I blinked back tears.
That hadn’t happened.
I’d lost my father, but my mother was still here, and I cherished the hell out of that. She could be tough on me sometimes, but she was also my biggest supporter – evidenced by the position I had as her grad assistant anyway. She swore she’d chosen me based on merit, and had welcomed the challenge of getting me approved by the department. It wasn’t that I thought I’d gotten some benefit by being her daughter, it was the exact opposite.
With the type of shit she knew about me, I would have expected her to gleefully choose someone else. But she didn’t hold it against me. She chose me despite my history, because I was well-qualified. Or maybe because despite my history, I’d gotten qualified.
All of which could have easily not mattered if my little “conversation” with Jason Wright had gone anywhere beyond an email to the professor.
Yeah, it had been exciting to spar with him, but my mother was right – I worked at the college. That was no place for me to make business matters personal, or pick at him for my own entertainment. So, from now on, any interactions that related at to my work as a grad assistant, especially on campus, would be strictly professional.
Even with “J. Wright.”
Starting with that stupid ass apology.
four.
“Mr. Wright, may I have a moment of your time?”
Here we go…
I stopped in my tracks, turning to face the woman I now knew to be Reese. She had those big brown eyes of hers pulled wide, in an innocent expression that caught me off guard. I’d honestly been shocked last night when Professor Bryant emailed me back. Even more surprised to find out that: she was making Reese apologize, and that the princess had wanted to give me a higher score on the paper. That last little tidbit made me think that my strategy of emailing the professor hadn’t been the right approach.
Or maybe it had, because I was about ninety percent sure we were about to go at it again. There was no way she was taking this “apology” shit lying down.
She tipped her head, urging me to quiet corner of the lecture hall as most of the students began to file out. I followed her, curious about what was happening next, and because, well… ass. Plenty of it, clad in jeans that fit her like a second skin. When she turned to face me, I followed the tiny straps of her shirt down to where her neckline dipped in the middle, showing just a hint of what had to be, wrapped in luscious skin like hers, beautiful breasts. They hadn’t looked this good in that tee shirt yesterday.
“Hey…,” she said, and I brought my eyes up to her face. “About yesterday, in Professor Bryant’s office? Uh… she talked to me, about the email you sent. I know I can be a little abrasive sometimes, and some people are just much more sensitive to that than others. So, I shouldn’t be speaking that way to anyone, not while I’m in official capacity here. I was completely out of line, and I want to apologize for hurting your feelings like that.”
I tipped my head to the side. “Wait, hurting my feelings?”
“And I’m sorry,” she continued, like I hadn’t said anything, with the same placid expression on her face. “For any damage I may have done to your self-esteem. Students of all levels of intellect and ability are welcome here at BSU, and we can certainly make any accommodations your therapist or physicians may feel like you need. I’m sorry I gave you the impression otherwise.”
“Wait, what? Let’s back up. You didn’t hurt my feelings, first of all.”
Our little exchange in the office hadn’t been serious enough for me to try to get her in trouble or for my damned feelings to be hurt about it. What had happened was a realization that to her, we were playing a game, starting from when we bumped into each other. Her next move was the flexing she’d done in Professor Bryant’s office. Mine was emailing the professor.
In my mind, the professor would look at it, tell Reese to stop being an asshole, and then the next move would be on her. I’d thought about it long and hard, and it was, to me, the obvious path. I wasn’t about to purposely bump into her again, and there was honestly nothing to insult. Our only connection was this classroom, and I was trying to see what the princess was made of.
“Oh, Mr. Wright,” she sighed, with a sympathetic tilt of her head. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I was so mean to you, and that’s not okay. I’m ashamed of myself for bullying you like that.”
After those words dropped from her lips, her mouth spread into another syrupy smile, and I knew right then exactly what was happening. “I just want you to know,” she continued, in the same sweet voice, “That I will never, ever engage you in that way on this campus again.” She pushed a handful of her braids over her shoulder, then put her hand lightly on my bare arm. “You have a great weekend, Mr. Wright.”
The classroom was empty now, and Reese didn’t even look back as she grabbed her bag from her desk and sashayed out. Have a great weekend was what actually came out of her mouth, but the words may as well have been: Your move, motherfucker.
As far as I was concerned?
Game on.
- & -
Kicking it with my brothers and father wasn’t exactly my idea of an exciting Friday night. But, with most of the people I considered friends either still in the military or scattered in other parts of the country, and no girlfriend, it wasn’t like I just had a list of other things to do popping off.
So, it was just us guys.
The dealership was closed for the night, Joseph Jr. had the night off from the hospital, and even Mr. Bestseller, aka my middle brother, Justin had made time from writing to come and kick it. We were spread around the living room, with a coffee table full of pizza and wings, and preseason NFL football on my father’s big flat screen, in the house we’d grown up in.
“Man, I hope Jordan Johnson keeps up this type of energy all season,” Justin said around a full mouth, catching an olive from his pizza slice before it could hit the floor. “Connecticut loves getting their wide receivers from BSU, huh?”
Both brothers looked at me, but I shrugged. “Man, I guess. What do I look like, the BSU expert or something?”
