Love Is Overdue (52 page)

I smiled to myself as I watched him in
action, so relaxed and casual and straight-forward. Everything
about that man oozed sex and it didn’t surprise me one bit that his
inbox would be flooded with a stream of inappropriate
sexually-suggestive questions. He did his best at keeping things
family-friendly, only needing to shut down twice more, making me
wonder if he’d even make it through or if the entire episode would
turn into one giant blooper, but he patiently went through them one
by one, keeping himself fairly composed in the process. I just
wanted to crawl through the computer screen and curl up in his
arms. I wiped a tear away as I just kept watching him. I missed him
so much – I didn’t know how much more I could take…

Suddenly, though, Sophie appeared on
the screen, climbing up into Ben’s lap as he finished explaining
the correct method for grilling chicken. She rested her head back
against his chest. She looked so comfortable.

“
Hey…whassup little lady?”
Ben addressed his daughter then.

“
What are you doing,
Daddy?” she wanted to know.

“
Just answerin’ the
people’s questions,” he said smoothly. “Y’have a question for me
too?”

“
About what?”

“
Food.”

She bit her lip and looked deep in
thought for a good few moments. Then she turned her head back to
Ben. “What’s my favourite food?” she tested him.

“
Your favourite food?” Ben
repeated. “That’s easy. Curry goat.”

Sophie made a horrified face and
laughed. “No!”

“
Hmm…fried snapper an’
tamarind sauce.”

“
Ewwww.”

“
Chicken and waffles?” he
tried again, it becoming obvious now that he was deliberately
teasing her.

“
No!”

“
I give up.”

“
Chocolate chip cookies!”
she explained, looking somewhat exasperated.

Ben laughed softly. “Ohh…okay. Got it, baby. Actually,
that’s a great Segway, Sophie, because speaking of ladies who love
chocolate…that brings me to my final question of the night.” He
turned back to read from the lap top. “This one here comes from
youtube user
TravelingBrazilianCutie27
and she wants to know if I am planning to perform with Adam
and the Skapples tomorrow night at the
Buena Comida
Lounge, and if so, should she bother coming out to the
show…” His eyes seemed to go a little wide in mock surprise.
“Wow…that’s random, huh Sophie?”

My jaw dropped in shock and if I
hadn’t been lying down in my bed my knees would have buckled and I
would have fallen to the ground at the mention of the youtube
screen name I had signed up under the day I had first come across
Ben’s videos. I sucked my breath in and just stared back at the
computer screen in disbelief.

“
Actually, that’s not just a vicious rumour circling the
Drive right now – I am in fact planning to sing a song or two with
the band, but that all depends on the turn out.” His eyes focused
back in on the camera and seemed to be looking straight at me.
“So
BrazilianCutie
, I’ll
have two tickets at the door for you tomorrow night so I hope you
make it out. I’ll also extend that to the first five subscribers
that send me a message tonight before I go to bed. Doors open at
eight…show starts at ten…I appreciate all the love as always
people, it mean a lot…Say goodnight, Sophie.”

“
Good night, Daddy!” She
smiled sweetly at the camera.

“
Peace. Am out.”

And the screen cut to
black.

Ω

Curiosity,
however, was somewhat of an understatement. As I stood at the bar
with Corinne, my eyes refused to stop scanning the crowds. I was
only feet away from where I stood the night I’d met Miguel, and I
started experiencing some intense déjà vu.

By some miracle or intervention of a
higher power, switching the dates for my respite had been as easy
as one phone call.

“
Normally, this wouldn’t
work, Gabriela, but we happened to get a cancellation just this
morning…”

Maybe it was fate. But whatever it
was, I was here, I thought, as the bartender handed me my Long
Island iced-tea. No straight shots of tequila or any other hard
liquor for me that night… I was still sober as a judge. And
planning to stay that way…relatively speaking.

