Becoming Mrs. Right
Page 17
“We’re fine.”
“Tell me where you are so I can come get you.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ve been thinking about everything and . . .”
“What, baby?”
Shauntae cringed. She had forgotten how good it felt when he called her “baby.” “I’m not sure it’s a good idea for me to come home. I know how important family and the girls are to you. Maybe it would be better for everybody if you and Darla got back together.”
“You know that’s not what I want.”
“Are you sure? Because the past week or so, you’ve been acting like that’s exactly what you want. Sometimes the way we act says more than what we say. If I were to listen to your actions rather than your words, what should I hear?” Shauntae was using her best English. She felt smart and confident like Angela Bassett.
“Shauntae, I know I’ve been—”
“Maybe this is the answer to your prayers about family. You don’t have to worry. I’m not going back to California. I made you a promise that I wouldn’t leave Atlanta with your child and I won’t. We can talk about arrangements for you being able to spend time with him.”
“Arrangements? I don’t want to make custody arrangements with you. I want you and the baby here with me.”
“And you want Daphne, Morgan, and Darla with you too. You want this big happy family and you want to make everybody happy and it’s not going to work. We can’t get married because you don’t want to upset the girls. I understand that, but what kind of marriage can we have if you live your life to make them happy? You need some time to work this all out in your head.”
“I don’t need to work things out in my head. You’re right. I want something that’s not possible. I understand that now.”
“How do you think I feel being second? How do you think this child will feel being second? Will you neglect him to make Daphne and Morgan feel better?”
“I would never do that. I will love all my children the same.”
“Why should I believe that? You leave me and your son in the house starving when you know we have no way of getting out to get some food. I still haven’t been for a prenatal visit. All because Daphne throws a tantrum. Or because Morgan wants you and her mom to get remarried. Or because Darla’s mother is emotional. I understand you’re a wonderful man and your heart is full of love. But I need to make some moves to take care of me and my child.”
“Moves? What kind of moves?”
“I need to make sure me and my child are secure. I’m making plans.”
“Plans. Like what?”
“We’ll talk later. Right now I need to make some phone calls. Say hello to Darla and the girls for me.”
“Shauntae—”
She clicked the phone off. So far, she hadn’t told any lies, but the next part of the plan was where the problem was.
Shauntae wandered into Candy’s kitchen. Candy was standing at the counter with a bowl in her hand, stirring.
“Girl, what you cooking?”
“Remember that morning when you called me all early talking ’bout ‘how do I make pancakes, eggs, and sausage’?”
Shauntae laughed. “Yeah.”
“Well, you about to learn. I already started the batter. I make mine from scratch, but you’ll probably use pancake mix. It’s easy if you follow the instructions on the box. Nobody can mess that up.”
Shauntae put her hand over her mouth.
Candy laughed. “You messed up pancake mix? How?”
Shauntae shrugged and laughed with her.
Candy showed her how to pour the pancakes and flip them. The first few looked crazy but after a few tries, Shauntae’s pancakes came out perfectly shaped and golden brown.
“Let’s do some eggs.” Candy pulled a few eggs out the refrigerator. “We’ll do scrambled first and then I’ll teach you how to make an omelet.”
“Can’t we eat some pancakes first? I’m starving.”
Candy grabbed the syrup and some plates and they sat down to eat. Before Shauntae could even digest good, Candy had her at the counter whisking eggs.
After a few tries, Shauntae’s eggs were as fluffy as Candy’s. “This cooking stuff ain’t so hard. I just never had nobody show me before,” Shauntae said.
“Girl, cooking ain’t hard and it’s a whole bunch of fun. All you have to do is follow a recipe. And then, after a while, you can cook without a recipe. You learn how to add your own special stuff to make things taste better. It’s like a art. I can show you a whole bunch of other stuff while you’re here if you want me to.”
“Yeah,” Shauntae said, through a mouthful of scrambled eggs. “That would be fun.”
Candy started pulling food out of the refrigerator—good-looking food. Not some old, wilted produce like they had in the grocery stores in the hood but good, fresh stuff. And good cuts of meat, not smelly, gray-looking meat with a bunch of fat.
“Where you get these groceries? Where you get money for all this?”
“My new friend took me shopping last week at Publix. Told me to buy whatever I wanted.”
Shauntae noticed she didn’t use the word “sponsor” like usual. “Friend?”
Candy got this funny look on her face. “Yeah, he’s a real nice guy and he like me. We been hanging out for a month and we ain’t even had sex. We just be talking.”
Shauntae’s eyes went big. “For real? What y’all be talking about?”
“All kinds of stuff. We be talking about our past and all the stuff that happened to us. And he be telling me about his business and stuff. Sometimes he be having problems, but he real smart and he figures them out.”
“What kind of business he got?”
Candy was chopping red, yellow, and orange peppers and onions. Her hands were working like the people on the Cooking Channel. “He owns a barbershop in East Atlanta. He been there for years, but the neighborhood changed and upgraded. He been making stuff better and trying to keep up with the businesses around him.” Candy had this proud look on her face. “He ain’t never been to college. He’s naturally smart.”
