Chardonnay: A Novel
Page 20
“Actually I will be up there for the next few days...until I figure out some other things.”
Myron nodded his head again and then said, “I’ll take you...go get your things.”
I believed this was his way of controlling things in his controlled environment. If I was going to see Slim it was because he offered me the ride or he had taken me straight to him. As quick as I was about to turn his offer down I accepted. I had to get back to Slim. So he waited for me in the foyer while I packed a bag with toiletries a few jump suits, a few panties, hair bands, a couple towels, a tooth brush, and whatever else I didn’t have the hospital would provide. I changed out of the clothes I had become tired of, washed up really quick, and put on some low rider jeans with a loose plain white T-shirt. My over blossomed ass made Myron’s eyes grow as I came down the stairs. He took the bag I held over my shoulder from me and over looked me as I walked past him.
“You tell ya moms yet?” he said referring to our disengagement.
I opened the door, ignoring him. Anything else we had to talk about we could discuss outside of that house. I didn’t want my mother to dilate her ears to our conversation. So once we reached the Escalade I turned to looked at Myron and said,
“What goes on in my life right now is not any of her concern.”
“She doesn’t think so...you and me—she’s all for that and nothing else.”
I came around his side of the car and asked,
“So that’s why you’re here...to take advantage of this situation as much as possible? You are sick!”
“And you forget things...”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Chardonnay, we need to talk. I haven’t told you everything about me,”
His face rested and calmed.
“Your mother shall not know the things I want to tell you as well.” he said leaning on his now open passenger side door.
“What Myron?”
“Not here.”
I opened the door and went to put my Chanel purse at the base of the floor when I saw something sparkling too bright. With a trained eye, I could tell I was looking at a part of a diamond. I picked it up. I couldn’t believe it...Myron was still talking and putting my bag in the back on the other side when he looked over and saw what I had found. How the hell did it get here? I held it up and it sparkled like the moment I first saw it. But where had I seen it? It was a black diamond that was attached to a diamond necklace. I looked up at Myron and asked,
“Where have I seen this before?” For some reason panic formed in Myron’s voice as he saw the jewel dangling as I held it up in his face.
“Um, it—it was uh, in here when I was cleaning my back seat out one day.”
“And you left it here, why?”
He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly saying,
“I planned on picking it up. I must’ve forgotten. Let me see it.”
“No! Where did it come from? You know...” I saw it in his eyes.
He took a deep breath and said,
“Just know that I ended up with it, alright. Now let’s get everything off our minds and at least go to the movies or something. That sound cool?”
“No it doesn’t, Myron. You haven’t answered my question.”
“Damn—you don’t let anything go!”
I mugged him and he let out with, “It’s a family heirloom. It was my father’s mother’s...first gift she ever got from my dad when he made his dough. She died two months later.”
“So why is it in the backseat of your car if it’s so important?”
He looked at me, blinking to stall time.
“I was taking it to be cleaned so I could give it you...my pops said that grandma wanted her first granddaughter in law to have it.”
I smirked, “So where have I seen it before?”
“In Paris, France.” he said as he jumped in the front seat of his driver seat.
“You saw it and fell in love. It was something I couldn’t give you at the time but—”
“We’ve never been to Paris, France.” I said as I got in the car and slammed the door close. He chuckled and said,
“Don’t be silly...we went back in February...that’s when everything changed between us.” Myron’s words trailed off as he became distant, combing his hand over the other.
I handed him the necklace back and he took it in his palm clasping it tightly.
“Movie…remember?” I asked as I touched his curls of hair.
“What do you want to go see?” he asked.
I thought about what movies were out and said,
“Kiss me till I cry, staring you.”
He smiled and licked his lips.
“So this means this feature will be playing at a bedroom near you?”
I laughed.
“No!”
He nodded his head.
“Well, how about we just go by and see Slim?”
“That sounds good. But Myron...Slim told me you hired him as my bodyguard. Is that true?”
“It is.”
“So...you know about him and I?”
“What about y’all?”
I wasn’t sure if I should have told Myron that Slim and I actually messed around or the level of my strip tease skills. He touched my hand and asked,
“What about you two?” again.
“He—he and I have...done some things other than—”
“He told me,” Myron shook his head.
“But you weren’t mine at the time.”
“But did he tell you that I’ve...stripped before this recent time with Zasmyth?”
Myron got quiet.
“Okay...you’ve gone too far. I’m sitting here trying to be a good man and listen to you, tell you my heart. But you want to come to me and tell me about how you’ve fucked my boy and stripped for him—like I’m your girl or something!”
“I just want everything out in the open!”
“WELL IT SHOULDN’T BE! Everything you’ve put your life on the line for is not worth your dignity or mine...see at the end of the day, baby I still gotta love you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“My heart won’t have it any other way! You got niggas laughing at me, talking about how they’ve seen you...” his words trailed off.
“Seen what?”
He didn’t speak, just threw his hand up and shook his head.
