Love Won't Let Me Wait Page 17

  That was the first time I noticed the olive green, pleated, mini-skirt she was wearing. It looked good on her. But not even the supreme sexiness of Toya’s body in my favorite female apparel could erase my sour mood. As soon as she returned to the kitchen, my thoughts went back to Shannon. I stood and began to make my way around the house. I walked out to the front door entrance.

  Toya’s house is in my opinion an architectural masterpiece built in three ascending levels. At the front entrance there is a small foyer with distressed natural bamboo flooring. To your left is a room covered from wall to wall in one-inch thick, white carpet. A wicker sofa and loveseat with eggshell colored cushion covers sit facing each other in the center of the room. There is an oval shaped, glass, coffee table sitting in the middle of the two chairs. In the far right and left corners of the room are two three-foot tall, white, porcelain elephants with raised trunks.

  The room to the right is also covered wall to wall in white carpet. The lone object in this room is a crimson colored grand piano. Behind that, is the living room and den. After passing through this area you ascend two stairs to the second tier. The large, fully-equipped gourmet kitchen sits to the left. To the right is a small informal dining area. And further down the hallway to the right is a large formal dining area. On the white tiled floor sits a glass dining table for eight. The dining area exits through double glass doors onto a patio that overlooks the eastern and ascending valley approaching Toya’s house.

  From the kitchen area you climb two more stairs to the third tier. The master bedroom is down the hall to the left. The master bedroom has a sliding glass wall that leads out to a surrounding balcony that offers a breathtaking view of the western descent into the valley. To the right is the guest bedroom and bath, which is where I decided to lay down and take a nap until dinner was ready.

  Toya’s food was banging. I cleaned my plate and readied for seconds. Surprisingly the meal did take my mind off of Shannon. During the meal Toya and I had very little conversation. Periodically I would glance over at her, and she would just look up at me, smile and return to her food.

  After dinner as Toya washed dishes, I walked out onto the balcony outside the dining room. I offered to help her more than once but she refused to let me. I didn’t persist. I stood out there eyeing the night and my thoughts returned to Shannon. In the midst of my thoughts Toya walked out onto the balcony with two glasses of wine. I smiled at her as she handed me a glass. After a couple of sips I turned to her.

  “Shannon and I are over and done with,” I said flatly. Toya took a sip of her wine and continued staring out at the valley. After about a minute she spoke.

  “I figured something was going on between the two of you,” she answered and returned to studying the darkness of the valley. I waited for her to continue but she didn’t. Is that it? That’s all I’m going to get? No why or what happened? She had to be curious. I shook my head and sipped my wine.

  “She had an abortion.” Toya glanced over at me, still not a hint of surprise in her demeanor. “The baby wasn’t even mine,” I added and gazed up at the night sky. Toya reached over and rubbed my shoulder. “Does any of this surprise you?” Toya shook her head in the negative. “I thought you liked Shannon?”

  “I did,” she answered. Huh, I thought. I was confused.

  “This doesn’t surprise you? It sure shocked the hell out of me.” Toya glanced up at the sky as if searching for words. After a brief silence she turned to me.

  “Kalem, you’ve known for weeks that she was pregnant. The receipt from the doctor should have told you that she’s known for months. For months, but she never told you about the pregnancy. That should have sounded the alarm in your head.” I shrugged my shoulders. Toya looked away from me over her shoulders. “She had you wide open.” I looked down at the ground in front of me.

  “Yeah, that’s what Raoul said.” Toya laughed.

  “For once I agree with something that fool has to say.” I joined her in laughter.

  “Y’all are both right though. Damn, she got me good.” Toya rubbed the small of my back. We both turned and stared out at the star-studded sky. A few minutes of silence passed between us. Toya giggled and asked:

  “You know what this reminds me of?”

  “No, what?”

  “Waiting at the bus stop in front of Mrs. Henry’s house in the morning to go to school.” The memories brought a smile to my face. Toya and I decked out in our light-blue, short-sleeved shirts, me with my gray pants and Toya in her pleated, gray skirt that completed our school uniforms. I thought about how much Tomboy Toya hated to have to wear a skirt to school.