Candy started cutting a large onion. “And then he be talking about what he wants to do with his life and stuff. He got all these dreams. Like he wants to expand to a full-service salon and spa. That’s why I was excited when you was talking about doing hair. If things don’t work out with Gary, maybe you could work for him.”
Shauntae thought about Sherice saying she’d never succeed at the hair business. Maybe it could work if she had help from somebody who was successful. “That’s real cool. What else y’all be talking about?”
“He be asking me about my dreams, too.”
Shauntae’s ears perked up. “You got dreams, Candy?”
Candy handed Shauntae the knife for her to try cutting vegetables. She tried to do it fast and fancy like Candy and ended up cutting off one of her fingernails and almost sliced her finger.
Candy took the knife from her. She showed Shauntae how to do it real slow and handed her the knife back again. Shauntae cut the vegetables better this time. They weren’t as neat and perfect as Candy’s, but she was proud of her work.
“So, what you be dreaming about?” Shauntae asked.
Candy pressed her lips together and shrugged.
“What? Tell me.”
Candy walked over to the cabinet and pulled down some spices. She didn’t say nothing.
“Why you don’t want to tell me?”
“’Cause you and Sherice always be talking trash about stuff. I don’t feel like hearing about my dreams being stupid or me being stupid or nothing like that.”
“I ain’t gon’ say that. I promise.”
Candy pulled some chicken out of the refrigerator and took it to the sink and washed it. “You can’t tell Sherice nothing.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
Candy brought the chicken over to the cutting board and started chopping it into chunks. “I want to start a catering business. I used to want a rest
aurant but I think catering would be easier and better.”
“Wow, Candy . . . wow. That’s wassup. So what you gon’ do?”
Candy bit her lip. “You betta not tell Sherice. I swear if you tell her, I’ll never tell you nothing again.”
“I promise I won’t. I know how Sherice’s mouth can be.”
“I’m taking some online business classes. I ain’t got business sense like Bobby—that’s my friend’s name. He made me realize you gotta be smart to run a business. So I’m getting me some smarts. It’s hard, but I’m getting it.”
Candy was taking classes and making plans. Shauntae didn’t know how to feel about that. It made her happy, but it also made her feel like she should be doing something too. Something different than running game on Gary.
“Bobby bought me all this food so I could practice. He believes in me and he keeps pushing me. He a real good man, Shauntae. I ain’t never met nobody like him.”
“You trying to get serious about this dude?”
Candy shrugged and held out the knife for Shauntae to cut chicken. Shauntae made a face. She hated touching raw meat. Candy sucked her teeth and put the knife in Shauntae’s hand.
“I might be trying to get serious about him. It would be nice to like, I don’t know, have a real man and a real business and a real life. I ain’t never been good at this game like you and Sherice. You know I ain’t pretty like you.”
“Where has pretty got me? What you talking about is real. I think you would be awesome with a catering business and I’m real proud of you for trying to do something good with your life.”
“For real, girl?”
Shauntae elbowed Candy in the side. “Yeah, girl. For real.”
Shauntae’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She put down the knife and washed her hands. It stopped ringing, but she knew it would start ringing again soon. When it did, she answered it.
“Yes, Gary?”
“Shauntae, you don’t have to make plans to take care of you and the baby. I’m going to take care of you. Come home, honey.”
Shauntae walked out of the kitchen. She didn’t want to play her next card in front of Candy after they had been talking about doing stuff right.
“Gary, I had dropped everything in Atlanta and planned to start my life over in California. But you asked me to come back here, so I did. I don’t like being dependent on a man. I need to take care of myself.”
“What exactly are you doing?”
“I’ve been speaking with someone about possible job opportunities.”
“Job opportunities? I thought you didn’t want to work. I thought you wanted to stay home with the baby.”
“And take care of him how?”
“I keep telling you how. You’re not listening to me.”
“Like I said this morning, I’ve been listening to everything you do.”
“Shauntae . . .” Gary sounded frustrated.
“I’m in the middle of something. I’ll call you back later.” Shauntae hung up the phone. She hadn’t really lied. Candy did mention the possibility of her working in Bobby’s dream salon someday.
She walked back into the kitchen. Candy looked up from her knife and cutting board. “Is he buying it?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“So what’s wrong?”
Shauntae shrugged.
“You don’t want to do it no more do you?”
Shauntae shrugged again. “I don’t wanna talk about it right now. I need to get my head straight.”
Candy pulled out a big, round skillet like they used in Chinese restaurants. “Okay, then. We gon’ stir-fry this chicken and vegetables and I’ll show you how to make a perfect pot of rice.”
Twenty-eight
For the next couple of days, Shauntae kept telling Gary about her new plans. She told him she was gonna rent an apartment and offered to pick a neighborhood that wasn’t too far away so it would be easy for him to come visit their child. She said her mother was sending her money to get a car. She kept telling him to marry Darla and move her, the girls, and Darla’s mother into his house.
