Everybody laughed before Nique suddenly spoke up.
“Omari?”
“Wha’ up, Nique.”
“How long is your hair?”
“When was the last time Omari combed that hair of his?” Cece added smartly.
“That’s one less person on my Christmas list, anybody else.”
“She’s right Omari, when was the last time you combed that big ole’ bush of yours?”
I looked at Michael’s ball head and said, “You should stop hating.”
“Seriously Omari, how long is your hair?” Nique asked again.
“I really don’t know, I mean, I haven’t cut in quite some time.”
“I would love to braid it for you…I mean…if that’s okay with you.”
“Braids, in my hair, I don’t know about…”
“Did you guys know that Omari has a Buell Firebolt XB12R down stairs,” Zackary interrupted.
“Get the hell out of here,” Deanna’s boyfriend replied in disbelief.
“Its true and I promise you won’t forgive yourself if you don’t see it before you leave,” Michael added rather nonchalantly.
“Hold on for a minute, are you trying to tell me that this man has the one with the 1203cc, forty-five degree V twin engine.”
“Wow, I never figured you to be a motorcycle rider Omari,” Marlene said looking surprised.
“Omari’s a regular high flying speed demon, isn’t he Zach?”
“Speed demon my ass, lemme tell ya’ll a little something, when we were stationed in Europe, most of the guys in our unit tackled the Autobahn inside the safe confines of a car. Not Omari, he conquered that bastard on a bike. In fact just the other day, I saw him zipping around 285 looking like a bat with his ass on fire!”
A bat with his ass on fire is a dead bat, I thought to myself as tried to figure out what was about to go down.
“Man, I’d give anything to see your bike, Omari,” Deanna’s boyfriend asked with wide eyes.
Not sure what was going on, “Say what…”
“You’re bike; I would love to see if you don’t mind,” he asked me again.
I didn’t see the undisclosed interaction that went down between Michael and Zackary, but I could tell it happened because all of sudden Michael stood up and headed my way.
“You know something dude, by the way, what’s your name again?”
“Derrick.”
“Right, well Derrick I wouldn’t mind seeing the blue beast again myself,” Michael said before he aimed his eyes toward my front door. “Won’t you come and show it off Omari.”
Before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of my garage explaining the mechanical details of my bike to Derrick before Zackary politely dismissed him.
“When will your sister find herself a real man Omari?”
“I don’t know Michael maybe you can help her with that.”
“At least he still has his sense of humor huh Zach.”
“Okay, tell me what I did wrong before you guys rip me a new one.”
“You know something Omari, man you know what…I’m not gonna go there. In fact, I’m just gonna keep it real with you.”
“By all means, let’s keep it real.”
“Don’t hurt ‘em too bad Michael.”
“Nobody’s getting hurt up in here okay,” I said before I straddled my bike.
“First of all, it’s obvious that this Nique chick is really feelin’ you or she wouldn’t be here. With that being said, why are you acting all nonchalant and shit? Damn man, you’re rich, you got phat ass house, and everybody knows you’re feelin’ her.”
“Screw all that. Did you not see the ass on that woman?” Zackary interjected.
“Do I look like blind to you?” I asked him with the crazy face.
“You got a problem with blind folks don’t you Omari? I mean so what my little brother is blind in one eye. That don’t mean he can’t be normal like the rest of us.”
I looked at Zackary with a bit of amazement in my face. “Let’s move on shall we.”
“The woman wants to braid your hair man! C’mon now, you know what that means?”
“Am I missing something here?”
“I swear to God if that woman had asked me some shit like that, I’d be like Babygirl, you can braid my pubic hair if you want.”
“We didn’t need to hear that, Zach,” I said before I took a sip of my drink.
“Omari’s right, you could’ve kept that one to yourself.”
“What are friends for?”
“Lately, I’ve been asking myself that same question. All bullshit aside, I’ve never been any good when it comes to the first chapter of a relationship.”
“The first chapter; are you kidding. You haven’t even reached the book store yet.”
“And you can’t buy a book unless you go to the book store,” Zackary chuckled before he hopped inside my Ford F150. “And lemme tell you tha’s one serious book sitting up stairs.”
Once again I felt lost and out of touch, and thought about just getting on my bike and riding out, however that wouldn’t have solved anything and I knew it. All the same I did the one thing that I should not have done, I gave in.
“Bet, so what should I do? I mean, what shall I say after we go back up stairs?”
Michael and Zackary smiled victoriously before they gave me a hasty game plan that involved me not being myself. In the beginning, I had my doubts, but after what happened with Jasmine, I was willing to try anything, probably because I was tired of being alone. That was the honest to God truth. So as we headed back upstairs, I somehow found myself thinking about all of the reasons why Olivia and I weren’t still together. Some of those reasons weren’t all that clear to me; however a few of them made all the sense in the world.
