Though he took several showers already, there was nothing like his own with the overhead showerhead and open space.
After his shower, Joey collapsed on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. His friends called him a player. His family nicknamed him Pimp of Year. Joey chuckled at the labels. He wasn’t a player. He wasn’t a pimp. He was a man who simply had options and Joey happened to have a lot of them.
He loved women and spending as much free time with them as possible. Scoring numbers and collecting panties, that was his motto. He rated all the women on a scale of one to ten. He knew there was no such thing as a perfect 10 woman but if there was a woman who was a six and another who was a four, he could make up the difference.
He was honest with his intentions from the get-go so no woman could accuse him of
leading her on. His longest girlfriend – could he even call her that? – was a three-month summer fling and the reason that ended was she insistent to spend more time with Nicola, which Joey had a big issue with. The more time the girl spent with his mother, the more she started gathering ideas in her head that she wanted to marry him.
The next thing he knew, there would be surprise visits to Tiffany’s. She would just want to drop in at Macy’s and look at their fine china. And the biggest bombshell? When the girl would start moving little things to his home. It would go from her simply having a toothbrush to having a small drawer and the next thing Joey knew, she was completely moved in.
He made it a point to let all of his women know exactly where they stood with him, so there was no question as to expectations and wants. They all knew they weren’t his girlfriend, though Joey had a feeling some were competing for that title. If Joey wanted a girlfriend, he would get one, simple as that. But he could never tell by some of the women he’d dated if they were the real deal or they were simply the smooth-talking salesperson before they pulled the bait and switch scheme.
Nicola was polite to some of the girls Joey brought home. He also knew the moment they left, Nicola broke out the disinfectant spray and thoroughly cleaned her home. He could have settled down and gotten married like Eli. But Kieran’s failed marriage was a constant reminder that for every loyal woman like Faith, there were a dozen Jalaras. Even Kieran could admit he lucked out with Tiana.
Joey covered his body with the expensive Egyptian sheets and prepared himself for sleep.
When he found the right woman, he would settle down. She would have to be ambitious. She would have her own career. She would be fly, with a banging body. She would be a perfect 10.
He would make her a D’Amato and he would finally put aside all player-like behavior.
He also knew there wasn’t such a thing as a perfect 10 woman and no woman he had dated in the current or past, came even remotely close to that. Three of his brothers were happily married or currently betrothed to their significant others and Joey was happy for them.
That just wasn’t him. Not that night. Not ever.
Five
“So how was your dinner the other night, sis?” London James asked her older sister. There was a twinkle in her eyes that matched with the growing smirk on her face. “I heard he was a real winner.”
“Fuck you and that horse you rode on,” Zoe retorted.
It was the weekly Sunday dinner at the Mitchell home, collectively known as Chinese Soul Sundays – a mixture of Chinese tradition with African-American flair. After a dinner that combined both soul and Chinese food, a traditional Chinese tea service was provided by Aoki, the sisters’ mother.
“I’m sure your Mr. Right is out there somewhere,” London gathered some chicken fried rice on her plate. A carbon copy of her older sister, it was no surprise London became a model with her lean and lithe statuesque figure, high cheekbones, almond-shaped eyes, and full kissable lips. A long black mane swept down her back, though London usually wore it up in a ponytail or bun.
“And I’m sure he can wait a little longer,” Zoe grabbed a couple of oxtails and put them on her plate.
“Your sister is busy with her career,” the Mitchell patriarch, Gavin, interceded as he sat down at the dining table. Strikingly handsome, Gavin was a tall Black man with salt and pepper hair, chiseled jaw, and matching goatee. He fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming an oncologist and shared a practice with his partner, Henry Morris, father of internationally-known financial advisor, Tiana Morris. “I’m fine if she wants to wait longer to get married.”
“What career?” London scoffed. “Being a nanny is a career?”
