“Wait, is Toni still texting you?” I said, trying not to sound flattered.
“Yeah, you text him back,” Jonathan said as he let go of the Sidekick.
“What’s good, why are you asking Jonathan so many questions about me? What do you want to know?” I replied back.
“I only asked him a couple of questions ’bout you, I’m not trying to gas your head.”
How did he know my head was getting big? “I am not gassed… you still didn’t ask me what you wanted to know.”
“I just wanted to know a little about you.”
Before I could even respond back to his text, he texted me again.
“Jonathan used to speak a lot about you when you guys worked together. He used to always say JR is so cool and how much he liked working for you.”
I just turned to Jonathan and began to smile at him.
“What?” Jonathan said as I began to walk outside to get some privacy.
“Jonathan is a good worker. Well, I hope Jonathan was able to answer all of your questions about me.”
“Pretty much.”
“Should I pass J back his Sidekick?” I said, trying not to sound too eager. I’ve been around guys long enough and learned how to play the game from some of the world’s best experts. “Females are too anxious; they need to learn how to play it cool,” my best friend (play-brother) Terry used to always say. This was why I hated the whole dating game. Guess that’s why it’s called the “GAME.”
“Well, I’m not really doing anything, if you don’t mind talking, or should I say texting.”
“That’s cool… man, I need your kind of life.”
“LOL, how was the drive to New York?”
“It was cool.”
And off we went, texting back and forth for over thirty minutes or so. I was so into our conversation, I didn’t even hear our name being called for our table.
“Hey, they just called our name to eat. I got to go, call me when you get a chance.”
“Okay, enjoy your dinner, have a GD.”
“GD, what does that mean????”
“My bad, I was saying have a good day.”
“Oh, okay then, you also have a GD.”
He must do this a lot, talk to girls over his Sidekick or on the Internet, because he kept on typing back with abbreviations and I kept asking what it meant.
“Jamie, I’m glad you can join us now,” Jonathan said as I walked back into the restaurant.
“Very cute.”
“We thought for a second we were going to have to switch our table for two instead of three.”
“Very funny, J, when have you ever heard of me missing Italian food?”
As we began to order, all I could think of was getting back to my conversation with Toni. He was pretty cool, despite the horror stories Jonathan had told me about him. I had to get my head together, I thought to myself, you know how guys talk. I didn’t want Jonathan running back to Toni and telling him how silly I was acting after I gave him back the Sidekick. I had to play it cool, of course.
“Did you see the waiter, Jayla? He was kind of cute, right?”
Jayla just smiled. I was once thirteen, and I knew she was thinking about boys and stuff like that. You should see her room, she had pictures of all kinds of male singers on her wall, and she even had a huge poster of Usher with no shirt on.
“I don’t want to hear that, Jamie.”
“Don’t start. You’re always pointing out cute girls and their big asses and breasts when I’m around,” I snapped back at Jonathan.
“Yeah, but that’s different, Jamie.”
“I don’t even want to hear your twisted explanation ’bout the difference between male and female.”
The food finally came; we said grace and dug right in.
***
I was so glad the day was over. After dinner we went back to my mom’s house to grab Jonathan’s stuff. He was trying to catch the last flight back to Atlanta; it was leaving at 10:10 p.m.
“Man, JR, I hope I make this flight.”
“I know Tawana hopes you make it too,” I joked.
He rolled his eyes and said, “Not that I didn’t enjoy my time with you, but I just have a lot of stuff to do back home.”
“I understand, good riddance,” I said with a smile on my face. “Naw, I’m just kidding. I really do appreciate it.”
“No problem, besides, whenever I need to get away from Tawana, I can fly up to visit, right?”
I really hate visitors, I thought. “Of course, man… my casa is ell yo cassia.”
“Man, JR, stick to English,” he said after I just butchered the expression.
***
We finally made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. “I’m going to find a place to park while you check in.”
“No, I’ll be fine. I have no luggage to check in and I have a little over an hour and a half before the flight. You can head home and get some sleep; I know you must be tired.”
He was so right; I was tired as hell. “You sure…”
He just shook his head and waved me off. I hoped my family history didn’t scare him off. I wondered if he was going to run back and tell Toni everything I told him on the drive up. That would ruin any chance I had with him.
“Hold on, did I just say ruin any chance?” I said to myself out loud as I drove off. “Don’t think this way.” I had to calm myself down from my crazy thought.
My biggest critic was myself, and I was often so hard on myself about everything. I calculated my every move, my every thought and my every action. So naturally, dropping my preplanned life in Atlanta to move back to NY was not a calculated move, but it was a move I felt I had to do. Maybe not everything in life had to be so well thought out. So let’s see how this whole NY thing played out. I find it ironic to finally meet Toni on the day I was moving out of state, but oh well, I needed to start focusing on my new life in New York now.