He begged and pleaded and insisted that he didn’t want Darla, he wanted her. He wanted to marry her and provide for her and their child. He didn’t want her to work. He wanted her to stay home with their child and with the other children they would have.
In between conversations with Gary, Shauntae and Candy cooked. Candy taught her how to make beef stroganoff, pot roast, stir-fry, fried chicken, roasted chicken, smothered pork chops, and sautéed vegetables. They baked a few cakes and a couple of pies. Candy could do anything when it came to cooking. Shauntae was surprised at how much she found herself liking it.
Candy showed Shauntae the online courses she was taking. It wasn’t for no degree or nothing. It was just for her personal information. There was one class on how to manage your finances, another on writing a business plan, and another on how to run a successful business. Candy let Shauntae borrow the computer that Bobby had bought her so she could browse and see if there was any classes she was interested in.
Shauntae started to say she wasn’t smart enough to be taking no online classes, but she knew she was smarter than Candy, and if Candy could do it so could she. There was so many classes on so many different subjects that Shauntae didn’t know what to pick. After a while it gave her a headache so she stopped looking. Candy showed her how to find YouTube videos that would show you how to do anything you wanted. That was easier.
The first couple of days it was real cool because it was just them, hanging out, talking, and cooking. On the third day, Bobby came over in the evening, after he finished up at his shop. When she met him, Shauntae decided the reason Bobby didn’t care that Candy wasn’t pretty was because he wasn’t nothing to look at either. In fact, looking at the two of them together, it was probably a good thing that they wasn’t gon’ be able to have no kids.
It was one of the few times Shauntae had ever met a man who didn’t stare her in the face and get all lusty. All her life, that had happened—married men, old men, young men, it didn’t matter. Bobby barely even looked at her. But he looked at Candy the same way Gary looked at her—love struck and all messed up in the head. Shauntae was happy for Candy, but she missed feeling that feeling. Only difference was, Bobby was love struck over Candy—the real Candy. She wondered how Gary would look at her if he knew who she really was.
Since it looked like Bobby was staying for a while, Shauntae shut herself up in her little guest room. Candy let her take the laptop and she spent hours on YouTube watching all kinds of videos. At first it was gourmet cooking videos, but then one of the cooking videos led her to “quick meals for moms” videos that led her to “how to be a good mom” videos.
The videos explained all kinds of stuff about children. What they did at different ages. What kinda thoughts was going on in they minds. The way they learned. The things they needed from they parents. What happened to them if they didn’t get love. The right way to treat them when they did stuff wrong. There was one lady who had done a whole bunch of videos on a bunch of different subjects. Shauntae liked her best because she broke stuff down and made it simple and interesting.
Shauntae was up watching “good mom” videos until two in the morning. After she closed the computer, she rubbed her belly. “See, li’l baby. I can be a good mama. It’s like with cooking. Nobody ever showed me how before.” She curled into her comfortable spot at the foot of the bed and fell asleep.
That night she dreamed about Brianna. She was playing with her and talking to her and spending time with her and doing all sorts of “good mom” stuff with her. Shauntae woke up crying. The videos had shown her that she had done everything wrong with Brianna. She wished she could start all over again and do it right. She rubbed her belly. “I guess I get to start all over and do it right with you, li’l baby.”
She lay in bed for a while, not able to get back to sleep. The phone started ringing at seven. Gary did his usual begging and pleading.
Gary was quiet for a second and then said, “Okay . . .” He let out a deep breath. “What is happening with you, honey love? Every time I talk to you it’s something different. It’s like you’re changing.”
“Maybe I am changing. Everything that’s been going on has got me thinking. I been thinking about becoming a better person.”
“But you’re already a wonderful person. That’s why I love you so much.”
It was Shauntae’s turn to let out a deep breath. “Like we said before, there’s a lot we don’t know about each other. There’s a whole lot you don’t know about me.”
“Then come home so we can talk and get to know all these things that we don’t know about each other.” Gary’s voice sounded desperate. “Shauntae, you and the baby need to go to the doctor. Have you forgotten about that?”
“I couldn’t forget my baby. I told you I would take care of that.”
“I don’t get to be there for the ultrasound? You’re going to find out the sex of the baby without me?”
“Gary, I’ll call you later, okay?” Shauntae hung up the phone.
Her stomach started rumbling, so she went out in the kitchen. Candy was still asleep. Shauntae heard Bobby’s voice when she fell asleep at two, so she knew Candy must have been up late.
She pulled some stuff out of the refrigerator and before she knew it, she had made an omelet, home fries, and turkey sausage. By the time Candy came out of her room, looking all sleepy, Shauntae had cut up some strawberries and had arranged the food all fancy on both of their plates like Candy had shown her.
“Dang, girl. Look at you.” Candy had a big smile on her face like a proud teacher. “My girl got some skills.”
They sat down to eat. “Y’all was up late last night, huh?” Shauntae asked through a mouthful of home fries.
Candy’s eyes went all dreamy. “Yeah. We kept talking and talking. He’s a real good man.”
“He coming over again tonight?” Shauntae asked.
“He taking me out tonight. But . . .” Candy cut her sausage into small pieces.