The Final Play

by Shelly Ellis

  “Melissa?” he said, louder than he’d intended.

  Hearing her name, she glanced at their table. When she recognized them, her mouth fell open in shock. “Derrick? Ricky? Hey!” she said.

  They both watched as she murmured something to her table companions and walked toward their booth.

  “Oh, man,” Ricky said behind his napkin. “She’s comin’ over.”

  Derrick watched as she approached.

  It was surreal to now view a woman, whom he had been in love with for almost twenty years, with the fondness of an old friend, one of the most important friends he’d ever had. He was relieved to see that Melissa looked happy. She practically glowed and was downright beautiful as she pushed up the sleeves of her teal sweater. She held up her hands in mock defense.

  “Wait, you aren’t gonna throw something at me, are you?” she joked. “You’re not gonna start swingin’ again, Dee?”

  Ricky threw back his head and burst into laughter while Derrick rolled his eyes.

  So she still had the same sarcastic sense of humor. Of course, she did.

  “You weren’t the person I was swingin’ at the last time we saw each other, Lissa,” Derrick said.

  “All the same,” she quipped, dropping her elbows to their table, leaning casually in the restaurant aisle. “I want to make sure we’re cool now.”

  “We always were,” Derrick said.

  It’s just Jay who I hated, he thought, but didn’t say it aloud.

  “I’m glad to see you’re doing better, Dee. Did you get my flowers?” she asked.

  “Yep, I did. The card, too. Thank you.”

  He had hidden the card from Morgan, tossing it as soon as he got it. He didn’t want to bring up an old argument. He was with Morgan now, not Melissa, but he didn’t want to give his girl any reason to question that by seeing Melissa’s sweet, heartfelt note wishing him all the best. He didn’t want Morgan to think there was any remote chance of them rekindling their old relationship.

  Melissa now looked from him to Ricky. “So how have you guys been? What have you been up to?”

  “A little bit of this, a little bit of that,” Ricky said. “You know how we are.”

  “Yeah, I can imagine,” she murmured, side-eying Ricky, giving him a knowing smile.

  “What about you? What have you been up to?” Derrick asked.

  “Oh, nothing big! Trying to get the kids in my class to focus even though we’re only two weeks away from Christmas. Keeping nine-year-olds’ attention is hard enough without having to compete with Santa, but I’m getting through it. At least I have our vacation to Belize to look forward to after the holidays. We’re headed there in late December, early January, before school starts up again. I’m excited because I’ve never been there!”

  “Oh?” Derrick glanced at the table where Melissa’s friends were still talking and laughing with one another. “You going on a girls’ trip to Belize? Is Bina going with you?”

  “Uh, no,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. He liked big natural hair on her. “It’s not a girls’ trip. I’m . . . I’m going with Jay. He’s treating me to a getaway after a tough school year and to celebrate getting his new job.”

  Ricky did an audible intake of breath that sounded like oof before raising his beer bottle back to his lips. Derrick’s easy smile disappeared.

  “So you’re still with Jay?” Derrick asked, narrowing his eyes.

  Melissa nodded. “Yeah. We’re still together.”

  “Oh,” he said flatly. He glanced at Ricky, who was pretending to stare at the license plates decorating their booth wall.

  “Look, Dee,” she began, shifting back from the table and dropping her hands to her hips. “I know how you feel about Jay and my relationship with him. I know you don’t think the best of him right now but—”

  “And I never will.”

  “But,” she said louder, talking over him, “he loves me and he goes out of his way to make me happy. After how our relationship went down, I thought you would be happy for me . . . that I found someone else.”

  “Yes, I want to see you happy, Lissa. Of course, I do! But did it have to be with my best friend? My boy?”

  “Oh, please! Don’t get self-righteous on me. I didn’t cheat on you like you cheated on me, Derrick Miller. Jay and I got together after you and I broke up. And you guys weren’t even friends by that time. You weren’t even speaking to each other!”

