After The Dance

by Lori D. Johnson

  HER

  I wasn’t gonna go. It had been nearly a month and a half since Carl and I went our separate ways. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I really did want to see him again.

  To keep Nora from hounding my behind, I finally just told her, “Look, I’ll go to the durn party, all right? But I’m only gonna stay a minute. You know Wednesday night is the night I do my volunteer work. So it would probably be best if we went in separate cars.” She rolled her eyes and said, “You need to quit. How you gonna plot a getaway before you even get there?”

  See, that’s why homegirl is always sitting up somewhere crying the blues. She don’t know the game like I know the game. If she did, she’d be hip to the fact that one of the basic rules of play is leaving a convenient out for oneself—just in case something right funky goes down.

  As for what Scoobie might say, I really wasn’t worried one way or the other. The fact of the matter is, he’s been in Europe for the past couple of weeks. Yeah, Morris-Morgan sent him over there to take part in some international culinary program. It’s a three-week deal. And don’t think I haven’t been thoroughly enjoying the break homeboy being umpteen thousand miles away has given me.

  But anyway, getting back to Carl and his birthday, after batting a couple of ideas around, Nora and I decided to split the cost of getting him an iPod. After we brought the gadget home, I took the liberty of hooking dude up with some of those old tunes he’s so partial to. You know, a little Luther, a little Barry White, some Kenny Lattimore, a song or two by Jarreau. For good measure, I even threw in those two slow jams he asked me to dance to back when we were first feeling each other out—“You Got Me Going in Circles” by the Friends of Distinction and “Baby I’m for Real” by the Originals.

  Yeah, girl, I’m not gonna lie, listening to all those songs brought back more than just a few memories about Carl and some of the things he and I did together. But then I got to thinking about our breakup and the fight between him and Scoobie and that last nasty exchange of words.

  I stepped up in the place not really knowing what to expect but praying all the while that if nothing else Carl and I could at least be polite to each other. Betty was gracious, as always, and the twins nearly trampled Nora and me in their excitement to see us—all reactions I’d pretty much anticipated.

  Now, what I never expected was to have such an intense physical reaction when dude finally made his appearance. A surge of warmth started at the top of my head and slowly spread throughout the rest of my body. If that wasn’t bad enough, I felt a certain part of my female anatomy straight up start to clench and swell, girl, as if it had a mind and more than just a few memories of its own.

  And I have to give it to the brother, he wasn’t looking half-bad. Not only did it look like he’d been hitting the weights and gotten more muscular, he’d cut his hair and had trimmed his beard into a nice little goatee. He was also sporting these itty-bitty gold hoops, girl, I’m saying, one in each ear. Altogether it was a look that made him appear considerably hipper and fresher, if not several years younger. And given the youthful appearance of the fast-tailed slim who came skipping in two steps behind him, not looking his age was the whole point.

  I’m not sure why, but not once did it ever occur to me that Carl just might show up with a date. If it had, you’d best believe I would have kept my big butt at home. I don’t know, girl, seeing him there with slim just made me feel weird. Not jealous, not angry or upset, just weird.

  Nora looked at me and said, “You all right?”

  I lied and told her, “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  She said, “Well, it ain’t everyday that some half-dressed hoochie shows up at a party with your man.”

  “First of all,” I told her, “he’s not my man. And secondly, we were never more than—”

  Nora threw a hand up in my face and said, “Uh-uh! Spare me the sad little speech, girlfriend, ’cause ain’t nobody ’round here trying to believe that mess but you. Okay?”

  That got me hot, and I told Ms. Smart Mouth, “Look, all I’m saying is that what happened between me and Carl has been over and done with. He’s free to see whomever he pleases without any unnecessary interference or drama from me.”

  She fired back at me with, “Yeah, and all I’m saying is you ain’t got to worry ’bout getting your hands dirty. If you want me to do the honor of going over there and busting that up for you, just say the word, ’cause you know I will.”

  I grabbed her and said, “Nora, I swear if you embarrass me in front of all these people, I’ll never speak to your ignorant butt again.”