“Your nanny is making a fortune off you,” Zoe smarted back before she took a bite of her black eyed peas, “so yes, being a nanny is a career.”
“You know the salary of my nanny?” London asked.
“Um, she works for Fits and Giggles so yes,” Zoe replied.
“Am I overpaying her?” London asked.
“Your sister brings up a good point,” Aoki Li-Mitchell finally sat down at the table. A product of first-generation Chinese immigrants, Aoki was determined to be the first of her family to graduate from college. She did one better and graduated from medical school, meeting her husband, Gavin, while they were residents at USC. Beautiful in her own right, one didn’t have to wonder where her daughters inherited their model looks. “It’s time you settle down, Zoe Bear.”
Zoe Bear was the nickname her mother called her whenever she was trying to prove a
point, no matter how much Zoe didn’t want to hear it. “Why is everyone so insistent I get married and pop out some kids?” Zoe asked. “I’m quite content with my career. It’s not like I’m going to be a nanny forever. I’m still working on my fashion line for kids and…”
“And I wanted to ask you about that,” London sipped her iced tea, “why kids and not
grown folk?”
“I have no interest in dressing grown folk.” Zoe defended her choice. “Besides, there are plenty of grown folk clothing lines. I don’t need to add to it.”
“You’ve been talking about this fashion dream of yours for a while now,” London nodded as if she was proving a point, “I’m just sayin’…show it or shut it.”
“I apologize if my dreams of being a fashion designer are getting in the way of you being a stay-at-home NBA wife.” Contempt ran through Zoe’s words as she glared at her sister. “By the way, how is that scoreless streak Marq seems to be on?”
“I thoroughly support Zoe’s dream of becoming a fashion designer,” Aoki cut the building tension between the sisters, “she had always had a knack for fashion and she had coordinated many of my ensembles for dinners and other gatherings. Some people have the talent. Others don’t.”
“Thank you, Mother.” Zoe smiled at her sister. “I’m glad to have someone’s support.”
“But you’re not getting any younger, Zoe Bear,” Aoki warned, “your eggs are gonna
shrivel up and fall out.”
“And here it comes…” Zoe slightly shook her head.
“I’m just saying, you’re not getting any younger. Once a woman reaches a certain age, she’s no longer desirable. She’s considered to be used goods. I mean, your dad got me when I was 22. We dated for years throughout school and we only got married once our careers were established.” Aoki took a bite of food. “For example, we decided we would name our children after places they were conceived in.”
“Okay and that’s enough family conversation for the night,” London pretended she didn’t hear her mother’s revelation, “so Dad, how’s your practice coming along?”
“For example, London was named after the city.” Aoki smiled proudly.
“What was I named after?” Zoe took a bite of food.
“Um, so how are the Lakers doing this year?” Aoki changed the subject.
“You didn’t answer my question, Mommy,” Zoe persisted. “What city is named zoe?”
Aoki sighed. “Well, it wasn’t a city, per se…”
“Per se? Per se?” Zoe questioned. It then dawned on to Zoe what her mother was
getting at. “Are you saying I was conceived at the damn zoo?”
Aoki sighed again. “You act like it’s a bad thing.”
“It’s a good thing?” Zoe asked. “You got your freak on around the monkeys and elephants?”
“People do it all the time in nature.” Aoki replied. “It’s natural.”
“It’s natural when they’re not at the zoo!” Zoe commented.
****
“I wish I could be like you,” London commented from the doorway.
“What? What are you talking about?” Zoe finished changing Alex’s diaper. After the
entertaining dinner, Zoe watched over her nephew so London could talk with their parents privately. “You have everything you could possibly want.”
“Do I?” London walked into the room.
“Um, yes,” Zoe put Alex’s shorts back on. “You’re married to a NBA player, you have
indispensable wealth at your fingertips, and you have a host of servants to cater to your every whim, not to mention a nanny from my work that helps you out with Alex when you want to go shopping. So yes, I say you do have it made.”
