by Jahquel J
“Thank you, Pit Pat.” She squeezed her hands and Pit Pat smiled before she left the room. When Pit Pat was out the room, Golden rolled her eyes at me. “This was your plan all along? How do you know I’m not casing your place?”
“‘Cause I trust my grandmother and she would have told me if she felt something off with you. Like I told you, you’re good, and I got you.”
“It’s hard to believe that when you say it. Nobody helps someone without wanting anything in return.” She was so skeptical, and I could see she had been hurt in the past. Her face showed that she was disappointed more than a few times, and skepticism proved that as well.
“I’m not nobody; I’m Yoshon Santana.” When I said that, she leaned on the bed with her arms crossed and stared at me. She stared as if she was trying to figure me out or read me
“Thank you. I really do appreciate it and don’t know how I’ll pay you back. But, if you’re going to allow us to stay here, I want to pay you some kind of rent.”
“Rent? Ma, I own this crib so what you expect me to do with your rent money?” When I bought this crib, I paid cash. Because I made smart investments, I had the paper trail to show how I was able to afford this house, and where the money came from. Besides taxes every year, I didn’t know what the hell Golden wanted me to use her rent money for?
“Okay… so I’ll pay for my own food.” She tried to find another reason to hold onto her independence.
“That’s something you have to work out with Pit Pat; she handles everything that has to do with the kitchen. All I do is eat the food that’s on the table when I come in.”
Sighing, she tossed her head back. “How can I help around here? I want to earn my keep.”
“Clean my room.”
“Seriously?”
“Nah. Put all your hard work into the tanning salon. Earn a check and show me I didn’t make a bad decision by helping you out.”
“Me? A black girl working at a tanning salon.”
Laughing, I leaned up from the dresser. “I have some black clients that come in too. We’re not all blessed with this chocolate goodness.”
“I guess,” she giggled. Looking at her watch, she stared back at me. “Do I have time to take a quick nap?”
“Be my guest,” I told her and headed out the room.
I went in my room to remove some money out my safe and then went downstairs where Pit Pat was cleaning up the kitchen dishes. When we first moved into the house, I hired a full staff to take care of the crib. She would argue them down and go after to do it her way. Pit Pat was seventy years old and still got around like she was young. Besides a bad knee, she got around and took care of this house. I wanted her to relax and have people cater to her, and that’s not what she wanted. She hated to be treated like a baby and told me she was going to be the woman of the house until I bought me a wife home.
“Want some left-over beans?” she called over her shoulders while in the fridge.
“Nah, you trying to have me with gas, Pit.” She laughed and turned around with vegetables and seasonings. “What are you about to make now?”
“It’s more than just me and you, boy. I need to cook a good dinner… see if you bull-headed sister will come over,” she told me.
Growing up, Yolani and Pit Pat always had a crazy relationship. Yolani spent half of her teens trying to figure out who she was. She was struggling with her sexuality and Pit Pat didn’t understand. Shit, I didn’t understand her, and I was her brother. How could you help someone who was battling with their sexuality and didn’t know themselves? You couldn’t. Growing up, I didn’t know how many times Pit Pat kicked Yolani out on her ass after she disrespected her. Their relationship was better now, and Pit Pat made sure she inserted herself in Yolani’s life. If you left it up to Yolani, she wouldn’t call or visit us at all. Once she got into the streets, the streets consumed her. Hazel, as her wife, didn’t even come before the streets. It was something I constantly told her she needed to work on. Still, if you knew Lani, you knew she didn’t listen to no one except herself.
“You know Yolani isn’t going to come over here. I’ll ask Hazel if she’ll come over tonight. You know she loves spending time with you.”
“I love spending time with her. Wish my big-headed granddaughter listened to me about her. They didn’t need to get married.”
“You gotta let her live her life, Pit Pat.”