  “But he saw us from the beginning. He knew what we were to each other. But he still slid right in there and went after you before we broke up. That nigga was dead-ass wrong!” He turned back to Ricky. “Come on, bruh! Back me up!”

  Ricky shook his head and took a bite of one of his fries. “Nope. I’m staying out of this.”

  “He was wrong. You were wrong. So what, Dee?” she said, flapping her arms. “We’re all okay now. You’ve moved on. I’ve moved on. That doesn’t mean you guys can’t put that all behind you. That doesn’t mean you can’t be cordial to each other. Maybe it’s finally time for you guys sit down and . . . you know . . . talk. Work out your differences.”

  “Are you kidding?” Derrick barked out a cold laugh. “I’d rather eat shit than say hi or goodbye to that nigga.”

  Her face fell. “Really, Dee?”

  “Yes, really! I mean . . . would you like me to set up a meeting between you and Morgan?” he asked. “Maybe you two can have lunch sometime. Go shoppin’ together.”

  “No, thank you, smartass.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I have no interest in ever seeing that woman again, but unlike you with Jay, I don’t plan to beat her ass on sight. I refuse to let myself be bogged down with that kinda energy.”

  “Well, you’re a better person than I am.”

  “Obviously!” Melissa slowly shook her head. “Oh, well, I tried. But if you’re gonna insist on staying in your feelings, there’s nothing I can really do about it.” She waved. “It was nice seeing you guys. Have a merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Have a nice life, Dee.”

  She then turned around and headed across the restaurant. It looked like she was going to the ladies’ room.

  Derrick turned back to face Ricky, who was staring at him.

  “What?” Derrick snapped.

  “Hey! I ain’t say nothin’!”

  “I know. You just sat there while she was defending Jay the whole time, when you and I both know what he did was some shit!”

  “I’m not getting in the middle of a fight between you and your ex, Dee. I ain’t that type of nigga. You can handle yourself, and besides . . . I think you were being kinda hard on her considering everything that happened.”

  “What?”

  “I’m just keepin’ it one hundred with you, bruh,” Ricky said before taking a bite of his hotdog.

  Derrick grumbled to himself. “I wasn’t being hard on her. I was being hard on him, because he deserves it!”

  “Whatever, man,” Ricky said before wiping his mouth. “It’s up to you.” He slid out of the booth.

  “Where you goin’ now?” Derrick asked.

  “To take a piss! Damn! I need your permission?”

  Derrick ignored his sarcasm and watched as Ricky walked toward the bathroom. He then sighed and returned his attention to his meal, though he didn’t have much of an appetite anymore.

  Chapter 37

  Jamal

  Jamal was trying to concentrate on his laptop screen and take notes, but the cat purring on his leg and the television blaring in the background weren’t helping.

  He was at Melissa’s place tonight and trying to catch up on his work as the new domestic policy director at the political foundation that had hired him months ago. It was work he usually preferred to do in the tranquility of his own home office, with jazz music playing in the background. But he had decided to come here tonight because he hadn’t seen Melissa all week. He’d missed her—her conversation, her smell, and her laughter. He’d missed making love to her and listening to her snore sof
tly in her sleep. He’d forgotten, though, that she liked to keep her apartment noisier than a busy train station.

  Jamal typed a few more keys but abruptly stopped when he felt something whack him on the back of the head.

  “Oh, excuse me. Pardon me,” Melissa said with a laugh as she shifted and hit him again with her butt. The laptop fell off his lap, nudging Brownie aside. The cat mewled in protest before hopping to the living room floor and walking off to slumber in a corner on his cat bed.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so clumsy. Did I disturb you?” she asked in a high-pitched voice, bumping him again. This time in the cheek. “Huh? Huh? Am I disturbing you?”

  Jamal grabbed her hips to hold her still and nipped her ass through the cotton of her yoga pants, making her yelp. He dragged her over the sofa arm and onto his lap. She squealed.

  “Stop! Stop!” she shouted between giggles as he held her close, kissing her neck and bare shoulder. “I was just trying to get your attention!”

