Dating Games

by RM Johnson

  “Go home!”

  “Not ’til you take me back. I love you.”

  “Well, I don’t love you.”

  “You don’t mean that. I know you don’t mean it.”

  “It’s not gonna work,” Rafe said, stepping out in the rain, placing himself in Henny’s face.

  “How do you know? We’ve barely even tried.”

  And now Rafe was starting to get frustrated. It was bad enough that he loved this girl like he’d loved no other and couldn’t be with her. But now he had to list the reasons he wasn’t “the right man” for her.

  “How do you know?” Henny asked again.

  “Because I just do!” Rafe said, raising his voice over the sudden clap of thunder. “Because I’m from the streets. Because I don’t read. Because as a kid, all I did was rob and steal and stay in trouble, and that’s the total opposite of all you ever did. It ain’t gonna work because you got a bright future ahead of you, and all I’m gonna do is stay here and fix cars, and I ain’t trying to hold you back, Henny. I ain’t trying to do that to you. So just go,” Rafe said, but this time instead of just telling her that, he grabbed her by the arm and started to lead her in the direction of the taxi.

  “No! What are you doing?” Henny said, trying to fight against him. “I told you, I’m not leaving.”

  “It ain’t up to you,” Rafe answered, continuing to drag her over the wet pavement, through the puddles on the ground, closer to the cab.

  “Stop it! Stop it, Raphiel,” Henny cried, fighting harder, becoming increasingly harder to hold.

  “Just get in the fucking cab and go,” Rafe commanded.

  “I won’t!” Henny yelled, then kicked him in the shin, which made Rafe cry out and release her. “Why are you doing this?”

  Rafe was still bent over, both hands wrapped around his lower leg, trying to rub the pain away.

  “Is it because you’re afraid to love me, so you’re using what my mother said to try and get out of this? Because if that’s it, just tell me the truth, not some lie, and I’ll leave you alone, if that’s what you really want so much.”

  Rafe looked around himself. It was after midnight, raining like crazy. He was drenched down to his skin, standing outside on the front lawn of his aunt’s place trying to explain to the woman he loved why he didn’t want to be with her. He wanted to forget about her, turn around, and just go back up to his room. It would’ve been easier than doing what she was asking him to do, because that meant facing some things that he didn’t want to face. But she deserved that much.

  “It won’t work because I don’t want it to work,” Rafe admitted, and he saw the shock on Henny’s face after he spoke those words. “Ain’t nobody ever love me like this before,” he said, rain running down his face. “All the girls who wanted to be with me before loved me because I was a thug, but you love me in spite of it. You looking at me, loving me for me, because you must think I got something going, that there’s something more to me than there really is, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep you thinking that. I love you, baby,” Rafe said, grabbing Henny by the shoulders. “But your mother is right. You gonna be getting all that education and experiencing all sorts of different things, and that’s gonna make you look at me differently. I ain’t gonna be the man that I once was to you, the man that you gonna need me to be when you become a doctor. You gonna start looking around and seeing what you should’ve had, comparing that to me, and I just won’t be able to stack up. Then I’m gonna lose you, and I just won’t be able to take that. I love you too much. I’d rather just stop it here than to think that we gonna be together forever and then have someone take you away from me. I just couldn’t live through it.” Rafe felt weak all of a sudden, needing to wrap his arms around Henny. He did, hugging her tightly.

  “Do you want more?” Henny asked.

  “What?”

  “Do you want to do more than what you’re doing now?”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “But nothing. Then just do it. You’ll still come down to school with me, and we’ll get you in some classes—if not next semester, then the one after that, and then we’ll grow together. I’ll love you for who you are and the man that you’ll become, and I can promise that I’ll never leave you.”

  “But, Henny—”

  “What!” Henny snapped, frustration in her voice. “You’d give up someone you love now because of your fear of what might happen in the future? This could be the best thing that has happened to either one of us, but you’ll only know if you give it a chance,” Henny said. “Give us a chance, please.”