“And look how that turned out. She’s in the streets more than you, and she married a girl that she barely makes time for. You know how many times Hazel comes over here and cries to me? She can’t go and cry to her parents because they’ll just throw it in her face how she doesn’t listen. That child wants her wife, not her wife running the streets.”
“I try not to get involved in their issues. Yolani likes to share what she wants, and that’s it.” Whenever Hazel needed someone to vent to, she went to Pit Pat. If it was one person you could talk to without them forming judgment, it was Pit Pat. She could listen, give advice and put you in your place without you feeling judged or scolded.
“Well, that child loves her some Lani. I know love, and when I look into her eyes, I could tell she loves Lani, and your sister is being bull-headed. Like you were once upon a time,” she reminded me.
“We not talking about me.”
“Uh huh. Why did you bring the girl to live here? It’s not about your rental business you run through your condos in the city.”
“Just feel like she needs to be close… I can’t explain it.”
“Hmm. Well, I can feel she’s a good person. The girl damn near wanted to break down in front of me but held it together. She’ll be fine here.”
“Good, because I have to leave in a few days for California. I’m going to be opening a dispensary out there.”
“Work, work, work and some more work,” she mocked me as I kissed her on the cheek.
“Money makes the world go around, crazy woman.” She smiled and balled her fist up at me.
“I have to go to the tanning shop and speak to the contractor. Renovations should be done next week.”
“And what about the staff?”
“I got it handled.”
“You need an assistant, Yoshon. Stop trying to do everything by yourself. That girl has no business working at the tanning salon; you need to hire her as an assistant. Let her pick through applications and help you with your other businesses. Give her a chance.”
What my grandmother was saying wasn’t a bad idea. I could use someone who looked over my businesses and helped me out. As of now, I was the one doing all of it on my own, and the shit had me stressing the fuck out. If I hired help, it would be easier to manage shit. Still, I liked to do shit myself, and that was an issue when you had employees. You needed to delegate, and it was something that I had to learn.
“I hear you.” She lowered her eyes and pursed her lips because she knew I was full of shit. It didn’t hurt to pretend to act like I was going to listen to her suggestion.
Heading upstairs, I went into my room and called Eva. For the past two days she had been blowing my phone up, and I’ve been ignoring her. She answered soon as the call connected.
“Hey,” was all she said. I could tell from her dry tone that she was pissed that I had been ducking her phone calls.
“What’s good? I’ve been busy with shit, so I couldn’t get back to you.”
“So busy that you couldn’t shoot me a text message? Yoshon, I’m trying, and I don’t feel like you’re giving me the same energy back. Let me know if I’m wasting my time because I got other people waiting to date me.”
“Stop playing with me before I lay you over my knee and spank ya ass,” I threatened, and she giggled. I knew I could get her to crack a smile.
“Don’t try and butter me up, Yoshon. I miss seeing your face, why aren’t you making that happen?”
“Let me take you out to dinner tonight. I’ll come pick you up around nine.”
“Hmm, that’s last minute, so
I need to check my calendar, you know I’m busy,” she teased. Eva knew she wanted to scream yes soon as I offered dinner.
“I guess I can ju—”
“Don’t play with me,” she giggled. “I’ll be ready, and you better be on time,” she demanded.
“Bet. See you later tonight, Beautiful.”
“Wait one second, how’s Pit Pat?”
“She’s good, you know she asks about you.”
“Then stop keeping me away,” she made sure to add.
“I’ll see you tonight, Eva.”
After I ended the call, I pulled something out for tonight and showered before changing. I had a lot of driving ahead of me. Tonight, I planned to get some sleep in my bed, but if I ignored Eva another night, she wouldn’t hesitate to pop up and check on me.
