Love Is Overdue (26 page)

Unfortunately, Tasha wasn’t through. “He thought you were her
boyfriend! I mean...
shit
. He was just looking
out for his girl.”

From
the look on his face, I knew Ivan was all up into this now. “Oh
okay...who is
he
?”

“
What?” Tasha was
confused.

I just rolled my eyes and
shook my head.

“
Your boyfriend.”
Ivan was looking at me now.

Tasha laughed. “Now you’re
trippin’...”

I was still just shaking my
head, wondering how the hell I kept getting myself into these
confrontations.

“
I thought we
covered that last time.” I finally spoke.

Ivan nodded slowly. “Yeah, I
know, am just checking.” He finally dropped the act. “So you my
brother’s new girlfriend… What’s your name?”

I panicked for a moment but
recovered myself as best I could, forcing another smile as I held
my hand out. “Gabriela.”

He uncrossed his arms slowly
and took my hand. “It’s a pleasure….I’m Ivan.”

“
Lisa! Girl, over
here!” Tasha was calling out, and before I knew it she had taken
off and was meeting up with her two girlfriends about ten feet
away.

I turned back to Ivan
quickly, about to excuse myself, but he decided to speak first,
after following my eyes back over to Tasha again as she left. “You
have some interesting friends.”

Fuck, he sounded just like
Ben, but the accent was a bit thicker.

“
My brother meet
those two yet?” he wanted to know.

I nodded quickly. “They get
along great.” Defense-mode.

That made him laugh,
though.

“
Boo!”

I nearly jumped myself when
we were suddenly interrupted by a tiny little girl, no higher than
Ivan’s waist, as she came up from behind and wrapped her little
arms around his leg, giggling the whole time.

“
Did I scare
you?” she asked then, sweetly.

Ivan turned and looked down,
just as I noticed that it was not just any little girl, but Sophie,
Ben’s daughter, looking more adorable than ever, in a pair of jean
shorts and a yellow tank top, a matching yellow-flowered head band
holding back her massive mop of tight black curls.

Ivan laughed and then
reached down and scooped her up as she squealed again. “Nah, you
can’t scare me...impossible,” he teased her, giving her a little
kiss on top of her head. “What ya doin’ here? You all
alone?”

She giggled again as Ivan
set her back onto her feet. “No, silly...I’m only six,” she said,
as if that explained it all. She was looking at me then. “Those are
pretty.” She pointed. “My mommy won’t let me pierce my ears, not
until I turn ten.” She looked back at her uncle. “Where’s
Angie?”

The twenty-thousand-dollar
question, I thought to myself.

“
Not here yet,
she comin’ later,” Ivan said simply. “So if you not alone, where
your people dem?” He started looking around, but there was no need
because a beautiful black-haired woman with a deep olive complexion
and Hispanic features came up behind Sophie then, stroking her hair
back, fanning herself with some festival flyers. She looked at
least seven months pregnant.

“
Well hello,
Uncle Ivan,” she teased, giving him a little nudge.

Ivan gave her a quick up and
down and smiled. “Hey there beautiful...you lookin’...big.” He was
focusing on her belly. “Damn...”

I really needed to get the
hell out of there.

Sophie’s mother knocked
Ivan’s arm again at that comment, giving him a playful
glare.

“
I thought you
said we could go look for Daddy,” Sophie interrupted
suddenly.

Tasha had made
her way back over to me then, her two Jamaican girlfriends in tow,
giving me a quizzical look, so I found my out.

“
It was nice
meeting you,” I said quickly, turning back to Ivan, finally getting
Maria’s attention as well.

He nodded. “Likewise.” I was
happy he had enough sense not to bring Ben’s name up in our present
company.

Ω

We finally made
our way over to the food truck strip about a half hour later. Ben
had told me he would be pretty much tied up completely until at
least four o’clock, when his sous chef and another line cook were
planning on relieving him.

The
line-ups were crazy, especially near the exit where
The Rock
’s trailer was set up, along with a bunch of standing grills.
I spotted Ben at the grill station, working furiously alongside a
few of his staff. They had a portable stereo set up which was
blasting some Buju Banton, and it seemed to be keeping those
waiting in line happy – some sisters were already dubbing it up
right next to the grills, trying to get Ben’s attention.

Fuck, Ben looked so sexy. He
was wearing nothing but a pair of dark cargo shorts, his Rasta belt
and ganja belt-buckle and a white muscle shirt, that left
absolutely nothing to the imagination. His locks were knotted
loosely and he had on a killer pair of Adidas gazelles. Sometimes
when I looked at him in a crowd, I still couldn’t believe I
actually had sex with this man...

Tasha eased herself up in
front of the little make-shift gate that was set up blocking the
grill station. “We hungry!” she called out to Ben. “Feed
us!”

One of the girls she had cut
in front of gave her a dirty look but the other two just
laughed.

Ben turned around, wiping
his brow off with a towel he had flung around his neck... I
couldn’t imagine grilling in this heat. He was sweating and it
looked sexy as hell.

“
Whassup,
Tasha...” He smiled at her. “If you hungry, line-up start back
there.” He motioned with his eyes.

“
That’s right,
Ben, you tell her!” one of the sisters still winding her booty,
called out.

Tasha sucked her teeth at
him.

Ben laughed and then looked
over at me. “Gimme a coupla minutes, okay?”

So the two of us hung around
for another ten minutes or so as Ben finished up giving
instructions to a few other staff who were taking over for him. I
noticed him wiping his hands on the towel as he headed over to the
gate, motioning me over with his eyes.

“
I need ya help
with something,” he said simply, nodding at the gate. “Can you hop
this thing?”

My eyes went wide. “Hell
no!” I said in all seriousness.

