Just Make Him Beautiful

by Warren, Mike

  Z put his groceries away and took me on a tour of his home. He did tell me that he only bought this property as an investment and that he was actually in the process of fixing it up. All I can say was, the tour didn’t last long because each room looked as bad as the other.

  I told him how hungry I was, and he took me down to his kitchen and began fixing me a plate. I had to give the brotha credit because he was buying real estate and fixing them up. Donald Trump did it all the time. So, who’s to say that in a few years Mr. Zachary Davis won’t be this big-time mogul?

  Anyways, Z fixed my plate, and we sat down to eat. What surprised me was, before eating, Z wanted to hold hands and say grace. That really impressed me, a spiritual brotha. However, the food wasn’t that great. He cooked some kind of baked fish, baked potatoes, and fresh broccoli, all half-cooked. Z noticed I was having a hard time eating my food and apologized profusely, but I told him it was okay, it was the thought that count.

  Later, we sat in his half-decorated living room and watch this movie called, Torch Song Trilogy, which he said was one of his favorite movies. I had never heard of the movie, but I really, really enjoyed it. It was about this gay white dude who performed in drag and was looking for love and a family to call his own. Very emotional movie. Had me crying and shit. I was so embarrassed, but Z told me not to be because when he first saw it, it made him cry as well. That made me feel a lot better.

  Unfortunately, I wasn’t that attracted to Z physically because he was tall, really tall, and rather thin. Of course, I’ve heard about those tall, thin brothas with the big dicks. Yes! But what I did like about Z was his personality. He was sweet, caring, affectionate, and attentive. He catered to me to make sure I was comfortable, or whether or not I wanted more to drink. He held my hand as we watched the movie. All the things that a girl would love, you know.

  I wasn’t planning on sleeping with him, at least not on the first date. But could he hit this? Absolutely.

  At about midnight, Z walked me to my car and gave me a nice warm hug. I was surprised, considering it was outside. Granted, no one was out that time of night, but I was still surprised he would do that so openly. You know how some guys will fuck you silly and everything else behind closed doors, but as soon as you get them out in public, half the time they act like they don’t know you. But I gave Z big points for that because that’s all I needed, was just a warm hug, and it was perfect.

  *

  The whole drive home, I thought about Z and how good he made me feel. We’d made plans for later that day to actually go to a movie. He told me that since I sat and watched his movie, I could pick any movie and we would go check it out, his treat. He actually started giving me butterflies. I felt like some schoolgirl.

  I made it to the mansion and drove up to the gate and input my code. The gate opened, and I pulled right in the driveway. It appeared as though no one was home, because all the lights were out.

  “Good,” I said to myself.

  As soon as I entered the front foyer, I was slapped so hard in the face, I fell to the floor.

  Suddenly, the lights came on, and standing over top of me was Keith. “Where the fuck did you go?” he yelled, looking down at me.

  I held the side of my face and tried to get the ringing out of my ear. “Why did you do that, Keith?”

  He yelled, “I asked you a simple question! Don’t have me ask you again!”

  “I-I-I went out with with my sister Keisha,” I replied trying to get up.

  “Don’t fuckin’ lie to me, dammit!” Keith slapped me once again and knocked me back down to the floor.

  I cried out, curling myself up in a ball. “I-I-I ain’t lying.”

  “What? You think I’m stupid?” he screamed, still standing over top of me. “You think I don’t know your every fuckin’ move?”

  “What do you want from me?” I blabbed, hiding my face with my hands.

  “You belong to me, you hear me? I betta not ever see you with that dude again. What? You don’t think I know who he is? Mr. Zachary Davis. I know that punk-ass muthafucka, too. Stand yo’ ass up!” He grabbed me by my shirt.

  Chile, I didn’t know how Keith knew about Z. I could only assume that he must have been following me and I wasn’t aware of it.

