Other than food, shelter, and transportation, Travis thought about his other needs. The only thing he was missing was a woman. He wanted and needed a woman who was loving, and selfless, but also supportive. Someone who was down-to-earth and could hold her own if need be. But he didn’t want someone so strong that she didn’t want to be held in his arms when the time was right. He truly wondered if he would be able to find one woman with all those traits.
Travis thought about his Uncle Billy. Even though he had not met his fiancée, it sounded as if he and the woman had found a good thing in each other. They were working together toward common goals, so much so that his uncle hadn’t called him back to say if he would or wouldn’t be able to give him a loan.
Maybe that was what he needed. Maybe he needed to see if he could find someone with the traits that he wanted. It had worked for his Uncle Billy so why wouldn’t it work for him? He tapped his fingers on the remote and thought long and hard about his situation. Six months seemed like a long time, but in truth, it could tick away faster than he could ever imagine. He was going to have to be smart. He was going to have to be resourceful. He was going to have to be whatever he had to be in order to get what he needed. If he didn’t look out for himself, then nobody else would.
His cell phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, he saw that it was Beryl calling again. He hit the button to turn the ringer off. He wasn’t in the mood to hear whatever she wanted to complain about today.
Instead he returned to his thoughts. Travis felt a plan forming in his head. He’d tried to play the good-guy role, but that had gotten him nowhere. The player lifestyle appealed to him, but so did the lifestyle his uncle was currently leading with his new fiancée. Travis made a decision. He was going to have to put himself into the game—the player’s game. He was going to be a player, but one on a mission. Travis would do whatever he needed to do to find the right woman. He would look for someone who was the marrying kind.
The next day, Travis stepped off of the bus after riding it around for blocks as he tried to get a feel for the side of town he was now living in. He’d found the basic stores that he normally shopped at and had also found an area congested with fast-food restaurants. He’d made a note of where they were on the bus map he’d been using. He’d been pleased to be able to buy a thirty-one-day bus pass for only thirty-six dollars. With this he could ride an unlimited amount of times without worrying about being nickel-and-dimed.
The unlimited pass would give him the freedom to be able to get around and look for a job. The only thing he still had not been able to locate was a local library. He needed to be able to get on the Internet. With all the nice things Brent had in his home, he didn’t have a desktop computer. And he had taken his laptop overseas with him.
He walked two blocks back down to a McDonald’s he had seen. It was only a little before noon. He was hoping to find a daily newspaper someone might have left after reading it earlier that morning so he could look for job openings. He also made a mental note to ask someone about where the closest library was.
As he stepped into the restaurant he looked around at the tables and saw that, just as he had thought, someone had left a newspaper sitting on a table. He walked over, grabbed it, and placed it under his armpit. He then ordered a coffee with extra cream and sugar, then found a seat near the television.
He glanced over the headlines and a few of the local stories and saw an advertisement for a Sonnette concert coming to the city. Sonnette was one of his most favorite R&B singers. He wished he could go, but knew the tickets would be too high. And if he actually had a budget, he was sure it would be too high for it also. So he flipped on over to the want ads and started circling a few that looked like they had potential.
His cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Beryl, yet again. He wasn’t going to answer. Most likely all she wanted was to know when he was going to send her some money for child support. He’d already told her time and time again that he was barely able to make it himself with the small amount he got paid in unemployment, but she never wanted to hear it. She was like a scratched CD repeating itself over and over again. Travis was tired of it.
He could normally gauge what kind of message Beryl might be leaving by looking at the message indicator. The indicator not only told him the name of the person leaving a message, it also told him how long the message was. This particular message from Beryl was a minute and twenty seconds. Travis knew she was probably telling him off for avoiding her and not contacting her. And he figured if there was an emergency with the boys, she would send him a text.
After circling five jobs that looked as if they might be promising, Travis folded the newspaper and stepped back up to the cash register to ask if anyone knew where the library was located. If he was able to get on the Internet, then he would be able to find out where the jobs were located in relation to the bus routes.
From the directions given by the cashier, the nearest local library was only about four blocks away. Travis got a refill on his coffee, added some more cream and sugar, and headed out to the library. As he stepped out of the McDonald’s, he saw a petite, young African American lady with a dark-chocolate complexion standing outside her car with the hood up. She was dialing numbers on her cell phone, but didn’t seem to be getting anyone to connect on the other end.
Travis walked over to her and asked, “Do you need any help?”
The young woman, who looked like she was in her late twenties, hunched her shoulders. “I don’t know. The check engine light on my dashboard keeps flickering on and off. I don’t know what is going on with this car. And I could be wrong, but my hood seems a lot hotter than it normally is.”
Travis set his coffee on the ground and asked, “Do you mind if I take a look?”
As he said this he had a flash, back to the first time he and Beryl had met. Similar to this, she was having problems with her car. He’d helped her and later ended up getting married. Travis shivered at the thought.
“You okay?” the woman asked.
“Ah, yeah. Just remembered something, that’s all,” Travis said.