We were halfway through dinner and Eva kept rubbing her feet on my leg. I knew she wanted to leave and head to her crib. If it was any other night, I would have taken her home and beat her guts out her body. Tonight, Pit Pat made me promise that I would make it back in time for dinner. Because I knew I had the date with Eva and couldn’t cancel, I made her meet me for seven instead of nine tonight. She complained about the time, still, her ass made sure she was ready when I pulled up to her crib. Pit Pat was making Ox tails, potato salad and rice and beans. I ordered some steak and mash potatoes that I pretended I didn’t like just to save room for Pit Pat’s good. Eva could tell something was off and I could see she was trying to avoid bringing it up by trying to turn up the sexual energy.
Hey, I’m here! Where are you? I stared at the text message from Hazel. I knew she wanted to pick my brain about something with my sister. Part of me was happy to be here so I could avoid the conversation altogether.
“I’ll take the check,” I told the waiter, when he came to refill our champagne flute.
“No dessert, Sir?”
See, this is the shit I couldn’t stand. Nigga, I asked for the check which meant I didn’t want dessert. Here he go suggesting something I didn’t want. He must of understood my facial expression because he quickly fixed his last statement. “Let me go ahead and retrieve your check.”
“Yeah. Go and do that,” I told him and he scurried away.
Eva was staring at me and I knew she was about to start her shit too. She didn’t like when our dates were being rushed. It happened one other time because I had to rush out of town, and she stopped talking to me for two weeks. If I could, I would have stayed with her all night at her apartment. Except, when I made a promise to my grandmother, I always came through for her, no matter what.
“Why do I feel like you’re rushing to get out of here?”
“I just got a lot of stuff to do in the morning and need to get some sleep. I’ve been running on close to nothing this past few days, feel me?” It wasn’t a lie. I did have shit that I needed to handle tomorrow, and these past few days had been a blur.
“Hmmm, so why don’t I just stay at your place tonight? You probably have to head back to the city in the morning anyway.”
I did, but she didn’t need to know that. “Nah, I’m actually heading toward Delaware.” When the words left my mouth, she examined me closely, as if she was trying to stare the lie out of me.
“I’m off tomorrow. I’ll ride along with you.”
Screwing my face up, I stared at her, and she looked away because she knew she had just played herself. “When have I ever handled business around you?”
“Maybe you should. Six months, Yoshon? Where are we going with this? It’s been six months and I feel I’m nowhere close to a commitment from you.” She continued to sulk.
“Why does everything have to move on your time? How you know six months is long enough for me to give the kind of commitment you want?”
“Six months is a decent time with everybody. Usually, I would have been your girlfriend by now. Instead, I’m a booty call, who you take out on dinners.”
“Yo, you really fronting right now.” Eva tried to act like all I did was take her out to dinners. I remember us doing museums, movies, and shopping together. Shit, she spent a few days over my crib with me and we chilled the entire time and ate food.
“It’s fine, Yoshon. I’ll find my own way home,” she gathered her things and attempted to get up. She made eye contact with me, read my expression and placed her purse back on the table. “What? I wanna leave.”
“Act a fool in here and I’ll show you how it’s done,” was all I said to her.
Where did I go wrong with women? Eva was twenty-eight and had her shit together, so I didn’t want to put her in the young category. Yet, some of her actions proved otherwise. She could be a brat when she wanted to. The waiter brought the check, and I paid with cash; I was so pissed with her. A nigga didn’t even want to wait for him to slide my credit card and shit, I needed to bounce now. Holding hands, we exited the restaurant and got to the valet, who was already waiting with our car doors opened. I held Eva’s door opened and watched as she slid into the seat and then tipped the valet driver.
“Can you hurry and take me home?”
“Keep acting the fuck up and I’ll drop you at the train station. Eva, you already know I don’t do the petty shit, and I’m not going to cater to your baby ass attitude. I don’t have no kids, and I damn sure like to think that I’m not dating one.”
“I’m just frustrated.”
“So, speak on that shit like a grown ass woman. I don’t like baby footing and all these immature games; I’m a grown man, Eva.”
“So, act like a fucking man, Yoshon!” she screamed and then leaned back to cross her arms.
