by Nicole Falls
“You know it’s mad creepy to just stare at someone,” she said, startling me out of my gawking.
I pushed my cart further down the aisle and sidled up beside her.
“You looked super concentrated on whatever uh…” I looked at the package now dangling from her left hand, on its way to the hand basket in her right, “flour that is. Never knew flour was so intriguing.”
Celena let out a quick giggle, “Hush, I’m trying out a new recipe for a friend and wanted to make sure I got the gluten free flour that I needed.”
“Oh your friend is one of those?”
“One of what?”
“Gluten-free, taste-free crazy people.”
“Do you even know what gluten-free means?”
“Of course I do. It means ain’t no gluten, bih.”
Celena immediately let out a sharp bark of laughter.
“Something is wrong with you.”
“Actually, there is something wrong with me. You wanna hear about it?”
Shifting her weight, Celena reared back on her heels a little and said, “Okay. I’ll bite…what’s up?”
I looked around the aisle before moving in closer, grabbing her by the elbow, leaning in as if I didn’t want anyone else to hear what I was about to say.
“See, I met this fly ass chick, at some crazy speed dating event I got roped into doing because it was at my friend’s bar and they were short on guys. We vibed, I thought she felt it too…hoped she felt it too, but I wasn’t too sure. Before the end of the night I gave her my number…she refused to give her hers…”
At those words Celena bristled.
“But it was cool. I was letting her come around to Big Daddy…”
“Big Daddy?” Celena repeated, one delicate brow lifting in askance.
“I said what I said. Anyway…you gonna let me finish my story or what?”
She motioned with her hands for me to continue.
“So…she played me and my heart was broken. Sat in my place playing Carl Thomas’ ‘Emotional’, feeling it deeply when that brotha sang ‘look at me, I can’t stop crying’…still holding out hope that she’d call. But days turned to weeks and weeks to months…”
“Oh my gosh, it has not been months,” Celena interrupted, laughing.
“Are you telling the story or me? So…imagine my surprise when she showed up in a random grocery store that I wasn’t even supposed to be in today. Must be fate.”
“Or you’re a stalker…”
“Nah, I’dve found your pretty ass way before now if I was a stalker. Trust me,” I said, looking her directly in the eye.
Our gazes fused for a moment before Celena’s eyes lowered as she exhaled slowly. She was quiet for a few moments more, before squaring her shoulders and raising her eyes back to mine.
“So fate?”
“Kismet, divine order, something brought us together again. Only this time I’m not letting you get away without giving me your number.”
“And you’re confident that I will?”
“Hopeful that you will, there’s a difference. But be clear, I won’t sweat you, sweetheart. If this…” I motioned between us with my hands to indicate a transference of energy, “is one sided, you gotta gon ahead and let me know now. But let me down gently, baby. I don’t know how much more Carl my neighbors can take.”
Celena giggled, “You are so silly.”
“So…?”
She pulled away from me slightly, retrieved her phone out of the kangaroo pouch of her hoodie, scrolled briefly, and then pressed a button. Shortly thereafter, my phone began buzzing in my pocket.
“Aw shit, you already had the number saved? See I knew you’d come around to Big Daddy.”
“Don’t make me regret this, Karim,” she warned, a hint of mischief in her tone, “And for the love of all that’s holy, please stop calling yourself Big Daddy before I block your number right here, right now.
“You’ll never regret getting to know me, sweetheart. Trust me. Didn’t I tell you my mama raised a gentleman?”
“Mmmmmmmhmmmmm and the last guy that told me that? The lie detector determined that was a lie.”
“That’s one.”
“One what?”
“I’m giving you a pass. That was your one and only time to compare me to some other dude. Let’s not let this happen again.”
Celena’s head reared back, as a look of utter disgust spread across her face.
“You know what?” she began, before I cut her off.
“I don’t know, but from that change in your demeanor I can just about guess, so I’ma just say this. Whatever dude did a number on you? I ain’t him and he damn sure ain’t me. I don’t want this to turn ugly before we even get a chance to build, so I’ma bounce…give you some time to breathe, but just know…I’m coming for you. And I’m bout to court the hell out of you so hard that you’ll forget whatever nigga you dared compare to me.”
With those words, I pushed the cart past Celena, grabbed my sweetened condensed milk and kept it moving out of that aisle. As I rounded the corner to the next aisle, I chanced a glance back. Celena still stood in the place I left her, with her agape mouth slowly curving into a smile. Yep, I was definitely going to enjoy getting to know her.
Despite fate working in my favor and making our paths cross again, I hadn’t been able to connect with Celena in the week that passed since our random grocery store meeting. Suddenly every car in Mayview was ailing, causing me to have to jump in on the front lines to help my guys out. I left the shop exhausted, but grateful nightly. The physical strain was worth the lessened mental toil my previous job had taken on me.