He looked around for the radiator coolant and saw that the level in the reserve looked fine. Upon touching the cap he felt that it was hot, so he didn’t remove the cap. He also checked to see if she had any wires loose and then checked the level of oil. He pulled the stick out and saw nothing on it. He stuck it back in, then pulled it out and again did not see any oil registering on the stick.
“Young lady—”
The woman interrupted him. “You can call me Tory.” “Tory, huh?”
“Well, my name is Victoria, you know, like the girl on Young and the Restless. But my family and friends call me Tory.”
“Family and friends, huh? Am I a friend now?”
Tory winked her eye.
“Well, okay then, Miss Tory.”
She smiled to indicate he was right to call her “Miss.”
“I don’t really know if this has anything to do with why your check engine light keeps coming on, but you are about out of oil in your engine.”
“Seriously?”
“Uh, yeah. Actually I didn’t see any oil on the dipstick, so before I’d crank it and go anywhere else, I’d put some oil in it if I were you,” Travis said.
“Ah, man.”
Tory’s cell phone rang. “Hello,” she said.
As Tory spoke, Travis looked over the rest of her engine and even looked under her car and saw a couple of drops of oil.
When she finished her call, she said, “Great, my girlfriend is on her way over here. What kind of oil do I need? I know it will only be a Band-Aid on the situation but hopefully the oil will hold me over until I can get some money back from my taxes. I am going to file them tomorrow.”
Travis thought about it. “Pick up a couple quarts of 10w-40. I am guessing you don’t know what brand you normally use.”
“Nope.”
“For now you can probably get the store brand
. It is normally cheaper than the brand names. And it looks as if you have an oil leak, so you probably want to get it to a shop as soon as possible.”
He then pulled out the stick to show it to her. “Put about two quarts in then check the stick. See these two dots?” He pointed to two dots on the stick. “You want the oil to at least be between the two dots, not over the top one. If you still don’t see any after you put the first two bottles in, you may need to put a little more in.”
Tory placed her hand on Travis’s shoulder. “Thanks. See, that’s why I need a good man in my life to help me with all this mechanical stuff. I am clueless when it comes to cars.”
Travis smiled, showing his pearly white teeth.
The woman’s hand lingered for a moment before she finally took it away. “So you know my name; what’s your name?”
“Oh, me? You can call me T.J.,” Travis said, thinking he’d try out a new nickname.
“T.J.? What does that stand for?”
“The T is for Travis. And I think it just sounds better to add a J behind it. So you, my friend, can call me T.J.”
“Well okay then, friend,” Tory said.
A minute later, a car pulled up and the driver blew the horn.
Tory looked over at the car. “Oh, that’s my girlfriend.” She turned her attention back to Travis. “So, T. J., what do you like to do for fun?”
“I like to do lots of things for fun. What about you?”
“Oh, I do a little of this and that.” Tory took her forefinger and ran it down Travis’s arm. “So, how can I contact you so we can find something fun to do together?”
Travis’s eyebrows rose in question. He wondered if the woman was hitting on him. She winked her eye at him and he knew she was indeed hitting on him. He must still have had it, after all. He could still turn a woman’s eye, protruding stomach and all.
He sucked his stomach in. “Maybe you could give me a call,” he stated, testing to make sure he hadn’t misunderstood the woman’s intentions.
She pulled her phone out. “Sounds good. What’s your number?”
Travis gave her his number. She punched it in and his phone vibrated in his pocket.
“Good, now you have my number,” Tory said.
“Indeed I do.”
“So you can call me sometime.”
“Yes, I can.”
“Thanks again for all your help. I look forward to talking with you again, soon.” She winked at him again.
“That sounds like a good plan to me.”
“Don’t keep me waiting,” Tory said.
Travis swallowed hard. He couldn’t believe he was getting picked up by this young girl. “Can I ask you a question?” Travis said.
“Yes, what do you want to know, T.J.?” She said his name with a syrupy sweetness.
“How old are you?”
“Now you should know it isn’t polite to ask a woman’s age.”
“I know, but I want to make sure you aren’t jail bait.” Travis chuckled a little. He felt relieved when Tory did the same.
“Oh, please, I am nobody’s jail bait, but thanks for thinking so. I’ll have you know I am twenty-nine years old.”
“You’re lying.” Travis’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. She didn’t really look a day over twenty-eight to him.
“No, sir, I am not. How old are you?”
“Thirty-six.”
She playfully hit his arm. “Shut up. No, you are not.”
Travis smiled, thinking that the woman really knew how to boost a man’s ego. “Yes, I am.”
“Well, I like older men, so don’t you worry about any age thing.”
“If you aren’t worried then I am certainly not worried,” Travis said.
“Well, I gotta go. Call me.” She used her remote to lock the doors on her car and walked around to the passenger side of her friend’s car.
“You’ll hear from me soon, I promise.”
She smiled and got into the friend’s car. As the friend drove off, Tory waved with her fingers.