London sat next to her son and smiled down at him. “I wish I would’ve waited.”
“For?”
“Everything?” London looked up at her sister. “I mean, you’re almost 30 and you’re not trying to settle down…”
“Not for lack of trying,” Zoe interrupted, “and thank you for pointing that out…again.”
“But still, you have no one to answer to. If you want to go out and spend thousands of dollars on a new Louis Vuitton, you just do it. If you want to go out and have dinner with a guy friend, you just do it. You have…you have freedom.” London forced the words out of her mouth.
“You can do whatever you want with no consequences whatsoever.”
Zoe held Alex and sat next to her sister. “Is there something you want to tell me, London Bridge?”
“You’ve always called that me since we were kids,” London smiled.
“I call you that whenever there’s a problem you want to talk about it but you don’t want to talk about it and I spend the next several minutes pulling your teeth to admit what’s going on in your head.” Zoe looked over at her sister. “Is there something you want to admit? The truth shall set you free.”
“I’m jealous of you,” London admitted.
Zoe scoffed. “Why? You’re the one married to a baller and have a baby.”
“But you pursued your career instead of dropping everything to become a wife and mother.
I foolishly thought I could pick everything back up after I got married. But once we got married, we started having babies on the brain. Then we thought it was going to take a while to get pregnant and it didn’t. It only took a month! One month! So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just pick things back up when Alex is in daycare’ and it’s like…I wonder if it was too soon for everything.”
“It just sounds like you got the Mommy blues,” Zoe comforted. “Have you talked to Marq about this?”
“I’m afraid to,” London admitted, “he provides everything for me. The chef, the nanny, the shopping sprees…I’m going to sound like an asshole—”
“Shh!” Zoe scolded and covered her hands over Alex’s ears. “Earmuffs!”
“Sorry,” London narrowed her eyes, “don’t get me wrong. I love my son and I love Marq with all of my heart. But if I had to do it all over again, I would’ve waited a bit longer.”
“But hey, sis, things happen for a reason.” Zoe cheered up her sister. “Maybe this is what you needed in your life at this time. I still think you should talk to Marq and see if he’s willing to meet you halfway. I’m sure he won’t mind if you want to pursue a career.”
London leaned on Zoe’s shoulder. “Why are you always so smart?”
“Eh,” Zoe shrugged, “age and experience. Plus, I’ve had the chance to be dumber a lot longer than you have.”
Six
“I see you showed up alone tonight,” Nicola D’Amato handed her son a bowl of salad and smiled at him, “thank you.”
Sunday dinners at Nicola’s house were always entertaining. Between overseeing Madre’s and running Donne Forti, her schedule was jam-packed along with everyone else’s. Family Sunday dinners, however, were mandatory. You can afford one day of the week to see your mama, she politely warned her sons.
Nicola was used to Joey bringing over what she referred to as ‘flavor of the week’ to the dinners. Every month, it was a different girl. The ballerina. The painter. The hairstylist. The college student. The single mother. Those were the ones she knew about.
There were so many.
There were too many.
She was nice to the women for what it was worth. She also made sure she had plenty of disinfecting spray and wipes after they had left. Oh they looked nice and sweet and Nicola was sure they had cleaned up their acts before they came over. Some didn’t bother and clearly tested her patience, making her believe Joey intentionally brought the low-class women over just to have an excuse to break up with them.
But Nicola also knew her son and his type of woman wasn’t anything close to her or any other woman in their family. Joey scraped at the bottom of the barrel and was almost proud of that fact.
“I had to stay at the shop a little late,” Joey placed the salad bowl on the table. He went back into the kitchen and grabbed a dish of lasagna. “So I couldn’t bring anyone tonight."
“You know the option of not bringing anyone is always on the table,” Nicola smiled. “You are not forced to bring over anyone here.”
“Are you saying you don’t enjoy my company, Ma?” Joey asked, with a smarmy smile.
