“How much you need?” Wayne asked, knowing the drill.
“Damn, why I got to need money?”
“Your favors always involve me loaning you money.”
“Well, I don’t need money. I got plenty of that. I got so much that I bought a car.”
Wayne’s head rocked back. “You? Bought a car? Finally, you spent money on something other than jewelry and chicks.”
“Yeah, and all I need you to do is put me on your insurance.”
“What? You don’t even got a driver’s license. And even if you did, I wouldn’t add you on my insurance.” Wayne opened the bag of fertilizer. “I liked it better when your favors involved me loaning you money.”
“C’mon. Don’t even act like that. I’m tired of riding shotgun in your ride. Like you said, I finally spent my money on something else besides jewelry and bitches.” Taz dug into his pocket. “Look, I passed my permit test, and I’m signing up for the five hour course or however many hours it is. I’ll have my license by June.”
“I’m happy for you, really I am, but I’m not putting you on my insurance. I didn’t even put my pops on my insurance. What makes you think I’m going to put you on?”
“I’m your boy.”
“Ain’t happening.”
Taz switched gears on the conversation. “So, when are you quitting this hobby of yours and getting a real job?”
“A real job like yours?” Wayne said, putting the bag of fertilizer down. “Yeah, I can see myself now scrambling on the block hollering ‘two for five’, ‘two for five’, barely making sneaker money.”
“I remember when we started this mowing lawn bullshit together as a way to make some quick money during summer vacations,” Taz said. “We were like fourteen. Here we are, twelve years later, and you’re doing the same shit. It hasn’t gotten you anywhere.”
“And where has your drug dealing gotten you, Al Capone? Eighteen months in Detention for Youth, two state bids, and over ten arrests. My money may not come as fast as yours, but I have a bank account, credit cards, a house, a car, and I don’t have to ask anyone to add me to their insurance.”
“You already said no. You don’t have to rub it in my face. I’ll be waiting in the truck,” Taz said, kicking a rock as he walked off.
Wayne’s head was pounding. He just wanted to pack up his tools and call it a day. He caught a subtle movement coming from the window above him. Miss Levinson was watching him with a lustful eye.
I should go in there and give her the business. I can take all my frustration out on that old pussy. Wayne felt his heart starting to beat faster. I can’t believe I’m getting hard thinking about Grandma Dynamite. I’m losing my fucking mind. He turned around when he heard a car pulling into the driveway. His heart started beating even faster when he noticed it was an unmarked car. He knew he hadn’t done anything wrong, but he must have inherited his fear of police from his father.
Detective Harris got out and walked up the driveway. “How’s it going?”
“Good,” Wayne responded.
“Wayne, right?”
“Yes.”
Detective Harris looked him up and down. “I heard you do an excellent job. You take jobs in other neighborhoods?”
“It depends on the neighborhood.”
“Guilderland.”
Wayne paused for a moment before answering. “Yeah, I got a couple properties I do out there.”
Detective Harris nodded. “You have a business card or a way for me to contact you?”
I knew it. I knew this pig wanted something from me. He’s probably going to run a check on the business to see if it’s legit. Some people just can’t stand seeing a young black man doing his thing.
Wayne dug out his wallet and pulled out his business card. “My home number’s on the bottom.”
“Marcus!” Wayne and Harris both looked up as Miss Levinson walked toward them. “Let Wayne finish up here. He’s a busy man.”
“I was just taking one of his business cards. I’m thinking about having him do some work on my yard, Ma.”
Ma? Wayne tried to conceal his shock.
“Wayne, this is my son, Marcus, and he knows how I hate it when he shows up unannounced.”
A thought flashed through Wayne’s mind. Him having Grandma Dynamite bent over the dining room table and her son, the detective, showing up unannounced. I can see the police report now. I walked into my mother’s house, and I saw a nig… I mean an unidentified man on top of her. I drew my gun and that’s all I remember. The next thing I know, Mr. Wayne Dupree was shot seventeen times.