Ben laughed. “All right,
lemme see what I can do...” He moved over to the last peg of the
gate that was stuck into the ground and pulled up, giving me just
enough space to duck through between it and the chain-link fence
that bordered the festival grounds.

“
What you need me
to do?” I was curious as he led me behind the food truck to their
washing station – a few buckets, two big basins and a garden hose
attached to a water line.

“
Guard me,” he
said simply, as he pulled his shirt up over his head and knelt down
next to a big black duffel bag, rummaging through the
contents.

“
Damn. You
getting naked?” I teased him. “You really think we got enough
privacy back here for...you know...”

But Ben just sucked his
teeth at me as he stood back up. “You funny.” He came towards me
carrying a fresh t-shirt, a bath towel, and some body
wash.

I burst out laughing. “You
gotta be kidding me, Ben.”

“
Hold this,” he
instructed, laughing along with me.

Ben grabbed the water hose
and, leaning forward, he grabbed the knot holding his dreads back
and released, dousing himself completely from the waist up. I
jumped back, letting out a bit of a shriek, as the water sprayed
back and drenched me from the knees down.

He cut the water suddenly
and reached his hand back so I passed him the body wash and started
laughing all over again as I watched him lather up – his hands,
arms, armpits, chest and face – then just rinse himself all over
again. He had amazing aim. He only managed to get a light
sprinkling of water droplets on his shorts.

When he cut the water again
I decided to be proactive and I walked up next to him and draped
the towel around his neck for him before he stood up, spraying me
again as he flung his soaking wet dreads back over his
shoulders.

“
Shit, baby.” He
let his breath out as he began towel-drying that gorgeous torso of
his. “That felt good. How do I smell?”

I laughed and took a step
forward. He did a quick little peek around to see if anyone could
see us and then just pulled me close, pressing my face against his
damp chest and then lifting his arm, teasing me.

I knocked him lightly as he
laughed. “That’s okay, I got something for that,” he assured me,
stepping back over to his duffel bag and pulling out his underarm
deodorant, applying some quickly, as I kept laughing.

“
You nuts,” I
told him, handing him his shirt. “What about below the
waist?”

“
Ha.” He knelt
down, packing up his duffel bag again, his clean shirt still draped
over his shoulder. “That part ain’t dirty baby, trust
me.”

“
We got company,
Benny...” A voice called out from the food truck and just like
that, Sophie and Maria appeared from the side of the
trailer.

“
Daddy!” Sophie
ran up and flung herself onto Ben’s back before he had a chance to
stand up.

“
Hey
princess...you nearly knock me over,” Ben said, reaching his arm
around to pry her vice-grip off him gently, as he stood up
slowly.

“
Why you not
wearing a shirt?” she demanded.

“
Because,” Ben
started, as he pulled a sleeveless white t-shirt – sporting the
Jamaican flag – up over his head, “I been cooking and sweatin’ and
gettin’ all stinky...had to change.”

Sophie giggled as he tousled
her curly mop of hair.

“
Whassup, Maria,”
He addressed Sophie’s mother finally, who had already been giving
me a more than curious look over, most likely recognizing me from
our previous meeting.

“
Not too much,”
she answered casually, still fanning herself with those flyers.
“Your father been waitin’ on you...said to send you to the top of
the hill, they got some chairs and some blankets set up in the
shade.”

Sophie marched right up to
me. “Can I see your earrings again?” she asked sweetly.

“
Sure. Here you
go.” I smiled and pulled one out and handed it to her to
examine.

Ben and Maria looked over at
the exchange.

Then Maria glanced back over
at Ben, waited, and then turned to me. “I’m Maria,” she said then,
extending her hand.

“
Hi.” I tried to
conceal my nerves as I shook her hand. “Gabriela.”

“
Sorry, my bad,”
Ben apologized quickly for his lack of manners. “This is Sophie’s
mom, Sophie’s mom, this is Gabriela.”

Maria gave Ben a look.
“Yeah, we got it. So when you good till?” She changed the subject.
“I don’t know how much longer I’m a last in this heat.”

“
Don’t worry
‘bout it – we good to go,” Ben said simply. “I bring her home
tomorrow, too, I don’t mind.”

Sophie was still busying
herself with my earring.

Maria glanced back over at
me again, hesitating. “Nah, it’s good, just bring her home once you
finish up here, don’t matter if it’s late. Sophie, come here and
give your mama a kiss – and be good for your daddy.”

Sophie ran over to her
mother then and Maria leaned over to kiss her head. “And make sure
you go give that nice lady back her earring,” she instructed her
gently.

Sophie came bouncing back
over to me then. “Thank you,” she said, handing it back to
me.

And with that Maria
disappeared around the side of the truck.

“
Daddy! Daddy!
Can we get some ice cream?” Sophie was jumping up and
down.

“
Yeah, right
away, baby, come here a second.” Ben scooped her up and brought her
over to me. “You see this pretty lady with the flashy
earrings?”

I smiled, as Sophie nestled
her head onto Ben’s shoulder and looked at me.

“
This is
Gabriela, and she’s my friend, so you need a be a good girl and
listen and behave yaself today, all right? For both of
us.”

“
Okay Daddy! Ice
cream, ice cream, ice cream!”

Chapter
Twelve

The three of us set out.
Tasha was nowhere in sight, but I’d knew she’d text me if she
really needed me. I suddenly noticed a whole different kind of
attention from men and women alike as we made our way through the
crowds. I knew that Ben knew a lot of people, but in this crowd, he
seemed like some kind of celebrity. Someone seemed to stop us every
ten paces to say hello, and it made it nearly impossible for me to
talk to him, so instead I decided to make small talk with Sophie –
talking Barbie’s, hair, clothes – everything girly under the sun.
She definitely was a princess, in all aspects.