  She settled down and said, “Well, aren’t you at least gonna go over and speak to the man? I ain’t never known a freaking ‘hello’ to hurt nobody.”

  I snuck a glance over at Carl and slim before I turned back to Nora and shook my head. “Not now. Maybe later.”

  She frowned and shook her head back at me. “Girl, please,” she said. “Later for later. I’m going over there now and I’d advise you to stop being such a big chicken and bring your silly butt on with me.”

  She headed off like a woman on a sho’ ’nuff mission to make matters worse, and the only thing that slowed her down and bought me enough time to get myself together was the sudden appearance of Carl’s cousin Squirrel and Uncle Westbrook square in homegirl’s path.

  HIM

  A birthday party? Yeah, I was surprised, all right. And so too were quite a few other folks, apparently. I’m saying, surprised that this ol’ boy hadn’t exactly arrived on the scene by his lonesome.

  Even so, my showing up with Ms. Vic probably wouldn’t have caused such a big stir if baby girl hadn’t shown up all hooched-out. She’d traded in the hip-hugging jeans she’d had on earlier for a pair of slacks that were twice as tight and provided even more of a behind-the-scenes peek—I’m saying, man, butterfly, ass crack, and all. If that wasn’t bad enough, her shirt only came to her midriff and was mostly cutaway in the back. I’d never seen baby girl with that much skin exposed, which leads me to believe she’d only done it as some sort of birthday treat for me. And let me tell you, it was most definitely a show and one I probably would have enjoyed had it not taken place in the presence of my ex, my two little girls, and the dozen or more friends and relatives who’d shown up to help me celebrate my forty-second.

  The ex didn’t waste any time in sharing with me her opinion with regards to my choice of company and her provocative attire. Smiling politely and chattering pleasantries all the while, she hurriedly parked my crazy cousin Constance on the sofa next to Ms. Vic before dragging me aside and promptly getting all in my face. “What in the hell would ever possess you to grace my doorstep with some two-bit video ’ho?!” I told you, man, preacher’s daughter or not, get her mad and my girl Bet will straight cuss you worse than any drunk, one-eyed sailor.

  I was like, “A video ’ho? You actually think I’d show up here in front of my children with a doggone ’ho of any kind?”

  “Well, it damn sure looks that way,” Betty said, with those jaws of hers so swoll you’da thought she had a bunch of sour grapes shoved up into each cheek.

  That’s when my cousin Squirrel jumped in and, with an arm around my shoulder, said, “You tell ’im, Bet. Carl know he ain’t right.”

  I looked at him and said, “Did somebody ask for your opinion?”

  He said, “Hey, you know it don’t make me no never mind what kind of ’ho she is. I mean, just so long as before you leave here tonight, you pass me the name and the number of the pimp you know that can hook a brother up like that!” He bust out laughing, then dapped me up and hollered, “Dag, Carl! Baby got it going on. Hook me up with some of that, playa! You know what I’m saying?”

  Still looking like a mad chipmunk, the ex waved a finger in my face and said, “Uh-huh, I should have known. That explains why you’ve been walking ’round here lately looking like a Black Mr. Clean or somebody.”

  “You tell ’im, Bet,” Squirrel
piped up again. But before he could contribute any more of his special brand of stupidity to the conversation, Betty ordered him to hush up before proceeding to drag him off to the kitchen to help her with the punch.

  I was standing there feeling a little lost and just a tad embarrassed when who but Nora should come up and tap me on the shoulder. Rather than give her the standard “it’s good to see ya” embrace, I picked her up and spun her around.

  She said, “Better save some of that, lover boy. Your girl Faye’s here.”

  I was like, “Faye?! Where?”

  An honest-to-goodness double take is what I did when I turned and saw ol’ girl. She was standing over in a corner talking to my Uncle Westbrook and looking as fine as all get-out. I’m saying, man, she’s lost so much weight, I hardly recognized her.

  “And you’d best be nice to her,” Nora said. “It took a whole lot for her to come here tonight.”