  He looked inside himself, fighting his urge to tell her no. But he knew that urge wasn’t sincere. It would only be an action he would’ve taken because of the words Henny’s mother had said to him. But this wasn’t her life. It was his, and Rafe knew that running from Henny would only guarantee their not working, and he truly didn’t want to do that. This was worth giving it a chance.

  “Okay, Henny,” Rafe said, taking her in his arms, kissing her wet forehead. “I’ll do this. I’ll go.”

  FORTY-SIX

  ALLY paid the cab driver. It was forty bucks with the tip, and she was thinking that this hit better be worth everything Lisa said it would be.

  Ally climbed the outside stairs to room 302, still thinking about Hennesey. She hoped everything was okay with her and Rafe. By now, she knew, either they had patched things up or Henny was probably on her way back to the apartment, hating Ally even more than she had when she left.

  Ally prayed that that wasn’t the case, because she couldn’t take it when her sister was mad at her. Of course, Henny had been angry with her a million times before, but it was always over little things, like Ally sneaking out in one of Henny’s new shirts before Henny had a chance to wear it, or stealing one of the boys that Henny didn’t really give a damn about anyway. But this was different. Henny had said that she didn’t consider her her sister anymore. How could she have said such a thing? There was nobody closer to Ally than Henny. It wasn’t like they were twins. They were twins. Born only minutes apart. Ally had never been without Henny and couldn’t imagine being without her now. Ally remembered them as three year olds in the bathtub together as their mother washed them. She remembered them in first grade together as they shared their birthday party at school, and the time they both learned how to ride the broken-down bike they’d found. And then there was the time that Henny had gotten hit by that car. They rushed her to the hospital. Ally could remember standing by her bedside, watching her sister sleep. She wouldn’t wake up, and their mother said she was in a coma. Ally thought she was going to die, and that terrified her because she didn’t know if she would be able to live without her sister. The fact that Ally had thrown the ball that Henny had chased out in the street, the one that may have cost Henny her life, made things worse. Even then, as an eight-year-old child, she knew that if Henny didn’t live, she didn’t want to continue living either.

  Henny’s harsh words didn’t really hit Ally ’til she was in the cab, on her way out here to the motel. That’s when the tears came. That’s when she wanted to lean forward over that seat and tell the cab driver to turn around and head for Rafe’s place. But she didn’t. Henny needed time to take care of her business. In the meantime, Ally would just have to take care of hers.

  Ally knocked on the motel door. When Lisa opened it, her smile suddenly changed to a look of shock.

  “What’s your problem?” Ally asked, reading the expression. “You did say come out here, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, girl,” Lisa said, whispering, even though loud music was being played in the room behind her. “But where’s your stuff?”

  “What stuff?”

  “You’re wig, glasses. Your stuff!” Lisa said, pointing at Ally’s face and head.

  “Whatever. There was too much going on, and I forgot it. Like I said, this is my last hit anyway, so what difference does it make?” Ally said, carelessly, trying to step in through the door
. Lisa blocked the entrance with her arm.

  “You sure you want to go in there like that? What if you get recognized on the street, later?”

  “This place is way out in the suburbs. Ain’t nobody out here gonna be hangin’ where I’m at,” Ally said, trying to enter the room again, and again Lisa stopped her.

  “You sure?”

  “You want me to be a part of this or not?” Ally said, becoming impatient.

  “All right. C’mon in.”

  Lisa and Henny walked into the motel room. It looked untouched for the most part. Both double beds were still made, not a wrinkle in either of the spreads. There seemed a general order about the place, from the three bottles of liquor sitting on the dresser that looked as though they had come with the room, to the neat, straight lines of cocaine that stretched over the surface of the coffee table. Ally told herself this would be a quick night. She didn’t have time for any wild exhibitions and close calls, but just in case, she’d made sure to pack the gun she’d taken from JJ the other night in her purse.

