The Ex Killer Series

by Bridget Bundy

  I smiled at him. I was impressed. I ate a piece of pie so I wouldn’t have to answer his question.

  “So, do you still play basketball?” Alex added creamer to his coffee.

  “No, I stopped playing when I got out of high school.”

  “I think you should really consider playing at the college level.”

  Not what I wanted to talk about, but I did wish I could play again. What a dream come true, but it wasn’t going to happen. I had no comment. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable again. The bugging feeling of being with the wrong person held strong in my mind, and actually, I wanted to go home. This pie date wasn’t going anywhere, and I felt like I was wasting my time. Alex was not going to be a part of my future.

  He must have noticed my discomfort and asked, “What’s wrong?”

  I had to be honest. “Alex, I think it’s really nice that you took me out, but we don’t have a thing in common. You and I are sitting here, and you’re telling me all these great things about yourself, and it doesn’t make a difference. I mean, seriously, what will become of us after this moment is over? I have no misunderstandings about where I stand in this town, and I have no misunderstandings about you. So in this reality, there is no other future we could possibly have together simply because of who we are. I mean, what are you expecting out of this?”

  “Angela, I’m just trying to be your friend. That’s it.”

  “I don’t think you and I can be friends, Alex.”

  “I see our differences, Angela. It is blatant in my face, in your face. I am white, and you are black. I am very aware, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk to each other and be friends. I can’t live my life based on the color of my skin and everyone else’s skin. That’s crazy, that’s not living. And I understand you didn’t grow up in a wealthy neighborhood. I don’t care, Angela. I see that you are a decent human being, and that’s good enough for me.”

  I was beginning to like him, but I was still on guard. “You’re too nice. I’ve never had a guy talk to me like you do. You’re always looking at the positives. I don’t have that in my life a whole lot right now.”

  “I know you don’t have it easy. I’m not trying to make your life any more difficult. You and I can just take our time. There is nothing to prove and nothing to worry about.”

  He was right. He was absolutely right.

  “We need to start over. Can we start over?”

  I smiled and answered, “Sure.”

  Our conversation went much better after that. I wasn’t so critical of what he was talking about, and I wasn’t on guard as much.

  After Alex finished his pie, he asked, “Are you hungry for real food? I’m still hungry.”

  Thank you, Jesus! I was starving. I said, “Yes, I could eat something else.”

  I thought he was going to ask for a menu, but he remarked, “I have a taste for Mexican food. Have you ever tried Mexican food before?”

  “Tacos in high school,” I answered.

  He laughed and said, “Well, I know this awesome restaurant in Montgomery. We can be there in no time, and I can introduce you to some excellent, authentic Mexican food.”

  I had to go. I was ready to go. “Yes, I’m all for Mexican food!”

  After Alex paid for dessert, we left for Montgomery, and I felt a sense of freedom. All of my worries were behind me. I let down my window, and I let the wind hit my face. Oh, I could do this all the time, just get away from all of my problems. For everyone else, driving out of town could be a normal thing, but for me, this first time, was very exciting. I appreciated this moment because I knew at the end of the entire journey I was going to be right back at Covington Point Projects.

  Alex and I arrived at the Mexican restaurant in the late part of the afternoon. It was a so beautiful. It had bright colored tables and benches, and the walls had scenery of flowers and small quaint homes with women in long white dresses and men wearing hats that were wide and tall. There was a separate area where glasses hung above the bar, and each glass was clean and sparkling like they never had a drink in them before. Everyone that worked in the restaurant was of Mexican descent, and all the waitresses and waiters wore black pants and black short sleeves shirts. Most of the ladies had onyx hair that was silky, long and shiny. I wish I had hair like that, so beautiful.

  The restaurant was extremely busy. The waiters and waitresses were bustling around from the back where the kitchen was to the tables or to the bar and around again. The place was fast pace. I couldn’t keep up.

  They all spoke Spanish, and I was amazed at how they never seem to stutter through their words, and how fluent it sounded. I didn’t understand anything they were saying, but I was at awe and wished I learned Spanish in high school. They did offer the class, but I wasn’t even interested. I thought it was useless learning another language. I realized I was wrong standing in that restaurant listening to them speak and not understanding a single word.

  We were seated, and one of the young ladies came over and asked for our drink order. She spoke English with an accent, and I thought that was the coolest. I was so use to the country draw of the people in my home town that this wonder of a different language impressed me. Alex noticed how involved I was when they started speaking to one another.

  He asked, “Do you understand what they’re saying?”

  “No, I have no idea. Do you speak Spanish?”

  “No, but my brother, Josh, speaks it very well. I’ve seen how he catches the girls using it, and they have no clue what he’s saying. Sometimes I think he makes fun of them, and they don’t get it.”

  “That’s a mean thing to do.” I remarked.

  Alex nodded his head a little and opened his menu. I asked him to order for me because I didn’t know what to get. I didn’t want anything too spicy.

  “You can never go wrong getting a quesadilla. Do you like beef, chicken, shrimp, or steak?”

  “I like shrimp. What’s in the...” I couldn’t say the word.