  Knowing Faye, I didn’t doubt it. And not wanting to waste any time, I was on my way over to holla at her when Ms. Vic suddenly slid back up in the picture. On handing me a glass of punch, she smiled and latched her arm around mine. Baby girl ain’t no dummy. Chances are she’d gotten a good whiff of the scent I was onto and had decided it probably wasn’t in her best interest to let me wander off too far without her.

  What was I supposed to do, man? Leave her standing there while I ran over and wagged my tail all up in some other woman’s face? I’m sorry, it’s just not in me to outright dis a chick like that, especially a chick I brought to the dadgum party in the first place. See, and therein lay the problem in a nutshell. I mean, had I known there was gonna be a gathering in my honor and my girl Faye was gonna be there, I’da straight left Ms. Vic sitting at home alone.

  Ain’t no sense in me denying it, man. I’ve still got feelings for the girl. I can hardly be in the same room with her without wanting to touch her, talk to her—I’m saying, just be close to her. Every time I looked her way, I got this big fat knot in my chest. And of course it didn’t help any that on one of my many glances in her direction, she stopped playing coy and went ahead and acknowledged me with a quick flash of dimples and a nod.

  I was hurting somethin’ awful, man, and feeling on the verge of being straight-up sick when Nora, with her slick self, came to my rescue.

  HER

  Nora is the only somebody I know who carries her own condiments everywhere she goes. I’m talking little packets of ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, Tabasco … you name it and she’s probably got some stashed away in the bottom of her bag.

  So I really didn’t think twice about it when I saw her squeezing a packet of hot sauce into the bowl of cheese and salsa dip she was walking around with. But I should have known better than to think that homegirl was going to be deterred from her stated goal of arranging a face-to-face meeting between me and dude before the party was over.

  She’d worked her way across the room and had even managed to peep Carl to my presence, only to come up short when sistergirl popped her half-naked booty back into the mix and made it clear that she wasn’t ’bout to let dude go anywhere without her.

  Nora looked over at the pair and, with a scowl on her face, said, “I wonder just how spicy she likes her dip?”

  Figuring she was just out to poke fun, I chuckled but didn’t comment.

  Then Nora looked at me real serious-like and said, “You think Betty’s got any jalapeno?”

  I said, “Jalapeno? Girl, if you make that stuff any hotter you’re gonna be sick as a dog up in here.”

  That’s when Nora winked at me and took off. Next thing I knew, she had Betty by the arm and they were making their way to the kitchen, grinning and bobbing heads all the while.

  It wasn’t hard to tell that the fit was about to hit the sham. Not wanting to wind up with any mess on me, I decided to be an adult about the situation and just go on over and speak to dude and Ms. Thang.

  As it was, Carl kept glancing over at me with this weird, almost pained expression on his face. I couldn’t tell if he was growing increasingly uncomfortable with my presence or, like me, was simply trying to figure out a way to navigate the distance between us.

  But before I could make my move, Nora was out of the kitchen and making room for herself on the sofa next to Carl’s date. There was a brief exchange of words before Nora raised up the bowl of chips and doctored dip and offered sistergirl a taste.

  As mean a stunt as it was, girl, I couldn’t help but laugh. I’m saying, a bug-eyed catfish fresh out of the water and headed for the nearest frying pan is what the poor chile reminded me of.

  Nora, with her crazy self, waited until the girl’s huffing and puffing turned into some straight-up coughing and gagging before she summoned Betty over to escort their unassuming mark to the bathroom.

  Even though Carl appeared genuinely concerned about sistergirl’s well-being, as soon as she was safely out of sight, he was off the couch and headed in my direction.

  HIM

  When she spread her arms and offered me a hug, I pulled her toward me and squeezed her tight, savoring as much as she’d let me of her warmth, her scent, and the leaner-than-I-remembered contours of her sweet, brown frame.

  Upon pulling back and checking her out up-close and personal, the most I could get out of my mouth without slinging slobber every which-a-way was, “Damn, girl, you look good!”

