The Look of Love

by Crystal B. Bright

  “Keep it. I owe you.” He walked out and headed toward the salon.

  The employees at Press ’N Curl, including Eboni, had given him the cold shoulder. Shay had been the most obvious and vocal about her feelings toward him. Tillman had remained polite but still came off as unsure. Tisha…he couldn’t figure her out. Monica looked like she wanted to do her job and go home.

  As Gunnar got closer to the salon, he hurried his steps. He hadn’t given up on a fight in the past. These folks would not break him either.

  Gunnar walked in the front door of the salon to the surprise of the two customers that sat in Shay and Tisha’s chairs. The chatter that he’d heard from outside stopped when he crossed the threshold.

  A young African-American woman sat in Shay’s chair. She scanned Gunnar from head to toe and pursed her lips as he passed her. An older African-American woman sat in Tisha’s chair. Her bottom lip hung down as she watched him.

  After hanging up his jacket, he went back out to the front desk where Eboni sat with Monica. “May I have a word with you, please?”

  Eboni wouldn’t even look at him. “Not right now. I’m working. I have to refill some supply orders.” She glared at him. “Queen normally does that, but I wasn’t sure when you would be coming back.”

  That dig cut him to his core. Gunnar opened his mouth to insist that she talk to him in private when she picked up the phone receiver and began dialing.

  Gunnar released a long, exasperated sigh through his nose. Eboni would not be making this easy on him.

  The front door opened with a slam and a teenage boy strolled inside. “Ladies, ladies, ladies!”

  Tillman cleared his throat.

  “Oh, and my man right here.” The young man held up a bag. “I’m a high school student and I’m selling chocolate to raise money to go to band camp. Anyone want to buy some Snickers or Kit Kats?”

  Gunnar walked up to him. “What’s your name?”

  The boy looked at him for a split second before his eyes went wide. “Oh, shit! You’re Guns!”

  “Watch your language. There are ladies present.” Gunnar blocked the teenager from moving any farther into the salon. “Your name?”

  “My friends call me T-Lite.” The white boy did a single stiff-legged strut toward Gunnar.

  He tried pulling Gunnar into a half hug but Gunnar didn’t budge.

  “You come into this establishment, I expect you to remove your hat.” Gunnar pulled at T-Lite’s black wool cap.

  “Hey. Don’t touch.” T-Lite adjusted his hat low over his eyes.

  “Wear clothes that are your size, not ten times too big.” Gunnar tugged at the young man’s oversize camouflage jacket. “And you cannot have your pants down around your hind parts.”

  “Dude, am I in the Twilight Zone? Some fighter is telling me how to dress?”

  “No, I’m telling you what I expect of people in my establishment.”

  Eboni walked up behind him. “Gunnar--”

  He held his hand up to her. “No. I’ve seen your kind before. I saw you outside of the community center during the day. Why aren’t you in school?”

  “Damn, man. I’m just trying to sell some candy.”

  Gunnar felt flames engulfing his head. He grabbed the young man by his collar. “I asked you to watch your language. Now you need to go.” He pushed him out of the door. “Don’t come back until you learn some manners.”

  “Fuck you!”

  Gunnar pulled the door closed. He didn’t expect to run into Eboni.

  “You were rude to that kid.” She pushed against his chest.

  “What? That boy came here with baggy jeans and a disrespectful mouth. I’m not having that here in my shop.”

  “This is not your shop. Get that straight now.”

  The movement in the salon stilled at Eboni’s blunt words. Gunnar stared at Eboni for a moment to see if he could find the woman who had captured his heart so many years ago. She no longer existed.

  He shook his head. “I’m going to go check out some things and I’ll be right back.”

  Gunnar needed air and space before he could sit Eboni down to talk to her. Eboni couldn’t stay busy for long. Whether at the salon or after work, he would get to talk to her.