It seemed impersonal to just shoot her a text after bragging about how I’m unlike any man she’s ever dealt with before, but I hadn’t had more than a few free moments to myself the last few days. I also hadn’t wanted to call her too late after I’d left the shop and have her getting any unsavory ideas about me. I could tell that whatever her last situation was must have been some bull and I was treading lightly. Today was the first day that I’d had some breathing room, so I tried calling her. The line eventually rang into voicemail and against my normal behavior; I decided to leave a voicemail.
About fifteen minutes after I left the message, my phone buzzed in my pocket when I was back under the hood of a beautiful vintage Jaguar. Glancing at the display, I noticed it was Celena and immediately answered.
“Hey, beautiful.”
“Hi, I saw you called earlier.”
I motioned to Shep that I was walking back to the office to take this call.
Walking the short distance to my office, I asked, “You didn’t listen to my voicemail, did you?”
“God, no. I hate voicemail. If I could figure out not to have it at all, I’d be in business.”
“When we disconnect you should listen to the voicemail.”
“I probably won’t.”
“I insist that you do.”
“Okay. Did you plan on me not answering so you could leave this epic message or did you actually want to talk to me?”
“I was actually calling to ask you out. You got plans Saturday night?”
“Yep, a hot date with a super cute guy, actually.”
I grinned; sure she was accepting my invitation and talking about me.
“You don’t even know what I’ve got planned, how do you know it’s gonna be hot?”
“Uh…I wasn’t um…” she giggled, “I‘m actually babysitting the entire weekend. My sister has to travel for business, so it’ll be me and the little man.”
“Ahhhh, well…we can still get together. Bring the lil dude, hit up Main Event or something on Saturday afternoon. I want to see you…and soon.”
I knew I was coming on strong, but I couldn’t help it. It was the truth. After a grueling week of more physical labor than I’d had to take care of in quite some time I was looking forward to relaxing this weekend. I’d also hoped to be able to spend some time getting to hang out with Celena.
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“I don’t know…PJ isn’t usually big on strangers. He never liked being around Jac…any of my previous male friends before. Rain check?”
“Here you go comparing me to other niggas again,” I said, with a laugh so she would know I wasn’t seriously annoyed. Though honestly I was a bit put off. I understood that she was operating from a place of hurt, but I didn’t give a good goddamn about how her nephew acted around whatever wack dudes she brought around before. Besides, kids fucking loved me. I’d have him eating out the palm of my hand in minutes.
Celena giggled and replied, “Let’s play it by ear. Peej has football that morning, so depending on whether they win or lose, I’ll decide if we can link. He’s a bit of a brat when they lose.”
“Fair enough. So let’s say this then…if they win? You, me, and the kid have lunch and shenanigans plans at Main Event on Saturday. If they lose? I’ll come by and take y’all out for commiseration ice cream. Either way, I’ll see you on Saturday.”
“You’re persistent,” she said, a smile evident in her voice.
“Hell yes I am. So we got a deal?”
A sharp knock sounded on my door a moment before Shep poked his head through the door. “Some rich asshole is here for a reno job, but only wants to talk to you. Told him you were unavailable, but he insisted.”
I pulled the phone away from my face to reply to Shep. “Give me a couple minutes and then bring him back here.”
Bringing the phone back to my ear I apologized to Celena for the interruption.
“It’s all good. I’ll let you handle your business and…we’ll see you on Saturday. I’ll shoot you a text with my address.”
“Bet. See you then,” I replied, a grin on my face.
“Until then,” Celena said softly, then hung up.
Another one of Shep’s signature knocks sounded before he walked in with the customer trailing him. I stood up to shake his hand and froze once I recognized the face. I quickly retracted my hand and asked, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
Shep looked at me sideways, having never seen me get out of pocket with a customer. But this wasn’t your average customer, this was the bum who strung my mother along with the promises of leaving his wife, then left her out in the cold—and impregnated with me—once his wife found out about his extracurricular activities.
“Is that any way to greet your old man, son?”
“Don’t call me son. I barely know your ass.”
I looked over to where Shep had been standing to ask him to escort this motherfucker back out to where he found him, but he’d managed to squeak outta my office soundlessly.
“Didn’t your mother tell you I wanted to speak with you?”
I walked past my sperm donor and opened my office door.
“Sure did. And I’m also certain she told you that I had no desire to talk to you, which is why you decided on this little pop up visit. Still not interested in having that talk. I’m sure you can find your way back.”
He looked at me for a moment, then sighed deeply. Then he reached into his pocket, retrieving a leather billfold and pulled out a business card.
“If you change your mind,” he said, sitting the card on my desk.
I stood at the door not looking in his direction until he cleared the doorjamb. Once he was out of my office, I sat back at my desk, resting my hands behind my head as I breathed deeply. That was the last person I’d ever expected to show up here. Ever since I’d moved back, my mother had been dropping hints about him that I dutifully ignored. I had no idea that they still kept in touch nor did I care to know if they were still close after all of these years. I reached for the card he left, chuckling humorlessly. There in raised letters on the bottom of the card was his name Robert Parker, Senior–CEO Parker and Associates, with his business contact number. I flipped the card over to see if he’d included personal information, but of course the coward hadn’t.
