by Tiana Laveen
“Well, damn! Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this mornin’!”
“I’m sorry. Maybe you are just calling to say ‘hello.’” She knew better, but she did regret how she’d spoken to the man. Exhaustion and arguing with a fourteen-year-old know-it-all could do that to a woman.
“Of course I called just to see how you was doin’! I also called because I need you. I know I said you was off tuhday, but uh, ya see, I need ya tuhnight. Can you come in ’round 4:30?”
“I don’t believe this. I take that back, actually, I do. Sonny, I have not had even one day off. Notta one! Been workin’ for you non-stop for three months now. The one time I ask for so that I can run some errands, clean up my house and go get my nails done, you call me. This ain’t right. Can’t somebody else do it? Why don’t you let me hire someone in cases like this? I can’t keep doing this. You are burnin’ me on both ends, but I’m not a candle, despite you keepin’ me lit all night.”
“Look now, I know you been workin’ hard. I know that and you’ve earned a break like no other. You are the best, Yasmine, and that’s why I trust you wit’ my pride ’nd joy, baby girl! I ain’t leavin’ the store to my own chi’ren ’cause they ain’t got that get up ’nd go you got or they just don’t want it—depending on who ya talkin’ about.” And that could be many because you got more kids than Chucky Cheese and more ex-wives than Donald Trump and Hefner combined. “Me and yo’ father ain’t just brothas, we best friends. And from the time you was an itty-bitty thang, I knew you was different, despite you gettin’ pregnant young and runnin’ off and marryin’ that crazy Cuban fool who’d gone and done that to you.”
She sighed out loud, sick and tired of Uncle Sonny more and more as each second passed.
“Melba and Ulysses raised you and ya sistas right. You’re beautiful, smart, and don’t take no mess. You got a mind for numbers and I like that. You raisin’ my great nephew, Noah, all by ya self now. He was born deaf but wit’ the way you got him goin’, hardly anyone would know it.”
“Him being deaf though isn’t something I’ve ever tried to hide. I just want him to be as functional as possible in a world that ain’t concerned about catering to him. My boy is smart in books and the ways of the world, and him having this disability is not going to stop him from doin’ anything he wants to in life if I have anything to do with it.”
“Exactly, and you just made my point for me. You are an amazing mother and the whole family is proud of you, Yasmine.”
She rolled her eyes at the man’s attempts at flattery to butter her up. He was right about one thing though; she was a good mother and she knew it and yes, her father and uncle were the best of friends.
“All of this to get me to bypass cleaning my house, spendin’ a little time with Noah before he runs outta here, and get my nails done. You’re really layin’ it on thick, Uncle Sonny.” She cackled.
“I’ll pay you double.” She smirked and shook her head.
“Let’s make a better deal than that, Uncle Sonny. I demand that we hire someone else to help in there within the next thirty days. I get to interview them. You keep tellin’ me no, but I can’t accept that for an answer anymore.”
After several seconds of moaning and groaning, the old man finally agreed to it.
“All right, all right, all right! But I get tha final say on who is hired ’cause that store is still mine.”
“Okay, that’s fair, but if you try and draw this out or stall, I will call you on it. I will place an ad and start interviews soon. In the meantime, you’ll see me at 4:30 P.M.”
“Thank you. See you later, baby girl.” And then he ended the call.
Just then, Noah came out of the bathroom, a bucket in his hand and a disgruntled look on his face.
“Are you finished, honey?” She mouthed the words with a sweet smile. He kept on mean mugging.
“Yes,” he signed, with an attitude.
“How ’bout we go out to lunch together in a little bit? Tacos?”
He smiled then and nodded, perking right up.
“Who were you talking to on the phone?” he asked.
“How’d you know I was on the phone?” She chuckled as she walked back into the living room and began to clean up once more. He came up behind her and tapped her shoulder. She stopped and turned to him.
“When you are mad and on the phone, you pace. I can hear you walking hard.” He stomped his foot several times and they both burst out laughing. “I heard you while I was cleaning the bathroom. Dad or Uncle Sonny?”
