All in a Day

by Alexis Nicole

  I took his hand and slowly rubbed it across my thigh. He quivered and exhaled and I tried to contain my laughter. I’d seduced many men but never one of my daddy’s friends, and never for something so extreme.

  “You’re asking for a lot in such a small amount of time and money. I am trying to run a business.” He was trying to gain his composure.

  I slid off his desk and pressed my face against his cheek. I wrapped his arm around my waist and heard him let out a sigh.

  “I know, but we would be so grateful,” I whispered in my most seductive voice. I kissed him softly on the lips and I was positive I could feel his pulse. “I promise to repay you.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said with his eyes still closed.

  “Great.” I had put my regular voice back on and straightened out my skirt. “I’ll expect a viewing of the body, transportation, and a burial plot next to my granddaddy. Oh, and don’t be cheap with the casket. You do still owe my father twenty-five hundred dollars.” I flashed a grin at him and walked out the office, leaving him speechless in his chair to contemplate what just happened.

  “What happened? Is he going to do it?” JJ jumped out of the chair he was sitting in in the waiting area.

  “Don’t worry, everything is handled.”

  “What did you do?” His tone insinuated that he didn’t trust my methods of negotiation with Mr. Wyatt. As much as I would have loved to reassure him that I was on my best behavior, I just gave him a smirk and proceeded to his truck.

  As soon as I jumped in and shut the door behind me, I immediately pulled my phone out of my purse and turned it back on. Every time I had to turn my phone off a piece of me died for fear that I was missing out on something important. I was hoping to see a missed call or text from Henry since I hadn’t heard from him all day. Once my screen lit up, a voice mail from Millie flashed. If Millie left a message it either had something to do with the shop or some juicy gossip.

  “Girl, you would not believe what I saw today. It’s too juicy to leave on a message. Call me back, honey.”

  Millie’s voice blared through my phone. See what I mean? I always missed something. I knew this had to be good. Whenever she left a message to tell me that she couldn’t tell me something through a message, it was deep. I hung up my voice mail and before I could even dial the number back, Millie’s name popped up on my screen.

  “I was just getting ready to call you back,” I answered.

  “Chile, you was takin’ too long.” Another sign Millie had some real good dirt; she talked like she’d been working in the field for twenty years.

  “Well, excuse me for trying to handle my daddy’s death.”

  “Well, honey, you ’bout to die when you hear what I’m finna tell you. So I was at the nail shop ’cause you know how my baby Ray loves for me to keep my stuff tight,” she began.

  “Hold up. If you were getting your nails done, who was at the boutique?” I loved hearing gossip but I loved my money more. If this story led to “and somebody broke in,” I wasn’t going to be the one who was gonna die.

  “Keta and Treece, but that’s beside the point. I was at the nail shop minding my own business when all of a sudden I hear a female yellin’ out in the street. Now you know I’m thinking it’s Walt’s crazy baby mama Tiffany just finding out he got that girl Destiny pregnant who works down at that new topless bar.”

  Millie was in rare form. It had been awhile since I heard a story where she was trying to be suspenseful. Background stories and sliding other people’s business into the main feature always meant that the story was a good one.

  “So I told Ming Ye to stop working on my nails and rushed to the window to see her go off on him while he was at work. Girl, you wouldn’t believe who I saw with my own two eyes arguing in the middle of the street.”

  I knew this was my cue to interject. “Who?” I asked like an excited five-year-old during story time.

  “Henry and Morgan.”

  It was like the world stopped turning. My whole body tensed up, my stomach dropped, and my heart began to beat faster. I know she didn’t just say Henry . . . my Henry.

  “Henry who?” Maybe it was another Henry. Maybe I was hearing things.

  “Henry Lloyd. You know tall, muscular, milk chocolate, pretty smile. The Henry you been pining over for two years and all over for the last six months. That Henry. Girl, they were all in the streets making a big ol’ scene. Then they got in his car and left.”

  Millie was telling this story like it was no big deal. Like this wasn’t catastrophic to my life. I worked hard to get that boy’s attention and I’d be damned if her royal highness was gonna stroll her happy self up in my town and take my man. This was not going down.

  “Millie, get to the store.”

  “But, Ray and I—”

  I hung up the phone before she could even finish her sentence. I didn’t have time to deal with issues with the boutique as well as this situation.

  “Everything okay?” JJ finally spoke. For a minute, I completely forgot he was even there.

  “Just drop me at my car. I have some business to handle.”

  I could feel every ounce of blood in my body boiling. Who does Morgan think she is? Her main objective for coming back home was to get married, not to try to ruin my life for a second time. I was going to get to the bottom of this today.

  Chapter 11

  Henry

  I continued to play the scene between me and Morgan over and over in my head as I drove her back to town to catch up with her mother. The silence between us in the car seemed to be extremely loud and was quite awkward. I could tell she was uncomfortable too because I caught her shifting in her seat out of the corner of my eye. I wanted to say something but I felt like silence was the best thing we needed right now. Maybe she was right. Maybe I was holding on to something that I needed to let go. She had moved on, maybe I should have too.