  “You remember Freddy?” I asked. Toya burst out laughing. Freddy was our neighbor as kids. His house was to the left of mine and Toya’s was to the right. He was short and chubby with huge buckteeth and braces. No one liked to be close to him when he spoke due to the excessive spray of saliva generated by the combined forces of his huge teeth, pronounced lisp, braces, and uncontrollable stutter.

  I remember in the morning at the bus stop he would always sit on his book bag a few feet away from Toya and me. He would sing this stupid ass song. Toya and Kalem sitting in a tree, K-I-SS-I-N-G. He would roll through the entire song without a problem until he got to the last word of the song. For some reason he could never get out the word carriage without his stutter kicking in. His eyes would blink, and his body would jerk forward as he struggled to get carriage out of his mouth. This went on for 30 seconds sometimes more. He’d be going Ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca…and everyone at the bus stop would burst out laughing. Freddy didn’t take offense though, he could dish it out and had no problem taking it either.

  I remember my cousin Shawn, the one who slept with my girlfriend in high school, would pretend to be a DJ scratching a record. He would be bent over like he was behind the turntables his hand moving back and forth in the scratching motion with every ca-ca from Freddy’s mouth. Always the entertainer, Freddy would play right along before eventually joining everyone in laughter.

  I started singing the song Freddy used to tease us with. When I got to carriage I started mimicking Freddy’s stutter complete with the eye blinking and body jerking. Toya burst out laughing. After she regained her composure she punched me playfully in the shoulder.

  “What?” Toya glared at me struggling to keep from laughing.

  “You shouldn’t make fun of people’s problems like that. That’s not cool.”

  “Yeah, whatever. You were laughing so hard you almost had a seizure.” Toya giggled.

  “I couldn’t help it, you caught me off guard.”

  “Mhuh, blame it on me.” We both turned and looked out at the valley.

  “You know, I saw Freddy in Orlando. I think it was in 2000 or 2001.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, he was stationed at the naval base down there before they closed it.”

  “How was he?”

  “He was doing well. He doesn’t stutter anymore.”

  “Really?” Toya asked excited. I nodded. “Maybe he had speech therapy.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” We stood in silence for a few minutes before I broke it. “You know we are doing the exact same thing we did back then, right now. The only difference is the time of the day.” Toya smiled. I reached over, hugged her across the shoulders and pulled her close to me. She placed her head on my shoulder.

  That night as I lay awake in bed, I glanced down at Toya’s head lying across my chest. I tugged at her curls until the sandman called. We awoke early the next morning, walked out onto the balcony and watched the slow rising of the sun over the mountains. Just like we did at the bus stop as kids every morning before heading to school.

  A couple of weeks had passed and I had been spending all of my free time over at Toya’s. Shannon was fast becoming just another painful memory. All of the time I was spending with Toya helped to keep my thoughts relatively Shannon free.

  Josh had called early this morning to let me know that he would be in town th
is afternoon and wanted to meet up at the Foxx. Since I hadn’t been down to the Foxx in some time, I was eagerly anticipating my get together with Josh. I called up Raoul and invited him to join us. After a five-minute sulking session about how I had quit hanging with him at the Foxx for some chick who turned out to be a whore, he finally agreed to meet us there at six-thirty.

  Later that afternoon on my way out of the office, I got a call from Bob Reasons requesting a meeting for the next morning. We settled on eleven-thirty which would provide me with a couple of extra hours to recover from what promised to be a Thursday night of heavy drinking and late night partying with Josh and Raoul. I hoped that the meeting would bring good news. There was one thing I was certain of regarding the morning meeting. I had given Reasons a take it or leave it proposition, and had every intention of bringing the Intellica deal to a close, one way or the other.

  I was running a tad early for our get together at the Foxx so I decided to walk over to Raoul’s office and check in with him. I ran into him standing in the lobby talking with Ronald Watson the city planner. I started walking towards them and as soon as Raoul spotted me he waved me over.

