by Zuri Day
Tell him, Gwen. Just say yes! But she could not. While technically true, she felt that to say this would be lying. But to say she was separated would invite questions about Joe, the last person she wanted to discuss. And while she wouldn’t dare admit it, a part of her wanted very much to be available to the man in front of her. So she danced around his question.
“I didn’t say I was unavailable. I said I was uninterested. There’s a difference.”
“So then you’re gay.”
“Ha! Hardly, though I’m sure you believe a woman who isn’t interested in you must be gay.”
“No, but I think a woman who is hiding her true feelings must have a reason.”
Before Gwen could think of a sassy retort, Kristy spoke.
“Your order’s ready, Ransom.”
Ransom placed a credit card on the counter without taking his eyes off Gwen. “Add whatever the lady is having,” he said to Kristy.
“She hasn’t ordered yet.”
“Add an extra twenty and tab whatever’s left.”
Kristy’s eyes sparkled as she looked from Ransom’s predatory gaze to Gwen’s deer-in-headlights one. “Wow, Gwen. You’ve got Ransom peeling off the big bucks. You go, girl.”
“That’s quite all right, Kristy,” Gwen replied. “I’ll be glad to take care of my purchase.”
Kristy looked from Gwen to Ransom.
Ransom gave Kristy an authoritative look. She simply nodded and rang up his purchase, plus twenty dollars.
He turned impatient eyes on Gwen and took another step toward her, gently grabbing her arm before she could retreat again.
“I see we’re going to have to establish early on who’s the boss around here,” he whispered, his breath dangerously warm on her temple.
Gwen resisted the urge to shiver and instead steeled herself with resolve. “Kindly take your hand off me.”
“Don’t make a scene,” Ransom continued in a near whisper. “Just give me your number.”
“Give you my…what?” Gwen struggled again to break free from Ransom’s grasp. His grip was deceptively light but firm. There was no way she could move without the two customers who’d just come in knowing there was a disagreement happening. Gwen hated acting out in public but realized now might have to be one of those times. Maybe it was because she and Joe rarely had sex in their last three months together, but strange things happened when this man touched her. She lowered her voice to match his. “Please, let me go.”
“Hey, Gwen!” Joanna walked to the end of the counter where Gwen and Ransom stood. She leaned in provocatively and added, “Hey, Ransom.”
“What’s up, Joanna?”
“You, gorgeous…always.”
Gwen tried to ignore the stab of jealousy that whipped around her heart as soon as Joanna started flirting. Ransom was not her business; maybe if he focused on Joanna he would leave her alone.
“You sure do get around, Ransom,” Joanna continued. “What do you do? Get a heads-up from city hall whenever somebody new moves in?”
“What I do is mind my own business,” Ransom replied. “You would do well to do the same.”
Kristy chuckled behind the counter, which drew a heated glare from Joanna.
Ransom turned and gave Gwen a hug. “I’ll see you later,” he vowed. And was gone.
Joanna eyed Ransom until he was out of view and then whipped around to Gwen. “How’d you meet Ransom?”
Gwen’s female antennae instantly went on high alert and her plans to ask Joanna about Ransom changed in that moment.
“Here, at Kristy’s.”
“You guys didn’t seem too casual. In fact it sounds like you’re hooking up later on. If that’s true, I need to warn you. There’s a line a mile long ahead of you trying to tie him down.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Kristy chimed in. For the moment, they were the only three in the shop. “Everybody tries to act like they know Ransom’s business, but nobody does.”
“Including you,” Joanna snapped.
Gwen groaned inwardly. More and more, this lunch idea with Joanna was proving to be a bad one. She had no desire to sit down and be interrogated for an hour by an obvious busybody. When her phone rang and she saw Chantay on the caller ID, she could have kissed her friend.
“Hello?”
“Hey, girl, what’s happening?”
“Yes, this is Gwen Smith.”
“I know who the hell you are. What are you doing, drinking Sienna tap water and losing your mind?”