Miss Levinson grabbed her son by the hand. “Let’s go inside and get you something to eat.”
“I’ll be giving you a call,” Detective Harris said over his shoulder to Wayne.
“I’ll be waiting.” When they disappeared into the house, Wayne’s head was pounding harder than a speaker at a block party. He finished his work and gathered his stuff as fast as he could. He wanted to be out of there before Harris came back outside.
When he got to his truck, Taz was sitting in it with the music and seat belt on. Wayne looked at him and frowned.
“What’s up with you?”
“What Harris want?” Taz asked suspiciously.
“Nothing, he was just visiting.”
“Visiting? Hell Nah. Not Harris. He’s a scheming motherfucker. He asked you about me?”
“He’s not thinking about you. Like I said, he was just visiting... his mother.”
Taz’s jaw dropped. “Grandma Dynamite? She’s… oh shit! You mean to tell me I almost fucked Harris’s moms? That’s crazy, yo.”
“Almost?” Wayne said confused. “I thought you said she put on a bra and gave you the cold shoulder.”
“Yeah, but I could’ve hit that if I really wanted to. She was feeling me. I just didn’t want to have her head banging on the headboard with you out here.”
Wayne started his truck and pulled off.
“I’m going to hit that before the week is out, watch,” Taz said, scratching the peach fuzz on his chin.
“You’re going to fuck around and get an ass full of lead.”
“And it will be worth every slug to be able to tell the hood that I fucked Harris’s moms.”
Wayne shook his head. “I’m willing to bet that your mother can collect disability for your crazy ass.”
***
When Liana got off the phone with Wayne, Jenna was standing in her bedroom doorway, pointing at her. “You’re trying to get back with Wayne on the low. I knew it.”
“Don’t start,” Liana said with a huff. “We were friends before we started dating, and we were friends after we broke up.”
“Broke up? You mean after you called off the wedding. After all those stupid rehearsals you made us go through, and you just up and called everybody and told us the wedding was off. I’m still waiting to know what happened. Why would you break up with your childhood sweetheart and hook up with a dude you barely knew and move all the way to California?” Jenna walked to the bed and sat down next to her.
“We’re not going to talk about this today,” Liana said, rubbing her temples. “We’re not going to talk about this period. I have a right to live my life the way I want, and go out with who I want, and move to wherever the hell I want.”
Jenna looked at her like she just lost her mind. “I’d expect a response like that from Elizabeth or Reese. They’re air heads, but you?”
Liana kicked back on Jenna’s bed and let her feet hang off the side. “Why is life so damn complicated for me? I see the way Efran makes you happy. I see how happy Elizabeth is with Indio. I even see how happy Reese is with her variety of men. Is it me? Am I creating my own misery? Am I looking for a man who doesn’t exist?”
“Girl, you got to follow your heart to wherever or to whomever it may take you to. Efran is my heart. So what I’m Chinese and he’s African American. So what if my parents can’t see past the color of his skin. Efrin and I are in love, and I’m
not going to let anyone come in between that.”
“I have to go.” Liana sat up and slipped on her shoes. “I don’t want to be late for my first day back to work.”
“Okay, BJ girl. Go and do your thing.”
Liana walked out of Jenna’s room flipping her the Finger.
“Tell Reese I said hi,” Jenna said.
CHAPTER 4
Liana’s first day back at BJ's felt as if she never left. She worked non-stop. Reese working alongside her made the afternoon go by quickly. Reese looked at her watch and then ran her fingers through her bouncy curls, making sure her ‘do was right. Then she smoothed out her pants, and began touching up her makeup.
Liana stared at her the whole time out the corner of her eye. “What’s all that for?”
“It’s almost quitting time.”
“I know that, but you’re fixing yourself up like you’re going out on a date.”
“Can’t I look good for my man?” Reese said innocently.
“Which one?”