  “Hey, Kalem, how’s everything over on the eastside of the boulevard,” Raoul joked and greeted me with a handshake.

  “Pretty good. How’s it going, Ronald?”

  “Not bad, Kalem,” Ronald returned as we shook hands. “I’m trying to get Raoul to give us some assistance down at the city planner’s office with the new administration building.” He winked at me. “See if you can put in a good word for us, I know you guys are good friends.” I nodded and laughed.

  “Hey, Ronald,” Raoul said. “Get the financial specifics worked out and it’s a done deal. I can have the changes you need within two weeks.” Ronald nodded an acknowledgement. Raoul leaned in close to Ronald and added. “If you guys would have accepted my bid on that contract in the first place you wouldn’t be in this predicament. If you want quality work you have to pay for it.” Ronald smiled.

  “That was out of my hands. We are all aware that you’re the best architect around here, but the number crunchers downtown looked at your bid verses the others and decided to go with the lowest. If it were up to me I would send all of the city contracts your way. At least I’d know it would get done right the first time.” Raoul smiled. He was proud of his work and the impeccable reputation he had established.

  “Well, tell that to the number crunchers the next time you’re down at the admin,” Raoul answered. Ronald nodded in agreement.

  “I’ll get back to you as soon as possible with the specifics. I don’t foresee any problems though we’re kind of in a tight spot.” He turned towards me and shook my hand. “Nice seeing you again, Kalem.”

  “Same here, Ronald,” I returned. He waved at Karen, Raoul’s secretary and headed for the elevators. I turned to Raoul.

  “I see you’re still making a killing off of the city contracts.” He laughed and waved me towards his office. I grabbed a seat on the sofa next to the window. Raoul leaned back in his chair with his hands interlocked behind his head.

  “I gots to get paid baby. You know how I do.” I laughed.

  “You kill me.”

  “What, fool?”

  “Less than a minute ago when you were out there talking to Ronald you were the epitome of a professional. You weren’t using any slang. Then the second you get up in here with me you want to get all ghettofied with the Ebonics.” Raoul laughed.

  “That’s business, dog. I handle mine just like you handle yours. There’s a time to bullshit and there’s a time to handle business. I don’t mix the two.”

  “I know that, motherfucker, I don’t either. All I’m asking is why do you have to get all ghetto with me? Don’t you see this tight ass Armani suit I have on? This silk tie and Armani shoes? Peep the gold cuff links.” I extended my hands and rotated my wrist to showcase the platinum cuff links. “This is all business over here. It doesn’t get any more business than this.” Raoul laughed. “I want to hear that corny ass voice you were just using with Ronald. Don’t try to switch up because I’m up in here, show me some respect.” Raoul let out a loud laugh. He sat up in his chair and straightened out his tie. He cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses so that they were hovering on the tip of his nose.

  “Mr. Kingsley,” he began using a squeaky, nerdish voice. I watched him in amusement. “Will you get your black ass up off of my leather sofa so we can get the fuck out of here and go scope out some hoes?” I burst out laughing, stood up and adjusted my jacket. Raoul walked around his desk and put his arm on my shoulder. “Aight, fool was that business enough for you?” I shoved him with my forearm as we started walking towards the door.

  “You are a silly ass motherfucker.”

  “Nah, I’m a silly ass paid motherfucker.” I couldn’t argue with that. “I’m just keeping it real, nigga. Just keeping it real.” I shook my head as the elevator doors closed in front of us.

  Raoul and I arrived at the Foxx around five forty-five. Josh hadn’t arrived yet. We took a seat up front near the center stage and ordered some drinks. After scoping out the dancers and waitresses for a few minutes, Raoul turned to me.

  “You and Shannon really over with huh?” I took a sip of my drink and nodded.

  “Oh, hell yeah, dog, you know I don’t back track.” Raoul smiled and sipped his cognac.

  “So you back on the market or what?”