“Oh, I see. Well, I’m at lunch actually, but I could come right now.”
“Who are you trying to give the heave-ho to? It better not be that fine man you keep acting like you don’t like.”
“Okay, I’ll leave right now and get there as soon as I can.”
“Okay, Oleta Adams. Railway, trailway, cross a damn desert and come see my ass!”
Gwen ended the call and crushed down a guffaw. When she saw Chantay, she would strangle her!
“Is everything okay?”
“Actually, no, Joanna. That call was regarding something urgent. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to take a raincheck. Kristy, can you make me a large double-Dutch to go?”
As soon as she got in the car, Gwen couldn’t get her Bluetooth on fast enough. She hit Chantay on the speed dial and eased out of Kristy’s parking lot. Chantay was laughing hysterically when she answered her phone.
“That wasn’t funny,” Gwen said, unable to contain the laughter spilling out of her own mouth. “You don’t know what was going on. It could have been important. I could barely keep a straight face. Chantay, stop laughing!”
Chantay tried to stop, and spit words out between giggles. “Okay, girl. Ooh, man, I haven’t laughed like that in a long time. Whew, that was good.” She took a couple deep breaths to regain her composure and wiped tears away from her eyes.
“Yeah, well, I’m glad I helped you get your laugh on.”
“Who was it…Adam?”
“No, Joanna, the first-grade teacher. And I can see right now that she’s messy, and will be the last one in town who I tell my business.”
Gwen relayed what had happened at Kristy’s and made plans to visit her true-blue friend the following weekend.
11
Gwen faced a barrage of mixed emotions as she drove to Chantay’s apartment. Where had her calm life gone? And why was the usual placid, handle-any-circumstance Gwen on a perpetual emotional roller coaster? She wanted to blame her period, but it wasn’t due for another two weeks. Of course, part of it was her mother’s move and another part was her divorce from Joe Smith. And as significant as these events were, it chagrined her that they weren’t the main reasons for her turmoil. She hadn’t seen Ransom for several days, but he was never far from her mind.
Determined not to think about him, Gwen reached for the radio knob and turned up the sound. She’d brought along her favorite CD for this very reason—so she could tune out any unwanted thoughts and keep her mood happy. The Greatest R&B Hits of 1984 CD switched from one song to another, and Gwen tapped out a beat on the steering wheel as she sang along to a Rockwell classic. As she thought about who might be watching her, a pair of coal black eyes swam into her consciousness. Dangit. What’s the matter with me? she thought. Gwen considered herself a self-contained, practical adult, not prone to flights of fancy or childish crushes. That she couldn’t seem to shake a man who obviously thought he was God’s gift was getting on her nerves. Peeved, she punched the CD track button again.
“…and now it’s solid…solid as a rock!”
Ashford and Simpson could normally take Gwen straight back into junior year and the Showtime skating rink with Chantay and company. But now all that thinking about something solid did was take her back into the memory of that hard chest she ran into on her first visit to Kristy’s. She tried not to react, but her body wouldn’t listen. A squiggly feeling fluttered inside her va-jay-jay. She squeezed her thighs together, getting angrier by the minute at the man wh
o’d cast his spell over her and awakened a sexual hunger she hadn’t known existed.
“Jesus Christ! Is there nothing that can stop me from thinking about that man?” She punched the CD button once more and New Edition had a message for her. She smoldered at first but by the time the cutesy chorus came around, she couldn’t help but laugh at the answer that seemingly came from above. Yes, she definitely needed to cool it immediately. Gwen laughed out loud, pushed the repeat button, and jammed with her teenage heartthrobs until she pulled into Chantay’s driveway.
Gwen stood amazed as she eyed the young woman who stood almost as tall as she. “This can’t be Sharonna,” she exclaimed, as a totally disinterested teenager shifted from one foot to another.
“Mama, dang. Can I go with Niecy ’nem? I’ve asked you twice.”