  “Yeah? Well, now you’ve got it.” He reached over her to the coffee table to grab the remote and turn off the television. He tossed the remote aside and gave her a quick peck on the lips, then another. “So now that you do, why don’t we—”

  “I wanted to get your attention to talk,” she said, pulling her mouth away from his and clasping his face in her hands. “I’ve been talking to you the past five minutes. Did you hear anything I said?”

  He frowned.

  “I take that as a no.”

  “I couldn’t hear anything over the TV!”

  “Well, I said I spoke to Derrick yesterday.”

  Jamal’s heart lurched to a stop before quickly starting up again.

  “You spoke to Dee?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I saw him at a restaurant. We talked for a little bit.”

  Jamal eased Melissa off his lap onto the cushion beside him. He took a deep breath, telling himself silently not to freak out.

  Melissa could speak to Derrick. Jamal wasn’t the type of guy who would ban his girlfriend from having any contact with her exes. He wasn’t that territorial. But a part of him knew that Derrick wasn’t your average ex. Melissa had been with the guy off-and-on for twenty damn years and they hadn’t ended on healthy terms. Derrick and Melissa had history—and history could lead to nostalgia and nostalgia could lead to regret and that could lead to . . .

  Don’t freak out, he told himself again when he could feel his mind and his heart racing. Just listen to what she has to say.

  “Okay?” he said, nodding, trying his best to sound casual. “And how . . . how is he?”

  She shrugged. “He seems okay . . . good, actually. Ricky was there, too. I spoke to them both and told them I think it’s finally time for all of you to meet up and talk to each other. To see if you can reconnect.”

  Jamal stared at her, now dumfounded. “Are you kidding?”

  She laughed, shook her head, and slumped back against one of the sofa pillows. “That’s exactly what Dee said.”

  “Baby, the last time I saw that man, he punched me in the face!”

  “Because he was upset!” She winced. “And he still kinda is, frankly.”

  “Which underlines my point.”

  “His anger has less to do with us being together and more with him feeling you betrayed him.”

  “That’s the same damn thing!”

  “But it’s been months since then. I told him he was wrong for hitting you, and, in some ways, I think he knows it. I told him you make me happy and that he should be happy for me, considering everything that went down. The fact that the guy who makes me happy happens to be you, shouldn’t bother him.”

  Jamal narrowed his eyes at her. “And what did he say?”

  “I can’t remember exactly.” She winced again. “But it was something along the lines of he’d rather eat shit than talk to you.”

  Jamal sighed. “Look, Lissa, I’m glad you guys spoke. It sounds like you two are in a much better place than you were months ago, I guess. But it sounds like he still feels the same damn way about me as he did then. There is no way in hell Derrick and I are going to meet up for dinner and drinks. It’s just not gonna happen!”

  She inclined her head, reached out, and rested a hand on his leg. “You miss them, honey. I know you do. They were your boys! And despite all that’s happened and all the mess Derrick was talking, I think they miss you, too.”

  Jamal lowered his eyes.

  She was right; he did miss Ricky and even Derrick, despite the rancor between them. They had been his buddies, his confidants, and the closest thing he’d ever had to siblings his entire life. Jamal had no idea when he’d uttered the words It’s time to break ties to them at Ray’s more than a year and a half ago what it’d really meant. He had no idea what would happen after, either.

  “When I went to the bathroom, Ricky pulled me aside and said he’s willing to try to get you guys together again to talk if you’re willing to do it,” she said. “I told him I’d ask you.”

  Good ol’ Ricky . . .

  Who would’ve known the dude in their crew who had always seemed the most jaded would have the biggest heart. When the chips were down, more than once Ricky had proven he was willing to put all his anger aside to help a brother out, to help Jamal. He was the one who finally got Mayor Johnson arrested, after all. But Jamal doubted Derrick would be as benevolent. Stubborn, pissed-off Derrick wouldn’t be willing to let bygones be bygones.

