, and pork chops. Also yams, sage dressing, potato salad, mustard greens, black-eyed peas, and cranberry sauce were placed on one end, and corn bread and the store-bought sour cream cherry pie were placed next to Sequoia’s pineapple upside-down cake at the other end.
“My goodness, guys. You went all out,” said Mercedes.
“I’m impressed,” Sequoia remarked.
Star asked her father, “Daddy, you sure you guys made all of this?”
“Yes, Star. Didn’t know your daddy had it in him, did you?” Mason took his seat.
“No. Other than your super pancake skills,” Star joked with her dad. “I thought Mom and Grammy were the only cooks in this house.”
Mason told his daughter, “I got it from both of them.”
“Please, we know Torino was the head chef today,” Mercedes said.
“And I helped,” said Cameron.
“Sure you did, baby,” said Mattie to her grandson.
Mason looked to all of the males. “We all did it.”
“Let’s just say grace and dig in,” Mercedes said, rubbing her belly.
Mattie bowed her head and began to pray. “Heavenly Father, we do give Thee thanks for all of your abundant blessings. Please bless this food we are about to receive for the nourishment of our bodies. Bless the magnificent cooks and caterers, I mean helpers. May the goodness of their labor grow and blossom inside of us. And may this family continue to grow in health and happiness forever and ever, amen.”
“Amen,” everyone said in unison.
“Now let’s eat,” said Mercedes.
An empty seat remained next to Claude for Venus.
Conversation was silenced while plates were passed and drinks were flowing, meat was sliced, butter was spread, and hot sauce was dabbed. Within thirty minutes, only the men remained at the table, still grabbing spoonfuls and slices of seconds and thirds.
Mercedes yelled from the sofa, “I thought the cook’s appetite shrunk due to inhaling the food while cooking.”
Mason replied, “No that’s just because you all taste test your way into fullness. I knew better than that.” Mason looked at his brothers. “This food is good, my brotha’s.”
“Ummh, huh,” Torino hummed in agreement, biting his way into a fourth rib. “Oh my goodness,” he said. “I forgot.” He wiped his fingertips with his lap napkin.
“What, is
something still in the oven?” Mercedes asked.
He replied, “No. Hold up. Ladies, back to the table for a second.”
“Oh, Lord,” Mattie said with her eyes half closed, resting on one end of the sofa.
“Come here just for a minute,” Torino requested. He took a swig of spiked eggnog and glanced around the table for a minute. “Where are your glasses, everyone?”
“Mine’s empty,” said Mason, looking around for something.
“Then fill them up.” Torino whisked his hands in circular motion for them to hurry up.
“Here, Dad. Pour yourself some water or something before he has a stroke,” Star said, passing around the pitcher.
Mason took the pitcher and poured.
“You have a post-dinner toast or something?” asked Mercedes.
“Hold up now,” Torino said, looking around the table to make sure everyone had a glass in hand. “Mom, come on over here, please,” he begged Mattie, noticing she was still attached to the sofa. “I’d just like to say that I love you all, each and every one of you. Mom, you are the backbone of this family. We are so blessed to have you here, keeping an eye on us in Dad’s absence. But I know he’s looking down from heaven, tripping off us yet guiding us, too.” Mattie finally got up from the sofa and slowly walked over beside him.
“Claude, thanks for everything. Especially for having my back like you just did.” The ladies gave each other question-marked looks. “And Mason. You’ve held me up like no one else. Even when I’d ask you for a loan and you’d tell me to leave you a-loan, you believed in me and financed me unconditionally for years, bro. You didn’t have to. I appreciate you for having my back when I needed it. But I don’t need it anymore. I worked out a deal with a company who wants to produce Lady Di, the female rapper from the club, so I’ll be managing her. And I took out a loan to pay you off for Cicley’s share of the club. I’m going to run it and make it even more of a success.”
“Congratulations,” said Mercedes.
“Where’s the check?” Sequoia asked, looking pleased.
“It’s coming, baby. And as Claude knows, I made an offer on the property on Halm Avenue, around the corner. I’ll be in my own home within the next forty-five days.”
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