“And if you ask me again the answer will definitely be no, how ’bout that? And did you say hello to Gwen? You probably don’t remember her from Mama’s funeral last year, but this is my best friend from high school, best friend in the world. You’d better recognize and show some respect!”
“Hi,” Sharonna said, with all the enthusiasm of a meat-lover in a vegetarian restaurant.
“You’re becoming an attractive young woman, Sharonna.”
“Yeah, and she’s grown into a hot-to-trot boy chaser too. She can’t like the good ones, always has to go after the hardheads.”
Gwen didn’t comment, remembering how nice guys like her brother had finished last with Chantay as well.
Sharonna said nothing either, just squirmed as the question of whether she could go with her friends threatened to erupt from her mouth yet again. Knowing if she stomped off, that would surely get her an ix-nay on the all-may, she walked over to the living room and slouched down on the couch.
“Get your butt on out of here and don’t make me have to come looking for you!”
The last part of Chantay’s sentence was to Sharonna’s back, as her daughter covered the distance between the couch and the front door in two seconds flat. Her “bye” came after the door was already closed.
“She’s just like you,” Gwen said, laughing.
“I know. That’s what I’m afraid of,” Chantay replied. “I made sure she’s on the pill but still….”
“She’s sexually active?” Gwen tried not to be judgmental, but thought sixteen too young for intimacy.
“Girl, please, for at least a year. Be glad you don’t have kids. Especially living here in LA.”
“Things sure are different than when we were growing up.”
“Hmph. Not too…”
Gwen fixed Chantay with a questioning look. “How old were you?”
Chantay sighed and walked behind the bar counter into the kitchen.
“Can I get you something? You want a glass of wine?”
“No, I never drink and drive. What else do you have?”
Chantay poured a glass of orange juice for Gwen and for herself a glass of wine. While talking, she motioned them over from the combination dining room-kitchen area to the living room, where bright sunlight streamed in through the patio doors.
“Girl, I thought you knew Mike took my cherry when I was fifteen.”
Gwen was shocked. “No!”
“What, you thought Robert was the first?”
“Ooh, girl, stop. The last thing I need is a reminder that you and my brother did it.”
“You always were kinda prudish, weren’t you?”
“With two brothers acting like bodyguards, threatening their friends if they hurt me, what do you expect?”
“What about after we graduated, when your brothers weren’t around? Joe was what, only your second or third lover? And you never talked about y’all’s sex life. Must not have been that good.”
“Contrary to what you believe, Chantay, sex isn’t everything.”
“Trust, you’re just talking nonsense ’cause you haven’t had that kitty petted right yet.”
“Uh, I think that’s a good note on which to change the subject. Are you coming with me to the shop?”
“No, my neighbor’s going to redo my braids.”
“I thought that was part of our hang-out time, getting our hair done,” Gwen protested.
“I’ll still get a mani/pedi and a facial. That’s about how long it’ll take for you anyways.” Chantay paused and took a long swallow of merlot. “So give me the update.”
“On what?”
“What else? Ransom!”
Gwen got up from the couch and peered through the patio door into the August sunshine. “Why did I ever even ask you about him?”
“Because I’m your friend and you want my advice on catching his fine ass. If he’s anywhere close to the man you described…baby! You’d better strike while the iron is hot.”
“I’m not going to strike anything. I only asked about him because he didn’t look like any of the families we grew up with.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And I find him exasperating; he acts as if he knows I’m going to give in to his flirtations and that just makes me more determined to stay away.”
“I see.”
Gwen came back and flopped on the couch. “Obviously you don’t. He’s probably screwed half the women in town, and I never was the type who wanted to be at the end of a long list. You remember how many of our classmates used to lie and say they’d had me just because nobody had. And you know the mantra Mama drilled into me every week. Keep your panties up and your dress down, hon, else you’ll end up on the—”
“Front page of the Sienna Sun!” Gwen and Chantay finished together.
“How old is he?”
Gwen shrugged her shoulders. “Younger than me. Now that you mention it, he’s probably quite a bit younger than me. Strike two.”