She laughed a bit harder then.
“You know your mama, huh?” She winked at him. “It was Uncle Sonny. He wants me to come in tonight. Little does he know though, I am going to close up a little early. He ain’t gonna have me up in there at no 10:00 P.M. by myself again… all those drug addicts comin’ in and out doing Lord knows what.” Noah laughed and walked off. She loved the sound of his laugh… it was choppy and off pitch since he could not hear himself. It made him who he was, and she loved him all the more for it. The big smile that spread across his gorgeous face, the way his hazel eyes would glow and light up… He had no idea how much she loved him.
She heard his bedroom door close and she stood there for a spell, eyes closed.
I love that boy more than my own life. That’s why we’re here, Noah. I want to make a better life for you and for me. Somethin’ told me to do this. I’d like to believe it was God. This is goin’ to help us in the long run. I want stability for you… I want to leave something for you, and your kids, too. Gotta be a better day right around the corner, baby… it’s just gotta be…
CHAPTER FOUR
A Night to Remember…
…One week later
“THE JALAPEÑO PEPPERS are sixty-one cents a pound, Agnes. Over there at H-E-B, they’re on sale for $.69 cents a pound,” the old man explained to a woman who Yasmine presumed to be his wife. “So we’re savin’ money by gettin’ ’em from here instead.” He grabbed a little plastic bag and began to sort through the selection.
“That man said sixty-nine!” Some silly boy blurted around a fit of giggles. The child couldn’t have been more than ten, and he kept on laughing as he walked beside his mother. The woman tossed the mischievous adolescent a glance, then grabbed his ear and pinched it. “Owww!”
Yasmine chuckled to herself, shaking her head at the spectacle. She looked at the time on her watch and was rather surprised. The day had been going quite well—oddly well, in fact. Rick actually had done a great job bagging and stocking. Both of the cashiers had come in on time and she didn’t hear their usual gossip and complaints. And, Noah had even stopped by with a couple of his friends to lend a helping hand setting up a Halloween display of peanut butter taffy and candied corn sweets alongside fresh pumpkins on bales of hay. He of course wanted frozen pizza for himself and his little pals afterward as compensation for their five minutes of labor, but it was a small price to pay. She’d even thrown in a couple of Pepsi two-liters, a few bags of chips, and some sweet and crisp Gala candied apples for dessert. Now, he and his buddies were long gone, and she anticipated closing up shop soon.
Only forty more minutes to go…
She got behind one of the registers and started to ring up a young man’s groceries when she heard the chime of the front door. In walked Mr. UPS.
Oh my… Well, would you look at what the cat dragged in?
Her stomach fluttered… literally flipped like she was some silly teenage girl.
He looks a bit different this time… oh, I know, he has facial hair.
Sporting a low-cut dark beard, a pair of sunglasses atop his silky mop of black hair, and a twinkle in his light honey colored eyes, he pushed a dolly towards her with four large boxes stacked on it. He was wearing his typical brown attire, but this time, she noticed all the tattoos up and down his arms. He didn’t look in her direction, but she heard his phone ring. He paused, snatched it off his hip and answered it, speaking in Spanish.
Sp
anish? Is he Mexican? He doesn’t look Mexican though. Well, maybe a little bit…
He had an olive complexion, but his eyes were unusually light. Not that that was unheard of – but it was an interesting pairing against his skin tone and dark hair. His eyebrows and hair were midnight black, his lips plush and full but not too much. He could’ve been any nationality for all she knew, but she surmised it really didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. He was fun to look at, that was for sure. More than fun, the bastard was sexy. She smiled to herself as she fell into a daydream.
I got a damn crush… that’s just silly. I’m too old for crushes.
“Ma’am, how much is that butter?” The customer before her brought her out of her wayward thoughts.
“Oh, let’s see.” She looked closely at the screen. “It rang up for $2.99.”
“Well, back there in the dairy section it said $1.79.”