“Well Blakewood is going to be your alma mater isn’t it, college boy?” Joseph mushed the side of my head as he passed me heading into the kitchen, and I couldn’t help it – I smiled. I may have complained about it being a “boring” Friday night, but I mean… these were my brothers.
I sat through a few more minutes of playful ribbing before I acknowledged that BSU did consistently put out some of the best wide receivers in the league. Jordan Johnson, Tariq Evans, and there was a kid whose name I couldn’t remember getting ready to win a Heisman – also a product of Blakewood State University. A couple of moments after that, my father came jogging down the stairs, and I let out a low whistle.
“Daaamn. What’s the occasion Pops?” I asked, putting a bottle of beer to my lips.
“Yeah,” Justin added. “I thought we were watching a football game, not posing for GQ.”
Joseph Sr. had come downstairs in dark slacks, dress shoes, and a deep blue, form-fitting tee shirt that showed off his successful avoidance of a beer belly. He had a blazer in his hands, and shook his head as he started to put it on.
“The occasion,” he said, adjusting his lapels, and tugging his sleeves down, “Is that your old man has a date.”
For about five seconds, a thick silence filled the room. I looked back and forth between my brothers, and they looked exactly like I felt – stunned.
My mother’s death had hurt all of us, deeply, but nobody felt it like my father did. “Cilla”, as he called her, was the love of his life, and for the first year after she passed, he was a complete wreck. I took the longest amount of leave I could to come home, and together, my brothers and I had taken care of him, because he wouldn’t do it for himself. The business, his health, nothing. We’d had to step in to basically keep him alive.
The second year was a little better. He was functioning, but it was obvious he misse
d her. The third year brought a major improvement, and this year, he actually seemed to be coming alive again. But this was the first we’d heard of a date.
All three of us hopped up, and all started talking at once.
“Who is she?”
“When did this happen?”
“Are you sure you’re ready?”
“Where are you going?”
“When are you coming home?”
“I thought you were kicking it with us tonight?”
My father shook his head, grabbing his keys from the hanger beside the door as he smiled. “Y’all grown asses don’t need a chaperone to watch TV, I’m coming home when I get ready to come home, and I met her at the dealership yesterday. I’m taking her to the little jazz spot downtown, and… no, I’m not sure I’m ready. But only one way to find out.”
We were silent for another few moments as we absorbed the answers to his questions, and then I nodded. “Aiight. I think I like it. It’s time you got back out there.”
“Agreed,” Joseph said. “What’s her name? Did you look her up?”
Dad scowled. “Look her up? I’m old school, son. We didn’t need any TweetBook, and Facegram, and Insta-google, and all that crap. You see a pretty girl, you ask her out, you show her a good time. Call her on the phone. Woo her. That’s all. What am I looking her up for?”
“Uh, to find out about her?” Justin’s expression was confused as he eyed my dad, and my dad’s expression was confused as he eyed Justin.
“Or,” he said, “I could – and this is just the crazy notion of an old man – talk to her. Ask questions. Get to know the woman in her own words.”
Joseph scoffed. “People lie all the time. What if this woman is a gold-digger or something?”
“That would be great. I need somebody to help me dig, maybe we’ll find some.”
I chuckled at Joseph and Justin’s baffled expressions, then turned to my father, clapping him on the shoulder. “Hey… is she fine?”
His eyes lit up, and a goofy sort of grin spread across his lips. “Oh yes. Fine as bumblebee fuzz. Fine as a well-aged Bordeaux.” He glanced down at his wrist. “And I do not want to keep a woman like that waiting, so… I’ll see you boys later.”
“Wait a minute,” Joseph said, holding up a hand. “You haven’t told us her name.”
“Because it’s not your business.” Joseph Sr. smiled, and then gave us a little salute. “Don’t wait up.”
My brothers kinda stood there for a few seconds after the door closed behind him, both looking shell-shocked. I just shook my head, making my way back into the living room, grabbing a fresh beer, and piling my plate with wings before they got too cold.
Justin and Joseph joined me a moments later, still looking dazed.
“Y’all chill,” I said, chuckling as I turned my attention back to the game. “I’m sure she’d just some sweet church lady that came by for a car. He’s growner than all of us. He’ll be fine.”
Justin let out a heavy sigh, then sat back. “So y’all don’t think it’s kind of… fast?” He was the one who’d asked my dad if he was really ready to be out there again like that.
Joseph saved me the trouble of answering. “It’s been four years. Nah, I don’t think it’s fast. He’s probably lonely.”
“I don’t mean fast like that,” Justin scoffed. “I’m saying… just last year he couldn’t even talk about her without tearing up, and now he’s all excited about going on a date?”
I shrugged. “That’s probably why. I mean, we all know he loved the hell out of mama, but there’s always a point where you have to kinda let go of the past. Figure out how to live with what you’ve got now. I mean, come on… I know that shit better than anybody. Let Pops live. We all remember what it was like when he wasn’t trying to, right?”
That question was met with somber nods from Joseph and Justin, and they exchanged a glance with each other before they looked back to me.
“Aiight baby brother,” Joseph grinned. “I guess you might have something rolling around in that big ass head after all.”