Speak of the devil, I guess Toni must have either felt Jonathan and me going our separate ways or maybe he sensed me thinking about him, because he was calling. I wondered if Jonathan texted him and told him to call now. I always got myself overworked when it came to guys; I didn’t know why my guard was up all the time. Well, I guess with my track record, I could see why.
I Prayed for You…
Our conversation on my way back to my mother’s house was kind of brief.
“I really appreciate you calling me while I drive home.”
“Yeah, Jonathan told me about you and driving at night.”
I knew it; Jonathan must have told him to call me when I dropped him off at the airport. I thought to myself and then I remembered Jonathan was talking to him last night before I went to bed when we were driving and told him I couldn’t drive at night, telling him about my many near-death accidents while driving at night and falling asleep at the wheel.
“I can’t believe he told you that. What did he say?”
“He just said that you were driving a couple of times at night and you fell asleep at the wheel and crashed your car.”
“Hey, I didn’t crash my car, I just busted out my tires a few times,” I said as my voice got softer from embarrassment.
“You are funny.”
“Let me explain, first of all, I work a lot and went out just as much. I would work about an average of sixty hours a week between my freelance gigs and my overnight shift at Channel 2, and then I go out after work on the weekend.”
“Why do you work so much?” Toni interrupted.
“I don’t know.”
“You know.”
“No, I really don’t know.” The nerve of him trying to play psychiatrist on me. “Anyway”—trying to finish my sentence—“I would go out and then try to drive home at like three or four in the morning after working a long day sometimes. In the beginning I would just catch myself as soon as I closed my eyes behind the wheel, but the more and more I continued to drive at night, the heavier and heavier my eyes got. Besides, it o
nly happened three times.”
“You need to be careful.”
“I’m careful now. I just don’t really drive at night anymore.”
“Were you and your car okay?”
“Yeah, we both were cool, I more so than her.”
“So your car is a she?”
“Yeah, as much as I hate females sometimes, she is a she.”
“What do you mean you hate females?”
There he went again with the analyzing questions.
“Well, I don’t really hate them, but I just don’t hang out with a lot of females.”
“Oh, you’re one of those females that hang around a lot of guys.”
“Yeah, I guess everyone knows that females are trifling.”
“So are guys,” he said as he began to cut me off. “Just be careful, guys can be sneaky. They always have an agenda.”
“So what is your agenda?” I said, trying to flip the script.
I heard nothing but silence for a second. He just knew at that very moment he was saying too much.
To break the silence, I said, “You’re right, guys can be trifling too, but I try to be careful.”
He was still speechless. “I-I wasn’t saying—”
I just cut him off. “J should be getting in around twelve a.m. or so, are you picking him up?”
Awkward silence again. “Oh, Jonathan.” He laughed. “I had to think who was J, for a second. No, his girl is. I have to be at work at ten.”
“Well, it is getting late. I have a full day ahead of me tomorrow.”
“Good night, it was nice talking to you. If you don’t mind, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, that would be cool. I have some meetings and paperwork to finish up; then I may go out to my friend’s studio.”
“Oh, that sounds like fun.”
“What, the studio? Not really,” I replied before allowing him to reply back. “You been to one, you been to them all. Anyway, good night.”
“Oh, okay, well, good night, it was good talking to you.”
“Same here.”
“Oh, and for the record, I don’t have an agenda, I just wanted to get to know you better.”
“Oh, okay,” was all I said before hanging up the phone.
We both hung up the phone, and like always, before I went to bed, I turned the ringers off on my cell phones so I could get a full night’s rest.
***
I woke up the next morning and, for some strange reason, couldn’t get Toni out of my head. I went to check my messages on both of my cell phones. Since I was planning on traveling back and forth between New York and Atlanta, I decided it would be wise to get another cell number for New York. After I checked my New York number, I only had three missed calls but no new message.
“Hey, if they don’t leave a message, then I can’t call them back,” I said to myself. Then I went to check my Atlanta cell number. I had about six missed calls, two voice messages and a text message. I decided to check my voicemail first. Because I knew who it was, my play-brother Terry. He was the reason I turned my ringer off. Always calling or texting me at all hours to see if I was coming out tonight or to tell me how much fun he had and who he ran into in the club. Terry was a crazy dude, always getting into trouble, but if I ever needed anything, he was there for me like a real brother would be.
“Yo, J, pick up the phone, pick up the phone, man. We need to talk.” I didn’t know why he spoke to my cell phone like it was a home answering machine; didn’t he realize I couldn’t hear him leaving the message?
“Next message received at 12:45 a.m.”
“Yo, J, this is Sean, I just seen Terry and you crossed my mind. What’s good? I’m hoping to see you out tonight. Holla at me when you get a chance, one.”
It was too early to be speaking to both Sean and Terry, I’d call them later. Well, at least I would call Sean. After the stunt Terry pulled a few months ago, I didn’t want to talk to him.