Predictable, and safe, even when I thought I was taking a chance at something new, I would research the hell out of it before doing it. Being safe and predictable had cost me my family for sure. Then and there I decided that I was done with being that way for the time being. Right before I laid eyes on Nique again, I swear I almost felt free of Olivia’s gigantic hold over me. This would explain why the rest of the night went down like clockwork, because there I was, Mr. Conservative, carrying on about how I had conquered the Autobahn in a single year. For the record, it took me every weekend of those four years in Europe to accomplish that feat.
To my surprise Nique seemed to enjoy my newfound confidence. I swear that woman couldn’t stay away from me even if she tried. Everywhere I went she was there by my side as if she was proud to know me. The old Omari would have questioned her change of behavior of course, which explained why the old Omari was always alone. That wasn’t going to happen with the new Omari on that night, I was sure of it.
It was somewhere around one in the morning when everybody decided to call it night. Half-drunk and weighing about five more pounds then they did earlier; everybody except the Douglas’s needed a cab. To my surprise Nique made that happen right before she pulled me into my kitchen and asked if I wanted to go to New Orleans with her the next weekend. Something about an important record industry party that she had to attend. The idea of rubbing shoulders with a bunch of record industry pimps didn’t sit that well with me. However, I did have something of an obsession for the food, not to mention those jazz clubs on Bourbon Street. A nagging obsession that I hadn’t indulged in awhile, so I told her yes before she kissed me on the forehead and asked,
“Great. By the way, have you ever been in the French Quarter when it was raining?”
The busy side of my kitchen
A Monday morning hangover pounded my head like a Questlove drum solo. Nevertheless my bills and my vices needed to be paid, so I completed my early morning two mile run, showered, ate breakfast, and had gotten dress all by seven that morning. After going on line and reading my daily dose of the Associated Press, I made myself some coffee and jumped on the phone with Cece Douglas.
“As always, dinner was great Omar
i, but did you get a chance to Tivo The Wire last night?”
“I think I did, why what’s up?”
“Can you Gmail me the link to your server after you upload it there.”
I took a seat on my oversized leather couch and said, “No problem, so wha’s on my agenda?”
“You have not one, but two consultant gigs in midtown; the first one is at ten, and the other one is at two. That should leave you enough time to prepare for that Monday night football job that you have scheduled over at Jill’s.”
“Hot wings and cold beer shrimps right?”
“Right, did you have a chance to…”
“I ordered and marinated them myself before I flew to Alaska; they should be ready by now, and those shrimp will be cooked and prepared onsite. What about Tuesday and Wednesday?”
“On the IT side of the house, you have four new high end installs in the Fulton County area. On the catering side, you have an intimate Mediterranean dinner for the Moss’s at eight. Wednesday morning, you should be on the south side of town with the urban renewal project. I know it’s only going to be a continental brunch type setup, but are you going to need help with that?”
“A hundred or so people equals probably, can you get me those same people that I had the last time, minus your little pain in the ass brother.”
“I thought you said he was cool.”
“As the other side of my pillow. He just doesn’t like to wash his hands after he goes to the bathroom Cece.”
“I see. Well I’ll find you somebody else. After the urban renewal project, you got a couple of troubleshooting jobs before that Retro Martini Party/Italian Trattoria at the Phillips Arena. I gather you’re gonna need help on that one also right?”
“Odds are yes, but hold off on hiring anybody for that one.”
“Why?”
“I might have a couple of kids from the School of Culinary Arts helping me on that one.”
“How’d that happened?”
“Sort of promised a friend of mines over there that I’d give a few of his kids a little hands on work. Do I have anything seriously scheduled for Thursday and Friday Cece?”
“I’m afraid so, why?”
“I was trying to get out of dodge this weekend to be honest.”
“Work or play Omari?”
I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to answer that question honestly, so I said, “Could be work or it could even be play Cece. I won’t really know until Monday morning, so can you cut a brother loose this weekend or what?”
“I guess I can.”
“Great, so how much money did I make last week outside of that Alaska trip?”
“I have total of eight checks here. One is from a certain NFL player whose handwriting is the worse I’ve ever seen.”
“As long as it says thirty-five thousand dollars, I wouldn’t care if he wrote in Latin. How’s about the others, are they up to par or what?”
“Everything is on up and up. But just out of curiosity, how many hours did he pay you for?”
“The football player?”
“Yes.”
“Off the record?”
“You keep playing like that; we’re both going to end up in jail.”
“About sixty hours.”
“Why sixty?”
“He wanted me to patch his home entertainment system into his wireless network.”
“Probably because you have same setup up, you know monkey see, monkey do.”
“And I swear that monkey looks just like…”
“At least I wasn’t the one making a fool of myself last night.”
“I’m not going there right now; besides, I would appreciate if you didn’t.”
“That’s fine but if you ask me Baby, I’d say be yourself and everything will fall into place.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, so did Councilmen Longman pay me for that stupid thing I did for him?”
“Yes sir, that payment has already been posted. If you checked your MDA a little more often you wouldn’t hafta ask me that sort of question.”