  Gunnar decided to run over to the flower shop. He found it open and his mother’s long-time employee, Victor Dabu, working hard as usual. Sharing the news with the man he saw as an uncle hurt him when he saw Victor’s worried expression.

  “You know my mother,” Gunnar began. “She’s strong.”

  Victor nodded and seemed relieved, especially after Gunnar shared that after the Super Bowl, Gideon would be coming back home to help run the shop.

  Gunnar hit the clothing boutique as his next stop. In the door read a sign that said that the shop would be closed until the beginning of March. That would buy him some time to track down Thane to help run that business.

  Since he had time on his hands, Gunnar continued his drive and headed back to the hospital. Even though he’d seen his mother earlier that morning, Gunnar felt the need to visit her again. He knocked on her partially closed door.

  “Enter,” his mother said regally.

  Gunnar smiled at her response as he entered the room. As soon as she saw him, Elizabeth’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. When he thought that he may not see that smile again if something went wrong with the surgery, he pushed the idea out of his head.

  “You’re back.” She opened her arms to hug him as he planted a kiss on her cheek.

  “How are you doing?”

  She scanned her area. Magazines now covered her bed and tray. Eboni must have brought them for her.

  She sighed. “Okay. I would love to go home.”

  “I came to give you some updates. The flower shop is going well.” Gunnar sat in a chair next to her bed. “Victor sends his love and will be up to visit when the shop closes.”

  Elizabeth nodded. “He’s always been a good man.” She pushed her magazines off to the side and removed her reading glasses. “How’s the salon?”

  Gunnar gazed down before answering. “I’m sure Eboni has it all under control without my help.”

  He hated that Eboni couldn’t let the past go. He had returned for a reason. Moreover, he’d tried to help her.

  “What happened?”

  Before Gunnar could spout any lies about everything going okay, he made the mistake of looking his mother in her eyes. Ever since that one fateful day she’d put her life on the line for him, he could never lie to her.

  “Ma, I’m trying to help. I swear. I straightened up the shop.” He saw his mother’s eyes get wide. He continued talking. “I reorganized your office.” Gunnar winced as soon as he used the word reorganized.

  Eboni had warned him against even touching her office. Evident from Elizabeth’s gasp, she must agree.

  “You went into my office and moved things around?” Elizabeth sat up taller in her hospital bed, which prompted Gunnar to fluff up her pillows behind her.

  “Just a little. Not that much.” He would have to put her stuff back the way she had it before the day ended. “I even had an idea to help raise money for that center she keeps talking about.”

  “And she didn’t seem happy about it.” His mother stared at him with such love in her expression.

  “No. She acted as though I was trying to wreck the place or something.” Gunnar lowered his head. He felt his mother tuck a strand of his hair behind his ear.

  “Have you two talked about your breakup?”

  Gunnar lifted his head. He started to open his mouth to tell her yes when she stopped him.

  “I don’t mean her calling you insensitive and you telling her you’re not. I mean, did you two really talk about your choice?”

  He chuckled and shook his head. As he leaned back in his chair, he said, “I get sick and tired of people telling me that my leaving was just my choice. She had a say in the situation. She c
ould have come with me. I asked her. No, I begged her.”

  “Darling, no one wants to be seen as an accessory or as a piece of luggage when you’re talking about the rest of your lives.”

  Gunnar crossed his legs at his ankles as he stared at his mother. “What are you talking about?”

  “Why didn’t you ask her to marry you?”

  Now his mother sounded like Eboni.

  “God, not you too.” He covered his eyes with his hand. “Did you ever think that maybe I would have asked her once we got to Vegas?”

  “Did you ever think that she would have wanted to know your full commitment before leaving?” His mother posed the query with a soothing voice. When Gunnar didn’t respond, she continued. “My darling, if you want to move forward, you’re going to have to address the past.”

  As much as Gunnar didn’t want to admit that fact, he couldn’t deny his mother knew the answer. He had to rip off this Band-Aid and allow the wound to be exposed to heal.