  Regardless of the fact, it was still hard to watch my first love—hell, my only love—get married to someone else. I pulled up to the flower shop and parked my car next to Mrs. Willis’s. I cut off the engine and we sat in silence a few minutes longer. I tapped my thumbs on the bottom of my steering wheel, waiting for her to either get out or say something.

  “Look, Henry,” she finally said, “I hope we can move past this.”

  “Yeah, sure,” I replied in a monotone voice. I still had no idea what to make of the situation.

  “I mean, I don’t want it to be weird between us.”

  “Weird? Why would it be weird?” I had a feeling even though we had our little pep talk, things were still going to be awkward between us. At this point though, I didn’t want to look like any more of a punk.

  “So you’re still coming to the wedding?” I couldn’t tell if her question was her way of inviting me or hoping I would say no because she told me to move on.

  “How else are you going to get limo service?”

  She gave me a slight smirk, took off her seat belt, and leaned across to kiss me on the cheek. It sent mixed emotions through my body. It was good to feel her genuine warmth around me again, but the cheek kiss felt like I had gotten second place and that was the best consolation prize I could get. She got out of the car and went inside the shop. I sat and watched her for a moment through the glass in front of the shop before I decided to finally head home. This whole situation wasn’t turning out in my favor and I just wanted to go home, take a shower, and regroup.

  Walking into my house, I spotted Beau on my couch, holding a beer, with a half-eaten sandwich on my coffee table and watching ESPN. It was typical of him to just drop by and let himself in even when I wasn’t home.

  “Why are you not at work where I pay you to be instead of in my house eating my food and watching my cable?” I grabbed the remote off the table and turned the TV off.

  “I just finished my last pickup ’bout an hour ago and I came over to see what my best friend was doing. Plus I was hungry.” He bent over to pick up his sandw
ich and took a bite.

  “I bet you were.” I dropped my keys on the mantle and walked in the kitchen to grab a beer. I was hot, I was irritated, and alcohol appeared to be the only one that understood me right now.

  “So what happened?” Beau yelled from the couch with a mouthful of food.

  I walked back into the living room and flopped down beside him. “What happened with what?”

  “With you and Morgan. Everybody is talking about how you two had a big fight in front of Clara’s where she slapped you and called you a jealous bastard and then you threw her in the car and drove off.”

  This was completely typical of this town. This only happened a few hours ago and now it was spreading like wildfire. With the wrong information, I might add. I shook my head and took a swig of my beer before answering him.

  “So did you do it?” he continued.

  “Do what, Beau?”

  “You know, have that good ol’ angry ‘I missed you’ sex. That usually be the best sex ’cause of all that built-up aggression.”

  I swear Beau is such an idiot. I loved him like a brother, but I seriously thought his mama should have held him back a couple of grades to allow his brain to catch up with that big-ass body of his.

  “First of all, everybody talking about something and have no clue what they’re sayin’. None of that happened. Second, what the hell are you talkin’ about? ‘I miss you’ sex?”

  “You know, y’all have a little argument, you bring her back here and give her some act right.”

  Nothing about what was coming out of Beau’s mouth surprised me but it always amazed me that he never felt uncomfortable talking like this about his own cousin.

  “We talked, Beau. I took her to the creek and we talked.” I took another swig of my beer and sank down in my seat.

  “Damn, man. Well, if anybody asks, you might wanna go with my version, ’cause it don’t sound like that talk worked out in your favor.”

  “Get out, Beau.” I stood up from the couch and walked back into the kitchen. I didn’t want nor have time for this conversation. I’d already been defeated once today; I didn’t need a play-by-play recap about it.

  “Chill, man, don’t be like that.” Beau followed me into the kitchen and took a seat at the table. “All jokes aside. What did she say?”

  I took a deep breath, another drink of beer, and replayed the discussion from earlier. I tried to figure out what part of it I could tell Beau without looking like a total chump.

  “She said she appreciated what we had in the past, but we both moved on.”

  “That was it?” The look on his face was a mixture of confusion and disappointment.

  “That was the gist of it. I agreed and took her back into town.” I grabbed another beer out of the refrigerator and tried to chug it in one gulp.

  “Not to get in your business or nothing . . .” Beau began.

  “Right, because you’ve been doing such a wonderful job of that already.” Why do people start off with statements like that knowing good and well they are either already in your business or about to be all up in your business?

  “But,” he continued, “I don’t think you should go out like that.”

  “Well, enlighten me, Beau. What do you think I should do?” I sounded sarcastic, but I was a little interested in what he had in mind. I was out of a game plan and wouldn’t mind a different strategy.

  “Fight for your woman, dawg. I know I joke a lot but if you love her, you can’t just accept the ‘let’s just be friends’ line.”

  Beau had a great point, but I honestly wasn’t sure if I loved her because of our history together or I was just in my feelings about how she left things. I needed to figure out if I wanted her back or if I just needed some type of closure.

  “What did you have in mind?” I was curious to see what Beau could come up with and if it was even worth the risk.

  “I don’t know, man. Who do I look like, the dude from Taken?”

  Was this fool serious? This Negro sat here and suggested I do something but didn’t have a plan to help me out? I swear this man is more frustrating than a toddler.