I hadn’t wanted to give my name at the
door to see if there really was free entrance waiting for us, but
Corinne forced me to. She wasn’t paying a fifteen-dollar cover
charge if she didn’t have to so I relented. And sure enough,
“Gabriela” was on the list. Ben, however, was nowhere in
sight.

I
spotted some members of Adam’s band hanging around a table set up
right near the stage, along with many other familiar faces from the
Drive, from
The
Rock
, and the local ska/reggae
scene. Then, as if out of nowhere, Lena appeared, as she was making
her way from the ladies room and past the bar. The lighting and the
noise level and the swarms of people all around us made it hard to
see or hear much but her eyes seemed to light up as soon as she saw
me.

“
Hey Gabby – I’m glad you
made it!” she shouted out over the music. She glanced over at
Corinne and back at me. “You guys have a table?”

I shook my head. “No, we just got
here.”

“
I’ll see what I can
do…I’ll find you in a bit!”

And she disappeared again into the
crowds.

Corinne nudged my arm then. “Cheer up,
Gabby…cheers!” She lifted her glass up toward me and I couldn’t
help but smile back at her.

And then, without any real warning,
the band was up on the stage again, the DJ cut the music and as if
on cue the crowd started whistling and shouting out in
anticipation. I saw Adam then at the keyboards, the bassist,
guitarist and drummer all tuning and gearing up for their set – the
two sexy female back-up singers taking their places at their mics –
and within just a few short moments they started in on a cover of
Toots and the Maytals’ “Funky Kingston” to a ridiculous amount of
cheering and applause.

I strained to get a better look. Where
was Ben?

Corinne grabbed my arm then. “Come on,
let’s go closer, Gab…” She began pulling me deeper into the crowds
of people. But that just made things worse. I still couldn’t see a
thing except for the band on stage, and Ben wasn’t there, so that
was not what I was looking for.

Eventually Corinne and I made it to
the far wall and I suddenly had the table where the band had been
sitting earlier in plain view. Lena was there, along with Patrick
and Ben’s brother in-law Rohan. I saw Geneva then too, on her feet
and winding to the music along with a couple other girls I didn’t
recognize. I scanned the crowds again. Still no Ben.

The band was another two songs in
before I spotted that familiar face and that gorgeous body of his
across the room. My heart stopped for a short moment but then of
course, as it had happened so many times in the past, I had yet
again been fooled by Ivan. He was busy talking with a couple people
near the bar – no Angela in sight.

I sucked my breath in and turned back
to the stage. Adam was addressing the crowds of people and the
small, yet fully packed dance floor in front of the
stage.

“
Hey, how’s everyone doin’
tonight?” he called out.

The crowd was going wild.

“
This one’s called ‘Simmer
Down’ – y’all don’t simmer down, though, I want you to sing this
one with me…all right…”

And the band started back up again to
the beat of the classic Skatalite’s track, and my eyes went back to
scanning the crowds. I didn’t get it. We’d been there now for over
half an hour and there was no fucking sign of him. Why wouldn’t he
be here already after going to all the trouble of making sure I
showed up? I turned to Corinne but she didn’t look bothered – she
was too busy grooving to the music and probably coming down off her
high. She’d tried to get me to smoke up with her in Grandview Park
on our way to the bar but I’d held off, needing to stay
clear-headed.

I got her attention then and gestured
toward the bar, deciding to venture through the crowds and over to
the ladies room. It took me a while though, as I was not very pushy
in these situations and tended to inch my way through, unlike the
tipsy girls that kept barreling me over as they tried to get closer
to the stage or the bar, depending on whether or not they had a
full drink or were running on empty.

Like the bar itself, the restrooms
were also crowded, but eventually I made it to the sink and began
to freshen up – reapply my lipstick and check on my
hair.

One of the girls Geneva had been
dancing with was next to me at the vanity adjusting her bra
ackwardly in the mirror.

“
You have amazing hair – oh
my God,” she addressed me then.

