Where I Want To Be

by Maryam Diaab

  “I forgot. I’m sorry,” Alexis apologized, as Massai rinsed her empty plate and began loading the dishwasher.

  “You sure are, especially for the way you left your sister’s reception two hours early. Your brother told me that you got into a truck with some man.”

  “I was tired and ready to go.”

  “Everything is not always about you, Alexis, and I know whoever it was you left with is still over there. I can hear the sex in your voice.”

  “What? Mama, are you serious?” she asked, going over to help Massai with the dishes.

  “As a heart attack. So are you going to bring him with you or what? Everyone is waiting to meet him,” Dana said without taking a breath.

  “Do I have a choice?” she asked, although she already knew the answer to that particular question.

  “Not unless you want us all to come over there and barbeque in your bedroom. Now get your tail over here and bring whoever that is with you.” With that, Alexis’s mother hung up the phone.

  Pressing the end button on the telephone, she took a deep breath. “Massai, we have to go to my parents’ house for a little get-together. Now if you don’t want to go, I completely understand, but I really don’t have a choice in the matter.”

  “Of course I want to go. Do you think I would pass up a chance to meet the people who created you?”

  She rolled her eyes and laughed. “Well, we’d better get going. I was supposed to be over there two hours ago.”

  “So I guess that means that a quickie is out of the question?” he said, stepping in front of her and lifting her shirt above her hips.

  “That depends on how quick of a quickie you’re talking about.”

  Massai grabbed her firmly around the waist and lifted her up onto the counter. “Not that quick.”

  * * *

  Two and a half hours and one bubble bath later, Alexis and Massai were finally en route to her parents’ home.

  “Are you nervous?” she asked, exiting the Southfield Freeway.

  “No. Should I be?” he asked, trying to maneuver his legs comfortably in the passenger’s seat of Alexis’s Scion TC.

  “I would be if I were you, especially considering how important it is to my parents that all their children get married. I’m the last one.”

  “I doubt that they will be thinking about marrying you off so soon after Alicia’s wedding.”

  “You would be surprised.”

  She turned down her parents’ tree-lined street and felt her stomach completing three somersaults as she pulled into the very end of the circular driveway. Cars were jammed down the narrow street, making her more nervous at the prospect of having to introduce Massai to more than just immediate family members.

  “Are you ready?” he asked excitedly, setting both feet on the pavement.

  She cut the car’s engine, removed the key from the ignition and reluctantly closed the car door behind her.

  Her brother, Aaron, opened the front door to the house and jogged down the porch stairs. The family’s golden retriever, King, bounded down the stars behind him, nearly mowing down Alexis in the process.

  “I know you,” he said, bending down to attach the red leash around King’s neck. He straightened and shook Massai’s hand. “You play for New Orleans, don’t you? Massai Taylor, right?”

  “And you must be Aaron? Nice to meet you, man,” he said.

  “You know we could really use someone like you on the Pistons right now. What do you average? About fifteen, twenty points a game?” Aaron asked, as if he worked for Joe Dumars.

  “Something like that,” Massai proudly confirmed.

  “Wait until my dad meets you.”

  “Excuse me? Is he the only person you see standing here?” Alexis asked playfully.

  “I see you all the time,” her brother said, ruffling her hair with his leash-free hand. “Everybody’s waiting for you in the back, and let me warn you now: Mama is not happy.”

  “Let’s just go back to my place,” she suggested, tugging at Massai’s arm as he started in the direction of the backyard.

  “No, Alexis. I think you’re making it out to be worse than it is.” He held her hand tightly as they walked toward the sound of the music and the smell of the food.

  “It’s about time you got your tail over here,” Alexis’s mother said, meeting them at the gate. Hugging her daughter, she continued talking. “With Alicia gone on her honeymoon and you doing God only knows what, I had to prepare all this food by myself—as usual.” Dana turned her head up, using her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. “So you’re the reason my child couldn’t get over here to help me?”

  “Mama!” Alexis said, mortified.

  “What’s your name and what do you do?” she asked, ignoring her daughter and directing her question to Massai.

  “My name is Massai Taylor. I play professional basketball, and it is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Hunter.”

  “It’s nice to finally meet you, too, sweetie. I’ve heard about you, though I’m sorry to say that I don’t know very much.”

  “Well, I hope we have a chance to fix that,” he said, laying on the charm.

  “So how long have you two been seeing each other?” her mother asked, getting back to business.

  “Mama!” Alexis interjected again.

  “About a month and a half,” he smilingly answered.

  “Is this serious or just a stopover, because her father and I won’t stand for you getting your milk for free.”

  “Mama, stop!” Alexis said, stamping her foot in the grass.

  “I’m very serious about your daughter, Mrs. Hunter,” he said, squeezing her hand reassuringly.

  “Call me Dana. Since you say you’re so serious, I assume that you have plans to ask her to marry you in the near future?” she asked sweetly.

  “Look, that is enough!” Alexis said angrily, by now completely beside herself. “We have known each other less than two months, and Massai, you do not have to answer that question.”

  “I don’t mind answering.”

