by Lady Keisha
“Lord help me!” he screamed.
“Miss Grayson,” Anton said with a deep voice and in a more reserved manner than before.
“Mister Anton?” she said, a little startled but still not on edge.
“Girl, get the hell off the floor,” Anton said with a squint of his face.”
“I ain’t got no money!” she screamed.
“I don’t want your Donald Trump-ass money. I came here because I wanted a word with Miss Grayson.”
“All right,” Thelma said, a little nervous but standing tall and staring straight into his eyes.
“What I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted by the hospitality of the school, was that we all have different roles in society. Just because I have been kicked out of Lincoln High, doesn’t mean that I cease to exist.”
“I understand, Mister…”
“Anton. Call me Anton.”
“Anton. I just think there was a better way to present yourself, that’s all I was saying. Are you going to rough me up just because I have an opinion?”
“No ma’am,” Anton said. “But I still stand by my remark that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Anyway…I came here to let you know that if you ever want to talk, woman to man, about these issues you can always text me.”
“Excuse me?”
“What, Oprah never explained to you what a cell phone does? It works on the same frequency for rich white folk as it does niggas in the hood.”
“I know what a cell phone is,” she said with a curt face. “But you said woman to man…like what, a date?”
“Doesn’t have to be a date,” Anton said. “I just meant if you want to talk about the issues sometime.”
“Oh…I see.”
“And maybe we can go out to some place nice. And you can wear a sexy dress. And maybe we can dance at a really VIP club. Feel me?”
“Ummm…”
“But not a date.”
“Not a date?”
“Nah. I just think you’re hot. I’d love to dance with you. Put on some R and B, Netflix and chill know what I’m saying? But not a date.”
Thelma suddenly laughed. “You are fresh, Mister Anton! ‘Not a date’ my foot…”
Anton finally smiled. “So we good then? Let’s do it Friday.”
“Well…” Thelma hesitated, even while Stella was making puppy noises on the other side of the car, scared to death. “I…I don’t date, Mister Anton. And even if I did, what makes you think I would date someone like you?”
“It’s cool, I get it. You’re shy. You’re afraid. But here’s the deal, sugar. I don’t date no hoes. You understand? I treat a woman like a woman. And you showed me something here tonight. I don’t settle. I want only the best.”
Thelma laughed softly. “And I’m the best?”
“You have ambition in your eyes. The same way I used to have. I recognize it. Maybe the only difference between you and I, Miss Grayson, is that we took two different trains to get to the same place. Feel me?”
“Mister Anton…” She shook her head. “You know what? Fine. I will go with you on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“No guns. No bodyguards. If you’re going have this discussion with me like a real man, then get rid of the cast of Barber Shop.”
“Owww damn,” Anton laughed it up with his boys.
“Am I Ice Cube?” said one.
“You Cedric the Entertainer,” laughed another.
“I can’t afford to do that. I have to be protected.”
“Uh, uh,” she said. “I’m the one that should be protected. You’re supposed to be a man. An important man. Why do you need your brothers following you everywhere? Do they watch you while you do everything under the sun, including what goes on in the bedroom?”
“Nah, we get the entrails of hoes,” laughed one guard.
Anton snapped, demanding silence and respect. He stared Thelma down.
“You know what? You’re right. I’m going to trust you this once, Thelma. And I hope you trust me when I say I cannot reveal any information in case this is a set up. No talk of business.”
“I don’t want to talk about business.”
“OK. Where we meeting, Your Majesty?”
“Somewhere nice, Anton. But not like a ‘date’ place. No clubs, no twerking.”
Anton laughed quietly. “All right. Let’s go to East Thunder. It’s a restaurant. Highest prices in town. But it’s a good place to talk. Soft jazz music. Best steak in town.”
“All right…” Thelma said with a flinch, not believing what she just did.
III
And she heard about it too. Stella just about lost her wits and let her have it all the way to the car. Thankfully, Brandye and Shakiska found their own way home…not that a story about a couple of hoes matters that much.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Stella said, crying into her hands. “A thug ass nigga ask you out and you say yes? Are you crazy?”
“It’s not a date, really,” Thelma said with a bob of her head. “We’re just going to talk.”
“Huhh…” Stella muttered. “Anton Bridges doesn’t talk. When he asks a woman out he expects something from her. What are you going to do, get mixed up in a bunch of gangster shit?”
“Stella,” Thelma said in annoyance. “All men expect something from women. That’s why a woman with self respect stands up for herself and doesn’t give it all away.”
“Yeah but-”
“I don’t care if he’s a gangster…” Thelma flinched and corrected herself. “That is to say, I am not intimidated by a gangster trying to talk shit to me. I don’t back down.”
“Huh. Sounded like you were saying you don’t care if he is a gangster, you might still get up on his dick.”
“Whaaat!” Thelma asked, blushing at the thought. “You are terrible!”
“Uh huh, you’re laughing now. You better not be coming back with two of his babies and chasing him down for child support.”
“My goodness, Stella. You just have to throw every black stereotype in the book at me, don’t you?”