After they were gone Travis reflected on the last fifteen minutes. His plan to become a player seemed to have started on its own without any extra forethought of his own. In his head he could hear J. Anthony Brown from the Tom Joyner radio morning show saying, “Playa, playa, play on!”
Chapter 5
“Yes, sir. I can be there at eight in the morning on Wednesday. Thank you,” Travis said, pressed the button to end the call, and sat back down on the recliner in the bonus room.
After almost a week of diligently searching for a job, making a point to put in at least two applications per day, he finally received a phone call and the manager wanted him to start that Wednesday. He was going to be working at a local fast-food restaurant working as a cashier. With all the jobs he’d had in the past, he had never actually worked in the fast-food industry. But he had eaten his share of fast food, and figured there couldn’t be much to it. Most of the stuff he’d seen from ordering food involved dropping fries in a basket and flipping burgers on a grill. So how hard could all that be? he thought.
He had one more day of freedom until he was back into the workforce. He’d make sure to enjoy it to its fullest. As he pondered how he could fill his day, his cell phone rang again. It was a number he didn’t recognize. He answered it.
“Hello?” he greeted in question.
“Well, hello, stranger,” the sweet voice said over the receiver.
Travis knew exactly who it was. “Hello, Victoria,” Travis said.
“Now what did I tell you about calling me Victoria? My friends call me Tory. And I thought you were my friend.”
“I am your friend. I guess in some ways I am a little old-fashioned. Sorry about that, Miss Tory,” Travis said.
“Now that’s more like it, T.J.” She giggled. “I hope I didn’t disturb you. I am on my lunch break and I just thought I’d give you a call to see how you were doing since you hadn’t called me.”
Travis loved the way Tory spoke his new nickname. And he loved the sweetness of her voice. “Tory, I’m sorry I haven’t called. I was going to give you a call this evening for sure.”
“Well, look, I won’t hold you long. I didn’t really want to disturb you at work,” Tory said.
“No worries, this is my day off.”
“Oh, okay, well good then. What are you up to tonight ?” she asked.
“I hadn’t made any plans. What about you?”
“Well, on first Mondays, Rollerland has an adult skate party. Admission is free before nine, and all you have to pay for is the skate rental. What do you say? Do you want to meet me out there?”
“Rollerland, huh?”
“Yep.”
“Where is that exactly?”
“It’s off Ridge Road.”
Travis racked his brain trying to remember if he’d seen Ridge Road on his bus map. “Is it in the same shopping center as the Super Target and the Costco warehouse?”
“Yeah,” Tory said.
Travis thought about it. He had his unlimited bus pass, and all he had to pay for was the skates. He wouldn’t even mind splurging for Tory’s skates since he was now able to retain more money due to his new housing situation. It sounded like a good idea. He needed to get out with other adults and have some fun.
“Sure, what time do you want to meet?” Travis asked.
“How about eight o’clock? That will give me time to get home and freshen up a little.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll meet you there at eight o’clock,” Travis said.
After they were off the phone Travis looked out of the window, thinking he heard a car pulling up in the driveway. He saw a truck turning around. He noticed that the grass looked like it was getting a little high, but thought it was too hot to get out in the yard right then. He decided to get up early in the morning to cut it instead.
Starting to feel a little sleepy, he decided to take a nap so he would be refreshed and ready for his night of rolling around. After grabbing a
blanket from the linen closet, he got comfortable on one of the recliners and easily drifted into sleep.
When Travis awoke from his nap, he felt refreshed and ready to rock and roll with Tory. He showered, put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and splashed on some cologne just before grabbing his wallet and bus pass.
He’d just made it to the bus stop before the bus pulled up. His timing couldn’t have been better. The bus had ended up taking him straight to the shopping center. He was glad not to have had to do any bus transfers. That would make it easy when it came time to get back home later that night. According to the bus schedule, the last bus left at 12:30 A.M., so if he wasn’t careful he’d be like “Cinderfellow”, minus the pumpkin.
As he stepped off the bus, Travis saw quite a few people standing outside waiting to get on the bus. He figured this particular event must be pretty popular. He craned his neck around looking for Tory but didn’t see her. His cell phone made the familiar jingling sound that indicated he had a text message.
Upon looking at his phone, he saw he’d missed a call from Tory and a voice mail. The text message said that she was inside the skating rink. She told him she was wearing a sunshine-yellow jumpsuit, and he wouldn’t be able to miss it.
And sure enough, by the time he finally made his way through the line and the crowd of people gathered by the entrance of the rink’s front door, he saw Tory sitting at a booth by the concession stand with two other women. There was no way anyone could have missed her. Her jumpsuit was indeed a bright sunshine yellow, from top to bottom. On anyone else, he thought it probably would have looked outlandish, but Tory wore it well. Travis did think that it was something that might be a little young for the woman to wear, but who was he to judge?
He stepped up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.
She turned and offered a big smile, her disposition matching her sunny choice of clothing. “Hey, T.J.” She jumped up and gave him a hug, then turned to the friends she was sitting with and said, “This is the guy who saved my life last week.”
The Marrying Kind Page 4