Chasing Bliss (16 page)

Chase looked over his shoulder to see what she was looking at. He looked back at her
questioningly. “What’s wrong?”

She didn’t feel like saying it out loud, so she got up and retrieved her purse. She opened it and
put the condoms between them.

Chase almost choked on his cake, but not from surprise. Rather, it was because he was laughing.
He managed to swallow his food, then he pointed at the condoms, still laughing. “Where’d you
get those?”

Bliss frowned, wondering what the hell was so funny. “From Tasha.”

He seemed even more tickled. “Damn! She only gave you three?”

“What’s so funny, Chase? I’m not laughing.”

He chilled his laughter a little, but it was still there. “Come on, Bliss! Why are you all frowned
up? It
is
funny to me. It’s funny because you don’t get it.”

She frowned deeper. “Get
what
?”

“Stop frownin’ at me.”

Bliss stood up. Real anger was creeping in around the edges.
What the hell am I supposed to get?
She took a step away from him and folded her arms across her chest. “No. Not until you explain
yourself—and you need to do it right
now
, Chase. I’m serious.”

He looked at her like he didn’t believe she
was
. Then he looked a little harder and realized his
mistake. “Bliss…are you
really
mad at me?” He asked the question like he couldn’t believe he what
he was saying.

Bliss looked at her watch. “I wonder if the #1 train is running at this time of night,” she said and
turned on her heel. She walked over to her dress and picked it up off the floor.

Chase touched her arm, and she jumped. She hadn’t even heard him get up. “Wait a minute,
Bliss. I’m sorry. I apologize if you took what I said the wrong way. I know you can’t read my mind.
All I meant by saying you don’t get it is that those condoms really don’t matter to me one way or
the other—not with you.”

Bliss looked at him like he was crazy. “What the hell does that mean?”

He smiled and shrugged. “Well, you already think I’m crazy, but I’m not—at least not about
this. I can only tell you—or try to, anyway—how I feel about you. They don’t mean anything to me
because even if you had some terrible disease, I’d rather get it and die than be without you. If you
get pregnant, I’ll hold you down, Bliss. No, wait…I’ll do more than that. I’ll marry you and see
how many more we can have! If I thought you’d do it, I’d put you in my car right now and drive to
the nearest JP or preacher or anybody who could marry us in the middle of the night. That’s why I
laughed…and that’s why those condoms don’t matter.”

They stared at each other silently. He’d taken her breath away and left her speechless, and she
felt like an ass. She was sorry, and she knew the best way to tell him, because they
were
on the same
wavelength after all. Bliss reached out and touched his face. “I
love
you, Chase.”

He smiled at her and tilted his head. “You sure? ‘Cause you were really ready to roll outta here
and maybe come back with some of your girls to beat my ass, right?”

“You’re wrong about one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“You
are
crazy.”

He kept smiling. “I must be, ‘cause you keep tellin’ me I am. How crazy can I
really
be, though,
Bliss? You just told me you love me, and you’ve only known me for ten days. I
knew
the first time I
kissed you that I’d just stopped lookin’. I need to tell you that I
wasn’t
lookin’ at the time, but still…
there you were. It was as inevitable as rockslides, earthquakes, tsunamis—”

Bliss made a face. “But those are all
disasters
, Chase.”

He shook his head. “No, baby. Those are
forces of nature
. I know it seems like this is going really
fast—and yeah, maybe it
is
—but don’t tell me you’ve never heard of people gettin’ married a
month after meeting each other and
staying
married for fifty years. I know you have.”

“Yeah, but…” She trailed off, because he was right.
Stuff like that does happen.

“But what?”

She shook her head. “But nothing. What you’re saying is true, but—”

“But what, Bliss? You’re basing what’s destined to go on between you and me on what other
people think. Like I asked you before, who makes the rules to this shit? I said I don’t, but you know
what? I was wrong.
I
make the rules to this, and so do you. Fuck what everybody says and what
they think, Bliss.”

She watched his face. Chase was dead serious. Yes, he had an odd way of looking at things,
but she couldn’t say he was wrong, because he wasn’t. “You’re right, Chase. I guess I just have to
get used to your maverick way of thinking.” She paused. “You really would marry me, wouldn’t
you?”

He laughed. “Would? I’m
gonna
marry you, Bliss. I know you don’t think I’m serious, but I am.
Just let me know when you’re ready.”