“You think his wife forgave him?”
“If you’re asking for my opinion, I’d say you saved his marriage once again Omari.”
“For the third time,” I mumbled under my breath.”
“Be careful, you just might need that little man in the future. Rumor has it he might be running for mayor next year.”
“I wouldn’t vote for that clown if he was the last man alive.”
“Nobody’s perfect Omari.”
“You’re just saying that because he attends your church if that was somebody outside of your congregation, you’d be calling him all sorts of sinful names. Tell me I’m wrong.”
There was a moment a silence that told me that I had managed to offend Cece, which wasn’t a good idea seeing how she was my business manager.
“Okay, shouldn’t have gone there; I’m sorry.”
“I’ll accept your apology if you promise to take my advice on just being yourself with Nique.”
“For crying out loud Cece, I just wanted to be a little more interesting than I...”
“A man in your situation shouldn’t have to flaunt.”
“Oh c’mon now, when was the last time you heard me carry on like that?”
“The day after you catered my wedding reception, and if my memory serves me correct…”
“Point taken, did all of my personnel checks clear on time last week?”
“They sure did, so are you going to take my advice or what?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll keep it real.”
“Good, so when are you going to deposit that big check, and when will we tell everybody about your new multimillionaire status Omari?”
“Honestly, I was hoping to frame the check, thought it would look great hanging up in my bedroom. As far as my new found financial status, we should keep that between me and you.”
“You’d do anything to keep the government from getting its share won’t you Omari?”
“Everybody gets a share of me it seems. First, I hafta give God his share, of course the government gets their cut, after that, I hafta give Deanna her non tax deductible cut before I give Olivia and the kids their cut.”
“Somebody once said it was cheaper to keep ‘em Baby.”
“That certain somebody needs to mind their business. Nevertheless we hafta get together on that Texas thing because I haven’t the slightest idea on how I’m going to get that done.”
“Thanks for sending me the memo on that. Personally, I think we should just out source the darn thing; in fact I have a connection or two down there.”
“That’s a good idea, Cece. Still I would love to be there to supervise the whole thing. But I guess I got too much on my plate for that to happen.”
“I can probably help you on that one too.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Before I go there, did you give that offer from LA some thought?”
“I can’t see myself on TV right now, Cece.”
“Just wondering, anyway there’s a certain gentleman in my outreach program who has worlds of experience when it comes to wireless networks. He just needs a break, if I talk to him, would you…”
“Look, I don’t mind helping a brother out, but this thing in Texas is big time. If I do this right, I’d be in like Flynn with that company.”
“I understand how important this is to you Omari, but keep this in mind; Greg has worked in the field for over ten years before the bottom fell out. Furthermore, I’ve seen some of his work Omari, and he’s good.”
“If he’s so good, how come this Greg guy is in your outreach program? I’m not trying to be nasty or inconsiderate, just curious.”
“Outside of my little brother Omari, when have I ever hooked you up with somebody that wasn’t competent?”
I gave that some thought until I came up empty.
“That’s what I figured. Greg is a good guy that just happens to be down on his luck at the moment. If yo
u ask me, I’d say you and this guy would be a perfect fit.”
“How you figure?”
“The both of you have that pain in the butt perfectionist gene.”
“You still didn’t answer my question Cece.”
“He had a problem with the white stuff.”
“I don’t know Cece.”
“He hasn’t touched the stuff in over a year.”
If anybody could afford to be a hard ass when it came to giving out breaks, it was I, because nothing in my life ever came easy. I had to scratch, claw and even considered murdering a few folks to reach my present state, and Cece knew it. Being an African American man in America was like being invisible if you weren’t in the entertainment business. In the past, I never looked for or wanted somebody to give me a break because that would mean I would be in his or hers debt. This Greg guy could probably help me out a lot if I gave him a chance; however it has always been my belief that if you gave somebody the opportunity to screw you; screw you they will. Trusting in a complete stranger with my hard-earned work reputation was going to be a hard thing for me to do, and Cece knew that about me better than anyone.
“If you’re interested, you could probably catch him down at the shelter tonight.”
“We’ll see Cece, is there anything else that I need to know?”
“Nope, I think we’re all caught up.”
“Okay, I’m outta of here,” I said before I noticed something stuffed between the seat cushion.
At first glance, I didn’t know what the little poker looking coin was until I examined it closely. A few seconds later I concluded that it was one of those Alcoholics Anonymous coins. How it got into my house with all the alcohol that I had lying about, was beyond me. Flustered, I looked at the green aluminum token and saw the number three that rested inside a circled triangle before I placed it inside my pocket and left.
The rest of that morning went almost as planned until I received an emergency phone call from one of my home network clients. A freak power surge in their neighborhood had successfully turned my state of the art handy work into a pile of useless computer components. I eventually repaired or replaced most of their equipment before I finally joined Zackary and Michael over at Darlene’s Philadelphia’s water ice for lunch.
The Other Side of My Kitchen Page 7