“Dexter,” Reese said like a high school girl in love.
“Who?”
“The one from the Palace theatre that looks like Denzel.”
“Damn, Reese, you just met him in the mall a couple days ago, and he’s already your man? You don’t even know him.”
“He packs a nine millimeter, he’s working with nine inches, and he’s not afraid to go the whole nine yards. What else is there to know?”
Liana swatted Reese on the shoulder. “Girl, you better slow you hot ass down. What kind of morals are you modeling for little Keysha by bringing all kinds of men around her?”
“Baby girl understands that mommy got to have her fun, too.”
“She’s three, Reese.”
“What’s your point?”
Liana threw up her hands in defeat. Dexter entered the store and headed straight for them. Liana knew no matter what she said to Reese at this point, nothing was going to change the way she allowed herself to be passed around like a blunt. Liana figured Reese had about a year left before dudes in the neighborhood labeled her “BDP” (Beat down pussy). Dexter grabbed Reese by the waist and stuck his tongue down her throat. He pulled back and shot Liana a you-know-you-want-me smirk.
“Liana, this is Dexter, and Dexter this is my home girl, Liana,” Reese said, introducing them to one another.
Dexter put his finger to his temple, as if he was turning on his brain. “Liana? That’s Spanish, right? No, Dutch. As a matter of fact, that’s French.”
“My father’s name is Lee and my mother’s was Anna. Thus, we have Liana.”
“Hmm,” Dexter said, nodding. “That’s deep. I would’ve never thought of that.”
“Most people don’t,” Liana said with a hint of sarcasm.
“Dexter and Reese,” he said thoughtfully. “Dereese. Now, that’s fly. What do you think about that name for a daughter, Reese?”
“You must be having a daughter by someone else named Reese, ‘cause ain’t no more babies coming out this coochie.”
“I’ll be waiting for you in the jeep,” Dexter said, walking off with a smile.
“Einstein ain’t got nothing on him,” Liana said when Dexter got out of hearing range.
“You damn right. All that smarts Einstein had, and he couldn’t even tie his shoelaces. If he had trouble with shoestrings, I can imagine the trouble he must’ve had with his string-a-ling.”
“It’s time for you to go,” Liana said laughing.
“I’m going, I’m going. But before I go. I heard you and Wayne are getting back together.”
Liana almost dropped the stapler she was holding.
“Yes, Jenna couldn’t wait to tell me all about your conversation on the phone with him.”
“It’s not even like that.”
Reese shrugged. “You don’t have to explain anything to me, girl. I’m not here to judge or be judged. Do your thang.”
“I’m going to wring her neck when I see her for putting my business in the street.”
“In the street? Jenna only has three people she can tell, and we can’t count you, because it’s about you. So, that narrows it down to me and Elizabeth. She’s not going to tell Elizabeth, because Elizabeth will smack Wayne out of your mind. So, the only person she could share the juicy information with was me.”
“Well, for your information, Wayne and I aren’t getting back together. Not now, not ever. We’re friends and we’re cool with that.”
“Whatever,” Reese said, rolling her eyes.
Liana turned to tend the customer who just walked up to her register when someone called her from behind.
“Liana Thompson?”
Liana spun around at the mention of her name like a child caught doing something wrong. A man in a FTD uniform was holding a box of long stemmed roses in his right arm, and a clipboard in the other. Reese was smiling from ear to ear.
“Yes, I’m Liana Thompson,” she said, blushing at the drawing attention.
“Sign here, please.”
She signed and accepted the box of roses and the card.
“Wayne stepped his game up, huh?” Reese said with a tinge of jealousy.
Liana opened the card and looked at the bottom for the signature. She tried to hide her disappointment as she read the card.
“That’s so beautiful,” a customer at Liana’s register said. “I wish my husband did something like that for me.”
Tears of happiness and hurt welled in her eyes. She looked at the Internet address Ron had scribbled at the bottom of the card. www.ronandliana.com. She closed the card, put it back in the box of roses, and put the lid back on. Her face turned red when she looked up and realized everybody was staring at her.