“You’re the one who’s dating a gangsta!”
“It’s not a date.”
“Oh my…uh uh. I’m not even getting involved with this shit. I have a clean record! What if I want to run for governor one day?”
“Hell,” Thelma replied, “you’ve done so much pot you’re already ineligible.”
*
Thelma decided to wear something sophisticated-sexy, not sleazy. Not only was that not Anton’s type, but it didn’t feel like her either. She wore a one-piece designer dress in white with a knee high slip and turtle neck top. She had her hair styled and wore subtle makeup. Nothing about Thelma was fake and she always had a way of bringing out “the real you”, crushing the layers of fake sympathies beneath her high heels.
She smiled as she saw Anton approaching, alone and dressed in a black suit. He saw her and immediately walked over. She stood up and he helped her into her chair before sitting down.
“Miss Thelma Grayson. I’m surprised to see you here.”
“Me too,” she said a bit nervously. “I see you got all dressed up.”
“I dress for the occasion,” he said. “Like I said, you deserve my full attention.”
“Why is that, Anton?” she said with a smile.
“Because you’re beautiful.”
“Oh, now. Now you’re just flattering me.”
“Hey, accept a compliment,” he said with a calm smile. “Don’t be questioning my tastes. I have only the finest. And you are the finest woman I’ve seen in a long time.”
“Oh come on, what a line,” she said with a giggle. “Playing me, and so early on in the night!”
“I’m not a player. The truth is, I could have any woman I want. And I did.”
She listened cautiously.
“But I lived the life of a foolish young man. Now I’m almost thirty years old. And as I age like a distinguis
hed gentleman, so too do my preferences change.”
“You expect me to believe you’re a gentleman?”
“Of course I am. I have self-respect. And when I go out, I make sure it’s all about my lady.”
“You sound like a player to me,” Thelma said folding her arms. “I have self-respect too. And I don’t treat dating so casually.”
“I am a man of great desire. I don’t hesitate and I go after what I want. I tell you one thing. Every single woman I’ve ever dated chased after me first.”
“Really?”
“It’s the element of danger. It’s a turn on. It’s the next best thing to being a celebrity. I have money. I have power. And I have momma’s disapproval. Oh yeah and the fact that I’m black is just the icing on the cake.” He winked.
“I’ve never understood that, you know,” Thelma said, leaning in and resting her chin on her hand. “As soon as a black man succeeds in life he’s got to marry a white woman.”
“Boys will be boys,” he said with a snicker. “But if it gets to be a thing then that nigga just have low self-esteem.”
“See, now why you always gotta say the N word?”
“It’s our word, that’s why. We took it back. I grew up watching Richard Pryor on television. He was my hero. Told the world where to stick it. He had no fear. Or to put it another way, he never let anyone talk down to him. Whether it was a white nightclub bouncer or the host of a talk show.”
“You have a lot of anger, don’t you?” she said, looking into his intense eyes, which were constantly staring at her.
“I have passion. Is it a bit of a roller coaster to be part of my life? Of course. But the quality of life is not determined by how long we stay alive. It’s about creating good memories. Memories of love, compassion, and yes, sometimes it’s about sex. The kind of intense and mind blowing sex that we accidentally experience once in a lifetime.”
Thelma flinched and crossed her legs.
“I’m not going to get to heaven for my abstinence,” he laughed. “So I try to be extra kind to people. You feel me?”
“I get it,” she said, silenced and in deep thought.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just find your lifestyle so opposite to my own.”
“Opposites attract.”
“Not always.”
“Are you attracted to me?”
“No.”
“Liar,” he said with a grin. “I can sense when a woman wants me.”
“Oh really? You have a lot of nerve, don’t you?”
“No. I’m just an expert at reading people.”
“Oh, well it just so happens I am too. I studied body language in college.”
“So you can read my thoughts?”
“Sure, I could if I wanted to.”
“And what am I thinking now?” he asked with a sneer.
“I really don’t care to know…”
“Sure you do. I’m thinking you’re a beautiful woman and I’m happy that you’ve brought joy to my dark world of mayhem and treachery. Now, let’s dance shall we?”
“I thought this was a classy place? No dancing or…”
“It is a classy place. Classy dancing. Slow dancing. Come on, Miss Grayson. I won’t move too fast.”
“Yeah…like I believe that,” she said with a guarded smile. She eventually accepted the offer and joined him on the dance floor. It was a quick dance before dinner but it did give the two opposites some time to feel the attraction.
Whatever it was, it felt real. Polar opposites forced to reconcile and compromise, all the while envying the other person with desperation. She admired his power to get things done. He admired her class and position of prominence, legitimized gangsta shit he called all this talk of politics.
Of course, as the night progressed they hit upon the stubborn reality of their respective worlds.
“So, you are involved in organized crime?”
He smiled and took a drink. “Two opposite trains, my lady. The real difference between us, between all successful black families and a bunch of ghetto niggas is that we fight for different teams. It’s like the play offs or like your favorite Marvel Comics superhero. Except in the adult world, in that harsh, cruel world of motherfuckers with no souls, it’s all about which gang you choose.”