  “Well, I mind. This is ridiculous, Mama. We came here to have a good time, not to be interrogated!”

  Dana threw up her hands in surrender. “Fine, fine, I’m sorry. But I don’t know how you can blame me, considering you never tell me anything.”

  Alexis was fuming and at that particular moment, had nothing more to say to her mother. “I’m going to go get something to eat,” she said, stalking off across the lawn toward the food-laden table.

  “Mrs. Hunter, Dana, it was really nice to meet you.”

  “Nice meeting you, too, Massai. I had almost given up on Alexis as far as marriage was concerned. You know she’s been hurt several times?”

  “I’m aware of that, and I don’t plan on adding to that list,” he said earnestly.

  “I hope not,” Dana said, patting his arm gently. “I don’t think my baby’s heart can take another blow.”

  22

  PLATINUM AND DIAMONDS

  “Where are you?” Malik yelled into the phone, sounding more like Massai’s father than his best friend. “Do you know I damn near called the police to have them issue an Amber Alert for your ass?”

  “You can’t call in an Amber Alert for a grown man,” he said, walking through Somerset Collection shopping mall.

  “Missing persons, then. You know what I’m talking about. I called your house, your cell and your mama’s, and nobody knew where you were.”

  “You called my mama’s?”

  “Hell, yeah! I thought someone had kidnapped you. So are you going to tell me where you are or not?”

  “I’m at the mall.”

  “Can I get a city, please?”

  “Troy.”

  “Troy, what? Where is Troy?”

  “The mall is in Troy, Michigan. It’s a suburb outside of Detroit, super sleuth.”

  “Oh, so you’re with Alexis?”

  “Damn, you have a lot of questions,” Massai said, entering the store
he had been searching for.

  “I’m just asking.”

  “Yes, I did come to Detroit to visit Alexis, but right now she’s at her yoga class.”

  “So what the hell are you doing at the mall if you’re not with her? How did you find the mall if you’re not with her?”

  “Is this twenty questions or what? I’m at the mall to shop. What do you think I’m here for? And have you ever heard of the Internet? MapQuest?”

  “What are you going to buy?”

  “Why are you asking me so many questions? You need something to do so that you can stay out of my business.”

  “Massai, you called me.”

  “Only after you blew up my cellphone like some woman.”

  “What store are you in?”

  “Footlocker.”

  “Couldn’t you have come up with a better lie than that? Why would you be in Footlocker when we get gym shoes for free? Now what store are you in?”

  “Cartier,” he said, finally coming clean.

  “What are you buying in Cartier? And I really hope it’s a pair of cufflinks.”

  “Not quite,” Massai said, switching his cellphone from one ear to the other.

  “I think I know what it is, but I’m praying that I’m wrong.”

  “Then I won’t tell you; I would hate for you to be disappointed.”

  “No, tell me.”

  “I’m getting Alexis a ring,” he said, signaling a sales representative.

  “I hope it’s a friendship ring,” Malik said, but suspecting he was probably way off base.

  “Engagement ring,” he answered, not allowing the misgivings he heard in his friend’s voice to deter him.

  “I’m going to fly up there and bring you back to New Orleans before you go and do something crazy.”

  “I don’t think that will be necessary.”

  “Do you hear yourself? You are getting ready to ask this girl to marry you and you’ve barely known her two months!”

  “What’s your point?” Massai asked, informing the Cartier representative that he was ready for his appointment.

  “My point is that you are not thinking this through. Last time we talked, you told me that you were getting ready to put Eva out, and now you’re in Detroit buying an engagement ring for some other chick. You are not making any sense. You don’t even know her.”

  “I know enough. Yesterday we came back to her place after visiting her family, and I just sat and watched her for like an hour. She was walking around in an old pair of pajamas, and I literally couldn’t take my eyes off her. She is completely amazing and there is no way that I will be satisfied with just a long-distance relationship.”

  “Spare me the sickening details,” Malik said dryly. “If she’s all that you say she is, then why not bring her down to New Orleans and move her in with you? Why do you have to jump the broom?”

  “That’s not good enough for her. I can shack up with anybody, but I want to be with this woman for the rest of my life.”

  “You are completely gone. I mean, Tom Cruise over Katie Holmes gone. If I didn’t know better I would say you’re on something. Another one bites the dust,” Malik said regretfully.

  “I’ve never been a player,” Massai said, sitting down in the chocolate-brown leather chair and examining the five diamond rings the saleswoman had placed in front of him.

  “I know, but I’ve always had hope for you. Have you at least gotten a little closer to the panties, or are you waiting for the honeymoon?” Malik laughed.

  “You know I handle mine.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  * * *

  From the moment the couple entered Seldom Blues, Massai’s heart wouldn’t stop racing and his palms were clammy. As the host led them to their table, he felt about twenty sets of eyes boring into his back. Loud whispers assaulted his ears: “Doesn’t he play basketball? What is his name?” As a professional athlete, he was used to this kind of thing when he went out in public, but tonight it made him especially nervous. All of these people would be the first to know whether or not there would be a wedding in his future.