I was usually complimented on either
my hair or my shoes by drunk girls in restrooms, but then again,
everyone had their thing.

“
Thanks,” I smiled back
politely.

“
Hey Neva, hurry up!” she
shouted out toward one of the closed bathroom stalls.

And then I heard the toilet flush and
Geneva stepped out of the stall, adjusting her mini-skirt and
sauntering over toward the vanity in her five-inch stilettos. Her
hair was picked out into a massive afro of defined curls that
framed her gorgeous features beautifully. She looked a lot like the
one framed photograph Ben had in his bedroom of his mother as a
young woman – taken sometime in the seventies, wearing some
high-waisted skin-tight bell-bottoms and a tight yellow t-shirt,
sporting an afro that would have put Angela Davis to
shame.

She caught my reflection in the mirror
and smiled when she saw me. I wouldn’t have thought she would
recognize me, considering we had only met once briefly at the
festival that summer, and it caught me a little
off-guard.

“
Hi…sorry, I forgot your
name,” she apologized as she went to grab some soap.

I nodded. “Gabriela,” I reminded her,
and then I decided to be bold. “You’re Ben’s sister.”

She nodded. “Yes. Where he at – do you
know? I was hoping to catch up with him tonight but I can’t seem to
find him.”

You and me both
, I
thought to myself. “I don’t know,” I admitted.

“
Oh well…” She was busy in
the mirror, fixing her make-up. “I’m sure he’ll turn up. Tracy, I
need a tampon for later – you got one?”

Ω

I tried my best to make my way back
over to find Corinne, but the mobs were unforgiving. I stopped at
the bar for another round and turned back to the stage just as the
band was finishing up another song. Then as the crowd was busy with
their applause I noticed Adam toss the mic over to someone out of
view and then turn back to the crowd.

“
Special treat for y’all
now,” I heard him mumble into his mic and then turn to the
band.

The haunting familiar voice singing
the acapella intro seemed to come out of nowhere – off-stage
somewhere. Ben’s voice. A cover of Desmond Dekker’s ‘Israelites’…I
caught my breath and strained to get a better look. Then as the
band started up I saw him jump up on stage and heard the crowds let
out a massive cheer. I stopped dead in my tracks and just
stared…just watching. As he was on his cooking show, Ben was
charismatic as hell on stage – and his voice – only he could have
pulled off the harmonies of that song, no one else had the
range…but as I’d noticed the other night I’d watched him sing some
songs with the band, he held back from the crowd – he was too into
the song, too into the music. But his body felt the beat – you
could tell, you could feel it…

And fuck, he looked good. He was just
dressed simply in a pair of sexy black jeans and a plain white
dress shirt, only half-tucked into his belt, his dreads tied back –
the only embellishment being his Armani watch and maybe his
Gazelles. He didn’t really look out into the crowd much, and if he
did it was just into the front row and onto the dancefloor. I fell
back against the wall near the back of the room, hiding in the
crowd…and just watched him. The man I loved. Where the hell had he
been all this time?

“
Yeah…” Ben let his breath
out slowly, as the band wound down and the mobs started cheering
their faces off, begging for more.

“
Gabby!” Corinne was beside
me suddenly, looking animated and excited. “There you are! Mystery
solved. Your man’s on stage!”

I just nodded, not able to avert my
eyes from Ben. He was next to Adam then, they were talking briefly,
and then Ben was back – center-stage yet again – obviously about to
start in with another song. His back was to the crowd, though, as
he was still chatting with the band.

“
Benjamin!”

“
Give us some
more, baby!”

I heard the crowds shouting out then –
it was obvious the fans knew who he was and were excited about the
prospect of another song from him.

Then, just like that, he turned to the
audience, and his eyes fixed on the swarms of faces in front of
him. I held my breath. And suddenly, after no more than about five
seconds scanning the crowds, his eyes fell directly on mine – all
the way in the far corner of the room near the bar.