by Sienna Mynx
We laugh and leave the elevator. The carpeted hall is nice. Georgie walks to my room door. She stops. “This is your room.”
“Oh? Okay,” I say.
“And this is Brick’s room.” Georgie points to the door next to mine.”
I shake my head smiling. “So you have us staying next door to each other?”
Georgie opens the door and comes inside. She goes into the suite and I follow her finding it nice and tropical. There’s a sliding door that leads to a deck.
“Look…”
I turn and Georgie is pointing to another door. She opens it and there’s another door. She opens that one and it leads into Brick’s room.
“Joining rooms. Now tell me that isn’t a game changer?”
“I dunno Georgie. I kissed the man and he called another woman talking about how much he misses touching her between her thighs.”
“What? Slow down…”
“He’s getting less appealing by the minute. I think this might be a bad idea.”
“You kissed him? When? He called who? When?”
“I kissed him on the plane. He shot up from his seat as if I poked him with a needle. And then changed seats with you on the next flight.” I toss my purse to the bed. “And then in the cab his phone was ringing non-stop with text messages from other women. He was speaking to that Darlene woman, talking sweet to her. It made my stomach hurt. Brick came on this trip to punish me, not make up with me.”
“I’m sorry. Want me to change your rooms?”
“No, I can handle it. I’ll give him space. I’m not going to chase him around this island. Let his whores chase him. I’m done.”
“He’s pissing me off. I’m going to tell Marcel to send him home. Fuck him. It’s been four years. He needs to be a man and not a drunk idiot.”
“Georgie…”
“No! Enough of this Coco. This is the chance he wanted, and he’s already drinking and disrespecting you. What you did, you had to do. He hasn’t been the only one to suffer. I won’t have him hurting you.”
“Okay. I agree. But let me handle it. Close the door. Okay?” I tell her.
Georgie closes Brick’s adjoining door to his room and closes mine and locks it. There’s a knock at the door. I go and open the front door and my luggage is brought inside. I see Brick behind the man. He goes to his room instead of coming in mine.
“What time is dinner?” I ask her. Marcel comes into my room and picks up Georgie who squeals. They play a bit in front of me. He puts her down.
“Four, let’s leave at four? That cool?”
“I look at my watch. It’s two. I need the time to decompress. “Sure, it’s cool.”
The happy couple leaves. I walk into my room and look around. I glance to Brick’s door. I’m disappointed. I’m not sure what to do with that disappointment yet. I go to my luggage and drag the biggest one over to the bed. I unzip it and move my dresses from the top of the black case I packed inside. I take it out and put it on my bed and open the latches. Inside is Jezebel. Brick’s golden saxophone. All these years it’s as pristine as it was the day he left it to me. I took good care of it. What would he say or do if he saw it? Could it prove to him that I’m not his enemy? Even if we aren’t meant to be together I want him to have it. Play it again. It’s a part of him.
There’s a soft knock on my door. Quickly I close the case and put it under my bed. I go to the door and open it. Brick is standing outside of it.
“I want to apologize to you, Colette.”
“Brick, call me Coco, please.”
“No. I want to apologize. I’m sorry. I’ve been acting like some dumb ass teenager. You don’t deserve it. Okay.”
I smile. “Thank you, Brick.”
He stares at me. I don’t care that my sweater is open and he can see the wet summer dress clinging to my breasts and stomach. I let him stare.
“Want to come inside?” I ask him.
“No. I’m going to go for a walk. I’ll meet you downstairs at four, okay?”
“Are you okay, Brick?” I ask him.
He gives me a smile I haven’t seen in years. “I’ll be fine.”
He closes his door and I close mine. I smile to myself. Tonight we will have the talk we should have had four years ago. And from there who knows what the future holds for us. I’m just glad he doesn’t act like he hates me anymore. It’s a start.
Brick is sitting next to me. His arm rests on my chair. He smells so good and looks it too, after a fresh shave and shower. We are having dinner on an outside patio. The deck view of the sea and mountains shows a sky that’s cast in orange and purple as the sun slips down the horizon. It’s so romantic.