“I’m saying I don’t appreciate the company that comes with you.” Nicola smirked, with a twinkle in her eyes. “You know you could bring home a nice good girl if you wanted to, Joseph.”
“Those nice good girls don’t exist, Ma,” Joey brought over another dish to the table. “It’s not that I haven’t been looking for her. Just when I find a “good girl”, she realizes who I am, the money and name attached to me, and the next thing I know, it’s about what I can buy her, what I can do for her, the fancy restaurants, and riding around in my car. That quote-unquote good girl quickly becomes a chickenhead. I bring them home to meet you so you can see for yourself why I’m still single. Women are transparent.”
“So are men, mio figlio,” Nicola checked her meatballs and turned off the fire, “so are men.”
Joey ignored his mother’s shade towards him. “I don’t want to get married,” he finally revealed. “I just don’t see myself ever being married.”
“Because of your father?” Nicola asked.
“Part of it,” Joey shrugged. He remembered the long hours his mother had to work,
bouncing from one job to another with just a small break in between. He could vividly recall the sadness in her eyes each time it came to one of the boys’ birthdays or holidays, knowing she couldn’t give them exactly what they wanted.
But the most vivid memory Joey had of his mother, wasn’t an event that actually happened to her, but to Kieran. She lit up in a fiery rage that lasted for weeks over the breakup of his marriage, almost daring God to send Jalara over to her home so she could beat the woman within an inch of her life for hurting her son.
Kieran spent two years mourning the failure of his marriage to his high-school sweetheart by bedding countless and nameless women. Even when he found someone to get serious with, he also made sure she knew from the jump he was not about to get married again and the
relationship usually ended a short time later. I just don’t see myself as ever getting married again, Kieran once told his brothers, I can’t take that risk, especially trying to run Fits and Giggles.
He met Tiana a month later.
“You’re still not upset about Jalara, are you?” Nicola seemingly read her son’s thoughts.
“I’m sure Kieran has gotten over her.”
“Marri
age scares me,” Joey sat down at the dining table. He still couldn’t get over how any woman would break the heart of one of the most kind, gentle human beings he had ever known.
“I still remember what you went through, Ma. I know what Kieran went through. And I know things aren’t what they seem between Faye and Eli…”
“What’s going on with Faye and Eli?” Nicola wondered.
“Besides that,” Joey deflected from his mother’s newfound interest, “I know marriage isn’t for everyone and I would rather not promise roses and forever to a woman when I’m not sure I can even give her daisies and a few hours.”
Nicola sat across from her son and gently patted his arm. “Out of all of my boys, you’ve always seemed to be the most stubborn.”
“And thank you for that vote of confidence,” Joey quipped.
Nicola smiled. “You’re stubborn in a good way. Remember how hard college was and you wanted to quit one semester short of graduating NYU? But you kept on. Remember how you kept getting rejected by bank after bank after bank for Madre’s? But you kept on. Even when you knew the contractors were trying to rob us blind, you remained steadfast until they lowered their price. My point is, while other people would’ve said, ‘Uh, forget it! It’s never going to happen’, you didn’t.”
“So you’re saying I should just go out and get married?” Joey raised an eyebrow.
“I’m saying there’s a woman out there who is absolutely perfect for you. She won’t care about your money. She won’t care about your last name. She would probably be annoyed with both, if anything,” Nicola chuckled and Joey smiled, “but I am saying, she is going to love you just for you. And when she comes around, mio figlio, you better not let her go or it would be the worst mistake you would ever make.”
****
Sunday dinner was entertaining as usual. The brothers caught up with each other while the women talked amongst themselves. The major topic of the night was Tiana’s impending delivery of the newest grandchild and the whole family was excited for the first granddaughter in the family.
“Antonio, I forgot to mention to you earlier,” Nicola gathered some more salad on her plate, “Art will be staying over tonight.”
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