  I stood up in tears as Keith slammed my body against the wall. “If I ever see you with anybody else, their ass is mine, and yours is, too!” he yelled in my face, “And don’t you forget that shit! Now, take your ass to your room, take a shower, and get ready fo’ dis dick!”

  As I walked up the stairs, holding the side of my face, I passed by Robin, who was just standing there with a big-ass grin on her face. Obviously she’d been standing there the whole time.

  I guess I couldn’t blame her. What could she say?

  This was the first time Keith had ever hit me and made these kinds of demands. It frightened me. So, I did what I was told. I took a hot shower and prepared myself for him.

  Chapter 21

  I sat at the kitchen table Monday morning waiting for my Momma to arrive for her first day of work. I was on my third cup of coffee, thinking about my life. I had come to the conclusion that I didn’t mind being gay. I just wished I wasn’t as passive as I was, because some brothas took advantage of that. I’d been around and seen other bottom brothas out here that was as masculine as they come and didn’t seem to have some of the same problems as the more feminine ones like me. Not to mention, these same masculine bottom brothas seemed to be able to get those hard, masculine top brothas more easily.

  There seems to be a certain amount of prejudice among those masculine bottom brothas versus those feminine bottom brothas. I’m not sure why that is, considering we all like the very same thing.

  I had this one masculine bottom brotha tell me once that he didn’t like feminine bottom brothas because he didn’t feel it was necessary to be so obvious. I told him that I had nothing to hide, and that obviously he was ashamed about who and what he was. Anyways, I wished there wasn’t so much conspiracy between bottom brothas, regardless whether they were masculine or feminine because, the bottom line is, we all had a story to tell, and we all had to fight the same battle.

  I didn’t see Z yesterday, even though he’d called and texted me several times. Keith had made it very clear with his threat, so I didn’t want Z to get caught up in my bullshit. I figured, once all this was over, I would call Z and explain everything. Until then, I had to keep my distance from him.

  I felt like a caged animal, locked up and not able to have a relationship with anyone. But, as much as I began to despise Keith, I still enjoyed sex with him. But how could this be? My mind said no, but my body was aching for him.

  Buzz!

  I heard the intercom and jumped up to press the gate button so my Momma could enter. In a way, I felt like a little kid because I was going to spend time with her. I went and stood at the door and watched as Momma drove up and parked.

  “Good morning, suga,” she said, walking in with full disguise on.

  I held the door open for her. “Good morning, Ms. Stewart…I mean, Momma,” I replied, giving her a hug.

  Keith came down the stairs and caught us both off guard. “Morning, Momma.”

  “Good morning, young man.” Momma gave Keith a hug. “And where is the missus this fine morning?”

  “She has classes early on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. She told you that, remember?”

  “Oh that’s right. I tell ya, my mind ain’t what it used ta be, but boy, can I cook. Now, what you young’uns like ta have for breakfast?”

  We headed out into the kitchen.

  “Nothing for me, Momma. I don’t eat breakfast. Besides, I have some errands to run. We hadn’t gone shopping for food or anything, but Cameron here can take you and get whatever you need, a’ight” Keith stated grabbing a cup of coffee.

  “Well, baby, don’t you know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?”

  “I know, Momma. I’m just never up in time. Y
ou two have fun,” Keith said as he walked out the kitchen.

  “Whew! I didn’t think his stupid ass would ever leave.” Momma sat down at the table and pulled her wig off. “You know it’s kind of hard smiling in his face and shit after you told me what he did to you.”

  “I know, Momma, and I love you for it. But, like you said, we got work to do.” I put Momma’s wig back on her head.

  “Look, don’t get cute. Now, where’s this safe?” she asked, standing up.

  After checking the house and making sure that both Keith and Robin were gone, I took Momma into Keith’s office and opened the safe for her.

  “Wow, baby!” Momma said, looking at the stacks of hundred-dollar bills. “We oughta take this money here and run.”

  I took all the money out and placed it on the coffee table. “I wonder how much it is.”

  “Give me a few, and I’ll tell you. In the meantime keep an eye out at the door, just in case.”