  “I don’t know man; I’m just chilling right now.” Raoul finished off his drink and motioned for our waitress.

  “What’s up with you and Toya?” He asked with a sly grin.

  “Nothing, dog, status quo.” Raoul snickered.

  “Man, y’all are two dumb asses.” I laughed. “King, you don’t have a lady no more. She ain’t had a man in years.” I wondered how Raoul knew Toya hadn’t been seeing anyone when I didn’t even notice until she pointed out to me. I looked over at him obviously puzzled. “What are you waiting for? You’ve been over there damn near every day for the last couple of weeks spending all that time with her. I know I would be trying to bust one, shiiiit.”

  “Dog, my friendship with Toya is too important to me to mess it up just to get some booty.” Our waitress brought over two more drinks.

  “I feel you. Let me rephrase that. What I meant was…if you and Toya are going to get together; and the whole world knows y’all want to be together, now is as good a time as any. If it doesn’t work out then fuck it, go back to being friends.”

  “That’s the thing. It’s hard to go back to being friends once you cross that line. Things don’t ever quite go back to the way they were. It’s almost impossible. Too many new variables in the equation once you get physical.” Raoul took a sip of his drink and took off his glasses. He set them on the table in front of him.

  “What if Toya really is the woman for you and you never find out because you’re too chicken shit to cross the line? Bruh, neither one of us got to be where we are without taking chances. Life is one big calculated risk dude; you can’t win if you ain’t in the game. You got to go for what you know man.” I thought about the cortege of clichés Raoul had offered. Maybe he was right. Maybe it is time to stop wondering about what Toya and I would be like together and find out firsthand. Raoul continued.

  “Seriously, King. You are not going to be able to commit to anyone a hundred percent until you and Toya do what y’all have to do. The both of you are holding each other back. Either decide you’re just going to be friends or give the relationship thing a try. Y’all need to make a decision one way or the other. This shit with you and her been going on for damn near a decade now.” I burst out laughing.

  “It hasn’t been that long, dog.” Raoul sucked his teeth.

  “Shiiiit! Don’t try to bullshit me. Really it’s closer to twenty years if you count your childhood. Put us all out of our misery and make a fucking move already, damn!” I chuckled and took a swallow. Raoul was making sense though. The prospect of being in a
relationship with Toya was enticing and if nothing else offered adventure. In contrast never giving a relationship with Toya a try seemed as unvarying as being born, living, and then dying within the same 5 mile radius.

  While I contemplated what Raoul had said and what I have known for forever Josh walked in. He was smiling like a damn cartoon character. He strolled up to our table talking smack as usual.

  “What’s up youngsters?” He gave Raoul then me a pound. “What y’all sippin on?

  “That cognac, fool, you know how we do,” Raoul answered. Raoul again gestured for the waitress. “Moet right?” Josh waved off his customary choice of beverage.

  “I think I’m goin roll with some of that cognac y’all are sipping on tonight.”

  “Oh you’re trying to hang with the big dogs tonight,” I joked. Josh snickered.

  “King, I can drink with either one of you fools.”

  “Yeah, whatever. Don’t get put on your back tonight talking shit.” Josh laughed. The waitress brought him a glass of cognac. Josh took a sip his face straining as he swallowed.

  “Yeah, this is some good stuff.” Raoul and I looked at each other and shook our heads. We were both aware that this signaled the beginning of a long night. Josh’s tolerance was a bit on the low side, especially for someone his size. A couple more cognacs and he was going to be drunk, and Josh can be a real clown when he’s sober, so it is ten times worse when he’s drunk.

  Later that evening while Raoul was over at the side stage talking to one of the dancers I asked Josh.

  “So what’s the verdict with you and Stacey?” Josh now full of happy juice looked over at me with a goofy smile.

  “Ain’t nothing up, King; everything is everything.”

  “What the hell does that mean? Are you and Stacey trying to work things out or what?”

  “It ain’t nothing to work out.” I exhaled.

  “You didn’t tell her did you?” Josh shook his head in confirmation. I took a gulp of my drink.