“What I’m trying to say is, you’ve played me. You’ve had your turn. Now stop making me look like a punk,” The pain in his eyes finally revealed how he felt.
“You don’t know it, but I’m fighting everyday out here for your life...you’re my prized possession and they know it.”‘
“So you gonna tell me how things started changing after the trip in Paris—or how come I can’t remember shit before March?!”
Myron looked like a child caught in a lie, but he wasn’t sure how to tell it.
“Just wait till Slim gets better and ask him...really not a good time for this.”
I let it go seeing how Myron made it seem like it was something Slim had to tell me.
18
The Fallout
Slim was at Truman Medical Center located in the bellows of Kansas City, Missouri. The hospital was known for operating gun shots wounds and delivering babies. Myron parked his car in the car garage on the north side of the building and we exited. I couldn’t understand why he just didn’t drop me off. He got my bag and I made sure to get that necklace to show a getting well Slim. As we walked to the elevators Myron stopped me and asked, “How do you remember that necklace?”
It was as if I wasn’t supposed to know about the damned thing. I stepped back and said, “He gave it to me the night I fucked him.” I said that to spite him so he would leave me the hell alone. It wasn’t twenty-four hours I had just put my Pal pal in the ground. Although it seemed to have taken him aback, he still provoked me for more answers.
“Char, I—I really need to talk to you...”
“Oh now yo
u want to talk?”
“Don’t ask Slim anything—just for me. Please, not until he gets better and you talk to me first.”
Now I was the one who wanted answers. But before I could purse my lips to object his orders and ask him a few things, Myron walked off. His behavior was out of character for him and that left me bothered.
When I walked in Slim’s room he was laying on a bed with bars on each side. His head was turned towards the window and a tube of some sort was coming out of his mouth with tape to the end so it wouldn’t displace. In fact he had things either coming out of his body or hooked up to it from everywhere. As I walked closer I could see his chest moving up and down slowly. His eyes were closed and he slept like a child. What could you possibly have to tell me? I asked him in my head as I looked at him. But as if he was void in this world already, I couldn’t ask. I sat down gently in the chair next to him and stared at him. All the things I didn’t give him before, I wanted him to have now. Like my trust, my focus, and most importantly...my love. Tears fell from my eyes and I touched his arm. I could hear someone walk in the room but I didn’t look to see who it was. They approached me from behind and stopped before saying,
“He can’t hear you.”
I turned slightly to see who was speaking to me and saw a fresh face girl dressed in all white. She had to be a resident nurse or something. It’s funny that the first thing doctors or nurses seemed to say to you when things looked fucked up was that “They can’t hear you.” I looked at her familiar face and said,
“You are?”
“Oh I’m sorry,” she came around to face me and just as I had guessed, she was a resident.
“My name is Syndclaire Vonseignuer...and your Jase’s little girlfriend—right?”
“I could be his friend, how would you know.”
“Because I do—Chardonnay.”
This chick was starting to get on my nerve. She didn’t know me like that to be coming at me in that manner. Jase’s sister or no sister, I was a grown ass woman who didn’t have time for folks games.
“And you know my name how?”
“I told you...I just do. Plus Jase speaks fond of you...your interning for the family company?”
“Uh, I don’t know.”
“You will,” she said striking her jade green eyes at me.
I frown my eyebrows. Jase’s little sister had major issues. But she was so beautiful it hurt to look at her.
“Skylar Morris will be on bed rest for a while. He’s not responding to anything...and just to let you know, he’ll survive this although he’s paralyzed right now...he will be able to walk eventually.”
It may have been the aggravation she saw in my face or the subtle irritation I had in my tone when I spoke to her, but whichever the two, she quickly closed her folder of information she had on Slim, took his vitals and left. The girl was weird. What I couldn’t figure out though was how she knew he would walk again...no doctor let alone a nurse could tell that, only God.
* * * *
I twisted and turned on the lounge chair that laid back like a bed that a doctor wheeled in for me. As I twisted and turned I dreamed of the night Slim got shot. Only this time he died right there on the scene. I could hear my subtle cries and moans, but in my dream I was screaming. I fought hard to try and save him but there wasn’t anything I could do. A dark figured appeared over us, just as I had seen over my Pal pal, except it was a bright shimmering light, and took Slim’s soul. I sat up out the dream and tried to calm myself down. When I realized where I was again, I looked right over at Slim’s bed. He was looking right at me. I gasped and couldn’t believe that his eyes were actually open, blinking gently with flutters of his long eyelashes. He had been in a comatose state for the last five days. Each day I massaged his feet and sung to him. I had just about given up hope on the fourth day when he nearly flat lined and the doctors had to push me out the room to resuscitate him. I broke down in tears in the hallway as they got his heart to beat again. That was the one night I went home to sleep in my own bed, but sleep never came. So here I was on the fifth day and I had fallen asleep at mid-noon only to wake up to his pretty eyes looking right at me. I jumped to his side and said,
“Slim—can you hear me? Slim?!”