A young black boy no more than ten comes over to the table with a basket of flowers. Brick buys one for me, and I put it in my hair. Even though he continues to hide his eyes from me from behind his sunglasses I can tell he likes it. Marcel and Georgie are their usual self. They laugh and joke and tease each other. Right now they are in a heated exchange over her pointed gel nails. Marcel hates them and don’t want her to wear them in the wedding photos. I told her. Georgie stands her ground. I can tell he’s going to lose the battle.
I feel a touch to my arm. It’s very light. Not forward at all. Brick is moving his thumb up and down slowly and just the tip of his nail is grazing my skin. It’s making me weak. Does he know that? When I look over to him he’s listening to Georgie and Marcel argue, he doesn’t look my way. He knows what he’s doing.
For dinner, I had the hardest time finding an outfit I wanted to wear. It would be the first sit down meal Brick and I shared with our friends in four years. I wanted to look pretty. I chose to wear a yellow sundress for him that ties around my neck and squeezes my breasts in. Makes me look like I have cleavage. Though the hem sways around knees when I walk it has a split on both sides that reveal my legs too. I know he liked it when I came downstairs to meet him. I did my best with my hair and make up. I want him to see me the way he used too. He couldn’t stop staring at me all the way to the restaurant. He made no snide comments to me and took my hand when I needed help in and out of the car. He’s been the perfect gentleman. But he’s been silent. And I don’t know what that means. Is he silent because he’s calm and relaxed? Is he silent because he’s holding back or pretending to enjoy his time with me? He’s so damn different. And to be truthful, our relationship was short, only a few months. I didn’t really know him and the complicated upbringing he had. How am I to know him now?
“Hey, Coco! Remember when we were nine and we said we’d run away together?” Georgie asks me. “We had this big plan yawl. So stupid. We thought we were so smart.”
“Yep. I remember. You wanted to take your mama’s dresses with us?”
Georgie laughs. “Listen to this, baby,” she says to Marcel. “We go upstairs to pack. But Coco has this idea. She says we are going to need jobs. If we take our things they will just think we kids, and send us home if we caught. So I suggest we take Nona’s things. We decide to raid my mother’s closet. We pack away her expensive dresses, all her fancy shoes, and as much jewelry we can get from her room. We stuff it all in two large garbage bags and drag them down the stairs and out the back door.”
“I still don’t know how we got past Ms. Linda,” I chuckle.
“She was doing laundry remember?” Georgie says.
“Oh yeah, she was in the wash room. I remember.”
“Stop interrupting, let me finish the story. Anyways, we’re half way down the block dragging these big bags behind us and Ms. Greene is outside watering her grass. She yells ‘hey what yawl doing’ at me and Coco. And ask us if my mama know we wandering the neighborhood. We get so scared we panic. We take off through her neighbors yard dragging those bags. But his dog gets after us. We so scared we run out through the next yard and the next, all the while dragging them damn bags.”
I’m laughing and so is Georgie. Marcel is smirking. Brick has no expression on his face. It’s funny, but he’s sitting there
with those dark sunglasses on staring at Georgie.
“Well we end up having to leave the bags. We couldn’t carry them anymore. We climb the fence and get in someone else’s yard. I forget who. We stay there for hours hiding, scared.”
I laugh with her and finish the story. “We didn’t realize it was trash day. We come back down the street to get the bags. But Pete Mason has found them in his yard. He’s taken them out to the garbage men and they throwing the bags into the garbage truck. It’s too late to stop him.”
Georgie laughs until she’s crying. “Every expensive dress my mother owns is gone. All of her jewelry including her engagement ring.”
“Did you get in trouble?” Marcel asks.
“No. No. No. We pretended we didn’t know anything. Nona called the police and said we were robbed. To this day she doesn’t know what happened to all her clothes and shoes and stuff.”
“You two were real daredevils,” Brick says.
“Oh lighten up Brick,” Georgie says. “It’s funny. Stop being such a party pooper.” I kick her under the table. “What did I say? It’s a funny story.”