“They’re from Ron,” she said to Reese.
“Even better.”
***
When Liana got home, she sat in front of her computer and stared at the screen. Fuck it. She keyed in the website address. The site opened with a slideshow of photographs that they had taken during their three-year relationship. The site’s layout astounded her. The pictures ranged from their three-week vacation in St. Thomas to their trip to Disney World.
There were seventy-eight pictures in all. Liana tried to imagine how many hours it must have taken him to put the slideshow together.
Liana’s cell phone rang. The caller ID told her it was Ron. She sat there and let it ring in her hand. Her heart told her to answer it, but her soul said let it ring. She closed her eyes as her heart and soul argued back and forth. The phone stopped ringing and started to ring again. She quickly answered it before she changed her mind. “What do you want?”
“You got clothes on?”
Liana’s heart fluttered as a huge smile appeared on her face. “Yeah, I have clothes on. “What’s up?”
“Come outside.”
She went to her window and saw Wayne’s hunter green Range Rover parked out front. “Are you stalking me?”
“Just come outside,” he said again, and then hung up.
She shut down her computer and slid her shoes back on. When she stepped outside, she expected to see him on the porch. He always met her on the porch. Instead, he sat in his truck, looking straight ahead. She approached the passenger side of the truck and looked in.
“Get in,” Wayne said.
Liana hesitantly opened the door and climbed in. “It’s kind of late, don’t you think?”
“I know what time it is, shut the door.”
She shut the door and leaned back against it.
“You don’t have to say anything, just listen,” Wayne started. “I’m a grown ass man; I don’t have time to play games. Now, I still got feelings for you, the whole world knows that, and those feelings are never going to change. But that’s something I have to deal with. Nana told me the real deal with you and Ron. I’m not here to get into your business or nothing, I just want you to know that no matter what I’m still your friend. I was a good listener back then, and I’m a good listener no
w. So if you need someone to talk to—”
“Thanks, but no thanks. I got my girlfriends to talk to.”
“Reese is probably telling you to get back with Ron and milk him for his money. Elizabeth and her stuck up ass is probably telling you to stay far away from me. And the three of you are probably getting on Jenna, because she’s probably talking the most sense.”
Liana folded her arms and stared out the window. “You done?”
“Yeah, get out,” Wayne said, starting his truck.
Liana got out and left the door wide open as she headed back to the house. Wayne stepped on the gas, jerking the truck forward, which jerked the door shut.
***
Friday night, Liana sat in her bedroom sulking. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all went by in a blur. Ron continued to send flowers and gifts, Elizabeth, Jenna, and Reese tried their damnest to pull her out of the funk she was in, and all she could think about was the conversation she had with Wayne.
Moving back to Albany was a big mistake, was the only coherent sentence she could put together in the past three days. There were too many bad memories to deal with. Albany, for her, held the memories of both her parents strung out on crack. Albany was the crime scene of her mother’s murder. Albany was the county that sentenced her father to fifteen years to life. And Albany was the cemetery where she buried her love for Wayne. When her spoon hit the bottom of the ice cream box, she sucked her teeth and threw it in the garbage can.
A little after ten p.m., Liana forced herself out of bed and threw on some sweatpants and a tee shirt. She grabbed her car keys and a baseball cap on the way out. She pulled up to the grocery store on the corner of Second and Grandview and ran in to purchase a gallon of chocolate ice cream. On the way out, a dark-skinned brother was leaning against her Lexus SUV. He smiled at her as she walked toward him. She smiled back, preparing herself to politely tell home boy to go fuck himself.
“This your ride, shorty?” the guy asked, as he eased off her hood.
Liana nodded as she walked toward him.
He rubbed his chin while nodding his head. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”
Liana shook her head. That has to be the weakest pickup line I’ve heard in a long time.
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