  He repeated the word again and continued, “It has cheese, sometimes peppers, and mushrooms. It’s really good.”

  “I want the shrimp.”

  The waitress came back with the drinks, and he told her what we wanted. She disappeared speaking Spanish afterwards, and then someone passed her carrying a huge tray with several plates of food. I could smell the steam and some of the food was sizzling. I could eat off of everyone’s plate in that restaurant. It all smelled so good!

  Alex heard music from the other room and he looked over in that direction. He asked, “Angela, you want to dance?”

  What the hell was he thinking? I was stunned to hear him ask me that. I answered, “I can’t dance to that music.”

  “We’re here to have fun. No one cares if you can’t dance to it.”

  “You know how to dance?”

  “Of course, I do. I took dancing 101 in college, and I aced that class.” I thought he was serious when he said that, but he started laughing and remarked, “I’m joking.”

  I didn’t get it. Alex led me to the dance floor in the other room. There were other couples dancing and twirling. It looked complicated. I was trying to follow Alex’s lead, but I tripped over my feet a couple of times and stepped on his many times. Alex laughed and so did I. Eventually, a slow song came on, and I started to leave the floor. But he pulled me back. We started slow dancing, and I was about to faint. This guy smelled really good, and he was solid and his skin was smooth. I wanted to walk away, but I couldn’t. I decided to take this time as one of those moments Tanie spoke about. Something to remember, but my affection for him was growing. I hated to admit it, but I felt so different around him. I was feeling something I never knew before. We slow dance to the entire song, and sometimes I would look up at him into his blues eyes. His eyes were smiling at me. This was a fantastic dream that I did not want to wake up from. It had to be a dream. There was no way I was dancing with a beautiful blue eyed white guy in the middle of a Mexican restaurant. It even sounded ridiculo
us. I was going to wake up at any moment and laugh till my stomach hurt.

  The music stopped, and we went back to our table. Our steaming food was waiting for us. It smelled really good, and we started eating and talking. Alex talked about Sherrie and Josh, and how their lives were growing up. I didn’t talk about my crazy family, too embarrassing. His life sounded more like a fairy tale as he spoke about travelling through the summer when he was younger with his family and seeing the world. I wondered what it was like to see different places around the world, to hear the different languages like the one spoken in this restaurant.

  Colum was like a hole in a bubble. Everyone seemed to speak the same, hate the same, love the same, and it just wasn’t anything exciting or unexpected. I felt like being with Alex was living outside the bubble. I was missing a lot living in that town. I knew I would be happy living somewhere else. One day I will have my chance. I will go and find my own spot in the world.

  Dinner with Alex was very nice. I have never been on a date like that before. We talked about my time in school when I played basketball. He talked more about his family. It was a civil conversation that I never had before on any date I’ve ever had with Jason. I felt like a human being.

  But now with us heading back to reality, I had set in my mind that Alex and I probably would never see each other again. I wasn’t going to set my hopes high or expect anything more than what we shared the pass few hours.

  He dropped me off at my car in the nursing home parking lot. I thanked him for a good time and for dinner. I was about to get out of his truck, when Alex asked me if he could see me the next day. Was he serious?

  I asked him, “Are you sure you want to see me again?”

  “Of course, I do. I had a great time today. Didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I did.” No hesitation there.

  “Tomorrow,” he affirmed.

  That nervousness came back, but I agreed to go out with him again. We set up a time to meet, and I thanked him for a nice evening before getting out of his truck. I watched him as he drove off, and I turned to go to my sister’s car. Looking at the brick nursing home was like a jolt of reality. I wasn’t Alex’s friend at that point. I was his sister’s employee, the custodian of the fourth floor.

  I drove back home thinking about Alex, and I was making comparisons between him and Jason. One date and Alex already proved to be the better man. Jason failed in every way at being a decent boyfriend. I knew how I wanted to be treated, but I never got it from him. Alex comes along and on the first date, we had pie, went out to dinner and dancing. He taught me what it felt like to be treated like a lady. And he still wants to be with me. Even though, we are totally different in every way possible. I was truly beginning to like him. I was looking forward to seeing him again.

  As I came upon the parking lot to my apartment, I knew there were a lot of people out, and there was going to be music blaring from different cars. There was a bad element where I lived and was more apparent at night. There was the smell of weed and people were drinking. The public use of drugs in Covington Point was common and okay to do because people knew the police wouldn’t arrest them. The police stayed away from our neighborhood as much as possible. I distanced myself from that crap as much as possible.

  My heart was killing my chest because I was afraid of running into Jason. I just wanted to get home without him noticing me. Nobody paid attention as I drove in the parking lot. I guess people thought my sister was in the car, seeing how it was her car.

  Once I parked, I went directly into the apartment. I knew Jason was out there somewhere in the parking lot, but I wasn’t trying to stick around to see. I unlocked the door to find the house dark and silent, and I locked the door behind me.

  I went to bed. I closed my eyes trying to remember the dance with Alex. His musk tickled every part of my nose, and his blue eyes blazed in my mind. I stopped breathing. He took my breath away. Maybe, I was falling in love, or maybe, I needed to get real and know nothing is going to happen between us. My mind was racing. Sleep was hard to come by.