I put the phone down and began walking to the kitchen when my phone text signal went off. “Oh, I forgot I got a text. It’s probably from Terry texting me to call him back.” To my surprise, it wasn’t. I really didn’t know who it was from until I read it.
“GM, I just had you in my thoughts. I hope you have a GD.”
GM and GD, that could only be from one person, but I had to make sure, I ran to my purse to pull out Toni’s number that I wrote down before I went to bed last night. I knew if I didn’t write it down before the day was out, I would have lost it in the received calls in my cell phone.
It matched. I contemplated if I should text him back; after all, he might be at work or busy.
“Oh well,” I thought out loud and wrote back: “GM, you at work? I just got up.”
It took him about thirty seconds before he responded. “Yeah, I’m at work. How did you sleep?”
How did I sleep? I didn’t know… did people really ask that question anymore?
“I slept good. I was really tired, I had a busy day yesterday, so I slept in a little.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but I hope you have a GD today. What do you have planned for today?”
“Work, of course, lol. Do what I do best. I have two meetings and lunch with my new client. I hope to be done around seven. Then I have to go down to the studio and show my face, hoping to be home around nine thirty.”
“Wow, you have a very busy day.”
“It’s like this every day.”
“When do you have time for yourself?”
Time for myself, I didn’t even know what that was anymore. I woke up early, worked all day and went to bed to start my routine all over again.
“I find time.”
“N E way, what time is your first meeting? I go to lunch at two and I’ll probably call you to see how your day is going, if you don’t mind.”
Man, this dude was trying so hard to be nice to me. Jonathan must have told him about my bad luck with men or how I could be a bitch at times when it came to meeting guys.
“My meeting is at one. You can try to call on your lunch break, and I hope to be out by then.”
“Okay, you have a GD.”
“You do the same, bye.”
***
“Hello.”
“Hey, Toni, sorry about today. My day just got so busy, I didn’t have time to talk to you. Besides, I’m trying to get readjusted to taking the train everywhere and my phone doesn’t work when I’m on the train.”
I felt so bad lying to Toni, my lunch meeting was over at two forty-five and he tried to call me at one o’clock and I didn’t pick up the phone. Toni was cool and everything, but I still hadn’t figured out his motive, so until I did, my guard would be up, way up.
“Don’t worry about it. I was just trying to see how your day was going so far. How was your day today, anyway?”
“It was very productive. I just got back in the house and I’m about to get dressed and go back out.”
“Oh, really?” he said with a very disappointed sound to his voice.
“Yeah, after I left my friend’s studio, I told him I would attend his talent’s album release party. I heard some of the tracks; he’s really good. Some new artist name John Legend.”
“That’s cool. Should I let you go so you can get ready?”
“No, I’m good, we can talk. I’m about to throw something on and head out of the house in twenty minutes. We can talk while I get dressed.” Damn, I hated sounding so desperate, I should have told him I would call him tomorrow, I thought to myself as I looked in the closet. I paused for a second…
“I don’t even want to go. I don’t feel like mixing and mingling tonight, I just kind of wanted to stay home.”
“So why don’t you?”
“Why don’t I what?”
“Stay home.”
“I can’t, I already promised my friend. Besides, I’m hoping to get there around eleven and be out and home before one. Hold on.”
“The train,” I yelled back at my m
other. “I’ll be fine. I won’t be out too late.”
“Sorry about that. My mother is tripping because she doesn’t like the idea of me taking the train so late at night.”
“Oh, you’re not driving?” Toni asked, sounding concern.
“No, I don’t know my way around the city too well, and besides, there’s never anywhere to park.”
“That is kind of late for you to be taking the train.”
“Please don’t say that. I am old enough to take the train by myself, dad,” I said, laughing at the fact he was so concerned. “I’m just kidding. I’ll be fine.”
“You better be.”
“I’m about to leave the house now. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Hey, JR?” he said right before I started to close my flip phone.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“Hey, if you don’t mind, I’ll be up late, and if you can at least call when you get home, I’ll be able to get a good night’s sleep.”
My heart just melted; that was so sweet of him. “I really don’t want to keep you up or wake you up.”
“I probably won’t be getting any sleep, knowing you’re in the streets walking home by yourself at one a.m. in the morning.”
“Okay, if it’s not too late, I’ll call you. It should be around 12:30 or so, okay?”
“Okay, Jamie, have a good time and I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay, bye.”
As I hung up the phone, all I could do was think about Toni and couldn’t get over the fact that he was being so nice to me and he didn’t even know me. I wondered as I walked to the train if he did this to every woman he met. He was just being nice to me because he knew I would be traveling back and forth from New York to Atlanta; he just got one thing on his mind.
My mind continued to think as I got on the train and made my way down to the party. It was in a small cute little lounge.
The place was pretty packed, so why did I not want to be here? Damn Toni, I thought to myself. I was here at this party and couldn’t even enjoy myself because I couldn’t get him out of my mind.
Lust and Lies (The Jamie Reynolds Chronicles #1) Page 3