  “So what did I tell you,” Lisa said, speaking to one of the brotha’s that was sitting behind the coffee table on the sofa. “Is my girl fine, or what?”

  “Oh, hell yeah,” the thin brotha with red slacks said.

  “Turn around,” the other brotha said. He was leaning back in the sofa, his hair braided in crazy, wild designs on top of his head.

  “What?” Ally asked.

  “I said, turn around so I can see what you got back there,” the man said, his words barely making sense because of the huge cigar that was stuck in his teeth.

  Ally did what she was told, sticking her behind out a little, telling herself that this would definitely have to be a quick night.

  “You like?” Ally said, faking enthusiasm, turning back around.

  “Yeah,” the man said, squinting one of his eyes to avoid the cigar smoke he blew out the corner of his mouth. “You gonna be mine. What’s your name?”

  “Uh,” Ally said, rattling off the first thing that came to mind. “Silky,” she said.

  “Well, Silky,” the man said, pulling the cigar from his lips, a look of deep anticipation in his eyes, “I think we gonna have lots of fun tonight. So as I told your girl, this is one of my associates, Mr. Charles,” the man said, pointing to him with his cigar. “And you … you can just call me Smoke.”

  FORTY-SEVEN

  THE NEXT morning, when Rafe woke up, Henny was in his arms, smiling at him.

  “What are you doing?” Rafe asked, his voice a little groggy.

  “Looking at you.”

  “Why?”

  “Just because. Got a problem with that?” she said, smiling.

  “No,” Rafe said, leaning in, and giving Henny a kiss on the cheek. “But I know who’s going to have a problem.”

  “Who?”

  “Your mom, when she finds out that we’re back together and I’m still going down to school with you.”

  “I’m not worried about her.”

  “You’re not worried about your mother?” Rafe raised a suspicious eyebrow.

  “No. I don’t care what she has to say about us, and to tell you the truth, I’m not listening to anything else she has to say.”

  “And how are you going to do that?”

  Henny thought for a moment; then a smile appeared on her face. “We don’t have to wait to leave.”

  “What do you mean?” Rafe asked.

  “I mean my apartment is already leased and waiting for me. I got the paperwork a couple of days ago. Early registration isn’t for another week, but we can always go down early.”

  Rafe didn’t say a word, just looked at Henny, uncertainty on his face.

  Henny nudged him. “Rafe?”

  “Yeah, I’m here. I just wanna know, are you sure about this, about me?”

  “Of course, baby,” Henny said, scooting closer, kissing him on the lips. “I’m more sure about this than anything I’ve been sure about in my entire life.”

  FORTY-EIGHT

  WHEN ALLY sprung up out of sleep, she had to look around to remember where she was. She glanced down at what she was lying on, saw that it was a couch, and realized that she was at JJ’s place.

  Last night had gone surpassingly smoothly, just like she had hoped. Although there was something scary about the guy Smoke, something that made Ally think that if he hadn’t passed out when he did, there would’ve been trouble. Thank god he was a heavy drinker, and the drugs worked on him almost immediately.

  Ally had been buck naked on the floor before him, crisscrossing her legs, open and closed. He wanted a show, he said. No. He demanded a show, and he said it as though if his demands weren’t met, she would’ve paid with something very close to her life. So she did as she was told.

  Smoke took another swallow of the drink Lisa had made for him, twirled his finger, making a little circle in the air, instructing her to roll over as if she were a dog. Ally did that, slapping her ass cheek with one of her hands, continuing to watch him over her shoulder as Smoke’s eyes slowly became heavier and heavier. Moments after that, he was totally knocked out.

  Ally looked across the room at Lisa. She was in Mr. Charles’s lap. His head was slung back over the top of the chair, and he was snoring loudly. Lisa raised one of his hands and let it go. It dropped heavily back onto the arm of the chair, letting Ally know that he was gone as well.

  They grabbed everything the two men had, and they sure had a lot—more than seven thousand dollars between them. Smoke had most of it, a chunk of it in his pocket, a thick rubber band wrapped around it. He had more in his right sock, and some clipped to the waistband of his underwear. The man was a gold mine.