  “I can do betta than that. Check this out,” I said, pulling up all the cameras around the area, including the one at the front gate, on Keith’s computer.

  “Dayum! This muthafucka got it going on, huh.” Momma laughed as she counted Keith’s money.

  “So he thinks.” I looked at all the cameras on the computer screen. “So, Momma, when do you wanna take the money and leave?”

  “Hmmm. I don’t know. We might have to wait until the first of the month because this muthafucka here has records of all his pickups and drops.” Momma’s eyes grew bigger. “And according to his book here, on the first of next month, he should have over one million dollars in this safe.”

  “Wow! Are you serious?” A lump started forming in my throat.

  “Yeah, baby. Momma doesn’t joke when it comes to money. Ah, is there any way you can have Keith, Robin, and Junior here on the first of the month?” Momma was still looking through Keith’s account booklet.

  “I can have Keith and Robin, but like I said, Keith makes sure that Junior and I don’t see one another. Why do you ask?”

  “Baby, if we take his money, there’s no way he will let us just run away with it. He will come looking, and once he finds us, he will kill us,” Momma said in a serious tone.

  “So, what are you saying?” I asked nervously. “You wanna kill them?”

  “We have to, not only for the money, baby, but for Ray as well,” she responded, looking me dead in the eyes.

  “Momma, I don’t know…I’m scared.” I got up and started pacing the floor.

  “I know you’re scared, Cameron. And please don’t take this the wrong way, but I need you to man up, all right.” She put her hands on my shoulders. “Now, listen to me. There is almost two hundred fifty thousand dollars lying over there on that table. If we take it, he will surely come after us, but if we hold out and plan, we can get four times that amount and not have to worry about looking over our shoulders.”

  “How we gonna do that, Momma?”

  “Don’t worry about that, baby. Just have them here on the first, and I’ll take care of everything else. In the meantime, let’s put this money away, turn off that computer, and get out of here.”

  My mom and I put everything back the way it was and headed out to the grocery store to pick up some food for the house. Once we got to the grocery, I grabbed a cart and started thinking back to whether or not my mother could actually cook.

  “So, Momma, can you cook?” I asked, speeding up and walking by her down the frozen meat aisle.

  “Hell, yes, I can cook. Actually, I’m a very good cook, for your information.”

  “Hmmm. So, what’s for dinner? Steak?” I grinned.

  Momma put the cube beef steak in the cart. “Smart ass.”

  “So, we meet again,” a familiar voice stated behind me.

  I turned around. “Oh! Hey, Z. How are you?”

  “And who is this, baby?” Momma asked, smiling all in Z’s face.

  “I’m sorry. Z, this is my…I mean, this is Ms. Stewart. Ms. Stewart, this is Zachary Davis.”

  “It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Davis.” Momma smiled and held up the back of her hand to be kissed.

  Z kissed Momma’s hand. “The pleasure is all mine, Ms. Stewart.”

  “Oh dear boy, no need to be formal. Just call me Annabelle,” Momma said, flirting.

  I cleared my throat. “So, how you been, Z?”

  “I’ve been good. A little disappointed that you never returned my call,” he said, looking me dead in the eye.

  “Well, I guess I’ll let you young people talk. I got a lot of groceries to get. It’s been real nice meeting you, Mr. Davis,” Momma said as she walked away.

  “Why did you stand me up?”

  “Umm, something came up, and I got busy. I was gonna call you, but I thought you would be upset.” I bit my bottom lip.

  “You got busy and you were gonna call, but you thought I would be upset. Okay,” he said, disappointment in his eyes.

  “Z, you’re a really nice guy, and I like you a lot, but there are things going on in my life right now that I really don’t wanna get into, okay. Now, once this is over, I will call you, I promise,” I said in a genuine tone.

  “Yo, man, it’s cool. If you ain’t feeling me like that, why can’t you just say so?”

  “Because I’m feeling you. I just can’t do anything about it right now. Please believe me. I will call you.” I walked away from him.