Chantay rolled her eyes. “For a woman married ten years, you sure sound naive. The younger they are, the better, girl. All that stamina, plus you can train ’em.”
“No, Chantay, you can. Any child I teach will be in my first-grade class room. This is a moot conversation because of strike three—I’m still married. Have you forgotten that?”
“No, but I wish you would. Because you’re not really married, just waiting to go before the judge to make your divorce final. Does it look like Joe is waiting until the divorce is official? He barely waited until the ink was dry on your petition. Oh, my bad. He didn’t wait. He started screwing his little Mitzi mistress before there even was a petition.”
“Are you trying to piss me off?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time, won’t be the last. Sure you don’t want one glass of wine before we leave?”
12
Gwen turned the corner onto her block and was surprised at what she saw: Adam’s Porsche parked by the curb in front of her mother’s house. A slight frown formed on her face as she parked behind it. What was he doing here? Had she rebuffed him to the point where he’d gotten school administrators to rescind their job offer? Gwen needed this job, not just for the money, but for her sanity. She tried to remain calm as she opened her car door and walked up the steps, but by the time she put her key in the front door lock, she was a bundle of nerves.
“Where the hell have you been?” was the unexpected greeting that met her own incredulity in the audacity of the man before her.
“What do you mean, ‘where have I been’? What are you doing in my house?” In a rare move, Gwen walked toward Ransom instead of away from him, pointing her finger at his chest.
Crossing his arms over his chest in a gesture as defiant as his wide-legged stance, Ransom glared. He looked like a gloriously adorned stallion warrior, even wearing jeans and a simple T-shirt, but Gwen fought hard against this unwanted observation. Thankfully, her anger pushed past the usual paralysis that gripped her whenever she came within feet of this man.
“You are the most conceited, bullheaded man I’ve ever met, and that you’d have the nerve, the balls, the unmitigated gall to come to my house, let alone in my house, uninvited, bothering m
y mother…wait. Where is my mother?”
“So, you’ve finally gotten around to thinking about someone besides yourself. She’s at the hospital. Let’s go.
“She passed out,” Ransom continued as he led a bewildered Gwen to the car, opened the door, and helped her in. “I was repairing Miss Mary’s back porch steps when she came running. She’d dialed nine-one-one, but was beside herself and couldn’t remember what she’d done with your cell number.”
Gwen said nothing, reached for her cell phone. She couldn’t think, even to dial information for the hospital number. Then she realized she didn’t even know which hospital her mom was in.
“Where’d they take her?”
“Bradley Memorial. We’ll be there in five minutes.” Her wide-eyed question asked so desperately squeezed Ransom’s heart. He reached over and took her trembling hand in his. “It’s going to be okay.”
His voice was the soothing one he used to tell Isis her ouchies would heal. If this were Isis, he’d take his daughter in his arms, squeeze her tight, and rock her until she fell asleep. He wanted to do the same thing to the woman beside him.
“Where’s Miss Mary?” Gwen’s voice was timid, strained. “I should have been here,” she whispered, as tears threatened.
Guilt racked her as she thought of the fun, carefree afternoon she’d spent with Chantay. After their beauty shop appointment, they’d gone to a spa for massages and then out to eat. She’d called her mother from the restaurant and everything was fine: Miss Mary was over and they were playing gin rummy. That’s why taking in a movie once they’d left the restaurant hadn’t seemed like a big deal. Until now.
“She rode in the ambulance with your mother.”
Gwen’s brows furrowed in confusion and worry. “Where’s Adam?”
“What?”
“Adam. Where is he? And why are you driving his car?”
“This is my car. I’ve let Adam use it the past couple weeks.”
“Why in the world would you do that?”
Ransom looked over quickly. She didn’t know he and Adam were brothers? He scowled, thinking of something else. It was just three or so weeks ago that Adam had asked to borrow the Porsche. Was Gwen the woman he was trying to…? “Is there something going on between you and him?”