“I got a funny story,” Brick says. “Marcel, do you remember the time when we were seventeen and wanted to rob Vincent Booker in Slidell after he won two grand in one of Pops gambling houses. How we drove all night with guns and masks in the back seat.”
“Stop it Brick,” Marcel says. Georgie smile fades.
“See, we get there, and old man Booker is asleep. We go in through the front door with our masks on, thinking it will be an easy job. We didn’t know he’s hooked up again with his old lady and she’s in the kitchen…”
“I said that’s enough.”
“What is he talking about?” Georgie asks.
“Marcel finds her. Scares the shit out of her. When she tries to scream he…
“I said that’s enough!” Marcel snaps and slams his fist down on the table. Brick settles back into his seat. Georgie looks at me and then Brick. She looks hurt. Marcel gets up from the table and storms off. Georgie goes after him. Brick drinks his water as if nothing happen.
“Why did you do that?” I ask him.
“Do what?”
“Hurt them? Bring up something from Marcel’s past. Remind him of the man he wants to forget?”
“We were telling funny stories. It was pretty funny how Booker’s old lady pissed herself when Marcel put his gun to her head. He slipped on her piss and fired a shot off into her refrigerator. We laughed as we ran out of that house with Booker shooting after us. Real funny.”
“That’s just evil. You’re disgusting.” I say and get up. He grabs my arm and I snatch away. I storm off the deck in search of my friends. I find them outside on the lawn in front of the restaurant. They’re hugging. Georgie has Marcel’s face in her hands next and she’s talking to him. She’s calming him. Marcel has paid for his crimes. He’s changed his life around. He’s due some respect.
“They won’t last,” Brick says behind me.
I turn and look at him. He stares at me. “Nothing will last. She thinks she loves him, but if she can’t hear anything about his past she doesn’t know him.”
“She doesn’t care about his past.”
“Bullshit. Why do you think Marcel works so hard to be something he’s not? He’s like me. A criminal, a thug, an evil man. She’ll find out and run further from him than you did me.”
“You just make it up as you go along, don’t you? You were there Brick. You knew what was happening between our families. You knew what happened to you and my brothers. Did I run from you? Or did I try to save you?”
“I’m taking a flight back in the morning. I shouldn’t have come here.”
“Coward!” I shout after him.
He keeps going. I can’t help it. I’m so frustrated I start to cry. I turn away from the few people observing us and cry. He’s wrong about Georgie and Marcel. He’s wrong about us. I just don’t know how to convince him anymore.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Bam! Bam! Bam!
I jackknife upright in bed. The banging is actually someone knocking hard and fast on the door. I get out of bed and run for the door. I’m only wearing a sleep shirt and panties. I should have grabbed a robe. When I open it Georgie is crying.
“What is it?”
“Get dressed. It’s Brick. He’s in trouble.”
“What? What happened?”
“He’s been arrested. Marcel is already down there trying to deal with it.”
“I don’t understand. What did he do?”
Georgie shakes her head. “He got drunk at some Cantina. He started yelling at the people in the bar. He got into a fight. He broke up the place. They couldn’t control him. I don’t know the rest. Marcel told me to come get you.”
I hurry around the room and get dressed. We have a cab waiting for us when we go downstairs. Georgie tells me that they were notified by the resort since the police traced Brick’s stay here. After dinner, Brick disappeared. We couldn’t find him. I gave up and went to bed. I was hoping he’d come back so we could talk. Now this?
“Something’s not right with him Coco. I was wrong to try to put you two together. He’s like those crazy swamp people he grew up with, mean and nutty. I’m sorry.”
“He’s not like that Georgie. You don’t know him.”
“Coco? He’s changed. He’s been nothing but crazy since you broke up. It’s time for it to end.”
“I don’t believe that. He’s hurting. Would you give up on Marcel?”
“I’ve been with Marcel for four years. You only knew him for four months.”
“I’ve known him much longer, trust me. I feel him, he feels me. I know it’s weird but I have to help him. I love him enough to try.”
“Oh God. You sound like…”
“He’s in pain. And I think I know why.”