“Hmmm, all right. I’m the only one here tonight and uh…” She looked over to see the line had increased by a few people. “I’m not going to keep you or anyone else waiting to go check so I tell you what, I’ll just—”
“I’ll check for you,” Mr. UPS spoke up, a smirk on his face as he waved his hand in an arrogant, ‘Don’t keep me waiting’ sort of fashion. She smirked back and placed the butter in the man’s palm.
Damn, he’s got some big hands…
She stared at him as he marched away. Seemed like she was frozen for an eternity. Music played from the speakers, but she couldn’t focus enough to figure out what.
“It’s $2.99!” Mr. UPS Man yelled out, his big, bellowing voice booming. “Now, the brand next to it, this off brand, is $1.79. Musta gotta ’em confused. You want that one instead, sir?” he called out, being all polite and shit.
“Oh! I made a mistake. I’m sorry,” the customer stated, his complexion turning red.
“That’s okay,” Yasmine responded. “I can just—”
“Do you want the other brand, sir?” Mr. UPS Man hollered once again.
“Yes, please bring it and I’ll go on ahead and exchange it.” Minutes later, all of the customers in the line were rung up and out the door, but Mr. UPS Man was still unloading the boxes.
It don’t take that long to put down no boxes…
There were only four, but he’d disappeared to the back of the store for quite a while. She moved a little away from the cash register so she could see him better through one of the mirrors in the establishment. Her jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe her eyes…
He’d taken out a sharp knife and jimmied the boxes open, then started putting the baby food bottles from one of the boxes on the shelf, facing forward.
“Sir… sir!” she called out, marching towards him, waving her finger in the air as if she were an usher at church. “I appreciate this, but I have to first check the order, okay? It’s important to ensure the right amount was sent before I stock anything and that none of them are expired on arrival. I have to an inventory check. I can’t just open the boxes and then stack ’em up, so before you go too far, I wanted to—”
“All right, hold up.” He put his hand up to stop her tirade.’ “My name isn’t sir, it’s Langston. Langston Lopez. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, you should also know that I used to work in a grocery store during high school for several years. I worked my way up to assistant manager right before I got this job at UPS. I went to community college for a year for business—didn’t finish, but learned quite a bit. Anyway, back to this. I already checked the amount written on the copy of the invoice to make sure it was the right flavor, brand, and type.” He waved a piece of paper in her direction, then let it fall from his grip to the floor. “All of these are fresh… checked the expiration date, too, and I have put exactly thirty-two cans of stage II Gerber’s sweet potato and corn right here yonder.”
He pointed to them, confidence in his tone.
“None of ’em are broke, cracked, any of that. There was one that was dented, so I set it aside. I knew to count as I went. Some things we just never forget from our past experiences… just like a pretty woman, even though she was rude to us the first time we saw her.” She lowered her head in shame. “And you’re welcome for the flowers and Slim Jim, even though you coulda got the Slim Jim yaself and the flowers didn’t cost me nothin’ at all.”
He winked at her and went on about his business.
I can’t believe this… what the hell is going on?! She was caught between his arrogance and being outright flabbergasted by his sweetness and generosity. Maybe it wasn’t arrogance at all. Maybe it was self-assurance and she was just reading the guy all wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time for such a thing to happen. Whichever way the dice was rolled didn’t make her a bit of difference in the grand scheme of things. She liked him. Point blank, period.
Her heart kicked around in her chest, and her stomach flipped and flopped like a fish trying to escape from a hook as he moved to and fro. When he glanced at her she drowned in those damn eyes of his… they looked like flames of fire dancing in his skull.
“Langston, I want to thank you. I wanna thank you for a couple weeks ago or so when I first met you, too. I wanna thank you for tonight, helpin’ me out like this. I also want to apologize for anything I may have said or done that made me appear not in the best light. I’m not gonna stand here and pretend like I’m sweet as pie. That would be an outright lie.” He chuckled at that. “But, one thing I am not, is rude. I was not feelin’ my best; life happened and you got a taste of it. You shoulda never been served that meal. You didn’t order it.”