He peered into her eyes with a smile that would tickle the devil. “If you’re a kid from the ghetto then your only chance is to make peace with the Crips or the Bloods. But if you got clout, if you come from a rich black family, then you have options. You can join the better gang of the U.S. military. Once you graduate and prove yourself, you can join the bigger gang of the Democratic or Republican parties. And when you prove yourself a real gangster nigga that nobody wants to fuck with, you become President Barack Obama, H.N.I.C.”
Thelma nodded and scoffed. “You have a very cynical view of the world.”
“War is in our nature, Miss Grayson. Nobody’s going to get out of this game alive. What matters is that you don’t abandon your team. You are kind to the orphans and widows. You stick up for the people who can’t fight back.”
“That sounds…confusing,” she said. “That’s exactly what I intend to do.”
“I know. What did I say?”
“But…you break the law.”
“Would you ever bend the rules if it meant helping one homeless person out? One ghetto kid sentenced to die in a drive by or liquor store robbery? Would you offer him nothing but prayer? Or would you offer him protection.”
Thelma shut her mouth and resisted talking. It was hard to argue with the man’s logic even if he was a tad theatrical. Finally she took a drink, giving herself the extra oomph to ask another question. “Do you kill people?”
“Does the president order troops to go into Afghanistan? What are we doing to fight ISIS, Miss Grayson?”
“Well…”
“Now what if ISIS was located in your own city. Only instead of a towel head coming after you, you got fifty other niggas with automatic shotguns who want to see you dead. Because of something your brother said to his sister. Bullshit is what it is. But trying to negotiate with men who want to kill you? A lost cause.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way.”
“I’m sorry that the world is what it is. But who else is going to help the projects? Who’s fighting for the ghetto? All we do is give them hope. Saying they can rise up out of the ghetto if they really will it to be. But we hardly lift a finger to help them. If the government looks at my track record, they will see that they have murdered more innocent men than I have. I take care of my boys. I am Robin Hood. Luke Cage in the flesh. I operate outside the law and I answer to no one. But no one can tell me that I’m immoral. If I had the opportunities you had, Miss Grayson, maybe we would have been soul mates.”
“I know who Luke Cage is,” Thelma said with a smirk.
“Really? Comic book geek?”
“When I was younger, my father let me read some of his collection.”
“Niiiice. Gotta love a woman who knows her superheroes.”
“And is that what you consider yourself, Anton? A superhero?”
“I like that. Never thought of it that way, but that sure puts a nice spin on it.”
Thelma laughed hard. Over the course of dinner, she had a few glasses of wine, all on the house of course, as Anton considered himself the perfect gentleman, even if he did have the sex drive of a restless street mutt.
“I love the way you laugh. You’re so pretty when you let loose a little bit.”
“Mmm-mmm, I’m not a loose kind of girl.”
“Why’s that? Got a reputation to uphold?”
“It’s not that, it’s just that I’m not that easy.”
“The way I see it, women deserve the respect to be passionate just like men do. I think it’s a damned shame that a man can enjoy himself with the company of many fine women and not hear one word from a brother, but a woman’s got to wait to fall in love before she can party. What ki
nd of bullshit is that? Life is short and the more love we have to give, the more we’re going to enjoy it. You know?”
“I agree with that…in theory…”
“So what do you do, in theory…when you’re attracted to a man and he’s attracted to you? Suppress what you feel or see what happens?”
She laughed. Funny you say that…my friend just told me at this ridiculous party that I should let loose sometimes. And fool around before I get elected into public office.”
Anton laughed heartily. “Well, it’s better you get that shit over with now than when you become the next Colin Powell, know what I’m saying?”
She laughed, a little too tipsy for her own comfort. “Well, this has been an interesting night, Anton.”
“Whoah, why you disappearing on me?”
“I just…”
“What?” he said, stroking her hand. “Talk to me.”
She giggled and cooed. “I think I’ve had a little too much to drink.”
“Why do girls always say that, anyway? Does that mean you’re drunk or that you’re just enjoying yourself and thinking of following your heart and not your head?”
“It means I don’t trust myself with you, right now…” she said, a bit too honestly. She quickly lost his tight eye contact and prepared to stand.
“Hey, Thelma.”
“Yes?”
“You know sleeping with a criminal is not against the law.”
She shook her head and stood up. “Excuse me…I got to go to the little girl’s room.”
“Take your time…”
She smiled weakly, giving him one last look of “I can’t feel this way.” But her mind was captivated and her body was tripping—all tingly inside, comfortable in his presence and yet nervous about the possibility of feeling anything more intense.
Anton took his time and finished his drink. He could feel the tangible attraction developing though she was trying hard to fight it. He also knew that given her type, the upper middle class good girl trying to stay strong, there was no way she was going to make the first move… so Anton told a little fib.
He waited until he saw her coming out of the bathroom and then went to meet her. The bathroom was right down a corridor, a bit out of the way and perfect to make an unexpected play.
He smiled and immediately noticed she seemed flush in the face, and short of breath.