“Then please tell me? Because I’m totally confused.”
“No. I’m going to tell him. And then he and I are going to another resort. Just us. If they don’t throw him off the island. This week needs to be just us. Can you help me with that?”
“No. No way in hell. He’s too fucking crazy for you to be alone with.”
“Please. Trust me. I can figure it out with him. I need your support.”
She looks away. She shakes her head. “I love Marcel. Brick hurt my baby today. Made him think about stuff he doesn’t want to remember. I hate him for that. But I know he was different once. When he was with you. I’m just not sure he can be trusted Coco.”
“I’ll talk to him. We’ll see.”
We get to the police station and the Constable agrees to see us. He tells us the entire story. The fight didn’t start with Brick. They know the instigator. But Brick did break out windows in the bar and attack an officer who tried to restrain him. That in itself is a serious charge. I offer to pay for the damage, and the fines. Marcel objects and says he’ll cover it. The Constable agrees but says Brick must leave the island. It’s then I put on the waterworks for the police. Beg them to let Brick stay. Tell him we will go to another resort. And there will be no more trouble. Both Georgie and Marcel look at me like I’m crazy. For whatever reason the Constable agrees but the fine is steep and we are told Brick must stay in jail for the rest of the night. We are all denied a chance to see or speak with him. He will be released tomorrow after 2pm when a judge signs off. It’s the best that can be done.
Outside Marcel stops me. “What are you doing Coco?”
“I’m going to find a place for me and Brick too…”
“No. He’s going home. I shouldn’t have let you two talk me into bringing him. If he’s drinking, he goes. I can’t deal with his shit anymore.”
“He’s your best friend,” I remind him.
“It’s my fucking wedding! My wedding!” Marcel paces away from me. I give Georgie a pleading look. She walks over to Marcel and takes his hand. He calms down enough for me to approach.
“I’ll take him to another reso
rt. Just us two. After the week is up we’ll join you. You two enjoy your vacation. Let me deal with Brick.”
“He’s drinking. He’s dangerous,” Marcel said and pulled up his shirt to show me the knife cut. I can’t believe the man I loved would hurt his best friend that way. I swallow my fear and nod that I agree his drinking makes him dangerous.
“He’s still Brick. And he loves me. He just hates himself. He won’t hurt me. Not physically.”
They look at each other and then me. “Coco, he works with his father now. He’s into some heavy stuff.”
“I know. I know. That’s not what this is about. I can’t fix him. I just want to convince him to get help. Okay? Let me try. If he gets out of hand it’s done. Trust me. I wont put up with it.”
The sound of a woman’s heels echoes along the hall, and I’m stirred from my restless nap. I’ve been let out of my cell to piss twice and had a sandwich and some kind of juice given to me for food. Nothing else. When I ask to use the phone, I’m ignored. Sober and trapped, I’m left to reflect on what a shit show my life is.
Then I hear her. I don’t know why I know it’s her. But I do. I sit up on my iron bunk and wait. Coco walks into view. She’s escorted by a guard. She’s wearing jean shorts and white shirt that she has pulled the sleeves down off her shoulders. Her hair is in a ponytail and she has sunglasses on her face. I can’t help but smile at seeing her. She’s the only person I want to see.
“You got yourself in trouble. Haven’t you?”
I nod yes.
“Here’s the deal. They’re going to release you, Brick. Give you to me. And then you are going to say and do whatever I tell you. If not, your luggage is here and they can take you to the airport. There’s a plane ticket waiting for you. So what’s it going to be?”
I stare at her for along moment. My eyes switch over to the black woman guard with her. They wait for me to answer. I’m no idiot. I know what I want.
“I’m yours,” I tell her.
She smiles and nods to the guard. The bars are unlocked. I stand and Coco comes in and hugs me. I’m slow to respond but I hug her back. She takes my hand and walks me out. We go to the front where I’m given my things and sign multiple documents. I look around for Marcel and Georgie but they’re not there. I may have finally ruined it with Marcel. I’m doubtful that he’ll want me as his best man.