  “And if you want the employees there to like and respect you, you’re going to have to get to know them.” Elizabeth offered a soft smile. “I’m not telling you to get all in their business. Figure out what makes them happy. Nothing deep. You’d be surprised what listening to people will do for them and for you.”

  “What would I do without you?” He leaned forward and held her hand.

  “Be a mess.” She smiled. “But you’d be my mess.” She straightened herself up and looked at the TV monitor in the corner of the room. “Now, you want to watch Judge Judy with me?”

  “You’ll watch that but you don’t want to watch me fight?”

  “Honey, she doesn’t shed any blood.”

  He laughed at his mother.

  Gunnar managed to stay with his mother until about eight that night when she forced him to go back to the shop to help them close.

  With great reluctance, he left her and returned to Press ’N Curl. By the time he arrived, the employees had the floors swept and their stations cleaned. Monica accepted payment from the last customer before she locked the front door.

  “What a day.” She fanned her round face as she waddled back to the desk. When she saw Gunnar, she blinked. “You came back. Didn’t think I would see you again.”

  “I promised my mother I would help her. I can’t do that if I’m not here.” He watched Monica struggle to get her coat on so he ran to her and helped her. “Need to be walked to your car?”

  “Nope. Been walking even before you were alive, and no one is going to mess with me.” She walked out the back door.

  “Wasn’t a bad day for a Tuesday.”

  Gunnar turned to Shay when she spoke. Her smile lit up the corner where she had her station.

  “Want to go for a drink?” she asked him.

  Gunnar shook his head. “No, heading home. Thanks for the offer.”

  “That’s okay.” She walked up to him and lowered her voice. “There will be other offers on the table.” She winked before leaving. “See y’all tomorrow.”

  Gunnar hardly even noticed when Tisha left. She walked out as quietly as she walked in that day.

  “Hey, man, I told my boys that you were in town. Hope you don’t mind.” Tillman put on his heavy jacket.

  Gunnar did mind. He never understood why people regarded him as a celebrity. He fought for a living. He didn’t get wrapped up in the hype.

  “I wanted to lay low while I was here. It’s not about me. It’s about my mother.”

  Gunnar’s words must have come out a lot harsher than intended. Tillman simply nodded and walked out without another word.

  Gunnar heard a door open behind him. Eboni appeared from the bathroom. She scanned the area, probably to see if anyone else remained besides Gunnar. When she realized she had been left alone with Gunnar, she started packing up her things.

  “Now you have time to talk.” Gunnar followed her to the front desk.

  “Um, sure.” She put on her coat and wrapped a scarf around her neck. “I would hate for you to manhandle me like you did that kid earlier.”

  “Do you really want to save that community center, or did you just tell me that to mess with me?” He glared at her as he waited for her answer.

  “What? You think I would say that as some sort of joke? You saw the place.”

  He saw her honey-brown complexion turn crimson before his eyes. Good to see her passion. He wished she had displayed that earlier.

  “I don’t know. I throw out this suggestion about working on Mondays and you get bent out of shape about it. I thought you’d be happy about the idea. I thought you would be happy that I am trying.” The fact that she looked so shocked surprised him considering how passionately she’d talked about this center. “I’m used to fighting. And I’m used to fighting by myself. I thought you would have my back, and you left me hanging. I can’t want this more than you. If this whole thing was a joke, then I don’t think it’s funny. You made me look like an idiot and you wasted my time.”

  Eboni’s jaw tightened even more. When she didn’t say anything, Gunnar shook his head and marched toward the office.

  “Go to hell.”

  Those three words stopped him in his tracks. Gunnar turned and gave her his full attention.

  “First you come back out of nowhere to be by your mother’s side after all these years. Did you ever think to come home to visit me? Maybe even call me? My number has not changed since you hopped on that bus to Vegas.” She wrapped her scarf around her neck until she thought she would choke herself. “Then you come back like some knight in shining armor ready to fix everything. You can’t, and do you know why?” She peered up at him. “Because in a week or two or even in a couple of months, you’ll be gone again. You’ll get everyone rallying around you like some great hero, then when Queen Elizabeth is all better, you’ll pack up and go back to your home.” She turned off the salon lights.