She jetted out her hand for a shake. He looked down at it for a spell, then took hold of it, brought it to his lips, and kissed it. She smiled at the man and dropped it back down to her side.
He’s a charmer all right…
“Apology accepted.” He was looking rather smug now, enjoying the way she squirmed, no doubt.
“Unfortunately, due to my outburst when we first met, you know my personal business now, so that makes us friends.” She smiled again, and he smiled back. “But seriously though, that’s the reason for my behavior, okay? All the things I told you are goin’ on and I’m human. Don’t make it right—wrong is wrong, and you didn’t deserve all of that… you was just bein’ friendly… fresh, but friendly.” He burst out laughing, nodded in agreement, then reached down and grabbed a few more jars of baby food. “It’s almost quittin’ time.” She looked down at her watch. Then she heard the bell chime. She turned towards the front and saw a small group of women walk in, some laughing loudly as if they’d had too much to drink.
“Looks like you’ve got more customers. Let me help you out tonight and finish getting this done, all right? I’ll leave you the invoices so you can double check but if anything comes up missin’ or is broken, I’ll let you know. Is that okay?”
She wanted to sigh with relief. He had no idea how much this would help her… shave at least thirty minutes off her duties.
“I can’t thank you enough, Langston. I really appreciate it!” She turned to walk away.
“You’ve thanked me a thousand times, and that’s mighty fine, but I know a better way that you can thank me. Give me your number.”
She chuckled and kept on walking, refusing to entertain the man… at least not right then.
Before long, she announced over the microphone that the store would be closing in five minutes. Most of the customers had already completed their shopping and left the store. Langston seemed finished, too, but now he was on his phone again. This time he was too far away for her to make out what he was saying…
She wondered why she even cared.
He’s interesting…
She had to admit it to herself. He seemed quite friendly and flirted like a natural. His arms were covered in dark ink and he was a sexy motherfucker.
He’s probably married. If he ain’t married, he definitely has a girlfriend. She’s probably pregnant at home right now while he plays the field… I don’t trust nobod
y these days, always some lies and bullshit. Fuckboys come a dime a dozen.
Soon enough he approached the front of the store, his dolly empty. He slid his phone back onto his hip.
“Well, I’m all done. So how about that number, Yasmine?”
She cocked her head to the side then shook it as she busied herself cleaning up the area with a broom.
“Come on now, I think I’ve earned at least one date. You got me over here beggin’… don’t make me look like a chump.” She paused and looked at the tall, big man… standing there with his arms stretched out, his eyes glowing like Halloween candles. “What?”
“Are you single? That means no girlfriend and no wife, just so we’re clear.”
“Hell yes, I’m single! I wouldn’t have asked for your number if I wasn’t.”
“Do you have any children?”
“Naw, and ain’t nobody pregnant by me right now, either.”
She smiled at his answer. Maybe he was tiptoeing in her mind.
“All right then…”
“YES!” She chuckled as he cheesed hard, grabbed his phone once again, and drew closer to her. “All right, Yasmine, what is it?” His trigger thumb was ready…
“956-777-9311.”
He looked up at her and pursed his lips. She burst out laughing.
“You ain’t funny. Come on now, girl, stop playin’. I gotta go, ya wastin’ time.” He chuckled.
“Okay, for real, it’s 956-867-5309.” This time she could barely get the numbers out without bursting into hysterics. She held her stomach as her eyes watered with mirth.
“Eight-six-seven-five-three-ohhhhh-nigh-yeee-iiiine! Jenny, I’ve got your nuuumber! I need to make you miiine!” He sang, making her laugh all the harder. Then, like some large Goliath, he backed her into a display of canned pineapple fruit…Buy one get one free. His shadow swallowed her and her heart beat so fast, it felt as if it would burst clean out of her chest. She could smell his scent, including the gum in his mouth, the distinct aroma of Juicy Fruit gum wafting from his parted lips.