“Is that supposed to be a proposal?”

Chase shrugged and smiled. “I’m not a real traditional guy, Bliss, so that’s more than a proposal.
It’s a promise.”

His phone rang, and Bliss wondered who it could be at one in the morning.

Chase looked at his watch, then at the caller ID, and then he frowned. “I think I should take
this,” he said, more to himself than to Bliss. Chase picked the phone up, and his entire demeanor
changed.

Bliss tried to pretend she wasn’t listening. She picked up their plates and took them to the sink,
then tuned in to one side of Chase’s conversation.

“What are you callin’ me for, Khalid? I don’t give a shit. You got somethin’ you think I should
know, you tell Cyrus, and
he’ll
let me know. What? Like I said, I don’t give a shit. That’s your
problem. It is what it is, man. Y’all shoulda thought about that.” There was a long pause.

Bliss looked at Chase, and he glanced at her and tucked his lips in.

He turned his head and closed his eyes. Then he exploded. “Fuck! Fuck, Khalid! Where the
fuck
is he? Where’s Corey? You guys are fuck-ups! No, never mind that! I’ll do it my-damn-self. I’ll be
there as soon as I can.” He hung up and speed-dialed someone. “Corey? Are you okay? You sure?
All right, Just stay where you are. I’m on my way. Do me a favor and call J.T. Tell him I might need
him. Bye.” He put the phone back on the base and looked at Bliss. “I’m sorry, baby. Cyrus made
a damn mess, and I gotta clean it up.. I need a shower. You comin’?” He didn’t wait for an answer
but just turned and walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower. Chase’s shower was so big
it had a seat in it. They took off their pajamas and got in.

“Chase, what’s wrong?”

“Cyrus got shot.”

“
What
? Oh my God! Is he okay?”

“He’s alive. That’s all I know.”

“What about Corey? Was he with him?”

“Corey’s okay. I don’t know the details, but I’ll get ‘em in a minute.”

They didn’t speak again until they were out of the shower. Bliss understood that every family
has their crises, and they usually find out about it from one of those dreaded middle-of-the-night
calls like the one Chase had just received. Of course the timing was really bad, but that wasn’t
what was eating at her. Usually, those midnight phone calls are because someone has a heart attack
or gets in a car accident, but this was different. Cyrus had been
shot
. From the little she’d gleaned
about him and what she’d seen herself, Cyrus Brown left her with some truly uneasy feelings.
She’d put off asking before, but now she felt she had to. She had to know exactly what was going
on with Chase and his two handsome brothers.

She watched Chase as he quickly dressed in a pair of black Levis and a plain black T-shirt.
He sat down and put his feet in a pair of high-top black Uptowns and then leaned over to tie his
shoes.

“Um…Chase, can I ask you something?”

He glanced at her but never stopped what he was doing. “You can ask me anything, and I’ll try
my best to answer you.”

That was fair enough, and at least he hadn’t clammed up or tightened up on her. She sat next to
him and started putting her stockings back on. “What’s up with Cyrus? Is he a…like a drug dealer
or something?”

Chase laughed, but there was no humor behind it. “No, baby. Cyrus is not
like
a drug dealer.
Cyrus
is
a drug dealer.”

Her mouth dropped open, but she closed it quickly. Bliss wasn’t naïve. She’d spent her whole
life, with the exception of college, in Harlem. She still lived there, even though they’d gentrified
some of it and had taken to calling it Upper Manhattan. Drug dealers weren’t anything new to her,
but still, she had an uneasy feeling about it. “Chase, you hired me to work for a drug dealer?”

He stopped what he was doing and looked at her patiently. “No, Bliss. I hired you to manage his
club. And about that, now that you know what Cyrus really is, if you feel uncomfortable workin’
in his club, you can work in one of mine. I could always use another manager to take some of the
weight off Dee.”

Bliss looked at him sideways. “Yeah, right, and give her another reason to hate me?”

Chase rubbed her thigh. “She doesn’t hate you, Bliss. How could she hate you when I love you
so much?”

She put her hand on top of his. “That’s exactly why. Men are so simple when it comes to
women.”

He looked at
her
sideways for a moment, then smiled. “Whatever. You could always not work
at all and spend my money for the rest of your life.”

She laughed. “Yeah, I
could
do that, but there’re some things we need to talk about.”