And just like that, we were off my dad’s business, and back on each other. Our attention drifted back to the game as the night wore on, and my attention wandered as the Connecticut Kings pulled off another win. A sports reported stopped Jordan Johnson to talk, and she asked what he thought about BSU’s prospects for the college season. I only vaguely cared about that, but the mention of BSU put something else on my mind.
I wondered what Friday night was looking like for a certain BSU princess.
- & -
“Bitch I will kill you.”
Those words were immediately followed by a sharp swat to my hand.
I snatched it back with an exaggerated “Owww!” and then slumped against my arm of the couch, scowling at my best friend. “It was an honest mistake!”
“The hell it was,” she said. “Ten in the box, and your greedy ass already had six. This one is mine.” She took a vicious bite, her chew slow and exaggerated, with plenty of sound effects as she savored the last wing. I crossed my arms, pouting as I turned back to the preseason football game on the screen.
“Supposed to be my friend, treating me like a goddamned animal in my own house. Hmph!”
Devyn sucked her teeth, then took another bite of the wing. “I hear you over there, crazy.”
“That’s the whole point,” I laughed. “Hey… would it be like… too greedy of me to order another box of wings?”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Only if it would be too greedy of me to help you eat them.”
“Okay so then not at all.”
I reached for my phone and placed the order right as the game ended, and fine ass Jordan Johnson ended up on my screen. We’d actually started BSU together in the same freshman class, and shared a few courses. I left shortly after that, and by the time I came back, he was already the resident college football hero of the school.
“Hey, you work tomorrow, don’t you?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. Devyn was a nurse, and she was almost always at work on Saturdays, a twelve hour shift that started at two in the afternoon.
“Of course.” She sighed, then relaxed back into the couch cushions with her feet up on the ottoman and the silky, honey-blonde strands of her chin-length bob covering her face. “But I did I tell you I applied to University hospital?”
I sat straight up, and screamed. “You did?! Yesss!”
Devyn peeked at me through her hair, and shook her head. “I knew you weren’t going to leave me alone unless I did it, so… yeah. We’ll see what happens.”
“You’ll get the job is what’s going to happen,” I gushed. I’d been on Devyn about applying at the newer, state-of-the-art hospital for years now, but she was comfortable at the small hospital a county over. She made decent money, and had good relationships with her coworkers, but even I could tell she was bored.
Everybody who needed medical attention mattered, but I knew my friend. She craved a challenge, and the facts were that the difficult cases, the interesting cases, and the fast paced environment were located right in the heart of the city, at University hospital.
“We’ll see,” she insisted, brushing her hair aside to show her pretty honey-toned face. A spattering of light brown freckles covered her nose and fanned onto her high cheekbones, a trait she’d inherited from her mother, who was my mother’s bestie. Devyn was two years older than me, but she didn’t feel like a big sister. She felt like my twin.
“Okay, okay.” I tried to tone down my beaming smile. “I’ll leave you alone I guess, since you’re all embarrassed now.”
“Uh huh. Let’s talk about something else… like the college cutie you got in trouble about.”
“Ugggh,” I groaned. “Let me guess – Imara and Irene have been bumping gums.”
Devyn giggled. “You already know it. Now, last I heard, J. Wright had you ready to toss your panties at him. Now you’re verbally sparring with this kid?”
“He�
��s not a kid,” I corrected quickly. “He’s your age, a grown ass man. And he still has me ready to toss my panties at him.”
“Ooooh!” Her eyes lit up. “That means goodbye Grayson, right?”
I sucked my teeth. “Wrong. This Jason thing is all hypotheticals and scenarios that’ll never happen. My boyfriend is Grayson.”
“So the rhyming is just a coincidence?”
“Uhh, yes,” I laughed. “I know you don’t like Gray, but—”
“Girl you don’t even like him,” Devyn quipped, wrinkling her nose. “He’s not even your type. He’s all… gray.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. Partially at the look on her face, partially because I understood exactly what she meant when she called him gray. Meaning neutral. Meaning boring. And maybe that was kinda why he worked for me.
Grayson was a very buttoned-up type of guy. Nice job as a young lawyer, nice condo downtown, nice looking… just... nice. No chance of me getting too wrapped up in our relationship, when the only thing I was trying to be wrapped up in right now was securing my education and career, since I was already two years behind.
He was perfect.
“He’s my type for now. And neither of us is thinking long term, so it’s not like that’s a big deal.”
“It’s a big waste of time though.”
I was opening my mouth to offer a weak response when the doorbell rang, and I hopped right up to answer.
“Saved by the bell,” Devyn called after me, and I grinned as I reached for the deadbolt, putting my eye up to the peephole before I disengaged the lock.
Shit!
“It’s mama!” I whisper-yelled to Deyvn, stepping back into the living room. Her eyes went wide in confusion, and I motioned toward our pizza and wing boxes, and the pouches from our store-bought frozen cocktails.
“Ohhh, shit!”
Devyn immediately went to work, gathering and everything and running with it into the kitchen. I couldn’t do anything about the smell of pizza and liquor that was probably on my breath, but I unbolted and opened the door anyway.
Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers Book 1) Page 4