  “No, you look like the idiot who came up with the idea. So either give me something I can work with or shut the hell up and get out.”

  “All right, man, damn. Just chill.”

  We sat in silence for a few minutes and I could tell that Beau was really thinking hard. He shifted in his seat a couple times, rubbed his chin, and even scratched his head. It was quite the performance. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him think so hard except when he was before a judge.

  “All right, I got it.” He put his hands up like he had come up with the most brilliant idea.

  “Shoot.” It couldn’t be any worse than telling people Morgan and I had angry “I miss you” sex.

  “We should go see what you’re up against.”

  I was wrong. It was worse than the angry “I miss you” sex.

  “Let me get this straight. You want us to fly to London to spy on Morgan’s fiancé.”

  “Yeah, I want us to fly to London on the private jet I rented this morning.” His sarcasm actually settled my mind. “No, fool,” he continued. “I want us to go to the airport whenever she goes to pick him up and see what your competition is. Who knows, he may be some old, fat white cat she’s only marrying for money.”

  That actually wasn’t a bad idea. It never hurt to look. Maybe I could determine whether to pursue this any further if I saw her actually moving on with my own eyes. I had to hand it to Beau, he kind of came through with that one. I was a little upset I didn’t think of it first.

  “So how do we go about finding out when she’s going to get him?”

  “Leave that to me, ’cause clearly Morgan is suckin’ out all the finesse you ever had.”

  “Okay, now you can really get out.”

  We both laughed and I began to feel better about the situation. Maybe I wasn’t out of the game just yet. My grandfather used to say, “It doesn’t matter how many points you’re down, nobody has won until the clock hits zero in the fourth quarter.” I didn’t think the time clock had run out yet, and I planned to play the entire sixty minutes.

  Chapter 12

  Morgan

  The conversation with Henry was a little intense but I was kind of glad he got it off his chest. Maybe now we could get through this sham of a weekend without any more big dramatic scenes. I had Henry drop me off at the flower shop where my mother was already waiting for me. The look on her face when I walked in was a mixture of shock, embarrassment, and a little entertainment. I didn’t think she knew what to make of the situation, and honestly neither did I. I swear this town takes me out of my element.

  “So what kind of cake did you pick?” I didn’t think trying to pretend like nothing happened was going to fly with my mother but it was worth a shot.

  “Don’t think you can waltz up in here like nothing happened after that scene you made a few hours ago.”

  I knew it wasn’t going to work. I was 96 percent sure that black mamas were mind readers.

  “Mama, I apologize for running out and causing a scene earlier, but Henry and I needed to get some things straight in order for everyone to move on.”

  “Well, I hope y’all got it out of your systems. And your cake is marble with cream cheese icing.” My mother had this matter-of-fact type of tone as she began sifting through flowers.

  “Mom, we can’t have marble cake. Ahvi is allergic to chocolate.”

  “Well, if the person who would have known better was there maybe she would have had input on the cake. I thought it was sort of symbolic, plus you love marble cake.”

  I had no argument for my mother. She was the one throwing this all together and I did just leave without warning. Besides, she was right, I really did love marble cake. Maybe I could purchase Ahvi a second cake. I kissed my mom on the cheek as my subtle way of thanking her, and began to look through flowers with her. I had no idea what I was doing. I was never
a lover of flowers. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the concept indulging in something that died quickly. It all seemed quite pointless to me, but this was the part that I knew Ahvi would really appreciate.

  Growing up, Ahvi expressed that flowers were always something special. The colors, the smell, the structure of each individual petal were mere sprinkles of the splendor of God. When we first started dating, Ahvi took me to this beautiful lavender field that was way out in the countryside. It had to be as big as three football fields with rows and rows of purple flowers. It wasn’t like anything I had ever seen before. It was so majestic and peaceful. I ran through that field like I was Celie from The Color Purple. Ahvi packed us a picnic lunch and we sat between the rows of flowers and ate, laughed, and talked about life and our future plans. It was one of the moments I knew I was falling in love.

  “Mom, I want lavender flowers,” I said eagerly, coming out of my daydream.

  Before my mother could respond to me her phone rang. She fumbled trying to get it out of her purse and answered it as soon as it was in her hands.

  “Hello . . . hello,” she said, slightly out of breath from the scuffle she just had. All I could hear on the other line was a mumbling of what sounded like a woman’s voice. My mother confirmed that she was who the caller wanted and became immediately still when the caller responded. It was as if my mother had seen, or rather heard, a ghost. I tried to ask her what was going on silently but she didn’t respond. Instead, she rushed out the shop, dropping the Casablanca lilies she was looking at previously.

  I watched her closely through the window as she paced back and forth on the sidewalk. I had never seen my mother like this. She was fidgety and nervous. I could see her explaining herself through her hand gestures. She wiped freshly formed sweat off her forehead but I couldn’t tell if that was because of the phone call or because it was twenty degrees past the temperature of hell outside. I wanted to go outside and see what was going on but she hung up the phone and returned inside.

  “So you were saying something about lavender.” She acted like the last two minutes didn’t just occur.