He nodded his head yes and tried to speak, but of course he couldn’t with tubes down his throat. I rushed to the hallway, yet so scared to leave him in fear he would not be all there when I returned. I caught Syndclaire, the resident nursing student, in the hallway, as she was passing with a tray of what looked like someone else’s vitals.
“He’s awake! Please come here and see!”
She rushed in the room and stood over Slim peering into his eyes with what looked like a small flash light.
“Okay, he’s very stable. I’m going to get Doctor Ambrosia.” she said as she left out the door. A few moments later she returned with the tall slender, dark haired, male doctor who had been looking over Slim for the last week.
“Oh my God...” he said as he checked for every regularity he could find on Slim’s body. He turned to look at Syndclaire and then at me. I was asked to leave the room while they did whatever they had to do with Slim. One thing was for sure that about ten minutes after I had left the room they had gotten that tube out his throat, because he was hollering for me.
“CHARDONNAY!CHAARDOONNNAAAY!”
I stood at the door to reassure him that I wasn’t going anywhere! He calmed as the doctor spoke to him softly and I could see Doctor Ambrosia speaking with Syndclaire about something. She looked to me and nodded her head. When she moved towards my way I frown my eyebrows and waited. She came out the door and shut it gently.
“Hey, he asked me to talk with you. I’ma be real with you...police has been speaking with Doctor Ambrosia and, some stuff came up about your name. But I’m not supposed to tell you that...so.”
“WHAT? Why would my name come up?”
“Don’t know. Some females came by here yesterday to see him, they asked about you too, one said her name was...uh Yasmine or”
“Zasmyth. That’s one of my best friends.”
“Oh...well where I come from, you only get one.” she laughed to herself.
I breathed in air and then let it out as I waited impatiently for Slim’s and I’s reunion...for more than one reason.
“He through?” I asked.
“Actually he wanted me to tell you that it would be better if you left for the day since he has a lot of test to do on Skylar.”
“Uhnt uhn, I ain’t going nowhere—”
“LOOK! Do you want him to get better? Or do you want him to soak off you?”
I mugged her. She was coming at me too wrong, but she had a point. I didn’t want him to well up in misery as I stood by. I wanted Slim to be the man I had grown to love again. But there was no way I was going let this girl play reverse psychology on me. I was a pro at any and every game that was created, Myron Kent made sure of that.
“That’s cool and all but, I at least want to say hi...I miss him.”
“Well, I’ll see what I can do.” Syndclaire said as her jade eyes twinkled. Her skin was a bright creamy, tawny shade. Although her hair was pulled up tight neatly in a bun every time I saw her, I could tell it hung to the middle of her back...at the least. She was tall. About six foot, even. She wore her make-up like a pro, evenly applied and a little blushed a tint dark than her regular shade, shit, her skin was flawless. The closer I looked at this girl the more I realized she was doing more than nursing. Any chick with her features and in their right mind would be doing something other than nursing. As I observed her features, she took in mine. Almost immediately she said,
“We need to talk. How about Starbucks on the Country Club Plaza?”
I shrugged my shoulders seeing how I needed a change of pace...coffee was not my thing.
“I guess. You buying?”
She smirked and nodded her head yes.
* * * *
I let the Slim thing go, for the mome
nt. He needed to be alone I decided after Syndclaire had grabbed my purse and we headed to Starbucks for her lunch. Truman Medical Center was at least fifteen minutes from The Plaza as we called it for short instead of the Country Club Plaza. This Syndclaire girl, was definitely new around here. She found decent parking and we walked through a bit of traffic to get to the spot. For a Tuesday, the Plaza was busy. Mostly White folks out shopping, not to mention it was summer time. I saw a few familiar faces from high school, but avoided the recent ones I knew like Tiffunie Washburn. Just as she passed me and Syndclaire, who was still in her nursing suit which may have prompt Tiffunie’s question, she asked about Slim. I just shrugged my shoulders in order for me to keep my stride. We entered the Starbucks and man...it smelled delicious. None of the people I hung with drunk much of the bean, except for Myron maybe, but we tended to hang out there a lot. Syndclaire found a quiet couch area with a low round table and took her Louis Vuitton clutch purse off her shoulder.
“Hey, I’m getting a Caramel Macchiato, how about you?”
“I’ll take whatever you get, just make sure you add skim milk.”
She walked off professionally...like I had seen some runway model’s do. I sat my purse in my lap as I sat down and took in the surroundings. There were small clumps of people, all different races talking, laughing, or just holding deep conversations in different parts of the coffee shop. Before I knew it Syndclaire was on her way back.
She sat a cup down in front of me that read grande on the side of it with a chalk marking of SKM on the side.
I assumed it meant skim milk. She sat on the lounge couch diagonal to me and took her first sip while she looked at me.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked.
She savored her drink and then sat up in her seat.
“When I saw you a while back at the restaurant you looked different...just a touch.”
“Had to be my makeup.”
“No...you looked happy...when you were sitting across the table from my brother.”
I smirked. I was taking glances in at Jase that whole night.
“And I’m guessing you’re wondering why I’ve hurt him?”