  MONDAY, MAY 18, 2009

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  I woke up, and I looked at myself in the mirror. I noticed unhappiness settled into my eyes. I had gone through so many emotions the past few days. The only person that really made me happy was the one I least expected. I never thought for a moment that someone like Alex was going to make a difference.

  Alex comes from one of the most affluent families in Colum. His father not only owned the nursing home where I worked, but other businesses, and tons of real estate around the county, too. His mother is a lawyer. She has an office in downtown Colum, and she practices law mostly in Lowndes County and in Montgomery. She serves on Colum City Council, too. Helen, Olivia’s best friend, works for Alex’s mother in the law office downtown as a secretary.

  My family is poor, always have been. We’ve called Covington Point Projects our home for most of our lives. My mom always struggled to take care of us. Sometimes we went without a meal for a couple of days, but our mom made sure we weren’t homeless. That’s the best she could do back then. There just weren’t any major accomplishments in my family, and compared to Alex’s family, we were no one.

  It’s all strange to me anyways. I mean Alex explained why he was talking to me, being nice and taking me out. But the fact of the matter is Alex and I come from totally different backgrounds. It just doesn’t make sense, but I’ll take the happiness any way I can get it.

  My head began to hurt, and I decided to fish through the cabinet below the sink in the bathroom to see if I can find some kind of pills. At least, my stomach wasn’t hurting anymore. Andrea had all kinds of samples she got from work that were all placed in a huge bowl, and I had to read through all kinds of packets to make sure I wasn’t taking the wrong thing. I finally found what I was looking for, and I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water from the pitcher in the refrigerator.

  Pritchard was sitting at the table drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. He had toast with butter on a tiny broken plate in front of him. I didn’t say anything to him. He looked pitiful sitting there by himself with his cracked plate.

  He said, “You should read what’s in the newspaper.”

  I finished drinking my water and asked, “Why?”

  “They mentioned Andrea.” Pritchard set the paper on the other side of the table, and I sat down to read it.

  COLUM REGISTERED NURSE ARRESTED

  Andrea Gray, a longtime resident of Colum and registered nurse, is accused of shoplifting from Jerry’s Convenience Store on Friday, May 15. According to Jerry Bolling, the owner of Jerry’s Convenience Store, Gray entered his establishment, opened several bottles of alcohol, and drunk out of them. She walked out of the premises without paying. Bolling contacted the police, and Gray was arrested the next day. She is currently in jail awaiting a court hearing. Bolling has stated he will seek restitution against Gray and hopes she will spend a substantial amount of time in jail.

  I stopped reading. There was more, but I didn’t have the patience. I pushed the newspaper away and stated, “I can’t worry about her. She should have just paid for the alcohol. She wouldn’t be in so much trouble. I got my own problems to deal with. I don’t have time for hers.”

  “Angela, you and Olivia should really go with me to court.”

  “I’ve already told you I’m not going. You can go by yourself. She appreciates you more, anyway.” I walked out of the kitchen.

  Pritchard remarked, “There is a real possibility she may not come home, Angela. She can serve some real serious time for stealing.”

  “Does that mean you’ll move out?” I asked with sarcasm.

  I didn’t have any more time to waste. I had to get to work. I took Andrea’s car again. It was so easy getting to work without her giving me a hard time in the morning. Maybe, she should stay in jail.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  When I did get to work, the whole place was busy. Everyone seemed to have some pla
ce to go. I went to the fourth floor, and I started cleaning room by room. The morning seemed to disappear quickly, and I almost forgot to take a break. I went to the basement to check the refrigerator. There was another sandwich in there all wrapped up in plastic. I opened it and sniffed it. It smelled good to me. I took it and a bottle of juice. I hit the jackpot. Another bill was coming due real soon, and I wasn’t going to come up short on money this time.

  I sat on the back loading dock with stolen my lunch, enjoying the breeze that came through. The back of the nursing home was just as nice as the front. The grass was mowed and trimmed, and all the trees had perfect circles of mulch around them, flower beds here and there with some kind of unknown purple and white flowers. Some residents of the nursing home were sitting in the wooden benches that were placed in key scenic view spot. I saw a few geese waddling around. The nursing home wasn’t so bad at times.

  But I should have known Tanie would find a way to disturb me. She drove up to the loading dock. She knew she wasn’t supposed to be back there with her car, but she hardly cared about rules. She did whatever she wanted. I didn’t know if I was glad to see her or not. It depended upon what she had to say. She got out of the car looking refreshed. Her hair was perfect. She had on new clothes and her makeup was the perfect shade.

  She asked me, “Where have you been?”

  “Here at work.”

  “I mean yesterday. I came by your house looking for you, and I called. I was worried about you.”

  That was a bold face lie. She didn’t come by my apartment. I asked, “Why you worried about me?”

  “I heard what happened. I heard what Jason did to you Saturday.”

  “You heard about that?” I wasn’t surprised. She hears everything.

  “Yes, I did. Everyone knows, Angela. Are you okay?”

  “I’m okay. He didn’t defeat me.”