  Gunnar followed her out of the shop. She locked the back door before heading to her car, careful to not slip on the ice.

  When she turned back to him before getting into her car, Gunnar noticed the pink color that shaded the whites of her eyes. She wiped the back of her gloved hand over her eyes.

  “You expect these people to follow your every word when the fact of the matter is that they don’t know you. If Tillman hadn’t said anything about your career, you probably would have kept that a secret, wouldn’t you?”

  “Did you tell them that we used to date?” Gunnar managed to ask in her tirade.

  “I told Shay because she asked.” She unlocked her door and threw her purse and bag inside.

  “Exactly. If there’s anything they want to know about me, they can ask.”

  Eboni shook her head. “Really?” She stared him in his eyes. “Why did you leave?”

  Gunnar opened his mouth to explain. He hated to do it in the middle of a parking lot, but the situation called for it. Then his cell phone rang. Hoping the call came from Thane, he pulled it out of his pocket to check.

  “It’s Chuck.” When he caught her confused expression, Gunnar remembered that Eboni had missed the bulk of his professional life. “He’s my manager and trainer. One second.” Gunnar answered the call. “Yeah?”

  “Guns, what’s going on with your mom?” From the noises coming from behind him, Gunnar knew Chuck had to be in the gym.

  He heard clicking of the steel plates from the weights being slapped together. Gunnar also caught the sound of rope cutting the air like a jump rope being twirled around.

  “She’s still in the hospital.” Gunnar glanced up at Eboni. She stayed as he talked.

  “That’s terrible. Is it bad?” Chuck asked.

  “She’ll have to have bypass surgery.”

  Chuck whistled. “Tough break. When is that going to happen?”

  “Not sure.”

  “So you can come back and train for your fight with Seamus?”

  Flames encircled Gunnar’s head. “You
want me to come back to train?”

  Eboni groaned. “No shock. Running again. I’m out of here.” She ducked into her car.

  Now he felt like a heel. He didn’t want to upset her. He needed Eboni to hear his side of the whole situation.

  “Hold on, Chuck.” Gunnar knocked on Eboni’s window. After a beat, she powered it down. “Would you like to go out to dinner to talk about other fund-raising options?”

  “No.” She got out with an ice scraper and attacked her windows. “Sounds like you have other plans. Plus, I don’t think it would be a good idea.”

  “What do you mean? It’s just dinner.” He attempted to follow her around the car to keep up the conversation.

  Eboni remained quiet until she finished removing all the ice from her car. Before getting in, she pointed to his cell phone. “Finish your conversation. Your future is calling you.”

  “That’s not fair. You don’t know what this is about.” He held up his phone.

  “I know what it isn’t. It isn’t you planning on making a life here.” She powered the window back up and drove home, leaving Gunnar by himself.

  He put the phone back to his ear. “Look, I’m not leaving here until my mom has the surgery and she’s one-hundred percent.”

  “Guns, you can’t do that. You have a contract.”

  Gunnar could hear the tightness in his manager’s voice as though he talked to him through gritted teeth.

  “I also have a family. When my career is over, my family will still be here.” Gunnar disconnected the call. He walked to the edge of the property and watched Eboni’s car lights disappear into the night.

  Maybe he deserved the cold shoulder from her. He wouldn’t stop trying to regain her trust again.

  Chapter 6

  Eboni stormed into the apartment she shared with her cousin and aunt and slammed the door behind her.

  “Hey, hey, hey.” Craig shuffled out of the kitchen wearing his standard uniform of long denim shorts, a throwback basketball jersey, dingy sport socks, and sandals.

  Her lazy cousin carried a large bowl filled with multicolored cereal and milk.