  *

  Momma and I had gotten all the groceries we needed to last us for the entire week. As we got into the car, of course, she wanted to know the story behind Mr. Davis. I explained to her that he was the guy I had had a date with on Saturday evening, and when I’d returned home, Keith slapped me a few times because he thought I was cheating on him.

  Momma then got quiet.

  I looked over at her and could see in her eyes that she was getting upset about Keith hitting on me.

  “It’s okay, Momma,” I said, rubbing her hands.

  “No, baby, it’s not okay. A man ain’t supposed to put his hands on you, period.”

  “I know, but I just don’t like seeing you getting upset,” I stated softly.

  “He will pay. You can believe that, or my name ain’t Ms. Annabelle Stewart!” She folded her arms around her chest.

  “Momma, your name is Ms. Janet Wilson, or have you forgot?”

  Momma looked at me and I looked at her, and we both burst out laughing.

  After a minute or so and the laughter quieted down, Momma said she was just checking to see if I was paying attention.

  Yeah, right!

  Anywho, since we had a couple more weeks of this charade, Momma said she needed to stop by a thrift store so she could get a few more old lady dresses. Of course the thrift store, or Goodwill store, as some people called them, was not my kinda place to shop. But it didn’t matter to me because I was spending time with my momma, and I was enjoying every second of it. I had never been to a Goodwill store, but I recalled seeing one at the Whitmore Shopping Center, which wasn’t far from where I lived.

  Within minutes we were pulling into the shopping center and into a parking space rather close to the entrance.

  Momma and I got out of the car and strutted arm in arm into the store. And, honey, I hadn’t even made it that far into the store before the odor or musk from the old clothes almost knocked me out. I had to stand there for a minute just to get myself together.

  Momma turned and looked at me. “What’s wrong, baby?”

  “What is that smell?” I asked, covering my nose.

  Now, if I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have believed it, but Momma hit me upside my head and said, “Chile boo,” and kept on walking.

  Chile, I hollered. After she said that, for some reason, I couldn’t smell the odor anymore. “No, you didn’t,” I said, catching up with her.

  “Yes, I did.” She started looking through a rack of old dresses.

  As I stood next to her looking at one dress after another, there were a f
ew odds and ends that caught my attention. I left my mom where she was and began looking at one thing, and then something else caught my attention, and before I knew it, I grabbed a cart, and within minutes, I had a cart full of shit.

  Chile, I was like a kid in a candy store. Now, I understood why so many people shopped here. And they had these 1960s leopard tights that were in perfect shape and cost only two bucks. Humph, they mine now. On top of that, I saw this light blue boa they had wrapped around one of those plastic mannequins, and you know I had to have it.

  Momma finally caught up with me, looked inside my cart and shook her head. “A boa?”

  I looked back at her. “Yeah, and?”

  “I don’t even wanna know.” She chuckled.

  We made it back to the house, and Momma told me she was gonna show me how much of a great cook she was. We unpacked the bags and put all the food away.

  She sat down at the table. “Have you thought of a way to have the three of them here on the first of the month?”

  “Not yet. We just spoke about it earlier. I hadn’t thought about it yet.” I sat down at the table across from her.

  “Well, Cameron, you should always be planning your next move, baby. Remember, you always gotta stay ahead of the enemy.” She got up and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Would you like a cup?”

  “No, Momma, I’m good. So, let me ask you. Have you thought of a way to get all of them here on the first?”

  “As a matter fact, I have.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Well, I was thinking while we were in the grocery store, How about I throw a dinner party for them?” she stated, sitting back down at the kitchen table.

  “A dinner party?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “What’s the occasion?”

  “Hmmm. How about I play matchmaker?” She smiled.

  “Matchmaker? Who are you matchmaking?”

  “Well, let’s say I have a gorgeous granddaughter that I wanna hook up with Junior?” She sipped her coffee.

  “Whatchoo talking about, Momma?”