  They took the jewelry the men were wearing as well and were just about out of there when Lisa said, “Hold on a minute.”

  Lisa went back into the motel room and grabbed Smoke’s keys off the dresser.

  “What did you forget?” Ally asked when Lisa came back out.

  Lisa didn’t reply, just jiggled the keys and smiled. “C’mon.”

  Ally stood outside the passenger side of the burgundy Bentley as Lisa hit the switch for the alarm. There was a quick chirp, then the four locks on the door simultaneously popped up.

  “I ain’t gettin’ in there,” Ally said.

  “What? What you mean, you ain’t gettin’ in?” Lisa said, half in the car herself.

  “I ain’t gettin’ in that car. You crazy if you take it.”

  “You act like we ain’t already take all that man’s money and everything else he had. What, you thinking he ain’t gonna be mad if we leave his car? You thinking he gonna wake up, come out here and be like, ‘Damn, those girls got me for all my loot, but they left my car, so how can I be mad at them’? It ain’t gonna happen.”

  “The man looked evil. There was something not right about his ass. I don’t know what it was, but it scared the shit out of me.” Ally felt a chill run through her even now.

  “Good. All the more reason to get your ass in this car and get out of here before he wakes up.”

  Ally told Lisa not to take her home. After everything they’d just gone through, she wasn’t ready to bump into Henny.

  “You can stay at my place,” Lisa said.

  “Naw, that’s okay. I ain’t seen JJ and Sasha in a while. Drop me off over there.”

  “JJ gonna whup your ass for knocking on her door at three in the morning.”

  “She’s just gonna have to be mad,” Ally said.

  When Lisa dropped her off, Ally got out of the car and walked around to the driver’s side.

  “What you gonna do about this car, girl?” Ally asked.

  “I don’t know. Think I should keep it?”

  “Girl! Don’t lose your damn mind.”

  Lisa posed, leaning over to one side of the seat, extending a limp wrist over the steering wheel, the other grabbing her chin, looking like a pimp. “But it’s so me, though. Ain’t it? Say it ain’t me, Ally.”

  �
��All right. It’s you, Lisa.” Ally was unable to help herself from laughing a little at how ridiculous her girl was acting.

  “This car is tight. I could say, screw getting a new place. I can bring my kid out here, and we can live in this. This could be my house.”

  “It could also be your casket if dude find you in it,” Ally warned. “So you gonna dump it, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  “Tonight.”

  “Naw, not tonight. How the hell am I supposed to get back home? First thing tomorrow morning, though. I’ll take it up north, then jump the train back. All right?”

  “All right.” Ally leaned into the car window, gave Lisa a hug and kiss. “Love you, girl.”

  “We did good tonight, Ally. We do it another year, we’ll be living in mansions instead of apartments.”

  “We’re through. Now get out of here.”

  Lisa winked at Ally, then drove off.

  Ally had to knock on JJ’s door five times before someone answered. When the door was finally opened, JJ looked as though she wanted nothing more than to reach out, grab Ally by the throat, and strangle her to death. Her hair was flattened on one side, her eyelids hanging low over her eyes.

  “Looks like you were getting some good sleep,” Ally said.

  “I was. What the fuck are you doing here interrupting it?”

  “If you can let a sista’ in, maybe I’d tell you.”

  She filled JJ in on everything that happened. She told her that this was her last job, and that she never wanted to do anything like that again, because, for some reason, she was starting to see things differently.

  JJ brought Ally out some linens to throw over the couch.

  “Take your ass to bed. And if you wake up before us, leave quietly, please.”

  Now, when Ally sprang up out of sleep and realized she was in JJ’s place on her sofa, she relaxed a little, her heartbeat slowing some. She had been having a nightmare, and that guy Smoke was in it. She couldn’t really remember what it was about. All she knew was that it was bad. Really bad.