  I’m saying, man, in spite of the damage she’d done to my ego, I couldn’t help but be happy to see her. She did a little spin for me and said that in addition to counting calories, she’d been working out at the gym four to five times a week.

  I said, “I guess that means you and ol’ boy are still tight then, huh?”

  She said, “Now, why you want to start up with that? Besides, it hardly seems like you’re hurting for company. Didn’t you come here with somebody?”

  Wasn’t nothin’ I could say but “Yeah, I guess I did.”

  Faye said, “She’s cute—your girlfriend, I mean.”

  I was like, “Who? Victoria? No, see, we aren’t, like, together, together. I mean, she’s just somebody I hooked up with from school.”

  She looked at me with a grin and said, “Oh, she’s college-age, is she?”

  “See, now you wrong for that, Faye” is what I told her. “Dead wrong.”

  Those dimples of hers got even deeper as she batted her eyes and she said, “Am I?”

  Yeah, shucking and jiving with Faye took me back and almost made me forget that anything foul had ever happened between us. The whole time I was standing there, all I could think was that maybe her being there was a sign—you know, a sign that possibly she’d changed her mind about ol’ boy and was ready to pick up where she and I had left off. After all, I didn’t see any sign of that big-ass ring Nora had told me about. With the vibe between us growing thicker by the second, I finally just broke down and cast my line, “Look, baby, why don’t you come hang out with me and the girls next weekend? Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theatre is gonna be in town and—”

  She put her fingers to my lips to keep me from finishing and motioned with her eyes for me to turn and look. When I did, I saw that Ms. Vic had come back into the room. But Nora and my ex were doing their damnedest to keep her hemmed up in a corner.

  When I turned back around, Faye was like, “You should probably go and rescue her.”

  To show ol’ girl I wasn’t about to run scared, I stood my ground and reached for her hand before stepping to her again. Without a shred of amusement in my voice, I asked her point-blank, “Why you so worried about her, when it’s obvious that I’m the one who’s drowning here?”

  HER

  Girl, when he took my hand and put it on his face, all I could think was, Lord, please don’t let this man try to kiss me.

  First of all, I knew if his lips came anywhere near mine, I’d hardly be able to resist the urge to kiss him back. And secondly, I wasn’t at all looking to get into some nasty cat-fight with the slim he’d arrived there with.

&nb
sp; I tried to ease away from him, but that only made him move closer and hold me tighter. He pressed his mouth to the heel of my palm and said, “Do you at least plan on saving a dance for me?”

  I stroked his jawline and fingered one of his earrings before I caught myself. I cleared my throat and told him, “I don’t know. That might not go over so well with, you know, your new girl.”

  He locked his gaze with mine and said, “I told you already, she’s not my girl.”

  ‘Round about that time is when slim finally managed to slip free from the tight clutch Nora and Betty had her in. And in the blink of an eye, she was right back at Carl’s side, hanging onto his arm for dear life. Thinking she had something to prove, girlfriend went so far as to plant a noisy kiss on the brother’s cheek and say, “Hey, ya miss me?”

  Instead of coming right out and telling her the truth, which would have been, “Not one durn bit,” Carl introduced us. “Victoria, I want you to meet Faye. Me and Faye used to be … neighbors.”

  Before reaching out for slim’s hand, I smiled at Carl, who was standing between us looking like his drawers had suddenly become violently twisted. Girlfriend, for her part, grinned and greeted me cordially enough, even though it was clear that she’d done peeped the deal between me and dude.

  Carl opened his mouth to say something, only to be cut off by Renita and Renee, who busted in on the scene and temporarily stole the show. “Daddy! Daddy! It’s Bow Wow! Remember, you said you’d dance with us when his song came on?” With a look of resigned relief on his face, Carl shrugged before letting the twins drag him off.

  Not knowing what to say to each other, me and slim stood there for a moment and watched as Carl and the girls danced. In an attempt to try to break the ice, I said, “I guess we know who has his heart, huh?”