  He raised his eyes and sighed. He scrubbed his hand over his face and began to shake his head. “Look, if Ricky wants to meet again one-on-one, I’ll do it in a heartbeat. But bringing Dee into this . . . I just don’t think it’s a good idea, Lissa.”

  “But I do,” she whispered, leaning forward.

  “Why?”

  She loudly exhaled. “Because . . . because sometimes I feel like something is still hanging over us. Like for you, there’s still a question mark.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She licked her lips and paused like she was trying to find the right words. “I love you, Jay. You know that, right?”

  “Of course!” It took you a while to figure it out, but finally you did. Thank God, he thought.

  “So why did that look cross your face when I said I spoke to Dee?”

  He blinked in surprise. “What look?”

  “You know the look.”

  “No, what look? I don’t know what you’re talking about, baby!”

  “The look you have when you’re waiting for a cancer diagnosis. The look you have when you’re waiting to hear if a jury found you innocent or guilty. It was a look like you were waiting for a shoe to drop. Like I was gonna say Dee and I were back together again!”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jamal lied. “I think you’re reading more into this than you should.”

  “I’m over him, Jay. I can say that for sure now. But I don’t know if you’re over everything. The beef and animosity between you and Dee needs to end for us to be good.”

  “But we are good!” he insisted, clutching her hand. “He doesn’t have a damn thing to do with us!”

  She pursed her lips. “I’m not sure if that’s true. I’m not saying you have to be tight again. It might be kinda weird if you were. I’m just saying I think if you talk to him, it could give you some . . . some closure. You know?” She kissed his cheek. “Are you willing to try? For me?”

  He let go of her hand, closed his eyes, and grumbled.

  Damn it, why couldn’t she ask him for something simpler, like a night out on the town or jewelry or a designer handbag? With the six-figure salary he was making now at the think tank, he could buy her something nice, something expensive. Plenty of his past girlfriends would be appeased by that. Bridget certainly would.

  “What do you think?” Melissa persisted. She kissed him again and nuzzled his cheek. “Will you call Ricky to set something up?”

  Jamal gradually opened his eyes. He leaned back and met her gaze. “If I
agree to this—I’m not saying that I will—but if I agree to meet up with Ricky and Dee, and I show up there and it goes left, I’m out. Okay? I’m not going there to get yelled at or jumped.”

  Melissa chuckled. “Understood.” She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. “I’m so proud of you, honey.”

  “Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,” he muttered against her lips, kissing her back. “Just remember this when I ask you for something.”

  “What? What have you asked me to do that I haven’t done?” she exclaimed.

  “I asked you to wear that thing I got you.”

  She scrunched up her nose. “Oh, come on! It was so cheesy! And it barely covered my . . .” She sucked her teeth and laughed. She threw back her head and groaned. “Okay, fine. Fine! I’ll wear it tonight.”

  He raised his brows. “Really?”

  “Yeah, really,” she said as he eased her back onto the sofa cushion.

  “You know I would’ve done it just for the lingerie,” he whispered before snaking a hand up her tank top.

  She laughed. “Then why’d you have me bother with the whole damn pep talk?”

  He didn’t answer her question. He kissed her instead and fondled her breast, and all talk about Derrick, Ricky, and everything else ended.

  Chapter 38

  Jamal

  Jamal took a deep breath before pushing open the glass doors to Ray’s Bar and Lounge. When he stepped inside and the smell of smoke and liquor filled his lungs, he was hit with a wave of nostalgia. He remembered the many nights he, Ricky, and Derrick had spent here laughing and drinking. He remembered the stories and the chiding. He’d thought those days would last forever, but of course, they hadn’t.

  “Well, look what the cat dragged in!” Ray rasped from behind the counter.

  Jamal smiled and gave the old man a dap. “What’s up, Ray?”

  “I haven’t seen your ass in a while,” Ray said. “Where you been?”

  “I’ve been around. Just been busy.” Jamal glanced over his shoulder and spotted Ricky sitting at their usual booth, the one that practically had their names written on it.