  Massai and Alexis had gotten through drinks, appetizers, salad and the main course without a hitch, but if he was going to propose, it would have to be soon because she declined dessert, opting for a glass of wine.

  He waited for Alexis to return from the restroom, holding the ring in his hand. This was the fifth time that evening he’d gone into his pocket to look at the four-carat, platinum canary diamond. The ring, as unique as the woman he loved, sparkled in the dim light of the jazz club.

  “They have a really nice bathroom,” Alexis said, sliding back into her seat before he could stand and pull it out for her.

  He closed his fist tightly around the ring box and shoved it back into his blazer pocket.

  “Are you okay, Massai? You’ve been acting really weird all night,” she asked with concern.

  “I’m okay.”

  “Are you sure? I think you’re catching a cold or something. You’re all quiet, and why are you sweating like that?”

  “I’m okay, baby; it’s just hot in here,” he said, wiping his brow with a linen napkin and trying to assure her that everything was normal. She was looking toward the bar and bobbing her head to the live band when he noticed a change in her expression. She went from looking happy to looking as if she had just seen a ghost.

  “Oh, shit,” she said, wanting to shrink and disappear as a very familiar face strode confidently toward their table.

  “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Kevin said, stopping at Alexis’s side and smiling down at her as if he had just won the lottery.

  “Hello, Kevin,” she said, keeping her voice steady even though it was her turn to sweat bullets. Massai raised his eyebrows but remained silent.

  “I wanted to call you to let you know that I had a wonderful time at brunch, we should really do it again sometime,” Kevin said, looking straight at Massai with a smirk. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

  “Um, of course. Kevin, this is Massai. Massai, this is Kevin,” Alexis said. Her nervousness and her unease were beginning to show. Instead of shaking hands, the two men just glared at each other silently. She felt the tension in the air and knew that if she didn’t get rid of Kevin quickly, the entire scene could become very ugly.

  23

  GET UP! GET OUT!

  “Mind if I pull up a chair?” Kevin asked, breaking the silence that descended over the table.

  “Yes, I mind. We’re having dinner, Kevin,” Alexis said angrily.

  “What about you, Massai?”

  Massai shifted in his seat uncomfortably, and the scowl never left his face. “Please be my guest,” he said, using his long arm to yank the chair away from the table.

  “Don’t you two make a cute couple? Look more like brother and sister than boyfriend and girlfriend. Kind of incestuous, if you ask me.”

  “Nobody asked you,” Massai said, glowering.

  “What do you want, Kevin?” she asked.

  “Just to get to know my replacement man to man.”

  “Where is your wife tonight? At home with the kids?” Massai asked pointedly, recognizing Kevin as the married man who had played Alexis like a fiddle before they met.

  “Ex-wife. We’re in the process of divorce.”

  “This is unbelievable,” she cut in.

  “Did you know, Massai, that if I hadn’t been married, Alexis and I would still be together?”

  “I seriously doubt that.” Massai felt his chest rise and fall. Under the crisp white tablecloth, his fists opened and closed as if preparing for battle.

  “Kevin, I think it’s time for you to go,” she said, touching Massai’s leg under the table and feeling it contract with anger.

  “Just one more thing before I go,” Kevin said, looking directly at Massai with a smirk. “I just want to make sure that you understand that you’re the rebound guy. She is only with you because
she can’t have me.” Kevin rose from the table and looked at Alexis before causally running his index finger down her bare arm.

  “So you’re just going to disrespect me and my girl?” Massai said angrily, rising from the table. He walked towards him and stared down, feeling the urge to beat Kevin’s brains out.

  “What are you going to do? Hit me? Go ahead. I know who you are, and I’ll take a beat-down for all the money I’ll get in court for my pain and suffering. I can see the news crawl right now…Massai Taylor, of the New Orleans Hornets, jailed in Detroit for assault and battery,” Kevin laughed, his posture daring Massai to take another step.

  Massai’s nostrils flared and his jaws tightened. Deathly afraid he would hit Kevin, Alexis jumped up and stood between the two men. Laughing, Kevin walked back to the table where his date was waiting.

  “Let’s go,” Massai said furiously, throwing three one hundred-dollar bills on the table, clearly overpaying for dinner.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Let’s go,” he said again, his voice low and firm. He began taking long strides toward the exit, and she had to jog slightly to keep up with him.

  The car was waiting at the curb, and instead of opening the door for her as he normally did, he walked over to the driver’s seat, climbed in and slammed the door. He barely waited for Alexis to get inside before he tore off from the restaurant, leaving the odor of burned tires behind them.

  “Massai, let’s talk about this,” she begged.

  “What’s there to talk about? That nigga said everything he wanted to say, touched you, and there was nothing you did to stop him.”

  “I asked him to leave, Massai. What else could I do?”

  “How about confirming the fact that I’m your man? Or, how about denying that you’re with me because you can’t be with him? And what was that shit about the two of you having brunch together?”

  “We met for brunch because he said he wanted to apologize for the way he had treated me. As soon as he started talking all that get-back-together stuff, I left. And I didn’t think I needed to give you confirmation. I’m with you because I love you and you make me happy.”