“If I change my mind…” I scoffed, “Fuck outta here, Rob.”
“What are you guys getting into after this?” Devorah asked me as we sat in the sports complex watching PJ zoom down the turf for what seemed like the millionth time as he left the rest of those kids to catch his dust.
“Nothing major, might go to Main Event a little later to celebrate the win,” I said.
“Ooh, mind if I tag along? I can use an excuse to act like a big ass kid after this hellish week at work. Girl, I don’t know how you haven’t cussed out at least six and a possible folks this week.”
Dev and I worked together at Urban Current—a boutique marketing agency that felt like it was in the throes of anarchy every other day. As an account manager I often felt more like a babysitter or mediator between our sales force and our creative team, of which Dev was a part. Sales people loved to overstep their bounds and Dev loved putting them in their place. I tended to operate under the kill ‘em with kindness preamble, while she just preferred to kill them.
“Girl, you know I leave work at work. But um…we’ve got company joining us for Main Event already.”
“Company like who?”
“Just a friend.”
“Well I know all of your friends…I’m right here and Cade is on the verge of bringing the twins into the world, so…again I ask, company like who?”
I hadn’t told my friends about running into Karim again. Or about me finally giving him my number. Or the crazy ass voicemail he left me singing Carl Thomas. He actually had a decent singing voice too, a low, rumbly tenor that sent a shiver through my body every time I listened to that voicemail. The number of times I’d listened to that message would never be disclosed to another soul.
“So remember that guy? From the speed dating thing at Imbibe?”
“The one you said looked like Ralph Angel with that grown man weight…mmmmhmmm, thought you weren’t gonna call him.”
“I wasn’t. I didn’t. I actually ran into him at the Luciano’s on Route 53.”
“Why were you all the way over there? There’s a Luciano’s literally around the corner from you?”
“That’s also their local Luciano’s.”
Devorah sighed heavily and rolled her eyes.
“You can’t let them run you out of your neighborhood, Celly.”
“It’s fine. The Luciano’s on Route 53 is more dope anyway. Did you know they had a wine bar in there?”
“You’re not slick. You’re trying to throw me off track. So how did you go from not contacting dude to having a family day out with PJ?”
I gave her the rundown about how our plans came to be and Dev looked at me through narrowed eyes.
“What?”
“PJ can come by my house after we go to lunch after this game. I’ll make El come entertain him. You’re gonna text that man right now and tell him to pick you up a little later, so it’s a real damn date. Then you’re gonna go home, get fine, and go on your first date with this man dolo!”
“But he was fine with…”
“You gave him no other option! Of course he would pretend to be fine with his date being hijacked and having to play daddy day care to get on your good side.”
I laughed because she did have a point. I tried using PJ as an excuse but Karim wasn’t having it. To be perfectly honest, I was using the kid as a buffer so it would be less pressure of this outing being a date date. I didn’t want to have to be on. First dates were always so awkward…the small talk, getting to know you of it all always gave me so much anxiety. Though, technically this would be our second date. I smiled as I remembered that night at Perk, which was pretty much perfect.
“Are you sure you don’t mind keeping PJ?”
“Where’s your phone?”
I held up my hand and Devorah snatched it from my grasp before I had a chance to think. She’d unlocked it and was already texting Karim for me.
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. You woulda sat here coming up with more excuses as to why you needed to keep the cock block with y’all, instead of al
lowing yourself to have some fun in the company of a fine ass dude in a grown up setting.”
“Don’t call my sweet baby nephew a cock block, sis.”
“Then don’t use him as one then, beloved.”
My phone chimed.
Sounds like a plan. – Karim
I scrolled up to see what message Dev sent and burst out laughing.
“Really?”
She’d sent, “How about that hot date instead? Ditching the kid. Pick me up at 7.”
“Yes really. Don’t worry about the boy. He’ll be fine. El has a PlayBoxOne or whateva. They’ll sit around playing that shit, scratching their balls, and having a testosterone filled time while I catch up with Chip and Joanna on HGTV.”
“Tee, you got the snacks?” PJ said, still breathing heavy from all of the running he did up and down the field.
We’d been so caught up in our conversation that I didn’t realize the game had ended. Pat was snack mom for this week and of course, she provided me with a cooler filled to the brim with cold beverages and fresh fruits. Dev and I made quick work of passing out the snacks to the kids on the team and the coaches.
“Snack day is always the best when it’s Pat’s turn,” one of the coaches, a handsome Henry Simmons lookalike remarked, “Sorry she couldn’t join us today.”
“I’ll let her know she was missed.”
“You be sure to do that,” he said, before walking away to chat with one of the other parents.
I looked over at Dev and she was trying, like me, to hold back her laughter.
“Girl what was that? You be sure to let her know,” Dev said, lowering her voice comically.
“I gotta ask Pat about ol coachy coach. Lemme find out my sis outchea with the coach on the low…”
“Te-te…can I go to MakeAPie for lunch with the rest of the team? Coach D said he’s gonna drive everybody and bring us home.”