“Yeah, I’m gonna drop your ass off until you can act like the fucking lady I met six months ago. I been trying to ignore your little attitudes and shit, but yeah, you ‘bout to get the same treatment back.” Pressing my Ferragamo loafer on the gas a little harder, I zoomed down the block toward her apartment. Eva didn’t live too far from the restaurant, which is why I opted to take her here instead. She wanted to go somewhere on City Island, and a nigga wasn’t about to do all that driving.
From the corner of my eye, I could see tears coming down her cheek as she continued to sit there with her arms folded. Yeah, I understood we hadn’t been spending a lot of time together, and it was because I had businesses to run, and she worked fulltime. Then, she kept pushing this commitment shit on me hard. Something in me wouldn’t allow me to take that step with her. Each time I thought I was ready for it, it never happened. Pit Pat loved her and that’s all that mattered. Yeah, I was feeling her and could see myself getting married and raising a family with her, still, I stalled when it came to telling her I wanted her to be my girl. If that wasn’t enough, I had to hear her complain about how she’s tired of being a booty call or a friend with benefits. The shit was a headache.
“Don’t worry about waiting around,” she snapped as she grabbed her purse and hopped out the whip before I could fully put it into park. I watched as she strutted in her navy-blue form-fitting dress up the stairs in front of her building.
Valentine’s day was only a few weeks away. She was upset now, but she would conveniently get over it by the time it was time to get some gift, flowers, and candy on massacre day. I watched until she got into the building safely and pulled off. She pissed me off because she knew I hated when she touched the door handle and got out without me holding the door for her. Eva could sit and have her own damn pit party. She was hollering about me not spending no time, but when my ass was sending her Chanel bags with roses for no reason at all, she wasn’t complaining. Or, when I picked her up and took her to five-star restaurants for lunch, she was mum. The shit pissed me off because I was trying. Jumping into marriage just because I wanted a wife was something I refused to do. The shit had to happen organically, or I wasn’t with the shit. Ten years down the line, I didn’t want to look at my wife and think that I only married her because she kept pushing the subject. Settling wasn’t something I ever did, and I didn’t plan on doing the shit now
.
When I pulled up to my crib, I spotted Hazel’s car. Staring at my clock, I made it in time for dinner. Walking into the house, I sat my take out on the foyer table and made my way to the kitchen. Pit Pat was plating the food on the Versace glass. It was the glass she used during holidays, so I knew if I missed this, she was going to be pissed with me. When she noticed me, she smiled.
“You have never broken a promise yet,” she said her famous line whenever I came through for her.
“And I don’t plan to,” I took my suit jacket off and placed on the back of the stool. “Where’s everyone?”
“In the dining area. Go on and sit, I’m coming and don’t need no help.” She forced me out the kitchen. Walking down the hall, I entered the dining room, and everyone was seated.
Golden had her hair straightened with a face full of make-up. Shorty was beautiful before, but right now, she was doing something to me. Hazel was sitting across from Golden having a good conversation because they didn’t notice I was in the room until Gyan spoke up.
“Hey, Mr. Yoshon,” he stood up and came over to give me a dap. “The food smells good, right? Your house is huge,” he said all of this in one breath. Little homie was cool as hell. The entire ride back to the crib from his school, he questioned me on a bunch of shit.
“Yeah, Pit Pat knows how to throw down in the kitchen. You in for some good Belizean food tonight. You ever been or heard of Belize?”
“No.”
“It’s where my grandmother is from. She cooks the best food from there,” I informed him and then took a seat next to him and Golden. “You look beautiful.”
She blushed. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been called that. Pit Pat insisted that I put on some makeup and get dressed.”
“She called me and told me the same thing,” Hazel chimed in. I stared at her confused because Hazel rarely went out without looking like she was a hustler’s wife. Everything had to be perfect when she stepped out the crib. So, I knew Pit Pat didn’t call her ass and tell her anything.
